(Even more here)

March 25, 2021

Western Hemisphere Regional

• Brian Winter, “Latin America’s True Disaster May Be 2021” (Americas Quarterly, March 25, 2021).

As new research shows huge setbacks to education and inequality, the region’s leaders seem to be “sleepwalking”

Central America Regional, Guatemala

• Juan Gonzalez, Ricardo Zuniga, “Llamada Director Principal Nsc y Enviado Especial del Dos Con Periodistas Triangulo Norte” (U.S. Embassy Guatemala, March 25, 2021).

El hecho es que el combate a la corrupción sí será un eje central: el eje de la política del Presidente Biden para Centro América, porque, como podemos ver, entre el crimen organizado y la corrupción pública, eso es un elemento fundamental en el deterioro

Colombia

• Steven Grattan, “Ex Farc Leader Asks Us Congress for Help With Peace Deal” (Al Jazeera, March 25, 2021).

He asks the US Congress to “again call on the government of Colombia to make a final decision to implement the Peace Agreement in a comprehensive way”

Colombia, Venezuela

• Laura Cano, Sergio Saavedra, “Enfrentamientos y Desplazamientos: Arde la Frontera” (Fundación Paz y Reconciliación (Colombia), March 25, 2021).

Pares habló con Anderson Rodríguez, presidente de la Asosicación Campesina de Arauca, para conocer sobre la situación que se está viviendo en el municipio de Arauquita

• “Thousands Flee to Colombia After Clashes on Venezuela Border” (Associated Press, ABC News, March 25, 2021).

Thousands of Venezuelans are seeking shelter in Colombia this week following clashes between Venezuela’s military and a Colombian armed group in a community along the nations’ shared border

El Salvador

• Carlos Dada, “How We Killed Archbishop Romero” (El Faro (El Salvador), March 25, 2021).

Reduced to ignominy, Saravia has been a pizza delivery man, a used car salesman and a drug money launderer. Now he is burning in the hell he helped create during a time when killing “communists” was a sport

Guatemala, U.S.-Mexico Border

• Alfredo Corchado, “Chaos at the Border Means Big Money for Smugglers Who Use Flashy Tactics to Lure Migrants on False Promises” (The Dallas Morning News, March 25, 2021).

The biggest cash cow for the smugglers knows as coyotes are the individuals and families that are lured to the U.S. with the promise that their guides will try three or more times to get them safely across the border

Haiti

• Maria Abi-Habib, “A Go-It-Alone President Wants to Reshape Haiti. Some Are Skeptical.” (The New York Times, March 25, 2021).

In a recent interview, the Haitian leader lamented that he has the confidence of only a small sliver of his people

• “The Invisible Wall: Title 42 and Its Impact on Haitian Migrants” (Haitian Bridge Alliance, Quixote Center, UndocuBlack Network, March 25, 2021).

Almost all of these expulsions are occurring under what is referred to as the “ Title 42” policy enacted by the Centers for Disease Control (“CDC”)

• Jack Herrera, “Black Immigrants Matter” (The Nation, March 25, 2021).

Black migrants face rates of arrest, detention, and deportation disproportionate to their numbers in this country

Mexico

• “Con Apoyo de las Fuerzas Armadas se Ampliara la Inmunizacion, Anuncia Lopez Obrador” (Riodoce (Sinaloa Mexico), March 25, 2021).

El mandatario informó que las 2.7 millones de dosis AstraZeneca, procedentes de Estados Unidos, llegarán el domingo o el lunes entrante

• Zedryk Raziel, “El 40% de los Ciudadanos Aceptaria un Gobierno Militar en Mexico: Inegi” (Animal Politico (Mexico), March 25, 2021).

El 16.6% de los entrevistados está “muy de acuerdo” y otro 23.5% “algo de acuerdo” con un gobierno militar (40% en total). El restante 60% rechazó este tipo de gobierno

U.S.-Mexico Border

• Hamed Aleaziz, “Biden Said He’s Negotiating With Mexico to Take Back More Families From Overcrowded Border Stations” (BuzzFeed, March 25, 2021).

Biden on Thursday said he was negotiating with the president of Mexico to address the refusals to take back families at the border: “I think we are going to see that can change.”

• Juan Montes, Alicia A. Caldwell, “Men Looking for Work Drive Surge in Illegal Crossings at the U.S. Border” (The Wall Street Journal, March 25, 2021).

Single adults account for 82% of the apprehensions so far this fiscal year, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data. Some 60% of all single adults apprehended were Mexicans

• Michelle Hackman, Tarini Parti, “Biden Tries to Stem Border Surge With Diplomacy, More Shelter Space” (The Wall Street Journal, March 25, 2021).

The Biden administration says it is attempting to build a new immigration model that will deliver asylum decisions in the U.S. much more quickly and vet more people for their eligibility in their home countries—but both will take time

• Andrea Shalal, Steve Holland, Nandita Bose, “Biden Names Harris to Lead Efforts With Mexico, Central America, to Stem Migrant Flow” (Reuters, Reuters, March 25, 2021).

It is a task that carries political risks for Harris, a potential future presidential candidate. Border woes have been an intractable problem for multiple presidents

• Camilo Montoya-Galvez, “U.S. Adding 16,000 Emergency Beds for Record-High Number of Migrant Children Entering Border Custody” (CBS News, March 25, 2021).

More than 16,500 unaccompanied migrant children were in federal custody as of early Wednesday. More than 11,500 of those children were being housed in shelters and emergency housing sites, while another 5,000 were stranded in overcrowded Border Patrol facilities

• Molly Hennessy-Fiske, “Border Patrol Holds Migrant Families for Days Under a South Texas Bridge” (The Los Angeles Times, March 25, 2021).

Up to 600 families were assembled in recent days at the site under the Anzalduas International Bridge in Mission, Texas, sleeping in the dirt, exposed to the elements, without much food or access to medical care

• Rafael Carranza, “What Is Happening at Arizona’s Border With Mexico as Numbers of Migrant Families, Children Rise?” (The Arizona Republic, March 25, 2021).

The Border Patrol has started releasing migrant families in Yuma, Ajo and Gila Bend, where nonprofits and local government officials are trying to care for them despite the COVID-19 restrictions and the community’s lack of infrastructure

Venezuela

• Luisa Quintero, “Cidh Insto a Venezuela a Abandonar Juicios de Civiles en Tribunales Militares” (Tal Cual (Venezuela), March 25, 2021).

La CIDH destacó que el uso de la jurisdicción penal militar se intensifica durante los episodios de protestas, como ocurrió en el año 2017, cuando más de 750 personas civiles fueron presentadas ante esos espacios