Patrick Tombola/laif/Redux photo at Nieman Reports. Caption: “A special anti-gang police member patrols the streets in Herradura, El Salvador. El Faro’s Sala Negra was created as a specialized newsroom project to cover gang violence”

(Even more here)

February 14, 2020

Bolivia, Chile, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Western Hemisphere Regional

Across the hemisphere, the combination of weak democracies, authoritarian creep, struggling economies, government retaliation against advertisers, and worsening levels of political and social violence are pinching journalists from all sides

Brazil, Paraguay

Léo Veras lived in the Paraguayan town of Pedro Juan Caballero and ran a local news website. He had recently been receiving threats for his investigative work into smuggling at the border

Brazil

The appointment of Braga, the second active-duty general in the Cabinet, raises to seven the number of military men in the 20-member Cabinet, not counting Vice President Hamilton Mourao, a retired general

Colombia

La Sala estudiará la solicitud, por parte de las víctimas, de activar el procedimiento adversarial y enviar a Montoya Uribe a la Unidad de Investigación y Acusación (UIA) o de excluir al compareciente de la jurisdicción

Su afirmación de que el Acuerdo de Paz de La Habana era “semifallido” preocupa a las organizaciones de víctimas, pues será ella quien coordine la política integral de derechos humanos en el país donde asesinan a líderes todos los días

Hay una información que circula en Putumayo que tiene que ver con que las disidencias de las FARC se unirían al paro armado decretado por el ELN en los departamentos de Putumayo, Nariño y Cauca

Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela

UNHCR released a campaign last year called “Somos panas” (“We’re mates”) to remind Colombians they were helped by Venezuela when thousands fled the other way during Colombia’s 50-year civil war

El Salvador

To make sense of these events, and the possibility of further contagion, I recently spoke with two of the United States’ most seasoned observers of Latin American affairs

El presidente Nayib Bukele violó al menos tres disposiciones constitucionales y varias leyes secundarias, según constitucionalistas

It was the most overt display of brute force since the end of the civil war in 1992. Yet the United States and the European Union have only issued mild rebukes

El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras

Despierta una preocupación histórica en los tres países y que parece ser el despertar centroamericano del dragón dormido: la participación de los militares en la política

Guatemala

También están en riesgo la autonomía personal, la universitaria, la intimidad, y son los primeros pasos hacia un Estado policial

Guatemalan lawmakers approved changes to laws on non-governmental organizations that would give the executive branch the authority to allow such groups to operate or shut them down if they are deemed disruptive

Honduras

Heavily armed men dressed in military fatigues and police uniforms stormed a court building in north-west Honduras and freed a senior leader of the powerful MS-13 gang

Según documentos judiciales, Mauricio Hernández Pineda está acusado de conspiración para traficar cocaína junto con Tony Hernández, el hermano del presidente de Honduras

Mexico

Con el Nuevo Sistema de Justicia Penal, no se logrará dejar en prisión a nadie por el delito de comercio de drogas al menudeo

Official figures show that 3,142 women and girls were killed in 2019, and only 726 of those cases are being investigated as femicides. But women’s rights activists say that number is way too low

U.S.-Mexico Border

President Trump will host dozens of Border Patrol agents at the White House Friday afternoon in what is expected to be a celebration of union President Brandon Judd’s reelection

This year, a significant chunk of those dollars will be funneled from a war account known as the Overseas Contingency Operations fund, according to a Feb. 13 reprogramming action

Arizona Democrats said that President Donald Trump is “trying to steal money” from the military to “pay for his vanity wall,” while the ACLU said it would continue to pursue a lawsuit

According to budget documents reviewed by The Washington Post, the Pentagon is pulling the funding from two F-35 fighter jets and two Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft for the Marine Corps; one P-8A reconnaissance aircraft for the Navy; and four C-130J transport planes and eight MQ-9 Reaper drones for the Air Force

On March 14, according to one daily snapshot, 672 people were in custody at all 24 crossings, a 57% occupancy rate

Venezuela

La Fuerza Armada Nacional (FAN), por instrucciones de Nicolás Maduro, realizará los días 15 y 16 de febrero las primeras maniobras militares de este año, bautizadas como “Escudo Bolivariano 2020”

Unos grandes vehículos lanzamisiles aparecieron estacionados en la carretera que conecta Caracas con su aeropuerto, bloqueada por efectivos militares coincidiendo con el regreso del líder opositor Juan Guaidó al país

“He’s no fan of foreign deployments,” said a senior administration official. “It’s absolutely clear that he has a very different view of our hemisphere”