Latin America deadliest region for environmental activists in 2022
Sept. 13, 2023
Colombia was the deadliest country for environmentalists in 2022 — at least 60 environmental and land rights defenders were killed, according to the new Global Witness report, released yesterday.
The Petro administration promised to crackdown on violence against social leaders, and passed a law ratifying the Escazu agreement on environmental protection, which includes provisions to protect environmentalists, among others. The law has not yet been approved by Colombia's Constitutional Court.
Global Witness found at least 177 environmentalists were killed globally last year. Latin America accounted for 88% of the deadly attacks, reports Reuters. Brazil, Mexico, Honduras and the Philippines were the most deadly countries in 2022 after Colombia.
Global Witness highlights the scramble for resources in Latin America, Asia and Africa as a driver of the violence, including the extraction of rare earth minerals used in the production of electric cars and wind turbines, reports the Guardian.
Colombia
“The Colombian government’s new drug policy aims to radically shift the country's approach to the fight against drugs. But given a seemingly unstoppable increase in coca cultivation, there are serious doubts about whether this policy can truly be implemented,” according to InSight Crime. (See Monday’s post.)
A year into Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s mandate, his initially positive reception is under threat, with a 21 percent drop in approval ratings positioning him at a vulnerable 33 percent as of July, reports Nacla. “Petro’s proposed reforms require considerable consensus and legislative backing to move forward. This looks increasingly unlikely within a fractured congress and no absolute majority in either chamber.”
Coca cultivation reached an all-time high in Colombia last year, according to the latest UNODC report, but U.N. officials said production had diminished in Colombia’s interior due to decreases in the price for coca leaf, saying that is presenting officials with an opportunity to enroll farmers in crop substitution projects, reports the Associated Press.
“After three years of rising prices, over the past 12 months the coca market in Colombia has inexplicably collapsed,” reports the Guardian. “The price drop “has been so severe and sudden that it has prompted concern from the Colombian government and international organisations such as the World Food Programme that it could cause widespread hunger.”
InSight Crime delves into Petro’s “Total Peace” policy, which “is the most ambitious peace process ever attempted in Colombia. To carry it out, the government is seeking simultaneous negotiations with more than 20 armed groups representing the different faces of Colombia's criminal world: guerrilla insurgencies, drug trafficking armies, and urban gangs.”
“In doing so, the Petro administration is seeking not only to demobilize specific groups but also to break the cycle of generations of conflict in Colombia, where every time the state has eliminated a criminal actor -- whether by persecution or negotiation -- a new generation of groups has emerged to take its place.” (InSight Crime)
Weather patterns, particularly droughts, have affected coffee growers in Colombia, pushing up prices and contributing to a decline in consumption that threatens the country’s production, reports El País.
Regional Relations
In the midst of waning relations between the U.S. and Latin America, the Biden administration should shore up its relationship with Colombia, argue Michael Shifter and Andrea Colombo in Foreign Affairs. “If it fails to do so, it could lose one of its few effective partners in a region where it desperately needs them.”
U.S. “Republican candidates are engaged in a rhetorical arms race, vying to one up each other with tough talk on the U.S. border with Mexico,” reports the Washington Post. “But Mexican officials and independent security analysts have cautioned that military force by the United States would fail to quickly stop drug trafficking while torching relations with its southern neighbor and risking significant casualties.”
China and Venezuela signed several bilateral cooperation documents focused on various areas including economy, trade and tourism after a visit by Nicolás Maduro to Beijing. (Reuters)
Chinese President Xi Jinpingsaid China would elevate its ties with Venezuela to an “all-weather strategic partnership”, a label reserved for a select few of its diplomatic partners, reports Al Jazeera.
“Venezuelan government bond prices have climbed in recent weeks as investors speculate that” Maduro’s government “is nearing a diplomatic breakthrough that could lead to a softening of US sanctions,” according to the Financial Times.
James Bosworth is less optimistic at the Latin America Risk Report, warning that next year could well usher in “all-out repression combined with a canceled or fully rigged election,” a scenario the international community is unprepared for.
The Dominican Republic could fully shut down its border with Haiti tomorrow, in response to a canal under construction that diverts water from the two countries’ shared Massacre River. Dajabon is one of the few remaining functioning borders between Haiti and the Dominican Republic, which has been tightening its border security amid worsening gang warfare in Haiti, reports Reuters.
It is unclear, however, that Haiti’s government can crack down on the canal construction. The Dominican government statement pinned blame for the conflict on Haitian authorities inability to reign in powerful gangs it cannot control. "There is no doubt that this unilateral project is promoted by Haitian agents with the intention of harming their own government and generating a conflict with our country," the statement added. (Reuters)
Argentina
Argentine presidential candidate Javier Milei’s disruptive proposal to dollarize the economy (and dissolve the Central Bank) is difficult in the short run, and likely to bring complications in the long run, according to numerous experts consulted by Americas Quarterly.
Milei is known for being amenable to crypto, but his focus on dollarization could “potentially mean a much less crypto-friendly Argentina,” report Rest of World.
Mexico
Former Mexican foreign affairs minister Marcelo Ebrard presented a formal complaint against the ruling MORENA party's primary process to a pick a candidate for the 2024 presidential election — and has threatened to leave the party if unsatisfied with the response. (Associated Press, Reuters)
Caribbean
A group of small island nations disproportionately affected by the climate crisis have appealed to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, which will consider whether carbon emissions absorbed by the ocean should be considered marine pollution, and what obligations nations have to protect the marine environment — Just Caribbean Updates
Caribbean activists have put reparations firmly on the global radar. “Some estimates of the true economic and moral damage from slavery in the Caribbean run into the trillions of dollars. While most observers doubt that reparations amounts will ever come close to that, there is still optimism that reparations could provide meaningful financial resources for the region, perhaps involving numbers in the billions—in part because the conversation has picked up steam in the last few years,” reports Americas Quarterly.
Regional
The Atlantic Council and the IDB identified five opportunities for the private sector to drive economic prosperity, sustainable development, and social progress in LAC: Enhancing market size, scalability, and regional integration; Accelerating digitalization and innovation; Improving state governance, institutional capacity, and transparency; Addressing multidimensional inequality; and meaningfully advancing the green agenda.