Mexico is demanding that the United Nations expel Ecuador, as part of its complaint at the International Court of Justice regarding a raid on the Mexican embassy in Quito last week, reports the Associated Press. Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador also said Mexico is demanding a public apology from Ecuador for last week’s raid, reparation of damages and a promise not to do it again.
Ecuador’s controversial embassy raid could be the latest example of the increasing impact of personal political agendas on national foreign policy in Latin America, reports the New York Times. “Across the region, the diplomatic rhetoric has deteriorated, with presidents lashing out at one another with a barrage of insults that may appear petty on the world stage but have the potential to play well at home, particularly with their ideological bases.”
International condemnation of Ecuador’s move is high. Jorge Glas, the former vice president convicted of corruption and detained in the raid after being granted asylum by Mexico, is now on hunger strike. Earlier this week he was hospitalized after ingesting anxiety medication and former president Rafael Correa said it was a suicide attempt, reports El País.
More Ecuador
Ecuadorean President Daniel Noboa’s crackdown on organized crime has drawn comparisons to Nayib Bukele, but his economic decisions in the next few months — particularly whether he is willing to face the costs of implementing austerity — could point to a different leadership style, argues James Bosworth in the Latin America Risk Report.
Regional Relations
Argentine President Javier Milei is the U.S., where he will meet with tech billionaire Elon Musk in Texas tomorrow. (Associated Press)
Colombian President Gustavo Petro raised hackles in some sectors of Venezuela’s opposition by meeting with Manuel Rosales - a presidential candidate who some factions of the opposition believe is too close to chavismo — and not with Plataforma Unida Democrática leader María Corina Machado, whose ban on running he had previously criticized. (El País)
Colombia
Colombia’s rainforest has become a bargaining chip in negotiations between the government and illegal armed groups — deforestation is surging this year as talks with the country’s largest remaining guerrilla group, the EMC, founder. (Guardian)
“Deforestation in the Colombian Amazon was 41% higher in the last three months of 2023 than it was the previous year, reaching 18,400 hectares. The concerning trend has continued this year, with 40% higher forest loss in the first three months of 2024, preliminary government figures show.” (Guardian)
Colombian capital Bogotá will start rationing water this week to alleviate droughts wrought by the El Nino weather pattern, which has exacerbated the Andean country's dry season, reports Reuters.
Brazil
Brazil’s police recaptured two felons who escaped from a maximum security facility nearly two months ago, but the cinematic jailbreak has “exposed how Brazil’s two most powerful crime factions – Rio’s Red Command (CV) and São Paulo’s First Capital Command (PCC) – have dramatically expanded their footprint in the Amazon in recent years in order to exploit drug-trafficking routes and markets and other lucrative illegal economies, including gold mining and land-grabbing”, reports the Guardian.
Venezuela
“Tareck El Aissami, the former Venezuelan vice president who was paraded as a trophy this week in the country’s latest anti-corruption drive, was until recently one of the most powerful and influential men in the country, playing multiple roles for ruler Nicolas Maduro that went from oil czar and liaison to Middle East extremists to faction chieftain in the regime’s drug cartel,” reports the Miami Herald. (See yesterday’s briefs.)
Critter Corner
An invasive species of beach plant is affecting sea turtle nests in Venezuela — in addition to other human activities that are undermining their survival. In La Sabana, conservation activists are fighting back without government support, reports the Washington Post.