About CLAC

CLAC's roots are in the grass roots organizing of Syracuse Covenant Sanctuary (SCS). SCS was established in the early 1980s to welcome and provide sanctuary to refugees from El Salvador and Guatemala. SCS sought to mobilize the Central New York community to demand a new U.S. foreign policy in Latin America---one that would recognize the legitimate rights of Latin American peoples to end the reign of repressive governments and to freely engage in political activism.

Syracuse Covenant Sanctuary formally existed until 1992, after which the Caribbean / Latin America Coalition was established to explicitly expand our focus beyond Central America. An early major focus was opposition to NAFTA. After a few years in the late 1990s in which Latin America solidarity activism in Central New York was carried on by several groups with singular focuses, the Caribbean / Latin America Coalition re-formed in 2003.

The Bush administration has repeated past policies of support for repressive governments that are nominal democracies, in order to achieve questionable objectives. This administration has continued long standing efforts, by both Democratic and Republican governments, to fight an endless drug war in Colombia and elsewhere in South America. The drug traffic moves easily over borders, one step ahead of environmentally hazardous pesticide spraying and of the militarization of poor, terrorized peasant communities. The drug war inflicts an incredible human cost both from the repression of civil society.

Central New York is rich in a history of activism. Starting in 1981 the Sanctuary Movement for Salvadoran refugees had a presence in Syracuse for a decade. Now Syracuse has a Sister Community Project with La Estancia in Morazán, El Salvador. The Central New York chapter of the Colombia Support Network has raised local awareness for the past three years. Other groups have focused on Haiti, Cuba, and Nicaragua. Most visibly and vibrantly, the School of the Americas Abolitionists have organized here since 1995. Central New York has contributed numerous prisoners of conscience to this nationwide movement. In 2007 CLAC began establishing a partnership with Syracuse-based groups addressing oppressive and racist immigration policies and Bush Administration practices.

The Caribbean / Latin America Coalition organizes throughout our community concerning the issues noted above and others as they develop.
We pull together people from diverse groups to build on the special connections Central New Yorkers have created with extraordinary people throughout Latin America. We provide information to help fellow Central New Yorkers better understand and advocate for our nearest international neighbors. And we ask for public voices to join, as often as necessary, in changing misguided and destructive public policy.