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Dear John,
Like many of you, I've been watching the videos coming out of Minneapolis and other cities—ICE raids that look deliberately aggressive, sweeping up and often injuring not just undocumented immigrants but also U.S. citizens. For those of us who've spent years documenting Border Patrol abuses in border communities, these scenes aren't exactly new. But what is new is seeing these tactics deployed so visibly in the interior of the country, affecting communities that haven't historically been subjected to this level of enforcement—and being cheered on, instead of investigated, by the people in charge.
This is where my work comes in. I started at WOLA doing defense oversight—tracking U.S. military assistance in Latin America and its human rights implications. Over the years, that's expanded to include intensive focus on the border, as enforcement had become more militarized and more central to how the U.S. engages with the region. And now? The work keeps evolving. We've seen boat strikes in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific since September, and then the January 3rd military action in Venezuela. This isn't just security assistance anymore—it's direct intervention. We have to keep adapting.
That means doing a lot of in-depth research and a lot of press, responding in real-time, and finding new ways to reach people—like through our podcast. It also means making tough calls about where to focus our energy.
So, here's an update: starting this year, we're moving our Border Updates from weekly to biweekly. This frees up time for more podcast episodes and other work that lets us dig deeper into what's happening.
Speaking of the podcast—our second episode of 2025 came out Tuesday. It's a look back at year one of the Trump administration with WOLA President Carolina Jiménez Sandoval and VP for Programs Maureen Meyer. Worth a listen. The work continues. Stay tuned. |
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| Adam Isacson Director for Defense Oversight |
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🇻🇪 📝 We joined a group of local and international organizations to release a list of ten urgent demands to serve as the first step in securing a democratic transition in Venezuela. These demands outline the concrete steps needed to support the Venezuelan people and protect human rights during this critical moment. Read here.
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🇨🇴 🚨 We published our first Colombia urgent updates of the year. This month's updates document the assassination of social leaders, the murder of trans women, massacres in La Guajira and Cauca, and ongoing violence against LGBTQ+ individuals and human rights defenders across the country. Read here.
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🎤 This week, our President Carolina Jiménez joined a FOCOS TV panel with experts from the Central America Chair at the University of Costa Rica to analyze U.S. intervention in Venezuela and the reconfiguration of authoritarianism in Central America. Carolina raised concerns about dangerous precedents, asking what happens when intervention tactics are applied to democratically elected presidents. Watch the full video here!
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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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"It’s a warning that this year being so decisive for Guatemala and especially for the justice of Guatemala that these parallel groups of power are seeking to break the constitutional order, to destabilize and generate this chaos to harm President Bernardo Arévalo in order to be able to continue perpetuating the impunity to which they have been accustomed to.”
Ana María Méndez Dardón Director for Central America
– The New York Times, Death Toll Rises in Guatemalan Gang Riots
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“At the moment, the U.S. is working with the de facto authorities of Venezuela; authorities that are known to be part of the repressive and political establishment that was in place before Maduro was ousted. There are some positive steps like the release of political prisoners, but unfortunately, there are still many people in prison in Venezuela due to political reasons, and we demand the immediate and unconditional release of all them, but it doesn’t seem that democracy is the main driver of U.S. policy on Venezuela at the moment.”
Carolina Jiménez Sandoval President
– Deutsche Welle, What Machado’s Nobel medal gift to Trump can - and can’t - buy | DW News |
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