In this episode of Plaza Central, host Benjamin Gedan, Director of the Wilson Center’s Latin America Program, discusses President Biden’s trip to South America with Brian Nichols, Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs. As his term comes to an end, Biden’s journey to the Amazon, the APEC summit in Lima, Peru, and the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, might be his last major opportunity to shape US priorities for Latin America. In their conservation, Nichols addresses Latin America's importance to US policy on climate change, migration, and the defense of democracy, and the US approach to the crisis in Venezuela and the new leadership in Mexico.

Host Beatriz García Nice, an associate at the Wilson Center's Latin America Program, interviews Macarena Sáez, executive director of the Women's Rights Division at Human Rights Watch, to explore the state of women's rights in Latin America. They discuss the backlash against feminism, in the context of populism and democratic decline, but also the resilience and creativity of feminist movements, which are increasingly addressing broader social concerns, such as childcare, poverty, and human rights.

This month, Nicaraguan strongman Daniel Ortega released 135 political prisoners, including students and religious leaders. The United States played a key role in facilitating their resettlement in Guatemala. Host Benjamin Gedan is joined by Eric Jacobstein, deputy assistant secretary in the State Department's Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, and Enrique Roig, deputy assistant secretary in the State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, who both played a role in the prisoner release, to discuss the implications for Nicaragua’s future and US strategy to promote a return to democracy.