The Kellogg Institute provides visiting fellows with an environment for rigorous research and intellectual exchange. But for some, it also serves as a vital refuge, offering safety from the threats they face in their home countries. Despite the challenges of exile, these scholars persist in their commitment to advancing democracy globally.
“The tradition of hosting scholars at risk goes back to the early days of the Kellogg Institute. In the 1980s, Notre Dame hosted academics and practitioners that envisioned the process of democratization that took place in Latin America over the next decade,” says Kellogg Director Aníbal Pérez-Liñán. “In a world where democracy is now at stake, Kellogg continues to be a place of bold ideas and hope, a place to theorize the future.”
Justice
Kellogg Visiting Fellow Cristian Velix García is one such visiting fellow – an investigative journalist who envisions a better future for his home, Guatemala.
“That's my main inspiration, to contribute to a better country for my people, my friends, my sister, and my parents,” says Velix García, whose work focuses on corruption, public spending, transparency, politics, and justice.
“In Guatemala, doing journalism has basically become a crime, but that's how corruption works in my country,” says Velix García, who cannot return to Guatemala because he could face up to over 20 years in prison for his work exposing corruption in public institutions.
“The people you investigate are often ready to retaliate. I began receiving threats from officials, was summoned by the public prosecutor's office, attacked on social media, and even accused on television,” he explains. “You lose the connection with your friends and family. Your home disappears, and you get used to not having a place to return to.”
Despite all this, Velix García continues his work and hopes his research at Kellogg will make it easier for others to expose corruption and be catalysts for change. His project combines an academic analysis of media coverage of corruption in public infrastructure projects; the creation of tools to help community journalists oversee public works; and an investigative report on how millions were siphoned from public funds through infrastructure projects during the administration of the Vamos party (2020-2024).
“The amount of corruption uncovered in my investigative report, conducted during my stay at the Kellogg Institute, is enormous . Unfortunately, my country is facing an institutional crisis because of impunity, and journalism is one of the few ways to confront it,” says Velix García. “I want community journalists to be able to track public spending on projects in their areas, and I want my work to inspire citizens to demand change and to make sure those demands are heard.”
Democracy
Like Velix García, Venezuelan journalist and political activist Paola Bautista de Alemán endeavors to educate citizens on the politics and history of her country, despite the risk to her own safety. She is director of the Institute of Political Studies FORMA and president of the Juan Germán Roscio Foundation, offering political education to members of the Primero Justicia opposition party.
“My whole adult life – all the things that I do, and all that I am – only makes sense if I can serve my country. So it's been a human, and spiritual, and personal challenge to be away, and to acknowledge that I'm not going to be able to go back home until there is a political change in Venezuela,” says Bautista de Alemán, a published author, who is working on a new book titled “Political Resilience: Democracy, Backsliding Democracies, and New Authoritarianisms” during her time as a Kellogg Hewlett Visiting Fellow for Public Policy.
“This work is a commitment to our history, a commitment to the people who have done everything to go back to democracy – all the political prisoners, people in exile, families divided, all the suffering of those who work peacefully to go back to democracy – that's the main engine that moved me to do this work,” she says.
‘A Hand to Hold Us’
While Kellogg provides significant financial and professional support to at-risk visiting fellows, the program goes beyond that by helping make a way forward for their families.
“My family and I are Catholic, and being here at Notre Dame has been a way to heal and to be resilient. On one hand, it's been very bad, but with the help and the support of my family and this new stage of my life here at Kellogg Institute, it's been easier for us,” says Bautista de Alemán.
Salvadoran journalist Eric Lemus Escalante agrees. The Kellogg visiting fellowship came just at the right moment while he was facing serious harassment and even a physical attack for his work reporting on government propaganda, organized crime, and other methods of repressive control. “I left everything except my sons behind,” he says.
“My main goal is to continue doing academic research and journalism, but reducing the risk to my family I do not have the words to say thank you because here I can do it,” says Lemus Escalante, author of five books focusing on the consequences of autocracy and the erosion of democracy in Central America.
Over the years, he’s covered significant historical events across Central America, Mexico, and Europe, including the Salvadoran civil war and its transition to democracy – and now its current democratic reversal.
The Future
While at Notre Dame, Lemus Escalante is creating an anti-corruption and transparency observatory to monitor and communicate patterns of opacity and government corruption in El Salvador. He greatly appreciates Kellogg’s community of engaged scholars to collaborate with and learn from, and its excellent academic resources including library access and workshops.
“It’s impossible to live in El Salvador and practice freedom of expression. Doing so puts your life at risk,” says Lemus Escalante, who cites as an example how opinion leaders who were his sources of information have been imprisoned in El Salvador. “It is necessary to do my academic work here and to describe the patterns of opacity and how they are undermining democracy. They want to delete history, and maybe it sounds idealistic, but in my opinion it’s necessary to build historical memory despite the risk and menaces.”
Currently, there are more than 50 journalists who had to leave El Salvador due to threats from the regime throughout 2025, says Lemus Escalante.
Bautista de Alemán says her visiting fellowship is more than an academic or professional pursuit – it carries a deeper purpose: “I would like the long-term outcome to be that my work would help other countries that are going through the same things that Venezuela has been going through since 1998.”
Velix García agrees. “I have been able to improve my skills here at Kellogg, and I want to give all my knowledge and experience back to help my country.”