Mexicans in the United States have increased the flow of remittances to their country facing the real possibility of being deported, with the border city of Tijuana as a good example of this dynamic. The leader of the public accountants' guild there said that new immigration policies in the northern neighbor—after Donald Trump's flamboyant and disturbing return to the White House—has led “to a state of psychosis for thousands of [...] Mexican nationals [who] do not know if tomorrow they will be at home because they could be deported”. In this situation, according to the accountant, the natural thing to do is to try to preserve monetary assets that could be frozen on the northern side of the border. So U.S.-based Mexicans are transferring money to relatives in the south to keep it safe and "be able to use it”. Notwithstanding this, in the last few days, the noise surrounding the deportation issue has diminished.
SourceNew political assassinations on Aztec soil
Hitmen allegedly associated with organized crime assassinated a commander and an agent of a body attached to the Attorney General's Office in the troubled Mexican state of Michoacán. According to state authorities, the victims were assigned to the regional sub-delegation in Apatzingán, the main municipality in Michoacan's Tierra Caliente region. The latter has been widely reported as a certainly hot zone, where violence and extortion of lemon growers, mainly, prevail.
The Jalisco Cartel New Generation, one of those that would be designated as an International Terrorist Organization by the Trump administration, is among the main actors in the fight for control of criminal activity there. The bodies of the killed officials—previously kidnapped on Saturday—were found abandoned at different times on the road, with signs of torture and bullet holes in them. The press reports that their work was directly targeting leaders of drug cartels operating in the region.
Lemon growers in the Apatzingán Valley are subjected to extortion by organized crime (source).Another on Mexico, via X
Mexican president downplays US drone report as part of 'little campaign' https://t.co/IaXyS0yJq0
— The Straits Times (@straits_times) February 18, 2025
MEXICO'S ECONOMY SECRETARY TO MEET WITH TRUMP OFFICIALS IN US IN 'FIRST CONVERSATION' ON TRADE
Paraguay
Institutionalism in the South American nation is going through a moment of crisis following the revelations of chats implicating legislative and judicial officials in an influence-peddling and bribery scheme. President Santiago Peña is under pressure because at least two high-ranking officials seem to be involved in some way with the scandal, while a congressman of his party, vice-president of a strategic judicial body, is directly pointed out as an active part of the alleged scheme. The latter goes back to the obscure death—during a police raid—of a congressman, also a member of the ruling party, whose leaked chats uncovered the Pandora's box early this month. “Corruption and the mafia have become embedded in the branches of government,” an official of an opposition party told EFE. “There is no self-criticism of the system of corruption that sustains the governing party,” said another deputy, who also criticized the Public Prosecutor's Office. Former president Horacio Cortes, leader of the Colorado Party, has been accused of corruption in his country and in the United States, where he is under sanction. Paraguay decreased its score in the Corruption Perception Index prepared by Transparency International, placing it just one step away from the podium of the worst in the region.
SourceYour quick Latam newsreel
Former Guantanamo prisoners of Algerian, Moroccan, Tunisian, Yemeni, and British nationality, denounce the conditions experienced while they were held in the detention center of the naval base that the United States maintains in Cuba. “No one deserves to be thrown into a system created to erase them,” they say in an open letter. “Guantanamo is not just a prison: it is a place where the law is distorted, dignity is stripped away and suffering is hidden behind barbed wire. We live it. We know the metallic noise of the gates, the weight of the shackles, and the silence of a world that looked the other way,” they insist in their letter reviewed by EFE. The Trump administration has recently sent Venezuelan citizens—alleged to be members of criminal cells or of the infamous oil-rich nation-born gang known as El Tren de Aragua—to Gitmo, a move followed by accusations of undermining their rights and false associations. The MAGA White House narrative is that it is sending “the worst of the worst” to the detention center in the Island.
When the scandal over his promotion of the memecoin $LIBRA continues to resound loudly, with repercussions that have yet to emerge in the political and judicial spheres, Javier Milei will meet on Thursday with Elon Musk, the DOGE star who praises him for the harsh fiscal adjustment he is implementing in Argentina. This kind of meeting is presented by the head of the Pink House as an example of how the Argentine brand advances around the world because of him, and of his efforts to turn Argentina into a regional hub for artificial intelligence and the most cutting-edge technology. Also on Milei's agenda is a meeting with IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva. Buenos Aires seeks a new agreement that will allow the entry of fresh dollars, lighten the burden of the debt with the global lender—contracted during the Macri administration—and eventually lift the exchange rate hedge. Finally, he is also expected to speak at the headquarters of the Inter-American Development Bank and before the attendees of the Conservative Political Action Conference, where Trump will be present but a bilateral meeting has not been confirmed.
Brazil-related moves, also via X
Brazil to join OPEC+, group of major oil-exporting nations https://t.co/xcdhB8n0hS
— The Independent (@Independent) February 18, 2025
Brazil resumes electricity imports from Venezuela after six years https://t.co/1J2lZX091v
— Francisco J. Monaldi (@fmonaldi) February 18, 2025
