(Even more here)

September 17, 2019

Western Hemisphere Regional

• J. Edward Moreno, “Another Budget Fight Looms This Month in Congress Centering on Border Wall Funding” (The Texas Tribune, September 17, 2019).

Democrats opposed the bill because it includes $12.2 billion to build new sections of the wall. Senate Democrats are threatening to filibuster the legislation over border funding

• “Iachr Conducted Visit to the United States’ Southern Border” (Inter-American Human Rights Commission, Organization of American States, September 17, 2019).

Since 2018, the United States has adopted a series of migration policies that have caused significant changes for the effective enjoyment of the human rights of migrant persons, asylum-seekers, and refugees in the country

• Gus Bova, “Migrants at Laredo Tent Court Tell Stories of Kidnappings and Violence While Pleading Not to Be Returned to Mexico” (The Texas Observer, September 17, 2019).

At times, the judge seemed ill-informed about how MPP works. At one point, she turned to the government prosecutors in the room and asked whether the Mexican government was providing the migrants housing

Brazil

• Matt Sandy, “The Amazon Rain Forest Is Nearly Gone. We Went to the Front Lines to See if It Could Be Saved” (Time, September 17, 2019).

Powered by murky sources of capital and rising demand for beef, a violent and corrupt frontier is now pushing into indigenous land, national parks and one of the most preserved parts of the jungle

• Robert Muggah, “What Explains Brazil’s Homicide Decline?” (OpenDemocracy (UK), September 17, 2019).

Heavy-handed policing and sentencing may generate a temporary “chilling” effect on violent crime. But studies of mano dura-style interventions across Latin America indicate that these impacts tend to be transitory and short-lived

Colombia

• “Editorial: No Peace in Our Time in Colombia” (The Wall Street Journal, September 17, 2019).

The country’s war on terrorism is back on. But the truth is that it was never off. The sooner everyone admits that the better

• “Acusan a Danilo Rueda, de Ser de Farc y Promover Siembra de Coca” (Comisión Intereclesial de Justicia y Paz, September 17, 2019).

Este tipo de aseveraciones y de falsas acusaciones en 2003 fueron el inicio de una fase de montajes judiciales contra varios defensores de nuestra Comisión de Justicia y Paz, entre ellos Danilo Rueda

• David Fernando Correal, Andres Palencia, Jorge Restrepo, “¿Como Explicar el Aumento de la Violencia Politica en Colombia?” (Razon Publica (Colombia), September 17, 2019).

En 2019 las acciones se concentraron en el 15 por ciento de los municipios del país

Mexico

• Romain Le Cour Grandmaison, “Michoacan Es un Cuarto Oscuro” (Nexos (Mexico), September 17, 2019).

Lo que hace el gobierno es definir un perfil de “hombre fuerte” —el “Don”, el cacique, el “mero mero”, en fin, una autoridad local— que se convierte en interlocutor legítimo

Venezuela

• “Venezuela’s Military Enigma” (International Crisis Group, September 17, 2019).

The top brass could ease or thwart a move away from President Nicolás Maduro. Sponsors of transition talks should include military representatives in the discussions sooner rather than later

• Anatoly Kurmanaev, Ana Vanessa Herrero, “Venezuela’s Maduro Trains Sights on Opposition’s Last Bastion: Congress” (The New York Times, September 17, 2019).

Analysts say Monday’s deal paved the way for Mr. Maduro to call new congressional elections as early as January, despite boycott threats from the main opposition parties

• Scott Smith, “Split Emerges in Venezuela Opposition Over Talks With Gov’t” (Associated Press, The Washington Post, September 17, 2019).

A group of minority opposition parties is entering negotiations with President Nicolas Maduro’s government without the consent of the U.S.-backed opposition leader Juan Guaidó