(Even more here)

September 20, 2019

Western Hemisphere Regional

• Rafael Carranza, “Feds Outline Road Map for Construction of Trump’s Border Wall Using Military Funds” (The Arizona Republic, September 20, 2019).

The 18 border projects listed a total of about 309 miles of new and replacement fencing, mostly along the western portion of the U.S.-Mexico border

• Nick Miroff, Josh Dawsey, “Trump Officials Considering Plan to Divert Billions of Dollars in Additional Funds for Border Barrier” (The Washington Post, September 20, 2019).

Planning documents obtained by The Washington Post show the cost of building 509 miles of barriers averages out to more than $36 million per mile

• Molly o’toole, “Border Patrol Agents, Rather Than Asylum Officers, Interviewing Families for ‘Credible Fear’” (The Los Angeles Times, September 20, 2019).

Agents at Dilley are not wearing the Border Patrol’s well-known olive-green uniforms, and are identifying themselves to migrant families and children as asylum officers

• “Immigration Court’s Active Backlog Surpasses One Million” (TRAC Immigration, September 20, 2019).

The latest case-by-case court records through the end of August 2019 show the court’s active case backlog was 1,007,155. If the additional 322,535 cases which the court says are pending but have not been placed on the active caseload rolls are added, then the backlog now tops 1.3 million

• Nicole Chavez, Elizabeth Plaza, Pierre Meilhan, “A Honduran Mother and Her Toddler Drowned in the Rio Grande Trying to Enter the Us, Authorities Say” (CNN, September 20, 2019).

The pair had recently entered the US and made a request for asylum but they were sent to Matamoros, Mexico, to wait for an immigration court hearing

Brazil

• Tatiana Dias, “Operation Amazon Redux” (The Intercept, September 20, 2019).

For more than a century, a series of Brazilian governments have sought to move into the country’s interior, developing — or, to be more precise, colonizing — the Amazon

Colombia

• Humberto de la Calle, “De la Calle Escribe Sobre la Influencia de Uribe en el Acuerdo de Paz” (El Tiempo (Colombia), September 20, 2019).

Uno de los antecedentes que influyeron en la posición del Gobierno en la mesa de negociaciones corresponde a las experiencias derivadas del Plan de Consolidación Integral de La Macarena (PCIM), el cual tuvo aplicación en el gobierno de Álvaro Uribe

Colombia, Venezuela

• Rafael Sulbaran, “Los Refugios del Paramo Luchan Contra la Xenofobia y la Falta de Recursos” (Proyecto Migración Venezuela, Semana (Colombia), September 20, 2019).

Por ser el principal paso desde Cúcuta hacia las grandes ciudades del país, el páramo es un paso obligado para los caminantes que emprenden la aventura. Por eso, a lo largo del camino existen 13 albergues

• “Como las Mafias y Grupos Armados de Colombia se Aprovechan de los Migrantes Venezolanos” (BBC Mundo, Semana (Colombia), September 20, 2019).

Organismos internacionales advierten que son decenas de miles los casos de migrantes que se encuentran explotados por bandas criminales de Colombia

Cuba

• Nora Gamez Torres, “Expulsan a Dos Diplomaticos Cubanos por Actuar Contra Estados Unidos” (El Nuevo Herald, September 20, 2019).

Aunque el Departamento de Estado no ofreció más detalles, la frase “operaciones de influencia” usualmente se refiere a actividades de inteligencia y reclutamiento de fuentes

Guatemala

• Sofia Menchu, “Guatemala Joins Ranks of Cocaine Producers as Plantations and Labs Emerge” (Reuters, September 20, 2019).

The plantations are in remote stretches of the municipalities of Livingston on the Caribbean coast and El Estor

Haiti

• “Haiti Braces for Mass Protests Friday” (Voice of America, September 20, 2019).

Among the opposition’s demands are the establishment of a transitional government, trials for all those implicated in the PetroCaribe corruption scandal, prosecution of public officials accused of corruption, and organization of a National Sovereignty Conference

Mexico

• “New Probe Into 43 Mexican Students’ Disappearance” (BBC (UK), September 20, 2019).

The attorney-general’s office said it would reinvestigate “almost from scratch” what happened to the 43 after they clashed with local police on 26 September 2014

• Ellen Mitchell, “Pentagon: Nearly $2.5b in Border Wall Contracts Finalized” (The Hill, September 20, 2019).

As of this week, 129 miles worth of projects in New Mexico, Arizona and California “has been obligated and is on contract,”

• Cedar Attanasio, Tim Sullivan, “‘Everybody Cries Here’: Hope and Despair in Mexican Shelter” (Associated Press, Associated Press, September 20, 2019).

These are turbulent days for the migrants of El Buen Pastor. For the first time since World War II, the U.S. government is turning away thousands of asylum seekers regardless of their need for refuge

• Marcia Brown, “How Mexico Is Doing America’s Deportation Work for Us” (The American Prospect, September 20, 2019).

Seeking to relieve the pressure from asylum seekers in border towns, Mexico bused asylum seekers south. The country’s practices could violate international law

Nicaragua

• Lucia Navas, “Diputados Orteguistas Aprueban Acuerdo Con Iran y Retan a ee.uu.” (La Prensa (Nicaragua), September 20, 2019).

La aplanadora de la bancada orteguista con sus setenta diputados aprobó este 18 de septiembre el acuerdo de protección de inversiones con el régimen islámico de Irán

Venezuela

• Anthony Faiola, Rachelle Krygier, “In Venezuela’s Oil Capital, Life Is a Struggle. So Is Death.” (The Washington Post, September 20, 2019).

But the depression that began here in 2013 has accelerated into a meltdown, the product of falling oil prices, failed socialist policies, mismanagement and corruption

• “Venezuela: Extrajudicial Killings in Poor Areas” (Human Rights Watch, September 20, 2019).

Police and security forces have killed nearly 18,000 people in Venezuela in instances of alleged “resistance to authority” since 2016

• Oriana Van Praag, “Understanding the Venezuelan Refugee Crisis” (Woodrow Wilson Center, September 20, 2019).

By July 2019, however, only 23.9 percent of the funds needed had been raised

• “Cancilleres del Tiar se Reuniran el Lunes para Invocar el Pacto de Defensa por la Crisis en Venezuela” (Voz de América, La Prensa (Nicaragua), September 20, 2019).

Santos explicó que la reunión se centrará en «la decisión de invocar y a partir de ahí poder tomar decisiones respectivas frente a sanciones». Dijo, no obstante, que de «ninguna manera quiere decir que se aprueba el uso de acciones militares»

• Phil Gunson, “Maduro Finds a “New Opposition” to Negotiate With” (International Crisis Group, September 20, 2019).

There is no indication that the government is moving in the direction of Maduro’s departure followed by a genuinely competitive presidential election under international supervision