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Haiti
- Gang fighting in Haiti is so intense that observers liken it to civil war. The U.S. Biden administration is anxious to avoid a mass exodus, but is also loathe to commit troops to a proposed multinational armed force to support Haiti’s police. Other nations have also balked, reports the New York Times.
Regional Relations
- Mexico and Colombia called on Latin American countries to rethink their drug policies. Speaking in Mexico City, Colombian President Gustavo Petro rejected the “war on drugs” paradigm and called decriminalization, reports El País.
- “We are definitely at a complex moment regionally for drug markets and organized crime,” political scientist Angélica Durán-Martínez told AS/COA, noting that the region is returning to a decade old attempt to revitalize the drug policy discussion.
- China has agreed to restructure Cuban debt and provide new trade and investment credits to the beleaguered island after a meeting between presidents Xi Jinping and Miguel Díaz-Canel. (Reuters)
- The two pledged mutual support over their fellow communist states’ “core interests” at a Friday meeting in Beijing. (Associated Press)
- Peruvian President Pedro Castillo landed in Santiago today, where he will meet with his Chilean counterpart, Gabriel Boric. (La Tercera)
Brazil
- Brazilian president-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s recent COP27 speech laid out an expansive vision for Brazilian foreign policy in the next four years — was a clear signal that Brazil was ready to be more ambitious in its foreign policy agenda, his top foreign policy advisor, Celso Amorim, told the Financial Times.
Nicaragua
- An Argentine judge has taken a case accusing Nicaraguan leaders Daniel Ortega, Rosario Murillo, and a dozen other top officials of crimes against humanity in relation to the repression of 2018 protests. While the prospect of a verdict is far-flung, the case is making waves, reports El Faro.
Chile
- Chile has made one of the fastest green transitions in the world, in large part thanks to solar energy, reports El País.
Argentina
- The death of Plaza de Madres de Mayo leader Hebe de Bonafini raises questions of how we can maintain memory of past atrocities after their mourners have passed, according to a Guardian editorial.
Jordana Timerman / Latin America Daily Briefing
http://latinamericadailybriefing.blogspot
