(Even more here)

April 8, 2020

Western Hemisphere Regional

• “Amid Covid-19 Pandemic, Us Authorities Must Release Immigration Detainees” (Amnesty International, April 8, 2020).

The United States has the largest immigration detention system in the world, with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) holding nearly 40,000 people in over 200 centers across the country

Bolivia

• “Bolivia: Covid-19 Decree Threatens Free Expression” (Human Rights Watch, April 8, 2020).

A decree the Bolivian government has issued to respond to the COVID-19 emergency includes an overly broad provision that authorities could use to prosecute those who criticize government policies

Brazil

• Lisandra Paraguassu, “U.S. Denies Hijacking Chinese Medical Supplies Meant for Brazil” (The New York Times, April 8, 2020).

Brazilian Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta said last week China had ditched some Brazilian equipment orders when the U.S. government sent more than 20 cargo planes to the country to buy the same products

• Luis Nassif, “Nassif: How the Generals Took Out the Captain” (Brasil Wire, April 8, 2020).

Veteran journalist Luis Nassif explains the Military’s silent and gradual seizure of power from President Bolsonaro in five acts

Colombia

• “Comienza la Quinta Version de la Campana Naval Contra el Narcotrafico “Orion”” (Armada de Colombia, April 8, 2020).

Se trata de operaciones combinadas, conjuntas, coordinadas y coincidentes con los países de la región y de Europa, interesados en seguir aportando esfuerzos en la lucha del problema mundial contra las drogas

• “No Disminuyen Agresiones Contra Lideres Sociales y Comunales, al Contrario Aumenta la Violencia Contra Lideres Politicos: Moe” (Movimiento de Observación Electoral (Colombia), April 8, 2020).

En marzo no solo no disminuyen las agresiones contra líderes sociales y comunales, sino que se disparan las amenazas contra líderes políticos

• “Indigenas Embera Katio Pasaron la Noche en un Parque del Centro de Bogota” (El Espectador (Colombia), April 8, 2020).

Casi 300 indígenas embera katío llegaron al parque Tercer Milenio para protestar después de ser desalojados de los famosos pagadiarios en la localidad de Santa Fe. Al no obtener la atención del Distrito, está comunidad no tuvo otra opción

• Paola Andrea Perdomo, “Presidente: En los Territorios Siguen Asesinando a su Pueblo” (Fundación Paz y Reconciliación (Colombia), April 8, 2020).

En lo corrido del 12 de marzo, cuando fue declarada la emergencia sanitaria, al día de hoy, ha habido un total de 31 acciones bélicas y 35 hechos de violencia contra la población civil, 16 y 22 de los cuales han ocurrido pasados casi 15 días de la implementación de las medidas de cuarentena

• Nelson Matta Colorado, “Records en Homicidios: Las Dos Caras de Medellin” (El Colombiano (Medellin Colombia), April 8, 2020).

Marzo de 2020 quedó en la historia como el mes con menos asesinatos en la capital de Antioquia en las últimas cuatro décadas, al sumar solo 19 casos

Colombia, Venezuela

• Sergio Gomez Maseri, “‘Que Oposicion No Crea Que Ee. Uu. Va a Solucionar Sus Problemas’” (El Tiempo (Colombia), April 8, 2020).

Wiliam Brownfield, exjefe antinarcóticos de EE. UU., analiza la nueva estrategia para Venezuela

• Steven Grattan, Anthony Faiola, Ana Vanessa Herrero, “Coronavirus Lockdowns Across Latin America Send Venezuelan Migrants Back to Their Broken Homeland” (The Washington Post, April 8, 2020).

Internal numbers being shared by officials in Venezuela’s border region of Tachira state show at least 7,600 have arrived since mid-March. More are arriving at a rate of up to 500 per day

Ecuador

• Jose Maria Leon Cabrera, “Ecuador’s Former President Convicted on Corruption Charges” (The New York Times, April 8, 2020).

Mr. Correa was among 20 people, including his vice president, Jorge Glas, accused of accepting $8 million in bribes in exchange for public contracts from 2012 and 2016

• “Rol de Ff. Aa. En la Emergencia Debe Enfocar Multiples Campos” (El Universo (Ecuador), April 8, 2020).

Desde el 16 de marzo, día en el que el presidente Lenín Moreno decretó el estado de excepción para contrarrestar la pandemia del COVID-19 en Ecuador, las Fuerzas Armadas (FF. AA.) empezaron a activarse en áreas que no son usuales

El Salvador

• Kate Linthicum, Molly o’toole, Alexander Renderos, “In el Salvador, Gangs Are Enforcing the Coronavirus Lockdown With Baseball Bats” (The Los Angeles Times, April 8, 2020).

The street gangs that have long terrorized El Salvador have now turned their attention from extortion and killing to a more pressing matter: enforcing social distancing restrictions, often with threats and baseball bats

Guyana

• Anatoly Kurmanaev, ““It Changed So Fast”: Oil Is Making Guyana Wealthy but Intensifying Tensions” (The New York Times, April 8, 2020).

For many, the transformation into an oil economy has brought optimism about greater prosperity. But that optimism is often mixed with a fatalism that nothing will really improve for the vast majority

Haiti

• Monique O. Madan, Jacqueline Charles, “Ice to Deport Haitians Despite Coronavirus Concerns” (The Miami Herald, April 8, 2020).

Immigration lawyers and advocates say at least 14 Haitian nationals are scheduled to board a deportation flight from Alexandria, Louisiana, to Port-au-Prince Tuesday

U.S.-Mexico Border

• Ted Hesson, Mica Rosenberg, “U.S. Deports 400 Migrant Children Under New Coronavirus Rules” (Reuters, Reuters, April 8, 2020).

Around 120 of the minors, who arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border without a parent or legal guardian, were quickly sent on planes back to Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador

• Robert Moore, “El Paso’s Bishop Seitz, Migrant Advocates Call for Ice to Release Nonviolent Detainees During Covid-19 Outbreak” (El Paso Matters, April 8, 2020).

“Faith and reason tell us that the right thing to do right now is to protect each other by taking steps toward social distancing. The federal government has already recognized that this is very nearly impossible in facilities like prisons and detention centers”

• Erin Siegal Mcintyre, “As Tijuana Locks Down, Migrants at U.S.-Mexico Border Stuck in Dangerous Limbo” (The Huffington Post, April 8, 2020).

The government’s stay-at-home orders mean many people facing crowded shelter conditions and limited medical resources are now effectively immobile

Venezuela

• Joshua Goodman, “Sex. Drugs. Virus. Venezuela Elites Still Party in Pandemic” (Associated Press, Associated Press, April 8, 2020).

For some of Venezuela’s high-flying “Bolichicos” — the privileged offspring of the socialist revolution — the party hasn’t stopped amid a widening pandemic in a country already gripped by crisis

• Rafael Uzcategui, “Quarantine in Venezuela: The War Against Society by Other Means” (OpenDemocracy (UK), April 8, 2020).

The response of the Chavista state to Covid-19 goes no further than repeating its authoritarian patterns of behaviour that were in place before the pandemic