Podcast appearances and mentions of Carlos Ortiz

Will Doctor gives you the sharpest picks for the action at TPC River Highlands -Discussing top 4 names on odds board -2 matchups -1 t10 -3 outrights (+325, 40/1, 110/1) -Sleeper, FRP -Scoring, Best bet For the latest on the world of golf, follow Doc on X @drmedia59 The 2025 Travelers Championship podcast by Will Doctor offers a comprehensive breakdown of the final PGA Tour signature event of the season and a dramatic recap of the U.S. Open at Oakmont. JJ Spahn's emotional and improbable victory—highlighted by a bogey-free 66 in Round 1 and a comeback from five-over through six holes on Sunday—dominates the opening analysis. Spahn's perseverance, bolstered by past experiences like his playoff loss to Rory at Sawgrass and personal life moments, creates one of golf's most compelling storylines this year. Sam Burns, despite leading after 36 holes, faltered on Sunday with a back-nine 5-over but gained praise for his accountability in addressing a controversial rules decision on the 15th hole. Victor Hovland impressed with another top-10 major finish, while Tyrell Hatton and Cam Young finished tied for fourth, each undone by late bogeys. Carlos Ortiz's top-4 finish secured him future major spots and significant earnings. Scottie Scheffler posted a T-7 finish with elite iron play but struggled with driving accuracy. Brooks Koepka showed flashes of his major-winning form with a T-12 finish. Bryson DeChambeau and Keegan Bradley both disappointed due to poor putting and iron play, respectively. Collin Morikawa dazzled tee-to-green but suffered a shocking putting regression. Betting-wise, Will Doctor's card went down 2 units for the week, bringing his YTD loss to 70.7 units. Matchup wins included Rahm over McIlroy and Matsuyama as top Japanese, while Åberg missed the cut as the top Nordic. For the Travelers Championship, Doctor critiques the 72-man no-cut format, urging a return to 120-player fields with cuts and innovations like a shot clock. Course characteristics at TPC River Highlands favor accurate drivers and elite wedge players. Scottie Scheffler headlines as a strong pick at +325 with no statistical weaknesses. Rory McIlroy is passed on due to poor wedge play and fatigue. Morikawa is deemed overpriced despite his iron strength. Schauffele is dismissed for weak wedge approach stats. Matchups include Akshay Bhatia over Sungjae Im and Sepp Straka over Patrick Cantlay, based on wedge stats and recent form. Russell Henley is endorsed as a top-10 pick and outright bet due to his improved putting and elite iron play. Additional outrights include Bud Cauley at 110-1 for his course fit and Scottie Scheffler as the favorite. First-round bet goes to Sam Burns to start strong. Fantasy lineups are provided for both DraftKings and PGATOUR.com formats, featuring Straka, Henley, McIntyre, Spieth, Bhatia, and Cauley. The scoring prediction is -20 under par, with the best bet being Henley top 10 at +275. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Analizamos un emocionante US Open, en el que probablemente sea el campo mas complicado del mundo.Gran actuación del mexicano Carlos Ortiz, con un tablero de lo mas interesante y diverso, con un gran campeón en los bastones de JJ Spaun. Además intentarmos entender por que Rory está tan de malas y terminamos platicando del viaje a Colombia y como se vive el golf en ese país. 

Primero de tres programas que haremos completamente en vivo desde el Club de Golf Chapultepec, la previa mas completa con voces de los golfitas mexicanos Abraham Ancer y Carlos Ortiz.

El LIV Golf Mexico City es el evento de la semana en el Club Chapultepec, por lo que los Caimanes se preparan para estos días de cobertura y lo que podemos esperar de la visita del circuito saudí a la capital del país: los ganadores del WGC Mexico Championship en la misma sede, expectativas para Carlos Ortiz y Abraham Ancer, y un muy divertido juego: “¿Puedes nombrar todos los equipos del LIV?”También, una comparativa –otra vez– de lo que ha sido la temporada de Scottie Scheffler en 2025 y qué tanto impacto tiene el estadounidense en lo mediático

En el programa de esta semana hablamos sobre la victoria del mayor de los Ortiz y lo que representa este título. También platicamos del cierre de TGL y del arranque de una nueva temporada del PGA Tour Americas. 

Paul en Rogier speelden herenmiddag vrijdag. Milaan - San Remo kijken en teamtraining van Martijn zaterdag en een oefenpotje van heren 2 tegen Olympus op Amelisweerd op zondag. Op de PGA Tour won Hovland ondanks dat hij geen controle had over wat hij deed. JT kwam tekort op de moeilijke Copperhead course van het Valspar Championship. Adam Hadwin had een negatieve hoofdrol.De regen achtervolgt de DP World Tour en ook in Singapore werden slechts 3 ronden gespeeld. Richard Mansell won zijn eerste. George Coetzee won op de Sunshine tour en Carlos Ortiz won in de International series in Macau. Lars van Meijel werd mooi 3e in de Hotel-planner tour.In de korte ronde: MvdP in Milaan - San Remo, La Familia, het Masters dinner menu, een challenge van 2 jongens die hun haar pas knippen als McIlroy een major wint (of Tommy een PGA tour event), Djokovic, Tiger, wat is nou een goede matchplayer en kunnen we overweg met elkaars driver.Raad de Speler tot slot.0:00 - 15:35 Eigen golf15:35 - 40:30 Professioneel golf40:30 - 1:06:03 Korte Ronde1:06:03 - 1:06:41 Raad de Speler

En el podcast de hoy hablo con Carlos Ortiz de Lucas, uno de los founders de "Aloha Poké", con 35 estalecimientos y un ARR de más de 13M€. Carlos también es fundador de XQuad, el primer Board of Advisors as a Service para Startups.En este episodio charlamos de su trayectoria, aprendizajes y errores, creación de contenido, falsos profetas del emprendimiento y formación para emprendedores. Linkedin de Carlos: https://es.linkedin.com/in/carlos-ortiz-startup-advisorMinimalism Brand (marca de Pepe): https://minimalismbrand.com/ Libro de Pepe: https://libros.com/go/oqW0DKTPatrocinio de hola Fly 5%: Openholafly. Aplicable en: https://esim.holafly.com/Redes sociales de Pepe:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pepemartingarcia/Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pepe-martin-garcia-7a743228/

Desde Puerto Vallarta, sede del Mexico Open at VidantaWorld, los Caimanes destacan el gran fin de semana de los mexicanos Abraham Ancer y Carlos Ortiz en LIV Golf Australia, así como el título de Ludvig Aberg en Torrey Pines. En plena charla, encontraron una posible solución para concretar el negocio del golf entre ambas giras. Además un primer vistazo a la visita del PGA Tour a México.

"La gracia sólo desciende cuando hay imposibles.."

El diseñador Carlos Ortiz habló en W Fin de Semana sobre ‘Karma', el álbum de Diana Burco que recibió el premio Grammy Latino en la categoría Mejor Diseño de Empaque.

O Carlos Ortiz, da AgroSchool, orienta como superar a crise, evitando armadilhas, com uma Gestão financeira mais eficiente da sua fazenda.

El 30 de septiembre de 1989, durante la presidencia de Carlos Menem, se concretó el regreso de los restos de quien gobernara Buenos Aires en los períodos 1829- 1832 y 1835-1852. El lugar elegido para el acto oficial fue el Monumento a la Bandera Nacional situado en la ciudad de Rosario, provincia de Santa Fe, para convertir la repatriación en símbolo de unidad nacional, entre el pasado y el presente. El 3 de febrero de 1852, derrotado por el general Justo José de Urquiza en la Batalla de Caseros, Rosas había renunciado a su cargo y partido al exilio en Southampton, Inglaterra, donde permaneció hasta su fallecimiento el 14 de marzo de 1877. En su testamento, había manifestado su voluntad de ser inhumado allí, en una sepultura moderada, sin lujo, pero sólida, segura y decente “Hasta que en mi Patria se reconozca y acuerde, por el Gobierno, la justicia debida a mis servicios”. Finalmente, luego de 137 años de exilio, en 1989 se concretó la repatriación de los restos que, tras el acto en Rosario, fueron trasladados a la bóveda familiar en el cementerio de la Recoleta, en la ciudad de Buenos Aires, donde descansan hasta hoy. En el responso, el padre Alberto Ezcurra, descendiente de la esposa del Restaurador, destacó la importancia de la fecha con las siguientes palabras: “Te damos gracias Dios porque Juan Manuel ha encontrado un lugar no solo en el suelo de su Patria, sino también en el corazón del Pueblo. (…) Te pedimos que nos des la gracia de construir una Argentina mirando hacia las profundas raíces, hacia los valores espirituales, culturales y tradicionales de nuestra Patria y no los que vienen importados desde afuera, hacia las ideologías, hacia los imperios que Juan Manuel enfrentó sin ceder ante ellos”. Recordamos esta fecha a partir de registros sonoros conservados en el Archivo Histórico de Radio Nacional. FICHA TÉCNICA Testimonios: 1989-09-30 Fragmento del discurso de Carlos S Menem (Presidente de La Nación) desde Rosario 1989-09-30 Fragmento del discurso de Carlos Ortiz de Rosas (Funcionario de Cancillería – Descendiente de Juan Manuel de Rosas) desde el Cementerio de Recoleta Música: `Malambo´ por Atahualpa Yupanqui Edición: Fabián Panizzi

En este episodio tenemos a un SUPER invitado especial, Carlos Ortiz de ENFOCANDO RESULTADOS. Carlos tiene más de 25 años de expertis en el área comercial/ventas y es un verdadero experto en todo lo relacionado a ventas hoy nos va a compartir parte de su conocimiento y experiencia que VALEN ORO. ¡NO TE LO PUEDES PERDER! Te dejo el link de Enfocando Resultados enfocandoresultados.com Agenda ahora una Evaluación Empresarial con Estrategia de Crecimiento de tu empresa con uno de nuestros asesores. Como lo comentamos en el Podcast este diagnóstico tiene un precio regular de $8,500 (USD 400 aprox.) pero por tiempo limitado vamos a ofrecer este diagnóstico GRATIS a los primeros que agenden. Tenemos espacios limitados por ser gratuito: https://crmcl.helpimentoring.com/evaluacionempresarial-podcast Escríbenos a ayuda@helpimentoring.com mencionando el episodio y la herramienta que ofrecimos para que te la enviemos de regalo. Si te está gustando el podcast te pido tu apoyo para suscribirte y dejar un buen review de (5 estrellitas), servirían mucho para que más emprendedores dueños de pequeñas/medianas empresas como tú puedan tener acceso. Sígueme en redes sociales para que me hagas tus comentarios sobre los episodios ¿qué te gustó?, ¿qué no te gustó?, ¿qué te llamó la atención?, para seguir ayudándote y seguir mejorando el podcast. INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/helpimentoring.com FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/helpimentoring Aprovecha toda la ayuda que podemos darte en helpi Mentoring: 1. Con nuestros Master Class virtuales gratis. Por este medio y en Facebook podrás enterarte de los temas, días y horas. Regularmente hacemos entre 2 y 3 Master Class al mes. 2. Con nuestros Facebook Live gratis. https://www.facebook.com/helpimentoring 3. Con nuestro grupo de Facebook de acceso a nuestros Coaches gratis: https://www.facebook.com/groups/helpicoachingcoaches/?mibextid=oMANbw 4. Con nuestro blog que publicamos en nuestra página de Internet: https://helpimentoring.com/blog/ En todos los formatos mencionados anteriormente compartimos herramientas exclusivas de nuestro programa que incluye muchas de las mejores herramientas y metodologías especializadas en pequeñas/medianas empresas a nivel mundial como EMyth (de Michael E. Gerber), Pumpkin Plan (de Mike Michalowicz), Profit First de Mike Michalowicz), Duct Tape Marketing (de Jhon Hantsch), etc. de diferentes áreas (operaciones, finanzas, Capital Humano, Marketing, Ventas, etc.). Mantente positivo y busca ayuda.

Tenemos programa especial, con Carlos Ortiz Batanero, papá de Carlos y Álvaro Ortiz, quien nos platica del nuevo vino de la estrella del LIV Golf: CERTUS, que estará ligado al golf mexicano. Escucha nuestra entrevista aquí:

On Father's Day Sunday, three dads share about what they've been learning recently about God through the gift of fatherhood.

This week Blair and Matt discuss Scottie Scheffler's victory at the Memorial Tournament with a final score of -8 defeating Collin Morikawa. Then, they share Carlos Ortiz's first victory at LIV Houston with a final score of -15. Next, they preview the U.S. Open where Scottie is currently listed as the favorite at +280. This year's tournament will be held at the challenging Pinehurst No 2. Finally, they give their picks in Betting Corner. Current Standings: Blair - (312) Matt - (494)   Learn more about Cactus Golf Club

En el capítulo de esta semana, los Caimanes festejan el título de Carlos Ortiz en el LIV Golf Houston pero también analizan qué hay después del mismo. Qué tanto puede beneficiarle al mexicano previo a los Juegos Olímpicos y el sabor agridulce que no lo veamos la próxima semana en el US Open. El triunfo de Scottie Scheffler en el Memorial Tournament deja en claro que el Abierto de Estados Unidos es suyo para perder…

El otro día vi un video de una especialista que hablaba sobre las cirugías de Kylie Jenner y de sus posibles trastornos respiratorios y dentales que le habían provocado alteraciones craneofaciales, dándole ciertas características físicas como un mentón corto y ancho, labios delgados, pómulos poco definidos y hasta dientes chuecos, mismas que ha corregido con sus cirugías. Invité a Carlos Ortiz para que nos explique cómo ocurre esto y si la única solución que hay son las cirugías. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Artspeak Radio, Wednesday, May 29, 2024, 9am -10am CST, 90.1fm KKFI Kansas City Community Radio, streaming live audio www.kkfi.org Producer/host Maria Vasquez Boyd welcomes artists Carlo Ortiz, Kiki Serna, and […] The post Artspeak Radio with Carlos Ortiz, Kiki Serna, and Cesar Lopez appeared first on KKFI.

A couple weeks ago I was invited to speak on a panel discussion about soil health for the release of a new issue of REVOLVE magazine.  Established in 2010, REVOLVE inspires climate action by keeping you informed about the circular economy, ecosystem restoration, the energy transition, sustainable mobility and water resources.  Their latest episode focuses on the importance of soil and how to restore the health and function of soil through the perspective of researchers and practitioners. Along with Teresa Gimeno a forestry researcher with the Centro de Investigación de Ecologia y Aplicaciones Forestales or CREAF here in Catalunya, and Carlos Ortiz who works with the department of climate action at the Generalitat de Catalunya where he leads the office of fertilizers and manure treatment, were interviewed by Marta Castillo who is a journalist and communications officer with REVOLVE media. I'll leave it there since Marta gives a great introduction to the panel and each of us as speakers right at the beginning. 

Nuestra "casa" está en grave riesgo. Y es que la Tierra está rebosante de C02, el gas contaminante que causa el cambio climático. Hay que quitarlo del medio. En Islandia y en otros países se están instalando gigantescos aparatos de lo que parecen de aire acondicionado y que tienen un objetivo: absorber CO2. ¿Es el remedio contra el cambio climático? Charlamos con Carlos Ortiz, profesor, investigador y director del departamento de Ingeniería de la Universidad de Loyola. 

Dr. Eric Bryant interviews Carlos Ortiz, Jr., the senior pastor at Gateway Church in Austin. Carlos has served at Hope Fellowship in the Dallas area, Timberlake Church in the Seattle area, and with Craig Groeschel at Life Church. We discussed navigating our divisive world, succession, and ministry post-pandemic. THE POST-CHRISTIAN PODCAST AND GIVEAWAYS: Our goal with The Post-Christian Podcast is to reframe, simplify, and focus on our mission to make disciples in a post Christian culture. We discuss reaching new people and raising up leaders while removing the barriers of churchianity. Be sure to sign up for Eric's email newsletter at www.ericbryant.org for a chance to win future book giveaways and assessments! Subscribe, Rate, and Review The Post-Christian Podcast at Spotify, Apple Podcasts, --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/eric-bryant1/support

Ready to celebrate Cinco De Mayo? You'll want to tune in for this one Join us as we pull back the curtain and give you an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at our exciting El Cinco de Mayo by Limon Y Sal event. Meet the maestro behind the deck Carlos Ortiz, with his residential DJ Sammy Jay, and one of their sponsors for the event, DJ Mambo from Mambo In The Morning. Learn about how they're spicing up your Tuesdays with their new edition - Taco Tuesday leading up to the event on May 5th with a lineup of vibrant event that honor Mexican culture and heritage. They're not just about partying. They believe in creating memorable experiences and sharing our rich heritage and culture. Tune in to hear about the dedicated team that makes the magic happen and the powerful role of partnerships in our event planning. Welcome to our journey of creating experiences, not just events. Get a ticket for Cooking With Carlos! https://c5d831-d6.myshopify.com/products/cooking-with-carlos More on Limon Y Sal https://www.limonysalventura.com/ Links to Voiced Now Platform https://linktr.ee/Voicednow Our Sponsor! A+ Branding https://aplusbranding.com/ Connect with Charles https://linktr.ee/charlescreates Work with our Agency www.orcamediaca.com Want to be a guest or know someone in mind? Recommend them or yourself here! Guest Sign Up Link: https://forms.monday.com/forms/42caea6b8c5091e60f9274ae1f4f51e9?r=use1 --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/voicednow/message

Anthony Kim is finally playing professional golf again. He'll be teeing it up at the LIV Golf Jeddah event. We discuss what to expect from him this week. We also cover the big news of the week, Asteriskgate. Talor Gooch thinks the winner of The Masters deserves an asterisk because the field will not consist of the best players in the world. Carlos Ortiz won in Oman and we preview LIV Golf Jeddah.

En un fin de semana movido, platicamos del regreso de Anthony Kim, el título en Oman de Carlos Ortiz y lo que dejó el Mexico Open at Vidanta.Un fin de semana muy emocionante.

En entrevista para MVS Noticias con Manuel López San Martín, Guillermo Schutz, colaborador de MVS, habló sobre la información más relevante de la jornada deportiva del fin de semana, destacando la participación de los mexicanos Dani Suárez en la serie NASCAR, que se llevó a cabo en Atlanta, EU, y de Carlos Ortiz, quien destacó en el golf al lograr una victoria en la Serie Internacional de Omán, como parte del Tour Asiático. Durante la conversación, el especialista en deportes habló del regreso de Javier "Chicharito" Hernández a tierras mexicanas, luego de 13 años de ausencia.  "Regresó el hijo pródigo. Las Chivas derrotan fácilmente a los Pumas... Bien por Javier, se ha recuperado de la rodilla… Las chivas llevaban un par de bachecitos que no habían ganado y regresan con un victoria contundente frente a un equipo que llevaba 6 partidos sin perder", detalló.  Por último, Memo Schutz destacó el resultado de uno de los partidos más esperados de esta jornada, el América-Cruz Azul, en donde el equipo amarillo derrotó por la mínima diferencia a los de la Noria.  "Los fantasmas rondaron una vez más, hay veces que te topas con un rival y ya te están temblando las piernas antes de enfrentarlo… Este Cruz Azul llevaba 6 victorias consecutivas, se veían muy bien y América venía muy mal. Se llevaron la victoria por la mínima", dijo.   Conéctate todos los días de lunes a viernes de 3 a 4 de la tarde a MVS Deportes y únete a la conversación con David Faitelson, Andre Marín, Memo Schutz, Mariazel y Carlos Aguilar a través de nuestro canal de YouTube. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Carlos Ortiz, owner of Limon Y Sal talks business & paid parking issues on Ventura Forward.

On this week's episode of GOLF's Subpar, LIV Golf's Carlos Ortiz joins Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz for an exclusive interview. Having previously won on the PGA Tour, he talks what went into his decision to depart for LIV, the biggest challenges he has faced in the new league and what he expects the golf world to look like moving forward. -- Subscribe Now: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCt5ESUx6omMUsMoEKvMTzlA Shop The Birdie Juice Collection: https://fairwayjockey.com/collections/birdie-juice Follow Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/golf_subpar/?hl=en Follow Twitter: https://twitter.com/golf_subpar?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor  

Ahora que todo el mundo está enfermo, y ya no sabemos si es catarro o sinusitis, viene el doctor Carlos Ortiz a explicarnos las diferencias y, sobre todo, cómo debemos cuidarnos en esta temporada para no enfermarnos.

Podcast del programa Imagen Empresarial transmitido originalmente el 20 de diciembre de 2023. Conduce Juan Carlos De Lassé. Los entrevistados de hoy: José Carlos Ortiz, Socio de Asesoría en Gobierno Corporativo, Riesgo y Cumplimiento de KPMG México Tema ¿Confías en los procesos o en la gente? 3 beneficios de la institucionalización. Kim Durand, CEO de Cheaf Tema: Cheaf y desperdicios de comida

In this episode, Eric Bryant shares some of the highlights of 2023 with a look towards how together we can make an impact in 2024. From making the Church Growth Workshop available for free to helping skeptics through the New Testament and co-founding the Damascus Road Collective in an effort to help bring spiritual renewal through thriving churches, 2023 was the best year yet for Catalyzing Community! Our ministry with Gateway in Austin included some remarkable opportunities from a healthy and beautiful transition from John Burke to Carlos Ortiz, Jr. as senior pastor to a trip to see the remarkable work of Impact India 360 to a sabbatical to seeing transformation in the hearts of South Austinites and folks connecting to our online campus, there were many things to be thankful for in 2023! The Post-Christian Podcast and Giveaways: Our goal with The Post-Christian Podcast is to reframe, simplify, and focus on our mission to make disciples in a post Christian culture. We discuss reaching new people and raising up leaders while removing the barriers of churchianity. Be sure to sign up for Eric's email newsletter at www.ericbryant.org for a chance to win future book giveaways and assessments! Subscribe, Rate, and Review The Post-Christian Podcast at Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube.com/@ericbryant777, or wherever you listen to your podcasts. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/eric-bryant1/support

Charlamos con Carlos Ortiz el golfista profesional mexicano sobre diferentes aspectos de su golf. Empezamos con sus inicios en el golf en el Guadalajara Country Club, nos dice de Lorena Ochoa con quién creció viendo, como práctica, el dicho de su padre "hacer las cosas bien", el esfuerzo a lar o plazo en vez de la motivación, apoyo de familia, cambio es su swing con Eduardo Miquel, también habla sobre su amigo Sergio García, y nos dice de su tatuaje del árbol de la vida colocado en su pecho. Le quiero agradecer a Oliver Issac por ayudarme a contactar a Carlos. 

We can make choices in life. Many choose success and money. Some choose to help others, giving as much as they can, to benefit as many people as possible.  Hear the touching story of Carlos Ortiz's Grandmother. It's a profound example of using a personal gift of Tamales to cause ripple effects.  Enjoy!Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/success-made-to-last-legends--4302039/support.

We can make choices in life. Many choose success and money. Some choose to help others, giving as much as they can, to benefit as many people as possible. Hear the touching story of Carlos Ortiz's Grandmother. It's a profound example of using a personal gift of Tamales to cause ripple effects. Enjoy!

Sergio Garcia joins Jerry Foltz and Su-Ann Heng on the very first episode of Fairway to Heaven. As captain of Fireballs GC, Sergio shares some insight on who might take Carlos Ortiz's spot on the team next year and why he thinks the team aspect plays such an important role in the future of golf. The 2017 Masters Champion also answers the hard questions about whether he believes he can win another major and which one he'd most like to win. Jerry and Su-Ann bring the heat in the pilot episode, chatting Tiger Woods' return, the upcoming LIV promotion event, and the 2024 LIV schedule.

Sergio Garcia joins Jerry Foltz and Su-Ann Heng on the very first episode of Fairway to Heaven. As captain of Fireballs GC, Sergio shares some insight on who might take Carlos Ortiz's spot on the team next year and why he thinks the team aspect plays such an important role in the future of golf. The 2017 Masters Champion also answers the hard questions about whether he believes he can win another major and which one he'd most like to win. Jerry and Su-Ann bring the heat in the pilot episode, chatting Tiger Woods' return, the upcoming LIV promotion event, and the 2024 LIV schedule.

José Miguel Vivanco, adjunct senior fellow for human rights at CFR and former executive director of the Americas division at Human Rights Watch, leads the conversation on human rights in Latin America. FASKIANOS: Welcome to today's session of the Fall 2023 CFR Academic Webinar Series. I'm Irina Faskianos, vice president of the National Program and Outreach here at CFR. Today's discussion is on the record. The video and transcript will be available on our website, CFR.org, if you would like to share them with your colleagues or classmates. As always, CFR takes no institutional positions on matters of policy. We are delighted to have José Miguel Vivanco with us to discuss human rights in Latin America. Mr. Vivanco is an adjunct senior fellow for human rights at CFR and partner at Dentons Global Advisors. He formerly served as the executive director of the Americas Division at Human Rights Watch, where he supervised fact-finding research for numerous reports on gross violations of human rights and advocated strengthening international legal standards and domestic compliance throughout the region. He is the founder of the Center for Justice and International Law, an international civil society organization providing legal and technical assistance with the Inter-American Human Rights System. So, José Miguel, thank you very much for being with us today. I thought you could begin by giving us an overview of what you see as the most important human rights challenges and advances in Latin America today. VIVANCO: Well, thank you very much for this invitation. It is a pleasure to be with you all and to talk for an hour about human rights problems, human rights issues in Latin America. Let me first make a couple of points. First, I think it's very important that, in retrospect, if you look at Latin America in the 1960s, 1970s, and even 1980s, it was a region that was pretty much run by military dictatorships. So if you look at historically, the region is not in such a bad shape. I know that this comment is quite controversial and many experts who follow the region closely might disagree with that statement, but objectively speaking I think we need to recognize that most of the region is run today—with the exception, obviously, of Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua—by democracies, weak democracies, the kind of democracies that we have in Latin America are facing very serious challenges and with endemic problems such as corruption, abuse of power, lack of transparency, lack of proper accountability, and so on and so forth. But in general terms, this is a region that has a chance to conduct some self-correction. In other words, electoral democracy is a very, very important value in the region, and the citizens—most of the people are able to either reward or punish the incumbent government at the times of elections. That is not a minor detail. It is extremely important, especially if you take into account that during the last twenty years in Latin America, if I'm not wrong, the vast majority of the governments elected were from the opposition. The statistics, I think, show that in eighteen of the twenty last presidential elections, the winner has been the party of the opposition; which means that even though our democracies in Latin America are dysfunctional, weak, messy, slow, you know, short-term-oriented, obviously, but at least citizens take their rights seriously and they exercise their powers so that is why you see a regular zigzag or, you know, transfer of power from a left-wing government to a right-wing government or vice versa. And that is, again, something that is, obviously, a very, very important tool of self-correction. And that, obviously, includes or has an impact in terms of the human rights record of those countries. You know, I'm not—I'm not addressing yet—I will leave it for the Q&A section—conditions in those three dictatorships in Latin America. Let me just make some few more remarks about one of the biggest challenges that I see in the region. And that is, obviously, the rise of autocracy or autocratic leaders, populist leaders, leaders who are not interested or as a matter of fact are very hostile to the concept of rule of law and the concept of independence of the judiciary. And they usually are very charismatic. They have high level of popular support. And they run and govern the country in a style that is like a permanent campaign, where they normally go against minorities and against the opposition, against the free media, against judges and prosecutors who dare to investigate them or investigate the government. Anyone who challenges them are subject of this type of reaction. And that is, unfortunately, something that we have seen in Mexico recently and until today, and in Brazil, especially during the administration of President Bolsonaro. The good news about, in the case of Brazil, is that, thanks to electoral democracy, it was possible to defeat him and—democratically. And the second very important piece of information is that even though Brazil is not a model of rule of law and separation of power, we have to acknowledge that, thanks to the checks-and-balance exercise by the Supreme Court of Brazil, it was possible to do some permanent, constant damage control against the most outrageous initiatives promoted by the administration of President Bolsonaro. That, I think, is one of the biggest challenges in the region. Let me conclude my—make crystal clear that there are serious human rights problems in Latin America today regarding, for instance, abuse of power, police brutality, prison problems. Prisons are really, in most of the countries in the region, a disaster. And you know, a big number of prisoners are awaiting trial, in detention and unable to really exercise their rights. And unfortunately, populist leaders use the prison system or essentially criminal law, by expanding the practice and enlarging the numbers of crimes that could be subject of pretrial detention, and—you know, regardless of the time that it will take for that case to be prosecuted in full respect for the rule—due process, and so on and so forth. And that—the reason is very simple. There is a real demand in Latin America for policies that will address insecurity, citizen security. If you look at statistics in terms of crime rate, it is going up in most of the country. Obviously, there are big difference between countries like Mexico, for instance, or Colombia, and if you link—if you look at the power of cartels and big mafias, and gangs in other countries, or petty crime impacting the daily life of the citizens. Regardless of that point, one of the biggest demands in Latin America is for better and more public security. And that's why political leaders, usually the solution for that request and demand is to put people in prison with essentially no real due process and increase the number of prisoners without conviction. There are challenges for free speech occasionally, of those leaders who resent scrutiny of their practice. And normally there is a campaign against free media. And there are some attempts in some countries to constantly look for ways to undermine the independence of the judiciary. Keep in mind, for instance, that now in Argentina the whole Supreme Court is under impeachment, and it's essentially an impeachment promoted by the current government because they disagree with the rulings, positions of the Supreme Court. All the justices on the Supreme Court are subject of this political trial conducted by the Argentine Congress. That is a concrete example of the kinds of risks that are present for judges and the judiciary in general, when they exercise their power and they attempt to protect the integrity of the constitution. So let me stop here and we can move on to the most interesting part of this event. FASKIANOS: Well, that was quite interesting. So, thank you, José Miguel. We appreciate it. We going to go to all of you now for your questions. (Gives queuing instructions.) We already have some hands up. We will go first to Karla Soto Valdes. Q: My name is Karla Soto. I'm from Lewis University. My question is, what specific measures could be implemented to address and/or prevent trafficking within the asylum-seeking community during their journey to the U.S.? VIVANCO: Irina, are we going to take several questions, or? FASKIANOS: I think we should do one at a time. VIVANCO: Well, Karla, there are multiple tools to address that specific issue. But this applies to essentially most of the human rights problems all over the world. The menu is pretty ample, but depends on one important factor—whether the government involved cares about its own reputation. That is a very important premise here, because if you we are dealing with a democratic government, once again, it's not—when I refer to a democratic government, I don't have in mind a sort of Jeffersonian model, I'm referring to the kind of democracies that we have in Latin America. But, if the leaders in charge are—you know, they care about their own reputation, they care about domestic debate, very important, because these types of revelations usually have ramifications at the local level. If they pay close attention to those issues, I think it's possible to apply, essentially, the technique of naming and shaming. In other words, collecting information, documenting what exactly is happening, and revealing that information to the public, locally and internationally. That is going to create naturally a reaction, a process, an awareness, and local pressure is—hopefully, it's not just twenty-four hours news, so splash—big splash, but also will trigger some dynamics. If we are dealing with a country that is run by a dictatorship, it is a very, very different question, because normally you're facing a leader, a government, who couldn't care less about its own reputation. They have taken already and assume the cost of doing business in that type of context. Now, sometimes conditions are kind of mixed, where you have democratic country in general—so there is still free media, there is an opposition, there is Congress, there are elections. But the government in charge is so—is run by an autocratic leader. That makes, you know, quite—a little more challenging to just document and reveal that information. And you need to think about some particular agenda, governmental agenda. Some specific interests of the government in different areas. Let me see—let me give you an example. Let's say that the Bolsonaro administration is seriously interested in an incorporation into the OECD in Paris. That is an important piece of information. Whatever you think that is relevant information regarding the record of that government, you could provide information to an entity that is precisely evaluating the record of the government. And the government will be much more willing to address those issues because they have a genuine interest in achieving some specific goal at the international level. FASKIANOS: Fantastic. We're going to go to Nicole Ambar De Santos, who is an undergraduate student at the Washington University in St. Louis: When we consider weak democracy in a more personal sense, like Peru, the controversy of obligation to help these nations arises. How much third party or other nations, such as the United States, intervene? VIVANCO: Tricky question. Peruvian democracy is quite messy. Part of the problem is that the system, the political system, needs some real reform to avoid the proliferation of small political parties and to create the real link or relationship between leaders, especially in Congress, and their constituencies, and so they are much more accountable to their community, the ones who elected them. I don't think the U.S., or any other government, has a direct role to play in that area. My sense is that when we are looking into a dysfunctional democracy that deserve some probably even constitutional reforms, that is essentially a domestic job. That is the work that needs to be done by Peruvians. Without a local consensus about the reforms that need to be implemented in the political system, my sense is that it's going to be very difficult for the U.S. or any other large democracy, to address those kinds of points. It's very different, that type of conversation, from a conversation or an assessment of universal values, such as human rights. When we are looking into cases of police brutality, for instance, the international community has a role to play. But if I were part of the conversation or evaluation by the U.S. government or the European Union with regard to this dysfunctional democracy in Peru, I would approach very carefully by suggesting creating the right type of incentives, more than questions of punishment, or sanctions. It's incentives for them to create the right conditions to address the domestic problem that is—has become quite endemic, in the case of Peru. FASKIANOS: Thank you. I'm going to take the next question from Matthew. Matthew, you don't have a last name, so can you identify yourself? Q: Hello. Yes, my name is Matthew. I am a junior student from Arizona State University studying business, but working on a thesis that has to do with human rights and the ethics of supply chain management. My question is, you were talking at the very beginning kind of just about history and how understanding history is important. And what I was hoping to get was, why is understanding history and culture important when working to address human rights issues, history of dictatorship, colonialism? In cultures it's socially acceptable things, like child labor, in some countries, that's not acceptable in Western ideology. So, yeah, just how is history and culture important when working to address human rights for the future? VIVANCO: Matthew, I think you're referring to two different issues. History is central. It's really, really relevant. Because that helps you—if you—if you follow your history, especially periods of time when massive and gross violations were committed in Latin America, it's important to put things in context and value what you have today. And the job is to—not only to preserve democracy, but also to look for ways to strengthen democracy. Because part of the problem is that domestic debate is so polarized today, not just in Latin America, all over the world, that sometimes people—different, you know, segments of society—in their positions, they're so dismissive of the other side, that they don't realize that we need to frame our debate in a constructive way. Let me put it—one specific example. If the government of Argentina, who is a government very receptive and very sensitive to vast and gross violations of human rights committed during the military dictatorship, so in other words, I don't need to lecture that government on that subject. They are actually the people who vote for the current government of Argentina—not the new government, the current government of Argentina—is deeply committed to those kinds of issues. I think that one of the biggest lessons that you should learn from the past is the relevance of protecting the independence of the judiciary. If you don't have an independent judiciary, and the judiciary becomes an entity that is an appendix of the ruling party or is intimidated by politics, and they could be subject of impeachment procedures every time that they rule something, that the powerful—the establishment disagree, I think they're playing with fire, and they're not really paying attention to the lessons that you learn from recent history in Latin America. That would be my first comment regarding that type of issue. And the second one, about you mentioned specifically cultural problems, culture, tensions or conflicts. And you mentioned—your example was child labor. And, and you suggested that that—the combination of child labor is something typical of Western ideology. If I'm not wrong, that was the language that you used. I would—I would push back on that point. And because this is not just a Western or European commitment. This is a universal one. And this is reflected on international treaties, and that are supposed to eradicate that kind of practice. If you give up to the concept of local traditions, you know, cultural, you know, issues that you need to pay attention, sure, as long as they are not to be in conflict with fundamental human rights. Otherwise, in half of the planet you're not going to have women rights, and women will be subject of traditional control. And you wouldn't have rights for minorities, and especially—and not only, but especially—the LGBTQ community. And you wouldn't have rights for racial minorities, or different religious beliefs. So, we have to watch and be very careful about what type of concessions we make to cultural traditions. I am happy to understand that different communities in Latin America might have different traditions, but there is some firm, solid, and unquestionable minimum that are the these universal human rights values that are not the property or monopoly of anyone. You know, these are—and this is not an ethical conversation. This is a legal one, because these values are protected under international law. FASKIANOS: Thank you. I'm going to combine or take two questions. The first question is from Lindsay Bert, who is at the department of political science at Muhlenberg College, who asks if you could speak on the efficacy of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in addressing the human rights violations you described. And the second question is from Leonard Onyebuchi Ophoke, a graduate student at Cavendish University in Uganda: Why is it almost impossible to hold the actors that violate human rights accountable? What could be done to make the mechanism more enforceable? VIVANCO: The inter-American system of human rights protection, there is nothing similar to inter-American system of human rights protection in the Global South. You don't have something similar in Asia, or Africa, or the Middle East. In other words, you don't have a mechanism where ultimately a court, a court of law—not just a commission, a court of law—handle individual cases, specific complaints of human rights abuses, and governments participate in public hearings. The parties involved have the obligation to present evidence before the court, and the court finally ruled on the specific matters where its decisions are binding. The number of issues that have been addressed by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in the last thirty years in Latin America are really incredible. And the impact—this is most important point—the impact at a local level is remarkable. In the area, for instance, of torture, disappearances. I'm referring to the elaboration of concepts and the imposing the obligation of local governments to adjust their legislation and practice, and to address specific problems or issues by providing remedies to victims. That is quite unusual. And the court has remarkable rulings on free speech, on discrimination issues, on indigenous populations, on military jurisdiction. One of the typical recourse of governments in the region when security forces were involved in human rights atrocities was to invoke military jurisdiction. So they say, no worries, we are going to investigate our own crimes. And the court has been actually very, very firm, challenging that notion to the point that I don't think there is a single case in Latin America today—once again, with the exception of Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, that I hope that somebody will ask me a question about those three countries—and I don't think there is a single case where today security forces try to—or attempt to shield themselves from investigation invoking military jurisdiction. And the credit is to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. I can elaborate, and give you—provide you with a long list of examples of areas where the court has been actually really, really critical in advancing human rights in the region. Let me give you actually one last example that I think is very—is very illustrative, very revealing. In Chile, something like probably twenty years ago or fifteen years ago, full democracy. Full democracy. No Chile under Pinochet. The Supreme Court of Chile ruled that a mother who was openly lesbian did not qualify for the custody of her children because she was lesbian. And she had a couple. So that was sufficient grounds to rule in favor of the father, because the mother didn't have the moral grounds to educate her own kids, children. And this was decided by the Supreme Court of Chile. Not just a small first instance tribunal. And I will point out that the vast majority of the—I mean, the public in Chile was pretty much divided, but I'm pretty sure that the majority of Chileans thought that the Supreme Court was right, you know? The case went to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. And fortunately, after a few years, the court not only challenged that decision of the Supreme Court, forced Chile to change its legislation, and to change the ruling of the Supreme Court of Chile, which is supposed to be the last judgment in the country. And the impact of that one, not only in Chile, in the rest of the region, because it shapes the common wisdom, the assumptions of many people. It helps for them to think carefully about this kind of issues. And the good news is that that mother was able to have the custody of her kids. And not only that, the impact in Chilean society and in the rest of the region was remarkable. Now, the second question that was asked was about how difficult it is to establish accountability for human rights abuses against the perpetrators of those abuses. I mean, it's a real challenge. It depends on whether or not you have locally an independent judiciary. If you do have an independent judiciary, the process is slow, it's messy, it's complicated. But there is a chance that atrocities could be addressed. And that is— especially human rights atrocities or abuses committed during the military dictatorship. There are countries in the region, like for instance, Chile, Peru, Argentina, Uruguay, where there are people in prison for those type of atrocities. In Brazil, thanks to an amnesty law that was passed in 1978, real investigation and prosecution of those atrocities actually never happened. And an important lesson that you could bear in mind is that Brazilian military are very dismissive of these type of issues, of human rights issues. But not only that, my sense is that Brazilian military officers at very high level are not afraid of stepping into politics, and give their opinion, and challenge the government. In other words, they were actually very, very active, and I'm referring to top officials in the Brazilian Army, during the Bolsonaro administration. There were top leaders who actually publicly argued that if they have to organize a coup again in Brazil, they are ready. That kind of language you don't find in Argentina, in Chile, in other countries where there have been some accountability. For one simple reason, the top military officers running the show are very much aware that if they get involved in politics, that they are part tomorrow of a coup d'état or something like that, at the end of the day they will be responsible. And they might be subject of criminal prosecution for atrocities committed during that period. And so there is a price to pay. So their calculation is much more, shall we say, prudent regarding this issue. But again, once again, how difficult it is? It's very difficult to establish accountability, and much more difficult when you're dealing with dictatorship, where you need to rely on the work done by, for instance, the ICC, the International Criminal Court, which is pretty active in the case of Venezuela. FASKIANOS: Thank you. I'm going to take the next question from Fordham. Q: Good afternoon, Mr. Vivanco. My name is Carlos Ortiz de la Pena Gomez Urguiza, and I have a question for you. El Salvador is currently battling crime and gangs with strategies such as mano dura, which have shown a significant decrease in crime at the cost of violating human rights. Do you see a possible effective integration of such policies in high-crime-rate countries, such as Mexico, to stop the growth of narco and crime gang activity? And if so, how? VIVANCO: Well, look, yeah, Carlos, very good question. Bukele in El Salvador is a real, real challenge. It's really, really a complicated case, for several reasons. He's incredibly popular. No question about it. He has managed to—thanks to that popularity—to concentrate power in his own hands. He fully controls Congress. But, much more relevant, he fully controls the judiciary, including the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court today is subordinated to the executive branch. And he is constantly going after the civil society, and free media, and the opposition. Now, in violation of the Salvadorean constitution, he's going to run for reelection. And he will be reelected, because he's also very popular. And his policies to go after gangs are cruel, inhuman, and without—not even a facade of respect for due process. Essentially, the policy which is not sustainable and is—I don't think is something that you could export to other countries—is a policy—unless you have full control, unless you have some sort of dictatorship or quasi dictatorship. Which is based, in essence, in the appearance, in the number of tattoos that people, especially in the marginal communities in the periferia in El Salvador, where shanty towns are located. The police has a, you know, green light to arrest anyone who fit that profile. And then good luck, because it's going to be very, very difficult for that person to avoid something like several months in prison. The whole point of having an independent judiciary and due process is that law enforcement agencies have the—obviously, not only the right, the duty to prevent crimes and to punish criminals. Not physically punish them. You know, it's to arrest them, to detain them, and to use proportional force to produce that attention. But they need to follow certain rules. They cannot just go around and arrest anyone who they have some sort of gut feelings that they are involved in crimes, because then you don't—you're not—the whole system is not able to distinguish and to make a distinction between potential criminals and innocent people. But it is complicated, the case of Bukele, because, for instance, I was referring initially to the technique of naming and shaming as a technique, as a methodology to expose governments with deplorable human rights record. But in the case of Bukele, he couldn't care less about. In other words, actually, I think he used the poor perception that exists, already that is established outside El Salvador as a result of his persecution of gangs in El Salvador—he used that kind of criticism as a way to improve his support domestically. In other words, when the New York Times published a whole report about massive abuses committed by Bukele's criminal system, in the prison system in El Salvador, what Bukele does is to take that one, that criticism, as actually ammunition to project himself as a tough guy who is actually, you know, doing the right thing for El Salvador. It's a question of time. It's a question of time. All of this is very sad for El Salvador, one of the few democracies in Central America with some future, I think, because I think they managed after the war to create institutions that are—that were much more credible than in the neighboring countries, like Guatemala, Honduras, and I'm not going to even mention Nicaragua. But under the control of this strongman, everything is possible today in El Salvador. He will be able to govern El Salvador this way as long as he's popular. Unfortunately, the Biden administration has relaxed its attention and pressure on that government, based on the question of migration. So they are hostage by the cooperation of Bukele government to try or attempt to control illegal immigration into the U.S. So that point trumps or, I mean, supersedes everything else. And that is actually very unfortunate. FASKIANOS: Thank you. I'm going to take the next two questions, written questions. One is on the subject that you wanted, from Brittney Thomas, who is an undergraduate at Arizona State University: How come the governments of Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua are socialist or communist while other Latin America countries are predominantly democracies? And then from Roger— VIVANCO: I'm sorry, I couldn't understand the question. Obviously, it's about Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, but? FASKIANOS: Why are they socialist or communist while other Latin American countries are predominantly democracies? VIVANCO: Oh, I see. OK. FASKIANOS: Yeah. And then the next question is from Roger Rose, who is an associate professor of political science at University of Minnesota, Morris: Given the recent decline in the norms of U.S. democracy in the last seven years, does the U.S. have any credibility and influence in the region in promoting democracy? And, again, if you could comment specifically on nations with the least democratic systems—Venezuela, Nicaragua—how could the U.S. play a more constructive role than it is currently? VIVANCO: The U.S. is always a very important player, very, very important. I mean, it's the largest economy in the world and the influence of the U.S. government in Latin America is huge. However, obviously, I have to acknowledge that our domestic problems here and serious challenges to the fundamentals of the rule of law, and just the notion that we respect the system according to which one who wins the election is—you know, has the legitimacy and the mandate to form a new government. If that notion is in question, and there are millions of American citizens who are willing to challenge that premise, obviously undermines the capacity of the U.S. to exercise leadership on this—in this context. And the autocrats and the autocracies in the region—I'm not referring to the dictatorships, but I'm referring to the Andrés Manuel López Obrador, once again, from Mexico, or Bolsonaro in Brazil—they take those kinds of developments in the U.S. as green lights to do whatever they want at local level. So that is a serious—obviously, it's a serious problem. And what is going on here has ramifications not only in the region, but also in the rest of the world. Now, Cuba is a historical problem. It's going to be too long to address the question in terms of why Cuba is a dictatorship and the rest of the region. Part of the problem with Cuba is that you have a government that violates the most fundamental rights and persecutes everyone who challenges the official line. And most of the Cubans today are willing to leave the country and to go into exile. But the problem is that we don't have the right tool, the right instrument in place, to exercise pressure on Cuba. And the right instrument today is the embargo. And that embargo, that policy is a total failure. The Cuban government is the same, exactly the same dictatorship. There has been no progress. And there's going to be no progress, in my view, as long as the U.S. government insist on a policy of isolation. You should be aware that every year 99 percentage of the states in the world condemned the isolation against Cuba, with the exception and the opposition of the U.S. government, Israel, and in the past was the Marshall Islands. Now, I don't think even the Marshall Islands joined the U.S. government defending that policy. So the policy is incredibly unpopular. And the debate at international level is about the U.S. government policy on Cuba and not about the deplorable human rights record of Cuba. That's why I was actually very supportive of the change of policy attempted during the Obama administration. Unfortunately, the isolation policy depends on Congress. And since the times of Clinton, this is a matter of who is the one in control of Congress. And the policy of isolation, it once again makes Cuba a victim of Washington. And Cuba, by the way, is not isolated from the rest of the world. So the U.S. is incredibly, I would say, powerless with regard to the lack of democracy and human rights in Cuba. And at the time, offers a fantastic justification for the Cuban government to present itself as a victim. I think that is the—this is one of the most serious mistakes of the U.S. foreign policy in Latin America that I hope that one day will be—will be addressed effectively. The case of Nicaragua and Venezuela is different, in the sense that we are looking into countries that—Venezuela in particular—have democracy for—a very questionable democracy, very weak, subject of tremendous corruption, and so on and so forth. But they have a system of political parties, free media, and so on, for many, many years. And they end up electing a populist leader whose marching orders and, you know, actually first majors was to establish some effective control of the judiciary. And the Supreme Court became an appendage of the government many, many, many years ago, which means that they managed during the Chavez administration to run the country with some sort of facade of democracy. Today, under Maduro it's no a longer a façade, it's a clear dictatorship responsible for atrocities. Fortunately, it is under investigation by the ICC. And the case of Nicaragua is an extreme case, similar to Venezuela. And it's—it's a dictator who has managed to put in prison everyone who is not in full alliance with the government, including religious leaders, and academics, and opposition leaders, civil society, et cetera. The case of Nicaragua is more complicated because Nicaragua is subject of sanctions by the U.S. government, and the European Union, and Canada, and some governments in the region. But still, we don't see much progress there. FASKIANOS: Great. I'm going to go next to Nassar Nassar, who has a raised hand. You can unmute yourself and state your affiliation. Q: Yes. Hello. FASKIANOS: Great. Thank you. Q: Hi. My name is Nassar Nassar. I'm from Lewis University. So my question is, which are the most significant actors in the global governance of human trafficking? And how effective are they in tackling that? VIVANCO: Well, this is a matter that is usually—the main actors—so this is organized crime. This is organized crime. This is a question regarding—this is a—it's a huge business, and extremely profitable. And if you want to address these kinds of issues, you need regional cooperation, which is very challenging. Keep in mind that at a local level, in many of the most democratic countries in the region, you have tremendous tensions among the local police and different police. For instance, the local FBI—equivalent to an FBI, is usually in tension with other branches of law enforcement. And if you expect to have cooperation from the rest of the countries in the region, it's extremely challenging. So these type of issues require effective cooperation, adjustment on legislation. Require more better intelligence. The reason why you have this type—proliferation of this type of business is because, obviously, corruption and lack of accountability. So this is—my point is that it is a reflection of how weak is our law enforcement system, and how unprofessional, and subject many times of corruption. FASKIANOS: Just to follow up on that, a written question from Patricia Drown, who's at Regent University. How are the cartels and mafia being armed, and by whom? VIVANCO: Well, in the case of, for instance, Mexico, weapons comes from the U.S. Sometimes even legally. You know, the Second Amendment plays a role here. It's so easy to have access to weapons, all kind of weapons, in the U.S. So that helps. And a lack of actually an effective control mechanism to stop that type of traffic. The amount of money that cartels moved in countries like Mexico, but Colombia as well, and this mafia scene in Central America is significant. So they do have capacity to corrupt local enforcement officials that belongs to the police, the army, even the judiciary. And as long as you don't address the root cause of the problem, which is the lack of presence of the state—in other words, there are vast—as you know, there are regions of Colombia that are not under the control of the government, the territories in Colombia. And there are regions of Mexico that, unfortunately, are increasingly under more effective control of cartels than law enforcement and legitimate officials. So that unfortunately, is the—in my view, one of the reasons why it is relatively easy to witness this type of proliferation of illegal business. FASKIANOS: Fantastic. I think we are out of time. We have so many written questions and raised hands. Maybe I'll just try to sneak in one more from Andrea Cuervo Prados. You have your hand raised. I think you also wrote a question. So if you can be brief and tell us who you are. Q: OK. Hello. I'm adjunct faculty at Dickinson State University. And, Mr. Vivanco, I have a question related to Colombia. What do you think about the state of the human rights in Colombia under the new leftist president, Gustavo Petro, compared to the previous president, Ivan Duque? VIVANCO: Andrea, I think it's pretty much the same. When we witness actually an improvement of human rights conditions in Colombia, it was during the negotiations with the FARC. I'm referring to the administration of President Juan Manuel Santos. And with the signature of the peace agreement, when they signed the peace agreement, the numbers shows a serious decline in the cases of, for instance, internally displaced people, torture cases, executions, abductions, and many other of those typical abuses that are committed in Colombia in rural areas where this organized crime and irregular armed groups are historically present. But then the policies implemented during the Duque administration were actually not very effective. There was a sort of relaxation during that period, and not effective implementation of those commitments negotiated with the FARC. That had an implication in terms of abuses. And today I don't see a major shift. My sense is that the local communities are subject of similar abuses, including human rights activists as well as social leaders, in areas where there is a very weak presence of the state. FASKIANOS: Thank you very much. José Miguel Vivanco. We really appreciate your being with us today. And I apologize. Great questions. I'm sorry, we couldn't get to all of the written ones or raised hands. It's clear we will have to do this—focus in on this again and have you back. You can follow José Miguel on X at @VivancoJM. And the next Academic Webinar will be on Wednesday, November 29, at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Shibley Telhami, who's a professor at the University of Maryland, will lead a conversation on public opinion on Israel and Palestine. And in the meantime, I encourage you to learn about CFR paid internships for students and fellowships for professors at CFR.org/careers. You can follow us at @CFR_Academic. And visit CFR.org, ForeignAffairs.com, and ThinkGlobalHealth.org for research and analysis on global issues. Again, José Miguel, thank you very much for today, and to all of you for joining us. VIVANCO: Thanks a lot. FASKIANOS: Take care. (END)

José Miguel Vivanco, adjunct senior fellow for human rights at CFR and former executive director of the Americas division at Human Rights Watch, leads the conversation on human rights in Latin America. FASKIANOS: Welcome to today's session of the Fall 2023 CFR Academic Webinar Series. I'm Irina Faskianos, vice president of the National Program and Outreach here at CFR. Today's discussion is on the record. The video and transcript will be available on our website, CFR.org, if you would like to share them with your colleagues or classmates. As always, CFR takes no institutional positions on matters of policy. We are delighted to have José Miguel Vivanco with us to discuss human rights in Latin America. Mr. Vivanco is an adjunct senior fellow for human rights at CFR and partner at Dentons Global Advisors. He formerly served as the executive director of the Americas Division at Human Rights Watch, where he supervised fact-finding research for numerous reports on gross violations of human rights and advocated strengthening international legal standards and domestic compliance throughout the region. He is the founder of the Center for Justice and International Law, an international civil society organization providing legal and technical assistance with the Inter-American Human Rights System. So, José Miguel, thank you very much for being with us today. I thought you could begin by giving us an overview of what you see as the most important human rights challenges and advances in Latin America today. VIVANCO: Well, thank you very much for this invitation. It is a pleasure to be with you all and to talk for an hour about human rights problems, human rights issues in Latin America. Let me first make a couple of points. First, I think it's very important that, in retrospect, if you look at Latin America in the 1960s, 1970s, and even 1980s, it was a region that was pretty much run by military dictatorships. So if you look at historically, the region is not in such a bad shape. I know that this comment is quite controversial and many experts who follow the region closely might disagree with that statement, but objectively speaking I think we need to recognize that most of the region is run today—with the exception, obviously, of Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua—by democracies, weak democracies, the kind of democracies that we have in Latin America are facing very serious challenges and with endemic problems such as corruption, abuse of power, lack of transparency, lack of proper accountability, and so on and so forth. But in general terms, this is a region that has a chance to conduct some self-correction. In other words, electoral democracy is a very, very important value in the region, and the citizens—most of the people are able to either reward or punish the incumbent government at the times of elections. That is not a minor detail. It is extremely important, especially if you take into account that during the last twenty years in Latin America, if I'm not wrong, the vast majority of the governments elected were from the opposition. The statistics, I think, show that in eighteen of the twenty last presidential elections, the winner has been the party of the opposition; which means that even though our democracies in Latin America are dysfunctional, weak, messy, slow, you know, short-term-oriented, obviously, but at least citizens take their rights seriously and they exercise their powers so that is why you see a regular zigzag or, you know, transfer of power from a left-wing government to a right-wing government or vice versa. And that is, again, something that is, obviously, a very, very important tool of self-correction. And that, obviously, includes or has an impact in terms of the human rights record of those countries. You know, I'm not—I'm not addressing yet—I will leave it for the Q&A section—conditions in those three dictatorships in Latin America. Let me just make some few more remarks about one of the biggest challenges that I see in the region. And that is, obviously, the rise of autocracy or autocratic leaders, populist leaders, leaders who are not interested or as a matter of fact are very hostile to the concept of rule of law and the concept of independence of the judiciary. And they usually are very charismatic. They have high level of popular support. And they run and govern the country in a style that is like a permanent campaign, where they normally go against minorities and against the opposition, against the free media, against judges and prosecutors who dare to investigate them or investigate the government. Anyone who challenges them are subject of this type of reaction. And that is, unfortunately, something that we have seen in Mexico recently and until today, and in Brazil, especially during the administration of President Bolsonaro. The good news about, in the case of Brazil, is that, thanks to electoral democracy, it was possible to defeat him and—democratically. And the second very important piece of information is that even though Brazil is not a model of rule of law and separation of power, we have to acknowledge that, thanks to the checks-and-balance exercise by the Supreme Court of Brazil, it was possible to do some permanent, constant damage control against the most outrageous initiatives promoted by the administration of President Bolsonaro. That, I think, is one of the biggest challenges in the region. Let me conclude my—make crystal clear that there are serious human rights problems in Latin America today regarding, for instance, abuse of power, police brutality, prison problems. Prisons are really, in most of the countries in the region, a disaster. And you know, a big number of prisoners are awaiting trial, in detention and unable to really exercise their rights. And unfortunately, populist leaders use the prison system or essentially criminal law, by expanding the practice and enlarging the numbers of crimes that could be subject of pretrial detention, and—you know, regardless of the time that it will take for that case to be prosecuted in full respect for the rule—due process, and so on and so forth. And that—the reason is very simple. There is a real demand in Latin America for policies that will address insecurity, citizen security. If you look at statistics in terms of crime rate, it is going up in most of the country. Obviously, there are big difference between countries like Mexico, for instance, or Colombia, and if you link—if you look at the power of cartels and big mafias, and gangs in other countries, or petty crime impacting the daily life of the citizens. Regardless of that point, one of the biggest demands in Latin America is for better and more public security. And that's why political leaders, usually the solution for that request and demand is to put people in prison with essentially no real due process and increase the number of prisoners without conviction. There are challenges for free speech occasionally, of those leaders who resent scrutiny of their practice. And normally there is a campaign against free media. And there are some attempts in some countries to constantly look for ways to undermine the independence of the judiciary. Keep in mind, for instance, that now in Argentina the whole Supreme Court is under impeachment, and it's essentially an impeachment promoted by the current government because they disagree with the rulings, positions of the Supreme Court. All the justices on the Supreme Court are subject of this political trial conducted by the Argentine Congress. That is a concrete example of the kinds of risks that are present for judges and the judiciary in general, when they exercise their power and they attempt to protect the integrity of the constitution. So let me stop here and we can move on to the most interesting part of this event. FASKIANOS: Well, that was quite interesting. So, thank you, José Miguel. We appreciate it. We going to go to all of you now for your questions. (Gives queuing instructions.) We already have some hands up. We will go first to Karla Soto Valdes. Q: My name is Karla Soto. I'm from Lewis University. My question is, what specific measures could be implemented to address and/or prevent trafficking within the asylum-seeking community during their journey to the U.S.? VIVANCO: Irina, are we going to take several questions, or? FASKIANOS: I think we should do one at a time. VIVANCO: Well, Karla, there are multiple tools to address that specific issue. But this applies to essentially most of the human rights problems all over the world. The menu is pretty ample, but depends on one important factor—whether the government involved cares about its own reputation. That is a very important premise here, because if you we are dealing with a democratic government, once again, it's not—when I refer to a democratic government, I don't have in mind a sort of Jeffersonian model, I'm referring to the kind of democracies that we have in Latin America. But, if the leaders in charge are—you know, they care about their own reputation, they care about domestic debate, very important, because these types of revelations usually have ramifications at the local level. If they pay close attention to those issues, I think it's possible to apply, essentially, the technique of naming and shaming. In other words, collecting information, documenting what exactly is happening, and revealing that information to the public, locally and internationally. That is going to create naturally a reaction, a process, an awareness, and local pressure is—hopefully, it's not just twenty-four hours news, so splash—big splash, but also will trigger some dynamics. If we are dealing with a country that is run by a dictatorship, it is a very, very different question, because normally you're facing a leader, a government, who couldn't care less about its own reputation. They have taken already and assume the cost of doing business in that type of context. Now, sometimes conditions are kind of mixed, where you have democratic country in general—so there is still free media, there is an opposition, there is Congress, there are elections. But the government in charge is so—is run by an autocratic leader. That makes, you know, quite—a little more challenging to just document and reveal that information. And you need to think about some particular agenda, governmental agenda. Some specific interests of the government in different areas. Let me see—let me give you an example. Let's say that the Bolsonaro administration is seriously interested in an incorporation into the OECD in Paris. That is an important piece of information. Whatever you think that is relevant information regarding the record of that government, you could provide information to an entity that is precisely evaluating the record of the government. And the government will be much more willing to address those issues because they have a genuine interest in achieving some specific goal at the international level. FASKIANOS: Fantastic. We're going to go to Nicole Ambar De Santos, who is an undergraduate student at the Washington University in St. Louis: When we consider weak democracy in a more personal sense, like Peru, the controversy of obligation to help these nations arises. How much third party or other nations, such as the United States, intervene? VIVANCO: Tricky question. Peruvian democracy is quite messy. Part of the problem is that the system, the political system, needs some real reform to avoid the proliferation of small political parties and to create the real link or relationship between leaders, especially in Congress, and their constituencies, and so they are much more accountable to their community, the ones who elected them. I don't think the U.S., or any other government, has a direct role to play in that area. My sense is that when we are looking into a dysfunctional democracy that deserve some probably even constitutional reforms, that is essentially a domestic job. That is the work that needs to be done by Peruvians. Without a local consensus about the reforms that need to be implemented in the political system, my sense is that it's going to be very difficult for the U.S. or any other large democracy, to address those kinds of points. It's very different, that type of conversation, from a conversation or an assessment of universal values, such as human rights. When we are looking into cases of police brutality, for instance, the international community has a role to play. But if I were part of the conversation or evaluation by the U.S. government or the European Union with regard to this dysfunctional democracy in Peru, I would approach very carefully by suggesting creating the right type of incentives, more than questions of punishment, or sanctions. It's incentives for them to create the right conditions to address the domestic problem that is—has become quite endemic, in the case of Peru. FASKIANOS: Thank you. I'm going to take the next question from Matthew. Matthew, you don't have a last name, so can you identify yourself? Q: Hello. Yes, my name is Matthew. I am a junior student from Arizona State University studying business, but working on a thesis that has to do with human rights and the ethics of supply chain management. My question is, you were talking at the very beginning kind of just about history and how understanding history is important. And what I was hoping to get was, why is understanding history and culture important when working to address human rights issues, history of dictatorship, colonialism? In cultures it's socially acceptable things, like child labor, in some countries, that's not acceptable in Western ideology. So, yeah, just how is history and culture important when working to address human rights for the future? VIVANCO: Matthew, I think you're referring to two different issues. History is central. It's really, really relevant. Because that helps you—if you—if you follow your history, especially periods of time when massive and gross violations were committed in Latin America, it's important to put things in context and value what you have today. And the job is to—not only to preserve democracy, but also to look for ways to strengthen democracy. Because part of the problem is that domestic debate is so polarized today, not just in Latin America, all over the world, that sometimes people—different, you know, segments of society—in their positions, they're so dismissive of the other side, that they don't realize that we need to frame our debate in a constructive way. Let me put it—one specific example. If the government of Argentina, who is a government very receptive and very sensitive to vast and gross violations of human rights committed during the military dictatorship, so in other words, I don't need to lecture that government on that subject. They are actually the people who vote for the current government of Argentina—not the new government, the current government of Argentina—is deeply committed to those kinds of issues. I think that one of the biggest lessons that you should learn from the past is the relevance of protecting the independence of the judiciary. If you don't have an independent judiciary, and the judiciary becomes an entity that is an appendix of the ruling party or is intimidated by politics, and they could be subject of impeachment procedures every time that they rule something, that the powerful—the establishment disagree, I think they're playing with fire, and they're not really paying attention to the lessons that you learn from recent history in Latin America. That would be my first comment regarding that type of issue. And the second one, about you mentioned specifically cultural problems, culture, tensions or conflicts. And you mentioned—your example was child labor. And, and you suggested that that—the combination of child labor is something typical of Western ideology. If I'm not wrong, that was the language that you used. I would—I would push back on that point. And because this is not just a Western or European commitment. This is a universal one. And this is reflected on international treaties, and that are supposed to eradicate that kind of practice. If you give up to the concept of local traditions, you know, cultural, you know, issues that you need to pay attention, sure, as long as they are not to be in conflict with fundamental human rights. Otherwise, in half of the planet you're not going to have women rights, and women will be subject of traditional control. And you wouldn't have rights for minorities, and especially—and not only, but especially—the LGBTQ community. And you wouldn't have rights for racial minorities, or different religious beliefs. So, we have to watch and be very careful about what type of concessions we make to cultural traditions. I am happy to understand that different communities in Latin America might have different traditions, but there is some firm, solid, and unquestionable minimum that are the these universal human rights values that are not the property or monopoly of anyone. You know, these are—and this is not an ethical conversation. This is a legal one, because these values are protected under international law. FASKIANOS: Thank you. I'm going to combine or take two questions. The first question is from Lindsay Bert, who is at the department of political science at Muhlenberg College, who asks if you could speak on the efficacy of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in addressing the human rights violations you described. And the second question is from Leonard Onyebuchi Ophoke, a graduate student at Cavendish University in Uganda: Why is it almost impossible to hold the actors that violate human rights accountable? What could be done to make the mechanism more enforceable? VIVANCO: The inter-American system of human rights protection, there is nothing similar to inter-American system of human rights protection in the Global South. You don't have something similar in Asia, or Africa, or the Middle East. In other words, you don't have a mechanism where ultimately a court, a court of law—not just a commission, a court of law—handle individual cases, specific complaints of human rights abuses, and governments participate in public hearings. The parties involved have the obligation to present evidence before the court, and the court finally ruled on the specific matters where its decisions are binding. The number of issues that have been addressed by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in the last thirty years in Latin America are really incredible. And the impact—this is most important point—the impact at a local level is remarkable. In the area, for instance, of torture, disappearances. I'm referring to the elaboration of concepts and the imposing the obligation of local governments to adjust their legislation and practice, and to address specific problems or issues by providing remedies to victims. That is quite unusual. And the court has remarkable rulings on free speech, on discrimination issues, on indigenous populations, on military jurisdiction. One of the typical recourse of governments in the region when security forces were involved in human rights atrocities was to invoke military jurisdiction. So they say, no worries, we are going to investigate our own crimes. And the court has been actually very, very firm, challenging that notion to the point that I don't think there is a single case in Latin America today—once again, with the exception of Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, that I hope that somebody will ask me a question about those three countries—and I don't think there is a single case where today security forces try to—or attempt to shield themselves from investigation invoking military jurisdiction. And the credit is to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. I can elaborate, and give you—provide you with a long list of examples of areas where the court has been actually really, really critical in advancing human rights in the region. Let me give you actually one last example that I think is very—is very illustrative, very revealing. In Chile, something like probably twenty years ago or fifteen years ago, full democracy. Full democracy. No Chile under Pinochet. The Supreme Court of Chile ruled that a mother who was openly lesbian did not qualify for the custody of her children because she was lesbian. And she had a couple. So that was sufficient grounds to rule in favor of the father, because the mother didn't have the moral grounds to educate her own kids, children. And this was decided by the Supreme Court of Chile. Not just a small first instance tribunal. And I will point out that the vast majority of the—I mean, the public in Chile was pretty much divided, but I'm pretty sure that the majority of Chileans thought that the Supreme Court was right, you know? The case went to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. And fortunately, after a few years, the court not only challenged that decision of the Supreme Court, forced Chile to change its legislation, and to change the ruling of the Supreme Court of Chile, which is supposed to be the last judgment in the country. And the impact of that one, not only in Chile, in the rest of the region, because it shapes the common wisdom, the assumptions of many people. It helps for them to think carefully about this kind of issues. And the good news is that that mother was able to have the custody of her kids. And not only that, the impact in Chilean society and in the rest of the region was remarkable. Now, the second question that was asked was about how difficult it is to establish accountability for human rights abuses against the perpetrators of those abuses. I mean, it's a real challenge. It depends on whether or not you have locally an independent judiciary. If you do have an independent judiciary, the process is slow, it's messy, it's complicated. But there is a chance that atrocities could be addressed. And that is— especially human rights atrocities or abuses committed during the military dictatorship. There are countries in the region, like for instance, Chile, Peru, Argentina, Uruguay, where there are people in prison for those type of atrocities. In Brazil, thanks to an amnesty law that was passed in 1978, real investigation and prosecution of those atrocities actually never happened. And an important lesson that you could bear in mind is that Brazilian military are very dismissive of these type of issues, of human rights issues. But not only that, my sense is that Brazilian military officers at very high level are not afraid of stepping into politics, and give their opinion, and challenge the government. In other words, they were actually very, very active, and I'm referring to top officials in the Brazilian Army, during the Bolsonaro administration. There were top leaders who actually publicly argued that if they have to organize a coup again in Brazil, they are ready. That kind of language you don't find in Argentina, in Chile, in other countries where there have been some accountability. For one simple reason, the top military officers running the show are very much aware that if they get involved in politics, that they are part tomorrow of a coup d'état or something like that, at the end of the day they will be responsible. And they might be subject of criminal prosecution for atrocities committed during that period. And so there is a price to pay. So their calculation is much more, shall we say, prudent regarding this issue. But again, once again, how difficult it is? It's very difficult to establish accountability, and much more difficult when you're dealing with dictatorship, where you need to rely on the work done by, for instance, the ICC, the International Criminal Court, which is pretty active in the case of Venezuela. FASKIANOS: Thank you. I'm going to take the next question from Fordham. Q: Good afternoon, Mr. Vivanco. My name is Carlos Ortiz de la Pena Gomez Urguiza, and I have a question for you. El Salvador is currently battling crime and gangs with strategies such as mano dura, which have shown a significant decrease in crime at the cost of violating human rights. Do you see a possible effective integration of such policies in high-crime-rate countries, such as Mexico, to stop the growth of narco and crime gang activity? And if so, how? VIVANCO: Well, look, yeah, Carlos, very good question. Bukele in El Salvador is a real, real challenge. It's really, really a complicated case, for several reasons. He's incredibly popular. No question about it. He has managed to—thanks to that popularity—to concentrate power in his own hands. He fully controls Congress. But, much more relevant, he fully controls the judiciary, including the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court today is subordinated to the executive branch. And he is constantly going after the civil society, and free media, and the opposition. Now, in violation of the Salvadorean constitution, he's going to run for reelection. And he will be reelected, because he's also very popular. And his policies to go after gangs are cruel, inhuman, and without—not even a facade of respect for due process. Essentially, the policy which is not sustainable and is—I don't think is something that you could export to other countries—is a policy—unless you have full control, unless you have some sort of dictatorship or quasi dictatorship. Which is based, in essence, in the appearance, in the number of tattoos that people, especially in the marginal communities in the periferia in El Salvador, where shanty towns are located. The police has a, you know, green light to arrest anyone who fit that profile. And then good luck, because it's going to be very, very difficult for that person to avoid something like several months in prison. The whole point of having an independent judiciary and due process is that law enforcement agencies have the—obviously, not only the right, the duty to prevent crimes and to punish criminals. Not physically punish them. You know, it's to arrest them, to detain them, and to use proportional force to produce that attention. But they need to follow certain rules. They cannot just go around and arrest anyone who they have some sort of gut feelings that they are involved in crimes, because then you don't—you're not—the whole system is not able to distinguish and to make a distinction between potential criminals and innocent people. But it is complicated, the case of Bukele, because, for instance, I was referring initially to the technique of naming and shaming as a technique, as a methodology to expose governments with deplorable human rights record. But in the case of Bukele, he couldn't care less about. In other words, actually, I think he used the poor perception that exists, already that is established outside El Salvador as a result of his persecution of gangs in El Salvador—he used that kind of criticism as a way to improve his support domestically. In other words, when the New York Times published a whole report about massive abuses committed by Bukele's criminal system, in the prison system in El Salvador, what Bukele does is to take that one, that criticism, as actually ammunition to project himself as a tough guy who is actually, you know, doing the right thing for El Salvador. It's a question of time. It's a question of time. All of this is very sad for El Salvador, one of the few democracies in Central America with some future, I think, because I think they managed after the war to create institutions that are—that were much more credible than in the neighboring countries, like Guatemala, Honduras, and I'm not going to even mention Nicaragua. But under the control of this strongman, everything is possible today in El Salvador. He will be able to govern El Salvador this way as long as he's popular. Unfortunately, the Biden administration has relaxed its attention and pressure on that government, based on the question of migration. So they are hostage by the cooperation of Bukele government to try or attempt to control illegal immigration into the U.S. So that point trumps or, I mean, supersedes everything else. And that is actually very unfortunate. FASKIANOS: Thank you. I'm going to take the next two questions, written questions. One is on the subject that you wanted, from Brittney Thomas, who is an undergraduate at Arizona State University: How come the governments of Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua are socialist or communist while other Latin America countries are predominantly democracies? And then from Roger— VIVANCO: I'm sorry, I couldn't understand the question. Obviously, it's about Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, but? FASKIANOS: Why are they socialist or communist while other Latin American countries are predominantly democracies? VIVANCO: Oh, I see. OK. FASKIANOS: Yeah. And then the next question is from Roger Rose, who is an associate professor of political science at University of Minnesota, Morris: Given the recent decline in the norms of U.S. democracy in the last seven years, does the U.S. have any credibility and influence in the region in promoting democracy? And, again, if you could comment specifically on nations with the least democratic systems—Venezuela, Nicaragua—how could the U.S. play a more constructive role than it is currently? VIVANCO: The U.S. is always a very important player, very, very important. I mean, it's the largest economy in the world and the influence of the U.S. government in Latin America is huge. However, obviously, I have to acknowledge that our domestic problems here and serious challenges to the fundamentals of the rule of law, and just the notion that we respect the system according to which one who wins the election is—you know, has the legitimacy and the mandate to form a new government. If that notion is in question, and there are millions of American citizens who are willing to challenge that premise, obviously undermines the capacity of the U.S. to exercise leadership on this—in this context. And the autocrats and the autocracies in the region—I'm not referring to the dictatorships, but I'm referring to the Andrés Manuel López Obrador, once again, from Mexico, or Bolsonaro in Brazil—they take those kinds of developments in the U.S. as green lights to do whatever they want at local level. So that is a serious—obviously, it's a serious problem. And what is going on here has ramifications not only in the region, but also in the rest of the world. Now, Cuba is a historical problem. It's going to be too long to address the question in terms of why Cuba is a dictatorship and the rest of the region. Part of the problem with Cuba is that you have a government that violates the most fundamental rights and persecutes everyone who challenges the official line. And most of the Cubans today are willing to leave the country and to go into exile. But the problem is that we don't have the right tool, the right instrument in place, to exercise pressure on Cuba. And the right instrument today is the embargo. And that embargo, that policy is a total failure. The Cuban government is the same, exactly the same dictatorship. There has been no progress. And there's going to be no progress, in my view, as long as the U.S. government insist on a policy of isolation. You should be aware that every year 99 percentage of the states in the world condemned the isolation against Cuba, with the exception and the opposition of the U.S. government, Israel, and in the past was the Marshall Islands. Now, I don't think even the Marshall Islands joined the U.S. government defending that policy. So the policy is incredibly unpopular. And the debate at international level is about the U.S. government policy on Cuba and not about the deplorable human rights record of Cuba. That's why I was actually very supportive of the change of policy attempted during the Obama administration. Unfortunately, the isolation policy depends on Congress. And since the times of Clinton, this is a matter of who is the one in control of Congress. And the policy of isolation, it once again makes Cuba a victim of Washington. And Cuba, by the way, is not isolated from the rest of the world. So the U.S. is incredibly, I would say, powerless with regard to the lack of democracy and human rights in Cuba. And at the time, offers a fantastic justification for the Cuban government to present itself as a victim. I think that is the—this is one of the most serious mistakes of the U.S. foreign policy in Latin America that I hope that one day will be—will be addressed effectively. The case of Nicaragua and Venezuela is different, in the sense that we are looking into countries that—Venezuela in particular—have democracy for—a very questionable democracy, very weak, subject of tremendous corruption, and so on and so forth. But they have a system of political parties, free media, and so on, for many, many years. And they end up electing a populist leader whose marching orders and, you know, actually first majors was to establish some effective control of the judiciary. And the Supreme Court became an appendage of the government many, many, many years ago, which means that they managed during the Chavez administration to run the country with some sort of facade of democracy. Today, under Maduro it's no a longer a façade, it's a clear dictatorship responsible for atrocities. Fortunately, it is under investigation by the ICC. And the case of Nicaragua is an extreme case, similar to Venezuela. And it's—it's a dictator who has managed to put in prison everyone who is not in full alliance with the government, including religious leaders, and academics, and opposition leaders, civil society, et cetera. The case of Nicaragua is more complicated because Nicaragua is subject of sanctions by the U.S. government, and the European Union, and Canada, and some governments in the region. But still, we don't see much progress there. FASKIANOS: Great. I'm going to go next to Nassar Nassar, who has a raised hand. You can unmute yourself and state your affiliation. Q: Yes. Hello. FASKIANOS: Great. Thank you. Q: Hi. My name is Nassar Nassar. I'm from Lewis University. So my question is, which are the most significant actors in the global governance of human trafficking? And how effective are they in tackling that? VIVANCO: Well, this is a matter that is usually—the main actors—so this is organized crime. This is organized crime. This is a question regarding—this is a—it's a huge business, and extremely profitable. And if you want to address these kinds of issues, you need regional cooperation, which is very challenging. Keep in mind that at a local level, in many of the most democratic countries in the region, you have tremendous tensions among the local police and different police. For instance, the local FBI—equivalent to an FBI, is usually in tension with other branches of law enforcement. And if you expect to have cooperation from the rest of the countries in the region, it's extremely challenging. So these type of issues require effective cooperation, adjustment on legislation. Require more better intelligence. The reason why you have this type—proliferation of this type of business is because, obviously, corruption and lack of accountability. So this is—my point is that it is a reflection of how weak is our law enforcement system, and how unprofessional, and subject many times of corruption. FASKIANOS: Just to follow up on that, a written question from Patricia Drown, who's at Regent University. How are the cartels and mafia being armed, and by whom? VIVANCO: Well, in the case of, for instance, Mexico, weapons comes from the U.S. Sometimes even legally. You know, the Second Amendment plays a role here. It's so easy to have access to weapons, all kind of weapons, in the U.S. So that helps. And a lack of actually an effective control mechanism to stop that type of traffic. The amount of money that cartels moved in countries like Mexico, but Colombia as well, and this mafia scene in Central America is significant. So they do have capacity to corrupt local enforcement officials that belongs to the police, the army, even the judiciary. And as long as you don't address the root cause of the problem, which is the lack of presence of the state—in other words, there are vast—as you know, there are regions of Colombia that are not under the control of the government, the territories in Colombia. And there are regions of Mexico that, unfortunately, are increasingly under more effective control of cartels than law enforcement and legitimate officials. So that unfortunately, is the—in my view, one of the reasons why it is relatively easy to witness this type of proliferation of illegal business. FASKIANOS: Fantastic. I think we are out of time. We have so many written questions and raised hands. Maybe I'll just try to sneak in one more from Andrea Cuervo Prados. You have your hand raised. I think you also wrote a question. So if you can be brief and tell us who you are. Q: OK. Hello. I'm adjunct faculty at Dickinson State University. And, Mr. Vivanco, I have a question related to Colombia. What do you think about the state of the human rights in Colombia under the new leftist president, Gustavo Petro, compared to the previous president, Ivan Duque? VIVANCO: Andrea, I think it's pretty much the same. When we witness actually an improvement of human rights conditions in Colombia, it was during the negotiations with the FARC. I'm referring to the administration of President Juan Manuel Santos. And with the signature of the peace agreement, when they signed the peace agreement, the numbers shows a serious decline in the cases of, for instance, internally displaced people, torture cases, executions, abductions, and many other of those typical abuses that are committed in Colombia in rural areas where this organized crime and irregular armed groups are historically present. But then the policies implemented during the Duque administration were actually not very effective. There was a sort of relaxation during that period, and not effective implementation of those commitments negotiated with the FARC. That had an implication in terms of abuses. And today I don't see a major shift. My sense is that the local communities are subject of similar abuses, including human rights activists as well as social leaders, in areas where there is a very weak presence of the state. FASKIANOS: Thank you very much. José Miguel Vivanco. We really appreciate your being with us today. And I apologize. Great questions. I'm sorry, we couldn't get to all of the written ones or raised hands. It's clear we will have to do this—focus in on this again and have you back. You can follow José Miguel on X at @VivancoJM. And the next Academic Webinar will be on Wednesday, November 29, at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Shibley Telhami, who's a professor at the University of Maryland, will lead a conversation on public opinion on Israel and Palestine. And in the meantime, I encourage you to learn about CFR paid internships for students and fellowships for professors at CFR.org/careers. You can follow us at @CFR_Academic. And visit CFR.org, ForeignAffairs.com, and ThinkGlobalHealth.org for research and analysis on global issues. Again, José Miguel, thank you very much for today, and to all of you for joining us. VIVANCO: Thanks a lot. FASKIANOS: Take care. (END)

3-Septiembre-2023Comparte este mensaje con alguien que la necesite.Para más información sobre nuestra iglesia entra a www.favvegabaja.orgSi desea dar sus diezmos, ofrendas o una donación, accede a: https://www.favvegabaja.org/diezmos-ofrendas-1Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/fuente-de-agua-viva-vega-baja/donations

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On the real with Carlos Ortiz, convicted felon turned evangelist. Carlos shares his testimony of being the one trapped behind the prison bars to now being the one setting them free. 

In this episode of the Pull Hook Golf podcast, hosts Matt and Bobby kick off with a week in review segment, where they discuss their recent golfing experiences, including Matt's strong showing back from the honeymoon and Bobby's week at the Valspar Championship. They then dive into a recap of the championship, which saw Taylor Moore win for the first time and Jordan Spieth and Adam Schenk make mistakes on the final hole. The hosts also discuss Matt Wallace and his caddie's altercation on the course and the Penny Bet results.Next, the hosts share their analysis and predictions for the upcoming World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play, complete with Penny Bet predictions. It's a final farewell to the World Golf Championships. The episode then shifts gears to a discussion for a new Golf League Concept, which aims to address golf's biggest problem: the time it takes to watch a golf event. The hosts present their innovative solution, which involves a par-3 short course, stadium-like settings with lights, teams of four players, and a full season of team match play.Finally, the hosts wrap up with a recap of the LIV Golf Tucson tournament, which saw journeyman Danny Lee with a big win, but are wins by Lee and Charles Howell III helping the popularity of LIV Golf. They also discuss the new tagline for LIV Golf and the Fireballs' win, led by Sergio Garcia, Abraham Ancer, Carlos Ortiz, and Eugenio Chacarra. The episode concludes with a discussion around the latest Firepit Collective episode by Alan Shipnuck talking about LIV Golf and the business model. Tune in to this exciting episode for all things golf! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Well well well, look who decided to record a podcast. They boys are back, and although we were down a man this week, we picked up a free agent who did a great job subbing in. We were joined by longtime friend of the show and Toronto food connoisseur, Carlos Ortiz, aka Los. After getting through some catch-up chats, we jump right into things with Los, who was one of the founding staff of Livestock Toronto, and has worked in the sneaker and streetwear industry in the city for more than 15 years. We get his view on how the local game has changed, and also hear about his life as a brand rep and salesperson for some very familiar companies.  Follow our guest at: @Los_Ortiz   Follow us at: @CanadaGotSole @MisterQMart @Jo_Doooney @LDoggyStyles  www.CanadaGotSole.ca Facebook.com/groups/CGS.TALK  

As America celebrates National Hispanic Heritage Month Sept. 15 through Oct. 15, host Yael Eckstein welcomes Pastor Carlos Ortiz, Church Outreach Director for the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews and a longtime and ardent pro-Israel voice to the Hispanic Christian community. Pastor Ortiz, a native of Colombia who immigrated to the U.S. in 1986, was recognized for his work in building bridges between Latin American countries in 2016 when the state of Israel named him an Ambassador of Good Will. On the podcast, Pastor Ortiz shares his deep love for God's land and her people and why he carries the love of Israel wherever he goes. Listen today to this inspiring conversation about one man's mission to spread love for Israel to Christians everywhere.

#new season #new season christian church #Pastor David Araujo #Pastor carlos Ortiz #pastor david arujo #palabra de dios #cristianos #iglesia Hallandale #Iglesia Miami #predica cristiana #las doce puertas #de new season #puertas #las promesas de dios

So happy to be back to a face to face talk. It was awesome to have my great neighbor Carlos come over and chop it up. He has some great life experiences he talks about and even more crazy ghost stories.. https://www.facebook.com/carlos.ortiz.161https://www.facebook.com/PocketParleyThis is link for the live chat.https://www.podbean.com/lsw/ybX9Ug1uYvSupport the showhttps://www.facebook.com/PocketParleyhttps://pocketparley.buzzsprout.com/?fbclid=IwAR1vv962sNiH_f0uda_kqWkMOCvn8hg0u2qhdBwfcQ9nwg2YO3zBRQKuPnM

Tursky was at The Memorial where there was a TON of equipment testing going on. Adam Scott breaks down his new, custom, irons. Jordan Spieth is testing a few new putters and Carlos Ortiz is still playing some old Pings!