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US Debt Ceiling Crisis Threatens Global Financial Stability | News | teleSUR English
▻https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/US-Debt-Ceiling-Crisis-Threatens-Global-Financial-Stability-20230503

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Venezuela Rejects US Treasury’s Decision Related to CITGO | News | teleSUR English
▻https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Venezuela-Rejects-US-Treasurys-Decision-Related-to-CITGO-20230503-00

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President Arce to Seek Access to the Sea for Bolivia | News | teleSUR English
▻https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/President-Arce-to-Seek-Access-to-the-Sea-for-Bolivia-20230323-0010.h

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Examining Year One of the Ukrainian Crisis | News | teleSUR English
▻https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Examining-Year-One-of-the-Ukrainian-Crisis-20230221-0013.html

Dans nos contrées on n’entend que des voix qui attribuent l’entière responsabilité pour la guerre en Ukraine à la Russie. Voici une voix d’Amérique Latine qui ne tombe pas sous le diktat de la propagenade transatlantique.

It’s been almost a year since Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine, but the conflict is far from over. The Ukraine crisis began on Feb. 24, 2022, following incitement from the United States and its allies due to NATO’s eastward expansion.

When the conflict is piling misery on people worldwide suffering from acute food and energy crises, the West continues to fan the flames by sending more military hardware and intelligence to Ukraine.

FIRST ANNIVERSARY

The battlefield has been brutal and bloody. Tens of thousands of troops on both sides have been killed, and millions of others were forced to flee their homes.

But the echoes of the conflict are heard far beyond Ukraine’s borders. Its heavy tolls on the world manifest through a changing landscape of regional and global security, featuring food supply chain disruptions, skyrocketing energy prices and soaring inflation.

After the escalation of the Ukraine crisis, the United States and its allies imposed sanctions on Russia in hopes of choking the country’s energy export channels and destroying its economy. However, those sanctions have backfired, hurt U.S. allies and triggered a worldwide energy crisis.

Adding to the problem were the explosions of the Nord Stream pipelines carrying gas from Russia to Europe. In a Feb. 8 article, Pulitzer Prize winner Seymour Hersh said the U.S. partnered with Norway in a top-secret operation in June 2022 to plant remotely triggered explosives that took out three of the four Nord Stream pipelines three months later.

Ukraine and Russia jointly produce around 30 percent of the world’s wheat exports. Russia is also one of the world’s biggest exporters of fertilizers. The impact of the conflict between the two countries on food supply chains has contributed to rising food prices, making it harder for people in lower and middle-income economies to afford to feed their families.

The food price index hit 159.7 points in March last year, the highest since 1990. UN Secretary Antonio Guterres said in June 2022 that fertilizer prices have risen by more than 50 percent, and energy prices have risen by more than two-thirds, putting pressure on farmers across Asia, Africa and the Americas.

To make things worse, the United States and its allies have sent more weapons to Ukraine. Since Feb. 24, 2022, the United States has promised nearly US$30 billion in military assistance to Ukraine.

In late January, the U.S. and Germany pledged tanks to Ukraine. The Pentagon announced a new tranche of military aid for Ukraine days later, including long-range precision rockets for the first time.

The United States “is ready to fight to the last drop of Ukrainian blood, in the end, it’s prepared to fight to the last drop of European blood,” said former British MP George Galloway.

“In the past year, increasing sanctions and upgrading weapons did not calm the situation, but instead made the conflict more acute and issues more complicated, pushing the situation to a more dangerous precipice,” said Dai Bing, China’s deputy permanent representative to the United Nations.
UGLY TRADITION

“We lied, we cheated, we stole. We had entire training courses. It reminds you of the glory of the American experiment,” former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, once director of the CIA, said in 2019.

The intelligence field is not the only place the United States practices this ugly tradition it prides itself on. Breaking a promise made at the end of the Cold War that NATO would not expand to the east, the U.S.-led bloc has expanded eastward five times since 1999, advancing over 1,000 km to the Russian border. Its membership has increased from 16 to 30 countries.

The deep cause of the Russia-Ukraine conflict is the expansion of NATO, and “the Russians are reacting to the West’s attempt to make Ukraine a western bulwark on Russia’s border,” said John Mearsheimer, a political science professor at the University of Chicago.

The United States and its European allies want to make Ukraine a member of NATO and the West, he said. “From the Russian point of view, this is categorically unacceptable. It represents an existential threat, and that is what has precipitated the crisis.”

To secure military hegemony, successive U.S. governments have been willful in unilaterally withdrawing from international treaties concerning arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation processes, like the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty and the Treaty on Open Skies.

The United States has also initiated “color revolutions” in the post-Soviet space, including Ukraine, stirring up geopolitical tensions in Eurasia. What awaited a West-leaning Ukraine was never rapid development but industrial collapse, economic recession and brain drain.

For example, the Black Sea Shipyard, a facility in Ukraine’s Mykolaiv region that built all the aircraft carrying USSR and Russian ships, was declared bankrupt in 2018.

“We don’t care how many Ukrainians die. How many women, children, civilians, military will die. We do not care. It’s like a great football game, and we want to win,” former U.S. senator Richard Black said last year.
BIG DEAL

The United States has not been a superpower trying to “introduce goodness into the world. It follows its own interests,” Michael Lueders, a well-known German writer, said back in 2021. His finding still rings true today. The Ukraine crisis puts ordinary folks worldwide through dire straits while Uncle Sam’s war business flourishes.

“Big Oil just reported its profits. Record profits. Last year, they made 200 billion dollars in the midst of a global energy crisis,” U.S. President Joe Biden admitted in his State of the Union Address on Feb. 7.

“American gas is three to four times cheaper on the domestic market than the price at which they offer it to Europeans. These are double standards,” French President Emmanuel Macron said in October 2022.

Data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration showed that the United States became the world’s largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) exporter during the first half of 2022. Business Insider, a U.S. financial and business news website, revealed that U.S. companies make over US$100 million per LNG carrier bound for Europe.

ExxonMobil posted a US$56-billion profit for 2022, taking home around US$6.3 million an hour last year and setting an annual record not just for itself but for any U.S. or European oil giant.

The United States is also plundering Europe’s burning house to make money. The U.S. Inflation Reduction Act, which includes green incentives and tax breaks for companies producing in the United States, has hurt Europe badly. As more European companies are tempted to produce in the United States, Europe’s green plan has suffered significant setbacks.

Meanwhile, U.S. food giants are having a rake-off from soaring food prices. Family members of Cargill, one of the largest privately held U.S. global food companies, have seen their personal fortunes grow by a fifth since the start of 2022, reaching about US$5.4 billion each.

America’s notorious military-industrial complex isn’t fairing too badly either. Lockheed Martin, the world’s top weapons manufacturer, saw its stock price surge by 28 percent from US$354 in early January 2022 to US$453 on March 25 last year.

“The neocons/warmongers have spent years stoking the new Cold War with Russia and have now brought us to the brink in Ukraine — this serves their own interests and lines the pocket of the Military Industrial Complex with trillion dollars,” former U.S. Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard said last February.

European politicians are learning from their U.S. friends business lesson 101: never mix friendship and business. Ditto for developing countries. Africa “does not want to be the breeding ground of a new Cold War,” Senegalese President Macky Sall said in September 2022, calling for “a de-escalation and a cessation of hostilities in Ukraine.”

#Russie #USA #Ukraine #guerre #impérialisme

teleSUR English
▻https://www.telesurenglish.net/#%2E

Guerre en Ukraine : les USA menacent la Chine : « si vous aidez la Russie, nous vous sanctionnerons sévèrement »
By Cheikh Dieng - 14 mars 2022 - Le courrier du soir
▻https://lecourrier-du-soir.com/guerre-en-ukraine-les-usa-menacent-la-chine-si-vous-aidez-la-rus

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A quelques heures d’une rencontre cruciale qui doit réunir autorités américaines et chinoises ce lundi 14 mars, les Etats-Unis préviennent Pékin que s’il aide la Russie à contourner les sanctions économiques, il subira des sanctions très sévères

La guerre entre l’Ukraine et la Russie risque, dans un futur proche, de s’étendre dans le reste du monde. En effet, il y a moins d’une semaine, les Chinois avaient ouvertement fait savoir qu’ils n’imposeront aucune sanction à la Russie, pays qu’ils considèrent d’ailleurs comme “ami”.

“En tant que membres permanents du Conseil de Sécurité des Nations-Unies, la Chine et la Russie sont, l’une et l’autre, des partenaires stratégiques et des voisins”, avait martelé Wang Yi, ministre chinois des Affaires étrangères en marge d’une conférence de presse lundi 7 mars.

Et d’ajouter : “les liens entre la Chine et la Russie sont les relations bilatérales les plus cruciales au monde et notre partenariat non seulement apporte des profits et du bien-être à nos peuples, mais participe aussi à la paix dans le monde, à la stabilité et au développement”. Le chef de la diplomatie chinoise a également tenu à préciser que l’ “amitié entre les deux peuples sont extrêmement solides”. (...)

#USACHINE

Spanish Sculptor Charged For Putting Graffiti On Franco’s Tomb | News | teleSUR English
▻https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Sculptor-Is-Judged-For-Making-A-Graffiti-On-Francos-Tomb-20211210-00

in Oct. 2018, Tenreiro used red paint to drew a dove and write “For Freedom” above the headstone of the genocide who ruled Spain between 1939 and 1975. A photographer who accompanied him posted his performance in social networks. Almost immediately, Tenreiro was detained by security personnel and arrested by the Civil Guard.

The Spanish Prosecutor’s Office requested a year in prison for a crime against freedom of conscience, arguing that his performance occurred when a Catholic mass was about to begin. If convicted, Tenreiro will also have to pay about US$940 in damages. The rebel sculptor also faces a private accusation set by the “Association for the Defense of the Valley of the Fallen,” which requests over two years in prison accusing him of having “desecrated” a tomb.

Tenreiro argued, however, he used washable paint to execute an artistic creation in favor of the “reconciliation and freedom” of the Spanish. Before and after his statement in the trial on Friday, the sculptor has assured he is willing to go to jail. Judges postponed the issuance of a sentence.

Besides trying to “shake consciences”, he wanted to denounce the presence of the dictator’s mausoleum in the Valley of the Fallen, a 30,000-square- meter monument that was built under Franco’s orders to honor those who died in his “crusade” against socialist, anarchist, and communist fighters.

“The thousands of workers who built the Valley of the Fallen with their hands were a mixture of free hired laborers and political prisoners who were forced to work there,” outlet La Vanguardia recalled, adding that its construction lasted 19 years.

In this mausoleum, which has become a symbol of the Spanish far-right, Franco remained from his death in November 1975 until his exhumation in October 2019. In the area covered by this “historical” monument there are several mass graves into which thousands of people who opposed his rule during civil war (1936-1939) were thrown.

Opus Dei Ignores Complaint of 43 Women Held in Slavery | News | teleSUR English
▻https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Opus-Dei-Ignores-Complaint-of-43-Women-Held-in-Slavery-20211008-0008

Ah, Opus Dei ! « Women in slavery » ... Pourquoi ca me fait penser à « La Belle Captive » d’Alain Robbe-Grillet que j’ai vu au festival du cinéma de Berlin à sa sortie ? Comme c’était nul, de l’érotisme de vieux schnock à l’époque des Annie Sprinkle, Catherine Breillat et Lydia Lunch, reflet de l’histoire des hommes qui éprouvent le besoin de dominer les femmes. Il n’y a rien de nouveau dans le fait que les religieux (et Alain Robbe-Grillet) exploitent le monde et les femmes en particulier. Là par contre il y a les opprimées qui lèvent la voix. C’est bien.

8 October 2021 - This complaint was submitted to the Abuse Section of the Congregation for the Faith Doctrine of the Vatican Tribunal.

Between 1974 and 2015, the Opus Dei held 43 women working without pay and in conditions similar to slavery in Argentina, Paraguay, and Bolivia.

This Catholic lay and clerical organization recruited the women as teenagers by promising to provide them with an education. Subsequently, however, they worked without pay as janitors, chefs, and maids in the service of the Opus Dei members and their guests.

In a letter sent to Pope Francis earlier this year, the exploited women emphasized they were deceived because they did not expect to become servants of the elite “in the name of God.” They also requested that the Catholic authorities apologize, compensate them for the damages, and stop these types of labor practices.

Among those involved in this violation of labor rights are ex-Regional Vicar Victor Urrestarazu, the Opus Dai highest authority Monsignor Fernando Ocariz, and Auxiliary Vicar of Rome Mariano Fazio Fernandez.

The women’s complaint was submitted to the Abuse Section of the Congregation for the Faith Doctrine of the Vatican Tribunal. On Sept. 29, Ocariz signed a decree to carry out a change in the Opus Dei’s South American structures.

In order to “improve the promotion and coordination of apostolic work,” he created the La Plata Region Vicar, which comprises Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, and Argentina.

This and other purely administrative changes, however, have not solved the underlying problem. So far, the Opus Dei has not done justice to 43 Latin American women it affected.

▻https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_belle_captive
▻https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opus_Dei

#religion #érotisme

Saint Lucia Labour Party Seals Big Election Win | News | teleSUR English
▻https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Saint-Lucia-Labour-Party-Seals-Big-Election-Win-20210727-0008.html

▻https://www.openstreetmap.org/relation/550728

The Saint Lucia Labour Party will form the country’s next government with a supermajority after a landslide general election victory.

On Monday, with 49.89 percent of the popular vote, Saint Lucia Labour Party (SLP) took 13 of the 17 seats available in Saint Lucia’s parliament, winning by its largest margin of victory since 1997, and SLP leader Philip Pierre is set to be named Prime Minister after a single term in opposition.

The Labour Party made substantial gains at the polls, retaining the six seats it had held since 2016 and adding seven more, covering the country’s electoral map in the party’s traditional red. The incumbent United Workers Party (UWP) led by outgoing prime minister Allen Chastanet only managed to retain two seats in the House of Assembly.

SLP leader Pierre took to social media to thank Saint Lucia as the result became apparent, saying his administration’s first priorities will be health and youth economy.

The incoming prime minister has represented Castries East since 1997, and previously served as a government minister the last time the Labour Party was in office. He was elected to the role of SLP leader after the party’s defeat in the 2016 general election and has been the leader of the opposition since then.

SLP wins 2021 St Lucia General Elections - defeating Allen Chastanet’s UWP in its largest margin of victory since 1997; Philip J Pierre becomes Prime Minister-Elect

FINAL:
SLP: 13 seats (+7)
UWP: 2 seats (-9)
IND: 2 seats (+2) pic.twitter.com/aF3RJ7MO92

The incumbent UWP lost two seats it has traditionally won in the country’s capital to former party members running as independent candidates, Castries North – won by former Prime Minister Stephenson King, and Castries Central – won by Richard Frederick, who served as a government minister under King. The SLP did not contest these seats.

The result illustrates a remarkable downturn in the UWP’s fortunes, with Chastanet’s party having won 11 of the 17 seats in Saint Lucia’s parliament in the last general election. However the departing prime minister did retain his seat in Micoud South.

Monday’s elections were observed by a Caribbean Community (CARICOM) team led by Fern Narcis-Scope of Trinidad and Tobago. Commonwealth and Organization of American States (OAS) observers were also present.

Saint Lucia is the only country named after a woman and was controlled by both the French and British before gaining independence in 1979.

Supreme Court Orders Capture of Ecuador’s Ex-President Correa | News | teleSUR English
▻https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Supreme-Court-Orders-Capture-of-Ecuadors-Ex-President-Correa-2020092

Ecuador’s National Court of Justice (CNJ) Wednesday ordered the capture of former President Rafael Correa, who was sentenced to eight years in prison for his alleged participation in a bribery case.

This arrest warrant also affects former Vice President Jorge Glas and other former senior officials such as Alexis Mera, Maria de Los Angeles Duarte, and Viviana Bonilla.

After ratifying that the legal process is completed, Judge Ivan Leon ordered that the arrest warrant be sent to the National Electoral Council (CNE) because the leftist leader cannot take part in electoral processes for a time equal to the time established in the sentence.

On Wednesday, President Lenin Moreno’s administration ordered the withdrawal of the life pension that Correa was receiving in his capacity as former president of the Republic.

Additionally, the CNJ ordered Correa and his former collaborators to carry out “symbolic reparation measures” at the Independence Square in Quito.

At the Presidential palace, they must place a plaque with the following text in Spanish and Quichua: “Public resources must always be honestly administered. Public service is nothing other than a service to the community and is subject to ethical principles.”

On Sept. 7, a CNJ court rejected the legal recourse presented by the Correa’s lawyers. That rejection implied the ratification of his sentence to eight years in prison.

Guatemala : Discrimination Against Domestic Workers Rises
Tele Sur, le 20 avril 2020
▻https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Guatemala-Discrimination-Against-Domestic-Workers-Rises-20200420-000

Since the coronavirus outbreak, many of them adopted “doors inside” work modality, staying at the patron housing to comply with their working time and the curfew. Employers impose this working mode, most of the cases. "Many are paid less than the minimum wage because employers argue that they provide them with shelter and food”, Contreras affirmed.

#Guatemala #coronavirus #travail #employées_domestiques #sexisme #racisme #classisme

Voir compile des effets délétères indirects de la pandémie :
►https://seenthis.net/messages/832147

“It’s Now or Never”: Bolivian Elite Destroying the Country | Opinion | teleSUR English
▻https://www.telesurenglish.net/opinion/Its-Now-or-Never-Bolivian-Elite-Destroying-the-Country-20191107-0023

Published 7 November 2019, by Edu Montesanti - To the Bolivian upper classes, President Evo Morales has to resign even if forced by extreme violence, or through a civil war.

“It’s now or never!”, said a family in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, gathered close to Christ the Redeemer statue where thousands of demonstrators and road blockers stay seven days of the week, night and day.

That statement was in response to this reporter’s observance, that circumstances in Bolivia were getting out of control leading to a civil war. Answering that, the family laughed and did not hesitate in declaring: “We want things to get out of control. This is the only way to overthrow this president, once and for all.”

Violence, Our Daily Bread

For almost 20 days, the South American country is economically stopped, as opposition groups are blocking roads and preventing trade, in the last case with exceptions some short times for markets.

However, if one walks by The Ramada, commercial center in downtown Santa Cruz de la Sierra, sees almost every trade with open doors, an act of disobedience to the rebel leaders of the national strike. This author has talked to some local merchants.

“Nobody in this area supports the strike,” said to this author a woman merchant. “In the city, generally, not everybody opposes the President, on the contrary, I could say people are divided,” added the old woman, who owns a large store in The Ramada.

The owner’s daughter added: “Nobody did for Bolivia what President Evo Morales has done. He has granted several rights to workers, as no president did before. This is one thing that angers the elite.”

Everybody has been afraid to publicly speak, given the uncertainty and virulence in the essence of the current protests that take the nation. Recently, in this area, a woman spoke out against the strike saying people want and need to work as there is no money nor food anymore. She was beaten and obliged to kneel and ask demonstrators for forgiveness.

In regions like Cochabamba, Potosi, and La Paz, the situation is more tense, with frequent clashes between pro-government and opponent groups, and several wounded. In Cochabamba, a 20-year old man was killed last Wednesday, a victim of severe head injury, skull base fracture and brain death due to confrontations, which grow more and more. The civil war is fastly advancing in Bolivia.
Fury without Rationality

The following has been a rule in Bolivia, before the last presidential election: the opposition spills their hate against the local government, especially against President Evo Morales but when confronted with some official data, internationally recognized in favor of the first indigenous president of the nation, criticism change its direction.

What had seen strong condemnations against the “situation of the country”, quickly changed to “a future dictator if many years in power.” So they start to explain their political theories about more than two or three mandates in the Presidency. And so, they create their conjectures.

Angela Merkel has been the German Prime-Minister since 2005, as her country has a solid democracy not questioned in Bolivia nor nowhere around the world. What determines a strong democracy in a country, is the solidity of its institutions.

Last Monday evening, the biggest demonstration against President Evo Morales since the elections on Oct. 20, took place in Santa Cruz de la Sierra.

“We will siege every government institution including tax collectors ones, and national borders, so the government won’t collect one cent. Evo is going to be a president without a State!”, said in the demonstration Luis Fernando Camacho, the leader of the current national strike based out in Santa Cruz de la Sierra.

Camacho’s biography and ancestry, outlined below in this report, is another serious indication that what is advancing in Bolivia is a Color Revolution, idealized by the American Gene Sharp to overthrow governments all over the world, not aligned to the Washington regime.

President Evo Morales has challenged the opposition to give evidence of fraud to the Organization of American States (OAE), which has been auditing the Bolivia election. So far, nobody presented any piece of evidence of fraud regarding the last presidential election; the opposition claim, since OAS arrival to audit the elections, they do not want any audit nor a runoff anymore, but Morales’ resignation and new elections.

This reporter has checked people lost in their observances, as emotions overflowed. One of the features of a Color Revolution. It has been this way in Syria, Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Brazil, and other countries lately.

There are other features in these protests is in Bolivia, clearly pointing to a Color Revolution.
Paying for Demonstrators

There have been witnesses that road blockers have gotten 200 bolivianos (US$29) per day. A woman confirmed that information to this author, who says she has met a road blocker who has spoken to her about it.

Camacho has recognized that he paid 1,200 bolivianos (US$174) to a Cruceñista Youth Union member to burn the Electoral Tribunal in Santa Cruz de la Sierra on Oct. 23.

The businessman also speaks out when telling he funds all kinds of demonstrations against the current government, “and always did [before the elections],” which included the attacks against several official party’s head offices across Santa Cruz de la Sierra, on Sept.12.
U.S.-Backed Groups

Recent revelations point to a U.S.-backed plan of shaking the nation. The Radio Education Network of Bolivia (Erbol) has released 16 audios, which uncover talks between U.S. officials, Bolivian opponents, and former military.

In a three-part plan outlined by U.S. officials, former President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada (2002-2003) is mentioned. Lozada had Carlos Mesa (the principal opponent of Morales in the last election) as his vice-president and currently lives in the U.S.

U.S. senators Bob Menendez, Ted Cruz, and Marco Rubio are some of the American officials mentioned in the audios, linked to the Bolivian opposition planning a coup against President Evo Morales.

Officials of the State Department accredited in the country, such as Mariane Scott and Rolf A. Olson, have been meeting with high level diplomatic officials from Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay, in order that they organize and plan destabilization actions against the Bolivian government, as well as delivering the U.S. funds to the Bolivian opposition.

(...) Parallel, in the month of July a private meeting between the opponents Jaime Antonio Alarcón Daza, Iván Arias and other members of the civic committees was carried out, in which it was agreed to acquire “machines for fast vote-counting” for the coming presidential elections, for the sake of manipulating public opinion on the electoral results.

“These machines would altogether have a cost of US$300,000. The U.S. Embassy and the representation of the European Union in the country would contribute to financing the purchase, which they would provide through the Jubileo Foundation and the Evangelical Church. With that specific aim, they have already managed to gather more of US$800,000, from which the payment to the people participating in the fast count of votes would also come out.”

An attack against the Cuban Embassy in Bolivia has also been planned.

All the audios, which include the three-part plan to achieve a regime change in Bolivia, can be read here.

Touching Emotion through the Mainstream Media of Propaganda

Demonstrations in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, according to the Bolivian mainstream media, have been held “at the feet of Christ” strongly touching people’s emotions, especially the people’s faith. In Bolivia’s biggest city, demonstrators are used to gathering, as mentioned above, around Christ the Redeemer statue.

So the virulent and anti-democratic demonstrations which are shaking the South American country, leaving many people without food, have an aspect of sacrosanct manifestations by the media - who is against them, is against God and in favor of the Devil. Or something like that.

Religious leaders have used people like puppets for so long in Bolivia. Which of course requires using imagination. It has been so very strong, that this reporter had predicted exactly what is going on these days in Bolivia, months ago.

Speaking out loud and clear, to the fundamental participation of religious leaders who have dedicated most of their time to spread lies, discrimination, and hate among the Bolivian people, with clear aims. They are mute now, before too much violence in the country.

Such misuse of people’s emotions is not only a Color Revolution feature these days, but was a pillar to the ascension of Germany’s Nazism in the 1930s.

In these dark and too tense days in Bolivia, the mainstream media of propaganda is playing a fundamental role in the demonstration’s favor. It has been a bombardment by what can be denominated a war media. No investigation, no impartiality, only propaganda.
Fighting the Wrong Enemy

Oct. 31 evening, when the situation aggravated in Bolivia, this reporter checked one of the main crossroads in the highly tense Santa Cruz de la Sierra, blocked 24 hours per day by demonstrators.

That day in the city, a policeman had been severely beaten by opponent civilians to the Morales administration. One day before, two men had been killed in Santa Cruz de la Sierra outskirts (Pravda reported).

When this investigation crossed the blocking, under the surveillance of its controllers, a so very loudly radio was saying: “We are reporting multitudinous demonstrations taking place right now in Potosi! Multitudinous demonstrations taking place right now in Cochabamba! Multitudinous demonstrations taking place right now in Santa Cruz de la Sierra! Multitudinous demonstrations taking place right now in La Paz!”.

Suddenly, in a much more touching way, the narrator said: “In La Paz, the multitude shout, ’No more Cubans, get out Cubans! No more Russians, get out, Russians! No more Chineses, get out Chineses!”. A saying started to be spread in Santa Cruz, that “Vladimir Putin has already sent his men to kill everybody in Bolivia.”

So the popular claim in Bolivia changed from recounting the votes to a runoff, no matter the results of the election; another election; Evo Morales’ resignation; combating the “big enemies” of the nation, the nightmare of the Bolivian elites, Cubans, Russians, and Chinese.

Needless to address the absurdities of these remarks. Not to mention the absence of the U.S. in the memory of that same elite given the military coups Uncle Sam has perpetrated against democracies in the region - including Bolivia -, and the plunder of the natural resources of the Bolivian nation (before Evo Morales years in the Presidency).

Luis Fernando Camacho is based-out in Santa Cruz, and most of his public appearances against the Bolivian president, are in his native city. An entrepreneur, he is the president of Committee Pro-Santa Cruz, devoted to advocating justice and progress to Santa Cruz de la Sierra.

The billionaire has not been voted president of the Committee by the “cruceño” (original from Santa Cruz de la Sierra) people, but by the committee summit. It is widely said in the city that the tycoon won the presidency of the organization through millionaire bribes. Which coincides with the Bolivian too corrupted reality.

Camacho’s committee has a long history of spreading racism, discrimination, hate, and violence in Bolivia. In 2008, the organization took part in the violent attempt of separate Santa Cruz de la Sierra from Bolivia. At the time, in response to a false denouncement by the Committee Pro-Santa Cruz against the Morales administration, International Federation for Human Rights seriously rebuked the organization now presided by Camacho, for attacking indigenous people, State institutions, and speech and acts for secessionism (read Open Letter).

Camacho is 40 years old; he and his family are part of Grupo Empresarial de Inversiones Nacional Vida S.A., a synergy insurance company, His father, José Luis Camacho Miserendino, founded Sergas, a gas company which, in 1989, had contracts with the neoliberal state linked to insurance companies and pension funds.

Sergas owes 20 million de bolivianos (US$2,890,173) to the Bolivian State for tax evasion, when the company supplied gas to Santa Cruz de la Sierra city. So what is at stake is possibly debt forgiveness if a neoliberal government takes again the power in the South American country. It is said and makes sense that if Carlos Mesa takes the power, substituting Evo Morales in a coup or a resignation, the once Lozada’s vice-president will immediately forgive Sergas debt with the State.

Camacho’s committee acts close to Cruceñista Youth Union, widely known for fascist sayings and doings - also for having led the violent and failed project of separating Santa Cruz de la Sierra from Bolivia, in 2007.

Last Wednesday, Jorge Fernando Quiroga Ramírez, alias Tuto Quiroga, landed in Santa Cruz de la Sierra to meet and support Camacho. Quiroga was vice-president of Hugo Banzer (1971-78, 1997-2001), a bloody dictator pro-Washington regime.

Most recently and closest to Bolivia, Brazil in the world scenario of Color Revolution overthrew President Dilma Rousseff in 2016, to give place to Michel Temer who paved the way for fascist Jair Bolsonaro. Since the coup against Dilma Rousseff, the mainstream media, the upper classes, and the political opposition has said that once the first woman president in Brazil’s history was toppled, the South American country would find its way back to democracy and economic growth.

Needless to address the Brazilian situation since then. Just worthy to mention: those Brazilian segments do not care about corruption anymore, nor have been seen in that too loud strong state of hysteria for economic growth as in 2016.

If the planned coup succeeds in Bolivia, this country will surely have the same fate as Brazil, economically and politically saying.
A Long Process Based on Misinformation and Hate

“I hate Evo Morales!” said in July last year in a talk to this reporter, a Santa Cruz de la Sierra-bases out hairdresser woman - without any political justification to that deep sentiment. A white professional at 40 years of age, only hates. She openly hates the first indigenous president in Bolivia’s history.

Cochabamba’s Lawmaker Norma Pierola has been prosecuted for racism for not greeting President Evo Morales in an official activity, late last year. Norma alleged that Morales does not respect women as a president, without any justification for that. On the contrary, the Morales administration is well-known including among critics for granting rights for women, the LGBT community, and indigenous people.

At that time, Santa Cruz de la Sierra Governor Ruben Costas called indigenous people “dumb and stupid,” so rekindling the fire of deep racism that used to shame Bolivia in the years previous to Evo Morales.

This video shows strong acts of racism and discrimination Evo Morales is suffering since took power in 2006, and strong violence against innocent and unarmed indigenous people and peasants, “a damn race.” Shocking images taped especially in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, before Evo Morales in the Presidency, who has, with the Congress mostly composed of its partisans, passed bills that severely punish acts of discrimination.

But the deep hate has been kept inside hearts, even growing in many people’s sentiments through the years. It has been strongly realized by talking to people, who do not tolerate a “red skin,” a peasant, or a different accent. Or even an Evo voter.

“If Camacho gets his aims, this atmosphere of discrimination, racism, hate, and deep violence will be back to Bolivia, as he is allied to Ruben Costas,” said to this journalist a Bolivian from La Paz, who has been living in Santa Cruz for several years.

Among many non-sense lies spread in Bolivia, both by the opposition and religious leaders (the latter have played a fundamental role in discrimination and diffusion of slanders campaign), could be highlighted that “Evo had an airplane arrested in the U.S. years ago, loaded with cocaine.”

Personally talking to Catholic leaders of Knights Templar in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, this reporter asked them, well aware that was a lie: “So why did Evo was not arrested in the U.S., then?”. The ridiculous answer was, “he has immunity as president of Bolivia [in U.S. ground!].”

Another spread lie is that Evo Morales owns the air company Boliviana de Aviación (BoA) - a state company created in 2007 a year after Evo took power.

“I have been surprised that they [religious leaders] first pray and then they hate, what is that?” Evo asked last week. “They pray [then] kick poor people,” the president of Bolivia denounced, well-aware that such a segment is behind the dirty war of hate and lies across the country.
Social Confusion

Leaving the demonstration “at the feet of Christ” last Monday, this reporter talked to some people. A couple’s reaction to some of this journalist’s observations is a hallmark of the current state of mind among the opposition voters in Bolivia.

After explaining the reasons why the young guys were requiring Evo Morales to be overthrown, this report presented some little data about Bolivia’s economy in recent years, comparing to the years previous to the current president.

The couple then repeated a posture commonly seen by this author when talking to people by the streets of Santa Cruz de la Sierra: they firstly withered to later change the subject. The problem was not the economy, but a president being many years in power. Which is at least arguable, as pointed out above.

Another strong feature of these protests in Bolivia, a hallmark of Color Revolutions, is the spread of lies among people which is previous to the current mess: the scenario of social confusion based on an inversion of facts has been advancing long ago in the South American country.

Last Tuesday, this reporter got a WhatsApp message from a lawyer based out in La Paz, who works in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, too. “This is the beginning of strong social movements in Bolivia. (...) So starts a social movement, first the group manifests, later elaborate the ideology,” he said. Which is an absurd, and another Color Revolution strong feature, as social movements’ process is the inverse: they first have a direction, then they organize themselves, and fight for their ideals. Any movement or group without an ideal is artificial.

Fighting for something without a clear path to be pursued is ridiculous, leading nations victims of Color Revolutions, unavoidable to chaos, generally to fascist politics, a worse situation the respective nations used to live before such artificial movements.

There is no project by the opposition. They want the justice system, controlled by the current government, it is true, to be under their control again, not to reform it. And they aim to collapse every Morales administration gains.

Uncle Sam’s Sharp, Cruel Claws

In 2014, Jacob Ostreicher, a Jewish businessman funded by local drug trafficking and the CIA disguised as a diplomatic mission to destabilize Bolivia, illegally, and protected by the CIA, left the South American country not to be arrested. Who provided Ostreicher’s escape was “diplomat” Larry Lamont Memmott, a CIA agent operating in Bolivia.

Who is behind protests in Bolivia are dark powers, the stingy, destructive Bolivian elite that in the two centuries before Evo Morales, used to sell local natural resources to get in return Empire’s crumbs - the U.S. deep State who is, once again, using the old puppet Bolivian elite as its tool for geostrategic and economic purposes.

All this seems impossible to be argued with many people in Bolivia right now. Their minds have been confused by the daily mainstream media’s bombardment and religious leaders.

The current chaos, with the local economy stuck for almost 20 days, has no forecast to finish. Who is destroying Bolivia is not surely Cuba, nor Russia, nor China. But in the deeply troubled Bolivia these days, Joseph Goebbels’s teachings reigns: “A lie told once remains a lie, but a lie told a thousand times becomes the truth.”

Lie, something the most terrorist Empire in history is an expert in spreading. And in the destruction of nations, another thing that, for so long, Latin America disgracefully knows very well.

It’s Bolivia turn, again...

#Boivie #USA #putsch #impérialisme

#Nicaragua and Western Progressive Opinion | Opinion | teleSUR English
▻https://www.telesurenglish.net/opinion/Nicaragua-and-Western-Progressive-Opinion-20190813-0012.html

There has always been significant neocolonial left-wing opinion in North America and Europe, willingly misled by supposedly liberal or progressive news media.

Progressives in Europe and North America attacking Nicaragua’s Sandinista government consistently exclude from their version of events in 2018 the extreme, sadistic violence and economic hardship imposed on Nicaragua’s people by the country’s U.S.-supported political opposition. The demonstrable facts of the failed attempt to overthrow President Ortega stubbornly contradict the outright lies and misrepresentations promoted by the Nicaraguan opposition’s foreign supporters.

Consequently, Western progressives opposed to President Ortega’s government face various intractable dilemmas as they try in vain to distance themselves from the country’s U.S.-owned right-wing political opposition, suppressing the fact that the center-right MRS party, whose propaganda they promote, lobbied for support from extreme right-wing U.S. Congress members Marco Rubio and Ileana Ros Lehtinen. In Ireland, the latest ploy by progressives to cover up their association with Nicaragua’s right-wing has been to revive the long moribund Irish Nicaragua Solidarity Group.

In this context, the solidarity tag invokes the phony, US-driven, anti-monster hyperbole familiar from NATO government and media propaganda against, among others, Syria and Venezuela, rather than anti-imperialist support for governments and peoples resisting the U.S. and allied country sanctions and threats of intervention. This political alignment immediately compounds the initial dilemma facing Western supporters of the Nicaraguan opposition. Their recycling of falsehoods and misrepresentations promoted by Nicaragua’s right-wing opposition is further exposed by the lack of anyone to show solidarity within Nicaragua untainted by their association with that same US-owned right wing. Essentially, their dilemma derives from class loyalties leading them naturally to support their class counterparts in Nicaragua: unrepresentative NGO managers, marginal phony revolutionaries, minority social democrat politicians and their associated media.

In Nicaragua, there is no credible left-wing opposition to President Ortega’s Sandinista government outside the Sandinista Front for National Liberation (FSLN). The authoritative M&R opinion polling consultants’ survey of May this year showed that the main opposition political parties, all of whom are right-wing, together have the same level of national support they had consistently between 2011 and 2018, namely under 10%. No political left-wing with significant support exists. Implicitly recognizing this, North American and European progressives tend to argue that, absent any representative left-wing political party, they support purportedly progressive social movements opposed to the government. But a look at the role of those social movements’ in last year’s failed coup attempt reveals that they have zero claims to a progressive program with majority support.

The main participants in the failed coup attempt were: the US government supported the Sandinista Renewal Movement, along with ex-Sandinista allies like Monica Baltodano and her circle; the most reactionary Catholic Church bishops; the main private employers organization COSEP; US and EU country-funded NGOs; the foreign-funded Anti Canal Movement and the extreme right-wing Ciudadanos por la Libertad political party as well as individual local politicians, mayors for example, from the other right-wing political parties. The coup attempt was stridently supported by U.S. government-funded media oligarch Carlos Fernando Chamorro and other sympathetic right-wing media.

Given the unprecedented psychological warfare assault, a large number of Nicaraguan students understandably initially supported the coup. But the great majority of public university students realized within a couple of weeks that the coup attempt was in fact a class war against them and their families. That was made very clear when Nicaragua’s wealthiest business leader Piero Coen, on Saturday, April 21, 2018, publicly declared his support, urging demonstrators to continue their violent protests.

The class attack on low-income students and their families intensified with the violent, criminal occupation of the UNAN and UPOLI, universities serving students from low-income families while private universities were left untouched, and by the opposition’s attempted murder of student leader Leonel Morales because he opposed the coup attempt. Most private university students supported the opposition violence at arms’ length, so long as they were not directly affected. Likewise, opposition feminist NGO leaders, with practically no social base, openly worked in alliance with the most reactionary anti-abortion Catholic bishops, with the wealthy private business leaders of COSEP as well as with well-known right-wing politicians.

On the other hand, women opposing the coup attempt included the huge mass membership of women in the country’s labor unions, cooperative movement and popular economy organizations. Women now comprise around 45% of all cooperative members (112,000 out of 253,000 in 2014), compared to just 26% in 2006. This and similar facts, like Nicaragua’s leading global example in women’s political representation or the halving of maternal mortality since 2006, attest to the unprecedented advances of women in Nicaragua since 2006, a process led by the FSLN, guided in particular by Vice President Rosario Murillo. Those advances contradict attacks on the government by unrepresentative feminist NGO leaders, including beneficiaries of US government funding like Sofia Montenegro and Violeta Granera, and other marginal figures, like Sandra Ramos or Azahalea Solis.

After the violent events of April 18th-April 23rd, involving well organized, extremely violent armed opposition attacks in at least ten important towns and cities, including Managua, Masaya, Leon, Granada, Jinotepe, Diriamba, Estelí and Bluefields, resistance to the attempted overthrow of the government quickly consolidated.

It included all the main labor unions; all the main cooperative organizations; all the main organizations representing small and medium-sized businesses; the nationwide Association of Rural Workers which is a member of Via Campesina; the main students’ union and, too, the Senior Citizens Union. On the Caribbean Coast, most indigenous and afrodescendant organizations supported the government. That reality further compounds the dilemma facing foreign progressives opposed to Nicaragua’s Sandinista government, because it renders absolutely clear the class war embodied in the failed coup attempt of 2018.

Ex-Sandinistas like Henry Ruiz and Monica Baltodano openly allied with the private big business owners of COSEP, with the most reactionary Catholic bishops, with US-funded proxies like Felix Maradiaga, Juan Sebastian Chamorro and Sofia Montenegro, among a host of other foreign government-funded figures, including CENIDH’s Vilma Nuñez. Monica Baltodano herself was a deputy for the center-right Sandinista Renewal Movement from 2007 to 2011 and consistently voted with Nicaragua’s right-wing political parties in the National Assembly.

More recently, she and her daughter Monica López have championed the Anti-Canal Movement, which has a limited rural base in Nicaragua’s central southern farming region and is most associated with Francisca Ramirez, a landowner and businesswoman from Nueva Guinea who poses misleadingly as a simple Campesina. They have worked closely with Nicaragua’s right-wing for years, for example with the right-wing media owner and former presidential candidate Fabio Gadea.

Not one of these so-called civil society leaders condemned the violence perpetrated by their militant supporters and paid delinquents at the numerous barricades and roadblocks set up in part to try and paralyze the country’s economic life and in part to terrorize people at grassroots.

To the contrary, they encouraged it and suppressed the truth of incidents such as the massacre of four police officers and a school teacher in El Morrito on July 12, 2018 carried out by Anti Canal Movement militants operating roadblocks under the leadership of Medardo Mairena. Vilma Nuñez’s CENIDH activists violently invaded the UNAN campus and persistently broadcast systematic lies accusing the police and security forces of extremely serious crimes now proven categorically to have been committed by the opposition, for example, the family notoriously burned to death in Managua’s Carlos Marx district on June 16, 2018.

All of this means that people in Ireland or anywhere else in North America and Europe expressing solidarity with the political opposition to President Daniel Ortega are supporting organizations and individuals allied with extreme right-wing politicians, with corporate capitalist business leaders, with local US-funded NGO mercenaries and with the most reactionary representatives of the Catholic Church hierarchy.

No other political opposition exists, either among Nicaragua’s social movements or its political organizations. The M&R May 2019 poll results categorically confirm the lack of public support for Nicaragua’s opposition. Even back in September 2018, only 28% of people in Nicaragua wanted to continue protests via barricades and roadblocks. By May 2019 that figure had dropped to 10%, with 32% of people in Nicaragua opposing President Ortega and 59% supporting him and his government.

The dilemmas facing Western opponents of President Ortega’s Sandinista government have led them into completely demented cognitive dissonance. Progressive foreign opponents of President Ortega simultaneously say they oppose US intervention while supporting a Nicaraguan opposition calling precisely for….U.S. intervention and sanctions. They claim to be anti-imperialist while contradicting explicit support for Nicaragua’s FSLN government from the most important anti-imperialist mass political front in Latin America and the Caribbean, the Foro Sao Paulo. They claim to be democratic while deliberately omitting and suppressing abundant information available within Nicaragua that would allow the general public in North America and Europe a true and fair view explaining President Ortega’s majority support.

These attitudes and behavior are nothing new. There has always been significant neocolonial left-wing opinion in North America and Europe, willingly misled by supposedly liberal or progressive news media and disingenuous NGOs like Amnesty International. But for the last thirty years, the same lies and psy-warfare motifs have been constantly repeated to the point where there is no excuse to fall for them yet again. As in the case of Venezuela, Syria or Iran, most Western progressives readily attack majority world governments and movements legitimately defending their national sovereignty. Nicaragua is another example of this kind of neocolonial injustice promoted by Western progressives colluding with the self-same imperialist policies they falsely claim to oppose.

Stephen Sefton, Tortilla con Sal, August 12th 2018

India Renders 2M Stateless, Far-Right BJP Slammed by Hindu Nationalists for Excluding Hindus | News | teleSUR English
▻https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/india-nrc-assam-1.9-million-stateless-citizenship-bjp-bengalis-20190

India excluded 1.9 million from citizenship dividing families who have submitted the same documents to prove they are living in India before Bangladesh’s independence in 1971.

Nearly 2 million people have been left off a list of citizens released Saturday in India’s northeastern state of Assam, after a mammoth years-long exercise to remove so-called illegal immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh.

Officials checked documents submitted by roughly 33 million people for a draft released last year of a National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam, which left out more than 4 million residents of the state, many of them Hindu.

But 31.1 million people now make up the final list, with 1.9 million excluded, said Prateek Hajela, the coordinator of the state’s register.

“Any person who is not satisfied with the outcome of the claims and objections can file an appeal before the foreigners’ tribunals,” Hajela said in a statement, adding that everyone had received an adequate hearing.

Critics accuse Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Hindu nationalist party of stoking sentiment against illegal immigrants and misusing the register to target even legal Muslim citizens.

His close aide, Home Minister Amit Shah, has previously vowed to weed out illegal immigrants, calling them “termites”.

He also said previously that Hindus, Sikhs, and Buddhists do not have to worry about NRC. However, after a large number of Hindus were excluded from the list the ruling party members have been criticizing the NRC.

Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which also rules the state, has had to change tack in recent months.

“Names of many Indian citizens who migrated from Bangladesh as refugees before 1971 have not been included in the NRC,” Assam’s Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said in a Twitter post, adding that some illegal migrants had been wrongfully added.

Another BJP lawmaker, Shiladitya Deb, said he did not expect the list to be fair. “It will not have the names of many Bengali Hindus,” he said.

Those excluded have 120 days to prove their citizenship at hundreds of regional quasi-judicial bodies known as foreigners’ tribunals. If ruled to be illegal immigrants there, they can appeal to higher courts.

This decision came after the government decided to update the NRC which was formed after the 1951 Census. The current administration under Prime Minister Narendra Modi decided to update the list in 2015 and people had to prove their lineage that they came to India before March 24, 1971, the day Bangladesh became independent from Pakistan.

During Bangladesh’s freedom struggle, many Bengali Muslims and Hindus alike migrated to India.

People who could not prove their existence in India before that have been excluded even though they have Indian passports or served in the army.

For example, Mohammad Sanaullah who served in the Indian army for 30 years found himself excluded from the list.

Many families found that half of them made to the list. Mijanur Rahman, a 47-year-old farmer, his son, and two daughters were named as citizens while his wife and other three daughters were excluded.

“Everyone in my family is on the list but not me,” said Munwara Khatun, accompanied by two grandchildren and her husband, Sahar Ali, at a registration center in Assam’s central district of Nagaon. “How can that be?”

Her 65-year-old spouse, a farmer, said the draft list had also omitted her, prompting them to provide authorities with documents ranging from land records to her voter identification and the Aadhaar identification number of Indian residents.

Some of the two dozen people at the center said officials had asked them to go to court to get included on the register.

“They are saying go to court,” said car mechanic Ritesh Sutradhar, 45, who had been left out, along with his wife. “But who will pay for all that?”

Two sisters Shefali Baidya and Mukul Bose submitted the same document belonging to her father. But Mukul was excluded from the list while Shefali was included.

State officials say they do not know the eventual fate of those finally adjudged foreigners. Bangladesh has not committed to accepting them.

More than 1,000 people are being held in Assam’s six detention centers for illegal immigrants and the state wants to set up more centers.

Human rights activists have criticized conditions at the centers, and lawyers and activists point to problems with the functioning of the foreigners’ tribunals.​​​​​​​

#Inde #Bangla_Desh #nationalisme #fascisme_hindou

Marta Harnecker, The Fighter | Opinion | teleSUR English
▻https://www.telesurenglish.net/opinion/Marta-Harnecker-The-Fighter-20190618-0010.html

https://www.telesurenglish.net/__export/1560874222199/sites/telesur/img/2019/06/18/marta_harnecker.jpg_1718483346.jpg

A relentless fighter, comrade Marta Harnecker (1937 – 2019) made valuable contributions in the areas of theory related to revolution for socialism in the broader Latin American perspective.

Comrade Marta Harnecker has passed away on June 15, 2019.

Monthly Review | Planning from Below: A Decentralized Participatory Planning Proposal
▻https://monthlyreview.org/product/planning-from-below

Set out in two parts, this book first demonstrates the importance of community participants working outside a hierarchy, to allow as much decentralization as possible. Anything done at a “lower level” is carried out at that level, as people propose, develop, and implement their own initiatives. The second part of the book centers on the methodology of this process: the various tasks taken on by participants and how, in planning processes over years, they are carried out. We learn how to create a database; how to formulate and prioritize aspirations and to convert them into specific projects; even how to integrate all this into an overall budget outline. Amid volumes of political theory discussing “The Revolution,” Planning from Below offers uniquely simple, yet revolutionary, tools to help any group of people anywhere, live in an actual democracy.

Marta Harnecker, presente! | Green Left Weekly
▻https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/marta-harnecker-presente

#gauche #Amérique_Latine

Amazon Helps ICE Deport Migrants Using AI Technology: Report | News | teleSUR English
▻https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/united-states-amazon-ice-migrants-deportation-family-separation-dhs-

Published 17 July 2019

Amazon is helping ICE carry out raids by pitching its Rekognition facial identification technology for "deportations without due process.”

Amazon is enabling the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to detain and deport migrants from the United States according to a report by Al-Jazeera published Wednesday.

According to the activist group Mijente which demands the multinational company “stop powering ICE,” the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has contracts with Amazon.

The DHS uses the Palantir software that helps them track would-be-deportees. Amazon Web Services host the database and Palantir provides computer program to organize the data.

Palantir, a data analytics firm can be described as a mix between Google and the CIA. It provides algorithms for government agencies for counterterrorism or immigration enforcement and receives taxpayers money.

Activists have pointed out that the firm sells “mission-critical” tools used by ICE to plan raids. The contract between the two is worth US$51 million.

“Amazon and Palantir have secured a role as the backbone for the federal government’s immigration and law enforcement dragnet, allowing them to pursue multibillion-dollar government contracts in various agencies at every single level of law enforcement,” says a petition on Mijente’s website.

This week, while ICE agents were rounding up immigrants, Mijente delivered 270,000 petitions to the New York residence of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos demanding he cut ties with the immigration authorities.

The immigration authorities launched small-scale operations seeking to arrest undocumented immigrants over the weekend in an apparent start to President Donald Trump’s vow to launch mass deportation round-ups across the country.

The operation, which Trump revealed on Twitter last month, was expected to target hundreds of recently-arrived families in about 10 cities whose deportation had been ordered by an immigration judge.

The removal operations are meant to deter a surge in Central American families fleeing poverty and gang violence in their home countries, with many seeking asylum in the United States.

On Monday, Trump said the raids were “very successful” even though immigration activists and lawyers said that only a few arrests took place. Nonetheless, the crackdown is not over. ICE informed that more arrests will be made later this week.

Jennifer Lee of the American Civil Liberties Union said during a rally in front the company’s headquarters in Seattle that Amazon is helping the authorities carry out the raids by pitching its Rekognition facial identification technology which could result in "deportations without due process.”

Last week, activists interrupted the Amazon Web Services Summit in New York by playing recordings of migrant families being split up while the Amazon Chief Technology Officer Werner Vogels was giving a keynote speech. Activists have also called for boycotting Amazon’s products like Prime Video, Whole Foods, Kindle, etc.

“Companies and government organizations need to use existing and new technology responsibly and lawfully. There is clearly a need for more clarity from governments on what is acceptable use of AI and ramifications for its misuse, and we’ve provided a proposed legislative framework for this,” said an Amazon spokesperson in a statement responding to the accusations.

“We remain eager for the government to provide this additional clarity and legislation,” continued the statement, "and will continue to offer our ideas and specific suggestions.”

#migration #réfugiés #cloud #surveillance #intelligence_artificielle

Egypt’s Former President Morsi Dies in Court : State TV | News | teleSUR English
▻https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Egypts-Former-PresidentMorsiDies-in-Court-State-TV-20190617-0010.htm

Egypt’s former President Mohamed Morsi died after fainting during a court hearing.

Former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi has died in court, state television reported Monday.

It said Morsi had fainted after a court session and died afterward. He was pronounced dead at 4:50 pm local time according to the country’s public prosecutor.

“He was speaking before the judge for 20 minutes then became very animated and fainted. He was quickly rushed to the hospital where he later died,” a judicial source said.

“In front of Allah, my father and we shall unite,” wrote Ahmed, Morsi’s son on Facebook.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan paid tribute to Morsi saying, "May Allah rest our Morsi brother, our martyr’s soul in peace.”

According to medical reports, there were no apparent injuries on his body.

Morsi, who was democratically elected after the popular ouster of Hosni Mubarak, was toppled by the military led by coup leader and current President Abdul-Fattah el-Sissi in 2013 after protests against his rule.

“We received with great sorrow the news of the sudden death of former president Dr. Mohamed Morsi. I offer my deepest condolences to his family and Egyptian people. We belong to God and to him we shall return,” Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani wrote on Twitter.

The United Nations spokesperson Stephane Dujarric offered condolences to his supporters and relatives.

State television said Morsi, who was 67, was in court for a hearing on charges of espionage emanating from suspected contacts with the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas, which controls the Gaza strip that is under blockade by the current Egyptian government and Israel.

He was facing at least six trials for politically motivated charges according to his supporters. The former president was also serving a 20-years prison sentence for allegedly killing protesters in 2012.

Morsi was suffering from various health issues including diabetes and liver and kidney disease. During his imprisonment, he suffered from medical neglect worsened by poor prison conditions.

Mohammed Sudan, a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, said that Morsi’s death was "premeditated murder” by not allowing him adequate health care.

"He has been placed behind [a] glass cage [during trials]. No one can hear him or know what is happening to him. He hasn’t received any visits for months or nearly a year. He complained before that he doesn’t get his medicine. This is premeditated murder. This is a slow death,” Sudan said.

Morsi was allowed 3 short visits in 6 years. One in November 2013 after being forcibly disappeared for 4 months, and another in June 2017 when only his wife and daughter were allowed, and the third in September 2018 with security official recording the whole conversation.
— Abdelrahman Ayyash (@3yyash) June 17, 2019

#Égypte #islamisme #prison

Last Suspect Freed in Kim Jong-un’s Brother’s Murder Case | News | teleSUR English
▻https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Last-Suspect-Freed-in-Kim-Jong-uns-Brothers-Murder-Case-20190504-000

https://www.telesurenglish.net/__export/1556969044637/sites/telesur/img/2019/05/04/huong.jpg_1718483346.jpg

There are no other suspects held in custody now that Huong has been released, and it is expected that the case will not reach a conviction.

Doan Thi Huong, the Vietnamese woman accused of assassinating North Korea’s Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un’s brother, Kim Jong Nam, has been released from a Malaysian prison after being held for over two years.

Huong was accused of murdering Kim Jong Nam using the highly toxic VH nerve agent. After being released, Huong was taken into immigration custody until her scheduled flight to Hanoi. The formerly jailed woman stated that she wishes to pursue a career in acting and singing once she returns home.

There are no other suspects held in custody now that Huong has been released, and it is expected that the case will not reach a conviction, considering Malaysia and Vietnam are attempting to normalize tense bilateral ties.

Critics believe that the release of Huong will prevent Malaysia from raising further questions.

On April 1, Vietnam successfully convinced Malaysian prosecutors to drop the murder charge against Huong. Vietnam increase lobbying efforts after the Indonesian government successfully negotiated with Vietnam to release the other suspect, Siti Aisyah, involved in the case.

Aisyah was released and returned to Indonesia on March 11.

Both governments used either good or improving intergovernmental relations to convince Malaysia to release the accused women, who maintain that they were tricked by North Korean agents into thinking their act was a harmless prank for a hidden camera TV show.

The remaining suspects, four Korean nationals who boarded flights out of Kuala Lumpur International Airport, were also allowed to leave Malaysia in order to maintain relations with North Korea.

“The best the two suspects could have pleaded guilty for is involuntary manslaughter. Instead, they both walk off free,” Sung-Yoon Lee, the assistant professor at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, stated and added that someone should have been held culpable for the death of Kim Jong Nam.

#Corée #Vietnam #Malaisie #assassinat #espionnage

Thousands of Mexican Women March Against Femicide, Kidnapping | News | teleSUR English
▻https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Thousands-of-Mexican-Women-March-Against-Femicide-Kidnapping-2019020

https://www.telesurenglish.net/export/sites/telesur/img/2019/02/03/women_march_against_femicide_in_mexico_2.jpg_137329061.jpg

Published 3 February 2019 Mexican women took to the streets to protest against femicides which have already claimed 133 lives within the first month of 2019.

Thousands of Mexican women marched Saturday against femicides and attempted kidnappings. The protestors demanded President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) take appropriate measures for safeguarding women’s lives.

The demonstration ended at Zocalo Square in the center of Federal District of Mexico City (DF), the capital of the country. On the way to the main square, women also held a minute of silence for those who have been killed or reported missing.

Luchadoras, a feminist organization, wrote on Twitter, “We almost reached the zocalo! In January alone, 133 women have been killed. Today we march for our lives. If you see an attempted kidnapping, SPEAK UP! DON’T JUST TURN AWAY! #Thenightisours #Thestreetisoursandthenightalso #Thestreetisours.”

The demonstrations asked the president to be vocal about femicides in Mexico.

Recently a number of reports of attempted kidnapping of women in DF’s subway, the Metro, have been making rounds. These women are targeted by men outside or inside of stations who then try to get them into vehicles.

Claudia Sheinbaum, mayor of Mexico City, said that measures to combat the attackers and kidnappings are ongoing.

She is also meeting with the head of the Attorney General’s Office and the Metro to address the situation.

According to the United Nations, nine women are victims of femicide in Mexico every day, and six out of ten women face attacks and harrassment, mainly on public transport.

According to the data from the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Safety System, in December 2018, 74 femicides were registered in Mexico and 2018 saw the femicide of 861 women.

Miss Uruguay Beauty Queen Found Dead in Mexico City Hotel | News | teleSUR English
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Published 3 May 2019 Police are investigating all avenues of inquiry from suicide to murder.

Fatimih Davila Sosa, the former Miss Uruguay 2006, was found dead in a Mexico City hotel, police confirmed Friday to local news outlets as investigations ensue.

The 31-year-old was found dead Thursday morning, hanging from a bathroom shower faucet, the local prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

Davila moved to Mexico City on April 23, in pursuit of a job with a modeling agency in the country, El Universal reported.

In a conversation between Davila and an operation associate, the beauty queen asked how she could “make myself more well-known” since “nobody cares about the Miss Uruguay title,” said investigators, who wiretapped and recorded the exchange.

“An acquaintance helped her settle in the aforementioned hotel, since she would have a job interview,” said the Mexico City Attorney’s Office.

#Mexico #fémicide

Indonesia: Polish Tourist Sentenced to 5 Years for Treason | News | teleSUR English
▻https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Indonesia-Polish-Tourist-Sentenced-to-5-Years-for-Treason-20190503-0

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Published 3 May 2019 Authorities accused Skrzypski of collaborating with members of the West Papua National Committee (KNPB), a separatist organization which advocates for a non-violent approach to gain independence.

Polish tourist Jakub Skrzypski maintains his innocence as the first foreigner in Indonesia to be found guilty of treason and receive a sentence of five years in prison.

Skrzypski was arrested in Papua, which is located on the far east of Indonesia, in August of last year. The 39-year-old plans to appeal the sentence, saying he was a victim of a politically motivated “show trial. I didn’t have the opportunity to speak in my defense or to present any favorable evidence. I reject the trial as well as the verdict,” he told reporters.

Authorities accused Skrzypski of collaborating with members of the West Papua National Committee (KNPB), a separatist organization which advocates for a non-violent approach to gain independence. According to his lawyer, Latifah Anum Siregar, “he was a tourist and he was just visiting friends that he met over the internet and other people who he had been recommended to meet who turned out to be activists.”

Along with Skrzypski, student Simon Magal, the nephew of a prominent West Papua activist Yosepha Alomang was also held. Magal had been jailed previously for a campaign against the Freeport McMoran goldmine in the province.

While the organization is not outlawed in the country, public demonstrations in support of the movement are. It is also illegal to fly the Papua independence flag.

Siregar pointed out at the trial that the grounds for accusing her client of treason are unfounded because the KNPB was not registered or classified as banned. The KNBP is one of four separatist campaigns in the region.

Indonesian authorities also claim that Skrzypski attempted to arrange an arms deal for the group, but this accusation was not mentioned at the trial. According to Papua police spokesperson Suryadi Diaz, “he (Skrzypski) has been involved in buying ammunition for them.”

Skrzypski denies all accusations, saying that he does not “even know [the conflict in Papua] very well” and reiterated that the “trip wasn’t a clandestine one. I was visiting friends.”

The Indonesian military and police are documented as being suspicious of foreigners who communicate with Papuans. “The Skrzypski-Magal case is another example that the Indonesian government keeps blocking media access and deters independent reporting about Papua,” Indonesia’s representative for Human Rights Watch, Andreas Harsono, stated.

Despite the country promising to allow access to the media, the territory has remained restricted to international journalists.

#Indonésie #Pologne #tourisme #espionnage #trahison