Rebecca Blackwell / AP photo at SinEmbargo (Mexico). Caption: “Soldados patrullan un barrio de Irapuato.”

(Even more here)

May 13, 2020

Western Hemisphere Regional

Much of Latin America’s pain is unfolding far from global view, under governments that can’t — or won’t — offer a full tally of the dead

Brazil

Veja reported that during the cabinet meeting Bolsonaro had announced he wanted access to police intelligence to avoid ongoing investigations harming “my family and my friends”

Colombia

El Espectador revela todo el contenido del informe técnico que envió la Dirección de Investigaciones Especiales de la Procuraduría a la magistrada de la Corte Suprema Cristina Lombana y esta, a su vez, a la Fiscalía

El militar en retiro, quien hoy comparece ante la Jurisdicción Especial para la Paz (JEP), le contó a la AFP detalles de su participación en las ejecuciones extrajudiciales, mal llamados “falsos positivos”

En ese municipio del norte de Cauca, la Columna Móvil Jaime Martínez se ha consolidado a punta de amenazas y muertes. La Defensoría del Pueblo encendió nuevamente las alertas

“Vamos a informar a los congresistas de Estados Unidos en qué se están invirtiendo sus fondos en Colombia”, anunció Cepeda

Colombia, Venezuela

The figures on returning Venezuelans include some 27,000 people in border areas who left Colombia in the first three days after the government closed land borders

El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras

“But I have to speak clearly. The arrival of deportees who have tested positive has really increased the number of cases.” The United States, he added, had become “the Wuhan of the Americas”

Mexico

Otorga facultades a los militares sin dejar en claro controles efectivos, supervisión y fiscalización a los soldados; sólo menciona principios vagos que no dan certeza, ni garantiza a los civiles de que se van a respetar sus derechos humanos

Ante la indefinicio?n, podri?a establecerse un esquema permanente de participacio?n de las fuerzas armadas en funciones de seguridad pu?blica, hecho que es contrario a nuestra Constitucio?n

Argumenta que los 80 mil agentes de la corporación no son suficientes para cubrir el territorio nacional // El secretario no considera que se subordine a los militares

U.S.-Mexico Border

After seeking answers on this issue for nearly two months, the lawmakers received a deeply flawed legal opinion from the Department of State in late April that the administration apparently concocted after the Asylum Ban had been in effect for more than a month

President Trump reportedly told advisers last month he wanted the wall painted black so it would appear more foreboding and become too hot to climb during the summer

Citing a now much-criticized Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) order, the administration has effectively eliminated asylum and other humanitarian protections at the border

Venezuela

Guaidó’s political survival depends not only on his capacity to rebuild what was already a fragile alliance of political parties to promote a transition to democracy, but also on his ties to the country’s civil society, which today is debating whether or not to distance itself

Whatever the truth of the matter, Guaidó is unlikely to resign, and Maduro is unlikely to arrest him, for the simple reason that Guaidó has Trump’s protection