185,000 Turn Out In Sao Paulo To Support Bolsonaro

Last Resort BRAZIL A crowd of supporters of Brazil’s former President Jair Bolsonaro demonstrated in São Paulo on Sunday as the far-right leader faces charges for his alleged role in an attack on government buildings, the Associated Press reported. An estimated 185,000 people occupied Paulista Avenue, according to independent measuring, a testament to the influence Bolsonaro has on his base, more than a year after leaving office. Federal police are investigating the former president over his alleged role in the Jan. 8, 2023 storming of Brazil’s main government buildings in the capital. That day, thousands of Bolsonaro supporters attacked Brasilia’s Three Powers Plaza – which houses the country’s congress, presidential palace and supreme court – to oppose the recent inauguration of left-leaning President Luis Inácio Lula da Silva, who had defeated Bolsonaro in the 2022 presidential elections. Dozens of protesters were arrested in January 2023 and are still in jail. In a speech on Sunday calling for “pacification to erase the past,” Bolsonaro demanded amnesty for the protesters. He and his supporters denied the attack was a coup. Israeli flags were seen in the crowd in São Paulo as a sign of opposition to incumbent Lula, who was declared persona non grata by Israel after his comments comparing the war in Gaza to the genocide of Jewish people by Nazi Germany in World War II. Many of Bolsonaro’s supporters claimed Lula’s victory in 2022 was unfair. They also claimed Bolsonaro was being persecuted by Brazil’s supreme court, as he is involved in a number of cases of abuse of power. These have already led to him being barred from running for office until 2030. Political science professor Carlos Melo told the newswire Sunday’s demonstration would not help him legally, and downplayed fears of Bolsonaro, a former military officer, using the army to return to power. Nonetheless, the turnout showed that his manifesto still resonates with many Brazilians.

Chile: Pablo Neruda's Death Will Not Be Investigated Again

The World Affairs Councils of America Your complimentary one-year subscription to DailyChatter is provided by the World Affairs Council of Northern California with the mission of educating and engaging Americans on global issues. Good Morning, today is February 22, 2024. f3986d51-0db5-4aa0-9fcb-3e77c376fe8b.png NEED TO KNOW Running Out the Clock UKRAINE/ RUSSIA Near the front line in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, Ukrainian soldiers detail how two years of fighting their giant neighbor, Russia, is wearing them down, as they cope with losses, fatigue and shortages. Titushko, 39, explained to the Guardian how he and his men, part of an artillery division in Ukraine’s First Tank Brigade, received back in November a supply of about 300 shells every 10 days. Now, he said, they have a “firing limit” of just 10 a day. “Back then, we could keep (the Russians) on their toes, fire all the time, aim every time we saw a target,” he said from a base in the forest to the soundtrack of artillery fire. “Now we fire exclusively for defense.” Adding insult to injury, his fellow soldier piped in, some of the remaining reserves of ammunition are Iranian shells that were seized en route to Yemen, and mostly don’t work. As the second anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine by Russia approaches, territorial advances are rare, casualties are high and there’s no ending in sight. This conflict has become a kind of “frozen war,” one that is a default win for Russia, argued Paul Poast, a political science professor at the University of Chicago in World Politics Review. Meanwhile, in Ukraine, the mood two years later has turned sour. Last year, on the first anniversary, Ukrainians were still fired up to fight, united as never before to repel the Russian invader. Now, morale is low, as are ammunition, soldiers and supplies, wrote Business Insider. Some ordered up for the draft who fight the orders get arrested, according to the Kyiv Independent. There is infighting within the government as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy moves to clean up corruption and shake up the military order – he fired his top general earlier this month. Meanwhile, as life mostly goes on away from the battlegrounds, occasional attacks still take lives, destroy buildings and homes, and cause disruption to power and energy supplies and daily life. The economy is in shambles. About 6.3 million Ukrainians remain out of the country and almost four million more are displaced within its borders. No one feels they can plan for the future, even the next moment. “The situation in Kharkiv over the last month is one of terror – the shelling is not stopping,” Dmytro Dmytrenko, who works with a charity, told Bond, “with the way the news is going we see it will be a long road ahead.” On the Russian side of the border, some Russian soldiers and civilians continue to question why they are fighting. But they have to do so quietly now because President Vladimir Putin has instituted laws and tactics so harsh that many say they are worse than those suffered in Soviet Union times. Still, there are sporadic protests and the predictable resulting crackdowns. Millions of Russians have fled the country to all corners of the planet. Some, meanwhile, have fled to fight for Ukraine. “I was disillusioned with my own people,” Karabas told the Associated Press, estimating that tens of thousands of Russians are fighting for Ukraine and to liberate their own country, too. “That is why I wanted to come here … and fight for a free Ukraine.” Still, while the sanctions imposed by the West have done considerable damage to Russia’s economy – GDP would be five percent larger without them, the Financial Times noted – they haven’t been enough to deter Putin. Ordinary Russians sometimes feel the bite, even if oligarchs and the political elite don’t, however. Now, what’s next is anyone’s guess. After an underwhelming spring offensive, Ukraine’s army is bogged down and no one to date is predicting a military victory, the New York Times wrote. Instead, on Saturday, Ukraine’s military command said it was withdrawing from Avdiivka, further east in the Donetsk region, handing Russia its first major territorial gain since May last year. The Russian win is attributed to the lack of equipment and supplies for the Ukraine army. Meanwhile, many American lawmakers are questioning whether American taxpayers should continue to finance the bloodshed. So far, Europe lacks the muscle to play a more decisive role in helping Ukraine. But without more funding and weapons, the Ukrainians won’t last much longer, analysts say. At the same time, Russia’s industrial complex is massive. Their forces are expected to peak in late 2024, explained the Royal United Services Institute. Still, massive Russian casualties on the battlefield have taken their toll: Russia has lost 87 percent of the troops it had two years ago, CNN said, about 315,000 people. The Russians, however, still largely support the war, wrote the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, shrug over the casualty numbers, and say they aren’t worried. Now, some analysts say all Russia has to do is play the waiting game, essentially waiting for the US and Europe to grow tired of the “frozen war.” Some players already have. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni told Russian pranksters pretending to be African diplomats that “there is a lot of fatigue” among Ukraine’s allies, the Christian Science Monitor wrote. “We are near the moment when everybody understands that we need a (diplomatic) way out.” This is what Russia wants, and Zelenskyy fears. “Freezing the war, to me, means losing it,” Zelenskyy told Time magazine, explaining that a kind of “exhaustion” had set in among allies. “The scariest thing is that part of the world got used to the war in Ukraine.” THE WORLD, BRIEFLY Poetic Justice CHILE Chile will reopen the investigation into the death of renowned Nobel Prize-winning poet Pablo Neruda, who died under mysterious circumstances shortly after the coup that brought strongman Gen. Augusto Pinochet to power over 50 years ago, Sky News reported. The case’s reopening comes a few months after a Chilean court initially rejected a request by Neruda’s nephew Rodolfo Reyes to probe his uncle’s death. On Tuesday, an appeals court overturned the lower court’s verdict. Neruda’s passing occurred just 12 days after the military coup in 1973 that ousted his close friend, President Salvador Allende, and installed Pinochet as the country’s leader. His death was initially attributed to complications from prostate cancer, but his driver Manuel Araya had suggested for decades that the left-wing politician had been poisoned. His body was exhumed in 2013 for further investigation, leading to speculation that a third party may have been involved in his death. Recent forensic evidence verified Araya’s claims, after tests from Danish and Canadian labs showed the presence of a “great quantity of Clostridium botulinum (bacteria)” inside Neruda’s body. The pathogen produces a potent toxin that can cause paralysis in the nervous system. This finding has prompted the reopening of the investigation, with a focus on reanalyzing Neruda’s death certificate and seeking input from bacterial researchers. Known for his love poems, Neruda had planned to go into exile following Pinochet’s coup. But a day before departure, he was admitted to a clinic in the capital Santiago, where he had been treated for cancer, and died there. Suspicions that Pinochet’s regime was involved in this death continued even after Chile returned to democracy in 1990.

A New Opera Talks About Argentine Politics

Review: New opera explores the fraught history of Argentine politics Joshua Kosman February 19, 2024Updated: February 19, 2024, 3:48 pm “Corpus Evita,” at West Bay Opera, is centered on former Argentine President Juan Perón’s third wife, Isabel Perón, and her brief presidency in the mid-1970s. Photo: Otak Jump Eva Perón, the glamorous, short-lived second wife of Argentine President Juan Perón, remains the dominant icon for that country’s 20th century history. Since her death in 1952, she’s been the subject of veneration and revisionism, and served as the central figure of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s hit musical “Evita.” But no one has thought to put Perón’s third wife, Isabel, at the center of a theatrical work, until now. “Corpus Evita,” a 2000 opera by composer Carlos Franzetti and librettist José Luis Moscovich that serves as the season’s final production at West Bay Opera in Palo Alto, explores the dark, morally ambiguous tale of Isabel Perón’s brief presidency in the mid-1970s. It turns out to be fertile, if slippery, ground. Jessica Sandidge, left, and Casey Germain in “Corpus Evita” at West Bay Opera. Photo: Otak Jump The two-act opera doesn’t always hit its marks. The dramaturgy is often awkward, with scenes fading out rather than landing with a crisp impact. Franzetti, the composer of many film scores and the winner of five Latin Grammys, writes with inventive flair for the orchestra and less persuasively for the voice. Yet time and again, the matinee performance on Sunday, Feb. 18 at the Lucie Stern Theatre (the second in a four-performance run through Sunday, Feb. 25) left the audience captivated by the political and emotional ferment depicted onstage by the two Argentine-born artists. Isabel Perón, in Moscovich’s telling, was set up to fail. She came to politics as a naive young woman, selected by her husband — 35 years her senior — to try to recreate the political and populist magic that her predecessor had forged with miraculous ease. It was a task for which she was singularly ill-equipped. Anders Froehlich, left, and Patrick Bessenbacher in “Corpus Evita” at West Bay Opera. Photo: Otak Jump Isabel became both vice president and first lady just in time for her husband to die in office, making her the nation’s first female president and leaving the country at the mercy of the military leaders who would quickly oust her to usher in a barbarous era of repression and secret government killings. How complicit was she in what happened? Moscovich, who is West Bay Opera’s longtime general director, slices the question rather finely. Isabel Perón, still alive at 93 and living in luxurious exile in Spain, is given a poignant if not always persuasive opportunity to grieve the 30,000 victims of the generals’ reign of terror. At the same time, “Corpus Evita” is unflinching in its depiction of the regime’s crimes, which Moscovich witnessed as a youth. Sara LeMesh, left, and Patrick Bessenbacher in “Corpus Evita” at West Bay Opera. Photo: Otak Jump The opera’s emotional heart, though, is the tug-of-war between the long-dead Evita and the constantly overshadowed Isabel. (More than once, a listener is reminded of Hitchcock’s “Rebecca,” a treatment of similar themes.) Evita doesn’t just overpower Isabel with her popularity and ability to win over the masses. She literally outnumbers her onstage. The opera features two Evitas, the brightly charismatic figure seen in flashback (soprano Jessica Sandidge, in a sharp-edged, vibrant performance) and the reanimated corpse (mezzo-soprano Laure de Marcellus) who serves as a ghostly encapsulation of the Evita cult. Against those formidable adversaries, Isabel barely stands a chance, not even as embodied with vocal fervor and dramatic power by soprano Sara LeMesh. Patrick Bessenbacher, left, Sara LeMesh and Casey Germain in “Corpus Evita” at West Bay Opera. Photo: Otak Jump Isabel also has to contend with a pair of strong male adversaries posing as allies, her late husband (bass Casey Germain) and the Rasputin-like figure identified here only as “el Ministro” (tenor Patrick Bessenbacher, singing with fiery brilliance). In the opera’s most subtle and intricately wrought scene, the two men trade charges and commiseration over Isabel’s head, while she struggles to make her own position felt. Franzetti’s score, which Moscovich conducted, is a striking melange of illustrative directness and surprising stylistic choices. The wordless entr’acte depicting the torture and murder of Argentine dissidents is made all the more haunting by the churning, forceful music that accompanies it. Sudden bursts of waltz music or neo-Elizabethan strains prove to be a head-scratcher. The production, also directed by Moscovich, makes canny use of visual projections and close-packed staging. Sara LeMesh, left, and Patrick Bessenbacher in “Corpus Evita” at West Bay Opera. Photo: Otak Jump “Corpus Evita” concludes with a choral ode to the title character, as the Argentine population goes full steam into the creation of a cult around this venerated leader, and Isabel is promptly forgotten. Once again, the golden figure of the distant past — dimly recalled, imperfectly understood — obliterates the reality of the all-too-flawed present. Reach Joshua Kosman: jkosman@sfchronicle.com

Jair Bolsonaro-Loose Threads

Loose Threads BRAZIL Brazil’s federal police on Thursday attempted to confiscate the passport of former President Jair Bolsonaro as part of an investigation into an alleged coup attempt following his 2022 election loss, Reuters reported. Sources said police visited Bolsonaro’s beach house near the coastal city of Angra dos Reis, requesting he hand over his passport. Bolsonaro family spokesman Fabio Wajngarten said the former far-right leader will comply with the order. Authorities also issued search warrants for properties linked to Bolsonaro’s allies and arrested four of his closest aides, including his former international affairs advisor, Felipe Martins. Meanwhile, federal police also released a statement accusing a number of unnamed targets of participating in “a criminal organization that acted in an attempted coup d’etat” aimed at “keeping the then-President of the Republic in power.” The move comes as authorities launch a probe into an alleged coup attempt last year, when thousands of Bolsonaro supporters stormed the country’s main government buildings in the capital and called for a military takeover. The Jan. 8, 2023 incident took place a few months after Bolsonaro lost the 2022 presidential runoff to leftist candidate Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who had previously held the office of president. At the time, Bolsonaro had been in the United States and has continuously denied involvement in the capital’s storming. Even so, Thursday’s operation signals a tightening net around Bolsonaro, his family, and allies for actions related to the unsuccessful reelection effort, the newswire wrote. Last week, federal police searched properties linked to his son, Carlos Bolsonaro, who is suspected of using illegally collected data to target his father’s rivals. Bolsonaro has already been deemed politically ineligible until 2030 for spreading election falsehoods, and faces a series of criminal probes that could lead to imprisonment.

Argentina: Growing Pains

Growing Pains ARGENTINA Labor unions took to the streets a few weeks ago in Argentina to oppose recently elected President Javier Milei’s libertarian plans to adopt the US dollar as the country’s official currency while radically shrinking government spending. It’s the president’s first big test despite only having been in office for 45 days. Demonstrators during the strikes and again at protests, the latest last Wednesday, banged pots and pans together and carried images of Evita Peron, the wife of Argentine President Juan Peron, who dominated the country’s politics in the 20th Century and created the socialist, allegedly profligate style of government that Milei despises, CNN explained. “Before we used to have asados (barbecues) every Sunday. Not now. Even rice is very expensive,” Elizabeth Gutierrez, a protesting nurse, told Al Jazeera. “Rents have shot up. You can’t live off your salary anymore – it’s not enough. The people are here to defend their nation.” Such displeasure and anger is one reason Milei is now facing trouble pushing his agenda through the opposition-dominated Argentine Congress. Inflation and skyrocketing living costs were battering Argentines before Milei took office in November. Consumer prices in the South American country rose nearly 95 percent in 2023, noted the BBC. But, as the New York Times reported, costs have continued to climb under Milei after he devalued its currency, the peso, in expectation of his new economic plan. Inflation is now running at 200 percent annually. As the Buenos Aires Times wrote, after issuing a series of controversial decrees to undercut the public sector, Milei sponsored sprawling omnibus legislation that contained 660 changes to current regulations with the goal of liberalizing and dollarizing the Argentine economy. However, even though the president enjoys the support of nearly 56 percent of voters, according to polls, lawmakers balked. The president then cut 150 articles in the text to move the bill out of the legislature’s committees. On Friday, the lower house of the legislature approved the bill. It’s likely to be amended further in the upper house, Al Jazeera wrote. The courts, meanwhile, are yet another issue. Last week, a court struck down his plan to make it easier to fire workers as illegal, the Associated Press reported. These delays have consequences. For example, chaos in the streets and price spikes led the International Monetary Fund to predict that Argentina’s economy will shrink over the next two years, according to Bloomberg. Milei might lack the political savviness to push through his ambitions, warned World Politics Review. He might want to enact more measures, for example, to mitigate the pain that his policies are causing as he attempts to shepherd Argentina into a new economic model. The president has called for payments to low-income Argentines to help them through this period, Reason magazine added. He is flying commercial to meet other international leaders, as he recently did on his way to speak at Davos. And he says he’s willing to compromise with lawmakers and work across the aisle. He’s happy, say analysts, to do things differently: That includes inflicting pain on the elites and business owners who have benefited from preferential government treatment over the past few decades as ordinary Argentines have struggled to make ends meet. Share this story

46 Dead In Chilean Forest Fires In The Valparaiso Region

World 46 reported dead in Chile as fires move into densely populated areas Authorities urged thousands of people in the Valpariaso region to evacuate their homes. Chile's interior minister says 92 forest fires are burning. A woman cries losing a friend who died. A woman cries after losing a friend who died after a forest fire reached the Villa Independencia neighborhood in Vina del Mar, Chile. AP Photo/ Esteban Felix By AP via Scripps News Facebook ShareTweetEmailSMS Posted: 10:32 p.m. EST Feb 3, 2024 Intense forest fires burning around a densely populated area of central Chile have caused at least 46 deaths, Chile's president said Saturday evening, and officials said at least 1,100 homes had been destroyed. In a nationally televised address, President Gabriel Boric warned that the death toll could worsen as four large fires burn in the region of Valparaiso, where firefighters have struggled to reach the most threatened neighborhoods. Boric urged Chileans to cooperate with rescue workers. "If you are told to evacuate don't hesitate to do it," he said. "The fires are advancing fast and climatic conditions have made them difficult to control. There are high temperatures, strong winds and low humidity." Interior Minister Carolina Tohá said earlier Saturday that 92 forest fires were burning in the center and south of the country, where temperatures have been unusually high this week. The deadliest of the fires were in the Valparaíso region, where authorities urged thousands of people to evacuate their homes. In areas farther away from the fires, meanwhile, residents were told to stay at home so that fire engines, ambulances and other emergency vehicles can get about on the roads with greater ease. 9-year-old boy killed after crawling under school bus in Florida 9-year-old boy killed after crawling under school bus in Florida 9-year-old boy killed after crawling under school bus in Florida The student was dropped off at an apartment complex in Orlando, but ran back and crawled under the moving bus, which struck him. LEARN MORE Tohá said two fires near the towns of Quilpué and Villa Alemana had burned through at least 19,770 acres since Friday. One of the fires was threatening the coastal resort town of Viña del Mar, where some neighborhoods had already been hit hard. In Villa Independencia, a hillside neighborhood on the eastern edge of the town, several blocks of homes and businesses were destroyed. Burned cars with broken windows lined the streets, which were covered in ash. "I've been here 32 years, and never imagined this would happen," said Rolando Fernández, one of the residents who lost his home. He said he first saw the fire burning on a nearby hill Friday afternoon and within 15 minutes the area was engulfed in flames and smoke, forcing everyone to run for their lives. "I've worked my whole life, and now I'm left with nothing," Fernández said. Three shelters were set up in the Valparaíso region, and 19 helicopters and more than 450 firefighters were brought into the area to help battle the blazes, Tohá said. The fires were burning on mountains that are hard to reach, such as neighborhoods built precariously on the edge of Viña del Mar. Officials reported power blackouts as a result of the fire, and Tohá said that in the Valparaíso region, four hospitals and three nursing homes for the elderly had to be evacuated. The fire also destroyed two bus terminals, the interior minister said. The El Niño weather pattern has caused droughts and hotter than usual temperatures along the west of South America this year, increasing the risk of forest fires. In January, more than 42,000 acres of forests were destroyed in Colombia by fires that followed several weeks of dry weather. Latest In World