How Are Regional Leaders Responding to U.S. Attack?

Welcome to Foreign policyLatin American summary.

The most prominent events this week: The United States hit a boat Near Venezuela, Joyana and Jamaica contract General electionsAnd the Brazilians China’s perceptions Improve.

On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump said that the US military had hit a small boat in the Caribbean, killing 11 people on the plane. This step was unprecedented in recent regional history, and legal experts put it as a suspect violation of international law.

The Trump administration has claimed that the boat carried the drug store from the Venezuelan gang, Trine de Aragoa. Kenneth Roth, former CEO of Human Rights Watch, has written in Guardian. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday that the boat represents an “immediate threat” to the United States.

The possibility of conducting the direct American military action against drug cartoons in Latin America has sparked alert throughout the region since February, when Trump began appointing several groups as terrorist organizations – including Treen de Aragua.

Mexican President Claudia Shinbom, who made several concessions with Trump, has repeatedly confirmed that unilateral US military operations in Mexico will cross a red line. Last week, after the US naval deployment to the Caribbean Sea, which preceded the attack on Tuesday, Shinbom said Mexico was against foreign interference.

National sovereignty has become a repeated monitoring word in other Latin American countries – including Brazil and Colombia – where they faced threats of severe tariffs in recent months. So it was amazing that the responses of most regional leaders of the Caribbean operation were relatively silent.

Brazilian President Luiz Inosio Lula Da Silva and Shinbaum immediately did not comment on the attack. On Wednesday, Shinbom met with Rubio in Mexico City and announced increasing cooperation against drug and rifle smuggling. Regardless of the Venezuelan officials themselves, Colombian President Gustavo Petro was a rare voice calling for the American strike, as he wrote on social media that he appears to be up to “killing.”

The left -wing parties were in Shinbom, and had it not been for a historic friendly to the socialist government of Venezuela. But their relations with Caracas became tense last year after strong evidence that Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro had clung to power despite losing the elections.

Shinbom’s silence reflects, without the US strike this week, the distance that opened between their countries and Venezuela since last year. (Petro has recently moved in the other direction, as a new foreign minister was appointed expressed his support for the ruling party of Venezuela.) It may also reflect the fact that both Mexico and Brazil are among the sensitive tariff negotiations with the United States.

Meanwhile, some Latin American countries, which threw themselves friendly to Trump, praised the American marine publishing operations in the Caribbean.

Trinidad and Tobago leader praised the strike and said that the United States should kill drug dealers “violently.” Argentina, Paraguay and Peru were among the countries that followed the United States in the Declaration of Cartel de Los Souls in Venezuela, a terrorist group.

On Wednesday, US Defense Secretary Beit Higseth said that the American mission against drug trafficking in the Caribbean region will not “stop with this strike only” and that anyone appointing a “drug player” will face the same fate. The US Congress did not declare the military force against Trin de Aragoa or any other gangs that Trump recently appointed as terrorist groups.

The war nature of the attack “determines a very disturbing precedent”, Paulo Felho, a retired Brazilian colonel and a former military academy coach, was published on social media.

Filho continued: “What is the maximum of this type of procedure? Who imposes such limits? President Trump? Does law give him this power?

Tuesday, September 9, to Friday, September 12: The trial of the Supreme Court in the former Brazilian court, Gear Bolsonaro. He faces charges of planning a coup after the 2022 election loss.

Sunday, September 7, to Wednesday, September 10: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to visit Argentina.

Commercial conversations. The European Union High Command submitted a possible trade agreement with the Customs Union in South America to the European Council for approval on Wednesday. The European Union has also announced a project of plans for a mechanism to protect European agricultural products from an increase in imports. The farmers, especially in France, opposed the Mercosur deal.

The Minister of Trade in France said on Wednesday that he was “reasonably optimistic” about the deal. On the side of the European Union, the ratification of the deal requires the majority vote in the European parliament and the approval of at least 15 countries, representing 65 percent of the European Union population; Inside MERCOSUR, ratification occurs in national legislative bodies.

In more temporary news, but it is still worth noting, Paraguay and Uruguay are in talks with about eight other countries – including Singapore and the United Arab Emirates – to join a commercial facilitation agreement, Financial times I mentioned last week. After a step less than the official deal, the agreement aims to increase trade between countries through confidence -enhancement measures, including the adoption of digital trade documents.

Beijing image stumbled. The decline in relations between Brazil and the United States since Trump took office has been consequences for the image of the United States in the largest country in Latin America. This year, the views of the Brazilians of the United States have become more negative, while their perceptions of China have become more positive, and they found opinion polls in a study issued last week.

Between October 2024 and August, the number of Brazilians who have an unsuccessful vision of the United States jumped from 24 to 48 percent, while the level has a favorable vision of China increased from 38 to 49 percent.

It is not the only poll that discovers the improvements in the Brazilians’ perception of China. A survey of the Pew Research Center, which lasted between January and late April, found that 51 percent of the Brazilians had a positive vision of China, an increase of 45 percent in 2024. Most field works were conducted before Trump announced a severe tariff for countries around the world in early April.

Kito photos. Half -built buildings, flowers sellers, and people who run on rain among the topics of a series of articles on the Ecuadorian news site GK. The series celebrates the hair of daily life in Quito and will be one mark in publishing next month. Its 44 photo collections offer a contemplative view of a city often in news about political polarization and gang violence.

Photographers Nicole Moscoso Fergara and Jose Maria Leon Kaberera tell economic and political stories about the city as well. Each places of mutations and economic detection, and flowers are one of the best exports of the country.

Meanwhile, falling into the rain is a great goal in the indistential mountain climate in the city. The editors quote the famous Ecuadorian poet in the eighteenth century, Juan Baotista Agiri, who wrote that the sky of Kito alternates between the presentation of “blessings” and behavior as a good.

Joyanian president, Erfan Ali and his wife, Aria Ali, a gesture to the media after voting at a polling station during the general elections in Leonura, Guyana, on September 1.Keno George/AFP via Getty Images

The current leaders in Guana and Qamaica were victorious in the general elections this week. Joyani Erfan Ali and Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holins are appointed for another period in his post.

Guyana’s vote took place on Monday, while Jamaica was on Wednesday. According to the preliminary results from both elections, the Progressive Party of the Ruler (PPP/C) won more than twice the number of votes its closest rival. The Jamaica Labor Party won about 34 out of 63 legislative seats available.

In Guyana, the debate before the elections focused on whether the country was using the best of oil clarity. The government’s budget has turned since it started production in 2019, but by 2024, 58 percent of Joyanians still live in poverty, according to the American Development Bank.

PPP/C has explained new investments in Guyana, schools and hospitals, while the opposition claimed that PPP/C has transferred some money to the party’s allies. PPP/C denies allegations.

In Jamaica, where security is a major issue for voters, the country is on its way to register the lowest rate of its killing for more than 20 years. Holness invested in police and equipment training and stressed the collection of intelligence information.

“The decrease in the murder rate in Jamaica is a direct result of the strategic focus of Prime Minister Andrew Holins on the dismantling of organized crime since he took office,” wrote Diana Thorporne at the Caribbean Policy Research Institute. Foreign policy this week.