Remembering Jimmy Carter's Human Rights Legacy in Uruguay
The former president passed away yesterday at 100
In February 2023, Jimmy Carter announced his decision to forgo further medical treatment and enter hospice. Hospice is care for terminally ill patients, not aimed at offering treatment but rather focused on reducing pain and discomfort at the end of one’s life. Some people only last on hospice a number of days, which was the case of Rosalyn Carter, Jimmy Carter’s wife of 77 years, who entered hospice in November 2023 and died just two days later. Others last for months, although hospice patients generally are not expected to survive much more than six months.
Carter, the longest-living president in American history, defied both those paths. He survived for 22 months after entering hospice, living to both bury his beloved wife and fulfill his wish to live long enough to cast a vote for Kamala Harris in November 2024.* During this time, tributes to his long career in public service were published in almost every major news outlets and by celebrities, friends, and politicians across social media. The New York Times called the outpouring of remembrances a “living eulogy” which Carter was able to read and appreciate over the course of the last months on earth.
At the time that Cater announced his decision to enter hospice, I was a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI) in Philadelphia, a non-partisan think tank. I was asked to write a piece about Carter’s legacy based on my at-the-time forthcoming book, Of Light and Struggle: Social Justice, Human Rights, and Accountability in Uruguay, which detailed at length Carter’s human rights policy in Uruguay over the course of his administration. I agreed and quickly wrote a piece outlining his incredible legacy in a small country in South America, wherein he was able to focus bilateral relations to a remarkable degree around a new human rights policy, which was not always possible in larger countries that had to balance more strategic priorities. As such, the book (and the article) argue that small states can play as a testing ground for innovative policies outside the headlines.
I went back and forth with the wonderful FPRI editors for a few days after sending them my draft. After we agreed on a final version, I waited for the article to appear online. It didn’t. I waited a few more days, trying not to be pushy with them, and then finally gave in and inquired about, “when are you going to publish it? Did I miss it coming out?” They responded that they were waiting for Carter to pass on to publish it, which they assumed would be imminent. I responded that I thought it should come out now, as part of this “living eulogy” because Carter could last for months and months on hospice. They agreed and finally published it in mid-March. As we now know, that decision was validated because it would have been 22 months before it appeared if we had waited!
Even so, the article remains up online and his passing has been another opportunity for people to post their thoughts on his storied career, from his humble upbringings, to his remarkable rise to the White House, and his five decades long post-presidential humanitarian career. I am sending my thoughts out again as well. May his memory be a blessing.
Jimmy Carter and the ‘Torture Chamber of Latin America’: Examining a Human Rights Legacy
Main Takeaways:
President Jimmy Carter was the first president to integrate human rights into US foreign policy, but his efforts received a mixed reception from the foreign policy establishment.
The Carter administration focused its policies toward Uruguay—a dictatorship that was known as the “torture chamber of Latin America”—around a human rights strategy. Washington cut aid to the Uruguayan military, publicly and privately condemned human rights abuses, and supported opposition groups.
While it’s hard to precisely measure the effectiveness of the Carter administration’s human rights strategy in Uruguay, there’s reason to believe that the approach was one factor that eventually contributed to the country’s democratic transition that began several years after Carter had been voted out of office.
Carter’s policy towards Uruguay also offers a window into the importance of human rights in US foreign policy, and the role that small states can play as a testing ground for innovative policies outside the headlines.
Full Article: here
If the article piqued your interest, and you want to read the whole book, you can find it: here.
*Of course, his vote didn’t end up mattering because Trump won Georgia with 50.7% of the vote, although Carter’s desire to cast his ballot reflected his enduring belief in the democratic process.