[RD] News Thread of the Americas

[Broken_Erika]

Chiapas violence: Hundreds flee cartel battles in southern Mexico​

Hundreds of people have fled their homes in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas as two rival cartels battle for control of the routes they use to smuggle migrants and drugs.

A local official said more than 700 residents had been displaced from their communities near the Guatemala border.

The Jalisco New Generation cartel (CJNG) is trying to wrest the area from the grip of the Sinaloa cartel.

Dozens of people have reportedly been killed in recent weeks.

Chiapas is Mexico's poorest state with a large indigenous population.

Criminal organisations like the CJNG and the Sinaloa cartel have been infiltrating the region because of its proximity to the border with Guatemala and important transit routes for migrants, whom they extort, and cocaine-smuggling routes.

The worst-hit communities are Chicomuselo and La Concordia. Residents of Chicomuselo said 20 people - 18 gang members and two locals - were killed in a cartel battle on 4 January.

Locals said they had to cower in their homes while bullets flew through their homes during the seven-hour gun fight which started just before noon local time.

In a statement, the community described "the pain at seeing children and youths trembling in fear and getting sick from having to live through these traumatic experiences".

They also accused the state of failing to protect them.

However, the Chiapas state prosecutor's office released a statement five days later saying that it had not received any reports of any killings in the area.

The military has been deployed to the region but locals say they are now getting caught in the crossfire when the security forces confront the cartels.

Entire families have left their homes and crossed the nearby Angostura lake by boat to escape the violence over the past days.

Local journalists said that their villages now resembled ghost towns.

Chiapas civil protection official Luis Manuel García Moreno told Radio Fórmula that 701 people had fled to the city of Comitán, most of them women and children.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-68067681

 

[r16]

for the record , using quadcopters/small drones to bomb individuals originated with the Mexican cartels some months before the Ukranian thing . No doubt after watching ISIL videos .

 

[Samson]

for the record , using quadcopters/small drones to bomb individuals originated with the Mexican cartels some months before the Ukranian thing . No doubt after watching ISIL videos .

Thew resistance in Myanmar were using them a few years ago, that is the first I heard about it.

 

[r16]

more ISIL videos .

 

[r16]

september 2022 is the earliest ı can find when the Army of Myanmar said they were taking counter-measures against the drone threat .

 

[Samson]

Bellingcat were reporting their use in January 2022.

[EDIT] And reading that they reference their prior use in Mexico and Ukraine, so I was wrong there.

 

[r16]

actually nothing wrong , ISIL was still the first in 2017 , killing the commander on this Iraqi tank . They have to look scary , you know , so that you will be forced to ask the big guys for security .

 

[Broken_Erika]

Kenya High Court ruling throws planned deployment of police to gang-plagued Haiti in doubt​

Canada has helped lead stabilizing forces in Haiti in the past, but balked at doing so last year​

A Kenyan court on Friday ruled a plan to send police officers to Haiti to lead a UN-approved mission was unconstitutional, throwing into doubt the future of an initiative aimed at tackling gang violence in the Caribbean nation.

An opposition party in October challenged the government's decision to send 1,000 officers to address a deepening crisis in Haiti, where gang violence killed nearly 5,000 people and forced around 200,000 people from their homes last year.

Kenya had hoped to have its officers in Haiti as soon as this month after the United Nations Security Council approved the mission in October, but a court issued a stay on the deployment shortly after.

High Court Judge Chacha Mwita said that under Kenyan law, the authorities could only deploy officers abroad if a "reciprocal arrangement" was in place with the host government.

"Any further action or steps taken by any state organ or state officer in furtherance of such a decision, contravenes the Constitution and the law and is therefore unconstitutional, illegal and invalid," Mwita said.

The government said in a statement that it would appeal the decision and reiterated "its commitment in honouring its international obligations as a member of the community and comity of nations."

• Analysis
  Canada on sidelines as Haiti finally gets an armed intervention against gang violence
• UN approves Kenyan-led multinational force to combat gang violence in Haiti

Thousands killed, kidnapped last year​

Haiti first requested help in 2022 as gang violence surged but was unable to find a country willing to lead a security mission.

Many governments have been wary of supporting Prime Minister Ariel Henry's unelected administration and intervening in a nation where previous missions have been dogged by human rights abuses.

Canada last year said it would provide $100 million in aid to the Haitian National Police and sanctioned a number of economic and political actors it believes have enabled gang violence and corruption, but balked at leading an armed international stabilizing force. Canada has been a part of such missions in Haiti in the late 1990s, and in 2004, the year then-president Jean-Bertrand Aristide fled the country amid corruption allegations and rebel violence.

Kenya finally stepped forward last July, saying it was doing so in solidarity with a brother nation. The Bahamas then committed 150 people, and Jamaica and Antigua and Barbuda said they were willing to help.

The United Nations said this week that it had documented 4,789 people killed by gang violence in Haiti last year, an increase of 119 per cent from 2022, and that another 3,000 were kidnapped.

Six Catholic nuns who were kidnapped in the Haitian capital last week were released Wednesday alongside two more hostages, the archbishop of Port-au-Prince said in a statement late Wednesday. The statement did not say whether a ransom had been paid or give any detail on who might be responsible.

The head of the United Nation's drugs and crime office, Ghada Waly, on Thursday warned of a "vicious cycle" of arms trafficking to increasingly powerful Haitian gangs. A recent UNODC report found that most illegal firearms seized in Haiti came from the United States.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/kenya-court-decision-haiti-force-1.7095513

 

[Broken_Erika]

US threatens to reimpose sanctions on Venezuelan oil sector​

The US has threatened to reinstate sanctions on Venezuela's oil sector, days after the South American country's top court upheld a ban on opposition candidate María Corina Machado.

Ms Machado won a primary to become the opposition's unity candidate for the 2024 presidential election.

But on Friday, Venezuela's Supreme Court confirmed a 15-year ban on Ms Machado running for public office.

Venezuela rejected the US warning as "rude and improper blackmail".

The oil industry is crucial to Venezuela's economy.

The US imposed sanctions on Venezuela's oil sector after President Nicolás Maduro was sworn in for a second term in 2019, after an election widely dismissed as neither free not fair.

The US loosened those sanctions in October after the Maduro government reached a deal with the opposition, laying some of the groundwork for free and fair presidential elections to be held in the second half of 2024.

Shortly after the deal was reached in Barbados, the US Treasury issued a licence temporarily allowing transactions involving Venezuela's oil and gas sector.

But it stressed at the time that the licence would only be renewed if Venezuela "met its commitments under the electoral roadmap", which included lifting the bans imposed on María Corina Machado and a number of other opposition candidates.

The oil exemption is due to expire on 18 April and on Tuesday the US state department announced it would not renew it unless "political progress" was made between the Maduro government and the opposition "particularly on allowing all presidential candidates to compete in this year's election".

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Venezuela's Vice President Delcy Rodríguez rejected the "ultimatum" from the US government as "blackmail".

She threatened to immediately halt deportation flights for Venezuelan migrants who are in the US illegally if the "economic aggression" intensified.

The US had earlier announced that it would also reinstate sanctions on Venezuela's state-run gold mining company - another source of foreign currency for the Maduro government.

Ms Machado's overwhelming victory in October's opposition's primary - she received more than 90% of the votes - has instilled Venezuelans who want to see a change of government with hope that she can become president - if the election is free and fair.

As part of the Barbados deal, the Maduro government agreed to allow international observers to monitor the election.

But the fact that the Supreme Court - dominated by Maduro loyalists - has upheld the ban on Ms Machado has prompted many, including Ms Machado herself, to conclude that the Barbados deal is "dead".

Ms Machado has promised to stand firm, insisting that she has been given a mandate in the primary which she said she would fulfil: "We are going to win and they must prepare to lose... They cannot hold elections without me."

Jorge Rodríguez, a close ally of Mr Maduro who represented the government at the Barbados talks, insisted that the government had upheld its end of the bargain: "Those who wanted to appeal appealed and also pledged to respect the outcome."
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-68139518

 

[Broken_Erika]

Haiti violence: Gangs threaten Haiti takeover after mass jailbreak​

The government of Haiti declared a 72-hour state of emergency on Sunday after armed gangs stormed a major Port-au-Prince prison. At least 12 people were killed and about 3,700 inmates escaped in the jailbreak.

Gang leaders say they want to force the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who had travelled abroad.

The groups aiming to oust him control around 80% of Port-au-Prince.

Gang violence has plagued Haiti for years.

A government statement said two prisons - one in the capital and the other in nearby Croix des Bouquets - were stormed over the weekend.

It said the acts of "disobedience" were a threat to national security and said it was instituting an immediate night-time curfew in response, which started at 20:00 local time (01:00 GMT on Monday).

Haitian media reported that other police stations were attacked, distracting authorities before the coordinated assault on the jails.

Among those detained in Port-au-Prince were gang members charged in connection with the 2021 killing of President Jovenel Moïse.

The latest upsurge in violence began on Thursday, when the prime minister travelled to Nairobi to discuss sending a Kenya-led multinational security force to Haiti.

Gang leader Jimmy Chérizier (nicknamed "Barbecue") declared a co-ordinated attack to remove him.

"All of us, the armed groups in the provincial towns and the armed groups in the capital, are united," said the former police officer, who is thought to be behind several massacres in Port-au-Prince.

• Kenyan police to tackle Haiti gang violence
• Haitian capital taken hostage by brutal gangs
• Haitians flee surging gang violence in capital
• Haiti country profile

Haiti's police union had asked the military to help reinforce the capital's main prison, but the compound was stormed late on Saturday.

On Sunday the doors of the prison were still open and there were no signs of officers, Reuters news agency reported. Three inmates who tried to flee lay dead in the courtyard, the report said.

A journalist for the AFP news agency who visited the prison saw around 10 bodies, some with signs of injuries caused by bullets.

One volunteer prison worker told the Reuters news agency that 99 prisoners - including former Colombian soldiers jailed over President Moïse's murder - had chosen to remain in their cells for fear of being killed in crossfire.

The US embassy in Port-au-Prince on Sunday urged its citizens to leave Haiti "as soon as possible". The French embassy said it was closing visa services as a "precaution".

While Haiti has been plagued by gangs for years, the violence has further escalated since President Moïse's assassination at his home in 2021. He has not been replaced and elections have not been held since 2016.

Under a political deal, Mr Henry was due to stand down by 7 February. But planned elections were not held and he remains in post.

Speaking to the BBC's Newsday, Claude Joseph - who was serving as acting prime minister when President Moïse was assassinated and who is now head of the opposition party called Those Committed to Development - said Haiti was living through a "nightmare".

Mr Joseph said Prime Minister Henry wanted "to stay as long as possible in charge".

"He agreed to step down on 7 February. Now he decides to stay, despite the fact that there are huge protests throughout the country asking him to step down - but it's unfortunate that now those criminals are using violent means to force him to step down."

In January, the UN said more than 8,400 people were victims of Haiti's gang violence last year, including killings, injuries and kidnappings - more than double the numbers seen in 2022.

Many health facilities have stopped operating because of the bloodshed.

Anger at the shocking levels of violence, on top of the political vacuum, have led to several demonstrations against the government, with protesters demanding the resignation of the prime minister.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-68462851

 

[Broken_Erika]

Huge protest in Argentina against education cuts​

Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Argentinian capital Buenos Aires on Tuesday to protest against cuts to public universities.

Pictures from the city showed marchers dancing, playing musical instruments and holding banners calling for education funding to be protected.

The country's President, Javier Milei, came to office last year promising to bring the country's finances under control with sweeping cuts to the public sector.

His government has kept university funding this year at the same level as in 2023, despite inflation having reduced the real value of the budget by as much as 80%.

The rector of the University of Buenos Aires, Ricardo Gelpi, has warned that the institution may have to shut down within three months unless it receives more funding.

Mr Milei has tried to justify the cuts by repeatedly describing state-run universities as centres of socialist indoctrination.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-68886411

 

[innonimatu]

Gangs had already taken over Haiti. The gang known as "govewrnment" has been busy, for the past few months, with stealing everything of value that remained inside the country. With the full complicity of foreign banks, of course. A respectable gangster has to sell the loot and stash the money somewhere. I guess they will be making their exit anytime now.
Haitians didn't deserve this. As for Milei, Argentina deserved him.

 

[Farm Boy]

The Reverend James Lawson has passed.

https://www.npr.org/2024/06/12/nx-s1-4949920/james-lawson-civil-rights-reverend-dies

The Rev. James Lawson was a staunch advocate for nonviolent resistance to racism, even in the face of brutality. A Methodist minister and student of Gandhi, Lawson mentored civil rights leaders and was the tactician behind key desegregation campaigns in the South, including the Nashville sit-ins, the Freedom Rides, and the Birmingham Children’s Crusade. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. called him the leading theorist and strategist of nonviolence.

 

[Broken_Erika]

Buenos Aires rocked by clashes over Milei reforms​

Argentina's Senate has narrowly approved President Javier Milei's controversial economic reform package, with the vote taking place as violent clashes raged between protesters and riot police outside Congress.
Demonstrators in Buenos Aires - who say the measures will hurt millions of Argentines - threw petrol bombs and stones, setting cars alight.
A number of people were reported injured, with local media describing the scene on Wednesday as a "battlefield".
The reforms, aimed at reviving the country's flagging economy, include declaring a state of economic emergency, cutting pensions and watering down labour rights.
Mr Milei, a right-wing economist, was elected in the midst of a deep economic crisis which he is still struggling to stem after six months in office.
Annual inflation is currently close to 300%, while more than half of Argentines are now living in poverty.

• Have Milei's first six months improved Argentina's economy?

Mr Milei's "shock" measures are opposed by leftist political parties, labour unions and social organisations.
But the motion, which was initially tied 36-36 in the Senate, was preliminarily passed on Wednesday after the head of the chamber, Vice-President Victoria Villarruel, broke the tie.
"For those Argentines who suffer, who wait, who do not want to see their children leave the country... my vote is affirmative," Ms Villaruel said after breaking the tie.
The 328-article bill will now be surveyed point by point before its expected full approval on Thursday.
It will then return to the lower house for the final go-ahead.

Ahead of the bill's passing in the Senate, protesters chanted: “The country is not for sale, the country is defended," while one banner read: “how can a head of state hate the state?”
Scuffles broke out when protesters tried to make their way towards Congress through fences, with demonstrators throwing rocks at officers who pepper sprayed them.
Observers and opposition MPs said dozens of demonstrators and a handful of MPs received medical attention. At least five opposition MPs in the crowd were hospitalised, legislator Cecilia Moreau told AFP news agency.
At least 20 police officers were also injured, officials said. Security forces said they arrested 15 people.
"We cannot believe that in Argentina we are discussing a law that will put us back 100 years," Fabio Nunez, a 55-year-old protesting lawyer, was quoted by AFP as saying.
President Milei's office issued a statement thanking the security forces for repressing what it described as "terrorists" attempting to carry out a coup d'état.
“We are going to change Argentina, we are going to make it the most liberal country in the world," Mr Milei told a conference in Buenos Aires.

The highly divisive bill was approved by the lower house in April, after significant amendments were made to it.
Mr Milei came to office in 2023 after vowing to take a chainsaw to public spending.
While on the campaign trail, he even brandished a chainsaw while making a speech to symbolise his determination to do so.
He has since cut the cabinet in half, slashed 50,000 public jobs, suspended new public works contracts and ripped away fuel and transport subsidies.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c255zdlde92o

 

[innonimatu]

Heads of state of Argentina have been hating their populations for a long time. And still getting support from foolls, was Menem arrested or killed?
Those protesting argentntians managed to avoid noticing their country was run as an oligarchy until now?
It has been less bad sometimes. Perhaps they had reason to hope for improvenent, especially as in the years after the last state bankrupcy there was some improvement.

But no government these in many decades made an effort to break the oligarchy. They would need to really go back perhaps more than 100 years. Break the country and refound it. Do a proper revolution. There isn't the will for that. Argentina will contnue to be a basket case.

 

[Samson]

Kenyan police to depart for contentious peacekeeping effort in Haiti

A contingent of Kenyan police is set to depart for a controversial mission in Haiti to combat the influence of powerful criminal gangs that have brought turmoil and violence to the Caribbean nation.

Kenyan President William Ruto held a ceremony on Monday, wishing luck to 400 officers who will arrive in Haiti later this week in a United Nations-backed initiative, the first contingent out of 1,000 police that Kenya expects to send.

Countries including the US and Canada have called for an international police mission, but have been hesitant to commit their own troops to a role in such an effort. A UN official said in March that at least 5,000 foreign police officers would be needed to help tackle gang violence in Haiti, far more than the total of 1,000 Kenyan police set to be deployed.

 

[Birdjaguar]

@Takhisis Are you still with us?

 

[innonimatu]

Kenyan police to depart for contentious peacekeeping effort in Haiti

A contingent of Kenyan police is set to depart for a controversial mission in Haiti to combat the influence of powerful criminal gangs that have brought turmoil and violence to the Caribbean nation.

Kenyan President William Ruto held a ceremony on Monday, wishing luck to 400 officers who will arrive in Haiti later this week in a United Nations-backed initiative, the first contingent out of 1,000 police that Kenya expects to send.

Countries including the US and Canada have called for an international police mission, but have been hesitant to commit their own troops to a role in such an effort. A UN official said in March that at least 5,000 foreign police officers would be needed to help tackle gang violence in Haiti, far more than the total of 1,000 Kenyan police set to be deployed.

Doesn't William Ruto need those officers in Kenya to kill his own rebelling people?

 

[Samson]

Coup attempt in Bolivia reportedly under way as army and police storm palace

Bolivia’s leaders have claimed a coup is afoot against Luis Arce’s leftwing administration after heavily armed army troops seized control of La Paz’s political heart and military police were filmed trying to force their way into the former government palace.

“We denounce to the international community that a coup attempt against our democratically elected government,” the vice-president, David Choquehuanca, tweeted on Wednesday afternoon as the alleged putsch unfolded.

In a video message, foreign minister Celinda Sosa Lunda claimed some army units had launched an attack on “democracy, peace and national security”.

Minutes earlier, Arce had taken to social media to report an “irregular mobilization” of some members of the military. “Democracy must be respected,” he tweeted.

 

[Broken_Erika]

Soldiers storm Bolivian presidential palace in apparent coup attempt​

Bolivia's presidential palace has been stormed by soldiers as the country's president warned of an unfolding "coup".
"We are going to recover this homeland," General Juan José Zúñiga told reporters from Murillo Square after it was taken by troops, according to the El Deber newspaper.
President Luis Arce said a "coup" was underway and demanded Gen Zúñiga stand down the troops which have taken over parts of central La Paz.
The apparent coup attempt was immediately denounced by the leaders of Mexico and Honduras.
Former president Evo Morales called on supporters of democracy to strike and block roads.
He wrote: “A group of the Challapata Special Regiment ‘Mendez Arcos’ took over Plaza Murillo with snipers.
"This seems to indicate that they prepared the coup d'état in advance.
"I ask democratically-minded people to defend the homeland from certain military groups that act against democracy and the people."
Rumours have been swirling for days that Gen Zúñiga was on the verge of being dismissed. The military chief appeared on television on Monday and said he would arrest Mr Morales if he ran for office again next year.

Bolivian minister Maria Nela Prada published a video on her Facebook account showing the view from a window in a government building.
She said she was witnessing a “coup attempt”.
“I’m in the palace of the people. As you can see this is the Plaza Murillo taken by armed tanks and troops. We understand it is a faction of the military,” she said.
She said military units had taken positions at all four corners of the square and were not letting anyone enter.
“They launched this operation in a totally irregular manner,” she said.
Mr Morales, the first president to come from Bolivia's indigenous majority, carried out a radical programme after winning power in 2005, aimed at addressing extreme social divisions and inequalities.
The former coca union leader resigned in 2019 after attempting to bypass the constitution and seek a fourth term in power. He was succeeded by opposition senator Jeanine Áñez, who declared herself interim president in November 2019.
Mr Arce won the October 2020 presidential election, returning the Mas socialist party to power.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c288eewr1wko