García Luna sentenced to 38 years
Oct. 17, 2024
Mexico’s former top security official, Genaro García Luna, was sentenced to just over 38 years in prison, yesterday, following his conviction in New York last year on charges of taking millions bribes from the very drug cartels he was meant to be pursuing, reports the New York Times.
He highest-ranking Mexican official ever to be convicted in the United States, reports the BBC.
“Aside from your very pleasant demeanor and your articulateness, you have the same kind of thuggishness as El Chapo, it just manifests itself differently,” U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan said. (Reuters)
Prosecutors had sought a life sentence.
García Luna headed security during former Mexican President Felipe Calderon's crackdown on drug trafficking between 2006 and 2012, reports AFP. At his trial, prosecutors said Garcia Luna, who held high-ranking security positions in Mexico from 2001 until 2012, was the Sinaloa Cartel's "partner in crime."
But “García Luna’s lengthy sentence is another symbolic, yet seemingly hollow victory for the US government. Despite the high-level prosecutions of several corrupt politicians and security officials, it is unclear if holding them accountable has any kind of preventative impact,” explains InSight Crime.
Ioan Grillo writes that García Luna is just the tip of Mexico’s “narcostate,” in CrashOut.
More Mexico
A U.S. indictment unsealed yesterday claims that the leader of one of Mexico’s most violent gangs, the Zetas, continued to run an offshoot group, the Northeast Cartel, from inside a Mexican prison. The accusations are “a grim comment on the lack of security at Mexican prisons,” according to the Associated Press.
Mexico’s military said soldiers mistakenly killed six migrants earlier this month believing them to be criminals after hearing explosions — but local residents interviewed by Reuters cast doubt on that account.
Migration
A comic, published by Boom and the Americas Migration Brief by Jordi Amaral and Fernando Garlin Politis highlights the complexities of the U.S. border and humanitarian migration policies, explaining how the parole policy is a great success that has granted protection to many, but also faces limitations in accessibility for the most vulnerable.
Fixing the U.S.’s broken asylum system is important — but so is creating new pathways for legal migration, argues Andrea R. Flores in Foreign Affairs.
Regional Relations
In The Nation, Jacob Sugarman looks at what Elon Musk’s devotion to Argentine President Javier Milei might mean for an eventual Trump presidency’s social program policies. “Trump has already signaled a willingness to cut Medicaid and Social Security. To understand what this might look like in practice, one need only gaze toward Latin America, where Milei’s austerity policies are chainsawing their way through the social fabric—or, as Musk calls it, ‘bringing prosperity to Argentina.’”
Haiti
“The latest political divisions in Haiti have the country’s leaders resembling children fighting over the same toy and has led to a standoff between Prime Minister Garry Conille and the ruling Transitional Presidential Council,” reports the Miami Herald. (See yesterday’s briefs.)
Venezuela
Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said yesterday that she is still in Venezuela, countering President Nicolás Maduro who said she had fled to Spain. (EFE)
Jamaica
The World Bank’s catastrophe bonds, meant to offer immediate assistance to countries following catastrophic natural disasters, were not offered to Jamaica in the wake of the Category 4 Storm Hurricane Beryl — it’s hardly unique, most cat bonds have conditions that are incredibly specific and oftentimes difficult to meet — see today’s Just Caribbean Updates
Martinique
Martinique authorities have extended a night-time curfew following a new wave of riots over spiraling food prices. (France 24)
After more than six weeks of protests over the high cost of living the local prefecture has signed a deal to cut soaring food prices, reports the BBC.
El Salvador
JP Morgan structured a $1 billion debt-for-nature swap for El Salvador, equivalent to roughly 14% of its debt, in an arrangement that allows the country to refinance a portion of its debt and help fund the conservation of its wetlands, reports Bloomberg.
Colombia
Farmers who formerly cultivated coca in Colombia are switching to eco-tourism, which is offering new livelihoods for hundreds of residents, reports Reuters.
Peru
Peruvian environmental activists say the government is auctioning off plots of pristine Indigenous reserves for fossil fuel projects, and “researchers warn of devastating effects on health and the species-rich environment, with frequent spills coating the lush rainforest in black sludge,” reports the Guardian.
Uruguay
Uruguay will hold a referendum on whether to overhaul the country’s social security system, a vote that threatens to overshadow the presidential elections that take place on the same day, Oct. 27, reports Bloomberg.
Culture
Klaudia Reynicke’s Reinas, which takes place in Peru in the 1990s, is “a family drama ultimately concerned with the emotional repercussions that unexpectedly stem from national crises,” writes Ena Alvarado in Americas Quarterly.
Journalist Laurence Blair’s Patria is a retelling of the history of Latin America since its pre-Columbian period. “To achieve a more nuanced view of Latin America, Blair argues, we need to pay attention to the way historical narratives are constructed. Out of the centuries-long debate that Latin Americans have conducted over their history, Blair highlights two clashing extremes. On the one side, there are the anti-colonialists, like decolonial Argentine academic Walter Migolo, who mourn the cultures erased from the map after colonization. On the other, pro-Hispanists like Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa argue that Latin America is better off having been conquered.” - Americas Quarterly