Un día sin nosotras (March 10, 2020)

Mexico's women stayed home yesterday, in a striking protest against gender violence and the government's failure to take action on femicides. Women were mostly absent from public spaces yesterday in Mexico City, and offices and business around the country were half empty or closed, reports the Washington Post. 

Most schools and universities suspended classes, reports the Wall Street Journal. The Mexico City metro had a 40 percent reduction in users yesterday, reports Animal Político. Women in diverse areas of government, national and local, also stayed home in protest. Many left signs at their places of work, explaining their absence, which was meant to illustrate the femicide death toll. “By the end of the day, ten women will have been murdered. Stop killing us,” read one sign at an empty desk yesterday. (Animal Político reports on how the protest played out around the country.) Citibanamex estimated the overall loss could be about $2 billion, or half of one day’s economic output.

The strike, together with March 8 protests, could be a watershed moment in Mexico, according to the New York Times.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who galvanized anger last month by his apparently cavalier attitude towards femicides, said he supported the protest yesterday. But he also maintained that the issue has been abused by some conservatives seeking to undermine his government, a continuation of the prevarication that spurred protesters in the first place. (Guardian)

More

• Mexican writer Guadalupe Nettel explains how unpaid women's work allows the government to ignore its care obligations, in the New York Times Español.

News Briefs

Colombia

• The Colombian National Police, in a number of instances, abused the mostly peaceful demonstrators protesting throughout the country in late 2019, according to a new Human Rights Watch report. In several cases, In several cases, the police used excessive force against protesters, including beatings and improper use of “less-than-lethal” weapons during crowd-control operations. Efforts to ensure accountability have been limited, notes the organization.

• Jorge Macana, a social leader in Cauca, was killed this weekend, the 54th local leader killed so far in 2020, reports Telesur.

• Colombian President Ivan Duque is just a year and a half into his four year term, but he's already a lame-duck, argues Fernando Rojas at the AULA blog, pointing to a string of defections from the governing team and street protests that show Duque's weakness.

Guyana

• Guyana's Supreme Court is set to review election results starting today -- it is unclear how much longer the process will take, and more protests are expected this week, according to the Latin America Risk Report. Guayana's main opposition party and international observers criticized President David Granger's claim to have won reeleection without a final count for Region 4. It is far from clear that he won, as the opposition People’s Progressive Party was leading in results without Region 4. (See Sunday's post.)

• However the immediate crisis plays out, Guyana faces the threat of parliamentary deadlock and perceived illegitimacy by the losing bloc, warns James Bosworth in the Latin America Risk Report.

• Indeed, victory in these circumstances would be pyrrhic, argue Moses Bhagwan and Eusi Kwayana, who call for a government of national unity. "In such a deeply-divided nation, it remains possible for the leaders of the major parties to de-escalate the situation by finding a mutually-agreeable solution. ... If nothing else, the events of the past week have underlined forcefully that regardless of who wins under this current winner-takes-all system, Guyana as a whole loses," they write in Demerara Waves.

• U.S. officials have made several references to the Guyana crisis in recent days -- yesterday U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo said that he had discussed the issue of "democratic transition" in the country with Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, reports Stabroek News.

Bolivia

• The OAS isn't responsible for former Bolivian president Evo Morales' ouster last November, but the organization's "actions were undoubtedly important in creating a climate within which a coup could not only succeed, but be applauded as a necessary step toward restoring Bolivian democracy," writes Gabriel Hetland in the Washington Post. Hetland defends a study by MIT researchers contracted by CEPR, who say their statistical analysis refutes part of the OAS accusations of electoral fraud. (See March 2's post.) "The OAS is entirely unjustified in its declarations that it has proved the existence of fraud and intentional manipulation of the vote," writes Hetland, who says "the OAS acted in an unjustified and reckless manner in Bolivia, helping to undermine, not restore, democracy."

• Bolivia's interim government has engaged in political persecution to quash opposition -- and the U.S. has remained largely silent on the issue, reports the Washington Post. Analysts point to a distinct divide in the Trump administration's stance on violations committed by governments it considers friendly -- Brazil, Colombia, Honduras, as well as Bolivia -- and those it considers hostile -- Venezuela and Cuba, for example. "Perhaps no country exemplifies the double standard better than Bolivia."

Regional Relations

• U.S. President Donald Trump hosted his Brazilian counterpart at a festive dinner on Saturday, but refused to rule out steel and iron tariffs down the line, reports the New York Times.

• On the same trip, Bolsonaro also visited U.S. Southern Command headquarters to discuss regional security and witness the signing of an accord expanding military cooperation between the two countries, reports EFE.

Migration

• U.S. House Democrats announced an investigation into the U.S. State Department’s role in striking the asylum agreements with Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, saying the deals might violate U.S. law, reports the Washington Times. Representatives Eliot L. Engel, Joaquin Castro, and Representative Albio Sires said that vulnerable asylum seekers face unacceptable risks in these three countries.

• A union representing federal asylum officers said that a U.S. Trump administration immigration agreement with Guatemala violates international treaty obligations by deporting migrants to a country where they are likely to face persecution, reports the Washington Post.

• In the meantime, Guatemala's new government is scrambling to limit the number of asylum seekers the U.S. sends under the agreement, reported Reuters on Friday. Officials emphasize the country's "very limited" capacity to process foreign migrants. Data released by the Guatemalan Immigration Institute, a government agency, show that through March 3 a total of 789 people have been returned, including 311 children.

• Last week the Trump administration announced it set aside 10,000 H2-B temporary non-agricultural work visas for Guatemalans, El Salvadorans and Hondurans, as part of a broader expansion of such visas. Reuters notes that the nationality-specific set-aside is unusual for such programs, and appeared to be in recognition of the migration deals signed by these countries with the U.S.

Guatemala

• Lawyers for three senior Guatemalan military commanders accused of human rights violations asked to switch the court in which the case is being heard. Judge Miguel Ángel Gálvez will decide today whether to proceed with the case, in which the accused are charged with genocide, crimes against humanity, and forced disappearance against the Maya Ixil population during the government of General Fernando Romeo Lucas García (1978-1982). (Nómada, International Justice Monitor)

El Salvador

• Three Salvadoran police officers are accused of killing Camila Díaz Córdova -- the first time authorities in El Salvador have prosecuted the assassination of a transgender woman, according to La Sexta. Activists have hailed the treatment of the case as a hate crime, but emphasize that LGBTQ citizens continue to face discrimination and abuse, reports Foreign Policy.

Chile

• The Clinic published a video that shows two Chilean police beating an elderly man despite the impassioned cries of women at the March 8 protest begging them to stop. The episode apparently occurred Sunday in the environs of Plaza Dignidad in Santiago. "It will be impossible for Carabineros to recover citizen legitimacy with repugnant acts like this," tweeted Human Rights Watch Americas Division Director José Miguel Vivanco.

• At least seven armed men stole $14 million in cash from a security van at the Santiago airport, part of a growing spate of crime in the midst of Chile's ongoing unrest, reports the Guardian.

Argentina

• Eight indigenous children have died so far of malnutrition this year in Argentina's northern Salta province, reports AFP.

Brazil

• Residents of Brazil's Amazon Pará state are skeptical of the purported economic benefits a bridge project will bring to their region. Instead, they are concerned about the environmental impact with regards to the plan backed by President Jair Bolsonaro, part of a broader trans-Amazon highway project, reports the Guardian.

Amazon

• A study of dung beetle health indicates that forest fires and drought are far more damaging to Amazon rainforest ecological health than previously thought -- Conversation.

Covid-19

• Corona virus hasn't struck big in Latin America -- yet -- but could potentially have several very negative impacts, beyond public health issues, writes Brian Winter in Americas Quarterly. He analyzes the potential for increased protests against inequality, economic impact, an increased receptivity to militarization, and increased discrimination against migrants.

Did I miss something, get something wrong, or do you have a different take? Let me know ... 

Latin America Daily Briefing

International Women's Day -- and strike (March 8, 2020)

• Throughout Mexico, thousands of women protested against gender violence and inequality on International Women's Day. Activists hope a massive women's strike planned for tomorrow will be a turning point for a country marked by machismo, reports the Washington Post. “Fight today so we don’t die tomorrow” and “We are the voice of those who are no longer with us," read some of the signs carried today by demonstrators in Mexico City. Reporters said that cans of tear gas were apparently detonated, near the national palace, by by several men in civilian clothes.

• Feminists in Mexico have been galvanized by two particularly gruesome recent femicides, and President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's cavalier reaction to their anger. In Mexico, an average of ten women are victims of femicide every day, reports AFP.

• They are part of "a new culture against silence and machismo taking root in Mexico, a culture in which women are demanding equal treatment," writes Jorge Ramos in a New York Times op-ed.

• In Chile more than one million people rallied for women's rights and against government repression of protests, reports Al Jazeera. Demonstrators sang what has become an international women's rights battle-hymn, "a rapist in your path," and called for yes votes in the upcoming constitutional plebiscite. (El Mostrador)

• In Argentina women's rights activists will march tomorrow. Today the Catholic Church held a massive mass against gender violence and against abortion -- a sign of how the country's anti-choice activists are wading into this year's legalization debate. (Infobae) 

• In Bogotá protesters also focused on abortion, in the context of a court decision last week that failed to broadly legalize the procedure, but also declined to ban it. (See last Tuesday's post.) The Guardian looks at this and other protests in the region and around the world.

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Guayana's electoral crisis

Police killed a protester in Guyana on Friday evening, amid rising protests and tensions over the March 2 election and alleged mismanagement or fraud in the vote count. Today, (Sunday) Guyana’s top court upheld an injunction blocking the elections commission from proclaiming a winner in this month’s presidential election. (See Friday's post.)

The opposition People’s Progressive Party had filed an injunction against the nation’s Elections Commission and has demanded a full vote count. The injunction prevents the elections commission from declaring a winner while the court reviews the case. Chief Justice Roxane George said she will begin a hearing on Tuesday determine whether elections officials will need to resume verifying Region Four votes.

Region 4 votes are at the heart of the dispute: the opposition accuses electoral authorities of releasing results without verifying the votes at more than half of the polling stations, and of tampering with results to put President David Granger ahead of opposition challenger Irfaan Ali.

Protesters belonging to the PPP blocked roads around the country and clashed with police after the electoral authorities announced the government had won the most votes in the March 2 elections, overriding objections from judges, international observers and the opposition. The electoral authority (GECOM) based its announcement last week on unverified results from the capital region — in violation of a court injunction.

Pre-existing political polarization, which is largely against ethnic-lines, has been worsened by an imminent oil bonanza in Guyana, and the push to control revenue.

(Reuters, Bloomberg, New York Times)

More from Guyana

• Guyana's government selected a legal firm that has regularly worked for ExxonMobil to rewrite the country's oil laws -- an enterprise that will be funded with $1.96 million grant from the World Bank. The environment and rights campaign group Urgewald denounced the case, and said "this is ‘good governance’ for the oil companies, not for the people of Guyana or the global climate. The World Bank is causing a conflict of interest, in effect undermining good governance." (Guardian)

News Briefs

Haiti

• The IMF is in "wait and see" mode regarding a $229 million zero interest loan to Haiti, after Haitian President Jovenel Moïse unilaterally appointed a new prime minister without an agreement with the political opposition, reports the Miami Herald. Moïse has been ruling by executive order since January, after most lawmakers' terms expired because the country failed to hold legislative elections.

Venezuela

• Venezuelan authorities detained at least 38 workers from Venezuela’s state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela on charges of trafficking fuel -- part of a broader crackdown on Pdvsa employees, reports Reuters. (See Friday's briefs.)

• Venezuela’s elections council said hat a fire over the weekend destroyed most of the voting machines stored in its Caracas warehouse -- a development that could potentially (further) complicate legislative elections that are supposed to be held this year, reports Reuters.

• Opposition leader Juan Guaidó called on supporters to demonstrate on Tuesday. (Efecto Cocuyo)

Regional Relations

• U.S. President Donald Trump and his Brazilian counterpart, Jair Bolsonaro, discussed the U.S.-led effort to oust Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro at a dinner on Saturday, reports Bloomberg.

Migration

• Oprah Winfrey leaned into the whole American Dirt thing -- New York Times.

Nicaragua

• Reactions death of poet/revolutionary Ernesto Cárdenas was mixed -- "political polarization doesn't know very well what to do with poetry," notes Alberto Tyszka in the New York Times Español.

Corona Virus

• Argentine health authorities announced the country's first Covid-19 death this weekend. (Associated Press)

• There are ten reported cases in Chile and 12 in Argentina. (EFE)

Chile

• For those of you who bug me about podcasts: check out this delightful new one hosted by Brian Winter at Americas Quarterly. He interviews Chilean political scientist Patricio Navia in the first episode, about how a constitutional referendum will not solve the problems that have Chileans on the streets.

The Latin America Daily Briefing is joining in on the Women's Strike of March 9, tomorrow -- it will be back on Tuesday, March 10. Vivas Nos Queremos.

Latin America Daily Briefing

Guyana results delayed, fraud allegations (March 6, 2020)

Both of Guayana's main political parties declared victory in Monday's elections, causing political upheaval as the country awaits official final results today. President David Granger urged his supporters to be "patient" while waiting for election officials to reveal the results of the 2 March vote. Former president Bharrat Jagdeo, also of the PPP, has accused the election authority of committing fraud. (BBC) Anti-Granger protesters burned tires at demonstrations against the alleged vote rigging, reports Stabroek News.

At the heart of the dispute are the votes from Region 4 -- Stabroek reports on a variety of interruptions to the tally that have raised questions of the count legitimacy.

Today the international observer missions from the Commonwealth, the Organization of American States, the European Union, and The Carter Center insisted that the tabulation of results in Region 4 was interrupted and must be conducted correctly in order to establish national results. (Stabroek News)

"When all of the bewildering events of yesterday at the office of the Region Four Returning Officer are taken into account, the only conclusion that can be drawn is that Gecom and its staffers are working in the interest of APNU+AFC and  rigging the 2020 general elections right before our eyes," argues a scathing Stabroek News editorial, that accuses the electoral authorities of blatant wrongdoing.

An imminent oil bonanza in Guyana has exacerbated historical political tensions, reports the New York Times. And some fear the upheaval this week around the elections is a sign of troubles that will worsen in the near future. In the days since the election, "public debate has descended into a cycle of historical grievances. Both parties fear that if they concede, the opposing party would use the oil wealth to shut them out of government for years to come — and deprive their constituents of their fair share of revenue," explains the NYT.

Though the economic decisions taken by the next government will determine whether and how Guyana can harness the country's oil wealth for development. But neither major party has offered a concrete plan.

News Briefs

International Women's Day

• Many Latin American countries treat gender-based murders differently than regular homicides -- the Economist looks at arguments for and against femicide laws.

• Many of Mexico's 21 million registered female workers are expected to stay home on Monday to protest gender violence. The women's strike could be the boldest women's rights action since Me Too, according to the Washington Post. (See post for Feb. 27.) Many public offices and private companies have given women the liberty to join, and economic losses in the capital could be $300 million, according to one estimate.

• The fight against gender violence is led by feminist groups, the first big social movement to form during President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's presidency, reports the Economist.

• "Women have become the protagonists of thousands upon thousands of stories of violence and impunity at the hands of men who, in public and in private, feel they have a right to decide over our lives and our bodies," write three lawmakers from different Mexican parties in support for the strike and the social movements who have convened it. (Americas Quarterly)

• The country's young feminist activists have shaken the government with their varied actions in protest of gender violence, including some forms of violent or illegal actions -- painting public buildings, taking over academic establishments and attempting to burn certain public buildings -- reminiscent of the British suffragettes. "Their bellicosity is proportional to the violence to which they are exposed," writes Laura Castellanos in the Post Opinión.

• More than a million women are preparing to join a massive protest in Chile on Sunday, to mark International Women's Day. The march is expected to reignite the wave of demonstrations and unrest, ahead of April's plebiscite on whether to reform the constitution, reports the Guardian. 

Chile

• "Time is running out to avert a disaster" in Chile, warns Patricio Navas in an Americas Quarterly piece. He argues against a constitutional rewrite as a solution to deep economic and social frustration felt by many Chileans. If Chilean's approve the April referendum, they "will embark on a two-year long process to write a new Constitution that will be full of uncertainty, put a great deal of normal life (including economic activity and investment) on hold, and likely yield a document that is not substantially different in content from our current charter. ... The outcome of this process may well be the opposite of what its supporters intend: A country that is less stable, less equal, and more closely resembles some of our less stable Latin American peers."

Regional Relations

• Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro will meet with U.S. President Donald Trump tomorrow at the Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, according to Reuters.

• Brazil is moving to downgrade its diplomatic relationship with Venezuela, and removed five diplomats and 11 members of consular staff in Caracas, yesterday. (Al Jazeera)

• Venezuela has swapped millions of barrels of crude for supplies of corn and water trucks under an oil-for-food deal struck with a Mexican firm, Libre Abordo. The exchange of food aid in exchange for oil, rather than cash, means the company is, apparently, not affected by U.S. sanctions, reports Reuters.

Venezuela

• Venezuela's Maduro government accused opposition leader Juan Guaidó of hiring a criminal to point a gun at his head during a recent rally. (See Monday's briefs.) The opposition rejects the allegations, and say a criminal's confession is trumped up, reports the Associated Press.

• Venezuelan authorities arrested the head of PDVSA's lubricants division this week, on corruption allegations. Intelligence police also raided the properties of other PDVSA executives, reports Reuters. Last week, authorities detained two managers in PDVSA’s supply and trading division, later accusing them of collaborating with Washington.

Bolivia

• Bolivia's MAS party retains a significant following and could well win a spot in run-off elections in May's presidential election redo. But the party of ousted President Evo Morales faces an uphill battle in the midst of "a right-wing “transition” government dedicated to demolishing his legacy," reports Jacobin.

• Interim-president Jeanine Áñez's candidacy in the elections only adds fodder to the narrative that Morales was the victim of a coup, and could push further political instability in Bolivia, reports the Economist.

Colombia

• A three day forced strike by Colombia's ELN earlier this month shows the guerrilla force's power, reports InSight Crime. Entire rural communities were left paralyzed due to the fear of reprisals for not abiding by the group’s orders.

• Demands for better social services by hundreds of thousands of protesters mean that Colombian taxes must increase to pay for programs, finance minister Alberto Carrasquilla explained to the Financial Times.

Peru

• Peruvian diplomat Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, former United Nations Secretary General, died at the age of 100 in Lima this week. He led the U.N. "through bitter confrontation with the U.S. Congress during the Reagan administration to a period of unprecedented peacemaking that coincided with the end of the Cold War," according to the Washington Post.

Fake docs

• Brazilian superstar Ronaldinho and his brother won't be charged by Paraguayan authorities for using fake passports to enter the country yesterday -- but it's not immediately clear why they did so in the first place, reports the Washington Post.

Latin America Daily Briefing

"Remain in Mexico" sustained pending Supreme Court (March 5, 2020)

News Briefs

Migration

• A U.S. federal court granted the U.S. Trump administration’s request to keep the “Remain in Mexico” restrictions in effect until March 11, for review by the Supreme Court. However, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reaffirmed its decision last week that the policy violates both United States and international law, stating that the policy is causing "extreme and irreversible harm," reports the New York Times. (See Monday's briefs.) If the Supreme Court does not grant the government’s request to take up its appeal of the Ninth Circuit’s injunction, the appeals court’s original decision will take effect on March 12.

• A few years into the Venezuela migration crisis, the case of Roraima in Brazil has had mixed results. The state has actually had some economic growth in the midst of the influx of migrants, but also increases in poverty. In fact, "the research suggests that the state’s increase in tax revenues is on a par with the additional costs of these and other services provided to the Venezuelans," writes João Jarochinski Silva at the AULA blog. However Roraima state will need new resources to accommodate greater influx of migrants, he warns.

Venezuela

• Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro bizarrely urged women to have six children as a response to the country's crushing socio-economic crisis. Food and medical shortages are widespread -- and Unicef estimated child malnutrition at 13 percent. Women's rights groups took the suggestion poorly, reports the Guardian.
  
• "The ever more brazen attacks on opposition concentrations and marches would seem to be aimed at undermining Guaidó’s ability to re-mobilize the population," according to the Venezuela Weekly. The opposition leader has called for a new opposition march to the Legislative Palace on March 10.

• The Maduro government insists that there are no people detained for political reasons in the country --  Venezuela Weekly. 

Honduras

• Allegations by U.S. prosecutors that Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández took a $25,000 bribe years ago from an alleged cocaine trafficker now in federal custody could complicate the relationship between the two countries, reports the Washington Post. (See yesterday's post.)

Brazil

• Government spending cuts and an investment slowdown in Brazil accompanied the country's slowest economic expansion in three years in 2019, reports the Wall Street Journal.

• Twitter is testing tweets that disappear after 24 hours -- fleets -- in Brazil, reports the Associated Press.

• Anti-democracy demonstrations planned for later this month in Brazil has triggered a counter-call for a boycott against companies or businesses whose owners support President Jair Bolsonaro -- Guardian.

Feminismos

• Mexican feminists are outraged at President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's failure to tackle the country's "femicide emergency," reports the Guardian.

• Argentine feminists are expectant that Congress could legalize abortion this year -- which would be an achievement of decades of activism that in recent years have shifted public discourse in the country. But the stakes are high for the entire region -- one of the most dangerous in the world for women, writes Estefanía Pozzo in a New York Times Español op-ed.

Easter Island

• A pickup truck crashed into one of Easter Island's famous stone statues, known as moai -- Guardian.

Did I miss something, get something wrong, or do you have a different take? Let me know ... 

Latin America Daily Briefing

JOH allegedly took $25,000 from a drug trafficker (March 4, 2020)

U.S prosecutors said Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández met a drug trafficker around 2013 and took $25,000 in exchange for protecting the trafficker from law enforcement. Prosecutors have not charged Hernández, nor named him directly, instead referring to him elliptically, reports the Associated Press. The Honduran president’s office rejected the claim in Twitter statement. Hernández has repeatedly denied earlier allegations of connections to traffickers. (See also Washington Post.)

The trafficker in question is Geovanny Daniel Fuentes Ramires, who was arrested at Miami International Airport on Sunday as he attempted to leave the United States, on charges of conspiring to import cocaine into the U.S. and related weapons charges.

Fuentes allegedly reported directly to former Honduran congressman Tony Hernandez Alvarado -- President Hernández's brother -- who was found guilty in New York last year of drug trafficking and faces sentencing next month, reports Univisión. Court documents say JOH and Fuentes agreed “to facilitate the use of Honduran armed forces personnel as security” for Fuentes’ drug-trafficking activities. It also said that Hernández instructed Fuentes that his brother, Hernández Alvarado, “was managing drug-trafficking activities in Honduras and that Fuentes should report directly to Hernández Alvarado for purposes of drug trafficking.”

JOH enjoys effective immunity as a foreign head of state, but could face prosecution at the end of his current mandate in 2022. The arrest could strengthen the case for a possible future indictment, according to Univisión.

News Briefs

Guyana

• Preliminary results are trickling in for Guyana's Monday election -- updates at Stabroek News.

• Guyana's electoral authority still hasn't delivered a final result after Monday's general election -- an expected delay that is nonetheless causing anxiety in the midst of a tight race and disparate rumors of results, reports Stabroek News. 

• The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) blamed a number of factors, including inclement weather in one of the regions, for a further delay in announcing the complete preliminary results, yesterday, reports the Caribbean Media Corporation.

• But the underlying problem is "the archaic system set up to serve its 600,000 plus voters," according to some observers. (News Americas News)

Venezuela

• "Venezuela is not an idea. It is a real place, full of real people who are undergoing an unprecedented and in some ways very eerie crisis. If it symbolizes anything at all, it is the distorting power of symbols. In reality, the country offers no comfort for youthful Marxists or self-styled anti-imperialists—or for fans of Donald Trump," writes Anne Applebaum in the Atlantic.

• A new Wilson Center report looks at Russia's ongoing engagement with Venezuela. Russian scholar Vladimir Rouvinski argues that Russian involvement in Venezuela has “laid bare the many limitations of Russian policy,” not only a shortage of financial resources but also the weak governance capacity of the chavista government. According to the report, Russian political and security elites view the Venezuelan situation through the lens of a “global process in which Russia struggles to ensure its just place in the international arena,” thwarting attempts by Western powers to reduce its political and economic autonomy.

• The Spanish government approved the extradition of Venezuela's former military intelligence chief Hugo Carvajal to the United States, yesterday, where he faces charges of drug and weapon trafficking -- Reuters.

• Venezuela’s judiciary has moved to seize the assets of six private shipping agencies over debts to state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela, reports Reuters.

Guatemala

• The United States deported former Guatemalan special forces soldier Gilberto Jordán back to Guatemala yesterday, where he was immediately arrested on domestic charges related to the 1982 massacre at Las Dos Erres. International Justice Monitor.

Brazil

• A Brazilian journalistic investigation tied  the world’s biggest meat company JBS, and its rival Marfrig, to a farm whose owner is implicated in the 2017 “Colniza massacre” in which nine men were brutally murdered. The report sheds light on the broader practice of "cattle laundering," when cattle from a farm that has environmental issues sells cattle to a “clean” farm. This gets around monitoring systems because meat companies including JBS do not monitor these “indirect suppliers," explains the Guardian.

• The number of young people with HIV in Brazil is on the rise -- and black people are particularly affected. People in São Paulo's favelas have little support, but the Guardian profiles the efforts of one determined team in Boi Malhado.

Nicaragua

• Nicaragua's Ortega government still has 61 political prisoners in detention, according to rights groups -- Confidencial.

Women's Rights

• Mexicans are outraged at "the pervasiveness of gender-based violence in their country and the failure of the government to take the issue seriously enough to work to end it," writes José Miguel Vivanco in the Los Angeles Times. "... Likeminded governments need to pay close attention to the disconnect between Mexico's rhetoric on the international stage and its inaction domestically to meaningfully act to prevent and respond to gender-based violence ..."

• Justice for gender violence doesn't just mean sentences, it means ensuring access to a quick and effective judicial process -- Letras Libres.

Chile

• If the perception that Chile's model has failed takes hold, Latin America will lose a reference point that served as an example of its development possibilities, writes Aquiles Esté in the New York Times Español. "And the risk is great: Chile could join the Latin American drift which has allowed itself to be seduced by messianic populism, with its remainder of political, economic and institutional fragility."

Did I miss something, get something wrong, or do you have a different take? Let me know ... 

Latin America Daily Briefing

Colombia's court punts abortion (March 3, 2020)

Colombia's constitutional court declined to broadly legalize abortion yesterday -- but also refused to totally prohibit abortions. Women's rights advocates had hoped the judges would permit women to freely terminate pregnancies in the 16 weeks after conception. Instead six of the court’s nine judges voted not to rule on the case brought by an anti-choice activist who sought a total ban. (See yesterday's briefs.)

This non-decision kept in place a 2006 ruling made by the court, which allows for a woman to have an abortion in three circumstances: when her life is at stake, when a fetus has serious health problems and when her pregnancy resulted from rape, reports the New York Times. Yesterday's move was a partial victory for conservatives, but also reassured pro-choicers that current rights will remain protected, reports the Wall Street Journal. It's also important to note that the non-decision leaves the door open for a legalization debate moving forward, according to La Silla Vacía.

The case was brought forward by an anti-abortion activist, who sought a total ban, but one judge floated the possibility of total legalization in response to testimony from a Bogotá official who outlined how poor women are consistently stymied in accessing even the limited abortions currently permitted.

Abortion laws are largely prohibitive in Latin America, and increasingly strong women's rights activists in the region are pushing to loosen restrictions. The focus this year now shifts to Argentina, where President Alberto Fernández has promised to send an abortion legalization bill to Congress, next week, reports the Wall Street Journal. (See yesterday's briefs.)

News Briefs

Haiti

• Haitian President Jovenel Moïse named a new prime minister, Joute Joseph, formerly the interim minister of the economy and finance. Haiti has been in political crisis for a year, since prime minister Jean-Henry Ceant resigned in March, 2019. Since then Moïse has named three prime ministers, but none have been approved by lawmakers, limiting the government's ability to function, reports AFP.

• The government shutdown has had significant economic repercussions, further increasing Haitian poverty in what was already the Western Hemisphere's poorest nation, where around two-thirds of adults are estimated to be unemployed or underemployed, reports Reuters. 

• Deteriorating human rights are a significant issue in Haiti, according to a February U.N. report. "The troubling situation includes widening malnutrition, kidnappings for ransom, rapes, and gang violence," writes Sir Ronald Sanders in a call for greater Caricom and international reaction. (Jamaica Observer)

Guyana

• Guyanese electoral authorities said voting yesterday was mostly peaceful, though there was tension in Mon Repos Village after rumors that some people tried to vote illegally. Results aren't expected until later this week, an issue that affects voter trust in the results, warned the Head of the Organization of American States (OAS) observer mission, Bruce Golding. (AFP, see yesterday's briefs.)

El Salvador

• The fallout from 9F -- when El Salvador's president briefly led a military occupation of the National Assembly -- has taken the sheen off President Nayib Bukele's image as a cool outsider, reports the Los Angeles Times.

Mexico

• Eat your avocado toast in peace, or at least, without believing that a boycott will hurt cartels, writes Ioan Grillo in a New York Times op-ed. "When industrious growers are shaken down by gangsters it is crazy to hit them in their wallets again. We need to pressure Mexican security forces to stop extortion, not punish businesses."

• Two new polls show a small but statistically significant drop in Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s approval rating over the past month, according to the Latin American Risk Report. Though AMLO’s approval rating remains above 60 percent, it has has fallen over the past year, particularly in the past two months, pushed by persistent violence and an economic slump, reports Reuters.

• Mexican lawmakers are bogged down over how to regulate marijuana ahead of an April 30 judicial deadline to legalize all forms of cannabis, writes Nacho Lozano in the Post Opinión.

More Colombia

• Colombia must resume controversial aerial fumigation of illicit coca crops, U.S. President Donald Trump told his Colombian counterpart, Iván Duque. Actually what he said was: "Well, you're going to have to spray. If you don't spray, you're not going to get rid of them. So you have to spray, with regard to the drugs in Colombia." (BBC) 

• Earlier this year, the Colombian government said it planned to eradicate 130,000 hectares of coca this year, using techniques that will possibly include the spraying of herbicides from aircraft. (See Feb. 11's briefs.) But even with new protections in place aimed at curbing excesses, "aerial herbicide spraying is a counter-drug strategy that carries few benefits—none of them long-lasting—and several serious risks and harms," according to WOLA's Adam Isacson. (See Feb. 12's briefs.)

• Colombia needs international support -- funds and resources -- to deal with the Venezuelan refugee crisis, one of the gravest humanitarian challenges in recent times, argues Duque in the Post Opinión.

• Bogotá mayor Claudia López outlined her priorities, which will focus spending on social programs rather than the extensive transit infrastructure favored by her predecessor, reports La Silla Vacía.

Bolivia

• Former Bolivian president Evo Morales is confident his MAS party will win May's re-run election, but fears electoral fraud or a coup in response to the results, reports Reuters.

Chile

• Chile has a new femicide law that expands the definition of gender-based homicide. But President Sebastián Piñera came under fire for suggesting that female victims of violence were partly to blame. "Sometimes it's not just men's desire to abuse, but also the women's position to be abused," Pinera said, while announcing the new law alongside his wife Cecilia Morel and Women's Minister, Isabel Pla. (Deutsche Welle) Como dirían Las Tesis: "Y la culpa no era mía, ni donde estaba, ni cómo vestía."

• More than 180 children in Chile have been held in preventive detention – some for up to four months – for their participation in the wave of social unrest which have rocked the country since October, reports the Guardian.

Migration

• Latin America could turn the migration crisis into economic opportunity, argues former Panamanian vice president Isabel de Saint Malo de Alvarado in Americas Quarterly.

• A group of several hundred displaced Nicaraguan farmers are eking out a living in Costa Rica's rural north, a fraction of the approximately 75,000 Nicaraguans who have sought asylum in Costa Rica since Nicaragua plunged into a political crisis nearly two years ago, reports the Associated Press.

Poetry

• Nicaraguans buried the poet, priest revolutionary, Ernesto Cardenas, who died at 95 years of age. (AFP) He exemplified "two traits essential to Nicaraguan identity," writes Gioconda Belli in El País, "the spirit of fighting for a loved country, and love of poetry." (See also the Washington Post obit.)

• For the great Bajan poet Kamau Brathwaite, who died earlier this month, "the key to understanding the Caribbean was to accept and study its orality: the way people spoke among themselves, local music, non-Christian religious rituals," explains Gabrielle Bellot in the New York Review of Books. "For Brathwaite, it was impossible to understand contemporary Caribbean—and, for that matter, African-American—culture without examining these African traditions, which had been transmitted across the Atlantic and transformed during the bloody centuries of the European slave trade." (Personal confession: when I grow up I want to be somebody who reads the NYRB regularly.)

Corona

• La Cumbia del Coronavirus

Did I miss something, get something wrong, or do you have a different take? Let me know ... 

Latin America Daily Briefing

Bolivia election analysis causes controversy (March 1, 2020)

A study by MIT election experts casts doubt on the claim that Bolivian election officials engaged in fraud in favor of then-president Evo Morales, in last year's October vote. The study, commissioned by the Center for Economic and Policy Research, claims to debunk, vía statistical analysis, an Organization of American States (OAS) allegation of fraud. (See Friday's briefs.)

The stakes are high -- for Bolivia, for the OAS, and for diplomacy in the region. Though the study only focuses on one aspect of an OAS report that pointed to irregularities in last year's vote, the OAS response has been scathing, and insists that the original analysis was correct.

Morales was forced from office in the aftermath of the election, in the midst of increasingly violent protests and pressure from the armed forces. Critics say the OAS played a politicized role in Morales' ouster. The claim is particularly relevant as OAS Secretary General, Luis Almagro, is running for reelection later this month.

Though experts have been cautious about the new study, the results have been seized on by pundits and politicians in the region who say it bolsters claims that Morales' ouster amounts to a coup d'etat, undermines the legitimacy of Bolivia's interim government, and adds to a growing body of evidence that Almagro has acted with political bias in his dealings with the region's governments.

Morales tweeted from Argentina that the OAS “owed many explanations to the Bolivian people and the whole world." He has previously described the organization as a tool of the US, reports the Guardian. Leftist leaning governments in the region, particularly Mexico and Argentina, have referred to the new study and asked the OAS for clarification, reports Reuters.

On the other hand, Brazil's foreign minister, Ernesto Araujo, insisted that fraud in Bolivia’s election had been “crystal clear."

The MIT researchers' study looks at a specific allegation of fraud made by the OAS: that differences in results reported before and after a pause in the initial vote count pointed to evidence of fraud in favor of Morales, reports the New York Times. The researchers concluded that such a change was entirely plausible. “There does not seem to be a statistically significant difference in the margin before and after the halt of the preliminary vote,” they wrote. (In this interview with Folha de S. Paulo, one of the researchers, John Curiel, delves more into the methodology.)

The OAS has responded that the study doesn't address other allegations of wrongdoing, such as a hidden computer server designed to tilt the vote toward Morales.

News Briefs

Guyana

• Guyana holds general elections today -- voters will select a new 65-member National Assembly, the leader of the largest coalition or party becomes president for the next five years. Incumbent President David Granger faces rival Irfaan Ali for the top post, reports the BBC. The election is particularly significant as Guyana is at the cusp of an oil boom -- its economy is predicted to grow 85.6% in 2020, up from 4.4% in 2019.

• This Economist piece dives into the debate over how to control the country's new oil wealth, as well as environmental concerns and the impact of racially divided voting in a country that is increasingly mixed race. (See also last Friday's briefs.)

Migration

• A U.S. federal appeals court blocked the Trump administration's controversial Migrant Protection Protocols (also known as Remain in Mexico) on Friday, though judges later granted the government an emergency stay. Government officials said they feared an influx of 25,000 migrants who are currently waiting for their asylum cases to be decided in Mexico. (Washington Post) 

• On Friday migrants flocked to the Mexican border as initial news of the court decision about MPP spread, only to have their hopes dashed by the later decision to grant the emergency stay, reports U.S.A. Today. The case will likely reach the Supreme Court.

• MPP has been strongly criticized by human rights groups and immigration advocates, who say migrant rights are being violated by being forced to stay in some of Mexico's most dangerous cities, where they are easy targets for criminal gangs, reports the Guardian. Though Mexico has promised to provide work permits and access to healthcare, housing and educational opportunities, resources are sorely lacking. One example are critically ill asylum seekers turned away at the border and forced to wait in conditions without adequate access to health care, reports the Washington Post.

• Venezuelan asylum seekers pose a particular challenge for the Trump administration, as its broadly restrictive immigration policies are applied to a group the government is politically sympathetic to, reports the Washington Post.

Venezuela

• Pro-government vigilantes, known in Venezula as "colectivos," fired on an opposition march led by National Assembly leader Juan Guaidó in Barquisimetro on Saturday. A 16-year-old was injured in the incident, which is believed to be the first time Guaidó was personally targeted by a colectivo, reports the Associated Press. A photo shows a masked man brandishing a pistol pointed toward a group of opposition activists, including Guaidó.

Colombia

• WOLA's Adam Isacson analyzes the recent United Nations report on human rights defenders' assassinations in Colombia. (See Friday's briefs.) "It is a very useful document, full of hard-to-obtain statistics. It also makes some reasoned, high-credibility judgments about controversial topics like implementation of the peace accord and government efforts to protect threatened social leaders."

• Colombia's constitutional court is set to rule on a landmark abortion case, that could effectively legalize terminating early pregnancies in the country. Justices were actually asked to consider a full abortion ban, but instead have decided to consider legalization, a choice that could have ripple effects in a region where abortion rights are usually quite restricted, reports the New York Times. If the court legalizes abortion, this nation of nearly 50 million will become the largest to openly permit the procedure in Latin America, reports the Wall Street Journal.

Argentina

• Argentine President Alberto Fernández promised to send Congress an abortion legalization bill within the next ten days. He spoke at the inauguration of legislative sessions, the equivalent of Argentina's state of the union address, and emphasized the government's obligation to protect women. "“Society in the 21st century needs to respect the individual choice of its members to freely decide about their bodies," he said. He is the first sitting president to openly support legalization, which lawmakers will vote on later this year. (Guardian)

• The IMF and Argentina are both under relatively new management, and mutually seeking a way out of the South American country's looming debt crisis. The IMF has recognized that Argentina's debt load is "unsustainable," but should also contribute to restoring the country's economic health, argues the Economist.

• F. Allen “Tex” Harris, the U.S. diplomat who exposed hundreds of killings and kidnappings by Argentina’s military dictatorship during the “Dirty War” in the 1970s, died last week, at 81 years old. (Wall Street Journal)

Guatemala

• Children under the age of 13 -- some as young as 8 -- were found working 40-hour weeks picking coffee beans later used by Starbucks and Nespresso, according to a new media exposé. (Guardian)

Mexico

• The U.S. migration crackdown has the unintended consequence of creating diverse diasporic communities in Mexico, reports the New York Times.

• Mexico became the second Latin American country, after Brazil, to confirm a case of Corona virus, on Friday. (Wall Street Journal)
•  A cruise ship turned away from two ports because of Corona virus fears was eventually permitted to berth in Mexico -- and the passengers turned out to just have the flu. (Washington Post)

• The New York Times' "Weekly" looks at the case of a Mexican state police chief who cut a deal with cartel informants in exchange for information. "It was a gentleman’s agreement with men trained in violence."

Nicaragua

• The Rev. Ernesto Cardenal, a poet and priest who served as government minister in Nicaragua's revolutionary Sandinista government in the 1980's died at the age of 95 -- New York Times.

Democracy

• Diego Fonseca calls on Latin American citizens to stand up and defend democracy from populism. But his New York Times Español op-ed also recognizes that behind the region's Messianic leaders is the failure of everything else -- parties, bureaucracies, political organizations -- that was supposed to work.

Did I miss something, get something wrong, or do you have a different take? Let me know ... 

Latin America Daily Briefing