Doña Violeta
June 16, 2025
Former Nicaraguan President Violeta Barrios de Chamorro died on Saturday. The story of the 95-year-old leader, parallels the arc of her country.
“Chamorro was thrust into the forefront of Nicaraguan politics by the assassination of her husband, Pedro Joaquín Chamorro, a newspaper editor who was critical of leftist Sandinista revolutionaries and a fierce opponent of their nemesis, the Somoza family dictatorship, which began under President Anastasio Somoza García in 1936,” reports the New York Times.
“When the Sandinistas swept to power in July 1979, she became a member of the first, five-member transitional junta that controlled Nicaragua until the election of Daniel Ortega as president in 1984. But her conservative politics soon caused a split with the predominantly Marxist FSLN. Once more she was in opposition,” writes Phil Gunson in the Guardian.
Doña Violeta, as she was called in Nicaragua, was elected as a unity leader in 1990, beating Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega. (AFP) “She was the symbol of the struggle for democracy, and a testament to what democracy in Nicaragua could look like,” said Manuel Orozco, a Latin American scholar at the Inter-American Dialogue, said in 2018. (Washington Post)
“There is no sovereignty without freedom. There is no justice without freedom. There can't even be Nicaragua without freedom, because the soul and reason for Nicaragua's existence is freedom,” she said in her inauguration speech. (Confidencial)
“Her policies earned scorn from both left and right. In later years, though, public opinion surveys suggested that she was the most admired figure in Nicaragua, a symbol of reconciliation bathed in a Madonna-like aura of deep Christian faith,” reports the New York Times.
She died in Costa Rica — she left her country in 2023, fragile in health and reunited with her children, exiled in response to Ortega’s repression, which included the arrest of Cristiana Chamorro in 2021, when she planned a presidential run. Investigative journalist Carlos Fernando Chamorro is also in exile in response to persecution. (El País)
More Nicaragua
“The U.S. State Department is warning Americans thinking of booking trips to Nicaragua to reconsider their travel plans because the country is sinking deeper into authoritarianism, making it more perilous for tourists,” reports the New York Times.
Brazil
Recent polls show two-thirds of Brazilian voters are worried about the health of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who is 80-years-old. “Their concern is shared by a number of the president’s political allies and advisers,” reports the Washington Post.
“The Brazilian government is preparing to stage an oil exploration auction months before it hosts the Cop30 UN climate summit, despite opposition from environmental campaigners and Indigenous communities worried about the environmental and climate impacts of the plans,” reports the Guardian.
“Legislators in Brazil are currently deliberating the General Environmental Licensing Law, a new bill which dismantles environmental licensing requirements and, if approved, could accelerate oil and gas extraction, cattle ranching, and deforestation in the Amazon,” according to Human Rights Watch. “The Chamber of Deputies should reject the bill. If it does not, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva should veto it.
Regional Relations
The United States is considering restricting entry to citizens of an additional 36 countries in what would be a significant expansion of the travel ban announced by the Trump administration early this month. Among the new list of countries that could face visa bans or other restrictions are countries in the Caribbean: Antigua and Barbuda; Dominica; Saint Kitts and Nevis; Saint Lucia. A State Department memo reviewed by the Washington Post stated that if a country was willing to accept third-country nationals who were removed from the United States or enter a “safe third country” agreement, it could mitigate other concerns.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum emphatically rejected the appearance of Mexico’s flag in protests that turned violent in the United States, saying it was a “provocation” that threatened to tarnish her country’s reputation. (New York Times)
Sheinbaum is set to meet with her U.S. counterpart in Canada this week on the sidelines of the G7 meeting. “Attending the meeting is a smart move for Sheinbaum, who wants to discuss trade, security and migration issues. At the same time, Mexico will only be one of many countries on the US president’s agenda in Canada. Sheinbaum should keep expectations low on getting anything big out of the meeting,” writes James Bosworth in today’s Latin America Risk Report.
Mexico
Mexico’s judicial elections were supposed to be an exercise in deepening democracy, but the shift away from an appointment-based system “has, at least for now, amounted to a crucial step in Morena’s consolidation of power,” reports the New York Times. “Candidates with Morena’s stamp of approval sailed to victories in Mexico’s most powerful courts and in court circuits across the country, showcasing critics’ fears that the election could eliminate the last major check on Morena’s power.”
Argentine Supreme Court Justice Carlos Rosenkrantz was booed in Mexico City for the ruling against former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. Demonstrators, including Argentines in Mexico and Mexican citizens, gathered outside the Marquis Reforma Hotel, where Rosenkrantz was speaking at a conference, reports Mercopress.
Migration
“A Venezuelan activist seeking asylum in the United States after reportedly being tortured by the government of U.S. adversary Nicolás Maduro has been detained by U.S. immigration authorities weeks before his preliminary hearing,” reports the Washington Post.
Lawyers Kilmar Abrego García contested allegations that he helped smuggle thousands of migrants across the United States, in a U.S. court on Friday, sharply questioning a federal agent about informants — two with serious criminal histories — whose testimony helped secure the indictment, reports the Washington Post.
Argentine journalist Miriam Lewin analyzes the similarities between the Argentine military dictatorship’s disappearances — she was one of them — and Trump’s detentions of foreigners. “In those years, the Argentine state became a terrorist: it chose the systematic violation of rights to supposedly protect a society with western, Christian values from leftist and communist “terrorists”.” (Guardian)
Tijuana long served as a gateway for legal and illegal crossings between Mexico and Southern California. But its shelters have now thinned out and migrants have left its streets, according to the New York Times.