The Latin American Report # 205

Maduro registers but blocks the substitute designated by MCM

The main opposition force had still not been able to register its candidate for the July 28 elections by late Monday afternoon, as the website set up for this purpose by the highest electoral authority remains blocked. This is the latest trick of a Chavism that does not stop tripping democracy. It could be a simple irritant and end up enabling it, but we will only know that at midnight. Tick-tock. The red force is playing with fire somehow, while an international community that rebukes it by default has already assimilated that María Corina Machado will not be on the ballot—one of the strongest claims when they started talking about elections. There are nine candidates other than Maduro, although it is understood that none of them constitutes neither a real opposition to the head of the Miraflores Palace nor much less a real option to remove from there a political movement that has been in power for more than 20 years. The deadline to register the candidacies was this Monday, and in such sense, Machado—the critical opposition card who is under a controversial disqualification—delayed too much the decision to propose another candidate in her place. Now, with the noose around their necks, they are asking for a three-day extension. The opposition, once again, has moved or chosen the wrong chess pieces.

"My rights as a Venezuelan citizen are being violated by not allowing me to access the system and register my candidacy for the Presidency of Venezuela", said Corina Yoris, an 80-year-old philosopher appointed by Machado to drive the opposition spear into the Chavista belly. Strategically, it did not seem to me the happiest option, by the way. As far as I am concerned, Chavismo has a card to play against Yoris—although for the moment there is nothing formal or firm against her—, and it is her participation in the primary election process that today "legitimizes" the political capital of Maria Corina, and which was not executed by the provisions of the Constitution. Apart from the political identities of each one, it must be agreed that Chavismo has not taken any step not conceived in the Magna Carta, nor has it committed itself to anything other than respecting the legal order. For example, in the El País article I have linked above, it is said that Maduro's chief negotiator would have made Washington and the opposition itself believe that they would not stand in the way of disqualified candidates, but that was not what was included in the agreements, at least not explicitly. The opposition did not sign that María Corina would be a candidate "for sure", but that there would be a process to review the disqualification. So tomorrow we will update how this first phase closed, or if there was an extension for the opposition.

_{Corina Yoris}

Bones and burned human flesh found in Mexico

Relatives and activists who voluntarily organized themselves to search for missing persons in the Aztec nation reported the dantesque finding of "bones and parts of skin, burned human flesh and with a fetid aroma" in a farm that was half-open in the town of El Salto, Jalisco state. This is the jurisdiction where the Government recognizes the highest number of missing persons in the whole country, close to 15,000 out of a total of 100,000. Members of the civil society that discuss this figure complain to the Mexican President that he focuses his efforts more on "making up" the statistics than on the concrete and direct search of this type of clandestine burial. On Monday of last week, the Executive reported that it had located in-home visits more than 20,000 people reported missing. So, AMLO would be busy looking for living people and not for burned human flesh and mutilated bodies abandoned in any vacant lot in Mexico's geography. As I always say, when López Obrador became president the country was already plunged into the terror of organized crime, but findings like those reported in Jalisco—where a second artisanal oven was found with fragments of bones and teeth—simply hurt, period. One has to assume. A total of 27 bags with human remains were recovered.

#Jalisco | Hallan hornos clandestinos en los que quemaban cuerpos, en una finca de #ElSalto.

Madres buscadoras de @GuerrerosJalisc, sacaron bolsas con aparentemente restos humanos, las cuales deben ser analizadas por #autoridades forenses.https://t.co/nvODrBaAs1#VIDEO pic.twitter.com/fwbjjCXyer

— Fuerza Informativa Azteca (@AztecaNoticias) March 25, 2024

Dos hornos artesanales a nivel de piso, 27 bolsas con restos humanos, 7 fosas, infinidad de huesos calcinados, piezas dentales y ropa fue lo encontrado al interior de una finca abandonada sobre la privada la Peñita casi esquina con la Piedrera en la colonia Las Pintitas, El Salto pic.twitter.com/cbtTWQl4Vr

— Leonardo Schwebel (@LeoSchwebel) March 25, 2024

The limits of social tolerance to Milei are tested in April

Most of the (mainstream) media point out that people in Argentina are bravely and decisively taking on Javier Milei's fierce fiscal adjustment, according to so-called prestigious consulting firms. The narrative of the contumacious market anarchist has managed to continue charging all the food and service blows suffered by the people to the Peronist government of Alberto Fernández, and (in)directly to Cristina Fernández. "The blame remains with the previous governments. And to the inheritance is added that for many [this] is the last chance for the country to move forward after more than a decade of stagnation and three failed governments", said an old consultant to La Nación. So Milei continues to enjoy "high popularity and trust", and he would have recovered ground in both indicators. The thing is that the worst is yet to come according to the estimates of experts and political operators close to the Pink House. "In the next months, the social issue will be critical", says a legislator who has a direct line with the liberal president, although particularly April is supposed to be the peak of these hard times. The prophecy of La Libertad Avanza is that after the storm will come the calm, but I always wonder if the calm will be fiscal or social. The government has taken palliative measures but they would by no means be enough to cushion the fall. Last week there were demonstrations by groups demanding food for soup kitchens overwhelmed by demand, which were repressed with water and pepper spray.

_{The price of sunflower oil has increased by 125% between December and March (source).}

Breaking on Bolsonaro

Brazil's Bolsonaro stayed two days in Hungarian embassy after passport seized https://t.co/5IOvqCVkww pic.twitter.com/oepdEtmn29

— Reuters (@Reuters) March 25, 2024

Latest on Haiti

Death threats and security concerns hinder creation of council that will choose Haiti’s next leader https://t.co/wY6kY045dV

— The Globe and Mail (@globeandmail) March 25, 2024

And this is all for our report today. I have referenced the sources dynamically in the text, and remember you can learn how and where to follow the LATAM trail news by reading my work here. Have a nice day.