Help Joe Walk Again for Economic Justice

He’s labored for economic justice for every person.

Now Joe needs our help.

For more than five decades Joe Recinos has worked tirelessly throughout Central and South America, Africa, and Asia to advance a free market approach to economic justice for every person.

As a professional and volunteer, Joe has helped pioneer financial reforms such as employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) to extend equal capital ownership opportunity for workers, the poor, and the oppressed — while protecting the property rights of all owners.

A highlight of Joe’s career during the 1980s was convincing owners of the Finca La Perla coffee plantation to adopt a worker share ownership program. Operating in the mountain region of Guatemala, within an area where neighboring plantations had been shut down by guerilla insurgents, La Perla won acclaim as a successful model for land reform and participatory worker ownership.

U.S. President Ronald Reagan praised La Perla as an antidote to Marxist-Leninism after its workers fought to protect their plantation (and later won former communist insurgents to their side). La Perla was highlighted in the report of the U.S. Presidential Task Force on Project Economic Justice (in which Joe served as a counselor), which was presented to President Reagan and to Pope John Paul II in 1987.

From his base in Guatemala, Joe has continued working around the world, often at great personal sacrifice and risk, to help create a more economically just, liberating, and peaceful future for every person.

Now Joe faces a life-threatening medical emergency. In 2018 Joe was hospitalized twice for heart surgery, first to insert a stent and, when that failed, for a quadruple bypass. Some of the costs were covered by his private health insurance, but in February 2020 his insurance was cancelled.

In May of this year the bones of Joe’s leg were shattered in an accident that caused multiple leg fractures. This required costly surgery and post-operative care totaling U.S. $10,000, which he was unable to pay. As the result of complications, including an unhealed wound from the first operation and the need to replace the metal rods, Joe needs another surgery.

Total expenses for the second operation and related care — which the hospital will not perform until the prior bill is paid — are estimated at U.S. $15,000-20,000, to cover an anticipated extended hospital stay and home nursing care on his release.

Joe lost his private medical insurance when, due to the pandemic, his consulting contract was cancelled. Joe is today without funds and needs an estimated U.S. $35,000 to pay for essential treatment.

He is too old to qualify for private-sector insurance in Guatemala, and the public healthcare system is overwhelmed with COVID-19 cases.

With Joe’s permission, the Center for Economic and Social Justice , of which Joe is a co-founder and board member, has set up this GoFundMe campaign on his behalf. We and his family are asking Joe’s friends, associates, and all those seeking economic and social justice for every person — to help us raise at least U.S. $35,000 before November 30, 2021. This will cover Joe’s past medical expenses and meet the cost of the second operation. Any money contributed over U.S. $35,000 will be held in a restricted account for any future medical expenses Joe may incur.

Any donation you can make, no matter how small, will help Joe. By sharing this link with your network, you will be making an additional, non-monetary contribution by bringing it to the attention of other possible donors.

Our deepest thanks for any help you can give to Joe Recinos, a true Servant of Justice.

Please note that this is NOT an official CESJ program. Contributions are NOT tax-deductible for U.S. taxpayers and do NOT appear as contributions on the books of CESJ.