Interamerican Watch Newsletter - Issue 496
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Inter-American Watch
Tuesday 5/26/2026Argentina
The prosecutor specializing in economic crimes, Claudio Navas Rial, expanded the charges against AFA president Claudio “Chiqui” Tapia, treasurer Pablo Toviggino, and three other defendants for alleged aggravated tax evasion and launched an investigation into the use of false invoices based on a complaint filed by ARCA. The agency also requested a determination of whether a “tax fraud conspiracy” existed. ...Read more >>Source: infobae.com
The Estudiantes de La Plata players were on the field, lined up in a corridor, facing each other, forming a passageway with their bodies to welcome the champion, Rosario Central. But when he entered the field, the eleven opposing players turned their backs on him. This controversial gesture was a response to the Argentine Football Association's (AFA) contentious decision to award Rosario Central a championship title that was not stipulated in the regulations. The AFA claimed it had been approved by all clubs, but Estudiantes denied this in a statement. ...Read more >>
Source: cnnespanol.cnn.com
The accounting and appraisal reports requested by Judge Adrián González Charvay of Zárate include two key findings in the main case concerning corruption in the AFA: three apartments located in the City of Buenos Aires and the house that Carlos Tevez sold to Claudio “Chiqui” Tapia in the Sofitel neighborhood. In addition to Pilar's mansion, two houses in the gated community of Ayres Plaza, and 51 high-end and collector cars. ...Read more >>
Source: clarin.com
Bolivia
Sixteen days after the start of the road blockades, the protests in Bolivia are spreading across the country. This Friday, the Bolivian Highway Administration (ABC) reported 51 roadblocks in seven of the country's nine departments, most of them concentrated in the Altiplano region, in the departments of La Paz, Oruro, and Cochabamba. ...Read more >>Source: infobae.com
Former Bolivian President Evo Morales faces one of the most serious legal and political crises since leaving power in 2019: he faces charges of aggravated human trafficking, rape, sedition, terrorism, electoral fraud, and corruption. He has been declared a fugitive by the courts, has arrest warrants issued against him, and remains in hiding in Chapare, his political and coca-growing stronghold, protected by allied groups that prevent his arrest. ...Read more >>
Source: infobae.com
Bolivia is not experiencing a social and political crisis. Blocked streets, impassable roads, induced shortages, pressure on hospitals, the threat of supply problems, and the attempt to turn protest into a tool of political veto are not isolated incidents. They are part of a technology of power that Evo Morales knows better than anyone: suffocating the authorities to force them to surrender. ...Read more >>
Source: infobae.com
Cuba
Cuba will experience another day of prolonged blackouts this Tuesday, when the largest power cut will once again disconnect 59% of the island during peak hours, according to data from the state-owned Unión Eléctrica (UNE). A video from Infobae captured empty streets at the start of the workday, with little activity and garbage piling up on every corner. The desolation becomes more evident as the sun rises. ...Read more >>Source: infobae.com
Residents of Havana suffer from water shortages, and access to the resource increasingly depends on available funds, while the collapse of the water distribution system pushes millions of Cubans into an informal market where solutions are bought but not guaranteed. ...Read more >>
Source: infobae.com
Ecuador
Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa appeared before the National Assembly this Sunday to present his first ordinary report since being re-elected for the 2025-2029 term, and he did so with a belligerent speech directed at both organized crime and his political adversaries. ...Read more >>Source: infobae.com
Interamerican Institute for Democracy
Guest Columnist | Humberto VacaflorIt must be admitted, in Bolivia there is a narco-terrorist who is facing a weak government, which he left with a broken economy, with the mercenaries of the most powerful industry that the country has ever had, it is Evo Morales. ...Read more >>
Source: intdemocratic.org
Peru
Peruvian journalist Geraldine Santos is only 30 years old, and she is already preparing for her funeral. Santos says she has received so many threats while reporting on cocaine trafficking and environmental crimes in the Amazon jungle that she has arranged for her family to contact a government source who, in case Santos is murdered, could help locate her body. ...Read more >>Source: cpj.org
Spain
Former Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero is accused by the National Court of running a criminal organization, money laundering, influence peddling, and document forgery, which in turn could be related to the dealings of Nicolás Maduro's frontman, Alex Saab. These are issues that place Pedro Sánchez's government at another crossroads regarding corruption. ...Read more >>Source: diariolasamericas.com
Between 2020 and 2025, the bank account shared by María Sonsoles Espinosa Díaz and her husband, former president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, received 1.5 million euros in transfers. According to the ruling by Judge José Luis Calama, the money allegedly came from companies linked to the suspected influence-peddling scheme investigated in the Plus Ultra case. ...Read more >>
Source: infobae.com
United States
The United States administration warned that it will continue investigating those with ties to the Cuban regime following the arrest in Miami of Adys Lastres Morera, sister of the CEO of Grupo de Administración Empresarial S.A. (GAESA), the military conglomerate that controls up to 70% of Cuba's economy. ...Read more >>Source: infobae.com
Venezuela
Dozens of inmates at the Barinas Judicial Internment Center (Injuba), located in the western plains of Venezuela, climbed onto the prison roof this Sunday in protest, burned mattresses, and demanded the dismissal of the newly appointed director, whom they accuse of subjecting them to violent searches, isolation, and torture. The complaint was disseminated by the Venezuelan Prison Observatory (OVP), a non-governmental organization with consultative status before the Inter-American System of Human Rights. ...Read more >>Source: infobae.com
When Venezuela speaks of a “transition to democracy” and invokes the principles of justice and reparation, the focus is primarily on the victims of repression. ...Read more >>
Source: infobae.com
Relatives of political prisoners and human rights defenders in Venezuela marched silently this Wednesday to the Ministry for the Penitentiary Service in Caracas to demand justice for the deaths of detainees while in state custody, as well as the resignation of the head of that ministry, Julio García Zerpa. ...Read more >>
Source: infobae.com