Overview
The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation’s Latin America Studies and Programs Center promotes individual freedom, respect for human rights, and democracy throughout Latin America, but especially Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua. Our researchers document human rights abuses, support in-region civil society and pro-democracy groups, and educate the American public and U.S. policy makers about the realities on the ground.
Programs
The Castro regime has developed sophisticated human trafficking and forced labor schemes to exploit the Cuban people, with emphasis on health personnel. The Cuban regime, in collusion with international communist allies, sends Communist Medical Brigades overseas to sell health care services for propaganda purposes. Communist commissaries and secret police agents oversee the Communist Medical Brigades’ workers and regularly confiscate between 75% and 90% of their wages. VOC’s Latin America Programs advocate for the rights of these workers, conducting research on Trafficking in Medical Personnel (TIMP) and providing legal assistance to these victims of communism.
Publications
A new report from the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation and The Coalition for Human Rights and Democracy, entitled Torture: Venezuela’s State Policy, discusses the systematic use of torture by the Venezuelan government as a tool to instill fear and suppress dissent. The report highlights: Read…
A new report from the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation and The Coalition for Human Rights and Democracy, entitled Torture: Venezuela’s State Policy, discusses the systematic use of torture by the Venezuelan government as a tool to instill fear and…
VOC Senior Fellow David Smolansky was quoted by the Washington Post Editorial Board on Maduro’s crimes in Venezuela. As the Editorial Board writes, “Nearly a year ago, the Biden administration saw an opening for democracy in Venezuela, easing some sanctions…
VOC and the Foundation for Economic Education hosted a cohort of students from across the United States for a tour of the Victims of Communism Museum and a fireside chat on the ongoing Venezuelan struggle for freedom. After visiting VOC’s new temporary gallery…
Venezuela has reached the limits of civility, politics, and diplomacy. An election that the United Nations and the Carter Center said lacked both transparency and integrity was held on July 28. Opposition candidate Edmundo González beat the socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro in a landslide. Almost…
On July 28, 2024, the Venezuelan people went to the polls. All accounts point to a resounding defeat of socialist authoritarian Nicolás Maduro by opposition candidate Edmundo González. Unwilling to relinquish power, Maudro falsely claimed victory and began cracking down…
Democracy won the election and the socialist dictatorship lost, but Venezuelans have to make the results stick, writes VOC’s David Smolansky.
According to a recent report by Transparencia Electoral, of the supposedly 800 electoral observers or international missions that participated in the recent Venezuelan electoral process, only the identities of 100 people could be confirmed, and even less than that delivered on…
Speaking with WLRN Public Media, VOC Senior Fellow David Smolansky breaks down the current state of Maduro’s grip on Power in Venezuela and what comes next. “Venezuela is of course a mafia state,” says David Smolansky, who was the opposition…
