Haiti’s recently appointed Prime Minister Gary Conille called on gangs to lay down their weapons, saying Haitians are tired of violence. The Kenyan police deployment that arrived in Haiti yesterday comes in the midst of what “seems at least a brief break in four months of rampant violence and attacks in and around the capital city. Though heavy gunfire could be heard around the city of Tabarre on Sunday afternoon, many gang members seem to have gone underground, at least for the moment,” reports the Miami Herald. (See yesterday’s post.)
“Initially, the force will be “static,” focused on protecting key infrastructure such as airports and seaports and clearing the way for aid, Leslie Voltaire, a member of Haiti’s transitional presidential council, told The Washington Post. As the force grows, he said, it will become more “dynamic,” working with Haitian police to pacify neighborhoods.”
The force will eventually number 2,500 troops and will count on personnel and financial support from Benin, Jamaica, the Bahamas, Belize, Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda, Bangladesh, Algeria, Canada, France, Germany, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, the UK and Spain, according to the U.S. government. (Guardian)
Guatemala
A Guatemalan appeals courtrevoked a judge’s order to give house arrest to journalist José Rubén Zamora, who has spent two years in jail, in a case that advocates say is revenge for reporting on political corruption. “What the court did is pure harassment, it is a psychological war by the prosecution and the plaintiffs against my father,” said José Zamora Marroquín, the journalist’s son. (Associated Press)
Migration
Brain drain is a significant issue in the Caribbean, and “the loss of the region’s teachers and healthcare professionals is a particular concern highlighted by politicians, workers’ associations, and the media—from countries as diverse as Barbados, Dominica, Guyana, Jamaica, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago,” explains Jordi Amaral in the Americas Migration Brief. One solution is Global Skills Partnerships, bilateral labor migration agreements between countries of origin and destination and public-private partnerships to help fund and train workers, he writes.
Chile
Chilean President Gabriel Boric is enjoying an unexpected popularity boost — his approval rating hit 36% in the latest Cadem poll, a relevant number ahead of municipal elections in October, notes El País.
The Boric administration hopes to reach an agreement on a proposal to reform Chile’s pension system before the municipal election campaign begins at the end of August. “Given the current circumstances, the government should give up its attempt to pass a mega-reform and instead move forward in areas where there is consensus, to avoid repeating the failure of the two previous administrations on this issue,” argues Cecilia Cifuentes in Americas Quarterly.
Regional Relations
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said in a media interview he would not speak to his Argentine counterpart Javier Milei until he apologized for the "nonsense" he had spoken about Brazil. He did not clarify which of Milei’s previous incendiary comments he was referring to. (AFP)
Argentina
Six months into the Milei administration in Argentina, the government has dismantled nearly half of the care policies monitored by CELS — with an interesting trend: the assistance policies left standing are increasingly only those that involve direct cash transfers to individuals. “Although these policies are necessary, by themselves they do not resolve the comprehensiveness or multi-causality of the problems, they do not mitigate the effects of the recession in the world of work and they are not enough to refute the effects of the withdrawal of the State - and its support for organizations - in the territories.” (Cocina de los Cuidados)
Indigenous communities in Argentina’s Salinas Grandes salt flat have resisted lithium mining efforts for 14 years, afraid that water resources will be lost or contaminated. “But now, as more than 30 global mining conglomerates encroach on the region, encouraged by the “anarcho-capitalist” president Javier Milei, the battle lines have been redrawn. Communities are increasingly divided by offers of work and investment; one has already broken the pact – more are expected to follow,” reports the Guardian.
Honduras
Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández is set to be sentenced in a U.S. court today on a drug and firearm offenses conviction. He faces a mandatory minimum 40-year prison sentence after a jury found he accepted millions of dollars in bribes to protect U.S.-bound cocaine shipments, reports Reuters.
Regional
Protecting just 1.2% of the Earth’s surface for nature would be enough to prevent the extinction of the world’s most threatened species, according to a study that identifies 16,825 sites that should be prioritized for conservation in the next five years to prevent imminent extinctions of animals and plants found nowhere else, reports the Guardian.