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.
An OSI grantee, the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team–Equipo Argentino de Antropología Forense (EAAF), launched a massive public campaign to collect blood samples from families of the disappeared in Latin America. The samples will be processed in a soon-to-be-completed DNA laboratory, the first of its kind in the region. EAAF’s cofounder, Mercedes Doretti, received a 2007 MacArthur Award in recognition of this important work.
Read more about OSI Latin America Program 2007 Activities.
