(Even more here)

August 7, 2018

Brazil

• “Brazil: Bolsonaro Puts Military General as Vp on Election Ticket” (Al Jazzeera, August 7, 2018).

Last year, Mourao controversially expressed support for a military intervention into politics in order to clean up Brazil’s mounting social problems

Brazil, Venezuela

• Anthony Boadle, “Brazilian Judge Orders Border Closed to Venezuelan Immigrants” (Reuters **, August 7, 2018).

Federal judge Helder Barreto on Sunday ordered the border closed until the frontier state of Roraima can create “humanitarian” conditions to receive the massive and disorderly influx. But the injunction has not gone into effect yet

Colombia

• Maureen Orth, “She Was Colombia’s Most-Feared Female Revolutionary. Can She Help It Find Peace?” (Vanity Fair, August 7, 2018).

Having been a national symbol of fear and hatred, Karina says she would welcome the chance to serve as a beacon of reconciliation

• , Matthew Bristow, “‘Peace’ Brings More Murder and Cocaine to Colombia’s Rebel Zones” (Bloomberg, August 7, 2018).

Where once there was brutal — but clear — rebel rule, there is today a cacophony of drug-trafficking mafias

• Manuel Rueda, “Incoming Colombia President Faces Long List of Challenges” (Associated Press, The Washington Post, August 7, 2018).

Duque’s dependence on Uribe has sparked concern from critics, though analysts believe the former leader’s mounting legal troubles could provide the incoming president a new degree of independence

Guatemala

• Jo-Marie Burt, Paulo Estrada, “The Molina Theissen Judgment, Part Ii: The Court’s Handling of Defense Arguments” (International Justice Monitor, Open Society Foundations, August 7, 2018).

The court rejected the defense attorneys’ claims that the court was acting on the basis of ideological biases, and/or hatred of or feelings of revenge toward the armed forces

Mexico

• John Holman, “Mexico Police Officers ‘Underpaid, Under-Equipped’” (Al Jazzeera, August 7, 2018).

Half of the 10 retired or active officers who agreed to speak to Al Jazeera, admitted that in their force some sort of quota system existed

Nicaragua

• Maynor Salazar, “Orteguismo Juzga a 132 Presos Politicos” (Confidencial (Nicaragua), August 7, 2018).

En el mes de julio la bancada del FSLN en la Asamblea Nacional aprobó dos leyes para perseguir y criminalizar a ciudadanos, opositores, empresarios y organizaciones sin fines de lucro

• Kirk Semple, “‘There’s No Law’: Political Crisis Sends Nicaraguans Fleeing” (The New York Times, August 7, 2018).

There is already a sense that order is fragile, and that an anarchic slide has already begun

Venezuela

• Jon Lee Anderson, “An Assassination Attempt by Drone Is Just the Latest Moment of Chaos in Venezuela” (The New Yorker, August 7, 2018).

The drone attack, while certainly original and attention-getting, carried with it an air of amateurish improvisation, and it spectacularly failed to accomplish its apparent objective

• Nicholas Casey, “Venezuela Is in Crisis but Its President Might Be Stronger for It” (The New York Times, August 7, 2018).

Many are now wondering whether he hasn’t only held on in spite of the disasters, but perhaps, by some measure, because of them

Western Hemisphere Regional

• Noah Lanard, “The Spike in Immigration Prosecutions Is Causing Other Crimes to Go Unpunished” (Mother Jones, August 7, 2018).

TRAC concluded that unless non-immigration crime is “suddenly less prevalent” than before, the figures imply that more non-immigration crimes in the border regions are going unprosecuted