LATIN AMERICA ADVISOR a DAILY PUBLICATION of the DIALOGUE Wednesday, November 11, 2020
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LATIN AMERICA ADVISOR A DAILY PUBLICATION OF THE DIALOGUE www.thedialogue.org Wednesday, November 11, 2020 BOARD OF ADVISORS FEATURED Q&A TODAY’S NEWS Diego Arria Director, Columbus Group POLITICAL Devry Boughner Vorwerk How Well Is Brazil’s Police Open CEO, DevryBV Sustainable Strategies Fire on Femicide Joyce Chang Global Head of Research, Military Fighting Protesters at JPMorgan Chase & Co. Cancún City Hall Paula Cifuentes Director of Economic & Fiscal Affairs, Deforestation? Mexican police officers opened Latin America & Canada, fire on protesters who tried to Philip Morris International forcefully enter Cancún’s city Marlene Fernández hall during a protest against Corporate Vice President for femicides. Four journalists were Government Relations, Arcos Dorados (McDonald’s) wounded. Page 2 Peter Hakim President Emeritus, Inter-American Dialogue BUSINESS Donna Hrinak Senior VP, Corporate Affairs, Royal Caribbean Group Cargill Announces Jon E. Huenemann Sale of Operation Former Corporate and Government Senior Executive in Venezuela Brazil’s government has been using the country’s military to fight deforestation. Defense Minis- James R. Jones U.S.-based food conglomerate ter Fernando Azevedo (second from right) is pictured last month at the site of an illegal logging Chairman, operation. // Photo: Brazilian Defense Ministry. Cargill said it has agreed to sell Monarch Global Strategies its unit in Venezuela. Financial Craig A. Kelly Brazilian Vice President Hamilton Mourão said Oct. 26 details were not disclosed. Senior Director, Americas Page 3 Int’l Gov’t Relations, Exxon Mobil that the government will extend through April the military’s John Maisto deployment to fight deforestation in the Amazon. President Director, U.S. Education POLITICAL Finance Group Q Jair Bolsonaro ordered the deployment last May, repeating Nicolás Mariscal a similar action from last year when fires spiked in the rain forest. How Peru Inaugurates Chairman, Grupo Marhnos effective has Brazil’s military been at fighting Amazon deforestation? New President Thomas F. McLarty III To what extent has Brazil’s use of technology, such as satellites, aided After Ouster Chairman, McLarty Associates the military’s efforts in the Amazon? Can new technologies play a bigger of Vizcarra Beatrice Rangel role in combating environmental degradation and illicit activity in Brazil, Manuel Merino, who had been Director, and should multilateral institutions help in financing such efforts? serving as the head of Peru’s AMLA Consulting LLC Congress, was sworn in as the Jaana Remes country’s new president, following Partner, McKinsey Global Institute Anya Prusa, senior associate at the Brazil Institute and Slat- the abrupt ouster of President Ernesto Revilla er Family Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center Martín Vizcarra. Head of Latin American for Scholars: “Deforestation will persist in the Amazon as Page 2 Economics, Citi Gustavo Roosen long as the economic framework incentivizes deforestation: Chairman of the Board, A cleared land is worth more than forested land; clearing new land is cheap- Envases Venezolanos Andrés Rozental er than improving the poor soils of already-cleared land; and the chances President, Rozental & of getting caught and fined—or going to jail—for land-grabbing and illicit Asociados deforestation are increasingly low. Technology can play a substantial Shelly Shetty Managing Director, Sovereigns role in changing this economic calculus, from better monitoring and Fitch Ratings enforcement to the development of new economic markets that promote sustainable activities in the Amazon region. The agencies traditionally tasked with combating deforestation in Brazil, including IBAMA, ICM- Bio and the National Institute for Space Research (INPE), have long been recognized as global leaders in the technical expertise to combat deforestation. However, budget cuts and understaffing, as well as the Merino // Photo: Peruvian Gov- ernment. Continued on page 3 COPYRIGHT © 2020, INTER-AMERICAN DIALOGUE PAGE 1 LATIN AMERICA ADVISOR Wednesday, November 11, 2020 POLITICAL NEWS under pressure amid corruption allegations. NEWS BRIEFS In ousting Vizcarra, Congress declared him Peru Swears in New morally unfit to be president, and lawmakers Belizeans Head to Polls said he handled the Covid-19 pandemic poorly. Today to Select New Gov’t President a Day After Vizcarra was also accused of taking more than $630,000 in bribes in exchange for construc- Belizeans will head to the polls today to Vizcarra’s Ouster tion contracts when he was the governor of the elect a new government, as the ruling United small Moquegua department in southern Peru. Democratic Party, led by Patrick Faber as its Manuel Merino, who had been serving as the Vizcarra has denied wrongdoing but quickly candidate for prime minister, seeks an unprec- head of Peru’s Congress, was sworn in Tuesday agreed to leave after Congress voted to remove edented fourth consecutive term in office, the as the country’s new president, a day after him from office. “History and the Peruvian Associated Press reported. Longtime Prime lawmakers swiftly and overwhelmingly ousted people will judge the decisions made,” he said Minister Dean Barrow is retiring from electoral his predecessor, Martín Vizcarra, El Comercio Monday. politics. Faber is facing John Briceño of the reported. “This is a difficult moment for the main opposition People’s United Party. Beliz- country,” said Merino, who placed his hand on a eans will vote to fill 31 seats in the House of Bible and donned the red and white presidential Police Open Fire on Representatives. sash along with a face mask, the Associated Femicide Protesters Press reported. “Today, the country does not look at the future with hope, but with worry.” in Cancún, Four Hurt Puerto Rico’s Elections Merino vowed to proceed with the country’s Commission Finds 100 presidential election, scheduled for next April, Mexican police late Monday opened fire on protesters who tried to forcefully enter the city Briefcases With Ballots hall in Cancún during a demonstration against Puerto Rico’s elections commission said Today, the country the high levels of femicide in the country, Tuesday that it had found more than 100 does not look at the The Guardian reported. Four journalists were briefcases with uncounted ballots from the future with hope, injured, including two who suffered bullet Nov. 3 general election in the U.S. territory, the but with worry.” wounds. Police reportedly detained eight pro- Associated Press reported. Elections com- — Manuel Merino testers. Approximately 10 women are murdered mission president Francisco Rosado said the in Mexico daily, sparking outrage within an briefcases were in a secured vault, blaming the increasingly visible feminist movement that situation on what he said was an underfunded and also work to improve the economy, fight has organized several widespread protests this and understaffed administrative board that crime and improve health care to help Peru be- year. The demonstration in Cancún occurred was in charge of counting record numbers of come better prepared for another wave of coro- after the body of a 20-year-old woman, Bianca absentee and early votes. “Every vote will be navirus infections. ‘We can’t divide the country,” “Alexis” Lorenzana, was discovered in Quintana counted,” Rosado added. he said. However, in Lima and other cities, Roo state on Mexico’s Caribbean coast, The divisions were clear. Hundreds of anti-Merino Guardian reported. President Andrés Manuel protesters gathered outside Congress, banging López Obrador has sparked anger for what pots and pans as the new president was inau- critics see as a downplaying of gender issues. Event That Halted Brazil gurated, the AP reported. Protesters and police Following a protest in Mexico City in February Sinovac Trial Unrelated clashed in Lima and other locations, with some during which masked women sprayed the to Vaccine: Institute carrying signs reading, “Merino isn’t my pres- walls of the national palace with graffiti and The “serious adverse event” that led Brazilian ident,” The Wall Street Journal reported. Daily blood-red paint, the president suggested that health authorities to halt clinical trials of the newspaper La República called Vizcarra’s oust- his conservative opponents were behind the potential Covid-19 vaccine of China’s Sinovac er a coup, and many analysts and residents demonstrations and blamed the media for had no relation to the vaccine itself, the direc- agreed. “It’s a coup d’état,” taxi driver Paul “manipulating” the issue. He has also said tor of Brazil’s Butantan biomedical institute Mendoza told the AP. “Now we’re going to have most emergency calls denouncing domestic said Tuesday, CNN reported. Sinovac began inflation, a recession, and we won’t be able to violence in the country, which reached 26,000 Phase 3 clinical trials with the institute in get ahead because of the pandemic.” Merino is in March, were mostly “false,” though he did late July. The government of São Paulo state, Peru’s third president in less than three years. not provide proof. [Editor’s note: See Q&A on where the trial is being carried out, said a trial In March 2018, Vizcarra took over from his pre- femicides in Mexico in the Feb. 27 issue of the volunteer had died and that the death had been decessor, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, who resigned Latin America Advisor.] registered as a suicide, Reuters reported. COPYRIGHT © 2020, INTER-AMERICAN DIALOGUE PAGE 2 LATIN AMERICA ADVISOR Wednesday, November 11, 2020 BUSINESS NEWS FEATURED Q&A / Continued from page 1 decision to transfer authority for combating The numbers do not lie. In fact, they prove U.S.-Based Cargill deforestation and fires in the Amazon to the the tragic failure of military-led environmen- Announces Sale of military, have left much of this expertise on tal enforcement, touted by Bolsonaro as a the table. INPE’s world-class satellite images means to combat Amazon deforestation. Venezuela Operation and data, for example, are no longer being Brazilian civilian space agency INPE’s use of used to target violators and enforce environ- satellite technology and scientific analysis U.S.-based food conglomerate Cargill on mental regulations.