Podcasts about Wola

This episode accompanies the August 2026 release of Desterrados al Sur: el costo humano de la deportación ("Banished to the South: The Human Cost of Mass Deportation"), a report WOLA published jointly with the Kino Border Initiative (KBI) in Nogales, Sonora, and the Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Matías de Córdova in Tapachula, Chiapas. WOLA's Adam Isacson speaks with his co-authors, Juan Cuéllar Torres of the Kino Border Initiative and Josué Hildegardo Gómez Guzmán of Fray Matías, about what they are witnessing at Mexico's northern and southern borders. The conversation is in Spanish; an English-subtitled video version is available on WOLA's YouTube channel and embedded on the episode landing page. Deportation to Mexico has undergone a dramatic reshaping as a result of the second Trump administration's "mass deportation" policy. With access to asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border effectively closed, the population both organizations serve has shifted from people heading north to people expelled from the United States—many after decades of life, family, and work there. In mid-April, the U.S. government largely stopped returning Mexican nationals across the land border and began flying them instead to cities in Mexico's interior and south. Cuéllar explains that Nogales, once a hub of deportation infrastructure, now receives only a trickle: roughly 150 Mexicans and 120 non-Mexicans per month, with as few as ten people a week reaching KBI's shelter. Meanwhile, more than 1,100 third-country nationals per month are deported across the land border and then placed on buses by Mexico's National Migration Institute (INM) and sent south to Villahermosa and Tapachula. Gómez describes what happens on arrival in Tapachula: Mexican deportees are received in improvised tent facilities on concrete slabs in extreme heat, allowed to stay no more than two days, given roughly US$100, and directed to bus terminals—often for journeys of days across territory controlled by organized crime, with no follow-up to confirm they reach home.  Third-country nationals, many of whom were told they would be released in Mexico, are instead taken to the Siglo XXI detention facility, without information about how long they will be held or whether they will be deported onward. Once released, they face a near-total barrier to rights because ICE routinely fails to return passports, birth certificates, phones, and other belongings. Cubans, Nicaraguans, Venezuelans, Haitians, and Central Americans who want to go home cannot document themselves; consulates are far off, and people without papers cannot legally leave Chiapas. Nicaraguans stripped of nationality are left stateless. Elderly deportees—some removed after decades in the United States—end up homeless and unable even to recall relatives' phone numbers. The episode also details family separation as generalized practice, including mothers whose children were taken at the moment of arrest and who cannot travel north to recover custody, and parents forced to leave U.S.-citizen children with neighbors. Both guests describe searing psychological harm, labor exploitation, rising costs in Tapachula, and an asylum system in which COMAR interviews take a year to eighteen months, humanitarian visas require amparo litigation, and a missed check-in signature can void a case entirely. "There is a deliberate intent, both from the U.S. government and the Mexican government, to wear people out and encourage them to return to their countries," Gómez contends. It is difficult to draw any other conclusion. Recommendations are directed largely at the Mexican government: negotiate and publish any agreement governing third-country deportations, press Washington to return Mexicans to their regions of origin and to return confiscated documents and belongings, expand regularization pathways, stop detaining arriving deportees, improve reception facilities, open México Te Abraza centers to civil society, and coordinate across federal, state, and municipal authorities. The conversation closes with reflections on staff care and the emotional toll of this work.   Update: Just a quick note—the processing times mentioned in this episode are based on operations prior to the last week of August 2026. The Mexican Agency for Refugee Support (COMAR) has begun to issue same-day refugee application certificates. This keeps asylum seekers out of legal limbo by giving them immediate access to temporary IDs and lawful status. On top of that, it speeds up their access to key rights like formal work, healthcare, and schooling.

 “He's not a trustworthy witness to his own story. Everything is ten times bigger and better than it really was — except when he was accused of crimes, in which case he can't really remember anymore.” — Joby Warrick on Carlos the Jackal Yesterday, WOLA's Adam Isacson and John Walsh described how the US government has appropriated the term “narco-terrorism” to justify their Latin American killing spree. Today, we talk the real thing. Pulitzer Prize-winning Joby Warrick has a new book out about the rise and fall of Carlos the Jackal, who he calls the “original super-terrorist.” So who was Carlos the Jackal? Originally he was named by his Venezuelan Marxist father Ilich in homage to Lenin. Then he renamed himself Carlos, borrowing from a fake passport the French police happened to find in 1975. While The Jackal came from the London Guardian after reporters spotted Frederick Forsyth's best-seller on the bookshelf of his London safe house. Ilich (i.e. Carlos) loved it. Anything for attention. Especially from the capitalist media. His career, as a proxy Palestinian terrorist, was equally audacious. His solo debut, at 24, was the attempted London assassination of Marks & Spencer chairman Joseph Sieff. Two years later, Carlos waltzed into OPEC headquarters in Vienna and kidnapped most of the world's oil ministers, a terrorist heist that, Warrick reveals, was financed by Muammar Gaddafi. Then all of Carlos' yesterdays — and there are many, as Warrick discovers when he interviews him in his French jail. He spent twenty years on the run, mostly barely camouflaged in faded Eastern European hotels. The Mossad didn't even consider him worth assassinating. By the eighties he had become a gun for hire who'd stopped attacking Israelis. And at 75, in his convent-turned-prison outside Paris, the world's original super-terrorist cooks his own meals, repeats old leftist slogans, and misremembers everything except his innocence. In spite of his pathetic fate, Carlos matters because, as Warrick notes, the Jackal model is back in fashion. Russia and Iran now hire petty crooks on Telegram for a few hundred dollars to firebomb synagogues or assassinate dissidents. Gaza's tragic hopelessness echoes the post-1967 conditions that bred the first wave of Palestinian terror. Social media is now infested with wannabe violent influencers. The day of the Jackal, then, is not only our history but also our future. Five Takeaways •       Interview with the Jackal. Warrick negotiated for over a year — with Carlos, then with a French government determined he not be glorified, since his gravest crimes were against French citizens — for roughly ninety minutes in March 2025, no recorder, no camera, notebook only. The prison is a converted sixteenth-century convent outside Paris where the Nazis once tortured members of the Resistance; inside it, Carlos remains the big man on campus — guards call him Carlos, not Ilich, and he keeps a large cell, cooks his own meals, and browses the internet. At 75 he is natty, polyglot, charming — and stooped, forgetful, repeating himself into what Warrick calls a fog of old memories. As a witness he is worthless: everything ten times bigger and better than it was, except the crimes, which he suddenly cannot recall.•       Ilich, Carlos, Jackal: An Accidental Brand. His ardent-Marxist father named his three sons Vladimir, Ilich, and Lenin, after the founder of the Soviet Union. “Carlos” came from a fake passport — Carlos Martinez — that French police happened to seize in 1975; the pudgy dark-glasses photo the world memorized was a passport fake he remains embarrassed by. “The Jackal” was coined by the British tabloids after reporters prowling his London safe house spotted Forsyth's The Day of the Jackal on the bookshelf. He embraced all of it: a true believer whose slogans still pour out in prison, welded to a massive ego that always placed Carlos at the center of the revolution. Had Instagram existed, Warrick agrees, he'd have used it — the pre-digital influencer, with the world's press as his platform.•       From Five Bullets to Kidnapping OPEC. His 1970 baptism of fire in the Black September fighting hardened him past the point of return; his solo test, at 24, was the attempted assassination of Marks & Spencer chairman Joseph Sieff — an old gun, five bullets, a jam, and a bullet deflected by the victim's teeth (“good old Milk Marketing Board,” Sieff told the BBC from his hospital bed). The masterpiece came in December 1975: a 26-year-old walks into OPEC's Vienna headquarters mid-conference, takes the world's oil ministers hostage, extracts a plane and a ransom, and flies them to North Africa — the most audacious terrorist act Warrick can name. The book's scoop settles who sponsored it: not Saddam Hussein, as biographers and a 2010 docudrama claimed, but Muammar Gaddafi — the autocrat pioneering the criminal proxy with no return address.•       Twenty Years, No Capture — and a Mossad Pass. The world's most wanted man spent two decades in comfort: Budapest his favorite hideout (good meals, nice hotels — Carlos insisted on top-flight everything), the Hungarians, East Germans, and Romanians almost proud to host their superstar guest, Assad's Syria always available. The run ended only when the Bloc fell and the Arab states tired of him; the French and Americans finally tracked him to Khartoum in 1994. The great deflation is the Mossad: they never bothered with him. His mentor Wadi Haddad — the true operational genius — they hunted and killed; Carlos, by then a mercenary who'd stopped attacking Israelis, simply fell down the priority list. The world's most fearsome terrorist wasn't worth Israel's effort.•       The Return of Violent Chaos. Warrick's closing argument, and the reason this history is news: the Gaddafi model has been rediscovered. Russia and Iran now hire criminals — recruited on Telegram, paid a few hundred dollars in crypto — to throw grenades into synagogues, set fires, and assassinate dissidents: hundreds of incidents already, most under the radar, none traceable to Moscow or Tehran. The modern Carlos works for whoever pays; ideology has left the business entirely. Gaza's hopelessness, meanwhile, mirrors the post-1967 despair that launched the first international terror wave — and we are not prepared. As for America's own extrajudicial turn, from drone war to boat strikes: “There's no precedent... it is a grave change for us as Americans. Very troubling to me.” About the Guest Joby Warrick is a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and veteran national security correspondent for The Washington Post. His books include The Triple Agent, Red Line, and Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS, winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction. The Jackal: The Rise and Fall of Carlos, the World's First Super-Terrorist (Scribner, August 18, 2026), built on newly declassified archives, secret police files, and a rare interview with Carlos himself, is out next week.

“Each one of these is individually a crime scene, and the United States is the responsible actor.” — John Walsh With America preoccupied (as always) with war in the Middle East, another kind of killing is taking place at its back door. Since early September of last year, the United States military has bombed 67 small boats in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific and assassinated 221 supposed “narco-terrorists.” The first full account of this deadly war is the Washington Office on Latin America's (WOLA) Killing Spree: Extrajudicial Executions in the U.S. Boat Strike Campaign, a 27,000-word report by Adam Isacson, WOLA's director for defense oversight, and John Walsh, its director for drug policy. Under U.S. and international law, this is murder, Isacson and Walsh conclude about a policy they see as premeditated killing of civilians who pose no immediate threat to the United States. Its official name is Operation Southern Spear, designed as a war on terror by an inner circle of Stephen Miller, Pete Hegseth, and Marco Rubio. So the Donroe Doctrine is really a broader MAGA embrace of extra-judicial killings. Trump might be able to point to Latin America on a map, but this official US policy is about far more than geography. And it even fails as drug policy. The boat strikes target Andean cocaine while fentanyl (produced in Mexico from Chinese synthetics) drives the American epidemic. As Isacson puts it, bombing these boats is like murdering a street-corner dealer and declaring the entire drug problem solved. The WOLA report's darkest implication is domestic. The Justice Department memo underpinning the campaign amounts, Walsh argues, to an open license to kill. For an administration that talks obsessively about the enemy within, the boat strikes might be a dress rehearsal. Graham Greene's quiet Americans have metastasized into the deadly Americans. Only this time they're filming their own atrocities and boasting about them on social media. The assassination of that street-corner dealer in Peru might be a dress rehearsal for an anti-ICE activist in Minnesota. America's southern back porch threatens to become its northern front door. Five Takeaways •       63 Crime Scenes. The numbers, from WOLA's strike-by-strike tracker: 63 attacks on 67 boats since September 2, 2025; 221 people killed; three known survivors. The legal analysis is not complicated: Title 18, Section 1111 of the U.S. Code prohibits murder, applies on the high seas, and premeditated killing of civilians with no self-defense justification is precisely what it forbids — no due process, no evidence offered, and in many cases no idea who was aboard. Each announcement is a near-identical Southern Command tweet, which is exactly what makes the campaign insidious: with no news handle, coverage shrinks to 150 words in the AP, and a democracy grows numb to what Walsh insists on calling 63 individual crime scenes with the United States as the responsible actor.•       Narcoterrorism: Two Wars Welded Together. Operation Southern Spear fuses the post-9/11 war on terror with the sixty-year war on drugs: organized-crime groups redefined as the equivalent of al-Qaeda and ISIS, a secret list of two dozen designated organizations, and Stephen Miller declaring that only the military can fight drug trafficking. The policy's continuity is real — supply control has been an American staple since Reagan — but its rupture is stark: Marco Rubio's own justification admitted that decades of interdiction never worked, so the administration would skip the intermediary steps and simply kill. The December 2025 National Security Strategy makes Latin America a first-tier priority for the first time in decades — the Donroe Doctrine, which Andrew reads as a broader MAGA embrace of extra-judicial killings — with Venezuela as proof of concept and “joint operations” as the export: Mexico refused, Ecuador agreed, and newly elected far-right governments in Colombia and Peru may soon invite American special forces to kick in doors.•       The Wrong War on the Wrong Economy. Both authors concede the underlying problem is real: organized crime kills, displaces, extorts everyone from street peddlers to five-star restaurants, and buys governments wholesale. But the strikes fail on their own terms. They target Andean cocaine while fentanyl — compact, potent, made in Mexico from Chinese precursors — drives American overdose deaths. Drugs are one income stream among many: at $4,000-an-ounce gold, illegal mining that poisons the Amazon may pay better, alongside extortion, kidnapping, and migrant smuggling. And the military is the wrong tool: America's supermax already holds the drug lords, the Medellín and Cali cartels were obliterated decades ago, and there is more coca than ever — because organized crime, unlike an insurgency, doesn't want to fight the state. It wants to corrupt it. Killing suspects also destroys the evidence a real case would need — ludicrous, as Walsh puts it, as drug policy.•       Who Were the 221? Nobody knows how many were innocent — which is itself the scandal. From the few dozen cases WOLA could document, the dead include fishermen, migrants, human-trafficking victims, and kids paid a couple hundred dollars to run drugs or fuel one time — the lowest links in the chain, in coastal regions where boats are the only roads and the same vessel carries passengers one day and a small cargo the next. (Isacson has ridden boats exactly like the ones in the videos.) One victim was a genuinely dirty local drug boss; most were nothing of the kind. The reckoning has begun at the edges: two Trinidadian families are suing the United States in Boston federal court, a Colombian fisherman's family has gone to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and an Ecuadorian prosecutor who investigated the strikes has been assassinated.•       Colombia or Chicago. The report's most chilling section reads the Justice Department's legal memo as an open license to kill: a secret list, membership decided by the president, no limiting factor — so that, as Walsh warns, “it doesn't matter if you're in Colombia or Chicago.” For an administration that speaks constantly of the enemy from within — and drummed the theme into the assembled brass at Quantico — the high seas look like a rehearsal space. Accountability remains possible: Tim Kaine is reading every after-action report, boat-flag states could take Trump officials to the International Criminal Court, and travel could get complicated for the inner circle. WOLA's fear isn't retribution but lawfare — never, as Isacson says, a reason to be silent. Graham Greene's quiet Americans have metastasized into the deadly Americans, filming their own atrocities and boasting on social media. The assassination of a street-corner dealer in Peru might be a dress rehearsal for an anti-ICE activist in Minnesota: America's southern back porch threatens to become its northern front door. The report is free online. Read it. About the Guests 

Kürzlich haben wir ein Interview mit der Leiterin des Pilecki-Instituts in Berlin über Heinz Reinefarth ausgestrahlt. Der SS-General war für die Ermordung von mehr als 60.000 Polen im Warschauer Stadtteil Wola verantwortlich. Nach dem Krieg machte er auf der Insel Sylt eine politische Karriere und bekleidete dort ein wichtiges Amt. Das Interview hat im Internet hohe Wellen geschlagen. Unter dem Beitrag entwickelte sich eine intensive Debatte, in der teilweise sogar die deutsche Verantwortung für die Verbrechen infrage gestellt wurde. Was steckt dahinter? Dazu gleich mehr.

Washington Office on Latin America directors Adam Isacson and John Walsh join us to discuss their new report from WOLA, "Killing Spree: Extrajudicial executions in the U.S. boat strikes campaign": https://www.wola.org/analysis/killing-spree-extrajudicial-executions-in-the-u-s-boat-strikes-campaign/ "Rotten History" from Renaldo Migaldi follows the interview. Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thisishell Please rate and review This Is Hell! wherever you get your podcasts. It really helps the show ascend the algorithm to reach new listeners.

Hablamos en Washington D.C. con la periodista Dori Toribio; en Lima con el politólogo y profesor universitario Alberto Vergara, y también en la capital de Estados Unidos con Adam Isacson del área de Defensa de WOLA

This episode unpacks how the Trump administration's maximum pressure campaign is accelerating Cuba's economic collapse and what a firsthand trip to the country reveals about life amidst the crisis.   Host: James M. Lindsay, Mary and David Boies Distinguished Senior Fellow in U.S. Foreign Policy, CFR   Guest: Will Freeman, Fellow for Latin America Studies, CFR   We Discuss: What the Trump administration is ultimately seeking to accomplish with its Cuba policy. How secondary sanctions differ from the existing trade embargo. What life on the ground in Cuba looks like today, with a mass economic crisis including widespread malnutrition and near-total electricity blackouts. Whether ordinary Cubans blame the United States or their own government for the crisis. Whether Cuba's government is attempting to pivot toward a China-style state capitalist system. What Grupo de Administración Empresarial S.A. (GAESA) is, why it controls so much of Cuba's economy, and who actually benefits from it. Whether the Trump administration's pressure is targeting GAESA directly. Why a Venezuela-style external coup or regime collapse is harder to engineer in Cuba.   Mentioned on the Episode:   "Cuba's 176 Market-Liberalization Measures," NBC News, June 20, 2026   "July 11, 2021 Protests in Cuba," WOLA, July 2022   "Miami Herald Investigation: GAESA's Secret Dollar Reserves," Miami Herald, August 6, 2025   For an episode transcript and show notes, visit The President's Inbox at: https://www.cfr.org/podcasts/presidents-inbox/maximum-pressure-on-cuba   Opinions expressed on The President's Inbox are solely those of the host or guests, not of CFR, which takes no institutional positions on matters of policy.

Esta semana Nuevas Ideas ratificó a Nayib Bukele como su candidato presidencial en las elecciones de febrero de 2027. El tercer mandato consecutivo fue posible gracias a un proceso que comenzó el 1 de mayo de 2021, cuando el oficialismo tomó el control de la Asamblea Legislativa con una mayoría que, desde entonces, ha aprobado las propuestas del Gobierno prácticamente sin discusión. Ese camino permitió a Bukele superar un obstáculo que hasta entonces parecía infranqueable: la Constitución salvadoreña prohibía la reelección presidencial inmediata.En este episodio reconstruimos ese recorrido: desde sus propias declaraciones rechazando la permanencia en el poder hasta las reformas constitucionales que terminaron eliminando los límites a la reelección presidencial. También conversamos con Carolina Jiménez, presidenta de WOLA, y con el abogado constitucionalista Daniel Olmedo sobre las consecuencias que estos cambios tienen para la democracia salvadoreña y el Estado de derecho. Mientras el oficialismo se prepara para competir otra vez, el FMLN también comenzó a mover sus piezas rumbo a las elecciones de 2027 con la presentación de su primer aspirante presidencial. Además, retomamos una investigación de La Prensa Gráfica que reveló la compra de más de 425 mil dólares en vehículos por parte de la Asamblea Legislativa y la falta de respuestas de ese órgano sobre una adquisición financiada con fondos públicos.El Resumen es un podcast original de El Faro Audio. Apoya nuestro periodismo independiente ingresando a apoya.elfaro.net. Suscríbete a nuestro boletín semanal para recibir todas nuestras publicaciones. Únete a nuestro canal de WhatsApp para actualizaciones diarias de periodistas del equipo. Síguenos en Facebook, TikTok, Instagram y X.Este episodio fue grabado el viernes 17 de julio de 2026.

This episode brings together two experts to discuss recent second-round presidential elections in Peru and Colombia: Jo-Marie Burt, a senior fellow at WOLA and professor at George Mason University's Schar School of Policy and Government, and a leading expert on Peru; and Gimena Sánchez-Garzoli, WOLA's Director for the Andes, who maintains close contact with Colombian civil society. Both elections produced razor-thin margins, and both delivered victories to right-wing, populist candidates promising crackdowns on crime and a hard line against their political adversaries. In Peru, Keiko Fujimori won the presidency on her fourth attempt, while in Colombia, Abelardo de la Espriella narrowly defeated left-leaning Iván Cepeda. Burt describes Fujimori's ascent as the culmination of years spent consolidating control over Peru's key institutions, like Congress, the constitutional tribunal, and the attorney general's office. She characterizes Fujimori as "singularly motivated, singularly ambitious, and singularly ruthless," shaped by her upbringing under her father Alberto Fujimori's authoritarian government. Burt warns that Fujimori is driven by a desire for revenge against those who helped prosecute and imprison her father, including journalists like Gustavo Gorriti, human rights lawyers, prosecutors, and judges. She details a legislative landscape already tilted toward impunity—amnesty laws shielding police and military, and restrictions crippling NGOs' ability to represent victims. Burt argues Peru has drifted toward a hybrid or even authoritarian regime. Sánchez-Garzoli paints a tense picture in Colombia, where outgoing President Gustavo Petro has refused to recognize the election results, alleging fraud and foreign interference despite institutional findings to the contrary. She notes intervention by the Trump administration and U.S. lawmakers. With the transition suspended and Petro calling supporters into the streets, while armed groups reposition, Sánchez-Garzoli warns of a real risk of political violence. She outlines de la Espriella's "iron fist" agenda: mega-prisons modeled on El Salvador's Nayib Bukele, reviving the controversial ESMAD riot police, and a "special urban defense bloc" that she fears could blur the line between state security and paramilitary activity, echoing Colombia's dark history. "Colombia can't return to the belief that problems can be solved through bullets," she says, paraphrasing Colombian human rights defender Leyner Palacios. The conversation explores the deeper social fractures driving these results: in Peru, divisions of race, class, and region between Lima and the neglected Andean provinces, alongside a "frozen" collective memory of the 1980s-90s internal armed conflict manipulated to smear the left as communist. In Colombia, urban-rural divides also shape perceptions of security and the peace process. Both guests anticipate closer alignment with Washington, though they distinguish ideological affinity from generous funding. Sánchez-Garzoli expects a "total reset" in U.S.-Colombia relations, possible joint operations, and migration cooperation including reports of a plan to facilitate deportations of Colombian asylum seekers. Burt notes U.S. concern over China's growing influence in Peru. Despite the grim outlook, both find grains of hope: in Peru, a tentative opposition alliance and a still-vibrant regional civil society; in Colombia, strong institutions, a diverse Congress, and a resilient press and civil society. The episode closes with a reflection that both presidents-elect, lacking strong bases, face the "Milei challenge" of governing without a coalition.

On June 24, 2026, two consecutive earthquakes measuring 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude—the strongest to strike Venezuela in more than a century—devastated the country's northern coast, including the city of La Guaira and parts of Caracas. This episode features Carolina Jiménez Sandoval, WOLA's president, who was visiting Venezuela when the earthquakes hit and subsequently traveled to the hardest-hit zone, and Laura Dib, director of WOLA's Venezuela program, who has closely tracked the humanitarian response and U.S. policy dimensions. Carolina offers a firsthand account of the disaster and its aftermath. She describes the profound isolation caused by the Venezuelan government's pre-existing censorship regime—with platforms like X, CNN, and independent media blocked—which left citizens unable to access life-saving information during the critical first hours. Traveling to La Guaira, she found scenes closer to "a war zone" than a natural disaster, with collapsed buildings, others on the brink of collapse, precarious improvised shelters, and families living in the open air without adequate water, food, or assistance. Above all, she encountered a pervasive sense of abandonment. A central theme of the conversation is the "hollowness" of the Venezuelan state, laid bare by years of corruption, authoritarian misrule, and the emigration of some eight million people—including doctors, nurses, and engineers. Carolina notes that the armed forces, which acted as first responders during earlier tragedies, now function largely as a repressive and surveilling force, controlling access to disaster sites rather than aiding survivors. Laura provides data and policy analysis. The government, through National Assembly head Jorge Rodríguez—brother of de facto ruler Delcy Rodríguez—reports roughly 3,500 deaths and 16,000 injured, though the U.S. Geological Survey estimates the toll could range between 10,000 and 100,000. The UN estimates direct infrastructure damage at $37 billion. Laura situates the disaster within a longstanding humanitarian emergency and explains how the 2025 dismantling of USAID reduced disaster-response capacity, even as the U.S. pledged $300 million, a figure dwarfed by the $1.15 billion pledged after Haiti's 2010 earthquake. Laura and Carolina discuss the uncomfortable U.S. alignment with the unelected Delcy Rodríguez government, whose constitutional legitimacy has expired without new elections. They argue the disaster has badly set back the Trump administration's three-stage transition plan and revealed the state's incapacity to protect its citizens. Notably, Venezuelan social movements are now directing their demands at the U.S. government rather than their own institutions. Venezuela's beleagured civil society is a bright spot. Despite an anti-NGO law criminalizing foreign funding, organizations like Caritas and Fe y Alegría, alongside diaspora networks and ordinary citizens, have organized shelters, distributed supplies, and built databases to track the missing and separated children. A reputable site for donations to disaster relief is Donar Seguro. WOLA recommends that aid flow through transparent, accountable channels; that the anti-NGO law be repealed; that social media and VPN blockades be lifted; that the U.S.-run oil-revenue fund be used transparently for Venezuelans' benefit; and that the Trump administration reinstate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and halt deportations of Venezuelans in the United States. A deportation flight of 146 people arrived on the day of the earthquake, most of whom died in a hotel—a site the political police blocked Carolina from visiting. Venezuela's reconstruction will require a long-term commitment and, crucially, the rebuilding of public trust. This can only happen in the context of a genuine democratic transition.

"Nikogo się nie obawiam. Moim zadaniem jest przygotować odpowiedzialny, dobry program" - mówiła w Porannej rozmowie Monika Piątkowska, kandydatka Koalicji Obywatelskiej oraz Polskiego Stronnictwa Ludowego na prezydenta Krakowa, pytana o kontrkandydatów. Pytana o walkę z zadłużeniem stolicy Małopolski, stwierdziła: "Wolałabym, żebyśmy sięgali do kieszeni turystów, a nie do kieszeni mieszkańców Krakowa".

En este episodio de la serie del mes del Orgullo de Latin America Today, Maureen Meyer, vicepresidenta de Programas de WOLA, conversa con Braulio Abarca, activista LGBTIQ+ nicaragüense exiliado, defensor de derechos humanos, y cofundador del Colectivo Nicaragua Nunca Más, sobre lo que significa defender los derechos de las comunidades LGBTIQ+ desde el exilio. Desde 2018, más de 900 mil nicaragüenses se han visto forzados al exilio. Esa cifra incluye a defensores de derechos humanos como Braulio, quien tuvo que salir del país tras la crisis sociopolítica desatada bajo la dictadura de Daniel Ortega y Rosario Murillo — y que, años después, tuvo que exiliarse por segunda vez, esta vez de Costa Rica a España, perseguido por la represión transnacional del régimen. Braulio ofrece un relato franco de la precariedad legal, las redes de apoyo limitadas, y la tensión constante entre sobrevivir y seguir militando en un país que no es el propio. También habla de lo que persiste dentro de Nicaragua: una "triple discriminación" que enfrentan las personas LGBTIQ+ por su identidad, por oponerse a la dictadura, y por otras identidades que se entrecruzan, incluyendo casos documentados de transfeminicidio y crímenes de odio que con frecuencia quedan impunes. La conversación cierra con una reflexión sobre lo que lo mantiene en la lucha —la verdad, la justicia y la esperanza del retorno— y con un llamado claro a la comunidad internacional: protección temporal para las personas desplazadas, presión sostenida sobre la dictadura, y acompañamiento a largo plazo para la futura reconstrucción democrática de Nicaragua. Este episodio es parte de la serie del mes del Orgullo de WOLA, que destaca los derechos LGBTQ+, la democracia y el espacio cívico en las Américas.

En este episodio especial del mes del Orgullo de Latin America Today, la presidenta de WOLA, Carolina Jiménez Sandoval, conversa con Renata Jank Vivas Antonelli, activista y defensora de derechos humanos de la Fundación Santamaría, una organización con sede en Cali, Colombia, que lleva dos décadas documentando la violencia, defendiendo derechos y construyendo poder para las comunidades trans. En Colombia, ser una mujer trans todavía significa enfrentarse a una esperanza de vida de entre 27 y 33 años. Esa cifra sola — décadas por debajo del promedio nacional — habla de la brecha entre los derechos que existen en papel y la realidad que viven las comunidades trans cada día. Renata ofrece una evaluación franca de las condiciones que enfrentan las mujeres trans en Colombia, un país que a menudo se presenta como modelo regional de gobernanza progresista, pero donde persiste la violencia estructural e institucional contra las personas trans. Habla del concepto de estructuras antiderechos: redes coordinadas de poder económico, político y religioso que no solo están frenando los avances recientes, sino que se organizan activamente a nivel transnacional para revertir décadas de conquistas logradas con mucho esfuerzo. La conversación también explora cómo se ve la resistencia en el terreno — desde la casa trans de Santamaría en el suroccidente colombiano, hasta las mesas de coordinación a nivel nacional, pasando por el impulso a una ley integral de derechos trans que lleva el nombre de Sara Millerey, una mujer trans cuyo transfemicidio conmocionó a Colombia y al mundo. Y cierra con una visión: un futuro en el que ser quienes son no les cueste la vida a las personas trans. Este episodio es parte de la serie del mes del Orgullo de WOLA, que destaca los derechos LGBTQ+, la democracia y el espacio cívico en las Américas.

W tym odcinku zapraszam Cię do wysłuchania rozmowy z Emilią Brzuską, która pomaga uwolnić blokady i czerpać radość z życia. Rozmawiamy o tym, dlaczego sama silna wola to za mało. Emilia, łącząc wiedzę z Ajurwedy oraz podejście do pracy z podświadomością w ujęciu metody PSYCH-K, pokazuje, jak działa umysł, jak zmiany i podświadome przekonania łączą się z doszami – Vatą, Pittą i Kaphą – oraz proponuje proste ćwiczenie, dzięki któremu możesz zmienić swoje „automaty”. Serdecznie zapraszam Cię do wysłuchania tej inspirującej rozmowy, która odbyła się w ramach Ajurweda Summit. Jak zawsze możesz posłuchać nas w formie podcastu lub obejrzeć na YouTube. Notatki do podcastu znajdziesz na stronie:https://agni-ajurweda.pl/354 Do niedzieli 7 czerwca możesz jeszcze dołączyć do bezpłatnego 7-dniowego  wydarzenia online Bootcamp Odmładzanie z Ajurwedą. Otworzy on zapisy do programu Odmładzanie z Ajurwedą. Tutaj możesz dołączyć do Bootcamp: https://webinar.agni-ajurweda.pl/bootcamp-odmladzanie-z-ajurwedaZ serca zapraszam Cię do naszego nowego projektu Agni+, czyli ajurwedyjskiej platformy edukacyjnej z wszechstronnym wsparciem, w którym skorzystasz zarówno ze spotkań na żywo ze mną i Michałem jak i z biblioteki pomocnych materiałów. Jest to miejsce, w którym rozgościsz się w Ajurwedzie. Tutaj znajdziesz wszystkie informacje:https://kurs.agni-ajurweda.pl/noweJeśli tak jak nas fascynuje Cię ajurwedyjskie podejście do zdrowia i życia i myślisz o dołączeniu do Szkoły Ajurwedy, to zapraszam Cię do zapisu na listę osób zainteresowanych kolejną edycją tutaj: https://agni-ajurweda.pl/sa-lo/ Dzięki temu niczego nie przegapisz.

This episode examines the first round of Colombia's presidential election, which took place on May 31, 2026, and previews the June 21st runoff between two starkly different candidates. Gimena Sánchez-Garzoli, WOLA's director for Colombia and the Andes, provides deep insight into the candidates, voter concerns, and the election's implications for U.S.-Colombia relations.  The first round produced some surprises. While human rights activist and senator Iván Cepeda advanced as expected with 40.9% of the vote, the first-place finisher was criminal defense lawyer and political outsider Abelardo de la Espriella with 43.7%. Taken together, right-of-center candidates already exceed 50%, suggesting challenging math for Cepeda in the runoff.  Sánchez-Garzoli notes that despite fears of political violence—given the assassination of candidate Miguel Uribe Turbay in the past year and Colombia's deteriorating security situation—election day proceeded peacefully.  The candidates represent fundamentally different visions for Colombia. De la Espriella, a wealthy lawyer who once advised the AUC paramilitary group during peace talks and has represented controversial figures, proposes an "iron fist" security approach. His platform includes ending peace negotiations, building ten mega-prisons, mass detentions, aggressive coca eradication, and legalizing firearms ownership. Economically, he embraces Argentina's Milei-style deregulation and reviving the fossil fuel sector. He has also proposed withdrawing Colombia from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and United Nations human rights bodies.  Cepeda, by contrast, is a philosopher and longtime human rights advocate whose father, a Communist Party senator, was assassinated during the systematic elimination of the Patriotic Union party. Known for his measured, intellectual style, Cepeda was instrumental in Colombia's 2016 Peace Accord and would continue President Gustavo Petro's approach—advancing agrarian reform, pursuing negotiations with armed groups through "total peace," and transitioning away from extractive economic models.  Voter concerns centered overwhelmingly on security and the economy. Sánchez-Garzoli explains that while Petro's ambitions of addressing centuries of inequality in just a few years proved unrealistic, the security situation has genuinely deteriorated.  U.S.-Colombia relations under either candidate promise turbulence, though of different kinds. President Trump publicly endorsed de la Espriella while labeling Cepeda a "radical leftist Marxist." De la Espriella has expressed interest in joining Trump's "Shield of the Americas" security initiative and implementing a "Plan Colombia 2.0," while Cepeda has condemned the U.S. "boat strikes" and other military interventions as violations of Latin American sovereignty and international law.  Looking toward the June 21 runoff, Sánchez-Garzoli warns that Colombia remains fragile and at risk of violence, particularly given President Petro's claims of fraud and the close expected margin. The choices of centrist voters remain uncertain, and it is hard to predict an outcome. 

To miasto nie wyłaniało się powoli z mroków średniowiecza, lecz zostało wycięte w gęstym sosnowym lesie jako pokazowa inwestycja i cywilizacyjny skok II Rzeczypospolitej. Jest produktem nie tylko pilnej potrzeby, lecz także ambicji stworzenia nowoczesnego zaplecza dla Centralnego Okręgu Przemysłowego. Stalowa Wola to unikatowe laboratorium architektury, w którym luksusowa elegancja art déco i klinkierowe fasady przedwojennych urzędów spotykają się z powojenną ekspresją betonu i monumentalizmem socrealizmu. To tutaj idea miasta ogrodu zderzyła się z potęgą ciężkiego przemysłu. Całość tworzy spójny, industrialny organizm, który ciężko znaleźć w innym miejscu w Polsce.   Autor: Maciej Czarnecki   Artykuł przeczytasz pod linkiem: https://www.vogue.pl/a/stalowa-wola-architektura-przewodnik

W Polsce zagrał szesnaście sezonów. W dwunastu z nich zdobywał medal mistrzostw Polski. Grał w największych polskich klubach na czele z Jastrzębskim Węglem, ZAKSĄ Kędzierzyn-Koźle i Aluronem CMC Wartą Zawiercie. Zaliczył też epizody we Włoszech i w Turcji. Dzisiaj, pomimo 42 lat na karku, nie zakłada końca kariery, choć - jak sam twierdzi - psychicznie jest na to gotowy. Gościem Łukasza Kadziewicza w kolejnym odcinku podcastu "W cieniu sportu" jest Jurij Gładyr.   

Why does Warsaw look so different from every other European capital? In this episode of Talk Eastern Europe, Nina Panikova speaks with British writer and journalist Owen Hatherley about the dramatic history that shaped Poland's capital – from wartime destruction and communist-era rebuilding to modern skyscrapers and experimental urban planning.They discuss Warsaw's modernist housing estates, socialistrealist architecture, the iconic Palace of Culture and Science, and why the city remains one of Europe's most misunderstood capitals. Is Warsaw chaotic, visionary, unfinished – or all three at once?If you're interested in architecture, urban history, Central Europe, communism, post-socialist transformation, or the future of European cities, this episode is for you.Places in Warsaw (and beyond) mentioned in the interview:Żoliborz, one of the northern districts of Warsaw. Narkomfin building,  a block of 25 flats known for its constructivist architecture in Moscow, Russia.Praga, a district of Warsaw, Poland. It is on the east bank of the river VistulaConstitution Square, a monumental urban square in Warsaw built in the 1950s as a flagship project of socialist realism.Muranów, a special area in Warsaw's history located adjacent to the Wola and Śródmieście districts. Most of it was incorporated into the Warsaw Ghetto during the Second World War.Palace of Culture and Science, a notable high-rise building in central Warsaw, Poland. With a total height of 237 meters, it is the second-tallest building in both Warsaw and PolandNowy Świat (New World Street), one of Warsaw's most famous and vibrant historic streets.New Belgrade (Novi Beograd) is the largest and most modern district of Belgrade, SerbiaCentral Department Store, ‘Smyk', a modernist building in Warsaw.Koło Housing Estate of the architects Szymon and Helena Syrkus.Sady Żoliborskie, a celebrated modernist housing estate and sub-district in northern Warsaw.Palace of the Soviets, was a project to construct a politicalconvention centre in Moscow on the site of the demolished Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. It was never built. The Palace of Parliament ( previously People's House ), the seat of the Romanian parliament and the heaviest building in the world. Talk Eastern Europe is the podcast from NewEastern Europe magazine - your trusted source for in-depth analysis and expert perspectives on Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, and the post-Soviet space. ABOUT THIS PODCASTWe publish twice weekly:Available on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts andall major platforms.JOIN THE COMMUNITYNew Eastern Europe Magazine Bimonthly publication with exclusive long-formanalysis. → Become a member: https://neweasterneurope.eu/become-a-member-of-new-eastern-europe/ Support on PatreonJoin our community for bonus content, early access, behind-the-scenes insights, and access to our exclusive WhatsApp group where we discuss the news in real-time. → Join the Talk Eastern Europe community: https://www.patreon.com/talkeasterneuropeBrief Eastern Europe NewsletterWeekly briefing sent out every Monday with newsupdates, expert commentary, and our editorial picks - free to your inbox. → Subscribe: https://briefeasterneurope.eu/subscribe FOLLOW USInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/neweasterneuropemag/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NewEasternEurope/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/new-eastern-europe/Twitter/X: https://x.com/NewEastEurope

A year after the arrest of Salvadoran human rights lawyer and anti-corruption advocate Ruth Eleonora López Alfaro, WOLA's Latin America Today podcast revisits her case and the broader situation unfolding in El Salvador. Ruth López, who worked with the human rights organization Cristosal, was arrested on May 18, 2025, when police entered her home late at night. Since then, she has been held in detention under conditions that rights groups say reflect the growing erosion of due process and civil liberties under President Nayib Bukele's government. In this episode, WOLA's Corie Welch speaks with Luis Benavides, Ruth López's husband, and Noah Bullock, Executive Director of Cristosal, about Ruth's detention, the climate of fear in El Salvador, and the increasing use of political imprisonment against critics and human rights defenders. Luis recounts the night Ruth was arrested and the uncertainty that followed as authorities moved her between detention facilities while withholding information from her family and legal team. Noah discusses how Cristosal's investigations into corruption and human rights abuses made the organization — and Ruth herself — targets of the government's escalating repression. The conversation also examines El Salvador's prolonged state of exception, which has led to the mass incarceration of 90,000 people since 2022. While the government has framed the emergency measures as necessary to combat gang violence, rights organizations have documented widespread abuses, including arbitrary detention, torture, enforced disappearances, and severe restrictions on due process. Together, they reflect on what Ruth's case reveals about political imprisonment in El Salvador, the growing risks facing journalists and civil society organizations, and the importance of international solidarity. Guests Luis Benavides is the husband of Ruth López and has become a public advocate for her release and right to a fair and public trial. Noah Bullock is the Executive Director of Cristosal, a leading human rights organization that was forced to relocate operations from El Salvador to Guatemala amid increasing repression. Additional Resources Read more about WOLA's work on El Salvador Learn more about Cristosal's documentation of human rights abuses

Schreib ein Kommentar- Folge 198 - NBM Oberkrämer - deutscher Doppelsieg in WOLASupport the showstartbandpodcast@web.de

This episode examines the aftermath of Peru's first-round presidential election held on April 12, 2025, recorded just five days later with results still not fully finalized. Host Adam Isacson speaks with Cynthia McClintock, a professor of Political Science and International Affairs at George Washington University who has studied Peruvian politics for over four decades. The conversation describes an extraordinarily fragmented and polarized electoral landscape. With 35 candidates on the ballot, the leading vote-getter—Keiko Fujimori, daughter of former authoritarian president Alberto Fujimori—led the count with only about 17 percent of the vote. The race for second place remained too close to call between Roberto Sánchez, a leftist candidate running under the mantle of impeached former president Pedro Castillo, and Rafael López Aliaga, a right-wing populist who served as mayor of Lima. The runoff, between candidates who will combine for less than 30 percent of the first-round vote, is scheduled for June 7th. McClintock traces Peru's current political dysfunction to the period following the 2016 election, during which Fujimori's party discovered the power of congressional impeachment. Peru has cycled through nine presidents in ten years, and McClintock argues that a corrupt governing coalition has consolidated power, particularly since Castillo's impeachment in December 2022. The discussion highlights the deep geographic and cultural divisions in Peruvian society. The gap between Lima and "las provincias"—Indigenous-majority rural and mountainous regions—manifests starkly in voting patterns. This division traces back centuries and reflects ongoing perceptions of discrimination and exclusion, even as economic indicators have improved. Organized crime and security are voters' primary concerns. While Peru's homicide rate remains low by regional standards, it has more than doubled since 2021-2022. Extortion has become particularly urgent. Yet paradoxically, Peru's economy continues to grow, buoyed by high commodity prices for copper and gold, though much mining activity is illegal and environmentally devastating. McClintock expresses concern about the future of accountability and democratic institutions. The newly reconstituted Senate grants Fujimori's party approximately one-third of seats, with significant power over appointments. On U.S.-Peru relations, she notes the current government has stayed under Washington's radar and is proceeding with a $3.5 billion F-16 purchase, though the Chinese-built Chancay port remains a potential point of tension. The episode concludes with McClintock explaining how the chaotic 35-candidate field happened by design: Fujimori's party had previously canceled a primary voting provision that would have winnowed the field, calculating that extreme fragmentation would allow them to win with a small plurality. Despite the grim political outlook, McClintock emphasizes the resilience of Peru and its people. Download this podcast episode's .mp3 file here. Listen to WOLA's Latin America Today podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, or wherever you subscribe to podcasts. The main feed is here.

Jakub Kosmowski left a career in marketing to start the vegetable CSA farm Farma Wola in Poland. In this interview, he tells us how he adapted the marketing principles he used with Fortune 500 companies to develop a market for and sell CSA shares for his farm. Jakub tells us how any type of farm can use the four Ps of marketing- “product, place, price and promotion” to think about the big picture before putting effort into marketing. Then we compare the merits of the different marketing channels- email vs social media vs paid advertising- to decide which channels make sense for your farm and how to repurpose the same content across multiple channels. In the process we talk about how to avoid some of the mistakes that even big companies make with things like Super Bowl ads, and how to set realistic objectives for marketing campaigns. He has suggestions for how to fix campaigns that are getting good reach but not generating sales. Jakub tells us how he uses affiliate marketing with local businesses to drive CSA signups. We also discuss how and why it's important to think like your customer, and lots of other tips that will help you raise your marketing game this season! Connect With Guest: Website: jakubkosmowski.com farmawola.pl Instagram: @farmawola Podcast Sponsors: Huge thanks to our podcast sponsors as they make this podcast FREE to everyone with their generous support: There are a lot of farm sales platforms out there, but there's only one that's cooperatively owned by farmers. That's GrownBy — your all-in-one solution to simplify farm sales. GrownBy makes online farm sales easy and affordable; setting up your shop is free, and you only pay when you sell. Join over 900 farms who have already signed up for GrownBy, at grownby.com. BCS two-wheel tractors are designed and built in Italy where small-scale farming has been a way of life for generations. Discover the beauty of BCS on your farm with PTO-driven implements for soil-working, shredding cover crops, spreading compost, mowing under fences, clearing snow, and more – all powered by a single, gear-driven machine that's tailored to the size and scale of your operation. To learn more, view sale pricing, or locate your nearest dealer, visit BCS America. Farmhand is the virtual assistant built for farmers—helping CSAs scale sales, run error-free fulfillment, and deliver 5-star service. Whether you're at 100 members or 1,000, Farmhand helps you grow without burning out. You've heard us—and our farmers—right here on the Growing for Market Podcast. Explore more stories and learn more at farmhand.partners/gfm. Nifty Hoops builds complete gothic high tunnels that are easy to install and built to last.  Their bolt-together construction makes setup straightforward and efficient, whether it's a small backyard hoophouse, or a dozen large production-scale high tunnels- especially through their community build option, where professional builders work alongside your crew, family, or neighbors to build each structure -- usually in a single day.Visit niftyhoops.com to learn more. Farming is hard. Running it shouldn't be. Tend helps you plan your season, map your farm, and track every task from seed to sale. No spreadsheets, no guesswork, just seamless workflows. Tend is the all-in-one farm management platform that brings together planning, field mapping, fulfillment, real-time inventory, sales, labor, traceability, and accounting in one easy platform. Built for small market gardens, CSAs, and large diversified farms. Get started with a free account at Tend.com. No credit card required. If you grow for market, you know performance is everything. That's why so many farmers are turning to Burpee's Farmers Market. Dedicated to professional growers, Burpee is now offering non-GMO seeds in larger quantities – bred and selected for standout flavor, strong yields, and the kind of visual appeal your customers crave. Burpee's been doing this for 150 years, and they're still creating new varieties with growers like you in mind. You can check out the full lineup at Burpee.com/FarmersMarket. Subscribe to our magazine- all new subscriptions include a FREE 28-day trial!

Por el Mes de la Mujer, estamos lanzando un episodio especial de Latin America Today con una conversación con Collette Spinetti — activista trans uruguaya, profesora de literatura y la primera mujer trans en ocupar un puesto de secretaria de Estado en Uruguay. En este episodio, Collette conversa con Carolina Jiménez Sandoval, Presidenta de WOLA, sobre lo que significa romper barreras históricas como mujer trans en un cargo público, el avance global de los movimientos antiderechos y su trabajo en Uruguay para avanzar en la igualdad en un mundo cada vez más desigual. Sobre Colette Spinetti Collette Spinetti es activista trans uruguaya, profesora de literatura y una figura pionera en la vida pública de América Latina. Fue la primera profesora trans del Uruguay y actualmente es la primera mujer trans en ocupar un cargo de Secretaría de Estado, como Secretaria de Derechos Humanos bajo la presidencia de Yamandú Orsi. Defensora de larga trayectoria de los derechos LGBTQ+, de las mujeres y de las personas privadas de libertad, en su carrera ha liderado organizaciones trans en Uruguay, incluidas la Unión Trans del Uruguay y el Colectivo Trans del Uruguay, y fue electa presidenta del Comité Directivo Trans de ILGA Mundo. También es secretaria general de Corpora en Libertad, una red internacional de organizaciones que trabajan con personas LGBTI+ privadas de su libertad. En este episodio: El avance de los movimientos antiderechos en América Latina y el mundo — y por qué Colette considera que el miedo del patriarcado a perder su poder está en la raíz de este fenómeno La importancia de unir los movimientos sociales — feminista, trans, afrodescendiente y sindical — en torno a objetivos comunes sin perder su especificidad El trabajo en la Secretaría de Derechos Humanos y la lucha dentro de Uruguay por continuar invirtiendo en programas y políticas que promuevan la igualdad, desde la educación hasta los derechos laborales.  Lo que significa gobernar desde un enfoque de derechos humanos — y la discriminación que Colette sigue enfrentando, incluso desde un alto cargo  

For Women's Month, we're releasing a special episode of Latin America Today featuring a conversation with Ana Lorena Delgadillo Pérez — a Mexican human rights lawyer with over two decades of experience working on enforced disappearances, femicides, migrants' rights, and women's rights across Mexico and Central America.  In this episode, Ana Lorena speaks with WOLA's Corie Welch about what the crisis of enforced disappearances looks like today, the outsized role women have played in confronting it, and what enforced disappearances in the context of U.S. immigration enforcement tells us about the state of democracy and rule of law.  About Ana Lorena Delgadillo Pérez  Ana Lorena Delgadillo Pérez is a Mexican human rights lawyer with over two decades of experience working on enforced disappearances, femicides, and the rights of women and migrants across Mexico and Central America. She is the founder and former Executive Director of the Foundation for Justice and Democratic Rule of Law, a regional NGO working in Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, where she has helped shape landmark legislation and build forensic and search mechanisms for disappeared migrants. She has litigated historic cases before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, including serving as an expert witness in the Cotton Field case — one of the most significant rulings on femicide in the hemisphere. She currently serves as a member of the United Nations Expert Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances.  In this episode:  The context of enforced disappearances in the region — who is disappearing, who is responsible, and what impunity looks like on the ground  How women across borders are supporting each other in the search for their loved ones  The link between femicide and disappearances, and lessons from the landmark Cotton Field case  Enforced disappearances in the context of U.S. immigration enforcement 

En Pologne, après le veto du président Karol Nawrocki au plan européen Safe, qui doit permettre aux pays de l'UE d'augmenter leurs capacités militaires, le gouvernement pro-européen de Donald Tusk élabore une solution pour ne pas perdre les 44 milliards d'euros de crédit destinés à ce pays frontalier de l'Ukraine et principal bénéficiaire de ces prêts à taux préférentiel. Cette décision du président conservateur, qui refuse de s'endetter auprès de Bruxelles, divise le pays, et en particulier la petite ville de Stalowa Wola : elle abrite une usine d'armement historique et attend beaucoup des fonds qu'elle devrait recevoir. Un reportage de notre envoyé spécial à Stalowa Wola à retrouver en intégralité dans Accents d'Europe. À lire aussiPologne: le président Nawrocki prêt à mettre son «veto» au programme européen de défense SAFE

This episode assesses the "transition"—if that is the correct word—in Venezuela nine weeks after the January 3 U.S. military operation that extracted Nicolás Maduro. This conversation with Laura Dib, director of WOLA's Venezuela program, and Francisco Monaldi, director of the Latin American Energy Program at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy, focus particularly on the role of oil, the country's largest source of foreign exchange by far. Dr. Monaldi acknowledges that oil revenues have increased significantly. However, these revenues now flow into a U.S.-controlled account. The lack of transparency around this fund—including unknown balances and unclear disbursement rules—is deeply concerning. Dib emphasizes that ordinary Venezuelans have yet to feel material improvements. Over 12.4 million out of perhaps 29 million Venezuelans facing severe humanitarian needs, and "when Venezuelans go to a supermarket right now, they don't really feel a change." While more than 600 political prisoners have been released since January, over 700 remain detained, and the repressive apparatus that sustained Maduro's government remains largely intact under Delcy Rodriguez's control. Dr. Monaldi explains that Venezuela needs approximately $100 billion in oil sector investment to restore production to levels seen twenty years ago. Yet the recent reform of Venezuela's hydrocarbons law grants the oil minister enormous discretion over tax rates and contract allocation, creating precisely the kind of uncertainty that deters serious investment. Monaldi and Dib note that Venezuela currently lacks even a published national budget, and its ranking as the third most corrupt country on Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index reflects the dismantlement of democratic institutions. Dr. Monaldi draws a parallel to post-Soviet Russia, warning that how oil contracts are allocated in the coming months could determine the country's trajectory for decades—either creating a transparent system or enriching a new class of oligarchs. Both guests stress that sustainable economic recovery is impossible without meaningful progress toward the rule of law. "Oil companies do not care about democracy... they do focus on the rule of law. And in the case of Venezuela, I don't think we will see any stable rule of law unless we get a transition to democracy," Dr. Monaldi says. With their current leverage, oil firms should push for democratic reforms as a condition of investment, Dib suggests. She calls on the U.S. Congress to exercise oversight and notes that the administration's stated goals—regional security and reducing migration—cannot be achieved without addressing the humanitarian emergency and rebuilding institutions. Both guests express concern that the Trump administration appears focused narrowly on oil production rather than the broader institutional reforms necessary for Venezuela's long-term stability. " I don't see any indication that a system is being built for this to happen in the proper way," Monaldi warns. Expectations are rising in Venezuela, but they will not be met without transparency, accountability, democracy, and the rule of law.

This episode is a conversation with John Walsh, WOLA's director for Drug Policy and the Andes, about the ongoing U.S. military attacks on civilian boats in the Caribbean and Pacific Oceans. When Walsh and host Adam Isacson recorded this episode, on February 13, 2026, 35 attacks had killed at least 131 people since September 2, 2025—an average of four killings every five days—and another attack later that day killed 3 more people. Walsh and Isacson just published a WOLA commentary, "The Boat Strikes are Still Happening: Five Things You Need to Know," warning against the dangerous normalization of extrajudicial executions carried out directly by the U.S. military. Five months into this campaign, the strikes are fading from public attention despite their illegality. Media coverage has dwindled from the intense scrutiny of September and the revelations about "double tap" strikes on survivors in December to a trickle of stories. This normalization poses dangers: the justifications being used could extend to other victims in other contexts, and elements of the U.S. military appear to be accepting unlawful orders. There is no congressional authorization for military force against drug traffickers. Under international law, the United States is not engaged in an armed conflict with drug cartels—designating groups as foreign terrorist organizations does not confer wartime authorities. From a drug policy perspective, Walsh argues these strikes are futile. After five months, there is no evidence of a disruption to cocaine supplies. Drug trafficking organizations are highly adaptive, with alternative routes readily available. The administration's own recognition that traditional interdiction didn't work led them to this extreme escalation, but killing traffickers at sea will not fundamentally alter market dynamics driven by constant demand and enormous profits under prohibition. The boat strikes, if "normalized," could prepare the ground for grave future outcomes. The administration's willingness to label anonymous victims as "narcoterrorists" creates a template for applying similar labels to domestic opponents—something already visible in the characterization of ICE critics and the victims of Chicago and Minneapolis shootings as "domestic terrorists." Walsh notes that President Trump has expressed his desire to deploy military forces against "the enemy within" on U.S. streets, and the compliance of Southern Command with these illegal orders suggests obedience to the president over the Constitution. "The illegality is not a bug, it's a feature," Walsh concludes. Walsh concludes by emphasizing the importance of litigation on behalf of victims' families, the moral voice of faith leaders, and continued media attention to prevent normalization. These strikes, he argues, are not a peripheral story but central to the administration's declared strategy of dominating the Western Hemisphere through coercion.

Following the Trump administration's January 3, 2026 military operation in Venezuela and its lethal strikes on boats suspected of carrying drugs, its threats of unilateral U.S. military action inside Mexico and Colombia have taken on new urgency. WOLA's Gimena Sánchez-Garzoli and Stephanie Brewer join Adam Isacson to examine what such actions would mean for two of Washington's most important partners in the hemisphere. The conversation opens with a sobering parallel: days before recording, Border Patrol agents killed Alex Pretti on a Minneapolis street in what appears to be another grossly unjustified use of lethal force. Both guests draw on their countries' painful experiences with security force violence to illuminate patterns now emerging in the United States: the demonization and victim-blaming, the battle over evidence and documentation, and the long struggle for accountability. The episode then turns to the mounting threats of U.S. military intervention. Trump has floated drone strikes and Special Forces operations in Mexico since his first term; now, after Venezuela, he has spoken of "hitting cartels on land." President Claudia Sheinbaum has drawn an absolute red line on sovereignty while simultaneously making unprecedented concessions. The fear, Brewer notes, is that the threat of unilateral action could coerce Mexico into accepting operations before or after the fact. In Colombia, the relationship has deteriorated dramatically. Once the strongest bipartisan partnership in the region, it has been battered by aid cuts that gutted programs built on decades of hard-won lessons and by counter-drug sanctiones aimed at President Gustavo Petro. A February 3, 2026 White House meeting between Trump and Petro now carries enormous stakes. Both governments need each other—on counter-drug cooperation, on managing Venezuelan migration, on regional stability—but both leaders are volatile and prone to escalation. The guests close with a clear-eyed assessment: militarized tactics against drug trafficking have failed for 40 years. Killing kingpins, striking labs, and adding groups to terrorist lists have never ended the drug trade. What actually works is building capable civilian justice institutions, reducing impunity, addressing corruption, and investing in the social and economic conditions that make organized crime attractive in the first place. A unilateral U.S. strike wouldn't end drug trafficking—but it could destroy the cooperation that any realistic strategy requires.

Historia kobiety, która powiedziała NIE.Postaw mi kawę: https://buycoffee.to/zbrodniezapomnianeWspieranie kanału:https://patronite.pl/ZbrodnieZapomnianehttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZsXqcUbVi03jDKVS-a2Dlg/joinŹródła internetowe: https://article-14.com/post/rukhmabai-the-life-and-times-of-a-child-bride-turned-rebel-doctor-by-sudhir-chandra--65efb696ca556 https://scroll.in/article/1063583/the-child-bride-who-challenged-patriarchy-and-became-one-of-indias-pioneering-women-doctorshttps://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/id/eprint/156812/1/WRAP-Dadaji-Bhikaji-Rukhmabai-%281886%29-ILR-10-Bom-301-Lammasniemi-2021.pdfSpołeczność:Grupa na fb: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1120954551591543Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zbrodniezapomniane/kontakt:✉️ e-mail: zbrodniezapomniane@gmail.com

El presidente Donald Trump ha aumentado la presión en contra de Nicolas Maduro. quien es acusado por el gobierno de Estados Unidos de ser el líder del Cártel de los Soles y de frenar el despliegue militar que desde mes de septiembre Trump ordenó para combatir a los cárteles del narcotráfico en el Mar Caribe. Esto ha aumentado la tensión en la región, por las posibles acciones que pueda tener el gobierno americano contra México. En este episodio, Mariel Ibarra, editora política en Expansión, platica con Laura Dib, Directora del programa de Venezuela en WOLA sobre cómo puede evolucionar esta ofensiva militar, las implicaciones que tiene para la región y como puede afectar a México. Las opiniones de este podcast son responsabilidad de quien las emite. Lo contenido en este podcast es emitido por su autora en su carácter exclusivo cómo profesionista independiente y no refleja las opiniones, políticas o posiciones de otros cargos que desempeña. Leemos sus comentarios en⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@ExpansionMx⁠⁠

In this series from the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), prominent decision-makers from across the Americas—those who have been at the heart of democratic governance—share personal reflections and insights on the meaning, challenges, and future of democracy in the region. In each episode, members of the WOLA team sit down with a current or former political figure from the Americas to explore democracy through different lenses: what it means to them, the challenges it faces, and why it remains essential today. Each conversation pairs democracy with a new dimension—transition, justice, leadership, and beyond.  

El presidente Donald Trump ha aumentado la presión en contra de Nicolas Maduro. quien es acusado por el gobierno de Estados Unidos de ser el líder del Cártel de los Soles y de frenar el despliegue militar que desde mes de septiembre Trump ordenó para combatir a los cárteles del narcotráfico en el Mar Caribe. Esto ha aumentado la tensión en la región, por las posibles acciones que pueda tener el gobierno americano contra México. En este episodio, Mariel Ibarra, editora política en Expansión, platica con Laura Dib, Directora del programa de Venezuela en WOLA sobre cómo puede evolucionar esta ofensiva militar, las implicaciones que tiene para la región y como puede afectar a México. Las opiniones de este podcast son responsabilidad de quien las emite. Lo contenido en este podcast es emitido por su autora en su carácter exclusivo cómo profesionista independiente y no refleja las opiniones, políticas o posiciones de otros cargos que desempeña. Leemos sus comentarios en⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@ExpansionMx⁠⁠

This week, Kelly talks with Carolina Jiménez Sandoval about the state of play between the United States and Venezuela amid increasing tensions, military strikes, and continued economic upheavel in the country. Carolina Jiménez Sandoval is the President of the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA). She holds over 20 years of experience in research and advocacy for human rights in the Americas and throughout the world.As a leader in the field with extensive experience in the region and Washington, she guides WOLA's team to achieve strategic impact in social justice and human rights. Read more about Carolina's work with WOLA here: https://www.wola.org/ She is a frequent contributor in English and Spanish to media outlets and publications across Latin America, the US and Europe, including the Washington Post, the New York Times, PBS, CNN, BBC, The Guardian, El País, Deutsche Welle, various academic journals, among others. She is a national of Venezuela and Mexico. The opinions expressed in this conversation are strictly those of the participants and do not represent the views of Georgetown University or any government entity. Produced by Abdalla Nasef and Freddie Mallinson.  Recorded on October 24, 2025. Diplomatic Immunity, a podcast from the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University, brings you frank and candid conversations with experts on the issues facing diplomats and national security decision-makers around the world. Funding support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. For more, visit our website, and follow us on Linkedin, Twitter @GUDiplomacy, and Instagram @isd.georgetown

Frédéric François Chopin 1 March 1810 – 17 October 1849) was born in Żelazowa Wola and grew up in Warsaw.. A child prodigy, he completed his musical education and composed his early works in Warsaw before leaving Poland at age 20 and at 21, settled in Paris. He maintained an often troubled relationship with the French writer Aurore Dupin (known by her pen name George Sand). Chopin died in Paris in 1849 at age 39.

WOLA presents a new episode about El Salvador, coinciding with our awarding of our 2025 Human Rights Award to MOVIR, El Salvador's Movement of Victims of the Regime, which supports victims and families of arbitrary detentions carried out by President Nayib Bukele's government. In this conversation, Ricardo Valencia, assistant professor of public relations in the Department of Communications at California State University, Fullerton, explains why the current popularity of El Salvador's authoritarian president rests on a surprisingly fragile foundation. Dr. Valencia, a former journalist in El Salvador and an expert on political and activist communications, explains that Bukele is facing several challenges to his rule that even a slick propaganda operation cannot paper over. These include a lackluster economy, mainstream voters' discomfort with the regime's celebrations of cruelty and imprisonment, Bukele's relations with just one political party in the United States, the loss of emigration as an “escape valve” and a likely increase in deportations, and discontent with corruption. While Dr. Valencia doesn't foresee Bukele's downfall as imminent—he is very popular because of security gains and effective communications—the Salvadoran leader, he argues, is planting the seeds for a sharp drop in popularity. In the meantime, Valencia calls for constant, energetic accompaniment and defense of El Salvador's beleaguered civil society, independent media, and others fighting for democratic institutions and rights.

A special episode as part of WOLA's 2025 Human Rights Awards Month President Nayib Bukele's government has jailed nearly 2 percent of El Salvador's entire population—the highest incarceration rate in the world. Still, because violence has dropped sharply, political figures across Latin America speak about emulating Bukele's “security model.” But behind the videos of mega-prisons and tweets about plunging homicide rates lies a darker, less sustainable reality. In this WOLA Podcast episode, Adam Isacson speaks with Beatriz Magaloni (personal site / Stanford site), a political scientist at Stanford University and co-author (with Alberto Díaz-Cayeros) of a Foreign Affairs article published September 11, 2025: “Does the Bukele Model Have a Future?” Their conversation reveals what Magaloni calls “a system of state terror and resource extraction,” and explores why El Salvador's experiment in mass incarceration may ultimately collapse under its own weight. In fieldwork conducted since last year, Dr. Magaloni interviewed the families of hundreds of victims of the security crackdown, many aided by MOVIR, the Movement of Victims of the Regime, which WOLA is honoring with its 2025 Human Rights Award. “Our crime is to be poor,” families told her. Police and soldiers face monthly arrest quotas, Magaloni explains. Civilians can denounce neighbors by calling a hotline—and are sometimes paid $300 bounties. Poor Salvadorans, many in communities with little or no gang presence, end up seized and jailed in prisons like Izalco and Mariona, where conditions amount to systematic torture. This, Magaloni says, has turned the carceral system into “a machine that milks the poor.” Bukele's ongoing emergency decrees, renewed 42 times, now serve dual purposes: silencing critics and funding repression. Despite its popularity, Bukele's “model” rests on brittle foundations. Poverty remains over 30 percent and is not declining. The economy depends on remittances from abroad, not job creation. Corruption persists, while transparency laws and data access have been erased. Bukele's control of the media, polished propaganda videos, and rapid-fire social-media presence drown out criticism. Civil society's challenge, Magaloni argues, is to build equally powerful counter-narratives that humanize victims and expose hidden abuses. Drawing on decades of field research in Mexico and Brazil, Magaloni concedes that effective citizen security sometimes does require force, but points to past experiments that achieved short-term safety without repression, human rights abuse, or democratic dismantlement. These include efforts like community-based policing in Medellín or Rio de Janeiro's early UPPs, which showed progress before political will and funding eroded. Bukele “could have stopped six months in, admitted mistakes, freed the innocent—and he'd have deserved credit,” Magaloni says. “Instead, he institutionalized terror.”  

Hablamos en Washington D.C. con Adam Isacson de la Washington Office on Latin America, WOLA; en Madrid con Haizam Amirah Fernández, director del Centro de Estudios Árabes Contemporáneos, y en Medellín con Samuel Castro, crítico de cine del diario "El Colombiano".

In this episode, Katie interviews Bobby about his incredible 8-day pilgrimage to Poland for the World Premiere of the movie Triumph of the Heart—a powerful film telling the story of St. Maximilian Kolbe, his heroic life, and his ultimate sacrifice at Auschwitz concentration camp.What started as a trip for a movie premiere quickly became a pilgrimage on mission—to help spread the word about this heroic saint and his untold story. Bobby shares what it was like to travel with the cast, crew, director, and producers, while visiting some of the most meaningful places connected to St. Max's life and legacy:✨ Stops along the journey:Warsaw – for the Red Carpet World Premiere event

Since January, the United States' migrant detention and deportation system, which was already troubled, has become increasingly opaque. Access to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities is restricted, internal oversight agencies have been hollowed out, and credible information about conditions inside is scarce. Yet reports that have emerged, some from those who have recently been deported, tell a troubling story echoing the darkest moments of recent U.S. immigration history. In late July and early August, researchers from WOLA and the Women's Refugee Commission (WRC) set out to pierce this “black box” by visiting cities in Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico that are key deportation hubs. There, they interviewed deported migrants, service providers, advocates, experts, and government officials to learn what they are hearing about conditions in U.S. detention. The findings are disturbing. They point to a resurgence of family separations, cruel treatment, miserable, unhealthy conditions, and deportation processes that violate migrants' rights and dignity. With transparency mechanisms dismantled, these abuses are happening out of public view. In this episode, host Adam Isacson talks with two colleagues from WRC with whom he traveled: Zain Lakhani, WRC's director of Migrant Rights and Justice. Diana Flórez, a consultant to WRC, an attorney and expert on gender, transitional justice, development, and peacebuilding. During their travels, Isacson, Lakhani, and Flórez shared photos and initial findings in four “dispatches” published to our organizations' websites, from Honduras, Guatemala, Tapachula, and Ciudad Juárez. We heard consistent accounts of: Family separations: A larger number than expected of parents deported without U.S. citizen children, often without being given the choice of being removed with them. The crisis is approaching the scale of the “zero tolerance” family separations that shocked the nation in 2018. Inhumane conditions: Overcrowded cells, lack of medical care, and verbal and physical abuse by guards. Threats to the health of pregnant and lactating women and their children: Insufficient and poor-quality food, difficulty in obtaining medical attention, and even being forced to sleep on floors. (The podcast refers to a July 30 report on abuse in detention, especially of pregnant women and children, by the office of Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Georgia).) Targeting of vulnerable populations: Harassment of LGBTQ+ individuals, especially trans individuals who are now detained with the gender to which they were assigned at birth. As Lakhani notes, “Historically… we were able to enter detention centers and visit them and speak with migrants,” but “now we're seeing the deliberate creation of a black box.” We hope that the WOLA–WRC delegation's findings will guide future, more intensive on-the-ground research enabling advocates to refer egregious abuses requiring legal action, build a rigorous archive of known cases, and inform public opinion and policymakers.  

Nearly three years into President Gustavo Petro's term, his flagship “Total Peace” initiative is faltering. On this episode of the WOLA Podcast, Gimena Sánchez-Garzoli, WOLA's Director for the Andes, provides a sweeping overview of Colombia's peace and security reality.

For the second year in a row, what had been an uneventful, consensus-driven United Nations meeting on drug policy saw unexpected drama and signs of real change. At the 68th session of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) in Vienna in March 2025, governments approved the formation of an independent expert commission to recommend changes to the architecture of global drug policy, which has changed little since the early 1960s. Colombia again played a catalytic role, as it did in 2024. But this time, the United States—under the new Trump administration—tried to block nearly everything, isolating itself diplomatically in the process. In this episode of the WOLA Podcast, Adam Isacson speaks with three experts who were in Vienna: Ann Fordham, Executive Director of the International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC), a network of 195 organizations working to reform global drug policy. Isabel Pereira, Senior Coordinator for drug policy at DeJusticia, a Bogotá-based think tank and advocacy group. John Walsh, WOLA's Director for Drug Policy, who has tracked the UN's drug control system since the 1980s. The conversation traces the slow evolution of the UN drug control system—from decades of punitive consensus to today's shifting coalitions, unprecedented votes, and long-overdue reviews. Much of the episode centers on a breakthrough: a new resolution establishing an “independent external review” of the UN's own drug control institutions. For years, countries like Colombia have called for an honest assessment of the system's failings. Now, thanks to a resolution spearheaded by Colombia and passed over U.S. opposition, that review is happening. The details still matter: how independent the expert panel will truly be, who funds it, and whether the review can influence the hard architecture of the drug control treaties. “Vienna was very much a space where delegates would just pat each other on the back on how well we're doing the war on drugs,” Pereira said. “The spirit of Vienna created a sort of lockdown situation on debate, true debate,” added Walsh. “Civil society enlivened the Vienna atmosphere” in recent years, he noted, “with new debates, new arguments.” Now, this international space has become more dynamic. The guests also discuss coca leaf: its decades-old listing as a Schedule I narcotic, Bolivia's and Colombia's ongoing push for a scientific review, and the possibility of a pivotal vote in 2026. They stress how traditional knowledge—especially from Indigenous communities—must be recognized as legitimate scientific input during that review. Underlying it all is a major diplomatic shift. Colombia is using the UN system to demand drug policy grounded in health, human rights, and development—not militarized prohibition. But with Petro's term ending in 2026, it's unclear who will pick up the baton. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is signaling a return to zero-tolerance drug war policies—and burning bridges with potential allies in the process. “They behaved so terribly. I mean, they broke with all diplomatic niceties,” said Fordham. “The U.S. just went for it in their opening statement… It was frankly an embarrassing, but also pretty shocking statement.” Despite the uncertainty, all three guests agree: civil society is no longer on the sidelines. NGOs and experts are shaping debates, challenging rigid thinking in Vienna, and holding governments to account.

**This podcast is in Spanish. Stay tuned for an English summary! Este Mes de la Mujer, en WOLA lanzamos una serie especial de nuestro podcast para amplificar voces feministas que luchan por los derechos humanos en América Latina. En nuestro último episodio, conversamos con Ruth López, directora del programa de anticorrupción en Cristosal, sobre su trabajo en la lucha contra la corrupción y el autoritarismo en El Salvador. Nuestra invitada Ruth López es abogada, defensora de los derechos humanos y directora del programa de anticorrupción de Cristosal, una organización que trabaja en la promoción de derechos humanos, estado de derecho y la lucha contra la corrupción en El Salvador. Ruth ha sido reconocida por su valentía y liderazgo en la defensa de los derechos humanos en un contexto difícil, y fue incluida en la lista de las 100 mujeres más influyentes de 2024 de la BBC. Su trabajo se centra en la lucha por la justicia, la transparencia y el respeto de los derechos humanos en El Salvador, donde el autoritarismo y la corrupción están afectando el ejercicio de derechos fundamentales.

On March 15, 2025 President Donald Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 for only the fourth time in U.S. history. The target, this time, is citizens of Venezuela. His administration sent hundreds out of the country on the merest suspicion of ties to a criminal organization, the Tren de Aragua. In this explainer episode recorded on March 21, with help from WOLA's Venezuela Director Laura Dib and Central America Director Ana María Méndez Dardón, Defense Oversight Director Adam Isacson walks through what has happened over the past six dark days in U.S. history. The Alien Enemies Act did not use any standard of due process, and many of those sent out of the country, it is now very apparent, were documented in the United States and were not guilty of anything. All it took was for U.S. agents to decide that they did not like the way these young men looked. The Trump administration ignored a clear order from a federal judge to turn the planes around, and is now resisting that judge's demands for information. The result is one of the most severe constitutional crises in U.S. history, which is unresolved as of March 21st. Rather than simply deport them, the planes took 238 citizens of Venezuela straight to El Salvador, where authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele took them straight to a notorious mega-prison where those inside are cut off from the outside world and never seem to emerge. This alarming story is far from over, but this episode lays out some of the most pertinent facts and context in half an hour.

This Women's Month, WOLA launched a special podcast series to amplify feminist voices fighting for human rights in Latin America. Our second episode was our first-ever Spanish-language episode. Our president, Carolina Jiménez Sandoval, spoke with Quimy de León (Guatemala) and Sofía López Mera (Colombia), two feminist communicators and human rights defenders. We explored the crucial role of communication in human rights advocacy and how to approach it from a feminist perspective. We also discussed the additional challenges women in this field face, from gender-based violence to censorship. This episode is an English recap of that conversation.  Our Guests Sofía López Mera is a journalist, lawyer, and human rights defender in Colombia. She works at the Corporación Justicia y Dignidad and is a member of the National Movement of Mothers and Women for Peace. Her work focuses on supporting grassroots communities affected by armed conflict, using popular communication as a key tool for organizing, mobilizing, and raising awareness about human rights. As a mother, she deeply understands the challenges women face in human rights advocacy and therefore embraces a feminist approach in her work. Quimy de León is a journalist, doctor, and historian from Guatemala with over 20 years of experience. She is the founder and director of Prensa Comunitaria, an alternative media outlet covering environmental issues, human rights, and the impact of extractivism on Indigenous communities in Guatemala. She also founded La Ruda, a feminist digital magazine focused on sexual and reproductive rights. In 2024, she was awarded the Press Freedom Prize by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) for her bravery and commitment to community journalism in Guatemala.

**This podcast is in Spanish. Stay tuned for an English summary! Este Mes de la Mujer, en WOLA lanzamos una serie especial de nuestro podcast para amplificar voces feministas que luchan por los derechos humanos en América Latina. En nuestro segundo episodio, hablamos sobre comunicación, defensa de derechos humanos y feminismo. En nuestro primer episodio en español, nuestra presidenta, Carolina Jiménez Sandoval, conversó con Quimy de León (Guatemala) y Sofía López Mera (Colombia), dos comunicadoras feministas y defensoras de derechos humanos. Hablamos sobre el papel fundamental de la comunicación en la defensa de los derechos humanos y cómo hacerlo desde un enfoque feminista. También discutimos los desafíos adicionales que enfrentan las mujeres que se dedican a este trabajo, desde la violencia de género hasta la censura.

It’s hard to overstate the role immigrant workers play in the U.S. economy. Key industries rely on them — nearly half of meat-processing jobs, for instance, are held by immigrants. And many work in low-wage jobs that are vulnerable to exploitation. Ted Genoways, a reporter with the Food and Environment Reporting Network, said Trump’s promises of mass deportations is creating fear and uncertainty for immigrant workers, both authorized and unauthorized, as well as for the massive food companies that employ them. “If history is any guide, this will probably mean increased food prices, if only for companies trying to hedge against the possibility of something disastrous happening,” said Genoways. On today’s show, Genoways gives us a snapshot of the low-wage immigrant workforce’s role in our economy and unpacks how Trump’s deportation plans could disrupt America’s food supply. Plus, why aren’t food companies held accountable for exploiting their employees? And, we’ll get into what restrictions on the U.S. Agency for International Development could mean for Cuba. Plus, would you trust Kai with the aux? Here’s everything we talked about today: “This Week's Episode of Reveal: Immigrants on the Line” from Mother Jones Opinion | “How Trump's Deportation Plans Could Blow Up the Food System and Increase Migrant Labor” from Politico “Brooke Rollins, Trump's Agriculture Pick, Addresses Tariff and Immigration Impact on Farmers” from The New York Times “How Trump’s plan to deport undocumented immigrants threatens the workforce for U.S. farm workforce” from CBS News “Trump's Pause of U.S. Foreign Assistance to Latin America: An ‘America Last’ Policy” from WOLA “US secretly created ‘Cuban Twitter’ to stir unrest and undermine government” from The Guardian “Chappell Roan wins best new artist at the 2025 Grammy Awards” from AP News Got a question or comment for us? Leave us a voicemail at 508-U-B-SMART.

It’s hard to overstate the role immigrant workers play in the U.S. economy. Key industries rely on them — nearly half of meat-processing jobs, for instance, are held by immigrants. And many work in low-wage jobs that are vulnerable to exploitation. Ted Genoways, a reporter with the Food and Environment Reporting Network, said Trump’s promises of mass deportations is creating fear and uncertainty for immigrant workers, both authorized and unauthorized, as well as for the massive food companies that employ them. “If history is any guide, this will probably mean increased food prices, if only for companies trying to hedge against the possibility of something disastrous happening,” said Genoways. On today’s show, Genoways gives us a snapshot of the low-wage immigrant workforce’s role in our economy and unpacks how Trump’s deportation plans could disrupt America’s food supply. Plus, why aren’t food companies held accountable for exploiting their employees? And, we’ll get into what restrictions on the U.S. Agency for International Development could mean for Cuba. Plus, would you trust Kai with the aux? Here’s everything we talked about today: “This Week's Episode of Reveal: Immigrants on the Line” from Mother Jones Opinion | “How Trump's Deportation Plans Could Blow Up the Food System and Increase Migrant Labor” from Politico “Brooke Rollins, Trump's Agriculture Pick, Addresses Tariff and Immigration Impact on Farmers” from The New York Times “How Trump’s plan to deport undocumented immigrants threatens the workforce for U.S. farm workforce” from CBS News “Trump's Pause of U.S. Foreign Assistance to Latin America: An ‘America Last’ Policy” from WOLA “US secretly created ‘Cuban Twitter’ to stir unrest and undermine government” from The Guardian “Chappell Roan wins best new artist at the 2025 Grammy Awards” from AP News Got a question or comment for us? Leave us a voicemail at 508-U-B-SMART.

It’s hard to overstate the role immigrant workers play in the U.S. economy. Key industries rely on them — nearly half of meat-processing jobs, for instance, are held by immigrants. And many work in low-wage jobs that are vulnerable to exploitation. Ted Genoways, a reporter with the Food and Environment Reporting Network, said Trump’s promises of mass deportations is creating fear and uncertainty for immigrant workers, both authorized and unauthorized, as well as for the massive food companies that employ them. “If history is any guide, this will probably mean increased food prices, if only for companies trying to hedge against the possibility of something disastrous happening,” said Genoways. On today’s show, Genoways gives us a snapshot of the low-wage immigrant workforce’s role in our economy and unpacks how Trump’s deportation plans could disrupt America’s food supply. Plus, why aren’t food companies held accountable for exploiting their employees? And, we’ll get into what restrictions on the U.S. Agency for International Development could mean for Cuba. Plus, would you trust Kai with the aux? Here’s everything we talked about today: “This Week's Episode of Reveal: Immigrants on the Line” from Mother Jones Opinion | “How Trump's Deportation Plans Could Blow Up the Food System and Increase Migrant Labor” from Politico “Brooke Rollins, Trump's Agriculture Pick, Addresses Tariff and Immigration Impact on Farmers” from The New York Times “How Trump’s plan to deport undocumented immigrants threatens the workforce for U.S. farm workforce” from CBS News “Trump's Pause of U.S. Foreign Assistance to Latin America: An ‘America Last’ Policy” from WOLA “US secretly created ‘Cuban Twitter’ to stir unrest and undermine government” from The Guardian “Chappell Roan wins best new artist at the 2025 Grammy Awards” from AP News Got a question or comment for us? Leave us a voicemail at 508-U-B-SMART.

It’s hard to overstate the role immigrant workers play in the U.S. economy. Key industries rely on them — nearly half of meat-processing jobs, for instance, are held by immigrants. And many work in low-wage jobs that are vulnerable to exploitation. Ted Genoways, a reporter with the Food and Environment Reporting Network, said Trump’s promises of mass deportations is creating fear and uncertainty for immigrant workers, both authorized and unauthorized, as well as for the massive food companies that employ them. “If history is any guide, this will probably mean increased food prices, if only for companies trying to hedge against the possibility of something disastrous happening,” said Genoways. On today’s show, Genoways gives us a snapshot of the low-wage immigrant workforce’s role in our economy and unpacks how Trump’s deportation plans could disrupt America’s food supply. Plus, why aren’t food companies held accountable for exploiting their employees? And, we’ll get into what restrictions on the U.S. Agency for International Development could mean for Cuba. Plus, would you trust Kai with the aux? Here’s everything we talked about today: “This Week's Episode of Reveal: Immigrants on the Line” from Mother Jones Opinion | “How Trump's Deportation Plans Could Blow Up the Food System and Increase Migrant Labor” from Politico “Brooke Rollins, Trump's Agriculture Pick, Addresses Tariff and Immigration Impact on Farmers” from The New York Times “How Trump’s plan to deport undocumented immigrants threatens the workforce for U.S. farm workforce” from CBS News “Trump's Pause of U.S. Foreign Assistance to Latin America: An ‘America Last’ Policy” from WOLA “US secretly created ‘Cuban Twitter’ to stir unrest and undermine government” from The Guardian “Chappell Roan wins best new artist at the 2025 Grammy Awards” from AP News Got a question or comment for us? Leave us a voicemail at 508-U-B-SMART.