From Empty Plates to Empty Promises, El Cafecito del 16/07
Hunger, Migration & Power Plays—Your Espresso Shot of the Hemisphere’s Hot Takes
¡Bienvenidos a El Cafecito! ☕️
This week we brew a potent blend of Latin America’s fiercest headlines: a U.N. FAO report that peels back the layers on hunger and obesity in Latin America, Venezuelan migrants carving out new lives under rain-soaked tents, tariff skirmishes that slice through staple foods, and grassroots heroes—from Mexico’s search-for-truth “mujeres buscadoras” to Guaviare’s teen land defenders—standing up to entrenched power.
No sugarcoating, no filters—just the bold, bittersweet truths that big outlets skim over.
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Ready for your wake-up call? Let’s dive in.
🥗 Food Security & Nutrition in Latin America
🌾 Latin America Leads the Charge Toward Zero Hunger
A U.N. FAO report highlights bold innovations—from climate-resilient crops in Argentina to agroforestry terraces in Guatemala—that are cutting food insecurity by up to 40 percent in hotspot regions. The Caribbean’s regenerative-fishing initiatives and Bolivia’s social-safety nets also stand out, proving that sustainable development and ending hunger can go hand in hand.
More broadly, Latin America and the Caribbean are inching forward on hunger—but the road’s still bumpy:
📉 Hunger dips… Undernourishment fell to 6.2 percent (about 41 million people) in 2023—a small but sweet victory that nudges the region just below the global average for the first time.
🍽️ …but food insecurity lingers. Roughly 28.2 percent (187 million) still lack reliable access to meals, a rate only marginally better than the world’s 28.9 percent.
🌍 Regional gaps persist. South America leads the pack with a low 5.2 percent hunger rate, Mesoamerica at 5.8 percent, while the Caribbean still crests 17.2 percent—a clear call for targeted aid.
🚜 Rural & gender divides bite hardest. Rural folks face an 8.2 point higher risk of food insecurity than city dwellers, and women lag men by 5.2 points, marking the widest gender gap worldwide.
💸 Healthy diets cost a fortune. At US $ 4.56 PPP/day, Latin America has the world’s priciest “basic healthy plate,” locking out 182 million who simply can’t afford fruits, veggies and proteins.
⚖️ Obesity climbs. Twenty years in, obesity has jumped from 22.4 percent of adults in 2012 to 29.9 percent in 2022—proof that feeding the body and nourishing it aren’t always the same thing.
🚀 Who’s Leading the Charge?
🇨🇱🇺🇾 Chile & Uruguay: Rock-bottom undernourishment rates (≈3 %) thanks to powerhouse school-feeding programmes and laser-focused safety nets.
🇨🇷 Costa Rica: Universal healthcare plus grassroots nutrition drives have shrunk child stunting and boosted diet diversity —even in the most remote corners.
🇧🇷 Brazil: Bolsa Família’s cash transfers and emergency food aid during COVID-19 kept hunger spikes at bay better than most of its neighbours.
🔧 What Needs Doing?
Slash the cost of healthy food. From urban markets to rural cooperatives, policy must drive down the price tag on nutritious staples.
Bridge the rural–urban and gender gaps. Scale up women-centred cash transfers and invest in rural infrastructure—roads, storage and irrigation—to get food where it’s needed.
Link anti-hunger efforts with obesity prevention. Pair staple subsidies with incentives for fruits, vegetables and local agro-ecological produce.
Latin America’s fight against hunger is real—and winnable. But only if we tackle inequality on all fronts, from gender and geography to wallet size.
Let’s keep pushing for a hemisphere where every plate is both full and healthy.
🇻🇪🌎 Displaced Dreams: The New Venezuelan Journey
A few stories this week charted journeys of hope, hurdles and the quest for legal footing across the hemisphere by Venezuelans who fled the country they once called ‘home’:
Venezuelans abroad hit 7.9 million, and half can’t afford three meals
As of May 2025, UNHCR tallies nearly 7.9 million Venezuelans forced from home—over 6.5 million of them scattered across Latin America and the Caribbean—and warns that displacement is entering a “protracted phase.” Host nations, many already cash‐strapped, struggle to shelter newcomers: roughly 50 percent lack reliable access to three meals a day, and a similar share sleep in makeshift camps or overcrowded homes.
With only 40 percent of funding for regional response plans received so far, governments are racing to scale up legal‐aid clinics, expand work‐permit schemes and open more reception centres before the rainy season turns camps into health hazards. UNHCR emphasises that without significant donors stepping up, millions will face a second exile inside exile—longer stays in limbo, deeper poverty, and dwindling hope of ever returning home.
The Future of Venezuela’s Diaspora
Since 2014, nearly 8 million Venezuelans—the second-largest displacement crisis worldwide—have fled economic collapse and political repression, with 2.81 million in Colombia and 1.66 million in Peru. A Vanderbilt CGD survey of over 2,000 migrants in Bogotá, Medellín, Cúcuta, Lima, Trujillo and Tumbes reveals acute hardship: roughly two-thirds report incomes too low for basic needs, over half struggle to access healthcare (57% in Colombia; 61% in Peru), and nearly three-quarters in Peru—and 58% in Colombia—face discrimination.
Yet resilience shines through: 81% of those in Colombia and 77% in Peru believe their futures will improve, with 89% of those in Colombia and 69% of those in Peru likely to stay another year. Despite 55% in Peru and 43% in Colombia holding onto a distant hope of return, deteriorating conditions under Maduro make permanent settlement more probable—marking a diaspora that’s here to stay, reshaping labour markets, politics and social fabrics across the Americas.
Secondary movements reshape city integration
A new OIM/Equilibrium study tracks Venezuelan migrants’ “secondary” journeys through six major cities—Bogotá, Barranquilla, Cali, Quito, Santiago and São Paulo—and finds that unstable legal status and lack of jobs push many to keep moving. Local policies that only grant temporary protection aren’t enough: true integration needs housing, health and work access to stem the next leg of the diaspora shuffle.
Colombia’s paper chase leaves 1.2 million in limbo
Petro’s special “Visitor V” visa meant to regularise Venezuelans has barely budged: only 11.6% of applications get approved. Between expired permits and new hurdles—apostilles, income proofs, multi-year police records—an estimated 1.2–1.5 million Venezuelans remain undocumented, locking them out of formal jobs and social services.
🧭 Politics, Geopolitics & ‘Geoeconomics’
🚨💼 Trump’s 30% tariff ultimatum on EU and Mexico
In a surprise letter to Brussels and Mexico City, President Trump warned that, come August 1, he’ll slap a sweeping 30 percent levy on a wide range of European and Mexican imports—a move designed to wield U.S. economic power as a blunt geopolitical tool and reset trade alliances on his own terms.
🇲🇽🍅 Trump tears up tomato truce, hits Mexico with 17% tariff
The Commerce Department scrapped the 2019 Tomato Suspension Agreement and slapped a 17 percent antidumping duty on roughly US$ 3 billion of Mexican tomato exports—sending a stark message that even staple foods aren’t off-limits in today’s tariff battles.
🇧🇷📈 Lula seizes Trump tariff threat to revive re-election push
President Lula has turned Trump’s looming 30 percent levies on Brazilian exports into a campaign cudgel—portraying the tariff ultimatum as evidence that only his steady, left-leaning administration can safeguard Brazil’s markets and global standing ahead of 2026 elections.
🌍⚔️ The new age of geoeconomics: When economics becomes the next battlefield
As trade wars morph into power plays, the FT argues we’re in a renaissance of “geoeconomics,” where tariffs, investment curbs and industrial policy are wielded like weapons in the great U.S.–China rivalry—and beyond—signalling a return to mercantilism and statecraft over laissez-faire markets.
📊 Development & Environment
🇧🇷🔥 Brazil Takes a Jab at Its “Environmental Patron Saint”
President Lula’s administration is reshuffling the Ministry of the Environment, sidelining long-time green champion Marina Silva in favour of more development-friendly technocrats. NGOs fear this signals a shift toward looser Amazon protections—just as illegal deforestation rates tick upward—and could tarnish Brazil’s green-finance pledges at next month’s climate summit.
🌊🔥 Climate Change Fuels Floods & Heatwaves Across the Americas
Infobae’s deep dive shows a clear uptick in extreme weather: flood frequency in Central America has tripled since 2000, while heatwave days in the Southern Cone have doubled. Urban planners are scrambling to green-roof major cities and fortify riverbanks, but experts warn that without emissions cuts, these “new normals” will only intensify.
🧊 Perito Moreno’s Slow Melt Sparks Alarm
Once hailed as Patagonia’s “immortal glacier,” Perito Moreno is showing unprecedented retreat—losing nearly 30 metres of ice in the past two years alone. Scientists link the decline to warmer ocean currents and drought-driven snow deficits; local tourism businesses, meanwhile, are racing to pivot toward eco-education before the ice vanishes.
🏘️🚇 Mexico City’s Gentrification Backlash Goes Global
As luxury condos and chic cafés push rents sky-high in Roma and Condesa, grassroots movements are springing up to fight displacement—mirroring anti-over-tourism protests from Venice to Barcelona. Planners in CDMX are now debating a “cultural rent cap” to lock in affordable housing, while artists paint murals demanding “El Centro es de Todos.”
🔒 Authoritarianism across Latin America
A roundup of power plays, human-rights crackdowns and resistance across the region:
🇻🇪 Venezuela’s forced disappearances labeled crimes against humanity
In a stark new report, Amnesty International lays bare a chilling pattern of state-sponsored abductions under Nicolás Maduro’s government—forced disappearances that, by any legal definition, amount to crimes against humanity. Victims are seized in the dead of night by masked security officers, dumped in clandestine detention centres, and erased from official records. Families are left in limbo: filing endless police reports that go nowhere, haunted by anonymous phone calls promising “answers” if they stay silent.
Amnesty’s investigators traced dozens of cases where entire communities live in fear, knowing that speaking out could be their last mistake. The organisation calls on the International Criminal Court to open a full investigation, arguing that Venezuela’s judicial system has been thoroughly compromised by political interference. With hundreds reportedly missing—and no accountability in sight—Amnesty warns that only international pressure can break the cycle of impunity.
This isn’t just another human-rights dossier; it’s a plea for the world to witness the disappearance of an entire generation of dissenters. As Amnesty puts it, “each vanished individual is a grave crime against humanity,” and the clock is ticking to bring Maduro’s enforcers to justice.
🇺🇸 Two U.S. playbooks for Venezuela: Sanctions vs. engagement
The Atlantic Council lays out America’s fork in the road: squeeze Caracas harder with fresh sanctions—or roll out the diplomatic welcome mat in hopes of peeling the regime away from China and Russia. Either choice risks giving Maduro the propaganda win.
🛢️⚔️ Border poker: Venezuela ups the ante on Guyana’s oil fields
Caracas has revived its century-old claim to the Essequibo region, rattling Guyana just as U.S. oil majors move in. It’s a high-stakes game of territorial brinkmanship—one wrong move and the Caribbean could be the next flashpoint.
✈️🤝 Bukele to Trump: “Thanks, but we’ve got migration under control”
When Trump threatened to ship migrants back to El Salvador, Nayib Bukele shot back that his security-and-tourism boom has tamed the exodus—leaving Washington with deportees who find a country still wrestling with gang violence and civil-war scars.
🚫🏝️ Trump dusts off the old Cuba regime-change playbook
Forget détente: the U.S. is ramping up covert support for dissidents, tightening embargo screws, and offering exiles pathways back—all in a bid to topple Havana’s one-party rule without firing a shot. Castro’s heirs aren’t exactly packing their bags yet.
🐊🚧 “Alligator Alcatraz” sparks lawsuit and human-rights alarm
Florida’s Everglades detention camp—nicknamed for its barbed-wire pens in the swamp—has the Miccosukee Tribe suing over sacred land and environmental groups warning of flood-and-hurricane hazards, even as migrants languish in makeshift cells.
📚✈️ Exiled Nicaraguan students forge a democracy pipeline
Fleeing Ortega’s clampdown, top-flight Nicaraguans are enrolling in Costa Rican universities—turning forced exile into an academic boot camp, ready to bring pro-democracy expertise back home when the day comes.
🛡️ Protests and Conflicts Round Up June 2025
A snapshot of June’s turbulence as mapped out each month by ACLED —from street protests to high-tech raids:
🇦🇷⚖️ Argentina: The Supreme Court’s upholding of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s six-year sentence and political ban on 10 June ignited over 50 protests nationwide—one of which drew tens of thousands in Buenos Aires on 18 June—deepening the divide between anti-corruption advocates and those decrying political persecution.
🇧🇴🛣️ Bolivia: Mass protests and 15 days of roadblocks by Evo Morales supporters in Cochabamba and Potosí over his exclusion from the 17 August ballot turned deadly when security forces cleared blockades, leaving at least six people—including four officers—dead.
🇨🇴🔫 Colombia: The 7 June assassination attempt on Senator Miguel Uribe Turbay by a 14-year-old gunman sparked solidarity rallies in 22 departments and thrust political violence and guerrilla-style attacks by FARC dissidents back to the forefront ahead of the 2026 elections.
🇭🇹⚔️ Haiti: Despite a 45% drop in gang violence events, the Viv Ansanm coalition seized La Chapelle in Artibonite on 22 June—displacing some 9,000 residents and prompting drone-backed security raids that killed over 100 people in Port-au-Prince.
🇲🇽🔫 Mexico: Nearly 50 violent attacks on politicians in June—killing at least 25 officeholders including three mayors—in Michoacán and Veracruz underscored growing CJNG cartel influence and election-day unrest.
🇵🇦🚧 Panama: In Bocas del Toro, banana workers’ protests against Social Security reforms escalated into roadblocks and clashes with over 2,500 police, resulting in 304 arrests (including alleged gang infiltrators) and one protester’s death despite a new benefits law.
👉 https://acleddata.com/2025/07/04/latin-america-and-the-caribbean-overview-july-2025/
🧳 Migration & Trump’s Crackdown
A snapshot of shifting routes, rising applications, and the muscle behind mass removals:
🔄 Migrants reverse course, settling in the South
Thanks to tighter US fences, thousands who once headed north are now stopping in Mexico—or even turning back home. El País reports that detentions have plunged by over 80 percent since 2024, yet Mexico’s shelters and camps see new faces daily. Many apply for work permits, enrol their kids in school, and send remittances back south—proof that restrictive policies can reroute, not necessarily reduce, human flows.
👉 https://elpais.com/mexico/2025-07-14/los-migrantes-de-america-dan-marcha-atras-y-miran-al-sur.html
📈 Mexico fields 250 new asylum claims every day
UNHCR data show that, even as overall crossings dip, Mexico is now the daily destination for roughly 250 asylum seekers—about 36,300 so far this year. Hondurans, Cubans and Haitians top the list, straining COMAR’s capacity and forcing calls for budget boosts just to process the influx.
📊 Three charts spotlight the policy squeeze
AS/COA’s deep dive shows that Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” has earmarked some $170 billion for border walls, tech upgrades and detention beds—supercharging CBP and ICE just as crossings dip. Chart 1 reveals a 50 percent surge in enforcement funding; Chart 2 tracks a 30 percent fall in apprehensions alongside a rise in expulsions; and Chart 3 maps growing deportations to Latin America, with Hondurans and Nicaraguans set to lose TPS protections. These visuals make clear: the administration’s hard line is reshaping migration flows, remittance patterns and regional politics.
🌍 US leans on Africa to absorb Venezuelan deportees
Washington quietly asked Nigeria and other African states to take back Venezuelans—including some ex-prisoners—who the US plans to expel. It’s a startling shift: as Latin American neighbours slam the door, the White House is scrambling for third-country landing zones, stretching diplomatic ties from Abuja to Accra.
💰 ICE’s big payday makes mass deportation possible
With the “One Big Beautiful Bill” injecting nearly US$ 75 billion into ICE over four years—a 308 percent jump from 2024—the agency is primed for its most aggressive deportation drive yet. Funding for 116,000 detention beds and hefty state-local grants means raids and removals could hit levels unseen since Eisenhower’s “Operation Wetback.” Critics warn civil-liberties abuses will follow unless checks are imposed.
👉 https://www.economist.com/united-states/2025/07/07/ices-big-payday-makes-mass-deportation-possible
🧨 Organised Crime & Narco-States
👮♂️ Mafia on the map: Colombian police nab Italian crime boss
In a rare cross-continental sting, Colombian authorities arrested the alleged head of an Italian mafia cell operating in Latin America—highlighting how European crime networks have grafted onto local drug corridors to launder cash and traffic weapons.
🤖🛥️ Narco-subs go autonomous: Colombia’s new undersea threat
Forget go-fast boats—drug cartels are now deploying self-piloted submarines to smuggle cocaine. Colombian navy intelligence just intercepted prototypes guided by GPS and disguised as fishing vessels, raising the stakes in an ever-escalating maritime arms race.
📸 Chocó’s silent scars: MSF’s visual chronicle of violence
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) takes you inside one of Colombia’s most war-torn regions, Chocó, through haunting photos of survivors, burnt villages and makeshift clinics—reminding us that behind every drug route lies a human toll.
📱 When cartels go viral: crime rings harness social media
From YouTube-style “narco-tours” to WhatsApp recruitment drives, organised crime is turning to influencers to recruit hitmen, launder money and control narratives—proving that modern mafias are as savvy online as they are on the streets.
🚸 Antwerp’s teenage coke couriers: Europe’s new street runners
Police in Belgium are confronting a troubling trend: school-age kids ferrying multi-ton loads of cocaine from South America to Europe, lured by quick cash and social media bragging rights—exposing how narco-networks exploit youthful ambition.
🇲🇽💣 Colombian mercenaries fuel Jalisco Cartel firepower
Mexico warns that battle-hardened ex-guerrillas from Colombia are bolstering the Jalisco New Generation Cartel—bringing combat skills, tactical know-how and a fresh wave of violence to an already bloody turf war.
🦗💰 Costa Rica’s narco-corruption scandal explodes
Insight Crime reveals that high-level officials in Costa Rica have been taking millions in cartel payoffs—jeopardising the country’s “narco-free” reputation and triggering investigations into police chiefs, judges and even members of parliament.
🚢💊 Haiti’s coastal cocaine haul: 1,000 kg seized near Tortue Island
Haitian police intercepted a smuggling boat off Tortue Island carrying over 2,300 pounds (1,000 kg) of cocaine; a shootout left three traffickers dead and one Bahamian national injured and arrested—highlighting Haiti’s role as a transshipment hub for Latin American drug networks.
👉 https://apnews.com/article/haiti-drugs-cocaine-seized-tortue-island-c1066c470f273a2171ef04f8c2bea555
🔫🇺🇸 Guns flow north to arm Mexico’s crime rings
El País exposes how the U.S. remains the primary source of weapons fuelling Mexico’s violence—despite clear trafficking routes from American dealers to cartels, Washington’s enforcement gaps let countless firearms cross the border unchecked, leaving Mexican authorities fighting with one hand tied.
🎭 Culture & Identity
📺 “Apocalypse in the Tropics” Unmasks Brazil’s Pulpit Power
Petra Costa’s new Netflix doc dives into the rise of firebrand evangelical pastors who’ve morphed pulpits into political platforms—spreading prosperity gospel by day and stoking culture-war firestorms by night. Expect haunting interviews, pulsing sermons and a front-row seat to faith’s force in Bolsonaro’s backyard.
👉 The Guardian’s review https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/jul/09/apocalypse-in-the-tropics-review-how-brazilian-politics-succumbed-to-rightwing-fundamentalism
👉 The FT’s review: https://www.ft.com/content/52162b75-6ff8-48e7-a9ed-4d239b1cc9be
🎤 Bad Bunny’s Puerto Rico Homecoming Turns Identity Concert
At the San Juan Coliseum, Bad Bunny didn’t just drop beats—he wove Puerto Rican pride into every bass drop. From tributes to hurricane survivors to nods at Afro-Caribbean folklore, his surprise album announcement felt like a communal hug for an island still healing.
🌐 How Bad Bunny Became a Global Phenomenon
Once a SoundCloud sensation, Bad Bunny now towers over Spotify charts—his genre-blending trap-meets-bachata an anthem for Latinx millennials worldwide. The Economist peels back his rise, crediting his social-media savvy, barrier-smashing lyrics and collaborations that span K-pop to Reggaeton royalty.
📚 “The Hidden Island”: Cuba’s Last Free Voices
With independent journalism outlawed, exiled reporter Abraham Jimenez Enoa—once Che Guevara’s bodyguard’s grandson—pens a searing essay collection on life under Castro’s shadow. Due August 12, it promises an Afro-Cuban insider’s view of censorship, survival and the fight for truth.
👉 https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-hidden-island-abraham-jimenez-enoa/1147101074
👉 https://www.amazon.com/Hidden-Island-Abraham-Jim%C3%A9nez-Enoa/dp/1632462095
🎶 NYC’s Latin Music Sundance Struts Its Stuff
Every summer, New York morphs into a showcase for Latin sounds—from urban corridos to Andean folk. El País spotlights the fest’s hot newcomers, panel talks on diaspora identity and surprise pop-up gigs that prove the genre’s future is as diverse as its diaspora.
🪶 Wixarika Wisdom Wins UNESCO’s Nod
Mexico’s Wixarika people—keepers of vibrant yarn art, sacred pilgrimages and ancestral chants—have snagged the lone living Indigenous tradition on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. Their annual Wirikuta trek, colourful beadwork and peyote rituals now enjoy global spotlight, a win for cultural survival amid creeping modernisation.
This concludes our round up the week’s stories shaping the hemisphere. Now onto our 📍Country Round up.
📍Country Round up
Argentina 🇦🇷
👵🔍 Grandma’s joy: Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo reunite with 140th grandchild
Decades-long searches by Argentina’s iconic human-rights group bore fruit again as the Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo announced they’ve identified their 140th missing grandchild—born in captivity during the 1976-83 dictatorship—and begun the emotional DNA confirmation process.
🛢️💔 Vaca Muerta’s “leaky gut”: How shale’s boom may be busting Patagonia’s health
A deep-dive into Argentina’s oil-rich Vaca Muerta warns that surge drilling is contaminating air and water, fuelling respiratory and gastro-intestinal ailments among nearby communities—a vivid example of resource-curse risks when regulation lags behind the rush for hydrocarbons.
Bolivia 🇧🇴
🔫🛡️ Foreign escort fury: Evo’s stronghold rocked by armed bodyguards
In Cochabamba’s Fortín barrio, locals protested the sight of Evo Morales’s convoy flanked by heavily armed foreign security details—stoking fears of parallel power structures as Morales readies a comeback bid for the August 17 ballot.
Chile 🇨🇱
🍽️📉 “We ration our food”: Chile’s hidden hunger emerges
Amid one of Latin America’s highest GDPs, families in Santiago and beyond report skipping meals to stretch budgets—underscoring that multidimensional poverty persists even in the region’s wealthier corners.
Colombia 🇨🇴
🕊️ UN Verification Mission Snapshot
Between 27 March and 26 June 2025, the UN Verification Mission in Colombia recorded solid gains—577,000 hectares earmarked for rural reform, 95 percent of ex-FARC fighters reintegrated, first Special Jurisdiction for Peace hearings convened, and new rules boosting indigenous input in land redistribution.
But persistent and significant hurdles remain: deadly FARC-dissident and ELN attacks (some drone-assisted) causing civilian and troop casualties, 65,000 newly displaced in Catatumbo, and rising political polarisation linked to stalled labour-law and health-system reforms and the June 7 assassination attempt on Senator Uribe Turbay. The U.N. Mission stressed the need for continued humanitarian-law respect, extension of emergency measures for crop substitution and aid, and high-level inter-party dialogue to safeguard the 2026 elections.
✌️ Paz Total: Battling Crime for Lasting Peace
🌱 Guaviare’s Fragile Equilibrium
Once a FARC hotspot turned poster child for rural reform, Guaviare now teeters on the edge as coca cultivation resurges under the radar—local leaders warn that without sustained investment in legal livelihoods and community policing, the fragile peace could unravel into full-scale conflict.🌿 Barrancominas: Amazon’s Struggle for Order
As the last municipality in Colombia’s Amazon, Barrancominas faces shadow governance by armed groups vying for control of wildlife trafficking routes—community councils are mapping territories and pushing for municipal councils to enforce peace accords that never fully reached this remote outpost.
📰 Journalism Under Fire in Guaviare
Local reporters, vital peace actors in post-conflict zones, are being threatened and silenced as dissident groups reclaim ground—media outlets struggle to cover human-rights abuses safely, jeopardising transparency and the public’s right to know in a region where silence fuels impunity.🌳🛡️ Indigenous youth under fire:
In Cauca, masked militias have killed community leaders and menaced the 600-strong “semillero” of Indigenous land defenders—yet teens keep patrolling and using rituals to protect forests from illegal mining and coca fields.
🔫 Black-market arms elude Bogotá’s watch
El País uncovers how improvised workshops and shadowy middlemen keep illegal firearms flowing—to guerrillas, dissidents and criminal gangs alike—while the Defence Ministry’s registry captures only a fraction of weapons circulating on the streets.
🇺🇸📉 From “Plan Colombia” to “Colombia No Plan”
President Petro’s public jabs at U.S. figures—culminating in the abrupt order to return a U.S. deportee flight and accusations of a coup plot—triggered the temporary withdrawal of the American chargé d’affaires and a tense tariff-and-visa standoff, forcing an ad-hoc resolution that saw Colombia’s air force repatriate migrants instead. Once a hallmark of consistent, bipartisan cooperation under “Plan Colombia,” the bilateral partnership now teeters on mistrust, with Washington demanding concrete policy moves and Bogotá scrambling to patch a relationship strained by rhetoric over substance. With elections looming, both capitals must rebuild trust through disciplined diplomacy if they hope to revive a strategic alliance vital for counternarcotics, trade and migration management.
⚡️ Petro vs. Trump: A rupture foretold
Razón Pública dissects how Gustavo Petro’s progressive agenda and Trump’s populist “America First” rhetoric have reset bilateral dynamics—undermining decades of cooperation on counternarcotics and pushing both capitals toward an uneasy détente.
Cuba 🇨🇺
🛂 US slaps visa curbs on Cuban officials
In a bid to punish Havana for its heavy‐handed response to the July 11, 2021 protests, the Trump administration has tightened visa restrictions on senior Cuban government figures—signalling U.S. solidarity with dissidents even as it leaves broad sanctions untouched.
🤝 Maduro rallies behind Díaz-Canel amid U.S. sanctions
On the anniversary of Cuba’s 11J protests, Venezuelan President Maduro publicly endorsed his ally Díaz-Canel—denouncing Washington’s visa measures as “imperial aggression” and doubling down on the anti-U.S. narrative that binds both regimes.
Guatemala 🇬🇹
⚖️ Criminalisation and Judicial Terrorism Against Indigenous Peoples
A NACLA investigation reveals how Guatemalan courts have become instruments of repression: Indigenous leaders defending their ancestral lands against mining, agro-industrial, and hydroelectric projects face trumped-up criminal charges, pretrial detentions, and judicial harassment designed to terrorise communities into submission and stifle collective resistance.
Haiti 🇭🇹
🚨 Spreading gang violence poses major risk to Haiti and the Caribbean
In a joint UNHCR-OHCHR statement, agencies warn that Haiti’s emboldened gangs—now controlling over 80% of Port-au-Prince—have triggered a humanitarian emergency: more than 1.5 million people in need of aid, mass displacements into makeshift camps, and a spike in gender-based violence amid lawlessness. The report cautions that unchecked turmoil could spill into the wider Caribbean, straining regional asylum systems and jeopardising decades of development gains.
🌍 Humanitarian response stretched thin as kidnapping soars
An FT investigation reports that kidnappings in Haiti have spiked by 230% year-on-year, with ransom payments fueling the expansion of gang power across Port-au-Prince and beyond . Relief agencies warn that the current humanitarian response—already stretched thin by mass displacement and gender-based violence—is buckling under the strain, and they’re calling on international donors to urgently scale up protection services and cross-border coordination before the crisis becomes the Caribbean’s “forgotten catastrophe.”
Mexico 🇲🇽
💰🛑 Cartel extortion drains small businesses dry
An AP investigation reveals that up to 80% of Mexico’s small and medium enterprises are forced to pay weekly “protection” fees—amounting to billions annually—under threat of violence. Mayor Sheinbaum’s administration has ramped up anti-extortion squads, but locals warn the cycle continues to strangle entrepreneurship and fuel corruption.
👉 https://apnews.com/article/mexico-extortion-crime-sheinbaum-cartels-53ece497efb7b5509e7ba9fb91e465a3
🔍🛡️ Sheinbaum carves out her own anti-violence legacy
As part of her bid for a distinctive leadership brand, Mayor Sheinbaum has launched neighbourhood “peace pacts,” boosted community policing and partnered with civil society to reduce homicides by 15% in key boroughs—an ambitious push to leave her own mark on Mexico City’s security blueprint.
🕵️♀️🚨 Women searchers under siege
Amnesty documents how over 128,000 people remain disappeared in Mexico, and the “mujeres buscadoras” who organise community exhumations face threats, violence and criminalisation—turning the quest for truth into a dangerous battleground.
Paraguay 🇵🇾
🔫📝 Arms, smugglers and a journalist’s murder on the border
Investigative outlets reveal how illicit networks ferry weapons from Brazil into Paraguay—often under the watch of corrupt officials—and how probing this trade cost local reporter Juan Rodríguez his life, underscoring the deadly stakes for journalists covering cross-border crime.
Venezuela 🇻🇪
📈🔥 Inflation set to surge beyond 500% as crisis deepens
The Miami Herald reports Venezuela’s annual inflation hit 229% in April—up from 94% a year earlier—and, if current trends hold, could breach 530% by year-end, further eroding buying power amid chronic shortages of food and medicine
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