South America

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Re: South America

Post by blindpig » Tue Feb 28, 2023 1:55 pm

Majority of Peruvians disapprove of the Dina Boluarte regime, says survey

Despite over twelve weeks of mass protests and widespread rejection, Boluarte refuses to resign, while unleashing brutal repression against peaceful protests

February 28, 2023 by Peoples Dispatch

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A protester in the center of Lima holds a sign that reads: “Dina Boluarte, resign.” Photo: Zoe Alexandra

The disapproval rating of Peru’s de-facto President Dina Boluarte has risen from 71% in January to 77% in February, while that of the right-wing dominated Congress has increased from 88% to 90%, according to a new survey conducted by the Institute of Peruvian Studies (IEP). The study was carried out between February 18 and 22, days after the Congress rejected a third bill that called for general elections to be held in 2023, one of fundamental demands raised in the ongoing social uprising. Its complete results were published on February 27.

According to the opinion poll, the rejection rate of the Boluarte administration was the highest in the southern macro-region, where 86% of the population disapproved of her management and said that she should resign. Similarly, the rejection rate of the Congress was also the highest in the same region. 95% of the population disapproved of the performance of current parliamentarians and demanded that they leave office immediately.

Likewise, the census showed that 69% of the Peruvians believed that the general elections should be held in 2023, and not in 2024. Meanwhile, one third or 33% of those consulted believed that the Congress seeks to stay until 2026. Additionally, 28% believed that in the end, the parliament would approve advancing elections to 2023, meanwhile, 24% believed that the legislature would approve holding elections in 2024.

With respect to the issue of a new constitution, the poll showed that 47% were in favor of making some changes to the 1993 Constitution. Meanwhile, 36% said that the dictatorship-era constitution should be replaced completely.

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

According to the IEP study, 58% of those interviewed said that they identify with the protests taking place in the country. At the same time, 40% believed that the protests would intensify in the near future, 55% believed that the protests would lead to the advancement of elections, and 51% believed that the protests would achieve Boluarte’s resignation.

Nevertheless, despite over twelve weeks of mass protests across the country and evidently widespread rejection of her regime, Boluarte refuses to resign, while unleashing constant police and military repression against protests and strikes. According to the Ombudsman’s Office, the heavy repression has resulted in the deaths of more than 60 people and has left over 1,200 injured.

In the case of the approval rating of the public security forces, the National Police’s rating fell by 9 points: from 50% in December 2022 to 41% in February. Meanwhile, the Armed Forces’ rating dropped by 13 points: from 61% to 48%. The disapproval was the highest in the south, standing at 74% and 69%, respectively.

Since Castillo’s inauguration in July 2021, the far-right sectors in the Congress, who never accepted his electoral victory, made constant attempts to overthrow him and destabilize his government. In the light of this political crisis, around 60% of Peruvians believed that early elections could be the solution and around 30% believed that Castillo should finish his term. The solution never included the assumption to the presidency of Castillo’s Vice President Boluarte, nor did it include the current Congress remaining in office.

In this regard, Álvaro Henzler Vernal, spokesman for the Citizen Movement, a coalition of over 400 human rights organizations and community groups, warned against weakening of democracy in the country. “Not even 1 out of 10 approve of the work of Congress. Almost 9 out of 10 approve of early elections in 2023 or 2024. Blind and deaf is an understatement to describe those who in theory represent us. They only represent their own interests. They contribute with their stubbornness to further weaken democracy,” he tweeted.

Meanwhile, Peru announced on February 25 that the government was definitively withdrawing their ambassador from Mexico following comments from Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador against the coup and violence against protesters. In January, the Boluarte government similarly announced that they were withdrawing the Peruvian ambassador from Honduras due to comments made by Xiomara in the CELAC Summit. Former Bolivian president Evo Morales has been declared a ‘persona non-grata’ by Peruvian Congress due to his comments rejecting the coup.

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2023/02/28/ ... ys-survey/

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Peruvian justice rejects appeal in favor of Pedro Castillo[/]

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Former President Pedro Castillo is serving a sentence of 18 months in pretrial detention for the alleged crime of rebellion. | Photo: Gettyimages.ru
Posted 28 February 2023 (6 hours 41 minutes ago)

The habeas corpus in favor of the former president, maintains that in order to be arrested and tried, the immunity that weighed on Pedro Castillo had to be lifted.

The Sixth Constitutional Court of Lima, in Peru, rejected on Monday a new habeas corpus that sought the immediate release of former President Pedro Castillo and his reinstatement as president of the country.

The appeal in favor of Castillo was presented by the National Federation of Lawyers of Peru, which also sought to benefit Castillo's former prime minister Aníbal Torres.

"Sixth Constitutional Court of CSJ of Lima declared inadmissible habeas corpus presented in favor of Pedro Castillo and Aníbal Torres for alleged attack against individual freedom and motivations of judicial decisions," the CSJ of Lima reported on Twitter.


The appeal presented in favor of the former president maintains that in order to be arrested and tried, the immunity that weighed on Pedro Castillo had to be lifted, a process that would not have been carried out, so the former president should continue to be the head of state.

According to representatives of the National Federation of Lawyers of Peru, the habeas corpus also sought to annul all judicial, administrative, legislative resolutions and laws that oppose Castillo's status as constitutional president of Peru.

Rejecting the appeal in favor of the former president and former prime minister, Judge Gisela Haydee Ocaña, alleged that the National Federation of Lawyers proposed habeas corpus "unreasonably, with ignorance of constitutional principles and values" and "regardless of respect for the Fundamental rights".


Former President Pedro Castillo is serving a sentence of 18 months in preventive detention, while the Public Ministry investigates him for the alleged commission of the crime of rebellion.

For the Judiciary, the preventive detention measure against Castillo is "founded" because "the existence of strong suspicion as an alleged co-perpetrator of the crime of rebellion and conspiracy against the powers of the State and the constitutional order" was determined.

Preventive detention is also based on a "danger of flight", since former president Castillo tried to seek asylum at the Mexican Embassy in Lima.

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/peru-rec ... -0002.html

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

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Re: South America

Post by blindpig » Sat Mar 04, 2023 3:12 pm

Commission approves report recommending impeachment of Ecuador's president

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The legislators recommended prosecuting Lasso for crimes against state security and against public administration (bribery, embezzlement and embezzlement). | Photo: EFE

The head of the committee, Viviana Veloz, affirmed that the president has tried to hide potential illegal conduct by his brother-in-law, Danilo Carrera.

A multi-party legislative commission approved this Wednesday a report that recommends impeaching the president of Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso, for alleged acts of corruption and attacks on the public security of the State.

The opinion prepared by the Commission for Truth, Justice and the Fight against Corruption, which is investigating an alleged network of corruption in several public companies known as The Great Godfather, was endorsed by six votes in favor and one against.

The document recommends politically prosecuting President Lasso for crimes against State security and against public administration (bribery, embezzlement and embezzlement).


The head of the multiparty committee, Viviana Veloz, considered that the country experienced "a historic day", because it is about establishing the truth about the conduct of President Lasso, which she said is contrary to the interests of the citizenry.

He affirmed that the president has tried to hide potential illegal conduct by his brother-in-law, Danilo Carrera, and his closest officials, as well as sought to obstruct the oversight work of the National Assembly.


The Ecuadorian Congress indicated in a statement that the report will be sent to the Attorney General's Office and the State Comptroller General's Office so that, within the scope of their powers, they can initiate criminal and administrative investigations.

The document approved this Wednesday must now be submitted to the plenary session of the National Assembly (unicameral parliament) of the South American country.


The report prepared is not binding, because, after its approval, it will go to another instance of analysis. If the opinion is approved in parliament, it will continue its qualification process until it reaches the Constitutional Court.

The Lasso government issued a statement on Wednesday to reject the report approved by the multiparty commission, which it accused of having "a clear destabilizing desire" with "malicious intentions."

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/ecuador- ... -0001.html

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Lawfare in the Making: Habeas Corpus Denied to President Pedro Castillo in Peru
MARCH 1, 2023

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Ousted Peruvian President Pedro Castillo. Photo: RedRadioVE/File photo.

On Monday, February 27, the Sixth Constitutional Court of Lima, in Peru, declared the habeas corpus that sought the immediate release of President Pedro Castillo and his reinstatement as president of Peru inadmissible.

The National Federation of Lawyers of Peru also filed an appeal in favor of Castillo’s former prime minister, Aníbal Torres. Judge Gisela Haydee Ocaña declared the appeal inadmissible in a new move by the Peruvian establishment to consolidate the parliamentary coup d’etat against President Castillo. Castillo was democratically elected by the Peruvian people, who have been protesting in the streets since December, demanding justice despite bloody police and military repression.

“The Sixth Constitutional Court of Lima declared the habeas corpus filed in favor of Pedro Castillo and Aníbal Torres inadmissible for an alleged violation of individual freedom and motives of judicial resolutions,” the Court reported through its social media accounts.

#AHORA 6to Juzgado Constitucional de @CSJdeLima declaró improcedente hábeas corpus presentado a favor de Pedro Castillo y Aníbal Torres por supuesto atentado contra la libertad individual y motivaciones de resoluciones judiciales.

Resolución aquí: https://t.co/u34Mm6W86N pic.twitter.com/hInSn2MsOT

— CSJ de Lima (@CSJdeLima) February 27, 2023

The appeal filed in favor of Castillo also sought to annul “all judicial, administrative, legislative resolutions and laws that oppose” Castillo’s status as constitutional president of Peru.

Judge Gisela Haydee Ocaña argued that the National Federation of Lawyers filed said habeas corpus “unreasonably, disregarding constitutional principles and values” and “disregarding respect for fundamental rights.”

#LoÚltimo Sétimo Juzgado Constitucional de @CSJdeLima declaró inadmisible Habeas Corpus presentado en contra del Acuerdo de Consejo N° 026 emitido por la @MuniLima, que declara el Centro Histórico de Lima como Zona Intangible.

Lee la Resolución aqui: https://t.co/MNgBQAfLbN pic.twitter.com/uS4dlRdP1T

— CSJ de Lima (@CSJdeLima) February 24, 2023

Currently, President Castillo is serving an 18-month sentence in pretrial detention while the Public Ministry investigates him for the alleged crime of rebellion.

Castillo recently asked the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to instruct the Peruvian government to order his “immediate release” and reinstatement as president.

After he was ousted, the presidency was filled by his vice president, Dina Boluarte. This led to the outbreak of protests in various parts of the country, resulting in more than 70 deaths from the excessive use of force by security agents in a clear pattern of human rights violations.

Peruvians are demanding the resignation of Boluarte, the dissolution of parliament, a constituent assembly and early elections. The demonstrations have also left thousands of protesters injured.

https://orinocotribune.com/lawfare-in-t ... o-in-peru/

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Lasso government responsible for the murder of Indigenous activist, alleges CONAIE

The organization denounced that Mendúa was murdered because of his opposition to oil companies in the Ecuadorian Amazon

February 28, 2023 by Peoples Dispatch

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Ecuadorian Indigenous leader and environmentalist Eduardo Mendúa was assassinated by hitmen in his home in the Sucumbíos province on Sunday, February 26. Photo: Wambra Medio Comunitario/Twitter

Ecuadorian Indigenous leader Eduardo Mendúa was assassinated by hitmen in his home on Sunday, February 26. The Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE), the country’s largest Indigenous organization, reported that Mendúa was in the garden of his home in the Sucumbíos province when he was approached by unidentified, hooded men who fired 12 shots against him and killed him. Mendúa was the international relations leader in CONAIE’s governing council.

Mendúa belonged to the A’i Kofán Indigenous nationality. He was a social leader, an environmentalist, and a land defender. He was at the forefront of the struggle in defense of land and against oil and gas exploitation by the PetroEcuador company in the Cofán Dureno commune, Sucumbíos. CONAIE declared that Mendúa was murdered precisely because of his fight against these companies and their actions in the Ecuadorian Amazon.

CONAIE’s president Leonidas Iza Salazar has stated that he holds the state owned oil company PetroEcuador and the national government of conservative President Guillermo Lasso responsible for Mendúa’s murder. Iza pointed out that for the past seven months, CONAIE had been warning against the conflict and violence generated due to the expansion of extractive activities in the Cofán Dureno commune and the A’i Kofán territory. He condemned that the extractive companies opened new oil fields in Indigenous territories without guaranteeing the right to prior, free and informed consultation as stipulated in the 2008 Constitution.

Iza called for the unity of all Indigenous peoples and nationalities, of all popular sectors, so that “the acts of violence such as the assassination our comrade Eduardo do not go unpunished.” Iza added that the CONAIE leadership feels threatened and vulnerable as many of them are under consistent surveillance by people and cars. In this regard, Iza requested the intervention of international human rights organizations to protect the lives of Indigenous leaders in Ecuador.


Former presidential candidate of the progressive Citizen Revolution Movement party, Andrés Arauz, also expressed his solidarity with Mendúa’s family and with the CONAIE. “The neocolonial system of exploitation claimed one more victim. A total change in the model of sovereign management of natural resources is urgently needed,” tweeted Arauz.

President Lasso also expressed his government’s solidarity with the Mendúa family and the CONAIE. “This crime will not go unpunished. We have ordered that all investigative actions be carried out to find those responsible and bring them to justice,” said the president.

CONAIE calls for radicalization of anti-government mobilizations
Mendúa was assassinated two days after CONAIE called for a new national strike against the Lasso government.

Last week, on Thursday February 23, CONAIE denounced that President Lasso broke the agreements reached on the ban on mining and oil exploitation activities in Indigenous territories and near water resources following the June 2022 national strike. In a press conference, Iza recalled that the social movements and the national government signed an agreement to guarantee the right to prior, free, and informed consultation at all stages of mining development. He urged that all processes for mining concessions be stopped where this principle has been violated.

Iza also denounced that the public security forces had been using violence against community members who oppose mining projects that harm the environment and their communities. He said that CONAIE would hold the president responsible for the acts of violence in protected territories and for militarizing them to impose mining projects on the communities.

On Friday February 24, in a press conference, CONAIE announced that it was suspending the dialogue process with the government and withdrawing from the monitoring roundtables due to breaches by the president. The organization declared that its members would be in permanent mobilization across the national territory and called for a national strike on March 8 to demand Lasso’s resignation due to lack of legitimacy to govern and non-compliance with the 2022 agreements.

“After analyzing the follow-up report on the results achieved at the dialogue tables, installed as a part of the Indigenous and popular uprising of June 2022, it is evident that there has been no political will on the part of the government to comply with it. On the contrary, the government of President Guillermo Lasso has continued advancing with its neoliberal policies, which violate our territorial and community rights and the national economy. That is why we are breaking this dialogue process and withdrawing from these follow-up roundtables,” said Iza.

Following Mendúa’s assassination, on Monday, February 27, CONAIE announced that it would radicalize the anti-government mobilizations.

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2023/02/28/ ... es-conaie/

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National Assembly debates impeachment of the president of Ecuador

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To approve the report, at least 70 votes are needed and it is expected that it will be in the afternoon. | Photo: Screenshot
Posted 4 March 2023 (1 hour 18 minutes ago)

From the Pachakutik movement (25 assembly members) they have also expressed their support for the impeachment of the president.

With 71 assembly members present, the full session of the Legislature was installed to learn about, analyze and decide on the Report of the Commission that investigated the corruption case "El Gran Padrino", which involves the president of Ecuador with crimes of corruption, money laundering and relationship with the mafia.

The Union for Hope (UNES) bench announced that its bloc (47 legislators) will vote in favor, while the Social Christian Party (PSC) mentioned that if they find merit for prosecution, they will also approve the amendment with 15 of their legislators.

From the Pachakutik movement (25 assembly members) they have also expressed their support for the impeachment of the president.


While the 24 legislators of the pro-government National Accord (BAN) bank will "defend the president," as his bloc leader, Juan Fernando Flores, said.

Three days ago, an Ecuadorian Parliamentary Commission recommended impeachment of President Guillermo Lasso for alleged corruption.

The approved document indicates the alleged responsibility of the president in the "Encuentro Case" or "The Great Godfather."


The report recommends politically prosecuting the president for having adapted his conduct to the provisions of article 129, numerals 1 and 2 of the Constitution. That is, crimes against State security and against public administration (bribery, embezzlement and embezzlement).

The 137 assembly members are convened at 08:00 on March 4, and the day began with the reading of the report presented, then the debate will open and end with the voting on a resolution where the observations and suggestions of the benches will be collected.

To approve the report, at least 70 votes are needed and it is expected that it will be in the afternoon.

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/ecuador- ... -0010.html

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

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Re: South America

Post by blindpig » Mon Mar 06, 2023 3:20 pm

Political Repression Under Peruvian Coup Regime
MARCH 5, 2023

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Protestors holding signs to show that they are fighting for a new constitution. Photo: Valia Aguirre.

By Clau O’Brien Moscoso – Mar 1, 2023

The people of Peru continue to protest the coup which ousted President Pedro Castillo Terrones. Clau O’Brien Moscoso reports from Peru.

National Strike, Day 52

As the coup against President Pedro Castillo continues into its third month, the political repression on the ground has been severe and growing. From a single mother who fundraised approximately 2000 soles (roughly under $500) to buy food, medicine, and other necessities for protesters coming to Lima from provincial regions, to community leaders from the FREDEPA (Front for the Defense of the People of Ayacucho)in Ayacucho taken to a military base to be tortured before being taken by helicopter to the capital city, it is the predominantly indigenous campesino populations and those in solidarity with them and the organized masses as a whole that are being targeted. The rigged judicial system that currently operates at the behest of the dictatorship has put protesters into what is called “preventative detention” ranging from 9 months to 3 years on trumped up charges that have yet to yield any substantial evidence. Just this past week, coup leader Dina Boluarte and her Prime Minister Otárola sent a bill (“proyecto de ley”) to Congress to increase penalties and fines across the board for any arrests made during the State of Emergency, effectively criminalizing protests. The masses understand this is a reaction to the sustained mobilizations happening across the country and that the regime fears the power of the people, otherwise these extreme measures would not be necessary. But despite this political repression, there has not been one day without mobilization, speak outs, vigils, bloqueos (roadblocks) or strikes. Here are some of the stories of political repression under the US-backed Boluarte/Fujimontesinista dictatorship.

One of those targeted is Yaneth Navarro Flor, a teacher from Andahuaylas (the first region to live through a massacre) who is currently sitting in pre-trial detention in Lima for 30 months of “preventative detention” for supposed “disturbances” and “organized crime.” The judge that ordered those 30 months of preventive detention, Margarita Salcedo Guevara, is going by the only so-called evidence that the Peruvian National Police collected when Yaneth was arrested, which was a little under 1900 soles, a notebook stating purchases made- purchases like toothpaste, goggles, helmets, blankets, etc and a voice note to Castillo’s sister saying Andahaylas is in the struggle until the end. The judicial system, and more broadly this dictatorship, has not been able to provide any evidence and yet they say they are in a war against terrorism and any supporters of terrorists. According to her close friend Karina, “Yaneth is a warrior woman from Apurimac who has 3 children, takes care of her elder parents and is pregnant; she is a single mother and has no one that can take care of her family.” Speaking in her own words at her trial, Yaneth declared, “what do I lose in those 30 months? I will lose probably the last years of my parents’ lives, seeing my teenage daughters grow up, seeing my 1-year-old baby girl grow, and my baby inside my belly who is now condemned to grow in an unsuitable environment.” The judge and the Limeña press, paid for by the oligarchy and this dictatorship, has gone so far to call Yaneth “a bad mother for being involved in these acts of vandalism.” Under this dictatorship, solidarity is equivalent to vandalism and financing terrorism.

In another act of severe political repression, social movement leaders from the historic organization FREDEPA from the province of Ayacucho were rounded up and brutally arrested during home raids, tortured at a military base then taken by helicopter to the capital city of Lima to be charged with terrorism. In scenes not seen since Operation Condor days, the Peruvian Armed Forces’ use of unmarked vehicles, helicopters, coordinated round ups and charging long standing community organizations as “terrorists” have only served to fuel the people’s just struggle. According to an investigation done by media outlet Wayka Peru, “On the night of January 12, they were detained by order of the Prosecutor’s Office, which attributes them to being part of a terrorist organization in addition to having organized and financed the protests in Ayacucho. Their relatives denounce that they were kidnapped since they were not taken to a police station, but directly to Los Cabitos, a military base where human rights were violated (disappearances, murders, and torture) during the government of Fernando Belaunde Terry and the dictatorship of Alberto Fujimori.” These social movement leaders now face 18 months of preventative detention in Lima, away from family and community.

Two days after the start of the general strike on January 4th, members of the Asociación Cultural Ágora Popular de la Plaza San Martín, a cultural association focusing on political education, were ambushed during the demonstrations and taken to the Cotabambas police station. According to one of the members Julio, a young labor leader from the northern region of Piura:

“On January 6th when the mobilizations really started to be felt in the capital city, we were ambushed in the mobilizations on Abancay Ave from all 4 corners by police with around 250 protesters. We were cornered by police with batons and shields and rounded up on a bus where we were verbally assaulted and taken to Cotabambas. Finally, after 4 hours of detention, they let us free but not without violating all our rights.”

Though the people who had been arrested that night were eventually released, they continue to be persecuted during the daily demonstrations.

These are just a few of the cases of the severe political repression the people of Perú now live through. Despite the brutality with which the Peruvian Armed Forces have submitted the masses to under the orders of the bloody Boluarte/ Fujimori dictatorship, the people continue to go out every day demanding the liberty and restitution of President Pedro Castillo, the closure of Congress, a Popular Constituent Assembly and for justice for our 77 fallen comrades and thousands severely injured during this coup.

https://orinocotribune.com/political-re ... up-regime/

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Protests against the Government of Peru resume in Cusco and Puno

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Two days ago, Puno reported the fire at the Juli Police Station, after the violent repression by members of the Peruvian Army against residents who demanded the resignation of Dina Boluarte. | Photo: Twitter @martinfiera
Published 6 March 2023 (34 minutes ago)

In Canchis, the Arturo bridge woke up covered with mounds of earth and stones. There is no passage from Cusco to Puno and Arequipa, according to local press reports.

In the provinces of Canchis and Espinar, in the department of Cusco, the protests against the Government of Peru and to demand the resignation of the designated president Dina Boluarte were restarted early Monday morning, while in Lima a new day of protest is expected.

In Canchis, the Arturo bridge woke up covered with mounds of earth and stones. There is no passage from Cusco to Puno and Arequipa, according to local press reports.

The Provincial Fight Committee of Espinar Cusco and its different social organizations reached an agreement to restart the strike starting this Monday, March 6 against the Boluarte regime.


Leaders from the regions of Puno, Arequipa, Moquegua, Apurímac, Cusco, Madre de Dios and Ayacucho participated in the meeting in Apurímac.

Leaders of the Popular Organizations Fronts of Puno declared President Dina Boluarte as an enemy of the people, after the murder of 21 Peruvians in the area and reiterated their request for her to resign.

Two days ago, Puno reported the fire at the Juli Police Station, after the violent repression by members of the Peruvian Army against residents who demanded the resignation of Dina Boluarte. At the moment, five injuries are known.

The highland region of Puno, on the border with Bolivia, has been on a prolonged strike for a month.

The protests, which began almost three months ago to demand the resignation of President Dina Boluarte, have recorded 48 deaths in riots, mostly from firearm projectiles.

On the other hand, from Geneva, Switzerland, a group of United Nations experts called for an end to the violence in Peru, expressed concern about reports of repression, arbitrary killings, arrests and detentions in the country, and urged the Peruvian authorities to "establish a genuine dialogue with the people".

"In any democratic society people have the right to protest and raise concerns about political changes that affect their lives and livelihoods," the experts said.

They considered that the protesters' aspirations should be taken into account in the dialogue that could be established to put an end to the protests in the country.

The UN group of experts echoed the latest report from the Peruvian Ombudsman's Office, which has registered 48 deaths and 1,301 injuries in the country since the protests began in December, after the removal of former President Pedro Castillo for his attempted to shut down Congress and rule by decree.

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/peru-pro ... -0015.html

Google Translator

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Ecuador: Between Corruption Scandals and Washington’s Hand, Possible Scenarios for Lasso
MARCH 5, 2023

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The President of Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso, with his American counterpart, Joe Biden. Photo: Twitter/@Presidencia_Ec.

By Ociel Alí López – Feb 28, 2023

The electoral results of the sectional elections in Ecuador, held on February 5, are still generating an impact. President Guillermo Lasso’s government has ended up so weakened that there are clear concerns that he will not make it to the end of his term, constitutionally scheduled to end in 2025.

This weekend, the powerful indigenous movement, accustomed to putting rulers on the ropes and, in many cases, overthrowing them, has declared a break with the dialogue tables it had with Lasso’s administration and demanded his resignation.

To add to the tension, on Sunday, the indigenous leader Eduardo Mendua, leader of international relations of the Confederation of Indigenous Nations of Ecuador (CONAIE), was murdered.

The president’s refusal last week to appear before the Ecuadorian Legislative, which is investigating him, indicates that his administration is approaching a radicalization of the struggle with other public powers that have the power to remove him from office or call for an early election.

According to Lasso: “There are State institutions concerned about overthrowing the Government and, even worse, freeing criminals. Yes, I say it loud and clear: there are State institutions concerned about their own interests or whims, which do not act in defense of Ecuadorians”.

These statements, depending on the interpretation made, would be either preventing a forthcoming collision scenario or adding fuel to the fire.

Electoral defeat sets the climate

It should be remembered that Lasso lost last February 5 the eight questions of the referendum that he himself had promoted on issues such as extradition, reduction of parties and assembly members, environment, among others. The political objective of the referendum was to seek oxygen for his administration, which had been fissured since the indigenous uprising last year.

But in addition, his political adversaries had an undeniable electoral achievement in the regional elections of the same day.

The Movimiento Revolución Ciudadana (RC), a political party led by former President Rafael Correa, obtained 9 prefectures (out of 23), including the two most populated provinces of the country (Guayas and Pichincha), and 50 mayoralties (out of 221), obtaining those of Quito and Guayaquil, the latter after 30 years of uninterrupted leadership of the Partido Social Cristiano, which was decimated with only two prefectures at national level.

Even worse was Lasso’s electoral platform, the CREO movement, which did not win any prefecture, meanwhile the Plurinational Unity Movement Pachakutik, which brings together the indigenous sector, won 6 prefectures and 26 mayoralties.

With this result, the Ecuadorian political map has changed in relation to the 2021 presidential elections in which Lasso won. However, the causes of the weakening of his administration are not only limited to the electoral field.

Times of scandal

Lasso, the banker, who retains one of the few right-wing governments in the region, faces a resounding scandal known as ‘the Great Godfather’, in which his brother-in-law, Danilo Carrera, has been denounced as the head of a wide corruption scheme in public companies.

The resignation of Ecuador’s anti-corruption secretary, Luis Verdesoto, came at a time when the president has defended actors involved in the investigation. This resignation could indicate that internal frictions within the government have been unleashed.

In the coming weeks, the multiparty commission of the National Assembly of Ecuador, in charge of studying the case, will present a final report and in this process the future of the government may be decided.

It should be recalled that article 148 of Ecuador’s 2008 Constitution allows for “cross-death”, a figure that serves to call for early presidential and legislative elections.

In the next weeks, the multiparty commission of the National Assembly of Ecuador, in charge of studying the case, will present a final report and in that process the future of the government may be decided.

Most probably, Lasso will prevent at all costs this scenario that would expel him from politics. And, surely, to hinder any institutional exit, he will have the support of Washington, since he is one of the main allies left to President Joe Biden, who received him at the White House just two months ago.

Republican Senator Marco Rubio also visited Lasso last week, despite the president’s convalescence due to a recent operation he had to undergo after a fall.

With the leftward shift in Colombia, Chile and Brazil and the destabilization of Peru, the current Biden administration is particularly interested in seeding itself in Ecuador because of its potential stability, but it appears that is just what seems to be giving way with recent events.

In the midst of so much adversity, the Lasso administration may soon have to decide whether the Ecuadorian government will take the “Lima path” and prepare to repress a hypothetical popular uprising, or whether it will seek to stay on the institutional path, regardless of the decisions made by the Legislative Branch.

Turning attention elsewhere, at the end of last week, the Ecuadorian Prosecutor’s Office asked to prosecute former President Lenín Moreno for bribery, who is also accused of having set up a corruption and bribery scheme.

Is Ecuador consolidating its position as the main US ally in the region?

But the current reality, affected by the crime boom that the right-wing government has not been able to tackle and by the corruption scandals, does not allow to lose focus on the events that are happening day by day and that are overheating the atmosphere.

Between the demand for resignation by the indigenous movement (which occurred over the weekend) and the progress of the investigation of the ‘Great Godfather’ case, Lasso’s administration may be entering a major crisis.

The crumbling situation of his administration is reminiscent of the weakness of right-wing regimes in the region, which have a hard time getting re-elected or perpetuating themselves in government, as happened to the former presidents of Argentina, Mauricio Macri; of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro; and of Chile, Sebastián Piñera. It also reminds Washington that its allies look much less powerful than before.

https://orinocotribune.com/ecuador-betw ... for-lasso/
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Re: South America

Post by blindpig » Fri Mar 10, 2023 3:13 pm

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Southern Command: The Empire on a Rampage in Latin America
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on MARCH 9, 2023
Jorge Capelán

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The annual report presented March 8, by General Laura J. Richardson, head of the United States Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM) before the House Armed Services Committee, provides a series of details on the Pentagon’s priorities towards our region.



In order to counter the influence of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Russia, Nicaragua, Cuba, Venezuela and Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs), the general calls for a “campaign through an integrated approach to use all available levers across the Department of Defense, the U.S. interagency, allies and partner nations to establish the desired conditions of security, peace and prosperity throughout our neighborhood.”

In this article we first provide a fairly detailed summary of Richardson’s report and then set out our observations.

Autocrats undermine democracy

According to Richardson, “…At the end of the Cold War, the United States, its allies and partners believed that democracy would displace authoritarianism around the world. Twenty-five years later, the strategic environment in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) has changed significantly” and cites the 2022 National Security Strategy (NSS) according to which “autocrats are working overtime to undermine democracy.”

“We see this right here in our own hemisphere, that external actors such as the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and Russia exert aggressive influence over our democratic neighbors,” the military chief adds.

A decisive decade

“Presence and proximity definitely matter, and a stable and secure Western Hemisphere is critical to homeland defense,” Richardson contends.

“Our adversaries use a multidisciplinary, multidomain approach to counter democracy, and SOUTHCOM, our allies and partners must employ the full weight of integrated deterrence, leveraging the whole of government, industry, the private sector and academia, to respond effectively. With shared purpose and mutual trust, we must act collectively with a much greater sense of urgency to ensure that this hemisphere remains a bastion of democracy,” she says.

“This is a decisive decade and our actions or omissions with respect to the PRC will have ramifications for decades to come,” she adds.

“Integrated Deterrence” alongside NATO

“Integrated Deterrence includes campaigning with our partners and allies as force multipliers to achieve success in this resource-constrained reality. With our partners and allies in the United Kingdom, Canada, France and the Netherlands, we have recently adopted the Western Hemisphere Collaborative Framework. This framework commits us to more frequent information sharing and closer collaboration on our common strategic interests,” Richardson explains.

“Our USSOUTHCOM courses of action in the face of these challenges are clear: by strengthening alliances and partnerships, collectively countering threats and building our team, we are working to preserve democracy in our shared neighborhood. As we do so, we are pioneering ways to outmaneuver even our most innovative adversaries and meet these transnational challenges,” she states.

U.S. “challenges”

China, the “strategic” threat

The Southern Command chief notes that China’s trade with Latin America grew from $18 billion in 2002 to $450 billion in 2022, with the figure expected to reach $700 billion by 2035. “By contrast, current U.S. trade with the region stands at $700 billion, suggesting that the U.S. comparative trade advantage is eroding,” she adds.

“What concerns me as a Combatant Commander is the myriad ways in which the PRC is extending its malign influence, wielding its economic might and conducting gray zone activities to expand its military and political access and influence in the AOR (“Area of Responsibility,” i.e., our region),” he reflects.

“The PRC is investing in critical infrastructure, including deep-water ports, cyber and space facilities that can potentially have dual use for malign commercial and military activities. In any potential global conflict, the PRC could leverage strategic regional ports to restrict access by U.S. naval and commercial vessels. This is a strategic risk that we can neither accept nor ignore,” she adds.

In this regard, the head of the Southern Command mentions Chinese participation in tenders for works in the Panama Canal and Chinese plans to build maritime facilities in the city of Ushuaia, in southern Argentina, which “would provide proximity to the Strait of Magellan, the Drake Passage and Antarctica. This could change the rules of the game for the PRC, dramatically improving its access to Antarctica.”

Another area of concern for Southern Command is China’s military space capabilities.

“There are at least 11 PRC-linked space facilities in five countries in this region, more than any other geographic combatant command AOR, that provide Beijing with space tracking and surveillance capabilities. This includes a joint space surveillance facility in Chile and a deep space station in Argentina operated by an agency subordinate to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA),” she asserts.

In addition, Richardson mentions “the insidious nature” of Chinese investments in 4G and 5G technologies in the region, programs such as Safe Cities, which she says give China access to intelligence on Latin American governments and also training for specialists from the region in Chinese “cybersecurity and military doctrine”.

Richardson asserts that China relies heavily on food and rare earths from the region – activities “that are conducted at the expense of our partner nations and their citizens.” “These actions have the potential to destabilize the region and erode the fundamental conditions necessary for quality private sector investment,” she adds.

High on USSOUTHCOM’s list of “concerns” with China is fisheries.

“Each year, between 350 and 600 vessels subsidized by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) [SIC!] fish off the coast of South America. These vessels severely deplete fish stocks, disregard environmental safeguards, destabilize the economies of coastal states and exacerbate security problems, at a cost of nearly $3 billion annually in lost revenue,” says Richardson.

Russia, an “acute” threat

“Through military engagements and gray zone operations, Russia colludes with authoritarian regimes in the region to undermine U.S. influence,” Richardson asserts.

“Last year, Russia continued its military engagements with both Venezuela and Nicaragua. Last year, Venezuela hosted Sniper Frontier 2022, a shooting competition and subcomponent of the Russian Army International Games. Nicaragua has publicly supported Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, voting – along with North Korea, Syria and Belarus – against a UN resolution condemning Russia for its invasion. These engagements increase Russian influence with nations that are destabilizing forces in the region,” she adds.

Richardson lambasts the popularity of Russian media “RT en Español, Sputnik Mundo and their various social networks” in the region, noting that “RT en Español’s Facebook page has 18 million followers, more than its English site or even CNN’s Spanish channels”, all this “despite efforts by Facebook and Twiter to shut down accounts that spread disinformation”.

Organized crime, “primary” threat

According to Richardson, “The leading cause of death among citizens aged 15-49 in Latin America and the Caribbean is violence, and more than 60% of the world’s most crime-ridden cities are in this region.”

In addition USSOUTHCOM estimates that there are some 200 transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) operating in the region, ranging from drug cartels to guerrillas.

“TCOs engage in a wide variety of illicit activities, including drug smuggling, arms trafficking, illegal logging and mining, human trafficking, IUU fishing, and counterfeit manufacturing. They also invest in many legitimate businesses, such as commercial banking, manufacturing, agriculture, consumer sales and real estate,” she says.

According to Richardson, these TCOs are not only “better funded, equipped and staffed than the law enforcement trying to combat them,” but they “increasingly rely on criminal organizations connected to the PRC [SIC!] to launder billions of dollars around the world.”

In addition, the TCOs cause the deaths of some 100,000 American drug victims a year and victimize migrants causing “heartbreaking” human suffering.

Iran (not to be missed)

“Tehran’s intelligence and security activities continue to be of concern and over the past two years Iran has increasingly used Venezuela to assert its presence in the region,” notes the head of the Southern Command.

Regional humanitarian crises

In this section, Richardson lists a number of issues that are seen as “security challenges” by USSOUTHCOM.

“Fragility”: exemplified by the effects of the COVID pandemic, which left 170 million in poverty. “Fragility and instability drive irregular migration and create an environment conducive to corruption and exploitation,” it explains.

Haiti: Where violence “has reached its worst level in decades,” which “has caused more than 69,000 Haitians to have sought refuge in the United States in FY2022.”

Nicaragua: Humanitarian crisis? About this Central American country Richardson only mentions the treatment of groups that the U.S. sees as opponents and relations with China.

Cuba: Again, humanitarian crisis? As in the previous case, the criticisms are political, totally omitting the role of the United States in the emigration of Cubans (230,000 in 2022, according to Richardson) and in the difficulties caused by the blockade.

Venezuela: The same, only in more gloomy terms and with a reference to “possible crimes against humanity” of the “regime”.

How to face the “threats” and “challenges”

“We cannot accept these risks so close to home and we deal with them by strengthening alliances, countering threats and building our team,” Richardson notes.

Strengthening alliances

“The best way to outmaneuver our adversaries is to help partner democracies serve their populations at whatever speed is relevant. To do this, we enhance the capacity and resilience of partner countries through security cooperation programs, exercises and training, while upholding democratic values to ensure that malign influence and autocratic alternatives do not continue to take root in the region,” says the Southern Command chief.

“Ultimately, the strategic competition with the PRC is an ideological competition between democracy and authoritarianism. Today, most nations in the Western Hemisphere are democracies, and eight of the 14 nations that still recognize Taiwan are in the USSOUTHCOM AOR,” she adds.

Security Cooperation

In this regard, SOUTHCOM is banking on Partner Capability Building (PCB) programs that comprise “From high-level technical training that keeps partners’ intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) assets on the air, to institutional capacity building that develops logistics and life-cycle management disciplines, to professional military education, we are developing trust and interpersonal bonding.”

“Our MoD advisors and field service representatives embedded in the security ministries of partner countries, such as Colombia, support modernization and innovation efforts in areas such as personnel, defense intelligence and doctrine development to help our partners address threats to their national security,” Richardson explains.

“The Colombia-U.S. Action Plan allows Colombia to provide training and readiness directly to several countries, including Panama, Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador and Paraguay, in Spanish, and at a fraction of the cost of training provided by the United States,” she adds.

State Department security assistance

“The Foreign Military Sales (FMS), Foreign Military Financing (FMF) and Excess Defense Articles (EDA) programs produce exponential returns in this AOR,” states the USSOUTHCOM chief and mentions, among others, the recent purchase of 12 joint tactical vehicles by Brazil for $15.8 million. Such acquisitions “strengthen the ability to counter threats and enhance interoperability with U.S. forces.

USSOUTHCOM also runs the state’s International Military Education and Training (IMET) program, which provides professional military training to personnel from 28 countries in the region. In 2022, USSOUTHCOM countries received an allocation of $13.9 million for the IMET program. On average, this allocation provides professional military education to about 800 international students in U.S. schools.”

“The IMET program is one of USSOUTHCOM’s most powerful levers to counter the PRC and other malign actors in the region by familiarizing international students with democratic ideals and professional military doctrine. Partner country personnel attending these schools often become senior military commanders in their respective countries. The relationships established at these schools last a lifetime,” he adds. [Comment: Any resemblance to the School of the Americas is NOT a coincidence.]

Joint Exercise Program

“In 2022, more than 11,000 participants from 34 countries took part in our maneuvers, proving once again that the United States has the convening power to bring nations together. These complex training exercises were multi-domain in nature and provided us with the opportunity to participate for an entire year throughout the AOR, which included contacts with key leaders,” explains Richardson.

Health Programs

The hospital ship USNS COMFORT, which has been operating since 2007, was deployed to five countries in the region from October to December 2022, reports the Southern Command chief.

“Historically, the USNS COMFORT mission in the USSOUTHCOM AOR lasts approximately 159 days, but even during this year’s shortened 52-day mission, COMFORT managed to treat more than 30,000 patients, perform 350 surgeries and positively impact 100,000 people with its outreach activities,” he adds.

Likewise, Operation Healthcare Assistance Response (HEART) conducted orthopedic, ophthalmologic and dental operations in Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and El Salvador.

Visiting leaders in the region

Over the past year, Richardson has visited 13 countries in the region and held meetings with 90 key leaders and defense chiefs.

“I have also met with heads of state and vice presidents, as our partners’ interest in collaborating at a high level with the United States increases. To date, I have met with eight presidents, three vice presidents and two prime ministers, and I have a full schedule of meetings planned throughout 2023,” Richardson adds.

“Establishing and nurturing these relationships is vital and we must intensify our presence in the region to maintain our relevance. Relationships are absolutely important, and our partner democracies are desperate for U.S. assistance, but if we are not there in time, they have no choice but to take what is available, creating opportunities for the PRC to expand its influence,” he assures.

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE)

“We have to step up with much greater responsiveness in our processes if we are going to meet the needs of our partner nations and surpass the PRC in this area,” the Southern Command chief observes.

Among the work done last year, he mentions “technical support” to the Panama Canal Authority, work on the Coca Coda dam in Ecuador, allegedly poorly built by China, and the integration of U.S. experts into the Dominican State to “help develop efforts to preserve rare earth materials.”

“From a defense and security cooperation standpoint, USACE’s recent agreement with the Peruvian Navy to build Peru’s port facilities, and its continued construction efforts at Tolemaida Air Base in Colombia, facilitating the development of the largest helicopter training and maintenance facilities in the region, will enhance our partners’ ability to counter CTOs in the region,” she concludes.

State-to-State Partnership Program (SPP)

Through this program, the U.S. National Guard develops relationships with countries in the region. In many cases this involves participation in social and health programs, but also in military exercises.

“This year, the Regional Security System (RSS), made up of seven Eastern Caribbean countries, organized 25 events throughout the RSS and the continental United States,” says Richardson.

“The success of the SPP is enhanced by the National Guard’s participation in maneuvers with partner countries, such as those in Brazil and Colombia,” she adds.

Disaster and climate change assistance

“Several of our annual exercises, such as TRADEWINDS and CENTAM GUARDIAN, have a humanitarian aid and disaster response component to help increase resilience and preparedness for climate change and natural disaster response,” explains Richardson.

“Basic infrastructure activities focus on building the capacity of partners to provide essential services, such as clean water (…) we have recently joined with 12 other countries to identify the logistical processes, procedures and protocols needed to improve military logistical support for humanitarian relief and reconstruction activities in the Western Hemisphere,” she adds.

Regarding climate change, Richardson says, “Successfully addressing this complex problem requires a truly integrated approach. For example, USSOUTHCOM collaborates with the Pacific Disaster Center in Hawaii to facilitate disaster response training and conduct National Disaster Preparedness Core Assessments with our partner countries. These assessments promote a multi-agency approach to disaster risk reduction and national disaster preparedness in collaboration with partner countries’ national disaster management agencies.”

Defeating hazards

Countering China’s “malign” efforts

“By methodically identifying and synchronizing separate initiatives, from building cyber capabilities to exposing the PRC’s malign activities, we can strengthen critical infrastructures to enhance our collective ability to operate in the face of the multi-domain threats posed by the PRC,” says Richardson.

“Sharing information with our partners about malign PRC activities in other nations and regions that have undermined sovereignty is critical to ensure our partners can make informed decisions about their engagements with the PRC. However, information sharing alone is insufficient. Collectively, in an integrated nationwide approach, we must also provide viable alternatives for partnerships and offer many more incentives through campaigns for investment in critical infrastructure and port development in the region,” she explains.

One element of particular concern is China’s supposedly consistent effort to “expand its space infrastructure network throughout the AOR.”

“By focusing on strengthening relations, the U.S. demonstrates how it is a true partner, which is in stark contrast to the transactional nature of PRC engagements. This strategy, coupled with the continued exposure of the military purpose of PRC scientific or academic space facilities in the region, may slow and possibly reverse the expansion of the PRC’s space network in our neighborhood,” Richardson says.

Illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing

“We have partnered with the State Department, partner country stakeholders, the private sector, civil society, international organizations and an interagency team of U.S. government experts to address this problem. The U.S. Coast Guard is conducting several IUUF missions in the AOR, and USSOUTHCOM has four ongoing IUUF initiatives that are complementary in nature,” says the head of USSOUTHCOM.

In this regard, “USSOUTHCOM has signed a memorandum of understanding with Global Fishing Watch [State Department NGO partner] and has a longstanding relationship with Florida International University, through which we have partnered to create the Security Research Hub, a virtual research community that brings together the United States, partner countries, academia, civil society and the private sector to foster a shared understanding of the most pervasive security issues, including illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing,” she explains.

In addition, Richardson says USSOUTHCOM is looking to “provide technical assistance to the Eastern Pacific Tropical Maritime Corridor, a voluntary regional cooperation mechanism created by the coastal states of Ecuador, Costa Rica, Colombia and Panama.”

“Finally, working with 14 partner nations and the National Maritime Intelligence Integration Office, the U.S. Navy South is leading the intergovernmental approach to information sharing initiatives. When fully implemented, they will collectively foster timely and practical information sharing, cross-functional collaboration and multinational trust. This collaboration will expose the nefarious actors that negatively affect the economies and populations of our partner countries,” she concludes.

Countering Russia’s “malign” influence

“USSOUTHCOM is prepared to compete with Russia through the coordination and application of information-related capabilities (…) Our multi-faceted approach is intended to bolster our partners’ efforts and bring malign activities to light, with the goal of reducing Russian exploitation in the information environment,” says the Southern Command chief.

Regarding U.S. “partners” in the region, Richardson notes, “Some are willing to trade their Soviet-era equipment for U.S.-made, NATO-interoperable equipment. However, as our partners agree to support efforts against Russia, the United States must have response mechanisms in place to quickly provide replacement equipment to maintain partner country readiness; if not done correctly, we could lose this opportunity.”

Cyberspace

“USSOUTHCOM collaborates with other U.S. agencies and organizations, such as the Departments of State, Commerce, Homeland Security and Justice, along with U.S. Cyber Command, our National Guard SPP partners and the U.S. Coast Guard, to provide the right support at the right time to assist our partners in their cyber-related challenges,” Richardson says.

“Through our cyberspace advisory and assistance efforts, including subject matter expert exchanges and leveraging the expertise of our Joint Combatant Command Cyber Assistance Teams, we support our partners’ efforts to advance their defensive cyber capabilities and build cyber resilience,” she adds.

Competing in the information space

“In addition, our information operations team shapes pro-U.S. and pro-democracy narratives, counters disinformation by promoting fact-based information, and works aggressively to reduce U.S. adversary influence in the information environment. This team emphasizes democratic ideals such as respect for human rights and protection of the rule of law,” she says.

Agile processes

“…we need to be agile and support our partners at the speed of relevance. While we are committed to transparent processes, we must be quicker and more innovative to outpace our adversaries,” Richardson says.

“FMF [foreign military financing], FMS [foreign military assistance] and Security Cooperation are great levers that can make huge strides in the AOR when executed at the speed that is relevant to our partners. However, these programs are only as good as the processes by which we execute them. While a little goes a long way in this AOR, we need to get better at supporting and reacting at the speed of need, armed with capabilities that our partners can implement quickly and sustain over the long term. When we don’t support our partners at the necessary speed, our competitors are happy to fill the gap,” he explains.

To improve those processes, the SOUTHCOM chief explains, two working groups have been established “to break down the barriers to our success.”

The Western Hemisphere Campaign Group, which brings together DoD entities involved in building capabilities in U.S. partners, and The Defense Opportunities Group, which brings together interagency partners “committed to a stable and secure Western Hemisphere.”

Countering Organized Crime (OCT)

“Our Joint Interagency Task Force-S (JIATF-S) carries out the statutory mission of detecting and monitoring illicit drugs transiting into the United States in the maritime and air domains, earning a high return on the modest investments made,” Richardson explains.

“Despite our significant accomplishments over decades in this area, much remains to be done. As U.S. resources against this threat diminish, we will continue to innovate, both in strategy, such as re-examining current authorities, and in unconventional resources, such as contract assets, commercial data, artificial intelligence and machine learning,” she concludes.

Countering money laundering

“While continued disruption of illicit drug movements into the United States remains critical, to truly disrupt these multibillion-dollar conglomerates, we must also support interagency efforts to follow the money trail,” notes the Southern Command chief.

Coast Guard support

“The U.S. Coast Guard is one of USSOUTHCOM’s strongest partners, with its Homeland Security Cutters and Rapid Response Cutters providing the bulk of our counterdrug forces. U.S. Coast Guard assets enhance operations with unique capabilities and authorities that, when used in conjunction with the U.S. Navy and partner nation platforms, maximize the effectiveness of a variety of missions,” she explains.

“The Coast Guard is conducting the largest recapitalization of its fleet since World War II. These recapitalization efforts will provide capabilities that support three USSOUTHCOM strategic initiatives: enhancing theater security cooperation, countering IUUF, and combating TCOs,” she announces.

Material and other needs

“In this region, a small investment – whether in time, physical resources, funding or collaboration – goes a long way. We don’t have to spend more than the PRC to compete with it, but we must be present on the ground and act at the speed that is necessary. This requires a timely budget: continuing resolutions disrupt U.S. and partner countries’ efforts to defend against threats. If we don’t, China and Russia will fill the vacuum,” says Richardson.

“Security Cooperation is our primary tool to build the capacity of our partners, who are very willing. These partners take our small investments and immediately employ them against the threats and challenges that affect our entire hemisphere. Our partner countries are a force multiplier in a limited theater of operations,” she says.

“Security assistance goes hand in hand with security cooperation. The security assistance we provide to countries like Colombia, Ecuador and Panama is a game changer for our partners as they work every day to combat illicit trafficking, tackle irregular migration and protect our region. However, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador are not currently eligible for the FMF. We will work with the State Department to explore tailored solutions to advance regional policy objectives,” she adds.

“Domain awareness is key to countering malign PRC, Russian and TCO activities that threaten hemispheric security, as well as assisting our partners in disaster relief. Air, maritime, maritime, land, space and cyber domain awareness projects in the region fill debilitating coverage gaps and enable our partners to combat drug smuggling, illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, money laundering, human smuggling, arms trafficking and illegal trade in natural resources.”

“Critical to building this shared picture are commercial imagery, open-source intelligence and out-of-the-box bulk data analytics that allow us to leverage this data in the public and commercial space to address critical gaps,” he adds.

“Airborne ISR [Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance] is also paramount to maintaining domain awareness. To stay ahead of the growing pernicious threats posed by state and non-state actors, we need long-range, long-duration, next-generation airborne ISR, such as solar-powered aircraft with longer range and time-on-target,” says the USSOUTHCOM chief.

“The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) also remains a key intelligence provider to meet U.S. Southern Command priorities. Alerting decision-makers to the breadth and depth of challenges in the Western Hemisphere requires geospatial analysis at speed 30 and scale,” he observes.

On the topic of innovation, science and technology, Richardson comments, “The USSOUTHCOM AOR provides a permissive environment that has a high tolerance for technological experimentation, willing partners, and diverse climates and geography, all close to the U.S. homeland. This provides great opportunities for us to pursue innovative activities with our partners that help us gain and maintain a strategic advantage over the PRC, Russia, and other malign actors (…) We seize every opportunity to capitalize on those benefits. [Emphasis ours]”

“Information-related capabilities. To compete in the information environment, USSOUTHCOM needs an adequate force structure with the capabilities required to counter the overwhelming threat of 31 malign state actors in the information domain. Our adversaries are devoting significant effort and resources with unrestrictive policies to undermine democracy in this region. We must do better to keep pace and outpace them,” she says.

About the Naval Small Craft Technical Instruction and Training School (NAVSCIATTS) in Stennis, Mississippi, Richardson comments that “The coastlines and rivers are the lifeblood of maritime commerce, major population centers and bustling seaports in most of the 31 LAC countries.” In this regard, “NAVSCIATTS maritime training and training programs generate a tremendous return on investment, providing invaluable opportunities for U.S. military and law enforcement personnel and those of our allies and partners, most of whom operate smaller vessels.”

On the importance of appointing ambassadors throughout USSOUTHCOM’s “Area of Responsibility,” Richardson states, “Having a confirmed ambassador in-country is critical to maintaining strong relationships, and conversely, not having one can have a detrimental effect and open the door to our adversaries in the region.”

Conclusion

“The defense of the U.S. homeland is directly linked to the resilience, stability and security of the Latin American and Caribbean region. Proximity places us at the forefront of strategic competition as we share cross-border challenges and global threats (…) Meeting these challenges requires campaigning through an integrated approach to use all available levers through the Department of Defense, the U.S. interagency, allies and partner nations to establish the desired conditions of security, peace and prosperity throughout our neighborhood,” concludes the SOUTHCOM chief’s report.

COMMENTS ON THE RICHARDSON REPORT

Latin America is a “critical” region for U.S. interests, both in its confrontation with the emerging multipolar order and because of its abundant natural resources.

In this decade, U.S. efforts will be focused on countering the influence of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Russia, Iran, Nicaragua, Cuba, Venezuela and the “Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs)”. The influence of China and Russia in the region is repeatedly described as “malign” in the report.

The United States puts forward a concept of “Integrated Deterrence” for our region with NATO members, including the United Kingdom, Canada, France and the Netherlands. Over the past year, Richardson has visited 13 countries in the region and held meetings with 90 key leaders and defense chiefs, including several presidents and prime ministers.

By accusing China of promoting illicit activities to advance its “malign” objectives in Latin America, linking them to organized crime, USSOUTHCOM advances an even greater militarization of the entire public debate, and the employment of the entire judicial and police spectrum in the geopolitical struggle.

The United States seeks to prevent China’s participation in all strategic ports and passages, such as the Panama Canal and the Strait of Magellan. This line has often been supported by experts from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). Although not mentioned in the report, the Interoceanic Canal project through Nicaragua belongs to the category of initiatives not tolerated by Washington.

Another element of concern for the Southern Command is the Chinese presence in space projects in the region, where it has financed a series of satellites of all kinds.

Likewise, another axis of attack against China is its technological programs, be it 4G and 5G Internet, or its massive data processing programs, qualifying them as “espionage”.

To justify its plundering policies in Latin America, the United States will increasingly use the rhetoric of “defending our resources” against “evil” Chinese ambition.

An important axis, mentioned in detail in the report, will be the control of maritime space under the pretext of the fight against China’s alleged illegal fishing, as well as the fight against organized crime (also allegedly promoted by China). U.S. Government-funded NGOs are and will continue to be used in this campaign to provide a civilian facade for the project. It is to be expected that this initiative will not stop at attacking China, but also at actively intervening in border conflicts between our countries, or even provoking them.

More than economic, the Southern Command’s arguments against Russia are centered on the political-military and police aspects. Venezuela’s and Nicaragua’s relations with the Russian Federation are openly pointed out and reference is also made to Russia’s “gray zone operations” in the region. A point of special attention is the votes of these countries in the UN on the war in Ukraine.

With respect to Russia, special mention is made of the influence of Russian media such as RT en Español and Sputnik, anticipating greater Western control, espionage and censorship of social networks in our region.

The qualification of organized crime as a “primary threat” indicates that this issue will become one of the privileged axes to cover up the struggle of the United States and its NATO “partners” to maintain control of Latin America. In this way, it is much easier to sell military interventions to the U.S. public than sending in marines.

Another pretext for covering up U.S. interventions in the region will be (as it has been in the past), the humanitarian issue. In this regard, four definite targets have been identified: Haiti, Nicaragua, Cuba and Venezuela. It is worth mentioning that several of the annual military exercises of the Southern Command have “humanitarian” components, either under the guise of attention to natural or environmental disasters.

The United States will reinforce the pressures (they call them “alliances”) towards the countries of the region so that they do not ally with China and Russia. The “ultimate” fight has been defined by the head of the Southern Command herself as an ideological one.

An important support base for SOUTHCOM in the region is Colombia (a NATO “partner”), which has already provided military training to several countries including Panama, Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador and Paraguay. All this in Spanish and at a very low cost, according to Richardson.

Arms sales, military financing and joint maneuvers with armies in the region will continue, as well as the International Military Education and Training (IMET) program, heir to the opprobrious School of the Americas. This is not limited to the U.S. regular army; the U.S. National Guard itself participates in joint maneuvers with Latin American armies.

Throughout the report, reference is made to the need to do as much as possible with the money available, which is understandable since it is a speech addressed to those who will approve the country’s budget, but a not minor fact is that the hospital ship USNS COMFORT reduced the number of days of its medical visits to countries in the region to 30 percent of what is customary.

The United States intends to counteract China’s influence in the region, among other things through the massive use of information and intelligence. In key areas such as aerospace, they promise to move nimbly to supply the needs of our countries before China, but it is impossible to see a willingness and a possibility that the United States will offer a “new deal” to our region in terms of investment given its structural problems.

The United States today is weaker on a global scale than it has been in the last 100 years, but the countries of the region are also very weak, having for the most part relegated the discourse of sovereignty and the unity of the Patria Grande to ceremonial occasions. This situation must change, and only political will will will make it possible to achieve this.

There are several countries that are not mentioned in Richardson’s report. Among those countries is Bolivia, which together with Nicaragua, Cuba and Venezuela also belongs to the “axis of evil” in the region. Nor is there any mention in the report of most of the countries with self-defined progressive governments in the region – the most obvious case being Mexico. These countries should not believe that the United States has forgotten about them; on the contrary, they are in the crosshairs. Often the role of “partner” of the United States is the least enviable of all, because the Western powers have simply never known partners, only vassals.

Originally Published in Spanish

Translation by Internationalist 360°

Featured Image: The combatant command has responsibility for U.S. defense strategy in Central and South America and the Caribbean. This includes 31 nations as well as 12 dependencies and areas of special sovereignty. | U.S. Department of Defense


https://libya360.wordpress.com/2023/03/ ... n-america/

State-Sanctioned Violence in Peru and the Role of Canadian Mining
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on MARCH 8, 2023
Kirsten Francescone

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Protests against the Tía María copper mining project in Islay, Arequipa Region, Peru. Photo by Diario Correo.

Canadian firms benefit from state-sanctioned police protection and impunity at the expense of human rights and the environment.


On January 18, 2023, as thousands of Peruvians were taking to the streets in Lima to denounce the spiralling political crisis in the country, Canadian Ambassador Louis Marcotte was meeting with the Peruvian Minister of Energy and Mines. Protests have been ongoing since December when populist President Pedro Castillo was deposed from office by congressional vote, a move which was almost immediately condemned by Castillo’s base. Demonstrators have been met with widespread arrests and brutal violence. According to Yves Engler, since former Vice President Dina Boluarte assumed power (a move which the Canadian government endorsed) the Canadian mission has met with numerous top-level Peruvian officials in unprecedented fashion.

Since Boluarte assumed the presidency mobilizations have exploded across the country. Although they differ in their diversity of demands, they coincide along four main points: a call for new general elections for 2023, the closure of congress, Boluarte’s resignation, and the calling of a constituent assembly to draft a new constitution. But these immediate political demands have historical roots. As one collection of Peruvian NGOs stated, the mass movement of Peruvians from the south and peripheral regions is born out of a sense of indignation at a political and economic system which is highly racist and discriminatory. In Puno, the epicentre of protests and extreme police repression, delegations of rural community members travelled to Lima to demand political reforms and solutions to the toxic environmental liabilities which have contaminated their water sources with heavy metals and led to dangerously high toxins (many of which are present in children). With few exceptions, these communities have had their waterways affected by mining and industrial activity.

Ambassador Marcotte tweeted several photos from the meeting, using the occasion to promote mining as a benefit for communities and to express Canadian support for the upcoming Peruvian delegation who will attend the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada’s (PDAC) annual conference in Toronto from March 5 to 8. Each year, the world’s largest mining convention draws tens of thousands of industry experts, company officials, and government representatives to talk industry trends and promote an expansion of mining—with little concern for the consent of those most affected, including in Peru.

At the time of the meeting, Lima was gridlocked with demonstrations calling for new elections and a constituent assembly. Only days prior, 17 people were killed by police in the cities of Juliaca and Puno. And in the days following the meeting, the oldest university in the country, San Marcos, was invaded by armoured tanks. Hundreds of students and rural protestors were detained, strip searched, assaulted and deprived of their rights. Fifty-nine people have reportedly been killed during the last few months—the overwhelming majority of them civilians from rural and periurban Indigenous and mestizo backgrounds—at the hands of an unbridled police force. It’s unlikely the ambassador could have moved around the city without observing repression and police violence.

For years, MiningWatch Canada and the Justice and Corporate Accountability Project (JCAP), alongside organizations including Red Muqui, Cooperacción, Derechos Humanos Sin Fronteras-Cusco and Derechos Humanos y Medio Ambiente DHUMA, have documented the many harms caused by industrial large-scale Canadian mining to rural communities, as well as the associated police violence that often accompanies the imposition of these projects. While the current protests in Peru are not explicitly about resource extraction, calls for a new constitution to address the systematic and often violent exclusion of Indigenous, peasant and rural peoples from the political economic system, as well as the legacies of land dispossession and contamination, are indeed linked to centuries of extractivism. The ambassador’s tweet has to be taken within a context of centuries of colonial and decades of post-colonial violence against rural peoples at the behest of resource extraction.

The Canadian embassy could have used the moment to publicly denounce police violence and insist the rights of Peruvian protestors be protected. Instead, Ambassador Marcotte chose to promote more Canadian mining investment in the country and plug PDAC 2023—where a session dubbed “Peru Day” promises to discuss “opportunities in the context of enhancing the virtues of the Peruvian mining industry and overcoming the flaws that have slowed down its dynamism in recent years.” Canada’s priorities in Peru could not be more clear.

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Canadian Ambassador to Peru and Bolivia, Louis Marcotte, left, with Óscar Vera, Minister of Energy and Mines of Peru. Photo courtesy Ministry of Energy and Mines of Peru/Twitter.

The economic importance of Canadian mining in Peru

According to the Peruvian Ministry of Energy and Mines, Canada was the third most important investor in mine construction in 2021. Canadian companies invested over $8 billion in 10 projects, representing 15 percent of total investment in mine construction in the country. Canadian companies were the second most important player when it came to exploration (unsurprising, given Canadian companies typically focus on prospecting and exploration) representing 28 percent of the total investment in exploration, with $165 million spent on 21 projects.

Canadian companies are also operating mines in Peru. Toronto-based Hudbay Minerals operates the Constancia mine; Vancouver’s Pan American Silver operates the Shahuindo and La Arena mines; and Teck Resources’, also headquartered in Vancouver, operates the Antamina mine, with a 22.5 percent ownership stake in the project. Antamina is Peru’s largest mine, ranking among the top 10 producing mines in the world in terms of volume, and is the single most important producer of copper, silver, and zinc in the country. In 2021, the mine generated over $6 billion in revenue and nearly $3.7 billion in gross profits.

Canada also ranks high in terms of importing Peruvian metals and minerals. Of the total value of Peruvian mineral exports in 2021, Canada was the third most important global importer after China and India—coming in at 6.5 percent of total exports. This importance becomes even clearer when considering gold, as Canada was the second largest importer of Peruvian gold. Canadian imports represented over $3 billion in 2021, just shy of two percent of Peru’s GDP for the same year.

When it comes to making statements about egregious human rights violations in the country, however, Canada’s position has been lukewarm. Canada signed the most recent OAS statement on the political crisis in Peru—a watered-down declaration which assigns blame, and thus responsibility, to both protestors and the government of Peru as if they were equal players. The Canadian government continues to parrot this position, even as almost all the victims over the past several months have been civilians killed by an indiscriminate use of police violence—by the same national police force that has signed contracts to provide security to Canadian mining companies.

Private contracts with police

When Canadian mining companies are embroiled in a conflict with local communities outside of Peru, they often depend on henchmen or paramilitary forces to repress dissent. In Peru, companies benefit from state-sanctioned police protection and impunity. Companies can sign service contracts directly with the National Peruvian Police, and off-duty police officers are permitted to work for private security companies while using state property, such as weapons, uniforms and ammunition. Police are guaranteed immunity from criminal prosecution in the event that they fatally injure a protestor. They have the authority to use live ammunition and shoot to kill. And they’ve used it.

Mining companies also benefit from unfettered securitization of their assets. According to local sources, Hudbay’s Constancia mine and MMG’s Las Bambas operations have been fortified under the pretense of “preventing attacks on the mine camps”—effectively state-provided protection that serves to solidify the dominance of these companies in the regions where they operate.

Violence isn’t only used against rural peoples at blockades or during massive marches; it’s a daily occurrence which, according to several international and Peruvian non-governmental organizations, threatens the safety of human rights and environmental defenders and prevents them from exercising their rights. As one report notes, the “existence of these [security] contracts [with the police] creates a hostile scenario that puts human rights at risk.” As the Cusco-based organization Derechos Humanos Sin Fronteras has demonstrated through several environmental and social impact studies related to Hudbay’s Constancia mine, these contracts not only permit explicit state violence, they also form the backdrop of racialized and class-based intimidation and threats against community leaders to prevent them from speaking out against these contracts in the first place.

Promoting Canadian mining at PDAC

During the 2022 PDAC conference, the Peruvian Episcopal Commission for Social Action (CEAS) wrote an open letter to the conference delegates expressing that, contrary to the promises made by Ambassador Marcotte and others, mining has “not brought the promised improvement in quality of life” for most communities in the mining areas. On the contrary, she wrote, “it has resulted in corruption and environmental contamination and has infringed on people’s rights to life and health, leaving behind social conflict, disease and even death.”

These harms are not minimal: contamination of agricultural lands and waterways around Pan American Silver’s Quiruvilca mine and the criminalization of community leaders and land dispossession due to environmental contamination at Shahuindo; violation of Indigenous self-determination and the right to a clean environment around Plateau Energy’s proposed lithium and uranium mine, sitting atop the region’s most important tropical glacier; undercutting of economic benefits for communities most affected by mining operations, and more.

Yet the Canadian embassy in Peru has a track record of ignoring the concerns of human rights and environmental defenders affected by Canadian mining projects in the country—even ignoring the concerns of Canadian citizen Jennifer Moore who was detained in 2017 by Peruvian police while screening a documentary film with Quechua communities affected by Hudbay’s Constancia mine. Moore, who was subsequently banned from re-entering the country and labelled a threat to national security, is the focus of a recent report by the Justice and Corporate Accountability Project (JCAP) on the role of Canadian embassies in prioritizing the interests of Canadian mining companies at the expense of their own policies and commitments regarding the protection of human rights defenders.

The Canadian embassy in Peru will no doubt continue to work alongside the Peruvian Ministry of Energy and Mines to promote more Canadian mining investment in the country. But it should be made clear: when the embassy chooses to promote mining in Peru during PDAC, it is doing so knowing the reality of what these activities mean for people who are facing ongoing threats, intimidation, and explicit state-sponsored violence.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2023/03/ ... an-mining/

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Facing Corruption Charges, Ecuador’s Lenín Moreno to Request Asylum (+Ina Papers)
MARCH 7, 2023

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Former Ecuadorian right-wing president Lenin Moreno (right) and his wife Rocío González (left) waving their hands during a ceremony. Photo: File photo.

The former president of Ecuador Lenín Moreno confirmed that he will request political asylum in Paraguay in the midst of the legal proceedings opened against him for the “Sinohydro” case. Ecuador’s courts named the former president, his wife, and more than 30 others as perpetrators in a corruption plot that was orchestrated from 2009 to 2018.

Through a televised interview, Moreno said that he is consulting with his lawyers on the steps required to process a request for asylum. However, he indicated that “in principle, yes,” he will request asylum in Paraguay, the nation where he currently lives, and from where he fulfills his duties as current disability affairs commissioner with the Organization of American States (OAS), headquartered in Washington, DC.

Moreno does not want to set foot in Ecuador

Although the State Attorney General’s Office (FGE) requested preventive detention for 23 of the defendants and house arrest for the remaining 14 (over 65 years of age), including Moreno, the national judge Luis Adrián Rojas ordered alternative measures.

The former president and his wife, Rocío González, who is also involved in the corruption plot, were ordered to appear every 15 days at the Secretariat of the National Court of Justice of Ecuador.

Regarding this measure, which would force the ex-president to travel repeatedly from Asunción to Quito, Moreno expressed his concern about the “mistreatment” that these trips would cause him.


Initially, Ecuador’s FGE filed charges against Moreno and 36 others for their ties to the Sinohydro case, known in the media as the “Ina Papers” case. In addition to Moreno and his wife, other family members and close associates under investigation include his daughter Ina Moreno, his brothers, Edwin and Guillermo, his sisters-in-law Jaquelina V. and Martha G., his friends Conto Patiño and Xavier Macías, and Cai Runguo, former Chinese ambassador in Ecuador, who also worked as manager of the Sinohydro company.

The procedure was opened in 2019, almost two years after the beginning of Moreno’s presidency. Those involved received close to $76 million in bribes. The investigations indicate that when Moreno held the position of vice president, he facilitated a concession to Sinohydro for the construction of a hydroelectric plant.

These amounts, Attorney General of Ecuador Diana Salazar explained, would have been collected through third parties under the cover of false consultancy and representation services and channeled through the offshore company Recorsa, whose legal representative was Conto Patiño, a lobbyist and Sinohydro contractor in Ecuador.

Of that amount, $660,000 is alleged to have ended up in the hands of Moreno and his close family circle: $220,000 for him and his wife, 50,000 for his daughter Irina, $350,000 for Edwin Moreno, brother of the former president, 10,000 for his other brother Guillermo, $25,000 for his sisters-in-law Jacqueline V. and Martha G., and $5,000 for his mother-in-law Aída Graciela.

The family of Conto Patiño and collaborators would have received around $44 million, of which $20 million ended up in the hands of his daughter María Auxiliadora.

https://orinocotribune.com/facing-corru ... na-papers/

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Peruvian Court Confirms Castillo’s 36-Month Pre-Trial Detention

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On December 7, Pedro Castillo was dismissed by the Congress after attempting to shut down the Legislative Branch. Mar. 9, 2023. | Photo: Twitter/@AnalexRivera

Published 9 March 2023

The former President was first ordered to serve 18 months of pre-trial detention, which he is already serving in Barbadillo prison.


The Peruvian Judiciary confirmed 36 months of pre-trial detention against former president Pedro Castillo (2021-2022) for the alleged crimes of criminal organization, aggravated collusion and influence peddling.

"The Supreme Court of Preparatory Investigation imposes 36 months of preventive imprisonment to Pedro Castillo for allegedly being the leader of a criminal organization, for crimes committed in Petroperu and in the ministries of Transport, and Housing, Construction and Sanitation," informed the Peruvian Judicial Power.

The entity said that judge Juan Carlos Checkley also ordered preventive detention for 36 months for the former minister of Transport and Communications, Juan Silva Villegas.

The former Minister of Housing, Construction and Sanitation, Geiner Alvarado Lopez received the measure of appearance with restrictions.


The Supreme Court of Preliminary Investigation imposes 36 months of preventive detention on #PedroCastillo for being the alleged leader of a criminal organization for crimes committed in Petroperú and in the ministries of Transportation, and of Housing, Construction, and Sanitation.

Attorney General Patricia Benavides issued a constitutional accusation in October 2022 against Castillo accusing him of leading a mafia in the government.

On December 7, Pedro Castillo was dismissed by the Congress after attempting to shut down the Legislative Branch. He is currently being held in Lima for allegedly breaking the constitutional order.

The former president has said on several occasions that he did not commit any of the crimes of which he is accused. "I reiterate my innocence on the false facts that I am accused of and I denounce once again this unjust kidnapping for loyally serving my country as President of the Republic", said Castillo in the hearing held last Tuesday.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Per ... -0018.html

Peru's Council Of Ministers Suspends State of Emergency In Lima

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Demonstration against President Dina Boluarte, Peru, Lima, Feb. 28, 2023. | Photo: Twitter/ @JorgeGestoso

Published 10 March 2023

“The conditions that led us to declare this measure in this zone have passed," the President of the Council of Ministers Otarola stated.

On Thursday, Peru’s President of the Council of Ministers, Alberto Otarola, announced the suspension of the state of emergency in Lima city.

“The conditions that led us to declare a state of emergency in this area have passed. The suspension of this measure is important for the full exercise of fundamental rights of citizens,” he stated.

Otarola yet confirmed the extension of the state of emergency in Ica province, one of the areas where more clashes with the Police have occurred during the demonstrations against President Dina Boluarte.

"We believe we still have additional security and development work to implement in this and other regions," he stressed.

On Feb. 14, the Council of Ministers decided to extend the emergency state for 30 days in Callao province and the Pan-American highway, which some demonstrators have blocked to demand the resignation of Boluarte and the call for new elections.


In Arequipa city, the Council of Ministers also recently declared a state of emergency to counter the effects of the heavy rains, which have already caused the death of four citizens.

“In Piura city, this phenomenon created a 'blind basin,' which is an impoundment of water that we can only remove with heavy machinery. In Tumbes city, meanwhile, a mass of water is expected to arrive in the next few hours,” Otarola lamented.

"Defense Minister Jorge Chavez will travel to the most affected areas to attend to this emergency personally," he stressed, recalling that excessive water heating is causing the heavy rains.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Per ... -0003.html
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Re: South America

Post by blindpig » Wed Mar 15, 2023 2:08 pm

Peru’s De Facto Vice Minister of Health Chased from Restaurant
MARCH 14, 2023

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Screenshot of the video circulating on social media platforms about the incident, showing the Peruvian Vice Minister Henry Rebaza covering his face while being protected by a security agent. Photo: social media platforms, video screenshot.

This Monday, March 13, members of the Ayacucho People’s Defense Front (Fredepa), in Peru, confronted de facto Vice Minister of Health Henry Rebaza when he was having lunch in a restaurant in the department of Ayacucho. Rebaza fled the restaurant.

Cries of “murderer!” and “get out of Ayacucho!” were among the many insults that Rebaza and the entourage that accompanied him faced while a security agent tried to protect him. The ire of every day Peruvians was exacerbated by Rebaza’s appearance at the fine restaurant during a time of crisis. Peruvians are faced with a coup regime that has been massacring their fellow citizens in the street since the December 2022 coup that saw the imprisonment of democratically elected President Pedro Castillo.


Due to the tensions, Rebaza and the group of people accompanying him had to be escorted by the security team to official vehicles.

However, outside the restaurant, another group of protesters was waiting for them and threw water, eggs, and other food at Rebaza and his bodyguards, who threatened a number of women.

The demonstrators took added offense to the fact that the official was drinking wine during working hours and during a state of emergency decreed by the acting government due to rains caused by the passage of Cyclone Yaku.

According to the National Institute of Civil Defense of Peru, so far there have been 59 deaths recorded in widespread protests against the coup regime, including demonstrators killed by live ammunition fired by security forces. The actual number of deaths is likely much higher.


Open investigation
For its part, the Ministry of Health, through a statement, reported that it had opened an investigation to determine responsibility for Rebaza’s actions and, if appropriate, take the corresponding punitive measures.


The ministry condemned all forms of harassment and violent acts against public officials and claimed that the ministry is working to guarantee “comprehensive health care for all Peruvians.”



(RedRadioVE) by Milena Bravo, with Orinoco Tribune content

https://orinocotribune.com/perus-de-fac ... estaurant/

Chile: President Gabriel Boric Shuffles Cabinet for the Second Time
MARCH 12, 2023

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Chilean President Gabriel Boric standing in front of his new cabinet. Photo: Twitter/@GabrielBoric.

On Friday, March 10, the eve of the start of his second year as the president of Chile, Gabriel Boric shuffled his cabinet, naming new ministers for five of the 24 ministries in his government.

This is the second time that Boric has shuffled his cabinet during his presidency, following the changes made in September 2022 when 62% of the electorate had rejected a new constitution that had the president’s support.

“The purpose of these changes is to improve our capacity to respond to citizens’ demands and advance the administration to face the urgent needs of our country and our citizens,” the president explained after announcing the ministerial changes.

According to him, people with “knowledge of the state, new energy, and the necessary experience are needed in the government to be able to respond without delay or excuses to the urgent demands of the citizens.”

“I am deeply grateful to the outgoing ministers for their work and commitment to making Chile a fairer country,” Boric wrote on Twitter. “This new team will continue on that path, working in the field and listening to those who think differently, to advance toward concrete changes and solutions.”


The new cabinet
The most significant change was the removal of Antonia Urrejola, the minister of foreign affairs. She was replaced by Alberto van Klaveren, an experienced diplomat who served as undersecretary in the same ministry during the presidency of Michelle Bachelet. He has also served as the ambassador of Chile to the European Union, Belgium, and Luxembourg, and representative of Chile in the International Court of Justice.

Likewise, the ministers of the Public Works, Culture, Science, and Sports portfolios were changed.

Jessica López, who had served as president of Banco Estado, the only public bank in Chile, and as the head of the National Association of Sanitary Services Companies, was appointed as the new minister of Public Works, replacing Juan Carlos García.

Jaime de Aguirre, a well-known communications expert and audiovisual creator and former director of Televisión Nacional de Chile (TVN), Chilevisión, and Canal 13, was appointed minister of Culture, Arts and Heritage, replacing Julieta Brodsky.

In the Ministry of Sports, Alejandra Benado was replaced by Jaime Pizarro, an ex-soccer player who holds multiple national championship titles with Chilean soccer team Colo Colo and previously served as undersecretary in the same ministry and as director of the National Sports Institute. The ministry is in charge of organizing the Pan American and Para-Pan American Games, scheduled for October and November of this year.

Aisén Etchevarry, who was director of the National Research and Development Agency of Chile, head of the Interministerial Coordination Division of the General Secretariat of the Presidency, and director of the National Council of Science, Technology, Knowledge and Innovation for Development, will be in charge of the Ministry of Science, Technology, Knowledge and Innovation, replacing Silvia Díaz.

With these changes, the cabinet is currently made up of 12 ministers from Socialismo Democrático Party, 11 from the Apruebo Dignidad coalition, and one independent. Moreover, 15 new deputy ministers were appointed, seven of whom are from the center-left, five are independent, and three are from Apruebo Dignidad.

This reshuffling of the cabinet came two days after an unexpected defeat for the government’s plans. On Wednesday, March 8, the Chamber of Deputies (lower house of the parliament) rejected a tax reform which sought to compile 3.6% of the national GDP in four years through the collection of taxes, with which the government expected to finance half of its program.

(RedRadioVE) by Dubraska Esteves, with Orinoco Tribune content

https://orinocotribune.com/chile-presid ... cond-time/

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Ecuador on course for most violent year ever
March 14, 2023

New figures show a record number of intentional homicides in ‘Zone 8’ of Ecuador, which encompasses the city of Guayaquil and the surrounding towns of Durán and Samborondón. So far this year, as of March 12, there have been 430 murders in this region alone. If this tendency continues then 2023 will be the most violent year in its history.

There were a total of 14 murders reported between midday on Friday, March 10th, and the next morning – a period of less than 24 hours. Most crimes are linked to fights between local gangs, settling of scores, and robberies.

The number of intentional homicides could reach 2,211 by the end of 2023 if this trend continues, the highest number since record-keeping began. This would represent a marked spike from 2022, during which 1,455 people were murdered.

The rise in crime and violence began after leftist ex-president Rafael Correa left office. During his final year in office, just 194 homicides took place in this region of the country. If this year’s projections come true, it will represent an increase of more than 1000% compared to Correa’s final year as president.

In a recent interview with Nodal, ex-presidential candidate for Correa’s party in 2021, Andres Arauz, explained the consequences of the ongoing economic and societal collapse during the neoliberal period under Lenin Moreno and Guillermo Lasso;

“The one who will not be able to survive two more years is the Ecuadorian people and the best demonstration of this is the homicide rate in the country, the highest in history, and the migration rate, that is, the rate of departure of Ecuadorians. The exodus of Ecuadorians in 2023 has exceeded the exodus of other sister countries in the region that are facing an economic blockade, financial sanctions, and attacks of all kinds.

The greater tragedy is in the Darien jungle between Colombia and Panama where Ecuadorians are crossing on foot with the intention to seek an opportunity in the North. We have a chronic recession, an unemployment crisis, a public health crisis. Lasso has instead focused on political persecution, while small businesses are forced to pay extortion money to criminal gangs to avoid being attacked.”

https://kawsachunnews.com/ecuador-on-co ... ear-ever-2

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Ecuador has a ‘narco-banker government’: Arauz
March 13, 2023Andres Arauz, Ecuador

The following is an interview with Andres Arauz, former left-wing presidential candidate for the Correista UNES alliance in 2021. This interview originally appeared in Nodal.

Why do you call the government of Guillermo Lasso a government of narco-bankers?

Let’s start with the revelation, by the media allied to Lasso himself, that his brother-in-law Danilo Carrera, chairman of Banco Guayaquil, has ties to sectors of the Albanian mafia, a criminal drug organization that present in the Ecuador, and they have designated people within Ecuador’s public companies and ministries. The Prosecutor’s Office even raided the presidential palace itself looking for evidence of this corruption and called the case the “encuento” case, alluding to Guillermo Lasso’s second-round slogan calling himself the “encuentro” candidate (coming together). The Lasso family, public officials, financial institutions, mafias, and other criminals, are involved here. The Prosecutor’s Office has decided to reopen the case that was closed by Lasso himself two years ago, and congress is also investigating this. This could end in the impeachment of Guillermo Lasso as President.

Why am I talking about a government of narco-bankers? Lasso’s narrative (during the elections) was that Ecuador was full of drug traffickers, it turns out that those who were full of drug traffickers were the financial institutions that he owned. The country has civil servants who, for the most part, are honest people; teachers, doctors, nurses, policemen, and soldiers. The problem is not the people. The problem is that we are led by a banker president linked to these organized mafias.

Can you refresh us a bit about all the links between the president and tax havens?

Lasso, like most of the Latin American financial elites, has hidden his fortunes abroad: In the Cayman Islands, in Panama, in Florida, Miami, Dakota, in the British Virgin Islands. But in addition to all this, Lasso owns a bank in Panama, the Banisi bank, which contributes to capital flight and tax evasion. This bank was created in Panama along with another bank that Lasso founded on the island of Montserrat to evade Ecuadorian regulations and be able to capture deposits from Ecuador, but without complying with Ecuadorian legislation.

On Lasso’s official trips abroad, and particularly to the United States, he is usually accompanied by Danilo Carrera. This is his brother-in-law, but he is also the president of the Banco de Guayaquil board of directors, a person extremely trusted by Lasso. It makes no sense for a private bank official to be on an official Ecuadorian government trip, but it turns out that this banker, Danilo Carrera, also has another network of offshore companies abroad. Carrera is a close friend of a person named Rubén Chérez who has already been sentenced in Ecuador for drug trafficking, he also operated a mafia network for the sale of government jobs with the help of the Albanian mafia, a transnational criminal organization that has a leading role in the export of drugs from South America to Europe. Lasso, his family, and those close to him, make up this government of narco-bankers.

All of this is happening at a time of extreme political weakness following his catastrophic defeat last month in the local elections. The presidential elections are in 2025. Can you survive that long when the country is also mired in a serious economic and social crisis?

Unfortunately, Lasso can survive two more years with the support of the hegemonic media, the police, and the armed forces, and the influence of the United States embassy that has recently allocated a budget of 100 million dollars, through the USAID office of transition initiatives, to try to sustain his government by influencing the media, social organizations and political parties, seeking to divide and conquer.

The one who will not be able to survive two more years is the Ecuadorian people and the best demonstration of this is the homicide rate in the country, the highest in history, and the migration rate, that is, the rate of departure of Ecuadorians. The exodus of Ecuadorians in 2023 has exceeded the exodus of other sister countries in the region that are facing an economic blockade, financial sanctions, and attacks of all kinds.

The worst tragedy is in the Darien jungle between Colombia and Panama where Ecuadorians are crossing on foot with the intention to seek an opportunity in the North. We have a chronic recession, an unemployment crisis, a public health crisis. Lasso has instead focussed on political persecution, while small businesses are forced to pay extortion money to criminal gangs to avoid being attacked.

Lasso was the main person responsible for the banking crisis in the 90s that led to the dollarization of the Ecuadorian economy. And yet, when the 2021 elections came, he was democratically elected. It would seem that something is failing in Ecuadorian society.

Memory failed in the face of immense power of the media and economic elites. There were also mistakes on our part. We must amend the relationship many different sectors of voters, such as indigenous sectors – CONAIE or Pachakutik – but also other sectors. I think that with the pandemic things have changed a lot. If indeed Congress manages to remove Lasso0, enormous possibilities would open up at a time when the region is once again standing up and making proposals that lead towards integration and the Patria Grande.

https://kawsachunnews.com/ecuador-has-a ... ment-arauz
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Re: South America

Post by blindpig » Thu Mar 23, 2023 1:57 pm

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Peru Dictatorship Denies Castillo Right to Phone Calls
March 20, 2023Pedro Castillo, Peru

Pedro Castillo is being denied his right to a phone call by Peru’s dictatorship, led by Dina Boluarte. Since the December 7 US-backed coup, Castillo has been detained without charge and without direct contact with his wife and children who are currently exiled in Mexico.

This was denounced by Castillo’s wife, Lilia Paredes, and his daughter, Yenifer Castillo, on Saturday in a joint interview with Radio 10 in Argentina. They say that it constitutes a violation of his human rights because all detainees in Peru have a right to a phone call by law.

“It’s been three months now, my father is detained is Pavilion 1 and he has no access to a pay phone. Meanwhile, Alberto Fujimori (ex-dictator) is in Pavilion 2 and has access to a phone 24 hours a day (..) My father is being mistreated. We are democratic, we believe that rights are equal, but now they are not. This is what bothers me, there are differences in treatment between one and the other,” said Yenifer.

His wife Lilia was also being persecuted by the right-wing regime that seized power after Castillo was ousted. In response, the President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, announced that Lilia and her children would be given political asylum in his country. Although she is now safe, she cannot contact her husband.

“It is an injustice and I am sadder every day. We’re hoping that international justice can help. He is a political prisoner, he did not commit any crime,” commented Lilia.

After the coup against his government in December 2022, Castillo was given 18 months ‘preventive detention’ and is being held without charge. The preventative detention has now been extended for another three years, still without any charges. The right-wing regime that took power following his ouster has killed dozens of protesters who were calling for the return of Castillo’s elected government.

By Kawsachun News

https://kawsachunnews.com/peru-dictator ... hone-calls

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Peru: 8 Generals Removed For Deaths In Rallies Against Boluarte

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Police officers repress anti-government protesters, Peru. | Photo: Twitter/ @PrensaMercosur

Published 20 March 2023

Under the command of general Flores, for instance, Police agents killed seven people with long-range weapons nearby the Congress and government headquarters.


On Monday, the Peruvian National Police dismissed eight generals who ordered to repress protests against President Dina Boluarte.

Among the officers dismissed is David Villanueva, the head of the Police delegation in the Puno department, where at least 21 people died from shots made by police officers.

Luis Flores, the head of the Police delegation in the Apurimac department, is also among the dismissed officers. Under his command, agents used long-range weapons to suppress demonstrations nearby the Congress and the government headquarters, where at least seven protesters died.

On Sunday, thousands of Peruvians took to the streets of Lima to demand Boluarte’s resignation, the closure of the Congress, a call to new elections, and a constitutional reform approval. Although the mobilization was peaceful, the National Police repressed the demonstrators.

According to a poll conducted by the CPI Research company, the Boluarte administration has a disapproval rate of 76 percent, and 51 percent of Peruvians consider that Congress staged a coup against former President Pedro Castillo.

Since Dec. 7, 2022, when Boluarte replaced Castillo after Congress dismissed him, over 60 citizens have died, and about 1,300 people have been injured in anti-government protests.

After analyzing some necropsies and medical reports on the bodies of diseased protesters, Peru’s Ojo Publico outlet denounced that many dead citizens were hit by lead pellets, whose use is forbidden in Peru.

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

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Luis Arce claims access to the sea for Bolivia

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Bolivia lost some 400 kilometers of coastline and nearly 120,000 square kilometers of territory in the Pacific war. | Photo: Twitter @AbyayalaBolivia
Published 23 March 2023

Bolivia points out that the ruling of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in 2018 has not put an end to the Bolivian claim and rather urges Bolivia and Chile to dialogue.

The Bolivian president, Luis Arce, recalled this Thursday the 144 years of the historic defense of the territory of Calama in 1879 and claimed the right to a sovereign access to the sea for his country.

In a post on Twitter, the Bolivian president states that "Today we remember 144 years of the historic defense of Calama by Bolivian heroes who offered their lives to preserve the integrity of the Homeland."

Likewise, Arce, who is in the United States at the World Water Forum, pointed out that "for truth, justice, history and reason, today and always sea for Bolivia."


The day before, the Government of Bolivia reiterated on the occasion of the Day of the Sea, that it will maintain its claim for sovereign maritime access and that it will insist on dialogue with Chile to solve what it considers to be still a regional "wound".

This was expressed by the Minister of the Presidency, María Nela Prada in the preamble to the commemoration, which began with the transfer of the remains of the hero Eduardo Abaroa from the Basilica of San Francisco, in the center of the city of La Paz, to the square that bears his name.

Prada pointed out that the ruling of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in 2018 has not put an end to the Bolivian claim and urges Bolivia and Chile to dialogue, and that this is what the country is now looking for.

The ICJ ruled that Chile does not have an obligation to negotiate an exit to the sea in favor of Bolivia due to a lawsuit that that country filed in 2013.

For this Thursday, President Arce is scheduled to participate in the official acts for the Day of the Sea and address a message to the country.

Bolivia commemorates the Day of the Sea every March 23 because on that date, in 1879, the country's first resistance to the invasion by Chilean troops took place, which began on February 14 of that same year.

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/bolivia- ... -0009.html

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Re: South America

Post by blindpig » Sat Mar 25, 2023 3:10 pm

Latin America: The United States Improvises in Confronting the Silk Road
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on MARCH 23, 2023
Claudio Katz

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The United States is losing economic primacy in Latin America in the face of the overwhelming presence of China, unable to find recipes to counterbalance this protagonism that threatens its traditional domination.

The domination of the United States over Latin America has no equivalent in other parts of the world. In no other area has it maintained such direct control with such sustained interventions. It has always considered the region as a simple extension of its own territory.

Because of this singular gravitation, the retreat of the first power south of the Rio Grande is illustrative of the crisis of American power. Washington is losing ground in its old fiefdom at a staggering rate.

The evidence of this decline in economic terms has been overwhelming after the failure of the FTAA. The failed commercial and financial integration of the entire region under its control affected a traditional market of U.S. capitalism. That failed project was not replaced by any other plan of the same scope. Bilateral treaties failed to produce the expected results and the old desire for Pan-American supremacy was shelved.

This economic adversity extended to the geopolitical-military plane. The erosion of U.S. leadership was not reversed in the last two decades with greater deployment of the Southern Command, the IV Fleet, the bases in Colombia or the presence of the DEA, the CIA and the FBI. The White House could not repeat the occupations of Grenada (1983) or Panama (1989). It reinforced the blockade of Cuba and tried out plots against Venezuela, but was unable to rebuild the OAS or organize the continental counter-coup that the Lima Group was hoping for.

The same setback is corroborated at the ideological level. The “American dream” no longer dazzles as it used to. The exaltation of pure capitalism persists, as well as the adulation of business or the idealization of competition, but the U.S. reference lost its traditional and exclusive centrality. The difficulties faced by the economy of the North discourage the apologies of the past. The increase in inequality also makes the identification of the U.S. political system with the welfare of the majorities implausible.

The old image of the United States as the protector of the continent is also losing followers. Only for decreasing sectors of the regional elites does it continue to embody the common values of humanity. Washington’s international intervention is no longer seen as the only antidote to chaos. It is clear that the Marines intervene only to ensure the profits of a capitalist minority in the North. This general revision of the role of the United States has been precipitated by the impetuous arrival of a new external player.

Failures in the face of a surprising challenger

China’s explosive expansion in Latin America corroborates the deterioration of U.S. domination. The Asian giant does not have the competitive profile of Europe or Japan, which on different occasions made unsuccessful incursions into the region controlled by Washington. During the second half of the 20th century, these interventions were always restricted to certain branches of the economy and never threatened the general primacy of the major power.

The arrival of China presents another dimension and introduces an unprecedented wedge in the entire Latin American region, which the dominators of the North contemptuously called the “backyard”. The speed of this Asian penetration is unprecedented. It began in the commercial sphere through operations that escalated at an annual rate of 26%. The volume of this trade jumped from 18 billion dollars (2002) to 450 billion (2021). China has now become the main partner of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru and Uruguay and the second largest partner of Mexico and Colombia (Quian; Vaca Narvaja, 2021).

Beijing’s initial interest was focused on the acquisition of raw materials. It bet on guaranteeing its supply of raw materials in the region that harbors the largest reserves on the planet. It openly challenged the Yankee custodian of these riches. Latin America is home to 40% of the world’s biodiversity, 25% of the world’s forests and 28% of the world’s water sources. It also has 85 % of the known deposits of lithium, 43 % of copper, 40 % of nickel and 30 % of bauxite. China has taken note of this wealth to sustain its extraordinary growth.

This onslaught reproduces in Latin America the expansion of the Eastern giant in the rest of the world. But in this case, it directly undermines the preeminence of its main rival in a territory of long-standing U.S. primacy. Washington’s surprise has been overwhelming and the establishment has not been able to define a counter-attack in the face of such a challenge. It never imagined that the Asian advance could reach this dimension in its own domains.

China took advantage of the failure of the FTAA faced by Bush and Obama’s hesitation in dealing with free trade to introduce its agreements in the region. By this means, in just 20 years, it managed to occupy a place very close to the United States in the whole area.

Trump attempted a virulent protectionist reaction. He froze the multilateral path, adopted the agenda of the domestic Americanist sector and sought to recapture the old captive markets. But his mercantilist gamble did not work either. He did not reverse the U.S. trade deficit with China, nor did he improve the U.S. surplus with Latin American clients.

The tycoon only gained some breathing space with a renewal of the agreement with Mexico (TMEC), which left U.S. firms satisfied and ensured the enormous profits of the factories. He also introduced barriers to German and Japanese companies trying to penetrate the Northern market. He also vetoed the attractive agreements that China has been offering Mexico for the past twenty years.

But these achievements failed to compensate for the loss of space to Beijing throughout the continent. The United States was unable to expand its T-MEC model to the rest of Central America and the Caribbean. Nor was it able to prevent governments closely aligned with the West from extending their agreements with China.

This economic failure had political correlates. Trump’s counter-offensive to align the region’s right-wing presidents with Washington failed to have a significant effect on business. In no case did it induce the region’s ruling classes to curtail their exchanges with Beijing.

The adversity facing the United States becomes apparent in a comparison of Trump’s administration with his predecessor Nixon. To confront the challenge created by the renewed competitiveness of the German and Japanese economies, in the 1970s, the Republican leader ordered the non-convertibility of the dollar and a sharp rise in tariffs. He made a pact with China to separate it from the USSR and compensated for the defeat of Vietnam with the success of his partner Pinochet in Chile and with the counter-offensive of his Israeli appendage in the Middle East.

In contrast, all of Trump’s geopolitical initiatives were inconsistent, timorous and reversed by his own management before achieving any results. He vacillated in the trade war with China, exhibited countless vacillations vis-à-vis Russia, combined diatribes with inaction vis-à-vis Korea and Iran, and failed to impose his militarization demands on Europe. This contrast vis-à-vis Nixon offers another indication of America’s current backsliding.

The Failed Counteroffensive

The United States no longer resorts to free trade offers to curb China’s expansion, since it is unable to compete with its rival in this field. Tariff-free trade has always been the banner of the most competitive economies. It became the great emblem of London in the 19th century, of Washington in the last century and of Beijing today.

The United States only adopted this principle when its economy began to buckle its competitors. At that point, the isolationist sectors lost out to their globalist peers, who imposed the liberalization agenda.

In Latin America, this course was anticipated by Pan-Americanism and subsequently extended with trade liberalization programs. At the end of World War II, the flag of free trade was associated with a US economy that tripled the GDP of the USSR, quintupled the productive volume of Great Britain and was home to half of the world’s industrial activity (Anderson, 2013: 97-102).

The decline of this productivity was first perceptible in the face of the rebuilt economies of Japan and Germany and has now been made transparent by the rise of China. The competitiveness of the Asian giant explains its fervent defense of trade deregulation at the Davos Summits. The formal fidelity to this ideal in the bulk of the West contrasts with the real promotion of this goal by the new epicenter in the East.

The failure of Trump’s protectionist response to this dilemma led Biden to try Keynesian instruments to even the race with China. He came to the White House with New Deal rhetoric and bold proposals for more government spending, to rebuild revenues and shore up infrastructure investment. He promised to reverse tax cuts and penalize tax havens to raise the resources needed to revive the U.S. economy.

Biden did not take up Obama’s multilateralism, nor the free trade initiatives of his globalist predecessors. He only attempted some approximation to that course, in order to ignite the engines of the American resurgence. But that strategy did not get off the ground in the first biennium of his term.

His package to increase public spending obtained much less than expected in Congress, in the face of the Republicans’ rejection and the objections of his own bench. First the pharmaceutical lobby blocked any restrictions on the patent empire, then big business vetoed improvements in social benefits and tax increases. Then the bankers objected to expanded public spending, and finally the oil companies obstructed the take-off of a green economy.

All the initiatives for environmental financing, increased health care and progressive taxation have been transformed into disjointed conventional stimulus packages. The Keynesian revival also has to contend with the new inflation scenario that followed the pandemic and the renewed military spending introduced by the Ukrainian war (Tooze, 2022).

This brake obstructs the delayed relaunching of the transatlantic and transpacific trade projects, which the United States is keeping undefined. The blockage faced by these initiatives confirms the stalemate of the first power. The international primacy of the dollar, the advantages in high technology and the gravitation of the Pentagon do not provide sufficient support for disputes with China. For this reason, Biden is unable to reverse the continued advance of the Eastern dragon in Latin America.

The region’s ruling classes are redoubling their business dealings with China, in defiance of all Washington’s pressures to obstruct those ventures. Biden is repeating the failure of his predecessor, who was unable to break that partnership. Trump’s two dauphins in the region – Macri and Bolsonaro – only feigned initial steps to distance themselves from Beijing.

These attempts were abandoned when the exporters of both countries demanded to preserve their huge sales to China (Lo Brutto; Crivelli, 2019). The delay introduced by Macri in the infrastructure works financed by Beijing and Bolsonaro’s flirtation with Taiwan were neutralized by the demands of large local capital.

That continuity in the financial and commercial relationship with Beijing is the pragmatic response of the Latin American ruling classes, to the absence of compensatory offers from the United States (Fuenzalida, 2022). Trump simply got angry with Argentina, Jamaica, Panama and Colombia, after demanding ruptures without compensatory offers of any kind. Biden modified the rhetoric, but seeks to recreate the same U.S. patronage with little complementary support.

His international tax project exemplifies this fragility of proposals for Latin American partners. The initiative penalizes tax evasion by means of a new tax rate on large companies based in tax havens. But since this tax would be levied taking into account the location of the headquarters (and not the production sites), the 100 billion dollars it would contribute to the treasury would be entirely pocketed by the economies of the center. Washington would obtain a new flow of funds, with resources largely generated in Latin American territories (Página 12, 2021). Biden maintains the old tradition of shearing that region, but without slowing down the expansion of a rival that negotiates with all the local capitalists of the “backyard”.

The Silk Road in the region

The battle for economic supremacy in Latin America is also being fought in the field of international megaprojects. China is embarking on forging a gigantic belt of infrastructures, ports and routes, already involving 145 countries that are home to 70% of the world’s population and 55% of the world’s gross domestic product. The Silk Road involves 8,000 billion dollars in loans and surpasses the reconstruction plans that followed World War II.

This colossal undertaking is progressing amidst the stormy tensions caused by war, inflation and the supply shortage that erupted after the pandemic.

China must also deal with the conflicts generated by the indebtedness of the countries participating in its project. It is already a major creditor of very fragile economies (Mongolia, Laos, Maldives, Montenegro, Djibouti, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan) and is refinancing commitments to countries heavily affected by these liabilities (Bangladesh, Tanzania and Nigeria).

The negotiation of each section of the Silk Road also provokes conflicts with participants who increase their participation without consulting regional partners. Italy’s negotiations behind Europe’s back exemplify these tensions. But in this wide variety of circumstances, China is betting big against a bewildered U.S. spectator.

This problematic scenario has spread to Latin America. In just four years, the Silk Road has added 20 countries in the region, beginning to achieve an impact comparable to that of the African continent in this project. Argentina was the most recent incorporation and, with this entry, added pressure for the entry of the three major absentees: Brazil, Mexico and Colombia.

The Southern Cone economy was tempted with greater credits to finance the acquisition of manufactured goods and services from China. Argentina receives less pressure from Washington against Beijing than Mexico or Colombia and has less industry to protect from the import avalanche than Brazil. But the offers being evaluated by Itamaraty are in line with the expansion of Brazil’s trade with China, which jumped from US$2 billion (2000) to US$100 billion (2020).

Mexico is still pending a response to the proposal to conclude a direct FTA with Beijing, which is vetoed by the clauses of the T-MEC signed with the United States. Many voices are pushing for the adoption of this conflictive step, in order to place the country in a status of real equidistance vis-à-vis the two powerful countries of the planet (Dussel Peters, 2022). But this bet introduces a card that for now no one wants to play.

China negotiates with all its interlocutors, without demanding the same commitments that the United States usually demands. It does not have a tradition of being a creditor that consummates the appropriation of territories, companies or resources of insolvent debtors.

The lawsuits for “non-compliance” with obligations processed in an arbitration body (ICSID) illustrate the magnitude of the penalties imposed by U.S. (or European) companies on Latin American states. The number of such penalties jumped from 6 (1996) to 1,190 (2022) for compensations exceeding US$33 billion (Ferrari, 2022).

The passage of time will settle all the questions about China’s future behavior in similar situations. Some analysts estimate that the Eastern giant has already begun to prevent such scenarios (Ecuador Today, 2021), substituting State-to-State credits for private loans with asset guarantees (Marco del Pont, 2022). But the implementation of these safeguards has not yet been verified and China continues to exhibit a friendlier profile than its North American competitor. It is moving ahead with the Silk Road at a speed that is unsettling to the U.S. principal.

The inconsistency of America Grows

Faced with China’s shocking onslaught, Trump sponsored a defensive wall beginning in 2019 with his America Grows project. He encouraged especially privileged Latin American deals with U.S. firms, in the most promising sectors of energy activity. He particularly promoted investments to expand Mexican gas connections to Central America and to increase the U.S. presence in the electricity grids of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Chile. He placed special emphasis on Bolivia’s gas reserves and the Vaca Muerta (Argentina) and Pre-Salt (Brazil) fields.

To accelerate these initiatives, he placed his delegate in the presidency of the IDB (Mauricio Claver Carone) and forced the granting of a mega IMF loan to the insolvent Argentine State. He also promoted a drastic modification of the current government procurement systems and proposed to sign commitments in an expeditious manner, skipping negotiations and parliamentary controls. He resorted to the Trumpian format of forcing in record time agreements of dubious legality.

But with this improvised libretto, the tycoon was unable to introduce any alternative to the Silk Road. His initiatives were left floating in the lax universe of projects, while Latin American governments continued to conclude effective agreements with Chinese clients and suppliers. The aura surrounding the launching of America Grows was extinguished before it aroused any significant interest.

These uncertainties recreated the tensions within the United States between the protectionist and globalist factions. This conflict reinforced the obstruction to an initiative that lacked significant government financial support. América Crece was conceived as a plan to open up business to the private sector, defining the investments to be made.

This approach is at the antipodes of the direct state support favored by China. While America Grows is subject to the approval of each U.S. company, the Silk Road advances with funds provided by Beijing. Without that direct wallet, Washington cannot compete with its Asian rival.

Biden inherited this obstruction without providing any solution. He took up the same America Grows scheme, with the more pompous name of the Alliance for the Economic Prosperity of the Americas (APEP). He placed greater emphasis on the complementary program of incentives for the return of U.S. firms based in Asia (Back to the Americas). He also shored up IDB funds to offer matching credits to China and sought to reduce the enmity generated with the region by his predecessor, displacing Trumpist officials from that organization (Merino; Morgenfeld, 2021).

Negotiations with 11 Latin American countries to promote the new project are progressing very slowly and are not arousing the interest that the FTAA aroused in the past (Oppenheimer, 2023). The call to expand the partnership model with Mexico (T-MEC) in Central America has not solved any of the problems that paralyzed Trump’s initiative.

The huge fiscal deficit dragging down the U.S. Treasury restricts the supply of money required to develop such proposals. This lack of funds limits the internal Keynesian relaunching envisioned by Biden and obstructs external competition with the Eastern giant. For this reason, the IDB is sailing in a state of uncertainty, while the China-CELAC Forum is increasing its bilateral agenda. The United States is also failing to forge the political articulations achieved in the past with the Washington Consensus.

The magnitude of the U.S. setback is evident by a simple comparison with the initiatives adopted by the White House in the 1960s to neutralize the impact of the Cuban revolution. At that time it resorted to the Alliance for Progress with mountains of credits and investments in all countries, without facing economic rivalry from any other power in the region. At present, the United States does not have those resources and faces a Chinese competitor that penetrates its own ” backyard”. The Latin American bourgeoisies, which in those years were automatically aligned with their principal, are now distancing themselves and playing their own game.

A portrait of great disarray

The recent Summit of the Americas illustrates the retreat of the United States in the region. This event is the main instance of political articulation of the continent and each of the eight meetings held in the last three decades portrayed the state of those relations.

In the first three Summits (Miami-1994, Santiago de Chile-1998, Québec-2001), the recovery achieved by Washington was very visible, with the rise of neoliberalism and the collapse of the USSR. But this resurgence was abruptly reversed at the fourth event (Mar del Plata-2005) with the defeat of the FTAA. That turn coincided with the erosion of unipolarity and the debut of a sequence of US failures.

Obama managed a stalemate scenario in the three subsequent Summits (Port of Spain – 2009, Cartagena-2012, Panama-2015). He was unable to finalize the bilateral treaties to replace the FTAA and had to accept the presence of Cuba. He even deployed a conciliatory rhetoric of equivalence of all countries and distanced himself from Pan-Americanism.

Trump radically modified that script in order to restore the explicit domination of the empire. He combined displays of force with rudeness at meetings and absented himself from the Summit itself (Lima-2018), to avoid protests and rejection of his xenophobic provocations.

But that absence only covered up the failure of his conspiracies against Venezuela and the shipwreck of the ultra-right coalition he tried to build in the region.

In the recent meeting (Los Angeles-2022), Biden faced a greater number of adversities. He laid out an agenda with all the topics in vogue (clean energy, digital infrastructure, green economy, democratic governance), to cover up his purpose of retaking US primacy (Lucite, 2022). He attempted a show of force with the exclusion of Nicaragua, Cuba and Venezuela, to please the right-wingers in Florida and assumed the dual role of formal host and patron of the meeting. But with this repetition of a Trump-esque boorishness, he precipitated the protests that marred the event.

Mexico led the absentee governments that did not accept the exclusions and induced a hollowing out of the Summit itself. The meeting remained a botched show, questioned by almost all attendees (Casari, 2022). The exclusions based on human rights violations were particularly absurd, in the midst of U.S. reconciliation with the criminal monarch of Saudi Arabia. Biden was snubbed even by several right-wing governments that opted to absent themselves (Morgenfeld, 2022).

That absence prevented progress in the planned pact to contain the flood of migrants in different territories of Central America. It also failed to achieve the desired endorsement for the sanctions against Russia and had to accept a principle of annulling exclusions in future meetings. The speakers who postulated this principle became the real protagonists of the Summit. Not even the White House’s allusions to an imminent world war did not align Latin American governments with their big brother (Rangel, 2022).

What happened portrayed the change in the prevailing balance of power in the region. The United States is trying to make a move, without reversing the adversities it is facing, and is beginning to compete with meetings promoted by its Chinese rival, which do not exclude any participant. Unlike Mar del Plata, the Los Angeles Summit was not wrecked by the emergence of a Latin American alignment, but by the US administration’s own impotence.

The underlying military resource

The United States is trying to counteract its economic shortcomings with greater geopolitical and military action. This card has been played by all the occupants of the White House, to contain the Chinese presence and to break the autonomy of the local capitalist classes.

Both purposes are shared by the leadership of the Republicans and Democrats, who favor a combination of aggression and negotiation policies, in order to recompose US power. The mixture of the stick with good manners persists as the main combo of all Washington administrations.

No Northern leader contemplates the hypothesis of a U.S. withdrawal from Latin America. This inflexibility is an intrinsic ingredient of the first power, which cannot (and does not want to) agree with China on the transfer of dominions that it agreed with Great Britain in the first half of the 20th century.

The United States intends to preserve its primacy by making use of the monumental military structure maintained by the Pentagon in the region. The Southern Command, the IV Fleet and the bases in Colombia articulate a device of a scale very similar to that deployed by the Marines in the Persian Gulf or the Mediterranean.

Latin America is the historical basis of U.S. interventionism. Between 1948 and 1990 the State Department was involved in the overthrow of 24 governments. In 4 cases, U.S. troops acted, in 3 cases CIA assassinations prevailed and in 17 cases there were coups directed from Washington. A large part of these assaults were perpetrated by the 70,000 military personnel trained by the Pentagon between 1961 and 1975 to carry out all kinds of massacres.

The “war on drugs” has been the most recent form of such escalations. It included an enduring DEA presence, especially in Mexico, Colombia, Peru and Bolivia. A dramatic number of Latin Americans have been killed, with no effect on reducing drug trafficking. This ineffectiveness was a consequence of the CIA’s own action, which tolerated the commercialization of narcotics to supplement its financing.

This circuit also facilitated multi-million profits to arms manufacturers and banks, which transform black money into current operations. For this laundering, the entities involved in the crime -such as Wells Fargo- were penalized with irrelevant fines (Miguel, 2022).

The State Department always disguises its aggressions with implausible pretexts. The Marines and the embassy have traditionally been portrayed as saviors of wildly changing enemies. First it was the communists, then the Taliban, then drug traffickers, and lately terrorists. Hollywood actively contributes to this masquerade by massifying stereotypes, which at every juncture are molded to the mystifications propitiated by Washington (Cook, 2022).

The United States currently has 12 military bases in Panama, 12 in Puerto Rico, 9 in Colombia, 8 in Peru, 3 in Honduras, 2 in Paraguay. It also maintains facilities of the same type in Aruba, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Cuba (Guantanamo). In the Falkland Islands, the British partner ensures a NATO network connected to the North Atlantic sites (Rodriguez Gelfenstein, 2023).

But Washington adopts its strategy to constraints it did not face in the past. It can no longer dispatch gendarmes, with the same brazenness that prevailed in the second half of the 20th century. It prioritizes its activity in the shadows, to overthrow troublesome rulers and install like-minded dictators.

It is enough to observe the recent confession of a high-ranking Trump official (Bolton), to note how persistent is the meticulous US preparation of coups d’état (El País, 2022). Washington’s men also sustain the ferocious repression unloaded by the usurper Boularte against the Peruvian people (Ruiz, 2023).

With the same crudeness and without any filter, the head of the Southern Command proclaimed the Pentagon’s right to manage Latin America’s natural resources as its own (Reyes, 2022). With this mandate, a corps of US engineers remodels the navigable circuit of the rivers that cross Paraguay. In its confrontation with Beijing, Washington avoids any easing of its military presence in the ” backyard”.

Sanctions against Russia to alienate China

The geopolitical subordination of Latin American foreign ministries is another instrument of the US counter-offensive against China. The State Department is trying to use the war in Ukraine to engage Latin American governments in campaigns condemning Putin. It demands penalization of the Russian incursion without any mention of NATO. This pressure is aimed at breaking the resistance of many leaders to a blind alignment with Washington.

The punishments demanded by the United States against Moscow are aimed at reducing the margin of autonomy in the region. With this type of subjugation, the White House buried all vestiges of Latin American independence during the 20th century.

The mass media are in command of this pressure to force the reprobation of Moscow demanded by Washington. They are strengthening the climate of Russophobia that has been installed in public opinion and are questioning the hesitations in issuing more virulent censures against Putin. This campaign aims at resurrecting the OAS and neutralizing CELAC.

U.S. pressure has not produced any results on the leaders in confrontation with the White House (Venezuela, Bolivia, Cuba and Nicaragua), but has had an impact on administrations that periodically oscillate between distancing themselves from and submitting to Washington (Argentina, Chile). On various occasions, these governments have provided votes of censure against Russia demanded by the Northern principal.

The United States does not hide its irritation with Mexico for avoiding such pronouncements and the President of Ukraine himself has harshly criticized López Obrador. He questions his proposal for a cessation of hostilities and a five-year truce. The same tension has spread to Itamaraty since Lula’s inauguration.

The warmongering climate promoted by the United States has not gained many adherents in Latin America. The bulk of the region remains far from the warlike tension prevailing in Europe. For this reason, the Pentagon’s request to several governments to send Russian supplies to the Ukrainian army has been rejected outright (Kersffeld, 2023).

Washington has failed to recreate the traditional submission to its geopolitical maneuvers.

This limitation contrasts with the subordination it imposed on Europe. The difference is obviously due to the location of the conflict in the Old Continent. But this submission to Washington preceded the current war and was carefully programmed by NATO strategists. In its long and traumatic experience with the Yankee oppressor, Latin America has generated more antibodies than Europe to the provocations of the State Department (Beluche, 2023).

The White House makes no secret of the economic purposes of its onslaught. It is extorting all countries to cancel their scarce business with Russia. They demand that Ecuador cut its banana sales, that Paraguay reduce its meat exports, that Brazil restrict its soybean and coffee sales and that Mexico cancel its sale of cars, computers and beer. The pressure on Argentina is concentrated on the sensitive issue of nuclear energy (López Blanch, 2022).

But since Russia’s economic impact in Latin America is very small, the main U.S. purpose points in another direction. It intends to use the Ukraine conflict to undermine the presence of Moscow’s Chinese ally. Biden is obsessed with this containment of Beijing. He knows that the countdown for the control of the region’s natural resources is accelerating and he is urged to restore U.S. dominance.

The battle for minerals to be used in the energy transition is a priority in this struggle with China. Several Latin American countries possess the resources that the two powers are trying to monopolize (Feliu, 2022). Warmongering is the main card of the United States to win this dispute.

The persistent harassment of ALBA

The imperial counter-offensive includes new attacks against the bloc of Latin American governments most hostile to Washington (ALBA).

This escalation against Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Bolivia was made transparent in the exclusion of these countries from the Summit of the Americas. Biden tried to shelve Trump’s outbursts at the beginning of his administration, but later adopted aggressive positions that are in tune with his own trajectory. He supported Thatcher in the Falklands War, upheld the crimes of Plan Colombia and supported DEA operations in Central America.

The White House has resumed its heavy spending on diplomacy, foundation funding and embassy prominence to reshape alliances with the Latin American establishment. In addition, it is very sensitive to the ultra-right lobby in Miami that demands brutal interventionist actions.

This influence is verified, above all, in the continuity of aggressions against Cuba.

Biden did not repeal the classification of that country as a terrorist state and he attempted to expel the Havana delegation from the United Nations Human Rights Council.

The current president is no exception in the long list of Yankee presidents who have tried to destroy the Cuban revolution through the blockade and armed conspiracies. The first power never recovered from its greatest defeat in the region and has not resigned itself to coexist with a socialist process 90 miles away from Miami. That challenge had an enormous long-term effect, demonstrating the vulnerability of the United States in its own fiefdom. Cuba laid the foundations for a gradual autonomous shift in the entire region.

It is true that Washington managed to contain the shock wave of the revolution spreading to the rest of the continent during the general wave of the 1960s and 1970s. It also held back the Central American upsurge of the following decade. It resorted to the terror of dictatorships and a war of attrition that ended with the invasion of Panama.

As in other parts of the world, the United States compensated for its great defeat in Cuba with other achievements of counterrevolutionary containment. In the Far East, it lost China and Vietnam, but reconquered Indonesia, held off Korea and subdued Burma and the Philippines. A balance of the same type could be exposed for the Latin American case (Anderson, 2013).

But Cuba had a more far-reaching impact for imperial domination, because it was consolidated in the first power’s own environment. Like all his predecessors, Biden has not been able to deal with this adversity.

From the White House, he also tried to sustain the harassment of Venezuela with new provocations, such as the kidnapping of the diplomat Alex Saab and the continued confiscation of Venezuelan goods in different parts of the world.

These usurpations include tons of gold in the Bank of England and the properties of CITGO, which is the eighth largest refinery in the United States and the largest foreign asset of PDVSA. The Bolivarian government has managed to recover another immobilized company in Colombia (Petroquímica Monómeros) and is disputing the recovery of an airplane held in Argentina.

The imperial harassment of Venezuela has been the longest and most brutal in recent times. It included all kinds of plots and was motivated by the evident interest in recovering US management of the largest oil reserves of the continent (Petras, 2019).

Biden also maintained funding for the Nicaraguan opposition to displace Ortega and enacted a law enabling new sanctions. In addition, he gave the go-ahead to several conspiracies in Bolivia, but has taken note of the difficulties faced by the United States in the region.

Compromises and uncertainties

Trump’s rudeness and inconsistencies in Latin America have left a balance of failures for Washington that Biden has not reversed. To deal with this adversity, he combines continuity with tentative attempts at a different policy.

The deterioration of the OAS persists, the Lima Group is in tatters and no effective body is enforcing U.S. demands. Biden is looking for a readjustment to achieve this adaptation, but he cannot find a guide for his actions.

He inaugurated his administration by firing the most reactionary people that Trump had installed in the State Department. He also distanced himself from old right-wing allies in El Salvador and Guatemala to clean up the image of his administration.

He has taken up again with great intensity the lists drawn up by the Department of Justice to demand the extradition of officials committed to corruption or drug trafficking. This list includes 62 individuals from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, who held positions in governments aligned with Washington. Some former presidents (such as Orlando Hernández) and their relatives (or close associates) have been deported and imprisoned in the United States.

As already happened with Noriega, the current U.S. ruler is disassociating himself from his disgraced servants.

With this type of extraterritorial prosecution, to assert his authority, he casts ballast on his own past and reaffirms the principle of imposing his laws in other territories. In this way it attempts to discipline all governments to its needs (Veiga, 2022). This policy has extended to South America, with the forced resignation of the vice-president of Paraguay at the simple demand of the US ambassador.

Biden also has a more pragmatic side and has replaced acts of force with negotiations with his most contentious interlocutors.

He maintained a relationship with López Obrador that is very different from Trump’s arrogance and instead of building the wall, he agreed on ways to contain migrants in southern Mexico. These rules were specified in the meeting between presidents that followed the clash during the Summit of the Americas.

He is also currently negotiating a bolder agreement with Venezuela to acquire oil made more expensive by the war in Ukraine. The United States needs to import crude oil from closer locations to ensure its supply, sustain gas sales to Europe and maintain sanctions against Russia.

Several U.S. companies have already agreed to restart drilling to increase the extraction capacity of Venezuelan wells. But this operation requires the lifting of sanctions and a recognition of the Bolivarian government, which Biden avoids due to the enormous political implications of such a step. This reconciliation would constitute a precedent for extending the same strategy to Iran and the White House is unable to determine how such a turn of events would affect the arm wrestling with China.

As in other hot topics, Biden is postponing decisions while continuing to adjust his foreign policy. The imperial counteroffensive is a reaction to rebuild forces, but long-term initiatives have not yet matured in the US command.

The impasses in the neighborhood

The vertiginous penetration achieved by China in Latin America corroborates the impotence of U.S. warmongering to counteract U.S. economic regression. In no other region of the world has Washington exercised such manifest preeminence. If its weapons, spies and ambassadors are unable to contain Beijing’s business machine in this area, it has little chance of succeeding in stopping it in other corners of the planet. That is why Latin America is a test of the future.

China’s arrival in the region erodes the direct control that the United States has long exercised in the continent in the absence of rivals. Unlike Asia, the White House has managed this command throughout the continent without the help of former powers (Japan) or major partners (Australia). Unlike the Middle East, it has no strategic appendages integrated into its own imperial structure (Israel). The regional gendarmes supervised by the Pentagon (Colombia), never had that degree of symbiosis with the Northern establishment. Unlike Eastern Europe, the United States did not resort to its NATO partners to settle strategic disputes with Russia either.

What always distinguished U.S. domination of Latin America was its direct, explicit and overwhelming interference south of the Rio Grande. That is why the arrival of China is so significant.

The United States never shied away from deploying all kinds of actions to display domination and let the local ruling classes know who is in charge. It resorted to a varied menu of co-optations, blackmail or threats to make that leadership explicit. But this combination of warlike methods and rhetoric of coexistence no longer dissuades the Latin American bourgeoisies from doing business with Beijing.

This failure places the Yankee dominator in an unprecedented situation, devoid of scripts. It does not face a revolutionary challenge from below (as in the 60’s and 70’s), nor a geopolitical competition (equivalent to the cold war). Nor can it retreat like the decadent empires in the face of African decolonization. It has to deal with economic competition and resort to military pressures that fail to achieve their goal. The peculiarities of the Chinese rival – which we will analyze in the next article – explain this American quagmire.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2023/03/ ... silk-road/

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Perú: Protester Killed by 36 Pellets During Boluarte Regime Repression
MARCH 24, 2023

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Photo composition showing the place where Peruvian repressive forces shot unarmed protester Rosalino Flores (left) at point blank, and a photo of Flores (right). Photo: Diario La Republica.

The National Coordinator for Human Rights of Perú (CNDDHH), reported that the young protestor Rosalino Flores died this Tuesday, March 21, as a result of wounds sustained on January 11 from the National Police of Perú (PNP) firing 36 pellets at him during protests against Dina Boluarte and her de facto government.

“After almost two months of agony, Rosalino Flores, a 22-year-old boy who was shot by over 30 metal pellets in his stomach during the protests in Cusco, has died,” reported the CNDDHH, cited by Actualidad RT. “With his death, there have now been 49 civilians executed by the law enforcement agencies during Dina Boluarte’s regime.”

The congresswoman for the town of Cusco, Ruth Luque, mourned the death of the young man, who had taken refuge behind a tree before being intercepted by a National Police officer, as captured by video footage.

“My solidarity and condolences to your family,” Luque wrote via social media. “A new death is in the hands of this government. Rosalino was [just] 22 years old, his dreams of him taken away by this government.”


To date, the Ombudsman’s Office counts 67 official deaths during the demonstrations against Dina Boluarte and the Congress of the Republic; 48 of them were civilians in clashes with security officials, 11 were civilians in events related to the demonstrations, and seven were security agents (six military officers and one police officer).

https://orinocotribune.com/peru-protest ... epression/

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Request to Impeach Ecuador’s President Allowed To Proceed

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Of nine judges that make up the entity, six votes are needed for the National Assembly to prosecute the president. | Photo: EFE

Published 24 March 2023

The decision to refer Lasso's impeachment to the Constitutional Court received five out of seven votes.


The Legislative Administrative Council (CAL) this Friday approved the request for the impeachment of Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso and sent it to the Constitutional Court (CC) for an admissibility opinion.

"The National Assembly has sent to the Constitutional Court the resolution of the CAL, which has been technically and legally verified. The document contains the correct name of the head of state, Guillermo Lasso," the Assembly said in a statement.

The decision by the members of the CAL to present the impeachment complaint against Lasso to the CC was approved by five out of seven votes.

It was also announced that a lottery would be held this Friday to appoint Judge Teresa Nuques as the person in charge of processing the impeachment request against the president.

To this end, Nuques will have three days to present a draft opinion on the admissibility of the case, which will then be voted on by the entire panel.

Of the nine judges that make up the panel, six votes would be needed for the decision to be favorable and for the National Assembly to impeach the president.

It is worth mentioning that the text issued by the National Assembly this Friday emphasizes that there is an announcement of the totality of the evidence to be presented, accompanied by the corresponding documents.

Likewise, the referral of the CAL was formalized with the signature of 59 deputies, a number that represents one third of the members of the National Assembly.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Req ... -0018.html
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Re: South America

Post by blindpig » Fri Mar 31, 2023 1:53 pm

Global South Solidarity Is the Key To Lifting up Central America – Not Washington’s Monroe Doctrine
MARCH 30, 2023

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San Salvador, El Salvador.- 2021/07/30: A demonstrator runs as the United States flag goes up in flames, symbolizing US backed militarism during the massacre of students in 1975. Photo: Camilo Freedman/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images.

By Bradley Blankenship – Mar 26, 2023

The US is angry at Latin American nations getting close to China, but the only alternative on offer is imperialist exploitation

Honduran President Xiomara Castro caused a stir in the media when, on March 14, she remarked that she had instructed her foreign minister to re-establish diplomatic ties with China.

This was met with strong approval in Beijing while Honduran Foreign Minister Enrique Reina reiterated that his nation is seeking “all the mechanisms that the international relationship serves for the interests of the people” and that his nation must “cooperate with the largest nations in the world.”

But, of course, the move was met with disgust in Washington, which, through its dated ‘Monroe Doctrine’ that places the Western Hemisphere firmly in the US sphere of influence, sees itself as the overlord of Latin America. For example, US Senator Bill Cassidy said on Twitter that Honduras was moving closer to China “while the world is moving away” and that “the Honduran people will suffer because of [Castro’s] failed leadership.”

To be fair, the US sure knows a thing or two about the suffering of Hondurans and other Central Americans, locking them and their children in cages as they flee destitution to the US. Washington has also orchestrated numerous coups that have devastated the region. At the same time, China has a record of helping Central American nations, including Nicaragua, which recently re-established ties with Beijing.

In February, China and Nicaragua agreed to step up their negotiations on a mutually beneficial free trade agreement and to advance the development of bilateral ties. To get a sense of this importance, I spoke to acclaimed American journalist Benjamin Norton at that time, who lives in Nicaragua and has been extensively covering China-Nicaragua ties. He told me that “the trade negotiations between Nicaragua and China are an important step in the deepening of South-South cooperation and the construction of a multipolar world.”

According to Norton, “historically the United States has treated Latin America in general, and Central America in particular, as its colonial property. The US militarily occupied Nicaragua three times and for decades propped up a brutal right-wing military dictatorship which imposed austerity on its population and sent all exports to the US for pennies on the dollar.”

Norton noted that in 2018 the US again “sponsored a violent coup attempt against Nicaragua’s democratically elected Sandinista government. When the putsch failed, Washington responded with economic warfare, imposing several rounds of aggressive unilateral sanctions, such as the devastating NICA Act, while pushing for a financial blockade.” He noted that these sanctions are illegal under international law and “have done significant damage to the Nicaraguan economy, hurting working-class Nicaraguans.”

“At the same time, while the US is sanctioning Nicaragua, Washington still expects the Central American nation to export its products to the US, particularly beef and other foods. By negotiating new trade arrangements with China, Nicaragua can defend its economic sovereignty, while strengthening South-South solidarity.”

For the whole Central American region, deeper trade relations with China can help. “By forming mutually beneficial economic partnerships with China instead of sending all of its exports to the United States, Central America can advance down the path toward true independence and sovereignty,” Norton said.

This is of particular relevance because the US government, and particularly the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, is obsessed with the issue of undocumented immigrants. A majority of these people are coming to the US from places like Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras – all formerly under US imperial rule at some point and still, to this day, victimized by North American imperialism.

There is also a significant amount of people fleeing Cuba and Venezuela, the former of which has been under a decades-long embargo and the latter under extraordinarily brutal unilateral sanctions from Washington.

While Republicans paint these people as violent criminals, they are, in fact, the victims of extreme exploitation and deliberate under-development. If the US doesn’t want people to seek asylum in their country or otherwise illegally enter to seek better job opportunities, they had best end their imperialist practices in Latin America.

China’s trade relations in the region, particularly Central America, could actually help ameliorate the antecedent causes of Washington’s immigration problem. Of course, US officials are clamoring to undo China’s activity in “their” hemisphere and have put together a series of offers to these countries that are nowhere near as lucrative as the opportunities China presents.

Beijing’s trade opportunities, and South-South solidarity as a principle, might just be the key to turning around the fortunes of Latin America, and Central America in particular.

https://orinocotribune.com/global-south ... -doctrine/

Ecuador: President Guillermo Lasso To Face Impeachment
MARCH 31, 2023

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A woman holds a piece of paper that reads "Lasso On Trial" in the National Assembly of Ecuador, this Saturday, March 25, 2023. Photo: Karen Toro/Reuters.

The plenary session of the Constitutional Court of Ecuador approved the opinion of partial admissibility on the request for impeachment against President Guillermo Lasso, with six votes in favor and three against. The parliamentary procedure could end with the censure and dismissal of the president.

The partial admissibility ruling made this Wednesday, March 29, means that the Constitutional Court admitted the accusation of impeachment for the alleged crime of embezzlement against Lasso, in accordance with the Constitution.

However, the court rejected two accusations related to the crime of extortion, allegedly because they do not comply with the provisions of the law.

The judges further concluded that “in the analysis of the procedure, it was found that in the request presented and the procedure that has been followed up until now in the National Assembly, the principles of political legitimacy and due process have been respected.”


What next?
After the ruling of the Constitutional Court, the process returns again to the National Assembly, where the Legislative Administration Council has three days to observe and recognise the resolution. Then, they will send it to the Oversight Commission.

Meanwhile, the legislative table has about 45 days to hear the evidence that supports Lasso’s alleged violations, as well as listen to his defense.

Within the 45-day period:

*Ten days are set for the president to exercise his defense.
*Ten more days are set for the accusation to submit evidence.
*The table report must be prepared and delivered to the president of the Assembly within a non-extendable period of ten days.
*The president of the Assembly will then distribute it to parliament for their analysis, for which they have five days.
*He will then convene the Plenary in the following five days, and, once the debate is over, the law provides five more days for the decision to be made of whether or not to dismiss the head of state.
The law also establishes that in order to censure and dismiss the president of the Republic, 92 votes are necessary.


Lasso’s rejection
The general secretariat of communication of the presidency of Ecuador rejected the political trial against Lasso via a publicised statement. However, he noted that he respects the admissibility ruling of the Constitutional Court.

“The Assembly’s approach has never had and never will have any legal or political base,” read the statement, which also went on to say that the president continues to work for all Ecuadorians.

(RedRadioVE) by Milena Bravo

https://orinocotribune.com/ecuador-pres ... peachment/
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Re: South America

Post by blindpig » Mon Apr 03, 2023 1:44 pm

Malvinas 40 Years: It’s Time to End Colonialism
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on APRIL 2, 2023
Daniel Filmus

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Every April 2, we Argentines pay tribute to the compatriots who fought valiantly for the recovery of the exercise of sovereignty over the Malvinas Islands, other archipelagos of the South Atlantic and their corresponding maritime spaces.

On the 40th anniversary of the heroic deed carried out by our young men and women, the memory and recognition of their dedication must go hand in hand with a firm commitment to continue fighting for the cause for which many of them gave their lives. The permanent increase of the military presence and the refusal during these four decades of the United Kingdom to resume the dialogue for sovereignty in the terms proposed by the United Nations in its resolution 2065 (XX), show the illegality and illegitimacy of the usurpation that took place in 1833 and reveal the economic, geopolitical and military interests that drive the British to try to perpetuate the usurpation of an important portion of the Argentine territory. It should be noted that, after the 1982 war, on November 4 of the same year, the UN General Assembly approved Resolution 37/9 which stated: “the governments of Argentina and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland are urged to resume negotiations in order to find a peaceful solution to the sovereignty dispute over the Malvinas Islands as soon as possible”. At the same time, it instructed the Secretary General to initiate a new good offices effort to comply with this resolution.

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National Geographic Institute presented a special edition of cartography on the Malvinas Islands based on images from the Argentine satellite SAOCOM 1A provided by CONAE.

The current global situation, marked by the armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine, once again showed the double standard with which the United Kingdom conceives its international policy. On the one hand, it condemns the rupture of the territorial integrity of Ukraine by Russia and, on the other hand, it maintains the occupation of a vast territory in the South Atlantic that prevents our country from exercising its sovereignty over its entire extension. This is not the only case. The United Kingdom is the administering power in 10 of the 17 colonial situations pending before the United Nations Decolonization Committee.

Hoy con Evo Morales en el homenaje a los Caidos y Veteranos de Malvinas. Como siempre la recuperación del ejercicio de la soberanía sobre las Malvinas es una causa latinoamericana pic.twitter.com/5QpOPoMbDM

— Daniel Filmus (@FilmusDaniel) April 2, 2022


After its independence from Spain, Argentina exercised full sovereignty over the Malvinas Islands. On January 3, 1833, the United Kingdom, in full colonial expansion, violently evicted the representatives of the Argentine government and its settlers and established another population, coming from the metropolis itself.

It should be noted that from the very moment of their usurpation, Argentine governments have been uninterruptedly demanding the restitution of the full exercise of sovereignty over the Islands. Even with different emphases and strategies, since 1833 no Argentine government has consented to or legitimized the colonial occupation. In 1994 this claim was unanimously incorporated into the National Constitution.

Early on, Latin American countries expressed their solidarity with Argentina and affirmed that it was a colonial aggression that attacked the sovereignty of the whole region. Bolivia was perhaps the country that expressed it most immediately and forcefully. Shortly after the usurpation took place, its government issued a declaration addressed to the Argentine Republic in which it pointed out that: “The conduct of the British cabinet in the Malvinas, although essentially prejudicial to the government that feels deprived of its possession, is offensive and too injurious to all the American republics and, in the opinion of the Bolivian government, is a highly continental matter”. Since the middle of the 20th century, support for the Malvinas Cause was incorporated in the resolutions of the OAS and all the multilateral organizations of the region.

Mercosur, Unasur, Celac, Olade, ALADI, the Rio Group, the Ibero-American Summits, the Summit of African and Latin American countries, the Summit of Arab and Latin American countries, the South Atlantic Peace Zone (ZPCAS), Parlatino, Parlasur, among others, are some of the regional organizations that expressed their support to Argentina’s claim on the Malvinas Question. Many of these organizations also condemn the usurpation of the natural resources of the South Atlantic by the colonial power. The demand for dialogue is also supported by the most important multilateral organizations on a global scale. The United Nations Decolonization Committee and the G 77 + China, among others, annually demand the return of the United Kingdom to the negotiating table.

The British Government has failed to comply with UN resolutions and has ignored all the statements of multilateral bodies. Despite trying to base its position on respect for the “self-determination” of peoples, the economic and geopolitical interests underlying its claim to perpetuate the colonial situation are becoming increasingly evident. The United Kingdom is trying to force the interpretation of the principle of self-determination for the Malvinas question when the United Nations does not consider it applicable because it is not a question of a colonized or dominated indigenous population. Those who originally lived there were the Argentines who were expelled by the British. The implantation of a population brought from the metropolis was precisely one of the mechanisms of colonization.

In the case of the Malvinas, the real motives seem evident: military control of the South Atlantic situation, exploitation of the natural resources existing in the region, the need to maintain a bridgehead for logistical support of their pretensions in the Antarctic and control over the strategic bioceanic passage.

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The Malvinas Islands as seen by the Argentine satellite SAOCOM: here
The British military presence contradicts General Assembly Resolution 41/11 (Zone of Peace and Cooperation in the South Atlantic) which, among other provisions, calls upon States of all other regions, especially militarily important States, to scrupulously respect the South Atlantic region as a zone of peace and cooperation.

On the other hand, the exploration and exploitation of natural resources in a vast area of the Southwest Atlantic – extremely rich in hydrocarbon, fish, mineral and biodiversity resources – openly violates UN Resolution 31/49.

Another aspect by which the United Kingdom asserts its colonial presence in the Malvinas Islands is their proximity to Antarctica. Taking into account the strong British presence in the sixth continent and its claim to sovereignty -which includes the entire Argentine Antarctic sector and part of the Chilean sector- its position in the Islands constitutes a strategic situation.

The commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the war must include, among others, three fundamental objectives. On the one hand, and as we pointed out at the beginning of this article, the recognition, homage and permanent material support to those who fought heroically on the Islands and their families. They will always be in the hearts of all Argentines. On the other hand, it must reaffirm the need to form a true State policy, beyond electoral calendars, to give continuity to the claim and to the strategies that promote it. In this sense, the creation of the Malvinas National Council and the laws passed unanimously in the National Congress in 2020, have been a great step forward. As the slogan put forward by the national government states: “MALVINAS NOS UNE”. Finally, as stated in our Constitution, we commit ourselves to make the imprescriptibility of the claim a reality, always through peace and dialogue. The best way to honor those who fought in the Islands is to keep their cause alive, not to stop working every day until our flag flies again in the Malvinas.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2023/04/ ... lonialism/

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Mayan leader Thelma Cabrera runs for Guatemala’s presidency
April 2, 2023

The following is an exclusive interview for Kawsachun News carried out by Cindy Forster, professor at Scripps College

“I consider myself a defender of Mother Earth,” explains Thelma Cabrera, a Maya-Mam peasant leader whose bid for president –at the head of the Movement for the Liberation of the Peoples (MLP)– was blocked again on March 25th when the campaign season was officially launched. She still hopes to prevail. “The Movement for the Liberation of the Peoples,” Cabrera says, “was formed by the Campesino Development Committee (CODECA) as a political instrument, to fight for a Plurinational State. We are seeking a life of dignity –el buen vivir– through the process of a Constituent Assembly. The new Constitution will be organized by the people. Our proposals and the nineteen points of our platform arose from a discussion in the communities, then the regions, and finally at our national assembly. We voted on each proposal. Through that same process, we choose our candidates.”

Cabrera is jockeying for second or third place after front-runner Zury Ríos, the child of dictator Efraín Ríos Montt, who should be constitutionally barred from running due to her father’s coup d’etat. He died of old age while his conviction for the assassination of 1,771 Indigenous peasants was under appeal. Zury Ríos has always insisted that “There was no genocide,” and she has the blessing of one of Latin America’s most dangerous oligarchies. Guatemala is a narco-state that has driven into exile, jailed or killed its honorable journalists, judges and lawyers. “We know the right has all the systems of government under its control,” says Thelma Cabrera, “to the point of even controlling the defense of human rights.”

The MLP’s call for a Constituent Assembly and Plurinational State takes its inspiration from Bolivia. It would represent some twenty-two Mayan peoples, the Xinka Indigenous nation, and African peoples including the Afro-Indigenous Garífuna. The Indigenous make up the majority of those who suffer stark poverty. Guatemala is home to the largest Indigenous population in the hemisphere, according to the United Nations. Cabrera says the MLP may have won the last presidential elections in 2019 in which they fell a few percentage points behind the neoliberal victor in the first round. “There was fraud.” Cabrera’s campaign suffered systematic censorship. Ballot tampering included “premarked voting materials. There were power outages during the vote count.”

The oligarchy routinely threatens to kill its middle-class critics, and the MLP’s vice presidential candidate and former human rights ombudsman, Jordán Rodas, is among them. The MLP was removed from the presidential race on the basis of legalistic charges against Rodas, that he insists are fabricated.

When CODECA prepared a report several years ago that demonstrated conditions of near-slavery for tens of thousands of campesinos working on Guatemala’s plantations, all of the one hundred and seventeen investigators received death threats. Two were killed. Other leftist parties have taken care to move with caution –sometimes working with US embassy-backed initiatives to root out corruption– but the MLP insists on sovereignty from the right and from the United States. Amilcar Pop, an Indigenous presidential candidate who is a lawyer, is still in the running.

“We are agreed’” says Cabrera, “that we cannot beg favors from the bosses who run the economy and hold the state. In the plantation belt the situation is very cruel. The field supervisors, the plantation administrators and their assistants, not to mention the owners, all exercise grave labor exploitation against farmworkers – in the coffee groves where I grew up and also on the sugar and palm oil plantations, in the banana groves, and on the cattle plantations.”

“This cruelty, this marginalization of the workers, means that in place of raising wages, they increase the harshness of the daily tasks. If you want to work, you have to submit to their conditions. If you don’t, there are many standing in line, desperate to work. If you can take the abuse, they accept you, and if not, there is never a lack of workers willing to take your place. That’s what it’s like on the plantations.”

All this is held in place by corruption. “At its root, corruption is a structural problem like a cyst incrusted in the presidency, within congress, and in the judicial sector as well because corruption has taken over everything that could be called justice. The public prosecutors at the local level in the towns are so corrupt they refuse to accept criminal cases. When people are assassinated, when the impoverished peoples face sabotage of their organizing, when we exercise our right to resist, we are pursued, criminalized and murdered.”

Savage capitalism

“Before, there were small plots of land to rent in the plantation zone, but not now. Sugar cane and palm oil have taken over everything. Transnational companies have brought us only death and violence. Where I live they’ve brought us malnutrition and sickness, and that’s true at the national level as well. From our experience on the South Coast, I can tell you of the expansion of the plantations across fertile soils. Lands we used to farm are no longer in the hands of campesinos. They are in the hands of the big planters who take advantage of their power to kidnap Mother Earth, to sicken her and to sicken us, the impoverished peoples who have always lived here. Our health is badly contaminated. The rivers and soils are being ruined by aerial fumigation. Campesinos no longer have fruit to eat. In the irrigation channels, polluted waters have caused the fruit of the trees to ripen full of worms. Our territory is so poisoned by their chemicals, that even the fruit trees can no longer produce.”

“So they’ve looted [saqueado] everything and on top of that, there’s the theft of privatization, the high cost of electricity, and the pillage of our gold and silver. The rich pay no taxes. They force us into a system of taxation based on our purchases where a receipt is issued for everything, while they go about laundering their drug money and avoiding taxes. The people forced into poverty are the ones who pay taxes and for that we receive nothing in the way of social programs. The hospitals are in unbelievably bad condition.”

CODECA’s approach to ending capitalism and imperialism is matter-of-fact and immediate. Most of its members are Indigenous, so ending racism is central to their anti-capitalism. They have refused to pay exorbitant electricity bills where one weak lightbulb illuminates an entire home, and on this issue, CODECA has organized marches made up of tens of thousands of peasants. Its target, the energy company Energuate, is majority British-owned by Actis Capital. CODECA’s road blockades have challenged rampant privatization, transnational strip-mining, and corporate theft of water. Many agro-export zones, including Cabrera’s home region, are suffering serious water shortages for the first time ever, due to the plantation owners’ rerouting and monopolization of rivers and springs.

The township where Cabrera lives, El Asintal, lies in the center of what used to be a verdant subtropical belt with countless bird species that runs below the volcanoes, from Mexico to El Salvador, but today its rivers are running dry. Cabrera’s native language, Maya-Mam, is thought to have been spoken by the ancient peoples whose ruins are located in Asintal, which is the southernmost site of one of the massive carved stone heads of the Olmecs – described as the mother culture of ancient Mexico. The Maya ruled a thriving city-state there from one millennium before the common era to one millennium afterwards, in communication with Central Mexico. Campesinos are intensely proud of the Mayan inheritance that guides their political work and defines their respect for the earth and its waters.

Thelma Cabrera credits her mother –who never went to school– as the source of her consciousness. Indigenous values of collectivity lie at the heart of the threat to savage capitalism. “Our sons and daughters are not guaranteed any schooling at all. When there is a school, they force our daughters to use official uniforms even though we have our own cultures and our own ways of dressing” – that are supposedly protected by the Constitution. In some classrooms in Guatemala’s capital, mestizo teachers are known to inform their pupils that the Maya are monkeys, or perhaps creatures from outer space. “The educational system is designed so that our brothers and sisters in the teaching profession implement a project that molds the brains of our sons and our daughters to their way of thinking.”

Structural injustice

“Our project includes migrants,” Cabrera says. Four million Guatemalan citizens live in the United States –including one of Thelma Cabrera’s 4 children– and most do not vote. The MLP has designed a plan to engage the campesinos and workers who have been forced by neoliberalism to migrate. In a population of over seventeen million, some 9 million Guatemalans are eligible to vote but that figure excludes most of the people whose remittances bring in one-fifth of Guatemala’s GDP, an amount which outpaces exports. Elites in the United States as well as Guatemala extract fortunes from the precarity of Guatemalan migrant labor in the United States.

“I have to work to survive and my work is with CODECA,” explains Cabrera. Because her job entails organizing campesinos, twice the electoral authorities have “accused me of starting my campaign before the legal launch of the election season.”

The MLP was registered as a political party in 2016 by CODECA, the Committee for Campesino Development. CODECA formed in 1992 –during the war– to fight for land and Indigenous rights. Its campesino membership was 90% landless when Cabrera and her husband joined in the 1990s.

Campesino organizers in Guatemala suffer one of the highest assassination rates per capita in the world. Elites continue the counter-revolutionary practices of a war that lasted three decades and ended in 1996, during which 200,000 civilians were killed by the state; 45,000 more were disappeared. Campesinos over thirty years old emerged from that terror. In recent years, CODECA members have numbered disproportionately among the victims of political murder.

Thelma Cabrera focuses on the long haul in the struggle to end structural injustice. June 25 elections are a mere three months away. Officially that date is celebrated as teachers’ day, and commemorates the martyred teacher María Chinchilla who was killed in a demonstration against the notorious dictator General Jorge Ubico. Those demonstrations helped give birth to ten years of social democracy from 1944 to 1954, and a vast agrarian reform won through campesino organizing. Proportionate to the population, it was one of the largest eras of land redistribution in twentieth century Latin America and the Caribbean. Many peasants who are crushed by the agro-export economy today remember that their grandparents fought for and got land, labor rights and unions on the plantations, clinics, schools, and political parties run through collective assemblies of the Indigenous and campesinos.

That was the only era of democracy the majorities have known since Guatemala became a country. It is more well-known outside Guatemala for its violent end –a coup d’etat– than its massive campesino mobilization from the start to the end of the decade. In 1954, a CIA-trained army entered from Honduras. On the same South Coast where CODECA challenges the plantations that commit atrocities daily, the CIA-backed coup killed about one thousand campesinos, bringing them to a United Fruit Company plantation, called Finca Jocotán, where they were shot into open trenches.

“At least 26 assassinations of CODECA leaders have taken place in the last four years,” Cabrera said, her gaze averted to hide the pain. “No one has been arrested or investigated.”

“This is what happens to us in Guatemala. This is the news I can give you to take to the international level. What is happening in this country? When we organize, they assassinate us. Proof of this, they came to murder Dominga Ramos in her own home, because she defended the land. She defended the territories of the Indigenous. For defending nationalization of common goods and services that have been privatized in Guatemala, Dominga Ramos, like many women, gave her life to defend our rights. There have been men like Luis Arturo Marroquín,” the Xinca leader who was the regional coordinator of CODECA for the department of Jalapa. “He defended Mother Earth and all the basic services people need, that must not be privatized. His death has remained in impunity. This is why we are in struggle.”

“We will fight for a Plurinational State through the process of a people’s Constituent Assembly, to achieve el buen vivir or a way of living where all the peoples participate in the decisions. Where participatory and community-based democracy is governed by the Indigenous peoples, and the peoples create the initiatives for laws that serve them, that is, from the collective sense of all the nations that make up Guatemala. The crises we are living through are the result of structural problems. This is a project of the exploited peoples of Guatemala. It will continue.”

https://kawsachunnews.com/mayan-leader- ... presidency

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They assassinate a key businessman in the process against President Lasso

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Ecuadorian media indicated that together with businessman Rubén Chérrez, two other men and a woman were murdered. | Photo: www.eltelegrafo.com.ec
Published 1 April 2023

The Ecuadorian Police indicated that the murder of businessman Ruben Chérrez occurred in the Punta Blanca resort, in the province of Santa Elena.

Ecuador's Interior Minister confirmed on Friday the murder of businessman Rubén David Chérrez, who was a key player in the investigation against President Guillermo Lasso for his alleged links to the Albanian mafia.

Minister Juan Zapata announced that the National Police of Ecuador has deployed a specialized team to find those responsible for the murder of the Ecuadorian businessman recognized with his links to the family circle of President Lasso.

The Ecuadorian Police indicated that the criminal act occurred on Friday morning at the Punta Blanca resort, located in the province of Santa Elena, when armed individuals entered the place, killing the businessman and three other people.


Local media reported that the deceased would be three men and one woman and that the police forces still do not know the identity of the rest of those killed.

The businessman Rubén Cherres gained notoriety as a result of the corruption scandal in public companies and alleged links of the Government with the Albanian mafia disclosed by the digital media La Posta.


The information disclosed by the Ecuadorian media gave rise to the investigations that led to the impeachment process that the National Assembly of Ecuador is promoting against President Guillermo Lasso.

The report of the Anti-Narcotics Unit of the National Police, known as the name "León de Troya", revealed by La Posta, exposed the alleged relations of the Government with organized crime through Rubén Cherres, alleged main operator of Danilo Carrera, brother-in-law of the chief executive.

Likewise, the document indicates that the businessman together with his partners would have financed Lasso's campaign for the presidency in 2021 with at least one and a half million dollars.

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/ecuador- ... -0004.html

Ecuadorian President authorizes possession of weapons for civilian use

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Guillermo Lasso announced that the state of exception will enter into force as of April 2 in the provinces of Guayas, Los Ríos and Santa Elena. | Photo: @LassoGuillermo
Published 2 April 2023

As part of the measures to combat insecurity, Guillermo Lasso declared a state of emergency in the provinces of Guayas, Los Ríos and Santa Elena.

The president of Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso, authorized on Saturday the possession and carrying of weapons for civilian use for personal defense, as part of the measures to combat the wave of insecurity that is plaguing the South American country.

“We have modified the decree that allows the possession and carrying of weapons. In other words, in general terms, the possession and carrying of weapons for civilian use for personal defense is authorized in accordance with the legal requirements," the Ecuadorian president said in a message to the country.

Guillermo Lasso indicated that the security guards "will join the National Police to fight organized crime" using their weapons in the area near their workplace.


As part of the measures to combat insecurity, Guillermo Lasso declared a state of emergency in various areas of the provinces of Guayas, Los Ríos and Santa Elena plagued by drug trafficking and insecurity.

The measure allows the mobilization of the military in zone 8, which includes the cities of Guayaquil, Durán and Samborondón, in the province of Guayas.

Guillermo Lasso announced that the state of emergency will come into effect as of Sunday, April 2, and that it will include a curfew between 01:00 a.m. and 05:00 a.m. (local time).


During 2022, President Lasso decreed a state of emergency three times for Guayaquil and other cities to deal with the high rates of crime and insecurity.

The new measures to combat insecurity in Ecuador follow the attack with explosives on a security guard, the murder of two hospital directors, attacks on banks and the murder of businessman Rubén Cherres, allegedly linked to the Albanian mafia.

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/presiden ... -0027.html

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Peru: Congress Accepts Vacancy Motion Against De Facto President Boluarte
APRIL 1, 2023

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Peru's de facto ruler Dina Boluarte. Photo: CNN.

The Peruvian Congress accepted a vacancy motion against de facto President Dina Boluarte, which will be put to a vote in the next session of the parliament to decide if it will admitted for debate. The news was announced by the president of Congress, José Williams.

The vacancy motion accuses Boluarte of being morally unfit for office, because since she took office in December 2022, over 70 Peruvians have died in anti-government protests. A majority of Peruvians demand the resignation of Boluarte and the Congress and call for new general elections, accusing Boluarte and the Congress of a parliamentary coup against President Pedro Castillo.

The vacancy motion demands Congress “To declare the permanent moral incapacity of the President of the Republic, Dina Ercilia Boluarte Zegarra, according to Article 113.2 of the Political Constitution of Peru. To declare the vacancy of the presidency of the Republic and, consequently, enforcing Article 115 of the Political Constitution of Peru that regulates presidential succession.”


The president of Parliament, José Williams, announced that the motion will be consulted in the next session, but the date is yet to be fixed.

However, it is not yet clear whether the promoters of the vacancy motion will be able to gather the 52 votes needed to begin formal vacancy proceedings. If they do, they will need 87 votes, out of 130 members of parliament, to remove Boluarte.

Investigation
Dina Boluarte is also being investigated for allegations of money laundering in the financing of the 2021 presidential race. The Peruvian Attorney General’s Office started the case after businessman Henry Shimabukuro claimed that he had financed Boluarte’s trips and activities during her electoral campaign.

Boluarte rejected the accusations against her and stressed that they were a “dark political maneuver that is trying to tarnish the image of the constitutional government, democracy and the institutional framework, by making claims without evidence.”

https://orinocotribune.com/peru-congres ... -boluarte/

'Death or Earth': Rosalino Flores Death, Comuneros Win Land Struggle and Remain Vigilant in Peru
APRIL 2, 2023

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The wake (left) held for Rosalino Flores (right), Peruvian youth killed by police brutality. Photo: elbuho.pe.

By Clau O'Brien Moscoso – Mar 29, 2023

National Strike, Day 82

Peru continues to face crises upon crises over 100 days since the coup regime has democratically elected President Pedro Castillo. The masses have remained mobilized in the streets and delegations from various regions throughout the country continue coming to the capital city to overturn this dictatorship, as well as to reinforce their local struggles and blockades. Despite a long battle in the hospital, a young person lost his life at the hands of this regime. This past Friday also marked the victory of an indigenous peasant community in Cusco from being evicted from their ancestral lands.

After two agonizing months in the ICU, 22-year-old Rosalino Flores Valverde became the latest martyr of the Peruvian coup regime. Flores was shot 36 times with lead pellets from behind and at close range in anti-coup demonstrations in Cusco on January 11th, taken to a hospital in the city of Cusco and subsequently transferred to Hospital Arzobispo Loayza in Lima where he was pronounced dead on March 21st. The family of the young gastronomy student held a wake and vigil in his honor de él in Lima before taking the body to his final resting place in their home of Cusco , where the military occupied the airport as the community received his body from él in mourning .

The family demands justice for Rosalino and to know the identity of the policemen who cowardly killed him. Rosalino's brutal death is just one example of the shoot to kill orders and force the Peruvian National Police and Peruvian Military are using against unarmed protesters. Juan Jose , Rosalino's brother, who was also at the protest in Cusco, described how his brother de él was shot and the pain he went through in the ICU:

My brother was a good brother, a good friend. The police shot him from behind, from approximately 2-3 meters away. He received 36 shots that affected all of his vital organs from him. He stayed in the hospital in Cusco until 1/22/23 when he was transferred to Lima. He could not eat from his mouth. He did not have the function of his intestines from him, and what hurts me the most was being by his side from him as he cried out, “I want to eat, brother.”

According to the lawyer , “The doctors there told me that they have removed almost 60 percent of his intestines. The shots had also affected the lung, the kidney, and also the small intestine and the large intestine.” As with 50 other Peruvians , Flores was shot at close range in his abdomen, a practice which is causing serious injuries and fatalities. Family members and supporters carried his coffin from him to various parts of the capital city in procession and as a peaceful march to honor the young martyr's life. As with other marches, police in riot gear stayed not far behind. Two days later, Flores's casket arrived in Cusco as armed forces occupied the airport.

A few days later on March 24, over 1,000 people (220 families) of the indigenous community of Tantacalla , Paruro, Cusco were at risk of being evicted from their ancestral lands after a former landowner, Luis Paz Vizcarra , sued them over rights to the territory. After 10 years and 6 previous attempts to displace this community, the courts sided with the comuneros (co-proprietors, or commoners) who had erected road blockades in anticipation of being forced off their lands.

The former landowner was suing for 5 million soles (or roughly $1.3 million) in a case that the lawyer representing the comuneros said has very little evidence aside from the landowner's testimony whereas her clients have land rights as indigenous people. “This violates the right of ancestral territories, protected by national and international human rights instruments. In addition, it can generate, in the current circumstances that the country is experiencing, high social and humanitarian costs,” says Miguel Jugo, deputy executive secretary of the CNDDHH(National Coordinator of Human Rights). A thousand officers were dispatched to the area to begin removing them from the land when the courts ruled in their favor. As the President of the Tantacalla community David Quispe said, “death or land, that's all”. The community says they will remain vigilant and next month the judge has called for resolution through dialogue. But until then, they remain on their ancestral lands.

https://orinocotribune.com/muerte-o-tie ... t-in-peru/
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Re: South America

Post by blindpig » Thu Apr 06, 2023 1:12 pm

Peru: How an Attempt To Censor a Report on Human Rights Violations Failed
APRIL 4, 2023

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Victims of the Juliaca massacre, Peru. Photo: AFP.

By Carlos Noriega – Mar 30, 2023

The right wing tried to prevent the presentation of Amnesty International’s annual report. It did not succeed. The worldwide report, in the case of Peru, denounces serious human rights violations, including the death of demonstrators by gunshots of the security forces and arbitrary detentions in the repression of the social protests against the government of Dina Boluarte.

The municipality of the Lima district of Miraflores, administered by the ultra-right wing that governs with Boluarte, ordered the closure of the Place of Memory, Tolerance and Social Inclusion (LUM), a space of memory and reflection on the internal armed conflict of the 1980s and 1990s and human rights violations, where the Amnesty report was to be presented on Tuesday. The closure of the LUM took place hours before the presentation of this report. After a quick last minute effort by Amnesty, the report was presented Tuesday night at a hotel in Lima.

The report
The Amnesty report, whose presentation was prevented, denounces “the illegitimate use of force,” including shooting with rifles, against the protests demanding Boluarte’s resignation and early elections. Since the protests broke out after Pedro Castillo was dismissed and imprisoned on December 7 and replaced by Boluarte, 49 demonstrators have been killed by police and military gunfire. The total number of deaths in the protests is 67. There are more than a thousand injured, many of them by firearms. The highest government authorities have backed the security forces accused of firing on the demonstrators. Amnesty has defined the government repression as “crimes against international law” and denounced that it has “a racist bias.” Most of the victims are from Andean Quechua and Aymara populations.

“The human rights situation in Peru is very worrying,” said Marina Navarro, executive director of Amnesty International Peru. “The racist bias in repression has been decisive. Impunity is one of the main concerns. There are many dead in the protests and no one has been arrested for that. We ask for investigation throughout the chain of command. If justice is not done in Peru, we will have to take it to international platforms,”

The left has requested, in Congress, the dismissal of Boluarte for the repression of the protests. This Thursday, there will be a debate on whether to admit to initiate the impeachment process of the president, for which 52 votes of the 130 congressmen are needed, a difficult goal in a Congress dominated by the right. If those votes are reached, Boluarte will have to go to Congress to answer for those killed during the repression. However, her support from the right and the ultra-right shields her from possible impeachment, for which 87 votes are required.

The censorship attempt
The untimely closing of the LUM sought to prevent the presentation of the Amnesty report, but it is a decision that goes beyond that. From the right, they want to end this important space of memory opened in 2015, where the violence of the state and the armed groups Sendero Luminoso and MRTA between 1980 and 2000 is remembered—violence that left about 70 thousand dead, 75 percent of them Quechua-speaking Andean settlers. The right wing seeks to rewrite history by hiding and making people forget the massacres of peasant communities, kidnappings, tortures, extrajudicial executions, and disappearances produced by state violence. As part of this, they aim to close the LUM, which presents the complete history in a balanced way.

The decision to close the LUM was made by the mayor of Miraflores, Carlos Canales, the district where the museum is located, in a building financed by the German government on the cliffs facing the sea. Canales, of the ultra-right Popular Renovation party, wanted to play down the importance of this closure, saying that it was temporary due to the lack of an updated security certificate for the facilities, which is currently being processed.

This decision of the mayor of Miraflores is in line with what was announced by his political boss, the provincial mayor of Lima, the fascist Rafael López Aliaga, president of Renovación Popular and former presidential candidate. Upon taking office as mayor in January, Lopez Aliaga, known as “Porky”, threatened to close the LUM, or hand it over to the armed forces for them to tell “their story” of the internal armed conflict. “Enough of these memory and reconciliation museums,” said Lopez Aliaga, a statement issued as an order to the mayor of Miraflores, a member of his party.

Abusive and illegal censorship
Manuel Burga, director of the LUM, has described its closure as “abusive and illegal.” He has pointed out that LUM complies with all safety standards and that the renewal of the certificate required by the municipality is being processed. He denounced that in order to justify the closure, the municipality questions “things like the fact that the smoke alarm is vertical and should be horizontal, or that a staircase has many steps.” The Ministry of Culture, on which the LUM depends, issued a communiqué supporting the municipal decision to close it.

In declarations to Página|12, Gloria Cano, director of the Pro Human Rights Association (Aprodeh), pointed out that the lack of a municipal certificate “has been a pretext for the closing of the LUM when the Amnesty report, which is conclusive about the violations of human rights in the country, was going to be presented.” She warned that the objective is for the LUM to disappear. “The right wing that is governing with Boluarte feels empowered, and that is why they are running over the LUM. They are in the mood to obstruct the museum’s mission, which is to maintain remebrance. The intention is the definitive closure of the museum.”

https://orinocotribune.com/peru-how-an- ... ns-failed/

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US judge orders the arrest of former Peruvian president

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An accusation weighs on former President Toledo for having received million-dollar bribes in exchange for awarding works to the Brazilian company Odebrecht. | Photo: EFE
Posted 6 April 2023 (4 hours 7 minutes ago)

The Court revoked the probation and ordered the United States Marshall Service to take former Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo into custody.

The US Department of Justice ordered on Wednesday the arrest of former Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo to proceed with his extradition to Peru where he would face corruption charges during his term.

Federal judge Thomas Hixson made the decision after the California Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the former president's request to suspend his repatriation, approved by the same magistrate in 2021.

The judicial ruling indicates that "Toledo will go to an appropriate prison and remain there until he is handed over to the Peruvian authorities." The Court revoked the probation and ordered the United States Marshall Service to take the defendant into custody when he surrenders on April 7, 9:00 am, San Francisco.


According to specialists, this is an insistent requirement, since Judge Hixson has yet to resolve the case in the first instance. In 2021 he approved his extradition to Peru, but that decision had to be authorized by the United States government, which gave him the green light last February.

The representative of the Department of Justice, Ismail Ramsey, joined the request with a document in which he also warned that the former president's defense will file a new appeal, but announced that the Department of Justice will also oppose that claim.


Ramsey noted that “the court should revoke the probation order and should order his custody into the custody of the United States Marshall Service. Once Toledo is in custody, the United States will hand it over to the Peruvian authorities without legal impediments,” she pointed out.

A tax accusation weighs on former president Alejandro Toledo in Peru for having received million-dollar bribes in exchange for awarding the Odebrecht company the South Interoceanic highway during his term (2001-2006). The Peruvian politician has been a fugitive from justice in the US since 2017.

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/eeuu-ord ... -0005.html

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Stop the massacres in Peru!
April 5, 2023 Struggle-La Lucha New York bureau

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Lucy Pagoada-Quesada speaks at Peru solidarity protest. SLL photos: Stephen Millies

A protest in solidarity with Peru’s Indigenous and poor peoples and against the military and police massacres was held across from the United Nations headquarters in New York City on March 31. Since Peru’s elected President, Pedro Castillo, was overthrown and jailed on Dec. 7, 2022, hundreds of Peruvians have been beaten and killed for protesting the coup.

The poor and Indigenous peoples of Peru elected Castillo. However, the U.S. embassy and U.S. mining companies wanted Castillo overthrown.

Vice President Dina Boluarte has become the front person for the military and police killings. Most people slain have been killed in the countryside where Indigenous people live.

Protesters carried signs with pictures of those murdered. Many are young people. Talks were given in both Spanish and English.

Among the speakers in solidarity with the people of Peru was Lucy Pagoada-Quesada, a New York City schoolteacher who’s the coordinator of D19/Partido Libre de Honduras.

The action was called by Solidaridad Latino Americana; Peruanos en el Extranjero, No al golpe; and Socialist Revolution.

Stop the killings!

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https://www.struggle-la-lucha.org/2023/ ... s-in-peru/

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Chile Pushes Authoritarian Police Law
April 5, 2023Chile

Chile’s neoliberal government is close to securing a new law that expands the right of security forces to use firearms against the population. The Naín-Retamal Law, a proposal of the executive branch, was today approved by the Senate for a third and final reading.

The law expands the definition of “privileged legitimate defense” to justify the use of deadly weapons by uniformed officers and plainclothes police against the civilian population. This has been dubbed as the “trigger happy law” by social movements who opposed the move. Boric’s law is being supported by the right-wing opposition parties in congress and rejected by human rights groups and leftist parties that were part of his original coalition.

Boris Barrera, head of Communist Party of Chile’s congressional caucus, condemns the law and pointed out this move to give police the power to repress comes just as Chile commemorates 50 years since the US-backed Pinochet coup against Salvador Allende.

Congressman Barrera also recalled the actions of the police and military forces during the social protests of 2019, which caused over 30 deaths, thousands of injuries, and more than 460 people with permanent eye damage due to the firing of pellets and tear gas bombs.

The Chilean government’s own Subsecretary for Human Rights, Xavier Altamirano, has expressed concerns that the regulations ignore international standards recommended by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

President Boric has continued to attack Nicaragua and Venezuela, using false claims about human rights in the two countries, all while insisting on pushing through this authoritarian agenda within his own country.

https://kawsachunnews.com/chile-pushes- ... police-law
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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