The latest in Latin American politics today:
U.S. charges four more men in plot to kill Haitian president
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WASHINGTON – The U.S. Justice Department formally accused four more men of criminal involvement in the 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise.
Moise’s murder in July 2021 left a political vacuum in the Caribbean nation and emboldened powerful gangs who serve as de facto authorities in parts of the country.
The men charged on Tuesday will face proceedings in the Southern District of Florida after being detained in Haiti, the U.S. Justice Department said in a statement.
Brazil takes step to expel miners from indigenous land
BRASILIA – Brazil’s government is preparing a task force involving several government agencies and enforcement bodies that will soon launch an operation to remove illegal gold miners from the Yanomami reservation, indigenous leader Joenia Wapichana said.
Wapichana will in a few days become the first indigenous person to head the government’s indigenous affairs agency Funai, appointed by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who has pledged to expel wildcat miners from protected indigenous lands.
Some 20,000 wildcat miners are searching for gold in Brazil’s largest indigenous reservation in Roraima state on the border with Venezuela, where they have polluted waters with mercury used to separate the metal from ore and earth, official say.
Peru police disperse protesters approaching capital airport
LIMA – Peru’s police dispersed protesters who were approaching Jorge Chavez International Airport near the capital city of Lima, as protests spark fresh fears of flight suspensions.
On its Twitter account, the Peruvian National Police said it had dispersed protesters, while Lima Airport Partners, which operates the airport, said security had being “reinforced.”
Court rules Colombia responsible for political violence
BOGOTA – The Inter-American Court of Human Rights said on Monday the Colombian state was responsible for assassinations and other crimes against more than 6,000 members or supporters of the leftist Patriotic Union (UP) political party over the course of two decades.
An alliance meant to stop the UP from gaining power existed between right-wing paramilitary groups, traditional political sectors, the armed forces and business groups, the court said, and persecution of members was carried out through forced disappearances, massacres and other violence.
Corruption rife in trio of Latin America countries: report
SAO PAULO – Guatemala, Nicaragua and Cuba reached all-time lows on Transparency International’s corruption index released on Tuesday due to increased organized crime by public institutions, co-optation by political and economic elites and increased human rights abuses.
“Weak governments fail to stop criminal networks, social conflict, and violence, and some exacerbate threats to human rights by concentrating power in the name of tackling insecurity,” said Delia Ferreira Rubio, head of Transparency International, a Berlin-based anti-corruption group. (Compiled by Steven Grattan and Sarah Morland Editing by Diane Craft)
