One person died in an explosion outside Brazil’s Supreme Court yesterday, one of two blasts that investigators believe are the work of a lone bomber, who was the only victim. The explosions happened just a week before global leaders will gather in Rio de Janeiro for the G20 Summit. (New York Times)
The bomber’s main target was Alexandre de Moraes, the Supreme Court justice leading the key investigations into the 2023 attacks on Brazil’s capital, ahead of Lula’s government, police have said. (Guardian)
Police said the bomber had threatened the entire court on social media and that these threats highlight the seriousness of the attack, which he said must be treated “as a terrorist act and a violent action aimed at bringing down the rule of law.” (Guardian)
Rubio expected to take hardline on Venezuela and Cuba
U.S. president-elect Donald Trump named Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida as his nominee for secretary of state, yesterday. (France 24, see yesterday’s post.)
Rubio’s appointment brings to life “the worst fear of the Cuban regime: that Cuban exiles and their descendants would be able to dictate U.S. policy toward the island,” according to the Miami Herald.
Rubio himself ”is regularly demonized in state media as the nation’s enemy,” and would likely be joined in the Trump administration like-minded Cuban Americans who would impact U.S. policy towards Latin America: “U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart may be in line to become the next chairman of the House Foreign Appropriations Committee, while Carlos Trujillo, who served as U.S. ambassador to the Organization of Americas States during Trump’s first term, may be nominated as the next assistant secretary of state for Latin America affairs,” according to the Miami Herald.
The appointment comes as proponents of engagement with Cuba — and Venezuela — find themselves burned by efforts that have not been reciprocated by Havana and Caracas.
Rubio has been a longtime critic of engagement efforts with both countries (see yesterday’s post).
Experts say Rubio could push for a renewal of sanctions against Venezuela’s oil sector — but that “tougher sanctions could prompt Venezuela, which has already created strategic alliances including with Iran to allocate its oil, to boycott Trump's goal of repatriating thousands of illegal migrants,” reports Reuters.
More Regional Relations
US President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping arrive today in Lima for an Asia-Pacific summit. The meeting will be “overshadowed by the prospect of a world embroiled in trade wars under Donald Trump,” according to AFP.
“The renewed prospect of Trump’s “America First” doctrine hampers Biden’s ability to reinforce the United States’ profile on his first presidential trip to South America, experts say, leaving China and its leader, Xi Jinping, to grab the limelight in America’s proverbial backyard,” reports the Associated Press.
Xi will inaugurate the Chancay megaport today. The project, owned by Chinese shipping giant Cosco, is “expected to attract more than $3 billion in investment, to create a direct route across the Pacific Ocean and extend Beijing’s influence in Latin America,” reports the Washington Post. The project “underscores China’s growing clout in a region that once looked primarily to the United States for economic opportunity.”
But impoverished villagers say it is depriving them of fishing waters and brings no economic benefit to locals, reports the Associated Press.
A series of infrastructure projects in Brazil will link to Chancay and other Peruvian ports, part of an effort to deepen ties with the Asia Pacific. Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is focused on relations with Beijing, which could entail a collision with Trump, according to Bloomberg.
Trump 2.0 is just one of the challenges facing Lula’s diplomatic efforts, according to the Financial Times, which also looks at complications in the mediation efforts in Venezuela and BRICS increasingly anti-West bent.
Brazil is not planning to break diplomatic relations with Venezuela, foreign minister Mauro Vieira told Congress, "despite the fact that circumstances impose an inevitable decrease in the dynamism of relations.” (Infobae) He emphasized the importance of not repeating “the mistakes we made with Guaidó's self-proclamation.” (Mercopress)
Indeed, Brazil’s balancing act in an increasingly multipolar world is delicate, writes Fernanda Magnotta in The Ideas Letter. “By choosing pragmatism, Brazil maintains autonomy between great powers, leverages relationships for development, and adapts to shifting power dynamics while avoiding the rigid constraints that characterized its past ideological foreign policy approaches.”
Trump’s challenge to Mexico is just the latest salvo in the long, complicated relationship between the two North American neighbors, writes Natalia Saltalamacchia in The Ideas Letter: “Mexico’s geopolitical reality is defined by a stark fact: Unlike other emerging economies, it lacks the material capacity to choose a geoeconomic path separate from that of its northern neighbor, the United States.”
The U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, Ken Salazar lashed out at what he characterized as Mexico’s failure to accept aid in the fight against drug cartels, claiming the country “closed the doors” on security cooperation, reports the Associated Press.
Pirate Wire Services rates how Latin American leaders will react to Trump, from "transactional" to "publicly fawning."
Haiti
Haiti’s security situation dire, international security forces have failed to dent criminal organizations, reports the New York Times.
More Brazil
“Months after devastating rains displaced 420,000 people in Rio Grande do Sul, an unusual consensus has formed around the need for a faster transition to renewables,” reports the Guardian.
Brazil’s government announced more dramatic greenhouse gas emissions cuts than previously planned, reports AFP.
Colombia
“Colombian lawmakers have approved a bill to eradicate child marriage in the South American country after 17 years of campaigning by advocacy groups and eight failed attempts to push legislation through the house and senate,” reports the Guardian.
Regional
“From food production to health and community justice, practices and experiments in autonomy across Latin America cultivate a thirdway alternative to electoral reform and revolutionary struggle,” writes Raúl Zibechi in Nacla.