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Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez |
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Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez was the keynote speaker at a February conference on the future of Cuba after Fidel Castro. Secretary Gutierrez said that U.S. policy is to assist in the transition to a free Cuba while leaving the ultimate fate of the island in its citizens' hands. Other speakers at the event, including Caleb McCarry, the Cuba transition coordinator at the State Department, addressed what could be done to ease the transition, liberate Cuban society, and open up the economy.
This year, both Roger F. Noriega and resident scholar emeritus Mark Falcoff wrote Latin American Outlooks on the future of Cuba. Ambassador Noriega argues that U.S. diplomacy should support Cuban freedom without interference from Castro allies like Hugo Chávez's Venezuela. Mr. Falcoff, whose 2003 AEI Press book Cuba the Morning After: Confronting Castro's Legacy was reprinted in 2006, addressed the thorny questions of President Castro's succession in "When Dictators Die."
In January, AEI hosted University of California, San Diego, economist Gordon H. Hanson, who addressed the economic and social factors that influence the flow of illegal migrants from Mexico and the effectiveness of policies that regulate cross-border migration and access to U.S. jobs. Steven J. Davis moderated the panel.
Venezuela's Chávez was reelected in December 2006. Just prior to the election, AEI held a conference at which Representative Connie Mack (R-Fla.) gave a keynote address on how the United States should respond to President Chávez. Ambassador Noriega highlighted the Venezuelan leader's refusal to allow observers from the Organization of American States to monitor the election freely.
Ambassador Noriega wrote Latin American Outlooks this year on the key issues of immigration reform, democratic solidarity in the Americas, and U.S. cooperation and assistance in Mexico's war on drugs. Mr. Falcoff contributed an Outlook on recent political developments in Argentina.
In March, the AEI-Brookings Election Reform Project looked south of the border when it invited Mexican elections chief Luis Carlos Ugalde to describe Mexico's centralized election system and to share lessons from that country's hotly contested 2006 presidential election.
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