Pulitzer Center Update April 15, 2024
Journalists and Experts Discuss Authoritarianism in Latin America at American University
Kara Andrade travels to Mexico to investigate the use of information and communication technologies...
American University (AU) and the Pulitzer Center marked the 10-year anniversary of their Campus Consortium partnership with a panel at the AU Library on Tuesday, February 27, 2024. In the spirit of student Reporting Fellow’s work to cover underreported, systemic issues around the world, AU and the Pulitzer Center convened experts to discuss the rise of authoritarianism behind Latin America’s humanitarian crisis.
“I think what we're seeing in Central America is a great deal revolving around that loss of collective memory and what actual history was like in that period [of demilitarization], which reinforces… the need to have journalism to record the events as they happen,” said Douglas Farah, founder and president of IBI Consultants, LLC, a security consulting firm specializing in field research studying security challenges and transnational organized crime in Latin America.
Bill Gentile, AU professor and Campus Consortium Advisory Council member, highlighted the work of former Reporting Fellows, and introduced the evening’s panelists. Kara Andrade, one of AU’s first Reporting Fellows, joined Farah, Betilde Muñoz-Pogossia (director of the Department of Social Inclusion of the Secretariat for Access to Rights and Equity at the Organization of American States), and Steven Dudley (co-founder and co-director of InSight Crime).
“My [Reporting] Fellowship was to investigate the use of technology in Mexico [in 2015], and I was looking at what some of the challenges were that people were dealing with at the time in Mexico,” Andrade said. “I know that there are a lot of people, community activists, and just a lot of people online, like young people, that were using technology to get through some of these really difficult obstacles around democracy challenges that were present in Mexico at the time.”
To capture the community organization networks, she traveled with Miguel Angel Jiménez, who was collecting testimonies of voter rigging and fraud. Just after her trip, he was found dead.
“[I asked him] have you thought about a different line of work? Something a little less risky?,” Andrade said. “He says, in Spanish, ‘If I didn't have a clue about what I love, why would I struggle? Something has to sustain you for the struggle; we all have a dog that chases us, a purpose to our struggle.’ And he was murdered about eight days later.”
Farah provided an overview to the process of remilitarization, based on the report he co-authored, “Remilitarization in Central America." The work aimed to sound the alarm on the failure of U.S. policymakers to address key issues that impact the region and that culminate in the current humanitarian crises.
“The Biden administration's [strategies]... were supposed to yield, in their words, a democratic, prosperous, and safe Central America, where people advance economically, live, work, and learn in safety and dignity and contribute to and benefit from the democratic process,” Farah explained. “None of these goals are achievable under the emerging authoritarian governments in the region, supported by militaries operating far outside the bounds of democratic governance. Yet, notably absent from any discussion in U.S. policy circles in this crisis is the military.”
Muñoz-Pogossia’s work at the Organization of American States centers on social inclusion and access to human rights with special consideration to populations in vulnerable situations. She aimed to bring a different perspective, highlighting things happening in the region that can give hope and serve as a model to other countries.
“What I want to propose is that what we have seen from the region is a lot of pragmatism, as well as innovation in terms of the responses to these human mobility trends,” Muñoz-Pogossia said.
“When I say pragmatism, it is this idea that they understand that these people arrived, that they're probably not going to go back to their countries of origin, and they need to provide responses to be able to receive them, and to integrate them. And I say innovation, because comparatively speaking, there are very interesting regularization and integration measures that have been approved in countries of the region that really merit other regions, including the U.S., to look at what's been happening in the Americas in this regard.”
Muñoz-Pogossia provided some examples of programs, including providing IDs and regularization pathways, recognizing the transference of degrees, applying migrants’ talents to labor market needs, and incentivizing local governments that provide resources for migrants, among others.
Dudley moderated a Q&A with panelists, before opening it up to questions from the audience of journalists, policymakers, and AU students. One student asked how journalists can prioritize the optimism and the joy of the Latin American experience in their coverage.
“For a long time in Western media, ‘If it bleeds, it leads,’ right?” Andrade said. “That's the model, so that [journalists] are put in this place where we problematize quite a bit. There was sustainability in that; it's not the case anymore. A lot of people want a journalism that helps us solve problems… that really helps to surface solutions.”
AU’s 10-year partnership with the Campus Consortium network has prepared countless students and Reporting Fellows to pursue solutions-driven journalism in their careers. Through the fellowship, students sharpen their journalism skills in writing and multimedia, develop analytical thinking and creativity, increase awareness of different global perspectives, and deepen empathy.
2016 Fellow Camila DeChalus now works at CNN, and formerly, The Washington Post, reporting on politics on Capitol Hill. 2020 Fellow Josee Molavi went on to receive a Pulitzer Center grant to pursue her project End of the Road? Remote Outer Banks Communities Face Uncertain Climate Future and to advise young journalists in Chicago on documentary filmmaking. Other Fellows utilized the skills learned in their fellowships to do investigative reporting at the Center for Public Integrity, content producing at National Geographic, and videography at NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries.
We encourage you to read projects by all of AU’s Pulitzer Center Reporting Fellows, who have reported from Mexico, Thailand, Borneo, Laos, Colombia, Guatemala, Peru, Puerto Rico, and Panama.
