(Even more here)

January 4, 2019

Western Hemisphere Regional

• Richard Gonzales, Tom Bowman, “Troops to Be Deployed to Border to Build and Upgrade 160 Miles of Fencing” (National Public Radio, January 4, 2019).

The deployment and fence construction along the California and Arizona borders would be paid for by the Pentagon, from the Department of Defense’s discretionary funding

• Rafael Carranza, “Here’s Where Trump’s Border Barriers Will Be Built in 2019” (The Arizona Republic, January 4, 2019).

The administration has so far announced eight projects to build new fence or replace existing barriers. Three of the projects have been completed; two are underway

• Dara Lind, “The Border Patrol Union Chose Trump’s Wall Over Their Own Agents Getting Paid on Time” (Vox, January 4, 2019).

There’s really no way to know whether the union represents its members or not. It’s accepted by the public that Judd, Del Cueto, and Garza speak for the officers on the ground. And those men support Trump

• Damian Paletta, Erica Werner, Seung Min Kim, “House Democrats Vote to Reopen Government and Deny Trump Wall Money, Defying Veto Threat” (The Washington Post, January 4, 2019).

Top congressional leaders plan to meet with Trump at the White House Friday, in a repeat of a meeting they had on Wednesday. But so far there are no signs of a breakthrough or any movement

• Bob Price, “22k Minors ‘Illegally Crossed’ Border in December, Says Dhs” (Breitbart, January 4, 2019).

Officials with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) say that 22,000 minors “illegally crossed the border” in December. Nearly 25 percent of those were unaccompaniedThe fighting took place on Monday in the eastern side of the city, not far from the Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge

• Jeremy Mcdermott, Steven Dudley, “Gamechangers 2018: The Year Crime Became an Ideology” (InsightCrime, January 4, 2019).

Two years of Donald Trump’s strange, haphazard foreign policy has had a devastating impact on foreign relations in the region and has opened the door to transnational organized crime

Brazil

• Sam Cowie, “In Bolsonaro’s Brazil, Indigenous Groups Fear More Violence” (Al Jazzeera, January 4, 2019).

Local indigenous activists fear even more violence due to the president’s history of anti-indigenous rhetoric and alliance with Brazil’s powerful farming lobby

• Luke Barnes, “Brazil’s New President Has Already Started Targeting Ngos” (ThinkProgress, January 4, 2019).

The move echoes similar crackdowns against NGOs seen in Hungary and Russia

• “Brazil ‘Needs Its Own Guantanamo,’ Says Bolsonaro Ally” (Agence France Presse, France 24 (France), January 4, 2019).

Brazil “needs its own Guantanamo” to lock up criminals, Rio de Janeiro’s state governor Wilson Witzel, an ally of new far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, said

• Brad Brooks, Lisandra Paraguassu, “Brazil’s Bolsonaro Says He Is Open to Hosting a U.S. Military Base” (Reuters, Reuters, January 4, 2019).

“Depending on what happens in the world, who knows if we would not need to discuss that question in the future”

Colombia

• German Gomez Polo, Natalia Tamayo Gaviria, “Cultivos de Coca Siguen Siendo la Mayor Preocupacion de Estados Unidos” (El Espectador (Colombia), January 4, 2019).

El uso del glifosato, como parte de la política antidroga que el Gobierno pondrá en marcha, es uno de los puntos pendientes que podrían retomarse en las conversaciones entre Estados Unidos y Colombia

Colombia, Venezuela

• “Colombia Actuara ‘Sin Animo Belicista’ en Relacion Con Venezuela” (El Tiempo (Colombia), January 4, 2019).

Holmes Trujillo leyó desde la Cancillería su declaración a través de un video, poco después de que el canciller venezolano, Jorge Arreaza, acusó a Colombia de “jugar a la guerra” con Venezuela

• Venezuela Investigative Unit, “Women, Youth Primed for Gang Recruitment in Venezuela” (InsightCrime, January 4, 2019).

The report by the Fundación Redes (Fundaredes) estimates that between 60 and 70 percent of members in certain Colombian gangs, such as Los Rastrojos, are Venezuelans aged between 16 and 25

Mexico

• Alan Yuhas, Paulina Villegas, “Mexico Calls on U.S. to Investigate Use of Tear Gas at Border” (The New York Times, January 4, 2019).

Mexico’s Foreign Ministry said it sent a diplomatic note to the United States Embassy about two episodes, on Jan. 1 and Nov. 25

• “Amlo Justifica Reclutamiento para Guardia Nacional Sin Ley: “Lo Ameritan las Circunstancias”” (Proceso (Mexico), January 4, 2019).

El presidente Andrés Manuel López Obrador justificó hoy la convocatoria al reclutamiento para integrar la Guardia Nacional cuando aun no existe reforma constitucional ni ley en la que se funde

• J. Jesus Esquivel, “En Juicio de el Chapo, “el Vicentillo” Involucra a Sedena y Emp en Tiempos de Calderon y Fox” (Proceso (Mexico), January 4, 2019).

Jesús Vicente Zambada Niebla, El Vicentillo, declaró bajó juramento que su padre, Ismael El Mayo Zambada García, tenía “en el bolsillo” a Humberto Eduardo Antimo Miranda, oficial mayor de la Secretaría de la Defensa Nacional (Sedena) en el sexenio de Felipe Calderón

Venezuela

• David Smilde, Geoff Ramsey, “Focused Pressure and Smart Engagement: How the U.S. Government Can Advance a Negotiated, Non-Violent Solution to Venezuela’s Crisis” (Washington Office on Latin America, January 4, 2019).

In their memo, Ramsey and Smilde offer a series of concrete policy recommendations for the U.S. government

• Joe Parkin Daniels, “‘It’s Like 1984’: Venezuela Targets Human Rights Defenders” (The Guardian (Uk), January 4, 2019).

Geraldine Chacón, a 24-year-old lawyer from Caracas, went four months without seeing the sun while a prisoner in the Helicoide, the feared hillside prison complex administered by Venezuela’s secret police