Authoritarianism, Resistance, and Repression: What's Next for Venezuela?
Release Date: 01/24/2025
“Simultaneously juggling nine processes at once”: Colombia’s “Total Peace” plan and mounting security challenges
Latin America Today
Nearly three years into President Gustavo Petro’s term, his flagship “Total Peace” initiative is faltering. On this episode of the WOLA Podcast, , WOLA’s Director for the Andes, provides a sweeping overview of Colombia’s peace and security reality.
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Derechos y resistencia LGBTIQ+ en Latinoamérica: seis voces de la región
Latin America Today
A Special Pride Month Episode This special Pride Month episode brings together the voices of six LGBTIQ+ activists from across Latin America—Mexico, Honduras, Colombia, Venezuela, and El Salvador—who share their experiences as leaders in the fight for equality and justice. Through their stories, we explore what Pride means in contexts of resistance, the state of LGBTIQ+ rights across the region, and the ongoing work to build more inclusive societies.
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LGBTIQ+ Rights and Resistance in Latin America: Six Voices from the Region
Latin America Today
This special Pride Month episode brings together the voices of six LGBTIQ+ activists from across Latin America—Mexico, Honduras, Colombia, Venezuela, and El Salvador—who share their experiences as leaders in the fight for equality and justice. Through their stories, we explore what Pride means in contexts of resistance, the state of LGBTIQ+ rights across the region, and the ongoing work to build more inclusive societies.
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LGBTQ+ Migrants in the Crosshairs: A Critical Conversation with Brigitte Baltazar Lujano
Latin America Today
In the wake of escalating immigration enforcement targeting vulnerable migrant communities, this Pride Month episode brings essential perspective from the frontlines. We sit down with Brigitte Baltazar Lujano, a trans woman who herself experienced deportation and now leads critical advocacy and service work for LGBTQ+ migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border with the Tijuana and San Diego-based organization Al Otro Lado.
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Global Drug Policy: “Countries are being freed up to actually speak their minds”
Latin America Today
For the second year in a row, what had been an uneventful, consensus-driven United Nations meeting on drug policy saw unexpected drama and signs of real change. At the 68th session of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) in Vienna in March 2025, governments approved the formation of an independent expert commission to recommend changes to the architecture of global drug policy, which has changed little since the early 1960s. Colombia again played a catalytic role, as it did in 2024. But this time, the United States—under the new Trump administration—tried to block nearly everything,...
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Mujeres contra la corrupción y el autoritarismo: aprendiendo de El Salvador
Latin America Today
**This podcast is in Spanish. Stay tuned for an English summary! Este Mes de la Mujer, en WOLA lanzamos una serie especial de nuestro podcast para amplificar voces feministas que luchan por los derechos humanos en América Latina. En nuestro último episodio, conversamos con Ruth López, directora del programa de anticorrupción en Cristosal, sobre su trabajo en la lucha contra la corrupción y el autoritarismo en El Salvador. Nuestra invitada Ruth López es abogada, defensora de los derechos humanos y directora del programa de anticorrupción de , una organización que trabaja en la...
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The Alien Enemies Act
Latin America Today
On March 15, 2025 President Donald Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 for only the fourth time in U.S. history. The target, this time, is citizens of Venezuela. His administration sent hundreds out of the country on the merest suspicion of ties to a criminal organization, the Tren de Aragua. In this explainer episode recorded on March 21, with help from WOLA’s Venezuela Director Laura Dib and Central America Director Ana María Méndez Dardón, Defense Oversight Director Adam Isacson walks through what has happened over the past six dark days in U.S. history. The Alien Enemies Act...
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"Feminist Community Journalism Builds Hope": How Women Communicators in Guatemala and Colombia Are Defending Human Rights**
Latin America Today
This Women's Month, WOLA launched a special podcast series to amplify feminist voices fighting for human rights in Latin America. Our second episode was our first-ever Spanish-language episode. Our president, Carolina Jiménez Sandoval, spoke with Quimy de León (Guatemala) and Sofía López Mera (Colombia), two feminist communicators and human rights defenders. We explored the crucial role of communication in human rights advocacy and how to approach it from a feminist perspective. We also discussed the additional challenges women in this field face, from gender-based violence to censorship....
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“El periodismo comunitario feminista es esperanzador”: Cómo comunicadoras en Guatemala y Colombia están defendiendo los derechos humanos
Latin America Today
**This podcast is in Spanish. Stay tuned for an English summary! Este Mes de la Mujer, en WOLA lanzamos una serie especial de nuestro podcast para amplificar voces feministas que luchan por los derechos humanos en América Latina. En nuestro segundo episodio, hablamos sobre comunicación, defensa de derechos humanos y feminismo. En nuestro primer episodio en español, nuestra presidenta, Carolina Jiménez Sandoval, conversó con Quimy de León (Guatemala) y Sofía López Mera (Colombia), dos comunicadoras feministas y defensoras de derechos humanos. Hablamos sobre el papel fundamental de la...
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“We need to aim to build feminism for democracy”: WOLA’s President reflects on International Women’s Day and the importance of gender justice in human rights
Latin America Today
To kick off our series for International Women’s Month, we sat down with WOLA President Carolina Jiménez Sandoval to discuss gender justice in the Americas. In this episode of the WOLA Weekly Podcast, Carolina reflects on her decades of experience as a human rights advocate and the crucial role of feminist movements in defending democracy. As President of WOLA, Carolina has chosen to make gender justice a strategic priority of the organization. In the interview, She shares with us her perspective on the troubling backlash against gender rights, why these rollbacks signal a deeper threat to...
info_outlineThe director of WOLA’s Venezuela Program, Laura Dib, joins the podcast to discuss the political, human rights, and diplomatic reality following Nicolás Maduro’s January 10 inauguration. Maduro’s new term begins amid severe tensions, as he plainly lost July 28, 2024 presidential elections and has employed waves of repression, including rounding up and in some cases forcibly disappearing political prisoners, to deny the result.
Despite the context of repression and intimidation, Laura underscores that on January 9 Venezuelans still took part in 157 reported protests, including one with the participation of opposition leader María Corina Machado, who is in hiding. The response was further crackdowns, including the temporary detention of María Corina, the enforced disappearance of the son in law of the election’s true winner Edmundo González Urrutia, and the enforced disappearance of Carlos Correa, director of NGO Espacio Público, who was recently released after being missing for nine days.
With repression worsening and space closing for civil society—particularly through implementation of a harsh new NGO law—it is difficult to perceive a path forward. Laura emphasizes, however, the remaining areas of hope; possible cracks within the ruling coalition, significant consensus within the international community, and the persistent bravery of Venezuela’s civil society and diaspora. Laura acknowledges the complexities of the deep-rooted corruption and private sector ties that make Maduro’s hermetic regime difficult to assess and counter.
She also discusses the confused and contradictory nature of the new Trump administration’s likely approach to Venezuela. A transactionally minded president uninterested in democracy promotion is leading a group of officials with different, and potentially clashing, priorities: some are staunchly “anti-communist” but others are focused on stopping migration and enabling deportations to Venezuela.
Laura also discusses the complexities of sanctions, economic collapse, and Venezuela’s relations with its neighbors. The episode ends with a strong call for the international community to focus its efforts on supporting Venezuelan civil society and preserving the civic space that exists.
For more up-to-date information, read Laura Dib’s commentary “Venezuela: Authoritarianism and Resistance”; a commentary by Carolina Jiménez, President of WOLA, “Venezuela between repression and resistance,” and watch WOLA’s recent event, “Autoritarismo y Resistencia: Análisis de la Situación en Venezuela.”