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Latin American Program in the News: Call them 'refugees,' according to U.N. law

The Latin American Program's publication "Organized Crime in Central America" is referenced in this article about crime and violence in Central America and the treatment of migrants within the United States.

"According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Honduras is ranked No. 1 in the world for homicides and El Salvador and Guatemala are not too far behind. Not even African nations come as close to the murder rates that our neighbors to the south are suffering right now.

The primary reasons for the high murder rate is that the Northern Triangle has become the staging area for 60 percent of cocaine smuggled via Mexico to the United States, according to the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars’ publication Organized Crime in Central America. Mexican cartels with local gangs are currently fighting a war for the lucrative trade routes."


Latin America Program

The Wilson Center’s prestigious Latin America Program provides non-partisan expertise to a broad community of decision makers in the United States and Latin America on critical policy issues facing the Hemisphere. The Program provides insightful and actionable research for policymakers, private sector leaders, journalists, and public intellectuals in the United States and Latin America. To bridge the gap between scholarship and policy action, it fosters new inquiry, sponsors high-level public and private meetings among multiple stakeholders, and explores policy options to improve outcomes for citizens throughout the Americas. Drawing on the Wilson Center’s strength as the nation’s key non-partisan policy forum, the Program serves as a trusted source of analysis and a vital point of contact between the worlds of scholarship and action.  Read more