The Big Stories to watch this week in LATAM
Peru mad Mexico won't let them jail a politician, COP30 kicks off in Brazil, Paz takes office in La Paz, and Venezuela? Whatever happened to Venezuela?
LATAM Daily Wires brings you the stories to watch this week in Latin America and the big headline developments over the weekend. If you haven’t subscribed yet, you should.
Sheinbaum is cramping Peru’s ‘jail all politicians’ style
Peru has declared Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum a ‘persona non grata’
Peruvian lawmakers have banned the Mexican president from visiting the country over Mexico’s decision to grant asylum to ex-Prime Minister Betssy Chávez.
Chávez is accused of aiding in the attempted coup of the former, and now jailed, President Pedro Castillo. She has taken refuge in the Mexican embassy in Peru.
Whatever else your opinion on allegations, regional politics, or parties in Latin America, Mexico should know that getting in between a Peruvian and their desire to jail a former high-level politician is bound to create a diplomatic crisis at the very least.
Chávez denies being involved in Castillo’s plot.
COP 30 Climate Summit kicks off in Brazil!
The COP 30 Climate Summit has kicked off in Belem, Brazil. Brazilian President Lula insisted the conference be held in the Amazon region of the country — a region which has disproportionately suffered the effects of global climate change.
Lula’s environmental record has been decidedly mixed. Though he has lowered total deforestation rates in the country, he has also increased oil exploration and extraction in the country’s rainforests.
Opening statements by world leaders, including Colombian President Gustavo Petro, focused on how many wealthy countries have not lived up to their promises on funding energy transition goals.
Meanwhile, over the weekend, the United Nations released a report stating that a quarter of a billion people have been displaced by natural disasters over the last decade, a phenomenon they directly link to climate change.
Bolivia’s ‘capitalism for all’ President takes office: the US is pleased
Rodrigo Paz, the right-wing winner of Bolivian elections, has been sworn in as president. He faces ongoing economic crisis’ in the country as well as a shortage of foreign currency reserves.
He follows 20 years of rule by leftist party MAS. He has promised to renew diplomatic relations with the United States, as well as reinitiate cooperation with the DEA in the ‘War on Drugs’, which MAS ended in 2008.
The US has already dispatched diplomatic personnel for preliminary talks with the Paz government. The new president is likely to need help getting out of the economic hole that is current Bolivia, and he is no doubt eyeing the $40 billion just received by Milei in Argentina hopefully.
And Venezuela? What about Venezuela? We think Trump might have forgotten Venezuela
SOUTHCOM last week announced the deployment of the Ford Carrier battlegroup to the Caribbean, which has led to a lot of speculation about airstrikes on Venezuela.
Meanwhile, the US is still killing people on speedboats at a faster rate than Colombia’s ‘false positives’ scandal. But Trump’s attention seemed to be elsewhere. Several media reports claim the administration has not yet made any decision about Venezuela, and the Carrier group was significantly delayed near Morocco, though it appears to indeed be on its way to Latin America currently.
Speaking of murder on the high seas, AP has an investigative piece out on who some of the people who have been killed by the US really were. It is worth reading in its entirety.
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Hasta pronto, piratas!
