Juan Manuel Barrero Bueno photo at OCCRP. Caption: “A coca farmer collects coca leaves in Guaviare, Colombia.”

(Even more here)

May 21, 2020

Western Hemisphere Regional

One evening, ICE officials came to my dorm and tried to pressure me into signing documents stating that they have taken sufficient preventative measures. When I refused, one official got on top of me, yelled at me, and tried again to coerce me into signing the papers

Colombia

Un coronel, un mayor y un teniente aparecen mencionados en el expediente de “chuzadas” de la Corte Suprema

Así lo manifestó la ministra del Interior, Alicia Arango, quien, en su función de secretaria técnica del Plan de Acción Oportuna (PAO), entregó cifras del primer trimestre de la atención del Gobierno a esta población

Community activists from different parts of Colombia have told the BBC that restrictions on movement imposed to curb the spread of virus mean that they have become even easier targets

The son of a notorious death squad leader has been appointed to run the Colombian government’s programmes for victims of the country’s long civil war, prompting fury among survivors

Miembros del Consejo Regional Indígena del Cauca (Cric) denunciaron que funcionarios del Ministerio del Interior olvidaron apagar sus micrófonos y lanzaron fuertes improperios en su contra: “Solo quieren plata y siempre van a ser unos miserables y brutos”

Aunque el consejo comunitario, ubicado en Riosucio (Chocó), tiene un título colectivo por 107.064 hectáreas, en la práctica la tierra productiva está en manos de empresarios que la compraron en medio de la arremetida paramilitar

Colombia, Cuba

John Petter Opdahl, embajador noruego en Colombia, revela posición de su país sobre Cuba

Colombia, Panama, Western Hemisphere Regional

What is clear is that cocaine continues to flow from South America to Europe and North America. Closed trafficking routes have been replaced with new ones, and street deals have been substituted with door-to-door deliveries

Colombia, Venezuela

The United Nations called on Venezuela’s feuding political leaders Wednesday to urgently resume serious negotiations, while Russia and its Caracas government ally traded barbs with the United States and Colombia

El Salvador

Los legisladores salvadoreños habían aprobado el lunes una ley para reabrir la economía garantizando la salud de la población que Bukele amenazó con vetar. Ese día, el alto tribunal suspendió provisionalmente otro decreto de emergencia

Mexico

Actualmente hay cerca de 4 mil 800 personas solicitantes de asilo que viven en 89 albergues, por lo que cerrarlos por la pandemia de COVID-19 es inviable

In the first four months of this year, 11,535 murders were registered, up from 11,266 homicide in same period last year

Peru

Peru was one of the first Latin America countries to go into lockdown – but the jump in new cases is undeniable, and experts say it’s due to people’s behaviour

U.S.-Mexico Border

The impact of the CDC order is devastating. The agency is not only placing adults and families in immediate harm, either in Mexico or in the very country from which they fled, but is doing the same thing to hundreds of unaccompanied children

Venezuela

The five Iranian tankers – Fortune, Forest, Petunia, Faxon and Clavel – are carrying about 1.5m barrels of fuel and passed through the Suez Canal earlier this month

While it is clear that the Maduro government uses dialogue processes as a delay tactic through which it can divide and demobilize the opposition, clear progress has been made in the mediators’ ability to generate concrete articulation and discussion of the conflicting parties’ demands

EEUU y Rusia, que presentan discrepancias y tienen veto en el Consejo de Seguridad, hace que no haya decisión concreta sobre Venezuela

Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López said Venezuela’s navy and air force will welcome the five Iranian tankers, seeing them through the nation’s maritime territory and into port