Haiti and the U.N. launched an appeal for $145.6 million to support the country’s emergency response to a rapidly spreading cholera outbreak. At least half a million people in Haiti are at risk of contracting the disease, according to PAHO and the World Health Organization.

Authorities reported 8,708 suspected cases of cholera, and have so far confirmed 802 cases and reported 161 deaths across Haiti, reports the Miami Herald. More than 7,600 have been hospitalized according to the Pan American Health Organization, although officials believe the numbers are much higher as a result of under-reporting.

Experts say cases could surge as the country resumes activity following a gang fuel blockade that paralyzed the country for two months, reports the Associated Press.

Assistance for patients has been complicated by gang violence, which blocks access to many localities.

“Brazil is Back”

“I am here to say to all of you here that Brazil is back in the world,” Brazilian president-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said at the COP 27 climate summit in Sharm el-Sheikh today. Hundreds of people gathered ahead of his speech in the pavilion, with many cheering and chanting his name.

Lula spoke alongside governors of Brazilian Amazon states and said he would seek to have Brazil host COP30 in 2025, and would aim to hold the event in the Amazon.

Lula met U.S. Climate Envoy John Kerry and China’s chief climate negotiator Xie Zhenhua, yesterday, and was expected to meet EU climate policy chief Frans Timmermans today. Tomorrow he will meet with civil society and indigenous groups, as well as United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres.

Hosting a COP would also be symbolic of political change for the country: immidately following his election, President Jair Bolsonaro cancelled the 2019 summit that Brazil was supposed to host.

(Folha de S. Paulo, Reuters, Associated Press)

More Brazil

• Lula will assume office on Jan. 1, exactly 20 years after he started his first presidency. But Lula will govern a drastically changed country, with less room for economic growth, decreased presidential power, and a hyper-polarized public — all of which means he might have a short honeymoon, according to the New York Times.
  
  
• If Lula can return Brazil to high levels of growth, he will be able to carry out the broad social spending he has promised his base. But if growth stalls, the deficit will drag down his government, predicts the Latin America Risk Report.
  
  
• Lula was criticized for flying to the COP27 climate summit in Egypt on a private jet owned by a millionaire businessman, reports the Guardian.

Venezuela

• Venezuela’s government is cracking down on illegal gold mining in the country’s south, with a major military deployment aimed at wresting territorial control from the Organización R gang, reports InSight Crime.

Mexico

• Brewers and industrial water users are the target of an activist-led movement to reclaim resources from corporations in Mexico, a climate change battle that has has gained recognition at the highest levels of government, reports the New York Times.

Argentina

• Cenital has a special analyzing Argentina’s lithium sector. While the metal is considered an economic silver bullet by Argentina’s political class, Fundar researcher Victoria Arias Mahiques cautions that managing negative environmental impacts will be the major challenge.
  
  
• Argentina has agreed to expand its currency swap deal with China by $5 billion, President Alberto Fernández announced yesterday. (Reuters)

Uruguay

• Fighting between microtrafficking gangs in Uruguay is behind a troublesome homicide surge, and poses a national security problem, reports InSight Crime.

Chile

• The partner of Chilean President Gabriel Boric, anthropologist and political organizer Irina Karamanos, reluctantly assumed the office of the First Lady — in order to dismantle it from within. (The Washington Post)

Gender

• Colombian writer Carolina Sanín caused a regional literary circle controversy after a column describing tension she believes exists between feminism and transgender activism, reports the New York Times.

Jordana Timerman / Latin America Daily Briefing
http://latinamericadailybriefing.blogspot