Nicaragua's Alianza Cívica called on President Daniel Ortega to free political prisoners as a sign that negotiations are advancing. The opposition alliance has been in on-and-off discussions with the government to seek a way out of a political crisis, but organizations of civil society are increasingly unwilling to continue unless political detainees are liberated.
Opposition groups say 767 people are political prisoners, while the Nicaraguan government recognizes 340 in relation to anti-government protests since April of last year. (Confidencial)
The U.S. supports calls for liberation and early elections. (Confidencial)
The European Parliament criticized Nicaragua on human rights and called for sanctions, yesterday. (Associated Press and Confidencial)
News Briefs
El Salvador
- Salvadoran president-elect Nayib Bukele hopes to strengthen his country's relationship with the U.S., which he called "our greatest ally, our greatest friend." He promised to fight what he calls "forceful migration" -- people spurred to leave El Salvador to escape violence or lack of economic opportunity. Bukele also reiterated a promise to create an international anti-impunity commission, with the OAS or the U.N. (Daily Signal)
- Speaking at the Heritage Foundation in Washington accused China of not playing by the rules. “They develop projects that are not feasible, leaving countries with huge debt that cannot be paid back and use that as financial leverage ... They are not a democracy, but they intervene in your democracy." The comments come as Bukele contemplates rolling back El Salvador's recent diplomatic recognition of China over Taiwan. The Chinese government objected to his comments. (Reuters)
- Most of Venezuela has electricity again, but it will be a long time before service returns to normal after the outage that impacted much of the country over the past week. (Guardian)
- At least 300 people have been detained in protests and disturbances in relation to the blackout. (Reuters)
- Venezuela's second largest city, Maracaibo, has been in havoc and devastated by looting in the week-long power outage. (Guardian)
- Year-on-year inflation as of February is running 2.3 million percent, according to the opposition-led National Assembly. It slowed down last month however, due to the brutal crisis that is impacting consumption. (Miami Herald)
- As Venezuela crumbles, Nicolás Maduro increasingly relies on paramilitary groups -- armed, motorcycle-riding "colectivos -- to terrorize protesters, reports the Washington Post.
- The U.S. is looking at sanctions that would prohibit credit cards from processing transactions in Venezuela. (Reuters)
- Greece backed Bolivia's call for a negotiated settlement to Venezuela's crisis. (Associated Press)
- Military intervention is not a solution to Venezuela's crisis, Colombian President Ivan Duque said in an interview. (Reuters)
- The U.S. suspended some military aid towards Guatemala yesterday, citing repeated misuse of Washington-donated armored vehicles. (Associated Press, Nómada, Reuters and El Periódico) The U.S. donated jeeps figured prominently last year circling outside the CICIG headquarters and the U.S. embassy when President Jimmy Morales announced he was terminating the U.N. backed anti-impunity commission. (See post for Sept. 3, 2018.)
Colombia
- The U.N. warned Colombia not to unravel the 2016 peace deal with the FARC, after President Iván Duque announced he would seek to reform aspects of transitional justice legislation earlier this week. (AFP)
- Homicides in Colombia's municipalities increased by 49 percent in 2018, and the level of impunity is alarming, according to the U.N. (El Tiempo)
- Duque's government wants to return to aerial eradication of coca with glyphosate, but the cancer-linked herbicide isn't the solution to the country's war against illicit crops, argues InSight Crime.
Brazil
- Assassinated Rio de Janeiro councillor Marielle Franco has become a symbolic antithesis to Brazil's dominant political forces -- her killing "also injected a life-or-death sense of urgency into the rights movements she espoused," reports the New York Times.
- Brazil's Supreme Court ruled that corruption cases involving illegal campaign donations should be handled by electoral courts. The move threatens to undermine the country's crusade against corruption, warned some prosecutors. (Reuters)
- Brazil's central bank could better target inflation if guaranteed autonomy by law, according to new head Roberto Campos Neto. (Bloomberg)
- President Jair Bolsonaro will embark on a world tour. Visits will include Washington DC, where he'll meet with President Donald Trump -- both leaders are known to share a strong affinity for one another. Expect the earth to shake, promise some. (Washington Post and Americas Quarterly)
- Then he'll head to Israel, where he will likely not be able to deliver on a promise to move Brazil's embassy to Jerusalem, reports Reuters.
Mexico
- Mexico's Congress gave final approval to President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's plan to create a militarized National Guard. (Reuters)
- A series of strikes in Mexico's Matamoros maquiladoras has gotten workers in many U.S. owned factories wage increases and bonuses. And the 20/32 movement, as it's known, is spreading to other maquiladoras in cities around the country, reports the Wall Street Journal.
- Journalists in Mexico are self-censoring out of fear of the new government, according to the Miami Herald's Andres Oppenheimer.
Ecuador
- Ecuador announced its departure from the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) and requested the return of the organization's main building, which is in Quito and has an estimated value of $40 million. (UPI)
Peru
- Peru's unexpected president, Martín Vizcarra, has proved stronger than believed when he took office a year ago. And seems to be opening a space in Peru for a liberal political project, argues Carlos Monge at the AULA blog.
Argentina
- Former Argentine president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner has been angling for a comeback in this year's presidential elections, and is wooing the so-called "moderate" Peronists in an attempt to broaden her voter base, reports Reuters. Her candidacy would only help President Mauricio Macri who is also expected to run for reelection.
- Argentine authorities say record-high drug seizures and arrests since 2015 mean Macri's security strategy is a success -- but critics say the figures don't translate into significant gains against criminal organizations. (InSight Crime)
Women
- Motherhood is sanctified in Latin America, and obstetric violence is rife. Perhaps it's because patriarchal societies believe women's only true calling is being a mother, writes Vanessa Barbara in a New York Times op-ed.
Journalism
- Alma Guillermoprieto spoke to the Columbia Journalism Review at length, including how "Twitter freed perfectly nice people to be horrible. It is like a road rage. Twitter rage is like road rage where perfectly nice people suddenly find themselves free to say loads of things that they don’t even mean."
Did I miss something, get something wrong, or do you have a different take? Let me know ...
No comments:
Post a Comment