Highlights
& Quotes
Mark Falcoff, a Latin American expert at the American Enterprise Institute, was an active supporter in the 1980s of the Nicaraguan Contras and supported the work of PRODEMCA, a purported pro-democracy outfit that channeled U.S. aid to anti-Sandinista political forces. Falcoff is the author of AEI's Latin American Outlook, which is published monthly.
According to Group Watch, "PRODEMCA, or Friends of the Democratic Center in Central America . . . was a passthrough organization for [National Endowment for Democracy] grants to the anti-Sandinista political opposition in Nicaragua. It also placed full-page ads in the Washington Post, New York Times, and Washington Times calling for congressional funding of $100 million in lethal and nonlethal aid for the Nicaraguan contras. PRODEMCA received funding for its media work from Carl Channell's National Endowment for the Preservation of Liberty. Channell's various enterprises acted as conduits for financial aid to the contras in the network coordinated by Natl Security Council aide Oliver North." (5)
As
part of the U.S. Delegation to the 2003 U.N. Human Rights Commission
Conference in Geneva, Falcoff referred to “the right to food,
the right to clean air, the right to proper disposal of toxic wastes”
as “confected, rights that can exist only on paper.”
He advocated “eliminating so-called NGO participation, which
adds absolutely nothing to the deliberations.” He also argued
that the U.S. delegation should abandon the commission, saying:
“The worst thing you can do -- from a career diplomat’s
point of view -- is to walk away from a commission. But that, I
submit, is precisely what we should be doing.” (4)
Falcoff's
books include Panama's Canal: What Happens When the United States
Gives a Small Country What It Wants, 1998: A Culture of Its Own:
Taking Latin America Seriously, 1998; The Cuban Revolution and the
United States, 2001; and Cuba the Morning After , 2003. (1)
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Institutional
Affiliations
American
Enterprise Institute: Scholar (1)
Hoover
Institution: National Fellow, 1979-1980 (1), (3)
Council
on Foreign Relations: Visiting Fellow, 1987-1988 (1)
Freedom
House: Member of Working group on Central American Democracy
(5)
Universities
of Illinois, Oregon, and California at Los Angeles: Faculty
Member, 1969-1981 (1)
Columbia
International Affairs Online: Contributor (2)
PRODEMCA:
Supported organizations’ pro-Contra efforts (5)
Government
Posts/Panels/Commissions
Member
of the United States Delegation to the U.N. Human Rights Commission:
2003 (1)
Professional
Staff Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee:
1986-1988 (1)
Senior
Consultant to the National Bipartisan Commission on Central
America: chaired by Henry Kissinger, 1983 (1)
Education
University
of Missouri: B.A., Political Science
Princeton
University: M.A. & Ph.D., Political Science
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