Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro got a rousing reception from tens of thousands of people gathered in the capital Tuesday in an Independence Day show of support for the right-wing leader embroiled in a feud with the country’s Supreme Court. Bolsonaro, in an address inaudible to many in the crowd far from the loudspeakers, lashed out at the high court and said the nation can no longer accept what he characterized as political imprisonments — a reference to arrests ordered by Justice Alexandre de Moraes. He warned that the court could “suffer what we don’t want.” The crowd began chanting, “Alexandre out!” His speech followed a helicopter flyover, with those on the ground seized with euphoria at the sight. They shouted, “Legend!” and “I authorize!” — a slogan widely understood as blanket approval of his methods. Some carried banners calling for military intervention to secure Bolsonaro’s hold on power. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro delivers a speech during a demonstration in his support in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on September 7, 2021, on Brazil’s Independence Day. – Fighting record-low poll numbers, a weakening economy and a judiciary he says is…Bolsonaro has called on the Senate to impeach de Moraes, who has jailed several of the president’s supporters for allegedly financing, organizing or inciting violence or disseminating false information. In Sao Paulo, where the president was scheduled to speak in the afternoon, Bolsonaro supporters crammed into the broad Avenue Paulista downtown for a significantly larger rally than the one in Brasilia, while in Rio de Janeiro, they gathered on the road alongside Copacabana Beach. All three cities also featured smaller protests against the president. Bolsonaro spent almost two months calling on supporters to take part in rallies across the country on Independence Day that could show his continuing political appeal despite slumping poll ratings and a string of setbacks. Critics feared the demonstrations could take a violent turn. Some said they were afraid Bolsonaro could be preparing a tropical version of the January 6 riot in Washington, where supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol alleging he had been robbed of a reelection victory. Like Trump, Bolsonaro was elected on a pledge to go after a corrupt, entrenched political class. He has also said he might reject the 2022 election results if he loses. Along Brasilia’s esplanade, there was a festive mood, with cold drinks and the scent of grilled meat. At least 100 military police with riot shields stood in front of Congress, and several dozen formed two lines behind barricades on the road leading to the Supreme Court. At least twice, groups of demonstrators tried to get past the barriers, but officers repelled them with pepper spray. About 10,000 officers were scattered around the area for the demonstrations, security officials said. Regina Pontes, 53, stood atop a flatbed that advanced toward the police barriers. She said the Brazilian people have every right to enter the area. “You can’t close the door to keep the owner out,” she said. The world’s second-highest COVID-19 death toll, a drumbeat of accusations of wrongdoing in the government’s handling of the pandemic, and surging inflation have weighed on Bolsonaro’s approval ratings. Polls show his nemesis, former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, could trounce him in a runoff if he enters the race. Tuesday’s demonstrations “may show that he has millions of people who are ready to stand up and be with him, even when Brazil’s economy is in a bad situation, inflation near 10%, the pandemic and all that,” said Thomas Traumann, a political analyst. “If Bolsonaro feels he has the support of millions of Brazilians, he will go further in his challenging of the Supreme Court,” Traumann added. Bolsonaro’s clash with the Supreme Court has raised fears among his critics, given his frequently expressed nostalgia for the nation’s past military dictatorship. On the eve of Tuesday’s protest, he signed a provisional measure sharply limiting social media platforms’ ability to remove content, restrict its spread or block accounts. A 69-year-old farmer from Minas Gerais state, Clever Greco, came to Brasilia with a group of more than 1,000 others. He said Brazil’s conservatives back Bolsonaro’s call for the removal of two Supreme Court justices by peaceful means. But Greco also likened his trip to deploying for war. “I don’t know what day I’ll go back. I’m prepared to give my blood, if needed,” Greco said. “We’re no longer asking; the people are ordering.” The U.S. Embassy in Brasilia last week warned Americans to steer clear of the protests. “The risk (that) we see scenes of violence and an institutional crisis that’s unprecedented in Brazil’s recent history still remains and is considerable,” said Paulo Calmon, a political science professor at the University of Brasilia.
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Author: ITam
Early Stumble as El Salvador Starts Bitcoin as Currency
El Salvador became the first country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender Tuesday, but the rollout stumbled in its first hours and President Nayib Bukele said the digital wallet used for transactions was not functioning. For part of the morning, El Salvador’s president became tech support for a nation stepping into the world of cryptocurrency. Bukele marshaled his Twitter account — with more than 2.8 million followers — to walk users through what was happening. Bukele explained that the digital wallet Chivo had been disconnected while server capacity was increased. The president said it was a relatively simple problem. “We prefer to correct it before we connect it again,” Bukele said. He encouraged followers to download the app and leave comments about how it was going. Meanwhile, the value of Bitcoin plummeted early Tuesday, dropping from more than $52,000 per coin to $42,000, before recovering about half of that loss — an example of the volatility that worries many. Government employees open the customer service area of a Chivo digital wallet machine, which exchanges cash for Bitcoin cryptocurrency, at Las Americas Square in San Salvador, El Salvador, September 7, 2021.The government has promised to install 200 Chivo automatic tellers and 50 Bitcoin attention centers. The Associated Press visited one of the automatic tellers in San Salvador’s historic center, where attendants waited to help citizens, who initially didn’t show much interest. Asked if he had downloaded the Chivo app, Emanuel Ceballos said he had not. “I don’t know if I’m going to do it. I still have doubts about using that currency.” José Martín Tenorio said he was interested in Bitcoin but had not downloaded the app, either. “I’m running to work. Maybe at home tonight.” In Santa Tecla, a San Salvador suburb, young attendants were waiting to assist people at a help center. Denis Rivera arrived with a friend because they had been trying to download the digital wallet app without success. He said he didn’t understand why some people “have been scandalized” by Bitcoin. “We’ve been using debit and credit cards for years, and it’s the same electronic money,” he said. He was in favor of it and planned to use the $30 offered by the government as an incentive to try it out. “I’m going to see how efficient it is and practical it can be, and based on that, decide if I keep using it or not.” Miguel Menjivar, left, sells bread on a street in San Salvador, El Salvador, before sunrise September 7, 2021, on the day all businesses have to accept payments in Bitcoin, except those lacking the technology to do so.José Luis Hernández, owner of a barbershop in the area, came looking for information. “I have a small business and I want to know how to use the application and how are the rates and all of that,” Hernández said. AP confirmed that at least three international fast food chain restaurants were accepting bitcoin payments through the Chivo digital wallet. David Gerard, author of “Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain,” said Tuesday’s Bitcoin volatility likely had little to nothing to do with El Salvador. “My first guess was shenanigans, because it’s always shenanigans,” Gerard said via email. “Bitcoin basically doesn’t respond to market forces or regulatory announcements,” Gerard said. “That sort of price pattern, where it crashes hugely in minutes then goes back up again, is usually one of the big guys burning the margin traders.” Because Bitcoin is so thinly traded, it could also have been a big holder making a large sale to have cash, thus sending the market for a ride, Gerard said. Three face-to-face public opinion surveys performed recently showed that most Salvadorans did not agree with the government’s decision to make Bitcoin legal currency. Bitcoin joins the U.S. dollar as El Salvador’s official currencies. In June, the Legislative Assembly enacted the Bitcoin law, and the Central American Bank for Economic Integration is providing the government with technical assistance. The law says that Bitcoin can be used for any transaction, and any business with the technological capacity to do so must accept payment in the cryptocurrency. The government will back Bitcoin with a $150 million fund. To incentivize Salvadorans to use it, the government offered $30 worth of credit to those who use Chivo. Critics have warned that the currency’s lack of transparency could attract increased criminal activity to the country, and its wild swings in value could quickly wipe out users’ savings. Opposition groups marched in El Salvador to demand the derogation of the law that allows Bitcoin use. Bukele has said the cryptocurrency — originally created to operate outside government-controlled financial systems — would help attract investment and save Salvadorans money when they transfer earnings in the United States back home to relatives in El Salvador. But its use would be voluntary.
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Mexican Supreme Court Decriminalizes Abortion in Historic Shift
Mexico’s Supreme Court unanimously ruled on Tuesday that penalizing abortion is unconstitutional, a major victory for advocates of women’s health and human rights, just as parts of the United States enact tougher laws against the practice.The court ruling in the majority Roman Catholic nation follows moves to decriminalize abortion at the state level, although most of the country still has tough laws in place against women terminating their pregnancy early.”This is a historic step for the rights of women,” said Supreme Court Justice Luis Maria Aguilar.A number of U.S. states have recently taken steps to restrict women’s access to abortion, particularly Texas, which last week enacted the strictest anti-abortion law in the country after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene.The Mexican ruling opens the door to the possibility for the release of women incarcerated for having had abortions. It also could lead to U.S. women in states such as Texas deciding to travel south of the border to terminate their pregnancies. In July, the state of Veracruz became just the fourth of Mexico’s 32 regions to decriminalize abortion.
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Larry Remains Category 3 Hurricane in the Atlantic; Forecasters Watch Tropical Depression
The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Tuesday that Hurricane Larry remains a large, powerful Category 3 storm that could threaten Bermuda later in the week.In its latest report, the hurricane center said Larry is still 1,340 kilometers southeast of Bermuda with maximum sustained winds of about 195 km/h and is moving toward the northwest. It is a large storm, with hurricane force winds extending outward up to 110 kms from the center, and tropical storm winds extending outward up to 295 kms.Larry is forecast to approach Bermuda during the next couple of days as a large and powerful hurricane, bringing a risk of strong winds, heavy rainfall and coastal flooding to the island by Thursday. Significant swells from Larry should reach the U.S. east coast and Canada’s Atlantic coast by midweek and continue affecting those shores through the end of the week. The swells are likely to cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions.A U.S. Air Force hurricane hunter aircraft was scheduled to fly into Larry’s well-formed eye early Tuesday, and the forecasters are waiting for that data before solidifying their long-range forecast.Meanwhile, forecasters are watching a tropical system of disorganized thunderstorms in the south-central Gulf of Mexico that is expected to move to the northeast toward the southeastern United States in the next 48 hours. The forecasters say there is a 30% chance of an organized storm forming in the next five days.Hurricane Ida, which came ashore August 29 in Louisiana as one of the most powerful storms in U.S. history, went from a tropical depression to a Category 3 hurricane in just over two days. The remnants of Ida killed more than 50 people when it moved through the northeastern U.S. last week.
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Goodbye Columbus: Mexico Statue to be Replaced by Indigenous
Christopher Columbus is getting kicked off Mexico City’s most iconic boulevard. Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum announced that the Columbus statue on the Paseo de la Reforma, often a focal point for Indigenous rights protests, would be replaced by a statue honoring Indigenous women. “To them we owe … the history of our country, of our fatherland,” she said. She made the announcement on Sunday, which was International Day of the Indigenous Woman. The Columbus statue, donated to the city many years ago, was a significant reference point on the 10-lane boulevard, and the surrounding traffic circle is — so far — named for it. That made it a favorite target of spray-paint-wielding protesters denouncing the European suppression of Mexico’s Indigenous civilizations. FILE – Workers clean the statue of Italian explorer Christopher Columbus, surrounded by metal fencing during Columbus Day, in Mexico City, Mexico, October 12, 2020.It was removed last year supposedly for restoration, shortly before October 12, which Americans know as Columbus Day but Mexicans call “Dia de la Raza,” or “Day of the Race” — the anniversary of Columbus’ arrival in the Americas in 1492. When the statue was removed last year, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador noted that “it is a date that is very controversial and lends itself to conflicting ideas and political conflicts.” This year is the 700th anniversary of the founding of Tenochtitlan — what is now Mexico City — as well as the 500th anniversary of its fall to the Spanish conquistadores, and the 200th anniversary of Mexico’s final independence from Spain. Most Mexicans have some indigenous ancestry and are well aware that millions of Indigenous people died from violence and disease during and after the conquest. Sheinbaum said the new statue, “Tlali,” might be ready near the date of Dia de la Raza this year. The Columbus statue isn’t being discarded, but will be moved to a less prominent location in a small park in the Polanco neighborhood. Sheinbaum referred to Columbus “a great international personage.”
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Migrant Caravan Broken Up Again in Southern Mexico
Mexican border agents and police broke up a caravan of hundreds of migrants Sunday who had set out from southernmost Mexico — the fourth such caravan officials have raided in recent days.The group of about 800 — largely Central Americans, Haitians, Venezuelans and Cubans — had spent then night at a basketball court near Huixtla, some 40 kilometers (25 miles) up the road from the border city of Tapachula where they had been kept awaiting processing by Mexican immigration officials.But shortly before dawn, immigration agents backed by police with anti-riot gear went into the crowd, pushing many into trucks.Hundreds of the migrants escaped running toward a river and hid in the vegetation.“They began to hit me all over,” a woman said amid tears, alleging that police also beat her hustband and pulled one of her daughters from her arms.“Until they give me my daughter, I’m not leaving,” she told an Associated Press camera crew. But immigration agents surrounded the woman, her husband nd other child and detained them.The group was at least the fourth to be broken up over the past week after heading out north in a caravan, frustrated by the slow pace of immigration processing and poor conditions in Tapachula, where they are unable to work legally.The government has insisted that excessive force against a Haitian migrant caught on camera the past weekend was an aberration and two immigration agents were suspended.Mexico has faced immigration pressures from the north, south and within its own borders in recent weeks as thousands of migrants have crossed its southern border, the United States has sent thousands more back from the north and a U.S. court has ordered the Biden administration to renew a policy of making asylum seekers wait in Mexico for long periods of time.President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Thursday the strategy of containing migrants in the south was untenable on its own and more investment is needed in the region to keep Central Americans from leaving their homes.Thousands of mostly Haitian migrants stuck in Tapachula have increasingly protested in recent weeks. Many have been waiting there for months, some up to a year, for asylum requests to be processed.Mexico’s refugee agency has been overwhelmed. So far this year, more than 77,000 people have applied for protected status in Mexico, 55,000 of those in Tapachula, where shelters are full.Unable to work legally and frustrated by the delay and poor conditions, hundreds have set out north.
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Marchers Walk 7,000 Steps for Canadian Pair Detained by China
Hundreds of supporters of two Canadian men being held on what Ottawa says are specious charges marched 7,000 steps through the Canadian capital on Sunday to mark the pair’s 1,000th day of “unjust” detention in China. Similar events in support of Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig were held elsewhere in Canada and across the world in cities including Brussels, New York, Washington, Seoul and Singapore. “These are unjust detentions,” Kovrig’s wife Vina Nadjibulla told AFP. “These marches are about solidarity with our Michaels, they’re about honoring their strength and resilience and also calling for action to finally break the stalemate, to bring them home and do everything possible to end this injustice,” Nadjibulla said at the start of the rally. The two men were arrested in December 2018 and accused of espionage in what Ottawa has said was retaliation for its detention on a US warrant of a prominent Chinese national, Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou. A decision is expected in coming months on whether to send Meng to the United States to face fraud charges related to alleged violations of Iran sanctions by the Chinese tech giant. Spavor, a businessman, and former diplomat Kovrig went on trial in March. Spavor was handed an 11-year jail sentence just as final arguments in Meng’s extradition trial got underway last month. No decision has been announced in Kovrig’s case. The seemingly tit-for-tat arrests plunged Ottawa-Beijing relations into a deep freeze, with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau calling the charges against the Michaels “trumped up.” On Sunday US Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemned what he called “arbitrary detentions” by China. “We stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Canada and the international community in calling for the PRC to release, immediately and unconditionally, Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig,” Blinken said in a statement, referring to the People’s Republic of China. ‘A difficult milestone’ The Ottawa rally was attended by Canadian Foreign Minister Marc Garneau and several opposition MPs, as well as the US ambassador to Ottawa. “This is a difficult milestone,” Nadjibulla, holding back tears, told the crowd. “It’s been 1,000 days — the heartbreak, the pain, the injustice is real. The heaviness, I feel it, we all feel it.” She said her husband had described his ordeal in letters from prison, adding, “One of the things that he does in his windowless, small cell every day is to pace 7,000 steps.” “He walks in circles, 7,000 steps, often holding a book, reading, reciting songs, prayers — five kilometers of courage and contemplation. And today, he will not be alone in that walk. We will accompany him, all of us,” she said. “He knows that this event is happening,” she added. “He knows that we’re with him. That gives him strength.” Michael Spavor’s brother Paul told reporters his brother “spends a lot of his time reading, meditating, doing yoga.” “One thousand days is a long time,” he said. “Today is just another day, but it’s another day that goes by without our Michaels being back with us.”
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Brazil-Argentina World Cup Qualifier Halted by COVID-19 Controversy
Brazil’s World Cup qualifying match against Argentina was dramatically suspended shortly after it began Sunday as controversy over COVID-19 protocols erupted.The match at Sao Paulo’s Neo Quimica Arena between the two giants of South American football came to a halt when a group of Brazilian public health officials came onto the pitch, triggering a melee involving team staff and players.Argentina’s players trudged off the pitch to the locker room as the furor raged. Argentina captain Lionel Messi later re-emerged from the tunnel without his team shirt on as confusion swept around the stadium.The stunning intervention came just hours after Brazil’s health authorities said four players in Argentina’s squad based in England should be placed in “immediate quarantine” for breaching COVID-19 protocols.According to Brazil’s National Health Surveillance Agency (ANVISA), Premier League players Giovani Lo Celso (Tottenham), Emiliano Martinez (Aston Villa), Emiliano Buendia (Aston Villa) and Cristian Romero (Tottenham) provided “false information” upon their entry to Brazil.Romero, Lo Celso and Martinez were all in the Argentina starting lineup that kicked off Sunday’s game, triggering the intervention onto the field of officials wearing ANVISA shirts.The four Premier League players were accused of failing to disclose that they had spent time in the United Kingdom in the 14 days prior to their arrival.”We got to this point because everything that ANVISA directed, from the first moment, was not fulfilled,” ANVISA director Antonio Barra Torres said on Brazilian television.”(The four players) were directed to remain isolated while awaiting deportation, but they did not comply. They went to the stadium and they entered the field, in a series of breaches,” the official added.A government order dating from June 23 prohibits the entry into Brazilian territory of any foreign person from the United Kingdom, India or South Africa, to prevent the spread of variants of the coronavirus.”ANVISA considers that this situation represents a serious health risk and recommends that the local health authorities (of Sao Paulo) order the immediate quarantine of the players, who are prohibited from taking part in any activity and from remaining on Brazilian territory,” the agency said in a statement earlier Sunday.ANVISA said Brazil’s Federal Police had been notified so that “the necessary measures are taken immediately.”Brazilian website Globoesporte said the Argentina Football Association (AFA) could request an exceptional authorization from authorities in Sao Paulo to allow the players to take the field against Brazil.The controversy comes after nine Brazilians based in the Premier League failed to travel to South America following objections from their clubs.
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Indigenous Leaders Push New Target to Protect Amazon from Deforestation
Indigenous groups urged world leaders on Sunday to back a new target to protect 80% of the Amazon basin by 2025, saying bold action was needed to stop deforestation pushing the Earth’s largest rainforest beyond a point of no return.Amazonian delegates launched their campaign at a nine-day conference in Marseille, where several thousand officials, scientists and campaigners are laying the groundwork for United Nations talks on biodiversity in the Chinese city of Kunming next year.”We invite the global community to join us to reverse the destruction of our home and by doing so safeguard the future of the planet,” José Gregorio Diaz Mirabal, lead coordinator for COICA, which represents Indigenous groups in nine Amazon-basin nations, told Reuters.Just under 50% of the Amazon basin is currently under some form of official protection or indigenous stewardship, according to research published last year.But pressure from ranching, mining and oil exploration is growing. In Brazil, home to 60% of the biome, deforestation has surged since right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro took office in 2019, reaching a 12-year high last year and drawing an international outcry.The Amazon basin as a whole has lost 18% of its original forest cover while another 17% has been degraded, according to a landmark study released in July by the Science Panel for the Amazon, based on research by 200 scientists.If deforestation reaches 20%-25%, it could tip the Amazon into a death spiral in which it dries out and becomes savanna, according to Brazilian earth system scientist Carlos Nobre.The Marseille gathering is the latest “World Conservation Congress,” an event held every four years by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, a forum convening governments, civil society and researchers.COICA wants the congress to endorse its “Amazonia80x2025” declaration to give the proposal a greater chance of gaining traction in Kunming, where governments are due to discuss targets to protect biodiversity over the next decade.
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Venezuelan Government Signals ‘Partial Agreements’ in Mexico Talks With Opposition
A top Venezuelan official signaled on Saturday that talks between the government and the opposition aimed at resolving the country’s long-standing political crisis have yielded “partial agreements.”The opposition is hoping to use the talks being held in Mexico City to secure guarantees of free and fair regional elections to be held in the fall, while the government of Nicolas Maduro wants to ease international sanctions on his economically crippled nation.”We have been working mainly on partial agreements, especially those related to serving the people of Venezuela,” parliament speaker Jorge Rodriguez, who was leading the government delegation, told reporters.But officials provided no information on the nature of the agreements and a source in the opposition delegation told AFP that “so far nothing has been agreed.”The talks, mediated by Norway and hosted by Mexico, aim to resolve the crisis that has marked Maduro’s eight-year rule.The negotiations have a seven-point agenda including easing sanctions, political rights and electoral guarantees — but not the departure of Maduro, accused by the opposition of fraudulent reelection in 2018.The government is “very attentive” to all the economic guarantees that have been “wrested, blocked, stolen, withdrawn from the people of Venezuela,” said Rodriguez, adding that Maduro seeks a partial if not total lifting of sanctions in exchange for concessions to the opposition.The main opposition alliance headed by Juan Guaido reversed course this week when it announced that it would end a three-year election boycott and take part in mayoral and gubernatorial polls in November.Speaking before the start of the negotiations, the head of the opposition delegation Gerardo Blyde expressed hope that the talks “will seek to alleviate the crisis, but the crisis comes from very serious basic problems, from a model which failed in Venezuela and which does not recognize the democratic order and the constitutional order.”He added that it’s “a process which is beginning, which is hard, complex.”Neither Maduro nor Guaido, who is considered president by about 60 countries, was due to personally attend the closed-door talks, which were scheduled to run until Monday.”We are in Mexico looking for a national salvation agreement to respond to the emergency, obtain the conditions for free and fair elections and the rescue of our democracy,” Guaido tweeted.Previous rounds of similar negotiations held in recent years have failed to resolve the crisis.
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El Salvador Top Court Opens Door to President’s Reelection; US Protests
El Salvador’s top court has ruled that the country’s president can serve two consecutive terms, opening the door for Nayib Bukele to stand for reelection in 2024 and sparking condemnation from the U.S. government.The ruling was handed down late on Friday by judges appointed by lawmakers from Bukele’s ruling party in May after they had removed the previous justices, a step that drew strong criticism from the United States and other foreign powers.The U.S. Embassy in El Salvador on Saturday slammed the judges’ ruling as unconstitutional and a blow to bilateral ties.The constitutional chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice ordered the Supreme Electoral Tribunal to enable a president who had not been in office “in the immediately preceding period to participate in the electoral contest for a second occasion.”The electoral tribunal said in a brief statement on Saturday that it would follow the court’s instructions.In recent years, the relaxing of presidential terms limits in parts of Latin America has stirred concerns among Western officials about a gradual erosion of democracy.American officials are also concerned about what they see as signs of authoritarianism under Bukele, who last year sent troops into Congress to pressure lawmakers into approving legislation, and who has withdrawn from U.S.-backed anti-corruption accords.Bukele has pushed back against accusations of authoritarianism, arguing he is cleaning up the country.His government has readied constitutional changes that aim to extend the presidential term to six years from five, and include the possibility of revoking the president’s mandate, among other steps.That has yet to go to the Central American country’s Congress, which Bukele’s party and its allies control.Bukele, a popular but divisive 40-year-old president, has not commented on the court’s ruling.In 2014, the court ruled that presidents would have to wait 10 years after leaving office to be reelected.Speaking to reporters at the U.S. embassy on the edge of the capital San Salvador on Saturday evening, U.S. charge d’affaires Jean Manes decried the court’s decision, saying that allowing immediate reelection was “clearly contrary to the Salvadoran constitution.”Manes said the decision was a direct result of the replacement of the court’s judges with Bukele loyalists, arguing it was part of strategy to “undermine judicial independence” and eliminate counterweights to executive power.”This decline in democracy damages the bilateral relationship between the United States and El Salvador, and the relationship that we’ve had for decades and want to maintain,” she said.Jose Miguel Vivanco, executive director of the Americas division of Human Rights Watch, also chided the court, saying on Twitter that El Salvador was heading down a path taken by Nicaragua and Honduras in allowing presidents to be reelected.”Democracy in El Salvador is on the edge of the abyss,” said Vivanco, a critic of Bukele.
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Beef Giant Brazil Halts Exports to China After Confirming Two Mad Cow Cases
Brazil, the world’s largest beef exporter, has suspended beef exports to China, its No. 1 customer, after confirming two cases of “atypical” mad cow disease in two separate domestic meat plants, the agriculture ministry said Saturday.The suspension, which is part of an animal health pact agreed upon between China and Brazil and is designed to allow Beijing time to take stock of the problem, begins immediately, the ministry said in a statement. China will decide when to begin importing again, it added.The suspension is a major blow for Brazilian farmers: China and Hong Kong buy more than half of Brazil’s beef exports.The cases were identified in meat plants in the states of Mato Grosso and Minas Gerais, the ministry said. It said they were the fourth and fifth cases of “atypical” mad cow disease that have been detected in Brazil in 23 years.It said “atypical” mad cow disease develops spontaneously and is not related to eating contaminated foods. Brazil has never had a case of “classic” mad cow disease, it said.The two cases were confirmed Friday after samples were sent to the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) lab in Alberta, Canada, the ministry said. The OIE had subsequently been informed of the two cases, in compliance with international norms, the ministry said.The ministry said there was no risk to animal or human health.Brazil’s government said it was hopeful the suspension would be lifted quickly. The country’s powerful agribusiness sector is one of the main drivers of its long-lagging economy. China is Brazil’s top trade partner, and it buys vast quantities of its commodities.
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UNHCR: End COVID Border Restrictions Blocking Central American Asylum Seekers
The U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR, is calling on the United States and other nations to end COVID-19 border restrictions that keep Central American refugees from seeking asylum.
Forced displacement within Central America and Mexico has been soaring over the last five years. The United Nations refugee agency says factors, including chronic violence and insecurity, climate change and natural disasters have forced people to flee their homes in growing numbers.
UNHCR spokeswoman Aikaterini Kitidi told VOA the effects of COVID-19 and Hurricanes Eta and Iota, which struck the region with devastating force last year, have triggered further large-scale displacement.
In particular, she said these disasters have created great economic hardship for women and children who have lost their source of income and have difficulty obtaining basic services.
“As a result, such people are forcibly displaced, and they are compelled many times to embark to even further dangerous onward journeys. What they are exposed to are smugglers, traffickers, and to other risks like, for example, sexual exploitation, abuse, or even murder,” she said.
Kitidi said a staggering 1 million people from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras have been forced to flee their homes, creating an unprecedented displacement crisis in the region.
Due to public health COVID-19 travel restrictions, she said Central American refugees face extreme difficulties in obtaining protections they need in countries of asylum. She said the UNHCR has appealed to the U.S. government to end the Title 42 public health-related asylum restrictions.
“Under which we see the ports of entry to the United States remaining closed to most asylum seekers with exemptions for some categories of populations with vulnerabilities. And we have asked for the expulsions that are occurring of these people to stop and for the right to claim asylum in the United States to be restored,” she said.
Kitidi said all countries in the region have agreed to share the responsibility to provide protection for those fleeing danger and persecution. She added that discussions are continuing with regional authorities in the hopes they will live up to their agreement.
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Brazil Starts Booster Shots While Many Still Await a 2nd Jab
Some cities in Brazil are providing booster shots of the COVID-19 vaccine, even though most people have yet to receive their second jabs, in a sign of the concern in the country over the highly contagious delta variant.Rio de Janeiro, currently Brazil’s epicenter for the variant and home to one of its largest elderly populations, began administering the boosters Wednesday. Northeastern cities Salvador and Sao Luis started on Monday, and the most populous city of Sao Paulo will begin Sept. 6. The rest of the nation will follow the next week.France, Israel, China and Chile are among those countries giving boosters to some of their older citizens, but more people in those countries are fully vaccinated than the 30% who have gotten two shots in Brazil. A U.S. plan to start delivery of booster shots by Sept. 20 for most Americans is facing complications that could delay third doses for those who received the Moderna vaccine, administration officials said Friday.About nine out of 10 Brazilians have been vaccinated already or plan to be, according to pollster Datafolha. Most have gotten their first shot but not their second.Brazil’s cases and deaths have been falling for two months, with 621 deaths reported in the seven days through Sept. 2 — far below April’s peak of more than 3,000 reported deaths over a seven-day period. Older Brazilians have expressed concern about the efficacy of the Chinese Sinovac vaccine against the delta variant, prompting authorities to offer the booster shots.Diana dos Santos, 71, received two shots of the Sinovac vaccine even after President Jair Bolsonaro spent months publicly criticizing it. Dos Santos, who lives Rio’s low-income Maré neighborhood, is diabetic and was hospitalized for a heart condition. She refuses to leave home until she gets her booster.“I can’t go out like before and I’m still afraid of all of this,” dos Santos said. “I will feel safer (with a booster).”Because of the variant, some experts say the government should slow the rollout of boosters and focus on distributing second doses. Delta is the most contagious variant identified, and many studies have suggested that one dose doesn’t protect against it.Two shots provide strong protection, with nearly all hospitalizations and deaths among the unvaccinated.Ethel Maciel, an epidemiologist and professor at the Federal University of Espirito Santo, said pushing boosters at this early stage recalls the lack of concern given the gamma variant that overwhelmed Amazonian city Manaus earlier this year, only to feed a new wave nationwide. Brazil has seen more than 580,000 deaths from COVID-19, making it home to world’s eighth-highest toll on a per capita basis.Elderly residents wait for a dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, during a booster shot campaign for the elderly in long-term care institutions, at Casa de Repouso Laco de Ouro nursing home, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sept. 2, 2021.“It seems we’re in the same movie, repeating the same errors,” Maciel said. “It’s only a matter of time until what’s happening in Rio leads to a greater number of more serious cases in the rest of the country.”The delta variant already is dominant in Rio de Janeiro state, detected in 86% of the samples collected from COVID-19 patients, according to the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation. Intensive care units have reached full capacity in eight municipalities, although only a small rise in deaths have been recorded so far.Authorities in Sao Paulo state expect a similar scenario within weeks. It registered its first confirmed death from the delta variant on Tuesday, a 74-year-old woman who had received two Sinovac shots.Globally, doubts have plagued Chinese vaccines, especially as the delta variant has gained hold in many countries. Chinese officials have maintained the vaccine protects against delta, particularly preventing hospitalizations and severe cases.Still, Brazil’s Health Minister Marcelo Queiroga said Aug. 25 that people aged 70 or older or who have a weak immune system will be eligible for a third dose, starting Sept. 15 — preferably with the Pfizer vaccine. He said that people over 18 will have received their first doses by then, although he didn’t address their vulnerability to the delta variant without a second shot.He also criticized governors and mayors who sought to deliver booster shots earlier, saying it could lead to vaccine shortages.Carla Domingues, former coordinator of Brazil’s national immunization program, agrees with the need to provide the elderly boosters, but not for people aged 70 and up right away. Shots should first go to nursing homes and people who are bed-ridden, she said, then people 80 and above, with the age slowly decreasing as supply allows.“Certainly, there will be problems with shortage, because there won’t be enough vaccine,” Domingues said.Japan and South Korea both wrestled with slow vaccine rollouts, and under half their populations are fully vaccinated; their governments are only planning booster shots in the fourth quarter of this year. Malaysia also is considering boosters, but Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said the priority is those who haven’t received a first dose.Aloysio Zaluar, 84, is injected with a dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine during a booster shot campaign for elderly residents in long-term care institutions in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sept. 1, 2021.Thailand began giving booster shots even as most people wait to be vaccinated — but only for health and front-line workers who received two Sinovac shots. The decision came after a nurse died of COVID-19 in July.Russia, Hungary and Serbia also are giving boosters, although there has been a lack of demand in those countries for the initial shots amid abundant supplies.In addition to doubts over boosters, the issue is sensitive due to implications for global vaccine distribution. World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has called for a moratorium on boosters “to allow those countries that are furthest behind to catch up.”Epidemiologist Denise Garrett, vice president of the Sabin Vaccine Institute, which advocates for expanding global vaccine access, said in an interview there is no doubt about the need for two jabs, but she sees no scientific or moral justification for a third.“Authorities giving a third dose are prioritizing protection against light disease instead of shielding people in poor countries from death,” said Garrett, who is Brazilian. “That is shameful, immoral, and this vaccine inequity must end.”That doesn’t sway 97-year-old Maria Menezes, who wants to spend time outside her home where she has lived for the last seven decades in Rio’s western region. Her two daughters say Menezes wants to a booster shot.“She asked us to take her for the third vaccine,” said daughter Cristina França, 38. “It will be important to beef up her immunity to reduce her risks. Her life won’t change much after the third dose, because she is more frail now, but she would live with more calm.”
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Cuba Starts Vaccinating Children in Order to Reopen Schools Amid COVID Surge
Cuban authorities on Friday launched a national campaign to vaccinate children ages 2-18 against COVID-19, a prerequisite set by the communist government for schools to reopen amid a spike in infections.Children 12 and older will be the first to receive one of the two domestically produced vaccines, Abdala and Soberana, followed by younger kids.Schools have mostly been closed in Cuba since March 2020, and students have been following lessons on television. With the school year starting Monday, they will continue learning remotely until all eligible children are vaccinated.Laura Lantigua, 17, got the first of three injections at Saul Delgado high school in the Cuban capital, Havana.”I always wanted to be vaccinated,” Lantigua told AFP. She said that doctors measured her blood pressure and temperature before giving her the shot, then told her to wait for an hour to ensure she didn’t have any side effects.”I felt normal, fine,” Lantigua said.Late Friday, the Medicines Regulatory Agency (Cecmed) announced that it authorized the emergency use of the Soberana 2 vaccine for minors between the ages of 2 and 18.The composition of Cuban vaccines, which are not recognized by the World Health Organization, is based on a recombinant protein, the same technique used by the U.S. company Novavax.With the delta variant spreading across the island of 11.2 million, the country’s health care system has been pushed to the brink.Of the 5,300 novel coronavirus deaths recorded since the outbreak started, nearly half were in August, as were almost a third of all reported cases.The government said it plans to gradually reopen schools for in-person instruction in October after the vaccination campaign among children is completed.
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UN Study: Weather Disasters Increased Fivefold in Last 50 Years
A new report released Wednesday by the United Nations indicates extreme weather events have increased fivefold over the past 50 years, while the number of fatalities related to those events has dropped.Officials from the U.N.’s weather and climate agency, the World Meteorological Organization, introduced the report during a briefing from the agency’s headquarters in Geneva. The report shows weather-related disasters have occurred on average at a rate of one per day over the past five decades, killing 115 people and causing $202 million in losses daily.Mami Mizutori, U.N. special representative for disaster risk reduction, told reporters she found the report “quite alarming.” She noted that this past July was the hottest July on record, marked by heat waves and floods around the world. The study shows that more people are suffering due to this increased frequency and intensity of weather events.Mizutori said 31 million people were displaced by natural disasters last year, almost surpassing the number displaced by conflicts. She said on average, 26 million people per year are pushed into poverty by extreme weather events. Now, the COVID-19 pandemic is compounding the problem.The U.N. disaster risk specialist said, “We live in this, what we call, the multihazard world, and it demonstrates that we really need to invest more in disaster risk reduction and prevention.”WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said the good news in the report is that during that same period, fatalities related to these disasters dropped by nearly three times, due to early warning systems and improved disaster management.But the study also shows that more than 91% of the deaths that do occur happen in developing or low-income countries, as many do not have the same warning and management systems in place.The WMO officials said the economic losses associated with these disasters will worsen without serious climate change mitigation. Taalas said if the right measures are put in place, the trend could be stopped in the next 40 years. WMO called on the G-20 group of world economic powers to keep their promise to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press, Reuters, and Agence France-Presse.
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