AMLO creates Ayotzinapa truth commission (Dec. 4, 2018)

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador ordered the creation of a truth commission to re-examine the case of 43 missing students, one of the most infamous crimes in recent years. AMLO promised that the commission will investigate the 2014 case, in which 43 students from an Ayotzinapa teachers' college disappeared after an attack in Iguala. The case, the botched government investigation, and lack of answers, has become emblematic of the previous government's tragic human rights record. (Guardian)

The new investigation will be carried out under a special prosecutor's office, and will be headed by Alejandro Encinas, the incoming deputy interior minister for human rights. The commission is supposed to consider all potential leads, even those discarded or ignored by the previous government, reports the New York Times.

Families of victims, experts, and members of the new government will form part of the commission, which is supposed to start working within a month. The presidential decree, signed two days into the AMLO presidency, also orders all areas of the federal government to cooperate with the new investigation. International organizations, including the U.N. and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights were also invited to colaborate. (Animal Político)

The announcement was made in the presence of relatives of the victims, who hope to finally obtain answers after the official government investigation was questioned by an international group of experts sent by the IACHR. The families will be at the center of the new policy, a complete turnaround from the previous investigation, fraught with irregularities and abuses, reports El País. 

Secretaria de Gobernación Olga Sánchez promised to adequately fund the commission in order to obtain answers within a reasonable time frame, and that former government officials will be investigated where relevant. (EFE) For the first time, the army will also be within the scope of the investigation, a key demand from the families, reports Reuters. 

Tackling the Ayotzinapa case is critical for AMLO's goals of pacification, argues an El Universal editorial.

Families of the Ayotzinapa disappeared said yesterday they hoped this would usher in a new period of hope, after the failure of the Peña Nieto administration. But outside the National Palace families of other disappeared demanded advances in all cases of enforced disappearances, reports Animal Político.

News Briefs

Migrants

• Over 8,000 migrants have crossed into Mexico since the caravan phenomenon gained strength in October. The Wall Street Journal focuses on women, profiling the migrants escaping from Central America, one of the deadliest regions in the world for women. 

• Most of the migrants are in Tijuana and Mexicali, waiting to apply for asylum in the U.S. The Mexican government set up a new shelter near Tijuana in response to overcrowding and unsanitary conditions in the city's existing migrant camp. (Washington Post)

• The long wait to obtain an asylum appointment, and lack of clarify over where migrants will be staying after that, is pushing many to try to cross the border fence illegally, reports the New York Times. (See yesterday's briefs.)

Haiti

• Miami Herald correspondent Jacqueline Charles attributes Haiti's unrest to a young population and newly restricted migration to former destinations like the U.S., Canada and Chile. In Americas Quarterly's Deep South podcast she discusses the roots of the Petro Caribe scandal and how the corruption outrage in Haiti echoes other scandals in the region.

Cuba

• Cuban citizens made more than 659,000 proposals in a consultation process for the country's new constitution. The new constitution will be submitted to the National Assembly in January for approval, but it's not clear how public feedback will be incorporated, reports the Miami Herald.

Diplomacy

• Will Brazil's incoming president, Jair Bolsonaro, replace Argentine President Mauricio Macri as the U.S.'s closest ally in the region? (McClatchy)

Venezuela

• U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro must ultimately go for Venezuela to climb out of its humanitarian crisis, but emphasized that regime change is up to Venezuelans and neighboring governments, not the U.S. (Reuters)

Colombia

• The synthetic drugs smuggling market is booming in Colombia, reports InSight Crime.

Drugs

• Drug regulation is an increasingly hot topic in the Americas. In an interview with InSight Crime, former Chilean president Ricardo Lagos analyzes diverse approaches.

Peru

• Uruguay turned down former Peruvian president Alan García's request for asylum, saying there is no evidence he is being politically targeted by a corruption investigation. (Associated Press)

Ecuador

• Extractivist projects pushed by Ecuador's government have ignored indigenous groups' rights, according to the he U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. (Reuters)

Environment

• United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet calls for aggressive and comprehensive environmental policies to stave off climate change, pointing out that in Chile these have been economically profitable. (New York Times op-ed)

• Banning plastic bags can only do so much say Chileans with mixed reactions to a ban on stores handing out free plastic bags. (BBC)

More from Mexico

• Axolotis are iconic, but also increasingly endangered in their natural Xochimilco habitat. (Guardian)

• Better than Netflix: The latest episode in the El Chapo trial, involves a Colombian witness who proudly detailed his obsession with producing cocaine, which he then sold to the Sinaloa cartel king-pin, Joaquín Guzmán. (New York Times)

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Latin America Daily Briefing