(Even more here)

March 26, 2019

Western Hemisphere Regional

• Emily Cochrane, Thomas Gibbons-Neff, “With Override Vote Coming, Congress Examines Military Cuts That Will Fund Wall” (The New York Times, March 26, 2019).

This time, on the veto override, their appeal is more parochial: Look where the wall money will come from

• T. Christian Miller, “If Trump’s Border Wall Becomes Reality, Here’s How He Could Easily Get Private Land for It” (ProPublica, March 26, 2019).

We knew Homeland Security had the ability to waive those protections, but we never found concrete proof that the agency had done so. Until now

• Peter King, Tom Suozzi, “A Grand Compromise on Immigration” (The New York Times, March 26, 2019).

$4.3 billion would pay for additional physical structures along the United States-Mexico border, as proposed by the Department of Homeland Security, and $4.3 billion would go to aid to El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras to help prevent further out-migration

• William Debuys, “Guarding the Southern Border Has Become an Exercise in Cruelty” (The Nation, March 26, 2019).

The border is cruel because it gives some people what they want and denies the needs of almost everybody else. Still, the hopeful come, lately in swelling numbers

Brazil

• Estadao Conteudo, “Bolsonaro Quer Comemoracao Do Golpe de 1964 Nos Quarteis” (Veja (Brazil), March 26, 2019).

Generais sugerem cautela e pedem mensagem ‘suave’ para evitar alarde e novo conflito político em meio às negociações da reforma da Previdência

• Jonathan Wheatley, “Rio de Janeiro’s Militias: A Parallel Power in Bolsonaro’s Brazil” (The Financial Times (UK), March 26, 2019).

Franco’s killing has focused attention on a different and parallel menace — Rio’s milícias, the murderous paramilitary gangs led by serving and former police officers

• Jon Lee Anderson, “Jair Bolsonaro’s Southern Strategy” (The New Yorker, March 26, 2019).

In Brazil, a budding authoritarian borrows from the Trump playbook

Colombia

• Laura Dulce Romero, “La Verdad de Marino Cordoba” (El Espectador (Colombia), March 26, 2019).

Espera que con la entrada en funcionamiento de la Jurisdicción Especial para la Paz (JEP) se esclarezca qué sucedió en Riosucio ese diciembre de 1996, por qué Rito Alejo del Río decidió apoyar la toma paramilitar

• “La Agitada Semana para la Paz Que Comienza en el Congreso” (El Tiempo (Colombia), March 26, 2019).

Con un debate de control político y el comienzo del estudio de las objeciones presidenciales a la Jurisdicción Especial para la Paz (JEP), la controversia entre los defensores del acuerdo con las Farc y sus críticos se tomará nuevamente el Congreso

• Jorge Enrique Melendez, “Arauca, Entre la Sombra y el Poder de la Guerrilla del Eln” (El Tiempo (Colombia), March 26, 2019).

En las trochas y pequeños caseríos advierten que la mayoría de los ‘elenos’ son jóvenes de civil que se mueven en motos sin placas o con matrículas venezolanas

• Nicolas Sanchez A., “Choco: Una Crisis Que Hace Recordar las Peores Epocas” (El Espectador (Colombia), March 26, 2019).

Ese departamento volvió a los titulares luego de la muerte de 8 niños indígenas, según la Defensoría del Pueblo, en Carmen del Darién. Sin embargo, miles de chocoanos han sido víctimas de la guerra desde el 2018

Colombia, Venezuela

• Jeremy Mcdermott, “Op-Ed: The Eln as a Colombo-Venezuelan Rebel Army” (InsightCrime, March 26, 2019).

A civil conflict in Venezuela will simply only strengthen the ELN and Colombia’s criminal dynamics and condemn us to further decades of violence

Guatemala

• Gabriel Woltke, “Los Diputados Tienen un Plan “B” para Sacar de Prision a los Criminales de Guerra” (Nomada (Guatemala), March 26, 2019).

Esta vez apelan a los Derechos Humanos para sacar a los veteranos que guardan prisión por crímenes cometidos durante el conflicto armado interno

Mexico

• “Los Puntos de Control para los Migrantes en la Frontera Sur de Mexico” (El Heraldo (Honduras), March 26, 2019).

El mapa detalla que los controles migratorios están en más de 30 ciudades, las principales del sur de México

• Ioan Grillo, “Mexico’s Fuel Thieves Must Be Stopped” (The New York Times, March 26, 2019).

Trying to force people to stop producing, selling and taking drugs has proved a losing battle in most of the world. In contrast, most countries manage to stop their oil pipelines from being savaged with a basic rule of law

• Priscilla Alvarez, “‘I Don’t Want to Return to Mexico, Your Honor’: Asylum Seekers Make Their Plea to Immigration Judges” (CNN, March 26, 2019).

Migrants seeking asylum in the United States and forced to wait in Mexico expressed a fear of returning to Mexico, as the detention officers who transported them to the hearing stood idly in the back of the room

• Emily Green, “Mexico’s President Vowed to Halt Murders of Journalists. He Hasn’t Been Able to Stop Them.” (VICE, March 26, 2019).

The president hasn’t articulated a concrete plan to address the dangers faced by journalists — and that doesn’t bode well for the future

Venezuela

• Santiago Perez, “Venezuela’s Economic Collapse Explained in Nine Charts” (The Wall Street Journal, March 26, 2019).

Venezuela’s decline is now deeper than that of the Soviet Union after its breakup, and comparable only to Zimbabwe’s in the late 1990s, economists say

• Anatoly Kurmanaev, “2 Russian Military Planes Land in Caracas, Exacerbating Political Tension” (The New York Times, March 26, 2019).

The timing showed that both Russian and Venezuelan officials wanted to convert a routine technical stop into a show of strength

• Gregory Weeks, “The U.S. Is Thinking of Invading Venezuela. That’s Unlikely to Lead to Democracy.” (The Washington Post, March 26, 2019).

There’s a high risk that U.S. military intervention would involve long-term occupation, and undermine democracy and increase violence in the long term

• Alex Daugherty, “House Passes Bills to Expand Humanitarian Aid in Venezuela and Hurt Maduro” (The Miami Herald, March 26, 2019).

The House of Representatives passed three bills on Monday to expand U.S. humanitarian assistance in Venezuela, examine Russia’s growing military presence in the country and prohibit U.S. exports of crime control materials