Two former police officers who confessed to the murder of the Rio city councillor Marielle Franco have been sentenced to decades in prison. Ronnie Lessa and Elcio Queiroz were sentenced to 78 and 59 years in prison respectively in a trial that lasted two days. (Deutsche Welle, See Wednesday’s post.)
Yesterday’s “verdict offered a measure of solace to her family and supporters, but marked only the first step towards justice: a second trial is yet to come for the men accused of ordering Franco’s death,” reports the Guardian.
Lessa and Queiroz signed plea bargains, leading to the arrest of politician Chiquinho Brazão and his brother Domingos in March on suspicion of ordering the hit, reports the BBC.
The 2018 assassination of a rising political star, gay, Black and born in poverty sent shockwaves through Brazil. The case “cast a spotlight on the connections between police officers, powerful politicians and the militias that terrorize poor Rio communities, which Franco had denounced and who are suspected of ordering her assassination,” reports AFP.
Guilhermo Catramby, a Federal Police detective, told the court this week that the assassination was “undoubtedly” motivated by Marielle’s work regarding land rights, especially in the west side of Rio de Janeiro. Her work there was “a thorn in the side of militia interests,” he said. (Associated Press)
"Justice is being served even though the meaning of justice will never be complete for us after the loss of Marielle," Anielle Franco, the politician's sister and Brazil's racial equality minister, said after the sentencing. (Reuters)
More Brazil
Nearly a third of Brazilians rank environmental destruction and climate change as one of the biggest problems facing the country, making the issue politically relevant in the midst of record-breaking floods, droughts and fires, according to LatAm Pulse, a survey conducted by AtlasIntel for Bloomberg News.
The AQ Podcast analyzes Brazil’s municipal election results — despite President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s high approval and positive economic results, “the big winners were politicians from the centrão, the so-called big center, a coalition of parties that range on the ideological spectrum from the center to the center right and right.”
Regional Relations
Colombia said it will not recognize Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s reelection if his government does not release records from July’s disputed vote before January 10, when his current term ends, reports AFP. Brazil has also said it will not recognize the legitimacy of a new Maduro term without detailed vote records. (See yesterday’s post.)
But a regional drought that has harmed Colombia’s hydropower production could make it harder for the Petro administration to maintain its condemnation of Maduro's reelection, according to the Latin America Risk Report.
WIRED reports on the U.S. Trump administration’s covert attempts to overthrow Maduro. “The story of that secret anti-Maduro effort also lays bare the tensions between an administration with hardliners laser-focused on deposing the Venezuelan autocrat and a CIA deeply reluctant, yet nevertheless obligated, to follow White House orders. It shows the limitations of covert, CIA-assisted regime change schemes, particularly when they are not aligned with larger US foreign policy objectives. And it provides new insights into how a second Trump administration—or a Harris presidency—might still try to dislodge the Venezuelan strongman…”
The U.S. Biden administration deported 77 people to Haiti yesterday, despite the context of increasingly violent gang attacks that have taken over much of the country’s capital, reports the Miami Herald.
This week El Salvador said it would join international efforts to aid safety in Haiti, and will send a contingent of soldiers to assist with medical evacuations. “It’s unclear how many Salvadorian soldiers will be involved or if they will be stationed in Port-au-Prince or in the Dominican Republic,” reports the Miami Herald.
Haiti
According to a new UN report, more than 1,200 people were killed from July to September in Haiti – an increase of 27 percent from the previous quarter. (RFI) The violence primarily took place in the Port-au-Prince area and the Artibonite region to the north, reports the Miami Herald.
The UN Hunger Hotspots report, released yesterday, flags that Haiti faces risk of famine, reports the Guardian.
Cuba
Mexico has sent nearly half a million barrels of crude oil and diesel to Cuba in just a span of days, reports the Associated Press. The news comes as Cuba grapples with blackouts and a deepening economic crisis related to lack of fuel, among other things.
Underlying Cuba’s fuel scarcity is a deep economic crisis, writes Javier Corrales in Americas Quarterly. Though private companies aer growing in number, “the goods and services they can trade remain stagnant,” due to internal restrictions on property rights. ”There are no private banks, investment firms, architecture firms, engineering firms, or law firms. There are no independent courts, so property rights remain insecure. Without these ancillary institutions, private businesses cannot thrive. Cuba’s private sector is more like a gigantic flea market (or food court for tourists) than a generator of wealth and investments.”
Mexico
A looming constitutional face off between Mexico’s Supreme Court and it’s Congress could be President Claudia Sheinbaum’s first crisis, reports the New York Times. (See yesterday’s post.) Should the country’s Supreme Court pass a resolution limiting judicial reform passed last month by the ruling Morena party, Sheinbaum will have the option to ignore it — deepening a democratic crisis — or negotiate a compromise.
The UN called for increased protection for Mexican journalists, after two were killed in separate incidents within 24 hours of each other, this week. (Associated Press)
Journalist Mauricio Cruz Solís was killed moments after he interviewed Uruapan Mayor Carlos Manzo about a recent local market fire — an attack that “underscores the ongoing violence and impunity the Mexican press faces every day,” said Committee to Protect Journalists’ Jan-Albert Hootsen.
Migration
Human-smuggling business has exploded in recent years, enabling a record number of migrants to reach the U.S. southern border, reports the Washington Post. But U.S. authorities have done little to combat the phenomenon, even as migration remains a hot-button issue.
Colombia
Colombia’s ELN guerrilla was set to meet with a Colombian government delegation in Venezuela today for a meeting to restart peace negotiations and resume a ceasefire. (AFP)
Chile
The vast majority of Chileans want a more restrictive immigration policy, far than their neighboring countries, according to LatAm Pulse, a survey conducted by AtlasIntel for Bloomberg News.
Bolivia
Bolivian President Luis Arce demanded an immediate end to more than two weeks of roadblocks set up by supporters of ex-president Evo Morales around the country, reports AFP.
Argentina
An Argentine tax amnesty program has drawn in around $18 billion so far in foreign currency previously stuffed under mattresses, stored in safety-deposit boxes or saved in accounts abroad, reports Reuters.
Histories
Archaeologists using laser-sensing technology have detected what may be an ancient Mayan city cloaked by jungle in southern Mexico, reports the Associated Press.
Tiago Rogero’s new book, Projeto Querino, seeks “to understand and illustrate how Black people participated in crucial moments of Brazilian history – such as independence in 1822 or the extensively delayed abolition of slavery in 1888 – something that some school curriculums and parts of the media refuse to acknowledge.” But also “how the choices made by white individuals – particularly wealthy people – continue to prevent descendants of those enslaved from accessing the wealth they created and still generate.” - Guardian