WOLA is a leading research and advocacy organization committed to advancing human rights in the Americas. We create strategic partnerships with courageous people making social change—advocacy organizations, academics, religious and business leaders, artists, and government officials. Together, we advocate for more just societies in the Americas.
On January 26, Venezuela’s Supreme Court of Justice announced its decision to uphold bans on opposition presidential candidate María Corina Machado and two-time presidential candidate Henrique Capriles, preventing them from holding any public office for 15 years....
(John Moore/Getty Images) By: Laura Cristina Dib The political scenario in Venezuela has changed since 2019, when over 50 countries recognized the interim government of Juan Guaidó. In December 2022, the interim government was dissolved, and changes of government in...
Laura Cristina Dib/WOLA In this personal feature, Laura Cristina Dib, Director for Venezuela, recounts her impressions after returning to Colombia's border with Venezuela for the first time since 2019. Her visit at the end of May to the cities of Villa del Rosario and...
Download the complete letter here. Bogotá, April 24, 2023 Dear President of the Republic of Colombia Gustavo Petro Re: Bogotá Summit Please receive warm greetings from the undersigned international human rights organizations, who have accompanied civil society and...
On February 22, several Executive Council members of the Latin American Studies Association (LASA), including WOLA's Senior Fellow David Smilde, released a statement expressing their concern about the serious situation of professors in Venezuelan public universities,...
Carolina Cabral/Getty Images (Caracas, February 16, 2022). First of all, please receive our best wishes for success in your administration. Your aspirations for peace, more and better democracy, as well as the full enjoyment of human rights for all Colombians are also...
(AP Photo/Matias Delacroix) [Geneva and Washington D.C. 26 January, 2023]. The undersigned organizations express our deep concern over the approval in the first round of a bill that seeks to criminalize and further hinder the work of civil society organizations in...
(AP Photo/Matias Delacroix) A little more than a year after the regional and municipal elections of November 2021, and in the framework of the commemoration of January 23 as the date that marks the birth of democracy in Venezuela, we reaffirm our unwavering commitment...
On January 11, WOLA Director for Venezuela Geoff Ramsey was featured in a Q&A in the Inter-American Dialogue’s daily Latin America Advisor, along with Michael Penfold, Moises Rendon, Gabriel Hetland, and Rafael Álvarez Loscher on the change in leadership in the...
(AP Photo/Fernando Llano) On November 26, formal negotiations resumed between representatives of the government of Nicolás Maduro and the opposition coalition of the Unitary Platform. As human rights organizations from across the hemisphere, we celebrate the formal...