| |  | | President Joe Biden informed Congress this week that he will lift the U.S. designation of Cuba as a State Sponsor of Terrorism (SSOT), as part of a deal facilitated by the Catholic Church to free political prisoners on the island. On Wednesday, the Cuban government announced it would release 553 prisoners who had been jailed for “diverse crimes.” The agreement also eases some economic pressures on Cuba, including lifting sanctions on companies run by the Cuban military and the suspension of a legal provision that had enabled Cuban Americans to sue the Cuban government for confiscated property. The Cuban government responded by saying that the United States was taking “steps in the right direction” but emphasized that “the economic war remains.” Cuba’s designation as a state sponsor of terrorism has been widely condemned by activists around the world. Trump reinstated the terrorist designation in January 2021 in the final days of his first term, after it had been reversed under the Obama administration. Biden then upheld Cuba’s inclusion on the SSOT list despite promises to review the policy. Six months into his term, Biden announced new sanctions against the island. This week’s deal lifts a huge burden off of the Cuban people. Cuba’s SSOT status produced a chilling effect in which banks and financial institutions were hesitant to engage with the island, created obstacles to delivering humanitarian aid, and prohibited U.S. universities from collaborating with Cuban writers, artists, academics, and journalists. As a result of these policies Cuba has lost a staggering 10 percent of its population in the last few years. The Cuban government responded to the move by thanking the international community for its solidarity and highlighting the need for further action to end the United State’s “genocidal and illegal policy of economic asphyxiation against Cuba.” The government specifically called out the ongoing targeting of Cuba’s fuel supplies, the “cruel and absurd” persecution of its international medical brigades, and restrictions on financial institutions and transactions. According to the Cuban government’s own calculations, the ongoing U.S. embargo cost upwards of $5 billion dollars in 2024 alone. The rising human and economic costs of the sanctions led the United Nations to, once again, vote overwhelmingly to condemn the blockade in October 2024. As part of the agreement, the Cuban government began the “gradual” release of hundreds of prisoners, news that was welcomed by the relatives of jailed protestors. The majority of those to be released took part in the July 2021 anti-government protests that resulted in the arrests of up to 1000 people. While the government responded to the protests with initial promises of reform, it subsequently passed a penal code that increased restrictions on basic freedoms and initiated a crackdown on Cuba’s “critical left” that labelled domestic protesters as “enemies of the revolution,” thus damaging the Cuban government’s remaining ties to the country’s grassroots social movements. The durability of this week’s deal was immediately cast into doubt. Just one day after the policy change, Republican Senator Marco Rubio, Trump’s pick for Secretary of State, said during his Senate Confirmation hearing that Cuba belongs on the SSOT list. Rubio is widely seen as having a smooth pass to confirmation, especially after drawing bipartisan support at his hearing. He was not the only one to cast doubt on the policy. Upon hearing of the policy change, Mauricio Claver-Carone, Trump’s envoy for Latin America and one of the initial architects of the initial SSOT policy, criticized the Biden administration’s love for “authoritarian anti-American regimes.” Trump’s pick for national security adviser, Congressman Mike Walz, made clear that “anything that they’re doing right now we can do back.” |
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| | | | NACLA is currently accepting proposals for our Fall 2025 issue on Green Capitalism in the lead-up to COP30 in Belém, Brazil in November. Send us your pitches by February 3, 2025. This issue of the NACLA Report is guest-edited by Sabrina Fernandes and Breno Bringel. Our goal is to help to equip activists and scholars in identifying false solutions in order to propose truly just transition approaches that fight the climate and ecological crises while improving socioeconomic justice and equity in the region. |
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| | | | | | | | |  | Inside the Mil Mundos bookstore in Bushwick, Brooklyn, a sign reads “Defund Cops, Defend Black Lives." Read more in Victoria Mortimer's article for NACLA. (Victoria Mortimer) |
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| | | - SHEINBAUM MARKS 100 DAYS — This week marked 100 days since the inauguration of of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum. An event to honor the occasion in Mexico City on Sunday reportedly drew upwards of 350,000 people. In her speech, Sheinbaum promised to build upon the achievements of her predecessor, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, denounced the “neoliberal model” of past governments, and argued that “racism, classism, and machismo” were quickly becoming “vestiges of the past.” Since taking office Sheinbaum has passed laws and constitutional amendments that, among other things, return the energy sector back to public control, allow for the direct election of federal judges, and bolster the welfare state through large investments in health-care, child care, education, and social housing. A recent poll by Enkoll shows that Sheinbaum enjoys an approval rating of nearly 80 percent, and 60 percent of those surveyed say the country has improved in the last three months. During her speech, Sheinbaum also launched an ambitious economic development program known as “Plan México” that seeks to make Mexico one of the world’s 10 largest economies.
- GRIDLOCK IN GUATEMALA — Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo delivered a congressional speech on Tuesday commemorating his first year in power. The progressive president has been locked in a “stand-off” with the country’s Attorney General Consuelo Porras for more than a year, and, in his speech, he accused segments of the judiciary of undermining his campaign against corruption. Large swaths of his governing agenda may rest on whether he successfully removes Porras from her post, something he has tried and failed to do multiple times even though she is internationally sanctioned for corruption. Arévalo and his political party Movimiento Semilla have been the subject of scores of legal attacks from prosecutors like Porras who have hidden behind their political immunity to stymie investigations into the deep links between Guatemalan elites and organized crime. In his speech, Arévalo also highlighted his government’s record of economic growth, a drop in homicide rates, and an expansion of the welfare state. Infrastructure projects, agricultural credit, access to secondary education, and a plan to support Guatemalans deported from the United States topped the list of priorities for the year moving forward.
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| - FALLOUT FROM MADURO’S INAUGURATION — After last week’s inauguration of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to a highly-contested third term, foreign pressure against the Venezuelan government has been mounting. In the past week, the governments of the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, and Canada all imposed new sanctions on the country’s leader and his allies. In his confirmation hearing for Secretary of State, Republican Senator Marco Rubio said that Venezuela was “governed by a narco-trafficking organization,” warned of Russian and Iranian influence in the country, and said that the sanctions waiver given to Chevron to operate in the country should be “re-explored.” In the New York Times, opinion columnist Bret Stephens called for the United States to “depose Maduro” through “force if necessary.” Stephens reflected positively on the disastrous 1989-90 U.S. invasion of Panama, seeing it as a possible model for U.S. policy towards Venezuela. Venezuelan opposition leader Edmundo González, who promised to return to Venezuela to take office in Maduro’s place, arrived in Guatemala on Tuesday. González is recognized by several countries—including the United States—as the winner of Venezuela’s presidential elections, but announced last week that the security conditions were not in place to allow his return to Venezuela.
- LEGAL SETBACKS IN PERU — A slate of decisions this week cast further doubt on the ability of the Peruvian legal system to hold the powerful accountable for their crimes. Early this week, a Peruvian judge threw out the money laundering trial of former presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori. The daughter of ex-president and massive human rights abuser Alberto Fujimori, Keiko Fujimori faced up to 30 years in prison for a plethora of charges linked to bribes she allegedly took from the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht during the 2011 and 2016 election cycles. The same day, a preventive detention order against Nicanor Boluarte, the brother of current president Dina Boluarte, was revoked by a Peruvian court. Boluarte was accused of leading a criminal organization that demanded illicit payments in exchange for strategic political appointments. He had been in hiding since a judge ordered his preventative detention in November of last year; Tuesday’s ruling renders him a free man. Finally, Peru’s Congress has responded to allegations of running a prostitution ring and credible accusations of rape against scores of lawmakers by banning its workers from wearing miniskirts.
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| | | North American Congress on Latin America
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