Democracy in Dialogue Series

Democracies in Latin America at a Crossroads

Juanita Goebertus Estrada
Tue
Mar
17
The Democracy in Dialogue Series enables Notre Dame students to engage with expert guest speakers on pressing key issues facing global democracy. These monthly discussions aim to help students develop as global citizens and comparative scholars, explore threats to democracy, learn from international examples, consider actions to defend democracy, examine Catholic perspectives, and discuss overcoming polarization. The series also helps students build professional networks in international politics.


A live-streamed video of this talk will appear above at the appointed time. Questions may be submitted below anytime before or during the lecture.

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Juanita Goebertus Estrada
Director, Americas Division
Human Rights Watch

This talk will explore the main challenges that democracies in Latin America and the Caribbean are facing. We will discuss the current situation in the three consolidated dictatorships, explore the tactics of growing authoritarian governments, and identify the shortcomings of democracies in the region. We will also explore potential areas of hope for the future.


Juanita Goebertus Estrada is director of the Americas Division at Human Rights Watch. She served as a congresswoman in Colombia from 2018 to 2022, where she focused on implementing the peace agreement between the Colombian government and the FARC. She previously held key roles in peace and security, including head of the transitional justice group during the Havana Peace Talks. She holds degrees in law and political science from Universidad de los Andes and an LLM from Harvard Law School.