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Leaders from North and South America are gathered in Panama for the Summit of the Americas to discuss trade, immigration, human rights, smuggling and other major issues.
This is the first time Cuba has attended the summit. In December, President Barack Obama announced that the U.S. will revive relations with Cuba, which have been frozen for 60 years under a policy that began during the Cold War.
“During the course of this year and into next year, you’ll see a series of steps and measures that are taken to build trust and to establish genuine dialogue,” President Obama said while in Jamaica this week.
Meanwhile, relations between Venezuela and the U.S. are worsening. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has called for a limit on U.S. influence in the region. This week, an executive order by Obama placed financial sanctions on seven Venezuelan officials, alleging that they violated human rights in a crackdown on political dissidents.
But with falling oil prices in Venezuela, its influence on other nations in the region could diminish, according to NewsHour foreign affairs correspondent Margaret Warner.
“They are counting on these other countries who do need the United States now more than ever and the president of Panama, who wants a successful summit, to kind of keep Maduro in a box and not let him hijack the whole summit,” Warner said.
Warm up questions
- Name the countries you know in South America. What do you know about them?
- Where is Cuba?
- What was the Cold War?
- What do you know about the relationship between the U.S. and Cuba? The U.S. and Venezuela?
Critical thinking questions
- How has the legacy of the Cold War affected the U.S. relationship with Cuba in the past? How does that legacy continue to affect relations today, even as they change?
- What could be some potential economic and/or political effects of a revived U.S. relationship with Cuba?
- Why would Venezuela or other nations in the region protest the U.S.? How has history affected the relationships between North and South America? What factors should the U.S. consider when weighing involvement in the region?
