U.S. interests in the Western Hemisphere are diverse, and include economic, political, security, and humanitarian concerns. Geographic proximity has ensured strong economic linkages between the United States and the region, with the United States being the major trading partner and largest source of foreign investment for many countries. Free trade agreements (FTAs) have augmented U.S. economic relations with 11 countries in the region. Latin American nations, primarily Mexico and Venezuela, supply the United States with almost one-third of its imported crude oil. The Western Hemisphere is also the largest source of U.S. immigration, both legal and illegal, with geographic proximity and economic and security conditions being major factors driving migration trends. Curbing the flow of illicit drugs from Latin America and the Caribbean has been a key component of U.S. relations with the region and a major interest of Congress for some three decades. In recent years, this has included close security cooperation with Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean to combat drug trafficking and related violence. With the exception of Cuba, the region has made enormous strides in terms of democratic political development over the past three decades, but the rise of undemocratic practices in several countries, especially Venezuela, has been a U.S. concern. U.S. policy toward the Latin American and Caribbean region is conducted in the context of significant economic and political changes in the hemisphere as well as the region's increasing independence from the United States. The Latin American and Caribbean region has made significant advances over the past three decades in terms of both political and economic development. In the early 1980s, 16 countries in the region were governed by authoritarian regimes, both on the left and the right, but today, all governments with the exception of Cuba are, at least formally, elected democracies. The threat to elected governments from their own militaries has dissipated in most countries. Free and fair elections have become the norm in most countries in the region, even though some elections have been controversial with allegations of irregularities. In 2015, eight countries successfully completed elections for head of government. Long-ruling parties were voted out of office in St. Kitts and Nevis, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, and Argentina, and incumbents were reelected in Suriname, Belize, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. In Guatemala, just ahead of its 2015 presidential election, the country became embroiled in massive corruption scandals that led to the arrest of the vice president in August and the resignation of President Otto Pérez Molina in September. The country then held two presidential election rounds in September and October 2015, with former actor Jimmy Morales, who had campaigned on a strong anticorruption platform, winning the second round by a large margin (see " Guatemala ," below). 2016 Elections. To date in 2016, six countries have held elections for head of government. In a close parliamentary race in Jamaica in February, the opposition Jamaica Labour Party, led by Andrew Holness, defeated the incumbent People's National Party government, led by Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller. In the Dominican Republic , incumbent President Danilo Medina of the center-left Dominican Liberation Party was reelected in a landslide in May. After two presidential rounds in Peru in April and June, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski of the centrist Peruvians for Change defeated Keiko Fujimori from the center-right Popular Force by a slim margin. Most recently in June, St. Lucia held parliamentary elections in which the opposition United Workers Party, led by Allen Chastanet, defeated the St. Lucia Labour party of Prime Minister Kenny Anthony. In Nicaragua , incumbent President Daniel Ortega of the Sandinista party won a third consecutive term in controversial elections held on November 6, 2016, which were criticized by many, including the United States. The State Department characterized the elections as flawed because of the government's sidelining of opposition candidates, limits imposed on domestic observation at the polls, and other actions that denied democratic space in the electoral process (see " Nicaragua ," below). In Haiti , a first presidential round was held in October 2015, but allegations of fraud ultimately led to the election's nullification. After multiple delays, a new presidential election was held on November 20, 2016, in which Jovenel Moise won almost 56% of the vote and is scheduled to be inaugurated in February 2017 (see " Haiti ," below). Challenges to Democracy . Despite significant improvements in political rights and civil liberties, several countries in the region still face considerable challenges. In a number of countries, weaknesses remain in the state's ability to deliver public services, ensure accountability and transparency, advance the rule of law, and ensure citizen safety and security. There are also numerous examples of elected presidents over the past 25 years who left office early amid severe social turmoil and economic crises, the presidents' own autocratic actions contributing to their ouster, or high-profile corruption. The September 2015 resignation of Guatemalan President Pérez is the most recent example. In Brazil, a widespread corruption scandal and a sharp economic downturn were key factors leading to the suspension of President Dilma Rousseff from office in April 2016, followed by an impeachment trial by Brazil's Senate removing her from office in August 2016 (see " Brazil ," below). The quality of democracy in several countries in the region has eroded in recent years. One factor is increased organized crime. Mexico and several Central American countries have been especially affected because of the increased use of the region as a drug transit zone and the associated rise in corruption, crime, and violence. A second factor negatively affecting democracy in several countries is the executive's abuse of power. Elected leaders have sought to consolidate power at the expense of minority rights, leading to a setback in liberal democratic practices. Venezuela stands out in this regard. In recent years, there has also been a deterioration of media freedom in several countries precipitated by the increase in organized crime-related violence and by politically driven attempts to curb critical or independent media. The human rights group Freedom House compiles an annual evaluation of political rights and civil liberties in which it categorizes countries as free, partly free, and not free. In its 2016 report (covering 2015), the group ranked just one country as not free: Cuba. It ranked 11 countries as partly free—Bolivia, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay, and Venezuela—and the remaining 21 countries of the Latin American and Caribbean as free. According to the report, the Dominican Republic was downgraded in part because of decreased space for independent media and the implementation of a law preventing Dominicans of Haitian descent and Haitian migrants from exercising their civil and political rights. Freedom House also noted growing threats to freedom and democracy posed by criminal gangs, political violence, and systemic corruption in the Central American countries of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. Freedom House maintains that Venezuela deserves special scrutiny because of the resistance of the current government of President Nicolás Maduro to the opposition's victory in December 2015 legislative elections. It notes that the deteriorating political and economic situation in Venezuela is one of the region's most significant challenges (see " Venezuela ," below). Some observers see the ebbing of the so-called pink tide of leftist populist governments in the region as a positive trend. The November 2015 election of a center-right government in Argentina ended the leftist populism known as Kirchnerismo and began to change regional dynamics in Latin America. Despite the Venezuelan government's efforts to thwart the opposition's power, some view the opposition's triumph at the ballot box in December 2015 as the beginning of the end of the populist leftist model of government advanced by former President Hugo Chávez. Along these lines, some observers see the February 2016 defeat of a referendum in Bolivia that would have allowed populist President Evo Morales to seek a third consecutive presidential term as another setback to the pink tide. A second factor potentially affecting democratic governance is the recent peace agreement between the Colombian government and the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). This development has raised hopes that the hemisphere's oldest civil conflict, which dates back to the 1960s, is finally resolved (see " Colombia ," below). Economic Challenges. While the 1980s were commonly referred to as the lost decade of development as many countries were bogged down with unsustainable public debt, the 1990s brought about a shift from a strategy of import-substituting industrialization to one focused on export promotion, attraction of foreign capital, and privatization of state enterprises. Latin America experienced an economic downturn in 2002 (brought about in part because of an economic downturn in the United States), but recovered with strong growth rates until 2009, when a global economic crisis again affected the region with an economic contraction of about 1.3%. Some countries experienced deeper recession in 2009, especially those more closely integrated with the U.S. economy, such as Mexico, while other countries with more diversified trade and investment partners experienced lesser downturns. The region rebounded in 2010 and 2011, with growth rates of 6.1% and 4.9%, respectively, but growth began to decline after that and registered just 1% in 2014. In its October 2016 economic forecast, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) projected that economic growth in Latin America and the Caribbean would contract 0.6% in 2016 after no growth in 2015 (see Table 1 ). The global decline in commodity prices and China's economic slowdown have affected the region's economies. In 2015, economic contractions in Brazil (-3.8%) and Venezuela (-6.2%) dragged down growth rates for South America and the region as a whole.