The United States is frequently criticized for its mixed record of human rights in Latin America. During the Cold War, we actively supported non-democratic leaders in the region (in some cases, tyrants who murdered thousands of their own citizens) as long as they supported Washington’s policies of communist containment. Additionally, although most countries in the region have ratified international human rights treaties, we've refused to join international or regional human rights treaties, including the American Declaration of Human Rights.
Read MoreU.S. Marines in Nicaragua, 1932