Servicio Nacional de Migración de Panamá / Twitter
This piece offers a look at the current migration trends and points to large differences that characterize this situation as a crisis: the scale, composition, nature, and management of migration is outside conventional or historical patterns. Aspects of this unprecedented migration pattern are not within the control of government authorities and policy makers. The recent migration wave to the US border has been referred to as a crisis. Media references point to the drama of people arriving and passing through the Darien, Central America, and Mexico to characterize the problem. Others have pointed out the increasing arrivals into US cities in numbers that are hard to manage by local communities.Read more +
Javier Gallego / Flickr / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 DEED
When Bernardo Arévalo won a landslide victory in Guatemala’s runoff presidential election on Aug. 20, it was the first time in memory that people took to the streets to celebrate an election result. Against all early expectations, the 64-year-old sociologist, former diplomat and son of the country’s historically most revered…Read more +
RawPixel CC0 photo.
This blog examines remittance sending costs to eight Latin American and Caribbean countries and considers that the most important reality shaping the money transfer intermediation industry is that is tied to a global currency market.Read more +
Ichabod/Wikipedia
El Salvador’s sluggish economy and outdated economic model present serious challenges for the future. Weak economic performance means that life is hard and opportunities are scarce for large portions of the population. It also has far-ranging implications for a variety of issues, including migration, social inclusion, and insecurity. With the…Read more +
Colectiva Feminista
In 1967 the United Nations and its member states officially recognized women’s rights as international human rights. Despite this historic declaration many of those rights, specifically reproductive rights, are threatened today. As a region, Latin America has some of the world’s most restrictive anti-abortion laws. El Salvador, in particular, has…Read more +
GWP / Flickr / CC BY-NC 2.0
Given its commitment to reviving multilateralism and bringing together diverse stakeholders, the Biden administration is well-positioned to use these instruments to implement its more holistic regional agenda. After decades of privileging police and military assistance and waiting for government uptake of institutional strengthening efforts, it is time to look beyond Central American states and reinvest in civil society-based anti-corruption coalitions that can be the engines of political and economic change.Read more +
Nate Graham, Jamie Dorner, José Daniel Madrigal
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Voces
European Union / Flickr / CC BY-ND 2.0
Making climate change a central theme of a renewed US focus on the root causes of migration from the Northern Triangle presents an opportunity for the Biden administration to address its border dilemma while simultaneously advancing its climate-related foreign policy goals. Read more +
Eneas de Troya / Flickr / CC BY 2.0
As governments and regional organizations muster a plan for post-pandemic economic recovery, addressing corruption must be at the forefront of any response — now more than ever.Read more +
U.S. Customs and Border Patrol / Flickr / Public Domain
“There is a broad underestimation [by US immigration court judges] of how dangerous the situation on the ground is in Central America. Most people… live in a constant culture of violence. For example, most of my teenage clients have witnessed someone being murdered on the streets, and this is the…Read more +
Knight Foundation/flickr/CC BY-SA 2.0
The murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi last month prompted worldwide outrage and a business backlash that has refocused attention on the safety of journalists. Latin America and the Caribbean was the deadliest part of the world in 2017 for journalists, with more than a quarter of murders taking place in the region.Read more +
Sergio / Flickr / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
In Latin America, violence against women and girls is pervasive and practiced with relative impunity. According to a November 2017 United Nations Development Program Report, Latin America has the highest rate in the world of gender-based sexual violence against women, and in Central America two of every three women killed…Read more +
Fran[zi]s[ko]Vicencio / Flickr / CC BY-NC 2.0)
Recent protests for increased abortion access in Argentina, Brazil, Chile and beyond underscore the relationship between female insecurity and lack of access to reproductive healthcare in the region.Read more +
Presidencia El Salvador / Flickr / CC0 1.0
In the two years since the repeal of the amnesty law, El Salvador has taken tentative steps towards establishing accountability for the atrocities of the civil war. Are these nascent advances in transitional justice threatening political stability and exacerbating present-day challenges as critics feared? Alternatively, could seeking accountability for past abuses facilitate efforts to tackle widespread impunity for contemporary crimes?Read more +
www.kremlin.ru / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 4.0
As Cuba begins its path towards post-Castroism, drawing comparisons with other transitions within communist regimes is almost inevitable, despite the uniqueness of the island’s situation. Read more +
