(Even more here)

November 13, 2020

Western Hemisphere Regional

• “The Problem of Latin America’s Proxy Presidents” (The Economist (Uk), November 13, 2020).

The rise of the proxy president is partly a result of term limits and partly a consequence of the commodity boom of the 2000s, which helped leaders fortunate enough to be in office at the time to become popular and politically strong

• Nick Miroff, “Chad Wolf Planning Latin America Trip Amid Staff Concerns About Coronavirus” (The Washington Post, November 13, 2020).

The trip is tentatively scheduled for the week of Dec. 7, and it could include stops in El Salvador, Panama, Colombia, Brazil and Ecuador

Argentina

• “Agustin Rossi Advirtio Que No Permitira Que La “Mesa de Enlace” Militar Use Fondos del Estado” (Pagina12 (Argentina), November 13, 2020).

El funcionario reiteró que los militares y policías que tratan de incidir sobre las políticas de defensa y seguridad buscan “conspirar, desestabilizar y desgastar” a la actual conducción castrense y al Gobierno

Brazil

• Jariel Arvin, “How Joe Biden Could Make Brazil His First “Climate Outlaw”” (Vox, November 13, 2020).

Biden plans to label countries as “climate outlaws” for failing to address climate change. Brazil might be at the top of his list

Central America Regional

• Jessie Mcdonald, “‘Overwhelming’: Central America Braces for New Storms in Wake of Hurricane Eta” (The Guardian, November 13, 2020).

Forecasters believe a weather front forming in the Caribbean has a 90% chance of becoming a cyclone, making it the 30th named Atlantic storm of 2020

Colombia

• ““Quien Denuncia Termina Encartado”: Periodista Que Hizo Publicos Cantos Machistas del Ejercito” (El Espectador (Colombia), November 13, 2020).

Adriana Villegas habla sobre la citación bajo juramento que enfrentará por orden el Batallón Ayacucho del Ejército, tras denunciar los cantos misóginos de la institución

• Catalina Oquendo, “Una Investigacion Apunta a Que un Exfiscal General de Colombia Intento “Sabotear” el Acuerdo Con las Farc” (El Pais (Spain), November 13, 2020).

El diario El Espectador reveló pruebas según las cuales se infiere que tras la investigación judicial hubo un “intento de torpedear el proceso de paz durante la Fiscalía de Néstor Humberto Martínez”

• Carlos Camacho, “75.000 Personas Dejaron las Armas en el Pais en los Ultimos 20 Anos” (El Tiempo (Colombia), November 13, 2020).

El grupo más grande que siguió ese mismo camino lo integran 36.376 excombatientes de las Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (Auc), en el gobierno de Álvaro Uribe; y 13.394 de las Farc-Ep

• Felipe Morales Sierra, “El Asesinato de Juana Perea en Nuqui, el Oasis Menos Violento de Choco” (El Espectador (Colombia), November 13, 2020).

A la empresaria y lideresa la mató el Clan del Golfo de tres tiros, según la Fiscalía. Estaba montando un hotel con su esposo y, al parecer, se enfrentó a este grupo armado con irreverencia

• “Extraditan por Narcotrafico a Familiares de Exfiscal Contra las Finanzas Criminales” (El Espectador (Colombia), November 13, 2020).

Ambos son primos lejanos de Ana Catalina Noguera, quien ayer renunció al cargo de directora del grupo contra las finanzas criminales de la Fiscalía

Ecuador, Western Hemisphere Regional

• “Success at Sea: 61st Unitas Exercise Enhances Interoperability Among Forces” (U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command/U.S. 4th Fleet Public Affairs Office, U.S. Southern Command, November 13, 2020).

UNITAS LXI, the world’s longest running multinational maritime exercise concluded with a closing ceremony in Manta, Ecuador, Nov. 11

El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico

• “Virus-Proof Violence: Crime and Covid-19 in Mexico and the Northern Triangle” (International Crisis Group, November 13, 2020).

To fight organised crime more effectively, governments should combine policing with programs to aid the vulnerable and create attractive alternatives to illegal economic activity

Mexico

• “Martinez Crespo, Militar Clave en el Caso Ayotzinapa, Es Detenido por Desaparicion Forzada: La Jornada” (SinEmbargo (Mexico), November 13, 2020).

El capitán José Martínez Crespo fue detenido por los delitos de delincuencia organizada y desaparición forzada

• Rachel Schmidtke, “A New Way Forward: Strengthening the Protection Landscape in Mexico” (Refugees International, November 13, 2020).

Mexico’s asylum system is generous on paper, but in practice it faces several challenges that undermine its effectiveness

• Christopher Sherman, “Mexico to Stop Holding Child Migrants in Detention Centers” (Associated Press, The Washington Post, November 13, 2020).

Under the reforms, children would also have their legal status provisionally recognized to avoid the risk of immediate deportation before having the opportunity to explore possibilities of seeking protective status

• Victoria Dittmar, “Mexico Facing Predictable Bloody Fallout After el Marro’s Arrest” (InsightCrime, November 13, 2020).

When El Marro was arrested at the beginning of August, the violence in the central state of Guanajuato was at a peak and the CSRL was largely blamed for the surge in killings

• Kevin Sieff, “With Its Leader in Jail, This City Cowered to His Will” (The Washington Post, November 13, 2020).

The high-profile arrests of federal cabinet officials have obscured a crisis of governance at the local level, where mayors and police chiefs have formed alliances with cartels

• Shannon K o’neil, “U.S.-Mexico Partnership Will Get More Prickly” (Bloomberg, November 13, 2020).

As long as AMLO stopped migrants from coming to the U.S. southern border (which he has by and large done), the White House hasn’t bothered to check in on what else is happening in Mexico. This neglect has been a gift

Peru

• John Quigley, “Peruvians Take to the Streets to Protest Ouster of President” (Bloomberg, November 13, 2020).

People marched in the center of Lima and in other cities Thursday evening in what analysts said were the country’s biggest demonstrations for two decades

• “Peru’s Congress Topples Martin Vizcarra on Its Second Attempt” (The Economist (Uk), November 13, 2020).

Manuel Merino, who was Congress’s speaker until he took over as president on November 10th, will probably hold on to the office until his term expires next July. But that does not mean Peru will enjoy stability

• Alberto Vergara, “La Democracia Peruana Agoniza” (Universidad del Pacifico, The New York Times, November 13, 2020).

En los últimos tres años, hubo cuatro procesos de vacancia presidencial, se disolvió un congreso y Merino resulta el tercer mandatario

• Gustavo Gorriti, “Como Derrocar un Presidente” (IDL Reporteros (Peru), November 13, 2020).

Fue una mala decisión, según parece. Causada en parte por la tensión bajo la que Vizcarra vivió los últimos meses

• Gustavo Gorriti, “¿Como Sucedio?” (IDL Reporteros (Peru), November 13, 2020).

La victoria de los derrocadores resultó más táctica que estratégica y quizá más pírrica que permanente

U.S.-Mexico Border

• Alan Gomez, Daniel Gonzalez, “Biden Might Need Years to Reverse Trump’s Immigration Policies on Daca, Asylum, Family Separation, Ice Raids, Private Detention and More” (USA Today, November 13, 2020).

Untangling the moves will be even more difficult given that so many of them overlap, forcing the Biden administration to carefully peel them back one by one without overwhelming the immigration system or encouraging a new wave

• Anna Giaritelli, “Border Patrol to Begin Disclosing How Many Illegal Border Crossers Get Away” (The Washington Examiner, November 13, 2020).

The monthly figure is expected to be in the thousands based on federal statistics from recent years that show the average 30,000 to 60,000 people arrested each month make up about 75% of the total

• Greg Sargent, “Biden Is Already Signaling Big Moves on Immigration. That Bodes Well.” (The Washington Post, November 13, 2020).

The plans are ambitious. And this bodes well, because it suggests at least the possibility that Biden won’t be trapped in an old, defensive political mind-set reminiscent of 1990s centrist Democrats

• Laura Gottesdiener, Sarah Kinosian, “Migrant Smugglers See Boost From U.S. Pandemic Border Policy” (Reuters, Reuters, November 13, 2020).

The three men who identified themselves as smugglers from different transnational networks told Reuters they save about $1,000 or more each time U.S. Border Patrol expels one of their Central American clients at the Mexican border rather than returning them back by plane

• Anna Flagg, Andrew R. Calderon, “500,000 Kids, 30 Million Hours: Trump’s Vast Expansion of Child Detention” (The Marshall Project, November 13, 2020).

The detentions, which include both unaccompanied children and children with their families, peaked last year at over 300,000, with 40 percent held longer than the 72-hour limit

Venezuela

• Jeremy B. Merrill, Ryan Mccarthy, “Trump Won Florida After Running a False Ad Tying Biden to Venezuelan Socialists” (ProPublica, November 13, 2020).

A Trump video targeting Florida’s growing Venezuelan American population falsely claimed that Venezuela’s socialist regime wanted Biden to win. But President Nicolás Maduro has said that he opposed both