Victor J. Blue photo at The New York Times. Caption: “Plantain trees flattened by Hurricane Maria in Yabucoa, P.R. In a matter of hours, the storm destroyed about 80 percent of the crop value in Puerto Rico, the territory’s agriculture secretary said.”

(Even more here)

September 25, 2017

Brazil

After almost a week of intense gun battles between rival drug gangsters and the police, Brazil’s army has been deployed to encircle the sprawling Rocinha favela

The working hypothesis is that our police forces are patchworks of discordant, badly sewn pieces. Specialists and former police functionaries say that many of these pieces are fiefdoms belonging to different officers, fertile areas for corruption

Colombia

Las Farc sienten que el Estado no se preparó para la implementación y que su plan llegaba, apenas, hasta la dejación de armas

La Silla Vacía viajó la semana pasada a cuatro zonas y vio que, en efecto, el sueño que tenían los jefes de las Farc de hacer una reincorporación colectiva se está desmoronando

Kevin Whitaker dijo que ese grupo permanecerá en la lista de su país de organizaciones terroristas

Fortalecerá la seguridad de los ciudadanos en los 26 puntos donde funcionaron las zonas veredales

“En teoría, nos queda el resto de año para aprobarlo, pero, en la práctica, tenemos que sacarlo adelante en las próximas semanas”

Lo curioso es que desde el nuevo partido político de esa guerrilla desmovilizada, Frente Alternativo Revolucionario del Común -Farc-, se señaló a varios de los preseleccionados como de derecha

Donald Trump es un presidente no muy diplomático que habla bruscamente, pero no sólo con Colombia

Colombia’s coca cultivation boom is not only being blamed for increased cocaine consumption in the United States, it is also being held responsible for an alleged growth in local demand in Colombia. But the evidence doesn’t stack up

Colombia, Mexico, Western Hemisphere Regional

Brownfield’s statements suggest that confusion and lack of consensus remain within top US government circles concerning the direction of US anti-narcotic policies in Latin America

Mexico

Building inspections have essentially been outsourced to a network of private engineers who are hired and paid for by the developers, creating conflicts of interest

En Filipinas la población cantando el Himno Nacional al pie de los edificios y las casas tumbó una dictadura. Acá tumbaremos esta Pirámide inservible y corrupta

Peru

Both countries agreed to continue working together to take measures to counter Hizballah’s destabilizing activities

Puerto Rico

In a matter of hours, the storm destroyed about 80 percent of the crop value in Puerto Rico

The first thing some villagers ask when they see outsiders: “Are you FEMA?”

Venezuela

Trump’s ban bars the entrance of certain government officials and their immediate families, but not the country’s citizens at large