South America won't send weapons to Ukraine

Jan. 31, 2023

Regional Relations

• Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva called Russia’s invasion of Ukraine a mistake, but avoided condemning the attack. Lula said Brazil would not provide ammunition to Ukraine for German-made Gepard anti-aircraft guns, as reportedly requested by Germany. (Reuters)

• German Chancellor Olaf Scholz sought to project unity on Ukraine during his whistlestop three-day tour of Argentina, Chile and Brazil, thanking them for condemning Russia's invasion at the United Nations General Assembly last year. Argentine President Alberto Fernández said his country would not send weapons, while Chilean Gabriel Boric avoided a question on the issue. (Reuters)

• Germany pledged $217 million to help Brazil’s Amazon conservation efforts, including $38m for the Amazon Fund, an international mechanism that aims to prevent deforestation; $87m in low-interest loans for farmers to restore degraded areas; and $34m for Brazilian states in the Amazon region to protect the rainforest. (Reuters, Al Jazeera)

• Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro applied for a six-month tourist visa to remain in the U.S. — there have been calls for the Biden administration to revoke Bolsonaro’s visa in the wake of violent attacks against Brazilian government buildings. (Reuters)

• A group of U.S. Democrats is urging the Biden administration to suspend all U.S. security assistance to Peru over a “pattern of repression” of antigovernment protests that has resulted in more than 50 civilian deaths, reports the Associated Press.

• The CELAC is largely irrelevant in regional policy-making, but marginal improvements in last week’s leaders’ summit — Nicolás Maduro’s decision not to attend and the U.S. decision to send Special Adviser for the Americas Christopher Dodd — signal potential, writes James Bosworth in World Politics Review.

• El Salvador has offered to send a technical mission to Haiti to prepare a comprehensive proposal on how to solve the country’s security and gang crisis in Haiti. The South-South cooperation proposal comes amid international reluctance to send military aid to Haiti, where gangs control large swathes of the country. El Salvador has implemented a controversial crackdown against gangs for nearly a year. (Miami Herald)

El Salvador

• A database leaked from El Salvador’s government corroborates massive due process violations, severe prison overcrowding and deaths in custody under the emergency powers put in place last March, according to Human Rights Watch. (Associated Press)

• El Salvador’s Bukele administration purchased three spyware tools from an intermediary firm of an Israeli ex-special operations official in 2020. The Police bought them for a "comprehensive investigation and analysis platform," according to the contract. Investigative journalists reporting stories critical of the government in El Salvador have been targets of spyware. (El Faro)

Mexico

• Reports of increasing extortion in southern Mexico suggest crackdowns on gangs in Central America may be pushing gang members to migrate, reports InSight Crime. Investigators believe that Salvadoran gang members are seeking to replicate their leading criminal economy in Chiapas.

• A series of murders and disappearance in Mexico’s Michoacán state, including that of two activists, members of the Nahua Indigenous community, have been connected to the Jalisco Cartel New Generation’s attempts to increase its control of illegal mining. (InSight Crime)

Ecuador

• Ecuador's government declared illegal mining a national security threat, saying it has connections to money laundering and arms trafficking, reports Reuters.

Brazil

• Malnutrition and other illnesses among Brazil's Yanomami people have been linked to illegal gold mining on their territory. (Deutsche Welle)

Critter Corner

• Deforestation has complicated efforts to protect the last remaining 3,000 Chacoan peccarys in Argentina. (Guardian)

• Bottlenose dolphins in southeast Brazil have been helping fishermen catch migratory mullet fish for 150 years — a rare instance of human-wildlife cooperation that benefits both sides. — New York Times