☀ Domingo Brief — Argentina Wins the Copa

Each Sunday, take two minutes to catch key stories and opportunities shaping Latin America.

---

Welcome back to the Domingo Brief! This week, we’re keeping up with soccer results, Brazilian electric vehicle imports, and more.

---

Trivia of the Week

A whopping 73% of you correctly guessed Evo Morales as the Bolivian president who oversaw the constitutional change which removed Catholicism as the country’s state religion? Morales, in office between 2006 and 2019, famously had a complicated relationship with the Catholic Church, which had been granted de facto state religion status in 1967. While nominally a Catholic, the leftist Morales had a perpetually strained relationship with the conservative Catholic institution in his country, particularly troubling given that it’s the religion of roughly 80% of Bolivians.

Each week, tune back in for the answer to the previous week’s trivia question. No cheating!

---

🇦🇷 Argentina has officially won a record 16th Copa América trophy following their Sunday 1-0 defeat of Colombia in the Miami finals. This was the team’s second straight victory in the tournament. Led by star player and captain Lionel Messi, La Albiceleste is now the single most-decorated team in Copa América history, leaving behind third-place finisher Uruguay with its 15 trophies.

Latinometrics: Where do all of the South American teams stand today? Every country on the continent except for Ecuador and Venezuela have won at least one trophy in the tournament. After Argentina and Uruguay, Brazil is third most-decorated with 9 wins, followed by Paraguay, Chile, and Peru with 2 trophies apiece. Finally, both Bolivia and Colombia have won the tournament only once (and both as hosts), the former in 1963 and the latter in 2001.

---

🇧🇷 Brazil has become the top export destination worldwide for Chinese electric and hybrid vehicles. Latin America’s giant surpassed Belgium in April after importing 40.9K electric vehicles (EVs) from China, a 13x increase over April of last year. With Brazilian import tax increases of up to 35% expected by July 2026, Chinese automakers like BYD are rushing to offload as many of their electric cars as soon as possible to maximize profits.

Latinometrics: It’s a telling symbol that Brazil is replacing Belgium of all countries at the top of this list, as Brazil’s ascent comes during a time where many traditional markets are turning away from Chinese electric vehicles. The European Union of which Belgium serves as a member country, for example, recently announced tariffs of up to 48% on Chinese EV automakers in response to what the bloc alleges are unfair subsidies by Beijing. This move followed the US announcing that tariffs on EVs will rise from 25% to 100% as the country apparently holds both protectionist and national security concerns.