Dear John,

Earlier this year, President Biden launched his administration’s strategy to address illegal drugs. The good news is that—for the first time ever in the United States—Biden’s plan embraces life-saving harm reduction services to respond to the country’s tragic overdose crisis. The bad news is that this huge advance in domestic drug policy doesn’t change the U.S.-led “war on drugs” abroad, which continues to wreak havoc on millions of lives, particularly in Latin America and the Caribbean. 

Learn more in our new report about how prohibitionist drug policies are harming people and exacerbating problems like organized crime and climate change. 

Also, did you know women make up for the majority of people who care for those held in prisons across Latin America? Read our feature for more details. 

That and much more in this week’s WOLA Weekly.

Thanks for reading and please help us spread the word!

John Walsh

Director for Drug Policy and the Andes, WOLA

🇲🇽 Are you looking to learn more about the state of human rights in Mexico? Check out these testimonies from WOLA and partner organizations before the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission hearing.  

📝 Women make up the majority of people who care for those held in prisons across Latin America. This is how they do it.

U.S. President Joe Biden’s national drug strategy, which includes a focus on harm reduction to respond to an overdose crisis at home, is at odds with the country’s ongoing “Drug War” in Latin America, which has perennially failed to curb drug supplies, at a huge cost in human lives. 

A new WOLA report argues that the global drug prohibition regime and the 50-year-long U.S.-led “war on drugs” has not only had disastrous results across the world but are increasingly exacerbating other serious problems.

READ THE LATEST BORDER UPDATE HERE

Carolina Jiménez Sandoval

President

"I would say that there is a humanitarian crisis for migrants in Tapachula and that crisis could be avoided...As a country, it certainly can respond to demand, it is a large country, with a large population, but a single city like Tapachula cannot, it is not logical to think that it can cover the demand." 

– Milenio

“The entire world knows the way in which President Alejandro Giammattei has been eroding democracy and promoting impunity in his country. One trip to Ukraine is not going to change that reality.”

– The Washington Post

Stephanie Brewer

Director for Mexico and Migrant Rights

WOLA seeks a Grant Coordinator to join our fast-paced and dynamic development team. This creative team works to increase and expand the philanthropic partnerships that make WOLA’s human rights advocacy possible. Learn more here.

Are you or someone you know interested in purchasing advertisement space in our 2022 WOLA Human Rights Awards & Benefit Gala program? Click here for more information!

Interested in attending or sponsoring the gala? Register here for an evening of celebration, community, and reflection at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, DC. For more information, click here!

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