Dr Ana Suarez Anzorena

Occupation:

Country Expert on Latin America and the Caribbean — Sociologist and Human Rights Researcher

Summary

Sociologist and human rights researcher with more than twenty-five years of professional experience on political violence, forced displacement and protection failures across Latin America and the Caribbean. Work covers how state authorities, security forces and non-state actors create risk for individuals and communities exposed to persecution and serious harm, with sustained focus on political opinion and political association, the use of military and police forces in internal security, prison and detention conditions, discrimination affecting ethnic, racial and minority groups, gender-based violence and the treatment of LGBT people where state protection is limited or absent. Instructed by legal practitioners on a case-by-case basis to provide country-context analysis in asylum and international protection proceedings.

Countries of Expertise

Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil, Guyana, Suriname, Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama, Costa Rica, Belize, Haiti, Cuba, Grenada, Trinidad and Tobago.

Details of Country Expertise

Andean region: Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia. Political repression, forced displacement and protection failures, with particular emphasis on Venezuela and Colombia: political prisoners, opposition activists, journalists and human rights defenders; the role of military and police forces in internal security and public order control, arrest practice, pre-trial detention and prison conditions; national criminal law, public order legislation and emergency powers in practice.

Mexico. Violence and protection failures arising from the interaction between organised criminal groups, state institutions and local governance; the role of police, military units and the National Guard, including allegations of collusion, selective enforcement and impunity; arbitrary detention practice and the position of people targeted by criminal actors.

Southern Cone: Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil. How formally democratic systems coexist with persistent repression, exclusion and selective enforcement affecting marginalised groups; use of criminal and public order legislation against activists and social movements; prison conditions and law enforcement practice; discrimination on racial, ethnic and gender grounds.

Guyana and Suriname. How political affiliation, ethnic identity and weak institutional safeguards shape access to protection in small-state contexts; law enforcement practice, detention conditions and barriers to effective legal remedy where political and ethnic divisions influence state institutions.

Northern Triangle: Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala. How organised violence, political corruption and protection failures drive forced migration; gang-related violence, the interaction between criminal groups and state actors, police complicity, failures of investigation and the limited capacity of institutions to protect.

Nicaragua. Erosion of democratic institutions and the resulting pattern of political persecution: arrests, detention and prosecution of opposition figures; the role of police and security forces, detention practice, prison conditions and restrictions on political association and expression, including sources operating in exile.

Panama, Costa Rica and Belize. Protection issues in transit and destination contexts: migration control, detention practice and the treatment of foreign nationals, nationality-related vulnerability, access to legal safeguards, and discrimination affecting minority and LGBT people.

Caribbean basin: Haiti, Cuba, Grenada. Political repression, institutional fragility and restrictions on civil liberties as drivers of forced migration. In Haiti, how political instability intersects with widespread violence and governance breakdown. In Cuba, restrictions on political expression, surveillance practice and the treatment of dissidents.

Trinidad and Tobago. Organised criminal violence and state protection failures, risk to people targeted by gangs or perceived as cooperating with law enforcement; police accountability, investigative capacity and detention practice.

Experience

Country context analysis and human rights research, Latin America, since 2025. Written analytical assessments on political violence, forced displacement, protection failures and risk on return, situating individual cases within documented country conditions and applicable legal standards.

Research and advisory roles, CLACSO, since 2010. Author of more than a hundred country conditions reports on Venezuela and Colombia for asylum cases; field research on violence, displacement and asylum patterns in the Caribbean and Andean regions; advice to international NGOs and academic networks on migration, state policy and human rights.

Senior researcher, Human Geography Institute, 2015 to 2021. Mapping of transnational migratory flows, violence against migrants and regional trafficking networks; country briefs for United Nations agencies and regional human rights bodies; research on the Colombia and Venezuela border and Venezuelan displacement.

Programme coordinator, Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales (CELS), Argentina, 2002 to 2010. Documentation of paramilitary and police violence in marginalised communities; shadow reports to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights; training of grassroots human rights monitors in field documentation.

Education

PhD in Social Science, University of Buenos Aires. Master’s in Political Science, FLACSO. Bachelor’s in Sociology, Universidad de Buenos Aires.

Languages

Spanish (native). English (fluent). Portuguese (reading).