The recent reform to the General Law of Import and Export Taxes in Mexico, pushed by the Claudia Sheinbaum administration and backed by a Congress where her political force enjoys a qualified majority, has sparked strong reactions in the affected countries, several of them core members of the BRICS bloc. Beijing, for example, has accused the Aztecs of advancing a protectionist plan, which is clearly aligned with Mexico's most immediate interests in the context of the Trump administration, with which it is very difficult to deal. Since the very beginning of the Sheinbaum era, controls, actions, and rhetoric against imports of Asian origin have surged.
The Mexican Executive's narrative in defense of the new tariff measures is that they are aimed at strengthening local industry and jobs, and bringing more money into the central coffers. There is talk of potential annual revenue of 3.5 billion dollars and securing about 350,000 jobs, while the largest tariff adjustments are in sectors such as textiles and automotive, critical in both Asia and Mexico. Tariffs on finished products like vehicles are now raised to 50%, to cite one example. Speaking of another founding BRICS member, India, its exports will be among the hardest hit by the new trade barriers.
Cuba
The island's Ministry of Public Health reported three new deaths associated with a complicated dengue and chikungunya epidemic, which joins in concerning symbiosis with the multifactorial socioeconomic crisis affecting the country. With this update, the number of Cubans who have died in the last three months would be 47, the majority of them minors, and always according to official records. Just yesterday, about 1,420 new cases of chikungunya were confirmed, which is, of the two arboviruses, the one hitting people the hardest, not discounting the also deadly impact of dengue.
Drug trafficking
Cuban authorities reported the dismantling of a synthetic drug trafficking network, seizing one million doses of a narcotic that Cubans call "el químico," and proceeding to arrest 24 people. We have been reading a lot of reports recently somehow linking Cuba to Venezuela, i.e., to drug trafficking. So, in a sort of counter-narrative, the head of the section of the Specialized Criminal Investigation Office of the Ministry of the Interior stated that the criminal network was organized from Florida. "In cases like these, Cuban authorities have promptly informed the U.S. Government about people in that country who attempt to promote international drug trafficking on Cuban soil, however, the cases remain unanswered," said the senior police official. The proliferation of drug use, and particularly of this very addictive synthetic cannabinoid, has worried broad sectors of society, as this is a phenomenon that was not tending to be visible on the surface.
Honduras
Finally, this Saturday, the so-called special scrutiny could begin. This special process will define the winner of the presidential race in the Central American country, and also other disputes at the legislative (also national) and local (mayoralties and municipal corporations) levels. Let us never forget that the general elections took place on November 30, so we are talking about a rather atypical process, not corresponding to modern vote-counting standards. So far, the conservative and Trump-backed candidate Nasry Asfura has about 42,410 votes ahead of the liberal Salvador Nasralla, who, like the defeated ruling party—performing bad in a very distant third place for its candidate Rixi Moncada—has promoted the narrative of fraud. In the special scrutiny process, over 500,000 votes are at stake that could easily tip the balance to one side or the other of the Honduran political spectrum.
Brazil
Lula da Silva has been another leader who has known how to handle the erratic course described by the Trump administration. Aware that he possesses certain leverage due to the critical nature of certain Brazilian exports to the United States, Lula always believes it is better not to retaliate, even with some rhetoric statement, and instead, wait for the natural triumph—in the case of Brazil—of the option of dialogue. "No one respects those who do not respect themselves," he said today, after seeing once again how the White House backtracks on a measure aimed at lacerating or disputing—at least symbolically—the sovereignty of the South American giant. In the past month of July, the Trump administration had sanctioned the controversial judge Alexandre de Moraes, and also imposed tariffs of up to 50% on certain Brazilian products, to punish and force an end to the judicial process against its conservative ally Jair Bolsonaro.
But in recent days, Washington returned the tariffs to June levels, and today, moreover, it has removed de Moraes and his wife from the sanctions list produced under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act. Meanwhile, Bolsonaro is now officially serving his sentence at the Federal Police headquarters in Brasilia. A White House official explained to AP a vague narrative to defend the removal of the sanction on de Moraes, based on congressional progress with certain initiatives aimed at amnesty or rather the representative reduction of the sentence, set at 27 years. Lula has said he will decide when the time comes whether to opt for a veto. I think the matter is better understood by following the reasoning of political consultant Thomas Traumann, who argues that "the U.S. government wants a normal relationship with Brazil, even though it is a leftist administration." The Bolsonaro family received the news favorable to de Moraes and Planalto "with regret".
This is all for today’s report.
Thanks, always, for your steady support of this project. Best regards from Havana.