Maduro released to U.S. detainees (March 9, 2022)

 Venezuela's government released two U.S. citizens detained in the country, a major breakthrough following a high-level meeting between U.S. officials and President Nicolás Maduro this weekend in Caracas. The release marks a potential turning point in the U.S. Biden administration’s relationship with Russia’s staunchest ally in the region, reports the New York Times. (See Monday's post.) 

One of those released wasGustavo Cárdenas, one of the six executives of Citgo Petroleum who were arrested during a business trip to Caracas in November 2017 and later charged with corruption. The other was Jorge Alberto Fernández, a Cuban American tourist who was detained and accused of terrorism for flying a drone early last year, reports the Washington Post. At least eight other U.S. nationals remain jailed in Caracas on charges ranging from embezzlement to terrorism.

U.S. officials said that the prisoner release was not part of a deal with Venezuela to restart oil sales to the United States, which were banned under the Trump administration. Venezuela is considered an alternative source of oil that could ameliorate the impact of a new block on Russian imports to the U.S. (See Monday's post.) 

U.S. officials have demanded Venezuela supply at least a portion of oil exports to the United States as part of any agreement to ease oil trading sanctions, reports Reuters. The officials reportedly told their Venezuelan counterparts that any relaxation in U.S. sanctions would be conditional on Venezuela shipping oil directly to the United States.

The meeting had significant practical justification, as well as geopolitical considerations. But the new diplomatic initiative also "has great potential to shake up the tragic stalemate of Venezuelan politics," writes David Smilde in Foreign Policy. "Getting Maduro to commit to a road map for negotiations—with benchmarks for humanitarian improvements, restoring the rule of law, and an election calendar—could spur the return to democracy Venezuelan citizens have been struggling for."

Venezuela's government is eager to resume oil sales to the U.S., particularly as sanctions against Russia impact its ability to skirt U.S. sanctions that have contributed to the country's economic stagnation. 

More Venezuela

• Miami businessman Jorge Nobrega has pleaded guilty to receiving payments from Venezuela’s government and servicing the country’s fleet of Russian fighter jets in violation of U.S. sanctions, reports the Associated Press.

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

Womens' Day

Latin American feminist activists have rallied around the issue of gender violence in recent years. The urgent need to reduce femicides, the killing of women and girls on account of their gender, spurred the massive Ni Una Menos movement in Argentina, which spread throughout the region and also forms part of the underpinning of the Green Tide that has successfully led a push for abortion rights in Argentina, Mexico and Colombia over the past year and a half.

Femicide numbers serve as an (insufficient) proxy for gender violence in many cases. That's why activists highlighted the number of women killed in countries so far this year at marches yesterday marking International Women's Day. For example, in Argentina 54 women were killed in the first two months of the year -- two were trans killings -- leaving 64 children without a mother. That's an average of one femicide every 26 hours. (Telam) In Honduras, 61 women have been killed so far this year. (Criterio) In Mexico 122 women were assassinated with "extreme cruelty" in the first two months of 2022, and at least 221 cases of torture. (EFE)

But a direct comparison of femicide statistics across the region is tricky, reports Chequeado, each country has its own measurement and tally methodology. "The lack of quality information impacts on national and regional public policies."  This article looks at the numbers for 2021 across the region. 

More Women's Day

• Thousands of protesters rallied for Women's Day in Mexico City yesterday, demonstrating against violence. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who has had a conflictive relationship with the country's feminists, urged calm while warning that the protests could turn violent. (Reuters)
  

News Briefs

Brazil

• Thousands of protesters will participate in the “Ato pela Terra” (Stand for the Earth) demonstration in Brasília today, after Caetano Veloso called a major protest to denounce what they consider a historic assault on the Brazilian environment by President Jair Bolsonaro's government. Activists are protesting a “death combo” of five environment-related bills being considered by Brazil’s congress. (Guardian)
  
  
• If approved, the proposals would greenlight commercial mining on indigenous lands and jeopardize the land rights of tens of thousands of indigenous people; loosen environmental licensing requirements and regulations over pesticide use; and boost land grabbers and illegal loggers in the Amazon, reports the Guardian. If passed, the new laws would enshrine the current administration's hostile stance to conservation, and make it harder for a new government to roll-back loosened environmental regulations.
  
  
• Bolsonaro has seized on global fertilizer shortages caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine to push for a law that would allow mining on indigenous reservations. (See last Thursday's briefs.) The government's chief whip in the lower house of Congress gathered enough signatures yesterday to fast-track the bill, which means that it could be put to a full vote without committee hearings, reports Reuters.
  

Regional

• While the Russian fertilizer issue affects Brazil particularly, it will contribute to increasing agriculture costs around the world. "Sustained high commodity prices will be the single biggest driver of politics and economics in the region over the coming" year, writes James Bosworth at the Latin America Risk Report.

Guatemala

• A mass document leak shows how the international owners of an open-pit nickel mine paid off Guatemalan security forces, ignored court orders, and consorted with the highest echelons of Guatemalan government to obscure pollution, crush local dissent, and continue operating with the tolerance of three administrations, reports El Faro. (See Monday's briefs.)
  
  
• The leak of more than eight million company documents revealed how the mining company Solway, operating illegally in El Estor, a Maya Q’eqchi’ town near the Caribbean coastline, bought local police and Indigenous leaders, spied on journalists, classified residents as allies or enemies, and sought to expel communities from ancestral land. (El Faro)
  
  
• Guatemala's Congress passed a law that prohibits same-sex marriage, reports the BBC.
  

Peru

• Peruvian lawmakers introduced an impeachment motion to try to oust President Pedro Castillo, yesterday. It's the second formal attempt to remove Castillo, and was presented on the same day his latest Cabinet sought a confirmation vote from the legislature, reports Reuters.
  

Critter Corner

• Thanks to species conservation work, St. Lucia's national bird has been flourishing since the country's first independence day in 1979. -- Guardian
  

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

Covid-19 impact gender equality at work remains (March 8, 2022)

 Women have been disproportionately affected by the Covid-19-caused labor market crisis in Latin America and the Caribbean. The region faces an unprecedented setback in gender equality at work, according to a new report by the International Labour Organization. A high unemployment rate of 16.4 per cent, high informality, overload due to care tasks, are factors that contribute to increasing gender gaps in the labour market.

Of the 23.6 million jobs for women that were lost at the worst moment of the crisis in the second quarter of 2020, at the end of 2021 some 4.2 million were still to be recovered. In the case of men on the other hand, the 26 million jobs lost at that time had already been almost completely recovered.

More Feminism

• As reproductive rights are increasingly challenged in the U.S., activists there have much to learn from their Latin American counterparts, writes Amy Littlefield in The Nation. Green wave activists have painstakingly combined grassroots mobilization with political work to advance their cause with lawmakers and in court.

News Briefs

Regional Relations

• The Russian invasion of Ukraine is playing out as a war of words and money in the Western Hemisphere, reports the Hill. But for many experts in the region, the real risk of the war in Ukraine is not measured in Russian involvement, but in lack of U.S. and European involvement in the Western Hemisphere. "I think it's less about the crisis, which I think of course exists ... and much more about the opportunity," said Pedro Abramovay, director of the Latin America Program at the Open Society Foundations.
  
  
• But the Cold War mentality could also come at a cost for the region: "The war and the focus that the U.S. will put on cooperation [focused] on alignment or not, will put us further away from the possibility of sustaining democracy," said Abramovay. (The Hill)
  

Venezuela

• Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro said he agreed on an agenda for the future talks with a U.S. delegation that he met on Saturday. It was the first high-level meeting between the two countries in years, reports Reuters. (See yesterday's post.)
  
  
• The meeting was “respectful” and “very diplomatic,” Maduro said. Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, once recovered, is prepared to ramp up production “for the stability of the world,” he added. “The flags of Venezuela and the United States were there and they looked nice, the two flags, united as they should be,” Maduro said, a marked departure from previous rhetoric. (Washington Post)

Climate Change

• The Amazon is losing its resilience, its ability to recover from disturbances like droughts and land-use changes, according to a new study that raises concerns the rainforest is nearing the tipping point when the biome becomes grasslands, reports the New York Times.
  

Peru

• More than a month 10,000 barrels of crude oil spilled off of Peru's coastline, the country's worst ever environmental disaster, there are few signs of reckoning for Repsol, the Spanish energy company that manages the refinery where the accident occurred. "The catastrophe for one of the world’s richest marine ecosystems, and at least 2,000 coastal fishers who depend on it, has raised the question of how environmental crimes should be punished during a time of climate crisis and catastrophic wildlife loss," reports the Guardian.
  

Chile

• Chile's Constitutional Convention has until April 28 to approve proposed norms for a new magna carta, after which a commission will harmonize the document ahead of the July 4 deadline to present a new constitution for public consultation in September. (El País, see last Friday's briefs)
  
  
• Among the major changes that have already passed the convention's 2/3 approval requirement for inclusion is the definition of Chile as a plurinational state, and the creation of autonomous regions that include Indigenous territories as such. (El País, see last Friday's briefs)
  
  
• According to a recent Criteria poll, the convention's work has a 31 percent approval rate (two points below the previous month's) and a 48 percent disapproval. Nonetheless, it's the country's most backed political institution. (El País)

Migration

• Most of the 356 Haitians who travelled to the U.S. in a rustic wooden ship that grounded off the Florida Keys on Sunday will likely be returned to their home country. But migration advocates say Haiti's grave political turmoil and daily violence means the migrants should be considered refugees instead of being sent back to face danger and possible death. (Miami Herald)
  

Ecuador

• The city of Guayaquil in Ecuador endured one of the world's most lethal outbreaks of Covid-19 in 2020 -- hospitals were on wartime footing and corpses piled up as funerary services were overwhelmed. Daniel Alarcón explores the scars that remain, in the New Yorker.
  

Mexico

• Mexico is not known for soccer riots, like the one this weekend in which 26 people were injured in Querétaro’s Corregidora Stadium. Lack of adequate security measures, along with long-term issues like machismo and economic inequality played a role. The question now is whether Mexican soccer can recover its image ahead of the 2026 World Cup, reports the Guardian. (See yesterday's briefs.)

Argentina

• An Argentine court sentenced a Roman Catholic bishop to four and a half years in prison for sexual abuse of two former seminarians. The ruling is a major blow to Pope Francis, who had initially defended the bishop, reports the Guardian.
  

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

U.S. officials meet with Maduro (March 7, 2022)

Senior U.S. officials traveled to Venezuela and met with representatives of Nicolás Maduro's government on Saturday. U.S. and Venezuelan officials discussed the possibility of easing oil sanctions on Venezuela but made little progress toward a concrete deal, reports Reuters.

According to Reuters, the U.S. delegation was led by White House Latin America advisor Juan González, and Ambassador James Story, and that they met in Mirafolres palace with Maduro and Vice President Delcy Rodríguez.

In the talks, Washington sought guarantees of free presidential elections, broad reforms of Venezuela's oil industry to facilitate production and exports by foreign firms and the government's public condemnation of the Ukraine invasion. As a concession, U.S. officials were willing to consider temporarily allowing Venezuela to use the SWIFT system, reports Reuters. Maduro sought a total lifting of sanctions prohibiting Venezuela's oil exports, the removal of sanctions on him and other Venezuelan officials and the return to the state's control of PDVSA's U.S. subsidiary Citgo Petroleum

The the first such encounter in years, it was apparently part of a U.S. bid to challenge Russian influence with Venezuela. Washington believes that Russian President Vladimir Putin's allies in Latin America could become security threats if the standoff with Russia deepens, reports the New York Times. Some sources cited by NYT say Maduro’s team was eager to re-engage with the United States. Russia's role as a financial lifeline for the Maduro administration is under duress due to the international sanctions against Putin's government following his invasion of Ukraine.

Te U.S. trip to Caracas comes as negotiators for the Venezuelan opposition have been pushing the Biden administration for “carrots” that could draw Maduro back to talks in Mexico City, which were suspended in October, WOLA's Venezuela directo Geoff Ramsey, Venezuela told the Washington Post.

The U.S.’s precise objectives were unclear, although damaging Russian interests and multi-billion dollar investments in Venezuela was likely to be high on the list, Christopher Sabatini, a senior fellow for Latin America at Chatham House, told the Guardian. U.S. officials are also trying to secure the release of six former Citgo executives.

In recent weeks, former American lawmakers have pushed for the U.S. to ban Russian oil and gas exports while lifting restrictions on Venezuela, home to the world’s largest oil reserves, reports the Washington Post. Chevron has also lobbied the administration to modify its license to accept and trade oil in Venezuela. The Biden administration is wary of the impact of rising oil prices on gasoline pumps at home, notes the Wall Street Journal.

Venezuela could also become a substitute oil source as sanctions affect Russian energy exports. Venezuela could boost its crude exports if Washington eases sanctions against it. Maduro has signaled openness to discussing oil deals with the U.S.: "Here lies the oil of Venezuela, which is available for whomever wants to produce and buy it, be it an investor from Asia, Europe or the United States," he said in a public speech on Thursday.

More on U.S.-Venezuela

• The "tense relationship between the United States and Venezuela has been shaped by assumptions and ideas about U.S. dominance of the Western Hemisphere that date back centuries," writes Timothy M. Gill in the Washington Post.

News Briefs

 

Argentina

• Argentina’s government published on Friday the detailed plan for reducing its fiscal deficit and central bank financing as part of its pending US$45-billion deal with the International Monetary Fund. The agreement was sent to Congress on Friday, and lawmakers will vote on whether to ratify the pact sometime in the coming weeks, reports the BA Times. (See more details at Página 12.)
  
  
• The opposition Juntos por el Cambio coalition is reluctant to support the government's economic plan, but also wants to avoid a national default, reports Clarín. Lawmakers will likely ratify the agreement, but will seek to avoid paying political costs for unpopular economic measures.
  
  
• A poll found that 60 percent of Argentines support the deal. (Infobae)
  
  
• The Central Bank aims to boost its foreign reserves by at least US$5.8 billion this year and to gradually eliminate money printing to finance government spending, curbing it to zero by 2024. (Buenos Aires Times) 
  
  
• The agreement also includes recognition that a central pillar of Argentina's growth plan is to reduce gender economic inequalities, which were exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic. The agreement also notes that the strategy emphasizes strengthening care support systems.
  

Brazil

• Brazil is searching for new fertilizer suppliers as the war in Ukraine threatens to cut off shipments, with potential ripple effects on already high global food inflation, reports the Wall Street Journal. (See last Thursday's post.)
  
  
• Arthur do Val, a São Paulo congressman and prominent member of Brazil's right-wing, is facing calls to step down after leaked audio messages reveal a succession of callous and misogynistic remarks he made about Ukrainian refugees during a purportedly humanitarian mission, reports the Guardian.
  
  
• Café Apuí, a small coffee cooperative profiled by Americas Quarterly as an example of sustainable development in the Amazon, has been heavily damaged after a plane sprayed herbicide over its crops. Brazilian police are investigating whether the incident last month was an accident or an intentional attack. (Americas Quarterly)
  

Mexico

• Mexican journalist Juan Carlos Muñiz was killed on Friday in Zacatecas. He is the seventh press worker killed in the country so far this year. (Associated Press)
  
  
• Weapons that are more likely to be found in war zones are increasingly being used by cartels, and Mexico’s military is responding with overwhelming firepower, reports InSight Crime.
  
  
• More than two dozen people were injured in violent clashes between opposing soccer team fans in central Mexico on Saturday. (New York Times)

El Salvador

• Around 2,000 women marched in San Salvador yesterday to demand the legalization of abortion and a decrease in femicides. El Salvador has had an outright ban on abortion since 1998, even in cases of rape or if the health of the woman or fetus are in danger, reports AFP.
  

Migration

• A wooden boat carrying hundreds of Haitian migrants in a suspected human smuggling operation ran aground in shallow water in the Florida Keys. About 160 people swam ashore and many needed medical attention, reports the Associated Press.
  

Regional Relations

• U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Conflict and Stabilization Operations Anne Witkowsky will travel to Haiti for talks with top officials and "a diverse array of Haitian stakeholders." (Caribbean Media Corporation)
  

Guatemala

• A decision to restart operations at Guatemala's Fenix project, Central America’s largest nickel mines, is being questioned by campaigners, after an investigation appeared to show the company co-opted indigenous leaders and smeared potential opponents, reports the Guardian.
  

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

Climate change in South America (March 4, 2022)

Climate change induced extreme weather is a reality in South America, where the last month has seen deadly landslides in Brazil, rampaging wildfire in Argentina and harvest-ruining flooding in the Amazon, reports the Associated Press. 

The events corroborate what a new Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report details: Global warming is altering the intensity and frequency of extreme weather events, such as El Nino and La Nina, the natural heating and cooling of parts of the Pacific that alters weather patterns around the globe. These events have also become more difficult to predict, causing additional damage, the report said.

The IPCC report, says changes in the timing and magnitude of precipitation along with extreme temperatures are impacting agricultural production across Central and South America. “Impacts on rural livelihoods and food security, particularly for small and medium-sized farmers and Indigenous Peoples in the mountains, are projected to worsen,” the report read.

News Briefs

Brazil

• Former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has a real shot at becoming Brazil's president again in October- and he may make green shifts a key part of his platform, reports Reuters. Creating green jobs in the Amazon region will be a top priority for Lula's Workers' Party. Plans include replanting forests, agroforestry, and cooperatives to sustainably harvest açaí. Under Lula, Brazil would also reopen its Amazon Fund, formerly used by other nations to pay Brazil to monitor and combat deforestation in order to combat climate change and protect biodiversity.
  
  
• And because so many of President Jair Bolsonaro's harmful environmental policies were enacted by decree, they could be easily reversed in Lula's first few months in office, experts told Reuters.

• Stark industrial decline in Brazil could be pivotal issue in this year's presidential election. Bolsonaro has not made boosting industry a priority, while Lula has said that although commodities are important, Brazil needs “to be strong in industry, in science and technology”. The next few months are likely to involve a scramble to win the hearts and votes of places like São Bernardo, reports the Economist.
  
  
• Brazilian Senate president Rodrigo Pacheco said that bills to curb rising fuel prices would be on the table next week amid renewed pressure on prices after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, reports Reuters. (See yesterday's briefs.)
  
  
• Brazil's resistance musicians ensured that Carnival took place on Rio de Janeiro streets, despite an official ban that angered many people by forbidding public bloco parties while permitting paid events, reports the New York Times.

Argentina

• Argentina's government expects to send an agreement with the IMF to the country's Congress today, which will have to ratify the deal to refinance a $44 billion debt. The deal faces significant obstacles from within the ruling Frente de Todos coalition, as well as questions from the opposition Juntos por el Cambio coalition. (Infobae)
  
  
• The IMF said the two sides had reached a staff-level agreement on a 30-month extended fund facility, including a program to tame high inflation, reduce money printing to finance the fiscal deficit, and deliver positive real interest rates. (Reuters)
  
  
• Argentina has now had 22 bailouts by the IMF, but Ilan Goldfajn, the Fund’s Western Hemisphere Department director, said in a press conference that this time would be different “because it is based on realistic goals, it is based on the pragmatic approach and it its based on ownership of the program by the (Argentine) authorities.” (Reuters)
  
  
• Argentina's efforts to cut energy subsidies -- a key component of the agreement with the IMF -- will be complicated by rising global energy costs in response to the Ukraine conflict, according to the Latin America Risk Report.

Regional Relations

• The war in Ukraine has become a litmus test for how governments in Latin America view the changing global order. How is Washington positioning itself as the region’s preferred partner for development and economic growth? The White House’s top aide on Latin America, Juan González, joins the AQ podcast.
  
  
• El Salvador’s abstention from a Wednesday U.N. vote condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a clue as to President Nayib Bukele's stance on the conflict, but also says a lot about El Salvador's tensions with the U.S. over financial sanctions and bitcoin. The U.S. Treasury and E.U. blacklisted the Russian Central Bank and the G7 said their sanctions could eventually include cryptocurrencies, reports El Faro English. (See yesterday's post.)
  
  
• CARICOM has left the possible imposition of sanctions on Russia to individual member states following hours of intense deliberation on the second day of the 33rd Inter-Sessional Meeting of Heads of Government in Belize. (Jamaica Gleaner)
  
  
• "Russia’s engagement with Latin America after its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, and the Latin American response to the invasion, illustrates the growing strategic challenge to the U.S. from the survival and proliferation of populist authoritarian regimes in the Western Hemisphere," argue Evan Ellis and Ryan Berg in the Hill. (See yesterday's post, and Wednesday's.)
  
  
• Former Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva met with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Wednesday, the latest international visit in which Lula was embraced by current leaders. AMLO characterized the meeting as one "between friendly politicians and social leaders who fight for the people and to achieve positive changes in Latin America and the world." (El País)
  
  
• The two leaders oversaw the signing of a pact between Lula's Workers' Party and AMLO's Morena, and promised closer ties if Lula wins Brazil's presidential election later this year. (Reuters)

Nicaragua

• Nicaraguan opposition figure Cristiana Chamorro, detained since June last year went on trial behind closed doors yesterday, the latest would be presidential candidate to face court proceedings in El Chipote prison, reports AFP.

Colombia

• Colombia’s human rights situation worsened in 2021 amid rising violence which mainly affected Afro-Colombians and indigenous communities, the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said yesterday. Some 78 multiple homicides – locally referred to as massacres – verified by the OHCHR left 292 people dead in 2021, while 72,000 people were forced from their homes by illegal armed groups, according to the UN agency’s annual report. (Reuters)
  
  
• Colombia will hold legislative elections on March 13, and the leftist Pacto Histórico is leading with 38 percent voter intent in a new Ivamer poll. The same poll puts Gustavo Petro in a strong lead to win the presidential nomination for Pacto Histórico -- the vote will also be on March 13 -- and to later win the presidential election that will be held on May 29. (Caracol)
  
  
• Colombia’s National Liberation Army (ELN) declared a six-day ceasefire for the upcoming legislative elections. (Reuters)
  

Regional

• A new Atlantic Council report identifies how the withdrawal of correspondent banking relations, otherwise known as de-risking, affects Caribbean economies, people, and US-Caribbean relations. Access to the global financial system and development tools is critical for Caribbean economic recovery, growth, and resilience. Key to this access is correspondent banking, but over the past several years, most Caribbean governments and banks have seen a steady decline in correspondent banking relationships as institutions across the world deem the region as too small to be profitable due to high compliance costs and the perception that the region is a high-risk jurisdiction.

Chile

• Chile's Constitutional Convention is eight months old today, and has until July 4 to finish drafting a new magna carta. The discussions will profoundly alter Chile's governance structure. The current proposal would create a unicameral Congress, with a Territorial Council that some interpret as a second chamber. (LaBot Constituyente)
  
  
• Many of the Environmental Commission's proposals were voted down by the Convention's plenary, including a clause that would permit any person to represent "nature" in court, and another that would make crimes against nature imprescriptible. Several other clauses passed, including recognition of the environmental crisis as a consequence of human activity, the duty of the State to "guarantee and promote the rights of nature", the protection of animals as sentient beings, education based on empathy with animals, the right to binding participation in environmental decisions and the right of access to environmental information. (LaBot Constituyente)
  
  
• The Justice Commission approved juridical pluralism (recognizing Indigenous justice systems) and irremovability of judges. The commission has also approved removing Supreme Court judges after a 12-year mandate and a chapter on feminist justice. (LaBot Constituyente)

Honduras

• An anti-corruption team from Honduras’ Attorney General’s Office visited presidential offices a week after President Juan Orlando Hernández stepped down and found paper shredders and none of the financial documents they were looking for, Javier Santos, head of the special unit against corruption networks told the Associated Press.
  

Migration

• Mexican smuggling gangs have sawed through new segments of border wall 3,272 times over the past three years, according to unpublished U.S. Customs and Border Protection maintenance records obtained by the Washington Post. The maintenance records show damage has been more widespread than previously known, pointing to the structure’s limitations as an impediment to illegal crossings.
  

Mexico

• Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's "obsession with characterizing journalists as political enemies not only adds to the deadly climate of intimidation in Mexico, but also reveals the populist leader’s brazen efforts to obscure the fact that the country is becoming more and more dangerous, with various regions now resembling war zones," writes León Krauze in the Washington Post.
  
  
• Mexican security forces said they found almost 3 million rounds of ammunition and at least 16 fully automatic, belt-fed machine guns in raids this week on several houses in the northern border state of Sonora. The Defense Department said the seizure was the biggest haul of illegal ammunition in recent memory in Mexico, more than enough to supply a battalion-size force. (Associated Press)

Ecuador

• Ecuador's criminal organizations are increasingly emulating shock tactics employed by Mexico's cartels, reports AFP. In January and February this year, 468 people were killed in Ecuador. More than 320 of this year's victims have been inmates -- many dismembered and burnt in grisly wars between rival prison gangs allied to international drug cartels.

Venezuela

• President Nicolas Maduro announced a 18-fold increase in Venezuela’s monthly minimum wage to roughly 126 bolivars ($28) by pegging it to the value of half a petro, the government’s cryptocurrency. (Bloomberg)

Peru

• At least 2,000 Peruvian artisanal fisherman have been out of work for more than a month after an oil tanker sent thousands of barrels of crude gushing into the sea. Beaches have been closed since the Jan. 15 Repsol oil spill, and fishing along the affected shore has been prohibited indefinitely. Seafood restaurants are empty. Local tourism is at a standstill, reports the Washington Post.
  

Uruguay

• Uruguay is often seen as slightly dull -- but its part of what makes the country a regional success story, along with stable politics and business friendly policies, according to the Economist.

St. Barts

• A December judicial ruling against a luxury hotel in construction on St. Barts might signal a turning point in the hyper-development of this tropical Arcadia for the rich, according to the New York Times.

Histories

• Capitalism and Slavery, a book of unpalatable truths about Britain’s slave trade has become a UK bestseller, almost 80 years after author Eric Williams (later Trinidad and Tobago's prime minister) was told it would never be published. His central argument was that the abolition of the slave trade was not born out of humanitarian wishes but of economic necessity, reports the Guardian.
  
  
• Mateo Sobode Chiqueno is an Indigenous Ayoreo oral historian whose 1,000 cassette tapes of interviews partially preserve the fast-disappearing culture of the Chaco forest hunter gatherers in Paraguay. (Guardian)
  

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

Cuba and Nicaragua abstain from UNGA vote (March 3, 2022)

News Briefs

Diplomacy

• 141 nations voted in favour of a U.N. General Assembly motion condemning the invasion of Ukraine, while just five – Belarus, North Korea, Eritrea, Syria and Russia – opposed it. (See yesterday's post.) Thirty-five countries abstained from voting on the resolution that demands the immediate and complete withdrawal of all Russian forces from Ukrainian territory. Abstaining countries in Latin America include: Bolivia, Cuba, El Salvador and Nicaragua. Venezuela was unable to vote due to unpaid dues.
  
  
• Amid the crisis, Russia increased diplomatic efforts to ensure it had the support of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela. Several Russian officials traveled to the three countries, and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke with the three leaders, reports the Miami Herald. Cuba's government has sought to balance its Russia alliance and at the same time avoid a full endorsement, wary of damaging its relationship with valuable European trading partners.
  
  
• Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro criticized the barrage of Western sanctions slapped on Russia, yesterday. "What they are doing against the Russian people is a crime, an economic war," Maduro said as he reiterated support for President Vladimir Putin in what Maduro called the "conflict with Ukraine." (AFP)
  
  
• Colombian President Iván Duque will meet with U.S. President Joe Biden next week on a visit to Washington, during which the two leaders will discuss regional and global issues including Russia's invasion of Ukraine, reports Reuters.
  
  
• Brazil reaffirmed its position in favor of an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine in the United Nations General Assembly meeting yesterday, but said the indiscriminate application of sanctions on Russia does not lead to the reconstruction of dialogue. On Tuesday President Jair Bolsonaro said Brazil would remain neutral in the conflict, citing Russian fertilizers which are crucial for the country's agribusiness sector, reports Reuters.

Brazil

• Bolsonaro said the Ukraine conflict could cause potassium shortages in Brazil, and used the opportunity to support a 2020 bill that would permit the "extraction of minerals, water and organic resources" from Indigenous protected land in the Amazon rainforest. The legislation was shot down by the public prosecutor's office in 2021 for being unconstitutional, reports EFE.

Venezuela

• A new generation of cosmopolitan Venezuelan officials has allowed President Nicolás Maduro to halt the economic collapse and remain in power, at the cost of fostering potential future challenges to his rule, reports the New York Times.
  
  
• Venezuela's opposition faces a marked lack of enthusiasm, after losing momentum in efforts to oust Maduro in recent years, reports the Associated Press. Guaidó’s popularity has dropped from about 60% three years ago to under 15% in February, according to the the Venezuela-based polling firm Datanalisis.
  
  
• Wall Street firms and other U.S. investors are seeing an opening to press the Biden administration to lift sanctions against Venezuela, due to soaring energy costs linked to the Ukraine war, reports the Wall Street Journal.
  

Honduras

• Honduran lawmakers repealed legislation known as the "official secrets law" for classifying public documents on national security and defense. It is one President Xiomara Castro's first efforts to curb corruption, a major campaign promise, reports Reuters.
  

Migration

• An estimated 140,000 refugees and migrants transited through Panama in 2021 in an attempt to reach North America -- the unprecedented number of people transiting through the country emerge from the jungle of the Darién Gap, a journey fraught with violence and hardship including robbery, sexual violence, and death, explains Center for Democracy in the Americas in an issue brief.
  

Haiti

• Dominican Republic authorities deported former Haitian police officer linked to the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse. Tanis Philome is the latest suspect arrested in a crime still not solved after seven months, reports the Associated Press.
  

Guatemala

• Guatemala’s malnutrition crisis, which stems from structural inequalities across the country, has been worsened by the pandemic and the aftermath of hurricanes Eta and Iota in 2020, reports Al Jazeera.

Chile

• Chile sold $2 billion in dollar-denominated, sustainability-linked bonds, the first nation in the world to do so, reports Bloomberg.
  
  
• Deliberations Chile's new constitution have entered a critical phase, and it has become increasingly clear that the foundational spirit of the convention represents a risk to Chilean governance, argues Patricio Navia in Americas Quarterly. The process looks likely to produce a long, comprehensive and extremely detailed constitution, he writes. "Indeed, every political institution in Chile is under threat of elimination or deep redesign."

Latin America responds to Russia at UNGA (March 2, 2022)

The United Nations General Assembly is set to vote on a non-binding resolution that condemns Russia for the violence in Ukraine and demands an immediate withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukrainian territory.  By the end of Tuesday, 94 U.N. member countries had cosponsored the resolution.

Among the dozens of countries that decried Russia's actions in the rare emergency General Assembly meeting, Colombia called for economic sanctions, and said totalitarian regimes require strong action against them. 

Several countries, including Argentina, Suriname and Caricom countries, emphasized the defense of national sovereignty in their critiques of Russian aggression. 

Others, like Paraguay, also emphasized that the crisis demonstrates the urgent need for Security Council reform.

While most of the region is aligning against Russia, several of Putin's allies in Latin America have sought to blame the United States and NATO for stoking tensions in Ukraine. Cuba, Bolivia and Venezuela, in official statements, have called for a diplomatic resolution to the crisis, but have not voiced direct support for Russia's incursion, reports the New York Times.

Yesterday at the U.N. Cuba's representative said it defends international law and will unambiguously support Latin America and the Caribbean as a zone of peace. He noted, however, that it is impossible to rigorously and honestly analyze the situation in Ukraine without considering factors that led to the use of force. 

Yesterday Ukraine’s government blasted Cuba’s support for the Russian invasion, in response to the U.N. position and the arrest of a Cuban activist who left flowers at the Ukrainian Embassy in Havana as a sign of solidarity. Cuba has blamed the United States for the current conflict and the island's state media has hidden the true extent of the attack, reports the Miami Herald.

More on Russia in the Region

• Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro assured Russian leader Vladimir Putin of his "strong support" in a telephone call, according to a Kremlin statement. In the call initiated by Caracas, the Venezuelan leader also condemned "destabilizing actions of the United States and NATO" and spoke out against a Western campaign of "lies and disinformation," it said. (AFP)
  
  
• Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and Putin refer to their partnership as a “strategic alliance.” And as their countries become internationally sanctioned global outcasts, the two dictators have had to lean on each other more than usual in recent weeks, reports El Confidencial's Dispatch.
  
  
• Nicaragua’s role in the current tense situation between Moscow and Washington is merely to be an instrument of “provocation” towards US power, Russian foreign policy expert Ivan Ulises Kentros told Confidencial. “Moscow has for several years seen its allies in Latin America as a mirror image of the United States presence in eastern Europe. The geographical proximity of Nicaragua, Cuba, and Venezuela to U.S. territory has given Moscow the idea that these countries can function as a platform for a confrontational policy closer to United States territory.”
  
  
• The region's diplomatic positions won't impact the conflict itself, but "longer term, we are seeing a potential realignment in Latin America where countries like Brazil and Venezuela appear to stand on the side of Russia while countries like Chile and Paraguay stand firmly on the side of Ukraine," argues James Bosworth in the Latin America Risk Report. "Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is likely to shake up global politics for months to come and the implications for Latin America aren’t clear at the moment."
  

News Briefs

 

Regional

• Latin American countries again recorded the highest number of killings of human rights defenders in the world last year, according to the new annual report compiled by Front Line Defenders. Colombia, where activists are routinely targeted by armed groups, remained the most dangerous country to be a human rights defender, with 138 deaths recorded. The second deadliest country was Mexico, with 42 deaths, followed by Brazil. The report emphasized that many of these deaths could have been prevented, as they were preceded by threats and calls for protection. (Guardian)

Climate Change

• Storms blew debris from wildfires raging in Argentina into Paraguay, creating a massive, fast-moving cloud of ash hundreds of metres tall and several kilometres wide, reports the Guardian. The colossal bank of smog enveloped Asunción late Monday. 
  
  
• Massive fires have been raging across Argentina for almost two months. Nearly a million hectares in Corrientes have been burned, an area the size of Puerto Rico or Cyprus. Blazes continue to burn in nine of Argentina’s 23 provinces. (Guardian)

Migration

• The U.S. Coast Guard stopped an overloaded sailboat with 179 Haitian migrants crammed on its deck off the Bahamas, on Sunday, reports the Miami Herald. 
  

Honduras

• The United States' request for extradition of former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández is bittersweet for Hondurans hoping for justice -- it could mean accountability for a leader accused of colluding with international drug cartels, but it also means justice for high-profile criminals is hard to obtain within Honduran borders, reports the Christian Science Monitor.
  

More Colombia

• Colombian presidential front-runner Gustavo Petro said he’ll declare an “economic emergency” that would allow him to bypass the normal workings of congress if he wins this year’s presidential election. He said the “social catastrophe” of widespread hunger in Colombia justifies such a move. (Bloomberg)
  
  
• Colombia's Constitutional Court ruled that people should be able to have their gender registered as non-binary, rather than male or female, on official identity documents. (AFP)

Mexico

• The "Casa Gris" scandal implicating Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's son in potential corruption has taken a toll on the leader's popularity. AMLO had his worst month so far in terms of citizen support in February, with 54 percent approval and 43 percent disapproval, according to an El Financiero poll.
  
  
• Employees at a U.S.-operated border assembly plant in Mexico's Matamoros city have overwhelmingly voted to have an independent union represent them. It is the second victory over undemocratic, old-guard unions that had long kept the country's wages at rock-bottom levels, reports the Associated Press.
  

Argentina

• Argentina's government will, this week, send an agreement with the International Monetary Fund to delay debt repayments to Congress for approval, President Alberto Fernández said in his inauguration of the legislative year yesterday. Fernández needs lawmakers to approve the details of the deal, with pressure rising ahead of repayments to the IMF of over $2.8 billion due mid-March. The deal will also need to be approved by the IMF's board, reports Reuters.
  

Costa Rica

• Former finance minister Rodrigo Chaves is emerging as the favorite in Costa Rica's April presidential runoff, according to a new University of Costa Rica poll. Chaves, who has carved out an anti-establishment reputation, garnered support from 46.5% of voters surveyed, ahead of former Costa Rican President Jose Maria Figueres, with 35.9%. (Reuters)
  
  
• Costa Rican lawmakers legalized marijuana for medical purposes and will allow its cultivation for industrial use. President Carlos Alvarado is expected to sign the bill within days, reports the BBC.

Latin America Daily Briefing