El Centro

Colombia’s Peace Deal Promised a New Era. This Is What It Looks Like. By Nicholas Casey – New York Times

After Colombia’s government signed a peace deal with the country’s main rebel group, ending decades of war and upheaval, both sides said it heralded a new era. But two and a half years after the militants agreed to lay down their arms, many of the promises made are not being honored, and the prospect of a true, lasting peace now seems far from certain.

This is what we found:

• As many as 3,000 militants have resumed fighting, threatening the very foundation of the accord.

• Many of the millions of Colombians who once lived in rebel-held territory still await the promised arrival of roads, schools and electricity. The government’s pledge to help rural areas was a big reason the rebels stood down.

• Since the peace deal was signed, at least 500 activists and community leaders have been killed, and more than 210,000 people displaced from their homes amid the continuing violence. That undercuts a core selling point of the deal: that it would bring safety and stability.
• Colombia’s new president, Iván Duque, a conservative who took office in August, has expressed skepticism of the accords and wants to change a commitment that was fundamental to the rebels agreeing to lay down their weapons.

Colombia’s five-decade civil war took at least 220,000 lives and devastated large swaths of the countryside. In rebel-held areas, government services disappeared and the infrastructure crumbled. Many turned to the drug economy to survive.

All sides were accused of atrocities — kidnappings, rapes and summary executions — that bred deep-seated animosities across the country and even within families. In a war so deeply personal, finding a way out posed an enormous challenge.

So when the government and the largest rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as the FARC, reached a peace agreement in September 2016 after years of negotiation, much of the world applauded. Juan Manuel Santos, then Colombia’s president, won the Nobel Peace Prize…

Much, much, more - Read on.

Inside Gang Territory In Honduras: ‘Either They Kill Us or We Kill Them’ by Azam Ahmed – New York Times

In one of the deadliest cities in the world, an embattled group of young men had little but their tiny patch of turf — and they would die to protect it. Journalists from The New York Times spent weeks recording their struggle…

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Building Better Gendarmeries in Mexico and the Northern Triangle by Michael L. Burgoyne - Wilson Center's Mexico Institute

Facing record homicide rates and a public outcry to reduce violence and restore peace, Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador proposed the formation of a “National Guard” as a possible solution. While controversial, it has garnered the support of large majorities in the Mexican Congress, and in two-thirds of the states, ensuring that the National Guard will be constitutionally recognized.

 

In a new report published by the Wilson Center’s Mexico Institute, author Michael L. Burgoyne, a U.S. Army Foreign Area Officer, looks at the limitations of current policing models in Mexico and Central America to confront “militarized criminal violence.” He further examines the historical experiences of Stability Police Forces in France, Spain, and Italy and draws some important lessons that could bolster efforts in Mexico and Central America to form their own versions of gendarmeries to better address the serious threats posed by organized crime. Finally, he highlights the limitations of current United States security cooperation programs for addressing these strategic challenges.

Read the paper here.

Bait and Smuggle: Mexican Cartels Divert Border Cops with Migrant Surges and Ferry Drugs Where the Coast is Clear by Anna Giaritelli - Washington Examiner

A northern Texas sheriff says his county has seen a big uptick in methamphetamine and heroin seizures since October, saying Mexican drug smugglers are using large groups of migrants to divert Border Patrol’s attention while they run narcotics over the border in nearby areas.

 

Tarrant County Sheriff Bill E. Waybourn told the Washington Examiner drug seizures have picked up since 2016 and spiked “tremendously” in the past six months just as groups of 100 or more people began showing up at the border.

 

Data from the county, which includes Forth Worth, shows nine pounds of meth was seized in 2016. In 2018, that figure jumped to 22 pounds. In the past six months, 110 pounds of meth have been discovered by the sheriff’s department.

 

Heroin busts followed a similar trajectory. Less than one pound of heroin was found by the department in 2016, but last year more than 61 pounds were confiscated. Since October, 20 pounds have been seized.

 

“We’re several hundred miles away from the border, however, the border does impact us,” he said.

 

In that six-month time frame, the number of people apprehended while illegally crossing the southern border also increased. Last month, 92,000 people were taken into custody…

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To Defeat Maduro’s Regime, Treat It Like a Crime Syndicate by Raúl Gallegos - Americas Quarterly

Venezuela is almost a failed state where millions of people face nationwide power outages, food shortages, hyperinflation, and where crime and looting have become a means of survival. The most powerful criminal organization in this apocalyptic reality is the regime of Nicolás Maduro and the syndicate of criminal families that make up his government.

 

Venezuela’s chavista government was once a legitimate political actor but it has devolved into a type of cartel of criminal cells that protect each other and run the nation through corruption and fear. There is the Maduro inner circle that includes first lady Cilia Flores, whose nephews tried to export tons of cocaine to the United States and who were tried and sentenced by a U.S. court as a result. There is Diosdado Cabello, the head of the National Constitutional Assembly, and Minister of Industries Tareck El-Aissami, both sanctioned by the U.S. government for engaging in drug trafficking along with a number of top military and National Guard allies.

 

The bureaucracy, the armed forces and the security forces enrich themselves with kickbacks from government contracts, illegal mining revenue, foreign currency trading, extortion, kidnapping, and the smuggling of price-controlled gasoline and food with impunity, on top of generous, oil-financed salaries and benefits. They spy on each other and they empower the most criminal among them, those compromised by corruption or human rights violations, a common approach of criminal groups. And of course they jail, kill and raid the homes of those Venezuelans who oppose them. The main goal of this crime syndicate is to cling to power because leading normal lives in the legitimate world once again is no longer an option. To defeat this regime the international community must move beyond the diplomacy and sanctions used to deal with traditional political actors, and instead adopt techniques the police use to fight the mob…

Read on.