Eraldo Peres/AP Photo at Al Jazeera. Caption: “An indigenous man lies on top of a Brazilian flag representing the natives killed in the struggle for their lands, next to a large red flag reading ‘Indigenous Genocide, Demarcation now!'”

(Even more here)

January 4, 2019

Western Hemisphere Regional

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Colombia

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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