Eduardo Gamarra
Eduardo Gamarra, Ph.D., is Professor in the Department of Politics and International Relations at Florida International University.
Dr. Gamarra holds a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Pittsburgh. His areas of expertise include Latin American politics, democratization, and neo-populism. Between 1994 and 2007, he served as director of Florida International University's Latin American and Caribbean Center. At LACC he also cofounded and edited Hemisphere, a magazine on Latin American and Caribbean affairs. In February 2016 he was appointed founding director of the Latino Public Opinion Forum at the Steven J. Green School of International and Public Affairs.
Dr. Gamarra is the author, coauthor, and editor of twelve books, including Centro América 2020: Un nuevo modelo de desarrollo regional (2002); Democracy Markets and Structural Reform in Latin America: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, and Mexico (1995); Latin American Political Economy in the Age of Neoliberal Reform (1994); Entre la droga y la democracia (1994); three volumes of the Latin America and Caribbean Contemporary Record (1988–89); and Revolution and Reaction: Bolivia, 1964–1985 (1988). He is also the author of nearly one hundred articles on Latin America and the Caribbean. His most recent book, to be published in 2017 and coauthored with Brian Fonseca, examines the development of strategic culture throughout the Americas.
Dr. Gamarra's research, teaching, and consulting has focused on Latin America and the Caribbean. He has conducted research and served as a consultant in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Mexico, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Trinidad and Tobago. The focus of his work includes security, democratization, drug trafficking and related illicit industries, political parties, campaigns/elections, and public opinion. Most recently Dr. Gamarra's polling has focused on the Latino vote in the United States. Through an alliance with Adsmovil, a mobile advertising firm, he directed a tracking poll of Latino voting patterns in the context of the 2016 presidential elections.
Throughout his professional career Dr. Gamarra has served as a consultant for different branches of the U.S. government, including the U.S. Agency for International Development, the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Department of State, and the U.S. Department of Energy on various projects, mostly focusing on the Andes, including Colombia. In addition, he has testified several times before the U.S. Congress on U.S. policy toward the region and the state of affairs in the Andes in relation to counter narcotics and security policy.
Dr. Gamarra has also served as a consultant to other multilateral agencies such as the World Bank, the United Nations Development Program, the Inter-American Development Bank, the Organization of American States, and the European Union, among others on Andean-related projects that included Colombia. He has served as principal adviser on a range of policy issues to heads of state in countries such as Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, and Haiti.
Dr. Gamarra is a frequent commentator on leading media outlets worldwide about Latin America and the Caribbean, including radio, television, and newsprint.
Contact
Office: Modesto A. Maidique Campus, SIPA 409
Email: gamarrae@fiu.edu
Telephone: 305.348.1718
