Latin America General : Corona Carnaval

[Shrillland]

I don't follow closely Salvadorian politics, but Bukele seems a bit like Macron to me... he claims to be centrist and pragmatic and not ideological, he broke a decades old bipartism, but he implements neoliberal policies and has a very authoritarian governing style.

He also said that the proposed constitutional reforms he sent for review will not include the legalization of abortion or same-sex marriage. Just check out this Reuters article for more details.

Given El Salvador's obsession with keeping toxic masculinity the policy of the state, I'm not surprised.

[Kowani]

Mining reform in Peru

Peru's energy and mines minister said on Tuesday the government wants to revise the framework for the country's mining industry, redrafting the umbrella law that regulates the sector, as well as the legislation that sets royalty payments.

Peru is the world's No. 2 copper producer. Leftist President Pedro Castillo wants to raise taxes on mining companies to fund social programs, but hasoffered few details since assuming office in July.

Shares of Peruvian miners have fallen on the perceived risk of those changes.

Energy and Mines Minister Ivan Merino, speaking at the Perumin conference organized by mining corporations, said he wants to redraft Peru's "General Mining Law," the legal framework that regulates the sector. While he did not specify what changes he would like to see, he said all new mining projects should have a "neutral effect" on the people, often indigenous communities, who live near Peru's Andean mines.

He added he also wants to revise the law that regulates the use of mining royalties, which go to the regional governments that host Peru's mines.

Merino said he wanted to add flexibility to how those resources can be used.[...] Merino added that Peru has a pipeline worth $50 billion in mining investments and confirmedthe government wants to develop a train to transport metals to the coastfrom the Andes.

He also reiterated that the government wants to see miners focusing on "social profitability," a concept several executives said they endorsed.

[Kowani]

Tensions rise in Chiapas
According to the Zapatistas

First: On September 11, 2021, in the early morning, while the Zapatista air delegation was in Mexico City, members of ORCAO – a paramilitary organization serving the Chiapas state government – kidnapped the compañeros Sebastián Nuñez Pérez and José Antonio Sánchez Juárez, autonomous authorities from the Good Government Council of Patria Nueva [New Homeland], Chiapas.

The ORCAO is a political-military organization with paramilitary characteristics: they have uniforms, equipment, weapons, and ammunition purchased with money they receive from [government-sponsored] “social programs”. They keep part of the money for themselves and use part of it to pay off government officials for reporting that they [the ORCAO] are complying with the terms of the social programs. They fire on the Zapatista community of Moisés y Gandhi every night with these weapons.

The EZLN has waited patiently as all avenues toward a solution were attempted and exhausted. While the Chiapas state government tried to sabotage and impede freedom for our compañeros, it was human rights organizations and the progressive Catholic church who made an objective assessment of what might happen.

Second: The compañeros were deprived of their liberty for eight days and then freed today, September 19, 2021, thanks to the parish priests of San Cristóbal de las Casas and Oxchuc, of the San Cristóbal diocese. The compañeros were robbed of a walkie-talkie and six thousand pesos in cash belonging to the Good Government Council.

Third: Kidnapping is a crime under both the bad government’s laws and Zapatista law. While the Chiapas state government has supported and covered up these crimes, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation took the necessary steps to free those who were kidnapped and to detain and sanction those who committed the crime.

Fourth: The only reason the conflict did not escalate into a tragedy was due to the intervention of the parishes mentioned above, human rights organizations, and the mobilizations and denunciations carried out in Mexico and, above all, Europe.

Fifth: The misgovernment of Rutilio Escandón is doing everything possible to destabilize the southeastern Mexican state of Chiapas:

It violently represses the normalistas [1].

It sabotages the agreements made between the organized teachers and the federal government, forcing the teachers to take more radical action to demand the agreements be complied with.

Its alliance with narcotraffickers forces indigenous communities to create their own self-defense groups, as the government does nothing to protect the life, liberty, and property of the population. It not only protects the narcotrafficking gangs, but also encourages, promotes, and finances paramilitary groups like those that are constantly attacking communities in Aldama and Santa Martha.

Its vaccination campaign is purposefully slow and disorganized, creating unrest in rural communities that it will no doubt exploit. Meanwhile, the rising covid deaths in these communities are ignored.

Its officials are stealing everything they can from the state treasury, perhaps preparing for a federal government collapse or betting on a new party coming into power.

And now they want to sabotage the departure of the Zapatista delegation participating in the European chapter of the Journey for Life. They ordered their ORCAO paramilitaries to kidnap our compañeros, leaving the crime unpunished, and trying to provoke a reaction from the EZLN, all in a state where governability hangs by a thread.

Sixth: If what the Ecologist Green Party of Mexico (PVEM) wants is to provoke a crisis with international repercussions so that it can destabilize the regime currently in power, they should call a referendum to revoke the presidential mandate.

The PVEM is one of the names used around here by the same old PRI. Sometimes they say it’s the PAN, sometimes the PRD, and now it’s the PVEM badly disguised as the Movement for National Regeneration [MORENA]. But it’s the same criminals as ever, and now they’re part of the misnamed “opposition” movement, a “fifth column” within the 4T [2].

Those responsible are: Rutilio Escandón and Victoria Cecilia Flores Pérez.

If what they want is to topple the federal government, or to cause problems in retaliation for the current federal criminal investigations against them, or to support one of the factions competing for power in 2024, then they should use the available legal channels and stop playing with the life, liberty, and property of the people of Chiapas. They should call for a vote to revoke the presidential mandate and stop playing with fire because they’re going to get burned.

Seventh: We call on Europe below and to the left and on the Sixth in Mexico and abroad to protest in front of Mexican embassies and consulates and at the government offices of the state of Chiapas, demanding an end their provocations and renunciation of their death cult. The date is Friday, September 24, 2021.

Given the actions and omissions of the state and federal governments regarding these crimes and previous ones, we will take the necessary measures to bring justice to the criminals in the ORCAO and the government officials who sponsor them.

That is all. Next time there won’t be a communique. That is, there won’t be words, only actions.

From the mountains of southeastern Mexico,
In the name of the Indigenous Revolutionary Clandestine Committee-General Command of the EZLN

Subcomandante Insurgente Galeano.
Mexico, September 19, 2021.

[Kowani]

Querétaro approves same-sex marriage, making it the Mexican 23rd state to do so (21-4)

[Kowani]

Same-sex marriage has come to the State of Sonora (25-7)

[Democratic Socialist State of Barbados]

Caribbean news @ 1
Antigua & Barbuda
PM Browne not impressed by stance trade unions on vaccination policy


Barbados
Former senior vice president of ICBL ordered extradited

Update to above

Local businessman owned firm files lawsuit to recover millions

No Radical Ties

government defends involvement in regional initiative to acquire covid vaccines

regional tried securing vaccines

Good vibrations form accused of swindling Radical Investment over jabs that never were responds

Dlp president responds to acting PM

Dlp what did the minister of health know about vaccine scam

Guyana
Guyana rejects agreement in Venezuelan border dispute

Caricom supports guyana in border dispute with Venezuela

Guyana discusses border dispute with OAS

[Kowani]

Peruvian ex-President Alejandro Toledo Manrique asks American judge to deny the Peruvian government's extradition request over bribery and money laundering charges

[Kowani]

AMLO apologizes to the indigenous Yaqui people for historic injustices, signs plan with the leaders of the 8 Yaqui peoples returning traditional lands and water rights

[Kowani]

Ariel Henry has now "indefinitely delayed" the elections and the planned constitutional referendum after dismissing the electoral council

[Kilobugya]

AMLO apologizes to the indigenous Yaqui people for historic injustices, signs plan with the leaders of the 8 Yaqui peoples returning traditional lands and water rights

Good. I'm a bit disappointed by AMLO some times (especially regarding Covid) but he also does some very good things.

[Kowani]

Barbados Prime Minsister Mia Mottley announces that Opposition Leader Bishop Joseph Atherley has agreed to a joint nomination of outgoing Governor General Dame Sandra Mason to be first President of Barbados

In addition, the Parliament agreed to amend the Constitution (Amendment) Bill to bring about the transition into a republic into force by November 30 (25-0)

[Kowani]

Vladimir Cerrón, head of Peru Libre, is now alleged to have been the founder of the “Dinámicos del Centro”, a criminal organization he created to illegally funnel funds to himself and his party

[Shrillland]

Unfortunately, I cannot make a poll for this one, but I can still give you some basic profiles about the top candidates heading to La Moneda in Santiago for this, Chile's likely last election under the 1980 Constitution on Sunday, November 21(Honduras will get its profile next week).

As I said, this will be the last election under the current constitution, which was soundly repudiated by the public back in May. It'll also be a Congressional election for both houses with the Senate finally growing to its full membership of 50...until the new constitution reorganises things yet again. Maybe Santiago will finally be the legislative capital again....anyway, we'll start the rules for Congress since that'll be second in everyone's minds to the presidential vote. The Chamber of Deputies has 155 members chosen by D'Hondt open list PR in 28 multi-member constituencies with no minimum threshold. Parties are required to have no more than 60% of their candidates to be of the same gender to ensure equality. The Senate will now have 50 members, 27 of which will be chosen by open-list PR from 8 of Chile's 16 regions.

As for the Presidency, it's a simple two-round majority, whomever gets into the top two without a majority will go on to a Sunday, December 19 runoff. There are four candidates polling above 10%, and the electorate has become increasingly fractured of late since Pinochet's Binomial system was eradicated. Let's meet the top four candidates, shall we? Hopefully, they'll be the ones going to the runoff, not like in Peru where Castillo rose almost without trace....

Gabriel Borić - Apuerbo Dignidad(Left to Far Left)

Borić has been politically minded for most of his life. He started at age 13, helping to re-establish the Federation of Secondary Students in his hometown of Punta Arenas, Magallanes y de la Antártica Chilena(or just Magallanes for the rest of us). He became President of the University of Chile Student Federation in 2011 and graduated with a law degree. He was elected to the Chamber in 2013 for the Autonomous Left Party and is nearing the end of his second term(Chileans deputies can only serve three) as a member of the left wing Social Convergence Party. He's only 35, which would make him the youngest President since the modern Republic was formed and the youngest Chilean head of state since the days of the Supreme Directorate in the 1810s-20s. He surprised everyone back in August when he won Apuerbo Dignidad's primary over the initially more popular Daniel Jadue of the Communists.

Apuerbo Dignidad is a mix of left to far left parties, the largest of which are Democratic Revolution, Social Convergence, and the Chilean Communist Party. He's in favour of decentralisation and giving more power to the regions, he's an ardent environmentalist who wants to see the copper stranglehold loosened in favour of more high-tech industry in state-subsidised technology parks,
and wants to overhail Chile's tax system into a more progressive model in order to fund things like government-funded social security and pension programmes as well as the National Care System, a form of universal healthcare. He also supports police reform and further depoliticising the military. Although left wing, he's also opposed to the more authoritarian Commnunist elsewhere in Latin America like Venezuela and Nicaragua.

Borić is currently polling first with an average of 27%.

Sebastian Sichel - Chile Podemos Mas(Centre-right to Right)

Sichel had a hard time as a child, and is one of those rags-to-riches success stories in many respects. got his law degree from the Pontifical Catholic University in the early 2000s and actually had a rock band during his youth called Los Pichuloncos. He also liked to valunteer a lot during his youth, His professional career took off in 2010 when he founded the online newspaper El Dinamo alongside Mariana Aylwin, daughter of the first Post-Pinochet President, Patricio Aylwin. The paper is still going today. Sichel joined the Christian Democrats in 2003, and even worked alongside RN(National Renewal) party members in his school days. From 2011-17, he served as a public relations executive for several lobbyist firms, though he has denied ever being a lobbyist himself. He was a constitutional law professor at San Sebastian University from 2016-18.

His political career started in earnest in 2009, when he ran for Congress in one of Santiago's districts and ended up third, thus he lost. He ran again for another Santiago district in 2013 and again ended up losing to the more right-wing RN and UDI candidates. In 2014, he left PDC and joined the centre-left Ciudadanos party. By 2017, he found himself more in favour of Incumbent President Sebastian Pinera and became an independent the following year. After Pinera's election, Sichel became President of CORFO, Chile's economic development agency. After the social unrest began in Chile in 2019, Pinera's cabinet reshuffle saw Sichel become Social Development and Family Minister. His tenure ended in controversy after he publicly corrected Pinera in a May 2020 press conference, where Sichel clarified that Pinera's planned family relief programme to combat poverty caused by COVID unemployment would bring less improvement than Pinera was promising. Two weeks later, Pinera shifted him to President of the BancoEstado, the state's economic development bank, where he was extremely unpopular with employees. He also oversaw a special withdrawal of 10% of AFP money(AFPs are Chile's private retirement accounts), which lead to the Bank's website crashing.

Although an independent and something of a maverick within the Chile Vamos Coalition(one of the few figures within it to support the constitutional plebiscite back in May), the party is mostly dominated by Pinera's own RN and the more right-wing Independent Democratic Union(UDI), founded by Pinochet's right hand Jaime Guzman. Nonetheless, Siche won the Chile Vamos primary back in July with 49% of the vote, 16 points above his nearest competitor, mayor of Santiago's Los Condes community and literal "Chicago Boy" Joaquin Lavin. Siche wants to reduce the current number of 24 ministries to 18 by merging eight of them into other departments and creating two new ones, a Ministry of Internal Security to handle crime and drugs, and a Ministry of Public Administrative Affairs to streamline the bureaucracy. He promises support for child food programmes, housing and mental health, while mostly being in favour of free market solutions elsewhere. He would also legalise same-sex adoption and same-sex marriage, a view shared by some of the other candidates.

Sichel is in second place polling 22%.

Jose Antonio Kast - Christian Social Front(Far Right)

Kast is....interesting to say the least. His Parents were originally from Bavaria and his father was actually a Wehrmacht officer during World War II. He has nine siblings, one of whom (Miguel Kast) was from the original "Chicago Boys", Pinochet's Labour Minister in the early 80s, a member of Odeplan in the early days, and later President of the Central Bank before his death in 1983. In the 80s, he was a prminent member University of Chile's Student Federation as a member of the Guildists. He met Guzman in the mid 80s, who encouraged him to join the UDI. He actually appeared in a government circular for the 1988 Plebiscite to keep Pinochet in power. In 1990, he founded a law firm and worked for his parents' real estate company as well.

In 1996, he took his first major stride into politics by running for mayor of Buin, Santiago Region. He came in second, so he became a city councillor for four years. In the 2001 election, he ran on the UDI platform for the Chamber and would serve his full three terms for one of the Santiago Region districts and another term for another district. In 2007, he became UDI Chamber Leader and stayed there for the rest of his time in Congress. He ran for UDI President in 2008 but came in second. He would, however, become the UDI's secretary-general from 2012-14. In 2015, he planned to run for the UDI in the 2017 Chile Vamos Primary. When Pinera's return to the campaign trail saw UDI backing him, however, Kast left the UDI and decided to run as an independent. He ended up well above the '17 polls getting nearly 8% of the vote in the first round, a sign that some voters likes his message. Over 2018-19, Kast founded the Republican Party as a platform for his next presidential run. Earlier this year, his was the only explicitly right wing list for the Constitutional Convention election, which saw the Republicans get four seats.

With all this in mind, to call Kast controversial may well be an understatement. His FSC is almost entirely dominated by his own Republican Party, though the smaller Christian Conservative Party also maintains a presence. He maintains that Pinochet was defending liberty during his regime, and has supported every hard-right-wing leader in the Americas over the last 25 years from both Fujimoris to Bukele, Bolsonaro, Trump, and so on. He supports creating an immigration enforcement agency similar to ICE in the United States, plans to reduce immigration to Chile, wants to remove 10 government ministries in the name of streamlining, and favours military involvement in Arucania where a continued low-level conflict involving the Mapuche has been going for years, He also supports repealing the "Three Instances" law passed in 2017 that legalised abortion in specific circumstances. He's also very anti-LGBTQ+, infamously saying that "La Moneda has surrendered to a gay dictatorship" when La Moneda had rainbow-coloured lights in 2017 in support of the International Day Against Homophobia.

Kast is currently polling third at 15%.

Yasna Provoste - New Social Pact(Centre-left)

Provoste is a Diaguita Native American who spent most of her youth in Atacama. When she was nine years old, she was actually a national gymnastics champion, and specialised in physical education at Playa Ancha University of Educational Sciences. Provoste first got into politics after studying local government and decentralisation in Colombia. She's been part of the PDC since she was 14. Her first major political position was as Atacama's regional director of the National Women's Service, which she held for a year from 1996-97. Starting in '97 under President Ricardo Lagos, her political star seemed to be pointing her towards La Moneda. She was appointed Governor of Atacama's Huasco Province in 1997, moved up to Intendent of Atacama(effectively Governor of the Region)in 2001, and from there, Lagos brought her into the national cabinet as Planning Minister from 2004-06. After Michelle Bachelet was elected in 2005, she was moved up again, this time to the Ministry of Education...and then things went downhill.

In February 2008, the Auditor General reported that upwards of C$200 billion(US$500 million) in Ministry funds meant to go to public and subsidised private schools weren't accounted for. Worse, the Santiago Education Minister, Franka Grez, was funneling C$262 billion(US$600 million) to her brothers. Under the premise of her being the place where the buck was supposed to stop, Jose Antonio Kast(see above) led the charge to have Provoste impeached for not doing anything to stop the problem. It was seen by many as a political impeachment to try to stop Provoste from going further up the chain. Ultimately, she was impeached(almost exclusively by UDI, RN, and allied parties) on five counts, and ended up convicted on one and just barely escaping conviction on a second by one vote.

After spending a year in Canada, Provoste got a heroine's welcome when she returned to Atacama and became regional PDC President. In 2013, she was elected to the Chamber for Atacama. She only spent one term there before being elected to the Senate in 2017. In March of '21, she became Senate President for an annual term, but she resigned in August to focus on her presidential run.

The NPS mostly includes the old-guard centre and centre-left parties, including PDC, Ciudadanos, and the Socialist Party. She's in favour of pension reform without Borić's planned overhaul to a publicly-funded system, wants to work for increased indigenous protections, and has spoken in favour of a national UBI. She's also in favour of signifcant reform for the Carabinieros, the National Police, after they were seen as excessive during the 2019-20 protests.

Provoste is in fourth with a 10% average.

So, what's your choice, NSG? I'm not normally one for extremism, but Borić is representative of the changes that Chileans want in the new Constitution and of what they need, so I'm backing him myself.

[Kowani]

Chilean parliamentarians consider filing constitutional indictment against President Sebastian Piñera over Pandora Papers revelations about his role in a sale agreement for a mining company in a tax haven

[Kilobugya]

Chilean parliamentarians consider filing constitutional indictment against President Sebastian Piñera over Pandora Papers revelations about his role in a sale agreement for a mining company in a tax haven

I truly hope there will be consequences for the crimes revealed by Pandora Papers. Maybe in Chile there will be, with the new Constitution and the coming likely left-wing or at least center-left government. But elsewhere I'm much more doubtful...

[Kowani]

Morena senator Armando Guadiana Tijerina claims he didn't do anything wrong after Pandora Papers revealed his offshore fiscal dealings

[Kowani]

Brazilian party merger between Democratas and the Partido Social Liberal, new party to be called União Brasil. The merger still needs to be approved by the electoral authorities

[Shrillland]

Brazilian party merger between Democratas and the Partido Social Liberal, new party to be called União Brasil. The merger still needs to be approved by the electoral authorities

União Brasil would be, by far, the largest party in the Chamber of this goes through at 81 seats, currently the PSL's tied with PT at 53, and they'd have 7 senators, wouldn't change much for next year's math though, Lula remains dominant in the polls.

[Kergstan]

Brazilian party merger between Democratas and the Partido Social Liberal, new party to be called União Brasil. The merger still needs to be approved by the electoral authorities

I’m curious to see how much they’ll lose to ApB

[Kowani]

Peruvian President Pedro Castillo has accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Guido Bellido, new cabinet expected to be sworn in tonight

[Kowani]

Peruvian President Pedro Castillo has accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Guido Bellido, new cabinet expected to be sworn in tonight

New Cabinet of Ministers has been sworn in front of Pedro Castillo (PL). Former President of Congress Mirtha Vásquez (FA) has been named Prime Minister

[Kowani]

Barbados' Parliament passes constitutional amendment establishing the Office of the President, removing references to Queen Elizabeth II, sets the country to become a republic with a president as the head of state on November 30th

[Kilobugya]

Barbados' Parliament passes constitutional amendment establishing the Office of the President, removing references to Queen Elizabeth II, sets the country to become a republic with a president as the head of state on November 30th

The French in me can only celebrate everytime one place less in Earth recognizes a queen or a king. Even if it's mostly symbolic.

[Old Tyrannia]

Barbados' Parliament passes constitutional amendment establishing the Office of the President, removing references to Queen Elizabeth II, sets the country to become a republic with a president as the head of state on November 30th

"Oh Lord our God arise,
Scatter her enemies,
And make them fall..."

[Suriyanakhon]

Barbados' Parliament passes constitutional amendment establishing the Office of the President, removing references to Queen Elizabeth II, sets the country to become a republic with a president as the head of state on November 30th

The time has come to fully leave our colonial past behind. Barbadians want a Barbadian head of state.

It's a nice gesture, if mostly symbolic.