🌎 Regional realpolitik

For much of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s first presidency (2003-2010), South America was in the heyday of the Pink Tide: a period when left-of-center leaders governed much of the region and political alignment often made summits, joint declarations and new acronyms easier to sell. Today, Lula is trying to project influence in a far more fractured neighborhood, with a growing roster of conservative leaders and a stronger US presence across the hemisphere under President Donald Trump.

Lula arrived in Panama on Tuesday for the International Economic Forum for Latin America and the Caribbean — an event nicknamed “Davosito” or Little Davos — organized by the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean and the Panamanian government. His aides said the trip is aimed at promoting what they called a form of “regionalism that is possible.”

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