Dear John,

This week holds significant importance for WOLA and our partners across the region, as the 191st period of sessions of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) takes place in Washington, DC. The hearings bring many of our allies to the city  and WOLA has been deeply engaged in many activities. WOLA was a co-petitioner in an IACHR hearing on the human rights situation in the aftermath of the Venezuelan elections where our colleague,  Laura Dib, provided testimony.  Additionally, we were pleased to co-sponsor three side events focusing on human rights in Mexico, Peru, and Argentina. WOLA also facilitated numerous meetings between civil society and key stakeholders in Congress, the State Department, and National Security Council at a critical time as we prepare for a political transition in the United States that will have many implications for U.S. engagement with Latin America.

We also had the opportunity to co-host with DPLF a reception with civil society representatives from across the region. The gathering was a chance to reconnect with many partners and sparked important conversations about the current state of human rights and democracy in Latin America and the United States and how the path forward must be paved with collaboration and solidarity.

Read about this and more in WOLA weekly

Warm regards,

Maureen Meyer

Vice President for Programs

For human rights activists across Latin America right now, the stakes are high. Violence around elections is on the rise, as are threats against those who speak in favor of justice and accountability.

Your support of WOLA creates space to amplify the voices of those who put their life on the line to champion human rights; from Caracas, to San Salvador, and everywhere in between.

"Migrant labor is present in all branches of the economy and therefore is present in the daily life of any citizen living in this territory. Therefore, I believe that a massive deportation process [...] is economically undesirable, logistically impossible, and in social and human terms, truly reprehensible and tremendously cruel." This interview is in Spanish.

Carolina Jiménez Sandoval

Present

– NTN24, Carolina Jiménez, presidenta de WOLA en NTN24: "estamos a la puerta de que se institucionalice la xenofobia como política de Estado en Estados Unidos"

"Building institutional ability to respond to citizens by transferring funds to the regions, especially the most vulnerable ones, is needed (...) The transfers must consider the structural racism and marginalization that exist in Colombia, as well as the need to strengthen institutionality to limit illicit economies and conflict."

Gimena Sánchez-Garzoli

Director for the Andes

– Latin America Advisor, Would a Major Budget  Change Benefit Colombians?

"[The migrants that end up trading working-class American incomes for much lower wages in Mexico] will be thrown into a new kind of poverty, which will make them more desperate."

Adam Isacson

Director for Defense Oversight

– The Washington Post, As Trump prepares for mass deportations, Mexico is not ready

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