(Even more here)

March 22, 2021

Brazil

• “Brazil Officials Warn Clash Looms Between Indigenous, Miners” (Associated Press, Associated Press, March 22, 2021).

A potential clash is looming in northern Brazil between the Munduruku people and mining prospectors armed with rifles and handguns who have intruded into Indigenous lands in the Tapajós River basin of Para state

Central America Regional

• Nicole Narea, “Migrants Are Heading North Because Central America Never Recovered From Last Year’s Hurricanes” (Vox, March 22, 2021).

The Famine Early Warning System has projected that food insecurity will consequently ramp up in Honduras from now until August or September

Colombia

• Isabel Pereira Arana, Sofia Tapia, “Glifosato y Paz: Aprender del Pasado para la No Repeticion” (DeJusticia, El Espectador (Colombia), March 22, 2021).

Hoy esta aún más claro que el glifosato está vinculado con riesgos de desarrollar cáncer, enfermedades dermatológicas, respiratorias, y abortos en la población que reside en zonas de aspersión. Estos riesgos no son especulaciones

• Megan Janetsky, Anthony Faiola, “He Tried to Save a Rare Parrot. It Cost Him His Life.” (The Washington Post, March 22, 2021).

In one of the most biologically diverse countries in the world, environmentalists are being targeted for their efforts to preserve sensitive habitats used by drug traffickers and armed gangs, and their activism against legal and illegal mining, agriculture, fossil fuel extraction, and hydroelectric plants and dams

• Javier Lafuente, “Un Polvorin Llamado Colombia” (El Pais (Spain), March 22, 2021).

Los altos índices de violencia, el choque por la independencia judicial, la falta de avances en la implementación del proceso de paz se topan este año con un proceso electoral

• Monica Rivera, “La Paz Que No Quieren Perder en Sumapaz” (El Espectador (Colombia), March 22, 2021).

Tres asesinatos que se registraron en la localidad reviven el temor entre los campesinos por una nueva oleada de violencia

Colombia, Venezuela

• “Al Menos 11 Militares Heridos Durante Enfrentamiento Con Disidentes de las Farc en Apure” (Tal Cual (Venezuela), March 22, 2021).

De acuerdo con residentes de La Victoria, en la localidad se escuchan explosiones y ráfagas de disparos desde helicópteros, que apuntarían a militantes de las FARC encabezados por alias Farley

Guatemala, Mexico

• Kirk Semple, Daniele Volpe, “A Violent End to a Desperate Dream Leaves a Guatemalan Town Grieving” (The New York Times, March 22, 2021).

Relatives, friends and neighbors in Comitancillo watched the broadcast in their homes as they made final preparations for the arrival of the bodies and for the wakes and burials to follow

Mexico

• Maria Verza, “La Frontera Sur Cambia en Horas. Los Guatemaltecos Son Tratados Como… Mexicanos en Eu” (SinEmbargo (Mexico), March 22, 2021).

“Lo que más nos preocupa es que haya más medidas de contención y rechazo al migrante en lugar de crear una hoja de ruta con enfoque de derechos humanos para recibir a este flujo de personas con necesidades de protección”

• “Gobierno de Mexico Despliega Operativo en Frontera Sur para Salvaguarda de Ninez Migrante” (Instituto Nacional de Migración (Mexico), March 22, 2021).

Del 01 de enero a la fecha se han detectado 4 mil 180 menores de edad acompañados y no acompañados

• Maria Verza, “Mexico Limits Non-Essential Travel on Southern Border” (Associated Press, ABC News, March 22, 2021).

Those turned away weren’t migrants, they were the small-time Guatemalan merchants and residents from Tecun Uman, across the river, who buy in bulk in Mexico to re-sell in Guatemala

• “Cientos de Agentes Migratorios Son Desplegados en Limites Fronterizos Entre Mexico y Guatemala” (EFE, SinEmbargo (Mexico), March 22, 2021).

Los agentes migratorios fueron dispersados en los puntos por donde se suele traficar mercancía informal y pasan cientos de migrantes

• Guadalupe Fuentes Lopez, “La Region Donde Mataron a los 13 Policias Es un Mosaico del Pais: Muy Ricos, Muy Pobres, y Carteles” (SinEmbargo (Mexico), March 22, 2021).

La zona centro del país, que abarca estados como Michoacán, Guerrero, Ciudad de México, Morelos y el Estado de México, se ha vuelto disputa de al menos 13 grupos del crimen organizado

• “El 50.6% de los Homicidios se Concentran en Seis Estados del Pais: Secretaria de Seguridad” (Animal Politico (Mexico), March 22, 2021).

Guanajuato, Baja California, Jalisco, Estado de México, Michoacán y Chihuahua son los estados donde se concentra el delito de homicidio doloso

U.S.-Mexico Border

• Priscilla Alvarez, “More Than 5,000 Unaccompanied Children Are in Cbp Custody, Documents Show” (CNN, March 22, 2021).

There are more than 600 children who have been in custody for more than 10 days, documents show

• Molly o’toole, “Biden Promised Change at the Border. He’s Kept Trump’s Title 42 Policy to Close It and Cut Off Asylum” (The Los Angeles Times, March 22, 2021).

Today, Border Patrol agents are making both the initial and — in the vast majority of cases — final decision over who gets to stay, giving law enforcement unprecedented power over the fate of vulnerable populations

• Maria Sacchetti, Nick Miroff, “Senators See Dire Conditions in Packed Border Stations, as Officials Consider Flying Migrants North” (The Washington Post, March 22, 2021).

Migrant children and families are dangerously packed into holding facilities on the southwest border, lawmakers and child­-welfare monitors warned Friday, as Customs and Border Protection weighed taking the emergency step of putting migrant families on airplanes

• Kate Linthicum, “Border Crossings on Pace for Two-Decade High as Smugglers Exploit High Hopes for Biden” (The Los Angeles Times, March 22, 2021).

The belief that the end of the Trump administration has opened the border has spread throughout the region alongside another rumor: Young children are the ticket in

• Seung Min Kim, “Senators Call for More Press Access to Facilities Holding Migrant Children at the Border” (The Washington Post, March 22, 2021).

“You’re sleeping on thin mattresses on the floor. They are sort of bunched, you know, about six inches to a foot from each other,” Murphy said on NPR Saturday. “We’ve got to ultimately do better”

• Maria Abi-Habib, “Images of Confusion, Then Anguish: Migrant Families Deported by Surprise” (The New York Times, March 22, 2021).

When 149 migrants were escorted onto a bridge by U.S. Border Patrol agents, they had no idea where they were being taken. Many collapsed, crying, when they learned they were back in Mexico

• Sabrina Rodriguez, “‘the Crisis Is in Washington’: Overwhelmed Border Officials Urge d.c. To Act” (Politico, March 22, 2021).

“The only thing that could stop families is legislation and actually doing the work to help Central America — and that’s not happening”

• Aamer Madhani, Colleen Long, “Biden Is on His Heels Amid a Migrant Surge at Mexico Border” (Associated Press, Associated Press, March 22, 2021).

Career immigration officials, overwhelmed by the earlier surges, have long warned the flow of migrants to the border could ramp up again

• Daniele Volpe, “The Sunday News Shows Went All-in on The “Border Crisis,” and I Think It Gave Me Hives” (Mother Jones, March 22, 2021).

Folks tuning in to ABC’s This Week were treated to the Powerhouse Roundtable panelists parked in front of a fence in El Paso, as if they were College GameDay hosts getting ready for a big Alabama-LSU game down in Death Valley