Latin America Daily Briefing
Sept. 13, 2024
Regional Relations
“Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Brazil of being pro-Russia in the Kremlin’s war on Ukraine and lambasted a joint peace proposal drawn up by Brasília and Beijing,” reports Politico.
“In the aftermath of Venezuela’s disputed election, the compact that has long bound the region’s left together appears finally to be breaking down,” writes Jon Lee Anderson in the New Yorker.
Venezuelan opposition leader Edmundo González’s forced exile to Spain last weekend “has raised new questions about how the Biden administration has handled one of the worst political crises in the Western Hemisphere and the limited foreign policy tools available to the U.S. and international partners to counter authoritarian governments,” according to the Miami Herald.
The developers of El Salvador’s digital cryptowallet have been tasked leading conversations with China for a free trade agreement, reports El Faro.
Chile’s government formally requested files to participate in South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, reports La Tercera.
Smarter U.S. security assistance could help Latin America reduce its lethal violence, argues Paul Angelo in Foreign Affairs.
Nicaragua’s Ortega government is “strengthening ties in matters of “security” and surveillance with Russia and China, while, internally in Nicaragua, it approves new reforms to the Criminal Procedure Code that empower the Police to request telephone information and freeze bank accounts without a court order,” reports Confidencial.
Nicaragua
Nicaragua’s government said it was revoking the citizenship and seizing the property of 135 political prisoners who were expelled from the country last week under a deal with the United States and Guatemala, reports the Associated Press.
Migration
Ortega’s government is also “weaponizing the mass migration of its citizens and those from other countries, making it easier for the latter to use the country as a transit point on their way to the U.S. border, according to Manuel Orozco, director of the migration program at the Inter-American Dialogue,” writes Robert Looney in World Politics Review.
Colombia
Colombian President Gustavo Petro promised to give a third of the country’s official press advertising budget to community and small media outlets, in a speech in which the leader lashed out at major media companies. (El País)
Petro is facing criticism from press freedom groups after calling female reporters "dolls of the mafia,” reports AFP.
Petro said yesterday that efforts are underway to carry out a coup against his government. (Mercopress)
Petro authorized a service to detect traces of Pegasus spyware on civilian phones, reports the OCCRP.
Peru
Alberto Fujimori transformed Perú for better or for worst, writes Mitra Taj in Foreign Policy. “Many in Peru will remember Fujimori for ending an era of bread lines and terrorist attacks that scarred a generation, and for leaving the country with fresh wounds and new challenges, chief among them Fujimori himself.” (See yesterday’s post.)
Bolivia
Bolivia is battling more than 3,000 forest fires, with air contamination in some parts of the country “incompatible with human life,” reports El País.
Regional
Forest fires in various parts of Brazil have spread a blanket of pollutant-filled smoke across much of the country, also affecting neighboring countries, reports Folha de S. Paulo.
Nearly 40% of the areas of the Amazon rainforest most critical to curbing climate change have not been granted special government protection, as either nature or indigenous reserves, according to an analysis by nonprofit Amazon Conservation. (Reuters)
Climate change lawsuits have become an important tool in the fight over planet-warming emissions, reports the New York Times.
Laura Woldenberg writes in Boom about how escort platforms exploit the vulnerability of migrant women in Mexico and Latin America, perpetuating a cycle of abuse and violence that few face or acknowledge.
El Salvador
Seven members of El Salvador’s security cabinet died in an Air Force helicopter crash on Sunday. They “were transporting an accused embezzler with financial ties to the ruling party who was detained in Honduras under unclear circumstances,” reports El Faro. President Nayib “Bukele will receive U.S. help to investigate at a delicate political moment: The Salvadoran president was the first to insinuate possible foul play, despite possible flight protocol violations.” (See Monday’s briefs.)
Mexico
Sinaloa cartel leader Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada pleaded today in a U.S. drug trafficking case that accuses him of engaging in murder plots and ordering torture, reports the Associated Press. (La Jornada, Reuters)
Schools and businesses Sinaloa state’s capital remained closed in the midst of violent clashes between factions of the Sinaloa cartel, reports the Associated Press.
Crashout Media reports on the insider plan for the Sinaloa Cartel war.
Mexico is poised to amend its constitution this weekend to require all judges to be elected as part of a judicial overhaul championed by outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador after a majority of the country’s state legislatures ratified the constitutional reform passed by Congress earlier this week, reports the Associated Press. (See Wednesday’s post.)
Ecuador
Ecuador will hold general elections on Feb. 9. President Daniel Noboa will run for reelection. (AFP)
The director of Ecuador's biggest prison was killed in an armed attack on yesterday. It is the second such killing in under two weeks in the Latin American country, according to the national prison agency. (AFP)
Guatemala
A Swiss court sentenced former Guatemalan police chief Erwin Sperisen to 14 years in prison. It is in his fourth trial over the 2006 extrajudicial killings of seven jail inmates, reports AFP.
Trinidad and Tobago
“Gang violence in Trinidad and Tobago is on the rise, and without significant policy changes, predictive models suggest the trend will worsen over the coming years,” reports InSight Crime.
Haiti
The awarding of a penalty kick in soccer championship match in the Cité Soleil community of Port-au-Prince touched off a shootout at the venue that killed the second-in-command of one gang and injured another gang leader, reports the Associated Press.
Argentina
Argentine President Javier Milei’s deep spending cuts have produced in the first 5 months of 2024 a primary fiscal surplus of 1.1% of GDP and inflation is down to about 4% a month, but rising poverty levels and an IMF projected economic contraction of 3.5% this year raises the question of what do results amount to in terms of real improvement to the economy? Eduardo Levy Yeyati on the Americas Quarterly podcast.
The IMF board removed Western Hemisphere Director Rodrigo Valdés from its negotiations with Argentina. Valdés was accused by Milei of not wanting “the best for Argentina,” so the move appears to be a victory for Argentina’s leader. (Buenos Aires Herald)
A ten-year-old child participating in a protest outside of Argentina’s Congress was tear-gassed by police on Wednesday — security officials falsely accused human rights organizations of attacking the girl, reports Página 12.
Uruguay
Uruguay’s slow and steady approach to governance is the secret to its success vis a vis neighboring Argentina, according to Richard Sanders in Global Americans.