Blinken pressures Haiti to advance elections

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Port-au-Prince yesterday and announced an additional $45 million in humanitarian aid to Haiti. He also reiterated the need for the country’s transitional government to move quickly toward elections. (See yesterday’s message.)

The coordinator of the presidential transition council, Edgard Leblanc Fils, said he hopes to go to the Electoral Council next week, with the goal of elections in November 2025 and a transfer of power in February 2026.AFP)

But the security situation in Haiti makes such a plan difficult: this week, Prime Minister Garry Conille extended a state of emergency to the entire country, reports Reuters.

“Gangs currently control more than 85% of the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area and large parts of the neighboring Artibonite region. The Artibonite region and West, where the capital is located, represented an estimated 57% to 60% of the country’s electorate when Haitians last went to the polls to elect a president in 2016,” the Miami Herald.

About 578,000 people, about 5 percent of the population, have been displaced by violence, according to the United Nations. At least 3,884 Haitians have been killed or wounded in the fighting in the first half of the year, the United Nations said. (Washington Post)

“At this critical moment, we need more funding, we need more personnel to support and execute the objectives of this mission,” Blinken told reporters, adding that the U.S. is working to renew the so-far lackluster Kenyan-led international support mission, whose mandate expires in a month. “But we also want to make sure that we have something that is reliable, that is sustainable. We will look at every option to do that. A peacekeeping operation would be one option.”Associated Press)

Given the upcoming US elections, the trip is “a gamble for Blinken, who … risks drawing attention to an unresolved international challenge that, if mismanaged, could lead to a migration surge,” the Washington Post.

Regional relations

• Despite Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s hopelessly tarnished reputation following July’s disputed presidential election, “the US cannot afford to hit him where it hurts most,” reports Bloomberg“Revoking the licenses of energy companies operating in Venezuela would only risk worsening the country’s precarious economic situation and could contribute to an exodus in a US election year focused on migration.”

• Venezuelan oil exports hit their highest level in more than four years in August, fueled by expanded shipments to China, the US and Europe, according to shipping data, the company said. Reuters.

• Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado said she wants the United States to do “much more” to pressure President Nicolás Maduro over the dispute over the results of the July presidential election, reports Reuters.

• She called for a global movement, similar to the international campaign against apartheid in South Africa, to help save her country from “criminal tyranny,” the Guardian.

• “The UN can take decisive steps to address the crisis in Venezuela,” Beatriz Borges argues in America’s Quarterly. A Security Council statement “urging an immediate end to repression, as well as transparency and respect for democratic principles, is feasible and would be appropriate,” and another option could be “a resolution agreeing to the deployment of an independent electoral verification mission with a broad mandate to monitor human rights and the political transition, supported by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.”

• The new Mexican cabinet officials, Juan Ramón de la Fuente and Marcelo Ebrard, responded to the Washington Post‘s argument that reforming the country’s justice system is a matter of hemispheric concern, and that U.S. diplomatic statements on the subject infringe on Mexico’s sovereignty. “And the specific nature of The Post and Mr. Salazar’s argument suggests a double standard: What is virtue in the United States is vice in Mexico.”

• That said, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has ruled out the risk of a rupture in trade relations with the United States over the judicial reform.AFP)

• “If Donald Trump wins in November, Latin America must be prepared for a new revival of the Monroe Doctrine, with real-world impacts on everything from investment and technology to the region’s ties with China,” argues Juan Gabriel Tokatlian in America’s Quarterly.

• The Chinese military will take part in joint military exercises in Brazil, a rare move for China in the region. The exercise comes as China and Brazil have improved relations in recent years, including Brasilia’s intention to join the Belt and Road Initiative, the South China Morning Post.

Regional

• Anti-corruption policies have lost steam in Latin America, particularly in Mexico and Brazil, which “have struggled with persistent corruption and limited political will to address its problems,” write Marina Pera and Valeria Vásquez in America’s Quarterly.

Brazil

• Brazilians are divided over Chief Justice Alexandre de Moraes’ order to take down social media giant X in the country, a new poll from AtlasIntel has found.Reuters)

El Salvador

• El Salvador’s Barra de Santiago serves as a crucial carbon sink in a region battling deforestation, and as a natural shield for a country exposed to tropical storms and rising sea levels due to the climate crisis. But the mangrove forest is at risk due to the effects of the climate crisis, rapid urbanization, livestock grazing, extensive deforestation by the sugar cane industry and the country’s growing demand for timber, the Guardian.

Ecuador

• Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Bank of America Corp. are setting up a debt-for-nature swap that will help Ecuador manage its debt financing costs in exchange for a pledge to protect part of the Amazon rainforest, the report said. BloombergThe Nature Conservancy will serve as an advisor on the deal, they said.

Colombia

• Colombia’s government has reached an agreement with truck drivers to suspend a protest over a hike in diesel prices after roadblocks threatened to lead to food and fuel shortages in the country’s largest cities, reports Reuters.

Barbados

• “An Anglican church group is to launch a £7 million reconciliation project in Barbados to atone for the atrocities of transatlantic slavery and compensate the descendants of enslaved people,” the Guardian.

Paraguay

• Paraguay’s Ministry of Education has approved for the first time a national curriculum on sex education. It “promotes abstinence, explains sex as ‘God’s invention for married people’, warns about the ineffectiveness of condoms and says nothing about sexual orientation or identity,” the Associated Press.

• Former Paraguayan President Horacio Cartes “is no longer useful to Washington, which can now act virtuously and punitively with sanctions,” argues Brian Saady in Responsible statesmanship.

Mexico

• Mexico’s AI ecosystem has invested in digital infrastructure and talent, but it still lacks a national vision and strategy for AI. As a result, other countries are leapfrogging Mexico, according to the Wilson Center Weekly Asado.

Animal corner

• A group of experts is working in record time to create a unique catalogue of all the living creatures that inhabit Mexico City’s iconic Chapultepec Park. They hope to register around 500 species to ensure their conservation, reports The country.