Latin America Daily Briefing

An independent commission charged by Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador with documenting human rights atrocities committed by the state during the country’s “dirty war” has accused the country’s military and intelligence services of obstructing their investigation. Nonetheless, they were able to document thousands of abuses committed against students, Indigenous people, journalists, LGBTQ+ people and others, including arbitrary arrests, massacres and torture, reports the Guardian.

The commission presented 4,000-page report today, detailing everything from executions, torture, disappearances and forced displacement carried out by the government against farmers, students, union activists and members of Indigenous groups. Almost none of the abuses have ever been brought to trial, despite investigations having started as far back as President Vicente Fox’s administration (2000-2006), preorts the Associated Press.

The report includes evidence that Mexican authorities disposed of the bodies of dissidents in “death flights”.

More Mexico

• Claudia Sheinbaum, who won Mexico’s June presidential election by a landslide, has finally been formally declared the country’s president-elect. The legal ruling had been delayed by appeals before the federal electoral tribunal, reports the Associated Press. She will take office on Oct. 1.
  
  
• She promised to advance against impunity, and that there will not be “a war against narcos.” Sheinbaum made numerous feminist references in her acceptance speech yesterday, notes El País.
  
  
• Sheinbaum named an electrical engineer to head Mexico’s power utility and fix outages, reports Bloomberg.
  
  
• “Emma Coronel, the wife of Joaquín “El Chapo,” Guzmán Loera, has been in the spotlight in recent weeks, amid a tumultuous period for the Sinaloa Cartel, debuting on the social media network TikTok and featuring in a music video that plays to the gendered tropes of narco culture,” reports InSight Crime.

Venezuela

• Venezuelan opposition leaders rejected a proposal by Brazil and Colombia’s presidents that an ongoing electoral crisis could be resolved with a new vote, this time with stronger democratic safeguards. Nicolás Maduro’s government, which maintains without evidence that he won reelection, also rejected the idea, reports the Washington Post. (See yesterday’s post and El País.)
  
  
• But experts believe that negotiations behind closed doors could lead to new elections or a power-sharing agreement. Speaking to the Washington Post, David Smilde argued that new elections shouldn’t be ruled out, and pointed to the precedent set in gubernatorial elections in 2021 in the state of Barinas, where a repeat election led the opposition to take power. New elections could also give the Maduro government time to negotiate an exit, he said.
  
  
• Media reported yesterday that U.S. President Joe Biden had supported Brazil’s proposal, but a National Security Council spokesperson later clarified that he “was speaking to the absurdity of Maduro and his representatives not coming clean about the July 28 elections,” not the idea of holding new elections. (Washington Post)
  
  
• Today Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, asked in an interview if he considers Venezuela to be a dictatorship, answered that it is not: “I believe that Venezuela has a very unpleasant regime. I do not think it is a dictatorship, it is a government with an authoritarian slant.” (El País)
  
  
• While Lula’s statements seem soft on Maduro, they are a major departure from Lula’s previous more conciliatory stance towards Venezuela’s leader, and “are likely to irk” Maduro, reports the Guardian.
  
  
• Venezuela’s ruling party-controlled National Assembly unanimously passed a bill tightening civil society regulations, in the midst of a government crackdown on dissent, reports Reuters.

Colombia

• British Prince Harry has hit out at online disinformation during a four-day visit to Colombia, warning: “What happens online within a matter of minutes transfers to the streets,” reports the Guardian. He spoke in Bogotá at a summit on digital responsibility, and said the spread of false information via artificial intelligence and social media means “people are acting on information that isn’t true.”
  
  
• Harry and his wife Meghan were welcomed at the residence of Vice President Francia Márquez, who said the visit seeks to “build bridges and open doors” and to raise awareness and address a “problem that concerns all of humanity today: cyberbullying,” especially because of its impact on children. Márquez herself said she was the victim of “12,000 racist attacks” last year. (Associated Press)
  
  
• Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s first two years in office reflect “his own errors and the profound challenges of enacting progressive change in the Global South,” writes Gabriel Hetland in The Nation. “Petro can, nonetheless, point to notable accomplishments. But with presidential reelection prohibited and Colombia’s current Congress locked in until 2026 elections, Petro will face an uphill battle to build upon and deepen these accomplishments in his final two years in office.”}
  
  
• “Petro’s foreign policy aims to elevate Colombia as an aspiring middle power by reducing reliance on the U.S., exemplified by pursuing BRICS membership, growing ties with China, and severing ties with Israel over Gaza,” writes Amelia Thoreson in Global Americans. “This is a shift in Colombia’s foreign policy that allows for increased partnerships outside of the West.”

Haiti

• A prison break in Haiti — the third major one this year — comes in the midst of expanding gang violence, reports the Miami Herald. Critics say an international security force meant to aid Haitian police battle gangs lacks the equipment to be effective.
  
  
• “Two members of Haiti’s Transitional Presidential Council are calling for an internal investigation on a bank bribery scandal currently engulfing the ruling entity and threatening U.S.-backed efforts to lead the troubled country to elections next year,” reports the Miami Herald.

Regional Relations

• A new ECLAC report suggests that nearshoring has taken hold in Mexico. “Whether and how nearshoring in Mexico can continue apace will depend on the imminent transitions of power in both Mexico City and Washington,” writes Catherine Osborn in the Latin America Brief.

Argentina

• Argentines “have been submitted to the most brutal austerity shock in recent history” since Javier Milei became president in December —yet, he remains popular, in part because monthly inflation has gradually cooled since spiraling to 25.5% when he took office. And in part because of remaining anger at the political establishment parties that preceded his government, reports Bloomberg.

Regional

• Caribbean media reacted exuberantly to Kamala Harris’ positioning as the U.S. Democratic Party nominee, but many commentators in the region are skeptical that a Harris presidency would bring meaningful engagement with the region — Just Caribbean Updates.

Panama

• A new dam proposal aims to rescue the Panama Canal from increasingly low water levels, but the project would also flood the homes of 2,000 predominantly poor people who would need to be relocated and would risk losing their means of earning a living, reports the New York Times.

Paraguay

• Hundreds of demonstrators participated in a rare anti-government protest in Paraguay, yesterday, after the government passed a bill that tightens regulations for civil society, reports the Associated Press.

Peru

• Peruvian gang leader Gianfranco Torres-Navarro has been arrested in the U.S., reports the BBC. He is believed to be the leader of the Los Killers gang and is on Peru’s wanted list.

Critter Corner

• A termite species in French Guiana deploys an unusual chemical reaction in an act of self-sacrifice to save nests from invaders — New York Times

Jordana Timerman / Latin America Daily Briefing
latinamericadailybriefing.blogspot 08 17 2024