(Even more here)

(Abridged version, since I’m traveling)

October 25, 2022

Western Hemisphere Regional

• Joshua Goodman, “Org. Of American States Boss Slammed Over Watchdog’s Removal” (Associated Press, Associated Press, October 25, 2022).

The head of the Organization of American States unfairly maligned the reputation of a Brazilian lawyer who he abruptly fired as the region’s top human rights watchdog, according to a new administrative ruling

• Angelica Duran-Martinez, “Dilemas y Posibilidades de Negociar Con Grupos Criminales en America Latina” (Universidad de Massachusetts Lowell, LASA Forum, October 25, 2022).

Desde la perspectiva de construcción de paz, una negociación podría ser exitosa si transforma las condiciones que hacen que muchas personas se involucren en actividades ilícitas y usen la violencia entre ellos y contra las comunidades de las que forman parte

• Benjamin Lessing, “Hiding in Plain Sight: The Puzzling Pervasiveness and Persistence of Criminal Governance” (University of Chicago, LASA Forum, October 25, 2022).

It likely plays a key supporting role in urbanization and economic development, which would become unviable if peripheries were permanently anarchic

Colombia, Venezuela

• “Letter to Colombian President Gustavo Petro on the Restablishment of Diplomatic Relations With the Nicolas Maduro Government” (Human Rights Watch, October 25, 2022).

Colombia’s engagement with Venezuela should not be seen as a reason to be silent about human rights violations and the country’s humanitarian crisis

El Salvador

• Christopher Sherman, “Prison Deaths Mount in el Salvador’s Gang Crackdown” (Associated Press, Associated Press, October 25, 2022).

At least 80 people arrested under the state of exception have succumbed without being convicted of anything

• Soudi Jimenez, “El Salvador President Bukele’s Reelection Bid Stokes l.A. Immigrants’ Fears of New Civil War” (The Los Angeles Times, October 25, 2022).

Some fear that El Salvador is replicating the oppressive conditions that touched off its brutal 12-year civil war (1980-92) between leftist guerrillas and the U.S.-backed right-wing military government

U.S.-Mexico Border

• Claudia Torrens, Vanessa A. Alvarez, “Us Border Patrol Sends Migrants Places Where No Help Waits” (Associated Press, Associated Press, October 25, 2022).

The snafus suggest a pattern of Border Patrol agents, particularly in Texas, sending migrants without friends or family in the United States to offices that get no notice

U.S.-Mexico Border, Venezuela

• David Shortell, Julie Turkewitz, “Venezuelans Who Left Everything Behind Are Stuck South of U.S. Border” (The New York Times, October 25, 2022).

They have sold their belongings and trekked across a deadly jungle. Now, tens of thousands Venezuelan migrants are stranded south of the United States, with nowhere to go