The Latin American Report # 632

Sibusiso Nhlabatsi, a prominent human rights activist lawyer in Eswatini, referred in harsh terms to the opaque agreement through which Washington has sent 15 alleged convicted criminals to the small kingdom located in Africa, noted for its lack of democracy and economic opportunities. "Eswatini finds itself participating in what I can call human trafficking or kidnapping because you cannot have these third-party state deportees being housed (here) while denying them access to lawyers," the lawyer told the French news agency. Among those detained in a high-security prison is a Cuban citizen who last month had begun a hunger strike to protest precisely the lack of access to legal assistance, although no further information has emerged about this particular development. In his case, the department headed by Kristi Noem defends the deportation based on his criminal record, which his relatives do not dispute in general but do dispute the specific charges. His U.S.-based lawyer says he was convicted for attempted murder and served his sentence, but the DHS claims he was convicted for plain murder, and that even Havana did not want him back.

The legal discussion in the United States has not focused on denying the potential criminality of those deported to third countries, as was also the case with El Salvador, but on the fulfillment of due process rules that apply to all individuals while they are on US soil, regardless of their criminal record. "[Those imprisoned in Eswatini] are far from their families, so their relatives cannot come here, yet they are being denied a basic right," Nhlabatsi stressed. The High Court there indeed granted them having local legal assistance in October after he turned to that body, but the order was subsequently appealed, so it is not effective so far. There is a document showing that the tiny kingdom can receive above 5 million dollars for "housing" 160 deportees from the United States to then "build its border and migration management capacity."

On Trump, Venezuela

The most authoritative account so far, from the victims' perspective, on the Trump administration's attacks in the Caribbean. A good one from AP's journalist Regina García Cano 👇.

Chile

Neighbors and environmental activists in Quilicura, an outlying neighborhood of Santiago de Chile, are fighting to safeguard the contributions to nature and society in general of the namesake wetland located in the area, which hosts the largest number of data centers in Latin America. Among these is Google's first and only one here, resting on underground water tables connected to the wetland, and which extracts by right 50 liters of water per second for its cooling system. "The only data center that maintains an obsolete cooling system is Google's in Quilicura; all the others already operate on air," an activist told EFE, also denouncing that the region is drying up and the water table has dropped. "Data centers are installed in industrial parks because they have better connectivity and because the socioeconomic stratum that lives there is accustomed to being a 'sacrifice zone', where the most polluting industries are concentrated," argued an academic for her part. In addition to the five data centers in operation, there are two more under negotiation associated with Microsoft and Ascenty.

This is all for today’s report.