Dear John,
I’m pleased to share the latest installment of the Coca Chronicles, WOLA’s collaborative series with the Transnational Institute (TNI) that explores the opportunities and challenges presented by the UN coca leaf review now underway. The World Health Organization played a key in the historical error of listing the coca leaf as a Schedule I substance under the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. That fateful decision was rooted in racially prejudiced 1950’s-era reports intent on abolishing millenia-old traditional uses of coca in the Andean-Amazonian region. As the WHO now conducts a long-overdue review of coca’s status in the UN drug treaties, our new piece highlights the stakes for Indigenous People’s rights and global drug policy reform.
At WOLA, drug policy reform remains a core priority. The way drug policies are designed and implemented—whether in the U.S., across Latin America, or globally—has ripple effects on some of the most critical issues of our time: citizen security, organized crime, public health, environmental protection, Indigenous rights, and democratic governance. These interconnected impacts are precisely why WOLA continues to monitor how drug policies affect people and communities across the Americas.
Through research, advocacy, and partnerships like the Coca Chronicles, we remain committed to advancing drug policies that promote human rights and social justice and that finally turn the page on the disastrous “war on drugs.” Sincerely, |
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| John Walsh Director for Drug Policy and the Andes |
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🏳️🌈 Continuing our Pride Month campaign, we published a carousel highlighting six LGBTIQ+ activists from Colombia, Honduras, El Salvador, Venezuela, and Mexico who are leading transformative work in their communities. Explore the carousel here.
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🎙️ We released a new podcast episode featuring Brigitte Baltasar Lujano, Director of the LGBTQ+ program at Al Otro Lado in Tijuana. This conversation expands on our focus this Pride Month on LGBTIQ+ migration, offering a powerful, firsthand perspective from someone working on the front lines to support displaced queer and trans people at the U.S.-Mexico border. Listen here!
- 🏳️⚧️ In our latest analysis, we took a deeper look at trans rights in Latin America—exploring how recognition often coexists with violence, and how trans communities continue to resist and organize across the region. Read the full article here.
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🚨 In the past week, we released four timely statements in response to major developments in the region. We called for peace-centered responses to rising violence in Colombia and joined partners in expressing deep concern over El Salvador’s new Foreign Agents Law and its threat to civil society. We also raised alarm on two occasions in regards to Peru’s increasing hostility toward human rights work, joining partners in a statement ahead of the OAS General Assembly and another condemning the passage of an amnesty law.
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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. |
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"With this Administration, the rules have changed. Government lawyers are pressuring judges to close cases, and they wait for migrants until they are inside the courthouse to detain them and subject them to expedited removal proceedings. The detainees are not only foreigners without criminal records, but many are heads of households." Adam Isacson Director for Defense Oversight – El País, ‘Help, my kids are at school’: Trump’s immigration pressure targets immigrant mothers |
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Please consider making a gift to support the creation of our Weekly Newsletter, and all areas of our human rights advocacy work, by clicking the button above. Thank You! |
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