The News Roundup is a regular feature of the blog where we select news articles from various sources around the web, with the goal of providing an overview of the weekly conversation about the countries where MCC works in the region. Quotes in italics are drawn directly from sources and do not necessarily reflect the position of MCC
Migrants and Smugglers Won’t Be Stopped by Donald Trump’s Wall, Ranchers Say
True, the overall number of migrants has plummeted in the last 15 years or so. Here, in what the Border Patrol categorizes as the Tucson sector — about 90,000 square miles, with 262 miles of border — there were 63,397 arrests in the 2015 fiscal year, compared with 10 times that in the 2001 fiscal year. Paul Beeson, the patrol’s chief agent for the Tucson sector, attributes the drop to an increase in officers and tactical equipment, an improvement in the Mexican economy, and the fencing erected along the border about a decade ago. But Mr. Ladd and other ranchers say there has been an unsettling swap: fewer migrants, but many more drug traffickers.
Easy Prey: Criminal Violence and Central American Migration (report)
Massive deportations from Mexico and the U.S. have failed to stem the tide of Central Americans fleeing endemic poverty combined with epidemic violence. Stepped up enforcement has diverted undocumented migration into more costly, circuitous and dangerous channels. Criminal gangs and the corrupt officials who enable them are the beneficiaries of a policy that forces desperate people to pay increasing sums to avoid detention, extortion or kidnapping. Beefed-up border control inadvertently fuels human smuggling and fortifies criminal gangs that increasingly control that industry. Governments must guarantee those fleeing violence the opportunity to seek asylum through fair, efficient procedures, while launching a major regional effort to provide security and economic opportunity in home countries. Central American leaders, especially in the northern triangle of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, must in turn address chronic insecurity more effectively while monitoring and assisting those deported, especially children and adolescents, so they have an option other than fleeing again.
Searching for 43 Missing Students Deep Inside the ‘Real Mexico’ (photo essay)
“They are among the most marginalized class in Mexico,” Mr. Guillén Lozano said. “They are not just poor, but impoverished. They come from the most remote sons of Guerrero, the mountains and the coast. These are students whose mothers and sisters have been raped by the military.” As a result, their parents pinned their hopes on these young men. The students, he said, went to a school where radical politics and a critical worldview spurred them to action. “In Guerrero, you either keep being poor or do something not to be poor,” Mr. Guillén Lozano said. “That means for some to get into the narcotics trade, since they grow poppies in the region. These young men took a more reasoned option. They decided to go to school to become teachers to get ahead, not just for themselves but for their families.”
Confronting corruption: can Guadalajara become a model for transparency?
Mexico’s impunity rate encourages corruption, with over 99% of crimes going unpunished, according to a 2016 study by Puebla’s University of the Americas. This has caused deep distrust of those in power, with a 2015 survey by Mexican pollster Mitofsky identifying political parties as the nation’s least trusted institutions, closely followed by congress, the police, the senate, labour unions and the presidency. Yet in Guadalajara, the traditionally conservative capital of the western state of Jalisco, voters have backed a political shift they hope will lead to real change. In last summer’s local elections, the Citizen’s Movement, a newish party with an anti-corruption agenda, won control of the vast majority of the Guadalajara metropolitan area, ending the 86-year stranglehold that Mexico’s two biggest parties had held over this city of 4.5 million people.
Guatemalan ex-leader Perez Molina faces new graft probe
A judge in Guatemala has ordered that former President Otto Perez Molina be investigated in connection with a multi-million dollar corruption case. Mr Perez Molina resigned on 2 September over allegations of graft. He was arrested a day later. He is already under investigation over a bribery scheme at Guatemala’s customs services but has denied any wrongdoing. The latest investigation focuses on allegations he received $37.9m (£28.8m) in return for construction contracts. Investigators allege that the former president was also given a helicopter, a plane and a luxury car. He has previously been accused by an anti-corruption commission of taking bribes from a Spanish port company.
Salvadoran Court Overturns Wartime Amnesty, Paving Way for Prosecutions
The Supreme Court announced its decision late Wednesday in a ringing statement, citing international human rights law to declare the amnesty unconstitutional. The amnesty is “contrary to the access to justice” and the “protection of fundamental rights,” the court said, because it impedes the state from fulfilling its obligation to investigate, try and punish grave violations of those rights. The ruling is a startling reversal after successive governments refused to confront the legacy of the crimes that characterized the civil war, from 1980 to 1992, between leftist guerrillas and a military-backed government supported by the United States.
Drought-hit Honduras needs new approach to tackle extreme weather – U.N. envoy
One in four in the country of 8 million people are affected by drought and are struggling to feed themselves, according to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). “The impacts are aggravated and exacerbated by climate change,” said Mary Robinson, U.N. special envoy for El Nino and climate change, by telephone from Honduras at the start of a visit to the Central American nation. Honduras is highly vulnerable to extreme weather linked to climate change like hurricanes, floods and drought, while unequal access to land, deforestation and soil degradation has exacerbated the impact of El Nino on rural areas, experts say. The prolonged drought in Honduras has slashed bean and maize harvests by up to 90 percent in some areas, triggering higher food prices. This has worsened hunger among poor farming families who have resorted to cutting meals, and caused many Hondurans to leave home in search of better prospects in the United States.
Quebec police retire before hearings over alleged sexual misconduct in Haiti
Two Quebec provincial police officers accused of sex-related breaches while working as United Nations peacekeepers in Haiti have retired before facing any disciplinary action, CBC News has learned. The Sûreté du Québec had an internal hearing scheduled for July 12 for one sergeant under investigation, but he left the force earlier in the month, said SQ Capt. Guy Lapointe. Another SQ sergeant who allegedly solicited sex from a Haitian prostitute retired last year before the police force had scheduled his disciplinary hearing. Over a two-year period beginning in April 2013, the second officer was placed on administrative duty and a paid suspension until his retirement in April 2015, Lapointe told CBC. Both men will collect full pensions and neither one will face any sanctions now that they have retired, he said. A disciplinary hearing could have led to a suspension, a downgrading in rank or firing.
How Nonviolent Resistance Works: Factors for Successful Peacebuilding in Samaniego, Colombia
In remote municipalities like Samaniego in southwestern Colombia, the war has been harsh for the local population. And yet, in hundreds of places like this one, removed from the media’s spotlight, civilians have not given up: instead they have engaged in nonviolent initiatives to confront violence and overcome their marginalization. In the midst of armed violence civilians have few options: (a) to flee, (b) to stay and collaborate or (c) to stay and resist. What makes civilians opt to resist in certain cases while in so many others they choose to flee or get embroiled in the war? We examine these factors in Samaniego in our article recently published in Peace & Change: a Journal of Peace Research. Why Samaniego? There the civilian population decided to get organized to try to stop violence. Without using arms or any violent means, inhabitants declared their municipality a peace territory in 1998 and committed to refrain from collaborating with any armed group operating in their locality. Understanding the factors that influence the emergence and outcome of nonviolent resistance actions is key for policymakers to promote this kind of initiative and ensure their success, offering some practical solutions for creating zones of peace in the dark of war.
Can Bolivia’s new measures counteract gender violence?
In 2013, the country introduced a harsher sentencing framework in cases involving violence against women, increasing the incarceration period for a felon convicted of femicide to 30 years. Currently, the Justice Minister Virginia Velasco and the Magistrate Council are introducing a new method for fighting violence against women: to apply for public office, Bolivians now must produce a document stating that they have no criminal record of gender violence, or violence against a family member. This new method has sparked hope among those working with victims of sexual violence. “The new law sends a signal that we hope will continue to change attitudes in terms of how women in Bolivia are valued …” said Tanya Sukhija, the sexual violence programme officer at the NGO Equality Now.