Venezuela hawks have applauded rhetoric from the NSC’s Juan Cruz that is supportive of a military coup in the country, but they miss a key detail: Cruz—like others in the U.S. foreign policy community—is also clear-eyed about the fact that any kind of solution to the crisis in Venezuela will…

On Friday, myself and WOLA Colombia expert Gimena Sanchez spoke with Adam Isacson for the WOLA Podcast, providing an update on our research on Venezuela's forced migration crisis. I spent all of April in Venezuela and on its borders with Brazil and Colombia, looking at the exodus of Venezuelans, the conditions that are driving so many to flee their country, and the prospects for a peaceful, democratic solution to the crisis. Gimena--who joined me in Colombia--and I are preparing a report on the humanitarian response and the difficulties faced by migrants in both countries, but in the meantime I wanted to post this podcast (audio above), along with some images from my trip (below), to share some of the human stories behind the country's crisis.

Caracas barrio of Antímano. ©Rodrigo Romero   Yesman Utrera People hurriedly walking out of the Mamera Metro station in western Caracas this past Sunday, were in for a surprise. Their bewildered faces gave no clue if the surprise was good or…

In recent weeks, two countries joined the growing number of nations that have applied targeted sanctions against government officials and elites in Venezuela. On March 27, Panama announced sanctions that restrict economic activity with 55 Venezuelan officials (and 16 companies). The following day, Switzerland announced that it would…

As the state of the economy in Venezuela worsens and urgent needs for goods and services arise, citizens feel a growing pressure to emigrate. However, many have been forced to leave the country without a valid passport, and as a consequence, they are facing increasing challenges when seeking to regularize their situation in neighboring countries and exercise of their political rights in Venezuela from abroad.

The Summit of the Americas was a little anti-climactic (See John Holman’s solid review on AJE). While everyone was bracing for a potential news storm and shake-up stemming from the participation of United States’ Loose-Cannon-in-Chief (see my piece in The Hill as well as a letter from…

Friend of the blog Rebecca Hanson published a piece on the fire in the Carabobo Police jail. She and her collaborator, Leonard Gómez Nuñez seek to counteract the idea that the fire was the result of chaos and lawlessness inside the prisons. Instead they point out the conditions of…

Yesterday I talked to Jerome McDonnell of WBEZ Worldview about the tragic jail fire in Valencia as well as the recent sanctions rolled out by Switzerland and Panama. Below I've included the notes I wrote, along with some links, in…

The deepening of Venezuela’s political crisis has coincided with important shifts internationally. In the United States, the Trump administration has been much more responsive to calls from domestic pressure groups and political actors lobbying for more aggressive action on Venezuela. At the same time, the rest of the regional and…