Civic Groups Respond to Bolsonaro (Dec. 4, 2019)

News Briefs

Environment

·  Pact for Democracy‘s (Pacto Pela Democracia) conference call yesterday denounced the Bolsonaro government’s “persecution of activists, academics and scientists,” as well as volunteer fire fighters and personalities like Leonardo DiCaprio, according to the Associated Press. One nonprofit leader said that the “incendiary rhetoric has created a climate of terror” meant he no longer can sleep at home. The identical AP story in Spanish has a headline that ramps things up: “Guerra de Bolsonaro con las ONG.”

·   On Monday, the same coalition convened an event in São Paulo on the survival of Brazilian democracy according to the Folha do São Paulo.

·   Pact for Demoracy brings together a wide variety of groups from Avina and Ethos to World Wildlife Fund and World Vision.  

Regional Relations / Trade

·   The Trump administration is set to Brazil and Argentina with tariffs on steel and aluminum, Washington Post. “Brazil and Argentina have been presiding over a massive devaluation of their currencies. which is not good for our farmers. Therefore, effective immediately, I will restore the Tariffs on all Steel & Aluminum from those countries,” according to a Trump tweet.

·   The USA named six more tankers shipping oil from Venezuela to Cuba as “blocked property according to the Miami Herald. The ships were using third country flags.

Immigration to the USA

·   An in-depth investigation on immigration into the USA through Mexico finds that “ nearly half of those who are in the country unlawfully actually entered with permission,” that is, with visas, according to the New York Times. Curiously, the version in English uses ‘undocumented immigrants’ while the Spanish version uses ‘illegal immigrants’.  The largest number of “overstayers”: are from Mexico followed by China, Venezuela, the Philippines, Brazil and Colombia. Back to language: number of times a version of ‘illegal’ is used in Spanish version: 16; number in English version: 5.

·   Some border crossings along the Mexico / USA border had five-hour waits on Monday, “causing concerns among local officials whose tax base relies on Mexican shoppers, especially during the holiday season,” according to the Associated Press.

·   Two Hondurans and one Salvadoran were sent Guatemala after seeking asylum in the United States on Tuesday, according to the Associated Press.

Chile / Peru

·      A 6.0 earthquake rumbled along under the sea Tuesday morning, 20 miles off the coast of the border of Chile and Peru, according to the Associated Press.

Colombia

·    Colombia today has the third general strike in two weeks, in part a response to President Duque’s paquetazo, according to El País.

El Salvador

·      El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele is in Beijing and signed a “gigantic, non-refundable cooperation… to build several major infrastructure projects in El Salvador including a stadium and water treatment plant,” according to Reuters. El Salvador recently cut ties with Taiwan. Agence France Press has a headline that sums it up:  it better in their headline: China gifts El Salvador stadium, library after Taiwan switch

Mexico

· President Trump’s labeling the cartels could backfire, according to New York Times’ columnist Ioan Grillo. Peru’s President Belaunde tried that in the early 1980s with the Shining Path with ill-intended consequences. “One of the toughest challenges for officials would be figuring out exactly which cartels to label as terrorists and what to call them.”

· President Lopez Obrador will strengthen the cooperation with the United States with respect to “the flow of arms and dollars" after meetings this week with U.S. Attorney General William Barr. according to Reuters.

Venezuela

·  Spains’ former president Felipe Gonzáles sees a common thread in Latin American crises and even connects it to crises elsewhere, in a wide ranging interview tin El País. He calls Venezuela’s Maduro a tyrant who has forced a quarter of his population to emigrate and predicts Maduro won’t last much longer.

The Globalization of Art & Food

·      Colombia’s conceptual artist Oscar Murillo was one of four co-winners of the shared Turner Prize, “Britain's most high-profile contemporary art award”, according to the BBC and The Guardian. Murillo’s work is a “congregation of human effigies staring at a black curtain covering a window overlooking the sea.” The Guardian profiled the artist in June; Murillo now lives in London and so qualifies as “an artist working primarily in Britain.”

·      Karime López is the first Mexican woman to receive a Michelin star, according to Washington Post Opinión. She is chef at Gucci Osteria da Massimo Bottura, in Florence, Italy.

Colombia's Escobars Go TelCom

·       Pablo Escobar’s family in Colombia is switching from drugs to telecommunications, according to the tabloid New York Post. "Car-Tel: Escobar now in the Phone Biz: Cell [Phones] are the New Cocaine’, says the colorful cover story. The article appears to have started in the British press like The Daily Mail; The Sun.

(I am substituting for the inimitable Jordana who will return by weeks' end.)