(Even more here)

September 3, 2019

Western Hemisphere Regional

• “Dhs Abruptly Blocks Committee Staff Visits to Border Detention Facilities After Last Week’s Inspections Revealed Serious Problems” (House Committee on Oversight and Reform, September 3, 2019).

It appears that the Administration expects Congress to be satisfied with receiving agency tours of facilities—in some cases without the ability to photograph conditions or interview detainees—and not to question the policies or decisions that agency officials make. That is not the way effective oversight works

Colombia

• Laura Ardila Arrieta, Jineth Prieto, Ana Leon, Jerson Ortiz, Tatiana Duque, Sara Ruiz, “Sin Marquez y Compania, los Excombatientes Echan Raices” (La Silla Vacia (Colombia), September 3, 2019).

Lo que en general encontramos en esos sitios es que los reincorporados en medio de todo siguen intentando echar raíces y no manifiestan querer volver a las armas

• Andrés Bermúdez Liévano, “Sexual Violence, the New Punching Bag in the Colombian Transition (Part 2)” (Justiceinfo.net, September 3, 2019).

How to address these crimes before the Special Jurisdiction for Peace? Are ordinary courts better suited? How to convince FARC members to come forward and take responsibility?

• Steven Grattan, “Killings, Threats and Delays Disenchant Colombia’s Ex-Farc” (Reuters, Reuters, September 3, 2019).

U.N. figures show just 10% of ex-guerrillas have been granted credit for farming and development projects meant to provide jobs for them in civilian life

Colombia

• Cesar Garcia, “Asesinan a Candidata a Alcaldia en el Suroeste de Colombia” (Associated Press, Associated Press, September 3, 2019).

El Alto Comisionado para la Paz, Miguel Ceballos, atribuyó el ataque a disidencias de las Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia que actúan en zona

• Olga Patricia Rendon M., ““Ivan Marquez” No Refundo las Farc” (El Colombiano (Medellin Colombia), September 3, 2019).

Estas conversaciones no han dado frutos. Una muestra es que ninguno de los comandantes de las disidencias existentes apareció en el video

Colombia, Venezuela

• Joshua Goodman, “Colombian Rebels’ Rearming Ups Pressure for Maduro” (Associated Press, Associated Press, September 3, 2019).

U.S. officials reiterated accusations that Maduro’s government has been actively conspiring with Colombian rebels, especially the more radical National Liberation Army, or ELN

Cuba, Mexico

• Nina Lakhani, “More Cubans Seek Asylum in Mexico Amid Clampdown on Legal Path to Us” (The Guardian (Uk), September 3, 2019).

In the first seven months of this year, 4,604 Cubans applied for asylum in Mexico, representing 10% of all applicants. In 2018, 218 Cubans sought asylum, representing 1% of total applicants

El Salvador

• Roberto Valencia, “Las Cifras de Agosto Confirman el Descenso de la Violencia Homicida en el Salvador” (El Faro (El Salvador), September 3, 2019).

Esos números convierten el mes recién finalizado en el menos violento en lo que va de siglo XXI

Guatemala

• “Conocimiento de la Realidad y una Gran Dosis de Verdad, la Herencia de la Cicig a los Guatemaltecos” (United Nations, September 3, 2019).

“Creo que mis principales logros tienen que ver con haber generado una conciencia ciudadana. Que la lucha contra la corrupción sí era posible, que sí se puede adelantar investigaciones serias y profundas independientemente de quien sea la persona a la que se esté investigando”

• Ivan Velasquez, “I Was Proud to Lead the Cicig. Now Guatemalans Must Carry on the Fight Against Corruption.” (The Washington Post, September 3, 2019).

Jimmy Morales’s fear of the CICIG was a recognition of its efficacy. His success in driving the commission away offers a cautionary tale

• Eddy Coronado, Kenneth Monzon, “Sandra Torres Es Capturada por Financiamiento Ilicito de la Une” (Prensa Libre (Guatemala), September 3, 2019).

“Es una persecución política”, dijo Torres en su llegada a la Torre de Tribunales y señaló al presidente electo Alejandro Giammattei

Guatemala, Mexico

• Oscar Martinez, “Una Escena Miserable en una Frontera Miserable” (El Faro (El Salvador), September 3, 2019).

Cientos de migrantes están varados en las fronteras guatemaltecas debido al cerco de seguridad del gobierno mexicano. México cedió ante las presiones estadounidenses y desde hace unos meses generó un cordón de policías, militares y agentes migratorios en el sur

Mexico

• Pablo Ferri, “Uno de los Principales Acusados del ‘Caso Ayotzinapa’ Sale de Prision” (El Pais (Spain), September 3, 2019).

Algunas de las pruebas, testimonios de otros detenidos, habrían sido obtenidas mediante tortura, otras por detención arbitraria

• Mary Beth Sheridan, “Mexican Government Says More Than 3,000 Hidden Graves Found in the Search for the Disappeared” (The Washington Post, September 3, 2019).

More than 40,000 people have disappeared since 2006. Now, in a first-ever tally, officials are providing details on burial sites

• Parker Asmann, “Lack of Us Gun Control Provokes Record Bloodshed in Mexico” (InsightCrime, September 3, 2019).

At the federal level, ending the importation of high-powered assault weapons into the United States would help restrict the flow of such weapons into Mexico

• Kate Linthicum, “Death, Made in Mexico: Traffickers Embrace Fentanyl” (The Los Angeles Times, September 3, 2019).

Today, officials say the majority is smuggled from Mexico, where it is remaking the drug trade as traffickers embrace it over heroin, which is more difficult and expensive to produce

• Patrick J. Mcdonnell, “Migrants Returned to Mexican Border Towns Face Threat of Kidnapping, Extortion” (The Los Angeles Times, September 3, 2019).

In cartel-dominated Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, a gateway to the United States, demanding ransoms for migrants sent back by U.S. officials is a lucrative racket

Nicaragua

• Leonor Álvarez, “Ejercito de Nicaragua se Pliega a Version Orteguista de Intento de Golpe de Estado” (La Prensa (Nicaragua), September 3, 2019).

El jefe del Ejército de Nicaragua, general Julio César Avilés Castillo, por primera vez dejó clara públicamente su posición al considerar las protestas civiles un intento de golpe de Estado contra el régimen

Venezuela

• Brian Ellsworth, Corina Pons, “Venezuela Opposition Says Norway Talks Must Focus on Elections” (Reuters, Reuters, September 3, 2019).

Asked when the talks will resume, Gonzalez responded “that question should be asked of the regime, if they’re prepared or not to discuss the important issues.”

• “ee.uu.: “No Queremos una Intervencion Militar Sino una Salida Pacifica en Venezuela”” (Voice of America, La Prensa (Nicaragua), September 3, 2019).

Dijo que Estados Unidos seguirá presionando hasta lograr elecciones libres y democráticas en Venezuela

• Michael J. Camilleri, “Plan B in Venezuela” (Inter-American Dialogue, Foreign Affairs, September 3, 2019).

Rather than clinging to the fading hope that pressure alone will topple Maduro, Washington should reorient both its sanctions policy and its diplomatic engagement around the search for a negotiated pathway to elections