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Axios Latino is the newsletter that summarizes the key news for Latino communities in the hemisphere every Tuesday and Thursday.
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1. The hot topic: Uncertain support in the World Baseball Classic
The World Baseball Classic kicked off this week, and some fans say they have mixed feelings about celebrating certain nations in Latin America and the Caribbean where there are problems and reports of mistreatment, reporter Keldy Ortiz is told.
Overview
: Eight of the 20 competing countries are from Latin America and the Caribbean.
Some are among the favourites.
A Dominican American follower
,
Karianna Torres says that while the Dominican Republic "plays with style," it's hard for her to fully enjoy that game without thinking about realities the country faces, such as discrimination based on skin tone.
The Dominican Republic has drawn international criticism for deporting more than 100,000 Haitian migrants in 2022 fleeing political unrest, adding to longstanding tensions between the two countries that share the island.
Sometimes fans want to avoid those conversations when it comes to sports, "but I'm definitely a fan of talking about it: because yeah, okay, you're seeing your country represented, but you never stop being attached to an identity that feels affected by non-sports issues", says Torres.
Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios
Beyond:
Venezuela is another favorite country for the ClĂĄsico, but it continues to suffer from the economic crisis and political problems that have led tens of thousands of people to leave due to insecurity, food shortages and lack of medicine.
Cuba also stands out in beige, when at the national level it continues to suffer from extreme shortages of food and medicine, as well as the deepening political repression that has also led to massive emigrations.
Between the lines
: The sense of identity with a country tends to be more pronounced during sporting events, according to Kirk Bowman, a professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology who heads a division on identity and global development studies.
Yes, But
: The World Baseball Classic is newer and less popular than other global competitions like the Olympics and the World Cup, so fans may not be as devoted to cheering for one nation or another, of according to Alan Klein, emeritus professor of anthropology at Northeastern University.
"It's easier [for fans] to detach and be politically critical" for that reason, Klein says.
It would be much more difficult, for example, for a lifelong soccer fan not to root for his team at the World Cup regardless of what is happening politically.
In their own words
: Other Axios Latino readers wrote to us to talk about why they cheer for a team.
JosĂ© D. Ălvarez says he supports Venezuela and that his nephew, JesĂșs Luzardo, plays for the team.
He commented that he will watch the final match of the Classic even if his country is not there "because I love the game."
Another reader, Enilda Abreu, told us: "I will support Puerto Rico because that is my island nation."
2. Prisons do not record data on Latinos, alerts new analysis
A new report examining how Latinos interact with the US criminal justice system found that police and jails rarely record racial and ethnic data, complicating how researchers can study possible disparities.
Big Picture
: An estimated 1.2 million people are incarcerated in state and federal prisons.
Some 550,000 are in some prison (lower security and usually where those who are confined have not yet been sentenced).
But there is little research on what percentage of those people are Latino, according to the report that was released this week by scholars at the University of California, Irvine, School of Social Ecology.
Co-author Nancy RodrĂguez, who is a criminologist, hopes the study will help others to further analyze Latino interactions with the criminal justice system, because having accurate data will open the door for reform and greater racial equity.
A chaplain prays with inmates in a Los Angeles prison in 2006Brian Vander Brug/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
More Details
: Rodriguez and Rebecca Tublitz, the other researcher in the analysis, collected arrest and detention data by race and ethnicity from 14 cities.
From there they concentrated in four counties: Charleston, in South Carolina;
Harris, in Texas;
Multnomah, in Oregon, and Palm Beach, in Florida.
They found that only 30% of the records have data on Latino ethnicity separated from racial characteristics, while the rest capture that ethnicity as if it were a race.
They also found that the most common method prisons use to determine a person's race or ethnicity is the officer's impression of it by filling out the form.
"[The police] by default usually register them as white. It's almost as if the racial category replaced the ethnic category," criminologist Alex del Carmen tells Axios.
To Watch Out For
: RodrĂguez says institutions need to be cautious and recognize Latino "tremendous diversity."
The authors recommend that all criminal justice agencies standardize the way they collect data on race and ethnicity.
Justice Counts, a federal initiative, seeks just to standardize metrics in the nation's criminal justice system.
3. Colombia and Ecuador launch joint alert
Ecuador and Colombia issued a joint red security alert this week for the first time, in a collaboration that seeks to prevent further attacks by armed groups against indigenous people and activists on the border shared by the two nations.
Why it matters
: At least 116 activists were killed in Colombia last year, up from 100 in 2021, according to the local UN human rights office.
Massacres, which the UN defines as killings of three or more people at the same time, also increased from 78 in 2021 to 92 last year, according to the report presented Tuesday in Geneva.
Among those killed last year is JosĂ© Albeiro Camayo GĂŒetio, co-founder of an indigenous land rights guard in the Valle del Cauca region.
Part of this violence against defenders and social leaders occurred in the Amazon region, part of which is shared with Ecuador.
More details
: As part of the binational alert system, the Ombudsmen of each country will closely monitor activity near the border and share information.
They will seek to highlight criminal trends to urge protection actions, especially for indigenous groups, who are also victimized through extortion, internal displacement, and forced recruitment of children.
Big Picture
: Violence continues to ravage parts of Colombia despite the 2016 peace agreement between the government and the then main guerrilla, the Farc-EP.
This is because other criminal groups that were not part of the agreement, especially the guerrilla Army of National Liberation (ELN) and the Clan del Golfo, continue to operate and have moved into areas previously controlled by the FARC, especially in remote areas where for a long time there has been little state presence.
To watch out for
: The government of Gustavo Petro came to power in August with promises of "total peace", seeking to establish a ceasefire with armed groups and curb violence in rural areas.
It has already entered into peace negotiations with the ELN.
The second round of talks is scheduled to end on Friday and a third is scheduled for mid-April.
4. In photos: International Women's Day
Women in Latin America and the Caribbean joined the global commemorations of International Women's Day on March 8 with marches that seek to draw attention to persistent problems such as gender violence.
A protester in Buenos Aires screams during the 8M march in 2023TomĂĄs Cuesta/Getty Images
Overview
: Latin America and the Caribbean have some of the worst rates of gender-based violence in the world, according to the UN.
At least 4,473 women in the region were killed because of their gender, an average of 12 femicides per day, according to the United Nations regional office.
In several of these countries, many women began in 2020 to also mark "A day without us", on March 9, to demonstrate the impact of not doing more to stop femicides.
On that day, many women go on strike, refraining from working and doing unpaid work, such as housework, which they disproportionately end up doing on other days.
This 10-year-old girl marches with thousands of women in protest against gender violence
March 9, 202304:29
5. Summary of key news in Latin America and the Caribbean
1. Four Nicaraguans
who were political prisoners until last February have been invited to speak before the Western Hemisphere Subcommittee of the US House of Representatives, according to opposition leader FĂ©lix Maradiaga.
Illustration: Natalie Peeples/Axios
Maradiaga was one of more than 220 people who were released from prison in Managua last month and sent to Washington DC after being stripped of their citizenship.
At least 35 dissidents remain in detention in Nicaragua.
2. Juan GuaidĂł announced this week
that he will run as a candidate for the Venezuelan opposition coalition to run against NicolĂĄs Maduro in next year's general elections.
GuaidĂł was from 2019 until the end of last year recognized by the United States and other countries as the legitimate president with his so-called interim government, in an international repudiation of the Maduro regime.
The opposition coalition primaries will be held in October.
Pachanga Thursday
Every Thursday we publish our Pachanga to highlight reader achievements.
If you have just celebrated an anniversary, adopted a pet or had a job success and you want to celebrate it, send an email and photo to axioslatino@axios.com
Yolanda Ramos's sister nominated her for today's Pachanga with a story that we find moving.
Yolanda RamosPhotograph courtesy of Andrea Ramos.
Background Illustration by Axios Visuals
Her sister says she is a clinical practitioner who works with Latinos to help them through grief.
She has a website, Clinical Comadre, with resources, and recently launched a bilingual diary and planner to guide those who use it in their grief, called
Pain: Moving On After Losing.
It is a very important and necessary job.
Congratulations and thank you!
Thanks for reading us! We return on Tuesday.
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