Eduardo A. Gamarra, Ph.D

Director

Latin American and Caribbean Center

Florida International University

Eduardo A. Gamarra received his Ph.D. in political science from the University of Pittsburgh in 1987. He has been affiliated with Florida International University since 1986 where he is currently the director of the Latin American and Caribbean Center, professor of political science, and the editor of Hemisphere, a magazine on Latin American and Caribbean affairs.  He is the author, co-author, and editor of several books including Revolution and Reaction: Bolivia 1964-1985 (Transaction Publishers, 1988); three volumes of the Latin America and Caribbean Contemporary Record (Holmes and Meier Press); Latin American Political Economy in the Age of Neoliberal Reform (Lyne Rienner Publishers 1994); Democracy Markets and Structural Reform in Latin America: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, and Mexico (Lyne Rienner Publishers, 1995); and Entre la Droga y la Democracia (Freiderich Ebert Foundation, 1994).  The author of over fifty articles on Latin America and the Caribbean, he has testified in the US Congress on drug policy toward Latin America.

Over the course of the last fifteen years, Gamarra has been a consultant to multilateral agencies, the Library of Congress, foundations, and government agencies throughout the hemisphere.  He has lectured on issues ranging from narcotics trafficking and US Latin American policy to democratization and structural reform at universities throughout the United States, Canada, the Caribbean, Latin America and Europe.  He has been quoted in papers ranging from the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal to El Tiempo de Bogota, El Mercurio de Chile, and La Razon de La Paz, Bolivia.   His current research focuses on the political economy of narcotics trafficking in the Andean region and the Caribbean, the problems of democratization in the region, and civil-military relations.  Most recently Gamarra has been working on US policy toward Colombia and is directing a project on the Colombian Migration to the United States.