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Hello!
Welcome to the newsletter of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung's Latin American Network for Inclusive Security
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Building a more democratic international order | Antonio Patriota, Brazilian academic and diplomat, explores options for building a more democratic international order. The UN Summit of the Future (September 2024) is an opportunity to address the issue by stressing the importance of universal respect for International Law and the need for representative and inclusive mechanisms in international peace and security decision-making. | | |
Ecuador: A Democracy Besieged by Violence | FES Seguridad analyzes the assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio in early August to reflect on a country besieged by violence and the growing weight of organized crime, and explores the internal and external reasons behind the current situation. | | | |
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David Adler and Guillaume Long in Foreign Affairs argue that Latin American regional bodies were not designed following ideological alignments, but rather reflect an autochthonous and autonomous foreign policy tradition that has become more attractive in the midst of the "global Zeitenwende" proposed by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on the occasion of pandemics, climate change, and rising tensions between great powers.
The EU-CELAC summit in July was supposed to serve to redesign relations after years of diplomatic vacuum. According to Xulio Ríos, the meeting displayed a reaffirmation of their own interests, a rejection of hegemonic perspectives and a commitment towards a multipolar world. In this context, the EU needs to limit China's influence in Latin America.
Sandra Borda and Gabriel Silva explore the foreign policy of Petro's government. The most important developments have been achieved in normalizing relations with Venezuela and in the search for international support in the negotiations between the government and the National Liberation Army (ELN). On other fronts, international action remains to be defined (subscription required for reading).
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Milton Carlos Bragatti and Brigitte Weiffen argue that, in South America, there is a regression from cooperation to coexistence regarding three security challenges: interstate conflict and militarization; inter-mestic repercussions of internal conflict and violence; and extra-regional influences.
This new volume from the Carolina Foundation examines the relationship between militarization, militarism, and democracy in the region, with questions related to the erosion of democracy and the influence of the United States and cases such as Chile, Mexico, Colombia, and Venezuela. On the other hand, the use of the armed forces for missions that are far from their traditional functions but necessary for the State is a subject of discussion among theorists of civil-military relations and is the main axis of this work published by the Centre for Constitutional and Political Studies of the Kingdom of Spain (CEPC, for its Spanish acronym).
Two Dutch academics with extensive experience in the region offer here a comparative analysis of the role of the military in Latin America since 2000. The volume notes that military institutions, as semi-autonomous political actors, have not faded away and in various countries they may even have been making a comeback. In the recently published Yearbook of the Center for Education and Research for Peace (CEIPAZ, for its Spanish acronym), Francisco Rojas Aravena highlights the growth of security as a key issue on the agenda in view of the multiple crises that the region is facing.
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The UN Secretary-General has recently called on the international community to deploy a multinational force to Haiti, composed of police special forces and military support units, with a mandate to combat gangs and restore security. In this regard, Human Rights Watch calls on the Security Council, should it authorize such a deployment, to provide it with clear human rights protocols, adequate funding, and robust monitoring mechanisms. In his opinion, Chilean diplomat Jorge Heine considers that, despite the problems it had at the time, the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) was important and that a new mission adapted to the current circumstances should be carried out. The International Crisis Group notes in this report how Haitians are forced to take justice into their own hands against the gang threat. | |
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The emergency regime that has been in force in El Salvador for the last 15 months has left 5,490 victims of human rights violations, mostly by state security forces, as reported by civil society organizations. In areas such as Cabañas, which are being militarily surrounded, they believe that the government seeks to intimidate them and dismantle their organization system.
Honduran President Xiomara Castro promised a community- oriented approach to public safety, reducing the army’s role, and fighting corruption, but in the face of people's frustration with crime she has decided to take tough emergency measures. The International Crisis Group recommends pursuing reforms. In this webinar, several experts discuss the state of emergency.
The Mexican region of Chiapas has become a focal point of violence since 2015, with clashes between armed actors (cartels, militias, and paramilitary groups).
The Monitor of the Use of Lethal Force in Venezuela (Monitor del Uso de la Fuerza Letal en Venezuela [MULFVEN]) provides research and analysis on the actions of state security forces, with emphasis on the deaths generated by their intervention. On the other hand, Sou da Paz, Fogo Cruzado, Abraji, and Fiquem Sabendo, with the support of FES Brasil, have created a Manual on access to public security data for journalists.
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Never had the radical right wing gained so many votes as in the Argentine primaries of mid-August. The winners were the extreme right-wing libertarian candidate -a political outsider- Javier Milei, and the former Minister of Security Patricia Bullrich, with an emphasis on an iron fist against insecurity and social protest. The journey towards the October 22nd elections will be complex, and there is fear of echoes of the authoritarianism in El Salvador.
A series of articles address the possibilities of elections in complex contexts with many limits for civil society. The International Crisis Group explores Venezuela's possible journey towards elections, while Chatham House studies the possibilities for a negotiation leading to open elections in this country
Manuel Orozco examines the deadlocked political situation in Nicaragua and what steps the international community can take to support a transition. Meanwhile, Laura Tedesco and Rut Diamint analyze the Cuban government's increasing repression of young artists who question the revolution's cultural hegemony. On a different level, CONECTAS met with the UN special rapporteur on the protection of civil society, who recommended that Brazil guarantee and expand a safe and democratic public space.
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 | Augusto Varas writes about the 50th anniversary of the military coup in Chile, reviewing the posthumous book of General Carlos Prats González, Memorias. Testimonio de un soldado. His democratic approaches become topical in the commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the military coup, due to the resignation of General Prats as Commander-in-Chief of the Army and the Ministry of Defense (August 23, 1973), and his assassination ordered by Augusto Pinochet on September 30, 1974. | |
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The UN Secretary-General presented his New Agenda for Peace, on the major global challenges (geopolitical transition, interrelated threats such as changing conflicts and violence in non-conflict zones, emerging technologies, growing inequalities, and climate emergency). It calls for responding with a collective system based on trust, solidarity, and universality.
A document resulting from the consultation with Latin American peacebuilders, held by the Principles for Peace Initiative and the Berghof Foundation (September-October 2022), highlights the rich experience of local peacebuilding and the importance of recognizing these conceptions.
The book Una paz aplazada, pero urgente y necesaria addresses the peace process between the Colombian government and the ELN from 2010 to 2019, including negotiation approaches, society's participation, communication strategy of the parties, gender proposals, confidence building, and the first bilateral ceasefire. The book will be openly available on this link as of September.
Catalina Niño poses a series of problems within President Gustavo Petro's proposal for total peace. For Mariano Aguirre, negotiating with organized crime requires anti-corruption policies and judicial reform. Adam Isacson investigates the reasons behind the collapse of Colombia's coca economy and the possible opportunities it opens up for improving the historically weak state presence.
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Between May 2022 and July 2023, a team of 37 journalists and media professionals from eleven countries ventured into unexplored corners of the Amazon to understand its criminal ecosystem. They investigated the forces that drive the protagonists of illicit activities and created a database on armed groups and their criminal activities.
The presidents of Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela met in Brazil on 8 and 9 August to seek ways to counteract the threats facing the Amazon rainforest. Bram Ebus explains that inter-governmental cooperation and a regional security strategy will be essential to protect this ecosystem.
Uruguay suffers from a drinking water shortage. A development model based on water-intensive agricultural products and lack of state control over resources demonstrate that fundamental changes must be undertaken.
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The report Atrapados en el tapón: migrantes y traficantes en el Darién narrates the vicissitudes experienced by migrants in this forested border area between Colombia and Panama. In turn, WOLA analyzes the recommendations of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights report on women and prisons and proposes three ways to reduce the number of women in prison in Latin America.
The Regional Institute on the Study and Practice of Strategic Nonviolent Action in the Americas convenes its second virtual course "El poder de la gente: la dinámica estratégica de la resistencia no violenta" (People Power: The Strategic Dynamics of Nonviolent Resistance). Registration can be done here. Also, two new podcasts stand out. The first one, Brasil, respuestas no violentas al porte de armas (Brazil, non-violent responses to weapon-carrying), and the second one with Oliver Kaplan, ¿Cómo apoyar la autoprotección frente a los actores armados en Colombia? (How to support self-protection against armed actors in Colombia?).
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The Latin American Research Network on the United States (RELEU, for its Spanish acronym) is an information and communication service for researchers on Latin America-United States relations. The Network is coordinated by the National Institute of Science and Technology for U.S. Studies (INCT-INEU, for its Portuguese acronym). To receive the monthly newsletter, contact Tatiana Carlotti at: tcarlotti@gmail.com
Newsletter of the Latin America Working Group: https://www.lawg.org
Adam Isacson's blog (WOLA): https://adamisacson.com/
ABColombia: https://www.abcolombia.org.uk/
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Newsletter of the Latin American Network for Inclusive Security
Edited by Mariano Aguirre and Mabel González Bustelo
English translation by Yenni Castro (Valestra Editorial)
More information: MariaAlejandra.Rico@fes.de
Calle 71 # 11 - 90, Bogota, Colombia
© 2023 FES
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