Latin America and the Caribbean

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

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.

The COVID-19 pandemic has hit countries across Latin America—but with particular severity in Brazil, where President Jair Bolsonaro has opposed the kind of public restrictions that have been shown to slow the spread of the virus.

Our regional foundation has responded with emergency funding for a range of responses across the region; in Brazil, we are supporting community groups in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro that are spreading awareness about preventive measures and delivering relief supplies; in Colombia, we are backing an initiative to protect people of African descent and others on the country’s Pacific coast; in Mexico, we are helping fund a drive to make public data about the pandemic—and the medical capacities of individual states—fully open to the public.

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.