Spain’s Latin American Reckoning

Spain was once one of Latin America’s most consequential external partners. It served as a democratic model for the region’s transitions from authoritarianism, a major investor in its economies, and a self-styled bridge between the Americas and Europe. That era of influence has given way to strategic retreat and deepening contradictions. 

Under Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, Spain has aligned itself with the region’s leftist governments. But the corruption investigation now engulfing former Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, whose mediation in Venezuela is now under legal scrutiny, has cast a shadow over a decade of Spanish diplomacy in that country. Meanwhile, Europe’s engagement with Latin America has entered a new and more urgent phase. The European Union has concluded or overhauled trade agreements with Mercosur and Mexico. So while Latin America’s strategic significance has never been higher, Spain is increasingly out of step with its European allies and with the direction of history in the region.

Join Hudson as Adjunct Fellow Daniel Batlle sits down with Julio Crespo MacLennan, a historian and one of the leading scholars on Spain’s democratic transition and on Europe’s relationship with the wider world. They will discuss Madrid’s influence in Latin America, as well as what Spain’s history can teach us about the prospects for change in Cuba and Venezuela.