#latin-america-geopolitics

#latin-america-geopolitics

The European Commission will "proceed with [the] provisional application" of the Mercosur trade deal with Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, the commission's chief Ursula von der Leyen announced on Friday. The deal was signed in January after over 25 years of negotiations, despite opposition from some European farmers.

The 1980s bring revolutionary wars, CIA-backed conflict and the violent birth of a new democratic era. Episode 2: Wars begins with Nicaragua's Sandinista revolution, which promised egalitarian transformation through literacy crusades. But civil war erupted as United States President Ronald Reagan's administration covertly backed the Contra rebels, plunging the nation into turmoil and suffering. Panama transitioned from Omar Torrijos's diplomatic triumphs over the Panama Canal to Manuel Noriega's sinister collaboration with both the CIA and drug cartels.

The European Union will on Saturday sign a deal 25 years in the making with the South American trade bloc Mercosur, creating one of the world's largest free trade areas at a time of growing protectionism and volatility. The long-awaited agreement comes amid the sweeping use of tariffs and trade threats by US President Donald Trump's administration, which has sent countries scrambling for new partnerships.

I want to tell the US President Donald Trump that we don't want a new Cold War. We don't want interference in any other country; we want all countries to be treated equally, Lula told a news conference at the end of his three-day trip to India on Sunday.

But what is legally possible could pose a serious political problem. Because, as the European Commission pointed out when remarking on the Parliament's negative vote, the legal formula used to process the ratification of this agreement is the same one used for an agreement reached with Chile that did not raise any questions inside the European Parliament. In other words, the outcome of this vote suggests that the opposition for legal concerns is motivated less by legal reasons than by political ones.

The deal, which comes as Brussels seeks new markets to offset US tariffs and reduce reliance on China for critical minerals, will open free trade with four South American countries. European Union ambassadors have given a provisional nod to the bloc's largest-ever agreement in terms of erased tariffs, opening the way to free trade with the Mercosur group of South American countries.

About 8 million Venezuelans, or a quarter of the population, have fled their country in recent years. Al Jazeera takes a look at where they live now. After the abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro by the United States on January 3, nearby countries that host large Venezuelan communities, including Colombia and Peru, have warned of a potential new influx of refugees if the country is distabilised. The Venezuelan diaspora remains one of the largest in the world with at least 7.9 million people

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has accused his United States counterpart Donald Trump of wanting to create a new UN, days after the US president launched his new Board of Peace initiative in Switzerland. Instead of fixing the United Nations, what's happening? President Trump is proposing to create a new UN where only he is the owner, Lula said in a speech on Friday.

On Havana's Fifth Avenue, where the trees and lawns remain elegantly groomed even as the rest of Cuba wilts, a billboard outside the Venezuelan embassy reads: Hasta Siempre Comandante (Until For Ever, Commander) next to a vast picture of a smiling Hugo Chavez. It is a staunch declaration that the two nations are bound together for ever. But this week, after the US operation to grab Chavez's successor, Nicolas Maduro, those ties are in danger of unravelling.