Henri Christophe
L'empereur
Ohhh Haiti on Civ's news!
[RD] News Thread of the Americas
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Thorgalaeg
Deity
Colombia raises threat level for deadly Nevado del Ruiz volcano
Authorities report a spike in seismic activity, including rock fracturing and earthquakes, around the snow-capped peak.
Gasp, let's hope it doesn't happen like the last time. That little girl trapped was one of the first TV images I remember, and it was pretty unbearable.
Argentina's ‘president’ has not resigned but instead he's done the next best thing. He's announced that he's not running for re-election. He's the first sitting president legally allowed to run who does not do so, which is an acknowledgement of the utter failure of more or less everything he's done.
What's finally done him in is the umpteenth currency run amid ever-faster inflation. The ongoing currency run (started the week with a 395-1 exchange rate, peaked at 440-1, currently hovering in the 430s) triggered yet another spike in the prices of everything and was started by what appears to have been a media operation aimed at ousting the current Grand Vizier, the self-proclaimed ‘superminister’, Sergio Massa. The latter, the man currently attempting to run the country, and the ‘president’'s erstwhile puppetmistress, CFK, are reported to have found out only this morning through the media.
The exchange rate seems to be receding a bit, at least for a couple of hours.
What's finally done him in is the umpteenth currency run amid ever-faster inflation. The ongoing currency run (started the week with a 395-1 exchange rate, peaked at 440-1, currently hovering in the 430s) triggered yet another spike in the prices of everything and was started by what appears to have been a media operation aimed at ousting the current Grand Vizier, the self-proclaimed ‘superminister’, Sergio Massa. The latter, the man currently attempting to run the country, and the ‘president’'s erstwhile puppetmistress, CFK, are reported to have found out only this morning through the media.
The exchange rate seems to be receding a bit, at least for a couple of hours.
Broken_Erika
Play with me.
In Haiti, a grassroots vigilante movement is fighting back against gang warfare
A powerful wave of vigilantism has brought both optimism and fear, leaving governments on the sidelines
Port-au-Prince is as violent as it has ever been, but for two weeks now the fear has also flowed in a different direction — thanks to a phenomenon known as "Bwa Kale.""Bwa Kale" literally means "peeled wood" in Haitian Creole. It's also a metaphor for an act of swift justice.
While gang members continue their depredations in the east end of the Haitian capital, in other parts they have been forced to flee. Many have been lynched or summarily executed following capture by groups of citizens, sometimes acting alongside police.
- As It Happens Q&A
Haitian activist describes grisly killings in the streets as residents rise up against gangs - In danger abroad? The Canadian government says it isn't obligated to rescue you
- Haiti's outgunned police will have to wait even longer for Canadian armoured cars
While many have reservations about the movement and where it might lead, large numbers of ordinary Haitians seem to have found a kind of joyous release in turning the tables on their tormentors.
Burned alive
A spontaneous event on April 24 appears to have been the catalyst for the movement. Police in the Canape Vert area of Port-au-Prince intercepted 13 or 14 members of a gang travelling on a minibus to join with an allied gang in the Dubussy district."This party didn't have any long guns with them," said Louis-Henri Mars, director of the Haitian peacebuilding non-profit Lakou Lape. "They only had pistols in their rucksacks, and when they were stopped, the police disarmed them."
A crowd quickly gathered at the scene.
"The police felt the pressure, or they felt threatened by the crowd, and they released those guys to die basically," said Mars. "And the crowd stoned them and burned them to death, and this was the start of it."
Cell videos from the scene show Haitian police holding a group of young men on the ground while civilians pelt them with rocks. Tires are piled over them. Other videos show the men on fire and display their charred remains.
"It dispelled the myth of their invincibility," said Mars. The next day, he added, "the group that they were going to meet in Dubussy was also attacked by the population with the police.
"They scrambled out of where they were and they were pursued and, one by one, killed. Some of them were lucky to get arrested and brought to the police station."
Calls for an "Operasyon File Manchet" (Operation Sharpen Machete) began to circulate on social media in Haiti on April 25. Some evangelical churches also spread the message.
"And so this has created a whole movement all over the city and even the country," said Mars, "a movement of the police in front and the people behind."
A fever of revenge
Subsequent days saw many districts of Port-au-Prince move to a war footing. When gangs entered a neighbourhood, people banged pots and pans to alert neighbours. Most neighbourhoods had just a few handguns to defend themselves from gangs armed with automatic rifles, but civilians took potshots and threw rocks from rooftops. Some were able to repel gang invasions.Crowds went on the offensive, using their numbers to overwhelm gang safe houses, drag suspected gang members out of police stations and kill them in the street.
The anger in the videos is palpable. Haitian gangs have raped women and girls on a massive scale. They routinely kidnap children and use torture against kidnap victims. They have ruthlessly extorted even the poorest families.
- Liberal government announces $100M in aid to shore up police forces in Haiti
- Analysis
Why Canada is pushing back at U.S. pressure to put boots on the ground in Haiti - Migrant numbers at jungle crossing point to a record-breaking year for irregular migration in North America
Burning with tires is a practice that goes back to the era of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. It's also meant as retaliation in kind against gang members who have taunted police with videos of indignities done to the bodies of slain officers. Many Haitians involved in Bwa Kale have also shared images of a young man who was burned to death with a tire by criminals for refusing to join their gang.
Governments reduced to spectators
"Canada is deeply concerned by the recent population movement and escalation of violence in Haiti stemming from the increase of killings and executions committed by criminal actors," a spokesperson for Global Affairs told CBC News, adding that Canada's focus is on "bolstering the capabilities of the Haitian National Police in the immediate term."Haiti's Prime Minister Ariel Henry expressed disapproval of the Bwa Kale movement in his May Day speech.
"The insecurity we live in is appalling," he said. "But don't let bad plans make us play sordid games."
"I ask my compatriots, whatever they may have suffered at the hands of the bandits, to remain calm," he said, adding that Haitians should help police by giving information about suspicious people in their neighbourhoods.
But under Bwa Kale, cooperating with the police goes well beyond giving out tips. Abundant cell phone footage from Port-au-Prince shows police and civilians engaging together in street battles with gang members.
Cooperation between civilians and police is sometimes so close, it completely cuts out the Haitian government.
One neighbourhood's battle
Laboule and neighbouring Thomassin are well-to-do outlying suburbs of Port-au-Prince. In the small Laboule 12 enclave, a gang led by Ti Makak (Little Monkey) killed three police officers last September and a few weeks later ambushed and killed the district's most prominent resident, former presidential candidate Eric Jean Baptiste, together with his bodyguard."They started terrorizing the population, killing, shooting, raping, kidnapping, ransoming," the organizer of Laboule 12's self-defence group told CBC News. CBC is not identifying him due to the threat of gang retribution. He said he barely survived an ambush when gunfire struck the bulletproof windshield of his car.
The resident, a lawyer, said the community petitioned the government for help for months before taking matters into its own hands.
"It's as if the government is benefiting from the fact that this country is in limbo," he said. "They still get paid, they're buying brand new 2023 Land Cruisers for government officials. They're running with high security, they are safe, and the rest of the people [are] just abandoned."
He described how his group reached a deal with a local police inspector — they fixed a broken Canadian-made armoured vehicle for about $32,000 US in exchange for a police commitment to use it to defend their neighbourhood.
'It's horrific'
The group also hired private security to guard the approaches to the neighborhood.A video the group shared showed a civilian checkpoint overlooking a footpath into the Laboule 12. People can be seen fleeing uphill from another neighbourhood, where automatic rifle fire can be heard. A man armed with an AR-15 rifle questions the refugees and makes them raise their shirts to show they are unarmed.
The group also rented pickup trucks to conduct surveillance and prepare ambushes. It all led up to what the resident called a "surge" operation that saw Ti Makak and his brother fatally wounded.
The unnamed resident estimates that at least 50 alleged bandits have been killed in his area since then.
"With that surge the entire population started to say that they had enough," he said. Ti Makak's death "emboldened some of them and they started going after (gang members) and tracking them. Soon it was the majority of the people against the gang and they started killing them.
"As a lawyer myself, it pains me to say, but there were, there was a bunch of summary executions … They were stoned to death and burned with tires, some of them even alive. It's horrific."
CBC News saw video that showed an accused gang member in Thomassin being stoned and burned in a fire.
"We've put back security on some of the territories we lost," said the resident. "So there's a sense of relief even though there's trauma.
"You start to see people coming back, coming out and starting walking again. You have some local shops that are reopening slowly. It's a slow movement, but there's a huge relief."
Innocents caught up
But as with all mob violence, this vigilante movement has claimed some innocent victims.Police officer Emmanuel Derilien was lynched in St-Louis-Du-Nord on Monday when he was mistaken for a gang member after he shot and wounded two people in an altercation.
Crowds can quickly surround an unfamiliar face and sometimes don't give strangers a chance to justify their presence.
Though it's supportive of police, the Bwa Kale movement appears to pose a threat to the unpopular Ariel Henry government and to undermine Haiti's standing among the nations that back it, including Canada.
Most Haitians see the ruling Pati Ayisyen Tet Kale (Haitian Bald Head Party) as not only ineffective in fighting the gangs but as an accomplice of them — a conclusion supported by human rights groups.
"Whatever Ariel Henry is saying is not going to be listened to by the population because he and his government have not been able to to defend them," said Mars.
"The police, the street officers at least, have suffered quite a bit at the hands of the gangs who've been killing them, and hiding and destroying the bodies of those they kill so that their families would not be able to give them proper burial. So the street officers are also in a lot of ways taking things into their own hands."
New leaders rising
The wave of vigilantism in Haiti is bringing new leaders to the fore, such as Jean-Ernest Muscadin, the "komise" of Miragoane (a role somewhat like a district attorney).A lanky man of serious demeanour who wears body armour to work and carries a rifle, Muscadin has become a star of Haiti's raucous citizen media channels for making his district an island of relative safety in a sea of chaos.
"I am a missionary. I came to restore order," Muscadin told Haitian reporters recently, adding the state gives him nothing beyond his salary of $445 a month.
Everything else "comes from the diaspora," he said. "You can't talk about the state. The state cannot help itself."
Haitian-Canadians based in Montreal formed a group called the Alexandre Petion Collective which has provided Muscadin with drones, fuel for vehicles and other assistance.
"We are marching with him 100 per cent. He is our inspiration for our collective and the whole Bwa Kale movement in Haiti," a member of the collective told CBC News. (CBC is not identifying this person either, due to the risk of gang retribution; they travel to and from Haiti regularly.)
Muscadin reportedly maintains rigorous control over people and goods moving through his area. Gang members captured in Miragoane can expect to be "shot while trying to escape."
"All revolutions have the potential of birthing that kind of leadership" said Mars. "And sometimes this is dangerous also because you don't know who, when and where and what kind of individual is going to show up on the stage. It's the start of something that could evolve into a very dangerous situation."
Unintended consequences
Self-defence groups formed to combat rampant criminality in Colombia in the 1990s morphed into violent paramilitary groups that stole land, displaced people and trafficked drugs. Mars warns something similar could happen in Haiti."In fighting the gangs, you are letting go of the restrictions of propriety, of due process, of state control of violence, and this movement can be the breeding ground for more gangs," he said. "In general, when you have vigilante groups, what happens is that some of them over the over weeks and months become gangs themselves.
"Since the social situation has not changed, the space is there for the replacement of the present generation by another generation of gangs."
On balance, though, Mars said he shares the sense of optimism that Bwa Kale has brought to the Haitian capital for the first time in years.
"There is something that has changed. There's a window of opportunity that has opened. Now it is up to us Haitians to take this window of opportunity and move in the right direction and not continue to destroy, burn and kill."
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/haiti-bwa-kale-port-au-prince-gang-warfare-1.6833758
Well, as usual things aren't going too well in this corner of the world.
Regarding Haiti, a businessman who was part of the conspiracy to kill Haiti's president Moïse in 2021 has been convicted after pleading guilty.
We have a split over Venezuela. Lula da Silva, president of Brazil, keeps siding with Russia against Ukraine and has now spent the last couple of weeks trying to publicly rehabilitate Nicolás Maduro: tortures and electoral fraud are just ‘a tale’ made up by his enemies. Even if Maduro has gone on Venezuelan state TV to publicise those measures as a show of the effectiveness of his discontrol over the country. The presidents of Chile and Uruguay dissent.
The lower house has passed a bill (with a 283-155 vote) to further ‘develop’ the Amazon and also invalidate indigenous tribes' claims to the lands they occupy. It will now go through to the senate.
In Ecuador, Congress tried to oust the president so the latter activated the ‘mutual destruction’ clause of a constitution imposed by his enemy Correa with the original purpose of impeding the then-opposition (now in power) from ousting him. Correa has since been convicted for corruption and now the prosecutor who led the proceedings against him has been threatened with, well, death and another prosecutor has been killed today.
Edit: as of right now, Guillermo Lasso's announced that he won't be running for re-election.
Peru's precarious congress has declared the Mexican PRI-with-a-different-smell López Obrador persona non grata. Twice.
We've also seen a ridiculous performance in Chile: since Chilean voters voter against anyone in power, regardless of who that might be, then logically in the recent vote for a constitutional convention they voted against the coalition that they voted into government in the last general election.
Here in Argentina various of the current government sectors, with month-on-month inflation at 8.4% for April and expected to top 9 sometime in May or June, are uncoordinately claiming that problems will not be solved during this term in office of theirs but in another one and since they're going to lose the elections they plan on toppling any successor they might end up having not of their own party.
Meanwhile, we're asking China to become ever more theirvassals creditors.
Also, Bolivia's running out of natural gas.
Regarding Haiti, a businessman who was part of the conspiracy to kill Haiti's president Moïse in 2021 has been convicted after pleading guilty.
We have a split over Venezuela. Lula da Silva, president of Brazil, keeps siding with Russia against Ukraine and has now spent the last couple of weeks trying to publicly rehabilitate Nicolás Maduro: tortures and electoral fraud are just ‘a tale’ made up by his enemies. Even if Maduro has gone on Venezuelan state TV to publicise those measures as a show of the effectiveness of his discontrol over the country. The presidents of Chile and Uruguay dissent.
The lower house has passed a bill (with a 283-155 vote) to further ‘develop’ the Amazon and also invalidate indigenous tribes' claims to the lands they occupy. It will now go through to the senate.
In Ecuador, Congress tried to oust the president so the latter activated the ‘mutual destruction’ clause of a constitution imposed by his enemy Correa with the original purpose of impeding the then-opposition (now in power) from ousting him. Correa has since been convicted for corruption and now the prosecutor who led the proceedings against him has been threatened with, well, death and another prosecutor has been killed today.
Edit: as of right now, Guillermo Lasso's announced that he won't be running for re-election.
Peru's precarious congress has declared the Mexican PRI-with-a-different-smell López Obrador persona non grata. Twice.
We've also seen a ridiculous performance in Chile: since Chilean voters voter against anyone in power, regardless of who that might be, then logically in the recent vote for a constitutional convention they voted against the coalition that they voted into government in the last general election.
Here in Argentina various of the current government sectors, with month-on-month inflation at 8.4% for April and expected to top 9 sometime in May or June, are uncoordinately claiming that problems will not be solved during this term in office of theirs but in another one and since they're going to lose the elections they plan on toppling any successor they might end up having not of their own party.
Meanwhile, we're asking China to become ever more their
Also, Bolivia's running out of natural gas.
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I suppose a certain somebody has to spring up and defend any politician who's under trial.
No?
No?
Judges ban Bolsonaro from running for office for eight years over ‘appalling lies’
Former far-right leader will only be able to seek elected office again in 2030, when he will be 75Spoiler :
Interesting things happen south of the Rio Grande.
Elections have started!
Provisional tally for the primaries (about 34 M votes cast):
7.1 M votes for Milei (libertarian)
6.7 M votes Bullrich-Larreta (liberal, centre-right)
6.5 M votes Massa (incumbent, fascist)
1.15 M blank ballots
900 k votes cast for the outgoing governor of Córdoba, who will sell them to the highest bidder.
The 69% turnout is the lowest ever.
Also there's a couple million people who don't show up for primary elections but almost always show up for the actual elections.
That's in Argentina.
In Ecuador elections are scheduled for next weekend. A presidential candidate was shot to death in public.
Boric's government in Chile keeps losing ministers.
In Colombia, the president's son admits to having collected money for his father's successful campaign from, uhm… criminals.
Elections have started!
Provisional tally for the primaries (about 34 M votes cast):
7.1 M votes for Milei (libertarian)
6.7 M votes Bullrich-Larreta (liberal, centre-right)
6.5 M votes Massa (incumbent, fascist)
1.15 M blank ballots
900 k votes cast for the outgoing governor of Córdoba, who will sell them to the highest bidder.
The 69% turnout is the lowest ever.
Also there's a couple million people who don't show up for primary elections but almost always show up for the actual elections.
That's in Argentina.
In Ecuador elections are scheduled for next weekend. A presidential candidate was shot to death in public.
Boric's government in Chile keeps losing ministers.
In Colombia, the president's son admits to having collected money for his father's successful campaign from, uhm… criminals.
Broken_Erika
Play with me.
Haiti crisis: Can Kenyan police officers defeat the gangs?
The UN has backed Kenya's offer to lead a multinational security force in Haiti in response to a plea from the Caribbean nation's prime minister for help restoring order.Haiti has suffered from gang violence for decades but the current wave of brutality escalated after the July 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse.
Gangs have taken control of large parts of the country, waging terror on residents and killing hundreds.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres has said that a "robust use of force" is needed to disarm the gangs and restore order.
Greenlighting the deployment, the UN Security Council resolution approves the mission for a year with a review after nine months.
The new force will carry out joint security operations and will have the authority to make arrests in coordination with Haitian police, according to the resolution.
It will also aim to create conditions to hold elections. Haiti has not had an election since 2016.
Haiti's Foreign Minister Jean Victor Geneus called the decision "a glimmer of hope for the people that have for too long been suffering."
What has Kenya offered to do?
Kenya has said it would send 1,000 police officers to Haiti.When this was first proposed in July, Kenyan officials said the officers would guard government buildings and infrastructure, but that plan changed after Kenya sent a fact-finding mission the following month.
The country now wants to deploy an intervention force that will neutralise the armed gangs, protect civilians and bring about peace, security and order.
Foreign Minister Alfred Mutua told the BBC that his country would also like to help Haiti rebuild vital infrastructure and establish a stable democratic government.
The Bahamas, Jamaica and Antigua and Barbuda have said they will take part in the mission and the minister added that Spain, Senegal and Chile were also likely to deploy security personnel.
Mr Mutua said he expected the force to be in place by the beginning of next year.
What will the Kenyan police find in Haiti?
Haiti is experiencing a multi-faceted security and humanitarian crisis that Mr Guterres called "a living nightmare".Swathes of the mountain-cradled coastal capital Port-au-Prince - some estimates say 80% - are either controlled or regularly terrorised by heavily armed gangs.
These gangs, with names in Haitian creole such as "Kraze Barye" (Barrier-Crusher) and "Gran Grif" (Big Claw), have over the last two years been robbing, looting, extorting, kidnapping, raping and killing.
Armed with automatic weapons smuggled in mostly from the US, the gang members often out-gun the local police, sometimes burning their vehicles and stations.
They control, or regularly raid, the main routes in and out of the capital.
Similar lawlessness plagues large areas of west and central Haiti, where roving "bandits", as locals call the gang members, invade and burn villages and towns.
The gangs have caused chaos and disrupted public services and the work of aid agencies, worsening poverty and health problems in a nation that was already the poorest in the Western Hemisphere.
What's in it for Kenya?
Mr Mutua has in part portrayed this as an altruistic offer."Haiti looked around and said: 'Kenya, please help us'. They did not ask any other countries. We have decided to do God's will and assist our brothers and sisters," Kenya's foreign minister said at a press conference.
However, Mr Mutua told the BBC that the intervention in Haiti would raise Kenya's global profile, which could benefit the country.
Some commentators have said Kenya is doing the US's bidding and is hoping to curry favour with the global superpower.
The US has pledged to support the mission financially to the tune of $100m (£82m) - Canada has also offered funding.
On a recent visit to Kenya, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin signed a five-year security agreement and also said the US was "grateful to Kenya for its leadership in tackling security challenges in the region and around the world".
Are Kenya's police ready for this kind of mission?
Many critics have cast doubt on the ability of Kenyan police to take on Haiti's gangs.They will need to come face-to-face with the armed gang members in unfamiliar terrain.
Nelson Koech, chairperson of parliament's defence committee, told Citizen TV that Kenya would not be sending traffic officers but "special armed forces" and that they would be fully trained before being deployed.
It is not clear which units will be sent to Haiti but it could be the paramilitary General Service Unit (GSU), which often responds to events like violent demonstrations and terrorist attacks.
Mr Mutua also said the government had been preparing for the deployment. He did not divulge any more details, other than saying that the authorities are currently providing French lessons to some of the officers to ease communication in Haiti.
The language barrier has raised some concerns, as in Haiti people predominantly speak French and Haitian Creole, while in Kenya, the most commonly spoken languages are English and Swahili.
How effective are Kenya's police?
Kenya's police officers have long been criticised for human rights abuses.Several rights organisations have expressed worries about the ability of the officers to act humanely and responsibly in Haiti.
In an open letter to the UN Security Council in August, Amnesty International said it was concerned about the plan due to the Kenyan police's record of responding using excessive and unnecessary force.
The organisation said it had documented more than 30 cases of Kenyan police officers killing protesters through shootings and tear-gas suffocation during various protests this year.
Amnesty has also accused the police of beating protesters as well as unlawfully arresting and detaining them.
Kenya's police chief Japhet Koome described the response of his officers to recent protests as "commendable".
He denied accusations of police killings and sensationally said that opposition politicians had planted bodies hired from mortuaries at protest scenes in order to pin the deaths on his personnel.
How have previous foreign interventions fared in Haiti?
Haiti, a former French Caribbean colony that became the world's first black republic at the start of the 19th Century after an epoch-making 1791 slave revolt, has a history of foreign interventions.The US invaded and occupied Haiti from 1915 to 1934, sending in marines and military administrators.
Further US military interventions occurred in 1994 and 2004, to "defend democracy" and restore order.
The interventions made many Haitians wary of outside interference, especially involving the US.
Past UN peacekeeping deployments in Haiti, for example by the Brazilian-led Minustah force from 2004-2017, did not escape controversy either, when Nepalese troops were blamed for bringing in cholera after the devastating 2010 earthquake.
Even the massive US military-led foreign humanitarian intervention that responded to the quake, while certainly welcomed by many Haitians, raised sensitive debates about aid dependency and alleged abuses by some aid workers and peacekeepers.
Can Kenya succeed where others have failed?
Success will be measured by whether the Kenyan contingent can decisively defeat the crime gangs, restoring law and order to the daily lives of Haitians.While Kenya's security forces have experience battling the al-Shabab Islamist militant group, and policing slum settlements, they will be on alien ground in Port-au-Prince's harbourside and hillside shantytowns.
Here, the armed gang members know their territories and are sometimes backed by local informers.
The Kenyans will need to work closely with the local Haitian police.
Help may also come from a grass-roots anti-gang vigilante movement known as "Bwa Kale" (Shaved Wood), which has killed several hundred gang members in recent months, often lynching and burning suspects in public.
But it may also pose a law and order challenge.
Kenya will need the logistical, equipment and intelligence support promised by the US and other governments.
What do Haitians think of the Kenyan offer?
Prime Minister Ariel Henry's government and its international partners, as well as the UN and most major aid organisations, have made clear their view that only a robust internationally backed security operation can restore normality in Haiti.Inside Haiti however, views have been mixed.
They range from supporters of the force welcoming "our African brothers", to opposition groups that see Mr Henry - who took over as prime minister soon after the assassination of President Moïse - as a "de facto" illegitimate leader whose rule will be bolstered by the foreign intervention.
Some radical critics accuse the US and other Western governments of seeking to use the Kenyan soldiers to further "neo-colonial" and "imperialist" interests.
A notorious Haitian gang leader, former policeman Jimmy Cherizier, alias "Barbecue", has warned he will resist any foreign force if it seeks to keep Mr Henry in power.
One thing is clear - the Kenyan police officers, as they confront the gangs, will need to be careful to avoid innocent civilian casualties and also to win the "hearts and minds" battle too.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-66946156
Interesting developments.
Brazil expels illegal settlers from Indigenous lands in Amazon
Thousands affected as government vows to stamp out land grabs in protected areasSpoiler :
Broken_Erika
Play with me.
Guatemala paralysed as pro-democracy protests run into second week
Tension is rising in Guatemala, where protests by supporters of President-elect Bernardo Arévalo have run into a second week.The protesters are demanding the resignation of Attorney-General Consuelo Porras.
They accuse Ms Porras of plotting to prevent Mr Arévalo, who has promised to fight corruption, from taking office.
Some of the protests, which had been peaceful until now, turned violent on Monday.
Masked men threw stones and broke windows at a demonstration outside the National Palace of Culture in the capital, Guatemala City.
Efe news agency said that the peaceful protest had been "infiltrated" by about 200 troublemakers, who threatened the protesters and members of the press with sticks and clashed with police.
A government official, Napoleón Barrientos Girón, later confirmed that the violence had been caused by "groups of infiltrators". "We're chasing and capturing them," Mr Barrientos said.
The clashes came on the eighth consecutive day of protests by supporters of Mr Arévalo, who won the presidential election by a landslide in August.
Just hours after his overwhelming win, the party he heads, Movimiento Semilla (Seed Movement), was suspended by Guatemala's Supreme Electoral Tribunal.
His party's suspension has widely been viewed as an attempt to stop Mr Arévalo, a political outsider who has campaigned against corruption, from being sworn in as planned in January.
Mr Arévalo himself has described it as a "coup d'etat". His supporters have since taken to the streets to demand that Consuelo Porras, the attorney-general they say is behind efforts to block Mr Arévalo, be removed from her post.
Ms Porras argues that Mr Arévalo's party was not properly registered, but critics point out that she only launched her investigation into the party after Mr Arévalo's strong showing in the first round of the election secured him a spot in the run-off.
The protests intensified last week as demonstrators blocked key roads across the country. The blockades have caused fuel and food shortages in some regions, as well as paralysing traffic on major highways.
In a televised address to the nation, the outgoing president, Alejandro Giammattei, called on protesters to lift the blockades, which he said were "illegal, generate supply shortages [and] put Guatemalans' lives at risk".
He also asked Mr Arévalo to sit down with mediators sent by the regional body Organization of American States (OAS) to ensure a peaceful handover of power on 14 January, when President Giammattei's term in office ends.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-67064814
A radical plan to fix Argentina's inflation
November 9, 20236:31 PM ETPLANET MONEY
In a little over a week, Argentines will head to the polls to pick a new president. Polls show a tightening race between right-wing populist Javier Milei and centrist challenger Sergio Massa. Both are pledging to address the country's out-of-control inflation. Today on the show, we look at Milei's radical proposal to change Argentina's currency to U.S. dollars and whether that could fix inflation.
8 minute podcast:
Oh yes, we are caught in a vise. We have to choose between
It's either the sitting government, a bunch of criminals, or possibly the libertarians. Both groups are a dangerous mixture of self-confidence, personality cult and incompetence. Both propose things that have been tried and have not worked.
The only slight difference in the libertarians' favour is that they would have no majority in Congress so they'd have to make deals with the rest of the current opposition and basically not blow things up. After all, said opposition is set to take nearly half of the governorships. Of course, the uncompromising split between opposition factions has already meant that the all-important province of Buenos Aires will see its current governor, Axel Kicillof, in power until 2027.
.
So they could make a coalition to try and hold for four years and, among other things, wrest control of the election authorities from the Peronist party machine.
- a radical libertarian nutjob who is basically a state anarchist who wants to, uhm, abolish the central bank and the local currency (but not central banking or currency, just outsource it to the US ones), ‘privatise the sea’ (sic), get rid of state education, etc. etc., OR
- the incumbents, who have been convicted of several crimes already while in office, refuse to appoint new judges, have actually promised to topple any government by any party other than their own, boast about having assassinated a prosecutor who got too close and are making an abysmal mess of things (inflation at 140% and still rising).
It's either the sitting government, a bunch of criminals, or possibly the libertarians. Both groups are a dangerous mixture of self-confidence, personality cult and incompetence. Both propose things that have been tried and have not worked.
The only slight difference in the libertarians' favour is that they would have no majority in Congress so they'd have to make deals with the rest of the current opposition and basically not blow things up. After all, said opposition is set to take nearly half of the governorships. Of course, the uncompromising split between opposition factions has already meant that the all-important province of Buenos Aires will see its current governor, Axel Kicillof, in power until 2027.
Spoiler :
So they could make a coalition to try and hold for four years and, among other things, wrest control of the election authorities from the Peronist party machine.
EnglishEdward
Deity
Ah, right; all enjoying your independence from Spain !
Somebody asked me recently, and as I say.
In any other situation, a country where inflation keeps rising (currently at 140% year-on-year), together with poverty, crime rates, declining health standards, etc. and who promise to do more of the same, the incumbents would be in for a colossal defeat.
Also, in any other situation, a lunatic who rides an open-topped bus while shouting and weeping, slashing the air with a chainsaw and trying to insult as many people as possible would also be in for a colossal defeat.
The electoral process has filtered out everybody else and now we're left with the worst possible incumbent versus the worst possible challenger.
In any other situation, a country where inflation keeps rising (currently at 140% year-on-year), together with poverty, crime rates, declining health standards, etc. and who promise to do more of the same, the incumbents would be in for a colossal defeat.
Also, in any other situation, a lunatic who rides an open-topped bus while shouting and weeping, slashing the air with a chainsaw and trying to insult as many people as possible would also be in for a colossal defeat.
The electoral process has filtered out everybody else and now we're left with the worst possible incumbent versus the worst possible challenger.
Sad. 
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