U.S. to donate $500 million to Amazon Fund
April 20, 2023
The U.S. Biden administration will promise to donate $500 million over five years to fight deforestation in Brazil. The move, which would require approval from Congress, would make the United States one of the largest donors to the global Amazon Fund.
The Amazon Fund, a conservation program, was established by Brazil in 2008 and has bankrolled efforts to curb deforestation in the world’s largest rainforest. Norway, the first and largest contributor to the fund, has donated more than $1.2 billion. Germany recently announced a $217 million donation. (New York Times)
John Kerry, President Biden’s special envoy for climate change, is expected to announce the pledge at today’s Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate meeting. The White House said in a fact sheet that the pledge comes “in the context of Brazil’s renewed commitment to end deforestation by 2030.” The U.S. is also expected to call on other countries to contribute to the fund. (White House, Reuters)
The announcement comes on the heels of U.S. pushback against Brazil’s multipolar diplomacy, particularly Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s statements about the Ukraine conflict. (See Tuesday’s post.)
It also follows a trip by Lula to China last week, in which the two countries reached significant substantive agreements for investments on telecoms, semiconductors, and energy, support in developing cybersecurity and 5G technology and in monitoring deforestation and climate change, as well as potentially soon a “bilateral green investment fund to finance and subsidize developing green and renewable energy.” (Latin America Risk Report)
“The Chinese government’s not-so-subtle message is that ties to the Middle Kingdom are far more rewarding—and problem-free—than Brazil’s relationship to the United States,” argued Oliver Stuenkel in Americas Quarterly, last week.
More Conservation
The U.S. Development Finance Corporation is also announcing today that it is working on a $50 million debt investment in BTG Pactual’s Restoration Strategy, which would help mobilize $1 billion to support the restoration of nearly 300,000 hectares of degraded lands in Brazil, Uruguay, and Chile. (White House)
Serabi Gold, London-listed company has been mining gold in the Amazon rainforest without approval from the Brazilian land agency or the consent of nearby Indigenous communities, according to an investigation by the Guardian.
Lula’s security chief resigns
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s security chief was forced to resign yesterday, after security camera footage showed him inside the presidential palace during the Jan. 8 attacks. Marcos Edson Gonçalves Dias is close to Lula, and there was no suggestion that he was involved in planning or facilitating the Brasília riots, reports the Guardian.
Images broadcast by CNN Brasil earlier Wednesday showed Dias milling about and opening doors rather than arresting invaders that day.
Although the general's presence in the area after the invasion was previously known, members of the opposition said the images support their narrative that Lula’s administration colluded with supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro to destroy government buildings in order to later incriminate them. (Associated Press, Reuters)
Biden and Petro to meet
U.S. President Joe Biden will meet with Colombian President Gustavo Petro today.
According to the White House, the agenda will focus on issues of climate change, counter narcotics trafficking, the regional migration challenge, and the promotion of “democratic values and human and labor rights in the region and the world.” (WOLA)
Petro has argued for drug decriminalization, at a time when Biden is under fire from political opponents for being weak on border security and stopping the flow of fentanyl from Mexican cartels who also traffic in Colombian cocaine. (USA Today, Bloomberg)
Tensions are high between Colombia and the U.S., but climate policy is an area of potential cooperation between Biden and Petro, reports Foreign Policy.
U.S. willingness to ease Venezuela sanctions in return for concrete steps toward free elections there are also on the agenda, reports Reuters.
“The Venezuelan government and the Unitary Platform of Venezuela need the international community’s support in reaching agreements and delivering proposals under a revised scheme of reciprocal gestures that might lead to a more democratic regime with free and fair elections, in exchange for the easing of current U.S. sanctions,” writes Colombian ambassador to the U.S. Luis Gilberto Murillo. (Latin America Advisor)
More Colombia
Colombias infamous drug hippos should serve as a parable to challenge the U.S. War on Drugs paradigm, argues Gabriel Pasquini in the Washington Post.
Colombia’s government “is unprepared for a deepening of its relationship with China from an economic, geopolitical, strategic, and oversight standpoint,” according to a new report from Colombia Risk Analysis. In part this is related to the trade imbalance between the two countries, and “the lack of a clear, coherent, and sustained foreign policy approach from Colombia.” But the report also notes that “institutions with a control and oversight role will be challenged by issues arising from Chinese infrastructure companies, as has already been the case both in Latin America and elsewhere around the world.”
More Brazil
Brazil is experiencing an “epidemic” of violence in schools, according to the Brazilian government, which has linked the issue to the spread of hate speech on social media platforms. (El País, see yesterday’s briefs)
Mexico
Mexico’s independent electoral institute, the INE, established in 1990 “symbolizes the hard-won victory of the people over their political elite,” writes Sandra Weiss in IPS, which is part of why President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s efforts to reform the institute have been so controversial for many citizens.
Peru
Peruvian authorities found a new oil spill near the Repsol SA-operated La Pampilla refinery. Repsol spilled over 10,000 barrels of oil into the Pacific Ocean in January 2022, the largest ever in Peru. (Bloomberg)
Bolivia
A new book details how mining titan Moritz “Mauricio” Hochschild helped Jews escape the Nazis in Bolivia, only to be scapegoated himself — Americas Quarterly
Argentina
An Argentine court will put eight healthcare professionals on trial over the 2020 death of Diego Maradona. (Guardian)