Welcome back to Foreign Policy’s Latin America Brief.
The highlights this week: The U.S. Treasury Department sanctions Haiti’s former president, Mexican court workers go on strike, and Prince Harry and Meghan Markle tour Colombia.
Sign up to receive Latin America Brief in your inbox every Friday.
Sign up to receive Latin America Brief in your inbox every Friday.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Treasury Department announced that it had imposed sanctions on former Haitian President Michel Martelly, who led the country from 2011 to 2016. Martelly is accused of involvement in cocaine trafficking to the United States and allegedly sponsored multiple Haiti-based gangs, according to the Treasury statement.
Martelly had a role in “perpetuating the ongoing crisis in Haiti,” a Treasury official said, while a U.S. State Department spokesperson said that “it is unacceptable for Haitian political and economic elites to plunder Haiti’s future.”
Treasury did not provide many details about the allegations, and no new U.S. charges against Martelly have been publicized. But he has been accused of involvement in drug trafficking as far back as 2010, when he ran for president. Canada sanctioned Martelly for his ties to gangs in 2022; the United Nations named him in a 2023 report on potential sanctions targets.
Corruption charges against Martelly have also moved forward in both U.S. and Haitian courts. The U.S. charges were eventually dropped after several witnesses were afraid to testify; in Haiti, a judge issued an arrest warrant for Martelly in January that has not been carried out.
Despite the long-standing allegations against Martelly, the United States maintained a warm relationship with him for years.
Washington urged Haitian authorities to remove a rival candidate from the ballot in the 2010 vote that brought Martelly to power; partnered with him on hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of reconstruction projects after a 2010 earthquake; and backed his handpicked successor, Jovenel Moïse. Moïse was assassinated in 2021, which hastened Haiti’s descent into its current security crisis.
Martelly “was someone the United States invested tremendous political capital in after the earthquake and during the reconstruction,” said the Center for Economic and Policy Research’s Jake Johnston, whose book Aid State looks at the opaque nature of U.S. funding earmarked for Haiti.
Ahead of Tuesday’s sanctions announcement, Martelly—who is also a singer who still performs under the stage name “Sweet Micky”—had been reportedly weighing a return to Haiti’s political scene. But now, with his U.S. transactions frozen, “I am not sure how he can be of significance anymore in the political game in Haiti,” political scientist Robert Fatton told the Miami Herald.
It is not clear why Washington decided to sanction Martelly now, but Johnston said that recent events in U.S.-Haiti relations offer some clues. The United States backs a transitional government in the country that was installed after the ouster of Moïse’s unelected successor, Ariel Henry, who served as acting prime minister. An ongoing international security mission aims to reduce gang violence in the country.
The United States is one of the main funders of that mission, which is being led on the ground by Kenya. So far, police officers have mostly stayed near their base at Haiti’s international airport while gangs have increased their hold on neighborhoods around the capital, Port-au-Prince.
Haitian Prime Minister Garry Conille, who leads the transitional government, has long had a difficult relationship with Martelly, dating back to a period when he worked under Martelly and sought to investigate international aid contracts between Haiti and Venezuela. As Martelly weighed a comeback, tensions between the two politicians appear to have resurfaced: Last month, Conille ordered an investigation into a firm run by Martelly allies.
The new sanctions, which prompted an emergency cabinet meeting in Port-au-Prince, underscore the United States’ continued influence on Haitian politics. “The impression is that Martelly has been a blocker or a spoiler for Conille,” Johnston said. “This could be a way for the U.S. to not only beat back that aspect … but also send a signal to others who might be opposed to Conille or contemplating action against him.”
Sunday, Sept. 1: Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador gives an annual speech on the executive branch’s accomplishments, similar to a state of the nation address.
Hurricane clauses. Last month, Hurricane Beryl wreaked havoc throughout the Caribbean but did not trigger a payout for a Jamaican catastrophe bond designed for natural disasters because the storm’s air pressure was too weak. Beryl was strong enough, however, for Grenada to activate its own new climate financial instrument.
Last week, after doing the math on damages from Beryl, Grenada became the first country to use a so-called hurricane clause, which will allow it to delay payments on its national debt to certain creditors. Hurricane clauses are slowly being rolled out in other countries, including Barbados.
Grenada’s prime minister estimated that the storm caused damage equivalent to one-third of the country’s annual output. Grenada will postpone payments to lenders, including one due in November and another due next May, and instead pay them by the end of the entire payment period in 2030.
Ortega’s latest move. In its latest crackdown on dissent, the Nicaraguan government this week stripped more than 1,500 nonprofit organizations of their registrations, effectively forcing them to close. They included nearly 700 groups with religious affiliations, many of them Catholic. Although authoritarian President Daniel Ortega is himself Catholic, church leaders—including Pope Francis—have been increasingly critical of his leadership.
This month, Nicaragua also expelled the Brazilian ambassador, which led to a retaliatory move from Brazil. The governments did not announce the reason for their downgraded ties, but a rift had been growing between them after Ortega did not respond to the Pope’s calls to stop repression against Nicaraguan Catholic leaders.
Harry y Meghan. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle traveled to Colombia last week, meeting with Vice President Francia Márquez in Bogotá, Cartagena, and Cali, a stop that included salsa dancing.
Although the couple have officially stepped back from royal duties, the trip had a diplomatic tinge: They were invited to the country by Márquez and attended meetings about women’s rights and cyberbullying as representatives of their charity foundation. They also traveled with a media entourage, and Meghan wore multiple outfits by Colombian designers.
The high-profile visit also demonstrated Colombia’s growing appeal as a tourist destination. Colombian politicians have long touted the country’s potential to become a major hub for international visitors. Although violence continues in some regions of the country, the overall number of homicides has vastly dropped in recent decades.
In 2023, Colombia was among the five Latin American and Caribbean countries that received the most tourists, according to the United Nations.
Around how many foreign tourists visited Colombia in 2023?
8.6 million
7.6 million
6.6 million
5.6 million
According to the U.N. World Tourism Organization, Colombia ranked fifth, behind Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Argentina, and Brazil.
Thousands of judges and court workers went on strike in Mexico this week to protest López Obrador’s proposed overhaul of the country’s justice system. The issue has drawn opposition from international investors, local economists, and the Mexican human rights community, among others.
On Sept. 1, legislators who were elected in June will take office, giving López Obrador’s party a larger congressional majority than during most of his six-year term. His successor, Claudia Sheinbaum, will be inaugurated on Oct. 1. That gives López Obrador one month in which he has pledged to enact a version of a reform package that Congress rejected in the past.
One of the most controversial proposals is a judicial reform that would see magistrates, including those on the Supreme Court, elected by popular vote. The plan would also downgrade the role of professional exams and increase politicians’ power to select judicial candidates before the election.
López Obrador said the process would reduce corruption, but critics say it could install judges favorable to the ruling party. Some U.S. states allow for direct election of some judges, but worldwide, only Bolivia directly elects Supreme Court justices, the Washington-based Federal Justice Center said.
The prospect of diminished judicial independence now looms in Mexico. Morgan Stanley downgraded its investment outlook for the country this week due to the proposed reforms, while U.S. business groups said in a joint letter that the proposal could violate the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement.
Human rights groups also voiced concern. Mexico’s “proposed judicial reform would lead to the continuation and deepening of patterns of impunity and abuse against the population,” wrote Stephanie Brewer of the Washington Office on Latin America.
The post U.S. Treasury Sanctions Former Haitian President appeared first on Foreign Policy.
