Veneco Podcast

Juan Escalante is a Venezuelan-American immigrant-rights advocate, digital strategist, and former DACA recipient. In this episode, Escalante traces his journey from growing up undocumented in the United States to becoming a leading voice in national debates on immigration, democracy, and diasporic civic engagement. Drawing on both lived experience and years of organizing, he explains what Temporary Protected Status (TPS) actually means in practice—how it provides protection from deportation and work authorization, but also how its “temporary” nature traps families in prolonged legal and emotional uncertainty. The conversation examines TPS for Venezuelans within a broader political and geopolitical context. Escalante unpacks how Venezuelan migrants organized to win TPS designation under the Biden administration, how solidarity has emerged across Haitian, Central American, and other TPS-holding communities, and how internal divisions within the Venezuelan diaspora can weaken collective advocacy. He offers a critical reading of U.S. foreign policy toward Venezuela, warning against narratives that suggest the country is suddenly “safe” following recent political developments, and argues that deporting Venezuelans under these assumptions is both premature and dangerous. News Brief by Reetchel Presume Photo credit: Jose Luis Magana/AP Photo

Latam@GW presenta esta serie de foros dedicados a analizar las implicaciones regionales de la reciente intervención de los EE. UU. en Venezuela. ¿Qué nos dice este episodio sobre el estado de la democracia, la diplomacia regional, el multilateralismo y el futuro de América Latina? La intervención en Venezuela se lleva a cabo en medio de un contexto regional marcado por múltiples crisis simultáneas: la migración masiva de millones de venezolanos, la expansión del crimen organizado transnacional, el debilitamiento de las instituciones democráticas, el auge del autoritarismo, y la creciente desconfianza ciudadana en los sistemas políticos tradicionales. Durante el último año, se ha visto una política exterior estadounidense mucho más activa e intervencionista en la región, con episodios que incluyen su involucramiento directo en dinámicas electorales, presiones diplomáticas intensas y disputas estratégicas. Todo esto ha reabierto debates profundos sobre soberanía, legalidad internacional, legitimidad política y gobernanza regional. Las instituciones multilaterales y los mecanismos de diplomacia regional parecen haber sido insuficientes para contener la escalada de tensiones, prevenir rupturas democráticas y ofrecer soluciones efectivas a los problemas estructurales de la región. Los populismos han logrado canalizar el malestar social ofreciendo respuestas rápidas, contundentes y, para muchos, percibidas como eficaces, mientras que los sistemas democráticos institucionales son percibidos como lentos, débiles o desconectados de las urgencias ciudadanas. Este foro sirve para reflexionar críticamente sobre cómo hemos llegado hasta aquí, qué ha fallado en la respuesta institucional regional y qué herramientas —si es que existen— pueden desarrollarse para enfrentar estos retos, promoviendo la soberanía, la justicia y los derechos humanos en toda América Latina. Este primer panel cuenta con la participación de: Marisela Betancourt - 25 años de chavismo: entre la transición y la metamorfosisAlexandro Álvarez Alarcón - Dora María Téllez -

Atenea Jiménez Lemón is a Venezuelan sociologist and founder of the communal network Red Nacional de Comuneras y Comuneros and of the Universidad Campesina de Venezuela Argimiro Gabaldón, the world's first communal university. A long-time grassroots organizer and political analyst, she is a member of the Alianza por la Soberanía y la Democracia (Alliance for Sovereignty and Democracy, ASD) and is known for her sustained engagement with popular power, communal organization, and the defense of social and political rights. Her work and activism have challenged the authoritarian turn of the Maduro government and its dependence on external powers, emphasizing the need to rebuild democracy from below through autonomous, territorially rooted movements. In this episode, Jiménez Lemón analyzes Venezuela’s current political rupture following the January 3, 2026 U.S. military intervention and the capture of Nicolás Maduro, arguing that the operation reveals internal fractures within the regime while inaugurating a new phase of external control that further undermines national and popular sovereignty. She reflects on the limits of the traditional opposition, the social legitimacy—and contradictions—of figures like María Corina Machado, and the severe risks facing social movements amid repression, fear, and mass migration. She calls to repoliticize Venezuelan society through human rights advocacy, the release of political prisoners, and the reconstruction of grassroots organization as the only credible path toward a democratic, sovereign, and socially just future. English Interpretation by Reetchel Presume

Our guest is Gabriel Hetland, sociologist and associate professor of Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino/Latina Studies at the University at Albany SUNY. He is the author of Democracy on the Ground: Local Politics in Latin America’s Left Turn.

Our guest is Raylí Luján, Venezuelan journalist and columnist for La Vida de Nos, as well as the recipient of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) 2018 South American Journalism Award. Photo credit: EFE - Ronald Pena R

Our guest is Dr. Orçun Selçuk, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Luther College and the author of the new book The Authoritarian Divide: Populism, Propaganda, and Polarization, a comparative analysis centered on how populist leaders in Venezuela, Ecuador, and Turkey leverage propaganda and emotional appeals to deepen societal divides, and the strategies opposition movements employ to counter these.