(Even more here)

May 27, 2021

Western Hemisphere Regional

• Daniel Gonzalez, Maria Clark, “Covid-19 Cases Spiking Again at Some Ice Detention Centers. Critics Say Ice Failed to Vaccinate Detainees” (Arizona Republic, The American South, The Arizona Republic, May 27, 2021).

Medical experts fear that recent outbreaks in some ICE detention facilities not only endanger the health of detainees and staff, but could spread to surrounding communities

Bolivia

• “Former Minister of Government of Bolivia, Owner of Florida-Based Company, and Three Others Charged in Bribery and Money Laundering Scheme” (U.S. Department of Justice, May 27, 2021).

Arturo Carlos Murillo Prijic, 57, Sergio Rodrigo Mendez Mendizabal, 51, Luis Berkman, 58, Bryan Berkman, 36, and Philip Lichtenfeld, 48, engaged in the bribery scheme between approximately November 2019 and April 2020

Brazil

• Vanessa Barbara, “The Unveiling of Bolsonaro’s Supervillain Plot Is Weirdly Gripping” (The New York Times, May 27, 2021).

Mr. Bolsonaro effectively planned for at least 1.4 million deaths in Brazil. From his perspective, the 450,000 Brazilians already killed by Covid-19 must look like a job not even half-done

Central America Regional, Mexico

• Erin Semine Kokdil, Danielle Mackey, “The Mothers of the Disappeared Search Mexico’s Migrant Trail for Answers” (The New Yorker, May 27, 2021).

The documentary short “Desde Que Llegaste, Mi Corazón Dejó de Pertenecerme” follows a group of women from Central America on an emotional journey

Colombia

• Sebastian Forero Rueda, “Los Lideres de una Cooperativa de Exfarc en Cali Que la Fiscalia Senala de Ser Disidentes y Agitadores del Paro” (El Espectador (Colombia), May 27, 2021).

Tres directivos de la cooperativa Coopripaz fueron capturados el lunes en operativos simultáneos señalados de pertenecer a la disidencia de la Segunda Marquetalia y de obedecer órdenes de Iván Márquez en medio de las manifestaciones

• Oliver Griffin, “Colombian Protesters March on Capitals Demanding Economic Aid, Social Change” (Reuters, Reuters, May 27, 2021).

Protester demands have expanded to include a basic income, opportunities for young people and an end to police violence, including calls to scrap the riot police squad ESMAD

• Shauna N Gillooly, “Colombian City Beset by Crime Declares ‘Black Lives Matter’” (The Conversation, May 27, 2021).

Since early 2021, people in this majority-Black coastal city have been rising up peacefully but insistently against rampant drug trafficking, political violence and cartel infiltration

• “Un Camion Cargado de Mentiras y Policias de Civil” (Colombiacheck, Vorágine y La Liga Contra el Silencio, Voragine (Colombia), May 27, 2021).

Este trabajo intenta esclarecer uno de los episodios que generó controversias

• “Si Cidh Quiere Venir Manana No Tenemos Ningun Problema: Vicepresidenta” (El Tiempo (Colombia), May 27, 2021).

La vicepresidenta Marta Lucía Ramírez aseguró este miércoles que la visita programada de la Comisión Interamericana de los Derechos Humanos (CIDH) para el 29 de junio al país se puede anticipar

• “Colombian City’s Courthouse Razed to Ground Amid Violent Protests” (EFE, La Prensa Latina, May 27, 2021).

The fire destroyed nearly the entire courthouse of that city located approximately 100 kilometers (60 miles) north of Cali

El Salvador

• Felipe de la Hoz, “El Salvador’s Leader Is Updating the Autocrat Playbook for the Tiktok Generation” (The Washington Post, May 27, 2021).

Around the world, ultranationalism festers, the rejection of classical liberalism surges, and reactionary political groups rise — and with every passing day, the Salvadoran leader is creating a model for successors to follow

Mexico

• “El Pais Revela: General (Impune) Uso el Cuartel para Narcofiestas” (SinEmbargo (Mexico), May 27, 2021).

Alberto Reyes Vaca, excomandante de las Fuerzas Especiales en Temamantla, Estado de México, ordenó la remodelación de una de las instalaciones de la Secretaría de la Defensa Nacional (Sedena) en dicho cuartel y durante su administración organizó varias “narcofiestas”

• “Voters Should Curb Mexico’s Power-Hungry President” (The Economist (Uk), May 27, 2021).

The president’s scorn for rules is one reason the elections on June 6th matter

• “Another Candidate Assassinated in Mexico Ahead of June 6 Vote” (Al Jazeera, May 27, 2021).

Alma Barragan was shot dead on Tuesday, local media reported, while campaigning for the mayorship of the city of Moroleon in the violence-plagued state of Guanajuato

• Pedro Dominguez, Jannet Lopez Ponce, “Salir a Votar Sin Miedo, Llamado de Amlo e Ine Ante Crimen en Elecciones” (Milenio (Mexico), May 27, 2021).

El presidente Andrés Manuel López Obrador y el titular del INE, Lorenzo Córdova, coincidieron en el llamado a los mexicanos a salir a votar en la jornada del 6 de junio sin temor al crimen organizado

Peru

• “Vraem: Guillermo Bermejo Cuestiono la Politica Antidrogas” (El Comercio (Peru), May 27, 2021).

El virtual congresista de Perú Libre afirmó que los cocaleros sufren “los despropósitos de una equivocada lucha antisubversiva”

• “De Abimael Guzman a los Quispe Palomino: La Delgada Linea Que Une a Sendero Luminoso Con los Narcoterroristas del Militarizado Partido Comunista del Peru” (El Comercio (Peru), May 27, 2021).

Uno de los primeros adeptos que reclutó Gonzalo fue un profesor escolar ayacuchano muy humilde llamado Martín Quispe Mendoza

U.S.-Mexico Border

• Nick Miroff, “Biden Administration Leaves Homeland Security Budget Flat Despite Border Surge” (The Washington Post, May 27, 2021).

Mayorkas did not give lawmakers a timetable to lift the pandemic order and return to standard immigration processing, but said he was planning to meet with senior officials at U.S. immigration agencies later Wednesday

• Robert Moore, “‘Circus Is Coming to Town’: How the el Paso Border Patrol’s 2018 Election Day Plan Unraveled” (El Paso Matters, May 27, 2021).

In 2018, faced with intense criticism, the El Paso Border Patrol sector scrapped a “crowd control exercise” that was planned next to the Chihuahuita neighborhood on Nov. 6 — Election Day

• Max Rivlin-Nadler, “Hope Arrives in Tijuana Migrant Encampment, as More Asylum-Seekers Allowed to Enter Us” (KPBS (Los Angeles), May 27, 2021).

A few families who had been living here are getting into the United States, escaping the cramped and dangerous spaces of the haphazard camp

• Zolan Kanno-Youngs, “Biden Under Pressure Over ‘Public Health’ Border Expulsions” (The New York Times, May 27, 2021).

On Monday, two physicians who work as consultants for the Department of Homeland Security sent a letter to members of Congress saying the rule has had the “perverse impact” of encouraging parents to send their children to cross the border alone