South America

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Re: South America

Post by blindpig » Wed Apr 29, 2020 12:50 pm

Chaos and Fear in Latin America’s Prisons as COVID-19 Spreads

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1.5 million inmates are detained across Latin America’s facilities. | Photo: EFE

Published 28 April 2020 (12 hours 9 minutes ago)

Three people died following riots in Peru, while Chile and Colombia reported hundreds of coronavirus cases.

As the coronavirus pandemic is starting to spread across Latin America’s massively overcrowded prisons, putting the lives of tens of thousands at risk, riots have been reported in almost all the region’s countries as inmates say their fundamental rights to safety and protection are being violated.

A riot was reported Monday in the Castro Castro prison in Peru’s capital, Lima, resulting in a fire and the death of three people inside the prison.

The number of people incarcerated in Peru is close to 91,000, according to figures last updated two years ago. Of the country’s 68 severely overcrowded prisons, 23 hold more than 1,200 people, although only eight have such a capacity.

Another disturbance was also reported at the Ancon II prison located on the outskirts of Lima. Inmates rioted to demand medicine and food. They said they are eating only twice a day and are no longer receiving food from their families since visits are restricted, according to local media.

In another prison, the Huamancaca Chico prison in the department of Junin, located in the center of the country, prisoners were asking for COVID-19 tests after two of their fellow inmates died. Police responded by shooting tear-gas canisters.

Peru's prision population is so far the worst-hit in the continent with 613 cases and at least 13 deaths.

In Chile, authorities have confirmed Monday more than 300 COVID-19 cases in the Puente Alto prison in downtown Santiago both among inmates and prison staff. The facility’s 1,100 prisoners are terrorized and have few means to protect themselves as social distancing is impossible in cell blocks.

In Colombia, where prison overcrowding amounts to 51 percent, 213 people contracted the deadly virus and three died so far.

Human rights groups have been warning of the disastrous effects that the COVID-19 pandemic would have on jailed people in that South American nation, which is regularly accused of violating its prisoner’s fundamental rights.

In addition, since the pandemic started, there were at least 23 deaths in prison riots in Colombia not directly due to the virus itself but out of fear of it​​​​​.

Argentina’s President Alberto Fernandez endorsed Monday the house detention solution for common law prisoners after tensions mounted over the past weeks in the country's prisons with several riots and confrontations. Prisoners outside of jails would be controlled with electronic devices, the president said.

“Prisons are a very risky place of human concentration. Contagion and contamination can occur very easily,” he stressed.

In El Salvador, authorities over the weekend crammed prisoners together in prison yards while searching their cells, throwing away distancing measures. El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele ordered the security crackdown after more than 20 people were killed Friday and reports suggested the orders came from imprisoned gang leaders.

About 1.5 million inmates are detained in Latin America’s facilities. Because of corruption, intimidation, and inadequate guard staffing, the prisons are often quasi-ruled by prisoners themselves while low budgets also create perfect conditions for the virus to spread. There is often little soap and water.

Throughout the region, the prisoners' demands come down to simply be properly protected from the virus.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Ter ... -0020.html

You don't hear much about what's going on in the hellholes of SC and other states of late.....as with nursing homes, killing grounds for "expensive and non-productive citizens.
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: South America

Post by blindpig » Fri May 08, 2020 12:05 pm

'We're Living in a Catastrophe': Peru's Iquitos Hit by COVID-19

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Iquitos, still reeling from a dengue fever outbreak and plagued by poverty, is now facing the COVID-19 pandemic. | Photo: social networks

Published 7 May 2020 (11 hours 13 minutes ago)

Iquitos, still reeling from a dengue fever outbreak and plagued by poverty, depends on air deliveries for medicine, equipment and oxygen to face a pandemic of the magnitude of COVID-19.

Hemmed in by a sea of jungle, plagued by dire poverty and already reeling from a dengue fever outbreak, Iquitos is now the second major Amazon city – after Manaus in Brazil – to take a brutal hit from the COVID-19 pandemic.

After the impact of the pandemic, Iquitos faces an added obstacle in efforts to contain the disease, as the largest city in the world, which cannot be reached by road; it depends on intermittent air deliveries for essential supplies of medicine, personal protective equipment, and oxygen.

"We are living in a catastrophe," Graciela Meza, executive director of the regional health office in Loreto, the vast Amazon region which surrounds the city of half a million inhabitants, said to The Guardian.

The city's main public hospital was overflowing with nearly five times the number of patients its 180 beds could hold, said Meza, who herself was also recovering from the virus.

"I've never seen anything like this in my life, or even in my dreams," said Meza, a lifelong Iquitos resident, who compared the situation to living in a disaster film.

"Most victims have died from a lack of oxygen; 90 percent have died because of lack of medical supplies," Meza added.

She had counted dozens of dead every day over the last three weeks, including two nurses and three doctors – the latest a junior doctor in his twenties.

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A woman receives medical assistance at Loreto Regional Hospital. Photograph: Getty Images

Just how bad Loreto's COVID-19 outbreak remains unclear, but few in Iquitos doubt it exceeds the official count of 62 dead and 1,595 confirmed cases as of Wednesday.

Hundreds of critically-ill patients were seated outside in rocking chairs around the hospital grounds or, in the last few days, in three field hospitals erected in football pitches and stadiums in the city.

"There's no oxygen in the lungs of the world," Meza remarked bitterly, referring to the city's Amazon location. "That should be the headline for your story," she added.

Her tone switched to anger as she said: "We only have our dreadful authorities to blame for their corruption and decades of chronic under-investment in healthcare."

The comments reflected growing outrage at the slow response of the regional government amid allegations that private companies were profiteering from a monopoly on oxygen tanks.

The local prosecutor's office in Iquitos has announced an investigation into reports that the Loreto regional government was paying inflated prices for oxygen cylinders – including alleged purchases from a company owned by the daughter of a councilor.

In the final hours before COVID-19 claimed her life, Cecilio Sangama watched helplessly as his eldest sister Edith gasped for breath, while he was unable to purchase a cylinder costing above $1,000.

"Her body could not hold on. She needed oxygen, but we just couldn't afford it," said Sangama, 49, a municipal worker, speaking by telephone from Iquitos.

"I had promised her: 'Don't worry, sister, today I will find you a cylinder,'… but in the end, there was nothing I could do." His voice broke, and he fell silent for a few seconds. "My sister died just a few hours ago; we are trying to find a way to give her a Christian burial."

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Patients occupy cots in the corridors of Loreto Regional Hospital due to high demand. Photograph: Getty Images

According to the medical team, much of the disaster that Iquitos is experiencing has to do with the negligence of the government that on Monday promised to bring medical supplies and oxygen as well as replenish the number of medical professionals, as more than a dozen of them infected with COVID-19 were evacuated. But these promises came too late, they claim.

"We asked for the medicine more than a month ago," Agustina Huilca, president of the local doctor's federation, said. They desperately need strong antibiotics, anti-coagulants, and anti-inflammatory drugs to treat COVID-19, she highlighted.

"[As doctors], we feel impotent, frustrated, and isolated. We feel abandoned by the government," Huilca added.

The pandemic could not have come at a worse time since Iquito was already struggling with the end of a dengue outbreak, along with an outbreak of leptospirosis. Both dengue and COVID-19 cause fevers that have complicated diagnoses. At the same time, the warm climate of the city, overcrowded living conditions, poverty, and geographical isolation are the perfect setting for an unprecedented crisis.

"I suspect that in Iquitos the situation is already out of control," Valerie Paz-Soldan, a Peruvian-American social scientist and director of Tulane Health Offices for Latin America, said.

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

This may put the lie to the contention that #19 is suppressed by high temperature and humidity. It is always hot & humid in Iquitos.

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Peru: Penitentiary System President Resigns After Prison Crisis

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Inmates of Miguel de Castro Prison, Lima Peru. April 2020. | Photo: Twitter/@RedRadioVe

Published 7 May 2020

Villar took office on March 24, amidst the Covid-19 outbreak in the South American nation.

Peruvian President Martin Vizcarra received Gerson David Villar Sandy's resignation as president of the National Penitentiary Council (INPE).

Villar took office on March 24, amidst the Covid-19 outbreak in the South American nation. During his management, several inmate riots occurred resulting in 12 convict deaths. The protesters were demanding health care and sanitary security in prisons after two guards died due to the virus.

In a second inmate violent demonstration in Miguel Castro penal facility, nine inmates died. Also, in Huancayo penal facility another riot occurred due to the virus outbreak among the inmate population. Besides, over 250 guards and prison workers tested COVID positive during Villar's time in office.

Several social organizations criticized the former president of the National Penitentiary Council because of his lack of strategic guidance in facing the virus and the lack of sanitary protection to both inmates and guards. The Peruvian Ombudsman Office requested the government in late April for inmates’ release to prevent more cases.

"COVID-19 is deepening the critical situation of prisons in Peru," warned Jan Jarab, Representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

On May 4, nine inmates were released under humanitarian reasons in the context of the health emergency. Peruvian government also aims for mitigating overcrowding in prisons to restrain the spread of Covid-19.

As local news media reported, Rafael Eduardo Castillo Alfaro took over the position on May 6 as Peruvian National Penitentiary Council president. His office assumption occurs amidst the virus spreading in the South American nation, a famine exodus, and social discontent due to a lack of an effective governmental response to the virus.

So far, Peru registers 54,817 COVID positive cases, 1,533 deaths, and 17,527 recoveries.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/per ... -0011.html

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Chile: Santiago City's Neighborhoods Enter New Confinement

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Image of everyday life in a neighborhood, Santiago, Chile, May 7, 2020. | Photo: EFE

Published 7 May 2020

This South American country is experiencing an increase in new cases since last week.

Chile’s Health Minister Jaime Mañalich Wednesday announced that a dozen neighborhoods in Santiago will return to confinement from Friday onwards due to the worrying advance of the pandemic in a city that concentrates 85 percent of the new infections.

"We have to look at the metropolitan region very carefully. The disease is moving towards neighborhoods that are more vulnerable due to their population density, economic situation, and type of housing," Mañalich said.

"The situation in the country is heterogeneous. Now we have to fight in Santiago and move forward together and with enormous effort," he added.

Unlike countries such as Argentina or Colombia, which ordered quarantine since the first COVID-19 cases began to become evident, Chile did not want to decree national confinement and opted for "selective and strategic quarantines."

This health policy implies that restrictions are imposed and enforced. they rise in each neighborhood or city according to the number of new infections.

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Map showing Santiago's neighborhoods that will remain in quarantine from Friday.

However, President Sebastian Piñera decreed a state of emergency with a curfew starting at 10 pm and ordered schools, universities, and non-necessity businesses to close their doors.

Although his officials have proclaimed that the peak of the contagion has been exceeded, Chile is experiencing a significant increase in new cases since the middle of last week.

In the last 24 hours, for example, 1,032 new COVID cases and 6 deaths were reported, which increases the total number of infected to 23,048 people and death toll to 281.​​​​​​​

Among the poor neighborhoods that will be quarantined are La Florida, Cerro Navia, and Renca.

Meanwhile, people will be able to move without restrictions in the upper-class neighborhoods located east of Santiago city, where the first COVID-19 cases were detected in early March.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Chi ... -0005.html
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Re: South America

Post by blindpig » Sat May 30, 2020 1:08 pm

Chile's Covid 19 Cases Surpass 90,000

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A health worker transports a COVID-19 patient at San Jose Hospital in Santiago, Chile, May 20, 2020. | Photo: Jorge Villegas/Xinhua

The Chilean Ministry of Health announced on Friday that the number of confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus in the country had risen to 90,638, with 944 deaths.

The ministry reported that 1,143 coronavirus patients are currently on ventilators, with 306 in critical condition. Authorities stated that there are another 345 ventilators available to the nation's private and public health networks.

Health authorities said that 16,333 PCR tests were performed in the last 24 hours for a total of 546,506 tests administered since screening for the disease first began in March.

Minister of Health Jaime Manalich said that the government has arranged for the construction of 85 sanitary residences equipped with 4,157 beds so that those diagnosed with the disease can be easily isolated.

Manalich added that "all those who do not comply with the quarantine can be transferred, using public force, to a health residence."

Additionally, the Chilean government announced that it has decided to extend the quarantine in Santiago and 38 nearby towns until June 5 due to an increase in cases in recent weeks.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Chi ... -0017.html

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Ecuador: Native Communities Vulnerable to COVID Outbreaks

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Secoya community members in Ecuadorean Amazon, Ecuador. May, 2020. | Photo: Twitter/@radiolacalle

Published 28 May 2020

Siekopai-Secoya leaders stated in late April about one elderly death related to COVID symptoms and last week reported one of his relatives in intensive care due to similar signs.

Ecuador’s Ombudsman Office demanded on May 27 government health assistance and COVID testing kits for the Siekopai-Secoya native community.

“The Ombudsman's Office calls on the national Government and, through it, the Ministry of Public Health, the national and cantonal EOC of the municipalities of Shushu ndi and Cuyabeno, to provide immediate and appropriate preventive medical care and treatment for the Siekopai-Secoya nationality,” the governmental body stated in official communication.

The Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of the Ecuadorian Amazon reported on May 27 over 400 positive cases among Kichwa, Waorani, Achuar, Shiwiar, Shuar, and Siekopai native communities.

The ombudsman representatives stressed government accountability for native communities’ protection and rights’ acknowledgment. Besides, it urged the Health Ministry to implement precautionary strategies to eliminate indigenous discrimination in sanitary assistance.

"Here, cases of Covid-19 have already been identified and Fundación Raíz has been able to act to prevent the spread and thus take care of the wise grandparents."

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and the Special Rapporteurship on Economic, Social, Cultural, and Environmental Rights (Redesca) alerted about native groups' vulnerability and possible extinction. Both organizations stressed Siekopai’s territories locate far from urban centers and hospitals.

Siekopai-Secoya leaders stated in late April about one elderly death related to COVID symptoms and last week reported one of his relatives in intensive care due to similar signs.

Thus far, Ecuador registered 38,103 COVID positive cases, 3,275 deaths, and 18,425 recoveries from the virus.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/ecu ... -0006.html
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Re: South America

Post by blindpig » Wed Jul 22, 2020 1:30 pm

Confirmed: the armies of Brazil and Colombia work for the Southern Command
Mission Truth

Jul 21 · 4 min read


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Trump, Esper and Faller gathered at the headquarters of the Southern Command, Doral, Florida. Photo: Michael C. Dougherty / US Southern Command Public Affairs

In recent years, we have seen the US military become increasingly integrated into the military structures of Latin America and the Caribbean. Multinational operations in the region are just the tip of the iceberg, bordering on spectacle, of a transnational organization whose epicenter is located in the offices of the Pentagon, in Virginia, United States.
One of the ten commandos of the United States Army, the so-called Southern Command, is in charge of militarily preserving the interests of the Union and of the different industries and power groups that control the political-economic-cultural apparatus of the Anglo-Empire in what in Washington they consider the "backyard" of North America.
South America, under the dominance of the US dependency, has been a territory for the repositioning of the United States in its unilateral military deployment , with more than 70 bases in the countries of the region, being Panama (with 12) and Colombia (with 9) the ones with the most. Without bases there is no empire.

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Source: Telma Luzzani's 'Monitored Territories'. Design: Alejandro Acosta Hechavarría / Granma

The integration of the United States Army into the military structures of some states in South America through the Southern Command is deepening, to the point that some national armies seem ready to abandon any remnant of sovereignty and independence from their fundamental bases.
This is confirmed by the visit of tycoon President Donald Trump to the headquarters of the Southern Command in Doral, Florida, accompanied by the Secretary of Defense, Mark Esper, where he was given an official assessment of the alleged “fight against drugs” in the region.
In his speech to Trump, Admiral Craig Faller, head of the Southern Command, decided to introduce two top South American officers, one Colombian and the other Brazilian, pointing them out as direct employees of his military office: "They work for me."

Colombia, we know, has submerged itself in the American military dependency, lending and assigning territories and local bases to the high officials of the United States for their deployment and operational readiness. In addition, it is a global partner of NATO, the main world military alliance led by the Pentagon, which the Southern Command in its position this year congratulates since the Latin Caribbean nation, together with Brazil and Chile, “continue to increase their contributions to the global security ”.
Apart from assisting the Southern Command in its "fight against drug trafficking" first hand, the Colombian army also provides assistance to six Central American countries within the framework of a military and police education plan drawn up by the Pentagon.
On the other hand, there is Brazil, whose army, since the right and extreme right came to power with Michel Temer via coup and then Jair Bolsonaro through the ballot box, has decided to work closely with the Americans, to the point of uniting, along with Colombia and Peru, the Marine Corps Marine Air-Terrestrial Task Force led by Pentagon officers, operating throughout the hemisphere.
Those same South American countries are part of the missions of the USS Comfort, the flagship military hospital ship of the United States in the region.
“Recently designated as an important non-NATO ally and the newest partner in the State Partnership Program (SPP), we work closely with Brazil on a range of priority missions,” says Southern Command in the position statement. 2020 .
In that same document, he highlights that the Southern Command, along with Brazil, are at the regional forefront "to expose malicious activities by supporters of terrorist groups such as the Lebanese Hezbollah", alongside Chile, Argentina and Paraguay.
Jair Bolsonaro himself offered Trump a military base last year. The Alcantara Base could pass into American hands . In this way, Brazil would become part of the confirmation of hegemony in the region and in a country with geopolitical scope, although lost by Bolsonaro, in the BRICS.
The United States authorizes Brazil and Colombia to use national or foreign rockets and aircraft that have technological parts developed by their military-industrial complex. In their contracts, there are clauses that protect US technology and establish rules for Brazilian and Colombian technicians, respectively, regarding the use of the bases and the circulation within their perimeter. Colombia and Brazil have already been invaded and conquered by that part of monopoly capital that finds its business in war and the arms race.
For that same condition, they are described as subordinates who personally work for one of the key representatives of the military-industrial complex under the uniform of the head of the Southern Command.
This cannot be understood without the geopolitical dimension that means the global rise of China and its Belt and Road Initiative in Latin America plus the strategic alliance of Russia with Venezuela and other anti-imperialist countries and blocked by Washington, a dimension that serves as alternative to the militaristic unilateralism of the United States.
The encirclement of the Southern Command over our countries is the other side of the coin that dominates US military doctrine, as a threat to the still sovereign states that remain in the region and as a show of force against the emerging anti-hegemonic bloc. In this framework, Brazil and Colombia are two factors that the Pentagon prefers from lackeys to assumed sovereigns.

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Re: South America

Post by blindpig » Sun Aug 02, 2020 5:18 pm

Chile: Civilians Attack Mapuches With Carabineros' Complicity

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White supremacists attacked with bats and stones Mapuche community members, Municipality of Victoria, Chile, August 1, 2020. | Photo: Twitter/ @DiablaSandi

Published 2 August 2020

"Chile's ultra-right wing acts like U.S. white supremacists, ignoring the mestizo origin of the our people," TeleSUR's correspondent in Chile Paola Dragnic tweeted.

A group of civilians, in complicity with the Chilean police (carabineros) and right-wingers, on Saturday night attacked with bats and stones Mapuche community members who were on a hunger strike in front of the Municipality of Victoria, in Chile's Araucania.

The Mapuches set out in front of the Municipality of Victoria, in Curacautin, last Monday to demand the release of Mapuches' political prisoners.

On Saturday, Araucania's Ultra-Right Group (APRA) spokeswoman Gloria Naveillan spread an audio message on Twitter urging to act against the Mapuche community members.

"How many are raising their hands to join us tonight in the Plaza? Bring sticks and everything you need to defend yourselves," Naveillan urged.

TeleSUR's correspondent in Chile Paola Dragnic released photographs showing the attack by armed white supremacists against the Mapuche people in Curacautin.
URGENTE - Supremacistas blancos chilenos atacan ahora Municipalidad de Victoria tomada por comuneros mapuche en protesta por los presos políticos mapuche y queman Chemamull ubicado en la Plazs de Victoria @teleSURtv pic.twitter.com/nLNJQpnkGx

— Paola Dragnic (@PaoladrateleSUR) August 2, 2020
"White supremacists in Chile now attack Municipality of Victoria taken over by Mapuche community members in protest of Mapuche political prisoners and burn Chemamull located in Plazs de Victoria."

"There are people who celebrate this attack in Curacautin. The ultra-right wing acts like the U.S. white supremacists, ignoring the mestizo origin of the Chilean people," Dragnic tweeted.

Dragnic also shared a video of the moment when civilians attacked the Mapuche community members and burned the wooden Mapuche statue Chemamull located in the Plaza de Victoria.

Officers from the militarized Carabineros Police did nothing to stop the armed civilians, not even when they set fire to a truck.

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

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Chile Takes to the Streets Against President Sebastian Piñera

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Protesters take to the streets just minutes away from President Piñera's Public Account, Valdivia, Chile, July 31, 2020. | Photo: Twitter/ @Chileokulto

Published 1 August 2020

"Eye mutilation continues in Chile. Military officers shoot people in the face in Santiago," Chilean correspondent Paola Dragnic tweeted.


Chile's social leaders and activists condemned President Sebastian Piñera's omission of human rights violations and mishandling of the pandemic in his administration's public account presentation to Congress on Friday.

During Piñera's presentation in Valparaiso, protests took place throughout the country. The demonstrations were repressed by the Chilean police (Carabineros).

"Eye mutilation continues in Chile. Military officers shoot people in the face in Santiago," Chilean correspondent Paola Dragnic denounced on Twitter.

The repression occurred "while President Piñera was finishing his public account in which he did not refer to human rights violations," Dragnic said.


"Eye mutilation continues in Chile. Military officers shoot people in the face on Grecia Avenue and Tobalaba, in Santiago, while Pdte Piñera finished his public account in which he did not make reference to human rights violations."
"We regret that Piñera has not mentioned the victims of the serious human rights violations that have occurred since October," Chile's National Institute of Human Rights (INDH) director Sergio Micco assured.

Piñera missed this moment, "which would have been ideal to express his commitment to truth, justice, to ensure that these mistakes do not happen again," Micco added.

Chile's Christian Democracy (CD) also denounced the lack of introspection into the failure in the government's strategy against COVID-19.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/chi ... -0002.html
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Re: South America

Post by blindpig » Sat Aug 22, 2020 1:54 pm

Chile: “There Is No Possibility of Ending Piñera’s Dictatorship Except on the Street”
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on AUGUST 21, 2020
Carlos Aznarez

Marcelo Oses is an intelligent popular communicator, he knows how to speak in simple language to those who have been rebelling against the fascist government of Sebastián Piñera. Not surprisingly, Marcelo is one of the founders of that extraordinary medium known as Radio Plaza de la Dignidad, which has accompanied the most intense mass movements in the square of the same name with its music and harangues. We spoke with him about the Mapuche rebellion and the preparations for reviving the streets of Chile in the coming months, just one year after the revolt that shook the political chessboard of the country.

There is no doubt that the Mapuche people are engaged in an important struggle against the oppressive Chilean state that is increasingly revealing its racist character. How does this struggle look to those who, like you, are part of the Chilean revolt against the Piñera government?

The current moment of the Mapuche movement is critical in the sense that after the October revolt began, the Mapuche communities in resistance, in general, chose a certain distance from what was happening in the rest of the Chilean territories. Their attitude was one of contemplation of the situation. We spoke with several Mapuche leaders considering the historical demand, the symbolism, the cultural aspects, the need for the Mapuche people’ s autonomy to be one of the centers of the revolt in Chile. And they noted this with the idea that the liberation of the Chilean people is part of the liberation of the Mapuche people, although with some distance from their current conceptions. This is important for understanding what is happening today. The hunger strike, the release of political prisoners who are in different prisons in the south, this struggle is necessarily linked to historical demands. It is not an isolated event, not that Machi Celestino would like to return to his rewe for a ceremony, but it has to do with the profound struggle for the recovery of land and mainly for political, popular and economic autonomy. They have been fighting for this for a long time and today it has acquired a very clear focus.

On the other hand, there is the evidence of the reappearance on the scene of racist sectors such as those who acted in Curacautín and La Victoria.

That’s right, there was an attack by fascist paramilitary groups that targeted Mapuche families, with children and women, who were occupying different municipalities to the south in Wallmapu in support of the prisoners’ hunger strike. They were violently evicted with the help of the police of the municipality, of the state. They were organized into literally paramilitary gangs, with weapons, ranging from knives to firearms. They managed to break into places where the Mapuche communities are not as strong as they are in the city. They violently dragged people out, the police covered up their actions and took the Mapuche people into custody, not the aggressors, in this case. What is happening with this situation? The axis of the demand was the freedom of the Mapuche political prisoners. But now this scenario is a fight against racism, against a state that uses all possible mechanisms to prevent the Mapuche from having a political voice. That resituates the issues because today solidarity with the Chilean people is growing, slowly but surely, but it is because of the deeper demands of the Mapuche people and not just because of the hunger strike and freedom.

During the massive demonstrations of the revolt, before the pandemic, it was striking to see so many Mapuche flags in Santiago and other cities.

This is an important change and we all ask ourselves when we raise flags and slogans of the Mapuche culture, this cannot become an ornament of our demonstrations. The Mapuche symbolism has to be incorporated into the popular struggle in all its complexity. This necessarily forces the underlying theme, which is that the Mapuche people are different from the Chilean people. And that implies a restructuring of the territories and the Wallmapu State. There is a territory that needs to be administered by the Mapuche people. Different from how the Chilean state does it. That is placed in the center. The fascist hordes restructure them to such an extent that one of their slogans is that the Mapuche are an invention of the left. They return to the archaic idea that they are Chileans, that their ancestors were Araucanians but today they have no need or right to have their own identity or autonomy. We haven’t seen this for a long time. Now they are appearing publicly, they are new actors, like the traditional and coup-plotting cargo transport guild, which was one of the great promoters of the boycott and Pinochet’s coup d’état.

Truckers have offered to “clean” the routes of piketes” by beating the Mapuche.

Of course, those same people have had the entire rostrum to launch their anti-Mapuche messages. Days ago they gathered at La Moneda and were received by the Minister of the Interior. They held press conferences as they left, with the complicity of the rogue press that provides them with coverage, and simply presented their ultimatums. In addition, Piñera recently introduced a bill to increase penalties for those who attempt to transport people. His main claim is the burning of trucks in Mapuche territory. Of course, this enormous conflict is taking place because it is dragging down all the workers in the union. They talk about the truckers as if they were the drivers, but they are the owners of the transport companies. Unfortunately, the union workers have historically been very partial to the boss. It is one of the unions that has accepted the policy of the employers. So they have strengthened this idea of fascist self-defense, even issuing an ultimatum that if the government was not able to defend them, they would do so by their own hand. So the government has active support from the extractivist companies, including the transport union, because the transport companies work for the extractivists and are ultimately the actual owners. But the struggle against the extractive, forestry, and mining companies in the Wallmapu area is the center of the fight. The Mapuche people practice direct and radical struggle against these extractive, forestry and mining companies mainly. This is the strategic perspective of these people, who are becoming more and more cohesive between the political struggle as we understand it today against capitalism, and on the other hand, the traditions of religious and spiritual political organization of the Mapuche people.

In view of what is happening in the South, how is your struggle. How can we envision what this struggle will be once the door to the so-called “new normal” is opened, despite the fact that during this quarantine there were clear expressions of rebellion, pots and pans and other forms of outrage.

It’s something that no one is clear about. How will the people express themselves again in the face of a very complex scenario, involving an economic, social and political crisis. We are in favour of this continuous revolt. We hope that it will rapidly occupy the public spaces that we have had for several months. That is what we would like. But mainly, the experience of the last few months is that we have higher degrees of organization than we had in the latter months of 2019. We managed a certain level of coordination, such as the one that has been taking place in the territory, through the communal pots and pans, the assemblies, etc. But these forums that are being created can have a real articulating power, of discussion of the political and social project that we want, of action. These are the main aspirations. We have the need for social and political organization, at a higher level than in recent months. The first requirement should be that, the second is to visualize how we are going to resume the popular mobilization in the city centers and also in the other areas. The rhythm and dynamics are not clear. A few days ago, we saw a right-wing pollster who said that 81 percent of those polled believe that the demonstrations will become as powerful or more so. More than 70 percent of those polled believe that the mobilizations are important for change. And the fact, which is more difficult to understand because of the political system, is that 39 percent of the people surveyed believe that there is no possibility of change without violence in the demonstrations. So there is a feeling that this is going to explode. No one knows. I have the impression that whether it is an option or not, the important thing is that there is a process that will bring about greater degrees of organization, that is solid, dynamic. It doesn’t matter that we depart from the demonstrations without major phenomena, we don’t have to go out and burn everything in the first place. But it is important that we go out consistently, that we put that degree of fear back into the political caste. The people can bring about change. It is intertwined with the November changes that were tossing the lifeline from the government to the opposition, that produced an institutional exit, with a plebiscite to change the national constitution, which is on the horizon, because that first milestone is the plebiscite that will take place on October 25 and on the 18th we celebrate the revolt. All in the same month.

There are those who say that voting or not voting for the plebiscite will not end the struggle, how do you see it?

What’s going on? The dispute is ongoing.Those who believe this way out would be a democratic process, changing the Constitution would change the institutions, so that is precisely where a greater degree of consensus is emerging. Who is going to pull the strings of that process? They are the same as always. Because there is a process in which the legalized political parties win, the right wing and the Concertación. There is no possibility of other social and political forces being incorporated. First, we have a plebiscite calling for an institution with no teeth, no power, no authority to bring about the constitutional change we need. Secondly, those who will be participating by marking ballots are not the people themselves, there is no possibility that the people, through their organizations, can have spaces there. This whole institutional process is taking place in the midst of the reactivation. What is more important, to give stability to the process so that it begins with this plebiscite or to erode the political system from the streets? We, of course, are for the second option. There is no possibility of ending this neoliberal dictatorship if it is not in the streets. The program of the revolt is in force, beginning with the departure of Piñera. Without ambiguity: the exit of Piñera. Moreover, installing in the territories, as many ideologues of this process argue, the beginning of a process outside this legitimate institutional process. This constituent process aimed at achieving a real, free and sovereign assembly, and of course, the immediate release of all the prisoners of the revolt and the Mapuche, the establishment of truth and justice for the violation of all human rights in the last year, from the revolt onwards, the restructuring of the powers that have been at the service of the bourgeoisie, that is, the courts of justice that have been scoundrels, along with the police, both carabineros and investigations, and the armed forces.

All these tasks of the revolt that are at the heart of this constitutional process they are initiating, we have been overlooked. We are focused on these tasks and on this program that seems to us to be most important. So, we will measure the forces in October, from the streets. Those who want to close their campaign events on October 18, and those of us who are going to be pushing for the people’s mobilization for the exit of the dictator and the demands that we are making. And that is a relatively theoretical debate, because the real mobilizations in the streets have been diminished by the pandemic, beyond what we have done on various occasions in July, we have had many popular mobilizations, but they have not reached a level that challenges the government. We are just emerging, the doors of confinement are opening. We are told “you can come out now” and the calls begin to rise instantly and to intersect with this conflict as to where we are going to go. The question is whether those who are pushing for change are going to impose themselves on the institutional process or seek the street for deep change.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2020/08/ ... he-street/
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: South America

Post by blindpig » Wed Sep 30, 2020 11:21 pm

Salvador Allende and the political experience in Chile
OSKAR OFIR RODRÍGUEZ BRITO 19.Sep.20

The lessons that the experience of the government of Salvador Allende leaves for the new generation of revolutionaries are, among others, to confirm the impossibility of generating a profound, radical and democratic change through legal and peaceful means, and even more using the bourgeois State itself.

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On the occasion of the disastrous anniversary of Augusto Pinochet's military coup in Chile backed by the Chilean bourgeoisie and coup factions within the militia, we comrades must not forget what the attempt to build communism peacefully meant.

Talk about Salvador Allende in the turbulent times in which we currently live, in a pandemic environment, with economic crises that are more frequent and increasingly acute, with a great job insecurity that is becoming more evident every day and with social conflicts throughout the world, it is very useful and beneficial, as well as interesting, since if we contrast the conditions that led the first Marxist president to the post of head of state, we can realize that they are very similar to those of the present, as well as the requirements of those working-class and popular masses, who, as in our days, found themselves in the crudest labor exploitation and social uncertainty.

Analyzing Allende's management during his years in office requires those who look at his project to understand Marxist-Leninist theory. President Allende was a socialist at heart, however his political conception had limitations based on the lack of theoretical clarity, for example in conceiving the class essence of the State, which led him to postulate the peaceful path to socialism. Generating economic change through the use of the same state apparatus cost him, in exchange for trying a democratic and peaceful movement, the most precious asset that any being possesses, life.

The lessons that the experience of the government of Salvador Allende leaves for the new generation of revolutionaries are, among others, they confirm the impossibility of generating a profound, radical and democratic change through legal and peaceful means, and even more by using the bourgeois State itself to generate that change. Allende showed us not only the validity that the State will do whatever it takes to protect the interests of the bourgeois class, but also validates the theory and practice of Lenin (the first leader of the USSR), who affirmed that the The State cannot be changed gradually, through reforms or with the use of legal instruments, but rather that State must be destroyed from its foundations,

A socialist revolution that raises the change of the economic system as the French Revolution was, demands that those who carry it out are the working classes and that they, as subjects of the revolution, protect the legacy that will be transmitted to a society free from the vices of capitalism.

The most important learning that Allende leaves us for those of us who propose to leave a social legacy, a change that turns in the direction of communism, is to keep Lenin's maxim in force in our work, "the only possible guarantee for democracy to exist is a rifle in the shoulder of each worker ”.



Texto completo en: http://elcomunista.nuevaradio.org/salva ... -politica/

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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 Oct 26, 2020 1:26 pm

Chile: Approval for A New Constitution Wins Massive Mandate

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Chileans go to the National Stadium, where voting tables were set up, to cast their vote in the plebiscite in Santiago, Chile, Oct. 25, 2020 | Photo: EFE/ Alberto Valdes

Published 25 October 2020

The Constitutional plebiscite also stands as the fundamental instrument to solve the social crisis the country is going through.


Chileans today overwhelmingly approved, at the polls, the doing away of the Constitution drafted and approved under the military regime of Augusto Pinochet and gave the green light to the creation of a Constitutional Assembly.

According to official data by Chile's official electoral body, with 45.24% of the vote counted, 77.85% percent of the voters checked the Approval box, an overwhelming figure in contrast to the 22.15% percent who chose to legitimize the current Constitution, which was supported by a majority of right-wing parties. Chileans also overwhelmingly chose a constitutional convention as the method to create a new constitution.

Also, thousands of Chilean citizens cast their votes in 65 countries. Argentina, the United States, Spain, Canada, and Australia were the nations most represented. Over 80% of voters overseas supported approval for a new constitution.

This is the first time in the South American nation’s history that citizens are asked whether or not they want a new Magna Carta. Citizens also voted to create a Constitutional Convention to draft the new fundamental law.


President Sebastian Piñera highlighted the massive participation in the elections and said that the process “demonstrated the democratic, participative, and peaceful nature of the spirit of the Chileans (...) The voice of all citizens has been heard loudly; the vote has had the same value.”

Also, Chilean Senate’s President Adriana Muñoz D`Albora said that the people had expressed their will to end the dictatorship's Constitution. “Chileans, we are part of this democratic and historical journey that wrote vote by vote and with a large majority a clear message to those who insist on keeping things intact,” she stated.

In a statement, the Network of Intellectuals, Artists, and Social Movements in Defense of Humanity in Argentina also congratulated the Chilean people. "Now more than ever we must raise the flags, continue in the streets and proclaim with one voice, that the new Chilean Constitution must be the luminous and re-foundational expression of a people liberated, at last, from corporate oppression and social marginalization.”

The national plebiscite came at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic severely hit the country's economy. The referendum also stands as the fundamental instrument to solve the social crisis of a country that experienced massive peaceful demonstrations in October last year, violently attacked by the repressive state forces, something that brought back the ghosts of police violence that prevailed in the country during the years of dictatorship.

Earlier in the day, various social organizations denounced acts of repression by Carabineros (police) against demonstrators who gathered in the Plaza de la Dignidad in Santiago, minutes before the polls closed.

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

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Chile Plebiscite: Police Repression Prior to Polls Closing

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Protesters confront the police today in Chile | Photo: EFE

Published 25 October 2020


According to the complaints, the police attacked citizens with tear gas before the plebiscite's end.

Various social organizations denounced this Sunday repression by Carabineros (Chilean Police) against protesters who gathered in the Plaza de la Dignidad, located in Santiago de Chile, minutes after the polls closed for the constitutional plebiscite.

Although the day was developing peacefully, a group of police attacked the citizens with water and tear gas jets, preventing the people's gathering temporarily. Ultimately the police retreated, and people have taken over the square.

According to witnesses, the place is surrounded by police officers. Likewise, alternative media journalists also denounced attacks by the police against their work teams.

A few hours after the closing of the electoral day, thousands of Chileans expected to gather in the Plaza de la Dignidad (Dignity Square) to honor the repression victims and celebrate a hypothetical victory for the change of the Constitution in the southern country.

Through voting, Chileans will seek to convene a Constituent Assembly to change the current Magna Carta for one that guarantees fundamental rights and buries the legacy of the Pinochet dictatorship.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Chi ... -0007.html

a hypothetical victory

Indeed, no time to let down one's guard & that goes for Bolivia too. But no need to admonish those folks, they 'been there & done that'. Here in the heart of the beast, should Biden defeat 'that terrible man', the putative 'left' will heave a huge sigh of relief, put on their 'footie' pjs, curl into the fetal position and sleep the sleep of the deluded righteous. While the former 'Senator from Mastercard' goes about making a few 'photogenic' moves to satisfy liberal bloodlust and quietly ratifies much of what The Nemesis Of All That Is Good has done. Normal capitalism,'normal' imperialism, normal planetary death.
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Re: South America

Post by blindpig » Sun Nov 15, 2020 3:06 pm

Peru’s Youth Have Mobilized in Indignation: Veronika Mendoza

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Leftist presidential candidate Veronika Mendoza participates in a protest in Cusco. November 11, 2020. | Photo: @Vero_Mendoza_F

Published 14 November 2020

Leader of the ‘New Peru Movement’ party and the only leftist presidential candidate, explained what’s behind the current unrest.

In an interview with Nodal, Veronika Mendoza, leader of the ‘New Peru Movement’ party and the only leftist presidential candidate, explained what’s behind the current unrest in her country.

Mass protests broke out after Peru’s parliament voted to impeach former president Martin Vizcarra on November 9th, installing Manuel Merino of the Accion Popular party, as head of state for the 5 months left till the country’s general elections.

The Peruvian left are not supporters of former neoliberal president Vizcarra, but have condemned the impeachment that has been carried out by forces even further to his right, “The new government has named Ántero Flores Aráoz as president of the Council of Ministers, he is the best representative of the old politics: conservative, far-right, racist, sexist, a few years ago he described the citizens of the Andes as llamas or vicuñas, incapable of expressing an opinion. He is also a lawyer for those who defend the business interests of those in congress. Merino is just one of these puppets.

Congress accuses Vizcarra of corruption, something Mendoza agrees should be investigated, but she told Nodal that, “In the midst of a pandemic and with just five months before the elections, Mr. Vizcarra should conclude his mandate and then the next day face justice”.

She adds that congress are not the ones who need to lead the fight against corruption, “Behind the backs of citizens, in an absolutely cynical and shameless way, a Congress in which the majority are also being prosecuted for corruption, some even for murder, have decided to impeach the President of the Republic, and constitute themselves as an illegitimate government.”


Fight against neoliberalism

Though the current controversy began with corruption allegations, Veronika Mendoza says that the current protests are about a deep crisis of state, a rebellion against the legacy of the far-right Fujimori dictatorship of the 90s.

“In 1992, Alberto Fujimori decided to impose a neoliberal constitution with a coup that made the state precarious, which privatized rights such as health and education, that left Peruvians without a pensions system, which left politics and democracy in the hands of economic power groups, which allowed it to be captured by pressure groups, gangsters and the corrupt, which has led us to this dramatic situation.”

The mobilizations have largely been spontaneous and Mendoza sees the country’s youth as the key agents “
The people, the young people who have come out, moved by their indignation, but also by their love for the country...
And it seems to me absolutely legitimate and the most appropriate thing to remind us that democracy is not only electoral processes, it is not only political parties and leaders; democracy is essentially popular and citizen protagonism.

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

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Peru: Crisis Deepens as Protests Surge Amid Police Brutality

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A person is affected by tear gas fired by the police during a protest in Lima, Peru, November 12, 2020. | Photo: EFE

Published 13 November 2020

A video broadcast on social networks on Thursday shows an agent firing shots into the air to intimidate the thousands of protesters.


Peru's National Police Thursday used tear gas bombs and pellets to halt a peaceful massive-protest in Lima's Historic Center.

Attendees to the mass demonstration reported that the first acts of violence were recorded at 20h30 local time, at the intersection of Abancay and Colmena Avenues.

The police persecution extended to various points in the capital, such as the University Park, the San Martin Plaza, and the Metropolitan Highway. A video broadcast on social networks shows an agent firing shots into the air to intimidate the thousands of protesters.

When the march diminished, officers attacked demonstrators already dispersed near the Breña Children's Health Institute, on Brazil Avenue.


Local outlets also reported that journalists were injured by the impact of buckshot and tear gas bombs, which were dropped in large quantities.

Police brutality has increased despite international organizations' calls to the current administration to respect the constitutional right to protest.

"The police cannot use force illegally, excessively, or arbitrarily. Lethal weapons may be used only to confront a person posing an imminent threat of death or serious injury, not to disperse demonstrators," United Nations (UN) stated in response to reports of police brutality in Peru.

Peruvian people have taken to the streets for three days in a row, rejecting the removal of President Martin Vizcarra and the assumption of Manuel Merino as the new president of the Republic.

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

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Expert Claims Criminal Groups Back Peru's New President

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A person protests against Manuel Merino today in Lima, Peru. As citizen protests since last Monday night have shown, a large part of Peruvians reject the fact that the President of Congress, Manuel Merino, has assumed the nation´s presidency and demand that Martin Vizcarra be reinstated in office and finish his mandate. | Photo: EFE

Published 12 November 2020

The former anti-corruption prosecutor claims that behind Manuel Merino, the head of the Peruvian Congress, there are a significant number of criminal organizations that hold him in power.


During an interview granted this Thursday to HispanTV, former anti-corruption prosecutor Julio Arbizu has addressed the issue of the removal of President Martin Vizcarra and the assumption of Manuel Merino, which led to scenes of protest and police repression in the streets of Peru.

Arbizu has denounced that three presidents during the last four years have been examples of the weakness of democracy in Peru, being led by a group of upstarts and a few other active subjects involved in what he referred to as the country´s dirty politics.

However, he added, these are only issues on the surface, and behind the dirty politics and behind Mr. Merino, "there is an important number of criminal organizations that are placing him in power and that will not hesitate to drive him to promote their personal interests from now on."


The Peruvian Congress dismissed Vizcarra on Monday amid accusations of corruption, in the second political trial against the president in just two months. One hundred five parliamentarians voted in favor of the president's dismissal, 19 against, and four abstentions. Only 87 votes were needed to declare Vizcarra's vacancy for "moral incapacity" to govern because he was involved in corruption cases.

The parliamentary measure comes while an investigation is going on in the Prosecutor's Office about an alleged case of corruption in the construction of a hospital when Vizcarra was the regional governor of Moquegua (2011-2014) and only five months before the next presidential elections.

The next day, a large group of demonstrators gathered around the Parliament building in downtown Lima to protest against the president of Congress taking over as Peru's new president after Vizcarra's removal from office.

Merino, a center-right agricultural engineer, promised in his first speech to Congress that he would respect the electoral calendar that foresees general elections on April 11. According to several analysts, Peru is facing a political crisis, the outcome of the corruption that is pervasive across all of its political and legislative institutions.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Exp ... -0015.html
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Re: South America

Post by blindpig » Mon Nov 16, 2020 12:27 pm

Peru's Interim President Manuel Merino Resigns

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Manuel Merino resigns following police repression of mass protests. November 15, 2020. | Photo: RTV - La República

Published 15 November 2020

Hundreds of people have been injured, some 40 missing and two were killed during the protests.


The President of Peru, Manuel Merino, presented his resignation this Sunday, after Congress asked him to resign immediately in the framework of the demonstrations against the unstable political situation in the South American country.

In a nationally televised message, Merino, who replaced the dismissed Martín Vizcarra, said that he respects the country's political system and hopes that the situation in the nation will normalize for the good of the country.

“I want to let the whole country know that I am submitting my irrevocable resignation as President of the Republic. And I invoke peace and unity for all Peruvians,” he said.

On Tuesday, Merino assumed the presidency of the Republic after the removal of Vizcarra. The following day, he appointed Ántero Flores Aráoz as his Prime Minister, and on Thursday he took the oath of office to the Ministerial Cabinet.

The resignation comes after Congress met on Sunday morning to seek a way out of the days of protests that are spreading across the country. The conflict between the powers of the state reached its climax when a motion of censure was issued against former president Vizcarra, which led Merino to the presidency.

This triggered demonstrations in several cities, which have been repressed by the police with the use of anti-riot tactics that have injured hundreds. This Saturday the death of two young people, shot by police, was confirmed.

Likewise, the Ombudsman's Office denounces that at least 40 people have been reported as missing. The Police claimed that they are arrested citizens, but have not granted access to their facilities to verify there whereabouts.

It’s within this context that the president of Congress, Valdez Farías, asked that the interim president resign from his position, given the popular demand and also his ineffectiveness so far to resolve the most pressing contradictions keeping Peruvians on the streets.

In fact, before the resignation it was unknown where Merino was, who had not made any pronouncement following the killings of the two young men.

"I ask Mr. Merino, evaluating these latest facts, to evaluate his immediate resignation," Valdez told a local television station. "You cannot go against the will of the population, especially when we have seen these marches, protests and that it has not been possible to sustain within a situation of peace," he added.

After confirming the death of the two protesters in Lima, a total of 13 members of the newly appointed Cabinet submitted their formal resignation. The heads of Interior, Agriculture, Health, Women, Justice, Economy, Development and Social Inclusion, Culture, Defense, Foreign Trade, Energy and Mines, Housing and Education, reported in the last 24 hours their decision to immediately abandon the Executive.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/per ... -0003.html
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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