Gang violence in Haiti is having devastating impact on access to food, as territorial battles have spread to key farming heartlands, displacing tens of thousands of people, according to a new United Nations report.
“Ransom payments, theft of crops and livestock and destruction of irrigation canals have forced over 22,000 people to flee their villages and seek refuge in the region’s urban centers,” the U.N. said. “The aggravating effects of this situation are already being felt in Lower Artibonite, where by September 2023 over 45% of the population was living in a situation of acute food insecurity.”
The “harrowing” report details how the gangs and supporters “have made farmers and the properties they work on prime targets, with heavily armed men rampaging through “rival” villages executing locals and gang raping women and children,” reports the Miami Herald.
“Armed with semi-automatic rifles and pistols, gangs have burned houses, attacked irrigation systems, stolen crops and livestock and demanded “taxes” for farmers to access fields,” reports the Reuters. “The UN said gangs are now increasingly attacking residential neighborhoods and abducting people en masse, as well as carrying out gang rapes of women and even young children.”
Regional
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is heading to this year’s COP28 talks with the goal to “sell ambitious new plans to protect the world's forests, and get rich countries to do more in the climate fight,” reports AFP.
“The Guardian asked leading scientists, Indigenous leaders and conservationists around the world about the consequences of inaction on biodiversity loss by the middle of this century. Despite 1 million plant and animal species at risk of extinction, and in the face of wildfires, floods and extreme weather intensifying due to the climate crisis, nature conservation is increasingly becoming a part of the culture wars raging in many countries, which have spurred opposition to many environmental policies.”
Argentina
Argentine president-elect Javier Milei met with top U.S. officials in Washington, including national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Juan Gonzalez, the National Security Council's senior director for the Western Hemisphere, yesterday. Members of his economic team also met IMF officers, reports Reuters.
Milei’s pick to head the economy ministry, Luis Caputo, a former minister in the Macri administration, is “a conventional choice that has boosted markets wary of Milei’s radical image,” reports the Financial Times.
Mexico
Post-Hurricane Otis recovery efforts in Acapulco expose gaps in Mexico’s official response. “Tourist areas in the Mexican resort city are slowly coming back to life but in poorer neighbourhoods many people lack food and power, and face the threat of disease,” reports the Guardian.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has requested permission from the Mexican Senate to allow a group of U.S. military personnel to enter the country to train Mexican special forces in early 2024, reports Reuters.
El Salvador
Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele said he will formally ask Congress to approve a leave of absence to allow him to run for reelection as president in February’s elections. He did not name his temporary replacement in his brief remarks on television yesterday, reports Reuters.
With bitcoin bonds nowhere in sight, and in the midst of crypto turbulence, Bukele’s administration is again turning to the IMF as a debt solution, reports El Faro.
“The loosening of the legal noose that Bukele placed around the necks of independent and dissident journalists, and the president’s openness to negotiate with Washington to regulate the Salvadoran digital environment —the latter seemed profane in Nayib Bukele's crypto creed—, appear to indicate he will seek a more conventional path to pay the growing foreign debt,” writes Ricardo Valencia in El Faro.
Colombia
“Gustavo Petro’s leftist Colombian government has run into major obstacles from economic elites. But the powerful mobilizations that brought him to power, paired with parliamentary negotiating, may be able to turn that around,” according to Jacobin.
Ecuador
A week into Daniel Noboa’s presidency in Ecuador, there are indications of a political rift with his vice president, Veronica Abad, reports AFP.
Panama
Panamanian environmental activists celebrated a Supreme Court ruling yesterday that stopped a controversial mining project which had been the object of mass protests in recent weeks. (Guardian)
Lengua
“Miami — known for its beaches, basketball team, and stormy weather and politics — is getting recognition, and validation, for its unique use of the English language,” with unique turns of phrase that relate to the city’s Latin American ties, reports the Washington Post.