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forest444's JournalLayoffs in Argentina reach 200,000 in first eight months of Macri administration.
The latest monthly labor market report published by the Center for Argentine Economic Policy (CEPA), revealed that the number of layoffs and suspensions nationwide increased by 15,137 in July, reaching a total of 194,422 since the right-wing Mauricio Macri administration took office on December 10.
July layoffs, as has been the case since the beginning of April, were accounted for almost entirely by the private sector, which shed 14,149 jobs last month. Given the ongoing pace of private-sector layoffs amid the worst recession since the 2002 crisis, total layoffs are estimated to have surpassed the 200,000 figure by August 10 - the Macri administration's eight-month milestone.
Manufacturing overtook construction as the principal source of layoffs in July, accounting for 11,391 - or 75% of the monthly total. Manufacturing layoffs were in turn led by the auto industry, whose output is down by 14% so far this year despite a sharp cut in luxury taxes decreed by President Macri last December. A total of 2,865 autoworkers were suspended in July, for a total of 10,007 since December when tires and autoparts makers are included.
Makers of steel, aluminum, and other metals were a bright spot in the report with just 385 layoffs in July; but since December this sector has shed 13,721 workers - making it the largest single source of industrial job losses.
The textile and garment sector, which had largely avoided mass layoffs until June, collapsed in July and logged 2,631 layoffs - nearly half the 5,572 total since December. Significant layoffs were also registered in the petroleum (1,353), beef (1,063), and appliance (1,042) sectors in July as the recession continues to depress demand.
Layoffs is the service sector (2,643) continued to accelerate mostly due to retail job losses. Retail stores alone shed 1,427 workers in July as store closures mount amid a fall in retail sales volume of 8.1% according to the CAME medium business chamber.
The service sector has nevertheless been a relative bulwark during the current labor market crisis: its 10,791 layoffs since December account for 0.1% of all service sector jobs in Argentina, compared to 67,392 layoffs in the public sector (just under 3%), 57,649 (over 3%) in manufacturing, and 58,590 (over 7%) in construction.
Industrial output, according to the Argentine Industrial Union (UIA), has fallen by 4% since Macri took office; but imports have risen by 9% despite the initially protectionist effects of Macri's 40% devaluation and the ongoing recession as the administration has moved to liberalize imports.
The UIA, the country's leading manufacturers' association, had endorsed Macri in last year's election after receiving assurances that import permits and regulations would be more flexible for capital goods and intermediate goods used by manufacturers but not on finished items themselves.
The combination of "free trade" policies and austerity measures have earned President Macri plaudits from the IMF, the Obama administration, and vulture fund financier Paul Singer (who in April collected an 1,180% payout from Macri on old defaulted bonds). UIA President José Urtubey recently described these measures, however, as a "perfect storm."
At: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=http://www.politicargentina.com/notas/201608/15810-calculan-que-ya-suman-casi-200-mil-despidos-desde-que-asumio-macri.html&prev=search
"Great concern" over U.S. deaths in pregnancy, childbirth.
The number of U.S. women who die during or soon after pregnancy may be higher than previously thought -- and it's on the rise, according to a new study.
Between 2000 and 2014, the nation's maternal death rate rose by almost 27%, researchers found. However, over that time, reporting methods changed, the study authors noted.
For every 100,000 live births, nearly 24 women died during, or within, 42 days after pregnancy in 2014. That was up from nearly 19 per 100,000 in 2000.
The numbers, published online Aug. 8 in Obstetrics & Gynecology, are worse than previous estimates. Federal health officials have already reported a spike in the nation's maternal mortality figures; but they estimated a rate of 16 per 100,000 as recently as 2010.
The new findings give a clearer picture of where the United States really stands, according to lead researcher Marian MacDorman, of the University of Maryland.
And it's not a good place, her team said: With the 2014 numbers, the United States would rank 30th on a list of 31 countries reporting data to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) - beating out only Mexico.
A large share of the national increase does have to do with better reporting, MacDorman said. Since 2003, U.S. states have been slowly adopting a revised standard death certificate that includes several pregnancy "check boxes."
But, she said, about 20% of the increase reflected a "real" rise in women's deaths.
At: http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/great-concern-over-us-deaths-in-pregnancy-childbirth/ar-BBvrHGU?ocid=ansmsnnews11
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[center]Another legacy of the Rapepublicans' 30-year war on abortion rights, since it's no secret that limiting access to safe, legal abortions only leads to higher maternal (and fetal) mortality.
The trend since Poppy Bush began the war on Roe v. Wade in 1988, which should have been mentioned in the articles, speaks volumes:
[/center]
Security chief at Buenos Aires Federal Criminal Court, site of numerous headline trials, found dead.
Police Commissioner Mariano Coustau, head of the Federal Police Security Division at the Federal Criminal Court for Buenos Aires, was found dead in his office yesterday afternoon. Coustau, 46, died of a gunshot wound to the head in an apparent suicide, leaving behind a wife and three children.
According to witnesses, the commissioner had appeared to have gone about his daily routine coordinating security operations at the courthouse normally. He committed suicide at 4:45 p.m. after receiving in-house correspondence; the courthouse courier, who heard the gunshot and discovered the body moments later, suffered a nervous breakdown and has made no public comments thus far.
Coustau, who was found sitting at his desk with his standard issue gun by his side, left no suicide note; but he was reportedly under investigation for sexual harassment in the workplace. The case is currently being investigated by the 46th municipal police precinct and Prosecutor César Troncoso of the 5th District of Buenos Aires.
The Federal Criminal Court for Buenos Aires, located in the city's port district and colloquially known as the Comodoro Py Tribunals, has been the site of many highly-publicized federal government corruption or malfeasance trials since the large Rationalist building, inaugurated in 1952 for the National Highway Directorate, was converted into a courthouse in 1992.
In recent months former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and numerous officials in her 2007-15 administration have been repeatedly summoned over a number of different allegations, which the former president describes as "a concerted effort to discredit, and if possible, ban, Kirchnerism and anyone associated with it."
The only one of the twelve federal judges headquartered at Comodoro Py to routinely approve trials against Fernández de Kirchner, Judge Claudio Bonadío, is a close ally of her right-wing successor, President Mauricio Macri.
At: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fposadas.tumisiones.com%2Fnoticia%2F165566
Rio Olympic Games kick off under cloud of insecurity.
Despite a slew of robberies and terrorism arrests in the weeks leading up to Friday's opening ceremony, U.S. officials say they are confident that Brazilian security forces can fully protect the Olympic Games.
Brazil has pooled its local, state and federal law enforcement to deploy 85,000 people to secure the Games, more than double the number used in London in 2012. American law enforcement has spent years training Brazilian officials and increased the level of information they share with their Brazilian counterparts.
On Friday, the country's leading newspaper O Globo reported that Brazil has increased that figure to 100,000 as news of violence has swept through Rio.
In recent weeks, the cases have added up:
*A New Zealand-born jiu jitsu fighter living in Brazil said he was kidnapped by corrupt police officers demanding money.
*A man vomited on a Chinese hurdler as part of a hoax to rob the Olympian and a cameraman.
*The Australian team was robbed of a laptop and Zika-protective team shirts during a fire evacuation at their Olympic housing.
*On Thursday night, a man whom police described as a Russian diplomat was involved in a scuffle with an alleged robber in the city when a gun went off, killing the assailant.
*And a sleeping firefighter was allegedly raped inside the Olympic Park near the velodrome, an indoor cycling arena.
The situation was exacerbated by the fact that many of the guest rooms for athletes and their trainers in the Barra da Tijuca Olympic Village were deemed unfit for use, forcing trainers from numerous countries to seek accommodation elsewhere to make room for the athletes.
"Every Olympic environment involves challenges, but from what we have seen thus far, the Rio Organizing Committee and the people of Brazil are ready to host a great Games," USOC spokesman Patrick Sandusky said via email. "We can't wait to get started."
At: http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/olympics/rio-2016/2016/08/05/security-risks-fbi-arrests/88284932/
Second round of 'Ruidazo' protests in Argentina against Macri's 300-1000% utility rate hikes.
Less than a month after the first massive Ruidazo ("big noise"
protests against sharp increases in public service rates took place in cities across Argentina on July 14, a second Ruidazo erupted in different parts of the country.
The protests were held in support of recent court injunctions against utility rate hikes authorized by the right-wing Mauricio Macri administration that range from 300% more for water, 600% more for electricity, and 1000% more for gas. The courts have determined in each case that the hikes were not only “unreasonable” but illegal because they were never submitted to public comment, as the law requires for all large rate hikes.
Hours earlier, Federal Judge Luis Arias of La Plata ratified his July 18 injunction against the gas rate hikes and Federal Judge Martina Forns of San Martín issued a separate injunction against electricity rate hikes. Both injunctions have been appealed by the Macri administration but apply nationwide until the Argentine Supreme Court rules on each case.
A poll conducted by the University of Buenos Aires School of Social Sciences showed that 77% of Argentines have had to make "significant adjustments" in their household budgets to pay the higher utility rates (as well as public transport fare hikes of 100%).
The rate hikes - known in Argentina as tarifazos - are part of a broader, IMF-endorsed austerity package which Macri defends as a way to trim $4 billion from the nation's budget deficit, which reached $25 billion last year (4% of GDP). Critics, however, point out that because the massive rate hikes also affect schools, hospitals, government buildings, and many other public institutions, the net savings would be at most $1 billion - a figure dwarfed by the $10 billion in tax cuts Macri enacted for agroexporters, large corporations, and the well-to-do.
The rate hikes have also contributed to a doubling in overall inflation to 47% a year as of June - twice the rate under Macri's populist predecessor, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. Macri had made inflation a key campaign issue in last year's election, which he won narrowly; he repeatedly dismissed his opponent's warnings about plans for a tarifazo as a "fear campaign."
At: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=http://www.politicargentina.com/notas/201608/15757-ruidazo-segunda-protesta-masiva-en-todo-el-pais-contra-el-tarifazo.html&prev=search
Arrest of Mothers of Plaza de Mayo leader Hebe de Bonafini, a Macri opponent, thwarted by supporters
Internationally renowned Argentine human rights activist Hebe de Bonafini, who co-founded the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo in 1977 to demand answers for the thousands of young people "disappeared" by the dictatorship at time, was nearly arrested today in Buenos Aires. She was shielded from arrest by a large crowd of supporters, however, after closer inspection of the warrant revealed that the order authorized a search of the headquarters but not her specific arrest.
The incidents took place at 1:00 p.m. local time when a team of Federal Police arrived at the headquarters of the Association of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo facing Buenos Aires' Congressional Square with the misrepresented search warrant signed by Federal Judge Marcelo Martínez de Giorgi - an ally of right-wing President Mauricio Macri.
Bonafini is a vocal opponent of Macri for his austerity policies as well for his tacit support for those accused of Dirty War Atrocities, 50 of whom have been transferred from prison to house arrest under Macri's watch. Inflation has doubled and around 200,000 have been laid off since Macri took office.
The outspoken 87 year-old activist suffered an asthma attack during the incident but was reportedly in good health. She proceeded to the Plaza de Mayo, 11 blocks to the east, to lead her iconic Thursday march - held every week to demand justice for the up to 30,000 killed during Argentina's Dirty War against dissidents in the 1970s - and was then driven home by supporters.
Martínez de Giorgi's warrant was pursuant to a 2011 embezzlement case against a subcontractor, Sergio Shoklender's Meldorek S.A., who had been hired by the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo in 2008 to build public housing and had been awarded a $300 million federal earmark to do so. Schoklender, who befriended Bonafini and joined her foundation in 2001 after serving a jail sentence for murdering his parents 20 years earlier, is alleged to have embezzled up to $60 million of these funds to cover gambling debts and other personal expenses from 2008 to 2011.
Bonafini's signature on documents related to the contract was found to have been forged, and though Schoklender himself was indicted, the case was vacated in 2013 and remanded to Judge Martínez de Giorgi. This morning Bonafini failed to appear at a court summons pursuant to the case, instead providing the judge a letter explaining her decision.
"We (the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo) have been persecuted by what passes as our system of justice since the very beginning: February 8, 1977," she said. "The courts, however, weren't nearly as energetic during the 168 times I appeared before a judge to demand information as to the whereabouts of my two sons or my daughter-in-law."
"We have cooperated with this investigation in every way, submitting 60 boxes of files, 40 hard drives, and everything else that was requested from us - without the courts ever examining them. I appeared voluntarily at your office a few months ago, only to discover the case had not moved forward at all."
Supporters of Bonafini maintain that political motives lurk behind today's incidents. "Macri tries to put on a show every day," Congressman Mariano Recalde of the populist Front for Victory (FpV) said. "He does this to distract from the real problems this administration is causing people with their economic shock policies."
At: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.diarioregistrado.com%2Fpolitica%2Flas-madres-evitaron-el-allanamiento-y-marcharon-en-plaza-de-mayo_a57a380f54717bf89217c14e0
And: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=http://www.diarioregistrado.com/politica/la-carta-de-hebe-al-juez---desde-1977-padezco-las-agresiones-de-la-mal-llamada-justicia-_a57a341e54717bf89217c139e&prev=search
Argentine labor leader Raimundo Ongaro, leading dissident voice after 1966 coup, dies at 92.
Argentine labor leader Raimundo Ongaro, arguably the most influential dissident voice against the Juan Carlos Onganía dictatorship in power from 1966 to 1970 as well as entrenched labor union bureaucracies, died on Monday at his home outside Buenos Aires. He was 92.
Born to Italian immigrants in 1924, Ongaro studied as a seminarian in his youth but later rose through the ranks of the Buenos Aires Print Workers Federation (FGB). He was elected to lead the FGB in 1966, unseating his more conciliatory predecessor shortly after a corporate-sponsored military coup in Argentina that June led to the curtailment of labor rights and an erosion in real wages.
Ongaro was one of only two men in the CGT labor federation to have defeated a sitting union leader during the 17-year exile of Argentine labor's political leader, populist former President Juan Perón. He was also the first of the CGT 's 62 union heads to publicly denounce the dictatorship's labor policy as that of "bait-and-switch and divide-and-conquer." This viewpoint was not initially shared by the CGT leadership or by Perón; but after a series of attacks by security forces and anti-labor policy makers in 1967, many union leaders began to endorse Ongaro - as did Perón himself.
Ongaro's wing soon eclipsed that of the "participationist" leadership, and in March 1968 he was elected Secretary General of the CGT. His election was impugned by the defeated CGT leadership and promptly annulled by the Labor Ministry - which prompted Ongaro and his allies to break with the leadership and establish a rival CGT de los Argentinos (CGTA).
While the CGTA, with its 300,000 members, was outflanked by the two main CGT factions (with 1.4 million members between them), Ongaro's activism, as well as his early insight into the dictatorship's motives, made him the only top-level union leader to enjoy broad support from both labor and Argentina's politically active student body.
Articulate and passionate, Ongaro saw the labor movement as part of a broader, humanist struggle for goals shaped by the Platonic ideal of a "community in solidarity" as well as by early Christian social teachings. This outlook earned him the support of many on the left, notably the documentary film maker Pino Solanas, writer Rodolfo Walsh (who edited the CGTA's newsletters), and the Movement of Third World Priests.
Ongaro had, by 1968 and 1969, become the leading dissident voice against General Juan Carlos Onganía's dictatorship. His fateful decision that May to back the labor-student march in Córdoba led by Light and Power Union leader Agustín Tosco (a key ally) to protest the inclusion of Saturdays into the standard work week, undermined his leadership however.
The dictatorship outmaneuvered the organizers by seeding the otherwise peaceful march of 13,000 with provocateurs. The march, held on May 29, 1969, erupted into a massive riot that resulted in five deaths and around 100 destroyed businesses. Tosco, Ongaro and most of the CGTA leadership was detained, and after the participationist CGT leader Augusto Vandor (who had recently turned against the dictatorship as well) was assassinated on June 30, the CGTA was banned outright.
Ongaro lost Perón's support and was repeatedly jailed; but he remained active in Peronist politics and the labor movement with the help of his closest adviser, labor lawyer Lorenzo Pepe, and others. He also retained the support of municipal, communications, and port workers - all of which suffered steep job losses due to austerity policies - and channeled opposition to what he saw as "self-serving union bosses" (many of them installed by the dictatorship itself) into a movement known as "Basic Peronism."
Perón, who was allowed to return in 1973 and was elected in a landslide, made Ongaro and other non-violent leftists guilty by association for the wave of violence on the far left. Ongaro attempted to de-escalate the dispute by co-founding a union conflict resolution committee in 1974; Perón's Labor's Minister, CGT stalwart Ricardo Otero, responded by annulling Ongaro's re-election as head of the FGB Printers' Union that August, however.
Following Perón's death that July, his family and allies were targeted by the Argentine Anticommunist Alliance death squad commanded by José López Rega (who controlled Perón's widow and successor, President Isabel Perón). The sole Congressman for Basic Peronism, Rodolfo Ortega Peña, was assassinated, Ongaro was jailed, and his wife suffered a miscarriage during one of the numerous raids on their modest suburban home. The following May, the Triple A death squad murdered his 15 year-old son Alfredo. The Ongaros went into hiding in a monastery, and left Argentina that August - eventually settling in Spain.
Returning to Argentina in 1984 after a fascist dictatorship installed 1976 had decimated labor unions, Ongaro did not stand for reelection as head of the FGB but remained active in an emeritus capacity. His former federation, the CGTA, and their opposition to unaccountable union bosses inspired the creation of the CTA - today Argentina's second largest labor federation - in 1991. Ongaro lived in his home in the working-class Buenos Aires suburb of Los Polvorines, and died of a heart ailment on Monday at age 92.
Many union and political leaders, including former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, gathered yesterday for Ongaro’s funeral at the FGB headquarters in Buenos Aires.
Former Foreign Minister Jorge Taiana, currently the head of the South American Common Market legislature PARLASUR, said that Ongaro “was an example of a revolutionary labor leader, activist Peronist, and mentor to our generation whose motto lives on in all of us: ‘Only the people will save the people’.”
At: http://buenosairesherald.com/article/219177/raimundo-ongaro-an-example-of-dignity-against-all-odds
[center]
Raimundo Ongaro (1924-2016). Unbought and unbossed.[/center]
Ret. Gen. John Allen Says Donald Trump Could Cause 'Civil Military Crisis'
Source: ABC News
Retired Marine Corps Gen. John Allen said that if Republican nominee Donald Trump becomes president and follows through on some of the things he’s said on the campaign trail, the U.S. could face a “civil military crisis, the like of which we’ve not seen in this country.”
"When we swear an oath to support and defend the Constitution, which is a document and a set of principles and it supports the rule of law, one of those is to ensure that we do not obey illegal orders," Allen told told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on This Week.
In the past, Trump has supported the use of waterboarding and other enhanced interrogation techniques, and has said the military should kill the families of alleged terrorists.
"He's talked about needing to torture. He's talked about needing to murder the families of alleged terrorists," Allen said. "He's talked about carpet-bombing ISIL. Who do you think is going to carpet-bombed when all that occurs? It's going to be innocent families."
Were Trump to order such things, Allen said, he would be ordering illegal actions. "What we need to do is ensure that we don't create an environment that puts us on a track conceivably where the United States military finds itself in a civil military crisis with a commander in chief who would have us do illegal things,” Allen said.
Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/ret-gen-john-allen-donald-trump-credibility/story?id=41021091
Argentine budget deficit triples as trickle-down tax cuts and recession far outweigh subsidy cuts.
The Argentine Finance Ministry reported that the nation's fiscal accounts recorded a total deficit of 57.6 billion pesos ($4.1 billion) - nearly three times as much as the 20 billion-peso deficit ($2.2 billion, at the time) recorded the same month last year.
The sharply higher deficit was mostly a result of lower revenues, which fell by 6.7% in June over the same time last year to 129 billion pesos ($9.1 billion). The decline in revenues is far more severe in real terms, however, because inflation in Argentina has doubled to 47% since the Mauricio Macri administration took office. Taking inflation into account, real revenues collapsed by over 36% - the steepest in modern Argentine history.
Deficits for the first six months of the year were up a more modest 24.4% to 133.2 billion pesos ($9.3 billion) - a figure described as an improvement by Finance Ministry officials because in real terms this represented an 8.1% decrease. The trend toward deteriorating public finances was underscored, however, by the fact that June accounted for nearly half (43%) of the entire budget deficit for the first half of 2016.
Argentina's federal revenue base also showed a marked shift away from income, corporate, and trade taxes (which are mostly paid by the wealthy). Former Economy Minister Roberto Lavagna, a centrist opposed to both Macri and his populist predecessor Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, estimated that the sharp export tax cuts decreed by Macri in December will cost federal coffers at least 46 billion pesos ($3 billion) this year alone.
The tax burden is meanwhile being shifted to average Argentines both directly and indirectly. The types of tax most often encountered by the majority of households - social security contributions and value-added sales taxes - actually rose by 35% and 40%, respectively. These two revenue streams (the most regressive) now account for over 70% of federal revenues.
Cutbacks of around 160 billion pesos ($10.5 billion) in utility and transport subsidies for FY2016, in turn, have led to fare increases of 100%, water and electric rate hikes of 300%, and gas bill hikes of close to 1,000% - a back-door tax increase estimated at close to $800 a year or nearly 6% the median full-time salary in Argentina.
Falling revenues therefore did not translate into lower taxes for most of Argentina's 43 million people - whose median earnings have fallen by at least 11% since Macri took office just eight months ago. A separate report by the CAME medium business bureau revealed that June retail sales fell 9.8% in real terms over the same time last year.
At: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.politicargentina.com%2Fnotas%2F201607%2F15476-se-triplico-el-deficit-financiero-en-las-cuentas-publicas.html
50 Argentine Dirty War convicts transferred from prison to house arrest so far this year.
A series of federal court rulings in Argentina have resulted in transfers from prison to house arrest for some 50 former military and police officers convicted for crimes against humanity committed during the last dictatorship (1976-83), judicial sources said.
Up to 30,000 Argentines were killed during the state-sponsored Dirty War, primarily from 1976 to 1978.
The rulings have benefited Dirty War convicts who are over 70 years old and whose lawyers filed requests for house arrest based on health reasons. While these decisions officially depend solely on judges' discretion, Army Chief of Staff Diego Suñer - a Macri appointee - was confirmed to have actively lobbied on behalf of those seeking a transfer to house arrest.
According to Justice Ministry officials speaking to local news daily Clarín on condition of anonymity, this trend reflects "a change in court doctrine" from the one prevailing during the populist administrations of former Presidents Néstor and Cristina Kirchner (2003-15).
Their administrations made human rights a central political issue in Argentina, and Néstor Kirchner's signature of a 2003 bill rescinding two amnesty laws that since 1987 had shielded Dirty War suspects led to hundreds of trials and convictions.
The pace of prosecutions has slowed dramatically since President Mauricio Macri took office in December, however - a change foreshadowed by Macri's description of human rights as a "scam" during the 2015 campaign.
This change in policy was further underscored by Defense Minister Julio Martínez's decision to allow Dirty War convicts to be treated in military hospitals (which had been banned due to a numerous escape attempts), as well as by revelations that Justice Minsiter Germán Garavano had held secret talks in April with Argentina's leading Dirty War apologist, Cecilia Pando.
These developments mark a sharp departure from the Kirchner era, when 2,389 officers were accused, 1,132 arrested, and 681 convicted. This marked the fist time in world history that human rights abuses were systematically prosecuted (rather than a few top officials), something described by the dictator who oversaw most of the Dirty War, General Jorge Videla as "our worst moments."
At: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=http://www.minutouno.com/notas/1499617-en-lo-que-va-del-ano-unos-50-ex-represores-obtuvieron-la-prision-domiciliaria&prev=search
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