October 28, 2008 |

Mission

Caracas Connect focuses on Venezuela and U.S. foreign policy toward its government and people, and is an important tool of the Center for Democracy in the America’s program on Venezuela.

CDA follows events in Venezuela carefully and directly. We led a delegation to Venezuela during the vote on the proposed constitutional reforms in December 2007. Our delegations – consisting of U.S. policymakers and others – are organized to learn what is actually happening in Venezuela, good and bad, and inform the debate here on what our policy needs to be, not just with Caracas but also with the entire hemisphere.

There is much to learn. U.S. policymakers need to better understand Venezuela’s intentions, its approach to domestic policy, how it intends to ameliorate poverty and income disparity, its use of oil as an instrument of diplomacy, and its influence on international trade and foreign policy throughout the region.

Caracas Connect tries to help inform this debate with research and real dialogue that goes far beyond the rhetoric we often hear from both governments.

Our goal is to publish comments by experts and authorities who represent all viewpoints, and we encourage candid, informed, and dignified comments by our readers and those who want to participate in this debate moving forward.

Caracas Connect is a project of the Center for Democracy in the Americas.

October 27, 2008 |

Mission

Cubacentral.com is run by the Freedom to Travel Campaign of the Center
for Democracy in the Americas. Our mission is to change U.S. policy
from a strategy of confrontation to one of normalized relations and
common sense between the United States and Cuba.

For more that four decades, the United States has tried to isolate
Cuba, economically and diplomatically. While punitive U.S. sanctions
hurt Americans and Cubans, this foreign policy has left the United
States with precious little influence in Cuba as the Cuban people look
to their own future. Like us, our supporters in Congress favor a policy
of engagement-freedom to travel, the ability to sell food, the right to
exchange ideas, and the duty to support one’s family-and that is the
agenda that we are fighting for in Congress. The majority of the
American people are with us, and we are working with Republicans and
Democrats in the Congress to reverse what President Bush has done and
continues to do.