LATIN AMERICA ADVISOR A DAILY PUBLICATION OF THE DIALOGUE www.thedialogue.org Friday, January 29, 2021 BOARD OF ADVISORS FEATURED Q&A TODAY’S NEWS Diego Arria Director, Columbus Group POLITICAL Devry Boughner Vorwerk Will U.S.-Mexico Colombia Tribunal Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, Grubhub Accuses Eight Joyce Chang Global Head of Research, Relations Become Ex-FARC Leaders JPMorgan Chase & Co. A special tribunal in Colombia ac- Paula Cifuentes cused eight former commanders Director of Economic & Fiscal Affairs, More Strained? of the disbanded Revolutionary Latin America & Canada, Philip Morris International Armed Forces of Colombia with Marlene Fernández war crimes stemming from the Corporate Vice President for country’s decades-long armed Government Relations, conflict. Arcos Dorados (McDonald’s) Page 2 Peter Hakim President Emeritus, Inter-American Dialogue BUSINESS Donna Hrinak Senior VP, Corporate Affairs, Brazil’s Nubank Royal Caribbean Group Raises $400 Mn Jon E. Huenemann Former Corporate and in Funding Round Government Senior Executive Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and new U.S. President Joe Biden are Brazilian digital bank Nubank’s James R. Jones navigating bilateral relations that have been strained recently. // File Photos: Mexican and U.S. Chairman, latest funding round gives the Monarch Global Strategies governments. company a valuation of $25 billion. Craig A. Kelly In recent weeks, Mexico’s government has delivered jabs to Senior Director, Americas Page 2 Int’l Gov’t Relations, Exxon Mobil the United States—saying it would offer asylum to WikiLeaks John Maisto founder Julian Assange and also threatening to take to Director, U.S. Education POLITICAL Finance Group Q international courts a dispute over former Mexican Defense Ecuador’s Moreno Nicolás Mariscal Secretary Gen. Salvador Cienfuegos, against whom Mexico accuses Chairman, Meets With Grupo Marhnos the United States of fabricating a drug trafficking case. What does the Thomas F. McLarty III future hold for Mexico-U.S. relations under Mexican President Andrés Officials During Chairman, Washington Trip McLarty Associates Manuel López Obrador and new U.S. President Joe Biden? How much Beatrice Rangel damage has the Cienfuegos case done to the security relationship Ecuadorean President Lenín Director, between the two countries, and to what extent will organized crime Moreno met with top members of AMLA Consulting LLC the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Jaana Remes benefit? What parts of the bilateral relationship pose the most difficulty Committee on Thursday, the Partner, for Biden, and how should he seek to work with López Obrador? fourth day of his visit to Wash- McKinsey Global Institute ington. Ernesto Revilla Page 2 Head of Latin American Arturo Sarukhan, board member of the Inter-American Dia- Economics, Citi Gustavo Roosen logue and former Mexican ambassador to the United States: Chairman of the Board, “The Cienfuegos case is not the disease; it’s a symptom. Envases Venezolanos Andrés Rozental It’s the end result of the slow unraveling in both capitals of President, Rozental & A holistic bilateral security cooperation under the aegis of the Mérida Initia- Asociados tive. It commenced with Peña Nieto, accelerated with Trump’s disregard Shelly Shetty Managing Director, Sovereigns for interagency coordination in Washington and his political pimping of Fitch Ratings Mexico, and then deepened when López Obrador assumed office. Mutual trust, which took decades to build after the low point in the 1980s and 1990s, may have now been irredeemably shattered in the medium term. It will not be easy to repair, despite attempts by the Biden administration to reset bilateral relations that have been structurally damaged these past four years. The Mérida Initiative was much more than just about Moreno // File Photo: Ecuadorean Government. Continued on page 3 COPYRIGHT © 2021, INTER-AMERICAN DIALOGUE PAGE 1 LATIN AMERICA ADVISOR Friday, January 29, 2021 POLITICAL NEWS burned remains were found in northern Mexico, NEWS BRIEFS Reuters reported. Bishop José Torres, the Colombia Tribunal Mexican Catholic Church’s spokesman for Biden Administration Will migration, said the government must guarantee Review U.S. Policy Toward Accuses Eight Ex- the rights of migrants in Mexico and establish policies that are humane, according to the Cuba: White House FARC Commanders letter, seen by Reuters. “In the name of the The administration of President Joe Biden highest values of humanity, we ask the federal will review U.S. policy toward Cuba, White Colombia’s Special Jurisdiction for Peace, government for an exhaustive investigation,” House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters the tribunal set up to process atrocities he said. Mexican authorities discovered the Thursday, Reuters reported. Psaki said Biden’s that occurred during the country’s armed bodies in the state of Tamaulipas. Guatema- policy will aim to support democracy and conflict, on Thursday accused eight former lan families believe relatives migrating to the human rights in Cuba, as well as the interests commanders of the disbanded Revolutionary United States were among the victims. of Cuban Americans. Former President Donald Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, of war Trump had toughened sanctions and restric- crimes, The Wall Street Journal reported. Ecuador’s Moreno tions on Havana. Earlier this month, Trump The tribunal’s move stems from the former returned Cuba to the U.S. list of state sponsors rebels’ practice of kidnapping people during Meets With Officials of terrorism. [Editor’s note: See related Q&A in Colombia’s decades-long armed conflict. The the Jan. 22 issue of the Advisor.] eight people accused belonged to the FARC’s in Washington secretariat, its top decision-making body, Agence France-Presse reported. They include Ecuadorean President Lenín Moreno met with Peru Expecting 10% Rodrigo Londoño, who is currently the head members of the U.S. Congress on Thursday, the of the Common People’s Party, the political fourth day of his visit to Washington, El Univer- Growth This Year party that the FARC transformed into after the so reported. Moreno met with Sen. Robert Me- Peru’s government expects its economy to country’s 2016 peace accord with the rebels. nendez (D-N.J.), the incoming chairman of the grow by around 10 percent this year, state news Also among those charged are Pablo Catatum- Senate Foreign Relations Committee and other agency Andina reported Thursday. Economy bo and Julian Gallo—two of the former rebels legislators including the committee’s chairman, and Finance Minister Waldo Mendoza said he who now occupy unelected seats in Colombia’s Jim Risch (R-Idaho), to discuss economic rela- expects a slight downturn in economic growth Congress. The peace accord allocated 10 seats tions, security and development, according to a in February due to public health measures in Congress for a decade to the former rebels. statement from Menendez’s office. During his related to the Covid-19 pandemic, but that the One of the former rebels on the list is former visit to Washington, Moreno has also met with rollout of vaccines will lead to a more robust FARC high command leader Ermilo Cabrera, Inter-American Development Bank President recovery. “The vaccine not only leads to an who died on Wednesday. “Depriving people Mauricio Claver-Carone, International Monetary improvement in public health, but also in the of their liberty and placing conditions on their Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva economic situation,” he said. release is a war crime, specifically the taking and Juan González, the senior director for of hostages,” said tribunal Judge Julieta Lemai- the Western Hemisphere at the U.S. National tre. If the former rebels accept the charges, Security Council, El Universo reported. Moreno they face restrictions on their freedoms for also discussed the defense of democracy Brazil’s Nubank Raises between five and eight years, Reuters reported. and human rights as well as the fight against $400 Million in Funding If they reject the charges, they could face up to poverty and other topics with Organization Round, Valued at $25 Bn 20 years in prison. of American States Secretary General Luis Brazilian digital bank Nubank has raised $400 Almagro. The Ecuadorean president’s visit to million in a Series G funding round, giving the Washington came two weeks after the U.S. company a valuation of $25 billion, Finextra Mexican Bishop Calls International Development Finance Corpora- reported Thursday. The latest funding round tion, or DFC, struck a deal with the Ecuadorean for Probe Into Deaths was led by GIC, Whale Rock and Invesco, government that will help the South American while Sequoia, Tencent, Dragoneer and Ribbit of 19 Found Burned nation repay billions of dollars in loans to participated. The round brought Nubank’s total China and also increase development in ex- funding to $1.2 billion in seven years. Since A prominent Catholic bishop in Mexico called change for excluding China-based companies its Series F funding round, which raised $400 Thursday on the country’s government to fully from its telecommunications networks, the million in July 2019, the company has grown its investigate the deaths of 19 people whose Financial Times reported earlier this month. customer base from 12 million to 34 million. COPYRIGHT © 2021, INTER-AMERICAN DIALOGUE PAGE 2 LATIN AMERICA ADVISOR Friday, January 29, 2021 Adam Boehler, the head of the DFC at the time, FEATURED Q&A / Continued from page 1 signed the deal with Moreno’s government on Jan. 14, just days before Donald Trump left ‘drugs and thugs.’ It was about processes, reinforce cooperation. Until recently, howev- office as president of the United States. “It is interagency coordination on either side of er, President López Obrador (AMLO) was not a novel approach that very strongly combines the border and a whole-of-government ap- welcoming. He also placed a serious legal both missions of the DFC. The first is that we proach to bilateral collaboration by the two wrench in Mexico-U.S.