Twenty-five years after September 11, the current situation calls us to revisit one aspect of the process that began with the attacks: the transformation of states under the counterterrorism paradigm. This transformation, which was initially aimed at combating an exceptional phenomenon, has become permanent, and many of the tools and rationales that took root in that context now have new areas of application. By framing various forms of social conflict as threats to security, policymakers are able to shift the approach to crime away from democratic mechanisms toward exceptional measures, involving increased levels of surveillance, criminal prosecution, militarization, and restrictions on rights.
In a context of extreme fragility of international human rights protection systems worldwide, the current U.S. administration is promoting a hemispheric agenda aimed at cracking down on dissent and persecuting social and political organizations. This strategy builds on a trend that already existed in the region: the expanding use of the counterterrorism framework to address different social issues and limit the exercise of civil and political rights.
In 2025, we held discussions with experts on the advance of militarization in the region under the guise of the U.S. security and defense strategy, analyzing the use of the counterterrorism framework to address organized crime and perpetuate states of emergency. To continue these conversations, we now propose a dialogue to reflect on the implications of these developments for the current situation in the Americas, particularly in light of recent and upcoming elections in various countries across the continent.
The event took place on Thursday, September 24, at 2 p.m. (Argentina) via Zoom and was featured by Billy Navarrete from the Ecuadorian Human Rights Committee, Thiago Rodrigues from the Federal University of Fluminense in Brazil, Nadia Ben-Youssef from the Center for Constitutional Rights in the United States, and Lucía Galoppo from CELS in Argentina.