Adam Isacson

Defense, security, borders, migration, and human rights in Latin America and the United States. May not reflect my employer’s consensus view.

Archives

July 2020

Some articles I found interesting this morning

David Adams photo at Univision. Caption: “The Presidential Palace in Guatemala City.”

(Even more here)

July 17, 2020

Bolivia

El Movimiento Al Socialismo (MAS), con mayoría parlamentaria, que por meses dilató ese trámite, condenó la medida a la que calificó de anticonstitucional

Brazil

Nearly 3,000 square miles of trees lost in 11 months as military deployments fail to slow illegal logging

Colombia

Las hojas de ruta encargadas por el Gobierno a la firma Deloitte para poner en marcha esos programas tendrán que ser concertadas con las comunidades

With more than 80,000 official cases, Colombia has more disappeared people than the rest of the region put together, at least until Mexico began to spiral out of control

Alberto Brunori se despide como representante en Colombia de la oficina de la Alta Comisionada ONU

Guatemala

Events unfolding now in Guatemala’s Supreme Court are a colorful illustration of how systemic corruption is baked into the system and cripples efforts to strengthen the rule of law, ensure accountability in government, and fight corruption

Mexico

The two leaders face a major challenge in Jalisco, which is the home base of the cartel of Jalisco New Generation

Para combatir a la delincuencia en Jalisco se cuenta con 16 mil 399 elementos estatales y 13 mil 579 municipales para dar un total de 29 mil 918

Nicaragua

El Jefe del Ejército de Nicaragua Julio César Avilés se refirió por primera vez a las sanciones que le impuso Estados Unidos el pasado 22 de mayo de 2020

U.S.-Mexico Border

Wolf’s announcement was largely expected. It came two days after Mexico’s Foreign Ministry proposed extending restrictions on non-essential travel at their shared border for an additional 30 days

Venezuela

Personas que entran al país por vías irregulares sin pasar controles sanitario fronterizos, y anunció que les aplicarán la Ley Orgánica contra la Delincuencia Organizada y Financiamiento al Terrorismo

Former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said he met with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on Thursday but was unable to win the release of several Americans jailed in the South American nation

Reiteró que si «cruzan la línea roja», habrá una respuesta «contundente» por parte de la Fuerza Armada Nacional

El embajador reitera a El Universal que se mantienen contactos con funcionarios del Ejecutivo y del grupo liderado por Guaidó en procura de un “diálogo abierto que lleve a la transición”

Some articles I found interesting this morning

@SembrandoComun1 photo at Animal Político (Mexico).

(Even more here)

July 16, 2020

Western Hemisphere Regional

In its public comment on the proposed regulation, the union representing federal asylum officers said it would effectively deny most migrants pursuing protection the right to have their claims of fear or persecution assessed

Hundreds of immigrant families in US Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody may have to decide by the end of this week whether they’ll separate from their children or stay in detention together

Bolivia

El ministro de Defensa comunicó la aprobación de la disposición para que los uniformados castrenses suban de rango de forma inmediata. Se denuncia que la Asamblea castiga a esa institución

Colombia

The village’s entire population of 94 people loaded their belongings onto trucks and boarded double-decker buses to move to the banana-growing region of Uraba

Este es el primero de los 24 Etcr del país que se traslada con la coordinación del Gobierno Nacional y el partido Farc; y la razón principal es el riesgo que corren

En lo corrido del 2020 al día de hoy han sido asesinados 166 líderes sociales y/o defensores de DD.HH. y 36 excombatientes de Farc-Ep firmantes del Acuerdo de Paz

En el primer semestre de 2020 el Gobierno Nacional tiene confirmados el asesinato de 37 líderes sociales en el país, un 33 % menos de los que se confirmaron en el primer semestre del año anterior, sin embargo, la Oficina de la ONU para los Derechos Humanos sigue verificando otros 49 hechos

El Espectador conoció las 1.800 páginas de la condena a exintegrantes del frente Héctor Julio Peinado, en la cual se detalla de qué manera los paramilitares se ensañaron contra las mujeres y la población LGBTI

The bombing in Bolivar was part of a larger plan by the Colombian government to militarise five conflict regions dubbed “future zones”

Ecuador

The U.S. and Ecuadorian navies set the stage for a successful IPC and future engagements with a passing exercise (PASSEX) with the Ecuadorian Navy designed to strengthen maritime partnerships, July 11

Guatemala

Death threats have driven two anti-corruption prosecutors from the country in the past year, and their unit’s leader has a protective order from a regional human rights commission

Mexico

Traffickers often erect their own radio antennas in rural areas. They also install so-called parasite antennas on existing cell towers

Familiares dicen que si en la agenda de trabajo está asistir a un cuartel de la Guardia Nacional, también puede escuchar a las madres de las víctimas

Nicaragua

La última aparición pública de Ortega fue el pasado 10 de junio, cuando participó en una conferencia virtual del grupo ALBA sobre la economía tras la pandemia

U.S.-Mexico Border

Felipe Gomez Alonzo, 8, and Jakelin Caal, 7, both from Guatemala, died from the flu and sepsis respectively while in U.S. Border Patrol custody shortly after crossing into the U.S. with their fathers in December 2018

Our Jane Doe had apparently fallen from the border wall, which stretches to a height of 18 feet at that point along the U.S.-Mexico border, just west of El Paso where Anapra, Mexico, and Sunland Park, New Mexico, meet

CBP developed health screening policies and received emergency funds to enhance detainees’ medical care. But CBP hasn’t consistently overseen these policies, so some children were not given health screenings as intended

Venezuela

El gobernante Nicolás Maduro llenó el tablero de las ocho Regiones Estratégicas de Defensa Integral (REDI) con militares resteados y leales. Varios de los estos oficiales están alineados con el ministro de la Defensa

Defensores de derechos humanos alertan que estas expresiones forman parte de una campaña de odio contra los venezolanos retornados a quienes se les responsabiliza por el aumento del número de contagios de COVID-19

The U.S. Navy previously contested Venezuela’s excessive claim June 23, when the USS Nitze (DDG 94) lawfully and peacefully completed a similar operation in international waters outside of Venezuela’s 12 nautical-mile territorial sea

Some articles I found interesting this morning

Colprensa photo at El Colombiano (Medellín, Colombia). Caption: “Erradicación forzosa por parte de la Policía Nacional.”

(Even more here)

July 15, 2020

Western Hemisphere Regional

Whether and how to negotiate amnesty and accountability questions with unconventional armed actors, including violent organised crime groups such as mafia, gang networks and drug cartels

Over two-thirds of migrants locked up at a private ICE facility tested positive for COVID-19. “You don’t treat humans like this. You don’t treat dogs like this,” one detainee said

Brazil

Mr. Neto is not normally one to comment on politics. He usually sticks to entertaining his 38 million followers on YouTube with his comedic takes on pop culture. But as the death toll mounts, he’s become more outspoken

Haaland is preparing a floor amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that would revoke Brazil’s designation as a major non-NATO ally.

Colombia

Después de años de esperar una solución desde el Gobierno a esta tragedia, organizaciones de líderes están ofreciendo la suya: que Duque cumpla con el Acuerdo de Paz

Las metas impuestas por el Gobierno generan un riesgo inmenso de que las cifras de resultados se conviertan en “falsos positivos” de erradicación

La forma irresponsable que escogió el exministro Juan Carlos Pinzón para criticar a la Comisión de la Verdad es violenta y tiene connotaciones graves

The armed groups have imposed brutal “punishments,” including killings, on people for allegedly failing to comply

Un fallo de tutela le ordenó al presidente Iván Duque suspender la misión militar del comando sur del Ejército estadounidense en Colombia, pues nunca tuvo el visto bueno del Senado, como ordena la Constitución

“I encourage all parties to redouble measures to improve protection and security for women, including women former combatants, social leaders and human rights defenders,” he said

Sin duda, la violencia contra quienes dejaron las armas en el contexto del Acuerdo, y contra quienes defienden los derechos humanos y los derechos de las comunidades devastadas por el conflicto, sigue siendo la amenaza más grave para la consolidación de paz

Colombia, Venezuela

Gutierrez said she wants to return home to Venezuela just as 81,000 other Venezuelans had done by the end of June, according to Colombia’s border control agency

Venezuela’s economic tailspin has caused megabandas to abandon longtime strongholds and change their activities

Honduras

Castro, who was a member of a network of environmental defense groups in southern Honduras, had last week expressed fears for his life to the National Protection System

As evidence of wrongdoing has mounted against Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, US officials have only embraced him tighter

Mexico

EL PAÍS acompaña a una madre durante el proceso de identificación genética y entrega de los restos de su hijo, desaparecido en 2017 en Nayarit

Ocultó la participación directa en los hechos de elementos del Ejército Mexicano, presuntamente corrompidos por el cártel Guerreros Unidos

La división dentro de la estructura criminal del Cártel de Sinaloa entre “Los Chapitos”, como se conoce a los hijos de Joaquín Guzmán Loera y Jesús Alexander Sánchez Félix , alias “El Ruso”, lugarteniente de Ismael “Mayo” Zambada, se intensificó

El Gobierno federal y el de Guanajuato han polarizado desde la liberación de la madre de “El Marro”, en junio pasado

Venezuela

People working in the Arco Minero del Orinoco region in Venezuela are caught up in a context of labour exploitation and high levels of violence by criminal groups that control the mines in the area

Durante la gestión de Maduro, Provea registra un total de 34.135 violaciones a la integridad personal con torturas, heridas, tratos crueles e inhumanos, amenazas, hostigamientos contra trabajadores y dirigentes políticos, pero con una cifra récord de torturas el año pasado

The United States and other nations that strongly backed Mr. Guaidó are facing the unmitigated failure of their efforts to remove the regime through sanctions or negotiations

Two opposition leaders close to Guaidó (who asked not to be identified because they’re not authorized to speak for him) told WLRN the idea of an armed insurgency has regularly been discussed

The day ahead: July 15, 2020

I may be hard to reach today. (How to contact me)

It was nice having a few days with a lighter schedule. I caught up some website features at colombiapeace.org that were very difficult to work on when by broken wrist was at its worst last month (check out the embedded video library and other pages; I’m still working on the timeline). I’m slowly working with an intern to build up a similar, but less ambitious, resource about the border (very much under construction here).

Today I have two internal meetings and a Colombia coalition meeting, and I need to put together a talk about Colombia security for an official audience (non-public unfortunately) on Friday. As a result, I’ll probably be slow in responding today.

I also want to do something explaining the excellent narrative report that the House Appropriators put together on the Homeland Security bill. That, plus continuing website updates and writing a report on Putumayo, Colombia, will have me engaged through the rest of the week.

Also, expect WOLA to publish a big analysis of militaries in Latin America in a day or two.

Some articles I found interesting this morning

Photo from Provea (Venezuela).

(Even more here)

July 14, 2020

Western Hemisphere Regional

El candidato de Estados Unidos, Mauricio Claver-Carone, levanta ampollas en la institución, donde se le ve como ganador tras el apoyo de la mitad de los Gobiernos americanos

More than 930 employees of private contractors running U.S. immigration detention centers have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, according to congressional testimony given by company executives

Brazil

Se puede ver a uno de los policías apoyando su pie izquierdo sobre el cuello de la mujer, de 51 años, tendida boca abajo en el suelo, que había entrado en escena para defender a un amigo que estaba siendo atacado por los agentes

Chile

El abuso se concentra contra personas de menos recursos económicos, que participan en protestas o manifestaciones, e integrantes del pueblo mapuche

Colombia

The Covid-19 pandemic is devastating the entire Amazon basin, just as one of Colombia’s most ambitious redress programs for indigenous victims in this remote rainforest region is poised to kick off

During COVID-19 these leaders continue to empower women and defend their rights

“We are advancing, we have taken all the steps demanded by the Constitutional Court and we are meeting the requirements of the authorities,” Defense Minister Carlos Holmes Trujillo said

Se ha mantenido en el centro del debate pu?blico, entre otras cosas por las decisiones sobre las solicitudes de Salvatore Mancuso y Samuel Moreno, asi? como por los debates en el Congreso sobre posibles modificaciones a esta jurisdiccio?n

Colombia, Venezuela

His government has limited the number of Venezuelans allowed entry into their own country to approximately 1,000 per week

Ecuador

Trabajadores de esta fábrica de explosivos, que está bajo la admistración del Ministerio de Defensa, denunciaron que al iniciar una convocatoria a una huelga, personal militar resguarda los alrededores

El Salvador

Crisis Group has documented a concerted effort from both Bukele’s supporters and his opponents to shape the online narrative around his more controversial policies, in part through artificial means

Mexico

Lo preocupante del caso DRM no es el monto de lo robado, sino la actitud permisiva del gobierno

Tú dinos cómo quieres que vayamos avanzando. Tú no vas a ser la excepción, tú no te la pongas difícil –dice Tomás Zerón al interrogado

Activists suspect murders of 15 Indigenous community members are linked to their opposition to a proposed megaproject

Rather than the numbers, though, it is the sheer brazenness of these attacks which stands out

Last year, the first under President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, saw the second-most disappearances on record

Los resultados preliminares de una auditoría oficial que encontró inconsistencias graves y manipulación de las estadísticas delictivas en varios estados del país, con el fin de aparentar una reducción de algunos delitos, fueron clasificados

Suriname

Once a dictator, he returned as a populist, but fell in the face of the pandemic and an economic crisis

U.S.-Mexico Border

In a sign of fraying relations between the Department of Defense and Capitol Hill, the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee ? chaired by Indiana Democratic Rep. Pete Visclosky ? “condemned” the Pentagon’s past approvals of nearly $10 billion over two years toward the border wall

The Army Corps of Engineers has said Fisher won the federal contract to build a segment of the border fence in Arizona because it was the lowest bid

The U.S., in separate agreements with Mexico and Canada, will make a formal announcement before July 21 that non-essential travel will be restricted for at least another 30 days

The baby’s father and 9-year-old brother had been sent back to Mexico days earlier without knowing where the mother was

Venezuela

Se cumplen cinco años del lanzamiento oficial del “Operativo de Liberación del Pueblo” (OLP), una operación policial-militar anunciada como el plan gubernamental N° 23 para combatir la inseguridad, que rápidamente se convirtió en una carta en blanco

The day ahead: July 14, 2020

I should be available much of the day, except mid-day. (How to contact me)

I’m making a lot of website updates, working on a report about Colombia, and planning a new border-related project. I should be reachable much of the day.

Some articles I found interesting this morning

Photo from Semana (Colombia).

(Even more here)

July 13, 2020

Western Hemisphere Regional

With the help of the heroes here at SOUTHCOM — Coast Guard CBP, DEA, and law enforcement — we’ll work relentlessly to seize illegal drugs, arrest vile traffickers — the traffickers are truly vile; they’re terrible, terrible people

Bolivia

Desde el Movimiento Al Socialismo (MAS) criticaron el nombramiento de Luis Fernando López. El expresidente Evo Morales denunció su falta de formación para ocupar el cargo

El ministro de Gobierno de Bolivia envió una misiva en la que cuestiona la posición expresada por el senador Bernard Sanders y otros siete congresistas de ese país que denunciaron supuestas vulneraciones a los DDHH del gobierno de Áñez

Brazil

Señalado por reivindicar públicamente la dictadura brasileña (algunos nostálgicos quieren que vuelva), el presidente Jair Bolsonaro enfila a su país hacia la ruta del totalitarismo

Colombia

Un estudio del Grupo de investigación en Salud Mental de la Universidad de Antioquia que lidera la psicóloga Sandra Trujillo, arroja luces sobre un problema de fondo: la baja empatía que desarrollan aquellos que están metidos en la lógica de la guerra

De los 199 casos que investiga la Fiscalía, existen 20 sentencias en donde los condenados, en su mayoría, son los sicarios

Colombia, Cuba

  • Rodrigo Uprimny, Honrar la Palabra (DeJusticia, El Espectador (Colombia), July 13, 2020).

El gobierno Duque debería reconocer que su exigencia a Cuba de que extradite a los negociadores del Eln no solo viola compromisos internacionales de Colombia, sino que es políticamente inconveniente

Colombia

SEMANA obtuvo testimonios y pruebas de funcionarios y contratistas del Estado que demostrarían que las cifras de la erradicación manual forzada de coca son exageradas hasta en un 30 por ciento

Los casos de abuso sexual contra niñas indígenas por parte de militares conmovieron -brevemente- al país. Aunque se capturó a los implicados, hay quienes solicitan que sean entregados a la justicia indígena

Colombia, Venezuela

La pandemia ha sido una oportunidad para el Norte de Santander porque el Cártel de los Soles en Venezuela la compra (la pasta de coca) y no tienen ningún tipo de restricción de transporte y controles en los que se puedan realizar incautación

Colombia

Over the past two decades, inequality in Latin America had fallen to the lowest point in its recorded history. The pandemic threatens to reverse that. We traveled 1,000 miles across Colombia to document this critical moment

Documento de la Fiscalía dice que los motivos para escuchar conversaciones de Leyva Durán eran “espurios” y la interceptación la hizo la Dijín de la Policía

El Salvador

Un reciente informe advierte que las duras políticas carcelarias violan los derechos humanos y “no hay una correlación directa” entre los planes del gobierno y la reducción de los homicidios

Honduras

A raíz de la proliferación de la Covid-19 por el territorio hondureño, la institución castrense ha aparecido con una notable expresión protagónica concentrando múltiples tareas al frente de la respuesta gubernamental en la crisis sanitaria

El presidente de Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernández, pretende utilizar la pandemia para prolongar el confinamiento, suspender el proceso electoral y mantenerse en el poder, denuncian figuras de la oposición hondureña

Mexico

La violencia que se vive en Guanajuato por la guerra entre cárteles del crimen organizado podría incrementarse en el próximo proceso electoral

De acuerdo con las cifras de la Sedena, en el primer año de la Guardia Nacional se logró la detención de 15 mil delincuentes

U.S.-Mexico Border

Tommy Fisher, CEO of Fisher Industries, said Sunday that he thought the president “just got some misinformation on this stuff” and that he had “complete respect” for Trump

Venezuela

“Las violaciones de derechos humanos son sistemáticas y no hay justificación para que en el informe del 15 de julio esto no se mencione, debe señalar cada uno de los hechos denunciados y remitirlos a la CPI”

Cuba, Venezuela

President Donald Trump portrayed himself as tough on drugs and a champion of Venezuelans, at a time when U.S. policy towards the troubled South American nation has not yielded the expected results

Venezuela

Former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson plans to travel this week to Venezuela to urge President Nicolás Maduro to free several jailed Americans as a goodwill gesture

Venezuela, Western Hemisphere Regional

He touted new, better and additional equipment to fight “the sinister criminal cartels” trying to bring narcotics to the United States

Venezuela

Several companies that certify vessels are seaworthy and ship insurers have withdrawn services to tankers involved in the Venezuelan oil trade as the United States targets the maritime industry

The day ahead: July 13, 2020

I’m most reachable mid-day and late afternoon. (How to contact me)

It was a restful and somewhat productive weekend. Today I’ve got 2-3 hours of internal meetings, some urgent emails to answer, and then I’m going to continue doing a bunch of website updates, mainly at colombiapeace.org.

5 links from the past week

  • The Washington Post’s Kevin Sieff published a photo-heavy look at how drug traffickers, often flying and abandoning expensive jets from Venezuela, have penetrated an ecologically fragile national park in Guatemala’s Petén region.
  • The Cruel Road North” is the result of a collaboration among numerous media outlets in several countries, under the umbrella of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project. The multi-part, multimedia presentation explores the journey of extra-continental migrants across Latin America to the United States, and the attendant criminal, smuggling, and corruption networks.
  • Another multi-part, multimedia presentation comes from the Colombian Commission of Jurists and the José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers’ Collective. “The Silence of the Flutes” lays bare the Colombian military’s responsibility for historically brutal paramilitary massacres that took place in the northern Montes de María region in 2000 and 2001.
  • The International Crisis Group looks at El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele’s curious success in curbing gang violence. “While the public celebrates” the authoritarian-trending leader’s “well-known ‘iron fist’ policies, the reasons for success might lie in quiet, informal understandings between gangs and the government.”
  • Back to Guatemala: at Boston Review, Kirsten Weld tells the story of the police archive that became a crucial source of information about human rights abuses committed during the country’s 36-year civil war. Amid a hardline backlash and the Trump administration’s silence, access to the archive is now impossible.

Some articles I found interesting this morning

Photo from El Universo (Guayaquil, Ecuador). Caption: “Militares realizan patrullajes con armas neumáticas que disparan municiones de pintura con talco.”

(Even more here)

July 10, 2020

Western Hemisphere Regional

Migrants travelling through Latin America usually start their journey in the region’s largest economy, Brazil, whose relatively loose refugee laws and visa requirements, as well as good flight connections, make it a natural landing place

OCCRP and our Latin American partner Centro Latinoamericano de Investigación Periodística (CLIP), along with 16 media outlets in 14 countries, worked together on the largest ever journalistic investigation into these little-known routes

Immigrant advocates said the government’s filing sets up a potential separation of children from their parents in ICE custody

Even as lockdowns and other measures have been taken around the world to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, ICE has continued to detain people, move them from state to state and deport them

Argentina

Opposition demands answers after death of key witness in high-profile corruption inquiry

Bolivia

Las Fuerzas Armadas han demandado a la Asamblea Legislativa Plurinacional que apruebe los ascensos de la gestión 2020, que se hallan paralizados desde el mes de enero del presente año

Ms. Añez is the second Latin America leader this week, after President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil, to disclose an infection

Colombia

Rodrigo Londoño, leader of what was Latin America’s biggest guerrilla army, claims to enjoy his new life as a father and politician

A través de un trino, el exministro de Defensa Juan Carlos Pinzón, los acusó de estar relacionados con grupos armados y de tener una visión sesgada

Desde el 25 de junio, un grupo de líderes indígenas, afrodescendientes, campesinos y excombatientes partió desde Popayán con destino a la capital del país para denunciar la grave situación de seguridad del Cauca

Efforts to implement the agreements, including initiatives to address the root causes of the conflict by fulfilling the needs of historically marginalized communities, have stalled in part because leaders of these communities have faced unprecedented levels of threats and violence

Agentes estatales de la Brigada Primera de Infantería de Marina (BRIPRIMA), bajo la comandancia del entonces Contraalmirante Rodrigo Quiñones Cárdenas, actuaron conjuntamente o con aquiescencia y complicidad, bajo la expresión de una política de Estado de apoyo a la consolidación del paramilitarismo

Dos recientes allanamientos en Bogotá pusieron al descubierto cuáles son los lazos de su poder en la capital. Algunos de los pactos criminales son los mismos que tuvieron los bloques Capital y Centauros de las Auc.

Lo que dicen es que ellos no sabían que la tierra estaba manchada de sangre y, por ende, son inocentes

En el primer semestre del año se registró un aumento del 55%, en el número de muertes por violencia política frente al mismo periodo de 2019, al pasar de 60 a 93

Dominican Republic

Mr Abinader’s victory unseats the Dominican Liberation Party (pld), which has ruled for 20 of the past 24 years. Although power transfers in the country are rare, they do not necessarily bring change

Ecuador

Militares realizan patrullajes con armas neumáticas que disparan municiones de pintura con talco

El Salvador

Testimonios revelaron una conspiración para encubrir el crimen en la que habrían participado el diputado Rodolfo Parker y agentes del gobierno de Estados Unidos

Guatemala

Fifteen years old this week, Guatemala’s National Police archive has helped prosecute numerous officials for their roles in the country’s civil war. Now shuttered by a Trump-backed government, its dramatic history illustrates the crucial role of state archives in protecting democracy

Honduras

“In 2019, we conducted 1,882 intelligence exchanges with strategic partners, including the Drug Enforcement Administration and Joint Interagency Task Force South, both from the United States”

Mexico

Whenever Trump has mentioned amlo, he has tended to speak favorably of him, and amlo has gone out of his way to thank Trump for his kind words

U.S.-Mexico Border

The American Civil Liberties Union said the incident raises questions about the Border Patrol’s commitment to thorough investigations and transparency

U.S. border authorities made 32,512 arrests and detentions along the southern border in June, double the number recorded in April

Venezuela

President Nicolas Maduro said on state television Cabello would need several days of treatment and recovery, but that “he is already resting, he is fine”

El jefe de la diplomacia estadounidense, Mike Pompeo dijo que el gobierno de Trump continuará haciendo “todo lo que podamos hacer” para propiciar la salida del poder de Nicolás Maduro

Official June data from the border: single adults are migrating in the desert heat

U.S. Customs and Border Protection did its monthly data dump yesterday, reporting on how many people the agency, which includes Border Patrol, apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border last month. As the Washington Post noted, the most notable trend was a 40% increase, over May, in the number of undocumented migrants that Border Patrol encountered—even as the border is mostly shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic.

A year ago, the big story at the border was children and families from Central America seeking asylum. The Trump administration has illegally ended asylum at the border for nearly everyone, so numbers of kids and parents have dropped sharply.

Instead, graphing the data out shows that all of the increase is in single adults, mainly from Mexico. Adults are blue in the charts below.

Keep in mind that adults are less likely to be seeking asylum. This means they’re probably trying to avoid being apprehended by Border Patrol. That in turn means many are probably migrating through some of the remotest, most treacherous parts of the border—at the very height of summer, when the desert heat is at its worst. As I wrote a couple of weeks ago, there may be a spike in migrant deaths on U.S. soil, from dehydration and exposure, as a result of the COVID-19 border crackdown. Already, official Border Patrol Twitter feeds are full of accounts of rescues.

These graphics, and a few dozen others, are always available as a big PDF file at http://bit.ly/wola_border. Also of interest there are the ones showing a pretty big June jump in drug seizures, again “despite the pandemic.”

The day ahead: July 10, 2020

I’m most reachable in the morning and early afternoon. (How to contact me)

I’ve got a couple of border-related calls in the afternoon, but am otherwise at my desk researching, writing, and updating websites.

Latest Table of Aid to Colombia

(Cross-posted from colombiapeace.org)

Click to enlarge. If you’d prefer this as a spreadsheet for easier copying-and-pasting, go here.

The House of Representatives’ Appropriations Committee finished work on the 2021 State Department and Foreign Operations bill on July 9. In addition to offering some language very supportive of peace accord implementation, the narrative report accompanying the bill provides a table explaining how the House appropriators (or at least, their strong Democratic Party majority) would require that this money be spent.

The table above shows how the House would spend the 2021 aid money, and how it fits in with what the Trump White House requested, and what aid has looked like since 2016, the year before before the outgoing Obama administration’s “Peace Colombia” aid package went into effect.

If the House were to get its way, less than $200 million of the $458 million in 2021 U.S. aid to Colombia would go to the country’s police and military forces. However, the bill must still go through the Republican-majority Senate, whose bill may reflect somewhat more “drug war” priorities. A final bill is unlikely to pass both houses of Congress until after Election Day.

Sources for most of these numbers:

Not reflected here is assistance to Colombia to manage flows of Venezuelan refugees.

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