Adam Isacson

I just sent off another e-mail update to those who’ve subscribed. It’s got links to English translations of two analyses published in Colombian media, robust weekly updates about Colombia and the U.S.-Mexico border, some upcoming event listings, and some funny tweets.

Here’s the page with past editions and a blank to add your e-mail address if you want these more-or-less weekly missives in your inbox.

I just sent off another e-mail update to those who’ve subscribed. It’s got links to a podcast and a New York Times column about Colombia, robust weekly updates about Colombia and the U.S.-Mexico border, some upcoming event listings, and some funny tweets.

Here’s the page with past editions and a blank to add your e-mail address if you want these more-or-less weekly missives in your inbox.

I just sent off another e-mail update to those who’ve subscribed. The Colombia and border updates are long because so much is going on. Between that and spending a lot of the weekend away from my keyboard (it was Mothers’ Day and I’m lucky enough to have lots of moms in my life), I didn’t have time to add a lot of bells and whistles to this one, so it’s a bit of a slog to read.

Just a weekly Colombia update, a weekly U.S.-Mexico border update, and some upcoming event listings. Hopefully next weekend I can put more thought and creativity into it.

Here’s the page with past editions and a blank to add your e-mail address if you want these more-or-less weekly missives in your inbox.

I just sent off another e-mail update to those who’ve subscribed. It includes:

• Our statement on the brutal response to protests in Colombia;
• A link to last week’s podcast about U.S. policy toward Central America;
• A link to my Saturday NPR interview about the new ICE nominee and organizational culture issues at our border and immigration agencies;
• Full text of this week’s Colombia peace update;
• Full text of this week’s U.S.-Mexico border update;
• Latin America-related online events for this week;
• And a handful of funny tweets.

Here’s the page with past editions and a blank to add your e-mail address if you want these more-or-less weekly missives in your inbox.

And here’s the introductory blurb, with a few initial thoughts about the past few days’ bad news in El Salvador and Colombia:

When I was in college in the early nineties, El Salvador was showing Latin America that a bitter civil war could end in negotiations, and that a country with a long history of dictatorship could start opening up and transitioning to democracy. Twenty-five years later, in the mid-2010s, Colombia held up hope that, once again, a negotiation between longtime combatants could usher in a new moment of hope, tranquility, political participation, and more inclusive governance.

Those hopeful moments had a lot of influence on me and my work. That has made it more painful to watch the past few days’ events in both countries.

As soon as it was seated, a legislative supermajority in El Salvador spent Saturday night firing the independent Constitutional Court and Attorney General, on behalf of authoritarian-trending President Nayib Bukele. Even Vice President Kamala Harris tweeted disapproval.

Meanwhile, Colombia’s security forces have responded in brutal and escalatory fashion to protests around the country: I can’t handle (or verify) the volume of abuse denunciations in my WhatsApp, Twitter, email, and other feeds. The death and injury is happening in several cities. This indicates to me that Colombia’s government—which the U.S. government describes as a close ally—has very likely given a green light to unaccountable state violence against those who dare to speak out against it, all in the name of fighting vandals and looters on the margins of otherwise peaceful gatherings.

It’s heartbreaking watching this sharp backward lurch. But there are a few reasons for hope. The Biden administration, for now at least, has broken with historical U.S. patterns and sent strong public rebukes of El Salvador’s putatively pro-U.S. leader. The U.S. government has been silent so far on Colombia, but the mere fact that street protests are able to persist—and forced President Iván Duque to withdraw a regressive tax reform—is encouraging. That would probably have been unthinkable before the peace accord, when protesters were easily marginalized by stigmatizing them as plainclothes guerrillas.

Still, it was an awful weekend for democracy in the Americas.

Most of what’s in this email was written before the weekend, with the exception of the below statement about Colombia that we rushed out on Sunday night. Otherwise, below you’ll find a podcast, a quick NPR interview about ICE and CBP organizational culture, weekly Colombia and border updates, links to upcoming events, and some funny tweets.

I just sent off another e-mail update to those who’ve subscribed. This edition is pretty bare-bones. I spent much of last week in meetings, reducing time available for writing or creating—and since there’s been a modest slowdown in attention to the situation at the border, I finally had the chance to spend many hours last week processing and answering 2,000 emails that had built up since early March when the child/family situation started to become all-consuming. As a result, this update reflects what I managed actually to produce last week:

• Full text of this week’s U.S.-Mexico border update;
• Full text of this week’s Colombia peace update;
• Latin America-related online events for this week;
• And a smaller number than usual of funny tweets.

Here’s the page with past editions and a blank to add your e-mail address if you want these more-or-less weekly missives in your inbox.

I just sent off another e-mail update to those who’ve subscribed. The weekly updates are long, what with all that has been going on in Colombia and especially at the border. This edition contains:

• Last week’s podcast about Mexico’s approach to the current wave of migration;
• Full text of this week’s U.S.-Mexico border update;
• Full text of this week’s Colombia peace update;
• Latin America-related online events for this week;
• And, finally, several funny tweets.

Here’s the page with past editions and a blank to add your e-mail address if you want these more-or-less weekly missives in your inbox.

I just sent off another e-mail update to those who’ve subscribed. The weekly updates are long, what with all that has been going on in Colombia and especially at the border. This edition contains:

• Last week’s podcast about the border and letter on aerial fumigation in Colombia;
• Full text of this week’s U.S.-Mexico border update;
• Full text of this week’s Colombia peace update;
• Latin America-related online events for this week;
• And, finally, several funny tweets.

Here’s the page with past editions and a blank to add your e-mail address if you want these more-or-less weekly missives in your inbox.

I just sent off another e-mail update to those who’ve subscribed. The weekly updates are long, what with all that has been going on in Colombia and especially at the border. This edition contains:

• Full text of this week’s Colombia peace update;
• Full text of this week’s U.S.-Mexico border update;
• 5 “longread” links from the past week;
• Latin America-related online events for this week;
• And, finally, several funny tweets.

Here’s the page with past editions and a blank to add your e-mail address if you want these more-or-less weekly missives in your inbox.

I just sent off another e-mail update to those who’ve subscribed. It explains why it’s a day later than usual: I work on the border, the border is one of the main news stories right now, and I hardly have time to go to the bathroom lately. This email contains:

• An excerpt from WOLA’s big explainer about the border situation;
• Video from last Thursday’s Colombia event;
• Full text of this week’s U.S.-Mexico border update;
• Full text of this week’s Colombia peace update;
• 5 “longread” links from the past week;
• Latin America-related online events for this week;
• And, finally, several funny tweets.

Here’s the page with past editions and a blank to add your e-mail address if you want these more-or-less weekly missives in your inbox.

I just sent off another e-mail update to those who’ve subscribed. It’s got some musings on the fact that this week makes one year since pandemic social distancing began. Then, the items posted to this site since Friday, but in the form of a big giant email:

• English of the column I published in Colombia’s El Espectador;
• Full text of this week’s U.S.-Mexico border update;
• Full text of this week’s Colombia peace update;
• 5 “longread” links from the past week;
• Latin America-related online events for this week;
• And, finally, several funny tweets.

Here’s the page with past editions and a blank to add your e-mail address if you want these more-or-less weekly missives in your inbox.

I just sent off another e-mail update to those who’ve subscribed. It’s got some musings on the fact that this week makes one year since pandemic social distancing began. Then, the items posted to this site since Friday, but in the form of a big giant email:

• Video of last Friday’s Colombia coca event;
• Full text of this week’s Colombia peace update;
• Full text of this week’s U.S.-Mexico border update;
• 5 “longread” links from the past week;
• Latin America-related online events for this week;
• And, finally, several funny tweets.

Here’s the page with past editions and a blank to add your e-mail address if you want these more-or-less weekly missives in your inbox.

I just sent off another e-mail update to those who’ve subscribed. It’s mainly got the items posted here since Friday:

• Full text of this week’s Colombia peace update;
• Full text of this week’s U.S.-Mexico border update;
• 5 “longread” links from the past week;
• Latin America-related online events for this week;
• And, finally, several funny tweets.

Here’s the page with past editions and a blank to add your e-mail address if you want these more-or-less weekly missives in your inbox.

I just sent off another e-mail update to those who’ve subscribed. It’s got:

• A podcast about democracy in El Salvador;
• Full text of this week’s Colombia peace update;
• Full text of this week’s U.S.-Mexico border update;
• 5 “longread” links from the past week;
• Latin America-related online events for this week;
• And, finally, several funny tweets.

Here’s the page with past editions and a blank to add your e-mail address if you want these more-or-less weekly missives in your inbox.

I just sent off another e-mail update to those who’ve subscribed. It’s got:

• An overview of the big border wall analysis published last week;
• An overview of the analysis of U.S. military and police aid to Mexico published last week;
• A link and overview of last week’s World Politics Review podcast about the border;
• Full text of this week’s Colombia peace update;
• Full text of this week’s U.S.-Mexico border update;
• 5 “longread” links from the past week;
• Latin America-related online events for this week;
• And, finally, several funny tweets.

Here’s the page with past editions and a blank to add your e-mail address if you want these more-or-less weekly missives in your inbox.

I just sent off another e-mail update to those who’ve subscribed. It’s got:

• Full text of this week’s Colombia peace update;
• Full text of this week’s U.S.-Mexico border update;
• Latin America-related online events for this week;
• 5 “longread” links from the past week;
• And, finally, several funny tweets.

Here’s the page with past editions and a blank to add your e-mail address if you want these more-or-less weekly missives in your inbox.