(Even more here)

February 19, 2020

Western Hemisphere Regional

• John Washington, “Trump-Appointed Immigration Judges Have Become His Robed Enforcers” (Gen, Medium, February 19, 2020).

In a spate of appointments by current Attorney General Barr, six new judges are now on the BIA who, while working as lower court judges, granted asylum at abysmally and unusually low rates

Colombia

• “‘los Habitantes de el Salado No Eran Guerrilleros’: ‘Juancho Dique’” (El Espectador (Colombia), February 19, 2020).

Uber Banquez Martínez, uno de los autores materiales de la masacre de El Salado, habla de su responsabilidad en ese hecho y su compromiso con la verdad, 20 años después

• Clara Lopez, “Pdet Sin Dotacion de Tierra Es un Placebo” (Semana (Colombia), February 19, 2020).

Hasta la fecha, la Agencia de Renovación del Territorio ha entregado 600 obras en los 170 municipios PDET, pero ni una sola hectárea de tierra

El Salvador

• Marcos Gonzalez Diaz, “Bukele y la Violencia en el Salvador: Cuanto Ha Influido en la Reduccion de Homicidios el Plan de Seguridad por el Que el Mandatario Militarizo el Congreso” (BBC (UK), February 19, 2020).

Muchos analistas, en cambio, descartan que esta histórica reducción de la violencia se deba a una estrategia de seguridad que, en su opinión, no aporta nada nuevo respecto a lo hecho por gobiernos anteriores

Mexico

• Madeleine Wattenbarger, “The Legacy of Samir Flores, One Year Later” (NACLA, February 19, 2020).

Despite the widespread regional and national protests sparked by his murder, after the elapse of a year, authorities have yet to release any advances in the investigation of Flores’s death

• Kevin Sieff, “The Death of a 7-Year-Old Girl in Mexico Provokes New Outrage” (The Washington Post, February 19, 2020).

Fátima’s killing is the latest in a string of brutal crimes against girls and women stirring enormous public outrage directed at Mexico’s president and other top officials

• Arturo Angel, Nayeli Roldán, “Omisiones Facilitaron Desaparicion de Fatima y Complicaron la Busqueda” (Animal Politico (Mexico), February 19, 2020).

Autoridades federales y capitalinas incumplieron protocolos o retrasaron la atención de la emergencia. Las pistas claves del caso de Fátima, como videos, las reunió la familia de la niña

Venezuela

• Ben Fox, “Us Sanctions Russian Oil Trading Firm for Role in Venezuela” (Associated Press, Associated Press, February 19, 2020).

Administration officials said Rosneft Trading S.A. and its president, Didier Casimiro, would be added to a financial blacklist in a move that is expected to largely freeze him and the company out of the global financial system