Latin America General : Corona Carnaval

[Shrillland]

The counts and recounts are finally finished even as Perez's promised march on Quito has begun: https://www.eluniverso.com/noticias/politica/marcha-indigena-que-se-dirige-hacia-quito-por-recuento-de-votos-ya-esta-en-cuenca-nota/

They plan to reach Quito on Tuesday and call for electoral transparency.

Anyway, the CNE has officially announced that after the recount, Lasso is in second place less than 33,000 votes ahead of Perez, and more than 1.2 million behind Arauz: https://www.eluniverso.com/noticias/politica/cne-concluye-el-escrutinio-de-binomio-presidencial-y-sus-resultados-encaminan-a-guillermo-lasso-y-andres-arauz-a-la-segunda-vuelta-electoral-nota/

[Shrillland]

Meanwhile, in Peru, Daniel Urresti, once of the frontrunners for the presidency, is back on the ballot after the JNE overturned the original striking. https://rpp.pe/peru/actualidad/elecciones-2021-daniel-urresti-jne-revoca-tacha-contra-su-candidatura-a-la-presidencia-noticia-1321704

Of all the major candidates, Forsyth is the only one whose removal has not yet been overturned, though he may appeal to the JNE this week.

[Kowani]

What a world
Uruguay is investigating whether Argentine drug traffickers hacked Uruguayan bank accounts

[Shrillland]

Also in Argentina, Health Minister Ginés González García resigned on Friday after giving 400 "VIPs" a jump to the front of the Covid vaccine schedule

We also have the first poll from earlier this month on the special Chilean election in April for the Constitutional Convention. Although Chile Vamos(Pinera's centre-right coalition) is the largest single group with 37%, the centre-left and far-let coalitions combined poll at 55%.

[Kowani]

El Chapo's wife arrested on drug trafficking charges in Virginia

[Shrillland]

The JNE has restored George Forsyth to the Peruvian ballot: https://rpp.pe/politica/elecciones/jne-declaro-nula-resolucion-del-jee-que-excluyo-a-george-forsyth-de-las-elecciones-2021-noticia-1322371

So, tomorrow, I have some elections posts to make.

[Kowani]

Dominican Republic to build Fence along border with Haiti

[Greater Miami Shores]

Since I wish to comment on this issue, thttps://www.reuters.com/article/us-dom ... R0OL?il=0o comment on this article, it is a small proof in this particular case of the world wide, illegal immigration problems.

Many Hispanic nations, Brazil and perhaps Mexico have considerably strict legal and illegal immigration laws, even Mexico deports illegals, while complaining of Mexican citizens being deported from the USA for being illegals, lol, but Mexico looks the other way when it wants too, lol again.

It is proof many nations have walls and fences against illegal immigration, there is a fence on the US, Mexico border station, against illegal immigration. For example there is a fence on the USA, Canada border station against illegal immigration. Illegal immigration is a world wide problem of many nations.

[Kowani]

El Salvador holding legislative elections today

[Shrillland]

Whilst the two-party system was broken in El Salvador and Ecuador has an intense runoff coming in April, Peru also has a general election coming up on Sunday, April 11. You've seen the drama in Peru play out somewhat on this thread, the former President Martin Vizcarra was impeached twice and removed the second time, the current administration isn't too popular, and no one really knows who they want for the President, especially after the long-time front runner, George Forsyth, was removed from the ballot twice for failing to disclose his finances. Two other frontrunners were removed for other issues yet still have considerable support on the ballot. In short, this is a mess with several possible frontrunners headed for the House of Pizarro.

Here's how it'll all go down. The President and their two running mates(Peru has a 1st and 2nd VP) is elected in a traditional two-round vote with the top two going to a June runoff. Congress, meanwhile, is elected using open list D'Hondt PR with a 5% national threshold or seven seats in a constituency. There are 130 seats in 26 constituencies. Now that that's out of the way, let's meet the five most likely candidates(It would be seven but Forsyth and Rafael Lopez Aliaga are still out for the time being)...and there are a lot of them because it's so close and no one's even close to a consensus. Unless they are returned, none of the removed candidates will appear here regardless of how well they're polling(so if they do return, you can find them here and in any update posts I make).

Yonhy Lescano, Gisela Tipe and Alberto Velarde - Popular Action(Centre)

Lescano has been an AP stalwart for his entire political life. He used to be a lawyer in the Department of Puno and even hosted a legal-based talk radio show before he ran for Congress representing Puno in 2001. He's served in Congress for both Puno and Lima until 2019 and is a major figure in Popular Action. He isn't without controversy, he did have a sexual harassment allegation against him in 2019 after sending some explicit images on WhatsApp to a staffer. He was ultimately suspended for 120 days and left Congress after Vizcarra's sudden early Congressional Elections. His sister was also imprisoned for 16 years as a member of Shining Path(the militant wing of Peru's Communist Party). For his 1st VP, Tipe is a professor of nursing at the National University of San Cristobal de Huamanga, and she also stands at the top of the AP list for Congress this year. His 2nd VP, Velarde, is also running for Congress.

Lescano's proposed a new constitution, and he also wants to "Deglobalise" the Peruvian economy even as he said he wouldn't nationalise any businesses. Failing a new constitution, he wants an amendment to make profits from mining more equitably distributed among the people. He's also opposed to expansion of the controversial Tia Maria copper mine in Arequipa. He supports same-sex civil unions while remaining opposed to equal marriage rights or expanded adoption rights.

Currently Lescano, Tipe, and Velarde are polling first among accepted candidates at about 9%. I told you nobody would get close.

Keiko Fujimori, Luis Galarreta, and Patricia Juarez - Popular Force(Far Right)

If that last name sounds familiar, it should. Keiko Fujimori is, of course, the daughter of controversial and disgraced former President Alberto Fujimori. When she first ran for Congress in 2006, it was her father's idea, but she quickly became a powerful force in her own right among the Peruvian right, many of whom laud her father for defeating Shining Path and improving the economy despite the use of torture, suppression of opponents and forced sterilisations. She sat for Lima for a single term before deciding to run for President in 2011 under her own party(a party that was, incidentally, advised early on by Rudy Giuliani and was meant for her father if he was allowed to run....which he wasn't because he was and is in prison for crimes against humanity). She ran in 2011 and made it to the runoff, losing to Ollanta Humala(who's also running this time around, but won't appear here because he's polling too low). She ran again in 2016, and this time FP got a commanding majority of Congress as well. She lost the runoff again, this time to Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, by just 41,057 votes out of over 17 million cast.

And this is where she starts falling apart. She stood as a strong counterforce blocking a lot of Kuczynski's(and later Vizcarra's) legislation, and even supported Kuczynski's impeachments(like Vizcarra, he was impeached twice before resigning) until October 2018, when she was implicated in Operation Car Wash, the massive Pan-American political scandal that brought down politicians across Latin America who received illegal money from Brazil's Odebrecht construction company. Ironically, this is the same scandal that Kuczynski was nearly brought down for and for which Fujimori screamed for his first impeachment. Anyway, she was arrested in October 2018 for money laundering after receiving Odebrecht money in her 2011 campaign. After lots of protests and a hunger strike by her American husband, she was conditionally released in April 2020 and immediately announced her third run for the presidency. She is still awaiting trial on money laundering, obstruction of justice, and other corruption charges.

As for her second and third bananas, Galarreta was a Congressman for Lima from 2006-19 and served as President of Congress for the 2017-18 term(they're elected by Congress on an annual basis and can be re-elected as often as they wish). He was also born without arms, a thalidomide-in-the-womb victim. He was briefly acting President of Peru after Kuczynski's resignation and before Vizcarra took over, and was defeated in the 2019 surprise election, as was Popular Force, reduced to just 15 seats from the 73 they previously had. Juarez, meanwhile, served as Deputy Mayor of Lima from 2015-18.

Fujimori's platform is...kind of what one would expect. She plans to pardon her father, pursue laissez-faire market solutions to the economy, supports instituting "Mano Dura" AKA extremely severe security policies and has said Peru needs "Demodura" or "Hard Democracy". In other words, she's her father's daughter.

Fujimori is second with an average of 7.2 %.

Veronika Mendoza, Jose de Echave, and Luzmila Ayay - Together for Peru(Left Wing)

Mendoza has a huge legacy to live up to. Her great-great-grandmother was one of the first woman to be admitted to the Sorbonne in Paris, and she has dual French and Peruvian nationality. She, herself, is a New Sorbonne alumnus, and has been a Spanish teacher at multiple universities in Europe and South America. She used to serve in Humana's PNP as a consultant and press secretary for both the youth and women's commissions before running for Congress for Cusco in 2011. She was elected and served a single term before running as Frente Amplio's presidential candidate in 2016, where she came in a respectable third with 18.8% of the vote. She was a staunch supporter of Vizcarra after forming Juntos por el Peru in 2017.

At her sides, de Echave is a fellow New Sorbonne graduate and an economist who calls for sustainable development in the years ahead. Ayay is a social leader from Callao who helped to found the party's women's secretariat. She's also been known to help found community banks in her home department.

Mendoza also supports a new, more left-leaning constitution. She also wants what she call a "Second agrarian reform" to help the nation's farmers, increase public investment by 2% of the nation's GDP within her first year, and progressive reform on taxation, healthcare, and the environment.

Mendoza is currently polling at an average of 6.7%

Daniel Urresti, Maria Teresa Cabrera, and Wilbert Portugal - Podemos Peru(Centre-right to Right)

Brigadier General Urresti(Ret.) studied both military Psych Ops and electrical engineering in school, and he served 34 years in the Army. He's considered a confrontational, tell-it-like-it-is type, but he's also an experienced insider. Besides being an army officer, he served as a high commissioner for mining in 2013-14 and as Humala's Interior Minister for eight months in June 2014-February 2015. His tough on crime stance as Minister is what ultimately led to his resignation after multiple allegations of police brutality that led to two deaths in his tenure. Humala forced him out despite him being one of the most popular figures in the cabinet. He was even tried and acquitted(in 2018) for murder in the case of journalist Hugo Bustios and the attempted murder of fellow journalist Eduardo Arce in 1988 as he was then a Capitain in the army platoon that ambushed and killed or injured them. It was a complicated case that I can't really get into here. Anyway, he attempted to run for President in 2016(before Humala's PNP removed all of its candidates for that year, of which he was in the primary), and Mayor of Lima in 2018. He came up second in the latter race, and ran for Congress for Lima in the surprise elections. Podemos Peru got nine of Lima's seats, and Urresti's been in Congress ever since.

Cabrera is a former judge who was elected in the surprise vote with Urresti while Portugal is a lawyer and the son of former Puno Congressman Mariano Portugal, but isn't well-known on the national level.

Urresti's platform is primarily a law and order type, and he hasn't been too clear an any economic policy. He is pushing for(and has sponsored in Congress) laws that would ban the resale of stolen goods, and he would permit continued pension withdrawals for people in need of money now.

Urresti is polling around 5.9%

Hernando de Soto(No, not that one), Corinne Flores, and Jaime Salomon - Avanza Pais(Centre-right to Right)

De Soto is the oldest of the major candidates at 79 years old and is founder and president of the Institute of Liberty and Democracy(ILD), a neoliberal think tank in Lima and one of the architects of the neoliberal world we live in today. He and his group have advised most of the post-1980 political framers worldwide from Thatcher and Reagan to Putin and Macron. He's also received praise from Milton Friedman in the past. He was initially a supporter of Alberto Fujimori, and his policies are seen as helping to end the economic crisis of the 1980s, but he distanced himself from Fujimori as he became more and more dictatorial not to mention thinking that the state was actively sabotaging the War on Drugs. He supported Keiko Fujimori in her 2016 bid and thought about supporter her this time around, but Fujimori didn't agree with all of his policies, so he decided to run himself.

At his sides, Flores served as a councillor in Tacna from 2011-14, and is currently head of the department's chamber of commerce and industry. She's also running on the top of Avanza Pais' Congressional list. Salomon, meanwhile, is an engineer who worked as a Deputy Minister in the Kaczynski Administration(Infrastructure and Agriculture), until 2018.

De Soto wants to increase the health budget, institute special anti-corruption courts and judges, strengthen property institutions and encourage urban development, and restore the economy to pre-Covid levels of production by '22. His platform's quite vague.

De Soto is polling an average of 5.1%

And there are several more just below these thresholds like Ollanta Humala, Cesar Acuna, and Julio Guzman.

What's your choice, NSG? Mine is Mendoza, she's offering the change Peru needs, though I'll take Lescano as well.

[Arlye Austros]

Anyone in Argentina knows what's going on at Formosa? While I have some sources due to family in Buenos Aires it is all still very limited.

[Shrillland]

Anyone in Argentina knows what's going on at Formosa? While I have some sources due to family in Buenos Aires it is all still very limited.

I just have the basics from Clarin myself: https://www.clarin.com/politica/protestas-incidentes-capital-formosa-vuelta-fase-1-restricciones-coronavirus_0_yXy7mLmug.html

I can't say how the protests are going.

[Kowani]

Major protests in Asuncion, tear gas and rubber bullets deployed

lesson here: properly manage your pandemic response

[Shrillland]

Major protests in Asuncion, tear gas and rubber bullets deployed

lesson here: properly manage your pandemic response

How do they expect to get any vaccines, however, with the vaccine producing nations hoarding it for themsleves?

[Kowani]

Major protests in Asuncion, tear gas and rubber bullets deployed

lesson here: properly manage your pandemic response

How do they expect to get any vaccines, however, with the vaccine producing nations hoarding it for themsleves?

they can't
it's a really shitty situation

[Kowani]

Paraguay’s President Mario Abdo Benitez asked all his entire cabinet members to resign, will name new cabinet ministers in an attempt to pacify the protestors

Paraguay’s President Mario Abdo Benitez said Saturday he will name new cabinet ministers amid unrest over his government’s handling of the pandemic that has left at least one person dead.

In an address to the nation, Abdo Benitez said he would name a new cabinet chief as well as new health and education ministers in the coming hours “for the sake of peace.”

More changes to the cabinet will be evaluated next week, he said, adding that the new health minister will have the mandate to “make all possible efforts to guarantee the timely supply of medicine and medical supplies.”

[Shrillland]

Paraguay’s President Mario Abdo Benitez asked all his entire cabinet members to resign, will name new cabinet ministers in an attempt to pacify the protestors

Paraguay’s President Mario Abdo Benitez said Saturday he will name new cabinet ministers amid unrest over his government’s handling of the pandemic that has left at least one person dead.

In an address to the nation, Abdo Benitez said he would name a new cabinet chief as well as new health and education ministers in the coming hours “for the sake of peace.”

More changes to the cabinet will be evaluated next week, he said, adding that the new health minister will have the mandate to “make all possible efforts to guarantee the timely supply of medicine and medical supplies.”

Dear God...it can only get worse at this point.

[Kowani]

Paraguay’s President Mario Abdo Benitez asked all his entire cabinet members to resign, will name new cabinet ministers in an attempt to pacify the protestors

Paraguay’s President Mario Abdo Benitez said Saturday he will name new cabinet ministers amid unrest over his government’s handling of the pandemic that has left at least one person dead.

In an address to the nation, Abdo Benitez said he would name a new cabinet chief as well as new health and education ministers in the coming hours “for the sake of peace.”

More changes to the cabinet will be evaluated next week, he said, adding that the new health minister will have the mandate to “make all possible efforts to guarantee the timely supply of medicine and medical supplies.”

Dear God...it can only get worse at this point.

yeah, it does not look good
i'm trying to figure out how bad it is right now, the indicators are that this did not work
seems to be 1 death and 20 injuries so far, no clue on severity (12 police, 8 civilians)

[Kowani]

Brazilian Supreme Court Annuls the charges against ex-president Lula da Silva

[Shrillland]

Brazilian Supreme Court Annuls the charges against ex-president Lula da Silva

For now, anyway. I saw the AG wants the full court to take it up.

[Kowani]

Brazilian Supreme Court Annuls the charges against ex-president Lula da Silva

For now, anyway. I saw the AG wants the full court to take it up.

wonder how that'll go...

[Kowani]

Mexican House Health and Justice committees of approve bill to decriminalize marijuana, sending it on to the full chamber, where it will be discussed on Tueday. The Senate passed the bill in November.

The bill would create the Mexican Institute for the Regulation and Control of Cannabis, which will issue five types of licenses for the cultivation, transformation, sale, research and export or import of marijuana. Only people 18 years and older, and with a permit, may grow, carry or consume marijuana and its derivatives, according to the bill, which Lopez Obrador’s ruling MORENA party proposed. MORENA has a majority in both chambers of Congress..

[Ayytaly]

Why hasn't America overthrown their- hold up, lemme rephrase that...

¿Por que carajo el pueblo de américa aun no han saqueado los gobiernos corruptos de sus países? En especial brasil, bolivia y venezuela.

[Kowani]

Mexican Chamber of Deputies approves bill to legalize Marijuana

[Ayytaly]

Mexican Chamber of Deputies approves bill to legalize Marijuana

Mexico, quiero una jamaica.

Mexico legalizes marihuana

¡No, cabrón! Dije que queria agua de jamaica, no que te conviertas en ella.