Latin America’s storied past with the military has left many countries struggling to redefine the role of its armed forces, especially concerning the military’s role vis-à-vis violence promoted by non-state actors such as gangs or armed rebel groups. El País highlights the examples of Mexico and Colombia, where presidents Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) and Gustavo Petro have undergone recent attempts to reorganize the military’s structure. The region’s militaries “have historically been used to persecute the left,” marking these efforts by popularly perceived left-leaning leaders to reorganize and redefine the government’s relationship with the military even more significant. 

In Mexico, AMLO has been criticized by some for allowing continued concessions to the armed forces, including making the country’s National Guard dependent on the army and attempting to transfer the National Guard to the offices of the Secretary of Defense (see Tuesday’s briefing). In Colombia, Petro introduced a new military leadership for the deputy police force with the intention of reforming the military’s duties by building “irrigation districts with the army and country houses and neighborhood roads with the soldiers of the country.” Furthermore, as Adam Isaacson noted on Twitter earlier this week, Petro indicated that “if massacres or social-leader killings happen in military and police commanders’ areas of responsibility, it ‘will affect’ their career paths.”

The El País article also touches upon the difficult histories of Argentina, Venezuela, Brazil, and Chile and how each country has attempted to reform civil-military relations with differing results.   

Argentina

• As inflation continues to grow and the peso weakens, thousands protested for improved salaries and unemployment benefits in Buenos Aires on Wednesday, reports Reuters.
  
  
• Chinese Lithium company Ganfeng Lithium Co. will expand its operation in Salta Province, notes Diálogo Américas.
  
  
• La Nación outlines 4 obstacles to addressing the historic fiscal deficit in Argentina: energy subsidies, state employment, social welfare policies, and the pension/retirement system. 

Bolivia

• “The failure of the Organization of American States (OAS) to explain false claims of fraud it made during the Bolivian elections in 2019 – allegations that played a key role in the military ouster of President Evo Morales – continues to fuel doubts about its ability to monitor elections fairly and objectively,” write Francisco Rodríguez and Jake Johnston at the AULA Blog.

Brazil

• A new Datafolha poll shows Lula with 47% and Bolsonaro with 32% in the first round. (Folha)
  
  
• “Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro briefly grappled with a heckler and tried to snatch his phone on Thursday, underscoring possible challenges for the sometimes quick-tempered leader to stay disciplined on the campaign trail,” reports AP.

Caribbean

• Grenadian Environment Minister Simon Stiell has been named as the new head of UN climate negotiations by Secretary-General António Guterres. “​​Stiell’s appointment suggests rich countries may have more difficulty blocking their poorer counterparts’ demands for climate reparations than they have in the past,” writes Catherine Osborn at the Foreign Policy Latin America Brief.
  
  
• US authorities report increasing arms smuggling to the Caribbean, most notably Haiti, in recent months. (Reuters)

Colombia

• The Petro administration hopes to increase the government’s budget for 2023 in order to fund social programs, planning to potentially fund the increased spending through public debt swaps, reports Reuters.
  
  
• Petro’s “Total Peace” plan will face challenges and will require a holistic approach that includes negotiating with criminal groups and addressing the roots of conflict, write Joshua Collins and Daniela Díaz for NACLA. 

El Salvador

• The Public Ministry has ordered the capture of 15 people, including former employees of the president’s residence, accused of money laundering and embezzlement during the Salvador Sánchez Cerén administration (2014-2019). (Infobae)
  
  
• *Correction: A brief yesterday incorrectly stated that Moisés Humberto Rivera was a leader of the Guatemalan branch of the MS-13 gang. Rivera is a Salvadoran leader of the MS-13 who was detained in Guatemala in April.

Guatemala

• “The government of President Alejandro Giammattei is making a name for itself in human rights circles as a leading persecutor of journalists and anyone who dares expose the endemic corruption that is keeping Guatemala’s poor from finding a way out of their misery,” writes Frida Ghitis for WPR. 

Mexico

• In Global Americans, Evan Ellis highlights the evolution of organized crime in Mexico and the steps that the AMLO administration is taking to mitigate the influence of these groups.

Migration

• Facebook and WhatsApp have become key for human smuggling operations and coyotes facilitating migration, according to Al Jazeera.

Peru

• Despite a history of high-profile corruption cases and political turmoil, Peru’s economy has historically prevailed. Now, however, ”Peru’s economy is finally beginning to crack after years of increasingly disruptive political crises that have peaked under President Pedro Castillo and a combative Congress, hurting both private and public investment,” reports Reuters.

Regional

• A new CSIS report notes three key challenges in addressing the ongoing problem of forced disappearances: “the increased involvement of non-state actors in carrying out enforced disappearances, the use of enforced disappearances as a practice during armed conflicts, and the lack of effective mechanisms to hold states accountable for carrying out enforced disappearances.”

Venezuela

• “President Nicolas Maduro’s shift from socialism to a more capitalist approach, a key tenet of his bid to halt a years-long economic collapse, is showing up in many forms, from the widespread use of US dollars to the imported, gourmet foods filling store shelves. But few are as noticeable as the makeover taking place in public spaces once littered with Chavista propaganda. Gone — or, at least, disappearing rapidly — are many of the formerly ubiquitous odes to “revolution,” according to Bloomberg.

Arianna Kohan y Jordi Amaral / Latin America Daily Briefing
http://latinamericadailybriefing.blogspot