Interamerican Watch Newsletter - Issue 503
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Inter-American Watch
Thursday 18/06/2026Argentina
The Federal Oral Court that sentenced Cristina Kirchner to six years in prison warned her that she violated the conditions of her house arrest at 1111 San José Street by displaying a flag this past weekend between her balcony and that of a neighboring building. The former president was warned that a repeat offense could result in her being sent to prison to serve her sentence. ...Read more >>Source: lanacion.com.ar
The purchase of the Pilar mansion, valued at US$17 million and linked to the AFA (Argentine Football Association), has come under suspicion of being part of a network of alleged money laundering schemes, with front men linked to the leadership of Argentine football. ...Read more >>
Source: infobae.com
Bolivia
Thousands of truckers who have been stranded for a month and a half on various highways in Bolivia due to blockades by groups demanding the resignation of President Rodrigo Paz are facing a critical situation without access to food, medicine, or basic services, sources in the transportation sector reported this Monday (June 15, 2026). The most affected are more than 5,000 heavy-duty drivers, who since the beginning of May were in transit to transport merchandise for export or import, according to the National Chamber of Transportation (CNT). ...Read more >>Source: dw.com
Bolivia says it has signed a new co-operation deal with the US to combat drug trafficking. The foreign ministry said that under the agreement, the US would provide up to $20m (£15m) to train and equip Bolivian forces as part of a joint fight against drug smuggling. The deal is the latest sign of thawing relations between the nations - 18 years after then-President Evo Morales expelled the US Drug Enforcement Administration from the South American country, which is the world's third-largest producer of coca, the raw material used to make cocaine. ...Read more >>
Source: bbc.com
Brazil
Brazil's Supreme Court on Tuesday convicted former lawmaker Eduardo Bolsonaro, a son of ex-President Jair Bolsonaro living in the U.S., of courting interference from the Trump administration in his father's trial last year for a coup plot. ...Read more >>Source: reuters.com
Brazilian police arrested a man in Rio de Janeiro on Tuesday who is identified as one of the main financial operators of the Tren de Aragua criminal gang in the country and a suspected link to Comando Vermelho, in an investigation targeting a network dedicated to arms, drug, and human trafficking. ...Read more >>
Source: infobae.com
Colombia
Over the last 60 years, Colombia has faced challenges as a country that few other nations have had to confront. Decades of violence, the deadly cocaine cartels, severe territorial control by guerrillas at one time, by paramilitaries at another, and now also by criminal groups. But perhaps never before in its recent history has it had to withstand a torrent of scandals like the one experienced during Gustavo Petro's administration. ...Read more >>Source: elcolombiano.com
Cuba
The organization also requested that Canada support the creation of an international fund to compensate victims of repression on the island and promote the documentation of officials involved in politically motivated imprisonments, explained its executive director, Alejandro González Raga. ...Read more >>Source: cubanet.org
Ecuador
Ecuador's President Daniel Noboa signed Executive Decree 423 on Tuesday, establishing a new state of emergency due to serious internal unrest in ten of the country's 24 provinces and three cantons. The decree is valid for 60 days and can be extended for another 30 days if security conditions require it. The measure, the latest in a long series of emergency declarations since Noboa took office in November 2013, responds to a sustained deterioration in security, which the decree itself quantifies: 879 homicides recorded between May 1 and June 12 in the affected territories. ...Read more >>Source: infobae.com
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth welcomed Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa to the Pentagon today to discuss the bonds of defense-based cooperation between their respective countries. At the outset of the meeting's public portion, Hegseth thanked Noboa for being a founding member of the Americas Counter-Cartel Coalition, more commonly called Shield of the Americas. ...Read more >>
Source: war.gov
(Washington, DC) – A prosecutor in the Ecuadorian coastal city of Manta was shot and killed on June 14, 2026, the most recent in a series of killings of judicial officials in Ecuador, Human Rights Watch said today. Gloria Alexandra Bravo Cedeño is the third prosecutor to be killed in Manta since 2022. Ecuadorian authorities should ensure a prompt, credible, and impartial investigation into the death of the prosecutor and take urgent measures to protect judicial officials. ...Read more >>
Source: hrw.org
Haiti
People are walking along this busy main road as merchants sell fruit and household goods from small stalls. This city scene is perhaps unremarkable, were it not for the fact that the fear of gang violence among the population has frequently scared people off the streets of the capital. It is estimated that at least 26, sometimes heavily armed, gangs control perhaps up to 90 per cent of Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas fostering terror among Haitians through violence, summary executions, extortion and kidnappings for ransom and preventing commerce by blocking the free flow of goods. ...Read more >>Source: news.un.org
Interamerican Institute for Democracy
Guest Columnist | Pedro CorzoCastro-Chavism, in every country it has governed, has produced many martyrs, but as José Martí wrote, “Death is not real when the work of life has been well done,” and Brooklin Rivera fulfilled that task. ...Read more >>
Source: intdemocratic.org
By our Director: Beatrice E. Rangel
If anything has characterized this first round of World Cup competitions, it has been the challenge posed by emerging teams to the traditional football powers. ...Read more >>
Source: intdemocratic.org
By our Director: Carlos Sánchez Berzaín
...we have seen and continue to see presidents and governments in Latin America stigmatized by the "fear of governing by upholding and enforcing the law" because they do not change the dictatorial system, because they adopted the strategy of gradualism, which is their own slow demise, because they do not form strong governments of national unity with the clear objective of restoring the elements of democracy and separating crime from politics in order to recover the economy of the people, because they believe that everything can be negotiated, including the human rights of citizens—whom they are obliged to protect—who are victims of crimes. ...Read more >>
Source: intdemocratic.org
Guest Columnist | Hugo Marcelo Balderrama
...whoever cannot mortgage, exchange, or sell their land is not an owner; their status is that of a tenant of the communal lands. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that community members are held hostage by union dictatorships, since they are intimidated with the threat of losing their land if they do not obey the collective's directives. These are essentially territories run by a pimp or gang leader where he is the law. ...Read more >>
Source: intdemocratic.org
Spain
José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero left the courthouse this Tuesday without having managed, for now, to change the opinion of the magistrate investigating him in the 'Plus Ultra case'. After listening for hours to the former Prime Minister's version of events, Judge José Luis Calama believes that his statement has not succeeded in dispelling the evidence that led to his indictment for an alleged scheme related to the public bailout of the airline. ...Read more >>Source: infobae.com