El Salvador crackdown breaks the gangs – at huge cost to human rights

Jaime Quintanilla in Soyapango and Tom Phillips

THE GUARDIAN
Mon, February 20, 2023 

Photograph: Marvin Recinos/AFP/Getty Images

To visit her father in the Salvadoran community of El Pepeto, Karla García used to run a fearsome gauntlet of gangs and guns.

The two streets separating their homes were a bullet-pocked no-man’s land where members of the Mara Salvatrucha and Barrio 18-Sureños groups fought deadly battles for control.

“It was really dangerous. They’d have shootouts just outside,” said the 40-year-old homemaker from Soyapango, a satellite city east of El Salvador’s capital, San Salvador.

Yet on a recent Saturday afternoon, García sat in front of her father’s greenhouse with her family and there was not a criminal to be seen, nor a gunshot to be heard.


“They’ve completely vanished,” she said of the street gangs who for years ruled the area with an iron fist. Nearby walls – once spattered with the black insignia of the community’s crime bosses – had been painted white by the government to symbolize a new era of peace.

El Pepeto, a working class warren of single-storey homes, is far from the only mara-dominated neighbourhood in El Salvador to be experiencing once unthinkable days of calm.

After a highly controversial year-long “war” against El Salvador’s notorious gangs waged by the country’s populist leader Nayib Bukele, similar scenes are playing out across a Central American country once considered one of the most violent places on Earth.

Nayib Bukele, third right, during an inspection visit at a prison intended to hold 40,000 suspected gang members. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

Even staunch government critics such as the trailblazing news outlet El Faro have conceded that Bukele’s crackdown – which has seen more than 64,000 people jailed and dramatically slashed the murder rate – has produced “extraordinary change” for Salvadorans, albeit at a huge cost for democracy and human rights.

Thousands of innocent people are believed to have been arrested since the offensive began – some simply for “resembling” criminals or after anonymous tipoffs – while more than 100 have died behind bars.

“The dismantling of gangs has enormous life-changing potential for the country,” El Faro reported recently after documenting the groups’ apparent dissolution in a detailed 5,000-word investigation. “They have ruined the gangs as you knew them,” one senior gang boss declared.

In recent days, the Guardian visited eight communities in and around El Salvador’s capital to explore the unexpected pacification. Until recently, five had been the dominion of the Mara Salvatrucha, two the Barrio 18-Sureños, and one the Barrio 18-Revolucionarios group. In none was there any sign of gang members, who before would loiter on street corners, drinking, smoking marijuana and constantly observing locals and outsiders.

Children play in the park in Las Margaritas neighborhood, where, according to neighbours, they could not play because it was a meeting point for gang members, in January. Photograph: José Cabezas/Reuters

During those visits, the Guardian spoke to more than 20 sources including shopkeepers, police officers, community leaders, residents and taxi and bus drivers. All agreed that the criminal groups were a shadow of their former selves, although many suspected some had absconded or fled abroad to dodge a round-up that has seen about 2% of the adult population jailed.

Earlier this month Bukele celebrated the construction of a 40,000-capacity “terrorism confinement centre” to house the alleged “terrorists” incarcerated during his crusade against the gangs which were introduced to the country after their founders were deported from the US in the 1990s.

“Before you wouldn’t have even made it past the community’s entrance without them intercepting you. It was unthinkable to get in without their permission,” one police source said of La Campanera, another notoriously violent Soyapango community to which thousands of troops were sent late last year.

In a third area, San Salvador’s 10 de Octubre community, a local leader recalled how residents had spent years obeying the gang commandment of “see, hear and shut up”.

“You basically had to pay a tax in order to live,” he said of the crippling extortion payments Mara Salvatrucha members had demanded of businesses and residents.

But such shakedowns stopped after Bukele declared a state of emergency in March last year following an explosion of bloodshed observers suspect was the result of the collapse of a secret pact between the gangs and the government.

“So far, with the state [of emergency] this has changed,” said the community leader, although, like many interviewees, he was uncertain how long the calm would last.

Bukele, a social media-savvy former advertising executive, has basked in the reports of longtime critics that his gang offensive is working, boasting on Twitter that human rights groups and journalists had been forced to recognize “the absolute success of our war on the gangs”.

But many remain profoundly skeptical over the durability of El Salvador’s moment of peace and troubled over the crackdown’s implications for democracy in a country where more than 75,000 people died during the 1979-92 civil war.

Since taking power in 2019, Bukele has been accused of systematically dismantling El Salvador’s democratic institutions and wrecking the rule of law – charges that intensified after last year’s declaration of an anti-gang state of emergency saw basic civil liberties and due process suspended.

On Tuesday, as relatives of some prisoners marched through El Salvador in protest, the state of emergency was extended for the 11th month in a row.

“El Salvador has turned all the power over to one person: President Nayib Bukele,” El Faro warned. “Under this authoritarian regime it is the ruler who decides what to do and what to tell us.”

José Miguel Cruz, a Salvadoran gang expert at Florida International University, suspected claims the gangs had been fully dismantled were overstated, despite anecdotal evidence that such groups no longer commanded many neighbourhoods. The underlying problems that helped spawn and sustain the groups – poverty, inequality and discrimination – had not miraculously disappeared.

Scant information about what was happening in the country’s increasingly crowded prisons made it impossible to gauge what was really going on. “And what is happening in the prisons is key to what is happening in the street,” Cruz added.

But Cruz believed that for Bukele, an authoritarian-minded populist hoping to secure a second five-year term next year, the crackdown had been a resounding political success. The millennial president’s approval ratings had soared as official propaganda painted him “as a magician who was finally able to bring peace to El Salvador”.

“The success story is not the [defeat of the] gangs. It’s his perpetuation in power … It’s working wonderfully for him,” Cruz said.

An aerial view of homes abandoned by families who fled after being threatened by gang members, according to authorities, at La Campanera neighborhood. Photograph: José Cabezas/Reuters

Benjamin Lessing, a University of Chicago expert in drug cartels, prison gangs and paramilitary groups, said there were many unanswered questions over the supposed dissipation of El Salvador’s once-mighty gangs.

What had happened to their top leaders, and who was now calling the shots in the areas they had ruled?

Was their purported defeat simply the result of overwhelming government repression, or had – as some commentators claim – Bukele’s administration struck secret deals with some of their top chiefs, leaving the criminal rank and file leaderless and disillusioned?

In a recent article for the Washington Post, the Salvadoran anthropologist and journalist Juan Martínez d’Aubuisson noted how one prominent gangster known as “El Crook” had been escorted over the border to neighbouring Guatemala by a top government official. Another was released from jail.

Martínez d’Aubuisson claimed the gangs had been vanquished by “a more efficient and organized criminal form, with superior firepower: the state mafia controlled by President Nayib Bukele”.

“The maras will only survive in so far as they are able to align themselves with this new predator which tolerates no kind of competition,” he wrote.

Lessing said the long-term consequences of Bukele’s crackdown were unclear, although it was conceivable El Salvador was experiencing a major tectonic shift which would remake its criminal landscape as much as the rise of the maras did during the 1990s. “There are regime changes in criminal governance,” Lessing said, pointing to similar shifts involving drug factions and paramilitary groups in Brazilian cities such as Rio and São Paulo. “This could be one of those moments.”

Cruz said he feared the crackdown would have dire political consequences, allowing Bukele to win the 2024 election and ushering in a painful period of authoritarian governance.

Officers guard corridors and cells at a new maximum security prison in Tecoluca, San Vicente. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

“I’m very pessimistic. I think many people will realize their mistake in the next two or three years – but it will be too late,” he said. “[Bukele] already controls everything. He has absolute loyalty from the security forces.”

Whatever the future holds, ordinary Salvadorans are, for now, relishing the unusual taste of freedom from gang rule.

“It’s excellent because we feel safer. We can move around more freely … people visit us more, people who didn’t come over now do,” said García, although she asked for her name to be changed for this article and voiced concern over the detention of one local man who was jailed despite having no links to the gangs.

El Faro recognized the melting away of the gangs in such areas represented “a fundamental change in the life of thousands of Salvadorans”.

“But the price we’ve had to pay for it is sky-high,” it warned. “The cure could be as harmful as the disease.”

Revealed: Leaked document shows how Russia plans to take over Belarus

The document, written for Putin’s Presidential Administration, envisages the total incorporation of Belarus into a “Union State” with Russia by 2030.

Michael Weiss and Holger Roonemaa
Mon, February 20, 2023


Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks in an interview last summer with the Russia-1 TV channel. (Mikhail Metzel, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

LONG READ

A leaked internal strategy document from Vladimir Putin’s executive office and obtained by Yahoo News lays out a detailed plan on how Russia plans to take full control over neighboring Belarus in the next decade under the pretext of a merger between the two countries. The document outlines in granular detail a creeping annexation by political, economic and military means of an independent but illiberal European nation by Russia, which is an active state of war in its bid to conquer Ukraine through overwhelming force.

“Russia’s goals with regards to Belarus are the same as with Ukraine,” Michael Carpenter, the U.S. ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, told Yahoo News. “Only in Belarus, it relies on coercion rather than war. Its end goal is still wholesale incorporation.”

According to the document, issued in fall 2021, the end goal is the formation of a so-called Union State of Russia and Belarus by no later than 2030. Everything involved in the merger of the two countries has been considered, including the “harmonization” of Belarusian laws with those of the Russian Federation; a “coordinated foreign and defense policy” and “trade and economic cooperation … on the basis of the priority” of Russian interests; and “ensuring the predominant influence of the Russian Federation in the socio-political, trade-economic, scientific-educational and cultural-information spheres.”

In practice, this would eliminate whatever remains of Belarus’s sovereignty and reduce a country about the size of Kansas, with 9.3 million people, to the status of a Moscow satellite. It would put Belarusians at the mercy of the Kremlin’s priorities, whether in agriculture, industry, espionage or war. And it would pose a security threat to Belarus’s European neighbors, three of which — Latvia, Lithuania and Poland — are members of NATO and the European Union.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, right, attends a meeting with military top officials. (Nikolai Petrov/BelTA Pool Photo via AP)

To some observers, the strategy confirms what has long been obvious and, at times, openly acknowledged, by both Moscow and Minsk. Rainer Saks, the former head of Estonia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, told Yahoo News that “in the grand scheme of things, this document is no different from what you might think Russia wants from Belarus. Of course, Russia will take control of Belarus, but the question is if it does so at the cost of independence. It is surprising to me why this target — 2030 — is set so far ahead. Why should Russia wait so long?”

“The ‘Union State’ is a threat for the Belarusian people and Belarusian statehood,” said Svetlana Tsikhanovskaya, the Belarusian opposition leader who lives in exile in Lithuania after contesting the last election. “It is not a union of equals. It is a roadmap for the absorption of Belarus by Russia. Since our goal is to return Belarus to the path of democracy, it will be impossible to do so in a Union State with Russia.”

The Kremlin did not respond to Yahoo News’ request for comment.

The strategy document, never before made public, was obtained by an international consortium of journalists from Yahoo News, Delfi Estonia, the London-based Dossier Center, the Swedish newspaper Expressen, the Kyiv Independent, Germany’s Süddeutsche Zeitung, and the German radio networks Westdeutscher Rundfunk and Norddeutscher Rundfunk, the Polish investigative outlet Frontstory, the Belarusian Investigative Center and Central European news site VSquare.

The authorship of the strategy document, according to one Western official with direct knowledge of its construction, belongs to the Presidential Directorate for Cross-Border Cooperation, a subdivision of Putin’s Presidential Administration, which was established five years ago. The rather innocuously named directorate’s actual task is to exert control over neighboring countries that Russia sees as in its sphere of influence: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova.

A man walks past a billboard in Minsk reading, in Belarusian: "This is our land! and I will protect it!" last week. (Natalia Kolesnikova/AFP via Getty Images)

The directorate is headed by Alexey Filatov, who reports directly to Dmitri Kozak, the deputy chief of the Presidential Administration. Filatov’s team was tasked to come up with new strategies that would detail Russia’s strategic goals in all six countries, relying on the resources and input of most of the vital Russian state institutions. According to a Western intelligence officer with direct knowledge of the strategy document, Russia’s domestic, foreign and military intelligence services — the FSB, SVR, GRU, respectively — in addition to the General Staff of the Armed Forces, all actively contributed to the Union State plan. The resulting document was presented to Kozak in the fall of 2021, the same source told Yahoo News.

Like all six countries in the directorate’s purview, Belarus was once part of the Soviet Union. But whereas Ukraine and the Baltic states turned toward Europe and Western-style democracy, Belarus has been lorded over for three decades by a reliable Russian ally in the form of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, often referred to as “Europe’s last dictator.”

Lukashenko won the presidency in 1994 and has never relinquished it, through a succession of elections, none of which has ever been deemed free by international monitors. Especially egregious was Lukashenko’s last election, in 2020, when a mass protest movement took to the streets, denouncing it as stolen. Both the U.S. and EU no longer recognize Lukashenko as Belarus's legitimate president as a result. Lukashenko’s rivals, including Tsikhanovskaya, have been driven into exile or prison. Human Rights Watch has documented instances of torture of Belarusian dissidents and pro-democracy activists in its prisons, including the use of electric shock and rape.

The concept of a Union State was first introduced in the mid-1990s, in the form of a treaty designed to politically, economically and culturally integrate Russia and Belarus. A federation modeled on the former Soviet Union was created in 1999 with its own governing institutions, including a council of ministers, parliament and high court. But the project fizzled, and full implementation wasn’t discussed in earnest again until 2018, to coincide with Putin’s aggressive geopolitical ambitions.

Demonstrators in Minsk protest against Lukashenko after he extended his 26-year rule in a vote the opposition saw as rigged. (AP/Dmitri Lovetsky)

“The Union State was an old legacy of Belarus’s own ambitions, when [Boris] Yeltsin’s weak-handed Russia was in a crisis and Lukashenko, in power since 1994, tried to squeeze as much as possible out of Russia,” according to Anton Bendarjevskiy, a Belarusian foreign and security policy expert based in Hungary. “After Putin came to power, Lukashenko's hopes were dashed, and the union treaty sat on the shelf for nearly two decades. It was dusted off by Putin shortly after his annexation of Crimea, in the face of opposition from his allies.”

In November 2021, Lukashenko and Putin signed an agreement allowing for 28 integration programs, mainly focused on economic and regulatory questions. They also inked a joint military doctrine. Left out were the political aspects of fusing the two countries.

And while other neighbors of Ukraine were horrified by Moscow’s brutal invasion last year, Lukashenko remains one of the few outward geopolitical partners of an increasingly isolated Russia.

On the eve of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, President Biden said the Russian leader “wants to, in fact, reestablish the former Soviet Union.” Putin certainly seems dead-set on doing so outside of the areas denied to him because they are members of NATO or the European Union.

Russia has been steadily encroaching on the territory of its neighbors, with an emphasis on Russian-speaking populations. Putin invaded and illegally annexed Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula in 2014. That year, the Kremlin fomented, armed and financed a “separatist” movement in Donbas, in eastern Ukraine, drawing from a well-tested playbook for hybrid warfare already long in use in the breakaway territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in Georgia, and in Transnistria, Moldova, where 1,500 Russian troops are currently garrisoned. In September 2022, Russia announced it was annexing four regions in southern and eastern Ukraine last year, even as its military was being pushed back in those very areas.

Ukrainian servicemen attend joint military drills near the border with Belarus on Monday. (Reuters/Ivan Lyubysh-Kirdey)

Rumors abound that Belarus will directly join Putin’s war against Ukraine, after allowing its territory to serve as a launchpad for the invading Russian military and ongoing fusillades of Russian rockets and drone attacks on Ukraine. Doing so would further link Lukashenko’s fortunes with Moscow and open up his regime to even further isolation and sanctions from the West.

The leaked document also outlines how Russia’s military presence in Belarus will expand to feature a joint command system and Russian weapons depots. Such a development would be deeply concerning to the NATO members along Belarus’s western border.

“If a strong Russian air defense force is permanently deployed in Belarus, it will also change the defense calculus for Poland, because the Russian-Belarusian force can intercept missiles from Poland from Belarusian territory,” according to András Rácz, a senior research fellow at the German Council on Foreign Relations. “The question from the Visegrad Group side,” Rácz said, referring to the Central European umbrella of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, “is whether combat capable troops will be permanently stationed in Belarus. They already have Russian military objects, but no Russian military bases.”

Anna Maria Dyner, an analyst at the Polish Institute of International Affairs, a Warsaw-based think tank, said Russia's strategic goal is to maintain a permanent Russian military presence in Belarus. “This basically guarantees the realization of the remaining strategic goals of taking political and economic control of the country. This situation guarantees Russia an increase in security stability, that is, first of all, some cover from NATO countries, while flanking the military operation in Ukraine,” she said.

The exiled Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya in Helsinki, Finland, on Dec. 13, 2022.(Lehtikuva/Heikki Saukkomaa via Reuters)

The Belarus strategy document is divided into two parts. The first lists Russia’s goals in the short-term (2022), mid-term (2025) and long-term (2030). These are categorized into three sectors: the political, military and defense sectors; the humanitarian sector; and trade and economy. The second part of the document identifies risks associated with the goals.

For example, the document advocates the “formation of pro-Russian sentiments in political and military elites and the population” by 2022, while at the same time “limiting the influence of ‘nationalist’ and pro-Western forces in Belarus.” It also envisages the completion of the constitutional reform in Belarus that would be predicated on Russian priorities. Such reforms are in keeping with what has already taken place in Belarus in the last year.

In February 2022, Lukashenko held a referendum based on amendments to Belarus’s constitution. Among the proposed changes was removing the stated neutrality of Belarus from its constitution — one of several provisions that the BBC characterized as concessions to Putin. The referendum passed.

By 2025, the strategy document states, there need to be “sustainable pro-Russian groups of influence in Belarusian politics, military and business.” It also advocates the expansion of Russian military presence in Belarus and the introduction of a simplified procedure for issuing Russian passports to Belarusian citizens.

A Western military officer who was not authorized to speak on the record told Yahoo News that “passportization” is one of the key processes Russia uses to quietly take over sovereign territory. “They used it in Abkhazia as well as in South Ossetia and Eastern Ukraine,” the officer said. “They hand out Russian passports to local people in order to extend their interests in the regions. When needed, they can use their compatriots' rights as a justification to intervene with force.”

Putin and Lukashenko shake hands before a press conference in December 2022 in Minsk. (Contributor/Getty Images)

The Kremlin has made no secret of its “compatriots policy,” which has evolved to include not just ethnic Russians but anyone who speaks the Russian language. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov wrote in an article for Russian newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta in 2015 that offering “comprehensive support” to Russian speakers outside Russian Federation territory was “an unconditional foreign-policy priority for Russia.”

Belarus’s political establishment is to eventually fall under the dominion of “stable pro-Russian groups of influence,” the document states. But it’s not only political and military control that Russia wants to have over Belarus.

Another unmistakable aspect of Russia’s slow-motion state capture is the introduction of a single monetary currency. While the document doesn’t explicitly state that this would be the Russian ruble, the implication is obvious, given Russia’s hegemonic role in the relationship.

Indeed, the general context of the strategy doesn’t leave much room for interpretation that Moscow is seeking to gobble up Minsk’s marketplace. The majority of Belarusian exports have always gone to Russia, but with the introduction of Western sanctions on Lukashenko’s government, they became even more crucial. Russia has also propped up its economically straitened neighbor in the form of loans and budget transfers.

Energy integration is another factor for the pending Union State. The document implies that Ostrovets 1, Belarus’s lone nuclear reactor, which was financed by Russia’s state-owned atomiс energy corporation, is intended to be enlisted in a power-sharing scheme between the two countries. Belarus already imports its gas from Russia. According to Dzmitry Kruk, a senior researcher at BEROC, a leading Belarusian economic think tank, currently based in Kyiv, “Russia remains in control of the Belarusian energy sector, further deepening the country’s dependence on Russia. And Belarus will also have to pay for it.” The document also redirects the landlocked Belarus’s cargo shipping from its Baltic neighbors to Russian ports.

Cadets of the Military Academy of the Republic of Belarus stand by a tank near Zhodino, in the Minsk region, on Friday. (Natalia Kolesnikova/AFP via Getty Images)

A significant part of Russia’s strategy for Belarus focuses on what the document calls “the humanitarian sphere,” a euphemism for Russianizing and controlling the country’s civil society. One stated long-term objective is doubling the number of Belarusian students studying in Russian universities, or “opening of new centers of science and culture” in the Belarusian cities of Mogilev, Grodno and Vitebsk. These centers would be branches of Rossotrudnichestvo, a Russian cultural outreach organization that technically operates under the auspices of Russia’s Foreign Ministry. However, Rossotrudnichestvo is a notorious clearinghouse for Russian intelligence operatives and agents of influence, making Moscow’s capacity to recruit Belarusians to its security organs that much easier.

The Union State program calls for the creation of a network of Moscow-friendly nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), with financial and legal support from Russia to keep them running. This, too, would pose new international security headaches for NATO and the EU. “The Kremlin has long used dirty money, banks, companies, NGOs and law firms to support malign and subversive activities in the West,” John Sipher, a former CIA officer focused on Russia, told Yahoo News. “They’ve had an even easier time in the Russian-speaking countries in their periphery, and what this document outlines is what they’d have liked to do in Ukraine before the war and probably still think they can do now.”

By 2030, the strategy document states, Russia must have “control of the information space” and must establish “a single cultural space” and “common approach to the interpretation of history” in Belarus. One key deliverable in this realm is the predominance of the Russian language over Belarusian — something already largely in place. Russian is enshrined in the Belarusian constitution as one of two state languages. According to a 2019 census, more than 60% of Belarusians claimed Belarusian as their native tongue, but more than 70% of the country indicated that they also speak Russian at home.

Belarus’s government is also drifting towards Russia. Lukashenko foreclosed on Belarus’s cooperation with Europe after he brutally suppressed the mass protests after the 2020 election. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe subsequently concluded that the election was “falsified and that massive and systematic human rights violations have been committed by the Belarusian security forces in response to peaceful demonstrations and protests.”

Vladimir Putin and the leaders of Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Armenia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Belarus (Lukashenko is on Putin's right) attend a 2022 summit. (Reuters/Mukhtar Kholdorbekov)

“If it were not for Putin, Lukashenko would not have survived,” Tsikhanouskaya, the opposition leader, told Yahoo News. “Therefore, Lukashenko is now repaying [Putin] with Belarus’s sovereignty.”

One Western intelligence source added: “Lukashenko always kept an open mind toward the West. That only changed with the 2020 election and the following demonstrations. Since then, he owes his power only to the FSB, which rushed to help the [Belarusian] KGB. Putin never made a secret of his Greater Russia idea, and he will do everything to prevent Belarus from opening up to the West.”

There are also signs, according to analysts and government officials, that Lukashenko does not look at the prospect of evolving from client to vassal with unmixed delight.

“Neither the politicians nor the local oligarchs have a desire to join the Union State,” the Western intelligence source said. “Despite its closeness to Russia, Lukashenko has always emphasized the independence of the country in the past. He and Putin don't like each other very much. Either is waiting for the other to die.”

The Belarusian dictator has met with his Russian counterpart 14 times over the last year, far more than with any other foreign head of state. Lukashenko almost always emphasizes that the two nations are "allies.” But he has been conspicuously hesitant to certify that alliance by sending his own troops into Ukraine — something Putin is said to have repeatedly prevailed upon him to do.

Ukrainian servicemen in joint drills near its border with Belarus on Feb. 11. 

(Reuters/Gleb Garanich)

In April 2021, Russia deployed its troops to the Belarus-Ukraine border, presumably in preparation for its forthcoming attack the following February. “In the summer of 2021, it was assumed that in six months at the latest, Ukraine would have been defeated and a puppet government installed,” a Western intelligence source explained. “Everything that the Kremlin planned for Belarus, according to the paper, would certainly have been implemented then.”

Russian troops invaded northern Ukraine from Belarusian territory on Feb. 24, 2022, making a play for Kyiv. Belarusian military installations have been used ever since to fly Russian aerial sorties and launch Russian cruise missiles and drones into Ukraine. Some Western observers have gone so far as to characterize Belarus as a legal co-combatant in Russia’s war of conquest. Following Russia’s invasion, one Western diplomat to the United Nations told Yahoo News, “Putin keeps asking Lukashenko to go in, and Lukashenko keeps telling him he needs ‘three more weeks.’ Then three weeks pass and Belarus still hasn’t gone to war. And so the cycle repeats itself, comically.”

Ukrainian officials, meanwhile, have been hot and cold on the likelihood or inevitability of fighting two invaders. “We understand Belarus's efforts are to support Russia and refrain from joining the war themselves, but we also know how much Russia is pressuring them," Andriy Chernyak, a spokesperson for GUR, Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, told the British broadcast network ITV last week.

There have been a few telling episodes, too, of Belarus signaling its stated desire to remain, if not neutral, something short of an active participant in the carnage in Ukraine. In December 2022, a Ukrainian missile attempting to intercept a Russian one landed in Belarus. The incident caused no hiccups in Belarusian state propaganda, which might have otherwise easily turned this into a pretext for attack. Lukashenko has even publicly thanked Ukraine for not submitting to what he characterizes as Western pressure on Ukraine to strike back at Belarus.

Ukrainian servicemen at the border with Belarus on Sunday. 

(Reuters/Ivan Lyubysh-Kirdey)

He is said to be acutely aware that deploying Belarusian troops across the border would be unpopular and destabilizing to his rule. Acts of sabotage along Belarusian rail lines have been frequent since the start of the war, as have hacks waged by exiled Belarusian IT experts that have halted train cargo carrying materiel to the front. Piotr Żochowski, a senior fellow at the Department for Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova at the Center for Eastern Studies, a Warsaw-based think tank, said: "Lukashenko is trying to build his public authority by telling Belarusians that they will not fight on foreign soil. He just keeps repeating the phrase: ‘If we are attacked, we will defend ourselves.’”

But Lukashenko’s political bind has only tightened as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has faltered. Belarus remains a giant backstop for Russian forces, which have been engaged lately in training newly mobilized Russian conscripts on Belarusian soil.

The war in Ukraine has evidently slowed down the pace of implementing the Kremlin’s plans in Belarus. However, the war has by no means halted them. “The long-term goal to achieve total control over Belarus is still in force and hasn’t changed,” the Western intelligence officer told Yahoo News, adding that Russia continues to bank on its articulated strategy for the Union State and is still working to achieve its benchmarks. “Russia is aware that Belarus is trying to torpedo these processes,” the officer said. “Some of that is visible publicly, for example dragging out the political integration process. Russia continues to pressure Belarus regardless.”

Sergiy Kyslytsya, Ukraine's permanent representative to the United Nations, told Yahoo News: “Belarus is already a de facto Russian colony. And Lukashenko is in a Catch-22. The Russian invasion of Ukraine left him with no options. Putin doesn’t like him. His days are numbered. Lukashenko knows that well."

Bird flu kills sea lions and thousands of pelicans in Peru's protected areas


 Pelicans are seen at Pescadores beach in the Chorrillos district of Lima

Tue, February 21, 2023 

(Reuters) - Bird flu has killed tens of thousands of birds, mostly pelicans, and at least 716 sea lions in protected areas across Peru, the authorities said, as the H5N1 strain spreads throughout the region.

Peru recorded its first case of the virus in November in birds in the north of the country. Since then it has killed 63,000 birds, according to government data.

"We have also recorded since mid-January the unusual death of many sea lions, so far we have about 716 dead sea lions in seven protected natural areas of the coast," said Roberto Gutierrez, head of surveillance of the National Service of Natural Protected Areas.

Since the beginning of 2021, bird flu has ravaged the world, killing more than 200 million birds due to disease or mass culling, the World Organization for Animal Health has said.

In South America, bird flu cases have been detected in Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay and recently in Argentina and Uruguay. In Brazil, the world's largest poultry exporter, there are still no confirmed cases.

In Chile, health authorities last week detected the first positive case in marine mammal, a sea lion on a beach in the north of the country.

The population of sea lions numbered about 110,000 in Peru in 2020, mainly in the coastal region of Ica and the Paracas nature reserve, according to Oceana, an international organization dedicated to protecting oceans.

In recent weeks, crews from Peru's National Forestry and Wildlife Service, in protective plastic suits, gloves and masks, have collected and buried hundreds of sea lions from several beaches along Peru's central coast.

"What we remember initially started with pelicans last year is now affecting these marine mammals," Javier Jara, a veterinarian with the service, said.

(Reporting by Carlos Valdez Reuters Television and Marco Aquino; Editing by Alison Williams)

FASCIST FLORIDA
A Lakeland 13-year-old used a bullhorn during a protest at Munn Park. She was arrested soon after

Gary White, The Ledger
Mon, February 20, 2023

Lakeland resident Lillie "Rain" Johnson, 13, protests shortly after their release from the Lakeland Police Department after being arrested Monday afternoon. Lillie led marchers at a rally for abortion rights in Munn Park in downtown Lakeland.

When Lillie Johnson ventured to Munn Park on Monday afternoon, the 13-year-old wanted to join others in protesting the recent Supreme Court decision nullifying Roe v. Wade.

Instead, the Lakeland teenager soon became a symbol for youthful resistance to the ruling that ended a constitutional right to an abortion.

As Lillie — who prefers the name “Rain” — led marchers in a chant of “My body, my choice,” two Lakeland police officers stepped forward and seized the teen by the arms, escorting them to a squad car. Lillie, who had been speaking through a bullhorn, was charged with violating a city ordinance that forbids using a device to amplify one’s voice.

Overturned: Polk residents react with thanks, dismay to Roe v. Wade decision

'We’re coming for U': Winter Haven pregnancy center vandalized with graffiti

Lillie’s mother, Lauren Johnson, recorded part of the incident on her phone and later posted the video on social media. It drew the attention of Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, who is running for governor as a Democrat.

@laurenjohnson332 no music upload #lakeland #protest #13yo #arrested #bullhorn ♬ original sound - LaurenJohnson

Fried tweeted: “I'm posting this with her mother's permission because I need everyone to see what Ron DeSantis’ Florida really looks like. 13 year olds being arrested for protesting for their own freedom.”

The tweet had generated more than 9,000 comments and 31,000 retweets as of Tuesday afternoon. Fried followed up Tuesday at 12:15 p.m. by tweeting, “Florida doesn't have to be like this. This young woman is an inspiration. Let's give her a better, freer future.”

Fried is running against fellow Democrat Charlie Crist for the chance to challenge Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican. The DeSantis campaign did not respond immediately to a request for comment Tuesday afternoon.
'I was just glad that it was me'

Lillie, a ninth-grader, spent less than an hour at the police station before returning to Munn Park and rejoining about 200 people at the rally. Lillie, who identifies as nonbinary, said they were left bruised by the officers’ handling.

The teen joined their mother and two of their four siblings at the Munn Park event.

“My mom has talked to me about this, and I have talked to her about this and I knew that this was always one of the risks of protesting,” Lillie said Tuesday morning. “And I was a little bit scared, but mainly I was just glad that it was me, that not anyone else got in serious trouble for it because almost everyone there was over 18. In the moment, yes, it was kind of scary, but at the same time I was just kind of like — just acceptance of whatever happens, happens. I was fighting for what was right.”

More: Police arrest two protesters at Polk's only clinic that offers abortions

It was the second time in 11 days that a protest involving abortion had yielded an arrest for the use of a bullhorn. LPD officers arrested a Seffner man on June 24 at the Lakeland Women’s Health Center, the only clinic in Polk County that performs abortions. Quentin Eugene Deckard, an anti-abortion protester, was arrested on charges of breach of the peace and violating the city's noise ordinance, LPD reported.

Violation of the ordinance is a second-degree misdemeanor. City code lists the maximum penalty as 60 days in jail and a $500 fine.

LPD spokesperson Robin Tillett said Tuesday that reports and affidavits involving juveniles are exempt from public-records laws.

“Since the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling, we’ve had hundreds of people peacefully assemble across our City with few isolated incidents,” Tillett said by email. “Officers are in attendance to assure a safe and secure environment for those exercising their rights while doing so in accordance with Florida state statutes and city ordinances.”

Lillie "Rain" Johnson, 13, leads marchers during a rally for abortion rights Monday afternoon in Munn Park in downtown Lakeland. Lillie was arrested for using a bullhorn but returned and rejoined about 200 people at the demonstration.

Mercedes Werbinski of Lakeland said she organized Monday’s rally, which began at noon in Munn Park. Werbinski, 20, said that several people used bullhorns at times as they gathered in the park and later marched around its perimeter. Werbinksi said Lakeland police officers, who were watching from a corner of the park, at one point issued verbal warnings about the bullhorns.

“They did give us a warning,” Werbinski said. “But there was so many people using the megaphone (Monday) that it was kind of absurd that a 13-year-old got arrested for using one.”

The 51-second video begins after one of the officers has already gripped Lillie by the arm. Lauren Johnson shot the video while following Lillie as the two officers walked them down a sidewalk and toward a police car.

Lillie wore shorts and a crop top and a cape in pink, purple and blue, the colors of bisexuality. The teen carried an American flag and a rainbow flag for LGBTQ pride.

On the video, Johnson can be heard calling out, “Lillie, don’t resist, honey. It’s OK. I got you.”

Lillie said the officers didn’t use handcuffs until reaching the police station. Johnson said officers released Lillie with a notice to appear in court on Aug. 9, but as of Tuesday the court appearance had been canceled.

'Outraged' or 'hopeful': Supreme Court abortion draft provokes strong feelings in Polk County

Johnson said LPD told her the case had been referred to the State Attorney’s Office for the 10th Judicial Circuit. As of late Tuesday afternoon, the office had not offered any details about the case.

If the office does pursue a prosecution, Lillie is likely to have private representation. One of the comments on Fried’s tweets came from a lawyer, who offered to represent Lillie at no cost.

“I've got so many lawyers on my mom's comment sections saying that they will represent me pro bono,” Lillie said. “Like, some of the best lawyers have said that they will represent me.”

By Tuesday afternoon, the family had accepted an offer from Orlando lawyer David Haas (no relation to State Attorney Brian Haas of the 10th Judicial Circuit). Haas said he had not yet seen any court documents but said the case had First Amendment implications.

Lakeland City Clerk Kelly Koos said the ordinance was adopted in 1996 and amended in 2010. Tillett said she didn’t have statistics Tuesday afternoon for how many arrests have been made under the ordinance.

Monday’s gathering was at least the third rally for abortion rights in Lakeland since the Supreme Court issued its decision on June 24 overturning Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that established a constitutional right to an abortion. While some states have “trigger laws” under which abortion is now banned, the procedure remains legal in Florida — though the state Legislature enacted a law in this year’s session blocking abortions after 15 weeks with no exceptions for cases of rape or incest. And DeSantis has hinted that further restrictions could be coming after this fall’s elections.
Arrest came without warning, Lakeland teen and other demonstrators say

Werbinski and other local demonstrators accused LPD of selectively enforcing the bullhorn law against Lillie. Werbinski said she organized a Black Lives Matter rally in Munn Park two years ago, following the murder of George Floyd by a police officer in Minnesota. That demonstration drew hundreds of people, and Werbinski said some were using bullhorns but no one was arrested.

Lillie said that some participants in Thursday’s abortion-rights rally outside Southgate Shopping Center used megaphones, but police officers didn’t arrest or warn anyone.

Voice of the people: If a woman's right to privacy is denied, what else follows?

Werbinksi said an LPD officer told her that bullhorns can be used at permitted events. She said she did not seek a permit for Monday’s demonstration in Munn Park.

Bonnie Patterson-James said she and others at Monday’s event used bullhorns. She said police officers gave her and other adults verbal warnings but arrested Lillie without giving her a warning.

In the video shot by Johnson, some demonstrators can be seen and heard questioning the officers after following them to the police car.

“It turned into a bit of chaos, and the protesters started yelling at the officers,” Patterson-James said. “And I told them ‘This is not what we do. We are not helping her. Step away and march.’”

Patterson-James and others suspect that the arrest stemmed from complaints made by three anti-abortion counter-protestors at Munn Park.
'It's not just about abortion. It’s privacy rights, trans rights, gay rights'

While anti-abortion activists have been demonstrating for years at the Lakeland Women’s Health Center, the Supreme Court decision has spawned a round of large and public gatherings among those who favor abortion rights.

A first demonstration outside Southgate Shopping Center on June 24 drew several dozen people before a storm ended it prematurely.

A repeat demonstration at Southgate on Thursday drew an estimated 300 to 400 people — most of them women and girls — and lasted from 5 p.m. until after dark.

In other news: Methodists meet as some churches ask to separate from denomination

“I feel like they're pissed off, and I feel like they have every right to be pissed off because this is our rights,” Werbinski said. “And even if some people don't agree with abortion, Roe v. Wade is a little bit more than that. It's not just about abortion. It’s privacy rights, trans rights, gay rights.”

Lillie said they worry not just about the loss of Americans’ rights to have a abortion but also about the potential loss of other rights.

“Roe v. Wade is an umbrella law,” Lillie said. “Roe v. Wade also protects gay marriage, interracial marriages, contraceptive, IVF (in-vitro fertilization), abortion, women's rights, privacy to their health care and, like, just a bunch of other laws.”

Lillie insisted that their mother has never forced them to join a protest. Despite the arrest, the teen intends to continue demonstrating.

“If there is protests all across America, which there are, if we're loud enough and they realize we're not stopping, we hope that they will realize they've just lit a fire they cannot put out and they have some fixing to do,” Lillie said.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: 13-year-old arrested at Lakeland abortion rights protest gains support

WAR IN THE NORTH SEA
Russia targets Netherlands' North Sea infrastructure, says Dutch intelligence agency


Wind turbines from Vattenfall are seen at the North Sea in Scheveningen

Mon, February 20, 2023 

THE HAGUE (Reuters) - Russia has in recent months tried to gain intelligence to sabotage critical infrastructure in the Dutch part of the North Sea, Dutch military intelligence agency MIVD said on Monday.

A Russian ship has been detected at an offshore wind farm in the North Sea as it tried to map out energy infrastructure, MIVD head General Jan Swillens said at a news conference.

The vessel was escorted out of the North Sea by Dutch marine and coast guard ships before any sabotage effort could become successful, he added.

"We saw in recent months Russian actors tried to uncover how the energy system works in the North Sea. It is the first time we have seen this," Swillens said.

"Russia is mapping how our wind parks in the North Sea function. They are very interested in how they could sabotage the energy infrastructure."

Dutch intelligence agencies MIVD and AIVD, in a joint report published on Monday, said critical offshore infrastructure such as internet cables, gas pipes and windmill farms had become the target of Russian sabotage activities.

"Russia is secretly charting this infrastructure and is undertaking activities which indicate preparations for disruption and sabotage", the agencies said.

Covert threats by Russia to water and energy supplies in the Netherlands were also conceivable, they added.

The Netherlands said on Saturday it would expel an undisclosed number of Russian diplomats as it accused Russia of continuously bringing in spies under diplomatic cover.

It also ordered Russia to close its trade mission in Amsterdam and said it would shut down the Dutch consulate in Saint Petersburg.

(Reporting by Anthony Deutsch and Bart Meijer; Editing by Hugh Lawson and Susan Fenton)

Countries gather to thrash out U.N. ocean protection treaty


 Seagulls roost on rocks by the sea covered with a plague of 'sea snot' in Istanbul

Mon, February 20, 2023 
By David Stanway

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Delegations from hundreds of countries will meet in New York this week in an attempt to hammer out a new legally binding ocean protection treaty that green groups believe will decide whether efforts to safeguard global biodiversity can succeed.

Last August, an earlier round of talks on the new United Nations ocean conservation treaty were suspended, with countries unable to reach an agreement on financing. Sharing the proceeds of "marine genetic resources" and the establishment of ocean environmental impact assessment rules for development were also major sticking points.

Experts familiar with the negotiations said major parties have now moved closer together on key issues as new talks begin, though compromises were still being sought.

"There seems to be an appetite to actually finalise the treaty now," said Jessica Battle, ocean expert at the Worldwide Fund for Nature.

"There are several countries who are looking for some concessions to be made, but at the end of the day what is really important is that the treaty doesn't get too watered down," she said, noting that one attempt to exclude fishing from the treaty had already been defeated.

The success of the talks, scheduled to run until March 3, still "hinge on the finance question", said Li Shuo, global policy advisor at Greenpeace, and China is set to be a major player in the negotiations, especially when it comes to bringing other developing nations on board.

According to Greenpeace, 11 million square kilometres (4.25 million square miles) of ocean must be protected every year between now and the end of the decade if a target of protecting 30% of the world's land and sea by 2030 - known as "30 by 30" - is to be met.

China's foreign ministry said in a statement that it was working hard to achieve "a high-quality agreement that takes conservation and sustainable use into account and can be generally accepted by the international community."

How to share the proceeds from ocean industrial development, including the use of marine genetic resources in pharmaceuticals and other industries, will also be a crucial factor for China, which is already home to six of the 10 biggest global companies that run high seas fishing fleets.

"Genetic resources and the issue of finance will be the end game," said Greenpeace's Li.

(Reporting by David Stanway; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell)

Mexico president flags water-scarcity of northern state eyed for Tesla plant



Mon, February 20, 2023 

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -Mexico's president said on Monday the northern Mexican state of Nuevo Leon, considered the front-runner to land a major investment from Tesla Inc, struggles with a lack of water and touted the benefits of the poorer southern region where he has fought to boost development.

The comments come amid fears from some investors and analysts that Mexico's geographic advantages as a nearshoring destination for businesses looking to sell into the United States are somewhat dampened by the heavy-handed influence of the federal government.

The state of Nuevo Leon at the U.S. border had emerged as the top contender in Tesla's hunt for a site to open its first plant in Mexico, yet President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said the electric car producer has not yet made a final decision and he would speak with company executives about the location.

"There are favorable conditions in Nuevo Leon. They have a skilled workforce, they have engineers, it's very close to the border," he told a news conference. "But the lack of water?"

Lopez Obrador said he would emphasize to Tesla the need for careful planning around water, electricity and other services, noting certain northern zones ban water extraction while the southeast holds 70% of Mexico's water.

"There's water, there's gas, there's electricity ... that's part of what we want to make known," said the president, who is slated to speak directly with Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk.

Lopez Obrador has made it a priority to draw investment to southern Mexico, which has lacked the level of industrialization that has flourished along Mexico's northern border.

His administration scored a victory last year when brewery Constellation Brands opted to build in the southeastern state of Veracruz, after a partly-built project in the arid northern city of Mexicali was scrapped following Lopez Obrador's concerns over water scarcity.

Following Lopez Obrador's remarks on Monday, Nuevo Leon Economy Minister Ivan Rivas said water access had not been an issue for companies or held back investment, according to Mexican outlet Milenio.

(Reporting by Raul Cortes, Kylie Madry and Daina Beth Solomon; Editing by Stephen Eisenhammer, Marguerita Choy and Chris Reese)

IT'S NAVY SONAR TO BLAME
As dead whales continue to wash ashore on Delmarva, elsewhere, questions are also mounting

Kristian Jaime, Salisbury Daily Times
Mon, February 20, 2023
This article was updated at 4:13 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 16 to include the latest incidents along the East Coast.

As more dead whales have washed ashore along the East Coast, the calls for moratoriums on wind energy programs have also grown louder.

The most recent incidents include a right whale — one of only an estimated 340 North Atlantic right whales remaining in the world — was found dead in Virginia Beach on Sunday. The 43-foot-long, 20-year-old whale suffered multiple vertebral fractures and separations from a likely ship strike that would have resulted in death shortly after the injury.

The second whale, a humpback found in Manasquan, New Jersey on Monday, was a 35-foot female in an advanced state of decomposition. Although no outward evidence of a vessel strike was seen, an exam showed internal injuries. NOAA stated a tissue analysis should determine whether the vessel strike occurred before or after death.

Incidents included an adolescent humpback whale on the Eastern Shore of Virginia on Friday afternoon, Feb. 10, that washed ashore at the mouth of Plantation Creek near Bay Creek. According to reporting by USA Today, at least 14 whales have washed ashore along the East Coast since Dec. 1, 2022, and some have blamed the whale deaths on seismic testing being done to construct offshore wind turbines. Yet longtime whale advocacy groups don't agree.

Both whales, a critically endangered North Atlantic right whale and a humpback, were already beginning to decompose, but preliminary results show internal injuries consistent with the blunt force trauma of a vessel strike, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Tuesday.

A dead humpback whale was also found floating in the waters off Virginia Beach, near Lynnhaven Beach, on Tuesday, Feb. 7. The Virginia Aquarium Stranding Response Team, as in all similar instances, coordinated with the Virginia Beach Police Marine Patrol to track down the whale’s specific location.

UPDATE: NOAA says Virginia Beach dead whale likely hit by boat

A full necropsy is conducted in all cases of dead whales found along the Delmarva Peninsula.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration maintains there are no documented cases of whale deaths linked to offshore wind projects and no evidence of whales being injured due to the seafloor probing developers have been doing to identify cable corridors or other wind energy activity.

IN MARYLAND: 'Vessel Strike' likely cause of recent Assateague Island whale death

Maryland also had a recent carcass of a 33.8-foot humpback whale wash ashore at Assateague Island National Seashore.

"We are in the middle of an unusual ongoing (whale) mortality event since 2016 that is specific to the humpback whales. While elevated, we have also had an elevated mortality rate for humpback whales to date. We've also seen similar cases for the North Atlantic right whales also," said Sarah Wilkin, coordinator of NOAA's Marine Mammal Health and Stranding Response Program, Fisheries Office of Protected Resources in a news conference earlier this month.

Whale deaths a political football?

Benjamin Laws, deputy chief for NOAA's Permits and Conservation Division, Fisheries Office of Protected Resources, quickly stifled speculation that preliminary offshore wind seafloor scanning and development is to blame for the spike of recent whale deaths along the East Coast.

Yet that has not stopped longtime detractors of offshore wind from crying foul and demanding a federal moratorium on such development.

A Jan. 30 letter signed by 12 New Jersey mayors and Rep. Chris Smith, R-NJ, called for such a moratium, a move also backed by Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md-1st.

More on federal opposition

How does wind energy affect marine mammals, fish and birds? New studies seek to find out

"Following the death of yet another whale, this time on Assateague Island, I am calling for an immediate moratorium on windmill construction and related underwater geotechnical testing until it is definitively proven that this construction and testing are not the cause of the repeated whale deaths," Harris said. "NOAA has offered zero evidence that this construction, including geotechnical testing, is not the cause of death.

"I am also calling for a full and transparent release of necropsy results, including the necropsy results of the whale ear structures which should be removed for examination to determine whether sonar actively contributed to the cause of death," Harris said in a January statement.

Yet activists looking to bolster the case of offshore wind development claim opponents are using the whale death events to sway the conversation back to fossil fuels.

This article originally appeared on Salisbury Daily Times: Questions on wind energy rise as dead whales continue to wash ashore

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_Navy_installations

List of United States Navy installations - Wikipedia 

WashingtonEdit · Naval Submarine Base Bangor · Naval Station Bremerton · Naval Hospital Bremerton · Naval Undersea Warfare Center Keyport.

US protesters turn ire on wind farms to explain whale deaths – but where’s the evidence?

Gloria Oladipo
Mon, February 20, 2023

Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Thousands gathered at New Jersey’s Point Pleasant beach on Sunday with a united mission: to pause offshore wind projects in response to recent whale deaths along the New York-New Jersey coast.

The gathering unfolded even as officials dispute the notion that the projects may be to blame for the dead whales, a controversy that – like many – is breaking along political party lines.

Holding signs reading “Save the Whales” and “Whale Lives Matter” on Sunday, World Whale Day, a coalition of ocean conservationist groups and homegrown activists argued that local wind turbine survey projects were harming marine wildlife.

“You are the ocean’s voice,” said organizer Cindy Zipf, encouraging protesters to get in touch with their local officials.

Since 2023, at least 10 whales have washed ashore on the New York and New Jersey coastlines.

Last Monday, a ninth humpback whale was found dead in Manasquan, New Jersey.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) fisheries division, which investigates such whale deaths, has called them “unusual mortality events”.

As organizers at Sunday’s protest argued for a moratorium on wind turbines in the area, others say there is no evidence to support claims that wind turbines are the cause of the whale deaths.

Many raising alarms on recent whale deaths have pointed to noise created by offshore wind survey work as confusing the whale’s navigation system.

But scientists argue that current evidence does not support such a claim.

“It’s just a cynical disinformation campaign,” Greenpeace oceans director John Hocevar said to USA Today.

And even though the agency considers the whale deaths unusual, a statement from Noaa fisheries officials added: “[T]here is no evidence to support speculation that noise resulting from wind development-related site characterization surveys could … cause mortality of whales, and no specific links between recent large whale mortalities and currently ongoing surveys.”

Noaa fisheries research on the 183 total whale deaths found that 40% of them resulted from human interaction, either from ship strikes or netting entanglement.

Many attendees of Sunday’s rally are locals to the New Jersey coast and say they came out to express their concern.

“I’ve gotten lots of information from different sources, and you can’t argue with the fact that 10 whales have washed up,” said Kim Wetzel, 57, an Ocean City resident.

Wetzel works in a primary school and became involved through whale advocacy work in Ocean City.

“Even though we don’t have the facts yet, the facts will come – but we’re seeing the evidence with our own eyes,” Wetzel said.

“Also, what’s real is common sense,” Michelle Gehring, a stay-at-home mom, also from Ocean City, added.

Gehring said that outside whales, residents of Ocean City were complaining that offshore wind projects were causing their houses to shake.

Both felt that more time and research was needed to understand how offshore wind projects affect the environment.

Others came to the protest via friends and local Facebook groups.

“I’m trying to educate myself,” said Casey Small, a teacher who lives in Cape May, almost two hours away from Sunday’s rally.

Small said many participants did not seem to have evidence on the survey’s exact impact.

“What I’m finding is a lot of people don’t really know what’s going on,” Small said. “We don’t really have a lot of information on it. I think it’s important to have concrete evidence. I’m learning that it’s really hard to find.”

Trisha Devoe, a whale-watching naturalist, organized Sunday’s rally and became involved after learning about recent humpback whale deaths.

“You have to stop and say, ‘Is it contributing to these deaths’?” said Devoe, who wants more studies on the whale deaths.

Zipf, who has organized for decades with her group Clean Ocean Action, said organizers originally supported a pilot project for wind turbines. But they have grown concerned as larger projects develop without a complete understanding of the turbines’ ecological impact.

“[People] are outraged because they feel like they weren’t told that this has been happening,” Zipf said.

“All of a sudden, their ocean is being turned into a giant power plant.”

Politicians also participated in Sunday’s event. The New Jersey congressman Chris Smith, a Republican who represents Point Pleasant, echoed calls for a moratorium on wind turbine projects.

Smith, who said he supports clean energy where viable, has introduced a bill for the federal General Accountability Office to determine how well the environmental impact statements on wind development projects were done.

“It hasn’t been looked at strongly for those who are about the benefits financially,” Smith said. “That brings a healthy skepticism to people like myself who think, ‘I don’t get anything out of this. I just want a clean ocean’.”

Discussions around whale deaths have become increasingly partisan.

Arguments that windfarms are harming whales is a talking point that has been parroted by conservative politicians and figures, including far-right Georgia congresswoman Majorie Tayor Greene and Fox News host Tucker Carlson.

But many at Sunday’s rally said the issue, for them, wasn’t political.

“It’s very frustrating that this has become a partisan issue because the ocean has always been and always be non partisan,” Zipf said. “We all depend on a clean and healthy ocean.”

CANADIAN, EH

‘Incredibly intelligent, highly elusive’: US faces new threat from Canadian ‘super pig’
'EVIL COMES FROM THE NORTH ' - TWIN PEAKS
Adam Gabbatt
Mon, February 20, 2023 

Photograph: David Carson/AP

For decades, wild pigs have been antagonizing flora and fauna in the US: gobbling up crops, spreading disease and even killing deer and elk.

Now, as fears over the potential of the pig impact in the US grow, North America is also facing a new swine-related threat, as a Canadian “super pig”, a giant, “incredibly intelligent, highly elusive” beast capable of surviving cold climates by tunneling under snow, is poised to infiltrate the north of the country.

Related: Lynx facing extinction in France as population drops at most to 150 cats

The emergence of the so-called super pig, a result of cross-breeding domestic pigs with wild boars, only adds to the problems the US faces from the swine invasion.

Pigs are not native to the US, but have wrought havoc in recent decades: the government estimates the country’s approximately 6 million wild, or feral, pigs cause $1.5bn of damage each year.

In parts of the country, the pigs’ prevalence has sparked a whole hog hunting industry, where people pay thousands of dollars to mow down boar and sow with machine guns. But overall, the impact of the pigs, first introduced to the US in the 16th century, has very much been a negative, as the undiscerning swine has chomped its way across the country.

“We see direct competition for our native species for food,” said Michael Marlow, assistant program manager for the Department of Agriculture’s national feral swine damage management program.

“However, pigs are also accomplished predators. They’ll opportunistically come upon a hidden animal, and the males have long tusks, so they’re very capable of running and grabbing one with their mouth.

“They’ll kill young fawns, they’re known to be nest predators, so they impact turkeys and potentially quail.”

The wild pigs are also responsible for a laundry list of environmental damages, ranging from eating innocent farmers’ crops to destroying trees and polluting water. They also pose “a human health and safety risk”, Marlow said.

A pig is a “mixing vessel”, capable of carrying viruses, such as flu, which are transmittable to humans. National Geographic reported that pigs have the potential to “create a novel influenza virus”, which could spread to humankind.

The first record of pigs in the continental US was in 1539, when the Spanish explorer Hernando De Soto landed in Florida with an entourage which included 13 swine.

During the four-year expedition, which saw De Soto order the slaughter of thousands of Native Americans, declare himself “an immortal ‘Son of the Sun’”, and then die of a fever, the number of pigs grew to about 700, spread across what is now the south-eastern US.

But it is only relatively recently that the pigs have become a problem.

“They lived a benign existence up until, you know, probably three or four decades ago, where we started seeing these rapid excursions in areas we hadn’t seen before,” Marlow said.

“Primarily that was the cause of intentional releases of swine by people who wanted to develop hunting populations. They were drugged and moved around, not always legally, and dropped in areas to allow the populations to develop. And so that’s where we saw this rapid increase.”

The number of pigs in the US has since grown to more than 6 million, in some 34 states. The pigs weigh between 75 and 250lbs on average, but can weigh in twice as large as that, according to the USDA. At 3ft tall and 5ft long, they are a considerable foe.

Marlow said his team had managed to eradicate pigs in seven states over the past decade, but with little realistic hope of getting rid of the swine completely, there are also fears over the potential impact of pig-borne disease, particularly African swine fever.

The disease is always fatal to pigs, and in China, which is home to more than 400 million pigs – half of the world’s pig population – African swine fever wiped out more than 30% of the pig population in 2018 and 2019. African swine fever has presented in Europe, too, but Marlow said it has not yet been detected in the Americas.

That’s something that Ryan Brook, who leads the University of Saskatchewan’s Canadian wild pig research project, hopes to maintain.

In Canada, like in the US, wild pigs are a relatively recent problem. Up until 2002 there were barely any wild pigs in the country, but Brook said the population has exploded in the past eight years. The animals are now spread across 1m sq km of Canada, predominantly in Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

“Wild pigs are easily the worst invasive large mammal on the planet,” said Ryan Brook.

“They’re incredibly intelligent. They’re highly elusive, and also when there’s any pressure on them, especially if people start hunting them, they become almost completely nocturnal, and they become very elusive – hiding in heavy forest cover, and they disappear into wetlands and they can be very hard to locate.”

Brook and others are particularly troubled by the emergence of a “super pig”, created by farmers cross-breeding wild boar and domestic pigs in the 1980s. The result was a larger swine, which produced more meat, and was easier for people to shoot in Canadian hunting reserves.

These pigs escaped captivity and swiftly spread across Canada, with the super pig proving to be an incredibly proficient breeder, Brook said, while its giant size – one pig has been clocked at more than 300kg (661lbs) – makes it able to survive the frigid western Canada winters, where the wind chill can be -50C.

“All the experts said at that time: ‘Well, no worries. If a wild pig or a wild boar ever escaped from a farm, there’s no way it would survive a western Canadian winter. It would just freeze to death.’

“Well, it turns out that being big is a huge advantage to surviving in the cold.”

The pigs survive extreme weather by tunneling up to 2 meters under snow, Brook said, creating a snow cave.

“They’ll use their razor-sharp tusks to cut down cattails [a native plant], and line the bottom of the cave with cattails as a nice warm insulating layer.

“And in fact, they’re so warm inside that one of the ways we use to find these pigs is to fly first thing in the morning when it’s really cold, colder than -30, and you will actually see steam just pouring out the top of the snow.”

Given the damage the pigs have wrought, a range of attempts have been made to get rid of them. Scientists and researchers in the US and Canada have had some success with catching whole sounders of pigs in big traps, while in the US attempts have been made – sometimes unsuccessfully – at poisoning wild pigs.

One method that has worked in the US, Brook said, is the use of a “Judas pig”. A lone pig is captured and fitted with a GPS collar, then released into the wild, where hopefully it will join a group of unsuspecting swine.

“The idea is that you go and find that collared animal, remove any pigs that are with it, and in ideal world then let it go again and it will just continue to find more and more pigs,” Brook said.

Brook said a variety of methods are required to tackle the pig problem. But the efforts are more about managing the damage caused by these non-native mammals, rather than getting rid of the pigs completely. In Canada, that chance has gone.

“Probably as late as maybe 2010 to 2012, there was probably a reasonable chance of finding and removing them. But now, they’re so widespread, and so abundant, that certainly as late as 2018 or 19 I stopped saying that eradication was possible. They’re just so established,” Brook said.

“They’ve definitely moved in, and they’re here to stay.”