Hello, and welcome to the Latin America Weekly newsletter! In this issue: how gang violence is taking on a new dimension in different parts of the region, Gustavo Petro’s new beef with the military, and Argentina’s oil stimulus.
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Gang violence escalates in Mexico and Ecuador
The past week has seen rattling cases of violence in Mexico and Ecuador, indicating that gang violence could be escalating to even more dangerous levels in multiple parts of Latin America.
Mexico. Per Reforma, security officers tallied 260 murders between August 9 and 12 alone in the states of Jalisco, Guanajuato, Chihuahua, and Baja California. Cartel members staged public displays of arson in multiple regions.
- The deaths include four journalists killed in the city of Juárez during a live broadcast.
- In July, we reported that murder rates had gone down in the first half of the year when compared to 2021 — but they remain significantly higher than six years ago.
Ecuador. An explosion in Guayaquil, Ecuador’s second-biggest city, killed at least five people, wounded another...