The Big Stories to watch this week in LATAM
Police 'massacre' in Brazil, Day of the Dead killing in Mexico, Fujimori runs for 4th time in Peru, and Venezuela notable for what isn't happening
LATAM Daily Wires brings you the stories to watch this week in Latin America and the big headline developments over the weekend. If you haven’t subscribed yet, you should.
Deadliest Police Raid in Brazilian History inspires national protests
An operation carried out by security forces in Rio de Janeiro against criminal group Comando Vermelho (Red Command) is the deadliest police operation in Brazilian history.
The operation failed to capture its principal target, but did kill a lot of people in the favelas of Rio.
The Public Defender’s Office reported 132 deaths, including 4 police officers, but local journalists are saying the actual number of residents killed by security forces is almost certainly higher.
Residents gathered bodies in disturbing photos that outraged many in the country. Police and right-wing politicians are portraying it as a success, but Brazilians turned out to protest in at least 19 cities over the weekend, which they described as a “massacre.”
Human rights groups have strongly criticized the operation. Some civil investigators have claimed the raid was staged as “revenge” for the killings of police officers, and almost certainly killed residents uninvolved in the gang as well.
Mexican mayor killed during Day of the Dead festival
Uruapan mayor, Carlos Alberto Manzo Rodríguez, was shot dead in the center of a plaza in front of dozens of witnesses at a Day of the Dead celebration in Michoacán, Mexico.
The mayor was under police protection after threats from criminal groups in the region.
The brazen act inspired protests on Sunday. In Uruapan, citizens chanted “Justice, justice. Out with Morena”, a reference to the ruling party of the Mexican president, Claudia Sheinbaum.
Michoacán is one of Mexico’s deadliest states, and a place where rival cartels clash with one another and with police forces. Rodríguez’s bodyguard was also injured in the attack.
Keiko Fujimori is running for President in Peru
Days after Peru’s constitutional court dismissed a money-laundering case against Keiko Fujimori said on Thursday she will run for president in the April election.
The daughter of Peru’s late former President Alberto Fujimori, has been defeated three times previously — most recently in 2021, when she was defeated by leftist Pedro Castillo, who was later impeached and arrested in late 2022 after attempting to dissolve Congress.
Venezuela notable for what isn’t happening
US drone strikes in the Caribbean have been focused in the Pacific over the last few weeks, well away from Venezuelan shores. It had seemed like momentum was building towards a regime-change operation by the U.S, but at least for the moment, Trump seems more focused on other issues.
We talked this week with Adriaan Alselma, from Colombia Reports, and Richard McColl, from Colombia Calling, about Venezuela, the Wars of Drugs and Terror, and what the next few months might hold. Check it out here!
U.S boat bombings move to the Pacific: killing Venezuelans on hold for now
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What We’re Reading
Al Jazeera has an in-depth and well-reported field piece on the largest remaining rebel group in Colombia, the ELN.
“The US focus on drugs and neighbouring Venezuela has brought an international dimension to what was an internal Colombian conflict,” they write in the piece. Reported from the Venezuelan borderlands, the feature is definitely worth checking out.
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Hasta pronto piratas!
