South American Politics thread - Page 31

...after international observers found multiple signs of fraud in the election, the electoral tribunal controlled by Hernández's party declared him the victor.

Since then, the U.S. has given more than $111 million in security assistance to Honduras's military and police, even after the Honduran government was implicated in massive corruption scandals and high-profile political assassinations.

That pattern is now repeating itself: Even after most of Latin America and the international community condemned last year's elections as suspect, the U.S. endorsed Hernández's victory, cementing his and the National Party's increasingly comprehensive grip on power.

Carvalho, 72, a self-styled philosopher living in a self-imposed exile in the United States, is credited by supporters and critics alike for providing the intellectual spark that ignited the rapid rise of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro — the newest member in a global cadre of right-wing populists, from Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Hungary’s Viktor Orban to the Philippines’ Rodrigo Duterte to President Trump.

“We couldn’t have won the election without Olavo,” Bolsonaro’s son Eduardo said in March. “Without Olavo, there would be no President Bolsonaro.”

Bolsonaro displayed one of Carvalho’s books during his election night victory speech. He followed his counsel when he appointed two little-known but ultraconservative candidates recommended by Carvalho to be his ministers of education and foreign affairs. He sat beside Carvalho at an official dinner at the Brazilian Embassy in Washington. And in May, he awarded him with one of Brazil’s highest distinctions, alongside the country’s vice president and justice minister.

Eighty thousand public school educators in Chile are out on an indefinite strike. Their target is the country’s neoliberal education system — a cruel legacy of the Pinochet dictatorship that overthrew Salvador Allende.

Six weeks ago, the president of the Colegio de Profesores de Chile (CPC) announced an indefinite strike after the government “shut the door” on negotiations over demands to end the precarious working and learning conditions in the country’s public schools. [1] The union, which represents all of Chile’s public school educators, estimates that more than eighty thousand teachers have adhered to the strike. [2]

Since then, the CPC has called for a series of mass demonstrations that have mobilized hundreds of thousands of students, teachers, and workers to Chile’s streets. As protests escalate, and 1 million students continue to be outside of class, history appears to be repeating itself for conservative president Sebastián Piñera’s administration, which entered a crisis of legitimacy during his first government in 2010, also as a result of student and teacher unrest.

17,000 workers who walked off the job last week amid a major push by the global retail giant to automate jobs and slash costs.

The walkout has closed at least one fourth of the approximately 400 stores that Walmart Inc (WMT.N) operates in Chile. Striking workers carrying protest signs have blocked access to many stores around Santiago.

The company said in a statement that it hoped to continue with constructive dialogue but said it also worried about “the illegal blockades of outlets that have occurred throughout the strike.”

Lider’s Inter-Company Union (SIL) could not immediately be reached for comment.

On July 16 2019 01:40 GreenHorizons wrote:
Massive protests of neoliberal efforts continue in Chile



jacobinmag.com

Besides teachers and students, thousands of workers are protesting Walmart's efforts to keep wages down and increase automation. As a result of their direct action Walmart has just recently announced they will return to the negotiating table.



www.reuters.com

Colombia’s government is preparing a decree that would restrict the right to hold political rallies or protests, according to newspaper El Tiempo.

The newspaper received a draft decree from the Ministry of the Interior that would allow the government of President Ivan Duque to decide when political rallies and protests are allowed and when not.

The right to assemble in public is a constitutional right that currently can only be restricted by local governments in cases of an emergency or on election days.

The Duque administration wants to restrict this right further and be able to ban political manifestations whenever it pleases, according to El Tiempo.

According to the director of electoral observation organization MOE, Alejandro Barrios, the decree would allow the government to ban political campaigning events and legitimate public protests.

The discretion that the Government may have when deciding which days these events are forbidden generates greater incentives to limit — with political motives — not only the carrying out of campaign activities, but also spontaneous and legitimate demonstrations by citizens.

Workers, peasants and youth in Ecuador began a five-day strike Monday against the draconian policies of the Lenín Moreno administration, which is seeking to strengthen its ties to Washington and its military-intelligence apparatus.

The strike constitutes the first major industrial action in the world demanding the freedom of Julian Assange. The demand is presented in the framework of growing opposition to the attacks against social and democratic rights associated with the Moreno administration’s totally servile policy toward US imperialism.

While the corporate media outlets and the organizers themselves have sought to bury the issue during the strike itself, one of the few specific issues that the official call for the strike protests is the “rendition of WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, to the United States, placing his life in danger.”

This refers to the withdrawal of Assange’s asylum at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he was seeking refuge from US efforts to capture him and process him under espionage charges potentially carrying the death penalty, for publishing hundreds of thousands of diplomatic cables and other files exposing US and NATO war crimes, mass spying and diplomatic conspiracies around the world.

As millions of workers enter into the class struggle globally to oppose deepened social austerity, attacks on living standards, imperialist wars and the move toward dictatorship, the banner and example being raised by Ecuadorian workers for the liberation of the persecuted journalist needs to be embraced by every fight for social equality and against imperialism.

Beyond the immediate treachery of the Ecuadorian ruling class, the persecution of Assange and whistleblower Chelsea Manning is a crucial battle for workers as Washington and its partners use their vengeful campaign as a spearhead to silence all opposition and future exposures of war crimes, mass repression and dictatorship in every continent—imperialism’s only response to the deepening crisis of global capitalism.

The organizers of the strike include the Peasants National Movement (FECAOL), the main Workers Union Federation (FUT), dozens of activist organizations grouped in the National Citizens’ Assembly (ANC), and Social Compromise, the new party of ex-president Rafael Correa. They claim this is the broadest strike in 14 years.

On July 20 2019 09:10 GreenHorizons wrote:
Columbia's right wing US supported government is reportedly trying to supersede the constitution and dictate who, when, and where people are allowed to protest him/his government or potentially just organize politically.



colombiareports.com

On August 07 2019 02:52 RvB wrote:
At this point I doubt it matters. The economy has completely collapsed and it will require reforms and effort this Venezuelan government is incapable to provide.