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May 19, 2017
Brazil
- Simon Romero, “Scandal in Brazil Raises Fear of Turmoil’s Return” (The New York Times, May 19, 2017).
The calls for Mr. Temer to resign have come from many sides, including an editorial Friday in O Globo, part of Brazil’s most powerful media group
- Paulo Trevisani, Luciana Magalhaes, Jeffrey T. Lewis, “Brazil Graft Probe Targets President, Markets Drop Amid Impeachment Talk” (The Wall Street Journal, May 19, 2017).
If Mr. Temer is ultimately impeached, Brazil’s Congress would elect an interim president to serve out the remainder of the presidential term until the scheduled presidential election in 2018
Colombia
- “Obligado, Uribe se Retracta Con las Madres de Soacha” (El Tiempo (Colombia), May 19, 2017).
Este viernes, para no ir a un juicio por la demanda de las mujeres, el expresidente y hoy senador se retractó de lo dicho en su trino del 25 de junio del 2015
- Tracy Wilkinson, Chris Kraul, “Colombian President Santos Goes to White House to Seek Aid Guarantees” (The Los Angeles Times, May 19, 2017).
Publicly, Trump gave no such commitment during a joint news conference with Santos in the White House East Room. Trump did not mention Colombia’s hard-fought peace process until a reporter asked about it
- “Vicepresidente de Estados Unidos Visitara Colombia en Agosto” (Colprensa, El Colombiano (Medellin Colombia), May 19, 2017).
Pence le comunicó a Santos que está interesado en que las relaciones se mantengan y sigan mejorando y por eso nos ofreció todo su apoyo
Mexico
- Jose De Cordoba, “Drug War Takes Mexican Journalist’s Life” (The Wall Street Journal, May 19, 2017).
Mr. Valdez’s slaying has caused shock waves here and abroad in a way few other killings have during the last decade in Mexico
- Alma Guillermoprieto, “Mexico: A Voice Against the Darkness” (The New York Review of Books, May 19, 2017).
Since the vast majority of the reporters who have been murdered since the start of the drug wars work anonymously for tiny provincial papers, it has generally been assumed that someone like Javier Valdez would be safe
- Brian J. Phillips, “Is Mexico the Second-Deadliest ‘Conflict Zone’ in the World? Probably Not.” (The Washington Post, May 19, 2017).
If Brazil were included in the list — with its more than 50,000 violent deaths per year in recent years — it would rank higher than Syria. Venezuela had more than 29,000 homicides in 2016, which would put it ahead of Mexico
Colombia, Mexico
- Mimi Yagoub, Tristan Clavel, “Mexico, Colombia Meetings Show Us Security Policy on Unsure Footing” (InsightCrime, May 19, 2017).
The seemingly contradictory messages presented by Trump and his top cabinet officials suggest that the new administration has yet to chart a clear course
Venezuela
- Andrew Cawthorne, “Highland Venezuelan Town Blitzed by Looting and Protests” (Reuters **, May 19, 2017).
Reuters journalists visiting the town on Friday had to negotiate permission from masked youths manning roadblocks and turning back traffic
- Emili J. Blasco, “Generales Venezolanos Adiestran a Francotiradores para Matar a Manifestantes” (ABC (Spain), May 19, 2017).
La orden de usar a francotiradores para matar a manifestantes ha sido dada en el seno de la Fuerza Armada Nacional de Venezuela
- David Smilde, “Notes on New Us Sanctions of Venezuelan Supreme Court Justices” (Washington Office on Latin America, May 19, 2017).
The most important reason that these sanctions will not likely work is that with no “escape hatch,”–i.e. possibility of being lifted for changed behavior–they raise sanctioned officials exit costs and thereby increase their loyalty to the regime
- “Venezuelan Leader to Trump: ‘Get Your Pig Hands Out of Here”” (Associated Press, The Washington Post, May 19, 2017).
Maduro had largely been careful not to antagonize Trump. But Trump’s repeated criticisms of the troubled South American nation appear to have struck a nerve
- David Adams, “U.S. Treasury Dept Sanctions Eight Venezuelan Supreme Court Judges” (Univision, May 19, 2017).
The sanctions are the latest U.S. effort to put pressure on the “bad actors” in the government of Nicolas Maduro in the midst of daily opposition streets protests
- Patricia Mazzei, Nora Gamez Torres, “U.S. Sanctions Venezuelan Supreme Court Judges Over National Assembly Power Grab” (The Miami Herald, May 19, 2017).
The sanctions are the first unrelated to drug trafficking imposed by the Trump administration against high-ranking members of the Venezuelan government
May 18, 2017
Colombia
- Lorne Matalon, “Colombia’s Fragile Peace Effort Is Expensive and Challenging” (Marketplace, May 18, 2017).
In Meta, and other large parts of Colombia, the retreat of the FARC has created a vacuum that has attracted criminal gangs, narco-traffickers and hired guns working for wealthy landowners
- Juanita León, Tatiana Duque, “Las Dos Caras del Golpe al Fast Track” (La Silla Vacia (Colombia), May 18, 2017).
El fallo de la Corte Constitucional es una mala noticia para la implementación del Acuerdo con las Farc en el corto plazo pero a mediano plazo le podría dar más legitimidad
Cuba
- Nora Gamez Torres, “Trump Will Not Announce Highly Anticipated Changes in Cuba Policy” (The Miami Herald, May 18, 2017).
Even if the final recommendations suggest that Trump should not make drastic changes at the moment, the administration must present them in a way that satisfies the pressure from Cuban-American Florida Republicans
Mexico
- Juan Alberto Cedillo, “Soldados Piden Regresar a Cuarteles Porque “Estamos Hartos de Capturar Criminales Que Luego Salen Libres”” (Proceso (Mexico), May 18, 2017).
“Estamos cansados de ver como emboscan a nuestros compañeros de forma cobarde y que ninguna autoridad, Organización No Gubernamental y de Derechos Humanos ‘hagan algo’”, subraya
- Nathaniel Parish Flannery, “Mexico’s Avocado Army: How One City Stood Up to the Drug Cartels” (The Guardian (Uk), May 18, 2017).
When Mexican drug cartels threatened the country’s $1.5bn avocado export industry with extortion and murder, farmers in Tancítaro decided to fight back
Venezuela
- Anatoly Kurmanaev, “Riot Police on Venezuela’s Front Lines Seek a Way Out” (The Wall Street Journal, May 18, 2017).
As protests grow increasingly violent, strapped security officers say they’re exhausted, misused and demoralized