(Even more here)

December 4, 2020

Western Hemisphere Regional

• Drazen Jorgic, “Special Report: Burner Phones and Banking Apps: Meet the Chinese ‘Brokers’ Laundering Mexican Drug Money” (Reuter, Reuters, December 4, 2020).

Their expertise: routing cartel drug profits from the United States to China then on to Mexico with a few clicks of a burner phone and Chinese banking apps – and without the bulky cash ever crossing borders

• Clarissa Donnelly-Deroven, “Immigrants Detained by Ice Say They Were Punished for Requesting Covid-19 Tests” (The Intercept, December 4, 2020).

The Intercept and In These Times spoke with five men who tested positive for Covid-19 while detained at Etowah. Each said he spent weeks in solitary

• Shannon K o’neil, “Biden Can’t Pick Up in Latin America Where Obama Left Off” (Council on Foreign Relations, Bloomberg, December 4, 2020).

What’s needed is a new approach that tackles the current health and migration crises, transforms the traditional U.S. promotion of democracy, security and trade, and incorporates Latin American nations into the broader global foreign policy agenda

Brazil, Venezuela

• Jordi Amaral, “The Brazilian Government’s Mixed Response to Venezuelan Migration” (Washington Office on Latin America, December 4, 2020).

Many human rights organizations and immigrant advocacy groups, including WOLA, have called for a demilitarization of the Brazilian government’s approach

Colombia

• “En 16 Meses de Comandancia de Mario Montoya Hubo 218 Ejecuciones Extrajudiciales” (El Espectador (Colombia), December 4, 2020).

El informe “El deshonroso primer lugar”, construido por once organizaciones defensoras de derechos humanos para entregárselo a la JEP dentro del caso 03, a la Comisión de la Verdad y a la Unidad de Búsqueda de Personas

• Santiago Torrado, “El Ano Decisivo de la Comision de la Verdad en Colombia” (El Pais (Spain), December 4, 2020).

La pandemia ha golpeado el mandato de la entidad surgida del acuerdo de paz con las FARC, que presenta su informe final en 2021

• Alia Sunderji, Hilary Rosenthal, “Colombia’s Indigenous Children Are the Casualties of Climate Change” (The Washington Post, December 4, 2020).

Over the past decade, those seasonal rains have become even less frequent. Water sources have shrunk, and withering crops and dwindling livestock have followed

Cuba

• “The Movimiento San Isidro Challenges Cuba’s Regime” (The Economist (Uk), December 4, 2020).

The government has responded with repression. But the dissidents’ movement sees signs of progress

Guatemala

• Natalie Kitroeff, “2 Hurricanes Devastated Central America. Will the Ruin Spur a Migration Wave?” (The New York Times, December 4, 2020).

The storms displaced hundreds of thousands of people, creating a new class of refugees with more reason than ever to migrate north and setting up an early test for the incoming Biden administration

Honduras, Nicaragua

• Jeff Ernst, “Honduras and Nicaragua Have Been Hit by Some of the Worst Natural Disasters in Decades” (Foreign Policy, December 4, 2020).

If Biden gets the response right, he could put the region on better footing for years to come

Mexico

• Mary Beth Sheridan, “The Search for the Disappeared Points to Mexico’s Darkest Secrets” (The Washington Post, December 4, 2020).

A new government effort has counted more than 79,000 missing, the great majority in the last 14 years. That’s more than Argentina, Chile and Central America at the height of the dirty wars

• Melva Frutos, “Madres Coraje: La Tecnologia Aplicada a la Busqueda de un Hijo” (Riodoce (Sinaloa Mexico), December 4, 2020).

Apoyadas por un dron, perros rastreadores, detectores de metales, antropólogos y personas voluntarias se han hecho expertas en el uso de sofisticadas tecnologías para localizar entierros clandestinos

Nicaragua

• “Gobiernos Municipales Sandinistas al Servicio de la Violencia y el Paramilitarismo” (Expediente Publico (Honduras), December 4, 2020).

Hubo “importación” de fuerzas paramilitares desde municipios aledaños a las cabeceras y muestra la participación de alcaldes, concejales, e incluso diputados departamentales y nacionales, en el engranaje de la represión

U.S.-Mexico Border

• Maria Sacchetti, “Feuds Flare Along Trump’s Border Wall as Construction Ramps Up During His Final Days in Office” (The Washington Post, December 4, 2020).

Biden has promised not to expand the wall, but his transition officials may not learn for several more weeks what the termination costs would be

• Lourdes Medrano, “The Border Wall Has Been ‘Absolutely Devastating’ for People and Wildlife” (Audubon Magazine, December 4, 2020).

In all, the government has waived 41 laws that protect public lands and endangered wildlife and would have delayed construction

Venezuela

• Alex Vasquez, Patricia Laya, “Why Venezuela’s Opposition Is Boycotting Congress Vote” (Bloomberg, December 4, 2020).

Maduro seized control of the Assembly earlier this year, and its role as the last bastion of the opposition is likely to end in parliamentary elections on Sunday

• Matt Spetalnick, Humeyra Pamuk, “Biden Must Use Sanctions as Leverage Against Venezuela’s Maduro, U.S. Envoy Says” (Reuters, December 4, 2020).

The top U.S. envoy on Venezuela called on the incoming Biden administration on Thursday to use the leverage he believes has been gained from years of tough sanctions aimed at ousting socialist President Nicolas Maduro and urged against offering him any “giveaways”