The Latin American Report # 687

If days ago we talked about the appalling case of some heads hanging on a beach, this past Tuesday, another macabre discovery occurred in Ecuador, this time in a locality in the coastal province of Santa Elena, submerged—like all of its kind—in an unstoppable, bloody wave of violence linked to organized crime. Thus, six charred and decomposing bodies were found in Colonche, apparently young individuals from the also coastal, and even more violent, province of Guayas. Decapitations, blood, and burned human flesh—this is how the year begins in Ecuador.

Mexico

Meanwhile, in Mexican territory, although the figure remains concerning, the fact is that in the first fortnight of the still young 2026, a 42% reduction in police murders is reported regarding the same period last year, according to a civil society organization dedicated to monitoring this issue. The total is 11, with Michoacán as the most dangerous state for internal security agents. Just last January 10th, three municipal police officers were killed in the town of Zamora.

Venezuela

"Acting" president—and controversially blessed by the White House—Delcy Rodríguez managed to showcase results in her early tenure as the apparent supreme governor of the oil-rich nation's destiny, thanks to the first liquefied petroleum gas contract and the commitment to supply the banking sector with fresh foreign currency, obtained through a mechanism controlled by Donald Trump himself. Last Thursday, Rodríguez also submitted a reform bill for the hydrocarbon law, enacted—in its current form—in 2006, when Maduro was president of the legislature. For days, it had been warned that this was the next step demanded by Trump to make investing in Venezuela more attractive, which seems to imply that PDVSA will no longer necessarily be guaranteed the majority stake in the joint ventures formed to exploit new wells, or even that foreign businesses could dominate the entire stake.

Furthermore, the current head of the Miraflores Palace continues to gradually dismantle Maduro's government apparatus—she removed Alex Saab, a controversial close collaborator of the former president—and creating one in her own image and likeness, although all those promoted adhere to the ruling PSUV. On another note, there is already talk of at least 100 political prisoners released as part of a process initiated last week, marked by its irregularity and informational opacity. In a show of extraordinary alignment, or of the extraordinary deference Rodríguez is perhaps forced to pay to Washington, last Thursday she received none other than CIA Director John Ratcliffe, the same man who, with his nerves on edge, watched in real time, as if it were a movie, one of the most brazen transgressions of a country's sovereignty last January 3rd. I would love to see Pérez Pirela defending this nonsense.

EU / MERCOSUR

Lula is quite disappointed 👇

This is all for today’s report.