El Salvador to allow mass trials
July 27, 2023
El Salvador’s courts will be able to hold mass trials for alleged gang members, under new rules passed by the country’s Legislative Assembly, yesterday. The measure passed by 67 votes in favor and six against in the assembly, dominated by President Nayib Bukele’s allies.
The changes to the country’s criminal code will allow prosecutors to simultaneously try up to 900 people alleged to be part of the same criminal group or from the same area of the Central American country.
The move is an effort to expedite tens of thousands of cases accumulated under the country’s ongoing state of exception, which suspended constitutional rights and has led to mass incarceration. Authorities have detained 71,976 people accused of being in gangs — though human rights group Cristosal estimates as few as 30% of those detained have clear ties to organized crime.
Opposition politicians and rights groups say group trials risk depriving detainees of their right to due process and their individual presumption of innocence.
“All human beings deserve the opportunity to defend themselves in court. How can they do this effectively in group trials? How can lawyers and public defenders do their work this way?” Carolina Jiménez Sandoval, president of the Washington Office on Latin America, told the Guardian.
The legislation also increases prison time for those found to be gang leaders from 45 years to 60.
(El Diario de Hoy, Reuters, Associated Press, Guardian)
Brazil
Brazil is set to launch a green transition plan worth hundreds of billions of dollars in public and private investments. Officials hope it will become the signature policy President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s third mandate, reports the Financial Times.
Indigenous leader Raoni Metuktire Kayapó has invited Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to his territory this week for one of the most important meetings of Indigenous leaders in recent years. The government has made progress in reducing illegal deforestation and mining — has so far lacked the resources to conduct garimpo-clearing operations in Kayapó land, reports the Guardian.
Guatemala
The Organization of American States secretary general Luis Almagro said he will meet with authorities and politicians in Guatemala next week, amid escalating concerns over alleged government interference in the upcoming presidential runoff vote. (Reuters)
Upcoming U.S. State Department meetings, in Washington, with both runoff candidates -- anti-corruption candidate Bernardo Arévalo and the political establishment candidate Sandra Torres -- are expected to send a growing message that the U.S. government is closely watching the situation and is invested in a free and fair election, reports the Associated Press.
Al Jazeera spoke to residents about the current political crisis — and the uncertainty they are feeling in advance of the August 20 run-off.
Colombia
Colombia said it would ask the United States for the extradition of Salvatore Mancuso, a former leader of the far-right AUC paramilitary group whom President Gustavo Petro had earmarked to work in his government, reports AFP. (See Tuesday’s briefs.)
Ninety-seven social leaders have been killed in Colombia so far this year, including three on Tuesday, according to the Institute of Studies for Development and Peace (Indepaz). (Telesur)
Mexico
Homicides in Mexico declined significantly for the first time in several years in 2022 and then flatlined in the first half of this year, according to Mexico’s National Statistics Institute. (Associated Press)
A xenophobic rant by former Mexican President Vicente Fox, as well as another in which he denigrates poor retirees, could make him a liability for Xóchitl Gálvez, a senator from the National Action Party who has recently emerged as both Fox’s favorite and a challenger to the ruling MORENA party, reports the Los Angeles Times.
Mexican drug cartels’ shift to fentanyl to supply North America has fueled violence at home, and caused an economic slump in parts of Mexico’s poor, rural highlands, where poppies were grown to make heroin, reports the Financial Times.
Ecuador
Ecuadorean police said that they had recovered 11 bodies and 29 body parts after retaking control of various cellblocks at a prison in Guayaquil, after a weekend prison riot in which at least 31 people were killed. (Al Jazeera) On Tuesday President Guillermo Lasso declared a state of emergency in the country’s penitentiary system. (See yesterday’s post.)
Regional
IMF surcharges — additional fees on loans to its most indebted middle-income borrowers, on top of regular interest payments and service fees — are meant to disincentivize reliance on the Fund, but instead “punish the very countries that are least equipped to pay, siphoning vital resources away from public investment,” according to CEPR.
Argentina
Argentina, lacking in liquid currency reserves, may need to tap into a swap line with China to make a $3.4 billion payment to the IMF in coming days. (Reuters)
The IMF is working with Argentina to help stop its 116% inflation rate getting significantly worse, the Fund’s top economist said. (Bloomberg)
Chile
“Chile’s new approach to lithium, one that tips the balance away from private companies and toward government control, is of keen global interest,” reports Bloomberg. The Boric administration “wants the state to take a controlling stake in operations considered strategically significant, with twin goals of making lithium production more sustainable and generating more money for the country.” Though Boric wants to create a national lithium company, this does not mean immediate nationalization of existing private ventures.
Regional Relations
“Latin America’s growing role on the global political chessboard was emphasised during talks with the EU in Brussels last week”, write Manuella Libardi and Francesc Badia I Dalmases at Open Democracy.
Bolivia is interested in obtaining Iranian drone technology to protect its borders and combat smuggling and drug trafficking, according to the country’s foreign minister. The information came a day after Argentina demanded information on an agreement reached by Iran and Bolivia that has raised security concerns in the region, reports the Associated Press.
Caribbean
The European Union said that Europe’s slave-trading past inflicted “untold suffering” on millions of people and hinted at the need for reparations for what it described as a “crime against humanity,” reports Reuters. Latin American and Caribbean countries at the EU-CELAC summit last week had pushed Europe to commit to reparations for slavery. (See today’s Just Caribbean Updates.)
Caribbean countries are considering approaching the UN’s international court of justice for a legal opinion on demanding compensation from 10 European countries over slavery, St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves said last week. (Guardian, See today’s Just Caribbean Updates.)
Migration
CARICOM’s announcement earlier this month that it would look to establish “free movement for all Caricom nationals” by next year, “marks the potential for a new era in Caribbean integration and mobility,” writes Jordi Amaral in the Americas Migration Brief.