(Even more here)

July 23, 2020

Brazil

• Fabio Teixeira, “Brazil’s Black Rights Movement Grapples With Hostile Official” (Thomson Reuters Foundation, Reuters, July 23, 2020).

Brazil’s quilombolas, the descendants of African slaves, worry more about his power to block their efforts to secure the rights to land they have inhabited for generations – something Bolsonaro has repeatedly said he wants to prevent

• Christina Farr, “Brazil Turned the Coronavirus Into a Political Football, With Devastating Results” (CNBC, July 23, 2020).

We asked every expert we spoke to for their score out of 10. (1 is the extremely poor and 10 is ideal.) It’s an extremely subjective measurement, but the average across all of them was 3

Chile

• “4th Fleet Commander Hosts Maritime Staff Talks With Armada de Chile” (By U.S. 4th Fleet Public Affairs, U.S. Southern Command, July 23, 2020).

MST topics included review of upcoming scheduled warfighting operations and exercises over the next two years, and plans for education and training opportunities for Chilean personnel in the U.S., and U.S. personnel in Chile

Colombia

• Valentina Parada, “Mujeres Relatan Lo Que Sufrieron en el Conflicto” (El Espectador (Colombia), July 23, 2020).

Los casos de las mujeres víctimas del conflicto tienen un 98 % de impunidad, según el Centro Internacional de Justicia Transicional

Central America Regional, Mexico

• Alberto Pradilla, “Gobierno Extingue el Fondo de Ayuda para Centroamerica; Sre Dice Que Reactivaran Programas” (Animal Politico (Mexico), July 23, 2020).

El fideicomiso Fondo México, encargado de gestionar las ayudas de 30 millones de pesos a Centroamérica para implementar programas sociales, será extinguido sin que Honduras y El Salvador hayan recibido un peso

Mexico

• Axel Chavez, “Hidalgo, Bomba de Tiempo por Ordena de Ductos” (Lado B, Chiapas Paralelo (Chiapas), July 23, 2020).

El cartel de Santa Rosa de Lima puso a Guanajuato en el escenario del crimen organizado. Hidalgo va en esa ruta, aunque todavía no hay un grupo único, las células locales se pelean la zona

• Vanda Felbab-Brown, “Fending Off Fentanyl and Hunting Down Heroin: Controlling Opioid Supply From Mexico” (The Brookings Institution, July 23, 2020).

Alternative livelihood efforts have the best chance to improve public safety and rule of law in Mexico, even if, like eradication, they displace poppy cultivation to other areas

• “Mexico’s Tragic Chain: 133 Journalists’ Lives Lost” (SinEmbargo MX, OpenDemocracy (UK), July 23, 2020).

The following article features 10 obituaries of journalists killed in Mexico in 2019. They are some of the 133 journalists who have been killed between 2000 and 2020

U.S.-Mexico Border

• Karl Jacoby, “The Border Patrol’s Brute Power in Portland Is the Norm at the Border” (The Los Angeles Times, July 23, 2020).

The Border Patrol has been allowed to wield power in a similar manner along the border for decades, with often deadly consequences for Latinos

Venezuela

• Patrick Gaspard, “In Venezuela, Us Sanctions Are Only Hurting” (Open Society Foundations, CNN, July 23, 2020).

It is time for the United States to stop being part of the problem and be part of an international effort to address ongoing humanitarian catastrophe