Trump says Mexico tariffs "on schedule"
Feb. 25, 2025
U.S. President Donald Trump said that tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports are "on time and on schedule" — though both countries have sought to improve border security and target fentanyl trafficking into the U.S. ahead of a March 4 deadline, negotiated to postpone tariffs that had been originally set to start this month.
“We've been mistreated very badly by many countries, not just Canada and Mexico. We've been taken advantage of," Trump said yesterday in a press conference at the White House, asked whether tariffs would move forward.
The threatened tariffs could kick off an early launch of a renegotiation of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada agreement on trade that is due by 2026, reports Reuters.
U.S. policies spur reverse migration
A Venezuelan child died when a boat carrying migrants towards Colombia capsized in waters off Panama over the weekend. The Venezuelans and Colombians aboard form part of a growing reverse migration trend: they are returning to their home countries in response to the U.S. Trump administration’s crackdown on migration, which includes a broad ban on asylum and the elimination of programs that offered migrants legal pathways to enter the United States, reports Reuters.
“Many of those migrants waited for months, sometimes more than a year, to apply for formal asylum in the U.S. using the Biden-era CBP One app. Those hopes were washed away when Trump took office and immediately closed down the app,” reports the Associated Press.
Many reverse migrants have hired smugglers to take them around the Darién jungle by boat. But last week, dozens appeared to have been assisted by Panamanian authorities, according to the Washington Post. Panama and Venezuela don’t have diplomatic relations, which makes flying migrants back complicated.
“Panamanian authorities instead opted for an “experiment,” several migrants recounted. They granted an initial group of about 50 migrants access to a route — by bus and then, by boat — that would take them through the daunting waters bypassing the Darien Gap and into Colombia,” reports the Washington Post.
Regional Relations
Two of the Venezuelan migrants deported from the U.S. — via Guantánamo Bay and Honduras — were “military officers who had defected from the Maduro regime. They face a high potential of being detained and tortured by the regime upon return,” notes James Bosworth at Latin America Risk Report.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro has suggested that Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel dominates the Colombian Ejercito Nacional de Liberación. But, “contrary to Petro’s comments, Mexican cartels have not managed to establish their own structures in Colombia to control cocaine production and trafficking,” according to InSight Crime. “Their presence remains sporadic and reliant on local actors.”
U.S. pressure against Panama achieved a diplomatic recalibration away from China, “however, not every country in the region will follow the same path. Each Latin American nation will navigate the U.S.-China power struggle differently, balancing strategic pressures with economic realities,” writes Brenda Estefan in Americas Quarterly. “Against this landscape, the U.S. will need to dedicate time and resources to a region that has for years felt left out of Washington’s priorities.”
Haiti
Haitian police officers demanded better protection and treatment a day after gunmen killed a Kenyan police officer who was part of a U.N.-backed mission charged with supporting Haitian security forces fighting criminal gangs, reports the Associated Press.
The Caribbean countries that pledged to deploy officers as part of the mission have, mostly, delayed their participation — both due to funding and safety concerns, reports the Miami Herald.
Last week, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres told Caribbean leaders he will propose to the Security Council a plan where the U.N. provides logistical and non-lethal support to the existing Kenyan-security mission and the salaries are paid for by voluntary contributions to a U.N.-controlled trust fund — instead of a full U.N. peacekeeping mission, reports the Miami Herald.
Argentina
Spanish company Telefónica’s sale of its Argentine mobile, pay TV and broadband business sparked a backlash from President Javier Milei who said the deal threatened “free” competition and would be subject to oversight by regulators and competition authorities, reports the Financial Times.
Regional
An annual United Nations conference on biodiversity will resume today the negotiations carried out last year in COP16. (Associated Press) The additional meeting in Rome was called after talks in Cali, Colombia, were suspended in November when they overran and delegates left to catch flights home, reports the Guardian.
Uruguay
Yamandú Orsi will be inaugurated as Uruguay’s president on March 1. With a narrow majority in the Senate, and just shy of a majority in the lower chamber of Congress, the Frente Amplio government will have to negotiate within its coalition and externally in order to advance its legislative agenda. “Orsi’s primary governance challenge will be to manage expectations among his own coalition’s most radical wing and the powerful PIT-CNT labor confederation, whose members are loyal to the FA and provide the majority of its voters on election days,” writes Arturo C. Porzecanski in Americas Quarterly.
History
In recent years, Mexico’s queer community has reclaimed the story of Amelio Robles, a hero of the Mexican Revolution, and of the country’s earliest transgender icons - Nacla