The Colombian paramilitary Gaitanista Self Defense Forces — called the Gulf Clan — said they would accept President Gustavo Petro’s offer to start peace negotiations. The next steps in any talks were not immediately clear, reports the Associated Press. On Monday night Petro had said he was willing to start peace negotiations with the group if it "dares" to stop drug trafficking, extortion and human trafficking.
The Gulf Clan said it would accept on the condition that the talks be a political process, not a judicial one, reports El País.
The Gaitanistas “have an estimated 9,000 members and are Colombia’s richest criminal outfit. They hold much of the northern countryside, manage the lion’s share of the drug trade and oversee extensive migrant smuggling,” according to an International Crisis Group report published yesterday. “In the areas they govern, the Gaitanistas are the arbiters of daily life, making an estimated $4.4 billion each year from links to drugs and arms trafficking, illegal mining and migrant smuggling.”
Brazil
Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was formally accused of falsifying his COVID-19 vaccination status, reports the Associated Press.
The police said that the fraudulent certificates were issued "to obtain undue advantages related to the evasion of sanitary rules established during the pandemic period,” reports Reuters.
Brazil’s federal police recommended Bolsonaro be criminally charged in the vaccine falsification case, which was carried out partly to travel to the United States during the pandemic. “Federal prosecutors will now decide whether to pursue the case. If they do, it will be the first time the former president has faced criminal charges,” reports the New York Times.
Lava Jato, the biggest corruption investigation in Brazilian history — which had repercussions throughout Latin America — is now ten years old. El País revisits the main players and sentences that shook Brazilian politics, many of which were later overturned.
Haiti
The transitional presidential council in Haiti is nearly good to go: “Eight names were to be forwarded to Haiti’s outgoing prime minister, Ariel Henry, a member of the Caribbean Community bloc known as CARICOM told the Miami Herald.”
The letter was held back late yesterday, and a source said that Prime Minister Mia Mottley of Barbados want to expand the voting members of the council to nine, from seven, according to the Miami Herald.
Chile
Chile’s head of police investigations, Sergio Muñoz, resigned Friday and was placed in preventive detention yesterday in relation to allegations that he repeatedly leaked confidential information to an influential criminal lawyer. (El País, Ciper)
Mexico
“A new report has challenged the official version of events during a fire in a Mexican migrant detention facility that killed dozens, alleging that staff could have let the men out of their cell, but instead decided – or were told – not to,” reports the Guardian.
Regional Relations
Venezuela, Cuba and Bolivia congratulated Russian President Vladimir Putin for his reelection this weekend in a process widely criticized as undemocratic. (EFE)
Ecuador
A delegation of the Inter American Press Association called on Ecuadorean President Daniel Noboa to protect journalists in the midst of a wave of organized crime violence, reports the Associated Press.
Peru
“Environmental activists and indigenous communities in the Amazon are awaiting a verdict in the emblematic case of the Saweto murders, which has seen a decade-long search for justice become a test case for impunity for environmental crime in Peru,” reports InSight Crime.