(Even more here)

February 18, 2020

Western Hemisphere Regional

• Greg Miller, Peter F. Mueller, “Compromised Encryption Machines Gave Cia Window Into Major Human Rights Abuses in South America” (The Washington Post, February 18, 2020).

What the documents don’t show is any substantial effort by U.S. spy agencies, or senior officials privy to the intelligence, to expose or stop human rights violations unfolding in their view

Colombia

• Maria Alejandra Navarrete, Laura Alonso, “Overview of Violence Against Social Leaders in Colombia” (InsightCrime, February 18, 2020).

InSight Crime looks at these murders in Putumayo, Nariño, Antioquia, Cauca and Norte de Santander, the five Colombian departments most impacted by this spike in violence

Mexico

• Chris Dalby, Charlotte Dierkes, “Los Ardillos Continue Terrorizing Indigenous Communities of Guerrero, Mexico” (InsightCrime, February 18, 2020).

Heroin still remains a steady earner, even if it’s not from what it was, and opportunities for mining and even political control beckon

• “Editorial: Lopez Obrador y los Feminicidios” (El Pais (Spain), February 18, 2020).

Todo lo que ha ofrecido en las últimas conferencias matutinas el presidente Andrés Manuel López Obrador ha sido un catálogo de ignorancia sobre la violencia de género

Mexico, Western Hemisphere Regional

• Leon Krauze, “The Democrats’ Inexcusable Ignorance on Mexico” (Slate, February 18, 2020).

What have voters of Mexican origin, who make up the majority of the country’s growing Hispanic electorate, heard from the Democratic Party in response? Either nothing or empty platitudes

Mexico, U.S.-Mexico Border

• Ed Vulliamy, “Kidnappers Prey With ‘Total Impunity’ on Migrants Waiting for Hearings in Mexico” (The Guardian, February 18, 2020).

Mark Morgan, acting commissioner for US Customs and Border Protection, told a round-table of reporters last year he was unaware of reports of kidnapping, while Mexico’s foreign minister, Marcelo Ebrard, has said kidnaps were “not a massive number”

Venezuela

• Sofia Nederr, “Ley de la Fan Afianza Doctrina Bolivariana Que se Vive en los Cuarteles” (Tal Cual (Venezuela), February 18, 2020).

Dentro de las funciones del Comando Estratégico Operacional de la Fuerza Armada Nacional (Ceofan), figura la difusión del nuevo pensamiento castrense a través del Centro de Doctrina Militar Bolivariana