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1 Topic: The New “Perfect” Cartel Business
Kidnapping families, torturing children to obtain information
on who to demand ransom from, and dismembering those who do not pay: this is how the Mexican cartels have diversified their business from drug trafficking to extortion.
Why It Matters
: Survivors' stories underscore the desperate situation migrants face on their journey to the U.S., the only place they believe may be a safe haven.
As more people try to cross the border, and as the United States has increased express deportations and immediate returns of asylum seekers, it is the cartels and coyotes who are benefiting.
Daniel, who was kidnapped, is now awaiting a resolution of an asylum application in the US from Tamaulipas, Mexico. News Telemundo Investiga
Here's how it works
: Kidnappings occur both before people attempt to cross into the United States and after they are expelled back to the Mexican side, according to Noticias Telemundo Investiga interviews with dozens of people who survived the violent kidnappings.
There are “hawks,” or cartel spies, at bus and taxi stations and sometimes even in NGO-run migrant shelters.
They identify possible targets.
Once people are kidnapped, often forced at gunpoint into cars, they are asked to hand over their mobile phones, threatening to cut off their fingers if they don't unlock them.
Cell phones are used to extort money from victims' relatives, most commonly relatives already in the US, by sending images or videos of their loved ones after they were abused by their captors.
Bottom line
: Remaining to owe the rescue can mean death, with people that the cartels often leave in mass graves in several Mexican border states, such as Chihuahua, Tamaulipas or Nuevo León.
In numbers
: At least 6,356 migrants going to the United States were victims of kidnappings and related abuses between January and August of this year, according to the group Human Rights First.
Cartels and other organized crime groups in Mexico can earn between $ 600 and $ 20,000 for each ransom, according to interviews done by Noticias Telemundo Investiga.
In his own words
:
“[Migrants] do not report [cartel hijackers] because they threaten them if they do, and they do not know who to turn to.
Most kidnappers have ties to the authorities, making it virtually impossible for them to take action against them.
It is the perfect business ”.
researcher Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera
2. Heritage footprint: The literacy brigades of Cuba
Members of a Cuban literacy brigade, in Havana in 1961.STF / AFP via Getty Images
Cuba's
high literacy rates
and the speed with which the island managed to enable many rural residents to read and write has been a model for many other countries, even as Cuba itself continues to experience harsh censorship.
Why It Matters
: The 1961 campaign, which resulted in more than 97% of Cubans learning to read and write, left an important legacy that fostered literacy around the world.
The program brought basic literacy skills to 700,000 Cubans in less than a year and gave Fidel Castro's government a propaganda victory in the midst of the Cold War.
Important note
: UNESCO later highlighted the Cuban campaign, which had influence in 15 other countries, many of them Latin American.
But teachers from the United States also traveled to the island to study the groundbreaking literacy campaign.
But, but, but
: The campaign's achievements in Cuba itself have been clouded by the heavy censorship of the Castro regime, which includes repression of dissent and punishments for writers or artists who have challenged it.
3. These scams go after Latinos
Two in five Latino adults
say they have been the victims of a scam in the past year, according to an AARP survey.
It also found that Latinos are more likely than other groups to fall victim to scammers who pretend to represent public utility companies or make it appear that they are young family members in distress.
The FBI warns about a new form of scam through cell phones and explains how to avoid it
Aug. 25, 202101: 43
In numbers
: 54% of Latino adults in the US say they are very or somewhat concerned about being victims of identity theft, compared to 45% of non-Hispanic whites and 52% of non-Hispanic black Americans .
Latinos are less likely to give out personal information when told they are going to receive a prize or gift, according to the report, making them theoretically less susceptible to certain scams.
However, Latinos also report that they use less protection software, such as automatic call blockers, antivirus, or pop-up blockers, than their non-Hispanic black and white peers.
That exposes Latinos more to phone call and internet based scams.
In Context
: Fraud skyrocketed in nearly every category during the 2020 pandemic, according to the Federal Trade Commission.
One in 5 adults across all demographics report losing money to a scam in the past year, and more than half say they have been a victim more than once, according to the AARP survey.
4. An electricity crisis casts a shadow over Puerto Rico
San Juan during a blackout in June 2021, in Puerto Rico.Ricardo Arduengo / AFP via Getty Images
The power supply in Puerto Rico
has fluctuated sharply over the past two weeks, with outages that sometimes last for days.
And even then, the cost of electricity is going to go up.
Why it matters
: Puerto Ricans, who are US citizens, already pay twice the rates for electricity than their peers in the continental United States.
This, despite a history of blackouts by the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, with old infrastructure that was almost destroyed by Hurricane Maria in 2017.
In June, the private company Luma Energy took over power operations on the island, but service remains spotty.
What's happening
: Authorities have blamed sargassum buildup near power plants for the latest outages.
Puerto Ricans have been protesting in recent days because blackouts have forced people to throw away food, a university to suspend classes, hospitals to postpone medical treatments and businesses, shops and restaurants to close.
5. Summary of key news from Latin America and the Caribbean
An aerial view of Guanaja, part of the touristy Bay Islands of Honduras, on Oct. 2.Lester Carias / AFP via Getty Images
Almost half of a Honduran resort town
burned to the ground last Saturday, leaving hundreds of people homeless on the island of Guanaja.
Many residents lived in log cabins and President Juan Orlando Hernández promised that the island would be rebuilt to make it more "sustainable."
Ecuador's government will
pardon
thousands of incarcerated people to reduce prison overcrowding, days after 118 people were killed in the country's worst prison riot.
The country's former security chief said the riots were caused by infighting between gangs allegedly related to Mexican cartels.
Two
former
Colombian
presidents , several Mexican
officials
and three current Latin American and Caribbean heads of state who were once businessmen have been linked to shady mechanisms of having
offshore
or foreign
accounts
, as emerged in recent publications on the so-called Papeles de Pandora.
Current leaders allegedly involved include Chilean Sebastián Piñera, Dominican Luis Abinader and Ecuadorian Guillermo Lasso.
The presidents of Chile, Ecuador and the Dominican Republic defend themselves from the Pandora Papers
Oct. 4, 202100: 40
6. 🧵 A goodbye smile: knitting is for men too
The men are proudly practicing handicrafts
that have traditionally been the exclusive endeavors of women in communities in Colombia, Mexico and Peru.
Now in Chiapas weaving is also for men, although for centuries it was a women's trade
Aug. 2, 202101: 44
Details
: “The boys whistled, discriminated, so I would hide in a corner of the house to knit.
It was not well regarded, ”says Mexican weaver Alan Gómez.
But now it is part of a school for other men in Chiapas to learn traditional Tsotsil weavings, a trade that also gives them an income.
In Medellín, a trio of Colombians recently formed a crochet workshop that they say initially attracted mocking stares but has now attracted more than 30 members.
On the Peruvian island of Taquile, "manhood" has long been measured by whether men are competent enough to make chullos, intricately woven hats with designs that show local fauna and the marital status of the wearer.
Until Thursday, thanks for reading us.
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