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 bo…

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 …

**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 …

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, …

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 …

**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 epi…

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 Presi…

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 Bre…

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 t…

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 a…

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 p…

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-descendan…

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 Cla…

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 …

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…

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, demograp…

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 Venezue…

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, th…

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 …

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…

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 promin…

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-M…

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 M…

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 oppor…

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 …

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 Lau…

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.By Adam Isacson

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.By Adam Isacson

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.By Adam Isacson

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.By Adam Isacson

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.…

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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.By Adam Isacson

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?By Adam Isacson

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.By Adam Isacson

Interview of American Mariachi Stars: LUCY GODÍNEZ (Boli) is so happy to be bringing this show to ASF after appearing as Boli at both the Goodman Theater and Dallas Theater Center. Other regional credits include Man of La Mancha (Aldonza, Fulton Theater), Nancy in Oliver and Ariel in Footloose (Marriott Theatre), Into the Woods (Little Red, Writers…

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.By Adam Isacson

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.By Adam Isacson

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.By Adam Isacson

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.By Adam Isacson

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.By Adam Isacson

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.By Adam Isacson