One dead in Martinique protests
Oct. 11, 2024
At least one person was killed and 26 officers were wounded in Martinique on Wednesday, in riots over rising prices. Demonstrators set fire to a police station, cars and road barricades as they clashed with officers, reports the Associated Press.
The demonstrations were the latest in a series of violent protests over food costs on the island in recent weeks. Hundreds of passengers were stranded this morning after Martinique’s airport was briefly forced to close because protesters overran the tarmac and tried to break in, the airport and local authorities said. (Associated Press)
Authorities said yesterday they planned to ban protests and impose a new curfew, reports AFP. The government said that no police officers used their weapons and that the killing was under investigation.
Colombia
Colombia’s Petro administration said it will meet with the ELN to attempt to reactivate peace talks that were suspended las month when the guerrilla force attacked a military barracks in Arauca. (Infobae)
Petro announced plans to issue the national budget by decree, last week, after lawmakers refused his proposed spending increases. The move is unprecedented since the current constitution was enacted more than three decades ago, reports the Financial Times.
Eight year’s after Colombia’s constitutional court declared that the Atrato River in the Amazon was so important to life, it would have rights equivalent to a human, its human guardians are “increasingly disenchanted by the lack of support from institutions and growing threats from armed groups that control the region,” reports the Associated Press.
Migration
“The chaotic discourse surrounding immigration in the United States obscures a broader story: The Western Hemisphere boasts an increasingly synchronous approach to managing migration,” writes Catherine Osborn in Foreign Policy. “Through negotiations with Latin American countries, the Biden administration has helped develop a regional strategy that goes beyond enforcement to include steps such as creating new legal pathways for labor migration.” The approach has won praise from international organizations, but critics say it's facilitating hardline migrant containment across the hemisphere and chipping away at the international norm of territorial asylum.
“Some analysts have described the Biden administration’s migration strategy as “carrot and stick.” That approach is at risk as the U.S. presidential election approaches: “The Trump administration was all stick,” Adam Isacson” told Foreign Policy.
Do U.S. Democrats need to get harsher on immigration if they want to win in November? Research from The Immigration Lab suggests they don’t, reports the AULA blog.
The number of migrants crossing the Darién Gap between Colombia and Panama increased sharply in September, according to Panamanian government data. The surge is largely related to Venezuela’s July presidential election. (Associated Press)
Regional
“As politicians around the region make dubious promises to bring Bukele-style mano dura policies to their home countries, it’s worth asking—is there a workable alternative for Latin America today,” writes Tamara Taraciuk Broner in Americas Quarterly. Public security can, in fact, be improved without a massive cost to individual rights, she argues in a new report that looks at how in “Guatemala, São Paulo, Brazil, and Bogotá, Colombia, a combination of effective investigation and punishment with social policies aimed at social inclusion has brought tangible results without compromising the rule of law.”
Mexico
Mexican senators passed a bill regulating last month’s landmark judicial reform, reports Reuters. It will now go to the lower chamber of Congress. Before Oct. 16, the Senate must call for an extraordinary election to be held in mid-2025, to elect justices. The election would replace all Supreme Court justices, whose numbers will be reduced from 11 to nine.
Mexico has sent 660 soldiers and militarized National Guard officers to Michoacán state to protect lime growers who complained they were suffering extortion demands by cartels, reports the Associated Press.
Haiti
Criminal groups in Haiti have increased child recruitment as a response to the law enforcement operations of the Multinational Security Support mission and the Haitian National Police, according to a new Human Rights Watch report. (See Wednesday’s briefs.)
“All the sources we consulted, including children associated with criminal groups, told us that more children are joining the gangs and that it is in preparation to have more personnel available to fight against the international security forces and the Haitian police,” the HRW report’s author, Nathalye Cotrino, told the Guardian. “Eventually, they plan to use children as ‘human shields’ if operations against criminal groups begin in their controlled areas.”
The leaders of Kenya and Haiti called on international partners to honor their commitment to the U.N.-backed peacekeeping mission in Haiti, saying the mission needs more resources and that its budget will run out in March 2025, reports the Associated Press.
Kenya will send 600 more police officers to Haiti next month to bolster it’s international anti-gang mission, President William Ruto said on Friday during a visit by the Haitian prime minister. (Reuters, See yesterday’s briefs.)
Regional Relations
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s “stance on Venezuela is a careful recalibration, where practical considerations are slowly eclipsing old ideological loyalties. It reflects underlying political, social, and economic changes both within Brazil and across the region. Though gradual, this shift is unmistakable,” write Felipe Krause and Gabriel Brasil in Foreign Policy.
Brazil
Brazil has been hit by multiple natural disasters exacerbated by climate change in recent months — but environmental issues were largely off the political radar in last weekend’s local elections, reports the Latin America Brief.
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed into law a bill that increases the potential jail term for femicide to 40 years and prohibits perpetrators of crimes against women from holding public office. (Buenos Aires Times)
Chile
“A sprawling criminal probe called Caso Audios is sending shockwaves far and wide throughout Chile,” reports Bloomberg. The scandal “has ensnared companies, Supreme Court justices and former government ministers.”
Bolivia
A group of Bolivian women are fighting for equal opportunities in the construction industry, where sexism, abuse and unequal pay are rampant, reports the Guardian.