The Wash­ing­ton Office on Latin Amer­i­ca (WOLA) is a left-of-center advocacy group founded in 1974 that advocates for left-of-center foreign policy in Latin America. ¹ WOLA has advocated for lenient diplomatic policies towards Cuba, opposed all American efforts to end the proliferation of illegal drugs abroad, and supported expansionist left-of-center immigration policy. While WOLA claims to represent human rights abroad, critics have alleged that WOLA has a bias towards socialist regimes and excuses human rights abuses perpetrated by them. ²

WOLA has faced criticism from groups across the political spectrum. Left-leaning organizations and activists have criticized WOLA for supporting Trump administration policies to sanction Venezuela in order to oppose the nation’s authoritarian regime. Other critics have claimed that WOLA “provides liberal cover for regime change” and that its intimate coordination with the American government makes it a think tank on foreign policy, rather than a human rights organization. ³ WOLA has also been accused of supporting American “imperial” interests by supporting the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). ⁴

Critics on the political right have noted that WOLA has supported communist regimes in countries including Cuba, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Angola while opposing foreign aid to American allies controlled by right-of-center governments, including El Salvador, the Philippines, Thailand, and Chile. ⁵ Another researcher highlighted WOLA support for the Sandinistas during a Nicaraguan civil war in opposition to American interests. ⁶

WOLA has advocated for shutting down the Guantanamo Bay detention center,⁷ eliminating right-of-center immigration policies enacted by the Trump administration, ending construction on the border wall, and increasing immigration capacity in the United States courts system. WOLA has also sought to terminate the Remain in Mexico program that keeps asylum seekers outside the United States while they await asylum hearings, instead seeking to allow all asylum seekers into the United States as they await rulings. ⁸

WOLA has received funding from a number of left-of-center organizations, including the Open Society Foundations, the Ford Foundation and the MacArthur Foundation. ⁹

History

A coalition of left-of-center American activists formed Wash­ing­ton Office on Latin Amer­i­ca in the wake of the fall of the Marxist government of Salvador Allende in Chile following a military coup in 1973. The coalition included both lay people and clergymen following Liberation Theology, a left-wing approach to Christian religion that adopts Marxist principles. WOLA initially build support among the Christian political left, building relationships with the National Council of Churches and the Maryknolls to build political influence. WOLA eventually used these connections to gain an introduction to former United States Speaker of the House of Representatives Tip O’Neill (D-MA). ¹⁰

WOLA first organized against then-President Gerald Ford’s support for the Pinochet regime in Chile after the ouster of Allende. ¹¹ Since the 1970s, WOLA has worked to promote left-of-center policy towards Latin America to policymakers in the United States. ¹²

Policy Positions

Wash­ing­ton Office on Latin Amer­i­ca has adopted a broad left-of-center agenda regarding American foreign policy towards Latin America, specifically focusing on American relations with Cuba and Venezuela. WOLA has also taken left-of-center stances on immigration, arguing for an end to all deportations and the implementation of expansionist immigration policies.

Cuba

WOLA actively promotes left-of-center policy towards Cuba, advocating for conciliation policies. WOLA received grants totaling nearly $247,000 from the left-of-center Atlantic Philanthropies for the purpose of changing American policy towards Cuba. ¹³ The Arca Foundation has also invested millions to normalize Cuban relations with the United States and has funded WOLA to that end. ¹⁴ The Atlantic Advocacy Fund donated $115,000 to WOLA to fund WOLA efforts to improve American relations with Cuba and to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay. ¹⁵

WOLA has recommended a number of left-of-center conciliatory policies towards Cuba, including ending the Cuban embargo, ending restrictions on travel between Cuba and the United States, and encouraging the United States to provide funding for Cuba to invest in alternative energy production and environmentalist planning projects. WOLA has previously expressed its support for the Obama administration’s policy of opening diplomatic relations with Cuba, claiming that it accomplished more in two years than the “policy of hostility” did in sixty years. ¹⁶ Marguerite Jimenez, a WOLA employee and former Obama administration staffer, has further recommended the creation of a fully staffed Cuban embassy in Havana. ¹⁷

WOLA has condemned any efforts to distance the United States from Cuba due to its human rights record, calling the Trump administration’s decision to limit diplomatic relations “hawkish.” ¹⁸ WOLA executive director Geoff Thale also supported the Obama administration’s decision to end the sixty-year policy of allowing Cuban refugees fleeing communism to quickly enter the United States. ¹⁹

WOLA has been accused of having a favorable bias towards Cuba, frequently advocating for positions to benefit the country while remaining silent on its record of human rights abuses. A review of WOLA conducted by the right-of-center Heritage Foundation found that WOLA’s military conflict analysis, which details military activity in Latin American, contained no references to Cuban interference in Latin America. ²⁰ Another group claimed that WOLA had admitted to under-reporting on Cuban issues for decades. WOLA responded to the claim by blaming the United States for allegedly provoking human rights violations in Cuba. ²¹

Venezuela

Despite generally supporting left-of-center foreign policy initiatives, WOLA has faced backlash from left-of-center political groups regarding its policy recommendations on Venezuela. WOLA has opposed the authoritarian, socialist Maduro government, and critics have claimed that WOLA has done so on the guidance of its largest funder, the Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which also opposes Maduro. WOLA also supported the Trump administration’s efforts to sanction Venezuela. ²²

WOLA’s positions on Venezuela triggered two open letters from a collection of 124 left-wing to radical-left academics and activists, including Noam Chomsky. The letter criticized WOLA’s endorsement of the Trump administration’s policies and called its opposition to mediation offers by Pope Francis, Uruguay, the United Nations, and Mexico “dangerous.” Chomsky and the other signers called for WOLA to resist the movement for sanctions against Venezuela and to avoid placing external pressure on the Maduro government. ²³

The Council of Hemispheric Affairs (COHA), another left-wing Latin American policy organization, also attacked WOLA’s policy on Venezuela, arguing that its policy recommendations caused a crisis of five million refugees. COHA further labeled WOLA as a “liberal cover for regime change” in Latin America and claimed it relied on right-wing Venezuelan sources as the basis for its recommendations. ²⁴

Opposition to the War on Drugs

WOLA has opposed all American efforts abroad to prevent the proliferation of illegal drugs in the United States, claiming that American intervention is ineffective and damaging to countries supplying drugs. WOLA has gone so far as to blame cartel violence on American anti-drug efforts. In 2011, cartel gunmen attacked the town of Allende, Mexico and killed hundreds of people in an attempt to kill an unknown American Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) informant. WOLA joined National Geographic, ProPublica, and Audible to host an event with the families of victims, at which WOLA staffer Maureen Meyer blamed the massacre on the DEA mission and the American war on drugs. ²⁵

As a policy, WOLA has opposed all measures abroad to counteract the supply of drugs to the United States, even those taken on with the consent and cooperation of the other nations involved. WOLA expressed concern that the Obama administration’s access to Colombian military bases to counter drug production created tension in neighboring countries, while also calling for the administration to reallocate resources from drug interdiction to education programs in Latin America. ²⁶

WOLA has also opposed right-of-center drug policy in the United States, publishing a report illustrating increasing incarceration American rates and blaming incarceration on the war against drugs. The WOLA report criticized all efforts to end drug abuse by reducing drug supply, calling supply-control tactics naïve and instead urging the United States to invest in addiction treatment programs.  WOLA staff have also recommended a complete end to the war on drugs, describing efforts to end illegal drug trafficking as a “human rights catastrophe.” WOLA has advised President Joe Biden to reduce all supply-side efforts to limit the flow of drugs into the United States and instead allocate resources towards drug treatment programs. ²⁷

WOLA has recommended a number of lenient, left-of-center drug policies, including the end of drug certification programs and the expansion of foreign aid programs to combat drug-related corruption in Latin America. WOLA has also encouraged the United States to refuse to interfere when countries legalize or decriminalize the possession and cultivation of illegal drugs. ²⁸ WOLA staffer Coletta Youngers has also pushed for the United States to end its destruction of plants used to make cocaine abroad, claiming that the practice damages the environment and does not decrease the supply of cocaine. ²⁹

Immigration Policy

Aside from attempting to influence American foreign policy, WOLA has been active in promoting left-of-center expansionist immigration policy within the United States. WOLA has advocated for decreased border restrictions, including allowing all those claiming to seek asylum to enter and live in the United States while they wait for their asylum status to be granted or rejected. ³⁰ WOLA staffer Maureen Meyer has also claimed that the United States detains and interrogates immigrant children who illegally cross for the purpose of investigating criminal activity, purportedly using them as informants before deporting them. ³¹

In 2020, WOLA used the COVID-19 pandemic to push for left-of-center immigration policy, arguing that the United States should stop all deportations during the pandemic. WOLA claimed that returning immigrants to their countries of origin would be irresponsible. ³²

WOLA has fiercely opposed all efforts to increase border security, especially efforts to build a secure wall along the Mexican border. WOLA official Adam Isaacson described the 400 miles of border wall as a “monument to failure, xenophobia, human rights abuse, and environmental damage” and demanded that “it must get taken down expeditiously.” ³³

WOLA extensively criticized the Trump administration for its policies on Latin America, alleging that former President Donald Trump’s immigration and other policy decisions supported corrupt Central American leaders and spurred populist authoritarian regimes throughout Latin America. WOLA further claimed that the Trump administration’s immigration policies caused a humanitarian crisis, organizing the Beyond the Wall campaign to protest right-of-center border security as a form of “draconian, anti-immigrant policies.” ³⁴

Outside of criticizing the Trump administration, WOLA has also spoken out against the previous Obama administration, calling for even more expansionist immigration policies than those implemented under President Obama. WOLA has called immigrant processing centers that included chain link fences built by the Obama administration “horrific” and has made reference to former President Obama as “deporter-in-chief,” in reference to the deportation of illegal immigrants carried out during his administration. ³⁵

WOLA published a podcast urging the Biden administration to implement expansive left-of-center immigration policies, including only deporting illegal immigrants involved in violent crimes, expediting the asylum process, and allowing higher levels of immigration to the United States. ³⁶

Outside of the podcast, WOLA published a report entitled “Undoing Trump’s Disastrous Migration Policies: How the Biden White House can Reverse the Trump Administration’s Cruel and Ineffective Migration Policies.” In the report, WOLA recommends that the Biden administration hire more immigration judges to process one million pending immigration cases and reinstate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, while expanding DACA eligibility to 400,000 additional illegal immigrants. The report also calls on the administration to immediately stop all deportations of illegal immigrants, end construction on the border wall, and extend the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program past 2021 to allow over 300,000 migrants to remain in the country. ³⁷

Alleged Support of Violent Regime Change

Several groups have accused WOLA of supporting violent overthrows of right-of-center governments in Latin America. WOLA staffer Coletta Youngers described the reaction to Fidel Castro’s takeover of Cuba as one of widespread hope for fundamental change. She also was said to welcome the Sandinista takeover of Nicaragua from the right-of-center “Somoza dynasty.” WOLA also established a relationship with the Frente Democratico Revolucionario, a revolutionary organization backed by the Soviet Union, during the civil war in El Salvador. ³⁸

Alleged Hypocrisy

Several groups have accused WOLA of employing a double standard in its policy positions and recommendations, adopting lenient approaches to democratic abuses by socialist or otherwise left-of-center regimes. The Heritage Foundation pointed out in a report that WOLA has issued harsh criticisms of right-leaning authoritarian governments, while remaining lenient towards similarly authoritarian socialist administrations. While WOLA excoriated Nicaragua for its human rights abuses while under right-wing rule, it has not taken similar positions on Cuba, a socialist country which has engaged in similar abuses. ³⁹ The Heritage Foundation also issued a report analyzing the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries, an organization that has funded WOLA and its employees. The report found links between the WOLA donor and support for left-wing movements around the world, including the communist People’s Republic of Vietnam, rebel organizations in El Salvador, Nicaraguan revolutionaries, and radical United States-based movements. ⁴⁰

One Capital Research Center report found that WOLA sided with the Sandinistas during a Nicaraguan civil war against the interests supported by the Reagan administration. Moreover, WOLA heaped criticism on Chilean rightist dictator Auguste Pinochet for his authoritarian policies, while simultaneously giving authoritarian communist Fidel Castro a pass. The report further detailed how WOLA blamed United States policies for provoking Cuban human rights violations, rather than placing blame on the communist government of Cuba. WOLA staffer Coletta Youngers admitted that her organization always opposed American efforts to weaken the Castro regime, in part due to the regime’s implementation of left-wing policies on healthcare, wealth redistribution, and education. ⁴¹

Funding

WOLA has been heavily funded by the Open Society Foundations, a private foundation created and funded by liberal philanthropist and Democratic megadonor George Soros. The Open Society Foundations has funded WOLA since at least 1999. ⁴²  In 2015, Claudia Paz y Paz authored a book about Guatemala funded by the Open Society Foundations. Paz y Paz, the former attorney general of Guatemala and a United Nations representative, joined WOLA in 2016 and now sits on the board. WOLA also received $1 million in funding directly from the Open Society Foundations in 2016. ⁴³

WOLA also maintains a “revolving door” of connections with the Open Society Foundations. Robert Varenik sat on the board of WOLA while employed as the director of Open Society Foundations Justice Initiative. George Wickers worked as executive director for WOLA before leaving to accept a position at the Open Society Foundations. ⁴⁴ Lauren Kimball, the current vice president for development at WOLA, previously worked for the Open Society Foundations for almost eleven years. ⁴⁵

In addition to receiving funding from the Open Society Foundations, WOLA has accepted grants from some of the largest left-of-center foundations in the United States, including the Ford Foundation and the MacArthur Foundation. WOLA has also received foreign support from the Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, and the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs. ⁴⁶

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