Launched in January 2002, the Latin America Program coordinates OSI’s grant-making activities in the region and conducts policy work in Washington, DC. The program focuses on three principal thematic areas: promoting greater transparency and accountability, strengthening democratic institutions, and ensuring international support for open society goals.
To further these objectives, the Latin America Program works closely with the Soros foundations in Guatemala and Haiti as well as other OSI-related programs and collaborates with local and regional organizations that share its goals.
Fundación Soros–Guatemala and Fondation Connaissance et Liberte (the Soros Foundation in Haiti) are autonomous institutions established in these countries to initiate and support open society activities. The Latin America Program refers all work related to Guatemala and Haiti to the respective Soros Foundation.
The Latin America Program also works collaboratively in the region with other OSI-related programs including the Open Society Justice Initiative, the Media Program, Revenue Watch, and the Information Program.
Background
While all but one of the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean have democratically elected civilian governments, democracy is clearly on the defensive. Democratic governments have failed to generate sustained economic growth and improve the well-being of their citizens, while (with the exception of Chile) poverty and inequality have risen during the last decade.
Democratic governments have also failed to guarantee order. Both common and organized crime are out of control. The end of internal conflicts, dismantling of repressive security forces, and lack of jobs have produced conditions where there are tens of thousands of weapons, and people who know how to use them have few legitimate ways to make a living. Crime waves are producing a public backlash that has weakened support for civil liberties and respect for human rights.
The problem is not simply one of institutional failure. For most of the 20th century, Latin American countries experienced brief periods of democratic experimentation interrupted by long periods of military or strongman rule. As a result, democratic values are weak, and confidence in democratic institutions is all but nonexistent in many places. With few exceptions, traditional political parties are viewed as unrepresentative, corrupt, and ineffective.
These realities place enormous pressure on democratically elected governments. Even with considerable political will and favorable international conditions, reducing poverty and inequality and overcoming the legacies of social exclusion will take many years. If these regimes cannot produce visible improvements in the short run they will not last long enough to generate sustainable reforms, as evidenced by events in Bolivia in 2003. In this context, some leaders resort to manipulating democratic processes, as in the case of Ecuador’s former president Lucio Gutiérrez. When these leaders fail to deliver, they too are driven from office. But the result is often a political vacuum rather than a consolidation of democracy.
The deterioration in public support for democratic reforms and for reformist regimes is compounded by the cultural legacy of authoritarianism in Latin America. Closed societies tend to generate a Manichean worldview that polarizes society into "friend" and "enemy." This is not only true of those who rule; it also produces a mirror image among those who are ruled. One of the main legacies of the long periods of authoritarian rule in Latin America is a profound polarization between "government" and "civil society." Authoritarian regimes and military governments viewed organized civil society as a threat and sought to either co-opt or repress leaders and organizations. This resulted in the elimination of a deep pool of skilled and experienced civil society leaders. It also caused civil society to view government as the enemy. Given the scope and depth of these problems, the Latin America Program seeks to foster good will on which to build cooperative efforts.
A new regional advocacy initiative in 2005 aimed to have the Inter American Commission on Human Rights take up the issue of citizen security. The initiative helped spur efforts to establish minimum standards regarding government responsibility for providing security and protecting the rights of citizens from abuse. Twelve human rights organizations from all over Latin America, along with the Open Society Justice Initiative, met with the commission and presented proposals for how the commission can more systematically incorporate the issue of citizen security and human rights into its agenda. The commission accepted the proposals and agreed to develop a thematic report on the issue during 2006.
As part of its efforts to combat corruption, the Latin America Program (LAP) worked with Transparency International’s Bureau for Latin America (TILAC) to devise a region-wide campaign to foster implementation of the Inter-American Convention against Corruption. TILAC developed an Americas Conventions Report Card that will provide a clear and media-friendly assessment of how various countries are implementing the convention. The results will also serve as a powerful advocacy tool for national civil society efforts to bring pressure to bear in favor of the convention.
Building on OSI’s work in promoting budget transparency and greater access to government information, the LAP sponsored a regional meeting that allowed civil society groups engaged in monitoring and parliamentary oversight activities to exchange information and best practices. Throughout the year, OSI grantees in Mexico and Peru continued to monitor and report-on the use of gas and mineral revenues.
In the Southern Cone, the LAP sponsored a survey of attitudes about U.S. relations with the region that covered four major cities: Sao Paolo, Montevideo, Buenos Aires, and Santiago. The survey highlighted differences between U.S. and Latin American perceptions of key problems, and was the focus of a regional seminar held in Santiago and another with U.S. officials in Washington.
In order to strengthen collaboration in 2005 between civil society groups and regional organizations promoting and defending open society values, the LAP partnered with the Organization of American States to sponsor the Inter American Civil Society Partnership Initiative. The initiative helped channel civil society input into the planning leading up to the November Summit of the Americas meeting in Argentina. Another initiative, conducted by the Latin American Network of Security and Defense, a LAP grantee, coordinated civil society input into the biannual meeting of hemispheric ministers of defense, which took place in Ecuador during October.
