Latest news with #CassandraGarrison
Yahoo
21-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Analysis-US sanctions could cause chaos on Latam farms run on Russian fertilizers
By Ana Mano and Cassandra Garrison SAO PAULO/MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -Latin American farmers are in for a rough ride if the U.S. slaps secondary sanctions on buyers of Russian exports, such as the fertilizers essential for cash crops from Mexican avocados to Brazilian soybeans and corn. For farm powerhouse Brazil, which covered about a third of its fertilizer demand with $3.7 billion of imports from Russia last year, there is virtually no alternative to fill the gap if those flows are halted, experts and industry players said. The 2022 outbreak of war in Ukraine triggered stockpiling of Russian fertilizer in the region. Prices soared briefly, but trade has now normalized. Plans to boost domestic fertilizer production in Mexico and Brazil have made slow progress in the face of relatively cheap Russian imports. Shipments to Brazil, the world's largest producer of soybeans, sugar and coffee, rose nearly 30% in the first half of this year, the Russian Fertilizer Producers Association said. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte singled out Brazil among a handful of countries that could be hit "very hard" by sanctions for doing business with Russia as part of U.S. President Donald Trump's renewed push to end the war in Ukraine. Fresh sanctions targeting Russian fertilizer imports could "render soybean and corn production inviable," said Lucas Beber, vice president of Brazilian grain farming group Aprosoja. Mexico also imported more than $580 million of fertilizers last year from Russia, its largest supplier according to government data. Potential U.S. sanctions would pose a big problem for farmers there. "It would affect Mexico's purchases from Russia of different fertilizers, particularly urea, which is the most widely used in crops such as corn, sorghum, wheat, and even avocado," said Raul Urteaga. A former director of international affairs for Mexico's agriculture ministry, Urteaga warned of a drop-off in the quality of fertilizers available if Russian imports disappear. That could weaken avocado production and send prices higher for U.S. consumers. The U.S. accounts for more than 80% of Mexico's total avocado exports, a market worth more than $3 billion last year, according to U.S. government data. "The price of avocados would increase if producers have to use other alternatives or find fertilizers that are imported from sources other than Russia," Urteaga said. Russia is also top fertilizer supplier for Colombia, another key producer of fruits, flowers and coffee to the U.S. Russia provides about a quarter of Colombia's fertilizer imports, government data shows. The World Bank has identified fertilizer costs as a driver of food inflation in Central America, contributing to a cost-of-living crisis that has stoked northward migration. SALES DELAYED Even fertilizer companies that have already cut ties with Russian suppliers, like U.S.-based Mosaic , expressed fears that further trade disruptions with one of the world's top three fertilizer producers could feed volatility. "Potential discussions involving retaliation against countries that operate with Russia ... only end up further aggravating the situation in terms of pricing," said Eduardo Monteiro, Mosaic's country manager in Brazil, which contributes 40% of the company's global revenue. He said geopolitical tensions delayed sales to Brazilian farmers for the next crop cycle, which could compromise timely fertilizer deliveries for major crops such as soybeans, which farmers plant from September. Big privately held fertilizer makers Eurochem and Fertipar, which supply their Brazilian processing plants with imports from Russia according to trade data, declined or did not reply to questions about potential sanctions. Brazil has touted plans to nearly halve its reliance on foreign fertilizers. Mexico aims to boost domestic production from 33% to 80% of local demand. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Mexico's Claudia Sheinbaum have both prodded state oil companies Petrobras and Pemex to ramp up fertilizer production. They have made slow progress, however. In Brazil's case, efforts were hampered by factors including lack of funding, potentially costly mineral resources and expensive natural gas, which is key to producing nitrogen fertilizers. The problem could be partly mitigated after Brazil Potash Corp starts to mine for potash in the Brazilian Amazon, which should happen once the infrastructure and permitting are in place. In Mexico, debt-laden Pemex has struggled over the years to make fertilizers a profitable business. Unfazed by local competition, U.S. sanctions or European bans, Russian fertilizer producers say they expect to raise their global market share to 25% by 2030, relying largely on sales to developing BRICS nations including Brazil, India and China. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
10-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Google in Mexico faces major potential fine as antitrust ruling nears
By Cassandra Garrison MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -Mexico's antitrust watchdog is set to rule by next week on whether Google built an illegal monopoly in digital advertising in the country, a decision that could fine the tech giant 8% of its annual Mexican revenue, public documents show. Although Google does not release detailed revenue results by country, the potential fine could be among the largest ever imposed by Mexico's Federal Economic Competition Commission (Cofece). Cofece and Google declined to comment. The watchdog expects to make a decision by June 17, according to its own published timeline. Under Mexican law, 8% of annual revenue is the maximum fine for monopolistic practices. Cofece accuses the company of establishing an effective monopoly in the Mexican digital advertising market. It began its investigation into Google Mexico in 2020 and issued a summons in 2023, beginning the trial phase of the procedure. Google then had the opportunity to present evidence against the allegations. A company can apply for an injunction blocking the antitrust ruling until a specialized court decides on whether it should be ratified or not. Cofece requested Google's financial information from tax authority SAT, a timeline of updates on the case's record of history showed. While Google parent Alphabet does not include specific revenue numbers for Mexico in its earnings reports, the U.S. tech giant is the largest company to be challenged by Mexico's antitrust regulator. According to annual results for 2024, the company's revenue for its "other Americas" region, which includes Latin America, was about $20.4 billion. In 2022, Cofece fined a group of liquefied petroleum gas distributors 2.4 billion Mexican pesos ($126.03 million) for price fixing. Cofece's database shows that an oral hearing with Google about the case, considered one of the final steps in such cases, took place on May 20. In 2020, in response to anticompetitive investigations into Google, Lina Ornelas, Director of Public Policy and Government Relations at Google Mexico, said at a company event, "Being big isn't bad. What matters is that you don't take out any competitors with your products, even though yours can be very efficient, and that's why you have more users." Separately, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has clashed with Google, filing a suit against the company over its decision to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the "Gulf of America" for U.S. users of Google Maps, after President Donald Trump renamed the body of water. The suit argues Google does not have the "authority" to rename it. Lawmakers from the ruling Morena party have since last year called on Cofece to resolve Google's long-standing case. If Cofece rules against Google, the move would mirror the tech titan's legal woes in the United States, where a U.S. district judge last year ruled it holds an unlawful monopoly in online search and related advertising. The U.S. Justice Department and a coalition of states want Google to share search data and cease multibillion-dollar payments to Apple and other smartphone makers to be the default search engine on new devices. Antitrust enforcers are concerned about how Google's search monopoly gives it an advantage. In a separate case, a federal judge said Google illegally dominated two markets for online advertising technology, with the Justice Department saying that Google should sell off at least its Google Ad Manager, which includes the company's publisher ad server and its ad exchange. ($1 = 19.0435 Mexican pesos) Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Reuters
24-05-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
Judges on the ballot in Mexico
Follow on Apple or Spotify. Listen on the Reuters app. Mexicans will vote for judges for the first time in a June 1 election. The shift from appointed judges has faced criticism, fueled by fears that organized crime may gain more influence. The government says electing judges will help root out corruption. On this episode of Reuters World News, Cassandra Garrison joins us from Mexico City to meet the judges on the ballot. Further Reading Mexican judges say judicial reform violated human rights Mexico's Senate to choose judicial candidates by drawing, bypassing evaluation committee Majority of Mexico's Supreme Court justices resigns after judicial reform
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Yahoo
In Mexico, first outrage, then victim blaming over murdered TikTok influencer
By Cassandra Garrison and Emily Green MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - No sooner had 23-year-old beauty influencer Valeria Marquez been murdered on a TikTok livestream than the Mexican rumor mill started. Comments poured in on social media blaming her for her own death: She was involved in shady business, her ex-boyfriend was a narco, she had it coming, they said. By Friday, the media and politicians were already moving on. Marquez seems destined to become one in a long line of Mexican women whose murder briefly shocks the conscience only to recede into the background until the next gruesome crime happens. "It sort of reflects a level of saturation, a level of societal acceptance of these sorts of killings," said Gema Kloppe-Santamaria, a sociologist at University College Cork in Ireland who studies gender-based violence in Mexico. "There's a lot of re-victimization that I think allows people to say, 'Let's move on. This is something that won't happen to us. It doesn't happen to good girls. It doesn't happen to decent Mexican women.'" Marquez, who had nearly 200,000 followers across Instagram and TikTok, was known for her videos about beauty and makeup. On Tuesday, she clutched a stuffed toy and livestreamed from the beauty salon where she worked in the state of Jalisco, when a male voice in the background asked "Hey, Vale?" "Yes," Marquez replied, just before muting the sound on the livestream. Moments later, she was shot dead. A person appeared to pick up her phone, with their face briefly showing on the livestream before the video ended. Almost immediately, local media honed in on a man they identified as Marquez's ex-boyfriend, who they said was a regional leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, one of Mexico's most notorious drug cartels. Local media shared alleged text messages between the couple that appeared to show the ex-boyfriend threatening Marquez because she ignored him. Reuters was not able to independently verify the identity of the ex-boyfriend or contact him for comment. Marquez's family declined to speak with Reuters. The Jalisco state prosecutor said Marquez's murder is being investigated as a possible femicide - the killing of women or girls for reasons of gender - but declined to say whether Marquez's ex-boyfriend was a suspect. "Anyone associated with this girl, whether friends, relatives, acquaintances, or boyfriends, is being investigated or interviewed," Salvador Gonzalez de los Santos said in a press conference on Friday. OUTRAGE PASSES Marquez is one of countless murdered girls and women whose deaths in recent years have triggered a groundswell of outrage and protests only for the status quo to prevail. Among them: Ingrid Escamilla, 25, who was stabbed, skinned and mutilated in 2020. Fatima Cecilia Aldrighett, 7, who in the same year was abducted from school and her body later found wrapped in a plastic bag. Debanhi Escobar, 18, who disappeared from the side of a highway in 2022 and whose body was found in a cistern 13 days later. Escamilla's boyfriend was convicted and sentenced in her killing. Two people were recently sentenced in Aldrighett's case. Escobar's case remains unsolved after an investigation riddled by mistakes and the firing of two prosecutors for "omissions and errors," according to a statement by the prosecutor's office. A government autopsy initially alleged that Escobar had fallen into the cistern, a version contradicted by two subsequent autopsies. "Each case goes through its media cycle and then there's another one," said Anayeli Perez, legal adviser to the National Citizens' Observatory on Femicide. "It speaks of a society whose social fabric is falling apart." In 2023, Mexico recorded 852 femicides, according to the most recent report by the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. It has the fourth highest rate of femicides in the region on a per capita basis, with Honduras, the Dominican Republic, and Brazil even higher. Many advocates say the number is likely underestimated. Jalisco is among Mexico's more dangerous states, with 910 homicides recorded since the beginning of President Claudia Sheinbaum's term in October 2024, according to data consultancy TResearch. Sheinbaum, who made history as Mexico's first female leader, said on Thursday that the powerful national security cabinet was working with the state prosecutor to investigate Marquez's murder. She implored people not to share the livestream of Marquez's murder on social media out of respect for Marquez and her family. But Sheinbaum's rhetoric - and gender - has added only a veneer of competence to what remains a fundamentally broken system for addressing violence against women, Perez said. "The prosecutors are still negligent, the experts don't have training, the police don't have a gender perspective," she said. Under police presence, Marquez was buried on Thursday, her casket topped by a bouquet of white roses.
