Welcome back to Foreign Policy’s Latin America Brief.
The highlights this week: The Community of Latin American and Caribbean States holds a meeting in China, Panama’s leaders wrestle with a wave of anti-government protests, and Uruguay remembers José “Pepe” Mujica.
On Tuesday, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) held a joint forum with China in Beijing. Although the event was described as a ministerial-level meeting, the presidents of Brazil, Colombia, and Chile attended, as did Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The high-profile guest list and a series of side events highlighted how many Latin American countries are deepening ties with Beijing amid the economic uncertainties provoked by U.S. President Donald Trump. At the forum, Xi said China would extend more than $9 billion in new yuan-denominated credit to Latin America and the Caribbean.
One of the day’s most dramatic announcements came from Colombia. The country is historically a close U.S. military partner and one of the top regional recipients of U.S. aid. But this week, Colombia officially joined China’s Belt and Road Initiative, an infrastructure partnership long viewed with suspicion in Washington.
Trump’s cuts to U.S. foreign assistance since taking office in January have had dramatic impacts on Colombia. Bogotá “depended heavily on millions of dollars in U.S. funds to carry out all kinds of official government operations”—including support for recently arrived Venezuelan migrants and refugees, Christina Noriega reported in Foreign Policy this week.
Separately, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) suspended a credit line to Colombia late last month, citing concerns about the country’s deficit. As a result, Colombian President Gustavo Petro has looked elsewhere for partners.
Colombian officials say they aim to have positive relationships with both China and the United States. But Colombian public opinion toward China has improved since Trump took office, according to pollster Invamer.
Similar sentiment is seen elsewhere in South America. Last week, the Economist published polls conducted in late April and early May in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, and Venezuela. When asked whether China or the United States had “more fair and transparent trade practices” in the latter three countries, more respondents answered with China. In all four countries, respondents said China respected Latin American countries more.
This week’s events particularly showcased Brazil’s changing economic ties with China.
In recent decades, China’s demand for Brazilian raw materials has been so great that it led some scholars to warn that the relationship could be contributing to deindustrialization in Brazil. If Brazil can make easy money selling soybeans and other commodities to China, the argument goes, policymakers have little incentive to strengthen the industrial sector.
In response to those concerns, Brazilian officials say they are being more intentional about China policy than they were during President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s previous tenure, from 2003 to 2011.
Since Lula’s current term began in 2023, the country has launched new industrial policies for target sectors and sought foreign investments in those areas, including from China. The sectors include green energy, transportation, and health technologies.
Some of the nearly $5 billion in Chinese investments in Brazil announced this week fall within Brazil’s industrial policy goals. They include a sustainable aviation fuel project, the expansion of an auto plant, and a joint venture to make pharmaceutical ingredients. Brazil and China are also in talks about building a railroad that would connect Atlantic and Pacific ports.
Brazil’s approach to China has become “more ambitious” in terms of “seeking industrialization and the benefits of the energy transition,” said Larissa Wachholz of the Brazilian Center for International Relations.
China, meanwhile, is trying to grow renewable energy domestically—and has extended that focus to its foreign trade and investments, Tulio Cariello of the Brazil-China Business Council told Foreign Policy. Last year, Cariello found that the oil sector had accounted for under 1 percent of new Chinese foreign direct investment in Brazil in 2023—a marked decrease from previous years.
Saturday, May 24: Daniel Noboa is inaugurated for a second term as Ecuador’s president.
Sunday, May 25: Venezuela holds legislative and regional elections.
Sunday, May 25: Suriname holds general elections.
The pope’s past. Cardinal Robert Prevost’s election to the papacy last week has focused global attention on Peru. The Chicago-born Prevost, now known as Pope Leo XIV, served as a missionary in the country in the 1980s and 1990s and as a bishop in the 2010s. He was based for several years in the northwestern coastal city of Chiclayo, which now hopes to attract tourists.
Leo lived in Peru during a tumultuous time. In the 1980s, the Peruvian countryside suffered frequent attacks by the Shining Path Maoist guerrillas. That was followed by a heavy-handed government crackdown under President Alberto Fujimori in the 1990s. Prevost criticized the human rights abuses of the Fujimori era; he also encouraged victims of sexual abuse by priests to publicly denounce the incidents.
But that is not Leo’s only connection to Latin America and the Caribbean. Since last week, genealogists have uncovered records in which his maternal grandfather’s birthplace is listed as Haiti. Leo’s backstory appears connected to a migration trail between the island of Hispaniola and New Orleans. His ancestors were described in different records as both people of color and white, which scholars say suggests racial passing. That’s a story that spans the Americas.
A riot police officer clears highway barricades during clashes with protesters demonstrating against the government of Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino in Veraguas, Panama, on May 13.Mauricio Valenzuela/AFP via Getty Images
Panama’s protests. Anti-government street protests in Panama have entered at least their third week. Among several grievances, demonstrators oppose a new deal to grant the U.S. military access to Panamanian bases. The agreement was made after Trump threatened to take ownership of the Panama Canal.
Though the deal may have temporarily appeased the Trump administration, it touched off local sensitivities about the 1989 U.S. invasion of Panama.
Demonstrations can have big political implications in Panama. In 2023, the country was rocked by street protests against a copper mine; when a court later ordered the mine’s closure, the government did not intervene.
Unconventional interview. His popularity sagging, Colombia’s Petro allowed himself to be interviewed by prominent—but uncouth—YouTuber and comedian Alejandro Riaño in the presidential palace. The video has racked up more than 3 million views on YouTube since it was posted two weeks ago.
Some commentators thought the interview was a good tactic for reaching young people who are not necessarily engaged in politics. But others called the video inappropriate—especially because the comedian made jokes about accusations that Petro has a drug habit, which the president has indirectly dismissed in the past. The comedian dangled what he said was cocaine in front of Petro’s face, to which Petro replied, “Don’t come here with temptation.”
If any popularity boost came from the interview, it was not visible in Colombia’s Congress this week, which voted down Petro’s attempt to put his flagship labor reform up for referendum.
Which of the following countries is not an official member of the Belt and Road Initiative?
Brazil
Chile
Ecuador
Peru
Brazil decided not to officially join the partnership in an effort to preserve a balanced position between China and the United States.
A banner with an image of former Uruguayan President José “Pepe” Mujica hangs in front of the parliament building as his remains lie in state in Montevideo on May 15.Mariana Mendez/AFP via Getty Images
Leaders from across Latin America traveled to Uruguay’s capital of Montevideo this week for the funeral of former President José “Pepe” Mujica, who died on Tuesday at 89.
Mujica was a unique political giant in the region. A left-wing guerrilla in his youth, he was imprisoned for 14 years before entering politics. Once released, he did not seek revenge on his jailers but rather promoted civil democratic debate.
Mujica served as president between 2010 and 2015, a period during which Uruguay legalized same-sex marriage, abortion, and marijuana. As head of state, he chose to keep living on his chrysanthemum farm on the outskirts of Montevideo and drove a blue Volkswagen Beetle.
Though Mujica was nicknamed the “world’s poorest president,” he said he did not feel poor. “Poor people are those who always want more … because they are in an endless race,” he said. His humility and philosophical reflections won admirers far beyond Uruguay.
In an obituary for Foreign Policy, Guillermo Draper, the managing editor of Uruguayan news magazine Búsqueda, discussed Mujica’s role in the heyday of Latin American regionalism in the early 2010s, as well as his careful work to maintain positive relations with the United States.
Unlike many other left-wing leaders of his era, Mujica became a critic of Venezuela’s authoritarianism. And his support for decriminalizing marijuana as a security policy remains a largely untapped innovation in Latin America, even as it has become normalized in rich countries.
Mujica celebrated the ability to think independently, live collectively, and be playful in a simple way that seems anathema in today’s world of constant screens and scrolling. (He threw away his cellphone.) He was inseparable from his wife, Lucía Topolansky, a former guerrilla and vice president of Uruguay, until the end.
Mujica never stopped being a revolutionary. “The world will always need revolution. That doesn’t mean shooting and violence,” he told the Guardian. “A revolution is when you change your thinking.”
