Ecuadorians Reject Foreign Military Bases In Their Country

Ecuadorians Reject Foreign Military Bases in the Country Ecuador Ecuadoreans overwhelmingly rejected four constitutional proposals backed by President Daniel Noboa on Sunday, including the reversal of a ban on foreign military bases in the country passed by the legislature in 2008, the BBC reported. The result was a disappointment for Noboa, having campaigned for the reversal, claiming foreign troops would help fight organized crime and curb the rising violence that has swept the country in recent years, as it has emerged as one of the world’s drug-trafficking hotspots. It also dashed US hopes of expanding its presence in the eastern Pacific. Earlier this year, Noboa said that he wanted foreign militaries to join what he described as a “war” against narco-trafficking groups. Ecuador does not produce cocaine, but its huge ports and proximity to Colombia and Peru – where drugs are produced in large quantities – make the country an appealing and lucrative location for drug-trafficking gangs. According to Noboa, about 70 percent of the world’s cocaine transits through Ecuador. Noboa has also recently discussed increased regional security and migration co-operation with US officials and met with US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem last week to examine possible locations for US bases, MercoPress added. The US – which is currently striking alleged drug-smuggling boats in the eastern Pacific and the Caribbean – had hoped the referendum would allow it to re-establish a military base in Ecuador. The US was forced to close a facility on the country’s Pacific coast 16 years ago, when former President Rafael Correa decided not to renew its lease and pushed for the ban. Voters in Ecuador also rejected proposals to eliminate state funding for political parties, reduce the size of Congress, and establish a constitutional assembly to rewrite the country’s constitution. Noboa insisted that a new constitution would allow for tougher punishments for criminals and stronger measures to secure the borders. But critics contended that the proposed changes would not solve Ecuador’s security situation and accused Noboa of trying to obtain a custom-made constitution to govern without limits. They also warned that plans to shrink the size of Congress and reduce funding for political parties could result in a reduction in checks and balances on the government and weaker representation for Ecuadorans living in poorer areas. The government countered that the moves would trim state expenditures. A military crackdown on criminal gangs, including deploying armed soldiers on the streets, has been the hallmark of Noboa’s presidency. While his supporters think the approach has been successful, opponents accuse his government of authoritarianism. Share this story

Mexico: Generation Z Protestors Clash With Police

Gen Z-led Protesters Clash With Police Over Rising Insecurity Mexico Thousands of people took to the streets of Mexico’s capital Saturday to protest against rising crime, corruption, and impunity from prosecution in a demonstration led by Gen Z activists but joined by older opposition supporters, the Associated Press reported. The protest began peacefully but later descended into clashes near the National Palace in Mexico City, where President Claudia Sheinbaum resides. Protesters dismantled parts of a security barrier and threw stones, fireworks, and chains at police, who responded with tear gas. Authorities said at least 120 people were injured, including 100 police officers. Twenty people were arrested. The marches were organized by members of Generation Z – people born between the late 1990s and early 2010s – with participants carrying signs denouncing insecurity and government inaction. Others rallied against the assassination of Mayor Carlos Manzo, who was killed in the western city of Uruapan earlier this month. Manzo was known for confronting drug cartels in Michoacán state and has become a rallying symbol for protesters demanding stronger action against the criminal organizations, the BBC noted. While Sheinbaum has increased efforts to combat fentanyl trafficking and cartel violence, her administration has come under scrutiny in recent months over a series of high-profile assassinations. The president – who retains an approval rating above 70 percent after her first year in office – dismissed Saturday’s protests as politically driven. She accused right-wing opponents of financing the marches and using bots to amplify calls for participation. Former President Vicente Fox and Mexican billionaire Ricardo Salinas Pliego expressed support for the demonstrations, while some Gen Z protesters said earlier this week they would not back the weekend rallies.

Argentina Opens Files On Nazi War Criminals Fleeing To Argentina

https://www.foxnews.com/world/argentina-reveals-secret-wwii-files-hitlers-henchmen-who-fled-before-after-war.amp

Chile: A Change Lection Isn't Likely To Bring Change

A ‘Change’ Election In Chile Isn’t Likely To Bring Change Chile Henchmen convicted of murdering, torturing, and suppressing the civil rights of Chileans under military dictator Augusto Pinochet from 1973 to 1990 had been enjoying tennis courts, barbecues, television, and a well-stocked library until Chilean President Gabriel Boric recently announced they would serve their sentences like normal prisoners from now on. “The fact that Chile has a special prison like this has no justification,” said Boric, according to the Guardian. “Places will be decided according to security criteria, not privilege…this is a step further in the direction of a more democratic Chile, which is more respectful of human dignity.” The move was a clear message to voters who will decide on Nov. 16 whether to elect a new head of state who would continue Boric’s progressive policies or restore the conservatism that the memory of Pinochet evokes in the South American country. An increase in crime in recent years – kidnappings and murders have doubled in the past decade – has put public safety at the top of voters’ minds, giving conservatives a boost. Many Chileans are expressing nostalgia for the tough-on-crime days under Pinochet, especially the young, who weren’t even born when he and other generals ordered warplanes to bomb the presidential palace in 1973 and had thousands of opponents rounded up and murdered or disappeared. “I didn’t live through that time, but we need someone who takes a firm hand like he did,” Vicente Sepulveda, a 20-year-old engineering student, told Agence France-Presse. Chile is one of South America’s safest countries but the rise in violent crime has caused deep disquiet in a nation with a reputation for stability, causing the issue to become a national obsession. Communist Party member Jeannette Jara, who was Boric’s labor minister, is currently running ahead in the polls, wrote the Americas Society/ Council of the Americas. But her success might reflect how numerous right-wing candidates are vying to be the standard-bearer of their ideology, splitting the vote. Still, because candidates must succeed in two rounds of voting, Jara can’t rest on her laurels: Some analysts say she’ll lose to the conservative candidate if the vote goes to a second round. Jara’s challenges include Boric’s failure to score major policy gains that might have ended some of the ideological battles in Chile. Voters rejected two new constitutions – one leftist and progressive, one right-wing and populist. The proposed constitutions aimed to address some of the tensions that flared in 2019 when large-scale protests broke out after students took to the streets to complain about fare increases in the capital Santiago’s subways. Police cracked down on the largely peaceful demonstrations that followed. Analysts suspect the country might now swing to the right to see if Boric’s opponents can succeed where the incumbent has failed, a European Parliament policy paper explained. The changes could be dramatic. Following in the footsteps of Javier Milei, the president of neighboring Argentina, right-wing candidate José Antonio Kast, the frontrunner among the Chilean conservative candidates, would cut billions in government spending, enact tough policing, and crack down on migration, reported El País. Boric administration officials warned that those moves would affect legally mandatory social welfare spending. Jara has proposed a minimum income and other spending to reduce crime and reduce migration, especially from Venezuela, wrote Americas Quarterly. Voters will decide whether to double down on Boric’s prescriptions or seek out a second opinion. But regardless of whom they pick to lead the nation, it isn’t likely much will change, say analysts. “Chile has held seven nationwide ballots in the six years since large-scale protests rocked the (country)…,” wrote World Politics Review. “…that will make the presidential and legislative elections…and the second round…the ninth and tenth times Chileans will have gone to the polls since the country so loudly demanded that its political system be changed. And yet, no clear direction for change has emerged, nor is one likely to this time.”

Brasil: Indigenous Protestors Storm UN Climate Talks

Indigenous Protesters Storm UN Climate Talks in Brazil Brazil Hundreds of Indigenous and environmental activists clashed with security guards this week at the United Nations climate summit in Belém, northern Brazil, after forcing their way into the conference center to demand stronger protections for Indigenous lands and a greater voice in global climate talks, Al Jazeera reported. Conference representatives said protesters breached barriers at the main entrance late Tuesday, causing “minor injuries to two security staff, and minor damage to the venue.” Witnesses said participants included Indigenous and non-Indigenous demonstrators, some wearing feathered headdresses, holding signs that read “Our forests are not for sale” and chanting “They cannot decide for us without us.” Brazil is hosting the UN Climate of Parties – short for COP30 – where leaders and representatives of 195 countries are meeting this week to discuss efforts to combat climate change. Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has sought to showcase COP30 as a milestone for climate cooperation and Indigenous leadership. Lula told world leaders last week that participants would be “inspired by Indigenous peoples and traditional communities – for whom sustainability has always been…(a) way of life.” But observers noted that the protests highlighted growing tensions between the Brazilian government’s public embrace of Indigenous inclusion and what demonstrators described as the ongoing exploitation of the Amazon rainforest by its host countries. Days before the clashes, Petrobras, Brazil’s state oil company, was granted a license for exploratory drilling near the mouth of the Amazon River. Many Indigenous groups and environmental advocates have been calling for Indigenous lands to be freed from commercial exploitation: They criticized Lula’s left-leaning administration for investing in building “a whole new city” in Belém to host the conference – it was also recently designated as Brazil’s temporary capital – instead of in education, health, and forest protection elsewhere, the Guardian wrote. Others also stressed that Indigenous people need to be present at the COP30, considering that the global conference has seen the participation of thousands of lobbyists from the fossil fuel industry in recent decades. This year’s COP30 summit follows a ruling by the International Court of Justice declaring that nations failing to meet climate commitments could be in violation of international law. The absence of the United States – which has opposed recent global climate finance and emissions initiatives under President Donald Trump – has further sharpened divisions over the summit’s direction.

Why Are They Few Black People In Argentina and Mexico?

Profile photo for Da Mu Da Mu · Follow Works at Market Force Information Mystery Shopping7y Why are there many black people in Latin America except in Mexico and Argentina? For both Mexico and Argentina the reasons are different as to why there are so few people of African descent. In Mexico, the main reasons were two fold. For one the Spanish looked at the plentiful native populations (native american) and determined it was more economical to use them for free or cheap labor rather than import African slaves at considerable cost. Secondly, Mexico went from colonial outpost to the principal Spanish settlement and ruling center in the New World, and with that meant significant Spanish migration, and with that Catholic education and teaching, evangelization/conversion, and founding of important Catholic institutions in Mexico. Whatever one may think about colonial Spaniards and colonial Catholic priests and missionaries, writings indicate that both Mexican and Spanish Catholic leaders acknowledged that slavery (whether African or native) was a moral evil that must be done away with. In fact, just like Britain did, Spain, and many Latin American countries (including Mexico) did away with slavery years (even decades) before the U.S. fought the Civil War over slavery. For Argentina the simple answer is geography and time. Argentina developed fairly late because it was such a remote region of the Spanish colonial empire. The country remained sparsely populated for a long time, even after they gained independence from Spain. The little population it had prior to the 1850s was largely Spanish, native peoples, or mestizos. The main population boom in Argentina didn’t arrive until the late 1800s, and early 1900s with large immigration waves from Europe. Many Italians, Germans, Spanish, as well as some Czechs, French, Hungarians, and a smattering of Brits made for a big wave of immigrants and their descendants. Since Argentina is a temperate weather country, it also had little to offer agriculturally to the Spanish in its early years, and therefore little need for the importation of slaves. That is not to say that African slaves weren’t transferred to Argentina, but that over time, just like in Mexico the few slaves that were transported there were diluted by the eventual far larger native and European populations. 104.1K views View 541 upvotes View 9 shares

Mexican President Presses Charges After Being Groped While On The Street

Mexican President Presses Charges After Being Groped in the Street Mexico Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum announced Wednesday that she is pressing charges against a man who groped her while she was greeting people outside the presidential palace in the capital this week, the Washington Post reported. Video shared on social media shows that while Sheinbaum, 63, was walking from the presidential palace to the Education Ministry and interacting with supporters on Tuesday, a man approached her from behind. He put an arm around her, grabbed her breast, and tried to kiss her neck until a member of her team stepped between them. Sheinbaum is seen calmly but swiftly removing the man’s hands and walking away. The man had been bothering other women in the area before groping the president. Sheinbaum, who said she was unaware of the attack until she saw the video, filed a complaint with the Mexico City attorney general’s office. The man has been arrested, according to the BBC. Women’s rights groups noted that the attack demonstrates how ingrained machismo is in Mexican society, where women are routinely assaulted on the street in broad daylight. Sheinbaum’s decision to press charges was seen as a message that these crimes cannot go unpunished. “If I do not report the crime, what condition will all Mexican women be left in?” Sheinbaum said. “If they do this to the president, what will happen to all of the young women in our country?” Sheinbaum said Tuesday that sexual harassment should be criminalized across the country, adding that she would take action to address the problem. She had promised to tackle these crimes during her campaign. Data from 2022 found that seven in 10 Mexican females over the age of 15 have reported having experienced some kind of violence. Feminicides are also common in the country, and about 98 percent of gender-based murders go unpunished.