(Even more here)

March 15, 2017

Colombia

Kejal Vyas, Cultivation of Cocaine-Producing Coca Plant Rises to Record in Colombia (The Wall Street Journal, March 15, 2017).

The increase puts Colombia’s coca harvest well above where it was 16 years ago when a U.S.-backed campaign began to defoliate the coca plants and erode support for Marxist rebels

Olga Patricia Rendon M., Ya se Sabe Donde Hay Caletas de Armas de las Farc (El Colombiano (Medellin Colombia), March 15, 2017).

Las Farc ya le entregaron al componente internacional las coordenadas de las caletas en las que guardaron los explosivos y armamentos

María Flórez, El Abogado Que Ha Documentado Mas de 6.000 Falsos Positivos Lucha para Que No Lo Maten (Pacifista (Colombia), March 15, 2017).

La CIDH concluyó que Yepes y su hija se encuentran en una situación de gravedad y que sus vidas están en riesgo

Irina Cuesta, Andres Cajiao, Eduardo Alvarez Vanegas, Siete Regiones Sin las Farc, ¿Siete Problemas Mas? (Fundacion Ideas por la Paz (Colombia), March 15, 2017).

Chocó, Tumaco, Cauca, Buenaventura, el Bajo Cauca antioqueño, el eje Llanos Orientales-Orinoquia y Catatumbo se enfrentan a diversos tipos de violencias tras la salida de las FARC

Mexico

Mexico Debe Reducir Presencia Militar en Funciones de Seguridad Publica: Exrelator de la Onu (Proceso (Mexico), March 15, 2017).

Destacó que a raíz de la lucha contra el crimen organizado, en México se ha generalizado la tortura, “de una manera que es muy difícil erradicarla”

Bill Chappell, Mass Secret Grave in Eastern Mexico Could Be Country’s Largest, Official Says (The Two-Way, National Public Radio, March 15, 2017).

*Winckler says the bodies are those of people murdered by gangs, with the complicity of the government. He added that officials had also deceived families who asked for help *

Melissa del Bosque, Texans Receive First Notices of Land Condemnation for Trump’s Border Wall (The Texas Observer, March 15, 2017).

The 21-page document, entitled a “Declaration of Taking,” is addressed to her ailing mother, Maria Flores, who owns the property with her siblings. The letter offers Flores $2,900 for 1.2 acres near the Rio Grande

Laura Litvan, House Republicans Take Their Own Path on Trump’s Border Wall (Bloomberg, Yahoo, March 15, 2017).

An early version of the plan being fashioned by the White House and DHS would include $2.8 billion to begin carrying out Trump’s executive orders calling for construction of a border wall and increased deportation of undocumented immigrants

Venezuela

Luis Alonso Lugo, Joshua Goodman, Oas Head Urges Bloc Suspend Venezuela Over Elections (Associated Press , March 15, 2017).

OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro made the request in a 75-page report on Venezuela’s political crisis, in which he accused President Nicolas Maduro’s socialist government of systematically violating human rights

Western Hemisphere Regional

Robert Muggah, Katherine Aguirre, Spencer Chainey, Targeting “Hot Spots” Could Drastically Reduce Latin America’s Murder Rate (Igarape Institute, Americas Quarterly, March 15, 2017).

Perhaps more than any other part of the world, homicide in Latin America is concentrated by time and place – for policymakers hoping to reduce the region’s staggering levels of violent crime, this represents a major opportunity