South American forest devastation
May 21, 2025
The destruction of the world’s forests reached the highest level ever recorded in 2024, driven by a surge in fires caused by global heating, according to a new analysis by Global Forest Watch.
Forest loss in Brazil reached record rates last year, fueled by fire and the worst drought on record in the Amazon. The country accounted for 42% of all primary rainforest loss in the tropics, losing more than 25,000 sq km, (Guardian)
In Bolivia, the loss of previously untouched forest continued to rise, ranking second behind Brazil in overall loss for the first time, driven by drought, fire and government policies promoting agricultural expansion for soya, cattle and sugar cane. The loss of Bolivia’s primary forest has increased nearly fivefold since 2020, reaching more than 14,000 sq km. (Guardian)
Devastating forest fires in Bolivia’s Pantanal region are the result of government policies authorizing controlled burnings to enable expansion of agricultural activities in forest areas that had previously been protected by law, writes Jhanisse Vaca Daza in the Journal of Democracy. But fires are not only for economic purposes, but also sustain political patronage and criminal activities, she warns, characterizing the Morales government as autocratic.
Colombia lost nearly 88,900 hectares of forest — an area larger than New York City — in just six months, from October 2024 to March of this year, driven by the rapid spread of illegal roads, coca cultivation, and unregulated mining, according to a new report by Colombia’s procurator’s office. (Associated Press)
Venezuela releases U.S. detainee
Venezuela’s government released a U.S. Air Force veteran who was detained in the country, reports the New York Times.
Joseph St. Clair was released and accompanied by President Donald Trump’s envoy Richard Grenell back to the U.S. after meetings in Antigua, reports Bloomberg. Grenell had met there with Jorge Rodriguez, the head of Venezuela's ruling party-allied legislature, according to Reuters.
The release occurred on the same day the U.S. was set to give Chevron another 60-day waiver to operate in Venezuela. After landing in Washington, Grenell said that as a result of “progress” made with the Venezuelan government, the Trump administration will grant an extension for Chevron’s oil operations in Venezuela. (Washington Post)
Mexico
The brazen daylight assassinations of two close advisors of Mexico City mayor Clara Brugada, yesterday, “are the highest-profile attacks on government officials in Mexico City since the assassination attempt on the city’s then police chief Omar García Harfuch five years ago,” reports the Guardian. (See yesterday’s briefs.)
“The attack comes after a long string of killings of local politicians after a year of heightened political violence,” reports the Washington Post.
Mexican activists uncovered a “death camp” run by a brutal drug cartel in Colima — the second such find in two months — adding pressure on President Claudia Sheinbaum to tackle a the country’s long-standing crisis of enforced disappearances, reports the Financial Times.
“Mexico’s criminal landscape may be on the brink of a profound transformation as the ongoing war between two rival factions of the Sinaloa Cartel threatens to split the group in two,” according to a new Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED) report. (InSight Crime)
Brazil
“Russia’s intelligence services turned Brazil into an assembly line for deep-cover operatives. A team of federal agents from the South American country has been quietly dismantling it,” reports the New York Times.
Regional Relations
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested yesterday that the Organization of American States play a greater role in Haiti — he acknowledged Haiti is being overtaken by criminal gangs and a U.S.-backed mission led by Kenya is struggling to restore peace and stability, reports the Miami Herald.
Deportations
The Dominican Republic has expelled hundreds of pregnant and breastfeeding women to Haiti in the past month, violating international standards, the UN said yesterday. (AFP)
Regional
“North America already is an integrated economic region,” argues Sergio A. Luna in Americas Quarterly. “This is not the result of NAFTA or the USMCA. Rather, these treaties are the framework we have devised to govern a reality forged by myriad agents who interact every day across the border, driven by a simple but powerful principle: It makes good business sense.”
El Salvador
“El Salvador’s recent $1.4 billion bailout by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) aimed to cut short President Nayib Bukele’s unwieldy cryptocurrency goals and their toll on the country’s worsening debt crisis. … But the country’s continued bitcoin purchases threaten to break the IMF’s rules. The fund’s lackluster response risks not only El Salvador’s economic stability, but also the IMF’s own credibility,” argues Samuel Johnson-Saeger at the Council on Foreign Relations.
Argentina
Argentine President Javier Milei dissolved a special investigative unit he himself established to probe alleged wrongdoing in his controversial promotion of the “$LIBRA” cryptocurrency, reports the Buenos Aires Times.
Bolivia
Bolivia’s top electoral tribunal disqualified former President Evo Morales from running in the August presidential vote and suspended the candidacy of the other main leftist contender, Andrónico Rodríguez, catapulting President Luis Arce’s candidate into the ranks of front-runners despite the government’s unpopularity, reports the Associated Press.
Peru
“In Peru’s Amazon, Indigenous communities face an escalating threat from organized crime, yet remain largely invisible to the state,” reports InSight Crime.
A Spanish tourist said an armed gang calling themselves “river pirates” robbed her and her family aboard a boat traveling down the Amazon River in Peru, reports the Guardian.
Critter Corner
Tigers, monkeys, jaguars, elephants and lions, formerly exotic “narco pets” , are fleeing the latest wave of cartel violence in the northern Mexican city of Culiacán, reports the Associated Press.