Miguel Schincariol/AFP/Getty Images photo at The Intercept. Caption: “Demonstrators in favour (R) and against former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva argue during a demo in Sao Paulo, Brazil on July 12, 2017, after he was sentenced to nearly 10 years in prison for graft.”

(Even more here)

January 25, 2018

Brazil

This week’s affirmation of the guilty verdict begins a race by the courts against the electoral calendar

Late on Wednesday, Lula addressed a crowd of thousands of supporters in São Paulo, saying that his conviction had been engineered by upper-class Brazilians

Colombia, Venezuela

“Mi posición es la misma que expresó el Grupo de Lima, rechazar esa convocatoria”

Guatemala

As it has done before, the U.S. should offer both carrots (continued assistance through the Alliance for Prosperity initiative) and sticks (targeted economic sanctions) to fight corruption

Honduras

La Misión contra la Impunidad de la OEA se replantea la continuidad de su trabajo luego de que el Congreso hondureño aprobara una ley que le quita a la misión y a la Fiscalía la potestad de investigar a funcionarios públicos

“We came here to do a serious job … but that’s not possible if there are no clear rules to investigate,” he said, visibly upset

Very few people beyond official circles and his supporters will be celebrating what most Hondurans consider to be a highly flawed and perhaps fraudulent election

Mexico

Where agents and politicians see future walls, they see ladders, ropes and the promise of higher profits

“Las autoridades de los distintos niveles y órdenes de gobierno han fallado en su obligación y responsabilidad de proporcionar niveles mínimos de seguridad a la población que posibiliten el cabal goce de los derechos fundamentales”

Venezuela

Sen. Marco Rubio wants Ambassador Nikki Haley to seek an emergency session on Venezuela in the United Nation’s Security Council

Western Hemisphere Regional

They do not occupy positions of power within the drug trade and have not committed violent crimes, yet across the region the number of women incarcerated for drug offenses is increasing at an alarming rate