Recent efforts to restore voting rights to the formerly incarcerated, a crucial Democratic constituency, could have important implications for the 2020 presidential election.
A new Human Rights Watch report finds many Salvadoran deportees are killed once home, often by the gangs they fled. Rampant impunity means El Salvador can’t protect vulnerable people from violence.
Robert Muggah, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio)
As evangelicalism spreads across Brazil, some of Rio de Janeiro’s most notorious gangs see minority religions as an affront to God. And they’re using guns to spread their gospel.
Chronic violence was dampening the holiday spirit in Chihuahua, Mexico. So the Mennonite community planned a ‘Parade of Lights’ and holiday party where neighbors could celebrate safely even at night.
President López Obrador campaigned on some outside-the-box ideas to ‘pacify’ Mexico after 12 years of extreme violence. But so far his government has emphasized traditional law-and-order policies.
Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales is defying a constitutional court order to release a UN-backed prosecutor his government arrested and allow his corruption investigation to continue.
The migrant caravan was one of the biggest international stories of 2018, a roving human drama that laid bare Central America’s pain for all the world to see.
Mexicans want leftist Andrés Manuel López Obrador to transform the country. But the months leading up to his inauguration sent worrying signs about how he he will use the massive power of his office.
Two trucks carrying migrants have gone missing in Veracruz, Mexico. A witness says that ‘65 children and seven women were sold’ to a band of armed men. Other caravan members have reached the border.
Anthony W. Fontes, American University School of International Service
MS-13 is not the biggest or most violent gang in the US. But its grisly murders and Latino membership inflame Americans’ anxiety about immigration. GOP campaign ads stoke those fears to attack Democrats.
The U.S. government has ended the protective status of 200,000 Salvadoran migrants. If deported, they would go back to one of the world’s deadliest places. How did violence in El Salvador get so bad?