Mexican Police Officers Investigated Over Disappeared Journalist
Thirteen police officers in the Mexican city of Medellín de Bravo in the state of Veracruz were detained on Thursday as part of the investigation into the kidnapping of the journalist Moisés Sánchez Cerezo. Sánchez Cerezo, the director and editor of the small, local publication La Unión, was abducted last Friday, January 2 by unidentified … Read more
Policy Updates
A snapshot of policy trends and successes in the region.
Mario Cuomo: Poetry and Prose in Politics
The phrase “campaigning in poetry and governing in prose” was coined by the late and former New York governor, Mario Cuomo. In the interests of full disclosure, I have been an admirer of Mario Cuomo ever since he gave the keynote address at the 1984 Democratic National Convention. Since he passed away on January 1, … Read more
Monday Memo: Panama Canal – Venezuela Diplomacy – 114th U.S. Congress – Guatemala Trial – Uruguay Elections
This week’s likely top stories: the Panama Canal gears up to expand its Pacific coast facilities; Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro travels to China and OPEC countries; the 114th U.S. Congress starts its session on Tuesday with a Republican majority and plenty of hot button issues for the Americas; the trial of Guatemalan General Efraín Ríos … Read more
ACLU and HRW Call for Special Prosecutor to Investigate CIA
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Monday asked the U.S. Justice Department to designate a special prosecutor to examine the CIA’s use of torture as well as other illegal measures when questioning terrorism suspects. Just two weeks ago, the Senate Intelligence Committee released a report about the use of … Read more
Monday Memo: Haiti – Nicaragua Canal – Oil – Petrobras Scandal – Guantánamo
This week’s likely top stories: Florence Duperval Guillaume is named Haiti’s interim prime minister; farmers set up blockades to protest the Nicaraguan canal; Saudis tell non-OPEC producers to reduce output; Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff says she will not replace Petrobras CEO; Four more prisoners are released from Guantánamo. Interim Haitian Prime Minister Named: Haitian Health … Read more
Why Jeb Bush Is a Serious Candidate
With 2014 drawing to a close, speculation will soon turn to the 2016 Presidential race in the United States. The Republicans will hold control over both houses of Congress come January, and will offer a wide array of potential candidates lining up for a White House run. With President Barack Obama leaving the White House, … Read more
Cuba Releases Alan Gross on Humanitarian Grounds
Cuba released 65-year-old former U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) contractor Alan Gross from prison today on humanitarian grounds, paving the way for normalizing relations between the U.S. and Cuba. Gross was sentenced to 15 years in prison for alleged espionage after he was arrested in December 2009 for bringing satellite equipment to Cuba. This … Read more
Monday Memo: Colombia FARC Amnesty— Haiti Prime Minister — Argentina Railway — Venezuela PetroCaribe — U.S. Police Brutality
This week’s likely top stories: Colombians march against possible amnesty for FARC; Haitian Prime Minister Laurent Lamonthe steps down; Chinese railroad company wins $275 million in orders from Argentina; Venezuela seeks to expand PetroCaribe despite its fragile economic situation; Thousands gather across the U.S. in anti-police brutality protests. Uribe Leads Protest Against Possible FARC Amnesty: … Read more
Peña Nieto’s Plan to Tackle Economic Inequality
Mexican President Peña Nieto laid out his ten point plan to tackle injustice and corruption in the country last month as part of his response to the murder of 43 students in Iguala, Mexico. Although the plan has been derided for lacking true punch and political support, one less discussed, but significant, piece of the … Read more
Feinstein, McCain and Cheney React to CIA Torture
It has been said that the United States is capable of the best and the worst. The Senate Intelligence Committee report, with its content on CIA detention and interrogation practices after the September 11, 2001 attacks, can be construed as an expression of the dark side of the world’s oldest and most durable democracy. Making … Read more
U.S. Senate Sanctions Venezuela on Human Rights
The U.S. Senate approved a bill on Monday that would impose sanctions on Venezuelan officials found responsible for violating demonstrators’ rights during anti-government protests that left more than 40 dead and 800 injured since February. The Venezuela Defense of Human Rights and Civil Society Act authorizes sanctions that would freeze assets and ban visas of … Read more
On Silence, Solitude, and Solidarity in Light of National Tragedy
There is little left to say about Ferguson. Protests continue across the nation and abroad, now heightened following the decision to not to indict the police officer responsible for Eric Garner’s death, but the expression of grievance appears to have reached its peak. It seems futile for me to add to the long list of … Read more
What connects Iguala, Ferguson and New York City?
It has been almost half a century since the world last thought of American cities as conflict zones. But starting this past August, events in Ferguson, Missouri, changed that rapidly. The appearance of armed personnel carriers, Humvees and other military equipment reveal to Americans—and the world—that U.S. cities are indeed the new war zones. A … Read more
Ibero-American Summit Begins in Veracruz with Notable Absences
The leaders of Latin American and Iberian countries were on hand for the opening of the 24th Cumbre Iberoamericana (Ibero-American Summit) in Veracruz, Mexico yesterday. Just as notable as who was present, however, was the long list of absences. A block of six presidents—representing Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Cuba—snubbed the two-day summit, which … Read more
