Welcome again Foreign Policy‘s Latin America Brief.
Highlights this week: The President of Nicaragua announces a plan to cancel the electionThe United States puts New tax for Braziland the International Energy Agency provides an update on Latin America important mineral prospect.
On Sunday, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega—who has been in power since 2007 and named his wife Rosario Murillo “co-president” last year—he announced that there will be no more elections in the country. The democrats have a long time classified Ortega’s government as a democracy, but even their counterparts in Cuba and North Korea continue to organize elections.
The declaration marks the culmination of years of democratic backsliding, during which Ortega’s administration has dismantled opposition parties, jailed political opponents, and shut down independent media while facing little opposition from domestic institutions or the international community.
Although it has changed over time, cross the border support democracy defense It has been a feature of Latin American politics and more broadly in the Western Hemisphere since at least post-World War II period. However, the failure to form an effective regional coalition against Nicaragua’s backsliding shows how weakened the cause is today.
Internationally organizations and a few Latin American democracies issued statements condemning Ortega’s declaration. But among Nicaragua’s major trading partners—the United States, Mexico, China, and Guatemala—only the United States and Guatemala spoke immediately. (China does not promote democracy abroad, and Mexico’s leftist government includes longtime allies of Ortega’s Sandinista movement.)
Economically, no country is more powerful in Nicaragua than the United States. In keeping with the bipartisan culture, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a statement on Tuesday call on the international community to show that Ortega’s government “cannot expect to maintain business as usual with other countries while blocking the basic principles of our democratic world.”
Washington has posted consecutive rounds of restrictions against Nicaragua since 2018, during the first term of President Donald Trump. But it has abandoned the deep economic sanctions it maintains against Cuba, another left-wing dictatorship. It has also refrained from threatening military action against Ortega, although it has done so such threats and other left-wing governments in the region.
One explanation could be immigration. The Ortega administration has quietly cooperated with Washington to to accept who were deported to a third country and prevent the northern Cuban migration route to the United States. In addition, unlike Venezuela, Nicaragua gives Less devastation of natural resources, and Rubio, a Cuban-American, does not have the same personal connection to Nicaragua’s pro-democracy movement as he does to Cuba.
While the United States may still resort to economic or military escalation, it is far from clear that those kinds of pressures can democratize. Historians Antonio Monte and Gema Kloppe-Santamaría he argued in American Quarterly last year that Washington should instead consider restoring funding to Nicaraguan civil society and that efforts to curb human migration from the country have further weakened the opposition.
Finally, external actors have shown that there are limits to the actions they want to take. “The United States will not solve our problem. They can contribute if we act,” Nicaraguan historian and human rights activist Dora María Téllez. he told it secret this week. “The only alternative (for the Nicaraguan opposition) is … to organize better and better, and to evoke a message of hope.”
Sunday, July 26, to Saturday, August 1: South Korean President Lee Jae-myung visits Brazil, Chile and Argentina.
Tuesday, July 28: Keiko Fujimori is sworn in as president of Peru.
Friday, August 7: Abelardo de la Espriella is sworn in as president of Colombia.
Brazil’s new tax. On Wednesday, the Trump administration call Brazil with a new round of tariffs of 25 percent. There are several products that are not allowed, including beef, coffee, and some bird parts, but the final package will affect the estimate. 18 percentage for 26 percent of Brazil’s exports to the United States. Unlike the previous one taxwho were overturned by the US Supreme Court in February, this round is the product of a long investigation into allegations of unfair business practices.
Although the investigative lawsuits centered on technical issues, the dispute remained political. Rubio the suspect Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on social media for not negotiating in good faith, a claim that the Brazilian government denies. Brazilian public opinion, however, it seems preferring Lula’s account to that of the right-wing opposition, which blamed him for the responsibilities. Lula’s approval rating has closed up in recent weeks.
On Thursday, Washington announced a 12.5 percent increase in tariffs on Brazil as part of an investigation into forced labor in several countries, which Brasília strongly denounced as unfounded.
Competition between the United States and China. New Pew Research Center investigation conducted in six Latin American countries between February and May found that in five of them—Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, and Peru—more respondents saw China as a more reliable partner than the United States. Colombia was the exception. While the opinion of China has stabilized in those countries since last year, the survey found that the opinion of the United States has deteriorated.
Results challenge the notion that Trump is strengthening US influence in Latin America. Although a series of presidents who favor Trump he won elections across the region — many of which Trump personally considered — his administration has said it has also done resist “Non-Hemispheric competitors” priority. The study suggests that, despite the election results, mistrust of the US could strain the relationship in the long run.
Gustavo Dudamel, seen hugging a member of BTS, leads the combined orchestras of the New York Philharmonic, the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra, and the Muppets during the men’s World Cup final halftime performance in East Rutherford, New Jersey, United States, July 19. Jeenah Moon/Reuters
The World Cup features the Venezuelan orchestra. Colombian-born pop star Shakira headlined Sunday’s FIFA Men’s World Cup final show, but she wasn’t the only South American musician on stage. Joining him was Venezuela Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestrawhich draws talent from The systemthe national system of music education in a country famous for bringing cultural training to children from poor areas.
The performance was led by Gustavo Dudamel, a star conductor who started with the orchestra and who will lead the New York Philharmonic starting in September. Known for bringing classical music outside the concert hall—including the 2016 Super Bowl halftime show—he has also championed Latin American composers, such as Mexico. Gabriela Ortizwhose work combines orchestral sounds with folk and folk movements.
El Sistema was thrust into Venezuela’s political spotlight during anti-government protests in the 2010s, when one of its students was killed in a protest. The incident made Dudamel write an open letter condemning the government’s repression. What year was that protest?
2016
2017
2018
2019
Viola player Armando Cañizales was killed that year, inspiring other musicians bring their vessels for the next march. He had recently been accepted to medical school.
Copper smelting is seen at the El Teniente mine, the world’s largest underground copper mine, in Machali, near Rancagua, Chile, April 2, 2025.Raul Bravo / AFP via Getty Images
International Energy Agency (IEA) Key Minerals 2026 report finds that Latin America can play an even bigger role in the world’s key mineral supply chains—but only if governments act quickly to develop the industry.
The strategic importance of these minerals became evident last year, when China implemented export controls rare earth– a small part of essential minerals – for pressure Washington to roll back its trade war. Although some of the restrictions have been suspended for now, the pause is set to end in mid-November.
The IEA warned that such measures would cut supply chains worth $6.5 trillion out of China every year, adding to the urgency of global diversification. effort. According to the IEA, Latin America is “well positioned to play a major role” in that effort due to its rich reserves.
The agency estimates that if the region improves its lithium, nickel, cobalt, graphite, and rare earth deposits along with two-thirds of its copper production, it could capture an additional $35 billion in value by 2035.
Whether Latin America can take advantage of that is an open question, because it requires policy-making agility that governments have failed to demonstrate. Brazil, for example, has spent years debating an important national mineral policy but has yet to do so approve one. The country has “a large underground bargaining mechanism that has not yet been used” and “without an institutional framework to support its investigation,” economist Monica de Bolle. he told it Christina Lu of FP.
