ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the role of the United States in influencing some of the procedural reforms. It argues that lurking behind all of the arguments about these reforms is a democratic transition process profoundly influenced by the United States, even in discrete areas such as procedural reforms, and that the success of such reforms in Latin America depends at least in part on how the United States participates in the process. Latin American legal reformers today derive a substantial portion of their authority from international human rights law. However, broadly speaking, United States funding, ideological support and governmental participation are vital to Latin American attitudes toward international human rights law. The roots of any human rights model in most Latin American countries ultimately lies in the international nature of human rights law, but the effectiveness of international human rights law in Latin America, and with it much of the effectiveness of Latin American reformers, depends on United States participation.
