News - WOLA

Featured News Releases

Guatemala: End Arbitrary Exclusion of Candidates

Unsubstantiated Proceedings Mar Elections (Washington, D.C, March 31, 2023) – The Guatemalan Attorney General’s Office’s seemingly arbitrary criminal proceedings against a presidential candidate threatens free and fair elections, Human Rights Watch and the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) said today. On March 20, 2023, the special prosecutor against impunity, Rafael Curruchiche, said that his […]

U.S. And Mexico Must End Policies That Expose Migrants to Death and Danger

The deaths of at least 38 Central and South Americans in a fire in a Mexican government migrant detention facility in Ciudad Juárez this week show the worst possible consequences of current U.S. border expulsion policies and Mexican enforcement policies, both of which are focused on detention and deterrence. Given that the victims died in […]

Press Room

Featured News Releases

Guatemala: End Arbitrary Exclusion of Candidates

U.S. And Mexico Must End Policies That Expose Migrants to Death and Danger

A Year of Suspended Civil Liberties in El Salvador: When the Exception Becomes the Rule

Electoral reforms in El Salvador Pave Way for Further Consolidation of Power

Proposed Asylum “Transit Ban” Rule Violates Law, Endangers the Vulnerable, and Undermines U.S. Interests

WOLA and CDA welcome renewed bipartisan calls in the Senate to lift trade embargo on Cuba

Featured Commentary

WOLA Meets with USAID and Other Civil Society Actors

Regressive Wave for Women in Central America

International Ruling Finds Mexico’s Legal Framework on Detentions Violates Human Rights

States of Exception: The New Security Model in Central America?

Q&A: Promises and Prospects for Human Rights in Colombia under Petro as ELN negotiations restart

Tijuana’s migrant shelters under increased attack, as the U.S. sends hundreds of migrants per day

Biden Administration Takes Fresh Steps to Limit Access to Protection in the United States

Title 42 Must End. Here are Five Reasons Why

Xiomara Castro: A Year of Expectations, Challenges, and Pending Debts

U.S.-Cuba Relations: The Old, the New and What Should Come Next

Biden’s Venezuela policy needs a better comms strategy

An Independent Supreme Court in Honduras: The Key to Justice and the Fight Against Corruption

Electronic Monitoring: A New Form of Punishment for Many Women

2022, A Year of Human Rights: ‘Despite the long list of challenges, there are opportunities’

How the Biden administration can encourage Venezuela negotiations

The Distortion of Justice in Guatemala

Title 42 is (Probably) Over. The U.S. Still Needs a Responsible Approach to Migration

U.S. Midterm Elections: What Might they Mean for Latin America?

Clandestine Structures in Guatemala Consummate Witch Hunt against Judge of ‘Death Squad Dossier’ Case

Current migration dynamics call for new regional approaches

Migration in the Americas: ‘A root causes strategy only for Central America falls far short of addressing the type of migration we are seeing’

The U.S. Announced a New Military Aid Donation to Guatemala. Here’s Why it is a Mistake

Migration in the Americas: ‘There is a double standard at the U.S. border’

Guatemala’s Downward Spiral

Under Assault in Guatemala: Journalists and Indigenous and Human Rights Activists

When the Dominoes Fall: Co-optation of the Justice System in Guatemala

Interference from Above Closes Doors to Justice in Ayotzinapa Case

WOLA Human Rights Awards Honor Maya Achi and Q’eqchi’ Women, David Morales and Rep. Joaquin Castro

The Search for Justice in Venezuela

Colombia to Implement Law on Alternatives to Incarceration for Women Heads of Household

WOLA Human Rights Award 2022: Meet the Honorees

How the Petro Government and Minister Iván Velásquez can Make Colombians Safer

U.S. Drug Policy Disconnect: Starting Harm Reduction at Home, Deep Into ‘Drug War’ Abroad

The Invisible Resistance to Latin America’s Prison Systems

Central America: ‘The regression of democracy has been immense’

5 Concerns About Cuba’s New Penal Code

The Tragedy in Texas Was Avoidable, Just Like Hundreds of Other Migrant Deaths on U.S. Soil This Year

Remittance Caps and Restrictions Have Been Lifted: What Does this Mean for Cuba?

Pride Month: Kenya Cuevas and Latin America’s “Historic Debt” with Trans Women

Colombia Made History. The U.S. Should Join it.

Colombia’s politics are changing dramatically. U.S. policy must change too

Carolina Jiménez Sandoval: “One of the Main Victims of the ‘Authoritarian Virus’ is Judicial Independence”

The Ninth Summit of the Americas: Five Things You Need to Know

Beyond the U.S.-Mexico Border: Migration Trends in the Americas, Explained

Analysis of the trend to legalize the non-medical use of drugs with an emphasis on cannabis

Guatemalan Judge under Threat after Ordering Trial in 1980s “Death Squad Dossier” Case

Three Consequences of Keeping Title 42 in Place at the U.S.-Mexico Border

The Biden Administration Takes Constructive First Steps on Cuba Relations

Trial for “Death Squad Dossier” Ties Guatemalan Wartime Atrocities to Current Criminal Networks

Border Oversight: Monitoring Conduct and Accountability in U.S. Border Law Enforcement

Latest News

Guatemala: End Arbitrary Exclusion of Candidates

Weekly U.S.-Mexico Border Update: Tragedy in Ciudad Juárez, thousands of “asylum ban” comments

U.S. And Mexico Must End Policies That Expose Migrants to Death and Danger

A Year of Suspended Civil Liberties in El Salvador: When the Exception Becomes the Rule

Civil Society Strategy Letter to Secretary Blinken on the Ethnic Chapter

Weekly U.S.-Mexico Border Update: Fentanyl, CBP One, “Friendship Park”

Electoral reforms in El Salvador Pave Way for Further Consolidation of Power

Proposed Asylum “Transit Ban” Rule Violates Law, Endangers the Vulnerable, and Undermines U.S. Interests

WOLA and CDA welcome renewed bipartisan calls in the Senate to lift trade embargo on Cuba

Nicaragua: Organizaciones internacionales condenamos los ataques contra los pueblos indígenas del Territorio Mayangnas Sauni As

Migration in the Americas: ‘A root causes strategy only for Central America falls far short of addressing the type of migration we are seeing’ 