Latin America has not received the same media attention for the new Biden Administration as other parts of the world. Yet the President’s first bilateral e-meetings were with PM Trudeau of Canada and President Lopez Obrador of Mexico. From undocumented migration, drug trafficking and criminal gangs to pandemic spread, Venezuelan refugees, economic shortcomings, Russian/Chinese penetration and increasingly non democratic governments, the new Administration faces serious challenges and opportunities stretching from the Rio Grande to Tierra del Fuego.

Presenter: Ambassador William (Bill) Brownfield has been affiliated with CSIS as a senior adviser since 2018. Prior to that, Bill Brownfield enjoyed an illustrious career in public service, at the rank of career ambassador, the highest rank in the U.S. Foreign Service. Ambassador Brownfield’s last seven years of his career were spent serving as the assistant secretary of state for the bureau of international narcotics and law enforcement affairs. As assistant secretary, Ambassador Brownfield ran a portfolio of more than $4 billion in 80 countries administered by 5000 employees and contractors. Ambassador Brownfield’s expertise in the Americas draws from his vast experience in serving as U.S. ambassador to Chile, Venezuela, and Colombia. Through his ambassadorial posts, Ambassador Brownfield was immersed in working with the Colombian government to build upon existing institutions and promoting U.S. interests economically via the establishment of the Chile-United States Free Trade Agreement. In Venezuela, he led an embassy in constant cri-sis with the most adversarial government of any country in the Hemisphere. Brownfield has UN experience in Geneva and Vienna. He was temporary political adviser to the U.S. Southern Command. He received the Secretary’s Distinguished Service Award and the Presidential Performance Award three times each. He is a graduate of Cornell University and the National War College and attended the University of Texas School of Law. He speaks Spanish and French.