Haiti's deepening legitimacy crisis (July 9, 2021)

 At least 17 people, including two US citizens, have been arrested in Haiti, in relation to the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse Wednesday. Haitian authorities described several of the suspects as “foreigners.” The president was killed by a heavily armed commando unit composed of 26 Colombians and two Haitian Americans, authorities have said.

Seven people were reportedly killed as Haitian security forces pursued the gunmen responsible for the killing. Two of the suspects, allegedly foreign, were reportedly caught by citizens, who turned them over to police. Angry citizens also set fire to vehicles thought to have been used in the attack. Haiti’s interim prime minister, Claude Joseph, called on citizens not to lynch suspects, as a mob surrounded a police station where some of the detainees were held. 

Authorities tracked the suspected assassins on Wednesday to a house near the scene of the crime in Petionville, a suburb of Port-au-Prince. Helen La Lime, the top U.N. official in Haiti, told reporters that a group of suspects had “taken refuge in two buildings in the city and are now surrounded by police.” A firefight lasted late into the night.

Police chief Charles Leon presented 17 men before journalists late yesterday, some showing signs of physical injuries, along with a number of Colombian passports plus assault rifles, machetes, walkie-talkies and materials including bolt cutters and hammers. As of yesterday evening officials had not given a motive for the killing, nor provided evidence of the detainees alleged involvement.

In videos filmed from nearby buildings and synchronized by the New York Times, the group of commandos who appeared to be arriving to assassinate Moïse shouted that they were part of a U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency operation.

Colombia’s defense minister, Diego Molano, said that preliminary information indicated that six Colombians involved in the attack, two of whom died, were retired members of the country’s military, and that the country would collaborate in the investigation.

The Embassy of Taiwan in Port-au-Prince said that Haitian police had entered its embassy grounds and seized 11 suspects holed up there.

Joseph, the prime minister who recently resigned his post, said he is in charge and has declared martial law throughout the country. But Ariel Henry, a politician and neurosurgeon who was newly appointed last week by Moïse to be prime minister, claims he’s in charge, even though he has not been sworn in.

Joseph told the Associated Press he had spoken three times with Henry and that there was agreement he was in charge for now. “He was actually designated but never took office,” Joseph said of Henry. “ However, in a separate AP interview, Henry appeared to contradict Joseph. “It’s an exceptional situation. There is a bit of confusion,” he said. “I am the prime minister in office.”

It’s not clear if Joseph holds power or if he has a power base, Haitian journalist Monique Clesca told Americas Quarterly.

The U.S. sided with Joseph, motivated by fear of a mass refugee situation like that which followed the 1991 coup in Haiti, according to the New York Times. The top United Nations official in Haiti also backed Joseph’s claim as the rightful prime minister.

The main concern now is to avoid clashes between armed groups defending rival claims to authority.

(Miami Herald, Guardian, Washington Post, Guardian, New York Times, New York Times, Washington Post, Associated Press, Americas Quarterly, New York Times) 

More Haiti

• Haiti's twin epidemics of violence and coronavirus are entering a critical phase in the wake of Moïse's assassination, report the Washington Post.

• "The United States’ options for action to help the country out of its spiraling crisis are limited, and Biden’s likely appetite for substantively engaging the troubled nation even smaller," writes Ishaan Tharoor in the Washington Post.

• "Haiti’s failures have not occurred in a vacuum; they have been assisted by the international community, which has pumped $13 billion of aid into the country over the last decade," reports the New York Times. "But instead of the nation-building the money was supposed to achieve, Haiti’s institutions have become further hollowed out in recent years."

News Briefs

El Salvador

• El Salvador's government expelled Daniel Lizárraga, an editor of El Faro, an escalation of attacks on the country’s most prominent digital news publication. Authorities denied Lizárraga his work permit and temporary residence “due to his inability to prove he is an editor or journalist,” despite the journalist’s long and successful career. Carlos Dada, founder and director of El Faro, said in an interview that the decision came as part of a “serious escalation” of government attacks against the online newspaper and other Salvadoran media outlets. (El Faro, Washington Post)
  

Brazil

• The head of Brazil's Senate Inquiry Commission into the government's handling of the coronavirus pandemic ordered the arrest of Roberto Dias, a former health ministry official on Wednesday. Senator Oscar Aziz said Dias committed perjury in his testimony, in regard to allegations that he sought a bribe in relation to a coronavirus vaccine purchase. (Reuters)

• Arthur Lira, head of Brazil's lower house, said this week that alleged irregularities regarding the government's vaccine procurement efforts do not justify the opening of impeachment proceedings against President Jair Bolsonaro, reports Reuters.

• Nonetheless, pressure is growing on Bolsonaro -- from both the left and the right, notes the Economist.

• Bolsonaro's approval ratings are suffering ahead of next year's presidential election: 52% of respondents said Bolsonaro’s government is doing a “bad/terrible” job in a poll released Thursday. (Reuters)

• Bolsonaro's main rival for the 2022 elections, former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, is pulling ahead: a Poder 360 poll this week put Lula at 43% in a first round, against 29% for the incumbent.

• It is one of several polls in recent weeks that predict Lula could win next year's election outright. Which Lula would govern in that case, asks Thomas Traumann in Americas Quarterly. For now Lula is looking to build as big a tent as possible, say advisors, who frame the campaign as one to save democracy.

• This week Bolsonaro was accused of forcing aides to give kickbacks on their salary to him, during the nearly three decades he served as a federal lawmaker. InSight Crime looks back at how these allegations have grown over the years.

• Brazilian cities are pushing back against the latest affliction to the country's Covid-19 inoculation campaign: “vaccine sommeliers,” people who seek to cherry pick their coronavirus shots for a variety of reasons, reports the Guardian. Experts warn such pickiness could hinder a campaign already affected by lack of jabs and Bolsonaro's personal opposition to vaccination.

Regional Relations

• After contributing to the spread of Covid-19 in Central America through deportations, the United States is now attempting to, at least partially, contain its spread in the region through vaccines, according to El Faro English, which details donation details for El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. "As vaccines trickle in as gifts from countries — the United States, China, Russia — seemingly wanting to outdo each other in a game of diplomatic one-upmanship, the people of Central America continue to contract the virus, spread it, suffer, and die."

• A US investigation has shed light on the alleged participation of Guatemalan soldiers in a cocaine smuggling network linked to Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel, a reminder of the pivotal role the armed forces can play in the international drug trade, reports InSight Crime.
  

Covid-19

• The Chinese Sinovac coronavirus vaccine was less potent than Pfizer’s shot at stopping Covid-19 in Chile where the two shots were used simultaneously, the first real-world analysis comparing a China-made inoculation against an mRNA has found. (Bloomberg)

Venezuela

• Organized crime gangs and security forces are battling in the streets of Caracas -- firefights have broken out in at least five neighborhoods over the past 24 hours, reports the Guardian. Human rights activists in the area have said at least four civilians were killed on Wednesday and half a dozen have been wounded.

Honduras

• The future of a controversial highway in Honduras, thought to be a conduit for drug trafficking, remains uncertain as the government and local associations remain at loggerheads, reports InSight Crime.
  

Mexico

• The U.S. and Mexico reached an agreement to give workers at a General Motors plant in Mexico the ability to vote on a collective bargaining agreement in “free and democratic conditions.” (New York Times)
  

Sport

• Brazil's biggest futbol teams are plotting a breakaway league that they argue will unleash billions in revenue, reports the New York Times.
  

I'll be taking a break for two weeks starting today -- my esteemed colleague Eduardo Romero will take over the daily in my absence. 

Latin America Daily Briefing

More violence could follow Moïse's killing (July 8, 2021)

 Haitian President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated yesterday in his home by gunmen carrying assault weapons. His death has stunned the country, and analysts are concerned that an already grave crisis of violence could spiral out of control.

Moïse was shot at least a dozen times and died at the scene. There were signs the president may have been tortured. The president’s office and bedroom were ransacked and he was found lying on his back, covered in blood. First Lady Martine Moïse was gravely wounded, and has been transported to Miami for treatment. The attackers tied up staff while one of Moïse’s three children survived by hiding in her brother’s bedroom. (Miami Herald, Guardian)

Moïse was guarded by his own personal security, who are part of a specialized unit of the Haitian National Police assigned to the presidential palace. But sources say there have always been concerns about his security being inadequate, reports the Miami Herald.

Interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph said yesterday some of the killers spoke Spanish, and officials suspected mercenaries. Another senior official said some of the alleged attackers were Haitian. He also reiterated that among the assailants “were individuals who spoke English, who spoke Spanish, who entered the home of a president.” (Miami Herald)

The assailants apparently claimed to be agents with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, according to videos taken by people in the area of the president’s home. Haiti’s ambassador to the United States, Bocchit Edmond, said at a news conference that the killing of the country’s president had been carried out “by well-trained professionals, killers, commandos.” Edmond said the DEA link was a ruse.

One theory circulating in the Haitian community was that the killers, who were heard speaking Spanish, could have been hired assassins from the Dominican Republic. (New York Times) The Dominican paper Diario Libre reported that investigators there were examining the possibility that some of the assassins may have used the country to access or flee Haiti. (Guardian)

Haiti’s National Police killed four of the suspected assailants allegedly behind Moïse's death yesterday morning and arrested two others, while the department had the other killers trapped and they were exchanging gunfire, the agency’s interim chief León Charles said late yesterday. Charles, also said that three police officers who had been held hostage were freed. “The pursuit of the mercenaries continues. Their fate is fixed. They will fall in the fighting or will be arrested.” (Miami Herald)

Legitimacy Crisis

Haitian streets were absolutely silent yesterday as a breathless population waited to see how the leadership crisis will evolve.

The assassination caught Haiti in-between prime ministers -- Moïse had named Ariel Henry to the post Monday, but he hadn't sworn in before yesterday's assassination. In a press conference, interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph said that as head of the government “who is still in function,” he and other members of the government held a special meeting of Haiti’s security apparatus and decided to “declare a state of siege throughout the entire country.” The two-week declaration of martial law permits the police and security members to enter homes, control traffic and take special security measures and “all general measures that permit the arrest of the assassins." The decree also forbids meetings meant to incite disorder. (Miami Herald, New York Times)

It is not clear Joseph can legally do this. Neither of the country's two constitutions gives power to the prime minister in the event of a president's death. The first one, published in French and Creole in 1987, says the country’s most senior judge should step in. In 2012, however, it was amended to say that if there’s a vacancy in the last year of a president’s term, the Parliament should vote for a provisional president. The amendment was only published in French, raising questions over which is valid.

Further complicating matters, Haiti hasn't had a functioning parliament since January 2020, when the terms of the entire lower house expired. The president, who suspended elections to replace lawmakers 18 months ago, citing security concerns, had ruled by decree since. Only 10 of Haiti’s 30 senate seats are currently filled.

The head of Haiti's highest court died of Covid-19 last week. Another member is part of an opposition group that argues Moïse's legal term in office ended in February, five years after the 2016 election in which Moïse won with just under 600,000 votes in a country of 11 million people -- most people didn't participate. Moïse insisted he had one more year to serve, because his term did not begin until a year after the presidential election, amid accusations of voting fraud.

Moïse had been engaged in organizing a controversial constitutional referendum ahead of legislative and presidential elections scheduled for later this year. The referendum had been delayed twice because of the pandemic. Critics say the proposed constitution, which would strengthen the power of the presidency, was part of Moïse's authoritarian slide. (Slate)

Moïse was accused of significant corruption schemes related to Petrocaribe development funds. He was also accused of having used powerful violent gangs to suppress political opposition. Critics had accused Moïse’s circle of using the feared G9 alliance of nine Haitian gangs, led by the former police officer Jimmy Cherizier (also known as Barbecue), to target opponents, reports the Guardian. 

Haiti has spiralled into a violent cycle, with thousands of people displaced by gang violence and an epidemic of kidnappings. (New York Times) There have been more than a dozen massacres since the fall of 2018, when youth organizations launched a nationwide anticorruption movement. In just the last week, at least 60 people have been killed in the escalating violence. (CEPR)

Violence

In fact, Fulton Armstrong, an American University Haiti specialist, told the Guardian that the country's soaring violence meant he was shocked, but not surprised by Moïse’s murder. “When you have these permissive escalations of violence, where innocent people get shot or killed or kidnapped, if there is no action, then one of these goons-for-hire that Haitian politicians use is going to take a shot,” said Armstrong, who was the CIA’s chief in Haiti during the 1990s. “These things have to have a denouement.”

Jake Johnston, a Haiti specialist from the Center for Economic and Policy Research told the Guardian he was also not entirely surprised by the “brazen” attack, which follows a spate of high-profile killings including those of a journalist and a human rights activist. (See last Thursday's post.)

“This is a situation that has been building for some time,” Johnston said. “A huge part of this story is that when you have a situation where the police has failed to provide security to the population, anything becomes possible.”

Though Moïse was widely criticized by portions of the population, there broad agreement that the assassination is bad news for Haiti's crisis-ridden democratic institutions, and for Haitians in general. Experts say the political vacuum Haiti finds itself in could fuel a renewed cycle of violence. (New York Times)

The Dominican Republic closed the border it shares with Haiti on the island of Hispaniola, except to returning nationals, and beefed up security. “This crime is an attack against the democratic order of Haiti and the region,” Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader said. (Reuters)

Reactions

International condemnation of the attack was universal, while some voices noted it was a sign of how deep Haiti's crisis has gotten. Yesterday the international community was deeply concerned about chaos erupting in the country and how best to prevent it, reports the Miami Herald.

"All of CARICOM feel the pain which has been inflicted on Haiti by this killing," wrote the organization chair Gaston Browne, Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda. "The assassination of last evening further complicates the jostling for power that has characterized the Haitian state and its future." (Antigua Observer)

U.S. Representative Andy Levin decried international failure to support a Haitian-led democratic transition as “violent actors have terrorized the Haitian people with impunity." (New York Times)  

U.S. officials said yesterday they still hope to see long overdue elections held this year for parliament, local offices and the presidency. But that view had been questioned even before the assassination.

There had been increasing calls in the U.S. for the government to change its stance on Moïse, particularly its support for the president's plans to hold elections and a referendum on a new constitution this year, reports the Washington Post. The push for Moïse to hold elections later this year was ludicrous given conditions on the ground, according to Haitian civil society groups. (CEPR)

History

The long, and very fraught history of foreign (U.S.) interference in Haiti complicates the options for the international community to aid in the current crisis. (See, for example "A magnet for exploitation: Haiti over the centuries" -- New York Times.) 

"Too often, the Caribbean nation tends to exist at a distance for many White Americans: a tropical tapestry for tales of dictators and political dysfunction, of poverty and adversity, of stories and tropes that exist in an ever-present now, ready to be deployed in fundraising materials and political campaigns," writes Robert Taber in the Washington Post. "These stereotypes are steeped in anti-Black racism and mask an important truth: The histories of Haiti and the United States are intertwined and reach back centuries."

Moïse killed in home (July 7, 2021)

 Armed attackers killed Haitian President Jovenel Moïse in his home this morning. The assasination, carried out by a group of gunmen wielding assault weapons, pushes the country further over the brink of political instability, and could fuel a cycle of  violence.

Haitian interim prime minister Claude Joseph said in a short statement that Moïse was killed by unidentified assailants, some of whom spoke in Spanish. Government officials cited by the Miami Herald say the attack was carried out by mercenaries.

Neighbors heard the outbreak of heavy machine-gun fire shortly after 1 a.m., with intense fighting coming in spurts of 10 to 15 minutes for over an hour. Residents also reported hearing gunshots and seeing men dressed in black running through the neighborhood. There are also reports of a grenade going off and drones being used.

In videos of the attack circulating on social media, taken by people in the area of the president’s home, a man with an American accent is heard saying in English over a megaphone: “DEA operation. Everybody stand down. DEA operation. Everybody back up, stand down.”

The Miami Herald cites government officials who said the assailants were not with the DEA.

First Lady Martine Moïse was wounded and is being treated, according to Joseph's statement.

The assassination leaves Haiti in a political leadership void: Joseph resigned after Ariel Henry was named prime minister on Monday. But Henry has not yet been sworn in. The head of Haiti's Supreme Court, who could also help establish order, died of Covid-19 in June. There are only 10 elected officials in the country, all senators. 

In an interview with The New York Times, Joseph said that he was the one running the country at the moment. Still, it was unclear how much control he had, or how long it might last. Some are discussing installing Joseph Lambert, the head of the 10-member Senate, as provisional president.

Moïse, who had ruled by decree since 2020, after failing to organize legislative elections, faced mounting calls to resign this year. Protests against Moïse have rocked the country this year. The opposition claims his mandate ended in February. Many experts linked the president to gang violence that has terrorized swathes of Haiti, opponents said he financed groups in order to intimidate political adversaries. Fighting among rival criminal groups has displaced thousands of people in Port-au-Prince in recent weeks. (See last Thursday's post, among others.)

Moïse also was accused of corruption as part of a far-reaching report into how multiple Haitian governments spent nearly $2 billion in aid from Venezuela’s PetroCaribe program.

Other factors intensifying Haitian instability are poverty and hunger, which are  on the rise. The government has been accused of enriching itself while not providing even the most basic services. 

(Miami Herald, Washington Post, Guardian, New York Times)

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JEP accused 11 people in "false positives" case

Colombia's transitional justice court has accused 10 members of the military and a civilian of forcibly disappearing 24 people and murdering at least 120 civilians and falsely presenting them as guerrilla fighters who had been killed in combat. 

It is the first time Colombia’s special jurisdiction for peace (JEP) tribunal has accused members of Colombia’s army in connection with the so-called false positives scandal, reports Reuters.

The accused include a general, six officers, three non-commissioned officers and a civilian, who the JEP identified as those responsible for giving orders without which the crimes would not have systematically happened. The killings were carried out with the aim of inflating body counts to burnish military "success" in the conflict with rebels, part of an institutional policy of body counts, said the court. (El País)

News Briefs

Nicaragua

• Nicaraguan police detained five more opposition figures, including former student leader Lesther Alemán (a key figure in the 2018 anti-government protests) and presidential hopeful Medardo Mairena. Another student leader, Max Jérez, was detained as were two leaders of farmers’ groups, Pedro Mena and Freddy Navas. 

• Almost all were arrested under “treason” laws that President Daniel Ortega has used to crackdown against opponents. Almost all his potential rivals in the Nov. 7 elections have been detained in recent weeks. (Confidencial, Associated Press)

• The Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (Cenidh) called Monday, when the detentions took place, a "night of terror."

• "Who will they come for next?" asks Gioconda Belli in the New York Times. The former Sandinista laments the country's post dictatorship course: "It is clear to me, looking back, that Nicaragua paid too high a cost for that revolution. Its young leadership became too enamored of itself; it thought we could defy the odds and create a socialist utopia."

More Colombia

• Hundreds of people were reported missing during the weeks of protests in Colombia that started in late April and were met with heavy-handed police repression. Some have eventually reappeared after being held for days in extrajudicial police custody. But 77 people remain disappeared – some protesters, others not linked to the demonstrations, reports the Guardian. 
  

Migration

• Venezuelan migrants in Maicao’s swelling shanty towns, in northern Colombia, suffer from malnutrition -- cases have shot up since last year, as economic opportunities have disappeared due to the pandemic, reports the Guardian.
  

Ecuador

• A Kichwa community in the Ecuadorian Amazon retreated further into the jungle last year, in a bid to avoid the coronavirus pandemic. The journey, documented in a new short film called The Return, reaffirmed the bond the community has had with the forest for generations, reports the Guardian.
  

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

Latin America Daily Briefing

Cáceres assassination conviction (July 6, 2021)

An Honduran court condemned the former head of a hydroelectric company of ordering the murder of environmental activist Berta Cáceres. The high court in Tegucigalpa found Roberto David Castillo, a US-trained former Honduran army intelligence officer, guilty of being co-collaborator ordering the Goldman environmental prize winner's assassination. Cáceres was killed in 2016, after years of threats linked to her opposition of the Agua Zarca dam owned by the company headed by Castillo. 

Yesterday's ruling states that Cáceres was murdered for leading the campaign to stop construction of the dam, which led to delays and financial losses for Desarrollos Energeticos, or Desa. Indiginous Lenca activists had said the project would cause major disruptions to their water and food supply and that the builders did not consult the area’s Indigenous groups.

Cáceres' family celebrated the ruling as a "people's victory,'' though they emphasized it does not mark the end of a search to identify and convict the intellectual authors of the killing. "It means that the criminal power structures failed to corrupt the justice system,” said the Indigenous rights group founded by Cáceres, the Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) Seven other men have already been convicted and sentenced for playing a role in the assasination.

(Guardian, EFE, Al Jazeera, Reuters)

Much of the trial was spent presenting evidence of how Castillo coordinated a long campaign of vigilance, harassment, and threats against Berta Cáceres in her capacity as general coordinator of COPINH, after she started accompanying the Indigenous Lenca communities in resistance to the implementation of the hydroelectric project in 2013, reports Nacla.

Honduras is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for activists: 20 human rights defenders were killed last year.

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Engel List

The so-called Engel List -- a U.S. State Department list that names individuals the U.S. government accuses of corruption, obstructing justice, or undermining democracy -- was released last week. It includes Central American presidential aides, top judges and former presidents. (Reuters)

The list is “a damning portrait of the political elite in northern Central America, at a time when backsliding in the fight against corruption, impunity, and attacks against democratic institutions from the region’s legislatures and executive branches are rousing constant condemnations from civil society, multilateral organizations, and the international community,” write El Faro’s José Luis Sanz and Nelson Rauda. (See El Faro's English newsletter.)

Seven current and former top Salvadoran officials appeared on the list, including President Nayib Bukele's Labor Minister Rolando Castro, Cabinet Chief Carolina Recinos, and former Justice and Security Minister Rogelio Rivas. More than a dozen Honduran lawmakers and two senior Guatemalan judges were also named, including recently appointed Constitutional Court judge Nester Vasquez.

InSight Crime criticized "the lack of clear criteria for those placed on the list," which "may undermine efforts to create a coherent strategy for rooting out high-level graft in Central America." While several current Salvadoran officials were on the list, Guatemala's executive entourage emerged relatively unscathed, and Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández -- repeatedly accused in U.S. courts of participating in international drug trafficking -- also remained off the list.

In Guatemala, the Engel List “sends a strong message to the justice sector” in sanctioning judges and legislators involved in the “cooptation of justice,” prominent human rights advocate Helen Mack told El Faro.

News Briefs

Brazil

• Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has been accused of being involved in a scheme to skim salaries of his aides while a federal deputy. UOL citing supposed audio recordings of Bolsonaro’s former sister-in-law explaining his role in the alleged racket. Known locally as rachadinha, the scheme involves hiring close associates as employees and then receiving a cut of their public salaries back from them. The report suggests Bolsonaro engaged in the practice during the three decades he served in Brazil's lower chamber of Congress. (Al Jazeera, Reuters, Guardian)

• Mounting allegations of presidential wrongdoing have pushed a Congressional inquiry into the Bolsonaro administration's handling of the pandemic from political theater to a real threat to the president's continuity, reports the Washington Post. (See yesterday's post.)

Chile

• Chile’s Constituent Assembly kicked off Sunday marked by the problems, tensions – and hopes – that have pushed the country towards a new charter. (See yesterday's post.) The inauguration was delayed when security forces clashed with protesters outside, prompting demands by delegates for "repressive" special forces police to be withdrawn.  (Bloomberg, Reuters)

• There have been growing calls to recognize Chile’s Indigenous tribes within the constitution, and some analysts say the new charter could even make Chile a plurinational state with degrees of autonomy. LaBot Constituyente explores the possibilities, as well as the legal nitty gritty of how the convention will move forward now that it has a president.

• It is the first constitutional convention with gender parity, and many delegates hope to shift Chile -- where the constitution does not currently grant gender equality -- in a more feminist direction. El País launched a bimonthly analysis of the constitutional rewrite by women from the region: Chile por Ellas.

El Salvador

• Even as Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele attracts increasing international criticism for playing loose and fast with democratic norms, citizens at home are more wooed by his pragmatic populist responses to violence and poverty, reports the Associated Press.

• The attorney general’s office in El Salvador has seized some assets from Arena, the main conservative opposition party, in what it said was an attempt to recover funds embezzled from a donation from Taiwan between 2003 and 2004. (Al Jazeera)
  

Mexico

• Wealthy Mexicans wrongly believe that class resentment fuels support for President Andrés Manuel López Obrador -- in fact, his voters are driven more by a (somewhat misguided) perception that things are improving, writes Viri Rios in New York Times Español.

Regional

• Covid-19 educational shutdowns are causing a generational crisis in Latin America, where schools have been shuttered for longer than elsewhere, and the technological gap makes virtual classes impossible in many homes. (Wall Street Journal)

Colombia

• After three decades of living in the shadows, Guillermo Acevedo has been caught. InSight Crime co-director, Jeremy McDermott, who led the investigation that uncovered the true identity of "Memo Fantasma," reveals how it came together.
  

Costa Rica

• The Rincón de la Vieja volcano in northwest Costa Rica erupted yesterday. The enormous column of smoke it spewed into the air in what could be its biggest outburst in years, reports AFP.

• The Brooklyn Museum returned a collection of 1,305 artifacts to Costa Rica -- a move that has left local archaeologists in awe, reports Reuters.
  
  

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

Supreme Court orders Bolsonaro pandemic investigation (July 5, 2021)

Tens of thousands of Brazilians protested against President Jair Bolsonaro in more than 40 cities on Saturday, part of a mounting chorus of anger against a government whose pandemic policies pushed up the country's catastrophic coronavirus toll. It was the third large wave of demonstrations in recent weeks. (Guardian, New York Times, Associated Press)

On Friday, Supreme Court Justice Rosa Weber ordered an investigation into whether Bolsonaro had failed to act after being alerted to suspicions of high-level corruption involving the procurement of millions of Covid vaccines from the Indian pharmaceutical company Bharat Biotech, reports the Guardian. Prosecutors will investigate whether Bolsonaro committed the crime of “prevarication,” which entails delaying or refraining from action required as part of a public official’s duty for reasons of personal interest, reports the Associated Press. Weber said the investigation is supported by recent testimony in a Senate committee investigating the government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. (See last Monday's briefs.) 

Mounting allegations of pandemic-related corruption in the Bolsonaro administration pose an increasing threat to the president's electoral chances next year, and could possibly lead to his ouster before the end of his mandate, reports the New York Times. Politicians from the left and right are pushing for impeachment and believe the vaccine scandal could galvanize street demonstrations like those that led to the ouster of President Dilma Rousseff in 2016.

Nonetheless, analysts say Bolsonaro still holds enough support in Congress to quash any legal proceedings against him, notes the Wall Street Journal. Criminal charges against the president that would emanate from an investigation could only proceed with the backing of two-thirds of the lower house of Congress.

More Brazil

• Covid-19 has proved fertile breeding ground for conspiracy theories everywhere, but there's something special about Brazil, where researchers found that not only does country has among the most false claims in the world, but also that Brazil’s disinformation is remarkably isolated from other countries, writes Vanessa Barbara in the New York Times. 

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Elsa kills three, batters Barbados

Tropical Storm Elsa killed at least three people in the Dominican Republic and St. Lucia as it battered the Caribbean this weekend. Storm damage further complicates efforts to contain Covid-19 on affected islands, as displaced people must find alternative shelter but also avoid crowding.

The storm is expected to move across central and western Cuba later today. Cuba evacuated 180,000 people in its southern region yesterday, amid fears that Elsa could unleash heavy flooding. (Associated Press, Reuters)

Elsa caused widespread damage in several eastern Caribbean islands starting Friday as a Category 1 hurricane, the first of the Atlantic season. Among the hardest hit was Barbados, where more than 1,100 people reported damaged houses, reports the Associated Press.

It went on to the Dominican Republic and Haiti on Saturday. Haiti is especially vulnerable to floods and landslides because of widespread erosion and deforestation. In addition, a recent spike in gang violence has forced thousands of people to flee from their homes, so the civil protection agency is running low on basic items including food and water.

Video of Elsa en the Eastern Caribbean, New York Times.

Elsa became the earliest E storm on record -- the links between hurricanes and climate change are becoming more apparent. (See Friday's briefs.)

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Chilean Constituent Assembly

Chile's Constituent Assembly launched yesterday. Delegates -- most politically independent, half women and with Indigenous representation -- will draft a new text to replace Chile’s previous Magna Carta, which was produced during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.

Chile's constituent assembly representatives selected an Indigenous Mapuche woman to lead the process. University professor and activist for Mapuche educational and linguistic rights Elisa Loncón, a 58-year-old independent constituent, was picked by 96 of 155 delegates, including 17 Indigenous people, who make up the constitutional body. (Al Jazeera)

Loncón accepted the position with fist clenched above her head, telling her colleagues to noisy celebrations: "I salute the people of Chile from the north to Patagonia, from the sea to the mountains, to the islands, all those who are watching us today," she said. (Reuters)

News Briefs

Peru

• Keiko Fujimori's unfounded, Trumpian claims of electoral fraud have not only delayed the certification of a victor in Peru's presidential runoff vote -- a month after the election -- they have also radicalized elements of the Peruvian right in a way that could threaten the country’s fragile democracy, reports the New York Times. The political crisis comes as Peru struggles to beat back the pandemic and mounting social discontent.

• Peru's government rejected Fujimori's request to seek an international audit of its June 6 election on Friday. The decision leaves her with few recourses to overturn the results, reports Reuters.

Venezuela

• UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet issued an updated report on the human rights situation in Venezuela. Her office reported that it continued to receive credible allegations of enforced disappearances, torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and the closing of civic spaces, and noted that “structural challenges previously identified by OHCHR continued to undermine the independence of the judiciary.” (Venezuelan Politics and Human Rights)

• Venezuela’s new National Electoral Council (CNE) has announced the rehabilitation of the National Unity Roundtable (MUD) party ticket. The move will allow the opposition coalition to present a unified list of candidates for the first time since the Maduro government banned it from participating in 2018 -- though deep divides within the coalition mean that restoring the MUD unity ticket will not be easy, explains Geoff Ramsey at Venezuelan Politics and Human Rights.

• Covid-19 vaccines are trickling into Venezuela thanks to donations from allies -- Russia, China and now Cuba -- but their distribution is opaque. It is unclear how many jabs have actually entered the country, how many people have received a shot and how well priority groups are being respected, reports the Associated Press.

• The United Nations' World Food Programme (WFP) said on Thursday that its first shipment of food intended for Venezuelan school children had arrived in the country. (Reuters)
  

Regional Relations

• Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó criticized Argentine President Alberto Fernández's recent statement that human rights issues were "disappearing" in Venezuela, but said the Argentine government could be a valid mediator with the Maduro government. (Perfil)

El Salvador

• An ongoing, unofficial pact between MS-13 and El Salvador's government may be behind the country's recent decision to temporarily halt the extradition of several top gang leaders to the U.S. The explosive assertions concerning extraditions came from a half dozen sources, several of whom are very close to the US investigation of 15 top leaders of the Mara Salvatrucha, reports InSight Crime. Officially there is no pact, but several reports indicate gangs agreed to lower homicides and provide political support for President Nayib Bukele in return for better conditions in prison and control over government aid programs in their areas of operation.

Nicaragua

• The Ortega government's wave of repression against opponents has prompted many international human rights activists to turn against the Sandinista government. "The recent wave of arrests in Nicaragua, targeting five opposition presidential contenders, several former high-level Sandinista leaders, feminists, journalists and others, betrays every dream that we who lived and worked in Sandinista Nicaragua had in the 1980s," writes Margaret Randall in Confidencial.

Mexico

• A fire on the ocean surface west of Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula, featuring bright orange flames, was dubbed an "eye of fire" on social media. Others compared it to Mordor. State oil company Pemex blamed a gas leak from an underwater pipeline.It was not immediately clear what kind of damage the fire might have caused to marine life or how large the fire was. (Reuters, New York Times)

• Firefighting boats put the fire out after about five hours, but the incident is raising questions about the risks of undersea pipelines, reports the Washington Post.
  

Regional

• The OECD's proposed global minimum corporate tax rate is a missed opportunity to truly tackle multinationals' tax avoidance -- with particular relevance for Latin America, which relies more heavily on corporate tax revenue and has thus been hit harder by the issue, argue José Antonio Ocampo and Tommaso Faccio in Americas Quarterly.

Haiti

• Six people, including two U.S. missionaries, were killed when a private plane crashed in Haiti, Friday. (Reuters)

Chile

• Conservationists in Chile are deploying dissuasive measures to keep pumas from preying on sheep, an effort to convince shepherds with a 150 tradition of killing the big cats, reports the Guardian.

Argentina

• "The era of social distancing has made tango an embodiment of all that is forbidden – the heat of another, closeness among strangers, touch. Those who find vitality and sustenance in the Argentinian dance are now living out that sense of longing that is captured in song." -- Guardian
  

Sound of Silence

• Noise is invading every aspect of our lives, to detrimental effect, writes Ana Laura Lissardy in New York Times Español.

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

Anti-Bolsonaro protests tomorrow (July 2, 2021)

News Briefs

Brazil

• Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is navigating politically treacherous waters: his administration is increasingly implicated in alleged vaccine procurement irregularities, and both leftists and conservatives are calling for his impeachment. (See yesterday's post.) Tens of thousands of protesters are expected to return to the streets tomorrow to demand Bolsonaro’s removal from office – the third such mass demonstration in just over a month, reports the Guardian.

• Bolsonaro's moment of political weakness could be an opportunity for international efforts to reduce Amazon deforestation, argues Oliver Stuenkel in Americas Quarterly. Though environmental policies would have a cost for Bolsonaro in terms of his political base, pressure for conservation is growing in business sectors concerned about backlash.

• One of Brazil’s leading politicians, the presidential hopeful Eduardo Leite, has announced he is gay. The 36-year-old governor of the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul is from the center-right Brazilian Social Democratic party (PSDB) and hopes to challenge Bolsonaro in next year’s presidential election, reports the Guardian. “I’m gay – and I’m a governor who is gay rather than a gay governor. ... And I’m proud of this,” said Leite in a television interview yesterday.

Regional

• In Latin America, the heavy-handed police response to social protests in 2019 in Chile and in 2021 in Colombia have also increased scrutiny of law enforcement institutions in a region where the security services are still regarded with suspicion for their role during the military dictatorships. And racial inequities and a lack of accountability have led to widespread frustration with law enforcement, writes Beatriz García Nice in the Wilson Center's Weekly Asado.

Colombia

• Colombian President Iván Duque proposed a law that would increase prison sentences for vandalism, road blocks and attacks on police during protests. Critics said the move would criminalize protests, reports Reuters.

• Last month Human Rights Watch denounced that brutal abuses by Colombia's police during recent anti-government protests were not isolated incidents but part of extensive failings by state security forces. (Reuters)

• A subcommittee of the United States’ House of Representatives voted to conditionally approve aid to Colombia’s security forces yesterday. The subcommittee added a novel condition that requires State Department certification that Colombian authorities are effectively investigating and punishing human rights violations committed by the security forces, for part of the funds. (Colombia Reports)

• Colombian protesters have demanded not just the rejection of a tax bill but a whole new society, writes Alma Guillermoprieto in the New York Review of Books. "The strikers have had monumental triumphs of sorts ...  Yet the government’s grand indifference to the suffering of its citizens remains unchanged. Violence, a miserable education system, and an economy now doubly ruined by the pandemic and the weeks of protest are still the lot of most Colombians, and realistically not much can be changed in the landscape of a disaster it has taken years to create."

• Authorities and civil society alike are alarmed by how acts of criminal violence appear to be specifically targeting women in the troubled Colombian border town of Tibú, reports InSight Crime.
  

Regional Relations

• Latino lawmakers in the U.S. are reaching across the aisle and helping shift some of the nation's foreign policy spotlight to Latin America, driven by concern over unrest in Nicaragua and Colombia and heavy handed crackdowns against protesters, reports Axios.
  

Nicaragua

• Twenty-one people have been arrested by Nicaraguan authorities as part of a crackdown against critics and political opponents -- five of them are possible presidential candidates. "Under these circumstances, free and fair elections cannot take place. We are urging the international community to do more to advocate for the release of our husbands and the more than 130 political prisoners currently held in Nicaragua," write Berta Valle and Victoria Cárdenas, wives of two political detainees, in the Washington Post.

Caribbean

• Tropical Storm Elsa strengthened into the first hurricane of the 2021 Atlantic storm season this morning, threatening to unleash flooding and landslides in the Caribbean. Elsa became the earliest E storm on record, beating out Edouard, which formed July 6, 2020. Elsa is the fifth named storm of the season in the Atlantic. (USA Today)

• The links between hurricanes and climate change are becoming more apparent. A warming planet can expect to experience stronger hurricanes over time, and a higher incidence of the most powerful storms, reports the New York Times.

• A hurricane warning is in effect for Barbados, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, as well as St. Lucia. A hurricane watch is in effect for southern Haiti from Port Au Prince to the southern border with the Dominican Republic. The system is expected to continue on a general west-northwest path over the Caribbean and is likely to remain a hurricane while approaching Hispaniola and Jamaica this weekend. (Accuweather)

Covid-19

• The Pan American Health Organization says Cuba should publish trial data on its Abdala vaccine in peer-reviewed scientific journals so that the global scientific community can evaluate the efficacy rates of the COVID-19 shot. (Miami Herald, see June 23's post.)
  

Mexico

• Mexico's football federation faces FIFA sanctions as spectators insist on yelling "puto" (fag). But prohibitions miss the point, sports and political leaders should be engaging to challenge dominant forms of masculinity, argues Guillermo Osorno in the New York Times Español.

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

Super request for Bolsonaro impeachment (July 1, 2021)

Brazilian leftist political parties and organizations of civil society joined forces with some conservative leaders in a fresh call for President Jair Bolsonaro's impeachment. The so-called "super request" submitted yesterday to Brazil's Chamber of deputies collated 123 earlier impeachment filings, and accused the president of 23 crimes, including "negligence" in handling the country's response to Covid-19. 

The "super request's" 46 signatories include dozens of leftwing political parties, trade unions and civic organizations, as well as a few former Bolsonaro allies, such as conservative legislators Alexandre Frota, from the Brazilian Social Democracy Party, and Joice Hasselmann, from the Social Liberal Party. (Globo, AFP, Brazilian Report)

Former Bolsonaro allies appear to be angling to avoid an electoral faceoff against former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva by sidelining the president, which could create space for a third candidate.

However, it is not clear impeachment efforts will advance in Congress. Previous impeachment filings against Bolsonaro have been blocked by the president of the chamber of deputies, Arthur Lira. He is not expected to change his stance, and Bolsonaro retains a solid backing within Congress, reports AFP.

The move comes as the president is increasingly mired in scandal over alleged corruption related to vaccine purchases. Yesterday a health ministry official who allegedly asked for a bribe in an AstraZeneca vaccine purchase deal resigned. And earlier this week the government suspended the $324 million Indian Covid-19 vaccine contract that allegedly inflated jab prices by 1000 percent. (Reuters, see yesterday's briefs)

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15 killed in Port-au-Prince

At least 15 people were killed in Port-au-Prince on Tuesday, apparently in retaliation for the murder of the spokesman of  group of disgruntled police officers known as Fantom 509, said Leon Charles, director general of the national police force, at a news conference. Among those killed were two journalists and a political activist. They were killed execution style using heavy automatic rifles in the Christ-Roi area of Petion-Ville. Police said the attack is still under investigation and gave no details on whether it was staged by a single person or multiple shooters. Charles blamed allies of Fantom 509 for the mass killing but did not provide any evidence. (Reuters, Al Jazeera, Associated Press)

The United States condemned what it described as a systematic violation of human rights, fundamental freedoms and attacks on the press in Haiti, urging the government to counter a proliferation of gangs and violence, yesterday.

A political mission from the Organization of American States presented its findings yesterday, and is recommending that Haitian President Jovenel Moïse promptly appoint a new prime minister and cabinet, urgently take steps to establish a climate of security and appoint a new elections body so that Haiti can hold legislative, local and presidential elections before the end of the year. 

But the delegations of St. Lucia and Antigua and Barbuda to the OAS raised concerns that the mission’s failure to facilitate dialogue as spelled out in its marching orders meant that the visit could not be seen as a success, reports the Miami Herald.

Earlier this week Haitian authorities announced that a postponed (and controversial) constitutional referendum will be held on Sept. 26, the same date as presidential and legislative elections. (Reuters)

In a statement yesterday, members of a newly formed Haiti Caucus in the U.S. Congress blasted the referendum decision and the OAS report, which they said “deeply troubled” them.

News Briefs

Covid-19

• Latin America and the Caribbean continue to be hammered by increased coronavirus infections and deaths, highlighting the stark inequalities in access to vaccines around the world, according to the WHO. Economic inequality, the huge informal economy and the difficulty of implementing public health measures in Latin America and the Caribbean have all been major obstacles to containing the Covid-19 there, reports the New York Times.

Venezuela

• In the absence of an adequate COVID-19 vaccination plan, criminal networks in Venezuela have seized upon ongoing mismanagement to steal and resell doses or sell fake vaccines on the black market, reports InSight Crime.
  

Chile

• Indigenous delegates to Chile's Constitutional Convention, which will start work next week, denounced that the government is not collaborating with their cultural requirements -- space for ceremonial companions and rituals. The promise of a truly inclusive charter will only be fulfilled with an intercultural approach, writes Yasna Mussa in the Post Opinión.

Regional Relations

• Growing tensions with Washington, and the post-COVID landscape, seem to provide an open door for Beijing in Central  America, argues Luis Guillermo Solís in Americas Quarterly. Central American countries’ acute need to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as some governments’ growing desire for a “more accommodating” alternate partner to the United States, may constitute a favorable context that pushes the isthmus even further into Beijing’s embrace in coming years.

• The International Boundary and Water Commission's able management has kept water relations between Mexico and the U.S. conflict free for decades. But it masked some well-known underlying stresses: a population boom on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border, climate change and aging waterworks -- The Conversation.
  

Mexico

• The Mexican state of Hidalgo legalized at-will abortion until week 12 of gestation. (Jornada)

• Mexican construction magnate Carlos Slim pledged to rebuild and pay for a segment of a Mexico City subway line that collapsed in May, killing 26 people, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. One of Slim's companies had originally built much of the section where the collapse occurred, reports the Associated Press. A study by an outside certification company cited poor welds in studs that joined steel support beams to a concrete layer supporting the track bed.

Caribbean

• Small island nations on the climate crisis frontlines have been overlooked in overseas aid, according to advocates of the universal vulnerability index (UVI). Researchers from the Commonwealth secretariat and the Foundation for Studies and Research on International Development (Ferdi) say the new index should be an alternative to GDP as a measure for aid allocation. (Guardian)

• Caribbean islands like Curaçao and the Cayman Islands, as well as Aruba, have become convenient transit points for illicitly sourced gold, bound for the United States and elsewhere, reports InSight Crime.

Argentina

• Argentina 's Tierra del Fuego province prohibited salmon farming. (Página 12)

Belize

• The Mennonites of Belize – a Guardian photo-essay on the community’s gentle pace of life.
  

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Latin America Daily Briefing