Understanding Latin America
Dear readers and colleagues, this month we bring you a special video by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundations’ Andean Region Office with extra material to help you navigate the upcoming elections in Venezuela. We also bring you our Netpicks selection as usual that reflect the reality in Latin America today with two articles produced by our colleagues in Mexico and Brasil, and three other pieces from Colombia, Chile and Argentina.
- Venezuela to the Polls
- Left-Wing Landslide in Mexico
- Victims Win Historic Victory Against Chiquita in Colombia Paramilitary Case
- Deutsche Bahn’s Brazilian Line
- A wave of mass evictions leaves Chileans out in the cold
- Battle lines redrawn as Argentina’s lithium mines ramp up to meet electric car demand
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VENEZUELA TO THE POLLS
As Venezuela prepares for its upcoming elections on July 28, the outcome is really anyone’s guess, but the United States has been a major player in setting the conditions. After years of economic, political and social crisis and strong economic sanctions by the US and Europe, Venezuela is facing elections in which the main opposition parties have managed to unify around a candidate with majority support: Edmundo Gonzalez, who has the backing of known right-wing politician María Corina Machado. On the other hand, the government of Nicolás Maduro faces elections in a context of certain economic stability within the crisis, and some agreements reached with the government of the United States: commitment to fair elections and respect for the electoral results, with the hope of easing the economic sanctions. The US government has not ruled out easing the unilateral sanctions, nor intensifying them, rather this will depend on the election developments. Thus, the outcome for Venezuela’s political future will be decided by the opposition, the government and the US. You can see more of this context in this piece by Jacobin. For more context on the political parties, their strategies and possible outcomes, try this piece by Venezuela Analysis.
Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, Andean Region Office, June 25
https://www.rosalux.org.ec/en/venezuela-to-the-polls/
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LEFT-WING LANDSLIDE IN MEXICO
Earlier this month, Mexico elected their first female President into office, in a landslide victory. Claudia Sheinbaum, former mayor of Mexico City, will now lead the country for the next six years, succeeding Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), but the clarity of the election could be deceiving. Did the country really vote for Sheinbaum herself, or rather for the continuation of AMLO and his social policies? Sheinbaum has made it clear she wants to continue the policies of her predecessor, but she’ll have to face a number of challenges to make that happen. Continuity in social policy means continuing and expanding existing social programmes, yet it’s questionable if the country has enough money to do so. A radical tax reform could be in the books, but that would put her in conflict with the Mexican economy. The AMLO government also failed to achieved structural change in Mexico’s often exploitative working conditions, and it remains to be seen if Sheinbaum will take this on. There’s also the enormous and controversial increase in military influence in civilian areas under AMLO, and the tense diplomatic relationship with the United States, which is sure to increase if Donald Trump wins in the upcoming US elections. The coming months will show whether Sheinbaum is willing to step out of her predecessor’s shadow, and how far.
Gerold Schmidt, June 5, 2024
https://www.rosalux.de/en/news/id/52147/left-wing-landslide-in-mexico
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VICTIMS WIN HISTORIC VICTORY AGAINST CHIQUITA IN COLOMBIA PARAMILITARY CASE
In a landmark ruling in the fight for human rights, a U.S. jury in Miami found the banana giant Chiquita Brands International responsible for the deaths of Colombian citizens when it financed the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), a brutal paramilitary death squad. The AUC was responsible for thousands of civilian deaths and hundreds of other human rights violations while it was active between the late 1990s and mid-2000s, some of the most violent years of the Colombian civil war. The Miami ruling holds Chiquita accountable for making hidden payments to the paramilitary organization from 1997 to 2004. There have been over 17 years of legal proceedings against Chiquita for their role in financing Colombian death squads; but in the most recent six-week trial, a jury brought a measure of closure to a first set of victims and their families, ruling that Chiquita pay $38.3 million to the plaintiffs. A second case featuring other victims with claims against Chiquita is set to begin preliminary hearings in July, while more are in the works. The recent ruling represents a further step towards what Colombia’s peace court has called restorative justice. How did prosecutors win the trial, and can we expect to see more?
Daniela Díaz Rangel and Joshua Collins, June 12
https://nacla.org/chiquita-colombia-paramilitary-liable
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DEUTSCHE BAHN’S BRAZILIAN LINE
Changes are coming Brazil’s northeastern state of Maranhão, where large swaths of rainforest, mangroves and beaches will be cleared for the construction of a controversial deep-water port, complete with railway lines, power substations and warehouses – and potential partnership with the German company Deutsche Bahn. The construction is set to be completed by 2027 in the municipality of Alcântara, where massive cargo ships will carry thousands of tons of iron, copper, soya beans, corn, and other commodities to China, the United States, and Europe. Critics of the project say it will effectively extinguish the local Quilombola territory, where dozens of families live off fishing, farming and small livestock rearing, since their ancestors were brought to the country as enslaved labour centuries ago. The new deep-water port is planned to take up 87% of Quilombola territory, also making it impossible to protect the local forests. The multi-billion-real (Brazilian currency) project, owned by the Brazilian Grão-Pará Maranhão corporation (GPM), already has two federal permissions, and strong support from both the federal and Maranhão state governments. They also plan for the project to include partnership with the German state-owned company Deutsche Bahn, one of the world’s largest state-owned railway companies, to manage the railway operations. Will these plans really go full steam ahead?
Felipe Sabrina, June 7, 2024
https://www.rosalux.de/en/news/id/52109/deutsche-bahns-brazilian-line
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A WAVE OF MASS EVICTIONS LEAVES CHILEANS OUT IN THE COLD
Since March of this year, authorities throughout Chile have started evicting irregular land occupations, with nearly 50 new evictions pending across the country. The occupations, or encampments, began as part of a movement for housing and a dignified life, in the face of a nationwide housing and economic crisis, and general precarity. The expulsions, however, have their origin in two recent legal decisions: a 2022 Supreme Court decision that stated landowners are not obliged to solve or relieve the social problems that prompt the occupations to occur, and the Anti-Squatting Law that came into force in December of last year. Several of these removals have been large-scale, leaving thousands of people without shelter, like the Centenario encampment, where over 20,000 people were evicted in March. There are presently 1,432 land occupations in Chile, a historic high that represents an increase of 56 percent compared to 2019. Most of these encampments have some form of internal community organization, with active leadership that negotiates with authorities, and offers things like free tutoring, schools, and workshops for their residents. President Gabriel Boric, who was largely elected by social movements, has responded to this crisis with evictions, repression, criminalization, and band-aid fixes, say the authors. As authorities and government officials urge citizens to report illegal occupations, what are social movements doing to support them?
Andrea Salazar Navia & Claudia Hernández Aliaga, June 13, 2024
https://www.ojala.mx/en/ojala-en/a-wave-of-mass-evictions-leaves-chileans-out-in-the-cold
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BATTLE LINES REDRAWN AS ARGENTINA’S LITHIUM MINES RAMP UP TO MEET ELECTRIC CAR DEMAND
More than 30 global mining conglomerates are descending upon Argentina’s lithium reserves in the Salinas Grandes region, the salt the largest salt flat in Argentina. This biodiverse ecosystem stretches 200 miles and sits within the lithium triangle along with parts of Chile and Bolivia, but it’s also home to several Indigenous communities who excavate and sell the salt. For 14 years, the 33 Atacama and Kolla Indigenous communities have banded together to halt lithium mining operations, fearful that their water resources will be lost or contaminated and that they will be forced from their land. These tactics were working, until recently, when the “anarcho-capitalist” Javier Milei redrew the battle lines. Lithium is a silvery metal known as white gold, and is an essential component of mobile phone and electric car batteries. Its global demand is predicted to rise more than fortyfold by 2040, but its exploitation is pitting the need for a green energy transition against the rights of local and Indigenous peoples in the Global South. Communities are increasingly divided by the offers of work and investment by mining companies, while one community in the Salainas Grandes region has already broken their pact to keep miners away. More are expected to follow, as economic needs increase.
Harriet Barber, June 25, 2024
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/article/2024/jun/25/battle-lines-redrawn-as-argentinas-lithium-mines-ramp-up-to-meet-electric-car-demand
