100+ Organizations Urge Biden to Adopt Good Neighbor Policy

Members of the progressive activist group Code Pink protest outside of the Quicken Loans Arena before the start of the 2016 Republican National Convention. Cleveland, Ohio, USA. July 21, 2016. | Photo: EFE/Jim Lo Scalzo

Published 8 September 2020 TELESUR

Spearheaded by the peace group CODEPINK, the letter includes endorsements from over 100 hundred organizations that work on issues related to U.S. foreign policy in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Among the organizations calling for the next presidential administration to adopt a new "Good Neighbor Policy" and reject Trump's "Monroe Doctrine 2.0" are Alianza Americas, Center for International Policy, Global Exchange, Latin America Working Group, Oxfam America, Witness for Peace Solidarity Collective, and dozens more.

With regards to setting a new policy agenda, the letter warns that "the U.S. president will face a hemisphere that will not only still be reeling from the coronavirus but will also be experiencing a deep economic recession, and that the best to help is not by seeking to impose its will, but rather by adopting a broad set of reforms to reframe relations with our neighbors to the south."


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The first of the reforms spelled out in the letter is the lifting of economic sanctions against Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua, which are causing widespread economic suffering, especially during the pandemic.

The next of the measures for the next U.S. president to adopt is to halt the hundreds of millions of dollars of police and military equipment and training that the U.S. provides to Latin American and the Caribbean annually, as well as the removal of U.S. military and police personnel from the region.

Repeat after me: Latin America is NOT America's to exploit.

That's why CODEPINK & over 100 other orgs are calling on the next administration to end US imperialism & adopt a new Good Neighbor Policy towards Latin America. @medeabenjamin @LeonardoEFAhttps://t.co/87VJdJcMj3— CODEPINK (@codepink) September 8, 2020

The letter also urges the next administration to stop flagrantly interfering in neighbors' elections, such as in Venezuela, denouncing such blatant and contradictory interference while calling for respect of other nations' sovereignty. Similarly, the letter condemns the United States' outsized role in multilateral financial institutions like the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank, among others, demanding the U.S. cease implementation of neoliberal austerity models and instead support funding public health during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lastly, the letter calls for a de-instrumentalization of human rights for political gain and protection for land and human rights defenders at home and abroad, while also proposing a swift transformation of the U.S. immigration system, including a moratorium on all deportations, the re-establishment of the asylum process at the U.S.-Mexico border, and an end to private immigration detention, among other calls.