Academic work and politics, right now.

I just learned this morning from the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) that the Bush Administration's DHA is seizing laptops and copying electronic data from U.S. citizens returning from travel abroad. In addition to the grotesque invasion of privacy this represents, that should be illegal, this poses a real threat to business and academic research in which issues of confidentiality (especially with regards to vulnerable people or around human rights work) are very important. I won't even talk about threats to patent rights or copyright, intellectual intimidation, etc. I probably will not take my laptop on my next trip if this policy is not stopped.

As an academic who works in the area of Latin American studies, I am a member of LASA, the Latin American Studies Association, which represents scholars both in the U.S. and from all over Latin America and the Caribbean, in all disciplines. I am posting a letter that the past and present leadership of the organization has sent to the campaign of Barack Obama, because I believe it highlights the fact that public attention has been focused almost exclusively on foreign and domestic policy within very narrow limits, and large parts of the world have been ignored. We have an opportunity for major beneficial changes, if Obama's administration does NOT do what Clinton did, and continue the same (failed) policies toward Latin America as Republican presidents. I have contributed my signature to this letter, as I am sure will many others.

Dear Senator Obama:

We write to offer our congratulations on your campaign and to express
our hope that as the next president of the United States you will take
advantage of an historic opportunity to improve relations with Latin
America. As scholars of the region, we also wish to convey our
analysis regarding the process of change now underway in Latin America.

Just as the people of the United States have begun to debate basic
questions regarding the sort of society they want-- thanks in part to
your own candidacy but also owing to the magnitude of the current
financial crisis-- so too have the people of Latin America. In fact, a
recent round of intense debate about a just and fair society has been
going on in Latin America for more than a decade, and the majority are
opting, like you and so many of us in the United States, for hope and
change. As academics personally and professionally committed to
development and democracy in Latin America, we are hopeful that during
your presidency the United States can become a partner rather than an
adversary to the positive changes already under way in the hemisphere.

The current impetus for change in Latin America is a rejection of the
model of economic growth that has been imposed in most countries since
the early 1980s, a model that has concentrated wealth, relied
unsuccessfully on unrestricted market forces to solve deep social
problems and undermined human welfare. The current rejection of this
model is broad-based and democratic. In fact, contemporary movements
for change in Latin America reveal significantly increased
participation by workers and peasants, women, Afro-descendants and
indigenous peoples-- in a word, the grassroots. Such movements are
coming to power in country after country. They are neither puppets, nor
blinded by fanaticism and ideology, as caricatured by some mainstream
pundits. To the contrary, these movements deserve our respect,
friendship and support.

Latin Americans have often viewed the United States not as a friend but
as an oppressor, the guarantor of an international economic system that
works against them, rather than for them-- the very antithesis of hope
and change. The Bush Administration has made matters much worse, and
U.S. prestige in the region is now at a historic low. Washington's
tendency to fight against hope and change has been especially prominent
in recent U.S. responses to the democratically elected governments of
Venezuela and Bolivia. While anti-American feelings run deep, history
demonstrates that these feelings can change. In the 1930s, after two
decades of conflict with the region, the United States swore off
intervention and adopted a Good Neighbor Policy. Not coincidentally, it
was the most harmonious time in the history of U.S.-Latin American
relations. In the 1940s, every country in the region became our ally in
World War Two. It can happen again.

There are many other challenges, too. Colombia, the main focus of the
Bush Administration's policy, is currently the scene of the second
largest humanitarian crisis in the world, with four million internally
displaced people. Its government, which criminalizes even peaceful
protest, seeks an extension of the free trade policies that much of the
hemisphere is already reacting against. Cuba has begun a process of
transition that should be supported in positive ways, such as through
the dialogue you advocate. Mexicans and Central Americans migrate by
the tens of thousands to seek work in the United States, where their
labor power is much needed but their presence is denigrated by a public
that has, since the development of opinion polling in the 1930s, always
opposed immigration from anywhere. The way to manage immigration is not
by building a giant wall, but rather, the United States should support
more equitable economic development in Mexico and Central America and,
indeed, throughout the region. In addition, the U.S. must reconsider
drug control policies that have simply not worked and have been part of
the problem of political violence, especially in Mexico, Colombia and
Peru. And the U.S. must renew its active support for human rights
throughout the region. Unfortunately, in the eyes of many Latin
Americans, the United States has come to stand for the support of
inequitable regimes.

Finally, we implore you to commit your administration to the firm
support of constitutional rights, including academic and intellectual
freedom. Most of us are members of the Latin American Studies
Association (LASA), the largest professional association of experts on
the region, and we have experienced first-hand how the Bush
administration's attempt to restrict academic exchange with Cuba is
counter-productive and self-defeating. We hope for an early
opportunity to discuss this and other issues regarding Latin America
with your administration.

Our hope is that you will embrace the opportunity to inaugurate a new
period of hemispheric understanding and collaboration for the common
welfare. We ask for change and not only in the United States.

Sincerely,

SIGNED:

Eric Hershberg, LASA President 2007-09, Professor of Politics and
Director of Latin American Studies, Simon Fraser University

Sonia E. Alvarez, LASA Past President (2004-2006), Leonard J. Horwitz
Professor of Politics, University of Massachusetts-Amherst

Charles R. Hale, LASA Past President (2003-2004), Professor of
Anthropology, University of Texas at Austin

Marysa Navarro-Aranguren, LASA Past President (2003-2004), Charles
Collis Professor of History, Dartmouth College

Arturo Arias, LASA Past President, (2001-2003), Professor of Spanish
and Portuguese University of Texas, Austin.


Susan Eckstein, LASA Past President (1997-98), Professor of Sociology &
International Relations, Boston University, Cynthia McClintock, LASA
Past President (1994-95), Professor of Political Science and
International Affairs, George Washington University
Carmen Diana Deere, LASA Past President (1992-94), Professor of Food
and Resource Economics and Director, Center for Latin American Studies,
University of Florida

Lars Schoultz, LASA Past President (1991-92), William Rand Kenan, Jr.,
Professor of Political Science, UNC, Chapel Hill

Jean Franco, LASA Past President (1990-91), Emeritus Professor,
Columbia University

Helen I. Safa, LASA Past President (1983-85), Emeritus Professor of
Anthropology and Latin American Studies, University of Florida.

Paul L. Doughty, LASA Past President (1974-75), Distinguished Service
Professor, Emeritus of Anthropology and Latin American Studies,
University of Florida

Cristina Rojas, School of International Affairs, Carleton University, Ottawa

Marisol de la Cadena, Associate Professor of Anthropology, UC Davis

John C. Chasteen, Distinguished Professor of History, UNC Chapel Hill

Mario Blaser, Assistant Professor of International Development, York
University, Toronto.

Arturo Escobar, Kenan Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, UNC,
Chapel Hill.