Abstract
A critical appraisal of the “smart strategies” (a new combination of “hard” and “soft” power) of Barack Obama reveals that, despite his criticism of the policies of his predecessor, his Latin American policy has been similarly characterized by interventionist “defense” and “security” strategies and the more or less compulsory expansion of “free-market democracies” with the objective of reestablishing U.S. domination of the region. The future of the agreements for political coordination, cooperation, and multinational integration currently being developed in Latin America will depend on the ability of the governments of the Alianza Bolivariana de los Pueblos de Nuestra América (ALBA) and the social and political forces that support them to defeat these strategies and gather around them the most dedicated platoons of the “old” and “new” left and other reformist or simply progressive governments in Latin America and the Caribbean.
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