Ivan Briscoe

Senior director for policy at @crisisgroup. Errant Mancunian, oft relapsing Latin America addict. Aquí se habla Spanglish. RT out of mirth, horror or curiosity.

[Ivan Briscoe @itbriscoe]

"After securing the post, Rizzuto had a large oil painting of himself placed in the central vestibule of the U.S. mission to the OAS, three of the sources said"

[Christopher Sabatini @ChrisSabatini]

All the soft norms of diplomacy and respect for what it can accomplish are evaporating. The OAS was far from perfect; but putting a bull in a china shop is not the way to make it better— tho that was probably the intent all along. https://t.co/fAYJggmiOm

[Michael Lavelle @mikelavelle93]

This may be the greatest 2 minutes and 44 seconds of television I’ve ever seen

[Crisis Group Latinoamérica @ICGlatam]

What next for Venezuela 🇻🇪? Six Months After 3 January

📅1 July
⏰ 10 am Caracas / Washington, DC | 4 pm Brussels

W/ @philgunson, @gingermjacobs, Andrés Antillano,
@MaryhenJimenez, and @renaticas.

Register here: https://t.co/yelIf5IA08

[Ivan Briscoe @itbriscoe]

"At a dinner for investors in a swanky steakhouse in [São Paulo], conversation glided smoothly between speculation over where the most promising industries are located and where Mr Trump could next use force"

[The Economist @TheEconomist]

Nowhere in the developing world has done so well out of the past year https://t.co/5zhBS3zbnE

[EL TIEMPO @ELTIEMPO]

Encuesta final de Guarumo y Ecoanalítica para segunda vuelta presidencial: Abelardo De la Espriella, 52,6 %; Iván Cepeda, 45 %´.

Los resultados de la encuesta y la ficha técnica aquí ⬇️
#Elecciones2026
https://t.co/4oFlMyhb5N

[Ivan Briscoe @itbriscoe]

Superb discussion on #Cuba.

[Foreign Affairs @ForeignAffairs]

Listen to the latest episode of “The Foreign Affairs Interview,” featuring @MJ_Busta and Ricardo Zuniga on what’s next for Cuba:
https://t.co/9Pt7XwrE4s

[Ivan Briscoe @itbriscoe]

"Scam centre" brings to mind a few hoodies in a basement. But this is, or was, Shunda Park in Karen State #Myanmar - a sprawling compound housing thousands of workers, ferried around on golf carts, conning users worldwide.

See story @tdkean @CrisisGroup: https://t.co/j54XWafWi0

[Reuters @Reuters]

Argentine soccer fans whose US tourist visas were rejected lined up in Buenos Aires to receive free televisions from an electronics brand, a day before the start of the World Cup. Follow our #WorldCup2026 coverage here ➡️ https://t.co/j0CHJ6H6Uh

[manuel rueda @ruedareport]

Votes cast by Peruvians living abroad arriving in gym bags with tattered cling wrap, after a long flight from Spain. (No lock on the bags?) They must be counted now at an office in Lima as election still too close to call. https://t.co/8W0R3WMImv

[Ivan Briscoe @itbriscoe]

Manospheric diplomacy.

[Foreign Affairs @ForeignAffairs]

“Cuba’s regime may not be as resilient as Iran’s, but its leaders are much more entrenched than was Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, so an effort to unseat them would likely yield not a quick victory,” writes Ricardo Zuniga.
https://t.co/npj3nPj6Kf

[Financial Times @FT]

Countries that grant AIs legal personhood risk becoming something for which the historical record offers no analogy: not a company state, but an AI state, writes Yuval Noah Harari. https://t.co/jCG6F3lxKq

[Ivan Briscoe @itbriscoe]

T S Eliot measured out life in coffee spoons. #Peru does so with counted votes. As presidential elections edge to a cliffhanger, it pays to wait: this graph from @elcomercio_peru shows the number of days until a winner is announced after recent polls.
https://t.co/OHXxZl6Ffo

[Ivan Briscoe @itbriscoe]

For background on the closely fought, right vs left election face-off in #Peru today, you can't do better that this sweeping @CrisisGroup @gglaeldys report of two years ago.

The video by @JGutLucena that accompanies it is worth a watch on its own.

https://t.co/Cjpr1Y41eZ

[Ivan Briscoe @itbriscoe]

"El propósito es asentarse en Groenlandia; amenazar con la anexión de Canadá; retomar el Canal de Panamá; apropiarse de los recursos de Venezuela; continuar las ejecuciones de presuntos narcotraficantes; y reforzar el cerco sobre Cuba"

Lo clave, resumido.
https://t.co/y53Zyc6tRT

[Ivan Briscoe @itbriscoe]

It's not often you meet former intelligence chiefs, but when I chatted with Sir Alex a year ago he was indeed the paragon of charm and wit, as well as showing deep alarm at the state of the world. May he rest in peace.

[S Sebag Montefiore @simonmontefiore]

So sad to see this. Death of the great Sir Alex Younger, longest-serving M16 director in recent times, consummate secret agent & master of espionage & disguise who was also the classic paragon of British service sense substance and style. Extremely charming intelligent urbane, I was lucky to know a bit and fascinating to talk to him about Russian and Middle East intelligence matters - we were lucky he came often to @clivedenlitfest.
The last lines of his obituary say much about him:

"Determined to go down fighting, he even gave his cancer a name: Putin."

https://t.co/WMXNpQ3dRy

[Ewald Scharfenberg @Ewalds6]

Hoy el diario parisino conservador Le Figaro publica una entrevista con Matthieu Pigasse, el banquero amigo del chavismo que hoy, como socio de Centerview, está a cargo de estructurar la deuda externa venezolana.

Matthieu admite que buscar ser candidato en las elecciones presidenciales francesas de 2027, a manera de una alternativa de confluencia para las izquierdas, distinta a la opción del "insumiso" Mélenchon.

Pero también surgen pistas de un ajuste de cuentas con Macron, con quien tiene un pique personal desde que ambos trabajaban en la banca Rotschild.

https://t.co/XJD93nP45b

[Ivan Briscoe @itbriscoe]

CEPEDA: "Conmen of narcotraffickers.... Mafia fascism.... Plutocracy & corruption" [interrupted by anti-fascist war cry]

DE LA ESPRIELLA: "[#Colombia President Petro is] a lowlife, criminal, drug addict... [Cepeda is] an heir of narcoterrorism" [interrupted by football chants]

[Ivan Briscoe @itbriscoe]

The anonymous #Colombia politician quoted in @FinancialTimes this weekend saying a "successful leader needs to generate fear, hate and hope" put a finger on the messaging from the winning camps last night. Except for the hope.
https://t.co/VNigadW3O8

[Ivan Briscoe @itbriscoe]

Superb, exhaustive @CrisisGroup rundown of the contenders in today's #Colombia elections, the burning issues (in a nutshell, redistribution, corruption & security) and the high stakes as Washington looks on, imperiously.
https://t.co/iAfENsdWjQ