Haiti's gov't to turn to paramilitary group
April 4, 2025
Haiti’s ruling transitional presidential council announced a new strategy in the fight against violent gangs: Enlisting members of a controversial paramilitary group — which once tried to topple the government — to help battle the insurgency, reports the Miami Herald.
The council’s move comes in response to massive protests over Haiti’s security crisis and the transitional council’s failure to address it. The decision was announced on the one-year anniversary of the political accord that created the transitional council, in the midst of an ongoing security crisis that has intensified in recent months. (See yesterday’s post.)
Over the past year cohesion between political parties involved in creating the transitional government “has now largely collapsed,” International Crisis Group analyst Diego Da Rin Da Rin told the Associated Press. “The groups that originally supported this government are now calling for a change in leadership.”
Transitional council head Fritz Alphonse Jean acknowledged yesterday that Haiti has “become hell for everyone.” He also said that the electoral council is working so that Haiti can have new leadership once the transitional presidential council’s term ends on Feb. 7 next year. He added that officials are taking steps so that the diaspora can vote in what would be Haiti’s first general elections held in almost a decade. (Associated Press)
Colombia
Fighting in Colombia’s Cauca region has transformed over the past 20 years, from a conflict once rooted in ideology — between guerrillas and paramilitaries — into a battle over coca crops, drug trafficking corridors, and gold deposits, write Sara Garcia and Alicia Florez in InSight Crime. The current resurgence of violence has been sparked by clashes between Colombia’s three main criminal actors: the ELN, the Autodefensas Gaitanistas de Colombia; and dissidents of the former FARC.
Deportations
Lawyers for Kilmar Abrego García, a Salvadoran accidentally deported by the Trump administration, are asking a judge for an order that will force the White House to use whatever means it has at its disposal — diplomacy, money, even a simple phone call — to bring their client back to the United States, reports the New York Times.
Tren de Aragua is not invading the U.S. and is not controlled Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro. “The exaggerated government claims and ensuing public concern about the group’s activities in the United States amount to a classic moral panic, in which a handful of crimes are cited by politicians as evidence of an urgent threat to society,” write Rebecca Hanson, David Smilde and Verónica Zubillaga in a New York Times op-ed.
“The mass criminalization, arbitrary detainment and violation of due process that have characterized the Trump administration’s actions so far have echoed some of the tactics of the Venezuelan regime many of these young men presumably fled from. It reduces U.S. credibility and emboldens authoritarians everywhere,” they conclude. (New York Times)
Maduro has accused Nayib Bukele of being complicit in the kidnapping and disappearance of hundreds of Venezuelans. He calls the CECOT prison a Nazi concentration camp and has denounced the treatment of the Venezuelan prisoners there — the absolute hypocrisy of his outrage shouldn’t distract from that fact that it is “a winning propaganda issue for Maduro both domestically and abroad,” notes James Bosworth in the Latin America Risk Report.
Venezuela
The vast majority of cases involving extrajudicial executions by Venezuelan security forces in protests against Maduro in 2014, 2015, 2017 and 2019 have been systematically delayed, reports Runrun.es. (Via Latin America Risk Report)
Two of Venezuela’s central bank directors have left their posts after Maduro made comments about incorporating a large volume of gold into international reserves — both had pushed back on a rushed plan to incorporate the gold into reserves without following the protocol that regulates what are known as “good delivery” bars, which raised concerns over the use of unregulated mines to bolster the country’s coffers, reports Bloomberg.
Regional Relations
Trump’s special envoy for Latin America, Mauricio Claver-Carone, warned Cubans and Venezuelans to brace for “short-term pain” from measures aimed at increasing pressure on Havana and Caracas, reports the Miami Herald.
Brazil
Brazil aims to launch a $125 billion fund that seeks to harness the capital markets to pay countries to keep their forests standing. A nine-strong Brazilian delegation was recently in London to discuss the fund’s design with its sponsors and to meet with the banks, asset managers and insurers that might eventually participate, reports Bloomberg.
“COP30 host Brazil has been criticised for its continued interest in oil production – but with development needs high, it can’t be expected to forgo its biggest commodity overnight,” argues Chatham House’s Ana Yang in Climate Change News.
Analysts talking about Guillermo Kassab, one of the most important behind-the-scenes political operators in Brazil and founder of the ideologically flexible PSD party, “sometimes bring up the phrase ‘Someone who takes their socks off without removing their shoes,’ a Brazilian saying used to describe savvy politicians. But Kassab is not an empty vessel. Despite lending support to left and right, he generally represents center-right and right-wing positions, particularly on economic issues. He became successful by navigating the crucial role that negotiation and accommodation play in Brazilian political culture,” writes Luiza Franco in an Americas Quarterly profile.
Argentina
Argentina’s senate rejected the two Supreme Court candidates that President Javier Milei nominated by decree earlier this year. It is a major blow that could impact Milei’s agenda, as he had hoped to fill vacancies on the five-judge court with appointees who would rule favorably on challenges to his economic reforms, reports the Associated Press.
Milei was in Mar-a-Lago yesterday to receive an award, and reportedly hoped to meet Trump there to bolster Argentina’s case for the IMF to give 20 billion cash upfront when a loan agreement is reached. But Trump didn’t attend the awards ceremony, so the two presidents didn’t meet. (La Nación)
Reports that Ecuadorean President Daniel Noboa paid to access an event at Mar-a-Lago where he met with Trump, a meeting billed by Ecuador’s executive as support for Noboa ahead of next week’s runoff election, have fueled suspicions that Milei may also have sought to pay for presidential access, reports La Politica Online. (See Monday’s post.)
Argentina’s Milei government is angling to obtain tariff exemptions on 50 specific goods it exports to the U.S., after being slapped with the same 10% tariff as most of its neighbors, on “Liberation Day.” Milei is also angling for a state visit to the White House later this month, roughly at the same time as the IMF Spring meetings, where Argentina’s case will be discussed. (Cenital and Cenital)
Tariffs
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum celebrated the preferential tariff treatment Mexico receives under the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement after her country was excluded from U.S. President Donald Trump's sweeping new tariffs — though other U.S. tariffs are already impacting the country’s economy. (Reuters)
Sheinbaum is pitching Mexico as a winner in Trump’s global trade war, arguing to business leaders that her positive relationship with the US leader has made it a more attractive place to invest, reports Bloomberg.
The now-imperiled strategy of Chinese firms that invested billions of dollars in Mexican factories to make products for the U.S. market and ship goods tariff-free — Wall Street Journal
“Latin Americans may be especially aware of the risks of Trump’s new tariffs because they echo economic policies that were popular in the region in the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s but have largely been abandoned. So-called import substitution industrialization strategies aimed to boost domestic industries by blocking foreign competition, often with tariffs,” writes Catherine Osborn in the Latin America Brief.
Trump’s trade war has made a Mercosur-EU deal more attractive for Europe, reports Reuters.
Regional
A Rand report explores Hezbollah’s operational footprint in Latin America: “Academic literature and government reports almost universally indicate that Hezbollah's activities in the region pose potential threats to U.S. national security. However, there is a significant knowledge gap in existing assessments.”
Costa Rica
“A recent multi-million-dollar money laundering investigation in Costa Rica illustrates how the government is attacking the country’s growing drug-related violence by going after the profits,” reports InSight Crime.
Guatemala
Guatemala is poised to become an attractive nearshoring destinatino for the U.S., according to a new report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. (Via Latin America Risk Report)
Bolivia
A clash between gold-mining operations in Bolivia has resulted in an explosion that killed six people, reports Al Jazeera.
Critter Corner
“Ground sloths emerged in South America tens of million years ago, eventually ranging as far north as Canada. While their modern relatives dwell in trees and top out at the size of a dog, ground sloths also occupied land and seashores and, at their largest, rivaled today’s elephants,” reports the New York Times.