Latin america, what an atmosphere. In recent months, tensions on the continent have been continuing, complete with real diplomatic crises between some countries, to the point that the last meeting of the Celac, the region's main political coordination body, has been deserted by many leaders. The Brazilian president Lula, whose leadership in the area is increasingly questioned, visited his Colombian counterpart this week Gustavo Petro in a climate of very high tension. Lula himself wanted to bring Brazil back into Celac, after that with Bolsonaro had come out of it, and the president re-elected for the third time in 2022 had put himself forward as a mediator in a continent that was increasingly less homogeneous from a political point of view: the "red" wave of some ago seems to have vanished, and if it is true that Lula and Petro have cordial relations and are an expression of Latin American socialism, as is Chilean Gabriel boric, the same cannot be said for example of Argentina, where the right-wing extremist Javier Milei he has already insulted Petro himself by calling him a "murderous communist" and has offered asylum to the opponents of the Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro.
Venezuela towards the vote: the tensions
Venezuela, among other things, is one of the countries that will vote this year (the others are Uruguay, Mexico, Panama, El Salvador and the Dominican Republic) and the stop to opposition candidate Maria Corina Machado started a series of tensions, with Lula who, by virtue of his historic friendship with the Chavistas, hesitated before distancing himself and openly condemning the Maduro method. Caracas is under observation, not only by neighboring countries but by the entire international community, starting with the United States, also for the question relating to the annexation, decided in a completely unilateral manner, of theEssequibo, a substantial part (about two thirds) of the territory of nearby Guyana, an independent country but always in the Anglo-Saxon sphere of influence. The country with its capital in Georgetown was in fact an English colony and has today sold almost half of the extraction rights of the very rich offshore oil block of Stabroek to the US giant Exxon. the case Venezuela-Guyana however, it was only the first of a series, between the end of 2023 and the beginning of 2024. Then there was the Argentina-Colombia clash, and more recently those involving Mexico-Ecuador, Honduras and Venezuela-Chile.
Ecuador, that's why it's in the eye of the storm
In truth, Ecuador has been at the center of attention for several months: since last October, when the 35-year-old conservative Daniel Noboa was elected president, the country has become one of those on the "right-wing" front, if we can simplify it that way, together with Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Costa Rica e Guatemala. The new president declared total war on narcos and this generated very violent protests in prisons with hundreds of murders throughout the country, including that of the prosecutor Cesar Suarez, in January. Last April 5, however, a very serious and unprecedented episode occurred: the former Ecuadorian president Jorge Glas, convicted of criminal association and corruption, was captured by the police inside the Mexican embassy in Quito, violating international laws and provoking the indignant reaction of the Mexican president Miguel Angel Lopez Obrador, whose mandate is expiring but still influential in the geopolitical balance of the area. Mexico has decided to interrupt relations with Ecuador and is taking the case to the International Court in The Hague and to the UN, all while according to the local press Glas attempted suicide in prison, a few days after his arrest.
The fact was harshly condemned by all the other presidents, from Lula to Maduro himself who went so far as to ask for the release of former president Glas. A few weeks earlier, in March, many leaders had instead harshly criticized the rotating president of Celac, Honduran Xiomara Castro, socialist, for having expressed, on behalf of the entire continent, non-agreed positions on international politics. Castro had publicly congratulated him on the re-election of Vladimir Putin in Russia, through a statement from which ten countries in the area had dissociated themselves, in particular Argentina and Chile. Chile itself is the protagonist of the latest clash in chronological order, with Venezuela: last April 12th the president Gabriel boric recalled the ambassador from Caracas, after Maduro had claimed that the Venezuelan criminal gang "Tren de Aragua", which operates in Chile, was only the result of a "media fiction". This is only the latest episode in a series that risks making Latin America more unstable and therefore, as history teaches, more vulnerable. With the possibility that not only the USA, but above all the China, take a bite.
