Juan Cruz

Senior Adviser (Non-resident), Americas Program and Director, Argentina-U.S. Strategic Forum
Juan Cruz

Juan Cruz is a specialist in national security and a strategist in hemispheric geopolitics. Since 2019, he has served as a nonresident senior advisor to the CSIS Americas Program, where his contributions focus on national security issues, strategies and techniques to combat transnational organized crime, and the effect of China, Russia, and other extraterritorial powers in the region. At CSIS, he also served as director of the Argentina-U.S. Strategic Forum. Currently, he works as a senior advisor at Dinámica Américas, advising companies and other organizations. In 2025, he joined the Inter-American Dialogue’s Citizen Security Task Force. From 2017 to 2019, Cruz worked with the National Security Council as the special assistant to the president and senior director for Western Hemisphere affairs. He drove interagency decisionmaking processes for the region and worked with international partners to foster a shared understanding of key issues. He was instrumental in defining the administration’s approach to the Venezuelan crisis and furthering the Western Hemisphere strategy. Cruz’s professional career spans three decades as a public servant in the U.S. government. His deep understanding of the region was honed through overseas postings in Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Peru, and Venezuela. While in Colombia, Cruz fostered historic successes against drug cartels and guerrilla insurgencies. Cruz speaks fluent Spanish and Portuguese. He holds a BA from Georgetown University, an MA in international public policy from Johns Hopkins, and an executive leadership certification from Northwestern University. He also studied at the Pontificia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro.

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Audio Briefs

Experts React: The NSS and Washington’s New Approach to the Western Hemisphere

An audio version of "⁠Experts React: The NSS and Washington’s New Approach to the Western Hemisphere⁠," a new Commentary by CSIS's Ryan C. Berg, P. Michael McKinley, Christopher Hernandez-Roy, Juan Cruz, and Eric Farnsworth. This audio was generated with text-to-speech by Eleven Labs.

Podcast Episode by CSIS Scholars — December 10, 2025

Audio Briefs
The Last Line of Defense

Are the United States and Venezuela on the Brink of War?

Seth Jones sits down with Juan Cruz, who served in the U.S. Intelligence Community and on the National Security Council as special assistant to the president and senior director for Western Hemisphere affairs, to discuss the U.S. military’s role in the Venezuela crisis and provide an inside look at Maduro’s armed forces.

Podcast Episode by Seth G. Jones and Juan Cruz — December 3, 2025

The Last Line of Defence
Audio Briefs

The United States, Argentina, and Seizing the Moment for American AI

An audio version of "⁠The United States, Argentina, and Seizing the Moment for American AI⁠," a new commentary by CSIS’s Dan Korn and Juan Cruz. This audio was generated with text-to-speech by Eleven Labs.

Podcast Episode by Dan Korn and Juan Cruz — September 9, 2025

Audio Briefs
Audio Briefs

Experts React: One Year Since Latin America’s Most Brazen Electoral Theft in History

An audio version of “⁠Experts React: One Year Since Latin America’s Most Brazen Electoral Theft in History,⁠” a new Commentary by CSIS’s Mark Feierstein, Alexandra Winkler, Juan Cruz, Ryan C. Berg, Eric Farnsworth, and P. Michael McKinley. This audio was generated with text-to-speech by Eleven Labs. 

Podcast Episode by CSIS Scholars — July 28, 2025

Audio Briefs

Ensuring the Biden-Fernández Meeting Matters

CSIS Americas adviser Juan O. Cruz and Henry Ziemer argue that for Biden's meeting with President Alberto Fernández to be a success, the United States must be prepared to strengthen cooperation on human rights and deepen security ties to Argentina.

Commentary by Juan Cruz and Henry Ziemer — July 22, 2022