Banjos is busy.  Since I know you are too, I’ll get right too it.

The death toll of American touristas in the Dominican Republic is now eight.

WAPO:  $600 Million in aid to Puerto Rico is being delayed until September.  As a reminder for everyone that likely is already aware but we’ll say it anyways in case somebody else at CNN wants to reminds us all again…Puerto Ricans are technically American citizens.

The next time I travel to Mexico I guess I will have to pass through militarized checkpoints on both sides.

If the Chilean dictator threw your parents out of a helicopter, why would you go back to Chile, and demand some sort of recognition from the Chilean government?  I would assume somebody like that would just stay in Argentina.  Lets be real, if one’s parent’s are dumb…chances are…

An expose on the southern border—of Mexico.

But most of the smuggling of migrants into Mexico actually happens through the jungle and back roads to avoid the immigration checkpoints. It is a multibillion-dollar business, as each person pays between $3,500 and $7,000 for the dangerous journey.

As a result of the new migrant deal, officials estimate that smugglers lost $3,6m last weekend alone, when the National Guard found 791 migrants being transported in trucks.

South of Comitán, 12 heavily armed soldiers patrol the border town of Carmen Xhán in two vehicles. “The first 30 minutes [of an operation] are the most important ones,” says the sub-lieutenant in charge, “that’s when we have the best chance to catch the smugglers driving through”. After that, their location becomes known and smugglers find ways to avoid them.

The commando moves from one area to the next throughout the night. Even so, their presence does not go unnoticed by smugglers and, across the border in Guatemala, migrants turn back, unable to cross.

This was the second frustrated attempt for 24-year-old Denis Perez and his son, Denis Joshua, from the Guatemalan town of Petén. In their first time, they were detained in the Mexican city of Monterrey, near the US border. To pay for this trip, he says he mortgaged his land, and will now have to return and tell her wife and other child that they could not make it.

For him, like most others, more desperation waits when he gets back home.

In real estate news, 27 of a Mexican Drug Lord’s properties were seized and auctioned off.  9 sold for a total of USD $3 million.

A single Russian warship dropped anchor in Havana.

Here’s some tunes.  I’m feeling mellow today.