The Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) is a US human rights organization that promotes democracy and socioeconomic justice in Latin America and the Caribbean through analysis and foreign policy proposals informed by strong partnerships with civil society counterparts in the region.      

WOLA’s areas of focus are:
 

•    Citizen security issues (promoting reforms that make Latin American police more effective and more respectful of human rights and due process; addressing youth violence as a social problem, and opposing “zero tolerance” approaches; urging governments to combat the ways in which organized crime corrupts states and threatens the consolidation of democracy);

•    Rights and development, encouraging trade agreements to support the protection of labor rights and benefit the poor.  And, promoting rural development strategies that invest in small agricultural producers reduce poverty and increase food security;

•    Intermestic Issues, or Demonstrating how issues of concern to US citizens, like migration and trade, are linked to problems of poverty and inequality that encourages citizens to leave Latin America;

•    The role of the US military in Latin America, and the separation of military and police functions;

•    US drug policy in the region, and the ways it undermines democracy and contributes to human rights violations while doing little to reduce drug use in the US; and,

•    A series of country specific issues having to do with human rights and democracy in Mexico, Guatemala, Venezuela, Cuba, and Colombia, among others.