Global Minnesota

In 2022, Global Minnesota was delighted to host Fellows from the Young Leaders of the Americas Initiative (YLAI) to Minnesota as part of our Professional Exchanges Program. The YLAI program gathers emerging leaders from all across Latin America, the Caribbean, and Canada to advance their entrepreneurial ideas and effectively contribute to social and economic development in their communities. One such visitor was Luis Villaherrera, who is fighting for democracy and human rights in El Salvador. In 2017, he co-founded TRACODA, which stands for transparency, social control, and open data, to create innovative projects that focus on technological tools to combat corruption and foster democracy. After the government banned his platform, he founded The Center for Democratic Strengthening. As part of this incredible work, he recently won a prestigious Obama Foundation Scholars award and hopes to use the program help build grassroots movements, deliver messages to a broader audience, and push for accountability in gov