The written word is a way to convey emotions, feelings and knowledge. In the case of scientific publications that deal with social subjects and exchange research findings, the goal is to index them and climb to the top in recognition of the hard work involved in their preparation; after that, keep their status through careful quality control, careful choice of peers and members of the scientific and editorial committees.

In April of this year, a notification was sent to us, indicating that the FARIES publication, as of January, 2012 had been indexed in Category A2 by the country's National System of Indexing and Approval of Specialized Publications CT + I, which obviously delighted all of us.

Following the guiding principles to maintain the new classification, in this issue fourteen articles are presented, within the fields of International Relations, Politics and Security.

International Relations includes five articles: Washington Consensus and post-Consensus: Two generations of incomplete reforms; the author, Héctor Cuadra Montiel reaffirms the criticisms that have been made for some time to the economic policies of the 90's promoted by Washington, to foster development in Latin America. What is interesting is that the analysis combines material forces and idealistic analysis, pointing out that one of the reasons why such policies have failed, has been the failure to recognize social considerations. The author also indicates that despite a broad condition of open markets, capital flows and export promotion, the result is a crack in the globalizing speech of equality, with the reality of underdeveloped economies. Present-day multilateralism: crisis and challenges, by Camilo Zambrano Jauregui: it focuses on demonstrating that the joint action of various States produces structural changes in the international system, that leads to a reconfiguration of power, both from the point of view of soft power and hard power. He asserts that in the current state of relations between international actors, today's multilateralism is unresponsive or is in a state of crisis, and concludes that those that should be called upon to take a leadership role to overcome the crisis are the so-called emerging powers. Marcela Guerrero Turbay and Mauricio Jaramillo Jassir present a paper entitled Soft power and cultural diplomacy in Turkey: Analysis of historical and regional factors.

Traditionally, studies on the relationship of power and position in the international system have focused on hard power, but in this article the authors reveal the intention of some States to place themselves not necessarily in a global situation, but regionally through soft power, as is the Turkish case. They conclude that although Turkey has made progress and has good reputation, there are still internal weaknesses that must be overcome. Another important aspect is that it leaves some questions open for further research. The Cold War in Colombia: Colombian Defence Policy and the Role of the United States, 1966-1970, by Javier Castrillón; the author writes an pleasant historical account, showing that national power elites have promoted American interventionism, sheltered in conveniently maintaining a status quo, which demonstrates inability to governand the execution of a policy of repression against the demands of the people. The MILA: Market integration between Chile, Peru and Colombia. William Vargas Pulido and José Bayardo Martinez deal with a subject of importance for the region, on which there is not much literature. Hence the richness of this article. Throughout the writing, the authors defend integration as positive for the markets of Chile, Peru and Colombia, but at the same time reveal the difficulties that arise as the market develops. From that, they propose steps for integration to continue growing, including better financial information and reduction of their costs.

The section on Politics has four articles: Jorge E. Horbath and María Amalia Gracia present Citizen participation of Mexican youth in the social and democratic construction of the country at the beginning of the XXI Century, where, without ignoring or downplaying the conceptual framework, the authors, using statistical analysis, seek to find out what motivates young Mexicans to participate in politics. One of the most important conclusions is that the higher the educational level, the higher is the level of participation. In Stability and crisis of representation in the Latin American party systems. Is this the triumph of voting participation?, Julián Andrés Caicedo Ortiz defends political parties as some of the most democratic forms of participation. After a judicious study of the stability of parties in Latin America, he concludes that the stability of the systems does not guarantee participation. In this sense, he adds new elements to the analysis aimed at establishing a strong democracy. The reappearence of the Talibans in Afghanistan: Angélica Alba Cuellar analyzes how the political-military faction of Islamic fundamentalist Afghanistan, known as Taliban, has established a modus operandi of violence with a radical Islamist ideology, which produces a climate of internal instability and incites interventionism of other countries. Even so, she gives them some credit for their persistence and capacity of change. Clientelist Structures and political parties. An Approach to the crisis and transformation of the party systems in Colombia and Venezuela: Jorge Orlando Blanco Suárez deals with the role played by patronage in the political systems of Colombia and Venezuela. In the analysis, he deals with structural, circumstantial and personality aspects, concluding that the transformation of the political systems in the two countries differ, and in the Colombian case has brought stability, whereas in Venezuela it has been the source of crisis, because the personality-clientelist-reform aspects generated the mentioned troubles.

The Security Section has five items: In Solution to landlocked Bolivia: a proposal from Chile, Alain Carrier, Eduardo Téllez and Fernando Villamizar write about an international issue that has generated great expectations with various international actors of today : the definition of ocean access for landlocked Bolivia. The old conflict with neighboring Chile has maintained it as a landlocked state, which of course is a great disadvantage. The authors, in this article, mention a solution that is not framed in Chilean internal political affairs, which have hampered away out in the past, but in the argument of the common good, based on human relations translated into political action, as evidence of respect for one another. In The origins of international cooperation on terrorism. The first international responses, by Luis Ángel Aparicio-Ordás González-García, the problem of terrorism appears as an issue that occupies a broad spectrum of recent political literature, which although not a new phenomenon, as the author indicates, it has changed its methods. In that sense, he directs the article to show the instruments developed by the international community and when they have been used, to respond to that threat. Finally, he highlights the efforts and willingness of States to fight it, although the legislative responses and the signed agreements have not been as effective as could be. The relation between integration and security in the Mercosur and its projections toward South America, by Jorge Riquelme Rivera, expresses how the sub-regional bloc Mercosur has brought not only economic stability, but security to its members. The leadership of that community has impacted to the point that it has created a security complex in the Southern Cone, with positive effects for South America. The author concludes that this block is successful, not only for what it has shown, but because it projects the region in the international context, despite the criticisms and difficulties, such as nationalism, among others. Nonetheless, success will be secured by the political will of the parties. International cooperation for control of traffic of firearms, ammunition and explosives: a mechanism for the generation of ontological security in Colombia, by Carlos Alberto Ardila Castro and Carlos Antonio Pinedo Herrera, is an article in which the authors propose to integrate the physical and the ontological aspects to generate new forms of security where the material aspect is not privileged, such as confiscation of weapons, over the idealist such as prestige and identity, as a mechanism to build cooperation agreements based on trust, which facilitate a greater prediction of assertiveness on threats and how to address them. In an interesting way, the article entitled From Zetas to Maras. Thoughts of Mafia and Organized Crime in Latin America: Luis Alexander Montero Moncada, Liana Abril Pérez and Angela Herrera, propose first to define Zetas and Maras from a theoretical point of view, based on their characteristics so that they can serve as a base of analysis for similar subjects. Next, they use a comparative methodology that reveals the similarities and differences. In any case, they conclude that both of them constitute an asymmetrical threat in the international scene.

As a final thought, we reiterate our thanks to those who support us and cooperate to make possible this work, as we are sure that without the decisive effort of all, it would be impossible to make it happen. We hope you stay with us.

Alejandra Ripoll
Editora