The Return of the “Desvisados”
The U.S. is revoking visas to highlight corruption, drug trafficking-related activities, and anti-democratic behavior. Will it work?
Two decades ago, while serving at the U.S. Embassy in Nicaragua, we developed an informal verb for one of the tools we were using against corruption and attacks on democratic institutions: “desvisar”. Roughly translated, it meant to take away someone’s U.S. visa. Before long, those who had lost their visas became known, at least among some of us, as “desvisados.” The expression carried humor, but the policy was not trivial. From 2005 to 2007, we used visa restrictions in Nicaragua unusually aggressively. The experience persuaded me that denying access to the U.S. can be one of...
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