U.S.-Latin American Relations and Political Science Frustration

Jonathan Bernstein had a recent column in Bloomberg about frustrations political scientists have when non-political scientists persist in certain beliefs (like, say, the importance of presidential debates). Check out the Twitter hashtag #PSFrustration for more.

But all of his examples, along with a blog post by Julia Azari at The Mischiefs of Faction are from U.S. politics, so I would want to add a few that relate to U.S.-Latin American relations. I wish people understood that:

1. There is no united "left" in Latin America.

2. The image of the United States is quite positive in Latin America.

3. The United States is deeply engaged in Latin America.

4. Unilateral sanctions by the U.S. will not achieve their desired goals in Latin America.

5. The so-called "Drug War" in Latin America has been lost for a long time (though the fact that there will be a bipartisan look at this is encouraging).

I won't even bother with immigration, where Americans are so misinformed that the list is almost endless.