The Wilson Center’s Andrew Selee writes in the Houston Chronicle on U.S.-Mexican collaboration to combat drug violence and trafficking. “[W]hile stepped-up enforcement on the border is certainly welcome, it can hardly be the primary solution,” he writes. Excerpted from an Americas Quarterly essay.

"Concrete policy proposals and actions are required in order to keep the momentum and show the hemisphere, through deeds as well as words, that we really have embarked upon a new path in hemispheric affairs," writes COA's Eric Farnsworth in an article for Poder.

Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN) predicts the Senate will lift the U.S. travel ban to Cuba this congressional session.

Daniel W. Fisk looks at a Brookings Institution book on U.S.-Latin America policy.

Unfortunately, media and constituents at times misconstrue trips abroad as flamboyant travel by members of Congress at taxpayers’ expense.