35 West

The recent move by the Honduran Congress to repeal the 2013 law authorizing the Zones for Employment and Economic Development (Zonas de Empleo y Desarollo Económico, or ZEDEs) has wide-ranging consequences for the country's economic future. While the Zones have been heavily criticized by the Castro administration, eliminating them risks a complicated legal and political battle in no party's best i...

Forced Labor & Environmental Degradation in the Mining Industry Special re-release: In this special Spanish-language episode, Margarita sits down with Pilar Velasquez of the Office of Child Labor, Forced Labor, and Human Trafficking in the Bureau of International Labor Affairs at the United States Department of Labor (USDOL). They discuss artisanal and small-scale mining and its connection to envi...

En este episodio especial en español Ryan C. Berg se sienta a conversar con Indira Urbaneja, analista política y la CEO de Reunificados, una organización venezolana sin fines de lucro que apoyo democracia, inclusión, y derechos humanos. Ellos conversaron sobre las facciones más importantes dentro del chavismo y el surgimiento de un grupo dentro del partido que desea revitalizar el chavismo con cam...

In the May 2021, Vice President Kamala Harris announced a call to action for private sector actors to help address the root causes of migration by generating new economic opportunities in Central America. Born from this pledge, the Partnership for Central America (PCA) has emerged as a coordinating body for businesses and social enterprises to support innovative, effective, and scalable initiative...

Between 1970 and 2019, disasters in Latin America and the Caribbean impacted almost 300 million people, killed more than half a million people, and had an estimated cost the region close to half a trillion dollars. These disasters are especially harmful for already-vulnerable populations, and create new forms of long-lasting vulnerability in their wake, making disaster risk reduction and resilienc...

Since 2018 the International Criminal Court (ICC) has been investigating abuses perpetrated by the Venezuelan security forces. Last November, the ICC Chief Prosecutor signed a Letter of Understanding with Nicolás Maduro beginning a formal investigation—the first of its kind launched in a Latin American country.  In this episode, Ryan C. Berg sits down with José Ignacio Hernández, the former Specia...

With around 500 different special economic zones (SEZs) in Latin America and the Caribbean, these zones act as accelerators for trade and investment. While many focus on tax rates, tariffs, and regulatory environments to incentivize business development, some models go well beyond to create entirely new institutions within their borders.   In this episode, Ryan C. Berg sits down with Shanker Singh...

On February 6, Costa Ricans will head to the polls in the first round of presidential elections. With a crowded field featuring no fewer than 25 presidential hopefuls, and much of the electorate still undecided, the situation on the ground, and consequences for the country are difficult to parse. In this episode, Margarita R. Seminario sits down with Glenda Umaña, a journalist with over 25 years o...

Mining is an essential economic sector for many countries in the Andes-Amazon region. However, due to a spike in global demand for mineral resources and lack of proper regulation on the industry, transnational criminal organizations have taken advantage of the ​lucrative industry to fuel their operations in the region, while harming local communities and ecosystems.   In this episode Ryan C. Berg...

The past year has showcased both the resiliency and failures of democracies throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. With key elections coming up in 2022, the region will continue to grapple in meaningful and challenging ways with its democratic future.    In this episode Margarita R. Seminario sits down with Father Matthew Carnes, the interim director for academic affairs at the Georgetown Ame...

In this special Spanish-language episode, Margarita R. Seminario sits down with Marcos Peña, principal investigator of a recently published CSIS report titled “A New Political Leadership for the Twenty-First Century.”    They discussed an alternative leadership model, one that is “more human, more collaborative, more group oriented, more connected with emotions, and humbler to be effective.” Their...

On Sunday, November 7, the Ortega-Murillo regime in Nicaragua held sham elections that reaffirmed the regime’s grip on power in the country. This is the latest in a series of efforts by the regime to consolidate authoritarianism in Nicaragua, following years of human and political rights violations.   In this episode, Ryan C. Berg sits down with Bianca Jagger, Founder and Chair of the Bianca Jagge...

The Gallup Organization and several partner organizations produce the annual "World Happiness Report". This report seeks to measure wellbeing beyond GDP. The 2021 research focused on the effects of Covid-19 on the structure and quality of people's lives and evaluated how governments around the world dealt with the pandemic. In this episode, Margarita R. Seminario sits down with Gerver Torres, a re...

The Maduro regime's environmental degradation in Venezuela is nearing a point of no return. The effects of this environmental assault are not contained within Venezuela's borders, and disproportionately affect Indigenous communities throughout the Amazon Basin. Ryan C. Berg sits down with Luis Felipe Duchicela, Senior Advisor for Indigenous People's Issues at the U.S. Agency for International Deve...

The threats from hurricanes, the losses to floods, and the lack of disaster preparedness all impact on people’s decisions in the Northern Triangle to migrate to the United States. Margarita R. Seminario sits down with Dr. Betilde Muñoz-Pogossian, Director of the Department of Social Inclusion at the Organization of American States to discuss her recent publication “Environmental Explanations of Ce...

Margarita R. Seminario sits down with Moises Rendon, CSIS Senior Associate and the former director of the Future of Venezuela Initiative. Moises introduces the world of cryptocurrencies and outlines key differences between decentralized and public currencies, such as Bitcoin, and state-sponsored cryptocurrencies, like the Venezuelan Petro. They discuss why cryptocurrencies have become so popular i...

On July 28, Pedro Castillo Terrones, was inaugurated as Peru’s 63rd constitutional president. Castillo’s victory came after a highly contentious electoral process that was characterized by health and safety concerns due to the Covid-19 pandemic and false accusations of electoral fraud. Castillo ultimately won by 44,263 votes. In this episode, Margarita R. Seminario sat down with Dr. Jo-Marie Burt...

Haiti on a good day is highly complex. The recent set of events triggered by the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse created a power vacuum and threw the Caribbean nation into even deeper turmoil.  Margarita R. Seminario sits down with Georges A. Fauriol, Senior Associate at the Center for Strategic & International Studies, to discuss the current crisis in Haiti and how key actors, like the H...

Margarita R. Seminario sits down with Michael Eddy, Acting Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Latin America and the Caribbean Bureau of the U.S. Agency for International Development to discuss Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing in the Western Hemisphere. Highlights of their conversation include: who is impacted by IUU fishing and how, the challenges of combatting IUU fishing, t...

Please enjoy this special Building the Future episode with 35 West host and CSIS Americas Deputy Director Margarita R. Seminario. In this episode, we talk with Mia Mitchell (from the U.S. Department of State) and Sonja Kelly (from the Women's World Banking) to understand the barriers we face to enabling inclusive access to finance to women around the world while discussing the various opportunitie...

In this "Best of" 35 West episode, Margarita R. Seminario sits down with Logan Coleman, a Program Manager at the Pan American Development Foundation (PADF). They discuss the challenges faced by Venezuelan youth and women in the Caribbean, an often-overlooked host destination for migrants. Logan explains the value of using a gender lens to understand the migrant crisis and explains why Venezuelans...

Margarita R. Seminario sits down with Dr. Jennie K. Lincoln, a Senior Advisor for Latin America and the Caribbean at The Carter Center on peace initiatives, to discuss the deterioration of democracy, human rights, and governance in Nicaragua under the Ortega regime. They cover the lack of conditions for elections in November, the challenges faced by voters and candidates, the Ortega regime’s syste...

En este episodio especial en español, Margarita R. Seminario conversa con Juanita Millán Hernández, Capitán de Corbeta de la Reserva Activa de la Armada Colombiana y asesora principal en materia de seguridad del equipo de reserva de expertos en mediación del Departamento de Asuntos Políticos y Consolidación de la Paz de las Naciones Unidas. Juanita comparte su experiencia como mediadora durante el...

In this special guest host episode, Dan Runde, Senior Vice President and Director of the CSIS Americas Program, sits down with Ricardo Mussa, CEO of Raízen, a Brazilian integrated energy company focused on bioenergy and renewables. They discuss how Ricardo got his start in the bioenergy business, the steps Raízen is taking to achieve its public commitment to emission reductions, and the status of...

Margarita R. Seminario sits down with Jose Miguel Cruz, Director of Research at Florida International University's Kimberly Green Latin American and Caribbean Center.  Jose Miguel shares the results of two USAID-funded studies prepared with Democracy International on gang disengagement in Guatemala and Honduras. They examine the conditions that facilitate gang exit and the role non-state actors li...