(Even more here)

Western Hemisphere Regional

• “World Report 2022” (Human Rights Watch, January 13, 2022).

Human Rights Watch’s annual report is out. Includes narratives for 15 Latin American and Caribbean countries.

Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras

• “Firearms Trafficking: More Information Is Needed to Inform U.S. Efforts in Central America” (U.S. Government Accountability Office, January 13, 2022).

Between 2015 and 2019 the State Department provided $38.1 million in “capacity-building assistance that may help disrupt firearms trafficking in Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.”

Colombia

• “Press Release on the Quarterly Report of the un Secretary-General to the Security Council on the un Verification Mission in Colombia” (Mision de la ONU en Colombia, January 13, 2022).

The latest quarterly report of the UN monitoring mission in post-accord Colombia finds that 303 ex-FARC members have been killed, out of 13,600 demobilized, since the accord’s late 2016 signing. Murders did drop from 74 in 2020 to 54 in 2021.

El Salvador

• Julia Gavarrete, Daniel Reyes, Oscar Martinez, “22 Members of el Faro Bugged With Spyware Pegasus” (El Faro (El Salvador), January 13, 2022).

The Bukele government appears to be misusing the Pegasus phone-hacking software, produced by the nefarious Israel-based NSO group, against the brave and highly regarded independent media outlet.

U.S.-Mexico Border

• Davis Winkie, “Transcript – Greg Abbott’s Pr Play at the Border” (Slate, January 13, 2022).

The Texas National Guard mission at the border is fully politicized. This use of military personnel “started to change as we got into the fall months and when it appeared certain as well that [Republican Texas Governor Greg] Abbott was going to be facing a primary challenge from the right.”