Greetings from the Latin America Working Group. Below you will find the articles from the December Scorecard edition of the Advocate, our newsletter. Be sure to check our website for updates on the articles as Congress takes action. We think you’ll find our Congressional Scorecard especially useful in your efforts to change US policy toward Latin America. Below you’ll find the following articles:

• Congressional scorecard
• Legislative Wrap Up
• Your Turn: The Wisconsin Coalition
• Latin America: The Region Speaks Out After the Election
• Ecumenical Advocacy Days 2005
• Thank You!

Thanks for your support.

Congressional Scorecard

Did your member vote right? Here's our annual list of how members of Congress voted on our top issues. This congressional scorecard will help you to hold your member accountable if they did not vote right and to thank them if they did.

For LAWG's 2004 Congressional scorecard click on the following link or paste it into your browser:

http://www.lawg.org/tools/scorecard/intro.htm

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Legislative Wrap Up

The Congress finalized the foreign operations appropriations bill, the legislation governing foreign assistance programs, as part of the mad dash to finish all appropriations bills in a special one-week lame duck session. In the bill, LAWG and coalition members, working with all of you, managed to retain certain restraints on US funding to Colombia, Bolivia and Guatemala.

Colombia: Human rights conditions were kept in place, requiring the State Department to certify that Colombia is severing ties between the army and paramilitary forces. While State always certifies despite evidence to the contrary, this mechanism has forced the State Department to put pressure on the Colombian government on specific cases, such as the recent case of the killing of three union leaders in Arauca. Environmental conditions on the aerial spraying program remain in place. The full $731 million for the Andean Counternarcotics Initiative was granted, of which $237 million was earmarked for AID for development purposes ($125.7 million of which is for AID programs in Colombia). The legislation remains the most complex legislation governing any area of the world, including Iraq and Afghanistan, reflecting all of our concerns.

Bolivia: Military aid to Bolivia can be given only if the State Department certifies that the Bolivian government is prosecuting security forces involved in human rights violations.

Guatemala: The ban on current military aid remains in place. However, $3.2 million in “pipeline” aid frozen since 1990 when the ban went into effect can now be given for nonlethal military aid if State certifies Guatemala is making progress on military reforms, the Guatemalan government is working to resolve impediments to the establishment of an international commission, CICIACS, to investigate clandestine groups, and agrees to the opening of an office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Guatemala.

US-Mexico Border: Many of the anti-immigrant proposals in the September 11 Intelligence Reform Bill were removed before passage. The following provisions did become law in this bill: increases in a test project to fly unmanned aerial craft to detect undocumented border crossers; a mandated staff increase for the US Border Patrol of no less than 2,000 agents for the next five years; a tightening of visa requirements for legal migrants; and increased penalties for migrant smuggling. While these are all negative devleopments, several proposals were kept out of the bill, including a waiver of at least 14 national environmental laws to allow the construction of a massive fencing project in San Diego, California.

--Lisa Haugaard and Sean Garcia

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Your Turn: The Wisconsin Coalition

Perhaps Milwaukee, Wisconsin is an unlikely place to find an organization promoting the normalization of relations between US
and Cuba, but it is in fact the home of the Wisconsin Coalition to Normalize Relations with Cuba, a ground roots organization that has assumed the responsibility to promote relations with Cuba. The Coalition has also kept Wisconsin’s media and citizens informed about the latest events in Cuba, while spreading Cuban culture particularly in Southeastern Wisconsin. Founded in 1994, the Coalition became statewide in 2003.

An all-volunteer organization, it holds monthly meetings including bi-monthly educational programs at the Central Methodist Church in Milwaukee. The Coalition periodically organizes Cuba advocacy events, sets up “Cuba tables” at other community events and raises the issue of normalizing U.S. relations with Cuba as part of electoral and other political discussions.

A classic example of their advocacy work took place this fall. Late last summer, Democratic Congressman Gerald Kleczka, a long-time supporter of normalizing relations with Cuba announced that he would not be running for another term, creating a vacancy in Wisconsin’s 4th Congressional District. A number of candidates announced their intentions to run in the Democratic and Republican primaries and the Coalition invited all candidates to a forum on hemispheric issues, including US - Cuba relations and Latin American foreign policy. A crowd of over 100 concerned citizens attended the event at the Central Methodist Church, which was also televised on community cable access. The election year work concluded with the gathering of over 1,000 signatures on a petition directed to the President, which demanded that he stop interfering with the right to travel to Cuba.

Organized in 1994

The Coalition was organized in 1994 by a number of people who had been to Cuba and/or were concerned about the heightened U.S. pressures on Cuba after the fall of the Soviet Union. Among them was Milwaukee attorney Arthur Heitzer, a life-long activist who was the president of the Marquette University student body in the late 1960’s. In 1972, Heitzer made his first trip to Cuba with the Venceremos Brigade, expecting to cut sugar cane, but they ended up building pre-fab houses. Then in 1978, with Jimmy Carter in the White House, he traveled to Cuba along with 40 other Wisconsinites on the first legal tourist trip to the island since the US travel ban had begun.

Since that time, he has returned to Cuba a number of times, at times as part of Milwaukee delegations to the city of Nuevitas, a small town on the northern coast of Camagüey province and Milwaukee’s sister city. Heitzer recollects that “it was interesting to see a smaller city far away from the capital where we found unexpected treasures such as the Municipal Museum, which had artifacts dating back to colonial times.” Heitzer is also active in the National Lawyer’s Guild Cuba Subcommittee, which supports and defends the right to travel to Cuba and “has helped set up a network of lawyers to help represent U.S. travelers to Cuba.”

Coalition members have also played key roles in establishing the Milwaukee-Nuevitas Association, a humanitarian project between the cities of Milwaukee and Nuevitas. Awareness of Cuba issues promoted by the Coalition at City Hall, made the creation of the project much easier - it was endorsed by then mayor of Milwaukee John Norquist as well as a majority of the Common Council. The Coalition has also been instrumental in gathering medical and humanitarian supplies for the annual Pastors for Peace Caravan and every year, the Coalition hosts a send-off dinner for the Caravan as it passes through Milwaukee to collect donations.

Heitzer and the Coalition are hopeful that just as apartheid came to an end in South Africa, relations between Cuba and the United States will be normalized. Heitzer notes that “we have a majority of votes in Congress, but we never seem to win,” adding that after many years of work, it is possible to feel both hopeful and hopeless about the potential to achieve normal US-Cuba relations in the near future. Regardless how US policy towards Cuba is resolved, however, Milwaukee and Wisconsin will have been better informed on Cuba because of the efforts of the Coalition and its members.

--Raul Galvan

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Latin America:
The Region Speaks Out After the US Election

After the 2004 US election, it is no surprise that Latin America had much to say about President Bush’s re-election and its meaning for the region. Although opinions varied throughout the Western Hemisphere, a number of commentators showed concern and skepticism over prospects for change in the next four years. On the other hand, most Latin American commentators hope that the Bush Administration will refresh ties and increase dialogue with their respective governments.

The following quotes are from major Latin American newspapers:

“We do not doubt that George Bush’s second term will continue to be an imperialistic presidency of war. We will see more unilateralist policies, more preventive wars and more chased-after “axes of evils.” Editorial, La República, Perú , 11/4/04.

“The demons are set loose! Bush’s reelection at the international level…will not be favorable for Mexicans. Bush, the inexhaustible warrior, used blackmail as a tool to politically pressure the American people…President Fox once showed how to keep our country out of this madness. We will have to see if his convictions hold firm. The fact that he has again invited Bush to Mexico may be no more than a diplomatic measure that may result in another uncomfortable situation for all of us.” Editorial, El Asesor, México, 11/5/04

“I hope he understands that what he has won is not a license for a revenge but an opportunity to reconstruct the credibility of his country for the rest of the world.” Editorial, El Tiempo, Colombia,11/9/04

“President Bush must keep in mind that he is not a popular leader outside the US, especially in key regions like the developed world.” Editorial, Prensa Libre, Guatemala, 11/8/04
“Our hypothesis is that U.S. policies will be more of the same. The U.S. will continue to ardently defend the cohort of neoconservatives inside and outside that got us in this mess…but we can also imagine, and hopefully this is not insane, that his second term will correct the excess of unilateralism.” Editorial, El Tiempo, Colombia, 11/7/04

“The triumph of the Republican Party and that of George W. Bush as President of the U.S. is a tragedy of global proportions and of serious consequences for all members of the international community…It is appropriate to be reminded that Bush was not elected by the majority of women, African-Americans, Latinos, Asians, moderates and liberals, Jews and Catholics, those younger than 30 years, the poor, homosexuals and bisexuals.” Editorial, La Jornada, Mexico, 11/4/04

“Why not accept that the strategies of the Republicans were simply better? They were better organized and were also able to mobilize more social groups with a more popular message.” Leo Zuckermann, La Jornada, Mexico, 11/10/04

“The results mean that El Salvador will continue its presence in Iraq… El Salvador is the only country that has contributed troops to the war. If Kerry had won, the future of our troops in Iraq would have been uncertain. Bush certainly mentioned our country during his speeches.” Editorial, El Diario de Hoy, El Salvador, 11/4/04

“Given all the present dangers of the world, the U.S. has opted for taking an unpopular action without regard to the consequences. ‘Any nation that tolerates or stimulates the presence of terrorism will be classified as an enemy and will be pressured to change its behavior.’ This is obviously a costly strategy but we will never know the cost we could potentially pay by sitting back to wait for the next attack and then responding. The Europeans and Latin Americans have not contributed to a better solution to this dilemma.” Carlos Alberto Montaner, El Comercio Perú, 11/11/04

--Aranzasu de la O

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Ecumenical Advocacy Days 2005

Make All Things New is the theme of the third annual Ecumenical Advocacy Days gathering in Washington, D.C. March 11-14 to address urgent global issues. It takes place in the context of a new presidential term, a new Congress and a new opportunity for people of faith to learn together and raise their voices in advocacy for a more just and peaceful world.

Ecumenical Advocacy Days will highlight the urgency of pursuing wise and peaceful solutions to conflicts and the need for aid, debt and trade policies that benefit our impoverished brothers and sisters throughout the world.

Participants will examine U.S. policy regarding the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Latin America, global economic justice, global security, eco-justice and U.S. domestic issues. There will be challenging speakers, issue briefings and training in advocacy.

On Monday following the briefings and trainings, participants will visit their members of Congress.

Sign up for the Latin America track! The Latin America Track will feature a plenary on the growing militarization of US foreign policy towards Latin America, with emphasis on the US/Mexico border, US policy towards Colombia, and US military training programs. Workshops will include speakers from Colombia and the US/Mexico border area, and experts on military and development aid. A workshop on trade agreements with the Americas will also be offered.

More info about the event at: http://www.advocacydays.org

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Thank You!

We at the Latin America Working Group want to thank all those Advocate readers who have donated in 2004. We know that there are many organizations asking for your support these days and we’re honored that you would choose to support us! With your contribution, you help us to create room for voices from Latin America and the United States to speak truth to power.

We know that giving voice to those directly affected by US foreign policy can help to create change. Working together with you and other concerned citizens around the country, we will demand policies that reflect our values of peace, justice and respect for human rights.

So thank you again and please know that we truly can’t do it without your help!