LATIN AMERICA ADVISOR A DAILY PUBLICATION OF THE DIALOGUE www.thedialogue.org Tuesday, December 8, 2020 BOARD OF ADVISORS FEATURED Q&A TODAY’S NEWS Diego Arria Director, Columbus Group ECONOMIC Devry Boughner Vorwerk Where Has Sunday’s Mexico’s President CEO, DevryBV Sustainable Strategies Names Clouthier Joyce Chang Global Head of Research, Legislative Election Economy Minister JPMorgan Chase & Co. Mexican President Andrés Manuel Paula Cifuentes López Obrador has named Tatiana Director of Economic & Fiscal Affairs, Left Venezuela? Clouthier, his former campaign Latin America & Canada, Philip Morris International manager, as his new economy Marlene Fernández minister. A former legislator, Corporate Vice President for Clouthier replaces Graciela Government Relations, Márquez. Arcos Dorados (McDonald’s) Page 2 Peter Hakim President Emeritus, Inter-American Dialogue BUSINESS Donna Hrinak Senior VP, Corporate Affairs, Brazil’s GOL Royal Caribbean Group Returning Boeing Jon E. Huenemann Former Corporate and 737 Max to Service Government Senior Executive Brazilian airline GOL said it will James R. Jones In an election marked by low turnout and widespread claims of fraud, allies of Venezuelan Chairman, President Nicolás Maduro, pictured voting on Sunday, won control of the National Assembly. // return the Boeing 737 Max to Monarch Global Strategies Photo: Venezuelan Government. service on Wednesday. GOL be- comes the first airline in the world Craig A. Kelly Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro claimed a sweeping Senior Director, Americas to return the aircraft to service Int’l Gov’t Relations, Exxon Mobil victory as his party won control of the National Assembly on after it was grounded nearly two John Maisto Sunday in a vote that the opposition has alleged was rigged years ago. Director, U.S. Education Page 3 Finance Group Q in favor of Maduro and his allies and in which the Juan Nicolás Mariscal Guaidó-led faction of the opposition refused to participate. How will Chairman, POLITICAL Grupo Marhnos the election affect Maduro’s hold on power and Venezuela’s opposition? Thomas F. McLarty III Will the international community maintain its support for Guaidó? How U.S. Extends TPS Chairman, McLarty Associates divided is the opposition, and what implications does the split have for Designation Beatrice Rangel its efforts to oust Maduro? for Hondurans Director, AMLA Consulting LLC The United States has extended Temporary Protected Status for Jaana Remes Vanessa Neumann, former Juan Guaidó-appointed Venezu- Partner, Hondurans, the Central American McKinsey Global Institute elan ambassador to the United Kingdom: “The parliamentary nation’s president, Juan Orlando Ernesto Revilla elections that Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro held on Hernández, announced. Head of Latin American Sunday were not just a fraud, but a farce. The Maduro regime Page 2 Economics, Citi A Gustavo Roosen is illegitimate because of its previous electoral fraud in 2018. Since the Chairman of the Board, regime is illegitimate, everything it does is illegitimate. Besides being ille- Envases Venezolanos Andrés Rozental gitimate de jure, it was illegitimate de facto. Despite a plethora of threats President, Rozental & and inducements, the turnout was a risible 15 percent to 30 percent of the Asociados electorate, 30 percent being the dubious number alleged by the regime. Shelly Shetty Managing Director, Sovereigns The only international observers were acolytes of the Maduro dictator- Fitch Ratings ship, and, notably, one of the key actors in that mission was a former KGB special projects officer, Vladimir Churov. Last but not least, the very exercise committed crimes against humanity by using food as a weapon: Diosdado Cabello and others stated that those who did not participate would not eat. This is a crime against humanity, listed in the report by the U.N. fact-finding mission, the OAS and the International Criminal Court Hernández // File Photo: @DFCgov via Twitter. Continued on page 3 COPYRIGHT © 2020, INTER-AMERICAN DIALOGUE PAGE 1 LATIN AMERICA ADVISOR Tuesday, December 8, 2020 POLITICAL NEWS requested that TPS be granted for its citizens NEWS BRIEFS in the United States, Reuters reported. [Editor’s note: See related Q&A in the Dec. 1 issue of the Thousands Pay Tribute U.S. Extends TPS Advisor.] Designation for to Uruguay’s Vázquez Thousands of people lined the streets in Honduran Migrants ECONOMIC NEWS Montevideo to pay tribute to former Uruguayan President Tabaré Vázquez, who died Sunday The United States has extended Temporary at age 80 of lung cancer, BBC News reported. Protected Status for Hondurans in the wake of Mexico’s President Mourners clapped, waved flags and cried as powerful hurricanes that hit Central America Taps Clouthier as a hearse topped with flowers and carrying in recent weeks, Honduran President Juan Vázquez’s remains drove through the streets. Orlando Hernández said Monday, CNN report- Economy Minister Vázquez’s Broad Front coalition turned off all ed. Hernández requested during his trip to the lights in its headquarters, except the ones Washington last week that TPS, which allows Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Ob- in Vázquez’s office. Current President Luis migrants to remain in the United States for a rador on Monday nominated Tatiana Clouthier, Lacalle Pou announced three days of mourning period of time, be extended following the disas- his former campaign manager, as the country’s for Vázquez, who was president from 2005 to ters. “During our meeting with acting-Secretary new economy minister, the Associated Press 2010, and again from 2015 to last March. of the Department of Homeland Security [Chad reported. Clouthier, a former politician of the Wolf], they told us that the TPS, which was opposition National Action Party, replaces due to end in January, will be extended,” said Graciela Márquez, who is taking a position Trump Administration Hernández. A posting on the U.S. Citizenship on the board of Mexico’s National Statistics and Immigration Services website says TPS Restores DACA Program will be extended until Oct. 4, 2021 for people The administration of U.S. President Donald from Honduras, as well as from El Salvador, Trump said Monday that it has fully restored Haiti, Nicaragua, Nepal and Sudan. The status the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or applies to people already in the United States DACA, program, which protects hundreds of who would face extreme hardship if they were thousands of young people from deportation, forced to return to their home countries. The in accordance with a federal judge’s order, United States first granted TPS to Hondurans the Associated Press reported. However, the and Nicaraguans after Hurricane Mitch struck Department of Homeland Security said it “may Central America in 1998. Hurricanes Eta and seek relief from the order.” People until now Clouthier // File Photo: Mexican Government. Iota struck parts of Central America last have not been able to apply for protection un- month, leaving more than 200 people dead and Institute, the AP reported. Clouthier’s nomina- der the Obama-era program since Trump ended more than 100 missing. The storms caused tion is seen as an attempt by López Obrador to the initiative in September 2017. flooding and landslides and also destroyed maintain relations with the country’s business crops and infrastructure. “The economic community following the resignation last damage caused by both storms, and the blow week of the president’s chief of staff, Alfonso Mexican Challenger Bank from the pandemic, has caused the Honduran Romo. An entrepreneur, Romo will continue as economy to be greatly affected,” Honduran López Obrador’s liaison to business groups, the albo Raises $45 Million Foreign Minister Lisandro Rosales said Friday president said. Clouthier also has connections for Expansion in Mexico in a statement announcing that the country’s to northern Mexico and business groups there. Mexican challenger bank albo recently raised government had requested that the United Clouthier, the daughter of a late leader of the $45 million as it seeks to expand its network States extend TPS for Hondurans. “Recon- National Action Party, left the party in 2005 in the North American country, TechCrunch struction comes from a sustainable social and and won a seat in Mexico’s Congress in 2018 reported today. The bank has almost half a mil- economic rebuilding, and our compatriots here as a member of López Obrador’s Morena party. lion customers across Mexico and a network in the United States can [help] achieve that by Clouthier is also an advocate of renewable of 30,000 retail locations, and it is seeking to supporting their families in Honduras.” More energy, a policy area that López Obrador’s become “the premiere Internet-based finan- than 44,000 Hondurans currently residing in the critics say he has neglected, Reuters reported. cial services provider for Mexico’s large and United States are protected by TPS, the state- López Obrador has struggled to deliver on the growing middle class,” said albo founder Ángel ment said. Guatemala’s government has also 4 percent economic growth that he has sought Sahagún. COPYRIGHT © 2020, INTER-AMERICAN DIALOGUE PAGE 2 LATIN AMERICA ADVISOR Tuesday, December 8, 2020 to achieve. Even before the Covid-19 pandemic FEATURED Q&A / Continued from page 1 hit, Mexico fell into a recession last year. [Edi- tor’s note: See related Q&A in the Nov. 9 issue in The Hague. The international community im president of Venezuela and will remain in of the Advisor.] must not be fooled by Sunday’s farce, but it that position until free and fair presidential does bode badly: Maduro could be viewed elections are held. The opposition remains as stronger than ever, prompting some in united around the objective to secure free BUSINESS NEWS the opposition to either go to the side of and fair presidential and parliamentarian the dictatorship or try to replace Guaidó as elections. As expected in a broad coalition leader of the legitimate National Assembly of democratic forces, there are different Brazil’s GOL Airlines of 2015, whence his constitutional authority views on how to attain these objectives, but Returning Boeing 737 as interim president derives, come Jan.