Blinken in Haiti

Sept. 5, 2024

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Haiti today in a show of support for a beleaguered international security mission aimed at supporting the country’s police to battle criminal gangs. The Kenya-led mission is under-staffed and under-equipped, and has failed to make headway at wresting back large chunks of territory under criminal control.

“There’s a perception that they’re not doing anything,” said James Beltis, an activist and one of the founders of an anti-corruption group, “Nou pap dòmi,” or “We aren’t sleeping,” told the Washington Post.

The U.S. is not providing personnel to the security mission, but is giving equipment and financial support, with a commitment so far of $309 million. Officials said about $200 million of that has already been delivered to Haiti by the Defense Department in the form of equipment such as armored personnel carriers. The State Department is supplying the rest, including radios, night-vision capabilities and police gear.

State Department officials called for more international support, yesterday. It is unclear what will happen when the U.N. authorization for the support mission expires on Oct. 2. Re-authorization is scheduled to be discussed by the U.N. Security Council on Sept. 30. “Supporters face questions about the force’s long-term sustainability and its effectiveness in helping Haiti’s beleaguered police take down gangs, who earlier this year united to lead a broad assault on key government infrastructure. The Biden administration, aware of the challenges, now wants to transform the force into a more formal U.N. peacekeeping operation or some hybrid that would allow for funding and staffing to be stabilized,” according to the Miami Herald.

Blinken’s visit comes as the transitional presidential council, charged with advancing towards elections and a new government by 2026 has been plagued by delays and infighting, reports the New York Times. “Three members of the council are under investigation by the country’s anti-corruption agency over the handing out of government jobs to members of its coalition of political and economic groups.”

More Haiti

• Haiti's anti-corruption agency is accusing high-ranking government officials of crimes ranging from illicit enrichment to abuse of office, reports the Associated Press. The newest cases involve food meant for public school students being diverted for other purposes to government fuel being used for personal benefit.

---

U.S. secures release of Nicaraguan prisoners

The U.S. Biden administration said today it had secured the release of 135 “unjustly detained political prisoners” in Nicaragua on humanitarian grounds, reports the Miami Herald.

The released prisoners were sent to Guatemala. The release follows "months of negotiations between the U.S. and Nicaragua," the U.S. and Guatemala said in a joint statement. (Reuters)

The prisoners are all Nicaraguan, and include 13 members of a Texas evangelical church accused by Nicaragua’s government of using its nonprofit status as a cover to purchase luxury goods, property and land, reports the New York Times.

The group also included Catholic laypeople, students, and others whom President Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua and the first lady and vice president, Rosario Murillo, considered a threat to their authoritarian rule, Jake Sullivan, the National Security adviser, said in a statement.

Colombia

• Colombian President Gustavo Petro has ordered an investigation into the purchase of Pegasus spy software by the country's police force — paid for in cash during the government of his predecessor, Iván Duque, reports the BBC.

Honduras

• Honduras handed an ally of imprisoned former president Juan Orlando Hernandez over to the United States yesterday to face drug trafficking charges, reports AFP. The move comes in the midst of a diplomatic dispute between the two countries regarding a long-standing extradition treaty. (See yesterday’s post.)

• Leading anti-corruption activist Gabriela Castellanos called on Honduran President Xiomara Castro “to resign after a video surfaced that appeared to show her brother-in-law negotiating campaign donations with drug traffickers over a decade ago,” reports Reuters. (See yesterday’s post.)

El Salvador

• The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights urged El Salvador to end a two-year state of emergency, which has suspended fundamental civil rights while the government cracked down on the country’s powerful street gangs, reports the Associated Press.

Venezuela

• Venezuelan law enforcement authorities detained a U.S. Navy sailor last week while the service member was on personal travel, reports the Washington Post. The service member is reportedly being held by the Venezuelan intelligence agency SEBIN, reports CNN.

• Oil giant Chevron has pushed the U.S. government to let it stay in Venezuela regardless of whether Maduro illegally retains his grip on power, reports the Wall Street Journal.

Brazil

• “New legislation in Brazil is set to support farmers by pushing additional demand toward biofuels — and away from the fossil fuels produced by state-controlled oil giant Petroleo Brasileiro SA,” reports Bloomberg.

• Brazil’s banning of X has had little impact on a population that had already largely abandoned the social media platform, reports the Washington Post.

• Twitter’s travails in Brazil provide valuable lessons for would be investors, writes James Bosworth in Latin America Risk Report.

Mexico

• Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s judicial reform project would eliminate the current disciplinary council for judges, and replace it with an elected tribunal. While the move has raised significant concerns about judicial independence, Quinto Elemento Lab found in a report that the current council has not been at all good at meting out justice to judges accused of wrongdoing.

• “The nearshoring boom seems to be winding down before it even started,” writes Alex González Ormerod in the Mexican Political Economist. “Mexico has been unable to do is make a good enough case to draw nearshoring to itself. This is less to do with specific political hiccups and more to do with longstanding familiar roadblocks.”