Latin America Daily Briefing

A senior Mara Salvatrucha-13 gang leader, Élmer Canales Rivera, was captured in Mexico on Wednesday. Canales was a transnational fugitive, released illegally from prison in secret in 2021 by El Salvador’s Bukele government, “as part of the secret pact that Salvadoran authorities at the time maintained with MS-13 and both factions of the 18th Street gang to reduce homicides,” reports El Faro.

The capture of Canales, aka “El Crook de Hollywood,” and his “expulsion to the United States to face charges, exposes the growing rift between the US and El Salvador over how to deal with top-level gang members,” reports InSight Crime. “At the heart of this issue is how to deal with high-level members of the MS13 who may be getting special treatment from the El Salvador government.”

The arrest “once again ignites the controversy surrounding the alleged pacts between gangs such as MS-13 and Barrio 18, and the Bukele Administration, reported for years by local journalists,” notes El País.

Haiti

• Kenya’s government said that its police officers will not be deployed to head a multinational security mission in Haiti until all conditions on training and funding are met in line with last month’s approval from the U.N Security Council, reports the Associated Press.

Brazil

• Brazilian authorities arrested two people allegedly linked to Hezbollah, on Wednesday. (See yesterday’s post.) “Douglas Farah, a national security expert at IBI Consultants who studies Hezbollah in Latin America, said that the group has been able to maintain a presence in Brazil because the country is so large and has bigger security priorities than Iranian proxies,” reports the Latin America Brief.

Regional Relations

• The United States “accused Russia of financing a Latin America-wide disinformation campaign that feeds media contacts with propaganda and fake news aimed at weakening support for Ukraine and boosting anti-U.S. and anti-NATO sentiments,” reports Reuters.
  
  
• The atmosphere at last week’s U.S. hosted summit for regional leaders reflected an evolution in U.S. economic statecraft toward Latin America. The Biden administration touted a joint program with the IDB that pairs U.S. companies with projects in Latin America seeking investment, and internationally financed grants for migrant-hosting communities in the Americas, explains the Latin America Brief. (See last Friday’s post.)

Migration

• Mexican autorities found 123 people from Central and South America trapped in a trailer in San Luis Potosí state, yesterday. (Associated Press)

Regional

• “A surge in U.S. firearms sales to Latin America in the last two years is almost entirely accounted for by increases in Mexico and Guatemala,” reports NACLA. “The legal exports add to the illicit flow of U.S. firearms across the border into Mexico, which feeds the violence of criminal organizations.”

Argentina

• Fans of Taylor Swift campaigned against libertarian presidential candidate Javier Milei at the musician’s Buenos Aires recital yesterday. Many Swifties touted bracelets advocating for Milei’s opponent, Sergio Massa, reports La Política Online. (See also Associated Press.)
  
  
• Court testimony from trans women illegally detained and tortured by Argentina’s last military dictatorship fills an important gap in the country’s ongoing efforts to deliver justice for state terrorism, “at a time when the collective understanding of the crimes of the dictatorship has come under threat” with Milei’s rise, reports the Guardian.

Mexico

• Local Tijuana “politicians voted to ban narcocorridos from being performed or even played in the city, in the latest attempt by politicians to censor the genre – even though previous such efforts seem to have, if anything, only boosted its popularity,” reports the Guardian.

Chile

• Chilean political scientist Claudia Heiss discusses what Chile’s new proposed constitution would change, if approved, on the AQ Podcast. (See Wednesday’s post.)

Artes

• Sandra Gamarra Heshiki’s inverted portraits challenge idealized notions of Peru’s history — Americas Quarterly

Jordana Timerman / Latin America Daily Briefing
http://latinamericadailybriefing.blogspot