Putumayo River, Colombia. AnnaVogt
Mexico takes lead to stem migrant wave, deports more Central Americans than the United States
Between October and April, Mexico apprehended 92,889 Central Americans. In the same time period, the United States detained 70,226 “other than Mexican” migrants, the vast majority from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. That was a huge reversal from the same period a year earlier, when the wave of migrants and unaccompanied minors from Central America was building. From October 2013 to April 2014, the United States apprehended 159,103 “other than Mexicans,” three times the 49,893 Central Americans detained by Mexico.
Surge of Detainees in Mexico Suggests Violence Still Fueling Child Migration
On June 21, Mexico‘s National Immigration Institute (INM) announced authorities have detained 11,893 minors from Central America during the first five months of 2015, a 49 percent increase from the number of child detainees during the same period in 2014. The INM said the majority of the children stopped by Mexican authorities are from Central America’s Northern Triangle countries (El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala).
Why Honduras’s Judiciary Is Its Most Dangerous Branch
The administration should oversee how the money is allotted. It should earmark funds so that they are spent on measures that might prevent a Honduran congressional majority from stacking the court with its own members again. And it should push for the enactment of a sensible presidential term limit — one that will be resistant to political manipulation — to fill the void left by the court. In the absence of any term limit, Honduran democracy stands vulnerable to the threat posed by would-be authoritarians.
America’s Second Chance in Guatemala
Second chances rarely happen. Yet the United States is being offered one now. By publicly aligning itself with the diverse coalition of Guatemalan citizens seeking immediate democratic reforms, the United States has an opportunity to bolster a democracy that Guatemalans deserve and lay the foundation for a constructive relationship with an emerging Guatemalan political class. In helping regenerate a Guatemalan democratic spring, this time the United States can unequivocally stand on the right side of history.
El Salvador’s skyrocketing violence is being met by youth who risk their lives to treat victims
Gang violence is skyrocketing in El Salvador. May finished with more than 600 murders, more than any previous month since the country’s civil war that ended in the early 1990s. Young people are often the victims, but the members of the The Rescue Command are on the front lines in a different way. The volunteers sit lined up in the half open courtyard, watching some old movies on a TV screen. Some others have already decided to rest in a small room packed with bunk beds. In the office just next to them, the ones in charge for tonight keep control of the radio and listen for alarms. The ambulances are ready, but so far it’s been a quiet night.
Report: Few El Salvador Homicides Involve Gang Members
Given the government’s inability to address El Salvador‘s ongoing security crisis, officials may see some advantage in writing off the murders as gang-on-gang violence, with the implication that average civilians are left out of the fray. However, not only is this a highly questionable assertion, the justice system can’t deprioritize murder cases simply because the victims were known gang members. Although police have said they are “at war” with street gangs, they are still required to fully investigate all murders, and failing to do so in the case of dead gang members could lead to an increased sense of lawlessness in an already volatile situation.
Is Nicaragua giving FARC leaders citizenship as shield against US and ICC charges?
The FARC has long financed its war against the Colombian state with drug trafficking and many of its leaders are wanted by the US. One leader, “Simon Trinidad,” was convicted to 60 years in a US prison after he was extradited over pending drug charges, but later sentenced on different charges. A deal between the FARC and Nicaragua would provide the rebel leadership with a safe haven in case a peace deal with the government does not provide enough protection against them being extradited to the US or being prosecuted by the ICC.
A Haitian border town struggles with new rules in the Dominican Republic
In the days before the June 17 deadline for undocumented migrants to register for residency permits — if they could prove they had lived in the Dominican Republic before 2011 — many predicted police roundups and waves of deportations. So far, what has happened instead are voluntary departures by more than 12,000 Haitians who fear that such a crackdown could turn violent.
Black Bodies in Motion and in Pain
As many Haitian migrants and immigrants and Dominicans of Haitian descent now either go into hiding or leave the Dominican Republic out of fear, we are witnessing, once again, a sea of black bodies in motion, in transit, and in danger. And as Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church and the larger community of Charleston, South Carolina, prepare to bury their dead, we will once again be seeing black bodies in pain. And we will be expected to be exceptionally graceful mourners. We will be expected to stifle our rage. And we will keep asking ourselves, When will this end? When will it stop?
Colombia acts on massacres – punishing whistleblower and promoting officers
The Colombian military has received billions of dollars in American aid, training and equipment, making it one of the top 10 recipients of US assistance worldwide. US law, however, prohibits aid to foreign military units that violate human rights with impunity. Human Rights Watch called on the US government to suspend the part of military aid to Colombia subject to human rights conditions. “The safeguard mechanisms have evidently failed,” said Vivanco.
Decision on sea access will shape Bolivia’s economic future
The economic upside is the most obvious benefit, but just as significant would be the nationalist support that could, and already has emerged, said Sinclair Thomson, an associate professor of history at New York University who specializes in Bolivian history and politics. “At stake is a principle of national sovereignty which is historically very deeply rooted in the country, with significant legal, political, and cultural implications, and one that unifies Bolivians over and above their sharp regional, class and ethnic divisions,” he said.