So much news, I can’t even keep up. Here’s Friday.

(Even more here)

January 25, 2019

Western Hemisphere Regional

On at least eight occasions in 12 days, Trump has mentioned women with "tape put across their mouths." Human-trafficking experts are perplexed

With larger groups arriving more often, an increasing number of the people agents encountered have also needed to be hospitalized, the agency said

Brazil

Mr. Wyllys has been the target of death threats for years, but he said those threats had become more severe after Marielle Franco, a human rights advocate who was his friend and political ally, was assassinated

Some of Mr Bolsonaro’s supporters are worried. Violence is “going to explode”, warns Plauto de Lima, a former director of state prisons in Ceará

Colombia, Venezuela

Informes de inteligencia y otras investigaciones dan cuenta de su presencia en medio país y sus relaciones con elementos del Estado. ¿Cómo se comportarían en caso de una intervención extranjera?

Colombia

En entrevista con ‘Caracol Radio’ el jefe guerrillero aseguró que volverán al monte, que descartan pedir asilo político

Identificar la presencia y golpear al ELN le llevará tiempo al Gobierno. Lo que está claro es que no se requiere mayor producción de violencia para diezmarlo. La época de los bombardeos quedó atrás y en cambio se requiere una estrategia basada en la inteligencia militar y capturas

Cuba

The historical ties between the United States and Cuba have been far more complex over the past 120 years than hard-line Republicans care to recall — and that American responsibility for Cuba’s current state also runs deep

Guatemala

Para Iván Velásquez que él no regrese o que se acabe con la CICIG permite que grupos de pro-impunidad no tengan consecuencias por los delitos que cometan

La nueva ley de reconciliación impulsada por Linares Beltranena ya se aprobó en primera lectura. En dos sesiones más el Congreso la puede aprobar

Mexico

Durante su convalecencia comenzaron las presiones: bajo amenazas de encarcelarla, enviados del Ejército le arrancaron una firma que quedó plantada en un documento donde ella otorgaba el perdón a los agresores

Immigration authorities were unclear last week about whether the visa offer was temporary, but while it lasts migrants from Central America are continuing to arrive at the border with backpacks on their shoulders

Central America Regional, Mexico

The Mexican government initially said it was speeding up the application process for humanitarian visas as an “exception” for the current migrant caravan only. But on Thursday, a spokeswoman with Mexico’s national migration agency said the expedited process would be permanent

Mexico

Tonatiuh Guillén, who heads Mexico’s immigration agency, said he had not received any communication from the United States about when implementation of the measures would begin

Most of the migrants intend to head for the US, a fact Mexican officials have acknowledged. The "remain" policy could force asylum-seekers to wait in dangerous, cartel-controlled Mexican border towns, notorious for high homicide rates, for up to a year

The provision is ambiguously worded enough that it’s not an open-and-shut case

Venezuela

The opposition has been targeting the middle ranks, holding meetings with midlevel officers to explain a recent amnesty law passed by the opposition-led National Assembly for people who defect

El diputado de la Asamblea Nacional (AN), Julio Borges, afirmó que varios de los oficiales de la Fuerza Armada Nacional Bolivariana (FANB), se han puesto en contacto con la oposición venezolana pese a las recientes declaraciones de los generales chavistas

The international community must advance a democratic, non-violent solution to Venezuela’s crisis that leads to free and fair elections

Where in the past the United States might have felt isolated in Latin America, this time it has company

Venezuela has consistently been the third- or fourth-largest supplier of crude oil to the United States, and any disruption of imports would be costly

Provea aseguró que el asesinato de las 16 personas durante las manifestaciones de 2019 eleva a 231 el total de fallecidos en acciones de calle durante la “era Maduro”

Yevgeny Shabayev, leader of a local chapter of a paramilitary group of Cossacks with ties to Russian military contractors, said he had heard the number of Russian contractors in Venezuela may be about 400

Elliott Abrams is coming aboard to lead our efforts on Venezuela

The reluctance of defense officials to discuss even the position of U.S. military assets underscored the Pentagon’s desire to avoid escalating a potentially explosive situation in a region where the United States has limited military weight