Panama takes third country U.S. deportees
Feb. 14, 2025
Panama received a deportation flight from the U.S. carrying migrants from other countries on Wednesday night. Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino said said it was the first of three planned flights that were expected to total about 360 people. “It’s not something massive,” he said. (Associated Press)
Mulino said the deportees were being housed in a local hotel and would be moved to a shelter in Darién, a process managed by the International Organization for Migration. From there, he said, they would be repatriated in an operation financed by the United States.
The move “could signal much faster removals of immigrants who have remained in the United States because their countries have made it difficult to return them,” reports the New York Times. “The more than 100 migrants on the flight, including families, had entered the United States illegally from countries such as Afghanistan, China, Pakistan and Uzbekistan. It is often difficult for the United States to return migrants to those nations.”
The U.S. has pressured countries in Central America to take “third nation” migrants, and Panama has been under particular pressure as U.S. President Donald Trump threatens to take back the Panama Canal. (El País)
More Migration
U.S. “Homeland security chief Kristi Noem claims the U.S. is shipping ‘criminal alien murderers’ to the Cuba naval base – but the immigrants’ true stories remain enigmatic,” reports the Guardian.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Mexico’s increased troop deployment at the border has stemmed illegal migration. He also thanked Mexico for receiving deported migrants and repatriating them. (El País)
Sheinbaum pushes back
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has accused the U.S. of harboring drug cartels and U.S. citizens of working with organized crime groups in Mexico, a pointed retort to Trump’s allegation of an “intolerable alliance” between traffickers and her government.
“There is also organized crime in the United States and there are American people who come to Mexico with these illegal activities,” Claudia Sheinbaum said during her morning press conference on Thursday. “Otherwise who would distribute fentanyl in the cities of the United States?” (Guardian)
She called on both governments to cooperate in fighting organized crime. (El País)
Sheinbaum is writing the book on how to negotiate with Trump 2.0, according to the Wall Street Journal which lauds her for conversing on the U.S. president’s terms while resisting his demands. “Sheinbaum is now the most popular politician in Mexico, with approval ratings of 75%. It is a sign of how much the country has rallied around her.”
Sheinbaum said that her government wouldn’t rule out filing a civil lawsuit against Google if it continues to label the stretch of sea between northeastern Mexico and the southeastern United States the “Gulf of America.” (Associated Press)
More Mexico
The U.S. military is increasing its airborne surveillance of Mexican drug cartels to collect intelligence to determine how to best counter their activities, the top U.S. general overseeing troops in North America said on yesterday. (Reuters)
Sheinbaum is consolidating her security strategy with bills that seek to reinforce her Public Security Secretariat’s superpowers, reports El País.
The Nation explores, in conversation with Ezra Alcázar and Alex González Ormerod, “explore how Morena’s communications strategy bypassed a hostile right-wing media, earned the trust of working-class Mexican voters, and cemented a populist agenda that reshaped the country’s political landscape.”
Mexico’s demographic bonus is set to end with Sheinbaum’s tenure, “offering a chance to rethink care and close workforce gender gaps,” writes Carin Zissis in Americas Quarterly.
Regional Relations
Latin America can expect future U.S. assistance to focus on narrow policy goals, which will have wide-reaching effects, writes Steven E. Hendrix in Americas Quarterly.
Trump’s freeze on foreign aid has temporarily stopped U.S.-funded anti-narcotics programs in Mexico that for years have been working to curb the flow of the synthetic opioid into the United States, reports Reuters.
Trump ordered officials to develop reciprocal tariffs on imports to the United States — yesterday the White House singled out the case of Brazil, pointing to disparate ethanol tariffs. A Bloomberg tally of existing tariffs suggests that emerging markets would be hardest hit, including India, Argentina, much of Africa and Southeast Asia. (Deutsche Welle)
Regional
“In a shift that could redefine drug trafficking in South America, Mexican cartels have begun setting up methamphetamine labs in countries like Brazil and Chile, moving some of their production out of Mexico,” reports Infobae.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s political crisis is “the latest sign that Latin America’s second pink tide may be shorter-lived than the first,” according to Catherine Osborn’s Latin America Brief.
Uruguay
Uruguay’s outgoing President Luis Lacalle Pou has refused to sign invitations for representatives from Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba to attend the inauguration of president-elect Yamandú Orsi on March 1 — highlighting a political divide between Uruguay’s current administration and the incoming leftist government, reports Mercopress.
Ecuador
Ecuador’s remote Indigenous communities will have to decide between two candidates they distrust in the April presidential runoff, after their favorite, activist Leonidas Iza, came in third in last Sunday’s election. (Associated Press)
Argentina
Argentina's monthly inflation rate slowed to 2.2% in January, its lowest level since mid-2020, reports Reuters.
At least four senior Argentine government figures have been ousted since late January, bringing the number of such exits since President Javier Milei took office to 121 — about two a week, reports the Financial Times. The firings are are in the hands of Milei’s closest aide, his sister, Karina.
Critter Corner
A team of researchers found a new species of miniature fish in the Putumayo River Basin, an initiative between Colombia and Peru, reports La Silla Vacía.
Argentina's beloved giant rodent, the capybara (known locally as carpinchos) “has been coated in Hulk-green slime as pollution turns the country's waterways traffic light colours,” reports the Buenos Aires Times.
