América Latina & Caribe

Piñera introdujo a los venezolanos en las poblaciones

Tensions are at an unprecedented high between Ecuador and Mexico after Ecuatorian police literally broke into the mexican embassy violating the viena convention to arrest a political refugee, Jorge Glas, former Correa's VP, who is currrently undergoing a legal process in Ecuador after allegedly being involved in a chargeback scheme involving Odebrecht (though no evidence was ever produced for this claim, except a single testimony from Odebrecht's former CEO). The immediate backdrop for this, well, happening, is AMLO putting into question the legitimacy of Ecuador's upcoming general election in one of his daily briefings after a presidential candidate was fucking murdered and AMLO attempting to give asylum to Glas. This is nuts, international law doesn't exist anymore, it's a brand new world Israel has dragged everyone onto, and only might makes right. Maybe I'll put my ideas in order, I dunno. Happy Friday friends, take care.

Havana, March 30, 2024 – Artists and cartoonists carried out an urban intervention in the central Paseo Avenue of the Cuban capital, on the occasion of the Palestinian Land Day, that commemorates the first general strike against the theft of part of the Palestinian territory by the Zionist regime.

Now, 176 days after the unprecedented massacre in Gaza, world solidarity is increasingly necessary. The solidarity cannot slow down it needs to grow in many ways. This was the understanding of the renowned cartoonist Ares, National Humor Prize (Cuba 2020) and Grand Prix UYACC Anticoronavirus (China 2020), when he called others to join in on this collective mural.

read more: https://resumen-english.org/2024/03/cuban-artists-for-palestine-a-collective-mural-calls-for-neighborhood-reflection/

The Brazilian transition from the civil-military dictatorship to the New Republic in the 1990s could have been a period to revise the authoritarianism embedded in the country’s society since its formation. However, the authoritarian traits – boosted during the dictatorship – are legacies Brazil has to this day.

Behind these traits, there is a society and successive governments that refuse to come to terms with the past. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Workers’ Party) has recently said he cannot “always dwell” on the dictatorial past. The comment was in response to being asked about the cancellation of the ceremony to mark the 60th anniversary of the 1964 coup, planned for April 1st this year.

“What I cannot do is not move forward with [Brazil’s] history. I cannot always dwell on it, that is, it’s a part of Brazil’s history about what we still lack information about since there are still missing people, things to be investigated. But, honestly, I will not dwell on it. I’ll try to move this country forward,” said Lula in an interview with the Brazilian TV show É Notícia.

Ivo Lebauspin, who was arrested and tortured during the dictatorship, says “It’s an error not to elaborate on the dictatorship period. There is a narrative saying it’s better to reconcile with the past and forget what happened. That’s impossible to achieve without knowing what really happened.”

“Some people think that, in order to move forward with a political plan, it’s necessary to sweep [the dictatorship] under the carpet, put all this behind us, look ahead and make agreements. It was already done. It has been done for years. The dictatorship hasn’t been analyzed since its end [1985]. No trials, nothing,” he explained.

Lebauspin associates the military presence in the coup attempt to keep Jair Bolsonaro (Liberal Party) in the presidency as a remnant of the military intervention. “It has everything to do with not remembering the dictatorship and not bringing it to justice. In Germany, there is a monumental effort to constantly remember what happened. There are Holocaust museums in various places, and people know what happened. There was a trial, facts were analyzed and judged. There was no such thing here.”

Similarly, Daniel Aarão Reis Filho, a professor in the History Department at Fluminense Federal University (UFF, in Portuguese), says that he remembers “leaders of progressive parties, like Tancredo Neves in 1985, calling on people not to look in the rear-view mirror, but to look ahead and not dwell on the wounds.” That shows that Brazil “paid little attention to reflecting on the state structure set up during the dictatorship and its policies.”

read more: https://resumen-english.org/2024/04/60-years-later-brazil-has-not-come-to-terms-with-the-legacy-of-the-dictatorship/

Last week, a federal judge in Arizona ruled that the Mexican government can move forward in its potentially history-making lawsuit against five Arizona gun dealers, four of which are located in the borderlands.

It’s the second lawsuit filed by the Mexican government to curb the illegal trafficking of U.S. weapons, which contribute to tens of thousands of deaths every year as organized crime claims more territory in Mexico. The first lawsuit, against gun manufacturers, was filed in Massachusetts in August 2021 and dismissed by a U.S. district court, citing a legal technicality. In February, however, it was revived by a U.S. federal appeals court.

Now both lawsuits can move forward, and other countries, no doubt, are watching to see what happens next in Mexico’s historic bid to stop the illegal flow of guns from the United States. U.S. Attorney Jonathan Lowy, who is representing Mexico in this trailblazing case, says a win for Mexico could be an even bigger win for the United States, which has been unable to curb its own gun violence and is “the only country in the world,” he says, “where there are more guns than people.”

Before founding the nonprofit Global Action on Gun Violence in 2022, Lowy spent 25 years at the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, named after James Brady, the former White House press secretary who was shot during an assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan.

At the Brady Center, Lowy spent decades trying to stem the tide of guns by suing gun manufacturers on behalf of America’s largest cities. Frustrated by the industry’s hold over U.S. politics, he decided to take his fight to the global community and exert pressure from the outside. Lowy also has a case before the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights, on behalf of the Oliver family, whose son, Joaquin, was murdered in the 2018 Parkland, Florida, school massacre. In the human rights case, Lowy argues for the constitutional “right not to be shot.” In this Q&A, Lowy discusses Mexico’s historic legal battle and his lifelong efforts to reduce gun violence in the United States.

read more: https://www.theborderchronicle.com/p/meet-the-us-lawyer-representing-mexico

• The Brazilian Congress is analyzing a bill that would leave all the country’s non-forestry vegetation unprotected, affecting an area twice the size of the United Kingdom.
• Behind the proposal are the interests of economic sectors such as agribusiness and real estate companies.
• The most affected biome would be the Pantanal wetlands, a Natural World Heritage Site known for its highly biodiverse grasslands and flooded fields.

A bill framed to benefit a particular group of rural producers was morphed into a drastic change to the Brazilian Forest Code with the potential of destroying 48 million hectares (118.6 million acres) — an area twice the size of the United Kingdom — of native vegetation all over the country. If approved, the legislation (called PL 364/2019) will allow the conversion of all non-forestry areas for activities such as agriculture, cattle ranching and tree plantations.

The bill, approved March 20 by a lower house commission, was initially proposed in 2019 by the ruralist federal deputy Alceu Moreira (MDB). It was framed to benefit farmers from a specific region of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil’s southernmost state, who occupy mountaintop fields of the Atlantic Forest and want the region to be excluded from the more restricted environmental framework of the Atlantic Forest Law.

But the supercharged ruralist caucus, which has been piling up victories during President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s administration, managed to twist the bill so that all “formations of predominantly non-forest native vegetation” would be considered areas of “human occupation” and therefore, open to exploitation. The only requirement is that the land had been used for any rural activity at some point before July 2008.

According to the federal deputy who proposed the change, José Mário Schreiner (MDB), the measure would “standardize understandings and avoid misinterpretations, providing legal certainty and peace of mind for producers.”

The strategy of introducing controversial legislative changes into somewhat-related bills is so common in Brazil that it even has a name: jabuticaba, a native Brazil blackberry.

full article

Walter Rodney, born in Guyana on 22nd of march in 1942, Pan-African, Marxist intellectual who was assassinated by the Guyanese government in 1980 at 38 years old.

Rodney attended the University College of the West Indies in 1960 and was awarded a first class honors degree in History in 1963. He later earned a PhD in African History in 1966 at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, England, at the age of 24.

Rodney traveled extensively and became well-known as an activist, scholar, and formidable orator. He taught at the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania from 1966-67 and 1969-1974, and in 1968 at his alma mater University of the West Indies.

On October 15th, 1968, the government of Jamaica declared Rodney a "persona non grata" and banned him from the country. Following his dismissal by the University of the West Indies, students and poor people in West Kingston protested, leading to the "Rodney Riots", which caused six deaths and millions of dollars in damages.

In 1972, Rodney published "How Europe Underdeveloped Africa". Historian Melissa Turner describes the work this way: "A brutal critique of long-standing and persistent exploitation of Africa by Western powers, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa remains a powerful, popular, and controversial work in which Rodney argued that the early period of African contact with Europe, including the slave trade, sowed the seeds for continued African economic underdevelopment and had dramatically negative social and political consequences as well. He argued that, while the roots of Africa’s ailments rested with intentional underdevelopment and exploitation under European capitalist and colonial systems, the only way for true liberation to take place was for Africans to become cognizant of their own complicity in this exploitation and to take back the power they gave up to the exploiters."

On June 13th, 1980, Rodney was killed in Georgetown, Guyana via a bomb given to him by Gregory Smith, a sergeant in the Guyana Defence Force, one month after returning Zimbabwe. In 2015, a "Commission of Inquiry" in Guyana that the country's then president, Linden Forbes Burnham, was complicit in his murder.

"If there is to be any proving of our humanity it must be through revolutionary means."

• Walter Rodney

• How Europe Underdeveloped Africa

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the federal police recovered files called "Bolsonaro'sCertificate.doc" and "Laura'sCertificate.doc" and on a deposition that led to this discovery it seems it was so they could go to the us, when you guys were asking for that stuff for entry, which would be a bunch of crimes, from using public privelleged position in an public institution to commit crimes from good old falsifying documents

troops (maybe)

In a platitude-ridden joint statement, the sides said that they had cemented a process of joint collaboration in the exchange of information and management of the waterway:

“Our countries recognize the shared goals of ensuring efficient and transparent waterway port operations amid evolving environmental dynamics, including the realities of climate change and the need for enhanced security measures to combat illicit activities in waterway operations.”

Most importantly, the agreement allows for US military presence along the length and breadth of Argentina’s most important river route, upon which roughly 80% of all its agricultural exports, including grains and oils, travel.

...drug stuff

“We are going to ask the justice system for exceptional measures,” Bullrich said, “to meet the imposing challenges we face, to work against terrorist narco-criminals.”

After meeting with the Salvadorian president at a summit in Washington in February, Bullrich said the Milei government “is interested in adapting Nayib Bukele’s model,” which for the past few years has returned some sense of order to El Salavador’s streets. But in a telephone call with Bullrich last week, Bukele’s security minister, Gustavo Villatoro, warned that they are applying the model the wrong way round.

....about economy

Even the US economist Steve Hanke, an early supporter of Milei’s campaign and firm proponent of dollarisation of the Argentine economy, has described Milei’s policies as “financial engineering, kicking the can down the road and trying to put in place what really is just a plain vanilla standard IMF [International Monetary Fund] program.” On steroids. These programs, he said, “just don’t work and have a history of not working.” Which is true. Not only that, they also have a habit of visiting untold economic pain and destruction on the country’s poorer and middle classes.

Just as in 2001-02, public anger and desperation are rapidly rising in Argentina as economic conditions deteriorate. That anger could explode at any time. Which is why the government’s decision to adopt such a hardline security protocol so early into its mandate is so ominous. As the article in La Jornada notes, the term “terrorism” can, and often is, used to justify political and social repression, whether against political protestors, striking workers or indigenous Mapuche groups claiming historic land rights in Patagonia. No less ominous is the government’s decision to invite the US armed forces in to help manage Argentina’s busiest waterway.

On the 13th of March in 1979, the People's Revolutionary Government (PRG) was proclaimed in Grenada after the Marxist-Leninist New Jewel Movement overthrew the state in a socialist revolution, with Maurice Bishop serving as Prime Minister.

After coming into power, Bishop stated the goals of the NJM: "We definitely have a stake in seeking the creation of a new international economic order which would assist in ensuring economic justice for the oppressed and exploited peoples of the world, and in ensuring that the resources of the sea are used for the benefit of all the people of the world and not for a tiny minority of profiteers".

The new government developed an ambitious social program, initiating a literacy campaign, expanding education programs, worker protections, and establishing farmers' cooperatives.

During the PRG's reign, unemployment was reduced from 49% to 14%, the ratio of doctors per person increased from 1/4000 to 1/3,000, the infant mortality rate was reduced, and the literacy rate increased from 85% to 90%. In addition, laws guaranteeing equal pay for equal work for women were passed, and mothers were guaranteed three months' maternity leave.

The government suspended the constitution of the previous regime, ruling by decree until a factional conflict broke out, ultimately leading to Maurice Bishop's assassination. President Ronald Reagan launched an invasion of Grenada a few weeks later, on October 25th, 1983.

"We have attempted to show in this Manifesto what is possible. We have demonstrated beyond doubt that there is no reason why we should continue to live in such poverty, misery, suffering, dependence and exploitation...The new society must not only speak of Democracy, but must practise it in all its aspects. We must stress the policy of 'Self-Reliance' and 'Self-Sufficiency' undertaken co-operatively, and reject the easy approaches offered by aid and foreign assistance. We will have to recognise that our most important resource is our people."

• Manifesto of the New Jewel Movement (1973)

• Grenada’s Revolution History :hammer-sickle:

• Grenada: The Future Coming Towards Us (1983) :red-fist:

• Maurice Bishop Speech – In Nobody’s Backyard (13 April 1979)

Megathreads and spaces to hang out:

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Theory:

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Milei's sister ~~and alleged lover~~ used this March 8th day to rename the "Prominent Ladies Room" in Casa Rosada (argie white house) citing "discrimination against men".

That room hosted paintings and memorabilia of important women in argie history. Now the room os called "Historic Heroes Room" and will host paintings and stuff from both sexes.

wouldn't call it more polarized than ever (jacobin cmon), but seems like a not good situation tbh.

Our research on children migrating from the United States to Mexico began 25 years ago in the state of Georgia. There, we were observing the integration of Mexican-origin families and their children into local communities and school districts. As part of our fieldwork, we talked with school principals about these children. And they would often respond: “those students disappear.”

Where did these children go? Seven years later, we continued our research in schools in Mexico — and the “disappeared” children reappeared. Children who had lived in California, Colorado, Florida, Minnesota, Oklahoma, North Dakota, South Carolina, Alabama, Illinois, Ohio, Washington, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Nebraska, Georgia, Indiana, Texas, Tennessee, Oregon, Kentucky, New York, and Massachusetts were found in schools in Nuevo León in 2004; then many more in Zacatecas (2005), in the state of Puebla (2009), in Jalisco (2010), and in the state of Morelos (2013).

A significant percentage of these children were born in the United States. The rest were born in Mexico, migrated to the United States, and then returned while still school age. They are all international migrants. Many underwent an atypical relocation, from a historically migrant-receiving country (United States) to a traditionally migrant-sending country (Mexico). The others, those born in Mexico, are return migrants.

read more: https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/02/28/the-untold-story-of-children-moving-from-the-united-states-to-mexico/

Cuban-American writer and organizer will be interviewed by The Indy’s Editor-in-Chief John Tarleton on Tuesday, March 5 starting at 7 p.m.

Cuban-American writer Danny Valdes penned an epic cover article for the February Indypendent about returning to his homeland for the first time. Traveling as a member of an international delegation, Valdes, a socialist organizer, had access to top Cuban leaders as well doctors, educators, community leaders and others doing the day-to-day work of building and sustaining a socialist system.

“What I … saw in Cuba,” Valdes writes, “was a vibrant culture of solidarity, a people of incredible warmth and resilience, a government that was trying and failing in significant ways to cope with modern realities, and yet a government that was trying.”

For Valdes, the journey was also deeply personal as he sought to reconnect with and understand the history of family members who had been persecuted by the Cuban government and fled to Miami more than a half-century earlier.

On Tuesday March 5, we’ll host a Zoom discussion with Danny and learn more about what he saw and what the future may hold for the Western Hemisphere’s only socialist state. He will be interviewed by Indypendent Editor-in-Chief John Tarleton and take audience questions. This wide-ranging interview will offer a window not only into contemporary Cuba, but will invite us to reflect more deeply on the joys and the challenges of joining up with others to create a more just society, the personal sacrifices that political movements require and to what extent ends can justify means.

To register, click here. We will send you the Zoom link when we get closer to the event.

link: https://indypendent.org/2024/02/indy-to-host-cuba-conversation-with-danny-valdes-on-tuesday-march-5/

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