U.S. lawmakers say Russia and China harm region (Feb. 9, 2022)

Two U.S. lawmakers -- Republican Sen. Marco Rubio and Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Bob Menendez -- introduced bipartisan legislation to spur closer U.S. security cooperation in Latin America and turn back what they see as "the malign activities of state actors like China and Russia."

The bill seeks to counter what the senators, both sons of Cuban immigrants, consider the “harmful and malign influence” in Latin America of China and Russia, arguing that the “destabilizing” influence of authoritarian governments in Beijing and Moscow pose unique risks to U.S. national security interests as well as the region’s welfare, reports the Associated Press.

The move comes amid growing concern in Washington circles about Chinese influence in the region. But, while English-language and Chinese academics tend to analyze Latin America and the Caribbean as homogenous in terms of relations with the U.S. and China, "Latin American analysts are increasingly focused on the widely varying nature of countries’ bilateral and subregional ties with each," writes Andrés Serbin at the Aula Blog. (See Feb. 2's briefs.)

Both Argentina and Ecuador have sought Chinese financial backing in talks this month, aimed at quelling economic and political troubles at home, explains last week's Latin America Brief. (See Monday's briefs on Argentina's joining the Belt and Road Initiative and Ecuador's talks with China.)

"On one hand, China is continuing its reputation as a vulture or economic hitman" on the other "China is providing funding, opportunities, and diplomatic personnel to Latin American countries when other countries and institutions are not," writes James Bosworth in the Latin America Risk Report. "The US can’t complain about China’s rising influence when the US Congress is so dysfunctional that it refuses to raise new funding, pass reform bills, or confirm ambassadors."

News Briefs

Regional Relations

• Russia has promised that military equipment given to Venezuela will not be used to attack Colombia, destabilize Latin America or end up in the hands of illegal armed groups, Colombia's Foreign Minister and Vice President Marta Lucia Ramirez said. (Reuters)
  
  
• Argentine President Alberto Fernández met with Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley yesterday in Bridgetown, where they discussed cooperation on climate change, and debt swaps for emissions. Decolonization processes were also on the agenda. (Bae Negocios)
  
  
• Britain on Monday firmly rejected a statement from China that affirmed Beijing's support for Argentina's claim to the Falkland/Malvinas Islands, reports the Associated Press.
  
  
• Brazil defended its decision to allow British military planes flying to the Falkland/Malvinas Islands to stop at Brazilian airports, after Argentina complained about the landings, reports the Reuters.
  
  
• The U.S. banned Mexican fishing vessels from entering U.S. ports, in response to Mexico’s “continued failure to combat unauthorized fishing activities by small hulled vessels in U.S. waters.” U.S. officials say they’ve been asking their Mexican counterparts for years to take action against illegal cross-border fishing, but little was done, reports the Washington Post.
  
  
• U.S. climate envoy John Kerry is arriving in Mexico for talks today amid high tensions over Mexico's plan to favor its state-owned electricity company and limit private and foreign firms that have invested in renewable energy, reports the Associated Press.
  

Honduras

• A dispute over who would lead Honduras' newly elected Congress has been resolved, according to lawmakers. A group of dissident members of the governing Libre party had sought to impose a member of their ranks to lead Congress, in defiance of an electoral agreement between President Xiomara Castro and Vice President Salvador Nasralla. The dissidents said they had signed an agreement on Monday accepting that the Congress will be led by a Castro-backed lawmaker, Luis Redondo, and agreed to work together in the chamber, reports Reuters. (See Jan. 24's post and Jan. 27's)
  

Argentina

• Thousands of Argentines marched in Buenos Aires yesterday to protest against a tentative agreement with the International Monetary Fund to reschedule payments on more than $40 billion of debt the country owes. The agreement has been divisive within the ruling Frente de Todos coalition, reports Reuters. (See last Monday's briefs, last Tuesday's and Friday's.)

Costa Rica

• Costa Rican voters followed the regional trend of rejecting the political status quo -- the ruling party received less than one percent of the vote in Sunday's presidential election. "But neither of the candidates who will now compete in the April runoff is a radical seeking to burn the house down," write Patricio Navia and Lucas Perelló in Americas Quarterly.

Venezuela

• A Venezuelan court has officially handed over the headquarters of the newspaper El Nacional to Diosdado Cabello, widely seen as the government's number-two man, reports AFP.
  

Chile

• Chilean president-elect Gabriel Boric's cabinet represents unprecedented sexual diversity, a hopeful sign of change in the country and in the region for LGBTQ+ rights, argues Érika Montecinos Urrea in the Post Opinión.

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Latin America Daily Briefing

JOH on Engel List (Feb. 8, 2022)

The U.S. Biden administration placed former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández on a classified list of officials suspected of corruption or undermining democracy in Central America, last year while he was still in office. Hernández's inclusion on the so-called Engel List was classified, and only made public yesterday. Individuals on the list are generally ineligible for visas and admission to the U.S. (Reuters, Associated Press)

The announcement comes as the U.S. Department of Justice is believed to be preparing to bring an indictment against Hernandez after he left office on Jan 27, reports Univisión. The U.S. has a policy of not indicting sitting heads of state.

There has been growing pressure from some U.S. lawmakers to pursue Hernández, who has been identified as a co-conspirator in U.S. federal court filings related to drug trafficking in and through Honduras. Last week, Chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Bob Menendez submitted a letter to the Biden administration urging the imposition of “accountability measures” against JOH, including the public revocation of his U.S. visa and sanctions designation under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act. His comments followed a letter sent to Attorney General Merrick Garland by Rep. Norma Torres, a California Democrat who co-chairs the Central America caucus in Congress, calling for the U.S. Justice Department to indict Hernández.

Speculation has been rife over whether Hernández could be extradited to the U.S. to face charges, though he has several pathways to avoid this, including immunity for serving in the Central American Parliament, or potential exile in Nicaragua or Taiwan Last month Univisión noted that it's somewhat ironic that Hernández could face extradition to the U.S. under the terms of a treaty he himself negotiated in 2012.

Yesterday Hernández, in a statement, touted his record for pursuing drug cartels, which he said had the support of the Drug Enforcement Administration among other U.S. federal agencies, and questioned why the designation was based on media reports.

He also faces significant hostility at home, where President Xiomara Castro has promised to crack down on entrenched government corruption. This weekend, Castro signed a decree that sets up the implementation of a U.N.-backed anti-corruption commission while simultaneously granting amnesty to those accused of corruption prior to the 2009 coup that overthrew her husband, Mel Zelaya. (Latin America Risk Report)

News Briefs

Haiti

• Haitian interim Prime Minister Ariel Henry showed no signs of stepping down from power yesterday, the date the current presidential mandate formally ended. Henry hit back at those seeking to install a transitional government, and invited other Haitians of “good will” to join him as he seeks to return Haiti to democratic rule by organizing elections and reforming the constitution this year, reports the Miami Herald. (See yesterday's post.)
  
  
• Seven months after Haitian President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated, the true masterminds remain unknown. But the failed “Petit Bois coup" plot that preceded it provides new information about those involved — and what the U.S. and Haitian governments may have known ahead of time, according to a new CEPR investigative article.
  
  
• Orphanages have proliferated in Haiti over the past decade, thanks to an influx of Western funding. There are few barriers to opening one, and even fewer mechanisms to hold operators accountable for child welfare. The result, according to BuzzFeed News, is a shadowy industry where kids routinely face abuse, exploitation, living standards that don’t meet state requirements, and sometimes death, while Westerners who fund, operate, or promote many orphanages face minimal oversight.

Barbados

• Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley's sweep in general elections last month was not expected, and shows that Barbadians continue to support her Barbados Labour Part, whatever its shortcomings, writes Kristina Hinds in World Politics Review. The win poses a challenge for democratic accountability, and should push other parties to find ways to reestablish their relevance and credibility in the country.

Guatemala

• The latest installment in InSight Crime's investigation of MS-13 in the Northern Triangle looks at a novel non-aggression pact between the MS13 and rival gang Barrio 18 that eventually unraveled in Guatemala amid bloodshed as ambitious MS13 members tried expand their authority.

Bolivia

• The members of Cochabamba female skateboard collective ImillaSkate wear the traditional polleras associated with the Bolivian Indigenous women of the highland regions as a symbol of resistance, reports the Guardian.
  

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Latin America Daily Briefing

Figueres leads Costa Rica's election (Feb. 7, 2022)

Former Costa Rican president José María Figueres obtained the most votes in yesterday's presidential election, and will likely face off against economist Rodrigo Chaves in an April 3 runoff. This morning, preliminary results gave Figueres 27.7 percent and Chaves 16.72. A candidate must obtain 40 percent to win the presidency outright. (Al Jazeera)

Costa Ricans also chose a new National Assembly in the elections Sunday, which took place days after the country’s top prosecutor filed papers seeking to lift outgoing President Carlos Alvarado’s immunity so he can face justice, reports the Associated Press.

Figueres is a Costa Rican political establishment figure, in addition to his presidency in the 1990s, his father was three-time president José Figueres Ferrer, probably the country’s most important political figure of the last century.

Right-wing Rodrigo Chaves, of Progreso Social Democrático, presents himself as a new face in politics, but he was already finance minister for just over half a year, before leaving office after disagreements with Alvarado, notes AFP.

------------------------------------------------

Haiti's political crisis deepens

Today marks the official end of the slain Haitian President Jovenel Moïse's term (by some counts anyway). Schools and businesses across Haiti have shuttered their doors and large numbers of police are patrolling the streets. Thousands opted to stay home today afraid that violence could erupt on the day that marks the end of the Duvalier dictatorship, reports the Associated Press. Gangs stormed the airport road on Friday, shutting down businesses and putting Haiti’s police force on high alert in anticipation of more violence today.

Political opponents have demanded that interim Prime Minister Ariel Henry step down, arguing that his administration is unconstitutional. The government will be rendered unconstitutional today, according to an opposition alliance dubbed the Montana Accord and independent experts.  Senate President Joseph Lambert, stopping short of demanding that Henry step down, asked that he return the presidential sash to the Senate and requested that he refrain from engaging his “de-facto” government in any new business until “a broad consensus” can be reached between those promoting competing solutions as the way out of the crisis.

Seven months after Moïse's assassination, elections are a political necessity, but most experts agree that free and fair elections could not be held in current conditions -- with gang rule and violence increasingly prevalent in Haiti. Organizations with the Montana Accord have sought to install a transitional government headed by a five-member presidential college. (See last Monday's post.) “The whole system is not trustworthy,” Monique Clesca, a member of the Montana Accord, said. “There is no way you can go to elections with Ariel Henry; nobody trusts him after this assassination.”

The United States has sought to avoid picking winners in Haiti's political crisis, but the Montana Accord said it was de facto supporting Henry by supporting the status quo, reports the New York Times.

"The battle for control of Haiti has become a struggle to win the backing of the United States and its international friends, not because they are trusted allies but because they provide the foreign aid necessary for the economy, as well as the potential for technical assistance in disarming the gangs," writes Amy Wilenz in the Los Angeles Times.

News Briefs

Peru

• Peruvian prime minister Héctor Valer said on Saturday that he will step down just four days after being named for the post, after allegations that he beat his daughter and late wife. The confirmation came the day after President Pedro Castillo said he would reshuffle the cabinet again, after just three days, amid widespread condemnation of his appointment of Valer as prime minister, reports the Guardian. It will be Castillo's fourth cabinet in just six months in office. (See Thursday's post.)

Migration

• Trinidad and Tobago Coast Guard officers fired at a boat carrying Venezuelan migrants Saturday night, wounding a mother and killing the baby in her arms. Officers were trying to stop a boat crossing the Venezuelan border into Trinidad and Tobago, in what the island nation’s officials described as an act of self-defense, reports the Associated Press.
  
  
• Asylum seekers on both sides of the Atlantic have been caught by escalating rhetoric, disjointed asylum systems and controversial steps to contain their numbers, reports the Washington Post Worldviews column.

Argentina

• Argentina joined China’s sweeping Belt and Road initiative, paving the way for investments worth more than US$23 billion, after meetings between President Alberto Fernández and Chinese Premier Xi Jinping in Beijing. The two leaders agreed to a five-year plan for agricultural cooperation, focusing on key areas to grow and diversify trade and investment within the sector. (Buenos Aires Times, Deutsche Welle)
  
  
• Argentina's incorporation into the BRI is a major win for Beijing in Latin America, according to AFP.
  

Ecuador

• Ecuador expects to pull together a trade deal with China at the end of this year and will begin formal debt re-negotiations with the Asian country, Ecuadorean President Guillermo Lasso announced this weekend, also while in Beijing. (Reuters)
  

Brazil

• Thousands of protesters denounced racist violence in Brazil's major cities yesterday after the murder of a young Congolese refugee in Rio de Janeiro last month. Many demonstrators also demanded the removal of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, reports the Guardian. (See Friday's briefs.)
  
  
• Bolsonaro, whose politics are far-right and militaristic, has sought to woo the country's poorest voters ahead of this year's presidential elections. But his attempts to portray himself as a man of the people, and the cash subsidy payouts he has increased, have done little to convince a population hit hard by the pandemic's economic effects, reports the Washington Post.

Chile

• Chilean president-elect Gabriel Boric named renowned climate scientist Maisa Rojas into his cabinet, where she will lead the way on Boric's ambitious promise to construct a green, sustainable and resilient future for Chile, reports the Guardian. “I think there’s a lot of space for Chile to become a leader in the fight against climate change,” she says.
  

Venezuela

• Venezuela’s oil industry is beginning to make a muted recovery and the country’s black markets are reacting fast. Domestic fuel is already starting to compete with smuggled Colombian imports, in a country where the black market for oil has increasingly gone towards providing basic necessities like cooking oil for Venezuelan families, reports InSight Crime.
  
  
• The Biden administration is considering a Chevron Corp proposal to allow the U.S. oil major to accept and trade Venezuelan oil cargoes to recoup unpaid debt, reports Reuters.

Bolivia

• Bolivia is the exception to Latin America's high vaccination rates -- just 45 percent of the population has received two doses, and a further 12 percent have had a single dose. Rural residents are particularly reluctant to get jabs, according to government data. Experts say it's a mix of Evangelical religious beliefs and misinformation -- as well as a deep-seated mistrust of the healthcare system by Indigenous people who have suffered pervasive mistreatment. (Guardian)

Mexico

• The bodies of 16 people were found in two different cities in Mexico’s Zacatecas state on Saturday, an area where the Sinaloa and the Jalisco New Generation cartels have been battling for control of lucrative drug-smuggling routes to the United States, reports Al Jazeera. (See last Tuesday's post.)
  

Honduras

• Honduran President Xiomara Castro has tested positive for COVID-19, she said on Sunday, adding that she has mild symptoms and will be working in isolation. (Reuters)

St. Kitts and Nevis

• The Concacaf and the St. Kitts and Nevis football associationare at loggerheads over coach accused of sexual abuse in Barbados, reports the Guardian.

Music

• Caetano Veloso's political persecution pushed him into a career he was never sure he wanted, reports the New Yorker.
  

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

Latin America Daily Briefing

Nicaragua's gov't cancels universities, sentences opponents (Feb. 4, 2022)

Nicaragua’s government-loyal National Assembly stripped several educational organizations of their permission to operate this week. The most prominent target of the measures is the Polytechnic University of Nicaragua, an epicenter of anti-government demonstrations in 2018. Government authorities also cancelled several foreign academic programs operating in Nicaragua. (Confidencial, Confidencial)

The shuttered organizations join a growing list of over 60 groups whose legal permission to operate was unilaterally cancelled in Nicaragua under laws that severely limit organizations of civil society in the country. Experts have criticized the laws as tools aimed at silencing critics of the Ortega government.

Analysts said it was a sweeping attack on higher education and an escalation of the Ortega regime's tactics to repress dissent, reports the Washington Post. The measures are "a blatant attempt to undermine the student movement, one of the pillars fighting for democracy in Nicaragua,” Human Rights Watch's Tamara Taraciuk Broner told the Washington Post.

More Nicaragua

• Express trials against Nicaraguan political detainees this week resulted in swift convictions behind closed doors with no due process, reports El Faro. Each political prisoner’s trial has lasted less than a day. The trials were held in the new “El Chipote” jail complex with riot squads standing guard, rather than at public courthouses, as Nicaraguan law requires. The Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (CENIDH) called this week’s convictions a “deepening of repression.” 

• Former Sandinista rebel commander Dora María Téllez, one of dozens of political detainees rounded up last year by Nicaragua’s government, was convicted after a trial lasting only a few hours. The Judicial Defense Unit, a coalition of lawyers, said the trial was held in the infamous Chipote prison, where dozens of political detainees have been held for months, reports the Associated Press. (See Wednesday's briefs.)
  
  
• Nicaragua is on the road to expulsion from the Organization of American States with the direction they are headed, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Brian Nichols said yesterday. (Voice of America)

Costa Rica elections

Costa Ricans will vote in general elections on Sunday, though none of the 25 presidential candidates are expected to win outright, likely triggering a runoff vote in April, reports Reuters. Voters will also fully renew the 57-member Congress, currently dominated by the center-left National Liberation Party (PLN). (Reuters)

The broad field of candidates is the largest number in the country's history, and none is expected to win more than 17% of the vote, according o a survey published this week by the Center for Research and Political Studies of the University of Costa Rica. The poll puts former President José María Figueres, for the PLN in the lead, but also found that 31 percent of people who plan to vote remain undecided.

Indecision is common among Costa Rican voters headed to the polls, and the waning influence of establishment political parties makes polling tricky, notes AS/COA in its pre-election write-up.

The campaign lacks a dominant issue that would drive voters to the polls, reports the Associated Press. Costa Rians are frustrated by high unemployment, recent public corruption scandals and another surge of COVID-19 infections, but no candidate has captured the public’s imagination.

More Costa Rica

• Costa Rica’s top prosecutor filed papers yesterday seeking to lift President Carlos Alvarado’s immunity so he can face charges related to his office’s collection of personal information on citizens, reports the Associated Press. Prosecutors allege Alvarado abused his authority by creating the Presidential Unit of Data Analysis, which allegedly sought restricted information from various government agencies, such as personal income and medical records.
  

News Briefs

Cuba

• On the sixtieth anniversary of the U.S. embargo on Cuba, the National Security Archive posted a collection of previously declassified documents that record the origins, rationale, and early evolution of punitive economic sanctions against Cuba in the aftermath of the Castro-led revolution. 
  
  
• The documents show that the initial concept of U.S. economic pressure was to create “hardship” and “disenchantment” among the Cuban populace and to deny “money and supplies to Cuba, to decrease monetary and real wages, [and] to bring about hunger, desperation, and the overthrow of [the] government.” However, a CIA case study of the embargo, written twenty years after its imposition, concluded that the sanctions “have not met any of their objectives.” (National Security Archive)
  
  
• It's a good opportunity to delve into the complexities of the embargo, which is shorthand for a complex patchwork of laws and regulations that comprise the oldest and most comprehensive U.S. economic sanctions against any country in the world, writes William LeoGrande at Responsible Statecraft.

Peru

• Two weeks after a massive oil spill off of Peru's coast the oil has washed across some 27 miles of Pacific coastline, and government officials are sparring with oil execs over who is to blame. Government ministers have promised “drastic” penalties for Spanish oil company Repsol, perhaps more than $50 million, with the aim of setting an example, reports the New York Times.

Brazil

• Thousands of demonstrators are expected to hit Brazil’s streets tomorrow to protest against the murder of Moïse Mugenyi Kabagambe, a young Congolese refugee whose killing has caused an explosion of anger over deep-rooted structural racism and hate violence, reports the Guardian. (See yesterday's briefs.)
  

Argentina

• Argentine President Alberto Fernández said yesterday in Russia that his country must abandon its economic "dependence" on the United States and the International Monetary Fund. (Reuters)
  
  
• Argentine media reported that the comments were not part of the officially prepared script, and some say microphones caught what was intended to be a private comment between the two presidents. (Cronista, Infobae)
  
  
• Argentine lawmaker Máximo Kirchner's dissent from the government over an IMF deal has deepened divisions within the ruling Frente de Todos coalition, at precisely the moment the government is seeking unity in touting its accomplishments, I write in Americas Quarterly.

Colombia

• Fighting between rival guerrilla groups along Colombia’s border with Venezuela is terrorizing the department of Arauca. Leaders and residents in this Colombian border community say they are living in terror unlike any they have experienced since the 2016 peace deal with the FARC, reports the Washington Post.
  

Venezuela

• Venezuela’s government has unleashed a new campaign targeting municipal and state officials, police commanders and prosecutors allegedly involved in extortion and drug trafficking, but of those arrested so far under Operation Mano de Hierro have been politicians of real influence, notes InSight Crime. "Rather, this operation falls in line with a historical strategy of using high-profile operations to hide the government’s inability – or unwillingness – to combat organized crime."
  
  
• Many Venezuelan civil society organizations are pushing back against Maduro government repression by creating and preserving spaces to celebrate non-violent, democratic resistance. One recent example was the #EspacioParaDefender campaign, launched by the Human Rights Commission of Zulia State (CODHEZ) in late 2021, which sought to promote a conversation around the urgent need to protect civic space in Venezuela. WOLA published a Q&A with representatives of CODHEZ and three other local NGOs. (Venezuelan Politics and Human Rights)
  

Mexico

• Workers at one of the largest General Motors plants in Mexico voted to adopt an independent union yesterday. The move is seen as an important test case for whether new North American trade rules can improve Mexican working conditions, reports the New York Times.
  
  
• The Mexican government's energy reform proposal could undermine competitiveness – and violate trade agreements, writes Ana Lilia Moreno at Americas Quarterly.
  

Brazil

• Brazil's electoral court is embroiled in a complex attempt to confront the digital militias that have practiced and continue to practice strategies of misinformation. To avoid a repeat of the 2018 elections -- President Jair Bolsonaro owes his victory, in part, to fake news -- authorities must crack down on illegal misinformation strategies. But if the electoral court (TSE) is too tough on Bolsonaro, it will justify his ongoing attacks on judicial institutions, write Pedro Abramovay, João Brant and Daniela da Silva in Piauí.
  
  
• Top Brazilian hedge fund managers said markets will embrace a return of former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and expect him to win in this year's presidential elections, reports Bloomberg.
  

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

Latin America Daily Briefing

Peruvian PM accused of domestic abuse (Feb. 3, 2022)

Peruvian press revealed that the country's newly named prime minister, Héctor Valer, was accused by family members of domestic abuse. (La República) Calls from lawmakers, feminist groups and opinion makers have called for Valer, appointed on Tuesday, to step down. His wife and daughter reported to police, in 2016, that he hit and kicked them in the face and other parts of the body. A judge ordered protection measures for Valer's wife in the wake of the reports. A group of neighbors sought to evict Valer from his building, at the time, due to screaming coming from his apartment, reports El País.

The news comes in the midst of political uncertainty in Peru, where President Pedro Castillo just named the third cabinet in what has been barely six months in office. The latest reshuffle happened after Castillo’s prime minister, Mirtha Vásquez, announced her resignation on Monday in relation to a corruption scandal, prompting the dissolution of the entire cabinet. "The cabinet shuffle rattled Peruvians, who had considered the moderate Vásquez as a buffer between Castillo and his more radical Perú Libre party," writes Andrea Moncada in Americas Quarterly.

Valer was elected as a conservative lawmaker in July, and is allegedly a member of the ultra-conservative Opus Dei, but Castillo's appointment doesn't necessarily reflect a right-ward shift, argues Moncada: "What Castillo’s new team reflects is more of the same lack of leadership. Peru’s president is still struggling to formulate overarching goals or objectives."

Castillo's new cabinet still needs to be confirmed by Congress within the next month, notes Reuters. Lack of support from hard opposition groups, particularly Fuerza Perú, was expected, but more moderate parties, such as Avanza País, and even allies, like Juntos por el Perú, have rejected ratifying Valer, reports Infobae.

On the other hand, members of the new cabinet downplayed the significance of the allegations against Valer. Defense Minister José Luis Gavidia called the accusations of domestic violence "personal affairs." (Gestión)

News Briefs

Argentina

• At least 20 people died in Argentina, and dozens were hospitalized, after consuming apparently adulterated cocaine. Experts were still analyzing the drug to determine what was in it that caused the deaths, but some judicial authorities said it could be part of a settling of scores between traffickers. Authorities called on people who may have bought the laced cocaine to discard the drug, an example some drug experts lauded as "harm reduction." (Reuters, Associated Press)
  
  
• The IMF deal with Argentina needs tougher conditions, argues a Financial Times editorial that says the multilateral lender "is keen to put behind it the embarrassing failure of its biggest-ever bailout, avoid the spectre of Argentina falling into arrears and show sensitivity to the need for stronger social policies as countries rebuild post-pandemic." (See yesterday's brief's and Monday's.)
  
  
• But FT also notes the complicated panorama for Argentina's Fernández administration: "The roots of the latest crisis run deep. The Peronist government inherited a mess when it took office in 2019. The economy was mired in recession and the mountain of foreign debt run up by the previous president, Mauricio Macri, was unpayable."

Regional Relations

• Argentine President Alberto Fernández  began an official international tour to Russia, China, and Barbados today, where he will seek to strengthen bilateral relations with those countries. (Telesur)

Migration

• The U.S. has started turning-back Venezuelan asylum seekers who have resided in Colombia who reach the U.S.-Mexico border. It is only the most recent sign that the path to the United States is disappearing for Venezuelans, reports the Miami Herald.
  
  
• Brazilian police are investigating the killing of a 24-year-old refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo, who, according to his family, was beaten to death after he demanded overdue wages from his boss in Rio de Janeiro, reports Al Jazeera. Moise Kabagambe was seen in a video from the Tropikalia beach kiosk's security cameras being attacked by a group of men who beat him repeatedly with a club and a baseball bat, according to police. (CNN)
  

Brazil

• Former leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's lead over far-right incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro has tightened somewhat, to 11 percentage points from 14 two weeks ago, according to a new PoderData poll. (Reuters)
  

Guatemala

• The Indigenous survivors of what has become known as Guatemala's Silent Holocaust, a genocidal campaign waged against the Mayan population during Guatemala's civil war, have received little official recognition. But a trial has put a spotlighton the systematic sexual violence inflicted on thousands of Indigenous women in Guatemala during the country's 36-year civil war, reports Time Magazine. (See Jan. 25's briefs.)

Colombia

• In the Colombian town of El Carmen de Bolívar, LGBTQ+ people want the history of their brutal persecution by police and paramilitaries to be told, but the sense of safety is fragile and many still face prejudice, reports the Guardian.
  

Regional

• Technology to hide a ship’s location previously available only to the world’s militaries is spreading fast through the global maritime industry as governments from Iran to Venezuela — and the rogue shipping companies they depend on to move their petroleum products — look for stealthier ways to circumvent U.S. sanctions, reports the Associated Press.
  
  
• Trinidadian Colin Granderson, one of the Caribbean region’s most recognizable diplomats, is retiring after a decades-long career. "Considered one of the Caribbean’s foremost Haiti experts, Granderson is known for his calm and quiet demeanor during turbulent diplomatic times: when the community has butted heads with the U.S. over Haiti and Cuba policies, navigated dissent within its temperamental ranks over the escalating crisis in Venezuela and faced criticism that it hasn’t moved quickly enough to foster regional integration," writes Jacqueline Charles in the Miami Herald.

Coral

• The Honduran island of Roatán is focusing on balancing the return of tourism (and divers) with the fragility of the marine reef environment -- New York Times.
  
  
• "The race to save the world’s reefs from the climate crisis" – in pictures in the Guardian.
  

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

Latin America Daily Briefing

Nicaragua starts trials against political detainees (Feb. 2, 2022)

News Briefs

Nicaragua

• Nicaraguan prosecutors say that beginning this week they will start trials for 46 political figures detained in the run-up to the country's Nov. 7 presidential election. Many of the prisoners, including seven people who had been considered potential candidates to challenge President Daniel Ortega in the election, have been held since May or June, reports the Associated Press.

Peru

• Peruvian President Pedro Castillo reshuffled his cabinet yesterday, replacing half of the 18 Cabinet members, including the prime minister and the ministers of finance, foreign relations and the environment. The third overhaul in the six months he's been in office comes as leading government figures quit accusing Castillo of not tackling corruption. Finance Minister Pedro Francke also resigned yesterday. (Associated Press)

Regional

• Argentina's agreement with the IMF, "may set a precedent for dealing with debt restructuring and financial crises that could arise in the pandemic’s aftermath" in other countries, write Joseph Stiglitz and Mark Weisbrot in Foreign Policy. They particularly laud that the agreement does not impose detrimental austerity and other counterproductive conditionalities on Argentina's government "Argentina wasn’t asking for a new inflow of funds; the government just needed to avoid conditions that would stifle economic recovery or harm poor and working people."
  
  
• Rural subsistence farmers, ethnic communities, women, and young people are disproportionately affected by climate change in the Northern Triangle, according to a report by the Inter-American Dialogue, which focuses on adaptation in the region with an emphasis on climate justice and mitigating the impacts on vulnerable communities.
  
  
• In its annual Homicide Round-Up, InSight Crime reports on the region’s country-by-country murder rates and on the factors driving the bloodshed. Among the highlights: Ecuador – sandwiched between two cocaine-producing countries and home to a major port for smuggling drugs to Europe – saw killings nearly double.
  

El Salvador

• El Salvador's ruling-Nuevas Ideas party dominated Congress reformed the country's criminal code yesterday to authorize digital undercover operations. The move was highly questioned by journalists and politicians who say it legalizes "digital espionage." Lawmakers in favor said the operations were justified by the large number of complaints of a variety of crimes that are committed and can be committed through the abuse of information and communication technologies, reports the Associated Press.
  
  
• El Salvador's government rejected a recommendation by the International Monetary Fund to drop Bitcoin as legal tender, reports the Associated Press. (See Jan. 26's post.)

Regional Relations

• Latin America's apparently leftward swing has generated anxiety in Washington, and discussions of rising Chinese influence in the region. But the alarm is premature, and ignores many of deep-seated differences among the region's left-leaning governments. "Many of the progressives riding this anti-incumbent tsunami are pragmatic centrists who disfavor the timeworn, anti-imperialist rhetoric that burns bridges between the United States and its neighbors," write Benjamin Gedan and Richard Feinberg in Foreign Policy. And there are stark differences between progressive social democrats -- natural allies of the Biden administration -- and authoritarian governments in Cua, Nicaragua and Venezuela, they write.
  
  
• The U.S. stance on Russia and the Ukraine clashes with decades of U.S. policy towards Cuba, writes William LeoGrande at the Aula Blog. "If President Joe Biden is serious about replacing spheres of influence ... Biden can start in his own backyard. Washington’s policy of regime change toward Cuba, based on economic coercion and subversion – a policy Biden inherited from Donald Trump and continues unchanged – has not worked for more than 60 years. Replacing it with a policy of engagement and coexistence would set a good example for President Putin in his near abroad."
  
  
• While English-language and Chinese academics tend to analyze Latin America and the Caribbean as homogenous in terms of relations with the U.S. and China, "Latin American analysts are increasingly focused on the widely varying nature of countries’ bilateral and subregional ties with each," writes Andrés Serbin at the Aula Blog.
  
  
• The Inter-American Dialogue has a new analysis of Chinese involvement in Latin America’s financial services sector, in the context of the Belt and Road Initiative. The report examines the extent and nature of Chinese insurance industry engagement within the region, as well as prospects for future activity in this area.
  
  
• The U.S. government has urged Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro to cancel a visit with President Vladimir Putin in Russia due to rising tensions over its troop build-up near Ukraine, reports Reuters.
  

Brazil

• Renascença Clube, a storied association in north Rio de Janeiro, has been a potent symbol of Black pride and resistance since it was founded in 1951 -- but the club's leadership has spoken out against political protests that are common on its dancefloor, prompting anger among progressive sambistas and fans, reports the Guardian.
  

Uruguay

• Uruguay's political opposition has organized a referendum on the Lacalle Pou administration's controversial 2020 security reform, which toughens sentencing, limits chances for early release from prison, and limits protest rights. Many experts have criticized the reform as unconstitutional and a violation of the separation of powers as it shifts towards a more powerful executive branch in Uruguay, reports Americas Quarterly.

Honduras

• Honduras' new President Xiomara Castro wants to shake up the country’s security forces – and named former Honduran police chief Ramón Sabillón to head efforts -- but it will be a difficult task, reports InSight Crime. "Castro faces a host of challenges when it comes to rooting out drug trafficking and graft that reach the highest levels of the Honduran security forces and government."
  

Mexico

• Though Mexico has become one of the richest countries in Latin America, its workers still earn among the lowest salaries of almost any nation in the region -- economists say one reason is that for decades, Mexican workers have had little say in choosing the unions that represent them, reports the New York Times.
  

Histories

• New research suggests Peruvian Chincha people put their dead back together after colonizers disturbed graves when looting silver and gold in the 16th century. (Guardian)
  
  

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

Latin America Daily Briefing

Mexican journalist killed, fourth this year (Feb. 1, 2022)

Mexican journalist Roberto Toledo was shot dead by three gunmen yesterday in Zitácuaro, in Michoacán state. Journalists in Mexico responded with fury and despair to the murder, the fourth assassination of a reporter this year. Mexico has long been considered one of the most dangerous places in the world for media workers.

The killing deepened the sense of desperation among journalists in Mexico, who accuse Andrés Manuel López Obrador of failing to take meaningful actions to protect them and their colleagues, reports the Guardian. Adding to the sense of impotence among reporters is the fact that several journalists attacked or killed this month were enrolled in a government protection program.

Journalists are increasingly enrolling in a Mexican federal protection program, while others are protected under parallel state programs. But these approaches haven't always succeeded in preventing deadly violence against reporters in the country: Seven journalists enrolled in the national program have been killed since 2018, reported the Washington Post last week.

Journalists in dozens of Mexican cities held vigils and protests on last week night, one of the largest mass protests over the murders of media workers in recent years. The demonstrations followed the assassinations of three reporters this month, two in quick succession in Tijuana. (See last Thursday's briefs.)

The attacks come within an increase in violence in several Mexican localities, including Juárez and Michoacán. In Michoacán the type of violence in recent months is starting to approximate "warfare" more than classic cartel wars, according to James Bosworth in the Latin American Risk Report.

News Briefs

Haiti

• Haiti's Montana Accord is a blueprint for a two-year transitional government that will serve Haitians’ basic needs, bolster democratic institutions, reestablish legitimacy and trust, and organize free, fair, and participatory elections, writes Monica Clecsa in Foreign Affairs. The end goal of the transition is free and fair elections. "However appealing quick elections may appear to outside powers, it is clear they are not the answer to Haiti’s problems: in all likelihood, they will lead only to undemocratic outcomes and further instability." (See yesterday's post.)
  

Regional Relations

• Increasing evidence points to a transnational armed conspiracy to keep former Bolivian president Evo Morales and MAS out of power -- and that it was co-ordinated with Bolsonaro’s Brazil, writes Forrest Hylton in the London Review of Books blog. (See Jan. 18's briefs.)

Regional

• Latin America, already pummeled by the pandemic, now faces a sharp increase in poverty and an exodus of its citizens to elsewhere in the world, reports the Wall Street Journal. This year, the region will grow just 2.4%, far weaker than the rest of the world and down from a 6.8% expansion in 2021, a rebound year from 2020 when Covid-19 hammered economies, according to the IMF.
  
  
• Inflation rose the most in 15 years in some of Latin America's largest economies last year, but credible monetary policies have kept long-term price increase expectations anchored, the International Monetary Fund said in a blog post yesterday. (Reuters)
  

Argentina

• Argentine lawmaker Máximo Kirchnerbroke ranks with the country's governing party yesterday, rejecting a $44.5 billion agreement struck with the IMF, reports Reuters. He resigned as head of the Congress' House of Deputies, a sign of cracks within the Frente de Todos coalition regarding the repayment of an IMF loan contracted by the previous Macri administration, which many see as politically motivated. (See yesterday's briefs.)
  
  
• While the break could contain voters who are angered by a deal to payback debt many consider illegitimate, it could also weaken the government's credibility with the IMF, reports Infobae.
  
  
• The agreement will have to be ratified by Congress, but President Alberto Fernández hopes to have it approved as is, without modifications from lawmakers, reports Infobae.

Venezuela

• The Venezuelan bolivar appears to have finally bottomed out, according to Bloomberg.
  
  
• A retired Venezuelan army general, Cliver Alcalá, has sought to throw out narcoterrorist charges filed by U.S. federal prosecutors with the allegation that U.S. officials at the highest levels of the CIA and other federal agencies were aware of his efforts to oust Nicolás Maduro. (Associated Press)
  

Migration

• While the U.S. "Remain in Mexico" policy is reviled by migration advocates, some asylum seekers note it the only way to seek legal entry to the U.S., reports the Associated Press.

Ecuador

• A huge landslide triggered by rainfall in Ecuador killed at least 16 people in Quito and injured 46 more, reports the BBC.
  

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

Latin America Daily Briefing