The Latin American Report # 429
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum reported on Monday that her country had received four flights with about 4,100 deported individuals at the end of Trump's first week in power, most of them Mexicans. According to the first woman running the business in Zócalo Square, the figure does not represent a sharp change from the levels seen during the Biden administration. “Neither Mexico nor the United States are going anywhere. We are obliged to have a good relationship, always in defense of our sovereignty and respect for Mexicans and always seeking coordination, mutual respect, and dialogue between our nations,” she said. About the crisis generated last Sunday between Bogotá and Washington, Sheinbaum bet on prioritizing dialogue and generally behaving with respect.
There is no clarity on the destination of some migrants from third countries arriving in Mexico, although she affirmed that there is prior coordination with other countries. It could be El Salvador or Guatemala, as some reports point out that they are negotiating to serve as “safe third countries” to receive migrants from other nations in the region, including Venezuelans allegedly linked to El Tren de Aragua (the Aragua Train) in the case of the former. This Tuesday Sheinbaum called the attention of migrants in Mexico not to be fooled by human smugglers promising to sneak them into the United States for around 4,000 dollars, as denounced by local media. The MORENA leader stressed that the Republican administration has closed all options to apply for political asylum, in a controversial, sweeping, quite broad use of presidential power—applying the banning mode—in immigration matters.
The border is sealed (source of the image).Controversy over the treatment of deportees continues
Last Monday the Brazilian government summoned the chargé d'affaires of the U.S. embassy in Brasilia to demand a dignified treatment to the nationals of the South American giant who are deported. Last Saturday, the rude treatment given to a first batch of 88 Brazilian nationals returned on a U.S. military flight, bound hand and foot and without access to water and sanitary services while they were in the air, came to light. “That operation was tragic,” said the head of Itamaraty, promising to ”seek ways for [the next ones to be done] according to Brazilian legislation and also with the norms of safety and reception inside an aircraft.” The event sheds light on the migratory movement from Brazil to the United States which is not always considered. During the former blue mandate in the West Wing 40 deportation flights were counted.
But when it comes to dealing with the second-time owner of the Resolute desk Planalto is acting more calmly than Colombia, dragged into a dangerous exchange of punitive reciprocal measures—fundamentally of a commercial nature—with the United States last Sunday, after Gustavo Petro refused the landing of two U.S. military aircraft with deported Colombian nationals. The crisis was extinguished with the involvement of various actors in Colombian politics. However, if at first the narrative promoted from Pennsylvania Avenue that the head of the Nariño's House had accepted all of Trump's demands—including the bombastic, show of force-mode employment of military aircraft in those deportation operations—prevailed, it finally seems that Bogotá's position—demanding dignified treatment for the affected Colombians—had an effect not assumed by the combative, Gen Z new U.S. press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
Yesterday, Tuesday, two Colombian Air Force planes landed in the Colombian capital with some 200 nationals deported from San Diego and Texas. Petro never objected to the deportation flights, but rather that they were operated by the U.S. Armed Forces and that the migrants arrived handcuffed and mistreated. A senior Colombian official stated that the 201 Colombians deported arrived “in good health, none of them have a pending record with the justice system and none of them arrived handcuffed.” This contradicts Trump's narrative, which again portrayed the migrants being deported as consummate high-profile criminals. “They want to blame their problems on migrants who can't defend themselves [...] They didn't give us rights [in the United States], they didn't tell us anything, they made us sign forced documents and it was horrible, it was inhumane treatment,” complained one of the deportees who was aiming to reunite with his family in North America. “The truth, is I prefer to stay here [in Colombia]. I tell everyone not to go looking for adventure in the United States because what they are going to get is mistreatment,” concluded another.
SourceViolence in Mexico
In Aztec land, the deadly violence linked to disputes between or within cartels and criminal gangs does not abate. In Sinaloa, for example, the infighting unleashed in September in the historic cartel named after the very State has already left around 770 murders at the close of business on Monday, when four new bodies were recovered, two of them in a clandestine grave and one wrapped in a bag accompanied by a narco message. Last Saturday a journalist and professor who had been reported missing was finally found dead in Tabasco. The southern state has been plunged into an insecurity crisis unbefitting its social dynamics. On precisely that date thousands of indigenous people of different ethnicities marched in the border state of Chiapas to demand the dismantling of organized crime and put direct pressure on Sheinbaum. This state, the classic first stop for migrants arriving from Guatemala, borders Tabasco to the north and Oaxaca to the west. Yesterday, Tuesday, the murder of four police officers in an armed attack was reported in the latter, including among the victims the police chief of Tuxtepec. The mayor of that town has called for the withdrawal of marines deployed there by the federal government—to increase security—claiming not to have resources for their maintenance. Insane.
SourceVia X
Thread from Google on renaming the Gulf of Mexico as "Gulf of America" on Google Maps 👇.
We’ve received a few questions about naming within Google Maps. We have a longstanding practice of applying name changes when they have been updated in official government sources.
— News from Google (@NewsFromGoogle) January 27, 2025
Breaking on Venezuela 👇
Scoop: The Trump administration has revoked an extension of deportation protections that President Biden had granted to more than 600,000 Venezuelans already in the United States, according to a copy of the decision obtained by The New York Times.https://t.co/MVQnOaVHZ5
— Hamed Aleaziz (@Haleaziz) January 29, 2025
The Milei's Pink House makes a move to improve economic activity in the automotive sector 👇
Argentina lifts tariffs on low-cost EVs and hybrids, cuts some auto taxes https://t.co/vTQViTpUfo pic.twitter.com/npytHbmhlN
— Reuters (@Reuters) January 28, 2025
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.
Posted Using INLEO