U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, opening speaker at the 40th Annual Washington Conference on the Americas, talked about the primacy of hemispheric issues on the Obama administration's agenda. She stressed three priority areas for U.S.-Latin American cooperation: trade and energy partnerships, public security, and inequality and immigration.

In an article for Poder magazine, COA Vice President Eric Farnsworth looks at David Rockefeller's lifelong commitment to democracy, cooperation, and development in the Americas.

The Obama administration sought to bolster security ties this week when U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates traveled to Peru, Colombia, and Barbados. While in Bogota, Gates also pushed for passage of the long-stalled U.S.-Colombia trade pact.

"[T]here's been a troubling sense of anachronism in this administration's rhetoric toward Latin America," writes AS/COA's Christopher Sabatini in The Hufffington Post. He recommends a set of initiatives to renew U.S. policy in the region, from changing the nature of Brazil relations to engaging the business community.

With the recent death of a Cuban hunger striker and harassment of the Ladies in White dissident group in Havana, U.S. President Barack Obama criticized human rights conditions on the island. His March 24 statement came ahead of a large Miami-based rally supporting dissidents.

In the wake of the murder of three people with U.S. consular links in Ciudad Juarez, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton headed up a cabinet-level delegation to Mexico on March 23. The bilateral summit built on the Merida Initiative with an eye to improved security, but also strengthened communities and institutions.

A dispute over U.S. cotton subsidies took another turn this week when Brazil announced plans to suspend intellectual property rights on some U.S. products. That and retaliatory tariff measures are slated to take effect in April, though both sides hold hopes for negotiations.