Regional Overview: Latin America & the Caribbean | February 2023

Peru: Anti-government demonstrations decrease but persist as the government refuses to call for early elections

Nationwide demonstrations calling for general elections and the resignation of President Dina Boluarte continued throughout February but significantly decreased compared to the month prior. In Apurímac, clashes between demonstrators and security forces left one demonstrator dead in Cotaruse, raising the total number of reported fatalities to 50 since demonstrations broke out in December. Meanwhile in Juliaca, dozens of demonstrators and police were injured in clashes on 9 February. The country remains immersed in a political crisis with Congress and President Boluarte failing to come to an agreement to call early elections this year, and Boluarte’s refusal to resign.¹

Peru has been experiencing ongoing unrest since former President Pedro Castillo was removed from office and arrested on 7 December after announcing plans to dissolve Congress and create an emergency government

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Haiti: Gang violence targeting civilians intensifies in Ouest and Artibonite departments

Gang violence increased and grew deadlier in February compared to the month prior, driven by direct attacks and kidnappings of civilians, particularly in the Ouest and Artibonite departments. In Ouest department, the Vitelhomme gang carried out several attacks, including the reported killing of at least 22 people in Petionville. The attacks came amid the gang’s ongoing offensive and expansion to several neighborhoods in and around the commune.² Gang violence in Ouest department persists amid police anti-gang Operation Tornado 1, launched on 27 January in response to police killings.

In Artibonite department, gang territorial expansion also drove worsening violence. In L’Estère, members of the Kokorat San Ras clashed with police, forcing the temporary abandonment of the police station.³ In Verrettes, Baz Gran Grif reportedly killed at least eight people and injured at least 10 others during an attack on members of an alleged self-defense group. Gang incursions in the commune also targeted a hospital, forcing personnel and patients to flee. Violence targeting health facilities and workers has previously hindered the operations of health providers such as Doctors Without Borders,⁴ and spiked in February compared to the preceding month.

For years, Haiti’s political elites have relied on armed gangs to control territories and key voting constituencies. The deepening of the country’s political crisis following the assassination of president Moise in July 2021 and the end of legislators’ mandates have allowed gangs to expand their control over political and economic assets.

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Mexico: Deadly violence in Chiapas and Zacatecas states as criminal groups seek to control trafficking routes

In Zacatecas, clashes between the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) and the Sinaloa Cartel reportedly resulted in the death of at least nine people in Monte Escobedo municipality. The two groups are actively disputing control over fentanyl production and drug trafficking routes in the state.⁵ Rivalries between criminal groups also led gangs to set up roadblocks using burning vehicles in over six municipalities and kill at least two truck drivers.

Elsewhere, in Chiapas, attacks against civilians led by the CJNG in Ocozocoautla de Espinosa municipality drove an increase in violence in February relative to the month prior. According to state authorities, the CJNG seeks to gain control over drug and human trafficking routes in the state and challenge criminal groups operating along the border with Guatemala, such as the Sinaloa Cartel.⁶

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Colombia: Demonstration activity spikes throughout the country following proposed reforms to the healthcare, pension, and penitentiary systems

Demonstration activity increased in February compared to the month prior as thousands of supporters and critics of President Gustavo Petro marched across the country to either support or reject the government’s reform plans. While demonstrations were mainly peaceful, anti-reform demonstrators attacked journalists covering the march in several cities, broke into government offices, and clashed with Petro’s supporters in Medellín. The spike in demonstration activity came after Petro revealed to Congress a reform plan affecting Colombia’s healthcare, pension, and penitentiary systems.

Meanwhile, demands from other groups also drove increased demonstration levels. Taxi drivers blocked dozens of roads throughout the country against rising fuel prices and digital transportation service apps, which have impacted their revenues. In Santander, farmers have also demonstrated and demanded the revoking of an environmental license for a mining project in El Carmen de Chucurí over concerns that the project will contaminate the nearby Cascajares river.⁷

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Honduras: Targeted attacks against land defenders and environmental activists continue

For the second consecutive month, armed assailants launched deadly attacks on environmental activists in Honduras, with reported killings in Colón and Atlantida departments. In Colón department, gunmen shot and killed the leader of a peasant cooperative and his son. The victim was granted state protection in 2019, after an armed group controlling palm tree farms in the Bajo Aguán region sent him death threats.⁸ Peasants of the Bajo Aguán region have been engaged in a decades-long conflict over the redistribution of lands they claim were taken and sold by the state to private companies.⁹ Meanwhile, in Atlantida, gunmen killed an activist who had opposed hydroelectric projects and advocated for the protection of water resources in Pajuiles area.¹⁰

These events follow an increase in attacks against land defenders and activists reported in January, with at least eight activists killed thus far in 2023 in Honduras. The targeted attacks come as the government extends the state of emergency to new municipalities and for another 45 days as part of measures to fight gangs and criminality.¹¹ While ACLED records a slight decrease in violence in Francisco Morazán and Cortés departments where the state of emergency is in force, violence persists at similar levels in the rest of the country.

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