WOLA

YouTube video by WOLA: Washington Office on Latin America Introducing WOLA's Human Rights Award Month 2025

🎉 Human Rights Awards Month starts now! This October, we're honoring MOVIR of El Salvador and Senator Tim Kaine. Watch our launch video 👇
youtube.com/watch?v=ToLR...

And stay tuned!

#HumanRightsMonth #WOLA

7/ Congress and the public deserve clarity: the U.S. is not at war, neither international nor non-international. What’s at stake is respect for the law, accountability, and avoiding an unnecessary war.

6/ For Venezuela, this makes things worse: trapped between repression by an authoritarian regime at home and unauthorized use of force by the U.S. abroad. Both undermine the rule of law.

5/ Declaring a “war” on vague, shifting actors means conflict with no clear enemy, no clear objectives, no territorial limits, and no end in sight.

4/ Additional Protocol II to the Geneva Conventions is clear: IHL applies to NIACs only when certain conditions are met. Venezuelan drug trafficking or criminal groups do not satisfy them.

3/ Under international humanitarian law (IHL), 2 key conditions for NIAC are missing:
a) The U.S. has not suffered an armed attack; intensity is absent.
b) Venezuelan criminal groups lack the command structure/capacity to be a party to armed conflict.
🔗 www.icrc.org/sites/defaul...

The Many Ways in Which the Caribbean Strike was Unlawful Legal expert on domestic authority and law most relevant to the US strike on alleged Venezuelan drug boat

2/ Designating groups as “terrorist” doesn’t grant extra legal authority to use military force. And the legality of U.S. lethal strikes in the Caribbean has been widely questioned: www.justsecurity.org/120296/many-...

1/ Trump officials reportedly told Congress the U.S. is in a “non-international armed conflict” with “designated terrorist organizations.” Here’s why that’s wrong: the U.S. is not at war. 🧵

My org, @wola-org.bsky.social, has fought since the 1970s to stop US aid to Latin American forces that violate human rights. Through the Dirty War, Iran-Contra, Plan Colombia.

But now, US forces are cutting out the middleman: violating human rights directly in the region. It's a horrendous shift.

Perú: Criminalización del sistema de justicia exige acción internacional urgente - WOLA Washington, D.C., 18 de septiembre. – Las organizaciones internacionales de derechos humanos firmantes alertamos a la comunidad internacional acerca de...

🚨 🇵🇪 URGENTE: WOLA junta a @cejil.bsky.social y @dplf-info.bsky.social alertan sobre la grave #criminalización del sistema de justicia en #Perú.

El Congreso y el Ejecutivo buscan neutralizar cualquier control sobre legislación que vulnera DDHH. Lee la declaración. 👇
www.wola.org/es/2025/09/p...

🏆 ¡Tenemos el honor de anunciar que el senador
@timkaine
es el segundo galardonado con el Premio de Derechos Humanos de WOLA 2025!

A lo largo de su distinguida carrera, el senador Kaine ha sido un firme defensor de la democracia y de los #DerechosHumanos. 🌎 🇺🇸

🏆 ¡Nos es un honor anunciar que hemos reconocido al senador Tim Kaine como ganador del Premio de Derechos Humanos de WOLA de este año! 🇺🇸

Un defensor incondicional de los valores democráticos y los #derechoshumanos frente al autoritarismo, tanto a nivel nacional como internacional. 🌎 ⚖️

🏆 ¡Es un honor para nosotros reconocer a MOVIR
- Movimiento de Víctimas del Régimen - con el Premio de Derechos Humanos de WOLA de este año! Durante más de tres años, han luchado por los detenidos y han defendido los valores democráticos en #ElSalvador. 🇸🇻

#DDHH #democracia

🏆 We're honored to announce Senator @kaine.senate.gov
as a recipient of this year's WOLA Human Rights Award!🇺🇸

A steadfast defender of democratic values and #humanrights against authoritarianism, domestically and internationally. Join us in celebrating a true #democracy champion! ⚖️

🏆 We're proud to honor MOVIR - Movimiento
de Víctimas del Régimen - with this year's WOLA Human Rights Award! For 3+ years, they've courageously fought for those detained and defended democratic values against #ElSalvador's authoritarian repression. 🇸🇻

#DefendDemocracy

🎉 Congratulations to Senior Fellow @jomaburt.bsky.social
on being selected as Visiting Research Scholar & Professor at
Princeton University for Fall 2025.

She brings decades of experience, with her extensive work on transitional justice and human rights. 👇

plas.princeton.edu/people/visit...

Laws Regulating Foreign NGOs: Human Rights Implications Hearing NoticePlease join the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission for a hearing on foreign NGO laws.

‼️ TODAY @ 2 pm‼️ Director for Central America Ana María Mendéz Dardón is testifying at a hearing with @tlhumanrights.bsky.social on laws regulating civic space and the implications for human rights. Don't miss it! 👇

humanrightscommission.house.gov/events/heari...

Q&A: Tensión entre Venezuela y Estados Unidos: entre la verdad y la teatralidad - WOLA El 2 de septiembre, el presidente de EE.UU. anunció desde la Sala Oval de la Casa Blanca que una embarcación cargada de drogas había sido hundida en el mar Caribe por un ataque de misil y que 11 perso...

🇺🇸 🇻🇪 Nuevo análisis ‼️

Respondemos preguntas clave sobre las tensiones entre #Venezuela y #EstadosUnidos: las implicaciones del ataque letal, los vínculos del régimen con economías ilícitas y los riesgos de escalada militar. 👇

www.wola.org/es/analysis/...

🚨 Next week WOLA's Director for Central America
Ana María Méndez Dardón will be testifying in this hearing at the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission. Don't miss it!

Lethal U.S. military strike on alleged drug traffickers sets a dangerous precedent in the “war on drugs”  - WOLA Yesterday, the President of the United States shared a video that appears to show a U.S. military strike on a boat off the coast of Venezuela. President Trump’s social media post stated that 11 of tho...

🚨 Yesterday's U.S. military strike off Venezuela's coast represents an unprecedented escalation in drug interdiction operations, violating international maritime law and setting a dangerous precedent for the use of lethal force. Read WOLA's statement.👇

www.wola.org/2025/09/leth...

🚨 WOLA President @cjimenezDC has been selected as a Perry World House visiting fellow for 2025-26 at the University of Pennsylvania. 🏛️ We are honored by this recognition of her scholarship and leadership in human rights advocacy across Latin America. 📚⚖️

Peru’s Amnesty Law: Closing the circle of impunity? - WOLA Gisela Ortiz was 19 years old in 1992 when her brother Enrique was forcibly disappeared from La Cantuta University by a military death squad, along with eight other students and a professor. I first m...

🇵🇪 TODAY: IACHR hearing on Peru's amnesty law that could free perpetrators of human rights violations.

📄 Read WOLA Senior Fellow @jomaburt.bsky.social's analysis on how this threatens to block justice for families and close the circle of #impunity in #Peru. ⬇️

www.wola.org/analysis/per...

Weekly U.S.-Mexico Border Update: July migration and drug seizures, "mass deportation," Mexico - WOLA CBP releases July data showing migration hitting new low at the border; Notes on “mass deportation”; Notes from Mexico

In this week's @wola-org.bsky.social Border Update:

- July migration and drug seizure data (lots of charts)
- Notes on “mass deportation”
- Notes from Mexico

Peru enacts amnesty for military and police accused of human rights abuses Families of victims and advocacy groups condemn law that covers internal armed conflict from 1980 to 2000

🇵🇪 "This amnesty law is a law that consecrates impunity," @jomaburt.bsky.social told The Guardian on Peru's controversial legislation protecting military and police from prosecution.

🗞️ Read the full article: www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

🚨 🇪🇨 Desde WOLA hacemos un llamado al respeto total de la autonomía del poder judicial en #Ecuador. La independencia judicial no es opcional; es la base de la democracia.

YouTube video by CNN en Español Departamento de Estado de EE.UU. apoya la reelección indefinida en El Salvador

🇸🇻 “La elección indefinida básicamente es incompatible con la democracia.”
— @cjimenezdc.bsky.social, presidenta de WOLA, sobre la aprobación de la reelección indefinida en #ElSalvador y la respuesta de Estados Unidos a esta decisión.

📺 Mira la entrevista completa: www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TiW...

Weekly U.S.-Mexico Border Update: Venezuelan prisoners' ordeal, "mass deportation," courts' decisions, Mexico - WOLA Freed Venezuelan men tell of what they endured in El Salvador. Notes on "mass deportation." Events in the courts. Notes from Mexico.

🚨 NEW: Weekly #BorderUpdate

❌ Venezuelan migrants detail torture at El Salvador's #CECOT
❌ Courts block key Trump policies
❌ Admin steps back from 3,000/day quota, for now.
❌ Caravan to Mexico City forms in Tapachula

Read here 👇
www.wola.org/2025/08/week...

#migration

🔎 Read the full dispatch here: wola.org/analysis/dis...

#ICE

🇬🇹 ✈️ Dispatch from #Guatemala: WOLA and @wrcommission.bsky.social report back on their findings from their visit to Guatemala City. They identify clear patterns of abuse in the U.S. #deportation system.

We break down the key findings.👇

Dispatch from Mexico: Difficulties Abound for Both Deported Individuals and Service Providers - WOLA As the United States’ immigration detention system becomes a black box, researchers from WOLA and the Women’s Refugee Commission are...

🇲🇽 New dispatch from Mexico! 🛫

WOLA/WRC in Tapachula found:
❌ growing destination for US deportation flights
❌ access to deported migrants difficult
❌ deportees face rising insecurity
❌ US aid cuts leave region unprepared

👇
www.wola.org/analysis/dis...