Trump erodes U.S. moral standing on elections (Nov. 12, 2020)

A modified old joke circulating about U.S. President Donald Trump is telling, for Andrés Oppenheimer: Trump's lucky he doesn't have a U.S. embassy in Washington, or it would be denouncing his refusal to accept the results of democratic elections. Kidding aside, Trump's stance is a boon for autocratic leaders around the world, including Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela and Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua, writes Oppenheimer in his Miami Herald column. 

Indeed, Ortega already called for other countries to not interfere in Nicaragua's (questioned) electoral process, in the same way that they are refraining from lecturing the U.S. (EFE)

Trump’s refusal to accept the result of the election has resonated with particular force in Latin America, where his administration implemented crippling sanctions against Maduro in the wake of fraudulent elections in 2018. “How does the U.S. government expect to call for free and fair elections in Venezuela when our own president won’t recognize the results of a clean electoral process in our own country? It’s a propaganda gift to Maduro and every other autocrat around the world, and I guarantee they are loving every minute of this.” Venezuela director for the Washington Office on Latin America Geoff Ramsey told the New York Times.

Some legitimate international leaders, notably Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro still haven't congratulated U.S. president-elect Joe Biden. (Washington Post)

In AMLO's case, the silence is a diplomatic mistake, argue many analysts, who are concerned about potential fallout with Mexico's most important trade partner. AMLO is reacting based on his personal political trajectory rather than as a statesperson, writes Guillermo Osorno in a New York Times Español op-ed.

AMLO's silence shouldn't be read as support for Trump, rather as an indication that Biden's arrival isn't automatically good news for Mexico, according to Viri Ríos in the New York Times Español. The answer isn't to curry favor with any given administration, but for Mexican politicians and organizations of civil society to establish broad alliances with relevant factions in the U.S. outside of backroom negotiations with the executive, she writes.

News Briefs

Climate

• Climate change is making hurricanes last longer once they make landfall, spreading more inland destruction, according to a new study. (Guardian)

Brazil

• Brazil should stop being “a country of sissies,” President Jair Bolsonaro said this week as the country’s coronavirus death toll surpassed 162,000 — the second highest in the world, behind only the United States. Bolsonaro used the Portuguese word “maricas,” an offensive slang term for gay people. He spoke to reporters at a press conference, in which he also emphasized a universal truth: “All of us are going to die one day.” (Washington Post)

• Brazilian health authority Anvisa authorized the restart of clinical trials of China’s Sinovac coronavirus vaccine, reports the Wall Street Journal. (See yesterday's briefs.)

• Brazilian municipal elections will take place next Sunday. A deluge of misinformation is a warning sign for the rest of the region, according to Igarapé Institute researchers. The extent of the misinformation is particularly concerning given the efforts already made to stem the spread, note the authors, and disinformation campaigns are not only professionalizing but also moving to new channels, especially encrypted ones. (Americas Quarterly)

• Brazilian authorities rescued 39 enslaved people from an illegal gold mine in Brazil run by a known offender -- the case highlights the difficulty in ending such crimes due to high profitability, reports Al Jazeera.

• Bolsonaro has broken with longstanding traditions of university autonomy, enacted budget cuts that strangle the university system, and stoked anger against academics in social media. "The consequences have been chilling; the acts and threats of violence against scholars during the last two years recall the dark years of the dictatorship," write Gianpaolo Baiocchi and Marcelo Silva in the Boston Review.

• An irreverent YouTuber is one of Bolsonaro's most influential critics -- a position that has also made him the target of a vicious fake news campaign that falsely associated him with pedophilia, reports the Guardian.

• Bolsonaro has moderated his attacks on government institutions, like the Supreme Court, in recent months. But it's not because he's become more democratic, according to Gaspard Estrada in a New York Times Español op-ed. Bolsonaro realized he lacked political capital for an institutional rupture, and has instead opted to try to co-opt institutions gradually, he argues.

• Brazil's Covid-19 relief spending is extremely generous for a developing country, but risks the public finances of a country that has long teetered on the edge of a fiscal crisis, warns the Wall Street Journal.

Argentina

• The International Monetary Fund seeks to impose tough conditions for a debt restructuring program with Argentina's government, report Reuters.

Bolivia

• Former Bolivian president Evo Morales made a triumphant return to Chimoré, a year after fleeing from the town in the midst of protests and army pressure. In a highly symbolic move, tens of thousands of followers from across the country had gathered on the runway from which Morales took flight, reports the Guardian.

• Setting a clear drug policy will be a major challenge for Bolivia's new president Luis Arce, according to InSight Crime.

Peru

• Peru's confusing political upheaval this week, specifically the impeachment of president Martín Vizcarra on grounds of "moral incapacity," is an unintended consequence of the country's past crises -- and the near-term bodes ill for the country's political system, argues Alonso Gurmendi Dunkelberg in Americas Quarterly.

Honduras

• The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights started a hearing yesterday in the case of Vicky Hernández, a transgender woman killed on the streets of San Pedro Sula in 2009. The petitioners allege, among other things, that Honduras bears responsibility for her death and that in failing to conduct a meaningful investigation into her murder, Honduras violated her right to life under the American Convention on Human Rights. (Human Rights Watch)

Belize

• A March protest by Belize's unionized stevedores -- which was partially successful at obtaining concessions from the powerful export industry -- marked a paradigm shift for the country's labor history, reports NACLA.

Chile

• The AULA blog has an optimistic take on how Chile's constitutional rewrite process will help the country establish a much-needed new social pact.

Did I miss something, get something wrong, or do you have a different take? Let me know ...  

Latin America Daily Briefing