World

US President Joe Biden heads Wednesday to a Latin America summit on a mission to woo back the region as his administration pledged greater economic cooperation, investment and a program to train half a million health workers.

Biden is hoping to cement ties with a region long seen by Washington as its turf but where China has quickly emerged as a leading investor, although the administration has focused on modest progress rather than sweeping proposals.

“We need to demonstrate,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday at the weeklong summit, “that democracies can really effectively deliver for their citizens.”

Hours before Biden was to arrive, the White House announced a new Americas Health Corps that aims to improve the skills of 500,000 health workers across the region, building on the lessons from Covid-19, which hit the Western Hemisphere especially hard.

The health training will cost $100 million, although the United States will not contribute it all and will seek to raise funds, including through the Pan American Health Organization, an administration official said.

China has stepped up its role in Latin America during the pandemic, moving early to supply vaccines, and US nemesis Cuba has long exported its state-employed doctors. 

Biden will separately announce plans for a hemisphere-wide “economic partnership,” although there were few concrete commitments as part of it.

The announcements comes a day after Vice President Kamala Harris detailed $1.9 billion in private-sector investment in impoverished and violence-ravaged El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.

The troubles in the so-called Northern Triangle, as well as Haiti, have generated a soaring number of migrants to the United States, setting off a domestic furor as Donald Trump’s Republican Party demands efforts to stop them.

– Trade deals lite –

The Summit of the Americas is the first in the United States since the inaugural edition in 1994 was held in Miami under Bill Clinton, who proposed a free-trade zone that would span the hemisphere other than communist Cuba.

The White House billed Biden’s summit as an update to Clinton’s vision. But the US political mood has since dramatically soured on free trade, with Biden’s predecessor Trump rising to power denouncing liberalization as harmful to US workers. 

The Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity, to be announced by Biden, will look at coordinating on standards and supply chains but will not offer new market access — a key incentive offered to the region by China, with its billion-plus consumer market.

Stronger supply chains will help “our hemisphere reduce overdependence and concentration on certain countries,” another administration official said.

Biden last month similarly unveiled an Asian partnership on setting economic standards as he visited Tokyo.

But unlike in Asia, the United States already has free-trade deals with a number of major Latin American nations including Mexico, Chile, Colombia and Peru.

The official said the new partnership would start with “like-minded countries,” without naming them.

While hesitant on free trade, Biden has stood firm on another core principle of the original Summit of the Americas — democracy — even as he considers going next month to Saudi Arabia, a critical oil supplier.

Draining US diplomatic energy ahead of the summit, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador refused to attend as he insisted that Biden invite the leftist leaders of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela, shunned on the grounds that they are autocrats.

Biden is separately expected to meet President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil, Latin America’s most populous nation, despite rising fears that the Trump ally will not accept the legitimacy of upcoming elections.

– ‘Nearshoring’ –

Mauricio Claver-Carone, the president of the Inter-American Development Bank, said that Latin America can increasingly be seen as a “sea of peace” for investors amid the global turbulence from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and rising risks associated with China.

The head of the bank, which provides development funding in Latin America, said he saw a rise of “nearshoring,” with businesses moving closer to markets instead of to China.

Since the first Summit of the Americas, “each dollar that went to China was one dollar, one investment, one job less for Latin America and the Caribbean,” he told AFP in an interview in Los Angeles.

In Latin America, “whether they are governments of the left or the right, they all want foreign investment, they all want nearshoring, they all want economic growth,” he said.

King Philippe of Belgium, in a historic visit to DR Congo, said on Wednesday that his country’s rule over the vast central African country had inflicted pain and humiliation through a mixture of “paternalism, discrimination and racism.”

In a speech outside the Democratic Republic of Congo’s parliament, Philippe amplified remorse he first voiced two years ago over Belgium’s brutal colonial rule — an era that historians say saw millions die.

“This regime was one of an unequal relationship, in itself unjustifiable, marked by paternalism, discriminations and racism,” Philippe said, speaking in French. 

“It led to abuse and humiliation,” he said.

The king noted that many Belgians had been sincerely committed to the Congo and its people, however.

Philippe landed in Kinshasa on Tuesday afternoon for a six-day visit, billed as a chance for reconciliation between the DRC and its former colonial master.

Belgium’s colonisation of the Congo was one of the harshest imposed by the European powers that ruled most of Africa in the late 19th and 20th centuries.

King Leopold II, the brother of Philippe’s great great grandfather, governed what is now the DRC as his personal property between 1885 and 1908, before it became a Belgian colony. 

Historians say that millions of people were killed, mutilated or died of disease as they were forced to collect rubber under his rule. The land was also pillaged for its mineral wealth, timber and ivory. 

As the DRC headed to its 60th anniversary of indepence, Philippe wrote a letter to Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi in 2020 to express his “deepest regrets” for the “wounds of the past.”

The king’s speech Wednesday went further in expressing regret, but it fell short of an apology for colonial-era crimes. 

– Looted art –

Earlier Wednesday, Philippe visited DRC’s national museum in Kinshasa, where he handed over a mask the ethnic Suku group use in initiation rites. 

The ceremonial mask is on “unlimited” loan from Belgium’s Royal Museum for Central Africa, he announced. 

The Belgian government last year set out a roadmap for returning art works looted during the colonial era, a sensitive topic in the DRC.  

“The coloniser hauled away our artworks, it’s right that they should be returned to us,” said Louis Karhebwa, a 63-year-old businessman.

Prince Pungi, a young civil servant, agreed. “Congo is changing, moving forward,” he said. “It’s time to take back what belongs to us”. 

Philippe is due to address university students in the southern city of Lubumbashi on Friday. 

On Sunday, he will also visit the clinic of gynaecologist Denis Mukwege, co-winner of the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize for his fight against sexual violence, in the eastern city of Bukavu.

His trip comes as Belgium is preparing to return to Kinshasa a tooth — the last remains of Patrice Lumumba, a hero of the anti-colonial struggle and short-lived first prime minister of the independent Congo. 

Lumumba was murdered by Congolese separatists and Belgian mercenaries in 1961 and his body dissolved in acid, but the tooth was kept as a trophy by one of his killers, a Belgian police officer.

– Eastern violence –

The Belgian sovereign’s trip also comes at a time of heightened tension between Kinshasa and neighbouring Rwanda over rebel activity in the conflict-torn eastern DRC. 

DRC’s government has accused Rwanda of backing the resurgent M23 militia, an accusation which Rwanda has denied.

At a news conference in Kinshasa on Wednesday, President Tshisekedi told reporters that he saw security support as a priority in DRC’s relationship with Belgium. 

“There is no development without security,” the president said. 

The DRC, a nation of about 90 million people, is one of the poorest countries in the world.

Over 120 groups roam the country’s volatile east, many of which are a consequence of regional wars more than two decades ago, and civilian massacres remain common.

King Philippe, in his speech Wednesday, also said the situation in eastern DRC “cannot continue”. 

“It is the responsibility of all of us to do something about it,” he added.

Nigeria’s ruling All Progressives Congress on Wednesday picked former Lagos governor and veteran political operator Bola Tinubu as its candidate for the 2023 election to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari. 

Tinubu, known as the “Godfather of Lagos” for his political clout, easily won with 1,271 votes of the ballots cast by 2,300 party delegates at primaries held on Tuesday and Wednesday at an Abuja convention.

He beat other hopefuls including Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, former transport minister Rotimi Amaechi and Senate president Ahmad Lawan.

An APC stalwart, Tinubu emerged victorious following weeks of wrangling among party factions over their candidate to govern Africa’s most populous nation and largest economy.

“Shame on those who already build a coffin of the APC, our party is alive. No destroyer can bring Nigeria backward,” Tinubu told the convention after APC officials named him the candidate. 

A Muslim from Nigeria’s Yoruba-speaking southwest, Tinubu will face off in the February 25 ballot against Atiku Abubakar, a fellow veteran of Nigerian politics and the candidate for the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Tinubu, 70, had said becoming president was his life-long ambition. But he sparked outrage days before the primaries by insisting it was his “turn” to run the country.

“It is a difficult thing to run for president. I am humble and grateful to my fellow aspirants.”

Seven candidates withdrew at the last minute to give their support to Tinubu in the primaries.

The APC ballot took place just two days after gunmen raided a church in Ondo State, killing 22 people, a rare attack in the country’s usually more peaceful southwest that has highlighted insecurity.

Security will be a top issue in the 2023 election, with the military dealing with a 12-year-old jihadist conflict in the northeast and heavily armed criminal gangs who carry out raids in the northwest.

Nigeria’s economy is also recovering from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic and the fallout from the Ukraine war that has pushed up food and fuel prices across the continent.

The World Bank projects the number of poor Nigerians will hit 95.1 million this year — nearly half of the country’s population.

– North and south –

Buhari, who was once a military governor during Nigeria’s dictatorship, will be stepping down after the two terms he is allowed in the constitution.

Since the end of military rule in 1999, Nigeria has had six elections, many of which were marred by electoral fraud, legal challenges and violence.

Part of the APC’s internal debate over candidates related to “zoning” — an unofficial agreement among political elites that Nigeria’s presidency should alternate between those from the predominantly Christian south and those from the largely Muslim north.

After two terms with northern Muslim Buhari, observers expected the presidency to go to a candidate from the south.

But the PDP — which held its primary on May 28 and 29 — chose Abubakar, a wealthy former vice president and political veteran who is a northern Muslim.

The opposition’s choice to ignore “zoning” has made the APC reconsider how their candidate will appeal to the north, where voter numbers and participation are traditionally higher. 

“Money still plays a significant role in Nigerian politics. Only the big can win against the big,” said Olutayo Adesina, history professor at the University of Ibadan.

“If it’s Atiku versus Tinubu, there will be a massive turnout, because it wouldn’t be about ideology or party, it will be about ethnicity.”

The PDP dominated Nigeria’s politics for a decade and a half following the country’s 1999 return to democracy.

But the APC managed to end the PDP’s dominance in 2015 with Buhari promising to use his security credentials as a former military man and also tackle rife corruption.

But Buhari has been under increasing pressure over violence, with kidnap gangs carrying out mass abductions at schools and even blowing up a train track earlier this year in a brazen raid to snatch passengers for ransom.

Nigeria’s ruling All Progressives Congress or APC party on Wednesday picked former Lagos governor Bola Tinubu as its candidate for the 2023 election to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari, who steps down after two terms. 

Tinubu, known as “the Godfather of Lagos” for his political clout, won 1,271 votes of the ballots cast by 2,300 party delegates at the primaries held on Tuesday and Wednesday in Abuja. 

An APC stalwart, Tinubu emerged victorious following weeks of wrangling among party factions over their candidate to govern Africa’s most populous nation. 

“I hereby declare Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as presidential candidate of our party in the forthcoming 2023 election,” Kebbi State Governor Atiku Bagudu, the returning officer for the election, said after the count.

A Muslim from Nigeria’s Yoruba-speaking southwest, Tinubu will face off in the February 25 ballot against Atiku Abubakar, a fellow veteran of Nigeria’s politics and the candidate for the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party or PDP.

Tinubu, 70, had said becoming president was his life-long ambition. 

But he sparked outrage days before the primaries by insisting it was his “turn” to run the country.

Seven candidates withdrew at the last minute to give their support to Tinubu in the primaries.

The APC ballot took place just two days after gunmen raided a church in Ondo State, killing 22 people and injuring dozens more, in a rare attack in the country’s usually more peaceful southwest.

Security will be a top issue in the 2023 election.

The military are grappling with a a 12-year-old jihadist conflict in the northeast and heavily-armed criminal gangs who carry out raids and mass kidnappings in the northwest.

Nigeria’s economy, Africa’s largest, is also recovering from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic and the fallout from the Ukraine war.

The World Bank projects the number of poor Nigerians will hit 95.1 million this year — nearly half of the country’s population.

Campaigners on Wednesday launched a court bid to block UK government’s plans to send asylum seekers to Rwanda as it attempts to stop migrant boat crossings from France.

The government in London said last month that it intends to fly a first planeload of asylum-seekers to Rwanda on June 14.

But the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), Care4Calais and Detention Action have now issued judicial review proceedings in the High Court against what they call an “unlawful policy”.

James Wilson, deputy director of Detention Action, said interior minister Priti Patel had “overstepped her authority”.

“By rushing through what we say is an unlawful policy, she is turning a blind eye to the many clear dangers and human rights violations that it would inflict on people seeking asylum,” he said.

“It’s vital that new government policies respect and uphold the laws that we all, as a society, have agreed to follow. That’s why we’re seeking an injunction to keep this plane to Rwanda from leaving the runway,” he added.

The one-way flights are intended to deter others from entering Britain, especially via dangerous crossings of the Channel.

More than 10,000 migrants have made the journey so far this year.

Confirming the target date for the first time, Patel acknowledged the new policy was set to face challenges in the courts.

In a statement, she said: “I will not be deterred and remain fully committed to delivering what the British public expect.”

The Home Office has sent out the first notices to asylum claimants who are earmarked for removal to Rwanda, under a partnership worth £120 million ($151 million) to Kigali.

Clare Moseley, founder of Care4Calais, said most of those being detained pending their removal are “overwhelmed by total shock and despair”.

“Many came to the UK believing it to be a good place that would treat them more fairly than the places from which they escaped,” she said.

“We say that the Rwanda plan is unlawful. We hope the courts will agree with us.”