Russia's interest in Haiti
April 13, 2023
Russia has been showing interest in Haiti for a couple of years — as a diplomatic leverage issue against the U.S. and potentially more, reports the Miami Herald. Surveys show “Haitians are losing patience with the traditional international community over intervening in Haiti and many are expressing a preference that any such intervention be led by Russia.”
While there is no evidence that the embattled Henry administration is negotiating with the Wagner Group, indeed, the cost in terms of its relationship with the U.S. would be pyrrhic, it is possible that other players in Haiti are. (See Tuesday’s post.)
“Some Haiti observers are increasingly asking whether using private contractors — an idea Moïse was exploring before his death as a solution to the gang crisis — could be an answer, while others are looking to new allies like Russia,” reports Jacqueline Charles in the Miami Herald.
More Haiti
The UNHCHR designated William O’Neill as an expert on human rights in Haiti, at the request of the U.N. Human Rights Council, in light of Haiti’s escalating, multiple crises. O’Neill is a U.S. citizen who previously headed the legal department of the United Nations/Organization of American States Mission in Haiti and helped establish the Haiti National Police in 1995, reports the Miami Herald.
Calls for a multilateral security force to aid Haiti represent a “crisis of imagination in international relations,” argues Nanjala Nyabola in The Nation. “A polycrisis like Haiti’s requires a level of nuance that militaries are simply not equipped to deal with.”
Lula in China
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was in Shanghai today, ahead of his meeting tomorrow with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Beijing. The Brazilian government says the sides are expected to sign at least 20 bilateral agreements during Lula’s trip,
The trip represents a significant turnabout from rocky relations with China under Lula’s predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro, and is part of the current Brazilian government’s efforts to reposition the country as a key global player.
"The time when Brazil was absent from major world decisions is in the past," Lula said at a ceremony to inaugurate his political ally Dilma Rousseff as president of the BRICS New Development Bank. The institution posits itself as an alternative to the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, which are controlled mainly by the United States and its Western allies. ( Associated Press, AFP)
Lula called on developing countries to work towards replacing the US dollar with their own currencies in international trade. His statement, while on a trip to China, supports Beijing’s efforts to end dollar dominance of global commerce, reports the Financial Times.
Lula’s visit to the Huawei factory in Shanghai shows an effort to balance between the U.S. and China, reports Bloomberg.
Lula’s independent approach to foreign policy “risks alienating the U.S. and Europe,” according to the Washington Post.
Regional Relations
A few members of U.S. Congress are pushing the Biden administration to reassess its relationship with Ecuador’s President Guillermo Lasso, who faces impeachment on corruption allegations. “At play is the overall policy approach of the U.S. to Latin America, which critics say is doomed to fail because it often ignores human rights and corruption problems in the interest of cooperation on other issues such as immigration,” reports the Los Angeles Times.
The U.S. will need South American lithium to accelerate its energy transition. With the progressive governments of Argentina, Bolivia and Chile wary of partnership with the U.S., the Biden administration “must abandon the archaic, punitive policies in Latin America it inherited from previous administrations and engage constructively with the lithium triangle governments,” argue Kathryn Ledebur and Erika Weinthal in Foreign Policy.
The IMF should put the climate crisis at the center of global finance reform, argues international NGO Avaaz, in two reports, one of which focuses exclusively on Argentina as a paradigmatic case of a country that is an ecological creditor — which consumes less natural resources than it has — and a financial debtor. (Buenos Aires Herald)
Argentina
The International Monetary Fund slashed its growth outlook for Argentina this week, as private analysts warn a record drought will cause a deep recession, worsening an already untenable economic crisis in a presidential election year, reports Bloomberg.
Ecuador
Ecuador is in talks with the International Monetary Fund for a credit line of as much as $1 billion in response to several natural disasters in recent weeks — Bloomberg.
Migration
The United States, Panama and Colombia announced that they will launch a 60-day campaign aimed at halting illegal migration through the Darién Gap. The statement did not specify how they will curb a flow of migrants that numbered nearly 90,000 in the first three months of this year, reports the Associated Press.
El Salvador
The Inter American Commission on Human Rights called on El Salvador’s government to restore all the rights suspended under an “emergency” anti-gang decree that has been in place for a year. (Associated Press)
Colombia
About 800 members of Colombian Indigenous communities from Valle del Cauca arrived in Bogotá this week to meet with national authorities. They are demanding structural changes to address rampant violence and insecurity in their region, reports TeleSur.
Leaders of Cauca’s Indigenous movement supported President Gustavo Petro’s election last year, and “their expectations for the new government are high,” but “they are also pragmatic, recognizing that transformative change will likely only come through ongoing pressure and mobilization from below,” reports Nacla.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro suggested routine currency issuance from the country’s central bank should be used to make compensation payments to victims of the nation’s six-decade conflict. Bloomberg notes that Colombia’s independent Central Bank generally disregard’s the president’s wishes.
Peru
Former Peruvian interior minister Daniel Urresti was complicit in the 1988 killing of journalist Hugo Bustíos, according to a Peruvian court ruling yesterday. He was sentenced to 12 years in jail in relation to the killing of Bustíos, an episode that has cast a shadow over his political career. (BBC, Infobae)
Venezuela
Venezuela has arrested Colombian businessman Alvaro Pulido, wanted in the United States for allegedly running a network that exploited food aid, reports AFP.
Mexico
Mexico’s $6 billion purchase of electricity plants from Spain’s biggest power company is 30% cheaper than building new plants, according to President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. (Bloomberg)
Archeology
A stone scoreboard used in an ancient ritual ball game has been discovered at the Mayan Chichén Itzá archaeological site on Mexico’s Yucatán peninsula. (Reuters)
Critter Corner
Colombia has logged its first hippopotamus-caused road traffic accident — an example of the very real danger the invasive species (with a flashy, Netflix-worthy backstory) poses in Antioquia. (Guardian)