Guatemala's Constitutional Court denied an appeal that would have allowed former attorney general Thelma Aldana to run for president. The popular anti-corruption crusader -- a front-runner in opinion polls -- has little chance of competing in next month's election now. Pending appeals could potentially allow her to run, but time constraints make it increasingly unlikely.

Guatemala's general elections will be June 16, and a presidential runoff will be held on Aug. 11 if not candidate obtains an outright majority in the first round.

Guatemala's electoral authority blocked her candidacy due to allegations of financial wrong-doing during her tenure as the country's chief prosecutor. But supporters say the charges are trumped up, and aimed at protecting Guatemala's political elite from corruption investigations. (Judicialization of politics is a major challenge for Guatemala this year. Former Costa Rican president Luis Solis, who is heading Organization of American States’ electoral mission to Guatemala, pointed to national legislation that "allows legal measures to be filed permanently and throughout the electoral process."See Monday's briefs.)

Aldana is the second presidential hopeful left out of the running this week. On Monday the Constitutional Court determined that Zury Ríos, daughter of former dictator Efrain Ríos Montt, was constitutionally barred from running. (See yesterday's briefs.) The court is set to decide today whether former first lady Sandra Torres will be allowed to run for the UNE party. She faces charges of receiving illicit financing for her 2015 presidential run. Torres is the main beneficiary of this week's rulings, as the only remaining front-runner still in the race.

(Fun fact: Both Aldana and Ríos were disqualified from running after flying to Miami to interview with Mexican journalist Fernando Del Rincón -- in what he's dubbed the Miami Challenge, reports Nómada.)

But, supporters say Aldana has been maliciously targeted with a spate of injunctions and allegations -- filed by political opponents -- since announcing her candidacy in March. She has been in El Salvador since last month, when an arrest warrant was issued against her. Last week prosecutors announced an investigation into the issuing judge, who is accused of taking bribes. 

Aldana said she was tipped off in March by U.S. authorities about an assassination attempt apparently orchestrated by a rival candidate who has since been detained in Miami on drugs and weapons charges. (See April 25's briefs.)

The decision demonstrates the high costs of fighting corruption and criminal networks in Guatemala, Aldana wrote on Twitter yesterday. In an interview with CNN Español she said the court ruled against her candidacy in response to pressure from organized crime, and networks affected by CICIG investigations. 

The decision also strikes at a new political movement that aims to strengthen rule of law and the battle against entrenched corruption in Guatemala.

(Reuters, Al Jazeera, Nómada, Prensa Libre, Associated Press, Wall Street Journal, Plaza Pública, Washington Post)

More from Guatemala

• An Aldana presidency was the best bet for rescuing the U.N. backed anti-corruption commission, reports Plaza Pública. Current President Jimmy Morales terminated the CICIG's mandate, which ends in September. Attorney General Consuelo Porras said high-profile investigations conducted with the international commission's assistance will continue nonetheless, reports Nómada.

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JEP frees Santrich, denies U.S. extradition request

Colombia's transitional justice tribunal -- the Jurisdicción Especial de Paz (JEP) -- ruled that a former guerrilla leader should not be extradited to the U.S. Seuxis Pausias Hernández Solarte, better known by his nom de guerre Jesús Santrich, is a former FARC commander accused of conspiring to export 10 tonnes of cocaine to the U.S. The case has significant implications for Colombia's peace deal and relations with the U.S.

The timing of the accusations is key -- crimes committed before the 2016 peace deal between the FARC and the Colombian government correspond to a transitional justice system. The JEP said the US justice department had not answered its request for evidence linking Santrich to the drug trafficking nor for evidence showing when the alleged crimes had taken place. Without sufficient proof that the crimes were committed after the peace deal, the JEP magistrates voted 3-2 that Santrich was safeguarded by an anti-extradition clause in the peace pact.

Colombian Attorney-General Néstor Humberto Martínez resigned immediately in protest of the decision, which ruled that Santrich should be freed immediately. President Iván Duque said he was "indignant" and that Colombian authorities would pursue appeals.

Santrich has been an issue of contention between Martínez and the JEP.

The JEP also questioned U.S. drug enforcement agents' actions, pointing to potential irregularities.

The JEP decision comes amid reports of U.S. pressure towards Colombian magistrates on the issue of extradition. (See Tuesday's briefs.)

(BBC, Semana, La Silla Vacía, El País, Reuters)

More from Colombia

• A group of U.S. lawmakers sent a letter to Duque voicing concern over high level military appointments of commanders accused of human rights violations. They cite a recent Human Rights Watch report linking ten recently promoted officers with “false positive” killings and other abuses. (El Tiempo)

News Briefs

Venezuela

• Representatives of Venezuela's government and political opposition are meeting in Norway. The two sides are open to dialogue, according to Venezuela's U.N. ambassador. Sources say Information Minister Jorge Rodriguez and Miranda state Governor Hector Rodriguez of the Socialist Party both traveled to Oslo.  Members of the opposition also confirmed the Oslo discussions, but details such as whether they would meet directly and what the agenda includes remain unclear. Norwegian media reported they have been meeting for several days and are due to conclude today. (Washington Post, Associated Press, Reuters, AFP)

• The U.S. banned all commercial and cargo flights between the United States and Venezuela, due to security concerns related to Venezuela's political crisis. The move further isolates many Venezuelans who have been dependent on remmitances and supplies sent from family in the U.S., reports the New York Times.

• Venezuela's foreign policy is effectively an enormous transnational criminal conglomerate that operates with dozens of partners and hundreds of phantom companies, according to a new report by the National Defense University and Washington-based IBI Consultants. (Miami Herald)

Haiti

• Dozens of people were tortured and killed in the La Saline massacre last year in Port-au-Prince. An internal police investigation details that between Nov. 13-17 of last year men, women and even children as young as 4 were shot to death, their bodies then fed to dogs and pigs. Women were raped and set on fire, as was a police officer, reports the Miami Herald.

Brazil

• Tens and thousands of Brazilian students protested sharp education budget cuts. In Rio de Janeiro the demonstration turned violent: police fired tear gas and percussion grenades, and protesters set a bus on fire. President Jair Bolsonaro, speaking at a gala event in Texas, denied cutting education funding and said: "They are useful idiots, imbeciles, who are being used as the manoeuvring mass of a clever little minority who make up the nucleus of many federal universities in Brazil." (Guardian)
• Also in Rio, protests erupted in the Alemão favelas after police allegedly killed a jujitsu teacher in the midst of an increasingly lethal crackdown on crime, reports the Washington Post.

Latin America Daily Briefing

U.S. and Russia keep disagreeing on Venezuela (May 15, 2019)

A meeting between the U.S. and Russia's foreign ministers failed to find common ground on Venezuela. After the meeting in Sochi yesterday, both sides repeated previously held stances on Venezuela's ongoing crisis. 

U.S. Secretary of State reiterated a call for Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to step down. He also repeated an ongoing appeal for (other) countries to cease interfering in Venezuela. "We hope that Russia’s support for Maduro will end," he said. "We want Venezuela to get their democracy back." 

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said U.S. pressure against Maduro is undemocratic, and called for Venezuelans to be allowed to "define their own future." Lavrov suggested Maduro is open to talks with the opposition. He criticized opposition leader Juan Guaidó -- considered interim-president by the U.S. and 50 other countries -- for inviting U.S. intervention.

(New York Times, Associated Press, CBS, Al Jazeera)

 

More on Venezuela diplomacy

• Latin American countries -- on both sides of the Venezuela divide -- should push for a negotiated settlement to the Venezuelan crisis, argues the International Crisis Group. A new report warns that political polarization and deadlock, coupled with growing international tensions, "raise the real danger of worsening unrest in Venezuela, cross-border instability and military escalation."

• Though April 30's failed uprising against President Nicolás Maduro initially gave momentum to the International Contact Group's diplomatic efforts, the negotiation oriented push was undermined by the arrest last week of opposition lawmaker Edgar Zambrano, writes David Smilde in the latest Venezuela Weekly. (See last Thursday's post.)

• Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó asked the International Contact Group to grant him participation -- as Venezuela's interim president -- in the European Union backed efforts to negotiate a political settlement to the crisis. David Smilde notes that "the move highlights the contrasting logics of the Lima Group and the ICG." (Venezuelan Politics and Human Rights) 

• An ICG mission to Venezuela is supposed to arrive in Caracas today or tomorrow, Guaidó said. (Efecto Cocuyo, EFE)

More on Venezuela

• The National Constituent Assembly stripped five more opposition lawmakers of parliamentary immunity, reports Efecto Cocuyo.

• Venezuela's intelligence security agents took over the National Assembly building yesterday, alleging a bomb threat. (Efecto Cocuyo and Efecto Cocuyo)

• Colombia presented a plan to shelter 1,400 Venezuelan military deserters and their families, currently in the country. (Efecto Cocuyo)

News Briefs

Guatemala

• Guatemala's Constitutional Court rejected Zury Rios Sosa's presidential candidacy this week. Guatemala's constitution prohibits offspring of former dictators to run for president or vice president -- a 1986 rule that sought to shield a fragile democracy, said judges. (Nómada and Al Jazeera)

• The Constitutional Court is expected to rule today on former attorney general Thelma Aldana's candidacy. The well known anti-corruption crusader is herself accused of graft. But, supporters say charges against her are trumped up by opponents in order to defend a political system known for entrenched corruption, reports the Washington Post. Aldana has promised to maintain the U.N. backed international anti-corruption commission, the CICIG. Guatemalans vote next month, and so far the presidential race has been defined by judicial cases more than campaign platforms. 

• Nómada's Martín Rodríguez Pellecer argues against conflating the challenges to various presidential candidates.

• See Americas Quarterly's recent review of Guatemala's main presidential candidates.

Panama

• Entrenched patronage networks and weak institutions of accountability in Panama could complicate president-elect Laurentino Cortizo's promise to target corruption in the country, according to World Politics Review.

Colombia

• The U.S. government said it will provide $160 million in funding to Colombia to help implement the 2016 FARC peace agreement. (AFP)

Brazil

• A series of recent free speech cases in Brazil have drawn attention to ambiguities in the country's expression protections, reports the Washington Post. The case of a right-wing comedian who has been sentenced to jail has brought together strange bedfellows: Human Rights Watch and President Jair Bolsonaro. But critics also voiced concern over a recent Supreme Court attempt to censor two news outlets. (See April 22's post.)

• Feminists are increasingly organized socially and politically in Brazil, and they're leading opposition to Bolsonaro's misogynist and sexist policies, argue Adriana Guimarães and Ana Cernov in Nueva Sociedad.

• A Brazilian court ordered former president Michel Temer's release from pre-trial detention yesterday -- just a week after he was detained for a second time as part of a investigation into alleged bribery. (AFP)

Regional

• Social democracy could take root in Latin America, if progressives tackle issues the region's leftists have shied away from: security, corruption, migration and Venezuela, argues Tomás Allan in Nueva Sociedad.

Honduras

• Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández's brother has admitted in U.S. court to knowing and interacting with several notorious drug traffickers and being offered bribes by such individuals. The detailed testimony makes it increasingly difficult for JOH to deny knowledge of these acts, according to InSight Crime.

• Violence is not just homicides in Honduras -- the Associated Press looks at how death threats, extortions, forced gang recruitments, attacks against property, and street gang territorial control contribute to insecurity in San Pedro Sula.

Argentina

• Former Argentine president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner has a real shot at winning October's presidential elections -- despite ten indictments in cases accusing her of corruption. A Kirchner victory would cause damaging tension with the judicial power, which would lose autonomy and credibility if the investigations against the former president are dismissed, argues Hugo Alconada Mon in a New York Times Español op-ed.

Paraguay

• Paraguayan President Mario Abdo Benítez has overcome internal party divisions with a strong-right wing agenda, aided by economic tailwinds, according to Magdalena López in Nueva Sociedad.

Mexico

• Mexican lawmakers voted to give domestic workers basic labor rights yesterday. The new law will will grant more than two million people — most of them women living in poverty -- with benefits like limited work hours and paid vacations. The bill passed both chambers of Congress unanimously. (New York Times)

• Seventeen state legislatures ratified Mexico's new education reform, which overturns the previous administration's education law. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's reform requires the government to guarantee adequate school infrastructure and educational materials. It rolls back the previous government's signature regulations regarding adjudication of teaching posts. (Exelsior, El Financiero, Animal Político)

• Wildfires pushed Mexico City's air pollution to levels considered harmful for human health -- authorities restricted vehicle circulation for today. (Reuters and Animal Político)

Peru

• A new airport near Macchu Pichu would cause destruction to Inca ruins and put strain on archeological sites and ecosystems that are already suffering from huge amounts of tourism, reports the Guardian.

• Former Lima mayor Susana Villaran was ordered to 18 months in pre-trial detention in connection with alleged bribes from Brazilian construction companies Odebrecht and OAS. (Reuters)

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

Latin America Daily Briefing

AMLO floats drug decriminalization (May 14, 2019)

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced a new campaign aimed at combating youth consumption of illicit drugs. (Notimex) Newly released statistics show that drug use has doubled in Mexico over the past 15 years, reports La Jornada.

The announcement comes as the administration is planning to decriminalize illegal drugs in Mexico as part of a new strategy against narcotics. Such drugs would not become legalized, but authorities would implement enforced medical treatments in place of drug arrests, reports Forbes.

The plan was outlined in AMLO's recently released National Development Plan for 2019-2024, reports CNBC.

It's not clear which drugs would be included -- Interior Minister Olga Sánchez had previously proposed legalizing cannabis. (El Universal)

News Briefs

Venezuela

• The April 30 plan to oust Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro -- dubbed Operación Libertad -- failed in part because Supreme Court chief justice Maikel Moreno backed out at the last minute, reports the Washington Post in a reconstruction of the failed plot. He was supposed to provide a legal ruling that would have acknowledged opposition leader Juan Guaidó as interim president and called new elections. When he backed out of the plan, key supporters were likely scared off, say Operación Libertad insiders. The WP's sources believe Moreno's own ambitions may have been the stumbling block.

• Operación Libertad's failure has strengthened diplomatic initiatives pushing for a negotiated settlement to Venezuela's crisis, one that likely includes President Nicolás Maduro or a designated chavista, according to Fulton Armstrong at the AULA Blog. As the crisis stretches out, and sanctions worsen humanitarian suffering, the pragmatist vision increasingly leans towards negotiations, he argues.

• In the meantime, the opposition seems to be leaning more towards a military solution: Guaidó's U.S. representative requested a formal meeting with the U.S. military for "strategic and operational planning," reports the Guardian. (See yesterday's briefs.)

Colombia

• Colombian President Iván Duque said he would not allow the country's border with Venezuela to become a haven for the ELN guerrillas, after local media reports that Venezuela's military has been ordered to treat the rebel group as allies. (Reuters)

• The U.S. revoked tourist visas for three top Colombian judges -- Semana reports that its retaliation for their opposition to extradition. The U.S. embassy in Colombia also withdrew funding from four projects aimed at modernizing the Constitutional Court.

• The friction comes as Colombia's government hopes to avoid a U.S. decertification as a war on drugs ally, reports La Silla Vacía. The Constitutional Court is currently debating a request from the Duque administration to permit aerial spraying of glyphosate as part of its coca eradication policy. (El Espectador)

• Historically, domestic and sexual violence in Colombia spikes around and on Mother’s Day, as does the murder rate, reports Reuters.

El Salvador

• El Salvador has the world's highest femicide rates -- so far this year an average of one woman has been killed each day because of her gender. The head of a special prosecution unit set up to tackle gender violence said gang involvement in these crimes hinders convictions. (Reuters)

Brazil

• Brazilian indigenous chief Raoni is on a three week mission to Europe. He will meet with heads of state, and Pope Francis, and hopes to raise awareness of threats to the Amazon. He will also seek to raise $1.1 million to better protect the Amazon's Xingu reserve, reports AFP.

• Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro fired the head of a government-backed climate forum, after the group organized a state-level climate change council that would act independently from the federal government. (Reuters)

• Bolsonaro said he will nominate his Justice Minister Sergio Moro to the Supreme Court if there is an opening. (Associated Press)

• Rio de Janeiro governor Wilson Witzel's "expansion of aggressive policing has resulted in a surge of military-style raids into predominantly Afro-Brazilian neighborhoods," denounces WOLA. "This epidemic of shootout deaths—a phenomenon that has long contributed to high rates of extrajudicial executions in Brazil—is a retrogressive, unlawful approach to security that reinforces institutional racism in the police and is unlikely to break Rio’s cycle of violence in the long term."

Guatemala

• Climate change caused droughts are pushing people to migrate from rural Guatemala, reports Al Jazeera.

Ecuador

• Ecuadorean prosecutors will send Wikileaks founder Julian Assange's personal belongings left in Ecuador's London embassy, including computers, mobile phones, memory sticks and other electronic devices, to the U.S. to cooperate with an investigation there. (AFP) 

Argentina

• Newly declassified U.S. telegrams and confidential communications about Argentina's dictatorship may spur new prosecutions, writes Rut Diamint in the Conversation.
  

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

Latin America Daily Briefing

Cuban activists hold independent pride parade (May 13, 2019)

At least three Cuban gay rights activists were arrested after holding an unauthorized pride parade in Havana Saturday -- an unusual show of civil disobedience on the island. About 100 demonstrators were stopped by plainclothes security officers, and there were reports of violence. (BBC and El Estornudo) The state-run National Centre for Sex Education (Cenesex) denounced the alternative parade as a "provocation." Several activists said they were threatened by authorities before hand in an attempt to dissuade participation. (Reuters)

Activists organized the independent march on social media, after the government suddenly cancelled the annual “Conga against Homophobia and Transphobia,” which has been held since 2007. (See last Wednesday's briefs.) Cenesex, run by Mariela Castro, said the parade was cancelled because of "new tensions in the international and regional context." Cenesex said anti-government groups were planning to subvert the original event -- possibly attacking demonstrators and forcing police to make arrests. It might sound far fetched, but "years of US-backed terrorism, economic strangulation, as well as more recent attempts to create “smart mobs” to stir unrest have contributed to a siege mentality," reports the Guardian. Castro cited the U.S. Trump administration's escalation of aggression against Cuba and Venezuela. She later said Saturday's independent march was an example of foreign manipulation.

Activists say the original parade was likely canceled due to pressure from Evangelical churches, rather than international relations. Last year religious movements demonstrated growing clout in a campaign against a move to legalize gay marriage. Authorities may have sought to avoid confrontation with the Evangelical groups that could further strengthen their influence.

However, other anti-homophobia events scheduled this month appear to be running on schedule, reports the Washington Post.

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Cuba begins widespread rationing

Cuba's deep economic crisis pushed the government to announced widespread rationing of basic products, including chicken, eggs, rice, beans, soap. Government authorities blamed the U.S. Trump administration's hardening of a long-standing trade embargo. Cuba imports roughly two-thirds of its food at an annual cost of more than $2 billion. The U.S. embargo forces the island to buy food from distant markets, which raises prices, said a government official. (Associated Press)

But experts say cuts in Venezuelan aid are likely just as responsible. Subsidized oil shipments from Venezuela fell to about 47,000 barrels a day in March from a high of 105,000 in 2012, reports the Wall Street Journal. Nonetheless, experts do not expect an economic contraction comparable to the so-called special period after the fall of the Soviet Union, when the island experienced near-famine conditions.

The new restrictions will likely hurt the islands entrepreneurs who run private restaurants catering to tourists.

News Briefs

Venezuela

• The U.S. increased sanctions against Venezuela's government on Friday. U.S. and foreign companies working with Venezuela’s defense and security services sectors can now be sanctioned, adding to penalties for companies working in the oil and banking sectors, reports Reuters.

• Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó asked his U.S. envoy to meet with U.S. military commanders, reports the Associated Press.

• Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro his former intelligence chief, General Manuel Cristopher Figuera, of being a CIA infiltrator. (Guardian)

• Maduro is targeting opposition leaders who sought to overthrow him in an aborted April 30 uprising -- an attempt to quash dissent with fear, said Guaidó in an interview with the Guardian. (See Friday's briefs.)

• Guaidó's chief of staff, Roberto Marrero has been detained by Venezuela's intelligence agency for nearly two months. His family was able to see him yesterday for the first time in 52 days, reports Efecto Cocuyo.

Haiti

• A Haitian longshoreman is the first and only defendant to face prosecution so far in a massive Miami cocaine and heroin distribution case -- but his real value might be as a witness in the U.S. criminal case and the separate Justice Department investigation into allegations of wrongdoing by Drug Enforcement Administration agents who are suspected of bungling the so-called sugar boat case, reports the Miami Herald. (See last Tuesday's briefs.)

Guatemala

• Judicialization of politics is a major challenge for Guatemala ahead of June's general election. Former Costa Rican president Luis Solis, who is heading Organization of American States’ electoral mission to Guatemala, pointed to national legislation that "allows legal measures to be filed permanently and throughout the electoral process." With just a month left before voters head to the polls, two presidential candidates -- former attorney general Thelma Aldana and right-wing Zury Rios -- have yet to be confirmed due to legal challenges. (EFE)

Panama

• Panamanian president-elect Laurentino Cortizo promised to fight against corruption. He was officially declared the winner of last week's election on Friday, reports EFE. (See last Monday's post.)

Honduras

• Recent protests in Honduras -- which through repressed forced lawmakers to backtrack on health and education reforms -- are "part of a broader crisis of legitimacy and governance that has been dragging on in the country for years," writes Ricardo González in a Washington Post opinion piece.

Colombia

• Colombian filmmaker Mauricio Lezama was killed in Colombia's Arauca department while shooting a documentary on victims of violence. Authorities blamed a dissident FARC group, reports the BBC.

Mexico

• Mexican homicides are fueled by structural violence that belies solutions targeting just one cause. "Sometimes violent actions are consequences rather than causes; practices at the service of political and economic interests, legal and illegal. In Mexico, killing has become a transversal solution that serves not only to eliminate an enemy, but also to end any current or future bother that crosses those powers: fear as a form of social control," writes José Luis Pardo Veiras in a New York Times Español op-ed.

• Mexican police have arrested on manslaughter charges the owner of a school in Mexico City that collapsed during a devastating 2017 earthquake. (Reuters)

Brazil

• A Brazilian Supreme Court judge asked President Jair Bolsonaro to explain a decree loosening gun regulations, in response to a constitutional challenge presented by an opposition party, reports AFP.

• Twenty-five-year-old lawmaker Tabata Amaral is being called Brazil's AOC -- with a bold, education focused agenda. (Americas Quarterly)

Ecuador

• In recent years hundreds of women have been prosecuted under Ecuador's near total abortion ban law. Most of the women affected live in deep poverty, and The Nation reports that many of these cases are marked by serious violations of the rights of the accused.

• "Each day almost 70,000 unsafe abortions are carried out around the world, and they are vastly more likely to happen in countries with strict laws," notes the Guardian in an editorial.

Argentina

• Argentine President Mauricio Macri suffered a heavy electoral defeat yesterday in Cordoba province's gubernatorial elections, where the ruling party candidate lost by a landslide. (AFP)

• A new report by Asuntos del Sur and Economia Femini(s)ta explores how the abortion legalization campaign in Argentina spurred political innovation.

• On the spectrum of femicides, abortion and sexual harassment in several industries, payment for women who play soccer might seem like a low-ranking priority. But, in Americas Quarterly I argue that Argentine feminists' push for equality on the playing field has meaning even for those women who never plan to set foot on a pitch. The fight for professionalization strikes at the heart of a national soccer culture that is emblematic of the chauvinism that underlies gender violence across Latin America.

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

Latin America Daily Briefing

News Briefs (May 10, 2019)

News Briefs

Venezuela

• Military cooperation would not be a foreign intervention, Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó said in an interview. Such a move would be authorized by the National Assembly, meaning it would not constitute a military intervention, he said. (Efecto Cocuyo, see yesterday's briefs on military intervention.)

• Opposition lawmakers are increasingly targets of repression, in what amounts to a slow dissolution of the opposition-led National Assembly, reports Efecto Cocuyo.

• Early this morning National Assembly vice president Edgardo Zambrano, who was detained earlier this week, was formally arrested early this morning without lawyers, reports Efecto Cocuyo.

• What happened on April 30 in Venezuela? David Smilde exhaustively reviews the available evidence regarding Guaidó's failed attempt to oust President Nicolás Maduro. What is known suggest that "indeed there was a conspiracy and that there had been meetings in Bogotá, Panamá and the Dominican Republic. The agreement would have the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Maikel Moreno emitting a ruling that would give the National Assembly executive powers, eliminate the National Constituent Assembly, release political prisoners, and call for elections within one year. Maduro would leave the country." The events have given parties working towards a negotiated solution an added sense of urgency. Smilde notes that there appears to be considerable contact between Venezuela's political factions, but that they are unlikely to reach a workable solution on their own. (Venezuelan Politics and Human Rights)

• International cooperation is urgent -- but must be focused on helping free elections happen as quickly as possible, argues CEPAZ director Beatriz Borges in Americas Quarterly.

• In the wake of the failed uprising, social conflict has grown more complicated. "This continued descent into state-sponsored anarchy has only favored armed and criminal groups who act with increasing impunity," reports InSight Crime.

Argentina

• Gunmen attacked an Argentine lawmaker and his close associate outside of the national Congress. Héctor Olivares, the representative of La Rioja province in Argentina’s lower house of congress, was gravely injured and his close friend and aide Miguel Marcelo Yadón was killed. Argentine authorities said the attack was aimed at Yadón, and was not a political crime. Political violence is extremely rare in Argentina. (Guardian and Washington Post)

• Former Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner presented her best-selling memoir (300,000 copies in less than a month) last night, with a conciliatory speech that called for a "social contract of responsible citizenry" with concrete, quantifiable goals to generate economic growth. (Página 12 and Página 12)

• Economic misery under President Mauricio Macri's government could push Argentina back towards populism represented by Kirchner, reports the New York Times. The implications go beyond Argentina, and could impact other countries in the region that have looked towards Macri's prescription of market reforms tempered by social programs. (The Wall Street Journal took a similar line in an article yesterday.)

• In a normal country, Macri's potential reelection would be dead-on-arrival. But in Argentina he still has a fighting chance, fueled in large part by the hatred Kirchner inspires among a sector of voters, writes Martín Caparrós in a New York Times Español op-ed.

Guatemala

• Complex illicit networks in Guatemala's legislative branch have distorted the country's democracy and have influenced institutionalism nationally, according to a report by the Myrna Mack Foundation, with Nómada and the CICIG.

• Guatemalan's faith in democracy is constant -- though low -- at 48.9 percent according to the latest LAPOP poll. One fifth of Guatemalan's polled did not plan to vote in June's presidential elections, and one third planned to cast blank ballots or nullify their vote.

Corruption

• Who is in jail and who isn't? It's hard to keep track of all the former presidents who have been accused of corruption since leaving office. Americas Quarterly has a tally.

Peru

• Forgetting is also a form of corruption, one that Peruvians can ill afford, writes Marco Avilés in a New York Times Español op-ed spurred by former Peruvian president Alan García's suicide as he was being arrested on graft charges.

• InSight Crime reports from Pucallpa, the hub of Peru's illegal timber market, which is responsible for as much as 80 percent of the country's wood sales.

Brazil

• A new generation of progressive politicians and political movements emerging in Brazil is closely connected to grassroots groups, has a good relationship with new technologies and seeks political innovation -- both online and off, reports Inequality.org. "Ocupa Política, is a coalition that brings together politicians and movements from multiple parties. The initiative is managed independently, rather than by partisan structures – allowing it to operate with autonomy.

Mexico

• Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's rejection of U.S. crime fighting aid -- this week he said he'd prefer the money be channeled towards development initiatives -- creates a new uncertainty in what have been cordial relations between AMLO's administration and the U.S. up until now, reports the Washington Post. (See Wednesday's briefs.)

• AMLO promised a revolution, but five months into his new government, the country he's building looks a lot like the one he promised to leave behind, according to the New York Times. The piece points to lack of progress with corruption, direct adjudication of contracts, and the key role the military will play in AMLO's security policy.

• The National Guard has already been deployed in several states, but is currently composed of exclusively military troops -- the marines and the federal police have refused to transfer teams due to lack of a legal framework. (Animal Político)

• AMLO said the state-owned energy company -- Pemex -- and the Energy Ministry will take charge of building a new $8 billion refinery, after international firms said the project could not be completed within Mexico's budgetary and time constraints. (New York Times)

• It's Mother's Day in Mexico -- celebrating maternity should involve ensuring that it's a condition taken on freely, supported but not forced by the state, and with social celebration of women who balance maternal obligations with self-realization, argues Guadalupe Nettel in a New York Times Español op-ed.

Colombia

• About 2,800 people have been confined to the town of Bojayá in Colombia, in the midst of an escalating conflict between the Urabeños and the ELN, reports InSight Crime.

• Bogotá will deploy a new crime data analyzing artificial intelligence system to pinpoint hotspots, identify patterns, and predict where crimes are likely to occur. Though it has the potential to be a game changer, there are some important caveats to take into account when using algorithms to fight crime, reports InSight Crime.

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

Latin America Daily Briefing

Venezuelan lawmaker detained (May 9, 2019)

Venezuelan National Assembly vice president Edgar Zambrano was detained by masked intelligence agents last night, after leaving the opposition party Acción Democrática headquarters in Caracas. He refused to leave his car, and was towed away to the Helicoide prison by security agents. Zambrano live tweeted his own detention. (Efecto Cocuyo, Washington Post)

The pro-government supra congressional National Constituent Assembly stripped Zambrano and nine other lawmakers of parliamentary immunity, yesterday, in response to their support of an uprising against President Nicolás Maduro last week. (See yesterday's post.) They are accused of treason, conspiracy, instigating insurrection and civil rebellion, reports the Guardian.

Maduro has thus far refrained from arresting Juan Guaidó, recognized as Venezuela's legitimate leader by over 50 countries. But Zambrano is the latest member of opposition leader's inner circle to be detained or forced to flee the country, reports the New York Times. He is the first senior opposition official taken into custody by the government since the attempted uprising, a move that could potentially signal a broader crackdown, notes the Washington Post.

Though last week's ouster plot against Maduro failed, many experts believe it has not yet fully played out, reports the Guardian. In the meantime, the government is reportedly frantically searching for potential traitors within its ranks.

The U.S., the European Union, and the regional Lima Group all protested the detention and called for Zambano's release. In turn Maduro ally Diosdado Cabello hinted that three more lawmakers would be detained imminently. (Efecto Cocuyo)

Guaidó called Zambrano’s arrest a kidnapping and warned the international community that the pro-government judiciary is paving the way to dissolve the opposition-dominated National Assembly. (Wall Street Journal)

Two of the lawmakers who lost immunity yesterday have already taken refuge in embassies in Caracas, reports Efecto Cocuyo.

More from Venezuela

• Earlier this week the European Union-backed International Contact Group on Venezuela said it could send a political mission to Caracas in support of a political solution to the crisis -- emphasizing the need to call new elections. (Reuters) The ICG said it would ask Maduro to “free political prisoners” and loosen his stranglehold on government institutions as a show of good will, reports the Miami Herald. 

• After the failed uprising, diplomacy is Venezuela's best chance at exiting its crisis, according to the Economist.

• The prolonged Venezuela crisis is frustrating U.S. President Donald Trump, who increasingly questions his close advisors' aggressive strategy in seeking to oust Maduro, reports the Washington Post. The administration's threats to invade Venezuela in support of Guaidó have split U.S. Republican lawmakers over whether Trump needs Congressional approval for such a move, reports Politico.

• Prospects of a military invasion raise alarm bells in Latin America, even among the anti-Maduro Lima Group, reports the Washington Post.

• Nearly half of Colombia's ELN guerrillas -- about 1,100 fighters -- have taken refuge across the border in Venezuela, according to Colombia's military. (AFP)

News Briefs

Honduras

• Hondurans protested against energy price increases in communities around the country that have been affected by blackouts for the past two weeks -- part of a still unexplained energy crisis, reports Criterio. Videos circulating on social media appear to show security forces shooting and injuring several protesters in San Pedro Sula on Tuesday night, according to Honduras Solidarity.

• Recent protests against education and health reforms in Honduras "tapped into a powerful undercurrent of frustration with President Juan Orlando Hernandez’s administration," according to Christine Wade in World Politics Review. (See April 30's post.)

Panama

• Panama and China have deepened trade relations since President Juan Carlos Varela unexpectedly ended diplomatic relations with Taiwan in 2017. Now Panama could become a key point of contention in a potential U.S.-China trade war, reports Foreign Policy.

Jamaica

• At least five people have been killed in Jamaica since March last year after being deported from the UK, reports the Guardian. Other returnees say the publicity around their cases has put them in danger from gangs, reports the Guardian separately.

Colombia

• A Colombian soldier killed a former FARC fighter in a reintegration camp -- part of 130 similar killings that are dimming the prospect of peaceful demobilization for the guerrillas, reports InSight Crime.

Brazil

• Pension reform delays are undermining market faith in Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, reports the Wall Street Journal.

• Eight former environmental ministers -- from a across the political spectrum -- accused Bolsonaro of systematically attempting to dismantle Brazil's environmental protection policies, reports the Guardian.

• Brazilian prosecutors accused three Banco Paulista executives of involvement in the laundering of about $12.2 million between 2009 and 2015, part of an investigation into Odebrecht corruption. (Associated Press)

Argentina

• Argentina's economic crisis is undermining President Mauricio Macri's chances of reelection in October, reports the Wall Street Journal.

Regional Relations

• Mexican officials said the country’s tomato growers face more than $350 million a year in losses from U.S. anti-dumping duties on their exports after the U.S. Commerce Department terminated an agreement that had suspended the duties since 1996, reports the Wall Street Journal.

Chile

• Chilean feminists have drawn attention to violence and harassment within universities, but remain vulnerable to backlash after speaking out, reports NACLA.

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

Latin America Daily Briefing

U.S. lifts sanctions against former Venezuelan intelligence chief (May 8, 2019)

The United States lifted sanctions against the Venezuelan intelligence chief who supported last week's failed attempt to oust President Nicolás Maduro. The U.S. removed Gen Manuel Cristopher Figuera -- who fled Venezuela last week -- from a sanctions list “in recognition of his recent actions in support of democracy and the rule of law." (See last Wednesday's post.)

The move is aimed at encouraging high level defections from the Maduro government. Yesterday U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said the administration would consider lifting sanctions against other officials who switch sides in Venezuela's political crisis. (Guardian, New York Times, Efecto Cocuyo, Wall Street Journal)

Increasingly the opposition and foreign backers are considering offering senior government and military officials in the Maduro government the chance to join a transitional government, reports the Washington Post.

Yesterday Venezuela’s pro-government Supreme Court top court opened a criminal investigation against six opposition lawmakers suspected of “betraying the homeland” and “instigating an insurrection,” among other charges. Those facing accusations include prominent figures in the Venezuelan opposition such as Henry Ramos Allup and Luis Germán Florido. (Associated Press, Efecto Cocuyo) One of the lawmakers accused, Mariela Magallanes took refuge in Italy's embassy in Caracas last night. (Efecto Cocuyo)

Additionally, the government announced that it was taking control of three private airports.

More from Venezuela

• U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will visit Russia next week, and Venezuela will be a top agenda item. (EFE)
• Spanish journalist  Joan Guirado was expelled by the Maduro government, after a few hours of detention by the feared Sebin intelligence agency. (EFE) The government denied expelling Guirado. (Efecto Cocuyo)

News Briefs

Guatemala

• Guatemalan prosecutors have launched an investigation into a presidential candidate, six lawmakers and a cabinet minister on suspicion of corruption, the U.N.-backed International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) announced Monday. They are accused of overseeing the approval and distribution of bribes worth $7.5 million for 62 deputies between 2012-2015 during the administration of former President Otto Perez, reports Reuters.

• Guatemala's justice system has hypocritically focused on minor allegations against would-be candidate Thelma Aldana, which appear geared towards maintaining the anti-corruption crusader out of the running, reports El País.

Mexico

• Mexican President Andres Manuel López Obrador called for the U.S. to end security assistance to his country and instead channel funding into economic development for Mexico and Central America. He said yesterday he would reject any support provided by the U.S. under a plan known as the Merida Initiative, which has provided $3 billion in security assistance to Mexico since 2008. (AFP and Wall Street Journal)

Migration

• A U.S. federal court of appeals said the Trump administration can continue to force asylum seekers to wait in Mexico while their cases are evaluated. (New York Times)

Cuba

• Cuban government cancelled the country's 12th annual march against homophobia. In a Facebook post, the state-run National Centre for Sex Education (CENESEX) blamed "new tensions in the international and regional context" for the cancellation, but activists questioned the government's motives, reports the BBC.

Peru

• Former Peruvian president Ollanta Humala and his wife, Nadine Heredia, were charged with money laundering in connection with the receipt of illegal campaign contributions from Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht. (EFE)

Brazil

• Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro signed a decree to ease restrictions on gun imports and increase the amount of ammunition a person can buy, reports Reuters.

• Brazil has a long and tangled relationship with the United States confederacy -- starting with the migration of about 10,000 Confederate soldiers and their families after the civil war ended in 1865. Their descendants hold an annual party celebrating their legacy, which black activists say glorifies a tradition that represents racism and bloodshed. (Conversation)

Development

• Logistical costs in Latin America are double those of advanced countries in the OECD -- strategic and effective infrastructure investment is urgently needed to boost economic growth, argues Eric Parrado in Americas Quarterly.

Colombia

• Visually impaired women are deploying their improved tactile sensitivity to detect breast cancer earlier in Cali. (Guardian)

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

Latin America Daily Briefing