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After having vowed to tackle the huge U.S. deficit this year, on Monday the Obama Administration finally revealed its plan of action when it sent the FY2012 budget request to Congress. And what did it propose for U.S. aid to Latin America? Deep cuts. According to Adam Isacson’s analysis on the blog for “Just the Facts,” a joint project by LAWGEF, the Center for International Policy, and the Washington Office on Latin America that monitors U.S. military aid to Latin America, “The request includes about $2.07 billion in new aid to Latin America and the Caribbean for 2012. That would be the lowest amount since 2007, and a reduction of 18.1 percent from 2009.”

This January, I traveled to Guatemala on a delegation led jointly by the Guatemala Human Rights Commission (GHRC) and student leaders from American University’s Alternative Break program. The ten-day trip focused on the effects of Guatemala’s internal armed conflict on indigenous communities, as well as the effects of large mega-projects on these same communities. While the testimonies we heard from human rights defenders were disheartening, the resilience and spirit of the survivors, activists, and community members inspired us to work in solidarity with the Guatemalans for justice by bringing their voices back with us to the United States.

On Friday, January 25th the Obama Administration’s new travel regulations were published in the Federal Registry, effective immediately and apparently with no comment period. Guidelines are still being drafted by the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), and that is where the details of the new regulations will become clear. OFAC says that the guidelines will be released “soon.”

Welcome to Washington, Vice President Angelino Garzón. In your visit last week, you said all the right words. Now Colombia needs to see the deeds. Despite a marked improvement in the tone of Juan Manuel Santos’s government, which took office in August 2010, violence against human rights defenders, unionists, Afro-Colombian and indigenous community leaders and land rights activists continues unchecked.