Protests, everywhere (Oct. 25, 2019)

The briefing is starting to look like a compilation of protests in countries around the region. There is no single explanation for the upheaval that has distinct local factors in each country that is affected. But common threads include middle-class economic discontent, anger at political wrongdoing, and the example of global protests like those in Hong Kong and Barcelona, according to some experts.

Alma Guillermoprieto told the Guardian that she "saw the unrest as a mutiny of overworked and underpaid citizens pushed over the edge by what – from a middle-class perspective – might seem relatively trivial increases in transport costs. “Life is tough, and you put up with it, you put up with it, you put up with it, you put up with it – and all of a sudden this one small thing comes and you say: ‘Fuck this!’” she said."

Below a roundup of the latest news from protest movements throughout Lat Am (and the regular news briefs too).

News Briefs

Bolivia

• Bolivian President Evo Morales narrowly won Sunday's presidential election outright, granting him a fourth mandate. But the close results and hiccups in vote count reporting have spurred days of angry protests in the country. Yesterday tens of thousands of demonstrators marched in La Paz and cities around Bolivia, reports the Guardian. Police fired tear gas in La Paz and there were clashes in Santa Cruz, reports BBC. The European Union joined OAS calls asking Morales to submit to a second round of voting, though he narrowly surpassed the 10 point lead threshold that makes him an outright winner. Though opponents point to a change in early result trends, Morales said he had more support from rural votes that came in later. (See this Twitter thread for a deep dive on the result trends.)

• Regardless of whether Bolivians vote in a second round or not, the tug-o-war over Sunday's election results guarantee that one side or another will be unhappy and unlikely to recognize the next president's legitimacy, according to the Economist. Indeed, regardless of the result, Morales' legitimacy is compromised, writes Edmundo Paz Soldán in the Post Opinión.

• Bolivias electoral court ordered a revote in four localities on Nov. 3, due to irregularities, but the number of affected votes is too low to change the result. (New York Times)

• Note: yesterday I said vote tallies had Morales just below the 10 percent difference he needed to win outright -- I cited the official vote count, but mistakenly looked only at the Bolivia results, not those that incorporated expat votes that put Morales just over the 10 percent threshold.

Migration

• The U.S. Trump administration is testing out a policy that would speed up deportation of asylum-seeking migrants once they cross the U.S.-Mexico border. Known as Prompt Asylum Claim Review, the program streamlines the asylum process so that migrants who are seeking safe refuge in the United States will receive a decision in 10 days or less. The main focus is whether the asylum seekers can be safely sent back to their home country, reports the Washington Post. Advocates say the program violates migrants' due process rights.

Chile

• The UN high commission on human rights is sending a team to Chile to investigate allegations of human rights abuses against demonstrators, reports the Guardian. At least 18 people have died in a week of unrest -- Chile's National Human Rights Institute confirmed that it was compiling 55 legal cases related to five homicides and eight instances of sexual violence involving both police and military agents, which will be investigated by Chile’s public prosecution service. “Having monitored the crisis from the beginning I have decided to send a verification mission to examine reports of human rights violations in Chile,” the high commissioner and former Chilean president Michelle Bachelet announced on Twitter. (See yesterday's briefs.)

• Protests aren't endangering Chilean democracy -- Piñera and his crackdown on demonstrators are, argues Oscar Guardiola-Rivera in the Guardian.

• "The Chilean model can be improved with more social provision and a crackdown on oligopolies. It does not need reinvention," argues the Economist.

Haiti

• Ongoing protests in Haiti aren't carried out by thoughtless people who are just angry, demonstrators are rejecting a long-standing system, writes Amy Wilenz in The Nation. "The situation that has been unfolding over the past year is the long, drawn-out, tortuous result of a concerted attack on popular democracy, and of the Haitian elite’s reluctance to allow any political or economic space for the masses entrenched in generations of poverty."

• Unfortunately, "unless something truly radical occurs," protesters' aspirations for a more egalitarian and rights-respecting society will likely "remain out of reach for the foreseeable future," writes Jon Lee Anderson in the New Yorker.

Militarization

• Unrest is spreading throughout the region, and increasingly governments in different countries are resorting to militarized responses aimed to a quelling protests. These are unlikely to be successful, argues Javier Corrales in Americas Quarterly. "Latin America used to be known as the land of the military junta. It is now at risk of becoming the land of militarized democracies."

Venezuela

• Residents of Caracas' Petare neighborhood protested for two days against the operations of the Special Actions Force of the Bolivarian National Police (FAES) in their neighborhoods, reports the Venezuela Weekly. Following a recent FAES operation that killed seven people, including three children, protesters said they preferred the control of local gangs to that of security forces. The FAES  has been specifically linked to widespread human rights abuses in Venezuela. (See Sept 17's post on a Human Rights Watch report of how the FAES have been carrying out extrajudicial executions and arbitrary arrests in poor communities that no longer support the Maduro gov't, Sept. 24's post on the U.N. Human Rights Council decision to investigate Venezuelan abuses, and July 4's post on the Bachelet report that highlights FAES extrajudicial executions.) 

• The U.S. Trump administration temporarily shielded the Venezuelan-owned refining company Citgo from creditors by blocking transactions on the bonds will be blocked for 90 days, reports the New York Times.

Colombia

• Colombians head to the polls for local elections around the country on Sunday -- but the campaign has been marked by a string of political assassinations of social leaders and candidates that is reminiscent of wanton political violence in the past, reports the Guardian.

Argentina

• Odd to be writing about protests and not include Argentina. (Let's hope that doesn't change next week!) Instead Argentines are gearing up for a presidential election on Sunday -- Peronist candidate Alberto Fernández is considered a shoo-in. Mrkets are already uneasy and the peso's value keeps slipping. Though Fernández's win was unlikely -- he was barely known outside of political circles until former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner tapped him to head her ticket in May -- he faces an even tougher task now as he inherits a country on the brink of default, with sky high-inflation and a tough recession that has 35 percent of the country in poverty. (Reuters)

• President Mauricio Macri had no politically viable option to save the economy he inherited, argues Benjamin Gedan in Foreign Policy.

Mexico

• Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's policy towards cartels -- evinced by the botched Culiacán operative last week -- could temporarily lower violence by not challenging criminal organizations, but will lead to increases in the long-run, according to the Economist.

Water

• Droughts and other water-related challenges pose a rising threat to millions of Latin Americans -- and the issue is popping up in major trends throughout the region, as a push factor for Central American migration and as a cause of anger among Chilean protesters. Americas Quarterly's latest issue focuses on this "invisible crisis" and on realistic solutions for a region where water is an increasingly endangered resource.

Hippos

• Hippos descended from Pablo Escobar's private menagerie have Colombian authorities in a bind -- the giant animals are detrimental to the environment, but it's prohibited to kill them due to an animal rights activist spurred court ruling. (Economist)

Did I miss something, get something wrong, or do you have a different take? Let me know ...  

Latin America Daily Briefing