Crooked plow- Brazilian novel by Itamar Vieira Junior

Itamar Vieira is a young and upcoming Brazilian writer. Crooked Plow (Torto Arado) is his first novel. He has earlier written a short story collection.

Although Itamar Vieira is a new author, the theme and characters of his novel are familiar to me. They are similar to those of my favorite Brazilian writer Jorge Amado whose famous novels include titles such as “Dona Flor and her two husbands” and "Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon”.

Crooked Plow is the story of struggle and misery of the subsistence farmers in the rural areas of Bahia, the northeastern part of Brazil, poor in development but rich in culture. The main characters are the seven and six years old sisters Bibiana and Belonisia.  They find a knife in the old suitcase of their grandmother. Bibiana puts the knife in her mouth trying to taste the glittering metal. Belonisia  pulls out the knife violently from her sister’s mouth in order to taste it herself. In this childish fight,  Bibiana loses her tongue while the other’s is hurt badly. After this, the sisters become the voice of each other with a muted bond. Here is how the author describes, "When they interacted, one of them would need to become more perceptive, read more attentively the sister’s eyes and gestures. They would become one. The sister who lent her voice studied the body language of the sister who was mute. The sister who was mute transmitted, through elaborate gestures and subtle movements, what she wanted to communicate. For this symbiosis to occur and endure, their differences had to be put aside. They devoted their time to gaining a new understanding of each other’s bodies. At first, it was hard for both, very hard—the constant repetition of words, picking up objects, pointing here and there so that one sister might grasp the other’s intention. As the years passed, this shared body language became an extension of their individual expressions until each of them almost became the other, but without losing herself. Sometimes one would get annoyed with the other, but the pressing need for one sister to communicate something, and for the other to translate it, made it so that they would both forget what had annoyed them in the first place”. The silenced sister symbolizes the voiceless poor Afro-Brazilians.

Later,  the sisters would fight with each other over a boyfriend. Bibiana used the same knife once to save a woman from her drunken husband and at another time to kill the owner of their estate who tries to evict the tenants and sell the land.

Itamar Vieira narrates in detail the struggles of the tenant farmers in the rural estates called as Fazendas in Portuguese.  "They could build houses of mud, but not brick, nothing enduring to mark how long a family had been on the land. They could cultivate a small plot of squashes, beans, and okra, but nothing that would distract them from the owner’s crops because, after all, working for the owner was what enabled them to live on this land. They could bring their women and children; the more the merrier, in fact, because eventually the children would grow up and replace whoever was too old to work. The owner of the plantation would have confidence in them, trust them; they’d be his godchildren. Money, there’d be none of that, but there’d be food on the table. The workers could make their home on the plantation with no problem, without being harassed. They just had to follow the rules”.

The tenant farmers are forced to buy necessities from the overpriced estate shop which make the tenants perpetually in debt. Their children join the workforce to pay off the debt. They are expected to be grateful to the estate owners for letting them a place to live. When a young rebellious farmer tries to ask for more rights he is killed by the hired assassins of the owner. The police close the case alleging falsely that the farmer was growing marijuana and got killed in a fight with drug traffickers.

The subsistent farmers would smile and some would even jump with joy when they noticed rain clouds finally looming, and from the land rose a freshness that farmers liked to call a bit of “luck.” They said you could dig a little into the dry mud and actually feel the moisture arriving, feel that the earth was a bit cooler, a sign the drought was coming to an end. The women would put empty buckets out to catch the rain. The plantation would resound with the old songs of the local women bringing their laundry down to the widening river or carrying their hoes to clear their small plots and do some slash-and-burn farming. The men could join the women only after they’d cleared the vast fields for planting the landowners’ crops.

The tongueless sister did not like the teaching in the new school opened in the estate. She preferred to "immerse herself in the woods, walking up and down the trails, learning all about herbs and roots. She learned about clouds, too, how they’d foretell rain, all the secret changes of sky and earth. She learned that everything is in motion—quite different from the lifeless things taught in school.  She walked with her father watching the movement of animals, insects, and plants. Her father couldn’t read or do sums, but he knew the phases of the moon. He knew that under a full moon you could plant almost anything, although manioc, banana, and other fruits liked to be sown under a new moon; under a waning moon, it wasn’t time for planting but for clearing the land. He knew that for a plant to grow strong, you needed to weed around each one every day, reducing the risk of pests. You had to be vigilant, protecting the stalks, making small mounds of soil and watering carefully so they’d flourish. Whenever he encountered some problem in the fields, he would lie on the ground, his ear attuned to what was deep in the earth, before deciding what tools to use and what to do, where to advance and where to retreat. Like a doctor listening to a heartbeat".

The father of the girls, Zeca Chapeu Grande, is a tenant farmer and a healer for the community. He would use local herbs to heal physical wounds and African ceremonies to heal the souls. Most of the people here are of African origin. They practice their ancient rituals and religious practices. They are used to seeing stoically their neighbors going mad, teenage girls getting pregnant by estate officials, drunken husbands beating up wife and kids, broken families, orphaned children and hopeless existence. Their precarious lives are made worse by periodic droughts, floods and natural calamities. During these times, they survive by faith in their African gods and rituals, and offerings to please them. They would mix up their African gods and rituals sometimes with the Christian faith imposed by the Catholic Church. 

This novel has won several literary prizes and was shortlisted for 2024 International Booker prize. In an interview, the author says, “ For me, to write is an experience of surprise. I never know in advance the path my story will take”. He is already into writing of his next novel.

The novel is available in English translation.

"Small Earthquakes: A Journey Through Lost British History in South America” - book by Shafik Meghji

While the Spanish and Portuguese colonized Latin America, the British have played a significant role in slavery, wars of independence, politics, lending, investment, railways and football in the region. These have been brought out by the author of the book who has done extensive research and travelled through the South American countries which had been impacted by the British. 

Under the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht, Spain granted Britain a license to transport African slaves to its Latin American colonies. The London-based South Sea Company bought the contract from the British government for £9.5 million. Under the agreement, the firm could transport 4,800 enslaved Africans a year for the next three decades to Latin American ports. Working with the Royal African Company and protected by the Royal Navy, the South Sea Company trafficked about 42,000 Africans—7,000 of whom died en route.

The defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815 left Britain awash with unemployed soldiers—as many as half a million, according to some estimates. Thousands of them decided to fight for the aspirant nations in Spanish-controlled South America. Many were simply mercenaries; others sought adventure or a sense of purpose; and some regarded themselves as freedom fighters. In 1817, a representative of Simón Bolívar, known as the Liberator of South America "(El Libertador) visited London on a recruitment drive. Over the following two years, more than 6,000 men sailed from Britain to fight in Bolivar’s army. They carried supplies of arms and military equipment provided on credit by British merchants.

Bernardo O’Higgins, the Chilean independence leader and the first Head of State, was of Irish origin from his father’s side. He had studied in London and wanted “to make Chile the England of South America”, and he advocated English and Irish immigration as the best guarantee of progressive political institutions in South America.’ O’Higgins championed the adoption of a British-style constitutional system but was ousted in 1823, after a controversial £1 million loan he secured from the British government that came—predictably enough—with decidedly unfavourable repayment terms. He set sail from Valparaíso on a British ship, spending the rest of his days in exile in Peru.

Admiral Thomas was a British naval officer who  accepted the invitation to found Chile’s first navy and command it against Spanish forces. The nascent Chilean fleet was modelled on the Royal Navy and heavily staffed with British officers and sailors. 

Officially, Britain was neutral during the wars of independence but nevertheless sought to prevent other European nations from militarily aiding Spain. The British government was quick to recognise the independence of the new nations and signed commercial treaties with them to advance British business interests. 

In the 1850s, the British South American missionary society set up the first European settlement in Ushuaia to convert the local Yagan tribes into christianity. They had even brought some young members of the tribe to England to teach them English and the local culture and sent them back to their tribes to spread their new faith. The missionaries studied local languages and published dictionaries and books. The Argentine naval ships came much later to Ushuaia in 1884 to claim the region as part of their country.

In the 1880s, Argentina attracted 40–50 per cent of British foreign investment, most of which went into railways, ports, utilities, meat packing and trading. Between 1857 and 1920, more than 60,000 people from Britain came to Argentina. By the 1910s, British railway firms dominated the sector and were among the most valuable companies in Argentina. Opening in 1915, Retiro station in Buenos Aires city was once the hub of the biggest railway network in South America, extending across more than 27,000 miles of track at its peak in the 1940s. The Anglo-Argentine Tramways company built in 1913 Subte, the oldest underground railway in Latin America in Buenos Aires city. But many Argentines regarded railway companies as agents of imperialism and believed the country was being drawn into Britain’s ‘informal empire’. 

The first overseas branch of Harrods opened in Buenos Aires in 1914 and once virtually spanned an entire block. It was subsequently sold to a local retailer but retained the iconic name;  It closed in 1998, blighted by debts. Despite various attempts to re-open it over the years since, and the occasional temporary exhibition, it remains closed and near derelict. 

The British firm Barings gave an exploitative £1 million loan in 1824 to the government in Buenos Aires to operate the city’s water and sewage system, which was originally designed by engineers from Ireland and Britain. The company was later criticized for political and economic meddling, scheming to topple governors and even promoting the 1864–70 War of the Triple Alliance, a devastating conflict between Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay on one side and Paraguay on the other.

Alexander Watson Hutton, brought over the first footballs to Argentina, created the country’s first football pitch and encouraged his pupils to play the game. In 1893, he founded the Argentine Football Association (AFA), one of the oldest in the world outside of the UK. Hutton is called as the father of Argentine football. Many of the early players were British and the country's numerous clubs that exist today had British or Anglo-Argentine founder. The British also introduced Polo, Rugby and even cricket in Argentina.

Today, around 50,000 to 70,000 people in Chubut province of Argentina, have Welsh heritage. As many as 6,000 of these speak the Welsh language.

British banks had partly financed the independence wars of Peru, Bolivia and Chile. Later, the banks used these debts to help British companies to take over local business including nitrate mines and guano trading. The British companies and government had roles in the Pacific war in which Chile grabbed large territories of Bolivia and Peru. This benefitted British robber-baron firms such as Antony Gibbs & Sons, which dominated the nitrate industry for the next forty years.

When the Chilean President José Manuel Balmaceda nationalized the concessions of Liverpool Nitrate Company ( owned by John Thomas North), the British government, along with the British companies intervened and incited a civil war in 1891. The president committed suicide after he was overthrown.

In his epic poetry collection Canto General, Neruda wrote about North, the ‘powerful gringo’, and his dealings with Balmaceda:

The smooth sterling pounds

weave like golden spiders

an English cloth, legitimate,

for my people, a suit tailored

with blood, gunpowder and misery.

Atacama in Chile was one of the most valuable places on earth because of nitrate which accounted for as much as 80 per cent of Chile’s exports. But while the world war prompted a short-term profit surge, it also triggered the collapse of the industry. Germany’s nitrate supplies were cut-off by a British-led blockade during the conflict, which forced the country to seek out alternatives. German Chemists Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch subsequently developed an industrial process that combined nitrogen in the air with hydrogen to produce ammonia, launching the era of artificial fertilisers. After the war, this method proved to be a cheaper and quicker way to supply farmers and arms manufacturers in Europe. This ended the nitrate fortunes of Atacama.  

In 1973, the Conservative government of Edward Heath welcomed the Pinochet coup, with Foreign Secretary Alec Douglas-Home writing: ‘For British interests … there is no doubt that Chile under the junta is a better prospect than Allende’s chaotic road to socialism, our investments should do better, our loans may be successfully rescheduled, and export credits later resumed.’ Pinochet became a close ally of Margaret Thatcher, allowing a British surveillance team to use a Chilean military base in Punta Arenas to monitor Argentine air force operations during the Falklands War while also supplying crucial intelligence reports.

Britain had played a crucial role in the creation of an independent Uruguay in 1828. Britain was eager to create a buffer state between the two large warring nations of Brazil and Argentina in order to boost free trade, which, of course, would benefit Britain above all. A British envoy Lord Ponsonby, brokered the peace deal. 

The British moved quickly into the independent Uruguay with lending and investment in railways, meat industry and trading. The British also introduced football in Uruguay.

The Brazilian Supreme Court has done what its U.S. counterpart has tragically failed to do

The Brazilian Supreme Court has convicted (on 11 September) and sentenced ex-President Bolsonaro for his crimes of coup attempt, plot to assassinate political and judicial leaders and incitement of mobs to destroy the buildings of the Supreme Court, the Presidential palace, and the Congress, after he lost the elections in 2022. The court also sentenced seven other military and political accomplices of Bolsonaro. Earlier, the court had convicted more than 600 far right extremist followers of Bolsonaro who had vandalized the iconic government buildings of Brasila. 

The trial and delivery of judgements were telecast live so that the whole country and the world can see and hear the details of the crimes, the evidence, arguments and defense in the case transparently and publicly. The court showed clips of the most dramatic moments of the coup attempt. Bolsonaro and his accomplices had self-incriminated themselves with public statements, interviews and activities in live TV. The audiovisual evidence for their attempts  against democratic institutions are in the archives of the TV channels.

Brazilians, who had suffered many coups and military dictatorships in their history, did not want a regression to the ignominious past. Bolsonaro's conviction is clearly a victory for the democracy of Brazil. It is a warning to future coup plotters. As Justice Cármen Lúcia noted in her decisive vote this week, the Bolsonaro case is “an encounter between Brazil’s past, its present, and its future”. The last dictatorship which ruled from 1964 to 1985 had killed, tortured  and disappeared hundreds of activists for democracy. Bolsonaro’s military coup did not succeed because the army and air force commanders refused to participate. 

In other Latin American countries, members of military dictatorships who had committed atrocities were brought before justice and convicted. But the Brazilian military torturers and killers got away  with their crimes. They got impunity as part of the bargain to transfer power to the civilians in 1985. So, this is the first time in the history of Brazilian democracy that the coup plotters have been tried for their attempt to disrupt democracy. 

Bolsonaro has always publicly expressed his pride and admiration for the past military dictatorships and the killings and tortures openly and unapologetically. Ex-President Dilma Rouseff was a victim of imprisonment and torture by the military regime. Bolsonaro had dedicated his vote for impeachment of President Dilma Rouseff to the notorious Colonel Ustra who tortured her when she was caught as a young leftwing guerilla fighter. He called Ustra as a national hero.

Bolsonaro has never hidden his contempt for democracy. During his presidential visit to Chile, he praised Pinochet dictatorship, causing embarrassment to his Chilean hosts. “Elections won’t change anything in this country”, an angry Bolsonaro told an interviewer on the programme Câmara Aberta, broadcast by TV Band in 1999. “It will only change on the day that we break out in civil war here and do the job that the military regime didn’t do, killing 30,000 people beginning with Fernando Henrique Cardoso, the President of Brazil at that time. If we kill some innocent people that’s fine because in every war innocent people die.” Shouting at the interviewer, an intemperate Bolsonaro said that if he became president, he would dissolve Congress on his first day in office. 

Bolsonaro had worked systematically and consistently to undermine democratic institutions during his four year presidency as well as before and after his presidential term. He had filled his cabinet with military officers, including serving ones and politicized the armed forces. Anticipating his election loss, Bolsonaro had tried to discredit the electoral system systematically with disinformation and fake news. He held a public meeting even with the foreign ambassadors in Brasilia and explained to them his lack of belief in the electoral system. He had ordered police roadblocks to prevent voting by Lula supporters and monitored opponents using the national intelligence agency. 

The Bolsonarist mobs had camped several times in front of the army headquarters in Brasilia and called for the return of military dictatorship and closure of the Congress and Supreme Court while President Bolsonaro smiled and cheered the crowds. In 2018, Eduardo Bolsonaro, son of Jair Bolsonaro, was recorded speaking in a classroom, saying that the Supreme Court could be shut down if it went against his father. He said, “One wouldn’t even need a Jeep. Sending a soldier and corporal would be enough to close the Court” 

Bolsonaro has ignited a new gun culture in Brazil. His three politician sons have been fierce proponents of expanding gun ownership through policy proposals and social media posts. Eduardo Bolsonaro has spoken admiringly of the Second Amendment in the United States. He has lobbied to make the Brazilian market more attractive to foreign arms manufacturers, which he said would lower prices and provide gun buyers with more choices. Flávio Bolsonaro, a senator, made the promotion of gun manufacturing in Brazil the focus of his first project in the legislature. During his presidency,  Bolsonaro had loosened gun control to make more firearms available easily to more of his followers. Gun ownership rocketed by 98% during Bolsonaro’s first year as President.  Weapons newly available to the public now included semi-automatic rifles, previously only available to the army. In April 2020, Bolsonaro revoked decrees that existed to facilitate the tracing and identification of weapons and ammunition. One week later, he tripled the quantity of ammunition available for purchase by civilians, saying on record in a ministerial meeting, that he wanted “everyone” to carry guns.. Bolsonaro's signature favorite pose is gun shooting gesture. Bolsonaro reaffirmed in his inaugural speech, “Good citizens deserve the means to defend themselves through gun ownership”. His supporters in the Congress cheered and applauded him by pointing their fingers in the shape of a gun. 

During his 2019 visit to US, he tweeted, “For the first time in a while, a pro-America Brazilian president arrives in DC.” He had made an unusual  visit to the CIA headquarters. This was bizarre. No foreign president goes to CIA office. According to diplomatic protocol, it should have been the CIA Director who should have called on him and not the other way. After the visit, Eduardo Bolsonaro described the CIA as “one of the most respected intelligence agencies in the world,” in a tweet.

After losing the elections. Bolsonaro fled to Miami in an official plane without handing over power to his successor. He thought it was safe to incite the mobs from the US in order to claim later that he was not present in Brasilia when his followers ransacked government buildings.  His son Eduardo Bolsonaro has been camping in US and has succeeded in convincing Trump to impose sanctions and tariffs on Brazil. He has been proudly claiming credit for these Trump punishments against Brazil. 

President Trump had imposed 50% tariffs on Brazil saying that it was stop the prosecution of his friend Bolsonaro. He imposed sanctions against judges and revoked the US visas of some. He had exempted two judges, who were appointed by Bolsonaro, when he was President. 

President Trump has reacted to the Supreme Court verdict saying, "It's very much what they tried to do with me, but they didn't get away with it at all. He was a good man, I don't see that happening. “The United States will respond accordingly to this witch hunt​,” tweeted the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, calling the conviction “unjust”. Eduardo Bolsonaro , who continues to lobby  with the MAGA crowd says that "he expected the US would take further measures in the wake of the verdict."

The Brazilian government and judiciary have rejected the brazen American attempts to interfere in their domestic governance and justice system. President Lula had said in a CNN interview, " If Trump had done in Brasilia what he had done in Washington DC on 6 January, he would have been put on trial". The Brazilians have not forgotten the past American support to the Brazilian military dictatorship as well as other Latin American military regimes.

In an ironic twist, on the day the Supreme Court sentenced Bolsonaro defying Trump sanctions, the Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer secured an order to sell 100 aircrafts to the US airline Avelo. It has placed a firm order for 50 Embraer jets (valued at 4.4 billion dollars) with purchase rights for another 50. Trump has exempted Brazilian aircrafts from his  50% tariff on Brazil. Aircraft is one of the 700 plus items Trump has given exemption from his egregious tariff on Brazil.

Reacting to the Brazilian Supreme Court verdict, an opinion column in New York Times on 12 September (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/12/opinion/trump-bolsonaro-conviction-democracy.html) says, "The Brazilian Supreme Court has done what the U.S. federal courts tragically failed to do: bring a former president who assaulted democracy to justice. President Trump also attempted to overturn an election. But he was sent not to prison but back to the White House. Trump has criticized Brazil’s effort to defend its democracy. He has punished it with tariffs and sanctions to bully Brazilians into subverting their legal system — and their democracy along with it. In effect, the U.S. administration is punishing Brazilians for doing something Americans should have done, but failed to. Brazilian democracy is healthier today than America’s. Rather than undermining Brazil’s effort to defend its democracy, Americans should learn from it". 

Apocalypse in the Tropics - Brazilian documentary film

This film, released in Netflix recently, has come at the right time when Bolsonaro is on trial for his apocalyptic attempts to overthrow the elected government of President Lula and assassinate political leaders and and judges in 2023. 

It brings out the collusion of evangelical leaders in the anti-democratic conspiracies of Bolsonaro.  Today, the evangelicals, representing 30% of the population, have become a powerful political force. 

Evangelism, which originated in the US was pushed into Brazil as part of the strategy of the US war on communism to counter the “ghost” of Communism. 

They have become a serious rival to Catholicism in the largest catholic country in the world. 

Evangelicals have systematically used their influence on their followers to gain political power and personal benefits. They advise the voters openly whom to vote for or against. The evangelical pastor Silas Malafaia had helped the campaign of Bolsonaro. Malafaia had been working even harder to defeat Lula and the Workers Party.  Some of the evangelical pastors openly called for military to intervene and overthrow the elected government of President Lula. They had encouraged their followers to attack the Congress, the Presidential palace and the Supreme Court on 8 January to facilitate the coup planned by Bolsonaro.

Malafaia and many other pastors have become millionaires and even billionaires. They own private jets, live in luxury and make pilgrimages to Miami for shopping and entertainment. They have built business empires with publications, TV channels, and music among other ways of making money. 

The documentary film reveals how the Brazilian democracy has been undermined and eroded by the corrosive influence of extremist evangelical pastors who manipulate and mislead their followers. It has vividly captured the statements, agenda and activities of the Evangelicals and their political accomplices. Of course, it has also pointed out the positive contribution of Evangelicals to the poor masses, giving them hope, identity and offering some social services.

The evangelicals have now become a formidable force in the politics, culture and social parts of the Brazilian society. Even Lula has admitted that he needed to reach out to the Evangelicals for votes.  

Petra Costa, the talented Brazilian film director, has directed the documentary in her own inimitable style. She had earlier directed another brilliant documentary “ The edge of democracy”. She has let the camera speak to the audience directly and has made the audience to think and reflect, with thought provoking and profound commentaries.

Costa opens the film with the images and videos of construction work for building the new capital Brasilia in the sixties. Her opening commentary, “ Brasilia was designed as a vision of Brazil’s future based on a desire to break with the centuries old Catholic colonial tradition and replace it with a modernist vision of equality and justice. The cement that held the buildings of the three pillars of democracy (the Congress, the Presidency and the Supreme Court) was a faith…not in God..but instead in the equality of progress and democracy”.  

Costa recalls her 2016 visit to the Brazilian Congress when she encountered the dramatic rise of Evangelicals within the legislature. The evangelicals got an opening to wield their clout when the country was going through political instability and economic crisis. The evangelicals brought their advocacy and agenda from the pulpits into the Congress with issues such as abortion, rights of gays and minorities. They turned viciously against the Left taking advantage of the imprisonment of Lula and impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff. They worked closely with the far-right extremist Bolsonaro and helped him to come to power. When he lost the re-election, the Evangelicals would not accept. They joined forces with the Bolsonarists in the coup attempts.

The documentary ends with the images and videos of the destruction and damage of the buildings of the Congress, Presidency and the Supreme Court and the collection of cement debris and broken glass pieces by the workers.  Her final poignant commentary, “Apocalypse does not mean the end of the world. It is an unveiling, a revelation, and a chance to open our eyes”.  

The documentary not only opens the eyes of the Brazilians but also those in the rest of the world which has witnessed the apocalyptic attempts of Trump to hold on to power after losing reelection in January 2021. He had set an example to Bolsonaro by inciting his rogue followers to attack the Capitol Hill on 6 January 2021 in Washington DC. 

The documentary has enough evidence to convict not only Bolsonaro and his military accomplices but even Malafaia and his dangerous ilk. They have self-incriminated themselves openly and unambiguously with their own anti-democratic and pro-coup statements and incitements to violence. There is no need for any more evidence.

God save Brazil …from the extremist Evangelicals and their far-right political accomplices.

Mexico creates history with its new system of election of judges by the country’s voters

Mexico creates history in the world with its new system of election of judges by the country’s voters 

Mexico is the only country in the world which elects its judges by popular voting

The new system was created by a constitutional reform law passed by the Mexican Congress in September 2024.  This was proposed by the then-President López Obrador in February 2024. He was frustrated by the judicial obstacles created by conservative judges against his progressive and populist policies and programs. In any case, the judicial system was stained by nepotism and corruption. The previous system was a career judiciary system, which promoted candidates based on experience and exams.

The judicial elections were held on 1June 2025. Thousands of lawyers contested. Although the candidates are supposed to be free from political affiliation, the ruling Morena party endorsed some candidates discretely, contributing to their success.

The requirements for aspiring judges are a law degree, good grades and letters of recommendation. Prospective candidates are filtered by evaluation committees and submitted to the National Electoral Institute (INE) for inclusion on the ballot.

On 1 September, 881 elected federal judges including all nine Supreme Court justices took their office.  There will be another election in 2027 to elect another 800 plus judges. The Supreme Court justices serve a single 12-year term, while other federal judges serve renewable nine-year terms.

Hugo Aguilar Ortiz, the new Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, is the first Indigenous person to hold the highest judicial office in Mexico in its history. He had received the highest number of votes.

An Indigenous purification ceremony was held in Mexico City's Zócalo square to consecrate the newly elected Supreme Court justices. This ceremonial act was a symbolic moment reflecting the recognition, inclusion and honoring of the Indigenous people of Mexico. This is an unprecedented ceremony with the presentation of staffs of office and service from the country’s indigenous and Afro-Mexican peoples to the elected justices of the Supreme Court of Justice. The ceremony took place in front of more than 1,500 attendees, with traditional music and copal smoke. Hugo Aguilar Ortiz, the president-elect, the sole speaker for his colleagues, said that he and his colleagues are assuming the role of “justices of the people,” with the clear mission of “cleaning up” the judiciary of corruption and nepotism.

While Mexico is the first country to elect all its judges, the system of election is practiced in 38 states of USA  which use some form of election to select their state supreme court justices. In fact, eight states use partisan method for selecting supreme court justices, where candidates appear on the ballot with their political party affiliation. These are: Alabama, Illinois, Louisiana, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas. The US politicians and media are the harshest critics of the New Mexican system of election, although some of the US states use the same system. The flawed system of US judiciary has allowed a convicted felon like Trump to become president and commit more crimes and atrocities. But the Brazilian justice system has banned Bolsonaro for the same crimes committed by Trump and has now put him on trial for his attempts to sabotage democracy.

Predictably, there is lot of criticism of the new system. These include politicization of judiciary, dilution of independence, flawed system of screening of candidates, potential for manipulation of elections by cartels and lobbies, scope for election of candidates without adequate experience or expertise. The fact that the voter turnout was a meagre 13%  strengthened the critics arguments. Many winner of the judicial elections including five of the nine Supreme Court judges and Chief Justice Aguilar are said to have close ties to the ruling Morena party.

Let us not judge in haste.. elected judges can cause much less damage to countries and the world than deranged politicians like Trump and Bolsonaro when they get elected.

Crude Nation: How oil riches ruined Venezuela - book by Raul Gallegos

Crude Nation: How oil riches ruined Venezuela - book by Raul Gallegos

This book narrates the tragic story of how the oil-rich Venezuela (has the largest oil reserves in the world, even more than that of Saudi Arabia) has become a country of misery, poverty and instability because of mismanagement and corrupt culture of the Venezuelans. 

Critics blame President Chavez and his successor President Maduro for the Venezuelan crisis. But according to this book, the problems of Venezuela did not start with Chavez in 1998 but from 1914 when oil was discovered.  Since then, the Venezuelans have been infected incurably by the Dutch disease and resource curse. Oil has spoiled both the rulers and the ruled. The politicians stole and misspent the petrodollars during the high oil prices and let the economy slide into crisis when the prices went down. The businessmen gave up productive industries and went into imports and quick ways of making fast buck. Farmers neglected agriculture and moved into cities to share the luxury life style spawned by the oil boom. 

The country has so much of fertile land, mineral resources, hydroelectric potential, beautiful beaches and pleasant climate. These resources are sufficient to be a prosperous nation, even without oil. But when the easy money from oil started coming, the Venezuelans abandoned all the other resources and started living exclusively on oil income. 

The ordinary Venezuelans developed a wrong culture and mindset that they do not have to work hard since money was flowing out of the oil wells. They have become addicted to consumption and imported luxuries. They spend more than they earn without caring for saving or preparing for the cyclical lower oil price. During high oil prices, middle class Venezuelans used to go for shopping to Miami and freak out on purchase of luxury goods. At the same time, the government also went on a spending spree and borrowed money recklessly from international capital market. The corrupt politicians cleaned up the treasury and took them abroad in collusion with business people. When the oil prices went down, the governments struggled to pay foreign debt, cut down developmental and welfare budgets and imposed austerity. At these times, people rose in protests leading to change of governments through elections or coups.

Venezuela became a different country when it discovered oil in 1914. In just a decade, the country had undergone a rapid transformation from an obscure agricultural backwater somewhere in the Andes to the world’s largest oil exporter and the second-largest oil producer after the United States. The agricultural nation became a petrostate. In 1920s, oil revenue supplied two-thirds of the state’s income and made up more than 90 percent of the country’s exports. 

By 1930, while the world struggled with the Great Depression, Venezuelans began to enjoy enormous riches. Venezuela became a key supplier of the oil that fueled the Allied effort during World War II. The flood of oil revenue caused their currency bolivar to appreciate against the dollar.  The strong currency was a boon for Venezuelan consumers, who could suddenly afford to import what they used, wore, and ate every day. Caracas became expensive. A US diplomat earning 2000 dollars in Washington DC needed 5000 dollars to live in Caracas. 

Venezuela’s days of economic plenty did not last. World War II disrupted global trade and pushed the import-dependent nation into economic disarray, plagued by product shortages. Venezuela quickly went from a nation with enough purchasing power to import fine wines to a place where people struggled to find car tires.

Venezuela had increased its oil revenue thanks to a smart Venezuelan, Pérez Alfonzo, the Minister of Development appointed by the military rulers after the 1945 coup. He changed the game of negotiations with the foreign oil companies. He pushed them for fifty-fifty share in the profits the multinational oil companies derived from the sale of crude oil as well as refining, transportation, and sale of fuel. He educated the sheikhs in the Middle East and helped them to get a similar arrangement with the foreign oil firms and also create their own national oil companies. When in 1960 oil companies decided to steeply reduce the prices paid for crude, Pérez Alfonzo flew to Baghdad, where he met representatives from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, and Iran and signed the agreement to create the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC. From that point on, oil companies would have to consult with exporter countries before setting oil prices.

In the period 1950-57 Venezuela accumulated huge foreign exchange reserves, caused by the hike in oil prices after the coup in Iran and closure of Suez Canal. In 1963, the country churned out 3.5 million barrels of oil a day. The country’s per capita income was the highest in Latin America, and the bolivar remained one of the world’s strongest currencies. Sears Roebuck had opened eleven stores in Venezuela.

After the Arab oil embargo in 1973, Venezuela’s petrodollars tripled. The flow of dollars from oil was too much for Venezuela’s economy causing a form of economic indigestion. The newly elected president Carlos Andrés Pérez asked congress for special powers to issue laws by decree to better handle the avalanche of money. Venezuela was in a state of emergency because it had too much cash.

Venezuelans wasted no time in developing a taste for the finer things in life. The country became known for having the best French and Italian restaurants in Latin America, many of them run by famed chefs. Venezuela became one of the largest importers of premium alcohol, like whiskey and champagne, as well as luxury vehicles, like the Cadillac El Dorado. Caracas became such a chic destination that Air France’s Concorde supersonic jet opened a Paris–Caracas flight in 1976. The per capita income of Venezuelans rivaled that of West Germany. 

But in the 1980s, Venezuela faced a crisis after the fall in prices due to a global oil glut and lower demand.  Since Venezuelans had grown accustomed to generous governments, politicians continued to spend even in the face of less money coming in. The country’s economy in 1989 went into its worst recession ever, with gross domestic product contracting nearly 9 percent. Venezuela was forced to seek a financial lifeline from the International Monetary Fund and asked the U.S. government’s help to renegotiate and reduce its outstanding debts. People took to the streets by the thousands to protest, riot, and loot for ten days. Protesters set fire to cars and buses, and they clashed with the military. When it was all over, the uprising that became known as El Caracazo had left three hundred people dead and material losses in the millions of dollars. During the eight years ending in 1989, poverty had increased tenfold. Inflation topped 100 percent in 1996. When Chávez was first sworn in as president in 1999, roughly 44 percent of Venezuelan households lived in poverty.

The author has concluded that the Venezuelans have learnt nothing in the last one hundred  plus years of oil history.  The Venezuelan politics has remained as a roulette of dictators, populists, coups, booms and busts. Since its independence in 1811, the country has had twenty-three different constitutions. 

The author of the book Raul Gallegos  was the foreign oil correspondent for Dow Jones and the Wall street Journal based in Caracas. 

I agree with the author's analysis, based on my first hand experience as India's ambassador in Venezuela during 2000-3.

This book has covered the developments till 2016, when it was published. In the last ten years, the country has worsened with more political instability and economic crisis. The Americans have driven Venezuela to the wall with draconic economic sanctions and announcement of bounties on the heads of the members of the Venezuelan government. The sanctions have crippled the oil production and exports, besides trade, industry and investment. The US has announced a bounty of over 70 million dollars on dozens of Venezuelan government leaders including President Maduro (25 million dollars), Interior Minister Cabello (15 million dollars), Defense Minister Pedrinho (15 million), chiefs of armed forces, police,  intelligence agencies and the national oil company PDVSA, as well as judges of Supreme Court and election authorities. The US prosecutors have filed criminal cases in US courts accusing  them of all kinds of charges such as drug trafficking, money laundering, possession of arms and human rights violations. This means that the entire ruling regime of Venezuela will be extradited and jailed for life in US, if they are out of power. The Chavista government knows that they will certainly lose in any free and fair election. So why would hundreds of the members of the ruling regime will commit collective suicide by holding elections and letting the pro-American opposition to come to power. The American position on Venezuela has become harsher with President Trump and the Cuban-American Secretary of State Marco Rubio. So the Venezuelans are condemned to more misery in the next four years. Clearly, the US has become the biggest obstacle for restoration of Venezuelan democracy.

Venezuela’s misery has affected India too. Venezuela was the main source of crude oil for India in the Latin American region. Before the US sanctions, India used to import over 10 billion dollars of oil from Venezuela at competitive prices. The Venezuelan government, which was earlier exporting over 80% of its oil to US, was keen to reduce its over dependence. They offered attractive prices and terms to India seeing it as large and growing long term market.  But now the Americans have replaced Venezuelans as a large supplier of crude oil to India. In 2014-15, they exported crude worth 14.3 billion dollars. So, the American sanctions are just a political masquerade to shut Venezuelan supply and capture the oil market for American oil producing companies. Venezuela, the crude nation has been trumped by US, the cruder nation. 

India exports more to Latin American countries than to neighbors and traditional trade partners

India exports more to Latin American countries than to neighbors and traditional trade partners 

                                                     

India’s exports of 275 million dollars in 2024-25 (April 2024-March 2025) to the remote Honduras in Central America are more than the exports of 201 m to nearby Cambodia. The population of Honduras is just 10 million as against 17 m of Cambodia.

 

If you think this is incredible, here are some more:

 

India’s exports of 382 m to Dominican Republic are more than the 263 m to Kazhakstan.

Export of 635 m to Guatemala is more than the 614 m to Myanmar..

And more surprises...

Exports to Brazil (6.7 billion dollars) are higher than to the traditional trade partners such as Japan (6.25 bn), South Korea (5.82 bn) Vietnam ( 5.43bn)…..and neighbors such as Srilanka (4.55 bn), Indonesia ( 5.38 bn) and Thailand ( 4.8 bn) 

Exports to Mexico (5.75 bn) are more than the exports to Russia (4.88 bn), Canada (4.22 bn) and Egypt (3.41 bn).

This is not a one year wonder..This is the clear continuing trend in the last decade.

 

India was the 7th largest supplier of goods to Latin America  with 20.22 billion dollars in 2024. This is just 1.4% of Latin America’s total imports of 1.4 trillion dollars in 2024. There is scope to increase India’s exports to 50 billion dollars in the next five years. 

Motorcycles ride the wave of export boom to Latin America

India’s motorcycle exports to Latin America were 1.5 billion dollars, which is 46% of India's total exports..

Mexico was #1 destination of India's global export of motorcycles in 2024-25 with 390 million dollars..

Colombia was #2 with 380 million.. and Guatemala was #4 with 173 m

Other destinations: Brazil 123 m, Argentina 89 m, Peru 68 m, Honduras 60 m,

 Earlier, Colombia used to be the # 1 destination.

India is the #2 supplier of motorcycles to Latin America, after China.

Car exports

Car exports to Latin America were 1788 million dollars. This was 25 % of India’s global car exports of 7.24 bn dollars. 

 Major destinations: Mexico 938 m, Chile 257 m,  Peru 160 m, Panama 68 m, Colombia 75 m, Costa Rica 59 m, Guatemala 54 m and Ecuador 44 m.

. 

Pharmaceuticals

Pharma exports were 1.8 billion dollars.  

Major destination of India’s pharma exports:  Brazil 520 million dollars (up from 416 m last year), Mexico 198 m, Chile 212 m, Venezuela 177 m, Colombia 157 m, Peru 110 m, Guatemala 89 m, Dominican Republic 73 m and Ecuador 40 m.

India ranks as the 5th largest supplier of pharmaceuticals to Latin America, after US, Germany, Switzerland and Ireland. 

India is the # 2 supplier of pharmaceuticals to Peru, Dominican Republic and Guatemala....# 3 to Chile... # 5 to Honduras and El Salvador...# 8 fro Brazil, Mexico and Colombia.

 

Major exports

Vehicles     4.88 bn

Chemicals  3.3 bn

Pharmaceuticals    1.81 bn 

Machinery  1.73 bn 

Petroleum Products  1.17 bn                   

Iron and steel  884 m

Apparels 684 m

Textile fibers and filaments 422 m

Aluminum products  592 m               

Plastics   492 m 

Cotton  495 m  

Rubber products 434 m            

                 

Imports 

Main import items: 

 

Crude oil  7.2 billion dollars

Raw gold.        7.06 bn  

Vegetable oil 3.74 bn 

Raw sugar 1.36 bn

Copper including concentrate   2.75 bn 

Machinery and equipment 855 m

Wood        548 m

Chemicals 436 m

Fresh Fruits 195 m

Cotton 182 m

Paper pulp 156 m

Pulses 170 m

 

Crude oil imports which reached a peak of around 15 billion dollars in 2013-14 has come down drastically due to US sanctions on Venezuela which had supplied 10 bn dollars of crude in 2013-14.

 

Main sources of crude oil imports: Colombia 2.18 bn, Mexico 1.58 billion dollars, Brazil 1.4 bn, Venezuela 1.58 bn and Ecuador 157 million

  

Raw gold import sourcing: Peru 4.46 bn (up from 2.8 bn last year), Colombia 834 m, Dom Republic 603 m, Argentina 466 m, Mexico 208 m, Bolivia 364 m (down from 1077 m last year), Chile 70 m Brazil 213 m,  and Brazil 46 m

 

Latin America is the main source of soy oil imports of India. Argentina is the #1 global supplier with 2.98 billion dollars (up from 1.9 bn last year), followed by Brazil 783 m. 

 

Brazil is the source of imports of raw sugar which India refines and reexports to other countries.

 

Chile, the main supplier of copper and other mineral concentrates from the region supplied 1.59 bn, followed by Peru 428 m and Colombia 103 m

 

Main suppliers of wood from the region:  Brazil 129 m, Uruguay 115 m, Ecuador 106 m, Panama 38 m,

 

Trade 2024-25

Figures in millions of US Dollars 

 

Country	exports	imports	Total trade
Brazil	6771	5435	12206
Mexico	5749	2869	8618
Argentina	1018	3737	4755
Peru	1002	4981	5983
Colombia	1472	3245	4717
Chile	1154	2604	3758
Venezuela	217	1647	1864
Bolivia	70	370	440
Ecuador	317	352	669
Dom Republic	382	730	1112
Panama	287	166	453
Guatemala	634	29	663
Uruguay	153	153	306
Honduras	275	35	310
Costa Rica	224	115	339
Paraguay	181	33	214
El Salvador	149	4	153
Nicaragua	159	24	183
Cuba	15	3	18
Total	20229	26532	46761

 

 

Trade from 2010-11 to 2024-25…figures in billions of dollars

 

 

Year	exports	imports	Total trade
2024-25	20.23	26.53	46.76
2023-24	19.15	23.75	42.90
2022-23	22.41	25.59	48.00
2021-22	18.89	25.62	44.50
2020-21	12.74	14.92	27.66
2019-20	13.18	20.67	33.85
2018-19	13.16	25.7	38.89
2017-18	12.1	24.4	36.45
2016-17	10.4	19.6	30
2015-16	10	19.7	29.7
2014-15	13.7	29.3	43
2013-14	12.77	31.31	44.08
2012-13	12.48	31.38	43.86
2011-12	11.33	18.42	29.75
2010-11	10.04	14.01	24.05

 

  

Latin America is a large substantial market of 19 countries, population of 620 million and GDP of 6 trillion dollars with a per capita income close to 10,000 dollars. 

Latin Americans have started attaching more importance for trade with India, as part of their strategy to reduce over dependence on China and and to diversify from the protectionist Europe and US. 

India is the 5th largest destination for Latin America's exports after US, China, Canada and Spain. This means India is more important than Germany, UK, France or Japan.

 Some suggestions for action to boost India’s exports

 

India should open embassies in Ecuador, Costa Rica, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Uruguay. 

The commercial section of the embassies in the region should be strengthened with dedicated India-based and local officers with adequate budget. 

 

India should start negotiations for FTA with Mexico and Colombia, the 2^nd  and 3rd largest destinations of exports to Latin America. The ongoing FTA talks with Peru and Chile to be concluded soon. 

India should join as member of the Inter-American Development Bank to enable Indian companies to participate in the large infrastructure projects of the Bank. 

India should consider extending more lines of credit to the region. While China has given more than 150 billion dollars of credit to Latin America, India’s credit is not even one billion. 

China has over 60 Latin America study centres but India has just three.  The Ministry of. External Affairs should encourage and fund Latin America study centers to do research especially on Latin American markets and business opportunities.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Latin America includes 10 countries in South America, 6 in Central America , 2 Spanish speaking Caribbean (Cuba and Dominican Republic) and Mexico.

Source of Statistics: Ministry of Commerce of India