(Even more here)

August 3, 2017

Brazil

• Vera AraÚjo, “Ministerio Publico Denuncia Quadrilha Acusada de Trazer Fuzis para o Rio” (O Globo (Brazil), August 3, 2017).

Barbieri é acusado de tentar chegar às mãos de traficantes cariocas os 60 fuzis apreendidos no Aeroporto Internacional Galeão-Tom Jobim, em junho deste ano, oriundos dos Estados Unidos

• Dom Phillips, “Brazil’s President Keeps Job as Congress Votes Against Corruption Charges” (The Guardian (Uk), August 3, 2017).

Its lower house overwhelmingly voted not to approve corruption charges against the president, Michel Temer – even though 81% of his countrymen said in a recent poll that they should

Colombia

• Ambassador William R. Brownfield, “Prepared Statement Of: Ambassador William R. Brownfield Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs Hearing Before The: Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere” (U.S. Department of State, U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, August 3, 2017).

The United States is not currently supporting the Colombian government’s voluntary eradication and crop substitution program because the FARC is involved in some aspects of the program

• Enzo Nussio, Oliver Kaplan, “How to Keep the Farc Guerrillas Out of the Fight” (The New York Times, August 3, 2017).

To make living as law-abiding citizens more appealing to former rebels, the government and international partners should take a three-pronged approach to assisting them

• “Las Farc Aun No Resuelven Sus Discusiones Politicas Internas” (Verdad Abierta (Colombia), August 3, 2017).

En su seno hay por lo menos tres debates profundos en las cuales ni los excombatientes ni las estructuras urbanas y rurales se han puesto de acuerdo

• Alfredo Molano Jimeno, “Primeras Criticas a la Ley Estatutaria de la Jep” (El Espectador (Colombia), August 3, 2017).

Una vez cumplan entre dos y medio y cuatro años de cárcel, podrán salir a cumplir el tiempo restante de sanción en condiciones no carcelarias

• Juan Esteban Lewin, “El Sapo Con Cara de Mico de la Jep” (La Silla Vacia (Colombia), August 3, 2017).

Se trata de la posibilidad de que quienes entren a esa justicia y solo acepten su responsabilidad durante el juicio, terminen pagando la mitad de su pena

Cuba

• Nora Gamez Torres, “Fear Is Driving Raul Castro to Punish Cuba’s New Entrepreneurial Class, Experts Say” (The Miami Herald, August 3, 2017).

The Cuban government does not want a truly successful entrepreneurial class operating on the island

Mexico

• Amber Phillips, “Paul Ryan Just Can’t Wait to Spend Billions and Billions on Trump’s Border Wall. Really.” (The Washington Post, August 3, 2017).

Pretending you want something that you don’t actually want isn’t a new game in Congress

• Guillermo Cantor, Walter Ewing, “Still No Action Taken: Complaints Against Border Patrol Agents Continue to Go Unanswered” (American Immigration Council, August 3, 2017).

95.9 percent of the 1,255 cases in which an outcome was reported resulted in “no action” against the officer or agent accused of misconduct

• Robbie Whelan, “Pena Nieto Never Praised Trump’s Border Policies in Phone Call, Mexico Says” (The Wall Street Journal, August 3, 2017).

Mexico denied assertions by U.S. President Donald Trump that his Mexican counterpart praised the U.S. administration’s border policies, saying a phone call that Mr. Trump alluded to never happened

• Bahr Abdul Razzak, Bill Marczak, John Scott-Railton, Masashi Crete-Nishihata, Ron Deibert, “Lawyers for Murdered Mexican Women’s Families Targeted With Nso Spyware” (Citizen Lab (Canada), August 3, 2017).

Lawyers for families of 3 slain Mexican women were sent infection attempts with NSO Group’s spyware after questioning official accounts of the killings

Venezuela

• Isaac Chotiner, “Venezuela Is Collapsing, and No One Seems to Care” (Slate, August 3, 2017).

I spoke by phone with Terry Lynn Karl, a professor emeritus of political science and Latin American studies at Stanford University and the author of The Paradox of Plenty: Oil Blooms and Petro-State

• Asa Cusack, “What the Left Must Learn From Maduro’s Failures in Venezuela” (The Guardian (Uk), August 3, 2017).

Did I think centralisation of power was a price worth paying? Did I forget that oil prices also fall? Did I downplay abuses I would have denounced with a more rightwing government? Despite my best efforts, I suspect that I did

• Holly K. Sonneland, “Update: What to Know About Venezuela’s Escalating Turmoil” (Americas Society – Council of the Americas, August 3, 2017).

Here’s a look at the major developments of the last few days, and what to look for in the days and weeks ahead

• Hannah Dreier, “To Venezuela, This Week’s Sanctions Are a Joke” (ProPublica, August 3, 2017).

An oil embargo would be as dramatic as Monday’s sanctions were anticlimactic. The Maduro administration might implode, and the country’s hunger crisis could escalate to famine

Western Hemisphere Regional

• Kevin Johnson, “Dhs Wavers on Hiring 15,000 New Immigration Officers, Says Trump Order Only ‘a Goal’” (USA Today, August 3, 2017).

DHS spokesman David Lapan said the hiring blitz, a major component of the Trump administration’s stepped-up immigration enforcement agenda, is subject to change because of declining border apprehensions, access to technology and agency attrition rates

• Robbie Gramer, “Tillerson Weighs Latin America Expert for Top State Department Post” (Foreign Policy, August 3, 2017).

William Brownfield, a career diplomat who currently leads the State Department’s law enforcement and anti-narcotics efforts, is a top pick