On March 13 2021 01:32 Simberto wrote: One of the few things i can think about which have some small effect would be personal sanctions on top officials and their families. No longer being able to send your children to western universities is something that actually touches them. Not being able to invest their ill-gotten gains in a lot of countries is also something which annoys them. Not a huge thing, but if you want any effects, you need to do something that hurts or inconveniences the people making the decisions, not the people who have no choice anyways.
Good point. I know the US has been constantly upping that list, and it is a great way to target those causing the problems and does not create additional suffering for the people. Increase the list and more countries should do it! (maybe they are I just only hear about the US).
Why did they resign, that just allows for a greater possibility of something very bad from happening.
Jair Bolsonaro’s crisis-stricken administration has been rocked by the sudden sacking of Brazil’s defence minister and the subsequent resignation of the heads of all three branches of the armed forces.
The commanders of the Brazilian army, navy and air force – Gen Edson Leal Pujol, Adm Ilques Barbosa and Lt-Brig Antônio Carlos Bermudez – met with the president’s new minister on Tuesday morning and reportedly tendered their resignations during a dramatic and heated encounter. On Tuesday afternoon the defence ministry confirmed all three would be replaced, a political earthquake that rattled a country already grappling with one of the world’s worst coronavirus outbreaks.
The Folha de São Paulo newspaper said that never before in Brazilian history had the heads of all three branches of the military resigned out of disagreement with a president.
The historic upheaval, which left many Brazilians on edge, came after Brazil’s far-right president fired defence minister Gen Fernando Azevedo e Silva on Monday during what one media report called a chilly three-minute encounter. “I need your job,” Bolsonaro told the General, a longstanding friend, according to the Estado de São Paulo newspaper.
Eliane Cantanhêde, a prominent journalist for that broadsheet in the capital Brasília, claimed Gen Azevedo e Silva had left government after making it clear to the president – a former army captain who is notorious for his praise of authoritarians – that the armed forces owed loyalty to the constitution and were not Bolsonaro’s personal force.
Bolsonaro had reportedly been demanding the removal of Gen Pujol, who, to the president’s apparent consternation, has publicly rejected the politicization of Brazil’s military and pushed for tougher restrictions against Covid, which has killed more than 314,000 Brazilians. Earlier this month Bolsonaro – whose handling of the pandemic and opposition to lockdown have been internationally condemned – sparked outrage by issuing a veiled threat to declare a “state of siege”.
Cantanhêde said: “General Fernando’s exit shows us that there is a significant wing of the armed forces – in the army, navy and air force – who do not accept authoritarianism, coups and the violation of the constitution. Bolsonaro wants everyone to be his vassal and to do whatever he commands … and many people within [the armed forces] are now saying: ‘No, Sir, actually we won’t.’
“This is extremely important because it shows there is resistance in the armed forces to any kind of coup-mongering project ... [and] Bolsonaro’s authoritarian project,” Cantanhêde claimed.
Thomas Traumann, a Rio-based political observer and former social communication minister, described the shock developments – which came during a sweeping cabinet reshuffle – as “really historic”. The last time he could remember an army chief being removed in such unusual circumstances was in 1977 when the hardline general Sílvio Frota was sacked after trying to unseat Brazil’s then dictator Ernesto Geisel, one of the military rulers who governed the South American country between 1964 and 1985.
Traumann said: “Changing the army commander in a country like Brazil – and during an administration like Bolsonaro’s – isn’t business as usual. This is genuinely serious stuff because you are literally putting one of Bolsonaro’s people in charge of the army in an administration that threatens [military] interventions – even if we don’t know how much of that is for real and how much just to fire up his political base.”
“So far this has just been rhetoric. But if you change the commander of the army that’s one step closer to making it a reality,” Traumann added. “I know several generals and brigadiers and they are very alarmed.”
Bolsonaro, a career politician who swept to power in October 2018 on a fake-news-fuelled wave of anti-establishment rage, is a notorious admirer of Latin American autocrats and has publicly praised the former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet as well as the generals who ruled Brazil when he was a paratrooper in the late 1970s. He has repeatedly named his favourite book as a tome by Col Carlos Alberto Brilhante Ustra, a dictatorship-era torturer accused of overseeing torture sessions during which victims were electrocuted and thrashed with canes. During a series of anti-democratic protests last year Brazil’s democratically-elected leader egged on flag-waving radicals demanding a return to military rule. His politician son, Eduardo, who is Steve Bannon’s representative in South America, last year warned Brazil faced an “institutional rupture”.
Traumann said he saw no immediate chance of a break with democracy or coup attempt because of this week’s turbulence but feared Bolsonaro – who is facing growing political pressure over his catastrophic Covid response – was seeking to install more pliable military leaders in case his bid to secure a second presidential term in 2022 failed.
“In my head at least, the biggest institutional risk is having a 6 January,” Traumann said, in reference to the storming of the US Capitol by mobs who supported Bolsonaro’s political idol Donald Trump.
“If Bolsonaro loses the election and challenges the result, how are the armed forces going to respond? For me this is the key question.”
Bolsonaro’s chances of re-election suffered a major blow this month after his nemesis, the former left-wing president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, was freed up to challenge him after the surprise decision to quash the corruption convictions against him. “Lula’s return to politics changes everything,” said his former foreign minister, Celso Amorim. Many now expect Lula to run against Bolsonaro in 2022.
“We’re living between these two worlds. A certain light at the end of the tunnel from the political point of view and utter darkness from the health point of view, from the point of view of life,” Amorim said.
Cantanhêde said Bolsonaro’s high-risk gambit to shore up military support – which risks angering key figures within the armed forces – spoke to an increasingly desperate president who was haemorrhaging support, including among Brazil’s economic elite, thanks to his “horrific” reaction to Covid. Polls suggest Bolsonaro still enjoys the support of about 30% of the population but is considered the chief culprit for Brazil’s Covid calamity by 43% of citizens and rejected by almost half the country. “He is weak,” Cantanhêde claimed. “He is cornered.”
Just bumping this to comment that I guess the world will wake up in the morning and expect to see Brazil sliding back into a dictatorship/autocratic regime...?
Brazil's far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, is backing a coup in his country apparently modeled on the January 6 storming of the US Capitol, a group of former world leaders have warned.
Bolsonaro supporters have carried out a number of protests against Brazil's s congress and supreme court in recent weeks, and are planning fresh new ones across the country on Tuesday.
Bolsonaro has long criticized Brazil's constitution, saying it is "communist" and that it limits presidents' powers. More recently, he has attacked the Supreme Court after it greenlit an investigation into his unsubstantiated claim that Brazil's electronic voting system is vulnerable to fraud.
The claim came as the country prepares for general elections in October 2022, where he is up for reelection. Critics already fear Bolsonaro will use all means possible to hang onto power should he lose.
Now his Health Minister has contracted Covid, not good.
Brazil’s unvaccinated President Jair Bolsonaro was spotted this weekend eating pizza on a sidewalk in New York City, where tourists and residents who are unvaccinated for the coronavirus are barred from eating indoors.
Bolsonaro, who traveled to New York ahead of the UN General Assembly, was pictured with several other members of his delegation in an Instagram post Monday by Gilson Machado Neto, Brazil’s minister for tourism. The photo was captioned “Let’s go for pizza with Coca Cola.”
The Brazilian president is the only G20 leader who has not been vaccinated for the coronavirus and has repeatedly defended his decision, citing his battle with COVID-19 last year.
the courts continue to rule against Maduro getting access to the Venezelan gold which is great news since he is more or less just the head of a cartel at this point and none of it would make it to the people. I have no idea how they are ever going to unseat him but at least if they do they will have some money to rebuild some of his grift.
And to the people who were condescending, mad and supporters of his "socialist" regime using the grayzone as your source of truth, that is not aging well at all! You were drinking down that Russian propaganda, like I was saying you were. Strangely it won't change your opinions, because confirmation bias is a hell of a drug, but it should.
On August 18 2022 05:14 JimmiC wrote: I think that is a really big deal, it will make it very hard for Russia to pretend like the war is not going on. It will greatly impact their middle and upper class. I hope all the countries agree, the more pressure on Putin the better.
Another fun action would be to massively simplify immigration from Russia to EU, increasing brain drain. Runs some risk with spies and saboteurs but seems worthwhile.
It might be difficult to get rid of those elements anyway, I think you would get mostly reasonable people that want out from under the dictatorship.
I find it interesting that "the grayzone" has gone full Russian propaganda. It was not that long ago that it was cited on this site in various pol threads as a independent news source that was cutting through the capitalist propaganda. Now its just straight up trying to pump up the wagner group and getting them bombed!
It was always a RU info op. Same people, same funding.
***
I'm watching for signs of RU abandoning Crimean airbases. The added travel time would provide a major advantage for the Kherson counteroffensive.
Heres a small sampling but a ton of other opinions written were informed by that site. Might be time to reassess a whole bunch of base assumptions and also where you get your information from. It being anti American does not make something true.
On April 15 2019 06:24 JimmiC wrote: It was not sudden and it was constitutional if you believe that Maduro election was fraudulent. This is a factual statement you can't argue with. Under these circumstances as the leader of the house he had every right.
Now you can argue that it was not fraudulent and that is fine, I would disagree for many reasons. But calling it a coup when it is nothing like a coup is ignorant gas lighting and this is clear at this point.
The WSJ, Award winning journalists at GrayZone, and myself (among many others) all leaning on the reporting of the facts on the ground conclude it was sudden and that "coup" (though perhaps at this point "failed coup" is more accurate) is a fair an accurate term.
On the other side of this argument I'm seeing... you?
Columbia is taking a step towards ending the war on drugs with legalizing recreational pot. They believe it is time to regulate and bring the industry above board instead of go with the failing prohibition that has only managed to make organized crime rich and powerful.
It is time to accept that the war on drugs has been a complete failure," Colombian President Gustavo Petro announced during his inauguration festivities earlier this month, commenting on a bill his administration recently presented to legalize recreational marijuana to Congress.
"We will never achieve peace in Colombia until we regulate drug trafficking," said Senator Gustavo Bolivar, one of the signatories of the new bill and a close ally of the new president. "Not even the United States, with all their might and money, could win the war on drugs... Right now, Colombia produces more drugs than when Pablo Escobar was alive, there are more consumers, more farmers. The drug trade is growing despite the money we invest in fighting it, and the thousands of deaths we suffer," said Bolivar, who recently traveled to Colorado for a firsthand look at the economic benefits of legalizing weed.
Bolivar, the senator, believes the Colombian regulatory system will, eventually, follow the same path by legalizing not only marijuana but even cocaine -- the most lucrative source of income for the cartels.
Legalizing cocaine is a much further step than legalizing pot. Making it much easier for your country to traffic in drugs that are banned in other countries is bad for foreign policy.
If you look at the deathcount and other general harm of keeping it illegal has on many countries, I feel like "bad foreign policy" isn't enough to justify keeping it illegal.
Both are right. Columbia is going to move slow because of foriergn pressure but they should move forward because prohibition has done such incredible harm to them and sll of South America.
Cristina Kirchner was almost assassinated tonight, the suspects gun failed to fire. Apparently he is a 35 year old Brazilian.
AP now reporting:
BUENOS AIRES (AP) — One man was detained Thursday night after he reportedly aimed a handgun at point-blank range toward Argentine Vice President Cristina Fernández.
Video from the scene broadcast on local television channels shows Fernández exiting her vehicle surrounded by supporters outside her home when a man can be seen extending his hand with what looks like a pistol and the vice president ducks.
The supporters surrounding the person appear shocked at what is happening amid the commotion in the Recoleta neighborhood of Argentina’s capital.
“A person who was identified by those who were close to him who had a gun was detained by (the vice president’s) security personnel. They set him aside, found the weapon, and now it must be analyzed,” Security Minister Aníbal Fernández told local cable news channel C5N.
The minister said he wanted to be careful in providing details until the investigation learns more. There was no official comment on whether the gun was real.
Unverified video posted on social media shows the pistol almost touched Fernández’s face.
Chileans gonna vote on a new constitution on Sunday, and it's probably the most important vote in their recent history. It's interesting though how near universal support for a new constitution (almost 80% in the 2020 referendum) has deteriorated after the drafting process went through, to the point that polls indicate that the new constitution will be rejected (though there is a large ammount of people undecided, so it's still up in the air).
I wonder why that is, though. Was the drafting process ultimately flawed? Despite being elected democratically, did the representatives doing the drafting lose their legitimacy or not act according to their constituent's expectations? Is the popular perception for a need for change much different than it was 2 years ago?
Chileans gonna vote on a new constitution on Sunday, and it's probably the most important vote in their recent history. It's interesting though how near universal support for a new constitution (almost 80% in the 2020 referendum) has deteriorated after the drafting process went through, to the point that polls indicate that the new constitution will be rejected (though there is a large ammount of people undecided, so it's still up in the air).
I wonder why that is, though. Was the drafting process ultimately flawed? Despite being elected democratically, did the representatives doing the drafting lose their legitimacy or not act according to their constituent's expectations? Is the popular perception for a need for change much different than it was 2 years ago?
Any chileans here to share their opinions?
Hi, happy to chime in. I'm a right wing conservative and will be voting "reject" so take what I say with a grain of salt.
1) The drafting process was somewhat flawed, they added special voting for "indigenous people" in a somewhat convoluted way that ended with an over representation of the extreme left in the convention, and the proposed draft as a result.
2) The constituents did not meet expectations, both personally and politically. Most notably, a guy run on that he was dying because he couldn't afford his cancer treatment, and he was turned into a big icon, luckily some real journalist looked into it, and after confronting him on an interview, the guy confessed he didn't have cancer lmao. I think that's when a large portion of the population thought "maybe this is/was all a scam". At first they said the would change the flag, refused to play the national anthem on the opening of the convention, and many other instances that made the constitution look horrible and un patriotic. The constitution itself has a very questionable political system, abolishing the senate and eliminating high quorums for important laws, creating a very unstable political system. In addition it creates "indigenous tribunals" without saying clearly what authority they have and who will the rule on, creating a further future shit show. On the other hand it promises a lot of "rights" in education, health, retirement and others, however it doesn't say HOW those will happen; to me it's just the usual empty promises of dictators.
3) This is entirely my impression, but Chile had a growing economy (though less than before) and was a VERY safe country. Since 2019 homicides have almost doubled, inflation is over 2 digits for the first time in 30 years and in general many people have a feeling of "maybe everything wasn't so bad and we screwed it".
That being said, the overwhelming majority at the moment supports a new constitution, just not this one. Hoping we can reject and have a new one.
Not really much tbh, at least from what I've seen. At the end of the day, most brazillians trust the voting process, and despite his fanatical followers, I don't think he's capable of executing some kind of coup If he loses.
Plus, it's only the first round. Chances are we'll have a bolso vs lula second round