Lyuba’s Hope follows Lyubov Sobol, a Russian anti-war opposition politician and anti-corruption figure, who has endured repeated arrests, hunger strikes, aborted political campaigns, attempted poisoning, and exile in her pursuit of a democratic post-Putin Russia.

As head of Alexei Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, Sobol advanced pathbreaking investigations, including that of “Putin’s cook,” Prigozhin. In 2026, she was among the fifteen Russian opposition figures admitted to the European Parliament PACE program.

Lyuba, who was a 2022 Visiting Scholar at Stanford’s Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL), will join us in person for the screening of Lyuba’s Hope, along with noted Russian-American director Marianna Yarovskaya and Paul Gregory, Hoover Research Fellow and producer. Discussion will be moderated by Kathryn Stoner, Mosbacher Director of CDDRL and Satre Family Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies.

Gregory and Yarovskaya’s previous film collaboration, Women of the Gulag, was shortlisted for an Academy Award in 2018.

This event is sponsored by the Hoover History Lab, in partnership with the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law, the Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies, and the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures.
 

The Democracy Action Lab (DAL) at the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL) and the Stanford Society for Latin American Politics (SSLAP) will host a discussion on the evolving crisis of democracy in Peru, centered on the concept of “democratic hollowing,” a form of democratic erosion driven not by the concentration of power, but by its fragmentation and weakening.

Since 2016, Peru has had eight presidents. This is perhaps the clearest indicator of the depth and nature of its political crisis. Over the past decade, Peru has experienced severe democratic instability, marked by political hyperfragmentation, institutional conflict, and social unrest. Rather than following the classic pattern of democratic backsliding driven by the concentration of power, Peru illustrates a different pathway: democratic erosion through the dilution of power. This process, described as democratic hollowing, involves weak parties, fragmented political actors, and the erosion of representation, leading to governance paralysis, short-term political incentives, and an increasing reliance on coercion as a substitute for effective democratic authority. In this conversation with Alberto Vergara, we will explore Peru’s current political landscape, examine the characteristics of this pathway of erosion — described as democratic hollowing — and discuss the institutional interventions that could help steer the country toward democratic renewal.

The event will feature a conversation with Alberto Vergara and will bring together academic and policy perspectives to examine how democracies can decay even in the absence of a dominant authoritarian leader.

SPEAKER

Alberto Vergara - Professor at the Department of Social and Political Sciences at the Universidad del Pacífico (Lima, Peru)

MODERATOR

Alberto Díaz-Cayeros — Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Professor, by courtesy, of Political Science, and Co-Director of DAL

The Democracy Action Lab (DAL) and the Poverty, Violence, and Governance Lab (PovGov) at the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL) at Stanford University invite you to a screening and discussion of El Salvador: A Carceral State of Terror, a short video grounded in field research led by Dr. Beatriz Magaloni. The event will bring together scholars and practitioners to examine the consequences of El Salvador’s state of exception, its implications for democratic institutions and civil liberties, and the broader regional resonance of the so-called “Bukele model.”

The session will combine visual storytelling with expert analysis, fostering a conversation that bridges rigorous research with practitioner insights.

BACKGROUND

Nayib Bukele, President of El Salvador, is currently one of the most popular leaders in Latin America. Much of this support stems from the perception that his administration has successfully addressed the country’s most pressing issue: gang-related violence. To achieve this, Bukele implemented a state of exception, repeatedly extended, which allows military and police forces to detain individuals — primarily young men from low-income backgrounds — without judicial warrants. This security strategy has gained international attention and has become a reference point for political actors across the region. However, this apparent success carries significant costs.

Dr. Beatriz Magaloni, together with a research team from the Democracy Action Lab at Stanford University, conducted an in-depth field investigation into the consequences of the state of exception in El Salvador. The study includes fieldwork in both urban and rural areas, over one hundred hours of interviews, and qualitative analysis of testimonies and institutional dynamics.

KEY FINDINGS

The findings align with warnings from national and international human rights organizations, as well as leading media outlets. They point to severe human rights violations, including mass detention of innocent individuals without due process, the systematic use of torture in detention centers, and cases of enforced disappearance. Dr. Magaloni characterizes this system as a “carceral state of terror.” Additionally, the research highlights that the system has created economic incentives that disproportionately affect impoverished families, has become a tool to silence dissent and political opposition, and is contributing to significant democratic backsliding in the country.

SPEAKERS

• Mr. Noah Bullock —  Executive Director, Cristosal,  a regional human rights organization working across El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras

• Dr. Beatriz Magaloni — Graham H. Stuart Professor of International Relations, Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Director of PovGov, and Co-Director of DAL

• Mr. Manuel Ortiz — Journalist, sociologist, and Audio Visual Consultant at the Democracy Action Lab
   

MODERATOR

• Dr. Alberto Díaz-Cayeros — Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Professor, by courtesy, of Political Science, and Co-Director of DAL

The Stanford community is invited to join the Fisher Family Summer Fellows Program at the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law on Monday, August 4, for an important conversation about democracy, human rights, and political prisoners worldwide.

Authoritarian regimes across the globe are increasingly using political imprisonment as a strategic weapon. Far beyond isolated acts of repression, political prisoners serve autocrats in multiple ways: they silence vocal dissidents, fracture organized opposition, deter mass mobilization, and are often used as bargaining chips in international negotiations. These regimes understand that imprisoning individuals can sow fear and demoralize broader movements without drawing the same global backlash as overt violence.

The case of Jesús Armas — a Venezuelan activist, 2022 Fisher Family Summer Fellow, and recently admitted student to Stanford’s Master’s in International Policy program — illustrates this dynamic. His unjust detention for over seven months, under conditions of isolation and legal abuse, is not an aberration, but part of a systematic strategy to preserve power.

This event will explore not only the barriers advocates face in these environments and the human cost of political imprisonment, but also the strategies available to fight it. Families and advocates of detainees play a crucial frontline role, often navigating trauma, stigma, and bureaucratic barriers while working for their loved ones' release.

PANELISTS:

• Lilian Tintori: Director of the World Liberty Congress' Pathway to Freedom project; human rights advocate, and leader with first-hand experience as the spouse of a former political prisoner; 2025 Fisher Family Summer Fellow
• Waleed Shawky: Egyptian human rights researcher and civic activist, co-founder of the April 6th Youth Movement; former political prisoner; 2025 Fisher Family Summer Fellow.
• Gulika Reddy: Human rights advocate and Director of the International Human Rights and Conflict Resolution Clinic at Stanford Law School

Beatriz Magaloni, the Graham H. Stuart Professor of International Relations and Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, will share opening remarks.