Carney Davos Speech Resonates in Latin America, a Region Used to U.S. Overreach

Welcome back to Foreign policyLatin America Brief.

This week’s highlights: Latin America’s reaction to the speech in World Economic ForumGuatemala Sen A EmergencyAnd the battles of Chile Deadly forest fires.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, this week was a direct message to many Latin American countries. After denouncing the liberal international order as a “fiction,” Carney called on the “middle powers” ​​to unite to defend their common principles, autonomy, and economies – or risk joining the “list” of more powerful powers.

Carney was responding to US President Donald Trump’s repeated trashing of norms, including respect for the sovereignty of other countries and international treaties. Trump threatened to make Canada the 51st US state and showed disregard for a trade agreement he negotiated with the northern neighbor of the United States during his first term.

Indeed, Latin American countries are more aware than Canada of the assertive American behavior. This is due to a long history of American intervention in the region.

However, many conservative Latin American leaders chose to openly support Trump’s policies. Among them is Argentine President Javier Miley, who criticized the “disastrous” effects of international institutions on Wednesday in Davos and elected to join Trump’s so-called Gaza peace council.

But some other governments have taken a more independent stance. These countries include Colombia and Brazil, which are led by leftists. The two countries have sent senior officials to Davos in the past, but did not send their presidents this year.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro was planning to attend the conference, but he canceled his trip at the last minute in order to prepare for his upcoming visit to the White House. colombiano I mentioned. Petro and Trump agreed to hold a meeting on February 3 after a call for de-escalation this month.

Petro’s circumstances help explain why Latin American leaders have not been vocal about American aggression in Davos: many of those who object to Washington’s behavior are acting cautiously, fearing it will lead to further backlash.

Some regional officials shared Carney’s letter on social media and in text messages they reviewed Foreign policyMexican President Claudia Sheinbaum praised her at a press conference. Although many Latin Americans welcomed its themes, they did not find them new: academics and policymakers in the region had spent years publicly expressing their preference for active nonalignment – ​​the approach championed by Carney – after suffering the negative effects of great power positions on the world stage.

Perhaps the message most similar to the criticism directed by Carney in recent days came from Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Writing in New York Times On Sunday, Lula described the US attack in Venezuela on January 3 as “another unfortunate chapter in the continuing erosion of international law and the multilateral order established after World War II.” But Lula mentioned in the same article that Brazil is negotiating with the United States in areas such as investment and fighting crime.

In addition to his global remarks, Carney specifically praised Canada’s progress toward reaching a trade agreement with the South American Customs Union (Mercosur). While the European Union has just completed such an agreement, the European parliament voted on Wednesday to subject it to a harsh review process by a court, casting doubt on the future of the agreement.

Ultimately, how able are Latin American countries to respond to a “world without rules” – as Lula’s advisor Celso Amorim described it in his recent speech? Economist Essay – will be measured more by economic results than speeches. That’s why the lack of a major speech by a regional leader in Davos this week may be less significant than the fact that top officials from Chile to Mexico were in attendance at the Swiss resort, promoting their countries as investment destinations.

They have their work cut out for them. The region’s average annual growth rate is just above 2%, a rate so low that the Davos Commission on Latin America is dedicated to examining how to break this “growth ceiling.”

Friday 23 January: The UN Security Council discusses the Colombia issue.

Tuesday 27 January: Honduran President-elect Nasri Asfora takes the constitutional oath.

Wednesday, January 28 to Thursday, January 29: The Latin American and Caribbean Development Bank hosts its annual forum in Panama.

Sunday 1 February: Costa Rica holds general elections.

Tuesday 3 February: Petro and Trump meet at the White House.

Selling Venezuelan oil. The first $300 million in Venezuelan oil sales facilitated by the United States has passed into the control of the Venezuelan government, acting President Delcy Rodriguez said on Tuesday. She added that the funds would be used in Venezuelan currency markets as part of efforts to control inflation and help “stabilize” the country, without providing further details. Reuters reported that some of the first US-brokered purchases went to oil refineries on the US Gulf Coast.

Delcy and her brother Jorge Rodriguez, president of Venezuela’s National Assembly, said they would lead changes in the law governing the country’s oil sector to allow more private investment. Current law generally requires private investors to form partnerships with the state oil company.

Forest fires in Chile. Wildfires have been raging in south-central Argentina and Chile over the past week, killing at least 21 people in Chile. Deadly wildfires are becoming increasingly common in the country amid droughts caused by global warming. The 2024 fires killed more than 130 people.

The latest disaster in Chile comes as President-elect José Antonio Cast prepares to take office in March. He pledged that he would devote early efforts to reconstruction after the fire and met with outgoing President Gabriel Buric to discuss the fires on Monday.

On Tuesday, Kast appointed his cabinet. Environment Minister Francisca Toledo is a civil engineer and has no known experience in the field of environmental protection. She is close to CAST’s incoming finance minister, Jorge Quiroz, who has pledged to reduce economic regulations.

Nobel teaching. Teachers from Argentina and Colombia are among this year’s 10 finalists for the Global Teacher Prize, nicknamed the “Nobel Prize for Teaching.” The winner will be announced in Dubai early next month.

Argentina’s candidate is Gloria Argentina Cisneros, a rural teacher in a part of northern Chaco province that lacks running water. Although resources are scarce, the Cisneros School has guided students through projects in biodiversity conservation and traditional medicine – regularly earning them recognition at science fairs.

In Colombia, finalist Josho Castellanos Paternina created an app to help teenage students study core parts of the country’s public school curriculum. The platform is now recommended by government education officials.

The award is awarded every year by the UK-based Varkey Foundation, which aims to raise the profile of teaching globally. Latin American countries overwhelmingly rank in the bottom half of countries surveyed in mathematics, reading and science proficiency in the widely respected Program for International Student Assessment (PISA).

Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo greets a relative of a slain police officer during a funeral at the Interior Ministry headquarters in Guatemala City on January 19.Johan Ordonez/AFP via Getty Images

A wave of violence in Guatemala over the weekend led President Bernardo Arevalo to declare a month-long state of emergency on Sunday. The Guatemalan Congress approved the measure the next day.

The unrest began when gangs took hostages in three high-security prisons. When government forces began an operation to retake a prison, gangs outside the prison walls began killing police officers. The authorities said that at least 10 officers were killed in those clashes.

As part of the declared state of emergency, the right to public assembly has been suspended, and officials can carry out arrests without a warrant. It mimics states of exception first imposed by neighboring countries El Salvador and Honduras in 2022, both of which have continued since then.

Arevalo – a progressive – has previously refrained from taking such a step and has generally defended human rights concerns. But he is also trying to maintain Guatemala’s positive relationship with Washington, which relies heavily on officials in Latin America to fight crime. The Guatemalan police took advantage of the new permits they obtained under the state of emergency, on Tuesday, to carry out a large operation against the Barrio 18 gang in the capital, Guatemala City.