U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken instructed his officials to proceed with $109 million in funding to help special-forces police from Kenya deploy to Haiti as part of an international security mission. The move comes after Republican lawmakers have blocked funding for the mission for months.”
“With Blinken’s authorization, there is not only money to purchase equipment a Kenyan security assessment team has said is needed prior to the officers’ arrival in Port-au-Prince, it also sends a strong signal to other nations,” reports the Miami Herald.
A team of Haitian police commanders met Kenya’s inspector general of police yesterday in Nairobi. The meeting took place as Kenyan police clashed with anti-taxation protesters in the capital’s streets. The Kenyan deployment is now expected to take place by the end of the month, reports the Associated Press.
Haiti
Nearly 580,000 people are internally displaced across Haiti, a 60 per cent increase since March, reported the International Organisation for Migration, yesterday. In addition to the displacement in and around the capital Port-au-Prince, the skyrocketing violence and effective siege imposed by armed groups has pushed ever greater numbers of people to flee to neighboring provinces. (See also AFP.)
U.S. federal prosecutors are seeking a life sentence for Germine Joly, known as “Yonyon,” the leader of the notorious 400 Mawozo gang in Haiti, reports the Miami Herald. Earlier this year Joly pleaded guilty to facilitating the purchase and smuggling of high-powered weapons from Florida to Haiti, purchased — according to the U.S. — with the ransom proceeds of U.S. citizens taken hostage in Haiti.
In a letter to the judge, Joly asked for leniency, saying he was exposed as a teen to extreme violence by armed groups. And yet, notes the Miami Herald, “he makes no connection with the litany of crimes he and his 400 Mawozo gang have been accused of: hostage taking, looting, massacres.”
Migration
Colombia will give legal status to up to 540,000 Venezuelan migrants who are guardians to minors residing in the country, reports Reuters.
Ecuador is suspending a visa waiver agreement with China, with officials saying that some Chinese nationals have taken advantage of that agreement by flying from Ecuador to Tijuana, Mexico, then illegally crossing into the U.S. at the southern border, reports CBS.
Regional
The U.S. justice department accused Chinese “underground bankers” of helping Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel launder more than $50m in drug-trafficking proceeds, reports AFP. “An indictment unsealed in California charged 24 defendants with conspiracy to distribute cocaine and methamphetamine and money-laundering offenses.”
In the midst a heatwave affecting North America, “the climate disaster is in many ways already here,” writes Ishaan Tharoor in the Washington Post.
Venezuela
“Gangs allied to Venezuela’s mega-gang, Tren de Aragua, remain operational despite multiple security operations against it, calling into question the Venezuelan government’s declaration that it dismantled the major criminal organization,” reports InSight Crime.
Critter Corner
The Buenos Aires zoo reinvented itself as an “ecopark” hat treats injured wild animals from all over Argentina and educates the public. It has the support of the public and conservationists, reports the Guardian.