(Even more here)

April 25, 2018

Bolivia

• Coletta Youngers, Kathryn Ledebur, “Promoting Gender-Sensitive Drug Policies in Bolivia” (Washington Office on Latin America, April 25, 2018).

These gender-focused initiatives, paired with poverty reduction and increased state support for mothers, contributed to an 84 percent decrease in the number of women incarcerated for drug offenses between 2012 and 2017

Brazil

• Brad Brooks, “Unfazed by Brazil’s Army, Rio Drug Gangs Willing to Wait Out Occupation” (Reuters **, April 25, 2018).

Their viewpoint reveals organizations that are unapologetic for their criminal activities but not likely to attack a military they see as a temporary inconvenience, at worst

Colombia

 

• Juan Esteban Lewin, “Los Indicadores de Villegas No Reflejan el Desastre en las Regiones” (La Silla Vacia (Colombia), April 25, 2018).

El panorama es mucho menos alentador que el retratado ayer por Villegas en el Congreso. En estas regiones, la gente que entrevistamos siente que la oportunidad que abrió el Acuerdo con las Farc de construir la paz se está diluyendo

• ““Ivan Marquez” No Ocupara su Curul en el Senado el Proximo 20 de Julio” (El Espectador (Colombia), April 25, 2018).

El exnegociador de la guerrilla en los diálogos de paz manifestó que si la crisis del proceso continúa permanecerá en la vereda Miravalle, San Vicente del Caguán

Colombia, Ecuador

• “La Incertidumbre de los Familiares del Equipo de el Comercio Continua” (Plan V (Ecuador), April 25, 2018).

Para familiares como Ricardo Rivas, hermano del fotoperiodista asesinado, la gestión del Gobierno fue un fracaso, ya que no se logró la liberación con vida de sus allegados. Ahora reclaman la repatriación de los cuerpos

Guatemala

• Felipe Puerta, “Arrest of Colonel With ms13 Ties Reveals Sophisticated Gang Tactics” (InsightCrime, April 25, 2018).

The case of Salvador de León is the first in which an army colonel has been implicated as a key player in the money laundering operations of a gang

Mexico

• Alicia A. Caldwell, “Prosecutors Weigh Whether to Retry Border Patrol Agent in Killing of Mexican Teenager” (The Wall Street Journal, April 25, 2018).

“We will be evaluating whether to seek a retrial on the manslaughter charges,” First Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth A. Strange said

• Todd Miller, “Over 7,000 Bodies Have Been Found at the Us-Mexican Border Since the ’90s” (The Nation, April 25, 2018).

The most likely thing to glimpse along that divide is evidence of the countless billions of dollars that have been spent there over the past 30 years to build the most gigantic border-enforcement apparatus in US history

• Kate Morrissey, “Before Migrant Caravan Reaches Border, 90 Request Asylum at San Ysidro, More Wait Outside” (The San Diego Union-Tribune, April 25, 2018).

The migrant caravan is expected to arrive in Tijuana later this week. It is not yet clear how quickly CBP will be able to process them

• Christopher Sherman, Maria Verza, “Official: Suspect in Killing of Mexican Journalist Arrested” (Associated Press **, April 25, 2018).

Riodoce’s editor said the suspect was arrested in the border city of Tijuana and was a member of an organized crime group. He declined to say which one, but said it had to do with the war that the Sinaloa cartel is in

• “3 Murdered Mexican Film Students Caught in Gang Turf Battle” (Associated Press **, April 25, 2018).

Prosecutors in the western state of Jalisco said late Monday the three were abducted by the Jalisco New Generation Cartel because they were filming a school project at a house used by the rival Nueva Plaza gang

• Ariadna Garcia, ““Me Gustaria Ver un Mexico Mas Seguro”: Roberta Jacobson, Embajadora de Eu” (El Universal (Mexico), April 25, 2018).

En entrevista con EL UNIVERSAL, la diplomática, que dejará la embajada el 5 de mayo próximo, tras dos años de representar a su país, dijo que le habría gustado ver un México más seguro

Nicaragua

• “Nicaragua Releases Some Student Protesters to Lower Tensions” (Associated Press **, April 25, 2018).

With freshly shaved heads and some bearing bruises they said were inflicted by police during their captivity, students were dropped along a highway on the outskirts of the capital

• John Paul Rathbone, Jude Webber, “Nicaragua President Daniel Ortega Rocked by Protests” (The Financial Times (UK), April 25, 2018).

The president retains the support of the armed forces, and protesters have no figurehead to rally behind

Venezuela

• Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida), “Marco Rubio: It’s Time to Hasten Maduro’s Exit From Power” (CNN, April 25, 2018).

The United States should work with the Lima Group countries to coordinate their national-level sanctions with our own growing efforts to target the Maduro regime’s criminal elements

Western Hemisphere Regional

• Bryan Schatz, “New Report Details Dozens of Corrupt Border Patrol Agents—Just as Trump Wants to Hire More” (Mother Jones, April 25, 2018).

CBP employees “have this extraordinary power, and they have a de facto immunity because they have no meaningful oversight and accountability”

• Elizabeth Culliford, “Majority of Americans Support National Guard on Border: Poll” (Reuters **, April 25, 2018).

Fifty-five percent of U.S. adults think deploying the National Guard to the border will be effective in the short term, but only 49 percent think it will be effective in the long term

• “Poverty and Human Rights” (Inter-American Human Rights Commission, April 25, 2018).

This report is a preliminary effort by the IACHR to examine the issue of poverty from a human rights angle. From that perspective, people who live in poverty are no longer considered “recipients of charity” and are treated as rights holders instead

• Miriam Jordan, “U.S. Must Keep Daca and Accept New Applications, Federal Judge Rules” (The New York Times, April 25, 2018).

The judge stayed his decision for 90 days and gave the Department of Homeland Security, which administers the program, the opportunity to better explain its reasoning for canceling it