News articles on Latin America

'Genocide' fears for isolated tribes as ex-missionary named to head Brazil agency
Dom Phillips. The Guardian. February 5, 2020

Brazil has put a former evangelical missionary in charge of its isolated indigenous tribes, provoking concern among indigenous groups, NGOs, anthropologists and even government officials, who fear the government of the far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, is overseeing a new push to spread Christianity among Brazil’s indigenous people.

The appointment of Ricardo Lopes Dias, an anthropologist and evangelical pastor, to head the department for isolated and recently contacted tribes at the indigenous agency Funai, was announced on Wednesday.

Dias will have detailed information on 107 isolated tribes, including monitoring and location studies. Brazil has more “voluntarily isolated” tribes – some of whom are believed to have hidden from white society after massacres and epidemics – than any other country.

Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, the UN special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous people, said: “This is a dangerous decision that may have the potential to cause genocide among isolated indigenous people.”

Bolsonaro has frequently made racist remarks about the country’s indigenous people, recently commenting that they were “increasingly becoming human beings just like us”.

Critics say he is bargaining indigenous lives for political support from the powerful evangelical lobby, just as his attacks on environmental agencies have appeased wildcat miners and farmers in the Amazon.

“There are those who see nothing but the greed of land-grabbers, cattle ranchers and mining companies driving Bolsonaro’s anti-indigenous policies. But it’s clear cultural annihilation with religious dividends is also guiding the presidency,” the Folha de S Paulo newspaper said on Tuesday.

Critics said Dias’s appointment threatened the survival of vulnerable isolated groups, which in the past have been decimated by diseases like measles and flu after coming into contact with evangelical missionaries, government employees and outsiders.

The Brazilian Amazon indigenous organisation Coiab warned of “the crimes of genocide and ethnocide that will be committed against our isolated relatives”.

Beto Marubo, an indigenous leader from the Javari Valley reserve, said evangelical missionaries destroy the “cosmological and ethical” belief systems of indigenous people. “The behaviour of missionaries in indigenous communities is as malign as a disease,” he said.

Between 1997 and 2007, Dias worked as a missionary in the same reserve for the controversial group New Tribes Mission, who pledged to convert every last “unreached people group” on earth. The group has since changed its name to Ethnos 360.

“I’ve been in these tribes and at times you can feel this incredible, intense darkness. But you know what I found? No darkness is too dark for God,” CEO Larry Brown says in a video on its website.

In his 2015 dissertation for a social science master’s degree, Dias said he decided as a young man to commit himself to the “cause” of evangelizing among indigenous people.

Speaking to O Globo newspaper last week, he refused to say whether he would change Brazil’s 37-year rule of “no contact” with indigenous people.

“My performance will be technical. I will not promote evangelisation of indigenous people,” he said.

But Brazil’s public defender’s office said such a nomination risked “the mass death of indigenous people from illness resulting from irresponsible contact, or conflicts between religious missions, loggers, wildcat miners, hunters and illegal fishermen”.

Indigenous experts said the move to allow evangelical missionaries to contact remote tribes has already begun. They allege a missionary group is using a mental health visit to gain access to a remote Amazon tribe they were previously expelled from.

Following an alert from a local Funai official, the federal prosecutor for Amazonas state has written to the head of the government’s indigenous health service (Sesai) demanding details of the mission to visit the remote Suruwaha tribe.

According to the alert, the visit will be led by Sesai’s boss, Silvia Waiãpi – an indigenous woman, army officer and former soap opera actor who campaigned for Bolsonaro.

It also includes two Suruwaha indigenous women who live in an evangelical community in Brasília run by Jocum – the Brazilian arm of international evangelical missionary group Youth With A Mission.

Four psychologists and a Jocum linguist are also in the group.

Federal prosecutors ordered Funai to expel Jocum missionaries from the Suruwaha reserve in 2003.

The latest mission was launched after five Suruwaha killed themselves last year. About 150 people live in the community, where ritual suicides have long been part of the culture. One Swiss study counted up to 12 suicides a year between 1984 and 2018.

Adriana Huber, an anthropologist with the Indigenous Missionary Council – a Catholic NGO – lived with the Suruwaha from 2006 to 2011. She said suicides are part of the cosmology of the tribe, used as a form of conflict resolution, and have happened since the 1930s. Any move by the Brazilian state to treat mental health issues should be negotiated with the tribe, she said, not imposed upon them.
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Argentina to Pass Law to Decriminalize Abortion: Fernandez
TeleSUR. February 5, 2020

The government is preparing a project to decriminalize abortion, President Alberto Fernandez said at the closing of his European tour on Wednesday in France.

"I am going to pass a law that will end the criminalization of abortion and allow the care of any abortion in any public center," he added at the of the Institute of Political Studies in Paris (Scienses PO Paris) .

The president's goal, he specified, is for the initiative to "allow for the care of any abortion in public health centers".

In front of students from the Scienses PO Paris, Fernandez admitted that "I don't live in peace with my conscience knowing that a woman has to have an abortion, doesn't have the economic possibility, and ends up in the hands of a healer who ends up hurting or killing her with a needle”.

In Argentina, abortion is a crime for which women are condemned for it, “we all know that it exists”, said Fernandez. The biggest problem is that all abortion becomes clandestine, and that´s why the risk to the life and health of the woman increases, commented.

The problem is more acute according to the social class of the person who performs the abortion. “If she is from an upper class, she will do it in an adequate health center, in adequate conditions, and the medical certificate will say that she had a spontaneous abortion and her health will be guaranteed. But, a woman without resources is in real danger" commented Fernandez.

"We must respect both the woman who feels she has a right over her body and the woman who feels that God does not allow her to do so. And when one decriminalizes and legalizes abortion one does not make it mandatory. Therefore, the one who still feels that God does not allow him to do it should not do it. And let's respect that. And let's respect others," he said.

"This will be the year in which the law on voluntary, safe and free abortion will be created in our country, a debt to democracy and a right that has direct repercussions on other human rights of women and pregnant women," he completed.
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Argentina's Senate unanimously passes debt restructuring bill
Reuters. February 5, 2020

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentina’s Senate voted in favor of a bill on Wednesday that grants power to the government of President Alberto Fernandez to handle a massive debt restructuring of bonds issued in foreign currency.

The bill, which was approved by the lower house on Jan. 29, was passed unanimously by the Senate.

The crisis-stricken South American nation is grappling with about $100 billion in sovereign debt it is seeking to restructure with its creditors, including the International Monetary Fund, which has a $57-billion financing package with the country. New center-left President Alberto Fernandez has said that Argentina will struggle to pay its debts until it can grow its economy.

“Approving this bill means showing a gesture of national unity to strengthen the negotiating position of the government in the framework of debt restructuring,” said Senator Lucila Crexell, an opposition lawmaker.

The senate’s stamp of approval for the debt bill followed talks this week between IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva and Argentine Economy Minister Martin Guzman ahead of a conference of economists in Vatican City hosted by Pope Francis.

Guzman told the conference on Wednesday that Argentina would under no circumstances continue servicing debt that was unsustainable and that pushed the country deeper into recession.

An IMF mission will come to Argentina to continue talks on Feb. 12.
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Chile: Social Unity Calls To Promote A Constituent Assembly
TeleSUR. February 5, 2020

The "Social Unity" block in Chile called on "all Chilean people to participate actively" in the referendum of April 26th, "voting for the options of approving a constitutional reform and the creation of a constituent convention.

"Social Unity calls to participate in the plebiscite of April 26th, to vote for the approval of constitutional reform, and to set up a Constituent Convention and also a Constituent Assembly."

Likewise, the social organizations criticized the way in which this process was generated by the government, alleging that, "this process is not based on popular sovereignty, ignoring the original constituent power."

"It establishes limitations and obstacles to the exercise of sovereignty by previously setting a high quorum that prevents substantial changes in the constitutional model," they added.

Also, the former president of Confusam and representative of the Social Unity block, Esteban Maturana, accused the Chilean Executive of not guaranteeing citizen security during the process.

"The Minister of the Interior has not given us the guarantees of a correct process, for that to happen, there has to be a ministry that guarantees citizen security, but it hasn't been done because the government has a strategy of criminalizing social demonstrations.

We are in worse conditions than in the 1989 referendum because this is a fake democracy. Here, people are raped, tortured and killed, and the person responsible is President Sebastián Piñera," Maturana said.

Despite this, the spokesperson for the Medicinal Cannabis block, Ana María Gazmuri, said that "the plebiscite of April 26th can, and should be one more step in the process of social change."

Going over slight contradictions, all the social organizations have agreed to vote for approval and the creation of a constituent convention.

On the other hand, Social Unity also called to "work on the installation of a plurinational and equal Popular Constituent Assembly."

With this petition, social organizations seek to build a Constitution from the base, from their diversity as a sovereign people.

Social Unity reiterated its support "for the mobilization and organization of the Chilean people," adding that "we work for a great popular, unitary and inclusive articulation, valuing the diversity of the territories, being part of the mobilized people.

Northern Andean Region [contents]

Trump meets with Venezuelan opposition leader, but his interest in the issue has waned
Karen DeYoung, Anthony Faiola and Anne Gearan. Washington Post. February 5, 2020

President Trump met with Juan Guaidó on Wednesday for the first time, ending weeks of speculation that he would snub the man the United States and dozens of other countries recognize as the legitimate president of Venezuela.

As he arrived at the White House, Guaidó joined Trump in giving a thumbs up for the cameras before the two moved inside. Neither spoke, and a scheduled opportunity for reporters to ask questions as the two sat down in the Oval Office was canceled by Trump press officials without explanation.

The timing was awkward — moments after Republican Sen. Mitt Romney (Utah) announced he would vote to convict Trump of abuse of power, and just two hours before the Senate acquittal verdict almost entirely along party lines.

But the fact that the meeting took place, following Guaidó’s appearance as Trump’s guest at Tuesday night’s State of the Union address, may have been enough to serve their shared goal of demonstrating administration support for Guaidó’s interim government.

Guaidó received a standing ovation from House and Senate members during the highly partisan address, one of the few instances of bipartisan applause during the president’s speech. Pointing to him in the House gallery, where he was seated near first lady Melania Trump, the president called Guaidó “a very brave man” and “the true and legitimate president of Venezuela.”

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, Trump said, “is an illegitimate ruler, a tyrant who brutalizes his people. But Maduro’s grip on tyranny will be smashed and broken.”

The United States was the first country to recognize Guaidó, the elected leader of the country’s legislative assembly, as Venezuela’s legitimate president after accusing Maduro of corruption and electoral fraud.

Yet it has now been more than a year since Trump promised that he would “use the full weight of United States economic and diplomatic power” to drive Maduro from office. Despite U.S. efforts to starve his government of resources with sanctions and the recognition of Guaidó by about 60 countries, Maduro remains.

Trump’s public interest in the issue has waned, and he has mentioned the young opposition figure less and less frequently as the months have gone by. The president’s apparent ambivalence has hurt Guaidó’s credibility at home, where public dissatisfaction with the anti-Maduro opposition is rising.

A new flurry of fretting in pro-Guaidó circles in Venezuela and abroad arose with perceived brushoffs by Trump over the past two weeks. Trump and Guaidó both appeared at an economic forum in Davos, Switzerland, without a meeting, and Trump opted to play golf in Palm Beach on Saturday rather than attend Guaidó’s public rally in nearby Miami.

Had he returned to Venezuela without seeing Trump, “everyone would [have questioned] Guaidó’s leadership,” said Dimitris Pantoulas, a Caracas-based political analyst. The majority of the opposition are placing their hopes “primarily on the support the United States can give,” he said.

All sides sought to portray Guaidó’s red-carpet treatment in Washington as evidence that Trump had stepped up and offered him the full backing he needed to lessen fears of arrest, or worse, upon his return. His clandestine departure from Venezuela last month for support-seeking stops in Europe and North and South America violated a travel ban imposed by Maduro.

“Any harm that may be caused on Juan Guaidó . . . will have very significant consequences,” a senior administration official told reporters Wednesday, speaking on a government-imposed condition of anonymity. “So, therefore, they should tread very carefully in that regards.”

The official suggested that a stepped-up anti-Maduro message would be more than just words.

“We are dedicated to an acceleration of our policy to continue moving in the direction of maximum pressure,” the official said. “The president has given direction to his Cabinet to do so. . . . You will see some impactful measures within the next 30 days, which will be very important and further crippling on the [Maduro] regime.”

In remarks at a forum Wednesday, White House national security adviser Robert C. O’Brien suggested that the administration may seek additional sanctions against Russia and Rosneft, its state-controlled oil company, which have kept the Maduro government afloat amid sanctions.

“We’re letting the Russians and we’re letting the company know that their support . . . is not a good business decision but it’s also immoral,” O’Brien said. “So I think you’re going to see some action, either voluntarily from the company, or the U.S. will likely take action in the near future on that issue.”

In Caracas, Maduro responded to Guaidó’s appearances in Washington with vitriol.

“In Venezuela the president isn’t designated by the president of the United States — the people elect the president. Enough with your extreme obsession!” Maduro said on state television. “If today they would do a survey in the U.S., I am sure that 70% would support the Bolivarian Revolution,” Maduro said.

“Yesterday Donald Trump talked about crushing and breaking Venezuela. Never, nobody crushes Venezuela,” he said.

On the streets of the Venezuelan capital, however, where social media videos of the congressional applause during Trump’s speech went viral, there were clear signs of relief from Guaidó’s supporters.

“Many people have had to swallow their words and even erase their teasing tweets because they believed Guaidó couldn’t meet with Trump,” said Gynette Martinez, 55, a lawyer shopping for vegetables in a market in eastern Caracas. “And look, he accomplished much more than that. He got a standing ovation in front of the entire American capital. For me, that says a lot.”

Following the 45-minute White House meeting, Guaidó’s team posted a Twitter blitz of photos of him with Trump.

Yet Guaidó is returning to a complex situation that his international tour alone is unlikely to turn around. Although he met with European leaders in Davos, he has yet to receive the concrete pledges he needs from them to follow the United States in taking a tougher line on Maduro.

In recent weeks, Maduro’s government has also sought to unseat Guaidó as the legislative assembly chief — a position on which his recognition by the United States and others as the legitimate president is based.

Guaidó is also facing defectors within his own ranks, and a movement divided over the way forward, with some embracing Maduro’s call for new parliamentary elections but not the new presidential vote that Guaidó and the United States have demanded.
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'No Better Distillation of Washington': Democrats and GOP Join Trump in Standing Ovation for Failed Venezuelan Coup Leader Juan Guaidó
Jake Johnson. Common Dreams. February 5, 2020

In a moment observers described as a telling display of the bipartisan support for regime change that pervades Washington, D.C., congressional Democrats applauded along with their Republican colleagues after President Donald Trump used his State of the Union address Tuesday night to praise Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó, who headed a failed U.S-backed coup against his country's elected president last year.

Trump hailed Guaidó—who was in attendance for the address—as the "true and legitimate president of Venezuela," a line that was met with a raucous standing ovation from members of both political parties, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), the top Democrat in Congress.

As NPR reported, "Guaidó received an extended bipartisan standing ovation. It was one of the few times that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Democrats stood to applaud during Trump's speech."

Keane Bhatt, policy adviser to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), tweeted in response to the show of unity that "there is no better distillation of Washington, D.C. than a State of the Union in which Nancy Pelosi—having just led the impeachment of Donald 'All Roads Lead to Putin' Trump—twice joins in a rousing standing ovation of Juan Guaidó, Trump's appointed 'president' of Venezuela."

CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin reacted with dismay to the bipartisan standing ovation for Guaidó, whose coup attempt against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro quickly collapsed last year despite support from the U.S. and other nations.

"The Democrats, including Pelosi, just got up to applaud the self-proclaimed 'president' of Venezuela Juan Guaidó," tweeted Benjamin. "Intervening in Venezuela's internal politics is the one thing that is bipartisan! How sad."
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U.S. warns energy cos like Rosneft, Chevron over ties to Venezuela's Maduro
Alexandra Alper, Steve Holland, Marianna Parraga. Reuters. February 5, 2020

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration is ramping up pressure against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s government, and energy companies with ties to it, from Russia’s Rosneft (ROSN.MM) to U.S.-based Chevron Corp (CVX.N), should “tread cautiously,” a senior administration official said on Wednesday.

The comments came in response to a question about possible sanctions against Rosneft on a call with reporters ahead of a White House meeting between Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido and U.S. President Donald Trump.

“Everything is an option as regards creating pressure, whether it’s towards Russian entities that are supporting Maduro or others. So, absolutely, that ... remains on the table,” the official said, emphasizing that the administration was “concerned” by more than just Rosneft’s behavior.

“Whether it’s Rosneft, whether it’s Reliance, whether it’s Repsol, whether it’s Chevron here in the United States, I would tread cautiously towards their activities in Venezuela that are in support, directly or indirectly, of the Maduro dictatorship because ... we’re halfway through our maximum pressure campaign,” he added.

Rosneft, India’s Reliance Industries (RELI.NS), Spain’s Repsol (REP.MC) and Chevron did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

But some company executives were surprised by the tone of the remarks, since the U.S government has not taken action since it threatened oil firms dealing with Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A., or PDVSA, in August, sources told Reuters.

Rosneft, Reliance, Repsol and Chevron have emerged as the main business partners for PDVSA since the United States imposed the steepest sanctions yet on the state-owned Venezuelan company last year.

Most of them share oilfields with PDVSA in Venezuela, and they also act as intermediaries for sales of Venezuelan oil to markets such as Asia. In 2019, Rosneft was the main receiver of Venezuelan oil, followed by China National Petroleum Corp - which suspended direct purchases from PDVSA, Cuba’s Cubametales and Reliance, according to PDVSA’s internal documents and Refinitiv Eikon data.

Washington imposed a first round of sanctions on PDVSA a year ago, depriving the state-run firm of its main market, the United States. In August, it announced new sanctions targeting non-U.S. firms buying Venezuelan oil.

“VERY SIGNIFICANT CONSEQUENCES”
The official also warned against any interference by the Maduro government in Guaido’s trip back to Venezuela. “Any harm that may be caused on Juan Guaido on his return to Venezuela will have very significant consequences,” the official said.

Guaido, president of the opposition-held National Assembly, is recognized as Venezuela’s rightful president by dozens of countries including the United States.

He was a guest at Tuesday’s State of the Union address, when Trump, a Republican, praised him as a “very brave man who carries with him the hopes, dreams and aspirations of all Venezuelans.” Guaido received a standing ovation from Democratic and Republican members of the U.S. Congress.

The senior administration official also described “good momentum” since Maduro’s party failed to wrest control of the national assembly from Guaido last month, and said there would be some “impactful measures” within the next 30 days to further cripple Maduro’s rule.

The only possible topic up for negotiation with Maduro’s government was a discussion of “certain guarantees” upon his exit, the person added.
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US Blockade to Affect Medical Treatment of Venezuelan Children
TeleSUR. February 5, 2020

The Latin American Foundation for Human Rights and Social Development (Fundalatin) denounced Tuesday the suspension of medical treatments for children who have undergone transplants, due to the financial blockade imposed by the United States on Venezuela.

The organization explained that the affected children, who are being treated in Italy and Argentina, will receive specialized medical treatment paid by the Venezuelan Government through the Simon Bolivar Foundation until July 30, as they have been banned from paying for medical services to the patients, according to the message.

The foundation is a part of Citgo, a branch of Venezuela's State-owned oil company (PDVSA), that was confiscated by the U.S. Government in 2019.

The statement was accompanied by a letter that suggests that the children's parents should seek other alternatives for support, in coordination with the foundation and the Italian hospital to find resources.

In light of this situation, Fundalatin asked United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet to act promptly for the benefit of the Venezuelan children and adolescents who suffer from severe liver diseases.

The sanctions, as United States President Donald Trump has expressed repeatedly, is to oust the democratically elected government of President Nicolas Maduro, no matter the human cost.

A recent report made by the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), revealed that 40,000 people may have died in the Latin American nation in the last two years because of these measures.

Meanwhile, more than US$30 billion of Venezuelan government assets are blocked up due to U.S. sanctions preventing the nation from exporting and importing goods, including food and medicine.
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Venezuela's Maduro lets companies issue securities in hard currency
Reuters. February 5, 2020

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Wednesday authorized local companies to issue securities in hard currency, amid a broad liberalization of an economy that was for years hemmed in by stringent socialist controls.

The change comes on the heels of a share offering by rum distiller Ron Santa Teresa that was meant to take advantage of Maduro’s unexpected liberalization of the economy last year.

“The other important thing that has been proposed is legal authorization for companies to issue securities in foreign currency ... approved!” said Maduro during a televised broadcast.

Executives from Santa Teresa RST.CR and real estate developer Fondo de Valores Inmobiliarios FVIb.CR (FIV) said last month they believed Venezuela was headed toward an economic transition similar to China and the Soviet Union.

The company’s leaders had said they were seeking permission to issue shares in dollars.

They form part of a group called “Optimists Anonymous” made up of executives and investors who think businesses will become profitable under Maduro’s new approach to the economy.

Last year, the government unexpectedly relaxed 15 years of stringent economic regulations, abandoning enforcement of price controls and allowing dollar transactions in the face of runaway inflation and U.S. sanctions.

In response, at least half a dozen Venezuelan banks have begun storing in vaults millions of dollars and euros accumulated in cash by businesses, according to sources.
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Uber ready to take dispute with Colombia to international arbitration: regional manager
Reuters. February 3, 2020

BOGOTA (Reuters) - Uber has told the Colombian government it is considering taking its dispute with the Andean country to international arbitration, the company’s general manager for Latin America told Reuters on Monday.

Citing violation of a trade deal with the United States for escalating the dispute, the ride-hailing firm said its initial calculations suggest damages from suspending its service in Colombia will exceed $250 million.

Uber departed Colombia on Friday after a court in December ruled the company had violated competition rules and ordered it to cease operating. Prior to its departure, Uber said it had 2.3 million active users in Latin America’s fourth-largest economy, as well as 88,000 drivers.

“We are considering this option as well as other legal recourses (in Colombia),” Uber’s George Gordon said in a telephone interview.

He said Uber wants to return to Colombia but added that it was up to the government to find an outcome.

“We want to come back but it is a question of when and how,” he said. “When? As soon as possible. How? That is up to the government. They could resolve it today if they wanted.”

At Davos, President Ivan Duque told Reuters technology companies were welcome in Colombia, but said they had to operate on a level playing field.

In a statement, the company said Colombia’s decision constituted censorship that went against freedom of expression online and internet neutrality, saying it had been unfairly treated.

“In contrast to the measures taken against Uber, other companies from Colombia and elsewhere have not been subject to the same treatment and continue operating in the country,” Uber said. “This will allow our competitors to grow their market share in Colombia at Uber’s expense.”

Uber said Colombia’s actions had failed to provide it with the same favorable treatment it grants other companies and that it had breached its obligations to U.S investors under the trade accord.

While it proceeds with the options available to it, Uber said its clear preference is to find a quick and friendly solution to the dispute.
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US backs Uber in dispute with Colombia
Adriaan Alsema. Colombia Reports. February 5, 2020

The United States’ ambassador implied Tuesday that recent taxi app Uber’s recent departure from Colombia could negatively affect foreign investment in the South American country.

Speaking at the Colombo-American Chamber of Commerce in Bogota, US ambassador Philip Goldberg said he was “concerned” that “an American company is forced to cease operations while other competitors continue to operate apparently with the same business model.”

A judge of the country’s Superintendency for Industry and Commerce (SIC) ordered the US company to “immediately” suspend its activities in December in a ruling that could only be enforced by an ordinary court.

Because the ruling did not affect other taxi apps, Uber wanted the administration of President Ivan Duque to shield it from being shut down by decree, adding pressure it would “leave Colombia” on February 1, which it did.

Duque said Tuesday his government couldn’t decree legislation “for one company,” echoing his transport minister’s claim that Congress would have to file the legislation that would regulate taxi apps.

Congress, however, won’t return from its Christmas recess until March 16 and is notoriously slow when it comes to doing its job.

The situation “affects the investment environment for our companies in Colombia,,” Goldberg was quoted as saying by economic newspaper Portfolio.

“Colombia has every right to regulate its transportation sector, but there are companies with the same platform and who can capture your business that operate in the same way.” - US ambassador Philip Goldberg

Because the SIC ruling only applied to Uber, other taxi apps like Cabify from Spain continued to operate without the legislation that would regulate the do’s and don’t of the mobile apps.

The beef between Uber and the Colombian date back to 2016 when the government of former President Juan Manuel Santos vowed to shut down the app “within weeks,” which it never did.

Uber escalated its campaign to force the government to protect its business interests after three and half years of apparent government inaction in regards to the regulation of the taxi apps like Uber, which began operations in Colombia in 2013.

Western Andean Region [contents]

Bolivia’s “Caretaker” Government Makes Radical Foreign Policy Changes ― and Wins over Powerful Allies
GUILLAUME LONG. CEPR. February 5, 2020

Foreign policy, an area very much in the hands of the executive branch, has afforded Bolivia´s de facto president Jeanine Añez, who does not behold a parliamentary majority, an ideal outlet for her radical program. Within days of taking power, the Añez government had cut off relations with Venezuela, expelled its diplomatic staff, recognized instead the self-proclaimed government of Juan Guaidó, and swiftly abandoned the ALBA group of states to join its right-wing counterweight, the Group of Lima. Bolivia soon reestablished diplomatic relations with Israel and rekindled close ties with the United States that had been seriously eroded since the US ambassador to Bolivia had been caught having secret meetings with key opposition figures in the midst of a violent separatist movement aimed at ousting Morales’s government in 2008.

Añez, a little-known senator whose party obtained a mere 4 percent of the vote in the last legislative elections, was ushered in after a coup toppled democratically elected president Evo Morales on November 10. It was soon clear that her lack of democratic legitimacy would not stop her from behaving as if she had a popular mandate to lead the country into a new era. She refused to personify the role of the prudent caretaker (as pro-coup spin termed it) seeking to guarantee the functioning of institutions required for the holding of elections in the shortest delay possible; and chose instead to rule.

After repeatedly pledging not to run in the elections, Añez finally announced her candidacy on January 24. Presidential candidates Carlos Mesa and Jorge Quiroga, among others in the Bolivian elite establishment, have expressed their disgruntlement with Añez’s change of heart. Her presence on the ballot will further divide the right in the context of an overcrowded race in which the candidates of the Movement Toward Socialism (MAS), Morales’s political party, are front-runners. Supporters of the November coup, both inside and outside Bolivia, are concerned that Añez’s political ambitions discredit the argument that the coup plotters were selfless political actors, dedicated to the cause of “democratization” and not their own aggrandizement.

The Internationalization of Domestic Politics
In Bolivia’s conservative restoration, there is an inseparable connection between foreign policy and the domestic persecution of the MAS and its leadership. The coup government seeks to arrest Morales on charges of “terrorism” and “sedition.” Dozens of Morales government officials and MAS leaders have either fled the country, sought asylum in diplomatic missions, or have been arrested. Within 24 hours of the MAS announcing that its presidential candidate would be former finance minister Luis Arce, the de facto government announced “corruption” charges against Arce, and when he returned to Bolivia last week he was subpoenaed before even getting through airport immigration. A former minister and vice minister, to whom the Bolivian Foreign Ministry had granted safe passage so they could leave the Mexican embassy, proceed to the airport, and leave the country, were detained and manhandled. Only an international outcry denouncing this extraordinary violation of international law ― and the astonishing duplicity of granting asylees safe passage before detaining them once out of their diplomatic sanctuary ― finally led the Bolivian government to let them go.

The man in charge of this resurgence of the “internal war” ― Latin America’s infamous national security doctrine of the military dictatorships of the 1960s and ‘70s ― is Interior Minister Arturo Murillo. Murillo makes no secret of his international alliances to root out subversives and terrorists: “We have invited [the Israelis] to help us. They are used to dealing with terrorists. They know how to handle them.”

As for the widespread denunciations of human rights abuses that have resulted from such an approach, they are, for Patricio Aparicio, Añez’s ambassador to the Organization of American States, simply “lies and falsehoods.” Aparicio labeled the report of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), and its denunciation of the Senkata massacre, merely the result of the workings of “consultants and operators from a certain type of international leftism, implanted in many inter-American institutions, who are not interested in the truth.”

In line with denying human rights violations, the Añez government has lashed out at governments taking a proactive stance to protect Bolivian victims of abuses. Jorge Quiroga, Añez’s “international representative” ― who finally resigned in January to launch his own presidential bid ― called Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador a “coward,” a “thug” and a “scoundrel” for having granted Morales asylum. Far from disavowing her representative’s frankness, within a week of Quiroga’s flowery insults, Añez expelled the Mexican ambassador as well as the Spanish chargé d’affaires and consul for their governments’ roles in protecting former Bolivian officials from persecution.

Añez’s next dispute was with the new left-leaning government of Argentina, where Morales currently lives in exile. There was more than a touch of irony when Añez, a president ushered in through a coup, publicly decried that Alberto Fernández, the democratically elected president of Argentina, “has no respect for democracy” on the day he took the oath of office.

A friendly neighbor
The international context has played a decisive role in bolstering Añez’s crusade against the Left. The Brazilian government, for one, has provided much support and encouragement. The Israeli foreign minister confirmed Brazil’s influence when he acknowledged “the help of the Brazilian president [Jair Bolsonaro] and [his] minister of foreign affairs” in the reestablishment of Israel’s relations with Bolivia, and, naturally, the importance of the coup: “The departure of President Morales, who was hostile to Israel, and his replacement by a government friendly to Israel, allows the fruition of the process.”

Notwithstanding the issue of Israel, it is clear that the Brazilian president is delighted with developments in neighboring Bolivia. Whereas Bolsonaro is a Catholic who was supported by Brazil’s many conservative evangelical churches in the 2018 elections, Añez is, in fact, the real thing: a devout hard-right evangelist with no love for progressive issues or for Latin America’s historic separation of church and state.

Bolsonaro has tried to help Añez in a number of ways, including easing rules for Bolivian gas imports. In December 2019, Petrobras’s 20-year-old contract with YPFB, Bolivia’s state-owned oil and gas company, expired. The negotiations taking place in the context of fast-declining Brazilian demand for Bolivian gas had been at a standstill before the coup. By December, however, Petrobras had made a temporary deal with YPFB, which gave the Bolivian government some much-needed slack until a more long-term contract is finalized. In January, the Brazilian Ministry of Mines and Energy went further; granting YPFB the right to import and sell gas on the Brazilian market, in line with Bolsonaro’s broader effort to put an end to Petrobras’s monopoly over gas imports in Brazil. While caps on the quantity of freely traded Bolivian gas will remain, the ceiling is to grow steadily on a yearly basis.

The Break with Cuba
Brazil has also led by example. By breaking foreign policy taboos, by using provocative language, and by going against the mainstream liberal consensus and denouncing multilateralism as “cultural Marxism,” Bolsonaro, like Trump, makes it easier for smaller states to emulate his extreme behavior and policies. Brazil’s bombastic, rhetorically charged deterioration of relations with Cuba is a good example. When Bolsonaro attacked Cuba’s “More Doctors” program and claimed there were “a lot of terrorists among them” ― resulting in Cuba withdrawing over 8,000 medical doctors from Brazil ― he paved the way for other countries to take similar actions. In November 2019, both Ecuador and Bolivia put an end to their health cooperation with the island and Cuban doctors were repatriated from both Andean countries by year’s end.

In 2019, Brazil was one of three countries to side in favor of the US embargo on Cuba at the annual UN General Assembly vote. In doing so, the Bolsonaro government broke with Brazil’s historic multilateralist tradition and long-held opposition to US economic coercion against the island. Añez, however, took matters one step further: on January 24, 2020, the Bolivian government announced that it was cutting off diplomatic relations. Bolivia is now the only country in the Western Hemisphere that does not have diplomatic relations with Cuba, and one of only three in the world (along with South Korea and Israel).

For decades, Cuba has sought to steer away from old Cold War diplomatic rifts. Not one to shy away from speaking out when it feels wronged or when close allies are threatened or overthrown, the Cuban government has nevertheless cultivated a cautious approach to potential detractors. Bolivia’s breaking off relations with Cuba seems to have resurfaced from another age.

Even the Trump administration, which has resuscitated Title III of the Helms Burton Law to pile more economic pressure on the island, has not yet swept aside the diplomatic relations with Cuba established under its predecessor. This is not to say, however, that Bolivia’s maverick approach to the Left in Latin America is not heartily encouraged in Washington. The influence of Marco Rubio on all things Latin American and the calculations ― or miscalculations ― of Trump’s presidential campaign keep fueling the US administration’s ever more aggressive stance toward the region. Ultimately, Bolivia’s Cold War-era politics is a leap back into a dark, undemocratic past which fits snuggly with Trump’s Monroeist vision of Latin America’s “backyard” role in the international system.

In recent days, Añez’s foreign minister, Karen Longaric, was warmly received by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro followed suit, and Longaric celebrated his “crucial role in the defense of democracy and the rule of law” and formally offered him Bolivia’s backing in his reelection bid at the head of the organization. The OAS was key in undermining the October 2019 elections and in bolstering a flawed narrative of fraudulent elections that greatly contributed to Morales’s overthrow. Longaric then gave a presentation at the Inter-American Dialogue on the importance of espousing a nonideological foreign policy. That afternoon, relations with Cuba were broken. At the event, Longaric was not confronted with uncomfortable questions.

From unlikely caretaker emerging from obscurity, to presidential candidate with a growing set of international allies, Añez has successfully made her zealous foreign policy a stalwart of her political strategy. In a regional and international context in which far-right extremism, far from being isolated, has become politically profitable, it is no wonder that Jeanine Añez should feel so emboldened.
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Odebrecht takes Peru to arbitration over failed gas pipeline investment
Reuters. February 5, 2020

Lima, Feb 5 (Reuters) - Brazil construction company Odebrecht SA has taken Peru to arbitration over a failed $2 billion investment in a gas pipeline, arguing it needs to recoup the money to pay debtors in order to navigate its own bankruptcy restructuring.

Odebrecht, which announced the move on Wednesday, is in a precarious financial situation due to the revelation of its participation in a complex scheme to exchange bribes for public work contracts throughout Latin America.

Peru’s prosecutorial agency did not return a request for comment on Wednesday.

The arbitration deals with a large gas pipeline project for which Peru canceled Odebrecht’s contract in 2017, at a time of intense political backlash against the company due to corruption allegations.

At its height, Odebrecht became Peru’s top government contractor, helping to develop some of the country’s most ambitious engineering projects. It achieved this in part by bribing scores of public sector workers and politicians, actions the company has admitted. Odebrecht is cooperating with Peruvian prosecutors.

In a letter submitted to prosecutors and reviewed by Reuters, Odebrecht says its removal from the gas pipeline project was “a very big blow” to the company and that given its current financial situation, it is forced to “try to recoup” the money already spent.

In a press release on Wednesday, Odebrecht said it remains “completely willing to find a solution together with the (Peruvian) State that will allow for the withdrawal of the arbitration.”
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For Ecuador, a litany of environmental challenges awaits in 2020
Antonio José Paz Cardona.Translated by Romina Castagnino and Sarah Engel. Mongabay. February 5, 2020

For its size, Ecuador has the highest annual deforestation rate of any country in the Western Hemisphere.

Experts say they believe that slowing the spread of deforestation and improving water management systems should be national priorities in 2020.

In addition to oil exploitation, Ecuador is also facing the expansion of large-scale mining operations in high-biodiversity areas with large numbers of endemic species and in indigenous territories.

The country’s ongoing economic crisis and a dependence on fossil fuels will likely continue to fuel clashes with communities protecting their territories.

Looking back, 2019 was a year of mixed outcomes for Ecuador’s environmental agenda. The country’s ongoing economic crisis fossil fuel dependence will likely continue to fuel clashes with communities protecting their territories. Experts are now saying that national priorities in 2020 should center on limiting deforestation and improving water management systems.

Mongabay Latam has highlighted five issues that will be central to the sector in 2020.

Ecuador’s most deforested areas
Although deforestation is a top environmental concern for 2020, Ecuador does not officially publish deforestation data at periodic intervals like other Latin American countries. According to data from the Ministry of the Environment, Ecuador had 12.6 million hectares (31.2 million acres) of native forest in 2016; by 2018 it had lost 116,857 ha (288,760 acres). Between 1990 and 2018— just over 2 million ha (4.9 million acres) of forest were lost in Ecuador.

“The most recent data that I have knowledge of showed a deforestation rate of more than 70,000 hectares [about 173,000 acres], which is a very high figure for a country the size of Ecuador,” says Santiago Ron, an Ecuadoran biologist and professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador (PUCE).

Ron says that for its size, Ecuador has the highest annual deforestation rate of any country in the Western Hemisphere, “which is disgraceful.” He adds that “changing that tendency should be the main challenge for this year. When forests are destroyed, it affects all organisms. We are talking about thousands, or hundreds of thousands, of species that could be affected.”

Manuel Bayón, a founding member of the Critical Geography collective, says that projects with a major impact on nature are promoted by the Ministry of the Environment, and that environmental education regarding Ecuador’s primary forests is very important. “The only policies that are established are restrictive — there are not only deforestation challenges, but also the abandonment of the populations that live in the most intact ecosystems,” Bayón says.

Carmen Josse, the scientific director of the EcoCiencia Foundation, says she believes deforestation will cause alarm in 2020. Although lower deforestation rates were achieved after a period of very high forest loss between 2000 and 2008, the rates are rising once again.

In addition to deforestation, Josse says she is also concerned about forest degradation, or the deterioration of a forested area in terms of soil function and the loss of plant and animal species. “There is a significant loss of forest biomass that does not necessarily end up being registered as deforestation, which can be degradation through selective logging. It is an issue that we want to focus on more,” Josse says.

Another issue is the continued weakening of the Socio Bosque program due to Ecuador’s economic crisis. Socio Bosque, which began in 2008, focuses on the conservation of forests and native páramos (alpine tundras) by providing economic incentives to villagers and indigenous communities who choose to make a commitment to conservation.

PUCE’s Ron says there are mixed opinions about the efficiency of Socio Bosque. Although some people received funding from the government to maintain certain forested areas, “the monitoring system is difficult because they were not monitoring remotely with satellite technology. Instead, they were monitoring in person using personnel from the Ministry of the Environment, and in some cases that did not work very well,” he says. However, he says he recognizes that some reserves have benefited from the program and that it has been an effective way of showing support for those who voluntarily protect their forests. “It is sad to see that the program has less and less funding, and that is not going to facilitate a reduction in the deforestation rate,” Ron says.

Extractive activities and large-scale agroindustry
Another ongoing environmental issue in Ecuador is the expansion of extractive activities. Oil extraction has been going on for decades, but the large-scale mining industry has been growing in recent years and will likely be discussed widely in Ecuador in 2020.

Esperanza Martínez, the founder of the environmental organization Acción Ecológica (Ecological Action), says that “although [Ecuador] has improved regarding the rights of nature, and environmental discussions have permeated government entities, the intention to accelerate extraction is entirely present.”

According to Martínez, the problem with the oil and mining industries is that they are still present in vulnerable areas like Yasuní National Park and other places with páramos or indigenous territories. “What is at stake is the expansion of the [extractive activities] toward places where logic and laws prohibit them,” Martínez says. The palm oil industry is also growing in Ecuador, especially in the north.

Experts say they believe extractive and large-scale agricultural projects will continue to grow this year. Many Ecuadorans say they feel there have been obvious shortcomings in several environmental studies presented by the companies that want to exploit natural resources, according to Andrea Encalada, an aquatic ecologist and director of the Biosphere Institute at San Francisco University in Quito. To Encalada, the mining boom in Ecuador seems more urgent than oil extraction. “In Ecuador, the oil tanker moved into the background, but what’s coming are large-scale mining projects in the south. It is highly concerning to see mining concessions in southern Ecuador, because we know that many of those projects received poor environmental assessment reports,” Encalada says.

To read the rest of this article, follow the link above.

Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean [contents]

Mexican farmers take over dams to stop water payments to US
MARK STEVENSON. AP. February 5, 2020

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A dispute over water payments to the United States widened in Mexico Wednesday, after President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador said Mexico has to pay its debts but angry farmers pushed back National Guard troops guarding a dam.

Under a 1944 treaty, Mexico and the United States are supposed to allow cross-border flows of water to each other, but Mexico has fallen badly behind and now has to quickly catch up on payments.

But the government of the border state of Chihuahua said Mexico should give the water to local farmers and hope that heavy summer rains will fill dams enough to repay the United States. Mexico has long used that wait-and-hope strategy, but it has led to problems in the past.

Mexico’s federal government dispatched National Guard officers to protect the La Boquilla dam Tuesday, but hundreds of farmers pushed and shoved them back hundreds of yards in a failed bid to take over the dam’s control room.

Earlier this week farmers took over a first dam near the border town of Ojinaga. The National Water Commission said they broke open locks and could put the downstream population in danger if they tried to open flood gates at the dam.

Both dams are located near the Texas border, west of the Big Bend area.

López Obrador stepped into the conflict Wednesday, saying there was enough water both for local farmers and payments to the United States.

“We do not want an international conflict,” the president said. “Treaties have to be lived up to. If we have signed a treaty, we have to comply with it.”

He accused some groups of trying to inject politics into the issue, and said some were asking for payments to farmers in exchange for the water. López Obrador replied with “what flavor do you want your ice cream,” a phrase used in Mexico to suggest someone is asking for too much.

Chihuahua Gov. Javier Corral said there wasn’t enough water for both local farmers and repayments. He said he would demand an explanation from the National Guard for its confrontation with the farmers, and said he would defend local farmers.

“We have never questioned that we have to fulfill our commitment to the United States ... but first we have to ensure access to water for farmers in our state and then comply with the treaty,” Corral said.

According to the International Boundary and Water Commission, which oversees treaty compliance, Mexico has an obligation to give the United States about 1.75 million acre-feet (enough to flood a field with a foot of water) every five years (2.1 billion cubic meters). The United States, in return, gives Mexico even more water from other water sources further west.

In the current five-year cycle, Mexico kept up with payments between 2015 and 2017. But since Lopéz Obrador took office in December 2018, Mexico has delivered less water than it was supposed to. Mexico is still about 478,000 acre-feet (590 million cubic meters) short of meeting its requirement and must deliver that amount by the time the five-year cycle ends in October.
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Unemployment is almost non-existent in Guatemala – and that's not good news
Beatriz García. Al Dia. February 05, 2020

It holds the record of being the Latin American nation with the lowest unemployment rate, and if we only stick to the data - a blessed 2.5% - any seasoned economist could call it a " Swiss-style" unemployment paradise, surpassing other countries like the United States, Denmark or Finland in terms of employment rates.

But as soon as one scratches the surface the truth comes out:

Because of the lack of "formal" employment, in Guatemala many people have stopped looking for jobs.

Luis Linares, the coordinator of the Labor Studies Area of the Association for Research and Social Studies (ASIES), explained to the BBC that this figure is not only "deceptive", but "in Guatemala, there is a real silent humanitarian catastrophe."

The illusion of "almost" full employment
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), half the population of the Latin American country lives in poverty and suffers from the highest rate of child malnutrition in the whole continent.

How can such a poor nation appear "healthy" in the eyes of statisticians?

The explanation is that most Guatemalans - up to 70%, according to the government - survive by doing jobs that are not regulated by a contract and salary, and it is worse when it comes to women, most of whom do not participate in the regulated labor markets.

"Many people's job is to sell anything on the street," says the expert. He adds that "poverty has not changed in two decades and the minimum wage ($360 per month) does not cover the cost of the food basket."

Migrating in desperation
In a country that has neither industrial development nor the adequate infrastructure to compete in a global world, and whose main source of income is the export of sugar and coffee, neither the government can raise taxes to invest in public policies, nor can its citizens can prosper. Although, according to the BBC, the Guatemalan economy is growing at a healthy rate of 3.4%.

Social inequalities, however, are abysmal.

"We have the smallest middle class in Latin America," says Luis Linares, adding that the country's development is hampered by a mixture of corruption and concentration of wealth in a few hands.

With such a precarious outlook, it is not surprising that at least 100,000 people each year venture towards possible detention – if not death – trying to cross the border into neighboring Mexico with the dream of reaching the United States. If we add to that the hundreds of Honduran migrants who in recent days are arriving in the country in a desperate attempt to escape violence and famine, what is happening in Guatemala far exceeds the statistics.

In the end, people never were and never will be simple numbers, and there is a story beyond the straightforward statistics.
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El Salvador says it’s not ready to receive asylum seekers
AP. February 4, 2020

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — El Salvador is not ready to receive asylum seekers from the United States and will not accept them until it can offer them the necessary protections and support, Foreign Minister Alexandra Hill Tinoco said Wednesday.

El Salvador is one of three Central American governments that signed bilateral agreements with the U.S. government last year that would allow the U.S. to send asylum seekers from its Southwest border to instead apply for asylum in Guatemala, Honduras or El Salvador.

Guatemala started receiving asylum seekers in November, and Honduras and El Salvador are expected to follow.

“We are not going to admit anyone seeking asylum until we as a country have the conditions and technical, financial and human capacity to be able to give these people who are seeking asylum and sent to another country the best treatment,” Hill Tinoco said.

The so-called Asylum Cooperation Agreements are among the measures the U.S. government has taken to close the door to asylum seekers arriving at its border with Mexico.

Hill Tinoco said her government is at the point of determining the technical team that will meet with their U.S. counterparts to develop a plan of how it could work.
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Puerto Rico Bondholders Reach Tentative Deal With Oversight Board
Matt Wirz and Andrew Scurria. Wall Street Journal. February 5, 2020

Competing bondholder groups and the oversight board supervising Puerto Rico’s debt restructuring have reached a tentative compromise that moves the U.S. territory closer to leaving bankruptcy, people familiar with the matter said.

The deal settles a dispute between holders of Puerto Rico general obligation bonds that were issued before 2012 and owners of general obligation bonds issued more recently. The oversight board has previously contested the validity of the newer debt and proposed owners of those bonds receive lower recoveries.

The agreement, which requires court approval, is expected to be announced next week. The board and the competing factions worked out the rough terms of their bargain during court-mandated mediation in recent months but are still discussing some legal points of disagreement, people familiar with the matter said.

Hedge funds including Monarch Alternative Capital LP, GoldenTree Asset Management LP and Whitebox Advisors LLC were part of a committee advocating for owners of the older—or legacy—bonds while a group including Aurelius Capital Management LP and Autonomy Capital negotiated on behalf of investors in the newer bonds. Together, the older and newer bonds total more than $18 billion in debt.

Spokesmen for the oversight board, and both bondholder groups declined to comment.

An early agreement between the legacy group and the oversight board contemplated paying about 64 cents on the dollar for the older bonds and between 45 and 35 cents on the newer bonds. The new deal involves a higher payment on the more recently issued bonds, the people familiar with the matter said.

The price of the U.S. territory’s $3.5 billion bond issued in 2014 has climbed about 11% this year to around 70 cents on the dollar in recent days, its highest valuation since the bankruptcy case began in 2017, according to data from Electronic Municipal Market Access.

Aurelius has waged a legal battle against Puerto Rico and its oversight board that has gone all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court in an effort to increase payouts on their debt.

Region: Trade, Security, Economy and Integration [contents]

Russian FM begins Latin America tour with Fidel Castro tribute
AFP. February 5, 2020

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was due to begin a tour of Latin America by visiting Fidel Castro's tomb in Cuba on Wednesday before meeting with his counterpart from the Caribbean island Bruno Rodriguez.

Lavrov will also visit other left-wing allies Mexico and Venezuela on his trip.

Before leaving for Cuba, Lavrov said he'd picked his itinerary to "pay tribute" to Castro.

"For me this is very significant, because for many generations of Russians, Fidel was an example of true dedication to the homeland and his people," Lavrov told Prensa Latina, Cuba's state news agency.

Castro died in November 2016, 10 years after stepping down as Cuba's leader following almost five decades in power. He led the 1959 communist revolution that ousted US-backed military dictator Fulgencio Batista.

Lavrov's visit comes a day after US President Donald Trump vowed to support the democratic aspirations of Cubans, Venezuelans and Nicaraguans in his State of the Union speech.

"We see the United States' attempts to subordinate Latin America to its geopolitical interests are aimed at toppling 'inconvenient governments' in Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua," said Lavrov.

Trump has ramped up sanctions against Cuba, already subject to a US embargo since 1962.

Lavrov said that in its "eagerness to strangle the island's economy, the United States is consciously committing human rights abuses" that are hurting normal civilians in Cuba.

He said Russia was working with Cuba on "huge energy and metallurgy projects, transport infrastructure, the sphere of cosmic technology development, communication and information technology, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology."

Commerce between Russia and Cuba was worth $388 million in 2018, a 34 percent increase on the previous year, and could reach half a billion dollars in 2019.

Cuba saw a drop of more than nine percent of tourists visiting the island in 2019 but a 30 percent increase in Russians.