Weekly adamisacson.com - Issue #2
Hi! I'm headed to the airport shortly—I'll be in Colombia for the next nine days. With two WOLA colleagues, I'll be visiting a troubled part of the country (I'll say where later), and then will spend the last few days of next week in Bogotá. The goal is to have a report out as quickly as possible afterward about the changes that the FARC peace accord has brought about in the region we're visiting, problems with accord implementation, what to expect from Colombia's new government, and recommendations for U.S. policy.
I won't be updating my website often from the road. If I even manage to send one of these email newsletters next week, it will be brief.
But in the meantime, there's a lot to share from the past week.
We put out a big new WOLA report on the separation and detention of families at the border.
New Report: “A National Shame”
This is part three of a three-part WOLA series on the horror that the Trump administration and its “zero tolerance” policy unleashed at the U.S.-Mexico border this spring and summer—and what may come next. (Here is part one, on “zero tolerance” itself, and part two, on what happened at ports of entry.) All three are […]
I wrote three short(ish) things about Colombia this week.
1- The new president, Iván Duque, was a leader of the opposition to the FARC peace accord. His administration has laid out the changes they'd want to make to the FARC peace accord—and, to my relief, they're not too severe.
Colombia’s New President Wants to Modify the FARC Peace Accord. His Proposals Aren’t Dealbreakers.
Along with his conservative political party, Colombia’s new president, Iván Duque, fiercely opposed the peace accord with the FARC guerrilla group negotiated by his predecessor, Juan Manuel Santos. On the campaign trail during the first half of 2018, he pledged to make “adjustments” to the November 2016 accord, which had taken more than four difficult […]
2- Last week in Colombia's peace process:
- ELN Still Hasn’t Released Captives and Hostages
- Murders of Social Leaders Are Not Slowing
- New Peace Commissioner Meets Senior FARC Leader
- FARC Dissidents Expanding in Catatumbo Region
- Displacement Has Already Surpassed 2017 Levels
- WSJ Report Reveals New Details About Drone Coca Eradication Plan
The past week in Colombia’s peace process
(Week of August 19-25) ELN Still Hasn’t Released Captives and Hostages The ELN’s release of four soldiers, three police, and two civilians in its custody, believed imminent, still hasn’t happened yet. Guerrilla fronts in Chocó and Arauca captured the nine on August 3rd and 8th, and President Iván Duque (who was inaugurated August 7th) has […]
3- Another entry along the lines of "Duque is turning out to be more moderate, and independent, than we'd thought."
Un-Uribe-like
One of the central questions in Colombian politics this year: how independent is the new president, Iván Duque—a 42-year-old technocrat with a light political resume—from his political party’s 500-watt boss, the incendiary far-right former president Álvaro Uribe? The word “puppet” gets tossed around a lot. But Duque is in fact showing some genuine flashes of […]
Since it's the end of the month, I looked back and posted a lot of links to things done by others.
Here's where I become that annoying colleague who sends you things you should read. But there's some really important writing linked from these two posts.
Of the things in my news database that are more than 2,000 words or in PDF format, these stood out last month.
18 Latin America longreads from August
(I leave for Colombia in the morning, so I’m churning out a bunch of end-of-month posts tonight. It’s more fun than packing.) U.S.-Mexico Border Adolfo Flores, “Why Did the Border Patrol Shoot Claudia Gomez?” (BuzzFeed, August 29, 2018). The Border Patrol shooting of a young Guatemalan immigrant remains a mystery three months later. A phone video […]
My colleagues at WOLA had another prolific month.
The WOLA Firehose for August 2018
Here’s everything I know of that my colleagues at WOLA and I published this month. Publications A National Shame: The Trump Administration’s Separation and Detention of Migrant Families, by Adam Isacson, Maureen Meyer, and Adeline Hite, August 28, 2018. “Come Back Later”: Challenges for Asylum Seekers Waiting at Ports of Entry, by Adam Isacson, Maureen […]
Here are 5 standout links to others' work from last week.
- Anthony Faiola, Marina Lopes, “Millions of Venezuelans Are Fleeing to Latin American Cities. The Region May Never Be the Same” (The Washington Post, August 31, 2018).
The sound of Caracas slang is now ubiquitous in some Miami neighborhoods. Thousands of miles to the south, the scent of Caribbean cooking wafts through streets in Santiago, Chile
- Andres Cajiao, Angela Maria Silva Aparicio, Irina Cuesta, Juan Carlos Garzon Vergara, Lorena Zarate Martinez, Paula Andrea Tobo, Tatiana Prada, “Inseguridad en las Fronteras, los Desafios del Nuevo Gobierno” (Fundacion Ideas por la Paz (Colombia), August 30, 2018).
La manera como Colombia y sus vecinos han hecho frente a la situación de seguridad en la frontera ha sido –por lo general– bilateral y reactiva, con problemas para generar confianza y establecer relaciones recíprocas
- “Nicaragua: La Crisis de Derechos Humanos Exige Accion y Rendicion de Cuentas, Senala Informe de Onu” (UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, August 30, 2018).
En el informe figuran el uso desproporcionado de la fuerza por parte de la policía, que a veces se tradujo en ejecuciones extrajudiciales, las desapariciones forzadas, las detenciones arbitrarias y generalizadas, las torturas y los malos tratos, y las violaciones del derecho a la libertad de opinión, expresión y reunión pacífica
- Gioconda Belli, “How Daniel Ortega Became a Tyrant” (Foreign Affairs, August 29, 2018).
In April, their fiction of a prosperous and politically stable Nicaragua collapsed like a house of cards
- Eduardo Cruz, “Nicaragua y Costa Rica: Una Relacion Tormentosa de Amor y Odio” (La Prensa (Nicaragua), August 27, 2018).
Unos 500 ticos se manifestaron en el parque de la Merced, el pasado sábado 18 de agosto, en contra de la gran cantidad de nicas qué han llegado a Costa Rica en los últimos días
Here's a playlist of some songs I've been listening to a lot this month.
The best songs I washed dishes to in August
Here’s 18 songs as Apple Music and Spotify playlists.
And here are the best songs I heard while washing dishes this week.
And here's all five days' lists of Latin America news links I found of interest this week.
Some articles I found interesting this morning
(Even more here) August 31, 2018 Argentina Landon Thomas Jr., Prashant S. Rao, “Argentina Raises Rates, as Emerging Markets Turbulence Spreads” (The New York Times, August 31, 2018). The I.M.F.’s $50 billion deal with Argentina is one of the largest in the fund’s history. In order to secure the release of the money, Argentina must […]
Some articles I found interesting this morning
I’m traveling in Colombia between tomorrow and September 8. During that time, I’ll be posting news links sporadically, if at all. (Even more here) August 30, 2018 Western Hemisphere Regional Daniel Gonzalez, “Supreme Court Ruling Could Upend Thousands of Deportation Cases, Sowing Chaos in Court” (The Arizona Republic, August 30, 2018). The ruling threatens to […]
Some articles I found interesting this morning
(Even more here) August 29, 2018 Brazil David Biller, “Brazil’s North Embraces Hardline Presidential Candidate” (Bloomberg, August 29, 2018). His pledge to protect life and property resonates deeply with those in rural areas who feel neglected as well as those city-dwellers grown desperate amid spiraling crime Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Venezuela Mitra Taj, “Brazil Sends Army […]
Some articles I found interesting this morning
(Even more here) August 28, 2018 Chile Daniela Guzman, “Pinochet Family Ordered to Return Part of His Illicit Wealth” (Bloomberg, August 28, 2018). With the discovery of secret bank accounts in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Pinochet’s prestige crumbled. Pinera hasn’t commented on the Supreme Court ruling Colombia Julieta Pelcastre, “U.S. Donates Interception Vessels to Colombian […]
Some articles I found interesting this morning
(Even more here) August 27, 2018 Western Hemisphere Regional Ella Nilsen, Tara Golshan, “The Senate Is Desperate to Avoid Another Government Shutdown — but Trump Isn’t” (Vox, August 27, 2018). Trump has publicly and repeatedly threatened to shut down the government if he doesn’t get funding for a border wall — and has recently expanded […]
And that's it. Thanks for subscribing, and see you next week.
Or if the Colombia travel schedule doesn't permit, I'll see you the week after that.