Mafias Run By Rogue Police Officers Are Terrorizing Rio

https://www.economist.com/the-americas/2019/05/30/mafias-run-by-rogue-police-officers-are-terrorising-rio

Inside Argentina’s Killing Machine: U.S. Intelligence Documents Record Gruesome Human Rights Crimes of 1976-1983 | National Security Archive

Inside Argentina’s Killing Machine: U.S. Intelligence Documents Record Gruesome Human Rights Crimes of 1976-1983 | National Security Archive

Colombia-"False Positive"

COLOMBIA

‘False Positives,’  and Proof

New evidence ties the head of the Colombian army to the alleged cover-up of the killing of civilians to beef up body counts in the fight against communist revolutionaries more than a decade ago – known as the “false positives” scandal.

An investigation insider provided the Associated Press with documents indicating that Gen. Nicacio Martínez Espinel signed off on at least seven questionable payments to informers who supposedly identified guerillas, supporting similar allegations lodged against the general by Human Rights Watch in February.

Taken with other circumstantial evidence, the signatures add new fuel to speculation that Martínez Espinel may have supported the practice of killing civilians and planting weapons on them to make the murder look like a victory in the fight against the rebels – though he said he has faced no criminal or disciplinary investigations and had no combat role during the dates mentioned on the new documents.

Notably, the evidence comes in the wake of reports that Martínez Espinel this year ordered troops to double the number of leftist guerrillas and criminals they killed, captured or forced to surrender in combat.

Venezuela: False Start

VENEZUELA

False Start

Venezuela erupted in violence Tuesday after opposition leader Juan Guaido declared he was in the “final phase” of ending the rule of President Nicolas Maduro and asserted he had the support of the military – even as Maduro continued to cling onto power.

The fighting featured running clashes between Guaido’s supporters and armed military vehicles, with some Guaido supporters throwing stones and being hit by tear gas and water cannons in what was likely the most violent day of the political crisis so far, the BBC reported.

Venezuela’s health ministry said 69 people were injured across the country.

US National Security Advisor John Bolton said that three members of Maduro’s inner circle had agreed to his ouster but then backed out, helping him to hang on. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also claimed Maduro had been ready to flee to Cuba but had been convinced to stay by Russian officials.

Late Tuesday, Maduro denied those claims in a speech declaring that what he termed a coup had been defeated, the UK’s Guardian newspaper reported.

Mexico Will Soon Become The US's Largest Trading Partner

MEXICO

Good Neighbors

US-Mexico relations may have taken a bumpy course over the past few years over immigration but bilateral trade between the two neighbors has been soaring, suggesting Mexico could soon become the largest foreign market for American goods.

US census data released last week showed US-Mexico trade rose to $97.4 billion over the first two months of the year, topping America’s trade with Canada and China, the Washington Post reported.

Those numbers could seesaw – especially as Mexican business has benefited from the hardball tariffs on Chinese goods introduced by the Trump administration even as the same measures reduced US-China trade. But with the finalizing of the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the economies of the two countries are likely to become more integrated, according to analysts.

For Luis de la Calle, a former undersecretary of the economy in Mexico, the latest numbers signal a natural course.

“Mexico is a very important market for the United States, and it’s going to become the biggest market for the United States in the world,” he said.

Brasil: Defending The Amazon

BRAZIL

Defending the Amazon

More than 4,000 indigenous people from hundreds of tribes across Brazil have traveled to the capital of Brasilia to protest against President Jair Bolsonaro’s moves to undermine indigenous rights and eliminate agencies tasked with improving their lives.

On Wednesday, indigenous communities began assembling hundreds of tents a stone’s throw from the National Congress in the lead-up to this year’s Free Land Camp, the country’s largest gathering of indigenous people, Al Jazeera reported.

Specifically, the Articulation of the Indigenous People of Brazil (APIB), the main organization behind the annual event, called attention to Bolsonaro’s move to transfer land demarcation and environmental licensing to the Ministry of Agriculture – seen as empowering agribusiness at the expense of indigenous rights.

A week before the event, Bolsonaro reiterated his frequent call for the opening of the Amazon region for commercial exploitation, while APIB and other indigenous groups say his rhetoric has emboldened farmers and companies to violate the existing rules and contributed to an uptick in violence.

Now, special police have been deployed to maintain order, though organizers say the event has been happening peacefully for 15 years.

Venezuela: Safety Valves

VENEZUELA

Safety Valves

Manuel Gonzalez has been sleeping in a park in Riohacha, Colombia, with his 3-year-old son lately. “I beg for food,” the 42-year-old Venezuelan told New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof. “At least I can get food here. I may be sleeping on the ground, but it’s better than over there in Venezuela.”

Gonzalez is among the 3 million refugees that the United Nations estimates have fled Venezuela under the corrupt and incompetent regime of President Nicolas Maduro.

The exodus is the latest example of the internationalization of the Venezuelan crisis.

American officials have included Venezuela along with Cuba and Nicaragua in a so-called “troika of tyranny.” National Security Adviser John Bolton recently announced new measures against the troika, reported National Public Radio.

The Atlantic described the policy as one of “gradual economic strangulation.” But the magazine was not sure it would work.

Russia has vowed to continue helping Venezuela economically and militarily, Newsweek wrote. Iran has even floated the possibility of sending a detachment of the country’s elite Revolutionary Guard to help defend Maduro.

China and India continue to buy oil from Venezuela with foreign currency that is vital to Maduro’s success.

American attempts to discourage those efforts, as well as policies seeking to curb Chinese and Indian imports of Iranian oil, could backfire by hiking prices at gas pumps in the US, analysts told the New York Times.

Those pushbacks against American pressure are one reason Maduro remains in power and can continue to crush his critics, for example, when he banned the leader of the Venezuelan opposition, Juan Guaido, from running for office for 15 years.

If the Venezuelan military opted to withdraw its support of Maduro, he might lose power, but such a shift doesn’t appear likely, New York magazine noted. Still, the president is hedging against such a scenario. He’s expanding the paramilitary forces that directly serve him and act as intimidators or death squads at his behest.

Maduro also turns defeats into victories. After insisting the country didn’t face a humanitarian crisis despite empty supermarket shelves and shortages of medical supplies, the BBC reported, he recently let the Red Cross into the country. The move might have been equivalent to opening a safety valve, preventing an explosion.

The question is, how long can that safety valve work? And, if not much longer, how many more tricks do Maduro and his friends have up their sleeves to keep him in power?