(Even more here)

May 8, 2018

Brazil, Venezuela

• Chris Feliciano Arnold, “Stop Enslavement of Venezuelan Refugees in Brazil” (The New York Times, May 8, 2018).

Bosses from remote fazendas — large ranches — scout the camps, making false promises about room, board and wages to abscond with laborers to farms and mines

Central America Regional

• Dara Lind, “Trump’s Dhs Is Using an Extremely Dubious Statistic to Justify Splitting Up Families at the Border” (Vox, May 8, 2018).

The administration isn’t claiming that apprehensions in the El Paso sector rose less compared to other parts of the border as a result of zero tolerance. It’s claiming they dropped by nearly two-thirds. And that’s simply not the case

Colombia

• “Se Embolata Adjudicacion de Tierras para la Farc” (Verdad Abierta (Colombia), May 8, 2018).

Luego de recibir duros cuestionamientos de la Sociedad de Agricultores de Colombia, el gobierno nacional congeló la expedición del decreto que le daría vía libre a la entrega de tierras para los excombatientes

• “Jalon de Orejas de Timochenko a Exguerrilleros Tras Crimen en Arauca” (El Tiempo (Colombia), May 8, 2018).

Si bien el jefe del partido Farc dice que Misael estaba en actividades “honradas”, agrega que estas “sin duda lo colocaron en una situación de alto riesgo”

• “La Comision de la Verdad Hara Presencia en Todo el Territorio Nacional” (El Espectador (Colombia), May 8, 2018).

Las personas que integran dicho organismo anunciaron que estarán en 10 macrorregiones, 26 lugares y tendrán comisiones móviles

• Joe Parkin Daniels, “Colombian Army Killed Thousands More Civilians Than Reported, Study Claims” (The Guardian (Uk), May 8, 2018).

According to authors Omar Rojas Bolaños and Fabian Leonardo Benavides, approximately 10,000 civilians were executed by the army between 2002 and 2010 – more than three times the number tallied by human rights groups

Colombia, Cuba

• “Gobierno y Eln Inician Ciclo de Dialogos en Cuba” (El Espectador (Colombia), May 8, 2018).

A 20 días de las elecciones Presidenciales, Gobierno y guerrilla instalan el quinto ciclo de negociaciones de paz con el objetivo de concretar un acuerdo de cese bilateral del fuego y definir el mecanismo de participación de la sociedad civil

Colombia, Venezuela

• Teresa Welsh, “Us Announces Additional $18.5m for Venezuela Response While Calling for Regime Change” (Devex, May 8, 2018).

The $18.5 million in bilateral aid to Colombia is on top of the more than $21 million the U.S. has already pledged to governments and organizations in the region dealing with the fallout

El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras

• Joshua Partlow, Nick Miroff, Seung Min Kim, “U.S. Embassy Cables Warned Against Expelling 300,000 Immigrants. Trump Officials Did It Anyway.” (The Washington Post, May 8, 2018).

The warnings were transmitted to top State Department officials last year in embassy cables now at the center of an investigation by Senate Democrats

Honduras

• “Gobierno de Honduras Crea la Fuerza Nacional Antimaras y Pandillas” (El Heraldo (Honduras), May 8, 2018).

“La experiencia de la Fuerza Nacional Antiextorsión nos ha inspirado para saber cómo coordinar efectivamente para lo que viene para las próximas semanas y meses”, señaló Hernández

Mexico

• Arturo Solis, “Armas Ilegales en Mexico, un Mercado Negro de 100 Mdd” (Forbes, May 8, 2018).

“Por cada arma confiscada hay 15 que no (…) Si las armas duran en promedio 12 años de vida útil, estamos hablando de al menos 3.6 millones de armas en circulación en el país”

• “Candidatos Dan Ante Victimas su Postura Sobre Ley de Seguridad, Mariguana y Fiscalia” (Animal Politico (Mexico), May 8, 2018).

Estas son las propuestas que expusieron Ricardo Anaya (PAN-PRD-MC), Andrés Manuel López Obrador (Morena-PT-PES), el independiente Jaime Rodríguez y el candidato del PRI-PVEM-Panal, José Antonio Meade

• Gloria Leticia DÍaz, “Activistas Contra la Tortura Acusan a Gobierno de Pena Ante la Cidh por “Campana de Desprestigio”” (Proceso (Mexico), May 8, 2018).

Las activistas acusaron que “el Estado mexicano ha estigmatizado y desprestigiado a las víctimas, así como aquellos que ejercen la labor de defensa de los derechos humanos”

• Aaron Nelsen, “Tamaulipas Begins First-of-Its-Kind Exhumation of Drug War Victims” (The San Antonio Express-News, May 8, 2018).

In a state dotted with mass graves and the highest number of disappearances in Mexico — officially 5,989, though many say the actual number is far higher — the project has rekindled hope and stirred traumatic memories

Venezuela

• Fabiola Zerpa, Noris Soto, “Venezuelan Soldiers Desert in Droves With Presidential Election Ahead” (Bloomberg, May 8, 2018).

High desertion rates at bases in Caracas and the countryside are complicating security plans for the presidential election in 13 days

Western Hemisphere Regional

• Ellen Mitchell, “Guard Border Deployment Creates Issues for Pentagon” (The Hill, May 8, 2018).

House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) has voiced concerns that the deployments would take away dollars that the Pentagon has said are needed to make the military more ready for combat

• Ted Hesson, “Trump Administration to Step Up Family Separation at the Border” (Politico, May 8, 2018).

Administration officials worried they wouldn’t have the resources to detain thousands more people arriving at the border, as well as house children split from their parents

• Perla Trevizo, “Arizona Federal Courts Too Busy to Add More Border-Crosser Cases, Chief Judge Says” (The Arizona Daily Star, May 8, 2018).

He was responding to the U.S. attorney general’s announcement that the Department of Homeland Security is now referring 100 percent of unauthorized border crossings for prosecution

• Molly Hennessy-Fiske, “Migrants, Young and Old, Are Not Always Related. Border Patrol Says Fear of Child Trafficking Forces Separations” (The Los Angeles Times, May 8, 2018).

In Texas’ Rio Grande Valley, where most families have been crossing the border in the last five years, the Border Patrol reported 462 cases of fraud among children and family migrants and prosecuted 60 cases this fiscal year