PERSON: Ana Maria Archila

Center for Popular Democracy

Co-Executive Director

Ana Maria Archila is the co-executive director of the Center for Popular Democracy (CPD)

Archila was born in Colombia. At the age of 17, Archila came from Colombia to the United States. She worked in community organizing roles in New York. After obtaining her bachelor’s degree, she became a staff member of the Latin American Integration Center (LAIC) in Queens, New York. The founding director of LAIC, Samaria Archila, was a former human rights lawyer from Colombia and her aunt.

On September 28, 2018, US Senator Jeff Flake announced his intention to vote for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Kavanaugh had been accused of sexual assault by a number of women, including Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, who testified for several hours before the Senate Judiciary Committee the day before Flake’s announcement. Kavanaugh subsequently testified and denied the allegations. Flake said that Ford’s testimony was “compelling,” but added that Kavanaugh’s response was “persuasive” and left him “with as much doubt as certainty” regarding what had occurred. Following his announcement, Flake was confronted by Archila along with Maria Gallagher, two anti-Kavanaugh protestors, in a Senate office building elevator. On the same day, Flake voted not to subpoena Mark Judge to appear before the Judiciary Committee, who Ford said was present during her sexual assault. That afternoon, Flake voted to advance Kavanaugh’s nomination out of the Senate Judiciary Committee, but said he was a “yes” vote “only if the final Senate vote was delayed for one week, during which time the FBI [could] investigate sexual harassment allegations against Kavanaugh”; Senate Republican leaders agreed to support the proposed investigation. Later that day, President Trump directed the FBI to undertake a one-week investigation of the allegations against Kavanaugh.

— Wikipedia