(Even more here)

January 23, 2023

Brazil

• Jon Lee Anderson, “After Bolsonaro, Can Lula Remake Brazil?” (The New Yorker, January 23, 2023).

A lengthy, sympathetic profile of a president who “seemed a little overwhelmed by the prospects he faced in his mission to save Brazil”

Colombia

• Karen Vanessa Quintero Martinez, “¿por Que el Camino Hacia la Paz en Colombia Pasa por las Vias Terciarias?” (El Espectador (Colombia), January 23, 2023).

Analysis of the Petro government’s plan to invest heavily in “tertiary” farm-to-market roads

• Camilo Pardo Quintero, “¿Esta Debilitada la Unidad para la Implementacion del Acuerdo de Paz?” (El Espectador (Colombia), January 23, 2023).

A decree shifting around the Petro government’s peace-related org chart appears to demote the unit in charge of implementing the 2016 peace accord

• “Comunicado Conjunto No. 3” (Presidencia de Colombia, January 23, 2023).

“Successful result” of an originally unprogrammed round of talks in Caracas, say government and ELN negotiators

• “El 2022 Marco un Lamentable Record de Homicidios a Lideres Sociales y Personas Defensoras de Derechos Humanos” (Defensoria del Pueblo (Government of Colombia), January 23, 2023).

The Human RIghts Ombudsman counts 215 human rights defenders killed in Colombia in 2022

• Camilo Alzate Gonzalez, Natalia Romero Penuela, “Asi Fue la Caravana del Gobierno y Eln para Oir el Drama de Guerra en el Pacifico” (El Espectador (Colombia), January 23, 2023).

A detailed report-back from government and ELN representatives’ five-day visit to southern Chocó and northern Valle del Cauca

Mexico

• Tim Golden, “U.S. Investigators Uncovered Alleged Corruption by Mexico’s Former Security Minister Years Before He Was Indicted” (ProPublica, January 23, 2023).

It “may prove to be one of the more remarkable intelligence failures of the drug war”

• Veronica Martinez, “Los Migrantes Varados en Ciudad Juarez Intentan Sobrevivir en un Pais-Sala-de-Espera” (La Verdad de Juárez (Mexico), SinEmbargo (Mexico), January 23, 2023).

“Many of the migrants expelled by the United States through Ciudad Juárez wander the streets in search of help to survive, staying at the border in the hope of crossing the border”

• Sarah Kinosian, “In Mexico, a Reporter Published a Story. The Next Day He Was Shot Dead” (Reuters, Reuters, January 23, 2023).

13 Mexican journalists were killed last year, and the impunity rate for journalist killings is around 89 percent

Peru

• Samantha Schmidt, “Protesters Flood Peru’s Capital to Demand President Step Down” (The Washington Post, January 23, 2023).

Peru’s security forces failed to de-escalate protests, and they’re escalating. “We can no longer reach a dialogue, because many people have died”

• Dan Collyns, “Police Violently Raid Lima University and Shut Machu Picchu Amid Peru Unrest” (The Guardian (Uk), January 23, 2023).

“Scores of police raided a Lima university on Saturday, smashing down the gates with an armoured vehicle, firing teargas and detaining more than 200 people”

U.S.-Mexico Border

• “Cbp Releases December 2022 Monthly Operational Update” (U.S. Customs and Border Protection, January 23, 2023).

“The number of unique individuals encountered nationwide in December 2022 was 225,797, a 10 percent increase in the number of unique enforcement encounters than the prior month”

• Marianna Sotomayor, Theodoric Meyer, “Early Rift Over Immigration Exposes House Gop’s Tough Path to Consensus” (The Washington Post, January 23, 2023).

House Republican moderates balk at hardline border and migration legislation

• Greg Sargent, “One of Maga’s Biggest Fantasies Faces a Brutal Reality Check” (The Washington Post, January 23, 2023).

Republican hardliners’ line that there’d be no immigration reform without full border security is crumbling

• Eileen Sullivan, “Top Border Patrol Official Resigned Amid Allegations of Improper Conduct” (The New York Times, January 23, 2023).

Tony Barker, the acting chief of the Border Patrol’s law enforcement operations directorate, resigned in October amid some nasty allegations

• Kate Morrissey, “Asylum Seekers in Tijuana Are Scrambling Through Mobile App Error Messages for Few Appointments Into the U.S.” (The San Diego Union-Tribune, January 23, 2023).

The buggy, janky rollout of CBP’s app has highlighted discrepancies between migrants seeking exemptions to Title 42

• Valerie Gonzalez, “Language Barriers, Tech Glitches Impacting Access to New Us Asylum App” (The Monitor, January 23, 2023).

A report from Matamoros on the CBP One app’s clunky rollout for asylum seekers hoping for Title 42 exemptions

• Yael Schacher, “Biden’s Announced Asylum Transit Ban Undermines Access to Life-Saving Protection” (Refugees International, The Washington Post, January 23, 2023).

The Biden administration’s proposed asylum ban walks back more generous language written when asylum seekers were more White and European

Venezuela, Western Hemisphere Regional

• “Carolina Jimenez: “There Is a Democratic Deficit That Has Been Deepening in the Americas”” (PROVEA (Venezuela), January 23, 2023).

WOLA’s Carolina Jiménez on the rise of authoritarianism in the Americas