Weekly adamisacson.com - Issue #8

There's less content to share this week. I've done a lot of writing, mainly about Colombia, but I'm not ready to share it yet. Plus, we've got a big group of Colombian colleagues arriving Monday night, they'll be with us for three days, including this conference on Tuesday the 16th:

If you're in Washington, do join us for at least some of the day. If not, we'll post video by next week at the latest.

Staying on Course: Security, Coca, Justice, and Accord Implementation in Colombia

Tuesday, October 16, 2018, 8:30 a.m.-4:00 p.m. Root Room, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1779 Massachusetts Ave NW, Washington DC

8:30 a.m. – 9:00 a.m. Registration and Coffee

9:00 a.m. – 9:15 a.m. Introductory Remarks

9:15 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. Panel: Colombia’s Transitional Justice System

• Julieta Lemaitre Ripoll, president, Chamber for Recognition of Truth, Responsibility, and Determination of Acts and Conducts, Special Jurisdiction for Peace, Bogotá, Colombia
• Patricia Tobón, commissioner, Commission for the Clarification of Truth, Coexistence and Non-Repetition, Bogotá, Colombia
• María Camila Moreno, director, International Center for Transitional Justice, Bogotá, Colombia
• Moderator: Gimena Sanchez-Garzoli, director, Colombia Program, Washington Office on Latin America

11:15 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. Panel: Coca, Eradication, Substitution

• Pedro Arenas, coordinator, Observatory of Crops and Cultivators Declared Illicit, Bogotá, Colombia
• Ariel Ávila, deputy director, Peace and Reconciliation Foundation, Bogotá, Colombia
• Invited Speaker from coca growers’ organization, via Skype, Colombia
• Moderator: Adam Isacson, director, Defense Oversight Program, Washington Office on Latin America

1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. Lunch

2:00 p.m. – 3:45 p.m. Panel: Security Dynamics, Peace Accord Implementation, and the ELN

• Claudia López, former Senator and vice-presidential candidate now spokesperson, Anti-Corruption Consultation; program manager, Peace and Reconciliation Foundation, Bogotá, Colombia
• Danilo Rueda, human rights defender, Inter-Ecclesiastical Committee for Justice and Peace, Bogotá, Colombia
• Kyle Johnson, senior analyst for Colombia, International Crisis Group, Bogotá, Colombia
• Moderator: Mariano Aguirre Ernst, peacebuilding senior advisor, Office of the Resident Coordinator, United Nations, Bogotá, Colombia

3:45 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. Closing Remarks

I saw 7 other relevant events going on in town this week.

Latin America-related events in Washington this week

Monday, October 15, 2018 9:30–10:30 at the Wilson Center: The Future of Argentina: A Conversation with Sergio Massa (RSVP required). 11:00–1:00 at the Wilson Center: Colombian Private Sector Commitment in Rural Conflict Areas (RSVP required). Tuesday, October 16, 2018 8:30–4:00 at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace: Staying on Course: Security, Coca, Justice, and Accord […]

Another eventful, often alarming, week for Colombia's peace effort.

• Chief Prosecutor's Raid on Transitional Justice System
• Missing FARC Leaders Send Harsh Letter
• US Ambassador Pushes Santrich Extradition
• New UN Report
• FIP Rept Finds Deteriorating Security

The past week in Colombia’s peace process

(Week of September 30-October 6) Prosecutor’s Office Raids Transitional Justice System Headquarters On the afternoon of October 4 agents of Colombia’s Chief Prosecutor’s Office (Fiscalía, which investigates and prosecutes crimes in the regular criminal justice system) showed up at the offices of the new, separate transitional justice system created by the peace accords (Special Peace […]

Five links from the past week

Brazil

• Vincent Bevins, “Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s Would-Be Dictator” (The New York Review of Books, October 12, 2018).

Bolsonaro’s ideology is best understood as Operation Condor plus the Internet

Guatemala

• Alberto Pradilla, “El Gobierno Mintio: Hubo Orden Directa para Que los J–8 Patrullaran la Cicig y las Embajadas de ee.uu. Y Mexico” (Plaza Publica (Guatemala), October 10, 2018).

Documentos en poder de Plaza Pública demuestran que hubo una orden de patrullar los alrededores de la comisión y las embajadas de Estados Unidos y México, así como las sedes de la Corte de Constitucionalidad, el Ministerio Público y la Corte Suprema de Justicia

• Ron Nixon, “U.S. Campaign Against Migration Goes Unheard, or Unheeded, in Guatemala” (The New York Times, October 8, 2018).

Residents said they see daily advertisements by the smugglers, or coyotes, promising to get them to the United States. On at least one community radio station in Quetzaltenango, smugglers regularly offer to transport and help finance northbound travels

Mexico

• “Building Peace in Mexico: Dilemmas Facing the Lopez Obrador Government”(International Crisis Group, October 12, 2018).

To make good on his campaign promises, his team should pursue justice in killings by state personnel, reform the civilian police and give robust mandates to truth commissions with victim participation

U.S.-Mexico Border

• Melissa del Bosque, “Checkpoint Nation” (The Texas Observer, October 8, 2018).

Some 200 million people — nearly two-thirds of all Americans — live within the “border zone,” which is defined by the Justice Department as the area up to 100 air miles from any U.S. land or coastal boundary

Five links from the past week

Brazil Vincent Bevins, “Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s Would-Be Dictator” (The New York Review of Books, October 12, 2018). Bolsonaro’s ideology is best understood as Operation Condor plus the Internet Guatemala Alberto Pradilla, “El Gobierno Mintio: Hubo Orden Directa para Que los J–8 Patrullaran la Cicig y las Embajadas de ee.uu. Y Mexico” (Plaza Publica (Guatemala), October […]

The New Brazil

From Glenn Greenwald at The Intercept:

Last week, one candidate from Bolsonaro’s party, Rodrigo Amorim, shocked and disgusted even some far-right supporters. Wearing a t-shirt with a pistol pointed forward, he took, destroyed, and then on social media proudly displayed an unofficial street sign made to commemorate the life of Marielle Franco, the black, LGBT human rights activist from the favelas who, as a leftist City Councilwoman, was assassinated in March, with her police-linked killers still apprehended. …The last line of his social media post – now deleted – read: “Get ready left-wingers: your days are numbered if we’re in charge.”

Last night, Amorim not only was elected to the State House in Rio, but was the most-voted candidate in the state. The other Bolsonaro-aligned candidate promoted there, Daniel Silveira, an officer with Brazil’s military police, was elected to the Federal Congress.

The new Brazil

From Glenn Greenwald at The Intercept: Last week, one candidate from Bolsonaro’s party, Rodrigo Amorim, shocked and disgusted even some far-right supporters. Wearing a t-shirt with a pistol pointed forward, he took, destroyed, and then on social media proudly displayed an unofficial street sign made to commemorate the life of Marielle Franco, the black, LGBT human […]

I searched my news database for articles tagged "civil-military relations" over the past 4 weeks. I was shocked by how many results came out. This topic is heating up.

Civil-military relations in Latin America: links from the past month

Brazil “Brazil’s Authoritarian Without an Army” (The Economist (Uk), October 11, 2018). Soldiers are not itching for power. More likely, they would restrain Jair Bolsonaro David Noriega, “Brazilian Politics Is Backsliding Toward Militarism, and the Presidential Election Could Make It Worse” (VICE, October 5, 2018). Though Brazil has always had ultra-nationalist hardliners, what makes this […]

Music I was listening to this week

The best song I washed dishes to tonight

“Once In My Life” by The Decemberists (2018).

The best song I washed dishes to tonight

“Blink Blank” by Guided By Voices (2018).

The best song I washed dishes to tonight

“Jewels Drossed in the Runoff” by Wild Pink (2018). This band is playing in about an hour a couple of neighborhoods away—see you later.

The best song I washed dishes to tonight

“Young and Angry Again” by Lori McKenna (2018).

The best song I washed dishes to tonight

“Queens of the Breakers” by The Barr Brothers (2018).

Some news links from the week:

Some articles I found interesting this morning

(Even more here) October 9, 2018 Brazil Brian Winter, “What to Expect From Jair Bolsonaro” (Americas Quarterly, October 9, 2018). Bolsonaro will have extraordinary power to act as he chooses, at least at first. After the crisis of recent years, many Brazilians see democracy as a synonym for chaos, corruption and leniency with criminals Glenn […]

Some articles I found interesting this morning

(Even more here) October 11, 2018 supuesta “campaña de falsedades” que “adelanta Colombia” y Estados Unidos Western Hemisphere Regional Adolfo Flores, “The Us Is Set to Deport Witnesses Who Dispute the Border Patrol’s Version of a Fatal Shooting” (BuzzFeed, October 11, 2018). The migrant men have told authorities there was no attack on the agent […]

Some articles I found interesting this morning

(Even more here) October 12, 2018 Western Hemisphere Regional Erica Werner, Josh Dawsey, “Republicans Promise Post-Midterm Fight to Fund Trump’s Border Wall” (The Washington Post, October 12, 2018). GOP leaders now face the possibility of emerging empty-handed from the fight they postponed. They don’t have enough votes in the Senate to push through a big […]