Latin America Today: Recent Episodes
aisacson@wola.org
News and analysis of politics, security, development and U.S. policy in Latin America and the Caribbean, from the Washington Office on Latin America.
This episode brings together two experts to discuss recent second-round presidential elections in Peru and Colombia: Jo-Marie Burt, a senior fellow at WOLA and professor at George Mason University's Schar School of Policy and Government, and a leading expert on Peru; and Gimena Sánchez-Garzoli, WOLA's Director for the Andes, who maintains close contact with Colombian civil society.
Both elections produced razor-thin margins, and both delivered victories to right-wing, populist candidates promising crackdowns on crime and a hard line against their political adversaries. In Peru, Keiko Fujimori won the presidency on her fourth attempt, while in Colombia, Abelardo de la Espriella narrowly defeated left-leaning Iván Cepeda.
Burt describes Fujimori's ascent as the culmination of years spent consolidating control over Peru's key institutions, like Congress, the constitutional tribunal, and the attorney general's office. She characterizes Fujimori as "singularly motivated, singularly ambitious, and singularly ruthless," shaped by her upbringing under her father Alberto Fujimori's authoritarian government. Burt warns that Fujimori is driven by a desire for revenge against those who helped prosecute and imprison her father, including journalists like Gustavo Gorriti, human rights lawyers, prosecutors, and judges. She details a legislative landscape already tilted toward impunity—amnesty laws shielding police and military, and restrictions crippling NGOs' ability to represent victims. Burt argues Peru has drifted toward a hybrid or even authoritarian regime.
Sánchez-Garzoli paints a tense picture in Colombia, where outgoing President Gustavo Petro has refused to recognize the election results, alleging fraud and foreign interference despite institutional findings to the contrary. She notes intervention by the Trump administration and U.S. lawmakers. With the transition suspended and Petro calling supporters into the streets, while armed groups reposition, Sánchez-Garzoli warns of a real risk of political violence.
She outlines de la Espriella's "iron fist" agenda: mega-prisons modeled on El Salvador's Nayib Bukele, reviving the controversial ESMAD riot police, and a "special urban defense bloc" that she fears could blur the line between state security and paramilitary activity, echoing Colombia's dark history. "Colombia can't return to the belief that problems can be solved through bullets," she says, paraphrasing Colombian human rights defender Leyner Palacios.
The conversation explores the deeper social fractures driving these results: in Peru, divisions of race, class, and region between Lima and the neglected Andean provinces, alongside a "frozen" collective memory of the 1980s-90s internal armed conflict manipulated to smear the left as communist. In Colombia, urban-rural divides also shape perceptions of security and the peace process.
Both guests anticipate closer alignment with Washington, though they distinguish ideological affinity from generous funding. Sánchez-Garzoli expects a "total reset" in U.S.-Colombia relations, possible joint operations, and migration cooperation including reports of a plan to facilitate deportations of Colombian asylum seekers. Burt notes U.S. concern over China's growing influence in Peru.
Despite the grim outlook, both find grains of hope: in Peru, a tentative opposition alliance and a still-vibrant regional civil society; in Colombia, strong institutions, a diverse Congress, and a resilient press and civil society. The episode closes with a reflection that both presidents-elect, lacking strong bases, face the "Milei challenge" of governing without a coalition.
On June 24, 2026, two consecutive earthquakes measuring 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude—the strongest to strike Venezuela in more than a century—devastated the country's northern coast, including the city of La Guaira and parts of Caracas. This episode features Carolina Jiménez Sandoval, WOLA's president, who was visiting Venezuela when the earthquakes hit and subsequently traveled to the hardest-hit zone, and Laura Dib, director of WOLA's Venezuela program, who has closely tracked the humanitarian response and U.S. policy dimensions.
Carolina offers a firsthand account of the disaster and its aftermath. She describes the profound isolation caused by the Venezuelan government's pre-existing censorship regime—with platforms like X, CNN, and independent media blocked—which left citizens unable to access life-saving information during the critical first hours. Traveling to La Guaira, she found scenes closer to "a war zone" than a natural disaster, with collapsed buildings, others on the brink of collapse, precarious improvised shelters, and families living in the open air without adequate water, food, or assistance. Above all, she encountered a pervasive sense of abandonment.
A central theme of the conversation is the "hollowness" of the Venezuelan state, laid bare by years of corruption, authoritarian misrule, and the emigration of some eight million people—including doctors, nurses, and engineers. Carolina notes that the armed forces, which acted as first responders during earlier tragedies, now function largely as a repressive and surveilling force, controlling access to disaster sites rather than aiding survivors.
Laura provides data and policy analysis. The government, through National Assembly head Jorge Rodríguez—brother of de facto ruler Delcy Rodríguez—reports roughly 3,500 deaths and 16,000 injured, though the U.S. Geological Survey estimates the toll could range between 10,000 and 100,000. The UN estimates direct infrastructure damage at $37 billion. Laura situates the disaster within a longstanding humanitarian emergency and explains how the 2025 dismantling of USAID reduced disaster-response capacity, even as the U.S. pledged $300 million, a figure dwarfed by the $1.15 billion pledged after Haiti's 2010 earthquake.
Laura and Carolina discuss the uncomfortable U.S. alignment with the unelected Delcy Rodríguez government, whose constitutional legitimacy has expired without new elections. They argue the disaster has badly set back the Trump administration's three-stage transition plan and revealed the state's incapacity to protect its citizens. Notably, Venezuelan social movements are now directing their demands at the U.S. government rather than their own institutions.
Venezuela's beleagured civil society is a bright spot. Despite an anti-NGO law criminalizing foreign funding, organizations like Caritas and Fe y Alegría, alongside diaspora networks and ordinary citizens, have organized shelters, distributed supplies, and built databases to track the missing and separated children. A reputable site for donations to disaster relief is Donar Seguro.
WOLA recommends that aid flow through transparent, accountable channels; that the anti-NGO law be repealed; that social media and VPN blockades be lifted; that the U.S.-run oil-revenue fund be used transparently for Venezuelans' benefit; and that the Trump administration reinstate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and halt deportations of Venezuelans in the United States. A deportation flight of 146 people arrived on the day of the earthquake, most of whom died in a hotel—a site the political police blocked Carolina from visiting.
Venezuela's reconstruction will require a long-term commitment and, crucially, the rebuilding of public trust. This can only happen in the context of a genuine democratic transition.
In this episode of the WOLA Podcast, recorded on June 25, 2026, host Adam Isacson speaks with Elijah Maurus, an attorney based in Tijuana who has worked principally with LGBTQ+ asylum seekers since 2018. Maurus relocated to Tijuana during the major migrant caravan that arrived in late 2018, initially working with Al Otro Lado before launching a pilot legal project dedicated to LGBT asylum seekers in October 2019.
The conversation moves roughly south to north, tracing the dangers LGBTQ+ migrants face crossing Mexico to reach safety in the United States. Maurus describes how Tijuana—which requires a difficult "left turn" across territory controlled by multiple cartels—nonetheless became one of the few border cities with dedicated LGBT shelters, though these remain scarce and small. He explains how vulnerabilities multiply "exponentially" for transgender and gender-nonconforming migrants at every checkpoint, river crossing, and cartel-controlled bus stop. He recounts witnessing the human toll of policies like "metering," the Migrant Protection Protocols (Remain in Mexico), Title 42, and the cancellation of CBP One appointments.
The second half of the discussion turns to the rapid deterioration of asylum protections in the United States since President Trump's return to office in January 2025. Maurus details both the headline-grabbing measures—the suspension of asylum at the border, Supreme Court decisions issued that very morning upholding metering and allowing the removal of Temporary Protected Status from roughly 350,000 Haitians—and the quieter "death by a thousand cuts." These include courthouse arrests after government attorneys move to dismiss cases, the use of "pretermission" to reject incomplete asylum applications, Asylum Cooperative Agreements that ship asylum seekers to third countries like Guatemala or Ecuador, and the gutting of the immigration court system through mass firings of judges and their replacement with "deportation judges."
Maurus devotes significant attention to immigration detention, which he calls a political and financial choice rather than a punishment. With $45 billion newly allocated and a goal of detaining 100,000 people per day in largely private facilities, he describes the elimination of the limited protections for transgender detainees that had existed under prior administrations—including the end of gender-affirming care, the housing of trans women among men, prolonged solitary confinement for trans men, and the disappearance of oversight mechanisms. He also raises the alarming practice of sending people with withholding-of-removal protections to dangerous third countries such as Eswatini or Uganda, where LGBTQ+ people face legal persecution.
Despite the bleak picture, Maurus closes on a note of resolve. He argues that asylum remains salvageable but that advocates must stop ceding the narrative and avoid treating individual horror stories as isolated anecdotes rather than the products of deliberate policy. He emphasizes the importance of local-level storytelling, documentation for future accountability, and the simple insistence that turning people away violates the lessons learned after refugees were turned back to die during World War II.
En este episodio de la serie del mes del Orgullo de Latin America Today, Maureen Meyer, vicepresidenta de Programas de WOLA, conversa con Braulio Abarca, activista LGBTIQ+ nicaragüense exiliado, defensor de derechos humanos, y cofundador del Colectivo Nicaragua Nunca Más, sobre lo que significa defender los derechos de las comunidades LGBTIQ+ desde el exilio.
Desde 2018, más de 900 mil nicaragüenses se han visto forzados al exilio. Esa cifra incluye a defensores de derechos humanos como Braulio, quien tuvo que salir del país tras la crisis sociopolítica desatada bajo la dictadura de Daniel Ortega y Rosario Murillo — y que, años después, tuvo que exiliarse por segunda vez, esta vez de Costa Rica a España, perseguido por la represión transnacional del régimen.
Braulio ofrece un relato franco de la precariedad legal, las redes de apoyo limitadas, y la tensión constante entre sobrevivir y seguir militando en un país que no es el propio. También habla de lo que persiste dentro de Nicaragua: una "triple discriminación" que enfrentan las personas LGBTIQ+ por su identidad, por oponerse a la dictadura, y por otras identidades que se entrecruzan, incluyendo casos documentados de transfeminicidio y crímenes de odio que con frecuencia quedan impunes.
La conversación cierra con una reflexión sobre lo que lo mantiene en la lucha —la verdad, la justicia y la esperanza del retorno— y con un llamado claro a la comunidad internacional: protección temporal para las personas desplazadas, presión sostenida sobre la dictadura, y acompañamiento a largo plazo para la futura reconstrucción democrática de Nicaragua.
Este episodio es parte de la serie del mes del Orgullo de WOLA, que destaca los derechos LGBTQ+, la democracia y el espacio cívico en las Américas.
En este episodio especial del mes del Orgullo de Latin America Today, la presidenta de WOLA, Carolina Jiménez Sandoval, conversa con Renata Jank Vivas Antonelli, activista y defensora de derechos humanos de la Fundación Santamaría, una organización con sede en Cali, Colombia, que lleva dos décadas documentando la violencia, defendiendo derechos y construyendo poder para las comunidades trans.
En Colombia, ser una mujer trans todavía significa enfrentarse a una esperanza de vida de entre 27 y 33 años. Esa cifra sola — décadas por debajo del promedio nacional — habla de la brecha entre los derechos que existen en papel y la realidad que viven las comunidades trans cada día.
Renata ofrece una evaluación franca de las condiciones que enfrentan las mujeres trans en Colombia, un país que a menudo se presenta como modelo regional de gobernanza progresista, pero donde persiste la violencia estructural e institucional contra las personas trans. Habla del concepto de estructuras antiderechos: redes coordinadas de poder económico, político y religioso que no solo están frenando los avances recientes, sino que se organizan activamente a nivel transnacional para revertir décadas de conquistas logradas con mucho esfuerzo.
La conversación también explora cómo se ve la resistencia en el terreno — desde la casa trans de Santamaría en el suroccidente colombiano, hasta las mesas de coordinación a nivel nacional, pasando por el impulso a una ley integral de derechos trans que lleva el nombre de Sara Millerey, una mujer trans cuyo transfemicidio conmocionó a Colombia y al mundo. Y cierra con una visión: un futuro en el que ser quienes son no les cueste la vida a las personas trans.
Este episodio es parte de la serie del mes del Orgullo de WOLA, que destaca los derechos LGBTQ+, la democracia y el espacio cívico en las Américas.
This episode examines the first round of Colombia's presidential election, which took place on May 31, 2026, and previews the June 21st runoff between two starkly different candidates. Gimena Sánchez-Garzoli, WOLA's director for Colombia and the Andes, provides deep insight into the candidates, voter concerns, and the election's implications for U.S.-Colombia relations.
The first round produced some surprises. While human rights activist and senator Iván Cepeda advanced as expected with 40.9% of the vote, the first-place finisher was criminal defense lawyer and political outsider Abelardo de la Espriella with 43.7%. Taken together, right-of-center candidates already exceed 50%, suggesting challenging math for Cepeda in the runoff.
Sánchez-Garzoli notes that despite fears of political violence—given the assassination of candidate Miguel Uribe Turbay in the past year and Colombia's deteriorating security situation—election day proceeded peacefully.
The candidates represent fundamentally different visions for Colombia. De la Espriella, a wealthy lawyer who once advised the AUC paramilitary group during peace talks and has represented controversial figures, proposes an "iron fist" security approach. His platform includes ending peace negotiations, building ten mega-prisons, mass detentions, aggressive coca eradication, and legalizing firearms ownership. Economically, he embraces Argentina's Milei-style deregulation and reviving the fossil fuel sector. He has also proposed withdrawing Colombia from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and United Nations human rights bodies.
Cepeda, by contrast, is a philosopher and longtime human rights advocate whose father, a Communist Party senator, was assassinated during the systematic elimination of the Patriotic Union party. Known for his measured, intellectual style, Cepeda was instrumental in Colombia's 2016 Peace Accord and would continue President Gustavo Petro's approach—advancing agrarian reform, pursuing negotiations with armed groups through "total peace," and transitioning away from extractive economic models.
Voter concerns centered overwhelmingly on security and the economy. Sánchez-Garzoli explains that while Petro's ambitions of addressing centuries of inequality in just a few years proved unrealistic, the security situation has genuinely deteriorated.
U.S.-Colombia relations under either candidate promise turbulence, though of different kinds. President Trump publicly endorsed de la Espriella while labeling Cepeda a "radical leftist Marxist." De la Espriella has expressed interest in joining Trump's "Shield of the Americas" security initiative and implementing a "Plan Colombia 2.0," while Cepeda has condemned the U.S. "boat strikes" and other military interventions as violations of Latin American sovereignty and international law.
Looking toward the June 21 runoff, Sánchez-Garzoli warns that Colombia remains fragile and at risk of violence, particularly given President Petro's claims of fraud and the close expected margin. The choices of centrist voters remain uncertain, and it is hard to predict an outcome.
A year after the arrest of Salvadoran human rights lawyer and anti-corruption advocate Ruth Eleonora López Alfaro, WOLA's Latin America Today podcast revisits her case and the broader situation unfolding in El Salvador.
Ruth López, who worked with the human rights organization Cristosal, was arrested on May 18, 2025, when police entered her home late at night. Since then, she has been held in detention under conditions that rights groups say reflect the growing erosion of due process and civil liberties under President Nayib Bukele's government.
In this episode, WOLA's Corie Welch speaks with Luis Benavides, Ruth López's husband, and Noah Bullock, Executive Director of Cristosal, about Ruth's detention, the climate of fear in El Salvador, and the increasing use of political imprisonment against critics and human rights defenders.
Luis recounts the night Ruth was arrested and the uncertainty that followed as authorities moved her between detention facilities while withholding information from her family and legal team. Noah discusses how Cristosal's investigations into corruption and human rights abuses made the organization — and Ruth herself — targets of the government's escalating repression.
The conversation also examines El Salvador's prolonged state of exception, which has led to the mass incarceration of 90,000 people since 2022. While the government has framed the emergency measures as necessary to combat gang violence, rights organizations have documented widespread abuses, including arbitrary detention, torture, enforced disappearances, and severe restrictions on due process.
Together, they reflect on what Ruth's case reveals about political imprisonment in El Salvador, the growing risks facing journalists and civil society organizations, and the importance of international solidarity.
Guests Luis Benavides is the husband of Ruth López and has become a public advocate for her release and right to a fair and public trial.
Noah Bullock is the Executive Director of Cristosal, a leading human rights organization that was forced to relocate operations from El Salvador to Guatemala amid increasing repression.
Additional Resources * Read more about WOLA's work on El Salvador * Learn more about Cristosal's documentation of human rights abuses
This episode marks the 50th anniversary of Operation Condor's assassination program, codenamed "Teseo" (Theseus). Condor was the coordinated campaign of state-sponsored terror carried out by U.S.-backed military dictatorships in South America during the 1970s and early 1980s. Our guest is Peter Kornbluh, director of the Cuba and Chile documentation projects at the National Security Archive, who has spent decades uncovering declassified documents and accounts about this dark chapter.
Kornbluh explains that Operation Condor was a transnational collaboration among the secret police forces of Southern Cone military regimes to share intelligence, track, kidnap, and assassinate their political opponents across borders and even around the world. The operation was formally established in November 1975, with Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet's secret police chief Manuel Contreras serving as the principal organizer.
A particularly sinister component was Project Teseo, the assassination program established at a second meeting in Santiago in May 1976. Kornbluh describes declassified documents revealing the bureaucratic nature of this killing apparatus: monthly dues, membership fees, and detailed protocols for locating targets, carrying out assassinations, and escaping afterward.
The most notorious Condor operation occurred on September 21, 1976, when a car bomb killed Orlando Letelier, Chile's former foreign minister under Salvador Allende, and his colleague Ronni Karpen Moffitt in Washington, D.C.'s Sheridan Circle—the worst act of foreign terrorism in Washington until September 11, 2001.
Kornbluh details the complicated U.S. role in these events. The CIA helped create and train intelligence services like Chile's DINA. However, agency officials grew concerned about Condor's blowback potential. Nonetheless, Ford administration officials, particularly Henry Kissinger, pulled back diplomatic efforts that might have prevented the Letelier-Moffitt attack.
The conversation traces how accountability eventually came—partially. The Carter administration's response was "demonstrably weak," undermined by bureaucracies protecting their relationships with Southern Cone security forces. Under Reagan, Pinochet initially served as an ally in Central American counterinsurgency, though some distancing came later.
Kornbluh reflects on how this history was uncovered through FOIA requests, congressional investigations, and special declassifications ordered under Clinton and later Obama. The Teseo documents only emerged in 2018—more than forty years after the program's creation.
The episode concludes with sobering parallels to today: Daniel Ortega's regime sending assassins to kill opponents, Venezuelan agents murdering a military officer in Chile, and the current U.S. administration's killings on the high seas. Kornbluh expresses hope that those committing current human rights atrocities will eventually face accountability, just as Contreras spent his final years in prison and Pinochet faced arrest in London and Santiago.
This episode examines the aftermath of Peru's first-round presidential election held on April 12, 2025, recorded just five days later with results still not fully finalized. Host Adam Isacson speaks with Cynthia McClintock, a professor of Political Science and International Affairs at George Washington University who has studied Peruvian politics for over four decades.
The conversation describes an extraordinarily fragmented and polarized electoral landscape. With 35 candidates on the ballot, the leading vote-getter—Keiko Fujimori, daughter of former authoritarian president Alberto Fujimori—led the count with only about 17 percent of the vote. The race for second place remained too close to call between Roberto Sánchez, a leftist candidate running under the mantle of impeached former president Pedro Castillo, and Rafael López Aliaga, a right-wing populist who served as mayor of Lima. The runoff, between candidates who will combine for less than 30 percent of the first-round vote, is scheduled for June 7th.
McClintock traces Peru's current political dysfunction to the period following the 2016 election, during which Fujimori's party discovered the power of congressional impeachment. Peru has cycled through nine presidents in ten years, and McClintock argues that a corrupt governing coalition has consolidated power, particularly since Castillo's impeachment in December 2022.
The discussion highlights the deep geographic and cultural divisions in Peruvian society. The gap between Lima and "las provincias"—Indigenous-majority rural and mountainous regions—manifests starkly in voting patterns. This division traces back centuries and reflects ongoing perceptions of discrimination and exclusion, even as economic indicators have improved.
Organized crime and security are voters' primary concerns. While Peru's homicide rate remains low by regional standards, it has more than doubled since 2021-2022. Extortion has become particularly urgent. Yet paradoxically, Peru's economy continues to grow, buoyed by high commodity prices for copper and gold, though much mining activity is illegal and environmentally devastating.
McClintock expresses concern about the future of accountability and democratic institutions. The newly reconstituted Senate grants Fujimori's party approximately one-third of seats, with significant power over appointments. On U.S.-Peru relations, she notes the current government has stayed under Washington's radar and is proceeding with a $3.5 billion F-16 purchase, though the Chinese-built Chancay port remains a potential point of tension.
The episode concludes with McClintock explaining how the chaotic 35-candidate field happened by design: Fujimori's party had previously canceled a primary voting provision that would have winnowed the field, calculating that extreme fragmentation would allow them to win with a small plurality. Despite the grim political outlook, McClintock emphasizes the resilience of Peru and its people.
Download this podcast episode's .mp3 file here. Listen to WOLA's Latin America Today podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, or wherever you subscribe to podcasts. The main feed is here.
This episode examines the systematic dismantling of asylum protections in the United States under the Trump administration. Our guests are two attorney-advocates: Heather Hogan, Policy and Practice Counsel at the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), and Peter Habib, Staff Attorney at the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies (CGRS).
Hogan and Habib emphasize that the United States has legal obligations under the 1980 Refugee Act and international agreements stemming from World War II—commitments that other nations have historically looked to America to model.
Barriers the Trump administration has erected against asylum seekers include a January 2025 proclamation suspending asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border, courthouse arrests of immigrants appearing for their hearings, expanded mandatory detention policies, and a stacked Board of Immigration Appeals issuing precedential decisions that narrow eligibility grounds. Hogan and Habib note that the administration has targeted the "particular social group" ground for asylum, which is commonly used by applicants from Latin America fleeing gang violence, domestic abuse, and cartel persecution.
A significant portion of the discussion focuses on "pretermissions"—a mechanism by which immigration judges can deny asylum claims and order removal without allowing applicants to present their cases. Judges have been terminating cases based on minor omissions in lengthy, complex applications, or citing the existence of so-called Asylum Cooperative Agreements with countries including Honduras, Ecuador, Guatemala, and Uganda. These agreements purport to allow the U.S. to send asylum seekers to third countries to apply for protection there, despite those nations having extremely limited asylum systems and significant human rights and security challenges.
The guests report that over 11,000 ACA-based removal orders were issued between November 2024 and January 2025, far exceeding any realistic capacity these countries have to process asylum claims. While the administration has paused some ACA-based pretermissions, thousands of people remain in legal limbo, facing prolonged detention, loss of work permits, or pressure to abandon their claims entirely.
Both Hogan and Habib stress that what is occurring constitutes refoulement—the prohibited practice of returning people to places where they face persecution. They outline potential reforms: routing all asylum cases through asylum officers first, expanding legal pathways for protection, restoring the refugee program, and providing legal representation to indigent asylum seekers. Habib emphasizes that the fundamental problem has been decades of bipartisan investment in punitive deterrence rather than building a fair, efficient system centered on human rights and due process.
Resources mentioned in the conversation include AILA's "Better Way on Immigration" series of policy briefs, with a recent brief focused on reforming the asylum system. The "Third Country Deportation Watch" website is managed by Human Rights First and Refugees International.
Por el Mes de la Mujer, estamos lanzando un episodio especial de Latin America Today con una conversación con Collette Spinetti — activista trans uruguaya, profesora de literatura y la primera mujer trans en ocupar un puesto de secretaria de Estado en Uruguay.
En este episodio, Collette conversa con Carolina Jiménez Sandoval, Presidenta de WOLA, sobre lo que significa romper barreras históricas como mujer trans en un cargo público, el avance global de los movimientos antiderechos y su trabajo en Uruguay para avanzar en la igualdad en un mundo cada vez más desigual.
Sobre Colette Spinetti
Collette Spinetti es activista trans uruguaya, profesora de literatura y una figura pionera en la vida pública de América Latina. Fue la primera profesora trans del Uruguay y actualmente es la primera mujer trans en ocupar un cargo de Secretaría de Estado, como Secretaria de Derechos Humanos bajo la presidencia de Yamandú Orsi. Defensora de larga trayectoria de los derechos LGBTQ+, de las mujeres y de las personas privadas de libertad, en su carrera ha liderado organizaciones trans en Uruguay, incluidas la Unión Trans del Uruguay y el Colectivo Trans del Uruguay, y fue electa presidenta del Comité Directivo Trans de ILGA Mundo. También es secretaria general de Corpora en Libertad, una red internacional de organizaciones que trabajan con personas LGBTI+ privadas de su libertad.
En este episodio:
- El avance de los movimientos antiderechos en América Latina y el mundo — y por qué Colette considera que el miedo del patriarcado a perder su poder está en la raíz de este fenómeno
- La importancia de unir los movimientos sociales — feminista, trans, afrodescendiente y sindical — en torno a objetivos comunes sin perder su especificidad
- El trabajo en la Secretaría de Derechos Humanos y la lucha dentro de Uruguay por continuar invirtiendo en programas y políticas que promuevan la igualdad, desde la educación hasta los derechos laborales.
- Lo que significa gobernar desde un enfoque de derechos humanos — y la discriminación que Colette sigue enfrentando, incluso desde un alto cargo
For Women's Month, we're releasing a special episode of Latin America Today featuring a conversation with Ana Lorena Delgadillo Pérez — a Mexican human rights lawyer with over two decades of experience working on enforced disappearances, femicides, migrants' rights, and women's rights across Mexico and Central America.
In this episode, Ana Lorena speaks with WOLA's Corie Welch about what the crisis of enforced disappearances looks like today, the outsized role women have played in confronting it, and what enforced disappearances in the context of U.S. immigration enforcement tells us about the state of democracy and rule of law.
About Ana Lorena Delgadillo Pérez
Ana Lorena Delgadillo Pérez is a Mexican human rights lawyer with over two decades of experience working on enforced disappearances, femicides, and the rights of women and migrants across Mexico and Central America. She is the founder and former Executive Director of the Foundation for Justice and Democratic Rule of Law, a regional NGO working in Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, where she has helped shape landmark legislation and build forensic and search mechanisms for disappeared migrants. She has litigated historic cases before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, including serving as an expert witness in the Cotton Field case — one of the most significant rulings on femicide in the hemisphere. She currently serves as a member of the United Nations Expert Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances.
In this episode:
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The context of enforced disappearances in the region — who is disappearing, who is responsible, and what impunity looks like on the ground
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How women across borders are supporting each other in the search for their loved ones
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The link between femicide and disappearances, and lessons from the landmark Cotton Field case
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Enforced disappearances in the context of U.S. immigration enforcement
This episode assesses the "transition"—if that is the correct word—in Venezuela nine weeks after the January 3 U.S. military operation that extracted Nicolás Maduro. This conversation with Laura Dib, director of WOLA's Venezuela program, and Francisco Monaldi, director of the Latin American Energy Program at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy, focus particularly on the role of oil, the country's largest source of foreign exchange by far.
Dr. Monaldi acknowledges that oil revenues have increased significantly. However, these revenues now flow into a U.S.-controlled account. The lack of transparency around this fund—including unknown balances and unclear disbursement rules—is deeply concerning.
Dib emphasizes that ordinary Venezuelans have yet to feel material improvements. Over 12.4 million out of perhaps 29 million Venezuelans facing severe humanitarian needs, and "when Venezuelans go to a supermarket right now, they don't really feel a change." While more than 600 political prisoners have been released since January, over 700 remain detained, and the repressive apparatus that sustained Maduro's government remains largely intact under Delcy Rodriguez's control.
Dr. Monaldi explains that Venezuela needs approximately $100 billion in oil sector investment to restore production to levels seen twenty years ago. Yet the recent reform of Venezuela's hydrocarbons law grants the oil minister enormous discretion over tax rates and contract allocation, creating precisely the kind of uncertainty that deters serious investment.
Monaldi and Dib note that Venezuela currently lacks even a published national budget, and its ranking as the third most corrupt country on Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index reflects the dismantlement of democratic institutions. Dr. Monaldi draws a parallel to post-Soviet Russia, warning that how oil contracts are allocated in the coming months could determine the country's trajectory for decades—either creating a transparent system or enriching a new class of oligarchs.
Both guests stress that sustainable economic recovery is impossible without meaningful progress toward the rule of law. "Oil companies do not care about democracy... they do focus on the rule of law. And in the case of Venezuela, I don't think we will see any stable rule of law unless we get a transition to democracy," Dr. Monaldi says.
With their current leverage, oil firms should push for democratic reforms as a condition of investment, Dib suggests. She calls on the U.S. Congress to exercise oversight and notes that the administration's stated goals—regional security and reducing migration—cannot be achieved without addressing the humanitarian emergency and rebuilding institutions.
Both guests express concern that the Trump administration appears focused narrowly on oil production rather than the broader institutional reforms necessary for Venezuela's long-term stability. " I don't see any indication that a system is being built for this to happen in the proper way," Monaldi warns. Expectations are rising in Venezuela, but they will not be met without transparency, accountability, democracy, and the rule of law.
This episode features Mark Ungar, a professor of criminal justice and political science at Brooklyn College and the City University of New York. Ungar has written extensively on the rule of law, policing, and human rights in Latin America, and more recently has focused his research on environmental organized crime across the Amazon basin.
Ungar notes that environmental organized crime—illegal gold mining, logging, cattle ranching, and land grabbing—has become the third largest criminal enterprise globally and is now deeply intertwined with narcotrafficking operations. Rather than existing as separate phenomena, these activities share infrastructure, routes, and personnel.
Criminal networks carrying out environmental organized crime are deeply intertwined with state actors and the legal economy. The nexus involves governors, military officials, environmental ministry personnel, and municipal authorities at multiple levels. Even when good laws exist, implementation remains weak because investigations rarely lead to prosecutions of major figures.
The episode turns to Venezuela's Orinoco Mining Arc, a zone covering roughly 12 percent of national territory that then-president Nicolás Maduro established in 2016. Ungar describes it as a "criminal state project" in which the Maduro government effectively legalized destructive extraction in a geologically unique and biodiverse area that includes nature reserves and indigenous territories. The zone is controlled by a confluence of Venezuelan military officials, Colombian armed groups including the ELN and FARC dissidents, Brazilian garimpeiros, and local criminal organizations called sindicatos and pranes. Violence is extreme, and environmental and health consequences are devastating, with ninety percent of pregnant women and schoolchildren showing elevated mercury levels in their blood.
Ungar explains how the gold and minerals extracted from this area enter legitimate international markets. Between 2016 and 2021, the Mining Arc generated approximately $2.2 billion in gold revenue, but an estimated 86 percent was mined illegally, and roughly 70 percent was smuggled through shell companies and opaque supply chains. The zone also contains big deposits of coltan, iron, bauxite, and other sought-after minerals.
Ungar shares concern about the Trump administration's current approach to Venezuela. While the administration has focused on oil access, counternarcotics, migration, and excluding Chinese influence, there appears to be no priority given to addressing environmental organized crime. Ungar suggests that Washington's willingness to work with the current Venezuelan government—the Maduro regime minus Maduro himself—likely means business as usual for state-sponsored extraction intertwined with organized crime. Consumer countries must stop looking the other way about the origins of products that end up in legitimate commerce.
This episode is a conversation with John Walsh, WOLA's director for Drug Policy and the Andes, about the ongoing U.S. military attacks on civilian boats in the Caribbean and Pacific Oceans. When Walsh and host Adam Isacson recorded this episode, on February 13, 2026, 35 attacks had killed at least 131 people since September 2, 2025—an average of four killings every five days—and another attack later that day killed 3 more people.
Walsh and Isacson just published a WOLA commentary, "The Boat Strikes are Still Happening: Five Things You Need to Know," warning against the dangerous normalization of extrajudicial executions carried out directly by the U.S. military.
Five months into this campaign, the strikes are fading from public attention despite their illegality. Media coverage has dwindled from the intense scrutiny of September and the revelations about "double tap" strikes on survivors in December to a trickle of stories. This normalization poses dangers: the justifications being used could extend to other victims in other contexts, and elements of the U.S. military appear to be accepting unlawful orders.
There is no congressional authorization for military force against drug traffickers. Under international law, the United States is not engaged in an armed conflict with drug cartels—designating groups as foreign terrorist organizations does not confer wartime authorities.
From a drug policy perspective, Walsh argues these strikes are futile. After five months, there is no evidence of a disruption to cocaine supplies. Drug trafficking organizations are highly adaptive, with alternative routes readily available. The administration's own recognition that traditional interdiction didn't work led them to this extreme escalation, but killing traffickers at sea will not fundamentally alter market dynamics driven by constant demand and enormous profits under prohibition.
The boat strikes, if "normalized," could prepare the ground for grave future outcomes. The administration's willingness to label anonymous victims as "narcoterrorists" creates a template for applying similar labels to domestic opponents—something already visible in the characterization of ICE critics and the victims of Chicago and Minneapolis shootings as "domestic terrorists." Walsh notes that President Trump has expressed his desire to deploy military forces against "the enemy within" on U.S. streets, and the compliance of Southern Command with these illegal orders suggests obedience to the president over the Constitution. "The illegality is not a bug, it's a feature," Walsh concludes.
Walsh concludes by emphasizing the importance of litigation on behalf of victims' families, the moral voice of faith leaders, and continued media attention to prevent normalization. These strikes, he argues, are not a peripheral story but central to the administration's declared strategy of dominating the Western Hemisphere through coercion.
Following the Trump administration's January 3, 2026 military operation in Venezuela and its lethal strikes on boats suspected of carrying drugs, its threats of unilateral U.S. military action inside Mexico and Colombia have taken on new urgency.
WOLA's Gimena Sánchez-Garzoli and Stephanie Brewer join Adam Isacson to examine what such actions would mean for two of Washington's most important partners in the hemisphere.
The conversation opens with a sobering parallel: days before recording, Border Patrol agents killed Alex Pretti on a Minneapolis street in what appears to be another grossly unjustified use of lethal force. Both guests draw on their countries' painful experiences with security force violence to illuminate patterns now emerging in the United States: the demonization and victim-blaming, the battle over evidence and documentation, and the long struggle for accountability.
The episode then turns to the mounting threats of U.S. military intervention. Trump has floated drone strikes and Special Forces operations in Mexico since his first term; now, after Venezuela, he has spoken of "hitting cartels on land." President Claudia Sheinbaum has drawn an absolute red line on sovereignty while simultaneously making unprecedented concessions. The fear, Brewer notes, is that the threat of unilateral action could coerce Mexico into accepting operations before or after the fact.
In Colombia, the relationship has deteriorated dramatically. Once the strongest bipartisan partnership in the region, it has been battered by aid cuts that gutted programs built on decades of hard-won lessons and by counter-drug sanctiones aimed at President Gustavo Petro. A February 3, 2026 White House meeting between Trump and Petro now carries enormous stakes. Both governments need each other—on counter-drug cooperation, on managing Venezuelan migration, on regional stability—but both leaders are volatile and prone to escalation.
The guests close with a clear-eyed assessment: militarized tactics against drug trafficking have failed for 40 years. Killing kingpins, striking labs, and adding groups to terrorist lists have never ended the drug trade. What actually works is building capable civilian justice institutions, reducing impunity, addressing corruption, and investing in the social and economic conditions that make organized crime attractive in the first place. A unilateral U.S. strike wouldn't end drug trafficking—but it could destroy the cooperation that any realistic strategy requires.
January 20, 2026 is the first anniversary of Donald Trump's second inauguration. As we pass this milestone, WOLA President Carolina Jiménez Sandoval and Vice President for Programs Maureen Meyer join Adam Isacson to take stock of a year that has fundamentally transformed U.S. policy toward Latin America—and not for the better.
This episode is a companion of a review analysis that Meyer published on January 15, 2026, tracking how the past year saw U.S. policy undermining democracy and human rights promotion, interfering in elections, hitting immigrants from the region quite hard, and taking the "war on drugs" to new extremes.
This episode's conversation traces a dramatic shift: during the period following the Cold War, U.S. policy in the region, despite critical flaws, moved gradually toward cooperation, partnership, and at least rhetorical support for democracy and human rights. That trajectory has reversed. As Meyer explains, democracy promotion has "all but disappeared" from the administration's foreign policy framework. The State Department's Bureau for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor has been gutted. Over 80 percent of U.S. assistance to Latin America has been cut, including funding for civil society organizations and independent journalists.
In place of cooperation, the administration has embraced coercion. A new doctrine designates Latin America as a top U.S. military priority. Nineteen organizations in the region are now listed as foreign terrorist organizations, up from four in early 2025. Most alarmingly, 32 U.S. military strikes on civilian boats in the Caribbean and Pacific have killed at least 124 people—a level of extrajudicial violence that, as Meyer notes, goes "beyond the traditional war on drugs."
The guests examine how different leaders are navigating this moment. Populist leaders like El Salvador's Nayib Bukele and Argentina's Javier Milei have aligned themselves closely with the Trump administration. Mexico's Claudia Sheinbaum has walked a careful line, cooperating extensively on security while drawing firm boundaries around sovereignty. Brazil's Lula, drawing on decades of political experience, has managed a pragmatic relationship despite ideological differences.
The conversation is not without hope. Jiménez emphasizes that democratic backsliding is not the same as authoritarianism: there remains space for resistance. The U.S. Congress has shown signs of reasserting its role: a recent war powers resolution attracted five Republican votes at one point, and proposed foreign aid legislation would restore significant funding for democracy and human rights programs over the administration's objections.
The episode closes with a call to action. Civil society organizations throughout the hemisphere continue documenting abuses and advocating for change under increasingly dangerous conditions. U.S. citizens, the guests argue, have a responsibility to remember that their political choices affect millions of lives across Latin America. As Jiménez Sandoval puts it, the decisions Americans make about their own democracy will reverberate far beyond their borders.
After midnight on January 3, 2026, the Trump administration bombed Venezuelan military sites and extracted the country's authoritarian leader, Nicolás Maduro. President Trump declared that the United States is now "running" Venezuela and emphasized access to its oil reserves. The rest of Maduro's government—the key political figures, the generals, the intelligence chiefs, the colectivos—remains in place.
In this episode recorded January 6, as shockwaves from this historic intervention spread across the hemisphere, host Adam Isacson speaks with WOLA President Carolina Jiménez Sandoval and Venezuela Program Director Laura Dib about what just happened, the serious risks ahead, and what comes next.
The conversation covers:
- The immediate humanitarian situation: continued repression, a looming economic crisis, and uncertainty about who is actually in charge.
- Why Washington appears ready to work with Chavismo—the same authoritarian structure it claimed to oppose—while sidelining Venezuela's democratic opposition.
- The dangerous precedent this sets for U.S. relations with the rest of Latin America, where the Trump administration's new security strategy presents governments with a stark choice between alignment with Washington or being labeled a threat.
- What solidarity with the Venezuelan people actually looks like when their agency has been pushed aside by both their own government and the intervening power.
"International law exists precisely to limit the naked power of states," Jiménez Sandoval says. "To have one of those superpowers, under President Trump, disregard those basic rules of engagement is very alarming."
"Human rights standards provide us with lenses that are universal," Dib adds. "That means going beyond condemnation—thinking about what can be done to stand in solidarity with Venezuelans, reclaiming their agency, and providing support to democratic forces."
In this series from the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), prominent decision-makers from across the Americas—those who have been at the heart of democratic governance—share personal reflections and insights on the meaning, challenges, and future of democracy in the region.
In each episode, members of the WOLA team sit down with a current or former political figure from the Americas to explore democracy through different lenses: what it means to them, the challenges it faces, and why it remains essential today. Each conversation pairs democracy with a new dimension—transition, justice, leadership, and beyond.
WOLA presents a new episode about El Salvador, coinciding with our awarding of our 2025 Human Rights Award to MOVIR, El Salvador's Movement of Victims of the Regime, which supports victims and families of arbitrary detentions carried out by President Nayib Bukele's government.
In this conversation, Ricardo Valencia, assistant professor of public relations in the Department of Communications at California State University, Fullerton, explains why the current popularity of El Salvador's authoritarian president rests on a surprisingly fragile foundation.
Dr. Valencia, a former journalist in El Salvador and an expert on political and activist communications, explains that Bukele is facing several challenges to his rule that even a slick propaganda operation cannot paper over. These include a lackluster economy, mainstream voters' discomfort with the regime's celebrations of cruelty and imprisonment, Bukele's relations with just one political party in the United States, the loss of emigration as an "escape valve" and a likely increase in deportations, and discontent with corruption.
While Dr. Valencia doesn't foresee Bukele's downfall as imminent—he is very popular because of security gains and effective communications—the Salvadoran leader, he argues, is planting the seeds for a sharp drop in popularity. In the meantime, Valencia calls for constant, energetic accompaniment and defense of El Salvador's beleaguered civil society, independent media, and others fighting for democratic institutions and rights.
A special episode as part of WOLA’s 2025 Human Rights Awards Month
President Nayib Bukele’s government has jailed nearly 2 percent of El Salvador’s entire population—the highest incarceration rate in the world. Still, because violence has dropped sharply, political figures across Latin America speak about emulating Bukele’s “security model.” But behind the videos of mega-prisons and tweets about plunging homicide rates lies a darker, less sustainable reality.
In this WOLA Podcast episode, Adam Isacson speaks with Beatriz Magaloni (personal site / Stanford site), a political scientist at Stanford University and co-author (with Alberto Díaz-Cayeros) of a Foreign Affairs article published September 11, 2025: “Does the Bukele Model Have a Future?”
Their conversation reveals what Magaloni calls “a system of state terror and resource extraction,” and explores why El Salvador’s experiment in mass incarceration may ultimately collapse under its own weight.
In fieldwork conducted since last year, Dr. Magaloni interviewed the families of hundreds of victims of the security crackdown, many aided by MOVIR, the Movement of Victims of the Regime, which WOLA is honoring with its 2025 Human Rights Award.
“Our crime is to be poor,” families told her. Police and soldiers face monthly arrest quotas, Magaloni explains. Civilians can denounce neighbors by calling a hotline—and are sometimes paid $300 bounties. Poor Salvadorans, many in communities with little or no gang presence, end up seized and jailed in prisons like Izalco and Mariona, where conditions amount to systematic torture.
This, Magaloni says, has turned the carceral system into “a machine that milks the poor.” Bukele’s ongoing emergency decrees, renewed 42 times, now serve dual purposes: silencing critics and funding repression.
Despite its popularity, Bukele’s “model” rests on brittle foundations. Poverty remains over 30 percent and is not declining. The economy depends on remittances from abroad, not job creation. Corruption persists, while transparency laws and data access have been erased.
Bukele’s control of the media, polished propaganda videos, and rapid-fire social-media presence drown out criticism. Civil society’s challenge, Magaloni argues, is to build equally powerful counter-narratives that humanize victims and expose hidden abuses.
Drawing on decades of field research in Mexico and Brazil, Magaloni concedes that effective citizen security sometimes does require force, but points to past experiments that achieved short-term safety without repression, human rights abuse, or democratic dismantlement. These include efforts like community-based policing in Medellín or Rio de Janeiro’s early UPPs, which showed progress before political will and funding eroded.
Bukele “could have stopped six months in, admitted mistakes, freed the innocent—and he’d have deserved credit,” Magaloni says. “Instead, he institutionalized terror.”
Since late August, the Trump administration has sent a flotilla of U.S. warships to the southern Caribbean, in the largest naval display in the region in decades. On September 2, a U.S. drone strike sank a small boat near the Venezuelan coast, killing as many as eleven civilians. Administration officials allege the vessel carried cocaine, but have presented no evidence.
In this WOLA Podcast episode, Adam Isacson speaks with Laura Dib, Director for Venezuela, and John Walsh, Director for Drug Policy and the Andes, about the shockwaves from this escalation, both region-wide and especially in Venezuela.
An Extreme New Military Stance: Seven warships and up to 7,000 personnel now patrol Caribbean waters near Venezuela. A lethal strike on September 2 marks, as Walsh calls it, “a radical departure” from decades of U.S. maritime drug-interdiction practice.
Serious Legal and Human-Rights Implications: U.S. law authorizes interdiction of illegal drugs, not summary execution. “There’s a word in English for an act like this,” Walsh warns. “That word is murder.” International law allows the use of force only in self-defense or with the approval of the UN Security Council—neither applies. U.S. law and policy, too, prohibit the use of lethal force on civilians without a self-defense justification. That is so even if those civilians are labeled “terrorists,” if there is no link to the September 11, 2001 attacks, and no explicit congressional authorization for the use of force.
The Venezuela Context: After fraudulent July 2024 elections, Nicolás Maduro governs without legitimacy, with widespread persecution and what Dib calls “reasons to believe that crimes against humanity have been committed.” There is also a clear connection between large-scale corruption and the complex humanitarian emergency in which the country is immersed. Criminal economies flourish in a regime of state-embedded drug trafficking, but Venezuela is not the busiest route for U.S.-bound cocaine.
The Reality of the U.S. Drug Overdose Crisis: The U.S. overdose emergency is driven by fentanyl and other opioids “that come almost entirely through Mexico,” Walsh notes, “with zero to do with anything in the Caribbean.” At least as of 2022, 80 percent of cocaine also transits the Pacific route via Central America and Mexico, not the Caribbean.
U.S. Political Calculations: Trump administration officials boast of the strike and hint at more. They frame Venezuela as a “narco-terror” threat while simultaneously maintaining oil licenses, cooperating on deportations, and even meeting with Maduro earlier this year. Walsh warns the move feeds a domestic narrative of an “invasion” of migrants and organized crime groups to justify domestic use of emergency powers.
Regional and Global Fallout: Some Latin American governments show “striking silence,” Dib observes, torn between defending sovereignty and condemning Maduro’s abuses. The OAS and UN have issued only mild calls for de-escalation, reflecting both U.S. pressure and Venezuela’s authoritarian reality.
Both guests outline alternatives:
Cut the Financial Lifelines: Dib calls for re-establishing the Justice Department’s Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative to seize billions in stolen Venezuelan assets. The U.S. government should coordinate more closely with Europe and Latin America to track the proceeds of corruption and undermine the economic pillar of support for authoritarian governments with connections to illicit economies.
Support Civil Society and Rule of Law: It is urgent to restore programming previously administered by USAID that sustains independent journalism and human-rights groups now operating under threat, and to use universal-jurisdiction statutes to prosecute Venezuelan officials responsible for torture or other grave abuses.
Address U.S. Drug Demand at Home: Expand and strengthen harm-reduction and treatment—naloxone distribution, methadone access—that have begun to lower overdose deaths. Reject the false promise of militarized interdiction that decades of evidence show to be ineffective and costly.
As Isacson sums up, “From overdose prevention to supporting civil society in Venezuela to curbing illicit financial flows…the administration is taking key tools out of its toolbox” while swinging a military sledgehammer.
Other resources from WOLA:
- September 8 - Q&A: Tension between Venezuela and the United States: between truth and theater
- September 3 - Lethal U.S. military strike on alleged drug traffickers sets a dangerous precedent in the “war on drugs”
- August 14 - One year since the presidential election of July 28, 2024: the Venezuelan crisis
August 13 - Five Reasons Why Trump’s Anti-Cartel Military Plan Will Fail
Since January, the United States’ migrant detention and deportation system, which was already troubled, has become increasingly opaque. Access to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities is restricted, internal oversight agencies have been hollowed out, and credible information about conditions inside is scarce. Yet reports that have emerged, some from those who have recently been deported, tell a troubling story echoing the darkest moments of recent U.S. immigration history.
In late July and early August, researchers from WOLA and the Women’s Refugee Commission (WRC) set out to pierce this “black box” by visiting cities in Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico that are key deportation hubs. There, they interviewed deported migrants, service providers, advocates, experts, and government officials to learn what they are hearing about conditions in U.S. detention.
The findings are disturbing. They point to a resurgence of family separations, cruel treatment, miserable, unhealthy conditions, and deportation processes that violate migrants’ rights and dignity. With transparency mechanisms dismantled, these abuses are happening out of public view.
In this episode, host Adam Isacson talks with two colleagues from WRC with whom he traveled:
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Zain Lakhani, WRC’s director of Migrant Rights and Justice.
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Diana Flórez, a consultant to WRC, an attorney and expert on gender, transitional justice, development, and peacebuilding.
During their travels, Isacson, Lakhani, and Flórez shared photos and initial findings in four “dispatches” published to our organizations’ websites, from Honduras, Guatemala, Tapachula, and Ciudad Juárez.
We heard consistent accounts of:
- Family separations: A larger number than expected of parents deported without U.S. citizen children, often without being given the choice of being removed with them. The crisis is approaching the scale of the “zero tolerance” family separations that shocked the nation in 2018.
- Inhumane conditions: Overcrowded cells, lack of medical care, and verbal and physical abuse by guards.
- Threats to the health of pregnant and lactating women and their children: Insufficient and poor-quality food, difficulty in obtaining medical attention, and even being forced to sleep on floors. (The podcast refers to a July 30 report on abuse in detention, especially of pregnant women and children, by the office of Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Georgia).)
- Targeting of vulnerable populations: Harassment of LGBTQ+ individuals, especially trans individuals who are now detained with the gender to which they were assigned at birth.
As Lakhani notes, “Historically… we were able to enter detention centers and visit them and speak with migrants,” but “now we’re seeing the deliberate creation of a black box.”
We hope that the WOLA–WRC delegation’s findings will guide future, more intensive on-the-ground research enabling advocates to refer egregious abuses requiring legal action, build a rigorous archive of known cases, and inform public opinion and policymakers.
Nearly three years into President Gustavo Petro’s term, his flagship “Total Peace” initiative is faltering. On this episode of the WOLA Podcast, Gimena Sánchez-Garzoli, WOLA’s Director for the Andes, provides a sweeping overview of Colombia’s peace and security reality.
A Special Pride Month Episode This special Pride Month episode brings together the voices of six LGBTIQ+ activists from across Latin America—Mexico, Honduras, Colombia, Venezuela, and El Salvador—who share their experiences as leaders in the fight for equality and justice. Through their stories, we explore what Pride means in contexts of resistance, the state of LGBTIQ+ rights across the region, and the ongoing work to build more inclusive societies.
This special Pride Month episode brings together the voices of six LGBTIQ+ activists from across Latin America—Mexico, Honduras, Colombia, Venezuela, and El Salvador—who share their experiences as leaders in the fight for equality and justice. Through their stories, we explore what Pride means in contexts of resistance, the state of LGBTIQ+ rights across the region, and the ongoing work to build more inclusive societies.
In the wake of escalating immigration enforcement targeting vulnerable migrant communities, this Pride Month episode brings essential perspective from the frontlines. We sit down with Brigitte Baltazar Lujano, a trans woman who herself experienced deportation and now leads critical advocacy and service work for LGBTQ+ migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border with the Tijuana and San Diego-based organization Al Otro Lado.
For the second year in a row, what had been an uneventful, consensus-driven United Nations meeting on drug policy saw unexpected drama and signs of real change.
At the 68th session of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) in Vienna in March 2025, governments approved the formation of an independent expert commission to recommend changes to the architecture of global drug policy, which has changed little since the early 1960s.
Colombia again played a catalytic role, as it did in 2024. But this time, the United States—under the new Trump administration—tried to block nearly everything, isolating itself diplomatically in the process.
In this episode of the WOLA Podcast, Adam Isacson speaks with three experts who were in Vienna:
- Ann Fordham, Executive Director of the International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC), a network of 195 organizations working to reform global drug policy.
- Isabel Pereira, Senior Coordinator for drug policy at DeJusticia, a Bogotá-based think tank and advocacy group.
- John Walsh, WOLA’s Director for Drug Policy, who has tracked the UN’s drug control system since the 1980s.
The conversation traces the slow evolution of the UN drug control system—from decades of punitive consensus to today’s shifting coalitions, unprecedented votes, and long-overdue reviews.
Much of the episode centers on a breakthrough: a new resolution establishing an “independent external review” of the UN’s own drug control institutions. For years, countries like Colombia have called for an honest assessment of the system’s failings. Now, thanks to a resolution spearheaded by Colombia and passed over U.S. opposition, that review is happening. The details still matter: how independent the expert panel will truly be, who funds it, and whether the review can influence the hard architecture of the drug control treaties.
“Vienna was very much a space where delegates would just pat each other on the back on how well we’re doing the war on drugs,” Pereira said. “The spirit of Vienna created a sort of lockdown situation on debate, true debate,” added Walsh. “Civil society enlivened the Vienna atmosphere” in recent years, he noted, “with new debates, new arguments.” Now, this international space has become more dynamic.
The guests also discuss coca leaf: its decades-old listing as a Schedule I narcotic, Bolivia’s and Colombia’s ongoing push for a scientific review, and the possibility of a pivotal vote in 2026. They stress how traditional knowledge—especially from Indigenous communities—must be recognized as legitimate scientific input during that review.
Underlying it all is a major diplomatic shift. Colombia is using the UN system to demand drug policy grounded in health, human rights, and development—not militarized prohibition. But with Petro’s term ending in 2026, it’s unclear who will pick up the baton.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration is signaling a return to zero-tolerance drug war policies—and burning bridges with potential allies in the process. “They behaved so terribly. I mean, they broke with all diplomatic niceties,” said Fordham. “The U.S. just went for it in their opening statement… It was frankly an embarrassing, but also pretty shocking statement.”
Despite the uncertainty, all three guests agree: civil society is no longer on the sidelines. NGOs and experts are shaping debates, challenging rigid thinking in Vienna, and holding governments to account.
**This podcast is in Spanish. Stay tuned for an English summary!
Este Mes de la Mujer, en WOLA lanzamos una serie especial de nuestro podcast para amplificar voces feministas que luchan por los derechos humanos en América Latina. En nuestro último episodio, conversamos con Ruth López, directora del programa de anticorrupción en Cristosal, sobre su trabajo en la lucha contra la corrupción y el autoritarismo en El Salvador.
Nuestra invitada
Ruth López es abogada, defensora de los derechos humanos y directora del programa de anticorrupción de Cristosal, una organización que trabaja en la promoción de derechos humanos, estado de derecho y la lucha contra la corrupción en El Salvador. Ruth ha sido reconocida por su valentía y liderazgo en la defensa de los derechos humanos en un contexto difícil, y fue incluida en la lista de las 100 mujeres más influyentes de 2024 de la BBC. Su trabajo se centra en la lucha por la justicia, la transparencia y el respeto de los derechos humanos en El Salvador, donde el autoritarismo y la corrupción están afectando el ejercicio de derechos fundamentales.
On March 15, 2025 President Donald Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 for only the fourth time in U.S. history. The target, this time, is citizens of Venezuela. His administration sent hundreds out of the country on the merest suspicion of ties to a criminal organization, the Tren de Aragua. In this explainer episode recorded on March 21, with help from WOLA’s Venezuela Director Laura Dib and Central America Director Ana María Méndez Dardón, Defense Oversight Director Adam Isacson walks through what has happened over the past six dark days in U.S. history.
- The Alien Enemies Act did not use any standard of due process, and many of those sent out of the country, it is now very apparent, were documented in the United States and were not guilty of anything. All it took was for U.S. agents to decide that they did not like the way these young men looked.
- The Trump administration ignored a clear order from a federal judge to turn the planes around, and is now resisting that judge’s demands for information. The result is one of the most severe constitutional crises in U.S. history, which is unresolved as of March 21st.
- Rather than simply deport them, the planes took 238 citizens of Venezuela straight to El Salvador, where authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele took them straight to a notorious mega-prison where those inside are cut off from the outside world and never seem to emerge.
This alarming story is far from over, but this episode lays out some of the most pertinent facts and context in half an hour.
This Women's Month, WOLA launched a special podcast series to amplify feminist voices fighting for human rights in Latin America.
Our second episode was our first-ever Spanish-language episode. Our president, Carolina Jiménez Sandoval, spoke with Quimy de León (Guatemala) and Sofía López Mera (Colombia), two feminist communicators and human rights defenders.
We explored the crucial role of communication in human rights advocacy and how to approach it from a feminist perspective. We also discussed the additional challenges women in this field face, from gender-based violence to censorship.
This episode is an English recap of that conversation.
Our Guests Sofía López Mera is a journalist, lawyer, and human rights defender in Colombia. She works at the Corporación Justicia y Dignidad and is a member of the National Movement of Mothers and Women for Peace. Her work focuses on supporting grassroots communities affected by armed conflict, using popular communication as a key tool for organizing, mobilizing, and raising awareness about human rights. As a mother, she deeply understands the challenges women face in human rights advocacy and therefore embraces a feminist approach in her work.
Quimy de León is a journalist, doctor, and historian from Guatemala with over 20 years of experience. She is the founder and director of Prensa Comunitaria, an alternative media outlet covering environmental issues, human rights, and the impact of extractivism on Indigenous communities in Guatemala. She also founded La Ruda, a feminist digital magazine focused on sexual and reproductive rights. In 2024, she was awarded the Press Freedom Prize by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) for her bravery and commitment to community journalism in Guatemala.
**This podcast is in Spanish. Stay tuned for an English summary!
Este Mes de la Mujer, en WOLA lanzamos una serie especial de nuestro podcast para amplificar voces feministas que luchan por los derechos humanos en América Latina. En nuestro segundo episodio, hablamos sobre comunicación, defensa de derechos humanos y feminismo.
En nuestro primer episodio en español, nuestra presidenta, Carolina Jiménez Sandoval, conversó con Quimy de León (Guatemala) y Sofía López Mera (Colombia), dos comunicadoras feministas y defensoras de derechos humanos.
Hablamos sobre el papel fundamental de la comunicación en la defensa de los derechos humanos y cómo hacerlo desde un enfoque feminista. También discutimos los desafíos adicionales que enfrentan las mujeres que se dedican a este trabajo, desde la violencia de género hasta la censura.
🎧 Escucha el episodio y únete a la conversación.
Nuestras invitadas: 🔹 Sofía López Mera es periodista, abogada y defensora de derechos humanos en Colombia. Trabaja en la Corporación Justicia y Dignidad y es miembro del Movimiento Nacional de Madres y Mujeres por la Paz. Su labor se centra en acompañar a comunidades de base afectadas por la violencia del conflicto armado, utilizando la comunicación popular como una herramienta clave para organizar, movilizar y generar conciencia sobre los derechos de las personas. Como madre, entiende profundamente los desafíos que enfrentan las mujeres en la defensa de derechos y, por eso, apuesta por un enfoque feminista en su trabajo.
🔹 Quimy de León es periodista, médica e historiadora guatemalteca con más de 20 años de experiencia. Es fundadora y directora de la Prensa Comunitaria, un medio alternativo que cubre temas ambientales, derechos humanos y el impacto del extractivismo en comunidades indígenas en Guatemala. También fundó La Ruda, una revista digital feminista centrada en los derechos sexuales y reproductivos. En 2024, fue reconocida con el Premio a la Libertad de Prensa del Comité para la Protección de los Periodistas (CPJ) por su valentía y compromiso con el periodismo comunitario en Guatemala.
To kick off our series for International Women’s Month, we sat down with WOLA President Carolina Jiménez Sandoval to discuss gender justice in the Americas. In this episode of the WOLA Weekly Podcast, Carolina reflects on her decades of experience as a human rights advocate and the crucial role of feminist movements in defending democracy.
As President of WOLA, Carolina has chosen to make gender justice a strategic priority of the organization. In the interview, She shares with us her perspective on the troubling backlash against gender rights, why these rollbacks signal a deeper threat to democracy itself, and what WOLA is doing to fight back. Despite her analysis of a very difficult moment in history, she leaves us with a hopeful message: to remember the achievements of women from our past and to draw inspiration from their struggles.
Tune in for an inspiring conversation on resistance, resilience, and the power of women.
In an expected but still stunning escalation, the Trump administration has imposed 25 percent tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada, citing cross-border flows of fentanyl as justification. The move has sent shockwaves through U.S.-Mexico and North American relations, rattling markets and generating a general outcry.
In this episode, Stephanie Brewer, WOLA’s director for Mexico, and John Walsh, WOLA’s director for drug policy, unpack the political, economic, and security implications of the tariff imposition and an apparent return to failed attempts to stop drug abuse and drug trafficking through brute force.
Brewer breaks down how the tariffs and other new hardline policies, like terrorist designations for Mexican criminal groups and fast-tracked extraditions, are reshaping and severely straining the bilateral relationship.
Walsh explains why Trump’s focus on supply-side crackdowns is doomed to fail, drawing on decades of evidence from past U.S. drug wars. He lays out a harm reduction strategy that would save far more lives.
The conversation concludes with an open question: is Donald Trump really interested in a negotiation with Mexico? Or is the goal a permanent state of coercion, which would explain the lack of stated benchmarks for lifting the tariffs?
Links: * See Brewer and Walsh’s February 14, 2025 Q&A on “Tariffs, Fentanyl, and Migration: Updates on U.S.-Mexico Relations after Trump’s First Month in Office.“ * They covered this territory in a December 5, 2024 podcast episode, shortly after Trump—then the president elect—first signaled his intention to impose tariffs. * The December 5 podcast also came with a Q&A: “Trump’s Threats of Tariffs as a Response to Migration and the Fentanyl Overdose Crisis.” * From the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: CDC Reports Nearly 24% Decline in U.S. Drug Overdose Deaths, February 25, 2025 * From The Hill: Trump tariffs part of ‘drug war,’ not ‘trade war’: Commerce secretary, March 4, 2025
In the five weeks since Donald Trump’s inauguration, the landscape for migrants and asylum seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border has shifted dramatically. The new administration is pursuing an aggressive crackdown on asylum seekers, closing legal pathways and ramping up deportations. Migrants who had secured appointments through the CBP One app under the Biden administration found those suddenly canceled. Many are now stranded in Mexico, left in legal limbo and vulnerable to exploitation and danger. The administration is meanwhile increasing its deportations into Mexico of thousands of migrants from Mexico and elsewhere.
This episode takes a deep dive into the current situation in Nogales, Sonora, where asylum seekers and deported individuals are facing increasing hardship and uncertainty. We speak with three frontline experts from the Kino Border Initiative (KBI), an organization providing humanitarian aid, advocacy, and psychosocial support to migrants in crisis.
Our guests—Karen Hernández, KBI’s advocacy coordinator; Bernie Eguia, coordinator of psychosocial support; and Diana Fajardo, a psychologist working with recently deported individuals—share firsthand accounts of the humanitarian crisis. They describe:
- The immediate impact of Trump’s policies, including the January 20 mass cancellation of CBP One asylum appointments and a coming surge in deportations.
- How migrants from Haiti, Venezuela, Mexico, and elsewhere are left with dwindling options inside Mexico, facing threats from organized crime, unsafe conditions, and legal roadblocks to seeking refuge.
- The role of the Mexican government, which is now receiving deportees under an opaque and militarized process, keeping humanitarian groups at arm’s length.
- The psychological toll of displacement, uncertainty, and family separation—and how organizations like KBI are working to provide support amid shrinking resources.
Despite the bleak reality, our guests emphasize the resilience of the people they serve. Even in desperate moments, migrants are holding onto hope and searching for ways to protect themselves and their families. But without systemic change, there is only so much that can be done to relieve suffering.
While recalling the urgent need for humane policies that prioritize protection over deterrence, this conversation underscores the crucial role of organizations like KBI in providing aid and advocating for migrants’ rights.
The director of WOLA’s Venezuela Program, Laura Dib, joins the podcast to discuss the political, human rights, and diplomatic reality following Nicolás Maduro’s January 10 inauguration. Maduro’s new term begins amid severe tensions, as he plainly lost July 28, 2024 presidential elections and has employed waves of repression, including rounding up and in some cases forcibly disappearing political prisoners, to deny the result.
Despite the context of repression and intimidation, Laura underscores that on January 9 Venezuelans still took part in 157 reported protests, including one with the participation of opposition leader María Corina Machado, who is in hiding. The response was further crackdowns, including the temporary detention of María Corina, the enforced disappearance of the son in law of the election’s true winner Edmundo González Urrutia, and the enforced disappearance of Carlos Correa, director of NGO Espacio Público, who was recently released after being missing for nine days.
With repression worsening and space closing for civil society—particularly through implementation of a harsh new NGO law—it is difficult to perceive a path forward. Laura emphasizes, however, the remaining areas of hope; possible cracks within the ruling coalition, significant consensus within the international community, and the persistent bravery of Venezuela’s civil society and diaspora. Laura acknowledges the complexities of the deep-rooted corruption and private sector ties that make Maduro’s hermetic regime difficult to assess and counter.
She also discusses the confused and contradictory nature of the new Trump administration’s likely approach to Venezuela. A transactionally minded president uninterested in democracy promotion is leading a group of officials with different, and potentially clashing, priorities: some are staunchly “anti-communist” but others are focused on stopping migration and enabling deportations to Venezuela.
Laura also discusses the complexities of sanctions, economic collapse, and Venezuela’s relations with its neighbors. The episode ends with a strong call for the international community to focus its efforts on supporting Venezuelan civil society and preserving the civic space that exists.
For more up-to-date information, read Laura Dib’s commentary “Venezuela: Authoritarianism and Resistance”; a commentary by Carolina Jiménez, President of WOLA, “Venezuela between repression and resistance,” and watch WOLA’s recent event, “Autoritarismo y Resistencia: Análisis de la Situación en Venezuela.”
In this podcast episode WOLA’s Central America Director, Ana María Méndez Dardón, reflects on Bernardo Arevalo’s first year in office, as January 14, 2025 marks one year since the inauguration that followed his unexpected election.
As we discussed with Ana María in a podcast episode shortly after his inauguration, Bernardo Arevalo and his Semilla party had a very difficult time reaching inauguration day, notably due to active obstruction from Guatemala’s traditional, ruling elites, including the Attorney General’s Office. While citizen mobilization, largely indigenous groups’ mobilization, made it possible for Arevalo to democratically take office, the difficulties he and his party faced back then have remained, making it difficult to govern and, in turn, negatively affecting his popularity due to unmet expectations.
Three prominent obstacles that the Arevalo administration will continue to face from his first year to his second, Ana María highlights, are the office of the Attorney General and the powerful presence of other known corrupt actors within the government; the instability of his cabinet paired with a small presence of his party in Congress; and the powerful private sector’s ties to corrupt elite groups.
The Attorney General’s office has played an active role in blocking access to justice and promoting the persecution and criminalization of those who have been key to anti-corruption and human rights efforts, while maintaining the threat of forcibly removing Arevalo from office. Although Attorney General Consuelo Porras was sanctioned by the United States, along with 42 other countries, for significant corruption, Arevalo has determined that removing her would violate constitutional norms. (Her term ends in May 2026.) Ana María also notes alliances that Porras has cultivated with members of the U.S. Republican Party.
Despite the obstacles, Ana María notes possibilities for growth, including the launch of an alternative business association, a new national anti-extortion effort, and negotiation efforts with Congress.
Ana María also touches on the U.S.-Guatemala bilateral relationship during the Biden administration and expectations for the Trump-Arevalo relationship. During the Biden administration, it was evident that security and economic issues were top priorities, with notable bilateral engagement including multi-sectoral and multi-departmental efforts led by the Office of the Vice President to address the root causes of migration. It is uncertain whether the Trump administration will continue these efforts, and while some Republicans regard Arevalo as a strong democratic ally, the migration issue, particularly the incoming Trump administration's plans to deter and deport migrants, may be the topline item in the bilateral relationship.
To follow Guatemalan developments, Ana María recommends independent media including Plaza Pública, Con Criterio, and Prensa Comunitaria.
WOLA’s director for Colombia, Gimena Sánchez-Garzoli, is just back from taking a U.S. congressional delegation to Colombia. In addition to Bogotá, the group visited Cali and the Pacific Coast port of Buenaventura.
The latter two cities are in the department of Valle del Cauca, Colombia’s third most populous. Much of the population is Afro-descendant, and Buenaventura, on the coast is majority Black.
Buenaventura has a vibrant and resilient array of community organizations that has played a greater role in local governance since a 2017 general strike. The government of Gustavo Petro, which took office in 2022, has fostered a negotiation between gangs operating in the city, part of its nationwide “total peace” policy.
As at the national level, the results are mixed. The Petro government has sought to move forward many negotiations at once, and some are stalled. Implementation of the 2016 peace accord with the FARC suffers from bureaucratization and lack of organization more than from lack of political will. Rural areas are especially challenged: armed groups are strengthening in some areas, and the humanitarian situation has hit emergency levels all along Colombia’s Pacific coast. The election of Donald Trump may presage a U.S. administration urging a return to failed hardline approaches of the past.
Still, Gimena sees hope in urban, participatory peacebuilding efforts in places like Buenaventura, Medellín, and in Quibdó, the capital of Chocó. The remarkable resilience and persistence of Colombia’s civil society, including Afro-Colombian and Indigenous communities in and near Valle del Cauca, continue to be a source of inspiration and innovation.
On November 25, President-Elect Donald Trump announced via social media that he would impose a 25 percent tariff on all imports from Mexico and Canada unless migration and fentanyl trafficking ceased entirely. The announcement caused widespread alarm, spurring a flurry of responses and an unclear conversation between Trump and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum.
The event was instructive about what we might expect after Trump assumes the presidency in January, observe WOLA Director for Mexico Stephanie Brewer and Director for Drug Policy John Walsh.
Brewer explained the "tariff threat" incident, how it plays into the political agendas of both Trump and Sheinbaum, and the danger of doing serious damage to a multifaceted, interdependent bilateral relationship.
Host Adam Isacson, who covers border and migration policy at WOLA, joined the discussion to point out that Trump seeks to bully Mexico into carrying out a crackdown on migration that has, in fact, already been underway for some time with serious human rights implications.
Walsh observed that demands on Mexico to crack down on fentanyl threaten a reversion to supply-side, prohibitionist approaches to a complex drug problem that not only haven't worked over the past 50 years, but may in fact have ceded much control to armed and criminal groups.
The U.S.-Mexico border, and the bilateral relationship, may be marked by these episodes of threat and bluster for much of the next few years. Weathering this period will require civil society in both the United States and Mexico to play an aggressive role, demanding "steadiness, focus on facts, keeping things grounded in reality," and never losing sight of what better migration and drug policies would look like.
This episode was recorded three days after Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election. It brings together WOLA’s president, Carolina Jiménez Sandoval, Vice President for Programs Maureen Meyer, and Director for Defense Oversight Adam Isacson. Together, they possess a combined seven decades of experience working on human rights, democracy, and U.S. policy toward Latin America. All worked on these issues, plus borders and migration, through the first Trump administration.
Maureen, Carolina, and Adam discuss what Trump’s win means for democratic backsliding and relationships with authoritarian governments region-wide, as well as for migration policy, drug policy, cooperation with Mexico, and U.S. foreign aid and security programs.
Both Maureen and Carolina emphasize the importance of journalists, human rights defenders, advocacy groups, and other elements of civil society. Their role in protecting checks and balances and promoting accountability has never been more crucial. The civic space that they need to do their work is at great risk of closure amid attacks on independent media, disinformation, and threats of retribution emanating from the president-elect and his allies.
They note that a Trump presidency will probably reverse the U.S. government’s uneven but improving record as a force helping to shore up democratic rule, which has been eroding in the region and worldwide. Guatemala—where the presence or absence of U.S. support has been crucial for fair elections and anti-corruption efforts—is a key example. The incoming administration’s transactional, ideological stance risks withdrawing support for democratic rule, empowering autocrats with severe consequences for basic rights.
While the Biden administration curtailed access to asylum and did little to improve accountability for U.S. border forces’ human rights abuses, Maureen, Carolina, and Adam warn that Trump’s plans for the border and immigration could indelibly stain the United States. The president-elect’s proposed policies—closing migration pathways, “mass deportation,” militarization of border security—threaten to cause mass suffering and greatly complicate U.S. relations with Mexico and other regional governments.
Humanitarian organizations on the border, migrant shelters, and legal service providers, they point out, are especially in need of solidarity as they are now at risk of being targeted on a federal level, as Texas’s government has sought to do at the state level.
Carolina recalls that “WOLA has survived for over 50 years because we are part of an ecosystem that is under threat but resilient… It's time to stick together and support each other and to do our work with more commitment and more energy than ever.”
Adam adds, “Times like these are the reason we exist… Stay with us.”
Thank you for listening, and take care of yourself and your community.
In September 2024, Mexico’s legislature quickly approved a series of constitutional reforms at the behest of outgoing president Andrés Manuel López Obrador. The revisions, among other things, fundamentally change the nature of the country’s judiciary and fundamentally and permanently change the role of the armed forces in public security.
Under the overhaul of Mexico’s judiciary, citizens will now directly elect all judges, increasing the likelihood of eroding the judicial branch’s independence. That, in turn, could complicate accountability for organized crime activity, corruption, and human rights abuses.
Another reform places the National Guard, a recently created internal security force whose members are mostly former soldiers, directly within the Defense Ministry. This further cements significant increases in military participation in internal security, immigration control, public works, and the economy during the López Obrador administration.
These changes pose likely setbacks to the struggle to hold people and institutions accountable for human rights abuse and corruption, and they threaten to weaken the quality of Mexico’s democracy.
In this episode, WOLA’s director for Mexico, Stephanie Brewer, and Lisa Sanchez, the director of México Unido Contra la Delincuencia (MUCD), explain the constitutional reforms and their likely consequences.
“This particular constitutional reform fully militarized public security at the federal level by turning the National Guard into a fourth armed force,” said Sánchez. “What we did was to fully and permanently militarize public security at the federal level in Mexico for good.”
While these reforms are not a “fatal blow” for Mexico’s democracy, Brewer pointed out, they create even more adverse conditions for “victims, survivors, family members, civil society, NGOs, and others” working for rights and justice in the country. “They really need our attention, and our support from the international community. We need to be listening to their voices.”
- From WOLA: Judicial Reform in Mexico: A Setback for Human Rights (Español)
- From MUCD: Reforma de Guardia Nacional concreta estrategia militarista; la democracia está en riesgo; Recursos sobre la militarización
This podcast episode features Kendra McSweeney and Fritz Pinnow, part of a team investigating a new trend: the emergence of coca cultivation in Central America.
McSweeney, a professor of geography at Ohio State University, has research human-environment interactions, cultural and political ecology, conservation and development, resilience, demography, and land use/cover change. Pinnow is a Honduras-based journalist and documentary photographer specializing in illicit economies, violence and development in Central America.
Photo credit: Fritz Pinnow
McSweeney and colleagues have published an article in the journal Environmental Research Letters examining the recent and growing appearance of coca leaf cultivation in Central America, a crop historically associated with the Andean region. McSweeney and Pinnow discuss the environmental and market conditions driving coca cultivation in Honduras and Guatemala. They note that those attempting coca cultivation in the region have competitive advantages over Colombian growers, such as more favorable growing conditions.
They stress that it would be a serious error to respond to this phenomenon with another forced eradication program. Past crop-eradication strategies, which have almost always been uncoordinated with governance, rule of law, basic services, land formalization, or anti-poverty efforts, have failed and in fact ended up encouraging the planting of coca in new areas.
The drug trade, McSweeney and Pinnow state, gains much of its power and wealth from the price premium made possible by the coca plant’s illegality. The inflated prices make it very difficult to offer viable economic alternatives in poor rural areas. “Current drug policy,” McSweeney says, “systematically undermines any other efforts at rural or urban development in these countries.”
“If we’ve learned anything from supply side drug control in South America, it’s that eradicating coca crops and trying to shut down trafficking organizations, and trying to shut down the cartels, and trying to go after the Pablo Escobar’s and their successors– it generates a lot of Netflix content, but it doesn't do anything to reduce the amount of drugs that make it into the United States and other countries… What we’ve seen from these approaches and after 40 years of the drug war and billions of dollars spent to eradicate the cocaine trade is more coca being produced in Colombia than ever before, more places with coca being produced, the price of cocaine is lower than it's been in decades, the quality of the cocaine is the highest it's ever been, and it's easier to get than it ever was before.”
To stay engaged with drug war reform, McSweeney and Pinnow recommend connecting with Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP) and The Centre for the Study of Illicit Economies, Violence and Development (CIVAD).
WOLA’s President Carolina Jimenez Sandoval is joined by Laura Cristina Dib, WOLA’s director for Venezuela to discuss the state of Venezuela since Nicolás Maduro’s self proclaimed and highly contested July 28 electoral victory. This is a continuation of WOLA’s July 30 podcast, “The Scrutiny Should Be Public to All Citizens:” the aftermath of Venezuela’s July election, with Laura Dib.
Carolina and Laura discuss events since Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE) declared President Nicolás Maduro the winner by a 51 to 44 percent margin, denied publishing a breakdown of the vote, and suspended the auditing process. The Venezuelan opposition published most official voting tally sheets on an independent website showing opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia’s electoral victory with 67 percent of the vote (verified by independent media outlets).
Carolina and Laura explain the varying forms of resistance and outcry by Venezuelan citizens, the Venezuelan diaspora, and the international community, and the extreme forms of repression with which the government has responded, including over 1,500 detentions including 129 minors, 23 homicides, passport annulments, social media bans, and a new NGO restriction law.
On July 28, 2024, Venezuela held a long-awaited presidential election. More than 25 years after Hugo Chávez was first elected, his successor, Nicolas Maduro, ran for a third term. The opposition coalesced around a candidate; despite many obstacles, the opposition had a big enthusiasm advantage, and turnout on July 28th was very high.
In the end, though, Venezuela’s national elections authority declared Maduro the victor, without offering any detail about the vote. As we record this, street protests appear to be intensifying and governments around the region are demanding more transparency about the count.
Laura Dib, the director of WOLA’s Venezuela program, explains here what is happening and what is at stake for the Venezuelan people and for the international community.
On March 14-22, 2024, the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) held its 67th annual session in Vienna, Austria. The session saw a landmark vote that may have important repercussions for drug policy, in Latin America and elsewhere.
The commission approved a U.S.-led resolution encouraging countries to implement “harm reduction” measures to respond to drug overdoses and to protect public health.
The vote marks a major breakthrough in civil society’s decades-long advocacy to center harm reduction, especially since the U.S. government has a history of blocking all such resolutions, and since the Commission has a longstanding tradition of enactment by a “Vienna Consensus” without votes.
This episode features three guests who helped lead civil society’s robust participation at the CND:
- Ann Fordham, executive director of International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC)
- Lisa Sanchez, executive director of México Unido Contra la Delincuencia (MUCD)
- John Walsh, director for drug policy and the Andes at WOLA
The three experts underscore that while the vote on this resolution was a major win in the civil society-led harm reduction fight, it is just one milestone along a longer journey. The fight must continue to ensure this sets the foundation for an international drug policy that truly prioritizes protecting people, views drug addiction as a public health and not a national security issue, and moves away from the normative framework of achieving a “drug free society” through punitive measures and prohibition.
“The prohibition regime has tried to make itself inevitable and ‘forever,’ and that’s not the case… There's no reason to think that it needs to last forever. In fact, as we said, it was a misfit from the very beginning,” says John Walsh. “Drug use has always existed, it always will. To suggest that we're going to create a ‘drug-free world’ is not only futile, but it's downright dangerous because of its consequences… I think this is an opening to think more broadly about not just the UN drug policy space, but what governments need to do for the health, safety, and well-being of their populations.”
El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele just won re-election by a broad margin as a massive security crackdown has reduced gangs’ role in everyday life. But the increasingly authoritarian “Bukele model” has a big long-term downside, Douglas Farah explains.
It has been almost a month since Nayib Bukele was reelected as President of El Salvador by a very wide margin, despite a constitutional prohibition on re-election. While security gains and a constant communications blitz have made Bukele popular, our guest, Douglas Farah of IBI Consultants, highlights some grave concerns about the “Bukele Model” and where it is headed.
Among these: pursuit of an “authoritarian playbook” common to many 21st-century political movements, with eroding checks and balances; vastly weakened transparency over government activities; a complicated relationship with gangs and their integration into the political structure; an unsustainable reliance on mass incarceration; and erosion of the independence and professionalism of the police, military, and judiciary.
In this episode, Farah argues:
- The success of Bukele’s security model may not be as pronounced as is publicly accepted.
- The human rights cost is very high, with about 75,000 people arrested, far more than earlier estimates of gang membership.
- Bukele’s model uses elements from the “authoritarian playbook,” including undoing public access laws, eliminating accountability for government spending, consolidating media control, threatening independent media, and relying on armies of social media accounts and traditional media outlets to dominate the political conversation.
- Toleration of human rights abuse and corruption has undone a police reform that was a key element of the country’s 1992 peace accords.
- MS-13 is not defeated: its leaders avoid extradition while maintaining close relationships with authorities, while some of its affiliates serve as legislative “alternates.”
- The influence of China is real but probably overstated, as the country offers few resources and little overall strategic value.
- While it does not make strategic sense to criticize the popular president frontally, the Biden administration needs to be more consistent and less timid in its critique of specific policies and anti-democratic trends.
Douglas Farah is President of IBI Consultants, a research consultancy that offers many of its products online. He was formerly bureau chief of United Press International in El Salvador, a staff correspondent for The Washington Post, and a senior visiting fellow at the National Defense University's Center for Strategic Research. He is a 1995 recipient of the Columbia Journalism School’s Maria Moors Cabot Prize for outstanding coverage of Latin America.
A January outbreak of criminal violence in Ecuador made headlines worldwide. Now, a new government is cracking down in ways that recall other countries' "mano dura" policies, and the U.S. government stands ready to help. Is this the right way forward?
While this isn’t the first time Ecuador’s government has declared a state of exception, the prominence of organized crime and the consequential rise in insecurity is a new reality for the country. Ecuador has seen a six-fold homicide rate increase in three years; it now South America’s worst, and Ecuadorians are the second nationality, behind Venezuelans, fleeing through the Darién Gap.
How did this happen? How can Ecuador’s government, civil society, and the international community address it?
This episode features International Crisis Group Fellow and author of the recent report Ecuador’s Descent Into Chaos, Glaeldys Gonzalez Calanche, and John Walsh, WOLA’s director for drug policy and the Andes. The discussion covers how Ecuador suddenly reached such high levels of insecurity, the implications of President Daniel Noboa’s state of emergency and “state of internal armed conflict” declarations, an evaluation of international drug markets and state responses, and a look at U.S. policy.
Gonzalez attributes the lead-up to Ecuador’s violent new reality to three factors:
- Ecuador’s gradual transition into a position of high importance in the international drug trade.
- The prison system crisis and the government’s incapacity to address it.
- The fragmentation of Ecuadorian criminal groups after the demobilization of Colombia’s FARC and the decline of Los Choneros, a criminal group with former hegemonic control.
Gonzalez describes the state of emergency as “a band-aid solution to control the situation now, but not looking really to tackle these structural problems.”
Walsh describes Ecuador’s case as a “wake up call” to the consequences of the drug war prohibitionist approach: “This isn’t just a drug policy question. This is a question about democracies delivering on the basic needs of their citizens, which is security. And I think prohibition in the drug war doesn’t support security. It tends to undermine it.” John calls on the international community to recognize this as a humanitarian issue as well, indicating that “people are basically held hostage. Not in their house, but in their whole community.”
After relentless attempts to block his inauguration and a nine-hour delay, Bernardo Arévalo, who ran for Guatemala’s presidency on an anti-corruption platform, was sworn into office minutes after midnight on January 14.
In this highly educational episode, WOLA Director for Central America Ana María Méndez Dardón is joined by WOLA Senior Fellow Jo-Marie Burt. Both were in Guatemala witnessing the high-tension event that was Arévalo’s inauguration. They cover the frustration, excitement, and symbolism that characterized the day, while also diving into a host of topics surrounding the state of Guatemala’s democracy.
They assess the main threats to Arevalo’s leadership and the goals of his party, Movimiento Semilla, particularly those related to addressing corruption and impunity. Ana Maria and Jo-Marie touch on the distinct roles of Guatemalan indigenous communities, the United States, and the private sector. They describe the hope that Arevalo represents for the Guatemalan people in terms of security, justice, and the rule of law, while identifying the harsh realities of deeply embedded corruption a recalcitrant high court and attorney general.
Read Ana María’s January 9 commentary, Ushering in a New Period: Bernardo Arévalo’s Opportunities and Challenges to Restoring Democracy in Guatemala, for a readable, in-depth analysis of these topics.
As congressional negotiations place asylum and other legal protection pathways at risk, and as we approach a 2024 election year with migration becoming a higher priority for voters in the United States, we found it important to discuss the current moment's complexities.
WOLA’s vice president for Programs, Maureen Meyer, former director for WOLA’s Mexico Program and co-founder of WOLA’s migration and border work, is joined by Mexico Program Director Stephanie Brewer, whose work on defense of human rights and demilitarization in Mexico has focused often on the rights of migrants, including a visit to the Arizona-Sonora border at the end of 2023.
This episode highlights some of the main migration trends and issues that we should all keep an eye on this year, including:
- Deterrence efforts will never reduce migration as long as the reasons people are fleeing remain unaddressed (the long-standing “root causes” approach). Such policies will only force people into more danger and fuel organized crime. “The question is not, are people going to migrate? The question is, where, how, and with who?”, explains Brewer.
- For this reason, maintaining consistent and reliable legal pathways is more important than ever, and the ongoing assaults on these pathways—including the right to seek asylum and humanitarian parole—are harmful and counterproductive.
- There can’t be a one-size-fits-all solution for the variety of populations currently in movement, and the focus should no longer be on ineffective policies of deterrence and enforcement. “It's a long term game that certainly doesn't fit on a bumper sticker for political campaigns,” Meyer points out.
- Organized crime is a huge factor in regional migration—both as a driver of migration and as a facilitator. Official corruption and impunity enable these systems, a point that migration policies often fail to address. Brewer notes that during her trip to Arizona's southern border in December 2023, the vast majority of migrants she spoke to were Mexican, and among them, the vast majority cited violence and organized crime as the driving factor. In recent months, Mexican families have been the number one nationality coming to the U.S.-Mexico border to seek asylum.
- It is a regional issue, not just a U.S. issue, as people are seeking asylum and integration in many different countries. Mexico, for instance, received 140,000 asylum applications in 2023. This makes integration efforts extremely important: many people arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border had attempted to resettle elsewhere first. “It's a twofold of the legal status itself, but then real integration efforts that are both economic and educational, but also addressing xenophobia and not creating resentment in local communities,” explains Meyer.
A conversation with WOLA's President, Carolina Jiménez Sandoval, about the year ahead. She discusses current challenges in the Americas within four areas that are orienting WOLA's current work: democracy, migration, climate, and gender and racial justice.
Maria Belén Garrido, a research lecturer at the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador, and Jeffrey Pugh, an associate professor at the University of Massachusetts Boston, lead the Regional Institute for the Study and Practice of Strategic Nonviolent Action in the Americas.
The institute provides training, capacity building, and networking opportunities for nonviolent social change activists in Latin America. It teaches that the success of non-violent strategies depends on the crucial “trinity” of planning, unity, and discipline.
Garrido and Pugh provide numerous examples of nonviolent movements in Latin America at the local and national levels, from communities declaring themselves "peace zones" in Colombia to worker “slowdown” strikes in Chile under Pinochet. They emphasize being creative with tactics like strikes, boycotts, protests, using art and music, and leveraging media and communication.
An ongoing challenge is confronting the rise of authoritarian populism and leaders who try to control narratives and media. Maintaining nonviolent discipline is crucial to avoid playing into the hands of repressive regimes. Building diverse coalitions and identifying strategic pressure points instead of relying solely on mass messaging may be especially important today.
“When a great amount of people, especially a diversity of people, in ages and ethnicities, go to the streets, then probably the social distance from the members of the forces that will repress them is lower and narrower,” Garrido observes here. “And this will reduce the amount of repression.”
Resources from the Institute can be found at accionnoviolenta.org: the “Relatos de la Resistencia Noviolenta” podcast, blog posts by regional activists, and an online course, one edition of which just got underway in early October 2023.
A new report from WOLA dives deeply into the growing power and roles of Mexico’s military, and what that means for human rights, democracy, and U.S.-Mexico relations.
WOLA’s Mexico Program published Militarized Transformation: Human Rights and Democratic Controls in a Context of Increasing Militarization in Mexico on September 6. The report voices alarm about the Mexican armed forces’ growing list of civilian tasks, and civilians’ diminishing ability to hold military personnel accountable for human rights abuse and other illegal behavior.
In some new findings, Militarized Transformationreveals official data showing that the military isn’t even reporting its arrests of civilians to civilian security authorities and oversight bodies. The report updates and group together various indicators regarding the justice system and respect for fundamental rights by the security forces, with a focus on the armed forces and the National Guard, as well as the differentiated impacts and situations faced by women. And it makes a series of short-term and long-term recommendations for needed reforms.
This podcast episode features the report’s principal author, Stephanie Brewer, WOLA’s director for Mexico. Brewer discusses the report’s main findings, conclusions, and recommendations, along with a general view of Mexico’s democracy, civil-military relations, and U.S. policy.
“We recognize militarization is is the reality we're currently working in,” Brewer concludes. “But while that's going on, what possible reason could there be for the country to want the armed forces not to be operating under effective civilian control or not to be transparent about things like their use of force? Or not to be fully giving information to Congress? That would have to be something that that is in everybody's interest in the short term.”
Venezuela is to hold presidential elections sometime in 2024. Whether they will be at least somewhat free and fair, moving the country away from authoritarianism and toward democracy, is unlikely but far from impossible. It is a goal that must guide the international community and Venezuelan civil society.
That is one of the central messages of Laura Cristina Dib, WOLA’s director for Venezuela, who explains the daunting current political situation in this podcast conversation.
The episode covers the recent naming of a new National Electoral Council, a seemingly technical step with wide-ranging consequences; the need for a clear and transparent electoral timetable; and the importance of updating voter rolls and other crucial steps for the elections’ credibility.
Laura Dib notes a recent increase in repression, threats, and disqualification of candidates as the Maduro regime appears to grow uneasy. That makes the international role increasingly important—as it has been in Guatemala’s elections—starting with a stronger commitment to a humanitarian agreement, which resulted from 2022 negotiations and has yet to be implemented. “International” includes Venezuela’s neighbors, like Brazil and Colombia.
“There's always hope, I don't think that everything is lost,” Dib concludes. “I think that there's always opportunity, and I continue to work very closely with a civil society that is more knowledgeable than ever on how to advocate for their rights beyond their borders.”
Gretchen Kuhner directs the Mexico City-based Institute for Women in Migration (IMUMI). She explains the challenges and complexities—and occasional advocacy successes—of the current moment of record migration and changing policies, viewed from Mexico.
Joining WOLA with partners in three countries, the Central America Monitor has tracked governance indicators during a very difficult nine years. WOLA's Elizabeth Kennedy and Lisette Vásquez of the Myrna Mack Foundation explain this important work.
From a traditional drug policy perspective, fentanyl would appear to be an intractable problem. It also threatens a rift in the U.S.-Mexico relationship. WOLA's John Walsh and Stephanie Brewer point to better ways to respond to this challenge.
WOLA staff report from Honduras after a visit to the border with Nicaragua, where we witnessed a historic migration flow. As government and service providers struggle to manage this result of a series of policy failures, it's not clear what lies ahead.
A conversation about the political and humanitarian moment in Venezuela, efforts to resolve the country's crisis, and the U.S. role, with Geoff Ramsey, who recently departed WOLA's Venezuela Program and is now a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council.
Guatemala's deteriorating democracy is approaching June elections with disqualified candidates, imprisoned or exiled judicial workers and journalists, and a U.S. policy that's hard to pin down. Analysis from WOLA Central America Program Director Ana María Méndez and Council on Foreign Relations Latin America Fellow Will Freeman.
December 2022 in Peru has seen a president's failed attempt to dissolve Congress and subsequent jailing, and now large-scale protests met with a military crackdown. Senior Fellow Jo-Marie Burt explains what's at stake in a deeply divided nation.
WOLA staff spent a mid-November week visiting several points along the U.S.-Mexico border. We spoke to many migrants stranded in Mexico, in shelters and in rustic camps, unable to seek protection in the United States. What will happen if and when Title 42 ends?
Mexico has been increasing its armed forces' role in public security for many years, but the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador has just taken it to historic new lengths. WOLA's Mexico Program director, Stephanie Brewer, explains.
WOLA's director for the Andes, Gimena Sánchez, was in Colombia during the historic June 19 election that sent Gustavo Petro and Francia Márquez to the presidency and vice-presidency. We discuss this victory's significance and the big challenges ahead.
Adam, Stephanie Brewer, Maureen Meyer, and Lesly Tejada discuss regional migration and the Summit of the Americas, which took place Los Angeles earlier in June. The four analyze the political implications of the Summit and their recent travel to the border areas.
Recent violence in the northeastern region of Arauca shows the complicated, fragmented nature of Colombia's armed conflict—or "conflicts," as security analyst Kyle Johnson calls it in this clear, nuanced explanation of security challenges in early 2022.
More than 120,000 migrants have applied for protection in Mexico in 2021. We discuss Mexico’s difficult transition to being a country of refuge with Gretchen Kuhner of IMUMI, Daniel Berlin of Asylum Access Mexico, and Maureen Meyer and Stephanie Brewer of WOLA.
Colombia's government and largest guerrilla group signed a historic peace accord on November 24, 2016. Five years later, is it being implemented? Not enough. WOLA Director for the Andes Gimena Sánchez walks us through what is going well and what is not.
Lisa Molomot and Jeff Bemiss have produced a new documentary, "Missing in Brooks County," about thousands of migrants dying in ranchland surrounding a south Texas Border Patrol checkpoint. They are joined by Texas State U. anthropologist Kate Spradley.
As of September 1, WOLA has new president. Carolina Jiménez has an impressive biography—and here, we talk about her work, how civil society has evolved throughout Latin America, the threat of authoritarianism, opportunities in US policy, and her next steps.
In this conversation, Adam and Stephanie discuss how Mexico's disappearance crisis grew to today's tragic scale, what has worked and has not worked for investigations into disappearances in the country, and some of the major findings of the WOLA's campaign on the issue. Please visit the campaign's website to see the in-depth findings and learn what you can do to support victims and family members of the disappeared in Mexico.
Geoff Thale, WOLA’s president, has retired after 40 years as an advocate for human rights in Latin America. When Geoff’s career began, the idea of citizens working full-time to change foreign policy was unheard of. Geoff reflects on how much has changed.
Last month's protests in Cuba captured international attention for the large groups that took to the street to express frustration with the island's current conditions.
This week's podcast discusses the protests triggers, the island's ongoing humanitarian disaster, and what, if anything, the Biden administration can do to help the Cuban people.
Lisa Haugaard, director of the Latin America Working Group, is just back from accompanying a human rights delegation to Cali, Colombia, an epicenter of April-June protests. She conveys what witnesses told her about police brutality and new civic energy.
For those closely following Haiti, the recent assassination of President Jovenel Moïse and the chaos and political uncertainty following it have been years in the making, in a country tragically familiar with political and humanitarian crises.
Former WOLA Director Joy Olson just carried out dozens of interviews along the Texas-Mexico border. She came back saddened by expelled migrants' suffering, perplexed by the Biden administration's halting measures, and calling for bold policy changes.
The condition of Nicaragua's democracy has steadily deteriorated over the course of President Daniel Ortega's regime. Recently, in anticipation of the country's coming elections, President Ortega and his wife/Vice President Rosario Murillo have arrested more than a dozen of their significant political opponents under a new law that labels them as "traitors to the homeland."
To understand the current political crisis, and to understand what, if any, prospects there are for a solution, Adam is talking to Dr. Christine Wade.
Peruvians vote on June 6 in a runoff between two presidential candidates who represent populist extremes, and who reflect growing divisions exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. WOLA Senior Fellow Jo-Marie Burt explains the tense pre-election moment.
Brazil is the second largest country in the hemisphere but its many complex issues rarely make news in the U.S. This week, Camila Asano, Director of Programs at the Brazilian human rights NGO Conectas joins Adam and Moses to paint a picture of attacks on human rights and democracy there.
Protests that began April 28 in Colombia are maintaining momentum and a broad base, despite a heavy-handed government response. Gimena Sánchez-Garzoli, WOLA's director for the Andes, sees a movement coalescing—and a need for a more decisive U.S. approach.
Top Biden administration officials, including Vice-President Kamala Harris, are developing a new approach to Central America. The theme is familiar: addressing migration's "root causes." WOLA President Geoff Thale and Citizen Security Director Adriana Beltrán discuss.
The Biden administration is asking Mexico to do more to limit or stop arrivals of asylum-seeking migrants from Central America and elsewhere. Several WOLA experts discuss Mexico's military deployments, expulsions of families, and the view from El Paso.
Yael Shacher, senior U.S. advocate at Refugees International, is a historian of U.S. asylum policy. She offers an invaluable perspective on the current increase in asylum seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border, and how the system should work.
This series from the Washington Office on Latin America will share the stories of social leaders in Colombia who, every day, under threat to their lives, search for truth and work toward reconciliation, fight for justice for victims of the Colombian conflict, and ensure the government lives up to the guarantees it made to ethnic and rural communities in the historic 2016 peace accord. Social leaders often face off with a Colombian government that refuses to admit its failures, and they stand up to armed groups terrorizing their communities. Hundreds of them have been killed, yet they persist. In this series you will hear why, directly from them.
Rebuilding Peace was created by the Washington Office on Latin America for the Con Líderes Hay Paz Campaign. If you would like to learn more about the campaign and this podcast, please head over to conlidereshaypaz.org.
You can subscribe now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and anywhere else you get your favorite podcasts.
El Salvador's popular but authoritarian-leaning president, Nayib Bukele, may enjoy a congressional supermajority after February 28 elections. Mauricio Silva and José Luis Sanz discuss the many implications for Salvadoran democracy and U.S. policy.
WOLA's Director for Mexico and Migrant Rights, Stephanie Brewer, walks us through the late 2020 arrest and release of Mexico's last defense secretary, and what Mexico's handling of the case tells us about the military's power and U.S.-Mexican relations.
Populist and authoritarian leaders have made important gains in Latin America, and the U.S. government has been inconsistent in its dealings with them, and in its support for civil society. WOLA's Geoff Thale and Geoff Ramsey outline a better way forward.
The New York Times recently ran a short film by Sean Mattison about how victims of Argentina's 1976-83 dictatorship creatively called out the ex-military killers and torturers who, benefiting from an amnesty, were living in their midst.
Corruption is "endemic: a system, a network, a web of relations" that underlies many other problems in Latin America. Adriana Beltrán and Moses Ngong discuss how the US and other international actors can support the region's anti-corruption reformers.
The U.S. government is transitioning between two different visions of migration, while human mobility increases throughout Latin America. Adam Isacson and Maureen Meyer discuss what a humane and effective policy would entail, at home and region-wide.
The presidential transition means a shift between two very different visions of US relations with Latin America. A group of WOLA staff takes stock of the Trump years' impact on US credibility in the region, and challenges facing the Biden administration.
Peru's Congress abruptly removed President Martín Viscarra from office this week. It looks like another example of an all-too-familiar recent pattern in Latin America: backlash against anti-corruption reforms. WOLA Senior Fellow Jo-Marie Burt explains.
A discussion with Eduardo “Eddie” Canales, founder and director of the South Texas Human Rights Center in Falfurrias, Texas. Website: https://southtexashumanrights.org/ Falfurrias is in Brooks County, an area of ranchland 80 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border. It is also one of the deadliest places for migrants. Dozens each year get lost while trying to walk around checkpoints that Border Patrol has placed on highways, and end up dying of dehydration and exposure in the south Texas heat. The South Texas Human Rights Center works to prevent this, putting out dozens of water and aid stations. This involves negotiations and relationship-building with ranchers in an area where most land is private property. It also involves cooperating with efforts to identify the remains and alert relatives in the deceased migrants’ home countries. Many times a year Eddie, and the technicians with whom he cooperates, help give some closure to parents, spouses, and children who don’t know what happened to a loved one who disappeared after emigrating to the United States. Doing that is expensive—it involves DNA sampling, forensic expertise, and maintenance of databases—and funds are insufficient. Too often, resource-poor counties like Brooks have had to bear much of the cost.
The remains of at least 7,500 people have been found near the border, on U.S. soil, since 2000. And the crisis may be getting worse. The pandemic economy is leading more single adults to try to cross into the United States. Most of them are seeking to avoid being apprehended. Trying not to be apprehended means going through places like Brooks County, or deserts elsewhere along the border. Just this week, media in Arizona are reporting the largest number of migrant remains since 2013. Link: https://tucson.com/news/state-and-regional/report-migrant-deaths-in-arizona-desert-have-reached-seven-year-high/article_636fd548-d8ff-5906-9fbc-917dabc478b6.html And the year isn’t over. The work of humanitarian workers and advocates like Eddie Canales is more important than ever. Join the Beyond the Wall campaign now to learn more.
Even as it has been hit very hard by COVID-19, Peru has just gone through an “express impeachment” and other corruption turmoil, while elections approach. We discuss Peru with IDL Reporteros journalist Gustavo Gorriti and Senior Fellow Jo-Marie Burt.
This month, Adam Isacson, WOLA's Director for Defense Oversight, interviews Francisco Cantú, author of The Line Becomes a River (2018) who spent four years in the Border Patrol. They discuss the often toxic culture of CBP and the current impact the agency has on the United States' approach to migration.
Cantú currently lives in Arizona, is a full-time writer and teacher of creative writing, and that a volunteer with the Kino Border Initiative’s migrant accompaniment program, which provides support to asylum seekers detained in the ICE contracted/for-profit (CoreCivic) Eloy Detention Center.
Beyond the Wall is a segment of the Latin America Today podcast, and a part of the Washington Office on Latin America's Beyond the Wall advocacy campaign. In the series, we will follow the thread of migration in the Americas beyond traditional barriers like language and borders. We will explore root causes of migration, the state of migrant rights in multiple countries and multiple borders and what we can do to protect human rights in one of the most pressing crises in our hemisphere.
Sign up for updates here: https://www.wola.org/beyondthewall/signup-beyond-wall/
Music by Blue Dot Sessions and ericb399.
The effort to assert democratic civilian control over armed forces is not over, Kristina Mani of Oberlin College reminds us. Latin American civilians, she points out, often use militaries for non-defense purposes, even more so during the COVID-19 crisis.
An exchange with Bogotá-based filmmaker Tom Laffay, whose documentary work with the Siona people of Putumayo, Colombia, supported by the Pulitzer Center, is featured by The New Yorker. Laffay portrays Adiela Mera Paz, who is leading demining efforts to allow displaced Siona to return.
Carlos Quesada, director of the International Institute on Race, Equality, and Human Rights, explains how laws, treaties, and the Inter-American system offer tools for change—or survival—for the LGBT community and other marginalized groups in Latin America.
This month, WOLA premiered an animated video for our Beyond the Wall campaign and recorded a panel discussion. Our panelists discuss the challenges and solutions on a rights-respecting approach to migration. The panel is moderated by Mario Moreno, WOLA’s Vice President for Communications, and includes Geoff Thale, the President of WOLA, Maureen Meyer, WOLA’s Director for Mexico and Migrant Rights, Adam Isacson WOLA’s Director for Defense Oversight, and Adriana Beltran, WOLA’s Director for Citizen Security.
Beyond the Wall is a bilingual segment of the Latin America Today podcast, and a part of the Washington Office on Latin America's Beyond the Wall advocacy campaign. In the series, we will follow the thread of migration in the Americas beyond traditional barriers like language and borders. We will explore root causes of migration, the state of migrant rights in multiple countries and multiple borders and what we can do to protect human rights in one of the most pressing crises in our hemisphere.
Sign up for updates here: https://www.wola.org/beyondthewall/signup-beyond-wall/
Music by Blue Dot Sessions and ericb399.
Transcripts are generated using a speech recognition software and may contain errors. Please check the corresponding audio before quoting in print.
Transcript
Guatemala is selecting a new slate of Supreme Court justices. The country must not get this wrong, because a nexus of corrupt and powerful people could end up choosing their own judges. We talk to 3 people leading Guatemala·s anti-corruption charge.
Nina Lakhani, a veteran correspondent for the Guardian in Mexico and Central America, discusses her new book about Honduran indigenous activist Berta Cáceres, her 2016 murder and its aftermath, a corrupt system, and a badly misdirected U.S. policy.
WOLA Director for Venezuela Geoff Ramsey and Senior Fellow David Smilde offer a situation report on Venezuela. While the picture is unavoidably grim, they offer a rare nuanced view of Venezuela's search for a political solution and the state of US policy.
Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) has traveled often to Colombia, the subject of this episode. A leading voice on human rights in Congress, he has a lot to say about recent espionage scandals in Colombia's military, attacks on social leaders, and U.S. policy.
In this episode of Beyond the Wall, Mario Moreno, VP for Communications conducts two interviews regarding the harrowing conditions migrants face in ICE detention centers during the COVID-19 pandemic. The first is with Sarah Sanchez and Isabel Ribe, two advocates at the Santa Fe Dreamers Project working with detained migrants. In the second interview, Mario talks with Dr. Tracy Green, a Brandeis University professor and Dana Gold, senior council on the Government Accountability Office, on how a pair of Homeland Security whistleblowers spoke out against conditions of ICE detention facilities during COVID-19 pandemic, and about their mathematical model study revealed that ICE detention facilities face up to 100% infection rate if no action to release detained migrants is taken.
Beyond the Wall is a bilingual segment of the Latin America Today podcast, and a part of the Washington Office on Latin America's Beyond the Wall advocacy campaign. In the series, we will follow the thread of migration in the Americas beyond traditional barriers like language and borders. We will explore root causes of migration, the state of migrant rights in multiple countries and multiple borders and what we can do to protect human rights in one of the most pressing crises in our hemisphere.
Sign up for updates here: https://www.wola.org/beyondthewall/signup-beyond-wall/
Music by Blue Dot Sessions and ericb399.
Transcripts are generated using a speech recognition software and may contain errors. Please check the corresponding audio before quoting in print.
TRANSCRIPT
Jonathan Rosen of Holy Family University is the author of, or collaborator on, a large body of recent scholarly work on security policy, drug policy, organized crime, and corruption in the Americas. Here, he lays out what governments keep getting wrong.
Since "Remain in Mexico" began, Taylor Levy, an El Paso-based immigration attorney, has done much of her work across the border in Ciudad Juárez. Her account of the obstacles asylum-seekers face—both before and during the COVID-19 crisis—is maddening.
A conversation about Colombia, U.S. policy, human rights advocacy, and social struggle with anthropologist Winifred Tate of Colby College, whose more than 30 years of work as both a scholar and an advocate give her a very unique perspective.
Five WOLA program directors talk about how COVID-19—and governments' response—are hitting Latin America. We discuss dangers to democracy, rights, economics, and marginalized people, focusing especially on Colombia, Venezuela, Mexico, Bolivia, and Brazil.
Abbey Steele of the University of Amsterdam is an expert on the dynamics of conflict and violence. She has worked extensively in Colombia, and in 2017 published a book about displacement and "political cleansing" based on fieldwork in the Urabá region.
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, policy counsel at the American Immigration Council, walks us through how the asylum system is meant to work. He then explains how the Trump administration has steadily decimated the right to seek protection at the US-Mexico border.
The Center for Civilians in Conflict works to minimize harm done to civilians in armed conflicts. What should this work look like in Latin America, where traditionally defined armed conflicts are rare? Annie Shiel and Mike Lettieri of CIVIC explain.
WOLA's director for the Andes, Gimena Sánchez-Garzoli, explains what Colombia·s response to the coronavirus means for communities affected by its conflict. As a new WOLA urgent action documents, the situation for social leaders remains very serious.
Three experts with long experience in defense and security collaborated on a new paper for the Friedrich Ebert Foundation that takes stock of geopolitics, the crisis of democracy, and emerging threats and trends across the hemisphere.
In his latest book, "In Their Own Best Interest," Lars Schoultz of UNC Chapel Hill takes to task U.S. policymakers and advocates who seek to "uplift" Latin American nations, finding them to be part of a very long tradition. This makes for a lively discussion.
This month, Mario Moreno, WOLA's VP for Communications. interviewed Joanna Williams, the Director of Education and Advocacy at the Kino Border Initiative. The Kino Border Initiative (KBI) is a binational organization in Nogales, Arizona and Nogales, Sonora, Mexico. KBI works in the area of migration, providing direct humanitarian assistance and accompaniment with migrants.
They discuss what is happening at the border, how shelters and service providers are adapting, and the repercussions of the virus and government actions on migrants and asylum seekers.
Beyond the Wall is a bilingual segment of the Latin America Today podcast, and a part of the Washington Office on Latin America's Beyond the Wall advocacy campaign. In the series, we will follow the thread of migration in the Americas beyond traditional barriers like language and borders. We will explore root causes of migration, the state of migrant rights in multiple countries and multiple borders and what we can do to protect human rights in one of the most pressing crises in our hemisphere.
Sign up for updates here: https://www.wola.org/beyondthewall/signup-beyond-wall/
Music by Blue Dot Sessions and ericb399.
Transcripts are generated using a speech recognition software and may contain errors. Please check the corresponding audio before quoting in print.
TRANSCRIPT:
Intro clips (00:01):
The countries of the Northern triangle -- Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala -- are facing a set of conditions that are forcing many families and children to migrate from their community. They're saying "we're here in the shelter, I'm afraid to put my kids into school" Crimes, corruption, poverty and inequality. And they don't have a lot of hope because we know that most people get turned away. These issues are forcing many to seek protection and opportunities elsewhere. What do we project as a country with how we're treating these people, many of which are seeking protection? Barbed wire on the top of the fence...It looks like world war one out there.
President Donald Trump (00:32):
Someone at border crossing comes in, you say sorry, we're taking you back. That's if we're nice and I want to do that.
WOLA Expert Quote (00:37):
Say you've been kidnapped in a Mexican border town, you may feel so unsafe there that you're willing to run the risk of all the insecurities that led you to flee your home in the first place. But is that really a choice?
Mario Moreno (00:49):
Hi, my name is Mario Moreno. I'm the vice president for communications at the Washington Office on Latin America. On March 20th in response to rising concerns of the Covid-19 pandemic, the United States and Mexico agreed to temporarily shut down their shared border to all nonessential travel, a category that was determined to include all asylum seekers. This move fundamentally ends the right to asylum on the U.S.-Mexico border, but more importantly, it raises clear concerns for migrants who have already been waiting months in dangerous Mexican border towns to present their asylum claims or to attend their asylum hearings. This raises several key questions worth exploring. How will the closing of the border exacerbate the dangerous these migrants face and could this action put them at severe risk? Should covid-19 spread on the border to seek answers to these questions and explore these issues? I talked with Joanna Williams, the director of education and advocacy at the Kino border initiative, an organization that provides direct humanitarian assistance in accompaniment with migrants on the U.S.-Mexico border.
Joanna Williams (01:59):
So the Kino Border Initiative. We're a binational organization that is located in Nogales, Arizona, in Nogales, Mexico. And we work in three different areas. So the first area is humanitarian aid, the second is education. And the third is research and advocacy. The humanitarian aid that we do is all on the Mexican side of the border. So we're providing basic services like food, medical attention clothing to individuals who are in Nogales, Mexico; migrants specifically. And that means in part migrants who are being deported from the United States and increasingly has meant migrants who are seeking asylum in the U.S. And who are stranded in Nogales, Mexico. So that's, it's out of that day in and day out work that then we engage in education and advocacy. And we have the Kino Border Initiative have really seen shifting realities over the course of the last couple of years. And specifically I think in, in light of our current situation, what we've seen for the last year and a half, almost two years now are really systematic efforts to dismantle access to asylum at the border that has left people in more and more precarious situations.
Joanna Williams (03:11):
In Nogales, Mexico. So it's almost two years ago when metering started. Which metering means that people are, instead of being processed, when they arrive at the port of entry, they're told that they have to wait, that there's not capacity at the port of entry and they have to wait in Mexico for indefinite periods of time or for, for how long typically. So the, the instruction from the U.S. Side is essentially for an indefinite period of time. Then since metering began people, the on the Mexican side, there were certain systems are arranged of how to even have a list to organize people who are in line. When metering started, people were literally sleeping out at the port of entry, waiting for their turn. That became very unsustainable as people were waiting for many days or even weeks. Now even before last week's announcement people had been, who are metered in Nogales. We're waiting for over four months in most of the families who have been metered in Nogales, our Mexican families. So they're fleeing violence in Mexico and they're not able to escape from their own country to seek protection in the U.S. So this has been a worsening situation over the course of the last two years. And it's one example of how asylum has been dismantled. The other big policy that's affected us in Nogales is what's known as the Remain in Mexico policy or also known as MPP in which asylum seekers have to or return to Mexico and are then made to wait for their court dates in the United States. So they have to be in Mexico for many months over a year in order to wait for a, an asylum decision on the U S side of the border. And they don't have access to housing, to work, to medical care and certainly to good legal support in that time of limbo.
Joanna Williams (05:04):
So this is all the, the background to the current moment. And I think important to understand because of that systematic effort to dismantle asylum, now we see the administration taking advantage of this current pandemic to further that agenda of eliminating access to protection for people fleeing violence. And it has three different impacts on, on these different populations. So one, when we talk about the suspension of processing at the port of entry just to give an example, we have a family that fled from the state of Mexico several months ago. So they've already been waiting about three and a half months in Nogales there. The dad was actually shot and almost died. He was shot by organized crime. The family, even after that, tried to file a police report. They tried to stay. They said they were, they wanted to be able to stay in the place that they were at because they didn't want to displace their kids.
Joanna Williams (06:04):
But after filing the police report, then they got even more threats from organized crime for having dared to speak out. And eventually saw it is impossible and had to flee up to Nogales. They know that the organized crime group is still looking for them. They, their house was the, the criminals open entered their house and searched the, their belongings, not, they didn't steal anything. They just searched through all of the notebooks and any kind of information within the house. So they know that the group is looking for them and that they're still in danger. And in Nogales, they've been here for three months and now they're looking at being here indefinitely because they're no longer allowed to present at the port of entry to seek asylum. So that's one sample of the effect on this, of this suspension of port of entry processing.
Joanna Williams (06:55):
And the second area, which is the, the Remain in Mexico policy. As I mentioned, people have been returned to Mexico to wait for court dates in the U.S. In Nogales. The people who are returned here, their court dates are all the way in El Paso, which for those of you who aren't familiar with geography on this, in this part of the border, that means they have a essentially a 10 hour bus ride from Nogales, Mexico, all the way to what is in order to then present for their court dates. Because of Covid-19 MPP courts have been suspended. So all of the court dates for the next month have been canceled. But the U S government is still saying that people have to go all the way to the El Paso port of entry in order to get just a piece of paper with their notification of their new court date.
Joanna Williams (07:40):
And what the U S government is saying is if people don't do that, then they won't be allowed to present on their new court date. And this means, for example, we have two women who are with their children. They fled from Guatemala and they speak primarily mom. So it's very difficult for them to navigate in Mexico. A mom is an indigenous Guatemalan, language is very difficult for them to, to navigate in Mexico. One of the women has a court date on March 31st and she's at a loss of what to do because if she goes to what is and presents for her court date she then won't have anywhere to stay in. Is there any way to find where to stay? Most of the migrant shelters in the Northern borders aren't accepting new arrivals in light of this pandemic, trying to keep the folks that are currently sheltered, healthy. But that means she doesn't have any shelter options if she arrives to what is, and she doesn't know anybody in what is, but she can't, according to the U.S. Government, she can't just wait in Nogales where she's at least managed to rent an apartment and knows a couple of people. Because then she wouldn't, she won't be accepted when ever her next court date is, which is probably going to be in May. So it's putting everybody in a situation of vulnerability, but it's particularly affecting those indigenous language speakers who struggle to adjust.
Joanna Williams (09:04):
And then the third reality that we've seen in the last week or so is this what were announced as rapid expulsions, which goes to this U S government border shutdown. Just for, again, for geographical context, Nogales is one of the primary ports of deportation along the border. And we're one of the largest cities in this part of the border. So we're the largest city along the Arizona border. And all of the deportations of folks who have been detained in Arizona have for many years gone through Nogales. And because we're a place that with more services, we have the bus lines, we have systems in place. Well now with these rapid expulsions, people aren't being returned through Nogales. They're being pushed back in the smaller cities where they have much fewer access to services. So I was just hearing this morning, for example, that in the town of Sasabey, migrants are being rapidly expelled. Some of them are being brought over being received by group Obeta. Others are just walking into the Mexican side of the border really with no sense of what the next steps are. They're in complete legal limbo.
Mario Moreno (10:16):
So, you really painted a compelling picture there. So there's, there's really, the border shutdown has exacerbated, in your words, what had already been a fairly concerning situation. You had nearly 60,000 migrants and asylum seekers stranded on the U S Mexico on the Mexican side of the U.S.-Mexico border because of Remain in Mexico and metering. And because of the border shutdown, they've, there's, there's, you know, three additional challenges that migrants and asylum seekers face, which is fairly concerning. I guess the question then becomes, you know, what's the alternative part of the argument on the COVID-19 border shutdown, an announcement was that they were restricting travel for all non-essential travel. The argument is the argument that you're making sort of that asylum seekers and migrants should be considered a central travel. And if, so, is that legal obligations that a humanitarian application or is that just informed by what you're seeing on the ground of the impact that this policy could have on, on these populations?
Joanna Williams (11:18):
Exactly. So we, we argue that asylum seekers asylum is literally a matter of life and death. This, this dad that I mentioned from the state of Mexico, he has literally came within a few inches of death. And that's the experience of many asylum seekers. So their pursuit of life is an essential pursuit. It is essential travel far more essential to be honest than the travel that I make across the border, which I'm still considered an essential traveler even when these asylum seekers are not, which I think is a great injustice. Ubut, I still want to be able to go over it and provide meals, but just to put it in context, they're both essential travel, but asylum-seekers have been more essential travel. Uand I think what, what we forget sometimes is that we do have other ways to manage this reality,uin ways that have been successful in the past.
Joanna Williams (12:16):
So I was speaking with one, one woman who again has been stranded for several months under metering and she said if I was processed at the port, if I was allowed to enter the asylum process, I would be more than happy to go to my sister's house in the United States because many of the families that are stranded on the Mexican side of the border have relatives or or friends in the U S who are ready to receive them. She said, I will go to my sister's house and I will completely self quarantine for the next 14 days.
Mario Moreno (12:50):
They're even aware of the fact that there's a global pandemic and they're even willing to take public health precautions on their own if let into the country.
Joanna Williams (12:57):
Exactly. People are really aware of the health implications. They're very aware actually of how it's more likely that the pandemic is reaching Mexico from the United States than the other way around. But they're also want to be attentive to not being a carrier of coronavirus and to taking the necessary measures. So if we allowed people to go to their us sponsors and self quarantine there I think that could be a really a best practice because then people are in isolation. They're in a more stable place than the folks in this situation of instability on the Mexican border. And to your question about whether it is that legal or is that humanitarian? I would say it's legal. It's humanitarian and it's in the best interest of public health. So it's all three. We have an asylum law that has to be obeyed and that has been unfortunately discarded. We also should have humanitarian concern, but it's also, this is what's best, even if we're only acting from our self-interest, this is in the best interest of our public health, is to have people in isolated homes in which they can self quarantine in this time of social distancing.
Mario Moreno (14:12):
But in lieu of that happening, which, you know, as you said, we're in a very difficult moment with the Trump administration taking a series of actions over the, over the last several years to, to chip away at the right to asylum. And then with this, you know, temporary shutdown basically, and the right to asylum that the alternative, you know, sounds promising. And it is, it sounds like it's the right thing to do. But in lieu of that you know, the Mexican asylum system has been overwhelmed over the last couple of years because of remain in Mexico because of metering, because all of these actions that's one entire conversation that we could have. But the other side of the conversation now that you add in a complete shutdown on the Mexican border and you add in covid-19, a global pandemic that that you know, is spreading worldwide. How is the Mexican public health system equipped and ready to, to, to serve and protect the needs of migrant and asylum seeking populations on the US Mexico border?
Joanna Williams (15:11):
Unfortunately, we haven't seen evidence that the Mexican government is ready for this responsibility. And again, here we could have a longer conversation. I think it is important to note that these are policies that the Mexican government agreed to. So in their agreement to MPP the Mexican government said they would provide for health education and work and shelter for individuals who are returned. The Mexican government has assumed responsibilities that it simply doesn't have the capacity to carry out. And that means unfortunately that the, that migrants are going to be the last in line as a Mexican government is looking to respond and treat the effects of covid-19 in Mexico. And that's why I think it's particularly important that we see this as a shared responsibility, but we especially focus on the impact of, of us policy and putting people in this situation of vulnerability.
Mario Moreno (16:07):
So, so it sounds like really what winds up happening is that the responsibility of protecting and caring for the health and safety of these migrants oftentimes falls on shelters like the ones that, that the keynote border initiative in Sonata and Nogales. So, so I guess the question becomes, you know, how has your work shifted as a result of, of both the U S shutting down the border a week ago and, and you know, the Mexican government committing to all these steps but not quite delivering on any of them. How are you attempting to sort of deal with a population that had been stranded for a long time on the us Mexico border and who now also might face the risks of a public health pandemic that isn't being adequately addressed?
Joanna Williams (16:58):
I think you're precisely right. They didn't in the void of government and the void of Mexican and us government action. Ultimately it's the civil society groups and individuals that have to step up and are stepping up as the, as best as we can, but with far fewer resources and far less capacity than a government could have. So just to, at the keynote border initiative, we've been really conscious about, first of all, the absolute necessity of the food services that we provide. So we can't have people going hungry just because of Covid-19. And so that we say we have to maintain even as we scale back on other pieces. So we haven't, for example, been giving out as many clothing, as much clothing in recent weeks. Because of that's beyond our capacity at this moment as we try to just food and provide very limited medical services.
Joanna Williams (17:54):
The, we have volunteered nurses and doctors that used to come down to provide medical services. Some of them are in the high risk category and it's not advisable for them to be in contact with a large population. And some of them are providing medical services to respond in, in other institutions. So we essentially don't have those volunteers, nurses and doctors in the Red Cross here in Nogales is shut down for now. So we're doing the best that we can to provide the services that are possible and the medical side. And again, continuing with that absolutely essential service of providing food for people. What we've changed is we we exist in a space for, so w what used to happen is that we would bring people in to our space. We call it the comidor or dining room for meals.
Joanna Williams (18:46):
And then after that time provides several services within the space. In this, over the course of the last several months, we've had to do multiple rounds of meals because we have so many migrants who are stranded here relative to the capacity of our physical space. But in light of Covid-19, we've shifted all of our services to outside of the building. So we're providing all the food to go form and families. We're asking families that are able to, so unless they're a single mom to just send one representative of the family to come and get the, to go food for the whole rest of the family to reduce the amount of crowding as people are waiting for their food. Cause there are long lines as people wait for breakfast. So those are some of the ways that we're adapting and you know, trying to take the appropriate measures to protect staff and protect the migrants. And to the extent that in this long line people can stand six feet apart to try to encourage folks to do that as well. Right,
Mario Moreno (19:46):
Right. So I'm trying to, to understand sort of all this from the perspective of, of a migrant or an asylum seeker who you know, left their home country in search of, of, of a better future, but our life of safety, of, of, of a number of, for a number of different reasons was forced to stay on, in dangerous Mexican border towns and sort of figure out their way to, to stay safe while they awaited for their asylum hearing or they even just waited the chance to present a sound claim and now faces the additional risk of, of of, of a pandemic and of exposure to Covid-19. Do you have a sense of, of what options these, these individuals, what's next? What kind of options are they sort of trying to figure out in terms of the next actions that they want to take? Is it stay and try to stay as healthy as possible? Is it go back home? Is it something else?
Joanna Williams (20:43):
Yeah, that's what the several individuals are grappling with of whether to stay in Nogales in this prolonged limbo or whether to return to their home towns. What I'd say is that several w in the last week or two violence is flared up in really dramatic ways. And some of the hometowns of folks of the Mexican asylum seekers that we accompany so many of the Mexican asylum seekers are from Guirerro. And I've said that recently their houses have been burned. Other family members have been killed, that there's been a sudden spike in their communities. So some people are thinking about going home, not because they think it's safer, but because they left a family member there and they want to go and rescue that family member and try to find another alternative. So it's going home and staying isn't really a viable option for most individuals who've been displaced. But they don't have any viable options at this point either.
Mario Moreno (21:42):
That's yeah, I can't imagine being in that situation. One of the, one of the, one of the things that's really fascinating about KBI is, is that you have this really compelling and, and, and sort of unique view into the world. You know, we talk about us border policy being, you know, infringing on human rights. We talk about Mexico not living up to its commitments that it made in reaching agreements on Remain in Mexico metering and, and shutting down the, the border. We talk about all these big policies and systems, but on a day to day basis, all of you interact with migrants. So from that perspective and from the perspective that, that your organization is, is sort of nurtured by, by Catholic social teaching as an organizing principle, what's missing and in how we talk about this, about the, the issue of immigration in the media and the public writ large.
Joanna Williams (22:42):
I think the biggest missing piece in one that migrants here bring up on a constant basis. When I asked them, well, what do you want people in the larger public or folks in the United States to understand is that we have more that's in more in common than what separates the than what separates us. So there's more ways in which individuals in the United States can identify with migrants. And I have similarities to migrants than the differences that oftentimes are, are seen as are the most obvious. So just an example, I'd say, you know, what, mother and the United States would want their children to be in a dangerous situation. What mother wouldn't do it everything or sacrifice to be able to provide a better life for their children? Those are very similar desires. The desires of family, desires of safety and stability.
Joanna Williams (23:38):
There's so many ways in which we can identify with migrants at the border or in a general sense. And I think we ignore that whether, whether we ignore that from a perspective of a xenophobia of seeing people as the other or even from a perspective of so-called humanitarianism, of helping the poor migrants. What we ignore is the similarities as human beings and their own power and voice. And that's something that I've been really struck by in the last month or two. As I mentioned, Remain in Mexico's existed for a while along the border, but in Nogales was just implemented in starting in January. And I've had the opportunity to meet so many families that are so courageous and determined and speaking out against injustice and in believing that another world is possible. And it doesn't have to be that way. I, and that's the other vision.
Joanna Williams (24:35):
So, so listening to those voices, but also understanding that it doesn't have to be this way, that there are other ways we can manage migration and, and welcome people. There's a phrase from the Jesuit migration network of hospitality reminds us that another world is possible. And I think we have a lack of imagination at this moment as we become closed in by fear and we're really missing out on so many blessings and so much fruit. That's the Catholic perspective as well. So we miss out on the, on the opportunity to see God and receive God's graces when we are so entrenched in a mentality of rejection, of limitation and scarcity.
Mario Moreno (25:19):
So that was a really poignant and, and, and, and beautifully said statement on, on how we need to imagine a different outcome on the border and as it relates to migrants. So, so to all the listeners of the, Beyond the Wall podcast, who care about this issue deeply and, and who are looking for ways to, to stay involved in, into help in what is increasingly very desperate and hard times, what's your message to them?
Joanna Williams (25:48):
So I think there's two important realities or important ways to think about how to respond. The first is to recognize the power of individual actions. So if we're really going to construct this better world that is possible, then it does matter to call your congressperson, to write an editorial and submit it to your local paper, to speak to friends and neighbors even via virtually in these times of social distancing to help them understand the reality of migrants in the border and feel closer and identify more with them. So not, I think it's important that listeners not become overwhelmed by the context of policy and news and this constant flow of information, but recognize your own power in this moment to, to do good and be a part of transformation. And the second is that in that process the invitation is to incredible persistence.
Joanna Williams (26:47):
So I've think, and I'm constantly inspired by the women who I know who have crossed the border five or six times to try to reunite with their family members in the U S after being deported and separated from their kids. And the dad from who was deported from Las Vegas, who the other day said to me there's no way that I wouldn't go back to my daughter. And so that spirit of persistence is also the, what the invitation for us is in advocacy and in, in engagement and creating this other world individual action matters, but not just one individual action. Be as persistent as the migrants at the border are and allow that to propel you forward. Because only then will we be able to create transformation,
Mario Moreno (27:34):
Persistence, action, and imagination of a better world. I think those are three important words to keep in mind during this time. Joanna Williams, thank you for being with us today and keep up the important work down in Nogales.
Joanna Williams (27:50):
Thanks for the invitation and attention. And it's a blessing to be able to amplify folks' voices.
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Mario Moreno, WOLA's VP for Communications, interviews Director for Defense Oversight Adam Isacson and Director for Mexico and Migrant Rights Maureen Meyer on current challenges the region faces from ineffective migration policies and protection of migrant rights and what might be done to change the situation.
Beyond the Wall is a bilingual segment of the Latin America Today podcast, and a part of the Washington Office on Latin America's Beyond the Wall advocacy campaign. In the series, we will follow the thread of migration in the Americas beyond traditional barriers like language and borders. We will explore root causes of migration, the state of migrant rights in multiple countries and multiple borders and what we can do to protect human rights in one of the most pressing crises in our hemisphere.
Sign up for updates here: https://www.wola.org/beyondthewall/signup-beyond-wall/
Music by Blue Dot Sessions and ericb399.
Episode Transcript
Intro clips (00:01):
The countries of the Northern triangle -- Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala -- are facing a set of conditions that are forcing many families and children to migrate from their community. They're saying "we're here in the shelter, I'm afraid to put my kids into school" Crimes, corruption, poverty and inequality. And they don't have a lot of hope because we know that most people get turned away. These issues are forcing many to seek protection and opportunities elsewhere. What do we project as a country with how we're treating these people, many of which are seeking protection? Barbed wire on the top of the fence...It looks like world war one out there.
President Donald Trump (00:32):
Someone at border crossing comes in, you say sorry, we're taking you back. That's if we're nice and I want to do that.
WOLA Expert Quote (00:37):
Say you've been kidnapped in a Mexican border town, you may feel so unsafe there that you're willing to run the risk of all the insecurities that led you to flee your home in the first place. But is that really a choice?
Lisette Alvarez (00:49):
Hi, my name is Lisette Alvarez and this is Beyond the Wall.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
Beyond the wall is a bilingual segment of the Latin America today podcast, and a part of the Washington Office on Latin America's (WOLA's) Beyond the wall advocacy campaign. In the series, we will follow the thread of migration in the Americas beyond traditional barriers like language and borders. We will explore root causes of migration, the state of migrant rights in multiple countries and multiple borders and what we can do to protect human rights in one of the most pressing crises in our hemisphere. In this first interview, Mario Moreno, WOLA's VP for communications interviews Adam Isacson, director for defense oversight and Maureen Meyer director for Mexico and migrant rights. The discussion focuses on current challenges the region faces from ineffective migration policies and protection of migrant rights and what might be done to change the situation.
Mario Moreno (01:55):
My name is Mario Moreno. I'm the vice president for communications at the Washington office in Latin America. Today we're here to talk about central American migration and us migration policy. Now, before I introduce our two experts who are here with us, let me first set the table for you. In the last few years, hundreds of thousands of central American migrants of like dangerous and untenable situation in their home communities. These include poverty, climate change, crime, corruption and violence. These migrants have traversed Mexico facing dual threats from organized crime and corrupt migration or law enforcement officials. Along the way, they've navigated the dangers of Mexican border towns and arrived at U S ports of entry where they've actively sought to be taken into custody by customs and border patrol protection agents in order to make a heartbreaking request asylum in the United States. This has created a significant policy challenge addressing it requires smart and compassionate policymaking that should include making significant investments to address the root causes of in central American countries, providing for the safety of migrants in transit and strengthening asylum systems in the United States, in Mexico, and other countries in the region. Sadly, which should be characterized as a significant policy and administrative challenge has instead turned into a humanitarian crisis on both sides of the U S Mexico border here to talk about the scale of the humanitarian crisis and present ideas for solutions. WOLA's director for defense oversight, Adam Isacson and WOLA's director for Mexico and migrant rights, Maureen Meyer, thank you both for joining this conversation. So in the last several years, the Trump administration has sparked a contentious nationwide debate on border enforcement as his administration has pushed for a border wall. The debate on border enforcement has shifted to extremes and it's unclear how much progress has been made on the wall itself. Where does this debate actually stand currently, and if you could imagine what a, what a what a, what a human rights respecting alternative to border policy would be, what does that look like for you Adam?
Adam Isacson (04:06):
Thanks Mario. Let me just give a background on where the wall stands real fast. Uh, about a hundred, a little more than a hundred miles of wall had been built. Um, so far. Uh, during the Trump administration, nearly all of that is replacing already existing wall. There's not much out there that's new. Um, it has however, completely polarized the debate, uh, here in Washington, uh, in a way that makes our our work challenging. Actually there are no swing votes. Um, the, uh, democratic party is entirely with us, uh, down to the most conservative member. I'm not building any border wall and Mo, nearly all of the Republican party is against us. Very few are crossing the lines. Um, we've actually pretty much one in Congress every year when there is an appropriations bill, uh, they give just a pittance of money for the wall. Um, you all remember when Donald Trump closed or the PS shut down the government because he couldn't get what he wanted out of Congress where we're losing right now on the wall or on something that just about nobody, including top leadership has influenced, uh, the president declared a state of emergency.
Adam Isacson (05:19):
Um, a law from the 1970s reinterpreted by the Supreme court in the 80s, gives him the power, uh, to take money out of the, of another or agency's budget, in this case, the huge defense budget and put it into wall building. Um, and as of now, out of every $4 being spent to build new border wall, three of it was not approved by Congress. It's taken by Fiat. And that power, that emergency power is still be challenged in the court system. Uh, but it may be several more months before we know the outcome of that. And of course it is pretty easy to prove that there's not an emergency at the border. So that's where things stand right now. Um, I guess one big challenge right now in Congress, um, is ensuring that our friends are up to date, that they're not fighting the last war, that they're not just asking questions as important as it is, that they're just not just asking questions and holding hearings about family separation, which is, you know, the big heart of 2018 or about kids in cages, the big horror of 18 and 19, but that we're also talking about the remain in Mexico program. We're also talking about the shippings of people to Guatemala to go seek asylum there and, and all of the other actions that have been taken, it pretty much shut down the right to seek a salad at the border.
Maureen Meyer (06:34):
Yeah. And I think just to add on that, it's sort of don't want to underestimate the dramatic impact that the board construction w the wall construction is having at the border. I'm a native of Arizona. Seeing the amount of Solero cactuses that have been cut down that take 200 years to grow to the height that they are is devastating local communities. Indigenous communities are not being consulted as they slash disregard environmental and other laws to rapidly build more walls in this election year. So I think there is a real concern of just the pace it's going and yes there are alternatives to this. As you mentioned Mario, we've, WOLA, put together lots of proposals on how do you make better use of existing resources, looking at technology, looking at deployments. Also, how do you invest in the ports of entry? I mean if your main concern is illicit entry of drugs in the country and also promoting commerce, a lot more money needs to put into the ports of entry. Looking at how do you hold accountable customs and border protection agents, ice agents that abuse citizens, residents and migrants. And I think those are the other areas where we are working and members of Congress are also really interested in looking at what are the alternatives to a more effective approach to border security and immigration enforcement.
Mario Moreno (07:46):
Great. Uh, thank you both Adam and Maureen for that. You know, it's clear to me that the border debate is important, but it's not the entirety of the challenges that we face currently as it relates to migration policy in the United States. There's all, and I think Adam, you touched on this. There's been a systematic attempt to end the right to asylum as we know it through the implementation of safe third country deals through the third country asylum ban through Remain in Mexico, while ignoring fundamental investments, uh, to deal with our badly broken asylum system. Maureen, what's been the impact of this approach on migrants and what are alternatives exist to fixing the asylum system as it stands?
Maureen Meyer (08:23):
I mean, I think first it's important to run through that sort of series of efforts that have been implemented, like in, in order to limit access to asylum at the border. The first was metering. So limiting how many people could approach a port of entry every day. Adam just sent around another report that came out about about 12,000 people still waiting for a turn to do it the right way. Most people are entering up to 10 if they're lucky. Families are being admitted a day at different ports of entry. The Remain in Mexico program which is forcing asylum seekers to wait in Mexico while their immigration proceedings are happening. About 59,000 people are estimated to have gone through the program. There's a very short window of victory on Friday when the ninth circuit had ruled that this was violating us law and probably non refoulment. So the idea that you shouldn't be returning people back to danger, they also granted themselves the administration to stay late Friday evening, meaning that the program continues until the next few days when they're looking at um, what will be the final resolution of the legality of this program? There is the third country asylum transit ban, which basically means if you crossed into the United States after July 15th, 2019 you can be denied asylum because the U.S. Government has deemed that you transmit it through another country that should have protected you. Like you should have requested asylum in another country before reaching the United States. So it applies to anybody except Mexicans to deal with both Mexicans and any other individual that may not go through this program. There are new fast track programs that are basically streamlining asylum procedures to less than 10 days while people are held in detention with no access to lawyers. So you're seeing the steady crackdown or the ability to send people to Guatemala. So a cooperation agreement about a thousand people according to Chad Wolf last week, had been sent to Guatemala often not even knowing when they got on a plane where they were going. So we really have very limited ability to access asylum currently at the U S next go border. And it's clearly an attempt by this administration to limit access to projection. The country limit legal migration of the country as well. And clearly there are things that can be done in the future. Litigation is important. There are lawsuits challenging. Every single one of these measures. We've been happy to be part of submitting affidavits and Amicus, two different lawsuits, and there are things that could be reversed because everything that has been implemented so far has been through executive order.
Adam Isacson (10:49):
You had asked, uh, what are alternative approaches to fixing the asylum system? I mean, just in the one minute version of that. Um, first, I mean, we are in this historic moment of human mobility in Latin America. It's not a good moment. And you have four and a half million Venezuelans all over South America. You've got 100,000 Nicaraguans all in just about all in Costa Rica. And of course, uh, about a million essential Americans since 2014 most of the kids and families, we just gotta get used to it. We have to realize we are in a moment of a lot more asylum seekers in our system was set up to handle. So we have to adjust our system. And that's really five things, some of which I think we'll discuss in more detail in a minute. One, helping central America stop being a place people feel compelled to flee, helping Mexico shoulder more of the burden and also treat the migrants better as they make the journey and cross fix our ports of entry. People shouldn't have to cross the Rio Grande or go through the desert. Um, and if they're wanting to seek us out and they should just be able to show up at a port and ask; alternative state attention so you're not locked up while you wait for your asylum case to actually come up in court and just more judges work capacity and an independent court system and out independent of the justice department, uh, so that people can actually get a decision quickly rather than wait three or four years in the United States. I mean, that's in a nutshell what a more humane asylum system would look like,
Mario Moreno (12:08):
You know, something that both of you mentioned is, is Mexico is bearing the brunt of a lot of these decisions. Um, they, Mexico with which has a fundamentally broken migration system to begin with has seen an exponential growth in people applying for asylum in the country. Uh, and, and its immigration system seems to be on the verge of being overrun. Maureen, can you dive into some of the challenges that Mexico is facing as it relates to migrants in Mexico and what can be done to address these challenges?
Maureen Meyer (12:37):
Yeah, I think their biggest challenge is the Trump administration. And responding to threats of tariff. I mean if you look at the way the Mexican government has responded since may and June of last year, it was precisely due to the threat of imposing tariffs on Mexican goods, which forced them to deploy national guardsman. So most of the military elements to Mexico, Southern and Northern borders to stop people from coming apprehensions dramatically increased the apprehended over 186,000 people last year and many of which likely could have qualified for protection or were hoping to request asylum in the United States. So I think there one big challenge is responding to a very fickle and punitive administration here that is using immigration as a political elective electoral issue, but the others just capacity itself. I think it is clear Mexico's becoming a destination country for more and more asylum seekers in part that's due to how difficult it is to reach the United States, but it's also because there is more awareness of how do you qualify for protection in Mexico. You have more and more people effectively settling in Mexico, which means that they, they feel like they can make a home there and that message goes out to other family members. We certainly met asylum seekers in Chapas last summer that said, if I get asylum, I'm staying here, I'm going to Northern Mexico, I have family there, I want to work there. So that's really, I think, a big role, but they haven't embraced it completely. Mexico is still facing significant financial challenges. They received over 70,000 asylum claims last year and almost 12,000 claims in the first two months of this year alone. Yet their budget for their asylum system is $2.35 million. That's really low. It's, I think it's about 30 some dollars per asylum seeker, if you want to calculate it that way. Most of their refugee agency Kumar's budget is supported by the UNHCR, which is doing important work, but I think longer term Mexico certainly needs to invest in its own system and if it's going to keep enforcing and wanting to do this, government administrations bidding on immigration enforcement, they certainly need to treat people a lot better when they're detaining them and stop holding them in these very squalid. I think a lot of times detention center conditions that are faced with overcrowding, lack of adequate food, healthcare, et cetera.
Mario Moreno (14:52):
Anything to add here?
Adam Isacson (14:53):
Yeah, no, struck me in Tapachula now has a part of town Tapachula is that a city of about 200,000 people right by the Guatemala border and as a part of town called Little Africa. Uh, because there are so many people from Africa stranded there, or just deciding to settle there at this point, uh, Tijuana has a Haitian neighborhood now, uh, there are, pupusarias popping up around Mexico city and its environments. Uh, this is something, this is a new reality for Mexico, which was never a destination country before. Um, but I'm talking about in those neighborhoods, the people who actually have some legal status, they've been through, they've gotten asylum or something similar, uh, from Camara. This agency, Maureen mentioned when we visited their office in Tapachula, they were just glutted. They had people massed around their headquarters in this residential neighborhood of Tapachula, almost all of them African or Haitian or Cuban trying to just even get an appointment. And it was utter chaos outside. The director of the office was so backlogged, they didn't even have, um, uh, resources for printer ink and stuff. Unless UNHCR was helping them out. And she actually just said to us, I keep looking at that ceiling and I can't believe I haven't hung myself yet. And that's no way in which to work on. And when I say the United States need to, it needs to adjust to this new reality of migration. So does Mexico and they're doing, um, they need to do more than what they can, but they do need to do a lot more and we should be helping them. Um, in addition to just processing people and giving them status, I mean, those who are awaiting, uh, this status or those who are coming through Mexico and don't have status yet are easy prey for organized crime, for kidnappers, for extortionists, for people, bangs, bands that do assault. And too often the local authorities were in that any part of Mexico they're in are in league with the bad guys. Uh, uh, part of the corruption or sometimes doing the shaking down themselves. Uh, Mexico needs to do a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot more on the almost complete impunity that people who prey on migrants enjoy in Mexico right now. It's a very dangerous and terrifying, uh, trip that migrants make across Mexican territory.
Mario Moreno (16:55):
Thank you both. I think the last part of the puzzle here is, is we've talked about the U.S.-Mexico border, about the ending of asylum as we know it. We've talked about Mexico becoming a destination country, but a big part of this is central America and, and in a critical pieces. How do you address central American migration by investing on solutions to conditions on the ground in these countries? Adam, starting with you, what is the scale of the challenges that are, that are that what Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras are facing and how can the U S support progress in these countries?
Adam Isacson (17:29):
The scale is enormous. Uh, these, you know, a lot of us got to know these countries during the years when they are in a state of civil war. Actually, most measures of violence and homicide, um, except for the peak years of the civil Wars. Most measures of violence and homicide are higher now. Uh, the UN, uh, world health organization says that any country with a homicide rate of 10 homicides per 100,000 residents each year is in a state of quote unquote endemic violence. Well, the Northern triangle countries are routinely over 40 or 50 or 100 thousand a year, four or five times that, that, that level, that El Salvador, a couple of years ago, 2015 reached a hundred per a hundred thousand, which is worst than most, uh, of the armed conflicts we've seen around the world, even if it's not formally called an armed conflict. That's the severity of the problem that's expelling people that we're dealing with here. Institutions, uh, those providing security, those providing rule of law have largely collapsed. Um, there are some very brave people in those countries, uh, in prosecutor's offices. Um, judges, um, people, uh, journalists, human rights defenders who are doing the best they can right now. They've been enduring the backlash in all three countries, uh, from really from corrupt elites, uh, who don't find it to be all that convenient that there'd be a state that's actually willing to protect people and enforce the rule of law evenly. Um, the backlash has kicked out just in the past few months. Uh, UN and OAS anticorruption bodies that were investigating government corruption and government ties to organized crime. They're gone now. It's a key firewall that the Trump administration pretty much blindly allows, allowed to close down and go away from the United States to help. Uh, we can't just sort of throw money at police. We can't just throw money at, you know, uh, agricultural programs. Although police reform and agricultural, you know, food safe security is important. We also really need to back the reformers back, the people working to make states function for people. Cause if they don't, people are gonna keep coming. And you know, what I just proposed, there is not a short term solution. There really is no short term way to prevent large numbers of people from leaving central America. It's going to be a dangerous and poor place for a while and climate change is going to make it worse. But we have to be focusing on that media time horizon. How can we make it more livable in 10 or 15 years? And that path goes through institutions and reducing impunity.
Maureen Meyer (19:56):
And I think just to look at you see on your screen here, U S assistance by fiscal year, looking at all the different areas that us assistance can be beneficial to supporting efforts in central America. We certainly have worked to try to preserve assistance in central America. So the whole thought of somehow cutting aid because countries are not working hard enough to stop their citizens from leaving is not the solution and not going to really at all address why people continue to flee their homes. And so one is looking at how has you assistance, um, focused, what does it work? Is it working? We had a larger project and talk about at the end what we're doing that monitors the impact of um, us assistance to central America. But just to add, I think from everything Adam said, if the U S is going to be engaging, ensuring that it's a large part of the support does go to these crusaders that are working on anticorruption efforts within and outside of government and making sure any U S assistance is conditioned on progress being made by these governments to strengthen public institutions, not just giving money away without having any real oversight over how it's being used or the commitment of these governments to tackle these deep held problems of weak institutions and widespread corruption.
Mario Moreno (21:06):
So so thank you both sort of laid out a fairly compelling picture that this is, this is a significant issue that spans the entire region and that there's no clear cut solutions that it's going to take a while for us to get our hands around. You know, how do we secure the border in a way that respects human rights? How do we strengthen the asylum system? How do we work with Mexico to make sure that migrants in transit or that stay in Mexico are treated with dignity and respect and that will be addressed. Some of these conditions on the ground in central America a lot to tackle. Um, so walk me through how you're tackling all these issues here at WOLA. What's, you know, what are you working on?
Maureen Meyer (21:46):
All right, I'll start. I'm sure Adam has more to say. I mean, a, a big part is working to educate policy makers in Congress about what's going on at the border and South of the border. So providing them with Up To Date information and analysis on border enforcement and security, what's happening with asylum seekers that are forced to wait on the Mexican side of the border. What does Mexico's asylum system look like, what's happening in central America? And then also urging and encouraging us support for both protection efforts throughout the region, but also, as we said, ongoing assistance to central America. We work to shape media coverage, either that's pitching stories to reporters, putting reporters in contact with colleagues on the ground. I think it's been a key part of what we've done in the past years of ensuring they understand from people that are working in these communities, what it really looks like and what it, um, what would be policy solutions. We advocate a lot with the Mexican government on their responsibility. All of the concerns we have about what's happening with asylum seekers on the Mexican side of the border with the MPP program, et cetera, are also in part because the Mexican allowed that to happen. They permitted people to be sent back to these dangerous Mexican border towns. So really pushing the Mexican government. We've led efforts with other organizations to say, what are you doing as Mexico to protect people that are in need and what are you doing to ensure that you're building up your own asylum seeker asylum system, sorry. And working investigate the multiple crimes and abuses that happened against migrants on transit. And I think lastly we have, uh, the project that many of you probably heard about with Temple University law school, which is also providing resources for work lawyers working on asylum cases from um, Guatemala, El Salvador. And Honduras. We just launched our third series of resources last in February actually, that look at why different issue, how, how country conditions in central America and how getting that information to lawyers can really support asylum claims here. So I think that's also been how do we make use of our expertise as on the region versus an organization that does direct legal assistance. What we can provide as the expert analysis and partnering with Temple has been a great way to do that.
Adam Isacson (23:56):
Yeah, I mean, in addition to everything that we're supporting here from reformers and central America to the ports of entry to everything else, there's a lot we post. Uh, that's actually, it's probably taking most of our time right now. Um, ensuring that the appropriations bills that come out of Congress don't include a lot of money or any for the wall, uh, for border patrol expansion for a detention space, for ICE, for more military deployments, uh, to the border. Um, and that includes more, uh, budget for humanitarian assistance during processing and efforts to try to change this really increasingly sick institutional culture at border patrol and CBP. And ice. So obviously with the current configuration we have here in Washington, we're not going to get much of that. We're going to stop a lot of some of what I just said, but we're not going to get a real reform agenda passed in Congress in the year 2020. Um, we however, are working with legislators to try to lay the groundwork in the event that there's a different executive branch next January. We don't want to have to start from scratch and just have to hit the ground running and decide what it is. Uh, people are going to get or get, get going around. Um, we're laying the groundwork now and we do that through regular contact with legislators. We're talking to legislative staff just this afternoon, uh, who are going to visit Mexico Southern border, um, about, you know, how to organize their trip. Um, and we have a lot of conversations like that all the time based really on the field work and research we do, which is expensive, but absolutely essential is what we're getting a lot of information that no one else gets. Um, in addition to the media work that, that Maureen mentioned. So a lot of this is looking toward, you know, laying the groundwork for next year. If next year ends up with the same configuration, we'll put it that way. Uh, we've got a lot of problems, but we will continue to find ways to, uh, to push back, uh, with every tool available or disposal.
Mario Moreno (25:45):
Great. Well, I want to thank you both for joining this conversation and I want to thank everybody for listening. This is an issue that, as you've heard, we'll continue to track closely. So stay tuned for updates.
Speaker 3 (25:59):
Join WOLA and advocating for migrant policies that respect human rights. If you can do one thing after listening to this episode, share what you've learned on social media using the hashtag beyond the wall. You can also stay updated by signing up for our newsletter at wola dot org forward slash beyond the wall. Thank you for listening.
Adriana Beltran and Austin Robles of WOLA’s Citizen Security Program discuss the beleaguered fight against corruption in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. Their Central America Monitor tracks progress on 8 indicators and closely watches over U.S. aid.
If you would like to keep up to date on all of the work we are doing in Central America, sign up for our newsletter on wola.org.
Our team recorded a roundtable discussion at WOLA the morning after this year's State of the Union, particularly focused on what the president's words and actions mean for human rights and U.S. foreign policy in Latin America.
Adam Isacson (Director for Defense Oversight), Maureen Meyer (Director for Mexico and Migrant Rights), Geoff Ramsey (Director for Venezuela) and Marguerite Rose Jiménez (Director for Cuba) discuss the surprising appearance of opposition leader Juan Guaidó, the president's comments on Cuba, and the toxic business as usual attitude towards migrants and immigration policy.
Read our livetweets from last night on our Twitter and sign up for our newsletter on wola.org.
The U.S. policy of "Remain in Mexico", building the border wall, and the overall criminalization of Central American migrants and asylum seekers has produced a number human rights, economic, security, and administrative consequences on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. During the week of January 20th, the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) staff and partners visited El Paso and Ciudad Juarez in order to observe and document the state of migration and migrant rights at the border.
This interview was conducted with Adam Isacson, WOLA Director for Defense Oversight, in the early morning hours after a number of visits with U.S. Border Patrol, migrant shelters, and civil society partners who work on behalf of migrant rights.
To learn more about the latest developments on the border and migrant rights, follow us on Twitter and subscribe to our email newsletter.
For Venezuela, 2020 began with new political turmoil, as the Maduro government maneuvered to take over the presidency of the opposition-majority National Assembly.
Will this backfire for Maduro? Can the opposition maintain unity? Are negotiations toward new elections feasible? Is the U.S. government sending a coherent message? What about other international actors, like the EU and Russia? Geoff Ramsey, WOLA's director for Venezuela, explains this moment and potential solutions.
WOLA Director for the Andes Gimena Sánchez-Garzoli explains Colombia's four-week-old wave of social protests, peace accord implementation, and what WOLA staff saw and heard during October field research in the conflictive Arauca and Chocó regions.
Though the Trump administration is purportedly pro-business, its Cuba policy has hit the island's nascent private sector very hard. Oniel Díaz of AUGE, a Cuban business development team, discusses the damage done and how entrepreneurs are adapting.
Tensions are very high in Bolivia in the days since President Evo Morales resigned, following a fraud-marred election. From Cochabamba, Kathryn Ledebur of the Andean Information Network explains the situation and the alarming turn that events are taking.
WOLA's Adam Isacson and Maureen Meyer covered nearly 400 miles of the Mexico-Guatemala border during a mid-August visit. Amid a U.S.-inspired crackdown on irregular migration, they saw National Guardsmen, checkpoints and patrols, a nearly collapsed refugee reception system, and thousands of asylum seekers from Cuba, Haiti, and Africa stranded after crossing half the planet.
The crackdown, which began in June, has reduced migration but endangered people fleeing violence, while benefiting smugglers and their corrupt accomplices. By assenting to Trump administration pressure, Meyer and Isacson explain, Mexico has assumed the political costs, but has not yet dealt with the humanitarian and social consequences on vivid display in the southern border zone.
WOLA·s president, Matt Clausen, shares what he saw and heard during a recent delegation to the U.S.-Mexico border at El Paso and Ciudad Juárez. Family migration increased 1,500% there this year, and the "Remain in Mexico" program has been implemented mercilessly amid sharply rising violent crime rates in Juárez.
Matt found a strong community, including many tireless volunteers, advocates, journalists, and shelter personnel, dealing with a dire situation. He shares his impressions and analysis.
Guatemala has seen a historic democratic opening get abruptly shut down, amid official U.S. silence. Martín Rodríguez Pellecer, director of the Guatemalan online news outlet Nómada, talks about how corrupt elites stifled a "justice revolution," and the consequences of the August presidential election runoff.
Julio Martínez of Nicaragua's Articulación de Movimientos Sociales talks about the effort to stop human rights abuses and restore democracy in Nicaragua, the importance of international pressure, and the spread of authoritarianism in Central America.
Facing arrest in a corruption scandal, Peru's two-time president Alan García shot himself to death on April 17. WOLA Senior Fellows Jo-Marie Burt and Coletta Youngers discuss the personal journey of a politician who loomed over Peruvian political life for the past 35 years
Garcia started out as a leftist, ruled amid some serious human rights crimes and economic crises, and later became a seemingly untouchable power broker—until the Odebrecht corruption investigation.
Burt and Youngers explain Peru's current judicial drive against corruption, reasons for hope, and the difficulty of predicting anything in Peruvian politics.
The Trump administration has gone full hard-line against Cuba, announcing severe new measures—including a once-unthinkable authority to allow owners of seized Cuban property to sue in U.S. courts.
WOLA's vice president for programs, Geoff Thale, explains why these new punishments and restrictions won't bring "regime change" to the island, and instead how they will hurt its struggling private sector. He and host Adam Isacson look at the politics underlying these steps, and whether they're likely to be long-lasting.
Ana Arjona of Colombia·s Universidad de Los Andes and Northwestern University presents an intricate theory of how armed conflicts work at the local level, as presented in her 2016 book Rebelocracy: Social Order in the Colombian Civil War.
Arjona finds that much of the time, it’s not all anarchy and chaos: there can be some sort of order in the midst of civil war. And that order usually takes one of two forms, and the civilian population has a lot to do with what form it takes.
Only a few years ago, Guatemala was making historic gains in its fight against corruption and human rights abuse. Since then, the country has suffered a severe backlash. A “pact of the corrupt” in Guatemala’s ruling elite keeps pushing legislation that would terminate trials and investigations for war crimes and corruption. A U.S.-backed UN prosecutorial body, the CICIG, has been weakened. High-court rulings are being ignored. Things have gotten so bad that the U.S. government has suspended military aid.
And today, Guatemala has incredibly surpassed Mexico as the number-one nationality of undocumented migrants being apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border.
As a new presidential election looms, Adam talks about the situation with WOLA Senior Fellow Jo-Marie Burt, just returned from one of her frequent visits to the country. See more of Jo-Marie’s recent analysis at:
- The Open Society Justice Initiative’s International Justice Monitor.
- “Why War Criminals Could Walk Free in Guatemala,” at Americas Quarterly on March 12, 2019.
El Salvador is inaugurating a new president amid a severe security crisis. Tens of thousands of Salvadorans are abandoning their homes each year—most displacing internally and many moving to other countries—due to gang violence. Despite incipient recent reform efforts, government institutions have been either too absent or too corrupt to protect people.
This podcast features Cristian Schlick, a lawyer with the Human Rights Institute of the Central American University ([[IDHUCA]]) in El Salvador. He will be speaking at [[an event on “Violence and Hardline Citizen Security in El Salvador,”]] hosted by WOLA and the Due Process of Law Foundation, this Thursday March 14 at 4:30PM.
U.S. and Mexican border communities are contending with a surge of asylum-seeking children and parents, arriving by the thousands each day. The Trump administration portrays it as a “national emergency” and is sending troops, turning asylum-seekers away, and circumventing Congress to build walls.
Adam Isacson (WOLA’s Director for Defense Oversight) and Maureen Meyer (WOLA’s Director for Mexico and Migration) discuss why the crisis is happening, and the Trump administration’s cruel efforts to “deter” migrants. Adam talks about what he’s seen over two weeks in San Diego and Tijuana so far this year. Then both outline a vision of what the process for asylum-seekers would look like if the U.S. and Mexican governments adjusted from a “security emergency” to a “humanitarian crisis” response.
Resources cited in the podcast include:
- WOLA’s graphical overview of the February migrant data, which U.S. Customs and Border Protection released on March 5.
- A December 2018 “snapshot” report, and February 2019 update, detailing current asylum waitlists at ports of entry across the U.S.-Mexico border, by the Strauss Center at the University of Texas at Austin, the Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies at the University of California at San Diego, and the Migration Policy Center at the European University Institute.
- WOLA’s Central America Monitor, which tracks U.S. aid to the region and evaluates its progress.
- WOLA’s new Asylum Resources for Attorneys, compiled with the Temple University Beasley School of Law to provide resources for lawyers representing Central American asylum seekers.
A fast-moving, wide-ranging discussion of the current moment in Venezuela, and the available options for finding a way out of the country's intractable crisis, with Geoff Ramsey, WOLA·s assistant director for Venezuela.
The Democratic Party won a majority of the House of Representatives in the November 6 midterm election. Adam Isacson talks with WOLA's Director for Cuba, Marguerite Jiménez, about what this means. They explain what an opposition party can do when it has majority control of a chamber. They identify some of the Democratic members of Congress who will play key roles in determining U.S. policy toward the region. They look at how oversight of diplomacy and security policy might improve. And they assess the likelihood of changes to Cuba policy, border security policy, and U.S. assistance programs.
After a long year of elections in Latin America, Adam talks to Cynthia McClintock of George Washington University, author of a new book that argues for the importance of holding runoff elections, which has brought more democratic outcomes in the region.
A "caravan" of migrants from Central America has inspired the president to threaten aid cuts and to send troops to the border. But this issue involves conditions in Central America, along the migrant trail in Mexico, and U.S. assistance.
WOLA's Adam Isacson, Maureen Meyer, and Adeline Hite were at the Arizona-Mexico border last week amid the furor over the Trump administration's zero-tolerance and family separation policies. They discuss what they saw and what asylum-seekers are facing.
Following travel to Venezuela's border regions, Assistant Director for Venezuela Geoff Ramsey and Director for the Andes Gimena Sánchez discuss the ongoing crisis of forced migration of Venezuelans, what is being done about it, and what needs to happen.
The U.S. government finally has a budget for 2018. Congress almost completely rejected President Trump’s border wall proposal, and reversed his deep cuts in aid to Latin America. Adam Isacson, Maureen Meyer, and Geoff Thale discuss what happened.
El Salvador's National Civilian Police, especially a 1,000-man military-police hybrid unit, has killed hundreds of alleged gang members this year. Many appear to be extrajudicial executions. Demands to do something about the country's brutal gangs has created a climate in which top officials have green-lighted a culture of human rights abuse. Two Salvadoran journalists, Hector Silva of Fáctum and José Luis Sanz of El Faro, have broken the most important stories about police death-squad activity. Here, they discuss their findings and the difficulty of doing this work in El Salvador today.
We've worked with Congress for 43 years, but we're still figuring it out. WOLA Associate Ana Sorrentino has worked both as an advocate and a congressional staffer. She has lots of advice about developing relationships and not wasting busy staffers' time.
The House Appropriations Committee just passed a budget bill that gives the Trump administration much of what it is asking for: more border wall, more agents, and more deportations. Get an update from senior Associates Adam Isacson and Maureen Meyer.
On June 20, 2017 the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) ceased to be an armed group. But as WOLA's Gimena Sánchez-Garzoli makes clear, the hard part awaits.
In a wide-ranging discussion about the current moment, we discuss next steps in the FARC demobilization, the ominous appearance of armed groups in zones of previous guerrilla influence, recent social protests on the Pacific Coast, Colombia's ability to implement its accord commitments, civil society's role in making it happen, and our growing concerns about where the Trump administration is headed.
Over 65 Venezuelans have died in over two months of protests against the Maduro government's authoritarian turn. WOLA Senior Fellow David Smilde, the Charles A. and Leo M. Favrot Professor of Human Relations at Tulane University and moderator of the WOLA Venezuela Politics and Human Rights blog, discusses Venezuela's political crisis.
This fast-moving interview covers the risk to democracy posed by Maduro's proposed constitutional assembly; the opposition's strategic opportunities, challenges, and mistakes; civil-military relations; the highly politicized issue of humanitarian aid; diplomatic efforts at the Organization of American States; the issue of sanctions, and WOLA's skepticism about this tactic; and hope for multilateral action to find a way forward.
The Trump White House just sent its first budget to Congress. It calls for a huge 35 percent across-the-board cut in U.S. assistance to Latin America. It also calls for construction of new border wall with Mexico. WOLA Program Director Geoff Thale discusses the devastating implications such a cut might have on U.S. relations with the region. This aid cut is far from guaranteed to pass: we explain what the next steps are in Congress.
With the goal of addressing the violence and economic hardship driving migration from the region, Congress approved $750 million in aid for Central America for 2016, and $655 million more for 2017. What is in these aid packages? Which countries are getting what? What do U.S.-funded programs propose to do? Are they achieving their goals?
On May 17 WOLA, together with partners from the region, will launch the Central America Monitor, a data-rich effort to answer these questions. WOLA Senior Associate Adriana Beltrán tells us what to expect.
WOLA Program Officer Sarah Kinosian is just back from a weeklong research visit to Honduras. We discuss arms trafficking, police reform, gangs, drug trafficking, migration, U.S. assistance, and Honduras's own reform efforts, looking for evidence that anything is "working."
WOLA Senior Fellow Jo-Marie Burt closely monitors Guatemala's judicial effort to hold military personnel accountable for crimes committed during the country's civil war. Despite pushback, prosecutors, investigators, and civil society are making progress.
Jo-Marie posts frequent updates about Guatemala's human rights trials to the Open Society Justice Initiative's International Justice Monitor website at www.ijmonitor.org/category/guatemala-trials/
U.S. statistics showed a sharp drop in migration from Mexico, and especially from Central America, in February. WOLA's Adam Isacson, Maureen Meyer, and Hannah Smith talk about what is happening and what now awaits migrants who seek asylum or refuge.