VivirLatino

While I may have been impressed by Barack Obama’s mention of Latin American issues in the final presidential debate, some Latin American scholars are bringing a more “academic” approach to Obama’s possible policy decisions on the region if he were to become the next U.S. president.

Here’s an excerpt of the letter from some members of the Latin American Studies Association (LASA):

There are many other challenges, too. Colombia, the main focus of the
Bush Administration’s policy, is currently the scene of the second
largest humanitarian crisis in the world, with four million internally
displaced people. Its government, which criminalizes even peaceful
protest, seeks an extension of the free trade policies that much of the
hemisphere is already reacting against. Cuba has begun a process of
transition that should be supported in positive ways, such as through
the dialogue you advocate. Mexicans and Central Americans migrate by
the tens of thousands to seek work in the United States, where their
labor power is much needed but their presence is denigrated by a public
that has, since the development of opinion polling in the 1930s, always
opposed immigration from anywhere. The way to manage immigration is not
by building a giant wall, but rather, the United States should support
more equitable economic development in Mexico and Central America and,
indeed, throughout the region. In addition, the U.S. must reconsider
drug control policies that have simply not worked and have been part of
the problem of political violence, especially in Mexico, Colombia and
Peru. And the U.S. must renew its active support for human rights
throughout the region. Unfortunately, in the eyes of many Latin
Americans, the United States has come to stand for the support of
inequitable regimes.

Read the entire letter and it’s signatories after the jump.

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