(Even more here)

January 22, 2021

Colombia

• Javier Forero Ortiz, “¿Que Tiene Que Ver Joe Biden Con el Proceso de Paz en Colombia?” (El Tiempo (Colombia), January 22, 2021).

“Con los Estados Unidos debemos volver a conversar sobre la paz que ellos apoyaron con el acuerdo firmado con las Farc, proceso del cual la administración del Presidente Obama participó”

• “¿por Que el Partido Farc Va a Cambiar su Nombre?” (El Tiempo (Colombia), January 22, 2021).

Sacarlo de la militancia para acercar a otros sectores democráticos y, muy importante, tomar distancia de las disidencias que con sus acciones generan miedo entre la población

• “Con la Llegada de Biden, ¿Que Le Espera a Colombia en Agenda de Paz?” (El Espectador (Colombia), January 22, 2021).

Analistas aseguran que con la llegada de Biden a la Casa Blanca se retome la agenda de paz en Colombia como uno de los puntos centrales entre las relaciones de las dos naciones

• “Declaracion Ante el Consejo de Seguridad de Carlos Ruiz Massieu, Representante Especial del Secretario General y Jefe de la Mision de Verificacion de las Naciones Unidas en Colombia” (Mision de la ONU en Colombia, January 22, 2021).

Líderes y lideresas sociales, defensores y defensoras de los derechos humanos, así como miembros de partidos políticos también siguen siendo, lamentablemente, víctimas

Mexico

• Anthony Esposito, Raul Cortes, “Mexico Calls for Dea Internal Probe of ‘Fabricated’ Case Against Minister” (Reuters, Reuters, January 22, 2021).

Both governments later confirmed that Lopez Obrador and Biden would speak by phone on Friday afternoon

U.S.-Mexico Border

• Tanvi Misra, “The Fight for the Future of the Borderlands” (Bloomberg, January 22, 2021).

What will become of a border wall that’s already been partially built? What does it take to reverse the damage to communities and ecosystems along the U.S.-Mexico border?

• Lauren Villagran, “Asylum Seekers at Us-Mexico Border See Hope in Biden Administration Immigration Changes” (El Paso Times, USA Today, January 22, 2021).

“They hear that there will be opportunities, or at least they hope there will be”

Venezuela

• Joshua Goodman, Scott Smith, “Venezuela Power Struggle Impedes Delivery of Covid Vaccine” (ABC News, January 22, 2021).

The socialist government of Nicolás Maduro and the U.S.-backed opposition are accusing each other of playing politics with proposals to finance United Nations-supplied vaccines

• Joshua Goodman, “Maduro Sent Letter to Iran’s Leader Accrediting Us Fugitive” (Associated Press, Associated Press, January 22, 2021).

A Colombian businessman was carrying a letter from Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro accrediting him to Iran’s supreme leader when he was arrested on a U.S. warrant last year

January 21, 2021

Central America Regional

• Otto Argueta, “Algo Mas Que la Lista Engel: Una Ley para Limar las Esquinas Rotas del Triangulo Norte” (Contra Corriente, January 21, 2021).

En el caso de un político, empresario corrupto o un narcotraficante, perder el acceso a los Estados Unidos es un gran problema para los negocios

• Seth Robbins, Hector Silva Avalos, “No Time to Wait: Biden’s Security Challenges in Central America” (InsightCrime, January 21, 2021).

Rather than shrink from Trump, the presidents of the three countries took advantage of his transactional nature

Colombia

• “Colombia’s Peace Movement Requests Support From the Biden-Harris Administration to Fully Implement 2016 Peace Accord” (ColombiaPeace.org, Washington Office on Latin America, January 21, 2021).

On January 20, Defend the Peace Colombia (Defendamos la Paz, DLP) published a statement addressed to President Joseph Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in regard to the current state of Colombia’s historic 2016 peace accord

• Eddy Mosquera, “Biden Seria un Obama 2.0 para Colombia” (Caracol (Colombia), January 21, 2021).

El Directivo para la veeduría de la Defensa aseguró que no hay claridad en “cómo va a ser distinta la política de Biden de la del segundo periodo de Barack Obama. Muchos de los encargados ya nombrados del gabinete de Biden vienen del gobierno de Obama”

• Ambassador Richard Mills, “Remarks at a un Security Council Briefing on the Situation in Colombia (via Vtc)” (United States Mission to the United Nations, January 21, 2021).

This violence has a direct and damaging effect on the reintegration process and the implementation of the Peace Agreement and we join our other Council members and colleagues in saying it must end

Mexico, U.S.-Mexico Border

• Molly o’toole, “Biden Inherits Border Chaos From Trump but Begets Uncertainty and False Hope” (The Los Angeles Times, January 21, 2021).

After Wednesday, Trump’s outspoken political appointees will be gone and the 99% of CBP and Border Patrol employees who are career public servants will remain to work under a new administration with near opposite priorities

U.S.-Mexico Border

• Elliot Spagat, “Biden Halts Border Wall Building After Trump’s Final Surge” (Associated Press, Associated Press, January 21, 2021).

The order leaves billions of dollars of work unfinished — but still under contract — after Trump worked feverishly last year to build more than 450 miles

• “Proclamation on the Termination of Emergency With Respect to the Southern Border of the United States and Redirection of Funds Diverted to Border Wall Construction” (The White House, January 21, 2021).

Pause work on each construction project on the southern border wall, to the extent permitted by law, as soon as possible but in no case later than seven days from the date of this proclamation

• Nick Miroff, Arelis R. Hernandez, “Biden Orders a ‘Pause’ on Border Wall Construction, Bringing Crews to Halt” (The Washington Post, January 21, 2021).

The funding appropriated by Congress since 2018 is enough to pay for 298 miles of barrier, about 71 miles of which have been completed. That would potentially oblige the Biden administration to complete up to 227 additional miles

• Elliot Spagat, “Biden Bets Big on Immigration Changes in Opening Move” (Associated Press, Associated Press, January 21, 2021).

For the opening salvo of his presidency, few expected Joe Biden to be so far-reaching on immigration

• Ted Hesson, Mica Rosenberg, “Biden’s Bold Immigration Overhaul May Face a Republican Wall in Congress” (Reuters, Reuters, January 21, 2021).

Even the Democratic senator leading the charge acknowledged on Thursday that passing it would be “a Herculean task.”

• “Dhs Statement on the Suspension of New Enrollments in the Migrant Protection Protocols Program” (Department of Homeland Security, January 21, 2021).

Effective tomorrow, January 21, the Department will cease adding individuals into the program. However, current COVID-19 non-essential travel restrictions, both at the border and in the region, remain in place at this time

• Dianne Solis, Alfredo Corchado, “Will Biden Stop the Public Health Order That Has Turned Away Migrants Nearly 400,000 Times?” (The Dallas Morning News, January 21, 2021).

Since the emergency controls were invoked, nearly 400,000 “encounters” have been made, according to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, or CBP