Venezuela
Venezuelan unity opposition candidate Edmundo González has a 40-point lead over President Nicolás Maduro, according to a Dataincorp poll released last weekend. The margin is expected to grow even higher as Venezuela nears the July 28 presidential election, and, according to experts cited by the Miami Herald, the lead might be too big steal.
Colombia
Colombia's ELN guerrilla group, currently engaged in stop-start peace negotiations with the government, announced yesterday it would resume its practice of kidnappings, claiming authorities have fallen short on promises to provide them with international donations, reports AFP.
Regional Relations
Former U.S. State Department official Ricardo Zúniga looks ahead to a hypothetical second-Biden presidency’s LatAm policy in the AQ Podcast. “He discusses overarching policy strategies towards the region, how the U.S. has addressed China’s growing presence there, migration and trade, as well as the specific dynamics of the relationships with Venezuela, Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, Cuba and Argentina.”
Chinese and Russian propaganda campaigns have successfully impacted narratives about Ukraine in Africa, Latin America, Asia and among the European and American far right — part of a broader coalition “in opposition to a set of ideas. Transparency, for example. And rule of law. And democracy,” writes Anne Applebaum in the Atlantic.
Argentine President Javier Milei spoke at the Milken Institute in Los Angeles. It is his fourth trip to the U.S. since assuming office last December, though none have been to meet with Biden, reports El País.
Haitian media are reporting on Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s assertions, last week, that weapons and ammunition missing from military stockpiles could be sold to criminal gangs in Haiti. (Le Nouvelliste, Haiti Libre) A Colombian military assessment of missing bullets and munitions is significantly less than that reported initially by Petro, according to a Reuters report last Friday.
Haiti
International preparations for a seven-country security mission to Haiti are ramping up, reports the New York Times, but funding has only been secured for a fraction of the estimated $600 million cost of the deployment.
Flooding in Haiti at the start of the country’s rainy season has killed 17 people and flooded more than 4,000 homes in the country’s north, mostly in Cap-Haïtien. (Miami Herald)
Brazil
Flooding in Brazil’s Rio Grande do Sul state has killed 83 people already — the extent of the disaster has shaken a country increasingly inured to climate-change related natural disasters, reports the Washington Post.
Regional
“Across the Caribbean region, countries are seeking to build climate resilience in the face of increasingly frequent extreme weather events that pose an existential threat to low-lying islands,” reports Americas Quarterly. “A top concern for national leaders across the region is financing: how to pay for these much-needed projects to drive development and shield societies from the effects of climate change.”
Jamaica
An unexpected collision between a cold front and a warm front off Jamaica in February caused millions of dollars of damage. Researchers are still seeking answers, and the authorities are trying to find ways to adapt to the growing risks of climate unpredictability, reports the Guardian.
Migration
A border policy standoff between U.S. President Joe Biden and Texas governor Greg Abbott has migrants caught in the middle, reports the New York Review of Books.
Mexico
“Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador defended the increase in spending on the armed forces during his administration, saying that they helped reduce violence and improve development over the course of his nearly six-year term,” reports Bloomberg.
The speedy resolution of a case involving three murdered tourists in Mexico is an exception in a country where tens of thousands of missing-person cases have sat for years without ever being solved, reports the New York Times.
Panama
“Panamanian criminal groups have attempted to maintain a low profile, but the new administration will face challenges related to their increasing sophistication, as well as structural problems in the prison system,” reports InSight Crime. (See yesterday’s post.)
CLIP investigated a network of social media accounts campaigning for former president Martín Torrijos in Panama’s presidential election, and attacking independent candidate Ricardo Lombana.
Argentina
Argentina's President Javier Milei denied, in an interview with the BBC, that it is ordinary Argentines who are paying for his radical austerity measures. “He insisted that the brunt of the burden was being borne by what he called the political corporation, claiming that 90% of the cuts were falling on the political class and only 10% were achieved through cutting government spending on pensions. Independent analysts say spending on pensions has been cut by 30-40% in real terms - with some saying this makes it one of the biggest government spending cuts.”
La Nación reports that President Javier Milei’s sister and closest advisor, Karina, managed Miami commercial corporation that purchased properties worth $2.7 million, two years ago.