Original Source (Edited with Canva)
Hello, hivers. In today's report, we put the spotlight on Brazil, with a controversial bill that has the government there at loggerheads with giants such as Google and Youtube, and we review latest agreements on migration that, while being discussed between Mexico and the United States, have countries such as Cuba, Venezuela, Haiti, and Nicaragua as their main beneficiaries or stakeholders. So let me ride on the reporting task ya.
The controversy in Brazil over a law to tackle fake news
This country has for years been an important and often dissenting voice in the field of telecommunications and Internet service regulation in particular (in terms of governance, for example), as part of a much greater effort to establish itself as a major player —by its place in the world economy and therefore in international politics —in the debate on strategic issues such as the reform/democratization of the United Nations system. With Lula da Silva back in power, this is a much more aggressive bet —especially if the alliance with Mexico is strengthened—, and the battle with giants such as Google —a monopoly there in terms of search engines— finding a way for managing fake news is an excellent example of this.
The Alphabet subsidiary is one of the most outspoken opponents of an interesting Brazilian bill that puts the onus on instant messaging services, social networks, web search engines, and on-demand content application providers to find and report illicit content. The law would apply to all companies with more than 10 million registered users, leaving a framework of good practices for those that do not qualify. According to the legislative text —which I reviewed directly— the application of the law must observe, among others, the principles associated with the defense of the democratic rule of law, political pluralism, freedom of conscience and expression, and access to information.
On pain of being required and fined, legal entities subject to the law must permanently calibrate their mechanisms to analyse and evaluate the risks arising from the design of their services, and in any case they must understand and be able to mitigate the possibility of disseminating content that points to crimes against the democratic rule of law typified in 1940, acts of terrorism executed or attempted, incitement to suicide, crimes against children and adolescents or incitement to commit them, racist practices or violence against women, and non-compliance with health measures (as can be seen, the ruling party is trying to limit several of the dynamics that proliferated during Bolsonaro's mandate, certainly not healthy for democratic development, but also to try to curb a series of negative impacts that seem to be immanent in social networks in their relationship with children and adolescents, based on several regrettable events that have recently occurred in the country).
Instant messaging service providers would be obliged to discourage the mass forwarding of messages, disable by default the inclusion of users in groups and distribution lists or forwarding mechanisms, and block the use of external tools aimed at the mass routing of messages (obviously in an attempt to curb the phenomenon of "virality", that often only reproduces false or misleading news).
Signs of protest in favor of the bill (Credit: REUTERS/Ueslei Marcel via Twitter)
Two of the articles in the draft legislation that raise the most doubts are 31 and 32. In the case of the former, it provides that platforms must remunerate the copyright holders of the content they use, with the latter having to validate their ownership through agencies and not personally. Article 32, actively criticized by Youtube and even by fact-checking service providers, also requires remuneration but in this case for creators of journalistic content —referred to as "journalistic companies"— established in the country, both legal entities or even individuals who produce journalistic content regularly and professionally.
Following a direct governmental reprimand —from Justice Minister Flavio Din— Google had to remove from its homepage for Brazil the link to a publication criticizing the bill. In addition, META (Facebook) and Spotify must be added to the order to testify before the Supreme Court for their attitude of resistance to it. But it is not only from these external actors that the obstacles to its approval come, but also from conservative and evangelical legislators, who managed to pressure and postpone the vote scheduled for yesterday, Tuesday. We will continue to follow these developments.
The Google logo (Source)
Colombia
These are not positive days for Gustavo Petro in Colombia, who needs to win concrete victories in his Total Peace project, specifically in the case of talks in Havana with the National Liberation Army (ELN in Spanish). Precisely what is happening in terms of violence between this group and FARC-EP dissidents in Arauca, a department that borders Venezuela, is adding fire to a political situation that is already tense enough for the first leftist president in Colombian history.
This Tuesday we also learned that, in a new and recurrent manifestation of the weakness of very diverse alliances in the political order, Colombia's Conservative Party is abandoning the coalition that brought him to the Casa de Nariño. This is due to the tension generated by the reorganization of the ministerial cabinet, where Petro seems to have been radical with the groups less inclined to keep up with him on the issue of health reform. We warned from the beginning that Petro would find it difficult to govern, and just as we said in our report yesterday about Lula da Silva in Brazil, this is only just beginning.
The Conservative Party leadership declares its exit from the coalition government (Source)
Mexico and migration to the United States
Andrés Manuel López Obrador has been a fervent spokesman for the need to settle the migration problem where it is born, in the sending countries, including his own when he speaks, I suppose. He has been a very practical politician who, while he has lashed out at the White House when he feels he must, mainly to defend Cuba's right to a better experience with the US government, has tried to meet certain demands to keep bilateral relations strong enough, with Biden but above all and perhaps even better with Trump.
The Mexican president, meeting with Elizabeth Sherwood, National Security Advisor on Pennsylvania Avenue, agreed that Mexico will continue to receive migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela who are not accepted to enter the United States, while the northern power will continue to implement a humanitarian parole program for individuals from those same countries. This strategy, which began in January, has resulted in a 95% reduction in irregular migration from these countries, as said today. All this is happening because of the near end of the application of a controversial order known as Title 42 that, anchored in the Covid-19 pandemic, allowed Trump to promote rapid removals and circumvent the processing of asylum cases.
Photo of the dialogue between López Obrador and the US delegation (Source)
While the US government has reaffirmed that it will maintain a strong immigration policy against irregular entry, now under the natural Title 8 of the US Code, it is not expected to be able to get that message across to many desperate migrants, who will fall victim to misinformation campaigns and the siren songs of smugglers. That's the reason for the White House is mobilizing 1,500 military personnel to the border for 90 days (as reported, the Pentagon resisted, and only a compromise with the Department of Homeland Security led it to approve the request), although they are not expected to police or deal with the migrants. In addition, Mexico and the United States agreed to work on modernizing the border and expanding the border crossing known as Mexicali II, according to this Europa Press report.
Finance
The day closed negative in most markets in the region, amid a still subdued retreat in the dollar that we assume is related to the latest US employment data, which raises speculation of a possible slowdown or pause in interest rate hikes by the Fed. I expected a better performance from the basket of six currencies that are placed at parity with the dollar day in and day out to gauge the area's financial pulse. The worst performance came from the Brazilian real, and only the Peruvian sol was able to close positive with +0.18%.
| Countries | Local currency balance | Local stock index balance |
|---|---|---|
| Colombia | -0.03% | -3.41% (MSCI COLCAP) |
| México | -0.21% | +0.11% (S&P/BMV IPC) |
| Perú | +0.18% | -0.56% (S&P/BVL) |
| Argentina | -0.88% | -0.78% (S&P Merval) |
| Chile | -0.53% | -0.80% (IPSA) |
| Brazil | -1.15% | -2.39% (Bovespa) |
Daily balance of main currencies and stock indexes in Latin America ( Source).
Regional quicks
In an update on the situation with migrants —mostly Venezuelans— who wish to return to their country, it was reported today that there are approximately 5,000 sons and daughters of the land of Bolivar who have this objective. It was not clear whether this refers only to Venezuelans already in Peru, or whether the figure includes those who are currently on the Chilean-Peruvian border trying to enter the country. The Peruvian interior minister reported that the foreign minister is taking steps to find a coordinated solution to the tense situation, which has arisen when many of those who have arrived in Chile or Peru in recent years feel that the dynamics of inflation, labor exploitation, and discrimination there are suffocating them enough to make them decide to return to their homeland, even though it has not managed to overcome its internal problems, both political and economic.
Fernando Haddad, Brazil's former presidential candidate, and current finance minister assured that his country will find a solution so that companies that export to Argentina receive the payment they are owed as a result of the liquidity crisis faced by the nation led by Alberto Fernández, its third largest trading partner. The idea is to find a mechanism similar to the one that allowed China to finance its producers' exports to Argentina, displacing precisely Brazil. Lula received his Argentine counterpart on Tuesday and promised to talk to the IMF about the need to improve the conditions of a loan negotiated by the Macri government. The Brazilian president also wants to involve the BRICS in helping to finance Argentina's economic operations at a critical moment, on the eve of the presidential elections where the ruling party faces a tough battle.
Indirectly, the sale of dollars by Chevron to private banks in Venezuela in exchange for bolívares needed to cover certain local expenses (projects, taxes), reduces the intervention needs of the Venezuelan Central Bank in its task of balancing supply and demand of foreign currency in the country and thus trying to contain inflation. Inflation stood at 500 % in March according to a measurement by the Venezuelan Finance Observatory, quoted by Reuters.
Francisco Oropeza, the Mexican-born man who murdered five Hondurans —including a nine-year-old boy— last Friday in Texas, United States, was finally captured on Tuesday, hidden under a pile of dirty clothes in the wardrobe of a house. Bail is set at $5 million, while Greg Capers, police chief of San Jacinto County where the killing occurred, says he will spend his life behind bars.
Supporters of Paraguayo Cubas, a presidential candidate who did not appear to be a serious contender but who would finish only four percentage points behind Efraín Alegre —the left's choice who himself fell far short of the expected performance— had been holding strong protests with law enforcement officials since Monday, fanned by the politician himself, alleging electoral fraud. The OAS, supported by its observers on the ground, has declared that there is no factual basis for the allegation.
During April, Honduras, the largest coffee exporter in Central America, increased its shipments abroad by nearly 49 % compared to the same month last year. The volume corresponds to just over 52 million kilos of coffee. Taking into account the cycle that starts in October, the harvest shows a healthy pace, exceeding the previous one by 2.5 %.
Mexico Pacific Limited, based in Houston, Texas, is to invest some 14 billion dollars in a gas pipeline and liquefaction plant in the state of Sonora, Mexico, according to Mexican authorities directly involved in the negotiations, including Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrad (Reuters retrieves from company's website that it is already building a terminal in Puerto Libertad to export some 14 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas per year). There was also announced good news with rail transport projects.
This is all for our twenty-first report. I have referenced the sources dynamically in the text, and remember you can learn how and where to follow the LATAM trail news by reading my work here. Have a nice day.
Edited with Canva.
