South America

[blindpig]

SCANDALOUS SETBACK FOR MILEI: OFFICIAL OWN GOAL TORPEDOES THE OMNIBUS LAW
Feb 8, 2024 , 9:55 am .


Javier Milei crying before the Wailing Wall (Photo: AFP)

The ultraliberal party led by President Javier Milei, La Libertad Avanza (LLA), has had to retreat by withdrawing the Omnibus bill in its entirety from the Argentine Congress, a fact that returns it to the starting point of the legislative process.

The lack of consensus on crucial aspects, such as authorizing the president to make decisions in economic, financial, security, energy tariffs and administrative areas without having to go through Congress, has been decisive in this situation for Milei, whose ambitions to implement Structural reforms are frustrated.

The vote on the specific articles this Tuesday represented a setback for the ruling bloc, which had celebrated the general approval of the project the previous week. During the twelve votes taken, LLA suffered six defeats.

Just before the vote on the privatization issue, and faced with the imminent rejection, the ruling party requested that the law be returned to committees, which implies restarting the process from scratch.

The bill sought to mark a strongly neoliberal turn based on limiting state intervention. The megadecree contemplates the repeal of 366 laws that, if approved, would grant Milei broad powers by establishing a "state of public emergency." This exceptional measure could be extended until December 31, 2025, with the possibility of being extended for two more years, which would cover the entire presidential term and grant Milei legislative powers.

The Argentine president's three-day trip to the Zionist State of Israel was marred by this news. During his stay, after announcing the intention to move the Argentine embassy to Jerusalem , Milei learned of the withdrawal of the bill and reacted by declaring war on the opposition on social networks.

He reiterated that everything was caused by the "caste" that opposed the change, and called the deputies who voted against it as "criminals who ruin the country . " Previously, the presidency's office had published a list with the names of legislators who voted for and against the neoliberal proposal. Milei commented on it as the list of "loyalists and traitors," and then recommended a publication where you could "map some of the impoverished caste names to their faces."


Between ignorance and pedantry

But at least, as reported by the Argentine media, it was the government itself, promoted by LLA, that led to the defeat of the law.

In an article on the subject, Anfibia Magazine pointed out the lack of strategy of the ruling party when trying to pass laws, and highlighted that basic measures such as negotiating with possible allies, allowing modifications or seducing those who could support them were not taken. Instead, the government chose to disregard legislative work and push the law through, without being clear about the necessary support.

Page 12 portrayed him in a similar way :

The negotiations had not reached a successful conclusion, the ruling party turned a deaf ear to the claims and it was not until the friendly opposition scrapped the first five articles that the alarms began to sound. Finally, the privatization chapter arrived, the numbers were not there, and LLA decided that it preferred to throw away the entire last month of parliamentary work, rather than end the day with a half-victory.

In any case, the disaster that represented the return of the Omnibus Law to the committees of the Chamber of Deputies of Argentina reveals a plot that is difficult to catalog, which could be oscillating between:

*The lack of knowledge of the legislative process contemplated in the Internal Regulations of Deputies and that was evident in the first statements issued by both the Minister of the Interior, Guillermo Francos, and those of the head of the La Libertad Avanza bloc in the Chamber of Deputies, Oscar Zago , where they hinted that, since the law had generally been approved, returning it to committees did not imply starting the process again, in clear ignorance of article 155 of the regulations and

*The deep contempt for the parliamentary exercise that involves negotiating with those who would be willing to support the bill; This became evident in the apathy to build a bridge with some sectors of the opposition and especially with the governors who were not able to be seduced, making evident the lack of interlocutors/negotiators of La Libertad Avanza.

This last statement is not banal, they wanted to build the image of Javier Milei with overwhelming leadership and popularity and reality is responsible for dismantling it every day. Both the results of the first presidential round and the formation of the legislative branch demonstrate that in order to govern, President Milei must establish a negotiation strategy that allows him to build majorities in order to move forward with his political project; and after the “own goal” of the Omnibus Law, such a strategy is far from being seen as a possibility.

https://misionverdad.com/globalistan/es ... ey-omnibus

Google Translator

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Exposed: US DEA Used Criminals to Spy On, Destabilize Venezuela, Mexico, Bolivia
FEBRUARY 7, 2024


Compilation image of Nicholas Maduro (Left), Evo Morales (Center) and Andrés Manuel López Obrador (Right). Photo: Geopolitical Economy Report.

By Ben Norton – Feb 5, 2024

Numerous reports in major media outlets have documented how the US government has used the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in order to spy on and try to destabilize left-wing governments in Latin America.

DEA meddling schemes have targeted Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro, Bolivia’s former President Evo Morales, and Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

In these scandals, the DEA has collaborated with known criminals, including drug traffickers and money launderers, to launch sting operations against leftist politicians.



DEA schemes in Venezuela
The Associated Press revealed this February that the DEA “sent undercover operatives into Venezuela to surreptitiously record and build drug-trafficking cases against the country’s leadership”.

Known as Operation Money Badger, it was launched in 2013 with the goal of ensnaring senior Venezuelan officials in corruption scandals.

The AP reported that the DEA “authorized otherwise illicit wire transfers through U.S.-based front companies and bank accounts”. It noted that “Colombian drug traffickers” were involved.

As its informants, the DEA recruited criminals. The AP wrote (emphasis added):

The DEA Miami Field Division’s Group 10 recruited a dream informant: a professional money launderer accused of fleecing $800 million from Venezuela’s foreign currency system through a fraudulent import scheme.

The informant’s illicit activity in Venezuela positioned him to help the DEA collect evidence against the chief target of the unilateral operation: Jose Vielma, an early acolyte of the late Hugo Chávez who in two decades of service to the Bolivarian revolution cycled through a number of top jobs, including trade minister and the head of Venezuela’s IRS.

Venezuela’s sovereign, democratically elected government had expelled the DEA, so this covert operation was a clear violation of Venezuela’s sovereignty. And the US government itself acknowledged that these activities violated international law, the AP reported.

The AP quoted a former DEA official who served in Venezuela who boasted, “We don’t like to say it publicly but we are, in fact, the police of the world”.

Operation Money Badger started under the Barack Obama administration, but was expanded under President Donald Trump.

The Trump administration launched a coup attempt in 2019, pressuring countries around the world to recognize US-appointed coup leader Juan Guaidó as the so-called “interim president” of Venezuela, despite the fact that he had never participated in a presidential election.

The US government imposed several rounds of crushing sanctions and an economic embargo on Venezuela, which devastated the country’s oil industry and starved Caracas of the export revenue it needed to fund social programs and the foreign currency it needed to stabilize its national currency, fueling hyper-inflation.



In 2020, the US government backed an attempted invasion of Venezuela. The attack, known as Operation Gideon, was led by two former US Army special operations commandos.

One of the top Venezuelan coup-plotters involved in the failed invasion later revealed that the putschists had been in touch with the CIA and other US government agencies.

The botched invasion was overseen by a US private security company called Silvercorp, which was based in Florida and run by a former U.S. Army Green Beret commando, Jordan Goudreau.

Goudreau had provided security for Donald Trump’s rallies. And he met with US government officials at Trump’s golf course in Doral, Florida to discuss the plans to invade Venezuela.

For his part, Trump boasted that he tried to “take over” Venezuela and pillage its massive oil reserves.

At a Republican Party convention in 2023, Trump stated, “When I left, Venezuela was ready to collapse. We would have taken it over; we would have gotten to all that oil; it would have been right next door”.

Trump’s neoconservative national security advisor, John Bolton, likewise bragged in a 2022 interview on CNN that he “helped plan coups d’etat” in Venezuela and “other places”.

Meanwhile, US-backed coup leader Juan Guaidó and his accomplices were widely accused of extreme corruption.

Even Guaidó’s erstwhile supporters in Venezuela’s right-wing opposition turned against him, accusing Guaidó and his allies of spending huge sums of humanitarian aid money on expensive nightclubs, hotels, cars, clothes, food, and alcohol.

Guaidó’s coup-plotting allies also used public assets that the US, UK, and EU stole from the Venezuelan government and people in order to pay their enormous legal fees.

DEA schemes in Bolivia
Venezuela was by no means the only country in Latin America targeted by the DEA for destabilization.

In 2008, Bolivia’s democratically elected socialist president, Evo Morales, expelled the DEA.

Morales was the first ever Indigenous president of a country where the majority of the population is Indigenous.

He accused DEA agents of spying on his government and collaborating with violent right-wing opposition groups.

“There were DEA agents that were doing political espionage… financing criminal groups so that they could act against authorities, even the president”, Morales said, in comments reported by Reuters.

At the time, US officials rejected Morales’ accusations as a crazy conspiracy theory.

But in 2015, the Huffington Post revealed that DEA agents had in fact been spying on Morales and the Bolivian government, as part of an undercover sting called “Operation Naked King”.

To justify its meddling, the DEA misleadingly accused Morales of supporting the drug trade, because he legalized the production of coca, a plant that can be used for non-drug purposes, such as in teas and medicines.

Many poor farmers, especially in the Indigenous-majority areas that Morales was from and represented, relied on producing coca.

Vice News reported in 2016 that, after Morales legalized coca, “there is less violence, less cocaine, and even less coca in Bolivia than there was before”.

Morales blasted the DEA’s double standards, noting that it purchased 45,000 kilos of coca in 1992.

“During our government, the model of the fight against drug trafficking was applauded and recognized by the UN and EU”, Morales tweeted in 2020.

“Now, they submit themselves to the CIA and DEA to benefit the geopolitical interests of the US”, he added, condemning the then government of unelected far-right leader Jeanine Áñez of “submission” and “corruption”.


In 2019, Morales was overthrown in a violent coup d’etat. With US support, an unelected far-right regime came to power, which was led by Christian extremists who systematically discriminated against Bolivia’s Indigenous majority.

Bolivia’s US-backed coup regime also sought to privatize the South American nation’s massive lithium reserves. Bolivia is one of the world’s top producers of lithium, a crucial material needed for battery production.

When a Twitter user criticized billionaire Tesla CEO Elon Musk in 2020 over his support for the putsch in Bolivia, the oligarch responded, “We will coup whoever we want! Deal with it”.

Elon Musk Bolivia coup whoever we want

In 2021, Morales stated that, “For the CIA and DEA the so-called ‘war against drugs’ is an excuse to attack progressive and anti-imperialist governments. It is a screen to cover their geopolitical interests”.

The former Bolivian leader, who was spied on and targeted in a sting operation by the DEA, pointed to a similar scandal that had been exposed in Mexico.


DEA schemes in Mexico
Over decades, the DEA has repeatedly been implicated in illegal espionage operations in sovereign Mexican territory, targeting government officials and politicians, particularly those on the left.

This January, the US media outlet ProPublica published a thinly sourced article alleging, without concrete evidence, that allies of Mexico’s leading left-wing politician Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) took money from drug cartels to try to help him win the 2006 presidential election.

The report acknowledged, “The investigation did not establish whether López Obrador sanctioned or even knew of the traffickers’ reported donations”.

AMLO later won the 2018 election, and has since been one of the most popular presidents on Earth, governing for five years with consistent support from around two-thirds of the Mexican population, according to the US-based firm Morning Consult.

AMLO blasted the ProPublica article as “vile defamation” and “propaganda”, and he suggested that it sought to influence Mexico’s upcoming 2024 election. The candidate Claudia Sheinbaum, from AMLO’s left-wing Morena party, is leading in all of the polls, by a huge margin.

The ProPublica article offered no tangible evidence, just insinuations trying to link AMLO to organized crime. But it did disclose that, in 2011, on the eve of Mexico’s 2012 elections, “DEA agents proposed a sting in which they would offer $5 million in supposed drug money to operatives working on López Obrador’s second presidential campaign”.

That is to say, the DEA was blatantly meddling in Mexico’s internal politics to harm the left-wing candidate, as a presidential election soon approached.

ProPublica also admitted that US “Justice Department officials closed the investigation, in part over concerns that even a successful prosecution would be viewed by Mexicans as egregious American meddling in their politics”.

Mexico-based US journalist Kurt Hackbarth noted that the “only real revelation in this week’s ProPublica piece is the DEA’s plot to frame the AMLO campaign in the runup to the 2012 election”.

“Unlike Russiagate, here’s a bonafide attempt to intervene in a foreign election, freely admitted to”, he added.


In a follow-up Twitter thread, Hackbarth emphasized, “Let’s take a second and appreciate the implications of this. At the precise time Felipe Calderón’s Security Minister Genero García Luna was colluding with the Sinaloa Cartel – which the DEA saw and heard no evil about – they were instead focused on this stupid sting op on AMLO”.

Calderón, a conservative former president from Mexico’s right-wing PAN party, was a close US ally, so faced no serious consequences for his documented links to drug cartels.

AMLO, on the other hand, is an independent left-wing leader who has routinely criticized the US for violating his country’s sovereignty.

In 2023, the Mexican president sent the Joe Biden administration a letter formally condemning US “interventionism” in his country. Specifically, AMLO noted that USAID was funding right-wing opposition groups.

In another speech that year, AMLO condemned State Department criticism as hypocritical “meddling” and stated, “There is more democracy today in Mexico than in the United States… because here the people govern, and there the oligarchy govern”.

AMLO likewise held a huge rally in which he denounced Republicans Congress members who have called for the US military to invade their southern neighbor. While honoring the Mexican state’s nationalization of the country’s large oil and lithium reserves, AMLO declared, “Mexico is an independent and free country, not a US colony or protectorate!”

https://orinocotribune.com/exposed-us-d ... o-bolivia/

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Ecuador Pays A High Price, In Bananas and Carnations, for Giving Russian-Made Weapons to US (and By Extension, Ukraine)
Posted on February 9, 2024 by Nick Corbishley

The impact is likely to be significant for a country that is already reeling from an economic crisis and whose government is in the process of unleashing yet another round of IMF-approved austerity.

Almost exactly a month ago, Ecuador’s US-born and -raised, son-of-a-billionaire president, Daniel Noboa, announced his controversial decision to deliver outdated weapons of Russian origin to the United States. To justify the decision, Noboa insists the equipment is no longer war material, but rather “scrap metal.” As such, giving it to the US does not not violate any end user certificates signed with Russia, as Russia claims, since those agreements only apply to “usable” military hardware.

The Russian government is, of course, having none of it. Russia’s ambassador to Ecuador, Vladimir Sprinchan, warned at the time of Noboa’s announcement that Moscow would consider the delivery of Russian weapons to the US as an “unfriendly move.” As has now been confirmed by Washington, the Russian-made weapons will soon be on their way (if they are not already) to Ukraine where they will be used to kill Russian troops.


Moscow has decided to retaliate on an economic front. And its main targets are two of Ecuador’s most important export sectors: bananas and flowers.

Bananas, Carnations and Humpback Flies

On February 5, the Russian Consumer Protection and Phyto-Sanitary Inspectorate requested the suspension of import authorisations for five Ecuadorian banana exporters after allegedly detecting an infestation of humpback flies in a shipment of bananas from the Andean nation. Today (Feb 9), the Phytosanitary Contol Service applied the same measure to certain flowers coming from Ecuador, including carnations. For the sake of appearances, Moscow insists the restrictions are purely for health reasons and have nothing to do with the weapons deal.

Their impact, however, is likely to be significant for a country that is already reeling from an economic crisis and whose cash-starved, debt-bloated government is in the process of unleashing yet another round of IMF-approved austerity in the hopes of securing further loans and credit lines from the Fund. Two days ago, Ecuador’s congress refused to sign off on a proposed law to finance the war on the drug cartels by increasing VAT, from 12% to 15%. Noboa has proposed instead to gradually increase the tax rate to 15%, “depending on the conditions of public finances and balances of payments.”

For Ecuador’s embattled economy, bananas and carnations matter, a lot. The country is the world’s largest exporter of bananas and Russia is its second biggest customer after the European Union. “Russia is an extremely important market for our country’s banana producers and exporters,” said the Association of Banana Exporters of Ecuador (AEBE) in a press release:

[]“It is the final destination of 21% of all banana exports. 1.46 million crates [of the fruit] are sent weekly to Russia, meaning that this market generates around $757 million per year… In addition, 25,000 workers work across the nation on plantations dedicated to supplying this market, which is particularly important for small producers.”[/i]

This is a fact that even Noboa, as a presidential candidate, openly acknowledged, even going so far as to caution against letting “ideological passions” shape Ecuador’s relations with Russia:

“Russia is our third biggest trade partner. Many people do not understand this. And sometimes they get swept along by ideological passions. Russia helps to feed roughly a third of this country’s banana exporters.”

Noboa’s family has a significant stake in Ecuador’s banana business. His father, Alvaro Noboa, is the owner of Noboa Corporación, Ecuador’s biggest banana company. He is Ecuador’s richest man. But as his son admitted before the election, Noboa Corporación does not export a single crate of bananas to the Russian market. This admission, now doing the rounds on social media, has fuelled speculation that Noboa’s decision to give the Russian-made weapons to the US, rather than being a reckless act by a political novice, is actually a ruthless business move against Noboa Corporación’s biggest competitors.

Whether true or not, Ecuador’s banana growers are hurting. As the Ecuadorian economist Pablo Dávalos notes, they are bearing the brunt of the fallout from Noboa’s decision to involve the country in the Ukraine conflict and there are no compensatory measures in place. At a recent rally, Fulto Serrano, a representative of Oro farmers group, said the sole cause of the problem was the government’s donation of Russian-made weapons. Noboa, he said, will not be affected by the closure of the Russian market, while thousands of farmers around the country will. The result will be a glut of bananas, leading to a collapse in the price.

“A Clear Violation”

Before taking this step, Moscow gave the Noboa government a number of warnings. At a recent press conference, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, said the transfer of Russian-made weapons to the US represents a clear violation of the arms contracts Ecuador signed with Moscow:

In the framework of the military-technical cooperation between Russia and Ecuador, the transfer of military material to third parties is forbidden without Russia’s prior written consent. Therefore, in [such an] event, Ecuador will be breaching its international obligations, which could have negative consequences for our future bilateral cooperation.

Zakharova described Noboa’s decision as “rash,” taken under “extreme pressure from interested overseas parties”. She also tore to shreds Noboa’s “scrap metal” alibi:

If [the weapons] were indeed scrap metal, as they call it in Ecuador, it would be hard to imagine Washington proposing to swap it all for modern equipment, for a not inconsiderable sum.

The US has pledged to provide Ecuador with $200 million worth of pristine US-made weaponry, military equipment and defence systems in exchange for the Russian “scrap metal”. Until yesterday (Feb 8), neither Quito nor Washington had publicly confirmed why the US wanted the Russian-made weapons in the first place, which allowed the Noboa government to maintain the charade that it was not violating the End User Certificate the Ecuadorian State had signed with Russia.

But now the US government is openly admitting that Ecuador’s Russian-made weaponry will be heading to Ukraine. In an interview with Teleamazonas, Kevin Sullivan, the deputy assistant secretary for South America in the US State Department, described the weapons swap as “an arrangement for transferring equipment to the government of Ukraine which is fighting against the Russian invasion.” In other words, the weapons, rather than being consigned to the scrap heap, are in good enough condition to be used on the battlefield against Russian soldiers.

Of course, the impact Ecuador’s arsenal of Russian-made weapons has on the Ukraine-Russia conflict will be practically zero. But the mere fact the Biden Administration is still requesting the weaponry at this late stage in proceedings speaks to the desperate shortages of weapons and other equipment Ukrainian forces continue to face, as many of its European allies have themselves run low on supplies. To fill the gap, the US and EU have been trying to source ammunition for the Russian-made weapons that Ukrainian soldiers are more familiar with from countries around the world, with varying degrees of success.

“[N]ow they are buying Soviet and Russian weapons in Asia, in Africa, in Latin America to send them to Ukraine,” Andrey Koshkin, a professor of Political Analysis and Socioeconomic Processes at the Plekhanov University of Economics, based in Russia, told Sputnik (in Spanish). ” We are up against this, because it means [Russian weapons] will be pointed at us.”

By hitting Ecuador where it hurts most — i.e. its export economy — Russia is sending a very clear message to other Latin American economies that donating Russian weapons to the US cause in Ukraine will have very serious consequences. As we reported a few weeks ago, Argentina’s President Javier Milei has, like Noboa, expressed strong support for the Zelensky cause- The Milei government has even flirted with the idea of sending weapons to Ukraine but doing so could open up the country to a Russian ban on exports of Russian fertilisers, which are essential for Argentina’s huge agricultural sector.

Washington’s request for Russian-made weaponry may, of course, serve other ends, including to reduce Russian arms sales and influence in Latin America with a view to supplanting those sales and influence. In the case of Ecuador, the US will be supplying “more than 20,000 bulletproof vests and more than a million dollars in security and emergency response equipment, including ambulances and defence logistical support vehicles,” according to a White House statement from two weeks ago, just after a visit to Ecuador by President Biden’s Special Adviser for the Americas Christopher Dodd and Commander of the United States Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) General Laura Richardson.

The main takeaway from that statement? US involvement in Ecuador’s war against the drug cartels is about to grow in a very big way:

In the coming days, the FBI will increase its personnel in-country to support the Ecuadorian National Police and Attorney General’s Office. In addition, the Department of Homeland Security is deploying personnel to support the ongoing training of the police and prosecutors; offering additional support in digital forensics and other analysis critical to targeting gang members, drug trafficking networks, and corrupt officials; and providing key training and technical assistance with respect to protection of executive officials. USAID also is augmenting support for its municipal security programs, including support for crisis communications.

Where Is Ecuador’s Former President Lasso?

While all of this is happening, the former President of Ecuador Guillermo Lasso, under whose mandate Ecuador descended into chaos, is out of the country. Lasso, a former banker and Coca Cola executive, couldn’t complete his presidential term due to the overhanging threat of impeachment. He was ultimately brought down by a string of scandals, including, ironically, one revolving around his and his brother-in-law’s alleged ties to the Albanian mafia, which controls the cocaine routes between South America and Europe.

Lasso’s presidential campaign was allegedly partly financed by the Albanian mafia. As revealed in the “Gran Padrino” (Great Godfather) investigation by independent news outlet La Posta, Lasso’s brother-in-law, Danilo Carrera, a well-connected banker who had huge influence over Lasso’s government, was also doing business with Ruben Cherres, a notorious businessman with close ties to the Albanian mafia who was brutally murdered last summer. Ties have also been unearthed between Carrera, the Albanian mafia and Banco Guayaquil, the bank that Lasso once led as executive president and chairman of the board.

According to official accounts, Lasso was the mastermind behind “Plan Ecuador,” the US-designed drug-eradication program that is now being put into effect by his successor, Daniel Noboa. One of Lasso’s last acts was to sign two agreements with Washington that allow for the presence of the US military in Ecuadorian waters and Ecuadorian soil. In other words, the US signed an agreement to wage war on the drug cartels in Ecuador with a government that appears to have been in league with at least one of those cartels.

Lasso has been out of the country for some time. This week, he told Ecuador’s Congress that today (Feb 9) he will be attending the funeral of the former president of Chile, Sebastián Piñera, who died in a plane crash. Following that, he said he will remain outside the country from February 10 to 29 for “personal reasons.”

The reason why this is suspicious is that the Albanian mafia to which Lasso and his brother-in-law are alleged to have close ties was the target of dozens of police raids this week in both Ecuador and Spain, leading to the capture of over 30 members of the transnational crime group, including the alleged kingpin Dritan Gjika. Gjika’s drug cartel is accused of transporting shipments of cocaine from Ecuador to Europe by concealing the drug among shipments of bananas loaded onto cargo ships in Ecuador that are later unloaded at the Spanish port of Malaga and other entry points into Europe.

For the moment, Lasso’s brother-in-law, Danilo Carrero, is under house arrest for his suspected involvement in an embezzlement scheme. Other suspects close to the former president have also been arrested this week including Hernán Luque, who served as Lasso’s delegate on the board of directors of the company that runs all of Ecuador’s state-owned businesses. Luque was captured by Argentine police in Buenos Aires and is sought for extradition back to Quito. All of which begs the question: will Lasso be coming back to Ecuador at all?

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2024/02 ... owers.html

[blindpig]

Argentine: President Milei Closes Agency Against Discrimination


The banner reads, "INADI is democracy." | Photo: X/ @CarasyCaretasuy

Published 23 February 2024

His administration is ready to dismantle public institutes that "are useless or are large political boxes or are simply places to generate militant employment."


On Thursday, President Javier Milei's administration announced it was closing the the National Institute against Discrimination, Xenophobia and Racism (INADI), saying that such public agencies served "no purpose."

The president's office had started the process of closing down the INADI, presidential spokesperson Manuel Adorni said at a press conference.

The measure was a campaign promise of President Javier Milei and part of a comprehensive policy of "dismantling different institutes" that do not generate a benefit for Argentines, said Adorni.

"We are taking the first steps towards dismantling different institutes that are useless or are large political boxes or are simply places to generate militant employment," he said.


"There are countless institutes that President Milei is determined to close or dismantle... our priority was to shrink the government" to reduce public spending and lower taxes, he said.

Since 1995, INADI had been working to combat all forms of discrimination, xenophobia and racism, promoting federal and transversal public policies in coordination with civil society to achieve a diverse and egalitarian society.

"The INADI closure is a step backwards in the fight against discrimination and racism in Argentina, and its repercussions will be deeply felt in society. It is essential that this decision be reevaluated and alternatives be sought to strengthen the protection of human rights in the country," outlet Caras & Caretas commented.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Arg ... -0003.html

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After Two Months of High-Voltage Shock Treatment, Argentina’s Economy Is Screaming at Top of Its Lungs
Posted on February 23, 2024 by Nick Corbishley

The economic data for January, Milei’s first full month in office, makes for sobering reading.

Argentina’s latest descent into the economic abyss is as sad as it was predictable. In mid-December, I warned that Milei’s first dose of shock treatment, now being administered with relish by new Economy Minister (and ex-JP Morgan Chase banker, former finance minister and former central bank governor) Luis Caputo, risks wiping out what remains of Argentina’s fragile economy. Said treatment includes a 54% devaluation of the Argentine peso; a halt on all public works; the freezing of public sector salaries and pensions; a sharp rise in taxes, and the elimination of many public subsidies, including for energy and public transportation.

Now, the economic data is emerging for January, Milei’s first full month in office, and it makes for scary reading. But before we get into the nitty-gritty, a reminder: the economic pain currently being visited upon millions of Argentinean workers and pensioners is an integral part of Milei’s economic plan. It is not an unfortunate by-product or unintended consequence; it is the intended goal — to impoverish workers and pensioners to the point where they cannot fill their shopping basket or buy even the most basic of necessities. If you starve the economy of demand, inflation eventually has to go down.


Last week, El Economista published an article titled: “Due to the monetary squeeze, inflation and recession, savers sell dollars to make ends meet”. The article was harshly critical of the government’s brutal austerity regime but that didn’t stop Milei from proudly retweeting it. Presumably, he never bothered to read the text.

As I noted in my December 15 article, “Who Is Luis Caputo, Argentina’s New Economy Minister (Who Is Already Making the Economy Scream)?” most Argentinians, many of whom voted for Milei out of an understandable mixture of desperation, frustration and anger with the establishment parties, face a crushing loss of purchasing power, both in pesos and dollars, as the devaluation and rising taxes drive inflation even higher while wages and pensions stagnate and public subsidies on energy and public transport are withdrawn.

Stagflation on Steroids



Prices are indeed surging. On a year-by-year basis CPI increased from 211% in December to 254% in January, its highest level since 1990.

Argentina Inflation Rate

The 54% devaluation of the Argentine peso obviously played a key part in this. So too has the removal of subsidies for many basic goods and services, including energy and public transportation, as well as the sharp rise in taxes, including import taxes — from a man who repeatedly said before the elections he would rather cut off an arm than increase taxes. The price of just about everything is surging — everything, that is, except salaries. In a country where the poverty rate is already above 40%. As NC has reported before, this kind of austerity literally kills, through desperation, suicide and lack of access to basic health services.

The one silver lining? Inflation did fall on a month-by-month basis from 25% in December to 20% in January. In other words, the price rises may be in the process of plateauing — which is perhaps no great surprise: when you throttle economic activity and opportunity, price rises tend to slow. But so too does everything else.

A Historic Collapse in Real Salaries

In December — and keep in mind, Milei only took over the reins on the tenth of that month and didn’t issue his Decree of Necessity and Urgency until the twentieth — industrial and construction output plunged 12.8% and 12.2% year-on-year, respectively. According to a Reuters survey, economic activity fell 2.5% year on year. In January, things got even slower. From Infobae (translation my own):

“All the available data — particularly those relating to the domestic market — show a notable deterioration [in January], not only in annual terms but also compared to the figures for December: car registration leads the decline, with a variation of 33% year-on-year ( vs. -5.8% in December), followed by retail sales (-25.5% year-on-year vs. -18.7% the previous month) and construction (-28.2% vs. -17.4% in December)”, reported the consulting firm Invecq. Cement deliveries also fell by 20% (-12.9% in December), motorcycle registration by 19.2% (it had increased by 16.7% in December), and car production by 16.7% (vs. -0 .4% in December). Finally, national taxes linked to economic activity fell between 15% and 25% annually on a real basis…

A similar exercise was carried out by the consulting firm 1816. The indices it included in its survey of preliminary economic activity data are the same as Invecq’s, but it added to the equation the fall in salaries, which has an impact on mass consumption. “Although inflation data marks a clear slowdown (25.5% in December, around 20% in January, most likely less than 20% in February), the flip side is the brutal recession signposted by high-frequency indicators…. In December, the real salary of registered private-sector workers suffered the largest monthly drop in at least 30 years, and it is highly likely that in January real salaries reached a lower level than that of the 2001 crisis.”

This is one of two stunning data points revealed by the research. For those unfamiliar with Argentina’s recent history, between 2001-02 the country went through what should have been a once-in-a-lifetime economic crisis (but this being Argentina it probably wasn’t). Three developments occurred in rapid-fire succession — a partial deposit freeze, a partial default on public debt and abandonment of the fixed exchange rate — triggering a near-vertical collapse in economic output, soaring levels of unemployment, and political and social unrest.

Families lost their life savings in the “corralito” of late 2021, when the then-Economy Minister Domingo Cavallo limited cash withdrawals to 250 ARS (1 ARS = 1 USD), and then the “corralon” of 2002, when most deposits were forcibly exchanged for a series of bonds denominated in heavily depreciated pesos. The corralito was supposed to be kept secret until it came into force but was leaked beforehand, causing a bank run in which few — mainly well-connected banks and corporations — benefited while millions lost more or less everything. The subsequent nationwide protests eventually brought down the De la Rua government.

Incidentally, it was Domingo Cavallo who set the stage for the 2001-02 crisis ten years earlier by establishing a fixed pegging of one-to-one parity between the peso and the U.S. dollar that had absolutely no basis in economic reality. Guess who Milei’s all-time favourite economy minister is? That’s right: Domingo Cavallo.

Now for the second stunning data point. Again, from Infobae (emphasis my own):

“The economic activity data for January may not be surprising, but they are no less eye-catching: sales of cars and motorcycles, cement shipments, sales of construction supplies, retail sales, tax revenues,… everything fell between 15% and 30% year-on-year,” reports 1816. “Food sales in retail stores fell 37.1% year-on-year in the month, something not seen even during the early months of the pandemic. This does not mean that 37.1% fewer calories were consumed, though there was certainly some of that as well as substitution for inferior goods and lower priced brands, given the index does not measure quantities but rather turnover in pesos.”

Remember the El Economista article: by January, many in the middle classes were selling their dollar-based savings just to make ends meet. Many of those without dollars simply ate less food. In January, food prices were up threefold on a year-by-year basis. In a perverse irony, as the social crisis deteriorates, more and more people are turning to soup kitchens, yet in December the Milei government froze all public funds to soup kitchens, food banks and pantries while the current system is audited.

CNN’s Spanish-language channel featured an interesting report comparing basic food prices and salaries between Argentina and Spain. What it found was that while both countries have similar prices for the different products that make up the basic food basket, the purchasing power of Argentinean salaries is roughly nine times lower than their Spanish counterparts.

In fact, Argentina has one of the lowest minimum wages in Latin America today. The current floor for the Minimum Living and Mobile Wage (SMVM) is just 156,000 pesos per month ($184). And it is not going any higher even as inflation rages, says Milei. In other words, workers at the very bottom of the income scale are about to get even poorer. Even the income of most higher paid workers is rapidly losing purchasing power. As prices continue their rise, people will inevitably consume a lot less, heaping even more pressure on struggling small and even mid-sized retail businesses.

All of this is necessary to bring inflation into line and balance the fiscal budget, says Milei. But as public anger and desperation rise while poverty levels surged eight percentage points in January alone, to reach an alarming 57%, time is one luxury his government does not have. Trade unions in many sectors, including healthcare and transportation, are calling for strikes to demand salary increases. Meanwhile, the government’s sweeping “omnibus law”, which the president once said “may well determine our country’s destiny,” was recently rejected by Congress.

As uncertainty reigns, most overseas investors are wary of parting with their cash just yet. Foreign banks are adopting a wait-and-see approach to investing in Argentina and advising their clients to do likewise.

“In order for us to support the private sector in Argentina, there is still a need for macro stability and a higher [interest] rate,” Jordan Schwartz, the executive vice president of the Inter-American Development Bank, told Clarin. “The social crisis is the frontier that must be crossed successfully.”

A similar message was relayed by a number of investment fund managers: the social crisis created by Milei’s economic policies must first be overcome before funding will be made available for businesses. Until then, said Schwartz, there will be no financial support for Argentina’s private sector.

Ominously, even the International Monetary Fund (IMF), whose second-in-command, Gita Gopinath, met with Milei this week to discuss Argentina’s economic challenges, already downgraded its economic forecast for the country in its January report, predicting a 2.8% recession in 2024. One can expect further downgrades in the months to come, as even Milei himself has warned that the worst is yet to come. By 2025, however, the IMF expects the economy to bounce back in spectacular fashion (+1.9%). But as the Greeks (and other long-suffering nations) well know, the Fund has an annoying habit of forecasting miraculous mid-term recoveries for hair-shirt economies that never quite materialise.

* Of course, this is Argentina we are talking about, a country that has, for a host of reasons, been in a near-constant state of crisis for most of its history, as Jeffrey Sachs said in a recent interview with The Duran. As such, another corralito-type event is not out of the question.

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2024/02 ... aming.html

[blindpig]

Milei launches massive attack on press freedom and shuts down national news agency Télam

The news agency building woke up with its building fenced off and with its website under “reconstruction.” The workers are mobilizing in response

March 04, 2024 by ARG Medios


Télam workers at a protest. "Defending public media is defending national sovereignty".

On the morning of March 4, the website of the national news agency, Télam, was shut down and inaccessible to workers with a notice that indicated “page under reconstruction.” The offices of Télam were also fenced off and with a security operation to ensure that no one is able to enter. The move came days after Argentine President Javier Milei announced it during his speech for the opening of ordinary sessions of the National Congress on March 1.

In the speech Milei gave last Friday, he assured that Télam “has been used in recent decades as a Kirchnerist propaganda agency”, a similar argument that the former Secretary of Public Media, Hernán Lombardi, had made when in 2018 ,357 layoffs were ordered in the agency, many of them later reversed by Justice.

In response to the attack on press freedom, Télam workers have called for a rally on Monday March 4 to defend the news agency and its workers.

“The national government is carrying out one of the worst attacks on freedom of expression in the last 40 years of democracy,” Télam workers expressed on social networks.


“Tonight, the city police fenced off the two buildings of the National News and Advertising Agency Télam, to avoid the massive [rally] and prevent workers from accessing the building,” denounced the Buenos Aires Press Union (SiPreBA).


Télam workers, trade union leaders and members from SiPreBA as well as from the major trade union confederations, CGT, CTA-A, and CTA-T, are expected to participate in the rally in defense of Télam which was called after the president’s announcement of the closure last Friday. The latest developments have given further impetus to the action.

The Télam Agency was founded in 1945 during the government of Juan Domingo Perón to seek sovereignty in information and in more than 70 years of experience it became one of the most important news cable companies on the continent.

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2024/03/04/ ... ncy-telam/

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Unions in the educational sector of Argentina begin strike


The protesters will leave very early in different places in the country. | Photo: @AllueAdolfo
Published March 4, 2024

The unions are trying to get the government to approve a salary improvement that can sustain consumption in the face of growing inflation.

The teaching unions grouped in the General Confederation of Labor (CGT) announced a national strike that will come into effect on Monday, to demand salary improvements and other demands.

The unions seek for the State to be the one who “finances and sustains education”, this after the national government's elimination of the Teacher Incentive Fund.

Likewise, they are trying to get the government to approve a salary improvement that can sustain consumption in the face of growing inflation.


"We love students in schools, but we hold the national government responsible for the measures we take due to lack of contributions and lack of reflection on this problem: the national government has to finance and support education," he had noted on Wednesday. said the general secretary of the Argentine Teachers' Union (UDA), Sergio Romero, during a press conference at the CGT, reproaching that in the salary meeting there was "no offer."

Romero then announced that the UDA, together with the Association of Technical Teaching Teachers (AMET), the Argentine Union of Private Teachers (SADOP) and the Confederation of Argentine Educators (CEA), will carry out this Monday a "total stoppage of activities throughout the country" and the beginning of "a fighting plan" that, "if the national government does not reflect, will be extended with different measures throughout the country."

"They have not made us proposals and we have not discussed improving the initial salary of the teaching sector, which today was 250 thousand pesos and, with the reduction of the FONID, the salary is reduced even more and remains at around 220 thousand pesos" , the leader had detailed.

The leader explained that currently education workers receive a salary that is “below the poverty line.”

For now, it is expected that the Government of Argentina will listen to the demands of these unions and provide a prompt solution to the claims.

https://www.telesurtv.net/__export/1709 ... 483347.jpg

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IS EXPERIENCING UNPRECEDENTED FRAGMENTATION TODAY
BOLIVIAN PLURINATIONAL PROJECT AT THE CROSSROADS
Mar 3, 2024 , 7:08 am .


Evo Morales and Luis Arce star in a suicidal battle for the leadership of what was once a solid process without major fissures (Photo: Sputnik)

Evo Morales and Luis Arce are involved in a suicidal battle for the leadership of what was once a solid process without major fissures. Both leaders began their distancing once the cycle of institutional actions that led to the judicialization of relevant actors in the coup carried out in 2019 was exhausted, namely, Jeanine Áñez and Luis Fernando Camacho .

The Bolivian political picture has been disfigured since then, given that Áñez and Camacho were the visible political leaders of the Bolivian opposition. Its judicialization brought about a crisis of leadership and horizon among those opposed to the “process of change.”

Meanwhile, Carlos Mesa (former presidential candidate and most voted opponent in 2019) was diluted in politics, to the point of losing his support base. To place him in comparative terms with Venezuela, Mesa is the political equivalent of Henrique Capriles, although with a much more rapid deterioration in his leadership.

The ruling party then seemed to rearrange the political picture. The process of destroying the opposition (post-coup effect) turned out to be very effective and translated into a sudden feeling of reduced threats to the revolutionaries. The terrible management of the right in the pandemic, added to inefficiency, corruption and social repression, contributed to this weakening.

The initial impetus for the recovery of democracy, the return of the left to power and the weakening of the opposition, created a favorable scenario that would serve to encourage the aspirations of Evo Morales in his search for a triumphant return to the presidency of the republic. .

Actors linked to the process of change, including Morales, implied that Arce's appointment as a candidate had been agreed upon under the premise that he would be a transitional figure between the political cycle of the coup and that of the re-institutionalization of politics. According to this premise, the culmination of the process would bring Morales back to be able to fulfill a new mandate, since his election as president in 2019 was considered “frustrated.” But Arce would have left that alleged agreement.

Since 2022, Morales has developed a narrative critical of the “reformist” tendencies in the Arce government. Then, progressively, the dispute crossed the threshold of an organic division in the Movement towards Socialism (MAS) and the instances that make it up.

Unlike traditional parties in Latin America, the organization of the MAS is based on the cohesion of various political bodies called “social movements”, both in territorial and sectoral modalities. However, it is the sectoral factor that predominates in the area of ​​decisions, organization, mobilization, agitation and other processes typical of party organization.

Arce and Morales have had difficult communications to resolve their contradictions in public, and both often accuse each other of breaching agreements. Arce has defined Morales as the “main opponent ” of his government. In November 2023, the Center for Latin American Geopolitical Studies (CELAG) published a survey analyzing the opinion of Bolivians on different topics. Regarding the “main political problem in the near future”, 42.8% of those surveyed indicated that it is the confrontation between Evo Morales and Luis Arce, an item that was followed by Corruption and drug trafficking (21.5%).

The dispute between the two leaders is the central event in the country's politics and the displacement of the opposition to a minimal expression in the national dynamic has highlighted Morales as the main actor. This diatribe is widely exploited by traditional media, the vast majority of which are owned by conservative and right-wing sectors. It is clearly convenient that, for the usual stakeholders in the division, Morales is now the main antagonist.

This situation evolved negatively for Morales on December 30, 2023, through a ruling by the Supreme Court of Bolivia that annulled the indefinite presidential reelection and reinstated the election for a maximum of two terms. This, by default, nullifies Morales' aspirations and disqualifies his candidacy.

The seriousness of this announcement goes beyond the damage to Morales. In reality, the ruling weakens the political bases on which Morales' participation in the 2019 elections took place. Seeking his fourth consecutive term, Morales called a constitutional referendum on February 21, 2016 to open the lock that prohibited him from new application.

On this occasion, the majority of voters rejected the proposed modification. In 2017, the Constitutional Court of Bolivia recognized the right to indefinite reelection and in 2018 the electoral body enabled Morales' candidacy. However, for many sectors of the opposition, Morales' nomination was seen as an illegal action because they considered that exceeding two consecutive presidential terms was unconstitutional. Now the Bolivian Judiciary has changed the rules and has taken them to the old style.

Morales described the event as part of a judicial persecution. The court politically penalizes Morales late, gives a boost to the narratives that the opposition has maintained during these years and deepens the Morales-Arce dispute.

MORALES AND ARCE FACING THE CONJUNTURAL CRISIS OF BOLIVIA

It is necessary to first refer to the incipient economic crisis that exists in Bolivia. The Bolivian economy is experiencing an exhaustion of its exchange system model. Although in this country the system is theoretically free and floating, it is characterized by an exchange rate artificially contained by state regulations and interventions.

In summary, since 2015, Bolivia has had fiscal deficits covered with debt. But, in addition, it has been depleting its international reserves. Another crucial element is that in Bolivia fuels are subsidized, a part of them is imported and paid for in foreign currency, while fuel reaches the population under subsidy in bolivianos (local currency).

The country has simultaneously financialized the deficit with the issuance of local currency. Social programs, costs during the pandemic, among other current government expenses, have been partially covered during these years through issuance. But despite all these conditions, the Bolivian has not been significantly devalued; the governments of Morales and Arce have avoided allowing a devaluation at all costs, for which they have drained huge amounts of foreign currency from the exchange system. It is likely that in Bolivia the implementation of a monetary adjustment and an adaptation of its exchange system is being postponed. Surely this has been deferred for political reasons that its impact implies.

In March 2023, a shortage of dollars began to be recorded in Bolivia, generating temporary reactions of a stampede among the population to withdraw funds in foreign currency. The government applied flexibility measures for the flow of dollars, managing to mitigate uncertainty.

In February of this year, Arce took measures that, in a way, break with part of the “social pact” that Evo Morales had promoted (with Arce himself as Minister) to govern the Bolivian economy. One of the measures is the end of fuel subsidies and the decree of an export incentive policy, in order to facilitate the entry of dollars into the economy.

In Bolivia, food can only be exported when the authorities consider that supply in the domestic market is guaranteed, so exporters had to obtain a supply certificate before selling their items abroad. Now the government announced that soybeans, meat, sugar and other foods will now be exempt from requesting this certificate, which should alleviate the difficulties suffered by the export sector.

More than three decades ago, the government implemented a subsidy for the purchase of fuel, despite warning that its cost was one of the main reasons for the deterioration of public accounts. In recent times, fuel imports have skyrocketed, as have episodes of supply shortages, which accentuated complaints, especially from large grain producers in the east of the country. In addition, Arce began the issuance of bonds in dollars to mitigate the need for foreign currency in the economy.

Although Arce's measures are more than justified by the change in economic conditions, Morales accuses Arce of being “neoliberal” and “going right.”

Another aspect of the Bolivian conjunctural crisis occurs at the institutional level. In summary, it is likely that the Judiciary is acquiring characteristics of an autonomous power with the power to dangerously affect the stability of the country, as a collegiate body, a “State within the State”, replicating practices that are similar in the judicial establishment of Peru. With this, this power is altering political correlations and affecting the institutional climate vis-à-vis the other powers.

The category of “Judicial Coup” does not yet apply, given that there is no forced change in other powers, but with the pace of events it is likely that this scenario will be reached. The judicial crisis in Bolivia is known as the crisis generated due to the decision of the Plurinational Constitutional Court of Bolivia (TCP) to approve, through ruling 0049/2023, the indefinite extension of its own mandate and that of the other judicial courts of the country, which were to operate until December 31, 2023.

The call for judicial elections was introduced in the Bolivian Constitution of 2009 and were carried out on two occasions, in October 2011 and in December 2017, for which two thirds of the Plurinational Legislative Assembly (ALP) are needed to approve the list of candidates or the law calling for the electoral act.

On December 11, 2023, the TCP unanimously declared the unconstitutionality of a draft Transitional Law on Judicial Elections that was to be dealt with by the ALP, producing a direct clash between the Judicial and the Legislative.

At the beginning of this year, Evo Morales emerged as the organizer of road closures that paralyzed Bolivia for two weeks in order to stop a “judicial coup . ” The roadblocks that the peasants who follow Morales carried out for days managed to get parliament, after reaching an inter-party agreement, to call, for June, the judicial elections that had been blocked since last year.

However, they did not succeed in getting the judges of all the high courts, whose mandate expired in December – but which was extended indefinitely by the TCP – to be replaced by other judges . This last point is key. Morales points to several magistrates who issued the ruling that prevents his candidacy.

Meanwhile and in the midst of this crisis, Arce signed a law that called for elections in the Judicial Branch, but declared that the closure of roads was “unnecessary”, since it cost 1 billion dollars to the Bolivian economy, an assertion that served to criticize to Morales. In addition, Arce indicated that he would activate “processes” against the authors of the closures.

Faced with an institutional crisis, both leaders preferred to dispute the leadership and the containment of the situation itself, but Arce has gone further by raising the possibility of prosecuting Morales .

These comprehensive crisis factors, which involve political, economic and institutional aspects, began in 2019 and accelerated with the collapse of the natural antagonisms between the official massism and the opposition. This has translated into a significant depoliticization of society and a very significant loss of credibility in political and social institutions, according to various analyses.

The debate over the events of 2019, regarding whether it was a “coup d'état” or “electoral fraud”, still faces those who consider that an unconstitutional interruption of the government occurred with the arrival to power of former senator Jeanine Áñez as president de facto. And, on the other hand, to those who consider that the results of the elections were altered after several complaints of lack of transparency.

All of this generates uncertainty in the face of the 2025 presidential elections. The First National Polarization Survey, an initiative of the Unámonos project, revealed important data on Bolivians' perception of political representativeness : 73.9% of the population does not believe that political parties are important for the future of the country. 66.8% say the same about citizen platforms, 63.1% about social movements and 65.3% about unions.

Ana Velasco, political scientist and coordinator of these measurements, refers to a key concept to understand the panorama: political orphanhood.

“People don't even believe that it is important for the future to have political parties or citizen platforms or social movements or unions, all these organizations that are called to generate political representation. Hence this notion of political orphanhood is born, because it is one thing to have bad politicians or parties that are failing, a system of representation that does not work, but it is more worrying that one does not even believe in a future with that presence. Nobody is going to miss them, because things are done despite them and not thanks to them,” explains the expert.

According to this consultation, nearly half of those surveyed do not feel represented either by the speeches of the central government or by those of their regional government. “There is a feeling of non-representation, somewhat greater among those younger than 40 years old and among non-indigenous people. This invisible effect of polarization, according to the study, is the product of a state of political orphanhood,” adds Ana Velasco.

However, the process of “orphanhood” could be considered minor among popular grassroots sectors, especially among social movements with accumulated political organizations. Although this organization could be breaking down due to divisions in the leadership, these groups tend towards mobilization on one side of the Morales-Arce confrontation and others towards immobilization and disenchantment.

POSSIBLE POLITICAL SCENARIOS UNTIL 2025

The most recent data on Bolivia has been offered by CELAG . Among its results is that President Luis Arce's management has a positive evaluation of 47.2% among the population, and his image is favorable for 39.4%. Regarding the Management of the Economy, 36.3% of those surveyed position themselves favorably, and the Management of Public Works is positive for 37.4%.

Regarding the opposition and the capacity of its leadership to defeat the MAS, the survey shows that no opposition leader exceeds 14% of the people's support: the one who manages to accumulate the highest percentage is Manfred Reyes Villa with just 13.7%, followed by Carlos Mesa with 10.3%. It is striking that, adding the votes of “a new candidate”, “none” and “does not know/does not answer”, 51.7% of the opposition base is reached.

Due to the remoteness of the electoral process that would be at the end of 2025, few surveys have been released, however, since 2022 Arce maintains the preference and Morales also appears in the top positions, although then they were compared with other actors who are out of the scene today. , as is the case of Luis Fernando Camacho, who appeared as the second favored in a survey by the company Captura Consulting .

The data released since 2023 is contradictory in some cases. Some refer to weakness in the ruling party and others refer to its strength. There could be bias in these measurements. However, the few available surveys agree that there is a vacuum in political leadership. Between 40% and 50% of the population is looking for a new leadership reference and that expectation is fundamentally among the opposition actors. The Diagnosis firm stated that the need for “newness” in political leadership is transversal to partisan self-identification.

The political scenario in Bolivia is complex even for the opposition. The two opposition groups Comunidad Ciudadana and Creo, through their parliamentarians, have expressed criticism of the ruling party for its internal disputes which, as they explain, also obstruct Legislative work and the advancement of different regulations.

They also see the moment as an opportunity to show their validity on the Bolivian scene. "We believe it is working for the unity of the opposition in 2025 and while the MAS intends to entertain the Bolivian people with a congress in Lauca orchestrated by Evo Morales or with a town hall in El Alto orchestrated by Arce, I come to tell you that in 2025 it will not neither Evo nor Arce will win,” said the opposition deputy, Erwin Bazán.

However, the experts consulted by the Voice of America agree that there is no opposition leadership that can confront the still divided MAS.

“There is a very weak opposition, which maintains a minority of around 30%, in the successive elections, however, it is a disaggregated percentage because there are different candidates as if in that opposition there were several oppositions. They are trying to generate a unity candidacy, but I fear that this will be very difficult due to internal inconsistencies,” says political scientist María Teresa Zegada.

For his part, political analyst Paul Coca considers that there is an opposition “without ideological direction or direction.” “Although the Movement towards Socialism currently has an internal crisis and is weakened, Evo Morales has become the main opponent of this government.”

The Morales-Arce dispute takes place due to the “favorable” climate that implies the destruction of the opposition leadership. One could be positioning the belief that the state of weakness of the adversary offers conditions for a rearrangement of the political map and that Morales represents a new form of opposition. The electoral decline of the right is taken for granted and that a general political framework segregated into three large groups would take shape: Officialism, traditional oppositions divided among themselves and Masismo “evista”.

However, it is possible that, with the support of the United States, a country with experience in interference and intervention, a new leadership is emerging in Bolivia. This leadership could present a disruptive political offer with the aim of changing the current situation in the Andean country. Although it does not have the support of all of Bolivia's opposition parties, this strategy could be successful. One of the candidates with the greatest political potential is Manfred Reyes Villa, who currently enjoys a good reputation.

The lack of prominent leadership in the Bolivian opposition does not appear to be coincidental, but rather part of a strategy. At this time, the emergence of a prominent figure could be counterproductive. On the contrary, the sinuous analysis and a calculation of the political timing that the MAS is going through seems to be the strategy developed by the opposition so that a new figure can be deployed. This suggests that the opposition parties do not control the agenda and, most likely, receive directives from Washington.

On the other hand, there are no obvious features that suggest that the internal struggle in the MAS will be resolved in the short term. Which implies a very serious political sedimentation, which continues to accumulate and continues to prolong. The dispute is being transversalized among social factors, so that various actors are already disputing among themselves the leadership of the sectoral and territorial organizations themselves, in order to achieve control of the MAS.

We are evidencing a reproduction of disenchantment, immobilization and disaffiliation. In other cases, fierce activism among leaders is reproduced, which worsens the adverse cycle, since in addition to Morales and Arce, intermediate actors are included who are inflicting wounds on each other.

The ideal scenario would be the end of the dispute, where the continuity of the government of the Plurinational State is prioritized, that is, the political project that began several decades ago. However, the shadow of division and dispute seems to become more stationary every day with the worsening of the Arce-Morales conflict, where an impartial third party that would allow tensions to be de-escalated within the MAS does not seem to be presented as an option either.

The possibility of a third actor, a third way or a unifying factor emerging in Bolivia is not yet clear. Andrónico Rodríguez, president of the Senate, and Freddy Mamani, president of the Chamber of Deputies, could play an important role in this regard, especially Rodríguez (although he is often associated with Morales). On the other hand, the case of David Choquehuanca is particular. Although the Vice President is part of the problem and presents himself as a strong antagonist of Morales, any recomposition of the government must be aware of the objective reality that the technocrats of the Arce era are also an inherent part of power and must be considered in the process.

It is likely that the dispute can be mitigated by the development of new leadership with unifying capabilities. This could be a way, if this rules out the presence of a new government alignment.

In any scenario, the loss of cohesion of the MAS is the most dangerous factor for the government and this deepens every day, with each episode in the internal dispute between the two leaders.

https://misionverdad.com/globalistan/pr ... ncrucijada

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[blindpig]

9 Out of 10 Peruvians Disapprove of Boluarte’s De-Facto Rule
MARCH 11, 2024


Peru's de-facto ruler, Dina Boluarte, the day the Parliament consolidated the coup d'etat against President Pedro Castillo. Photo: Guadalupe Pardo/AP.

Only one out of every 10 Peruvians approve of de-facto President Dina Boluarte. Meanwhile, 85% disapprove of her rule, according to a new survey by a private polling company.

The Datum survey indicates that Boluarte maintains the approval levels of previous months and notes that the survey was carried out before Prime Minister Alberto Otárola was replaced with conservative jurist Gustavo Adrianzén. Thus, it does not reflect the perception that she failed to meet the general demand for more ministerial changes.

The results also show that just as there is a rejection of Boluarte, there is also a rejection of the president of Congress, Alejandro Soto. He does not have citizens’ support either, with only 11% approving of him, while 70% disapprove. The Peruvian Congress colluded with Boluarte in December 2022 to oust the democratically elected President Pedro Castillo.

Similarly, Lima’s Mayor Rafael López Aliaga, also from the extreme right, has 20% approval and 70% disapproval.

Datum’s monthly survey also focused on public insecurity, considered Peru’s most important issue. Its persistence has created demands for the retirement of the recently appointed Minister of the Interior Víctor Torres.



According to the survey results, 84% of the inhabitants of Peruvian cities feel unsafe when going out. This figure has risen to 92% in Lima, where a third of the national population resides.

Former Vice Minister of the Interior Ricardo Valdés commented that “what makes a person feel very insecure in their city has to do with how they perceive the role of their authorities.” He added that “the management that the [de-facto] president has been carrying out is very negative.”

Boluarte, like most de-facto rulers, initially announced early elections for 2024. However, since June 2023, she maintains that the issue is “closed,” stating that she has decided to finish Pedro Castillo’s term and that her presidency lasts until 2026. Meanwhile, President Pedro Castillo remains in illegal detention under controversial rebellion charges.

(RedRadioVE) with Orinoco Tribune content

https://orinocotribune.com/9-out-of-10- ... acto-rule/

Inflation in Blockaded Venezuela 10 Times Less Than in Milei’s Neoliberal Argentina
MARCH 9, 2024


A person taking some Argentinian pesos bank notes from a wallet. Photo: Ariel Grinberg/La Nacion.

Caracas (OrinocoTribune.com)—This week, the Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV) released its report on Venezuelan inflation in February. The report showed improvement in the performance of this economic index, now standing at 1.2%, the lowest inflation has been in Venezuela since August 2012. Meanwhile, the expected inflation in Argentina, a country not subjected to blockades or illegal sanctions like Venezuela, for February stands at 15%. The Buenos Aires Price Index, one of the most important references, already reported 14.1% inflation with an annual total of 264.5%, as reported by Bloomberg.

The BCV stated that accumulated inflation in the first two months of 2024 reached 2.9%. From February 2023 until February 2024, annual inflation stood at 75.9%. In January, inflation was 107.4%, a figure not seen in almost a decade in Venezuela.

On Wednesday, March 6, the Venezuelan Observatory of Finance (OVF), an independent NGO linked to the far-right Venezuelan opposition, reported that the country closed February with a deflation of 0.5%. This figure means that prices fell half a percentage point compared to January. According to the report, this has not happened in 17 years.


The workers announced the continuation of the camp to guard the property of the environment. | Photo: Somo Télam
Published March 12, 2024

Some 500 communicators highlighted the need for the press agency in the right to information.

Workers from Argentina's Télam News Agency held a massive assembly at the headquarters of the General Workers' Union (CGT), where they rejected the "voluntary retirement plan" proposed by President Javier Milei to move forward with the closure of the media, widely contested in this South American country.

According to local media, some 500 communicators participated in the meeting, where they highlighted the need for the press agency to have the right to information.

In this sense, the workers announced the continuation of the camp to guard the media's assets, as well as support the news portal, which was closed by the Government.

Télam defends itself!

Mass assembly with SiPreBA in CGT and mobilization against voluntary retirements.

We demand that the fences be removed and the functions of each worker reestablished.

We continue with the camps in unity with the entire labor movement. #TelamNoSeCierra pic.twitter.com/Qr9RYl5yeB

— Somos Télam (@somostelam) March 12, 2024

“We reject any plan for voluntary retirements and demand that the Government remove the fences from the doors of the newsrooms so that the company can function again,” said the general secretary of the Buenos Aires Press Union (SiPreBA), Agustín Lecchi.

In turn, the general secretary of the Argentine Federation of Press Workers (FATPREN), Carla Gaudensi, emphasized the importance of the assembly in the political construction that “is being strengthened around the defense of the homeland and against the hunger that the government proposes.”


“Within the framework of the State restructuring process initiated by the President of the Nation, the implementation of the Voluntary Retirement program is announced, for thirty (30) days, for all personnel, permanent and contracted for a fixed term, of Télam SE”, reads the note signed by the auditor Diego Chaher.

Last week, the Argentine far-right government ordered the fencing of the press outlet's headquarters, which remains surrounded by police. The workers were informed of the decision by email.

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/asamblea ... -0016.html

Google Translator

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Argentina: Extreme Poverty Rises to Highest Level Since 2005


A poor citizen collects cardboard to earn a living, 2024. | Photo: X/ @lagar_fernando

Published 28 March 2024

At the end of 2023, 47 percent of Argentines between 15 and 29 years old were already poor.

On Wednesday, the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INDEC) published a report showing that the urban extreme poverty rate in Argentina reached 11.9 percent in the second half of 2023, marking the highest rate since 2005.

Compared to the second half of 2023, this rate, which measures the population sector that cannot even cover their basic food needs, increased by 3.8 points.

In the second half of 2023, the poverty rate stood at 41.7 percent, 1.6 points higher than the previous semester and with a rise of 2.5 points compared to the previous year, constituting the highest value since the second half of 2020.

The report took into account the standard of living in the 31 most populated urban centers, where 29.5 million out of 46 million Argentines are concentrated.


Since INDEC measures poverty based on access to the basic basket, social indicators are directly linked to the evolution of household incomes and the cost of food and services.

In 2023, the consumer price index accumulated an increase of 211.4 percent, the world's highest inflation rate. In this context, the value of the basic basket of food and services, which marks the poverty line, increased by 225 percent.

But the increase was much higher for the food basket that defines the extreme poverty line, which climbed 258.2 percent.

Besides experiencing an inflationary process, the Argentine economy contracted by 1.6 percent, which implied little creation of quality jobs and high levels of informal employment and self-employment.

In these last two groups, incomes are lower and clearly lose the race against inflation, pushing thousands of people into poverty, even those with a job.


In 2023, wages increased by 165.8 percent in the registered private sector and 115.3 percent in the informal private sector, with a substantial loss of purchasing power.

In just the second half of 2023, while household incomes rose by 69 percent, the cost of the basket of goods and services jumped by 75.8 percent and that of the food basket climbed 81.6 percent.

Currently, 58 percent of children under 14 are poor and 19 percent of the country's children and adolescents can't even cover their basic food needs.

Young people are the second most vulnerable group: 47 percent of Argentines between 15 and 29 years old are poor and 14 percent are indigent.

As for 2024, the outlook is not positive for social indicators as inflation continues at very high levels, reaching 276.2 percent year-on-year in February.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Arg ... -0005.html

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Argentina’s Milei Shields Vente Venezuela Coup Plotters in Caracas Embassy (+70,000 Argentinian Layoffs)
MARCH 28, 2024


Front entrance of the Argentinian embassy in Caracas. Photo: Miguel Gutiérrez/EFE.

According to Argentinian government sources, consulted by the far-right outlet Infobae, seven fugitive leaders of the far-right Vente Venezuela party have entered the Argentinian Embassy in Caracas. The current president of Argentina, Javier Milei, and Foreign Minister Diana Mondino appear to have “accepted” the fugitives from the Venezuelan judiciary entering the Argentinian diplomatic mission in Venezuela and to remain there “under asylum.”

These individuals from Vente Venezuela include Magalli Meda (who held the position of national campaign manager for María Corina Machado), Humberto Villalobos (electoral coordinator), Pedro Urruchurtu (international relations coordinator), and Omar González (campaign manager in the state of Anzoátegui), who reported their escape to far-right news outlets on Wednesday, March 27.

On March 20, Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek William Saab revealed details about destabilizing plans orchestrated by members of the Vente Venezuela party in Barinas state, and issued an arrest warrant for these individuals via the Public Ministry, accusing them of planning to carry out terrorist attacks to push for the lifting of María Corina Machado’s long-standing disqualification from holding public office.

A confession by Emil Brandt Ulloa, María Corina Machado’s Barinas state campaign manager and one of the detainees involved in the plot, revealed that Magalli Meda and Henry Alviárez gave him instructions from Caracas to launch a destabilization plan.

Brandt further explained that through violence, they intended to provoke the actions of military and police officials, present themselves as the unjustly wronged victims of this violence, and progressively destabilize the country from Barinas. For this plot, the Public Ministry issued a total of nine arrest warrants, of which two have come to fruition and seven remain pending.

Of those seven, Oswaldo Bracho, Pedro Urruchurtu, Omar González Moreno, Humberto Villalobos, Claudia Macero, Fernando Martínez Mottola, and Magalli Meda are now under the protection of the right-wing Argentinian government led by Javier Milei.



Massive layoffs in Argentina
Javier Milei has also reported plans to lay off 70,000 government workers in the coming months. “We have already eliminated 50,000 public positions, and now we are going to eliminate 20,000 more until we reach 70,000,” Milei announced on Tuesday during a closing speech at the International Economic Forum of the Americas, just weeks after the scandal regarding the salary raises for him and his ministers.

In addition, he boasted of having frozen public infrastructure projects, cut off some funds to provincial governments, and canceled more than 200,000 social welfare plans, which he described as “corrupt.” It’s all part of a plan announced by Milei to achieve fiscal balance at any cost this year, to be accomplished by targeting and affecting mostly those below the poverty level.

Milei’s job cuts are expected to face pushback from Argentina’s powerful unions and could lead to a decline in the president’s already low approval rating. The salary raising scandal forced him to announce the cancelation of the salary increase for senior government officials, including himself, for which he attempted to blame former President Cristina Fernández.

Shortly after Milei’s statements, the Casa Rosada, office of the presidency, explained that the number of contracts that would fall was not the one mentioned by the head of state. It warned that “70,000 is the number of contracts currently under review,” and that “the layoffs will be in stages,” avoiding classifying Milei’s statements as any kind of presidential error.

(RedRadioVE) by Ana Perdigón, with Orinoco Tribune content

https://orinocotribune.com/argentinas-m ... n-layoffs/

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More than 48 Meteorology workers are fired in Argentina


The layoff plan in State agencies that the Government launched this week covers 15,000 workers. | Photo: Latin American Summary
Published March 28, 2024 (11 hours 0 minutes ago)

The Association of State Workers (ATE) announced a “massive and simultaneous entry” to all state organizations on April 3

The Government of Javier Milei, in Argentina, dismissed more than 48 workers from the National Meteorological Service after its policy of readjustment and layoffs.

In this sense, meteorologist Lucas Berengua was fired. The Página 12 platform reported that “in a cruel way by the National Meteorological Service after 21 years working in the organization.”

“There are no telegrams here. Here everything is much more perverse. They called me on the phone. They told me that the director was looking for me, who is a person I don't know, because he has been there for a few days. And he is accompanied by certain directors who were already in the organization and who have been coming for many years,” Berengua shared.



Page 12 reported that “there is a word that is repeated and repeated: cruelty. There are almost no workers who do not mention it when graphing the wave of massive layoffs that the Government of Javier Milei has begun to deploy in all state agencies this week, with the end of the contracts that at the end of December were renewed for three months. .

The layoff plan in State organizations that the Government launched this week covers 15,000 workers, although it does not include all workers in decentralized organizations and public companies.

Protests against adjustments continue
The Association of State Workers (ATE) announced a “massive and simultaneous entry” to all state organizations on April 3. This call for mobilization is due to the arrival of thousands of telegrams of dismissals of Public Administration workers.

“We are going to defend ourselves with the most effective tools we have, which is by exercising our constitutional rights to strike, demonstrate and freedom of expression. We hold the Government responsible for any violent act that should be regretted,” said Secretary General Rodolfo Aguiar.

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/despiden ... -0026.html

Presidents of Mexico and Colombia respond to Milei's insults


"I still don't understand how Argentines, being so intelligent, voted for someone who (...) despises the people," said López Obrador. | Photo: EFE
Published March 29, 2024

Gustavo Petro opined that “Milei seeks to destroy, or at least postpone, the project of Latin American integration.”

The presidents of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), and of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, responded this Thursday to the insults launched against them by their counterpart from Argentina, Javier Milei.

In an interview that Milei gave to the Argentine-born journalist Andrés Oppenheimer, for the American network CNN, he called the Mexican president "ignorant" and the Colombian ruler a "terrorist murderer."

“Milei stated that I am 'ignorant' because I called him a 'conservative faco' (...) He is right: I still do not understand how Argentines, being so intelligent, voted for someone who is not accurate, who despises the people” , said the Mexican head of state on his social network account X.


He pointed out that Milei dared to accuse his countryman Pope Francis of being a “communist” and “representative of the Evil One on earth,” when he is the most Christian Pope and defender of the poor that I have ever known or had news of.

Finally, in a postscript, López Obrador sent a hug to his Colombian colleague.

In a message on the same social network, Petro thanked his Mexican counterpart and said that “Milei seeks to destroy, or at least postpone, the Latin American integration project.”


“Today the Argentine people suffer and poverty increases. Milei's promise to repeat the neoliberal system of 30 years ago may be a failure foretold,” she said.

“His thesis in the world that has seen today how neoliberalism led to worsening the climate crisis, and putting us on the brink of extinction as a species, is not correct. The Argentine people are the ones who must discuss these issues and decide,” he mentioned.

Petro stated that “we, despite the insults, must preserve the project of unity, in diversity, of Latin America and the Caribbean.”

After learning of the statements made by Milei, the Government of Colombia ordered on Wednesday the expulsion of Argentina's diplomatic corps from its country.

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/presiden ... -0002.html

Google Translator

[blindpig]

Ecuadorian Police Break Into Mexican Embassy And Arrest Ex-Vice President Jorge Glas


Ecuadorian Police Break Into Mexican Embassy And Arrest Ex-Vice President Jorge Glas

Published 6 April 2024 (8 hours 18 minutes ago)

Ecuadorian police forcibly broke into the Mexican embassy in Quito on night Friday and arrested Ecuadorian former Vice President Jorge Glas, hours after the Mexican government granted him political asylum.

Glas was detained in this irruption.

In this way, the government of Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa not only violates the sovereignty of the Mexican diplomatic enclosure and international law. He has also kidnapped former Vice President Glas, who already had asylum granted by the Mexican government.

http://twitter.com/i/status/1776472594314608853

The Mexican president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador described the event as a violation of international law and Mexican sovereignty and he ordered the breaking of diplomatic relations with the government of Ecuador.

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

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How Exactly Did The Ecuadoran-Mexican Crisis Unfold?



ANDREW KORYBKO
APR 06, 2024

Drawing attention to the sequence of events leading up to Friday’s drama isn’t intended to imply support for Ecuador shredding the Vienna Convention but to enable observers to better understand its calculations.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) announced on Friday evening that his country is severing diplomatic relations with Ecuador after its police stormed the Mexican Embassy to arrest a fugitive former Vice President who was sheltering there and was just granted asylum that same day. The Vienna Convention protects diplomatic facilities, which is why Mexico accused Ecuador of blatantly violating international law, but the sequence of events leading up to Friday’s drama isn’t widely known.

Former Vice President Jorge Glas alleges that the bribery and corruption charges that he’s facing are politically motivated revenge against the leftist government under which he served. Reuters reported in late December that “Glas, 54, was sentenced to six years in prison in 2017 after he was found guilty of receiving bribes from Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht in exchange for awarding it government contracts.”

They added that “He was given a separate eight-year prison sentence in 2020, as was Correa, for using money from contractors to finance campaigns for Correa's political movement. Glas has been jailed and freed repeatedly. He was last released in November 2022 after completing five years of his sentences. Though he can move freely within Ecuador, he cannot leave the country during the remainder of his sentences.”

Glas was ordered back to prison but fled to the Mexican Embassy on 17 December while appealing the decision. He didn’t receive asylum until Friday, the same day that the Ecuadoran police stormed that diplomatic facility to arrest him, which followed two significant developments over the past two days. AMLO opined on last year’s Ecuadoran elections on Wednesday in a way that newly elected President Daniel Noboa’s government interpreted as questioning its legitimacy.

It accordingly declared the Mexican Ambassador persona non grata the day later on Thursday, which preceded the decision to grant Glas asylum on Friday. The sequence of events shows that Mexico granted Glas asylum and requested his safe transit outside the country in line with international law after its top diplomat there was told to leave in protest of AMLO’s scandalous remarks. This was clearly intended to greatly up the ante of their dispute by throwing Ecuador into a dilemma.

AMLO was calculating that Noboa would be pressured by his country’s international legal commitments into letting Glas leave the country with the expelled Mexican Ambassador, but he overlooked several important facts that ultimately resulted in the failure of his plan. For starters, Ecuador is still close to the US despite its new leader reversing his prior decision to indirectly send old Russian arms to Ukraine after Moscow cut off profitable banana imports on epidemiological pretexts.

The US was also against the leftist government under which Glas previously served, with these two factors insulating Ecuador from American criticism. No punitive measures are therefore expected to follow from its top trade partner. While Mexico might move to curtail bilateral trade in response, the $818 million that it conducted with Ecuador last year was less than 1% of the latter’s 2022 GDP of $115 billion. By contrast, trade with the US was over 20 times more at $18 billion that year.

Money talks, regardless of however this observation makes one feel, and Ecuador simply makes more of it from the US than from Mexico. Whatever curtailment of trade with Mexico might follow this latest development could easily be replaced by the US so Ecuador won’t suffer from any de facto sanctions. Some of Mexico’s fellow leftist-aligned governments in the region might criticize Ecuador after what happened, but they’re also unlikely to voluntarily cede their market share there to the US or others.

China is Ecuador’s second-largest trade partner but it has a strict policy of not intervening in other countries’ affairs or foreign disputes between them unless it’s requested to mediate. This means that it also won’t voluntarily cede any market share there through the imposition of de facto sanctions over this violation of international law. Beijing knows that Washington would also spin this as meddling in order to smear the People’s Republic and would swiftly move to replace its share in the market as well.

Another factor that worked against AMLO’s calculations is that nobody sanctioned Israel after it bombed the Iranian consulate in Damascus so there was never any realistic expectation that other countries would rally around Mexico if Ecuador crossed the diplomatic line in order to economically punish it. All that he was betting on was Noboa’s “goodwill”, which was a major mistake since that newly elected leader wasn’t going to let himself be humiliated by Mexico’s diplomatic escalation.

He won on a law-and-order platform and has been waging war against those drug gangs that unsuccessfully tried to seize control of the country in January. There was no way that Noboa could retain his image if he let a fugitive former Vice President leave the country to Mexico, let alone after being granted asylum one day after the Mexican Ambassador was expelled for AMLO’s scandalous remarks that questioned his government’s legitimacy. AMLO’s moves were serious provocations in his eyes.

In sum, Noboa chose to pursue domestic political goals that he regards as being in the country’s national interests at the expense of being accused of violating international law in furtherance of an alleged witch hunt against the former leftist government. If AMLO hadn’t granted Glas asylum, especially one day after his ambassador was expelled following what AMLO said about last year’s elections, then the police might not have stormed the embassy and Glas would have likely remained there indefinitely.

Drawing attention to the sequence of events leading up to Friday’s drama isn’t intended to imply support for Ecuador shredding the Vienna Convention but to enable observers to better understand its calculations. Noboa felt that failing to do so would have led to him “losing face” at home after AMLO greatly upped the ante of their dispute through his attempt throw Ecuador into a dilemma, thus leaving him little choice but to escalate in response after calculating that the tangible costs would be nil.

https://korybko.substack.com/p/how-exac ... an-mexican

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Milei Allows US to Construct Naval Base in Strategic Southernmost City of Argentina
APRIL 6, 2024


Argentinian President Javier Milei poses with US Southern Command chief General Laura Richardson in Ushuaia, Argentina, April 4, 2024. Photo: El País.

The president of Argentina, Javier Milei, announced that the United States will construct an “integrated naval base” in Ushuaia, the southernmost city of Argentina, known as “the city at the end of the world.” The city has an extreme geopolitical importance, as it is located where the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans meet, in addition to being the “point of entry” to the continent of Antarctica.

On Thursday, April 4, Milei traveled to Ushuaia, in the province of Tierra del Fuego, after midnight to expressly meet with the commander of the US Southern Command, General Laura Richardson.

However, the meeting was a delayed one. Although Milei’s arrival was scheduled earlier, as was announced on the channels of the Argentinian Presidency, and the official TV channel of the presidency remained on hold for more than two and a half hours, the Argentinian Air Force plane that transported the president from Buenos Aires landed in Ushuaia shortly after midnight local time.

Milei’s special travel to Ushuaia to meet with the US general contrasts sharply with his refusal to travel to the same province on the eve of April 2 to participate in the vigil commemorating the 42nd anniversary of the Malvinas War.

At the midnight meeting on Thursday, after the national anthems of Argentina and the United States were played, as if it was a meeting between officials of equal rank, Milei gave a speech addressing the military officials present there, reiterating the importance of strengthening the “strategic alliance with the United States and the countries that defend the ideas of freedom.”

He also highlighted the importance of the Integrated Naval Base as a “great logistic center that will be the closest port to Antarctica” and “the gateway to the white continent.”

Milei stressed that the presence of that port, which will be used for repair and resupply work for cruise ships and commercial vessels that sail those waters, “is the way to continue ensuring Argentina’s sovereign rights in Antarctica,” in which continent Argentina has been present since 1904.

“We are convinced that sovereignty is not defended with isolationism or bombastic speeches, but with political conviction and building strategic alliances with those with whom we share a vision of the world,” he said.

Milei’s spokesperson, Manuel Adorni, defended the president’s decision to involve the US in the strategic military base. “The integrated naval base turns Argentina and the United States into the gateway to the white continent,” Adorni said. “This is part of our integration to the western and developed world, to strengthen our sovereignty against the invasion of foreign ships that for years had a free hand plundering our seas,” he added, forgetting to mention that it was precisely American and European ships that plundered Argentina’s marine resources and continue to do so.


The political opposition to Milei, represented by the center-left Unión por la Patria (UxP) and the parties to the left of it, did not agree with the Milei administration’s curious association between “sovereignty” and “integrated naval base operated by the United States.”

Although Milei did not mention this, the base had already begun to be constructed during the government of Alberto Fernández. According to Fernández’s former Defense Minister Agustín Rossi, the initiative was an old project of the Armed Forces of Argentina that was planned more than 15 years ago. “It was a strategic project for the geopolitics of our country because it would be the southernmost military port in the world,” he explained to the Argentinian media Página12. “We were only able to carry out the preliminary tasks… but we always insisted that the base had to be built by Argentina and operated exclusively by the Argentinian Armed Forces.”

As previously reported by the US Embassy in Argentina, General Richardson is scheduled to interact with Argentinian military personnel and learn about their missions and the role they play “in safeguarding vital maritime routes for global trade.”



The US Army general began her visit to Argentina on Wednesday, April 3, where she held meetings with several members of the government to discuss bilateral relations in matters of “regional defense cooperation.” However, the governor of Tierra del Fuego, Gustavo Melella, refused to meet with her, saying, “We are not going to receive formally, officially and in any way the chief of the US Southern Command because they carry out military practices together with Great Britain in the South Atlantic.”

Britain has been occupying Argentina’s Malvinas Islands and South George and South Sandwich Islands (in the Antarctic region of Argentina) and their contiguous waters for more than 190 years. The British military base in Puerto Argentino of Malvinas Islands is used by NATO.

However, regarding the military base, various parliamentarians opined that only Congress has the power to authorize the entry of foreign troops into the country, so the construction of a combined naval base has to be first approved by Congress as a law. “An integrated military base in the south requires authorization from Congress and an exhaustive explanation of the intended interests as well as the non-violation of our sovereignty,” explained UxP Senator Carlos Linares.

Milei, however, does not appear to be concerned about Argentina’s sovereignty. In fact, he met with General Richardson twice within 12 hours, the second meeting taking place on Thursday afternoon at the Jorge Nebwery Airfield in Buenos Aires. There Milei again exhibited his government’s geopolitical alignment with US policies, declaring that “our alliance with the United States is a statement to the world.”

“I want to announce a new foreign policy doctrine for Argentina,” Milei said in his speech at the airfield. “Defining strategic alliances is a central element of an intelligent foreign policy, but these alliances cannot be based simply on economic interests, they have to be anchored in a common vision of the world.”

The message seemed to have been addressed to both the US and Chinese governments, as China has several public works and scientific projects in Argentina, in addition to being the largest destination of Argentina’s agricultural products.

During General Richardson’s visit, the United States transferred a C-130H Hercules transport aircraft to the Argentine Air Force, following a meeting between the SOUTHCOM chief and the defense minister of Argentina, Luis Petri, who was also present in Ushuaia.

This is Richardson’s third visit to Argentina, and it follows two other visits to Argentina this year by high-level officials of the US government: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit in February, and CIA director William Burns’ meeting with Milei’s cabinet chief Nicolás Posse and Security Minister Patricia Bullrich in March.

The presidential spokesman, Manuel Adorni, announced that Richardson’s visit is part of “the excellent relations that Argentina is having with the United States” with the arrival of Milei to the presidency of Argentina. As part of these “excellent relations,” the USS George Washington aircraft carrier of the US Navy will arrive in Argentina in May, after 13 years.

https://orinocotribune.com/milei-allows ... argentina/

President of Venezuela: Assault on Mexican Embassy in Ecuador Is an Act of Barbarism
APRIL 7, 2024


Mexican diplomat Roberto Canseco, charge d'affaires of the Mexican embassy in Ecuador, being pushed to the ground by Ecuadorian police while the diplomat was trying to stop the kidnapping of Jorge Glass. Photo: X/@virgiliohernand.

The president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, condemned the invasion of the Mexican embassy in Ecuador by the Ecuadorian police and the illegal detention of former Ecuadorian Vice President Jorge Glas who had received political asylum. “It is an act of barbarism, something never seen in Latin America,” the Venezuelan president wrote on social media on Saturday, April 6.

“The right-wing pro-Yankee government of Ecuador brutally violated international law, assaulting the Mexican embassy in Ecuador and abducting a person who had been granted political asylum by the Mexican government,” he added. “Venezuela raises its voice to strongly condemn this fascist act against international law, and expresses its full and absolute solidarity with President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and the people of Mexico.”

Es un acto de barbarie, algo nunca visto en América Latina, el gobierno de derecha pro yankee de Ecuador violó brutalmente el Derecho Internacional, asaltando la Embajada de México en Ecuador y secuestrando a un asilado político, así reconocido por el gobierno mexicano. Venezuela… https://t.co/O59LmuNtCn

— Nicolás Maduro (@NicolasMaduro) April 6, 2024

President Maduro issued his message in response to a Twitter post from the president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who wrote on Friday night, “Alicia Bárcena, our Secretary of Foreign Affairs, has just informed me that the Ecuadorian police forcibly entered our embassy and took away the former vice president of that country who was a refugee in the process of being granted asylum due to the persecution and harassment he faced. This is a flagrant violation of international law and the sovereignty of Mexico, which is why I have instructed our secretary of foreign affairs to issue a statement regarding this authoritarian act, proceed legally, and immediately declare the suspension of diplomatic relations with the government of Ecuador.”

In the early hours of Saturday, the foreign affairs minister of Venezuela, Yván Gil, reported that he had been in contact with Mexican Foreign Affairs Secretary Alicia Bárcena, to whom he conveyed absolute solidarity on behalf of the president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, to the Mexican authorities and people and against the violation of their embassy in Ecuador.

“I have spoken on telephone with Secretary Alicia Barcena and conveyed the absolute solidarity of President Nicolás Maduro to President López Obrador against this barbaric act that violates all principles of international law,” Minister Gil posted on social media.

On Friday night, Ecuadorian security forces forcibly entered the Mexican Embassy in Quito and arrested former Ecuadorian Vice President Jorge Glas, who was living inside the embassy since December 17, 2023, seeking political asylum in Mexico after years of lawfare against him, that is part of the lawfare against former President Rafael Correa and the Citizens’ Revolution movement, of which Glas is a well-known leader.



In response to the invasion of the Mexican embassy, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced the suspension of diplomatic relations with Ecuador and condemned the incident as a flagrant violation of international law and the sovereignty of Mexico.

The illegal move by the government of Daniel Noboa, an “ally” of the US government, was severely criticized by almost all Latin American governments. The Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) convened an emergency meeting on the matter, while the president of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, also announced the termination of all diplomatic relations with Ecuador.

Meanwhile in Venezuela, six far-right coup plotters belonging to María Corina Machado’s Vente Venezuela party, accused by their own co-conspirators, requested asylum in the Argentinian embassy in Caracas. Mainstream media made heavy news coverage after a recent electricity issue caused an interruption in the services for a few hours, despite the fact that the Venezuelan government’s respect for international law and asylum has been almost spotless in recent years.

https://orinocotribune.com/president-of ... barbarism/

Rules based order strikes again.

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ALBA-TCP Condemns Attack on Mexican Embassy in Quito


ALBA-TCP member countries reaffirmed their solidarity with the Mexican government. | Photo: @ALBATCP

The document remembered that the concept of political asylum was born and consolidated as an essential contribution to public international law in Latin America.

The Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) condemned this Saturday the police incursion committed by the National Police of Ecuador during its irruption, Friday night at the Embassy of Mexico in Quito, to forcibly arrest former Vice President Jorge Glas.

On a statement shared in X, the Latin American organization declared that "raid of the Mexican Embassy by military forces, as well as the kidnapping of former Vice President Jorge Glas, legally protected in the Mexican Embassy through the right to political asylum, and the abusive treatment of all Mexican diplomatic personnel, constitute serious and unprecedented violations of international law."

The document also states that these illegal actions constitute a flagrant violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, the Convention on the Right of Asylum and Mexico's sovereignty, which should be rejected by civilized countries around the world.



"It is inadmissible for a government of our region to behave in such a manner, violating the sovereignty of sister countries and the peace and security of Latin America and the Caribbean," said the statement.

The document remembered that the concept of political asylum was born and consolidated as an essential contribution to public international law and where "we signed the Proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace."

ALBA-TCP member countries strongly condemned assault to the embassy. Also, reaffirmed their solidarity with the Mexican government and denounced the attempt to "replace the international order based on strict respect for the Charter of the United Nations and International Law with an order based on arbitrary rules, tailored to the interests of each actor."

Jorge Glas, in the midst of a large military deployment, has been transferred on the morning of this Saturday to the high security prison La Roca, Guayaquil, after being kidnapped during a policial assault on the Mexican Embassy in Quito.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/ALB ... -0010.html

Nicaragua Formally Breaks Diplomatic Relations With Ecuador


Nicaragua had tense relations with Ecuador since 2020, when its diplomatic staff was withdrawn from Quito. | Photo: @datacurioso

Published 6 April 2024

Thus the Central American country joins the world repudiation against the aggressions of the government of Daniel Noboa by attacking a foreign diplomatic headquarters.


Through a statement released by the Nicaraguan authorities this Saturday, the Central American country breaks all its diplomatic relations with Ecuador after the police of that South American country invaded the Mexican embassy in Quito.

''Given the unusual and reprehensible action carried out this morning in Quito, by Forces that should protect the Order and Security of Ecuadorian Citizens and their Lives, our forceful, emphatic and irrevocable rejection, which we convert into our Sovereign Decision to break all diplomatic relations with the Ecuadorian Government,'' sentenced the was sentenced in the document.

''The Government of Reconciliation and National Unity of Nicaragua Blessed and Always Free, pronounces itself in absolute rejection and condemnation of the neo- fascist political barbarism of the Government of Ecuador, whose admirable people deserve, as always, all our love, support and solidarity.'' Reads the Nicaraguan statement.


Nicaraguan Government emphazises that ''this flagrant violation of International Law that we see repeated by corrupt and servile Rulers to the Empires, which unfortunately occupy institutional positions in that Brother Country.''

Also, the document remembered the complicity the former president Lenín Moreno in the assault on its own embassy in London, ''to violently and illegally extract Julian Assange, a Journalist that the World demands and whose work allowed us to know and further disseminate the imperialist atrocities.''

Several Latin American countries have condemned the assault on the Mexican Embassy. Brazil, Uruguay, Honduras, Chile, Colombia, Venezuela, Cuba, Paraguay and the Organization of American States have energetically condemned the military intrusion in the embassy, as well as former Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa.

Ecuadorian police and military violently stormed the Mexican embassy in Quito to arrest former Vice President Jorge Glas, who had asked for political refuge in the embassy last December claiming to fear for his safety. Mexico instantly severed his historical diplomatic relations with Ecuador.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Nic ... -0008.html

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‘Medical Emergency’ of Imprisoned Former VP of Ecuador Jorge Glas Was Suicide Attempt
APRIL 11, 2024


Former Ecuadorian Vice President Jorge Glas enters La Roca prison in handcuffs after being abducted by the Ecuadorian Police from the Mexican embassy in Quito. Photo: Ecuador National Police.

It was confirmed this Wednesday that former Ecuadorian vice president Jorge Glas was hospitalized last Monday due to “a suicide attempt,” according to former Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa.

“We have confirmed that the medical emergency was a suicide attempt, wrote Correa on social media. “He has not eaten anything and is on a hunger strike.” Glas was finally able to contact his defense and his family, reported Correa.

Correa held President Daniel Noboa responsible for the physical and emotional integrity of Glas and called on Noboa to be aware that “he has clearly committed the crime typified in Article 125 of the country’s penal code.”


Physical abuse
For her part, Sonia Gabriela Vera García, a member of the team of lawyers defending Glas, published on her social media accounts an excerpt of a conversation she had with the former vice president in which she recounted the humiliation to which Glas was subjected to during the assault on the Mexican embassy in Quito.

Glas said that before being read his rights, four police officers tied him up, brutally beat him, and then proceeded to film a staged scene to make it appear that Glas’ rights had been respected.

“Then they film me again to make a feint … I was all beaten up and they make me read my rights again,” said Glas. “The police start reading them, and they sit me there and I faint. And they still tell me: ‘Stop, stand up.’ I tried to stand up, but I couldn’t because of the beating they had given me.”

Along these lines, the former Ecuadorian vice president said that there are two videos of the procedure in which he was captured, one in which he was taken out “held by his thumbs as in the time of the dictatorship” and another, which the Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador exhibited, which contradicts the official version spread by the Ecuadorian Government.

“I’m on a hunger strike, but nothing is going to happen to me. You have to know that I’m not going to give up,” Glas added.



Contradictory versions
Last Friday, a police contingent invaded the Mexican diplomatic mission in Ecuador and prepared forcibly arrested Glas, who had been granted diplomatic asylum by Mexico.

From there, he was transferred to the La Roca maximum security prison, located in the city of Guayaquil, almost 430 kilometers from the capital. On April 8, he was taken to a Naval Hospital for treatment “due to his refusal to eat food.”

However, the media reported various versions of what had happened, including that Glas had been poisoned due to ingesting excess medications used to treat pain and anxiolytics.

Glas’ defense and family then stated that they had not been able to establish contact with Glas since he was taken to the Guayaquil prison. They complained that they were not informed promptly of the hospital transfer and held the government of far-right billionaire heir President Noboa responsible for Glas’s physical safety.

https://orinocotribune.com/medical-emer ... e-attempt/

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Milei celebrates violent repression of thousands protesting hunger in Argentina

Police cracked down on a protest of thousands of workers in the capital who demanded the government listen to its demands to send food to the community kitchens and address the growing hunger in the country

April 11, 2024 by Peoples Dispatch


Police attacked the protest organized by UTEP in Buenos Aires. Photo: UTEP

On Wednesday April 10, the Federal Police and the Police of the city of Buenos Aires violently evicted and repressed a peaceful demonstration on 9 de Julio Avenue in the center of the capital. The mobilization organized by the Union of Workers of the Popular Economy (UTEP) was one of many which took place in cities across the country to raise awareness to the critical situation faced by workers in the popular, or informal, economy in Argentina.

Organizations part of UTEP claim that the national government has suspended programs providing food to community kitchens and has also refused to dialogue with organizations who have repeatedly denounced the suspension and now, are unable to provide food to the thousands of families that they previously worked with. Many poor families across the country have also suffered from a freezing and arbitrary reduction of their “Social Complementary Salary”, a government program which provided supplementary economic aid to workers of the popular economy.

In Buenos Aires, thousands of protesters attempted to march to the Ministry of Human Capital when they were violently attacked by police with gas, water cannons. Over 10 were arrested in the brutal police repression and several were injured, including one protester who was dragged down the street and hit against the asphalt. Additionally, a journalist with the outlet Crónica TV driver was hit with a rubber bullet in the face.

The Ministry of Human Capital is a creation of the Milei government as a part of his promise to cut the majority of ministries and secretaries and create “super ministries”. It is the combination of the former Ministry of Labor, Ministry of Employment and Social Security, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Culture, and the Ministry of Social Development. This move, in addition to massively reducing the number of people working for the ministry, also saw severe cuts be made to the dozens of social programs run by those areas.

Milei, who was in Miami visiting with zionist and far-right US leaders such as Ben Shapiro, celebrated the repression of the protesters who were demanding government action against hunger amid unprecedented levels of poverty in the country. Milei reposted a publication from user Diego Álzaga Unzué on X which said: “Applause, gentlemen, see how the fire hydrant truck came out to remove the picketers who wanted to get dirty and cut off 9 de Julio Avenue, harming the workers. This is cinema. Enjoy, my friends.”

His Minister of Security Patricia Bullrich declared: “Law and order” in her post praising the “effective” crackdown on the mobilization through her “anti-picket protocol”.


Following the repressive operation, UTEP wrote in a statement: “We tried to create a channel of dialogue by all possible means, but once again the only response to the social and economic crisis is batons, gas and bullets. We denounce the violent actions of this Government, which the only thing it proposes for the people is planned misery. Our fight plan will continue to deepen to get food for our community kitchens, work and projects in our working class neighborhoods and social wages for the workers of the popular economy.”

The past week saw mass unrest across Argentina after over 10,000 public sector workers lost their jobs. As the “chainsaw” austerity of Milei continues alongside a growing military partnership with the United States, Argentina’s robust social organizations continue to be engaged in fierce struggle and opposition.

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2024/04/11/ ... argentina/

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Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa Crushes Dissent for Corporate Masters
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on APRIL 11, 2024



The Grayzone

Under the rule of the inexperienced, Miami-raised neoliberal President Daniel Noboa, Ecuador is establishing a police state under the guise of a war on terror, and may surrender whatever’s left of its sovereignty to Washington.

See how corporate power is exercised in part two of this documentary series by Oscar Leon.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2024/04/ ... e-masters/

Beyond Differences: Maduro and Petro Consolidate Cooperation
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on APRIL 11, 2024
Misión Verdad


Maduro and Petro advancing relations.Maduro and Petro advancing relations

The fifth meeting in Caracas between the presidents of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, and Colombia, Gustavo Petro, reflects the rapprochement and strengthening of diplomatic relations between the two countries as a shared project. In this frank and constructive dialogue, the interest in maintaining an open channel of communication to jointly address the challenges and opportunities that arise at the binational, regional and international levels was evident.

During their meeting, the leaders reviewed in detail the aspects of the bilateral relationship, expressing satisfaction with the progress made in trade and transportation matters, as well as in the consolidation of a binational energy guarantee network that includes clean energy projects.

“We had a good conversation with our work teams. We reviewed how the relationship between Venezuela and Colombia is evolving and progressing and the new opportunities that are opening up in all fields,” the Venezuelan president said in a statement to the media.

The Heads of State discussed the situation in Ecuador, expressing their solidarity with the government of Mexico after the violation of the principles of International Law by breaking into the embassy of that nation and taking away former Vice President Jorge Glas. They also addressed the situation in Haiti and agreed on the need to seek immediate solutions for that sister nation.

“We had a common vision on the conflicts in the continent, the Celac meeting today, the conflict in Palestine and all the issues of threats of war in the world. In addition, the need to preserve peace in our region, in South America, with care, with good offices, with good joint efforts,” said President Maduro.

Regarding cooperation in security and defense, they pledged to provide an effective response in the fight against organized crime and financial crimes, including the use of cryptocurrencies.

Maduro stressed the importance of working in coordination to preserve peace in the region and expressed his willingness to collaborate in the construction of peace in Colombia. For his part, Petro praised Venezuela’s help in resolving the armed conflict in his country, and proposed a common agenda to promote Latin American integration.

“We talked about issues that have to do with politics, undoubtedly in concrete terms. Political peace and military peace. Venezuela can help us a lot and has done so for years, in governments prior to mine. On the issue of armed conflicts, which were successful in the Santos (Juan Manuel) government, and which must be built now in these governments”, he stated.

Meeting between foreign ministries

Within the framework of this binational rapprochement, the foreign ministers of Venezuela and Colombia met last Monday in Cúcuta to address issues of regional interest. Previously, the governor of the state of Táchira, Freddy Bernal, and the governor of Norte de Santander (Colombia), William Villamizar, held a summit to address common security actions.

During statements to the media, the Colombian diplomat Luis Morillo highlighted the efforts that have been made to strengthen shared trade and security on the border, and reported on the implementation of mixed patrols to combat insecurity in this joint space.

Chancellor Murillo commented that the activities of the Commission for Neighborhood and Integration between Colombia and Venezuela, which promotes economic, social and cultural development on the common border, as well as the improvement of infrastructure and public services, will be intensified. The Commission will focus on areas such as transportation, mobility, migration issues, security, defense, mining and energy. In this regard, the success of the partial agreements on trade and the provision of air traffic services has been highlighted, which augurs well for the future of binational cooperation.

For his part, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil spoke of Caracas’ commitment to the peace processes in Colombia. Venezuela is a guarantor in the Colombian government’s dialogue with the National Liberation Army (ELN) and in the coming days a meeting is expected to be held in Venezuelan territory for the seventh round of negotiations.

He also mentioned the regional issues of impact that he and his Colombian counterpart addressed, such as the recent violation of the Vienna Convention by Ecuador, issues related to the political crisis in Haiti, and on the actions of Colombia with the future pro tempore presidency of Celac, which it will assume in 2025.

Regarding the presidential elections in Venezuela scheduled for July 28, Gil informed the Colombian side of the electoral process, indicating how the nomination of candidates concluded with the participation of 100% of the political organizations registered with the National Electoral Council. An invitation was extended to Colombian observers to participate in the voting.

In this regard, Murillo pointed out the importance of Celac’s electoral observation in the upcoming days of July 28 and expressed that Colombia has always offered its good offices to Venezuela and the international community to seek solutions built by Venezuelans.

Finally, the Venezuelan Foreign Minister took the opportunity to deny the narrative that has been created regarding the “Aragua Train” and its alleged influence and power in the region, which he described as a “fiction created by the international media to try to create a non-existent label, as they did at the time with the “Cartel of the Suns”.

Reaffirming the alliance in the face of attempts at division

The new meeting between Venezuela and Colombia arises after the media’s overinterpretation of President Gustavo Petro’s statements on the Venezuelan elections.

Previously, when the foreign ministries of Colombia and Brazil joined communiqués from other countries in the region regarding the nomination process in Venezuela, we analyzed, following the approach of Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, the geopolitical disorientation in Latin America and the dependence on the United States present in many regional leaders, not ruling out the pressures that could be exerted from Washington to force pronouncements and to hinder the normal development of Venezuela’s diplomatic relations with its neighbors.

As well expressed by President Nicolás Maduro in his television program, specific comments such as those made by the Casa de Nariño regarding the Venezuelan electoral scenario do not have to be taken out of their fair dimension of simple differences of points of view to portray them as a symptom of a supposed tension between governments.

“Let’s not scandalize differences that we may have. Life is beautiful when there is a difference of criteria. Nobody will separate us from Colombia, we have great objectives to accomplish together”, said the Venezuelan Head of State.

It is noticeable the presence of actors who intend to return to the climate of confrontation and hostility that prevailed between Bogota and Caracas during the administrations prior to President Petro. This is evident through the media, representatives of the political opposition in Colombia and Venezuela, and even factions within Petro’s government that, aligned to U.S. interests, seek to exacerbate any disagreement to complicate and hinder the progress achieved so far in the diplomatic, political, economic and security fields between both countries.

But the facts speak for themselves. The alarmist forecasts about an imminent fracture in the relationship between the two countries, which emerged days before the leaders’ meeting, have had to be qualified, indirectly admitting that the impasse only existed in the minds of some, not in reality.

What emerged from this meeting is that after years of having to confront a neighboring country that represented a threat to its economic prosperity and national security, Venezuela has shown in the last two years a clear willingness to build a relationship based on mutual respect, cooperation and the search for peaceful solutions. It now has a Colombian government receptive to these shared interests.

Translation by Resumen Latinoamericano – English

Venezuela’s Maduro and Colombia’s Petro Emphasize Peace and Regional Integration Following Talks

Ricardo Vaz

The two leaders discussed bilateral cooperation projects and expressed joint positions concerning Ecuador, Haiti and Palestine.

The Venezuelan and Colombian presidents hailed unity and cooperation during a bilateral meeting in Caracas on Tuesday.

Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro hosted Colombian counterpart Gustavo Petro in Miraflores Palace for the fifth time since the latter took office in August 2022.

Maduro told reporters that the pair and their respective teams had had “a good conversation” to analyze “the evolution of the relations” between the two Latin American countries. He added that the talks covered aspects such as trade, transportation, renewable energies and electricity.

“Our two peoples are one and the same, and we should deepen our integration and unity efforts,” Maduro said.

The Venezuelan and Colombian delegations additionally discussed cooperation opportunities in the oil and natural gas sectors.

One of the main issues brought up by the two presidents was the need to secure peace in the region, with Maduro stating that “the peace of Colombia is the peace of Venezuela” and that his government is always “ready to help.”

Venezuela is serving as a guarantor in dialogue processes between the Colombian governments and two armed insurgent movements: the Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN) and the Estado Mayor Central (EMC). Several rounds of talks have taken place in Caracas.

The EMC brings together dissident factions from the demobilized FARC guerrilla that either did not subscribe to the 2016 Peace Accords or picked up arms again after the Colombian state failed to honor its side of the bargain.

For his part, Petro highlighted the “spirit of cooperation and understanding” in the meeting, and praised Venezuelan efforts over the years to support peace talks in Colombia.

“We have to make sure that South America is protected against barbarity, against the violence that is springing up around the world,” he told reporters.

The Colombian president went on to state that peace in his country was also tied to “political, social and economic peace” in Venezuela. At the same time, he stressed the need to ramp up coordinated security work to tackle armed groups and illicit economic activities.

According to a joint statement, discussions likewise extended to international matters, with the two leaders condemning the actions of Ecuadorian security forces that stormed the Mexican embassy in Quito to seize Jorge Glas. The former vice president had been granted asylum by the López Obrador government.

Petro and Maduro also coincided in the need to find urgent solutions for the Haitian political crisis and in condemning the ongoing genocide in Palestine.

The relations between the two neighbors had a moment of tension last week as the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry criticized its Colombian counterpart for expressing concerns regarding the registration of candidates for Venezuela’s upcoming presidential election.

In the lead-up to Petro’s visit, Maduro sought to play down any animosity, claiming that he welcomed “differences of opinion” and that Colombia and Venezuela would not be separated.

The talks in Caracas came in the wake of reports that the Petro government has mediated efforts by Colombian corporations to secure compensation for assets nationalized during the Hugo Chávez governments in Venezuela.

According to Bloomberg, Cementos Argos is poised to take over a cement plant near the Venezuelan coast. The company, which controls 35 percent of Colombia’s cement market, had a factory nationalized in 2006 and is allegedly trying to secure a US Treasury license so it is not judged to breach Washington’s unilateral sanctions. Cementos Argos would eye cement exports to the US should it secure a plant in Venezuela.

Similarly, sugar producer Comercializadora Internacional de Azúcares y Mieles (Ciamsa) is looking to be indemnified for a sugar mill expropriated in 2006. Germán Umaña, Colombia’s minister of commerce, trade and tourism who formerly led the Colombian-Venezuelan Chamber of Commerce, has been driving negotiations.

Former Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez pushed multiple legislative efforts to boost the country’s sovereignty in key economic sectors. The efforts drew fierce clashes with both national and foreign corporations which often led to nationalizations. In some cases Caracas managed to agree compensations with corporations, while in others there were no talks.

Several multinational firms pursued litigation and have secured awards from instances such as the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2024/04/ ... operation/

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Argentine unions call another general strike for May 9

On May 9, the General Confederation of Labor will hold its second strike since the beginning of Milei’s administration

April 13, 2024 by ARG Medios


Photo via ARG Medios

The General Confederation of Labor (CGT) has called for general strike on Thursday May 9. The general strike is the second since Milei took office in December 2023.

The measure taken by the CGT is a response to a meeting held a few days prior at the Casa Rosada, during the first official meeting with government officials. In response to their apathy in light of the dire economic, social and political context, the union called for a new measure of force to be unleashed as soon as possible.

In the same way as during the first general strike in January, the CGT is calling for a large mobilization, and will be accompanied by other unions, such as the Argentine Workers’ Central Union, and the Argentine Workers’ Central Union (Autonomous).

However, this time around, the general strike will come on the heels of two weeks of mass mobilizations and protests against the austerity measures being implemented by the government.

The first big march will take place on Tuesday April 23 in cities across the country. This is set to be a big national mobilization in defense of public universities and will bring together significant sections of students and educators’ organizations (not just those in university). For this day, the CGT also said that it would launch a call to mobilization in defense of public education.

Most of the universities in the country are on the verge of bankruptcy or declaring a “budgetary emergency,” as for now they have the 2023 budget extended, which was devalued by an inter-annual inflation that almost reaches 300%.

The CGT and other unions will call a march again for May 1, in order to encourage the workers to continue mobilizing and resisting for the general strike, which will take place the following week.

“The impact generated by the adjustment of prices and tariffs that has been taking place with the sole intention of reducing wages, only leads us to an unacceptable recessionary process. For this reason we have decided to call a 24-hour strike on May 9,” said Héctor Daer, head of the CGT, at the CGT headquarters shortly after the meeting of the board of directors.

For at least two weeks, Javier Milei’s government will have the streets full in rejection of the austerity plan that continues to be applied and which affects primarily the working class.

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2024/04/13/ ... for-may-9/

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Javier Milei Seems Intent on Embroiling Argentina in War, Whether in Ukraine or the Middle East (Or Both)
Posted on April 16, 2024 by Nick Corbishley

Argentina “cannot be neutral in the Third World War.”

When tensions between Tel Aviv and Tehran exploded this past weekend following Tehran’s retaliatory strike against strategic targets in Israel, most governments in Latin America struck a relatively neutral position, expressing their concern about a possible escalation of violence in the Middle East. Despite differences of opinion over who is most to blame for the rising tensions, there was almost unanimous agreement on the need for decisive measures to avoid further escalation.

With one striking exception: Javier Milei’s government in Argentina, which has expressed “solidarity and unwavering commitment to the State of Israel in the face of attacks initiated by the Islamic Republic of Iran.” On Saturday (April 13), Milei cut short his international tour of the US and Europe, where he was scheduled to participate in an official ceremony to commemorate his government’s purchase of 24 second-hand F-16 fighter jets from Denmark, to return to Argentina to address the crisis.

One of his first acts was to call a crisis committee to spearhead his government’s response to the Middle East conflict. The committee’s members included Argentina’s Defence Minister, Luis Petri, Vits ice President, Victoria Villarruel, and, controversially, Israel’s Ambassador to Argentina, Eyal Sela. Controversial because the meeting was supposedly intended to analyze the risks Argentina may face as a result of the escalating conflict in the Middle East, yet Sela represents the interests of one of the two countries directly involved in the conflict.

As veteran journalist Jorge Lanata put it, “it really doesn’t matter whether Milei is worried or not about Israel. What matters is that a foreign ambassador, whether from Israel or Belgium, I don’t care, is in a cabinet meeting in Argentina. It seems to me that there are basic standards to uphold.”

As the controversy grew around Sela’s participation in the meeting, the government tried to memory hole the whole debacle by claiming that the Israeli ambassador had not actually attended the meeting after all, as it itself had claimed just a day earlier, but had merely participated in a preliminary session before making his departure. This was despite multiple official photos showing Sela sitting just two seats away from Milei.

Some sources even claim that Sela kicked off the meeting, as if he were its chair, with a summary of the current state of play in Israel, none of which would come as any great surprise. Once the meeting was over, Milei’s spokesman, Manuel Adorni, told a press conference that “Argentina emphatically supports the State of Israel in defense of its sovereignty.” He then handed the mike to Sela who thanked Milei on behalf of the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, and President Isaac Herzog “for his clear and resounding condemnation of Iran and for being on the right side of history and the facts.”

No Neutrality in a Third World War

Milei himself said in an off-screen comment that Argentina “cannot be neutral in the Third World War,” according to the veteran TV news presenter Nelson Castro. His government released the following official statement (translation my own):

The office of President Javier Milei expresses its solidarity and unwavering commitment to the State of Israel, in the face of the attacks initiated by the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The Argentine Republic recognises the right of Nation-States to defend themselves, and emphatically supports the State of Israel in the defence of its sovereignty, especially against regimes that promote terror and seek the destruction of Western civilization.

We recall that on Thursday April 11, the federal court of appeals ruled that the attacks against the Israel Embassy and the AMIA (Mutual Argentina-Israel Association) were perpetrated by Hezbollah under the aegis of Iranian State organisations.

As the President of the Nation has said, Argentina has adopted a new foreign policy that is based on the defense of Western values ​​and a common vision of the world in defense of life, liberty and private property.

The State of Israel is a bulwark of Western values in the Middle East and Argentina will always be at its side in the face of those intent on its extermination.

No Surprise

The Milei government’s unquestioning support of Israel, even as it has committed a host of war crimes in Gaza, including genocide, should not come as a surprise. On the campaign trail, foreign policy may have been overshadowed by economic concerns, but Milei made it abundantly clear where his geopolitical allegiances would lie if he won the election. He said he would cancel Argentina’s entry to the BRICS alliance, which he has done. He would also cool relations with Argentina’s two largest trade partners, Brazil and China, while emphatically aligning the country with the US and Israel. And he has done exactly that.

Since coming to power just over four months ago, Milei’s government has signed a memorandum of understanding with the United States allowing members of the US Army Corps of Engineers to operate along the Paraná-Paraguay Waterway, including large parts of the river Plata basin, upon which roughly 80% of all Argentine exports travel. A couple of weeks ago, he traveled 3,000 kilometres to meet up with General Laura Richardson, the commander of US Southern Command — someone of lower rank to him — in Ushuaia, on the southern tip of Tierra de Fuego. There, the two announced the establishment of a joint naval base that would allow Argentina and the US to control this key entry point to Antarctica.

As readers may recall, the director of the CIA William J Burns paid Buenos Aires a rare visit a few weeks ago. Senior Mossad agents have also apparently been in town, as too have members of the BND, or German intelligence. Out of these meetings between senior spooks and government officials came an agreement that Argentina will conduct intelligence on terrorism threats, primarily from Hezbollah, drug trafficking and the “Triple Frontier,” a tri-border area along the junction of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay, where the Iguazú and Paraná rivers converge. It was also agreed that Argentina’s domestic intelligence agency would be subject to greater control by the military.

Jewish Heritage?

Milei, a Roman Catholic by upbringing, has a particular fondness for both Judaism and Israel. Not only does he want to convert to Judaism when he leaves politics, he recently claimed to have Jewish heritage. In February, he visited Israel where he wailed at the wall, danced and sang with Israeli settlers as Israeli bombs rained down on Gaza, and unveiled plans to move his country’s embassy to Jerusalem, making Argentina only the sixth country to do so after the US, Guatemala, Honduras, Kosovo and Papa New Guinea.

On the international trip he just cut short, Milei travelled with his sister, Karina, to Miami where they were both recognised as “International Ambassadors of Light” by the city’s Chabad Lubavitch community, largely because of their support for Israel. They then visited Tesla’s Giga Plant in Texas to meet with Elon Musk, who covets Argentina’s vast lithium deposits. Unlike in Bolivia five years ago, a coup was not necessary this time.

Milei has long had close ties to the Chabad Lubavitch movement, a highly influential branch of Hasidism, an orthodox transnational movement that emerged in Eastern Europe in the late 18th and early 19 centuries. As La Politica Online (LPO) reported in late November, just after he was elected president, Milei studies the Torah with Axel Wahnish, a Buenos Aires-based Lubavitch rabbi who is now Argentina’s ambassador to Israel, and has visited the tomb of “the Lubavitch Rebbe”, the leader of the Chabad Lubavitch dynasty, twice in the past year.

Milei’s government has rejected claims that its overt support for Israel will make Argentina a popular target for terrorist attacks such as those it suffered in 1992 and 1994, both of which have been attributed to Hizbollah and its primary backer, Iran.

“We do not believe that standing up to an international problem makes us a target or that it will change the situation in this country that has already suffered two attacks,” presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni told reporters. What Adorni fails to mention, as an article in Cronista notes, is that those two attacks, in 1992 and 1994, came after Carlos Menem’s government had cemented its alignment with the United States by sending two military frigates to participate in the US-led Gulf War. On the grand chessboard, these actions can have consequences.

At that time at least, Argentina was one of 30 countries taking part in the military campaign. By contrast, the Milei government’s full-throated, uncritical support of Israel is almost unique in the word today. While support for the Neyanyahu regime has plummeted in most quarters, Argentina under Milei has not only stopped voting in favour of a ceasefire in Gaza, it has stopped condemning any crimes Israel commits in the ravaged enclave, where more than 33,000 people — mainly women and children — have been killed, according to official figures.

Weapons, Or Even Troops, to Ukraine?

Milei is intent on embroiling Argentina not only in the escalating tensions of the Middle East, but also in the meat grinder that is Ukraine. For just over two years, Latin America has refused to fall in line with the Collective West’s demands on the Russia-Ukraine conflict, with just one country, Costa Rica, actually agreeing to apply the sanctions against Russia. For over a year, nine countries in the region, including Argentina, rebuffed the repeated exhortations from NATO members to donate or sell their Russian-made weaponry to Ukraine. But that is now over.

The new Daniel Noboa government in Ecuador recently offered to give up its Russian-made arms to Ukraine, only to furiously backtrack when Moscow threatened to stop buying Ecuador’s number-one export product, bananas. As for Milei, he plans to go to Ukraine during his tour of Europe in June, which would make him the first Latin American leader to visit the war-torn country since hostilities began. He has also been invited by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to participate in the G7 summit in Orgo Egnazia between June 13 and 15. From LPO:

In statements on the radio Milei said that “the governments are in contact, our Minister of Defense is in contact with the Ukrainian authorities. We are going to help them in any way we can.” In addition, he confirmed that “a forum is going to be held in defence of Ukraine in Latin America.”

But the Head of State went even further, saying they are evaluating sending weapons to Ukraine. “It is something that Defense Minister Luis Petri is discussing with the Ukrainian authorities to see what we can collaborate on,” he said.

“We are designing a trip and the idea is that we go through Ukraine. We have to travel to the G7, I thank President (Giorgia) Meloni for inviting me, I also have to go to Madrid to receive the Juan de Mariana award, then to Germany to receive the medal of honor,” he explained…

The possibility of direct government intervention in the war is considered highly risky among Argentine diplomats. It would be like declaring war on Russia just at a time that many of Ukraine’s allies are beginning to get cold feet.

In an interview with CNN Español’s Andrés Oppenheimer, Milei even mentioned the possibility of sending military personnel into the meat grinder, a proposal that enjoys the support of just 21% of the population, according to a survey by the consultant Gustavo Córdoba. Any decision to send troops would have to go through Congress first, an unnamed diplomatic source told LPO. The same, however, is not true of sending arms.

In other words, the Milei government could soon quite easily send a consignment of weapons — including quite possibly Russian ordinance — and other aid to Ukraine in the next few months, which, of course, will have next to no material impact on the course of the war. This from a government that has virtually no money in the bank, is dependent on credit lines from the IMF and, ironically, a currency swap from China just to make ends meet, and is slashing public funds for food banks and soup kitchens at a time that demand for them is surging as a result of its crushing austerity policies. In taking this course, it risks plunging Argentina into the midst of a conflict — or two — half a world away, even as its economy crumbles.

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2024/04 ... o-war.html

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Milei’s Plan of Sending Military Aid to Ukraine Isolates Argentina From Its Principal Economic Partners
APRIL 13, 2024


Argentinian President Javier Milei during his address to parliamentarians at the legislative session on March 1, 2024. Photo: AP/Natacha Pisarenko.

Argentinian President Javier Milei’s idea of sending military aid to Ukraine may unnecessarily involve Argentina “in a conflict that may be on a global scale,” analyst Gonzalo Fiore told Russian media outlet Sputnik. According to another Argentinian political analyst, Jorge Elbaum, Argentina’s position may “isolate it from its main trading partners.”

Milei, who had already expressed support for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the start of his term, recently went a step further by announcing that his Defense Ministry is “reviewing” what kind of military assistance it can provide to Kiev.

In an interview for the US mainstream media outlet CNN, Milei was asked whether, in addition to his public support to Ukraine in international forums, he was considering sending some kind of military assistance. “It is something that Minister [of Defense] Luis Petri is discussing with the Ukrainian authorities to see how we can collaborate,” Milei revealed.

In an interview with Sputnik, Gonzalo Fiore, an expert in international relations, expressed that, rather than a concrete idea, Milei’s statements are more like “a geopolitical positioning of a president who has decided to take sides and get involved in a conflict in favor of Ukraine.” This is another of Milei’s attempts to “send a signal to what he considers to be the Western bloc,” the analyst said.

“However, I think sending military aid is improbable because Argentina’s military capabilities are not in a scenario to participate in a war,” he explained. “Perhaps some people think that the F-16s were acquired for that purpose; but also in theory they are obsolete, and I don’t see it as very viable.”

Argentinian international analyst Jorge Elbaum, in statements to Sputnik, described Milei’s statements as “another of his trial balloons aimed at confusing society,” especially since the president does not have the power to approve military assistance or participation in a war without the approval of Congress.

Elbaum underlined that, since Milei came to power, he has been lying that not only shows his “great ignorance and contempt for the State” but also highlights a “propaganda strategy to align Argentina to US interests, at least in terms of worldview and symbolic aspects.”

In the analyst’s opinion, behind these decisions there are “interests and pressures from Washington,” both at the diplomatic level through the US ambassador in Buenos Aires, Marc Stanley, and at the military level, with the recurrent presence of the head of the US Army Southern Command, General Laura Richardson.

According to Fiore, although Richardson’s recent visit to Argentina may have precipitated Milei’s statement, the position may have less to do with US pressures than with “an overreaction” by the Argentinian government, since “no other US ally in Latin America has been asked to send troops to a foreign conflict.”



Milei’s position is contrary to Argentina’s interests and tradition
In any case, the analysts agreed that getting involved in the Ukraine conflict is a mistake that will have negative consequences for Argentina and that goes against the country’s interests and its own diplomatic tradition.

Fiore said that among the “serious” consequences of the decision could be “breaking the relation between Argentina and Russia, because [sending military assistance to Ukraine] would be declaring war on a country with which we have no conflict of any kind.” He highlighted that Buenos Aires and Moscow “have always had good relations, at all times and with all governments.”

Elbaum considered that Milei’s statements to CNN will not lead to a break in relations with Russia, but acknowledged that “Moscow is of course taking note of these irresponsible actions and threats.” In this regard, he considered that Russia has “every right to question those who are submitting to US interests to challenge the Russian Federation.”

He added that such a stance contributes to alienating Argentina from trade partners which are key for a much-needed economic improvement for the country.

“Argentina is isolating itself from the world and especially from its most important partners, such as Brazil, which has a neutral position in the conflict, with China, with whom it has also engaged in defiant discourses, like what happened with the astronomical observation station in Neuquén,” stated Elbaum.

In his opinion, Milei’s policies like this would lead Argentina to “an isolation that is counterproductive for the economic situation of the country, which needs trade, foreign currency—it needs to sell its products” and, paradoxically, “today it is distancing itself from those countries to which it sells,” referring to Brazil and China, Argentina’s two main trading partners.

However, Fiore warned that the most serious consequence of Milei’s alignment with Ukraine could be “becoming involved in a conflict that could turn into a global conflict in the near future.”

Similarly, Elbaum commented that “involving Argentina in a conflict in Eastern Europe is absolutely irresponsible, contrary to the history of Argentina’s foreign policy.” The analyst recalled that Argentina has been characterized by “a logic of neutrality” and by a “pacifying role” that only had exceptions in its own conflict with the United Kingdom over the Malvinas Islands, and in the 1990s when the government of Carlos Menem (1989-1999) supported the US in the Gulf War against Iraq.

“Argentina is not going through a great moment today in terms of the credibility of its foreign policy,” reflected Fiore, pointing out that Milei’s interchanges with other presidents of the region are not helping to improve it either.

“Milei, with his statements, is trying to improve Argentina’s credibility by aligning it as a player within the Western bloc, but he ends up achieving the opposite: getting into a conflict that is completely alien to the country,” Fiore said.

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