Since 2007, the Latin America Working Group has been demanding action
to end the killings of civilians by the Colombian Army. While the
Colombian government has taken some steps to address these systematic
abuses, the nightmare is not yet over. Two important resources have
just come out that show that much more needs to be done.
In mid-May, shortly after being confirmed to lead the White House
Office on National Drug Control Policy, Gil Kerlikowski offered the
latest hint that the Obama Administration might take a new approach to
counternarcotics.
Mauricio Funes was sworn as President of El Salvador last June 1st. As Funes and his wife, Vanda Pignato, arrived at the inaugural ceremony, they were received by a cheering crowd chanting, "Yes, we did!" As the couple reached the stage, the chants turned into the traditional Latin American leftist hymn, "The people, united, will never be defeated." Monday's inauguration marks a turning point in the country's history, since it is the first time El Salvador elected a leftist president. Since colonial times, the smallest Central American country has had a troublesome history characterized by brutal repression of indigenous uprisings, decades of military dictatorship, a bloody twelve-year civil war and more recently, 20 years of right-wing party rule. Therefore, the FMLN victory represents a new era of hope and change for Salvadorans.
The State Department on Friday, May 22, took an incremental, yet
important step toward reestablishing a limited diplomatic relationship
with Cuba similar to what existed under the Clinton Administration --
high-level migration meetings between Havana and Washington. See AP
article here.
The Obama administration’s State Department has released a “Summary and Highlights” document for its 2010 foreign assistance request, which offers some significant clues about where future aid is headed.
You and I know that military hardware isn't the
solution to Mexico's challenges--and it sure isn't the way to acknowledge the
United States' "shared responsibility" for spiraling drug violence. We need to
act today.
When we started working with faith-based and grassroots groups to
plan this year's Days of Prayer and Action, Colombians were being
forced to flee their homes at the staggering, almost unbelievable rate
of 1,500 a day. By the time 2008 was said and done, nearly 400,000 had
become internally displaced people (IDPs) and Colombia's displaced
population had swelled to more than 4 million, overtaking Sudan in the
seeming-blink-of-an-eye as the country with the world's most displaced
people. We knew we had to do something to make this crisis visible to
people here in the United State and to our government that has funded
and supported so many of the policies that have exacerbated this
humanitarian crisis.
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.”
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.
