Proviso Suburbs Are Regulating Unscheduled Buses As Migrant Crisis Enters Harsh Winter – Village Free Press |

Migrants in tents outside of the 15th District Chicago Police station in the citys Austin community in October 2023. The city has since relocated the migrants, but now suburban officials are taking measures to regulate unscheduled buses that may be unsafely dropping the asylum-seekers off in municipalities. | File

Monday, January 15, 2024 || By Michael Romain || michael@wearejohnwilk.com

Suburbs across Proviso Township have recently enacted legislation to address the wave of buses carrying migrants to various points across the Chicago area and burdening resource-strapped municipalities.

The villages of Bellwood, Broadview, Hillside and Westchester are among the municipalities whose boards have voted on ordinances or whose mayors have issued executive orders since December designed to introduce fines, penalties and restrictions for buses illegally dropping off passengers.

The primary aim is to safeguard the health and safety of both residents and bus occupants, Hillside village officials explained in a statement posted to the villages website on Dec. 29.

The Village lacks the resources to adequately support these migrants, Hillside officials added. Collaborative efforts with Local, State, County, and regional authorities are underway to address these concerns.

CNN reported in December that since April 2022, Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has sent more than 90,000 asylum-seeking migrants from Latin America to various Democratic-run sanctuary cities, including Chicago.

Border authorities encountered more than 225,000 migrants along the US-Mexico border in December alone, marking the highest monthly total recorded since 2000, according to preliminary Homeland Security statistics shared with CNN, the outlet reported.

In their various ordinances and executive orders, Proviso-area village officials explained that the legislation regulating unscheduled buses is time-sensitive due to the onset of the frigid winter weather.

Entities sending such charter buses know, or should know, that the passengers on such buses are likely to seek emergency shelter and other immediate services from the municipality upon or soon after arrival in the municipality, reads the ordinance the Westchester village board unanimously passed on Jan. 9.

Local police departments have been tasked with enforcing the new regulations. In a statement shared with WGN 9, Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson said that any violation of her executive order by any bus company or bus driver, regardless of origin or destination, authorizes the seizure and impoundment of the bus by the Broadview Police Department as well as criminal charges to be filed against the company and driver.

Broadview Police Chief Thomas Mills said his department is requesting bus companies notify us five days in advance, adding that they need to know how many people are coming under the age of 18 (and) how many adults so we know how many are arriving in the Village of Broadview, WGN reported.

Mayor Thompson issued her executive order in December. The Broadview village board is poised to vote on a series of ordinances regulating unscheduled buses at a regular meeting on Jan. 16.

State opens migrant shelter

Earlier this month, Capitol News Illinois reported that another migrant shelter opened in Chicago on Jan. 10, the states latest step in dealing with an influx of more than 30,000 asylum seekers sent to Illinois from states on the southern U.S. Border since summer 2022.

The recently opened shelter is located in a former CVS in Chicagos Little Village neighborhood and is expected to host about 220 migrants. The shelter is part of a $160 million state spending plan for migrant assistance that Gov. JB Pritzker announced in November, Capitol News Illinois reported.

The new site is one of several that houses migrants, mostly from Venezuela, that have arrived in Chicago over the past year. Roughly 250 migrants are currently staying at OHare International Airport and another 280 people slept in city buses at a so-called landing zone facility in the South Loop.

Possible causes of the Venezuelan migrant crisis

Most of the migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border into the United States come from Venezuela. According to data from the Inter-Agency Coordination Platform for Refugees and Migrants from Venezuela, roughly 8 million Venezuelans have fled their homes since the countrys economy collapsed in 2014. Most of those refugees have settled in about two dozen Caribbean and Latin America countries.

Critics of Venezuelas left-wing government have argued that the countrys economic collapse was due to corruption and economic mismanagement.

According to the nonpartisan Council on Foreign Relations, a Washington, D.C. think tank, Venezuela is an example of a petrostate, where the government is highly dependent on fossil fuel income, power is concentrated, and corruption is widespread.

Petrostates are vulnerable to what economists call Dutch disease, in which a government develops an unhealthy dependence on natural resource exports to the detriment of other sectors.

When the price of oil plunged from more than $100 per barrel in 2014 to under $30 per barrel in early 2016, Venezuela entered an economic and political spiral, and despite rising prices since then, conditions remain bleak, the Council argued.

But other experts argue that the United States foreign policy also plays a critical role in the Latin American countrys collapse.

Last year, Juan Gonzlez, a reporter and senior fellow at the Great Cities Institute at the University of Illinois at Chicago, told WBEZ that the influx of Venezuelan migrants to the United States is a relatively new phenomenon. Its only really happened in the last three or four years. But now Venezuelans have become the fastest growing group of the Latino community in the United States.

Gonzlez said that economic sanctions lodged by the United States against Venezuela constituted an economic war against the country. The sanctions have been under Presidents Obama, Trump and Biden, he said.

The result has been an almost complete economic collapse of the country. Besides perhaps war, it is difficult to think of a tool of foreign policy that today causes more economic and humanitarian destruction than economic sanctions, Gonzlez told WBEZ.

For instance, Citgo petroleum, a major petroleum company in this country, is a Venezuelan-owned company, he added. The Trump administration froze all the assets of Citgo. The company takes in about $24 billion in oil revenues in the United States. None of that money, though, can go to Venezuela, which is its owner.

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Proviso Suburbs Are Regulating Unscheduled Buses As Migrant Crisis Enters Harsh Winter - Village Free Press |

The Darin Gap migration crisis in six graphs, and one map – The New Humanitarian

A record 520,000 migrants crossed the treacherous jungle corridor connecting Colombia and Panam known as the Darin Gap in 2023. Less than a decade ago, that figure was only a few thousand, but the number has been doubling annually in recent years, and a further surge is expected in 2024.

2023 has broken all records. It has been a huge, terrible maelstrom, Elas Cornejo, who runs Fe y Alegra, an NGO promoting education and social advancement for migrants in Panam, told The New Humanitarian. And we expect a new increase [in 2024].

Services like Fe y Alegra on both sides of the Colombia-Panama border are becoming engulfed as the needs of vast numbers of vulnerable people traversing dangerous territory overwhelm local communities and aid groups trying to help.

The migrants take the 97-kilometre jungle trek over steep and muddy terrain and along fast-flowing rivers because it is the only overland route from South America into Central America. Once in Panam, where government reception centres are overrun, most hope to head northwards through Mexico to the southern US border, but these journeys are also full of risks.

Read more: The challenges facing the humanitarian response

The few humanitarian agencies and organisations operating on the ground in and around the Darin Gap are struggling to meet the soaring needs of those crossing, not least because of the insecurity in the region.

The Colombian side of the jungle is mostly controlled by the Gulf Clan a criminal organisation involved in drug and human trafficking that made an estimated $57 million from extortion along the migration route in just 10 months last year. The cartel controls most aspects of the route, determining who can assist and therefore heavily restricting the humanitarian response. In Panam, several international organisations help the migrants who reach the Indigenous communities of Bajo Chiquito and Canan Membrillo, and in government-run reception centres at the edge of the jungle, in San Vicente and Lajas Blancas. Those facilities, however, are meant to host less than 1,000 people per day. Instead, in 2023, they were receiving up to 5,500.

Diana Romero, emergency specialist at UNICEF Panam, told The New Humanitarian that coming up with the right emergency response hasn't been easy in a high-income country that was unprepared to deal with such needs. Panama had not faced situations of disasters or crises, so they didnt have the implementation partners needed, she said. In 2019, there were no local humanitarian teams, because there never was a demand for that. There were no specialists in WASH, gender, or nutrition.

As they cross the Darin Gap and beyond, migrants face unchecked abuses by criminal groups, rampant sexual violence, a cascade of physical and mental health impacts, and worse: Between January 2021 and March 2023, Panamanian authorities found a reported 124 bodies on the route, mostly through drowning, but thats thought to be a fraction of the real number of deaths, as many go unreported.

Many making these difficult journeys are escaping regional violence and economic crises in countries like Venezuela, Haiti, and Cuba, but increasing numbers have also been coming from countries in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, including China.

With no sign of a let-up in 2024, here are six graphs (and one map) that show the scale and evolving nature of the crisis, with analysis to unpack those trends.

A number of factors caused the dramatic 2023 uptick in Darin Gap crossings. Changes in migration policies across the region have made it more difficult for those trying to reach the United States from South America to cross borders legally. Several countries imposed visa restrictions on Venezuelans and Haitians, even as countries such as Chile and Peru militarised their borders, pushing migrants to leave northward. In 2023, US President Joe Bidens administration ended Title 42 a pandemic-era border restriction which motivated more people to head to the United States even though Biden soon adopted measures making it extremely difficult for them to seek asylum, and ramped up deportations. The lack of adequate integration policies has also been a driver. Among Haitians and Venezuelans in the Darin, many are migrating for the second time, from countries such as Brazil and Chile where they faced xenophobia, obstacles to regularise their status, and poor job opportunities. In April, Panam, Colombia and the United States agreed on a tripartite plan to open up new regular migration routes to stem the flow, but so far no progress has been made.

From 2019 to 2022, most migrants crossing the Darin were Haitian and Cuban, but in the past two years Venezuelans have taken the lead, and the number of Ecuadorians seeking to escape from violence and poverty has also significantly increased. However, far from all the migrants crossing the Darin are Latin American, and the growing presence of migrants from other continents is garnering the attention of humanitarians, who must now cater their responses to those who dont speak Spanish and are foreigners to the region. Chinese, Afghans, Indians, and nationals of different African countries have to confront language and cultural barriers, as well as the other dangers.

The journey through the Darin Gap usually starts in the Colombian ports of Necocl or Turbo, where local communities offer maritime transportation to the towns of Acand or Capurgan. Migrants are charged high amounts of money for every section of the trip. After crossing by boat, they must pay again to be allowed to continue through the jungle to the Panamanian side. There are three main paths leading to the government-run reception centres of Lajas Blancas and San Vicente, through the communities of Bajo Chiquito or Canan Membrillo. The crossing lasts from 5 to 15 days and total costs range from $435 to more than $1,000 per person. There is also a more expensive VIP route, mostly used by Chinese. Migrants and asylum seekers then continue their trip to the Temporary Attention Center for Migrants (CATEM) in Costa Rica, from where, since October, they are directly transferred by bus to the Costa Rica-Nicaragua border. Many, however, run out of money before starting the trek and remain stranded in Turbo and Necocl, where they are vulnerable to extortion, violence, and human trafficking.

According to Diana Romero, emergency specialist at UNICEF Panam, one in five migrants crossing the Darin is a child half of them under the age of five. Although there are no accurate figures, there are many reports of children dying during the trek. The number of unaccompanied children is of particular concern. In 2022, UNICEF assisted about 1,000 unaccompanied minors, but in 2023 that figure reached 3,300. Of those, 67% were teenagers, 21% children aged between 6 and 12, and of the rest, 10% are babies, Romero said. Often, younger children get separated from their relatives during the trek only managing to reunite later on. According to Francisco Pulido, Plan Internationals director of humanitarian action and stabilisation in Colombia, teenagers tend to travel in friend groups often motivated by misinformation shared on social media. In other cases, the entire family cannot afford to continue the trek so parents leave their children in camps, hoping to send them money to follow on later.

Most of the medical cases that aid organisations come across and treat are related to the dangers of the jungle itself, or due to the lack of access to clean water and food en route. Theres no data available, but humanitarian groups say there has also been a rising number of migrants travelling with pre-existing chronic conditions psychiatric disorders, diabetes, hypertension, or asthma. These people often require emergency assistance because their medications get lost or stolen.

The traumatic experience of those crossing the Darin is also causing high numbers of mental health consultations. According to a recent Action Against Hunger report, women bear the brunt, and are often carrying children with no support. While survivors of sexual violence may suffer from depression, suicidal thoughts, and sleep disorders, others feel the emotional burdens and stress of caring for the family in such extreme conditions.

During 2022, Mdecins Sans Frontires (MSF) treated 232 survivors of sexual violence in the Darin Gap. Between January and November 2023, that number had soared to 462. According to what patients tell us, the modus operandi is getting crueller, Cristina Zugasti, MSF representative in Panam, told The New Humanitarian. Large groups are being kidnapped, forced to lay down face to the ground, and then robbed, physically attacked, and sexually abused. MSF figures, she added, are much lower than the reality. Many cases remain unreported because survivors don't see sexual attacks as a medical emergency, and they also don't want to delay the arrivals to their destinations. Threats from the perpetrators are another reason for survivors not to seek assistance.

Reported from Santiago, Chile by Daniela Mohor, with data visualisation from Zurich, Switzerland by Sofa Kuan.

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The Darin Gap migration crisis in six graphs, and one map - The New Humanitarian

ARGENTINA SNUBS BRICS AS ITS FIREBRAND POPULIST LEADER TAKES POWER – The Sunday Guardian

Milei has already begun to backtrack on some of the key proposals of complete dollarisation and shutting down Argentinas central bank, arguing that it will take time to achieve given the economic crisis.

LONDON

Well, that didnt last long. We will not join the BRICS, said Diana Mondino, who will serve as Argentinas top diplomat in the government of President-elect Javier Milei when he is sworn into office today. Only last August at the summit in Johannesburg, members of the bloc consisting of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South America invited Argentina, along with five other countries, to become new members. It was planned that Argentinas membership would have taken effect three weeks tomorrow, along with Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates. Now the expanded BRICS will consist of ten countries on 1 January 2024 instead of the planned eleven. Although Mondinos announcement appeared to be a bolt from the blue, no-one who followed the far-right populist Mileis election campaign would have been surprised. During the campaign he criticised Brazilian leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva many times, labelling him an angry communist and socialist with a totalitarian vocation. Brazil is Argentinas biggest trading partner. Milei also harshly criticised China, comparing the government to an assassin and threatening to cut off ties. I would not promote relations with communists, whether its Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea, Nicaragua, or China, he said in an August interview on Bloomberg Television. China has been a major investor in the Argentine economy and Beijing had been concerned that an anti-China administration in Buenos Aires could harm Chinas extensive interests in the country, ranging from mining to a secretive space station China operates in Argentina. Knowing Mileis anti-Beijing stance, President Xi Jinping had bet heavily on the Peronists candidate, former Economic Minister Sergio Massa, even releasing a $6.5 billion in yuan into the two countries bilateral currency swap account just before voting took place, hoping to help prop up the Argentine economy and prevent further currency devaluation prior to the election. It turned out to be a bad bet by Xi.

In the event, Javier Milei won by a surprisingly large margin of twelve points in the presidential election on 19 November. Now the big question is whether he can turn around the countrys crisis-stricken economy. Milei campaigned on the promise of deep spending cuts and dollarisation, the idea of replacing the Argentinian peso with the US dollar. In promising shock therapy for Argentina, Milei also campaigned on plans to shut the central bank and slash spending. But all this will be hard to implement given the countrys political and economic realities. After the result of the poll was announced, Milei made his customary defiant speech. The model of decadence has come to an end and theres no going back, he declared. He then raised the challenges that faced the country: we have monumental problems aheadinflation, lack of work and poverty. The situation is critical and theres no place for tepid half-measures. In fact, Mileis challenges are even greater than monumental. Government coffers are empty and theres also the not-so-small matter of a $44 billion debt program with the International Monetary Fund. The country has a dizzying array of capital controls and a humongous inflation rate nearing 150 percent. In an attempt to curb the runaway inflation, in October Argentinas central bank had raised the benchmark rate of interest to an astonishing 118 percent. Mileis victory marked a profound rupture in Argentinas system of political representation. The 53-year-old economist and former TV personality shattered the hegemony of the two leading political forces that have dominated the countrys politics since the 1940s: the Peronists on the left and Together for Change on the right. His opponent, the 51-year-old Peronist candidate and experienced wheeler-dealer, Sergio Massa, had sought to appeal to voter fears about Mileis plans to cut back the size of the state as well as his volatile character. In the early part of the campaign Milei outrageously carried a chainsaw as a symbol of his planned cuts, but decided to shelve it in the weeks before voting took place in order to help boost his moderate image. Massas appeal went unheeded.

So now the hard work begins. In recent years, Argentina has lurched from one profound economic crisis to another. The country is also currently in recession, fuelled by a three-year drought that has done much damage to agricultural exports. The harvest of soybeans, one of the nations biggest exports, is barely one-third of five years ago. All this is exacerbating the cost of living crisis, which has already driven poverty levels above forty percent. Meanwhile, Argentina holds the unenviable position of being number one on the debtor list of the IMF. Stringent currency controls have made it hard to move money out of the country, which has led to a black market in pesos whose value has also been falling sharply. During election debates, Milei argued that by stopping the central bank from printing more money, which it has relied on to finance public spending, and replacing the peso with the US dollar, inflation would be cured. Sceptical critics claimed that this would be impractical as the central bank would lose control over monetary policy, and in any case Argentina has insufficient currency reserves to implement the plan. Mileis dollarisation plan is also a worry for economists; but political opposition and Argentinas lack of foreign reserves make the chances of that happening narrow at best. As so often when populists meet reality, since his victory Milei has already begun to backtrack on some of the key proposals of complete dollarisation and shutting down Argentinas central bank, arguing that it will take time to achieve this given the economic crisis. His pragmatism is also likely to extend to foreign policy.

While Mileis control over Argentinas economic fate is limited, hell have an element of free reign over the countrys foreign policy. During the campaign he announced some very large shifts in Argentinas relationships with other countries. The outgoing President Alberto Fernandez had pursued a foreign policy aligned with many of his leftist counterparts in South America, including Brazilian President Lula da Silva and Colombian President Gustavo Petro. Fernandez built political alliances through the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States and recently convinced the BRICS member states to make Argentina one of the countries included in the organisations first expansion. The far-right populist Milei plans to undo all that.

During the election campaign, Milei insisted that his foreign policy would strengthen ties with the free world and avoid contact with communist countries. After the primaries, he indicated that he would freeze official trade relations with China, but his campaign rhetoric is already giving way to pragmatism. Since his win, Milei has softened his stance on Beijing in view of China being Argentinas second largest trade partner, accounting for nearly ten percent of all Argentinian exports. He has also sought to mend fences with Brazils President Lula by inviting him to todays inauguration, an invitation which Lula snubbed by nominating his Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira in his place. Maybe its also because Lulas arch rival, former Argentine President Jair Bolsonaro, has accepted an invitation to attend. Javier Milei is hardly the first of that countrys leaders to come to power boldly promising a cure for Argentinas extensive economic and social problems. For decades, new leaders on both left and right of the political spectrum have come to power with a radical reform programme breaking with the past. None of them have had more than temporary success in taking the country out of the malaise that has characterised most of its modern history. Will the libertarian populist Milei break the mould? Probably not. He might even change his mind and decide to join the expanded BRICS!

John Dobson is a former British diplomat, who also worked in UK Prime Minister John Majors office between 1995 and 1998. He is currently Visiting Fellow at the University of Plymouth.

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ARGENTINA SNUBS BRICS AS ITS FIREBRAND POPULIST LEADER TAKES POWER - The Sunday Guardian

Miami Marlins announce exclusive multi-year partnership with the Caribbean Professional Baseball Confederation for … – MLB.com

MIAMI The Miami Marlins and Caribbean Professional Baseball Confederation today announce a multi-year exclusive partnership for the broadcast rights of the historic Caribbean Series (Serie del Caribe). The partnership gives the Marlins exclusive rights across all platforms globally (excluding in Dominican Republic, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela - the Caribbean Professional Baseball Confederation member leagues), including but not limited to linear, streaming, radio and more, beginning in 2024.

The Caribbean Series is a prestigious international event, and we are excited to team with the Caribbean Professional Baseball Confederation as we look to expand the reach of the game, both in the United States and around the globe, said Caroline OConnor, Marlins President of Business Operations. With continued efforts to providing access for fans to enjoy the sport, we will work with broadcast partners to showcase the electric tournament to fans across the world who cannot join us in Miami.

One of the achievements that excites us most with this new contract, starting in Miami 2024, is the security that the Caribbean Series will have distribution in English, and of course partnering with an MLB club in the Miami Marlins, said Dr. Juan Francisco Puello Herrera, Commissioner of the Caribbean Professional Baseball Confederation. With the signing of a new contract with the Marlins, we can expect that the Organizing Committee will achieve the sponsorship objectives, thereby favoring the association of the Caribbean Series with international brands and establishing better commercial foundations for the event.

The Caribbean Series is the annual Winter League Championship Tournament, sanctioned by Major League Baseball, and will be held at loanDepot park, marking the first time it will be held at an MLB venue in tournament history. The teams that will compete in Miami will be Dominican Republic, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Venezuela and the three invited participants, Curaao, Nicaragua, and Panama. The tournament will begin on February 1, and conclude with the Championship game on February 9.

With a remarkably rich history since 1949, the tournament has seen many Hall of Famers and All-Stars participate in the Caribbean Series, including Rod Carew, Miguel Cabrera, Roberto Clemente, Edgar Martinez, David Ortiz, Ivan Rodriguez, Sammy Sosa, and many more.

For more information or tickets for the Caribbean Series at loanDepot park, visit Marlins.com/SDC.

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Miami Marlins announce exclusive multi-year partnership with the Caribbean Professional Baseball Confederation for ... - MLB.com