Being Better Neighbors towards Latin America

On March 21, President Obama delivered his second major policy speech on Latin America, since assuming office, to an audience gather outside of the Palacio de la Moneda Cultural Center in Santiago, Chile.

Reports and analyses on the President’s Latin America tour are pouring in – keep checking our blog for ours – and we wanted to present a couple of them:

Momentum is building fast in Washington to approve the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Colombia. Just today there were two hearings in Congress about it! But we cannot let this unfair agreement move forward.

Click here to sign our petition calling on President Obama to say no to the FTA now!

A December 2010 report by Human Rights Watch outlines the lack of accountability for human rights abuses committed during and following the June 2009 coup in Honduras. The report also documents 47 cases of threats or attacks, including 18 killings, against journalists, human rights defenders, and political activists since the inauguration of Honduran President Porfirio Lobo in January 2010.

Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa “returned safely to the presidential palace… after spending hours held by police inside a hospital room outside Quito,” according to CNN. While attempting to talk with rioting police demanding that a law be revoked that they believed would cut their salaries, Correa had tear gas lobbed at him and had been taken to the hospital. Later he was rescued by soldiers and returned to the palace. Correa characterized the events as an attempted coup. He stated, “I leave as president of a dignified nation, or I leave as a cadaver.”