Brazilian Army photo at Diálogo. Caption: “Operation Culminating is the result of an exchange between the Brazilian Army and the U.S. Army, conducted over five years.”

(Even more here)

February 11, 2021

Western Hemisphere Regional

“It’s what I call Trump’s Sinatra doctrine of My Way or the Highway,” Arturo Sarukhan, who served as Mexico’s Ambassador to the U.S. from 2007 to 2013, said. “The legacy is basically built on the political pimping of Mexico”

Bolivia

La tensión crece en el interior de la entidad castrense. Un general es ahora acusado por las muertes en El Alto durante los conflictos de 2019. Mientras tanto un fallo del TCP retrasa los ascensos, y eso genera tensión

Brazil

The western state of Mato Grosso is riding an agricultural boom, driven by China, faith and Bolsonaro

The number of legal firearms sold in Brazil has grown by 65% during President Jair Bolsonaro’s time in office. He has loosened gun laws, saying it will increase security. But experts disagree

In total, 203 service members from the Brazilian Army (EB, in Portuguese) and 21 elements from the Brazilian Air Force (FAB, in Portuguese) are taking part in Operation Culminating, along with some 5,000 U.S. service members and civilians

Brazil, Colombia, Peru

Fuentes de la Policía en el sur del país dicen que los alijos de cocaína tienen como punto de partida los cultivos de uso ilícito en Putumayo y Cauca, y que estarían bajo el control de las disidencias de las Farc

Colombia

50% descendieron las capturas de miembros del ELN en 2020. Si bien en 2019 alcanzo? el nivel ma?s alto desde el 2010, en el u?ltimo an?o se volvio? a los niveles registrados antes de 2013

Colombia, Venezuela

Aid groups welcomed Colombia’s offer of temporary legal status for a decade to more than 1.7 million Venezuelan migrants, but cautioned that implementation will take time and said greater assistance was needed

Migration experts have long pointed to data that Venezuelan migrants are far more likely to be the victims of crime than perpetrators, and that their lack of legal status makes them more vulnerable

Cuba

Authorities also prohibit activities until now tolerated, such as creating independent media outlets. Though not formally outlawed under Cuban law, journalists who do not work for state agencies have been subject to routine harassment

The June 2018 report by the Accountability Review Board found “serious deficiencies in the Department’s response in areas of accountability, interagency coordination, and communication, at all levels”

It makes the case that it is in the interest of the United States, and in the interest of the Cuban people, to move rapidly toward a more normal relationship, and it urges Congress to build on these measures through legislative action that ends restrictions and moves towards the full ending of the U.S. embargo

El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras

The authors argue that endemic corruption in Central America, and the destruction of mechanisms to control corruption, undermine peoples’ confidence in government and contribute to a lack of hope that their lives will improve

Guatemala

Past administrations have settled for cosmetic reforms, and were sweet-talked by the traditional political and economic elites, who are committed to a status quo that serves their narrow interests. This has too often been the approach toward Latin America to disastrous effect

Haiti

Our neighbor is in a constitutional crisis, and instead of carrying aid, planes arrived with deportees

Honduras

La Oficina del Alto Comisionado de las Naciones Unidas para los Derechos Humanos en Honduras (OACNUDH) condena la muerte violenta de Keyla Patricia Martínez, quien se encontraba en custodia policial tras haber sido detenida por agentes de la Policía Nacional

Mexico

  • Militarizacion en la 4t (Programa de Seguridad Ciudadana de la Universidad Iberoamericana, February 11, 2021).

La informacio?n agregada en este reporte funda dudas mayores respecto a la posible alteracio?n estructural en curso; es decir, la modificacio?n del principio de subordinacio?n militar al poder civil democra?ticamente electo

La grave impunidad que rodea toda la violencia contra la población migrante, incluyendo la documentada contra la población bajo el programa “Quédate en México”, ocurre porque se niegan, ocultan o minimizan los hechos

So fearsome is the unit’s reputation that the U.S. government, which trained a few of its individual members, has sought to distance itself from the force

Nicaragua

If the opposition, currently fractured along generational and party lines, can unite behind a single attractive candidate, victory might just be within reach

U.S.-Mexico Border

“It was about stealing money to fund a monument to his racist policies along the Southern Border. Now we must cancel the contracts & ensure that not another foot of border wall is constructed”

Misinformation is spreading along the US-Mexico border, through smugglers or word of mouth, among migrants desperate for answers from the Biden administration, undermining the administration’s plans for the US-Mexico border

Based on information from sources on the ground, this week Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents have seen the average daily flow soar to more than 3,500 migrants, up from 2,000 earlier last month

Revamping the agency will involve fundamentally reshaping how Border Patrol agents view themselves in relation to the different communities and groups of people they encounter along the border

Nonprofits along migrant trails from Honduras to U.S. say shelters are filling up again as asylum seekers and immigrants head north

The Biden administration’s plan will start slowly at three ports of entry and target those who were forced into Trump’s controversial “Remain in Mexico” program

“A large percentage of those encounters are repeat players .?.?. they are the same individual attempting to cross more than once, so in that regard it can overstate, or appear to overstate, the migration pressures at the border,” said the official

The White House is expected to select Michelle Brané of the Women’s Refugee Commission as the executive director of the task force to reunite migrant families separated by the Trump administration

Venezuela

Marrón, 43, said his troubles with Venezuelan authorities stemmed from the website domain dolarpro.com

La decisión se dio a casi un mes del arresto de los integrantes de la ONG en un operativo efectuado por funcionarios de la Dirección General de Contrainteligencia Militar (Dgcim)

The ten-point statement issued by the Foro Cívico on February 5, copied in full below, is a snapshot of the demands that this independent civil society coalition is placing on all political actors in the country

La solicitud la hizo este miércoles 10 de febrero en su programa semanal “Con el mazo dando”, donde leyó un tuit de Efecto Cocuyo en el que se cita el informe de la revista Semana sobre la supuesta presencia de exjefes de las Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia