At least 30 people have been killed in clashes between two factions of the Sinaloa Cartel, over the past two weeks and another 30 have been disappeared in the same context. Mexican Defense Secretary Luis Cresencio Sandoval said that two military troops were among those killed in the fighting that started Sept. 9, despite the presence of 2,200 security personnel, reports the Associated Press.
The war is between factions of the Sinaloa Cartel loyal to Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada and “Los Chapitos,” the sons of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, after a sudden increase in tensions in the wake of Zambada’s apparent abduction and handover to U.S. authorities by one of Guzmán’s sons. (El País)
Ioan Grillo reports from the frontlines of the Sinaloa Cartel war, that has paralyzed Culiacán to an unprecedented level, reminiscent of Covid-19 lockdowns. “This seems worse than the last Sinaloa war. There is a darker atmosphere and I’m more pumped with adrenaline. Contagious fear surges through the city, which the local Culichis call ‘social psychosis.’” (CrashOut)
On Monday, the regional army commander, Jesús Leana Ojeda, said the military is not responsible for ending the fighting. “It depends on the antagonistic groups to stop confronting each other,” he said at a news briefing.
More Mexico
Outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador won't have much influence on incoming president Claudia Sheinbaum’s security policy, according to James Bosworth. “Conversations I've had in recent weeks with analysts in Mexico portray a president who is prepared to take on the security challenge with more than happy rhetoric and press conferences. She is data-driven and wants police to lead security policy rather than the military,” he writes in the Latin America Risk Report.
Sheinbaum is working on constitutional reform proposals to strengthen prosecutors and public defenders, according to her advisor, former Supreme Court justice Arturo Zaldívar. (Animal Político)
Mexico’s recently approved judicial reform is causing rifts among the country’s elite, “with group chats and social feeds erupting into heated exchanges rarely seen among the country’s genteel upper class,” reports Bloomberg.
A landslide caused by heavy rains has killed six people near Mexico City, reports the Associated Press.
ELN attack on military base
Two soldiers were killed and 25 injured in an attack on a military base in eastern Colombia. Colombia’s government blamed the National Liberation Army (ELN) for the attack. (La Silla Vacía)
President Gustavo Petro hinted that the attack will lead to a suspension or a cancellation of peace talks with one of the country’s largest remaining rebel groups, reports the Associated Press.
“This is an attack that practically closes a peace process, with blood,” he said during a ceremony in Bogota. (Al Jazeera)
More Colombia
Petro called for a demonstration tomorrow in defense of his government’s pension reform, a key legislative victory which is before the Constitutional Court. (El País, La Silla Vacía)
Morales and Arce supporters clash in Bolivia
Thousands of demonstrators marching in support of former Bolivian President Evo Morales clashed with counterprotesters yesterday on a highway headed to La Paz, a sign of an escalating power struggle between Morales and his former protégé, President Luis Arce.
Hundreds counterprotesters, armed with tear gas bombs, stones and firecrackers, waited to confront the approximately 10,000 people who heeded Morales’ call to march from the small village of Caracollo. “The Morales supporters, raising multi-colored Indigenous flags and chanting against Bolivia’s economic crisis, surged toward them, using slingshots to pelt their adversaries with rocks as police in pickup trucks and on motorbikes looked on,” reports the Associated Press.
Arce accused Morales of attempting to orchestrate a coup against his government, on Sunday, while Morales is demanding the opportunity to participate in presidential elections and rejects a referendum on fuel subsidies. (El País)
Ecuador
There are a record-breaking 17 presidential tickets announced for Ecuador’s February elections. Luisa González, who lost in the second round of the last elections in 2023, will again be the presidential nominee for the progressive Revolución Ciudadana (RC) party, but seconded by Diego Borja, a former minister in Rafael Correa’s administration who later opposed him but has since returned to support the RC, reports CEPR’s Ecuador News Roundup.
Leaked private messages said to be sent by Ecuador’s Attorney General Diana Salazar, allege that Fernando Villavicencio, the Ecuadorean presidential candidate assassinated at a campaign event last year, was a US. government informant, according to a report by Drop Site News and Intercept Brasil. Correistas accuse Salazar of engaging “in a pattern of politically motivated actions, including aggressively pursuing cases against left-wing politicians while simultaneously delaying cases against more pro-U.S. right-wingers.”
Regional Relations
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva insisted that his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy should seek a peace negotiation with Moscow. Lula made those remarks after Zelenskyy dubbed a peace roadmap submitted jointly by Brasilia and Beijing as “destructive.” (Mercopress)
Migration
WOLA highlights “the use of excessive force by Texas police and national guardsmen against civilians at the borderline. Actions committed along the Rio Grande, which range from firing projectiles at unarmed migrants to physically pushing them back across the border, violate nearly any democratic law enforcement agency’s standards and set a dangerous precedent for civil-military relations on U.S. soil.” (Via Americas Migration Report)
Venezuela
Venezuela’s government announced the arrest of a fourth U.S. citizen in connection with an alleged plot to kill President Nicolás Maduro — which Venezuelan officials say involves the CIA, Spain’s intelligence agency, organized crime groups, sex workers and members of the opposition. (Associated Press, Washington Post, see Monday’s post.)
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken vowed to keep pushing for "democratic freedoms" in Venezuela, in conversation with leaders of Venezuela’s opposition, reports AFP.
El Salvador
El Salvador’s sovereign debt jumped “after President Nayib Bukele said the 2025 budget wouldn’t involve issuing new debt, signaling his plans for fiscal austerity, a key step in unlocking a long-awaited program with the International Monetary Fund,” reports Bloomberg.
Costa Rica
Pesticides that are banned in Europe continue to be produced and exported to countries such as Costa Rica, where they help to meet market demands for the kind of aesthetically perfect bananas sold worldwide, reports the Guardian.
Honduras
The revelation that Honduran president Xiomara Castro’s brother-in-law negotiated with drug traffickers has shaken the government, “but the administration’s response to the crisis signals little appetite to address the vulnerability of state institutions to infiltration by organized criminal groups,” reports InSight Crime.
The U.S. State Department and other global leaders denounced the assassination of Juan López, an Honduran environmental leader, reports the Associated Press. (See Monday’s briefs.)
Brazil
Brazilian appeal judges upheld charges against only two of the three men accused of murdering Bruno Pereira and Dom Phillips, in a decision “received with indignation” by Indigenous activists, reports the Guardian.
Meta agreed to buy up to 3.9 million carbon offset credits from Brazilian investment bank BTG Pactual's forestry arm through 2038, reports Reuters.
Chile
Google said it would halt plans to develop a major $200 million data center in Chile to address environmental worries, months after a Chilean court partially reversed the center’s authorization over water usage concerns, reports the Associated Press.
Critter Corner
Water anoles are a sought after treat in the Costa Rican rainforest, but slippery skin and an ability to carry an air bubble underwater help the lizards scuba dive for survival, reports the New York Times.