Latin America Today

Peruvians vote on June 6 in a runoff between two presidential candidates who represent populist extremes, and who reflect growing divisions exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. WOLA Senior Fellow Jo-Marie Burt explains the tense pre-election moment.

Brazil is the second largest country in the hemisphere but its many complex issues rarely make news in the U.S. This week, Camila Asano, Director of Programs at the Brazilian human rights NGO Conectas joins Adam and Moses to paint a picture of attacks on human rights and democracy there.

Protests that began April 28 in Colombia are maintaining momentum and a broad base, despite a heavy-handed government response. Gimena Sánchez-Garzoli, WOLA's director for the Andes, sees a movement coalescing—and a need for a more decisive U.S. approach.

Top Biden administration officials, including VP Harris, are developing a new approach to Central America. The theme is familiar: addressing migration's "root causes." WOLA President Geoff Thale and Citizen Security Director Adriana Beltrán discuss.

The Biden administration is asking Mexico to do more to limit or stop arrivals of asylum-seeking migrants from Central America and elsewhere. Several WOLA experts discuss Mexico's military deployments, expulsions of families, and the view from El Paso.

Yael Shacher, senior U.S. advocate at Refugees International, is a historian of U.S. asylum policy. She offers an invaluable perspective on the current increase in asylum seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border, and how the system should work.

This series from the Washington Office on Latin America will share the stories of social leaders in Colombia who, every day, under threat to their lives, search for truth and work toward reconciliation, fight for justice for victims of the Colombian conflict, and ensure the government lives up to the guarantees it made to ethnic and rural communities in the historic 2016 peace accord.

El Salvador's popular but authoritarian-leaning president, Nayib Bukele, may enjoy a congressional supermajority after February 28 elections. Mauricio Silva and José Luis Sanz discuss the many implications for Salvadoran democracy and U.S. policy.

WOLA's Director for Mexico and Migrant Rights, Stephanie Brewer, walks us through the late 2020 arrest and release of Mexico's last defense secretary, and what Mexico's handling of the case tells us about the military's power and U.S.-Mexican relations.

Populist and authoritarian leaders have made important gains in Latin America, and the U.S. government has been inconsistent in its dealings with them, and in its support for civil society. WOLA's Geoff Thale and Geoff Ramsey outline a better way forward.