Venezuela-U.S. prisoner swap
Dec. 21, 2023
Venezuela released ten U.S. citizens and a fugitive wanted by U.S. authorities in exchange for the release of Alex Saab, a Colombian businessman with close ties to Venezuela’s Maduro government.
“The deal represents the Biden administration’s boldest move yet to improve relations with” Venezuela, reports the Associated Press. “The release of Saab, long regarded by Washington as a bagman for Maduro, is a significant concession to the Venezuelan leader.”
The U.S.-citizen detainees were back on U.S. soil late yesterday. The agreement also resulted in the return to U.S. custody of Leonard Glenn Francis, known as “Fat Leonard,” involved in a major Pentagon bribery scandal.
The deal, the result of months of negotiations mediated by Qatar, came after the White House said it would need to see progress on prisoner releases in order to continue with energy sanctions relief for Caracas, reports Reuters.
The agreement also requires Maduro’s government to release 20 Venezuelan political prisoners, which would bring it into compliance with the Barbados Agreement, an October deal that secures advances towards free and fair presidential elections in 2024. (CBS) Maduro also committed to releasing Roberto Abdul, who was charged with treason after organizing a recent primary election that opposition leader Maria Corina Machado won to be a presidential candidate in 2024, reports the Miami Herald.
Six Venezuelan activists, longtime education campaigners convicted on conspiracy charges this year, have been freed already, reports Al Jazeera.
U.S. President Joe Biden said the United States would hold Maduro’s government accountable for holding fair elections next year. “Not over yet,” Biden said. “They’ve made detailed commitments. We’ll see if they hold them.” (Washington Post)
Biden administration officials declined to say whether Maduro had agreed to let Machado appear on the ballot in 2024 as part of the secretive negotiations, reports the Miami Herald.
“The United States is increasingly interested in improving the economic situation in Venezuela to try to address the arrival of large numbers of Venezuelan migrants at the southern U.S. border,” notes the New York Times.
Regional Relations
Venezuela’s claim to Guyana’s Essequibo region is periodically renewed in response to domestic and international politics — this time, it has the potential to snarl the Biden administration’s efforts to thaw relations with the Maduro government, reports the New York Times.
Milei announces omnibus deregulation decree
Argentine President Javier Milei announced a mega presidential decree that will strike down or amend more than 300 pieces of legislation. "The goal is to start along the path to rebuilding the country," Milei said in a speech broadcast on television and radio. “Today we are taking our first step to end Argentina’s model of decline.”
The measure strikes down major regulations covering Argentina’s housing rental market, export customs arrangements, land ownership, food retailers and more. It also modifies rules for the airline, healthcare, pharmaceuticals and tourism sectors. It relaxes labor regulations and severely limits the right to strike in a number of sectors, including pharmaceutical production, the press, and export industries. (Full text at Página 12.)
The new rules also change the legal statuses of the country’s state-owned companies, which include an airline, media companies and energy group YPF, paving the way for their privatization, reports the Financial Times.
The “megadecree” is without precedent in Argentina, and many experts doubt its legality, reports Ámbito.
Under Argentina’s constitution, presidents can issue “decrees of urgency and necessity” when “exceptional circumstances make it impossible to follow ordinary procedures.” (Financial Times)
The decree will now be sent to Congress, where it would only be invalidated if it is rejected by both chambers, reports the Buenos Aires Times. The decision must be reached by Jan. 15, reports Página 12. Lawmakers must approve or reject the measure in its entirety, without modifications.
This morning Milei warned lawmakers that rejection would evidence who is “against progress and who is caste,” his derogatory term for the political establishment. He also promised to send more reform bills to Congress, including government reform. (La Nación)
Hundreds of protesters gathered outside of Congress and on the streets of Buenos Aires last night to demonstrate against the measure. Many banged pots, a “cacerolazo” protest.
The country’s union confederation is considering calling a strike against Milei’s decree. (La Política Online)
Earlier yesterday, social movements carried out a demonstration against the Milei administration’s austerity measures and an anti-protest protocol. The march was executed without clashes. Authorities directed protesters away from roads and onto pavements so traffic could pass, reports Reuters. (See yesterday’s post.)
More Argentina
Milei “is a free-market libertarian, devotee of Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman, and the Chicago School of Economics. And he is starting to implement in Argentina a cocktail mix of orthodox liberalism that will make years of IMF intervention, Reaganomics, and the Washington Consensus feel like child’s play,” wrote Pablo Calvi in The Nation yesterday, before the new measures were announced.
China has suspended a US$6.5 billion currency swap agreement with Argentina, and the freeze remains in effect until Milei demonstrates a clear intention to engage with Beijing. (South China Morning Post)
Regional Relations
U.S. federal prosecutors indicted an alleged member of the Hezbollah terrorist organization who is accused of helping to orchestrate the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center in Argentina that killed 85 people, reports the Washington Post.
Regional
A team of Brazilian and Argentine researchers found commonalities between supporters of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and Argentine President Javier Milei. Among other things, they found strong support for “the ideas that the protection of human rights hampers the fight against crime, and that the internet reveals truths that the mainstream media hides,” reports Americas Quarterly.
In a similar vein, analysis of voting in Argentina and Brazil suggests that despite differences, Milei and Bolsonaro “have both been able to mobilize a sense of outrage related to a decline in the quality of life in these countries,” reports the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung. “Both campaigns stood out for their neoconservative agendas, as well as hate speech fomented through social media with the use of network engagement technologies and fake news.”
Across the Caribbean nations are increasingly grappling with conflicts between luxury real estate developments —that governments say could be economically critical — and residents who say these projects put foreigners ahead of those countries’ citizens, reports Brian Ellsworth in Americas Quarterly.
Mexico
A string of mass killings in Mexico have drawn renewed attention to the government’s struggle to control the violence raging across the country, reports the New York Times.
Migration
There were a record numbers of illegal crossings into the U.S. this month — authorities are surpassing 10,000 encounters with migrants along the southern border per day, reports the Washington Post.
Chile
The arrest and repatriation of Pedro Barrientos, accused of assassinating leftist troubadour Victor Jara in the aftermath of the 1973 coup against Salvador Allende, “mark a historic milestone in Chile’s ongoing quest for accountability for the atrocious violations of human rights that defined the Pinochet dictatorship,” writes Peter Kornbluh in The Nation.
Costa Rica
Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves threatened last week to withdraw from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights should it rule against absolute abortion restrictions in the Beatriz abortion case. (El Faro English)
Guatemala
Though it is still uncertain whether Guatemalan president-elect Bernardo Arévalo will succeed at taking office on Jan. 14, his election this year created “a rare, narrow democratic opening that, one year ago, seemed a far-flung improbability,” reports El Faro English in its 2023 roundup.