impact in shaping the region’s attitudes toward the United States. In an example of
scale, in 2006, U.S. bilateral development assistance to Latin America was $1.6 billion, while total private investment to the region was $26.8 billion. On such issues as labor rights, transparency, and the rule of law, the U.S. government has a shared set of interests with business coalitions.
Even more, this last decade has seen the emergence of a number of strong local NGOs that are committed to addressing many of the long-standing social inequities that governments have failed to resolve. The United States should lead alliances with these groups to complement state-to-state relations