From the editor.

• Author: Kiernan, James Patrick
• Position: Editorial

Ambassador Michael King of Barbados has expressed the hope that the OAS General Assembly meeting in his country in June will be a "Caribbean General Assembly." He is by no means limiting the scope and focus of the Assembly. The shores of twenty-three of the thirty-five OAS member nations are washed by the waters of the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. Centuries ago the Caribbean was a crucible of conflict in which European nations battled each other to dominate trade and to extend their colonial control in the New World. Today, the shared problems and possibilities of all the American nations are clearly in evidence in the Caribbean Basin.

In this issue of Americas, we offer a special focus on the Caribbean. Cartagena, Colombia, once one of the principal ports of Spanish colonial America, is strongly linked in popular memory with the piratical history of the Caribbean. Victor Englebert's photographs show us that Cartagena has not only endured, but also in recent years has blossomed in a variety of hues. Campeche, Mexico, which was an important colonial port town as well, has been revitalized, too, as Suzanne Murphy-Larronde engagingly illustrates.

Larry...