Brazil: On 22 May, Brazil’s interim foreign minister, Marcos Galvão, met with the deputy US Secretary of State John Sullivan and discussed improving bilateral security cooperation and information sharing to combat transnational crime. To this end, Brazil’s foreign ministry (Itamaraty) and the US Department of State have set up a new bilateral security forum. According to an Itamaraty statement, the forum will focus on combating transnational crime in six main areas: narcotrafficking, arms trafficking, cyber-crime, money laundering, white collar crime, and terrorism. The first forum will be held in Washington DC later this year. If successful, Sullivan said the security cooperation between Brazil and the US could be extended to include other countries.
Nicaragua: On 31 May, the US Department of State issued a statement condemning the violent response by the Nicaraguan government led by President Daniel Ortega to peaceful Mother’s Day marches which took place on 30 May in Nicaragua’s capital, Managua, and other cities, including “assaults on mothers mourning their children killed since protests began April 18”. The statement also “condemns the beatings of journalists and attacks against local TV and radio stations”. The statement came six days after the US Department of State issued another condemning the violence by Nicaragua’s national police (PNN) and pro-government thugs against anti-government protests which begun on 18 April and have continued to date. The 25 May statement calls on the Ortega government to “create the conditions conducive to a credible and inclusive dialogue and guarantee the safety of the participants” and urges the Nicaraguan government “to fully implement the recommendations of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), and act upon its findings to ensure accountability and justice for human rights abuses and violations”. The IACHR made its recommendations following a visit to Nicaragua on 17-21 May in which it found that 76 people had died, with 868 people injured and 438 had been arrested (although these figures have since increased to over 100 dead as the violence has continued).
Venezuela: On 26 May, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a statement underlining that the US Department of State welcomed the release of US national, Joshua Holt, and his Venezuelan wife, Thamara, who had been imprisoned in Venezuela. A former Mormon missionary from Utah, Holt had travelled to Caracas in June 2016 to marry Thamara but both were jailed on charges of concealing weapons. In the statement Pompeo says that the US State Department extends “our special thanks to Senator Bob Corker, Senator Orrin Hatch, Senator Mike Lee, Representative Mia Love, and all the other members of the [US] Congress who have worked on behalf of the Holt family over the past two years and helped to make this day a reality”. Yet the statement goes on to note that US policy toward Venezuela “remains unchanged”, including the economic sanctions that the US government has recently imposed on Venezuelan government officials over the government’s undemocratic practices. Pompeo’s statement adds that the US government “stands steadfast in support of the Venezuelan people and their efforts to return to democracy”.
Mexico: On 31 May, Mexico’s office of the presidency issued a statement rejecting the decision by the US government to extend its tariffs on steel and aluminium imports to Mexico, Canada, and the European Union (EU). The statement says that after the US announced its decision President Enrique Peña Nieto spoke to his Canadian counterpart, Justin Trudeau, about the action taken by their fellow North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) partner. Both leaders expressed their rejection of the decision and agreed to adopt retaliatory economic measures. The statement said that Mexico would be imposing proportional and equivalent tariffs on a range of US imports. In announcing the extension of the steel and aluminium tariffs, US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said that the move partly answered to the slow progress in the renegotiation of the Nafta terms that the US, Mexico, and Canada are currently involved in. The Nafta renegotiations have stalled over both Mexico and Canada’s refusal to accept some of the US’s main demands. However, the statement from Mexico’s office of the presidency added that both Peña Nieto and Trudeau reiterated their commitment to “working together to defend rules based international free trade, including the successful updating of Nafta”.
