Landau to second Rubio
Dec. 9, 2024
U.S. president-elect Donald Trump tapped Christopher Landau, a lawyer and former ambassador to Mexico, to be the deputy secretary of state. The appointment confirms the incoming administration’s focus on migration as a central concern. Trump credited Landau with helping to reduce illegal immigration during his period as ambassador, reports the New York Times.
Trump praised Landau, a lawyer turned diplomat who clerked for Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, as “one of our Country’s great lawyers” and said he will “work closely with our great Secretary of State Nominee, Marco Rubio, to promote our Nation’s security and prosperity through an America First Foreign Policy.” (Politico)
Landau’s nomination signals that Latin America could play a prominent role in Trump’s foreign policy, supporting Trump’s Secretary of State nominee, Marco Rubio, who is a leading right-wing voice in U.S. policy on the region. Landau spent parts of his childhood in Latin America, as his father, a foreign service officer, served as U.S. ambassador to Chile, Paraguay and Venezuela, and — like Rubio —is a fluent Spanish speaker, reports Politico.
“With the populist right having a moment and everyone hating the undemocratic left, one emerging question will be how Rubio and Landau treat the democratic center-left in Latin America including Lula, Petro, and Boric,” writes James Bosworth at the Latin America Risk Report. While they are viewed as representing the more moderate and professional side of the incoming administration, both Rubio and Landau “have a history of disliking those democratic center-left politicians, viewing them as wolves in sheep’s clothing that work against US interests.”
More U.S.-LatAm
Progressive governments in Latin America are not as united today as they were a decade ago — this could impact how they navigate the onslaught of a new Trump administration, writes Ociel Alí López in Nacla.
Last week’s CPAC in Buenos Aires demonstrated the close alignment between Argentina’s Milei administration and the incoming Trump government. Indeed, many participants heralded Javier Milei’s agenda as a blueprint for Trump — without acknowledging the crushing social costs of his cost-cutting measures, reports the New York Times.
Milei is unwaveringly allied with the U.S., a return to the “carnal relations” foreign policy of former Argentine president Carlos Menem in the 1990s. Many in the government circle hope this ideological affinity — including the admiration of the finance world and the Tech Bros — will provide salvation for Argentina’s beleaguered economy. But this optimism is misguided, I argue in Cenital.
Massacre in Haiti targets elderly
At least 110 people, all over the age of 60, were killed in a massacre a Port-au-Prince massacre that started Friday — but the actual number of dead is likely much higher. United Nations Human Rights Chief Volker Türk said today that at least 184 people were killed in the violence orchestrated by the gang leader.
The killings were carried out by Micanor Altes, who goes by the names Wa Mikanò” and Monel Felix, in the Wharf Jérémie section of Cité Solei in Haiti’s capital, reports the Miami Herald. He reportedly acted on the advice of a local Vodou priest who accused the community’s elderly residents of being responsible for the gang boss’s son’s fatal illness.
The National Human Rights Defense Network said that older people who practiced voodoo appeared to have been targeted, reports the New York Times.
“He decided to cruelly punish all elderly people and Vodou practitioners who, in his imagination, would be capable of sending a bad spell on his son,” according to the Committee for Peace and Development. “The gang’s soldiers were responsible for identifying victims in their homes to take them to the chief’s stronghold to be executed.” (AFP)
Information about the number of victims remains murky, a concern in itself: “The fact that we have so many doubts about what happened days after the massacre is a signal that clearly indicates the level of control (gangs) have on the population,” Diego Da Rin, an analyst with the International Crisis Group, told the Associated Press.
More Haiti
“Kenya’s top police official has denied reports that officers serving in the United Nations-backed multinational peacekeeping mission in Haiti have gone unpaid for three months,” reports the Associated Press.
Migration
The Dominican Republic is deporting Haitians in caged trucks that appear to have been designed for livestock. Since October, more than 71,000 people have been deported to Haiti. DR President Luis Abinader said he had warned the United Nations that if the situation in Haiti did not improve, the Dominican Republic would take “special measures” that would include deploying specialized units to crack down on migrants, reports the New York Times.
“Trump’s promise to clamp down on undocumented migrants could play into the hands of criminal groups who stand to profit from higher prices and fresh opportunities if the chaos and confusion expected from his second administration transpire,” writes Steven Dudley in InSight Crime.
Venezuela
Venezuelan opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia — who many consider to have won the July presidential election by a landslide — has ruled out forming a government in exile, saying that he will return to his country from Spain to take office in January. (AFP)
More Regional Relations
James Bosworth warns against forgetting the Venezuela-Guyana tensions over Essequibo in World Politics Review.
Mexico
The U.S. is concerned about fentanyl flows coming from Mexico, but in Mexico use of crystal meth is soaring and threatening a public health crisis, reports the Guardian.
Regional
Authorities in the Dominican Republic said they confiscated nearly 9.5 tonnes of cocaine found in a banana shipment. It is the largest drug seizure in the country’s history, reports the Associated Press.
El Salvador
El Salvador expects to reach agreement with the IMF in the next two to three weeks on a $1.3 billion loan program in return for changes to its pioneering use of bitcoin as legal tender and reductions in government deficits, reports the Financial Times.
Guyana
A project in Guyana aims to turn the commune where the Reverend Jim Jones and more than 900 followers died into a tourist attraction — a move that has aroused concern for survivors. (Associated Press)