Dear John,
This week, we gathered for something unprecedented in WOLA's history: our first Human Rights Award Annual Lecture. Wednesday's event marked the culmination of WOLA's Human Rights Month and reminded me why our work matters more than ever.
The centerpiece of the day was an engaging conversation with Dr. Steven Levitsky, Harvard professor and co-author of the bestselling How Democracies Die. Despite the weight of our discussion about democratic erosion across the hemisphere and here at home, I came away with a sense of hope. Dr. Levitsky reminded us that authoritarianism is not inevitable. Democracy's death is not predetermined—it is reversible. But it requires committed institutions willing to do the hard work, people willing to stand up even when it's difficult, and sustained solidarity. A full recording of the event will be available soon!
As part of the event, we officially honored our 2025 Human Rights Award recipients. We celebrated MOVIR (Movement of Victims of the Regime), a grassroots organization of extraordinary courage fighting for accountability and justice inside El Salvador under President Bukele's brutal state of exception. Watch the tribute to MOVIR here.
We also recognized Senator Tim Kaine for his decades of principled, consistent leadership on Latin American human rights and democracy. Watch Senator Kaine's acceptance here.
The response to this event has been remarkable. Our recognition of MOVIR made the front page of several newspapers in El Salvador, and the event was mentioned in Politico. This reach matters; it amplifies the voices of those fighting authoritarianism and reminds us that solidarity transcends borders.
Events like Tuesday's lecture and the work we've been doing all month underscore why WOLA's role is so vital in times like these. We stand at the intersection of struggles for democracy in Latin America and the United States, because what happens in our hemisphere matters for the United States, and what happens here reverberates throughout the Americas. We cannot separate these fights.
Creating spaces for dialogue, connecting movements across borders, amplifying the voices of human rights defenders, and pushing for policies that support democracy rather than undermine it—this is what WOLA does. This is what your support makes possible.
WOLA's commitment to human rights is unwavering. We choose to fight. And we're asking you to fight alongside us.
Sincerely,
