The Big Stories to watch this week in LATAM
Trump fights with Lula and Petro, another arrest in attempted Uribe assassination in Colombia, and BRICS BATTLES!
Hello friends,
We were traveling for a few days for work and were out of reach of reliable internet, or a desk, for that matter. Or even power really. Oh, the excitement of the field journalist’s life! haha!
But the good news is we have some new feature story content in the works, both here at PWS and at the media organizations we freelance for. Since this week the dailies are getting off to a late start, we thought we’d try something a little different.
We’d like to start the weekly dailies with the developing stories that will likely be in the headlines throughout the week. This is pretty standard for journalists at the big-box orgs, who plan their coverage (aside from breaking news, of course, which no one can predict), thinking about what little stories might become big ones.
Or perhaps in this case, a series of developing regional beefs that might slowly fade away, or explode into crisis.
This week, we have potential for a little of both.
Trump and Petro are fighting (sort of)
Last week U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio picked a seemingly odd fight with no specifically named Colombian politician (It’s Petro). After recalling the acting ambassador and issuing extremely vague statements that someone was behaving badly(he meant Petro), Colombia also recalled its ambassador in the U.S. back to Bogota.
“Why?” you might ask. Well, no one is very sure. Least of all Petro, who decided to write U.S. President Trump a very lovely letter about the whole situation (and climate change, and Venezuela, Cuba, and Haiti, and immigration, and drug trafficking), which was completely ignored.
Rubio seems to have dropped the matter entirely since his public outburst, and both politicians have moved on to complaining about BRICS. Speaking of the “B’ in BRICS,
Trump and Lula are fighting (aggressively)
You may remember that ex-president Jair Bolsonaro is currently facing criminal charges for allegedly plotting a coup.
On Monday, Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social, that Bolsonaro’s indictment was an example of political persecution.
“Brazil is doing a terrible thing on their treatment of former President Jair Bolsonaro,” Trump said.
“I have watched, as has the World, as they have done nothing but come after him, day after day, night after night, month after month, year after year! He is not guilty of anything, except having fought for THE PEOPLE.”
Both Trump and Bolsonaro, after losing elections in which no statistically relevant fraud occurred, rejected those results and claimed that voting fraud was responsible.
As Lula fired back, conveniently not mentioning previous rather disastrous run-ins of his own with justice systems, that Trump should stay out of “sovereign” Brazilian affairs, and that the “world doesn’t need an Emperor.”
Incidentally, all three men claim the criminal proceedings against them were politically motivated.
But moving on, since Rubio was already mad-posting about BRICS, Trump decided amid his Lula feud to threaten 10% tariffs on any country associated with BRICS, or BRICS bank (which, incidentally, as of this year, includes Colombia, who is not a standing member of BRICS, but has been approved for financing by BRICS bank.)
“Any Country aligning themselves with the Anti-American policies of BRICS, will be charged an ADDITIONAL 10% Tariff,” Trump wrote in a post. “There will be no exceptions to this policy. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
BRICS is named for its founding members, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. But it has grown to include other countries, such as Indonesia, Egypt, Iran and the United Arab Emirates.
But who knows whether he will follow through on these threats, as his trade policy could be described as “utterly random and chaotic in the best of moments.”
Nonetheless, it is safe to say, the girls are all fighting.
They will very likely keep fighting throughout the week. It could be funny. Or it could be depressing. Time will tell.
Colombian police arrest “key subject” in Uribe assassination attempt
Colombian police have arrested a man they claim in the mastermind of the assassination attempt against a presidential hopeful during a rally last month.
Miguel Uribe, a conservative senator, was twice shot in the head in the capital, Bogotá, as he was campaigning for his party's nomination in the 2026 presidential election.
Police arrested a suspected criminal, Élder José Arteaga Hernandez, who they say hired a 15-year-old to carry out the attack. Four other people had already been arrested, including the teenager charged with shooting Uribe.
He is probably not actually the mastermind though. But he may know who is! In Colombia, organized crime often goes through multiple layers of subcontractors to hire assassins, blurring the trail between the person who actually puts up the money and the poor sap who gets about 10% of that money to actually pull the trigger.
Right-wing media at first blamed Petro for the killing, but seem to have lately backed away from those proofless claims. They’re now pretty sure it was guerrillas.
We at PWS do not know who did it, but we urge them to put forth any evidence if they have it, because we have been reading editorials from those orgs for years blaming guerrillas for everything from protests over pensions to coffee being spilled in the authors’ houses.
Maybe they did! As we say, we don’t know. But after years on this beat, it sure sounds a lot more like the contract killings the mafia organizes than an action by a rebel group — which have professionals for this sort of thing rather than teenage kids, and usually take credit for terrorist attacks.
This is definitely a story to watch over the coming weeks.
And with that, you have the big stories on your radar. Hasta pronto, piratas!
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