Guatemalan president: Central America needs at least $2 billion 'to attack the root of the problem'
Latin American Program Associate Director Eric L. Olson is quoted in this article about Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina's request for more U.S. assistance during his visit to the United States.
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Since signing an agreement with Central American countries and the Dominican Republican in 2008, the U.S. has spent roughly $800 million on security and law enforcement assistance in the region, with roughly two-thirds of the money sent to Central America's "Northern Triangle" countries of Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. Lawmakers and regional experts this week said that any new requests for additional security aid is likely to be greeted with skepticism in Washington.
“I think that there isn’t much appetite for a blank check,” said Eric Olson, director for the Latin American Program at the Woodrow Wilson Center. “There’s deep concern about the violence in Central America, but people are asking hard questions about what is our money going to be used for and what real impact is this going to have?”
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Latin America Program
The Wilson Center’s prestigious Latin America Program provides non-partisan expertise to a broad community of decision makers in the United States and Latin America on critical policy issues facing the Hemisphere. The Program provides insightful and actionable research for policymakers, private sector leaders, journalists, and public intellectuals in the United States and Latin America. To bridge the gap between scholarship and policy action, it fosters new inquiry, sponsors high-level public and private meetings among multiple stakeholders, and explores policy options to improve outcomes for citizens throughout the Americas. Drawing on the Wilson Center’s strength as the nation’s key non-partisan policy forum, the Program serves as a trusted source of analysis and a vital point of contact between the worlds of scholarship and action. Read more
