🪖 Colombia’s border crisis, Milei’s Ponzi scheme

Hello, and welcome to the LatAm Report, your pulse on Latin America’s power plays and economics. If you have any questions about this newsletter, or topics you’d like to see covered in future issues, you can reach us at [email protected] 

Venezuelan crisis spills over to Colombia as border clash kills 100

Over 100 people have been killed and at least 32,000 were forcibly displaced in Colombia’s Andean region of Catatumbo, a jungle area near the Venezuelan border, after a fierce clash between the left-wing National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrilla group and local dissidents.

👉 Why it matters. The episode is a massive blow to President Gustavo Petro’s “total peace” initiative, an ambitious plan looking to put an end to decades of political and drug-related armed conflicts in Colombia by demobilizing all remaining guerrilla groups and cartels.

• It also signals another way the Venezuelan conflict can spill over into the other Latin American countries, as many suspect the clash is linked to political crises across the border.

Bloodbath. Violence started last week, when ELN members stationed in a nearby region stormed Catatumbo and started knocking on doors to kidnap or execute people thought to be working for their rivals. 

🌎 LatAm Report