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.

Lula’s Worker’s Party has struggled to connect with its traditional base of Brazilian workers over the past years, as the shift in labor, particularly app-based gig work, has caused informal workers to resonate with more right-wing discourse that appeals to the individual. Male voters and the young, who make up the majority of the new class of workers, are also the ones who most disapprove of Lula’s administration, according to polls. (Bloomberg)

The opposition, led by Senator Flavio Bolsonaro–the son of former President Jair Bolsnaro–has been rising in the polls in recent weeks, allowing his campaign to prolong naming key economic advisers, reports Reuters. Bolsonaro had planned on announcing his economic team in May, though increasing momentum as a result of a slowing economy and a recent banking scandal in Brasilia may give the senator additional time to make the announcement.

Polls have placed Bolsonaro alongside Lula, making the two the most likely candidates to advance to a hypothetical second round on October 25, should no candidate receive a majority of the votes in the first round.

More Brazil

• In Americas Quarterly, Robert Muggah addresses the potential outcomes of declaring the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) and Comando Vermelho (CV)–two of Brazil’s most powerful criminal organizations–as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs). He argues that, “the designation would carry additional consequences that extend well beyond law enforcement. It could alter the legal and diplomatic context in which Brazil manages its own security while widening the reach of U.S. sanctions, prosecutorial pressure, and financial compliance into the Brazilian economy. It could, in fact, carry greater consequences for other actors, including banks, companies and Brazilian politicians, than for the gangs themselves.”

Cuba

• The New York Times interviewed 19 Cubans over the reality of living without fuel for almost three months, as a result of the U.S. oil blockade. “We’re living in a country where it’s always Sunday. You go out into the street and practically everything is closed,” said one respondent.

Colombia

• Colombian President Gustavo Petro is not currently facing criminal charges as a result of probes by federal prosecutors in New York, assured several officials from both the United States and Colombia. Petro is under investigation for alleged ties to drug traffickers. (New York Times)

• Colombia One reports that Petro allegedly requested the resignation of General Carlos Silva, commander of the Colombian Aerospace Force (FAC). In a cabinet meeting, General Silva had contradicted Petro’s claim that the Hercules C-130 plane that had crashed in southern Colombia was “scrap,” citing official hours the aircraft had flown.

Mexico

• A massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, which began in March, has caused massive environmental damage in the region. According to AP News, 17 environmental organizations accused the government of lying about the origins of the spill, arguing that it came from a (state-owned oil company) Pemex pipeline, rather than from a ship and natural areas of oil flow, as the government had claimed.

Argentina

• Argentina declared the Islamic Revolutionary ​Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization, reports Reuters, the latest move by President Javier Milei to align the country with the interests of the Trump administration in the U.S.

• Poverty reached 28.2% in the second half of 2025, down from 31.6% in the first half and 10 points lower than in the previous year, according to the Buenos Aires Times. Extreme poverty reached 6.3%.

• The president of the Argentine Football Association (AFA), Claudio “Chiqui” Tapia, along with several other executives, was officially charged for alleged tax evasion by a Buenos Aires City court. (Buenos Aires Herald)

El Salvador

• The International Group of Experts for the Investigation of Human Rights Violations in El Salvador (GIPES) published a report outlining possible instances of crimes against humanity during the years-long state of exception, prompting an almost-immediate response from President Nayib Bukele’s government who argue that GIPES and other human rights organizations are partaking in efforts to weaken him and his administration. (El Faro)

Bolivia

• Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz announced the existence of an international fuel smuggling ring, beginning with Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales Bolivianos (YPFB), the state-owned fuel supply company, reports MercoPress. Several thousands of liters of fuel were being offloaded illegally into the Chilean ports of Arica and Iquique, according to initial investigations. Operations were found to have taken place in Chile, Paraguay, and Argentina.

Chile

• AP News dives into newly-inaugurated Chilean President José Antonio Kast’s religiosity, and the impact his religious background may have on the increasingly secular country.

Ecuador

• Ecuador lifted the curfew that had been in place for the past two weeks, as part of a U.S.-backed effort to limit organized criminal activities and contain rising homicides, says El País. However, some analysts believe that the government’s operations were more for “marketing” purposes rather than actual effectiveness, as several criminal organizations may have had time to adapt or relocate during the curfew.

Global Relations

• The Council on Foreign Relations published an overview of Chinese activities across the region in February, addressing the areas of diplomacy, trade, security and sovereignty, investment and infrastructure, and minerals and natural resources.

• In her New York Times newsletter, Amanda Taub discusses U.S. operations in Venezuela and Iran which led to the removal of both countries’ leaders, and compares them to traditional counterterrorism efforts to decapitate the heads of criminal organizations. “These sorts of strikes are a tactic often used in counterterrorism, where the goal isn’t to replace the leadership, but to destroy and dissipate a group. That makes them an awkward fit for states: There is no destroying and dissipating Venezuela or Iran. And so any attempt to remove the leadership needs to account for what’s going to come next,” she writes.

Critter Corner

• Rising violence in Ecuador’s seas has hindered conservation efforts, driven by environmental groups and local fishing communities, to reduce seabird bycatch, especially to protect the critically endangered Waved Albatross, says Audubon.

The United States signaled yesterday that it was softening the blockade measures: Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said the United States would evaluate oil shipments to Cuba on a “case-by-case basis,” after the U.S. permitted the Russian oil tanker to reach Cuba. “But of course the United States and Cuba also reserve the right to waive those seizures on a case-by-case basis,” she added. (New York Times)

The U.S. decision to relax the blockade, marginally, could respond to humanitarian concerns and the need to focus on other diplomatic priorities, but “experts suspect, is that the shipment could indicate bilateral talks between the U.S. and Cuba … are indeed moving forward after many had assumed they had stalled,” writes Lee Schlenker in Responsible Statecraft.

In an interview with Al Jazeera, Cuba’s deputy foreign minister Josefina Vidal, reiterated Cuba’s willingness to have the U.S. “participate in Cuba’s economic development” but clarified that Cuba “is not alone” in the world, a potential nod to the Russian shipment.

Dmitry Rozental, the director of the state-sponsored Institute for Latin American Studies in Moscow, told NYT that the decision to allow a Russian oil delivery to Cuba, but none by Mexico, exhibited Russia’s greater ability to withstand pressure from Trump.

Yesterday Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said that her country has ‌every right to send fuel to Cuba, whether for humanitarian or commercial ​reasons. Mexico suspended its oil shipments to Cuba in January, in response to pressure and threats from the Trump administration. (Reuters)

In an interview with Al Jazeera, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio denied U.S. responsibility for Cuba’s humanitarian crisis: “We’ve done nothing punitive against the Cuban regime. They claim we have, but we haven’t. The only thing that’s changed for the Cuban regime is they’re not getting free Venezuelan oil anymore,” Rubio said. “They’re not getting subsidies anymore. That’s the only thing that’s changed.”

More Blockade

• The New York Times has testimony from 19 Cubans on how the oil blockade is pushing the country toward a humanitarian breaking point, sharing their struggles to navigate the most basic aspects of daily life, from commuting to work to receiving medical care.

• The U.S. military base at Guantánamo Bay exists in a bubble of plenty, even as the Trump administration has stopped oil shipments to Cuba, causing blackouts and paralyzing many aspects of life on the island, reports the New York Times.

El Salvador

• More than 33,000 people arrested under El Salvador’s ongoing state of emergency — 36% of those detained over the past four years — were not previously listed as gang members, reports El País based on cross-referencing internal police intelligence reports, which identified 58,270 gang members and collaborators at large before the state of emergency was implemented, and the official data on arrests, 91,628 people as of March 25.

Haiti

• At least 70 people have been killed and 30 injured during a Gran Grif gang attack in Haiti’s Artibonite region on Sunday, significantly more than official police estimates. The Collective Defending Human Rights group said the “massacre” had forced nearly 6,000 people to flee their homes. (Reuters)

Colombia

• A new Colombian senator, Luis Carlos Rúa, is 33-year-old engineer from the western city of Pereira who built a large following on TikTok and Instagram as “El Elefante Blanco” by documenting abandoned construction sites. An “elefante blanco,” or “white elephant,” refers to a costly project that is never completed — a symbol of waste and mismanagement — New York Times

• “Colombian President Gustavo Petro says that naming Olga Lucía Acosta to the central bank was his biggest blunder, after she resisted his calls to slash interest rates. For the same reason, others credit her with saving the bank’s independence and the nation’s inflation-targeting model,” according to Bloomberg.

Regional Relations

• The US government is resuming operations at its embassy in Venezuela, “a significant step in the US-Venezuela relationship, as the Trump administration begins to work closely with the government of Delcy Rodríguez, the acting president who replaced Maduro after his forcible ousting by US troops,” notes the Guardian.

• Mexico’s condemned the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, yesterday, and voiced concerns about the deaths of its citizens in immigration detention facilities in the United States. (New York Times)

• Germany will talk to Chile’s new Kast government about reports that it is dropping plans to turn a ​settlement founded by a German cult leader and sex abuser into ‌a memorial to victims of torture, reports Reuters.

Argentina

• An Argentine judge partially suspended labor reforms introduced by President Javier Milei that limit the right to strike, among other provisions, according to a ruling obtained by Agence France-Presse.

• El País: “Mauricio Novelli, the owner of the cellphone that implicates Argentina’s president in the $Libra case”

Bolivia

• “Dozens of clowns have marched through the streets of Bolivia’s capital to protest against a government decree that limits extracurricular activities in schools, threatening their livelihoods,” reports the Guardian.

Brazil

• Brazil’s massive dual-fuel fleet — consisting of vehicles capable of running on any combination of ethanol and gasoline — is unique in its scale. The country’s biofuel program, launched in 1975 during the country’s military dictatorship, has successfully evolved in democratic times to reduce dependency on foreign oil, reports the Associated Press.

It was already in Cuban waters this morning, though not yet at port.

The oil influx would buy Cuba at least a few weeks before its fuel reserves run out, and would also reduce pressure on a Cuban government facing a looming economic collapse and escalating threats from Washington. It is also a signal that Cuba can still depend, somewhat, on Russia.

The approach of the Russian-owned Anatoly Kolodkin over the weekend “set up a test of the Trump administration’s will to block fuel for Cuba — and how far the Kremlin is willing to go to help its longtime ally 90 miles from U.S. territory,” reports the Washington Post.

Russian media characterized the shipment as “humanitarian.” Last week, the World Health Organization had warned that severe fuel shortages meant that Cuban hospitals were struggling to maintain emergency and intensive care services. (BBC)

Yesterday U.S. President Donald Trump did an about face, and signaled a sudden flexibility in allowing oil into Cuba, telling reporters: “If a country wants to send some oil into Cuba, right now, I have no problem whether it’s Russia or not.” Its a radical departure from the threats he made in recent months to prevent other nations from sending oil to Cuba. (Guardian)

“Whether or not they get a boat of oil, it’s not going to matter. I’d prefer letting it in, whether it’s Russia or anybody else, because the people need heat and cooling and everything else.” (USA Today)

Cuba

• Castro family scions have suddenly come into the spotlight, as Cuba’s leadership grapples with intense pressure from the U.S. to negotiate some kind of transition. Rumors are swirling as to whether Óscar Pérez-Oliva Fraga — a grandnephew of Raúl and Fidel, without the burden of their surname — might become the Cuban “Delcy,” a fresh (and friendly) face for an old regime, reports the New York Times.

• Two sailing boats that went missing while carrying humanitarian aid to Cuba safely reached the Caribbean island last week. (Guardian)

• Activists coming back to the United States from a humanitarian trip to Cuba were detained at Miami International Airport, reports the Miami Herald.

Regional Relations

• Inaction from the United Nations Security Council has allowed violence and violations of international law to multiply — “wielding the veto as both a shield and a weapon, its permanent members too often act without grounding in the UN charter. They play with the fate of millions, leaving a trail of death and destruction,” writes Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in a Guardian op-ed calling for security council reform.

• Lula said on Saturday his country will continue to back former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet’s bid to become the next ⁠U.N. Secretary-General despite Chile withdrawing its support. (Reuters)

• China denied on Friday that it had intensified inspections of Panama-flagged vessels in retaliation for Panama’s decision to strip a Hong Kong-based conglomerate of port concessions at both ends of the Panama Canal, accusing Washington of seeking to seize control of the strategic waterway - South China Morning Post

Brazil

• Lula and and Senator Flavio Bolsonaro are ​seen tied in a simulated run-off for ‌this year’s presidential election, according to a new BTG Pactual/Nexus poll. (Reuters)

• InSight Crime on the intertwined issues of samba, informal lotteries, and Carnival in Rio de Janeiro.

Migration

• “An AI-generated video from the US embassy in Mexico encouraging migrants to “self-deport” has sparked disbelief and outrage online,” reports the Guardian.

Venezuela

• Venezuela’s economy continues to suffer crushing inflation, despite the additional revenue thanks to lessened sanctions and new oil licenses after the U.S. military intervention in January. “The protests against economic hardship and the chronic social inequalities that have plagued the country are shaping the agenda of citizen demonstrations,” reports El País.

• The U.S. issued new, Venezuela-related general licenses for critical mineral investment and operations on Friday, reports Reuters.

Chile

• “Less than three weeks into his term, polls show Chilean President José Antonio Kast’s support is tumbling amid a backlash to the biggest fuel-price increases since at least 1980 and mounting street protests,” reports Bloomberg.

Guatemala

• By many measures, Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo has delivered on campaign promises: he’s focused on improving the nation’s education and health care systems, while leading a crackdown on organized crime and building a constructive relationship with the Trump administration. Guatemala’s GDP grew 4.1% last year, the highest level since 2022. But,nonetheless, he struggles with low approval ratings. “Many say Arévalo has made some strides on transparency, but struggled with a lack of decisive action elsewhere, especially on the quality-of-life issues that Guatemalans care most about,” reports Americas Quarterly.

Ecuador

• “Rather than marking a break with the past, the FBI’s expanded presence in Ecuador represents the continuation—and normalization—of a much longer history of U.S. intervention in the country’s internal affairs. That history, largely forgotten in official narratives, reveals patterns of surveillance, political policing, and collaboration with local security forces that complicate contemporary claims about security cooperation,” writes Marc Becker in Nacla.

Argentina

• A U.S. federal appeals court ruled that Argentina doesn’t have to pay shareholders $16 billion for its takeover of the country’s biggest oil company, handing President Javier Milei a victory that will help his neoliberal economic agenda, reports the Wall Street Journal.

Peru

• Peru’s chronic inability to form a stable government has left the country’s institutions “feckless in the face of an alarming expansion of criminal groups. But unlike the state capture seen elsewhere in Latin America … Peru’s crisis is one of generalized dysfunction rather than top-down corruption. Organized crime has not co-opted the state through violence or coercion so much as rushed into the vacuum a vacant presidency left behind,” explains InSight Crime.

Jamaica

• Nearly six months after Hurricane Melissa, many Jamaicans who lost their homes in the storm still lack secure shelter and supplies, reports the Guardian.

Critter Corner

• Scientists have managed to film a sperm whale giving birth while other female whales worked together to support the mother and her newborn, off of Dominica. The scientists were a team from Project Ceti, an international effort seeking to understand how whales communicate, and said this is the first evidence of birth assistance in non-primates. (Guardian)

The Trump administration has labeled more than a dozen Latin American gangs terrorist organizations over the past year, including major Mexican drug cartels. The designations mean the U.S. government can impose financial restrictions on the groups and their associates, but also open the door to unilateral military action — like the ousting of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in January, and the boat strikes that have killed at least 163 people in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific since last Sept.

Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira spoke to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on March 8 and pushed back against the designation, arguing it could create precedents for military intervention similar to the recent American operations against Venezuela’s alleged drug trafficking networks.

In addition to the security concerns, Brazilian officials are concerned the move is an effort to influence the presidential election, and could impact financial institutions that have unwittingly carried out transactions with the groups.

Additionally, there are legal concerns, as Brazil’s anti-terrorism law requires targets to have political motivation with the objective of destabilizing or overthrowing the State, which experts say does not apply to the criminal groups in question.

(New York Times, Brazil Reports, Folha de S. Paulo, Globo, CNN Brasil)

More Criminal Groups

• Argentina has labelled a Mexico-based criminal organization, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), as a “terrorist organization”, echoing similar designations by Trump, report Al Jazeera.

• Chinese criminal networks have expanded across Latin America and the Caribbean alongside China’s legal economic presence, embedding themselves in drug trafficking, money laundering, illegal extraction, and wildlife trade while leveraging corruption and weak institutions rather than violence, writes Vanda Felbab-Brown for the Brookings Institution. By linking local illicit economies to global markets and providing cheap financial and logistical services—especially to groups like Mexican cartels—they amplify criminal diversification, undermine governance, and erode state sovereignty across the region. (Via Latin America Risk Report)

Cuba

• Cuban officials have petitioned Pope Leo XIV to help persuade the Trump administration to ease its oil blockade, which is causing crippling fuel shortages and blackouts, reports the Washington Post.

• Jon Lee Anderson delves into Cuban reality in the midst of the U.S. oil blockade, which has compounded a long-term economic crisis. Regarding dialogue with the U.S., he writes that close observers “suggest that the negotiations are caught in an intractable dynamic. Rubio seems knowledgeable and committed to long-term political change, but Trump’s bullying rhetoric makes it difficult for Cuban leaders to compromise.” (New Yorker)

Regional Relations

• Mexico’s navy said it had activated a search-and-rescue operation in the Caribbean to locate two sailboats carrying humanitarian aid to Cuba after the vessels failed to arrive in Havana as this week. The two missing boats are part of a broader grassroots aid effort for Cuba, in the throws of a prolonged energy crisis exponentially impacted by an ongoing U.S. oil blockade. A separate vessel from the convoy arrived in Havana on Tuesday. (Reuters)

• Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said his country will do everything it can to save the people on two missing sailing boats, reports the Guardian.

• Last week’s CELAC-Africa High-Level Forum in Bogotá “showcased recent policy evolutions for some Latin American and Caribbean countries,” writes Catherine Osborn in Latin America Brief. In a region where 1 in 4 people identify as being of African descent, a few countries are pursuing south-south cooperation strategies. “Colombian President Gustavo Petro is one figure at the forefront of these efforts. Petro and Francia Márquez, the country’s first Black vice president, have prioritized an explicit Africa strategy that has seen Colombia’s bilateral trade with Algeria, Nigeria, and Senegal roughly double—and increase twentyfold with Ethiopia—since 2022, albeit from low starting points.”

Venezuela

• Trump in a cabinet meeting yesterday claimed the raid that captured Maduro was win-win. “We’ve made a lot of money and they’ve made a lot of money,” Trump declared. “I am the highest polling person. In other words, after the presidency I think I may go to Venezuela and run for president against Delcy. I may run against Delcy. It’s an option. They love me in Venezuela.” Not to be outdone, other participants in the meeting compared Trump to South American independence hero Simón Bolivar. (Guardian)

• “Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez preached of lucrative long-term opportunities in her resource-rich country at a Saudi-backed investment summit on Wednesday, offering a window into how Venezuela’s government is trying to lure investors to its oil sector,” reports the Associated Press.

El Salvador

• A group of 18 Venezuelan men whom the U.S. expelled a notorious Salvadorian mega-prison are demanding that Salvadorian authorities be held internationally accountable for violation of human rights – detailing new allegations of torture, sexual assault and medical neglect, reports the Guardian.

• El Salvador approved a bill allowing courts to sentence minors to life in prison for rape, murder or terrorism, the latest push in President Nayib Bukele’s crackdown on gangs. (AFP)

Regional

• In the Caribbean, disasters like Hurricane Beryl expose how emergency shelters—while lifesaving—often leave women and girls vulnerable to gender-based violence and structural neglect, highlighting persistent gaps in protection, infrastructure, and long-term recovery across the region, reports the Guardian.

Migration

• The United States “is building hundreds of miles of border wall through iconic national parks, public lands and ecologically sensitive wilderness, empowered by provisions in the One Big Beautiful Bill that provided $46.5 billion in funding and a 2005 law that waived dozens of environmental rules for border security projects,” reports the Washington Post.

Regional Relations

• The U.S. military said it blew up a boat in the Caribbean Sea yesterday, killing four people. The strike raised the death toll in the Trump administration’s campaign against alleged drug smugglers at sea to at least 163 people, the New York Times.

• Russian officials confirmed yesterday that Moscow is sending fuel to Cuba as humanitarian aid, intensifying geopolitical tensions as a Russian oil tanker likely bound for the island approaches the Caribbean, according to AFP.

Cuba

• Cuban doctors said that rapidly deteriorating conditions at hospitals and clinics across Cuba — caused by the U.S. oil blockade — were causing deaths that would otherwise be preventable, reports the New York Times.

Colombia

• Will Freeman reports on the unexpected strength of Colombia’s left ahead of the May presidential election, even in the midst of a regional rightward swing: “Petro, without doing much to change Colombia’s deep regional and class divides, has focused public attention on them like no previous president, to the apparent satisfaction of many voters,” he writes in Americas Quarterly.

More Regional Relations

• Colombia and Ecuador held a virtual meeting to de-escalate recent diplomatic and trade tensions, signaling willingness to restore dialogue despite an ongoing dispute over security and economic measures, reports La Silla Vacía.

Regional

• “Most analyses of Latin America revolve around national politics and macroeconomic performance, focusing on presidents, elections, headline news and growth figures. This emphasis is understandable. But it ignores a crucial reality. Many of the region’s most pressing challenges are unfolding at the subnational level, where local authorities are confronting citizens’ demands on a daily basis—often in open conflict with central governments,” writes Eugene Zapata-Garesché in Americas Quarterly.

Venezuela

• Ousted Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro is scheduled to appear again a U.S. federal court today for his “narco-terrorism” case after his capture by US military forces earlier this year. Before the hearing, groups of demonstrators gathered outside the courthouse to rally both in favor of and against Maduro. Among the anti-Maduro contingent, one person waved a sign reading “Maduro rot in prison”. On the other side of a metal barrier, people held signs reading “Free President Maduro,” reports the Guardian.

• Media reports indicate Venezuela is getting safer, but James Bosworth puts that into context in the Latin America Risk Report.

Haiti

• The United States is offering a reward of up to $3 million and possible relocation for information on the financial activities of Haiti’s most powerful gangs, reports the Miami Herald.

Argentina

• A year and a half away from presidential elections, sluggish economic growth will test President Javier Milei’s chainsaw austerity budget measures, reports Bloomberg.

Histories

• Twenty years after it was salvaged, the bronze eagle that once decorated the Nazi battleship the Admiral Graf Spee, which sunk off Montevideo in 1939, Uruguay is still grappling with what to do with the swastika clutching sculpture - Guardian

In a statement Chile’s Foreign Ministry said Bachelet’s candidacy was unviable and had no chance of success. The ministry added that it would abstain from supporting any candidate in the election process. (Reuters)

By withdrawing its support for Bachelet, Chile’s government “brought the race to succeed António Guterres as United Nations Secretary-General to the forefront of current events,” reports El País.

Three of the five candidates to head the UN are women, Bachelet, Costa Rican politician and economist Rebeca Grynspan, and Argentine Virginia Gamba, former UN Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict. Continental rotation is the tradition in the selection of secretary-general and it is generally understood that it’s Latin America’s turn to fill the position.

Bachelet remains in the running, due to Brazil and Mexico’s support, each potential candidate must be formally nominated by a state or group of states, but not necessarily by their country of origin. “I will continue working jointly with the governments of Brazil and Mexico, who have put forward my name, thereby reaffirming the collective nature of this project,” Bachelet said in a statement released shortly after Kast’s decision became public. (AFP)

However, she faces significant obstacles from China, which strongly protested an independent report on human rights violations against the Uyghur minority, which Bachelet presented in 2022 as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. Her candidacy is also opposed by hardline U.S. Republicans due to her pro-abortion stance. (El País)

U.S. Military Helped Bomb A Ecuadorean Dairy Farm

Video footage shared by U.S. officials earlier this month of an explosion — purportedly of a criminal training camp in rural Ecuador — seems to have been of a military strike that destroyed a cattle and dairy farm, not a drug trafficking compound, reports the New York Times.

Ecuador’s defense ministry on March 6 said Operation Total Extermination included aerial bombardment in the province of Sucumbios, which sits in the country’s northeastern corner, on the border with Colombia. Ecuadoran officials said the operation, conducted with U.S. intelligence, destroyed a hideout for a Colombian drug trafficking group.

But, “residents of San Martin, the farming village of about 27 families in Sucumbios, told USA TODAY that the operation, which took place March 1-6, didn’t target drug traffickers. Instead, they said military personnel destroyed farms. Detained local workers have told a United Nations human rights group that Ecuadoran soldiers tortured them.”

“Workers on the farm told The Times that Ecuadorean soldiers arrived by helicopter on March 3, doused several shelters and sheds with gasoline and ignited them after interrogating workers and beating four of them with the butts of their guns. Three of the workers, who requested anonymity for fear of retaliation by the government, said the soldiers later choked and subjected them to electrical shocks before letting them go.”

“The likely error also raises additional questions about all of the strikes against alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific. Multiple human rights groups say that those strikes are unlawful, even if those boats are carrying drugs. However, if it becomes evident that the intelligence is not accurate and some percentage of those strikes are in error and hit civilian targets, it begins to undermine the strategic logic and political support for that campaign, even for those governments and politicians that accept the legitimacy of using force against drug trafficking vessels,” writes James Bosworth in Latin America Risk Report.

Regional Relations

• “Trump’s policies have replaced the productive hypocrisy of the rules-based world order with a naked embrace of power and violence,” wrote Pedro Abramovay in a recent Foreign Policy essay. “The ongoing tension between rejecting the hypocrisy of the global order and strengthening national politics can now be resolved in multiple possible ways. Some are alarming. It could result in authoritarian regimes enforcing externally imposed agreements on unwilling citizens. Other solutions offer hope, such as the rise of national movements opposing a force‑based international order.”

• The 2022 Televisa-Univisión merger turned Univisión from a hard-core Trump critic to a supporter — this reflects not the Mexican TV titan’s subservience to power, but rather it’s business playbook, argues The Mexico Political Economist.

Cuba

• A key U.S. security concern with regards to Cuba is the country’s ties to foreign adversaries — Russia and China — who use the island to spy on the United States, reports the New York Times.

• U.S. sanctions and the oil blockade are detonating Cuba’s public health sector. “Cuba’s healthcare system has long been the pride of its revolution, helping a poor Caribbean country achieve life expectancy comparable to wealthy western nations and one of the world’s lowest infant mortality rates. Last year, as renewed sanctions took hold, that rate was reported to have doubled since 2018.

  US missiles are not raining down on Havana. But what I witnessed should still be understood as warfare,” writes Owen Jones in the Guardian.

Venezuela

• The promotion of Gustavo González López — Venezuela’s long-time spy chief who oversaw prisons where political prisoners were tortured — to defense minister encapsulates how the country’s government has evolved under interim president Delcy Rodríguez, according to the Financial Times: “the same brutal regime, with faces that are friendlier to Washington.”

• James Luckey’s experience in detention in Venezuela sheds light on the mistreatment political prisoners faced under Nicolás Maduro, reports the Guardian. “Luckey says he was placed in solitary confinement, forced to sleep on a concrete slab, deprived of food and repeatedly beaten.”

Migration

• Costa Rica said it agreed to take up to 25 deportees a week from the United States, part of the country’s efforts to establish a closer alliance with the Trump administration, reports the New York Times.

• “A majority of Supreme Court justices seemed sympathetic on Tuesday to the idea that the Trump administration should be able to turn away asylum seekers along the U.S.-Mexico border,” report the New York Times.

Brazil

• Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro has been granted permission to serve his 27-year sentence for a coup attempt at home instead of in prison because of his failing health. (Guardian)

Haiti

• “Even as Haitian security forces make some progress in clearing roads and deploying armored vehicles into previously inaccessible neighborhoods, Haitians living under gang control continue to be subjected to harsh punishment and enforcement tactics, a new United Nations human-rights report details.” - Miami Herald

Histories

• “A groundbreaking new study may have once again upended our understanding of human prehistory in the Americas.” - Guardian

Since Argentina’s return to democracy in 1983, the country carried out landmark trials against human rights violators and established a tacit democratic consensus: that such horrors must never again be permitted. Over time, an activist demand for “Memory, Truth and Justice” became the country’s official narrative, and the country has “established itself as a global benchmark in transitional justice,” according to a group of UN Human Rights experts. (Buenos Aires Herald)

Since the trials against human rights violators resumed in 2006, over 1,200 people have been convicted and 250 acquitted, underscoring that prosecutions are evidence-based and countering claims of indiscriminate punishment, writes Luciana Bertoia in Cohete a la Luna. Today, hundreds of accusd remain detained—most under house arrest—while a dozen ongoing trials continue to expand accountability for dictatorship-era crimes.

The Milei administration has attacked these policies since coming into office, through funding cuts and discourse. Last week, those human rights experts expressed “serious concern” over “regressive measures in Argentina that risk undermining four decades of exemplary progress in memorialization, truth and justice.” (New York Times)

Milei has marked each coup anniversary as president with a controversial video questioning the scope of state repression and human rights activists. Today he maintained his own March 24 tradition, releasing a 75-minute video at 9 am via the official Casa Rosada social media accounts. In it, the La Libertad Avanza administration calls for “complete memory” of the junta’s time in power and the years leading up to it, reports the Buenos Aires Times.

In truth, Argentina’s consensus over the dictatorship was always fractured, but Milei’s “government has taken denialism further than any predecessor, turning it into state policy” and casting it as part of the far-right culture wars, I write in the Guardian. “Milei now shouts to stadium crowds what was once whispered behind closed doors, framing these fights as a backlash against activist excess – the same playbook used against feminism and other progressive movements.”

It’s important to recognize that “this current backlash feeds not only on denial of the past but also on resentment towards a narrative of memory that many experienced as ideology instead of shared history,” I write in an essay for the Buenos Aires Herald. “That resentment is real, and worth understanding. It does not justify historical revision.”

“And yet the persistence of the ritual suggests something more complicated. Even when it is questioned, the language of memory continues to structure how Argentina argues with itself about the past. Disputed or not, it remains the lens through which the country confronts its history.” (Buenos Aires Herald)

Beyond the debate over the narrative, there are indicators that the core of Argentina’s democratic consensus remains strong: 70 percent of Argentinians have a negative opinion of the dictatorship, according to a new poll by the University of Buenos Aires and CELS. And the idea that those crimes must remain punishable – and remembered – still commands broad support.

More Argentina

• Tali Goldman delves into the precursor to the dictatorship’s violence — the Triple A parapolice force that attacked leftist revolutionaries under the democratic government of Isabel Perón, and the historical context of a fractured Peronism gestated during the movement’s long proscription in Argentina. (Gatopardo)

• Carolina Varsky writes about how the reopening of dictatorship trials in Argentina enabled a convergence between human rights and feminist movements that made previously invisible forms of gender-based violence legible, integrating them into legal frameworks and expanding the scope of justice. This alliance was mutually reinforcing: human rights activism—historically driven by women—opened political space and institutional pathways, while feminism contributed analytical tools that transformed how repression was understood. (Cohete a la Luna)

• The disappeared are the most lasting wound of the dictatorship, but the economic reforms created a sharp rise in poverty, which has remained “a structural feature of Argentine society ever since,” reports the Buenos Aires Herald.

Colombia

• Colombian President Gustavo Petro has been designated a “priority target” by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration as federal prosecutors in New York probe his alleged ties to drug traffickers, reports the Associated Press.

• Petro is under criminal investigation by at least two U.S. federal prosecutors’ offices, reports the New York Times. “The inquiries have been exploring, among other things, Mr. Petro’s possible meetings with drug traffickers and whether his presidential campaign solicited donations from traffickers.”

• A Colombian military aircraft transporting 128 troops and crew members crashed shortly after taking off from southern Colombia yesterday, killing 66 people and injuring dozens of others, reports the New York Times.

Brazil

• Brazilian Finance Minister Fernando Haddad, who is seen as the potential political heir of 80-year-old President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, resigned last week in order to compete for São Paulo’s governor’s seat. He will likely be up against current Gov. Tarcísio de Freitas, an ally of Jair Bolsonaro, who has said he will run for reelection in the state. (Associated Press)

Regional Relations

• Lula said he spoke with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum about a possible exploration partnership between their nations’ state-run oil companies in the Gulf of Mexico, reports Bloomberg.

• Honduras pledged to work with U.S. security agencies to fight drug trafficking, following a meeting between Kristi Noem, Washington’s special envoy for a security alliance in Latin America, and Honduran President Nasry Asfura, reports AFP.

Cuba

• “The Cuban government is prepared to discuss offering “lump sum” compensation to Americans and American firms that saw property nationalized after the 1959 revolution, Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio told Drop Site News in an interview.”

Regional

• Latin American governments are launching a sweeping realignment of energy and fiscal policies, warning that the surge in oil prices from the Iran war threatens regional stability, reports Bloomberg.

Haiti

• Chad intends to deploy 800 police officers and gendarmes to Haiti this year to participate in an international force ​to help Haiti’s police fight powerful armed gangs, reports Reuters.

• Haitian authorities have asked U.S. officials to take custody of a central figure in the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, Joseph Félix Badio, but he remains in Haiti, where he has neither been charged by the U.S. Justice Department nor interviewed by federal agents, reports the Miami Herald.

Mexico

• The Guardian charts a controversial online trend: “young people in Mexico are taking to TikTok to imagine themselves as agents from the country’s 1970s secret police, the DFS – a force which was infamous for torturing, murdering or disappearing thousands during the country’s “dirty war”.”

Critter Corner

• A six-meter-long sea monster with powerful jaws is the latest prehistoric creature found among the fossil deposits of northern Mexico - El País

• Police in Rio de Janeiro have arrested eight people for brutally beating a capybara – the world’s largest rodent - AFP

“It’s not possible for someone to think that they own other countries,” Lula said, in an apparent reference to U.S. policy in the region, at a high-level forum with delegates from Africa and a summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States. “What are they doing with Cuba now? What did they do with Venezuela? Is that democratic?” (Associated Press)

Lula said that all countries present had already experienced being plundered for gold, silver, diamonds and minerals. He accused an unspecified “they” of seeking to own developing countries’ critical minerals and rare earth deposits.

Another Blackout in Cuba

Cuba’s power grid collapsed on Saturday leaving the country without electricity for a third time this month, as the country’s archaic energy infrastructure further impacted by a U.S. oil blockade.

By yesterday some 72,000 customers in the capital, among them five hospitals, had electricity again according to the Cuban government, but that is only a fraction of Havana’s total population of approximately 2 million. (Associated Press)

Power outages — affecting either the whole island or sectors of it — have become relatively common in the past two years because of breakdowns in the infrastructure. The difficulties these cause are compounded by daily blackouts of up to 12 hours caused by fuel shortages, which worsen infrastructure erosion, reports the Associated Press.

More Cuba

• Cuba is prepared for the unlikely possibility of a military engagement with the U.S., ​Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio said ‌over the weekend in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent threats to take over the island, reports Reuters.

• The Kremlin hasn’t confirmed or denied involvement to two ships apparently carrying Russian oil towards Cuba, but a spokesman suggested Moscow was looking for ways to offer Cuba relief, on Friday. The Russian government is “in constant contact with the Cuban leadership, with our Cuban friends … And we are, indeed, discussing with them possible options for assisting Cuba in the difficult situation it finds itself in.” (Washington Post)

• The Cuban government refused a request by the U.S. Embassy in Havana to import diesel fuel for its generators, calling the ask “shameless,” given the U.S. Trump administration’s oil blockade on the island, according to diplomatic cables reviewed by the Washington Post.

• An aid ship departed on Friday from the Mexican port of Progreso, on the Yucatán Peninsula, carrying medical supplies, food and solar panels to Cuba, reports the New York Times.

• Sandro Castro, grandson of Fidel, is an Instagram influencer whose skits highlight “how far Cuba has deteriorated under his family’s rule,” reports the New York Times.

Regional

• Several countries across the Americas are adopting restrictive legal frameworks to weaken, control, and even dismantle civil society organizations, Amnesty International said in a new report.

Venezuela

• Venezuela’s opposition is struggling to regain momentum in a transition scenario that has sidelined democratic concerns: “One of the first short-term goals is to reactivate the Democratic Unitary Platform, an alliance that helped forge consensus among opposition groups for the 2024 elections, but has gone somewhat dormant since. Opposition leaders believe that negotiating with a united voice will be key in future talks with Rodríguez, as well as possibly the White House,” reports Americas Quarterly.

• Interim president Delcy Rodríguez is only enacting reforms due to heavy pressure from Washington, Venezuela’s main opposition leader, María Corina Machado told the Financial Times: “The US is obviously giving instructions and it’s clear that [Washington] is not going to be a part of a repressive regime.”

• Washington Post reporter Ana Vanessa Herrero writes about the trials of the family of a Venezuelan political prisoner, human rights activist and politician Luis Tarbay, who was released last month.

Chile

• Thousands of people marched in Santiago and other cities in Chile yesterday to mark World Water Day following the withdrawal of dozens of environmental decrees by President José Antonio Kast. (Associated Press)

• Sixty years after a Chilean scientist discovered a colony of fur seals, previously thought to be extinct, on a remote archipelago, one of former Chilean president Gabriel Boric’s last acts in office protected 337,000 sq km of the waters around Juan Fernández and the nearby Nazca-Desventuradas marine park. (Guardian)

Haiti

• “Violence and instability in Haiti have displaced more than 1.45 million people, approaching levels seen after the 2010 earthquake … While over 197,000 people live in overcrowded displacement sites throughout the country, most displaced persons are hosted by families, which are already living under immense pressure,” according to the IOM. (Via Americas Migration Brief)

Brazil

• Traditional quilombola families in Rio de Janeiro have developed a form of agroforestry—centered on banana cultivation—that not only sustains their livelihoods but actively preserves and regenerates the biodiversity of Pedra Branca, the world’s largest urban forest, reports the Guardian.

Critter Corner

• The population of monarch butterflies in Mexico increased 64% this winter, compared with the same period in 2025, offering a glimmer of hope for an insect considered at risk of extinction - Guardian

If Russia is indeed “attempting to send oil to Cuba, as some analysts suspect, it could represent a critical lifeline for the Cuban government — and a new potential showdown between two superpowers over the small island nation,” reports the New York Times.

Earlier this week Cuban officials said the country was operating on natural gas, solar power and thermoelectric plants as severe power outages continue to hit an island, which has not received fuel since Jan. 9. (Associated Press)

“After 10 weeks of an effective U.S. oil blockade, Cuba’s energy crisis is growing dire, with soaring gas prices, near daily blackouts and a looming humanitarian disaster. Medical care, nutrition, education and sanitation are all rapidly deteriorating. And Cuban officials have warned the nation’s power grid is on the verge of collapse.” reports the New York Times.

However, the US military is not rehearsing for an invasion of Cuba or actively preparing to militarily take over the island, the top general overseeing U.S. forces in Latin America said during a Senate hearing focused on Donald Trump’s increasing use of the US military in the region. (Reuters)

More Cuba

• Removing Miguel Díaz-Canel as president of Cuba to appease the U.S. — a strategy that some media outlets have said could be on Trump’s agenda — is out of the question, the country’s ambassador to the United Nations told Bloomberg, adding that talks between the two countries should be based on “mutual respect.”

Venezuela

• Venezuela’s interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, said she has replaced all her senior military commanders, a day after ousting Nicolás Maduro’s defense minister, Vladimir Padrino, reports AFP.

Mexico

• From spectacular arrests to recurring waves of violence, Mexico’s twenty-year war against drugs has produced a sense of constant escalation without resolution, writes Carlos Pérez Ricart in an Ideas Letter essay. The familiar language of cartels, kingpins, and crackdowns no longer captures what is unfolding; the conflict has outgrown the terms meant to contain it. “Over time, it has become clear that the issue lies not only with the actors, but with the system—a system that connects consumer markets, transit routes, global supply chains, and transnational criminal economies. Mexico is where these flows converge. It has not been merely fighting criminal organizations. It is situated, perhaps trapped, at the center of an architecture.”

• The new leader of the Jalisco Cartel Nueva Generación might be Juan Carlos Valencia González, the Califonia-born stepson of El Mencho. His U.S. citizenship could pose a legal hurdle for U.S. intelligence agencies to directly target and collect personal data on Valencia González, reports the Wall Street Journal.

• Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum sent a bill to Congress to promote public and private investment in strategic infrastructure, part of her push to lure capital to stimulate sluggish economic growth, reports Bloomberg.

Ecuador

• A US-backed crackdown on drug cartels along the Ecuador-Colombia border has sparked accusations that security forces bombed farms, burned homes and detained and abused villagers, reports AFP.

Brazil

• On the campaign trail, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva sought to shift blame for the collapse of Banco Master SA onto his predecessor Jair Bolsonaro, escalating political tensions around the case, reports Bloomberg.

• Brazilian presidential candidate Flavio Bolsonaro called for “many, many prisons” in a speech praising the controversial security policies of El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele, reports AFP.

El Salvador

• Jailed Salvadoran human rights lawyer Ruth López symbolizes the “decency” and “credible voice” that President Nayib Bukele’s government only managed to silence with imprisonment, her husband Louis Benavides told AFP in an interview.

Haiti

• Nearly two years after its deployment, the international security mission in Haiti led by Kenya is beginning to draw down, as the country prepares for a new stage in its internationally supported crackdown on gangs, the U.S.-backed Gang Suppression Force, reports the Miami Herald.

Paraguay

• Low taxes and right wing politics are contributing to a surprising investor “moment” for Paraguay, reports Bloomberg.

Critter Corner

• A newly discovered species of spider in the Ecuadorean Amazon mimics a pathogen, known as a zombie fungus, to protect itself - New York Times