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.
Study Examines Drug and Human Trafficking Overlap in Mexico
Both Correa Cabrera’s comments and the paper by Slack and Campbell point to a fundamental irony with lessons for the future: Attempts in the US and Mexico to crack down on coyotes essentially made human trafficking a more dangerous industry, and pushed the coyotes into some degree of allegiance with a far more dangerous group of criminal operators. This represents another demonstration of how get-tough security policies can actually achieve the opposite of their intended effect.
Women of Las Patronas get fast food to migrants on Mexico’s Beast train – video
For a quarter of a century, a group of women in eastern Mexico has provided food and water to the hundreds of Central American migrants who pass by on top of the infamous freight train known as The Beast. The women, known as Las Patronas, or the Bosses, distribute about 300 parcels a day – a life-saving act of kindness towards those risking life and limb to reach the US and finally escape violence and poverty at home.
No, Honduras Isn’t Necessarily Getting Safer
If CARSI is intended to break up organized crime networks, in a country where security forces, as well as many other institutions, are corrupt — in ways that often benefit the highest levels of power — as in Honduras, this commitment seems dubious at best. Meanwhile, the Honduran government and the private sector have been attempting to enact a raft of major projects, from dams like the one Berta died opposing, to proposed “model cities” — special economic zones where labor protections and a whole series of other rights would not apply. Many projects are envisioned under the rubric of the proposed “Plan for the Alliance for Prosperity in the Northern Triangle,” which has received $750 million USD in funding from the US Congress. Considering the scope of neoliberal change that the Honduran government, along with the US, has been pursuing, would it be surprising that the Honduran government would want a mano dura approach to policing in order to better control populations who might oppose these projects? If the intended goal of increasing the capacities of security forces in Honduras is to disrupt organized crime, then why have security forces targeted so many trade unionists, campesinos, environmentalists, human rights defenders, journalists, and Garifuna,Indigenous, and members of the LGBTI communities?
Report Says El Salvador Gangs Have Created a Parallel State
But while the gangs in El Salvador may weigh in directly on certain political issues, they do not currently seem to possess a political vision of governance or political demands other than on specific issues that directly affect their members. In that sense, they appear much closer to lobby groups — albeit ones that resort frequently to violence — rather than politicians. The economic and social impact of the Maras on El Salvador‘s society may be best exemplified by the transport industry, which is frequenty impacted by the gangs’ criminal schemes. The extortion of bus drivers and bus companies has become virtually institutionalized, and 692 bus drivers were murdered between 2010 and 2015 according to the El Salvadoran police, “in a country where paying extortion to gangs is an unwritten rule.” Nor is this issue confined to El Salvador, as the very same gangs have similarly targeted transport companies in other Central American countries.
Guatemala Ex-President and VP Still Wield Power From Jail: Report
The cases of Pérez Molina and Baldetti also illustrate how efforts to tackle criminal structures in Guatemala may have simply led to their re-accommodation rather than their dissolution. As long as corrupt structures maintain power within state institutions, there are worries that Guatemala‘s recent achievements against impunity — largely spearheaded by the United Nations-backed Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (Comisión Internacional Contra la Impunidad en Guatemala – CICIG) — will not result in long-term improvements to the status quo. In a recent statement, CICIG Commissioner Iván Velásquez alluded to the fragility of the institution’s successes, and the ongoing possibility that they may be reversed. “This doesn’t detract from the merit nor the impact of the Public Ministry [Ministerio Público] and the CICIG,” Gutiérrez added. “But they are quite simply operating on a system that has not seen reforms in norms, internal processes, or been purged of its staff.”
Human rights vs. authoritarianism in Nicaragua
Nicaraguan defenders are struggling to preserve vital civil society space where values of equality and human dignity are upheld above the personalisation of power and ubiquitous clientelism. The country is at a turning point where it might head for a one-party State. The question is whether this time the international community is ready to support those who are using peaceful means to counter increasing authoritarianism and ensure respect for human rights.
Haiti: Stateless People Trapped in Poverty
Pregnant women and young children, many stripped of their Dominicancitizenship before being pushed across the border into Haiti, are living in deplorable conditions, Human Rights Watch said today. They are among thousands of Dominicans of Haitian descent who, since mid-2015, have been forced to leave the country of their birth, including through abusive summary deportations by the Dominican government. “Not only have many been deprived of their right to nationality, they are not getting the assistance they so desperately need,” said Skye Wheeler, women’s rights emergencies researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Neither the Haitian nor the Dominican government is helping some of the most vulnerable undocumented people.”
The complicated story of NGOs in post-disaster Haiti
“Oftentimes, these NGOs come into the country, they don’t talk to the people on the ground, they don’t ask them what their needs are, and they come in with certain assumptions,” Charles told CBSN’s Vladimir Duthiers. “They carry this out, and then they run up against all of these variable obstacles. And then they just throw their hands up in the air and say, ‘You know what? We tried.’” At the center of the NGO ecosystem is the American Red Cross, which raised more than any other aid organization after the earthquake: $486 million.
Hope for ‘The Future’ in Colombia
Campesino, Afro-Colombian, and indigenous communities hope for restitution of their land and respect for their rights. Businesses hope for investment opportunities free from violence and conflict where they can thrive. Precisely how these different demands for land are handled will make a big difference for the outcome of the peace process. A final ruling by Colombia’s Supreme Court on the constitutionality of the ZIDRES law is still pending following a tie vote last month. Meanwhile, the World Bank just approved a loan to strengthen land management in Colombia. And the UN Food and Agriculture Organization has committed to supporting land access and restitution in the context of the peace process. These initiatives must be monitored closely, and meaningful civil society engagement in Colombia must be ensured. The devil is always in the details, so broad statements of intent must lead to concrete actions to address the country’s core problem of extreme inequality in access to and control over land. The best hope for the future and for the prospect of lasting peace in Colombia, is to ensure that the peace process enables fulfilment of Colombia’s constitutional mandate.
Bolivia Socialists back Evo Morales for a fourth term
The Movement for Socialism (MAS) party, holding a congress in the eastern city of Montero on Saturday, approved the candidacy of Morales, Bolivia’s first president with an indigenous background, in a unanimous vote. Morales welcomed the party’s decision, saying, “If the people decide it, Evo will continue.” He added: “So many times, we have defeated the right.” Morales was first elected president in 2005, and re-elected in 2009 and 2014. But he narrowly lost the referendum in February on the question of whether the constitution should be revised to permit him to run again in 2019. His current term expires on January 22, 2020.