(Even more here)

August 27, 2019

Western Hemisphere Regional

• Chantal Da Silva, “Trump Administration Has Built Just 13 Percent of Border Wall, With Nearly 400 Miles to Go by End of 2020” (Newsweek, August 27, 2019).

While the federal immigration agency appeared pleased with its progress, the 60-mile development represents just over 13 percent of the 450 miles of border wall Trump has vowed to see built by the end of 2020

• Zoe Sullivan, “Increasing Numbers “Remain in Mexico” Awaiting Immigration Court Hearings” (TRAC Immigration, August 27, 2019).

During July a total of 11,804 immigrants were sent back to Mexico to await their MPP hearings. This is up from 5,161 during May and 5,883 in June

Bolivia

• Brendan o’boyle, Fernanda Uriegas, “Carlos Mesa’s Uphill Effort to Defeat Evo Morales” (Americas Quarterly, August 27, 2019).

Polls suggest he could win in the first round of voting by hitting a 40% threshold with a 10-point lead over Mesa

Brazil

• Manuela Andreoni, “Brazil Says It Will Reject Millions in Amazon Aid Pledged at g7” (The New York Times, August 27, 2019).

Hours after leaders of some of the world’s wealthiest countries pledged more than $22 million to help combat fires in the Amazon rainforest, Brazil’s government angrily rejected the offer, in effect telling the other nations to mind their own business

• Zoe Sullivan, “The Real Reason the Amazon Is on Fire” (Time, August 27, 2019).

Less obvious are the ways the conflagration stems from years of slashing government budgets for the environment and dismantling support for indigenous and traditional subsistence communities

Colombia

• Diana Durán Núñez, “Militares y la Comision de la Verdad (en Colombia), una Relacion “Sui Generis”” (El Espectador (Colombia), August 27, 2019).

En Latinoamérica, como regla general, las Comisiones de la Verdad y las Fuerzas Militares estuvieron siempre divorciadas. En Colombia, sin embargo, no hay divorcio a la vista

Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela

• Joshua Collins, “Venezuelans Stranded as Ecuador Imposes New Visa Rules” (Al Jazeera, August 27, 2019).

As the deadline neared, many Venezuelans in Ecuador rushed home to retrieve family members. Thousands more rushed east from their homes in Venezuela, eager to start a life in Ecuador that would soon be much harder to achieve

El Salvador

• Óscar Iraheta, “Estudio Revela Crisis Alimentaria en 280,000 Familias por Sequia” (El Diario De Hoy (El Salvador), August 27, 2019).

Como resultado de la investigación que se desarrolló en los departamentos de Ahuachapán, Usulután, San Vicente, San Miguel y Morazán, se conoció que existe un 82 % de nivel de afectación por la sequía

Haiti

• Jacqueline Charles, “He Caught One of Haiti’s Most Wanted Criminals. Now the Nation’s Top Cop Is Out of a Job” (The Miami Herald, August 27, 2019).

In Haiti, he said, bandits are everywhere — in the city, in the countryside, the slums and the villas — and Haitians must continue to “fight mercilessly against bandits and traffickers of all kinds”

Honduras

• Hector Silva Avalos, “How Drug Traffickers Became Masters of Honduras’ Forests” (InsightCrime, August 27, 2019).

Illegal timber and drug trafficking are closely linked in northeastern Honduras, a major cocaine corridor in this region. There, criminal groups have savvily combined these two businesses to maximize their illicit profits

Mexico

• Alberto Pradilla, “Migrantes Africanos se Rebelan Contra el Inm en Chiapas” (Animal Politico (Mexico), August 27, 2019).

Decenas de migrantes africanos bloquearon durante horas las entradas a la estación Siglo XXI, en Tapachula, Chiapas. Solo impidieron el paso a los funcionarios del INM

• “Mexico’s Playa Bagdad Mixes Sun, Sand and Drug Trafficking” (Associated Press, WTOP, August 27, 2019).

Cartels tend to use these coastal plains for purposes like transporting drugs — or as the DEA notes, dumping bodies clandestinely. And they put a premium at keeping migrants away

• Camilo Montoya-Galvez, “Justice Department Asks Supreme Court to Allow Border Asylum Ban” (CBS News, August 27, 2019).

U.S. Solicitor General Noel Francisco, who represents the federal government before the court, urged the justices to issue an administrative stay on a ruling by a judge in San Francisco

• Almudena Toral, Patricia Clarembaux, ““El Gobierno Mexicano No Aporta Absolutamente Nada”: El Reclamo de los Albergues de Migrantes en Tijuana” (Univision, August 27, 2019).

Univision Noticias visitó cinco albergues en Tijuana. En todos, los encargados denuncian que funcionan por el apoyo de organizaciones que hacen donaciones o realizan jornadas médicas, educativas y legales

Nicaragua

• Carlos F. Chamorro, “La Comision Internacional Contra la Impunidad” (Confidencial (Nicaragua), August 27, 2019).

El programa mínimo de una Coalición Nacional debe incluir la creación de la CICIN, para ayudar a desmantelar las estructuras dictatoriales

Venezuela

• Maolis Castro, “Venezuela, Bajo el Reino del Terror Policial” (El Pais (Spain), August 27, 2019).

La represión aumenta en los barrios pobres a manos de las Fuerzas de Acciones Especiales, una unidad de la Policía Nacional creada por Maduro, que acumula centenares de denuncias por supuestas ejecuciones extrajudiciales