What's Going On In Latin America?
Year
2011 - Los Angeles, CA
Speakers
Facilitator: Coletta Youngers, Senior Fellow, Washington Office on Latin America, Washington, DC
Pedro Vieira Abramovay, Professor, Fundação Getulio Vargas Law School, and former Justice Ministry official, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Eduardo Vergara Bolbarán, Director, Asuntos del Sur, Santiago, Chile
Alejandro Corda, Secretary of Justice in the Federal Criminal Jurisdiction, and Member, Intercambios Asociación Civil, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Catalina Pérez Correa, Researcher and Professor, Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE), Aguascalientes, Mexico
Diego Grooscors, Representative, Alianza por una nueva política de drogas en Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica
Rodrigo Uprimny Yepes, Director, Centro de Estudios de Derecho, Justicia y Sociedad (DeJuSticia) and former magistrate of the Constitutional Court, Bogotá, Colombia
The persistent failure of U.S.-driven drug war strategies in Latin America has resulted in increasingly frequent and diverse calls for reform. The 2009 Latin American Commission on Drug Policy and the 2011 Global Commission have legitimized calls for reform, as national advocacy efforts in Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Mexico and elsewhere gain momentum. What has been the impact of these Commissions? Why are courts and national legislatures increasingly endorsing reforms? What sorts of coordination exist between national reform movements within Latin America? And what opportunities are afforded by the declining influence of the U.S. in the region?