Council on Hemispheric Affairs


The Council on Hemispheric Affairs is a Washington, D.C.-based non-governmental organization founded in 1975.

History

According to the group's website, the Council on Hemispheric Affairs was founded in 1975 to promote the interest of the American hemisphere, to take regional issues into focus and to reinforce the importance of inter-American relations. One focus is the development of a constructive US policy with regards to the Latin American countries. COHA decided in 1982 that in the future it will observe Canada's relations with Latin America. Since its inception, the leadership of the COHA is made up of representatives of major trade unions, organizations, and religious groups, and also includes important civic and academic figures. COHA supports representative democracy and pluralistic institutions. COHA is non-partisan and is not part of political alliances. It supports open and democratic political processes and condemns all authoritarian regimes. In the past, the COHA has expressed criticism of US policy towards Haiti, Cuba, Venezuela and neo-liberal social reforms in Latin America.

Director

was the director of COHA from its founding in 1975 until his death in 2018. Birns was a former defense researcher, strategist, and member of the Institute for Strategic Studies in London, and a member of Oxford's All Souls College. Birns was also a senior grade public affairs officer for the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America in Santiago, Chile during the Allende government. Birns taught and lectured for 15 years in the fields of Latin American studies, comparative government, and international law at a number of U.S. and British colleges and universities.

Reception

The Boston Globe describes Birns as a lobbyist and a Leftist liberal critic of U.S. policy, and The New York Times says the Council on Hemispheric Affairs is a liberal research group specializing in United States-Latin America relations. The Los Angeles Times describes the COHA as a liberal think tank.
The Heritage Foundation stated that the Council on Hemispheric Affairs had a leftist positioning, would exaggerate negative publicity about right-wing governments in Latin America, and was funded by Orlando Letelier. The council was also described as a leftist lobby by Ofira Seliktar in Failing the Crystal Ball Test.

Funding

The conservative Heritage Foundation has alleged the Council on Hemispheric Affairs was founded with assistance from Orlando Letelier and Richard Barnet of the progressive think tank, Institute for Policy Studies. It has been funded by the Judith Loeb Chiara Foundation.