The right to vote and political representation for Latin Americans residing outside their countries of origin, particularly in the United States, where some 35 millions of Latinos live, is a topic of huge, current importance for the Latin American countries and for the Hispanic communities spread throughout the world.

In the last few years, this heart felt claim has become the fighting banner for millions of immigrants who live in the U.S.

In a great majority of Latin American countries, the governments and the political parties acknowledge the right of their fellow countrymen to vote overseas. And they are correct. No one can deny the tremendous contribution that these human clusters residing abroad have in their national economies.

El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and Dominican Republic are the five Latin American countries that receive the most monetary remittances from their fellow countrymen and woman residing in the U.S. With the money they send, such immigrants, many of them undocumented, not only support their families but the impoverished, regional economy.

Last year, immigrants from Mexico, Central America, and Dominican Republic sent to their countries more than $9.5 millions in cash allowances, a number higher than the agricultural and stockbreeding farming exports combined, and the equivalent to two thirds of their tourism income.

At the same time, the cash flow from the immigrants is an important source of income for the private enterprise of their countries. In Dominican Republic, for instance, more than 70% of the construction industry supports itself thanks to the building generated by the money from overseas remittances.

Beyond the satisfaction of helping their loved ones, the immigrants don’t receive anything in exchange for their participation in the development of the national economy of their countries.

On the contrary, the governments tend to ignore the needs of the countrymen living overseas. Many immigrants complain for the quality of the consular services, others for the lack of interest in solving immigration problems.

As an answer to such indifference, for several years the Latin American communities living in the U.S. have been demanding from their governments to be taken into account at the time of significant decisions. Recently, Mexican nationals conducted a remittance boycott to pressure the Fox administration to grant the right to vote. Also Dominicans, Salvadorians, Hondurans, Chileans, and Guatemalans, among others, are making efforts to obtain from their Congress the green light to the overseas vote.

It’s about time for the Latin American countries to grant this right to the immigrants. Why deny it to those who are a main factor in the development of their nations? It’s a well-earned right, and a moral obligation from the governments toward those fellow countrymen who had to leave because conditions for a dignified life were not offered to them: work, education, housing, political stability.

Vote without borders is an undeniable right and should not be postponed due to selfish, partisan interests or the everlasting state bureaucracies!