South America

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Re: South America

Post by blindpig » Sat Feb 04, 2023 3:20 pm

USA Pipe Dreams: a Response
FEBRUARY 4, 2023

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US Southern Command Chief, Laura Richardson, smiling profusely. Photo: US Army/File photo.

By Maria Paez Victor and Nino Pagliccia – Feb 1, 2023

“A melon-cup that no longer resembles a melon-cup and people still say, “A melon-cup! A melon-cup!”

– Confucius


We read with stupefaction the recent declarations of the head of the Southern Command of the USA Armed Forces, General Laura Richardson to the Atlantic Council think tank about the Latin American region. In language devoid of any obfuscation, she quite openly said what is well known, that Washington’s foreign policy in the region is exclusively based on its interest in its resources, not its people. As Orinoco Tribune reported, she stated:

“We have a lot to do. This region matters. It has a lot to do with national security, and we have to step up our game,” Richardson said, referring to the “rich resources and rare earth elements” located throughout Latin America. “But why is this region important? You have the lithium triangle, which is necessary for today’s technology. 60% of the world’s lithium is in the lithium triangle: Argentina, Bolivia and Chile…the largest oil reserves, light and sweet crude discovered in Guyana more than a year ago. You also have the resources of Venezuela with oil, copper, gold…this region also features the “lungs of the world,” the Amazon, and 31% of the world’s fresh water.”1

No word about establishing friendly relationships, about facing together shared problems of poverty, about encouraging social development, fighting environmental degradation, or drug trafficking. No “good neighbour” niceties. It is almost funny, if it wasn’t so ominous. Let us not forget that according to a UN study, more than 40% of armed conflicts of the last 60 years were linked to natural resources.[2] And with looming environmental disasters, increasing scarcity and competition, the pillage of natural resources and ensuing environmental deterioration can only get worse.

This top USA army spokesperson even forgoes notions of courtesy and diplomatic language. She used the sheer language of domination, the ugly head of the Monroe Doctrine that basically says that the region belongs to the USA. Let us remember that the mandate of the USA Southern Command based in Florida is the watchful eye over any “transgression” against the USA “national security”. And they will intervene if necessary.

An exaggeration? Not really. Just recently the US Treasury Department gave a “license” for the exploitation of a gas field to companies belonging to Venezuela and Trinidad.[3] As if it were the lord and owner of those waters and gas deposit. What it means really is that Washington -in a staged act of generosity- will turn a blind eye to its own illegal and criminal unilateral coercive measures (ill named sanctions) and, in this instance, will not penalize those involved in the exploitation of this recourse. However, the real reason is quite obvious: they and especially their ‘allies’ in Europe need the gas of which there is a shortage, due to their undeclared war on Russia. That managing their own resources is an inalienable right of both Trinidad and Venezuela to start with is ignored. The fact that at this particular time this pseudo “license” is beneficial to both countries is not the point. What is clear is that cynically, the USA empowers itself as a biased (and corrupt), self-appointed policeman of the world acting as accuser, judge, and executioner whenever it suits them, enforcing extraterritorially their own laws to other sovereign nations and shamelessly breaks international laws in order to serve its own interests.

A recent article by USA historian Alfred W. McCoy in COUNTERPUNCH, while recognising the setbacks that the USA has encountered in its dreams of empire, still advocates more of the same failed foreign policy recipes. [4] McCoy proposes a remedy for “the US fading hegemony” which is to maintain it with the help of institutions like NATO, NORAD, NAFTA and countries like Canada, the USA’s trusted friend. Is this new or just more of the same?

McCoy’s attitude is representative of many who believe they are aware and open minded about policy mistakes that Washington has made, such the ones he mentions: the wall along the southern border with Mexico, the mistreatment of Haiti migrants, reference to one failed US-led coup d’etat in Venezuela, repeated military interventions in the region (Puerto Rico, Panama, Haiti), and the CIA’s covert wars with death squads and criminal gangs in Central America.

It is unfortunate that these events are listed almost as if they were independent of one another, anomalies, almost accidents or errors, certainly not central to the main tenet of the ideology of exceptionalism that pervades all of Washington’s foreign policy, past and present. The author, and indeed many who consider themselves progressive, friendly, and well meaning, put forth the idea that if they could just overlook these lamentable “mistakes” of the past, the USA could go forward politically unscathed and maintain its hegemony in the region. Alas, this is like putting old wine in new bottles.

That is not to be. The recent declarations of the head of the Southern Command of the USA Armed Forces, put an end to this pipe dream.

To be clear, McCoy speaks mostly of the USA “home region” which includes only Canada, Mexico, Central America, and the island nations of the Caribbean, with little reference to South America. Quite arbitrarily drawing up convenient lines and divisions. To McCoy’s credit in his article, he recognises “the fading hegemony” in his apparent concern about the “rise of regional powers”, which he does not view favourably. However, what he proposes as a remedy is not for the benefit of the region but rather for the self-interest of the USA.

He suggests two models for the resurgence of US hegemony: (1) The US-Canada relationship and (2) A regional union like the one with European Union. Ultimately, his dream is: “To create a successor to the long-moribund Organization of American States (OAS), Ottawa and Washington [which] could lead North America’s 23 sovereign nations in forming a permanent secretariat, akin to the European Commission.” [5] He is correct about the “moribund” OAS, (which the USA did much to undermine) but seems unaware that the Latin American and Caribbean nations have already, in 2011, formed a regional alliance in CELAC (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States) which most emphatically excludes the USA and its junior partner, Canada. The foxes were not invited into the hen coop.

Let us put aside the idea that the “ideal” relationship is the one Washington has with Canada. First of all, there is a shared political, economic, military, and cultural foundation between the two nations, that does not exist with the rest of the continent.

Second, there is a marked asymmetry in economic power which Canadian politicians and elites have meekly accepted to the point that the idea of “sovereignty” is to all effects and purposes an invisible issue politically (with the exception of the Province of Quebec and the Indigenous peoples). On a positive side there is a plethora of bi-national initiatives at lower levels of governance on specific issues (such as commerce, border security, the Great Lakes). However, as USA political adventures of regime change, full scale sanctioning of nations, and even war, have been steadily increasing, the unenviable role of being a “branch plant” of USA capitalism is starting to arise in the Canadian political consciousness.[6] So much so that for a country that once took the lead in establishing the United Nations, it has now twice been denied a seat at the Security Council since many nations see Canada as the Washington’s errand boy without an independent voice. It is starting to be an awkward role.

The other “ideal” relationship mentioned by McCoy is that between the US and the European Union. Again, there is a shared political, economic, military, and cultural background. But despite this, as of late the stark differences in the economic and political interests between the USA and Europe are daily rearing their heads and causing unheard of stress in the relationship.

One of these stresses on the EU is the Ukraine proxy war against Russia which has caused scarcity of oil and gas in Europe. The USA is a nation that is geared to war. As former US president Jimmy Carter has stated, “The US is the most warlike nation in the history of the world…the US has been at peace for only 16 of its 242 years as a nation”. [7]Its economy necessitates perpetual war to sustain its industrial military complex – as President Dwight D. Eisenhower so clearly warned about half a century ago. Today, the Europeans, with the conflict with Russia and Ukraine that the USA and NATO have clearly provoked, know perfectly well that any war in Europe will involve risking their land, their nations, and their people, not Washington’s which is protected an ocean away. So again, the issue of “sovereignty” – i.e. who’s political will prevails? – is the elephant in the room in this relationship also.

So, what would it take for the USA to engage in a truly constructive way with the rest of the region? If the USA wants to signal a new relationship with its continental neighbors here’s what it needs to do.

The first step the USA could take for a new relationship potentially with the whole of Latin America, would be the repudiation, in law, of the Monroe Doctrine, recognizing the self-determination of the nation states to the south of it.

The second step would be the affirmation of its adherence to the Charter of the United Nations in terms of respecting the sovereignty of those independent nations; in particular, adherence to Paragraph 1 of Article 1 of the UN Charter.[8] In practice, this would mean the re-formulation in law of the mission and aims of the US’s foreign policy, including the role of the State Department and the intelligence agencies with respect to said nations.

The third step, mutatis mutandis, would need to be the immediate dismantling of the Guantanamo prison, and the returning the naval base occupied territory to Cuba. This would also include dropping the blockade against “communist Cuba” as McCoy disparagingly calls the country.

The fourth step would be the re-establishment of full diplomatic relations with Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, and the cessation of all economic and financial sanctions against them. It would mean the return of all Venezuelan assets and accounts that have been seized by USA and European banks. It would also mean the release of the Venezuelan Special Envoy Alex Saab whom the USA kidnapped and incarcerated despite his rights to diplomatic immunity based on the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.

The fifth step would involve a veritable economic restructuring within the USA, by re-directing its economy away from arms manufacturing to construction and rebuilding of their sorely needed infrastructure and housing, strengthening social programs such health and education, increasing development aid, and accelerating the transition from fossil fuels to renewable sources of energy as part of a comprehensive environmental program. Only then could the USA present itself to the rest of the hemisphere and the world as a nation of peace and respect.

The key question is: how is this to be done? That is in the hands of the people of the USA, who exercising their own sovereignty, should use all the measures open to them to bring about well-being, justice, and prosperity for all. Instead of ‘stepping up its game’ as General Richardson put it, the USA should recognise that the game is changing, with new players and new rules. The melon-cup is no more. Only when the USA gives up its pipe dreams of empire, recognizing the new multipolar world, will their people and the world be able to look forward to a brighter and more secure future.

Notes.

[1] Orinoco Tribune, “US Vows to “Step Up Its Game” in Latin America “ https://orinocotribune.com, 23 January 2023

[2] Xicotencatle, “Ciudad de México- San Petersburgo, dos fragmentos del mismo texto bélico”, rebellion, 26 January 2023

[3] Orinoco Tribune, “Washington Grants License to Trinidad and Tobago to Resume Gas Projects with PDVSA”, 26 January 2023

[4] Alfred W. McCoy, “The Fading of Washington’s Global Dreams and the Coming of a New world”, CONTERPUNCH, 12 January 2023

[5] Op. cit “US Vows to Step Up Its Game….”

[6] See, George Grant, “Lament for a Nation”, Carleton University Press, 1989

[7] Jimmy Carter, quoted in Brett Wilkins, “Jimmy Carter: US Most Warlike Nation in the History of the World”,Common Dreams, 18 April 2019,

[8] https://www.un.org/en/about-us/un-charter/chapter-1

(Counter Punch)

https://orinocotribune.com/usa-pipe-dreams-a-response/

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7th Celac Summit - between evasion and reality
Enviado por tortilla el Lun, 30/01/2023 - 19:04
Stephen Sefton, 29 de enero 2023

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Perhaps it was inevitable that the main achievement of the seventh summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States in Argentina is to have been able to happen at all, thus keeping alive the vision of a Greater Nation for all the peoples of the region. Compared to the tremendous dynamism and forthrightness of CELAC's founders, the summit's Final Statement exhibits a bland, mediocre agenda of evasion and hollow aspirations. On a positive note, the Declaration confirms the commitment of the member States to integration, unity and political, economic, social and cultural diversity as a community of sovereign nations and it also reaffirms the proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace.

But the experiences of the last ten years show that in many respects the region's reality runs contrary to most of the statements in the Declaration's 111 points of the Declaration. Examples of this are the extensive presence of US military bases throughout the continent, the constant interventions of Western powers and interests in the region, the harassment and contempt towards indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples, the application of “lawfare” against prominent political figures in several countries and the routine political manipulation of human rights institutions. More than anything, it has been electoral fortunes that have allowed the region to overcome initiatives aimed at sabotaging Latin American and Caribbean unity, such as the nefarious Lima Group.

Still, the underlying interventionist threat persists and the CELAC summit gave space to lamentable elements of what remains of the cruel interventions to damage Venezuela. The presidents of Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay attacked the government of Venezuela with the usual false accusations of lack of democracy and it is worth recalling that the Lima Group was supported or endorsed at one time or another by the following countries: Argentina, Barbados, Bolivia under the coup regime, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru and Saint Lucia. Self-evidently, the power of manipulation and coercion in the region of the United States, and its allies among the NATO countries, persists and they simply wait for favorable conditions to be able to use it.

In the end, President Nicolás Maduro Moros decided not to participate in the summit because the Argentine authorities could not guarantee his protection against possible legal provocations based on the illegal coercive measures of the US government against Venezuela. The Final Declaration of the summit calls for the lifting of the illegal blockade of Cuba but not of the illegal unilateral measures against Venezuela, which now even the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has had to condemn as an abuse of the human rights of the Venezuelan people. Nor does the Final Declaration mention the theft in broad daylight of the patrimony of the Venezuelan people, the company CITGO, the gold stored in London and billions of dollars in the European financial system, by the United States and the governments of the European Union.

The ambivalence inherent in the Final Declaration is also reflected in its support for decolonization and human rights without calling for the closure and withdrawal of the US military base at Guantanamo or condemning the permanent abuse of human rights the base represents as a center for illegal detention and torture. That omission indicates the level of the capture by the United States and its Western allies of the consciences of many leaders in the region. This was also seen unexpectedly in an outburst by President Lula da Silva at the margins of the summit. Lula made an absurd comparison between the illegal US aggression against Venezuela and the legitimate military operation of the Russian Federation in defense of Russian-speaking populations attacked by the government of Ukraine in alliance with NATO countries for eight years and counting.

Lula's grossly foolish remark could be simply an attempt on his part to signal his ideological virtue to the elites controlling the US Democratic Party and its allies in the Brazilian elite who supported Lula in the presidential elections last October. On the other hand, the just recently announced decision of leaders such as Lula, Gustavo Petro and Alberto Fernández not to send weapons in support of Ukraine does honor the declaration of the region as a zone of Peace. Although it undoubtedly also has to do with the aspirations of Brazil and, especially, Argentina in relation to a future expansion of the BRICS group of countries.

In this global context, the eagerness of the ruling classes of the most powerful countries in Latin America to appease the US and European elites conflicts with the imperative of taking advantage of the economic benefits offered by the People's Republic of China and the development of a multipolar world. In fact, President Xi Jinping greeted the summit via an online link and stressed that China is working to push relations between China and Latin America and the Caribbean towards a new era based on respect, equality, mutual benefit, innovation, openness and well-being for all peoples.

While China demonstrates good faith with its extensive investment, cooperation and trade with the region, the regional policy of the United States has not changed since President Monroe's declaration of December 2nd 1823. The recent frank comments of the head of the US Southern Command, General Laura Richardson, confirm that the United States continues to regard Latin America and the Caribbean as a subaltern zone, a source and supplier of fabulous natural resources. In addition, General Richardson said in her remarks to the Atlantic Council, a NATO-funded think tank, that Latin America and the Caribbean “has a lot to do with our national security and we have to start our play”, as if the peoples of the region will not remember the brutal history of intervention and destabilization by the United States over two centuries.

In relation to the tension between the encouraging message of President Xi Jinping and the permanent interventionist position of the United States, the presidents of Brazil and Argentina announced the day before the summit in Buenos Aires a project for a common currency between the two countries. They claim the initiative will boost regional trade and reduce dependence on the US dollar, perhaps in the style of the European Currency Unit (ECU), introduced in 1979 as an accounting unit for cross-border financial transactions. The ECU was associated with the European Exchange Rate Mechanism that sought to stabilize sharp variations between the different currencies of European countries. In 1999 the ECU was replaced by the single European currency, the Euro.

One has only to look at the economic history of Europe of the last 20 years to understand the futility of the idea that such a common currency will reduce regional dependence on the US dollar. Quite simply, all the corresponding independent financial architecture is lacking, for example a robust payments system, independent insurance institutions and other key financial services, a regional system of rating agencies or a banking system capable of resisting aggressive speculation in international financial and commodity markets. The idea looks like another example of the superficiality and ideological dependence on the West of the region's social democratic political classes. They seem to hope they can evade facing the implications of the fundamental truth they themselves recognize in relation to environmental issues and other issues, for example, volatile commodity prices or foreign debt, that Western capitalism harms the peoples of the region and the whole world.

The capitalist model of the mythical invisible hand of the free market and its neoliberal fictional corollaries is collapsing. Even so, most governments of the CELAC countries seem to want to apply that same economic model to promote their countries'development. This reality makes especially unconvincing point six of the Final Declaration, which affirms “the importance of prioritizing sustainable economic recovery with a cooperative, inclusive, equitable and solidarity-based approach." But that economic model already exists in a well advanced form, thanks to the same revolutionary countries of the Bolivarian Alliance of our Americas (ALBA) that so many of the region's governments attack and disparage without justification. This is the fundamental contradiction of CELAC and the biggest challenge facing Ralph Gonsalves, who now holds the pro tempore presidency of CELAC on behalf of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, a member country of ALBA.

As President Comandante Daniel and our Vice President Compañera Rosario said in Nicaragua's message to the summit:

“The world urgently needs justice and peace... Respectful and Supportive Cooperation. The world needs understanding, empathy and affection. The Better World that we all want to create, urgently needs Respect, Peace, Solidarity and the Ability to Live Together, sharing the Scientific and Technological Development that has cost us all so much...We sing and move in Life and Hope, striving, We Go Forward... Always Further On!”

https://www.tortillaconsal.com/bitacora ... a522e56a3a

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Call for a large march against Peruvian President Dina Boluarte

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Protests in Peru have been going on since December 7, when Congress removed then-President Pedro Castillo. | Photo: EFE
Posted 4 February 2023 (2 hours 44 minutes ago)

Protests in Peru have been going on since December 7, when Congress removed then-President Pedro Castillo,

Social organizations and indigenous peoples called for a large march in the Peruvian capital this Saturday as part of the demonstrations and protests against the designated president Dina Boluarte.

As in previous days, the mobilization in Lima will be replicated in various regions of the South American country.

In addition to the march on February 4, mobilizations have been called in the Peruvian capital for next February 9 and strikes in the Ayacucho and Arequipa regions for next week.


From the Collegiate Committee of National Struggle of the Regions they called for an indefinite national strike starting this Saturday to demand the resignation of the designated president Dina Boluarte.

The participants in the protests in a large part of the Peruvian territory demand the closure of Congress and demand the creation of a Constituent Assembly.


The day before, Congress blocked until August any attempt to debate again a proposal on the advancement of the general elections.

The protests in Peru have been going on since December 7, when Congress removed then-President Pedro Castillo and swore in Boluarte.

As a consequence of the strong police and military repression against the demonstrations, more than 60 deaths and hundreds of injuries have been reported.

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/peru-con ... -0007.html

Peruvian Congress blocks debate on early elections

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The decision of the Congress was made after the Constitutional Commission of the legislative body refused to debate an initiative presented by Dina Boluarte. | Photo: EFE
Published 4 February 2023

Legislators who did not support the project argued that this constitutional reform violates the rule of law.

The Congress of Peru postponed until August any type of discussion or debate to advance the general elections, neglecting one of the main demands of the participants in the demonstrations and mobilizations against the designated president Dina Boluarte.

The decision of the plenary session of Congress was made after the Constitutional Commission of the legislative body refused to debate an initiative presented by Dina Boluarte, which proposes to advance the presidential elections to next October.

At least 11 deputies from the congressional commission voted in favor of the proposal, ten voted against it and one abstained. As it is a constitutional reform, it must go to the plenary session and for this it needed to obtain 14 supports.


Legislators who did not support the project argued that they had to defend democratic institutions and that this constitutional reform violates the rule of law.

The regulations of the Congress establish that a "same proposal" may not be presented "until the next annual period of sessions", which begins at the end of July of each year.

In addition to the advance of the general elections, the demonstrators demand the dissolution of Congress and the holding of a constituent assembly.


Amid the demonstrations and protests in Peru, mobilizations are expected for Saturday in the capital, Lima, and in other parts of the country, while around 80 roadblocks remain active in seven regions of the country.

Protests have been going on in Peru since December 7, when Congress removed then-President Pedro Castillo and swore Boluarte in office. The police and military repression against the demonstrations has left more than 60 dead and hundreds injured.

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/peru-con ... -0005.html

Google Translator

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Peru: ANP Reports 153 Attacks Against Journalists During Protests

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So far, some 66 people have been killed in clashes between demonstrators and security forces. Feb. 3, 2023. | Photo: Twitter/@jmkarg

Published 3 February 2023

Most attacks "have been concentrated in Lima, and the most frequent aggressors have been police officers."


The National Association of Journalists of Peru (ANP) denounced that 153 attacks against journalists have been registered since December 7, when the national protests against the government of President-designate Dina Boluarte began following the dismissal of former Peruvian President Pedro Castillo.

The data were collected by the ANP's Journalists' Human Rights Office (OFIP) and indicate that most of the aggression "has been concentrated in Lima and the most frequent aggressors have been police officers."

During the protests in January this year, 94 such incidents were recorded, the ANP office reported in a press release, in which it added that the highest number of attacks (19 in a single day) was recorded on January 19 in the framework of the so-called "taking of Lima."

The association said, "This figure surpasses the record of 16 attacks that occurred on November 10, 2020, in the framework of protests in defense of democracy."


Alert: during January, we have registered 94 attacks on journalists during the coverage of social protests. This, added to last month's record, gives a total of 153 attacks since December 7, when the nationwide mobilizations began.

The ANP added that, through the Journalists' Human Rights Office, it "remains vigilant in registering aggression against press professionals and in activating, with public and civil society entities, measures for prevention, defense and action in the face of attacks they may face during their reporting activity."

The dismissal of former President Pedro Castillo last December 7 triggered fierce nationwide protests. Some 66 people have been killed in clashes between demonstrators and security forces.

The popular demand focuses on the resignation of President Dina Boluarte, the closure of Congress, early elections for 2023 and the convening of a constituent assembly.


The Peruvian Congress today rejected an opinion proposing early general elections and a referendum to convene a Constituent Assembly in the middle of this year. In short, it rejected a possible solution to the current crisis.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Per ... -0014.html

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Commander Daniel Ortega and Vice President Rosario Murillo preside over the act of delivery of 150 Russian buses to Nicaraguan carriers.

Solidarity with Peruvians from President Daniel Ortega
February 1, 2023Daniel Ortega, Nicaragua, Peru

President of Nicaragua Daniel Ortega expressed solidarity with the people of Peru and Pedro Castillo amid the working class uprising across Peru that has been met by brutal repression, carried out by the US-backed Dina Boluarte regime. Below is a transcription of the President’s remarks made at an event on Tuesday night.

A brother people, Peru, there they have sown terror, death, simply because the people decided to elect a President of peasant origin, a teacher of peasant origin, who wears a small sombrero, a small sombrero is what Pedro wears. A humble man was elected!

Then the Congress began to look for ways to overthrow him, and he tried to seek agreements, even doing away with comrades from the movement, from the party that had brought him to the presidency, because Congress was ordering them to be fired.

That is simply class hatred, they refuse to see a peasant, a worker, a humble teacher occupying the presidency. For them that is unacceptable and they began to make war and war and war, until they carried out a coup. President Pedro Castillo, a rural teacher from the countryside, you may have seen his photo, he is a ordinary, humble person, they have him in jail. They have him in jail!

But the People have risen up and have been fighting every day, the peasants, the workers, the teachers, all fighting. More than 60 people have already been murdered in the streets, and what do the Yankees say? What do the Europeans say? Nothing, as if nothing is happening, there is no condemnation of the crimes being committed against these people, there is no condemnation! There are no human rights groups that speak in favor of that People that are being assassinated.

But in spite of the bullets raining down on them, they continue to fight and are demanding the disappearance of the Congress, because it was the Congress that carried out the coup, together with the military, against President Pedro Castillo, the legitimate President of the sister Republic of Peru.

And from Nicaragua we express our Solidarity to the Peruvian People who are defending his return to the Presidency, because he was elected, and the Congress decided to remove him from office with the complicity of the military, and that is why they managed to put him in prison. He is in prison there.

So, our solidarity with the Peruvian People, our solidarity with the legitimate President of Peru, Pedro Castillo, and from this Latin America and the Caribbean that today seeks more and more understanding, more rapprochement, more unity, we cry out:

Freedom for Pedro Castillo!
Presidency for Pedro Castillo!
Long Live the Unity of the Peruvian People!

https://kawsachunnews.com/solidarity-wi ... a522e56a3a

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Call for a large march against Peruvian President Dina Boluarte

Image
Protests in Peru have been going on since December 7, when Congress removed then-President Pedro Castillo. | Photo: EFE
Posted 4 February 2023 (2 hours 44 minutes ago)

Protests in Peru have been going on since December 7, when Congress removed then-President Pedro Castillo,

Social organizations and indigenous peoples called for a large march in the Peruvian capital this Saturday as part of the demonstrations and protests against the designated president Dina Boluarte.

READ ALSO :

They carry out new mobilizations to demand the resignation of the Peruvian president

As in previous days, the mobilization in Lima will be replicated in various regions of the South American country.

In addition to the march on February 4, mobilizations have been called in the Peruvian capital for next February 9 and strikes in the Ayacucho and Arequipa regions for next week.


From the Collegiate Committee of National Struggle of the Regions they called for an indefinite national strike starting this Saturday to demand the resignation of the designated president Dina Boluarte.

The participants in the protests in a large part of the Peruvian territory demand the closure of Congress and demand the creation of a Constituent Assembly.


The day before, Congress blocked until August any attempt to debate again a proposal on the advancement of the general elections.

The protests in Peru have been going on since December 7, when Congress removed then-President Pedro Castillo and swore in Boluarte.

As a consequence of the strong police and military repression against the demonstrations, more than 60 deaths and hundreds of injuries have been reported.

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/peru-con ... -0007.html

Google Translator
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: South America

Post by blindpig » Tue Feb 07, 2023 2:37 pm

Peru: De Facto Government Announces State of Emergency Amid National Strike Announcement
FEBRUARY 6, 2023

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Police forces containing a protest in Peru after the parliamentary coup d'etat against Pedro Castillo. Photo: SADAA Times.

This Sunday, February 5, a state of emergency was declared in Peru due to the intensifying of uprisings in the country since December 7, when right-wing forces carried out a parliamentary coup against President Pedro Castillo.

The streets of Lima continue to burn in the midst of significant battles between the police and protesters who insist on the resignation of the de facto government.

Madre de Dios, Cusco, Puno, Apurímac, Arequipa, Moquegua, and Tacna are the seven southern regions subject to the state of emergency protocols, which will be enforced for 60 days while the de facto government attempts to contain the deluge of Peruvians exhausted by the lack of democracy in a country run by a small oligarchy in Lima.

De facto President Dina Boluarte, accompanied by the head of the cabinet Alberto Otárola, Defense Minister Jorge Chávez, and Justice Minister José Tello are responsible for signing the decree.

The Peruvian National Police (PNP) with the support of the armed forces will be in charge of enforcing “internal security,” with the exception of the region of Puno, where the armed forces, who had been tasked with enforcing “internal order,” executed multiple human right violations with their excessive use of force and took the lives of 69 Peruvians while repressing protests.

This decree was signed when a total of 26 people were arrested the previous day, while another 24 were injured by police and military repression during the protest that took place in Lima.

Frozen constitutional rights
During the state of emergency, the constitutional rights related to sanctity of the home, freedom of transit through national territory, and personal privacy are suspended, resolutions that have been heavily questioned by human rights advocates.

In the region of Puno, a “mandatory lockdown of all people in their homes” has been declared from 8 pm to 4 am for a period of 10 days.

Workers in the healthcare, food supply, pharmaceutical, and public service sectors, among others, are exempt from the lockdown.

What does Peru expect with these protests?

The protesters' demands include:

*Early general elections for 2023
*The resignation of the interim president, Dina Boluarte.
*The suspension of Congress and the call for a Constituent Assembly to draft a new constitution.
*Justice for more than 60 Peruvians who died during the demonstrations at the hands of the PNP and the armed forces.

The mobilizations in the capital, Lima, home to 33 million Peruvians or one third of the total population, have been relatively small so far but have increased in magnitude as protesters from other regions enter the city and more contradictions among the ruling class arise.

New national strike

A new massive demonstration was declared on Sunday and publicized on social media platforms and the local press by the main workers union in Peru in response to the violent repression against peaceful protests.

According to a statement from the Workers' General Confederation of Peru, an indefinite national strike has begun in both the private and public sectors as of February 9 at 12 am

Apart from Boluarte's resignation and the electoral advance, the protesters, who have taken to the streets since the ousting and arrest of Pedro Castillo, demand the dissolution of Congress and a Constituent Assembly while also asking for justice for the people who were murdered by police repression during the protests.

( RedRadioVE ) by Joshua Mendoza with Orinoco Tribune content

https://orinocotribune.com/peru-de-fact ... ouncement/

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Peru: “Our Demands Are Now Political”
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on FEBRUARY 4, 2023
Elisa Fuenzalida

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An Interview with Lourdes Huanca Atencio

The peasant uprising in Peru has achieved what seemed impossible: the left and academia have been left speechless. Or at least it seems so, since their analyses have been silenced under the popular Indigenous clamor, which has organized delegations from the four “suyos” (1) of Peru in “The Taking of Lima,” as the march to the capital has been called.

Few suspected that the removal of Pedro Castillo was more than a political crisis in partisan terms. Rather, it was the beginning of a symbolic and historical cataclysm, threatening the very foundations of the colonial pact still in force in the country that is seen abroad as the land of electronic cumbia, magical villages, and Ayahuasca retreats.

The story begins with an electoral campaign strongly marked by racist violence directed at Castillo, a peasant and rural teacher originally from the Northern Andes. Insults such as “donkey,” “brute,” “illiterate,” and “beast,” among others, have a genealogy clearly located in the tradition of the haciendas, authentic fiefdoms under the control of a white oligarchy until their expropriation during the Agrarian Reform in 1969. Since then, colonial-racist interests have been busy maintaining the narrative of the dumb, at best naïve, Indigenous person, who wastes the capitalist potential of the land and does not know what to do with freedom.

Lourdes Huanca Atencio, President of the Federation of Peasant, Artisan, Indigenous, Native and Salaried Women of Peru (FENMUCARINAP), is currently in Europe, asking for the support and solidarity of the international community.

E.F.: What motivates this tour?

L.H.A.: I have come to denounce the militarization of our country, because they are killing us one by one. Our right to protest is being brutally violated. It has reached a point where we can no longer even walk freely. To speak of peasant or Indigenous people in Peru under this dictatorial regime of terror is tantamount to being considered a terrorist. All of the government agencies are colluding, and we have no one to protect us or guarantee our rights. The police and the army shoot us at point-blank range; the legislature and the executive give orders together. The church’s pronouncements are lukewarm.

What is the human rights situation?

This began before the president was elected when, during the campaign, the press called him all kinds of racist insults. We, rural men and women, felt those insults as if they were also for us—because they were! Since Castillo’s dismissal, the response to our peaceful protest has been bloodthirsty. Sixty dead and rising, more than a thousand wounded, arbitrary arrests, missing persons, sexual violence and torture. In addition, we have evidence that the army infiltrates agents in the demonstrations to generate all kinds of disturbances and, thus, criminalize us. We have Congressmen demanding: “Shoot the terrorists.” The police are shouting at us: “Shut up, Indian!” We are in the hands of a genocidal and racist government. There are no guarantees for Indigenous lives.

What interests are behind these actions?

Those of the big transnational corporations, the mining companies, the oligopolies. This year is crucial for them in terms of renewing the concession contracts on the extractive exploitation of our territories. In the Puno region there is lithium, what they call white gold. Before this massacre took place, the U.S. Ambassador spoke with the executive branch and Dina Boluarte. Immediately after this meeting, a state of emergency was declared.

They want us as a tourist attraction, as decorative objects, as “the cholita with her llama” for their photos, not as people conscious of the knowledge they safeguard and as political agents. We know that while they poison the Earth, we cool the planet and guarantee food sovereignty. We know that cities do not feed on gold, silver, and copper, that they depend on us for food. We know that our worldview is invaluable for the survival of life on this planet. And today we have risen up against racism, against the contempt for Indigenous blood.

They thought that since Pedro Castillo was of peasant origin, it would not be difficult to get him out of the way. They believe that the impoverished education reserved for us has made us submissive, but they have been mistaken. We are not going to back down. The only thing they have left is to kill us.

What are the demands?

They are clear: dismissal of Dina Boluarte, freedom for Pedro Castillo, justice for the more than 60 murdered protesters, closure of Congress and installation of the Plurinational and Parity Constituent Assembly. Previous governments have tried to silence our demands for justice with schools and roads. It is not enough. Our demands are now political.

What does a Plurinational Parity Assembly mean?

There is an abysmal difference between what we consider “buen vivir” (good living) and what is considered development in the capital. For us, the most important things are land, seeds, and water. The Plurinational Assembly is about respect; about participating in the processes of political deliberation based on the full recognition of our value and political legitimacy. Regarding the parity aspect, we want women to be considered as agents within this construction.

What is the status of the articulation process between the different peasant and Indigenous communities, unions, associations, and collectives?

We entered into this dialogue a year and a half ago—since President Castillo took office—always with the aim of working on a new constitution. Articulation is a process and a project. It is not easy, but we are getting closer and closer to reaching consensus. It’s not only with them, though: we also need the support of the academy; the intellectuals.

Many in these communities, both academics and leftist activists might be tempted to want to intervene in the peasant deliberation processes. Some, to this day, still think their role is to guide them. It has happened before…

We will defend our rights and demand respect. There are times when we will be open and receptive and times when we will raise our voice, as we are doing now. I respect intellectuals if they respect me, but many have to shake off the need for prominence. They don’t have the answers to everything. But we do not lose hope. We have great allies like Héctor Bejar and within some sectors of feminism.

What tasks arise from all this?

When there is an earthquake, the walls fall down. The roof falls down. But then comes the calm, and from there, an opportunity to build something better; to lay very strong foundations so that the new house is resilient. The most difficult thing will be to abandon the legacy of the neoliberal right-wing, which always puts the individual before everything. We have to unlearn a lot and turn our gaze towards the collective.

Are we at the beginning of an anti-colonial revolution?

Absolutely. Fear is over.

FOOTNOTES
1. The suyos (in Quechua: suyu, “nation, partiality, region”) were the four great territorial divisions of the Inca Empire, in which its various provinces, or huamanis (in Quechua: wamani) were grouped. The group of the four suyos was known as Tahuantinsuyo (Tawantinsuyu), which means the four suyos together, or the four Nations. Migrants are now considered the fifth suyo.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2023/02/ ... political/

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Ecuador Strongly Rejected the Lasso Administration: Paola Pabon


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Pichincha Prefect Paola Pabon (C), Ecuador, 2023. | Photo: Twitter/ @PaolaPabonC

Published 7 February 2023

The electoral results meant a forceful rejection of the merciless political persecution that social fighters and left-wing activists have experienced over the last 7 years.


During an interview broadcast by teleSUR on Monday, Paola Pabon, the re-elected prefect of Pichincha, analyzed the results of the subnational elections held in Ecuador on Sunday.

Referring to President Guillermo Lasso's eight-question referendum, the Citizen Revolution militant emphasized that the victory of the "NO" option implies a resounding rejection of the current administration.

"We are experiencing a very strong insecurity crisis. Before the presidency of Lasso, Ecuadorians did not experience in everyday life phenomena such as drug trafficking and organized crime, which have taken to the streets and are claiming more lives."

Pabon explained that the referendum tried to disguise Lasso's true political intentions by including questions on the issue of insecurity. In doing so, however, the current government "underestimated the intelligence of the Ecuadorian people."


"The results of the elections mark the beginning of the recovery of the homeland. The electoral campaign was very hard and implied a lot of suffering for our people," she said, noting that Ecuadorians voted remembering that they had a noticeable improvement in their quality of life during the administrations of President Rafael Correa (2007-2017).

"The problems facing Ecuador are urgent and we need to face them jointly and responsibly. That is what an anguished citizenry, overwhelmed by unemployment, insecurity, fear, and frustration, is asking of us."

Referring to the victory achieved by the left in the main provinces and cities, Pabon asserted that "the triumph of the Citizen Revolution continues with that Latin American current in which the people ask that the progressives assume the government to resolve the crisis."

"In the face of anguish and need, left-wing positions and approaches continue to be the best option," she pointed out.

Pabon stressed that the electoral results imply a resounding defeat for the right-wing parties in the cities of Quito and Guayaquil, where the country's political and economic power is concentrated.

"We have won like never before... We won the Mayor's Office of Quito... We also won the Mayor's Office of Guayaquil and the Guayas Prefecture. These territories were controlled by the right for the last 30 years. This is a very important victory."

The Citizen Revolution leader also explained that the electoral results meant a forceful rejection of the merciless political persecution that social fighters and left-wing activists have experienced over the last 7 years.

In the midst of this, former President Correa "remains the political leader with the greatest acceptance among citizens."

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Ecu ... -0001.html

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Presidente Rafael Correa realizó la rendición de cuentas a la comunidad ecuatoriana residente en Sevilla (Photo: Cancillería del Ecuador / Flickr)

We are the Citizen Revolution again: Ecuador’s Rafael Correa
By teleSUR Desk (Posted Feb 07, 2023)

Originally published: teleSUR English on February 6, 2023 (more by teleSUR English) |

On Sunday, former President Rafael Correa celebrated the results achieved by his Citizen Revolution party in the subnational elections held in Ecuador.

“We achieved the impossible: we are the Citizen Revolution again! Until victory, always!” he said in a video where he appears playing the guitar and singing “It Changes, Everything Changes,” (Cambia, Todo Cambia) an emblematic song of Latin American social struggles.

“Do you know what we have achieved after being persecuted for six years of persecution and with just one year of the Citizen Revolution party?,” Correa asked to emphasize the magnitude of the leftist victory over right-wing parties.

On Sunday, over 13.4 million Ecuadorians went to the polls to elect 23 provincial prefects, 221 mayors, and 7 members of the Council for Citizen Participation and Social Control, an entity that appoints authorities such as the Attorney General and the Comptroller.

They also participated in a referendum through which President Guillermo Lasso intended to modify the Constitution so as to consolidate a conservative political project.

Former President Rafael Correa’s tweet reads,
Omar Menendez, our winning candidate for mayor of Puerto Lopez, has just been murdered. The Homeland is falling apart. Hugs to his family and all the comrades from Manabi.

The Ecuadorian right-wing parties, however, suffered a resounding defeat both in the subnational elections and in the referendum. The Citizen Revolution candidates for the prefectures triumphed in the provinces with the largest population.

This happened with Paola Pabon (Pichincha), Marcela Aguiñaga (Guayas), Leonardo Orlando (Manabi), Juan Lloret (Azua), Johana Nuñez (Santo Domingo), Richar Calderon (Imbabura), and Yofre Poma (Sucumbios).

The progressive forces also prevailed in the main cities with Pabel Muñoz in Quito, Aquiles Alvares in Guayaquil, Wilson Erazo in Santo Domingo, Vicko Villacis in Esmeraldas, Pedro Solines in Milagro, and Alexis Matute in Quevedo.

The magnitude of the people’s support for the Citizen Revolution became evident in an unprecedented event: Ecuadorians elected Omar Menedez as mayor of Puerto Lopez, despite the fact that this young man was murdered by hitmen on the day before the elections.

https://mronline.org/2023/02/07/we-are- ... el-correa/

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Re: South America

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New Round of National Strike Begins in Perú (+Militarization)
FEBRUARY 10, 2023

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Thousands of police and military forces put the city of Lima in a de facto state of siege during the first day of the national strike, February 9, 2023. Photo: Twitter/@FOL_oficial.

This Thursday, February 9, the General Confederation of Workers of Perú (CGTP) began a massive new national workers’ strike, that continues to gain the support of more and more organizations throughout the country. The call of the largest Peruvian union network aims for the resignation of de facto ruler Dina Boluarte, the establishment of a transitional government, general elections, a constituent referendum, and the cessation of the murders of the citizens in protest.

More organizations joining the strike
On Wednesday, the Unitary Union of Education Workers of Perú (SUTEP) joined. “Teachers and educational assistants join the just struggles of the people,” the organization announced via Twitter, “to demand, once and for all, the advancement of General Elections for this year 2023 and the call for a referendum to let the people decide if they want a new Constitution.”

The Federation of Civil Construction Workers of Perú (FTCCP) also showed its adherence to the strike action, through its mobilization this Thursday alongside 200 unions across the country.


Dialogue with Boluarte rejected
Boluarte, upon learning of the call for a strike by the CGTP, made a call for dialogue, which was rejected.

The secretary of organization of the trade union, Manuel Coronado, stated that they did not agree to talk because they have no confidence in Boluarte, and because it is a way of “honoring our dead,” as reported by Prensa Latina.


Arbitrary detention
This same Thursday, at the beginning of the strike, the General Confederation of Workers of Perú rejected the arbitrary detention of a national leader of the trade union.

“The CGTP rejects that the dictatorship of Dina Boluarte and its instruments of repression,” the organization stated via Twitter, “have arbitrarily detained comrade Ernesto Tapia, national leader of the #CGTP, for whom we demand an immediate release.”


New protest journey
The strike has managed to mobilize tens of thousands of Peruvians all over the country, exhausted by a political regime that neglects them, that is racist towards indigenous Peruvians that represent the most important part of the population, and that ultimately is not democratic, only representing the interests of Lima’s small oligarchy and transnational corporations, especially in the mining sector.

No relevant incidents of police repression were reported during the first day of this national strike, but many activists and protesters documented via social media the heavy militarization of Lima with thousands of police, military agents, tanks, and water tanks, deployed all over the city.

https://orinocotribune.com/new-round-of ... arization/

Guatemala Blocks Leftist Indigenous Leader From Presidential Race, in ‘Electoral Coup’
FEBRUARY 9, 2023

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Thelma Cabrera and Jordán Rodas of Guatemala's Movement for the Liberation of the People (MLP) Party. File Photo.

By Jimmy Zúñiga Wallace and Ben Norton – Feb 7, 2023

Guatemala’s notoriously corrupt right-wing government banned Indigenous leader Thelma Cabrera and her leftist Movement for the Liberation of the Peoples (MLP) party from running in the presidential election. International observers warn this is an “electoral coup”.

Guatemala’s notoriously corrupt right-wing government has blocked a prominent leftist Indigenous leader from running in the June 2023 presidential election, in a move that international observers have condemned as an “electoral coup”.

Nearly half of Guatemalans (44%) identify as Indigenous. The Movement for the Liberation of the Peoples (MLP) is a left-wing party that was created to represent the First Nations who have for so long been ignored by Guatemala’s political system.

The MLP is led by Thelma Cabrera, a social movement activist and human rights defender from the Maya Mam community. She has pledged to fight poverty in Guatemala (one of the poorest countries in the region), resist neoliberalism, and establish a plurinational state that gives full rights to Indigenous nations, like Bolivia.

The newly created MLP party ran for the first time in the 2019 presidential election. Cabrera came in fourth place, winning more than 10% of the vote in the first round, compared to just 14% for current right-wing President Alejandro Giammattei.

Since then, the MLP has only become more popular, gaining support across Guatemala. Giammattei, a staunch conservative and wealthy dual citizen of Italy, has seen the growth of the MLP as a threat.

The MLP’s vice-presidential candidate is Jordán Rodas Andrade. He was appointed Guatemala’s human rights ombudsman in 2017. Before his term ended in 2022, Rodas had become well known for his criticism of President Giammattei and the blatant corruption in his government.

Upon leaving the position, Rodas condemned Guatemala’s wealthy corporate oligarchs. “They think they are the plantation owners. They have done so much damage to this country”, he said.


In late January 2023, Guatemala’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) blocked Cabrera and Rodas from participating in the upcoming election, which will be held on June 25.

Guatemalan social movement activists and international observers have reported that the TSE is deeply politicized and acts in the interests of Giammattei and the country’s powerful oligarchs.

Cabrera and her MLP party filed an appeal, but on February 2, the TSE ruled against them, officially banning them from the race.

The Guatemalan electoral authority claimed they cannot run because their application was “invalid”.

Cabrera shared the completed paperwork on Twitter, insisting that “we fulfilled all the legal requirements”. Rodas also explained that he submitted all the required paperwork, and a review of his record found no legal cases or complaints against him.

“Any additional requirement is not found in the law; it cannot be invoked to avoid my candidacy and violate my right to be elected”, he said.


Guatemala’s ‘electoral coup’ bans leftists while allowing convicted drug money launderers and family members of war criminals to run for office
Hundreds of activists protested at the TSE, condemning the electoral court’s decision. An MLP supporter said, “If you all don’t register our candidates, there won’t be elections”. Their movement has vowed to go on strike and hold large demonstrations until the decision is reversed.

Even Western government-funded organizations that are deeply biased against the Latin American left have warned that the Giammattei government is increasingly authoritarian.

The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA), which is funded by the US government and multiple European states, has long shown prejudice in support of the Latin American right. But IDEA’s regional director, Daniel Zovatto, admitted that TSE’s ban of Cabrera and Rodas is a kind of “electoral coup”.

“The decision declaring inadmissible the appeal for annulment by the MLP, leaving the Cabrera-Rodas ticket out of the electoral contest, is an ‘electoral coup’ that corrupts the integrity and credibility of the elections”, Zovatto said.

Vicenta Jerónimo, the lone MLP representative in Guatemala’s congress, referred to the struggle as “a battle of the oligarchy against the peoples”.

“That is because we also know that all state institutions are co-opted in the hands of corrupt thieves in this country”, she said.

In one of the many demonstrations that have taken place throughout the country, Jerónimo stated, “We also see in the Supreme Electoral Tribunal that they have registered children of the genocide that murdered my parents, my grandparents, my uncles in the armed conflict”.


Jerónimo was alluding to Zury Ríos, a right-wing presidential candidate who is the daughter of Guatemala’s former dictator Efraín Ríos Montt.

The United States supported the Ríos Montt regime in the 1980s, as he massacred Indigenous communities. In 2013, he was sentenced for crimes against humanity and genocide.

An independent truth commission found that, during Guatemala’s civil war, the US-backed military carried out 93% of civilian killings, whereas socialist guerrillas were responsible for just 3%.

It is estimated that as a result of the genocide perpetrated by Ríos Montt, at least 200,000 children became orphans and around 5,000 more disappeared.

The vast majority of attacks perpetrated by the Guatemalan military against the population were against civilians who had no connection to the conflict.

Ironically, Zury Ríos launched her presidential campaign for the 2023 elections despite having a constitutional ban that kept her out of the race in 2019, due to her close ties with her father.

But the TSE is now allowing Zury Ríos to run. The same electoral body that once banned the proud, unapologetic daughter of a convicted war criminal is today blocking the candidacy of an Indigenous leader and prominent human rights defender.


Likewise, the TSE has allowed wealthy right-wing businessman Manuel Baldizón to run in the 2023 elections, despite the fact that he was imprisoned in the United States for laundering drug money, and deported to Guatemala in 2022.

Baldizón is running for congress, as part of the right-wing Cambio party. His son Jorge Eduardo Baldizón Vargas is also a congressional candidate, and their fellow family member Álvaro Manuel Trujillo Baldizón is running for president.

Why is the Guatemalan oligarchy afraid of Thelma Cabrera and Jordán Rodas?
When Thelma Cabrera won more than 10% of the vote in the first round of the 2019 election, coming just a few points shy of making the run-off, she frightened Guatemala’s oligarchy.

Among the ideas she was advocating for included recovering territories exploited by agribusiness and extractive corporations, creating an anti-monopoly law, asserting collective rights of the lands of Indigenous peoples, and reducing poverty in one of the poorest countries in the region.

These proposals are very popular among working-class Guatemalans. This explains the large protests the country has seen in response to the TSE ban.


Cabrera is also a supporter of Latin American integration, and has praised other left-wing governments in the region.

Under Giammattei, Guatemala recognized US-appointed coup leader Juan Guaidó as supposed “interim president” of Venezuela. In 2019, he unsuccessfully tried to enter Venezuela using his Italian passport, hoping to meet with Guaidó.

Guatemala’s right-wing regime is one of the very few governments in Latin America that has supported Ukraine in the NATO proxy war against Russia. Cabrera criticized Giammattei for visiting Kiev and posing for photos with its Western-backed leader Volodymyr Zelensky.


The next step for Cabrera and her running mate Jordán Rodas will be to appeal the TSE’s decision at Guatemala’s Supreme Court of Justice.

In the mean time, their Movement for the Liberation of the Peoples is organizing protests, demanding systemic change in the country.

https://orinocotribune.com/guatemala-bl ... oral-coup/

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Boluarte Says She Will Continue To Govern Pending Elections

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Military and police guard the streets, today, in the center of Lima (Peru) | Photo: EFE/ Paolo Aguilar

According to the legislative regulations, February 10 is the deadline for the Peruvian Congress to call elections in 2023.


The President of Peru, Dina Boluarte, said that as long as the Congress does not agree to early elections, she will continue to govern to "solve the problems that we are called upon to solve as a Government."

Amidst a severe social and political crisis in Peru since last December 7 following the removal of former president Pedro Castillo (2021-2022), the Congress has refused to bring forward the general elections to 2023, one of the protests' main demands.

The current legislature is scheduled to conclude on Friday, February 10. If the measure is not accepted before that date, the bill must be shelved, as Rule 78 of the Rules of Procedure states that "the same or another proposal dealing with the same subject may not be introduced until the next annual session."

Boluarte regretted the refusal of the Legislative Constitution Committee to debate in the plenary the Executive's bill proposing early elections for the second week of October and a change of government in December 2023.




With 11 votes in favor, ten against, and one abstention, the legislative committee rejected the text on February 3, as it needed at least 14 favorable votes.

"We as a Government have to govern," said the President-designate, noting that her administration will dedicate itself to "solving the problems that we are called upon to solve as a Government."

Boluarte urged Congress and the Constitution Commission to resolve the issue of early elections. "The reflection is in Congress, especially in the Constitution Commission."



Protests throughout the country, in which 69 people have been reported dead, demand Boluarte's resignation, the dissolution of Congress, the convening of a Constituent Assembly, and Castillo's release.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Bol ... -0019.html

Peru: Anti-Government Protests Are Peaceful-Ombudsman’s Office

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15.8 percent of the total number of provinces nationwide have registered mobilizations, strikes and/or blockades. Feb. 9, 2023. | Photo: Twitter/@RamiroteleSURtv

Published 9 February 2023 (12 hours 11 minutes ago)

On Thursday, February 9, protests against the government of Dina Boluarte continued in different regions of the country.

According to the Peruvian Ombudsman's Office, these protests "are taking place peacefully. We will continue to be vigilant so that the rights of all people are guaranteed."

Several Peruvian sectors took to the streets in a new national demonstration called by the General Confederation of Peruvian Workers (CGTP), among other organizations. The CGTP announced the beginning of an indefinite strike starting today.

According to a report by the Ombudsman's Office, mobilizations and rallies have been recorded in 22 provinces, while partial stoppages of activities have taken place in 7 provinces and roadblocks in 20 provinces.

According to the agency's report, these figures mean that 15.8 percent of the total number of provinces nationwide have registered mobilizations, strikes and/or blockades.


The Tweet reads, Ucayali, In compliance with our functions of defending the rights of all people, we supervised a new tour of protesters through various streets of Pucallpa. We verified that this mobilization took place in a peaceful manner.

Protesters demand the resignation of President-designate Dina Boluarte, the closure of Congress and the advancement of general elections to 2023.

Since December 7, with the dismissal of former President Pedro Castillo, the country has been going through a social and political crisis marked by protests throughout the country.

Police and military repression has left more than 60 dead so far. The Ombudsman's Office put the figure at 59, of which 58 were civilians and one policeman.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Per ... -0019.html

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President Pedro Castillo: ‘I Did Not Want to Obey the Power Groups’
FEBRUARY 8, 2023

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Peruvian President Pedro Castillo wearing an indigenous hat and a Wipala flag draped over his shoulders. Photo: Carlos Mamani/AFP/FIle photo.

On Tuesday, February 7, El Salto published an exclusive interview with Peruvian President Pedro Castillo. Castillo has been detained for two months since being ousted by congress, which immediately placed Dina Boluarte in power. In the interview, Castillo stressed that he did not want to obey “social and economic power groups… putting the people above all else.”

From the moment of his irregular arrest, protests began in Peru. More than 60 deaths have occurred due to the repression ordered by Boluarte, plunging the country into a deep and violent political and institutional crisis. The discontent manifested in various areas of Peru and has moved to the capital, Lima. Protesters are demanding Boluarte’s resignation, early elections and the constituent assembly that Castillo had promised.

On December 7, 2022, the political crisis that kept Castillo’s government stagnant worsened with the forced change of dozens of ministers and legislative and judicial persecution against Castillo, a rural school teacher who became president through democratic elections and was the first president outside the elites in almost 200 years.

The El Salto team interviewed Castillo exclusively in Barbadillo, the maximum security prison where former dictator Alberto Fujimori is also being held, convicted for crimes against humanity by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

During the interview, conducted through questions were delivered to Castillo via lawyers, including the Argentinians Eugenio Zaffaroni, judge of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and Guido Croxatto, director of the School of the State Lawyers Corps in Argentina. Castillo is in jail due to a controversial preventive measure and is accused of sedition. He noted that he still considers himself president of Lawyers Zaffaroni and Croxatto were accompanied by the president’s legal team, namely, the lawyers Indira Rodríguez Paredes and Wilfredo Robles. The entry of the Argentinian lawyers was, according to El Salto, hindered by the National Penitentiary Institute of Peru, attempting to create obstacles and inconveniences so that the meeting would not take place.

“The meeting was finally able to take place: the notes that constitute this interview resulted from this meeting, conducted orally and handwritten between the last days of January and the first week of February,” wrote the news outlet. “All recording devices, including mobile phones, were expressly prohibited.”

Castillo fears for his life in the face of hatred and racism
When asked about his safety, Castillo stated that he has feared for his life since he made it to the second round of the elections that would designate him as president on July 28, 2021. He said that the incitement of hatred and racism from the far right constitutes a risk for him, his family, and all the leftist militants in the country.

“Yes, I fear for my life right now. In Peru, there is no type of legal, political or civil security. I must say that I do not fear for my life as of right now. I fear for my life since the second round of the campaign to be president,” he reported.

“There has been political persecution since I was campaigning. The right wing was merciless with my family and me, especially with my minor children and my wife. They slandered us. They falsely accused us of terrorism. They did not let us develop personally or in my government. The harassment was constant, daily and disturbing. These actions incited hatred and racism.”

Castillo also noted that he had “received death threats from unknown phone numbers.”

“My children and wife too. That is why I sought, at all times, security for my children since they are the most precious thing I have,” he stated. “Security for my little daughter, my young son, my older daughter and my wife.”

The president stressed that he suffered mistreatment from the right wing, where they accused him of being a “terrorist.” “They have wanted to hurt me. I would say that they even wanted to assassinate me. For example, in Tacna, I suffered a situation in which several people from the extreme right beat me with bolts and iron sticks, I was injured, but I did not file a complaint. That is one of my most vivid memories of the runoff campaign.”

“I have also received public threats, for example, from Rafael López Aliaga [extreme right-wing businessman and mayor of Lima], who openly asked that they kill me. He said at his rally: ‘Death to Castillo,’” Castillo said.

He also pointed out that he has not been able to communicate with his family and that he fears for their safety. Castillo explained that the attacks against him and his family went to the extreme of preventing his son from studying at a school when they discovered his relationship. He highlighted the harassment his young daughter suffered after images of a birthday party they organized for her were leaked. And even surrounded by security, she was insulted in the streets. “They yelled at her: ‘You are the daughter of the donkey,’ and she cried and felt bad. They attacked my minor children to attack me,” Castillo added.

President Castillo repudiated how “the historical racism that Peru has experienced and continues to experience, as well as classism and social and economic inequality, is why there is currently a massacre and multiple human rights violations in Peru.” He then added that these crimes against the Peruvian people “will firmly and courageously be taken to international institutions by the lawyers.”

Boluarte and Fujimorism
When asked about Boluarte’s relationship with Fujimorismo and the Peruvian oligarchy, Castillo replied that she “works with Fujimorismo. They all organized the plot.”

“Everything was prepared with the police and the armed forces. Her [Boluarte], the Prosecutor’s Office, the Peruvian right, especially Fujimorismo,” he stated.

Castillo explained in the interview that he now knows that Boluarte “had a rapprochement with the Peruvian right since before December 7, 2022. She was and is friendly with the far right. They have allied and talked. And that was from before, as far as I know now.”

“She hired people from Fujimorism in the ministry. She never gave the opportunity to ordinary Peruvians and those from the regions. And now she has been exposed. She has called the entire right wing that violates human rights the most to the cabinet. The list is known. She only pretended to be a democrat, but now her true personality is evident,” Castillo added, calling her a dictator.

It’s time for the constituent assembly
Pedro Castillo also pointed out in the interview that “it is the constituent moment. We are not going to look for it. History is looking for us. Changing the constitution is the desire of the people, to escape the Fujimori legacy. I reaffirm that we need a popular constituent assembly.

Regarding the Parliament’s refusal to move elections forward, he stressed that “congress is delegitimized,” its actions are alien to the popular will because it is not “in sync with the peoples” and that “the majority (in the Peruvian Parliament) continues to follow local media scripts.

“For example, why don’t they hold a plenary session in a region?” he said. “Let’s see, let them go to Ayacucho, Puno, Apurímac, Ica, Cusco, regions with murders at the hands of the police and the armed forces. The people would tell them what they think. Let them get out of the congressional bubble and go find out what the people really think.”

The US and the EU work to oppress the peoples
When asked about the international community’s reaction, especially that of the United States and the European Union, to his case and their participation in the systematic violation of human rights in Peru, Castillo pointed out that “the United States is working with the European Union to oppress our countries, peoples and communities.”

“That is why they want me imprisoned, and that is why the power embedded in those spaces is silent in the face of the systematic violation of human rights in Peru: murders, arrests, injuries and political persecution of leaders, as in my case and of many others,” he said.

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Re: South America

Post by blindpig » Sun Feb 12, 2023 5:08 pm

Ecuador’s Electoral Council Director Denies Electoral Fraud

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The CNE director said that Guayas obtained 27 200 tally sheets with novelty due to numerical inconsistencies. Feb. 10, 2023. | Photo: Twitter/@FiscaliaEcuador

Published 10 February 2023

"At no time has the people's will been violated, nor has any criminal act been carried out to benefit or harm anyone," the CNE director said.


The director of the National Electoral Council (CNE) in Guayas, Jhonatan Gamboa, denied on Friday the claims of alleged electoral fraud in the subnational elections of last Sunday.

"In the electoral delegation of Guayas, no parallel center has been installed to print additional minutes as they maliciously pretend to believe," said the director of the CNE in a video.

Gamboa strongly rejected "the infamous and malicious accusations made by the councilors of the National Electoral Council against me, as well as the illegal detention of officials of the provincial electoral delegation of Guayas."

According to the official, "the security of the scrutiny system" does not allow the printing of new minutes or the modification of the data. "At no time has the will of the people been violated, nor has any criminal act been carried out to benefit or harm anyone," said Gamboa.


Our authorities announced from the @CNEGuayas the actions taken to continue with the activities inherent to the recount and processing of the minutes of the Elections 2023 Ecuador.

Gamboa's statements came as the day before, the CNE asked the Attorney General's Office to investigate an alleged parallel counting center in the province of Guayas, alleging duplicity in the tally sheets.

The CNE director said that Guayas obtained 27 200 tally sheets with novelty due to numerical inconsistencies. In this regard, Gamboa said that "the procedure for filling out the tally sheets was modified," in order to finish this process as quickly as possible and proceed to the notification of the results.

This in the face of pressure from the electoral authorities, among them "the vice-president of the National Electoral Council, engineer Enrique Pita, together with his work team and the president of the provincial board," said Gamboa.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Ecu ... -0021.html

Peruvian Congress Approves Indictment Against Pedro Castillo

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The former President of Peru is currently in pre-trial detention following his dismissal last December 7. Feb. 10, 2023. | Photo: Twitter/@Agencia_Andina

The indictment for criminal organization and other crimes was approved with 19 votes in favor, nine against and one abstention.

On Friday, the Permanent Commission of the Peruvian Congress approved the final report recommending the prosecution of former President Pedro Castillo for alleged criminal organization, influence peddling, and conspiracy.

The constitutional accusation was presented by the Attorney General of the Nation, Patricia Benavides, in October of last year against then-President Castillo. It will now go to the plenary, where a decision on its approval will be made.

If the plenary votes in favor of charging Castillo, the Prosecutor's Office can continue its investigation in the ordinary courts.

The Subcommittee on Constitutional Accusations approved Congressman Diego Bazán Calderón and the undersigned, Lady Camones Soriano, "to support the final report and present an accusation against Castillo before the Plenary of Congress."


With 19 votes in favor, the Permanent Commission approved the final report of the DC 307, which recommends charging former President Pedro Castillo for allegedly committing the crimes of aggravated criminal organization, aggravated influence peddling and conspiracy.

The documents recommending the constitutional accusation against former Minister of Transportation and Communications Juan Silva (criminal organization and collaboration) and former Minister of Housing, Construction and Sanitation Geiner Alvarado (criminal organization) were also approved.

The former President of Peru is currently in pre-trial detention following his dismissal last December 7. Since then, Peru has been going through a severe social and political crisis, marked by nationwide protests against the government of President-designate Dina Boluarte.

So far, police and military repression has left more than 60 people dead in the context of protests calling for Boluarte's resignation, the closure of Congress and early elections for 2023.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Per ... -0016.html

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39 protesters detained in Apurímac, Peru are released

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In the Apurímac region, an indefinite strike has been held for 39 days against the Peruvian government. | Photo: Twitter @larepublica_pe
Published 12 February 2023

The liberation of the demonstrators occurred at the same time that a policeman detained by the indigenous community was

The release of 39 farmers detained in riots that broke out when the uniformed officers tried to clear the blockade of a highway in Apurímac last Thursday was achieved in exchange for the handover of a Peruvian policeman held by the indigenous community.

The National Police confirmed this Saturday that the agent of said institution who was being held by a group of protesters in the Apurímac region, in southern Peru, was released, where protests against President Dina Boluarte have intensified.

At the same time, the police along with other security elements are trying to lift the roadblocks in the numerous towns that are on strike to demand the resignation of Boluarte, the advancement of the general elections and the formation of a Constituent Assembly.


Just this Friday, the Association for Human Rights indicated that in the past demonstrations on Thursday in the Bolivar de Chalhuanca square, Aymaraes province, Apurímac, there was a very serious state repression, where a young man was murdered.

On Friday, February 10, President Boluarte herself confirmed that a 22-year-old man died this Thursday in the Apurímac region, bringing the death toll to 60 in the framework of government repression after two months of protests in the South American country.

The clash with the police in Apurímac left another three injured by a firearm projectile, two of them with bullets in the chest and the third with a leg wound.

The police authorities negotiated with the protesters from the Huancabamba community for the release of the police agent, according to press reports that local sources consulted.

The Apurímac police chief was in permanent contact with the authorities of the peasant community of Huancabamba to request that the non-commissioned officer be released.

About 40 community members who had been arrested last Thursday in the framework of the demonstrations were also released.

Rony Castillo Romero was detained after clashes between the police and protesters this Thursday in the Quilcaccasa sector, Cotaruse district, in the Aymaraes province, where a protester lost his life and three others were injured.

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/peru-lib ... -0005.html

Peruvian Police Suppress Protests Against President Boluarte

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In the southeastern Peruvian city of Puno, citizens demanded the release of those unjustly detained during the protests. | Photo: EFE
Posted February 12, 2023 (7 hours 32 minutes ago)

Police forces repressed a protest that was taking place peacefully in the center of Lima, with an initial balance of two people injured.

Social and popular organizations in Peru mobilized again this Saturday to demand an end to the repression, the closure of Congress and the resignation of the designated president, Dina Boluarte.

During the protest there were confrontations between police forces and demonstrators, local media reported.

The correspondent for teleSUR in the South American country, Jaime Herrera, reported that a protest that was taking place peacefully in Plaza Grau towards Arequipa avenue, in the center of the capital Lima, was repressed by police forces.


The journalist pointed out that at least two people were injured as a result of the police action.

In several towns in the country, the demonstrators marched chanting slogans where they demanded the resignation of Boluarte and the resignation of the congressmen.


In the city of Puno, in the southeast of the country, citizens moved towards the vicinity of the local prefecture, where they demanded the release of the people unjustly detained during the popular protests.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Defense confirmed that more than 70 soldiers are being investigated by the human rights prosecutor's office in Ayacucho, in southern Peru, for the murder of 10 civilians.

The defendants alleged that they shot the victims in response to an alleged attack with handmade weapons, to which the prosecution concluded that the troops used disproportionate force.

Peruvians have been holding protests since December 7 to demand the resignation of Boluarte, who was appointed president that day hours after Congress dismissed constitutional president Pedro Castillo, who is in prison accused of the alleged crime of rebellion.

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/peru-pol ... -0003.html

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Re: South America

Post by blindpig » Wed Feb 15, 2023 2:44 pm

Ipsos Peru Shows 70% Of Peruvians Favor Early Elections to 2023

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The Ipsos Peru survey was conducted between February 9 and 10, 2023 with a sample of 1 210 people. Feb. 13, 2023. | Photo: Twitter/@OlivaJose1961

76% of Peruvians favor the resignation of President-designate Dina Boluarte and the calling of elections.


According to an Ipsos Peru survey, 70 percent of Peruvians believe that the solution to the country's current social and political crisis is to advance general elections this year, 22 percent in April 2024, and 7 percent in 2026.

"This year 2023: 70%. In April 2024: 22%. In 2026: 7%. Not precise: 1%" was the data collected by the Ipsos Peru survey for América Televisión, carried out between February 9 and 10, 2023, in a universe of 1 210 people over 18 years old nationwide.

In this regard, 47 percent said elections should be called as soon as possible, 21 percent believed there should be electoral reforms and then elections. In comparison, 19 percent said there should be elections and a constituent assembly.

Regarding the administration of President-designate Dina Boluarte, the survey revealed that 76 percent of Peruvians favor her resignation and the calling of elections, 20 percent support the continuation of her mandate, while 4 percent do not specify.


76% of Peruvians believe that it would be better for the country if Dina Boluarte resigns and the president of Congress assumes the presidency and proceeds to call elections as indicated in the Constitution, and 20% believe that it would be better for her to continue.

Boluarte's administration has a disapproval rate of 74 percent, according to the Ipsos Peru survey, which also indicates that 18 percent support his government and 8 percent do not specify. According to the law, Boluarte would have to leave office in July 2026.

As for the Congress' management, the citizens' disapproval rate stands at 82 percent, while approval is 11 percent and 7 percent do not specify. Compared to a survey released last month, the rejection of Boluarte's administration increased by three percentage points, while that of the Parliament increased by two.

The assumption of the presidency by the head of Congress, José Williams Zapata, was rejected by 57 percent of those interviewed, who considered that another parliamentarian should be elected by the plenary. That Williams Zapata should assume the position was supported by 25 percent and 18 percent did not specify.


Peru has been going through a severe social and political crisis marked by anti-government protests throughout the country since last December 7, with the dismissal of former president Pedro Castillo. The Congress has rejected on several occasions to bring forward the general elections to 2023, while police repression has so far left more than 60 dead in the country.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Ips ... -0014.html

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Prosecutor's Office investigates Peru's prime minister for collusion

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Upon learning of the diligence of the attorney general against him, the prime minister affirmed that he will offer full collaboration to the investigators. | Photo: Andean
Posted February 15, 2023 (9 hours 58 minutes ago)

The prime minister is implicated in two other investigations by the Prosecutor's Office into the deaths of dozens of citizens in anti-government protests.

Peru's attorney general, Patricia Benavides, announced on Tuesday that she had opened an investigation into Prime Minister Alberto Otárola and Labor Minister Alfonso Adrianzén for the alleged crime of aggravated collusion.

Through a statement, the Public Ministry reported the preliminary inquiry to the prime minister, considered the second most important government official, Adrianzén and Carola Rodríguez, sister of a former partner from Otárola and hired as an adviser to the Minister of Labor.

Peruvian law establishes that aggravated collusion is a crime of patrimonial fraud to the State and is punishable by a sentence of 3 to 6 years in prison.


Last week, the Peruvian weekly "Hildebrandt en sus Trece" revealed that Carola Rodríguez was appointed by Minister Adrianzén as an adviser to his office with a salary of 15,500 soles per month (4,078 dollars).

Upon learning of the investigation by the Attorney General, the Prime Minister responded via Twitter that "I make it clear that I have not intervened in this appointment" and assured that he has not been in contact with Carola Rodríguez for years.

The senior Peruvian official stated that he will provide full collaboration to the investigators and Minister Adrianzén pointed out that last Sunday he explained the hiring of his adviser but if the prosecutor considers it relevant to clarify it further, he will do so.


Alberto Otárola is implicated in two other preliminary investigations by the Prosecutor's Office against the main authorities of the Executive, including President Dina Boluarte, for the deaths of dozens of citizens in the anti-government protests that began last December.

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/fiscalia ... -0035.html

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Lasso Facing Political Crisis in Ecuador
FEBRUARY 14, 2023

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Young man voting in the referendum. File photo.

Without support and with resignations in his cabinet, the president of Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso, ends the week facing a political crisis after the defeat of his referendum at the polls and the loss of key positions in simultaneous municipal elections. This referendum constituted Lasso’s last hope to breathe fresh life into his leadership for the remainder of his term, but the citizens voted “No” to the eight questions proposed on issues such as extradition, reduction of parties and assembly members, and environmental measures, among others.

The allegations of corruption that involve the national administration, the failure of the state to meet the needs of the country’s most vulnerable populations, as well as the recurring lies of President Lasso, contributed to the government’s failure in the referendum and municipal elections, former vice-presidential candidate Carlos Rabascall told Prensa Latina .

The president recognized the setback and called for a national agreement, but so far he has only received refusals from political and social organizations. From the Citizen Revolution Movement (Movimiento Revolución Ciudadana)—main winner of the sectional elections with nine prefectures and 61 mayors—to the right-wing Social Christian Party (PSC), former ally of the president, most sectors of the political landscape rejected the proposal, considering Lasso’s leadership as not credible.

The leader of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE), Leonidas Iza, recalled that his organization sat down to talks with the government, and it has broken most of its agreements.

In the municipal elections, voters in Ecuador’s two largest cities, Quito and Guayaquil, voted in candidates aligned with former President Rafael Correa. In Guayaquil, the PSC lost the mayoralty after three decades of control.

In the midst of this scenario, more voices are being raised within the opposition requesting a premature end to Lasso’s mandate through various legal means, ranging from Lasso’s resignation to the use of a mechanism that would dissolve the National Assembly (parliament) and advance presidential elections.

This week, a process to revoke the mandate of the current ruler also came to life after the Electoral Dispute Tribunal (TCE) repealed the decision to file an application aimed at ending the current government.

This means that a new TCE judge must decide on the request presented by the Popular Coordinator for the Revocation Collective, which seeks to collect signatures and remove Lasso from office, a process provided for in the Constitution. Adding to the bad news for the president are the investigations into the alleged network of corruption in public companies in the electricity sector, led by Lasso’ brother-in-law Danilo Carrera, referred to by detractors as “The Great Godfather.”

This Friday, the Prosecutor’s Office raided offices in the Carondelet Palace, headquarters of the presidency, and homes of former officials, while the former servant of the presidency, Mauricio Guim, was arrested on the border with Colombia.

Meanwhile, Lasso decided to reform his cabinet and, on Thursday, installed four new ministers and four governors after the occupants of those positions resigned, including the head of government, Francisco Jiménez, who has been replaced by Henry Cucualón.

Although the definitive results of the referendum and the sectional elections have not been proclaimed by the electoral authorities, the victory of “No” in the referendum is irreversible, despite allegations of fraud.

The National Assembly, various civil and political organizations, and vote observers spoke about the statement by the vice president of the National Electoral Council, Enrique Pita, regarding the discovery of a supposed parallel computer center in the province of Guayas.

It is unacceptable to try to affect the trust of voters by hindering, without any sense, the electoral process, the Assembly said in a statement, in which it warned that it will be vigilant so that popular and civic expression is not violated or ignored.

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Re: South America

Post by blindpig » Fri Feb 17, 2023 3:29 pm

Popular mobilizations continue in Peru

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The humanitarian entity mentioned that the protests were carried out without clashes with the security forces. | Photo: EFE
Published 17 February 2023

The Ombudsman's Office indicated that it registered 50 national highway blockades, in addition to mobilizations, stoppages, or roadblocks in 18 provinces.

The Ombudsman of Peru reported that this Thursday the protest measures against the government of the designated president Dina Boluarte continued in various regions and demanded the closure of Congress and the call for a Constituent Assembly.

In a report published on its website, the Ombudsman's Office indicated that it registered 50 national roadblocks, in addition to mobilizations, stoppages or roadblocks in 18 provinces.

The humanitarian entity mentioned that the protests were carried out without clashes with the security forces.


Since the beginning of the protests, on December 7, the Peruvian security forces have strongly repressed the protesters with a balance of more than 60 deaths and dozens of injuries and arrests.

The Ombudsman mentioned that different social organizations have called for mobilizations and concentrations for February 18 and 19 in Lima, the country's capital; and for next Sunday in Arequipa.

The Ombudsman's Office noted that 48 civilians have died in confrontations, 11 people due to traffic accidents and events related to the blockade, and one policeman due to acts of violence in the context of the conflict.

He pointed out that, based on statistics from the Ministry of Health, 1,298 people have been injured from December 7 to February 14, while the National Police reported 580 injured agents.



This Friday the decree imposed by the ultra-conservative Government of the Municipality of Lima came into force, which restricts demonstrations in the historic center of the capital.

The norm approved by the Metropolitan Council prohibits marches, rallies and public demonstrations of a political nature.

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/peru-con ... -0004.html

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Report From Lima, Perú
FEBRUARY 16, 2023

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Families carry photos of victims killed by the armed forces in Juliaca, Peru February 9, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Pilar Olivares.

By Clau O’Brien Moscoso – Feb 15, 2023

On December 7, 2022 a right wing coup removed Perú’s President Pedro Castillo Terrones from power, but the people have protested against the coup regime ever since. Black Agenda Report presents this on the ground report from Perú.

National Strike, day 40:

On December 7, 2022 a right-wing coup removed Perú’s President Pedro Castillo Terrones from power. The predominantly poor indigenous rural and Amazonian communities resoundingly and overwhelmingly voted for Castillo, rejecting outright the neoliberal regime installed by the previous governments. Violence not seen since the Alberto Fujimori dictatorship (1990-2000), has been led by the Peruvian Armed Forces, under orders of coup-leader Dina Boluarte, the Fujimorista Fuerza Popular Party, and other political factions.

It’s been over 67 days since the parliamentary coup led by the right-wing forces of Fuerza Popular with their puppet Dina Boluarte, now commonly referred to as “usurper assassin,” at the helm. I write this as at least 77 of our compatriots have been massacred and hundreds more wounded or disappeared. There have been more deaths than days in this dictatorship. The violence unleashed since the December coup against democratically elected president Pedro Castillo has been predominantly targeted at the indigenous rural campesino provinces in “el Perú profundo” (deep Perú), who overwhelmingly voted for the first indigenous campesino president in the republic’s history. Last Saturday January 28th was the first registered death in Lima, a compañero and union leader from the southern province of Huancavelica – ¡Victor Santisteban Yacsavilca, presente ! Many more have been injured, including another compañero from Huancavelica, Rolando Marcas Arango , who remains in a coma from a head injury sustained that same night. The people have suffered bodily harm, including those of us in the independent press who have risked our lives to film as they detain and brutalize protesters and the medics brigades who save lives daily. Yet, there has been an aggressive campaign waged by the oligarchy-run Limeña press to malign peaceful protestors as “terrorists” being financed by either Bolivia, illegal mining companies, or any other boogeyman. The press doesn’t tell you that the real terrorists are the ones behind the coup: the Fujimori/Montesinos regime and the US/Western interests.

Among the demands on the streets is a referendum for a constituent assembly to change the Fujimori dictatorship era constitution that chains Perú to the rapacious neoliberal model that has enriched US and Western corporations, the local oligarchy and its corrupt bloody politicians while leaving Perú the fourth most unequal country in the world. The masses have been mobilized and are now increasingly organized with a political project that will upend this system that many see as a continuation of the Monroe Doctrine and Spaniard colonization. Juliaca in the Puno region suffered the largest massacre in one day, which Puñenos themselves say point to the brutality with which this terrorist state will go to make sure the rich lithium reserves of that region (projected to be one of the largest in the world) remain in private hands. This year many of the state contracts with private companies are due to expire , which Pedro Castillo intended to shift to state control, or at least predominantly to state hands. This alone made him an enemy of the Peruvian oligarchy, its fascist and liberal parties, and the Yankee empire at the head, which quickly went to work to undermine his presidency.

The day before the coup took place, Lisa Kenna, CIA veteran and US Ambassador to Peru, met with Defense Minister Gustavo Bobbio Rosas, as the Fujimorista Fuerza Popular controlled Congress prepared its third impeachment against Castillo. In an attempt to thwart the single digits approved Congress , Castillo hoped to dissolve that body with the backing of the armed forces, legally allowed under the current Constitution. Unfortunately, every organ of political power, from the military to his Vice President, betrayed him and more importantly, trampled on the will of the people. The masses on the ground concede we should have never let up and stayed on the streets organizing and making sure that the President followed our demands. Since the US backed parliamentary coup, Lisa Kenna has been busy meeting with all the top officials of the Boluarte regime and private mining companies and investors to maintain US and Western hegemony in the region that SOUTHCOM Commander General Laura Richardson described as “off the charts with rich resources.”

This is exactly what the indignant and organized masses see as the looting of our lands and death of our peoples for the sake of transnational corporations and the pan European colonial imperialist project. And it is what the masses are organizing to defeat, despite the brutal repression, infiltration of organizations, and blood spilt. The steadfastness on the ground will not let up until we see justice for our fallen martyrs and we actually take control of our lands.

https://orinocotribune.com/report-from-lima-peru/

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Peruvian organizations take legal action against Dina Boluarte over killings of protesters
Over the past 10 weeks of protest across the country, more than 60 people have been killed and over 1,000 injured

February 16, 2023 by Peoples Dispatch

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Massive funeral procession held in Andahuaylas for Denilson Huaraca Vílchez who was killed in a protest on February 9. Photo: Juan Zapata / Wayka

A group of Peruvian human rights organizations and independent lawyers, on Wednesday, February 15, filed a legal complaint against Dina Boluarte, her ministers, and police chiefs over the deaths of six people killed during protests in the Apurímac region in December 2022.

The complaint states that during the first five days of demonstrations against Boluarte’s assumption of power, which began on December 7, 2022, six people were killed, 83 were injured, and dozens were arrested and tortured at the hands of police officers.

According to a statement by the Legal Defense Institute—one of the organizations that filed the lawsuit—five of the deceased lost their lives due to firearm projectile impacts, two were adolescents, and the eldest victim was only 19 years old.

The judicial document, which was delivered to the National Prosecutor’s Office, includes audiovisual evidence, incriminating documents, and testimonies from victims.

“It is not possible to commit a massacre without the support of the highest level authorities…Not only the police officers, who were direct actors, are responsible, but also the indirect perpetrators, that were part of the chain of command,” the complaint outlined.

In addition to Boluarte, the lawsuits include the former Prime Minister Pedro Angulo, the former Defense Minister and current Prime Minister Alberto Otárola, the former Interior Minister César Cervantes, the General Commander of the Police Raúl Alfaro, and two others police commanders.

This is the second legal complaint against the Boluarte government. The first is an ongoing investigation by the Prosecutor’s Office into the death of eight protesters, massacred in the Ayacucho region, on December 15.

In the past 10 weeks of protest in Peru, more than 60 people have been killed and over 1,000 injured.

On December 7, 2022, democratically elected President Pedro Castillo was removed from office in a legislative coup. Since then, hundreds of thousands of people, mainly from the marginalized countryside of Peru, have been mobilizing in different parts of the country to demand radical political change. Their demands include Boluarte’s resignation, the closure of congress, new general elections this year, and a referendum on a constituent assembly to draft a new constitution.

On Monday, February 13, the Board of Directors of the National Assembly of Regional Governors (ANGR) and the Association of National Universities of Peru (AUNAP) met with Boluarte to demand a democratic solution to the political, social, and economic crisis facing the country. After the meeting, they issued a document titled ‘Manifesto for Peru’, in which they pointed out that the political crisis is unsustainable and the president must demand the advancement of elections to 2023 from Congress or resign from her position.

In light of the increased pressure, on Wednesday, Boluarte began a round of dialogue with political parties to address the situation. She held meetings with the president of Somos Peru, Patricia Li, and Keiko Fujimori, the defeated far-right politician in the 2021 elections and daughter of former dictator, Alberto Fujimori.

The Peruvian Congress has already rejected two bills that called for elections to be held in 2023. It is scheduled to debate and vote on at least two more bills on early elections in February. One has been presented by Boluarte and proposes elections on the second Sunday of October 2023. The other one calls for elections in April 2024.

While the de-facto government discussed the advancement of elections with its allies and other political leaders, Indigenous and peasant communities, social organizations, students’ associations, and trade unions across different sectors have called for a national strike on December 18 and 19.

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2023/02/16/ ... rotesters/

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Human Rights Report: Peruvian State must be investigated for crimes against humanity
February 16, 2023Peru

The International Mission of Solidarity and Human Rights has released its preliminary report on Peru. Anti-coup demonstrations have continued since the coup against President Pedro Castillo on December 7, 2022. Faced with repeated denouncements of human rights violations, and in response to a request for observation and verification by numerous Peruvian civil society organizations and human rights groups, the mission traveled to Peru, carrying out its work from February 7 to 13, 2023.

It’s main objectives were:

Reveal situations of violation of human rights in the context of the political and social crisis that takes place in Peru.
Prepare a Preliminary Report that accounts for the immediate results of what was verified in the territory.
Prepare a Final Report, which meticulously makes visible the testimonies and complaints at the national and international level.
Contribute to the international articulation in defense, promotion and protection of human rights throughout the region in order to mitigate the repressive actions of the current regime.
The Mission was divided into working groups and moved to the cities most affected by the conflict, among them: Juliaca, Ica, Cusco, Ayacucho, and Lima.

Among other incidents, the mission investigated the massacres which took place in Ayacucho and in Juliaca.

The preliminary report affirms that violations of human rights, committed by security forces, can be subsumed in the following crimes:

Crimes against life (homicides)
Crimes against physical integrity (various injuries)
Crimes against sexual integrity (sexual abuse)
Crimes against freedom of assembly and the free exercise of protest
Crimes against property (damage)
Offenses against freedom of transit
Crimes against freedom of expression
“We can preliminarily point out the nature of these crimes against humanity, since they constitute a systematic and generalized attack directed against the civilian population; therefore, in principle, the possibility of opening universal jurisdictional instances is enabled.”

Conclusions

This preliminary report allowed the Mission to conclude that:

The Peruvian State must be investigated in the framework of the social and political crisis that occurred since December 7, 2022, through its armed and security forces, for having murdered, tortured, abused, persecuted, threatened, and intimidated vast sectors of the Peruvian people. The unleashed repression prevented, limited, and conditioned political participation, the right to assembly, to petition before the authorities, the right to freedom of expression, and the right to protest.
The Peruvian State must be investigated for having deployed abusive, disproportionate and illegal repressive practices on the defenseless civilian population, using sophisticated and lethal weapons for this purpose.
The Peruvian State must be investigated for having systematically and widely attacked the civilian population, especially young people from poor neighborhoods, students, women, rural and urban workers, indigenous people, peasants, social leaders and the independent press.
The Peruvian State must be investigated in reference to the crimes against humanity indicated.
The Peruvian people have the right to open all jurisdictional, national and international instances to obtain comprehensive reparation, through truth and justice.

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Re: South America

Post by blindpig » Sat Feb 18, 2023 2:48 pm

Peru: Congress Passes Constitutional Complaint Against Castillo

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Former Peruvian President Pedro Castillo. Feb. 17, 2023. | Photo: Twitter/@rcavada

Published 17 February 2023 (16 hours 35 minutes ago)

It was also approved to accuse former ministers Juan Silva Villegas and Geiner Alvarado López.


The Peruvian Congress approved on Friday, with 59 votes in favor, 23 against and three abstentions, a constitutional complaint against former President Pedro Castillo for the alleged crimes of criminal organization, influence peddling and collusion.

Thus, the Attorney General, Patricia Benavides, who filed the constitutional complaint in October last year, has the green light to formalize the investigation and initiate criminal proceedings against the former Peruvian President.

Today's session also approved the constitutional complaints against the former Minister of Transportation and Communications, Juan Silva Villegas (87 votes in favor), and the former Minister of Housing, Construction and Sanitation, Geiner Alvarado López (80 votes in favor).

Silva Villegas, accused of the alleged crimes of criminal organization and conspiracy, remains unaccounted for since mid-2022. Alvarado López is accused of the alleged crime of criminal organization.


With 59 votes in favor, the Plenary of Congress approved the draft Legislative Resolution of Congress, for which ex-president Pedro Castillo is accused. The file will be sent to the National Prosecutor to proceed in accordance with its powers.

Pedro Castillo's defense during the Plenary Session of Congress was assumed by his attorney Eduardo Pachas as his request to provide his defense in person was denied.

The former leftist President remains detained in the prison of Barbadillo in Lima after his dismissal by Congress last December 7. Since then, the South American country has been going through a social and political crisis marked by anti-government protests against the appointed President, Dina Boluarte.

The police repression has left some 60 people dead in the context of nationwide protests, mainly demanding Boluarte's resignation, the Congress closure and early elections in 2023.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Per ... -0012.html

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AMLO Calls Dina Boluarte Government ‘Spurious,’ Will Not Hand Over Regional Bloc Presidency to Peru
FEBRUARY 18, 2023

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Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador in a press conference. Photo: Mario Guzmán/EFE.

Mexico will not hand over to Peru the pro tempore presidency of the Pacific Alliance (AP), because the government of Dina Boluarte is “spurious,” stated the president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

“There is the presidency [of the AP], I am going to give instructions to the secretary of Foreign Relations to notify the members… I do not want to hand it over to a government that I consider spurious,” AMLO said at his morning press conference on Friday, February 17.


Mexico will consult the other two members of the alliance founded in 2011, Chile and Colombia, on handing over to Peru the pro tempore presidency that Mexico held since 2018. Peru was to receive the presidency at the Pacific Alliance summit to be held in Mexico City in November last year, but that meeting was postponed as the Peruvian Congress did not give permission to President Pedro Castillo to travel to Mexico to attend the summit, barely a month before ousting him in a parliamentary coup.

“I am going to make the consultation, because I do not want to legitimize a coup d’état,” López Obrador said. “We cannot do it, it would be against freedoms, against human rights, and anti-democratic. We don’t support that.”

“As for the Pacific Alliance, we are looking for a way to hand over the presidency; it belongs to Peru but when the meeting was going to take place, they did not allow the [Peruvian] president to travel,” the Mexican president added.

When that happened, a meeting in Lima instead of Mexico City was considered, but the member countries of the bloc considered it not convenient due to the political crisis that Peru was going through at that time.

“We were going to visit Peru, but Pedro Castillo was arrested, for which I consider it to be a technical coup, although they also used the police,” AMLO said. “I think it was an illegal act, arbitrary, undemocratic, the will of the Peruvian people was not respected.”

The crisis
The Mexican president considers the situation in Peru very serious after the removal of the legitimate president of the country, Pedro Castillo.

“They sent him [Castillo] to prison, on no legal grounds,” he stressed. “They do not respect the will of the people, and behind it is a racist classist attitude.”

According to López Obrador, because Castillo is a poor teacher from the Peruvian highlands, he was “harassed in five or six impeachment attempts,” as he did not have a majority in Congress.

He also criticized Dina Boluarte, who said on February 16 that López Obrador is harming the regional alliance “by continuing to support the former president who carried out a coup… he does not want to hand over to us the pro tempore presidency of the AP.”

The Mexican president added that in Castillo’s ousting there was a “betrayal by those who were supposed to support him, so much so that when he was arrested, those who carried it out were his own guards.” The coup against Castillo was the product of “a relationship of complicity, compromise, a criminal association, a whole conspiracy,” he said.

Castillo is in pretrial detention in a Lima prison, investigated by the Attorney General’s Office for the alleged crimes of rebellion and conspiracy, among other charges.

Since December, when Castillo was arrested and after Boluarte took power, numerous protests have taken place in Peru, particularly in the southern Andean zone. The protesters demand the resignation of de facto President Boluarte, the dissolution of Congress, early general elections, and a referendum on a constituent assembly, which was one of Castillo’s electoral promises.

The four countries that make up the alliance, namely Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru, represent more than 40% of Latin America’s gross domestic product and receive 38% of the region’s foreign direct investment.

https://orinocotribune.com/amlo-calls-d ... y-to-peru/

Peru: More Than Repression, It Is State Terrorism
FEBRUARY 18, 2023

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Peruvian protesters in the streets holding a banner that reads "Not one more death! Dina resign now!" File photo.

By Gustavo A. Maranges – Feb 14, 2023

It has been two months since Dina Boluarte took over Peru’s presidency after a coup d’état designed very well by the conservative elite and executed by the Congress and the military. Since then, at least 64 people have been killed in police repression of protests across the country. That is more than one death per day, a chilling statistic that shows how people reject the current administration and how serious the present crisis is.

According to the Peruvian Ombudsperson’s Office, some 47 of those killed are civilians, and 50 have been shot dead, mostly by the army and the police. Meanwhile, hundreds have been wounded, several of them minors, as well as 59 journalists to date.

Based on these facts and additional evidence, the Argentinean NGO International Human Rights Solidarity Mission stated they will accuse Boluarte of crimes against humanity. The organization reported that 19 collaborators have collected testimonial and graphic evidence proving that several demonstrators were extrajudicially killed, among them six out of the 10 people assassinated at the Ayacucho airport.

After Pedro Castillo was ousted, the streets flooded with demonstrators demanding Boluarte’s resignation, dissolution of Congress, and a Constituent Assembly to replace the current 1993 Constitution passed by Alberto Fujimori’s dictatorship. These seem to be fair demands from a people tired of being ignored by the elite and exhausted by the effects of economic and political crises that have led to six presidents in five years. However, these demands are unacceptable for an oligarchy willing to do anything to stay in power.

Since the beginning of the protests, the coup government has extended the state of emergency several times, arguing that these are not peaceful protests but covert actions of criminal groups and drug traffickers. However, lies get exposed sooner or later, and just two days ago, Peruvian Foreign Affairs Minister Ana Celina Gervasi told the New York Times that the government has no evidence to back up these statements.

This is a clear case of the criminalization of social protest for political purposes. Of course, all the required evidence will be manufactured to delegitimize the people’s demands, and the Peruvian government’s impudence is astonishing. Sadly, this is nothing new, it is rather a very archaic method of the Latin American right wing that destroys and divides societies. Colombia is probably the best example of how disastrous these practices are and how much it can cost to repair the damage caused.

Despite this, Boluarte’s government allocated $25 million more to “install law and order” on Lima’s streets. Many would think that 64 deaths are more than enough to rethink that strategy, but the fact is that spreading terror and violence as methods to control people’s unrest is the strategy itself. Just the same style as the Latin American dictatorships of the previous century.

However, the state terrorism strategy does not seem to be yielding the expected results. The increase in military violence has only plunged the country into an endless spiral of hatred. What began as political protests have turned into a massive social protest joined not only by Castillo’s supporters but also by unions and social movements that, beyond sympathizing or not with the ousted president, pursue the same objectives: to reduce the almost absolute control of the elite over the state.

As a result of it, today, almost all the country’s principal roads are blocked. In some regions, local authorities have had to negotiate with the demonstrators to supply some areas with basic products. Meanwhile the southern part of the country, the main copper mining area, has reduced production by almost 30%, and in the agricultural sector, the losses exceed $300 million.

In this scenario, some local and regional authorities have come out in favor of the protesters and criticized the central government’s poor crisis management. This is not political support for the protests at all. However, it is the first sign of how strong the popular pressure is and the cracks that it is creating in the governmental structures of Peru.

Possible solutions to the crisis
So far, the only way to ease tensions proposed by the government is to hold early elections. It is acceptable to the right-wing since it does not imply profound modifications, and maintains the status quo. However, the date must be approved by Congress, where there is currently a great deal of debate. While the conservative sectors are desperately looking for a date to ease tensions on the streets, another group led by the Peru Libre party is looking for a solution closer to the people’s demands of early elections and a new Constitution.

The debate on the date and conditions of the next elections will extend until February 17. If nothing is agreed upon, it is practically impossible to hold elections in 2023, which would only prolong the current crisis.

It is clear to all that a national dialogue with all sectors is the best solution. However, the government and its supporters are not willing to give in to a single one of the protesters’ demands and have once again bet on violence and state terrorism to remain in power.

https://orinocotribune.com/peru-more-th ... terrorism/
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Re: South America

Post by blindpig » Mon Feb 20, 2023 4:51 pm

Discussions in the Latin American Left
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on FEBRUARY 17, 2023
Claudio Katz

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Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, left, and Argentina’s President Alberto Fernandez. (AP Photo/Gustavo Garello)

A leftist alternative is indispensable to overcome the tepidity of current progressivism, but this option will only emerge by exposing the necessary criticisms of the inconsistency of this space.

The future of the region does not depend only on social struggle, confrontation with the right and disillusionment with low-intensity progressivism. It will also be determined by the consolidation of left-wing political alternatives that demonstrate intelligence and capacity to deal with the complex dilemmas that lie ahead.

Only those strands could open a course to overcome the new wave of center-left governments, through dynamics of political radicalization. Such a course would allow the development of the anti-capitalist perspective required by an emancipatory project.


Justifications of progressivism

To forge a course of popular victories it is necessary to expose the questioning of progressivism without shame, timidity or guilt. None of these criticisms favor the right, if it is exposed from a field of confrontation with reactionary forces and in a battle front against that main enemy. It is not possible to build a popular project in silence or with maneuvers that evade debate. Alternative paths will not spontaneously sprout, without clarifying divergences, or assuming the cost of discomfiting one’s own allies.

The most common way to avoid this challenge is to present progressive governments as auspicious developments, compared to reactionary options. This obviousness should simply be pointed out as a starting point to evaluate the enormous shortcomings of these administrations. But this second part of the problem is frequently omitted, in the expectation that the course of political life itself will correct the shortcomings of these governments. This expectation is unfounded, since the mere passage of time tends to aggravate these shortcomings.

Only by taking decisive action against the capitulations of the center-left leaders can the right-wing channeling of popular discontent be avoided. This capture by conservative forces is very likely, if there are no leftist alternatives built with timely and feasible proposals. This last course is forged in the polemic with the mistakes of progressivism.

It is evident, for example, that the triumph of the right in the Chilean plebiscite demonstrated the capacity of conservative leaders to spread lies and conceal their own trajectories. However, these deceptions prospered because of the prevailing vacuum on the other side, as a consequence of countless capitulations.

These capitulations are the predominant tonic in the light progressivism, which has not initiated the pending ruptures with neoliberalism. The expected advance towards a post-liberal stage was not consummated in the previous cycle, nor will it emerge in the current wave, if the policies of submission to the dominant classes persist. These adverse orientations must be pointed out in order to attain the goals of the popular movement.

A habitual way of avoiding this problem is to praise progressivism when it is victorious and to remain silent in the face of the opposite scenarios. In the first case, the great fervor aroused by good news is rightly shared. But what is more important are the pronouncements in adversity. Here it is not enough to describe what has happened. It is necessary to openly expose the causes of the setback generated by the policies of perpetuation of the status quo (Aznárez, 2021).

Complacent glances

What happened in Argentina illustrates the negative consequences of validating the submission of progressivism to the powerful. Alberto Fernández’s entire administration was marked by this submission, starting with his refusal to expropriate a strategic and bankrupt food company (Vicentin). Subsequently, he signed an agreement with the IMF that strengthened the current model of wage deterioration, inequality and precariousness. It favored large exporters to the detriment of domestic development and accepted the pressures of the right wing to preserve the power of a judicial caste, supported by the mass media.

The critics of this course within the ruling coalition made many complaints, but did not offer any other path. They never exhibited any decisiveness to reverse the government’s impotence. On the contrary, they gradually transformed their objections into mere justifications. The most frequent argument of this validation was the “adversity of the balance of power” to confront the right wing and comply with the electorate. They affirmed that Alberto had to accept the blackmail of the dominant power due to the absence of an equivalent counterweight in the popular camp (Aleman, 2022).

But this view describes the relations of forces as a dominant and invariable fact of the political scenario, as if it had been deposited in that context by some divine hand. It omits to point out that the presidents, ministers and legislators of a government are not alien to this struggle between contenders. The protagonists of political life forge or undermine with their daily actions, the balance of forces with the antagonists. Fernandez’s immobility and meekness directly influenced the generation of a favorable framework for the right wing. If we divorce this attitude from its consequences, what happened in Argentina becomes inexplicable.

The justifiers of the government’s surrender also endorsed the agreement with the IMF, repeating the extortion spread by the right wing to force that commitment (“we are out of touch with the world”). Instead of underlining the dire consequences of this agreement, they propagated fantasies about its viability (“we can pay, grow and distribute”). Moreover, the deterioration of the standard of living generated by this pact was wrongly attributed to other causes, such as the pandemic or the war (Katz, 2021).

This posture of resignation before the financiers determined the limited resistance in the streets against the creditors. The final touch to this inaction was the legislative approval (explicitly or in disguise) of a fraud that mortgages the future of several generations.

Many progressives recognize the terrible consequences of this official policy, but they relativize its effects in comparison with the virulent adjustment promoted by the right wing. But in this approach they split the two courses, as if they were two disconnected universes. The truth is that the capitulation of the government facilitates the outrages of the neoliberals. The right wing has recovered electoral strength due to the disillusionment generated by the ruling party.

The mistakes of progressivism are also justified with sociological appreciations. In Argentina, it is very common to blame the whole “society” indistinctly for the officialism’s lapses, as if the governed had the same responsibility as the rulers in the decisions of an administration. This reasoning attempts to explain the negative political consequences of the government’s course.

A similar approach was used in Brazil during the last decade to evaluate the disillusionment with the PT. It was argued that this disappointment was a consequence of the emergence of a new middle class with individualistic values. The consumerism of this segment would have affected the government, which facilitated the improvement of this sector. This paradoxical sanction to the godfathers of a social ascent was stated as the main determinant of the setback suffered by Lulismo (Natanson, 2022).

But this approach placed a political problem in the differentiated universe of social behaviors. In this way, the responsibility of the rulers in the loss of influence over their old adherents was avoided (Katz, 2015:173-176). This balance is extremely topical at the beginning of Lula’s third term in office. If in this new opportunity the policies favorable to big capital are repeated, the frustrating consequences of those orientations will re-emerge.

Problems of “Post-Progressivism

The generalized resurgence of center-left governments refutes the influential diagnosis of the extinction of this trend put forward by many analysts. They highlighted a definitive decline of the center-left that has been totally disproved.

From that assessment also emerged calls to forge “post-progressive” projects, with accurate criticisms of the limitations of those experiences (Modonesi, 2019). But those objections included highly debatable characterizations of those governments.

Particularly controversial was the thesis of a “passive revolution” consummated by those administrations, to prop up new models of the dominant classes, disciplining or demobilizing the subaltern classes. This view objected to the opposite postulate of a “popular empowerment” encouraged by those governments.

In fact, neither of these two opposing situations prevailed. The people did not take control of the political system, but neither were they immobilized or annulled as active subjects. In fact, a variety of scenarios took place in the different countries of the region.

The popular protagonism conquered in Bolivia was never diluted, the street presence of trade unions and social movements in Argentina was not extinguished and Ecuadorian indigenism took the initiative again and again. In Brazil, on the other hand, there was an effective reflux of popular action, but without leading to the stabilization of the right wing.

It is true that the conservative restoration came as a result of the frustrations generated by the progressive governments. But this negative impact did not bury the long cycle of popular struggles, which led to the rebellions of the last few years and to the presence of a renewed center-left ruling context. The discouraging diagnosis of “post-progressivism” does not match this reality.

If the experience of the past decade had led to regimentation or demoralization of the peoples, Latin America would be facing a situation of inactivity from below and not revolts. Nor would there have been such a widespread return of progressivism to government. In the dynamics of the “passive revolution”, this modality would have disappeared or spliced with some aspect of the conservative restoration.

It is precisely the ultra-right that is currently erupting with fury against progressivism, because this force persists as an opponent of reactionary groups. Latin America has not entered a “post-progressive” period, but a new round of the previous experience.

These evaluations are important to remember that the left option is forged by underlining that the right is the main enemy and that progressivism fails because of impotence, complicity or cowardice in the face of its adversary. It in no way resembles reactionary currents. This distinction is key and its omission obstructs the gestation of an alternative.

Ignorance of this principle was the main problem faced by the Commodity Consensus thesis in the last decade. This approach placed an equal sign on all the governments of the region for their shared encouragement of the export of raw materials.

With that look, it was equated to the administrations in confrontation with and subject to the United States. Governments in conflict were also equated with those in line with the dominant classes and finally, those in power sensitive to the demands of the impoverished were equated with presidents managed by the rich. All were identified in the same pigeonhole by the mere priority they assigned to the exploitation of natural resources. With that myopia, Evo Morales, Macri, Chávez, Uribe, Lula, Piñera, Correa, Bolsonaro or Kirchner were placed in the same bag of extractivist governments (Katz, 2015: 63-75).

The errors of that assessment must be assimilated in the new period. The experience of the past decade was very instructive and now it is necessary to distinguish, with political criteria, the center-left governments from their right-wing enemies. This differentiation is decisive for the development of strategies that will allow the left to advance.

Mexico and Ecuador

The thesis of a stage already subsequent to progressivism is sometimes exposed from the Mexican experience, in a polemic with the role played by the new government of AMLO in the conspiracy of the struggles of Ayotzinapa and the movements of 2014 (Oprinari, 2022). Criticisms of the administration’s blunders cover a wide range of economic, social and geopolitical topics (Aguilar Mora, 2023). But unlike South American precedents, progressivism in that country is a very recent development that includes improvements, popular expectation and the capacity to mobilize against the right.

The characterizations that rightly underline the significant differences between AMLO and his enemies of reaction, estimate that this president presents a profile of progressive Bonapartism (Hernández Ayala, 2023).

His consolidation in the center-left has been consummated, as opposed to the ceiling reached after 28 years by the alternative experience of Zapatismo. At the peak of its popularity (2001), this side gathered crowds in the main square of the country. The subsequent decline was marked by isolation in self-centered campaigns. That course allowed its consolidation in several indigenous communities, but diluted its weight as a national reference. The presentation of AMLO as an enemy equivalent to the traditional conservative forces contributed to that weakening (Hernández Ayala, 2019).

These difficulties present a close kinship with the problems of the autonomist approach, which in the last decade counterposed the contesting dynamics of social movements, with the molding of center-left governments to the status quo. This counterpoint inspired the theory of “changing the world without taking power”, which did not pass the test of any successful experience in the region. No country has demonstrated the feasibility of achieving social conquests or democratic advances by avoiding the dispute for power after gaining access to government.

This view also inspired the erroneous identification of progressive administrations with their enemies on the right. This equivalence had negative electoral consequences, when it implied calls for blank votes, in the disputes between both forces. The most recent case of this mistake was registered in the Ecuadorian runoff election between the progressive Arauz and the right-wing between the progressive Arauz and the right-wing Lasso. The call for a null vote allowed the candidate of the reactionary forces to become president of the country. As a result, Ecuador was marginalized from the center-left map that prevails in South America.

This case confirmed how wrong it is to equate the two different forces as analogous variants of the same domination by the powerful. A government that frustrates popular expectations is not similar to another one that represses demonstrations, imprisons leaders and assassinates militants. The greater adversity of this second scenario for any popular project is obvious.

It is true that Correa’s hostility towards the social movements and his strategy of transformations from above (“citizen revolution”) created strong resentment in large popular sectors. But these tensions do not justify electoral neutrality in the face of the right-wing enemy. It has been corroborated that the left cannot shore up its own project, facilitating the triumph of such reactionary characters as Lasso.

The withering defeat of the Ecuadorian president in the mid-term elections confirms this diagnosis. Lasso was crushed by Correism -with a high number of voters- in the main cities and provinces. Voters also buried the referendum on security, which the president introduced with improvised demagogy to gain support. The result of these elections is in tune with the prevailing political tendencies in the whole region and corroborates the previous mistake of the abstentionist position.

Tactical definitions in Brazil

The position of the left vis-à-vis the second round of elections has become a very common problem due to the frequency of these ballots. In many cases, these definitions of the presidency include a great protagonism of the ultra-right. Three nefarious characters had this gravitation in the recent elections in Colombia (Hernandez), Chile (Kast) and Brazil (Bolsonaro). The latter election also raised important debates on the left.

The controversies in the PSOL – the political formation that distanced itself from the PT in 2004, questioning Lula’s conformism to neoliberalism – have been particularly instructive. That party developed with its own candidacies and when Bolsonaro appeared, it kept its figures in the first round, to support the PT representative (Haddad) in the final round.

But in the recent contest it opted for another course. He decided to support Lula in both electoral instances, renouncing the presentation of his own candidates. This decision was taken after an intense internal discussion, which ended up prioritizing the danger created by the eventual reelection of a character with repressive projects and neo-fascist speeches.

The PSOL majority understood that Bolsonaro could win a new mandate, based on the social strength built by the former captain. It understood that the battle against that threat required forming a bloc around Lula, to shore up the street response to the ultra-right.

This diagnosis also registered the drastic change of scenario introduced by the release of the PT leader and the consequent recovery of that party (Arcary, 2022a). On these grounds, the PSOL decided to relegate its own construction to ensure the defeat of the main enemy. It also perceived the danger of confining itself to marginality if it opted to sustain its candidacy, clashing with the collective will to bring Lula back to the presidency.

This position prevailed against a minority approach, which proposed to maintain the presentation of its own ballots in the first round, in order to distance itself from the appointment of Alckmin as vice-president (Sampaio Júnior, 2022). Criticism of this regressive alliance was unanimous within the PSOL, but the majority refused to split the anti-Bolsonarist vote, in view of the danger of a far-right triumph.

The results of the two rounds confirmed the wisdom of this approach. The immense amount of votes obtained by the former captain corroborated that he was very close to reelection. This nightmare was avoided by the strong mobilization that Lula’s leadership aroused. In addition, the agreement reached with the PT allowed the PSOL to obtain 12 deputies and the main leader of this formation (Boulos) obtained an excellent vote in Sao Paulo.

Another debate is currently taking place in the PSOL, opposing supporters and critics of holding positions in the new administration. The first approach maintains that in a government in dispute it is appropriate to shore up from within this struggle with radical positions. The second approach considers that the defense of the new administration against the aggressions of the right wing does not imply assuming official positions. It understands that such an entry would neutralize the action of the left, preventing it from demanding the fulfillment of what was promised in the campaign (Arcary, 2022b).

“The first approach maintains that in a government in dispute it is appropriate to shore up this struggle from within with radical positions. The second approach considers that the defense of the new administration against the aggressions of the right does not imply assuming official positions.
But both sides agree in emphasizing that Bolsonaro’s defeat at the polls inaugurates a battle that continues in the streets, with a clear agenda of social and democratic demands (Boulos, 2022). This goal can be raised because the electoral victory was achieved. It is evident that these initiatives would be timid, defensive or nonexistent, if Bolsonaro had persisted as president of Brazil.

Anticipations in the Argentine left

The debate in Brazil was followed with great attention by the main coalition of the Argentine left (FIT-U), which processed a great variety of positions (convergent and divergent) with the one developed by the PSOL. One sector objected to the decision adopted by that current in Brazil, pointing out that it was appropriate to vote blank in the ballot, in spite of the potential continuity of an ultra-right-wing president (Heller, 2022). It is enough to observe the small margin of difference in the final count to notice the dramatic consequences of this approach, if it had had an impact on the outcome of the election.

This approach recognized the differences between Bolsonaro and Lula, but emphasized that the military man had failed to forge a fascist regime. It neglected to point out that this failure did not guarantee the same result in a second term. He ignored how suicidal it was to consent to that possibility with the blank vote.

The second argument to postulate the indifference between both candidates at the time of casting the vote was to point out that the capitalist class of Brazil (and of the empire) supported Lula and his conservative version of a third term. But if that attitude of the powerful were determinant of the electoral position of the left, it would be appropriate to vote for Bolsanaro, who, according to that interpretation, would lack support among the wealthy.

In fact, a division prevailed among the local dominators, in line with the fracture between Biden (pro-Lula) and Trump (pro-Bolsonaro). But that fracture or unanimity of the dominant bloc does not provide any guidance for the left. The main barometer of that space is the potential validity or annulment of democratic conquests. With that compass, the blank vote and the consequent danger of Bolsonaro’s continuity was equivalent to Harakiri.

This definition is important in Argentina in the face of the eventuality of disjunctions of the same type. So far this crossroads is not foreseen, but it is an ever-present possibility in the uncertain scenario of 2023.

What happened in Brazil has a great impact on Argentina. Bolsonaro lost, but the Argentine right wing took note of the enormous base forged by the former captain and repeats the same ultra-liberal and repressive discourse. Milei is a clone of the military man who achieved great predicament and is emerging as a figure of weight in the next election.

Peronism was very enthusiastic about Lula’s victory, until the recent (and always eventual) resignation of Cristina to participate in the elections. There are many analogies between the two figures. Both have been persecuted by the media and the judiciary and enjoy an overwhelming centrality, both among their followers and in national life.

But there is an obvious difference that obstructs the repetition of the same process. While Lula won as an opponent denouncing the hardships caused by Bolsonaro, Cristina is vice-president and is unable to detach herself from the current failed administration.

In the tremendous economic and social crisis in Argentina, no one can predict what will happen in the coming months. The comparison with Brazil is of interest to the left, to analyze the policy of the FIT-U in relation to the experience of the PSOL. The latter formation debated at the right moment the vote for Lula, while in the first front usually postulates abstention in those disjunctions.

Confirmations in Chile

The position of the left in front of the ballots -which oppose the vacillating progressive candidates with the aggressive exponents of the ultra-right- became dramatic in the Chilean outcome between Boric and Kast. The former candidate had been strongly questioned in his own space, but the latter undisguisedly praised Pinochet’s trajectory.

As it happened in the first regional counterpoint of this type -Bolsonaro against Haddad in 2019- the great majority of the left voted for Boric, exposing numerous reservations (Boron, 2021).

Subsequently, some sectors that had added their vote against the ultra-right, modified that attitude in the plebiscite on the Constituent Assembly. They evaluated that the Approval and Rejection constituted two ways to restore the same hegemony of the ruling class and opted for the blank vote (Tótoro 2022). This position illustrated the ambivalence and the counter-marches that electoral definitions in the Latin American scenario raise.

The experience accumulated in the face of these outcomes in recent years should leave no doubt about the convenience of voting against the right, in the frequent polarizations of the final elections.

This attitude is questioned by the currents that usually denounce the affinities between two sectors belonging to the same bourgeois segment. They object to resignation and emphasize the damage caused to the construction of a revolutionary project by any support to reformism.

In the Chilean case, this questioning is validly based on Boric’s total adaptation to the establishment and on the objectionable permanence of leftist forces in his cabinet. In the tough cultural battle that is taking place in that country, against the deep-rooted neo-liberal prejudices installed by Pinochetism (and preserved by the Concertación), it is indispensable to bluntly expose the criticisms to the current government.

But these objections must never equate the reactionary currents with the progressive slopes. In this equation, the enemies are confused with the adversaries, as if they were two parts of the same totality.

Sometimes this equivalence is justified by affirming that there is no “lesser evil”. But it is forgotten that the same qualification could be applied to the pondered trade union, social or political victories, which are achieved without consummating the socialist ideal. None of these goals is despicable for remaining distant from the historical objective of the left.

The vote for progressivism against the right -in the plebiscites or ballots- simply contributes to stopping the conservative restoration. It makes it possible to limit economic abuses and to contain violence against the oppressed. In this way, it generates more favorable scenarios for the advance of the left and forges relations of forces more in line with this objective. This strategy is also understandable to the majority of the population, which never grasps the tangled reasoning put forward to justify abstention.

The categorical pointing out of the right wing as the main enemy is not limited to electoral crossroads. It is an equally decisive principle in the face of the coup maneuvers of the reactionaries in Parliament. What happened recently in Peru, where a sector of the left validated with its vote the operation of Fujimorism and the conservatives to overthrow Castillo, is illustrative of the dizziness that erupts at decisive moments (Aznárez, 2022).

In these circumstances, the absence of a strategic compass emerges to the surface. This orientation must be taken up again by reviewing the advances and difficulties faced by the radical projects in the region, which we will analyze in the next text.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2023/02/ ... ican-left/

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Northern Peruvian unions will march against President Boluarte

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Despite the police repression, thousands of Peruvians resume the mobilizations against President Dina Boluarte. | Photo: EFE
Published 20 February 2023

Students, merchants and civil construction unions from the region will also participate in the new day of mobilizations in Arequipa.

Organizations, unions and workers unions in the Peruvian region of Arequipa will participate this Monday in a new day of protests to demand the resignation of the designated president Dina Boluarte.

The groups gathered in the Defense Front of the Northern Cone of Arequipa (Fredicon) explained that the mobilization was agreed upon in a meeting with representatives of other unions and unions in the Peruvian city.

In addition to the unions and unions of workers, students, merchants and civil construction unions of the Arequipa region will also participate in the day of protests.


According to the organizers of the protest, the participants will move through various streets of the city until they reach the historic center of Arequipa.

In addition to demanding the resignation of the designated president Dina Boluarte, they will also request the cessation of the current Congress and the advancement of general elections for this 2023.


The protests against President Dina Boluarte will be repeated in other regions of southern Peru that have been on strike since last Friday.

The southern regions of Peru have been characterized by a continuous protest against the government, with strikes and roadblocks, which were violently repressed by the Peruvian National Police (PNP).

According to the Ombudsman's Office, at least 60 people have died as a result of the police repression of the anti-government demonstrations that began on December 7.

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/peru-gre ... -0005.html

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South America in Dispute: The New Commodity Wars
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on FEBRUARY 17, 2023
Rafael Bautista S.

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Image: Peru Protests | Misión de Solidaridad Internacional y DDHH

The recent declarations of Laura Richardson, head of the US Southern Command, show the reformulation of the Monroe Doctrine in terms of the strategic rethinking required to contain the improbable expansion of China and the military power that would guarantee the global transition towards a new multipolar order.

In this context, the announcement of the creation of a regional currency by the presidents of Brazil and Argentina (dismissed and even ridiculed by Wall Street spokesmen, such as Larry Summers, former Secretary of the Treasury, or former IMF officials Mark Sobell and Olivier Blanchard; and fervently replicated by the right-wing press in our region), sets the stage for a South America in dramatic global dispute.

Laura Richardson plays the conquistador: Columbus, Cortez, Pizarro and the foreign offer of an unthinkable wealth to the crown of the time (“the criminal always returns to the place of the crime”, Dostoevsky dixit). But the scenario is not mechanical, because if one considers that Washington calculates, in advance (through the geopolitical prospective carried out by its think tanks and intelligence agencies), the type of effects generated to make its best options viable, Richardson’s declarations (“we have a lot to do, this region is important for our national security, we have to step up our game”) seem more like a warning and not an agenda of future intentions. The same that came out of the mouth of Mark Milley, US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in 2021 (when Laura Richardson took office as head of the Southern Command): “the Western Hemisphere belongs to us and no one else and we are here to protect it from any threat”. That threat, of course, is Russia and China.

It is in this scenario that what is happening in Peru, Bolivia and Brazil, takes on a deeper context. It is no coincidence that these three countries would constitute (in the bioceanic project) the geostrategic corridor connecting South America to the Pacific, meaning China. In this sense, the latest findings of lithium in Peru, intensifies the policy of capturing our region (amplifying the “lithium triangle”), if this year the state concessions to the mining transnationals should have expired (a matter that precipitated the dismissal of President Castillo, to impose a government docile to the demands of transnational capital), the dispute becomes open. From the policy of containment, the offensive is amplified. In this sense, delaying the conflict in Peru seems to be an option imposed (from the outside) on the usurper government, to tragically exhaust the expectations of a people in insurgency; because the three demands (resignation of “Balearte”, of Congress and the Constituent Assembly), even if they were met, also configure scenarios for the repositioning of a right wing empowered thanks to the progressive media vandalization of the protests.

The Peruvian neoliberal political system of the last decade has ended up corrupting the entire political culture and, in this way, has managed to dramatically decompose the popular bloc which, without legitimate representation of broad scope, does not have the political mediation that this moment of historical resolution needs. The right wing knows this. That is why it is not only protected by the police, military and judicial power at its service, but also by that security. That is why its seigniorial racism is emboldened. In such circumstances, the people should not surrender their emerging power, but manage it strategically; but that requires direction and this outcome, which carries the heavy memory of the Shining Path, should also serve to constitute a popular movement organized on the basis of the supreme demand: a Constituent Assembly; where the people themselves generate a legitimate constituent process, where what is to be constituted is the people themselves as subject, as constituent power.

In Bolivia we failed to intensify and radicalize this process. The plurinational State was born with several Trojan horses in its entrails; one of them was the autonomist blackmail of the Santa Cruz elite which, today, is transmuted into a balkanizing project with a federalist appearance. Since the “gas war” and the expulsion of the last neoliberal government of Bolivia, Santa Cruz became the epicenter of fascist resistance to the plurinational project. All the latest destabilizing adventures of the right wing have originated in the concentrated power that the economic-political elites possess in the stately cordon of the city and its political operator par excellence: the Civic Committee (from where even the Governor’s Office itself is managed).

From autonomism to federalism, all these narratives operate as rhetoric of relativization of the national state, to assert a supposed exclusivist right to be above the nation itself. In the Bolivian case, violence, racist-urban revanchism and impunity are the means to constantly undermine and even delegitimize everything that represents stability and social peace. This is the prelude to any “color revolution” which, in the midst of the global civilizational crisis, can only lead us to progressive scenarios of balkanization.

Santa Cruz is the part of the country permeated by right-wing influence from Brazil. In the 2019 coup, the Bolsonaro government’s support to the coup perpetrators was fundamental to capitalize on a false legitimacy that the right wing always paid for with our own wealth: the revision of the gas export contracts, for the exclusive benefit of PETROBRAS, was proof of that. In that year, the immediate regional scenario was decidedly adverse to our plurinational project; that is why the dictatorship lasted a year, even though the coup perpetrators wished it could last forever. Now Brazil, with Lula back, finds almost half the country in divergence; the episode of the recent failed coup attempt is just a sample of what can be manifested as growing resistance of a right wing dogmatized by a power that is no longer dissuasive but openly offensive: the power of the media.

It is in such a situation that we are presented with the development of a policy of intimidation, as a factor of strategic destabilization, promoted by the connivance between imperial power and regional oligarchies. As the writer Jamileh Alamolhoda (First Lady of the Republic of Iran) explains it well: “the very essence of gringo foreign policy is intimidation, terrorizing our people in order to subjugate them”. In Bolivia, after a number of diminished town councils, which always deliberate via threats, the ideas of a referendum for the judicial reform are being woven, which, in fact, will constitute the transition to the lawfare scenario, where the right wing will propose to recover the judicial power and, from there, to judicialize the political power to deprive the government of all political decisions.

Let us remember that lawfare, created in the gringo academies, in the midst of the fashions of legal realism and neoconstitutionalism, propagates the economicist vision in the field of law, neoliberalism as a legal doctrine, the logic of war as a normative ideology. The whole episode that led to the arrest of President Castillo and the inauguration of Balearte was a media-congressional operation that, by means of lawfare, generated the whole narrative of constitutional legitimacy so that the coup would not appear as a coup.

Lawfare is highly developed in Brazil and Argentina. Peru and Bolivia are now the juridical arena where there are plans to develop updated forms of more offensive lawfare. The racialization of justice in these two countries, in addition to the racist meritocratic lordship of the professional associations, are ideal fields for the ideological capture and manipulation of the social normative set. At the local and global level, as Thierry Meyssan points out: “laws no longer seek to enforce justice but to confirm the order imposed on the world and punish those who question it”. And the Peruvian “democratic order” could not allow a “serrano” to be president, so his removal was an imperative even for legal racism itself.

This whole scenario inevitably leads to state anomie, since the legal norms themselves are not only incongruent but even definitely divergent from the constitutional principles they claim to respect and defend. The political sphere is encircled by the legalistic belt that makes any change impossible. Therefore, the political legitimacy that originates and gives rise to a Constituent Assembly must always remain as a continuous guarantor of its factual implementation. This constitutes the true essence of the democratic praxis that our peoples are demanding: to create and nurture popular power.

Neoliberalism has shown that democracy is not necessarily destroyed from the outside, as leftist argument used to assert. Because neoliberalism, beyond being just an economic model, is actually a radicalized rationality of liberalism, which destroys the very foundations of democracy, since the political is subjected to the economic. The current democracy made in the USA, as “democratic institutionality”, is reduced to business management that makes governance an appendix of administrative performance; meaning, the State displaces its political essence and becomes a phantom company, which only administers the guarantee of the maximum value of the capital that finances and sustains its conservation. The objectives of the State cease to be political and become managerial. When every sphere of human life is reduced to its mercantile character, business logic invades everything and social needs, common goods, popular demands, etc., are understood as managerial projects, quoted from the perspective of profitability, where the poor are sacrificed in a world made only for the rich.

This is why neoliberal rationality perverts the very foundations of democracy, once it introduces its logic into the very core of politics. If inequalities become extreme, it is impossible, not only to maintain state sovereignty, but to sustain any political community. If the demos is displaced, the kratos is pure capital and what is generated is a subtle but radical transformation of politics and democracy from within. Then we can better understand the processes of democratic implosion that we are currently experiencing allowing for the best scenario of the new commodity war.

Since the definitive collapse of the dollar as the global hegemonic currency, the yuan and the ruble have been forced to enter the financial arena. This is becoming more acute with the war in Ukraine, a war between the Russian Federation and NATO, because, as a result of the sanctions and their failure, gold and all that which is tangible wealth, in this case, the most appreciated commodities in the much disputed global energy transition, are now more relevant.

These are not just any commodities, but those included in a policy of financial sovereignty. As we find ourselves in a post-Bretton Woods world, not only the dollar but any currency that aspires to be an international currency can no longer sustain itself, in the long run, as a fiat currency. In this sense, a commodity war is a naked financial war.

Reformulating the Rothschild doctrine, “you control the currency and you control the world”, we can say: “if you control the real support of all currencies, you control all power, even that of your adversaries”. In this way, the new commodity war is being waged on the basis of the urgent needs of global replenishment of the Anglo-Saxon sphere (the continuous remnant of the unipolar world), to undermine any possible democratization, however minimal, of world finance. This is why the transition to a new order, in this case a multipolar one, is inevitably expressed as financial warfare (which is the essence of modern warfare, represented in the spectacle of military conflicts, for a world that needs heroes, villains, epics and ephemeris).

We return to Laura Richardson’s statements, because everything listed, from the oil of the Orinoco basin, Guyana (which includes the Essequibo area), the lithium triangle (+Peru), the aquifers, rare earths and strategic minerals, no longer constitute a spoil of war but the very sovereignty of the imperial financial sphere.

The convertibility of the yuan and the ruble to gold will eventually displace all fiat currencies, but there is not enough gold to back all currencies, so strategic commodities are presented as candidate guarantors. That mere mention raises the possibility of a commodity war. Because, for the Empire in decline, it is about defining who possesses world sovereignty. That is what the war in Ukraine is about: sovereignty. Russia’s sin consists in asserting its sovereignty; that is why the Russophobia unleashed in Europe and the USA is the expression of imperial contempt for the insubordinate.

In a unipolar world, absolute sovereignty belongs to the Empire and to no one else (because it is the sanctuary of capital accumulation); and there is absolute sovereignty by cession and transfer of formal and material sovereignty, from the periphery to the center. In this sense, the new commodity war is a war against all sovereignty. The Empire in decadence needs to anoint itself with real power and that consists in the absolute renunciation of the periphery -in this case, of the Latin American arc- to its own state and national existence. What they did not achieve in Bolivia (but seek to reactivate, in order to also mock the idea of the plurinational), they try to promote from Peru, in order to unleash a growing conflict as regional balkanization.

In capitalism, capital is the only sovereign. Modernity is the type of world where this sovereignty unfolds and develops in all its fullness. That is why the current analytical confusion (by not respecting levels of analysis) of labeling China as capitalist, comes from the naive separation between capitalism and modernity. The widespread Sinophobia in Latin America (which permeates even leftism) is, in reality, a declaration of imperial war for the soul of our States: you are mine and no one else’s. Modernity is a civilizing project.

Modernity is a civilizing project of exponential domination, which is why it is heir to the imperial vocation of the West. For the Chinese, capitalism is a mediation of their own national project, which corresponds to a non-Western civilization (apparently the Russians are beginning to understand this as well); in this sense, for an economy to be defined as capital-ism, capital cannot be a mediation but an end in itself and, as such, it is defined universally, its exponential tendency admits no limits; therefore, capital revolts in its financial niche and sees the possibility of a multipolar order as a real threat to its concentric logic.

This does not mean that the Chinese are heralds of justice. It means that Chinese expansion opens us to other kinds of complex contradictions in what we understand by domination. The Eurocentric vision does not serve us even for that. Chinese growth has unleashed another type of global contradictions that current economic science cannot even guess at.

The new commodity war as a war for sovereignty will exhibit the profound anti-national character of Latin American elites, as is happening in Peru. This morbid exhibition is what will be reflected as a dramatic display of irrational power, as happens when the criminal is discovered. Being a hybrid and multidimensional war, it will also dismantle the narratives that in the twentieth century defined the political opposition and we will see how the actors are now dramatically defined in a scenario never before experienced and even less thought of.

For our peoples it will be the definitive proof of their liberation exodus. As those who know say: it is easy to get out of the world, what is difficult is for the world to get out of oneself. In order to affirm our own liberation project, we will also have to affirm it in terms of a civilizational project and return to what we were: one of the six civilizational axes that constitute and are the basis of what is known as human civilization. There is no longer a unipolar order, which means that there is no longer a single world, without alternatives, according to the modern narrative. The alternative is the peoples and their millennial history. It is from that history that alter-natives will emerge in the face of the civilizational crisis. Because hope is an awakening memory.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2023/02/ ... dity-wars/
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Re: South America

Post by blindpig » Fri Feb 24, 2023 2:45 pm

Elections in Ecuador Unmask Western Media Dishonesty
FEBRUARY 21, 2023

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By Joe Emersberger – Feb 16, 2023

On February 5, Revolución Ciudadana (RC5), the political party led by former Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa, a leftist who was in office from 2007 to 2017, won significant victories in municipal and regional elections. RC5 candidates triumphed throughout the country but, most significantly, were elected mayors of Ecuador’s largest cities: Guayaquil, Quito (the capital) and Cuenca. Notably, in Guayaquil, RC5 ended three decades of rightwing rule. It also won the prefectures of the most populous provinces: Guayas and Pichincha. Indeed, it won the most mayor and prefect elections of any political party on February 5.

Correa’s achievements: Neither forgiven nor forgotten

Correa, a leftwing economist by trade, left Ecuador for Belgium after his time as president came to an end. He cannot even return to his native country, as, in 2020, he was sentenced (on entirely spurious grounds) to prison for corruption before being recently granted political asylum in Belgium. Other members of his government have faced similar persecution; some have even been jailed.

Correa’s real crimes, in the eyes of Ecuador’s elite, are breaking with both neoliberalism and Ecuador’s traditional subservience to Washington. His achievements while in office explain the persecution but also why his movement was able to make such a remarkable electoral comeback on February 5.

Under Correa’s leadership, poverty fell by almost half. He achieved that by completely discarding neoliberal dogmas like the supposed importance of central bank independence. Much to Washington’s dismay, after a commission found that much of it had been illegally contracted, his government defaulted on a third of Ecuador’s external debt. He dramatically increased financial regulation and tax collection. He also increased government revenues by getting much better terms for Ecuador in oil contracts. And his policies did not just involve the improved distribution of oil and other revenues to reduce poverty; a foundation for sustained development was built through public investment.

By 2015, the efficiency of Ecuador’s public services, according to the Inter-American Development Bank, improved dramatically compared to other countries in the Americas. Studies by the U.N. found that the quality of Ecuador’s educational system was, by 2016, one of the most improved. In 2016, the World Economic Forum touted Ecuador’s system of roads as the best in the region. It had ranked Ecuador tenth by that metric a decade earlier.

Correa also enraged Ecuador’s U.S.-subservient elite by joining the ALBA economic block with Venezuela and Cuba, expelling a U.S. military base from Ecuador in 2009, strongly defending a $9.5 billion dollar judgment by Ecuador’s Supreme Court against Chevron for pollution, and granting political asylum to Julian Assange.

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Correa, right, holds the hands of Christine Assange, the mother of Julian Assange, during a 2012 meeting in Quito. Martin Jaramillo | AP

However, of all Correa’s achievements in office, the one that has arguably come back to haunt his enemies the most is the dramatic reduction in violent crime that had been achieved by 2017.

In addition to all its other victories in the elections of February 5, Correa’s party spearheaded a successful campaign for a “no”‘ vote against eight proposed constitutional amendments that rightwing President Guillermo Lasso had put to voters. Lasso’s proposals were sold as solutions to a crime wave that has grown catastrophically since Correa left office. All eight of Lasso’s proposals were rejected by voters by margins ranging from three to sixteen points, depending on the question.

A Key graph western media ignored

The election results are easily explained by a single graph showing Ecuador’s homicide rate from 1980 to 2021. The graph, which shows which president was in office during each year, was cited by Ecuadorian economist and political analyst David Villamar. The data comes from various official sources in Ecuador. World Bank data shows a similar story.

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Ecuador experienced a dramatic and unprecedented two-thirds reduction in its homicide rate during Correa’s years in office (January 2007- May 2017). The homicide rate then increased, just as dramatically, after Correa left office and rightwing governments took over. If the graph above is updated for 2022, it would be even more dramatic; the homicide rate increased to 25.9 per 100,000 in 2022 according to InSight Crime – a historic high for Ecuador. When Correa left office in 2017 it was 5.8 per 100,000 – one of the lowest in Latin America. It is now among the highest.

Even if you believe (falsely, as I’ll explain later) that Correa was simply lucky – that factors unrelated to his policies explain the homicide rate’s reduction while he was in office – it is still inexcusably dishonest not to tell readers about it. Reuters, in a report by Quito-based Alexandra Valencia that was republished by U.S. News, Al-Jazeera and others, made no mention of it, nor did articles about the election results in BBC News, Washington Post, or the Financial Times.

The graph wasn’t missed. It was ignored

How could news outlets with ample resources have missed it? One might assume that they simply ignored Correaists and listened only to what rightwingers in Ecuador were saying. That would follow the pattern of how Ecuador has been covered by Western media since Correa left office in 2017. I’ve pointed to that pattern in articles for FAIR.org over the past five years. But in this case, the practice of listening only to rightwingers does not explain the western media’s lies of omission about the election results.

The fact that Ecuador became very safe under Correa (then very unsafe after he left office) was so undeniable and inconvenient for rightwingers, such as prominent Ecuadorian journalist Carlos Vera, that they resorted to wild explanations for it. For example, in January, Vera tweeted that,

Under Correa, the drug gangs were not unleashed because of a tacit agreement: ‘You can pass, provided you don’t kill.’ And they divvied up the country. Today, they can’t pass…”

So skyrocketing violent crime today, in Vera’s theory, reveals Correa’s wickedness and Lasso’s virtue. Lasso himself has promoted the same absurd theory. Speaking to reporters last year, Lasso claimed that Correa essentially told criminals “don’t cause problems for me on the streets, and you can continue with your drug and human trafficking”.

Despite a media environment in Ecuador that, since 2017, relentlessly vilifies Correa, Lasso failed to persuade the majority of voters. And the Western media’s silence on this issue, suggests they were not persuaded either, or eager to broadcast that wild theory to an international audience.

Alexandra Valencia’s Reuters article subtly promoted one of Lasso’s referendum proposals that would have allowed the extradition of Ecuadorians: “Though the practice would be new for Ecuador, Latin American countries, including Colombia and Mexico, often accede to extradition requests from the United States and other nations.” But extraditing people was unconstitutional when the dramatic reduction in violent crime took place under Correa. It is also a poor argument because Colombia and Mexico are among the most unsafe countries in the region.

Protesters clash with police near the government palace in Quito, Ecuador

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Anti-Correa protesters attack police near the government palace in Quito, Ecuador, August 13, 2015. Photo | AP

Joe Parkin Daniels of the Financial Times was more aggressively dishonest. This is how he deleted from Ecuador’s recent history the huge reduction in violent crime that took place under Correa:

Correa’s decade-long tenure from 2007 saw Ecuador take out $18bn of loans from China to fund a public spending boom. The country distanced itself from the U.S. while Correa mounted fierce attacks on perceived opponents. After leaving office amid mounting legal troubles, Correa went into exile in Belgium. In 2020 a judge sentenced him in absentia to eight years in prison for accepting bribes.”

If you rely on Joe Parkin Daniels account, you’d believe all Correa did while in office was irresponsibly run up debts, persecute opponents, and take bribes. None of that is true. Note how the passage ignores that Correa’s conviction was based on a theory that he exerted a “psychic influence” over any official that took brides, a legal abomination that stemmed directly from the unconstitutional destruction of Ecuador’s legal system after Correa left office. Interpol’s multiple rejections of attempts to extradite Correa were also left unmentioned. Also, Correa did not flee to Belgium after leaving office. While still in office, he had often announced his intention to move there with his wife, who is from Belgium, to pay her back for all the years she spent living in Ecuador away from her family.

Moreover, it has been years since Correa has been in a position to do any of the things Joe Parkin Daniels falsely claims he did: waste public funds, persecute opponents or take bribes. Today, he cannot even return to Ecuador. So how could his party have humiliated Lasso at the polls as it did on February 5? Without even knowing details, the story told by the Financial Times reporter collapses under the weight of that reality.

A revealing exception to media dishonesty

One exception to dishonesty about Ecuador’s recent history came from Courthouse News: a U.S.-based news agency catering to lawyers and law firms. It actually provided the graph below showing homicides in Ecuador since 2000. Its article also mentioned Interpol’s rejection of Ecuador’s attempts to extradite Correa.

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The graph above shows that in 2022 alone, Ecuador had about 2500 more homicides than it would have had if its homicide rate had remained at the level it was at when Correa left office in 2017. Moreover, there has been no spike in neighboring Colombia’s homicide rate since Correa left office. It has been stable since 2017, unlike Ecuador’s. While it’s plausible that sharing a border with violence-ridden Colombia has always made Ecuador more unsafe than it would otherwise have been, Ecuador’s homicide rate had been on a relentless upswing at the same time Colombia’s was falling considerably, albeit from a very high level, in the decades before Correa took office.

Some people I have encountered online have blamed migration from Venezuela after 2017 for the spike in Ecuador’s homicide rate. Xenophobia aside, a huge problem with that theory is that, again, there has been no spike in Colombia’s homicide rate since 2017 despite, by all accounts, Colombia being the country to receive by far that largest share of Venezuelan migrants in recent years.

Ecuadorian economist David Villamar laid out some of the reasons for Correa’s success in making Ecuador one of the region’s safest countries. Under Correa, rigorous testing of police for any potential links to crime purged one fifth of its officers from its ranks, and one third of police force applicants. After he left office, testing was greatly weakened. The involvement of Ecuadorian police in high profile crimes last year very painfully revealed the costs.

Another factor Villamar pointed to was a reduction in the backlog of unresolved court cases that took place under Correa. In only two years, the unresolved cases went from 3 million to 200,000. A massive drain on the judicial system’s resources that was removed. Correa’s government also invested heavily in expanding and modernizing the legal system’s infrastructure.

This was all linked to Correa’s rejection of neoliberalism. His decade in office made public distrust in Ecuador’s political institutions fall to historically low levels compared to the rest of Latin America. That was all undone when the western media’s darlings (of course also U.S. government darlings) took over. Little wonder we aren’t told about it.

That said, it appears that in the wake of Lasso’s referendum defeat, rightwing media in Ecuador and internationally have started to break their silence about grave corruption allegations against Lasso. He is now openly feuding with the Attorney General and trying to obstruct investigations against his government. Perhaps Lasso might finally have become too widely discredited for Ecuadorian and foreign media to prop up..

https://orinocotribune.com/elections-in ... ishonesty/

Undefeated Revolutions and the Peculiar Character of Gabriel Boric
FEBRUARY 23, 2023

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Dr. Francisco Domínguez. Photo: Kawsachun News.

On Latin America Review, Kawsachun News spoke to Francisco Dominguez, a researcher at the Middlesex University and the secretary of the Venezuelan Solidarity Campaign, who has long been a pillar of the movements in solidarity of Latin America, in the UK. Francisco, who is Chilean, spoke to Ollie about how Venezuela has managed to survive through the last period of intense attacks and regime sanctions and grades Chilean president Gabriel Boric. Below is a transcript of Fancisco’s analysis. The interview can be watched on YouTube.

Nicaragua, Venezuela and Cuba stave off attacks


Well, first of all, thanks very much for inviting me. It’s an honor and a pleasure. I think the key to understand this, is this: The United States was able to actually overthrow, oust and defeat electorally, as a result of this pressure, several countries in the region, several left-wing governments, starting from the one in Honduras in 2009, then Fernando Lugo in Paraguay in 2012. Tried, nearly successfully, a coup d’etat in Ecuador in 2010 and then everybody knows who was behind the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff in 2016 and obviously was training, Sergio Moro, the judge that managed to imprison Lula and even was involved in many ways in the 2019 coup d’etat against Evo Morales in Bolivia.

So by 2019-2020, it looked like the United States had recovered the region. The only problem was that Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela were still standing. So in that context of favorable relation of forces for the United States, they launched a massive wave of aggression, particularly against Venezuela, but also against Cuba. And these countries confronted this in the context of the pandemic.

Imagine your economy is totally blockaded and then the pandemic hits you extremely badly. The United States does everything in their power to prevent you from getting medical supplies, food and everything else, and certainly income. Nevertheless, the United States was not able to succeed with these three countries. I think the key reason is this: The United States, when it makes political success, when it scores some political victory, as they did in what I described, it is unable to offer anything to the people. It offers pillage, austerity, neoliberalism, inequities, repression, and certainly military bases.They are not very attractive.

And as a consequence, the governments that it is able to install in these places by force of a coup, or by any means, are not stable and they are not able to consolidate the political gains. So therefore, the masses that have been inspired by the previous period, the golden decade of the pink time came back and were able to defeat, very rapidly, this government.

The comparison I want to make is this. In the case of Chile, when Pinochet waged the coup in 11th of September 1973, it was a massive, historic defeat. We’re still fighting to recover our democracy in Chile, and we haven’t been able to get back to the agenda sort of framework, whereas the other countries went by very quickly, in the case of Brazil to Lula, in the case of Bolivia, to Luis Arce which is the MAS, and so forth.

And because of that inability, the United States was not able to defeat, crush, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba. I think particularly in this case, must be highlighted the case of Venezuela, that suffered hugely as a consequence of 927 horrible, nasty, cruel sanctions.


Is this a more favorable context for Latin America’s Revolutions?

Honduras
There is still the possibility for the United States to come back with something very nasty, but I think his ability to intervene is significantly limited, not completely because is still powerful. Let me give you an example of the contradictions the United States faces, which give us space.

The United States pretty much controls Honduras, almost totally you know, it’s got 14 military bases in that country. It commands the people who run the narco trafficking. It runs and has enormous influence over the military forces, the police forces and the elite there. So the United States had every possibility to actually stop Xiomara Castro from winning the election. The reason why the United States didn’t do it was because it was divided internally.

Had the right wing won then you woul had right away a caravan, you know, with thousands and thousands of Honduras and others making it the United States., hitting Biden in the face, exploding as an issue in his face, and then giving chances to Trump. And remember, these elections took place before the midterm election in November 2022.

Brazil
That’s one important thing. Secondly, in the case of Brazil, the United States did not intervene on the side of Bolsonaro. And the key reason was Bolsonaro is a strong ally of former President Trump. And the last thing somebody like Biden would like is a President Bolsonaro in a very powerful, influential country such as Brazil.

So they didn’t do anything, that we know of, in order to stop. Normally, they do. Normally, the ambassador says something, normally the State Department makes some statements and so on, and they couldn’t.

But I think in the case of in the case of Colombia, I think they didn’t know how to stop it. They wanted to stop it, they wanted to have Duque and to have Uribismo to continue in that country because they wanted to continue with the maximum pressure on Venezuela. But the mass movement and the ability of Gustavo Petro to put together a very broad front, electorally at least, allowed them to defeat the extreme forces in Colombia.

And the first thing Petro did is to start collaborating, liaising, normalizing relations, economic, political and diplomatic relations with Venezuela, which helped enormously not only the peace process, but also the relationship between the two countries.

Venezuela
When it comes to the question of Venezuela, it seems to me that in Venezuela, what you have is a specifically different state. In Brazil in 2016, all the way to 2020, the United States and the right wing were able to actually get rid of the Workers’ Party government because the Workers’ Party government was so successful that it stopped mobilizing the masses.

I mean, this is a quite a compact idea but they stopped mobilizing the masses. They concentrated much more on parliamentary maneuvers by demobilizing the masses. When it came to the question of them being hit, by a counteroffensive, they couldn’t defend themselves. Whereas in Venezuela, the opposite was the case and the opposite is the case.

What you have is thousands and thousands of grassroots committees organized at every level. You know, the mobilization, the president and mobilization of them is always there. You have the militia, you have the armed forces, which is quite important in the civil-military alliance with the government, which has limited the possibility of the United States. I think that’s why [the U.S.] was defeated.

And the situation is very favorable in the following sense. Number one, in 2021, Venezuela grew by 17.7%, nearly 18%, and in 2022 inches full, as the economy grew by 15 -16%. Obviously, they started from a very low base, but now the situation is much, much better.

There is even a situation where Biden is being compelled to send a delegation hat in hand to talk to President Maduro, a government that is supposedly not recognized, to explore possibilities for Venezuela to begin to sell oil to the world market. The basic reason for this is that the United States needs desperately for there to be more oil supply in the world, the continent, because of the consequences of the Ukraine war, so that the price of oil declines. And so therefore, in that sense is very positive.

But more importantly, is the CELAC which met for its seventh summit recently. Their commitment to regional integration is very strong. Already, Lula has talked to Alberto Fernandez, president of Argentina to set up a single currency.

Lula, during the electoral campaign, said he made the mistake by not taking Hugo Chavez’s proposal to create a single currency and a Bank of the South, seriously. And the consequence was the dollarization of the world market limits our possibilities of recovery. So now that Brazil has joined the equation of the left wing governments of different shades, of course, this commitment is very serious.

This single currency is very good. And finally, the regional integration is very strong, but also the maneuver that the United States organized recently to send various delegates and even mobilized Scholz, the German chancellor, to try to persuade the Latin American countries to get rid of some of the oil equipment to be donated to Ukraine so that they could replace that equipment with United States military equipment, which was completely rejected.

So the conditions now exist, which are very, very positive for Latin America to retake what I would call a second Pink Tide. Not identical, but very similar to the one that took place between 1998 to 2014-16. And we have two advantages: Number one, the United States is weaker and we are wiser because we know what not to do and what mistakes not to make. So I think the position is very good.

Biden is not quite lifting the sanctions, but he’s allowed Chevron to continue to operate in Venezuela, even when there was no extraction of an oil. They allowed Chevron and gave several special licenses to extract Venezuelan oil, which obviously they had to pay Venezuela, to supply particularly the European market.

And this was a license given by Biden for six months. And the conversations have been taking place, God knows exactly what is being discussed. But I think that it is a [protest] of one incident that took place. The United States kidnapped Venezuelan special envoy Alex Saab, who is imprisoned now in Florida. He was arrested illegally in Cape Verde. He was extradited to Florida without Cape Verde having an extradition treaty with the United States. And he’s been charged with money laundering in the United States when this guy was being was arrested in Cape Verde. So as soon as that happened, Maduro said that he was not prepared to continue with the dialog with the opposition, particularly the Guaido opposition, which is the one [the U.S.] recognizes. And you know, that stopped completely.

Maduro has made the point recently, he said we’re ready to normalize relations with the United States completely, provided that this is based and mutual respect. And every time the United States tries to pull a fast one on Venezuela, Venezuela resists and objects and denounces the United States.

The diplomatic activity of Venezuela within the United Nations, these enormous is huge, particularly denouncing the sanctions system and the sanctions regime of the United States against 39 countries. The number of initiatives through the Non-Aligned Movement to the G77, but China, through various other bodies of the United Nations is gigantic, is enormous, and it’s very influential. Unfortunately, we here in the West don’t hear about this.

So Venezuela is making no concessions whatsoever. But its prepared to be pragmatic. It the United States, wants oil, no problem. And I think this applies also to Cuba. Cuba just reestablished ambassadors between the United States and Cuba. Cuba is suffering much more, not only because of the sanctions regime, but because the tourism industry collapsed by 96% as a consequence of the pandemic. But now the situation is recovering. So I don’t think we need to worry about that. Venezuela has been recovering economically and the Maduro’s government is completely in charge.

Nicaragua sends 222 mercenaries back to the U.S.
Let me clear one thing up first. These people who are being, as the media calls it, deported from Nicaragua. These people committed crimes. They are not political prisoners. They are they are politicians who happen to be in prison because they commit crimes. Some of the crimes were very serious.

If you look at the legislation in the United States and the U.K., which I’ve done, in order to make a comparison. If you were to be receiving money from a foreign country and organize a violent attempt to overthrow the existing government, you will be charged with sedition. And in the United States, this carries the death penalty or anything between that and five years in prison. In the case of the of the United Kingdom it’s very similar. You can get, you know, minimum five years and anything up to 30 or even more years.

So these people actually committed crimes. And as a consequence of these, they work in prison for convicted of 20 years, 30 years, 25 years and so on.

The government of Daniel Ortega, which is a national reconciliation government, wants peace in country. So a very good measure, it is to actually ensure that these people actually are not in prison. They are free, but somewhere else and he made the clear point.

He said we propose to the United States through our chancellor, through our foreign minister and it was a purely – he called it more or less bureaucratic operation. There was no political discussion.

He said, are you willing to take them, we’ll send them to you. And the United States was prepared to take all of them except two. And the total was 222. So all of these stories in the media and so on, are complete nonsense, it’s just spin, by the media, by the right wing media.


Chile and Boric
Now Boric is a very peculiar character and is peculiar because my sense is that he wants to project an image of himself as somebody who is above the normal left-right division that exists in Latin America. And he has this particular mantra, which is, ‘I’m quite prepared to condemn human rights abuses in left wing governments, as well as human rights abuses in right wing countries and right wing governments.’

He hasn’t said too much about repression in right wing governments (laughs). He did support in initially the overthrow of Pedro Castillo. He thought it was constitutional to have you know, to have him ousted. Later on he changed his tune a little bit. This is my sense, I think he was elected president by default, the candidate should have been Daniel Jadue. That because of the way they organized the primaries. He became president up to the point when then the Constitutional convention was organizing the preparing the text. The constitutional text was put to the referendum, before the population last year and up to that point, they must have had a political leadership, which was the Constitutional Convention. Everything actually went into that.

All the demands, all the aspirations, all of the discussions, everything went there. And they took all sort of proposals from, social organizations, social bodies, associations of every imaginable kind. So provide that a de facto political leadership of the rebellion that begun the year the year before. But when that ended and the document was presented to the population, the thing that was providing they had the leadership, the constitutional convention dispersed and these people did not create anything alternative such as the Partido Libre organization in Honduras or some a broad front of any kind. So between the moment when the text was actually out and the dispersal took place and the actual referendum, Boric didn’t do anything in the form of campaigning.

He did not campaign. The left did not campaign, the right wing media and the right wing which orchestrated these went on the rampage, creating a situation of chaos that if these things was to be voted on, then the country would go into total chaos. There would be terrible situation. We’ll go back to the crisis before Allende and so on and so forth.

People believe this. They told all types of lies and there was no counter attack. And in that period, there were two things that happened, which I think are symptomatic of Boric.

Number one, in the middle of this campaign that the right wing was waging, Boric actually had a one on one meeting with Zelensky. Whatever you may think about Zelensky, whatever anybody may think about the Ukraine and Chile, why on earth bring Zelensky and the Ukraine war in the middle of the referendum, which is about Chilean matters, indigenous matters, you know, working class wages, private stuff and so on.

That’s number one. And number two, in that period, Antonia Urrejola, the foreign minister, went to Spain for no reason whatsoever, apparently, and then met with the foreign minister of Spain. They made a joint statement demanding, anticipating the presidential elections in Venezuela. I’m thinking, what on earth is he trying to do? Boric won with 4.6 million votes when he won the election as president, one of the largest votes ever for any president in the history of Chile.

But when he came to the question of the constitutional text that was defeated, the Constitution actually got 4.8 million votes. So we didn’t lose any votes in that sense. The problem was that the election of Boric took place and the context that the the law which made the vote voluntary, and there is about 30% of the electorate that hasn’t voted historically in Chile ever since then made the world voluntary.

And when it came to the question of the the referendum, then they changed the law and they made the vote compulsory and that 30% voted them because we didn’t fight; the left did not fight, they didn’t campaign, promote texts or do anything. The campaign was extremely weak. The consequence of that was the right wing was able to actually capitalize and capture that depolitisized section of society that was subjected to these massive campaign. In other words, this failure of leadership is our Achilles heel in Chile, which we haven’t got the leadership.

My sense is that at the end of the day, Boric is not very progressive, and equivocates every time he can.

On the other hand, I notice that Presidents Lopez Obrador, Luis Arce and a few others, including Gustavo Petro, have started courting him to ensure that they move him in the right direction. So I’m hoping that with this new wave of regional integration, where they’re going to be together, that it will be possible to influence him in the right direction because his problem is this if he doesn’t deliver what the masses wanted, he’s not going to be reelected. And as a consequence of that, the right wing is going to be elected. I’m sure that he doesn’t want that, so he would like to be reelected. So unless he does the right thing, including, you know, identifying himself with the progressive forces and the progressive processes in the rest of the continent, when there is no reason not to, he’s going to suffer the consequences.

He is already been getting a bit discredited. I’m myself pretty disappointed.

https://orinocotribune.com/undefeated-r ... iel-boric/

Ecuador’s Prosecutor’s Office to Charge Former President Lenín Moreno and Relatives for Corruption
FEBRUARY 23, 2023

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Former Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno (right) and his wife, Rocío González, during a ceremony. Photo: Dolores Ochoa/ AP/File photo.

The Ecuadorian State Attorney General’s Office (FGE) reported this Wednesday that it will prosecute the former president of the South American country, Lenín Moreno, in the Ina Papers case.

The FGE referred to the case as “Sinhydro” because it involves a corruption network implicated in the construction of the Coca Codo Sinclair hydroelectric project, developed by a Chinese company.

The attorney general, Diana Salazar, reported that she requested a date and time from the National Court of Justice (CNJ) to carry out the hearing to formulate charges for the alleged crime of bribery against 37 people, including the former president and his wife, Rocío González.


The investigation also implicates the former president’s brothers, Edwin and Guillermo, his sisters-in-law Jaquelina V. and Martha G., his friends Conto Patiño and Xavier Macías, and Cai Rungo, the former Chinese ambassador in Ecuador, who also worked as manager of Sinohydro.

The amount of the alleged bribery is $76 million dollars , which would correspond to approximately 4% of the value contracted for the work, which, initially, was almost $2 billion, although, in practice, its cost exceeded 2.2 billion, 2,245 million, according to Salazar.

The Prosecutor’s Office alleges these tens of millions in bribes were delivered by Sinohydro and channeled through third parties as falsified receipts for services, consulting, and representation, and paid through gifts, checks, and transfers.

Complaint and opening of the case
The case was opened on March 28, 2019, almost two years after Moreno began his presidential term (2017-2021); after an article titled “The Offshore Labyrinth of the Presidential Circle” was published on the La Fuente website in February, 2019.

The case was referred to as the Ina Papers case in the media because it involves an offshore’ company named INA Investment Corporation with which several assets were acquired. The name of the company has been associated with the names of Moreno’s daughters Irina, Cristina, and Carina.

In addition to Ecuador, corrupt transactions were conducted through the INA firm in Panama, Spain, and Switzerland.

Since 2019, the attorney general indicated, “89 tax impulses, 80 versions, 465 information requests, 13 expert opinions, 13 private hearings, five raids, and 10 criminal assistance requested from countries such as Panama, Belize, Switzerland, China, USA, have been carried out.”

The plot
The alleged structure of corruption began in 2009 and lasted until 2018, during which time Moreno served as vice president of Ecuador (2007-2013), secretary-general’s special envoy on disability and accessibility for the United Nations (2013-2016), and then as president of Ecuador (2017-2021).

While he was vice president, Moreno allegedly facilitated a concession to Sinohydro for the construction of the hydroelectric plant.

Patiño, against whom charges will also be filed, appeared as a lobbyist and contractor for Sinohydro in Ecuador. In addition, he was the legal representative of another offshore company, Recorsa, through which he is alleged to have received millions of dollars from the Chinese firm, and from which he allegedly transferred money to more than 10 shell companies in Panama, including INA Investment Corp.

Between 2012 and 2016, INA Investment Corporation managed accounts at Balboa Bank in Panama, from which it purchased expensive furniture, rugs, and other luxury items for Moreno’s apartment in Geneva (Switzerland) when he was serving as special envoy on disability and accessibility with the United Nations.

Additionally, from the same account, transfers were made for the purchase of an apartment in Alicante (Spain) with views of the Mediterranean.

Currently, Moreno serves as disability affairs commissioner for the Organization of American States (OAS), whose functions are exercised in Asunción, Paraguay.

Moreno’s response
On Wednesday, the former president of Ecuador published a statement condemning the process that the FGE decided to initiate against him, without referring to his relatives’ involvement in the case nor to the charges laid against him.


“As I have said from the first day, I do not have nor did I have responsibility for the contracting of the ‘most emblematic’ work of the Citizen’s Revolution,” wrote Moreno. “The Coca Codo Sinclair project answered to the competent authorities at that time, while I exercised my duties as vice president with the sole responsibility of carrying out the Manuela Espejo program.”

In addition, he wrote that he was “surprised” that the Prosecutor’s announcement was issued “while Ecuador is going through complex moments” and when “Correísmo has declared itself the winner and the greatest political force in the country.”

Lenín Moreno was vice president during Rafael Correa’s presidency, and Correa himself endorsed his candidacy for the presidency. Upon taking office, Moreno betrayed all the socialist and progressive programs launched by Correa, dismantling Correa’s PAIS party, and embracing the International Monetary Fund and its economic shock doctrines, making him one of the least popular presidents in Ecuador’s recent history (he left office with a 9% approval rate) and dragging Ecuador into a profound economic crisis.

https://orinocotribune.com/ecuadors-pro ... orruption/

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No Impunity For The Coup Perpetrators, Bolivian Minister Says

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Presidency Minister Maria-Nela Prada, Bolivia, Jan. 23, 2023. | Photo: Twitter/ @BoliviaVerif1ca
Published 24 February 2023

Last year, right-wing militants promoted the burning, looting, and destruction of about 30 public buildings.

On Thursday, Bolivia’s Presidency Minister Maria-Nela Prada said that there will be no impunity for those who committed crimes during the U.S.-backed coup against President Evo Morales in 2019.

"I want to state clearly and firmly that there will be no amnesty. In Bolivia, there are no political prisoners. The people know who the perpetrators of crimes against democracy are," she said.

On Wednesday, the Civic Committee Pro Santa Cruz President Romulo Calvo said that Bolivia’s President Luis Arce has until Feb. 25 to decree amnesties for alleged political prisoners, including the Santa Cruz Governor Fernando Camacho, who was arrested for supporting the 2019 coup and bribing military and police.

Calvo also threatened Arce with initiating a revocation process if the Bolivian President did not comply with the petition, which some citizens allegedly carried out in squares on Jan. 25.


"Calvo must stop using such political speeches to camouflage his coup intentions, which seek democracy destabilization. He has to accept the popular vote and the legitimacy of our government, which responds to the interests of the people and not those of the political elites," Prada stated.

She stated that an amnesty is contrary to what was established by the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI), which prohibits this initiative in the recommendations it gave to the Bolivian State to investigate the crimes committed during the coup.

"Between Oct. and Nov. 2022, the 2019 coup perpetrators promoted the burning, looting, and destruction of about 30 public buildings, including the Prosecutor’s Office and the Police headquarters," Prada recalled.

"I remind Calvo that the Bolivian people have no owners, no bosses. Our citizens are united and organized enough to defend their democracy, which has cost us so much mourning and pain," she pointed out.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/No- ... -0004.html
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: South America

Post by blindpig » Mon Feb 27, 2023 3:00 pm

Ecuador: CONAIE Breaks up Talks with Lasso Government
FEBRUARY 27, 2023

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CONAIE leader, Leonidas Iza, giving his speech during the talks with the Ecuadorian government. Photo: CONAIE.

Last Friday, February 24, the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE) decided to break up the dialogue with the government of President Guillermo Lasso. The decision was made due to the fact that the government breached agreements signed in October 2022, the organization pointed out.

The organization’s leader, Leonidas Iza, remarked: “We break up this dialogue process and we withdraw from these follow-up tables, holding the national government responsible, which has been the one that has not complied [with the agreements] at the dialogue tables.”

The main indigenous organization in the country urged the National Assembly to promote a political trial against Lasso, due to the investigation undertaken by a multi-party commission which analyzed the alleged cases of corruption in the government.

Likewise, the indigenous representative said that the Ecuadorian people will not allow a dictatorship, as Iza remarked: “We declare ourselves on alert with respect to any dictatorial act or decision taken by the President of the Republic Guillermo Lasso. We will not allow him to dissolve state functions and rule by decree. If any initiative of any kind happens, we will immediately declare a national strike in Ecuador.”

In October of last year, CONAIE and the Ecuadorian government had agreed to peace, and with that they put an end to the protests that kept the country ablaze; at the time, at least six people died and some 600 were injured.

The Government and CONAIE closed negotiations in October, which they had entered into as part of a so-called act of peace that put an end to the June demonstrations, albeit without reaching an agreement on fuel prices, the most critical issue in the talks.

The indigenous movements accused Lasso’s government of applying neoliberal policies that impoverish the population and enrich the traditional oligarchy, and at present they claim that the government is still doing the same. Likewise, they have announced that they will continue fighting against mining, and reaffirmed their struggle for their ancestral claims.

https://orinocotribune.com/ecuador-cona ... overnment/

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Bribery charges to be filed against former Ecuadorian President Lenín Moreno
In addition to Moreno, his wife, one of their daughters, as well as two brothers and two sisters-in-law are among those investigated in the Sinohydro case, formerly known as the INA Papers case

February 26, 2023 by Tanya Wadhwa

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Ecuador’s State Attorney General’s Office, on February 23, announced that it will file charges against former President Lenín Moreno and 36 other people, including his family members, for the alleged crimes of bribery in the Sinohydro case. Moreno pictured here with former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Photo: Wikimedia

On Wednesday February 22, Ecuador’s State Attorney General’s Office announced that it will file charges against former President Lenín Moreno and 36 other people for the alleged crimes of bribery in the Sinohydro case, formerly known as the INA Papers case. In this regard, Attorney General Diana Salazar requested the National Court of Justice (CNJ) to set a date and time for the hearing to formulate charges against all 37 defendants. On Thursday February 23, the CNJ accepted Attorney General Salazar’s request and set the hearing for March 2, at 08:00 a.m. After this procedure, the tax investigation will begin, which will last 90 days.

On Wednesday, Salazar recalled that the Attorney General’s Office had been investigating since 2019 the INA Papers case, which linked Moreno and his relatives to an offshore company INA Investment and exposed an alleged scheme of embezzlement of public money, money laundering and evasion of foreign exchange into accounts in tax havens. She reported that the investigation into the case revealed “a structure of corruption around the Coca Codo Sinclair hydroelectric project with an interstate and transnational scope and that it would have carried out its illegal actions between 2009 and 2018.”

The attorney general added that the investigation disclosed that those involved in the criminal structure received $76 million USD in bribes from the Chinese state company Sinohydro, an amount equivalent to approximately 4% of the contracted value of the project. She pointed out that the contract was signed for USD $1.979 billion, however, it ended up costing more than USD $2.245 billion.

Salazar added that “those tens of millions of USD bribes would have been delivered by Sinohydro and channeled through third parties using a false image of consulting and representation services and paid through gifts, checks and transfers.” Sinohydro was in charge of constructing the Coca Codo Sinclair, the country’s largest hydroelectric project.

In addition to Moreno, his wife, one of their daughters, as well as two brothers and two sisters-in-law are among those investigated in the case. Additionally, five former officials and their families, nine businessmen also with their relatives, five Chinese businessmen, and four other people with unknown roles are on the list.

Attorney General Salazar reported that extensive investigative work has taken place to reach this point in the investigation. She said that during the investigation phase, at least a dozen international cooperation requests were made with the authorities of countries such as Belize, China, the United States, Spain, Panama and Switzerland, adding that “documents (from different authorities) have continued to arrive at this institution until this very week.”

Moreno denies allegations
Moreno, who was Ecuador’s president between 2017 and 2021 and vice president between 2007 and 2013, denied the allegations and said the developments were a political distraction from the issues facing Ecuador.

In a statement on Twitter, Moreno defended himself against the accusations, alleging that “the coincidence of the actions of the Attorney General’s Office today is surprising, while Ecuador is going through complex times, Correísmo has declared itself the winner and the largest political force in the country, and ongoing accusations and trials are being debated in public opinion, even putting the continuity of my successor (Guillermo Lasso) on the line.”

Moreno said that he had no responsibility in contracting the project. “The Sinclair project was in charge of the competent authorities since then, while I exercised my functions as vice president and with the sole competence of carrying out the Manuela Espejo program.”

The Sinohydro case
The Sinohydro case was opened in March 2019, when the journalistic portal La Fuente published an investigative report, entitled ‘The offshore labyrinth of the presidential circle’, along with some leaked chats and emails, involving one of Moreno’s brothers with alleged accounts in tax havens and a luxurious property in Alicante, Spain, in an apparent triangulation of the INA Investment.

In the report, a series of links and alleged irregularities were revealed that linked Moreno to the INA Investment, established in Panama in 2019 by Edwin Moreno. The company name is presumed to be a portmanteau of the names of Moreno’s three daughters: Irina, Carina and Cristina. The report led to an initial investigation by the Attorney General’s Office into alleged bribes collected by Moreno when he was the Vice President of Ecuador from 2007-2013 serving under President Rafael Correa.

Correísmo condemns delay in action
Following Salazar’s announcement, former President Correa as well as his party the Citizen Revolution Movement (RC) expressed their dissatisfaction with the delay in taking actions.

“This is overwhelming! Moreno, in his secret INA Investment account, opened by his brother and named after his daughters, received millions from Xavier Macias, Moreno’s operator and lobbyist for Sinohydro. In our government, intermediaries were not required. They know it. It is pure corruption of Moreno,” Correa tweeted.

Likewise, in a statement, the RC said that “Justice that takes too long is not justice.” “The Attorney General’s Office took five years to take action in the INA Papers case, now called ‘Sinohydro’, directly involving Lenín Moreno. All this silence of the Attorney General’s Office simply translates into a clear “cover-up” of the former president, while it undertook the most tenacious and crawling persecution of Correísmo. Without hatred but with memory, we will never forget the dark and immoral role of Prosecutor Diana Salazar in the game of Lenín Moreno and his accomplices, today converted into government. It was all a matter of time!”

While Moreno was supported by Correa in the 2017 general elections, months after he was elected, Moreno departed from the anti-neoliberal and pro-people policies of the Citizen’s Revolution and even oversaw a lawfare campaign against his former colleagues which saw many barred from political life, in prison, or in exile, such as Correa himself. The revoking of Australian publisher Julian Assange’s asylum in April 2019 which led to his arrest, was also part of this volte-face.

Despite Moreno’s machinations, Correa still maintains a strong popular support in the country. His government was characterized by large-scale social welfare programs and public infrastructure projects. During his 10-year tenure, Ecuador’s economy saw an average annual growth of about 3%. In Ecuador’s recent local elections, the RC obtained a historic victory, signifying continued support to Correísmo in the country.

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2023/02/26/ ... in-moreno/
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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