Voices from Latin America is a project of the Democracy Center and our friends both North and South to bring Latin American perspectives into the U.S. debate.
Voices from Latin America:
Bringing Perspectives from Abroad into the U.S. Debate
U.S. foreign policy is not something that we can leave solely in the hands of our politicians. Although citizen engagement is easier to muster on issues just around the block, from education to health care, Iraq teaches us that we as citizens have to take a strong and direct interest in what our nation does abroad. Citizens need to question what their governments tell them and, when foreign policy takes us in the wrong direction, we must take responsibility to change that course. When we fail to do so, the results, as we have learned anew, can be disastrous.
An important part of developing this citizen engagement in U.S. foreign policymaking is listening to what people in other countries have to say about the impact of our policies on them. It is not a surprise that mistrust of the U.S. has spiked in nearly every region of the world. It also doesn't have to be that way.
In Latin America, the U.S.'s closest world neighbor, nearly nine of ten people gave the Bush administration a grade of poor or fair in recent region-wide polling. On issues ranging from trade to migration, U.S. policies affect Latin Americans in deep ways, and it is essential that people and politicians in the U.S. begin to listen to the views of those who live to their south. On many issues, U.S. policy affects people in this region of the world more than it does people who live in Indiana, California or Wyoming.
Voices from Latin America is an effort by The Democracy Center and our friends both north and south to bring Latin American perspectives directly into the U.S. debate. We launched the project in November 2007 by working with Bolivian colleagues to submit a question on the coca issue for the YouTube Republican Presidential Debate, a video that has been viewed by thousands of people worldwide. We'll also be working to help draw U.S. public attention to the issues that most link the U.S. and Latin America and to help build citizen-to citizen bridges to take effective action on those issues.