(Even more here)

July 8, 2019

Western Hemisphere Regional

• Simon Romero, Zolan Kanno-Youngs, Manny Fernandez, Daniel Borunda, Aaron Montes, Caitlin Dickerson, “Hungry, Scared and Sick: Inside the Migrant Detention Center in Clint, Tex.” (The New York Times, July 8, 2019).

An out-of-the-way border station in the desert outside of El Paso has become the epicenter of outrage over the Trump administration’s policies on the southwest border

Colombia

• “Las Ovejas Negras en el Ejercito” (Semana (Colombia), July 8, 2019).

SEMANA revela audios y videos, con algunas de las pruebas de las investigaciones que se adelantan en Fiscalía y Procuraduría, en contra de generales del Ejército que terminaron desencadenando una cacería entre militares

• “Los Formatos de la Discordia para Duplicar las Afectaciones del Ejercito” (Semana (Colombia), July 8, 2019).

SEMANA revela los polémicos formatos firmados por altos oficiales del Ejército en las que se comprometían a duplicar los resultados, incluidas las bajas

• Natalia Tamayo Gaviria, “La Iglesia Catolica Le Dice No al Glifosato” (El Espectador (Colombia), July 8, 2019).

A cambio de reactivar esta estrategia, suspendida desde 2015 por la administración de Juan Manuel Santos, la Iglesia pidió por el cumplimiento de los acuerdos de sustitución voluntaria

• “Vendettas en el Valle y Cauca” (Semana (Colombia), July 8, 2019).

La reaparición de cuerpos desmembrados en Buenaventura, decapitados en Tuluá y masacres en el Cauca hace temer que en esa región del país se reactivaron ajustes mafiosos de cuentas al peor estilo de los carteles mexicanos

• Yamid Amat, “‘Si No Existiera la Jep Habria Que Crearla’: Jefe de Mision de la Onu” (El Tiempo (Colombia), July 8, 2019).

Gobierno Duque sí está apoyando proceso de paz, e inclusive va más allá, dice Carlos Ruiz Massieu

El Salvador

• Anna-Catherine Brigida, “El Salvador’s Tough Policing Isn’t What It Looks Like” (Foreign Policy, July 8, 2019).

Shootings reported as enfrentamientos, or confrontations, often mask killings of civilians and other misconduct

Guatemala

• Patrick J. Mcdonnell, “Death at the Border: 4 From Guatemala, 3 of Them Children, Succumb to Heat in Texas” (The Los Angeles Times, July 8, 2019).

On June 23, Border Patrol agents found the bodies of Chicas Perez and her 18-month-old son, Denilson, along with the remains of two other children, in the brush just north of the Rio Grande outside McAllen, Texas

Honduras

• “Seis Manifestantes Muertos Por “Excesivo Uso de la Fuerza” en Honduras, Segun Amnistia Internacional” (El Heraldo (Honduras), July 8, 2019).

Al menos seis personas murieron en Honduras desde abril por el “excesivo uso de la fuerza” de militares contra manifestantes que exigen la renuncia del presidente Juan Orlando Hernández

Mexico

• Kirk Semple, “Mexican Opium Prices Plummet, Driving Poppy Farmers to Migrate” (The New York Times, July 8, 2019).

Some evidence is emerging that fentanyl, a powerful and highly addictive synthetic opiate, is replacing heroin and other drugs, particularly on the East Coast

• Mark Stevenson, “Mexican President Gets Little Backlash for Migrant Crackdown” (Associated Press, The Washington Post, July 8, 2019).

This sympathy has been eroded by the migrant caravans of late 2018 and early 2019, which left a bad taste in the mouth of Mexicans and caused deep divisions among pro-migrant groups

• Angela Kocherga, “On the Border: ‘It Was Hell’” (The Albuquerque Journal, July 8, 2019).

In the border city of Ciudad Juárez, where 200 to 300 migrants a day are returned to Mexico under the Migrant Protection Protocol, asylum-seekers say they feel anything but protected as drug violence escalates

• Anthony Esposito, “Mexico’s New National Guard Was Created to Fight Crime, but Now It’s in a Face-Off With Migrants” (Reuters, July 8, 2019).

Using almost a third of the National Guard’s total ranks for migration duties means fewer security forces to tackle one of Mexico’s most pressing issues, spiraling violence, which last year cost a record 33,000 lives

Venezuela

• Rocio San Miguel, “Analisis de Entorno Politico – Militar Con Ocasion de los Actos Oficiales del 5 de Julio en Venezuela” (Asociación Civil Control Ciudadano (Venezuela), July 8, 2019).

La Fuerza Armada Nacional, con un contenido cada vez mas radical, de carácter político partidista, en los discursos de sus mandos, se separa cada día mas de la posibilidad de establecer algún vaso comunicante con los principios de control democrático y retorno al carril constitucional

• Michael Stott, “Worries Mount Over Human Cost of Us Sanctions on Venezuela” (The Financial Times (UK), July 8, 2019).

Venezuelan economist Francisco Rodriguez at New York brokerage Torino Capital set out evidence that US financial sanctions are associated with a 797,000 b/d drop in oil production, worth about $16.9bn a year

• Juan Manuel Florez Arias, Richard Aguirre Fernandez, “Dialogo, ¿Salida a la Crisis u Oxigeno para Maduro?” (El Colombiano (Medellin Colombia), July 8, 2019).

El establecimiento de una nueva mesa de diálogo entre gobierno y oposición venezolanas en Barbados abre una posibilidad de salida de la crisis, pero también de división de la oposición

• Scott Smith, “Maduro Shows Military Might in Independence Day Celebration” (Associated Press, The Washington Post, July 8, 2019).

Maduro applauded and pumped his fist as soldiers marched past, tanks rolled by and fighter jets streaked overhead at a Caracas military base

• David Smilde, Abraham F. Lowenthal, “Venezuela Negotiations Deserve Strong International Support” (The Hill, July 8, 2019).

Solutions to bitter conflicts generally are possible when key actors on both sides are convinced that negotiating a change of regime on mutually acceptable terms is preferable to a prolonged and destructive stalemate, or the potential defeat of their side