(Posting this a bit late—I fell behind near the end of the week. Even more here)

September 20, 2018

Western Hemisphere Regional

• Ron Nixon, “U.S. Loses Track of Another 1,500 Migrant Children, Investigators Find” (The New York Times, September 20, 2018).

Senate investigators said the department could not determine with certainty the whereabouts of 1,488 out of 11,254 children the agency had placed with sponsors in 2018

• Franco Ordonez, “Latin American Diplomats: Is There Anyone We Can Talk To?” (McClatchy DC, September 20, 2018).

The sudden departure of Juan Cruz, the senior director for Western Hemisphere Affairs at the White House’s National Security Council, and ongoing delays to install Kimberly Breier as assistant secretary of the State Department’s Latin America division along with many other departures

Colombia

• Cecilia Orozco Tascón, “Autor de Falsos Positivos, Invitado de Lafaurie-Cabal” (El Espectador (Colombia), September 20, 2018).

Portando uniforme militar, en gesto de desafío que ofende a las Fuerzas Armadas de Colombia, el coronel Mejía departió, whisky en mano, con personajes del alto mundo social capitalino

Colombia, Western Hemisphere Regional

• “Chapter 1. Country Reports: Western Hemisphere” (U.S. Department of State, September 20, 2018).

While the ideological motivations of such groups and ongoing connections with demobilized FARC are unclear, we have included acts of violence by FARC dissidents in this report

Guatemala

• Ximena Enriquez, “5 Ways the Guatemalan Government Is Trying to Dismantle Cicig” (Americas Quarterly, September 20, 2018).

One of Morales’s main campaign fundraisers and fellow party members, Marvin Klaus Mérida, hired the lobbying firm Barnes & Thornburg in 2017. The Guardian reported the firm receives an $80,000 monthly fee

• “En Respuesta a Jovel, la Onu Confirma a Velasquez” (La Hora (Guatemala), September 20, 2018).

Según pudo conocer La Hora, el Secretario General concluyó que no encuentra razones para retirarle la confianza al comisionado Velásquez

Mexico

• Ginger Thompson, “Justice Department Inspector General to Investigate Dea Program Linked to Massacres in Mexico” (ProPublica, September 20, 2018).

ProPublica’s reporting detailed that the Mexican SIU had a yearslong, documented record of leaking information to violent and powerful drug traffickers

• Kate Linthicum, “El Chapo’s Twin Daughters Had a Decadent Barbie-Themed Birthday. Mexicans Aren’t Happy About It” (The Los Angeles Times, September 20, 2018).

Efforts by U.S. Treasury Department and Mexican law enforcement to find and seize Guzman’s assets have largely failed. That seemed evident from the Instagram posts

• Ioan Grillo, “He Dedicated His Career to Exposing the Cartels. Then He Was Gunned Down in the Street.” (Esquire, September 20, 2018).

Corruption at the state level has been partly responsible for a lack of progress in prosecuting such deaths

Venezuela

• James Stavridis, “Suffering Venezuelans Need the U.S. to Stay Hands-Off” (Bloomberg, September 20, 2018).

What I learned over the course of years at Southern Command is how deeply ingrained the concern over historic U.S. interventionism is across the region