The Latin American Report # 533

A non-marginal group of Mexico City natural residents is escalating their demands to Claudia Sheinbaum—both as its former mayor and now as president—to seek solutions to the high costs of the housing market. The rationale behind the at-times violent protest that took place last Friday in the Mexican capital is that authorities have prioritized the influx of American tourism-sourced dollars and the expansion of social phenomena like digital nomads, to the detriment of local citizens' purchasing power. Residents have watched as the long-standing goal of achieving affordable housing slips further away, and even as certain areas of the city become somehow "English-speaking only".

This issue brings back to the table the question of how certain government policies drift away from the interests and problems of ordinary people. In this dynamic, one could argue that regulations are more private than social. The consequence is far from pretty, as grassroot discontent has awakened a dangerous sense of anger and xenophobia, which, as this AP report suggests, may also be fueled to some extent by Donald Trump’s harsh immigration policies. Sheinbaum criticized the protest in the following terms: "The xenophobic displays seen at that protest have to be condemned. No one should be able to say ‘any nationality, get out of our country,’ even over a legitimate problem like gentrification," she said yesterday. "We’ve always been open, fraternal," added.

An NGO behind the protest stated that "[gentrification] isn’t just foreigners' fault, it’s the fault of the government and these companies [i.e., Airbnb] that prioritize the money foreigners bring." Because of this dynamic, they argue, "young people and the working class can’t afford to live here." This is an issue to keep an eye on.

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Following the Russian trail

Though I assume Russia isn’t disclosing everything, and some of what follows may be biased, the public discussion of the methods the Eurasian giant claims to be using to bypass Western sanctions remains interesting—and plausible. According to this AP wire report, Moscow is resorting to, among other instruments, cryptocurrencies as an alternative for cross-border payments. Netting and gold are the others. I bring this up because of its relevance to the Cuban case.

Reports suggest that the island—the country most severely punished by OFAC in the world—has long been assessing the potential of cryptocurrencies to circumvent the U.S.’s comprehensive and exquisitely targeted sanctions regime. Yet, given the sustained, chronic difficulties authorities face in making payments for the most critical imports (i.e., oil and food), with long delays to find a loophole and make a final deposit to unload the cargo awaiting in the ships, it seems to me that both the issue hasn’t been studied with enough creativity and there has been significant passivity. It is evident that cryptocurrencies have a strong role to play here, despite the risks they entail.

Maybe a change for the better, and another for the worst

The final point of this report also concerns Mexico and Cuba—statistically for the better in the first case, and for the worse in the second. According to official Mexican data, there has been a nearly 25% reduction in homicides over the past nine months, while June of this year recorded the lowest daily homicide rate since 2016 for that month specifically.

In Cuba’s case, however, the trend is the opposite in a related topic. Although the penal code does not formally recognize the crime of femicide, the island now finds itself on the shameful podium of Latin American nations with the highest number of femicides last year. It is surpassed only by Honduras and the Dominican Republic.