2013

With a New Year comes resolutions and it’s no different here at the Latin America Working Group office.  U.S. policy towards our Latin American neighbors is, as usual, in need of a few New Year's resolutions. Will you join us in making these goals a reality? Check out the short video below to get an idea of exactly what we’ve got up our sleeve for 2013. 

The police tried to impede Trinidad Ruiz from looking for the bodies of her husband and son. They were disappeared by paramilitary forces on March 23, 2012.  Manuel Ruiz, age 56, and Samir Ruiz, age 15, were executed. Their bodies were dumped in a river and discovered more than four days later by the surviving members of the Ruiz family who were accompanied by Colombian and international human rights organizations. More than eight months later, Mrs. Ruiz and her family are still searching for justice in the highest profile murder of 2012 in Colombia.....

Cuba policy faces a new era with a second Obama Administration and a State Department soon to be led by Senator John Kerry (D-MA). We could well have have some friends in high places, and that’s not at all wrong. President Obama has made some serious changes to U.S.-Cuba policy in allowing for Cuban Americans to travel freely to Cuba without restriction and liberalizing purposeful (people-to-people), religious, academic and cultural travel. Senator Kerry has been a strong congressional ally in advocating for a rational policy towards Cuba. In 2011 he placed a freeze on $20 million in USAID funding that was designated for “democracy promotion” in Cuba, until a report on the ineffectiveness of these programs was produced by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). While there has been progress made in the last four years in pursuing a more sane Cuba policy, there is still a cloud hanging over a real change in our relations with Cuba. That cloud is Alan Gross, a USAID subcontractor who has been detained in Cuba since December 3, 2009. Why? Well, Arturo Lopez-Levy shares some important facts in his piece on The Havana Note, “Is Obama Acting Pragmatically in the Alan Gross Case?”...

What does food justice mean to you? Have you ever wondered why, if the world produces enough food for everyone, there are close to 1 billion people left hungry?  In Latin America alone, small farmers are undermined by mining and large-scale monoculture farming, not to mention harmful regional trading policies. When these small farmers and indigenous and Afro-Latino communities try to organize against these trends, they are met with violence and injustice. If you would like to help these communities in their quest for justice please consider registering for this year’s Ecumenical Advocacy Days in Washington, D.C. on April 5th-8th where we will explore what it means to have food justice for the entire world. 

Register for Ecumenical Advocacy Days today to fight for justice on behalf of communities across Latin America!