Eduardo Gamarra, Ph.D., is professor in the Department of Politics & International Relations at Florida International University. He is also the lead for the Latino Public Opinion Forum at the Jack D. Gordon Institute for Public Policy.
Professor Gamarra holds a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Pittsburgh. He earned his M.A. and B.A. at the University of Arkansas. 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 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 numerous 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). His book, Culture and National Security in the Americas (2017), coedited with Brian Fonseca, examines the development of strategic culture throughout the Americas. He is also the author of nearly one hundred articles on Latin America and the Caribbean.
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, the 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. Since 2016, Dr. Gamarra's polling has focused on the Latino vote in the United States, particularly in Florida.
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, the 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.