Adam Isacson

(Even more here)

September 24, 2018

Western Hemisphere Regional

• Ann Fordham, Hannah Hetzer, John Walsh, Martin Jelsma, “The Problem With Trump’s ‘Call to Action’ on Drug Policy at the u.n.” (Drug Policy Alliance, International Drug Policy Consortium, Transnational Institute, WOLA, Washington Office on Latin America, September 24, 2018).

Quite a few governments that have enacted progressive drug policy reforms have apparently decided to sign the U.S. “Call to Action”—not because they agree with it, but because they prefer not to risk antagonizing Trump

Colombia

• “Tan Solo 87 Exguerrilleros de Farc Cuentan Con Proyectos Productivos Apoyados por el Estado” (Verdad Abierta (Colombia), September 24, 2018).

Los pocos recursos se han obtenido a través del Consejo Nacional de Reincorporación. Varias iniciativas han sido autofinanciadas y gestionadas por ellos mismos

• “Durante el Gobierno Santos Fueron Asesinados 609 Lideres Sociales” (Verdad Abierta (Colombia), September 24, 2018).

Para Carlos Guevara, coordinador del Sistema de Información de Somos Defensores, esas escalofriantes cifras también son el reflejo de la transición y del cambio de tono que emergió durante el gobierno del anterior presidente de la República

Colombia, Venezuela

• “¿por Que una Intervencion Militar en Venezuela Seria un Error?” (El Espectador (Colombia), September 24, 2018).

El lenguaje ligero con que piden la salida a la fuerza de Nicolás Maduro despierta muchos interrogantes. Según expertos, Colombia sería la más afectada

Costa Rica, Nicaragua

• Kirk Semple, “Nicaraguan Migrants Fleeing Turmoil Test Costa Rica’s Good Will” (The New York Times, September 24, 2018).

Thousands have applied for asylum in Costa Rica, overwhelming the government’s migration bureaucracy, while others have simply melted into the broader population

Cuba

• Sarah Marsh, “Cuba’s New President Makes First Trip to Old Cold War Foe United States” (Reuters **, September 24, 2018).

At that session, Cuba will present for the 27th year running a resolution calling for the end of the U.S. trade embargo on the island nation

El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras

• Kevin Sieff, Nick Miroff, “Hunger, Not Violence, Fuels Guatemalan Migration Surge, U.S. Says” (The Washington Post, September 24, 2018).

Border arrests of family members from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador were at similar levels in 2017, but Guatemala’s numbers have soared this year as El Salvador’s have fallen

Guatemala

• Roberto Valencia, “Ver, Oir y Linchar en Chichicastenango” (El Faro (El Salvador), September 24, 2018).

Hoy, Chichi (170 000 habitantes) es una de las ciudades menos homicidas en la región más homicida del mundo –el Triángulo Norte de Centroamérica–, con una tasa de asesinatos inferior a la de Chile, Bélgica o Canadá. ¿Quiere saber por qué?

Mexico

• Elias Camhaji, “Matar y Morir en Ciudad de Mexico” (El Pais (Spain), September 24, 2018).

La inseguridad, la erosión del tejido social y la impunidad han creado una espiral de violencia que ha hundido a la capital mexicana en el momento más sangriento de su historia

• David Luhnow, “Latin America Is the Murder Capital of the World” (The Wall Street Journal, September 24, 2018).

The violence in Acapulco has created a dystopia where social norms have broken down

Venezuela

• Joshua Goodman, “As Venezuelans Go Hungry, Trump Targets Food Corruption” (Associated Press **, September 24, 2018).

Critics say Maduro has essentially weaponized food, distributing the boxes primarily to government workers and supporters

• Krishnadev Calamur, “Latin America Gets Its Own Migrant Crisis” (The Atlantic, September 24, 2018).

The inept dictatorship of Nicolas Maduro has unleashed a crisis that could rival the European migrant crisis of 2015. Like that crisis, this one may well alter the political dynamics of Latin America

Brazil

• “A Scary Election in Brazil” (The Economist (Uk), September 21, 2018).

Rather than a mandate for governing, elections held under these conditions produce the opening positions of a game played between the president and a fragmented congress, which Brazilians call presidencialismo de coalição

Colombia

• Federico Rios Escobar, Nicholas Casey, “Colombia Struck a Peace Deal With Guerrillas, but Many Return to Arms” (The New York Times, September 18, 2018).

These dissident guerrillas invited The New York Times to their camp, hidden among mountains north of Medellín, to tell the story of why they abandoned the peace deal

Guatemala

• Jody Garcia, “El Cacif Invirtio q1 Millon en Lobby en Washington; Asegura Que No Es Contra la Cicig” (Nomada (Guatemala), September 19, 2018).

El Cacif pagó US$135 mil (Q1 millón) a dos lobistas en Washington para tener acceso e influenciar acciones del Gobierno de los Estados Unidos. Está en duda si ha sido para desprestigiar a la CICIG

Mexico

• Ioan Grillo, “He Dedicated His Career to Exposing the Cartels. Then He Was Gunned Down in the Street.” (Esquire, September 20, 2018).

Corruption at the state level has been partly responsible for a lack of progress in prosecuting such deaths

U.S.-Mexico Border

• John Washington, ““Kick Ass, Ask Questions Later”: A Border Patrol Whistleblower Speaks Out About Culture of Abuse Against Migrants” (The Intercept, September 21, 2018).

For Mario, the encouragement to “operate in the gray” summed up the attitude of the Border Patrol — operating outside of the law. He described some of the actions of Border Patrol as “borderline inhumane”

SIPA USA/PA Images photo at The Economist (UK).

(Posting this a bit late—I fell behind near the end of the week. Even more here)

September 21, 2018

Western Hemisphere Regional

• Erica Werner, Josh Dawsey, Seung Min Kim, “Trump Demands a Border Wall but Many Republican Lawmakers Aren’t Convinced” (The Washington Post, September 21, 2018).

Behind all the rationalizing lies a hardening reality: Many congressional Republicans just aren’t that into Trump’s wall

• John Washington, ““Kick Ass, Ask Questions Later”: A Border Patrol Whistleblower Speaks Out About Culture of Abuse Against Migrants” (The Intercept, September 21, 2018).

For Mario, the encouragement to “operate in the gray” summed up the attitude of the Border Patrol — operating outside of the law. He described some of the actions of Border Patrol as “borderline inhumane”

Brazil

• “A Scary Election in Brazil” (The Economist (Uk), September 21, 2018).

Rather than a mandate for governing, elections held under these conditions produce the opening positions of a game played between the president and a fragmented congress, which Brazilians call presidencialismo de coalição

Colombia

• Nicholas Casey, “Colombia’s Coca Acreage for Cocaine Production at All-Time High” (The New York Times, September 21, 2018).

Each year since 2013, land used to produce coca leaf has gone up, on average, about 45 percent, the report said. The crops now are also a third more productive than they were in 2012

• “Presidente Duque se Reunira Con Donald Trump en Nueva York” (El Espectador (Colombia), September 21, 2018).

Dentro de la política de drogas, los homólogos incluirán el tema de la erradicación de los cultivos ilícitos con glifosato

• “Departamento de Estado de Ee. Uu. No Retira a las Farc de Lista de Grupos Terroristas” (El Espectador (Colombia), September 21, 2018).

“Las Farc siguen siendo una Organización Terrorista Extranjera bajo la Ley de Inmigración y Nacionalidad. No obstante, el Gobierno colombiano clasifica a los disidentes de la guerrilla como criminales”

• Christina Noriega, “Colombia False Positive Scandal: Families Demand ‘Greater Truth’” (Al Jazzeera, September 21, 2018).

What concerns Carmenza the most is that if the JEP presides over the cases of those already convicted, they may receive shorter sentences and still not tell the entire truth

• “Gobierno Asegura, una Vez Mas, Que Asesinato de Lideres No Es Sistematico” (Colprensa, El Colombiano (Medellin Colombia), September 21, 2018).

Las declaraciones de la ministra se dan luego de que la semana pasada el nuevo director de la Unidad Nacional de Protección (UNP), Pablo Elías González, asegurara que buscará articular todas las instituciones del Estado para luchar contra el “exterminio”

• “Editorial: La Matanza de Ochali” (El Colombiano (Medellin Colombia), September 21, 2018).

El asesinato de tres geólogos en un tiroteo indiscriminado contra un campamento de exploración minera dice muchísimo de la grave situación de orden público en el Norte de Antioquia

Colombia, Venezuela

• “Duque a Migrantes: Colombia Seguira Con Politica de “Brazos Abiertos”” (La Republica (Peru), September 21, 2018).

Duque fue enfático y aseguró que las fuerzas militares de su país “no se dejarán provocar” y que ante un posible conflicto, el único beneficiado sería el presidente llanero

Cuba

• Jay Weaver, Nora Gamez Torres, “Yes, the Fbi Is Knocking on Doors of Some Cuban Exiles in Miami. Here’s Why” (The Miami Herald, September 21, 2018).

The FBI initiative, harkening back to Castro-era stagecraft, is aimed at putting on notice potential Cuban spies who might operate under an official cover in the United States

Guatemala

• Carmen Quintela Babio, “La Corte de Constitucionalidad Aclara su Ambiguedad y Obliga al Gobierno a Permitir el Regreso de Ivan Velasquez” (Plaza Publica (Guatemala), September 21, 2018).

El Gobierno no puede prohibir la entrada del comisionado Iván Velásquez. En caso contrario, incurrirá en las responsabilidades de ley. Por ahora, no se confirma si el comisionado regresará a Guatemala

• Jeff Abbott, Sandra Cuffe, “Guatemala: Thousands Demand President Jimmy Morales Resign” (Al Jazzeera, September 21, 2018).

Thursday’s protests were organised in small towns, as well as urban centres, including in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala’s second-largest city

• Hector Silva Avalos, “4 Consequences of Morales’ War With the Cicig in Guatemala” (InsightCrime, September 21, 2018).

On September 16, at a press conference where the CC judges read their decision in favor of the CICIG, an undercover police officer attempted to photograph journalists who were covering the event

• Francisco Goldman, “Why Is Trump Tacitly Supporting Corruption in Guatemala?” (The New York Times, September 21, 2018).

His government is backed by a so-called juntita of retrograde military officers and a bloc in the Guatemalan Congress derisively known as “el pacto de corruptos”

Mexico

• Paris Martínez, “En Palmarito, el Ejercito Sembro Pruebas a Cadaveres de Inocentes y Tambien a Presuntos Huachicoleros” (Animal Politico (Mexico), September 21, 2018).

La Comisión Nacional de Derechos Humanos concluyó que el Ejército Mexicano y la policía estatal de Puebla incurrieron en violaciones graves, con acciones como la siembra de pruebas en los cadáveres de dos inocentes, y el atropellamiento de dos civiles

• Ezequiel Flores Contreras, “Encapuchados Atacan Cuartel Militar en Iguala en Protesta por Desaparecidos de Ayotzinapa” (Proceso (Mexico), September 21, 2018).

Jóvenes encapuchados lanzaron bombas molotov y petardos a la sede del 27 Batallón de Infantería en la ciudad de Iguala en medio de protestas por el cuarto aniversario de la desaparición de los 43 normalistas de Ayotzinapa

• J. Jesus Esquivel, “Eu Premia a Cienfuegos por su “Aportacion Individual” a la Estabilidad Continental” (Proceso (Mexico), September 21, 2018).

Sin una sola mención a la defensa y protección de los derechos humanos de los mexicanos, el secretario de la Defensa Nacional, general Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda, recibió el premio William J. Perry 2018

Peru

• “Terrorista Abatido por Ffaa Era del Circulo del Cabecilla Victor Quispe” (La Republica (Peru), September 21, 2018).

El camarada “Basilio”, muerto al enfrentarse a las fuerzas del orden, era experto en el uso de lanzagranadas y estaba a las órdenes del camarada “José”