LATIN AMERICA ADVISOR a DAILY PUBLICATION of the DIALOGUE Tuesday, February 16, 2021
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LATIN AMERICA ADVISOR A DAILY PUBLICATION OF THE DIALOGUE www.thedialogue.org Tuesday, February 16, 2021 BOARD OF ADVISORS FEATURED Q&A TODAY’S NEWS Diego Arria Director, Columbus Group POLITICAL Devry Boughner Vorwerk What Has Bolivia’s U.N. Official Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, Grubhub Calls on Countries Joyce Chang Global Head of Research, Arce Achieved in to Lift Venezuela JPMorgan Chase & Co. Sanctions Paula Cifuentes Director of Economic & Fiscal Affairs, His First 100 Days? Sanctions against Venezuela Latin America & Canada, imposed by the United States, the Philip Morris International European Union and other coun- Marlene Fernández tries have been “devastating,” said Corporate Vice President for U.N. Rapporteur Alena Douhan. Government Relations, Arcos Dorados (McDonald’s) Page 2 Peter Hakim President Emeritus, ECONOMIC Inter-American Dialogue Donna Hrinak Argentine VP Senior VP, Corporate Affairs, Royal Caribbean Group Seeking Delay to Jon E. Huenemann IMF Deal: Report Council Member, GLG Inc. Argentine Vice President Cristina James R. Jones Bolivian President Luis Arce today marks 100 full days in office. // File Photo: Bolivian Fernández de Kirchner and her Chairman, Government. allies are reportedly seeking to Monarch Global Strategies delay a $44 billion debt deal with Craig A. Kelly Bolivian President Luis Arce has been in office for 100 days. the International Monetary Fund. Senior Director, Americas Page 2 Int’l Gov’t Relations, Exxon Mobil A former economy minister, Arce assumed the country’s John Maisto presidency last November with vows to represent all Director, U.S. Education POLITICAL Finance Group Q Bolivians and also restore the country’s stability following Nicolás Mariscal a tumultuous period after longtime President Evo Morales resigned a Peruvian Foreign Chairman, Grupo Marhnos year earlier. How well has Arce led Bolivia in his first 100 days, and what Minister Quits Thomas F. McLarty III have been his main accomplishments so far? How will Bolivia’s relations Amid Covid Chairman, McLarty Associates with China develop under Arce, and what initiatives will follow his recent Vaccine Scandal Beatrice Rangel phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping? What does Russia’s recent Peruvian Foreign Minister Director, delivery of its Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine to Bolivia foretell about the Elizabeth Astete was among AMLA Consulting LLC future of relations between those two countries? the officials who resigned after Jaana Remes secretly receiving early doses of Partner, McKinsey Global Institute Chinese company Sinopharm’s Ernesto Revilla Erika Brockmann Quiroga, former member of Bolivia’s Covid-19 vaccine. Head of Latin American Senate: “Arce has pursued a set of wide-ranging measures Page 2 Economics, Citi Gustavo Roosen that do not mark a clear path to structurally address multiple Chairman of the Board, and simultaneous crises that the country is facing. He Envases Venezolanos A Andrés Rozental persists in the narrative that he must rebuild the country and recover President, Rozental & democracy after 11 months of disastrous management by a government Asociados of ‘coup plotters.’ This rhetoric closes the path to reconciliation and Shelly Shetty Managing Director, Sovereigns ignores the government’s red ink—its fiscal deficit and the reduction of Fitch Ratings reserves—which date from 2014. Arce has the challenge of governing in adverse conditions, different from the previous boom cycle. For now, the government’s actions highly depend on the political motives defined by the Evo Morales-led MAS, with a view toward departmental, provincial and local elections this March. Arce needs to cast his presidential leadership in a party that is backed by a complex and contradictory network of Astete // File Photo: Peruvian Government. Continued on page 3 COPYRIGHT © 2021, INTER-AMERICAN DIALOGUE PAGE 1 LATIN AMERICA ADVISOR Tuesday, February 16, 2021 POLITICAL NEWS reported. President Francisco Sagasti said he NEWS BRIEFS had accepted Astete’s resignation and that an U.N. Rapporteur Calls investigation had been launched to determine Former Argentine which other public officials had been vaccinat- President Carlos on Countries to Lift ed outside the country’s regular vaccination program. Peruvians should feel “outraged and Menem Dies at 90 Venezuela Sanctions angry about this situation that jeopardizes the Former Argentine President Carlos Menem died enormous effort of many Peruvians working on Sunday at age 90 in Buenos Aires, The New Sanctions that the United States, the Europe- the front line against Covid,” Sagasti told the lo- York Times reported. Menem led Argentina an Union and other countries have imposed cal América television channel, the Associated through an economic recovery and was in on Venezuela have been “devastating” to Press reported. On Friday, Health Minister Pilar office from 1989 to 1999. He reinstated ties the South American country, United Nations Mazzetti resigned after lawmakers accused her with the United States and Britain and was later Rapporteur Alena Douhan said Friday. “The of concealing information about the situation, convicted of corruption and accused of cover- devastating effect of sanctions imposed is and Deputy Health Minister Luis Suárez Ognio ing up evidence in a deadly anti-Semitic attack. multiplied by extra-territoriality and over-com- also stepped down amid reports that he was Menem had been hospitalized in December due pliance adversely affecting public and private vaccinated before health care workers, CNN to kidney failure and had been put into a med- sectors, Venezuela citizens, non-governmental reported. The scandal came to light last Thurs- ically induced coma, according to the Buenos organizations, third country nationals and com- day when former President Martín Vizcarra, Aires Times. panies,” Douhan said in a statement, in which who was ousted on Nov. 9 over corruption she called for sanctions to be dropped. The allegations, confirmed a newspaper report that sanctions “have sparked economic, human- he and his wife had secretly received doses of itarian and development crises, devastating Sinopharm’s Covid-19 vaccine in October, the Ecuador to Conduct the entire population, especially those living AP reported. Vizcarra said he and his wife were Recount of Close Election in extreme poverty, women, medical workers, vaccinated as part of a public trial, but Cayeta- Ecuador’s election authority announced Friday individuals with life-threatening diseases and no Heredia University, which conducted the tri- that it would conduct a recount of the Feb. 7 indigenous peoples,” the United Nations said als, denied they were volunteers. The country’s presidential election in most of the country, Re- following a two-week visit to Venezuela by Dou- new health minister, Óscar Ugarte, said Sunday uters reported. Leftist Andrés Arauz emerged han. She added that “humanitarian exemptions that Sagasti had ordered the resignations of from the first round as the top vote-getter, but are lengthy, costly, ineffective and inefficient.” all officials who secretly received the Chinese it is still unclear who will face him in the runoff During her visit to Venezuela, Douhan said company’s vaccine, the AP reported. as fewer than four-tenths of a percentage point she sought to meet with “the widest range of separate conservative Guillermo Lasso and people” in order to hear their insights and learn Indigenous leader Yaku Pérez for second place. about their experiences. She met with govern- ECONOMIC NEWS ment officials, opposition leaders, members of nongovernmental organizations, victims of human rights violations, “as well as ordinary Argentine VP Seeking Mitsubishi Materials people,” Douhan said. Douhan is planning to to Delay $44 Bn IMF Acquires 30% Stake in issue a full report on her mission in September. Debt Deal: Report Chilean Copper Mine Japanese manufacturer Mitsubishi Materials said on Friday that it had acquired a 30 percent Peru’s Foreign Argentine Vice President Cristina Fernández stake in Chile’s Mantoverde copper mine from de Kirchner and her allies within the adminis- Minister Quits Over Mantos Copper for $275 million, as demand for tration reportedly want to delay a $44 billion the metal rises amid a shift toward a low-car- Early Vaccination debt deal with the International Monetary Fund bon economy, Reuters reported. Mitsubishi until the worst of the pandemic has passed, Materials, Japan’s third-largest copper smelter, Peruvian Foreign Minister Elizabeth Astete the Financial Times reported, citing unnamed also said $520 million in project finance had resigned Sunday night amid a scandal in officials. The move would avoid sharp spending been completed. The Chilean miner said in a which she and other high-ranking govern- cuts ahead of midterm elections in October. separate statement that the deal was the big- ment officials secretly received doses of The government had already postponed a new gest project finance completion in the Andean Sinopharm’s Covid-19 vaccine even before agreement until May, according to Finance nation’s mining sector since the beginning of heath care workers received the shots, CNN Minister Martín Guzmán, who had initially said the Covid-19 pandemic. COPYRIGHT © 2021, INTER-AMERICAN DIALOGUE PAGE 2 LATIN AMERICA ADVISOR Tuesday, February 16, 2021 the deal would be reached in March. However, FEATURED Q&A / Continued from page 1 powerful voices within the left-wing Peronist government of President Alberto Fernández corporate organizations.