Blinken pushes Haiti to advance on elections

Sept. 6, 2024

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Port-au-Prince yesterday, and announced an additional $45 million in humanitarian aid for Haiti. He also reiterated the need for the country’s transitional government to swiftly advance towards elections. (See yesterday’s post.)

The transitional presidential council coordinator, Edgard Leblanc Fils, said he hoped to move toward the electoral council next week with a goal of elections in November 2025 and a transfer of power in February 2026. (AFP)

But the security situation in Haiti makes any such plan difficult: this week Prime Minister Garry Conille expanded a state of emergency to cover the entire nation, reports Reuters.

“Gangs currently control more than 85% of metropolitan Port-au-Prince and large swaths of the neighboring Artibonite region. The Artibonite and the West region, where the capital is located, represented an estimated 57% to 60% of the country’s electorate the last time— 2016 — Haitians went to the polls to elect a president,” notes the Miami Herald.

About 578,000 people, roughly 5 percent of the population, have been displaced by violence, according to the United Nations. In the first half of the year, at least 3,884 Haitians were killed or injured in the fighting, the United Nations said. (Washington Post)

“At this critical moment, we do need more funding, we do need more personnel to sustain and carry out the objectives of this mission,” Blinken told reporters. He added that the U.S. is working to renew the so-far lackluster international support mission led by Kenya, whose mandate ends in a month. “But we also want to make sure that we have something that’s reliable, that’s sustainable. We’ll look at every option to do that. A peacekeeping operation would be one such option.”(Associated Press)

Given the upcoming U.S. election, “the trip is a gamble for Blinken, who … risks calling attention to an unresolved international challenge that, if mismanaged, could lead to a flood of migration,” according to the Washington Post.

Regional Relations

• Despite Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s hopelessly tarnished reputation following the disputed July presidential election, “the US can’t afford to hit him where it hurts most,” reports Bloomberg. “Rescinding licenses on energy companies operating in Venezuela would only risk worsening the country’s precarious economic situation and could contribute to an exodus in a US election year where migration is front and center.”

• Venezuela's August oil exports hit their highest in more than four years, according to shipping data, fueled by expanded shipments to China, the U.S. and Europe, reports Reuters.

• Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado said she wants the United States to do "much more" to press President Nicolás Maduro regarding the dispute over July’s presidential election results, reports Reuters.

• She called for a global movement, similar to the international campaign against apartheid in South Africa, to help rescue her country from “criminal tyranny,” reports the Guardian.

• “The UN can take decisive steps to address Venezuela’s crisis,” argues Beatriz Borges in Americas Quarterly. A Security Council statement “urging an immediate cease to repression, as well as transparency and respect for democratic principles, is feasible and would be in order,” and another option could be “a resolution agreeing to deploy an independent electoral verification mission with a broad mandate to monitor human rights and the political transition, supported by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.”

• Incoming Mexican cabinet officials, Juan Ramón de la Fuente and Marcelo Ebrard, responded to the Washington Post’s argument that the country’s judicial reform is an issue of hemispheric concern, saying U.S. diplomatic statements on the subject infringe on Mexico’s sovereignty. “And the specific nature of the argument made by The Post and Mr. Salazar suggests a double standard: What is virtue in the United States is vice in Mexico.”

• That being said, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador ruled out the risk of a rupture in trade relations with the United States in relation to the judicial reform. (AFP)

• “If Donald Trump wins in November, Latin America should be prepared for yet another resurrection of the Monroe Doctrine—with a real-world impact on everything from investment and technology to the region’s ties with China,” argues Juan Gabriel Tokatlian in Americas Quarterly.

• China’s military will take part in joint military exercises in Brazil, a rare move for China in the region. The exercise comes as China and Brazil enjoy improved relations in recent years, including Brasilia’s intent to join the Belt and Road Initiative, reports the South China Morning Post.

Regional

• Policies to fight graft have lost momentum in Latin America — this is particularly true in the cases of Mexico and Brazil, which “have struggled with entrenched corruption and limited political will to tackle related issues,” write Marina Pera and Valeria Vásquez in Americas Quarterly.

Brazil

• Brazilians are split over Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes' order for social media giant X to be taken down in the country, according to a new AtlasIntel poll. (Reuters)

El Salvador

• Barra de Santiago in El Salvador serves as a crucial carbon sink in a region battling deforestation, and a natural shield for a country exposed to climate crisis-induced tropical storms and escalating sea levels. But its mangrove forest is in danger due to the effects of the climate crisis, rapid urbanization, cattle grazing, extensive deforestation from the sugarcane industry, and increasing demand for timber in the country, reports the Guardian.

Ecuador

• Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Bank of America Corp. are setting up a debt-for-nature swap that will help Ecuador manage its debt financing costs in exchange for a pledge to protect part of the Amazon rainforest, reports Bloomberg. The Nature Conservancy will be an adviser on the deal, they said.

Colombia

• Colombia's government reached a deal with truckers to suspend a protest over a rise in diesel prices after road blockades threatened to cause food and fuel shortages in the country’s biggest cities, reports Reuters.

Barbados

• “An Anglican church group is to launch a £7m reconciliation project in Barbados to atone for the atrocities of transatlantic slavery and compensate descendants of enslaved people,” reports the Guardian.

Paraguay

• Paraguay’s Ministry of Education endorsed a national sex ed curriculum for the first time. It “promotes abstinence, explains sex as “God’s invention for married people,” warns about the inefficacy of condoms and says nothing of sexual orientation or identity,” reports the Associated Press.

• Former Paraguayan president Horacio Cartes “is no longer useful to Washington, which can now act virtuous and punitive with sanctions,” argues Brian Saady in Responsible Statecraft.

Mexico

• The Mexican AI ecosystem has invested in digital infrastructure and talent, but it still lacks a national vision and strategy for AI. As a result, other countries are leapfrogging Mexico, according to the Wilson Center’s Weekly Asado.

Critter Corner

• A group of experts is creating a unique catalog in record time of all the living beings that inhabit Mexico City’s iconic Chapultepec park. They hope to register some 500 species to ensure their conservation, reports El País.