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Federico Parra/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images photo at The Wall Street Journal. Caption: “People queue at polling stations Sunday at Carabobo Square in Caracas during an opposition-organized referendum on President Nicolás Maduro’s plan to rewrite the constitution.”
July 17, 2017
Argentina
- Aurelio Tomas, “El Nuevo Titular de Defensa Llega a un Ministerio Con Fuertes Recortes” (Perfil (Argentina), July 17, 2017).
El jueves, ante Aguad, Macri admitió que Defensa está “en etapa de vacas flacas”
Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Venezuela, Western Hemisphere Regional
- Alejandra Sanchez Inzunza, Jose Luis Pardo Veiras, “Life Where the Murder Rate Is Sky-High” (The New York Times, July 17, 2017).
A strong chain of justice, which would include specialized police officers and sufficient independent judges to deal with the volume of cases, would be the first steps
Colombia
- “Monitoreo de Territorios Afectados por Cultivos Ili?Citos 2016” (UN Office on Drugs and Crime, July 17, 2017).
Los cultivos de coca en Colombia sufrieron un fuerte incremento al pasar de 96.000 ha en 2015 a 146.000 ha en 2016. Esto representa un incremento del 52%
- “‘Mapa de la Coca Muestra Que las Farc Han Cumplido’” (El Tiempo (Colombia), July 17, 2017).
“Se podría analizar el impacto del glifosato en el pasado. ¿Realmente sirvió de algo y dio los resultados deseados? Yo creo que no. A mediano plazo siempre hubo resiembra en estas zonas”
- Katherine Aguirre Tobon, “Violencia y Criminalidad Tras la Implementacion de los Acuerdos de Paz” (Instituto Igarapé, Razon Publica (Colombia), July 17, 2017).
El acuerdo de paz no es garantía de una reducción de la violencia y la criminalidad en el país. Sin embargo, las primeras evidencias demuestran que ha sido una estrategia efectiva para salvar vidas
- Felipe Alberto Velasquez, “Las Farc Deben Entregar Todo Lo del Narcotrafico: Embajador de ee.uu.” (El Colombiano (Medellin Colombia), July 17, 2017).
Para el embajador Whitaker, el logro de la paz es algo que todo el mundo debe celebrar, comenzando por los propios colombianos
- Ricardo Monsalve Gaviria, “La Cia, Otro Aliado en la Persecucion a “Otoniel”” (El Colombiano (Medellin Colombia), July 17, 2017).
El director de la Agencia Central de Inteligencia de Estados Unidos, CIA, estuvo en Urabá conociendo detalles de la operación Agamenón 2, que busca desarticular la banda “Clan del Golfo”
Mexico
- Carlos Vargas Sepulveda, “Hablan Militares en Chilapa: Pgr y los de Ddhh Protegen al Criminal, ” (SinEmbargo (Mexico), July 17, 2017).
De acuerdo con los castrenses “esto”, la violencia, la gente descuartizada, los pueblos abandonados… se genera por la forma de actuar de los defensores de los derechos humanos, y de los funcionarios públicos
- NoÉ Zavaleta, “Javier Duarte, el Infierno Que Le Espera – Proceso” (Proceso (Mexico), July 17, 2017).
En Veracruz hay una deuda de verdad y justicia que reclaman miles de familiares de desaparecidos
- Jose De Cordoba, “With ‘el Chapo’ Gone, Violence Soars in Fight for Control of Cartel” (The Wall Street Journal, July 17, 2017).
The extradition of Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán, Mexico’s long-dominant drug lord, has led to an explosion of violence in his home state of Sinaloa, the birthplace of the country’s narcotics industry
- Brian Barth, “The Wall (of Reeds) That the Border Patrol Would Like to Tear Down” (The New Yorker, July 17, 2017).
People who are trying to enter the U.S. illegally across the Mexican border often hide in the cane. It’s not a hospitable environment—the cane scratches and is difficult to walk through—but it is effective cover
- Philip Bump, “Good News for Border Residents: No One Is Throwing 60-Pound Bags of Drugs Over a 50-Foot Wall” (The Washington Post, July 17, 2017).
The American perambulators enjoying their walk beside the wall would need only peek through it to see drug dealers loading up a medieval siege weapon, allowing them to hastily run for cover
El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico
- ““Does My Story Matter?” Seeking Asylum at Mexico’s Southern Border” (Latin America Working Group Education Fund, July 17, 2017).
Harsh migration enforcement tactics continue to violate the rights of not only migrants but also of Mexican border communities
Venezuela
- Sibylla Brodzinsky, Dom Phillips, Dan Collyns, Uki Goñi, “‘At Home, We Couldn’t Get By’: More Venezuelans Flee as Crisis Deepens” (The Guardian (Uk), July 17, 2017).
As Venezuela falls further into turmoil, more of its citizens are leaving a country that once served as a haven
- Amanda Trejos, “Spike in Venezuelans Seeking Asylum in U.S. Could Hit Another Record” (USA Today, July 17, 2017).
Between January and March, 8,301 Venezuelans requested asylum in the United States, nearly double the number in the same period of 2016
- Andrew Cawthorne, “Venezuela Opposition Plots ‘Zero Hour’ After Big Anti-Maduro Vote” (Reuters **, July 17, 2017).
Opposition tactics may include lengthy road blockades and sit-ins, a national strike, or possibly even a march on the Miraflores presidential palace, similar to events before a short-lived coup against Maduro’s predecessor Hugo Chavez
- Anatoly Kurmanaev, Kejal Vyas, Juan Forero, “Venezuelans Hold Symbolic Vote Against Bid to Rewrite Constitution” (The Wall Street Journal, July 17, 2017).
Of the nearly 6.5 million who voted inside of Venezuela on Sunday, 98% rejected the government’s proposal
- David Smilde, “Venezuela’s “Consulta Popular:” Comments So Far” (Washington Office on Latin America, July 17, 2017).
Whatever the actual numbers say, the optics of a large turnout, especially in longtime Chavista areas in the Western part of Caracas will perhaps be more important
Western Hemisphere Regional
- Yanilda Gonzalez, “Why Police Reforms Rarely Succeed: Lessons From Latin America” (The Conversation, July 17, 2017).
My research on police reform in Latin America shows that such reforms are highly vulnerable to political reversals
