US quietly fighting to expand Title 42 to Cubans, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans

The Biden administration in the United States is currently fighting the Trump administration’s Title 42 immigration policy in court. The policy prevents migrants and asylum seekers from entering the country under the argument that this prevents the spread of COVID-19. A new Reuters scoop, however, reveals that the Biden administration “is quietly pressing Mexico to accept more migrants from Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela” in an effort to further limit migration to the US. The authors add, “Mexico already accepts U.S. returns of migrants from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. So far, this fiscal year about 299,000 people from those nations have been expelled at the border, compared to about 9,000 returns from Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela.” But migration from the latter three countries is on the rise, particularly among Venezuelans crossing the dangerous Darien Gap between Colombia and Panama. According to El Universo, 500-700 Venezuelans traverse Ecuador by bus each day, returning north from countries such as Peru, Chile, and Argentina. According to an estimate by a bus terminal administrator in the north of Ecuador cited by the outlet, roughly 60% of these migrants intend to head to the United States.

Argentina

• Inflation in Argentina reached 78.5% in August despite government efforts, reports Reuters. According to Bloomberg, another increase in central bank interest rates is likely.

Bolivia 

• “Bolivia is the only country in the Lithium Triangle with existing legislation to reach the goal of a greener and more just extraction process,” and requires input from Indigenous communities with regards to its lithium production process, explains New Security Beat.

Brazil

• Bolsonarista federal deputy Douglas Garcia verbally attacked journalist Vera Magalhães—who had previously been verbally attacked by Bolsonaro during the first presidential debate—following a debate for the São Paulo governor’s race. This received heavy criticisms from presidential candidates, notes Globo. 

• YouTube algorithms disproportionately recommend pro-Bolsonaro videos to users, reports Folha. 

• “In Brazil’s favelas, residents grow vegetables in large-scale community gardens, as inflation and supply-chain problems push more into hunger,” reports The Wall Street Journal. Meanwhile, the Economy Ministry has improved its predictions for GDP growth for 2022 from 2% to 2.7%, notes UOL. 

Caribbean

• “Vice President Kamala Harris will sit down with the leaders of five Caribbean nations to discuss proposals for addressing energy security, financing and food security matters in the region,” today, reports the Miami Herald. Three Caribbean presidents and two prime ministers will be in attendance, representing the countries of Suriname, Guyana, the Dominican Republic, Barbados, and Trinidad and Tobago.

Chile

• Ciper analyzes the potential role disinformation may have played in Chile’s overwhelming rechazo of a new constitution.

• “Generally speaking the Chilean public still supports fundamental political changes, and the September 4 reject vote was primarily an indication of the population’s grievances with the specific content” of the previously proposed constitution, write James Bosworth and Lucy Hale at the Latin America Risk Report.

Colombia

• Rugby Social Bogotá is an organization “that stresses life lessons in team-building can offer new opportunities for underprivileged youths growing up in poverty, and hopefully shows them there can be more to life than the conditions into which they were born,” explains the Daily Dose. The organization is targeted towards children from Bogotá’s toughest and most violent neighborhoods, dubbed the ‘misery belt.’ 

El Salvador

• The Human Rights Commission of the US House of Representatives held a meeting that criticized El Salvador’s state of emergency and the human rights violations being committed, and while most Democratic representatives were fiercely critical of the Bukele administration’s actions, some Republicans hesitated to condemn the actions of the Salvadoran government, reports El Faro.

Mexico

• Chinese manufacturers have been using plants and warehouses across the globe, including in Mexico, to avoid US tariffs and find a workaround for lengthening supply chains, says Bloomberg.

• A new Insight Crime investigation follows the story of a Guatemalan man whose previous gang involvement and subsequent lack of job opportunities led him to become a sicario for a local Mexican kingpin, and eventually a member of the Jalisco Cartel New Generation (CJNG).

• The increase of digital nomads - people who travel while working remotely - in Mexico City have spurred a gentrification problem, as their dollarized salaries are causing housing prices to increase and pushing out locals, reports Reuters.

Nicaragua

• The Irish charity Trócaire is the latest to be forced to cease operations in Nicaragua as Daniel Ortega ramps up censorship and systematic repression of human rights organizations and government critics, according to the Irish Times.

Regional

• A new insight from Vanderbilt University’s LAPOP Americas Barometer covers survey data from across the region, noting, “Across the Americas, levels of willingness to trade elections for material guarantees vary significantly. Although no clear connection appears to exist between a country’s actual frequency of election malpractice (as measured by the Freedom House) and the public’s average willingness to trade elections, individuals’ perception that elections are clean—as operationalized by their level of trust in elections—is negatively correlated with willingness to trade away elections. In brief, electoral integrity matters, at the level of individual perception, in explaining commitment to elections.” 

• The executive president of the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI), Dante Mossi, was elected in November 2018 with support from Nicaragua, and has since provided around a quarter of the bank’s operations in the country, leading to the title “the banker of the dictators,” according to Confidencial.

Venezuela

• Limited economic measures, lack of strong regional pressure, and a weak opposition have allowed Nicolás Maduro to strengthen his once-tenuous hold over Venezuela, assesses GIS. According to John Polga-Hecimovich, Maduro’s position offers three possible outcomes for any potential negotiations: limited easing of sanctions, full easing of sanctions, or regime breakdown.