The Latin American Report # 360

The Brazilian government continues trying to bring order to regions with a strong native Indigenous presence under attack by illegal mining, a practice somehow powered by former president Jair Bolsonaro. The effects of this activity, particularly associated with gold mining, have been devastating for the Yanomami community, with mercury contamination as one of the most problematic. There are reports of sexual assault against minors as well. President Lula da Silva pledged to end this nightmare, but after an impetuous start last year, it is noted that he did not sustain the same intensity. This Monday, authorities assured that they are preparing to carry out raids in a violent ancestral indigenous territory located in the Amazon rainforest, cradle of the Munduruku, victims of the same scourge as the Yanomami community. In the area, according to Reuters the same size as the U.S. state of New Hampshire, the government has identified a score of informal airstrips. At the same time, some 540 illegal mining spots have been opened in the last three years, most of them in 2022, the last of Jair Bolsonaro's administration.

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Go away

In a country, Cuba, which is literally on the ground, exhausted by a comprehensive crisis that is hitting it on fronts that have not been green for a long time, such as electricity generation and the availability of fuel and foreign currency, now nature has insisted on closing the current hurricane season in a terrible fashion for us. Amid a national blackout last month—which lasted four days—caused by the abrupt exit from the national energy system of a critical thermoelectric plant—which, like the rest, works thanks to patches and innovation on the run—, the poor eastern part of the Island was affected by a not-so-violent hurricane which anyway ended up causing damages of great magnitude. The humongous crisis we face has the country so groggy that not even the regularly oiled civil defense system was able to prevent the death of eight people. Now the western region is facing the real and unfortunate possibility that tropical storm Rafael, once turned into a hurricane, will cross it from south to north next Wednesday. The new tropical storm was approaching Jamaica on Monday night, where it will cause the usual weather bewilderment. “Flooding and mudslides could occur over portions of Jamaica and Cuba,” warned the National Hurricane Center.

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More problems for Claudia Sheinbaum

In the violent state of Guerrero, the regional prosecutor's office has arranged a reward of close to $50,000 “to anyone who provides truthful and useful information that effectively and efficiently contributes to the location of 16 people reported missing in the Central region of the state.” The relatives of the presumed disappeared, presented as merchants and originally from the town of Chautipan, municipality of Chilpancingo, have been pressuring the authorities to locate them, trying to avoid a tragedy that who knows if it has not already occurred (four minors are counted among the kidnapped). It has been almost a month since the mayor of Chilpancingo was beheaded. In Guerrero itself, four members of a family and a female friend close to them were massacred in the early hours of Monday. In addition to Guerrero, Sheinbaum has other violent fronts to deal with in the states of Sinaloa and Guanajuato. On the judicial front, she has the controversy surrounding the comprehensive judicial reform approved in the twilight of AMLO's term. On the migratory issue, the National Guard is giving her headaches killing migrants in the south as well as in the north. And there are the Trump clouds 👇.

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.