Weekly adamisacson.com - Issue #1
I'm trying out something new here: a way to share posts to my site in a weekly e-mail. As of now, I'm not committing to doing this regularly. We'll see how it goes.
Five links from the past week
Caroline Stauffer, “Native Peoples Sour on Morales, Bolivia’s First Indigenous President” (Reuters **, August 24, 2018). After clashes with native groups over development, and controversial maneuvers to stay in office, indigenous voters are now turning against him “Asi se Roban la Tierra en Colombia” (Mongabay, Semana (Colombia), August 24, 2018). Funcionarios públicos como notarios, registradores […]
Five links from the past week
- Caroline Stauffer, “Native Peoples Sour on Morales, Bolivia’s First Indigenous President” (Reuters **, August 24, 2018).
After clashes with native groups over development, and controversial maneuvers to stay in office, indigenous voters are now turning against him
- “Asi se Roban la Tierra en Colombia” (Mongabay, Semana (Colombia), August 24, 2018).
Funcionarios públicos como notarios, registradores y jueces se alían con los criminales para amenazar a los campesinos y obligarlos a vender a precios muy por debajo del valor real de los predios
- Rafael Carranza, “Trump’s Border Wall Prototypes Fail Design Requirements and Are Riddled With Deficiencies” (The Arizona Republic, August 22, 2018).
The conclusions listed in the report point to serious challenges in building some, if not all, of the prototypes as they were erected in San Diego, because of structural issues in their design or with construction
- John Vidal, “How Guatemala Is Sliding Into Chaos in the Fight for Land and Water” (The Guardian (Uk), August 20, 2018).
The killings have probably been orchestrated by more powerful political and financial interests, with links to the drug trade and the military
- Dom Phillips, Gary Calton, “Lost Tribes: The 1,000km Rainforest Mission to Protect an Amazon Village” (The Guardian (Uk), August 21, 2018).
Dom Phillips and Gary Calton joined an expedition to track the whereabouts of an uncontacted tribe, who threaten the safety of Brazil’s Marubo people
5 government reports that came out in the past month
The GAO border one is essential.
- Mexico – Evolved Seasparrow Missiles (Washington: Defense Security Cooperation Agency, August 9, 2018).
The President must notify Congress of any pending Foreign Military Sale of defense articles or services exceeding $50 million, of design and construction services exceeding $200 million, or any major defense equipment exceeding $14 million
- Southwest Border Migration FY2018 (Washington: U.S. Customs and Border Protection, August 7, 2018).
Every month since May 2014, U.S. Customs and Border Protection has reported the number of unaccompanied, undocumented children and family-unit members apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border during the previous month.
- Southwest Border Security: CBP Is Evaluating Designs and Locations for Border Barriers but Is Proceeding Without Key Information (Washington: U.S. Government Accountability Office, August 6, 2018).
As the Trump administration seeks to build a border wall based on prototypes constructed in 2017, GAO concludes that Customs and Border Protection “doesn’t have complete information for prioritizing barrier deployments in the most cost-effective manner.”
- Honduras: Background and U.S. Relations (Washington: Congressional Research Service, July 30, 2018).
A regular CRS overview of Honduran politics and bilateral relations with the United States.
- Most Complaints about CBP’s Polygraph Program Are Ambiguous or Unfounded(Washington: Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General, July 26, 2018).
Though only 28 percent of applicants for positions at CBP passed polygraph tests between 2013 and 2016, the inspector-general found that 96% of complaints about the process were unfounded or ambiguous.
A busy week for Colombia's peace process, and a long update
Topics covered:
- Constitutional Court Upholds, Modifies Law Governing Transitional Justice System
- Top FARC Leaders Have Gone Off the Grid
- Personnel Changes at Peace Agencies
- ELN May Release Captives and Kidnap Victims; Talks in Doubt
- Anticorruption bill, with a clause preventing ex-guerrillas in politics, is withdrawn
- Visit from U.S. Defense Secretary Mattis
The past week in Colombia’s peace process
(Week of August 12-18) Constitutional Court Upholds, Modifies Law Governing Transitional Justice System Colombia’s maximum judicial review body, the Constitutional Court, completed an 8½-month review of the law governing the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP), which is the body that the peace accords set up to put on trial, and punish, those who committed war […]
(En español) I did VOA's *Foro Interamericano* show on Friday
En español, I’m on this half-hour Voice of America show talking about the ever-worsening Venezuelan migrant crisis.
Foro Interamericano
Discusión sobre temas de actualidad con invitados especiales.
What U.S. aid to Colombia looks like right now
Snapshot of U.S. aid to Colombia right now
Thought I’d share a table of current aid to Colombia. Click it to expand it in a new window. In sum, it looks like Congress will once again refuse the deep aid cuts the Trump White House had requested for 2019. Aid will continue to follow the “Peace Colombia” framework that guided assistance in 2017 […]
Corruption in Latin America: 14 links from the past month
Corruption in Latin America: links from the past month | Adam Isacson
The investigation was begun after the newspaper La Nación obtained notebooks belonging to a driver who took meticulous notes about bags of cash he purportedly ferried around the city
The best songs I heard washing dishes this week
The entire firehose of links to last week's Latin America security-related news
Some articles I found interesting this morning
(Even more here) August 24, 2018 Western Hemisphere Regional Terri Moon Cronk, “Senior Enlisted Leaders Learn Threats, Challenges of Southwest Border” (U.S. Department of Defense, August 24, 2018). Troxell and his 24-member Defense Senior Enlisted Leader Council traveled about 1,000 miles of Southwest border territory from Aug. 13 to 15 to observe and report back […]
Some articles I found interesting this morning
(Even more here) August 23, 2018 Western Hemisphere Regional Jonathan Blitzer, “Will Anyone in the Trump Administration Ever Be Held Accountable for the Zero-Tolerance Immigration Policy?” (The New Yorker, August 23, 2018). The main focus, the official added, has been to “map out” how the government can detain asylum seekers as they wait for a […]
Some articles I found interesting this morning
(Even more here) August 22, 2018 Western Hemisphere Regional Rafael Carranza, “Trump’s Border Wall Prototypes Fail Design Requirements and Are Riddled With Deficiencies” (The Arizona Republic, August 22, 2018). The conclusions listed in the report point to serious challenges in building some, if not all, of the prototypes as they were erected in San Diego, […]
Some articles I found interesting this morning
(Even more here) August 21, 2018 Western Hemisphere Regional Maya Srikrishnan, “California National Guard Troops Have Helped Border Patrol Arrest Immigrants” (Voice of San Diego, August 21, 2018). California Gov. Jerry Brown said in an April letter authorizing the troops that they would not help detain immigrants or enforce immigration laws “Iachr Grants Precautionary Measure […]
Some articles I found interesting this morning
(Even more here) August 20, 2018 Western Hemisphere Regional Richard Parker, “Forget ICE, the Real Problem Is CBP” (The Los Angeles Times, August 20, 2018). CBP is a paramilitary organization that has grown too large, too quickly with too little oversight Argentina Aurelio Tomas, “Macri Desplego al Ejercito para Combatir el Crimen en el Norte” […]