Venezuela

Central America

Deportees in El Salvador were tortured: report

Venezuelan nationals deported to El Salvador by the US government earlier this year were tortured and ill-treated, advocacy groups reported. According to a report jointly released by Human Rights Watch and Cristosal, a Salvadoran advocacy organization, members of a group of 252 Venezuelan deportees sent to El Salvador’s notorious Center for Terrorism Confinement (CECOT) were subjected to torture, arbitrary detention, and in some instances sexual abuse, while held incommunicado in inhumane conditions. The organizations found a pattern of coordinated abuse rather than isolated incidents. One former detainee told investigators: “I’m on alert all the time because every time I heard the sound of keys and handcuffs, it meant they were coming to beat us.” (Photo: Casa Presidencial El Salvador via Wikimedia Commons)

Mexico

Mexico: specter of US strikes amid cartel terror

Mayor Carlos Alberto Manzo Rodríguez was assassinated during a Day of the Dead celebration in the main square of Uruapan, in the violence-torn Mexican state of Michoacán. He had been an outspoken opponent of the drug cartels and their reign of terror in the state, and his death sparked protests across Michoacán. The US State Department said in response to the killing that the United States is ready to “deepen security cooperation with Mexico to wipe out organized crime on both sides of the border.” But this comes as the specter of unilateral US intervention has been raised. NBC News reports that the White House has started planning a “potential mission” involving US troops and intelligence officers to target the cartels on Mexican soil. (Photo: Juan José Estrada Serafín/Cuartoscuro.com via Mexico News Daily)

The Caribbean

Potential war crimes seen in Trump’s Caribbean airstrikes

UN human rights experts raised concern over “repeated and systematic lethal attacks” by the US military against vessels in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific, which they said could constitute war crimes under international maritime law. Three UN special rapporteurs stated that the attacks “appear to be unlawful killings” that lack any “judicial or legal process allowing due process of law.” They said that no efforts were made to “apprehend the individuals or provide concrete evidence about why they were lawful targets.” They further charged that the strikes were not motivated by “national self-defence,” and did not target “individuals posing an imminent threat to life.” The experts said that they had raised these concerns directly with the US government, calling for an immediate halt to the strikes, and an independent investigation. (Photo: US Navy via Latin America Reports)

The Andes

US imposes sanctions on Colombian president

The US administration announced sanctions against Colombian President Gustavo Petro, his family, and Colombia’s Minister of the Interior Armando Benedetti. The US will also reduce financial assistance to Colombia by about $18 million. The Department of State said the move was “due to President Gustavo Petro’s disastrous and ineffective counternarcotics policies.” The Colombian government has recalled its ambassador to the United States in protest. Simultaneously, the Pentagon announced that it is moving the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford and its group to the Caribbean Sea, where the US military already hasapproximately 10,000 personnel pre-positioned. (Photo via MROnline)

The Andes

Bolivia: far-right candidate defeated —at least

Rodrigo Paz, a center-right senator and son of a former president, won Bolivia’s run-off election—defeating former far-right president Jorge “Tuto” Quiroga, who ran on a platform that pledged an IMF bailout for the troubled economy and widespread privatization of state industries and natural resources. For the first time since 1997, there was no candidate on the ballot from the Movement toward Socialism (MAS), the party of former president Evo Morales. A candidate from MAS, which had ruled all but one year since 2006, was eliminated in the first round in August. However, some of the social policies put in place by the MAS have now been adopted by Paz. (Photo: Dan Lundberg/Flickr)

The Andes

Trump officials push Venezuela regime change

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro announced that he is ready to declare a state of emergency in response to aggression by the United States. Such a declaration would give the army control over public services and the country’s oil industry, which Venezuelan leaders say the US is preparing to grab. US officials, led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and CIA director John Ratcliffe, are reported to be pushing plans to overthrow Maduro. The US has increased its naval presence in the Caribbean and launched repeated deadly strikes on civilian vessels in international waters off Venezuela. President Trump has claimed, without evidence, that the vessels were carrying drug traffickers. Rubio recently described Maduro as a “fugitive from American justice” who leads a terrorist and criminal organization bringing narcotics into the US, posing an “imminent, immediate threat.” (Image: Grunge Love via Flickr)

The Andes

Popular protests turn deadly in Ecuador

Widespread protests in Ecuador, sparked by cuts to fuel subsidies, reached a boiling point, as an indigenous land defender was killed by the armed forces, a government aid convoy was reportedly attacked by protesters, and 12 soldiers went missing. Meanwhile, the government continued to advance its plan to rewrite the constitution—an initiative that has further intensified public anger. Undeterred, the powerful Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities (CONAIE), which initiated the nationwide strike, announced that it would extend the action. (Photo: CONAIE via Peoples Dispatch)

The Andes

US ‘decertifies’ Colombia as drug war partner

The United States decertified Colombia as a reliable partner in the War on Drugs, citing a rise in coca cultivation and cocaine production. While the White House waived the crushing sanctions that usually come with decertification, the decision underscores the strained relations between the US and Colombia under Trump. The administration was quick to blame Colombian President Gustavo Petro directly, arguing in its submission to Congress that the “failure of Colombia to meet its drug control obligations over the past year rests solely with its political leadership.” The administration also decertified Venezuela, Bolivia, Afghanistan and Burma. While these latter countries have been frequently decertified over the years, this marks the first time Colombia has been decertified since 1997. (Map: PCL)

Central America

Podcast: MAGA-fascism and the struggle in El Salvador II

Kilmar Abrego García, released from extrajudicial detention in El Salvador, now fights deportation to Uganda. Hundreds of the Venezuelans sent by the US to the Salvadoran prison gulag have now been returned to Venezuela in a prisoner swap. But El Salvador remains on the growing list of human rights offenders cultivated by the Trump regime as surrogate detention states. The Trump State Department’s farcical “Human Rights Report” seeks to sanitize dictator Nayib Bukele’s anti-crime police state. And adding to the Orwellian nature of the Trump-Bukele axis, the US Justice Department has dropped charges against MS-13leaders who collaborated in the consolidation of the new Salvadoran dictatorship. In Episode 293 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg exposes the perverse charade. (Photo: Policía Nacional Civil de El Salvador via InfoDefensa)

The Caribbean

US destroyers menace Venezuela

Three US Aegis guided-missile destroyers have been dispatched to waters off the coast of Venezuela, as part of what the Trump administration calls an effort to counter threats from Latin American drug cartels. The mobilization follows Washington’s decision to increase the bounty for the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, doubling it to an unprecedented $50 million. In response to the increased US military presence in the Caribbean, President Maduro announced plans to mobilize 4.5 million members of the territorial militia across the country. “Rifles and missiles for the rural forces! To defend Venezuela’s territory, sovereignty and peace,” he proclaimed. (Photo: US Navy via Latin America Reports)

Watching the Shadows

Trump plans transfer of thousands of migrants to Gitmo

President Donald Trump’s administration plans to increase the number of undocumented migrants being transferred to the US Naval facility at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, according to government documents obtained by the Washington Post. The documents state that 9,000 undocumented immigrants are currently being vetted for transfer to Guantánamo, with the first transfers to begin this week. (Photo: Spc. Cody Black/WikiMedia via Jurist)

Watching the Shadows

Trump issues new ‘travel ban’ proclamation

President Donald Trump issued a proclamation implementing a nearly full travel ban on nationals from a dozen countries, severely restricting potential entry into the United States. The proclamation is based on an executive order issued on Trump’s first day in office that laid the foundation for the administration to enact extensive immigration controls. Commentators have harshly criticized the ban, pointing out that it disproportionately affects Muslim-majority and African countries. Amnesty International’s secretary general Agnes Callamard lambasted Trump for the action, calling it “discriminatory, racist and downright cruel.” The restrictions bear a striking resemblance to Trump’s 2017 travel ban, which blocked travel to the United States from seven Muslim-majority countries. (Photo: Minneapolis protest of 2018 Supreme Court decision upholding Trump’s first travel ban. Credit: Fibonacci Blue/Flickr)