International

IMF pulls out of Brazil after economy minister’s ire

AFP

The International Monetary Fund said Thursday it will close its Brazilian office, a day after receiving harsh criticism from Economy Minister Paulo Guedes over its forecasts for Latin America’s biggest economy.

The IMF said it would close its office in Brasilia when the current country representative’s mandate expires on June 30, 2022.

The move came after Guedes, far-right President Jair Bolsonaro’s ultra-liberal economy guru, said the IMF was overly pessimistic in its forecasts on Brazil and was no longer welcome.

“They can go take a walk,” he said Wednesday.

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“They were here forecasting (Brazil’s economy) would contract by 9.7 percent (in 2020) and Britain’s would contract by four percent. In the end, we contracted by four percent, and Britain by 9.7 percent,” he said.

He also accused IMF officials in the country of being more interested in “football and feijoada” — a meat-and-bean stew that is one of Brazil’s most famous attractions — than in helping the economy.

The IMF opened its office in Brazil in 1999, when the country turned to the Washington institution for financing to help get out of an economic crisis.

That program ended in 2005.

The IMF said it had maintained the office to “facilitate dialogue,” but Guedes said that was no longer needed.

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“They’ve been here long enough. There was a lot of imbalance in the relationship,” he said.

Guedes and Bolsonaro have been at pains to shore up confidence in Brazil’s recession-hit economy as the president heads toward elections next October with his popularity at an all-time low.

Bolsonaro has alarmed investors by maneuvering to break Brazil’s constitutional spending cap in order to fund big social spending, a move condemned as economic populism by critics.

Guedes insists the pessimism is unwarranted and that the Bolsonaro administration will leave a stronger economy than it inherited.

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International

Trump urges Putin to reach peace deal

On Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump reiterated his desire for Russian President Vladimir Putin to “reach a deal” to end the war in Ukraine, while also reaffirming his willingness to impose sanctions on Russia.

“I want to see him reach an agreement to prevent Russian, Ukrainian, and other people from dying,” Trump stated during a press conference in the Oval Office at the White House.

“I think he will. I don’t want to have to impose secondary tariffs on Russian oil,” the Republican leader added, recalling that he had already taken similar measures against Venezuela by sanctioning buyers of the South American country’s crude oil.

Trump also reiterated his frustration over Ukraine’s resistance to an agreement that would allow the United States to exploit natural resources in the country—a condition he set in negotiations to end the war.

International

Deportation flight lands in Venezuela; government denies criminal gang links

A flight carrying 175 Venezuelan migrants deported from the United States arrived in Caracas on Sunday. This marks the third group to return since repatriation flights resumed a week ago, and among them is an alleged member of a criminal organization, according to Venezuelan authorities.

Unlike previous flights operated by the Venezuelan state airline Conviasa, this time, an aircraft from the U.S. airline Eastern landed at Maiquetía Airport, on the outskirts of Caracas, shortly after 2:00 p.m. with the deportees.

Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, who welcomed the returnees at the airport, stated that the 175 repatriated individuals were coming back “after being subjected, like all Venezuelans, to persecution” and dismissed claims that they belonged to the criminal organization El Tren de Aragua.

However, Cabello confirmed that “for the first time in these flights we have been carrying out, someone of significance wanted by Venezuelan justice has arrived, and he is not from El Tren de Aragua.” Instead, he belongs to a gang operating in the state of Trujillo. The minister did not disclose the individual’s identity or provide details on where he would be taken.

International

Son of journalist José Rubén Zamora condemns father’s return to prison as “illegal”

Guatemalan court decides Wednesday whether to convict journalist José Rubén Zamora

The son of renowned journalist José Rubén Zamora Marroquín, José Carlos Zamora, has denounced as “illegal” the court order that sent his father back to a Guatemalan prison on March 3, after already spending 819 days behind barsover a highly irregular money laundering case.

“My father’s return to prison was based on an arbitrary and illegal ruling. It is also alarming that the judge who had granted him house arrest received threats,” José Carlos Zamora told EFE in an interview on Saturday.

The 67-year-old journalist was sent back to prison inside the Mariscal Zavala military barracks on March 3, when Judge Erick García upheld a Court of Appeals ruling that overturned the house arrest granted to him in October. Zamora had already spent 819 days in prison over an alleged money laundering case.

His son condemned the situation as “unacceptable”, stating that the judge handling the case “cannot do his job in accordance with the law due to threats against his life.”