Showing posts with label South America. Show all posts
Showing posts with label South America. Show all posts

Wednesday, 31 October 2018

Fascism in Latin America on the march


Fascism on the March

by Peter Koenig for The Saker Blog
Saker drawing from community
30 October, 2018

Latin America is re-converting into Washington’s backyard and as a sideline is returning to fascist rule, similar but worse than the sixties seventies and eighties, which stood under the spell of the CIA-led Operation or Plan Condor. Many call the current right-wing trend Operation Condor II which is probably as close to the truth as can be. It is all Washington / CIA fabricated, just with more rigor and more sophistication than Plan Condor of 40 and 50 years ago. As much as it hurts to say, after all the glory and laurels sent out to Latin America – with Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro, Rafael Correa, Evo Morales, Lula, the Kirchners, José Mujica, Michelle Bachelet – more than 80% of the population of Latin America were living for some 15 to 20 years under democratically elected mostly left-leaning governments, really progressive. – Within no time, in less than 3 years the wheels have turned.
Latin America was for about 20 years the only western part of the world, that was fully detached from the fangs of the empire. It has succumbed again to the forces of evil, to the forces of money, the forces of utter corruption and greed. The people of Latin America have betrayed their own principles. They did it again. Humans remain reduced as in ancient times, to the unfailing powers of reproduction and ego cum greed. It seems in the end, ego and greed always win over the forces of light, of good, peace and harmony. That’s why even the World Bank calls corruption the single most hindrance to development. They mean economic development; I mean conscientious development. This time the trick is false and fraudulent election campaigns; bought elections; Washington induced parliamentary coups – which in Brazil brought unelected President Temer to power, a prelude to much worse to come, the fascist, misogynist, racist, and self-styled military man, Jair Bolsonaro.
The 2015 presidential election in Argentina brought a cleverly Washington manufactured win for Mauricio Macri, a friend and one-time business associate of Donald Trump’s, as it were. The election was manipulated by the by now well-known Machiavellian Cambridge Analytica method of cheating the voters by individualized messages spread throughout the social media into believing all sorts of lies about the candidates. Voters were, thus, hit on the head by surprise, as Macri’s opponent, the left-leaning Daniel Scioli of the Peronist Victory Front, the leader in the polls, was defeated.
Today Macri has adopted a fascist economic agenda, indebted the country with IMF austerity packages, increased unemployment and poverty from12% before his election in 2015 to close to 40 % in 2018. He is leading Argentina towards a déjà-vu scenario of the 80s and especially 1990’s when under pressure from the US, IMF and World Bank, the country was to adopt the US dollar as their local currency, or to be exact, Argentina was allowed to keep their peso, but had to commit to a one-to-one parity with the US dollar. The official explanation for this, in economic terms, criminal move (to impose the use of the currency of one country for the economy of another country is not only insane, its outright criminal), was to stop skyrocketing inflation – which temporarily it did, but to the detriment of the working class, for whom common staple and goods became unaffordable.
Disaster was preprogrammed. And the collapse of Argentine’s economy happened in 2000 and 2001. Finally, in January 2002, President Eduardo Duhalde ended the notorious peso-dollar parity. The peso was first devalued by 40% – then it floated towards a 70% devaluation and gradually pegged itself to other international trading currencies, like the euro, the Japanese yen and the Chinese yuan. Eventually, the newly floating currency allowed the Argentine economy to get a new boost and recovered rapidly. Perhaps too rapidly, for Argentina’s own good.
The economy grew substantially under the left, fully democratically elected Kirchner Governments. Not only did the economy grow rapidly, it also grew in a widely ‘distributive’ mode, meaning reducing poverty, assessed at almost two thirds of the population in 2001, cutting it to about 12%, just a month before Macri was catapulted into office, by Washington and Cambridge Analytica in December 2015. Argentina has become rich again; she can now be milked again and sucked dry by the banking sector, and international corporatism, all protected by three to be newly established US military bases in the provinces of Neuquen, Misiones and Tierra del Fuego. They will initially be under the US Southern Command, but most likely soon to be converted into NATO bases. NATO is already in Colombia and may soon spread into Bolsonaro’s Brazil.
Though nobody really understands what the North Atlantic Treaty Organization has to do in South America – the answer is unimportant. The empire suits itself with whatever fits the purpose. No rules, no ethics, no laws – everything goes under neoliberalism. NATO is to become a world military attack force under Washington’s control and directed by those few “enlightened”, pulling the strings from behind the curtains, form the deep dark state.
Macri marked the beginning of Latin America’s new fascism. South America struggled for 15 -20 years to become independent from the neoliberal masters of the north. It has now been reabsorbed into the northern elite’s, the empire’s backyard — yes, sadly, that’s what Latin America has become for the major part, a mere backyard of Washington.
Argentina’s Washington imposed right-wing dictatorship was preceded by Paraguay’s 2012 parliamentary coup that in April 2013 brought Horacio Cartes of the right-extreme Colorado party to power. The Colorado Party was also the party of Alfredo Stroessner, the fascist brutal military dictator, who ruled Paraguay from 1954 to 1989.
In Chile on 9/11 of 1973 a democratically elected socialist, Salvador Allende, a was overthrown under the guidance of the CIA and a brutal military dictator, Augusto Pinochet installed for almost 30 years. After a brief spring of center and left-leaning governments, Chile, in December 2017, has returned to right-wing, neoliberal politics with Sebastian Piñera, a former associate of Pinochet’s. With the surroundings of his neoliberal friends and close accomplices in Argentina, Colombia, Brazil, Peru and even Ecuador, to be sure, he will move to extreme right, neo-fascist economic rules and, thus, please Washington’s banks and their instruments, the IMF and the World Bank.
Fascism is on the march. And this despite the fact that 99.99% of the population, not just in Latin America, worldwide, want nothing to do with fascism – so where is the fraud? Why is nobody investigating the scam and swindle in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Colombia? – and then putting the results up for everyone to see?
In the meantime, we have learned about Cambridge / Oxford Analytica (CA & OA). How they operate and cheat the electorate. They themselves have finally admitted to the methods within which they operate and influence voters with lies – and with data stealing or buying from social media, mainly facebook; millions and millions of personal data to target electronically special groups of people – bombarding them with lies to promote or denigrate the one or the other candidate.
And precisely this happened in Brazil. A week before the run-off election that took place this past Sunday, 28 October, Fernando Haddad, (PT), launched a criminal investigation precisely for that reason against Bolsonaro’s campaign. Of course, nothing happened. All the judges, courts and lawyers are under control of the unelected corrupt right-wing Temer Government – which came to power by a foreign directed ruthless parliamentary coup, impeaching under totally false pretenses democratically elected Dilma Rousseff.
And now – there is nobody investigating what happened in Brazil, bringing a military boy, Jair Bolsonaro to power? The left is dead? Flabbergasted into oblivion -indeed? – How come? With all the lessons to be learned around the world, and not last in Argentina, the neighbor – why can the Brazilian left be so blind, outright naive, as to not understand that following the criminally legalized system in their country is following the path to their own demise and eventually to shovel their own grave?
From day One, the US firmly counts on Bolsonaro to encircle Venezuela, together with Colombia. President Trump has already expressed his expectations to work ‘closely together’ with the new Bolsonaro Government in “matters of trade, military – and earthing else.” Bolsonaro has already met with Mike Pompeo, the US Foreign Secretary, who told him that the situation in Venezuela is a “priority’ for Brazil. There you go; Washington dictates foreign leaders their priorities. Bolsonaro will oblige, for sure.
Wake up – LEFT! – not just in Latin America, but around the world.
Today, it’s the mainstream media which have learned the tricks and cheats, and they have perfected the Cambridge and Oxford Analyticas; they are doing it non-stop. They have all the fake and fiat money in the world to pay for these false and deceit-campaigns – they are owned by the corporate military and financial elite, by the CIA, MI6/5, Mossad – they are owned and directed by the western all-overarching neoliberalism cum fascism. The rich elite groups have free access to the fake and fiat money supply – its government supplied in the US as well as in Europe; debt is no problem for them, as long as they ‘behave’.
Yes. The accent is on behaving. Dictatorial trends are also omni-present in the EU, and especially in the non-elected European Commission (EC) which calls the shots on all important matters. Italy’s Fife-Star Eurosceptic Government presented its 2019 budget to Brussels. Not only was the government scolded and reprimanded for overstretching its accounts with a deficit exceeding the 3% EU imposed debt margin, but the government had to present a new budget within 3 weeks. That is how a not-so-well behaving EU government is treated. What a stretch of authoritarian EU rule vis-à-vis a sovereign government. And ‘sovereignty’ is – the EU boasts – the key to a coherent European Union.
On the other hand, France has for years been infringing on the (in)famous 3% rule. And again, for the 2019 budget. However, the French government received a friendly drafted note saying, would you please reconsider your budget deficit for the next year. No scolding. One does not reprimand a Rothchild Child. Double standards, corruption, nepotism, are among the attributes of fascism. It’s growing fast, everywhere in the west. It has taken on a life of itself. And the military is prepared. Everywhere. – If only they, the military, would wake up and stand with the people instead of the ruling elite that treats them like their peons. Yet, they are part of the people; they belong to the most common of the people. In the end, they get the same shaft treatment as the people – they are tortured and shot when they are no longer needed, or if they don’t behave as the neocon-fascists want.
So, Dear Military Men and Women – why not pre-empt such risks and stand with the people from the very beginning? – The entire fake and criminal system would collapse if it wouldn’t have the protection of the police and the military. You, dear Men and Women form the Police and Military, you have the power and the moral obligation to stand by the people, not defending the ruthless, brutal elitist and criminal rulers – à la Macri, Bolsonaro, Piñera, Duque, Macron, May and Merkel. And there are many more of the same blood.
———-
One of the first signs for what was to happen throughout Latin America and spreading through the western world, was the “fake election” of Macri, in 2015 in Argentina. Some of us saw it coming and wrote about it. We were ignored, even laughed at. We were told – we didn’t understand the democratic process. Yes, right. In the meantime, the trend towards the right, towards a permanent state of Emergency, a de facto Martial Rule has become irreversible. France has incorporated the permanent state of emergency in her Constitution. Armed police and military are a steady presence throughout Paris and France’s major cities.
There are only a few, very few exceptions left in Latin America, indeed in the western world.
And let’s do whatever we can to save them from the bulldozer of fascism.
—–
Peter Koenig is an economist and geopolitical analyst. He is also a water resources and environmental specialist. He worked for over 30 years with the World Bank and the World Health Organization around the world in the fields of environment and water. He lectures at universities in the US, Europe and South America. He writes regularly for Global Research; ICH; RT; Sputnik; PressTV; The 21st Century; TeleSUR; The Vineyard of The Saker Blog, the New Eastern Outlook (NEO); and other internet sites. He is the author of Implosion – An Economic Thriller about War, Environmental Destruction and Corporate Greed fiction based on facts and on 30 years of World Bank experience around the globe. He is also a co-author of The World Order and Revolution! – Essays from the Resistance.

Thursday, 29 March 2018

Crop failure in Argentina

Argentine drought-hit soy crop seen collapsing to 40 mln tonnes

Soy plants are seen in a drought affected farm near Chivilcoy, Argentina, February 28, 2018. REUTERS/Martin Acosta

16 March, 2018

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentina’s Rosario Grains Exchange slashed 14 percent off its forecast for the country’s soy crop on Thursday, saying a drought now in its fourth month would limit the harvest to 40 million tonnes versus its previous estimate of 46.5 million.

The South American grains powerhouse has been blighted by dry weather since November. An unrelenting Southern Hemisphere summer sun has shriveled crops, dented Latin America’s No. 3 economy and put upward pressure on world food prices.

The exchange cut its corn crop estimate to 32 million tonnes from 35 million. Argentina is the world’s third-biggest exporter of corn and soybeans, as well at its top supplier of soymeal feed, used to fatten cows and pigs from Europe to Asia.

The impact of the drought on the Argentine economy will go to $4.6 billion, or 0.7 percent of gross domestic product projected for 2018,” the exchange’s head of research Emilce Terre said in a message, adding that more crop forecast cuts were possible, especially for corn.

The season continues to be characterized by lack of water,” the exchange said in a statement on its website. “Some privileged areas have gotten rain, but the amount of water in those areas barely surpassed six centimeters, at best.”

Most analysts have slashed their soy crop forecasts, which started the season in the range of 55 million tonnes, to below 45 million. A treasury ministry official told Reuters on Wednesday the drought would cut between 0.5 and 1 percentage point off 2018’s headline growth rate.

Weather forecasters say they do not expect enough rain over the days ahead to reverse the damage in most areas.

The Buenos Aires Grains Exchange currently projects the soy harvest at 42 million tonnes and the corn crop at 34 million.

Soy harvesting began in parts of the Pampas provinces of Cordoba, Santa Fe, Entre Rios and Buenos Aires, totaling about 2 percent of nationwide planted area, the Buenos Aires exchange said in its weekly crop report. “Yields in harvested areas have been very uneven,” it said.

The drought has meanwhile expanded north toward marginal soy-growing provinces like Chaco and Santiago del Estero.

If moisture is not restored in the soil of central Chaco province, it will increase the chance of another cut in our production projection, which remains at 42 million tonnes,” the report said.

The estimates were broadly in line with those of independent analysts like Gustavo Lopez of the Agritrend farm consultancy.


A soybean projection of 40 to 42 million tonnes and corn between 34 and 36 million tonnes would seem logical,” he said.

Tuesday, 12 April 2016

Huge 'hot blob'' in the South Pacific

No wonder I’m sweltering here in Wellington today


What’s going on in the South Pacific?

A huge heat blob 5 times the size of the “hot blob” off North America




Via Facebook. Thanks to Roger Caldwell

What's going on in the South Pacific? The heat blob is so big that it now dwarves the El Niño. The SP hosts by far the largest sea surface anomaly on Earth, comprising 11 million km3 of sea surface that's about 30cm higher than normal (ocean heat). In addition, nearly the same area "blob" is sporting +2.5C temperature anomalies. That's about 5 times the size of the "hot blob" off the North American coast last year that spawned record forest fires through the northwest US and Canada.

Is the Southern Hemisphere about to get baked during its winter? Look at Paraguay, it now has the highest misery index on the planet.







Interestingly, the Climate Reanalyzer does not show sea temperature anomalies off South America



Tuesday, 2 February 2016

WHO declares Global Emergency over Zika virus

Zika Virus Threatens "Disaster In Rio"Olympics As WHO Declares Global Emergency


1 February, 2016

1 From the initial discovery in the heart of Ugandan forest darkness to mysterious genetically-modified Mosquitoes in Brazil, the newest threat to human health (most notably pregnant women) is the ominous-sounding Zika virus. The epidemic is spreading from its epicenter in Brazil - threatening disaster at the Olympics with "female athletes to consider participation "very carefully"", to Colombia (with 2100 pregant women infected), and further north in America with CDC confirming 6 cases in Texas.


As we previously introducedThe World Health Organization is convening an Emergency Committee under International Health Regulations today, concerning the Zika virus ‘explosive’ spread throughout the Americas. The virus reportedly has the potential to reach pandemic proportions — possibly around the globe. But understandingwhy this outbreak happened is vital to curbing it. As the WHO statement said:







A causal relationship between Zika virus infection and birth malformations and neurological syndromes … is strongly suspected. [These links] have rapidly changed the risk profile of Zika, from a mild threat to one of alarming proportions.
WHO is deeply concerned about this rapidly evolving situation for 4 main reasons: the possible association of infection with birth malformations and neurological syndromes; the potential for further international spread given the wide geographical distribution of the mosquito vector; the lack of population immunity in newly affected areas; and the absence of vaccines, specific treatments, and rapid diagnostic tests […]
The level of concern is high, as is the level of uncertainty.”
Zika seemingly exploded out of nowhere. Though it was first discovered in 1947, cases only sporadically occurred throughout Africa and southern Asia.

In 2007, the first case was reported in the Pacific. In 2013, a smattering of small outbreaks and individual cases were officially documented in Africa and the western Pacific. They also began showing up in the Americas. In May 2015, Brazil reported its first case of Zika virus — and the situation changed dramatically.



And now, as The BBC reports, an alarming mixture of confusion and fear is blighting the pregnancies of thousands of women across this teeming tropical city in the northeast of Brazil, and wherever else the Zika virus has infected people.







Every day the emergency clinic at one of Recife's largest hospitals sees queues of nervous women so long that they reach into the car park, and the medical staff, already stretched, are now overwhelmed.
The enemy is uncertainty because the symptoms of Zika infection are worryingly vague: aches, a rash, itching and conjunctivitis are all typical and the slightest sign of them naturally leads the women to rush for help.
And for women thinking of pregnancy, there is a warning from one young mother.
Micaela da Souza's daughter Anica Vitoria has severe microcephaly and needs to be continually rocked to prevent her from becoming agitated, and her advice reflects the uncertainties of the science.
"I'd say it's not the moment to get pregnant because so far nobody knows where does this virus come from, how can this happen?"


This has further worried female athletes and attendees of the forthcoming Olympics. As The Daily Mail reports,







Rio's Olympics are on the verge of disaster as fear grows over the Zika virus, which has left more than 4,000 newborns with shrunken heads.
Female spectators and even athletes of childbearing age are being warned by countries and medical professionals around the world to reconsider their plans to travel to Brazil for fear of what could happen to their unborn children after the country was overrun by the mosquito-borne disease.
Russia and Australian officials have both raised fears for those women preparing to compete in August's Games, while numerous airlines around the world are offering pregnant women the chance to swap or refund their tickets to avoid travelling to affected areas - of which Brazil is the worst.



The combination of factors led Marcelo Castro, Brazil's health minister, to admit this week: 'We are losing the battle in a big way.'







But organisers are keen to stress the 2016 Games will go ahead - because they remain convinced Brazil will get the outbreak under control by the time the Games begin.
The country is now throwing everything it has at combating the problem. Ahead of this week's Carnival, more than 3,000 municipal health agents have been out on the city's streets, trying desperately to rid the city of its mosquito hotbeds.
They will be paying particular attention to Carnival and Olympic venues, which will be inspected daily during the big events.
But it seems the government's main hope for gaining control of the virus ahead of the Opening Ceremony in six months lies in something they have no control over whatsoever: the weather.
While Brazil is the country hit hardest by the disease - it has reported around 3,700 cases of microcephaly strongly suspected to be related to Zika - the virus is spreading  dramatically.

To Colombia (as Reuters reports)







More than 2,100 pregnant Colombian women are infected with the mosquito-borne Zika virus, the country's national health institute said on Saturday, as the disease continues its spread across the Americas.
The virus has been linked to the devastating birth defect microcephaly, which prevents fetus' brains from developing properly. There is no vaccine or treatment.
There are 20,297 confirmed cases of the disease in Colombia, the national health institute said in a epidemiology bulletin, among them 2,116 pregnant women.


To USA



The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirms six cases of Zika virus in Texas.
All of the cases are associated with travel to areas where Zika is currently being transmitted and all among residents of the southeast Texas region.
3rd confirmed case of Zika virus in greater Houston area; 2nd in city of Houston
Information about the patients is not being released.
And to Jamaica







Four-year-old child started showing symptoms Jan. 17 after returning to Jamaica from Texas, has now recovered, Health Ministry says in statement on website.
Case confirmed in tests by Caribbean Public Health Agency
Govt has adequate medication for treatment in event of additional cases being identified

Panic-mongering? None other than The CDC's Director himself said this virus is "spreading explosively," with travel notices posted for at least 22 countries...

And finally, following their convention today: It is official:
  • *WHO SAYS ZIKA, MICROCEPHALY `PUBLIC HEALTH EMERGENCY'
  • *WHO:CAUSAL RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ZIKA IN PREGNANCY, MICROCEPHALY
The Zika virus is a global emergency, the World Health Organization said, citing possible links to infant brain damage...




The World Health Organization on Monday designated the Zika virus a public health emergency of international concern, an action it has taken only three times before,which paves the way for the mobilization of more funding and manpower to fight the mosquito-born pathogen spreading "explosively" through the Americas.
The declaration represents the WHO's highest level of alert and is only invoked in response to the most dire threats. The first time was in 2009 during the H1N1 influenza epidemic that is believed to have infected up to 200 million worldwide; the second in May 2014 when a paralyzing form of polio re-emerged in Pakistan and Syria; and the third in August 2014 with Ebola in West Africa.