Democracy in Brazil, Nicaragua and Mexico (July 23, 2021)

Democracy in the region seemed relatively unquestioned just a few short years ago. But democratic rules and values are openly being questioned and today's top section features Brazil, Nicaragua and Mexico though Cuba, Haiti and Peru could fit in this section as well. Two weeks ago Mark Malloch-Brown wrote about important work on renewing the fight for democracy. This 24-hour news cycle affirms that in spades.

Brazil

• Brazil's Bolsonaro may be laying conditions for a coup, reports the Washington Post and echoed in Foreign Policy. (Earlier this week O Estadão reported on Brazil's Secretary of Defense making provocative comments about the upcoming elections. The Ministry of Defense questioned the reporting on Twitter and the newspaper held firm on their reporting.)  Several prominent Brazilian politicians spoke out firmly against any talk of coups and expressed full-fledged support of democracy, according to Reuters. Brazil is "no banana republic," said the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate "assured Brazilians that the 2022 election will take place, either with printed or electronic ballots.".

• The Washington Post emphasizes: "Bolsonaro’s increasingly brazen comments escalate a months-long, Trump-style campaign to erode faith in the electoral system and transform its processes into a high-stakes political struggle. ... [Brazil] confronts a paradox that will be familiar to Americans: The man leading the assault on its electoral process is the very person most recently awarded its highest office." 

Nicaragua

• The Wilson Center held a forum with Berta Valle and Victoria Cárdenas, the spouses of two jailed Nicaraguan presidential candidates, on "Nicaragua's Simmering Crisis and the U.S. Policy Response" in anticipation of the November 7 elections. Both Valle and Cárdenas met with U.S. members of Congress on Capitol Hill, according to Confidencial. It has been 45 days since Juan Sebastián Chamorro and Félix Maradiaga were arrested; four other candidates have been detained.

• U.S. foreign policy is promoting failure in Nicaragua, according to CounterPunch. "Out of $88 million in cash and other aid sent to Central American countries to tackle COVID-19, Nicaragua’s government received nothing. Nicaragua is also one of the few Latin American countries to have received no U.S. vaccine donations so far. Instead, U.S. sanctions deterred international bodies like the World Bank from investing in the country until they restarted in response to the pandemic."

Mexico

• Mexico’s electoral agency fined the party of Nuevo León gubernatorial candidate $2.75 million because "he got prohibited support from his influencer wife’s social media posts," according to the Associated Press and El Universal. She has almost 2 million followers on Instagram; she posted at least 1,300 posts about her husband during the campaign. "The electoral agency says Rodríguez’ social media accounts are a business, and the law forbids businesspeople from making in-kind donations. The analogy would be if a candidate’s spouse owned a trucking or catering firm, they would be prohibited from donating food or transportation to the campaign." President López Obrador said it was "normal" for a wife to speak glowingly of her husband, according to El Financiero. "The dispute has raised questions of electoral fairness, freedom of speech and women’s rights," according to the Associated Press.

NEWS DIGEST

Haiti

• Violence has returned to Haiti as the country proceeds with today's state funeral for the slain president, according to the New York Times and the Washington Post. The White House announced the U.S. delegation which includes Juan Gonzalez, President Biden’s top adviser on Latin America; Rep. Jeff Fortenberry; Amb. Michele Sison; Rep. Gregory Meeks; and Daniel Foote, who yesterday was named special envoy for Haiti. These very signatures have had to "rush for cover" this morning as a result of the ongoing violence, according to Reuters. (Earlier today, The Times had reported that "there were no signs of the protests that had raged in the city the previous evening, and the streets were clear but dark — there was no electricity." 

• The Colombian wives of the accused assassins of President Moïse are trying to repatriate their husbands bodies, according to interviews by the Washington Post. "Such hires are common among former Colombian soldiers ... who are often willing to work for low salaries, in international terms."

Cuba

• The Biden administration's responses to the Cuba protests and the crackdown were detailed in a Fact Sheet and reported on by the Miami Herald. This will include sanctions on the 'Black Berets' (Boinas Negras) unit deployed to curb unrest, according to the Financial Times and the New York TImes.

• "Flat Footed Democrats let Florida Republicans steal the spotlight on Cuba," is the headline of a Miami Herald editorial. "Florida's top-ranking Republicans were center stage Wednesday night during a live town hall broadcast nationwide on Fox News. ... Republicans grasp the historical significance of the street demonstrations. For his part, Sen. Marco Rubio said yesterday that "all of the impediments to remittances to the people of Cuba are not on our side of it. It's on the Cuban side, on the regime side,” in an interview on NBC. Florida's Governor De Santis' hits Biden on Cuba suggestion, "he's basically sitting there, doing nothing, reports The Independent. Spain isn't doing anything either, according to a column in the El Nuevo Heraldo in Miami.

• The Mexican Navy is sending supplies and relief to Cuba, according to Reuters. And former Colombian senator Piedad Córdoba accused some in Latin America of having a double standard when they "minimize the mass protests in Ecuador and Colombia, [but] put a magnifying glass on the demonstrations in Cuba and Florida," according to her column in Las 2 Orillas and Cuba's state agency Prensa Latina.

• Cuba's protests have indeed dissipated but the worsening economy ensures they will return quickly unless there are structural changes in the economy, according to the Washington Post's Nick Miroff.

Mexico

• Mexico's Attorney General is coming under significant scrutiny for not speaking truthfully about the deleterious impact of Pegasus on the Mexican government, according to La Jornada and Proceso based on Citizen Lab research. Some past government officials are being caught in apparent lies, according to Animal Político.

• Animal Político is investigating the web of who was responsible for purchasing and using Pegasus. The spying and eavesdropping scandal in Mexico may go far beyond Pegasus and includes up to seven malicious software companies like FinFisher, Galileo and DaVinci, reports Sin Embargo.  Pegasus is simply the Trojan horse that proves how fragile our digital world is, argues a column in El Economista.

Colombia

• Colombian senator María Fernanda Cabal wants to legalize guns as a response to crime, according to Vice. The "Trump-loving" senator from Cali believes the U.S. is a model for gun violence: more guns. (The article does not mention that she has all but announced her candidacy for the presidency, according to Radio Caracol.)

• The U.S. Army's website reports that "commanding generals from U.S. Army South and the Colombian Army are meeting in Bogotá" in what appears to be a protocol setting.

El Salvador

• An arrest warrant has been issued by El Salvador's Attorney General for former President Salvador Sánchez Ceren and nine other top officials from a past administration as a result of a money laundering and corruption investigation, according to Reuters and Al Jazeera. So far five have been detained but Sánchez Ceren is out of the country.

Ecuador

• Prison riots in Ecuador left at least 21 dead, according to Agence France Presse, Reuters and Quito's El Comercio. The prison system has been declared under a state of emergency, according to AFP.

Argentina

• The New York Times fills in the backstory on Argentina's push for gender equality where you can now have your "gender marked as an X on their national identity documents and passports if they do not identify as either female or male." President Fernández acknowledged that this is not a perfect solution, tipping his hat to those who say, "we are not ‘X’.” Ferrnández imagined the day when "everyone would be referred to in gender-neutral terms." This is not a stand-along measure: "Late last year, Argentina made history by becoming the most populous country in Latin America to legalize abortion,; it has also legalized marijuana cultivation for medicinal use."

• Argentina's Foreign Minister says that Brazil has done all it can to stifle Mercosur, in an interview with Brazil's O Globo and highlighted in the Buenos Aires Times.

COVID-19

• Russia owes Argentina 18.5m doses of the Sputnik vaccine, "leaving Argentina in a ‘very critical situation’ with only 12% fully vaccinated," according to The Guardian.

• The efficacy of China's Corona-Vac is questioned, according to a Wilson Center blog. (The article is a lot more categorical than it probably should be: "The reason for Chile’s unexpected struggles? Its reliance on the CoronaVac vaccine, produced by the Chinese company Sinovac, as well as a rushed reopening and a premature tapering of social distancing."
  

• 3.5 million Moderna vaccines were donated to Colombia, according to the U.S. Embassy in Bogotá.

U.S. - Mexico Border

• An asylum seeker from El Salvador talks about getting "stuck in a Mexican border camp," in a Washington Post podcast.

• U.S. military veteran Ramon Castro is walking the 2,000 miles of the Mexican-U.S. border "to draw attention to the plight of U.S. veterans sent back to their countries of birth, some as a result of infractions like drug use that Castro said are associated with mental health struggles," according to Reuters.

• Texas has begun arresting migrants on trespassing charges as part of Republican Gov. Greg Abbott's new charges, according to the Associated Press. 

Peru

• Pedro Castillo's chances at success are assessed by Renato Cisneros, a Peruvian journalist based in Spain in an op-ed in the NYT Opinión. His tepid conclusion: Castillo only has a chance if he governs for all. 

Olympics

• The Olympics in Japan started this morning and Axios highlights an array of athletes from all around Latin America. 

Drones, Drugs and Jails

• Narco Drones Got Caught Delivering Drugs to a Prison in Chile, according to Bio Bio and followed up on by Vice.

Jordana takes back the reins of this news summary on Monday. 

Thank you all for your comments and suggestions these past two weeks. Eduardo

Latin America Daily Briefing 

Mexico: Impacts from Pegasus; Movement in Chiapas (July 22, 2021)

Mexico and the Pegasus Project

Mexico continues to reverberate from the findings in the Pegasus investigations, the spyware on the phones of journalists and civic activists. 

• The Washington Post has a lengthy report from the D.F. that has the government affirming that the Peña Nieto administration (2012-2018) used Pegasus, "but only, officials said, to fight criminals. ...  The Justice Ministry told a government watchdog agency in 2019 that it had uninstalled the spyware licensed by the Israeli-based NSO Group — but it had no records of how or when, or what happened to any data collected." The EFE news agency says that the earlier Felipe Calderón administration had already been using Pegasus. 

• El Espectador reports that the investment exceeded US$30 million; meanwhile  El País reports on the contracts between the Mexican military and KBH Tracking and possible financial shenanigans. Amnistía Internacional México's Edith Olivares explained the potential implications in an 8-minute interview with Televisa.  There is a good round up on Pegasus in Mexico by IFEX.

Chiapas Response to Crime

• In northern Chiapas, an "auto-defense" group called 'El Machete' marched to "beat back the organized crime gangs plaguing their communities," according to Reuters and a set of photos from El País. (Though their use of hoods makes for an easy comparison with the Zapatistas, this doesn't seem to be the case; many are carrying more than machetes.) 

• These demonstrations have been going on for a couple of weeks, according to El Universal and Agence France Press.) Over 80 indigenous communities have expressed their support, according to Proceso. Though their use of hoods makes for an easy comparison with the Zapatistas, this doesn't seem to be the case. Freelance journalist Laura Castellanos puts the protests in context emphasizing the failure of the State to provide security, in a Wash Post Opinión piece. 

• The murder of an indigenous Catholic social activist on July 6 in Pantelhó may have spurred these latest protests. Simón Pérez impact and death is profiled in Animal Político. His presumed killer was arrested last week.

• In his daily press briefing yesterday, President López Obrador called for Julian Assange to be set free, according to TeleSur.

 

NEWS DIGEST

Cuba

• Biden plans to impose sanctions on Cuba government officials, according to a call he had Wednesday night with Democratic Cuban-American activists in Miami, reports to Politico. There are other provisions to be implemented but the White House seems to be "bucking the progressive voices." A draft statement by the Organization of American States seems to follow this line of thinking, according to Newsweek.

• The role Cuban-American exiles have played in the last two weeks is explored in Counterpunch. According to Ailynn Torres Santana, "if the government resorts to old dogmas, it will effectively blow up bridges and make the political rage of at least a sector of the population unintelligible," in her essay in NACLA. 

• Cuba's Johana Tablada (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) defended her government saying  that “there is a Walt Disney narrative of a bad government and people fighting for their freedom — stereotypes that scare anyone who has never set foot in Cuba," in an interview with the Associated Press. Tablada acknowledged that "there are no current U.S. military movements aimed at Cuba, there are signs of extreme aggressiveness, such as those that led to interventions in Libya and Iraq." A column in neighboring Antigua Observer writes that "the governments and people of the Caribbean and the Americas must recognize that if the monopolist Capitalist powers succeed in overthrowing the legitimate government of Cuba."

• Earlier this week, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a statement in support of the Cuban people, on the island and elsewhere, emphasizing "mutual listening" and reconciliation, according to a summary in Vatican News. 

• Exiled Cuban historian Rafael Rojas calls for the end to the embargo, but only as a first step, in Nueva Sociedad. Conversely, an essay in The Atlantic takes on Black Lives Matter's call to lift the embargo.

Haiti

• This morning Daniel Foote was named Special Envoy by the United States to help coordinate U.S. assistance in Haiti, according to Reuters. 
  
  
• The New York Times investigates the Haitian politicians and officials hiring consultants and professional lobbyists in Washington to influence U.S. policy toward the island country. The reports includes texts from group chats before the assassination and that continued afterward, showing officials "strategizing about countering American critics and potential rivals for the presidency and looking for ways to cast blame for the killing.” Separately, "Haitians Should Be at the Center of Rebuilding Their Country", writes Oliver Stunkel over at  the Carnegie Endowment. 

• There is a continued drip-drip on information about the Haiti assassination. Four of the Colombians implicated have now been tied to training at Fort Benning in Georgia, according to the Miami Herald.

• The Miami Herald reports on preparations for Friday's funeral for Jovenel Moise; Reuters and the AP report on protests and violence in northern Haiti, where the assassinated leader was from. The New York Times follows Martine Moïse, widow of the slain President, in her actions and discourse in Haiti.

• Annette Gordon-Reed gives a historic context on what is happening in Haiti in an op-ed in the New York Times. "It is a nation whose revolutionary fight for freedom helped make the United States the country that it is today."

Brazil

• YouTube removed videos from Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's channel for spreading misinformation about the coronavirus outbreak, including claims about hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin, according to the New York Times and Reuters. The Times writes that YouTube played an important role in Mr. Bolsonaro’s election, and says "it is more widely watched in Brazil than all but one television channel." The BBC says about 15 videos were taken down.

• Brazil's Secretary of Defense seems to be threatening a coup d'etat as the CPI congressional investigations into corruption start implicating the armed forces, reports O Estadão and Congresso Emfoco.

• "Hunger has returned to Brazil,” said the former president Dilma Rousseff, and reported on by The Guardian. And the country continues to experience a brain drain, says The Economist.

Chile

• The Chilean Senate approved the marriage equality bill and now moves on to the lower house of parliament, according to France 24 and the Washington Blade.

• Voting results in Chile and Peru are compared in a World Politics Review essay. "Chile surprised the experts and the pollsters, lining up behind the more moderate candidates for the Nov. 21 first-round election" while Peru's first-round presidential election "catapulted the far-right and far-left candidates into a tense runoff, followed by a perilous period of uncertainty."

Venezuela

• On Tuesday, Richard Barreto, the Catholic Auxiliary Bishop of Caracas, read a letter from the Vatican to a prominent chamber of commerce (Fedécamaras) asking the government of Nicolás Maduro and the Venezuelan opposition for a "serious negotiation" and "limited in time", according to Efecto Cocuyo. Yesterday, Maduro called the letter a "compendium of hatred" and "poison," according to Reuters (watch Maduro's response on Monitoreamos). Vice-president Delcy Rodríguez, who was at the event, later responded by saying that the Catholic church should communicate directly with the Venezuelan government.

Colombia 

• A conversation about the protests in Colombia between April and June where "dozens of Colombians were killed and even more disappeared by authorities," is featured on WOLA's Adam Isaacson's podcast.

It's Eduardo Romero here filling in for Jordana: let me know if I missed or misinterpreted something or perhaps you have a different take. 

Latin America Daily Briefing

CHANGES IN LA: The Left, Green Deal, Int'l Cooperation (July 21, 2021)

 

THE BIG PICTURE

There are some broader think pieces today that take a step back and assess the region.

• The Left: Mexico's Jorge Castañeda column takes in Cuba's unrest and writes, "I knew Fidel, and Raúl is no Fidel." And neither is Miguel Díaz-Canel. And so the government crackdown "may no longer be enough to defuse domestic tensions." He notes that left-of-center candidates have already won or are set to win presidential elections in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Peru. "All of these candidates are, to some extent, carrying Cuba’s baggage. An end to the communist regime there would enable, if not compel, the Latin American left to come to terms with its authoritarian past and predilections."

• International Cooperation: Javier Solana (former NATO secretary-general) and Enrique Iglesias (former IDB) write in a column that the protests in Colombia and Cuba and the impact of COVID-19 have created the "perfect storm" and demands a special focus on international cooperation. "Latin America’s problems must be addressed above all by its own leaders" based on "a new social contract" and "digital transformation."

• Latin America's Potential Green Deal:  If Mexico and Brazil were to make "a green transition [they] could attract hundreds of billions in investment, help spur an economic recovery and let nations leapfrog technologically," leading the region with a "clean energy matrix", writes Shannon O'Neil (Council on Foreign Relations) in a Bloomberg op-ed.

The role of internet access and the media is featured in many news and opinion pieces (including the first two op-eds above).

• A report by Franz Drees-Gross (World Bank) and Pepe Zhang (Atlantic Council) suggests that less than 50% of Latin America has fixed broadband but provides three concrete ways to advance the region's digital access. (World Economic Forum)  "Improving this infrastructure is relatively cheap." 

• Eliminalia is a company that dedicates itself "to the concealment of data and removal of online content" with negative impacts in Latin America, according to an investigative piece in Armando.info. One of their examples: in April 2020, Venezuela's Acceso a la Justicia website went offline for 15 days due to complaints of intellectual property infringement." 

• OAN (One America News), the Trump-leaning network, "is launching a Spanish-language sister network,".according to The Daily Beast.

NEWS DIGEST

Cabot Awards

• The Cabot Prizes for outstanding reporting on the America were announced yesterday and, for the first time, there was an all-female slate of winners including Eliane Brum (freelancer), Adela Navarro Bello (Zeta), Mary Beth Sheridan (Washington Post) and Adriana Zehbrauskas (photojournalist). Special citations for "courageous reporting" were presented to Honduruan news website Contracorriente and Regina Martínez Pérez (Cartel Project).

Haiti

• Ariel Henry, a 71-year-old neurosurgeon, became Haiti''s "de facto leader", according to Reuters and the Miami Herald. Exiting interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph has returned to his previous job as foreign minister. NPR profiles Henry while the Times of London published a belated obituary on President Jovenel Moise - other version of obit here). 

• Secretary of State Antony Blinken's statement  said that the U.S. "welcomes efforts by Haiti’s political leadership to come together in choosing an interim Prime Minister and a unity cabinet," without mentioning that the U.S. was a prime mover in installing this very leadership.

• The latest arrests in Haiti are of police officers, according to the New York Times, making it about two dozen arrests in total. (The WSJ says the number is over 30; The Guardian says that "the big fish" still have to be caught.) The Times has started evaluating the assassinated President in starker terms: "Mr. Moïse, a polarizing figure who was ensnared by accusations of corruption and increasingly autocratic actions during his presidency, but whose death has shaken many Haitians." 

• "The money trail partially runs through [Walter Veintemilla], a little-known Ecuadorian émigré and private lender who lives in Broward County," according to an investigation led by McClatchy and the Miami Herald.

Cuba

• U.S. lawmakers recognize they have "relatively little leverage left to try to capitalize on this window of opportunity in Cuba," according to The Hill which reviews legislators' diverse opinions on the embargo. One issue that receives attention on both sides: internet access for the island.  Carlos Manuel Álvarez writes from Cuba about some of the same voices in Washington, in a Washington Post Opinión piece. One this is clear for him: the July 11 protests mark a before and after in Cuba's history.

• The Washington Post publishes an entire article about the possibility that Cubans on the island may or may not continue their protests, even though "the data shows that Cubans are largely staying put." Many exiles in Miami are expectant and the U.S. Coast Guard is maintaining patrols.

• The Wash Post's columnist Marc Thiessen dedicates a column decrying the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation's Instagram calling on the Biden administration to lift the U.S. embargo on Cuba. Meanwhile, everyone should "reject the Miami proud boys leader who burned BLM banners" in a recent march, according to an editorial in the Miami Herald.

Rights in Argentina and Mexico

• A new law in Argentina allows national identification cards to acknowledge non-binary people, according to MercoPress and La Nación. Caro Gero is the first to take advantage of the new law and is profiled in BAE. 

• Veracruz becomes the fourth state in Mexico to decrimanalize abortion, joining Mexico City, Oaxaca and Hidalgo, according to Reuters and the AP.

Peru

• President-elect Pedro Castillo is profiled in the Washington Post with a wide array of sources from Michael Schifter to anonymous Twitter posts. Like the Wall Street Journal yesterday, the article suggests that this election "is the most glaring example yet of the power of the pandemic."  

• The United States is "eager to work with President-Elect Castillo’s administration," according to a statement by U.S. Secretary of State Blinken. This Breitbart headline may indicate how many are interpreting the news from Peru: Communist wins Peru presidential election after month of fraud accusations.

Colombia

• Colombian mercenaries are seen around the globe, "working legally as contractors in Iraq, Yemen and Afghanistan, or training cartels in Mexico", and now in Haiti. "They are in high demand because of their reputation as well-trained and battle-tested fighters, with considerable combat experience in guerrilla warfare,."according to the World Politics Review.

• Mireia Villar Forner (Spain) has been appointed as the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Colombia (see her Twitter feed)

COVID-19

• Some indigenous communities have become vaccine skeptics, according to the BBC. "Almost 30% of Mexicans have received one vaccine against Covid-19 but in the state of Chiapas the rate is less than half of that."

• The pandemic's impact on education in Latin America is reviewed again, this time by Bloomberg Businessweek. "By mid-June only eight countries—mostly small Caribbean islands—had managed to fully reopen their schools." The article emphasizes the potential danger in keeping schools closed but recognizes that "it’s hard for countries in Latin America to make classrooms safe. For starters, they’re overcrowded."

• Cuba has seen an uptick in cases and mortalities, according to the Associated Press. The recent protests seem to have provoked (and not created) the rise in cases.

• Three million doses of the Moderna coronavirus vaccine donated by the United States arrived in Guatemala, according to the Associated Press.

It's Eduardo Romero here filling in for Jordana: let me know if I missed or misinterpreted something or perhaps you have a different take. 

Latin America Daily Briefing