News Briefs
Cuba
- Yunior García, a leader in Cuba's Archipelago dissident movement, said he will walk alone, in silence, and holding a white rose, the day before a planned demonstration on Monday to show the movement's non-violent nature. (Reuters, see yesterday's post.)
Migration
- The number of Haitian migrants attempting to cross into the United States fell by more than 90 percent in October, after the U.S. Biden administration ramped up deportation flights despite human rights concerns, reports the Washington Post.
Brazil
- Former U.S. President Donald Trump and his allies are exporting their strategy of questioning negative electoral results to Latin America’s largest democracy. Faced with falling poll numbers, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is already questioning the legitimacy of next year’s election, where he plans to run for reelection, reports the New York Times.
- Bolsonaro's efforts to replace a well-regarded anti-poverty program with his own subsidy to the poor, and attempting to bypass a constitutional spending cap to do so, marks a return to fiscal incontinence in Brazil, warns The Economist. (See yesterday's post.)
- Former judge Sergio Moro, who served as Bolsonaro's justice minister, announced his own presidential bid. Moro, who presided over the Operation Car Wash investigation and has been accused of using the case politically, seeks to position himself as a centrist alternative between Bolsonaro and former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. (Reuters)
- Latin American leaders' promises at COP26 fall far short of what is needed to avoid climate disaster -- particularly concerning for a region that faces catastrophic impacts -- Latin America Advisor.
- Fossil fuels are a big source of revenue for some Latin American governments -- "The faster the decarbonization process ends up being, the more disruptive it will be for the region," warn Luisa Palacios and Francisco Monaldi in Americas Quarterly, looking at how countries are poised to adapt and how they could plan decarbonization strategies.
- Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador called on the world’s 1,000 richest people and 1,000 highest-value private corporations to voluntarily contribute 4 percent of their fortunes annually to a $1 trillion fund that he said would fight “marginalization and misery.” (Washington Post)
Mexico
- AMLO opponents have struggled to find a winning message and are in disarray. In Americas Quarterly Nick Burns suggests that they should counter the president's "straight-talking, anti-establishment stance" with "a calmer, more consensus-oriented tack," like the one U.S. President Joe Biden took against Donald Trump.
- Mexico opened its first public hospital for trans people -- AFP.
- The connections between organized crime and illegal logging in Mexico are growing increasingly strong, reports InSight Crime -- 70 percent of wood cut down between 2017 and 2019 lacked the proper permits. Much of this deforestation is also linked to the avocado industry.
Argentina
- Argentina's midterm elections on Sunday could determine President Alberto Fernandez's ability to govern effectively for the remaining two years of his term. His Frente de Todos coalition is expected to lose seats in Congress, following a battering in September's open primaries. (AFP, see yesterday's briefs and last Friday's post.)
- Ultra-conservative, anti-establishment candidate Javier Milei will likely win a seat in Argentina's Chamber of Deputies in this weekend's midterm elections. It will be the first time the extreme right will be represented in Argentina’s Congress since the country's return to democracy in 1983. His surprising rise responds to a weakening of Argentina's dominant parties, reports El País.
- Honduras has seen a surge in marijuana seizures and plantations, indicating a booming trade in illegal cannabis that stands to benefit MS-13, the country’s largest street gang, reports InSight Crime.
Chile
- The Atacama Desert in Chile is increasingly suffering from pollution caused by fast fashion -- Al Jazeera.
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