Since President Barack Obama has appointed Senator John Kerry as secretary of state to replace Hillary Clinton when he starts his second term next month, you may see a somewhat greater US focus on Latin American affairs.
It’s not that Kerry is an expert in the region or that he would be any more interested in Latin American affairs than Clinton. He’s not — just as Clinton wasn’t.
The difference would be that Kerry’s current job as chairman of the powerful US Senate Relations Committee would most likely be taken by Cuban-American Senator Bob Menendez, D-NJ. That changing of the guard and the promotion of Representative Eliot Engel, D-NY, from ranking
