Hello, and welcome to the Latin America Weekly newsletter! In this issue: Why Latin American governments seem unbothered by Chinese balloons. Nicaragua flies prisoners to the U.S. And the mystery around Pablo Neruda’s death.
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Latin America not too fazed by Chinese “spy balloons”
The U.S. this month denounced high-altitude Chinese “surveillance balloons” flying over North America. While Beijing played down the incident arguing that the devices are used for civilian purposes, and that some of them deviated from their course due to wind conditions, tensions escalated when the U.S. Air Force shot down three unidentified objects over the weekend.
Unfazed. The controversy dominating the international news cycle hasn’t sparked the same curiosity in Latin America, despite similar balloons being found in the region.
- “Affected by weather forces in addition to its maneuverability being limited, the airship deviated greatly from its expected course, and accidentally entered Latin American and Caribbean airspace,” China’s Foreign Ministry admitted last week.
Sightings. Colombia’s Air Force said its defense systems “detected an object flying at 55,000...