WorldcrunchMarcelo Cantelmi is the former chief correspondent for South America for United Press International and Reuters agencies. Editor-in-Chief of the Mundo section, Clarín, and columnist for Panorama Internacional. He is Director of the Observatory of International Politics of the University of Palermo and professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Palermo. He has published three books of essays.
Donald Trump says he will hike tariffs on Brazil unless it halts prosecution of the country’s former right-wing leader Jair Bolsonaro. Only, Brazil exports relatively little to the U.S. and Trump’s meddling could be boosting his socialist nemesis, President Lula da Silva.
In electing Pope Leo XIV, the institution of the Catholic Church appears quite clear about the place it should occupy beyond its spiritual commitment.
Cuba’s current energy crisis is a dramatic illustration, symbolic and otherwise, of the overall downfall of a country that could have followed the successful models of its Asian cousins. Faced with a socioeconomic dead-end, record numbers of Cubans are fleeing the country.
Mexico’s ruling party has reformed the constitution, forcing judges to run for office, supposedly to make them accountable to the people. But given the country’s history and singular problem with crime, it may turn them instead into ordinary politicians vulnerable to bribery and mob terrorism.
Bolivian President Luis Arce easily survived Wednesday’s bungled coup, which may suggest the populist Left is more resilient than it used to be. But it may also be the foreshadowing of the reigniting of an internal war with fellow Socialist and former President Evo Morales as unrest spreads around the country.
Recent Cuban protests over fuel and food swiftly turned against the communist system but unlike the past, the state, which is asking the UN for food aid, refrained from giving a crushing response. Venezuela is no better off, and the age of symbiosis for Latin America’s leftist regimes is long gone.
Uncertain economic conditions and divisive posturing in favor of the Global South may send Brazilian President Lula da Silva’s middle class voters back to the Right, where his predecessor Jair Bolsonaro is maneuvering between criminal charges and a return to the presidency.
With a sham court ruling, Venezuela’s President Maduro has paved the way for his unchallenged reelection as president this year, regardless of U.S. sanctions. This is happening as Latin America’s leftist governments, notably Brazil, watch in silence.