It’s hard to believe—the Latin America Working Group has completed a quarter-century of campaigning for a just U.S. policy towards Latin America. Right now we’re celebrating this history: our collective work to shift U.S. support from war to peace in Central America; to increase U.S. aid for victims of hurricanes, earthquakes and war; to build U.S. counternarcotics policies that are more humane and effective; to promote border policies that respect the rights of border communities and migrants; and to end, once and for all, the Cuba travel ban.
If you’ve called your member of Congress on these issues, if you’ve
contributed to our cause, if you’ve sent our messages on to your
friends, if you’re a member or supporter of any of the groups in our
coalition—then this is your history, too.
The trial of former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori “contributes to the strengthening of the rule of law and democracy in Peru and is a genuine milestone in the struggle against impunity in the region,” according to Jo-Marie Burt of George Mason University and Coletta Youngers of the Washington Office on Latin America. “It is the first time that a democratically elected head of state in Latin America has been found guilty of committing crimes against humanity.”
by Claudia Rodriguez, SHARE Foundationon April 06, 2009
El Salvador celebrated a historical presidential election on Sunday,
March 15th. The Farabundo Marti Front for National Liberation (FMLN),
the former Salvadoran guerilla movement during the 12-year civil war,
won 51.3% to 48.7% for the conservative ARENA party. Mauricio Funes,
the president-elect, became the first left-leaning president in the
country’s history. His victory puts an end to the twenty years of ARENA
party rule and makes El Salvador the latest to join a growing number of
Latin American countries that have democratically chosen leftist
governments.
As our country is reflecting upon the use of torture by U.S. interrogators since 9/11, some history and literature from Latin America’s dirty wars offers insights. A new translation of Uruguayan author Mario Benedetti’s play Pedro and the Captain, about to be released by Cadmus Editions, provides an unblinking look into the psychology behind such abuses.
Welcome to the Latin America Working Group’s new blog—the LAWG Blog
(sorry, we couldn’t resist the name). We’ll be bringing you updates on
U.S. policy towards Latin America, inspiring stories from Latin
American human rights activists, tips for what you can do to make
change—all in the service of building a more just U.S. policy towards
our neighbors to the south.
As our President addressed the gathering of the hemisphere’s leaders,
the Summit of the Americas, in Trinidad-Tobago, he got the tone right.
“There is no senior partner and junior partner in our relations; there
is simply engagement based on mutual respect and common interests and
shared values,” he said in his official speech. In other settings, he
went farther: “If our only interaction with many of these countries is
drug interdiction, if our only interaction is military, then we may not
be developing the connections that can, over time, increase our
influence,” he said, noting that Cuba’s sending of doctors to care for
the poor in other countries offered an example to the United States. He also stated he is “absolutely opposed and condemn any efforts at
violent overthrows of democratically elected governments” (reported in The New York Timeshere and in The Washington Post, “Obama Closes Summit, Vows Broader Engagement with Latin America,” April 20, 2009).
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