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Cross-posted from WOLA’s colombiapeace.org site. During at least the first half of 2021, we’re producing weekly updates in English about peace accord implementation and related topics. Get these in your e-mail by signing up to this Google group.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has maintained an office in Colombia since 1996 with presences in Bogotá and nine regions. Early each year, it produces a report summarizing Colombia’s human rights situation during the prior year. The Colombia office issued its latest report on February 23. Among its topline findings for 2020:
The UN High Commissioner counted up to 133 killings of human rights defenders, though as of publication it had been able to verify only 50 due to pandemic restrictions. “Of the verified cases, 25 per cent were reportedly committed by criminal groups, 15 per cent by FARC dissident groups, 13 per cent by ELN, and 4 per cent by the police or military.” Colombian authorities achieved 20 convictions in 2020 against killers of human rights defenders.
The day before the UN report launched, the Colombian presidency issued its own brief report. Presidential Human Rights Advisor Nancy Patricia Gutiérrez claimed that the government and the UN human rights office had counted 66 murdered social leaders, with 63 remaining to be verified. The reason for the discrepancy with the UN is unclear.
The UN and government estimates are on the low end. The government’s Human Rights Ombudsman’s Office (Defensoría) counted 182 killings of human rights defenders and social leaders in 2020, and 753 in the five years since 2016. The non-governmental Instituto de Estudios para el Desarrollo y la Paz (Indepaz), which includes names and places but does not verify each case, counted 310 murders.
The UN report faults the Colombian government for the continued lack of a stated public policy for dismantling paramilitary successor criminal organizations, as foreseen in the 2016 peace accord. It finds a “lack of a comprehensive State presence” in conflictive parts of the country, which “limits the State ́s capacity to comply with its duty to protect the population.” Juliette De Rivero, the director of the High Commissioner’s Colombia office, told Verdad Abierta, “After the accords’ signing, there was about a year and a half of breathing space in these territories. But then the State didn’t occupy the space—and armed groups began to arrive and exert very strong social control.”
The UN report, as well as press comments by De Rivero and High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet, voiced strong support for Colombia’s post-conflict transitional justice system. They especially upheld its Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP), which has taken bold moves in recent weeks against ex-guerrilla kidnappers and military personnel responsible for “false positive” killings, and which often finds itself under political fire from allies of President Iván Duque’s government. Bachelet shared her concern about “declarations against the transitional justice system, including legislative proposals to abolish the Special Jurisdiction for Peace.”
U.S. Ambassador Philip Goldberg met with the JEP’s President, Eduardo Cifuentes, on February 26. This was a notable show of support for an institution that some U.S. officials over the years had avoided praising, out of concern that it might end up failing to punish perpetrators.
As reported in last week’s update, the JEP surprised the country by announcing that it is investigating a much higher than anticipated number of military murders of civilians who were then falsely presented as combat kills. The Special Jurisdiction said its review of existing databases led it to estimate 6,402 of these “false positive” killings between 2002 and 2008 alone.
As an analysis by La Silla Vacía’s Juanita León shows, that number could increase or decrease as the transitional justice system proceeds with its “bottom up” strategy of starting with the perpetrators in order to arrive at the most responsible military commanders. Cifuentes, the JEP’s president, told El Espectador that the next steps involve collecting more testimonies from perpetrators and victims in order “to charge those identified as most responsible.”
This has some top current and former military commanders concerned. Articles last week in El Espectador and Verdad Abierta name some of the officers most frequently cited for commanding units that committed the most “false positive” killings. These include several generals who were promoted to lead Colombia’s army in the 2000s and 2010s.
The JEP’s method of starting with lower-ranking military perpetrators in order to arrive at the top commanders puts significant pressure on those lower-ranking defendants, who make up most of the 1,860 security-force members who agreed to have their cases heard in the JEP. Nineteen of them had reported being threatened or followed, according to a September 2020 document from the government’s Inspector-General’s Office (Procuraduría).
On February 2, the JEP sent a letter to the Specialized Technical Defense Fund for Members of the Security Forces (FONDETEC), a sort of public defender service for members of the military and police accused of crimes. The letter asks for information about the advice that FONDETEC lawyers may be providing to low-ranking military defendants in the JEP system.
Some of these defendants have alleged that their public defenders strongly encouraged them to avoid implicating senior commanders in their JEP testimonies. “The pretext that the lawyers have is to carry out preparation sessions for those appearing before the transitional justice mechanism,” explained Sergio Arboleda Góngora of the Corporación Jurídica Libertad human rights group. “They would use that opportunity to indicate what to say and what not to say to the lower-ranking members of the military when they testify.”
“FONDETEC conditions our testimonies to improve the defense of those above us,” a military witness told the JEP, according to El Espectador investigative columnist Yohir Akerman. “What evidence do you have to link General [Mario] Montoya, commander of the Army? The situation could turn around against you,” a FONDETEC lawyer called “Doctor Vargas” apparently told defendants at the military’s detention center in Facatativá, Cundinamarca. Akerman identifies him as Fernando Antonio Vargas Quemba, a FONDETEC attorney with ties to far-right, even paramilitary-linked, groups.
Colombia’s politically powerful associations of retired military and police officers issued a communiqué opposing the JEP’s information request regarding FONDETEC activities, viewing it as part of an “unprecedented offensive against our military and police, with the purpose of demoralizing and discrediting those who selflessly serve the country.”
The commander of the Army, Gen. Eduardo Zapateiro, appeared to go further. The day after the JEP’s revelation of its estimate of 6,402 murders, the general posted to his Twitter account nature footage depicting snakes, interspersed with Bible excerpts, and a vow that “we will not let ourselves be defeated by poisonous and perverse vipers that want to attack us, accuse us, or weaken us.”
“How frightening that these gentlemen are still there [in command]. We are not poisonous snakes. We are victims of the Army,” responded the Association of Mothers of False Positives. A La Silla Vacía analysis, noting Gen. Zapateiro’s “impulsive” nature, observed that the commander is under pressure from the hardline retired officers’ associations. An unnamed “high government official who works with the Army” insisted that the General’s position is not the Army’s institutional stance.
On February 26 President Duque visited the Tolemaida base in Tolima to inaugurate a new Colombian Army Command against Drug Trafficking and Transnational Threats (CONAT). This 7,000-person unit’s objective will be “breaking, striking, and subduing the structures of drug trafficking and transnational threats, linked to the illegal exploitation of minerals, trafficking of species and people, and, of course, any transnational form of terrorism,” reads a Presidency release.
The CONAT’s commander is Gen. Juan Carlos Correa, a former commander of the Colombian Army’s National Training Center who served a recent tour in Miami as the commander of the U.S. Southern Command’s J7/9 Exercise and Coalition directorate.
It is not immediately clear how much about the CONAT is new, other than its command and organizational structure. Colombia’s Army already had Counter-Drug Brigades; these are now being combined under the CONAT with a counter-illicit mining brigade and aviation units. Reporting about the unit doesn’t specifically speak about new capabilities, equipment, or personnel increases.
Defense Minister Diego Molano said the new command will prioritize “areas identified as being highly influenced by drug trafficking such as Catatumbo, Cauca, and Putumayo.” Catatumbo is along the Venezuelan border, which drew the notice of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. In response to an earlier announcement by President Duque about the CONAT, Maduro had called on Venezuela’s armed forces to “clean the barrels of our rifles to answer at any level we need.”
A Caracol Noticias report by noted investigative journalist Ricardo Calderón—who was part of an unfortunate recent exodus from Semana magazine—cited videos and emails indicating an ever closer relationship between Venezuelan security forces and members of the ELN and FARC dissident groups on Venezuelan soil. “Today we are in full support of the commander, comrade Nicolás Maduro, so that this government may continue, so that he may continue to lead this ship,” a video depicts “Julián Chollo,” a commander in the dissident group headed by former FARC leader “Gentil Duarte,” telling residents of the town of Elorza, deep within Apure, Venezuela. The Caracol report finds, “According to internal ELN communications, Venezuela may have become the scene of a ‘war among guerrillas’ in which each side has the support of different [Venezuelan] military units.”
Despite these growing security challenges, the United States continues a drug war that wastes exquisite military tools, destabilizes fragile states, and sours hemispheric relations — yet fails to gain any measurable progress
El Presidente y su ministro del Interior explicaron que se va a reforzar el estado de catástrofe -que se reconoce subutilizado
El enfoque de militarizar el tema ambiental, que fue presentado como una innovación estratégica en seguridad y medio ambiente importante del Gobierno Duque, tiene un papel más discreto en los últimos avances de política pública
The new unit, consisting of 7,000 personnel, will be deployed to zones such as the Catatumbo region on the border with Venezuela, as well as the provinces of Cauca and Putamayo, Defense Minister Diego Molano said
Bogotá and Washington should abandon their heavy-handed elimination efforts and help growers find alternatives to the hardy plant
En el Fuerte Militar de Tolemaida, el Jefe de Estado activó este viernes el Comando contra el Narcotráfico y Amenazas Transnacionales (CONAT), fuerza élite conformada por 7.000 hombres y mujeres del Ejército
Un informe de Caribe Afirmativo señala que hay un retroceso en los avances de derechos humanos LGBT, “porque con relación a 2019 hubo un aumento del 58% y un 80% frente a 2018?
Las tres fuentes de información comparten muchas víctimas, pero cada una aporta víctimas que no aparecen en las demás bases de datos
El representante demócrata Jim McGovern lamentó “la falta de voluntad de Iván Duque para detener los asesinatos de líderes sociales” y le pidió al presidente Joe Biden que ponga este problema en su agenda
Securing two-thirds of congressional seats would allow Bukele to name Supreme Court judges and the attorney general, making him the most powerful Salvadoran leader since the return of democracy three decades ago
Analistas salvadoreños e internacionales señalan el riesgo de que el Presidente millennial termine convirtiendo al país en otra Nicaragua, tras los resultados de las elecciones legislativas del 28 de febrero
Pending cases and trials for genocide, mass enforced disappearances and other civil war-era atrocities are stagnating in the courts
López Obrador recordó que en Baja California hay 2 mil 99 elementos de la Guardia Nacional y hay seis cuarteles nuevos
“Nos preguntaban que cómo habíamos obtenido la información. Y nos dijeron que nos iban a llevar detenidos. Temimos por nuestra vida”, explica la mujer
Though symbolically important in any administration, the decision by President Joe Biden to dispatch Blinken to Mexico and Canada for the first visits, even virtually, is part of a broader effort to turn the page
Coronel’s surrender signals the existence of a cooperation agreement, where she could provide information or testimony in exchange for leniency in her own case
La más reciente avanzada orteguista contra sus críticos incluye el cierre de organizaciones de derechos humanos y libertad de expresión por la aprobación de la ley de agentes extranjeros
Biden has an opportunity to break the cycle of deadly border militarization embraced by his predecessors of both parties. Will he take it?
It represented a step closer to reaching the American dream for the 27 people who crossed the Gateway International Bridge after living in Matamoros for nearly two years
It’s a significant change at the two detention centers that activists have derided as “baby jails.” But the new policy falls short of their demands to close the facilities in Dilley and Karnes City
The challenges of redirecting the enforcement apparatus, the tangled web of legal agreements signed by prior Department of Homeland Security (DHS) leadership, and anxieties about a new large-scale influx of migrants and asylum seekers have posed early challenges
HHS, which oversees shelters for migrant children, is in the process of switching to a new database that could cut hours or days from the time it takes to perform background checks for sponsors
On Thursday, there were more than 1,200 unaccompanied children in Customs and Border Protection custody across the southwest border
The number of minors arriving without a parent has grown to more than 300 each day in recent weeks, a fourfold increase since last fall
With this series of weekly updates, WOLA seeks to cover the most important developments at the U.S.-Mexico border. You can get these in your e-mail each week by joining WOLA’s “Beyond the Wall” mailing list.
While we try to keep these updates brief, this topic has to start with several bullets of context, which has been absent from some recent media coverage, feeding misunderstandings about unaccompanied children currently arriving at the border. If you’re familiar with the context, skip past these bullets.
Before the pandemic, Border Patrol was apprehending roughly 3,000 unaccompanied children each month. That dropped sharply after March 2020, when borders closed throughout the Americas. Numbers of apprehended children steadily increased through 2020, though, reaching the pre-pandemic level of 3,000 in August, surpassing 4,000 in October, and reaching 5,707 in January 2021. The pace is increasing: during the week of February 14-20, CBS News reports, Border Patrol apprehended “more than 1,500 migrant children” and “on Sunday [February 21], an additional 300 minors were taken into custody.”
The increase owes in part to the Trump expulsions policy causing “a backlog of minors waiting to seek asylum,” as CBS News put it, citing a shelter official who noted that “it created a bubble that is bursting because now they can get in.” It also owes to parents stuck in Mexican border cities making a heartbreaking choice: attempt to cross the border with children and be expelled, wait indefinitely in Mexico, or send their children across alone, where they might be apprehended and reunited with relatives in the United States.
The increase in unaccompanied child arrivals has caused the ORR shelter population to grow rapidly: the count on February 22, according to CBS, was 7,100. That leaves “fewer than 900 empty beds” because COVID-19 measures have compelled ORR to reduce its 13,200-bed capacity to 8,000. This comes with an increase in the population of children in Border Patrol’s holding cells, where they can legally be for no longer than 72 hours: “roughly 750” as of February 19. In January, 179 children exceeded the 72-hour limit because of capacity issues.
With only five weeks in office, the Biden administration has recurred to a controversial measure: temporary “influx facilities” to handle the overflow of unaccompanied children. ORR has set up a 66-acre, 700-child capacity tent facility in Carrizo Springs, Texas, to hold children aged 13 to 17. The agency’s stated goal is that children at the facility, managed by nonprofit BCFS Health and Human Services, stay there no longer than about 30 days, following two weeks of quarantine at other ORR shelters.
As they sit on federally owned land, influx facilities like Carrizo, and a possible second site south of Miami in Homestead, Florida, are not subject to state licensing like other ORR child shelters. During the Trump administration, the Homestead site, run by a for-profit corporation with former Homeland Security secretary John Kelly on its board, came under heavy fire for living conditions, cost, and lack of transparency, as did a tent facility in Tornillo, Texas. While access to these remotely located sites is restricted in the name of protecting children from traffickers, the lack of visibility over what happens inside worries child advocates.
Some Democrats, like Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Julián Castro, and Jamaal Bowman, were quick to criticize the Carrizo Springs shelter’s opening. “We should not go in this direction again,” Castro tweeted. “HHS-ORR should place these children in a home more quickly. Invest in personnel and policy to speed up placement. It’s safer, cheaper, and is in the children’s best interest.” Social media commentators on the left invoked a return to “kids in cages,” while some even conflated it with the Trump administration’s family separations.
On the right, commentators—also reviving the “kids in cages” slogan—claimed that the Biden administration’s use of an austere facility to house increased numbers of unaccompanied children vindicated the Trump approach of rapidly expelling them. Former Trump advisor Stephen Miller is urging members of Congress and conservative media to seize on a “Biden migrant surge” narrative to mobilize voters against Biden’s immigration reform legislation, and against Democratic candidates in the 2022 midterm legislative elections.
“It’s a temporary reopening during COVID-19,” White House Press Secretary Psaki said of the Carrizo Springs facility, adding, “This is not kids being kept in cages.” While certainly not “cages,” it is hard to argue that tent and shipping-container sites like Carrizo Springs are in children’s best interest. While recognizing that the Biden administration has not had time to develop a new approach—it hasn’t even nominated a CBP commissioner yet—advocacy groups are urging a quick phaseout of unlicensed “influx” shelters.
The Biden administration’s dismantling of Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy became reality on February 19, as 25 asylum-seeking migrants who had been awaiting their U.S. immigration court date since 2019 crossed from Tijuana, Mexico, into San Diego County. (“Remain in Mexico,” also known as “Migrant Protection Protocols” or MPP, was a Trump initiative that forced about 71,000 non-Mexican asylum seekers to await their U.S. hearing dates on Mexican soil.)
The process at San Diego’s San Ysidro port of entry “was orderly, safe and efficient,” read a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) statement. “After CBP and ICE processing was complete, facilitating organizations helped coordinate travel arrangements as needed.” On February 22, another 25 asylum seekers entered at San Ysidro. The goal is to increase the number who can be processed to about 200-300 per day.
In Mexico, the entry process for Remain in Mexico subjects takes place with assistance from the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), UNICEF, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), and other international and non-governmental organizations. Those with active MPP cases register at a website that went live on February 19; despite initial hiccups, 12,000 people signed up within the site’s first three days. The next step is COVID-19 testing performed by IOM while UNICEF ensures “humane treatment of children and their families,” a UNHCR release reads. “So far, no cases of COVID-19 have been detected,” the UN reported on February 25.
At the other end of the border, the Remain in Mexico wind-down began on February 25 between Matamoros, Mexico, and Brownsville, Texas. Twenty-seven people crossed the Gateway International Bridge and were taken to the bus station to move on to destinations where most have relatives. “Smiles hidden under face masks were hard to see, but undeniably present” on their faces, the Rio Grande Valley Monitor reported. “For me it was an affirmation, it was a triumph of life, of humanity,” said Sister Norma Pimentel, executive director at Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley, who for years has run a respite center for released migrants in McAllen.
Most of the first to arrive from Matamoros will be residents of a notorious tent camp where about 750 Remain in Mexico subjects have been forced to live since 2019. The expectation is to increase daily arrivals at Brownsville to about 200 per day, including many asylum seekers in Matamoros—a dangerous longtime stronghold of Mexico’s Gulf Cartel—who did not stay in the encampment.
As we write this on February 26, we’re hearing that 25 Remain in Mexico subjects were just allowed to cross from Ciudad Juárez into El Paso.
The Defense Department has spent about a billion dollars since 2018 to support the Trump administration’s National Guard and active-duty military deployments at the U.S.-Mexico border, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released on February 23. The 90-page document, submitted in response to a request from Democrats on the House and Senate Armed Services, Homeland Security, and Judiciary committees, contains much previously undisclosed information about the military mission.
In April 2018, in response to media reports of a “migrant caravan” making its way through Mexico, Donald Trump ordered National Guard troops to the border. It was the fourth time since 2002 that a president had ordered the National Guard to support CBP. In October of that year, as a new caravan formed in the runup to midterm legislative elections, Trump augmented that with a highly unusual deployment of active-duty army and marine personnel, a rarity on U.S. soil. At its height in November 2018, up to 2,579 National Guardsmen and 5,815 active-duty troops were involved.
About 3,600 active-duty troops remain available to support CBP, though many may be physically located at bases elsewhere in the United States. The mission is to extend at least through the fiscal year’s end on September 30, 2021. While the GAO report notes that DHS expects to continue requesting support from the Defense Department for three to five years, it’s not yet clear whether that will happen under the Biden administration.
Among the report’s notable findings:
The report seems to indicate that the Defense Department regarded the border mission as a lower-priority role and a drag on readiness for higher-priority military missions. Commanders, as Stars and Stripes summarizes it, “shared experiences of missed training and the strain of rotating troops to the border every 30 days.” In a response to GAO, the Department sought to avoid recommending policy changes that would “create an impression that DOD has a border security mission.”
I’ll be hard to reach today. (How to contact me)
I’ve got a full day of meetings: with two coalitions, some DHS officials, documentary filmmakers, and the board of another organization. And I’m finishing a new border update before that happens. I may not respond to messages until the weekend.
For the foreseeable future, the region is dependent on Chinese and Russian vaccines
Al menos 150 diplomáticos de carrera y que estaban destinados en alguna de las 34 misiones que Bolivia mantiene en el exterior fueron despedidos durante los primeros tres meses del gobierno del presidente Luis Arce
Luna is a career military man who cut his teeth building highways in the Amazon and whose greatest qualification for the job, as critics see it, is his respect for hierarchy and discipline
Meter a las FF.AA. en un problema de esta naturaleza, sin especificar que el territorio donde van a operar es una zona de guerra, es un error
El comandante en jefe de la institución castrense, Ricardo Martínez, puso a disposición de Carabineros y la PDI a un grupo de entre cinco y 10 funcionarios especializados en Inteligencia y Planificación. Además, se despacharán al menos tres carros blindados Mowag y drones
Así lo expresó a este portal Juliette De Rivero, representante en Colombia de la Alta Comisionada de Naciones Unidas para los Derechos Humanos
Si son 11.460 los muertos en combate que fueron presentados como miembros de grupos armados ilegales, las 6.420 víctimas de los “falsos positivos” identificadas dentro de ese total cambia radicalmente la manera de interpretar los resultados operativos
Temblores, an non-governmental organization that monitors state violence, also documented 7,992 cases of assault and 30 cases of sexual violence, with migrant communities and Afro-Colombians often the victims
Mientras el Gobierno prepara retomar la aspersión con glifosato, cientos de campesinos pierden la esperanza de la legalidad. Solo el 2 por ciento de las familias en el PNIS han podido arrancar proyectos productivos diferentes a la coca
He brought the plight of those communities to an international stage, testifying at a congressional hearing in Washington and speaking privately with legislators
En la noche del pasado lunes 22 de febrero, se conoció un vídeo en el que se ve a integrantes del grupo paramilitar Comandos de la Frontera realizando rondas de control en la población de Siberia, municipio de Orito, Putumayo
“Patria y Vida” (“Homeland and Life”), a new song with almost two million views on YouTube and featuring some of the most famous Cuban singers inside and outside the island, is challenging the government
«Continuaremos denunciando abusos en lugares como Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba e Irán», enfatizó Blinken en su discurso a través de un video
El acceso a celulares y la falta de una separación efectiva de los internos más peligrosos ha permito el ascenso del poder de las bandas
The gangs began a battle for leadership within the prison system in December when a leader of Los Choneros, considered the system’s most powerful gang, was killed in a shopping center several months after being released
Determinaron no permitir el ingreso irregular de flujos de migrantes extracontinentales (haitianos, cubanos, asiáticos y africanos) que se mantienen varados en Sudamérica
Mr Moïse, a former plantation manager who calls himself “Banana Man”, exemplifies the failings of recent Haitian presidents and has added to them
On Wednesday as tense negotiations over the kidnappers’ $2 million ransom request continued, diplomatic pressure on the Haitian government intensified
Se trata de un alto miembro de las FF AA y un exoficial de la Policía que sostuvieron conversaciones con el capo Geovanny Fuentes, enjuiciado en EE UU
Las redes sociales y los medios en Perú empiezan a hablar de una guerra entre delincuentes venezolanos y peruanos, lo que se traduce en el incremento de la violencia
The federal government asked contractors to submit bids for maintenance of what it calls tactical infrastructure within the Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector. That includes repairing roads and lights installed along the border wall. It also includes repairing the concertina wire
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement email obtained by The Washington Post shows that the administration has already entered crisis mode on the southern border
DHS officials characterized this as the “next phase” in releasing these migrants who have been waiting to claim asylum in the United States
Comparing all this to “kids in cages” confuses the debate in a way that obscures what the Biden administration is genuinely trying to accomplish — and thus makes it harder to actually hold the administration accountable on it
The move, and a reported decision to reopen another facility at Homestead, Fla., must be temporary
UN agencies have begun preparing individuals and families at the Matamoros informal camp, near the United States-Mexico border, for entry into the US
Venezuelan opposition figures often take harder anti-government lines if they flee abroad. Exiles’ voices are important, but those trying to end Venezuela’s crisis should listen to others as well, recalling that compromise offers the only peaceful exit
I’ll be hard to reach today. (How to contact me)
I finished one internal writing assignment yesterday and am almost done with a smaller one, and will also write up a weekly border update today. I’m sitting in on an event this morning about Latin America security, meeting with colleagues at a border/migrants’ rights organization, and have two coalition meetings in the afternoon. All of this will delay my reply to any attempt to get in touch with me today.
The center— now known as the Biscayne Influx Care Facility — is preparing to house migrant teens ages 13 to 17
El objetivo es atacar organizaciones dedicadas al narcotráfico que, a juicio del gobierno y las policías, estarían detrás de gran parte de los atentados
Según dijo, adoptar una política pública para desmantelar los grupos herederos del paramilitarismo es fundamental para mejorar las garantías de seguridad de líderes, defensores y comunidades en Colombia
Son ocho modernas aeronaves con dos equipos de 16 pilotos, las principales herramientas para comenzar la aspersión en el país, tarea que espera el día D para comenzar
La comisionada Patricia Tobón y el comisionado Leyner Palacios denunciaron públicamente la intensificación de acciones armadas sobre los pueblos étnicos del Pacífico colombiano
Lo ocurrido en Tumaco en los últimos días es el fiel reflejo de lo que ocurre en diferentes latitudes del país: matanzas en zonas disputadas por grupos armados ilegales de diferentes extracciones
“Two armed groups tried to seize the criminal leadership of the detention centers”
Un grupo de exmilitares realizó una marcha en el centro histórico para exigir una indemnización por su participación en el conflicto armado interno
Nearly 700 were arrested at seven chicken plants across Mississippi that August 2019 morning, in one of the largest workplace immigration stings in U.S. history. A year and a half later, on January 22, López ended up shot
Many people in Haiti believe that the Trump administration made a deal with Mr. Moïse: If he supported the U.S. case against Venezuela, then Washington would look the other way when it came to human rights abuses in Haiti
The United States cannot remain silent in the face of deeply alarming corruption and human rights abuses being committed at the highest levels of the Honduran government
The petition submitted to Congress against Gov. Francisco Cabeza de Vaca is supposed to be ratified by prosecutors on Thursday
Salgado’s candidacy has become a major political liability for President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who has stood by his longtime friend and political ally
Salgado’s candidacy has become a major political liability for President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who has stood by his longtime friend and political ally
Corruption in Mexico’s security forces is a key contributor to the sharp rise of organized criminal violence and severely handicaps US-Mexico security cooperation against drug cartels
De acuerdo al Ministerio Publico, la diligencia judicial fue ordenada debido a “la eexistencia de una presunta Organización Criminal denominada Los Mercenarios, la cual se encontraría enquistada en el Ejército Peruano operando desde el año 2013”
DOD estimated that it would incur nearly $1 billion in unreimbursed costs by supporting DHS’s border security mission from fiscal year 2018 through fiscal year 2020.
The majority of child migrant facilities are subject to state licensing requirements; temporary influx centers like Carrizo are not
Biden Takes On Trump’s Migrant Policies and Confusion Reigns at the Border
The family was attempting to cross the river from Piedras Negras in the Mexican state of Coahuila to reach Eagle Pass, Texas, in frigid conditions
Both governments have prioritized the Matamoros camp due to the difficult humanitarian conditions there. Other individuals with active MPP cases residing outside the Matamoros camp will also be processed
The Biden administration need not and should not leave this to the courts. You have the power to halt these expulsions by repealing the Title 42 order, and you should use it as soon as practicable
A pandemic-related order put in place by former President Donald Trump remains in effect, allowing officials to continue to turn away thousands of migrants
El bloque comunitario europeo dio a conocer este 22 de febrero, nuevas medidas restrictivas
De acuerdo a un reporte divulgado por el Centro para los Defensores y la Justicia los principales responsables de las agresiones contra ONG y defensores de DDHH fueron funcionarios públicos (40%), medios de comunicación oficialistas (29%), organismos de seguridad (19%) e instituciones públicas (7%)
Juan González, director senior de asuntos del Hemisferio Occidental y que forma parte del consejo de seguridad de la Casa Blanca, aseguró que la prioridad de EEUU no es el levantamiento de las sanciones a la administración de Nicolás Maduro sino de fomentar el diálogo
Mr. Reyna is part of a growing chorus of Venezuelan voices and regional experts calling on the United States to redirect its focus from pressing for a quick return to democratic rule to addressing a humanitarian crisis
I should be reachable much of the day. (How to contact me)
Other than an internal meeting mid-day, I should be mercifully free from Zoom today, and plan to get a lot of writing, research, and correspondence caught up.
Los efectos de la emergencia sanitaria, económica, social y política se sentirán con especial fuerza en América Latina y el Caribe. Al mismo tiempo, es posible observar una impotencia política de la región frente a la coyuntura crítica global
Posesionó a nuevos jefes militares en los máximos cargos de las Fuerzas Armadas y hasta el momento no ha enviado las listas de ascensos al Parlamento
El informe de la auditoría permite ver que, al margen de medidas concretas de control migratorio, no existe estrategia de cooperación con Centroamérica
Tras la seguidilla de atentados registrados en la macrozona sur, el Mandatario anunció una batería de medidas legislativas para combatir lo que calificó como “actos de violencia y terroristas”
El tema nació a inicios de este mes cuando dos exmilitares en sus declaraciones ante la JEP hablaron sobre presiones que estarían recibiendo para modificar sus testimonios ante esa justicia especial
Tiene que ver con posibles irregularidades del gobierno de Juan Manuel Santos con la autorización de estadía en Cuba a Nicolás Rodríguez Bautista, alias Gabino, uno los jefes máximos del Eln
In various parts of Colombia, there has been an intensification of violence and increased territorial and social control by non-state armed groups and criminal groups
Este es el panorama de lo que hay y de lo que falta para que despegue el primer avión con glifosato
Con este doble asesinato, ya son seis los policías muertos en el plan pistola ejecutado por este grupo armado ilegal. Entre el 8 de febrero y a la fecha, han perdido la vida dos agentes en Sucre, uno en Caucasia, uno más en Montería
Estos están usando la fachada de ‘Frente Iván Ríos’ cuando en realidad está integrado por hombres del grupo conocido como ‘Los Contadores’. Un grupo aliado con estructuras paramilitares
Local politicians and citizens are calling on President Iván Duque to come to Buenaventura to support the protests
Según Rodríguez, las autoridades venezolanas «tienen a alguien escuchando todo» y que al parecer, sería alguien dentro de la administración de Iván Duque que estaría «indignado» de que ese tipo de reuniones ocurran en Colombia
Con la notoriedad, aparecieron señalamientos de corrupción y vinculaciones al narcotráfico (sin procesos penales en su contra, pero sí de un hermano) que no la han hecho tambalear—aunque Estados Unidos la vigila
The United States is disturbed that Haiti’s prolonged period of rule by decree continues. We believe decrees should be limited to actions necessary for essential functions, safety, and the conduct of elections
The potential for fraud in November’s presidential elections also underscores the challenge facing Washington, which is yet to call for free and fair elections
En el Estado de Guerrero no se ha tenido registro alguno de este tipo de siembra
It remained unclear on Monday night why federal authorities arrested Ms. Coronel now after implicating her in her husband’s crime more than two years ago
Emma Coronel Aispuro, 31, a dual U.S.-Mexican citizen, of Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico, was arrested today at Dulles International Airport
La vigilancia que mantienen estructuras como los Gabinetes de la Familia, mejor conocidos como “CPC”, es uno de los pilares del autoritarismo sandinistaen Nicaragua
Government officials say the camp is needed because facilities for migrant children have had to cut capacity by nearly half because of the coronavirus pandemic. At the same time, the number of unaccompanied children crossing the border has been inching up
Last week, U.S. border agents apprehended more than 1,500 migrant children, according to government statistics reviewed by CBS News. On Sunday, an additional 300 minors were taken into custody
The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a statement on Monday that “given current operational considerations”, it could no longer say when it would begin bringing in migrants through ports in Brownsville and El Paso
Ceballos tiene el grado de almirante y se desempeña como Jefe de Estado Mayor del (CEOFANB). También es miembro de la Infantería de Marina de Venezuela y dentro de su perfil de carrera se maneja que recibió entrenamiento militar en Estados Unidos e Israel
I’ll be intermittently available during the afternoon. (How to contact me)
I’m trying to finish two bits of writing this morning. This afternoon I have two internal meetings, conversations with a student and a Colombian colleague, and an interview. I should be reachable but there will be long stretches when I’m not.
While the pandemic has opened the door to much-welcomed Chinese aid, it’s also made it harder for governments to pay their bills to Beijing
Six countries across the region — Argentina, Bolivia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay, and Venezuela — have now authorized use of the Sputnik V vaccine. Others are considering authorization requests
Alberto Fernández estará en La Mañanera del presidente Andrés Manuel López Obrador este martes y participará en la celebraciones del bicentenario de la Independencia de México
El Southcom es más que en otros momentos un comando naval
El presidente Iván Duque acaba de anunciar una medida extraordinaria: la regularización de un millón de venezolanos. Qué diferencia con la actitud del gobierno de Chile que, en cambio, expulsó a muchos venezolanos
“Hemos presenciado versiones voluntarias (ante la JEP) en que unos militares advierten que hay una estrategia del Fondo de Defensa de los miembros de la Fuerza Pública (Fondetec) para ocultar información que implique a altos mandos”
Lo más preocupante de las revelaciones de la JEP es que corroboran que la justicia ordinaria fracasó, pues fue incapaz de procesar a los responsables y de determinar el verdadero número de ejecuciones
Analizamos los datos entregados por el alto tribunal y encontramos quiénes eran los altos mandos en las unidades militares que presentan la mayor cantidad de víctimas de este delito
Declaraciones de testigos y militares ante la JEP establecen que los abogados adscritos a Fondetec han presuntamente aplicado —mediante supuestas jornadas de pedagogía— diferentes métodos de presión para generar temor
A pesar del anuncio de que Fiscalía y Defensoría del Pueblo unificarían cifras sobre agresiones contra líderes sociales, esta última entidad reveló sus propias cuentas
El comandante del Ejército, el general Eduardo Enrique Zapateiro, argumentó que su criticado trino sobre “víboras venenosas y perversas” que quieren atacar y debilitar al Ejército no se refería a la JEP
The Colombian government needs to improve security and infrastructure in the countryside so that farmers have genuine incentives to switch out of coca into legal crops that have a proven market
Los militares de ese país, al parecer, pidieron apoyo al ELN para atacar a las disidencias de las FARC como respuesta al derribamiento de uno de sus helicópteros
Dos de ellos trabajaron en campañas electorales para John McCain y Jeb Bush; otro es un guatemalteco con experiencia en inteligencia y considerado uno de los responsables del desmantelamiento de la Cicig
She became a champion of survivors of torture and helped compel the release of documents showing U.S. complicity in decades of human rights abuses in Guatemala
She was forced to defend her credibility, as a U.S. Embassy official at one point described her account as a “hoax” designed to derail an aid package to the government
Lo invirtieron y arriesgaron todo en la búsqueda de una vida más digna: viajar a Estados Unidos sin papeles para trabajar. Pero acabaron asesinados a tiros y calcinados en el norte de México
Because Moïse held no legislative elections in 2019, parliament was dissolved in early 2020, and he has since been ruling by decree
La ASF destaca que pese a tratarse de una fuerza civil, el 70% de elementos de la Guardia Nacional son militares y la nueva fuerza carece de bases e infraestructura propia
En el cementerio clandestino de Arbolillo familiares de personas desaparecidas y autoridades localizaron 2 mil restos humanos desde su descubrimiento hasta marzo del año pasado
Tras la caída del precio de la goma de opio, agricultores de amapola voltearon a los bosques de Coyuca de Catalán; sin embargo, los grupos armados dominan la zona todavía
Mexico’s Foreign Ministry estimates that more than 2.5 million guns have flooded over America’s southern border in the last decade
Jean Humberto González Zeledón y Cristian David Meneses Machado, que estuvieron exiliados en Costa Rica tras la revuelta popular que estalló en abril de 2018
After getting verified for eligibility using the CBPone application and testing negative for COVID-19, approximately 25 individuals were transported by international organizations to the U.S.-Mexico border
Advocates who opposed the Trump administration’s use of the emergency shelters now acknowledge they might be a necessity for the short term
Migration agents patrolling the river’s edge in Piedras Negras in Mexico’s Coahuila state, opposite Texas, had observed four people enter the water, the migration institute said in a statement. Two of them reached the United States
Migrants are expected to input data from their court documents into the four-page online platform, but confusion set in just as quickly as the website went live
Early afternoon is probably the best time to reach me. (How to contact me)
I averaged 6 hours of meetings per day on Wednesday-Friday of last week, then did a lot of writing and podcasting on Friday through the weekend. That means I’m very behind on basic things like e-mail, and I’m a little afraid to look at my to-do inbox to see what else I committed to doing.
Today I have a staff meeting, a border coalition meeting, and a meeting with a few Colombian colleagues. When not present at those, I’ll just be getting caught up, if possible.
I just sent off another e-mail update to those who’ve subscribed. It’s got:
Cross-posted from WOLA’s colombiapeace.org site. During at least the first half of 2021, we’re producing weekly updates in English about peace accord implementation and related topics. Get these in your e-mail by signing up to this Google group.
Colombia’s post-conflict justice system (JEP) issued a dramatic order on February 18, explaining how it plans to investigate and prosecute its “Macro-Case 03: Deaths illegitimately presented by state agents as combat casualties.” These war crimes, called “false positives,” involved security-force (usually Army) personnel killing civilians, then presenting the dead as armed-group members killed in combat, in order to earn rewards.
The JEP’s most surprising finding was its topline number. Security forces murdered at least 6,402 civilians, the tribunal contends, in the seven years between 2002, the first year of Álvaro Uribe’s presidential administration, and 2008, when a scandal involving 19 murdered young men from a poor neighborhood on Bogotá’s outskirts broke the scandal open.
6,402 is equivalent to about half of the 12,908 armed-group members whom Colombia’s Defense Ministry claimed to have killed between 2002 and 2008. It is nearly triple the 2,248 cases, dating from between 1988 and 2014, that Colombia’s Prosecutor-General’s Office (Fiscalía) had shared with the JEP. Colombian human rights organizations called the Fiscalía’s undercounting “infuriating.”
The actual number is probably higher than 6,402; the JEP “is still receiving reports to contrast” with its database, La Silla Vacía reports, adding, “For each, the JEP has already identified the name, surname and identity card number,” and each appears in at least three of four governmental and non-governmental databases the tribunal consulted. In addition, some FARC members who demobilized during that period may have been killed later and counted as combatants. And many more cases may still be in the files of the military justice system, not the civilian Fiscalía.
On January 28, the JEP had indicted seven top FARC leaders for their role in kidnappings, with the intention of moving down the chain of command to on-the-ground perpetrators. The false positives investigation, though, is to go “bottom up,” starting with soldiers and officers, then moving up the ladder to top commanders who, today, deny any responsibility for the killings. (The FARC leaders, by contrast, appear poised to accept responsibility for kidnappings.)
That means proving that the practice of killing civilians to receive rewards, a phenomenon that the UN and other human rights monitors began denouncing around 2004, was systematic—a claim given new credibility by the startlingly high number of 6,402 cases. With this order complete, the JEP is to focus its investigations on Antioquia, the Caribbean coast, Norte de Santander, Huila, Casanare, and Meta.
Ex-president Uribe, calling the JEP order “another outrage,” denied responsibility for the killings, saying that while of course he placed strong demands on the military, “effectiveness is not an excuse to violate the law.” The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and some NGOs and victims’ groups, hailed the JEP’s action. A statement from several groups worried, though, that the JEP’s “bottom up” approach might go too slow, failing to touch the military’s top ex-commanders before the tribunal’s 10-year mandate ends in 2028.
Fourteen Colombian legislators from the political opposition, spanning six parties, issued the latest in a series of data-rich reports monitoring the government’s compliance with commitments made in the 2016 peace accords. The driving force behind these reports is Green Party Representative Juanita Goebertus, who was a member of the Colombian government’s negotiating team with the FARC in Havana.
The official most responsible for accord implementation in President Iván Duque’s government, High Counselor for Stabilization Emilio Archila, challenged some of the legislators’ claims with a point-by-point Twitter thread, to which Rep. Goebertus then responded with a point-by-point rebuttal thread.
The report finds the Colombian government falling further behind in implementing the accord, especially its provisions related to rural governance and crop substitution. Among its numerous findings:
Since taking power in August 2018, President Iván Duque and his government have vowed to re-start spraying the herbicide glyphosate from aircraft to eradicate coca. A U.S.-backed “fumigation” program, a significant part of the “Plan Colombia” strategy, operated from 1994 to 2015.
Public health concerns forced the program’s suspension that year. In 2017, Colombia’s Constitutional Court then laid out a series of six health, environmental, consultation, and safety requirements that the government would have to meet in order to restart the program. One of those steps is the emission of a decree laying out how fumigation would operate. The government produced an 11-page draft decree in December 2019, but never issued a final document. On February 15, the Justice Ministry produced a new, 20-page, draft decree.
This document prohibits spraying in “the National and Regional Natural Park Systems, strategic ecosystems such as páramos, Ramsar category wetlands and mangroves, bodies of water, and population centers.” It does not mention indigenous reserves or Afro-Descendant community council lands. As the Constitutional Court requires, it calls on Colombia’s National Health Institute (INS, roughly similar to the CDC) and environmental authority (ANLA) to sign off on the spray program’s safety after performing studies, which have been underway since at least early 2020. The Counternarcotics Police would have to provide monthly spray reports to the ANLA, the Ministry of Health, and other oversight agencies.
Colombia’s new defense minister, Diego Molano, recently insisted that all conditions for re-starting spraying might be met by late March, but experts interviewed in Colombian media see approval being delayed for months more. “This decree won’t accelerate the process,” María Alejandra Vélez of the University of the Andes’ Center for Security and Drug Studies (CESED) told El Espectador.
The draft decree is just one of several unmet criteria, including the INS and ANLA sign-offs and a green light from the multi-agency National Drugs Commission (CNE). Via the Colombian equivalent of a Freedom of Information Act request, Isabel Pereira of DeJusticia learned that, as of September, the INS health study had only completed work in 7 of 14 departments where fumigation was expected to occur. The ANLA approval, meanwhile, is being delayed by two court challenges seeking to uphold vulnerable communities’ ability to participate in the process.
Should the Duque government meet all of the Constitutional Court’s requirements to restart fumigation, there will be legal challenges—and it’s not certain whether the Court will approve of the program’s design. Its rulings have noted that glyphosate spraying, as the 2016 peace accord explains, is meant to be a last resort after other options have received higher priority, like voluntary crop substitution and manual eradication. The draft decree does not mention this prioritization. Nor does it mention prior consultation with indigenous and Afro-descendant communities, an omission that the Constitutional Court may object to, Vélez contends.
With an assist from WOLA’s president, Geoff Thale, I booked a fantastic but deeply troubling conversation with two fighters for democracy in El Salvador, Mauricio Silva and José Luis Sanz. This is a rough moment for a democracy born at a moment of hope, when El Salvador negotiated the end of its conflict in the early 90s.
The .mp3 file is here. The podcast feed is here. And here’s the text from WOLA’s podcast landing page:
El Salvador’s citizens go to the polls on February 28 to elect a new legislature and mayors. Nuevas Ideas, the party of President Nayib Bukele, is expected to gain a strong majority. This raises concerns because Bukele, though quite popular, is eroding institutional checks and balances, blocking access to information, infringing on independent media and freedom of expression, and politicizing the armed forces.
The implications for U.S. policy are significant, as the new Biden administration proposes a four-year, $4 billion package of assistance to strengthen democracy and the rule of law, along with similar priorities, in Central America.
We discuss this with two experts who give us a comprehensive view of what’s at stake:
Listen to WOLA’s Latin America Today podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, or wherever you subscribe to podcasts. The main feed is here.
ICE officers will focus on those suspected of being a national security threat, recent border crossers, and those who are considered to be a public safety threat, officials announced
“En nombre del pueblo argentino y del Gobierno Nacional estamos profundamente agradecidos por el envío de las vacunas Sputnik V”
La donación, entregada a los militares, consiste en nueve vehículos acondicionados para realizar operaciones médicas, primeros auxilios, diagnóstico por rayos X, utilizar un generador de oxígeno, realizar análisis de laboratorios bioquímicos y esterilización
Según el documento, en el plazo que les dio la JEP entregarán la respuesta oficial al auto de hechos y conductas
El reto de la JEP, ahora, es justamente escalar y llegar a los altos mandos, un trabajo muy difícil porque el nivel de intimidación a los que han implicado superiores ha sido muy alto
Quedan trámites administrativos por resolver, decisiones judiciales pendientes y muchas dudas sobre la reglamentación en sí misma
Piden a la JEP que las versiones sean públicas y que se determinen la responsabilidad de altos mandos cuanto antes
Dado que la alerta recibida no contiene información específica, Colombia ha solicitado a las autoridades cubanas compartir la información con la que cuenten
Amnistía Internacional advierte que los métodos de los regímenes de Juan Orlando Hernández y Daniel Ortega son similares en cuanto a represión de sus críticos e impunidad en las violaciones de derechos humanos. En el caso de El Salvador, el deterioro progresivo inquieta
Encargado de resguardar la soberanía del Estado mexicano, la paz nacional y la aplicación del Plan DN-III en caso de desastres, el Ejército cumple 108 años
Luego de ser expulsados de un sembradío de amapola por pobladores, integrantes del Ejército regresaron al sitio para golpear y robar a civiles, acusaron vecinos de la comunidad
Se registró una disminución de 19.6% en delitos del fuero federal
No existe evidencia certera de que la 4T esté combatiendo las causas de la violencia, como afirma el Presidente. Simplemente no es creíble esa versión debido a la imparable violencia
Ensure that no surveillance system is used until and unless DHS OIG certifies its necessity, compliance with privacy protections, and responsiveness to stakeholder concerns
Advocates have pushed for the Biden administration to fly migrants in the program to the United States, which they say would be safer and faster
Friday marks a key milestone in unravelling one of former President Donald Trump’s cornerstone policies to deter people from seeking protection from persecution
It happened Wednesday, the same day that Mexico’s immigration agency announced the death of a Venezuelan woman who died trying to cross the river there
El proyecto Lupa por la vida se orienta a reivindicar el derecho a la vida, exigir el cese de las ejecuciones, contribuir a la exigencia de justicia
In Madrid, the left-wing government of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has cheered Biden and what it hopes will be his fresh approach to relations with a region that both nations consider their backyard
With this series of weekly updates, WOLA seeks to cover the most important developments at the U.S.-Mexico border. You can get these in your e-mail each week by joining WOLA’s “Beyond the Wall” mailing list.
We’ve known the name and general outlines of the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021 since the Biden administration’s first moments. On February 18, the actual 353-page text of the Democrats’ flagship immigration reform bill went public in the House and Senate. The bill’s principal sponsors, who coordinated closely with the administration, are Sen. Bob Menendez (D-New Jersey) and Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-California), who introduced it with a press conference.
This is the most comprehensive legislative attempt at immigration reform since a 2013 bill that passed the Democratic-majority Senate, with many concessions to Republicans, only to fail in a Republican-majority House. It would provide a path to citizenship for most currently undocumented people in the United States, resolve the situation of “Dreamers” and TPS holders, overhaul asylum and refugee law, and much else.
The bill’s passage is far from assured. It would need unanimous Democratic support in the Senate, and while the filibuster remains in place, at least 10 Republican votes. The administration has indicated it is open to the idea of breaking the bill up into pieces.
The U.S. Citizenship Act’s U.S.-Mexico border-related provisions include:
Rep. Sanchez has filed the bill in the House, and Sen. Menendez will do so next week, when the Senate comes back in session.
The new administration’s most visible change to the immigration system gets underway at the border on February 19. The process of winding down the Trump-era “Remain in Mexico” policy, known formally as Migration Protection Protocols (MPP), is to begin at the San Ysidro port of entry south of San Diego.
With the Mexican government’s acquiescence, since January 2019 MPP forced over 70,000 non-Mexican asylum seekers to await their U.S. hearing dates on Mexican soil. This often meant waiting in border towns, under impoverished and unsafe conditions. About 25,000 people still have open cases; many have been waiting since 2019. In January the Biden administration halted new admissions into MPP (though ports of entry remain closed to asylum seekers and most apprehended migrants are still expelled under pandemic measures), and began setting up a procedure for MPP subjects to finish the asylum process while living in the United States with relatives or sponsors.
That process will involve online registration at a site (not active yet) run by the UN Refugee Agency and other international organizations. Asylum seekers will be prioritized according to how long they’ve been waiting or other “acute vulnerabilities.” When CBP is able to process them, they will be called to a staging area near one of three ports of entry (San Ysidro/San Diego, California; El Paso, Texas; or Brownsville, Texas) where the International Organization for Migration will test them for COVID-19 while still in Mexico. Processing will involve transferring asylum seekers’ cases to courts in interior U.S. cities where they plan to stay. Homeland Security Secretary Ali Mayorkas says that the plan is to scale up to processing about 300 people per day at each port. (WOLA this week offered a list of recommendations for the U.S. and Mexican governments to guarantee a fair and safe process.)
The record cold that blacked out most of Texas took a toll on those “remaining in Mexico.” At a makeshift camp across from Brownsville in Matamoros, “tents made out of blue tarp have iced over” and “water used for cooking and bathing has also frozen,” ABC News reported. “There is a real concern for frostbite, hypothermia,” nurse practitioner Andrea Leiner of Global Response, which has been attending to people at the camp, told the Dallas Morning News. “People don’t want to move to a shelter with a roof. They are afraid they will lose their spot in the MPP line.”
The “Remain in Mexico” wind-down has its critics. Though Arizona’s ports of entry are not involved, Governor Doug Ducey, a Republican, wrote to Mayorkas complaining of “the hasty announcement” and “the lack of details provided to stakeholders in a border state.” Alan Bersin, a top Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official during the Clinton and Obama administrations, told the Associated Press that the move—which he said owes to “such a pressing sense in the advocate community that is controlling the Biden immigration agenda”—will draw more migrants to the border.
Some Democratic members of Congress, Politico reported, also worry about triggering a spike in migration by going too fast on immigration reform and dismantling Trump’s measures. Though he says he backs reforms, Rep. Vicente González (D-Texas), whose district borders Mexico, told the publication, “The way we’re doing it right now is catastrophic and is a recipe for disaster in the middle of a pandemic… Biden is going to be dealing with a minority in Congress if he continues down some of these paths.”
Most Trump-era restrictions on new asylum seekers, including pandemic “expulsions,” remain in place. Nonetheless, reports point to a recent jump in northbound migration through Mexico. This owes to perceptions, fed by smugglers, that the Biden administration will go easier on migrants. It also owes to a loosening of countries’ pandemic travel restrictions, and grave security and economic conditions worsened by COVID-19 and two severe November hurricanes in Central America.
The Mexican government’s National Migration Institute (INM) reported collaborating with military, police, and National Guard agents, on more than 50 raids since January 25 on the “La Bestia” cargo trains that often carry migrants, apprehending 1,189 people, 30 percent of them minors. Authorities apprehended hundreds of migrants at a time in the cargo containers of tractor-trailers on highways in Chiapas, Veracruz and Nuevo León. Associated Press interviews with migrant shelter and legal aid personnel in the southern Mexican cities of Tenosique, Palenque, and Tapachula found all experiencing a sharp increase in demand over 2020; the “La 72” shelter in Tenosique, Tabasco, “has hosted nearly 1,500 migrants” so far in 2021, “compared to 3,000 all of last year.” Further south, AP notes, Panama’s January reopening of its border with South America has led to “some 1,500 migrants spread across various camps.”
At the U.S. border, Border Patrol agents in the Yuma sector of Arizona and California have apprehended 28 migrant children under 13 years of age since January 1, more than twice the number for the same period in the record-breaking year of 2019. The Wall Street Journal reported that DHS dropped off 341 migrant family members—many of them Cuban, Haitian, or Venezuelan—during the last week of January at a migrant shelter in remote Del Rio, Texas, and that in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, “an IOM-sponsored hotel housing migrants during the pandemic has been at capacity for the past few weeks.”
The statement from Mexico’s INM sees the change in U.S. administration as a key factor behind the increase: “In interviews with the Institute, the people who travel on these trains have stated that, given the change in immigration policy by the new U.S. government, they feel encouraged to reach northern Mexico by various routes.”
I’ll be hard to contact today. (How to contact me)
I’m finishing up a border update, then have an internal check-in meeting, two coalition meetings, a meeting with a State Department official, a podcast recording, and a one-on-one with a colleague. I probably won’t be able to respond to messages until the weekend.
Para agilizar la implementación de los PDET, es necesaria la expedición de las hojas de ruta y hoy solo se han expedido 3 de las 16 que se requieren
En Colombia se sigue matando a líderes sociales. Bogotá acusa de ello a “grupos criminales”. Para Washington, la causa radica en la “ineficaz implementación del Acuerdo de Paz”. Biden le pide explicaciones a Duque
La JEP establece que por lo menos 6.402 personas fueron muertas ilegítimamente para ser presentadas como bajas en combate en todo el territorio nacional entre 2002 y 2008
En el borrador de decreto del Ministerio de Justicia se ratifica que la decisión del regreso del Glifosato es del Consejo Nacional de Estupefacientes (CNE)
Esta cifra se aleja considerablemente del informe que entregó la Fiscalía General de la Nación a la JEP, en la que sólo se registraban 2.248 víctimas, entre 1988 y 2014
“Hay que decir que en Venezuela hay 6 millones de migrantes colombianos y nunca han necesitado un tratado provisional de protección, ninguna payasería de las Duque está inventando para lavarse la cara”
Cuba is floating the idea of enticing tourists to its shores with the irresistible cocktail of sun, sand and a shot of Sovereign 2
These links between the congressional vice president’s brother and Los Huistas show how one of the country’s main criminal groups continues to enjoy proximity to the highest echelons of power
The military paraphernalia deployed to stop the caravan once again fueled nationalism and fantasies of security in the face of foreign threats. Immigration militarization in Mexico is not new
Las fuerzas armadas de hoy son las mismas del régimen autoritario. Ni siquiera se reformó la ley para que fueran civiles los encargados de las secretarías de Defensa y de Marina, como ocurre en las democracias avanzadas
After a year of pandemic-induced paralysis, those in daily contact with migrants believe the flow north could return to the high levels seen in late 2018 and early 2019
The 13 border security companies’ executives and top employees contributed three times more to Joe Biden ($5,364,994) than to Donald Trump ($1,730,435)
Local officials and aid groups say they haven’t seen such large releases of migrants since 2019, when U.S. border officials were overwhelmed by migrant families
“Biden is going to be dealing with a minority in Congress if he continues down some of these paths,” said one Democratic congressman
I’m most reachable from mid-afternoon to end of day. (How to contact me)
I’m writing on a deadline about the border this morning, with an eye on the likely introduction of the Biden administration’s big border-migration legislation. I have one or two border coalition meetings in the early afternoon, then I hope to be doing less urgent work for the rest of the day.
Brazil’s ruinous political leadership, economic mismanagement, and COVID-19 crisis are simply bringing the country’s long-standing challenges into ever-sharper relief
As part of a 2019 agreement with the US, Brazil is looking to expand its space base, but it could mean evicting hundreds of Black families from their ancestral lands
Rodrigo Londoño ‘Timochenko’, pidió que les dieran un espacio en la alianza de partidos de izquierda que empezó a armarse desde el año pasado para las elecciones del 2022
Álvarez was a translator and business partner of Jordan Goudreau, the former American Green Beret
I am perplexed and disappointed that the Ambassador’s office would put out inaccurate quotes and attribute them to me. This is a first in my 15 years in Congress and this incident will unfortunately force me to reassess how I engage with El Salvador’s Ambassador
The United States has for years exported the control of migratory routes to Mexico and Central America. The repression of the most recent Honduran migrant caravan highlights this shift, but the effort began much earlier, during the Obama administration
Less well known is how mining and natural resource extraction in some areas exacerbate violence and climate change impacts, spurring localized migration
Keyla Martínez, a 26-year-old student, died of asphyxiation when she was being held alone in a police cell. But many don’t buy the police line that she committed suicide
The party that has governed Honduras since 2010 has become a federation that welcomes politicians and officials involved in criminal businesses ranging from timber to drug trafficking to the misappropriation of public funds
El INM también responsabiliza a la llegada a la Casa Blanca de Joe Biden del incremento del flujo hacia Estados Unidos
Critics say it reveals the pitfalls of governments seeking to gather more citizen data for law enforcement purposes
Individuals should not take any action at this time and should remain where they are to await further instructions
U.S. law makes it very difficult to seize land from private landowners, which the federal government needed to do to build the wall
304 hombres y 25 mujeres; al hacer el desglose por ocupación, se cuentan 206 civiles y 123 efectivos castrenses
I’m all booked up today. (How to contact me)
I won’t be setting any productivity records today. There’s a 2-hour all-hands staff planning meeting this morning, then I’m in a planning meeting for our border work. In the afternoon I look forward to being on a panel to discuss changes in U.S. policy at an event put on by Colombian human rights organizations. Then in the evening it’s an online event at my kid’s school. This seven-plus hours of Zoom time will make me hard to contact today.
While previous attempts at massive immigration reform have failed under both Republican and Democratic administrations, the Biden White House has signaled support for breaking the legislation into pieces
Brazil’s pro-gun president announced four presidential decrees designed to facilitate legal access to weapons on Saturday morning, as the country’s coronavirus death toll swelled
In the early hours of February 2, the Brazilian Air Force (FAB, in Portuguese) multi-mission KC-390 aircraft dropped paratroopers in joint flights with U.S. Air Force C-17 and C-130 aircraft during Operation Culminating, in Alexandria, Louisiana
Militares y policías peruanos han impedido el ingreso desde Brasil de unos 380 migrantes, en su mayoría haitianos, a través de un puente binacional en la Amazonía, informó el lunes el Comando Conjunto de las Fuerzas Armadas
Multiple sources consulted by InSight Crime in Washington DC and Central America say that creating an institution similar to the CICIG will be complicated and believe that the Biden administration will first resort to other strategies
On January 12, Chilean President Sebastián Piñera signed a decree that enables support of the Armed Forces in border control to combat illegal migration
Un hecho que sigue ocupando un lugar de primer orden en las preocupaciones, es la persistente amenaza y el recurrente asesinato de li?deres sociales, defensores de derechos humanos y de excombatientes de las FARC
Deja en manos de la justicia establecer si hay lugar a sanciones para los exmiembros de la guerrilla al no haber entregado la totalidad del inventario en el plazo establecido
En la Sierra Nevada y en la Troncal del Caribe del Magdalena, donde operó su Bloque Resistencia Tayrona, muchos lo ven todavía como ‘El patrón’
The Cuba Study Group document, obtained by the Herald ahead of its public release on Tuesday, encourages the new administration to abandon the “centerpiece policy of regime change” for an incremental approach
Bukele puso a manera de ejemplo que “antes quién iba a pensar en sacar un celular en el Centro Histórico (de San Salvador), eso era impensable. Gracias al esfuerzo de la Fuerza Armada hemos dados fuertes golpes al tráfico de drogas”
Únicamente 64 solicitantes de asilo recibieron un empleo a través de la secretaría de Trabajo. De ellos, 63 se encontraban en Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, y uno solo en Tijuana
Installing a hodgepodge of “smart security” technology paid for with reallocated wall cash, together with limited barrier removal in sensitive areas, appears to be the most likely outcome
With people anticipating that Friday is going to open to MPP crossings, people don’t want to move to a shelter with a roof. They are afraid they will lose their spot in the MPP line
This report provides an update on metering lists, asylum seekers, and migrant shelters along the U.S.-Mexico border amid CBP’s asylum processing suspension. It documents approximately 16,250 asylum seekers on waitlists in 9 Mexican border cities
Siete años han transcurrido sin un especialista del área en la conducción del gabinete económico ministerial y del Banco Central. La industria petrolera, las empresas básicas de Guayana, la petroquímica y el sistema eléctrico nacional han tenido a militares totalmente inexpertos
I’ll be hard to reach for most of the day. (How to contact me)
I’m in internal meetings most of the morning, and in the afternoon I’m meeting with a student and have carved out a few hours for writing and for preparing a talk I’m giving tomorrow at a virtual gathering of Colombian NGOs. There will be long stretches today where I’m not able to check or respond to messages. Tomorrow will be similarly packed.
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