Blog Posts

Toward a Fresh Start? Obama’s Response to Haiti and the Budget for Latin America

by Lisa Haugaard on February 09, 2010

We charitably termed the Obama Administration’s first year of Latin America policy a “false start.”  After the year was kicked off with a promising beginning with a rousing speech at the Summit of the Americas, a promise to close Guantanamo, the lifting of the ban on travel to Cuba for Cuban Americans, and some principled words on human rights to Colombian President Uribe, we had some hope for a new, less ideological, more people-centered approach to the region. As the year progressed, those hopes were dashed. But now we dare to hope again.

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:2010, Blog Posts, Blog Posts, Latin America, Lisa Haugaard
 

It’s Time… To Lose the Ideological Lens

by Lisa Haugaard on February 05, 2010

In two interesting analyses of elections in Latin America, Professor Doug Hertzler, associate professor of anthropology at Eastern Mennonite University and Adam Isacson of the Center for International Policy remind us, and the U.S. government, to look closely at the reality in each country rather than viewing it in an ideological context.

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:2010, Blog Posts, Latin America, Lisa Haugaard
 

Landmark Case Sentencing Former Guatemalan Military Officials for Forced Disappearances

by Amanda Martin (GHRC/USA) on January 26, 2010

Amanda Martin of the Guatemala Human Rights Commission/USA provides this important update on the arduous search for justice in the cases of disappeared Guatemalans.

On December 3, 2009, a former military official and three former commissioners were sentenced to 53 years in prison for the forced disappearance and illegal detention of six people in El Jute, Guatemala in 1981. This marks the first time in Guatemalan history that a high-ranking military official has been sentenced for forced disappearance. In the sentence, the tribunal also ordered an investigation of former defense minister Angel Anibal Guevara, former head of Defense Security (EMD) Benedicto Lucas Garcia, and other officials and soldiers assigned to the same military base as the guilty parties in 1981.

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:2010, Blog Posts, Guest, Latin America
 

Honduras: Violence Against "Those Who Look or Love Differently"

by Lisa Haugaard on February 01, 2010
As Hondurans sort through the wreckage of human rights and civil liberties violations that occurred following the June 28th coup, one pressing issue the country will have to address is the wave of violence directed against members of the LGBT community.

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:2010, Blog Posts, Honduras, Lisa Haugaard
 

Haiti: Rebuilding with Rights

by Lisa Haugaard on January 22, 2010
As we give from our own pockets and encourage our government to fund relief and reconstruction in earthquake-devastated Haiti, we can’t let skepticism about the past success of aid efforts dissuade us from responding.  But at the same time, we can’t ignore real concerns.  Groups involved in human rights and health related work in Haiti issued a call for Haiti relief and reconstruction efforts to respect the following principles:

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:2010, Blog Posts, Blog Posts, Haiti, Lisa Haugaard
 

Honduras: We Can’t Pretend It Never Happened

by Lisa Haugaard on January 27, 2010
As National Party leader Porfirio “Pepe” Lobo is inaugurated president of Honduras, we can’t just pretend the June 28th coup and its bitter aftermath never occurred.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights just released a devastating 147-page catalogue of the violations of human rights and civil liberties that have occurred since the coup in Honduras.

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:2010, Blog Posts, Honduras, Lisa Haugaard
 

Ecuador: “We Cannot Continue Living This Way.”

by Emily Chow on December 16, 2009
Marlon Santi

The Amazon Rainforest is famously known as the “lungs of the earth.” In the Ecuadorian Amazon, indigenous groups have united in an effort to protect our proverbial lungs from multinational corporations who they say have spent many years exploiting these sacred lands for profit and harming the communities that live there.

On Thursday November 5th, 2009, the Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL), Amazon Watch and the Washington Office on Latin America hosted an event that allowed members of the Ecuadorian Indigenous Rights Movement to share their stories. The following quotes were taken from Marlon Santi’s remarks at that event.

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:2009, Blog Posts, Emily Chow, Latin America
 
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