News Summaries in October 2023

“The Desperate Find a Fragile Oasis After a Hurricane’s Chaos,” New York Times, Oct. 31, 2023

 

As of the morning of Oct. 30, 45 people were confirmed dead and 47 missing from the devastation of the Category 5 hurricane that struck Acapulco and the Mexican state of Guerrero in which the city is located. Local authorities had identified 1,656 displaced people set up in hotels, schools and sports complexes, according to an incomplete list. Overall, the storm had left hundreds of thousands of people isolated and without basic resources. The city was left in darkness after Hurricane Otis knocked out more than 10,000 power poles. “It is a total collapse,” said Erik Rojas, one of 2,200 electricians sent to Acapulco after the hurricane. “It’s like building a whole new infrastructure.” Security at night was a growing concern. “They’re raiding,” an official advised residents. "If you get mugged, they take your stuff.” Inside a church that sheltered dozens of the displaced, bottled water was running low. Crates overflowed with medicine boxes and bottles, but no doctors were there to prescribe them. Citywide, much of the health care system had been destroyed. “Even finding food and other supplies has been a major hurdle in the city,” said Times reporter Emiliano Rodríguez Mega. “Almost every store, supermarket and warehouse across Acapulco had been stripped clean, although the government has begun to distribute provisions.”  Otis is the most powerful hurricane to strike the Pacific Coast (see story below).

“Venezuela Primary Results Suspended in Latest Blow Directed at Opposition,” The Guardian, Oct. 30, 2023

 

The Venezuelan supreme court has suspended the results of a primary election that selected María Corina Machado as the opponent of President Nicolás Maduro in a presidential election next year. Analysts say the conservative Machado, overwhelmingly elected in the Oct. 22 primary, would have a good chance of defeating Maduro for the presidency. The court, filled with Maduro’s allies, also ratified bans on running for office placed on Machado and two others. The United States agreed to lift oil and other sanctions on Venezuela if it agreed to fair elections next year that did not exclude Machado as a candidate. It threatened to reimpose the sanctions if Venezuela does not comply. “The U.S. government will take action if Maduro and his representatives do not meet their commitments,” a U.S. State Department spokesperson said. Venezuela’s attorney general announced last week that the primary is under investigation for financial crimes and conspiracy, wrote Guardian reporter Luke Taylor. “Maduro has retained control of the country despite its [economic] collapse by rigging elections, bribing military cadres and intimidating the political opposition with human rights violations,” he said.

“Heeding the Rules, and Now Languishing in Migrant Purgatory,” New York Times, Oct. 27, 2023

 

Break the rules and get in or follow them and perhaps be denied entry forever – that’s the situation a Venezuelan mother and daughter find themselves in after breaking off a terrifying journey to cross into the United States and deciding instead to follow the legal pathway urged by President Biden. Dayry Alexandra Cuauro and her six-year-old daughter Sarah now “live in a rusty shack with no running water, hiding from the violence just outside their door, haunted by a question that won’t go away: Should they have listened to President Biden?” So writes Times reporter Julie Turkewitz, who says the life of the pair now is mostly confined to the two rooms of their shack in a location the mother asks not be published for fear of being attacked. “Crime and violence are such constants that she rarely ventures out. Some days, there is no food in the house, and even when there is, her anxious daughter Sarah, now 7, often refuses to eat.” Mother and daughter became separated for three days trying to traverse the jungle terrain of the Darien Gap between South and North America. Three days after the traumatized pair was reunited, the Biden administration, which had been permitting Venezuelans arriving at the southern border to enter the U.S., said they could be turned back and sent to Mexico. After hearing from her sister about Biden’s new legal pathway to enter the U.S., Cuauro “listened and dropped off the migrant trail. But nearly a year later, all she has gotten is an auto-reply: Her applications to enter the United States legally have been submitted.” But only a fraction of the up to 1.5 million such applications filed have been accepted. Cuauro agrees with Biden that the trip north involves much more risk than anyone should have to take on. But she hears anecdote after anecdote, including from people she knows, who defied the administration’s entreaties not to come. They got into the United States, and now have jobs and places to live.

“Mexican Officials Race to Assess the Damage from Deadly Hurricane,” New York Times, Oct. 27, 2023

 

More than two dozen people were killed and three people were missing after the most powerful hurricane to ever strike the Pacific Coast slammed into Guerrero state, a region of Mexico already torn by cartel violence. Authorities were particularly concerned about the impact of Hurricane Otis on the tourist metropolis of Acapulco, home to some 852,000 people. “Frightened tourists hid in their resorts on Wednesday night as the hurricane collapsed ceilings and shattered windows,” the Times reported. According to Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, winds ripped every utility pole in the city from the ground, the Times said. “Beaches that once brought visitors from all over the world were now covered in piles of debris.” Models used by weather forecasters failed to predict the enormous magnitude of the storm and that it would intensify so quickly. It transformed from a tropical storm with winds of 65 miles per hour into a Category 5 hurricane with sustained winds of 165 miles per hour in less than 24 hours.  A few days before the hurricane struck, a dozen police officers were killed in gang violence near Acapulco (see story below). 

“Texas Votes to Arrest Migrants, Testing Reach of State Powers,” New York Times, Oct. 27, 2023

 

The Texas House approved Oct. 26 a bill letting police arrest and jail unauthorized migrants or order them back to Mexico. That’s a direct challenge to federal power, which does not permit such state actions according to a 2012 U.S. Supreme Court ruling concerning a similar law in Arizona. Under federal law, a migrant has the right to apply for asylum without being arrested, but the new Texas measure, along with one already passed by the Texas Senate, would permit arrests even in such cases. “There is nothing unfair about ordering someone back from where they came if they arrived here illegally,” said Texas House Representative David Spiller, a Republican. Democrats said the measure would set up a criminal enforcement regime inadvertently targeting Hispanic Texans.  The law could lead to a revisiting by the U.S. Supreme Court of its 2012 decision in the Arizona case, which was decided 5 to 3. A number of analysts said that decision clearly pre-empted state laws such as the one Texas is on the verge of adopting. But Texas police officials are discussing how they would use the new law. Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McGraw said big new jails wouldn’t be needed to deal with mass arrests if most migrants agreed to go back over the border. He also said police wouldn’t make arrests separating a mother from a child. Tensions are flaring between federal and state border officials. Many migrants try to turn themselves in right away to federal border agents to make asylum claims. State officers had been handing them over for federal processing if they encountered the migrants first. But recently they’ve been laying down concertina wire along the Rio Grande and shouting at migrants trying to cross to go back. Some federal agents have been cutting that wire to help migrants struggling in river. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued the Biden administration Oct. Oct. 24 to make agents stop cutting the wire. 

“Border Crossings by Venezuelans Decline as Biden Starts Deportations,” Washington Post, Oct. 25, 2023

 

The number of Venezuelans crossing the border into the U.S. illegally has dropped 50 to 60 percent since Oct. 5, according to preliminary federal data. That was the day the Biden administration announced it would begin deportation flights to Venezuela. Meanwhile, the number of Venezuelans encountered by U.S. agents at the southern border fell from more than 2,000 a day to about 850. Kristie Canegallo of the Department of Homeland Security told the Post “we have said all along that a combination of lawful pathways and strengthened consequences works and keeps migrants from putting their lives in the hands of smugglers.”  The U.S. returned 127 Venezuelan adults on Oct. 18 and 111 more Oct. 23. Advocates for immigrants say the deportees are being forced back into an unsafe country. The deportations are “shameful” and “dehumanizing,” they say. The drop in crossings means Venezuelans no longer make up the largest percentage of unlawful entries; Mexican migrants again account for that share. “More than 120,000 Venezuelans have been processed for U.S. entry at border crossings and U.S. airports in 2023,” the Post said, citing government data. 

“Javier Milei Endorsed by Defeated Rival Who Once Sued Him for Defamation,” The Guardian, Oct. 25, 2023

 

Defeated Argentine presidential candidate Patricia Bullrich has endorsed Javier Milei in the country’s runoff election next month. In an earlier round of voting “libertarian firebrand” Milei won 30 percent of the vote and Bullrich 24 percent. The first-place finisher, Argentine Economy Minister Sergio Massa won 37 percent. “If Milei can add the 24 percent of votes obtained by Bullrich…to his own 30 percent he will have enough to defeat Massa,” said Guardian reporter Uki Goñi. “But Massa is hoping to steal votes from Bullrich and Milei from supporters disenchanted with their alliance.” 

 

“A Dozen Mexican Police Officers Killed in Attack Near Acapulco,” Washington Post, Oct. 25, 2023

 

A dozen police officers and a local security supervisor were ambushed and killed Oct. 23 in the Mexican coastal town of El Papayo about 30 miles northwest of Acapulco. It was “the latest attack by criminal gangs that are openly confronting authorities in a state known for heroin poppy production,” said Post reporter Mary Beth Sheridan. It’s the state of Guerrero, where at least 16 crime syndicates are engaged in drug trafficking, kidnapping and extortion. – and turf battles. At first, the target of the attack was Alfredo Alonso López, head of public security in the municipality of Coyuca de Benitéz. When fired upon he called in police reinforcements who were killed with him. Five of the officers killed were found with their faces down and hands tied behind their backs. The Post noted that the Familia Michoacana gang has been moving aggressively into the Acapulco area. Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador ordered 300 National Guard troops to the region Oct. 24. He has rejected violent government confrontations with gangs,  however, saying it just leads to spiraling violence. Instead, he is expanding the presence of the National Guard and creating social programs to draw young people away from gangs. “Many analysts warn of growing violence as Mexico approaches national elections next year and criminal groups battle to preserve or increase their political power,” Sheridan wrote. 

“Paramilitary Gangs in Brazil Torch More Then 35 Buses in Rio de Janeiro Attacks,” The Guardian, Oct. 23, 2023

 

Paramilitary gangsters reportedly set fire to at least 35 buses and coaches, four lorries and a train Oct. 23 in what local media called one of the biggest criminal attacks in the history of Rio de Janeiro.  The Guardian’s Tom Phillips wrote that the attack was an “unprecedented assault on Rio’s public transport system.” The “eruption of violence…brought parts of Brazil’s most famous city to a standstill and forced at least 45 schools to close, affecting thousands of students,” Phillips said. Officials and media reports attributed the attacks to mafia-style groups known as “milicias” (militias) which have seized control of big parts of Rio in the last twenty years. They originally were self-defense groups formed by off-duty police and prison guards but turned into “murderous criminal mafias.” The attacks were believed to be retaliation for the police killing of a senior paramilitary leader. 

“Venezuelans Back Candidate to Challenge Maduro – If She’s Allowed,” Washington Post, Oct. 23, 2023

 

Venezuelans have nominated 56-year-old conservative María Corina Machado to run next year against authoritarian President Nicolás Maduro. Maduro recently agreed to the election in return for a temporary U.S. easing of oil, gas and gold industry sanctions. The question now however is whether he’ll lift a long-standing government ban on Machado running for office. She won more than 92 percent of the Oct. 22 primary designed to select a single candidate to challenge Maduro. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken informed Maduro he expects a specific timeline by the end of November for the reinstatement of all candidates including Machado.  If Maduro refuses, the U.S., can slap sanctions back on after April 2024. The primary is the first of its kind since 2012. It drew more than 1.5 million voters, including votes from abroad cast by Venezuelans at 80 polling centers in more than 20 countries. The primary got no support from the government, which “dismissed the vote Sunday as a fraud,” the Post said. Analysts saw the turnout as an expression of Venezuelan hope that the election could begin an end to economic disaster and political repression that has led a quarter of the nation’s population to leave the country. A reinstated Machado would have to unify a fractured opposition. “Her policy goals – such as privatizing the lucrative state-run oil industry – veer further right than many in the movement,” the Post said. 

“Analysis: Argentina ‘Puts a Limit on Madness’ As Resurgent Peronists Stall Milei’s Rise,” The Guardian, Oct. 23, 2023

 

Despite soaring inflation and a 40 percent poverty rate, soft-spoken if not soporific Sergio Massa led a “resounding comeback” this week in elections to determine who will next serve as president of Argentina, wrote Guardian analyst Uki Goñi. But what Goñi called the  “broad” margin of victory for the Peronist Massa, Argentina’s Economy Minister – 36.6 percent versus 29.9 percent for libertarian economist Javier Milei -- was not big enough to prevent a runoff between the two scheduled for Nov. 19.  Leftists are now much more hopeful that Milei can be defeated, but some analysts still see him as the frontrunner because of anger toward the entrenched Peronist party’s mismanagement of the Argentine economy  (see next story).  Milei has won passionate right-wing support with his vow to slash spending and smash the ruling left-wing establishment. But Goñi said several factors worked in Massa’s favor, such as his “mellow tones, and a promise to embrace figures from other political parties if elected.” He stepped up campaigning in Peronist strongholds and benefitted from tireless campaigning by Axel Kicillof, the governor of the Buenos Aires province. Massa eased the 150 percent cost of inflation by obtaining a $7.5 billion line of credit from the International Monetary Fund – the money temporarily permits reimbursements directly to people’s bank accounts for taxes paid on essential items. In Goñi’s view Milei erred by proposing that men could prevent sexual partners from getting abortions if they agreed to provide lifetime economic support. Another mistake: “a ferocious campaign of trolling Pope Francis.” Goñi quoted political commentator Ernesto Tenembaum, who said: “Madness can pay off to a certain point, but not beyond that point. People get scared.”

“Argentina’s Ruling Party Candidate Takes Most Votes in Presidential Election,” Wall Street Journal, Oct. 22, 2023

 

Defying polls that showed his Trumpian rival would come in first, Argentine Economy Minister Sergio Massa won the first round of his country’s presidential election Oct. 22. Rebuffed for the time being was libertarian economist Javier Milei, who, among other things, has called Pope Francis “an evil leftist” (see next story). With 92 percent of the votes counted, Massa had 36 percent of the vote and Milei 30 percent. Massa took desperate steps to counter the surging Milei, who liked to wave around a chainsaw at rallies while promising to slash spending to counter soaring inflation and cut ties with communist countries including China, a major trading partner for Argentina. Massa “in September eliminated the income tax for nearly all Argentines while showering people with cash bonuses,” wrote Journal reporters Ryan Dubé and Silvina Frydlewsky. Voters apparently were uneasy about Milei’s promises to dismantle the Argentine establishment; also, his proposals “would be painful for Argentines dependent on government assistance,” the Journal said. But Massa is identified with a “merciless economic crisis marked by 138 percent inflation, a collapsing currency, and growing poverty that has reached 40 percent.” The pair will face off in a Nov. 19 runoff to decide who will lead Argentina, which the Journal describes as “a country of 46 million, a major agricultural powerhouse with important lithium and natural gas reserves.” Setback aside, Milei remains the frontrunner since opposition candidates got more than half the vote, said Benjamin Gedan of the Wilson Center.

“A Glimpse into Spain’s Future, Where Water Comes by Truck, Not Tap,” New York Times, Oct. 22, 2023

 

A small village in southern Spain may foretell what ‘s coming for parts of Europe increasingly hit by drought and extreme heat. The town is Pozoblanco, which -- along with 22 other villages in a farming area north of Cordoba -- has needed deliveries of water since April when the local reservoir completely dried up. Residents are having to cope with the aftereffects of redirecting water from another reservoir into the one used for the town. The second reservoir also had a record low water level. That meant the water it had left was in greater contact with sediments such as waste from farms and villages and with dead fish. So water coming out of faucets and showers in Pozoblanco  for washing was contaminated. “When there is drought, the concentration of contaminants is greater, and water reserves can become not just unfit for drinking, but poisonous,” a United Nations official said. Tanker trucks deliver 180,000 liters of potable water a day to the 80,000 residents of the province. “But the contaminated water is still used by many to bathe and for household chores,” wrote Times reporter Rachel Chaundler.  “This is a disgrace,” said a cake shop owner. “We can’t even wash dishes with tap water. It’s very murky.” A 36-year-old English teacher expressed concern that her 3-year-old child might be drinking the water when playing in the shower. If precipitation stays low this winter the southern region of Andalusia could lose 7 percent of its gross domestic product, local officials say.  Spain has suffered through almost three years of reduced rainfall, record-high temperatures in 2022 and a series of heat waves in 2023. The drought has depleted reservoirs throughout Spain. Some are at less than 20 percent of capacity. Such droughts in Europe in recent years are much more likely because of climate change caused by humans, scientists say. 

"Costa Rica Seizes Over Two Sons of Cocaine Heading to Belgium," Tico Times, Oct. 22, 2023

South American cocaine is flooding Europe (see story below), but Costa Rican authorities said Oct. 22 they intercepted more than two tons of the drug headed for the Belgian port of Antwerp, a key European entry point for illicit drugs. The cocaine was found in a container carrying fresh fruit in the Carribean port city of Limón. "An investigation is underway to determine where the drugs came from," the Tico Times said.  Costa Rica is a key transit point for drugs heading from South America to Europe and the United States. "The seizure is a significant blow to drug trafficking organizations that use Costa Rica as a staging ground for their illicit activities," the publication said. 

“Argentina’s Tear It All Down Frontrunner Connects With Angry Young Men,” Washington Post, Oct. 20, 2024

 

Javier Milei, the frontrunner to become Argentina’s new president in its Oct. 22 election, has called Pope Francis “an evil leftist.” He calls climate change a “socialist lie.” He wants to hold a referendum to end the three-year-old law that legalized abortion. “I am the king of a lost world,” he belted out in punk rock lyrics at a recent campaign rally. “I am the king and I’ll devour you. The caste is my entire appetite.” His reference was to a leftist “political caste” he says has ruined the Argentine economy by failing to control soaring inflation and end economic stagnation, write Post reporters Samantha Schmidt and David Feliba. Young people are politically powerful in Argentina, with voters of ages 18 to 29 making up a quarter of the electorate. They are “overwhelmingly inclined” to vote for Milei, the story says, based on recent polling. Prone to rants “peppered with personal insults,” Milei is an admirer of Donald Trump and former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro.  He particularly appeals to angry young men. They are “angry with a government that has allowed their currency to plummet and their earnings to vanish.” He wants to shut down the central bank, “dollarize” the economy, slash government spending and reduce the number of government ministries from 18 to 8. He promotes free market ideas and speaks of loosening gun restrictions to “maximize the cost of robbery.” Milei is a big hit on TikTok, which is the fastest-growing social media site in Latin America and has helped elect “a wave” of millennial presidents there including Nayib Bukele in El Salvador and Daniel Noboa in Ecuador. 

“’The Tsunami Just Keeps Coming’: Europe’s Growing Cocaine Market,” The Guardian, Oct. 18, 2023

 

South American cocaine traffickers, after saturating the U.S. market, are flooding Europe with the drug, fueling a “dramatic increase in violent crime in north-west Europe,” writes Guardian reporter Jon Henley. “What we’re actually seeing,” says a European official, “is a concerted, ongoing attempt to flood Europe with cocaine. It’s an expanding market and it shows no signs of slowing.” European Union officials in 2021 seized five times the tonnage of cocaine they did the decade prior. Cartels have coopted port logistics firms, local union officials, politicians and even the judicial system in and around key European ports such as Antwerp in Belgium, Rotterdam in Holland, and LeHavre in France. Those three countries have become scenes of drug-related contract killings, torture, bombings, shootouts and deaths as South American drug traffickers connect with European crime gangs. Dock workers can make a year’s pay in a few hours cooperating with the drug trade and face kidnappings, beatings, torture and threats to their wives and children if they don’t. Cultivation of cocoa leaves in Bolivia, Columbia and Peru has been rising since 2014, according to United Nations data. It increased 35 percent from 2020 to 2021. Sellers can charge twice as much for the drug in Europe as in the U.S. Some 3.5 million Europeans used the drug in 2021, four times as many as in 2001. Once it reaches Europe it’s distributed by 100,000 people, the European official estimated. “The business is now largely controlled by Mexican mafia gangs, police say, who once served as middlemen for the Columbian Cali and Medellin cartels,” the Guardian says. Antwerp is the main port of entry. A Belgian prosecutor warned that with so much violence and cocaine now in that city, Belgium could soon come to be seen as a narco state. 

“U.S. Starts Deportation Flights to Venezuela, Aiming to Curb Migration,” Washington Post, Oct. 18, 2023

 

U.S. authorities returned nearly 130 migrants to Venezuela Oct. 18, saying they plan multiple deportation flights to that country each week. “Two U.S. officials said Wednesday’s deportation flight was the first ICE air flight to Venezuela on record,” wrote Post reporter Nick Miroff. ICE is the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. The deportations aim to stem the record high inflow in recent months of Venezuelans crossing into the U.S. Although American officials have announced various policies permitting large numbers of Venezuelans to remain in the U.S. pending asylum hearings, those arriving in the U.S. after July 31 of this year are now subject to deportation if they do not qualify for humanitarian protection. Immigration advocates note that the Biden administration was saying only recently that Venezuela was too dangerous to permit deportations. It hasn’t explained since then what has changed to allow them to begin, they add. Preliminary statistics show a “significant drop” in illegal entries into the U.S. by Venezuelans since an Oct. 5 announcement by the Biden administration that deportations would begin., the Post reported.

“U.S. Eases Sanctions on Venezuelan Oil After Maduro Agrees to Elections,” Washington Post, Oct. 18, 2023

 

The Biden administration has agreed to ease oil, gas and gold sanctions on Venezuela after the South American dictatorship agreed to hold competitive elections next year. The U.S. Treasury Department issued a license lasting six months under which U.S. companies can transact business in the Venezuelan controlled energy sector. The license can be renewed only if Venezuela sticks to commitments for holding elections and for releasing wrongfully detained U.S. nationals and Venezuelan political prisoners. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has conveyed to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro the U.S. expectation that by the end of November he’ll define a timeline for reinstating all candidates in elections next year including those for president. Maduro pledged Oct. 17 to allow all parties to select their candidates, permit international observers to monitor voting, and grant all campaigns access to the media. He did not promise to lift bans that keep some opposition candidates from running. “Venezuela boasts the world’s largest proven oil reserves but years of mismanagement and sanctions on the oil sector have brought the economy to a near standstill,” the Post said. More than 7 million Venezuelans have fled the country, about one quarter of the country's population. Nearly half a million have crossed the southern border into the U.S. in the last three years, including abou 50,000 taken into custody last month.

“U.S. to Ease Sanctions on Venezuelan Oil for Freer Presidential Election,” Washington Post, Oct. 17, 2023

 

The Biden administration and the Venezuelan government have agreed on a deal in which the U.S. will ease sanctions on Venezuelan oil in return for what the Post called “a competitive, internationally monitored election” in the South American country next year. The paper cited as sources “two people familiar with the breakthrough talks.” An announcement is expected soon, but a U.S. official said the two countries haven’t committed to anything yet. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro accused the Post of “false leaks” but at the same time said “we are about to start a good round of signing documents that guarantee a fair electoral party.” Sanctions relief could include a “general license” for Venezuela’s oil agency to resume business with the U.S. and other nations, a move that could bring billions more dollars into Venezuela, whose economy is so poor that many residents are deeply mired in poverty and many more have fled the country, including many who have crossed or are trying to cross from Mexico into the U.S. More than seven million Venezuelans, a quarter of the population, have fled. Analysts emphasize that lengthy negotiations will need to be completed following the announcement. Venezuelan opposition parties are scheduled to hold a primary soon to settle on one presidential candidate to oppose Maduro in next year’s election. The frontrunner is María Corina Machado, who previously was barred by the Maduro government from running for office. 

“Water Level at Amazon Port in Brazil Hits Lowest Point in 121 Years Amid Drought,” The Guardian, Oct. 16, 2023

 

Manaus, a major port in the rainforest where the Amazon River meets the Negro River, has reached its lowest water level in 121 years, leaving  boats unable to take water, food and medicine to distant villages. The water level is dropping amid an historic drought that has disrupted the lives of  an estimated 481,000 people. Meanwhile, high water temperatures “are suspected of killing more than 100 endangered river dolphins,” the Guardian reported. “We have gone three months without rain here in our community,” a villager said. “It is much hotter than past droughts.” Another villager said the drought is reducing the cleanliness of the local water supply. “Our children are getting diarrhea, vomiting and often having fever because of the water.” The Brazilian science ministry said the climate phenomenon El Niño is causing the drought and that it will last at least until December. 

“Mexican Sinaloa Cartel’s Message to Members: Stop Making Fentanyl or Die,” Wall Street Journal, Oct. 16, 2023

 

The Sinaloa Cartel, the leading exporter of fentanyl to the United States, is warning people in its territory that it will kill them if they make and sell the deadly substance. Led by the “Chapitos,” the sons of imprisoned Sinaloa leader Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán, the cartel hung banners from overpasses, billboards and construction sites in its headquarters town of Culiacán issuing the death threat. The move appears to be a response to pressure exerted on the cartel by U.S. officials, who recently arranged the extradition of one of the Chapitos to stand trial in the U.S. Republican candidates campaigning for president also are threatening military strikes against cartels in Mexico if they ship fentanyl into the U.S., which experienced at least 110,000 overdose deaths last year. “Many people in Sinaloa have learned how to produce fentanyl and depend on it for their livelihood, so they are reluctant to shut down business since there are still ways to sell to the U.S., where demand is strong,” wrote Journal reporter José de Córdoba. “Teaching so many people how to make it was a mistake,” a midlevel Sinaloa cartel operative said in the Journal. “Some stopped producing. Others kept producing, and we are killing them. Others have fled.” The operative said Sinaloa is exiting fentanyl partly because it wants the U.S. to shift its crackdown to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, a leading rival fentanyl producer. A U.S. official expressed doubt that the Sinaloa ban would have any impact on overall fentanyl production. Cartel members said exports likely would increase of cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine to make up income lost from the fentanyl ban, the Journal said.

“Families Separated at Border by Trump Reach Settlement,” New York Times, Oct. 16, 2023

 

Migrant families separated by American authorities at the southern border during the Trump administration can remain in U.S. and apply for asylum under a settlement filed Oct. 16 in federal court. The agreement follows years of negotiations over a class action lawsuit addressing harm caused by family separations ordered in 2017 and 2018 to deter migrants from coming into the country. “Children were systematically taken from their parents and sent to shelters and foster homes across the country, and parents were charged for entering the country unlawfully,” writes Times reporter Miriam Jordan. Several thousand foreign-born children were taken from their parents. Hundreds of U.S.-born children crossing the border with migrant parents also were separated under the policy. A Biden administration official said about three-quarters of the families divided have either been reunited or given information to begin the reunification process. “Parents and children who have been separated and are already in the United States will be able to petition to bring immediate family members from their home countries,” the story said. Families that have been denied asylum will be eligible to reapply. Families that win their asylum cases – a process that can take years – will be eligible for green cards and eventually for U.S. citizenship. A federal judge is scheduled to oversee a hearing in December on the settlement. Most separations occurred in the spring of 2018 and lasted several weeks. But in some instances, they lasted years because parents deported without their children couldn’t be located. Some children did not recognize their parents when they were reunited. Hundreds of families divided by the policy haven’t been found. 

“Millenial Banana Heir Daniel Noboa Elected Ecuador’s Next President,” Washington Post, Oct. 15, 2023

 

Buoyed by young voters, the 35-year-old heir to a banana fortune defeated an ally of socialist former President Rafael Correa to become Ecuador’s youngest president. Daniel Noboa’s defeat of Luisa González in the Oct. 14 election “amounted to a rejection of the socialist pro-Correa party that remains a force in this South American nation of 17 million people,” says the Post story by Arturo Torres and Samantha Schmidt.  Noboa assumes power at a time when violence between drug cartels has sent the homicide rate soaring in the once-peaceful nation. Ecuadorans in growing numbers have been leaving the country as cartel power over government has strengthened. Emblematic of the violence was the assassination in August of Fernando Villavicencio, whose presidential campaign targeted cartel corruption.  Ecuador’s prisons have been taken over by gangs and Noboa vows he’ll “fix the country’s security crisis by overhauling the prison authority and creating a centralized intelligence unit,” the Post said. Before becoming commercial director of his family’s banana growing corporation, Noboa studied at Harvard and New York University and started an event promotion company.  More recently, he has served in Ecuador’s National Assembly.  The Post said the election was “a referendum on former president [Rafael] Correa, a popular but controversial figure – convicted of corruption – who is praised for combatting inequality but reviled for his authoritarian tendencies.” 

“Dilemmas of the Latin American Left and the Nicaragua Crisis,” Confidencial, Oct. 14, 2023

 

Some sectors of the Latin American left do not want to acknowledge that many Nicaraguans rose up against a government of their country that considers itself heir to the Sandinista revolution of the 1980s, writes Silvio Prado, a Nicaraguan political scientist who lives in Spain. “In a fit of political schizophrenia or simply cynicism, they supported the protests that later occurred in Chile, Columbia, Ecuador, and Peru, but continued to turn a blind eye to the fairness of the April uprising,” he said. [In April 2018, student protests against social security tax hikes and benefit cuts broadened into a demand for the ouster of President Daniel Ortega. A number of protestors were killed, fueling broader public outrage and forcing concessions by Ortega. He dropped the social security changes, let a TV station back on the air, and released jailed protestors.]  Others on the left deny that internal repression is to blame for the protests; they see them as fomented by the U.S. Overall, Prado sees three blocs on the Latin American left. One is the dogmatic. They are unconditional supporters of most communist parties, dictatorships such as Venezuela and Cuba, and Ortega’s FSLN party despite its neoliberal policies since 2007.  The second is the Machiavellian, including the governments of Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina. They privately acknowledge human rights violations in Nicaragua, “but they do not dare to openly criticize the dictatorship, cautious of the reactions that such positions might cause in the internal currents of their parties.” The third bloc is the democratic. Examples are the governments of Chile and Columbia, and the Frente Amplio party in Uruguay.  This bloc includes parties and movements of the anti-capitalist left. The democratic bloc does not see historical antecedents as carte blanche to violate the human rights of Nicaraguans, nor does it view the Ortega family as “an emancipatory project…of social change.”

“Trump’s Anti-Immigrant Onslaught Sparks Fresh Alarm Heading Into 2024,” Washington Post, Oct. 12, 2023

 

Immigrant and civil rights groups are expressing alarm about stepped up verbal attacks by Donald Trump against undocumented immigrants, warning they could lead to physical ones.  Trump’s recent statement that undocumented immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country” could cause violence against minorities and reflects white nationalist rhetoric, the groups say. “He appears to be taking pages from the Hitler Nazi playbook and using them in this production to divide Americans and engage in tribalism,” the Post quoted Domingo Garcia as saying. He’s president of the League of United Latin American Citizens. Among his recent statements Trump also said: “these people are very aggressive”; “they drink, they have drugs, a lot of things happening”; and “what they’re doing is destroying our country.” He has compared undocumented immigrants to snakes and has associated them with the dangerous MS-13 gang;  and claimed that “those same people who just attacked Israel” are coming to the U.S.  A Cato Institute analysis found no evidence of any Hamas-affiliated terrorist crossing the southern border of the U.S. Nine foreign-born terrorists entered the U.S. illegally from 1975 through 2022; three came across the Mexican border, the others from Canada. “Advocates say migrants are fleeing violence, government repression and poverty,” wrote Post reporters Marianne LeVine and Meryl Kornfield. Evidence shows undocumented immigrants commit crimes at lower rates than native-born Americans. The poisoning language has directly appealed in the past to people who then committed violence against minorities, such as the El Paso and Tree of Life synagogue mass shooters, noted George Washington University researcher Jon Lewis. 

“Argentina Wildfires Create Apocalyptic Scene of Blazes at City’s Edge,” Washington Post, Oct. 11, 2023

 

Fires that created apocalyptic scenes around populated parts of Argentina were largely brought under control Oct. 11, but the country still faced extreme fire danger, officials said. Dozens of people were evacuated in the Cordoba province in central Argentina, where as many as six wildfires had been burning. Dozens of hectares had burned affecting some homes but no one was  hurt, said Post reporter Scott Dance. Temperatures had been in the 90s with winds topping 35 miles per hour in some areas. Normal highs for Cordoba in October are in the 70s. A 27-year-old man was under arrest in Cordoba, charged with letting a campfire get out of control. South America in 2023 saw its hottest start to any year on record, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said. Much of the continent is experiencing drought. A study released Oct. 10 found that a September heat wave in southern Brazil, eastern Bolivia, Paraguay and northeastern Argentina was made at least 100 times more likely because of climate change. 

“Mexico’s President Stumbles on His Sweeping Agenda,” Wall Street Journal, Oct. 9, 2023

 

Mexico’s president has failed to achieve a number of his top goals but nevertheless remains popular with the Mexican people. Andrés Manuel López Obrador won in a landslide in 2018. He promised that the government would retake control of the energy sector. He said he’d root out political corruption and establish what he called a true democracy. Judges rebuffed his moves to assert greater state control over the economy, says Journal reporter Juan Montes.  His “antipathy toward the private sector and his rhetoric against foreign companies, which he says plundered Mexico for decades, has spooked foreign investors, all but halting projects in energy and other sectors,” he adds. López Obrador failed in an attempt to amend Mexico’s constitution to create a new agency to oversee elections.  His party then passed laws to shrink the size and staff of the existing electoral agency. But Mexico’s Supreme Court invalidated those laws. It also struck down a law to strengthen the dominant role of the state oil company, Petróleos Mexicanos, and suspended regulations that forced private interests to buy natural gas from Pemex and the state-owned power utility. It blocked another bill that gave control of the National Guard to the army. Former Supreme Court Justice Diego Valadés said the rulings show that democratic checks and balances work in Mexico. López Obrador on the other hand says judges side with corrupt interests and wants to enact direct election of Supreme Court and other judges. Still, with less than a year to go in his only term in office, he has an approval rating of around 60 percent. Why? He has maintained Mexico’s investment grade, is personally frugal and has used savings from cutting the wages of top governmental officials to increase social spending. He also sharply increased the minimum wage, strengthened collective bargaining, and extended workers’ holidays. 

“Fentanyl’s Toll Has This Republican Reaching Out to Democrats,” Politico, Oct. 8, 2023

 

Republican candidates increasingly favor the use of military strikes against drug cartels in Mexico as a tactic to keep fentanyl out of the U.S., but at least one prominent member of the GOP is working to see that won’t happen. Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, says belligerency risks alienating Mexico, “which he considers an ally in the fight, while driving more migrants to the border,” writes Politico reporter Carmen Paun. McCaul’s children have lost five friends to fentanyl, which he says is an urgent threat best countered by working with Democrats on legislation to foster cooperative efforts with the government of Mexico.  “My son came back from a funeral two weeks ago,” he told Politico. “His best friend died.” Almost 110,000 Americans died of drug overdoses last year, up from around 70,000 before the Covid pandemic.  “Authorizing use of military force against an organization in Mexico is essentially declaring war against Mexico, and…they’re our largest trading partner,” McCaul said. More violence in Mexico would add legitimacy to asylum claims and increase the number of migrants coming to the U.S. border, according to McCaul. He wants the U.S. border patrol to work with the Mexican Marines and Navy to prevent the entry of chemicals used to make fentanyl through ports like Manzanillo on Mexico’s western coast. He also wants to impose sanctions on drug cartels and to place the chemicals and illegal fentanyl itself on the list of substances regulated by the international Chemical Weapons Convention. Calls for military strikes are “political stunts and it won’t change the way business is really done.” 

“A Texas Community Attracts Migrant Home Buyers, and Republican Ire,” New York Times, Oct. 8, 2023

 

A fast-growing development near Houston offering cheap land and accessible financing is attracting many undocumented immigrants as home buyers. The Colony Ridge development is now home to 40,000 or more people and plans to more than double in size. The business model, says Times reporter J. David Goodman, is this: “offer plots of cheap land and unconventional loans for people who want to build their own houses, with few restrictions.”  With a new wave of migrants entering Texas, the predominantly Hispanic community “has become a lightning rod for conservatives in the state.” It has highlighted “a growing tension within the Republican Party: those who focus on business freedom, and others determined to control the border.” The right-wing Daily Wire has warned, without evidence, according to Goodman, that Colony Ridge could become “a strategic asset for cartels.” Texas Gov. Gregg Abbott has sent troopers to the area and subpoenaed bank records of the developers. He also has directed the Legislature to hold hearings during a special session starting Oct. 9. One of the development’s owners is an Abbott political donor. The little-known method of financing involved lets migrants get home loans without traditional credit scores or Social Security numbers.  It’s a boomtown with “row after row of affordable homes and trailers, taquerias and pickup trucks – emerging where not long before there had been nothing.” 

“Biden Faces Growing Pressure From Democrats Over Border Crossings,” Washington Post, Oct. 8, 2023

 

The White House is the target of “unusually blunt” language from Democratic officials over its response to the number of migrants crossing the southern border into the United States. So writes Post reporter Toluse Olorunnipa, who notes that “with near-record numbers of daily arrivals, shelters overflowing with families and city governments overwhelmed by new residents, one of the most intractable challenges of Biden’s presidency is again threatening to upend his legislative agenda.” Illinois Democratic Governor J.B. Pritzker repeatedly called the situation “untenable” in a "scathing" letter to Biden. New York City Mayor Eric Adams, in Mexico on a three-country tour to tell migrants not to come to the United States, said “There is no more room in New York.” Pritzker said “the federal government’s lack of intervention and coordination at the border has created an untenable situation for Illinois.” Major cities such as New York, Chicago, Boston, San Diego and Denver “are all struggling to manage the sudden arrival of thousands of migrants and have pleaded for more help,” the story says. Biden “has sought to pair new legal opportunities for migrants with harsher penalties for illegal entry,” while blaming Congress for ducking a major overhaul. He has allocated more than $1 billion to help cities cope with the surge and approved  work permits for some Venezuelans while planning to deport others. But fewer than one in four Americans in a recent poll expressed support for Biden's handling of immigration. Some Republicans threaten to withhold money for Ukraine unless Biden agrees to tougher border policies. Biden needs to be more proactive in laying out a broader vision of reform, says Vanessa Cárdenas of the pro-immigration group America’s Voice. “Not talking about the issue is not a strategy to win.”

“The Cost of Inaction on Immigration,” New York Times Editorial Board, Oct. 7, 2023

 

Congress “has failed to provide the necessary resources to welcome those who are eligible and to turn away those who are not,” The New York Times said in an editorial. That negligence by the federal government “is fueling anger against immigrants and stoking divisions,” it added. The question is whether Congress “can stir itself to enact sensible changes so the nation can reap the benefits of immigration.” Letting huge numbers of asylum seekers into the U.S. without providing for them creates “relentless pressure on the immigration system at the border” and is “a devastating failure to protect people from smugglers” and from exploitation once in the U.S. Congress could raise the level of legal immigration by increasing quotas for employment visas, among other categories that let people into the U.S. legally with a chance to become permanent residents and citizens. “Those targets have been too low for too long, particularly for people who can fill gaps in the labor market,” the Times said. As of July, there were two million job openings in fields including construction, hospitality and retail.  Some GOP governors have offered help. The governors of Utah and Indiana have offered to sponsor immigrants, noting  there are more than 300,000 job openings in their states. “Until Congress decides to take meaningful action, American will continue to pay a price.”

“7 Suspects in Killing of Ecuador Presidential Candidate Found Dead in Prison,” Washington Post, Oct. 7, 2023

 

Seven men arrested in connection with  the assassination Aug.9 of an Ecuadoran presidential candidate have been found dead in their jail cells. All of the men were Columbian nationals “who were believed to have links to organized crime groups,” the Post reported. Police killed the man they suspected shot presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio and arrested suspected collaborators a short time later.  Six of the seven men found dead were kept in Guayaquil, a facility controlled by powerful prison gangs.  One analyst speculated that members of the Los Lobos gang may have been responsible for the killings. Ecuadoran President Guillermo Lasso ordered the transfer of six other suspects for their safety. An FBI-backed investigation continues to identify other people involved in the assassination, said U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken. Villavicencio had pledged to combat the growing corruption of  the Ecuadoran government by drug cartels.  Clashes between cartels have sent the homicide rate soaring in Ecuador and spurred migration out of the country. Ecuador's presidential election, set for Oct. 15, pits 35-year-old Daniel Naboa, the son of a prominent businessman, against Luisa González, a socialist who is an ally of Ecuador’s former president, Rafael Correa.

 

“Olive Oil Prices Reach Record Highs as Spain’s Harvest is Halved,” Washington Post, Oct. 6, 2023

 

Spain, which supplies half the world’s olive oil, recently recorded a 48 percent drop in production compared to last year. Concerns intensified after a Spanish government report showed dwindling supplies in August, said Post reporter Laura Reiley.  Analysts blame extreme heat, wildfires and drought. “Should this pace of depletion persist, market insiders warn that olive oil supplies could be exhausted before the arrival of fresh harvests, which traditionally commence in Spain around October,” industry analyst Kyle Holland told the Post. Olive oil prices in August were 130 percent higher than a year ago, says the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture.  Reiley adds that “climate-change-related extreme weather is making the future appear equally grim.” A bottle of olive oil in U.S. stores now costs an average of $9.92. The U.S. accounts for about a third of olive oil imports. With shortages come theft of olive oil, as well as blending and counterfeiting of oils. A half a million dollars of olive oil was stolen in the Spanish city of Cordoba at the end of August.  Analysts say it’s common to have olives stolen right off of trees. 

“Trump Escalates Anti-Immigrant Rhetoric With ‘Poisoning the Blood’ Comment,” New York Times, Oct. 5, 2023

 

Undocumented immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country,” former President Donald Trump told a right-leaning website called National Pulse. Trump’s attack “invoked a theme of Hitler’s autobiographical manifesto ‘Mein Kampf’ in which the Nazi Party leader railed about what he claimed was the impurity of immigrants, Jews and interracial couples” wrote Times reporter Trip Gabriel. Trump also told the website that “nobody has any idea where these people are coming from, and we know they come from prisons. We know they come from mental institutions and insane asylums. We know they’re terrorists. Nobody has seen anything like we’re witnessing right now.  It is a very sad thing for our country.” Fact checkers have found no evidence that patients are being released from mental institutions. Trump’s poisoning comment “has the potential to cause real danger and violence,” said Jonathan Greenblatt of the Anti-Defamation League. A Trump spokesman said that “for anyone to think that is racist or xenophobic is living in an alternate reality consumed with nonsensical outrage.” Trump’s fascination with Hitler includes keeping a copy of his speeches by his bedside, journalists say. Trump reportedly told his chief of staff in 2018 during a trip to France that “Hitler did a lot of good things." Trump has denied it. Trump also complained that American generals didn’t treat him with the same loyalty that German generals showed Hitler. Onetime chief of staff  John Kelly said Trump is “a person who admires autocrats and murderous dictators.”

“Biden Administration to Resume Border Wall Construction in Policy Reversal,” Wall Street Journal, Oct. 5, 2023

 

After promising that “not another foot” of border wall would be built in his administration, President Joe Biden is proceeding with a  project to build up to 20 new miles of Trump-era border barriers in the Rio Grande valley of Texas. It’s “one of the busiest crossing spots for migrants attempting to enter the U.S.,”wrote Journal reporter Michelle Hackman. The about-face shows the administration’s “increasing desperation to tamp down illegal border crossings, which have surpassed two million for each of the last two years,” the Journal said. The administration faced court challenges if it did not spend previously appropriated funds for the wall. Congress required the administration to spend more than a billion dollars on new wall construction in fiscal 2023, which ended Sept 30. The administration had been calling on Congress to rescind the money. Biden told reporters Oct. 5 the administration had no choice but to spend the money and that the wall won’t work. To move ahead, the Department of Homeland Security waived 26 federal laws including requirements for environmental protection, safe drinking water, clean air and endangered species. Environmentalists say the new barriers “will destroy a serene stretch of nature and could kill off endangered plants and animals like the ocelot, a medium-size spotted wild cat,” the Journal said. 

“Biden Administration is Resuming Deportation Flights for Venezuelan Migrants as Arrivals Grow,” Associated Press, Oct. 5, 2023

 

Days after announcing that almost 400,000 Venezuelan migrants could temporarily remain in the United States, the Biden administration announced plans to deport other Venezuelan migrants. The ones who can stay entered the U.S. before July 31 of this year. The announcement emerged from talks in Mexico City between U.S., Mexican, Panamanian and Columbian officials about stemming the swelling number of migrants, most of them Venezuelans, heading toward Mexico and the U.S. through Central America. Referring to Mexico, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said “our two countries are being challenged by an unprecedented level of migration throughout our hemisphere.” It’s unclear when deportation flights will start. Venezuelan and U.S. officials said the migrants will be safely repatriated. But the head of the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service reacted with alarm. “Returning thousands of Venezuelans to the same unimaginably dangerous conditions they just fled is a profoundly problematic policy for the world’s largest humanitarian leader to adopt,” Krish O’Mara Vignarajah said. Biden is facing enormous political pressure from Republicans and a growing number of Democratic mayor and governors to deter illegal migration.

“Columbus’s Reputation Has Changed --- Are His Writings Still Valuable?” Washington Post, Oct. 4, 2023

 

What’s a letter by Christopher Columbus worth giving his first impressions of the Caribbean islands he so famously encountered during his westward voyages of exploration?  Some U.S. states no longer recognize Columbus Day, but Indigenous Peoples’ Day, such is his diminished reputation. That aside, the letter retains great historical value and was expected to sell for up to $1.5 million at an Oct. 5 auction. The March 1493 missive to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain described islands in what Columbus mistakenly identified as the Indian Ocean.  “He described the beauty of the area, which he wrote included singing birds, palm trees, large mountains and flowing rivers,” said Post reporter Kyle Melnick. “The letter also portrayed Columbus’s misdeeds. He took Indigenous people, whom he called timid and fearful, by force and brought some back to Spain…”  Columbus and the Europeans who followed are now linked to the European enslavement of Indigenous people. European explorers introduced new diseases leading to millions of deaths.  In the so-called Columbian exchange set in motion by the explorer, Europe along with diseases also sent people, money, plants, animals, and weapons, forever transforming the commerce, culture and politics of Europe and the Americas.   The letter is the only documentation of Columbus’s first travels to the Americas. 

Report Says Ortega Has Imposed Police State Following 2018 Protests, The Dispatch, Oct. 3, 2023

 

A report on the five years after 2018 Nicaraguan protests concludes that the government of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo have imposed a de facto police state designed to target not only specific groups but also individual citizens who go against its dictates. Quoting a Human Rights Watch study, the report says that repression after the 2018 protests against government-planned social security tax increases and benefit cuts, which broadened into demands for Ortega’s ouster, left more than 300 protestors and bystanders dead, many more injured, and hundreds of people detained. The “repression has included police harassment at the homes of opponents, arbitrary arrests, police citations for carrying the blue-and-white Nicaraguan flag, and threats from government supporters,” The Dispatch said. It said 1,336 Nicaraguans were arrested over the five years. Between December 2018 and September 2023, “3,375 organizations have been stripped of their legal status and shut down by the government. This includes 27 private and public universities, human rights organizations, feminist collectives, orphanages and more.” It added that the government expelled 223 political prisoners in February, and said churchgoers have warned of surveillance against them during church services. Also, some public officials complain they are under constant surveillance, The Dispatch said. 

“Trump Wanted to Fire Missiles at Mexico. Now the GOP Wants to Send Troops,” New York Times, Oct. 3, 2023

 

Then Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper labeled as ludicrous the idea his boss President Donald Trump had in 2020 to secretly shoot missiles into Mexico to blow up drug labs.  But since then, a growing number of Republicans in Congress have endorsed the use of force against drug cartels on Mexican soil without Mexico’s permission. Trump’s “notion of a military intervention south of the border has swiftly evolved from an Oval Office fantasy to something approaching Republican Party doctrine,” Times reporters say. Almost all GOP presidential candidates back sending troops into Mexico “to kill or capture drug cartel members and destroy their labs and distribution centers.” GOP lawmakers have drafted bill language authorizing that use of force. They want to designate drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations and they call fentanyl a weapon of mass destruction. Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador says such moves would be “outrageous.” This occurs against a historical backdrop of violence against Mexico in which the latter lost what is now much of the Southwestern U.S. Analysts warn the strategy would harm trade ties; Mexico’s largest trading partner is the U.S.  It also could undermine Mexico’s willingness to block the flow of illegal immigrants into the U.S. After previous crackdowns on cartels led to widespread violence, López Obrador urged instead a “hugs not bullets” strategy of investing in communities to combat the poverty fostering crime. But now cartels control large areas of Mexico. They’ve corrupted many officials. President Biden has ruled out military action. A diplomat who served as U.S. ambassador to Mexico during the Trump administration warned that it could plunge the U.S. into a quagmire like Iraq or Afghanistan. López Obrador has threatened to call on Americans to not vote for the GOP. Mexico says it’s the U.S. that fuels cartel violence with its demand for drugs and easy access to guns. Xóchitl Gálvez, a candidate in next year’s Mexican presidential election, urges responsible cooperation, not a U.S. military invasion. [In an NBC News poll conducted June 16-June 20, 55 percent of Americans said they'd be more likely to support a candidate who favored deploying U. S. troops to the border with Mexico to block the entry of illegal drugs. It wasn't clear how troops would be able to do that.]

(The following Washington Post story  dated Sept. 27 is reposted here from the September news summaries. It provides more analysis of the topic above.)

“Republican Hopefuls Ramp Up War Talk Over Mexican Border,” Washington Post.

 

Republican presidential candidates are taking the “build the wall” Trump rallying cry to the next level, scrambling to outdo each other with boasts that they’ll order military strikes in Mexico to block the flow of dangerous illegal drugs into the United States. However, Mexican officials and independent security analysts “have cautioned that military force by the United States would fail to quickly stop drug trafficking while torching relations with its southern neighbor and risking significant casualties,” the Post reports. Candidates talk about launching attacks on drug cartels like U.S. strikes against the ISIS terrorist group. But those Islamic militants were imposed from the outside, says Mexico analyst Falko Ernst of the International Crisis Group. Mexican traffickers are deeply embedded in their communities. They can’t be surgically removed like a cancerous growth in the body, he adds. They have ties to politicians and security forces and are part of criminal enterprises employing thousands of people in local communities. “It is not a 1950s Western with guys in white hats and guys in black hats,” says Cato Institute analyst Justin Logan. “You could end up with an awful lot of bloodshed on the border, and plenty of fentanyl to go around.” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said “they got a satchel of fentanyl strapped to their back, you use deadly force against them, you lay them out, you will see a change in behavior.” Without taking the fight to the cartels “we’re going to continue to see Americans dying.” But U.S. authorities say most fentanyl comes into the U.S. via legal ports of entry, not through desert areas between border crossing points. People detained with the drug are more likely to be U.S. citizens not migrants. Politicians talk about missile attacks on fentanyl labs, but most labs are small and can be located indoors. Republicans want “to come over and hunt for narco traffickers, violating our sovereignty, something we are never going to allow,” says Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. 

“U.N. Authorizes Kenya-led Force for Haiti; Key Questions Remain,” Washington Post, Oct. 2, 2023

 

The United Nations Security Council authorized Oct. 2 a Kenya-led mission to counter armed gangs that now control large parts of Haiti. “Key details, including the size of the mission, when it will be deployed, rules of engagement and exit strategy, remain to be worked out,” the Post reported. The plans that have emerged call for protecting sites such as hospitals and ports. “It’s a glimmer of hope for a people that have for too long been suffering the consequences of a difficult political, socioeconomic, security and humanitarian situation,” said Haiti foreign minister Jean Victor Généus. Kenya is considering sending a force of 1,000 police officers. The United States plans “significant” logistical, communications and medical support.

 

“As China Arrives With a Splash in Honduras, the U.S. Wrings Its Hands,” New York Times, Oct. 2, 2023

 

The Biden administration and U.S. military officials see “potentially ominous strategic implications” in the warm relationship developing between Honduras and China, writes Times reporter Karen DeYoung. Wooed by China, Honduras dropped diplomatic recognition of Taiwan earlier this year. “China’s offers of trade and investment, with few strings attached, have increasingly outweighed traditional ties or ideology in the region,” she writes. Honduran recognition is one of a series of diplomatic victories won by China in Latin America. Also shifting recognition away from Taiwan to mainland China in recent years were Panama, El Salvador and Nicaragua. Paraguay is the only holdout in South America, which has China as its largest trading partner. Among the reasons Honduras is of strategic importance to the U.S. is that it hosts an American military base, Soto Cano, and has the largest and only deepwater port in Central America, Puerto Cortés. In a global conflict with the United States, China “could leverage strategic regional ports to restrict U.S. naval and commercial ship access,” Gen. Laura J. Richardson, head of the U.S. Southern Command, told Congress in March. “They’re on the 20-yard-line to our homeland,” she said more recently.  

 

“Why Can’t We Stop Unauthorized Immigration? Because It Works,” New York Times, Oct. 1, 2023

 

“Our broken immigration system is still the best option for many migrants – and U.S. employers,” writes Times reporter Marcela Valdes.  The past three presidents haven’t been able to fix the broken immigration system, nor does it appear the current crop of presidential candidates will either. One factor is that the world is simply a more mobile place than ever before. The number of people who have left their home countries in search of better lives in other countries has been rising for decades. In 2020, 281 million people were living outside their birth nations. That’s 3.5 percent more than in 2019, according to the United Nations. The U.S. has attracted the most migrants of any country, with about 51 million international migrants. Germany, the runner-up, attracted just 16 million. “America’s economy has always relied upon a mass of disempowered, foreign-born laborers, whether it was enslaved Africans picking cotton, Chinese building railroads, Irish digging coal, Italians sewing garments or Mexicans harvesting fruit.” Some sectors of the U.S. economy “seem almost reserved for workers who have deliberately been kept vulnerable.” For example, minimum wage laws exclude most farmworkers and domestic workers. When African-American workers organized the poultry industry in Mississippi, businessmen developed an alternate workforce of Latin Americans. Employers can hire migrants, including unaccompanied minors, to do dangerous and degrading work. Consumers benefit from cheap labor to mow lawns, build houses, clean bathrooms, pick apples, and care for kids and the elderly. Congress invests heavily in immigration enforcement but not labor laws that could keep businesses from exploiting unauthorized workers. For their part, migrants “know that if they can just make it inside the United States, they will find relative safety – and plenty of work.”

“Police Scuffle With Electoral Judges,” Washington Post, Oct. 1, 2023

Police officers “shoved and wrestled” with justices of Guatemala’s top electoral court Sept. 30, aiming to wrestle away from them tally sheets from the country’s August presidential elections, the Washington Post said, based on an Associated Press report. Guatemalan prosecutors sought to seize the records as part of what they said is an investigation of irregularities in the election victory of anti-corruption candidate Bernardo Arévalo. Observers reported no evidence of fraud. Many in Guatemala see the investigation as a sham and an attempt to wrongfully deny Arévalo the presidency. “Justice Blanca Alfaro pleaded with officers not to take the boxes, because they represented the will of voters,” the story said. “She was shoved and briefly fell to the floor during the fracas.” Attorney General Consuelo Porras and prosecutor Rafael Curruchiche launched the raids.  Guatemalans have taken to the streets to protest attempts to deny Arévalo the presidency (see below).