(Even more here)

March 12, 2018

Colombia

• Gideon Long, “Former Guerrilla to Face Rightwing Senator in Colombia Poll” (The Financial Times (UK), March 12, 2018).

Former leftist guerrilla Gustavo Petro and youthful rightwing senator Iván Duque confirmed the strength of their bids to be Colombia’s next president on Sunday in a historic day of voting

• Francisco Toro, Rodrigo Palau Zea, “As Colombia Votes, the Former Guerrillas Are Rendered Irrelevant” (The Washington Post, March 12, 2018).

Once more, FARC will loom large in foreign-media accounts of the vote and small in Colombian ones

• “La Enorme Deuda Con la Paz Que Recibira el Nuevo Congreso” (Verdad Abierta (Colombia), March 12, 2018).

Los partidos Conservador, Centro Democrático y Cambio Radical, hoy en abierta oposición a lo pactado con las Farc, ostentan 133 de las 278 curules que lo integran

• “Los 42 Congresistas de la Ilegalidad (2018-2022)” (Fundación Paz y Reconciliación (Colombia), March 12, 2018).

De los 70 candidatos cuestionados que la Fundación Paz y Reconciliación-Pares publicó, sólo 28 se quemaron

• ““El Eln Cumplio Con el Cese al Fuego”: Presidente Santos” (Semana (Colombia), March 12, 2018).

Según Santos, la agenda de Quito se retomará con dos puntos que se estaban discutiendo en simultánea: la participación ciudadana, y el de las acciones y gestos humanitarios que se deben dar

Colombia, Peru, Western Hemisphere Regional

• David Jackson, “Trump to Travel to Peru, Colombia in April” (USA Today, March 12, 2018).

Trump will attend the Summit of the Americas to be held in Lima, Peru, on April 14-15

Mexico

• Richard Marosi, “Border Fence Meets a Wall of Skepticism in Tijuana, Where Residents Say U.S.-Mexico Ties Transcend Any Physical Barriers” (The Los Angeles Times, March 12, 2018).

As Trump inspects the prototypes and poses for photos along the border east of San Diego, he’ll be just yards away from a Tijuana slum where people have formulated their own ideas about them

Venezuela

• Ana Isabel Martinez, Andreina Aponte, “For Poor Venezuelans, a Box of Food May Sway Vote for Maduro” (Reuters **, March 12, 2018).

The worse the economy gets, the more dependent some poor Venezuelans become on the state

• David Smilde, “Letter to a Friend on My Left” (Washington Office on Latin America, March 12, 2018).

The Maduro government is not the only government to preside over an economic disaster. What makes it different is that it has violated the people’s rights to choose their leadership