Bolsonaro shrugs off 5,000 coronavirus deaths (April 29, 2020)

News Briefs

Brazil

• Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro refuses to take the coronavirus seriously, even as the country's Covid-19 death count has topped 5,000. “So what?” Bolsonaro told reporters when asked about the record 474 deaths that day. “I’m sorry. What do you want me to do?” (Guardian)

• Bolsonaro's behavior created a political crisis on top of the Covid-19 related health and economic crises the country is facing, reports the Washington Post. This week the country's Supreme Court authorized a probe into whether Bolsonaro tried to manipulate the federal police for political gain -- building on a public accusation from his former justice minister Sérgio Moro. (See yesterday's post.)

• Brazil's Federal Police force has again become a tool to persecute political adversaries under Bolsonaro, said Open Society Latin America Program director Pedro Abramovay in an interview with El País. (See yesterday's post.)

• Public defenders in Brazil sued federal, São Paulo state and city authorities to release coronavirus data. Greater transparency is needed in order to plan and combat the novel virus, they said. (Open Knowledge Brasil, see also Folha de S. Paulo)

• Open Knowledge Brasil's Transparencia Covid-19 evaluates the quality of information given by authorities regarding the novel coronavirus pandemic in the country. 

Migration

• The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has continued to deport migrants, even as its detention centers have become Covid-19 hotspots, effectively exporting the virus to several countries in the region, according to a new CEPR study looking at deportation flights to Latin America and the Caribbean.

Nicaragua

• Nicaragua’s government is actively promoting illegal land grabs and granting concessions to mining and timber companies in indigenous territories, according to a new Oakland Institute report. (Associated Press)

Colombia

• Colombian authorities said that they have opened an investigation into the possible involvement of government officials in contract irregularities linked to the country’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, reports the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project.

• There are at least 14 coronavirus-related criminal probes in Colombia, reported the Washington Post earlier this week.

El Salvador

• Photos of Salvadoran prison inmates stripped to their shorts and jammed together on prison floors while their cells were searched shocked observers in the midst of social distancing norms aimed at preventing coronavirus contagion. Particularly in El Salvador, where the government has been adamant that health concerns trump human rights, reports the Washington Post. (See Monday's post.)

• Democracy is shaky in El Salvador right now, but it's important to note that President Nayib Bukele's electoral success was possible last year due to mainstream parties' increasing lack of legitimacy, reports Deutsche Welle. (See Monday's post.)

Venezuela

• Venezuela is no stranger to isolation -- it has a long history imposed by dictatorship rather than virus, writes Carlos Vecchio in Foreign Policy.

Regional

• A U.S. navy deployment of warships to the Caribbean -- ostensibly aimed at combatting drug traffickers -- expensive and ineffective for that particular task, reports InSight Crime. Of course, many analysts suspect that the mission, which includes destroyers, littoral combat ships, Coast Guard cutters, P-8 patrol aircraft, helicopters, and surveillance drones -- will be suspiciously close to Venezuela. (See April 2's post.)

• As the coronavirus pandemic has pummeled commerce and economic activity, numerous countries are facing deep recessions. Today's Latin America Advisor asks, to what extent are banks in Latin America and the Caribbean at risk from potential corporate debt defaults?

• U.S. President Donald Trump floated the possibility that airlines would have to test travelers coming from South America for coronavirus, reports the Hill.

Cuba

• Cuban design startup Clandestina was booted from an e-commerce site due to U.S. restrictions on trade with Cuba. The internationally recognized fashion company denounced that U.S. policies are strangling private businesses in Cuba, and specifically points fingers at U.S. Senator Marco Rubio. (Nuevo Heraldo) Fight for a country free of dictatorship, retorted Rubio. (Diario de Cuba)

• Cuban authorities say more than 2,000 Cubans who were abroad have returned to the island since the coronavirus pandemic broke out. (On Cuba News)

• Social distancing has its own specific challenges in Cuba, where most homes lack electronics to keep kids entertained inside, according to the Havana Times.

Mexico

• There are reports of aggression towards healthcare workers in several countries -- attacks because people are concerned they are vectors of contagion. The issue is particularly marked in Mexico, where about 500 health care professionals are among the confirmed Covid-19 cases, reports the New York Times.

• Mexico's northern states -- Coahuila, Nuevo León and Tamaulipas -- have organized a stricter regional response to coronavirus, triggering calls for #Nortexit. Javier Garza Ramos explores the regional divisions in Mexico in the Post Opinión.

• Oil price crashes and the coronavirus could turn Pemex into a crushing financial burden for Mexico, rather than the economic savior President Andrés Manuel López Obrador was counting on, reports the Washington Post.

Guyana

• Guyana's political crisis threatens to derail the country's incipient oil boom, reports World Politics Review.

Argentina

• Argentina's controversial Vaca Muerta fracking project could become a coronavirus victim -- and a bellwether for the post-pandemic world's relationship with fossil fuels, reports the Guardian.

Music

• Renata Flores, a rap artist who performs in Quechua, is part of a new generation of artists "combining the bouncing beats of Latin trap, rap and reggaeton popularized by artists like Bad Bunny with the sounds of the Peruvian countryside," reports the New York Times.

• Brazilian guitarist Cainã Cavalcante is broadcasting split-screen jams with other locked-down musicians -- "Quarentena Sessions" (Guardian)

Critter corner

• Extreme weather events may bend the evolutionary course of hundreds of species -- according to a scientific study on how Caribbean lizards brave hurricanes. (New York Times)

I hope you're all staying safe and as sane as possible, given the circumstances ... And in these times of coronavirus, when we're all feeling a little isolated, feel especially free to reach out and share.

Latin America Daily Briefing