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In Latin America, surveillance is colonizing everyday spaces until we are numb to it. The advance of these technologies is neither an exception nor a temporary measure. It takes place quietly and, in many cases, without public debate, without transparency and without people knowing what happens to their data.

The persecution of Latino migrants in the United States no longer begins with a raid. It starts weeks earlier, on the servers of private companies that sell the government the ability to track down anyone who does not want to be found. ICE has shifted from a deportation agency to one of mass surveillance, and understanding how it works is the first step toward knowing how to respond.

The recent decision by the Argentine government to place cybersecurity under the control of the State Intelligence Secretariat sets a dangerous precedent for the region. In this column, we examine how this model, rather than protecting rights, reinforces authoritarian dynamics in Latin America. The question that now looms large is: Who watches the watchers?

Eleven years ago, we learned that every email we sent, every chat message, phone call, and document shared in the cloud was accessible to intelligence agencies of the United States and allied countries. This became known after Edward Snowden leaked thousands of documents from the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) published in some of the world’s most important media outlets. This column will recall some of the key facts of this story and reflect on what has changed since then.

The days following the elections in Venezuela have once again demonstrated the ruling party’s lack of political tolerance. A consecutive series of elections without any progress over the last decade has fueled the current situation in which fear joins the sense of hope and outrage at what seemed to be an opportunity for real change in a country where a complex humanitarian crisis persists, hitting its population without mercy or respite.