Costa Rica takes third-country deportees
Feb. 18, 2025
Costa Rica announced yesterday it would receive about 200 migrants from other countries deported by the U.S. It is the second country in Central America to agree to take third-country citizens deported by the U.S., in the midst of intense pressure from the Trump administration.
The deportations appear to be the Trump adminsitration’s new tactic for dealing with migrants from countries to which it is difficult to return them. “Rather than keep such migrants in detention centers on the southern border, the administration is recruiting other countries willing to accept them, where it is not clear what will ultimately happen to the deportees,” reports the New York Times.
Last week Panama received three flights of migrants from other nations, and said they would be temporarily housed in a camp near the Darién jungle while awaiting relocation by the U.S. They have since been locked in a hotel and barred from access to lawyers. “Because the deported migrants are no longer on U.S. soil, Washington is not legally obligated to make sure they are treated humanely or have the chance to seek asylum,” reports the New York Times in a separate piece.
Guyana
Six soldiers in Guyana have been injured after armed men in neighboring Venezuela opened fire, in an attack expected to further heighten tensions between the two countries, reports the Associated Press.
Colombia
Before the flareup of violence in Catatumbo, “Colombia had started to experience a reduction in violence by armed groups targeting civilians. In 2024, these events decreased for the first time since 2019. Some adjustments in President Gustavo Petro’s Total Peace plans seemed to have contributed to the reduction,” according to a new report by Armed Conflict Location & Event Data. “Slight improvements in some dimensions of the conflict do not mean civilians experienced a respite from the violence. In fact, a growing number of Colombians were caught in the crossfire of heightened wars between expanding armed groups in 2024,” writes Tiziano Breda.
Regional Relations
The U.S. freeze on humanitarian aid ”will cause hardship but it could allow small nations to face up to their dependence on a coercive oligarchy” writes Kenneth Mohammed in the Guardian. Critics of foreign aid say it has stifled global south development and enabled corruption and inefficiency.
“The United States has stepped up secret drone flights over Mexico to hunt for fentanyl labs, part of the Trump administration’s more aggressive campaign against drug cartels,” though “the C.I.A. has not been authorized to use the drones to take lethal action,” reports the New York Times. (See yesterday’s briefs.)
Mexico
There’s no evidence of widespread collusion between Mexico’s national government and organized crime, as U.S. President Donald Trump alleged recently. But organized crime’s political influence at a local level in Mexico’s municipalities is a matter of grave concern, notes Will Freeman in Americas Quarterly.
Argentina
The $Libra scandal (see yesterday’s post) hits Argentina particularly hard because it is a country with a weak currency “that functions much like a meme coin,” argues James Bosworth at Latin America Risk Report. But beyond the potential political fallout, he predicts that it will push President Javier Milei to accelerate the dropping currency controls on the peso and potentially moving towards dollarization.
“In the medium to long term this is going to stain the president’s credibility, [even if] it was an [honest] mistake, given that he brags about his abilities as an economist,” Marcelo García, of Horizon Engage, told the Financial Times.
An federal judge ruled that sufficient evidence exists to proceed with formal charges against Argentina’s former President Alberto Fernández for committing violence against former first lady Fabiola Yáñez, reports the Associated Press.
Brazil
“Brazil's government is divided over whether to complete its third nuclear power plant after 40 years of off-and-on construction, as the country's economic team pushes for the project to be abandoned,” reports Reuters.