Colombia’s transitional justice tribunal indicted former army general Mario Montoya yesterday, he is charged with war crimes for allegedly overseeing the killings or disappearance of 130 innocent people. (El País)
Montoya is the highest-ranking military officer to be accused in what’s known as the false positives scandal, in which the army labeled extrajudicially executed civilians as guerrilla fighters to appear more effective in combatting the FARC.
Montoya demanded results from his soldiers — especially combat killings — “at all costs,” the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) said in court documents. In fact, one of the documents, notes from one of Montoya’s subalterns, reads “barrels of blood,” in reference to the General’s demand for results. (La Silla Vacía)
The peace tribunal, formed in 2017 as part of the country’s peace deal to end 50 years of war with the FARC, has charged 62 military officials, including three generals, and civilians over their alleged roles in the killings. Fifty-five of them have accepted responsibility and pleaded guilty in exchange for reduced punishments, reports the Washington Post.
(See this Guardian “Long Read” from 2020 on Montoya and the false positives scandal.)
Chile
Chile’s government announced a national search plan to establish the circumstances and conditions under which the victims Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship were forcibly disappeared or executed, guarantee access to government records and provide reparations and guarantees for victims’ families. It is the first time that the Chilean state has assumed responsibility for the search for dictatorship victims, reports the Guardian.
“Justice has taken too long,” President Gabriel Boric of Chile said during a ceremony yesterday, in which he signed a presidential decree to codify the plan. “This is not a favor to the families. It is a duty to society as a whole to deliver the answers the country deserves and needs.” (New York Times)
Mexico
Mexico's Supreme Court decriminalized abortion in Aguascalientes state, in response to a lawsuit filed by rights groups, as part of a nationwide strategy to eradicate the criminalization of abortion in Mexico. It is the twelfth Mexican state to revoke criminal penalties for the procedure. (Reuters)
Maverick Mexican Senator Xóchitl Gálvez will almost certainly become the Frente Amplio por México opposition alliance candidate for next year's presidential election after the PRI withdrew its own contender ahead of a primary scheduled for Sunday. (Reuters, El País)
“Gálvez faces an uphill battle to close the wide lead held by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s ruling Morena party in the 2024 vote,” according to the Financial Times.
Regional
Latin Americans have “started to see authoritarianism one of the options for democracy,” Latinobarómetro founder Marta Lagos told El País, in an interview analyzing the region’s “democratic recession.”
More Colombia
Colombia’s Constitutional Court recognized the right to digital disconection from work as a human right. (El País)
Haiti
The U.S. Embassy in Haiti said citizens there should leave the country “as soon as possible” amid the ongoing unrest and political turmoil, reports the Washington Post.
Peru
Peru’s slow economic growth, “means the country's political crisis has finally caught up with its economy,” writes James Bosworth at the Latin America Risk Report. “The "Peruvian miracle" over the past decade has been the fact the country could grow its economy … in spite of whatever political controversies and scandals hit … That is no longer true.”
Ecuador
Ecuadorean police arrested six suspects after a car bombing in Quito yesterday, which did not cause casualties. (Al Jazeera)
El Salvador
El Faro has translated its 2012 chronicle of the MS-13’s origin story in Los Angeles. “There are those who believe that the Mara Salvatrucha were born on ‘13th Street,’” write Carlos Martínez and José Luis Sanz “The problem is that the street doesn’t exist.”
Brazil
“Brazilian Planning Minister Simone Tebet said on Wednesday the 2024 budget bill that the government is set to send to Congress this week will include the previously announced goal of zeroing the country's fiscal deficit, in addition to a boost in public spending,” reports Reuters.
Critter Corner
The highly lethal H5N1 variant of avian influenza has killed animals around the world over the past three years, with particularly marked impact on South America’s Pacific coast this year. Now, scientists are worried that the virus will make its way to Antarctica, reports the New York Times.