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The (TraCCC) at 91���� has received $9.9 million to establish a unique fellowship that will provide nationals from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras critical tools to help strengthen democracy and fight corruption in their home countries.

The part of a multi-donor and multi-institutional effort that includes the U.S. government, will begin in the summer of 2023 and run through September 2025. Three cohorts of 20 fellows each will include those who have worked in either the public sector, independent media, and/or civil society in their respective countries.

The fellowship will be conducted in Spanish at Mason Square in Arlington, Costa Rica’s University of Peace, with which TraCCC has had a long-standing relationship, and online for those who cannot attend at those locations.

“At this point, this is only for people from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras,” said , a University Professor at Mason and TraCCC’s founder and director. “They are the ones where there has been a serious erosion of the rule of law and the back-sliding of democracy.”

The fellowship is just right for Mason, a university committed to solving the world’s grand challenges by nurturing critical thinkers and fearless leaders. TraCCC already has an international reputation for understanding the links between terrorism, transnational crime, and corruption, and helping to formulate policy on those issues.

“I’m confident it will be highly consequential,” Mason Provost Mark Ginsberg said of the fellowship, “as it will strengthen the expertise and capacities of champions of democracy and anti-corruption who are vitally important for preserving the rule of law in the region.”

, a Distinguished Visiting Professor in Mason’s , and co-director of the fellowship with , a senior analyst at TraCCC, said the fellowships are in two parts.

The first includes a seminar series focused on the three pillars of the fellowship: institutions, anti-corruption, and democracy.

There will be opportunities for fellows to examine transnational crime, including money laundering and corruption networks, and how investigative journalists and other actors can work collectively to combat corruption and support transitions to democracy. English language instruction will also be offered to all fellows.

The second part of the fellowships include an anti-corruption lab intended to produce deliverables that propose regional solutions in democracy-training and anti-corruption.

Each fellow will have a mentor and opportunities for internships in their particular fields through organizations partnering with TraCCC.

There also will be three gatherings for each cohort: one at Mason Square, one in Costa Rica, and one at the University of Monterrey in Mexico, where the group will be hosted at an annual anti-corruption academic conference.

“The important issue is that Mason has a chance to impact significantly in the trajectory of democracy,” said Pardo-Herrera, PhD ’19. “We are going to be able to select the best people who really want to have an impact. That is very significant.”

Mason is the natural place for the fellowship to live, Escobar Mejía and Pardo-Herrera said.

Not only is the university close to Washington, D.C., which Escobar Mejía calls “the capital of the international community,” its other academic resources will help TraCCC create new tools for investigations.

In addition, Pardo-Herrera said, “Mason is committed to diversity. Mason is a place where people understand different perspectives, and a place where people can connect to the difficulties of others because of that diversity.”

Bottom line, said , TraCCC’s deputy director, “This fellowship is a practical way of helping individuals who are fighting against corruption and fighting for democracy. In that sense, they are fighting for us.”