(Even more here)

August 12, 2020

Western Hemisphere Regional

• Hamed Aleaziz, “A 70-Year-Old Costa Rican Immigrant Who Died in Ice Custody Had Tested Positive for Covid-19” (BuzzFeed, August 12, 2020).

Medical experts and immigrant advocates have warned that the highly contagious COVID-19 puts everyone in detention at risk

Bolivia

• Jesus Reynaldo Alanoca Paco, “Murillo Anuncia Investigacion y Procesos Contra Gente Que se Muestra Armada” (El Deber (Bolivia), August 12, 2020).

El ministro de Gobierno adelantó que una vez se supere el conflicto esos grupos irregulares deberán rendir cuentas. Denuncia que el narcotráfico financia las movilizaciones en el país

Brazil

• Brian Winter, “Messiah Complex” (Foreign Affairs, August 12, 2020).

why a president who is often regarded with a mix of incomprehension and horror by the rest of the world has maintained a steady domestic approval rating of about 40 percent

• Santiago Navarro F, “U.S. Expands Influence in the Brazilian Amazon During Pandemic” (NACLA, August 12, 2020).

Many Brazilians are skeptical of the intentions of U.S. aid during the pandemic. The U.S. military continues to exert influence in Brazil and has a long history of supporting Indigenous displacement in Latin America

Colombia

• Anastasia Shesterinina, “What the Coronavirus Pandemic Looks Like for Colombia’s Former Farc Fighters” (The Conversation, August 12, 2020).

We contacted people who used to fight in the guerrilla movement The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC-EP), to see how they were coping

• “Farc Pide a la Jep Proteger a Excombatientes Fuera de Espacios Territoriales” (El Espectador (Colombia), August 12, 2020).

Este miércoles es la segunda audiencia territorial en la que esa jurisdicción escucha a los voceros de los exguerrilleros. Esta vez el foco estará sobre Meta, Guaviare, Arauca, Huila y Tolima

• “Fiscalia y Jep Chocan por Fracasado Intento de Extraditar a Mancuso a Colombia” (Semana (Colombia), August 12, 2020).

Ante el inminente envío del exjefe paramilitar a Italia, nadie se explica por qué Colombia no activó todos los mecanismos que tenía a su disposición para reclamar la extradición

• “Colombia Sanctions 5 Soldiers in Murder of Ex-Guerrilla” (Associated Press, Associated Press, August 12, 2020).

Former Commander Jorge Armando Pérez will be barred from holding any public position for 20 years after being identified as the mastermind behind Dimar Torres’ death

• Andres Gonzalez, “In Colombia, Alvaro Uribe’s Immunity Is Finally Coming to an End” (Jacobin, August 12, 2020).

Whatever happens to Uribe next, this will be a watershed moment for Colombian politics

• “Definitivo: Alvaro Uribe No Podra Seguir Como Senador” (Semana (Colombia), August 12, 2020).

La Corte se dispone a comunicar oficialmente al Senado que la medida de aseguramiento quedó en firme, a fin de que la corporación tramite la suspensión de Uribe como legislador

• Andres Cajiao, “Avances y Desafios de la Implementacion del Acuerdo de Paz en Guaviare” (Fundacion Ideas por la Paz (Colombia), August 12, 2020).

La situación de seguridad, los avances y las dificultades de la sustitución de cultivos y de los PDET, la satisfacción de los derechos de la víctimas y cómo va el proceso de incorporación de las FARC

• “‘la Voz de San Jose’ Que No Puede Hablar en el Sur de Cordoba” (La Liga Contra el Silencio (Colombia), August 12, 2020).

Diez periodistas quisieron demostrar que el relato de la guerra no define al pueblo de San José de Uré, pero fueron obligados a callar violentamente

• Joshua Goodman, “Warlord’s Release From Us Prison Ups Tension With Colombia” (Associated Press, Associated Press, August 12, 2020).

He remains in U.S. custody as Colombia — where courts have judged him responsible for more than 1,500 acts of murder or forced disappearance — fights a U.S. order that would send him to Italy, where he also has citizenship

Ecuador

• “Carceles: Policia Solicitara Activacion del Sistema ‘la Roca’ para Personas de Dificil Adaptacion; Fuerzas Armadas Realizaran Control Externo” (El Universo (Ecuador), August 12, 2020).

Luis Lara, jefe del Comando Conjunto de las Fuerzas Armadas (FF.AA.), manifestó que los militares se encargarán de los controles en las vías de acceso a los centros de rehabilitación, ejecutando una seguridad perimetral

El Salvador

• Lorena Baires, “El Salvador Receives Speedboat to Strengthen Narcotrafficking Fight” (Dialogo (U.S. Southern Command), August 12, 2020).

The donation is worth $1.5 million and includes logistics and maintenance training

El Salvador, Mexico

• Parker Asmann, “5 Times the ms13 Tried — and Failed — to Become Drug Traffickers” (InsightCrime, August 12, 2020).

Of course, the gang sells drugs on a local level, but efforts to depict them as a drug trafficking organization, as US authorities want to describe them, are simply hyperbole

Guatemala

• Anna-Catherine Brigida, Morena Perez Joachin, “The Coronavirus Pipeline” (The Texas Observer, August 12, 2020).

Through ongoing deportations, the United States, which now has had more COVID-19 cases than any nation worldwide, has become a major exporter of the virus to Guatemala and other countries

Honduras

• Jeff Ernst, “Honduras Just Officially Killed Fight Against Corruption” (VICE, August 12, 2020).

Honduras just killed corruption charges against government officials and a family member of President Juan Orlando Hernández. The move is a fatal blow to anti-corruption efforts in one of the region’s shadiest countries

Mexico

• Juan Montes, “Ex-Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto Accused of Corruption by Former State-Oil Chief” (The Wall Street Journal, August 12, 2020).

Emilio Lozoya, who is also facing corruption charges, filed a complaint against Mr. Peña Nieto and former Finance Minister Luis Videgaray for allegedly ordering him to illegally finance Mr. Peña Nieto’s campaign and bribe legislators to secure passage of sweeping overhauls

• “El Cjng se Divide. Celulas en Bc Brincan a los Arellano Felix y a “los Erres”, del Cartel de Sinaloa” (Revista Zeta (Tijuana Mexico), SinEmbargo (Mexico), August 12, 2020).

Algunos operadores han decidido mudarse el Cártel Arellano Félix y, en medio de la pugna interna, células criminales se han aliado con “Los Erres”, grupo de sicarios del Cártel de Sinaloa

• Erendira Aquino, “Avanza Poco el Castigo a Policias por Delitos Sexuales en Cdmx: Activistas” (Animal Politico (Mexico), August 12, 2020).

Desde el inicio del gobierno de Claudia Sheinbaum se han presentado 252 denuncias contra policías por delitos sexuales cometidos en la CDMX

U.S.-Mexico Border

• Jessica Kutz, “A Wildlife Refuge Under Siege at the Border” (High Country News, August 12, 2020).

U.S. Fish and Wildlife officials watched helplessly as the water levels at several ponds — the main habitat for the endangered fish at this Sonoran Desert refuge — dropped “precipitously.”

• Julie Watson, “Tribe Says New Border Wall Harming Burial Sites; Sues Trump” (Associated Press, ABC News, August 12, 2020).

A California tribe whose ancestral lands span across the U.S.-Mexico border is suing the Trump administration to block construction of a section of border wall that the Kumeyaay people say is desecrating sacred burial sites

Venezuela

• “Ceofan Detecto Vuelo Ilegal de Tres Avionetas en Lo Que Va de Agosto” (Tal Cual (Venezuela), August 12, 2020).

El Ceofan indicó que el 4 y 9 de agosto lidiaron con los casos de dos aeronaves con matrículas estadounidenses en el estado Zulia

• Alejandra Marquez Janse, “How Would a Biden Presidency Look for Venezuela?” (Caracas Chronicles, August 12, 2020).

Maduro would have to take significant steps toward democracy before we see sanctions lifted under a Biden administration