标签： South America

In a Friday vote that capped months of uncertainty for one of the federal government’s most critical public safety agencies, the U.S. Senate has approved Cameron Hamilton’s nomination to serve as the permanent administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The confirmation marks an extraordinary political comeback for the former Navy SEAL, who was fired from the same top post in an acting capacity 16 months prior after publicly opposing the Trump administration’s push to eliminate the agency entirely.

Hamilton’s confirmation was part of a batch of 74 presidential nominations advanced by the Senate in a single voting session. Other high-profile picks approved Friday included David Cummins, President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), and Daniel Perez, the administration’s controversial choice for U.S. ambassador to Brazil.

When Hamilton is sworn in, he will inherit an agency that has faced years of existential uncertainty, organizational upheaval, and lingering accusations of political bias. Just days into Trump’s second term, the president openly threatened to dissolve FEMA entirely, a proposal that led to Hamilton’s firing last year when he pushed back against the plan in congressional testimony. While Hamilton’s nomination signals the administration has backed away from scrapping the agency entirely, the White House and top Department of Homeland Security (DHS) leaders have made clear that sweeping overhauls to federal disaster response are still on the agenda.

The agency Hamilton takes over is still recovering from the chaotic tenure of former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, whose leadership triggered mass staff exodus, widespread disruptions to FEMA’s federal grant programs, and crippling delays to life-saving disaster aid. A 2025 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report found that more than 4,300 FEMA employees left the agency in the 2025 budget year alone, with over 1,500 taking voluntary buyouts. The exodus resulted in a substantial loss of institutional knowledge and experienced disaster response personnel that the agency is still working to replenish. Current DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin, who took over from Noem in March, has already moved to reverse some of the most damaging changes: he has re-filled hundreds of eliminated positions and rescinded a burdensome rule that required all FEMA expenditures over $100,000 to gain direct approval from the secretary’s office, a policy that created a backlog worth billions of dollars in delayed disaster aid.

Even with these fixes, new controversies continue to roil the agency. Last month, 25 U.S. states and the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over new election security mandates attached to FEMA counterterrorism grants, a policy that critics call an overreach of executive power. Congressional Democrats have also raised alarms over what they call widespread politicization of disaster relief under the Trump administration. A July analysis from The Associated Press found that the White House has approved roughly 80% of disaster declaration requests from Republican-led states, but only 60% of requests from Democratic-led states, a gap that critics argue leaves vulnerable communities in political opposition shortchanged.

Hamilton’s path to permanent leadership is a rare story of a fired acting official returning to lead the agency he once defended. Before being tapped as FEMA’s acting head in January 2025, Hamilton had limited formal emergency management experience and was initially an open critic of the agency. But during his short tenure, he said he grew to appreciate FEMA’s core mission, and broke sharply with Noem and the White House over the plan to eliminate the agency. In May 2025, he told a House panel that eliminating FEMA would be against the best interests of the American people, and was fired the very next day.

His public stand against scrapping the agency won him broad support from many emergency management professionals. Pete Gaynor, who served as FEMA administrator during Trump’s first term, released a statement supporting Hamilton’s confirmation, saying, “It tells you exactly who he is and how he will lead when the pressure is highest and the easy answer is the wrong one.” The National Emergency Management Association also issued a statement welcoming his confirmation. Still, some current FEMA employees remain wary of Hamilton, pointing to his role in the controversial 2025 cancellation of a multibillion-dollar national climate resilience grant program.

Hamilton takes office at the height of an active 2026 North American summer disaster season, which has already brought destructive wildfires across the West and dangerous flash flooding across the Midwest and South, leaving FEMA managing more than 1,000 open active disaster declarations. He will be the first permanent FEMA administrator to take office in Trump’s second term, a role that comes with the dual mandate of implementing the Trump administration’s planned overhaul and bringing long-term stability to a workforce that has faced years of turnover and uncertainty.

Top administration officials have laid out clear priorities for the overhaul: shifting more disaster response responsibility back to state and local governments, and restricting FEMA’s role to only the most catastrophic events, rather than responding to every localized weather event. In a recent meeting of U.S. governors, Mullin described FEMA as “bloated” and reiterated that shift in responsibility, saying, “The biggest reform you’re going to see is more responsibility is going to go back to your states, FEMA there for worst of the worst, not every storm.” A Trump-appointed FEMA Review Council issued a set of recommendations in May that would speed up federal assistance delivery but could also reduce the scope and frequency of federal support, with many changes requiring congressional approval to take effect.

During his June confirmation hearing before the Senate, Hamilton laid out his own priorities, pledging to advocate for FEMA and its workforce while committing to running the agency free of political bias. “I will ensure FEMA is objective, is fair and reasonable, follows the law, and is consistent in the approach to how we adjudicate and process claims and requests for disasters,” he told lawmakers. He also acknowledged longstanding concerns about bureaucratic bloat within the agency, arguing that FEMA cannot be expected to respond to every disaster, and that policymakers must strike a new balance that encourages cost reasonableness and cost savings. Gaynor, the former FEMA head, said he expects Hamilton will prioritize cutting red tape to make the disaster recovery process simpler for survivors and state and local officials.

Alongside Hamilton’s confirmation, the Senate advanced two other controversial nominees. David Cummins, a former senior vice president at government contractor Serco, which operates air traffic control towers at 60 U.S. airports, was confirmed to lead TSA. The agency is still recovering from massive staffing disruptions following this year’s record-long partial government shutdown, which left thousands of TSA officers working weeks without pay, prompting thousands of call-outs and roughly 1,100 resignations. Cummins takes over as the Trump administration pushes to expand private airport screening and cut thousands of existing TSA positions.

The Senate also confirmed Daniel Perez, former speaker of the Florida House of Representatives and a close ally of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, to serve as U.S. ambassador to Brazil. Perez’s nomination has already sparked a major diplomatic rift between the Trump administration and the government of Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, which has refused to approve his appointment. Earlier this week, the State Department announced it had revoked the visa of Brazil’s sitting ambassador to the U.S. in response, a move that escalated tensions between the two countries. Under international diplomatic protocol, host nations have the right to approve or reject foreign ambassador nominees before they take office.

A months-long diplomatic rift between Mexico and Peru has come to an end, with the two Latin American nations announcing the full restoration of bilateral relations on August 7, just one week after new Peruvian President Keiko Fujimori took office. The breakdown in ties stemmed from Mexico’s November 2025 decision to grant political asylum to former Peruvian Prime Minister Betssy Chávez, a close ally of ousted president Pedro Castillo who faced decades-long prison sentences over allegations of involvement in a 2022 coup attempt.

In a joint bilateral statement released simultaneously by both governments, Lima and Mexico City emphasized that longstanding “historic ties of brotherhood, friendship and cooperation” between the two peoples provided the foundation for reconciliation. The statement also included a mutual reaffirmation of commitment to upholding international law and the core principles outlined in the United Nations Charter.

The diplomatic standoff began shortly after Chávez, who had been released on bail in September 2025 while appealing her conviction, sought refuge inside Mexico’s embassy in Lima. Peruvian authorities granted Chávez safe passage to leave the country for Mexico, Peruvian Foreign Minister Carlos Espá confirmed to local outlet RPP, noting that the former prime minister has already exited Peruvian territory. In an official addendum to its public remarks, the Peruvian Foreign Ministry clarified that while the government approved Chávez’s travel to Mexico, it retains full legal authority to pursue an extradition request for her at a future date.

At her regular daily press briefing, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum publicly welcomed Chávez to Mexico, and used the occasion to reiterate her administration’s longstanding support for Pedro Castillo, the former Peruvian president at the center of the 2022 political crisis. Castillo’s December 2022 attempt to dissolve the Peruvian congress and install an emergency government triggered his immediate impeachment by legislative authorities, and he was arrested on rebellion charges just hours after the attempted power restructuring.

Chávez was first taken into custody in June 2023 on charges tied to her alleged role in Castillo’s dissolution plan. After maintaining her innocence throughout multiple court proceedings, she was ultimately convicted alongside Castillo in November 2025, with both men and women receiving prison sentences exceeding 11 years. Granted bail three months prior to the final ruling, Chávez moved to seek asylum in the Mexican embassy shortly after the conviction was handed down.

The breakthrough in bilateral relations follows the inauguration of Fujimori as Peru’s new president, which took place just seven days before the reconciliation announcement. Analysts view the new government’s willingness to negotiate a resolution to the asylum dispute as a clear break from the previous Peruvian administration’s hardline stance toward Mexico over the issue.

On Friday, Colombian President-elect Abelardo de la Espriella, a 48-year-old conservative political outsider, will be sworn into office in the southwestern city of Cali under stringent security measures, breaking with decades of tradition that inaugurate new heads of state in the capital Bogotá. The unconventional venue is no random choice: it is a deliberate public signal of the new president’s uncompromising hardline stance against the illegal armed groups that have long plagued Colombia’s volatile southwestern regions.

De la Espriella, who earned the nickname “El Tigre” (The Tiger) during his campaign, defeated former President Gustavo Petro’s ally Senator Iván Cepeda in a close June 21 runoff election to succeed Petro. A Colombian-American lawyer and businessman who has never previously held public office, de la Espriella self-funded his entire campaign with the personal fortune he built over his decades in the private sector, running as an anti-establishment outsider against the incumbent left-wing government’s policies.

His inauguration, set to take place in a university auditorium before the full session of Colombian Congress, cements a broader rightward political shift that has swept across Latin America in recent years. High-profile international attendees include Spain’s King Felipe VI and a slate of conservative regional leaders: Argentina’s President Javier Milei, Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa, and Chilean conservative leader José Antonio Kast.

Following the swearing-in ceremony, de la Espriella will travel to a local Cali military battalion to address deployed troops. The trip serves two core purposes: to boost military morale amid ongoing counter-insurgency operations, and to deliver an explicit ultimatum to illegal armed groups active in the region: surrender immediately, or be designated legitimate military targets. The new president has made dismantling the power of these groups a central campaign promise, rejecting the outgoing Petro administration’s signature policy of negotiating with armed factions. He has repeatedly argued that the decade-old peace process initiated by the government with former rebel groups has failed to curb widespread violence linked to illegal economies including drug trafficking and unregulated mining.

Colombia’s southwestern regions currently face persistent instability from multiple competing armed factions: dissident splinter groups of the formerly demobilized Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) that rejected the 2014 peace agreement, the powerful Clan del Golfo drug cartel, and the ongoing National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrilla movement.

On the international stage, de la Espriella’s rise to power has been framed by the backing of former U.S. President Donald Trump, coming at a moment of heightened regional anxiety over surging violent crime, mass irregular migration, and sluggish economic growth across Latin America. Glaeldys González, Andean analyst for the International Crisis Group, noted that de la Espriella’s election will reinforce the accelerating rightward shift across much of the region, helping to consolidate a cohesive bloc of conservative-led governments that stand in opposition to the shrinking number of remaining left-wing administrations across Latin America.

De la Espriella has already confirmed that his new government will join the “Shield of the Americas”, a regional anti-drug trafficking coalition launched at a summit convened by Trump in March 2024. He has also announced sharp shifts in Colombian foreign policy: his administration will resume full diplomatic relations with Israel, while severing formal ties with Cuba and Nicaragua, which he has labeled authoritarian tyrannies.

The new president will face immediate, fierce opposition from outgoing President Gustavo Petro, who has refused to recognize de la Espriella’s electoral victory and pushed unsubstantiated claims of widespread electoral fraud, alleging that thousands of vote tally sheets were manipulated by partisan programmers. Both Colombian electoral authorities and independent international election observers have thoroughly dismissed these fraud allegations.

Political analyst Sergio Guzmán noted that Petro intends to act as a relentless, sharply critical opposition leader, using his platform to consolidate his standing among left-wing supporters. The outgoing president has gone so far as to urge social movements in southwestern Colombia to organize so-called “people’s militias” to defend against what he has labeled impending attacks from de la Espriella’s “fascist” administration. He has also called on his supporters to prepare for a national general strike if the new government moves to arrest him after he leaves office, a concern that comes after the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration named Petro a “priority target” in comments reported by the AP in March 2024.

Andrés Macías, a conflict and peace researcher at Colombia’s Externado University, warned that the combination of Petro’s inflammatory mobilization calls and de la Espriella’s hardline policy approach significantly raises the risk of violent confrontations during street protests, as well as more aggressive security responses from the new government.

Protests are already planned across multiple major Colombian cities during the inauguration: in Cali, where Petro retains a large base of support, social and student organizations have called for demonstrations during the swearing-in ceremony, with additional protest actions expected in the capital Bogotá and the northern coastal city of Barranquilla.

RIO DE JANEIRO – As Brazil counts down to its pivotal October presidential election, right-wing candidate Flávio Bolsonaro, son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, has finalized his leadership ticket by tapping federal deputy Alfredo Gaspar, a fellow member of the Liberal Party, for the vice presidential slot. The announcement on Wednesday comes after a months-long search complicated by widespread reluctance from centrist Brazilian parties to back Bolsonaro’s candidacy, with most choosing to stay on the political sidelines rather than throw their weight behind his challenge to incumbent President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Flávio Bolsonaro, a sitting senator, was officially confirmed as the Liberal Party’s presidential nominee last month, setting up a rematch of the 2022 election that pitted his father against Lula. Neither candidate is currently projected to secure an outright first-round majority, meaning the race is widely expected to advance to a runoff contest later this year.

Unlike his father’s 2022 campaign, which built broad coalitions with centrist blocs that often contributed vice presidential picks, the younger Bolsonaro has failed to lock in cross-ideological support. This isolation created unexpected hurdles in his search for a running mate, pushing him to select a candidate from within his own party ranks.

Gaspar, who has represented Alagoas in the Chamber of Deputies since 2023, brings a background in law enforcement to the ticket: before entering national politics, he worked as a public prosecutor and served as public security secretary for the northeastern Brazilian state of Alagoas. In introducing his pick, Flávio Bolsonaro praised Gaspar for his personal integrity, professional courage, and proven track record advancing public safety policy.

For his part, Gaspar framed his selection as a win for working-class Brazilians from the country’s underrepresented northeast. “I am a simple person, someone from the northeast, but someone with a life story marked by a great deal of hard work,” Gaspar said in his acceptance remarks, adding that he was honored by Bolsonaro’s trust and fully committed to their shared policy agenda.

The search for a running mate was far from smooth. Bolsonaro initially courted a high-profile pick, Tereza Cristina, a popular former agriculture minister who held a key role in his father’s presidential administration. But Cristina ultimately turned down the offer, and her party – which holds significant sway in Congress and has long-standing ties to the Bolsonaro political movement – has openly distanced itself from Flávio Bolsonaro’s candidacy, a shift that has surprised political analysts.

The failed courtship of Cristina highlights a broader political weakness for Bolsonaro: his movement has long struggled to build support among women voters, and a high-profile female running mate was seen as a key opportunity to expand his base.

Since he first announced his candidacy – an announcement that came following an explicit endorsement from his father – Flávio Bolsonaro has faced a cascade of setbacks that have eroded his standing with voters and allies alike.

The first major blow came in May, when he was forced to admit he had requested millions of dollars in funding from jailed banker Daniel Vorcaro to produce a biographical documentary about his father. The revelation stunned many of his existing political allies and sent support for his campaign dipping sharply.

Soon after, Bolsonaro embarked on a trip to Washington D.C., where he met with officials at the White House and U.S. State Department to highlight his family’s long-standing personal and political ties to former U.S. President Donald Trump. But the move backfired: many Brazilian voters, business leaders, and domestic politicians have pinned the blame for new 37.5% Trump-era tariffs on key Brazilian exports squarely on Bolsonaro’s outreach, turning the diplomatic trip into a political liability.

In June, the candidate faced another personal and political setback when his stepwoman, Michelle Bolsonaro, published a public video accusing him of personal disrespect. While the pair have since reconciled, the public feud generated negative headlines that further damaged Bolsonaro’s public image.

The general election is scheduled for October, with a runoff to follow in October if no candidate secures a majority of the vote. (Reporting from the Associated Press)

VATICAN CITY – The Vatican confirmed Wednesday in an official announcement that Pope Leo XIV will embark on his first papal visit to Latin America this coming November, marking a homecoming of sorts to the region where he built decades of his ecclesiastical career. The 12-day journey, scheduled from November 6 to 17, will include stops in three South American nations: Uruguay, Argentina, and Peru, with multiple cities set to welcome the pontiff across the three countries.

In Uruguay, Pope Leo’s itinerary will include public and private engagements in the capital Montevideo, as well as the smaller cities of Paysandú and Florida. He will then travel to Argentina from November 8 to 11, where he will visit Buenos Aires, Córdoba, and the major pilgrimage site Luján. The tour will conclude with a six-day stay in Peru from November 11 to 17, with stops in the capital Lima, northern coastal city Chiclayo, iconic Andean tourist hub Cusco, and Amazonian city Pucallpa. Vatican officials note a full, detailed breakdown of daily events and public appearances will be published at a later date.

This upcoming trip carries unique personal and symbolic weight for the first U.S.-born pontiff, who retains deep long-standing connections to Peru. Before his election to the papacy, Leo lived and worked in Peru for decades as a missionary and senior church leader, holding the position of Bishop of Chiclayo from 2015 through 2023. He also holds dual Peruvian citizenship, making his return to the diocese he once led one of the most anticipated moments of the entire journey.

The visit to Argentina also carries notable historical context: it is the birthplace of Pope Francis, Leo’s immediate predecessor and the first pope to hail from Latin America. Despite receiving repeated invitations from government and church leaders to return to his home country during his 12-year papacy, Pope Francis never made the trip back to Argentina after his election in 2013.

The Latin American tour will follow hot on the heels of Pope Leo’s four-day visit to France, scheduled for September 25 to 28, which marks his first trip to the country as the head of the Roman Catholic Church. The back-to-back international visits highlight a notably active early travel schedule for the new pontiff just months into his papacy.

This report is part of the Associated Press’ religion coverage, which receives funding support through a collaboration with The Conversation US from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP retains full editorial responsibility for all content.