(Even more here)

January 28, 2019

Western Hemisphere Regional

• Felicia Sonmez, Robert Costa, “Trump Will Secure Border ‘With or Without Congress,’ Mulvaney Says” (The Washington Post, January 28, 2019).

President Trump is again considering invoking emergency powers to build his proposed wall on the U.S.-Mexico border without congressional approval

• “Editorial: Convicted for Leaving Water for Migrants in the Desert: This Is Trump’s Justice” (The Washington Post, January 28, 2019).

That is a snapshot of twisted frontier justice in the age of Trump. Save a migrant’s life, and you risk becoming a political prisoner. Kill a Mexican teenager, and you walk free

• Molly o’toole, “Trump Ordered 15,000 New Border and Immigration Officers — but Got Thousands of Vacancies Instead” (The Los Angeles Times, January 28, 2019).

The Border Patrol gained a total of 120 agents in 2018, the first net gain in five years

• Shaw Drake, Stephanie Leutert, “‘We Are Full’: What Asylum Seekers Are Told” (The New York Times, January 28, 2019).

United States government officials have told migrants to go to ports of entry rather than crossing the border without authorization. However, simultaneously, they have imposed other policies that reject asylum seekers trying to do just that

Brazil

• Benjamin Lessing, “Brazil’s Prison Gangs Are Launching Massive Terrorism Attacks. This Explains Why” (The Washington Post, January 28, 2019).

The factions are engaged in what I call violent lobbying: pressuring leaders over policy issues, using violence

Colombia

• Luis Eduardo Celis, “Analisis: Claves para Pensar un Acuerdo de Paz Con el Eln” (El Espectador (Colombia), January 28, 2019).

En el gobierno del presidente Duque, no habrá una mesa de paz, el gobierno Duque es más un gobierno de defensa del orden que de ampliación de democracia, hay que preparar una negociación viable para luego del 2022

• Kyle Johnson, “¿Que Pasara Con el Eln?” (International Crisis Group, Razon Publica (Colombia), January 28, 2019).

El ELN debería reconocer los derechos de dichas comunidades y adherirse al derecho internacional humanitario del que tanto habla

Colombia, Cuba

• “Cuba Pidio Aplicar Protocolos y Gobierno Insiste en No Reconocerlos” (El Tiempo (Colombia), January 28, 2019).

Este es el primer llamado oficial del gobierno de La Habana para que el Gobierno del presidente Iván Duque acate las reglas de juego convenidas y se ponga de acuerdo con la guerrilla para la salida de los guerrilleros negociadores

Colombia, Venezuela

• Deirdre Shesgreen, “John Bolton’s Notes on ‘5,000 Troops to Colombia’ Spark Speculation About Military Intervention in Venezuela” (USA Today, January 28, 2019).

Asked if Bolton’s note meant the U.S. was planning to send troops to Venezuela’s neighbor, a White House spokesman simply reiterated Trump’s “all options are on the table” declaration

Cuba, Venezuela

• Nora Gamez Torres, “U.S. Considers Putting Cuba on Terror List Over Island’s Support of Venezuela’s Maduro” (The Miami Herald, January 28, 2019).

”What Cubans are doing in Venezuela is unacceptable,” a senior administration official said. “And the United States is evaluating options to address that behavior”

Ecuador

• “Cambios Geopoliticos Marcan Actualizacion de la Politica de Defensa de Ecuador” (El Universo (Ecuador), January 28, 2019).

La firma de la paz entre el Gobierno colombiano y las Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) en el 2016 y la reconstitución de la cooperación internacional en materia de defensa con Estados Unidos desde el 2017 son algunos hechos que el nuevo Libro Blanco toma en cuenta

Guatemala

• Jo-Marie Burt, Paulo Estrada, “Who Benefits if the Guatemalan Congress Passes a Blanket Amnesty?” (Open Society Foundations, January 28, 2019).

The coming days will reveal whether the military old guard has its way

Honduras

• “Fuerzas Armadas Prueban Drones Comprados a Israel” (El Heraldo (Honduras), January 28, 2019).

Su estructura es de unos 4.7 metros, pesan alrededor de 40 kilogramos y su capacidad de vuelo es de unas cinco horas continuas a 100 kilómetros de distancia

• “Policia Reprime Manifestaciones Con Gas y Bala Viva” (Criterio (Honduras), January 28, 2019).

Las manifestaciones convocadas por el Partido Libertad y Refundación (Libre), continúan en muchos sectores de la capital de Honduras y del país, y de igual manera la represión por parte de la Policía Nacional y de la Policía Militar del Orden Público

Mexico

• Catherine E. Shoichet, Geneva Sands, “Border Patrol Union Chief: New Trump Administration Policy Is ‘Incentivizing Illegal Immigration’” (CNN, January 28, 2019).

“I’m raising these concerns because in essence what we are doing is punishing people who are trying to follow the laws and rewarding people who cross illegally.”

• Alan Bersin, Nate Bruggeman, “Amlo’s National Guard: Mexico Still Needs Its Military to Restore Public Safety” (Lawfare, January 28, 2019).

Integrated with law enforcement and subject to civilian control, the national guard is an innovation that can foster the conditions necessary for civilian institutions to develop and mature

• Arturo Angel, “Los Decomisos de Drogas a Cargo del Ejercito Cayeron en el Primer Mes Con Amlo” (Animal Politico (Mexico), January 28, 2019).

Del 1 al 31 de diciembre de 2018 los militares decomisaron aproximadamente un kilogramo de cocaína, cifra que contrasta totalmente con los 210 kilogramos de este enervante que se habían decomisado mensualmente en promedio durante el año

• Adam Isacson, Adeline Hite, Maureen Meyer, “The Many Problems With Making Some Asylum Seekers Wait in Mexico” (Washington Office on Latin America, January 28, 2019).

As an organization that works on U.S. migration and border security policy and the situation of migrants in transit in Mexico, we outline below our main concerns about this program

• Noah Lanard, “Trump’s Plan to Make Asylum-Seekers Wait in Dangerous Mexican Border Cities Is Probably Illegal” (Mother Jones, January 28, 2019).

The policy will require people fleeing persecution to wait in violent border cities for months and potentially years

• Roberto Velasco Alvarez, “Mexico Stands With Migrants. The New U.S. Asylum Policy Must Respect Their Rights.” (Secretariat of Foreign Affairs (Mexico), The Washington Post, January 28, 2019).

In accordance with this international agreement adopted by more than 160 countries, Mexico’s position will no longer be one of migration deterrence and blockage

Cuba, Venezuela

• Kirk Semple, “With Spies and Other Operatives, a Nation Looms Over Venezuela’s Crisis: Cuba” (The New York Times, January 28, 2019).

While former military officials who have fled Venezuela have reported the involvement of Cubans within the security and intelligence forces, experts say the extent of that involvement remains shrouded in mystery

Venezuela

• Kejal Vyas, Ryan Dube, “Maduro Demands Military’s Loyalty After Attache Defects” (The Wall Street Journal, January 28, 2019).

The impact of Col. Silva’s defection is difficult to gauge. A former Venezuelan general who broke with Mr. Maduro, Clíver Alcalá, said in an interview that it would likely be small

• Joe Parkin Daniels, Patricia Torres, “Venezuelan Security Forces Offered Amnesty if They Defect to Opposition” (The Guardian (Uk), January 28, 2019).

Members of Venezuela’s opposition canvassed military bases across the embattled nation on Sunday, offering amnesty to troops and police officers who defect

• Andreina Aponte, Anthony Faiola, Rachelle Krygier, “Venezuela’s Opposition in Talks With Military and Civilian Officials to Force Out Maduro, Juan Guaido Says in Interview” (The Washington Post, January 28, 2019).

“We have been in talks with government officials, civilian and military men,” Guaidó said. “This is a very delicate subject involving personal security. We are meeting with them, but discreetly”

• Anthony Faiola, Mariana Zuniga, Rachelle Krygier, “Fight in Venezuela Is Against More Than a Strongman — It’s Against What Some Call a Criminal Empire” (The Washington Post, January 28, 2019).

Maduro is not a one-man cult or clan leader. Rather, he rules as the public face of an omnipotent political class accused of immense corruption and narco-trafficking

• Michael R. Pompeo, “Remarks at a United Nations Security Council Meeting on Venezuela” (U.S. Department of State, January 28, 2019).

We’re here to urge all nations to support the democratic aspirations of the Venezuelan people as they try to free themselves from former President Maduro’s illegitimate mafia state

• Ethan Bronner, Patricia Laya, Tim Ross, “Maduro Stymied in Bid to Pull $1.2 Billion of Gold From u.k.” (Bloomberg, Bloomberg, January 28, 2019).

The $1.2 billion of gold is a big chunk of the $8 billion in foreign reserves held by the Venezuelan central bank. The whereabouts of the rest of them is largely unknown

• “Meet Faes: The Bolivarian Police Death Squads Leading Repression Against Protesters” (Caracas Chronicles, January 28, 2019).

Silent and deadly, the FAES —the Spanish acronym for the Bolivarian National Police’s Special Action Forces— are police Death Squads in all but name

• Lilian Tintori, “How We Save Venezuela” (The Washington Post, January 28, 2019).

We need the international community to fully support Guaidó and our democratic cause. Most importantly, our allies need to recognize that our plan is the only viable one

• Ariya Hagh, Daniel Bennett, Daniel Krcmaric, Zacc Ritter, “Four Reasons It’ll Be Hard to Offer Maduro a Golden Parachute (and One Reason to Try Anyway)” (The Washington Post, January 28, 2019).

Citizens may feel cheated if Maduro skirts justice and accountability. Yet coaxing Maduro out of office would certainly be less costly than a military intervention

• Joshua Goodman, Luis Alonso Lugo, Rob Gillies, “Anti-Maduro Coalition Grew From Secret Talks” (Associated Press, Associated Press, January 28, 2019).

In mid-December, Guaido quietly traveled to Washington, Colombia and Brazil to brief officials on the opposition’s strategy of mass demonstrations to coincide with Maduro’s expected swearing-in

• Scott Smith, “Venezuela Official: Us in Talks to Improve Frosty Relations” (Associated Press, The Washington Post, January 28, 2019).

In an appearance on state TV, Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza held up photos showing U.S. Charge d’Affaires James Story and a top Venezuelan government official as proof of the meetings

• Edward Wong, Peter Baker, “On Venezuela, Rubio Assumes U.S. Role of Ouster in Chief” (The New York Times, January 28, 2019).

The real worry in Washington is if the situation in Caracas takes a violent turn. Mr. Rubio has talked with administration officials about options if it does — and speaks with authority as if he were the decider