Yesterday, El Faro reported that El Salvador’s Attorney General’s Office “buried evidence of corruption in COVID-19 food contracts worth $22.7 million.” The investigation, which began in May 2020, looked into irregularities in the contracts won by the company Negocios y Servicios Bursátiles (NSB), owned by businessman Munir Miguel Bendeck. Prosecutors were investigating Bendeck and several government officials for alleged favoritism and overcharging on contracts that benefitted NSB. However, when President Nayib Bukele’s Nuevas Ideas party illegally removed and replaced the Attorney General with a party loyalist in May 2021, “the new attorney general then dissolved the team of prosecutors in charge of the case and closed the investigation.” Corruption investigations in El Salvador, including Operation Cathedral, have exposed vast and complex corruption networks in the Bukele administration which allegedly reach the president’s brothers, chief of cabinet, advisors, and the Nuevas Ideas party head, among others. 

In Costa Rica, La Nación reports that the country’s Supreme Electoral Court (TSE) found “sufficient evidence to presume” that President Rodrigo Chaves and his Social Democratic Progress Party (PPSD) used a “shady financing scheme” (“esquema oscuro de financiamiento”) during their successful election campaign earlier this year. PPSD and Chaves’ campaign reportedly used a trust known as Costa Rica Próspera to receive donations without reporting to the TSE, in addition to using the bank account of the daughter of ally Waldo Agüero to receive donations from the banker Jack Loeb. 

More El Salvador

Tamara Taraciuk, Deputy Director of Human Rights Watch’s Americas Division, tells elsalvador.com in a new interview that she views the current state of emergency—now reaching 150 days—as a “catastrophe.”

Argentina

• “Investigating and prosecuting corruption would be good for Argentina, even if it causes a bit of political turmoil in the short term,” writes James Bosworth for the Latin America Risk Report. 

Brazil

• “Brazilian police on Tuesday conducted raids targeting several businessmen who have backed President Jair Bolsonaro’s re-election, two sources said, after a media report accused them of discussing the virtues of a coup d’etat if the far-right leader lost the October vote,” reports Reuters. (see last Thursday’s LADB)
  
  
• Lula “has vowed to launch a major crackdown on the illegal miners and loggers laying waste to the Amazon,” if elected, reports The Guardian. The ex-president currently leads in polls. 
  
  
• In an interview last night with Jornal Nacional, presidential candidate Ciro Gomes criticized polarization in the race and promised to get rid of the right to re-election if elected, reports Folha.

Chile

• In Americas Quarterly, Pía Mundaca writes that, “Groups that want the new draft to be put into place without any changes aren’t numerous, and neither are those that want to keep the current charter, which dates from 1980, without modifications,” when discussing Chile’s constitutional referendum.

Colombia

• Director of the National Police Henry Sanabria Cely told El Tiempo yesterday that the Petro administration has suspended all operations of forced eradication of coca plants in the country. Instead, they will promote voluntary eradication and substitution programs. 

Haiti

• Monday saw thousands of Haitian citizens protest against the country’s high inflation—a 10-year record high—as well as significant fuel shortages, reports Reuters.

Mexico

• Organized crime in the state of Guerrero is having a direct influence on the price of tortillas, driving inflation and forcing businesses to change prices as they see fit, reports El País.
  
  
• AMLO is creating a state-run, decentralized body for lithium exploration and exploitation, Litio para México, says El Financiero.

Nicaragua

• Daniel Ortega’s arrest of dissident Bishop Rolando Álvarez highlighted a new target for Ortega’s regime, the Catholic Church, “cementing its position as a totalitarian state,” says the New York Times.

Regional

• “With an average score of 43 out of 100 for the third consecutive year in the 2021 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), the countries of the Americas have ground to a halt in the fight against corruption. Despite extensive legislation and a regional commitment to control this scourge, corruption in the Americas continues to undermine democracy and human rights,” reports Transparency International.

Venezuela 

• The US is willing to “calibrate” its sanctions policy towards Venezuela if the Maduro regime doesn’t negotiate in good faith, says US State Department Spokesperson Ned Price. (Efecto Cucuyo)
  
  
• A new CSIS report argues that “the challenges faced by the opposition—from internal divisions to an ongoing humanitarian crisis, captured electoral institutions, and persistent human rights abuses—cannot be understated. While there is potential for elections in 2024 to generate momentum and re-galvanize resistance to the Maduro regime, the balance sheet of risks and rewards remains indecisive.”
  
  
• Based on a recent workshop, Chatham House outlines policy recommendations for a way forward in Venezuela, including a focus on sanctions, human rights, and democracy.

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