Interamerican Watch Newsletter - Issue 537

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Inter-American Watch

Thursday 15/10/2026

Analysis

Artificial intelligence (AI) has become a key instrument of China's strategic projection in Latin America. Beyond expanding AI applications, Beijing is seeking to expand its presence in the infrastructure that supports them, including data centers, cloud services, and telecommunications networks. The concern is that its growing control over these assets could strengthen China's intelligence and defense capabilities, expand its influence over the region's digital ecosystems, and enable it to leverage Latin American data to train its AI models, providing strategic advantages in the event of asymmetric warfare or conflict. ...Read more >>
Source: eurasiareview.com
The President of the Dominican Republic, Luis Abinader, warned that the continuity of rulers who modify the Constitution to prolong their time in power represents one of the main challenges to democracy in Latin America. The president made the statement during his participation in Forum 2000, held in Prague, an international meeting dedicated to the debate on democracy and human rights. ...Read more >>
Source: infobae.com
Nicaragua, Cuba, and Venezuela are among the countries with the weakest records in combating human trafficking, according to the U.S. State Department's annual report. It also keeps Brazil and Bolivia on a special watch list and identifies shortcomings in victim protection across Latin America and the Caribbean. ...Read more >>
Source: upi.com

Argentina

Claudio “Chiqui” Tapia will participate tomorrow in a FIFA Council meeting in Switzerland. The AFA president traveled to Switzerland with authorization from the Argentine courts in the case where he is being prosecuted for alleged tax evasion. The trip took place at a time when a prosecutor in another criminal case requested a letter rogatory seeking information on transfers he received in his bank account from the International Federation of Association Football. ...Read more >>
Source: infobae.com

Bolivia

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) projects that Bolivia's economy will contract by 3% in 2026 and 1.5% in 2027, making it the only South American economy to register negative growth rates in both years, according to its latest economic outlook report. ...Read more >>
Source: infobae.com

Cuba

Cuba commemorates this Saturday the 158th anniversary of the Grito de Yara with 1,339 people included in the political prisoners registry of Prisoners Defenders as of the end of August 2026. The consultable list of the organization, updated in October, now shows 1,353 cases. Behind these numbers are individuals serving prison sentences, others facing restrictions on their freedom, and families reporting difficulties in visiting them or ensuring they receive medical care. Among the emblematic cases is the rapper Maykel Osorbo, co-author of "Patria y Vida," who remains incarcerated. ...Read more >>
Source: en.cibercuba.com
The Cuban Observatory of Human Rights (OCDH) has documented 3,051 repressive actions in Cuba between January and September 2026, after recording 344 state abuses during the month of September, according to the monthly report published by the independent organization based in Madrid on Tuesday. ...Read more >>
Source: en.cibercuba.com

Haiti

A report published Wednesday offers new insight into how gangs in Haiti backed by political and economic actors operate in a country preparing for its first general elections in more than 10 years. The 94-page report was compiled from October 2025 to July 2026 by experts appointed by the U.N. General Secretary. They traveled to Haiti, meeting with dozens of people including confidential sources whose information they say was corroborated by independent sources... It warned that ties between some local authorities and gangs are aimed “at consolidating territorial control and influencing upcoming elections.” ...Read more >>
Source: independent.co.uk

Interamerican Institute for Democracy

Guest Columnist | Pedro Corzo
We Cubans had many warnings. We neither listened nor wanted to see. My country wasn't brought down by some curse, but by a criminal who knew how to manipulate the worst of our society, placing them in a situation where they could destroy everything they had coveted without having worked for it... It happened on the 12th of this month. Five patriots were executed. ...Read more >>
Source: intdemocratic.org
The Interamerican Institute for Democracy held a forum in Miami on Bolivia that addressed the period between 2003 and 2026 under the title “From the coup d'état to the state crisis.” During the event, the institute's director, Carlos Sánchez Berzaín, was emphatic: “There is no democracy in Bolivia,” he said, and stressed that for this situation to be reversed, the structure established by drug trafficking must be dismantled. ...Read more >>
Source: infobae.com
By our Director: Robert Evan Ellis
The U.S. State Department estimated that in 2015 there were approximately 12,000 armed combatants in Colombia, including 7,000 from the FARC, 2,000 from the ELN, and 2,400 from the Urabeños. By 2025, the Ideas for Peace Foundation estimated that the number of combatants would be roughly the same. The number of municipalities reporting the presence of at least one armed group in Colombia skyrocketed from 195 in 2019 to more than 410 in 2025. ...Read more >>
Source: intdemocratic.org
By our Director: Carlos Sánchez Berzaín
There is no doubt that people can change their political positions, but what is impossible to accept is the impunity and pretense of those who have participated in corruption, who have been part of a criminal system of seizing and controlling power, who have consented to and remained silent in the face of human rights violations, who cover up crimes ...Read more >>
Source: intdemocratic.org
By our Director: Beatrice E. Rangel
On October 25, the people of Brazil will deliver their verdict on who will govern them for the next four years. Flávio Bolsonaro seems to be benefiting from Lula's waning popularity and the profound weariness his figure evokes in a segment of the electorate. ...Read more >>
Source: intdemocratic.org

Nicaragua

Nicaragua has undergone one of the most severe cases of democratic backsliding in the Americas, with an increase in repression and severe limits on civic space following the 2018 protests. The Ortega-Murillo government has dismantled the separation of powers, subordinating the judiciary, the electoral authority, and the legislature to the executive. Freedom of association and religion have been systematically curtailed: thousands of NGOs, universities, and media outlets have been shut down or stripped of their legal status, the Catholic Church has faced sustained harassment including the expulsion and imprisonment of clergy, and independent civil society has effectively been erased from the country. Political parties have been banned or co-opted, elections have lost any competitive character and may end altogether, and dissent is met with arbitrary detention, forced disappearance, statelessness, and, increasingly, assassination beyond Nicaragua's borders... Despite the scale of this collapse, Latin American governments' diplomatic response has been notably muted. Only a small number of countries in the region have taken consistent, high-profile positions condemning the regime or pushing for coordinated multilateral action, and regional bodies have struggled to sustain pressure over time. Actions to denounce the Ortega-Murillo regime and push for a democratic transition have primarily come from the United States, European governments, and UN human rights mechanisms, even as those actors face their own limitations and, at times, contradictions. ...Read more >>
Source: wola.org
None of the 222 Nicaraguan political prisoners released in February 2023 and transferred to the United States have received asylum to date. At least eight of them were detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) between 2025 and 2026, and one was deported to Honduras. ...Read more >>
Source: infobae.com

Spain

The day began with official receptions, flags, and greetings in the streets of Ceuta and ended with King Felipe VI establishing a national position regarding the migration crisis at the end of July and the relationship with Morocco: “The sovereignty and territorial integrity of our country are not negotiable.” ...Read more >>
Source: infobae.com

United States

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said Chinese espionage is “extremely pervasive” in the U.S. following the arrest of an alleged Chinese agent in Los Angeles this month. Essayli told Fox News Digital in an interview that his office has pressed charges against several alleged Chinese spies in recent months, saying Beijing is brazen in its attempts to build their access inside the U.S. ...Read more >>
Source: foxnews.com

Venezuela

In response to the UN Human Rights Council's vote today adopting the resolution that renews the mandate of the Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela, as well as of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, for another two years, Amnesty International's Americas director, Ana Piquer, said: "We welcome this decision to continue the scrutiny over the ongoing human rights crisis in Venezuela. Extending the Mission's crucial work for the next two years reinforces the international community's interest in justice and accountability for gross human rights violations in the country, including crimes against humanity. This is a clear sign of recognition that the government's repressive apparatus is still in place while opacity and impunity remain the norm.” ...Read more >>
Source: amnesty.org
The Chavista government of Venezuela and representatives of the National Assembly elected in 2015 began the third round of dialogue for a political transition in the country this Wednesday, just hours after Washington lifted economic sanctions against Jorge Rodríguez, chief negotiator and president of the current Parliament. ...Read more >>
Source: infobae.com
Venezuelan political prisoners now number 322, according to Foro Penal, a Venezuelan human rights group that tracks political detentions case by case. Its count, dated Monday, October 5, 2026, includes 31 people with foreign nationality. The tally, released on Friday 9 October, is two lower than a week earlier and 22 lower than in mid-September. For US readers, it is an independent gauge of the transition since the United States captured Nicolás Maduro in January. ...Read more >>
Source: riotimesonline.com