[RD] News Thread of the Americas

[Takhisis]

While the Nicaraguan kleptocracy kidnaps a bishop and expropriates yet another newspaper, uhm…

The State of Transplatina is still being worked on

Other than Rexona, Alpargatas and Brahma, what can you bring? The essential of winning at Maracaná is something Argentina's doing on its own these days.

 

[Takhisis]

Anyway, there's been large crowds demonstrating against or for Cristina Kirchner. Meanwhile, in his first two days the new figure of the goverment is imposing brutal austerity of the type that the EU imposed on Greece: take over 70.000.000.000 pesos from health, education and social services but leave the overstaffed government and the brutally overpaid officials and their personal retinues and bodyguards unscathed.

 

[Takhisis]

Peru's government has replaced another three ministers, so in the about-a-year that Castillo's been in power the average is now one ministerial change every six days.

 

[Henri Christophe]

Peru's government has replaced another three ministers, so in the about-a-year that Castillo's been in power the average is now one ministerial change every six days.

That is a signal of a weak governement.

 

[Takhisis]

Well, no two of the presidential candidates got an aggregate 30% of the vote in the first round of the election, and the parliamentary blocs reflect the first round of voting rather than the runoffs, that should give you a rough idea of how fragmented the country's political representation is.

 

[Takhisis]

The opposition has started both a criminal lawsuit and impeachment proceedings against the puppet-president of Argentina. For those who aren't habitual watchers of the show, the whole strategy is to have the current vicepresident, the real power in the party, stand for election next year, so this year she still needs stooges to impose the aforementioned austerity (75.000.000.000 taken off the education budget and counting) in order to finance the next round of freewheeling spending and keep the immunity inherent to the office.

The actions against the titular president are the result of, his having gone live on TV last Tuesday to state that the last prosecutor who investigated Cristina Kirchner ‘committed suicide’ (everyone and their dog knows the man was drugged and shot in his own home from behind) and that he hoped the same wouldn't happen to the one who actually managed to complete the case for the prosecution last Monday afternoon.

 

[Takhisis]

To add to the insanity, last night there was an failed assassination attempt on Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. She is physically unhurt only because even if the gunman got through a quite inept escort and actually pulled the trigger at point-blank range, the gun didn't fire.

Of course, some fanatics are claiming that this is part of a conspiracy that involves the prosecutors and that it's all the same (right after they threatened to have the prosecutors suffer a staged suicide) so it's mayhem as usual.

 

[W|M]

the gunman has the black sun tattooed on his elbow

 

[Takhisis]

And he's Brazilian…

 

[Henri Christophe]

To add to the insanity, last night there was an failed assassination attempt on Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. She is physically unhurt only because even if the gunman got through a quite inept escort and actually pulled the trigger at point-blank range, the gun didn't fire.

Of course, some fanatics are claiming that this is part of a conspiracy that involves the prosecutors and that it's all the same (right after they threatened to have the prosecutors suffer a staged suicide) so it's mayhem as usual.

I saw that, we are very luck the gun doesn't work, if this Brazilian dude killed Cristina Kirchner it can lead a war between Brazil and Argentina.

 

[Takhisis]

Yes. However, the mood on the street, outside a vocal minority of unconditional supporters seems to be one of complete resignation in the face of everyday violence and/or suspicion that this might all be theatre.

I myself do not think it was a faked attempt, but they are already expanding the narrative to include the judiciary as part of the conspiracy too.

 

[Takhisis]

Meanwhile, Chile will vote on whether to approve this new constitution or redact a new one instead.
It's curious that the new constitution would grant the executive the chance to legislate by decree but some people say that this is meant to undo Pinochet's tyranny.

Chile needs a new constitution, but more than that it needs a new society. You cannot just paint over a lot fo fair-sounding words and then expect them to materialise. Also, with such a polarised society (divided by, among others, race, ideology, education, wealth) there cannot be an implementation of anything without first ending hostilities.

Also, Peru was investigating another minister for corruption a couple of days ago. I wonder how long he'll last, while the barely-ruling party is still, well, barely ruling the country.
Also, the leader of the progressives (APP) is trying to stand up for a governorship and already under accusations of even more corruption than when he was excluded from his presidential run for vote-buying. This time around somebody has leaked a recording of him asking for a ‘new electoral district’ to favour him.

Ortega parades his victims. Enough said.

How're the elections shaping up in Brazil? This is the first time in forever that they'll be before rather than after a World Cup.

 

[Takhisis]

In yet more dementia, some of the most extreme pro-government supporters say that it is all the media's fault so in the name of security the media should be censored against hate and ‘next time’ it will be journalists' blood that is spilled. He actually goes on about how he doesn't mind if this gets him called an authoritarian.

The alleged links between ‘the evil media’ and the 1976-83 dictatorship are even more ridiculous when you take into consideration the fact that the Kirchners made their fortune in those years by siding with the military.

I really do live in a circus country.

 

[EnglishEdward]

I saw that, we are very luck the gun doesn't work, if this Brazilian dude killed Cristina Kirchner it can lead a war between Brazil and Argentina.

I do hope not, that might threaten my supply of mangos.

 

[Takhisis]

Today's new development is that leader of the government's Senate bloc has called for an immediate stop to all investigations and proceedings for corruption against the government because these are what caused the attempted magnicide. All to ‘save social peace’ (sic). Government media continue to decry the by now proverbial three metric tons of evidence as nonexistent, but last year they claimed that they'd won the elections, so…

A comparatively minor development is that the so-far only suspect's smartphone appears to have been wiped, likely after it was seized.

I do hope not, that might threaten my supply of mangos.

We could arrange for an alternative supply chain if it came to that.

 

[Kyriakos]

This is terrible. Public interest is to have politicians (and others in power) investigated for corruption, not to shield them with the excuse any revelations may lead to individuals trying to physically harm them.

 

[Takhisis]

CFK's personal secretary had to come out and try to play it down, based at least in part on her wanting to be cleared ‘properly’, even if only last year a partisan court cleared her in a trial before the trial, which is illegal so will have to be thrown out in court whenever procedural rules first allow it.

Yesterday the big referendum in Chile gave over 60% of the vote to rejecting the new constitution. I honestly expected it to be tighter.
The proposed constitution had flaws that echoed the incompetence of the new government. Boric came into power saying ‘oh but I speak Mapuche’ (he speaks a few words) and wanted this newfangled thing that tried to please everybody at the same time and couldn't. Also there was an echo chamber about ‘youth’ that, of course, considered only the politically-motivated and vocal young to be ‘young’ but even all the young put together (narrowly defined as under 30) cannot outvote the rest of the country.
Also there's the difference between regular elections being non-mandatory and the referendum being mandatory, so there's a different composition in the vote.
Bad news: Pinochet's constitution is still in place.
Good news: existing reforms to it also are still in place, plus the new constitution will have to be a different one. Hopefully one with a bit more consensus and less self-centredness. It's up to the Chileans.

 

[EnglishEdward]

@ Takhisis

Thank you for your explanation about Chile.

Being a long country it is both too hot (Chili) and too cold (Chilly) for me to understand.

 

[Birdjaguar]

@Takhisis What's with the Argentinian sex sandal that is brewing over "yoga training"?

 

[Takhisis]

@ Takhisis

Thank you for your explanation about Chile.

Being a long country it is both too hot (Chili) and too cold (Chilly) for me to understand.

There's more to it but the above's a summary. More and more analysis is to come up in the next few days.
Boric was elected by getting past the first round with 25% of the valid votes cast (some 8 million) and in the second round was pitted against Kast who's an out-and-out Nazi so Boric was the less insane option.
In this referendum there were 13 million votes. And the constitution was mostly drafted by an echo chamber of self-proclaimed world-fixing saviours who, since they had their own majority, felt that they had to pay no attention to other people's POV nor to reality. And one reality is that incumbents are always losing. The continent was in crisis before the pandemic and then it just blew up and is still currently imploding.

@Takhisis What's with the Argentinian sex sandal that is brewing over "yoga training"?

I suppose this is about one of the recent scandals that helpfully mix Ponzi schemes with sex exploitation rings.