Latin America Security by the Numbers Share This /

This post was compiled by WOLA Intern Lesley Wellener.

• Venezuela recently further tightened its relationship with China. At the end of the 13^th Bilateral Mixed Commission, President Nicolas Maduro told Chinese President Xi Jinping that he thought that the meeting was a success and that he was happy with the continued relationship with China. As of this year, Venezuela has almost US$5.7 billion in loans from China, and the two countries have planned almost 500 new economic pacts. China now has a hand in almost every aspect of the Venezuelan economy and contributes US$45 billion into a joint fund that helps finance new projects.
• It is no longer certain that the incumbent President of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff, will win reelection on October 5. Due largely to a sluggish economy, recent polling results show that Rousseff is no longer the clear front runner for second-round election scenarios. According to Datafolha, a Brazilian pollster, Rousseff’s main opponent, centrist Aecio Neves, has narrowed her lead, forcing a run-off vote. The gap between the two opponents shrank from 27 percentage points in February to just 4 points in July, which is essentially a statistical tie.
•  Due to the unprecedented surge of unaccompanied minors migrating north from Central America, the U.S. government is now considering a proposal that will allow immigrant minors from Honduras to apply to enter the country as refugees, thus preventing them from making the harrowing journey north through Mexico. The proposal calls for up to US$47 million over the course of two years to start the pilot program. The proposal assumes that 5,000 minors from Honduras will apply and that 1,750 of those will be approved to enter as refugees. (However, since October 2013 alone, authorities have apprehended over 16,000 unaccompanied Honduran children near the U.S.-Mexico border.) If the pilot program is deemed a success, the U.S. government would implement it in Guatemala and El Salvador as well.
• Texas Governor Rick Perry ordered 1,000 National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border on July 21.  Perry has said that the National Guard will help to implement his month-long “Operation Strong Safety,” which aims to combat the recent rise in border crossings in southern Texas. The border security plan will cost US$17 million per month to run; it is unclear how long it will run and how it is being funded.
• The approval rating of Enrique Peña Nieto, President of Mexico, has dropped from 54 percent to 37 percent in polling since he took office two years ago. Many Mexicans have voiced disappointment with Peña Nieto’s slow compliance with campaign promises. Economic growth has not occurred as quickly as promised. So far this year, the economy has grown at an annual rate of only 1.1 percent, which is below the 3.9 percent growth projections for the year.
• Despite reports about high homicide rates and other forms of localized violence and their relationship to the recent surge of migration, the governments of the the Northern Triangle countries of Honduras and Guatemala announced that the homicide rates in these countries have dropped by 20 and 10 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants, respectively. According to Honduran Security Minister Arturo Corrales, homicides have dropped from 84 per 100,000 people in 2012 to 60 per 100,000 people as of June 2014. Guatemala has seen a similar change in the homicide rate. Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina announced that the country has seen a 10 point reduction in the homicide rate since he took office in 2012.
• According to Carmen Omonte, Peru’s Minister of Women and Vulnerable Populations, at least 56 femicides have been reported and confirmed during the first six months of 2014. At this rate, there would be less confirmed femicides than the 131 that occurred in 2013. Even so, there are 88 pending femicide cases before the Peruvian judicial system at this time. If those are confirmed, there could be at least 151 femicide cases this year, which would outpace last year’s number.
• Colombia’s Ministry of Defense recently released a report stating that homicides in the country have dropped 18 percent in the past year. The Ministry also released a series of accompanying videos that highlight the diminishing presence of crime in the country. During the first five months of 2013, there were 6,577 homicides, while during the same time period this year, there were 5,386 homicides. Overall, the homicide rate dropped from 35 per 100,000 people in 2012 to 32.3 per 100,000 people in 2013.
• Evo Morales, President of Bolivia, is running for reelection for his would-be third term. According to the Bolivian Constitution, he is only entitled to two terms as President, but that law was only enacted in 2009 after he was already reelected to his second term, so Morales claims that his first term does not count. He is going into the October election as the clear frontrunner, polling at about 44 percent, while his closest rival, Samuel Doria Medina, is trailing by 30 points.