The Latin American Report # 202

Corruption remains entrenched in Latin America

With an unmistakable whiff of lawfare, the facts or accusations of corruption that we know—which always bring some truth inside—condemn the region to an increasingly chronic socio-political morass, undermining the possibilities for its harmonious development. In Cuba, for example, corruption in the political upper class tends to be seen as nothing more than denunciations of the disparity between the standard of living of its members and the people. Indeed, what is most talked about is the privileges in the business world that relatives and frontmen of the leaders seem to have. There where it is confirmed it is corruption pure and simple, although we also agree that it is not a Cuban phenomenon.

The singularity in this case is that it soils the social ethics preached by the Cuban Revolution and its historical leadership, and if it continues to spill over it could break the once firm consensus at an irreparable level. Then, when registering how big the dynamics of Cuban corruption in the regional concert, it would fall far short of the levels experienced by the rest of the countries. But in any case, this month it became known that the former Minister of Economy and Planning Alejandro Gil—replaced at the beginning of February—, who also served as vice prime minister and was a member of the powerful Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party, was being investigated for corruption.

_{Alejandro Gil, the disgraced former deputy prime minister (source).}

Bolsonaro's son in trouble

The Prosecutor's Office of the Federal District of Brasília denounced last Wednesday the youngest son of the also investigated for corruption former president Jair Bolsonaro, accusing him of fraud and money laundering to secure bank loans. The Public Prosecutor's Office claims that Bolsonaro's only son not involved in politics—we could say that he is the representative of the family clan in business—falsified the invoicing relations of an events company in which he has interests, to obtain at least three loans. The loans were granted to him in the 2022-2023 biennium for a total value close to $143,000, based on documents that the Brasilia prosecutor's office assumes to be "fraudulent" and that attributed to the referred company an annual turnover "much higher" than the real one. In 2021 Jair Renan Bolsonaro, 25, also fell under the suspicion of the authorities for alleged influence peddling, when one of his companies received services from a government contractor at no cost to the young event organizer.

_{Jair Renan Bolsonaro}

Is it that simple?

In Ecuador, it is reported that the police specialized in combating drug trafficking knocked out a gang that allegedly trafficked Colombian drugs to the "old continent". A dozen people were arrested, most of them Ecuadorians. Two Gambians, in whose country the drugs stopped on their maritime journey, were also arrested. The head of Ecuador's anti-narcotics police said the investigation took three years to complete, with nearly four tons of cocaine seized in separate raids in the coastal provinces of Manabí, Los Ríos, and the violent Guayas, whose port city of Guayaquil is the epicenter of Ecuador's violence. The authorities' theory is that once the drugs were transported from Colombia, they were hidden in vehicles and transported to "storage centers" in Manabi, from where they were then taken to Guayas. In warehouses near the ports, the criminals put the cocaine in containers with salt grains or canned seafood. What I don't see in this EFE report on the "Gran Fénix 18" operation are the corrupt authorities who were inevitably complicit in all the drugs allegedly moved by the gang based in Ecuador. It cannot be so easy to set up this whole mechanism without the connivance of officials and agents at different levels of police and customs control. This Friday the seizure of a quarter of a ton of cocaine on the floor of a container bound for Belgium was also reported (footage below).

DECOMISAMOS DROGA EN PISO DE CONTENEDOR

En #Guayas, @PoliciaEcuador tras inspección total a un contenedor con producto de exportación se encontraron ocultos 246.7 kg de cocaína, que tenía como destino, #Bélgica.

Evitamos que más de 2 millones de dosis lleguen a los mercados de… pic.twitter.com/GY8SX4bWqI

— Policía Ecuador (@PoliciaEcuador) March 22, 2024

Machado steps aside; another Corina will replace her

María Corina Machado has invested her namesake Corina Yoris with the power to represent the opposition in next July's elections, in a grudging acceptance of her disqualification. Apparently, some external force of a certain entity—Washington?—cordially invited her to step aside and take advantage of the fact that at least Chavismo agreed to go to the elections, even though it did not consent that controversial faces like her be on the final ballot. I understand strategic advisors think it is enough to be "fed up" with the red color to defeat the ruling party, and therefore individual leaderships can be dispensed with. More than electing a certain opposition candidate, it is a matter of getting Chavism out of the Miraflores Palace. Although the new candidate is indeed interesting: an 80-year-old grandmother solidly versed in philosophy.

There is an interesting range of narratives to exploit in favor of the opposition ("the 80-year-old grandmother, symbol of science and probity"), with Machado remaining in the campaign to ensure the transfer of her political capital to Yoris. For the time being, the threat of reimposition of US sanctions seems to be dissipating, because the opposition is de facto accepting the decisions of Chavismo under the Barbados agreements. And Washington was not so glad going back on that issue. Maduro could still activate something to remove Yoris from the electoral equation, since she had an important role in the primary process denounced by the Public Prosecutor's Office—with reasonable constitutional arguments. However, it seems that a step in this direction would erase the already scarce credibility that by default the international community confers to the electoral system in its current development. Below is the announcement of María Corina, whom the polls—which I assume flawed in the Venezuelan case, regardless of the consulting agency—assumed to be the favorite.

#EnVivo | María Corina Machado, anunció que asignará como sustituta a Corina Yoris. “Estoy emocionada porque encontramos la persona correcta”, afirmó.

Conéctate a nuestra señal de #VPItv aquí: https://t.co/baDGE1Ll1u pic.twitter.com/ELehhUnlLy

— VPItv (@VPITV) March 22, 2024

Violence continues to melt southern North America

In Mexico, the kidnapping of at least 15 people in the eastern city of Culiacán has been reported, in a new demonstration of the brazenness with which organized crime acts in the Aztec nation. Among those kidnapped were minors belonging to three families living in a working-class neighborhood of the city. The criminals arrived armed with long and short weapons, hooded, dressed in black, and fired shots into the air, provoking cries for help from neighbors. Some local media reported that there were about 40 people kidnapped, although local authorities only preliminarily recognized those 15. In the logic of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, there is an information war against him that overestimates the phenomenon of violence, but with only 15 kidnapped, probably a third of them minors, it is enough to understand that the country faces a serious problem that he has not solved, with surreal events such as the one that just happened in Culiacán. However, I don't forget that the information war AMLO denounces daily is still true, and he continues to enjoy vast popularity that boosts his party's candidate for the upcoming elections. Three people were killed yesterday in an armed confrontation in another town in the state of Sinaloa.

_{Security forces deployed in Sinaloa (source).}

And this is all for our report today. I have referenced the sources dynamically in the text, and remember you can learn how and where to follow the LATAM trail news by reading my work here. Have a nice day.