Unrest In Cuba

 

CUBA

Patria y vida

Food shortages and price spikes were the initial motivations for the anti-government demonstrations now rocking Cuba. Gross national product declined a whopping 11 percent in the past year as the tourism industry plunged due to the coronavirus pandemic.

But now many observers believe the protests – the largest in decades – have morphed into the most significant challenge to the island’s communist regime in generations. It’s not just that there’s less money in circulation. Many Cubans no longer trust how their planned economy functions.

“The state says it has no resources,” Lillian Guerra, a Cuban history professor at the University of Florida, told National Public Radio. “Yet it’s investing and has been investing those resources in building and continuing to build hotels and tourist facilities with its own money. Cubans are fed up with that.”

A popular slogan during street marches is “Patria y vida” – homeland and life – a play on the motto “Patria o muerte,” or “homeland or death,” CNN reported.

The context for the shift in attitudes is obvious. Fidel Castro, who founded the Cuban revolution, died in 2016. His brother, Raul, who took over after his death, is 90 years old. Current Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, meanwhile, simply doesn’t command the same fear and respect. “He’s no Fidel,” said a Cuban explaining the nature of the protests in the Washington Post.

Writing in an op-ed in the New York Times, Yoani Sánchez, a Cuban journalist and activist, argued that young Cubans today have no connection to Castro’s rebellion in the 1950s. They see a country where the government cracks down on freedom of expression, caters to foreign tourists and investors rather than its own people and mismanages the economy, including a slow rollout of Cuban-made vaccines.

Other changes are afoot. Afro-Cubans are at the forefront of the demonstrations. The Catholic Church has publicly appealed to officials to listen rather than demonize activists, Reuters added. Regardless, the marches turned violent with police clashing with protesters, shops being looted, and other damage. It is unclear how many have been injured or arrested. Even so, the government made some concessions to protesters such as loosening rules on food and drug imports and admitting some responsibility for the situation.

American leaders are figuring out how to respond. As the New York Post explained, conservatives have blasted leftists for calling for an end to the US embargo on the island. President Joseph Biden has stepped up staffing at the US embassy and reviewed rules governing remittances to make sure ordinary Cubans rather than officials receive money from abroad. He also rolled out new sanctions against a top Cuban military official and a special police unit Thursday for the crackdown on protesters, warning of more to come, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The editorial board at the Financial Times, meanwhile, urged the US and other nations to stay out of Cuba’s business given how American meddling in the past hasn’t helped much. A Bloomberg opinion piece suggested that the US could open Cuba’s tightly controlled Internet to help the protests, however.

Many regimes from Europe to the Middle East have fallen over the past 30 years. Some believe it might be Cuba’s time.

W

Chile's New Constitution MOves Forward With A Surprise

 

CHILE

We the People

Chile’s constitutional assembly chose an Indigenous Mapuche woman to lead the drafting of a new constitution to replace the one adopted during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, Al Jazeera reported.

Nearly 100 delegates of the assembly – including 17 Indigenous people that make up the body – picked independent delegate Elisa Loncon, a university professor and activist for Mapuche educational and linguistic rights.

Loncon welcomed the decision to allow “a Mapuche person, a woman, to change the history of this country.”

Her selection marks another highlight for Chile’s constitutional assembly: Chilean voters opted to elect dozens of progressive and independent delegates to redraft the constitution amid frustration with the political status quo.

The election was a major blow for conservative candidates, who failed to secure a third of the seats needed to veto any proposals.

Analysts said that one of the main challenges will be to build trust and cooperate in redrafting Chile’s main legislation.

The assembly will need two-thirds of the vote to approve each new article. It will have nine months – with a possible three-month extension, to draft a new document to be voted on in a referendum.

The previous constitution was widely unpopular and seen as a source of social inequality in Chile, despite being amended over the past few decades.

Protests Erupt In Brasil

 

BRAZIL

Round Three

Brazil’s Supreme Court ordered an investigation into President Jair Bolsonaro for ignoring alleged irregularities in the government’s purchase of Covid-19 vaccines from India, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The investigation centers around a deal earlier this year between Brazil’s health ministry and Indian-based Bharat Biotech to buy 20 million doses of the Covaxin vaccine for about $320 million.

Health ministry official and whistleblower, Luis Miranda, said during a congressional inquiry that he faced “abnormal pressure” from members of the ministry to allow the importation of the Covaxin vaccine despite irregularities in the procurement process.

He said that he had voiced concerns to Bolsonaro in March. He added that the leader responded that he would take the case to the federal police.

Under the terms of the contract, Brazil was only supposed to pay for the Covaxin doses 30 days after they were delivered. But the ministry later received an invoice for part of the jabs to be delivered, which had a different number than those in the contract.

Last week, the government suspended the Covaxin deal following recommendations from the federal comptroller. The comptroller denied there were any irregularities.

Prosecutors have now 90 days to investigate Bolsonaro for the crime of dereliction of duty. The president denies wrongdoing.

The probe comes as the president faces criticism and demonstrations for his handling of the coronavirus: He has downplayed the severity of the pandemic since early 2020 and has criticized vaccines and social distancing measures.

Although Bolsonaro enjoys enough support in Brazil’s congress to quash any legal proceedings against him, analysts said the investigation could further weaken the president’s popularity – currently at 24 percent. He will run for re-election next year.

UK

Argentina Artillery And Missiles In The Malvinas War

 

Ricky D Phillips

Military Historian and Author: Falklands war.January 2

Why didn't Argentina use long range artillery and land based missiles to attack the UK’ ships and planes in the Falkland Islands War?

They certainly did. Colonel Martin Balza of the artillery requested ten 155mm CITEFA long range guns from General Jofre, who replied “Let's talk seriously, it isn't going to come to that” but Balza thought differently and managed to request two of them without Jofre's knowledge. Jofre was not very pleased about that.

The 155mm guns did a good job of keeping British warships on the alert and there were a few close shaves (Argentine propaganda is full of suggestions that British ships constantly turned tail and ran from them, but this is somewhat hyperbolic) and later, the guns were turned to the west to engage the British on Mount Kent and in the staging areas prior to the battles of Mount Longdon, Two Sisters and Mount Harriet.

After this, the British 105mm guns were at close enough range to engage them and, of course, they could fire faster and were more mobile, but the Argentine 105mm Pack howitzers were still at a major disadvantage and Balza managed to have another two 155mm units delivered, although one came into action on the night of June 13th (replacing one which had been blown up by a Harrier) and the other never got out of the airport because there was nothing to tow it. Even then, they were basically out of ammunition. They now adorn several museums in the UK.

As to land based missile batteries, Argentine forces did famously make the ITB (Instalacion de Tiro Beretta) Exocet launcher using an aiming system made out of old cathode ray equipment and a technically ancient Siemens generator and fired on a plugboard system which was an old telephone switchboard, to provide the right signals. It was technically basic but also ingenious.

The story given about this device is, however, one I do not fully subscribe to, as it has too many anomalies (as with so much of the Argentine history on this period, it was shaped by the junta and later apologists) and although it did engage and seriously damage HMS Glamorgan, yet the full story of it isn't properly known.

It is believed in certain circles (the type who know what they're talking about) that the Argentine forces actually had an earlier model made, which has been described as “a sort of simple rail" amongst other things, although details are very scarce. It was believed to have been on Pebble Island, but this was rumour and not one I particularly believe. Certainly, however, the Royal Navy were aware of it, at least conceptually, before the ITB landed in the Falklands, so there's an intelligence question there.

What doesn't fit is when you count how many missiles the Argentine forces actually had and how many they launched… then the available history doesn't work. Either way, they scored one hit with it and Glamorgan was very nearly sunk.

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