This post was written by CIP Intern Cristina Salas. This week the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) held several hearings on Venezuela. Taking advantage of the presence of many important Venezuelan political figures in Washington to attend the hearings, a number of events discussed the situation in Venezuela. Below are brief summaries of two events on Venezuela held this week in Washington: The recent IACHR report, Democracy and Human Rights in Venezuela was the...
On Tuesday, March 23rd a delegation of top Obama administration officials traveled to Mexico to discuss the evolving U.S.-Mexico counternarcotics strategy. The "Mérida U.S.-Mexico High Level Consultative Group" delegation included Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano...
On March 10th, the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere held a hearing on "U.S. Policy Toward the Americas in 2010 and Beyond." Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Arturo Valenzuela testified before the House committee in the first panel and provided a look into the focus of U.S. policy toward Latin America and the Caribbean in the coming year. The hearing came on the heels of...
A March 20 panel discussion at the Ecumenical Advocacy Days gathering, with Lisa Haugaard of the Latin America Working Group, Adam Isacson of the Center for International Policy, and Manuel Pérez Rocha of the Institute for Policy Studies.
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Every year, the commander of U.S. Southern Command presents a "Posture Statement" (PDF) to the House and Senate Armed Services Committees explaining how the regional unified command views threats in the region and how it plans to address them. On March 11th, General Douglas Fraser, Commander of U.S. Southern Command, presented his first annual Posture Statement to the Senate Armed Services Committee....
The Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) just released a new report by Coletta Youngers and John Walsh. Development First: A More Humane and Promising Approach to Reducing Cultivation of Crops for Illicit Markets surveys the evidence on coca and opium crop reduction efforts over the years, and identifies ten lessons to help shape...