Postcard from Central America - Newsletter #127

Violence against women can no longer be a taboo in LatAm

On october 1st Mexico’s first female president, Claudia Sheinbaum, was sworn into office. Flanked by female soldiers, she declared that it was “time for transformation” and “time for women”, before sending a raft of bills to Congress designed to improve their lot. Meanwhile, at the other end of the continent, Argentina’s former president, Alberto Fernández, has been accused of domestic abuse in a case which has shocked the region. Photos found on his secretary’s phone showed his former partner, Fabiola Ya?ez, with bruises on her face and body. Leaked audio files appear to capture Mr Fernández telling the former first lady to “go to hell, you and all your offspring, you dumb bitch”. Mr Fernández denies all charges.

This pair of events illustrates the gap between rhetoric and reality in Latin America when it comes to the treatment of women. Countries across the region have passed laws against domestic violence in recent decades. Shelters for abuse victims have popped up; hotlines to report crimes have become more common. Yet the outcome is disheartening. While the killing of women has decreased somewhat, the murder of women in their homes rose by 9% in the decade to 2020. Domestic abuse in some Latin American countries remains unusually common for their level of development. The region has more laws on the books that specifically criminalise femicide—the killing of women—than anywhere else in the world. But this rebranding has helped little, if at all. In Mexico, where nine women are killed on an average day, just 1% of femicides end in a conviction (the rate is similar for all murders).

Is this the rule of law?

Guatemala’s Attorney General Consuelo Porras has been criticized and sanctioned by countries around the world for allegedly obstructing corruption investigations and using her power to persecute political opponents, but the country is effectively stuck with her, according to a legal analysis published Tuesday.

Since President Bernardo Arévalo’s election last year, Porras has pursued his Seed Movement party, alleging wrongdoing in how it gathered the necessary signatures to establish itself. Her investigators raided the party offices, seized and opened ballot boxes and sought multiple times to have his immunity lifted.

Arévalo has said Porras is protecting powerful and corrupt interests in Guatemala who fear his promise to root out corruption. He has called for her resignation.

But Guatemalan lawmakers have created an untouchable attorney general without any feasible legal mechanism to remove her, according to the study by Stanford Law School and Cyrus R. Vance Center for International Justice.

Human greed is unsustainable

Wildlife populations across the globe have shrunk by more than 70 percent over the past half-century, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

The conservation charity published a stocktake on Thursday, assessing more than 5,000 species of mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and fish, warning that habitats like the Amazon rainforest were reaching “tipping points”, with potentially “catastrophic consequences” for “most species”.

The Living Planet Report found the 35,000 populations under review had fallen 73 percent since 1970, mostly due to human pressures. The biggest decline was recorded in populations of freshwater species, followed by terrestrial and marine vertebrates.

Kleptocrats are not welcome

The Biden administration on Wednesday imposed visa bans on former Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa, his vice president and their immediate families for corruption.

The State Department announced that Correa and his one-time deputy Jorge Glas would no longer be eligible to enter the United States. The ban also applies to their spouses and children.

Correa was convicted in absentia on corruption charges in Ecuador in 2020 and sentenced to eight years in prison. He has lived in exile in Belgium since 2017.

“Correa and Glas abused their positions as former president of Ecuador and former vice president of Ecuador, respectively, by accepting bribes, including through political contributions, in exchange for granting favorable government contracts,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.

Migration is never an isolated event

The number of migrants crossing the Darien Gap — a rugged jungle passage between Colombia and Panama — increased sharply in September, according to Panamanian government data, and a human rights organization says there’s less capacity to assist migrants.

Venezuelans have led mass migration through the Darien since 2022, and make up much of the increase since that country’s recent controversial presidential election.

“The crackdown in the wake of the July 28, 2024 elections in Venezuela has led to an increase in immigration,” Refugees International said in a report published Friday. The report was based on dozens of interviews with migrants at reception stations in Panama and Costa Rica.