Understanding Latin America
Dear readers and colleagues, this month we bring you a special report by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation’s Andean Regional Office about Gustavo Petro’s proposal of energy transition for Colombia, as well a recommended article on the increasingly evident economic crisis in Bolivia. In addition, our monthly report that reflect the reality of Latin America today, with three articles one each from Argentina, Mexico and Honduras.
- Brief assessment of the Petro government and its commitment to Energy Transition in Colombia
- The Bolivian Crisis and the Downfall of an Unsustainable Economic Model
- Women fight back as Milei’s government tries to starve their soup kitchens
- Meet Claudia Sheinbaum, Who May Be Mexico’s First Woman President
- Honduras: A Narco-State Made in the United States
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BRIEF ASSESSMENT OF THE PETRO GOVERNMENT AND ITS COMMITMENT TO ENERGY TRANSITION IN COLOMBIA
The progressive government of Gustavo Petro in Colombia came to power with a proposal for change and profound transformations, but when it comes to Energy Transition, these promises are lagging far behind. The only changes President Petro has managed to achieve on this front are those that benefit capital, says the author. This can be seen in the way that Petro’s celebrated tax reform and National Development Plan were quickly approved, ultimately because they generated profits, macroeconomic stability in the country, and spending plans that served the interests of the business and banking sectors. But Petro’s administration has not been able to pass social reforms aimed at reducing the management of private companies, and ultimately re-distribution of income and investment. President Peto’s Energy Transition model proposes using a greater share of public investment and more widespread community management of resource to aid this transition. He even proposes that funding go directly to social organizations to help with these local transitions, along with other progressive proposals. But since the policies don’t benefit big capital, and Petro struggles to find the allies he needs in parliament to move them forward, they have largely been stalled. Can Colombia still gain ground on its ET transition promises given these limitations?
Marisabel García Acelas, April 26, 2024
https://www.rosalux.org.ec/en/brief-assessment-of-the-petro-government-and-its-commitment-to-energy-transition-in-colombia/
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THE BOLIVIAN CRISIS AND THE DOWNFALL OF AN UNSUSTAINABLE ECONOMIC MODEL
Bolivia is experiencing a steadily intensifying economic crisis. In recent months the population has started encountering long queues at gas stations as it faces fuel shortages, and a scarcity of dollars. Mounting worries about economic stability, and the value of their savings as their currency devalues, have become everyday realities for Bolivians. Just a few years ago, these scenarios would have seemed unusual in the country that saw economic prosperity, largely due to extraction activities like large-scale mining, hydrocarbons and agriculture. Today, however, Bolivia has become a net importer of hydrocarbons as the value of natural gas exports has been lower than that of gasoline and diesel imports, substantially disrupting their economy – and there are no signs of improvement in the near future. The current crisis shows how fragile the nation’s prosperity was, and how these economic gains were made under the socialist policies of Evo Morales and the MAS government without substantial changes to the neoliberal economic power structure. It is important to examine, says the author, how the state utilized the increased surpluses from hydrocarbon exports, but also how surpluses were generated through illegitimate and illegal means, contributing to an apparent sense of economic well-being.
Huáscar Salazar Lohman, April 19, 2024
https://www.rosalux.org.ec/en/the-bolivian-crisis-and-the-downfall-of-an-unsustainaible-economic-model/
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WOMEN FIGHT BACK AS MILEI’S GOVERNMENT TRIES TO STARVE THEIR SOUP KITCHENS
One of the many casualties of President Javier Milei’s austerity measures in Argentina have been community organized soup kitchens. Since he took office in December, the president almost immediately cut the distribution of pasta, rice, yerba and other non-perishable foodstuffs to these kitchens to curb alleged “extortion” by the groups that run them, he says. There are 44,000 soup kitchens in the country, most of which are organized and run by women and located in some of the poorest areas of the country, serving populations most in need. As inflation goes through the roof in Argentina and wages remain stagnant, this is a growing population. These kitchens used to receive dry food from the national government, plus other donations from businesses, local shops and neighbors – but with Milei’s new cut offs, they have had to learn quickly how to do more with a lot less. This article explores one kitchen in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Villa 31, where organizers say they serve more than 420 warm meals a day, up from 120 meals a day before the pandemic. The only way they survive is through community cooperation, they say.
Angelina de los Santos, April 3, 2024
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/women-argentina-food-crisis-hunger-soup-kitchens-cook-common-pots-milei/
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MEET CLAUDIA SHEINBAUM, WHO MAY BE MEXICO’S FIRST WOMAN PRESIDENT
As Mexicans prepare to go to the polls in June, one candidate stands out as the possible next president, the former student activist and mayor of Mexico City, Claudia Sheinbaum. Not only would she be Mexico’s first woman president, but she also brings with her years of experience with organizing and social movements. To understand what her presidency would really mean, you must understand her history, says the author who recently wrote the book Claudia Sheinbaum: Presidenta. Her parents are her main political inspirations, both of whom are academics and involved in the student movement that ended with the Tlatelolco massacre in 1968, carried out by the government of Gustavo Díaz Ordaz. Sheinbaum herself took on organizing at a young age, beginning with the Student Committee of Worker-Peasant Solidarity, and eventually organized marches in commemoration of the 1971 student massacre, publicly called for peace in Palestine in 2008, and became mayor of Mexico City in 2018. Sheinbaum’s principal opponent in the upcoming elections is Xóchitl Gálvez, who represents a coalition made up of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), the National Action Party (PAN), and the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD). But barring unforeseen disaster or a major electoral upset, there’s a pretty good chance Sheinbaum will be the country’s next head of state.
Arturo Cano, April 10, 2024
https://www.thenation.com/article/world/claudia-sheinbaum-mexico-city-president/
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HONDURAS: A NARCO-STATE MADE IN THE UNITED STATES
Many celebrated when former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández was convicted of drug trafficking in a New York court in March. But the United States has yet to own up to its role in fostering this state-sponsored drug trafficking. After all, it was the United States that had allowed Hernandez, also referred to as JOH, to rise to and maintain power for two terms in Honduras. It was drug consumption in the United States that funded and fueled Honduras’s narco-corruption before and during JOH’s administration. It was the United States that armed JOH’s military forces. It is clear that JOH is merely one example of a much more systematic problem that the United States has created and continues to exacerbate in Honduras. This dynamic has a long history, that goes back as far as the US interventions in Honduras in the early 1900’s to protect its political interests in the country. By the time Reagan came to office, Honduras already had the nickname the “Pentagon Republic.” By the time JOH came to power, the US was calling him one of their greatest allies in the war against drugs, and already fueling his administration with money and arms. Is it too late for the US to be held responsible?
Laura Blume, April 17, 2024
https://nacla.org/honduras-narco-state-made-in-the-united-states
