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Welcome back to Foreign Policy’s Latin America Brief.
The highlights this week: Colombia hosts the United Nations biodiversity summit, Brazil says it will reject an invitation to the Belt and Road Initiative, and Mexico celebrates Día de Muertos.
Cali, Colombia, is considered the salsa music capital of the world. Over the past two weeks, the city earned another temporary claim to fame as host of the United Nations Biodiversity Conference. The event, also known as COP16, is a progress checkup on a global agreement to preserve nature that member states adopted in Montreal two years ago.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro was eager to host the Cali summit; his left-wing administration has sought to make environmentalism a key pillar of its foreign and domestic policies. But some of Petro’s flagship projects have faced obstacles in his two years in office.
Some private investors have gotten jittery about plans to reduce new oil exploration, and conflicts with armed groups based in the Amazon have hampered efforts to reduce deforestation.
COP16 offered Petro an opportunity to show forward progress. On some regional matters, it delivered: Public and private scientific research institutions in four Amazonian countries announced a new alliance, as did Indigenous federations in nine nations. The latter group dubbed itself “the G-9” to match its big political ambitions to sway international climate negotiations.
One of COP16’s official goals was raising more money to finance developing countries’ conservation plans. There, the talks were underwhelming. On Monday, rich countries pledged some $163 million to a global fund to protect nature; it had been envisioned as a multibillion-dollar fund when it was set up last year but has only raised around $400 million so far.
Some delegations in Cali pushed for a new conservation fund that would be easier for Indigenous communities and other local groups to access directly. Today, most such funds are channeled through intermediaries such as government agencies and nongovernmental organizations, which means “it’s been very difficult for the resources to arrive where they need to go,” said Sandra Guzmán of the Climate Finance Group for Latin America and the Caribbean.
As of Thursday, the penultimate day of the summit, that idea had not advanced.
Outside of the summit, Colombia has proved innovative on environmental finance. Its environment ministry is preparing a $40 billion portfolio of projects that will further the country’s green transition. The government is currently shopping the proposal around to potential funders, such as rich countries and international financial institutions.
Brazil has been doing the same with an initial $10.8 billion worth of projects, saying it will seek private funding. These portfolios are similar to climate deals known as Just Energy Transition Partnerships, in which donor countries partner with developing countries on specific green transition goals.
The first of those partnerships was announced in 2021 and funded by the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, and the European Union: an $8.5 billion initiative that aimed to build up alternatives to coal power in South Africa and provide a financial cushion in regions where coal workers would lose their jobs.
Three years after that plan was launched, little money has been distributed on the ground—and some South African coal unions have even come out against the project, skeptical of its ability to protect their incomes. But Colombia’s and Brazil’s plans differ as a “bottom up” effort planned by ministries rather than a “political declaration” where the planning happens afterward, climate finance strategist Dileimy Orozco told Foreign Policy.
Colombia’s projects include a new solar and wind energy company and a loan program for small tourism businesses. Brazil’s include a sustainable aviation fuel project and a green fertilizer plant.
Colombia’s portfolio has reportedly attracted the interest of the Inter-American Development Bank and the United States, while Brazil’s will be carried out with its national development bank as well as actors such as the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero, a group of asset managers.
The plans from Bogotá and Brasília “are a step forward,” Orozco said. “Now that the countries are showing this leadership,” the litmus test will be “whether the finance comes behind it.”
Friday, Nov. 1: COP16 is scheduled to conclude in Cali, Colombia.
Tuesday, Nov. 5: The former U.S. Navy contractor known as “Fat Leonard” is sentenced following his 2023 extradition from Venezuela.
Wednesday, Nov. 6: Brazil’s central bank issues a monetary policy decision.
Uruguay’s uneventful elections. Uruguayan voters chose continuity in elections last Sunday, rejecting two referendums that would have changed the country’s policing and pension systems and advancing two centrist candidates to a presidential runoff.
Center-left candidate Yamandú Orsi will face his center-right opponent Álvaro Delgado on Nov. 24. Orsi received 46 percent of the first-round vote compared with Delgado’s 28 percent, but the third-place candidate was conservative, suggesting the runoff could be tight.
Orsi and Delgado are not far apart on most key foreign-policy issues, including trade with China and relations with Venezuela’s authoritarian government.
Brazil rejects BRI. Brazil will not join China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) but rather negotiate economic “synergies” outside of it, Brazilian presidential advisor Celso Amorim told O Globo in a story published on Monday. Beijing had pushed for Brazilian accession ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s rare visit to South America in November.
In some ways, Brazil’s accession would have been a formality, considering that it already has close bilateral trade and investment relationships with China. But the United States has made its discomfort with the initiative clear, and it appears that Brazil is seeking to maintain a measure of geopolitical neutrality by passing on the invitation.
India similarly chose not to join the BRI, although it, Brazil, and China are all members of BRICS.
A woman with her face painted as the traditional “La Catrina” poses for a picture in Mexico City on Oct. 5.Yuri Cortez/AFP via Getty Images
Mexican icon. This weekend is Día de Muertos, or Day of the Dead, when many Latin Americans pay homage to deceased loved ones. The holiday is especially popular in Mexico, where observers make altars to those who have died and participate in parades and public ceremonies across the country.
Many ceremonies feature images of the skeleton woman La Catrina, who is recognizable by her decorated wide-brimmed hat. La Catrina has grown to symbolize not only death but also Mexican culture itself.
Her image became famous after Mexican printmaker José Guadalupe Posada illustrated a social satire taking aim at a woman trying to look wealthy. The 1912 design only gained widespread popularity after Posada’s death, when it was embraced by painter Diego Rivera. Folk artists latched on to the skeleton’s link to the afterlife and made papier-mâché likenesses of the woman for Day of the Dead.
In the Christian calendar, what is the corresponding holiday to Day of the Dead?
Annunciation
All Saints’ Day
Epiphany
All Souls’ Day
A supporter holds a portrait of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro during a rally called by the ruling party in Caracas on Sept. 28.Federico Parra/AFP via Getty Images
The Venezuelan government continues to push back against those within the country and internationally who question its evidence-free claim that President Nicolás Maduro won the July 28 presidential election.
On the home front, Venezuelan rights group Foro Penal estimated last week that the number of political prisoners in the country now stands at 1,953. That’s a whopping increase from 275 detainees last November.
Opposition party Voluntad Popular has also alleged that the Maduro government was behind the death of party activist Edwin Santos, who was found dead on Oct. 25. Santos went missing on Oct. 23, when witnesses said he was detained by state security agents. Venezuelan authorities said Santos died in a motorcycle accident.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday Maduro turned up the heat on already simmering tensions with Brazil. The Venezuelan foreign ministry said it would recall its ambassador to Brazil over “repeated interventionist and rude statements.” Brazil has not recognized Maduro as the election winner; last week, it blocked Venezuela’s entry into a list of BRICS partner countries.
While an unnamed Brazilian official told media that the “cloudy skies” between Brazil and Venezuela could open in the future, in the short term, they just got darker.
Venezuela’s move was not the only explosive decision in South American diplomacy this week. Also on Wednesday, Argentine President Javier Milei sacked Foreign Minister Diana Mondino after she voted against the U.S. economic embargo on Cuba at the U.N. General Assembly. Only the United States and Israel voted to support it.