Armed gangs attack Haitian hospital
Dec. 18, 2024
Armed gangs attacked Haiti’s only neurological trauma center with Molotov cocktails on Monday, partially destroying the Port-au-Prince hospital.
The attackers set fire to an ambulance and other vehicles in the courtyard along with millions of dollars worth of life-saving equipment, reports the Miami Herald: “Two CT-scanners, a brand-new 3D X-Ray imaging machine, the lab, operating rooms and the pediatric ward all went up in flames.”
It is the latest episode in a wave of violence that pushed Doctors Without Borders to suspend operations in the country last month, reports Reuters. The U.N. humanitarian affairs agency warned earlier this year that Haiti's health system was "nearing collapse," with violence increasingly putting doctors and medical services in harm's way.
Migration
U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents still routinely separate children from adult relatives during their time in custody. after they cross the border, despite broad improvements at detention centers in Texas, according to a court-ordered monitor’s final report. Unlike separations that happened under Trump’s zero tolerance border policy during his first term, those noted in the report were temporary, notes the Associated Press.
Six years after the U.S. forcibly separated migrant families at its border, as many as 1,360 children have never been reunited with their parents, and US efforts to help separated families have not adequately reckoned with the severe harm inflicted on them, according to a new Human Rights Watch report. “Policy documents and government emails analyzed establish that officials deliberately separated children from their parents as a deterrent to other families who might otherwise enter the United States irregularly.”
U.S. authorities deported a Mexican woman and her newborn, U.S. citizen twins, along with her two older children. Her U.S. citizen husband is fighting to reunite with his family, reports the Guardian.
Mexico
About 60 percent of the applicants for Mexico’s first judicial elections were rejected for failing to meet minimum qualifications, reports El País. Nearly 20,000 candidates passed to the next phase, in which commissions will determine suitability of candidates based on trajectory. The number of candidates will then be further reduced by a lottery system, before being presented to voters who will choose judges for various instances, including the Supreme Court, on June 1 next year.
Regional Relations
The legacy of Mexico’s Tequila Crisis 30 years ago could prove valuable as the country braces for the impact of potential U.S. tariffs under the incoming presidency, argues Sergio Luna in Americas Quarterly.
The U.S. government on dedicated its more than $1 billion new embassy in Mexico, some two years after it was scheduled to be completed — Associated Press.
Regional
InSight Crime explores whether shifts in Mexican fentanyl production have contributed to an unprecedented drop in fentanyl overdose deaths in the United States: 17 percent less from July 2023 to July 2024.
Brazil
Brazilian lawmakers approved a bill that includes regulations needed to implement a constitutional tax reform. The bill, which now goes to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva for signature, sets rules needed to consolidate five existing taxes into a single consumption levy, also known as a value-added tax (VAT), with separate federal and regional rates, reports Reuters.
The incoming president of Brazil’s Central Bank, Gabriel Galípolo, is perfectly poised to navigate left-right tensions in a country torn between the need for social spending and fiscal prudence, write Luiza Franco and Nick Burns in Americas Quarterly.
Venezuela
“ The son-in-law of a prominent Venezuelan opposition leader was sentenced Tuesday to two and a half years in prison for his role in a vast conspiracy to siphon $1.2 billion from the state-owned oil company, some of which allegedly landed into accounts controlled by President Nicolás Maduro ’s stepsons,” reports the Associated Press.
Bolivia
A new poll in Bolivia paints a dismal picture of a country where “citizens have lost faith in the country’s political class across the ideological spectrum,” writes James Bosworth in the Latin America Risk Report. The numbers are relevant ahead of a presidential race that is wide open. Former President Evo Morales is marginally ahead in a much divided field, but isn’t legally eligible to run. (See yesterday’s post.)
Argentina
Argentine President Javier Milei’s spending cuts have been celebrated by markets, but have walloped the country’s increasingly large poor population. “The problem is not just Javier Milei – it’s that the opposition isn’t doing anything about it,” Myriam Bregman, a prominent socialist leader and former presidential candidate, told the Guardian.
Critter Corner
A Brazilian wasp species — known as a the velvet ant — is “ultrablack” a matte that absorbs nearly all visible light. Locals call them “sorcerer ants,” because of the unusual visual effects produced by their coloring, reports the New York Times.
Brazil’s caramel-colored street mutts are having a major momen “exalted in memes, videos, petitions, an upcoming Netflix film, a Carnival parade and draft legislation to honor it as part of Brazilian culture. Caramelos’ newfound cachet speaks to the value of resilience in Brazil — a melting pot of 213 million people known for weathering hard knocks with a smile — and inverts its supposed ‘mongrel complex,’” reports the Associated Press.