Outrage at US treatment of Haitian migrants (Sept. 22, 2021)

The US is taking swift measures to disperse a camp of, mostly Haitian, migrants in Del Rio, Texas, which had an estimated 14,000 people this weekend. Images of US Border Patrol agents on horseback corralling migrants crossing the border with what appear to be whips became viral and were criticized at the highest levels of the US government. (See yesterday's briefs and Monday's post.)

"It didn’t matter if the agent was holding a lariat or horse reins or if the migrant was actually struck or not. The picture was enough" to serve as a symbol of a long history of US mistreatment of Haitian immigrants and  historic grave abuses against Black people in the country, reports the Miami Herald.

“White (and white-presenting) men on horseback with lariats are seen chasing, yelling and cursing at vulnerable Black asylum seekers who have for weeks and months been fleeing toward what they thought was safety,” wrote leaders of civil rights organizations, including the NAACP, in a letter to US President Joe Biden. “The actions of these Border Patrol officers are disgraceful and show an indifference to the humanity of Black migrants.”

The photographs and video footage of the agents’ interactions with the migrants, which were widely circulated online, offered a glimpse of the chaos that had been unfolding since last week, reports the New York Times.

US authorities have deported more than 500 Haitians since Sunday, reports Reuters.

Several Haitians deported from the US this week say they were shackled during transit, including on flights, with one describing it as being chained “like a slave,” reports the Washington Post. A group of Haitians deported from the US yesterday assaulted the pilots on board one of the flights when it arrived in Port-au-Prince and injured three US immigration officers, reports NBC News.

The frequency of the Haiti flights will increase to seven per day starting tomorrow. That amounts to an estimated 1,000 people per day arriving in crisis-ridden Haiti, where officials say they lack resources to accompany people, many of whom left the country ten years ago. “I don’t understand why the Biden administration is adding another problem,” said Pierre Esperance, director of Haiti’s National Human Rights Defense Network.

Though the US Biden administration has focused on deportation in response to the migrant camp in Texas, thousands of the Haitians in Del Rio are being released in the United States, a US official told Associated Press. The criteria for deciding who is flown to Haiti and who is released in the U.S. was unclear, but two U.S. officials said single adults were the priority for expulsion flights.

And Mexican authorities have begun busing and flying Haitian migrants away from the US border, signaling a new level of support for the United States, reports the AP.

Advocates note that the deportation measures do nothing for the underlying factors pushing Haitians to desperate attempts to reach the US: "The United States can only reduce migration pressure from Haiti by ending decades-long policies that have undermined Haiti’s democracy and economy," writes Brian Concannon in a Miami Herald opinion piece.

More Migration

• International and US coverage of migration often uses language that reduces humanitarian problems to logistical issues. "The best coverage of the Haitian asylum-seekers and the Biden administration’s response has scrutinized the US’s immigration policies and recent deportation efforts while focusing on their devastating human consequences," reports the Columbia Journalism Review.

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UN General Assembly

Latin American leaders at the UN General Assembly focused on the pandemic and debt issues. The presidents of Argentina and Colombia warned that increasingly strapped emerging markets could default on their foreign debts, and called on multilateral lenders to push for changes that ease conditions. 

Argentine President Alberto Fernández called for a “reconfiguration of global financial architecture,” while his Colombian counterpart, Iván Duque called on credit agencies to recognize pandemic conditions that have pushed governments to increase their indebtedness and fiscal deficits. (Associated Press)

Duque also said the international community must equitably distribute Covid-19 vaccines to avoid the creation of new, more fearsome variants of the coronavirus. (Reuters)

More UN

• Brazil’s health minister, Marcelo Queiroga, has tested positive for Covid and gone into isolation, 24 hours after meeting a maskless Boris Johnson and other British officials in New York, reports the Guardian. (See yesterday's briefs.)

News Briefs

Regional Relations

• The US put Guatemala's attorney general and five Salvadoran Supreme Court judges on a list of "undemocratic and corrupt" officials on Monday, in a sign of the Biden government's frustration with Central American authorities, reports Reuters.
  
  
• In the case of El Salvador's judges, the US embassy chargé d’affaires in San Salvador, Jean Manes, said the action was taken because the justices voted to allow the president’s re-election, "which is clearly not allowed under the constitution," reports the Guardian.
  
  
• Though the measures are directed against judicial actors in El Salvador, they are meant to hit the executive. Civil society organizations increasingly denounce that Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele increasingly controls key parts of the judiciary, reports El Faro.
  
  
• Venezuela's government said a Colombian military drone violated its airspace in what it called a "blatant threat" to its national security that took place during a visit by a US military commander to the neighboring nation. (Reuters)
  

Venezuela

• A Rome court has rejected a request by Venezuela to extradite its former oil czar, Rafael Ramirez, to face corruption charges, citing the country’s record in violating human rights, reports the Associated Press.
  

Nicaragua

• Francisco Aguirre-Sacasa, former Nicaraguan diplomat and foreign minister, is one of the dozens of critics of the Ortega government charged with treason and conspiracy. "His incarceration is indefinite," writes his son in Time Magazine. "Since then, we’ve heard disturbing stories coming out of El Chipote: Of how it’s freezing at night; of how the lights in cells are kept on 24-7 to disorient the prisoners; of how it’s infested with mosquitoes; of prisoners being starved; of COVID-19 spreading through the jail’s population." (See Monday's briefs.)
  

Mexico

• Mexico's Supreme Court invalidated a conscientious objector law that would permit health workers to refuse to perform abortions, and asked Congress to review the regulations to ensure that "other peoples human rights" are not affected reports El País.

Regional

• Support for legal status of abortion growing in Latin America while softening in Western Europe, according to Ipsos.
  

Peru

• Peru's energy and mines minister said the government wants to revise the framework for the country's mining industry, redrafting the umbrella law that regulates the sector, as well as the legislation that sets royalty payments, reports Reuters.
  

Argentina

• Argentina's government announced the lifting of almost all Covid restrictions following a dramatic fall in Covid cases and deaths in recent months. The move came after the trouncing of the ruling Peronist party in Argentina’s open primaries on 12 September, reports the Guardian.
  
  
• The loss sparked a political crisis within the country's ruling Frente de Todos coalition, and unleashed a battle between President Alberto Fernández and Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, reports the New York Times. The tensions were quashed with a cabinet reshuffle that favored right-wing Peronist ministers, though most analysts say the moves don't likely signal significant policy shifts. (See Monday's briefs.)

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

Latin America Daily Briefing

US ramps up Haitian deportations (Sept. 21, 2021)

News Briefs

Migration

• The US ramped up efforts to expel thousands of Haitian migrants encamped on the Texas side of the border with Mexico, reports the Guardian. More than 6,000 had been removed from an encampment at Del Rio, Texas, US officials said yesterday, and Mexican officials said they began bussing migrants away from the area on their side of the border. (See yesterday's post)
  
  
• The White House criticized images of US border patrol agents in Texas rounding up Haitian migrants on horseback with whips. “I have seen some of the footage. I don’t have the full context. I can’t imagine what context would make that appropriate,” said White House press secretary Jen Psaki. (Guardian)

El Salvador

• El Salvador’s vice minister of justice and Bureau of Prisons director, Osiris Luna, embezzled $1.6 million worth of food from a government program meant to feed Salvadorans during the pandemic, according to a criminal investigation led by ex-Attorney General Raúl Melara. The special task force handling the case was shut down after Melara was illegally removed from office on May 1 by the Legislative Assembly, controlled by President Nayib Bukele’s Party Nuevas Ideas, reports El Faro.
  
  
• The details are stunning: Luna stole food from the Public Health Emergency Program and then, with the help of his own mother as negotiator, resold these goods to a merchant criminally accused twice of selling contraband. Two other cabinet members are implicated in the scheme, reports El Faro.
  
  
• Bukele described himself yesterday as the country's "dictator" in his Twitter bio, a description that was later changed to "El Dictador más cool del mundo mundial." The moniker is apparently mocking citizens who protested against the government's increasing concentration of power in El Salvador, last week. (Associated Press, see last Friday's post.)
  
  
• The last few days have seen the battle between Bukele and El Salvador's independent press escalate even further, after digital media site El Gato Encerrado revealed that the president was informed of a Constitutional Chamber decision permitting reelection before it was publicly announced. (El Salvador Perspectives)
  

Regional Relations

• Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro kicked off the UN General Assembly speeches today with a 12-minute address, in which he touted unproven Covid remedies, denounced coronavirus containment measures and peddled a succession of distortions and outright lies about Brazilian politics and the environment. It did little to repair his country’s mangled international reputation, reports the Guardian.
  
  
• Protests in New York against Bolsonaro accused him of leading destruction against the Amazon rainforest. (Folha de S. Paulo)
  
  
• Even Bolsonaro's presence posed a challenge for an event expected to focus largely on the global response to the Covid-19 pandemic, as he is defiantly unvaccinated and apparently in violation of UN requirements that participants be fully vaccinated, reports the Washington Post.
  
  
• Bolsonaro's vaccination status has also caused logistical problems when it comes to finding a place to eat in New York, where restaurants require that patrons show proof of vaccination for indoor seating. One of his ministers posted a photo of the president and several top aides eating pizza standing up on the street. (New York Times)
  

• British Prime Minister Boris Johnson plugged the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine in a meeting with Bolsonaro, who laughed and insisted he won't get the jab yet. (Guardian)
  
  
• "CELAC is an exaggerated and absurd example of the challenges that the Western Hemisphere has with integration," according to the Latin America Risk Report. (See yesterday's post.)
  

Venezuela

• In the latest episode of The Venezuela Briefing, Geoff Ramsey and Kristen Martinez-Gugerli interview Daniel Cooper Bermúdez, a Venezuelan political scientist, human rights activist, and founder of Hearts on Venezuela. They discuss the latest in Venezuela’s humanitarian crisis, what’s on the table in political negotiations taking place in Mexico, and recent efforts to repress the work of NGOs in the country.
  

Belize

• Belize could close a unique environmentally-friendly debt restructuring deal, to buy back a $526.5 million bond at a discount with money provided by the Nature Conservancy’s blue bond financing program, which will use private capital to help refinance nations’ public debt. (Reuters, Bloomberg, see today's Just Caribbean Updates)
  

• But there are plenty of reasons to be skeptical about the proposal, warns Eurodad's Daniel Munevar on Twitter. "The proposed restructuring is unlikely to restore debt sustainability. ... The green component of the deal seems more like a "greenwashing" smoke screen to distract from the fact that this agreement fails to ensure Belize's debt sustainability while providing an easy exit to bondholders" (See today's Just Caribbean Updates)

Jamaica

• A controversial bill that would provide Jamaicans with a national identity card while collecting their personal information and biometric data could be replicated across the Caribbean. Some activists fear the proposal poses unique dangers for the country's trans population. (Coda Story)

Mexico

• The Mexican government’s latest economic package falls short of the reforms needed for sustained growth, according to Americas Quarterly.
  
  
• Furthermore, the austere economic proposal abandons the country's millennials, argues Viri Ríos in New York Times Español.

Regional

• Uruguay has dismantled a group dedicated to bringing Cuban migrants illegally to the country, highlighting an increasingly popular human-smuggling route, reports InSight Crime.
  
  
• Latin American leftist leaders have right-wing authoritarian tendencies, argues Diego Fonseca in New York Times Español.

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

Latin America Daily Briefing

US deportation blitz (Sept. 20, 2021)

The U.S. is deporting Haitians from a makeshift border camp in Texas -- authorities expected to expel about 14,000 Haitians over the coming three weeks. It's the beginning of what could be one the US's swiftest, large-scale expulsions of migrants or refugees in decades, reports the Associated Press. Mexico said yesterday it would also begin deporting Haitians. A government official said the flights would be from towns near the US border and the border with Guatemala, where the largest group remains.

Haitian officials have pleaded with counterparts to stop deportation flights, because the country is in crisis and cannot handle thousands of homeless deportees, reports the New York Times. Three flights were scheduled for yesterday, and six flights a day for the next three weeks, split between Port-au-Prince and the coastal city of Cap Haitien.

An estimated 14,500 migrants, many from Haiti, are in the Texas encampment (see Friday's briefs). Local officials said on Friday that 20 additional buses full of migrants were headed in the direction of Del Rio and expected to arrive in coming days, reports the Washington Post. U.S. authorities are transferring some of the migrants to other areas of the border to ease pressure on the camp. While the U.S. Biden administration is hoping to deter more from crossing with the "deportation blitz," many said the threat of deportation won't deter them from seeking asylum in the U.S., reports the Associated Press.

Many of those arriving left Haiti for countries in South America after the devastating 2010 earthquake, and were pushed to move again due to economic  They arrive in a country devastated by gang warfare, political crisis, and food insecurity. Several families told the Washington Post that they were never told they were being deported back to Haiti. 

More Migration

• A new documentary Missing in Brooks County looks at Falfurrias, one of the busiest immigration checkpoints in the US and the growing number of deaths plaguing the country's border region and the logistical challenges in identifying even a single migrant among many hundreds who die annually, reports the Guardian.

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CELAC's diplomatic battles

The presidential summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) this weekend in Mexico City was marked by strong regional tensions, that show some of the obstacles to constituting the group as a regional diplomatic alternative to the OAS, which many critics say has acted in partisan fashion. Host, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador sought agreement among participants on the principal of non-intervention and criticized the ongoing U.S. embargo against Cuba. (Infobae, Associated Press) Instead diplomatic tensions dominated the day.

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro made an unexpected, last-minute appearance. Paraguay’s President Mario Abdo Benítez opened his speech reiterating that he doesn’t regard the Venezuelan leader’s rule as legitimate. Colombia’s Foreign Affairs Ministry published a statement attacking Maduro’s lack of "democratic principles," while the meeting was ongoing. Maduro challenged his counterparts to a debate on democracy, at a time and place of their choosing. (Infobae)

Uruguayan President Luis Lacalle Pou slammed the lack of democracy in Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua, and even quoted the "Patria o Vida" song that that become the standard of Cuba's anti-government protesters. Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel hit back against Lacalle Pou, with criticisms of his economic policies and his "musical taste." (Ambito, AFP)

And Nicaragua's government objected to Argentina's assuming pro tempore presidency of the CELAC, arguing that Argentina's criticism of political repression in Nicaragua made it "an instrument of imperialism." (Associated Press, Telesur)

AMLO's hope to constitute a strong regional alternative to the OAS, and potentially an economic integration forum, was undermined by the absence of key players, particularly Brazil, reports Bloomberg. 

A cabinet upheaval in Argentina affected the country's participation in the meeting -- President Alberto Fernández stayed home to respond to political fallout from an electoral loss earlier this month, and Foreign Minister Felipe Solá was sacked en-route to Mexic City, and then refused to participate in yesterday's meeting. (Perfíl, see below)

News Briefs

Nicaragua

• New evidence indicates that dozens of critics the Nicaraguan government arbitrarily detained for months, most of them accused of “treason,” are being held incommunicado and are often subjected to repeated interrogations and abusive conditions, including prolonged solitary confinement or insufficient food, Human Rights Watch said in a new report today. (See last Thursday's briefs.) "The government has charged many with serious crimes without providing substantiating evidence, strongly suggesting that these are politically motivated persecutions in retaliation for opposing the government."
  
  
• Nicaraguan author Sergio Ramírez, a former Sandinista, faces arrest in response to his latest book Tongolele no sabía bailar, detective novel that examines the brutally suppressed 2018 uprising. (Guardian)

Argentina

• The governing coalition's poor electoral results in Argentina's midterm primaries, which serve as a litmus test for the results in November's congressional elections, pushed Argentina's President Alberto Fernández to the brink of a political crisis -- with a heated dispute with Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner -- last week. Fernández announced a cabinet shakeup on Friday evening, naming Peronist party players to several ministries, while maintaining key Kirchner-allied cabinet members and his own economic team. (Cenital)

Regional Relations

• Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is scheduled to kick off the U.N. General Assembly next week. The proudly unvaccinated head of state will be an instant challenge to the U.N. requirement that leaders attending the general debate adhere to an “honor system” to attest they are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, reports the Washington Post. U.N. officials said they did not have the ability to enforce a vaccination mandate, and critics say the rules underscore the vast disparities of the global coronavirus vaccine rollout.

Brazil

• Recent polling in Brazil raises the question of whether Bolsonaro has crossed the point of no-return in terms of political popularity, writes Brian Winter in Americas Quarterly. "Over the last 18 months of denialism, antagonism and inattention to the crisis, Bolsonaro seems to have convinced most Brazilians that he is simply incapable of keeping them safe, an opinion they seem unlikely to change."
  

El Salvador 

• The Bukele government in El Salvador refuses to recognize that it's at a low point since assuming office, according to an UCA editorial in El Diario de Hoy. (See last Friday's post.)

Venezuela

• The Maduro government's embrace of Colombian businessman Alex Saab demonstrates the regimes true colors for Alberto Tyszka. (New York Times Español)

Belize

• Belize could close a unique environmentally-friendly debt restructuring deal, to buy back a $526.5 million bond at a discount with money provided by the Nature Conservancy’s blue bond financing program, which will use private capital to help refinance nations’ public debt. As part of the deal, the government would fund a $23.4 million marine conservation trust that would help protect the world's second-largest barrier reef. It would also enact “durable marine conservation efforts and sustainable marine-based economic activity.”  (Reuters, Bloomberg)
  
  
• Despite improving homicide statistics, Belize continues to regularly declare states of emergency due to crime rates. But do these actually make a difference, asks InSight Crime.
  

Cuba

• Scores of new Cuban-made podcasts -- including the popular El Enjambre -- are competing for residents’ attention and limited internet bandwidth, upending the island’s hyperpartisan media landscape, reports the New York Times. While Cuban authorities block access to many news sites, and new regulations make it a crime to criticize the government on social media, they have not yet taken action to censor or block access to the more than 220 podcasts that are produced in Cuba or cater largely to Cuban audiences.
  

Colombia

• Colombian lawmakers recognized viche, African-Colombian moonshine, traditionally distilled from raw sugar cane and mixed with local herbs and fruits, as a national heritage drink. The move will allow for the liquor, until now mostly sold on roadsides and beachfronts across the Colombian Pacific, to be produced and commercialized at a larger scale by African-Colombians, while restricting production to ancestral communities, reports the Guardian. 
  

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

Latin America Daily Briefing

Mass march against Bukele (Sept. 17, 2021)

 Thousands of people -- estimates range from 5,000 to 15,000 marched in San Salvador Wednesday, the first mass rally against President Nayib Bukele, who critics say is concentrating power dangerously and undermining democratic institutions. It is a new phase for opposition to Bukele’s increasingly authoritarian rule, which had previously only mustered dozens of protesters against the hugely popular leader, reports El Faro. (El Faro photo essay, also.)

The protests were not organized under the banner of any political party, and participants cited a wide range of abuses they objected to. Many people were protesting against Bukele's onslaught against the judicial power -- allied lawmakers recently passed regulations forcing a third of the country's judges to retire -- and a push for re-election, which Bukele appointed judges recently determined would be constitutional. Others were protesting the controversial decision by Bukele’s government to make the cryptocurrency Bitcoin legal tender in El Salvador. (Associated Press)

Protesters also cited a controversial proposal for constitutional reforms, systemic attacks on journalists, and obstacles in the trial of the El Mozote massacre. They marched with signs and banners saying “No to the dictatorship,” “Without journalists and journalism there is no democracy,” and “No to the truce” — the latter in reference to the Bukele administration’s covert gang negotiations.

Bukele accused the international community of financing the protests to undermine his government, a habitual allegation on his part. Bukele also baselessly accused the protestors of attending with weapons, as well as of wreaking havoc on government and private property, reports El Faro.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Haiti's political imbroglio

Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry might fall victim to an intense political battle for the country's leadership, after he has been linked to President Jovenel Moïse's July assassination by a prosecutor he fired. (See Wednesday's post.) 

On Wednesday Henry also dismissed the country's justice minister. That same day Renald Lubérice, who served more than four years as secretary general of Haiti’s Council of Ministers, resigned in a sharply worded letter that said he could not remain under the direction of someone who is under suspicion and who “does not intend to cooperate with justice, seeking, on the contrary, by all means, to obstruct it.” (Associated Press)

The developments underline that Moïse’s Tèt Kale party is fracturing, and factions are forming in support of Henry and against, reports the Associated Press. (See Wednesday's post.)

The political machinations are actually a battle for prime position to steal, argues Amy Wilentz in the Los Angeles Times. "The more powerful you are in Haiti, the more you can suck out of state coffers. ... And much of what’s available to be siphoned comes in from the exterior, in the form of foreign aid, petroleum subsidies and international contracts, as well as what can be embezzled or taxed in customs and at the ports, and also from profitable illegal import/export goods, such as narcotics."

Haiti's increasingly dramatic leadership battle has little resonance among ordinary Haitian citizens, who are facing multiple and overlapping crises, reports the New York Times. "The cumulative disasters and the sense that leaders come and go, but change little, have left many with low expectations."

More Haiti

• A month after a deadly earthquake devastated communities in Haiti’s south, many of the urgent humanitarian needs continue to go unmet, with some people yet to receive any aid, the United Nations said yesterday. Of the 800,000 people estimated to have been affected, about 400,000 are still in need of some initial assistance, reports the Miami Herald.

News Briefs

Migration

• Human rights advocates are enraged at the U.S. Biden administration for resuming repatriation flights to Haiti, despite the country's ongoing political, economic and environmental disasters, reports The Hill.
  
  
• Thousands of Haitian migrants who have crossed the Rio Grande in recent days are sleeping outdoors under a border bridge in South Texas. U.S. agents say the situation is an unprecedented humanitarian emergency and logistical challenge, reports the Washington Post.
  
  
• The new U.S. ambassador to Mexico, Ken Salazar, is a veteran of immigration debate, reports the Washington Post.
  
  
• Gunmen stormed a hotel in Mexico's San Luis Potosi state earlier this week and kidnapped about 20 foreigners believed to be mostly from Haiti and Venezuela, reports Reuters. The assailants took the logbook of guests, making it hard to identify who was kidnapped.
  
  
• Hundreds of migrants stuck in Mexico's Chiapas state protested against the country's immigration policies that have frustrated their efforts to travel to the United States, on Wednesday. Many of the Central and Latin American migrants, including a large Haitian contingent, have been stuck for months in the city of Tapachula. (Reuters, see Sept. 3's post.)

Venezuela

• Venezuela political leaders have deployed the country's judicial system as an instrument of repression against opponents and critics, according to a new report by a group of United Nations-appointed experts. Growing political interference in the judicial system has eroded its independence and created an apparatus that provides legal cover for abuses that include extrajudicial killings, torture, sexual violence and enforced disappearances. (New York Times)
  

Brazil

• Brazil's federal electoral court is set to probe the funding of last week's rallies in support of President Jair Bolsonaro, reports Reuters. The court seeks to  find out whether there was payment for transportation and per diems for those who participated in the demonstrations and whether the demonstrations constitute election campaigning outside the permitted time frame.
  
  
• Bolsonaro is threatening democratic rule in Brazil, Human Rights Watch said this week: "He is pursuing campaigns to intimidate the Supreme Court, signaling that he may attempt to cancel the 2022 election or otherwise deny Brazilians the right to elect their leaders, and violating critics’ freedom of expression."
  
  
• Brazil's Supreme Court suspended a high-profile land rights case with no new date for when it will re-take the matter. Indigenous rights activists say the case is vital to their survival. Justices have been asked to determine whether a state government applied an overly narrow interpretation of indigenous rights by only recognizing tribal lands occupied by native communities at the time Brazil’s constitution was ratified in 1988. Rights groups also note that Indigenous lands are a key tool for protecting the Amazon rainforest. (Reuters)
  
  
• Environmental experts and Indigenous activists said the request for review from Justice Alexandre de Moraes, while not unusual, is likely to pass the buck to Congress, reports the Associated Press. The lower house is set to vote on a similar bill that would require Indigenous people seeking full protection of their territories to have been occupying the land in 1988. But critics say this would ignore the fact many had been expelled from their ancestral lands, particularly during the military dictatorship, or may not have formal means to prove possession. 
  
  
• Brazil's Supreme Court suspended a Bolsonaro decree that sought to limit social media companies' ability to moderate content. The court joined the Senate to strike down what the New York Times called "one of the most restrictive and intrusive internet laws imposed in a democratic country." (See Wednesday's briefs.)
  
  
• Brazilian House speaker, Arturo Lira, is the gatekeeper for hundreds of impeachment requests against Bolsonaro. But while he has shielded Bolsonaro from political trials, he hasn't been a presidential puppet. Instead, he is busy advancing his own agenda and concentrated significant power, writes Creomar de Souza in Americas Quarterly.

Regional

• Central and North America are driving a hemispheric surge in coronavirus cases. Costa Rica, Guatemala and Belize are among the Central American countries experiencing a surge. Though spread has somewhat slowed in the Caribbean, Jamaica is an exception, where new case reports are at their highest of the pandemic. (New York Times)
  
  
• Latin American international relations experts generally consider China's influence in the region to be high, but the country itself is not well regarded. The findings, from an online survey, indicate that China is failing in its efforts to use media tools to create a positive image for the country and its government, write Andrei Serbin and Luiza Duarte at the Aula Blog.
  

Cuba

• Cuba said it would seek World Health Organization approval for two home-grown coronavirus vaccines it hopes to commercialize widely, reports AFP. Cuban scientists say the Abdala and Soberana 02 jabs have been shown to be more than 90 percent effective at preventing symptomatic Covid-19 cases.
  
  
• Cuban officials published a draft of a new family code that would open the door to marriage equality if approved. The draft still needs to go to a grassroots debate, however, and will then be amended to take into account citizens’ opinions before going to a referendum. In 2018, the government withdrew a constitutional amendment that would have permitted same-sex unions in response to evangelical churches' campaigns. (Reuters)

Trinidad and Tobago

• Trinidad and Tobago’s health minister has dismissed claims by the rapper Nicki Minaj that a cousin’s friend had become impotent after receiving the Covid-19 vaccine, reports the Guardian.
  

Argentina

• Argentine President Alberto Fernandez was battling a spreading cabinet rebellion yesterday, in the wake of poor primary election results on Sunday. A slew of ministers tendered their resignations, sparking a crisis in the ruling coalition. Fernández hasn't responded yet over how he will structure his cabinet. (Reuters)
  

Chile

• Leftist former student leader Gabriel Boric is ahead in the polls for Chile's November presidential race, but more than half of the country's voters are still undecided. A new CEP poll  found 13% of respondents would choose Boric, while center-right former Cabinet minister Sebastian Sichel took 11% and centrist former Senate President Yasna Provoste 6%, reports Reuters.

Peru

• Nearly a week after the death of Abimael Guzmán, the messianic leader of Peru’s Shining Path insurgency which killed tens of thousands of people in the 1980s and 90s, the country remains gripped by the debate over what to do with his remains, reports the Guardian.
  
  
• Guzmán's death is an opportunity for Peruvian President Pedro Castillo to condemn the violent left, writes Andrea Moncada at Americas Quarterly.
  

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

Latin America Daily Briefing

Haitian prosecutor accuses PM (Sept. 15, 2021)

Haiti’s chief prosecutor said that there was evidence linking acting prime minister Ariel Henry to the September assassination of President Jovenel Moïse. He asked the investigating judge to charge Henry and prohibit him from leaving the country.

But Port-au-Prince prosecutor Bed-Ford Claude's authority to make such a request is unclear. The prime minister fired him the day before the request. According to Henry's office, Claude was discharged for “serious administrative infractions," days after the prosecutor asked Henry to appear for questioning over why he spoke with one of the main suspects in Moïse’s killing at his private residence on the day of the murder. (See Monday's post.)

Claude’s indictment request was dated Tuesday, the same day that he had asked Henry to appear before him to answer questions about why a key suspect in the killing — Joseph Felix Badio, a former justice government official and functionary in the government’s anti-corruption unit as of May — twice called Henry’s cell phone hours after the president was killed, reports the Miami Herald.

In any case, the prosecutor no longer had authority over the investigation, which is now in the hands of a judge, notes the New York Times. Further complicating matters is the country's lack of a president: Haitian law forbids judicial officials to prosecute senior civil servants without the authorization of the country’s leader — who is currently Henry.

The judge in the case, Garry Orelien, is required to investigate based on Claude’s request and has three months to determine whether the facts in the case justify any action. He would then issue an ordinance dictating what happens to the case, reports the Associated Press.

Moïse’s death provoked a three-way political battle that appears to be ongoing as various factions of Haitian society work either to hold onto power or to seize it, reports the Miami Herald. Experts identify ongoing power struggle between Henry and Moïse loyalists, as well as a political rift between Moïse and his predecessor, Michel Martelly, which has been maintained by supporters in the wake of the assassination.

Yesterday Senate head Joseph Lambert attempted to claim the presidency, but was prevented from swearing in by a gunfight that kept him out of the country's Parliament building. The international community, led by the United States government, warned the senator against taking over the presidency without broader national consent, reports NYT.

News Briefs

Migration

• Climate could force 216 million people to migrate within their own countries by 2050, according to a new World Bank report. The bank estimates that by 2050, internal migrants due to climate change could hit 17 million in Latin America. (AFP, Reuters)

Nicaragua

• Relatives of political detainees in Nicaragua, permitted to visit for the first time in months, say prisoners are subject to isolation, daily interrogations, threats and hunger. (AFP)
  
  
• Lesbia Alfaro reported that her son, anti-government protester Lesther Aleman, "can barely stand or walk" and has lost nine kilograms since his arrest on August 5. 
  
  
• Feminist activist Tamara Davila is being held "in a cell without bars," and had no human contact since her arrest on June 12 until last week. 
  
  
• Ana Maria Chamorro, said her brother, would-be presidential candidate Juan Sebastian Chamorro who was arrested on June 8, had lost more than 10 kilograms. "They interrogate him daily -- 87 days of interrogation and psychological torture," she continued. "They tell him things that are untrue: that his wife will be taken prisoner, that his property has been confiscated."
  
  
• The Ortega regime's turn against writer and former ally Sergio Ramírez is the final evidence that the country's current dictatorship is more repressive than Somoza's, writes Mónica González in New York Times Español.

Regional Relations

• Mexico will send COVID-19 vaccines to Nicaragua in September, a rare sign of international engagement with the administration of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, reports Reuters.
  

Venezuela

• Venezuela's government will add Alex Saab, an ally jailed in Cape Verde awaiting extradition to the U.S. on money laundering charges, to the delegation negotiating an agreement with the political opposition in Mexico City. While the decision won't likely impact Saab's legal situation, the Maduro government’s decision to redouble its embrace of the fugitive is likely to hang over dialogue efforts, reports the Associated Press.
  
  
• The move was absolutely unexpected, but last week Russia, which is accompanying Venezuela's government in the negotiations, had warned that Saab's extradition to the U.S. would threaten the accords, reports El País.

Brazil

• Brazilian lawmakers are considering revisions to the country’s anti-terror law, which would broaden security forces’ intelligence gathering mandate and categorizes “attacks” on infrastructure as terrorism. (Folha de S. Paulo, Estadao) 
  
  
• Legal groups, including the national public prosecutors’ association, say the law would inaugurate a “permanent state of exception.” (Folha de S. Paulo)
  
  
• This week the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet voiced concern that the bill “includes excessively vague and broad provisions which pose risks of abuse, particularly against social activists and human rights defenders.”
  
  
• She also voiced concern over attacks against Indigenous groups by illegal miners in the Amazon and legal attempts to limit demarcation of Indigenous lands. (See yesterday's post.) 
  
  
• Brazil's army has sprung into action with a two-month offensive against illegal goldminers and loggers in the Amazon, a move aimed at burnishing Bolsonaro's international image. But activists are skeptical the clampdown will have lasting impact, reports the Guardian.
  
  
• Brazilian Senate leader Rodrigo Pacheco rejected President Jair Bolsonaro's temporary decree last week that banned social media companies from moderating content. He said he would not consider ratifying the decree, which he said does not comply with regulatory requirements and introduced legal uncertainty for tech companies, reports Reuters. YouTube, Twitter and Facebook have removed several of Bolsonaro’s videos for including misinformation about Covid-19. He and his supporters have also spread messages warning that the 2022 election will be rigged. (See last Thursday's briefs.)

Chile

• Chile's constituent convention ratified the bylaws proposed by transitory commissions to govern the writing of the country's new constitution, yesterday. One of the most debated rules requires a quorum of two-thirds of the delegates to approve constitutional articles. (La Tercera, EFE, see yesterday's Chile Constitutional Updates)
  
  
• Indigenous communities living around Chile's Atacama salt flat have asked authorities to suspend lithium miner SQM's operating permits or sharply reduce its operations until it submits an environmental compliance plan acceptable to regulators, reports Reuters.
  
  
• Fundación Interpreta has identified a process of "digital guerrilla warfare" against the CC, particularly its president Elisa Loncón, attacks which are launched from accounts that were also used to lobby against the creation of the convention itself, last year. (CIPER)
  
  
• Chile will begin vaccinating children aged six and up against Covid-19. (El País)

I will be off tomorrow in observance of Yom Kippur, I'll be back Friday. Thank you. Latin America Daily Briefing

LatAm deadliest region for environmental defenders (Sept. 14, 2021)

Murders of environment and land defenders hit a new record high last year, according to the latest figures released by Global Witness, which show that 227 people were killed in 2020 while trying to protect forests, rivers and other ecosystems that their livelihoods depended on. Indigenous communities, which make up only about 5% of the world's population, bore the brunt of the anti-activist violence, accounting for more than a third of those killed, according to Global Witness' annual report.

As in previous years, South and Central America – home to the world’s richest biodiversity and intact forest – was the deadliest region: Colombia topped the list with 65 deaths, followed by Mexico, where 30 defenders lost their lives. In Colombia, where defenders confront armed groups financed by environmentally destructive illicit economies, a third of the attacks "targeted indigenous and afro-descendant people, and almost half were against small-scale farmers." And in Mexico lethal attacks last year increased 67 percent from 2019.

On a per capita basis, Nicaragua, Honduras, Colombia, Guatemala and the Philippines were the most dangerous places to be a grassroots environmental activist, according to the report. Central America is one of the regions most affected by the extremes of the climate crisis, and as the climate shifts, conflict over natural resources is worsening. “This dataset is another stark reminder that fighting the climate crisis carries an unbearably heavy burden for some, who risk their lives to save the forests, rivers and biospheres that are essential to counteract unsustainable global warming,” Global Witness Senior Campaigner Chris Madden said.

In Nicaragua, the 2020 killings included an attack on an Indigenous community located within the Bosawas Biosphere Reserve by some 80 heavily armed men who burned homes, killed cattle and murdered four people in an apparent attempt to expel the Indigenous people from their ancestral lands in order to exploit the natural resources. 

Twenty land defenders were killed in Brazil, where the death toll has fallen slightly in recent years. Instead, the attacks against defenders there have become political: “In recent years in Brazil, we have seen policies for aggressive expansion,”co-author Rachel Cox said. “They are using legal mechanisms. It’s a different kind of attack – criminalisation and the undermining of political rights of defenders.”

(Guardian, Vice, NPR, AFP, AFP)

News Briefs

Brazil

• Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro must be held accountable for Brazilian democracy to be healthy again, Open Society Foundation's director for Latin America and the Caribbean told Folha de S. Paulo. (Around World Journal in English) In the wake of last week's Sept. 7 marches, Brazil "will have to live with a significant portion of the population that rejects the democratic pact. And we are going to spend a lot of the country’s energy to protect democracy when it should be being used to reduce inequalities, reduce poverty and generate better quality public services." (See last Wednesday's post and last Thursday's.)

El Salvador

• The judge investigating the 1981 El Mozote massacre has been fired by El Salvador’s government, part of President Nayib Bukele's onslaught against the judiciary. For victims, survivors and their families, that means justice could never come, write Raymond Bonner and Nelson Rauda at ProPublica. (Last week the New Yorker argued that the attacks on the judiciary are partially motivated by the uncomfortable truths the trial has shown about El Salvador's current dysfunction, see Friday's briefs.)
  

Haiti

• A month after Haiti’s devastating disaster, communities along its southern peninsula are still struggling to find aid and shelter, reports the Miami Herald. Homes have been destroyed, schools and hospitals turned to rubble and hundreds of people remain missing along with the more than 2,200 confirmed dead.
  
  
• Haiti’s Office of Citizen Protection posted a video yesterday demanding that Prime Minister Ariel Henry step down as authorities seek to interview him about telephone calls he allegedly had with a key suspect in the president’s assassination, reports the Associated Press. (See yesterday's post.)
  

Bolivia

• After years of crisis and acrimony in Bolivia, Luis Arce’s government has disappointed those hoping for a fresh start, writes Richard Lapper in Americas Quarterly. Instead, "Bolivia has become bogged down in bitter political wrangling and economic dysfunction. Rather than seek consensus, Arce has looked for confrontation."
  
  
• The change is part of a broader shift. Like their counterparts in Brazil or Venezuela, many on Bolivia’s left see recent events as part of a broader narrative in which progressive governments are now recovering from “imperialist intervention,” writes Lapper. "From this perspective, the importance of settling scores with anyone who supported the transitional government overrides all else."
  

Regional

• Police-related killings are a clear and present danger in the Americas, write Katherine Aguirre and Robert Muggah in Small Wars Journal. Countries like Brazil, Mexico, the US and Venezuela feature some of the highest levels of lethal state violence in the world. Yet due to the lack of standardized data and the low priority accorded to the issue, unpacking the causes and consequences for this affliction is surprisingly tricky.
  

Peru

• A suspected Shining Path guerrilla was killed in clashes with soldiers and police in a remote coca leaf growing region of Peru’s high jungle, according to the country’s military. (AFP)
  

Venezuela

• Coronavirus school-shutdowns in Venezuela -- ongoing -- are among the longest in the world, and there is no end in sight, reports the Washington Post.
  
  
• Venezuela’s government is allowing private firms to run at least 13 food companies that were nationalized a decade ago. The effort meant to improve operations that suffered under state management, according to Reuters.
  

Dominican Republic

• The dismantling of a drug trafficking and money laundering network implicating government officials in the Dominican Republic has presented a serious challenge to President Luis Abinader’s anti-corruption drive, reports InSight Crime.
  

Cuba

• Cuban children, as young as 2-years-old, are being immunized with Soberana 2 and Soberana Plus, two domestically developed vaccines. Cuban officials said clinical trials have shown that the combination is more than 90 percent effective at protecting against the coronavirus, though data from the trials have not yet been published in peer-reviewed international journals. U.S. economic sanctions imposed during the Trump administration  have slowed vaccination efforts by making it more complicated and expensive to import materials. (New York Times)
  
  
• A new report by 20 prominent Cuban scientists criticized allegations that U.S. and Canadian diplomats were subject to mysterious attacks while posted on the island and developed health issues, the so-called "Havana Syndrome." They questioned whether the variety of reported symptoms could even be referred to as a single syndrome and said that some of the proposed explanations violated basic laws of physics, reports the Associated Press. (New Yorker piece on Havana Syndrome from earlier this year.)
  

Mexico

• A high-profile US trial of a cross-border wildlife trafficker gave a glimpse  into the inner workings of the wildlife trade between Mexico and the United States, reports the Washington Post.

Argentina

• The Argentine government’s election loss on Sunday (see yesterday's briefs) weakens Economy Minister Martin Guzmán’s negotiating power with the International Monetary Fund over its record $45 billion debt, reports Bloomberg.
  
  
• Economist Javier Milei was an eccentric fringe political figure in Argentina, but on Sunday he leveraged his standing among young libertarians to garner a surprising 13 percent in Buenos Aires city's open primary for national lawmakers. He might gain a seat in Congress in November, and has come to represent Argentina's right-wing anti-system vote. (DiarioAr)

Chile

• The Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS) established a “station” in Santiago in 1971, at the behest of the CIA, and conducted clandestine spy operations to directly support U.S. intervention in Chile, according to declassified Australian records made public for the first time by the National Security Archive last week. (See yesterday's briefs.)
  
  
• Change is in the air in Chile, with presidential and congressional campaigns heating up just as a constitutional convention gets to work rethinking the country’s political system. Adolfo Ibáñez University’s Isabel Aninat at Americas Quarterly's podcast.

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

Latin America Daily Briefing

Haiti's PM spoke to Moïse murder suspect (Sept. 13, 2021)

Haiti’s chief public prosecutor asked Prime Minister Ariel Henry to appear for questioning as part of the probe into the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse. Investigators seek to ask Henry why he spoke with one of the main suspects in Moïse’s killing at his private residence on the day of the murder. 

Investigators say former Haitian justice ministry official Joseph Felix Badio may have ordered the assassination. Subpoenaed records from cellphone operator Digicel have now also enabled them to confirm accusations that Badio and Henry spoke on July 7, twice at around 4 a.m., just hours after Moise's killing.

A letter sent by prosecutor Bed-Ford Claude to Henry said only a president could authorize official summons to someone of his rank, but the country was without one. Instead, he was being "invited" to attend and cooperate, reports Reuters.

Henry rejected what he described as "diversionary tactics," reports Al Jazeera. 

News Briefs

More Haiti

• Former Colombian soldiers arrested in Haiti in the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse have accused local authorities of torture, saying they’ve been burned, stabbed and hit in the head with a hammer, among other things, reports the Associated Press. They detailed the alleged torture in a letter to Colombian President Iván Duque as well as the Interamerican Court of Human Rights and the International Committee of the Red Cross.
  
  
• UNICEF says it urgently needs $122.2 million to scale up its emergency response in Haiti, where 1.6 million people, including 800,000 children, face one of the most complex humanitarian crises in years following last month’s deadly earthquake, reports the Miami Herald.
  
  
• International efforts to help Haiti since the devastating August 14 earthquake continue to be hampered by gang violence, with reports now emerging that ships carrying emergency aid from Mexico were fired upon, reports InSight Crime. "Until a few months ago, Haiti’s gangs were seen as a highly dangerous but domestic problem," but neighboring countries, including Mexico, are increasingly concerned. 
  
  
• The first responders after Haitian natural disasters are not foreign NGOs: They are neighbors, family, friends, fellow churchgoers, and grassroots organizations, write Jessica Hsu and Mark Schuller at Common Dreams.

Argentina

• Argentine President Alberto Fernández's coalition fared poorly in open primaries yesterday, an indication of voter anger at the government that will likely cost it key seats in Congress in November's midterm elections. The Frente de Todos ruling coalition came out behind in several key districts, including Buenos Aires province. Fernández spoke last night and said the results reflect government mistakes. The ruling party could lose its Senate majority and largest minority position in the lower house. (Bloomberg, Al Jazeera, Página 12)

Brazil

• Turnout at protests across Brazil against President Jair Bolsonaro on Sunday was far smaller than rallies the president called earlier this week. Political groups organized demonstrations in 19 states, but there was a notable absence of leftist political parties, which diminished turnout, reports the Associated Press. The low turnout will likely detract from impeachment efforts against Bolsonaro.
  
  
• More than 5,000 indigenous women have marched through Brazil’s capital to denounce the historic assault on native lands they say is unfolding under the Bolsonaro government. On Friday those guerreiras trooped south from their encampment wearing bright-coloured headdresses made from the feathers of parrots and macaws and clutching banners condemning growing anti-indigenous violence under Bolsonaro's “genocidal administration," reports the Guardian.
  

El Salvador

• "El Salvador is no longer an imperfect democracy, it is a hybrid regime with strong elements of authoritarianism and some scant remnants of democratic institutionality," writes journalist Oscar Martínez in New York Times Español. President Nayib Bukele has only accelerated his race to dismantle El Salvador's rule of law, he warns. (See last Monday's post, among others.)

Regional Relations

• Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel will visit Mexico this week, to participate in the Celac summit, reports Telesur.
  
  
• Newly declassified documents show that Australia’s covert overseas spy agency, the Australian Secret Intelligence Service, opened a base in Santiago to assist in the US CIA’s destabilisation of the Chilean government ahead of the military coup against Salvador Allende in 1973, reports the Guardian.
  

Chile

• This weekend was the 48th anniversary of the coup against Allende, he was overthrown, at least in part, because his government showed that Chile could be transformed, Chilean sociologist Tomás Moulian told Jacobin.

Honduras

• Honduras' ruling party presidential candidate, Tegucigalpa mayor Nasry Asfura remains the favorite ahead of the November election, with 21 percent according to a new CID-Gallup poll. His closest rival is Xiomara Castro, wife of former President Manuel Zelaya, who is running for the leftist Liberty and Refoundation Party (LIBRE) and had 18 percent support among those polled. (Reuters)
  

Mexico

• Mexico's Supreme Court decriminalized abortion last week, but the ruling is out of synch with the views of Mexico's conservative majority, reports the New York Times. (See last Wednesday's post.) Doctors are legally permitted to refuse to carry out abortions on moral grounds a contentious issue that the Supreme Court is expected to take on this week that could ultimately determine how widely available abortion is in practice.

Colombia

• 12-year-old Colombian eco-activist Francisco Vera was threatened earlier this year, but that hasn't dampened his campaign against fracking and mining, reports the Guardian.

Peru

• Abimael Guzmán, the founder and leader of the Shining Path guerrilla movement, died on Saturday in Peru. (New York Times, Washington Post)
  

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