Mexico & Central America News and Discussions

[caltrek]

Center-Left Surprise in Guatemalan Elections
June 26, 2023

Introduction:

(Latino Rebels) Left-of-center opposition legislator Bernardo Arévalo shattered all forecasts, seizing second place in Guatemala‘s presidential elections on Sunday and advancing to an August runoff. Arévalo will face political boss Sandra Torres in a test of whether Guatemalan voters can achieve political change via the ballot despite the profound suspicions of presidential efforts to contaminate the election.

Eighth-Seed Upset

With 98 percent of ballots counted as of 9 a.m. ET on Monday, social-democrat Congressman Bernardo. In an August 20 runoff, he will face former first lady and legislative power broker Sandra Torres of the National Unity of Hope (UNE) party (15.6 percent), who has studiously avoided criticizing the dismantling of democratic institutions in the country.

“We can now say that it’s a definitive trend,” Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) magistrate Gabriel Aguilera announced at 3:20 a.m. “It would be most responsible to make the announcement tomorrow [Monday], but the two who are leading are UNE and Semilla.”

Semilla was founded in 2017 in the spirit of the 2015 mass anti-corruption protests that ended with President Otto Pérez Molina and Vice President Roxana Baldetti’s imprisonment on customs fraud charges. Since its inception, the party has invoked the democratic tradition of the Guatemalan Revolution (1944-1954).

Four years ago, Semilla proposed as a presidential candidate former attorney general and International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala ally Thelma Aldana, who controversially removed from the race while leading the polls and currently in exile. The party has since used its six seats in Congress —the most among the country’s handful of left-of-center parties— to condemn corruption and mismanagement during the pandemic.

Read more here: https://www.latinorebels.com/2023/06/2 ... ections/

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Nicaragua Loses Long-running Ocean Border Dispute With Colombia at UN’s Top Court
by Molly Quell
July 13, 2023

Introduction:

THE HAGUE (Courthouse News) — The International Court of Justice ruled on Thursday that countries cannot make claims on a maritime boundary that encroaches on the territory of another county, dismissing a complaint from Nicaragua over some 30,000 square miles of sea.

The Hague-based court settled a two-decades-long legal dispute between the two Latin American countries fighting over small Caribbean islands and the waters rich in minerals and fish surrounding them.

"Irrespective of any scientific and technical considerations, Nicaragua is not entitled to an extended continental shelf within 200 nautical miles from the baselines of Colombia's mainland coast," President Judge Joan Donoghue said in reading the ruling.

The Colombia delegation hugged one another after the announcement of the decision.

Further extract:

Speaking to reporters after the hearing, Carlos Argüello Gómez, Nicaragua’s ambassador to the Netherlands and agent at the court, told journalists his government would study the ruling but said: “Nicaragua has always complied with ICJ sentences and there is not even the slightest doubt that Nicaragua will accept and comply with this sentence.”

Read more here: https://www.courthousenews.com/nicarag ... op-court/

[caltrek]

Millions of Mexicans Lifted Out of Poverty as a Result of His Policies, Claims López Obrador and Some Analysts
by Cody Copeland
August 11, 2023

Introduction:

MEXICO CITY (Courthouse News) — Mexico has experienced “historic” drops in rates of poverty and inequality, the country’s president said Friday.

“There is less poverty and less inequality in our country,” said President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said during his morning press conference in Mexico City. “This shows that our strategy has worked.”

He cited data analyzed by Mexico’s National Council of Social Development Policy Evaluation (Coneval) that show that the number of Mexican citizens living in poverty fell from 52.2 million in 2016 — two years before he took office — to 46.8 million in 2022.

Extract:

“Without a doubt, poverty has been reduced, but there is a vital component that has escaped other analyses, and that is data on extreme poverty,” said Leonardo Nuñez, head of applied research at the watchdog group Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity (MCCI).

His group’s analysis of the data showed that 400,000 people have gone into extreme poverty under the current administration. And over half of those currently experiencing extreme poverty are not receiving any benefits from López Obrador’s social programs.

Read more here: https://www.courthousenews.com/million ... esidency/

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Mexico's Supreme Court decriminalizes abortion nationwide
Source: AP

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s Supreme Court decriminalized abortion nationwide Wednesday, two years after ruling that abortion was not a crime in one northern state.

That earlier ruling had set off a grinding process of decriminalizing abortion state by state. Last week, the central state of Aguascalientes became the 12th state to decriminalize the procedure.

The court’s sweeping decision Wednesday comes amid a trend in Latin America of loosening restrictions on abortion, even as access has been limited in parts of the United States.

Mexico City was the first Mexican jurisdiction to decriminalize abortion 15 years ago.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/mexico-abort ... 0b3afd15de

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Oaxacan Political Prisoners Released After Nine Years Without a Conviction
by Cody Copeland
September 28, 2023

Introduction:

MEXICO CITY (Courthouse News) — Activists for a group of five men held in prison under Mexico’s mandatory pretrial detention mechanism for almost nine years received bittersweet news Thursday when a judge announced that two of the men were to be released.

Oaxaca state Judge Luis Salvador Cordero ordered that Jaime Betanzos and Herminio Monfil be removed from mandatory pretrial detention during a hearing that lasted more than five hours.

Additional extracts:

The men were arrested in December 2014 after a politically-motivated skirmish in their small Mazatec community in a mountainous area in the north of Oaxaca resulted in the death of a brother of local politician Elisa Zepeda.

She accused the men and dozens others of murdering her brother, which led to the charges that put them in mandatory pretrial detention.

The men remained imprisoned far longer than the constitutionally mandated two-year limit to mandatory pretrial detention, despite over a dozen writs of amparo — similar to habeas corpus in U.S. law — that found no evidence to support Zepeda’s claims.

Read more here: https://www.courthousenews.com/oaxacan ... iction/

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Don’t Speak at All, and Beware the Stick
by Robert Kahn
October 20, 2023

Introduction:

(Courthouse News) More than 105 journalists have been killed in Mexico since 2010, according to Human Rights Watch. The government has secured seven convictions in those cases. Twelve non-journalist human rights defenders were murdered there in 2022 alone. And more than 105,000 people are listed as “missing.”

Science magazine reported in September that drug cartels “collectively ‘employ’ some 175,000 people in Mexico, making them the fifth-largest employer in the country.”

And what is AMLO’s (Andrés Manuel Lỏpez Obrador's) response to this? He slanders and threatens reporters and editors on a daily basis in his weekday press conferences, and doubles down in on them in his weekly “Who’s Who in the Lies of the Week.”

On March 23 this year he called journalism a “criminal underworld.” On Aug. 17 he began his daily press conference by calling reporters “corrupt,” “sold and rented,” infamous and “perverse.” On the campaign trail in 2017 he called reporters “disgusting” and “filthy.”

On Tuesday this week he sent a bill to Mexico’s lower house of Congress that would kill the nationwide news agency Notimex, which would close its 568 news offices and throw some 30,000 employees out of work. Notimex workers have been on strike since 2020, claiming harassment and unjust firings by AMLO’s handpicked head of the agency, Sanjuana Martỉnez, whom he appointed soon after taking office. Negotiations have gone nowhere; the only remaining issue appears to be severance pay.

Read more here: https://www.courthousenews.com/dont-sp ... he-stick/

caltrek’s comment: Conservatives may have a point about the need to secure U.S. borders. In fact, at this point, I think it is more an argument of how to go about doing that. Linked to all that is the question of immigration policy. Specifically, what to do about all those immigrants that come here for temporary work in the ag industry?

Conservatives simply ignore that aspect of immigration, even as they issue work permits allowing entry by said agricultural workers. This may be satisfactory to ag interests but doesn’t necessarily go over so well with those concerned about the “contamination” of “American” culture. Such “contamination” is an ever-evolving process that started with the arrival of Columbus in the Western hemisphere.

[caltrek]

Latin American Leaders to Discuss Migration at Mexico Summit
by Cody Copeland
October 20, 2023

Introduction:

MEXICO CITY (Courthouse News) — Heads of state and other high-ranking officials from Mexico and 11 Latin American countries will meet in Palenque, Chiapas, on Sunday to discuss migration and responses to its root causes.

Organized by Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the summit is titled “For a fraternal neighborhood and well-being.” Attendees “will seek to expand safe, orderly and regular pathways of human mobility with a humanist vision and a focus on development,” according to a press release issued by Mexico’s Foreign Relations Secretariat on Friday.

The heads of state of Colombia, Cuba, Haiti, Honduras and Venezuela had confirmed their attendance as of Friday afternoon. The vice president of El Salvador and vice premier of Belize will attend, as will high-ranking officials from Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala and Panama.

Leaders at the summit “will analyze the causes of human mobility, like poverty, inequality, lack of work opportunities and the negative effects of climate change, as well as external unilateral measures that cause this social phenomenon in vulnerable populations,” the press release said.

“We must deal with the causes, we must go to the heart of the matter,” López Obrador said during a press conference this week. “We have to make sure that people — who out of necessity set out to make a living — can, in their places of origin, if they are cared for, if there are opportunities, stay with their families, in their towns, maintain their customs, their traditions, and not take risks.”

Read more here: https://www.courthousenews.com/latin- ... o-summit/

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Cuba Scores a Big Victory in the UN General Assembly
by W.T. Whitney
November 9, 2023

Introduction:

(Counterpunch) The United Nations General Assembly on November 2 voted to approve a Cuban resolution that, unchanged over 31 consecutive years, calls for an end to the U.S. economic blockade of Cuba. Approval once more was overwhelming: 187 nations voted in favor and two against, the United States and Israel. Ukraine abstained.

Reacting to the vote, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel proclaimed a “new victory for the Cuban people and their Revolution!” He pointed to “the triumph of dignity and the fearlessness of our people,” and expressed gratitude for “the international community’s recognition of and support for Cuba’s heroism and resistance.”

For over 20 years, the only nations opposing the Cuban resolution, apart from the United States, have been Israel and, formerly, a few U.S.-dependent Pacific island nations. The blockade began in 1962, and now 80% of Cubans have lived under its sway.

Before the vote this year, dozens of delegates representing member states spoke out against the blockade. Cuba’s Minister of Foreign Relations Bruno Rodríguez addressed the General Assembly, insisting that the U.S. blockade interferes with “the right to life, health, progress and welfare of every Cuban family.”

He explained that Cuba’s financial losses from the blockade reflect factors like the high cost of substituting for goods excluded under the blockade with more expensive goods and/or those with higher transportation costs. Losses take the form also of an overall lack of necessary materials, goods, and services. And “barriers Cuba faces in gaining access to advanced technology” lead to monetary loss.

Read more here: https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/11/0 ... ssembly/

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[caltrek]

Guantanamo Bay: 22 Years of Indefinite Detention and Eroded Human Rights
January11, 2024

Introduction:

(Eurekalert) BOSTON, MA – January 11, 2024 marks the 22nd anniversary of the opening of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, a facility shrouded in controversy and synonymous with indefinite detention and alleged human rights abuses. Established in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, Guantanamo has held hundreds of individuals suspected of terrorism, many without charge or trial, and under conditions widely condemned by international human rights organizations.

A Legacy of Controversy:

• Indefinite Detention: … with 30 still detained today, some for over two decades without ever facing trial…

• Allegations of Torture and Abuse…

• …in Guantanamo Bay…condemned as a form of torture and as “sexual assault masquerading as medical treatment.”

• Erosion of Legal Principles: The creation of a legal framework outside the U.S. justice system and the use of military commissions have been criticized for undermining established legal principles and setting a dangerous precedent for the erosion of human rights protections...

Guantanamo Bay stands as a stark reminder of the dangers of sacrificing human rights in the name of security. As we mark this anniversary, we must not forget the individuals who have been held in this legal limbo for years, nor can we turn a blind eye to the erosion of legal principles that Guantanamo represents. It is time to close this chapter in U.S. history and recommit ourselves to upholding the values of justice and human dignity.

Read more here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1031091