Argentina
A Chinese company has started lithium production in a field located in northern Argentina, in the first of several projects it has scheduled in the South American country. According to Reuters, Ganfeng Lithium is one of the largest producers of the strategic metal, of which Bolivia, Argentina, and Chile have the largest reserves in the world. Bolivia and Chile have been somewhat inclined to open the way to Chinese interests, while Argentina has shown a more balanced vision with significant participation of some wealthy local wallets. The plant for the production of the alkaline metal that Ganfeng has just started up involved an investment of 790 million dollars and should produce 20 thousand metric tons of lithium chloride from the extraction in a salt flat in the province of Salta.
In a manifestation of China's commitment to clean energy, the so-called Mariana project has a solar park valued at US$190 million to supply the energy needed for production. “The Mariana project not only represents an important source of foreign currency earnings but also the creation of genuine, quality employment for hundreds of families,” said Javier Milei´s Mining Secretary. The relationship with China seemed headed for strong tensions marked by the sharp ideological differences between the libertarian Pink House and the Zhōngnánhăi, but the leader of La Libertad Avanza changed his tone facing the stubborn reality. The lithium market shows a downward trend in its prices due to oversupply and lower demand for electric vehicles.
How Argentina took a chainsaw to government, a year before Elon Musk's DOGE https://t.co/GEeTUSjhAu
— The Straits Times (@straits_times) February 12, 2025
Venezuela/Gitmo
Organizations representing relatives of three Venezuelan migrants sent to Guantanamo Bay Naval Base filed a lawsuit against top government officials and agencies pointing to barriers preventing detainees from contacting both relatives or lawyers, so cutting them off from the outside world. The Department of Homeland Security denies this claim alleging the possibility for migrant detainees there to speak to their lawyers via telephone. ''It's troubling enough that we are even sending immigrants from the U.S. to Guantanamo, but it's beyond the pale that we are holding them incommunicado, without access to attorneys, family, or the outside world,'' said a lawyer working with the American Civil Liberties Union, an organization backing the lawsuit. “If the AMERICAN Civil Liberties Union is more interested in highly dangerous criminal migrants than U.S. citizens, they should change their name,” the spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, whose head appears among the defendants, told EFE. Family members deny the alleged criminal links of these Venezuelans to the so-called Aragua Train.
NEW: The family members of three Venezuelan immigrants sent to Guantánamo have sued the Trump administration. Four immigrant-rights orgs are also plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed in DC fed court.
— Sergio Martínez-Beltrán (@SergioMarBel) February 12, 2025
They want attorneys to have access to the detainees & meet. https://t.co/Kr03P1mhvc pic.twitter.com/LN92o9t05A
Mexico
Aztec businessmen raised the creation of a dialogue table with the Zócalo Square to evaluate the relevance of a cap on gasoline prices announced yesterday, Wednesday, by the government of Claudia Sheinbaum. “Price control always generates other types of actions. What is needed is congruence between the increases that are going to be given and the economic reality of the country,” said the president of the Chamber of Commerce of Mexico City. Here we are before another act of an eternal play in which governments are debating between the price cap and the "free" determination of prices by the market. The price cap is a measure branded as populist and repudiated by market players and many experts, who say that it ultimately distorts economic relations.
In this sense, there are calls to achieve something similar to the Package Against Inflation and Famine negotiated during the past government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, through which the containment of prices of basic food basket products was achieved. “We agree that reasonable prices should be maintained to allow commercial stability. If the price is going to be increased, it should not be abrupt. An increase of more than 24 [Mexican] pesos would be harmful, but strict control could also generate unnecessary risks,” added the leader of the Mexican capital's business association. Mexican businessmen are fully engaged as well in negotiations with Washington to avoid the imposition of tariffs on imports of Mexican products and call on Sheinbaum's administration to avoid retaliatory measures and take advantage of spaces such as the T-MEC to manage conflicts.
Buyers of Mexican crude complain of salt and water content, Pemex CEO says #oott https://t.co/sGGzUKOjf4
— Giovanni Staunovo🛢 (@staunovo) February 12, 2025
From El Salvador via X 👇
El Salvador to house minors convicted of organized crime in adult jails https://t.co/sM1bMi2M9O pic.twitter.com/TaDqsMXVEw
— Reuters World (@ReutersWorld) February 13, 2025
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