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.
Cuba is experiencing a wave of U.S. “unofficial” tourism. Even as the hidebound communist regimes claims it isn’t looking for U.S. investment, the contact with tourists and U.S. communications are changing Cuba from the bottom up.
Ser un periodista es peligroso en varias partes de Latinoamérica. La mayoría de los corresponsales de Talking Press, una de las pocas agencias independientes de noticias en Cuba, han pasado tiempo en prisión, o han sido víctimas de agresiones por parte del gobierno. Los periodistas saben que por culpa de su oficio se están arriesgado diariamente a ello, o a cosas peores inclusive.
There’s more that President Obama can do if he wants to cement his legacy of policy change on Cuba.
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.
For the first time since 1960s, the United States has leverage over Cuba. Now President Obama is cleverly playing off the Republic congressional critics of his policy to encourage the Cuban regime to change if it really wants to embargo lifted.
Despite the shrinking size of their community over the years due to emigration, Cuba’s remaining Jews have done their best to sustain their ritual and community spaces. Reforms in the 1990s allowed outsiders to visit on religious grounds, including visits, cultural exchanges and support from American Jews. As small as the Cuban community is today, it was, and is, sustained in many ways by the support of those abroad. Their story points to the importance of contact across borders—embodied in the recent U.S.-Cuba changes—and how it builds and sustains the values of tolerance and pluralism.
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.
The Center for International Policy and Global Americans urge President Barack Obama to renew the Trading with the Enemy Act for Cuba. Surprised? According to a white paper by Robert Muse, the President’s authority to make changes to the embargo depends on renewal of the Act. Failure to do so will not only tie the executive’s hands to make further changes but also end the important people-to-people exchanges.
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.
