The Curious Case Of Carlos Ghosn's Escape From Japan

Then came the bizarre story of Carlos Ghosn. To my Brasilian readers, he is a Brasilian who made good on a grand scale. If you are curious, here is his life story:

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

        Carlos ended up in Japan as CEO of Nissan. If the Japanese authorities are to be believed, he literally used Nissan bank accounts as his personal ATM. He allegedly lived a grand lifestyle at the expense of Nissan shareholders. He also failed to report his massive income and pay taxes on it in Japan.

         Carlos was arrested and stayed in a Japanese jail for a while. He used his public relations apparatus to gain sympathy for him around the world. Bail is not a right in Japan. Finally the Japanese authorities allowed him to post bail of roughly $13,800,000 US. He had to surrender all passports (French, Lebanese and Brasilian). He had to stay in his apartment under electronic monitoring wearing an ankle bracelet. He was guarded 24 hours a day, 7 days a week by agents from the prosecutor's office, Tokyo Metropolitan Police, and an elite private security agency.

        If Carlos is to be believed, he outwitted the electronic monitoring. He evaded three law enforcement agencies and made his way to some private airport where he flew out of Japan in a corporate jet that took him to Lebanon after one or two refueling stops. Japanese can be rigid and bureaucratic. On the other hand, their equivalent of the US Federal Aviation Administration is very efficient. Any flight by a corporate jet would have received scrutiny. If he had made it to some jet aircraft and lifted off, Japanese jet fighters would have been scrambled. If this failed, his course would have been plotted. Airports where he stopped for refueling would be asked to detain the plane and him.

     Those of you who know me well know that I am quite familiar with matters relating to international escapes. In 1984 I made legal history both in the US and Australia. I accomplished something that had not been accomplished in 140 years.

          The first problem with this escape story is that a number of people would be needed to help him including staff at the Lebanese Embassy in Tokyo. In the process of putting together such a daring and well-funded plan, someone would slip-up on social media or with a close person in their life and say something about the plan. If by some miracle this did not happen, the second major problem is the electronic monitoring device. The minute someone tampers with it, an alarm goes off. (Forget all the television shows where crooks outwit electronic monitoring.) Did he bribe Japanese officials to escape? I doubt it.

      A more plausible explanation is that the Japanese authorities tired of the case. A financial settlement was made including payment of all back taxes. (Elena believes that large financial penalties are a better solution to white collar crime, as opposed to massive prison sentences given in the US and Britain.) Then, as the saying goes, Japanese authorities "looked the other way" while Ghosn made his getaway.

The World Fails To Understand The Level Of Unrest And Violence In Chile

Let us contrast this with a most-disturbing phone call that I got from Santiago, Chile yesterday afternoon. One of our readers Pablo Gallyas gave me a most-disturbing report on what is happening in Chile now. We have read and seen news reports of mass demonstrations in Santiago. These protests have been likened to the protests in Hong Kong against Chinese rule. The report that  Pablo gave me painted a different picture of violence and social unrest on a grand scale. To give you one statistic, Walmart operates 200 stores in Chile. 70 have been shut down due to violent takeovers by looters. Whereas we have record unemployment in the US, some 200.000 Chileans have lost their jobs. Another 200,000 are projected to be laid off by April of 2020. The Chilean peso is crashing in value. Pablo is a principal in one of the largest telecom companies in Chile. Sadly they have had to lay off a good part of the workforce. Chile was once the most stable and prosperous country in Latin America.

    Everyone is the last 20 years we have slowly but surely seen the middle class decline all over the world while the top 1% get wealthier and wealthier. In the name of sound fiscal management, governments all over the world are cutting social benefits to the poor.

     In my 71 years on earth I have not been able to figure out how to redistribute wealth and income more fairly. Marxism failed. The US government tried to redistribute wealth with a 90% tax rate on the wealthy. That also failed. Elena believes in the principal of: "Either someone is born with money or they will never get it." She cannot explain her own life. She started literally one millimeter out of the slum (favela) in Buenos Aires and is now a rich lady. Likewise my domestic partner from the 1980's, Maria Antonieta Fuentes, started life in a Guatemala slum with a single-mother parent. She lives the life of a wealthy lady now in Burbank, California with two children and a nice husband.

     The bottom line here is that there are a lot of angry and disillusioned people out there. Some have taken drastic action.

Have a good day!

Be Positive!

Make some money!

Argentina: The Overhaul

ARGENTINA

The Overhaul

Argentine lawmakers approved an emergency economic reform package over the weekend in a bid to boost the country’s economy, reduce poverty and lower inflation to stave off fears of default by nervous creditors and international markets, Reuters reported.

The law was approved by both the houses, less than two weeks after moderate Peronist Alberto Fernandez took office.

The reform is meant to show creditors that Argentina will see sustainable growth in the future as the economy is expected to shrink for a third straight year in 2020.

Fernandez aims to restructure talks on about $100 billion in debt owed to bondholders and the International Monetary Fund.

He also plans to achieve fiscal equilibrium in 2020 and put an end to government subsidy cuts under the previous President Mauricio Macri.

“This bill represents a new type of fiscal adjustment for Argentina in that it is focused on taxing the rich,” said analyst Julio Burdman. “It combines sound economic policy with a progressive political approach.”

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Colombia-A Powder Keg

COLOMBIA

Powder Keg

Colombians took to the streets of the capital, Bogota, over the weekend in a third day of protests against austerity measures and state corruption, the BBC reported.

The anti-government demonstrations began last week and soon turned violent, leading to the death of at least three people.

Protesters are angry over possible pension and labor reforms and criticized the government for failing to hold to the 2016 peace deal with the leftwing FARC rebels.

The government has denied they plan to make reforms to the pension and labor system. Meanwhile, President Ivan Duque promised to deepen the “social dialogue” with Colombians over their concerns.

Colombia is the latest South American nation to be gripped by unrest in recent months, following protests in Chile and in Bolivia.

In Bolivia, protests and claims over election fraud forced long-time leftist President Evo Morales to resign.

Morales vowed to return but Bolivian lawmakers on Saturday approved new presidential elections and barred Morales, who fled the country, from running, CBS News reported.

Colombia: The Angry Street

COLOMBIA

The Angry Street

Colombia’s government announced earlier this week that it was closing its nation’s borders as part of a series of measures to stamp out protests planned for later this week amid increasing unrest in the country, the Guardian reported.

Tens of thousands of protesters are expected to take to the streets Thursday against the right-wing government of President Ivan Duque, whose popularity has dropped since he took office in 2018.

The rallies will focus on several issues, including Duque’s proposed austerity measures and his slow peace deal with leftist rebel group the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (or FARC) among others.

“The government is worried because the people and organizations who have come out in support of the protest are more heterogeneous than they are used to,” said Sergio Guzman, the director of Colombia Risk Analysis. “It’s not only the labor unions, or the students, or indigenous people – it’s all of them.”

Human Activities Are Drying Out the Amazon: NASA Study

Human Activities Are Drying Out the Amazon: NASA Study: Using ground and satellite data, scientists found that human activity is causing a significant increase in dry air over the Amazon rainforest.

Drought-Stressed Forest Fueled Amazon Fires

Drought-Stressed Forest Fueled Amazon Fires: The Earth-observing mission ECOSTRESS reveals how the massive rainforest fires this past August spread in dry areas visible only to this specialized sensor.

Argentina: Making A Comeback

ARGENTINA

Making A Comeback

Argentina’s center-left Peronists celebrated their return to power Monday after a four-year absence, setting off fears that the country could return to its populist ways, the Associated Press reported.

Election returns released Monday gave Alberto Fernandez enough votes to prevent a run-off against conservative incumbent President Mauricio Macri, and saw a swing back to center-left.

The victory also saw the return of former President Cristina Fernandez – no relation to the president-elect – a politician adored by the poor but feared by big business as vice-president.

There is concern that the Peronists’ victory will scare off investors and bring back Cristina Fernandez’s interventionist policies, which have been blamed for the current economic turmoil.

But analysts doubt that the former president’s policies will be revived as the country is not financially flush enough to freely spend as it did in prior decades.

Meanwhile, the former president, who governed from 2007 to 2015, faces charges of corruption, which she has denied.

Argentina has one of the highest inflation rates in the world, 56 percent annually, while a third of the population lives in poverty, reported the Guardian.

Macri was in negotiations with the International Monetary Fund to get a record $56 billion bailout in exchange for austerity measures. Now, the markets will watch how the new president, a critic of the plan, will handle the plan. Many Argentines blame the IMF for creating the conditions that led to the economic collapse at the beginning of the century, the AP reported.

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Chile-Enough!!!!!!

CHILE

Enough!

Truckers recently joined protests in Chile, calling for an end to highway tolls.

Hundreds of trucks drove slowly down a highway near Santiago, the capital, where protesters have clashed with riot police for weeks. At least 20 people have died in the civil unrest, wrote the Associated Press.

The protest has continued to escalate over the past few weeks despite the violence and the crackdown. On Friday, about a million people crammed the streets of downtown Santiago, NPR said. The city’s mayor, Karla Rubilar, tweeted that the protesters “represent the dream of a new Chile.”

Demonstrations initially broke out after bus and subway fare hikes. But anger over the police crackdown on the protests morphed into general outrage over economic inequality in one of Latin America’s wealthiest countries, reported Reuters. Many protesters told the news agency they struggle to meet the daily costs of living.

President Sebastian Pinera has adopted a conciliatory tone, apologizing for years of ignoring problems and promising reforms to correct them. “It’s true – problems have not occurred in recent days,” he said, according to CNN. “They have been accumulating for decades.”

On Monday, Pinera fired eight ministers in a major reshuffle of his cabinet in order to calm the situation. “We have all heard and understood the message of Chileans…,” he tweeted Saturday announcing the change. “We’re working to form a new team that represents change.”

As Foreign Policy magazine explained, Pinera proposed a 20 percent increase in state pensions, a minimum wage, a moratorium on a planned increase in electricity prices, and pay cuts and term limits for lawmakers. But as protests continued, it seemed clear that Chileans doubted those plans would address their many complaints about transportation, education and other issues.

Meanwhile, curfews and troops on the streets of Santiago remind many Chileans of General Augusto Pinochet’s 17-year-long dictatorship in the country that ended in 1990, reported National Public Radio. Pinochet’s regime imprisoned, tortured and killed thousands.

“It was like a slap in the face for all of us,” said 54-year-old protester Paz Lagos. “This history is still alive and we haven’t forgotten what happened when the military took over the streets. It was a very hard time – many died. We do not want the same thing here.”

Pinochet was arguably the architect of today’s Chilean free-market economy, which is prosperous relative to its neighbors but nonetheless has produced a wide income gap that has angered and frustrated ordinary citizens, the Nation, a left-wing magazine, wrote.

Similar discontent is driving people to the streets in Ecuador, India, Iraq, Lebanon and elsewhere, Fareed Zakaria wrote in a Washington Post op-ed.

Chile’s economy grew at 6 percent in the 1990s and 4 percent in the 2000s, Zakaria explained. In the past five years, though, growth averaged 2 percent. The International Monetary Fund now estimates Latin America’s growth this year will be 0.2 percent, down from a 1.4 percent estimate six months ago. People are working harder and getting less.

At the same time, elites appear more in control of governments in democracies and closed societies than ever, the Guardian observed.

If people feel they can’t get ahead, they’ll slowly lose confidence in society, law and order.

Venezuela: Emergency Exit

VENEZUELA

Emergency Exit

The number of Venezuelans fleeing starvation and spiking crime – in the single largest economic collapse outside of war in almost half a century – is nearing five million, alarming officials who say the refugee influx is straining neighbors’ resources to a breaking point, Reuters reported.

“This is the most severe and fastest-growing refugee migrant crisis in Latin American history, at least recent history,” said Walter Stevens, EU ambassador to the UN in Geneva. “There are estimates also that it could further increase if the situation does not change…”

Formerly wealthy, Venezuela saw a socioeconomic and political crisis begin during President Hugo Chávez’s leadership, one that has escalated under his successor, Nicolás Maduro. The economy collapsed into hyperinflation and mass unemployment, while people struggle with shortages of food and medicines, starvation, disease and crime.

Almost a sixth of the country’s population has fled.

Meanwhile, Venezuela’s neighbors are buckling under the strain of coping with hundreds of thousands of refugees, particularly Colombia and Peru, the top two destinations, followed by Chile and Ecuador, which are currently experiencing their own political and socio-economic turmoil.

Chile: The Big Gap

CHILE

The Big Gap

Santiago was paralyzed Monday as protesters hit the streets for the fourth consecutive day, shutting stores, banks, and schools.

The unrest sparked last week by a now suspended metro fare hike has turned into a movement against rising inequality in the Andean nation, and killed at least 11, CNN reported.

The chaos forced conservative President Sebastian Pinera to send soldiers and tanks into the city over the weekend for the first time since 1990, when Chile brought back democracy after the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. On Monday, more than 10,500 soldiers and police were deployed.

Pinera condemned the riots saying that the country is “at war against a powerful enemy.”

The protests have exposed the divisions in the nation with many Chileans demanding reforms over the rising cost of public services and the decline in living standards, according to the Washington Post.

Former Chilean president and current UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, called for an investigation into the deaths Monday.

Meanwhile, workers at Chile’s Escondida copper mine – the world’s largest – said that they would hold a strike Tuesday in solidarity with protesters, Reuters reported.

Uruguay: Draconian Set Of Criminal Justice Reforms

URUGUAY

30 Years of Solitude

More than the presidency is at stake in Uruguay on Oct. 27.

In addition to choosing between presidential candidates Daniel Martinez and upstart challenger Luis Lacalle Pou, voters will also cast ballots on a draconian set of criminal reforms.

The mayor of the capital city of Montevideo, Martinez, 62, is leading in the polls, according to the Americas Society/Council of the Americas. He is the head of the Broad Front, the party that has controlled the South American country for 15 years.

The Broad Front came to power on a wave of enthusiasm for leftist policies but has avoided the “autocracy or unbridled ambition” of socialist regimes in Venezuela and elsewhere, two Latin American studies scholars argued in the Conversation.

Martinez can’t be too careful, however. Support for the Broad Front, is still significant but has waned in recent years. His chief rival, National Party leader Lacalle Pou, 46, has created plenty of buzz as a popular, young newcomer running a tough campaign amid widespread disappointment with the status quo, Americas Quarterly explained.

Critics accuse the Broad Front of pursuing some progressive policies but failing to deliver on deeper changes that have stalled the Uruguayan economy and allowed society to descend into violence, political theorist Mabel Thwaites Rey said in an interview with the North American Congress on Latin America, a respected journalism group with a left-wing bent.

Homicides grew by nearly half in 2018, to a rate of 11.8 per 100,000 people, the Associated Press reported. The murder rate in the US that year was around five per 100,000 people, the New York Times reported.

Meanwhile, Reuters described the country’s economy as “sluggish.” Mainstream leaders can’t seem to solve the problem, though. And, as the Buenos Aires Times wrote, neighboring Argentina’s economic woes are also playing a big role in fears of a downturn.

In the Oct. 27 election, voters will also consider a proposal that would grant police broad powers to raid suspects’ houses, create a national militia and impose harsh punishments on convicted criminals, like life without parole and 30 years of solitary confinement, for serious crimes.

The official press agency of Cuba, Prensa Latina, covered a march against the law. Demonstrators carried placards reading “Living without fear” to protest what they worried would become an Orwellian police state if the ballot measure passed. Similarly, World Politics Review asked if success for the referendum question would indicate that Uruguay was embracing populist, right-wing policies like Brazil.

If people opt for police raids, they just might get them.

Bolivia: Overstaying His Welcome

BOLIVIA

Overstaying His Welcome

Rain finally extinguished the massive wildfires that burned through almost 10 million acres of the Bolivian rainforest since August, the BBC reported recently.

President Evo Morales isn’t likely to receive a similar respite. Latin America’s longest-serving head of state – he first took office in 2006 – faces his biggest re-election challenge when voters go to the polls Oct. 20.

Critics blasted Morales for letting farmers clear more land in the Amazon region of the South American country, then refusing to declare a national emergency or to seek international aid to combat the fires once they started. Argentina and Chile were willing to help but, as indigenous groups and others protested Morales’ inaction, the president refused to accept their assistance.

The first indigenous leader of Bolivia, Morales is a leftist. But he claimed that asking for foreign help would undercut Bolivia’s sovereignty, the same argument Brazil’s right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro used to snub international help to put out fires in his country, World Politics Review noted.

Morales’ rigid stance on the fires hints at the authoritarianism in his government that concerns many voters.

In a 2016 referendum on whether to allow the president to seek a fourth term in office, a majority of Bolivians voted no. But Morales asked the country’s top constitutional court to overturn the vote. It did, so now he’s on the ballot.

Since then, he hasn’t done much to assuage his critics. The same tribunal that annulled the referendum, for example, recently threatened to sanction a university that published poll results unfavorable to Morales. The poll found that the president would receive only 31 percent of the vote, or less than the 40 percent minimum necessary to avoid a December runoff, reported Reuters.

Morales’ main opponent, Carlos Mesa, a former president, said the court’s decision showed how the president kept government officials on a tight leash that was likely to get tighter if he won a fourth term. “If we continue with Señor Morales as president, we will go from authoritarianism to dictatorship,” Mesa told the Financial Times.

An economic slowdown is also taking the shine off Morales’ image. For much of his tenure, Bolivia has enjoyed annual economic growth of about 4.5 percent, the Associated Press wrote. He’s spent lavishly on infrastructure projects with that extra money, building new roads, schools and stadiums. But the International Monetary Fund recently predicted that growth would slow.

Many Bolivians once supported Morales, whom they viewed as a man of the people. But even such a man can overstay his welcome.

Bail Ordered For Ex-Peruvian President

https://www.sfchronicle.com/world/article/Judge-OKs-bail-for-jailed-former-Peruvian-leader-14510349.php?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=headlines&utm_campaign=sfc_morningfix&sid=53b99920a256ab0848000710#

Venezuela: Artificial Deals

VENEZUELA

Artificial Deals

Venezuelan pro-government lawmakers returned to the opposition-controlled National Assembly Tuesday for the first time in two years, part of a deal between President Nicolas Maduro and small group of opposition delegates to open dialogue in the deeply divided country, Reuters reported.

“Let’s go to the debate, let’s go to the fight,” Maduro said in a televised speech.

Mainstream opposition parties that control the congress, however, did not support the deal with US-backed opposition leader Juan Guaido calling the agreement a distraction and “artificial,” Al Jazeera reported.

Guaido said earlier this month that negotiations between the government and the opposition mediated by Norway have “been exhausted” after Maduro’s administration withdrew delegates following the tightening of US sanctions.

In January, the opposition leader invoked the constitution to assume a rival presidency: He has been backed by the United States and 50 other countries in his attempt to oust Maduro, who has overseen a crippling economic crisis and mass emigration from locals fleeing shortages of food, medicine and other essentials.

New Facts About The Amazon Fires

THE AMAZON

Burning Down the House

This summer, a lot of people feared the Amazon rainforest might burn to the ground, destroying an oxygen-generating ecological treasure sometimes called the “lungs of the world.”

Fears about the massive forest fires in Brazil turned out to be exaggerated, however, according to Forbes and others. For example, some of the viral images of the conflagrations turned out to be fake, wrote Mother Jones.

The revelations led Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, a right-wing nationalist, to demand an apology from French President Emmanuel Macron, who had criticized Brazil’s management of the Amazon, as well as Bolsonaro’s antipathy to indigenous people who live in the jungle and his openness to agricultural interests that clear the land to make way for farms and ranches, the Guardian reported.

Still, Science magazine was skeptical of Brazilian Environment Minister Ricardo Salles, who blamed “dry weather, wind, and heat” for the fires. The publication was clear: deforestation was a major reason why fires in the region were growing more frequent and more intense.

In fact, the New York Times noted, the world arguably is on fire. Major infernos have gripped regions not only in South America but also in Africa, the Arctic and Indonesia as temperatures have risen worldwide due to climate change.

The Amazon sucks as much as 2 billion tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere annually, or around 5 percent of total human-made emissions. If the jungles turn into savanna and fires continue to wipe out greenery in other regions, the planet could reach a “tipping point” that could change the atmosphere permanently in 20 to 30 years, Public Radio International reported.

In Indonesia, the fires have engulfed large swaths of the country in a “toxic haze,” wrote CNN. More than 21,000 square miles of Siberian forest burned in August, melting permafrost that holds massive carbon deposits, Salon reported.

Bolsonaro took actions to deal with the Amazon fires, including temporarily banning burnings to clear trees and sending troops to fight the fires. Scientific American reported that the land clearing continued, though.

The Brazilian president has said he would reject a $20 million international aid package to deal with the problem. That might seem nuts. But Vox pointed out that beef exports generated $6.7 billion in foreign revenue for Brazil last year. Farmers use most of the soy produced in farms on former jungle soil to feed cattle. In other words, it would take more than $20 million to upend Brazil’s economy.

When it comes to deforestation and climate change, half measures simply won’t do.

Nicaragua-Taking Off The Gloves

Taking Off the Gloves

A Nicaraguan opposition group claimed responsibility Sunday for a series of explosions that rocked the country over the weekend, signaling a change in tactics by those against the regime of President Daniel Ortega.

The little-known Nicaraguan Patriotic Alliance (APN) said it executed a “a series of actions of a military nature” and will continue to do so until Ortega is gone.

“All these actions are carried out and will continue to be carried out…until the dictatorship is broken,” the group said on Saturday, according to Reuters.

Although there were no casualties, the move marks a turning point: Until now, opponents of the regime have largely remained peaceful.

The Central American nation has been gripped by a political crisis since April 2018, when Ortega’s government announced a plan to cut welfare benefits.

Since then, more than 300 people have died in clashes between pro-government forces and protesters, and thousands have been forced into exile.

Letelier-Moffitt Assassination: State Department Officials Pushed for Pinochet’s Ouster | National Security Archive

Letelier-Moffitt Assassination: State Department Officials Pushed for Pinochet’s Ouster | National Security Archive

Ecuador: Divided We Stand

ECUADOR

Divided We Stand

Some Ecuadorian lawmakers criticized the national assembly on Wednesday for rejecting a reform bill that would decriminalize abortion in cases of rape.

“The debate over abortion for rape was not in vain. Today society knows that in Ecuador, raped women are criminalized,” lawmaker Wilma Andrade said, according to the Guardian.

The comments follow clashes between pro-choice activists and police outside the country’s national assembly after the proposed bill – which also permitted abortion in cases of incest and fetal malformation – fell five votes short of the 70 it needed to pass.

Activists argued that the decision amounts to a death sentence for those women forced to seek an illegal abortion: These resulted in 15.6 percent of all maternal deaths in 2014, according to the latest figures available.

Lawmakers have been debating reforming the draconian law for years, but the recent rejection underscored lingering divisions on the issue in the staunchly Catholic country.

The current law only allows for abortions in cases where the mother’s life is in danger, or if the pregnancy is the result of the rape of a mentally disabled woman.

Women who have the procedure face up to two years in prison.

Brasil: A New Front

BRAZIL

A New Front

Organized criminal networks are responsible for the deforestation of the Amazon and use violence and intimidation against those who try to stop them, according to a new Human Rights Watch report.

The 165-page report found that out of 300 murders in the Amazon in the past decade, only 14 were tried in court, Reuters reported.

“If the authorities had taken their complaints seriously, these people might be alive today,” Daniel Wilkinson, acting environment director of nonprofit group, told the news agency Tuesday.

Brazil’s Environment Minister Ricardo Salles responded that the government has fought against criminality, and is currently combating illegal fires and other environmental crimes that have plagued the rainforest in recent weeks.

The Amazon plays an important role in the fight against climate change, but the rainforest’s destruction has surged this year due to the fires.

Meanwhile, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has come under fire internationally for his policies that advocate opening the Amazon to development and the weakening of Brazil’s environmental enforcement agencies.

Guatemala-A Sad Last Hurrah

GUATEMALA

A Last, Sad Hurrah

Guatemalan police on Monday arrested former first lady and three-time presidential candidate Sandra Torres on charges of violating campaign finance rules following an investigation by a UN corruption commission that is being forced out after butting heads with the country’s political class.

Torres, who came in second during last month’s presidential election, was charged with “failing to register election financing, and unlawful association.”

Many in the country hailed the arrest – suspicions of corruption have dogged Torres for more than a decade.

She has denied all charges.

Her arrest comes one day before the closing of the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) whose work has rocked Guatemala’s political class for 12 years: A CICIG investigation toppled President Otto Pérez Molina in 2015 and helped expose a complex multi-billion dollar corruption network, the Financial Times reported.

Her arrest and others announced this week are considered the final acts of the commission, Reuters reported.

Last year, outgoing president Jimmy Morales refused to renew its mandate and barred its chief, Iván Velásquez, from the country.

The new president-elect Alejandro Giammattei – who has also clashed with the commission – intends to replace the CICIG with a state commission, but hasn’t provided any specifics.

Chile Has Some Serious Problems

CHILE

Rats, Sewage and Humming Economies

Free marketers have long championed the economic success of Chile.

The South American country’s neo-liberal reforms in the 1980s and 1990s – cutting public benefits, lowering taxes – arguably set the stage for a renaissance that helped reduce poverty from 26 percent to less than 8 percent between 2000 and 2015, according to the World Bank.

But social upheaval has followed the slowdown of Chile’s export-oriented economy in the past year, especially as trade instability between China and the United States has suppressed the price of copper, a crucial local commodity, reported Al Jazeera. The worst drought in decades isn’t helping, added the Associated Press.

Around 80,000 teachers went on strike for seven weeks this summer, calling for structural changes in a system they said was not working anymore. Chilean law technically doesn’t cover education as a public right, leaving it instead to the private sector through a voucher system that hurts the poorest students, the left-wing magazine Jacobin explained. The teachers ended their strike in July but said they would keep fighting for reforms.

Students are also angry. Even at the elite National Institute in the capital of Santiago, the all-boy alma mater of numerous ex-presidents, students have staged protests against “rat infestations, blocked bathrooms with sewage leaking, cold showers, broken windows, leaking roofs and bullying teachers,” the BBC reported.

Confidence in the political system cratered in 2015, when the oldest son of then-President Michelle Bachelet was implicated in an insider trading and influence-peddling scandal, wrote Americas Quarterly. Bachelet responded by supporting major reforms to campaign finance and other rules governing elected officials.

Such improvements rarely quiet others seeking justice, however.

President Sebastián Piñera, a 69-year-old billionaire, assumed office 18 months ago. Since then, his critics say he has done little to address the many complaints of Chilean citizens about how their country operates. Piñera’s approval rating is now around 34 percent.

Meanwhile, relatives of around 1,100 people who disappeared during the brutal dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, for example, have been crying out for more information about their loved ones to no avail. Bachelet launched an investigation that is expected to yield results in two years. Many feel that Piñera isn’t doing anything to speed things up, the Guardian wrote.

Piñera also faces the uncomfortable task of overseeing prosecutions of accused sexual abusers within the Catholic church, Crux reported, including allegations against his uncle, Archbishop Bernardino Piñera.

In the current climate, reported Bloomberg, two young communist women lawmakers have proposed cutting the official workweek from 45 to 40 hours. Critics said the proposal would undermine productivity. The lawmakers, Camila Vallejo, 31, and Karol Cariola, 32, argued it would improve quality of life.

Economic indicators are important. They offer little, however, to those seeking justice and equality.

WAN