Latin American countries reject Venezuela court election ruling
Aug. 23, 2024
Ten Latin American governments and the U.S. rejected the Venezuelan Supreme Court’s confirmation of Nicolás Maduro’s widely disputed claim to have won reelection in July. (See yesterday’s briefs.)
Chilean President Gabriel Boric declared: “I have no doubt this election has been stolen.” Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo tweeted: “The Maduro regime is not democratic and we do not recognise its fraud.”
In a joint statement published today, the governments of Argentina, Costa Rica, Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the Dominican Republic, Uruguay and the U.S. called for an “impartial and independent audit” of the vote, reports the Guardian.
The U.S. said the ruling lacked “all credibility, given the overwhelming evidence that [Maduro’s rival Edmundo] González received the most votes” in the 28 July election.
The joint statement also voiced “profound concern” about human rights violations committed by the government since the disputed elections.
Boric was categorical: “The Venezuelan dictatorship is not the left. A continental left that is deeply democratic and respects human rights regardless of the color of those who violate them is possible and necessary.”
Brazil and Colombia, which have sought to mediate negotiations between Maduro and the opposition did not comment on yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling. (Infobae)
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said did not recognize the court’s ruling and called on Venezuela’s government to publish the full voting tallies. (Silla Vacía, La Jornada)
Yesterday’s ruling means that negotiation will be more important than ever, writes Luz Mely Reyes in El País.
More Venezuela
The U.S. has drafted a list of about 60 Venezuelan government officials and family members who could be sanctioned in the first punitive measures since the disputed July presidential election, reports Reuters.
Guatemala
Guatemalan prosecutors filed a request to strip President Bernardo Arévalo of the criminal immunity granted to his post so he can face charges for alleged abuse of authority. The prosecutor accusing the president, Rafael Curruchiche, is on the U.S. State Department's Engel List of Corrupt and Undemocratic Actors and has been sanctioned by more than 40 countries. (Reuters)
Mexico
Mexico said it is sending a diplomatic note protesting supposed U.S. interference after the U.S. ambassador openly criticized a proposed Mexican judicial overhaul, reports the Associated Press.
Judicial workers and judges have maintained an ongoing strike, in protest of the proposed reform. They have taken their protest to the InterAmerican Commission on Human Rights, reports Animal Político.
Mexico City’s legislature approved the most ambitious rent control law since the 1940s yesterday, reports the Associated Press. The move limits rent increases to the rate of inflation in the previous year.
Nicaragua
Nicaragua’s Ortega government closed another 151 non-governmental organizations, yesterday, continuing a spate of closures from earlier this week. Yesterday’s move affected some of Nicaragua’s most important trade organizations, including the American Chamber of Commerce, reports the Associated Press. (See Monday’s briefs.)
The Central American Bank for Economic Integration, an international development bank largely funded by democratic governments, provided hundreds of millions of dollars in funding to the Nicaraguan government, even as the United Nations and human rights groups documented widespread killing, torture and forced exile of government opponents, according to a new Washington Post investigation.
Haiti
An average of five children have been killed or injured in Haiti for every week of the first six months of 2024. Most of the 131 children have been killed or injured so far this year were hit by crossfire between warring gangs and security forces, according to analysis of UN Data by Save the Children. It’s a 47% increase over the final six months of 2023 when 89 cases were documented. (Guardian)
U.S. sanctions against former Haitian President Michel Martelly “underscore the United States’ continued influence on Haitian politics,” writes Catherine Osborn in the Latin America Brief. The sanctions appear to be a message of support to the current prime minister, Garry Conille, who leads the transitional government and has apparently had a difficult relationship with Martelly, dating back to efforts to investigate international aid contracts between Haiti and Venezuela. “As Martelly weighed a comeback, tensions between the two politicians appear to have resurfaced: Last month, Conille ordered an investigation into a firm run by Martelly allies.” (See Wednesday’s briefs.)
Haitian police arrested a suspect in the May killing of a U.S. missionary couple and a Haitian man who headed a nonprofit in an attack by gunmen, reports the Associated Press.
Argentina
Argentina’s Congress handed President Javier Milei a stinging defeat on pension payments, just a day after blocking a presidential decree on discretional funding for the national spy agency. “All but one of the lawmakers who voted against the bill were from Milei’s party, a sign that the president’s allies had failed to negotiate with more moderate right-wing parties,” reports the Associated Press.
Milei said he will veto the increase in pensions and accused senators of being “fiscal degenerates.” Lawmakers could override his veto by passing the law with a two-thirds majority again. (Al Jazeera, Buenos Aires Times)
Milei’s efforts to increase military spending even as he slashes basic social services are “fraught,” according to the Economist. “Milei has suggested using the armed forces against internal threats, such as gangs. Yet the idea is unpopular in a country which was ruled by a bloody military dictatorship from 1976 to 1983.”
Indeed, Argentine politics remains roiled by the visit of several ruling party lawmakers to human rights violators in jail. It is part of the Milei government’s efforts to undermine the significance of the last dictatorship’s crimes. Gabriela Vulcano reconstructs the uncomfortable field trip for Crisis.
Migration
The U.S. expanded access an app to request border control appointments to southern Mexico, part of an effort to relieve migrant pressure in Mexico’s north, reports the Associated Press.
Panama's government announced additional deportation flights for migrants apprehended, in a bid to reduce of flow of mostly U.S.-bound migration, reports Reuters.
Colombia
Colombia’s emerald trade “has suffered another blow to its reputation with the professional assassination of a top dealer. The killing has sparked speculation over which criminal powers beyond the jewel business could be at work, and what they may gain from the hit,” reports InSight Crime.
Regional
“After decades of failed repressive anti-drug policies in Latin America, armed groups have expanded their grip far beyond narcotrafficking and now have their hands on vast amounts of land, agriculture, oil and politics in the region. They increasingly operate in a gray zone between legal and illegal business, making it harder to track the source of dirty money,” reports Americas Quarterly.
A new report by the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Development, Surya Deva, outlines four pillars and twelve human rights principles that are critical to a climate justice framework – Just Caribbean Updates
Regional Relations
“Ecuador’s Coca Codo Sinclair (CCS) hydroelectric plant has become an infamous symbol of the controversies associated with Chinese development finance in Latin America,” writes Julie Radomski at the Aula Blog. “As such, the project’s performance has outsized implications for China-Latin America relations.”
Suriname
Suriname announced its first offering of sovereign carbon credits, and effort to secure payment for protecting its forest cover, reports the Financial Times.
Uruguay
New York Times’ Jack Nicas met with José Mugica and had a delightfully aphorism-filled conversation: “What a complicated animal man is. He’s both smart and stupid.”
Nicas also writes about the love story between two rebels who led Uruguay: Mugica and Lucía Topolansky.