5 found guilty for murder of former Ecuadorian presidential candidate Villavicencio
An Ecuadorian court found 5 people guilty for the murder of Fernando Villavicencio in August 2023. Villavicencio, a former journalist, had run for president last year on an anti-corruption platform until he was gunned down by men on motorcycles. Police killed one of the gunmen at the scene, and in the weeks that followed, several of the suspects that had been detained were killed in prison before many answers were found (see LADB 10/9/23)
Among those found guilty last week are alleged Lobos faction leader Carlos Edwin Angulo, deemed guilty of planning the murder from prison, and Laura Dayanara Castillo, deemed the funder and coordinator. InSight Crime, however, says “there is still no clarity as to who ordered the killing and why,” with Angulo claiming to be a scapegoat used to help officially close the case. Some have expressed concern that state actors may have been the true forces behind the murder given Villavicencio’s focus on countering corruption.
(InSight Crime, AP, Al Jazeera, The Guardian)
Peru
An uncontacted Indigenous tribe in the Peruvian Amazon has been seen with increasing frequency in recent weeks due to the growing presence of loggers that received concessions inside their territory. (Reuters)
“At least 25 people were killed and 17 injured in Peru on Tuesday after a bus crashed while traveling through a mountainous area,” falling off a cliff. (Reuters)
Argentina
Rampant inflation and rising poverty are causing at least 300 new cases of homelessness each month in Buenos Aires, reports BA Times.
Regional
Brazil has called its ambassador in Argentina for consultations due to recent tensions with the Argentine president, Javier Milei. (Página 12)
“Across the region where Brazil, Colombia and Peru meet deep in the Amazon, an assortment of criminal organisations are exploiting the feeble reach of states, abundance of natural resources and poverty of local communities to grow, diversify and hatch new cross-border ventures,” according to a new Crisis Group report.
Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador is calling for both Biden and Trump to pledge to regulate gun sales. Thousands of US guns end up in the hands of organized crime in Mexico each year. (Animal Politico)
Costa Rica has been a key partner for the US in building in digital resilience and countering China through cybersecurity diplomacy, according to Americas Quarterly.
Mexico
“Mexico’s costly Maya Train draws few passengers in its first six months of partial operation” (AP)
El País explores the environmental impacts of synthetic drug labs in Mexico, including in environmental reserves, deeming the situation a “narco-made ecological catastrophe.” Another El País article notes, “Organized crime in Mexico has found in the mangroves an ideal, remote spot to hide their synthetic drug laboratories, leaving fishermen in Sinaloa to deal with contamination affecting their homes and livelihoods.”
“Without the Yaqui River, survival is almost impossible for the Yaqui tribe in the northwestern Mexican state of Sonora. A lack of water affects the food production and cattle raising, the tribe’s main form of subsistence. But beyond basic biological needs, it also threatens the culture of the Yaqui peoples,” explains Mongabay.
Venezuela
Caracas Chronicles highlights “the long fight for control of the oldest university in Venezuela,” the Central University of Venezuela. A recent event with María Corina Machado and Edmundo González Urrutia at the university sparked controversy for its political nature.
A CFR expert brief explains the context of Venezuela’s upcoming presidential election and notes potential outcomes, predicting, “It’s more likely that Maduro will manipulate or fight the outcome.”
Honduras
“On the northern Caribbean coast of Honduras, Garifuna Afro-Indigenous peoples seeking to reclaim their ancestral lands have been subjected to threats and violence by private developers, drug traffickers and state forces,” explains Mongabay.
Chile
The Chilean Environmental Fund, established in 2021, is looking to restore the recently burned down national botanical garden, reports Americas Quarterly.
Migration
AP highlights the story of a Mexico City clinic, where “Haitian migrants make up a good portion of the medical practice… The Bassuary clinic offers free consultations, and the family also began giving food to the Haitians, and eventually helped some find work, including at the clinic.”
“A UNHCR report monitoring migration through Guatemala finds that Ecuadorians were most likely to report violence as a cause of their migration among those surveyed, while 57% of all of those surveyed reported being robbed while migrating.” (via Americas Migration Brief)
Culture Corner
Americas Quarterly explores “Argentina’s best-known Jewish community center, the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA).”
Critter Corner
Southern Brazil’s recent heavy rains, which displaced hundreds of thousands, have had one silver lining: they uncovered a fossilized skeleton of a dinosaur estimated to be around 233 million years old. (AP)