Latin America and the Caribbean, 1959-1970

This series contains correspondence, reports, proceedings, clippings, and other printed material. The records document efforts of U.S., Central and South American, and Caribbean labor leaders to build a free trade union movement in the region. The records are particularly valuable in illuminating relations among trade union and government officials and in charting the development of the American Institute for Free Labor Development (AIFLD) and its many educational, housing and financial development, and social welfare projects, as well as political activities, in support of free (anti-communist and non-state-controlled) trade unions. Additionally, the materials here document the relationships among the AFL-CIO, AIFLD, and Organizacion Regional Interamericana de Trajabadores (ORIT) in the development of free trade unions throughout Latin America. There is information on strikes, U.S. companies involved in Latin America, and economic, social, and political declarations of various labor organizations. The series also casts some light on U.S. foreign policy in the region, including labor's role in the Alliance for Progress, projects of the United States Agency for International Development, and anti-communist initiatives aimed at Cuba, other Caribbean countries, and in Central and South America.

There is a great deal of correspondence between Andrew C. McLellan (AFL-CIO, Inter-American Representative), the various AIFLD country program directors in Latin America, and the labor attaches in U.S. embassies throughout Latin America. In addition to McLellan, major correspondents include: Serafino Romualdi (AFL-CIO Inter-American Representative and Executive Director, AIFLD), Michael Ross (Director, Dept. of International Affairs), Ernest s. Lee (Assistant Executive Director, Dept. of 12 International Affairs), David Sternback (Associate Inter-American Representative, AFL-CIO), Arturo Jauregui H. (Secretary General, ORIT), and Fidel Velazquez (Secretary General, Confederacion de Trabajadores de Mexico), Jesse A. Friedman (Asst. Inter-American Rep., AFL-CIO), Michael D. Boggs (Asst. Inter-American Representative, AFL-CIO), William Doherty (Administrator, AIFLD), Samuel Haddad (AIFLD/Washington), Angelo Verdu (AIFLD/Washington) Morris Paladino (Asst. Administrator, AIFLD), John O'Grady (Labor Attache, U.S. Dept. of State), James F. Shea (Labor Attache, U.S. Dept. of State), Thomas E. Walsh (Labor Attache, U.S. Dept. of state), John L. Ohmans (Labor Attache, U.S. Dept. of state), Richard E. Ginnold (Labor Attache, U.S. Dept. of state), and Emanuel Boggs (Labor Attache, U.S. Dept. of State). There is also some correspondence from: Jay Lovestone, George Meany, Walter Reuther, Victor Reuther, Eusebio Mujal Barniol (Secretary General, Confederacion de Trabajadores de Cuba en el Exilio), R6mula Betancourt (president of Venezuela), Osmond Dyce (Secy., Treasurer, Caribbean Congress of Labor), Richard A. Ishmael (General President, Man-Power Citizens' Association--Affiliated to the British Guiana Trade Union Congress), and Juan Antonio Solari (Secretary General, [Argentine) Socialist Democratic Party).