Interamerican Watch Newsletter - Issue 519

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Inter-American Watch

Thursday 8/13/2026

Bolivia

Two of the individuals prosecuted during Evo Morales's administration in the Las Américas Hotel case filed a formal complaint with the Prosecutor's Office against 153 people, including former ministers and prosecutors, among others. The complainant, David Sejas, stated that the State failed to comply with the recommendations issued by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in 2022. In the early morning of April 16, 2009, an elite group of the Bolivian Police entered the Las Américas Hotel in the city of Santa Cruz, detonated explosives on the fourth floor, and stormed into the rooms, firing their weapons. As a result of the operation, Michael Dwyer and two others were killed, and Elöd Tóásó and Mario Tadic were arrested. ...Read more >>
Source: unitel.bo
Vice President Edmand Lara avoided closing the door on the possibility of former President Evo Morales running again for the Presidency and supported the idea that a possible popular referendum would define the former president's electoral future. ...Read more >>
Source: larazon.bo
With two arrest warrants against him, former President Evo Morales attended a party with the governor of Cochabamba, Leonardo Loza, last weekend. Videos on social media show Loza and Evo dancing at a celebration in the Cochabamba tropics, alongside the Kalamarca folk group. ...Read more >>
Source: urgente.bo

Brazil

Brazil's Supreme Federal Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes rejected former President Jair Bolsonaro's request to see his children this Sunday for Father's Day and upheld the visitation restrictions imposed on him after ruling that he violated the conditions of his house arrest. ...Read more >>
Source: infobae.com

Colombia

Abelardo de la Espriella was sworn in this Friday as the new president of Colombia, determined to combat guerrillas and drug traffickers with an iron fist, in a shift that strengthens ties with Washington and buries the peace negotiations. ...Read more >>
Source: diariolasamericas.com
The Minister of Defense, Jorge Eduardo Mora López, presented the roadmap for the 2026-2030 Defense, Security, and Citizen Coexistence Policy, with which the Abelardo de la Espriella Government seeks to regain territorial control, strengthen the presence of the State, and confront armed groups and illicit economies. ...Read more >>
Source: infobae.com
The government of President Abelardo Gabriel de la Espriella Otero confirmed the “immediate transfer of 117 high-profile inmates” linked to peace negotiations, arguing that it was necessary to “strengthen prison control, improve security conditions, and contain any capacity of criminal organizations” to operate from prison, according to a press release issued by the President's Press Office. ...Read more >>
Source: infobae.com
Former President Gustavo Petro, whose term ended five days ago, has asked the Senate for authorization to leave Colombia for the entire next year. This is revealed in a letter he sent to the Senate leadership, dated Monday, August 10, in which he requests that the authorization required by the Constitution be voted on at the next plenary session. His intention, he writes, is “to attend to personal, social, political, and academic commitments abroad throughout the year following my term in office.” The Senate president, the right-wing Honorio Henríquez, canceled Tuesday's plenary session due to the powerful earthquake the previous day, which has left hundreds of victims in the western part of the country. The Senate is scheduled to meet on Wednesday, in a session where it could debate and vote on the former president's letter. ...Read more >>
Source: elpais.com

Cuba

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and its Special Rapporteurship on Economic, Social, Cultural and Environmental Rights (REDESCA) express their concern about the worsening humanitarian crisis in Cuba, in a context of the absence of democratic institutions, as well as massive, serious and systematic human rights violations. ...Read more >>
Source: oas.org
The Free America 2026 Forum, held in Montevideo, Uruguay, dedicated part of its debates to highlighting the human rights violations committed by the Cuban regime. In this regard, Yaxys Cires, Director of Strategies at the Cuban Observatory for Human Rights (OCDH), denounced during the event that "the grave situation of Cuban political prisoners is unacceptable." ...Read more >>
Source: diariodecuba.com
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that he is "convinced" that Cuba will enter an "irreversible path toward a very different future" before the end of President Donald Trump's term on January 20, 2029. The head of US diplomacy expressed this opinion during an interview on Katie Miller's podcast, where he addressed the scenario of change on the Caribbean island. ...Read more >>
Source: infobae.com
The new report from the NGO Prisoners Defenders revealed this Wednesday the persistence and intensification of repression in Cuba, with 1,327 political prisoners registered as of the end of July. ...Read more >>
Source: infobae.com

Ecuador

Among documents, expert reports, and witnesses, the Attorney General's Office has more than 333 pieces of evidence that it expects to present in a possible trial hearing against seven people identified as suspects in the murder of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio, which occurred on August 9, 2023. Those identified as the indirect perpetrators of the crime of murder, classified under Article 140 of the Comprehensive Organic Criminal Code (COIP), are José Serrano, former Minister of Government under Rafael Correa; former legislator Ronny Aleaga of the Citizen Revolution (RC); the leaders of the criminal group Los Lobos, Luis Arboleda, alias Gordo Luis; Ángel Aguilar, alias Lobo Menor; and Wilmer Chavarría, alias Pipo; the one sentenced for other corruption cases Daniel Salcedo and Xavier Jordán, linked to the Metastasis case. ...Read more >>
Source: eluniverso.com

Interamerican Institute for Democracy

By our Director: Beatrice E. Rangel
The challenge posed by organized crime is real and urgent. The response, however, cannot be a choice between security and democracy. The true challenge lies in building institutions capable of guaranteeing both. ...Read more >>
Source: intdemocratic.org
By our Director: Carlos Sánchez Berzaín
When one comes to power after a dictatorial or para-dictatorial regime of 21st-century socialism, it is essential to understand that the popular mandate is to change from autocracy to democracy, from state terrorism to the rule of law, from fear to freedom, from a narco-state to citizen security, from economic centralism to free enterprise and private property, from oppression to the full respect for human rights. These general principles are expressed in concrete actions in every Latin American country. ...Read more >>
Source: intdemocratic.org
Guest Columnist | Hugo Marcelo Balderrama
...dollarization guarantees, at least, and this is no small matter, that politicians of any stripe will not use the local currency to finance their megalomaniacal and authoritarian projects. ...Read more >>
Source: intdemocratic.org
By our Director: Rodrigo Arboleda
Democracies do not survive through inertia. They survive because generation after generation chooses to cultivate them, defend them, and pass them on. And that task always begins with the education of free citizens. ...Read more >>
Source: intdemocratic.org
Guest Columnist | Pedro Corzo
Shedding the Castro-Chavista legacies is not easy because they leave deep and painful scars. Rafael Correa left power in 2017, and the country still suffers from his legacy. ...Read more >>
Source: intdemocratic.org

United States

The Trump administration sanctioned eight more Cuban officials, including high-ranking military officers serving in countries considered US rivals, in a further escalation of pressure on the island's communist government. ...Read more >>
Source: bloomberglinea.com
Control of the Strait of Hormuz has returned to the center of the Gulf conflict following a new message from Donald Trump on Truth Social, where he asserted that the United States has “total control” over the waterway and that its naval blockade is a “wall of steel.” ...Read more >>
Source: infobae.com

Venezuela

Venezuelan justice granted full freedom to Judge María Lourdes Afiuni, as announced by her family this Friday, after more than 15 years of legal proceedings and restrictions in one of the most controversial episodes of the Venezuelan judicial system. ...Read more >>
Source: infobae.com