Offices and Foundations
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
The Bogotá, Mexico City, and Rio de Janeiro offices work closely together on efforts to defend democracy, increase governmental transparency, protect minority rights, reduce homicides, and reform drug policy in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Bogota, Colombia
The Bogotá, Mexico City, and Rio de Janeiro offices work closely together on efforts to defend democracy, increase governmental transparency, protect minority rights, reduce homicides, and reform drug policy in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Mexico City, Mexico
The Bogotá, Mexico City, and Rio de Janeiro offices work closely together on efforts to defend democracy, increase governmental transparency, protect minority rights, reduce homicides, and reform drug policy in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Port-au-Prince, Haiti
Foundation offices
Geographic program offices
By the Numbers
Regional Budget by Year
In 1995, the Open Society Foundations launched the Fondasyon Konesans ak Libéte (FOKAL) after the restoration of Haiti’s first democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, following three years of military rule. Our first office in the region opened in Brazil in 2013, overseeing a growing portfolio of grant making on issues including drug policy, violence reduction, and equality issues. A second office opened in Mexico City in 2018.
Highlights of Our Work in Latin America and the Caribbean
Helping Haiti Recover from a Devastating Earthquake
Supporting Justice for One of Central America’s Most Murderous Generals
Spearheaded by our Latin America Program, our work in Latin America and the Caribbean is wide-ranging and includes issues such as government transparency, media freedom, reducing violence, and increasing women’s political participation.
In Colombia, our Global Drug Policy Program funds efforts to develop beneficial commercial uses for coca leaf that can benefit small-scale growers, as an alternative to crop eradication campaigns. In Bolivia, we advocate for a coca control model that allows farmers to legally grow a limited and regulated quantity of coca leaves, a mainstay of Andean life for 4,000 years. The model has reduced coca cultivation, decreased violence, and helped stabilize rural economies.
Latin America’s cities have some of the world’s highest rates of violent crime, much of it linked to gang violence. Our Latin America Program has supported groups that seek to improve public safety through a community-based approach that goes beyond a reliance on punitive policing, involving local youth groups and businesses.
The work of the Open Society’s Women’s Rights Program includes funding groups that support women’s reproductive rights in a region where many governments have restrictive and conservative policies on this issue. We also seek to strengthen the role of women and women’s issues in political life and in the media.
In Latin America, the Open Society Foundations support efforts to protect journalists from threats and violence that they can face while doing their job. We also seek to sustain independent investigative reporting on issues that may be overlooked by the mainstream media for political or business reasons.
Read more
Keep Families Together
We Must Not Forget the Children of the Incarcerated
As a new report shows, draconian anti-drug policies in Latin America don’t just harm people who use or sell substances; they harm the children and families of the incarcerated, too. Thankfully, there’s a better way.
Voices
Drug Law Reform Comes to Mexico
Thanks to some crucial recent rulings from the Mexico Supreme Court, as well as the hard work of reformers and civil society groups throughout the country, Mexico is finally rethinking how it regulates cannabis.
Voices
Marielle Franco Has Not Been Silenced
The outspoken, beloved Brazilian politician may have been violently taken from our world. But her legacy—her tireless dedication to empowering the marginalized and dispossessed—will endure.