The Castro Era Comes To An End -Cuba

 

CUBA

Adios Comrade

Raul Castro will step down as the head of Cuba’s ruling Communist Party, ending his family’s six decades in power that began with his late brother, Fidel Castro, NBC News reported.

Castro, 89, said during a speech at the party’s congress that he was retiring and would hand over power to a younger generation that is “full of passion and anti-imperialist spirit.”

Though he did not name a successor, Castro said in 2018 that he expected President Miguel Díaz-Canel to replace him. Analysts believe that Díaz-Canel is expected to be voted in as the party’s next secretary-general.

As he retires, Castro leaves behind a country that is facing multiple challenges exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic and ongoing US economic sanctions.

One of the last communist-run nations in the world, Cuba lacks the hard currency to import food and medicine and the deteriorating situation has led to an increase in public discontent rarely seen since the 1959 communist revolution.

In November, the Caribbean nation made global headlines when hundreds of artists took to the streets to demand greater freedom of expression.

US President Joe Biden campaigned on taking a more lenient approach toward Cuba but the administration has yet to make any policy changes.

Amid skepticism, analysts suggest that Castro’s departure is important because it will urge the new generation of leaders to speed up the economic reforms promised since 2011.

Arturo López-Levy of Holy Names University in California said post-Castro leaders are trying to consolidate power: He noted that their legitimacy will not be derived “from a revolutionary background but from…(a) better performance.”

R

Brasil: A Subborn Thorn In The Side

 

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Good Morning, today is April 15, 2021.

NEED TO KNOW BRAZIL A Stubborn Thorn Lula is back. The leftist former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva recently received a new lease on life in politics after the country’s Supreme Court annulled his criminal convictions in March, paving the way for him to run for reelection next year. “This changes the whole picture,” Dharma Political Risk and Strategy analyst Creomar de Souza told Reuters. Lula ran the largest country in South America from 2003 to 2011. Now 75, he championed the role of the state in lifting up workers and the impoverished, jacked up public spending and became enormously popular with many voters but loathed among Brazil’s business class. Brazilian lawmakers impeached and ousted his Worker’s Party ally and hand-picked successor, ex-President Dilma Rousseff, in 2016, on corruption allegations. Two years later, a court convicted him on corruption charges that Brazil-based American journalist Glenn Greenwald maintained were politically motivated. Lula spent more than 500 days in jail. It seemed as if his brand of left-wing populism was dead. Then right-wing populist Jair Bolsonaro became president in 2018, kicking off a range of controversies including the failure to take the coronavirus seriously, as well as pro-business reforms such as reducing pensions and the public bureaucracy, and privatizing state-owned companies, actions that market observers like J.P. Morgan welcomed. Bolsonaro arguably might have welcomed the annulment of Lula’s conviction. He won office on a wave of anti-Lula sentiment. If Lula runs for the presidency, the incumbent will be able to strike a stark contrast between himself and his rival. Bolsonaro is vulnerable, however. As the coronavirus ravages Brazil – around 2,600 people are dying per day in the country – he’s fired cabinet ministers and military leaders – the military’s top chiefs quit afterward, some believe, because Bolsonaro was planning to use the army against state leaders who imposed restrictions to contain the coronavirus. Regardless, the Washington Post described the actions as those of a desperate man seeking to change direction. The president, who previously derided masks, has even taken to wearing a face covering. Lula has not said whether he will run when Bolsonaro is up for reelection next year. He’s certainly talking like a candidate, however. Recently he referred to the more than 300,000 deaths in Brazil due to Covid-19 as the country’s “biggest genocide” in history, Al Jazeera wrote. Lula might not be out of the woods, Bloomberg cautioned. Prosecutors said they would appeal the court’s decision, which focused on the technicalities of his case rather than the substance of the charges against him. Even if he is not on the ballot, Lula will surely remain a thorn in Bolsonaro’s side.

Cuba Is Becoming A Center Of Coronavirus Vaccine Development!

 

CUBA

The Little Engine That Could

Even as Cuba remains isolated from the US, it’s poised to become the center of a web of vaccination distribution throughout the rest of the world.

The poor, communist-led island in the Caribbean has a whopping five vaccine candidates under development, the Washington Post reported. The drugs can stand room temperatures for weeks. That’s ideal for low-income tropical countries that are struggling to acquire sufficient vaccines as American and European officials horde doses to inoculate their citizens.

US-based activist Danny Haiphong went so far as to argue on GCTN, a Chinese-owned news outlet, that the West was waging a war against the rest of the world by withholding vaccines. Around 60 percent of vaccinations occur in rich countries where only 16 percent of the global population resides, he said. Africa, in contrast, is home to 17 percent of the world’s population but has received only two percent of all vaccinations.

Cuba is challenging that narrative. “Cuba has a dream — to have so much Covid-19 vaccine that not only could everyone on the island get immunized but Cuba would give it away to friends and allies around the world,” wrote National Public Radio, adding that Cuban officials might give the vaccine to tourists who decide to come and spend their money on the island.

The Cuban state-owned media outlet Prensa Latina, for example, touted the possibility of leaders in Havana helping their comrades in Nicaragua and the rest of Latin America where they have long been competing in an ideological war against American free marketeers.

Writing in the Conversation, Queen’s University Transnational Studies Professor Jennifer Ruth Hosek described how Cuba has applied best practices to the pandemic from the start. Its public healthcare system, government-funded research, robust training and smart disaster planning have worked well while richer countries have allowed politics, anti-vaccination conspiracies and market failures to compromise their responses.

Less than 500 people in Cuba, a country of 11 million, have died from the virus, according to Johns Hopkins University. The country’s Henry Reeve Brigade, a Cuban medical group deployed to international hotspots, has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for its efforts against Covid-19 around the world.

Cuba is far from perfect. Human rights activists recently launched a hunger strike to protest against the government’s suppression of free thought, expression and assembly, reported Miami-based NBC affiliate WPLG. The country’s economy is also suffering from an extreme contraction due to the collapse of international tourism during the pandemic and continued American economic sanctions, added the Tampa Bay Times.

But when it comes to vaccines, Cuba is doing just fine.

W

Ecuador-The Underdog Won!!!!!

 

ECUADOR

The Underdog

A former banker and businessman with highly unpopular policies won Ecuador’s presidential runoff elections Sunday in a surprise victory that comes amid deep suffering due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, Al Jazeera reported Monday.

Results showed that Guillermo Lasso won 52.5 percent of the vote, defeating his challenger, left-wing economist Andres Arauz, who was the handpicked successor to former president Rafael Correa.

Al Jazeera described Lasso’s victory as “unexpected” saying that his conservative economic policies are not very popular. Regardless, Ecuadorians decided to give him “a chance.”

Lasso will inherit a country that has been devastated by the pandemic: It has left one-third of the population of more than 17 million in poverty and half a million people unemployed.

His victory is also a defeat for Correa, who was sentenced in absentia on a corruption charge last year, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Analysts said that Correa hoped that Arauz’ victory would allow him to return to Ecuador from his exile in Europe and result in his conviction being overturned.

Covid-19 Delays Writing New Chilean Constitution

 

CHILE

Change, Deferred

The coronavirus has forced many people to shelve their plans. In Chile, the pandemic is preventing officials from rewriting their constitution, which was created in 1980 under dictator Augusto Pinochet.

As Agence France-Presse reported, Chilean President Sebastian Pinera recently proposed delaying an election of members of a constitutional convention who would rewrite the country’s constitution starting in April until mid-May.

Earlier this week, the Chilean Senate agreed to the proposal.

Voters approved the idea of rewriting the constitution last year after months of protests over social inequities in the South American country that Chileans refer to as the estallido social (social outbreak). The Constituent Assembly will be evenly divided between men and women and include 17 seats reserved for delegates from Chile’s indigenous communities, Al Jazeera wrote. It has a year to draft a document.

Critics say the current constitution gives the central government too much power and prioritizes business and property interests over individual rights.

Chile, for example, is the only country in the world that enshrines in law the private ownership of water, noted María Jaraquemada, an activist at the Espacio Público think tank, in Americas Quarterly. With or without a new constitution, officials are setting up a new Water Ministry to deal with the most privatized water system in the world.

“We long for a constitution that is pluri-national, decentralized, anti-capitalist, anti-racist, and that prioritizes unfettered respect for human rights and recognizes the rights of nature,” Ingrid Conejeros Montecino, a member of the Mapuche community, said in an interview with the Associated Press.

Those are radical proposals. But the left failed to coalesce around candidates sufficiently to win enough delegates to dominate the convention. Instead, moderates are expected to hold a majority, Bloomberg reported. Chile’s finance minister predicted that the new constitution would not result in government overspending that might jeopardize the country’s reputation as a free-market-oriented economy but instead pave the way for stability.

The delay is striking because Chile is a world leader in vaccinating its people against Covid-19. Almost 40 percent of its population has been inoculated. It’s likely the first nation that will reach herd immunity. Yet cases of the virus are surging. An epidemiologist told the New York Times that high transmission rates will spread the virus despite vaccinations until most people have received a jab. Variants speed up transmission, too. The country has imposed new lockdowns to stop infections, the Guardian added.

Pinochet’s legacy is on the way out but it’s not going away easily.

Brasil Abetted Overthrow Of Allende In Chile

 https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/chile/2021-04-01/brazil-aided-abetted-overthrow-salvador-allende-chile?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=7d8acd3d-5b32-4e9c-b525-978f4392df5f

Brasil: Jair Is In Trouble

The Brother Of The President Of Honduras Gets Life In Prison

 

HONDURAS

Brother’s Keeper

A US federal court sentenced the brother of Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández to life in prison on drug-trafficking charges in a trial that underscored allegations that the president has helped turn the Central American nation into a narco-state, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Juan Antonio “Tony” Hernández, a former Honduran lawmaker, was convicted in October 2019 on charges of smuggling about 185 tons of cocaine to the United States over more than a decade.

The court said Juan Antonio Hernández acted as a facilitator, providing bribes to politicians in Honduras, including President Hernández. The judge said he must forfeit $138.5 million.

Hernández has denied the charges and pledged to appeal the conviction. His brother, the president, said the conviction was “painful” but also denied involvement in drug trafficking.

President Hernández has recently been accused as a co-conspirator in recent drug-trafficking trials but maintains that the individuals who accuse him are lying in an attempt to reduce their prison sentences.

Analysts said that the conviction is a reminder that Honduras, one of the poorest nations in the Western hemisphere, poses a major problem for US President Joe Biden as he tries to curb the flow of migration from Central America.