On this podcast, Jason speaks with Juan Carlos Gomez, Associate Clinical Professor at the Florida International University College of Law and Director of the Carlos A. Costa Immigration Human Rights Clinic. They discuss the law as an instrument for good, especially when used to help those at the margins of society, such as the mentally ill. Prof. Gomez has been defending the rights of individuals in immigration matters for over 30 years including in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Cir...
Feb 23, 2021•1 hr 9 min•Season 2Ep. 4
This week on the GLA podcast, GLA President Jason Poblete speaks with Ms. Gazelle Sharmahd, the daughter of Mr. Jamshid Sharmahd. A U.S. Legal Permanent resident based with his family in California, Jamshid was kidnapped and taken hostage by the regime on or about August 1, 2020. A registered nurse working on the pandemic's frontlines, Gazelle is one of her father's strongest advocates for his release. Jamshid, an Iranian-German national, has witnessed the hardship of an oppressive government, w...
Feb 09, 2021•57 min•Season 2Ep. 3
On Thursday, Jan. 28, 2021, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said the Biden administration's "Cuba policy is governed by two principles. First, support for democracy and human rights - that will be at the core of our efforts. Second is Americans, especially Cuban-Americans, are the best ambassadors for freedom in Cuba. So we’ll review the Trump administration policies." Dr. Andy Gomez, former Assistant Provost of the University of Miami and Director of the Institute for Cuban and Cuban-Amer...
Feb 01, 2021•1 hr 7 min•Season 2Ep. 2
In this episode, Jason Poblete talks with South Florida attorney (and former GLA law clerk) Ms. Laura Jiménez about her journey to human rights and international law, especially through advocating for immigrants. Born in Havana, Cuba, Laura started her legal profession in Mexico, where she obtained her Law Degree. After several years of practice, she moved with her family to Miami, where she studied at Florida International University (FIU) College of Law. Laura is a person sensitive to the drea...
Jan 26, 2021•34 min•Season 2Ep. 20
A Mom's Peace is a mission for m others o f m iscarried and s tillborn souls. Headquartered in Virginia and run by volunteers, it supports moms, and dads, of all faith and non-faith backgrounds during a very difficult time - the loss of a child. A Mom's Peace also helps provide dignity and respect in death for miscarried or stillborn babies, the youngest of our clients. This podcast is the first in a series of podcasts on this subject, particularly as it relates to the rights of parents when a b...
Dec 01, 2020•51 min
A 29-year United Nations (UN)-brokered ceasefire in the ongoing conflict for Western Sahara came to an end last week in the Sahara Desert when Moroccan forces clashed with the nationalist Polisario Front. On today's show, Jason talks with Ms. Katlyn Thomas, a New York-based and practicing international attorney who served as the first legal advisor to the U N Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO). She is also the former Chair of the United Nations Committee of The Association of...
Nov 24, 2020•1 hr 4 min•Season 1Ep. 19
There has been a political reawakening in the United States of a new generation of voters and freedom advocates that has also been happening in other parts of the world, including Latin America and Europe. In this podcast, GLA President Jason Poblete talks with fellow attorney, María Herrera Mellado, about this liberty movement in Latin America and Spain. Licensed to practice law in several U.S. states and Spain, María is an international business law expert who also is committed to defending an...
Nov 17, 2020•43 min•Season 1Ep. 18
During this podcast, Jason talks with a fellow international lawyer and human rights advocate, Mr. Hillel C. Neuer. Hillel is the executive director of UN Watch. UN Watch is a human rights NGO and UN watchdog group based in Geneva, Switzerland. Neuer is the founding chairman of the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy, a coalition of 25 NGOs from around the world. Neuer is from Montreal, Canada. He holds a BA in intellectual history and political science from Concordia University , a Bac...
Nov 10, 2020•32 min•Season 1Ep. 17
In this interview, renowned international litigator Robert Amsterdam and Jason Poblete discuss topics related to Mr. Amsterdam's sensational international legal experience, including a near-death in a 2010 Bangkok massacre, U.S. foreign policy pitfalls in Africa, views on U.S. sanctions, the challenges of attorney-client confidentiality over Zoom, and the importance of international know-how in an increasingly shrinking world. According to the former British Ambassador to Russia, Andrew Wood, “T...
Oct 27, 2020•40 min•Season 1Ep. 16
On the edition, Jason Poblete speaks with Ana Quintana, from the Heritage Foundation. Ana is a Senior Policy Analyst, Latin America, and the Western Hemisphere who leads Heritage's U.S. policy efforts toward Latin America. Ana has authored numerous policy studies included but not limited to Mexico, Central America, Cuba, Colombia, and Venezuela. Like Jason, Quintana was born and raised in Miami and also resides in Virginia. Jason and Ana discuss recent events related to Mexico, Cuba, Venezuela, ...
Oct 20, 2020•51 min•Season 1Ep. 15
After the illegal drug trade, slavery and human trafficking are two of the most profitable criminal activities in the world today. This gross violation of fundamental rights occurs on every continent, and the victims include men, women, and children from every walk of life imaginable. As part of its mission to defend fundamental rights and strengthen the rule of law, the Global Liberty Alliance is committed to helping uncover trafficking in persons in the Western Hemisphere and hold modern-day s...
Oct 06, 2020•33 min•Season 1Ep. 14
Under Article 268 of Guatemala's Constitution, the main duty of the Constitutional Court of Guatemala is the defense of the constitutional order. The Court is supposed to do this by impartially and its functions are clearly outlined in the Constitution, particularly Article 272. It is supposed to the guardian of rule of law and constitutional order, yet jurists and rule of law activists in Guatemala claim it is operating illegally and Congress must act to restore constitutional order and hold la...
Sep 29, 2020•1 hr 11 min•Season 1Ep. 13
On March 17, 2016, Ms. Nazanin Ratcliffe, a U.K. national, traveled to Iran with her newborn baby girl, Gabriella, to visit her family and celebrate Nowruz, the Iranian new year. Close to four years later, she remains a hostage in Iran. On this podcast, Jason talks with Richard Ratcliffe, Nazanin's husband (and Gabriella's dad), who has tirelessly waged a four-year campaign to secure Nazanin's release from Iranian captivity. Iran arbitrarily detains foreign visitors to exact political and econom...
Sep 22, 2020•58 min•Season 1Ep. 12
In this edition, we head south to South Florida to speak with lawyer and human rights defender, Mr. Santiago A. Alpízar. A native of Cuba and born after the socialist takeover of Cuba in 1959, he became a lawyer in Cuba who managed a wide range of casework early in his career. Yet, Santiago paid a high price for refusing to join the Communist Party, and he talks about his journey to freedom and the practicing law in the United States. Santiago is one of four lawyers in South Florida who, over a ...
Sep 07, 2020•56 min•Season 1Ep. 11
This week's GLA Podcast goes beyond Latin America's "Troika of Tyranny," Venezuela, Cuba, & Nicaragua, to explore the role of tyranny in transnational crime and U.S. national security interests throughout Latin America. Guest Dr. Ryan Berg is a research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he focuses on transnational organized crime, narco-trafficking, and illicit networks. He also studies Latin American foreign policy and development issues. Before joining AEI, Dr. Berg ...
Sep 01, 2020•1 hr 12 min•Season 1Ep. 10
On this podcast, GLA's Jason Poblete talks with Washington, D.C. International Human Rights litigator, Ms. Abbe Jolles. Abbe represents clients worldwide, including in conflict zones. She has handled individual and corporate, criminal, and civil matters involving unlawful property confiscation, incarceration, or risk of incarceration, and other fundamental rights violations. Ms. Jolles is admitted to the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (UNICTR), where she achieved a lan...
Aug 25, 2020•1 hr 13 min•Season 1Ep. 9
A schoolteacher and former Florida state legislator who went on to serve in the Congress for almost 30 years, former U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Florida), or Ileana, as she prefers to be called, has dedicated her professional life to public service. A long-time human rights champion, Ileana talks with Jason Poblete of the Global Liberty Alliance about the importance that Americans remain engaged in the world. While in Congress Ileana served on several Congressional committees, but her favor...
Aug 16, 2020•50 min•Season 1Ep. 8
In this GLA podcast, Jason Poblete speaks with Maria Werlau, the Executive Director of the Free Society Project. The Free Society Project is better known in these parts as Cuba Archive (“Archivo Cuba” in Spanish), a non-profit organization incorporated in 2001 in Washington, D.C, operating from Miami, San Juan, and other U.S. cities. Cuba Archives promotes the understanding, recognition, and observance of human rights through research and information. Over twenty years, Cuba Archive has helped g...
Aug 11, 2020•1 hr 3 min•Season 1Ep. 7
Religious liberty is a national security issue. Where the right of people to worship as they desire comes under assault, bad things, sooner or later, will most assuredly follow. In this podcast, we go to Central America, to Managua, to talk with a brave Catholic priest on the frontlines of an increasingly brutal war where several Americans have died too. Indeed, religious liberty is under assault in Nicaragua, yet Father Raúl Zamora believes a lot of good can come of this crisis once democracy i...
Aug 02, 2020•1 hr•Season 1Ep. 6
We invited former diplomat and Guatemalan vice-presidential candidate Betty Marroquin back to the podcast to pick up where we left off the last time we spoke a few weeks ago. You should listen to the first podcast too because it places in context a lot of what we talk about in this episode. There is a link below that will take you to a short but informative interview at The Impunity Observer whose team consulted with a constitutional attorney and former Professor of Constitutional Law José Luis ...
Jul 24, 2020•1 hr 14 min•Season 1Ep. 5
In this podcast, I talk with August Wallmeyer, a former journalist, speechwriter, and energy trade lobbyist who spent many years working in the Virginia Assembly. A few years ago I read his book, the Extremes of Virginia, a book about areas of the Commonwealth that a majority of us rarely if ever visit or think about when it comes to politics or policy matters. Wallmeyer, who traveled hundreds of miles to complete his research, brings all his experiences to bear as he unpacks three “rural, poor,...
Jul 24, 2020•47 min•Season 1Ep. 4
Have you ever heard of the Northern Triangle? It's not the Bermuda Triangle, the Triangle of Terror, or the Tri-Border Area in South America. It's a region in Central America that, usually, includes including Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. By the way, why so many triangle references in the Western Hemisphere? We'll talk about it in a later episode. This episode is about the rule of law, or lack of it, and how it impacts one of these three nations, Guatemala. If you're listening to this po...
Jul 03, 2020•1 hr 6 min•Season 1Ep. 3
The Global Liberty Alliance is a non-government organization based in Alexandria, Virginia. Its mission is to strengthen the rule of law, empower human rights defenders, and advance the cause of justice. In the podcast, we talk with Mr. Roberto Bendaña an American businessman of Nicaraguan ancestry who paid a very high price for standing up to the Ortega-Murillo regime because of his political work in Nicaragua in a group he helped started called Hagamos Democracia ( Growing Democracy ). Mr. Ben...
Jun 21, 2020•1 hr 6 min•Season 1Ep. 2
The Global Liberty Alliance is a non-government organization based in Alexandria, Virginia. Its mission is to strengthen the rule of law, empower human rights defenders, and advance the cause of justice. In this first episode of a series on Iran & Hezbollah in Latin America, Jason Poblete, President of the Global Liberty Alliance, talks with Toby Dershowitz with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington, D.C. about the long-time presence in Latin America of Iran, Hezbollah, and...
Jun 07, 2020•34 min•Season 1Ep. 1
