Chris Dodd's departure from the U.S. Senate "will leave a vacancy of immense proportions that will be difficult to fill,'' writes Larry Bims, director of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, and Eloy Fisher, a research fellow at the council. "This was because he was the most bona fide Latin American expert to have frequented Congress this century.''
Bims and Fisher made their comments in a post on the council's website. But their praise was tempered by a critique of a recent speech Dodd gave at Central Connecticut State University.
"In his speech, in which Dodd praised current U.S.-Latin American policy, there is, in reality, very little evidence to support such laudatory remarks,'' Bims and Disher write. "Dodd takes an in-depth reading of the region's vital signs in his rapid tour of the hemisphere. Moreover, even Dodd's assertion that Latin America is demonstrating particular vitality is debatable.
"Regrettably, Dodd offers the same orthodox view on Cuba and Venezuela that so consistently can be obtained from such biased sources as the Washington Post. Unfortunately, Dodd's lite analysis does a disservice to the often complex reality in these countries."
Still, the author's conclude that Dodd offered crucial insight into the region. "Dodd's contribution to the evolution of the inter-American relationship was important not only for the U.S., but the hemisphere as a whole, and, because of this, he will be sorely missed."