The News Roundup is a regular section of the blog, featuring 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.
Bolivia is not Venezuela – even if its president does want to stay in power forever
Throughout this period, Morales claimed to be “leading by obeying” his constituency. He relied on popular referendums to inform his policies and respected the collective decision-making processes typical of Bolivia’s indigenous communities. As such, he said, his actions directly represented the people’s will. Morales has continued to make this claim as president. He describes his Movimiento al Socialismo, or MAS, not as a political party – though technically it is – but as an expression of Bolivian social movements. His legitimacy thus depends on faithfully advancing the priorities of the MAS’s grassroots and indigenous base. Whenever his supporters believe that Morales is imposing his own political agenda, they’re quick to oppose him.
Colombia’s murder rate is at an all-timelow but its activists keep getting killed
Indigenous organizers have been particular targets of the violence. Just 3 percent of Colombia’s population identifies as indigenous, but 12 percent of the civil society leaders slain in 2017 were indigenous. The crimes do not seem to be racially motivated. Rather, they appear to be political crimes, a retaliation against the country’s 2016 peace process. Murders have generally declined since the accords, dropping from 12,252 in 2016 to 11,781 in 2017. Colombia’s homicide rate is still worse than almost every other country in the world. But it’s a third of what it was two decades ago, at the peak of the country’s civil war.
Cuba’s new president: What to expect of Miguel Díaz-Canel
This political transition is still significant, though. For the first time, the leader of the Communist Party and the leader of the government are different people. Both Fidel and Raúl Castro held both positions simultaneously. Cuba must now sort out the lines of authority between party and state. As Díaz-Canel staffs government ministries with his own team, he will gain ever more control over how policy is interpreted and implemented. He will immediately face some tough issues. Cuba’s economy is struggling, dragged down by the dual-currency system Fidel Castro adopted in 1994 to attract cash remittances from Cuban expats.
DHS says post-quake Haiti has made ‘significant progress.’ But TPS report says otherwise
Three weeks before the Trump administration announced that it will end Temporary Protected Status for Haitians because the country no longer met the requirements for the temporary relief, documents released by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services as part of a lawsuit indicate Haiti remains vulnerable with continuing housing and food shortages. “Many of the conditions prompting the original January 2010 TPS designation persist,” an 18-page October 2017 memo from USCIS said. That view differs from the one expressed by USCIS Director Francis Cissna in a Nov. 3 memo for Department of Homeland Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. Cissna mentions the report but concludes that “Haiti has made significant progress in recovering from the 2010 earthquake, and no longer continues to meet the conditions for designation.”
Social Security Protest Leads to Clashes in Nicaragua
A protest over social security changes in Nicaragua has led to clashes between opponents of the measure and government backers. Hundreds of activists, elderly people and others were demonstrating Wednesday in the capital of Managua when they were set upon by members of a pro-government youth group and public workers. At least five people were injured in the melee, including a freelance news photographer. Photographer Alfredo Zuniga was struck in the head and cut by an unknown object but was not seriously hurt. The government’s overhaul increases income and payroll taxes and makes changes to pensions to try to shore up Nicaragua’s troubled social security system.
New rights protections or new disappointments for Indigenous Peoples in Honduras?
The latest draft legislation does not provide adequate protection for indigenous rights, such as Indigenous Peoples’ right to give or withhold their Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) for investment projects that will affect their lands or resources. Indigenous Peoples are among the most marginalized and vulnerable communities in Latin America, and risks to their lives and livelihoods may be exacerbated without strong rights protections in law. Honduras has experienced an explosion of mining concessions in recent years which present new environmental, social, and human rights risks. Honduras is among the most dangerous countries in the world for environmental defenders. The recent anniversary of the assassination of Lenca activist Berta Cáceres–who campaigned for many years against a hydroelectric project approved in Lenca territory without FPIC–provides a harsh reminder of this truth.
How indigenous women who survived Guatemala’s conflict are fighting for justice
The Sepur Zarco case shows how seriously a community can be affected for decades, even centuries, by multiple overlapping injustices – from colonial-era crimes to more recent human rights violations. Resolving the resulting problems has proven hugely difficult. But after more than 30 years, the women and supporting organisations – the National Union of Guatemalan Women, Women Transforming the World and the Community Studies and Psychosocial Action Team – are determined to achieve the restorative justice that they have been struggling for all this time.
Mexico puts U.S. ties under review as Trump stirs new tensions
The Mexican government’s decision was backed by opposition lawmakers, who said it vindicated the Senate’s call last week for the government to end cooperation on migration and security with the United States in response to Trump deploying the National Guard on the U.S.-Mexico border. “Donald Trump has to understand that he must stop threatening, blackmailing and lying in the relationship if he wants Mexico to carry on cooperating on things that matter to him,” said Laura Rojas, head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a member of the opposition National Action Party. After Trump set out his National Guard plans, Pena Nieto chided him in unusually forthright terms, telling him not to take out his domestic policy “frustration” on Mexico.
How Trump Moved the Mexican Border North
The chiefsalso noted in the letter that legal immigrants were starting to avoid contact with the police for fear that undocumented family members or friends would be subject to immigration enforcement. In the first three months of 2017, Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo reported that his police department had already seen a 43 percent decrease from the same period in 2016 in the number of Hispanic victims reporting rape, and a 13 percent drop in people reporting other violent crimes. (Rapes reported by non-Hispanics increased by 8 percent and other violent crimes reported by non-Hispanics rose by about 12 percent.) S.B. 4 hadn’t even yet made it out of the Statehouse.