Word: shifter
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Colombia has received more than $6 billion since 2000 in mostly military aid from Washington, mainly because of U.S. concerns over security, drugs and broader regional instability. "Colombia is an important piece in that picture," says Michael Shifter of the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington think tank. However, despite Washington's praise for the progress made under Uribe's leadership, the rejection of another re-election bid actually "helps American relations a lot," says Adam Isacson, a Colombia expert with the Washington-based Center for International Policy. "I don't think the Obama Administration was really relishing the idea...
...potent. Uribe gained broad popularity among Colombians for cracking down on insurgents and improving security in much of the country. Before Uribe was first elected, "there was a real lack of capacity of the state, and that problem is not as serious as it was eight years ago," says Shifter. Uribe's supporters say that Uribe will leave behind a government more capable of tackling new challenges, including a problematic economy, growing urban crime and rearming paramilitary groups. (See the disturbing resurgence of crime in Medell...
...billions of dollars in aid, Haiti must agree to terms that will force it to improve its abysmal governance. "The Chilean example will encourage donors to make the case that this is an opportunity to do things differently in Haiti - and do them right for a change," says Michael Shifter, vice president at the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington...
Anyone in need of a dose of optimism about Haitians' ability to succeed should look at the Haitian diaspora, Shifter says, "which has proven to be remarkably entrepreneurial and resourceful" in ways it couldn't be under the corrupt, ossified system in their homeland. One of these émigrés is Serge Jean-Louis, a thriving Haitian-American construction contractor in South Florida. "I'm eager to fly back and help rebuild Haiti," he told TIME shortly after the quake. And chances are, he'll surpass Haiti's dismal standards and help rebuild more to the modern specs...
...scandalized the country's Catholic Church. As an economist in the 1970s and '80s, Piñera followed Chile's free-market orthodoxy, but on the stump today, he pledged not to cut social programs. "On the contrary," he said recently, "we're going to strengthen them." Says Michael Shifter, vice president of the InterAmerican Dialogue in Washington, D.C.: "Chilean voters have been eager to see that kind of pragmatic evolution from the right." (See how Pinochet fell from power, from TIME's archive...