Latin & South America

[Milena Sterio is James A. Thomas Distinguished Professor of Law at Cleveland State University College of Law and Managing Director of the Public International Law and Policy Group] The United States’ attack on Venezuela, as well as the kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, have no justification in international law or international relations. This post will first discuss...

[Dr Chiara Redaelli is a research fellow at the University of Geneva, IHL and ICL expert with the International Development Law Organization Ukraine Office and co-editor in chief of the on the Use of Force and International Law] From Drug Boats to Battlefields? The United States’ Classification of the “War on Drugs” In September 2025, the Trump administration began describing U.S. counter-narcotics...

[Dr Chiara Redaelli is a research fellow at the University of Geneva, IHL and ICL expert with the International Development Law Organization Ukraine Office and co-editor in chief of the on the Use of Force and International Law] From Drug Boats to Battlefields? The United States’ Case for Using Force against Cartels Since early September 2025, the United States has carried out...

[Erick Guapizaca Jiménez is an S.J.D. candidate at the University of Michigan Law School, a lecturer at the Universidad Internacional del Ecuador, and an Assistant Editor with Opinio Juris]  Jorge Icaza, a twentieth-century Ecuadorian author, shocks readers with his raw novel Huasipungo. In this Indigenist work, he portrays the daily life of Indigenous individuals trapped in a system of a form of...

[Ezequiel Podjarny is an Argentine professional working as a Legal and Policy Fellow at the Human Rights Foundation. He holds an MA in International Law from the Geneva Graduate Institute and an MSc in Human Rights from the London School of Economics] When revising the literature and jurisprudence on the subject of the personal immunity of foreign officials, the opinion of...

[Moises A. Montiel Mogollon is a professor of international law at the Centro de Investigaciones Docentes y Económicas (CIDE)] As a result of the unilateral military buildup in the southern Caribbean by the United States with the alleged goal of combatting drug trafficking, the North-American nation has conducted a series of militarized operations resulting in the death of presumptively Venezuelan nationals...

[Milagros Mutsios Ramsay is a J.S.D. Candidate at Yale Law School. She currently serves as the Legal Advisor to the Presidency of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights] The Inter-American Court of Human Rights’ Advisory Opinion OC-32/25 on Climate Emergency and Human Rights constitutes one of the most ambitious legal articulations of State’s obligations in the era of climate crisis. This...

[Mariana Cruz Astudillo holds a law degree from the University of Chile, belongs to the Colla First Nation, and is a research associate at the Centre of Law and Climate Change Studies at the University of Valparaíso (CEDYCC)] Introduction On July 3, 2025, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (hereinafter the Court) issued Advisory Opinion OC-32/25 (hereinafter OC-32/25) in response to a...

[Ignacio Vásquez Torreblanca is the Executive Director of the Centre for Law and Climate Change Studies at the University of Valparaíso, Chile, a Research Assistant at the Max Planck Institute, Germany and a Research Fellow at the University of Manchester, UK] Latin America is one of the regions most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, but it is also a...

[Laura Baron-Mendoza is a legal consultant to the Office of the Prosecutor and is part of the core team responsible for drafting the upcoming policy paper on environmental crimes under the Rome Statute. She is also an international law consultant and PhD candidate at McGill University] The Inter-American Court of Human Rights’ recent Advisory Opinion on Climate Emergency and Human Rights (AO-32/25)...

[Lucas Carlos Lima is professor of international law at Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais and coordinator of the Brazilian Researchgroup on international courts and tribunals] The Advisory Opinion on the Climate Emergency and Human Rights (OC-32/25), rendered by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR or Court) on 29 May 2025, offers a contribution to clarifying the relationship between international environmental...

[María Paula Marroquín works at the Center for Studies and Dissemination of the Constitutional Court of Ecuador. She holds a Bachelor of Laws from San Francisco de Quito University and an MA in Social Justice and Education from University College London.] In July 2025, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHtR) issued the Advisory Opinion AO-32/25 on Climate Emergency and Human...