Latin America and the Caribbean Overview: August 2024

Brazil: Violence erupts over land disputes in Mato Grosso do Sul

On 3 and 4 August, armed men supported by farmers in trucks and tractors attacked Guarani-Kaiowá Indigenous people reclaiming land in Douradina, Mato Grosso do Sul, injuring at least 11 people.¹ The Guarani-Kaiowá are reclaiming ancestral land in the Panambi-Lagoa Rica territory, preliminarily demarcated in 2011 by the National Indigenous Foundation.² Farmers, on the other hand, are pushing for the recognition of the area as private property.³ The attack is the latest episode of violence in recurring tensions between Indigenous people and farm owners in Brazil and occurred two days before discussions between Supreme Court justices and lawmakers on a law proposed by right-wing deputies and approved by Congress in 2023. The law, which limits Indigenous land claims to lands they occupied before 1988,⁴ sparked widespread unrest in 2023. The Ministry of Indigenous Affairs emphasized that the ongoing instability surrounding land claims not only creates legal uncertainty for Indigenous peoples but also leads to cases of violence in which they are often the main victims.⁵ On 28 August, the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil decided to withdraw from the conciliation table set up by the Supreme Court to discuss the above-mentioned law, arguing the process is unconstitutional and reproduces institutional racism.⁶

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Colombia: Hostilities between the ELN and state forces resume as ceasefire ends

On 3 August, the one-year ceasefire between the government and the National Liberation Army (ELN) ended.⁷ The ELN conditioned the extension of the agreement on the government removing the group from its list of organized armed groups before 23 August, which the government declined.⁸ Peace negotiations had already been frozen since February after the government started peace talks with the ELN splinter group Comuneros del Sur in Nariño, and the ELN failed to comply with their commitment to stop kidnapping civilians.⁹ During the year-long ceasefire, violent interactions between the ELN and state forces dropped, with at least 10 incidents recorded between August 2023 and July 2024, more than six times less compared to the previous year. The end of the agreement triggered a resumption of hostilities in areas with a strong ELN presence during the last week of August. At least three soldiers and four rebels were killed in five clashes between ELN and state security forces in Cauca and Norte de Santander. In Arauca, the rebel group also carried out five attacks with explosives against oil infrastructure, resuming a common tactic that had significantly reduced during the ceasefire, during which ACLED records only one such event.

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Haiti: Police forces take on the Viv Ansanm gang alliance in Port-au-Prince 

Between 27 and 28 August, police officers, supported by Kenyan officers of the Multinational Security Support Mission (MSS), launched raids in Bel-Air, Delmas 2, and Solino neighborhoods. Security forces claimed the operations resulted in the killing of more than 18 gang members allegedly affiliated with the Viv Ansanm coalition and three officers being injured, although local activists suggest the toll is much lower.¹⁰ These operations came in response to attacks carried out by gangsters in the Solino neighborhood and nearby areas of the southern part of Delmas commune. According to local sources, gangs involved in these attacks were seeking to strengthen their control around the center of Port-au-Prince and areas connecting to the international airport.¹¹ Following the attacks, residents barricaded roads to demand action against insecurity. 

Meanwhile, on 17 August, authorities extended the state of emergency imposed on 16 July in 14 communes in the Ouest and Artibonite departments to re-establish public order, extending the measure to the Centre, Nippes, and two arrondissements of the Nord departments.¹² Since the first MSS contingents were deployed, clashes between state forces and gangs have persisted at similar levels, focused on areas like Gressier and Ganthier in the periphery of Port-au-Prince, where gangs have tested police response by seizing police stations. However, civil society organizations indicate that the MSS deployment has not led to gang retreats or significant territorial gains.¹³

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Jamaica: Violence grows deadlier in Clarendon and Saint Catherine parish with gang-related mass shootings

In Clarendon and Saint Catherine, gang rivalries grew deadlier in August as a result of two massive shootings that resulted in several fatalities. In Clarendon parish, eight people were killed in an attack perpetrated by suspected gang members, including one in which gangsters shot indiscriminately at over 50 people during a party on 11 August. Meanwhile, in Saint Catherine, armed men shot at a group of people during a wake on 21 August, leaving one dead and seven others injured. Following the attacks, authorities imposed separate curfews in each parish. Prime Minister Andrew Holness claimed that anti-gang actions would be reinforced and committed to carrying out investigations to bring gangsters to justice.¹⁴ The incident in Clarendon contributed to the increase in violence in this parish in 2024, during which at least 20 violent incidents have taken place, already outnumbering violence levels recorded for the entire 2023. While country-wide levels of violence appear to be subsiding slightly, violent killing sprees break out continually between gangs fighting for the control of extortion rackets and trafficking of illicit goods, increasingly so in the Clarendon parish.

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Mexico: Security operations against the Sinaloa cartel intensify amid rising intra-cartel tensions 

Following the arrest of Joaquín Guzmán López and Ismael Zambada, known as El Mayo, in the US, targeted attacks against members of the different factions of the Sinaloa cartel started taking place in the northern state of Sinaloa, where there has also been an increase in raids by security forces. While overall levels of violence have not spiked, at least eight people were killed in four separate attacks between 14 and 17 August, in a series of incidents that are likely related to the fight between the El Mayo faction and the faction led by Los Chapitos — sons of the arrested leader known as El Chapo.¹⁵ These attacks included the killing of a collaborator of El Mayo, who led the fentanyl trade in Sinaloa, along with two other men, in Elota municipality around 17 August. 

Against the backdrop of these worsening internal tensions, Mexican authorities stepped up operations against the Sinaloa cartel. Around 3 August, the military killed at least nine suspected members of the Sinaloa cartel in a clash in La Loma village, which is known for being a demarcation between the areas controlled by the two abovementioned cartel factions.¹⁶ On 29 August, during another raid supposedly aimed at capturing a close collaborator of the Chapitos faction in Culiacán, armed men attacked security forces and set up roadblocks.¹⁷ In August, ACLED records the highest number of armed clashes between armed groups and security forces in Sinaloa since January 2023. The Sinaloa Cartel was involved in almost half of these clashes.

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Venezuela: Supreme Court ratifies Maduro’s disputed re-election amid national and international protests

A month after the National Electoral Council declared President Nicolás Maduro the winner of the 28 July presidential election, opposition-led demonstrations condemning alleged fraud and demanding the disclosure of voting records continue in the country.¹⁸ An initial outbreak of widespread unrest in late July was met with deadly repression by security forces and pro-government militias known as colectivos, leading to the detention of at least 2,400 people and the death of at least 22 protesters. In August, the number of anti-government demonstration events increased, with about 150 recorded events, the third-highest monthly total since 2018. In addition, around 220 protests have been reported outside of Venezuela to repudiate the election results since 28 July.¹⁹ However, the opposition’s capacity to mobilize protesters seems to have subsided since the Supreme Court of Justice ratified Maduro’s victory on 22 August.²⁰ ACLED records only 24 anti-government demonstrations on 28 August — one-third of those recorded on 17 August. In both cases, the opposition called for mass mobilizations, the former on the occasion of the first month since the election and the latter to increase street pressure ahead of the expected Supreme Court ruling.

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