This
is the third printed edition of Just the Facts: A civilian’s
guide to U.S. defense and security assistance to Latin America
and the Caribbean, a project of the Latin America Working
Group. The project seeks to help citizens understand and interpret
the United States’ military relationship with the rest of the
hemisphere. Our goal is to provide a resource for those who oversee,
analyze, critique and advocate changes in this relationship.
This
edition is shorter than previous years’ studies, as we chose not
to repeat identical information provided in the two earlier editions.
We have only included “what’s new,” removing lengthy descriptions
of aid programs and narratives for countries that saw little change
in U.S. aid since 1999. We encourage readers who need background
information to consult past book-length editions or to visit the
Just the Facts website at www.ciponline.org/facts.
This
report starts with two sections discussing highlights and changes
to the U.S.-Latin American military relationship; the first part
covers major policy shifts and the second offers our recommendations,
most of which concern the extent and possible implications of
U.S. military training. The study continues with a presentation
of major changes in the law for 2001, and a chronological list
of government reports useful for effective oversight of security
assistance programs. This is followed by discussions of countries
and regions that experienced significant changes this year: the
Andes, Central America and Mexico. The report’s two appendices
provide tables summarizing U.S. security assistance to each country
in the region and funding from each program.
This
report owes a great deal to the contributions of several excellent
staff members at the Latin America Working Group and the Center
for International Policy. Carmen Reed and Lisa Haugaard on the
LAWG staff, and Ingrid Vaicius at CIP, played crucial roles in
all stages of this project, particularly research, maintenance
of the web page, and editing. As always, the Just the Facts
project relied heavily on the efforts of talented interns like
Tony Holtzman, María Angélica Cotrino, Nancy Manson, Monika Parikh
and Abbey Steele. The LAWG wishes to thank the Ford Foundation
and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, whose generous
support has made this project possible.
While
the Latin America Working Group is a coalition of sixty national
religious, human rights, development and policy organizations,
the views in this book represent the opinions of the authors alone.
While many people and organizations helped make this publication
possible, any errors herein are the authors’ sole responsibility.
