ABSTRACT
A hopeful portent for the future of inter-American relations lies in the irony that Sandinista Nicaragua and PRIista Mexico were the two countries that dismantled the traditional nationalistic walls around Latin America—the walls that they had built and defended with such zeal. The Sandinistas invited the international community inside their political gates to help make their democracy credible to the world. The contours of the whirlpool are shaped by two different currents that meet in the Caribbean Basin. An effective hemispheric strategy for the twenty-first century must begin with a clearer understanding of the region's new economic and political geography. The Summits of the Americas offer the region's leaders a perfect opportunity to try to reach a meeting of the minds on a few key issues in the Americas but also to develop a strategy to relate the region to the world. The inter-American agenda concentrate on the issues of drug trafficking, trade and investment, and democracy and human rights.
