The EconomistAugust 24th 2019 The Americas 372
1guez as his legal adviser. In one of the text
messages, Mr Velázquez asks Mr Ferreira
how negotiations for the sale are going.
News of the secret deal prompted thou-
sands of people to take to the streets, call-
ing for Mr Abdo Benítez to be impeached.
On August 1st Mr Bolsonaro agreed to scrap
the agreement. Proceedings in Paraguay’s
congress, which had the support of some of
the president’s allies, were then dropped.
But it is too late to stop the outcry about en-
ergy policy. In 2023 the $2bn loan taken out
to build the dam will at last be paid off. The
question is what to do then. “People on the
streets are already talking about the rene-gotiation [of the deal],” says Mercedes Ca-
nese, a former vice-minister from Frente
Guasú, an opposition party.
Many in Paraguay argue that the coun-
try should use the excess power itself to in-
dustrialise. Drawn by low taxes as well as
cheap electricity, car companies have start-
ed manufacturing cables in Paraguay to ex-
port to Brazil. In Ciudad del Este, just south
of the dam, many locals engage in Bitcoin
mining, an exceptionally power-hungry
business. Demand from homes and offices
is growing quickly, too. Within a few de-
cades, Paraguay’s half of Itaipu’s output
“will go to air-conditioning”, says ChristineFolch, the author of “Hydropolitics”, a
forthcoming book about the dam.
At that point, the country will need new
energy sources. Until then, however, most
of the power will still be sold to Brazil. Bra-
zil’s economy is 50 times bigger than that of
its landlocked neighbour. And Paraguay’s
negotiating position is weak. Whereas Mr
Bolsonaro put a trio of generals in charge of
the Brazilian half of Itaipu, Paraguay does
not even have a fully fledged energy minis-
try. The messages published by Mr Ferreira
show how Brazil sets the agenda.
Public pressure may help change that.
On August 7th Paraguay’s government ap-
pointed Geraldo Blanco, an engineering
professor with a plan to use more of
Itaipu’s electricity in Paraguay, to the dam’s
governing council. As it contemplates its
strategy for 2023, Paraguay may look to oth-
er smaller countries’ battles with big
neighbours. In the 1970s a campaign in-
volving the actor John Wayne helped per-
suade America to pass a law that returned
Panama’s canal in 1999. As for the business-
es best suited to provide the investment
needed for Paraguay’s industrialisation,
they are right over the border in Brazil. 7I
n recent yearsthe Mexico City mara-
thon has caused crowding on the city
metro. That is not just because the city
shuts down numerous roads above ground
for the 42-kilometre race. It is also because
cheating marathoners have been known to
hop on for a quick detour to the finish line.
Last year 5,000 of the 28,000 runners who
finished were disqualified. Hundreds
more were kicked out mid-race. No other
race admits to stripping so many competi-
tors of their places. Ahead of this year’s
event, on August 25th, organisers are hop-
ing for scurrying without skulduggery.
Most of the corredores de chocolates
(Mexican slang for fake runners) are easy to
spot. Each runner carries a chip across
electronic checkpoints placed along the
course. Those who skip to the end are
doomed to disqualification—but only days
later, well after they receive their medal
and the crowd’s adulation. Over the past six
years marathon medals have each been
emblazoned with a letter. Collectively, they
spell out “Mexico”. That has motivated
some people to cheat and complete the set,
says Javier Carvallo, the Mexico City mara-
thon’s chief. This year a new series of sixMEXICO CITY
How to clean up the world’s most
cheated-in marathonThe Mexico City marathonChocolate rush
I
n the middleoftheafternoonon
August 19th South America’s largest
city went dark. Under a thick, black cloud
at 3pm, the lights flickered on in São
Paulo’s skyscrapers; on the motorways
brake lights started to glow in the city’s
bumper-to-bumper traffic, and many
Paulistanos were worried. Social-media
users posted pictures of the gloom,
juxtaposing the dystopian afternoon sky
with fictional apocalyptic places such as
Gotham City from “Batman”, Mordor
from “Lord of the Rings” and “the upside
down” from “Stranger Things”.
Meteorologists scrambled to explain
what was going on. But the most likely
explanation, most accept, is that fires
burning far away in the rainforest are to
blame. Climatempo, a popular private
meteorology website, reported that a
cold front brought low-lying clouds
which then combined with smoke to
form the thick black smog. According to
the National Institute for Space Research
(inpe), forest fires are more common
than ever. The number detected so far
this year is 84% higher than in the same
period last year. Just over half of the fires
are in the Amazon.
During the Amazon’s dry season, it is
common for farmers to set fires illegally
to clear land. Brazil’s populist president,
Jair Bolsonaro, has encouraged them by
weakening the agencies that enforce
environmental regulations. He holds the
view that protecting the forest hinders
economic development. When asked
about the fires, he ludicrously responded
by accusing environmental ngos of
setting the fires themselves so as to make
his government look bad, in retaliation
for his cuts in their funding.
Mr Bolsonaro argues that he is fight-
ing an “information war” over the Ama-zon;hesayshewantsforeign govern-
ments and ngos to stop meddling in
Brazil. After inpereleased data showing
increasing deforestation in July, the
president claimed the numbers were
fake. He then sacked the head of the
agency, Ricardo Magnus Osório Galvão, a
well-respected physicist.
Such belligerence outrages scientists
and environmentalists. “Firing the direc-
tor is an act of revenge against those who
expose the truth,” says Marcio Astrini of
Greenpeace, a pressure group. But the
destruction of the rainforest tends to be
out of sight, out of mind for a lot of Bra-
zilians, most of whom live in large cities
near the coast. The darkness brought
deforestation to their doorsteps. “We
don’t have much time,” a columnist
wrote in the daily newspaper Folha de São
Paulo. “Night will fall on all of us.”Darknessontheedgeoftown
The burning AmazonRIO DE JANEIRO
Forest fires blacken the sky in Brazil’s biggest cityToday the highway is dark