Publications

Breaking the Silence: In Search of Colombia’s Disappeared shines a light on the shocking numbers of disappearances in Colombia and tells the stories of the victims and their families’ search for justice. It cites official Colombian government statistics showing that 50,800 people have been registered as disappeared or missing, of which at least 30,000 have been estimated as forced disappearances. But since these are just numbers while disappeared are people, with mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, sons and daughters, the report also highlights the perilous journeys of victims’ relatives as they seek to find the truth of what happened to their loved ones. For too long, the relatives of the disappeared and the groups that accompany them have labored without adequate acknowledgment and support. It is long past time to help them break the silence.

Read our publication Breaking the Silence: In Search of Colombia’s Disappeared (PDF)
Lea nuestra publicación Rompiendo el Silencio: en busca de los desaparecidos de Colombia (PDF)

Far Worse than Watergate reveals the inside story about a wiretapping scandal in Colombia.  It documents how the Colombian government’s intelligence agency not only spied upon major players in Colombia’s democracy—from Supreme Court and Constitutional Court judges to presidential candidates, from journalists and publishers to human rights defenders, unions and faith-based organizations, from international organizations to U.S. and European human rights groups—but also carried out dirty tricks, and even death threats, to undermine their legitimate, democratic activities. 

Read our publication Far Worse than Watergate (PDF)
Lea nuestra publicación Mucho peor que el Watergate (PDF)

Waiting for Change reviews the first year of the Obama Administration’s Latin America policy, especially regarding military relationships and aid trends. Barack Obama’s message of change resonated in Latin America, but we’re still waiting for real shifts in policy. This report by the Latin America Working Group Education Fund, Center for International Policy and the Washington Office on Latin America offers a detailed evaluation of what has been modified, and what remains the same, in U.S. policy towards the region.

Read our publication Waiting for Change (PDF)
Lea nuestra publicación Esperando el cambio (PDF)

Becoming Better Neighbors: Tales from Organizing for a Just U.S. Policy toward Latin America captures 25 years of LAWG's history through interviews with staff, coalition partners and activists.  Learn how we worked together to move U.S. policy from war to peace in Central America, lift the ban on the sale of food and medicine to Cuba, and increase attention to human rights and the needs of victims of war in Colombia—among many other successful campaigns. 

Read our publication Becoming Better Neighbors (PDF)

Declassified Army and CIA Manuals Used in Latin America: An Analysis of Their Content
On September 20, 1996, the Pentagon released to the public seven training manuals prepared by the U.S. military and used between 1987 and 1991 for intelligence training courses in Latin America and at the U.S. Army School of the Americas (SOA). A selection of excerpts was distributed to the press at that time. The Pentagon press release accompanying the excerpts states that a 1991-92 investigation into the manuals concluded that "two dozen short passages in six of the manuals, which total 1169 pages, contained material that either was not or could be interpreted not to be consistent with U.S. policy." A January 1997 "information paper" sent out by the School of the Americas in response to public inquiries on the manuals claims that SOA training material merely contained several passages with "words or phrases inconsistent with U.S. government policy." A close reading of all seven manuals, however, reveals many more passages, and indeed an entire framework, that should be deemed inconsistent with U.S. policy and democratic standards. This memo contains excerpts from these manuals, and two other CIA manuals declassified in January 1997 in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by the Baltimore Sun.