South America Watch Thread

[caltrek]

This was originally posted in the Africa News and Discussion thread. As one alert reader (Powers) pointed out, Guyana is located in (Latin) America, so I am reposting the article here.

Fire razes school dormitory in Guyana, killing at least 19 children, many of them Indigenous
Source: AP

By BERT WILKINSON an hour ago

GEORGETOWN, Guyana (AP) — A nighttime fire raced through a dormitory in Guyana early Monday, killing at least 19 students and injuring several others at a boarding school catering to remote, mostly Indigenous villages, authorities said.

“This is a horrific incident. It’s tragic. It’s painful,” President Irfaan Ali said, adding that his government was mobilizing all possible resources to care for the children.

The fire broke out shortly before midnight in the dormitory building of a secondary school in the southwestern border town of Mahdia, a gold and diamond mining community about 200 miles (320 kilometers) south of the capital, Georgetown, the government said in a statement.

Officials initially said 20 students were killed but later updated the toll to 19, with several others injured. National Security Adviser Gerald Gouveia said the figure was revised after doctors revived a very critical patient that “everyone thought was dead.”

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/guyana-fire- ... fcac893e33

[caltrek]

Tourism-fueled Demand is Making Buenos Aires Unaffordable for Residents
by James Francis Whitehead
June 9, 2023

Introduction:

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (Courthouse News) — The strong recovery of tourism in Argentina, aided by a weakening local currency, is leading to a rise in temporary rentals and unaffordable rents, exacerbating the housing crisis in the capital.

“Last year’s numbers marked a greater recovery than we expected,” said Lucas Delfino, referring to tourism in the Argentine capital. The president of the city government tourism board said that 1.45 million foreign tourists visited Buenos Aires in 2022.

Although this remains below pre-pandemic figures (3 million visited in 2019), the average occupancy rate of hotels hit historic records of 60% – with peaks of 90%. Delfino added that the average length of stay has extended to historic numbers, with the average number of nights tourists spend in Buenos Aires stretching from five to between eight and nine.

Landlords are capitalizing on the returning influx of foreign tourists. Many are pulling their properties out of the long-term rental market, which is paid in pesos and subject to regulations, and opting for the less regulated short-term rental market with access to U.S. dollars.

Owners are doing this by listing their properties on online booking platforms such as Airbnb, Booking.com and Argenprop where they can fetch higher profits in foreign currencies in a country that is experiencing 108.8% annual inflation.

Read more here: https://www.courthousenews.com/tourism ... sidents/

[caltrek]

Iran’s President Begins Latin America Tour With Stop in Venezuela
June 13, 2023

Introduction:

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP via Latino Rebels) — In his first visit to Latin America, Iran’s hardline president on Monday met with his Venezuelan counterpart and declared that both countries have “a common enemy,” alluding to the United States, before signing a series of cooperation agreements.

President Ebrahim Raisi’s visit to Venezuela came a year and a day after President Nicolás Maduro visited him in Iran. Both countries are under heavy U.S. economic sanctions.

Raisi said the link between the two countries “is not normal, but rather a strategic relationship,” insisting that their nations have “common interests and we have common enemies.”

“They do not want the two countries, Iran and Venezuela, to be independent,” Raisi said referring to the U.S. government. His tour of allied nations in Latin America, including Cuba and Nicaragua, comes amid rising tensions with the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden.

Read more here: https://www.latinorebels.com/2023/06/1 ... icatour/

[caltrek]

Western Media Continue to Defend Washington’s Deadly Venezuela Agenda
by Ricardo Vaz
June 25, 2023

Introduction:

(Common Dreams) Venezuela’s Maduro government has slowly and steadily regained its diplomatic standing in recent years, overcoming U.S. endeavors to turn the country into a pariah state as part of its regime-change efforts.

Nevertheless, Washington remains hell-bent on ousting the democratically elected Venezuelan authorities, and has kept its deadly sanctions program virtually intact. And Western media, which have cheered coup attempts at every step of the way (FAIR.org, 6/13/22, 5/2/22, 6/4/21, 4/15/20, 1/22/20), remain committed to endorsing U.S. policies to the bitter end.

This commitment was on full display recently when President Nicolás Maduro was hosted by Brazilian President Lula da Silva, in a major blow against the campaign to isolate Venezuela. Lula added insult to injury by condemning what he called the “narrative” of authoritarianism and lack of democracy that had been built around Venezuela to justify sanctions and regime change.

The Western media establishment’s initial reaction was straight from the five stages of grief. The New York Times, with its unenviable Venezuela reporting record (FAIR.org, 3/26/19, 5/24/19), was in denial, not reporting on the meeting at all. The Financial Times (6/4/23) had a depressed tone, citing the fading hopes of a return to ”free and fair elections” in the wake of the Brasilia meeting. The Washington Post (5/30/23) flared in anger, claiming that by hosting Maduro, Lula had betrayed his promise to “save democracy.”

The reporting around the latest developments saw corporate pundits showcasing a full array of journalistic con artistry to defend their “narrative,” including dubious sources, inaccurate conclusions, and dishonest context.

Read more here: https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/w ... la-agenda

caltrek’s comment: Following Latin American politics is very much an exercise in who do you trust? Personally, I tend to trust left-leaning media sources such as Common Dreams. Still, I feel compelled to admit that I don’t live in Latin America and that I depend on English language media for coverage of that region. As this report makes clear (see also actual linked article and not just the introduction cited above), that can be very problematic given the biases inherent in such media outlets.

[weatheriscool]

[caltrek]

More Than Fifty Economists Rebuke Top Democratic Senator for Denying Harmful Impacts of U.S. Sanctions
by Kenny Stancil
July 6, 2023

Introduction:

(Common Dreams) More than 50 leading political economy researchers on Wednesday published a letter exhorting U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez to "stop spreading the false narrative that there is no association between economic sanctions and the economic and humanitarian crises in countries targeted by those sanctions."

The scholars' intervention comes in response to a recent exchange between Menendez (D-N.J.), chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and nearly two dozen House Democrats.

In a May 10 letter, U.S. Reps. Veronica Escobar (D-Texas), Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), and 19 of their colleagues—a combination of lawmakers whose jurisdictions lie near the southern border and progressives from around the country—urged President Joe Biden to reverse Trump-era sanctions against Cuba and Venezuela in order to ease economic crises that have contributed substantially to increased emigration from the two countries.

The following day, Menendez condemned the call. In a letter to Escobar and Grijalva, Menendez denied that U.S. sanctions have played a key role in pushing tens of thousands of Cubans and Venezuelans to leave their homes and asserted that blame for the ongoing exodus lies entirely with the nations' respective presidents, Miguel Díaz-Canel and Nicolás Maduro.

Read more here: https://www.commondreams.org/news/bob- ... sanctions

[weatheriscool]

Ecuador presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio assassinated at campaign event
Source: CNN

An opposition candidate in Ecuador’s upcoming presidential election, Fernando Villavicencio, was assassinated at a campaign event Wednesday, President Guillermo Lasso confirmed on social media, vowing the killing will not go unpunished.

Villavicencio, 59, was shot dead at a Movimiento Construye political rally at a school north of the capital Quito, campaign team members Cristián Zurita and Rodrigo Figueroa told CNN.

He was gunned down 10 days before the first round of the presidential election was set to take place on August 20.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/09/americas ... index.html

[caltrek]

Replacing the “Old Relationship”: Representative Greg Casar On a Historic Congressional Delegation’s Trip to Latin America
by Eamon Whalen
August 31, 2023

Introduction:

(Mother Jones) A progressive congressional delegation has just returned from a historic trip to Latin America, where they met with three recently elected left-wing administrations in Brazil, Chile, and Colombia. Organized by the Center for Economic and Policy Research, and led by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), the group aimed to redefine the United States’ relationship with the region, and begin to repair (many) past wrongs.

Ocasio-Cortez was joined by Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-N.Y.) , Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas), Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.), Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas), and Misty Rebik, Senator Bernie Sanders’s chief of staff.

Casar, the son of Mexican immigrants and a former labor organizer who was elected to the house in 2022, spoke with Mother Jones about his experience joining the delegation, and how the US needs to change its engagement with Latin America to address common goals of combating climate change, lifting up working people, and protecting democracy.

This is a different congressional delegation than has been sent to Latin America in the past. Could you talk about how you got involved? And how this group was a change of pace from our past relations with left-wing Latin American movements and governments?

This was a different kind of trip. Not only because it was all Latino members of Congress that went, not only because we were able to have almost all of our meetings in Spanish or Portuguese—but because it was entirely progressive members of Congress meeting with our newly elected progressive counterparts in Latin America. And in almost every meeting, Latin American leaders expressed how different of a delegation this was. Because instead of having conversations based on Cold War militarism—instead of having meetings that ignore past US interventionism in Latin America— our conversations were based on listening and mutual respect. I think that’s what was so important.

Read more here: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2 ... -chile/

[weatheriscool]

[caltrek]

Venezuela Moves to Halt International Criminal Court Probe Into Security Forces
by Molly Quell
November 7, 2023

Introduction:

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (Courthouse News) — Venezuela accused the International Criminal Court of overstepping its mandate on Tuesday, arguing that local authorities had already investigated a violent crackdown on anti-government demonstrations.

Caracas is appealing a ruling earlier this year from The Hague-based court that allowed prosecutors to move forward with an investigation into the security forces of President Nicolás Maduro for excessive force, arbitrary detention and torture of protestors.

The prosecutor is “driving a bulldozer through complementary protections,” said lawyer Ben Emmerson on behalf of Venezuela. The world’s only permanent court for atrocity crimes is only supposed to intervene in situations where the local authorities are unwilling and unable to do so.

A group of mostly South American countries asked the court to open an investigation in Venezuela in 2018. It was the first time ICC member states asked the court to look into events in another member state.

Years of economic recession and increasing authoritarianism under Maduro’s regime led millions to protest after the pro-Maduro Supreme Court dissolved the National Assembly, the country’s legislature, in 2017. Government forces responded harshly, leaving more than 100 dead.

Read more here: https://www.courthousenews.com/venezue ... -forces/