Cuba Defies US Blockade with Booming Tattoo Trade


The steady flow of people either looking to get some fresh ink or to browse the exhibits is evidence something is changing. | Photo: EFE/File photo
Published 28 February 2020

Punters, mostly young and covered in ink, revel in the novelty of having tattoo masters gathered under one roof.

The humming of tattoo machines fills the second floor of the Cuban Art Factory (FAC) in Havana in which participated hundreds of attendees at Pura Aguja, the first multidisciplinary body art event in Cuba.

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The former oil factory converted into a cultural center welcomes some 30 artists from across the island for three days, together with guests from Mexico and the United States who offer live demonstrations of tattoos and piercings.

“A super event!”16-year-old Jose says excitedly.

Needles fly over armchairs and stretchers wrapped in plastic as curious crowds gather round.

Nearby, several brands showcase their products, including Afro-Cuban-inspired clothing and jewelry line Beyond Roots, and D’Brujas a small brand of handmade soaps used for tattoo aftercare.

“We believe that it is the first of its kind because it is not an event or an exhibition only about tattoos, but body art in general. We have tried to gather a sample of the best in Cuba.

“We have piercings, essential oils for the skin, henna and participants from several provinces of the country,” Ailed Duarte, organizer of Pura Aguja, told EFE.

In January 2015, Duarte launched a collective of visual artists with her husband, veteran tattoo artist Leo Canosa and the La Marca gallery workshop – the first professional tattoo studio in Cuba.

Pura Aguja organizers work together on strategies to help institutionalizing the profession within the wider arts scene in the country.

According to Duarte, “exhibiting everything from an artistic point of view, with the hygienic measures involved and the responsibility that must be assumed,” is a way of pushing for that recognition.

Nguyen Rodriguez, of the Art Factory team, says workshops and conferences included in this “experiment” also reaffirm the interest of artists to learn, which has cemented FAC as a hub of creativity.

“The evolution that (the tattoo) has had all over the world, but especially in Cuba, where there are fewer things is impressive,” says the visual artist and tattoo artist Doktor Lakra.

The chronic shortage of goods on the island induced by the U.S. blockade, which stirs almost all areas of Cuban life, also affects tattoo studios, who depend on shipments from abroad or the goodwill of friends and colleagues, who travel with suitcases bursting with ink, needles and disposable gloves.

Doktor Lakra, who offered a conference on the origins and symbology of tattoo in prison, said “It is important, not only for tattooists but for people who get tattooed because it changes the general vision that there is a stigma about this world. These kinds of events help that.”

Although men still monopolize the market, women are slowly making their way into the profession.

In Risink Tattoo, only women are behind the needles.

“We are super happy that women have also been encouraged to join this movement that throughout history was more associated with men. In Pura Aguja we have four of them, so welcome women to tattoo,” Ailed Duarte said.

 Canada

Guaido Left out in the Cold at Gatineau Lima Group Meeting

By: Arnold August

Demonstrations that took place during the Lima Group meeting in Gatineau, Quebec.
Published 29 February 2020

The peoples of the world must not forget the Trudeau government’s role in Latin America and the Caribbean, the main thrust of which lately, being the attempt to destroy the Bolivarian Revolution.

For the first time since Juan Guaido’s auto-proclamation as so-called interim president of Venezuela in Jan. 2019, a meeting of the Lima group (with its numerous political statements) has failed to even mention his name. All previous meetings of this spurious organization served as pledges to bring Guaido to power and seemed to constitute virtual swearing-in ceremonies. However, he has never been sworn in, nor even come close, except by himself. On Feb. 20, 2020, despite the extremely cold weather (even by Canadian standards), people demonstrated across Canada, including in front of the Lima group venue in Gatineau, Quebec. At the same time, a statement in English, French and Spanish was widely distributed to the public and the media from coast to coast. The message and demonstration slogans focused on the Trudeau government’s role as a U.S. proxy in the Trump-led aggression against the legitimately elected president of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro.


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This constitutes an important lesson for Canadians who are increasingly saying that they must continue not to give an inch to the international or national pressure to convert the anti-imperialist sentiment of millions of Canadians into a pathetic apologist for the Justin Trudeau government’s actions. On the contrary, following the relatively defensive Lima group position in Gatineau (the omission of Guaido), Canadians who understand the situation must seize the opportunity to inform the public and demand that Canada withdraw from the Lima Group. In addition, as also highlighted in the message being sent by demonstrators, there is a desire to step up criticism of the Trudeau government for its domestic policies, such as those being implemented against First Nations peoples, which are in flagrant contradiction with the Lima group’s self-serving, distorted and highfaluting principals of “democracy,” “human rights,” etc., by which they want to judge Venezuela.

The Gatineau meeting was the first Lima group meeting since the recent four-month anniversary of the uprising in Chile, ongoing demonstrations in Haiti, massive demonstrations in Colombia, all met with thousands of arrests, with protesters wounded and murdered, and the appalling aftermath of the coup d’état against Evo Morales. Yet, the representatives of Chile, Haiti, Colombia and Bolivia, presided over by Trump’s main ally, Trudeau, were all there in Gatineau yesterday, judging Venezuela.

The Lima Group meeting in Gatineau also once again insists on interfering in Venezuela and destabilizing it to provide pretexts for more sanctions from U.S. and Canada. In its declaration it says:

“While the Venezuelan Constitution calls for parliamentary elections in 2020, democracy will be fully restored in Venezuela only through free, fair and credible presidential elections. This process must include an independent National Electoral Council, an un-biased Supreme Court, international support and observation, full press freedom and political participation of all Venezuelans.”

This arrogant interventionist statement amounts to preparing the conditions for calling the elections a “fraud,” as no self-respecting country in the world would allow its electoral process to be decided upon in Canada, the U.S. or any other country. To illustrate once again the self-serving nature of this statement, on the very day the declaration was issued, the U.S.-backed Bolivian government, installed by a coup d’état, ruled against Evo Morales running for the Senate in the upcoming elections!

Trudeau was rewarded by the Lima group members with a special made-to-measure clause for him to “lead” on Venezuela, as part of his global search for a seat on the UN Security Council. The clause reads as follows:

“In the coming days and weeks, representatives of the Lima Group will engage in an intensive period of outreach and consultation with all countries that have an interest in the restoration of democracy in Venezuela.”

Thus, Trudeau is being mandated once again to do Trump’s dirty work, opportunistically using his advantage over the other Lima group members thanks to his ability to speak English and French, and thus able to directly reach out to Europe, the Caribbean and elsewhere, hoping to steal the international spotlight and gain votes at the UN for the Security Council seat Canada covets.

Yet, Canada does not deserve a seat on the Security Council. No country that is a faithful ally of the U.S. on all international issues, and that has been severely criticized by UN bodies for its genocidal treatment of its First Nations peoples, should get a seat at that table. Of the countries running in competition with Canada, Norway and Ireland, either would be preferable to Canada. The peoples of the world must not forget the Trudeau government’s role in Latin America and the Caribbean, the main thrust of which lately, being the attempt to destroy the Bolivarian Revolution by supporting the coup d’état against Bolivia’s elected president, thus enabling that country to join the Lima group which of course under Evo Morales, was impossible.

CHOMSKY
Democrats Abandoned the Working Class Decades Ago: Chomsky
By: Noam Chomsky - Wallace Shawn

Noam Chomsky is one of the most cited scholars in modern history and among the few most influential public intellectuals in the world. | Photo: EFE

Published 1 March 2020

In an interview with Wallace Shawn, Noam Chomsky explains how elitism and atomization have created political rifts.

Building on a friendship initiated in Sandinista Nicaragua of the 1980s, Wallace Shawn — a committed activist but someone who is best known as an accomplished dramatist and actor — interviewed scholar and linguist Noam Chomsky. In their discussion, Shawn reflected on Chomsky's words and called on him to address the ever-challenging question: how do we convince the people who were not in the room to care, to take action, given the scope and urgency of our current political crises?


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The following transcript is excerpted from their conversation, which can be read in full in the just-released book 'Internationalism or Extinction,' edited by Charles Derber, Suren Moodliar and Paul Shannon.

WALLACE SHAWN: Many of the people who do know about the consequences of nuclear war and climate change are quite well-educated people who are resented by a lot of people. Do you have any thoughts on how I mean there is a class difference that Trump supporters who laugh at the idea of global warming and climate change have a built-in resentment toward people who've been well educated and who may be better off economically? How do we reach them?

NOAM CHOMSKY: That's serious. That is a very interesting phenomenon; it has to be dealt with sensitively and with understanding. As I mentioned, 40% of the population say it can't be a problem because of the Second Coming. Now that's a deep cultural problem in the United States. People who know something about US history should all... we should all understand it.

It's very important to realize that this country was a cultural backwater until World War II. [Until then,] if you wanted to study physics, you went to Germany. You wanted to become a writer, an artist, you went to Paris. There were exceptions of course but it was overwhelmingly true, and it was true even though the United States was far and away from the richest, most powerful country in the world and had been for a long time. [There are] all kinds of historical reasons for that: it's a very insular country. There aren't many countries where you can travel 3,000 miles and be in about the same place where you left, not running into any different culture or language or anything like that.

Protected by oceans, we keep away from those bad guys, enormous internal resources that nobody else had. There were a lot of waves of immigrants that became integrated and so on, so there are a lot of reasons for it, but it's there and you can't ignore it. You can't ignore it, and there is no point railing about atheism. These are issues that have to be understood, and it has to be understood that the churches really mean something to people, plenty of people, including the Trump supporters.

These are people who have just been cast aside, nobody does anything for them. The Democrats abandoned the working class decades ago. Republicans may take a populist line, but they are much more opposed to working people than even the Democrats in policies. Working-class males are — we are supposed to call them "middle class" in the United States, the phrase "working class" is a four-letter word here — but working-class males who are supporting Trump are actually supporting policies which are going to devastate them. Just take a look at the economic policies, the fiscal policies, and others. But it's true that they are cast aside, and their values are being attacked. Their values are in many ways culturally traditional and pre-modern in the Western sense, but they are being attacked. One of the few refuges they have is the church. They are the church in a traditional community so you can't just laugh at it, it's serious. It has to be dealt with.

There is a very interesting book that just came out by Arlie Hochschild, a sociologist, who went to a pretty terribly impoverished area in Louisiana and lived there for six years and studied the people sympathetically. This is deep Trump country, and her results are quite interesting. For example, these are people who are being devastated by chemical and other pollution from the petrochemical industry, but they are strongly opposed to the Environmental Protection Agency.


I was very hopeful. My own family, many of them were unemployed working-class; most workers were unemployed, but they were hopeful.

When she asks why, they have reasons. They say, "Look, what is the Environmental Protection Agency? It's some guy from the city with a Ph.D. who comes out here and tells me I can't fish but he doesn't go after the petrochemical industries. So, who wants them? I don't want them taking away my job and telling me what I can do and speaking to me with the cultivated accents meanwhile I'm under attack by all this stuff."

These attitudes are serious. They are significant. They deserve respect and not ridicule, and I think they can be addressed. For example, I think that say in the 1930s, I'm old enough to remember, in many ways, it was kind of like now; poverty was much greater. The depression was much worse than the current recession. In fact, it was a much poorer country than it is now.

I was very hopeful. My own family, many of them were unemployed working-class; most workers were unemployed, but they were hopeful.

They had a sense that things are going to get better. There were labor actions, the CIO's organizing, there were left political parties, the unions were providing real services: a couple of weeks in the country, educational groups, workers education, ways for people to get together – somehow we'll get out of all this. That's lacking. It has become a very atomized society. People are alone in it: used to be their TV sets, now it's their cell phones or iPhones or whatever. They're very atomized, isolated, makes them feel very vulnerable.

These are the kind of things that can be overcome by organization and activism. My feeling [is] that the Trump supporters and the Sanders supporters could have been a unified bloc. Proper approaches to the problem take effort, sensitivity, and understanding of the kind for example that Hochschild showed with her sympathetic account of where these people are coming from and why. It's easy, say in the New Yorker, to have a cartoon about Trump and how ridiculous it is, but that's missing the point. Maybe it looks ridiculous, but he is reaching people for reasons and we should be interested in the reasons.

Actually, it's the same story, to turn to something else, with young Muslims in the West who are joining the jihad movements. It's not enough to scream at them; there are reasons. If you look at the circumstances in their lives, you can see the reasons and they can be addressed.

SHAWN: Real activism would start with a compassionate traveling into these unknown territories of our own land that Hochschild went into. What we can do in Boston and New York is less important than what we might be able to do if we went to Louisiana and moved there for a significant amount of time?

CHOMSKY: I don't think we have to go many miles to find this. For example, a couple of years ago, I happened to be asked to give a talk at a high school in Boston, it's called English High School, and the reason is because nobody there speaks English [as a first language]. There are maybe a dozen languages with different immigrant groups. It's a very activist community. There are local activists who are discussing the kind of work that they do there, and it's important and interesting right here in Boston. People feel that it's hopeless, we can't do anything.

How can we fight these big powers? Some of the things that were described I think were very instructive for me; I think they would [be] for all of us. For example, get together a group of mothers who want to have a traffic light at a street where their kids have to cross when they go to school. They organize leaflets, talk to each other, talk to the local representatives and other things. Finally, they get their traffic light and that's empowering. That tells you that you can do something. We are not alone. We can do other things and then you go on from there; that's how things develop. Yeah, Louisiana, but not far from home either, and there's plenty [to do] incidentally – right in our own "educated" communities. The lack of understanding in educated circles is appalling. Almost everything I talked about tonight, for example, I doubt if a tiny fraction of well-educated academics who work in these areas would even know about it – that's right, exactly where we live.

NOAM CHOMSKY

Considered the founder of modern linguistics, Noam Chomsky is one of the most cited scholars in modern history and among the few most influential public intellectuals in the world. He has written more than 100 books, his most recent being Internationalism or Extinction. Before coming to the University of Arizona as Laureate Professor of Linguistics in 2017, Chomsky taught at Massachusetts Institute of Technology for 50 years.

WALLACE SHAWN

Wallace Shawn is an Obie Award-winning playwright and a noted stage and screen actor. He is the author of two nonfiction books, "Night Thoughts" and "Essays." He is co-author of the movie "My Dinner with Andre" and author of the plays "The Fever," "The Designated Mourner," "Aunt Dan and Lemon," and "Grasses of a Thousand Colors," among others.

BUT WE ALL REMEMBER HIM FROM THE PRINCESS BRIDE

As Trump Visits India, Hindu Hooligans' Anti-Muslim Pogrom Ravages Delhi

By: Amir Malik



Anti-Muslim riots in India's Delhi have taken the lives of almost 40 people and injured over 300 as of Thursday. | Photo: Twitter @14Milimetros

VIDEO
https://www.facebook.com/teleSUREnglish/videos/543394533174399/

Published 27 February 2020

While the president of the ‘world's oldest democracy’ still was a guest in the ‘world's largest democracy’, mosques and shrines were torched, and properties were either burned and looted.

Bullet-ridden bodies kept lining at hospitals' wards as Donald Trump applauded India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his “hard work to ensure religious freedom." The U.S. President's much-awaited visit to India on Feb. 24 coupled with anti-Muslim riots in the country's capital city where almost 40 people have been killed and over 300 are injured.

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Soon after Trump left India, the U.S. issued level-two travel advisory and safety notice. "Exercise increased caution in India due to crime and terrorism. Some areas have increased risk."

While the president of the ‘world's oldest democracy’ still was a guest in the ‘world's largest democracy’, mosques and shrines were torched, and properties were either burned and looted. Two "democracies" together failed to control the riots which are still going on.

The goons assaulted Muslims on the streets while chanting "Jai Shri Ram" (Hail Lord Ram), the far-right Hindu slogan in India. Many said the police have been conniving with the rioters. "This is communal police,” said Vrinda Grover, the country's prominent lawyer. They were treacherous to their oath of upholding "peace', performing public "service" and ensuring a "just" approach towards citizens.

In 1969, when Richard Nixon visited India, he reportedly told the White House that Indians were "slippery, treacherous people.” Nixon, a racist to his core, had to resign from the post of President of the U.S. following the Watergate Scandal. He hated the non-whites and even called Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, a witch. Nixon, a loathsome man said what he did about Indians out of his deep-entrenched racism. After half-a-decade since, a U.S. president visits India and rather than calling its current Prime Minister, a "mass murderer," as the Supreme Court of India once observed, he eulogized Narendra Modi, notorious for spearheading the Gujarat anti-Muslim pogrom. Modi is the man who the U.S. denied a diplomatic visa in 2005 citing his "failure" to halt the "Hindu-riot.”

"Remove #DelhiPolice for 5 minutes, we will wipe out #Islam from Delhi" - Hindutva Extremist

This man openly calling for ethnic cleansing of Muslims in #Delhi.#Delhigenocide #DelhiViolence #India #DelhiIsBurning #DelhiBurning #DelhiRiots #Islamophobia pic.twitter.com/b3PMEtSkoS— DOAM (@doamuslims) February 27, 2020

Right-wing propaganda TV channels of India hailed the hand-shake and "bear-hug" of Trump and Modi when the country (particularly women of India), protested the amended Citizenship Bill since December 2019 after it was tabled in the parliament and quickly passed as an act. The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), grants citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Christians, and Parsis, who the ministers of the ruling party say "faced religious persecutions" in neighboring Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan.

However, it excludes Muslims from everywhere including Myanmar (where Rohingyas are facing brute of Myanmar Army) and Hindus from Sri Lanka. It is evident that the act in question is discriminatory and despite that Trump only said, "I want to leave that (act in question) to India and hopefully they will make the right decision for their people." The act promising safety and happy life to the minority in the neighborhood, is setting a highway for killing minorities within India's border.

Seeking happiness, Melania Trump visited schools in Delhi to attend "happiness classes" run by the Union Territory government. The newly-formed government of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the capital and the chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, who came to power recently maintained "strategic" silence. Probably, for the first time in Delhi, one could question what Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi said, "What you seek is seeking you." The Delhiites were seeking happiness, but they got death instead. Death, perhaps, is the only happiness for the Muslims.



غوغاء هندودوتفا المتطرفة تهاجم مسجدا في دلهي. لقد تسلقوا المئذنة ورفعوا علم الزعفران.#الهند #دلهي #India #DelhiPolice #DelhiRiots #DelhiCAAClashes #DelhiIsBurning #DelhiBurning pic.twitter.com/lzXStNdaMb— DOAM (@doamuslims) February 26, 2020

As Delhi burnt in the anti-Muslim pogrom, Mr. Trump and Melania Trump walked the red carpet for the dinner hosted by the President of India. Such dinners need special lights; the great Roman Emperor, Nero used to hold giant feasts. Known for his "madness and cruelty", Nero would burn bodies of prisoners and poors to illuminate the feast he served in the night. In Delhi, as evening approached and sunlight got moved to the West, the flames from burning houses must have illuminated the duo's table as they dined. However, has India treaded Nero's path? We do not know. What we do know is that this is not the first time when India has burnt the poor minority of its country.

In 1984, the anti-Sikh pogrom spearheaded by the then ruling Congress party shattered Delhi to the core and more than three thousand Sikhs were massacred within a week on the streets of India's capital. The then, newly elected Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had said, "When a big tree falls, the earth trembles," referring to the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi (by two of her Sikh bodyguards) and the bloodbath that the Indian state took recourse into.

In 2002, the anti-Muslim pogrom saw bloodbath on the streets of Gujarat. Narendra Modi was the Chief Minister. A coach of a train was burnt and over 50 right-wing people died. Till today, no one knows how that coach carrying Hindus caught fire, but Muslims were instantly blamed. When Hindu rioters assaulted Muslims, burnt their houses, raped Muslim women, cut womb of pregnant mothers and threw children in the burning fire, Modi told in a meeting with his officials, "Let the Hindus vent their anger." Sanjiv Bhatt, the officer who revealed this to the public has been languishing in prison soon after Modi became the Prime Minister of India.

In 2008, hell broke out in Kandhamal where about 50 Christians were killed, 250-300 churches were destroyed, 600 villages were ransacked, 5,600 houses were looted, more than 50,000 were rendered homeless in a months-run riot by Hindu rioters. Statements filled with venom were spread to justify crimes against humanity. Similar voices echoed from the mouths of several leaders from the country’s current ruling party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) during the Delhi elections which ended recently.


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The Home Minister of India, Mr. Amit Shah asked voters to "press” the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) so hard that the "current" reaches out to Shaheen Bagh, where Muslim Women sat in protest against the CAA. The movement was considered Muslim women uprising in India and served as a model for other areas of the country to come out and assert themselves. They did come and said, "we would not be cowed down.”

They have been worrying that if clubbed with the nationwide register of citizens, the National Population Register (NPR) and the CAA would be “catastrophic." Protestors fear that the National Population Register (NPR), a precursor to the National Register of Citizens (NRC) would ask the citizens of India to prove that they are Indians. The government said that it only wants to document citizens, a claim which stood redundant after the right-wing goons unleashed Hindu-terror echoing the Home Minister who had, several times in the past, said, "illegal immigrants" would be pushed out of the country and "termites" (a slang he fondly uses against Muslims) would not be tolerated.

India, a culturally diverse country and a heterogeneous one, would have people outside the frames of state, like Sadhus (Saints), vagabonds or people who do not believe in the concept of the nation-state. “They are most important for a democracy to survive as they fiercely criticize the state,” Varun Sahni, the Vice-Chancellor of the Goa University had said in a public talk by Technology Information, Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC), a think-tank body of the Indian state. They do not maintain a proof for showing the state who they are, not primarily because they simply rebel (as state portrays the non-state actors) but due to their ideological non-acquiescence towards a world imprisoned by boundaries. Above all, many "others" are forced to be stateless and are pushed into the Detention Camps (India is making new ones) because they are "undesirable,” a ready-made fuel to illuminate Nero's feast.

As happens in any anti-minority right, members of the majority community also pay the price, this time, in Delhi, a few among the dead are Hindus.


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Prime Minister Narendra Modi told Trump that once India had about 40 million Muslims and now it houses 200 million. The parameter to decide “religious freedom” is faulty as Trump was not told that Hindus as well grew to the tunes of 966.3 million in the last census from 303 million in 1951. Also, Jammu and Kashmir, the Muslim majority population which India later administered had been exempted from the 1951 Census of India.

By saying what he did, Narendra Modi once again fanned the fire of lies that the Muslim population is “exponentially growing.” The truth, however, is that it has been growing slower than it did in the last decades. The prestigious newspaper The Hindu was called a “minority appeasement newspaper” when it reported otherwise, using the government census report. What Nixon and his security advisor Henry Kissinger said about Indians is something no Indian would like to listen to. Agreeing to Nixon's bigotry remark “slippery and treacherous,", Kissinger added that "the Indians are bastards anyway. They are the most aggressive goddamn people around." Whether Indians proved the imperial and the racist America correct can be understood by visiting the areas hit by an anti-Muslim pogrom in Delhi.

Argentina's Fernandez Defends Evo Morales' Presidential Victory

Published 1 March 2020 

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology conducted an analysis of the results of the elections in Bolivia last October 20 and highlighted the legitimate victory of Morales by more than 10 percentage points.

The President of Argentina, Alberto Fernández, ratified his complaint that in Bolivia "the rule of law was violated" after the coup d'etat against Evo Morales and demanded "prompt democratization" in the country "with the full participation of the peop

"According to a report published by the Washington Post and made by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Evo Morales won last year's election by more than 10 points, without any fraud," the president wrote.

In a series of tweets on his Twitter account, Fernández said that "the report disseminated, with singular hardness, criticizes, for its inconsistency, the audit conducted at that time by the OAS (Organization of American States) that concluded in affirming the existence of irregularities in the election that is now claimed".

"As I always pointed out, in Bolivia the rule of law was violated with the actions of the Armed Forces and sectors of the opposition to the then president and with the explicit complicity of the OAS that was called to ensure the full validity of democracy." 

Fernández said: "The Argentine Government at the time (headed by Macri), kept an accomplice silence before such an outrage, ignoring the voices that then rose to preserve the Bolivian institutionality."

The MIT study questions the report in which the OAS once noticed irregularities in the elections and that served as an argument for its secretary general, Luis Almagro, to ensure that there was fraud in favor of Morales.

The day that an advance of the OAS report was published, on November 10, in violation prior to an agreement to disseminate the report later, the then President Morales announced his resignation, and left the country to Mexico, which granted him asylum . 

The Indigenous leader was pressured to leave Bolivia, after the army, along with the police command, asked him to resign, which consumed the coup, orchestrated by the right-wing opposition that did not recognize Morales's triumph in the elections of last october

The now campaign leader of the Movement to Socialism (MAS) of Bolivia remained in exile for a month in Mexico and on December 12, two days after Fernández assumed the Argentine Presidency, he arrived in Buenos Aires, where he requested refuge.

The new elections in Bolivia will be held on May 3 and the MAS candidate, Luis Arce, heads the polls in the face of the elections organized by the electoral authorities chosen by the de facto government. 

Mexico: OAS Must Clarify Audit of Electoral Fraud in Bolivia

Former Bolivian President Evo Morales. | Photo: EFE

Published 28 February 2020

" [...] the Organization must clarify and explain the deficiencies in its report that were announced by these two investigators (MIT),” the Mexican spokesman said.


Mexico will demand the Organization of American States (OAS) "clarify and explain the deficiencies in its report," in which it affirmed the existence of alleged irregularities during the elections of Bolivia in Oct. 2019. This action follows a report revealed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), which states that there is no "statistical evidence" of electoral fraud.


RELATED:

A Washington Post Survey Rules out Electoral Fraud in Bolivia

On Tuesday, researchers John Curiel and Jack R. Williams from MIT published an investigation in the Washington Post explaining that there is no statistical support to justify the claims made by the current de-facto government about electoral fraud. Statistics were the central basis in the report presented by the OAS, which claimed fraud.

"Bolivia described its October elections as fraudulent. Our investigation found no reason to suspect fraud," they said in the study conducted by the two investigators.

The spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Mexico, Roberto Velasco, spoke on the fact and said that it is not possible to consider that the analysis of both researchers has any political interest.

"From our perspective, given the results of the study, which call into question the analysis of the Organization of American States and what was expressed by its Secretary-General, Luis Almagro, the Organization must clarify and explain the deficiencies in its report that were announced by these two investigators," the Mexican spokesman said.

Given this, Mexico's mission at the OAS will formally request that a "third party" conduct a comparison of the two reports and clarify the discrepancies between them.

The OAS denounced 12 severe irregularities in its report, made six observations, and concluded that it was not possible to give certainty of the results of the Transmission of Preliminary Electoral Results (TREP) after its paralyzation, declaring a potential fraud.

However, the analysis published in the Washington Post states that the OAS does not cite any previous investigation to prove that there was a fraud with the paralysis of the Transmission of Preliminary Electoral Results (TREP), which casts doubt on its submitted report.

Bolivia is immersed in a profound social and political crisis after the OAS report became the tip of the iceberg that led to the resignation of then-President Evo Morales. Since then, a series of human rights violations and political persecutions have been committed, which has led to concern by international organizations like the UN.

Fernandez Renews Commitment to Fighting Poverty in Argentina


Newly elected President of Argentina Alberto Fernandez waves to a crowd in Buenos Aires. | Photo: Notimérica

Published 1 March 2020

In his speech at the opening session of the Argentinian Congress, the president presented a series of achievements of his management, which began last December 10.



The President of Argentina, Alberto Fernández, renewed on Sunday his government's fight against poverty and unemployment so that they can rebuild the income of those who have less, in addition to strengthening policies to protect wome , in particular he announced that he will send a project to legalize abortion.


RELATED:

Argentina's Fernandez Defends Evo Morales' Presidential Victory

In his speech at the opening of ordinary sessions of the Congress of Argentina, the President presented a series of achievements of his administration, which began last December 10 and advanced the next steps that his Government will take in social, economic, financial, judicial matters and foreign policy.

Fernández presented a negative diagnosis on the inheritance he received from the government of Mauricio Macri, tracing a "dramatic, destructive" situation on the economy and the National State.

In that sense, he highlighted the enormous challenges facing his administration for this year 2020 and the effort they will make in his Government to strengthen social rights and move forward in recovering the economy.

He proposed measures to reform the judicial system in several areas aimed at improving and strengthening the delivery of justice in an impartial manner.

The head of state also ruled in favor of tightening security policies in order to deal with organized crime and drug trafficking effectively.

On the social issue, Fernández stressed that "we have found an extremely delicate situation, we receive a country damaged in its social and productive fabric."

"We must stop the fall of Argentines in poverty, reassure the economy, recover work and rebuild the income of those who have less," he said

"The fight against our hunger is a priority because eating cannot be a privilege," said the president, adding that "That prices stop growing in Argentina is everyone's responsibility."

Fernández announced that he will send to Congress a bill to legalize abortion, along with an initiative to give assistance to two low-income women who decide to give birth to their children for two years.

"Within the next ten days I will present a bill for voluntary termination of pregnancy," Fernandez said.

A project to legalize abortion had already been discussed in 2018, during the Government of Mauricio Macri (2015-2019), when the Chamber of Deputies endorsed it but the Senate rejected it, amid massive mobilizations for and against the initiative.

Ecuador: Andean Peoples Greet New Year Dancing 'La Diablada'

In January, Indigenous communities in Pillaro, Ecuador, celebrate The Dance of the Devils (La Diablada), a festival recalling the resistance of their ancestors to the ​​​​​​​Spanish conquest.

Thousands dance for hours wearing masks that evoke images of devils. Made with paper and wire, ​​​​​​​these masks also include horns of animals such as bulls, deer or rams.

During this early Andean carnival, groups of dancers compete with each other to stand out as the best performers.​​​​​​​

While touring downtown Pillaro, devils scar, curse, and dance with a sticky rhythm that entertains visitors

Afro-Feminist Resistance in Brazil’s Carnival
February 25, 2020

In Southern Brazil, the all women's carnival block Cores de Aide is marching for political resistance and in defense of women, who have been particularly under attack during the far-right presidency of Jair Bolsonaro.



Story Transcript

Carnival.

Brazil’s biggest celebration of the year.

This is the scene televised into most homes across the country and the world.

Massive floats and carnival blocks in the Samba stadiums of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.

But on the streets nearby, there’s another carnival.

Blocos Afro, or Afro group have been performing in Brazil since the 1970s.

They were born in Salvador, Bahia, in 1974, with the legendary group Ilê Ayê.

And they have spread across the country, even far to the south.

Their music has its roots in Afro-Brazilian religion and culture.

These groups and their performances are about honoring black Brazilian culture, history, and resistance, which is at the heart of carnival.

Angela Maria:

“We, blacks, are the ones who really made carnival. And carnival is an opportunity to be in the streets and lift our voices and celebrate  our dances and song.”

Here, in Florianopolis, the Afro group Cores de Aide is taking it a step further. It’s composed of all women. They march and dance in defense of women, who have been particularly under attack, amid the government of far-right president Jair Bolsonaro.

They were joined in the streets by allies and members of other groups and social movements.

Eliro, social worker:

“The goal of this carnival block is to unite the women in struggle in Florianopolis, and to highlight our daily struggles here.”


Sarah Massí, Cores de Aide:

“We are here to honor the women of the leaves. Those who are marginalized by society. Women healers. Women from traditional black communities. Women small farmers. Indigenous women. Candomblé priestesses. Women of the Landless Workers Movement. All of these women who are resisting. And each of us who is present today.”


Before performing they held a minute of silence in honor of Elenir de Siqueira Fontão, the director of a local state school who was brutally killed last week. Brazil is the fifth-worst country in the world for violence against women. Over the last three years, 3200 women here were victims of femicides.

Eliro, social worker:

“This act is important, principally at this moment when this country is not well, when public policies are weaker than ever. When women are dying. When LGBT people are being killed daily.”


Sarah Massí, Cores de Aide:

“This is an act of political resistance, to give a counterweight to this chauvinista, racist, homophobic and LGBT-phobic society, that is only focused on the appearance. That’s why we are here fight. Everyone should feel welcomed here on this planet, which belongs to all of us.”

The Laura Flanders Show: Trump’s Wall and the End of the American Frontier

Partner Content Provided By:The Laura Flanders Show

February 27, 2020

Historian Greg Grandin talks about his new book, "The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America." Will the wall finally force us to reckon with the white supremacist conquest veiled by the frontier myth?

"The views expressed in third party content do not necessarily reflect those of The Real News Network or its editors."

Corporate Democrats Target Sanders as his Popularity Rises
The Intercept's Akela Lacy says Sanders is being targeted by wealthy interests who would be damaged by his presidency