Latin America in the Global Economy

Alicia Bárcena assumed office as the Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) on July 1, 2008. She had previously served as the Undersecretary-General for Management at United Nations Headquarters in New York, Chef de Cabinet, and Deputy Chef de Cabinet to former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Prior to her time at ECLAC, Ms. Bárcena served as coordinator of the Latin American and Caribbean Sustainable Development Programme of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), responsible for the Environmental Citizenship Project at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). She was the founding director of the Earth Council in Costa Rica, a nongovernmental organization in charge of follow-up to the agreements reached at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1992. Ms. Bárcena has published numerous articles on sustainable development, public policy, environmental issues, and public participation. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), as well as a Master’s degree in Public Administration from Harvard University. Ms. Bárcena has completed the courses for a Master’s degree in Ecology and has initiated studies for a Ph.D. degree in Economics at UNAM. 

Cristina Gallach Figueras was appointed as State Secretary for Foreign Affairs and for Ibero-America and the Caribbean in February 2020. Previous positions include the High Commissioner of the Government of Spain for the 2030 Agenda; Head of the Equal Opportunities Office of the Council of the European Union in Brussels; Undersecretary-General of the United Nations, Special Advisor to the Secretary-General; Head of Department for Public Information, Undersecretary-General of the United Nations for Communications and Public Information; and Head of Public Relations and Spokesperson for the Council of the European Union. She has also been a correspondent for the Spanish News Agency EFE in both Brussels and Moscow, and an editor of the Society and International Section of “El Periódico de Cataluña.” Ms. Figueras holds a Bachelor’s degree in Information Sciences from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and attained a Master’s degree in International Relations from Columbia University in New York after being granted a Fulbright Scholarship from La Caixa.

Gustavo A. Flores-Macías is Associate Vice Provost for International Affairs and Associate Professor of Government at Cornell University. He is the author of “After Neoliberalism: The Left and Economic Reforms in Latin America,” which received the Latin American Studies Association Tomassini Book Award in 2015, as well as the editor of “The Political Economy of Taxation in Latin America.” Professor Flores-Macías holds a Ph.D. in Government from Georgetown University and an MPP from Duke University, where he was a Fulbright Scholar. Previously he served as Director of Public Affairs at Mexico’s Federal Consumer Protection Agency and as Director of Cornell’s Latin American Studies Program. Professor Flores-Macías is a faculty fellow at the Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future and a recipient of Princeton University’s Democracy and Development Fellowship. His commentary has been featured in The New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, The Hill, CNBC, and Fox News, among other media outlets.

Lourdes Casanova is a senior lecturer and the Gail and Roberto Cañizares Director of the Emerging Markets Institute in the SC Johnson School of Management at Cornell University. She has been named one of the 50 most influential Iberoamerican intellectuals and one of the 30 most influential Iberoamerican women intellectuals by Esglobal, a digital magazine on international relations. Dr. Casanova is a Fulbright Scholar and has a Master’s degree from the University of Southern California as well as a Ph.D. from the University of Barcelona. Her commentary has been featured in Latin Trade, Agenda Publica, CNN en Español, and Voice of America.

Peter Hakim is president emeritus and a senior fellow at Inter-American Dialogue. He writes and speaks widely on hemispheric issues and has testified more than a dozen times before the U.S. Congress. Mr. Hakim’s articles have appeared in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The New York Times, Washington Post, Miami Herald, Los Angeles Times, and Financial Times, as well as in newspapers and journals in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Canada, Cuba, El Salvador, Italy, Mexico, Peru, and Spain. Prior to joining the Dialogue, he was a vice president of the Inter-American Foundation and worked for the Ford Foundation in New York, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Peru. Mr. Hakim taught at MIT and Columbia, and has served on boards and advisory committees for the World Bank, Council on Competitiveness, Inter-American Development Bank, Canadian Foundation for Latin America, Partners for Democratic Change, Human Rights Watch, and the Council on Foreign Relations. He has been decorated by the governments of Brazil, Chile, and Spain. Mr. Hakim earned a Bachelor’s at Cornell University, a Master’s in Physics at the University of Pennsylvania, and a Master’s in Public and International Affairs at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School.