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CIAO DATE: 6/5/2006
The Summit of the Americas: Rescuing the Reform Agenda
Roger F. Noriega
October 2005
Abstract
The fourth regional Summit of the Americas in Mar del Plata, Argentina, on November 4–5, will be a test of courage for the region's leaders. Pressured by genuine popular dissatisfaction, they will either commit unequivocally to finish the hard work of creating economic opportunity for the region's 128 million poor, or they will let warmedover populism undermine the consensus behind free-market reforms and democracy itself. The stakes are high, and the leaders must use the summit process to advance the reform agenda for their peoples' sake. chronic poverty by impugning the very reforms that are indispensable to helping the poor.