I’ll be reachable in the latter part of the afternoon. (How to contact me)
This morning I’m meeting a Canadian diplomat, having an informational interview with a colleague’s contact, and talking to 2 reporters. I’ve got a dental checkup in the afternoon. Otherwise I’m around and processing my notes from last week’s border trip. With 20 hours of meetings over these past three days, I haven’t been able to make much progress on that yet—but I will later today and during the day tomorrow. I then expect to post an update with a few highlights.
I’ve got eight hours of solid back-to-back meetings on the calendar today. Most of it is WOLA’s internal planning process, plus coffee with a colleague working on Colombia and a call with a journalist. I will hardly be able to answer calls, texts, or emails today, unfortunately. Tomorrow’s not much different—5 hours. Things clear up a bit after that.
It’s not clear exactly how many troops are currently at the border or how the number is expected to change — a Pentagon official said in November that the number was expected to dip below the 5,900 initially deployed
An ever larger number of families are being released with nowhere to stay, no money, no food and no means of getting to friends and relatives who may be hundreds or thousands of miles away
Brazil’s right-wing government under President Jair Bolsonaro will seek to classify invasions of farmland by landless workers movements as akin to terrorism, with harsher penalties for perpetrators
It is seen not just as a direct challenge to the new president, Jair Bolsonaro, but also as stark evidence that Brazil urgently needs penal reform and alternatives to the tough-on-crime policies he is promising
Ayer en la tarde el Alto Consejero para el Posconflicto, Emilio Archila, dijo que “están dadas las condiciones” para que la Jurisdicción Especial de Paz, JEP, le abra un incidente de incumplimiento a Iván Márquez
La situación de Ever Payares la viven otros 111 personeros del país, lo que significa que cerca del 10% del total de los representantes del ministerio público se encuentran amenazados
Cristina Vélez habló con SEMANA un día antes de que el Distrito cierre el campamento humanitario transitorio que se creó hace dos meses para dar fin a la invasión del espacio público que generaron más de 500 venezolanos
Morales ignored a ruling by the nation’s highest court that reversed that decision, and appears to support an effort underway by his allies in Congress to impeach the Constitutional Court judges who have opposed his efforts
Mientras Arzú Escobar y Morales hablaban, cientos de personas secundaban, tanto en la capital como en los departamentos, protestas contra la corrupción y la expulsión de la Cicig
Some residents and local rights groups say the killers were gang members working with corrupt police to seize territory in the La Saline gang war. But others accuse Haitian government officials of orchestrating the massacre to head off anti-corruption protests
In a context in which those responsible for these human rights abuses are more likely to be rewarded than brought to justice in Venezuela, it is critical to explore avenues to hold them accountable abroad
Guaidó inherited the top post at the Popular Will party, partly because most of its leadership has been jailed or fled the country. On Jan. 5, he was named the head of the opposition-controlled National Assembly
I’m looking at a few hours of internal planning meetings today, and a coffee with a European diplomat who covers Latin America. The government and WOLA are on a delayed opening this morning because of Sunday’s snow; I’ll be spending that time in the office processing my notes from last week’s border trip.
“Practically every other member” of El Paso’s National Guard “was in the Klan,” one military officer recalled, and many had joined the Border Patrol upon its establishment
Administration officials — and supporters of President Trump — are doing a disservice when they use these numbers to suggest that thousands of terrorists or potential terrorists are entering the United States via the southern border
The current trends all point to a strengthening of organized crime throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, as the criminals adapt far more quickly than authorities to changing conditions and take advantage of new opportunities
Ultimately, he came to believe that HHS would continue sending migrant teenagers to Tornillo as long as it could. So on Dec. 17, Dinnin sent HHS a letter informing them that his nonprofit wouldn’t accept more children
El alto consejero para el posconflicto le respondió a Iván Márquez, quien en un video aseguró que el Gobierno le ha incumplido en darle vocación de realidad a los acuerdos que se pactaron hace más de dos años en La Habana, Cuba
En aquellos aspectos de lo pactado en la Habana que podían tocar intereses económicos se ha quedado quieto, como pasa en varios puntos de la reforma rural
La sede de la organización, que apoya a víctimas de desaparición forzada, fue atacada en la madrugada de este sábado en barrio La Soledad por un hombre que quedó registrado en las cámaras de seguridad
Es posible detener el insostenible crecimiento de asesinatos, atentados y amenazas contra defensores y defensoras de derechos humanos —incluidos los liderazgos sociales— pero se requiere voluntad política
Donors and humanitarians should reinvigorate support for Colombians affected by the civil war. At the same time, a major injection of donor support for Colombia’s overstretched social services and the UN’s regional funding appeal are essential
Colombia’s borders and the arms of the Colombian people have remained comparatively open—partly because that mass migration once flowed in the opposite direction
El colombiano Iván Velásquez Gómez ha sido el más comisionado que mayor cantidad de investigaciones y procesos judiciales ha impulsado desde que inició su mandato, en contra de cuerpos ilegales de seguridad y redes político económicas ilícitas
The U.S. offered a four-sentence statement from the State Department that expressed vague support for Guatemala’s anti-corruption efforts but didn’t mention the commission at all
Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman moved tons of cocaine and heroin from Mexico to the United States, almost none of it—if any at all—across an unsecured stretch of border
Los diputados de la coalición mayoritaria esperan mantener algunas medidas ya establecidas en el dictamen, entre ellas la capacidad de investigación que tendrá la Guardia Nacional, así como su formación y administración en el ámbito de la Defensa Nacional
El titular de la Secretaría de Seguridad y Protección Ciudadana (SSPC), Alfonso Durazo, informó que la Guardia Nacional estará bajo un mando civil, tal como lo demandaron gobernadores, alcaldes, académicos y organizaciones civiles
Enamored of men in fatigues, hungry for the automatic discipline of military hierarchy, they reliably break down the democratic norms needed to keep the military apolitical and under civilian control
El líder venezolano, cada vez con menos apoyos en América Latina, saca provecho de la ambigüedad mexicana
Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico
Elisabeth Malkin, Jeff Ernst, Paulina Villegas, “A New Migrant Caravan Forms, and Old Battle Lines Harden” (The New York Times, January 14, 2019).
The deeply unpopular presidents of Honduras and Guatemala, both tarnished by scandal, are eager to maintain the support of the Trump administration. Halting the caravan could help them do that
Las fuerzas armadas se han mantenido al margen de lo que consideran un problema de orden público, pese al reclamo de la sociedad civil de que desarmaran a los grupos paramilitares
Mr. Solis said he now regretted one of his own most consequential rulings, a 2009 Supreme Court decision that ended term limits and allowed Mr. Ortega to remain in power
Francisco Toro and James Bosworth, founders of two of the longest-running Latin America blogs (Caracas Chronicles and Bloggings by Boz, respectively), have a good column on the Washington Post website today, warning about how authoritarian populist leaders—right or left—screw up their countries’ delicate civil-military relations.
There seems to be something about men in uniform that populists just can’t resist. It’s impossible to miss that Mexican generals find themselves in the middle of this mess, just as U.S. generals face a similar fate: their troops deployed to the border and facing the possibility of Trump declaring a fake national emergency to divert funds and Defense Department personnel for a useless wall.… Enamored of men in fatigues, hungry for the automatic discipline of military hierarchy, they reliably break down the democratic norms needed to keep the military apolitical and under civilian control.
Every so often, I look back at a commentary I wrote for the Center for International Policy about Venezuela in September 1999, just before my 29th birthday. Today, it only exists on the Internet Archive. I made the same argument that Toro and Bosworth are making. Months into Hugo Chávez’s first year in office, I was worried about how the new populist leader was distorting the military’s role in Venezuela’s democracy.
Much has been made of Chávez’s populist politics and fiery rhetoric, with many observers speculating that the former paratrooper is leading a slow-motion coup, doing away with forty-one years of flawed democracy and ushering in a military dictatorship by popular acclaim. Actually, Chávez’s strong-armed – yet so far legal – effort to write the country’s twenty-seventh constitution poses little threat to Venezuela’s democracy, which desperately needs reform anyway.
The real threat lies in the president’s vision for the Venezuelan military. In just seven months in power, Chávez has enormously increased the armed forces’ role in government and society.
… President Chávez’s changes in the military are popular, but among all of his reform efforts they are the most likely route to dictatorship. They are the aspect of Chávez’s program that needs to be watched most closely by Venezuelans, by the media and by the international community.
I look back on that piece not only because I still agree with every word. Now that Venezuela is a full-blown dictatorship with military officers occupying many top positions, that article is also a source of anxiety for me. I wonder what would be different today if I’d stuck with this issue and made Venezuelan militarization a top priority for my work, instead of a back-burner trend on which I checkedineverysooften.
I didn’t throw myself into this issue because at that exact moment—September 1999—the Clinton and Pastrana administrations were drawing up “Plan Colombia,” the largest U.S. military aid program in the history of Latin America. Monitoring and trying to change that strategy would take up the majority of my time over the next 10 years. In September 1999, Colombia was also in the first months of a peace process with the FARC. And the funding climate for Venezuela civil-military relations work was bleak: it would have been hard to afford plane tickets to Caracas, much less devote hours per week to the issue.
But still. While I worked to limit the Bush administration’s damage in Colombia, right next door Venezuela’s regime was dismantling democracy and civil-military relations through a gradual but inexorable string of baby steps, many of them too small even to get attention in the United States. While I was consistently critical, I didn’t host events and delegations, write reports, or lobby Congress.
Now that we’ve got several authoritarians around the region pursuing similar models (including Donald Trump), I wonder what I could’ve done differently, what difference it would’ve made, and how to apply those lessons today.
After returning from the border on Saturday, I’d expected to have four hours of planning meetings and a dentist checkup on today’s schedule. So I spent too much of Sunday clearing out work inboxes in anticipation of that, while snow kept falling outside.
It turns out that snowstorm has closed down everything in Washington: the schools, the government (much of which was shut down anyway), WOLA, and my dentist’s office.
So I’m home and reachable. I plan to spend some of the day playing in the snow with my kid when she wakes up. And also to type up all of my notes from last week’s San Diego-Tijuana trip.
Go to the New York Times right now, and there’s a video on the front page from Tijuana, where I spent the last 2 days. Look really closely and you can see me very briefly, lurking by the San Diego-Tijuana port of entry very early Wednesday morning:
Here’s a video from yesterday, in which WOLA’s president, Matt Clausen, and I do more than lurk. An 18-minute discussion of border security and our trip, filmed as a “Facebook Live” right next to where the border wall hits the Pacific Ocean.
I’ll post more when I have a chance to write, hopefully in the airport this evening, I’m flying back to Washington overnight.
I’m traveling and will be hard to contact today. (How to contact me)
I’m in a hotel room in San Diego, it’s just after 5:30AM, and I’m about to get into my rental car and drive to the main border crossing into Tijuana. I plan to do the exact same thing tomorrow morning too.
The city is dealing with a large influx of migrants, and I’ve made very few appointments there—I don’t want to make busy service providers (shelter personnel, lawyers, government) take time out to sit across a table while I ask them questions. The plan is to wander, starting with the scene at the port of entry right around the time I get there, when people will be gathering to find out how many asylum seekers CBP is willing to take today. A day of seeing the situation and talking to whoever has time for a conversation. Taking pictures and notes.
If I’m not too exhausted, I’ll post some reactions this evening. But getting a good night’s sleep will take precedence, so I may not.
It’s densely packed with facts about the low threat levels for terrorism, gangs, “spillover” violence, drugs, and migration at the border. Nothing justifying an end-run around Congress via a dictatorial “state of emergency” declaration.
I’m flying to San Diego in the afternoon, and will spend the rest of the week there and in Tijuana. Before then, I’ve got two meetings, and need to finish preparing a response to tonight’s presidential announcement about the border wall.
It demanded $5.7 billion “for construction of a steel barrier for the Southwest border” but also proposed “an additional $800 million to address urgent humanitarian needs” and unaccompanied migrant children arriving at the border
The 1976 National Emergencies Act grants a president powers to take unilateral acts in times of crisis. But it also outlines congressional checks and with Democrats controlling the House, an attempt to make such a move would be fiercely contested
The Federal Aviation Administration issued a notice that airspace in the McAllen, Tex., vicinity would be restricted on Thursday due to a “VIP movement.”
In the last half decade, while immigration at the U.S. border has dropped significantly compared with earlier years, the profile of migrants has changed in ways that the U.S. immigration system has never been designed to address
What started out as a memory trick for an undisciplined candidate has become the central priority of the Trump presidency, even as some immigration hard-liners do not view it as a top goal
A militant environmental group claimed the attack on its website. Two years ago the group — identifying themselves as “Individualists Tending to the Wild” — said they were behind a parcel bomb attack
El reto de la puesta en marcha de los PDET es muy grande porque ahora de lo que se trata es ver qué podemos hacer de eso que salió en el territorio y poder decir cómo se puede financiar
Los asesinatos se han concentrado en Antioquia, Cauca, Caquetá, Nariño y Norte de Santander. Se hace necesario el incremento de la presencia del Estado
La intención que tiene Colombia es que Venezuela responda, de manera oficial, si en su territorio están integrantes del Comando Central, Coce, del Eln y otros integrantes de la organización
El asesinato de la líder de las mujeres afrodescendientes víctimas de desplazamiento en la zona rural de Santa Marta y suplente de la Mesa de Víctimas de Santa Marta, se suma a los crímenes de otros cinco líderes sociales en los primeros seis días del 2019
A finales de año se armó una discusión por cuenta de la llegada de dos bombarderos de Moscú a Venezuela. Pero esa jugada militar nada tuvo que ver con la tensión entre Colombia y su vecino, sino entre Rusia y Estados Unidos
Dr. Smith wouldn’t rule out the possibility that some diplomats might have heard crickets, but said that had no bearing on the real damage they’ve suffered
Colombian national Yilen Osorio was detained by Guatemalan immigration officials upon arrival at the airport Saturday afternoon. The move comes despite a court ruling that Guatemala must grant visas and entry
After traveling for weeks, often on foot, Central Americans are settling in and waiting for the right moment to reach their ultimate goal: the United States
In Reynosa and elsewhere, the delays caused by the policy are prompting many migrants to weigh the costs and dangers of a faster option: hiring a smuggler, at an increasingly costly rate
Asylum-seekers used to be able to simply walk across the border and make their claim for protection—a right enshrined in US and international law. That is no longer the case
El sitio web de la Policía Orteguista (PO) informó que el 30 de diciembre finalizó la graduación de 45 oficiales en tácticas militares. Las imágenes oficiales muestran a los policías sosteniendo lanzacohetes antitanques RPG-7 y fusiles Dragunov
Latin American governments should adopt unilateral sanctions to punish the kleptocrats whose thievery, incompetence and brutality have impoverished an oil-rich country
Varios diputados opositores denunciaron hoy que dentro de la sede del Parlamento venezolano fue hallado un supuesto artefacto explosivo que ya fue retirado sin ocasionar daños
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