The Latin American Report # 668: Protests Erupt in Cuba; Honduras Vote Count Update, and more
The Never-Ending Latin American Crime Chronicle
The last hours have been particularly violent in the region. In Mexico, a confrontation between police and armed civilians in the state of Nuevo León resulted in five alleged criminals dead, as part of the so-called Operation Muralla. State police officers seized a pickup truck, five long weapons, various magazines, cartridges, and tactical equipment. Also in Mexico, but in the state of Michoacán, the state Attorney General's Office updated to five the number of fatalities following the explosion of a car in front of the headquarters of the "Community Police" in the coastal municipality of Coahuayana, which is not recognized by the Michoacán government. There was no clarity on whether it was a car bomb or an accident. Finally, in Mexico, a municipal official from Reynosa, Tamaulipas state, was found dead in a rented apartment in Mexico City, with apparent signs of violence, although the cause of his death had not been disclosed.
Meanwhile, in Colombia, an explosive attack in which two police officers deployed in Cúcuta were killed was attributed to the National Liberation Army. President Gustavo Petro has again called on the guerrilla, the longest-lasting in the hemisphere, to resume peace negotiations. However, it is with the Gulf Clan, the country's largest criminal organization, with which he has had some recent success. Furthermore, an explosion was also reported in the extremely violent department of Cauca, which left at least thirteen people injured, including a girl of only seven years. As in the case of the attack against the police in Cúcuta, the explosives were attached to motorcycles. In Peru, another country plagued by violence, a journalist was shot to death last Saturday, in what would be the third murder of a journalist this year.
‘It’s not safe to live here.’ Colombia is deadliest country for environmental defenders
— Amazon Watch (@amazonwatch) December 8, 2025
"Andrew Miller, advocacy dir. at Amazon Watch, said Colombian authorities must go beyond providing bodyguards & prosecute those behind threats & attacks on defenders."https://t.co/o9yQA2L1XH
In Guatemala, it was reported the shooting death of a mayor from the southern municipality of Masagua, while he was participating in a Christmas celebration; in February of this year, the mayor of the municipality of Chuarrancho, in the Guatemala department, was killed in another armed attack. Also yesterday Monday, a Guatemalan soldier was wounded in an armed confrontation with alleged drug traffickers, linked, it is said, to the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel, in a locality very close to the border with Mexico. As is the case with Honduras, it is very likely that if we delve into the local press, we will find a quite critical and sustained situation regarding homicides in this Central American nation.
In Haiti, at least 20 people have died and about 30 have been injured in the west of the country as a result of a massacre perpetrated in Pont-Sondé by the infamous Gran Grif criminal gang, which tends to kill en masse. The real scope of this latest massacre, which allegedly was carried out last November 29, is still unknown, while a new contingent of "highly specialized" Kenyan police officers arrived in the Caribbean nation to feed the manpower of the so-called Gang Repression Force. And in Ecuador, the Machala prison in El Oro was the scene of a new riot, which this time resulted in 13 inmates dead, allegedly members of the Los Lobos gang. So far, it is said that all of them, recently incorporated into the penitentiary system, died suffocated with plastic bags. Last month a total of 31 inmates were killed there, also hanged. I truly don't understand how a government survives such shameful events. Since 2014, nearly 950 inmates have been killed in Ecuadorian prisons.
A concerning surge of femicides in the South American giant has been reported 👇
After a surge in femicides and violence against women, tens of thousands of people marched across Brazil, calling for change — and for men to stand with them. pic.twitter.com/40fjHe0D8U
— DW News (@dwnews) December 8, 2025
Venezuela
The U.S. government harshly criticized the Venezuelan government, whose authority it does not recognize and more than that, actively disputes right now, following the death in prison from an alleged myocardial infarction of a former opposition governor who was detained last year, in the context of harsh repression against popular protests over the lack of transparency during the presidential elections. "The death of Venezuelan political prisoner Alfredo Díaz, arbitrarily detained in Maduro's torture center in El Helicoide, is yet another reminder of the vile nature of Maduro's criminal regime," denounced Foggy Bottom's Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs. Miraflores defends that the deceased "was being prosecuted, with full guarantee of his rights, in accordance with the legal framework and respect for human rights and his legal defense." A Venezuelan NGO states that the Maduro government must be held accountable for the deaths of 25 prisoners in its custody that it counts since 2015.
Cuba
As I mentioned yesterday, social pressure on political power in Cuba is likely to increase, amid a total crisis that is strongly expressed in runaway inflation and prolonged power outages. Yesterday there was a new record generation deficit, amounting to 2,185 megawatts, as a result of breakdowns in four thermal power plants and the lack of diesel and fuel oil to start up a network of distributed generation engines across the country, both chronic problems. The government defends, rightly, that U.S. sanctions strategically hit the sector, but I add the lack of foresight and prioritization, and also the lack of critical external support.
Last night, protests erupted in some localities of Havana and the east of the country, which prompted a shutdown of mobile data service by the state company that monopolizes telecommunications services. Yesterday, it was also learned of the life sentence issued by the Supreme People's Court against former Economy Minister and former Deputy Prime Minister Alejandro Gil, after two trials held behind closed doors during last November, in which he was accused of espionage and practically all economic crimes a state official can incur.
Honduras
In Honduras, the results transmission system stopped again in the early hours of this Tuesday, with over 99% of records scrutinized and with Asfura having a larger gap over Nasralla, set at about 42,410 votes. The electoral process has been marked by technical inconsistencies and a general lack of integrity, as I discussed extensively in report # 667. Candidate Nasralla continues to denounce "maneuvers" against him, while the National Party, for which the Trump-backed "Tito" Asfura ran, offers a total review of votes to guarantee transparency.
This is all for today’s report.
