The past two decades of progress in LGBTQ rights in many Latin American countries have helped to extend basic rights of marriage, health care and a security to many in the LGBTQ community—but not all.
Thirty years after the Jean-Claude Duvalier fled Haiti, the Caribbean island country has been plagued by political upheaval, autocracy, and corruption. Now, though, after yet another electoral debacle, the international community has a rare opportunity to support the Haitian people, rather than an imperfect, temporary way out of a crisis.
Even in Latin America, a region often thought to share the same democratic orientation and values of the U.S. and Europe, there are some striking differences among groups of countries regarding supporting norms and practices on human rights internationally, with some countries lining up more with autocratic countries of the Global South.
Despite legal setbacks in Peru and El Salvador and retrograde rhetoric from the newly-elected President of Guatemala and the Catholic cardinal of the Dominican Republic, overall LGBT civil, human and political rights continued to make gains across the region.
This week’s stats shot measures equal protection of laws and lack of discrimination across the region. Equal treatment does not improve with increasing development.
En los últimos años, la Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos se ha encontrado bajo constantes ataques diplomáticos destinados a debilitar el alcance de su mandato y privilegiar la soberanía nacional.
Should Latin America continue to put all its eggs in the commodity basket hoping for a return of the good times? Of course not. The region must diversify its economic base to focus on manufacturing and services as well. In the meantime, the agricultural sector needs greater unity across the sector to improve productivity, efficiency, and innovation.
The United Nations Human Rights Council opened this week, and on its agenda are the heated topics of Sri Lanka, Ukraine and Syria. The region has historically split in votes on these issues, with a majority, led by Argentina and Brazil, supporting the protection of human rights. On the other side, Cuba and Venezuela have helped to lead the movement to prioritize national sovereignty over the human rights.
Those who stoke fear every time an extra-hemispheric rival to the U.S. gains influence in the Western Hemisphere are missing the real challenges. While these “BackYardistas” exercise their Cold War reflexes over growing Chinese, Russian and Iranian influence in Latin America, the broader challenge is how those powers are remaking the global liberal order.
Across the hemisphere a majority of citizens support a greater role for the armed forces in domestic security—with over 80 percent of citizens in El Salvador, Honduras and Ecuador supporting the militarization of police duties. The policy, though, comes with huge risks. It also has not worked.
