Interamerican Watch Newsletter - Issue 468
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Inter-American Watch
Tuesday 17/02/2026Bolivia
A journalist was kidnapped, tortured, and mutilated in the early hours of last Thursday in the city of El Alto, Bolivia's second most populous city, in an attack that the country's main press associations describe as a premeditated assassination attempt to silence his reporting. ...Read more >>Source: infobae.com
The United States has resumed intelligence coordination on counternarcotics efforts with Bolivia under its conservative president, a high-ranking Bolivian official said, reviving a sensitive relationship nearly 20 years after left-wing former President Evo Morales expelled U.S. anti-drug agents from the world's third-largest producer of cocaine. ...Read more >>
Source: apnews.com
Cuba
A large fire at the Ñico López refinery in Havana forced the deployment of emergency teams this Friday, while a thick column of black smoke was visible from various points in the Cuban capital. Authorities from the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MINEM) reported that the fire, which started in the mid-afternoon in a warehouse at the facility, was brought under control shortly afterward, although the cause was not specified and no injuries or deaths were reported. ...Read more >>Source: infobae.com
With continuous power outages, hotel closures, and the suspension of air routes due to fuel shortages, tourists are gradually leaving Cuba, exacerbating the severe crisis on the island, which is suffering economic hardship. ...Read more >>
Source: infobae.com
The Cuban government has carried out more arbitrary arrests and repressed all forms of dissent more forcefully amid an increasingly severe economic crisis, according to human rights organizations such as Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International. ...Read more >>
Source: expansion.mx
The Cuban dictatorship charged activists from the El4tico group with the crime of “propaganda against the constitutional order,” in a context of growing repression and nervousness within the island's power structure. ...Read more >>
Source: infobae.com
Ecuador
Ecuadorian police reported on Saturday the discovery of eight human heads in a rural area in the southwest of the Andean country, besieged by a wave of uncontrollable violence, and where a state of emergency is in effect. ...Read more >>Source: univision.com
El Salvador
An operation by the Salvadoran Navy has set a new precedent in the country's fight against drugs, carrying out what President Nayib Bukele described as "the largest drug seizure in El Salvador's history." In a statement, Bukele detailed that the operation took place 380 nautical miles (703.7 kilometers) southwest of the Salvadoran coast, where the Multipurpose Support Vessel FMS EAGLE was intercepted. ...Read more >>Source: infobae.com
Interamerican Institute for Democracy
Guest Columnist | Pedro CorzoThe capture of the autocrat Nicolás Maduro was a kind of operational overture that, added to the critical situation of the Castro-Chavista regimes, allows us to imagine the irruption of ordinary citizens in search of their rights, parallel to the longed-for return of those of us who, although eternally grateful to the lands that gave us generous refuge, yearn to walk the streets of our childhood again. ...Read more >>
Source: intdemocratic.org
Argentine journalist Nicolás Pizzi presented new revelations in Miami about the case known as “AFAgate,” during the forum “Football, Corruption and Democracy: Argentina AFAgate,” organized by the Inter-American Institute for Democracy in conjunction with Diario Las Américas. ...Read more >>
Source: diariolasamericas.com
The Interamerican Institute for Democracy's Miami headquarters becomes the epicenter of the debate on sports ethics with the forum "Football, Corruption, and Democracy." ...Read more >>
Source: diariolasamericas.com
Nicaragua
The suspension of free transit for Cubans entering Nicaragua put an end to the use of migration as a political weapon against the United States and a business for the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo. ...Read more >>Source: infobae.com
United States
A group of Republican congressmen formally requested that President Donald Trump's administration and Attorney General Pam Bondi reopen a criminal investigation against former Cuban leader Raúl Castro, whom they identify as ultimately responsible for the downing of two civilian aircraft belonging to the Brothers to the Rescue organization. ...Read more >>Source: diariolasamericas.com
US military forces conducted an interdiction and boarding operation of the Veronica III oil tanker in the Indian Ocean, following a transoceanic pursuit that began in the Caribbean Sea, the Department of Defense reported Sunday. ...Read more >>
Source: infobae.com
US President Donald Trump highlighted to troops in North Carolina the success of the military operation that concluded on January 3 with the capture of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro. During a speech at Fort Bragg, Trump described the operation as a demonstration of the power of U.S. special forces, emphasizing that the maneuver was carried out with unprecedented speed and precision. “What we recently did in Venezuela, nobody had ever seen anything like it,” the president stated, detailing that the raid on Fort Tiuna, Caracas, employed several attack and transport helicopters and was completed “literally, in one minute.” ...Read more >>
Source: infobae.com
Venezuela
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio asserted this Sunday that the situation in Venezuela is “much better” since the capture of narco-dictator Nicolás Maduro on January 3 in Caracas. ...Read more >>Source: infobae.com
A group of political prisoners began a hunger strike Friday night at the headquarters of the Bolivarian National Police, known as Zone 7, in eastern Caracas, demanding their release. ...Read more >>
Source: infobae.com