Recent Posts by Laura Carlsen
The Power of the Mothers

In its fifteenth year, the Caravan of Central American mothers brought together six families. In total, the caravan has chalked up 315 reunions. Along the way it empowers women and challenges a system that considers their loved ones expendable.
Written on January 10, 2020 at 12:35 am
Categories: Drug War, Human Rights, social movements
Tags: caravan of mothers of disappeared migrants, disappeared migrants, Mexico; North America
The Planned Coup in Bolivia

Evo Morales arrived on Tuesday, thanking Mexico for “saving his life” after the coup d’etat that has left Bolivia without a legitimate president and plunged the nation into chaos and violence.
Written on December 31, 2019 at 6:05 pm
Categories: Democracy and Society
Tags: Bolivia, Bolivian coup, Evo morales, SOUTH AMERICA
As Honduras Collapses, Its People are Forced to Flee

Honduras is collapsing. The thousands of migrants who flee every day are direct testimony to a political, economic and social crisis that the world ignores and the U. S. government seems bent on perpetuating.
Written on November 22, 2019 at 12:22 am
Categories: Migration, social movements
Tags: CENTRAL AMERICA, Honduras, JOH, Juan Orlando Hernandez
Mexico’s LeBaron Massacre and the War that Will Not Cease

The execution of three women and six of their children in the state of Sonora shocked the public in Mexico and the United States, where the family held dual citizenship, and once again put President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on the defensive.
Written on November 9, 2019 at 7:10 pm
Categories: Drug War
Tags: LeBaron, Mexico, NORTH AMERICA, Violence in Mexico
America’s Lethal Cocktail: White Nationalism, Misogyny and Immigrant Hate Speech, Add Trump and Stir

If these hate crimes end up reducing Trump’s ability to use racism and attacks against Mexico in campaigns; if the people and congress are mobilized to demand gun control, if the deaths lead to a greater repudiation of Donald Trump, Steven Miller and his agenda, and if the López Obrador government finally becomes convinced that Mexico does not have to be a friend to a government that foments attacks on its interests and its people, the victims will not have died in vain.
Written on August 15, 2019 at 12:14 am
Categories: Democracy and Society, Human Rights
Tags: El Paso killings, immigration, Mexico, Trump and Mexico
What if We Stopped Fighting Drugs and Started Caring for People?

Mexico’s president Andrés Manuel López Obrador recently made two announcements that could finally close the bloodiest chapter in the history of the United States’ global war on drugs. He called for ending the Merida Initiative—the 3 billion-dollar US counternarcotics aid package that has fueled Mexico’s drug war—and announced a pivot from prohibition.
Written on July 23, 2019 at 11:33 pm
Categories: Drug War
Tags: drug policy reform, drug war, Lopez Obrador, Merida Initiative, Mexico; North America
Trump’s Mexico Tariffs Are About White Nationalism, Not Trade

There’s nothing “uncontrollable” about people applying for asylum. All the U.S. has to do is meet its obligations under international law.
Written on June 8, 2019 at 4:09 pm
Categories: Democracy and Society, Human Rights, Migration
Tags: AMLO, human rights, immigration, Mexico; North America, tariffs, Trump, US
Recent Comments by Laura Carlsen
- October 4, 2016 on Report Exposes Anti-Union Practices and Poor Labor Conditions in Mexico’s Electronics Industry
- August 25, 2016 on How Brexit Affects Latin America
- March 30, 2016 on The Voice of Berta Cáceres
- October 23, 2015 on Mexico’s Epidemic of Violence Against Women
- September 24, 2015 on “This is Just Beginning”