LatinNews Daily - 25 March 2026

*Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has made indirect criticisms directed at countries seeking to exploit the country’s mineral wealth, especially Brazil’s vast reserves of critical minerals. At an event on agrarian development in Brasília, Lula was cited by the local and international media as saying he was not going to allow foreign powers to “use the critical minerals which belong to the Brazilian people”. He did not specify which powers he had in mind. However his comments are considered by some outlets such as Spanish news agency EFE as an indirect jab at the US government led by President Donald Trump with which the Brazilian government has signalled efforts to shore up relations, following an escalation of diplomatic tensions in July-August last year. Indeed at a conference in São Paulo last week, Gabriel Escobar, the chargé d’affaires of the US embassy in Brazil, highlighted that cooperation on projects to extract and process critical minerals has been a key priority for bilateral talks in recent months and there is already a proposed mining agreement being discussed. Over the past week however Lula has been displaying a less cooperative stance. He made similar comments on 21 March when he travelled to Colombia for a summit aimed at promoting cooperation between the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac) and African countries. At the event in Bogotá Lula suggested that rich countries were trying to colonise Latin America and Africa again by seeking to gain access to critical minerals and rare earth metals.

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