(Even more here)

August 22, 2019

Western Hemisphere Regional

• James Stavridis, “Troops Are Not the Answer to the Crisis at the Border” (Time, August 22, 2019).

The Trump Administration’s effort to deter migrants by creating harsh conditions at the border may ease the flow in the short term, but any long-term solution will require much broader cooperation with the world to the south

Brazil

• Jonathan Watts, “Jair Bolsonaro Claims Ngos Behind Amazon Forest Fire Surge – but Provides No Evidence” (The Guardian (Uk), August 22, 2019).

Local newspapers say farmers in some regions are organising “fire days” to take advantage of weaker enforcement by the authorities

• Tom Phillips, “‘He Wants to Destroy Us’: Bolsonaro Poses Gravest Threat in Decades, Amazon Tribes Say” (The Guardian (Uk), August 22, 2019).

Indigenous communities face their most severe threat since military rulers bulldozed highways through the region nearly five decades ago

• Marcelo Silva de Sousa, “Killings by Police Divide Brazilian City Weary of Crime” (Associated Press, Associated Press, August 22, 2019).

Witzel said in July that police should lose their “fear of killing.” Bolsonaro said this month that with a new law he backs, criminals “are going to die in the street like cockroaches”

Colombia

• “Editorial: El Ejercito Toma en Serio a la Comision de la Verdad” (El Espectador (Colombia), August 22, 2019).

Aunque un documento filtrado esta semana, que da cuenta de esos esfuerzos dentro de la institución, ha causado revuelo, la desconfianza, en este caso particular, nos parece infundada

• Sara Castillejo Ditta, “La Implementacion de los Pdet Amenaza Con Quedarse en Letra Muerta” (El Tiempo (Colombia), August 22, 2019).

El núcleo de la Reforma Rural Integral (RRI) está en riesgo por la falta de claridad del gobierno

Cuba

• Sarah Marsh, “Tourism to Cuba Plunges After Trump’s Tightening of Travel Ban: Data” (Reuters, Reuters, August 22, 2019).

While the decline is impacting the state tourism sector, it is also hurting the many restaurants, bed-and-breakfasts and taxi drivers in the fledgling Cuban private sector that the United States says it wants to support

Guatemala

• Anita Isaacs, Alvaro Montenegro, “Salvemos la Democracia en Guatemala” (The New York Times, August 22, 2019).

Todo indica que cuando gobierne Guatemala, la seguridad económica y física de sus ciudadanos podría empeorar

Mexico

• “Militares Mataron a 6 Civiles Que Nunca Dispararon: Cndh” (Animal Politico (Mexico), August 22, 2019).

El 30 de octubre de 2014, seis civiles murieron en un operativo en Luvianos, Estado de México. La CNDH rechaza la versión ofrecida por los militares y dice que las víctimas no dispararon

• “Guardia Nacional y Policia Federal Disuelven Con Jaloneos Protesta de Migrantes Africanos en Chiapas” (Animal Politico (Mexico), August 22, 2019).

Los inmigrantes protestaron frente a la estación migratoria Siglo XXI en Tapachula, Chiapas, argumentando que llevan dos meses varados sin solución a su estadía en el país

• Julia Lurie, “Beatings, Kidnappings, and Rape: Sobering New Data Shows Just How Much Violence Migrants Through Mexico Endure” (Mother Jones, August 22, 2019).

Nearly a quarter of participants reported experiencing physical violence, including beatings, thefts, and kidnappings, en route through Mexico. Sexual violence was also rampant

• Ezequiel Flores Contreras, “Detienen a “el Chaparro“, Responsable de la Ola de Violencia en Chilapa Desde 2015” (Proceso (Mexico), August 22, 2019).

Zenén Nava Sánchez, El Chaparro, líder del grupo delincuencial Los Jefes, que actualmente mantiene una confrontación con la banda de Los Ardillos, que dirige la familia del diputado local perredista Bernardo Ortega Jiménez, por el control del municipio de Chilapa

• Mario J. Penton, “These Migrants Stranded at the U.S.-Mexico Border Share Why They Fled Their Homelands” (The Miami Herald, August 22, 2019).

he municipality has barely managed to put five portable toilets in the park, leaving most of the immigrants to seek help from church programs while walking the streets in search of jobs, food or a shelter

Nicaragua

• Ismael Lopez, “La Alianza de Ortega Con la Cupula Militar” (Confidencial (Nicaragua), August 22, 2019).

Más de 20 exmilitares en cargos de Gobierno y de negocios en Albanisa

Venezuela

• Tom o’connor, “Russia Says It “Will Always Stand” With Venezuela Against U.S. as Secret Talks Emerge” (Newsweek, August 22, 2019).

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met Wednesday with Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez in Moscow, where the two held the latest in a series of bilateral talks

• Oliver Stuenkel, “Four Signs Trump’s Venezuela Strategy Is Backfiring” (Americas Quarterly, August 22, 2019).

The humanitarian toll of U.S. sanctions is mounting, and Guaidó’s association with Trump has become his greatest liability

• Cynthia J. Arnson, “How the Trump Administration’s Venezuela Policy Just Doesn’t Add Up” (Woodrow Wilson Center, August 22, 2019).

The Trump administration’s hostility to immigration and to foreign aid spending overall clashes openly with the effort to procure regime change via the economic strangulation of the Maduro government

• Dan Restrepo, “Las Sorprendentes Opciones Sobre la Mesa para Venezuela” (CNN, August 22, 2019).

Si los venezolanos-estadounidenses aceptan que ellos y sus familias tienen que seguir sufriendo bajo un régimen criminal con una nueva cara para presionar a Cuba, un presidente Cabello quizás le saldría bien a Trump

• “Jefe del Comando Sur de Eeuu Dice Que Crisis Venezolana Amenaza Paz Regional” (Efecto Cocuyo (Venezuela), August 22, 2019).

Faller afirmó que los países de la región están ante el desafío de unirse para responder conjuntamente ante las amenazas a la paz regional, entre las que citó la crisis venezolana