Elections in Colombia and The Progressive Wave in Latin America

Why are election observers being denied entry to Colombia? And what's the broader geopolitical context to what we're seeing there?

A lot has been happening in Latin America.

In our webinars and conversations, we have focused on two events this week.

One, these are elections in Colombia. Colombia has seen an increase in violence since the recent peace agreement - including police violence and killings of protestors in the past years. Now, it has a chance to really change the direction of its politics and human rights record.

Hear more about it and what obstacles it’s facing in our webinar with CODEPINK’S Teri Mattson and Leonardo Flores as well Nestor Cristancho, another election observer. Teri is also one of a number of election observers who weren’t let into the country. In our webinar, she briefly tells her customs story.

The second event we talk about is the Summit of the Americas and an alternative to it that CODEPINK is co-organizing, The People’s Summit.

Why do we talk about the Summit of the Americas?

That’s because the Chair of this summit, the United States, refuses to allow Cuba, Venezuela or Nicaragua to participate in the June meeting in Los Angeles. In response, Mexico says it won't participate either. Sounds like the summit - a huddle of arms buyers & free market cheerleaders - could be a bust.

Hence our People's Summit, a grassroots alternative, slated for June 8-10th, also in LA.

The People's Summit will include discussions of the changing landscape in Latin America, where progressives in Chile and Honduras are winning elections to challenge neoliberalism, militarism and privatization.

In our webinar, we talk to Manolo de los Santos and Francesa Emanuele.

Manolo de los Santos is the Co-Executive Director of The People's Forum and a key organizer of The People's Summit, a progressive gathering June 8-10 in Los Angeles to counter to the official Summit of the Americas. Manolo is a popular educator and organizer from the Caribbean who is engaging a new generation of internationalists.

Francesca Emanuele is a researcher with the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a progressive think tank founded by economists Dean Baker and Mark Weisbrot. Francesca is also a Peruvian journalist, Colombia election observer, and a Ph.D. student of Anthropology at American University in Washington, DC.