This has been an especially active and productive year for the Inter-American Dialogue. It was highlighted by the publication of the Sol Linowitz Forum’s 1999 report on Western Hemisphere affairs—The Americas at the Millennium: A Time of Testing. Other key Dialogue activities included multiple initiatives to understand and address the fall-out in Latin America of the global financial crisis and the Brazilian devaluation, wide-ranging efforts to examine political and economic developments in Venezuela, Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, and elsewhere, and our close and continuing watch on U.S. policy toward Latin America and the Caribbean.
We were pleased to have the opportunity to host the presidents of Venezuela , Peru, Ecuador, El Salvador, and the Dominican Republic. We have, as well, organized discussions with the finance and/or foreign ministers of nearly a dozen other nations, with key trade leaders from throughout the hemisphere, and with U.S. analysts from Washington and Wall Street. The Dialogue has also assembled major conferences on trade and investment in the hemisphere, women’s leadership, educational reform, Andean Community economic issues, the changing politics and economics of Cuba, and the development challenges of Central America.
