U.S. President Donald Trump received his Salvadoran counterpart, Nayib Bukele, in the White House yesterday. The meeting turned into a celebration of the relationship between the two leaders, and of their new deportation cooperation policy — the U.S. is paying El Salvador to receive and incarcerate migrants who the Trump administration claims are affiliated with criminal gangs.
“I have the best relationship with him,” Trump said of Bukele, saying he would seek to also deport U.S.-citizens with criminal sentences to El Salvador. “Homegrown criminals are next. I said, homegrowns are next,” he told Bukele. “You’ve got to build about five more places.” (Miami Herald)
In a bizarre twist, both Trump and Bukele claim to be powerless to return Kilmar Abrego García — a man deported from the U.S. by “administrative error” and incarcerated in El Salvador. The Guardian notes that it’s difficult to find an term more apt than “Kafkaesque” to describe the case, which is shaping up to be a legal litmus test for Trump’s general deportation policy. (See also Guardian.)
Deportations
Most of the 238 men deported to El Salvador in March “do not have criminal records in the United States or elsewhere in the region, beyond immigration offenses, a New York Times investigation has found. And very few of them appear to have any clear, documented links to the Venezuelan gang,” Tren de Aragua.
“A 19-year-old Venezuelan in New York City reportedly was apprehended by Trump administration immigration authorities and deported to El Salvador despite agents’ realizing he was not whom they meant to arrest in a targeted operation,” reports the Guardian.
A U.S. federal judge stopped the Trump administration from rescinding deportation protections and work permits for more than a half-million Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans who were granted entrance into the United States under a humanitarian parole program during the Biden presidency, reports the Miami Herald. (See also New York Times, CBS.)
Haiti
Haiti’s government announced yesterday that it approved what it called a “war budget” of $275,000 aimed at alleviating the country’s crisis as gang violence surges, reports the Associated Press.
Haiti’s powerful Viv Ansanm gang coalition has ratcheted up violence in new parts of the country, and the U.S. State Department and the Caribbean Community condemned apparent efforts to overthrow the transitional government, reports the Miami Herald.
Ecuador
Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa’s 12-point win in Sunday’s runoff election was surprising, but there is no indication of fraud — as accused by his opponent Luisa González on Sunday. A growing number of prominent members of her Revolución Ciudadana party recognized Noboa’s victory yesterday. (Reuters)
“The wide margin has multiple causes, as varied as self-inflicted errors on the part of Correa’s party, the commitment to ‘a new way,’ and, above all, an unexpected ‘Trump effect,’” reports El País.
With no evidence of irregularities, James Bosworth of the Latin America Risk Report chalks the victory up to “political organization and campaigning as well as some missteps (more obvious in hindsight) by RC and González. The power of incumbency certainly helped, but not in a way that is illegal or different from how any incumbent anywhere uses their advantages. People can criticize conditions around the margins (as is true in many elections), but Noboa won this.” (See yesterday’s post.)
Brazil
Brazil’s new trade reciprocity law came into force yesterday — the measure, passed by Congress last month — permits the country to take commercial measures against country’s that unilaterally apply barriers to Brazilian products. (Agencia Brasil)
Argentina
Argentina's peso slid 10% yesterday after the country undid large parts of its currency and capital controls at the end of last week, part of sealing a $20 billion loan program with the International Monetary Fund, reports Reuters.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he met with Argentine President Javier Milei yesterday to underscore the Trump administration's full support for economic reforms that were bringing the Latin American country "back from the precipice." (Reuters)
The U.S. Trump administration is pulling Latin America into its trade war with China. “What we are trying to keep from happening is what has happened on the African continent,” Bessent told Bloomberg in an interview in Buenos Aires yesterday, after pushing Argentina to stop using Chinese financing.
Venezuela
Venezuela’s economy is unraveling yet again as key oil revenue dries up due to renewed economic sanctions, reports the Associated Press.
Trump boasted that aggressive U.S. sanctions imposed by his administration are causing Venezuela’s mounting financial crisis. (Miami Herald)
Francisco Rodriguez and co-authors at CEPR contest recent findings by Dany Bahar and Ricardo Hausmann at CGD questioning the established empirical relationship between sanctions, economic shocks, and emigration; noting concerns surrounding variable and model specification choices. (Via Americas Migration Brief.)
Mexico
Mexico's federal government is negotiating with its northern states to send more water to the United States, President Claudia Sheinbaum said today. (Reuters)
Peru
“A recent amendment to Peru’s Forestry and Wildlife Law is drawing fierce backlash from environmental groups and Indigenous groups that warn it could accelerate deforestation in the Amazon rainforest under the guise of economic development,” reports the Associated Press.
Caribbean
LGBTQ+ activists in the Caribbean region are concerned about a recent Supreme Court ruling in Trinidad and Tobago that reinstituted a colonial era “buggery law,” and plan to take a challenge to the UK privy council, reports the Guardian.