May 2, 2017

Brazil

• Marina Lopes, “How Brazil’s Political Class Came Undone” (The Washington Post, May 2, 2017).

As Brazil’s old guard turns on itself, radicals and outsiders who once operated on the political fringe are taking center stage

Colombia

• Javier Forero, “El Intenso Trabajo Legislativo Que se Viene para Reglamentar la Paz” (El Tiempo (Colombia), May 2, 2017).

El Gobierno intensificará a partir de esta semana el remate del primer tiempo del ‘fast track’ para la implementación normativa de los acuerdos de La Habana

• “Van 2.518 Asesinatos de Grupos Herederos de los Paramilitares” (El Tiempo (Colombia), May 2, 2017).

Según ese estudio, entre 1975 y el 2015, los grupos paramilitares y los GAPD asesinaron en el país a 21.044 personas, de las cuales el 12 por ciento (2.518) fueron muertas justo después del proceso de desmovilización

Cuba

• Michael Weissenstein, “Protester Disrupts Start of Cuba’s Annual May Day Parade” (Associated Press **, May 2, 2017).

A protester briefly disrupted the start of Cuba’s largest annual political event on Monday, sprinting in front of May Day marchers and brandishing a U.S. flag before he was dragged away

Mexico

• Gustavo de la Rosa, “Llega el Narco a la Contienda Electoral” (SinEmbargo (Mexico), May 2, 2017).

La manta que apareció en contra de AMLO en Acolman es más que una broma política de mal gusto, ojalá fuera sólo la idea de un idiota

• Noah Bierman, Brian Bennett, “Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Wall’ Is Not in the Spending Plan. Will It Ever Get Built?” (The Los Angeles Times, May 2, 2017).

Advocates on both sides of the immigration debate predicted that Democrats’ victory on the latest spending bill will embolden them to demand more in future negotiations

Venezuela

• Andrew Cawthorne, Alexandra Ulmer, “Facing Protests, Venezuela’s Maduro Triggers Constitutional Shakeup” (Reuters **, May 2, 2017).

“I don’t want a civil war,” Maduro told a May Day rally of supporters in downtown Caracas while elsewhere across the city security forces fired tear gas at youths hurling stones and petrol bombs

• “The Opposition’s Way Forward in Venezuela” (The Atlantic, May 2, 2017).

The MUD must figure out the best way to remove Maduro from power. The military and its weapons are on Maduro’s side, so violence is not an option

• Nicholas Casey, “Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela President, Calls for a Rewrite of the Constitution” (The New York Times, May 2, 2017).

Mr. Maduro said he would call together what he described as a “citizens’ constitutional assembly of the people, the communities, the peasants” to rewrite the governing charter