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

October 2023

October 3, 2023 — 0

Lawless Lands: Where Colombia’s Justice System Has Not Arrived

Colombia’s judicial system has 9.65 judges per 100,000 inhabitants of the country. In the 170 barely governed municipalities hardest-hit by the country’s armed conflict, which the 2016 peace accord selected for investment in “Territorially Focused Development Programs” (PDET), the number falls to 7.70 judges per 100,000 inhabitants.

That’s one of hundreds of findings of a thorough September 25 report on fulfillment of the 2016 FARC peace accord’s commitments, published by the Peace Committee of Colombia’s Congress together with the Bogotá-based Ideas for Peace Foundation. The report paints a mixed but often disappointing picture of accord compliance overall.

It notes that 9.65 judges (or fewer) is really bad: “in the other Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) member countries, the average is 65 judges per 100,000 inhabitants.”

In some of the PDET zones, the lack of judicial presence is especially dire.

Sur de Córdoba 3.18 - Número de jueces: 9 Catatumbo 3.61 - Número de jueces: 7 Alto Patía y Norte del Cauca 4.32 - Número de jueces: 36
Southern Córdoba, left, is where soldiers, apparently posing as FARC dissidents, were caught on video last month threatening a town’s inhabitants. Catatumbo, center, is Colombia’s number-one coca-growing region. Northern Cauca, right, is notorious for human rights defender killings and has seen very frequent recent combat incidents. The absence of the justice system has consequences.

Under those circumstances, who settles disputes for people, enforces rules, and imposes sanctions when those rules are broken? Sometimes, the answer is “nobody,” but more often, the answer is “armed and criminal groups.”

October 2, 2023 — 0

Mexico’s Asylum Applications Are on a Record-Breaking Pace

The director of the Mexican government’s Refugee Aid Commission (COMAR) just shared on ex-Twitter that 112,960 people sought asylum in Mexico’s protection system during the first 9 months of 2023.

The tweet reads, “At the end of September, COMAR had registered 112,960 applicants for refugee status in Mexico. This figure exceeds by 26.39% the historical mark for the same period established in 2021. With this trend, the number of applicants will exceed 150,000 by the end of the year.”

Here’s how Mexico’s asylum applications during the first nine months of 2023 compare with the first nine months of the previous five years. It’s not even close.

October 2, 2023 — 0

Connected to the Fediverse

This site is connected to ActivityPub (the “Fediverse”). That means that on Mastodon, Pleroma, Lemmy, and similarly connected platforms (perhaps including Threads at some point), you can get some version of these posts in your feed. Just search for the account @adamisacson​​@adamisacson.com.

It seems to be working just fine in Mastodon:

October 1, 2023 — 0

E-mail Update Is Out

Here’s a new “weekly” e-mail about stuff I’ve been working on, for those who’ve signed up to receive them.

This one has links or excerpts from the Border Update; a video about migration; some infographics; links about Tamaulipas, Mexico, El Salvador, and a new UN report on the United States; a couple of recent video clips; links to a few recommended articles; some upcoming events; and just a few funny posts from others.

If you visit this site a lot, you probably don’t need an e-mail, too. But if you’d like to get more-or-less regular e-mail updates, scroll to the bottom of this page or click here.

October 1, 2023 — 0

Latin America-Related Events in Washington and Online This Week

(Events that I know of, anyway. All times are U.S. Eastern.)

Tuesday, October 3

  • 11:00-12:30 at IDPC Zoom: In defence of decriminalisation –a baseline upon which to build sustainable drug policy (RSVP required).
  • 2:00-4:00 at brookings.edu: Violent crime in South America (RSVP required).
  • 4:30-5:30 at the Wilson Center and online: ‘Primavera Democrática’: A Conversation with President-Elect Bernardo Arévalo of Guatemala (RSVP required).

Wednesday, October 4

  • 12:00-1:30 at Georgetown University: Elections in Argentina: Will the Country Turn to the Far Right? (RSVP required).
  • 6:00-8:00 at Georgetown University: The Dictator’s Destructions: Facing Pinochet’s Power in Chile (RSVP required).

Thursday, October 5

  • 10:30-12:00 at George Washington University: Expanding South-South Climate Change Collaboration (RSVP required).
  • 11:00-1:00 at atlanticcouncil.org: Advancing Caribbean development through women’s empowerment (RSVP required).
  • 6:30-8:00 at IPS: Inside Biden’s Cuba Policy: Film Screening (RSVP required).
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