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As the Trump administration intervenes more directly in hemispheric affairs, CEPR will be closely following developments throughout Latin America and the Caribbean — and here in Washington. To help keep track of it all, we will be posting regular updates on this page, pointing readers toward the most interesting and relevant news and analyses.
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Cuba’s infant mortality rate has risen by 148 percent since 2018, indicating a severe deterioration in population’s overall health. The unparalleled hardening of US sanctions during the first Trump administration, largely maintained under the Biden administration and further expanded in a second Trump term, including a devastating fuel blockade, is the primary cause of the current economic and humanitarian crisis—widely considered the worst in the island’s contemporary history.
Central bank sanctions have paralyzed Venezuela’s financial system, making economic recovery difficult even as some restrictions ease.
US sanctions and the ongoing blockade of Cuba are causing deadly shortages and harming civilians, potentially qualifying as war crimes under the Fourth Geneva Convention. New legislation and legal debates are now challenging the constitutionality and human cost of these measures.
Trump administration allows limited Iranian and Russian oil sales, and eases certain Venezuela sanctions. Meanwhile, the US blockade on Cuba chokes the island’s economy and population, a policy that recent polling indicates many US Americans oppose.
Two-hundred-twenty economists and law scholars, including Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz and Thomas Piketty, sent an open letter to Colombian President Gustavo Petro supporting his efforts to withdraw Colombia from Investor-State Dispute Settlement.
As foreign troops set to deploy to Haiti again, Jake Johnston argues that there is another way: to build something new, Haiti doesn’t need war. It needs peace.
The Trump administration has joined the Ecuadoran government’s military campaign against so-called “narco-terrorists.
In a new piece in Foreign Policy, Guillaume Long and Alexander Main warn that the Trump administration’s escalating pressure campaign against Cuba could produce a crisis that could prove harmful to both the Cuban people and US interests.
After the postponement of the 2025 Summit of the Americas, Donald Trump convenes a smaller gathering of allied Latin American and Caribbean leaders in Miami. The “Shield of the Americas” summit brings together right-wing governments supportive of Washington’s militarized “war on narco-terror” and its broader regional agenda.
Trump’s oil blockade fuels a crisis in Cuba as the US and Israel strike Iran. Trump eases sanctions on Venezuela’s oil and gas sectors, while Canada relaxes sanctions on Syria. The EU fails to adopt its 20th package of Russia sanctions.
