Week in Review

08/26/11
Claire O'Neill McCleskey
Latin America and the Caribbean

In the News

  • In what Mexican President Felipe Calderon called a "true terrorist" act, 53 people were killed and dozens injured after gunmen torched the Casino Royale in Monterrey, Mexico. Hundred of soldiers are currently hunting those responsible, while the President has declared three days of mourning for the victims, who were mostly women. This is thought to be the single deadliest attack in the history of Mexico's drug war.
  • According to the Washington Post, U.S. aid and possibly some U.S. officials may be linked to Colombia's DAS wiretapping scandal, in which the country's security service used spying operations and smear campaigns against former president Uribe’s political opponents and civil society groups. Both the United States Embassy and former president Uribe have denied the allegations.
  • A Brazilian leader of landless workers, Valdemar Oliveira Barbosa, was shot to death in the state of Para. He is the fourth person involved in environmental or land rights to be murdered since May.
  • Peru's new president Ollanta Humala enjoyed two political victories this week. First, in an attempt to mitigate social conflict in Peru's rural areas, the Peruvian Congress unanimously passed a law requiring companies to consult with indigenous communities before building mines or drilling for oil on their lands. Second, the Peruvian government negotiated a deal with mining companies that creates a new windfall tax that could raise around $1 billion in revenue a year.
  • Colombia's Supreme Court decriminalized the carrying of small doses of drugs for personal use. The ruling overturned legislation passed in 2009 that penalized the carrying of all amounts of illegal drugs.
  • Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez signed into law the nationalization of the country's gold industry. Chávez also announced his plans to repatriate the nation's gold reserves from European and American banks.
  • A 16 year old boy died after being shot in the chest during the latest round of massive student and labor protests in Chile. During the two day strike over 1,300 people were arrested and two police officers were shot and wounded.
  • Mary Luz Avendaño, a journalist for Colombian newspaper El Espectador in the city of Medellín, was forced to flee Colombia after receiving death threats.
  • The Peruvian government resumed coca eradication in the Upper Huallaga Valley after temporarily suspending it last week.
  • Honduran farm workers' leader Secundino Ruíz was murdered in the Bajo Aguan valley, only a week after eleven people were killed in clashes between land owners and farmers.
  • Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos announced that over 100,000 acres of land have been acquired illicitly in the northwest region of Uraba. This brings the total amount of illegally obtained land in Colombia up to almost one million acres.

Recommended Articles

  • Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos sat down for an interview with the Washington Post's Lally Weymouth.
  • On the Just the Facts Blog, Andrew Carpenter of the Latin America Working Group reports on the fact that Mexican asylum seekers, including human rights defenders and law enforcement officers, are disproportionately rejected by the United States.
  • Shannon O'Neil of the Council on Foreign Relations has a piece in the Atlantic titled "Myths and Realities of U.S.-Mexico Border Spillover Effects."
  • Patrick Corcoran of InSight Crime reports on how the recent history of Torreon, the small Mexican city where gunfire interrupted a soccer game earlier this week, serves as a microcosm for the nation's drug war.
  • Patrick Corcoran also has an article in the Christian Science Monitor on the increase in drug violence in Mexican tourist city Acapulco.

U.S. Southern Command Updates

  • The Continuing Promise 2011 (CP11) mission team, embarked aboard USNS Comfort (T-AH 20), was forced to temporarily suspend its mission in Port-au-Prince, Haiti due to hurricane Irene. The team returned three days later to resume medical, dental, veterinary and engineering operations.
  • The PANAMAX joint military exercises ended today in Panama. This large-scale U.S. Southern Command- and U.S. Army South-sponsored "Fuerzas Aliadas" event allowed forces from 16 countries to participate in exercises emphasizing the defense of the Panama Canal.

This blog was written by CIP Intern Claire O'Neill McCleskey