Congressman and House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Dante Fascell, was an independent research and educational institution established in 1984 at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida, United States.
In 1991, under an Act of Congress "to promote better relations between the United States and the nations of Latin America and the Caribbean and Canada through cooperative study, training, and research," the institute began receiving federal financial support.
The center's research, outreach activities, and published works played a role in framing policy dialogue for key decision-makers and scholars, and non-governmental activists throughout the Americas.
Its most seminal publications are still used in university classrooms, government agencies, and non-governmental institutions as resources for education and policy decision-making.
"The existence of a center in Miami that is not right-wing concerns them," said Bernardo Benes, a former banker who has advocated dialogue with the Cuban government."