South America has been a special part of my life for four decades. I have lived many years in Brasil and Peru. I am married to an incredible lady from Argentina. I want to share South America with you.
Bogota, September 25, 2017 – US President Donald Trump announced that his government would include Venezuela in its notorious “travel ban” list Sunday, effectively barring a slew of Venezuelan government officials from US territory.
The infamous list was originally approved via executive order in January 2017 and initially included Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen – though Iraq was removed in March 2017.
Citing its reasons for imposing restrictions on Venezuelan officials Sunday, the Trump administration said that Caracas had been “uncooperative” in identifying Venezuelan citizens that “pose national security or public-safety threat,” and had failed to “share public safety and terrorism-related information adequately”. It also stated that the Nicolas Maduro administration had been unwilling to fully cooperate with US deportation orders on Venezuelan nationals.
“As a result, the restrictions imposed by this proclamation focus on government officials of Venezuela who are responsible for the identified inadequacies,” reads the statement.
It continues: “The entry into the United States of officials of government agencies of Venezuela involved in screening and vetting procedures… and their immediate family members, as nonimmigrants on business (B-1), tourist (B-2), and business/tourist (B-1/B-2) visas, is hereby suspended”.
Government officials from the Ministry of Popular Power for Interior, Justice and Peace, the Administrative Service of Identification, Migration and Immigration, the Scientific, Penal and Criminal Investigation Service Corps, the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service, and the Ministry of Popular Power for Foreign Relations will all be affected by the new restrictions.
In addition to Venezuela, North Korea and Chad were also added to the catalogue of blacklisted countries Sunday, while the ban on Sudan was lifted.
Venezuela’s inclusion in the list comes just a month after the Trump administration announced a string of economic sanctions against the South American country in August.
Reacting to the news on Monday, Caracas slammed the move as “incompatible with international law” and said the Trump administration had used the war on terrorism as a “false pretext” to deal a blow to the Maduro administration.
“The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela… rejects the imperial conduct of the government of the United States of America and reports that, in accordance with the principle of reciprocity, will consider all the necessary measures to defend its national interest and sovereignty,” reads a statement from the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry.
Bolivian President and Venezuela ally Evo Morales also condemned the measure as an affront to the entire continent shortly after the White House announcement.
“By attacking Venezuela, Trump attacks Latin America and violates the [Organization of American States] OAS charter, with the complicity of his [OAS head] employee [Luis] Almagro,” said Morales.
The new restrictions will come into effect on October 18, according to the White House press release.
Brazilian Art Show Sets Off Dispute That Mirrors Political Battles
SÃO PAULO, Brazil — A controversy has erupted in Brazil after organizers of an art exhibition on gender and sexual diversity caved to pressure from conservative groups and canceled the show — rekindling a political firestorm that gripped the country last year when the country’s first female president was impeached.
The offending images in the display — Queermuseu, or Queer Museum — included a baby monkey snuggling in the Virgin Mary’s arms, sacramental wafers with the words “vagina” and “tongue” written on them and naïve-style portraits of smiling children spray-painted with tags like “transvestite” and “gay child.”
Critics — some of whom had also demanded the impeachment of the president — accused the artists of promoting pedophilia and child pornography. Rowdy protesters harassed museumgoers outside and inside the exhibition and posted a video that was seen by more than 1.4 million viewers on Facebook.
On Sunday, Santander Bank unexpectedly closed the exhibition, which is at its cultural center in the southern city of Pôrto Alegre, a month ahead of schedule. The curator found out when a friend of his sent him a text message.
“I was completely taken by surprise,” said the curator, Gaudencio Fidelis, in a telephone interview. “It is not normal for an institution to give into pressure like this.”
“It’s never happened in Brazil, not even during the dictatorship,” he added, referring to the brutal military dictatorship that ended in 1985. “It sets a bad precedent.”
In Brazil, private and public banks and other companies are some of the biggest investors in culture, many of them financing museums, artists and films.
The cancellation reverberated across the country, feeding into the broad political feud that exploded during the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff, pitting her supporters against the man who replaced her, Michel Temer.
The country’s top artists were already wary of Mr. Temer’s close ties to the evangelical lobby in Brazil’s Congress, and one of his early actions — to appoint an all-male, all-white cabinet, and to eliminate the Culture Ministry — did not help, even though the ministry was quickly reinstated.
Also, Mr. Temer has continued to actively court religious conservatives in Congress to help push through his economic initiatives and protect him from a corruption investigation.
Photo
Felipe Scandelari’s artwork “Last Resort” was among the images included in an art exhibition on gender and sexual diversity that was canceled in Brazil.CreditFelipe Scandelari
Many artists have rallied to Ms. Rousseff. During her impeachment trial when she was accused of breaking budgetary laws, many musicians and artists who had resisted the dictatorship took a stand against Mr. Temer for what they said was an “institutional coup d’état.”
At the Cannes Film Festival last year, the cast of the Brazilian film “Aquarius,” including Sonia Braga, held up placards on the red carpet denouncing the “illegitimate government” and urging people to “save Brazilian democracy!”
A couple of months later, the new government’s Oscar committee rejected “Aquarius” as Brazil’s candidate for best foreign-language film – prompting accusations of political retaliation.
Santander’s explanation for the cancellation of the show fueled the controversy.
“We heard the protests and we understand that some of the works at the Queermuseu disrespected symbols, beliefs and people, which is not in line with our vision of the world,” the bank said in a statement.
The Free Brazil Movement — one of the same groups that organized huge demonstrations demanding Ms. Rousseff’s impeachment — declared victory. “Santander used public money to finance an exhibition with pedophilia and bestiality,” the group said on Facebook. “Brazilian society organized to reject that. That is a boycott that worked.”
On Tuesday afternoon, protesters gathered outside Santander’s cultural center demanding that the exhibition be reopened. They ended up clashing with the police. Signatures on a petition supporting the exhibition topped 60,000, and numerous opinion articles denouncing censorship and attacks on artistic expression appeared in local publications.
The regional district attorney for children’s issues, Julio Almeida, seemed to support the exhibition. “We saw the art and there isn’t any pedophilia,” he told journalists in Pôrto Alegre. “There are some images that could be characterized as sexually explicit. But from a criminal viewpoint, there is nothing.”
The exhibition, which opened on Aug. 15, included more than 263 works of art from 85 artists, including Candido Portinari, Alfredo Volpi and Lygia Clark.
The paintings of children tagged “transvestite” by the artist Bia Leite set off some of the strongest reactions. “We, L.G.B.T., were once children,” she responded in an interview with the UOL news site. “I am totally opposed to pedophilia and the psychological abuse of children. The goal of this work is just the opposite.”
The curator said the exhibition was the first in Brazil to embrace the “queer perspective.”
It might still find a new home in the city of Belo Horizonte, where the secretary of culture is a former minister from Ms. Rousseff’s government. He has received a proposal to put it in a municipal museum.
“I’m smiling on the idea,” said the secretary, Juca Ferreira, in a telephone interview. “If we allow the censorship of art, it will be a huge step backward. We lived with it during the dictatorship, so we know it has to be cut out at the root.”
Brazil’s attorney general charged former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and his successor Dilma Rousseff with running a “criminal organization” that collected some $450 million in bribes during their Workers’ Party’s nearly 14 years at the helm.
The charge marks the first time that Rousseff has been accused of partaking in the ubiquitous kickback schemes that have tarred all of Brazil’s major political parties, the New York Times reported. It also cast a pall over Lula’s bid to return to the presidency despite the recent conviction against him in the long-running corruption scandal involving the state-owned Petrobras oil company.
Though he faces 10 years in prison for his earlier conviction, Lula was wrapping up a 25-city campaign trip when the charges were unveiled. The populist leader appeared to be nonplussed to be facing another court case.
“I’ll say one thing: we’re going to govern this country again,” he said via Twitter. “And when I say we, it’s not me. It’s you.”
Colombia inked a formal cease-fire agreement with its last remaining major rebel group, making further progress in the long walk toward a permanent peace deal.
Talks have been underway with the National Liberation Army, or ELN, since February, the Associated Press reported.
Under the deal, the rebels will suspend attacks on infrastructure, kidnappings and recruitment of minors. For its part the government will protect social leaders from reprisal and develop a program to rehabilitate rebel fighters.
The deal with the much smaller group comes in the lead-up to a visit to Colombia from Pope Francis, who is fulfilling a promise to visit the war-torn country contingent on a peace agreement with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.
FARC has turned over its weapons and aims to compete in elections next year. But negotiations with ELN have been slower since exploratory talks began more than three years a
Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales had a problem – namely one pesky anti-corruption official. He created a solution: Kick the nuisance out.
In doing so, he created a bigger problem. Now, he is being accused of a “vendetta” against the head of Guatemala’s International Commission against Impunity, reported Reuters.
“I think it’s fair to say this is a constitutional crisis of the gravest proportions,” Wilson Center expert Eric Olson told the New York Times. “The train is veering off the tracks, and it’s not clear who will stop it.”
The story started two years ago when Ivan Velasquez, who directs the United Nations-affiliated anti-corruption commission, helped Morales win office by probing his political opponents. But late last month the president tried to expel Velasquez from the Central American country, triggering a conflict.
That’s because Velasquez had recently called for a corruption investigation into the president. Authorities also arrested Morales’ son and brother in January on corruption charges.
People took to the streets against the expulsion. A cabinet minister quit in protest, and the foreign minister was fired for refusing to expel Velasquez. The courts issued a stop order against it. Morales rescinded. “The rule of law should always prevail,” the president wrote on Facebook.
The uprising was a welcome change that reflects new hope in the region.
“One adjective often used to describe corruption in Latin America is ‘chronic.’ Or, even worse, ‘entrenched,’” wrote the Christian Science Monitor in an editorial. “Such a fatalistic narrative, however, has been challenged in recent days by the people of Guatemala.”
Now advocates of good government are hoping the crisis ends with the Guatemalan judiciary strengthened.
“The court’s ruling must prevail and Morales must abide by it,” wrote former Guatemalan judge Claudia Escobar and National Endowment for Democracy researcher Eshe Hill in the Washington Post. “This is exactly the sort of crisis that tests the effectiveness of democratic institutions and the need for balance of power.”
The trial against brother Samuel and son Jose Manuel, meanwhile, has begun. They’re charged with tax fraud. Samuel also faces money-laundering charges. Both deny the allegations, according to ABC. The proceedings are likely to produce high drama in the coming weeks.
Morales is a former television comedian, a political outsider who promised clean government. Now his hardline tactics against Velasquez could backfire on him politically. Guatemalans have lived through decades of corrupt leaders. They know the tactics.
“You commit crimes and you blow up one of those who is investigating,” a former Morales supporter told the New York Times. “Wherever you look, this is unacceptable. Jimmy has to resign.”
It’s doubtful Morales will step down.
But his turnaround in the face of popular opposition and acknowledgement of the separation of powers might be the best precedent he will ever set in his administration.
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Good Morning, today is September 01, 2017.
NEED TO KNOW
What’s for Dinner?
Though Venezuela boasts the largest oil reserves in the world, the collapse of its socialist economic model has led to chronic food shortages, malnutrition and civil unrest.
As a result, destitute Venezuelan’s are left to scrounge for food wherever they can find it – even in their local zoo, Reuters reports.
Venezuelan police are currently investigating a string of thefts from a zoo in the western state of Zulia. The missing beasts include two collared peccaries, an animal similar to a boar, and two tapirs, a pig-like jungle animal that’s on the brink of extinction.
Police are working under the assumption that the animals were taken “with the intention of eating them,” Luis Morales, an official for the Zulia division of Venezuela’s National Police, recently told reporters.
Zoo officials dispute that conclusion, however, claiming that the animals were likely lifted by drug dealers hoping to sell the animals for a profit.
While the international community claims Venezuela’s woes are a direct result of the government’s economic gaffes, President Nicolas Maduro contends that food shortages are due to opposition protests that have clogged trade routes.
