Ariel Henry's resignation does not bring much light
The Haitian prime minister's pledge to step down once the members of an ad hoc presidential council are defined has not brought much change to the socio-political dynamics of the Caribbean country. In some ways, it has been a step backward in certain respects. His trip to Kenya, which had resulted in an agreement with William Ruto to unblock the sending of troops from that African country, has turned out to be a wasted effort after Nairobi's move back, which alludes to the "complete collapse of law and order". Then, it is not clear how the criminal gangs will fit into this whole story, given their steadfast refusal to accept any foreign-driven solution. I am very interested in this last point because it is debatable to hear leaders such as the Guyanese premier explain which political forces will make up the new power (the Dominican government, for example, refused to participate in the talks convened by Caricom because they were deciding issues that correspond "exclusively to the Haitian people"). There is a key fact in the Haitian context: right now, there are no political figures legitimized by the popular vote.
Foggy Bottom has praised Henry's decision, arguing that it "paves the way for a peaceful transition of power, continuity of governance, and a short-term security-focused action plan". So, Washington announced yesterday more than $130 million to help overcome the crisis. The major part of this fund would have been destined to finance the always distant multinational security mission, again aborted as the Africans—as we saw above—are not willing to sacrifice a thousand of their own on the pyre of Barbecue, the alleged director of this concert of lead and fire that stuns the Haitian citizenry. The archbishop of the capital offers a very worrying picture of what is happening on the ground: "The Haitian police forces are powerless in the face of well-armed gangs that have become an organized army (...) There are kidnappings everywhere. Whether you are rich or poor, intellectual or illiterate, anyone can be kidnapped. It is a dictatorship, a scourge that must be fought". According to the balance offered by the Guyanese president at the Caricom summit, which I have not corroborated, more Haitians have died in the last four months than in the war in Ukraine. Indeed, much has been said about the unleashed violence—AFP journalists claim to have seen "corpses" in the streets of Port-au-Prince yesterday, Monday—but reports have been vague in providing concrete numbers of dead. The dark tunnel with blood-soaked walls through which the Haitian people are passing seems to have no end.
SourceNicolás Maduro puts an irritant in the relationship with Argentina
The Venezuelan president, recently nominated—as expected—for the July national elections, has banned Argentine flights from Venezuela's airspace. Routes that must change their itineraries end in popular destinations such as Punta Cana and New York. The measure is understood to be a retaliation by the Chavista bloc for Argentina's compliance with a confiscation order against a Boeing 747 owned by Venezuela, which would have "fraudulently" acquired it from Iran, where it would have served the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The complex restrictions of the Departments of Commerce and Treasury on US technology exports, even if third countries effectively manage it, and the sanctions on Venezuela, would manifest themselves here. Washington traced the aircraft to Argentina and requested its detention at Ezeiza airport in June 2022. A month ago the aircraft finally left for Miami, where it was scrapped. In truth, on the Argentine side, the deliberations were mainly judicial, although it is assumed that the liberal forces installed in the Casa Rosada somehow pushed for the definitive confiscation. Now Maduro strikes back with an action also related to the skies. "Argentina will not allow itself to be extorted by the friends of terrorism", replied the spokesman of Milei's government, which also advanced actions to discuss the measure in the competent international organizations.
First of its kind: FBI Miami and the Dept. of Commerce lead the investigation that resulted in the seizure of a Boeing 747 cargo plane used by an OFAC designated Venezuelan airline tied to a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization. Learn more: https://t.co/vkuOeHmKmW pic.twitter.com/xrlKfAO4vi
— FBI Miami (@FBIMiamiFL) February 21, 2024
A not flattering time for AMLO
He continues to maintain levels of popularity that, for the moment, certify the pole position of his political force for the national elections this year, but the context in which Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is developing is not positive. As I always remember, Mexico was chaos, a nation already surrendered to organized crime when he finally came to power more than five years ago, but it is also true that he has not been able to strike forcefully the scourge of insecurity, to which another equally critical one, impunity, is attached. The picture also shows the poor management of the migratory phenomenon, which anyway is an intricate challenge for anyone (because of the multidimensional crises of the migrants' countries of origin, the human rights flaws of those through which they transit, and a failed policy in the destination dreamed of by most of them).
This Tuesday it was learned that two experts from the Attorney General's Office were missing. The event itself is worrisome, but even more so when we know that both agents of the Public Ministry participate in the endless and shameful investigation of the disappearance of the 43 students of Ayotzinapa in 2014—I recall here the fact that AMLO came to power practically in 2019. So it is right to hold him accountable, as many social movements with clean and rational intentions are doing—beginning with the relatives of those young who were swallowed by the swamp of crime and corruption of the authorities—, but it is fair to put some context not in his favor, but in that of fair analysis. Officials were moving in a vehicle when the connection to them was lost. Then, to top it off, a police agent involved in the weekend death of a young student from the same Ayotzinapa school—who was in police custody—fled. If López Obrador already had to accept the violent entry of angry demonstrators into his government's headquarters last week, this Tuesday there was a lot of social unrest in Guerrero due to the escape of the policeman.
Popular uprising in Guerrero (source).On the migratory front, if yesterday we commented on the rescue of 200 Latin American migrants who were traveling crammed in the box of a truck, another rescue in the state of Puebla came to light this Tuesday. In this case, 270 migrants from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Cuba, who claimed to have been abandoned four days ago by an individual who promised to take them to the border with the United States—and who surely charged in advance for his services. It is always worrisome that it was not the active search by authorities but the denunciation of locals that led to the rescue of the overcrowded migrants in a house.
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.
