Brazil's flooding could create climate displacement
May 14, 2024
Brazil
About half a million people have been displaced by intense flooding in Brazil’s Rio Grande do Sul state — the disaster “could touch off one of Brazil's biggest cases of climate migration in recent history,” reports Reuters.
El País reports on climate displacement in southern Brazil: “The consensus of the scientific community is that not enough money has been invested to confront climate disasters in this state.”
The catastrophe “has also spawned a spate of bizarre conspiracy theories, some involving jets' vapor trails and weather antennas in faraway Alaska,” reports AFP.
Lula put off a state visit to Chile to focus on the floods that have left 147 dead, reports AFP.
Brazilian opinion polls released last week show a mixed scenario regarding President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's approval ratings, with two surveys indicating a decline while a third one sees an improvement, reports Reuters.
Just over half of Brazilian voters would not give Lula another term — compared to 42% who would vote for him again in 2026. But the president still beat all other leaders presented to voters in the latest Quaest poll, according to the Brazilian Report.
Regional Relations
The potentially imminent deployment of an international security mission to Haiti "represents a comeback for the ‘responsibility to protect,’” writes the Washington Post editorial board, which argues that “Haiti’s predicament” shows the infrequently invoked principal should not be discarded altogether, despite past failures.
China’s embrace of Nicaragua’s Ortega government could backfire, writes James Bosworth in World Politics Review. “ China risks ending up on the wrong side of Nicaragua’s polarized political landscape if political change ever occurs.”
The diplomatic rift between Mexico and Ecuador leaves Ecuadorean migrants in Mexico in paperwork limbo, reports El País.
Migration
A shadowy Mexican government program buses migrants southward, away from the U.S. border, “exposing the chasm between the Mexican government’s rhetoric promoting a humanitarian approach to migration, and the country’s role as a heavy-handed enforcer of U.S. border objectives,” reports the New York Times.
Colombia
Colombian President Gustavo Petro is touring cities and drumming up popular support, denouncing a “soft coup” from the political and judicial establishment, reports El País.
Venezuela
“The European Union temporarily lifted sanctions against the head of Venezuela’s election authority and three former officials, an overture designed to encourage a free and fair presidential vote in July,” reports Bloomberg.
The Maduro government reacted negatively to the news, possibly complicating a European Union mission to observe the elections, reports El País.
Argentina
The IMF praised Argentina’s “better than expected” performance on economic targets under the administration of President Javier Milei, but dampened expectations of an imminent new loan, reports the Financial Times.
The IMF agreed “to release the next tranche of loans due under a bailout program, endorsing government austerity measures so severe they even surpass the terms of its $43 billion loan,” reports the Associated Press.
Argentina's monthly inflation rate likely dipped back into single digits for the first time in half a year in April, reports Reuters.
“Local human rights defenders have expressed concern that disparaging comments about lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and their rights made by prominent politicians, some of whom are now holding high office, are contributing to already high levels of violence against queer communities,” reports Human Rights Watch, following a violent attack that killed three lesbian women in Buenos Aires. (See yesterday’s briefs.)
Peru
Peru’s government classified trans people as “mentally ill,” saying it is a way to guarantee free “treatment.” (El País)
History
The U.S. designated historical landmarks buildings associated with the Mexican Farm Labor Program, the 1942 program brought millions of workers — often under exploitative terms — to the United States until it ended in 1964. (Washington Post)