(Even more here)

April 25, 2017

Brazil

• Gustavo Goulart, Rafael Nascimento, Ana Carolina Torres, “Policia Faz Operacao No Complexo Do Alemao Apos Tres Pms Serem Baleados” (O Globo (Brazil), April 25, 2017).

O Batalhão de Operações Especiais (Bope) e o Batalhão de Choque fazem uma operação na manhã desta terça-feira no Complexo do Alemão

Brazil, Paraguay

• Joshua Partlow, “Brazilian Prison Gang Suspected in Paraguay’s ‘Heist of the Century’” (The Washington Post, April 25, 2017).

Paraguayan authorities said the gunmen were Brazilians, and news reports suggested this was possibly the work of a Brazilian criminal organization, First Capital Command

Colombia

• Juanita Velez, “Las Farc se Van a Quedar en las Zonas Veredales” (La Silla Vacia (Colombia), April 25, 2017).

Ya es un hecho que los guerrilleros se quieren quedar a vivir, si pueden, en todas las zonas

• Jon Lee Anderson, “Colombia’s Guerrillas Come Out of the Jungle” (The New Yorker, April 25, 2017).

“We have a Marxist way of interpreting society, but that doesn’t mean it’s our only reference,” he said. “As to what our new model will be, that’s something we have yet to invent”

• Nicolas Sanchez A., “¿de Donde Vienen las Balas Que Matan a los Lideres Sociales?” (El Espectador (Colombia), April 25, 2017).

León Valencia, director de la fundación Paz y Reconciliación, le entregó al vicepresidente, Óscar Naranjo, y a las Farc un informe que revela que cese al fuego se ha cumplido en un 99%

• Michael Evans, “The New Chiquita Papers: Secret Testimony and Internal Records Identify Banana Executives Who Bankrolled Terror in Colombia” (National Security Archive, April 25, 2017).

A new set of Chiquita Papers, made possible through the National Security Archive’s FOIA lawsuit, has for the first time made it possible to know the identities and understand the roles of the individual Chiquita executives who approved and oversaw years of payments

Costa Rica, Nicaragua

• Gerardo Ruiz Ramon, “Costa Rica Cuestiona Beneficio de Ejercicios Militares Entre Rusia y Nicaragua” (La Nación (Costa Rica), April 25, 2017).

Una delegación rusa acordó con el gobierno de Daniel Ortega, la primera semana de abril, efectuar entrenamientos conjuntos para enfrentar el terrorismo

El Salvador

• “Jovenes Salvadorenos Ingresan a Pandillas por Estas Razones, Dice Informe” (ACAN-EFE, La Prensa Grafica (El Salvador), April 25, 2017).

El 62.4 % de los jóvenes que se han unido a las pandillas o maras en El Salvador lo hicieron por “ocio” o “amistad”

Mexico

• Abel Barrera, “Ayotzinapa: La Luz Que No se Apaga” (Centro de Derechos Humanos de la Montaña Tlachinollan, Animal Politico (Mexico), April 25, 2017).

Hoy, como desde el 26 de septiembre de 2014, las madres, los padres y los normalistas de Ayotzinapa necesitan del acompañamiento de todas y todos, de nuestro cobijo

• Alejandro Hope, “Los 30 Mil Muertos de 2017” (El Universal (Mexico), April 25, 2017).

Esto ya es una crisis de grandes proporciones. Ojalá el país y sus autoridades no se tarden mucho tiempo en reconocerlo y actuar en consecuencia

• Tracy Jan, David Nakamura, “These Border Towns Could Be First to Get Trump’s ‘Big, Beautiful’ Wall” (The Washington Post, April 25, 2017).

Identified as “high priority” in the document are the border sectors of the Rio Grande Valley in the southern tip of Texas — encompassing Rio Grande City, McAllen and Weslaco — as well as El Paso, Tucson and San Diego

• Carter Evans, “Trump’s Border Wall Faces Another Challenge With Indian Reservation” (CBS News, April 25, 2017).

“If I were to go to your home and say, ‘you know what … I should build a wall from your home to your backyard and you can’t cross to your backyard unless you come through me’”

• Deborah Bonello, “Us to Fund Mexico Opium Eradication to Hit Heroin Crisis at Home: Report” (InsightCrime, April 25, 2017).

Although he thinks eradication in Mexico is important, Quiñones added that the “market has rapidly evolved in the last couple years, as Mexican traffickers have looked for new non-plant alternatives to heroin

Venezuela

• Daniel Lansberg-Rodriguez, “Venezuela’s Broken System Cannot Fix Itself” (The Financial Times (UK), April 25, 2017).

When the world stops paying attention and international pressure begins to wane, so too do the crowds and the cycle begins anew. Time therefore is on Maduro’s side

• Diego Ore, Brian Ellsworth, “Venezuela Death Toll Rises as Unrest Enters Fourth Week” (Reuters **, April 25, 2017).

Following a familiar daily pattern, the demonstrations were largely peaceful until mid-afternoon, when scattered skirmishes broke out and the shooting incidents occurred

Western Hemisphere Regional

• Bryant Harris, Robbie Gramer, Emily Tamkin, “The End of Foreign Aid as We Know It” (Foreign Policy, April 25, 2017).

According to a detailed 15-page State Department budget document obtained by Foreign Policy, the overhaul also includes rechanneling funding from development assistance into a program that is tied closely to national security objectives