South American Politics thread - Page 13

On April 27 2019 08:09 JimmiC wrote:
To bring this back to positives. Our initial argument was that I was buying right wing propaganda and things were actually very good in Venezuela and Maduro was successfully running the country. Now at least you realize that that was Maduro propaganda and he has run the country into the ground. So there is hope, that in time you will also realize that there is a possibility that Guaido is just a guy trying to save his country from a evil dictator.

On April 27 2019 10:01 JimmiC wrote:
I personally consider Mexico in North America but I wouldn't be upset if someone used this instead of creating a Mexican politics thread. So I guess anything South of the US would be fine.

Brazil must not become a 'gay tourism paradise', says Bolsonaro

Brazil’s far-right president, the self-declared homophobe Jair Bolsonaro, has been accused of inciting hatred towards LGBT people after declaring the South American country should not become a “gay tourism paradise”.

“If you want to come here and have sex with a woman, go for your life,” Bolsonaro reportedly told journalists in the capital, Brasília. “But we can’t let this place become known as a gay tourism paradise. Brazil can’t be a country of the gay world, of gay tourism. We have families,” Bolsonaro added, according to the Brazilian magazine Exame.

The comments – made during a breakfast meeting with Brazilian reporters – sparked an immediate reaction from LGBT campaigners.

“This is not a head of state – this is a national disgrace,” said David Miranda, a leftist congressman and LGBT activist. Miranda said the president’s remarks simultaneously endangered members of Brazil’s LGBT community by “putting a target on their backs” and promoted the sexual exploitation of Brazilian women.

“He is staining the image of our country in every imaginable way,” Miranda said.

Renan Quinalha, a São Paulo-based lawyer and LGBT activist, said: “It is a disastrous declaration, both from the human rights point of view and with regards to Brazil’s international image.”

He added that the comments “give a green light to already alarming levels of violence against the LGBT community” by suggesting that only heterosexual families were genuine families. “All this demonstrates is … something that he has made consistently clear over nearly 30 years of public life: that he is a homophobe,” Quinalha said.

Anti-government protests break out throughout Colombia; police brutality reported in Bogota

Largely peaceful demonstrations took place across Colombia, from cities to villages, with thousands taking to the streets for anti-government marches.

The protests were against President Ivan Duque‘s controversial National Development Plan (PND), and in defense of the country’s ongoing peace process, as well as railing against the high rates of murder of social leaders.

They come less than three weeks after nationwide indigenous protests that brought one of Colombia’s biggest highways to a total standstill for nearly a month.

Also on Thursday, indigenous peoples protested throughout the country to demand respect for their rights and government compliance to hundreds of broken agreements.

The urban demonstration has a particular focus on labor rights, such as pensions and job stability. Labor union CUT said the PND contains a number of articles which do not contribute to the welfare needs of the population, as well as threatening pensions.

The PND also introduces new structures of labor, including the possibility of hiring ‘by the hour,’ threatening health and pension benefits, as well as the right to minimum wage.

Teachers are a strong presence in the protest, with an estimated 300,000 teachers demonstrating nationwide. Teachers claim that the PND will privatize education and ignore the agreements reached previously. They also denounce the stigmatization of the teacher’s union which the current government has promoted.

Coffee-growers have also joined the protest, due to economic crisis in Colombia’s coffee regions. “We are facing a serious situation: a situation of hunger and poverty,” said Oscar Gutierrez, executive director of agricultural group Dignidad Agropecuaria.

Among other complaints are the Government’s refusal to continue peace talks with guerrilla group the ELN, the undue influence of the USA, denial of ongoing armed conflict and rights of victims of that conflict, and the growth of paramilitarism.

On April 27 2019 02:08 JimmiC wrote:
I dont support Guaido I support change the same way you apparently and gh dont support Maduro but do support the status quo.

The status quo is no running water, spottt electricity and we are talking about in the biggest cities. The status quo is no freedom, if you joke about Maduro on twitter you get arrested and tortured, if GH was living there and 1/8 as negative to that gov as he is to ours he would be in jail or worse. And their jails barely have enough space, food, clean water so on. If you dont support the government you dont get food. This is enforced by colictivos that will beat and even murder you they are empowered by Maduro and also run the local drug trade. If the people try to get aid they will be shot and killed. If the military personel dares to defy orders to beat or kill their own people the Cuban secret police will torture you and kill your family. And this is not getting into all the Gold stealing and corruption in the military encouranged by Maduro to ensure loyalty.

I will conceed Guaido could somehow be worse while he is interm president and sets up fair and free elections it is possible. But you calling him Hitler with zero evidence is not only unfair it is ignorant. Im also not exactly sure how it gets worse.

I also am not a fan of the US foriegn policy or government. But to favor the Russian and chinese ones you better not be Ukrainian, Chechen or Tibetan and also you better not be gay, or Muslim.

Sorry for being rude but when you say ignorat things aggresively and in a condescending fashion with little to no grip on what is going on it is hard to take.

Hard as it may be for followers of the U.S. media to believe, Venezuela is a country where people play sports, go to work, go to classes, go to the beach, go to restaurants and attend concerts. They publish and read newspapers of all political stripes, from right to center-right, to center, to center-left, to left. They produce and watch programs on television, on TV channels that are also of all political stripes.
...
The corporate media have continued to peddle the Trump-as-humanitarian-champion line, even after it was revealed that a U.S. plane was caught smuggling weapons into Venezuela, and even after Trump named Iran/Contra criminal Elliott Abrams to head up Venezuelan operations. Abrams was in charge of the State Department Human Rights Office during the 1980s, when weapons to US-backed terrorists in Nicaragua were shipped in U.S. planes disguised as “humanitarian” relief.
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This is not to minimize Venezuela’s problems. The country was hit, like other oil-producing countries, and as it was in the 1980s and ’90s, by the collapse of oil prices. That failed to bring down the government, so now the Trump administration has created an artificial crisis by using extreme economic warfare to deprive the country of foreign exchange needed to import basic necessities. The Trump measures seem designed to prevent any economic recovery.

Like any country at war (and the Trump administration has placed Venezuela under wartime conditions, and is threatening immediate invasion), there have been shortages, and products that can mostly be found on the black market. This should surprise no one: During World War II in the U.S., a cornucopia of a country not seriously threatened with invasion, there was strict rationing of products like sugar, coffee and rubber.

The pro-Maduro demonstration suggested, not surprisingly, that Guaidó had failed to win much popular support outside the wealthy and upper-middle class. But Guaidó couldn’t even win support from many of them. The day before rival rallies February 2, Henrique Capriles, the leader of a less extreme right-wing faction, gave an interview to the AFP that appeared in Últimas Noticias (2/1/19), the most widely read newspaper in Venezuela. In it, Capriles said that most of the opposition had not supported Guaidó’s self-proclamation as president. That may explain the surprisingly weak turnout at Guaidó’s demonstration, held in the wealthiest district of Caracas, and obviously outshone by the pro-government demonstration on the city’s main boulevard.

On April 28 2019 01:21 JimmiC wrote:



That is simply not true, you are just reading Maduro Propaganda he is able to get support from millions for protests, there is like 10 people left in the upper class that are not Maduro Cronies. Madruo has rallies, and if you want food you better go, it is silly to me that you believe this. Do you really think 3 million people left and they were all rich upper class people? Use some basic logic and problem solving when you read stuff it is really not hard. As I've said to GH go and talk to actual Venezuelan's and get back to me. There are tons of refugees every where because millions have left. It won't take long for you to figure out that they are not rich upper class people and that what you are reading is BS.

As for me, I know who I vote for, volunteer for, work at. I strongly suspect based on your world view you sit at home with great opinions and don't do much to actually help.

On April 28 2019 02:30 JimmiC wrote:
Yes, Maduros rich friends are not documented because all they money is from crime. And find people who don't support Maduro is easy so I don't doubt that you are right. If you are not getting rich off stealing from the people why would you like him?

I also enjoy how you and XMZ don't support Madruo, but spend a lot of time posting support of Maduro.

On April 28 2019 01:21 JimmiC wrote:



That is simply not true, you are just reading Maduro Propaganda he is able to get support from millions for protests, there is like 10 people left in the upper class that are not Maduro Cronies. Madruo has rallies, and if you want food you better go, it is silly to me that you believe this. Do you really think 3 million people left and they were all rich upper class people? Use some basic logic and problem solving when you read stuff it is really not hard. As I've said to GH go and talk to actual Venezuelan's and get back to me. There are tons of refugees every where because millions have left. It won't take long for you to figure out that they are not rich upper class people and that what you are reading is BS.

As for me, I know who I vote for, volunteer for, work at. I strongly suspect based on your world view you sit at home with great opinions and don't do much to actually help.

As many as 3.4 million Romanians have fled the country since it joined the European Union in 2007. The figure represents 17 per cent of the country’s total population. The exodus is unprecedented anywhere in Europe during peacetime. Over the same period, only war-torn Syria has seen a higher percentage of its citizens emigrate. The figures – estimates – were released at the end of February by the Immigrant Integration Research Centre at Move, an international conference discussing migration and the integration of migrants.

On April 28 2019 02:30 JimmiC wrote:
Yes, Maduros rich friends are not documented because all they money is from crime. And find people who don't support Maduro is easy so I don't doubt that you are right. If you are not getting rich off stealing from the people why would you like him?

I also enjoy how you and XMZ don't support Madruo, but spend a lot of time posting support of Maduro.

On April 28 2019 03:21 JimmiC wrote:


That Currently live in Venezuela or that were born there and live abroad. It is safe to safe everyone not living in Venezuela is anti Maduro. Pro US I have no idea but there you go again talking like Guaido is US and that is some sort of fact.

Come on man enough.

Pro US I have no idea but there you go again talking like Guaido is US and that is some sort of fact.

Are you curious to know about the Richie-rich dignitaries of the country? Well, the post here offers a short brief on the richest among the Venezuelan populace who are also some among the wealthiest in the world.

1. Gustavo Cisneros & Family - $3.6 Billion The 70-year-old business tycoon owns Cisneros Group, one of the biggest conglomerates having interests in the Venezuelan TV stations, real estate firm, telecom, regional brewery & baseball team. In 2015 January, Cisneros Media, a branch of the firm, partnered with Turner Broadcasting Systems’ Latin American part with the goal to pull in more number of female viewers.

2. Juan Carlos Escotet - $3.3 Billion He is the renowned founder of Banesco, his Caracas-based magnificent banking empire. In 2013, Juan acquired Spanish banking body Abanca. He has even got arms in Dominican Republic, Panama, Puerto Rico, United States and Colombia. Added to all these, the 56-year-old banking baron even owns his insurance company, Banesco Seguros. It operates in his homeland Venezuela.

3. Lorenzo Mendoza & Family - $2.7 Billion He runs the biggest food company in the whole of Venezuela- Empresas Polar. The company is famous for beer & basic food stuff such as condiments, flour, wine & tuna fish. Last year, the company halted pasta production for around 14 days. This is to note here that Polar backs Venezuela’s one of the largest charities Empresas Polar Foundation.The billionaires in Venezuela mostly run their businesses & share wealth with close family members.

On April 28 2019 03:48 JimmiC wrote:


It was more a tongue and cheek answer, obviously it was a loaded question by you. That is what you do, when you think you know everything about everything you don't ask real questions. It was disingenuous like most of your posting and brutally obvious.

Would you like a list of Billionare's that support Madruo? I'm not sure that it proves anything. It won't be hard there is a shit ton of Russian and Chinese Oligarchs making a killing. Not to mention the Billions of money in personal accounts of various Venezuelan socialist leaders and military officials. I'm sure that was just earned on their government salary..........


And again I thought you and XMZ were not pro Maduro why does this matter to you? Why do you have to create a Left vs Right war here. Maduro is not Left. Putin is not Left.

I mean if you want a war here its clearly Russia/China vs the states. Not Capitalism vs Socialism. Like how did we get back here it wasn't that long ago you were agreeing that Maduro was no Socialist.