Brazil's Jan. 8 riot investigation ending
Oct. 16, 2024
“An investigation by Brazil's federal police will conclude that former president Jair Bolsonaro conspired to engineer an attempted coup d'etat after he lost the 2022 election,” reports Reuters. ”Signs of Bolsonaro's involvement in editing a draft decree to overturn the election results will be reinforced by further evidence collected by the federal police using search and seizure warrants.”
The probe is expected to end by November.
Brazil’s Federal Police requested the extradition of 63 of people who fled the country after being accused of rioting in the capital on Jan. 8, 2023. Most of the people are believed to be in Argentina. The police sent their request to the Supreme Court’s Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who remitted it to the Justice Ministry, reports the Associated Press.
More Brazil
Brazil’s Supreme Court is at the center of a “creeping institutional crisis,” reports the New York Times. In the past five years the court “has expanded its power to carry out a sweeping campaign to protect Brazilian institutions from attacks, many of them online. To the Brazilian left, the offensive has helped rescue Brazil’s democracy. To the right, it has made the court a threat to democracy itself.”
In an interview with the New York Times, the court’s chief justice, Luís Roberto Barroso defended the court’s actions and argued that they could be a model for fighting a global far-right movement.
Brazil’s Para state government, in the country’s Amazon forest, said it will consult Indigenous communities on how they will benefit from the future sale of carbon offset credits that U.S. companies have agreed to buy to try to protect the rainforest. (Reuters)
COP16
COP16 starts in Colombia next week — countries will gather to determine whether they are making progress on a historic biodiversity agreement that calls for protecting 30% of land and water by 2030, known as 30 by 30. “When the agreement was signed, 17% of terrestrial and 10% of marine areas were protected — which hasn’t changed significantly,” reports the Associated Press.
COP16 is the first in a series of environmental negotiations hosted by Colombia and Brazil that represent “the best opportunity in a generation to drag the Amazon back from the abyss,” argues Jonathan Watts in the Guardian.
COP16 could launch “a new era of mycelial conservation” thanks to a proposal by the UK and Chile “that fungi should be placed alongside animals and plants as a separate realm for environmental protection,” reports the Guardian.
Haiti
Experts say the Oct. 3 gang massacre in Pont-Sondé — 177 killed — is one of Haiti’s worst mass killings in decades. The rampage has led to entreaties for international support before gangs make their next move, reports the Guardian.
"We are a people of 12 million being held hostage by about 2,000 bandits", Haitian Foreign Minister Dominique Dupuy told FRANCE 24 when asked about gang violence in the country. “The international community needs to understand that the support we need needs to come now," she insisted.
Members of Haiti’s ruling presidential council called for Dupuy to be fired, believing her stance toward the Dominican Republic over its mass deportations of Haitians is too harsh, reports the Miami Herald. Prime Minister Garry Conille refused, triggering a standoff in the country’s interim government.
Regional
This month, several Latin American countries — Ecuador, Honduras, and El Salvador — have “declared or prolonged states of emergency aimed at combating organized crime, even though the results of these efforts so far have been lackluster,” reports InSight Crime. “The frequent use of states of emergency by several Latin American governments brings immediate operational, political, and media benefits, but few promised results. And the measures pose risks when they are prolonged.”
Mexico
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum acknowledged that three civilians, including a child, died in two shootouts involving the military last week in Nuevo Laredo, on the country’s border with the U.S. (Associated Press)
Sheinbaum announced $20 billion in foreign direct investments at an event with US and Mexican business leaders, reports the Financial Times. But many of the announced investments are neither new, nor completely certain, according to the Associated Press.
Mexican officials sought to assuage investor concern at yesterday’s bilateral summit with business leaders, amidst fears about constitutional reforms, reports Reuters.
Lawmakers in Mexico's lower house of Congress voted overwhelmingly in favor of so-called secondary legislation that will regulate the implementation of a judicial reform approved last month. (Reuters)
The Mexico Political Economist flags concerns, “including the empowerment of the pro-government president of the autonomous electoral authority, INE, giving her power to select key posts without the consent of her colleagues in the electoral council.”
Cellphone contacts can get you killed in Culiacán now, as warring factions of the Sinaloa Cartel target people based on information on their phones. (Associated Press)
Former Mexican public security chief, Genaro García Luna, is set to be sentenced in a U.S. court today after being convicted of taking bribes to aid drug traffickers, reports the Associated Press.
Venezuela
At least 21 people including workers, neighbors and firefighters were injured in a fire at a crude storage tank in Venezuela's La Salina oil terminal, yesterday. (Reuters)