"My hope is today’s events will be the beginning of a renewed effort from the United States to engage in trade," says COA's Eric Farnsworth.

The U.S. House and Senate passage of bilateral free trade agreements with Colombia and Panama on October 12 clears the way for long-delayed implementation.

"Recent developments in South America have upended the United States' historical—and often misguided—tendency to lump the region into a one-size-fits-all policy," writes AS/COA's Christopher Sabatini for World Politics Review.

The White House submitted trade deals with Colombia, Panama, and South Korea on Monday. Key legislators indicated the long-pending deals could win approval before Congress breaks for recess later this month.

Violence has spiked and people are dying gruesome, preventable deaths in Central America, Mexico, and elsewhere as a result of U.S. consumer tastes. Blood diamonds? No, conflict drugs, writes COA's Eric Farnsworth for The Huffington Post.

The United States has moved beyond traditional diplomacy, writes former Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Arturo Valenzuela in the Summer 2011 issue of Americas Quarterly.

AS/COA's Christopher Sabatini writes in The Huffington Post that a new provision in the U.S. House appropriations bill limiting Cuban-Americans' ability to visit family on the island runs counter to U.S. interests and to those of the Cuban people.