“In a world of climate denial and misinformation, Santa Marta was a shining example of science-led decision making. Hundreds of experts, academics and scientists inspired and informed the launch of three major initiatives on the energy transition,” write Guardian correspondents Jonathan Watts and Fiona Harvey.

The conference, co-hosted by Colombia and The Netherlands, was born of frustration at the last COP conference, when efforts to negotiate a roadmap to transition from fossil fuels were blocked by certain countries. Fifty-nine countries participated in the “coalition of the willing,” a group that represents more than half of global GDP, nearly a third of energy demand and a fifth of fossil fuel supply, reports the Guardian.

The Santa Marta conference focused on scientific evidence and practical steps, with each nation working on its own roadmap.

The voluntary plans will form the bedrock of a new initiative to wean the world off coal, oil and gas, an approach that marks a departure from the annual UN climate negotiations, which have run for more than three decades even as greenhouse gas emissions have continued to rise, reports the Guardian.

“Ministers and envoys from across the world sat side-by-side in small meeting rooms to have open and frank conversations about the barriers they face in transitioning from fossil fuels to clean energy,” reports Carbon Brief. “This new format … was described as “refreshing”, “highly successful” and “groundbreaking” by countries attending the talks.”

At the summit’s conclusion, Tuvalu and Ireland were announced as the co-hosts of the second transitioning away from fossil fuels summit, which will take place in the Pacific island nation in 2027.

Addressing debt must be a central plank of any global platform of climate action, emphasized developing nations and experts at the Santa Marta conference on transitioning away from fossil fuels, which wrapped up in Colombia this week — and many activists called for debt forgiveness.

Susana Muhamad, a former environment minister of Colombia, now special envoy of the Fossil Fuel Treaty Initiative, said that countries struggling to make interest payments on their debts could not afford imports such as medicines, fertilisers and technology without the revenues from exporting fossil fuels. “It’s a problem of the economic dependency of the countries on fiscal income, but also the balance of trade, to be able to sustain their economies,” she said.

Countries that participated worked on national roadmaps to phase out fossil fuels: France became the first developed country to release a national roadmap to phase out fossil fuels, on Tuesday, which included a timetable to remove coal from its national grid by 2027, end oil dependency by 2045 and fossil gas by 2050, reports the Guardian. Analysts say no other country has published such a clear and comprehensive plan, reports AFP.

Colombia published its draft plan last week. Colombian President Gustavo Petro blamed fossil fuel interests for taking ever more desperate measures to prevent a transition to green energy. “There is inertia in the power and the economy of this archaic form of energy – fossil fuels – that lead to death. Undoubtedly, that form of capital can commit suicide, taking with it humanity and [other] life,” he said. “The question that needs to be asked is whether capitalism can truly adapt to a non-fossil energy model.”

Lack of financing is one of the biggest barriers to moving away from fossil fuels, officials and experts said earlier this week at the conference. Many countries and regional governments are not opposed to shifting away from fossil fuels, but are constrained by debt, limited fiscal space and the high cost of financing cleaner energy projects, Amiera Sawas, head of research and policy at the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative, told the Associated Press.

Mexico

• The U.S. indictment of major Mexican politicians — including Sinaloa state governor Rubén Rocha — is a political grenade for President Claudia Sheinbaum, who must decide within a short window of time whether she will arrest and extradite a ruling party ally, or refuse the U.S. request. In the balance is her relationship with Trump, who has threatened to take unilateral action against cartels in Mexico, and her domestic political status, reports the New York Times. (See yesterday’s post.)

• The accusation against Rocha “echo earlier cases in which Morena was accused of receiving support from drug‑trafficking groups in local campaigns during the administration of former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador,” reports El País.

Brazil

• Brazil’s conservative-dominated congress approved a bill reducing the prison sentence of former president Jair Bolsonaro, who was convicted last year of attempting a coup. The bill had been approved in December and vetoed by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. This week’s move overturns the presidential veto, and must now be confirmed by a Supreme Court justice to reduce the 27 year sentence by five years. (Guardian)

• “The legislation, which will be challenged in court, indicates a weakening of Lula’s position in Congress ahead of his bid for reelection in the country’s October presidential election,” reports the Associated Press.

Cuba

• Cuba’s energy crisis — a product partially of the U.S. blockade — has a direct toll on its people’s health, writes UN resident coordinator Francisco Pichón in the Guardian: “Tens of thousands of surgeries have been postponed nationwide. Pregnant women face irregular access to prenatal care. Newborns dependent on incubators or ventilators are at risk when power fails. Patients undergoing dialysis, cancer treatment or managing chronic illnesses depend on electricity not as a convenience but as a lifeline.”

Venezuela

• The first direct commercial flight from the U.S. to Venezuela in seven years landed in Caracas yesterday — officials from both countries hailed a new era in diplomatic relations, reports the Guardian.

• “But even as the direct flights resume, and even as President Donald Trump has sought to ramp up removals of Venezuelans from the U.S., many are unable to return home, for want of a valid passport or fear of jeopardizing ongoing immigration cases in the U.S,” reports the Washington Post.

U.S. prosecutors accuse Rocha of accepting bribes and help getting elected in exchange for protecting the Sinaloa cartel, which has terrorized his constituents for years, reports the New York Times.

Authorities said the defendants played critical roles in helping the cartel ship fentanyl, heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine from Mexico into the U.S. The Sinaloa Cartel is among eight Latin American crime groups designated as terrorist organizations by the U.S. government, notes the Associated Press.

“The indictment is the Trump administration’s most significant step yet in cracking down on the government corruption that it has said is at the heart of Mexico’s cartel problem,” according to NYT.

But amounts to a major challenge to Mexico and Trump’s relationship with President Claudia Sheinbaum, notes El País.

Rocha and some of the other accused are members of the ruling Morena party, putting Sheinbaum in a delicate position as she attempts to balance mounting pressure from the U.S. Trump administration on security issues and maintain her country’s sovereignty, a key concern in national politics.

Rocha said the indictment was an attack against him, as well as against his party’s leftist agenda and achievements. The accusations “lack any truth or basis whatsoever. And this will be demonstrated conclusively at the appropriate time,” he posted on his X profile.

Mexico’s foreign ministry said yesterday it had received several extradition requests for Mexican individuals a day earlier, but that they lacked sufficient evidence. Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office said it was beginning an investigation to determine whether there was sufficient evidence to merit arrest warrants in Mexico, in accordance with Mexican law, reports Reuters.

The U.S. allegations come amid pushback from Sheinbaum’s administration regarding CIA agent participation a counter-cartel operative in Chihuahua state last week. Sheinbaum has said her security cabinet had no knowledge of C.I.A. activities on the ground in the state and warned they may have been illegal, launching a federal investigation into the matter, reports the New York Times.

This week Mexican authorities arrested an incipient CJNG kingpin, a move aimed at further weakening the cartel after the death of El Mencho, but also aimed at curbing Trump’s interventionist security threats, reports El País.

More Mexico

• “With two strikes in two months, the Mexican state is apparently intensifying its operations against high-profile targets just as Mexico prepares to welcome fans for the World Cup – and it has so far avoided the violent infighting that previous operations against such kingpins have triggered,” reports the Guardian.

• Two decades into Mexico’s policy of taking out drug cartel bosses, “the kingpin strategy has created leadership vacuums, generating the atomization of Mexico’s criminal landscape and more than 100 horizontally integrated networks that operate in nearly every corner of the country. In that context, there are fewer clear-cut “kingpins” on the radar of authorities,” reports InSight Crime.

• Since the mid-2010s, criminal groups, including factions of the Sinaloa cartel, have intensified illegal deforestation in Mexico’s Sierra Tarahumara, seizing control of communal land known as ejidos through intimidation, extortion and murder, reports the Guardian.

Colombia

• A spate of violent attacks in Colombia, just a month before the country holds presidential elections, have made President Gustavo Petro’s “Total Peace” program a key issue. “The president’s chosen candidate, the leftwing senator Iván Cepeda – widely seen as the architect of “total peace” – supports maintaining the programme. But the rightwing candidates Abelardo de la Espriella and Paloma Valencia, close behind in the polls, both promise to scrap the plan and return to all-out war as soon as they take office,” reports the Guardian.

Brazil

• Brazil’s Senate rejecting President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s nomination to the Supreme Court, a significan blow from Congress as he seeks reelection later this year, reports the Associated Press.

• Labor prosecutors in Brazil filed a lawsuit against meatpacking giant JBS, accusing the company of buying cattle from farms where workers were held in slavery-like conditions, reports the Associated Press.

Venezuela

• Four months after Nicolás Maduro’s ouster, “Venezuela’s political process is beginning to take clearer shape. The country is not moving through a democratic transition. Instead, it is moving toward economic normalization without meaningful political conditions,” writes Benigno Alarcón Deza in Americas Quarterly.

Regional Relations

• Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, sported a map pin depicting the long-contested, resource-rich Essequibo region of Guyana as part of Venezuela, while visiting Barbados this week — prompting a complaint from Guyana President Irfaan Ali, reports the Miami Herald.

• “After recruiting citizens from key areas of influence such as Central Asia and Africa, the Kremlin has now also turned to Latin America in its war against Ukraine. Cuba and Colombia are the main recruitment hotspots in the region, along with some isolated cases in Argentina and Brazil,” reports El País, based on Ukrainian intelligence sources.

Regional

• “The convergence between conventional organized crime and transnational environmental crimes (TECs) is one of the main threats to environmental and human security in South America. Many criminal networks use environmental crimes to cover up other illegal activities,” writes Ludmila Quirós in Nacla.

• After more than two decades of negotiations, the EU–Mercosur trade agreement is set to enter provisional application tomorrow. “Yet the gains, while meaningful, are unlikely to be transformative on their own,” writes Fernanda Magnotta in Americas Quarterly. “The more important question is how the region uses improved access to European markets. Will it serve as a platform for industrial upgrading, infrastructure investment, and higher-value production? Or will it reinforce a long-standing pattern in which South America exports commodities while importing higher-value manufactured goods?”

Cuba

• “Cuba’s elderly make up the most vulnerable population amidst the economic and political crisis currently gripping the island. Recent waves of emigration of younger Cubans have left many older adults alone to fend for themselves under the direst conditions. Lacking qualified and trustworthy caregivers — and as they gradually lose their physical abilities and become unable to venture outdoors — many are dying of hunger and disease within their own homes, where they remain until a neighbor eventually discovers them,” reports the Miami Herald.

Experts and officials at the conference said lack of financing is one of the biggest barriers to moving away from fossil fuels, reports the Associated Press: “In many developing regions, borrowing costs for renewable energy can be several times higher than in wealthier economies … making it cheaper in the short term to continue investing in oil and gas. That dynamic can create what researchers describe as a “debt–fossil fuel trap,” where countries rely on oil and gas income to service debt and maintain energy access, leaving them with little room to invest in alternatives.”

For example, “a draft energy transition roadmap for Colombia, prepared by Colombian officials and UK Climate Change Committee members … suggests fossil fuel demand could be cut by 90 per cent between 2026 and 2050. But this would require more than $10bn of upfront annual investment in the early years before net savings for the Colombian economy began in the early 2040s. By the time the transition ended, though, there would be more than $20bn of annual net economic benefits,” co-author Piers Forster, director of the Priestley Centre for Climate Futures at the University of Leeds, told the Financial Times.

A group of 18 nations – made up mostly of small island states and the host country Colombia — are pushing for the conference to back a formal negotiation process for a binding “Fossil Fuel Treaty” and to make progress on new mechanisms for international cooperation and finance, including an importers-exporters club, a global just transition fund and a debt resolution facility, reports Climate Change News.

Regional Relations

• Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, met with Barbados’ Prime Minister Mia Mottley, yesterday, for bilateral talks that centered on topics including energy sector cooperation. Rodríguez invited the Barbados government to invest in oil and gas exploration in Venezuela, reports the Associated Press.

Mexico

• Mexican authorities have arrested two top criminals, one of them a close ally of the slain founder of the Jalisco New Generation cartel (CJNG), prompting gunmen to block roads in the western state of Nayarit, reports the Guardian.

Mexico-U.S.

• Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said yesterday that her government told the United States, in a diplomatic note, that the unauthorized presence of US officials at an anti-narcotics operation in the northern state of Chihuahua should not be repeated, reports Reuters.

• Sheinbaum’s muted handling of the case is the latest example of how “Trump has pushed Sheinbaum into moves that risk angering her political base,” according to the Wall Street Journal. “Sheinbaum’s advisers explain her actions to critics—who are for now airing concerns in private—by saying the concessions to Trump are a calculated strategy to achieve two long-term goals: stave off a military strike and maintain Mexico’s position as the country facing the lowest tariffs from the U.S.”

• The U.S. ambassador to Mexico made comments about a potential anti-corruption campaign “that could shake bilateral relations at a pivotal moment, as U.S., Mexican and Canadian negotiators are sitting down to review the North American free-trade pact — a linchpin in Mexico’s export-dependent economy,” reports the Los Angeles Times.

Cuba

• A new report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research finds that the expansion of U.S. sanctions against Cuba beginning in 2017 were likely the primary cause of a major increase in infant mortality in Cuba — which soared by 148 percent from 2018 to 2025. “The Trump policy of ‘maximum pressure’ on Cuba has killed a lot of babies — and, although we don’t yet have data for the last few months, it’s highly likely that more babies are dying now, and at an even higher rate than last year as a result of the current US fuel blockade targeting Cuba,” CEPR Director of International Policy and report coauthor Alexander Main said.

• As Cuba and the U.S. negotiate in secret, the perennial issue of compensation for properties confiscated by the Revolutionary government has resurfaced in exile communities, reports the New York Times.

Brazil

• Right-wing presidential candidate Flavio Bolsonaro would take 47.8% of the vote against incumbent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s 47.5% in a run-off scenario in this year’s Brazilian elections, according to a new AtlasIntel poll. The gap falls within the poll’s 1 percentage-point margin of error. (Bloomberg)

Peru

• More than six million eligible Peruvians abstained from voting in this month’s presidential elections, in which no candidate reached 20% of the valid votes in the first round. Of 36 presidential candidates, 28 finished below 4%, and 23 failed to reach even a single‑digit share of the vote, reports El País.

Gold

• A New York Times investigation has found that the the U.S. government’s program of gold sales “is based on a lie. The Mint is actually the last link in a chain that launders foreign gold, much of it illegally mined, for an insatiable market.”

Argentina

• Argentine President Javier Milei’s decision last week to expel the entire press corp from the Casa Rosada “marked the latest escalation in a wide-ranging anti-media campaign that has become a hallmark of his tenure, much as it has for his ideological ally and fellow adversary of the media, U.S. President Donald Trump,” reports the Associated Press.

Culture Corner

• “There’s a world of Mexican agave spirits beyond mezcal,” and the Washington Post thinks “it’s time you met them.”

Cauca governor Octavio Guzmán described the bombing as the area’s “most brutal and ruthless attack against the civilian population in decades”, adding that it left a crater 200 cubic meters in size. Several cars were flipped over by the force of the explosion.

President Gustavo Petro noted that many of the victims were Indigenous people, calling the perpetrators “terrorists, fascists, and drug traffickers.”

One of the victims is Patricia Mosquera, an afrodescendant human rights activist in the region. According to Indepaz, her death means 48 social leaders have been assassinated so far this year.

Vice President Francia Márquez, who comes from the Cauca region tweeted that “it is not possible that criminal groups are winning against the State … it would seem that the State’s capacity to guarantee public order and security has disappeared.”

Authorities say Saturday’s attack was perpetrated by the Central General Staff, EMC, a rebel group under the command of infamous ex-FARC commander Ivan Mordisco.

“The bottom line here is that the EMC, who the authorities have accused of being responsible for these attacks, has a pattern of attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure that is very alarming,” said Elizabeth Dickinson, deputy director for Latin America at International Crisis Group.

The attack is the latest in a spate of explosions that have attempted to target public infrastructure. At least 26 incidents have taken place in southwestern Colombia in recent days.

The attacks come just over one month before the country holds presidential elections to choose Petro’s successor. Colombia has a history of armed groups attempting to influence elections through violence, and security is a major voter concern this year.

Ivan Cepeda, the candidate for the ruling Historic Pact party, has pledged to continue the current administration’s strategy of “Total Peace,” which aims to negotiate peace deals with armed groups.

(Silla Vacía, Associated Press, El País, Guardian, Miami Herald)

More Colombia

• The latest polling by Invamer puts the ruling Pacto Histórico candidate Iván Cepeda well in the lead: 44.3%, followed by far-right political outsider Abelardo de la Espriella with 21.5% and right-wing Unión Democrática candidate Paloma Valencia with 19.8%. But Cepeda’s lead is far smaller in a hypothetical second round (if no candidate gets above 50% on May 31) against either right-wing candidate. (Silla Vacía)

Regional Relations

• Colombian Presiden Gustavo Petro met with Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, in Caracas on Friday. The talks focused on security cooperation along their shared border, a region long plagued by guerrilla activity, drug trafficking and smuggling networks, reports the Miami Herald.

• The two leaders announced their countries will draw up joint military plans and open mechanisms to share intelligence “immediately” — “a milestone in terms of security, because, despite being neighbors, Bogotá and Caracas have not shared information for decades,” reports El País. “The announcement sends a dual message: on the one hand, to criminal groups and, on the other, to U.S. President Donald Trump, who needs a stable and secure Venezuela to pursue his agenda.”

• “Democracy and human rights were not on the agenda. A year ago, much of the hemisphere would have considered that shameful. But with Trump acting as if Venezuela’s situation is now going well, no foreign leaders will call out Petro for failing to bring up elections or meet with Venezuela’s political opposition,” writes James Bosworth in the Latin America Risk Report, noting that Rodríguez will meet with Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley this week. “Petro is finding a pragmatic balance in working with an alleged left-wing ally who is actually in alliance with Trump. … Any work he does with Rodriguez lets him show the US a “win” and potentially keep US influence out of the election for a few weeks more.”

• The two U.S. officials killed in a car crash last weekend in northern Mexico while returning from a counter-cartel operation did not have formal authorization for such activities in the country, the Mexican government announced on Saturday. (New York Times)

Brazil

• Brazilian presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro acknowledges that his surname is both his greatest asset and his central liability — he attempting to walk that knife edge with a campaign that emphasizes both his ideological similarities to his father, former president Jair Bolsonaro, and his more moderate approach, reports the Washington Post.

Regional

• Oil price increases related to the Iran war have begun fueling a rise in crude production in the Americas “… almost half of the world’s oil supply growth over the rest of the decade is expected to come from Latin America’s oil boom,” reports the Guardian.

• Nearly a dozen countries terminated programs with the Cuban government, leaving poor residents, particularly in remote areas, suddenly without healthcare, reports the Guardian.

U.S. Drug War

• The U.S. military said on Sunday three men were killed when it struck a boat it claimed was “engaged in narco-trafficking operations” in the Eastern Pacific Ocean. This latest strike brings the US campaign’s death toll to at least 185, according to a tally compiled by Agence France-Presse. (See also New York Times.)

• The US military announced on Friday that it killed two people in an attack on a boat in the Eastern Pacific. (Guardian)

Peru

• Peru’s military moved ahead this week with a deal to buy U.S. fighter jets despite the interim president’s public objections, reports the New York Times.

Venezuela

• The U.S. government on Friday evening conceded that the Venezuelan government could pay for Nicolás Maduro’s defense lawyers. (New York Times)

Ecuador

• The Guardian on the human toll of rapidly growing female incarceration rates in Ecuador: “The resultant family separations can have long-term effects on mothers and children, say experts, from struggles with mental health and feeling ostracised from society, to increasing cycles of poverty.”

Last year in Brazil, frustrated at the lack of progress at COP30, where negotiations were stymied by petrostates and their allies, Colombia proposed forging a “coalition of the willing” to discuss the detail of what a transition away from fossil fuels would look like, reports the Guardian.

The meeting reflects growing frustration among some governments and advocates that decades of U.N. climate negotiations have failed to directly address fossil fuel production — the main driver of global warming, reports the Associated Press.

The Santa Marta conference will produce a report built around three themes: how to help countries move away from fossil fuels without harming their economies, how to shift energy systems toward cleaner supply and growing demand for renewables, and how to strengthen international cooperation on climate. A key challenge is that many Global South countries still depend on oil and gas revenues to fund public spending, making a fair transition harder. The talks also address controversial issues like phasing out fossil fuel production, cutting subsidies, and ensuring energy remains affordable and accessible, while noting that sectors like petrochemicals continue to drive demand, write Kyla Tienhaara and Christina Frendo in the Conversation.

There is a push to reform global rules—especially investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS), which allows companies to sue governments over climate policies—with figures like Joseph Stiglitz backing efforts to move away from the system.

The conference is not structured to produce binding commitments. Instead, officials say the goal is to generate a set of proposals and build coalitions of countries willing to move faster on phasing out fossil fuels. Countries will draw up their own national roadmaps. Discussions are expected to focus on ways nations can structure their transitions rather than negotiate about the need for them.

Countries attending account for roughly a fifth of global fossil fuel supply - including Colombia, Australia and Nigeria - but major powers including the US, China and India are not part of the talks, reports the BBC.

Organizers say the conference is for countries that are committed to clean energy, not those that deny climate change. “We are not unhappy because the U.S. is not here,” Colombia’s environment minister, Irene Vélez Torres, told Político. “We knew that they weren’t going to be here. We weren’t expecting them to be here because their energy policy and their economic policy is to ‘drill, baby, drill.’ So this is not the place for them. Also, we didn’t want to have anyone boycotting our conversations.”

More Climate

• Brazil has become a laboratory for an accelerating climate crisis in the region, which is the most exposed to extreme climate events after Africa - Guardian

Venezuela

• Colombian President Gustavo Petro will meet with Venezuelan acting president Delcy Rodríguez in Caracas today — the first official visit by a head of state to Venezuela since Nicolás Maduro’s removal, and another step in Rodríguez’s consolidation of power, reports El País. (See yesterday’s post.) Colombia is interested in entering Venezuela’s electricity sector, but today’s agenda is focused on security along the two countries’ shared border.

• The United States’ new top diplomat in Venezuela, John Barrett, arrived in Caracas yesterday. He promised to continue implementing the Trump administration’s three-phase strategy for Venezuela—focused on stabilization, economic recovery and political transition—according to statements released by the U.S. Embassy. (Miami Herald)

• Momentum for political change is fading as the interim government and the US avoid committing to election specifics, notes Christopher Sabatini in a Chatham House report. “Postponing elections for too long risks consolidating the still-present repressive apparatus that is a legacy of Venezuela’s prolonged autocratic rule. The first step should be to negotiate a political pact on the timing of elections, and on associated institutional, legal and technical reforms. The US will have a critical role …”

Guatemala

• Guatemala’s ​Constitutional Court froze the process to select ‌the country’s next attorney general. The ruling effectively jeopardizes the list ​of six finalists selected earlier this week by a ​commission of jurists, in which current Attorney General Consuelo Porras did not make ​the cut. Porras is a leading adversary of President Bernardo Arévalo ​and has been ​sanctioned by ⁠the U.S., Canada, the European Union and others for alleged corruption, persecution of human rights advocates ​and efforts to undermine Arevalo’s 2023 election.(Reuters)

• Arévalo questioned the decision, saying actions such as these are further evidence of the existence of “operators with dark interests,” in reference to the country’s powerful network of corrupt officials. (Prensa Libre)

United Nations

• Candidates for U.N. Secretary General sat for marathon hearings at the United Nations headquarters in New York City this week. Per an informal U.N. custom, the next organization’s next leader should hail from Latin America and the Caribbean. At this relatively early point in the race, Argentine Rafael Grossi is widely considered a frontrunner, reports Foreign Policy. “Grossi has won support across Argentina’s fractured political spectrum and has acted as an interlocutor between warring states such as Russia and Ukraine on nuclear issues.”

Mexico-U.S.

• The deaths of two U.S. citizens — apparently CIA officers — in a car crash with two Mexican security officials in a car returning from a raid on a clandestine drug lab in northern Mexico “has raised urgent questions about the extent of U.S. involvement in the region’s drug war,” reports the New York Times. “For decades, U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies have played a quiet but consequential role in Mexico’s security operations, in an often uneasy partnership that has evolved as threats and political currents shift on both sides of the border.”

• Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum sought to de-escalate tensions with the U.S. over the incident, yesterday, reiterating her condolences for the deaths in her daily press conference. Security expert ​Vanda Felbab-Brown told Reuters the diplomatic spat with Washington might backfire on Mexico’s president. “There’s still a lot of people in ​the administration in Washington ⁠pushing for unilateral military action against the cartels in Mexico and this could play into their hands,” she said.

• The United States has imposed new sanctions on a transnational network spanning India, Mexico, and Guatemala that supplied fentanyl precursors to the Sinaloa Cartel, as part of its broader anti-drug strategy. Through the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), authorities have frozen the U.S.-based assets of four Mexican nationals linked to the operation, reports El País.

Cuba

• Cuba will not negotiate prisoner releases as part of negotiations with the U.S. according to Cuban Ambassador to the U.N. Ernesto Soberón Guzmán, who told the Associated Press that internal issues regarding detainees “are not on the negotiating table.” The release of political prisoners was a key U.S. demand in recent discussions.

Haiti

• Qatar announced a $30 million pledge to the newly established Gang Suppression Force, bolstering efforts to support Haitian authorities to wrest back territorial control from powerful armed gangs. The significant contribution came as the Dominican Republic and other countries called upon the international community to redouble its contributions. Although the deployment is underway, a significant gap persists between the personnel currently deployed and the authorized ceiling—a gap that constitutes the primary operational challenge at this stage, reports the Miami Herald.

Argentina-U.S.

• A leaked Pentagon internal email proposed the U.S. should reassess its support for Britain’s claim to the Malvinas/Falkland Islands because of the UK’s lack of support over Iran. Argentina claims the islands and President Javier Milei is a stalwart Trump ally, notes Reuters.

• “Though the Falklands proposal looks vague and there is no immediate sign of it being adopted, the reference to the islands appears deliberately designed to provoke a reaction in the UK, where memories of the 1982 war linger,” reports the Guardian. The UK stressed, in response to the leaked memo that its position on the islands is resolute and unchanging.

Argentina

• Argentine President Javier Milei’s government blocked all accredited journalists from entering the Casa Rosada, an unprecedented move in Argentina’s recent democratic history, reports the Buenos Aires Times. Government officials said the decision was based on a complaint of alleged “illegal espionage” involving two reporters with the TN news channel, though all journalists were barred from entry.

• The decision came hours before Milei hosted billionaire German-US entrepreneur Peter Thiel in the Casa Rosada. Thiel’s reasons for visiting Argentina have been kept under wraps, and the presidential office only released a photograph of the meeting with a brief description, reports the Buenos Aires Herald. Thiel is reportedly planning to stay in the country for two months — in a $12 million house he bought in Buenos Aires.

Venezuela-U.S.

• A U.S. Army special forces soldier who helped capture Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela has been charged with using classified information to bet on the mission on Polymarket, a prediction marketplace, reports the New York Times.

Critter Corner

• Conservationists are installing speakers playing the sounds of a “healthy coral reef” in an attempt to a dying reef off of Jamaica - Guardian

Colombia is lobbying to become a buyer of Venezuelan gas and last month sought an exemption from U.S. sanctions to invest in Venezuelan electricity projects and natural gas ventures, reports the Associated Press.

Guatemala

• Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo will pick the next attorney general from a list of six candidates by May 16. It is already an advantage that incumbent Consuelo Porras has been kept off the short-list, but “Arévalo will still need to navigate last-ditch legal maneuvers that appear designed to sabotage the selection process,” warns Juan Pappier in Americas Quarterly.

Regional Relations

• “Faced with Donald Trump’s aggressive and erratic policies during his second term in the White House, his southern neighbors are increasingly looking more favorably toward China, the United States’ main strategic rival,” reports El País. “The Asian giant is the only major power gaining prestige among Latin Americans, according to a survey conducted by the German Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Foundation, the magazine Nueva Sociedad, and the Diálogo y Paz group.”

• A global coalition of 125 organizations is issuing an urgent public appeal to all states to immediately cease all forms of support, active or passive, for the United States’ campaign of extrajudicial killings in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean, reports El País.

• “Mercosur is set to discuss Venezuela’s possible return to the South American trade bloc as countries warm to Caracas following the ouster of Nicolas Maduro by US forces earlier this year,” reports Bloomberg.

• The trade deal between Mercosur and the European Union that capped a quarter-century of talks offers some solace at a time when unilateral moves have dominated the geopolitical landscape, Brazil’s Vice President Geraldo Alckmin told media outlets. (Associated Press)

• “Even as U.S. President Donald Trump vows to usher in a “new dawn” for Cuba, possibly through military force, his administration is pursuing high-level diplomatic talks that seem to be producing some concrete results,” writes Lee Schlenker in Responsible Statecraft.

Regional

• Latin America is in the early days of a historic demographic transformation, a rapid decline in birthrates that has accelerated beyond all forecasts, reports Americas Quarterly. “Latin America is home to especially pronounced versions of several other trends that are depressing birth rates around the world, from the high cost of living to the uncertainty of informal work, to worries about climate change and crime.”

More Borders

• The ELN operating drug trade along the Colombia-Venezuela border is a major obstacle to Trump’s exhortations to both countries’ leaders to choke off illicit trade (and open Venezuelan natural resources to international investment), reports the Wall Street Journal.

• “Venezuela has approved a new mining law to open the gold industry to international investors, but the legislation overlooks the symbiosis between illegal mining and the national government—and the dirty gold that results,” reports InSight Crime.

• Many analysts see the intense border dispute between Colombia and Ecuador “as less about retaliation over a perceived lack of security efforts by Colombia and more about (President Daniel) Noboa deflecting from his failing “iron fist” policies,” writes Nicolás Zuluaga in Pirate Wire Services. Analysts believe Noboa “is trying to reframe Ecuador’s security challenges in external terms, pointing to actors beyond his borders even as he strengthens ties with Washington, including his recent alignment with President Trump’s “Shield of the Americas” initiative.”

Ecuador

• “Noboa’s efforts to attack political opponents and undermine independent institutions have been a major topic of conversation around DC in recent weeks,” writes James Bosworth in the Latin America Risk Report. “It’s hard to cover because of so much else is going on and the fact that no single thing that Noboa does is a giant coup against democracy that serves as an easy hook. Instead, it’s a slow, steady drip of institutional weakening that is emptying the bucket.”

• Medical workers and patients protested yesterday outside a hospital in Quito, expressing outrage at a health care system so overstretched that people undergoing surgery bring their own syringes and medication, report AFP.

Migration

• “The New Humanitarian has spent much of the past 15 months reporting throughout Latin America, trying to piece together an answer to one pressing question: what happened to the 300,000 people who saw their dreams of a better life suddenly rebuffed when Trump returned to office?” (Guardian)

• “The picture that emerged is of a situation very much still in flux: some people have returned home, others have run out of resources and have ending up stranded in various countries, while many are still searching for a place where they can find stability.” (Guardian)

Argentina

• Peter Thiel is in Buenos Aires with his family — his schedule includes high-level political meetings, among them one with President Javier Milei. It will be one of the Argentine president’s first activities after returning from his official trip to Israel and the fourth meeting he has held with Thiel in two years, according to El País.

• “In Argentina, some researchers believe it is no coincidence that Thiel has returned at the moment of Milei’s lowest approval ratings since taking office in December 2023, amid a difficult economic situation and corruption scandals plaguing his inner circle.” (El País)

Honduras

• Honduran riot police fired tear gas on Monday at students protesting a proposed cut to the budget of the National Autonomous University of Honduras, reports the Tico Times.

• “Just two and a half months after taking office, on the heels of a disputed election marred by allegations of fraud, congressional allies of Trump-backed President Nasry “Tito” Asfura have already removed a wave of officials from the former ruling party Libre,” reports El Faro.

St. Vincent and the Grenadines

• The St Vincent and the Grenadines government has delayed a controversial effort to amend a section of the country’s constitution that the opposition says renders the prime minister ineligible for his position in parliament — Guardian

The accused include members of the national MS-13 leadership known as the Ranfla Nacional, whom the government accuses, among other crimes, of ordering the massacre of 86 people during the last weekend of March 2022, the event that triggered the state of emergency that has been renewed 49 times, reports El País.

The country’s rubber-stamp Congress approved mass trials as part of the state of emergency, though human rights groups have warned that the collective prosecutions violate due process and block defendants from accessing legal counsel, reports Reuters.

Images released by authorities show hundreds of shackled prisoners attending proceedings by video conference. They “reveal for the first time the whereabouts and condition of several national MS-13 leaders, about whom nothing had been known for many years,” reports El País. “All of them appear emaciated.”

“These mass trials lack basic guarantees of due process and thus they increase the risk of convicting innocent people who have nothing to do with the gangs that have terrorized the country for decades,” Juan Pappier, Americas deputy director for Human Rights Watch, told the Associated Press.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) expressed yesterday “serious concerns about the human rights impacts resulting from the excessive and undue prolongation of the state of emergency in El Salvador” and reiterated its call to the Bukele government to end its continued use.

Since the state of emergency began, authorities say they have arrested 91,300 people allegedly belonging or tied to gangs. Human rights organizations say thousands have been arbitrarily detained. At least 500 people have died in state custody.

More El Salvador

• The Attorney General’s Office announced it will begin implementing artificial intelligence to carry out its work. Separately, Bukele announced that he will delegate a large part of the management of the health system to Google’s AI, Gemini. (El País)

• Bukele’s made other A.I. announcements, notes El Faro: “Back in December, he announced Elon Musk’s tool, Grok, would be introduced in Salvadoran classrooms. … In February 2025, the Bukele-controlled legislature approved a new law to cater to A.I., similar to the Bitcoin Law in 2021 to entice bitcoiners. In late 2024, the government quietly rolled back bitcoin as legal tender.”

Regional Relations

• Brazil does not favor either the United States or China as a trading partner, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said yesterday, underscoring the country’s balanced approach to global economic ties, reports Reuters.

• Lula warned he would hit back with reciprocal measures after the United States expelled a Brazilian police attache involved in the arrest in the United States of Brazil’s fugitive ex-spy chief Alexandre Ramagem, a close ally of former president Jair Bolsonaro. (AFP)

• Ramagem was released in the United States after a brief detention by immigration authorities. He fled Brazil ahead of a 16-year prison sentencefor plotting a coup to keep Bolsonaro in power after losing the elections in 2022. Brazilian authorities have been trying to negotiate his return for five months, reports the Miami Herald.

• The U.S. military is launching a new autonomous warfare command to deploy cutting-edge unmanned systems across Latin America, reports Fox News.

Guatemala

• A commission of jurists left Guatemalan Attorney General Consuelo Porras off the official shortlist of candidates for the post, denying her the possibility of a third term. “Since assuming the role in 2018, Porras has ​been accused within Guatemala and abroad of leading a rollback ⁠of anti-corruption efforts that had once made Guatemala an international case ​study in prosecuting impunity. Her tenure was marked by the prosecution or ​exile of judges, prosecutors and journalists linked to past anti-corruption cases,” report Reuters.

Venezuela

• Venezuelan authorities said Monday they have freed 51 people described by human-rights groups as political prisoners. The announcement comes amid ongoing scrutiny of the government’s handling of political detainees, reports the Miami Herald. Foro Penal has warned that an amnesty process created this year is increasingly acting as a bottleneck rather than a pathway to release, slowing or blocking freedom for many prisoners.

Haiti

• A quiet rapprochement between Haiti and the Dominican Republic — which just reestablished flights between the two countries after a two-year hiatus — are the result of diplomatic talks, helped by the U.S. Embassy’s chargé d’affaires in Haiti, Henry Wooster, reports the Miami Herald.

• Haitian Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé, who is on a weeklong visit to the United States, met yesterday with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio. “Since last week, residents in parts of Port-au-Prince have been trapped in gang crossfire after rival coalitions escalated their fight for territory. Armed groups Chen Mechan and Taliban have joined forces with the group 400 Mawozo in clashes with groups operating in Pierre 6 and Terre Noire, in an effort to expand their territorial control. The violence has paralyzed traffic and commerce in the area, with major employers unable to operate,” reports the Miami Herald.

• “Haiti’s hunger crisis has worsened as humanitarian aid has declined, leading the World Food Program on Friday to urgently call for robust support and funding “to protect recent fragile gains in the fight against hunger” and to foster stability in the struggling country,” reports the Miami Herald separately.

Migration

• Paraguay is set to ​receive a first group of 25 migrants ​from third countries ​deported from the United ⁠States this week under ​a migration cooperation agreement ​signed between the two countries, reports Reuters.

Mexico

• The Mexican man who carried out a mass shooting at a national tourist site seems to have drawn inspiration from the perpetrators of previous massacres in the United States, reports the New York Times.

Ecuador

• Ecuador’s US-aligned president, Daniel Noboa, appears to be consolidating power in ways that are causing growing unease in civil society, reports Bloomberg, targeting political parties, courts and now the media.

Argentina

• Argentine ​President Javier ‌Milei said he ​will send an ⁠electoral ​reform bill to ​Congress today to eliminate ​mandatory ​primary elections - Reuters.

• Argentina is beginning to receive a flood of hard currency that analysts see around $30 billion over the next six months, giving Milei his best chance to build up international reserves ahead of the 2027 elections, reports Bloomberg.

Peru

• The head of Peru’s election authority has resigned from his role amid widespread anger over the country’s chaotic general election earlier this month, with vote counting still under way, reports Al Jazeera.

Bolivia

• How Bolivia’s cacao farmers took on the gold-mining industry – and won - Guardian.

Regional

• “Extreme heat is threatening the world’s food systems, with farmers unable to work outside, livestock experiencing stress and crop yields falling, putting the livelihoods of more than a billion people in peril, the UN has warned.” - Guardian

Critter Corner

• Marine snails in the genus Plicopurpura are sacred to the Mixtec people of Pinotepa de Don Luis, a small town in southwestern Oaxaca. Generations of Mixtec women have woven amethyst threads colored by the snails’ dye into elaborate wrap skirts in which they are married and, ultimately, buried. The future of these traditions — and the fate of the snails — are uncertain. The mollusks are subject to intense poaching pressure despite federal protections intended to protect them, and the enterprise might now be complicated by questions about the snails’ scientific classification, reports the New York Times.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico said yesterday that her government would investigate the deadly crash. “But she made clear the inquiry would center on whether the involvement of the Americans in the operation violated Mexico’s national security laws, not how the accident happened,” reports the New York Times. “Her security cabinet, she said, had no prior knowledge of the activities involving the Americans in Chihuahua state.”

The Mexican leader has been adamant that foreign officials can only operate on Mexican soil if given prior clearance at the federal level, reports BBC.

“The accident comes amid increasing pressure from President Donald Trump on Mexico to take more action against the cartels, and as the CIA has broadened its counternarcotics operations in the country and elsewhere in Latin America,” reports the Washington Post. “While Trump has occasionally threatened unilateral U.S. action against the cartels in Mexico, the CIA and other federal agencies have thus far stressed working in partnership with Mexican authorities.”

More Mexico

• Mexico’s new national health system aims to provide universal care, reports Jacobin.

• One tourist was been killed and six other people were wounded by gunfire after an armed man opened fire at one of Mexico’s most famous tourist destinations, the Teotihuacán pyramids near Mexico City. (Guardian)

• The shooting at the Teotihuacán pyramids is believed to have been the first such violence in the site’s modern history, reports the New York Times.

Regional Relations

• German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed off on a series of agreements to increase cooperation on everything from defense to rare earths and renewable energy, yesterday. Merz suggested that closer ties with Brazil is “part of a larger German strategy of pursuing closer economic relations with so-called “middle powers” around the world in an effort to reduce dependence on the U.S. and China,” reports Politico.

• Israeli President Isaac Herzog presented his Argentine counterpart, Javier Milei, with Israel’s highest civilian award - the Presidential Medal of Honor - at a ceremony in Jerusalem, yesterday. (DPA)

• The governments of the Dominican Republic and Haiti have agreed to reopen their airspace starting in May, allowing flights between their countries for the first time in more than two years - Associated Press.

Regional

• “A group of Ecuadorian fishers have described how they were attacked in a double drone strike and then detained at gunpoint by soldiers on a US-flagged patrol vessel, in a rare first-hand account by victims of Donald Trump’s militarized campaign against alleged drug-trafficking boats off South America,” reports the Guardian.

Venezuela

• Venezuela “was the biggest cause for optimism ​at last week’s otherwise sombre IMF-World Bank meetings,” reports Reuters. “Expectations for an economic revival” for Venezuela following Nicolás Maduro’s January ouster “dominated conversations on the sidelines of the meetings.”

• Latin America Reports delves into the controversy generated by a chant at a weekend rally for Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado in Madrid – in which some people referred to interim president Delcy Rodríguez as a monkey.

Brazil

• Gender-based violence is rife and growing in Brazil, where six in every 10 Brazilian women practice or want to take up a combat sport — more than half of them cite learning to protect themselves as a reason, reports the Guardian.

• Brazilian prison gang PCC “is fast becoming one of the world’s biggest criminal organizations, reshaping global cocaine flows from South America to Europe’s busiest ports and edging into the U.S.,” reports the Wall Street Journal.

Argentina

• Milei is seeking to privatize Argentina’s decaying freight railways — but the model his government favors risks sidelining one of the most prominent bidders: railroad giant Grupo Mexico, which has backing from the Trump administration, reports Bloomberg. “The process also highlights the limits of US influence over one of its closest regional allies, even after the Treasury helped Argentina secure a $20 billion bailout during a critical election year.”

Histories

• The Guardian on its restorative justice program: “It shouldn’t be controversial to ask how the impacts of a crime against humanity, even if committed in the past, continue to affect people today. It’s a human question. Yet in the case of transatlantic enslavement, people of African descent are told to “move on” again and again. Our conversations over the past few years have helped illuminate why we cannot.”

• A new documentary, The Trial, uses only footage from the 1985 Trial of the Juntas. “Delivered in a judicial setting, harrowing stories told by former detainees and victims’ relatives lay bare the methodology of state-sponsored violence, as well as the collective trauma shared across generations.” - Guardian

U.S. officials also expressed “concerns about foreign intelligence, military, and terror groups operating with Cuban governmental permission less than 100 miles from the American homeland,” according to Axios.

The U.S. officials warned in the meeting that Cuba’s government had a small window before the humanitarian crisis on the island deepened, reports the New York Times.

The group’s visit late last week was the first time a U.S. government aircraft had landed in Cuba since March 2016, when President Barack Obama visited to expand diplomatic and trade relations between the nations, according to NYT.

The United States gave Cuba a two-week deadline to release high-profile political prisoners as a gesture of good faith as part of the Trump administration’s broader demands for economic and political reforms on the island, reports U.S. Today.

This weekend the leaders of Mexico, Brazil and Spain pledged more aid to Cuba, while appealing for the island nation’s sovereignty to be respected amid an ongoing pressure campaign from the United States. The joint statement on Saturday was released as leftist leaders from across the globe met in Barcelona, reports Al Jazeera.

Regional Relations

• “With a few choice words and a handshake, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum laid to rest a diplomatic spat between her government and Spain over the Spanish colonial past during her visit to Barcelona on Saturday,” reports the Associated Press.

• Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva lashed out at the U.S. over the war in Iran, in Germany, where he used his address opening a trade fair to also reiterate criticism of the United Nations Security Council, saying the body had been created to secure peace following WWII, but that instead, the world today is witnessing more conflicts than at any time since 1945. (DPA)

• German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Lula called for closer ties between Brazil and the European Union, speaking at the opening of the Hanover industrial fair. (Reuters)

Venezuela

• Venezuela’s exiled opposition leader María Corina Machado drew several thousand supporters Saturday to a rally in Madrid, where the Nobel laureate declined a meeting with Spain’s progressive Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez on a multicountry European tour, reports the Associated Press.

• Venezuela’s acting president Delcy Rodríguez has carried out a purge against Maduro loyalists over the past three months appointing her own loyalists or championed businessmen beholden to her, while opening the doors to U.S. oil and mining investors. “The changes have brought little transparency or pluralism to a government that remains authoritarian. Venezuela’s opposition says that rather than returning the country to democracy, Ms. Rodríguez is solidifying her rule,” reports the New York Times.

Comparative

• James Bosworth compares the situations of Argentine President Javier Milei and Venezuela’s Rodríguez: My take remains that inflation is higher than expected, the economy is not as positive for the local population as the macroeconomic numbers suggest, and Milei’s style and corruption are harming his political stability. … It strikes me as I go through Venezuela news this morning that the Delcy Rodriguez narrative shares similarities with my views on Milei, but it works out even worse for Venezuela.” (Latin America Risk Report)

Argentina

• The Wall Street Journal also looks at the list of woes facing the Milei administration: “Corruption allegations. Legal setbacks. Economic malaise. Dismal polls. Any one of those would be a blow to Milei’s agenda to restore the fortunes of what was once one of the world’s richest nations. But taken together, they represent a threat to his 2027 re-election and his ability to finish his self-described “economic-shock therapy” for a country that has been a fiscal basket case for decades.”

• Bloomberg adds a warning note: “Argentina bought itself time at the International Monetary Fund this week, but … Milei still faces a hard-currency shortage that he’ll have to tackle before elections next year.”

• But Milei often seems more concerned with culture wars, notes the New York Times, portraying himself as an AI generated cartoon caped avenger in the presidential social media accounts. “He is trying to break our DNA,” Juan Grabois, an opposition lawmaker, said of Milei. “To destroy the communal identity of our people.”

Colombia

• Colombian President Gustavo Petro said he will sue his Ecuadorian counterpart, Daniel Noboa, who accused him of having ties to the leader of a ruthless criminal organization, the latest salvo in the diplomatic and trade crisis between the two South American neighbors. (Associated Press)

• In an interview with El País, Petro “defends multilateralism and the fight against climate change, while repeatedly taking aim at the electoral system, even raising doubts about whether he will recognize the election results if he believes there are irregularities.”

Mexico

• Four government investigators, two from the United States and two from Mexico, were killed early Sunday in a car accident in the northern state of Chihuahua while viewing newly discovered drug labs, reports the New York Times.

Peru

• Peru’s presidential election result will not be finalized until mid-May, with challenged ballots from the April 12 vote still being reviewed, reports Al Jazeera.

Dogu came to Caracas shortly after the U.S. captured and extracted Nicolás Maduro in early January, and her shift “raises questions about the Trump administration’s priorities in Venezuela,” reports the New York Times. Dogu “gained a celebrity status in the country in public appearances alongside visiting U.S. company executives and Delcy Rodríguez,” the country’s acting president who has prioritized cooperation with the U.S.

Veteran diplomat John Barrett — coming from a post in Guatemala — will take over as chargé d’affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Caracas, a sign of continuity in the Trump administration’s three-phase plan aimed at stabilizing, rebuilding and (eventually) transitioning Venezuela’s political system. (El País)

More Regional Relations

• Spain’s Pedro Sánchez and Brazil’s ​Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will spearhead gatherings of the global left in Barcelona ‌today and tomorrow, in a bid to defend multilateralism and mobilize left-wing movements against the far right, reports Reuters.

• In an unusual attempt to reach U.S. President Donald Trump directly, he grandson of Cuban leader Raúl Castro tapped a wealthy Havana entrepreneur to try to personally deliver a letter to the White House last week outside of regular diplomatic channels, reports the Wall Street Journal. But the courier—Roberto Carlos Chamizo González was sent back to Havana from Miami after a Customs and Border Protection agent stopped him at the airport, obtaining the letter and ending the effort.

• The United States military said it had struck a boat in the eastern Pacific Ocean on Wednesday, killing three people that it accused of smuggling drugs.I t was the third such strike in three days, and the 51st attack against boats in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific — an uptick in attacks after a slowing down in March, notes the New York Times.

• The latest strike brings the total toll to at least 177 killed, according to a tally compiled by AFP.

• Colombian President Gustavo Petro said that he will travel to Caracas next week, amid attempts to meet with Venezuela’s interim president Delcy Rodríguez. (Reuters)

Venezuela

• The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank said they had resumed dealings with Venezuela, which had been paused since 2019. (Reuters)

• Venezuela’s central bank chief resigned, days after the US eased sanctions on the bank, allowing it to reconnect with the international financial system. (Bloomberg)

• So-called Venezuelan “hunger bonds” are now among the biggest winners in a sweeping debt rally. (Bloomberg)

Regional

• Colombia will host a groundbreaking new global conference this month to begin the long-awaited “transition away from fossil fuels,” with co-convener the Netherlands, and support from more than 50 countries, reports the Guardian. With a “coalition of the willing”, Colombia hopes to break the deadlock of the long-running UN climate talks that are frequently hijacked by the unwilling.

Colombia

• Francia Márquez, the Colombia’s first Black vice-president, opens up to the Guardian about the strains in her relationship with President Gustavo Petro and the obstacles she has faced. “The Colombian state is a racist state,” she said.

• Rainwater harvesting and eco-gardens: how one neighborhood in Medellín helped a whole city plan for climate change - Guardian

• “The arrest of a key criminal figure from Colombia’s Pacific coast in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, reveals that Colombian groups are expanding their presence across borders,” reports InSight Crime.

Brazil

• As Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva seeks reelection for what will likely be his final term, Andre Pagliarini argues in Jacobin that key electoral decisions double as early tests of succession, party direction, and independence within the left. What emerges is a broader strategic dilemma: how to balance unity against the far right with the pluralism and internal tensions that have long defined the left.

• To win Brazil’s presidential election later this year, right wing candidate Flávio Bolsonaro — who has a two point polling lead over incumbent Lula in a hypothetical second round vote — will need to conquer independent voters, reports Americas Quarterly. “Right-wing parties that once backed the Bolsonaro government and now hold seats in Lula’s coalition are keeping their distance. Business leaders and sympathizers in financial circles also seem to be holding back, at least for now.”

• Lula “rose to power by fighting for the rights of workers. Now, in an awkward twist, his government is being accused of stifling concerns about labor abuses by a major Chinese carmaker,” BYD, reports the New York Times

Guatemala

• Guatemala’s attorney general, María Consuelo Porras, who has been sanctioned by the United States for corruption, topped a ranking of candidates vying for the role yesterday, though she is considered unlikely to succeed in her bid for a third term. Critics argue the ranking focuses solely on professional experience and academic credentials, and fails to take into account ethical values, reports AFP.

Peru

• The latest results from Peru’s presidential election showed such a tight race for second and third place that it could take weeks to finalize who will face off against Keiko Fujimori for the country’s required runoff election in June, reports the Associated Press.

• A senior US lawmaker — Congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar — called on Peru’s next government to reclaim the Chinese-controlled port of Chancay, describing the deepwater facility as a direct military threat to the western hemisphere and saying Washington would help. (South China Morning Post)

Mexico

• Ongoing disappearances challenge Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum’s promise to tackle the country’s criminal scourge. “While government statistics show homicides have dropped by 41 percent under Ms. Sheinbaum, the number of missing people has more than doubled since 2016, climbing steadily over the years,” reports the New York Times.

Chile

• Chilean President José Antonio Kast warned his country against racking up debt — but then outlined a series of tax cuts and subsidies that may widen the deficit in the near term, reports Bloomberg.

• The Kast administration carried out its first deportation flight yesterday, fulfilling a campaign pledge to tighten immigration controls. (Reuters)

Nicaragua

• A year and a half after Nicaraguan co-presidents Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo decreed the ruling party’s red and black flag a national symbol, the country’s traditional blue and white flag spells defiance for Nicaraguans in exile and at home, reports El Faro English. “According to exiled digital outlet Confidencial, regime opponents have been persecuted and detained for carrying the flag — even street vendors for selling it.”

• The U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on a number of individuals and companies that operate in Nicaragua’s gold ‌sector, including two sons of the country’s co-presidents. (Reuters)

Transnational Crime

• “South America’s bustling seaports have never been under more watchful eyes. …Yet, the painstaking work of intercepting cocaine before it leaves South America for the rest of the world is often a futile cat-and-mouse chase,” reports the New York Times.

• InSight Crime’s Steven Dudley looks at methamphetamine market data to understand how Jalisco Cartel New Generation, under El Mencho, revolutionized the production and distribution of one of the most consumed drugs on planet earth.

Costa Rica

• Cocaine trafficking is oozing into other criminal economies like illegal mining inside Costa Rica’s Corcovado National Part, making it increasingly complicated for the park rangers to protect its natural resources amid a lack of resources and operational support, reports InSight Crime.

Migration

• A handful of families — a portion of the 200 people deported from the U.S. last year to Costa Rica, where they had no ties — have found an unexpected welcome in Monteverde, a mountaintop town in the country’s northwest. (New York Times)

• Several House Republicans joined Democrats to oppose Trump’s immigration policy, forcing a vote to advance a measure to reinstate temporary protections for some 350,000 Haitians living in the United States, reports the Washington Post.

Haiti

• Haitians continue to struggle to find enough to eat, with more than half of the country’s nearly 12 million residents expected to experience high levels of acute hunger between now and June, reports the Miami Herald.

Argentina

• The IMF concluded its staff-level agreement with Argentina at the last minute, but inserted the unusual clause that the country’s economic team must implement additional measures before any funds are disbursed. “Sources with direct knowledge of the institution’s working suggest that the ‘asterisk’ in the statement could be linked to a specific move on capital controls, although they ruled out any potential demand for a sharp devaluation,” reports the Buenos Aires Times.

• “Argentina could become a top-10 global copper producer in less than a decade if it solves a set of structural bottlenecks,” according to Kezia McKeague and Geoffrey Pyatt in Americas Quarterly.

Spirits

• “The actor Pedro Pascal is waging a legal battle against a Chilean pisco merchant who has chosen a cheeky name for his brand of the country’s national spirit: Pedro Piscal.” - Guardian

Meanwhile, the Trump administration told Congress that Cuba has contributed up to 5,000 fighters for Russia’s war in Ukraine, while also providing “diplomatic and political support for Moscow,” according to Axios.

More Cuba

• Cuba could beat the U.S.’s crippling energy blockade for ever with just an $8 billion investment in renewable energy, according to analysis by the Common Wealth think tank’s Transition Security Project. “For less than $20bn, Cuba could become the first country in the Caribbean to have a grid powered entirely by renewables,” reports the Guardian summarizing the report.

• In the midst of a bleak context, many people in Cuba are self-medicating prescription drugs – and some to herbal remedies and even hard drugs. “There are few official statistics – the Cuban government has long been keen to emphasise its people’s “resilience” – but the Guardian spoke to healthcare professionals the length and breadth of the island, who reported that most families include at least one member turning to the black market to buy antidepressants, mood stabilisers or stimulants.”

• One month after the Cuban authorities announced the imminent release of 51 detainees and following the recent announcement of a pardon for 2,010 people, Amnesty International warns that the measures remain marked by a lack of transparency and discretion, with no guarantee of full release or genuine respect for human rights.

Colombia

• U.S. President Donald Trump has frequently accused Colombian President Gustavo Petro of inaction regarding illicit drugs (to put it elegantly). But, actually Colombian authorities are seizing more cocaine than ever. In 2025 alone, authorities confiscated a historic 985 tonnes of cocaine. “We can say it proudly: We are the government that has seized the most cocaine in the history of the world,” said Petro at a cabinet meeting in January. (Al Jazeera)

Regional Relations

• The US military has killed four more people in its fourth deadly attack on vessels in the eastern Pacific Ocean over the past four days. (Al Jazeera)

• Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has taken a harder line against her U.S. counterpart in the wake of mounting deaths of Mexican citizens in custody of immigration officials and the U.S. blockade of Cuba. She said yesterday that she requested investigations into the deaths of the 15 migrants, and instructed Mexican consulates to visit detention centers daily, reports the Associated Press.

Venezuela

• Venezuelan interim president Delcy Rodriguez called on the United States to lift sanctions that have crippled the economy, after the US Treasury Department announced it would issue new licenses to allow transactions with certain Venezuelan banks and individuals, yesterday. (Al Jazeera)

• “Mathematically, Venezuela can’t replace the oil from the Strait of Hormuz in any way. In the best case scenarios, they can perhaps increase production by a couple hundred thousand of barrels per day, which won’t make up for the millions of barrels of global demand being unmet due to the crisis in the Middle East. However, the policy at least makes more logical sense in the big global picture than Trump reducing sanctions on US antagonists,” writes James Bosworth in the Latin America Risk Report.

• The U.S. named veteran diplomat John M. Barrett as chargé d’affaires in Venezuela, part of a rapid normalization of ties that has been ongoing since January’s ouster of Nicolás Maduro, reports Bloomberg.

Peru

• Peruvian authorities are still tallying votes from Sunday’s presidential election, but it now appears that conservative Keiko Fujimori will face off against a leftist candidate, Roberto Sánchez, who served on Pedro Castillo’s cabinet, in June. With 90% of the ballots counted, official results this morning showed Fujimori leading with 16.98% of the votes, while Sánchez had earned 12.04%. Trailing narrowly in third place was Rafael López Aliaga, the ultraconservative former mayor of Peru’s capital, Lima, with 11.90%, reports the Associated Press.

Argentina

• Argentina’s inflation rate is accelerating — a trend Bloomberg blames on the Iran war — consumer prices rose 3.4% in March and expected inflation for full-year 2026 rose to 29.1% in March from 22.4% in January.

Regional

• Fifty years after their land was destroyed by the construction of the Itaipu dam on the Paraguay-Brazil border, members of the Avá-Guarani Indigenous community are still fighting for justice. “For Indigenous communities, the dam’s construction under the two countries’ military governments marked the start of a deep rupture with their territory,” reports the Guardian.

• Frances Robles has reported for the New York Times on the deterioration of democracy in Nicaragua, the assassination of the Haitian president in 2021, the devastation left by Hurricane Melissa and the fallout from the U.S. capture of Venezuela’s leader earlier this year. In an interview, she shared her experiences from her years covering Latin America.

El Salvador

• The story of Sugey Amaya, a Salvadoran who helps people released from jail, casts light on the quotidian challenges in the country’s four-year draconian crackdown on organized crime, reports the New York Times.

Guatemala

• “Mario Ríos Montt, a prelate who headed the Roman Catholic Church’s human rights office in Guatemala even as his brother, the country’s former military dictator, was being investigated for genocide, died on April 5 in Guatemala City, the capital. He was 94.” - New York Times

Ramagem entered the United States on a diplomatic passport, a privilege granted to Brazilian lawmakers. Brazil’s government had requested his extradition, though the detention is not related to that request, reports the Washington Post.

More Brazil

• Chinese companies – from sectors as diverse as bubble tea, budget retail and cars – are expanding their presence in Brazil. Analysts say robust trade ties between China and Brazil could help pave the way for further investment, according to the South China Morning Post.

• Chinese direct investment doubled to $4.2 billion in 2024 across 39 projects in Brazil, making it the world’s ​third-largest recipient of Chinese investment, reports Reuters.

Peru

• Keiko Fujimori is leading in Peruvian presidential election count, as of this morning she has 16.9% with 75% of votes counted. That is far below the 50% threshold required to win outright, and she will likely head to a June runoff against ultraconservative Rafael López Aliaga, a former mayor of Lima. (Onpe, Associated Press)

Regional Relations

• Colombian President Gustavo Petro on Monday said his country would not impose 100% tariffs on imports from Ecuador, reversing an announcement made last week. Instead, Petro said Colombia would introduce subsidies and what ‌he described as “smart” tariffs, reports Reuters.

• The US military said it killed two people in a strike on a vessel in the eastern Pacific Ocean yesterday, claiming the targets were involved in “narco-trafficking operations”. (Guardian)

Haiti

• Haiti might finally be poised to dismantle the gangs that have blighted the country, aided by a strong prime minister and a new international security force with UN backing. But force alone will not suffice, authorities must be willing to negotiate with the gangs themselves, argue International Crisis Group experts Diego Da Rin and Renata Segura in the New York Times. “Haiti can’t drone strike its way to peace.”

Venezuela

• “Venezuela has sold roughly 150 million barrels of crude oil since early January following the easing of U.S. sanctions and Nicolás Maduro’s capture, as Washington pushes American companies to expand operations and boost output in the South American country,” reports the Miami Herald.

• “Venezuela’s transformation into a U.S. protectorate has been swift and dramatic,” but neither the U.S. nor Venezuelans have yet seen the full scope of economic opportunity promised by the Trump administration, writes Anatoly Kurmanaev in the New York Times.

• The International Monetary Fund is distributing a survey to members asking about their relations with Venezuela, a key step for the institution to potentially resume engagement with the country for the first time in decades, reports Bloomberg

Argentina

• Argentina is expected to reach a staff-level agreement with the International Monetary Fund on the second review of its $20 billion program as early as this week, according to Bloomberg.

Regional

• James Bosworth analyzes the new IMF outlook for the region: “The 2026 and 2027 economic forecasts for Latin America are ok, not great, in the reference scenario. But outside Brazil, there is significant downside risk for most countries if the conflict in the Middle East continues. Lower growth and higher inflation in the adverse or severe scenarios will drive greater political instability.” (Latin America Risk Report)

Critter Corner

• Colombian officials have authorized a plan to cull dozens of wild hippos, after years of trying expensive alternative methods to control the invasive population descended from Pablo Escobar’s pets. (Guardian)

Voting is mandatory for Peruvians from the ages of 18 to 70. Failure to do so comes with a fine of up to $32, notes the Associated Press.

It is an extraordinary disruption that has some candidates raising questions about the conduct of the election, reports the New York Times. Officials said delivery failures prevented the installation of 211 polling tables at 15 locations in Lima, affecting about 63,300 voters. (Nationwide, there were more than 10,000 polling places, with 27 million registered voters.)

Conservative Keiko Fujimori held a slim lead in early voting returns: The official count from electoral authority ONPE showed in the early hours that ​former congresswoman Fujimori was leading with about 17% of the vote, followed by right‑wing former Lima mayor Rafael ​Lopez Aliaga on roughly 15% and center‑left candidate Jorge Nieto in third place with around ⁠13%. Just over 50% of votes had been counted, reports Reuters. No candidate is likely to obtain the 50% required to avoid a runoff on June 7.

It has been ten years since a Peruvian president finished a term in office. And “many here blame the political dysfunction on Keiko Fujimori, the polarizing daughter of former president Alberto Fujimori, the kleptocratic strongman who was convicted of human rights abuses and corruption. Her hard-right Popular Force party has dominated Congress for the last decade,” reports the Washington Post.

Regional Relations

• The U.S. military said yesterday that it blew up two boats accused of smuggling drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing a total of five people and leaving one survivor. The attacks on Saturday bring the number of people who have been killed in boat strikes by the U.S. military to at least 168 since the Trump administration began targeting those it calls “narcoterrorists” in early September, reports the Associated Press.

• Colombia will raise tariffs on Ecuador to 100% from 30%, Colombia’s ​trade ministry said on Friday, matching Ecuador’s measure from a ‌day earlier amid an escalating trade and diplomatic spat between the two countries. (Reuters)

• The U.S. must invest in rebuilding Venezuela argue James Story and David Bellon in an Atlantic Council essay arguing for an equivalent to Plan Colombia: “Plan Colombia involved massive investments to professionalize, train, and equip the Colombian security forces. But the plan succeeded because it was fundamentally balanced across all instruments of national power: diplomatic, informational, military, and economic. The security component was indispensable, but it was never the whole picture.”

• “Trump is “reaping the bitter fruit” of erroneously thinking that the capture of Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, offered a blueprint for toppling the Iranian regime, according to John Feeley, one of the US state department’s most respected former Latin America experts.” — Guardian

Cuba

• Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel blamed his country’s profound economic crisis on the United States in his first interview on American television, amid escalating tensions driven by the U.S. Trump administration’s crippling energy blockade of the island, reports the New York Times. (See Friday’s briefs.)

• He also warned that an operation similar to the removal of Maduro from Venezuela in January would be costly and affect regional security. But should it happen, Díaz-Canel said, Cubans would defend themselves. (Associated Press)

• “In Artemisa, Cuba’s rural heartland just south of Havana, many farmers survive on scarce meals, unable to afford essentials, while cuts to the state procurement system – under which the government buys farmers’ products – leave crops to rot in the fields. The crisis, worsened by post-Covid inflation and US sanctions, drives some towards illegal charcoal trading or migration, as families split to survive,” reports the Guardian.

Regional

• U.S. pressure has pushed a growing number of Caribbean nations — Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, the Bahamas, Antigua and Barbuda, Guyana and St Vincent and the Grenadines — to terminate longstanding medical programs with Cuba. Millions could lose basic healthcare, with Indigenous communities particularly exposed, writes Kenneth Mohammed in the Guardian.

• The efficiencies produced by shock treatment economic liberalization are not enough to produce a meaningful leap forward in development for Latin American counties, explains Eduardo Levy Yeyati in Americas Quarterly. “If Latin America wants something broader than a resource core plus a large low-productivity service economy, it needs to actively build the conditions necessary for an alternative model.”

• “Latin American assets have emerged as a haven for emerging-market investors trying to navigate an increasingly volatile global backdrop, buoyed by a roster of oil exporters and greater insulation from tensions in the Middle East,” reports Bloomberg.

Venezuela

• Venezuela’s main opposition coalition — the Democratic Unitary Platform — said it is unified behind María Corina Machado as a candidate for the next presidential election. Venezuela remains in a legal limbo after a 90-day period of Maduro’s “forced absence” expired last week without a court ruling on an extension. Under the constitution, there can only be one more extension of 90 days. After that, the National Assembly must determine a permanent vacancy and call for elections within 30 days, reports Bloomberg.

• James Bosworth looks at interim Venezuelan president Delcy Rodríguez’s chances for political survival in today’s Latin America Risk Report.

• “Venezuela’s effort to attract foreign investors to develop its gold, iron and bauxite seams has enthusiastic backing from the Trump administration but faces big challenges, including armed groups with deep interests in the chaotic, largely illegal prospecting industry that has developed over the past 20 years,” reports Reuters.

Brazil

• Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s allies are posting footage of the octogenarian leader working out, ahead of a reelection bid in which he’ll face off against Flavio Bolsonaro, who is half his age. Lula followers, in turn, have contrasted the incumbent’s apparent physical robustness with the supposed fragility of his rightwing rival, who famously fainted during a 2016 TV debate, reports the Guardian.

• Lula and Flavio Bolsonaro have remained ​statistically tied in a potential runoff in the October ‌general elections, according to the latest Datafolha poll. Flavio Bolsonaro would receive ​46% of the votes in a runoff, compared ⁠with 45% for Lula. Lula ​had 46% compared to 43% for Flavio Bolsonaro in early March. (Reuters)

Mexico

• “Mexico’s heavy security investment for the World Cup is drawing criticism from families of the disappeared, who argue the focus on safety for teams and fans ignores their search for missing loved ones,” reports the New York Times.

Migration

• Dozens of US and international human rights organizations are decrying the Trump administration’s plans to establish a migrant “camp” for fleeing Cubans at the Guantánamo Bay military base if the island nation’s crisis worsens under pressure from the US, according to a letter to members of Congress. (Guardian)

• The U.S. government practice of confiscating asylum seekers'’ passports upon entering the the country is making it impossible for Venezuelans to return home, report the New York Times.

• The Peruvian government has declared a 60-day state of emergency along the country’s border with Chile, aiming to “restore internal order through strict territorial control to combat organized crime, irregular migration, and illicit trafficking,” per RPP. (Via Americas Migration Brief.)

Haiti

• “The conflict in Iran has caused oil prices in Haiti to surge, disrupting critical supply chains, doubling transportation costs and forcing millions of undernourished people to cut back on already scarce meals,” reports the Associated Press.

• At least 30 people died in a crowd stampede at Citadelle Laferrière, a popular tourist destination in northern Haiti — officials expected the toll to rise. “The tragedy unfolded around the appearance at the site of a social media personality known as Dopefresh, who produces streetwear and reflects on urban Haitian culture for his large followings on platforms like TikTok,” reports the New York Times.

• Initial reports said visitors were crammed against a single entrance and a scuffle broke out between those trying to leave and enter the site. There were also reports of rumours that police at the site used too much teargas to break up a fight near the citadel, which caused people to panic and triggered a crush, reports the Guardian.

Argentina

• Argentine President Javier Milei is facing his lowest approval ratings since taking office in 2023 as newly published evidence allegedly reveals a $5 millian financial agreement connected to his public endorsement last year of a controversial crypto project, reports the Guardian.

• New reforms to Argentina’s glaciar protection law, championed by Milei and passed by Congress last week, erode what many say is an important tenet in Argentina: a minimum environmental standard that applies equally across the entire country. The changes will open up high-altitude areas to mining and risk water reserves already strained by the climate crisis, reports the Guardian.

• A growing number of Argentines are falling behind on bankloans as shrinking purchasing power pushes household finances to the brink, reports Reuters.

Critter Corner

• Bebe, a white-winged parakeet, explored underwater in the Bahamas inside a submarine built with a plastic food container and a paintball air tank - likely the first of his species to spend time underwater in the Atlantic Ocean, reports the Washington Post.

A record 35 presidential candidates are competing, along with contenders for the bicameral congress, on a ballot sheet measuring nearly fifty centimeters, the longest in the country’s history, reports the Guardian.

Keiko Fujimori, a three-time presidential candidate and the daughter of the late president Alberto Fujimori, holds a narrow lead in opinion polls. She is closely followed by the comedian Carlos Álvarez and two former mayors of Lima, the ultra-conservative Rafael López Aliaga and the media mogul Ricardo Belmont. However, none of the candidates is polling above 15%, making a runoff on 7 June almost certain. (Reuters, see AS/COA for more on the candidates)

Fujimori has consistently reached the runoff in previous elections, only to be defeated by narrow margins.

Crime tops voter concerns, in the midst of record homicide and extortion rates, but political corruption is a close second.

This is the first time since 1992 voters will elect lawmakers for the new bicameral congress, part of a 2024 reform. The bicameral legislature was previously dismantled by Alberto Fujimori, who dissolved both Peru’s Congress and its Supreme Court after facing opposition to his policies, notes Al Jazeera.

Voting is mandatory for Peruvians from the ages of 18 to 70. More than 27 million people are registered, and of those, about 1.2 million are expected to cast ballots from abroad, mainly in the United States and Argentina. (Associated Press)

More Peru

• Ahead of the election, “Washington is mounting its most assertive push in years to shore up influence in the major copper producer that has become a key strategic partner for China,” reports Reuters.

• “For the United States, Peru’s institutional deterioration is perhaps the main barrier to achieving key strategic priorities: countering China’s influence, combating transnational crime, and securing critical mineral supply chains,” according to the Atlantic Council.

Regional

• Electoral campaigns across the region, including Peru’s “are already marked not only by security concerns and political volatility but also by Trump’s heightened assertiveness,” according to CNN. Trump’s focus on total alignment “has forced presidential hopefuls to recalibrate their campaigns to avoid antagonizing the White House while pondering how to connect with voters, who themselves are exhausted after decades of drastic political swings.”

Brazil

• The ​Brazilian government is set to ‌announce a Brazil-U.S. action against organized crime today. (Reuters)

• Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro’s son Flávio has emerged as a top presidential contender ahead of this year’s elections, and has sought to position himself as as the more moderate member of the family. “However, the platform is similar to that of his father: a mixture of far-right positions on social issues and crime with centre-right views on the economy and a fervent belief that Bolsonaro senior was unjustly convicted,” reports the Financial Times.

• Brazil’s inflation accelerated much more than expected in March, in part due to the Iran war’s energy shock. (Bloomberg)

Regional Relations

• The government of Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa has increased its tariffs on Colombia to 100 percent, effective May 1. It is the latest salvo in an ongoing cross-border dispute between the right-wing Noboa and his left-wing counterpart in Colombia, Gustavo Petro, who have been feuding for months. (Al Jazeera)

Cuba

• Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel insisted that he’s not “stepping down” in an interview with NBC News’ “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker in Havana yesterday. “In Cuba, the people who are in leadership positions are not elected by the U.S. government, and they don’t have a mandate from the U.S. government. We have a free sovereign state, a free state. We have self-determination and independence, and we are not subjected to the designs of the United States,” Díaz-Canel said.

• In response to Díaz-Canel’s comments Thursday, a White House official said that the Trump administration is talking to Cuba, whose leaders want to make a deal and should make a deal, which Trump believes “would be very easily made.” (NBC)

• Cuban foreign minister Bruno Rodríguez has accused the United States of “extorting” Latin American countries by putting pressure on them to cancel decades-old deals with Havana for the supply of doctors, reports AFP.

Venezuela

• The Venezuelan National Assembly approved a new law meant to modernize the country’s decrepit mining industry and lure private companies to excavate Venezuela’s untapped riches of gold and critical minerals, reports the New York Times.

Panama

• Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino sought to ‌calm tensions with China, striking a conciliatory tone a day after his foreign minister called out the Asian superpower for an increase in inspections of Panama-flagged vessels as a tit-for-tat response to China’s CK Hutchison losing its port concessions ​in the Central American country - Reuters

Mexico

• Billionaire Ricardo Salinas Pliego is mounting a Trump-tinted challenge to Sheinbaum’s political dominance, even as he settled years of disputes with the government by agreeing to pay $1.8 billion in back taxes. With Morena’s rise having decimated Mexico’s other parties, Salinas is filling the political vacuum, according to Bloomberg.

Honduras

• A U.S. court dismissed an appeal by former Honduran President ‌Juan Orlando Hernandez and ordered a prior judgment to be vacated, a court document showed, following ​his pardon by Trump ​in December. (Reuters)

Regional Relations

• U.S. Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal discussed her recent trip to Cuba with Responsible Statecraft: “You just really see the desperation. People are just sitting outside their homes. They can’t be in their homes because there’s no electricity, there’s no refrigeration. And then you see it in the hospitals with just the massive strains and stresses on the public health system, which, as you know, Cuba has a really good one. But the cruelty of the blockade, on top of the decades of embargo and financial strangulation of the island, have brought everything to quite a breaking point.”

• Ecuador’s recalled the country’s ambassador to Colombia yesterday for consultations after comments earlier this ​week from Colombia’s president regarding the controversial arrest of Ecuador’s former vice president Jorge Glas, who was sheltering in the Mexican embassy in Quito. It is the latest escalation in tensions in recent months between the two countries, reports Reuters.

Colombia

• Colombia’s Petro administration is rolling out a series of subsidies and cheap loans to limit the economic damage it says will result from the central bank’s “outrageous” interest rate policy — Bloomberg

Ecuador

• Ecuador’s president, Daniel Noboa, is a close ally of Donald Trump, but so far the alliance “has so far yielded uneven results, both on the security and economic fronts,” reports Bloomberg.

Brazil

• Brazilian Indigenous leader Raoni Metuktire said he still supports President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and will campaign for his reelection in October, despite opposing Amazon development projects backed by the government that are contested by him and Indigenous peoples, reports the Associated Press.

• Lula said his government will ​submit a ​bill to Congress this week aimed ​at ​reducing working hours, reports Reuters.

Mexico

• Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum announced plans to tap into unconventional natural gas deposits, yesterday, in an effort to lower her country’s reliance on foreign energy at a time as the Iran war disrupts global energy markets — Mexico is the world’s single largest buyer of U.S. gas. (Associated Press)

Venezuela

• “As the world reels from the impact on global energy prices caused by Iran blocking the Strait of Hormuz, big oil and gas companies like Chevron are now importing Venezuelan crude oil by the shipload,” reports the BBC.

• India is set to import the most oil from Venezuela in almost six years, helping the world’s third-largest crude importer replace Middle East grades disrupted by the Iran war. (Bloomberg)

• While U.S. measures to lighten sanctions against Venezuela have raised hopes of an economic rebound, a key factor in any process of stabilization has so far been overlooked: the fortunes of the Banco Central de Venezuela, write Andrés Arauz and Michael Galant in Phenomenal World, who argue that lifting sanctions against the BCV is essential for Venezuela’s economic recovery.

• Indeed, “the US is considering lifting sanctions on Venezuela’s central bank to facilitate the flow of billions of dollars into the country’s battered economy,” reports Bloomberg.

• Venezuela’s government and its political ‌opposition are seeking to coordinate their legal defense of the oil-rich country’s United States assets, reports Reuters.

• Venezuelan police fired tear gas today to disperse around 2,000 protesters who marched towards the presidential palace to demand salary increases, reports AFP.

Argentina

• Argentina’s congress has approved a bill promoted by President Javier Milei, that authorizes mining in ecologically sensitive areas of glaciers and permafrost, outraging environmentalists. (AFP)

Regional

• The World Bank trimmed its estimate for economic growth in Latin America and ​the Caribbean for this year, citing the region’s long-standing structural challenges, compounded ‌by high borrowing costs, weak external demand, geopolitical tensions and persistent inflation - Reuters

A new documentary by Frontline and El Faro delves into the “deal within a deal”: Bukele has said the Trump administration’s return of MS-13 members will help El Salvador “finalize intelligence gathering and go after the last remnants” of the gang. But some observers suspect he had another motive: preventing gang leaders in U.S. custody from exposing the details of their past dealings with Bukele’s administration.

Ultimately, Bukele was not pleased with the outcome of the CECOT deal with the Trump administration, according to James Bosworth. “His government expected gang members, but instead received many innocent Venezuelan migrants who had no criminal record or ties to Tren de Aragua. While Bukele has no problems detaining innocent Salvadorans, the high level of attention and backlash on the Venezuela issue caused him some reputation damage both in his country and the region. Bukele blames the Trump administration for not sending the right people, whether they maliciously lied or simply didn’t care. That dispute is the reason that additional transfers of migrants have not occurred.” (Latin America Risk Report)

Mexico

• Juan Elman interviews Lisa Sánchez, of México Unido Contra la Delincuencia, on the long-term security crisis in México, which persists not because cartels are too powerful to defeat militarily, but because a decades-long strategy of targeting kingpins—reinforced by U.S. pressure—has entrenched militarization, fragmented criminal networks, and diverted attention from systemic impunity and weak local institutions.

Venezuela

• U.S. officials insist they are working through a phased strategy to stabilize Venezuela following the capture of Nicolás Maduro, “prioritizing security and economic recovery under interim leader Delcy Rodríguez as Washington gradually deepens engagement with Caracas,” reports the Miami Herald.

• Venezuela’s central bank released limited GDP data for the first time since 2019 - Caracas Chronicles

Chile

• Chilean President José Antonio Kast has announced plans to “reverse” the expropriation of Colonia Dignidad, a compound where a former Nazi tortured victims and dictatorship clandestine torture center, where key documentation linking the site to its role as a Pinochet-era detention center was found - Guardian

Argentina

• Lawmakers in Argentina’s lower house Chamber of Deputies are set to renew debate over the balance between economic development and environmental protection as President Javier Milei’s party pushes forward with a bill to amend the national Glacier Law. The proposed reforms would narrow the scope of protected areas, particularly in sensitive periglacial zones, while opening the door to expanded mining exploration and investment. - El País

• Activists and demonstrators are set to take to the streets today to denounce the bill, reports the Buenos Aires Times.

Brazil

• Thousands of people have moved to the small city of Oiapoque, in Brazil’s northern state of Amapa, since Petrobras, Brazil’s state-run oil company, last year secured environmental licensing for offshore drilling in the Equatorial Margin near the mouth of the Amazon River, about 180 kilometers off Amapa’s coast. (Associated Press)

• “As the trial of Sergio Roberto de Carvalho, dubbed Brazil’s version of “Pablo Escobar,” gets underway in Belgium, the charges against him show how cocaine trafficking has evolved into a global business that is increasingly shadowy and complex. It also highlights Brazil’s growing role in the trade, especially in the cocaine pipeline to Europe, and how low-profile brokers are replacing high-profile capos,” according to InSight Crime.

• Brazil’s government is preparing a new credit renegotiation program backed by federal guarantees to curb rising household ​debt, reports Reuters.

Migration

• U.S. government attorneys said the Department of Homeland Security still intends to deport Kilmar Ábrego García to Liberia, despite a new agreement with Costa Rica to accept deportees who cannot legally be returned to their home countries - Associated Press

Cuba

• Hundreds of Cuban women gathered yesterday in Havana to decry a U.S. energy embargo and other measures imposed by the U.S. Trump administration, reports the Associated Press.

Panama

• “A subsidiary of a Hong Kong-based conglomerate started arbitration proceedings against Danish logistics and port group Maersk, accusing the company of aligning with Panama in a scheme to take over its port operations on the Central American country’s critical canal.” - Associated Press

Regional

• “Commonwealth politicians say they will not back down from seeking reparations as UK public figures, including a former Reform insider, warn the rightwing party’s pledge to “punish” countries seeking justice for slavery would harm and isolate Britain.” - Guardian

“The threat of lethal airstrikes has proven a powerful deterrent to drug trafficking in some areas, raising the stakes for criminal groups that previously viewed seizures and arrests as the worst-case scenario … However, because these disruptions were limited to a handful of smuggling corridors and mostly wrought havoc among go-fast boats, they did not prevent traffickers from moving cocaine by other means.”

In a separate article, InSight Crime notes that the US focus on the Caribbean may have missed the broader picture, as an outsized share of cocaine moving through the region now heads to Europe instead of the United States.

On a diplomatic level, “for governments that cooperate closely with the United States on counter-narcotics efforts, the lethal strikes present a delicate balancing challenge. Many are eager to maintain strong security ties with Washington but may be wary of association with military operations that bypass international legal norms and due process. … Over time, these tensions could erode trust with partners that have historically shared vital intelligence with US authorities.”

More Regional

• James Bosworth notes “a drift toward alignment with Trump among Latin American leaders,” in the Latin America Risk Report.

Brazil

• Thousands of Indigenous people marched in Brasilia today to protest what they say are violations of their land rights by large corporations advancing farming, logging and mining projects. Indigenous leaders also seek to apply pressure on President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who has supported Indigenous rights and environmental stewardship in Latin America’s largest nation while also pushing oil and other projects that appear to go against those aims, according to the Associated Press.

Regional Relations

• Two Democratic US lawmakers called for an end to the “cruel collective punishment” of Cuba, yesterday, after they visited the island to witness the effects of the US energy blockade. (Guardian)

• Mexico is facing a “toxic crisis” and has become a “garbage sink” for the US, exposing Mexican communities to dangerous pollution, according to Marcos Orellana, UN special rapporteur on toxics and human rights. The rapporteur said there were more than 1,000 contaminated locations officially recorded in Mexico’s National Inventory of Contaminated Sites, many of which he said had become “sacrifice zones”, where diseases such as cancer, and medical events such as miscarriages, were normalized. (Guardian)

Venezuela

• Oil could be a catalyst for a Venezuelan economic boom, but “ it remains unclear whether the recovery is transformational or temporary. More importantly, what reforms can be made at the legislative level to ensure sustainable conditions in the future?” writes Asdrúbal Oliveros in Americas Quarterly.

• Delcy Rodríguez is a modern-day viceroy for Trump in Venezuela, writes John Feeley in El País, comparing her role to that of the Spanish colonial structure. In this analogy, he compares the supervisory role the newly reopened U.S. embassy in Caracas will have to that of the auditors sent by the Spanish king.

Colombia

• Dozens of female journalists in Colombia have reported that they had been victims of sexual harassment at work, using the #MeTooColombia hashtag and sharing each other’s reports with #YoTeCreoColega, or “I believe you, colleague.” (Guardian)

Argentina

• At least 68 gender-based killings took place in Argentina between January 1 and March 31, 2026, including 60 direct femicides – the intentional killing of women because of their gender – and one transfemicide, as well as seven related femicides, a report has found.

• President Javier Milei’s approval rating dropped seven points between February and March, amid the political fallout from scandals involving Chief of staff Manuel Adorni and other government officials, as well as growing economic pessimism, reports the Buenos Aires Herald.

• Phone logs from a federal investigation by Argentine prosecutors into a cryptocurrency promoted by President Javier Milei last year show seven phone calls between Milei and one of the entrepreneurs behind the cryptocurrency on the night in 2025 when the president posted about $Libra on X. The data suggests a greater degree of communication between Milei and the entrepreneurs who launched the token than what the president has publicly acknowledged, reports the New York Times. Newly uncovered messages also suggest Mr. Milei received regular payments from one of the entrepreneurs while he was a congressman.

• “Argentina’s corporate borrowers are turning to global debt markets with a different goal this year – funding an energy-driven expansion rather than patching up balance sheets battered by years of crisis,” according to Bloomberg.

Migration

• “Thousands of people from Cuba, Haiti, Venezuela and other countries are being sent by the Trump administration to Mexican territory, where they are trapped without being able to regularize their status,” reports El País.

• A federal judge has “voided the Trump administration’s decision to end the immigration parole status of migrants who entered the country under the Biden-era CBP One policy,” reports CBS, noting that out of more than 900,000 beneficiaries, “It’s unclear how many will benefit from the ruling since some may have been deported already or gained another lawful status.” (Via Americas Migration Brief)

• The U.S. crackdown on migration from Mexico has destroyed a sacred site shared by both countries in Baja California, reports El País.

Haiti

• Soaring fuel prices driven by the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran risks worsening an already dire situation in Haiti, according to the International Monetary Fund, as a recent price increase at the pump renewed protests in Port-au-Prince - Miami Herald

Culture Corner

• “Elisabeth Waldo, a musician and composer who used pre-Columbian instruments in Western-style scores that sought to evoke the atmosphere of Latin America, died on March 16 at her home in Northridge, Calif. She was 107.” - New York Times

Colombia

• President Gustavo Petro took to social media to criticize the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the U.S. Department of Treasury, saying that “OFAC serves only to persecute and subdue political opposition worldwide. It is an aberrant system of political control,” reports TeleSUR.

• Petro expressed his opinions following a U.S. threat to include Brazil’s PIX digital payments network–launched by the central bank–on the OFAC sanctions list; in response, Petro asked his Brazilian counterpart Lula da Silva to expand Brazil’s PIX in Colombia. (La Republica)

• Petro said that 70% of Colombia’s energy is clean and does not come from fossil fuels, reports Colombia One, in contradiction to a post from the Mining and Energy Planning Unit which claimed that 78% of the country’s energy mix was derived from fossil fuels.

Brazil

• ““Pix belongs to Brazil and no one is going to force us to change it, given the service it is providing to Brazilian society,” said President Lula da Silva in response to criticism from the U.S. Department of Treasury, reports Diario Hoy. The U.S. has alleged unfair trade practices in Brazil, arguing that the central bank-created PIX digital payments network harms foreign providers of electronic payment systems, citing Visa and Mastercard in particular.

Haiti

• The departure of UN-backed foreign police officers ahead of the arrival of the new UN-supported Gang Suppression Force, both sent with the intention of curbing gang violence and instability in Haiti, may leave the country exposed as gangs seek to exploit the transition period, write André Paultre and Frances Robles in the New York Times.

• In the Miami Herald, Sophie Rutenbar argues that until Haiti’s criminal, political, and economic roots are addressed, no security-focused approach to the conflict is likely to succeed.

Cuba

• AP News published images of families reuniting following Cuba’s release of over 2,000 prisoners (see 4/3/26 LADB). However, human rights organizations said they “hadn’t seen evidence that those who were released included any of the 1,214 people they have registered as being imprisoned for political reasons “ (AP News)

• In the Guardian, Ruaridh Nicoll argues that Cuba’s recent prisoner release is likely a sign that negotiations between the U.S. and the Caribbean island have been making progress, with both countries offering gestures of goodwill to protect the integrity of their ongoing negotiations.

• David C. Adams and Annie Correal analyze the potential of a popular uprising in Cuba, as citizens have begun tracking to the streets in nightly demonstrations, painting anti-government graffiti on walls, and ransacking Communist Party headquarters, in political displays not often seen on the Island. (New York Times)

Peru

• One week ahead of the country’s presidential elections, scheduled for April 12, right-wing candidate Keiko Fujimori is leading the polls with 14.5%, according to Reuters. However, it is likely that none of the 35 candidates will reach the 50% majority needed to win the election in the first round; a runoff election is expected to take place on June 7.

• One person died and several more were injured at a rally ahead of a derby match between Alianza Lima and Universitario de Deportes, says the Guardian. A wall of the Alejandro Villanueva Stadium in Lima had collapsed, causing the incident, though reports indicate that the stadium did not have any structural failures.

Argentina

• A recent investigation conducted by an international media consortium found significant evidence of digital operations by Russian intelligence aiming to discredit President Milei’s government, reports MercoPress. According to the files, The Company spy group, which is linked to Russia’s foreign intelligence service, invested at least $283,100 on media content, including over 250 articles across at least 23 Argentina digital media outlets that criticized the Milei administration.

• NACLA assesses the potential environmental impact of the Milei administration’s efforts to reform the 2010 Glaciers Law, the first legislation across the region aimed at protecting glaciers and periglacial environments. The government is seeking to reform the bill to attract further foreign investments in mining.

Regional Relations

• Chilean President José Antonio Kast traveled to Argentina to meet with President Milei and other government officials, keeping with tradition of having Argentina be the first international destination of newly-inaugurated Chilean leaders, reports CNN en Español.

Venezuela

• In Americas Quarterly, Asdrubal Oliveros explains how Venezuela’s oil sector needs the implementation of several policy decisions to help sustain increased production levels and avoid falling into a cycle of low productivity, high informality, and institutional weakness, subject to oil prices and external conditions.

Culture Corner

• Several professionals of Mexico’s art world signed an open letter against an agreement with Banco Santander, under which several collections of historical Mexican artwork–including by Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera–will be exported to Spain as part of the bank’s new cultural center for an undetermined amount of time. (Guardian)

The announcement, made on Thursday, said that both Cubans and foreigners are to be released, and that the prisoners include women, the elderly, and the young, according to AP News. The Cuban government did not offer any additional details relating to the release date nor the conditions of the prisoners affected.

More Cuba

• Russia announced it would send a second tanker of crude oil to Cuba, following an initial oil shipment earlier this week, says the New York Times.

• Russia’s initial oil shipment of 730,000 barrels of oil is expected to provide enough supply for the Caribbean nation between nine and ten days, according to AP News.

Haiti

• A UN report investigated and corroborated four cases of rape by members of the Multinational Security Support mission, led by Kenya, in Haiti, reports the Miami Herald. The body had received reports of the sexual abuse last year, and had referred the case to the mission commander for further investigation.

Uruguay

• 60-year-old Irazmar Carbajal de Jesús pleaded guilty to conspiring to evade sanctions tied to Venezuelan officials through an unlicensed money transmitting business, according to MercoPress. Carbajal, who was extradited to the U.S. in 2025, will be sentenced on June 12. He faces up to five years in prison.

Brazil

• Environment minister Marina Silva stepped down from her post on Wednesday in order to be eligible to run for Congress, in accordance with electoral law, reports AP News. Elections will be held on October 4 of this year.

Peru

• Fabiola Ventura Pacheco assesses the upcoming Peruvian elections, scheduled for April 12, for Global Americans, comparing current polling patterns to those of 2021 and highlighting a clear tendency of political fragmentation and high social imbalance. “The key question, then, is not only which candidate leads in the polls, but who is able to consolidate the rural vote,” she writes.

Ecuador

• Ecuador’s economy grew 3.7% in 2025, officially recovering from the recession it had entered into in 2024, reports Infobae. Increases in exports and investments were main contributors to the economy’s growth, said the country’s central bank.

Argentina

• “The export revenues from commodities may be up, but Milei is committed to not spending more on the social safety net. That means the average consumer faces many of the same high fuel and food costs,” writes Boz in the Latin American Risk Report, assessing how the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz is likely to affect the Argentine economy.

• President Milei expelled Iran’s top diplomatic representative in Argentina, Mohsen Soltani Tehrani, declaring him persona non grata amid increasingly tense relationships between Argentina and Iran, reports Perfil. Tehrani has 48 hours to leave the country.

Venezuela

• Pedro Garmendia assesses the viability of successful investment in Venezuela following the country’s oil sector reopening to private capital, writing that, “The problem is not political risk in the abstract. It is that the legal environment investors are being asked to trust has not meaningfully changed.” (Caracas Chronicles)

• The Vente Venezuela opposition party, headed by opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, reopened operations in Caracas earlier this week, according to El País. Several of the opposition’s leaders, who have been imprisoned or in hiding for the past 18 months, are beginning to make appearances across the country to rally their supporters.

Costa Rica

• In line with its search for a closer alliance with the U.S., the Costa Rican government agreed to receive up to 25 deportees per week from the United States, reports the Guardian. According to the agreement–which the Chaves government entered into voluntarily–Costa Rica will not accept deportees from any Latin American countries, nor anyone with criminal records.

“We value this decision as a step toward normalizing and strengthening relations between our countries,” wrote Rodriguez on social media. “We trust that this progress will lead to the lifting of the sanctions still in force on our country, enabling us to build and guarantee an effective bilateral cooperation agenda.” In March, the United States had announced it would reopen its embassy in Venezuela, reestablishing diplomatic relations with the country.

With her assets now freed, Rodriguez will be able to conduct business with U.S. companies and travel to the United States for diplomatic purposes, including a potential meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump. So far, she remains the only member of the Venezuelan government who was given sanctions relief.

El País notes the dichotomy between the U.S.’ treatment of Delcy Rodriguez and Maria Corina Machado, leader of the Venezuelan opposition, explaining how “Venezuela’s future is decided more in Washington than in Caracas…that future is structured around two priorities that don’t necessarily align: the stability sought by the White House and the democratic transition demanded by the opposition.” Over the past months, Machado has been meeting with high-level U.S. officials–including Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio–to garner support and effect a strategy for Venezuela’s return to democracy, despite waning U.S. support for her efforts, which instead have turned towards supporting Rodriguez.

(New York Times, U.S. Treasury, MercoPress, El Pais)

More Venezuela

• The inauguration of far-right José Antonio Kast as Chile’s new president has caused several Venezuelans in the country to worry about the new administration’s stricter approach on migration, says NACLA.

Mexico

• Foreign Minister Juan Ramon ​de la Fuente cited health reasons as he resigned from his post on Wednesday, according to Reuters. He will be replaced by Robert Velasco, current undersecretary for North America, pending Senate approval.

Colombia

• Colombia’s central bank raised the interest rate to 11.25, aiming to counter inflation, wage hikes, and the rise in oil prices, says Reuters. The government, which considered the second consecutive hike to be “disproportionate,” withdrew from the bank’s board in protest. Inflation in February had reached 5.29%, above the central bank’s 3% target.

• InSight Crime dives into the activities and personas carried out by Iván Mordisco, Colombia’s most wanted war criminal, explaining why, despite his well-known profile and a $1.3 million reward for his capture, Mordisco has managed to continue evading authorities.

Argentina

• Despite his administration’s efforts to seek a closer relationship with the United Kingdom, Milei will hold steadfast to Argentina’s sovereignty claim over the Falklands/Malvinas Islands, explains MercoPress. Milei is scheduled to attend a ceremony today in honor of veterans and those who perished in the Falklands War.

• Authorities have begun investigating allegations that medical professionals had stolen anaesthetic drugs from the Hospital Italiano to later sell them at “controlled parties.” Two suspects have been arrested and charged with fraudulent administration, reports the Buenos Aires Times.

Cuba

• In the Latin America Risk Report, Boz offers possible explanations for why the U.S. allowed Russian oil to reach Cuba after three months of a blockade, and how the Trump administration’s position towards Cuba partially reflects the White House’s policies in the Western Hemisphere more broadly.

• Cuba will receive an additional $2.3 million in aid from the EU to tackle the worsening humanitarian crisis in the country, says Reuters.

Haiti

• Jack Christofides, head of the UN-backed Gang Suppression Force (GSF), arrived in Haiti alongside an advance team of police from Chad to support Haiti’s security forces in their efforts against gang violence. Chad has pledged 800 officers to the initiative; it is unclear whether other forces already on the ground–mostly Kenyan–remain in the country, and if other nations are expected to contribute troops to support the latest effort. (Reuters, France 24)

• Men aligned with the Grif Gang continued their attacks in central Haiti for the third consecutive day, setting fire to homes and shooting inhabitants in the farming communities of the country’s Lower Artibonite region, says the Miami Herald. At least 16 fatalities have been confirmed so far.

Brazil

• In its recently-released annual report, central bank authorities announced it had doubled its gold holdings in 2025, accounting for 7.19% of total reserves held by the institution, according to Reuters. Gold now makes up the second-largest component of foreign exchange reserves, behind only the U.S. dollar.