Podcasts are coming back after a two-week break. There’ll be a few over the coming week.

For this one, I wrangled together four of my WOLA colleagues to take the temperature of politics and human rights in the region a month and a half into the COVID-19 lockdown. It’s really grim, and challenging to end on an optimistic note. But listen to it and you will learn a lot. Here’s the description from WOLA’s website:

COVID-19 threatens to take many lives in Latin America. It also threatens to leave behind a less democratic, less rights-respecting, more unequal, and more violent region.

An April 13 WOLA commentary laid out many of these concerns. If anything, they’ve grown more urgent since then. Here, five WOLA program directors gather for a discussion of where things stand in several countries in the region.

• Director for Defense Oversight Adam Isacson talks about El Salvador.
• Director for the Andes Gimena Sánchez-Garzoli discusses Colombia, Brazil, and Haiti.
• Director for Venezuela Geoff Ramsey covers Venezuela.
• Director for Mexico and Migrant Rights Maureen Meyer provides an update about Mexico and the border.
• Director for Drug Policy and the Andes John Walsh explains drug trafficking trends and the situation in Bolivia.

Listen above, or download the .mp3 file.