The Week in Review Share This /

Please note that this is the last week this blog will be found at Justf.org. We are excited to announce that next Tuesday, Just the Facts will become the Latin America section of Security Assistance Monitor, a project that expands the scope of Just the Facts to include data on U.S. military and police aid worldwide. See here for more information

• Mexican traffickers are "turning away from cannabis" and growing opium poppies, due to the falling price of marijuana and rising demand for heroin in the United States, according to the Washington Post. Mexican traffickers are now targeting U.S. areas with the worst prescription pill abuse to sell heroin, as efforts to curb prescription drug use has increased cost of pills and inhibited users’ access, expanding the U.S. heroin market.
• The U.S. Department of Justice announced that Sinaloa cartel lieutenant Jesus Vicente Zambada Niebla, the son of one of the drug cartel's top leaders, Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, has become a U.S. informant. “El Mayo” is a top contender, along with Guzman's sons, to take the reins of the organization since the capture of Sinaloa boss Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán. As the Washington Post noted, the news of Zambada Niebla’s plea deal could worsen the power struggle within Mexico's most powerful cartel. See here for the Associated Press’ cheat sheet on Sinaloa’s leaders.
• U.S. Special Forces and elite Colombian police commandos are training 300 members of Honduras' specialized "Tigres" police unit. The Tigres police are a key part of President Juan Orlando Hernández's militarized approach to security as they have a military structure, are housed in army barracks and can be placed in military units.
• During an Air Force ceremony, President Hernández called for more U.S. counternarcotics support and criticized the United States’ decision to stop sharing radar intelligence with the country over a recently passed law that allows authorities to shoot down aircraft suspected of trafficking drugs.
• As peace talks between the government and FARC advance, Colombia's ambassador to the United States, Luis Carlos Villegas, told reporters Monday that a reduction in U.S. military assistance should be met with an increase in aid to strengthen the country's judicial system. Villegas also noted that the Colombian government is still mulling over a U.S. request to accept prisoners from Guantanamo Bay.
• There were a couple of relevant hearings on Latin America this week, which we will cover in more detail next week. There were a few key points, including during Tuesday's hearing on the "National Security and Foreign Policy Priorities in the FY 2015 International Affairs Budget" during which Secretary of State John Kerry said the United States would hold off on imposing sanctions on Venezuela as long as third-party mediated dialogue was continuing in the country.

  Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Roberta Jacobsen re-emphasized this point during a House subcommittee hearing on “Advancing U.S. Interests in the Western Hemisphere: The FY 2015 Foreign Affairs Budget.” During Thursday’s Senate hearing on “International Development Priorities in the FY 2015 Budget,” Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) said it was "dumb, dumb and even dumber" to suggest that Cuban people "don't deserve the same freedom" as other citizens around the world in reference to criticisms of the “Cuban Twitter” program.

• A letter signed by 82 Democrats in the House of Representatives calls for President Obama to renew enforcement of a ban on imported military-style guns. According to Congressman Eliot Engel (D-NY), who led the effort, "enforcing this ban would serve the dual purpose of improving public safety in the U.S. and reducing drug-related violence in Mexico."
• An article in the New York Times looking at shifts in immigration along the U.S.-Mexico border noted a surge in border crossings in southern Texas and highlighted that most migrants are now Central Americans, as opposed to Mexican laborers. The investigation also found that U.S. agents are now speeding deportations to combat the impression that "that those who make it to American soil have a good chance of staying," given the amount of migrants that have been released while their cases are being proceeded.
• Also on border security this week: Vox published a disturbing look at U.S. Border Patrol's "big problem with excessive force," the House's Homeland Security Committee held a hearing, "Authorizing Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement," Politico posted an interesting photo essay, and NPR published a special multimedia project on its trip along the U.S.-Mexico border, which included a collaboration with the Center for Investigative Reporting to create "the most complete map of the U.S.-Mexico border fence that is publicly available."
• This week marked the third anniversary of the U.S.-Colombia Labor Action Plan (LAP), a joint agenda for Colombian labor reform put in place before the 2012 Free Trade Agreement to improve workers' rights given Colombia’s dark history of anti-union violence.

  The AFL-CIO and Colombia's National Union School (ENS) released reports identifying key areas where the LAP has fallen short, noting that violence against unionists rose again in 2013, with 26 union members killed. To learn more about the labor rights situation in Colombia, you can read an excellent article by Latin American Working Group here, the House Committee on Workforce and Education's release here and read Sen. Robert Menendez' (D-NJ) remarks on the LAP here.

• The UN's latest homicide report found that the Americas have replaced Africa as the world's most violent region, with Honduras and Venezuela leading the globe in murder rates. According to 2012 statistics, about 30 percent of murders are connected to organized crime and impunity for murder runs at 76 percent. The report’s website has a series of informative infographics and graphs.
• Also of note this week: an article in Defense One argued for the pullback of U.S. military assistance to corrupt regimes; Bogotá's interim mayor announced plans to send 300 soldiers to the streets, a move the army called 'not militarization;'and WOLA and Caracas Chronicles covered a live, televised dialogue between Venezuela's opposition and the government.