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.
Mexico’s drug cartels, now hooked on fuel, cripple the country’s refineries
Fuel theft is fast becoming one of Mexico’s most pressing economic and security dilemmas, sapping more than $1 billion in annual revenue from state coffers, terrorizing workers and deterring private investment in aging refineries that the government, following a 2014 energy reform, hoped instead would be thriving with foreign capital. Because of government offensives that toppled narco kingpins in recent years, Mexico’s drug cartels have splintered and are eager for new sources of revenue. Now, their increasingly dominant role as fuel thieves pits two of the country’s biggest industries – narcotics and oil – against one another.
With Firing of Tax Agency Chief, Guatemala’s Status Quo Makes Its Move
Juan Francisco Solórzano Foppa, the crusading head of Guatemala’s notoriously graft-ridden tax agency, has been fired from his post, in the latest sign that the forces that control the levers of power in Guatemala are prepared to eliminate opponents of the corrupt system to which they belong.
Can Honduras avoid a third political crisis in less than 10 years?
The starting point for a better future in what is one of the poorest and most violent countries in the hemisphere begins with the de-politicization of the country’s electoral system, and guaranteeing political independence and greater technical competency for the country’s Attorney General (Fiscal General) and Supreme Court. Without these steps, efforts to stamp out corruption will be impossible and political instability, democratic weakness, and insecurity will return again and again. Sadly, a case in point is the decree adopted by the Honduras Congress on January 18 that would open investigations into public expenditures over the past decade. The OAS anti-corruption mission (MACCIH) has condemned this decree as and Impunity Pact (Pacto de Impunidad) and an attempt to stop independent investigations into government corruption.
El Salvador Again Feels the Hand of Washington Shaping Its Fate
El Salvador has been struggling beneath the weight of these deportees and the turbulent dynamic they brought with them. Prisons are overflowing and have become cesspools of disease and overcrowding. On the outside, joblessness and violence are the broken realities of life. The potential for 200,000 others to return will only exacerbate those problems. And in the meantime, the exodus continues: More than 250 Salvadorans leave the country each day, said Mr. López of Cofamide.
Honduras activists allege campaign of violent intimidation by security forces
Activists in Honduras have been targeted in a wave of surveillance, intimidation and violence since the country’s security forces cracked down on a wave of social unrest prompted by last month’s disputed presidential election. Lawyers from the Movimiento Amplio (MA) – a collective representing communities opposing dams and mines in the north of the country – have received death threats, while the group’s founder has been followed and assaulted by armed men.
First, movements need to be anchored in grassroots organizations, and let the victims of injustice take the lead as protagonists of the struggle for the control and use of our natural resources, like land and water. Second, you always have to think about the interconnectedness of these struggles: you can’t separate one issue – such as land – from the others, because it’s a struggle against the whole system. For example, when you’re campaigning for access to school, you’re also fighting for health and healthy food.
Five Reasons why Haiti should invest in Resilient Cities
Mass Displacements in Colombia Illustrate New Dynamics of Criminal Violence
Fighting between criminal groups in Colombia displaced more than 1,000 people in just four days, signaling a new generation of conflict-related displacement following the demobilization of the country’s largest guerrilla group. Between January 17 and January 20, nearly 300 families comprising over 1,000 individuals were displaced due to fighting between criminal groups throughout various departments in Colombia that are strategic to lucrative criminal activities, according to a press release from Colombia’s Ombudsman’s office.
THE COCA-COCAINE ECONOMY, THE US ‘WAR ON DRUGS’ AND BOLIVIA’S DEMOCRATIC TRANSITION (1982-1993)
AIN Visiting Scholar Allan Gillies explores the history of U.S and Bolivian Clashing perspectives on the Drug War. The last remaining DEA agents left Bolivia in January 2009, bringing to a close more than three decades of DEA-presence within the country. President Evo Morales had ordered the expulsion of the US agency in response to the harms caused by the ‘war on drugs’ and perceived US-meddling in the internal affairs of Bolivia. Find the complete document at: 2.0. The Coca-Cocaine Economy, the US ‘War on Drugs’ and Bolivia’s Democratic Transition (1982-1993)