Has Obama Finally Discovered Latin America?

President Barack Obama is sending Vice President Joe Biden on a swing through Brazil, Colombia and Trinidad & Tobago later this month. Which means two things: First, the prospect of off-the-cuff gaffes in three different languages. (Memo: Don’t call Latin America our “backyard” as Secretary of State John Kerry did last month.) Second, the Obama Administration is suddenly interested in Latin America and the Caribbean after four years of indifference. Obama just completed a trip to Mexico and Costa Rica, and early next month he’ll host Chilean President Sebastián Piñera and Peruvian President Ollanta Humala at the White House. So why this sudden spate of south-of-the-border schmoozing? Even Biden calls it “the most active stretch of high-level engagement on Latin America in a long, long time.”