Coletta A. Youngers has worked with the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) since 1987. She monitors, analyzes, and disseminates information on political developments, human rights and U.S. Policy in the Andean region of South America. She travels regularly to Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. She has special expertise in U.S. international drug control policy, a subject she has extensively written and spoken publicly on. She has testified before Congress and organized numerous delegations, conferences and seminars on these subjects as well.Before working with WOLA, Ms. Youngers was the Project Manager at the Peru-Chile Office of the Catholic Relief Services from 1985 to 1987, where she developed, monitored and evaluated rural and urban development and human rights projects by Peruvian NGO's. She earned a Masters Degree in Public Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University (1985).

(2002) "Collateral Damage: U.S. Drug Control in the Andes". Washington, DC: Washington Office on Latin America. (2002) "Peru's Coordinadora Nacional de Derechos Humanos: A Case Study in Coalition Building". Washington, DC: Washington Office on Latin America. (2000) U.S. policy options in Latin America and the Caribean: Problems, opportunities and recommendations. In M. Honey and T. Barry (Eds).Global Focus: U.S. Foreign Policy at the Turn of the Millenium. New York: St. Martin's Press.(2000) Deconstructing Democracy: Peru Under President Alberto Fujimori. Washington DC: WOLA(1998). Drug certification doesn't make the grade.The Christian Science Monitor (February 17).(1997). The only war we've got: Drug enforcement in Latin America.NACLA Report on the Americas, Vol. I, No. 2 (September/October).(1997). Reluctant recruits: The US military and the war on drugs. Washington, DC: WOLA (August).