Judi Lynn
Judi Lynn's JournalWashington’s Dog-Whistle Diplomacy Supports Attempted Coup in Brazil
April 25, 2016
Washington’s Dog-Whistle Diplomacy Supports Attempted Coup in Brazil
by Mark Weisbrot
The day after the impeachment vote in the lower house of Brazil’s congress, one of the leaders of the effort, Senator Aloysio Nunes, traveled to Washington, D.C. He had scheduled meetings with a number of U.S. officials, including Thomas Shannon at the State Department.
Shannon has a relatively low profile in the media, but he is the number three official in the U.S. State Department. Even more significantly in this case, he is the most influential person in the State Department on U.S. policy in Latin America. He will be the one recommending to Secretary of State John Kerry what the U.S. should do as the ongoing efforts to remove President Dilma Rousseff proceed.
Shannon’s willingness to meet with Nunes just days after the impeachment vote sends a powerful signal that Washington is on board with the opposition in this venture. How do we know this? Very simply, Shannon did not have to have this meeting. If he wanted to show that Washington was neutral in this fierce and deeply polarizing political conflict, he would not have a meeting with high-profile protagonists on either side, especially at this particular moment.
Shannon’s meeting with Nunes is an example of what could be called “dog-whistle diplomacy.” It barely shows up on the radar of the media reporting on the conflict, and therefore is unlikely to generate backlash. But all the major actors know exactly what it means. That is why Nunes’ party, the Social Democracy Party (PSDB), publicized the meeting.
More:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/04/25/washingtons-dog-whistle-diplomacy-supports-attempted-coup-in-brazil/
The Return of the Coup in Latin America
April 26, 2016
The Return of the Coup in Latin America
by Manuel E. Yepe
Venezuela and Brazil are the scenes of a new form of coup d’état that would set the continent’s political calendar back to its worst times. Meanwhile, in Argentina, the brutal model for the demolition of democracy is set forward by the continental oligarchic right and the hegemonic forces of US imperialism who wish to impose their model in the region.
As we can see in the previews that test the memory of the peoples in the continent, it is difficult to accept that the new types of coups are actually softer and more covert than those which Latin America suffered for so long.
What has been shown so far in Argentina is no less cruel, in terms of contempt for the masses, than the coups carried out by the bloodthirsty dictatorships that sprouted in time of Operation Condor.
In Venezuela the president of the opposition majority in the National Assembly, Henry Ramos, openly declares that in view of the severity of the economic crisis, he fails to see Maduro concluding his term and adds they should put an end to Nicolas Maduro’s legitimate government within six months. Such statements did not compel the Secretary General of the Organization of American States, Luis Almagro, to formulate even the mildest rejection to such a coup-like declaration. This indicates they are returning to the era of open and brutal coups in the backyard of the United States of America.
Meanwhile, in Argentina, the newly-elected president, Mauricio Macri, moves forward the implementation of his “democratic model” with a brutal demolition of all the advances the nation had made after the collapse it suffered as a result of the neo-liberal economic and political crisis from which it had been rescued by the consecutive popular governments of Nestor Kirchner and Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner.
More:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/04/26/the-return-of-the-coup-in-latin-america/
Political violence targeting Colombia’s human rights workers on the rise: Report
Source: Colombia Reports
Political violence targeting Colombia’s human rights workers on the rise: Report
written by Thomas Graham April 25, 2016
Colombia has not been any safer in 35 years — unless you work with human rights, because threats and murders targeting rights workers increased in the South American country.
Not long ago, and with some fanfare, the Colombian government announced that 2015 was the least intense year in the armed conflict of 50 years and had registered the lowest number homicide rate in decades.
However, another form of violence has quietly risen instead: political violence against the unarmed, including political and social leaders and human rights activists.
. . .
This new generation of paramilitary groups, in some cases in conjunction with corrupt elements in the military, is according to the government itself, Colombia’s primary human rights violator.
Read more: http://colombiareports.com/death-threats-murders-human-rights-activists-rise/
Report after report confirms Colombia’s paramilitaries continued after AUC
Report after report confirms Colombia’s paramilitaries continued after AUC
written by Stephen Gill April 25, 2016
Colombia security is severely under threat at the hands of illegal paramilitary groups, according to a report published last week by conflict monitoring NGO Indepaz. The report revealed that in the first quarter of 2016, there were 14 paramilitary groups in operation in 146 of 1,100 municipalities in 22 of 32 provinces in Colombia.
The Indepaz report confirms an Inspector General report released last week, which also claimed that paramilitary groups are alive and well, in spite the government denying their existence.
These groups are said to be involved in a variety of activities that are destabilizing the security situation in the South American country.
These illegal activities include drug-trafficking, smuggling, illegal mining, extortion, targeted assassinations and corruption involving public representatives.
“It is worrying that despite being so close to a peace process with the FARC, the presence of these paramilitary structures have invaded Colombian territory with effective threats perpetrated against human rights defenders, land claimants and communities in general,” said the coordinator of the Research Unit of Indepaz, Leonardo Gonzalez.
More:
http://colombiareports.com/big-colombias-paramilitary-threat/
Remembering Argentina’s Mothers of the Disappeared
April 25, 2016
Remembering Argentina’s Mothers of the Disappeared
by Rivera Sun
Campaign Nonviolence is a movement to build a culture of active nonviolence. We share the stories of nonviolent action, drawing lessons, strength, and strategy from the global grassroots movements for change. Throughout the year, we look at historic struggles. This week commemorates the 39th anniversary of the first protest of the Argentina’s Mothers of the Disappeared.
On April 30, 1977, Azucena Villaflor de De Vincenti and a dozen other mothers gathered in the Plaza de Mayo in Argentina’s capitol city to demand justice for their children, who had been “disappeared” by the military junta during the Dirty War period – a reign of terror that would last from 1976 to 1983, backed by the CIA.
A tense atmosphere of fear pervaded the years of the military regime in Argentina. Opposition was not tolerated; tens of thousands of people were simply “disappeared.” Only some of the bodies would be found. More than 250 children were taken from mothers in prison camps, or from those who were disappeared, and put up for adoption. The demonstrations of the Mothers of the Disappeared clearly took extreme courage. They started small in size, but within a year, hundreds of women were participating in the weekly demonstrations. They carried signs with photos of their sons and daughters. The regime tried to discredit them by calling the women, “las locas,” the madwomen.
On December 10, 1978, International Human Rights Day, the Mothers published an advertisement in the newspaper with the names of their missing children. That evening and soon thereafter, three of the Mothers themselves were disappeared.
More:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/04/25/remembering-argentinas-mothers-of-the-disappeared/
Mummified Woman Found in Peru Suggests Gender Equality
Mummified Woman Found in Peru Suggests Gender Equality
Published 24 April 2016 (3 hours 18 minutes ago)
Archaeologists have uncovered the remains of a 4,500 year old mummy, likely of high social status.
A mummified woman dating to almost 4,500 years ago has been found in Peru. Buried alongside several objects including a beaded necklace, a pot of vegetable fragments, and four carved bones with animal motifs on them, means the woman was of high social status, according to archaeologists.
“This find shows evidence of gender equality, that is, both women and men were able to play leading roles and attain high social status more than 1,000 years ago,” said Ruth Shady to Andina News Service, the director of the Caral Archaeological Zone who found the remains along with her research team.
The items also suggest that there might have been trade between Aspero, the city the woman was found in, and Caral, one of the most ancient civilizations in the Americas about 14 miles away.
Archaeologists on site haven’t determined what caused her death but believe she was around 40 to 50-years-old at the time of her burial.
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Mummified-Woman-Found-in-Peru-Suggests-Gender-Equality-20160424-0037.html
Defend Brazil!
April 22, 2016
Defend Brazil!
by Andre Vltchek
Enough weeping! Latin America has wept incessantly, continuously, for years, decades and centuries. Its people robbed of everything since the days of Columbus, since Potosi. Tens of millions, perhaps hundreds of millions have been slaughtered here, in the last five centuries; first by the conquerors, then by their descendants and serfs, and finally by the Empire of Lies as well as the treasonous local ‘elites’.
Enough weeping, comrades! It is time to use force.
Whenever people stood up, whenever true Latin American heroes liberated their lands, by reason or by force, the bloodbath was administered almost immediately, from across the seas, or from the North. Tanks rolled through the avenues and squares, and combat airplanes and helicopters sprayed bombs and bullets all over Presidential palaces, as well as the countryside. People were hunted down like animals, dragged to stadiums and factories, to underground cellars, and there they were violated, tortured and slaughtered.
That’s their democracy! Thank you, but no more of that.
Why did all those horrors take place? Because there was always a clear consensus among the rulers in Washington, in most of the European capitals, and the reigning classes in all Latin American countries: Latinos are here to serve the West, to be governed from the North. If some Latin country opted to act ‘irresponsibly’ (to paraphrase Henry Kissinger), it had to be reminded where it belongs: it had to be smashed to pieces, bathed in blood and thoroughly humiliated.
Such treatment was administered on countless occasions, and it happened virtually everywhere – from the Dominican Republic to Chile, and from Brazil to Nicaragua.
More:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/04/22/defend-brazil/
THE 'FREE TRADE' ASSAULT ON CLEAN WATER
THE 'FREE TRADE' ASSAULT ON CLEAN WATER
Reprinted by World War 4 Report, April 22, 2016
Mining Companies Sue Colombia for 'Right' to Pollute
by Pete Dolack, Systemic Disorder
Yet another standoff between clean drinking water and mining profits has taken shape in Colombia, where two corporations insist their right to pollute trumps human health and the environment. As is customary in these cases, it is clean water that is the underdog here.
Two million people are dependent on water from a high-altitude wetlands, which is also a refuge for endangered species, that a Canadian mining company, Eco Oro Minerals Corporation, wants to use for a gold mine. The wetlands, the Santurbán páramo in the Andes, has been declared off-limits for mining by Colombia’s highest court due to the area’s environmental sensitivity. Eco Oro is suing the Colombian government because of this under the Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement.
The dispute will likely be heard by a secret tribunal that is an arm of the World Bank, even though the World Bank has provided investment capital for Eco Oro to develop the mine.
Eco Oro has not said how much money it intends to ask for, but another mining company, the U.S.-based Tobie Mining and Energy Inc., has separately sued Colombia for $16.5 billion because the government refused to allow it to establish a gold mine in a national park. To put that $16.5 billion in perspective, the total represents more than 20 percent of Colombia’s budget.
More:
http://ww4report.com/node/14773
This article first appeared in Systemic Disorder on April 13.
Abused Circus Tiger From Peru Gets New Life In Florida
Abused Circus Tiger From Peru Gets New Life In Florida
April 23, 2016 4:48 PM
TAMPA (CBSMiami/AP) — A tiger rescued from a circus in Peru is heading to his new home at a sanctuary in Tampa.
Animal Defenders International seized Hoover last year to enforce Peru’s ban on wild animals in circuses. The animal rescue group says the cat was sick and emaciated and lived at a temporary rescue facility in Lima where he was rehabilitated for the past year.
He was flown into the Miami airport Friday night and taken to Big Cat Rescue Saturday.
The 12-year-old tiger will enjoy a very spacious enclosure with lots of shady trees and grass. He’ll also have access to a spring-fed lake for swimming. Hoover’s habitat also features a large platform, several dens and plenty of toys.
http://miami.cbslocal.com/2016/04/23/abused-circus-tiger-from-peru-gets-new-life-in-florida/
(Short article, no more at link.)
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Hoover health check
First time Hoover's paws touched grass
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Abused Circus Tiger Gets Fairy-Tale Ending
His name is Hoover, and this big cat is about to enjoy a new life in Florida.
By Laurel Neme
PUBLISHED April 21, 2016
Alongside crates of asparagus, Hoover the tiger will be airlifted Friday from Peru to Florida, where he’ll settle into a new home in Tampa after a lifetime of suffering.
Hoover has spent his entire nearly 12 years performing tricks with a traveling circus in Peru. His harrowing journey to a new life reads like a bestselling thriller. The plot line—Operation Spirit of Freedom—was conceived by Jan Creamer and Tim Philips, co-founders of Animal Defenders International (ADI), a U.K.-based organization dedicated to stopping animal abuse and saving animals in distress.
In 2012 after a two-year investigation and public campaign by ADI exposed animal abuse in Latin America’s circuses, Peru banned wild animal acts.
Enforcement of the ban meant confiscating large, dangerous animals, moving them to a holding facility and caring for them—and finding them new homes. Lacking experience in this kind of work, the Peruvian government enlisted the help of ADI, which launched Operation Spirit of Freedom.
More:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/04/160421-tiger-hoover-circus-rescue/
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Rescued circus tiger will get roaring welcome at Miami airport
Harriet Baskas, Special for USA TODAY 12:46 p.m. EDT April 22, 2016
Miami International Airport prides itself on being “America’s busiest port of entry for wild animals,” but airport staff and animal rescue supporters are especially excited about Friday evening’s arrival of a 353-pound Bengal tiger named Hoover.
The tiger, who turns 12 on Saturday, was rescued from abuse in a Peruvian circus and is on his way to an animal sanctuary near Tampa.
In 2011, Peru joined the growing list of countries that ban the use of wild animals in circuses. But, according to the animal rights group Animal Defenders International, Hoover wasn’t rescued until April 2015 because the circus that had him had gone underground in an effort to evade wildlife officials.
Once rescued, a sick and emaciated Hoover spent a year at ADI's temporary rescue near Lima and is now well enough to travel to a new permanent home at Big Cat Rescue in Tampa.
. . .
“He will spend the rest of his life enjoying the warm breezes of Florida, relaxing in the shady grass, lounging on his platforms and cooling off in our lake,” said Big Cat Rescue founder Carole Baskin.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/flights/todayinthesky/2016/04/22/rescued-circus-tiger-hoover-miami-airport/83379482/
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff threatens to use trade agreements as leverage against impeachment
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff threatens to use trade agreements as leverage against impeachment ‘coup’
The impeachment proceedings against Rousseff stem from allegations that illegal accounting allowed her administration to maintain government spending to shore up flagging support.
PUBLISHED : Saturday, 23 April, 2016, 12:30pm
UPDATED : Saturday, 23 April, 2016, 12:30pm
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff said on Friday she will appeal to South American trade blocs if she is removed from office, blasting the push to impeach her as a coup and a naked attempt by Brazil’s elite to snatch power back from her Worker’s Party.
Speaking to reporters, Rousseff said both the Mercosur and Unasur trade blocs have democracy clauses that she will invoke if there should be what she charged would be “a rupture in democracy” in her country.
She warned her opponents that her impeachment would have “serious consequences for the Brazilian political process”.
“There is no judicial basis for this process of impeachment,” Rousseff said. “I am not accused of crimes of corruption, diversion of public funds, nor do I have accounts abroad or any accusations of money laundering.”
She said even some members of the opposition are beginning to support her, not necessarily because they agree with her policies, but rather because they see the impeachment push as a threat to Brazil’s democracy.
More:
http://www.scmp.com/news/world/americas/article/1937849/brazilian-president-dilma-rousseff-threatens-use-trade
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