FORDISM=CAPITALISM

Vehicle production revs up in Argentina after pandemic slump

A total of 193,580 vehicles were manufactured in Argentina in the first half of the year – 123.9 percent more than in the same period last year.


CARS ON AN ASSEMBLY LINE AT A PLANT IN BUENOS AIRES PROVINCE. | NA

A total of 193,580 vehicles were manufactured in Argentina in the first half of the year – 123.9 percent more than in the same period last year, when production was all but paralysed by the coroanvirus pandemic, the Association of Automobile Manufacturers (ADEFA) reported on Tuesday.

The industry, one of Argentina’s largest, registered particularly strong numbers in June, with 40,035 units manufactured – 14.5 percent more than in May and 155.7 percent up on the same month the previous year.

ADEFA also said that in the first semester, automotive factories exported 107,877 units, which represents an increase of 102.7 percent compared to the same period last year when 53,222 vehicles were sold abroad.

In the domestic market, meanwhile, between January and June, 172,426 units were sold to dealers – 40 percent more than the 123,158 that were delivered in the first half of 2020.

"The results of the first semester underline the efforts made within the entire value chain since we resumed operations after the [coronavirus] quarantine to return to the path of growth, despite the logistical and health limitations at an international level," said ADEFA President Daniel Herrero in a statement.

Argentina’s economy has been showing signs of recovery of late, after registering a huge 9.9 percent contraction in 2020 as Covid-19 restrictions and lockdowns hit businesses across the country. That slump followed two previous years of recession.

Economic activity grew 28.3 percent in April from the previous year, according to data from the INDEC national statistics bureau, though it fell 1.2 percent compared to March, when a brief nine-day Covid-19 lockdown was imposed.

According to INDEC, gross domestic product rose by 8.2 percent in the first four months of this year, compared to the same period in 2020.



– TIMES/AFP

Brazilian presidential hopeful Eduardo Leite announces he is gay

"I am a gay governor and I am proud of it, declares Rio Grande do Sul state governor Eduardo Leite, as he denounces intolerable attacks from political rivals.



HANDOUT PICTURE RELEASED BY AGENCIA PIRATINI SHOWING RIO GRANDE DO SUL GOVERNOR EDUARDO LEITE TALKING ON A MOBILE PHONE AT HIS OFFICE OF THE PIRATINI PALACE IN PORTO ALEGRE, RIO GRANDE DO SUL, BRAZIL, ON MARCH 27, 2020. | FELIPE DELLA VALLE / AGENCIA PIRATINI / AFP

LATIN AMERICA | 05-07-2021 

A Brazilian governor and possible presidential candidate has come out as gay, causing a stir in a country experiencing an ultra-conservative wave under President Jair Bolsonaro, known for his homophobic comments.

"In this Brazil of little integrity, at this time, we have to debate who we are, so that everything is clear and there is nothing to hide," Eduardo Leite, the governor of Rio Grande do Sul state, told the Globo broadcaster in an interview broadcast last Friday.

"I am gay, I am a gay governor," the 36-year-old said, adding: "And I am proud of it."

Leite, seen as a centrist, chose Pride Week in Brazil to address gossip swirling around him ever since he became a potential presidential candidate for the PSDB social democratic party for elections in October 2022.

"Now with my participation in national politics, in this national debate, there have been ever-growing attacks by my rivals," he said.

"I go out to dinner with my boyfriend, I do not hide from anyone. But there has always been some brouhaha, some allusion, a joke from the president, attacks from other politicians. This is not right, it is not correct, it is not tolerable," he said.

According to the O Globo newspaper, this is the first time a presidential candidate has come out in Brazil, where homosexuals and members of the trans community are attacked on a daily basis.


His statement quickly became a dominant discussion point on social media, with many hailing Leite's "courage."

"Admiration and respect for my friend @EduardoLeite_" tweeted São Paulo governor Joao Doria, another PSDB presidential candidate.

Latin America's largest country is known for a strong culture of machismo and overt homophobia, not least on the part of Bolsonaro, who once declared he would rather his son die than be gay.

– TIMES/AFP

UNLIKE THE USA

Argentina’s Senate approves transgender job quota law

Senate backs sweeping legislation that reserves one percent of all public sector jobs for members of the trans community.


ARGENTINA | 28-06-2021 

ACTIVISTS HAIL THE PASSAGE OF THE TRANS JOB QUOTA LAW IN ARGENTINA'S SENATE. | NA: COMUNICACIÓN SENADO


In a major breakthrough for LGBTQ rights, Argentina’s Senate has approved sweeping legislation that mandates that one percent of all public sector jobs should be reserved transgender individuals.

LGBT+ activists hailed the trans quota law’s passage last Thursday, with many saying that it would “change lives'' for many in the trans community by including them in the formal job market.

The bill, promoted by the ruling Frente de Todos bloc and authored by legislator Gabriela Estévez (FdT-Córdoba), was approved by a 55-1 vote, with just six senators abstaining. It bears the name of campaigners Lohana Berkins and Diana Sacayan, who both passed away before its passage.

The initiative was backed by campaigning organisations, including the LGBTIQ+ League of the Provinces and the Federal Trans and Travesti Argentina Convocation.

The law’s approval is seen as a significant step forward for the trans community, which historically has had fewer job opportunities and are vastly underrepresented in leadership positions.

Apart from suffering widespread discrimination and stigmatisation, members of the trans community has an average life expectancy of 36 years, according to academic studies.

Studies by the Asociación de Travestis, Transexuales y Transgéneros de Argentina (ATTTA) have shown that 90 percent of the community is outside the formal job market while almost 95 percent "find themselves in situations of prostitution on the extreme fringes of society." Some 60 percent were unable to finish their schooling.

According to a separate 2017 survey in Buenos Aires City, only nine percent of trans people had a formal job and 70 percent were sex workers.

Senators voted overwhelmingly in favour of the law, which reserves one-percent of jobs in the public sector for members of the trans community.

The only vote against the regulation was from Córdoba's PRO Senator Ernesto Martínez, while the six abstentions were from Roberto Basualdo (PyT-San Juan), Julio Cobos (UCR-Mendoza), Silvia Elías de Pérez (UCR-Tucumán), Laura Rodríguez Machado (PRO-Córdoba), Humberto Schiavoni (PRO-Misiones), Belén Tapia (UCR-Santa Cruz).

PRO Senator Gladys González (Buenos Aires City) was among those who backed the law. In doing so, she inherently criticised her own previous vote against Argentina's historic equal marriage law back in 2010

"I did not understand and thus voted with a partial view, conditioned by the cultural, the religious, full of prejudices and ignorance," she admitted.

Senator Norma Durango, of the Frente de Todos ruling coalition, hailed the vote as a major breakthrough.

"We are discussing something beyond the transgender labour quota. We are discussing whether trans and LBGTQ people are going to be afforded rights that they are guaranteed, as citizens: human rights. That is what we are talking about,” she declared.

Undersecretary of Diversity Policies Alba Rueda, said that the legislation “enriches our society in the sense that diversity is a great strength of democracy and, in this way, we believe that we have great contributions for making the democratic quality of our country."

Women, Gender and Diversity Minister Elizabeth Gómez Alcorta also celebrated the news.

“This law arrives to repair a chain of exclusions that often begins in childhood. It is not admissible that in Argentina there are people whose life expectancy does not exceed 40 years, simply because of their desire to live according to their self-perceived identity,” she declared.

Follow suit

The new rules – which were initially introduced with emergency decree last year – apply to all three branches of the federal government, decentralised and autarchic organisations, non-state public entities and state-owned firms.

In a bid to encourage private businesses to follow suit, the law also offers tax incentives and soft loans for firms that recruit members of the trans community.

Experts say the codifying of the emergency decree into law will strengthen its enforcement.

To facilitate access to formal employment, the project indicates that "the requirement of educational completion [of a degree] cannot be an obstacle to entry and permanence in employment" and that "trans people are understood to be all those who perceive themselves with a gender identity that does not correspond to the sex assigned at birth." The law says that most criminal records should not be taken into account when hiring trans workers.

Argentina is something of a pioneer for human rights, legislating in favour of sexual diversity with its gay marriage law of 2010 and a gender identity law a year later.

Congress is pending another initiative that has been in the works for a long time: the Historical Reparation Law for trans people over 40 years old.

Argentina and the UK host virtual conference in name of LGBT+ rights

Argentina and the UK to host a virtual conference of the Equal Rights Coalition, as co-chairs of the intergovernmental body dedicated to the protection of the rights of LGBTI people across the globe.



IN THIS FILE PHOTO TAKEN ON NOVEMBER 2, 2019 A REVELLER HOLDS A RAINBOW FLAG DURING THE GAY PRIDE PARADE OUTSIDE THE CONGRESS BUILDING IN BUENOS AIRES. GOVERNMENT POSITIONS WILL BE RESERVED FOR TRANSVESTITES, TRANSSEXUALS AND TRANSGENDERS, ACCORDING TO A DECREE ISSUED ON SEPTEMBER 4, 2020. | AFP/RONALDO SCHEMIDT


This week, Argentina and the UK are to host a virtual conference of the Equal Rights Coalition (ERC), an intergovernmental body of 42 Member States dedicated to the protection of the rights of LGBTI people across the globe.

The conference, taking place today and tomorrow, is an opportunity to launch a new comprehensive strategy and five-year implementation plan which aims to increase international cooperation for the cause.

All 42 participant countries of the ERC — co-chaired by Argentina and the UK since 2019 — are expected to take part as well as representatives from civil society organisations and international bodies such as the United Nations and the World Bank.

Today’s opening session includes the participation of Wendy Morton (Vice-Chancellor of the UK) and Pablo Tettamanti (Vice-Chancellor of Argentina). On Wednesday Morton is also set to gather with Victoria Donda, head of Argentina’s National Institute against Discrimination, Xenophobia and Racism (INADI in its Spanish acronym), in order to announce the next steps of the ERC strategy.

The ERC was founded in 2016 at the Global LGBTI Human Rights Conference in Montevideo, and its work remains crucial in the field given that 69 countries continue to criminalise homosexuality.

The virtual gathering will be a major milestone in the lead up to the international event ‘Safe To be Me: A Global Equality Conference’ which will be hosted next June in the UK, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the first official Pride marches in London.

“As co-chair of the Equal Rights Coalition, we are working with 41 partner countries to tackle discriminatory laws and prejudice globally,” said the UK’s Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, adding that “the UK champions LGBT rights because we believe freedom and tolerance are a source of strength in communities at home and abroad.”

But in the run-up to this weeks conference, the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) was obliged to publicly apologise for the historic ban of LGBT individuals from working in the British Diplomatic Service.

The department’s Permanent Under-Secretary, Sir Philip Barton, reported: “The ban was in effect because there was a perception that LGBT people were more susceptible than their heterosexual counterparts to blackmail and therefore posed a security risk.”

"I want to publicly apologise for the ban and the impact it had on our LGBT staff and their loved ones, both here in the UK and abroad," he added.

– TIMES

WHO: World passes 'tragic milestone' of four million Covid deaths

The world passed the "tragic milestone" of four million recorded Covid-19 fatalities on Wednesday, the World Health Organization said, adding that the pandemic's true toll was probably higher.

The world passed the "tragic milestone" of four million recorded Covid-19 fatalities on Wednesday, the World Health Organization said, adding that the pandemic's true toll was probably higher.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced the landmark had been reached, more than 18 months since the outbreak emerged in China in December 2019.

"The world is at a perilous point in this pandemic. We have just passed the tragic milestone of four million recorded Covid-19 deaths, which likely underestimates the overall toll," Tedros told a press conference at WHO headquarters in Geneva.

The UN health agency's director-general said some countries with high vaccination coverage were now "relaxing as though the pandemic is already over," dropping public health measures and planning to roll out booster shots.

But he said that far too many countries all over the world were seeing sharp spikes in cases and hospitalisation, due to fast-moving virus variants and a "shocking inequity" in global access to vaccines.

"This is leading to an acute shortage of oxygen, treatments and driving a wave of death in parts of Africa, Asia and Latin America," Tedros said.

"Vaccine nationalism, where a handful of nations have taken the lion's share, is morally indefensible

"At this stage in the pandemic, the fact that millions of health and care workers have still not been vaccinated is abhorrent."

Tedros said variants were currently outpacing vaccines due to the inequitable distribution of available doses, which he said was also threatening the global economic recovery from the Covid-19 crisis.

"From a moral, epidemiological or economic point view, now is the time for the world to come together to tackle this pandemic collectively."

– AFP

Biden seeks to strengthen options for workers with new executive order




By —Josh Boak, Associated Press

Economy

Jul 7, 2021 

President Joe Biden plans to sign an executive order that will reduce the ability of employers to prevent workers from going to rival firms and remove some of the state occupational licensing requirements that make it harder to land a job.

The order is designed to improve workers’ opportunities in the economy, increase their chances of employment and generate more competition among U.S. employers, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday.

“This affects construction workers, hotel workers, many blue collar jobs, not just high level executives,” Psaki told reporters aboard Air Force One, adding that Biden “believes that if someone offers you a better job, you should be able to take it.”

The order would be a key test as to whether empowering workers will lead to pay hikes and smooth the way for them to move to parts of the country where their skills are most in demand. It also enables Biden to show in the 2022 congressional elections how Democratic policies are focused on workers, a key argument as Republicans have increasingly tried to frame their party as backing the working class.

The forthcoming order will direct the Federal Trade Commission to restrict and potentially bar so-called noncompete agreements, which have stopped workers in industries including fast food and Big Tech from going to other employers for higher pay. A 2019 analysis by the liberal Economic Policy Institute estimated that 36 million to 60 million workers could be subject to noncompete agreements.

The order also seeks to ban “unnecessary” occupational licensing that can hurt the earning power of military spouses, skilled immigrants and former prisoners. The requirements can limit the ability of teachers or hair stylists to move across state lines, while also making some spend money at for-profit schools to affirm skills they already have. Roughly 30 percent of U.S. jobs require a license, according to a 2018 FTC report.

This effort builds on work begun in 2015 by the Obama administration to get states to reduce the burdens from their licensing requirements.

The order will also toughen guidance to the FTC and the Justice Department to prevent employers from sharing wage and benefits data with each other so they can suppress worker incomes. The New York Times first reported Wednesday all the worker-focused elements of the order.

It was unclear when the order would be signed.

Sha’Carri Richardson’s Olympic Ban Over Weed Is America’s Fault

The rules are the rules. But whose rules are they? Turns out, they come from U.S. government research.

By Chris Roberts

VICE NEWS
7.7.21

The saga of Sha’Carri Richardson—the fastest woman in the United States, banned from competing in the upcoming Tokyo Olympics after a drug test revealed she used cannabis last month—has united America in a way that COVID-19 could not.

The conventional wisdom from just about everyone—President Joe Biden, USA Track & Field (USATF), blabbermouths on Twitter, and Richardson herself—is that the 21-year-old athlete didn’t do anything terribly wrong when she smoked some weed to deal with emotional turmoil after learning from a reporter about her biological mother’s death, as she recounted Friday on the “Today Show.”

But, as Biden said on Saturday, “The rules are the rules. Whether they should remain the rules is a different issue, but the rules are the rules.” USATF hid behind the same tautology on Tuesday, when it announced that although Richardson’s suspension ends in time for her to participate in the 4x100-meter relay, she won’t run in Tokyo at all.

“While USATF fully agrees that the merit of the World Anti-Doping Agency rules related to THC should be reevaluated, it would be detrimental to the integrity of the U.S. Olympic Team Trials for Track & Field if USATF amended its policies following competition, only weeks before the Olympic Games,” the USATF said in its statement.

But exactly whose rules are these “rules” about cannabis in the Olympics? Turns out, they’re from the U.S government. The scientific basis originates from a research paper that relies solely on data collected decades ago by an employee at the National Institutes on Drug Abuse. That’s what’s denying a Black woman from Dallas a spot in an Olympic event she was favored to win.

And Biden could, in theory, change that.

“The whole world generally follows the United States, unfortunately not just in cannabis but in the whole war on drugs,” said Dr. Peter Grinspoon, a physician and professor at Harvard Medical School, who also writes and speaks about drugs. “They’ve also followed the U.S. largely in cannabis policy, to the profound detriment of millions of people, and of medicine, and research, and so forth.”

“If it’s performance enhancing, why did you spend 60 years saying it causes amotivational syndrome? And if it harms the athletes, how is it performance enhancing?”

Cannabis is banned in the Olympics by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), which regulates the chemical intake of athletes in the Olympics and most professional soccer players (but not most major U.S. sports, nor the NCAA). Created after the doping scandal-plagued the 1998 Tour de France, WADA has updated its policy on cannabis several times in the past 20 years. Athletes can now use CBD, for example. But under the most recent “banned list” published in September, WADA still bans THC.

As explained by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency—the outfit that manages the drug-testing program for U.S. Olympic athletes under WADA rules—WADA bans substances if they meet at least two out of three criteria. The substance must pose “a health risk to athletes”; it must have “the potential to enhance performance”; and, most ambiguously, it “violates the spirit of sport.”

Cannabis meets all three criteria, according to the science laid out in a paper titled “Cannabis in Sport: Anti Doping Perspective,” published in the November 2011 edition of the journal Sports Medicine.

A “controversial issue” that requires more research—many signatories to WADA’s World Anti-Doping Code didn’t want weed included at all, the article’s authors write—the paper’s authors nonetheless declared cannabis both deleterious and performance enhancing after a review of available research and literature. One justification offered was a statement from pro skateboarder Bob Burnquist, who once said in an interview that cannabis helps “relieve the pressure associated” with elite competition.

“There’s no evidence for that [classification] whatsoever,” said Grinspoon. “If it’s performance enhancing, why did you spend 60 years saying it causes amotivational syndrome? And if it harms the athletes, how is it performance enhancing?”

“What is this magical drug that’s bad in every possible parameter, even if the parameters contradict each other?” he added.

In its FAQs, the U.S. Anti Doping Agency says WADA published the paper. That is, WADA wrote its own rules. That’s only partially true. Two out of the paper’s three authors are WADA employees. But the third—who is listed as the lead author—is Marilyn A. Huestis, who worked for nearly 30 years as a toxicologist and researcher for the U.S. federal government’s National Institutes on Drug Abuse (NIDA).

Part of the National Institutes of Health—the same agency that also employs Dr. Anthony Fauci, America’s COVID-19 seer—NIDA is notorious in cannabis-research circles for only funding and publishing research that “shows” cannabis is harmful and bad.

That’s still true today, in 2021, when more than 120 million Americans, nearly half the country, live in states where adult-use cannabis is legal. And it was absolutely true in 2011, before a single state had legalized weed and when President Barack Obama’s administration was pursuing federal charges against medical cannabis patients.

The only “original data collected in cannabis research” cited in the paper was conducted by Huestis during her 27-year stint at NIDA: how cannabis is metabolized and absorbed into the body, and where in the body THC metabolites are found. That is, the only research justifying Richardson’s Olympic ban was created by the U.S. federal government, which still declares cannabis an addictive substance with no medical value.

Huestis, who’s now working as an independent toxicologist in semi-retirement and as a professor at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, declined to comment.

“I suggest you contact WADA media for any questions,” she told VICE News via email.

Neither NIDA nor WADA immediately responded to a request for comment. However, you can still draw a direct line from WADA’s ban to Huestis’ paper and NIDA. And NIDA is “very much known for, for lack of a better word, partisan view on cannabis,” Grinspoon added. “They’re very one-sided and negative.”

So while you can’t say that WADA took its cues directly from the White House, it’s not far off. And the federal government is still chiefly responsible for the paper that justifies not sending Richardson to run in the Olympics.

“If not absolutely influenced, it was a very disproportionate influence,” Grinspoon said.

Later research from other countries support Grinspoon’s analysis. In a paper published last year, Canadian and Swiss researchers found that “cannabis does not appear to positively affect performance, but the literature surrounding this is generally poor.”

Given WADA’s punitive ban—and the policies of other sports like Major League Baseball and the National Hockey League, which barely test for cannabis and don’t do much when a player does pee hot—“there is a need to improve our understanding of the effects of cannabis use on the athlete and perhaps adopt a clearer and overarching policy for the use of cannabis by athletes in all sports and at all levels,” they wrote.

As president, Biden could do that in a number of ways, such as by ordering a review of his government’s research, including the research cited in the paper. Until then, the rules will remain the rules, even if they’re bad rules, based on bad science.

UK High Court agrees to hear US appeal seeking Julian Assange’s extradition

By Jill Lawless
July 8, 2021 — 

London: Britain’s High Court has granted the US government permission to appeal a decision that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange cannot be sent to the United States to face espionage charges.

The judicial office said on Wednesday, local time, that the appeal had been granted and the case would be listed for a High Court hearing. No date has been set.

Julian Assange, pictured in 2017.CREDIT:AP

In January, a lower court judge refused an American request to send Assange to the US to face spying charges over WikiLeaks’ publication of secret military documents a decade ago. District Judge Vanessa Baraitser denied extradition on health grounds, saying Assange was likely to kill himself if held under harsh US prison conditions.

The judge ordered that Assange must remain in prison during any potential US appeal, ruling that the Australian citizen “has an incentive to abscond” if he were freed.

Assange, 50, has been in London’s high-security Belmarsh Prison since he was arrested in April 2019 for skipping bail seven years earlier during a separate legal battle.

Assange spent seven years holed up inside Ecuador’s London embassy, where he fled in 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden to face allegations of rape and sexual assault. Sweden dropped the sex crimes investigations in November 2019 because so much time had elapsed.

US prosecutors have indicted Assange on 17 espionage charges and one charge of computer misuse over WikiLeaks’ publication of thousands of leaked military and diplomatic documents. The charges carry a maximum sentence of 175 years in prison.



Play video WikiLeaks
Australian MPs call on US President Biden to drop charges against Assange 

Several MPs and Senators have recorded this video message calling on US government to drop its Espionage Act charges against Julian Assange.

The prosecutors say Assange unlawfully helped US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning steal classified diplomatic cables and military files that WikiLeaks later published. Lawyers for Assange argue that he was acting as a journalist and is entitled to First Amendment freedom of speech protections for publishing documents that exposed US military wrongdoing in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Assange’s fiancee, Stella Moris, urged US President Joe Biden on Wednesday to drop the prosecution launched under his predecessor, Donald Trump.



Moris, who has two young sons with Assange, said outside the High Court that the WikiLeaks founder was “very unwell” in prison.

“He won his case in January. Why is he even in prison?” she said.

“I’m appealing to the Biden administration to do the right thing. This appeal was taken two days before the Trump administration left office, and if the Biden administration is serious about respecting the rule of law, the First Amendment and defending global press freedom, the only thing it can do is drop this case.”



AP

IMPERIALI$M HIGHEST FORM OF CAPITALI$M
Tanzania president, Barrick CEO meet to review Twiga partnership progress

(Reuters) - Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan and Barrick Gold Corp top boss Mark Bristow met on Wednesday to review progress at the Canadian miner's operations in the African country, a meeting that Bristow called "highly constructive". Reuters/MONICAH MWANGI Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan addresses a joint Parliament session of Kenyan Members of Parliament and Senators in Nairobi

Barrick oversees the management of its assets in Tanzania through Twiga Minerals Corp, a joint venture formed in 2019 between the company and the government of Tanzania following a deal https://reut.rs/3yyrjGw to settle a long-running tax dispute between the parties.

Twiga Minerals manages the Bulyanhulu, North Mara and Buzwagi mines in Tanzania.

"We see the potential for more world-class gold discoveries here, but in order to achieve exploration success, we need to keep turning over our licences and assessing new ground," Bristow said in a statement.

The process of acquiring new licences is ongoing, he said.

In 2020, the government received more than $370 million in cash inflows from the Twiga partnership through taxes and dividends, the company said.

(Reporting by Rithika Krishna in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath)

HAITI IS XAOS

EXPLAINER: Assassination threatens more chaos for Haiti


PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — The assassination of President Jovenel Moïse seemed to have thrown an already turbulent nation into chaos on Wednesday, with a muddled line of succession. Here is a look at the situation:

© Provided by The Canadian Press

WHO WAS THE ASSASSINATED PRESIDENT?

Jovenel Moïse was a 48-year-old businessman and political neophyte when he was sworn in as president of Haiti on Feb. 7, 2017. The former banana producer inherited a nation in turmoil — one that had gone a year without an elected leader in place. He leaves it in chaos as well.

Taking office, he pledged to strengthen institutions, fight corruption and bring more investments and jobs to the hemisphere's poorest nation. “We can change Haiti if we work together,” Moïse said on the grounds of what used to be the national palace — one of many buildings obliterated by a January 2010 earthquake that killed thousands of Haitians.

But togetherness never arrived, and his administration was plagued by massive protests from the start. Even his initial election in 2015 was annulled, forcing a re-do that he also won. Critics accuse him of growing increasingly authoritarian. He had been ruling by decree for more than a year after dissolving a majority of Parliament in January 2020 amid a delay in legislative elections.

In February, Moïse told the U.N. Security Council that powerful oligarchs had made seven attempts to overthrow him. He also announced that month that about 20 people had been arrested in an assassination plot. But an appeals court later rejected the claim and released the accused plotters, who included a judge and a police inspector general.

___

WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT THE ASSASSINATION?

Details so far are slim. Interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph said highly trained gunmen, some speaking Spanish or English, killed the president at his home. The first lady also was shot and wounded. He said police and the armed forces were controlling security. A resident who lives near the president’s home compared the sound of the shooting to an earthquake. Bocchit Edmond, the Haitian ambassador to the U.S., described the attackers as “well trained professional commandos” and “foreign mercenaries.” But he did not comment on possible suspects or motives.

WHAT IS THE SITUATION IN HAITI?

The country has struggled with political instability — along with dire poverty and crime — since the end of the brutal dictatorships of Francois and Jean-Claude Duvalier from 1957 to 1986.

Criminal gangs this year have driven thousands of people from their homes, protesters demanding Moïse's ouster in 2019 shut down much of the economy and the country has yet to begin vaccinating its 11 million people against the new coronavirus, which is surging.

Bruno Maes, Haiti’s representative for the U.N.’s children agency, last month compared the gang situation to guerrilla warfare, “with thousands of children and women caught in the crossfire.” Pierre Espérance, executive director of the Haitian National Human Rights Defense Network, said gangs control about 60% of the country’s territory.

Police and the military, too, have been troubled, often targeted by gangs. Masked officers who said they belonged to a disgruntled faction stormed several police stations in March to free comrades who'd been accused of participating in a coup attempt. The army was re-inaugurated only in 2017. It had been disbanded in 1995 after the fall of a dictatorship.

Political strife has deepened since Feb. 7, when opposition leaders claim Moïse’s legal term had expired — five years after he would have taken office if the initial vote had been allowed. Moïse argued it ends in February 2022 since he wasn’t sworn in until 2017.

The government has been without a formal prime minister since April, when Joseph Jouthe resigned amid a spike in killings and kidnappings. His replacement has not yet been approved by the parliament.

With Moïse ruling by decree, the government has scheduled new elections for September and a possible runoff in November. The government also has pushed a referendum on a new constitution that critics allege might allow the president to extend his power. But that vote has also been delayed.

WHAT’S NEXT?

Authorities have closed the international airport and declared a state of siege.

Under the Haitian Constitution, the president of the Supreme Court would temporarily take over. But he recently died of COVID-19. The National Assembly would then select a new leader. But that's not possible because there's effectively no current legislature: The terms of the lower house members have all expired as well as two-thirds of those in the Senate.

That leaves the acting prime minister, Joseph, in charge along with his fellow government ministers, according to Haitian attorney Salim Succar, once chief of staff to former Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe.

But Joseph had only an interim role. Moïse was killed a day after he nominated Ariel Henry, a neurosurgeon, as Haiti’s new prime minister. He had not been confirmed, however.

___

Associated Press writer Ben Fox contributed from Washington.

The Associated Press

Reactions to assassination of Haitian president - 'abhorrent', 'vile'


(Reuters) -Following are reactions from world leaders and governments to the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise.

© Reuters/Andres Martinez Casares FILE PHOTO: Haiti's President Moise speaks during the investiture ceremony of the independent advisory committee for the drafting of the new constitution at the National Palace in Port-au-Prince

UNITED NATIONS


U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the attack and called for those responsible to be brought to justice.

"The Secretary-General calls on all Haitians to preserve the constitutional order, remain united in the face of this abhorrent act and reject all violence," U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. "The United Nations will continue to stand with the Government and the people of Haiti."

UNITED STATES

"We are shocked and saddened to hear of the horrific assassination of President Jovenel Moïse and the attack on First Lady Martine Moïse of Haiti," U.S. President Joe Biden said in a statement.

"We condemn this heinous act," he said, offering wishes for the first lady's recovery. "The United States offers condolences to the people of Haiti, and we stand ready to assist as we continue to work for a safe and secure Haiti."

COLOMBIA

Colombian President Ivan Duque called on the Organization of American States to send an urgent mission to Haiti to protect democracy. "We reject the vile assassination of the Haitian President Jovenel Moise. It is a cowardly act full of barbarity against the entire Haitian people," he said

FRANCE

French Foreign Minister Jean Yves Le Drian condemned what he described as a "cowardly assassination".

"All light must be cast on this crime that took place in a deteriorating political and security climate. I call on all actors in Haitian political life for calm and restraint," Le Drian said in a statement.

UNITED KINGDOM

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: "I am shocked and saddened at the death of President Moise. Our condolences are with his family and the people of Haiti. This is an abhorrent act and I call for calm at this time."

CANADA

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said: "I strongly condemn the appalling assassination of President Moïse this morning. Canada stands ready to support the people of Haiti and offer any assistance they need."

ARGENTINA

Argentina's Foreign Ministry strongly condemned the assassination of Moise, reaffirmed its solidarity with Haiti, and expressed its rejection of the use of violence.

"Argentina hopes that peace and tranquillity will soon be recovered in the country and asks for respect for democratic institutions. It calls for the perpetrators of the crime to be quickly identified so that they can be held responsible for their actions."

BOLIVIA

President Luis Arce said: "We condemn these acts of violence. ..our condolences to the Haitian people."

(Compiled by Angus MacSwan; Editing by Paul Simao)