Essential Afro-Latino/ Caribbean Current Events

[Bawon Samedi]

Damn Ecuador is getting turnt. Seems protests are spreading throughout Latin America. Latin American spring?

 

[loyola llothta]

Damn Ecuador is getting turnt. Seems protests are spreading throughout Latin America. Latin American spring?

Ecuador president sucking the US dikk like other latin American nations.

 

[Bawon Samedi]

Ecuador president sucking the US dikk like other latin American nations.

I know but shyts getting turnt. These protests are spreading EVERYWHERE. Latin America sick and tired of American imperialism.

I want Honduras to free themselves too. Now when this shyt hits Colombia.

 

[loyola llothta]

8 October 2019

Is China “Buying Brazil”? Has President Bolsonaro Changed His Aggressive Anti-China Stance?

By Paul Antonopoulos

In an interview with DW Brasil, former Brazilian ambassador to Beijing, Marcos Caramuru, revealed the great interest Chinese companies have in potential infrastructure work in Brazil. Even with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro showing initial hostility towards China during his 2018 election campaign, his opinion appears to have changed given the huge sums involved in bilateral relations and the opportunities the Asian country can provide the economic struggling Latin American Giant.

Bolsonaro is commonly known as the ‘Tropical Trump’ for his open admiration of the U.S. President and his shared ideas and beliefs. Therefore, it was unsurprising that he said

“The Chinese are not buying in Brazil… They are buying Brazil,” in the pre-election campaign.

Global Times speculated that “it’s inconceivable the new Bolsonaro government would give up on the Chinese market.” It also left a note of caution for the Brazilian leader who made another major antagonism towards China: “His trip to Taiwan during the presidential campaign caught the ire of Beijing. If he continues to disregard the basic principle over Taiwan after taking office, it will apparently cost Brazil a great deal … The Chinese island won’t bring any more benefits to Brazil, which Bolsonaro and his team must be aware of.”

Marcus Vinicius Freitas, a visiting professor at the China Foreign University in Beijing, explained that:

“When the Chinese look at Brazil they actually see an amusement park where everything still needs to be done.”

His assessment is in reference to the huge developmental and infrastructural opportunities that Brazil has, with many sectors remaining underdeveloped despite the domineering position Brazil has over the wider Latin American region.

“There is no doubt that China has a menu of options for Brazil,” he added, citing Chinese technologies in road, subway, rail, viaduct and airport construction that could be of interest to Brazil.

There are also additional opportunities from agribusiness to commodities, the most attractive sector for Chinese capital is infrastructure and major works, especially in the area of gas, oil, renewable energy which will ensure growth on a sustainable and significant basis for the Brazilian economy.

However, despite the significant economic relationship between the two countries and the opportunities China can provide Brazil, it had not stopped Bolsonaro from aggravating Beijing.


Therefore, it would be assumed that Bolsonaro would submit to Trump’s every demand in the midst of the U.S. president’s trade war with China. However, this has proven not to be the case with Brazil’s Vice President Hamilton Mourão saying in June that his country does not plan to ban Huawei from providing 5G equipment to telecoms in his country, signalling that Bolsonaro has said one thing during the election campaign, but acted in another way while president.

This would suggest that Bolsonaro’s government is following a different path than initially anticipated and the Brazilian president is not a complete U.S. puppet as often said by his critics. Although Trump told Bolsonaro during the latter’s visit to the White House earlier this year that Huawei was a security threat, the Brazilian Vice President emphasized that Brazil has no reason to distrust Huawei and that his country needs the Chinese technology to help its continued development.

As Beijing has been calling for a resolution to the Trump-initiated trade war, China’s ambassador to Brazil, Yang Wanming, accused the United States of bullying and lobbying its trading partners, affecting the entire global economy. He explains that the U.S. ruined market confidence, increased the risk of global recession and endangered emerging economies like Brazil.

And in this scenario, it would be important for Brasilia and Beijing to defend international cooperation and multilateralism. China’s GDP grew by ‘only’ 6.2% in the second quarter of 2019, which is the lowest economic growth recorded since 1992. This so-called economic ‘slowdown’ has served as a successful bait to trigger Western media.

As a result, Trump declared that his tariff war with China was working and said his protectionist measures had led to the exodus of companies from the Asian giant. However, if the measures were so successful Trump would not continue to threaten his partners from trading with China. The Bolsonaro government has seen that in this situation, siding with the U.S. is not in its interests.

Although Bolsonaro will continue to take on a very pro-Trump stance in Latin American affairs, especially against Cuba and Venezuela, he has demonstrated that he is unwilling to embroil Brazil in international issues besides those relating to Israel, serving the interests of the powerful Christian Evangelical lobby in the South American country.

In fact, an argument can be made that Brazil benefits from the ongoing trade war between the two Great Powers. China has continually been placing large orders of Brazilian soybeans, choosing the South American country to fill the supply gap after stopping U.S. purchases. Chinese buyers are increasingly looking for Brazilian soybeans.

China halted U.S. soybean imports as tensions between Beijing and Washington increased and turned to Brazil. For now, Brazil has been able to respond to China’s demand, but its supply is running low and Beijing is at risk of failing to meet its needs. With any end to the trade war, it is unlikely that China will revert and make the U.S. its most important soy purchaser, providing an opportunity for Brazil to consolidate its own position.

Whether it was through a sudden realization, or whether it was from internal pressures from Brazil’s powerful agricultural industry and other important advisers, Bolsonaro has certainly done a 180 towards his China rhetoric. With the status of Brazil’s role in BRICS questioned by experts last year because of Bolsonaro’s initial hostility towards China and his vivid support for Trump, his Foreign Minister Ernesto Araújo has fully embraced his country’s chairmanship of the organization. This demonstrates that no matter the motivating reason, Bolsonaro has certainly changed his China policy from hostility to openness and welcomeness as the Asian country can drastically improve Brazil’s economic situation

Link:

From Hostility to Warmness: Why has Brazilian President Changed his Aggressive Anti-China Actions?

 

[loyola llothta]

@Jesus is my protector i guess i was wrong, the brazil president might not be América complete puppet like jovenel

 

[Bawon Samedi]

@Jesus is my protector i guess i was wrong, the brazil president might not be América complete puppet like jovenel

Yea I am reading the article and I am surprised. Chinese influence is spreading quickly in Latin America. Its only a matter of time before Haiti, Honduras, Guatemala and others switch ties. However the Brasilian president is still a racist lunatic.

 

[loyola llothta]

9 October 2019

Popular Outrage Against Ecuador’s President Moreno. Deadly Wave of IMF Economic Reforms
By Stephen Lendman

This important article by Stephen Lendman brings the forefront the insidious role of IMF Economic Medicine.

The policies implemented by Moreno were imposed by the IMF in a March 2019 Report. The Executive Summary of this report is included in Annex to this Article.

****

Lenin Moreno was elected Ecuadorian president in 2017 on a platform of continuing his predecessor’s popular agenda.

During his head of state tenure from January 2007 – May 2017, Rafael Correa invested in healthcare, education, and other social programs.

He opposed loan shark of last resort IMF debt entrapment — obligating borrow nations to grant Western corporations unrestricted market access, privatize state enterprises, institute mass layoffs, freeze or cut wages, slash social benefits, marginalize trade unionism, and crack down hard on nonbelievers.

Since taking office, Moreno betrayed Ecuadorians for Western and internal special interests — notably by instituting neoliberal harshness and privatizations, favoring privileged interests over the general welfare, letting inequality, poverty and unemployment soar.

Ecuadorians know they were betrayed. Last April, they marched en masse in Quito toward the presidential palace.

Displaying banners, saying: “Out with Moreno. Out with the traitor,” police accosted them violently.

Moreno sold his soul to the IMF, the US, and other Western interests — turning Ecuador’s social democracy into a police state, unsafe and unfit to live in for the vast majority of its people.

Last week, he ignited mass outrage by announcing intensified neoliberal harshness, including anti-labor “reforms,” tax changes, and other harsh socioeconomic measures.

Notably he ended decades of fuel and petrol subsidies, largely benefitting ordinary Ecuadorians that especially triggered public outrage, saying:

“I have signed the decree that releases the price of diesel and extra gasoline” — in deference to IMF demands after approving a $4.2 billion loan to Ecuador last winter, he failed to explain.

He called essential services Ecuadorians rely on “wasteful” public spending. Removing petrol subsidies caused prices to spike sharply.

Diesel fuel rose from $1.03 to $2.30 a gallon. Gasoline went from $1.85 to $2.39 a gallon.

His austerity includes a 20% pay cut for public employees, privatizing pensions, along with ending workplace and job security for Ecuadorian workers.

President of the Federation of Urban Transportation of Ecuador Manuel Medina said the following:

“Starting Oct. 3 at midnight we announce the total suspension of all activities regarding transportation as there are no financial resources to face the new price of gasoline.”

Other transport sectors joined the strike action. Suspended two days later, other anti-austerity groups continue their public rage against the anti-populist system.

Knowing his unacceptable policies would ignite public outrage, Moreno declared a nationwide (police) state of emergency, deploying police and military forces in the capital Quito and other Ecuadorian cities.

The IMF praised his actions, a statement saying they’re “aimed at improving the resilience and sustainability of the Ecuadorean economy, and fostering solid and inclusive growth.”

They’re “aimed” at transferring the nation’s wealth from ordinary Ecuadorians to the nation’s privileged class and US-led Western interests.

Correa’s tenure was transformational. His national referendum-approved new constitution and Ecuador’s Citizens Revolution repudiated neoliberal harshness and neocolonialism, his agenda similar to Venezuelan social democracy instituted by Hugo Chavez.

Ecuadorian workers, indigenous people, the leftist Popular Front, and Correa’s Citizen Revolution reject Moreno’s austerity.

Popular rage toppled three earlier anti-populist regimes in the decade before Correa was elected president in 2007.

Will hugely unpopular Moreno be next — despite support from the US-led West, internal business interests, and military leaders?

The only solution to state-sponsored neoliberal harshness is popular revolution, especially against repressive regimes like Moreno’s, featuring police state brutality, including use of live fire on unarmed protesters.

Note: On Tuesday, Telesur reported that Moreno falsely blamed Correa and Venezuelan President Maduro for ongoing public outrage against his repressive policies.

He and other regime officials fled to Guayaquil, what Telesur called “the traditional trench of the far-right and is located near the navy’s main barracks.”

In the past week, hundreds were arrested, unreported numbers dead and injured, reportedly at three killed by repressive security forces.

A Final Comment

Interviewed by RT Spanish, Rafeal Correa denied involvement in days of anti-Moreno protests, saying:

He dismantled popular policies Correa created.


During his tenure, “Ecuador’s economy gr(ew), and the growth continued (until) stagnation” under Moreno, calling his economic agenda “inept,” adding:

Ecuador’s Constitution permits the National Assembly to dismiss sitting presidents in times of social unrest.

At the same time, they can dismiss parliament and order a snap election. If held, hugely unpopular Moreno’s tenure as president would surely end unless results were rigged to let him retain power.

Correa: Moreno “knows he will never win fair elections. Democracy is of no interest to him. He takes no interest in the country. He’s thinking only about the power and his own interests,” adding:

“In front of the whole world, the whole Latin America (Moreno) is painting us as putschists in his informational campaign, blames us for trying to destabilize the government.”

“But in reality, they are the true putschists. It’s them who violated the Constitution when it benefited them.”

“It’s them who destabilized the situation in the country. They deprived the people of democracy and stomped on the constitutional order.”

Ecuadorians want Moreno’s repressive neoliberal regime replaced by governance serving everyone equitably, how things were under Correa.

Link:

Popular Outrage Against Ecuador’s President Moreno. Deadly Wave of IMF Economic Reforms - Global Research

 

[loyola llothta]

The IMF Report

click to read full report.

emphasis and comments in brackets added by Global Research





EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Context: The authorities face a difficult situation. Wage increases have outpaced productivity growth [IMF calls for a reduction in real wages] over the past decade which, has led to a deterioration in competitiveness. This has been exacerbated by a strong U.S. dollar—Ecuador’s economy is fully dollarized—leaving the real exchange rate overvalued. [engineered by Wall Street]

Public debt is high and rising, the government faces sizable gross financing needs, and international reserves are precariously low. The recent volatility in oil prices and tighter global financial conditions have exacerbated these strains.

Article IV: The Article IV discussions focused on diagnosing the nature of the imbalances facing Ecuador and the policy changes that will be needed to address them. At the center of the discussion was the proper calibration of the size, pace, and composition of the reduction in the fiscal deficit that will be needed in the coming years. [implementation of drastic austerity measures] In addition, there was broad agreement that fundamental supply-side efforts will be needed to foster competitiveness, create jobs, rebuild institutions, and make Ecuador a more attractive destination for private investment. Finally, improving the social safety net and increasing the effectiveness of public spending, particularly on health and education, will be essential to achieving strong, sustained, and socially equitable growth.

Program Objectives: Consistent with the findings of the Article IV, the authorities’ policy plan seeks to decisively address the systemic vulnerabilities facing Ecuador. The goals of these policies are to boost competitiveness and job creation, protect the poor and most vulnerable, fortify the institutional foundations for dollarization, [denies Ecuador to have an independent and sovereign monetary policy] and to improve transparency and good governance to public sector operations while strengthening the fight against corruption.

Program Modalities: The proposed program would be a 36-month Extended Fund Facility with access of US$4.209 billion (SDR 3.035 billion, 435 percent of quota) [New loans to pay back outstanding foreign debts, harsh policy conditionalities imposed by creditors]. The program has quarterly reviews and the full amount of Fund resources would be made available for direct budget support. Performance criteria have been established on the non-oil primary balance of the nonfinancial public sector (including fuel subsidies), net international reserves (excluding bank deposits held at the central bank), and on social assistance spending. There are continuous performance criteria to prevent new external payment arrears and to prohibit central bank financing of the nonfinancial public sector (both directly or indirectly through public banks). The program also includes a quarterly indicative target on the overall balance of the nonfinancial public sector.

 

[loyola llothta]

 

[loyola llothta]

 

[loyola llothta]

 

[loyola llothta]

 

[Bawon Samedi]

 

[loyola llothta]

 

[loyola llothta]