Weekly adamisacson.com - Issue #33
I hope all is well with you. Here in Washington, the mayor extended our stay-at-home order through June 8, and WOLA's offices will be empty through at least July 4.
Initially, I'd figured we'd be back to semi-normal by Memorial Day (May 25th). Since that's clearly not happening—my non-travel work can mostly be done at home for a long time, and now it's more certain that it will be a very long time—this has been a week to re-evaluate plans and routines.
It was also a week with a lot of writing and research. I aim to get two reports out the door by the first week of June. The first covers all the new roles that Latin American militaries are playing in the COVID-19 area, and how difficult it will be to get that particular "toothpaste back into the tube" once the crisis ends. The second is a look at Putumayo, Colombia, the department along the Ecuador border where U.S.-aided "Plan Colombia" military operations began back in 2000. Putumayo is seeing more upheaval now, and a renewal of U.S.-backed aerial herbicide fumigation in coca-growing zones will happen sometime in the next few months. I've been doing some virtual interviews with social leaders and now have a lot of notes, much of it covering really troubling developments.
Tuesday Afternoon: Join Us for "Colombian Military Espionage: An Attack on Post-Conflict Reformers and the Free Press"
Colombia's rampant spying on law-abiding civilians is an urgent issue at a time when civil liberties and privacy are under assault nearly everywhere. We're hosting an event Tuesday, 1:00 Washington time / 12:00 Bogotá time, about the intelligence abuse scandal in the Colombian military. Speakers will include several of those known to have been targeted for illegal espionage in Colombia, including a U.S. journalist. I'll be one of the commenters.
Webinar–Colombian Military Espionage: An Attack on Post-Conflict Reformers and the Free Press
We invite you to join us for a webinar with individuals targeted by the Colombian military's illegal surveillance and with Colombia human rights experts.
Event Details:
Tuesday, May 19, 2020
1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. GMT-4 (Washington, D.C.)
12:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. GMT-5 (Bogotá, Colombia)
Featuring:
Danilo Rueda
Inter-Ecclesial Commission for Justice and Peace
WOLA Human Rights Award Winner 2015
César Jerez
Land rights leader
Jomary Ortegón
José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers’ Collective (CCA-JAR)
Iván Cepeda
Senator, Senate of the Republic of Colombia
John Otis
WSJ
Nicolas Bedoya
Photojournalist, VELA Collective
Commentaries by:
Adam Isacson
Director for Defense Oversight, Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA)
Viviana Kristicevic
Executive Director, Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL)
Lisa Haugaard
Executive Director, Latin America Working Group (LAWG)
Moderated by:
Gimena Sánchez-Garzoli
Director for the Andes, Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA)
Simultaneous interpretation into English and Spanish will be available.
Instructions for webinar access will be emailed to registered participants.
Wola Podcast: “How Do we Define Success?” Jonathan Rosen on Governments’ Approaches to Organized Crime
I put out just one podcast last week—our communications team is about to put out two, and I didn't want to step on those. I'll be recording three more this coming week, but only plan to publish one of them during the week. That one, though, is going to be with an entertaining and prominent guest, so stay tuned.
Here's a conversation with Jonathan Rosen, assistant professor of Criminal Justice at Holy Family University in Philadelphia, who has published a large body of books, articles, and edited volumes in the past several years on drug policy, organized crime, corruption, state failure, and violence in the Americas.
Here, Dr. Rosen shares a strong critique of “mano dura” approaches to crime and violence, the disjointed and short-term nature of U.S. policymaking toward Latin America, and the persistence of counter-drug strategies that simply don’t work.
He also discusses his experience as an expert witness in about 100 asylum cases involving threatened Latin American citizens in immigration courts around the country.
Listen below or download the .mp3 file.
"How do we define success?" Jonathan Rosen on governments' approaches to organized crime - WOLA
COVID-19 in ICE's Detainee Population
This time bomb keeps ticking. This weekend, the number of detainees whom ICE will acknowledge to have become infected is certain to surpass 1,000.
Nearly 90 percent of the 27,000-plus migrants in ICE's network of for-profit prisons have committed no serious crimes. The agency has discretion to release them to sponsors with whom they could be socially distancing, rather than crowded together with other detainees. But the Trump administration won't do that, despite the increasingly obvious probability of a mass fatality incident.
Inaccurate Trump Administration Charges Against Cuba Damage Prospects for Peace Talks in Colombia and Elsewhere
Last Wednesday the Trump administration added Cuba to its list of countries "not cooperating fully" with U.S. counterterrorism efforts. It did so at the behest of Colombia, which is demanding that Havana turn over ELN negotiators who were there when peace talks broke down, because of a horrific ELN bombing, in January 2019.
Trouble is, Cuba was just following the rules here. Protocols agreed between the previous Colombian government and the ELN, with Cuba and Norway serving as "guarantors," made clear that if talks broke down, the ELN representatives would be transported back to Colombia within 15 days. Colombia didn't let that happen, so now the guerrillas are stuck in Cuba. And now the Trump administration is accusing the Cubans of harboring them because they won't extradite them in violation of the protocols.
An ugly situation, and a terrible precedent for countries that agree to host peace talks anywhere worldwide. We object to it strongly. Here is our statement.
Inaccurate Trump Administration Charges Against Cuba Damage Prospects for Peace Talks in Colombia and Elsewhere
These politically motivated charges, aimed at pleasing U.S. political constituencies, undermine existing U.S.-Cuba security cooperation as well as the possibility of peace negotiations in Colombia and potentially elsewhere.
5 Links from the Past Week
- In a report titled, in Spanish, “They Call Us the Crazy Women With the Shovels,” the Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez Human Rights Center shines a light on Mexico’s forced disappearance crisis by telling the stories of nine mothers, wives, sisters, and daughters searching for their loved ones.
- Colombia is still contending with revelations that Army intelligence has been spying and building detailed dossiers on reporters, judges, politicians, human rights defenders, and other law-abiding civilians. La Silla Vacía bravely profiles some of the generals and colonels involved in the scandal, and what their involvement probably looked like.
- Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador issued a decree this week giving the military a leading role in policing for the remainder of his government (through 2024). SinEmbargo looks at some of the things that the vaguely worded decree now allows the armed forces to do, with unclear civilian supervision.
- A detailed report by Human Rights First offers the best current overview of how the Trump administration’s COVID-19 response, including blanket expulsions of asylum-seeking Mexicans and Central Americans—including unaccompanied children, is worsening the humanitarian situation along the border.
- At The New Yorker, Jonathan Blitzer points out two vectors by which the Trump administration’s immigration hard line is spreading the coronavirus right now: via deportations and in ICE detention centers. Guatemala’s health minister tells Blitzer that the United States has become “the Wuhan of the Americas.” An unnamed U.S. official tells him, “The White House doesn’t have time for Guatemala’s bullsh*t. Deportations must continue.”
Latin America-Related Online Events This Week
Monday, May 18, 2020
- 11:00-1:45 at gordoninstitute.fiu.edu: FIU Fifth Annual Hemispheric Security Conference (RSVP required).
- 2:00 at concordia-ca.zoom.us: Mirando la Verdad del Exilio con Ojos de Mujeres Indígenas, Afrocolombianas y Campesinas
- 3:00-4:15 at wilsconcenter.org: The Political Culture of Democracy in Mexico: Results from the AmericasBarometer 2018/19 (RSVP required).
- 5:00 at seminarioabri2020.org.br: Pandemia, multilateralismo e ordem internacional (RSVP required).
Tuesday, May 19, 2020
- 10:00-11:30 at usip.org: People Power in a Pandemic: How Movements are Confronting COVID (RSVP required).
- 11:00-2:00 at gordoninstitute.fiu.edu: FIU Fifth Annual Hemispheric Security Conference (RSVP required).
- 1:00-3:00 at wola.org: Colombian Military Espionage: An Attack on Post-Conflict Reformers and the Free Press (RSVP required).
- 2:00-3:00 at wilsoncenter.org: The Impact of COVID-19 on Gender Disparities in Latin America (RSVP required).
Wednesday, May 20, 2020
- 10:00 at acij.org.ar: Respuestas fiscales para una crisis global. Por una agenda latinoamericana de reformas redistributivas (RSVP required).
- 11:00 at canninghouse.org: Migration & Immigration (RSVP required).
- 11:00-12:00 at lalp.georgetown.edu: The Role of Multilateral Organizations in Latin America During the COVID-19 Crisis (RSVP required).
- 11:00-12:30 at gordoninstitute.fiu.edu: FIU Fifth Annual Hemispheric Security Conference (RSVP required).
- 12:00-1:30 at thedialogue.org: Voices in the Pandemic – Covid-19 and Freedom of Expression in the Americas (RSVP required).
- 1:30-2:30 at stimson.org: U.S. Arms Sales in the Time of COVID-19 (RSVP required).
- 4:00 at flacso.edu.ec: (IN) Seguridades en fase coronavirus
Thursday, May 21, 2020
- 9:00-12:30 at gordoninstitute.fiu.edu: FIU Fifth Annual Hemispheric Security Conference (RSVP required).
- 11:00 at atlanticcouncil.org: President Alejandro Giammattei: Reactivating Guatemala’s economy post COVID-19 (RSVP required).
Friday, May 22, 2020
- 11:00-11:45 at thedialogue.org: Assessing the Economic and Social Impact of Covid-19 – A Conversation with OECD Secretary-General, Ángel Gurría (RSVP required).
- 11:00-12:45 at gordoninstitute.fiu.edu: FIU Fifth Annual Hemispheric Security Conference (RSVP required).