Leaders from around the world gathered in New York City this week for the 80th annual UN General Assembly. Progressive Latin American governments took advantage of the opportunity to condemn the Trump administration for escalating tensions in the region. Across a series of panels within and outside of the UN, the region’s leaders also denounced the crumbling of the international order and strategized together about how to move forward.
As is tradition, Brazil delivered the first speech, followed directly by the United States. Brazilian President Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva delivered a scathing address in which he defended multilateralism, called for greater action to protect the climate, and celebrated the recent conviction of former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro as a model of accountability. Lula’s celebration of Bolsonaro’s trial was just one of many indirect attacks against the Trump administration, which had interfered in the process by levying tariffs on Brazil and sanctioning several figures involved in the case. Lula decried the conflation of crime and terrorism—a key justification for recent U.S. strikes in the southern Caribbean—and warned that the international order was being marked by “repeated concessions to power play, attacks on sovereignty, arbitrary sanctions, and unilateral interventions.”
Trump, characteristically inconsistent, struck a surprisingly softer tone in his own speech that followed. While he defended tariffs and criticized Brazil’s “censorship” in a rambling, nearly hour-long speech, he also said that he and Lula had “excellent chemistry” in a brief backstage encounter. Trump added that he had offered to meet face-to-face with Lula next week and that “he seemed like a very nice man.” During the rest of his remarks, however, Trump doubled down on the policies that have so incensed regional leaders, including a brutal crackdown on migration, the designation of drug cartels as terrorist organization, and recent strikes on boats in the Caribbean.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro singled out those strikes, going further than any other leader in his criticism of Trump by calling for the U.S. president to face “criminal proceedings for strikes” that killed unarmed “poor young people.” Petro decried the U.S. “War on Drugs” writ large, lamenting Colombia’s recent decertification and calling the policy a “tool to dominate the people” of the Global South—a charge echoed by Bolivian President Luis Arce. During Petro’s speech, the U.S. delegation walked outof the auditorium.
As many have for more than two years, the region’s leaders also singled out the war in Gaza as the central contradiction of the crumbling global order. Peruvian President Dina Boluarte, Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo, and Uruguayan President Yamandu Orsi joined the usual critics—Lula, Arce, Petro, and Chilean President Gabriel Boric—in condemning Israel’s violence in Gaza. Boric went the furthest, comparing the genocide directly to the Holocaust and calling for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to be brought before an international court. Mexico’s government, too, focused on Gaza in its intervention by the foreign minister, using the word “genocide” publicly for the first time.
Impunity in Gaza was presented as just one facet of the wider global democratic crisis that progressive leaders identified as a mounting threat. In a meeting dedicated to the “defense of democracy” co-organized by Chile, Brazil, and Spain—whose left-wing prime minister Pedro Sánchez has drawn much closer to the region—Orsi, Arce, Arévalo, Lula, Boric, Petro, and Sánchez all stressed the need to strengthen democratic institutions, defeat extremism, and combat inequality. In a marked departure from last year’s democracy roundtable, the United States was not invited.
Given the long history of U.S.-backed authoritarian regimes, participants underscored democracy’s immense fragility, but also Latin America’s tradition of struggle as a source of inspiration. At an event organized by the Panamerican Congress, leaders such as Sánchez, Boric, and Orsi celebrated the late Pepe Mújica as a guiding figure. His journey from political prisoner to head of state, his humility, and his willingness to critique the left’s own shortcomings offer a model for defending and deepening democracy. As Abigail Kret noted in her article for NACLA, Mujica’s life shows that any project pointing us “toward a future beyond free-market dogma and toward a reinvigorated democracy” requires “creativity, experimentation, and an unwavering focus on the everyday needs of ordinary people.” (Read more NACLA’s coverage of the event here).
Haley Cohen Gilliland’s book powerfully tells the story of the Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo, an organization whose challenge to Argentina’s dictatorship is as relevant now as ever before.
A collective of descendants of former political prisoners weighs in on the historic ruling and the ongoing struggle for truth, justice, and accountability.
In the height of hurricane season, U.S. military operations in Puerto Rico worsen environmental racism. Meanwhile, communities fight for rooftop solar access for all.
IMAGE OF THE WEEK
Chilean President Gabriel Boric, Uruguayan President Yamandú Orsi, and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez gathered alongside other activists to honor the legacy of Pepe Mujica. Read Abigail Kret's piece on the event here. (Santiago Méndez)
AROUND THE REGION
PARO NACIONAL IN ECUADOR—An indefinite national strike began in Ecuador Monday following a callfrom the powerful Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE). The immediate triggerwas the decision by right-wing President Daniel Noboa to cut fuel subsidies, but protesters also rallied against environmental destruction, a deepening security crisis, skyrocketing costs of living, and the state’s authoritarian turn. Protesters set up roadblocks, occupied city plazas, and forced school closures nationwide. Noboa’s government has responded with a harsh crackdown, including nearly 100 arrests, widespread police violence, and rhetoric smearing protesters as members of the criminal group “Tren de Aragua.” Noboa vowed to hold firm on the fuel subsidy cuts, declaring that he would rather “die than take a step back.” Meanwhile, Noboa scored a political victory on Wednesday when the Constitutional Court—an entity he has attacked incessantly—approved his plan to call a referendum on convening a constituent assembly to draft a new constitution. That question will likely be added to a scheduled November referendum, which already includes questions on foreign military presence and state financing of political parties, both pillars of Noboa’s agenda.
HAITI’S VIOLENCE—More than 10 people, including eight children, were killed Saturday when Haiti’s National Police targeted a gathering of gang leaders with two “kamikaze” drones. It was the second incident this month in which civilians were killed by drones, whose deployment followed the government’s enlistment of Erik Prince, founder of the private military firm Blackwater. Haiti’s spiraling violence has killed thousands of people and driven more than a million Haitians from the country. The crisis was the subject of debate at this week’s UN General Assembly. While there is broad support for the formation of a new international security mission to supplement the current Kenyan-led force of fewer than 1,000 personnel, progress has stalled. Many fear that the funding sources and leadership structure proposed by the United States would merely replicate the failures of the previous mission. A top U.S. official warned on Wednesday that continued funding for the current mission—underfunded,understaffed, and set to expire on October 2—would not be guaranteed without Security Council approval of Washington’s desired changes.
TENSIONS WITH VENEZUELA—Relations between Venezuela and the United States continue to deteriorate. On Saturday, a day after announcing a third strike on an alleged “drug boat” in the southern Caribbean, Trump lashed out on social media, accusing Venezuela’s “leadership” of “forcing” migrants into the United States. He described them as “monsters” and threatened an “incalculable price” if the government did not take back the “prisoners” and “people from mental health institutions” it had allegedly sent to the United States. On Monday, the administration doubled down, rejecting overtures for face-to-face diplomacy made by President Nicolás Maduro and reiterating that his government is “illegitimate.” In response to U.S. threats, including the deployment of eight warships and a submarine to combat alleged drug trafficking, Maduro has been preparing his country for war. His government has held a series of massive military exercises on the Caribbean island of La Orchila, begun training civilians in military techniques, and considered declaring a national state of emergency. Meanwhile, prominent Venezuelan opposition figures championed the U.S. military buildup, arguing that it was necessary to “dismantle the criminal structure” they accuse Maduro of leading.
U.S. SUPPORT TO ARGENTINA—The Trump administration pledged critical backing this week for Argentina’s struggling economy, declaring that “all options” are on the table to stabilize the markets of a key right-wing ally. The reassurance came after a tumultuous week in which Argentina’s central bank spent more than $1 billion of its rapidly dwindling foreign reserve to back the peso, a move that sent markets into “panic mode.” Washington’s commitment quickly buoyed investor confidence. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Monday that the administration was considering three avenues of aid: a currency swap between central banks, the purchase of Argentine pesos with U.S. dollars, or the acquisition of Argentine debt—each framed as support for a “systematically important ally.” In a meeting with President Javier Milei on Tuesday, Trump reiterated U.S. support but downplayed talk of a bailout, likely to reassure his “America First” MAGA base. The blatant political motives behind U.S. support for Argentina drew sharp criticism from lawmakers like Senator Elizabeth Warren, who blastedthe idea of bailing out a “foreign government’s financial markets” at a time when “Americans are struggling to afford groceries, rent, credit card bills, and other debt payments.” Heavily indebted to the IMF, Argentina has shown signs of slipping into recession, undermining Milie’s narrative of a “libertarian paradise.”
