The Latin American Report # 699

This AP wire report details how Latin American migrants are practically begging to be deported due to the harsh treatment received from US authorities, which includes their extended confinement in facilities with very bad reputations like Florida's "Alligator Alcatraz" and the immigration detention camp at the Fort Bliss Army base in El Paso, Texas. Thus, they are no longer interested in fighting their asylum cases in court but rather in returning to their countries, amidst an aggressive ICE policy regarding the number of detained migrants—at record levels, even including many protected under the UN Convention Against Torture—as well as the length of confinement. "I came to this country thinking they would help me, and I've been detained for six months without having committed a crime," a Nicaraguan migrant detained in El Paso told the American wire agency, explaining how the bureaucracy forces him to appear before a judge before he can access the benefits promoted by the Trump administration for those who decide to depart the country voluntarily. "The conditions are so poor and so bad that people say, 'I'm going to give up'," said an activist.

Cuba

An interesting thesis is presented in this 👇 informative piece by the alternative but influential media Drop Site.

The impact of the Trump administration's maximum energy asphyxiation policy against Cuba continues to worsen the humanitarian situation on the Island. As I reported yesterday, Cuban airports ran out of fuel this Monday. The Spanish airline Air Europa will have to refuel in the Dominican Republic to cover its route between Havana and Madrid. Meanwhile, the also Spanish Iberia, with a long tradition here, has offered some solutions to customers with purchased tickets, without confirming whether there will be cancellations. In the case of Air Canada, which operates about 14 flights each week, it suspended its four active routes and will only fly to repatriate approximately 3000 customers in Cuba needing to return to the northernmost part of the American continent.

This has many immediate implications for tourism, a sector with a spillover effect on our economy, and which has not recovered the levels it experienced before COVID-19 due to a multiplicity of factors. In this scenario, with low hotel occupancy levels, tourism companies are relocating and concentrating their customers to optimize their resources and expenses.

Regarding how the White House´s siege, which is a de facto oil blockade, is reflected in the common people, the United Nations Secretary-General expressed concern about the "growing fuel scarcity" in the country, and, also recalling the body´s commitment to support the consequences left by the devastating Hurricane Melissa here, pledged to increase the shipment of food and other products through its assistance programs, which for this case still lack the requested funding amount. Although it may seem, and in many cases truly is, an inane organization without direct practical effects on global political development, the fact that the UN speaks out and keeps the Cuban issue on the agenda could be an important factor, because extending this situation should not be politically sustainable in the long run for the head of the Oval Office.

The Island has been in recession for over three years as a result of the unfortunate convergence of gross errors in internal economic and political management—slow or passive, poorly adaptive, and erratic in general; this case is a recent example focused on the political dimension—and an unfavorable international context marked by historic US sanctions, intensified since 2019 by the first Trump administration targeting critical sectors or activities such as energy, tourism, remittances, and professional service exports. According to an important think tank affiliated with the prestigious University of Havana, last year's GDP would have contracted by 5%, while the cumulative decline since 2020 amounts to more than 15%.

Venezuela

A news story that has been bouncing a lot since last night is the recapture of Juan Pablo Guanipa, a Venezuelan opposition leader, just hours after being released—following a change in his precautionary measure regime—as part of an opaque process initiated days after the capture of former President Nicolás Maduro. Guanipa would be getting out very soon in any case, as the final approval of an amnesty act that would cover his case and that of hundreds of allegedly political prisoners is expected in the coming hours. AP reports that the Attorney General Tarek William Saab's office "requested the competent court to revoke the precautionary measure granted to Juan Pablo Guanipa, due to his non-compliance with the conditions imposed by the aforementioned court." Two other high-profile individuals recently released were placed under house arrest.

It is not clear what might have upset the authorities, because Guanipa only led a caravan celebrating his release, gave statements to the press, and posted memes and other political content on his social media. None of this violates the two conditions explicitly stated in his release order, according to a copy his family shared with the media. Veteran Chavista leader Diosdado Cabello told the press that "justice is functioning," that the releases are an "opportunity," and that some Venezuelan politicians think they are "untouchable," in apparent reference to Guanipa. I think all of this could indicate either a calibrated move from the interim leadership to send a signal or a sign of internal power struggles.

The oil-rich country seems to take advantage of the regulatory flexibility that followed Maduro's capture 👇

Confronting Drug Trafficking

The US Coast Guard seized about 360 kilograms of cocaine—valued at 5 million dollars—in Puerto Rico after arresting a man on board a vessel at the San Juan dock, as specified in this wire report from the Spanish agency EFE; the date of the seizure is unclear. Meanwhile, in a joint operation, the United States and Colombia seized 10 tons of cocaine aboard a submarine whose four crew members were arrested. The drugs would have a market value of 441 million dollars. I note a significant difference in the price per kilogram of cocaine reported in both incidents, which is probably explained by the phase of smuggling in which the shipments were intercepted; the price could also be region-based.

Bolivia

Bolivian police are investigating the death of nine miners—including two adolescents aged 13 and 15, respectively—last Thursday, who apparently were intoxicated by smoke from ancestral offerings made in two mines in the municipality of Porco, in the Andean region of Potosí. The investigations seek to determine if the criminal figure of "negligent homicide" applies, because the mines lack oxygenation, and, when practicing the rituals, "oxygen levels drop tremendously and that generates intoxication" by carbon monoxide. So a question authorities are asking is how the people entered the mines and if they had authorization to make offerings in them. About 30 people have died in Potosí this year from intoxications inside mines.

Mexico

Mexican authorities have already identified the corpses of five of the ten miners kidnapped at the end of January in the violent northwestern state of Sinaloa, who worked for a Canadian company. Another five bodies remain in the identification process. Four people have been detained and are said to have been the source for locating the whereabouts of the bodies, according to President Claudia Sheinbaum. Just another case that speaks volumes about the levels of social degradation in terms of (in)security in the Aztec nation.