Brazilian military found no irregularities
Nov. 10, 2022
Brazil’s Defense Ministry found no evidence of electoral irregularities in a report submitted yesterday to the country’s electoral court. The 63-page report defused the last protests by supporters of President Jair Bolsonaro, some of whom have maintained calls for a military intervention and reject former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s victory in Oct. 30’s presidential runoff.
The report did voice a general concern that the source code in the country’s electronic voting machines could be, hypothetically, tampered with, and suggested a commission to address potential issues.
Justice Alexandre Moraes, who heads Brazil’s Supreme Electoral Court, said the suggestion would be analyzed and noted the report, “in common with all the other monitoring agencies, does not point to any fraud or inconsistency in electronic ballot boxes or in the 2022 electoral process”. Alexandre Moraes, the supreme court justice who heads the electoral court, said “The suggestions on ways to perfect the system will be analysed.”
IDB Race
The deadline to register candidates to head the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) is tomorrow, ahead of the Nov. 20 vote. Former IDB President Mauricio Claver-Carone, the only U.S. president in the bank's history, was ousted in September after an investigation showed he had an intimate relationship with a subordinate.
Mexico will reportedly nominate central bank board member Gerardo Esquivel for the post, according to Reuters, a change from earlier plans to back Alicia Barcena, former head of the United Nation's Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean.
Barcena said on Twitter yesterday that she had spoken with Mexican President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador to withdraw her nomination "for personal reasons."
Chile’s government nominated former finance minister Nicolas Eyzaguirre, who served under former president Ricardo Lagos. (Reuters)
Brazil’s Bolsonaro administration will nominate former central bank chief Ilan Goldfajn. But Reuters reports that the proposal opposed by president-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s team, which hopes Brazil’s incoming government will have a chance to impact the selection process.
U.S. senators recently discussed with Argentina’s Economy Minister Sergio Massa the possibility of him becoming a candidate to lead the IDB, according to Bloomberg.
U.S. Assistant Treasury Secretary Alexia Latortue last week told Reuters that the United States, the bank's largest shareholder, wanted to see a president who embraced reform, including a greater focus on climate change and tackling inequality.
The upheaval at the bank “is unfortunate because the IDB has fallen behind in its timetable for institutional modernization”, according to Wilson Center fellow Arturo C. Porzecanski. The change in leadership should not delay implementation of a sorely needed reform agenda, he argued in an Americas Quarterly article last month.
Peru
Peruvian Prime Minister Anibal Torres challenged the opposition-led Congress to a confidence vote on Tuesday, the latest ratcheting up in tensions between the Castillo administration and lawmakers. If Congress doesn’t ratify Torres, Castillo's entire Cabinet would have to resign. But that would also allow the government the possibility to call for a second confidence vote, which if also rejected would allow the executive to shut down Congress and call for new legislative elections. (Reuters)
But Congress refused to hold the vote, yesterday, in a first test of a law that restricts when the executive can call a confidence vote, reports Reuters.
“There are two different coalitions that could remove Castillo,” explains the Latin America Risk Report. The far right could ally with a centrist coalition that has so far sought stability, and “separately, Peru Libre on the far left, which no longer recognizes Castillo as a member, could ally with the right and vote to remove Castillo.”
Haiti
Trucks started filling tanks at Haiti main fuel terminal on Tuesday, after police broke a gang blockade last week. (Associated Press)
Journalist Fritz Dorilas was murdered last week, the eight journalist killed this year in Haiti. (Al Jazeera)
A deadly resurgence of cholera in Haiti has claimed 136 lives so far, according to the Caribbean nation’s health ministry. (CNN)
More Regional
Countries in the region must implement a comprehensive and cross-cutting approach to halt enormous setbacks to gender equality in Latin America and the Caribbean. A new report presented by ECLAC in Buenos Aires this week advocates the need for a paradigm shift “from a development model that has disregarded the care of people and the planet” and “offers analyses and recommendations for moving towards a care society.”
Guatemala
U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price criticized what he described as a troubling pattern of actions against Guatemalan judges and prosecutors who oversee corruption and human rights cases. Guatemala’s government dismissed the criticism as ill-informed, reports Reuters.
Culture Corner
Brazilian singer Gal Costa, an icon in the Tropicalia and Brazilian popular music movements, has died at age 77. (Associated Press)