Integral cannabis regulation bill presented in Mexican Senate (April 8, 2016)

A bill presented in Mexico's Senate this week proposes a new approach to cannabis regulation along the lines of Uruguay's groundbreaking 2013 reform. The proposed law would create a state monopolized legal pot market, set rules for medicinal and scientific uses, as well as personal use, reports el Universal.

The bill would permit residents to grow up to six plans for personal consumption, and would create government organisms to grow, process and store marijuana for sale at distribution points, as well as to distribute it to legal sales points, reports Animal Político.

The proposal would bring Mexico into an international vanguard of cannabis regulation, and maintains a good balance between public health and justice objectives, argues Georgetown Professor Fernanda Alonso Aranda in an Animal Político op-ed.

She notes that the bill differentiates between medical, therapeutic and personal use, and emphasizes the importance of a complete and integral regulation.
President Enrique Peña Nieto will be defining an official stance towards marijuana reform in upcoming days, reports Informador. 

But this week the Mexican Supreme Court put a damper on pot initiatives, rejecting a request by a company seeking permission to create marijuana based medications by having the body declare unconstitutional the legal provisions that ban the production and sale of marijuana for medicinal purposes, notes Alejandro Hope in El Daily Post.

News Briefs

• A Guatemalan legislator proposed a cannabis legalization bill that would regulate a medicinal and recreational marijuana market in the country, reports Noticias.

• A new Ipsos poll taken after anti-Keiko Fujimori protests earlier this week shows the right-wing election front-runner slipping slightly to 37.7 percent of the vote, reports Reuters. The new poll has leftist Veronika Mendoza, who is promising voters to reform a business friendly constitution, tied with investor-favorite Pedro Pablo Kuczynski for second place in Sunday's election. Should the two women face off in the June second round, the poll has them statistically tied, a scary result for markets which had been betting on a business friendly administration. Mendoza is apparently gaining traction among poor, rural and female undecided voters. But she is also a polarizing figure, others are wary to leave behind economic growth. PPK would beat Fujimori in a second round by seven points, according to the poll. (See yesterday's, Tuesday's and Monday's posts.) El País sums up the basic facts of Sunday's elections and the main candidates.

• A Cuban Communist Party congress that will be held next weekend is being closely watched for indications of how economic reforms will advance on the island, reports the Associated Press. One-thousand party members from around the country will gather April 16-19 to discuss the government's plan moving forward. Already party members have been complaining about lack of debate, and an article in Granma promised a continuation of market-friendly changes. (See March 30's briefs.)

• Fidel Castro made a rare appearance outside of his home yesterday. He visited a school, reports Reuters.

• As Colombia moves towards peace with it's guerrilla rebel groups, paramilitary groups present the weary population with a new threat, reports the Guardian. This weekend the powerful Usuga Clan, an armed drug-trafficking organization, killed a truck driver and five members of security forces as part of an "armed strike" aimed at showing the extent of their influence and strength in country's north-east. The group's power also shows the dangers of the peace process, as they were born from a "faulty demobilization" of right-wing paramilitary groups in the mid-2000's, argues the piece. Criminal bands, known as BACRIM, control drug trafficking and illegal mining, but also have strong ties to local elites and politicians. Human rights groups warn that this new generation of paramilitary groups has become the main source of human rights abuses in the country. They could also play a role in undermining the potential peace accord, if power players opposed to the deal hire them to oppose key elements of the agreement.

• Colombia's Constitutional Court took a big step towards permitting full-fledged gay marriage in the country, with a decision yesterday that a justice's opinion that would have prevented public notaries from registering the unions as marriages. Though Colombia already permits gay couples to form civil unions with the same benefits as marriage, the decision will likely legalize same-sex marriage within a few weeks, reports the Associated Press. Colombia would join a handful of Latin American countries permitting equal access to the institution of marriage, including Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. Last year the court also permitted LGBT couples to adopt (see briefs for Nov. 6, 2015).

• Argentine President Mauricio Macri promised to set up a blind trust to make his finances transparent, yesterday, as a prosecutor sought to investigate his role in offshore companies revealed in the "Panama Papers" leak, reports the Associated Press. (See Monday's briefs.) Macri says they were family businesses, for which he served as a figurehead and received no compensation. He will appear before a judge today, reports the Guardian. A blind trust would be a first for an Argentine president.

• Macri is facing a wider challenge to maintain loyalty from voters after pushing through austerity measures that translate into massive price increases for energy, water and public transportation, reports the Wall Street Journal. Investors warn the government must move quickly to take advantage of its political capital.

• Brazil's top-prosecutor recommended the Supreme Court block the nomination of former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva as cabinet minister, arguing that the move is intended to shield him from a corruption investigation, reports Reuters. His appointment was already suspended last month by a Supreme Court judge, the full court must decide by April 20 whether to uphold that injunction. Yesterday's recommendation attacks the government just days before a vote in the country's House of Deputies over whether to impeach President Dilma Rousseff, notes the Wall Street Journal.

• Chilean journalists are up in arms over a new "gag law" passed by the country's Senate earlier this week, which penalizes anyone who makes public information about current judicial investigations, with up to 541 days in prison, reports the New York Times. Critics say the law comes just as investigative reporters and prosecutors in Chile have been exposing illegal campaign financing, bribery and corruption that have shamed the country's political elite.

• Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is striking back at a hostile National Assembly that is openly seeking ways to oust him. At a rally yesterday he said he is considering a constitutional amendment to reduce the congressional term to two months, reports El País.

• Trends in Venezuela indicate higher degrees of criminal organization behind violence in the country, argues David Smilde at Venezuelan Politics and Human Rights. He points to an increase in massacres, as well as "spectacular" attacks on police forces. The causes include a return to traditional military forms of policing, stopping a civilian police reform that functioned from 2008-2014, an inflationary crisis that has eaten away at security forces' salaries, the use of militarized security plans and the ongoing economic crisis.

• Legislators in Mexico's Baja California state punted on the question of banning bullfighting, reports the Los Angeles Times. A proposed ban has been delayed, and has fueled debate on the controversial but economically valuable sport. The season starts on Sunday.

Briefs ahead of Peru's election this Sunday (April 7, 2016)

Peru election briefs ahead of Sunday's presidential election: 

• The disgraced Fujimori family is poised for a comeback in Peru's presidential elections this weekend, reports the Washington Post, which focuses on the fine line front-runner Keiko Fujimori is toeing as she attempts to distance herself from her jailed authoritarian father's offenses, while taking credit for his accomplishments.

• The Associated Press has a feature on the varied memories Peruvians have of her father, Alberto Fujimori's government. On the one hand he was successful in crushing Shining Path guerrillas, but on the other, he used the army to shut down Congress, reorganized the country's judiciary and created a new constitution that permitted him to stay in power. While half of the population says they will never vote for his daughter, rural voters feel the country needs a strong hand to keep violence at bay, according to the piece.

• It's not that Keiko is being unfairly blamed for her fathers' sins. A piece in Americas Quarterly notes that she served as First Lady during the elder Fujimori's government tenure. Sixteen years and one failed presidential bid, she appears to have finally struck the right balance between history and the future, writes Robert Kozak. The piece reviews the Fujimori era and the general situation leading up to the election. La República has an article remembering Fujimori's "self coup" in 1992 and the forced sterilization of indigenous women in that period.

• Despite her successful campaign, Keiko Fujimori will likely fall shy of the 50 percent needed to win outright, and will head to a second round on June 5. An Ipsos poll from last weekend gave her a 40.8 percent intent of the vote, reports Reuters.

• Her nearest competitors are investment darling, 77-year-old center-right former Prime Minister Pedro Pablo Kuczynski and a 35-year-old left-wing member of Congress, Verónika Mendoza. (See Monday's post.) PPK could still (!) be eliminated for engaging in illegal vote buying. (See below on the war of attrition against leading candidates by the electoral court.)

• La Mula has the roundup on the candidate's final campaign promises and scandals.

• More than 30,000 people took to the streets of Lima earlier this week (see yesterday's briefs), and in demonstrations around the country and in cities around the world, against Fujimori's candidacy. (Check out La Mula's roundup of "Keikonova".) The street is a new front in the Peruvian election, according to political scientist Carmen Ilizarbe, interviewed in El País. She points to youth protests against Fujimori over the weekend and on Tuesday as a form of expression in a political arena with limited room for debate.

• Foreign Affairs has a piece on how the relatively last minute elimination of leading candidates in this election "has already exposed cracks in the positive façade that Peru has tried to present to the outside world. In particular, the (electoral court's) intervention raises the specter of political capture of the judiciary." (See March 16's post.) OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro criticized the expulsion of candidates ahead of the election, reports the Global Post. 

News Briefs

• Slain Honduran environmental leader Berta Cáceres' family and fellow activists accompanied by Centro por la Justicia y el Derecho Internacional, met with OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro, and emphasized their demand for an independent, international and interdisciplinary investigation into her death last month. They also noted that the newly instituted Misión de Apoyo Contra la Corrupción y la Impunidad en Honduras (MACCIH) is not an appropriate body to carry out such an investigation, as it's focus is corruption and it lacks appropriate faculties.

• Her daughter Bertha Isabel Zuniga Cáceres also  met with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and Honduran officials in Washington DC to call for an independent investigation into her mother’s killing, reports the Guardian. The killing of Cáceres and a fellow activist, Nelson García two weeks later, has increased pressure on the Honduran government to fulfill commitments to strengthen protection for activists and indigenous rights. (See March 4's and March 17's posts.) The Guardian piece quotes WOLA's Adriana Beltrán who says the assassinations show the fragility of the country. "It’s a test not only of capacity but the will of the Honduran government and authorities to investigate these types of attacks and killings against environmental and other human rights defenders." 

• CICIG teaser: The head of Guatemala's U.N. led corruption commission, Ivan Velásquez has promised that the CICIG, together with the country's public ministry, have advanced in new investigations which could come to light in upcoming weeks, reports Soy 52.

• The Dominican LGBT community is striding forward on a country where gays have bene expected to lead double lives. This year there are openly gay candidates for the first time, and last month, the American Embassy helped start a L.G.B.T. chamber of commerce. A national conversation about prejudice and tolerance has been spurred by the U.S. ambassador Wally Brewster who took up his post in 2013, accompanied by his husband, and has supported gay rights groups, writes Ernesto Londoño in a New York Times op-ed.

• A report presented in Brazil's Congress yesterday supports the case for impeaching President Dilma Rousseff who is accused of using loans from state banks to plug a massive budget hole in violation of the nation’s financial responsibility laws, reports the Wall Street Journal. She denies the allegations. The report, by Jovair Arantes, the commission's special investigator and close ally of Rousseff enemy house Speaker Eduardo Cunha, was widely anticipated, reports the Associated Press. It will now be evaluated by a 65-member special committee of the lower chamber, likely on Monday. Their recommendation will then go to the full Chamber of Deputies, who are expected to hold a final vote on whether to send the case to the Senate for trial on April 17. At the heart of the matter is whether the crime is sufficient for impeachment (as her opponents say) or merely a subterfuge to get rid of Rousseff (as her supporters say). 

• Panama backstory: the New York Times has a front-page piece on Jürgen Mossack and Ramón Fonseca, the dynamic duo of lawyers leading the firm at the heart of the world-wide scandal stemming from 11.5 million leaked documents that show how world leaders and the rich and famous have used shell companies to stow away cash. The leak has brought unwelcome scrutiny on Panama, just as the country has been attempting to shed it's reputation as a haven for the corrupt.

• In his first in-depth interview since the reports on the leaked documents started coming out last wekeend, Jürgen Mossack said his firm did nothing wrong by selling some 240,000 shell companies registered in low- or no-tax territories around the world, reports the Wall Street Journal.

• The latest energy saving measure in Venezuela: long weekends for public employees, who will have Fridays off for the next two months, reports the Associated Press. President Nicolás Maduro said he hopes to save 20 percent on electricity consumption. Venezuela depends on hydropower for more than half of its electricity, and has been affected by a severe drought this year, along with what critics say is a lack of investment and maintenance in energy infrastructure, reports Reuters.

• History buffs will enjoy a Miami Herald piece on a set of revolutionary hero Simón Bolivar's guns, that will go on auction next week. They are believed to be a gift from the Marquis d Lafayette, and the piece also notes the admiration of the Washington family for the younger Latin American revolutionary.a

Honduran police implicated in murder of anti-drug crusading officials (April 6, 2016)

Honduras is abuzz with reports that high level police officers of the national force planned and executed the murder of the country's "drug czar" in 2009. 
Official documents leaked to El Heraldo in advance of the Monday night raid seem to show top-level police plotting that led to the December 2009 assassination of Julián Arístides González, head of Honduras' Dirección de Lucha Contra el Narcotráfico.

Two years later his former adviser and Alfredo Landaverde was gunned down in the street, as was prosecutor Orlan Chavez in 2013. The murders form part of a group of six justice officials murdered in investigations that have mysteriously failed to prosper, reports El Heraldo.

An investigative report from the Secretariat of Security's Inspector General's Office, published by El Heraldo, points to a "criminal gang of police officials and police officers" who seem to also be involved in the death of González, reports InSight Crime. In both cases, the documents show that a lack of political will prevented justice from prevailing.

The paper cites an internal investigation, a series of witness reports, and three videos and supporting photography that show how González was killed at the request of a Colón drug trafficker. The archived investigation demonstrates lack of will on the part of anti-police corruption bodies, as six years later the crime remains unpunished.

Separate reports published by El Heraldo focus on the deaths of Landaverde and Chávez, also at hands of police officers.
Reports published by El Heraldo show that two of the cops who assassinated González claim to have been paid $20,000 for the deed and threatened investigators who took their statements.

Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández promised to suspend several top police officials apparently involved in the crimes, reports the Associated Press. He also floated the possibility of eliminating the Policia Nacional altogether, reports La Prensa.

Efforts to clean up the force, based on indications of widespread corruption, have been ineffective reports the Associated Press. After nearly four years of background checks and testing, 33 of approximately 14,000 officers have been ordered fired, but only seven dismissal orders have been carried out.

Of the approximately 30 police officers involved in planning González's murder, at least five have since been killed, reports El Heraldo, as were two who helped guide investigators to incriminating video footage. They all died in a hail of bullets on the streets. Their deaths also remain unresolved.

But at least 18 of the cops involved remain in active duty, occupying high level positions, according to El Heraldo.

"The recent raid signals an important departure from the impunity Honduras' notoriously corrupt police force has enjoyed. The open cases will test other historically weak links in Honduran justice as it moves through the legal system," according to InSight Crime.

Organizations of civil society, including Transparency International and Alianza por la Paz y la Justicia, called on officials to purge the police force of "bad apples," reports La Prensa. 

Thirty cases under investigation link police officers to other murders over the past decade, reports La Prensa.

News Briefs

• The family of slain Honduran environmental and indigenous activist Berta Cáceres is urging Washington to cut off aide to the Central American country until human rights defenders receive proper protection. They doubt the Honduran government's ability (desire?) to investigate the murder and are seeking an independent international investigation, reports the Miami Herald.

• The Nation reports on critics of U.S. policy towards Honduras in the wake of the 2009 coup that ousted President Mel Zelaya. Specifically, the piece focuses on a USAID  to reduce violent crimes, "Honduras Convive," which critics say "was an attempt by the State Department to scrub the image of a country where security forces have a record of domestic repression that continues to the present day."

• Marches across Peru, at least 30,000 demonstrators in Lima, protested presidential front-runner Keiko Fujimori yesterday, on the anniversary of her father's most infamous power grab, reports Reuters. Fujimori cancelled campaign events yesterday, ahead of Sunday's vote. Though she is expected to get the most votes in April 10's election, stiff opposition to her could trip her up in a second-round. (See Monday's post.)

• OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro criticized the expulsion of candidates ahead of the election, reports the Global Post. 

• Equal consideration under the law: A Brazilian supreme court justice, Marco Aurélio Mello, ruled yesterday that Congress must consider an impeachment request against Vice President Michel Temer, as the lower chamber considers a request against President Dilma Rousseff. Temer is accused of the same fiscal crimes for which Rousseff is accused, but a request made last year against him was postponed by Eduardo Cunha, the speaker of the lower chamber, who is spearheading the effort against the president, reports the New York Times. Though the decision doesn't refer to Temer's potential guilt, it will likely embolden Rousseff supporters who view him as "the shadowy figure engineering the impeachment effort against her, from within her government." It could throw the country in even more political upheaval, raising the possibility of the country's two top leaders being ousted, notes the Wall Street Journal.

• There are also increasing calls for early elections, reports the Guardian.

• Haiti's oft-postponed presidential election may see yet another delay. The head of the new Provisional Electoral Council, the body charged with carrying out the elections, said the second round voting will not occur as scheduled on the last Sunday of this month, reports the Miami Herald. He said the root issues ailing the electoral process must first be attacked, and avoided questions regarding a recount of the first round results which have been maligned as massively fraudulent.

• On the subject of Panama (see yesterday's post), Jon Lee Anderson has a colorful New Yorker piece on the various ways the country has specialized in helping launder ill-gotten funds, avoid national taxes, and even the warm welcome extended to high profile white-collar fugitives. "Panama, which offers up its national flag to international shippers, local addresses to ghost corporations, and an anything-goes banking system to anyone with money, has long been renowned as an accommodating place for business," he writes. The Wall Street Journal also writes about Panama's economic growth thanks to an influx of money from around the world, even as the country rejects a reputation for attracting dirty money.

• Nearly 100 journalists from 15 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean reports the Knight Center's "Journalism in the Americas blog." Latin American and Caribbean reporters working on the project came from news organizations and investigative centers in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay and Venezuela.

• InSight Crime has a further roundup of the information about figures from across the region.

• Venezuela's electoral board says it's the only body that could reform referendum rules that dictate how the country's president could be removed, a potential obstacle to an opposition plan to  push through a law accelerating the process to hold a referendum so the vote can happen this year, reports Reuters. (See March 9's post.)

• The Mexican government is on the offensive against a potential Trump presidency in the U.S. Mexico abruptly replaced its low-profile ambassador to Washington with an experienced, well-traveled diplomat and put a public relations expert into its Foreign Ministry's top spot for American affairs, reports the Los Angeles Times. The move responds to popular anger in Mexico over Trump's rhetoric and demands of a stronger response.

• A piece in the Guardian argues that the Mexican government has steadily attempted to undermine international investigation into the disappearance of the 43 Ayotzinapa students. The piece quotes Ilán Semo, political historian at the Iberoamerican University, who says a fight with the IACHR which is conducting an independent investigation into the case and is critical of the government's conclusions, is "forms part of a broader pattern of behaviour in which the government has questioned the legitimacy of human rights activists and international organizations."

• The Mexican army says it discovered nearly an acre of opium poppies in the township of Ensenada, near the U.S. border. Poppies are generally grown further south, but Mexican cartels have been expanding poppy production to export heroin to the U.S., reports the Associated Press.

• Forty percent of Mexico City's cars are not permitted on the road today, in response to high levels of smog, a rotating ban that is expected to stay in effect through June, reports the Associated Press. Cars are responsible for 90 percent of the pollution that has led to an ozone buildup over the city, reports the Wall Street Journal. But the new rules have left many scrambling for alternative routes to work and school in a city with already cramped public transportation.

Panama Papers reveal offshore links in Peruvian elections (April 5, 2016)

A little more on the Panama Papers revelations. (See yesterday's briefs.) As most news sources are noting, including the Wall Street Journal, there's nothing inherently illegal in having the types of offshore holdings the 11.5 million documents show world leaders, public officials, executives, celebrities and people close to them as having. But the reports coming out have said intermediaries have protected clients by hiding wealth or transactions in tax havens.

The Council on Hemispheric Affairs has a piece looking at the Latin American accused.

National outlets associated with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists have local angles on the revelations.

In Perú Ojo Público takes a look at the history of Mossack Foneseca in Lima and how it collaborates with the economic elite to evade taxes. While IDL-Reporteros reviews all of the "politically-exposed" Peruvians who show up in the documents, including José Francisco Lizier Corbetto, who transported runaway Vladimiro Montesinos to Venezuela in his sailboat.

Of the presidential candidates, front-runner Keiko Fujimori is most prominently linked, two of her major backers for the past two elections have offshore holdings in international tax havens, reports Ojo Público. And possible second place winner Pedro Pablo Kuczynsky, while serving as Alejandro Toledo's prime minister, wrote a letter of recommendation for a former banking friend of his who used it to open up a holding in Panama. Candidate and former President Alan García is mentioned, thanks to a holding of a business partner of his and a former minister in his government. And former candidate César Acuña's brother, legislator Virgilio Acuña also appears in the leaked documents.

IDL-Reporteros, together with Venezuelan Armando Noticias, reports on how a Peruvian banker triangulate funds between Havana and Caracas, hiding the German origins of new Venezuelan passports supposedly fabricated by a Cuban firm.

The documents mention Venezuela 241,000 times and the country's National Assembly has vowed to follow up with relevant investigations, reports Aristegui Noticias.


Aristegui Noticias reports on the sketchy money movements of President Enrique Peña Nieto's "favorite" contractor -- whose fortune increased by about 800 million dollars in parallel with the politician's career. Juan Armando Hinojosa Cantú is best known for his involvement in the so-called "Casa Blanca" scandal, in which Angelica Rivera, a former soap opera star and current First Lady, bought  a US $7 million mansion from him in one of Mexico City's upscale neighborhoods, reports Forbes.

In the midst of that scandal, Hinojosa moved more than 100 million dollars through a web of offshore accounts in his mother and mother-in-laws name, reports Proceso.

In Argentina, La Nación reports on President Mauricio Macri's involvement in an offshore company during his tenure as mayor of Buenos Aires, though he has denied that this involves any wrongdoing. Nonetheless, the political opposition, and even allies, are demanding more proof regarding the legality of his actions, reports El País.

Lionel Messi has also been involved. He is already under investigation on suspicion of tax evasion in Spain, where he plays, reports the Los Angeles Times.

Panamanians, in the meantime, are rejecting the label of the region's money launderer, reports the Associated Press. And, in truth, studies have pointed that other countries, including the U.S., are even more permissive towards shell companies. Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela has promised to cooperate with any judicial investigations stemming from the leaked data.

The Associated Press has a piece looking at the unlikely pairing of lawyers at the heart of the scandal, Jurgen Mossack and Ramon Fonseca.

News Briefs

• Brazil's solicitor general made the case against President Dilma Rousseff's impeachment to the special parliamentary committee tasked with recommending whether the lower chamber should move forward with the process. He argued that Rousseff had broken no laws and was the victim of a "coup" by rivals, reports the Wall Street Journal. (See yesterday's briefs.)

• Neither side has enough support to guarantee victory, and outcome of the impeachment proceedings may boil down to a handful of no-shows and abstentions, according to Reuters. Polls suggest her opponents do not have the two-thirds majority they need to send her to political trial in the Senate. But her allies lack the 171 votes needed to block it.

• Clarification on yesterday's brief about conflicting reports regarding a possible fire that eliminated the bodies of the 43 missing Ayotzinapa students: the new report that indicates that version may be true was written by a group of fire experts jointly selected by the Federal Attorney General’s Office (PGR) and the GIEI, explains El Daily Post's Alejandro Hope. He susses out the nuances of the various reports regarding the fire in the Cocula dump, and notes that the new report doesn't necessarily support the government version of events, that the missing students were burned there. Rather it points to evidence that about 17 bodies were burned there at some point. Nonetheless, the whole issue remains inconclusive, he notes.

• A U.N. report about a month into the 2010 cholera outbreak in Haiti uncovered serious sanitation failures in its peacekeeping mission in that country, including sewage being dumped in the open. The leaked report will add to pressure on the world body to face up to the role it played as the source of the cholera epidemic, according to the Guardian. (See March 2's briefs.)

• Ecuador has started drilling for oil on the edge of a block of pristine rainforest, a move which indigenous people, rainforest campaigners and many Ecuadoreans say could lead to pollution, forest destruction and endanger two of the last tribes in the world living in voluntary isolation, reports the Guardian.

• In the short-term, it seems Donald Trump's border wall rhetoric is encouraging migration from Central America, in a sort of "now or never" mentality for migrants, reports the Guardian.

Leftist surprise in store for upcoming Peruvian elections? (April 4, 2016)

Peru's presidential front-runner Keiko Fujimori signed a pledge at a debate yesterday, promising to avoid the authoritarian ways of her father, the now-incarcerated former-president, Alberto Fujimori.

It's an attempt to appeal to more middle of the road voters ahead of the April 10 elections, reports Reuters. She repudiated actions taken by her father that weakened democratic institutions and flouted human rights and press freedom norms. "Never another 5th of April!" Fujimori said, referring to the day 24 years ago when her father shuttered congress and intervened in the courts with the backing of the military.

(See La Mula's full coverage of yesterday's presidential debate.)

In Peru, however, the election is never over until it actually happens. (See March 16's post.) Leftist candidate Veronika Mendoza is inching forward in polls, and could be the second place candidate Fujimori faces in an eventual second round. She is statistically tied with with investor-favorite Pedro Pablo Kuczynski in three recent opinion polls, as support for him remains largely flat, notes Reuters.

About 60 percent of Peruvians have made up their minds about who to vote for, according to Ipsos.

Mendoza wants a new constitution to weaken the business elite, and a surge in her popularity is also strengthening Fujimori's hand, reports Reuters in a separate piece. In yesterday's debate she spoke in quechua and affirmed her demand for change, reports La Republica.

The share of voters who said they would "definitely not" vote for Fujimori fell to 45 percent from 49 percent in a recent Ipsos poll.

In a second-round scenario, Mendoza would lose to Fujimori by six percentage points, whereas Kuczynski would beat Fujimori by two percentage points, according to Ipsos.

But La Mula columnist Jorge Frisancho argues the contrary, saying Mendoza might well pull ahead in a second round. He point's to her party, the Frente Amplio's rise throughout the electoral process, and her persuasive alternative to "fujimorismo."

News Briefs

• El Salvadors three main gangs still hate each other and remain sworn enemies, but they have temporarily united in a cease-fire aimed at convincing the government to back off of heavy handed tactics against them, in the midst of spiraling levels of violence that have exhausted everybody, reports the Washington Post, which has an interview with representatives from the two main gangs, MS-13 and Barrio 18. The administration of President Salvador Sánchez Cerén has vowed to continue a crackdown that gang members complain has included police death squads and disappeared friends. In the meantime, the government dismisses the possibility of negotiating with gangs, and says the current lull cannot be maintained by the fragmented gang landscape. (See last Thursday's post.)

• Mexico's government says third investigation of a dump site in the country's south, near the town of Cocula, shows evidence of a large fire in which at least 17 bodies were burned. They are saying it could be proof that the 43 students who disappeared in Iguala in September, 2014 were burned there, reports the Associated Press. That contradicts the findings of the team of international experts sent by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which concluded the students from the Rural Normal School at Ayotzinapa could not have been burned there. The Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team released a statement saying the latest investigation by a team of experts "neither confirms nor denies" the official version, reports the Associated Press separately.

• A huge trove of more than 11 million leaked files from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca reveals the use offshore companies to facilitate bribery, arms deals, tax evasion, financial fraud and drug trafficking, according to a report by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. The global investigation into the sprawling, secretive industry of offshore that the world’s rich and powerful use to hide assets and skirt rules by setting up front companies in far-flung jurisdictions, turned up some interesting Latin American characters. Among the five country leaders implicated in the leaks is Argentine President Mauricio Macri. An aide to former Argentine Presidents Nestor and Cristina Kirchner is also implicated (though two years after leaving official employment). Other interesting tidbits include revelations regarding the Mexican president's "favorite contractor," the former governor of Ecuador's Central Bank, the former Buenos Aires finance minister, two Brazilian legislators, a Venezuelan oil company exec, the son of the Honduran vice president, and a close associate of a Chilean intelligence agency official. AFP reports on the Latin American officials implicated in the leak. For example, at least 57 people already linked to Brazil's huge Petrobras corruption scandal opened offshore companies through Mossack Fonseca, a list topped by a company that reportedly belongs to Eduardo Cunha, the speaker of the lower house of Brazil's legislature and the man heading efforts to impeach President Dilma Rousseff.

• Secret off-shore money has helped to fuel Miami's luxury real-estate boom, reports the Miami Herald. 

• A growing number of indigenous Mexicans are being detained by agents looking for Central American migrants, amid a crackdown driven partly by aid from the U.S., reports the Guardian.

• The wide-ranging investigation into corruption at Brazil's state-owned oil company, Petrobras, is among the most far-reaching in the developing world, and scholars are comparing it to an earthquake hitting the country's privileged elite, reports the New York Times. The piece explores the breadth of the investigation, the implications for Brazilians of the corruption scandal centering on Petrobras and corruption in Brazil in general.

• President Dilma Rousseff and her supporters have been arguing that impeachment proceedings against her constitute a sort of "institutional coup." The Los Angeles Times explores the meaning of the term in Brazil, where it conjures up the country's dark military dictatorship past, and how that claim is and isn't justified. Pro-government protesters are channeling the music and symbolism of the fight against dictatorship, reports the Guardian.

• The Guardian explores her would-be successor, Vice President Michel Temer, who heads the PMDB, her former coalition ally. "In the past year, Temer’s loyalty has been called into question by a series of ambiguous public statements and leaked private letters."

• Two former high-level officials of the country’s governing Workers' Party on Friday, reports the Wall Street Journal.

• Documents released on Friday as part of the Operation Car Wash investigation alleged that the 14-year-old murder of a member of the ruling Workers’ Party may be connected to the corruption scandal, reports the Wall Street Journal. Allegedly fraudulent loans obtained for Workers’ Party, or PT, may have been used to buy the silence of a person with knowledge relating to the death of Celso Daniel, one of the party's founders.

• Will anybody remain untainted? A Dutch artist is saying that a giant yellow rubber duck used as a sort of mascot by anti-government protesters in Brazil is too similar to his own creation, reports the New York Times.

• The head of an Olympic security force in Brazil has stepped down four months before the mega sporting event is scheduled to start in Rio de Janeiro. Brazilian media reported that he stepped down after sending an e-mail to colleagues that was critical of President Dilma Rousseff, reports the Wall Street Journal.

• Police raids in Venezuela, connected to a nation-wide police crackdown, are implicated with  illegal killings by police and other security forces, mass arbitrary detentions, mistreatment of detainees and forced evictions, reports the Guardian. The piece covers on a new report out today by Human Rights Watch and Provea which covers allegations of abuses during public security operations carried out nationwide, beginning in July 2015, as part of the "Operation to Liberate and Protect the People" (OLP), which was billed as an operation to combat criminal gangs. The groups will present their findings to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights at a hearing today.

• A water shortage is crippling Venezuela, where citizens already impacted by food and medicine scarcities battle lack of water and energy, reports the Wall Street Journal.

• Sixteen months after breaking ground, the Grand Nicaragua Canal project seems to have died. While the project was backed by Chinese billionaire Wang Jiang, who has since lost 80 percent of his fortune, it has never been clear whether the mega canal also had the backing of the Chinese government, reports the New York Times. In the meantime critics of what would be the largest movement of earth in the planet's history, have become more outspoken and organized. An accompanying photo-essay looks at what's in the path of the planned canal. (See post for Oct. 2, 2015 for some previous canal coverage.)

• A group of Guatemalan women are suing a Canadian mining company, saying they were gang raped in 2007 as part of an eviction process. The suit, which has already crossed significant legal hurdles, could mean new scrutiny for the world's international mining companies, half of which have headquarters in Canada, reports the New York Times.

Brazil's Supreme Court hands Rousseff temporary respite (April 1, 2016)

Brazilian politics remain in a legal limbo. Yesterday the Supreme Federal Tribunal ruled that an investigation into the finances of former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva should be removed from the crusading anti-corruption judge, Sérgio Moro, who has overseen the two year investigation into widespread corruption at Petrobras, reports the New York Times.

Yesterday's ruling establishes that recently released intercepted phone conversations between Lula and senior officials who enjoy special judicial standing should be reviewed by the court.

Moro has apologized for releasing intercepts of phone conversations between Lula and President Dilma Rousseff, reports the Latin American Herald Tribune.

The 8-2 ruling is effectively a win for Lula against a judge he accuses of unfairly targeting him, reports the Associated Press.

This decision, however, is not the final ruling and can still be amended by the justices.

Lula is under investigation for allegedly benefiting, in the form of payments and a luxury apartment, from the massive corruption scheme detected at state-run oil company Petrobras, reports Reuters.

The court has not yet taken up appeals of a separate injunction that prevented Lula from taking office as Rousseff's chief of state, a post that would give him greater legal protections. Under Brazilian law, only the Supreme Court can authorize the investigation, detention and indictment of Cabinet ministers and legislators, notes the AP. (See March 21's post.)

The move comes as a relief for Rousseff's government after coalition partner, the PMDB, declared the parties partnership at an end earlier this week. (See Wednesday's briefs.) While that move was interpreted as a knock-out blow to the Rousseff government, and seemed likely to move forward impeachment proceedings against her, there are signs of a party schism that could favor the embattled president.

Several PMDB ministers were expected to resign their posts after Tuesday's decision, but have hinted that they will not pull out of the government. Agriculture Minister Katia Abreu, a close confidant of Rousseff, said on Twitter that she didn't plan on leaving either the government or the party. Her tweet suggested the other five PMDB Cabinet ministers held the same stand, reports the Associated Press.

And Senate leader Renan Calheiros said his party's decision to leave the government was "foolish" and "premature," reports Reuters.

In the meantime, Rousseff is seeking to bolster her government's support among smaller parties by redistributing plum cabinet posts held by the PMDB, reports the Wall Street Journal.

Among the PMDB-held positions that could come into play are the powerful Ministry of Health, with an annual budget of more than $27.5 billion, and the Ministry of Mines and Energy, which oversees Brazil's petroleum and iron-ore industries.

Pro-government rallies were held around the country yesterday. An estimated 800,000 protesters took to the streets in 94 cities across the country, according to VICE. About 40,000 protesters gathered against Roussef's potential impeachment in São Paulo, which they portray as an institutional coup, reports El País. (See last Friday's post.) The date was chosen symbolically, it's the anniversary of a military coup in 1964. Demonstrators emphasized rejection of a move they see as an cynical attempt to unseat a democratically elected president.

A piece in El País looks at the increasing polarization between the pro and anti-government camps. The makeup of the demonstrators shows the impeachment battle is being fought along class and racial lines, reports Bloomberg, in a piece on how Lula is revered by Brazil's poor.

While popular anger against Dilma is tied to the Petrobras bribery scandal, as well as a deep economic recession, the impeachment bills that could suspend her next month are not tied to either. The Associated Press looks at the accusations and how the procedure could play out. 

The lower house of Congress is due to vote in mid-April on whether Rousseff should stand trial in the Senate for manipulating government accounts, explains Reuters.

Rousseff and her allies are seeking to kill the process in the lower chamber, which will vote this month. She must persuade at least 172 members of the chamber’s 513 deputies to stand by her in order to avoid standing trial in the Senate, according to the WSJ.

The latest to fall: Corruption cases never stop piling up anymore in Brazil. Prosecutors accused the world's richest banker, Joseph Safra, of agreeing to pay more than $4 million in bribes to tax auditors to reduce or annul fines on unpaid taxes, reports the Associated Press.

And in the Miami Herald Andrés Oppenheimer argues that Rousseff's failing government, and the non-intervention of the region's various diplomatic groups, demonstrates a new reality among Latin America's leftist bloc.

News Briefs

• Mind boggling Bloomberg piece with the confessions of Colombian political hacker Andrés Sepúlveda, in which he claims to have done dirty campaign work for right-wing politicians across the region, including Mexico's Enrique Peña Nieto, Guatemala's PAN, and the Venezuelan opposition. "As for Sepúlveda, his insight was to understand that voters trusted what they thought were spontaneous expressions of real people on social media more than they did experts on television and in newspapers. He knew that accounts could be faked and social media trends fabricated, all relatively cheaply. He wrote a software program, now called Social Media Predator, to manage and direct a virtual army of fake Twitter accounts. The software let him quickly change names, profile pictures, and biographies to fit any need. Eventually, he discovered, he could manipulate the public debate as easily as moving pieces on a chessboard—or, as he puts it, 'When I realized that people believe what the Internet says more than reality, I discovered that I had the power to make people believe almost anything.'" (See Geoff Ramsay's Post on Sepúlveda's arrest in 2014 for illegally gathering information on the peace talks in Havana.)

• The Mexican government says the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (Grupo Interdisciplinario de Expertos y Expertas Independientes, GIEI) will stop working in the country later this month. The international panel of experts picked apart the Mexican government's account of what happened to 43 students who disappeared in 2014, reports Reuters. Deputy Interior Minister Roberto Campa said the experts' time in Mexico would come to a close by the end of April. "It should be Mexican institutions ... that conclude the investigation, the search, and we should be capable of advancing in the attention we pay to the victims," Campa said.

• A military court acquitted six of seven soldiers charged with breach of discipline in the so-called Tlatlaya Massacre, the 2014 killing of 22 suspects, including between 12 and 15 who allegedly were executed after they surrendered. The Miguel Agustin Pro Juarez Human Rights Center and other rights groups announced yesterday that the sentences were handed down in October but were not made public until now, after the rights groups obtained the documents, reports theAssociated Press.

• Argentina's long-resisted settlement with hold-out creditors (approved by the Senate on Tuesday, see yesterday's briefs), means a spectacular profit of nearly $2 billion for notorious hedge fund Elliot Capital. The case could serve as a template for similar investors chasing down payments from poor countries, reports the Washington Post.

• "This resolution will carry a high price for the international financial system, encouraging other funds to hold out and making debt restructuring virtually impossible. Why would bondholders accept a haircut if they could wait and get exorbitant returns for a small investment?" write Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, with Martín Guzmán, in a New York Times op-ed, exploring the ramifications of the Argentina debt deal. They urge the international community, via the U.N., to create a framework for sovereign bankruptcy.

• Argentina's new fiscal austerity push will hit Buenos Aires area commuters hard next month, when they see a 100 percent fare hike for buses and trains, reports Reuters. And cost-cut induced layoffs across the public sector (see Jan 11's post) are also reaching the National Library, where mass layoffs have been slammed by intellectuals and free speech organizations, reports the Guardian.

• Peruvian presidential candidate Pedro Pablo Kuczynski is the latest to be investigated by the country's electoral board for potentially violating a law against vote buying, reports Reuters. PPK, as he is known, is front-runner Keiko Fujimori's main rival. But analysts predicted he would remain in the race, especially after Fujimori was recently cleared of similar accusations. Two other presidential hopefuls were barred last month, leading to accusations of favoritism towards Fujimori. 

• In the midst of the campaign free for all, Peruvian President Ollanta Humala authorized a 13 percent increase in the minimum wage, stealing support from candidates who included a raise in their campaigns, reports Bloomberg.