Welcome again to International Coverage’s Latin America Transient.
The highlights this week: Latin American international locations react to the U.S. seize of Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro, Guyanese authorities crack down on gold smuggling, and new Mexican tariffs go into impact.
The acronym TACO, which stands for “Trump All the time Chickens Out,” unfold on U.S. social media final 12 months because the White Home backed down from some tariff threats towards buying and selling companions. However U.S. President Donald Trump’s brazen actions within the final week point out that he could have left that moniker behind in 2025.
On Jan. 3, elite U.S. navy forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his spouse, Cilia Flores, bombing Caracas in a nighttime raid and killing an estimated 75 individuals. It was the primary time that the USA had apprehended a sitting overseas chief since 1990. The couple have been then flown to New York, the place they’re now standing trial on drug trafficking and different fees.
U.S. officers say they may use a blockade on Venezuelan oil to use the stress wanted to direct coverage within the nation, particularly in its oil sector, for an indefinite period of time.
The occasions showcased a brand new U.S. consolation with utilizing navy pressure to attain Trump’s aims. In addition they made world leaders take much more severely his threats to make use of navy pressure towards Colombia, Mexico, and Greenland.
True to present political division within the area, Latin American leaders issued a spread of responses to the raid.
Proper-wing administrations pleasant to Trump, reminiscent of these in Argentina and Ecuador, celebrated what they characterised because the seize of a drug trafficking boss. However leftist-led international locations reminiscent of Brazil and Colombia noticed Trump as breaking worldwide regulation and stealing sovereign assets.
Many officers in Europe and Latin America have launched statements in latest days calling for respect of worldwide regulation and the United Nations Constitution. The Trump administration has paid little significance to such arguments prior to now. On Wednesday, Trump introduced plans to withdraw from dozens of worldwide and U.N. our bodies.
Privately, officers have debated methods for preserving their sovereignty within the face of U.S. threats. This contains each the short-term work of “placing out the fireplace” of the day in addition to the long-term work of rebuilding an “worldwide order that’s minimally primarily based in guidelines,” mentioned a senior Brazilian official, who spoke to International Coverage anonymously to debate a delicate topic.
Brazil succeeded in dampening a Trump hearth final 12 months, when the president reversed course on some U.S. tariffs and sanctions imposed on the nation for its prosecution of right-wing former President Jair Bolsonaro, a Trump ally. Over months, Brazilian officers and personal sector interlocutors appealed to their contacts in Washington about what each international locations stood to achieve from a optimistic relationship and emphasised sure pink strains in regards to the nation’s sovereignty.
“Dialogue, reflection, and the usage of diplomacy are important,” the Brazilian official mentioned, including that the truth that Brazil had diversified its worldwide companions over time additionally helped the nation stand its floor.
Panama, a detailed U.S. ally that confronted muscular threats from the Trump administration final 12 months, didn’t explicitly condemn the Maduro raid however has spoken up about nationwide sovereignty in its wake. Trump “is just not the proprietor of Venezuela,” President José Raúl Mulino informed Panamanian tv station Telemetro this week. “This isn’t the Wild West.”
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, in the meantime, has in latest months talked down U.S. officers’ concepts of hanging the nation by dramatically increasing anti-drug safety cooperation with the Trump administration.
Trump officers have floated the thought of bombing cartel belongings in Mexico. “If [Sheinbaum] actually feels stress, perhaps she will supply a coordinated strike” somewhat than be topic to a unilateral one, mentioned Imdat Oner, a political scientist at Florida Worldwide College and former Turkish diplomat within the area.
Diplomatic outreach appeared to supply a gap to Colombian President Gustavo Petro this week, even after his verbal sparring with Trump escalated into threats of U.S. navy motion towards Bogotá. Petro wrote on social media on Thursday that “methodical diplomatic work” by Colombian envoys in Washington had resulted in a optimistic name with Trump the day earlier than.
Just a few Latin American international locations are attempting to have an effect on what occurs subsequent in Venezuela by calling for a democratic transition and freedom for political prisoners at boards such because the U.N. Safety Council and the Group of American States (OAS). Maduro’s administration continues to be operating the nation; his former deputy, Delcy Rodríguez, is now serving as president.
Some international locations, most vocally Chile, each known as for a transition to democracy and condemned the U.S. raid. “Chile has been constant in condemning the human rights violations by the dictatorial Nicolás Maduro regime and has completely argued for the necessity for a peaceable, Venezuelan-led democratic resolution,” its envoy mentioned. Chile’s present progressive authorities is in its remaining months; a pro-Trump chief is because of be inaugurated in March.
OAS Secretary-Common Albert Ramdin provided the group’s technical experience to help a democratic transition, together with its expertise in election monitoring, human rights monitoring, and migration insurance policies. “Venezuela’s path have to be grounded within the will of its individuals,” he mentioned.
Although Trump didn’t point out pro-democracy efforts in Venezuela in his preliminary feedback in regards to the raid, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has lengthy backed the nation’s opposition. On Wednesday, Rubio informed reporters that U.S. plans for Venezuela envisioned a “reconciliation” interval wherein members of the opposition could be granted amnesty and free of jail.
On Thursday, Venezuela’s high legislator mentioned the nation would launch an “necessary quantity” of prisoners, calling the step a peace gesture. A whole lot of political prisoners have been being held within the nation at the beginning of the 12 months, in line with human rights teams.
Friday, Jan. 9: U.S. oil corporations meet with Trump on the White Home to debate involvement in Venezuela.
Wednesday, Jan. 21: The U.N. Safety Council discusses Haiti.
Colombia’s wage hike. Petro introduced final week that he was issuing a presidential decree elevating the minimal wage within the nation by virtually 23 p.c, efficient Jan. 1. Talks occurred final month between unions and enterprise leaders in regards to the measurement of the wage enhance, however they reached no settlement. Within the absence of a deal, Petro hiked massive.
Colombian companies had projected a smaller hike—final 12 months’s was round 9 p.c—and mentioned they must redo a lot of their plans for the 12 months because of Petro’s transfer. Economists mentioned the measure may enhance inflation within the nation past the three.6 p.c that the central financial institution projected for 2026.
Petro’s technique stands other than extra gradual and broadly mentioned wage hikes in Mexico underneath Sheinbaum’s Morena celebration; to justify the choice, Petro mentioned final week that social justice considerations trumped different financial variables.
An aerial view of a gold mining space within the municipality of Cachoeira do Piriá, Brazil, on Nov. 12.Mauro Pimentel/AFP by way of Getty Pictures
Gold smuggling crackdown. Guyana revoked the licenses of greater than 100 Brazilian gold miners and threatened to deport them this week after discovering that they have been breaking legal guidelines relating to promoting wares to accepted consumers. Gold is one in all Guyana’s high exports alongside oil, and unlawful gold mining is a significant supply of financing for prison teams throughout South America.
Throughout the border, in Brazil, authorities have been working with Interpol to crack down on unlawful gold mining. They carried out a raid within the Madeira River basin final November that focused unlawful miners linked to smuggling networks in Brazil, Bolivia, and Peru. Interpol’s work towards unlawful mining within the area has grown as a quiet type of cross-border safety cooperation.
Flavors of Epiphany. Christmas season ended this week, in line with the Catholic calendar, with Epiphany—also referred to as Three Kings Day—on Jan. 6. The vacation, which celebrates the biblical story of clever males visiting Jesus, is noticed throughout the area, although with completely different flavors.
Usually, communities make their very own variations of ring-shaped King’s muffins (or king muffins) with a hidden child figurine inside to shock one eater. In Mexico, the muffins are sometimes served alongside atole, a scorching, candy, corn-based drink; in some elements of the nation, the one that finds the infant figurine of their cake is answerable for inviting everybody else again for tamales in early February.
Maybe essentially the most syncretic model of the vacation happens in Bolivia, the place Aymara Indigenous shamans bless child Jesus collectible figurines with incense. Some celebrators pray to each Jesus and Pachamama—mom Earth—on Epiphany.
Christianity is by far Latin America’s largest organized faith. Which of the next international locations does not have a metropolis known as Bethlehem?
Argentina
Mexico
Brazil
Nicaragua
Mexico has loads of cities named for saints and different biblical figures. Consider your favourite “San”!
An worker works on the Kold Roll metal bar manufacturing facility in Santa Catarina, Mexico, on Nov. 4, 2025.Julio Cesar Aguilar/AFP by way of Getty Pictures
On Jan. 1, sweeping new Mexican tariffs took impact on merchandise from international locations with which Mexico doesn’t have a free commerce settlement. The brand new duties cowl greater than 1,000 merchandise and vary from 5 to 50 p.c.
Sheinbaum has described the tariffs as a part of her effort to spice up home trade in sectors reminiscent of metal, automotive manufacturing, and textiles. However additionally they comply with Trump administration stress for Mexico to lift tariffs on Chinese language imports.
China is by far essentially the most affected by the duties. However so are Latin American commerce companions: Brazil is the fifth-most impacted nation, in line with a preliminary estimate by Brazil’s Nationwide Confederation of Trade (CNI). The tariffs are anticipated to have an effect on Brazilian exports totaling some $1.7 billion per 12 months, in line with CNI.
Brazilian officers haven’t overtly criticized the tariffs, as Chinese language officers have, however say they’re in dialogue with Mexico about their results.
For Mexico, the brand new tariffs are a watershed reversal from the free commerce orientation that had outlined the nation for the reason that late Nineteen Eighties, the Nationwide Autonomous College of Mexico’s José Ignacio Martínez Cortés informed El País.
For the world, they characterize the contagion of Trump-style unilateral tariffs, the Brazilian International Commerce Affiliation’s José Augusto de Castro informed Valor Econômico.
A part of the explanation Trump’s tariffs didn’t harm the worldwide financial system in 2025 as a lot as analysts initially predicted was as a result of different international locations held again on imposing levies of their very own, teams such because the World Commerce Group and Worldwide Financial Fund have mentioned. New duties from Mexico and different main economies, together with India, counsel that might change.
