Alvaro Piaggio

Latin America, Democracy, Human Rights, Development 🌐🇧🇴🇨🇱🇺🇸 Senior Policy Officer at @HRF . Personal account - views are my own.

[León Krauze @LeonKrauze]

Después de la derrota en Colombia, la izquierda latinoamericana se ha refugiado en teorías de la conspiración y negacionismo electoral.
¿Y la autocrítica?
Inexistente.
Escucha mi podcast En Boca de León.

https://t.co/SirlKHwR6o

[Carlos Luis Martínez 🇨🇺🇺🇸 @cl7martinez]

My most recent letter to the Miami Herald.

[Vincent Geloso @VincentGeloso]

A few years ago, I explained two things at AIER. The first is that while heatwaves are deadly in richer country, they have grown increasingly less deadly over the last century.

The second is that the EU has insane regulations that probably just protect the air conditioning industry from competition without actually targeting the true "green" outcomes. AC refrigerants rely on a gas called R-410A. Unlike the older chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs/Freon) common in AC, R-410A does not hurt the ozone layer (a huge problem). The problem is that if there is a leak in the AC unit (especially when not properly disposed), there is a huge effect on climate change.

Now, the EU decided to add complete bans and command-and-control regulations -- shielding from foreign competition. This, again, in total violation of the idea of what "externality pricing" should be. The point of having green taxes (carbon taxes) or cap-and-trade is to PRICE the pollution (thus the outcome of leaks) and remove command-control regulations. Compounding regulations with taxes is just dumb and undermines (see Canada recently) the support for the pricing scheme and it comes with huge unforeseen effects. One of those is the fact that Air conditioning in Europe is less common than it should be.

But less us add one more thing. France (and Europe's too) kafkaesque fiscal and regulatory apparatus probably limits the incentives to innovate or experiment with new techniques for air conditioning as well -- thus paradoxically creating the need for the regulation in the first place. For example, in France, crazy building codes limited the adoption of propane (far safer) air conditioning (which has been possible for years). And there is no reason for the building codes to regulate this as normal "civil liability" rules could cover issues of negligence and nuisance and so would insurance firms price in the risks. In other words, the regulations simply made things worse.

That is it!

[Center for a Free Cuba @cubacenter]

Obituary: The Verdict on Ramiro Valdés

For decades, the Butcher of Artemisa kept the great wheel of Cuban totalitarianism spinning ever forward.

Ramiro Valdés Menéndez (April 28, 1932 – June 21, 2026)

https://t.co/fJs5Pgj66Q

[Vincent Geloso @VincentGeloso]

In addition to this, and this drives me nuts, Bukele is very much killing civil and economic liberties in El Salvador. People need to stop cheering authoritarians on the basis of one outcome only.

[Vincent Geloso @VincentGeloso]

Dude! Its entirely possible to hate both the wealth tax and Donald Trump. You know that right?

This attempt to create guilt by imagined association is cheap shot.

[Everything Georgia @GAFollowers]

Win tickets to the NEXT World Cup match at Mercedes Benz Stadium 🌎⚽️🔥

RULES: 🔁 & ❤️ LIKE THIS POST
ENDS: 6/23/2026 11:59PM EST

Enter here for bonus entry: https://t.co/ENqnV3DCDn

[U.S. Soccer Men's National Team @USMNT]

🗣️🗣️ Country roads, take me home…
To the place I belong 🗣️🗣️

[Kaveh Shahrooz کاوه شهروز @kshahrooz]

Parastoo Ahmadi, sentenced to 74 lashes for defying the regime livestreaming a concert.

Be her voice.

#WomanLifeFreedom

[Phillips P. OBrien @PhillipsPOBrien]

Just a friendly reminder. If the US had taken only a small fraction of the money and military equipment it has squandered fighting and losing to Iran, and instead helped Ukraine, the Middle East would be more stable and Russia would be facing defeat.

[Josh Rogin @joshrogin]

“The real cost is not to the United States, it’s to the Iranian people. Because Trump said, ‘Help is on the way.” And help was not on the way. And now this deal will enshrine the Iranian regime, for a generation, with American support and cooperation, and send a message to people all over the world who are brave enough to stand up to their dictators and despots, that when America says help is on the way, that doesn’t mean anything.”

“And that’s the real cost of this. It’s that we’ve promised the Iranian people that we care about their lives, and now we are throwing them to the wolves. No matter what happens with the $300 billion or the Strait of Hormuz, those people will have to wait another several years before they get another chance at dignity. And it’s partially our fault, for raising their hopes and then squashing them unceremoniously because Trump just changed his mind and doesn’t care anymore.”

[Centrism Fan Acct 🔹 @Wilson__Valdez]

It's actually can't be overstated how much an anchor these people have been on our party. All of the most extreme positions they've take (open borders, defund the police, etc etc) gets lumped in to the Dem 'brand.'

People say 'oh why do you care if DSA guy wins in a D+50 seat' and the answer is that, everything is nationalized now and their extreme positions will get disproportionate play on both social media and the traditional media.

Doesn't matter how much you say you don't support it. If you're explaining, you're losing.

It's very bad.

[Charles Fain Lehman @CharlesFLehman]

There's a temptation for the center-Left to see the DSA as the hot new thing, especially as they lean into a quasi-YIMBY aesthetic.

I think that's a mistake, because their policies won't actually solve cities' problems, but also because the DSA is *crazy*.

https://t.co/L1pwUVR2yS

[PROVEA @_Provea]

Solidarios con victimarios.

Gobierno de Delcy Rodríguez mantiene apoyo a regímenes autoritarios como el de Eritrea, descalificando al Relator creado por el Consejo de DDHH ONU.

Por años, el régimen de Eritrea ha votado contra la Misión ONU sobre Venezuela.

Según el Relator, desde que Eritrea obtuvo su independencia en 1993, persiste “un entorno completamente desprovisto de Estado de derecho, instituciones democráticas, pluralismo político y medios de comunicación y sociedad civil independientes.”

Informó sobre “La desaparición forzada, continua, sistemática y generalizada, y la detención prolongada en incomunicación sin cargos ni juicio, la tortura y la persecución de opositores políticos, periodistas y miembros de comunidades religiosas”.

“El uso persistente e intencional de estas prácticas atroces, junto con la negativa sistemática a reconocer el destino o el paradero de los detenidos y desaparecidos, indica claramente que estas prácticas no son incidentes aislados. Más bien, constituyen una política estatal más amplia de represión y coerción.”

Al régimen venezolano no le interesan los pueblos victimizados, sino desmontar los mecanismos de investigación como el Relator para Eritrea o la Misión de la ONU sobre Venezuela.

[Alvaro Piaggio @Piaggio_g]

@Toa_AU @football360au Nobody in the US thought the team was amazing. Grella is a fool. If anything, many of us thought we were going to get grouped or finish 3rd, judging by recent results and performance. Hence the excitement after the Paraguay game.

[Cathy Young 🇺🇸🇺🇦🇮🇱 @CathyYoung63]

"That's between them and their government" .... as in, if their government wants to slaughter them en masse, that's their own business?

[Wojtek Kopczuk 🇵🇱🇺🇦 and 🇺🇲 @wwwojtekk]

While there are legitimate uses of non-profits, the pretense of not having profits or owners obscures a lot of things such as strong incentives of acting in private interest of whoever is in control.

[Alvaro Piaggio @Piaggio_g]

@MogettaAstor Se rebeló llevando a su equipo a un super hotel privado en Cancún, añadiendo vuelos internacionales a Miami en lugar de concentrarse en Florida y tomar un bus capitalista al estadio. Me imagino que el hotel y los vuelos son gratis, populares y estatales. Qué rebelde.

[Alvaro Piaggio @Piaggio_g]

@JonahDispatch *in a liberal democracy

[The Yanks Are Coming @YanksAreComing]

This stuff is insufferable.

Just enjoy the team.

McKennie was awesome and grew up here. Pulisic was a terrific- I saw him doing rabonas in Pennsylvania as a youth player.

We’re Americans.

The whole point is we have a variety of ways to accomplish things.