(Even more here)

February 11, 2021

Western Hemisphere Regional

• Stephania Taladrid, “Can Biden Reverse Trump’s Damage to Latin America?” (The New Yorker, February 11, 2021).

“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

• Marco Antonio Chuquimia Huallpa, “Un General Fue Imputado por Caso Senkata y Ascensos Causan Tension en las Ffaa” (El Deber (Bolivia), February 11, 2021).

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

• Bryan Harris, “Brazil’s New Frontier Is Transforming Its Fortunes — but at What Cost?” (The Financial Times (UK), February 11, 2021).

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

• Ines Eisele, “Brazil: Relaxed Gun Laws Could Lead to More Violence” (DW (Germany), February 11, 2021).

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

• Taciana Moury, “Brazilian Service Members Take Part in Operational Exercise in the Us” (Dialogo (U.S. Southern Command), February 11, 2021).

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

• “Del Putumayo a Manaos: Asi Funciona el Narcotrafico en el Amazonas” (El Espectador (Colombia), February 11, 2021).

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

• “Lo Que Dicen los ‘Resultados’ Contra el Eln” (Fundacion Ideas por la Paz (Colombia), February 11, 2021).

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

• Steven Grattan, “How Good Is Colombia’s Move for Venezuelan Migrants?” (The New Humanitarian, February 11, 2021).

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

• Joshua Collins, “Colombia Grants Almost 2 Million Undocumented Migrants the Right to Stay” (VICE, February 11, 2021).

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

• Nora Gamez Torres, “Cuba’s Self-Employment Expansion Leaves Key Sectors Out — Including Independent Journalism” (The Miami Herald, February 11, 2021).

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

• Karen Deyoung, “Classified Assessment Found Slow and Chaotic Response to Brain Injuries Affecting Diplomats in Cuba” (The Washington Post, February 11, 2021).

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”

• “56 Groups Urge the Biden-Harris Administration to Take Immediate Action to Normalize U.S.-Cuba Relations” (Washington Office on Latin America, Latin America Working Group, Center for Democracy in the Americas, Latin America Working Group, February 11, 2021).

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

• Joy Olson, Eric L. Olson, “Hopelessness and Corruption: Overlooked Drivers of Migration From the Northern Triangle of Central America” (Steven J. Green School of International & Public Affairs, Florida International University, February 11, 2021).

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

• Anita Isaacs, Alvaro Montenegro, “Biden Charts a New Course in Guatemala” (The New York Times, February 11, 2021).

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

• “Editorial: Haiti Needs Help. This Is What the U.S. Sends Instead.” (The New York Times, February 11, 2021).

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

Honduras

• “Oacnudh Condena la Muerte Violenta de Keyla Martinez Bajo Custodia Policial y Urge a las Autoridades a una Investigacion Pronta, Exhaustiva e Imparcial” (UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Honduras Office, February 11, 2021).

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

• Ana Lorena Delgadillo Perez, “Masacre de Camargo: El Recordatorio y la Impunidad” (Fundación para la Justicia y el Estado Democrático de Derecho, Proceso (Mexico), February 11, 2021).

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

• Alfredo Pena, Mark Stevenson, “History of Abuse for Mexican Police Unit in Migrant Massacre” (Associated Press, Associated Press, February 11, 2021).

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

• Richard E. Feinberg, “The Uses of Sanctions in Foreign Policy: Nicaragua’s Elections 2021” (Woodrow Wilson Center, February 11, 2021).

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

• Rebecca Beitsch, “Biden Terminates Trump Emergency Order Used to Construct Border Wall” (The Hill, February 11, 2021).

“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”

• Priscilla Alvarez, “Smugglers Spread Misinformation at the Border. The White House Says Now Is Not the Time to Come.” (CNN, February 11, 2021).

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

• Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), “‘This Is Not a Political Game’: Rep. Roy Leads 51 Colleagues in Letter Warning Biden of Intensifying, Politics-Driven Border Crisis” (U.S. House of Representatives, February 11, 2021).

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

• Katy Murdza, Walter Ewing, “The Legacy of Racism Within the U.S. Border Patrol” (American Immigration Council, February 11, 2021).

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

• Dianne Solis, “White House Warns Immigrants Against Travel as New Border Patrol Numbers Show Arrivals Are Edging Upwards” (The Dallas Morning News, February 11, 2021).

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

• Hamed Aleaziz, “Biden Is Planning to Bring Back Immigrants Who Were Forced to Wait in Dangerous Mexican Border Towns” (BuzzFeed, February 11, 2021).

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

• Nick Miroff, “Border Arrests Rose in January, in Latest Sign of Migration Wave That Could Test Biden” (The Washington Post, February 11, 2021).

“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

• Julia Ainsley, Jacob Soboroff, Geoff Bennett, “Biden Admin to Name Refugee Advocate Director of Task Force to Reunite Separated Families, Say Sources” (NBC News, February 11, 2021).

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

• Scott Smith, “Man Recounts Torture in Maduro’s Venezuela” (Associated Press, Associated Press, February 11, 2021).

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

• “Otorgan Libertad Condicional a los Cinco Miembros de la Ong Azul Positivo” (Tal Cual (Venezuela), February 11, 2021).

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)

• Geoff Ramsey, “Venezuela’s National Civic Forum: A Non-Partisan Call for a ‘National Democratic Agreement’” (Washington Office on Latin America, February 11, 2021).

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

• “Diosdado Cabello Sugiere al Ministerio Publico Abrir Averiguacion Contra Efecto Cocuyo” (Efecto Cocuyo (Venezuela), February 11, 2021).

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