(Even more here)

December 17, 2018

Western Hemisphere Regional

• Lomi Kriel, “Proposed Fence in Rio Grande Valley Shows Challenges of Building Trump’s Border ‘Wall’” (The Houston Chronicle, December 17, 2018).

Much of the region is rugged and either privately-owned or under environmental protection and there are doubts about whether such a structure would make a significant difference

• Damian Paletta, Erica Werner, Lisa Rein, “White House Prepares for Shutdown as Both Sides Dig in Over Trump’s Wall” (The Washington Post, December 17, 2018).

On Sunday, neither side appeared willing to budge from their negotiating positions over funding for Trump’s proposed wall along the border with Mexico

• Anne Flaherty, Wil Cruz, “Cbp Head Didn’t Tell Congress About 7-Year-Old Girl to Avoid ‘Politicizing’ Her Death” (ABC News, December 17, 2018).

The head of U.S. Customs and Border Protection said he did not disclose the death of a 7-year-old girl at the border during his testimony to Congress because he wasn’t sure that the mother had been notified and because he didn’t want to “risk politicizing the death of a child”

• Molly Hennessy-Fiske, “On the Texas-Mexico Border, No One Knows Who’s Smuggling the Border Crossers. Everyone’s a Suspect” (The Los Angeles Times, December 17, 2018).

Border life is marked not so much by violence — that tends to stay on the other side of the river — as by uneasiness, distrust and suspicion of just about everyone: law enforcement, smugglers, immigrants, even their own neighbor

• Simon Romero, “Father of Migrant Girl Who Died in U.S. Custody Disputes Border Patrol Account” (The New York Times, December 17, 2018).

Jakelin’s father, Nery Gilberto Caal Cruz, “made sure she was fed and had sufficient water,” Mr. Caal Cruz’s lawyers said in a statement

• Joe Biden, “The Western Hemisphere Needs U.S. Leadership” (Americas Quarterly, December 17, 2018).

During the past two years, that foundation for cooperation has been needlessly yet determinedly destroyed

Brazil

• Estadao Conteudo, “Governo de Bolsonaro Tera Mais Militares Do Que Em 1964” (Veja (Brazil), December 17, 2018).

O governo de Jair Bolsonaro terá mais ministros com formação militar no primeiro escalão do que no governo do general Castelo Branco (1964-1967), que inaugurou o ciclo de militares no poder após o golpe de 1964

Brazil, Paraguay

• Ernesto Londono, “Brazil’s Violent Drug Trade Overruns Paraguay: ‘Scenes You Only See in Movies’” (The New York Times, December 17, 2018).

Nothing has highlighted the scope of Paraguay’s security challenges and the weakness of its institutions more than the events set off by the detention last December of Marcelo Pinheiro Veiga, a Brazilian drug lord

Brazil

• Julia Michaels, “Security or Danger: What Awaits Us in Rio?” (Rio Real (Brazil), December 17, 2018).

For now, we see few official proposals to create a public safety policy based on data and best practices. Meanwhile, specialists — facing closed government doors — propose, among other ideas, coming together as a united group

Colombia

• Kyle Johnson, “¿en Que Quedo la Paz – y Que se Sigue?” (International Crisis Group, Razon Publica (Colombia), December 17, 2018).

El año que viene el Acuerdo de Paz seguirá adelante aunque siga cojeando

• “Lideres Comunales e Indigenas, en Mayor Riesgo de Asesinato” (El Tiempo (Colombia), December 17, 2018).

Esa es una de las principales conclusiones del informe ‘¿Cuáles son los patrones? Asesinatos de líderes sociales en el Post Acuerdo’, elaborado por 9 organizaciones y centros de estudio

Guatemala

• Jacobo Garcia, ““Nunca Pense Que en Guatemala la Corrupcion Fuera de Este Tamano Ni el Nivel de Apoderamiento del Estado”” (El Pais (Spain), December 17, 2018).

Reconoce que se enfrenta a una red corrupta formada por exmilitares, diputados y empresarios y que fue ingenuo al no medir su fuerza y tamaño. Sostiene que intentará volver en enero

Mexico

• Arturo Angel, “Propone Amlo Alza al Presupuesto del Ejercito, Pero Reduce el del Resto de las Areas de Seguridad y Justicia” (Animal Politico (Mexico), December 17, 2018).

En el caso de la Secretaria de la Defensa Nacional (Sedena), la propuesta enviada al Congreso para su análisis prevé un presupuesto total de 93 mil 670 millones 187 mil 410 pesos. En 2018 se asignaron al Ejército 81 mil 21 millones

Central America Regional, Mexico

• “Editorial: Mexico Has a Plan to Reduce the Migrant Flow From Central America. Trump Should Embrace It.” (The Washington Post, December 17, 2018).

Lopez Obrador has proposed what amounts to a Marshall Plan for Central America — $30 billion over five years in job-creating economic development assistance

Colombia, Mexico

• Maurizio Guerrero, “Fiscales Presentan Audio Que Presuntamente Muestra Como el Chapo Negocio la Compra de Cocaina Con las Farc” (Animal Politico (Mexico), December 17, 2018).

Es la primera vez que el jurado escucha directamente al Guzmán Loera realizar una negociación sobre drogas. La llamada sucedió en mayo de 2010

Nicaragua

• Tom Phillips, “Nicaragua Police Raid and Ransack Top Journalist’s Offices” (The Guardian (Uk), December 17, 2018).

Police raided, ransacked and commandeered his newsroom in the latest chapter of an escalating crackdown on dissent

• Carlos Salinas, “La Voz Que Incomoda al Regimen de Daniel Ortega” (El Pais (Spain), December 17, 2018).

Carlos F. Chamorro fundó ‘Confidencial’, el medio de periodismo de investigación más respetado de Nicaragua, que denuncia la corrupción y desmanes del Gobierno sandinista

• “Policia se Toma la Redaccion de Confidencial” (Confidencial (Nicaragua), December 17, 2018).

La Policía —leal al dictador Daniel Ortega y su esposa Rosario Murillo— ha ocupado las instalaciones, ordenando el retiro de los guardas de seguridad e instalando media docena de policías armados dentro del edificio

Venezuela

• Farid Kahhat, ““El Incierto Futuro del Grupo de Lima”” (El Comercio (Peru), December 17, 2018).

No lo integran suficientes gobiernos como para invocar la aplicación de la Carta Democrática Interamericana a su par venezolano

• Alberto Barrera Tyszka, “El Periodismo Venezolano Frente a la Posverdad Bolivariana” (The New York Times, December 17, 2018).

No solo necesita repetir cien veces una mentira, también requiere dotarla de sentimentalismo, afectivizarla. Se trata de convertir la ignorancia en una virtud

• ““la Estrategia del Gobierno de Maduro Con los Medios de Comunicacion Ha Sido de Coercion y de Represion”” (La Republica (Peru), December 17, 2018).

El Nacional, histórico diario venezolano, publicó su última edición impresa, ahogado por las presiones del régimen de Nicolás Maduro

• “Prioridades Invertidas: Ceofanb Eleva “su Capacidad de Defensa” Con Asesoria Militar Rusa” (Asociación Civil Control Ciudadano (Venezuela), December 17, 2018).