Latin America Daily Briefing (Dec. 2, 2021)

News Briefs

Regional Relations

• The Biden administration paused its review of U.S. policy towards Cuba in July, after Cuban authorities responded to massive social protests with an ongoing crackdown on dissent, Juan González, the National Security Council’s senior director for the Western Hemisphere, told NBC News. González wouldn’t say if and when restrictions on travel and remittances would be lifted and stated the administration is not looking at these isolated restrictions. “We’re looking at the whole policy," he said.
  
  
• Xiomara Castro’s victory in the Honduras presidential elections last Sunday puts the country at the heart of an intensifying diplomatic tug-of-war between Taiwan and China, reports the Guardian. Castro has said she will foster ties with Beijing in what experts see as a move to counter U.S. influence, and that the potential financial benefits might be too enticing to pass up.
  
  
• A major question is how the U.S. will respond to Castro, argues Dana Frank in a Washington Post opinion piece. "Castro, a democratic socialist, unseated a right-wing machinery that has been backed by Washington since the 2009 coup that deposed her husband, Manuel Zelaya ... Is the United States going to continue providing strategic support and cover for corrupt and illegitimate actors?"
  
  
• U.S. foreign policy in the region replicates past errors, argues Lívia Peres Milani in Nacla. "The U.S. government recognizes and condemns authoritarian trends in countries that resist U.S. hegemony, like Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Cuba ... in allied countries, like Brazil and Colombia, the administration is hesitant to recognize human rights violations and the deterioration of democracy."
  
  
• U.S. Senator Marco Rubio met with Chilean presidential candidate José Antonio Kast this week, reports The Intercept.  “I’m not a pinochetista, but I value everything he did,” Kast has said, adding that the dictatorship “laid the foundations of modernity.”
  

Guatemala

• Guatemalan prosecutors filed more charges against Juan Francisco Sandoval, anti-corruption prosecutor who fled to the United States in July. The charges of abuse of authority, fraud and conspiracy appear to be the government's latest attempt to interfere with anti-corruption efforts, reports the Associated Press.
  
  
• A U.S. State Department official visiting Guatemala expressed concern over reporters, corruption fighters and activists who have recently come under fire from the government. The U.S. Biden administration has repeatedly emphasized the need to tackle corruption in Guatemala and other Central American countries as part of an effort to stem record levels of migration, reports Reuters.

Migration

• The new short film, The Facility, documents abuses waged by the U.S. government against migrants through video-conference recordings with two people detained in Irwin County Detention Center, a notorious private facility used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. (El Faro English)
  
  
• Filippo Grandi, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), urged U.S. President Joe Biden's administration to do more, work faster and more strategically with Mexico and Central America to offer alternatives to illegal migration by improving security and job opportunities. (Reuters)
  
  
• Mexico’s foreign ministry has said the Mexican and US foreign development agencies will work together on a project to address the root causes of migration from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador -- Plantando Oportunidades. (Al Jazeera)
  

El Salvador

• The Inter-American Court of Human Rights that El Salvador violated the rights of a woman who died in prison while serving a 30-year sentence on an abortion conviction, reports the Washington Post.
  

Brazil

• Brazil’s senate approved André Mendonça, an evangelical former justice minister nominated by President Jair Bolsonaro, to fill a vacant position on the supreme court. Bolsonaro's move is seen as a nod to the conservative religious movement that helped bring him to power, reports the Associated Press. "One step for a man, one leap for evangelicals," said Mendonça yesterday, riffing on Neil Armtrong, reports O Globo.
  
  
• Bolsonaro formally joined the center-right Liberal Party this week, ahead of presidential elections in ten months. (See yesterday's briefs.) But the move should not be interpreted as an ideological shift towards the center, experts told the Dialogue's Latin America Advisor. 
  
  
• "It is a pragmatic marriage for political survival," said Anya Prusa of the Albright Stonebridge Group. "Despite his anti-establishment campaign in 2018, Bolsonaro has come to rely on the Centrão for the passage of his agenda and protection from impeachment. For its part, the PL will use Bolsonaro’s presence to boost down-ballot candidates ... and secure a stronger negotiating position in Congress post-election, even if Bolsonaro loses." (Dialogue's Latin America Advisor)
  
  
• "Brazilian society needs a pact to guarantee the republican impersonality of institutions," writes Pedro Abramovay in Piauí, in an article that dissects how politicized actors were able to undermine genuine efforts "to create strong republican institutions that would make it possible to break with centuries of patrimonialism," under former president Luis Inácio Lula da Silva.
  
  
• Brazil’s economy fell into a shallow recession this year dragged down by drought, a high interest rate and inflation. The development is another blow for Bolsonaro ahead of next year's presidential election, reports Bloomberg.
  
  
• Brazilian Economy Minister Paulo Guedes said that state-run oil company Petrobras should be privatized, reports Reuters.
  
  
• Favela Brasil Xpress is a startup delivery firm aimed at delivering e-commerce packages in Brazil's poorest neighborhoods, where residents have often been unable to make purchases because companies consider their areas risky. (Reuters)
  

Colombia

• The Luis Carlos Pérez Lawyers Collective Corporation is an all-female group of lawyers that provides legal representation to small-scale farmers and indigenous communities affected by the armed conflict in Colombia, reports the Guardian. "In a country named the deadliest in the world for human rights defenders, the team faces enormous risks, including threats, false accusations of criminal activity and links to illicit armed groups."
  

Argentina

• Argentina's former President Mauricio Macri has been charged with ordering the secret services to spy on relatives of 44 sailors who died when the Ara San Juan submarine sank in 2017, reports the BBC.
  

Mexico

• Mexican President Andés Manuel López Obrador held a massive rally in Mexico City yesterday to mark the midway point in his six-year term. Polls show that about two-thirds of Mexicans approve of the job he is doing, reports the Associated Press.
  
  
• Mexico's government and business groups have agreed to increase the daily minimum wage next year by 22 percent, AMLO announced yesterday. (Reuters)
  

Chile

• "Exceptional atmospheric conditions in northern Chile, an image of political stability, favorable tax policies, and diplomatic credentials for researchers have made the country a leader in international astronomy," but "Chilean scientists and civil society actors continue to question the relative balance of benefits they get for the globally unique natural attributes in their northern deserts, which make cutting-edge astronomy research possible." (Aula Blog)
  

Critter Corner

• Chilean researchers announced the discovery of a new species of ankylosaur, a family of dinosaurs known for their heavy armor. The Stegouros elengassen features a bizarre, bony tail shaped like a club that was wielded by Aztec warriors, reports the New York Times.

Did I miss something, get something wrong, or do you have a different take? Let me know ... 

Latin America Daily Briefing