• Charles Orta, “How Odebrecht Profited From Corrupting Latam Political Elites” (InsightCrime, August 10, 2017).

A useful explainer about the corruption scandal rocking several Latin American nations. The Brazilian company’s pattern of cynicism and shamelessness is so much more shocking when you take the examples together.

• “Honduras Experiments With Charter Cities” (The Economist (Uk), August 11, 2017).

The plan to carve out little libertarian enclaves in Honduras is still going ahead. Externally encouraged libertarianism in Latin America is also the subject of an Intercept piece this week about the U.S.-based Atlas Network.

• Franco Ordonez, “White House Fights With State Over How Far to Go on Venezuela” (McClatchy DC, August 10, 2017).

Diplomats like Undersecretary Tom Shannon, focusing on what unilateral sanctions could achieve, are pushing back on White House efforts to impose them.

• William Finnegan, “How Should the Trump Administration Respond to the Venezuelan Crisis?” (The New Yorker, August 10, 2017).

Referring to Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida): “The foreign policy of a superpower really should be conducted through the institutions built for that purpose, and not by random, ambitious legislators with an axe to grind.”

• Emiliano Castro Saenz, “La Telarana en el Caso Creompaz” (Plaza Publica (Guatemala), August 11, 2017).

In 2012, investigators unearthed 565 bodies buried on a Guatemalan army base. Many if not all were civilian victims of the armed conflict in the 1980s. This article explores why the case has since foundered in Guatemala’s justice system, amid questionable judicial decisions and interminable delays.