(Even more here)

July 10, 2018

Western Hemisphere Regional

• Josh Gerstein, “Judge Rejects Trump Request to Alter Agreement on Release of Immigrant Kids” (Politico, July 10, 2018).

Los Angeles-based U.S. District Court Judge Dolly Gee dismissed as “tortured” the Trump administration’s legal argument to get out from under the so-called Flores consent decree

• Alfredo Corchado, David Tarrant, Dianne Solis, “Feds Say They Can Reunite Half of Migrant Children Under 5 With Parents by Court Deadline” (The Dallas Morning News, July 10, 2018).

The Pentagon confirmed last week that Fort Bliss in El Paso could take up to 12,000 undocumented families and Goodfellow Air Force Base in San Angelo could take up to 20,000 minors who crossed the border without a parent

• Manny Fernandez, Miriam Jordan, “Judge Rejects Long Detentions of Migrant Families, Dealing Trump Another Setback” (The New York Times, July 10, 2018).

Judge Dolly M. Gee of the Federal District Court in Los Angeles held that there was no basis to amend a longstanding consent decree that requires children to be released to licensed care programs within 20 days

• Maria Sacchetti, “‘if We’re All Together, I Can Handle It’” (The Washington Post, July 10, 2018).

Asylum seekers like Gomez who arrive at legal entry points — where the Trump administration says they should go — are forced to wait on bridges for hours or days. Some have been turned back before reaching U.S. soil and told to come back later

• Maria Sacchetti, Tony Perry, “More Than 50 Separated Children to Be Reunited With Parents Tuesday” (The Washington Post, July 10, 2018).

About 40 other very young children will not be returned to their parents yet, despite a court-imposed deadline

• “Engel, Frankel Decry Trump Administration Ousting of Female Career Ambassadors for Male Political Appointees” (U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs Democratic Office, July 10, 2018).

In Barbados, Chile, and Uruguay, first-rate female career ambassadors are being pushed aside prior to the end of their term to make way for male political appointees

Colombia

• “Colombia: General Retirado Henry Torres Escalante Pide Perdon a Victimas por Crimenes de Militares” (EFE, El Comercio (Peru), July 10, 2018).

El general retirado del Ejército de Colombia Henry Torres Escalante pidió perdón a las víctimas del conflicto armado en el país durante su audiencia de sometimiento a la Jurisdicción Especial para la Paz

• Jose Miguel Vivanco, “Un Limbo de Impunidad para los Generales” (Human Rights Watch, Semana (Colombia), July 10, 2018).

Las reglas de procedimiento de la Jurisdicción Especial para la Paz (JEP) que aprobó el Congreso la semana pasada minan gravemente la posibilidad de hacer justicia por los crímenes de Estado

• Sara Ruiz, “Ituango Ya se Perdio la Oportunidad de la Paz” (La Silla Vacia (Colombia), July 10, 2018).

Ahora los homicidios casi triplican los de todo el año pasado (en 2017 hubo 14 y en lo que va del 2018 van 41, según datos de la Policía Nacional)

• Anastasia Moloney, “Outgoing Colombian President Calls for End to Mounting Violence Against Activists” (Thomson Reuters Foundation **, July 10, 2018).

Activists are being gunned down at a rate of one every three days in the Latin American country

El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua

• Geraldine Cook, “Honduras, Committed to Interoperability” (Revista Dialogo (U.S. Southern Command), July 10, 2018).

The Honduran Armed Forces reaffirm interagency cooperation with regional partner nations to counter narcotrafficking and other criminal activities Army Major General René Orlando Ponce Fonseca, head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the Honduran Armed Forces, is committed to interagency operations to combat transnational criminal organizations

Guatemala

• Ximena Enriquez, “Could This Prosecutor Become Guatemala’s Next President?” (Americas Quarterly, July 10, 2018).

At 62, she’s not ready to retire. And with the Guatemalan general elections less than a year away, a source close to her team and with knowledge of her plans told AQ she will run for president

Mexico

• Nacha Cattan, “Mexico’s Next President Plans His Own Border Police Force” (Bloomberg, July 10, 2018).

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is planning his own border police force to stop undocumented immigrants, drugs and guns from crossing into the country from Central America

• Erubiel Tirado, “Estado Mayor Presidencial, ¿Extincion, Absorcion… o Gatopardismo?” (Proceso (Mexico), July 10, 2018).

Quizá, en forma tímida o titubeante por las declaraciones posteriores, de concretarse, sea el preámbulo de un cambio sustantivo en las relaciones civiles-militares en México

• Arturo Angel, “Pgr Acumula 486 Casos por Desvio de Recursos, Sin Detenidos o Procesados; Asf No Presenta Denuncias Desde Marzo” (Animal Politico (Mexico), July 10, 2018).

La dependencia no ha podido resolver con éxito algún caso, pese a que hay denuncias que ya tienen hasta diez años de haberse presentado

• Marina Franco, “‘Lo Que Esta de por Medio Es el Hallazgo de los 43 Estudiantes’” (The New York Times, July 10, 2018).

Mauricio Fernández de la Mora, el magistrado que trabajó esta decisión, explicó que “si bien el derecho nacional no regula la creación de un mecanismo extraordinario, no por ello es un impedimento a que este exista y se proponga”

• Anita Isaacs, Anne Preston, “Deporting the American Dream” (The New York Times, July 10, 2018).

Over the course of three weeks our team surveyed and interviewed more than 200 returning Mexican migrants, the vast majority of them deportees

Mexico, Venezuela

• Scott Smith, “Mexico’s New President Could Help Ease Pressure on Venezuela” (Associated Press **, July 10, 2018).

Lopez Obrador has indicated a desire to return to what’s known as the Estrada Doctrine, a stance dating from the 1930s by which Mexico long refused to judge foreign governments for fear of inviting meddling by the U.S.

Nicaragua

• Elízabeth Romero, “Paramilitares Exhiben Armas de Uso Exclusivo del Ejercito de Nicaragua” (La Prensa (Nicaragua), July 10, 2018).

Videos subidos a las redes sociales por la población demostraron las armas de guerra que portaban los paramilitares

• John Otis, “Nicaragua’s Press Defiant in the Face of Arson Attacks and Mob Violence” (Committee to Protect Journalists, July 10, 2018).

Radio Darío workers are, understandably, spooked. About a dozen of them were caught inside the station’s original headquarters on April 20 when it was set on fire by a pro-government mob

South America Regional

• Benjamin Gedan, Christopher Phalen, “Revive South American Union to Rescue Venezuelan Democracy” (Woodrow Wilson Center, The Hill, July 10, 2018).

It has become clear that UNASUR’s implosion has limited the U.S. ability to encourage stricter measures against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro