The United States is taking advantage of the highly collaborative position of countries such as Costa Rica and Panama to advance the Trump-endorsed mass deportation plan. Costa Rica some time ago decided to privilege the relationship with Washington to the detriment of ties with Beijing, especially in technological aspects such as the deployment of 5G. In the Panamanian case, Donald Trump's rhetorical onslaught—also based on the "threat" posed by China to the regional interests, with the Panama Canal as the main issue—has put the Herons Palace´s dwellers in an uncomfortable situation, yielding to various whims of the MAGA White House. The president of Costa Rica, Rodrigo Cháves, acknowledged this Wednesday that some 200 migrants—including 50 minors—deported from the United States would arrive tomorrow in San José, where they could stay until the end of March while their final departure to their countries of origin (Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and India) is being coordinated.
The migrants will be in a shelter without the possibility of leaving. They could request refuge in Costa Rica, but I do not know the sensibility or rationale the Central American authorities would apply in this case. They will be transferred close to the Panamanian border. On Tuesday night, the government of José Raúl Mulino ordered the transfer of nearly 100 of some 300 U.S.-deported migrants who were staying in a hotel in Panama City to Metetí, a town located in the Darién region. These don´t accept to be returned to their countries, so the move is like a punishment. Panama is a sort of stopover on the (potential) return journey of migrants from Afghanistan, China, India, Iran, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Turkey, Uzbekistan and Vietnam. Some families, particularly Afghans, tried to attract attention yesterday at the hotel with posters asking for help. A lawyer claims to represent a family whose members may be beheaded if returned to their country of origin. A Chinese female migrant escaped but is now back in custody.
Cartels designations raise questions in Mexico
Trump is trying to deliver on the run on everything he promised on foreign policy, and this Wednesday his administration finally designated eight cartels, six of them Mexican, as foreign terrorist organizations. The two non-Aztecs are Venezuela's Tren de Aragua and the Mara Salvatrucha, whose “spiritual homeland” is in El Salvador. The designation was made under section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, as amended. From Zócalo Square, Mexican authorities avoided this measure during Trump's first term, arguing that it is not the best way to deal with organized crime. Trump has not discarded approving targeted armed incursions on Mexican soil, although I particularly see that approach as very distant in practical and legal terms.
There has been talk these days that the United States is carrying out drone flights to monitor cartel activity, a move that President Claudia Sheinbaum downplayed as an established dynamic. In Jalisco, a state where the Jalisco Cartel New Generation—a designated one—is strong, authorities are trying to determine whether human remains found early Wednesday morning—inside plastic bags on a highway—correspond to some of the eight police officers reported kidnapped hours earlier in the municipality of Teocaltiche, along with the driver who was transporting them. The probable link between the local police and a criminal group is considered to be the cause of the event, backing indirectly some of Trump´s claims.
Again, dts but see 👇
That means they’re eligible for drone strikes https://t.co/aWxKkeAinG
February 19, 2025— Elon Musk (@elonmusk)
Others seek help abroad 👇. The city of Machala in El Oro joins Guayaquil and Durán in Guayas as the only Ecuadorians included in a sad ranking of the 50 most violent cities in the world, dominated by Mexico.
Ecuador will seek foreign military aid to combat drug cartels as violence surges https://t.co/MhJ3mLqDs4
February 20, 2025— The Independent (@Independent)
Brazil
Did Bolsonaro go that far? I mean, it is clear that he forced the machine to stay in power, but at least having knowledge of a plan to poison Lula da Silva—and not denouncing it—is another matter. I am open to that possibility. “Every authoritarian regime, in its lust for power, needs to fabricate internal enemies to justify persecutions, censorship, and arbitrary arrests”, said via X the former conservative president.
Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro was charged over a plot to overturn his 2022 election loss in the latest legal setback for the far-right leader https://t.co/IyIEEU32hm pic.twitter.com/1Mld07CAcn
February 19, 2025— Reuters (@Reuters)
Brazil's former President Bolsonaro has been charged over an alleged coup. What’s next for him? https://t.co/ijjVCjwZMg
— The Associated Press (@AP) February 19, 2025
A Latino worrying story
I have not been able to obtain the exact country of origin of this minor who committed suicide after weeks of bullying at her school.
11-year-old took her own life after classmates threatened to call ICE on her family, devastated mother reveals https://t.co/zj6HyJsa4R
February 19, 2025— Ana Navarro-Cárdenas (@ananavarro)
Posted Using INLEO
While I cannot comment cogently on the claims Bolsonaro was cognizant of, or even participated in, a plot to assassinate Lula, I can note that while President, Bolsonaro did draw immense crowds during the campaign, and despite the agitation of those crowds did not wield that power offensively to commit any violence against his political opponents. Given the apparent corruption the judicial system that sprung Lula and the international financial and sotto voce support behind those moves, I remember being astounded he did not wield that power against that apparent corruption. Such restraint as President makes bold and violent plots stand distant from, and uncharacteristic of, Bolsonaro.
Do you recall the specifics that the judiciary, clearly the hand of Moraes, used to spring Lula? The divergence between the policies of the Bolsonaro administration and the climate alarmism, almost rabid mandates for diversity hires, and collectivist policies being pushed by BlackRock, whose CEO was also the Agenda Director of the WEF, Larry Fink, were imposed on transnational corporations (today disavowing and departing from those policies widely), in the USA by the Biden administration, heavily funded by Soros' NGOs, and seemed to be coming almost verbatim from Lula upon his being sprung from the joint, and strongly suggest international covert pressure on Moraes to get Lula into the Presidency, also suggested by the very wide divergence between popular support at rallies for the candidates, and the claimed Lula electoral victory.
Following the identical dynamic in the US 2020 election, and claims by Klaus Schwab of infiltrating his trained YGL cadres into cabinets of Western governments, that election seemed very dubious to me, and the present accusations of behaviours very uncharacteristic of Bolsonaro but exacerbate that suspicion, mirroring as they do similar lawfare that failed to prevent Trump's election in 2024.
Thanks!