Essential Afro-Latino/ Caribbean Current Events

[Yehuda]

US sanctions are losing their effectiveness

20 Jan, 2022 19:31
Bradley Blankenship

FILE PHOTO. U.S. Capitol Building. © Getty Images / Samuel Corum

The United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (CEPAL) released its annual report this month — and it showed rosy economic forecasts for countries such as Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua.

It predicted that the Cuban economy will grow by 3.5% in 2022, and those of Venezuela and Nicaragua should both see increases of 3%. These figures are all above the regional average of 2.1% for Latin America and the Caribbean, and ahead of major economies such as Brazil and Chile.

Separately, Switzerland’s Credit Suisse bank predicts that Venezuela’s economy could grow up to 4.5% in 2022 and says 2021 growth could even be as high as 8.5%. For his part, President Nicolas Maduro reported to the country’s congress that the economy grew by 7.6% in the third quarter of 2021 and probably grew “more than four percent” in the whole year on the back of exports.

What’s remarkable about these figures — and, in particular, that Venezuela’s economy is thriving after experiencing runaway inflation — is that the growth is happening despite unilateral sanctions from the United States, the world’s largest economy.

Read more: US hypocrisy could kill millions in Afghanistan’s famine

It begs the question of whether these sanctions are as effective as they used to be — and the answer would appear to be no.

First of all, it’s important to define what an effective sanctions regime actually is. The US often claims that its penalties are intended to promote human rights by punishing states that violate them; however, it would be naive to take Washington at its word, since it maintains close ties with some of the world’s worst human rights violators.

The real goal of sanctions is to destabilize countries and potentially cause civil unrest to the point that it spurs regime change. At the minimum, they are intended to derail the success of social programs initiated by target states (for example, public ownership over natural resources).

In terms of the promotion of human rights, which Washington claims is its goal, or the destabilization of governments — as is the actual goal — unilateral sanctions are not often entirely successful. But there is certainly an argument to be made that they have slowed the rate of social progress made by some governments, such as those in Cuba or Venezuela, although even this is a trend that looks to be on the wane.

One of the major reasons why sanctions are no longer as effective is because the contradictions are so obvious. The American public doesn’t believe that they are intended to address human rights and is seeing more and more how they can starve the average person. Countries around the world see this too – and they also realise how this perverse logic (or lack thereof) hurts them.

In a recent column for RT, I discussed Syria signing up to China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and how it could be a game-changer in allowing the country’s post-war economy to flourish. But it should be noted that Syria’s neighbors had already lobbied for exceptions to Washington’s brutal sanctions regime because it was impacting the regional economy.

The US is reportedly weighing up exceptions that would allow Egyptian fuel to go through Jordan and Syria to get to Lebanon — which is experiencing an economic meltdown largely as a consequence of the American sanctions on Syria.

Likewise, Jordan — a close US ally in the region that has reopened its borders with Syria and is likely to resume trade at some point — is already expressing discontent because of gloomy economic forecasts that would be exacerbated by the sanctions regime on Syria.
Read more: US politicians make a fortune from trading stocks in office. It’s time they were stopped

Exceptions aside, another major reason that sanctions are no longer so effective is that affected countries are simply upping trade ties amongst themselves. Cuba and Venezuela, as well as Nicaragua, have enjoyed close ties for some time. These are helping pick up the slack that economic coercion is having on their respective economies — and a growing list of US sanctioned countries around the world just means more opportunities for strategic partnership.



US sanctions are losing their effectiveness

 

[Yehuda]

As is the case with Syria, economic cooperation with China — the world’s second-largest economy by nominal GDP and a critic and recipient of US sanctions — is hugely important. Venezuela and Iran have been cashing in on the growing price of petroleum, but this would be meaningless without a market — which is where China comes in.

Bloomberg News reported this month that China recorded a three-year high in imports of oil from Venezuela and Iran, providing both of these countries with a crucial market and giving Beijing access to the extremely cheap raw materials essential to its continued economic growth. This is what Chinese diplomats would call textbook “win-win cooperation.”

Finally, one other significant reason why sanctions and other unilateral economic pressures are no longer effective concerns the US itself. Sanctions are often simply a politically convenient way for politicians in Washington to look tough on foreign policy issues without actually engaging in them.

However, the consequences never appear to be especially well thought out. Consider that, particularly in the case of China, sanctions are primarily focused on stunting the competitiveness of adversaries in fields the US is struggling to compete in, such as artificial intelligence, telecommunications, and engineering. It just means the US will inevitably alienate itself down the road.

When politicians enact self-destructive policies that, in the long run, only serve to forge the very alliances that will one day stand up to America, this points to the irreversible decline of the US empire. And the fact that countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, which have been under siege from Washington for decades, are now seeing their fortunes change is a sure sign that its demise is inevitable.

US sanctions are losing their effectiveness

 

[Yehuda]

The Economics of The Sandinista Revolution in 2022
January 21, 2022

Minister of Economy and Finance of Nicaragua, Ivan Acosta, in interview with Kawsachun News in Managua. January 14, 2022.

Nicaragua ended 2021 with extraordinary results in the economy, highly positive results in production and is leading economic growth in the region after three difficult years during which it faced a coup attempt, two devastating hurricanes, Covid-19 and permanent attempts by the United States and big capital to destroy the country’s economy.

In Managua, we interviewed Minister of Finance, Ivan Acosta, on Nicaragua’s model, regional economic integration and new prospects as Nicaragua and China seek cooperation after reestablishing relations in December. Kawsachun News’ Camila Escalante sat down with Minister Acosta on January 14, at the offices of the Ministerio de Hacienda y Crédito Público. What follows is a translation of the portion of our interview conducted in Spanish. We also asked some additional questions in English, which can be watched here.

Nicaragua experienced a year of economic recover in 2021. How has managed to control inflation when other countries have failed to do so?

The issue of inflation is very complex. In 2021 most countries have had strong growth and Nicaragua is one of them, but there has been some inflation and that inflation is imported because we’ve seen global price rises on goods that we import such as oil. If the price of energy goes up then that’s felt across the whole economy. However, we have also benefited from the rises in the international prices of other goods such as coffee and beef, these are goods that we export and the value of those exports is up 21% during 2021.

Our high level of food production has stopped inflation from really shooting up. When you visit Nicaragua and you see what is served as meals, you can see that 90% of what’s served up is produced within Nicaragua. Our President Daniel Ortega wants us to achieve food sovereignty and food security by making sure we produce all the food on people’s tables, such as chicken, beef, cheese, rice, beans, oil. We can control inflation on these goods because they’re produced here, but we can’t do much about the rising cost of energy and products that use hydrocarbons such as fertilizer.

To support our exports, we devalued the national currency by 2% this year, when this is accounted for then our rate of inflation last year was just below that of the US, which hit 7%, which is very high for them, it’s the highest since 1982. I don’t think inflation can be avoided because we import oil, so we’re sensitive to rises in its price. We can cushion the effect by boosting national production, particularly agricultural production, through public investment, by providing technical assistance, and guaranteeing access to markets for campesinos.

What are the prospects and opportunities for the national economy in the context of the new progressive governments in the region and the renewal of relations with China?

When we compare development and growth in Latin America, to that in Asia, we can see that regional integration is incredibly important. Our countries that share a border and a region, that share a history and culture, should unite to have a greater voice on issues of trade and exchange rates. This hasn’t happened in Latin America for our whole 200 year history, for different reasons, and the result is massive inequality, for us in Mesoamerica is meant that we are the poorest region in the Americas. If we are to tackle this poverty and inequality, then all countries must come together to exchange knowledge and experiences.

Look at how Cuba has produced its own vaccine and become the most vaccinated country in the Americas. Meanwhile, other Latin American countries with a free market economy have been unable to. If there can be exchange of that type of scientific and commercial knowledge in the region, then we could all benefit. We should remember that the alliance with Venezuela, especially over Petrocaribe that saved countries in the Caribbean and Central America during the 2008 financial crisis, it softened the international effects of the Lehman Brothers collapse. During that critical moment, Venezuela sent oil to Caribbean countries that rely on tourism and were going to be wiped out as rising energy prices made their hotels noncompetitive. Venezuelan oil averted that crisis. Nicaragua also benefited from this because we were sending them our excess agricultural produce in exchange for oil and as a result, poverty fell by 50% during that decade. The governments of the left in the region have to focus on these issues of integration to tackle poverty and inequality.

Can you tell us the new Memorandums of Understanding with China?

China is clearly the world leader in international trade and will lead the process of globalization going forward. In the last 30 years, they have lifted 800 million people out of poverty. Their Belt and Road Initiative has brought about a strategy of cooperation with more than 60 partners that constitute 75% of the world’s energy supplies. They have focused on helping countries build infrastructure and ports to boost trade in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, as well as transport links to China. For us, this is a huge opportunity and there’s no reason for us to be outside this process. For countries like us that export food, we always need new markets, and the Chinese market is the largest. This is a huge opportunity for us to bring in new investments, too, and thereby increase the productive capacity in the production of our export goods. We also need to build cooperation on science and technology with China, to help develop our industries and energy capacities. We need to connect our ports in the Caribbean and Pacific, so we require investments in new corridors and a canal that can compete with that of Panama. We think that our relationship with China opens a new space for our economic development and boost trade and integration.

We reestablished relations from the 10th of December, and that basically is a political agreement to accept One China policy. The principle of this agreement is to have political relations, trade relations and cooperation. This agreement we established and recently signed four memorandum. The first memorandum is to have a global operation between the People’s Republic of China and Nicaragua. The second memorandum is to have what you call the early harvest that gives a step ahead. In the meantime, we negotiate a free trade agreement. The third memorandum is that Nicaragua be included in the Belt and Road Initiative. The last memorandum is to be part of the initiative of economic dialog with China. That is the four memorandum that I think is very good for our country.

The Economics of The Sandinista Revolution in 2022

 

[Yehuda]

Mia Mottley Sworn In for 2nd Term As Barbados Prime Minister

Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley (R) during her swearing-in ceremony, Jan. 20, 2022. | Photo: Twitter/ @CNewsService

Published 21 January 2022 (21 hours 24 minutes ago)

"We are confident that the people have spoken with a decisively unanimous and clear voice," Mottley stressed.

On Thursday, Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley was sworn in for a second term, following her recent triumph in the Caribbean nation's first election since becoming a republic in November 2021.

RELATED: Cuban Authorities Congratulate New Prime Minister of Barbados

"We thank the people of Barbados for the clear support they gave us in the election," said Mottley, leader of the ruling Barbados Labor Party (BLP), which won all 30 seats in Parliament.

During her swearing-in ceremony, she promised to continue the process of transformation in her country so as to achieve higher levels of development and eradicate poverty.

"We are confident that the people have spoken with a decisively unanimous and clear voice," Mottley said as she celebrated the win.



Nine independent candidates and 108 candidates sponsored by seven political parties took part in the Barbadian general elections. Some 266,330 people were called for this democratic process, 50 percent of whom cast their vote.

During his new administration, PM Mottley will face the challenge of substantially raising employment levels on an island where tourism is a very important economic activity but also hard hit by the global epidemiological situation.

“During her first term, in 2018, she restructured the national debt and boosted international reserves sixfold, restoring confidence in the currency peg with the U.S. dollar. But economic growth remains elusive. Output stagnated for a decade and a half even before the COVID-19 pandemic triggered an 18 percent slump in 2020,” Bloomberg recalled.



Mia Mottley Sworn In for 2nd Term As Barbados Prime Minister

 

[Yehuda]

China is helping Nicaragua’s Sandinista gov’t build houses for poor people

China signed an agreement with Nicaragua’s leftist Sandinista government to build thousands of homes for poor and working families, expanding the already existing Bismarck Martínez public housing program.

By Benjamin Norton | 2022-01-29T17:19:05+00:00

Houses built by the Nicaraguan government as part of its Bismarck Martínez Program

The leftist Sandinista government of Nicaragua has revealed that it signed an agreement with the People’s Republic of China to build thousands of houses for poor and working families.

Vice President Rosario Murillo announced the news on January 28.

China “has approved an important project of cooperation with our Nicaragua and the Nicaraguan people, a great housing program for families in all of the country,” Murillo said.

“The plan is for three years, benefiting tens of thousands of Nicaraguan families in 84 municipalities of the country, families that are going to receive a beautiful house, safe, dignified, with all of the basic services.”

The vice president said the designs for the houses are being developed in coordination with Nicaraguan ministries. She called them “works of brotherhood, solidarity, and common good.”

Murillo also announced other ongoing public infrastructure projects, including roads, sidewalks, and a new baseball stadium.

Houses built by the Nicaraguan government as part of its Bismarck Martínez Program

Although Nicaragua is a small country of roughly 6.5 million people, with very few resources as the second-least rich country in the western hemisphere, its leftist Sandinista government has dedicated itself to creating ambitious social programs, including free universal healthcare and education, jobs training, and poverty alleviation initiatives.

Nicaragua in fact already has a public housing campaign called the Bismarck Martínez Program. From the time it was launched in 2019 until 2021, the project delivered approximately 3,000 houses, as well as 30,000 land plots in urban areas.

In 2021, the government gave poor and working Nicaraguans another 3,000 houses as part of the Bismarck Martínez Program. This is in addition to granting land deeds to thousands of families, peasants, and farmers, so they cannot be displaced.

The man the program is named after, Bismarck Martínez, was a Sandinista activist who worked in the mayor’s office in the capital Managua. He was kidnapped, brutally tortured on camera, and killed by far-right extremists during a violent coup attempt in 2018, which was sponsored by the United States. The video of his gruesome murder went viral and inspired outrage across Nicaragua.

The Managua mayor’s office announced in September 2021 that it had plans to build 50,000 new homes in the following seven years as part of the Bismarck Martínez program. It also planned to distribute 50,000 more land plots to families.

But this was before the central government had restored relations with China and made plans to further expand this program with Beijing’s help.

Houses built by the Nicaraguan government as part of its Bismarck Martínez Program

The Nicaraguan government re-established official diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China in December 2021.

Nicaragua had first broken ties with Taiwan and recognized China in the 1980s, following the 1979 triumph of the Sandinista Revolution.

But when the Sandinistas lost power in 1990, in an election unfairly compromised by US meddling, the right-wing president who took power, Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, a representative of the most powerful oligarch family in the country, immediately cut ties with the PRC and recognized Taiwan again.

Since restoring ties in December 2021, Nicaragua and China have become close allies.

President Daniel Ortega revealed in a speech at his January 10 inauguration that Managua had signed agreements with Beijing to incorporate the Central American nation into the global Belt and Road Initiative.

Upon signing the deals with China, Ortega declared, “The United States does not accept that the end of its hegemony is a fact.”

China is helping Nicaragua's Sandinista gov't build houses for poor people

 

[Yehuda]

Economic Growth Returns to Venezuela: Interview

January 25, 2022

We spoke to Jesus Rodriguez-Espinoza, editor of the Caracas-based Orinoco Tribune, about how Venezuela’s economy is finally seeing light at the end of the tunnel after years of recession caused by crippling US sanctions. Figures by the UN’s Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (CEPAL) forecast positive GDP growth of 3% in 2022, above the regional average of 2.1%, it’s also the first year of positive growth for Venezuela in seven years. Monthly inflation is also down to single figures and has been for the whole last quarter. What is going on, and how has Venezuela achieved this?

What has caused these positive developments for the Venezuelan economy?

Starting in 2018, President Maduro started taking concrete measures, without much noise, aimed at tackling the terrible economic crisis we’ve experienced since 2014. Since then, our GDP has fallen by around 75%, a shocking fall, one of the worst anywhere in the world for many decades. The severity of this crisis has made clear the need for economic recovery, which is just starting now because in 2021 we saw positive growth of 4% announced by President Maduro. In 2022, we hope to see the growth of 3-5%, and CEPAL concurs, forecasting the same level of growth.

These improvements are very visible in Venezuela and it’s thanks to policies introduced by Maduro in 2018. Their decision to allow foreign currencies to circulate has also been very wise and has allowed people to protect themselves from inflation and therefore calmed the national currency.

These efforts to rebuild the economy, which we’re now seeing the fruits of, have been carried out in the middle of one of the worst cases of foreign aggression against our country, particularly the economic blockade imposed by the US and the EU. It’s very impressive that Maduro has begun to turn the economic situation around in the context of these constant foreign attacks.

I am very critical of Maduro’s first years in power, during which Maduro’s economic policy was very erratic, this approach began during the final years of Chavez when things became too ideologically orthodox, and I believe that approach contributed to the crisis. However, Maduro realized that the economic advisors at the time were pushing policy in the wrong direction, and so in 2018 he turns towards a more serious approach.

Up until 2020, monthly inflation was in double digits, but during the last quarter of 2021 inflation dropped to around 7% consistently for that whole period. Has this helped Venezuelans day to day?

Absolutely, in December 2020, the monthly inflation hit 77.5%, but in December 2021 this drops to 7.6%. No one can deny this progress, it’s hard evidence that there have been positive measures taken by the government of President Maduro. Formally, Venezuelan is no longer suffering hyperinflation, we have left the cycle of hyperinflation which economists define as 12 months or more of monthly inflation above 50%. By December 2021, Venezuela finally completed an entire year in which monthly inflation never reached 50% in any month. For people in other countries, our figures still seem very high, and the media still attack us. However, they don’t know the context which is that the situation has improved greatly in 2021 compared to 2020 where annual inflation was over 2000%.

President Maduro’s government has been intervening in the currency markets to ensure inflation is within a range considered appropriate by the Central Bank. The fact that many people are being paid salaries now in foreign currency has also calmed the situation as people aren’t wondering what prices will be because before prices could change 2-3 times within a single day. This reach its worst point around 2019, but that’s now turned around and inflation is reducing, which means that people are no longer scared to hold Bolivares in the bank. We’ve lived through a chaotic period, but the conditions going into 2022 are very positive, it’s not just CEPAL saying this, but also many international banks, some of whom have forecast growth of up to 5-6%.

Another important aspect is the rise in oil production, an area that was badly hit by sanctions against the state company PDVSA. By the end of 2021, Venezuela had reached 1 million barrels per day, more than double the same period the year before. This is because many refineries have been reactivated after falling into disrepair because sanctions stopped replacement parts from being imported. This increase in the productive capacity of the economy has led to many calling for wages to be looked at, specifically public sector wages that are very low due to inflation. Private sector workers are getting paid in a mixture of local and foreign currency, which has protected them somewhat from inflation, but public sectors workers have been hit hard over the years. I think this year Maduro may look to adjust those wages to help workers, this is something that has already been happening gradually in some parts of the public sector, for example, oil workers have received some financial incentives to continue working and to raise production. Maduro has been very pragmatic on this issue, despite the criticisms from the ultra-left who want salaries to rise immediately but without acknowledging the context of the aggression we face from the US, and the need to raise production.

Surely investments from and cooperation with China and Russia have been key in rebuilding the oil industry?

Of course, but in terms of the oil industry and PDVSA, Iran has been the most important ally here. Russia has projects and investments in Venezuela’s oil industry, and the agreements that PDVSA has with Russian companies are critical. However, the alliance with Iran has been the most significant, there were times when Venezuela was barely producing any oil at all, during that time our diplomat Alex Saab, now kidnapped by the US government, negotiated deals with Iran to bring in food and tankers with oil to alleviate the crisis and give Venezuela the space to rebuild. Of course, the US didn’t like this because they think they own the world. That cooperation with Iran was also on technical issues, such as repairing refineries etc.

Venezuela’s oil industry collapsed under the weight of sanctions in part because much of it was built with US and European technology, so they had the power to stop us from repairing the infrastructure of PDVSA by blocking replacement parts with sanctions. The government has long been trying to find a solution and now finally the technological infrastructure of the refineries are being adapted to that used by our allies, and that is thanks to this international cooperation with Iran and Russia. China has also helped us, but in a different way. They have bought up a lot of our oil despite the threats by the US who have tried to cut Venezuela off from all its customers. We can see that this triangle of solidarity from Iran, Russia, and China, has helped Venezuela rebuild PDVSA.

Economic Growth Returns to Venezuela: Interview

 

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[Yehuda]

Miriam Miranda: In Honduras, another coup in the land of the absurd

Interview. Xiomara Castro’s presidency begins uphill, with a hostile congressional leadership. We spoke with indigenous leader Miriam Miranda: ‘Honduras has become a perfect political laboratory for that international neo-fascist strategy aimed at preventing peoples from taking the reins of their own destiny.’

Written by Claudia Fanti
Published on January 28, 2022

For Xiomara Castro, who on Thursday began her adventure at the helm of Honduras, the conspiracy hatched by the right and a group of deputies from her own party could be just a foretaste of what’s to come. Right on the eve of the inauguration of the president with the most votes in the country’s history, 18 deputies of Libre (Libertad y Refundación; Liberty and Refoundation) allied themselves with the narco-government of outgoing President Juan Orlando Hernández to elect a different leadership team for Congress, not the one that had been agreed upon between Castro and her deputy Salvador Nasralla.

The consequence is that the country now has two Congresses: one led by Luis Redondo of Nasralla’s Partido Salvador de Honduras, who garnered 48 votes, and the other chaired by ex-Libre Jorge Cálix, who got 82. Furthermore, after the expulsion of the 18 disloyal deputies, Libre’s parliamentary group is now composed of only 32 deputies out of 128.

We spoke about the current crisis and the future prospects with Miriam Miranda, a well-known coordinator of OFRANEH (Organización Fraternal Negra Hondureña; Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras) and leader of the Garífuna people, an ethnic group of mixed indigenous and African origin that has been harshly persecuted under the JOH government.

How do you interpret the current parliamentary crisis?

The narco-government that has pushed the country into the worst crisis in its history is seeking once again to checkmate the precarious democracy that exists in Honduras, presenting itself as the “guarantor of democracy and governability.” We live in a country of the absurd. The corruption and betrayal of the 18 Libre deputies is part of a chain of coups that began in 2009 with the overthrow of Zelaya and continued with the “technical coup” against the Supreme Court of Justice in 2012, when four of its five judges were dismissed, and with the electoral coup in 2017, when victory was stolen from Salvador Nasralla. Twelve years of narco-dictatorship cannot be erased overnight. All the more so since the 2009 coup, Honduras has become a perfect political laboratory for that international neo-fascist strategy aimed at preventing peoples from taking the reins of their own destiny and at destroying the rule of law.

Does this strategy include the creation of so-called “model cities”?

A “failed state” like ours offers ideal conditions for foreign investors, who have found the door wide open thanks to a series of laws with which the government has ceded sovereignty, territories and the very life of the Honduran people. The narco-dictatorship’s plan for the control of territorial space has involved the creation — in areas potentially rich in biodiversity — of model cities or special development zones (ZEDE), subject to a different regime from that of the state. It is yet another, and more extreme, legitimization of the model of appropriation of territorial resources by multinational capital, under the pretext of promoting supposed development and creating jobs. It is the creation of a state within the state.

However, the people have said no to all of that. Can Xiomara Castro represent the hope of a new beginning?

In these 12 years, democratic institutions have been destroyed and the most basic human rights have been violated, starting with those of the indigenous peoples, the Garifuna people, the LGBT community, in an undeclared war that has produced, among other things, enormous caravans of migrants fleeing to the north, which served a plan of depopulation of the territories. Because of all of that, on November 28, the people (especially young people and women) wanted to change the course of history, placing at the helm of the country the first woman president of Honduras, and also the one who got the most votes in history. However, we know that the mafia that controls this country will not give up its privileges easily, hindering in every way the task of redeeming democracy and recovering peace and tranquility. And we are aware of how fragile the institutions are, of how deeply rooted corruption and impunity are and how widespread the buying and selling of wills and consciences is.

What is the situation of the Garífuna people?

We were among the hardest hit during the pandemic, due to the difficulty in accessing health care and the collapse of the health care system. But we are also among the main victims of the current land-grab model, suffering persecution and criminalization by a racist, classist and discriminatory justice enforcement system. In the last five years alone, more than 50 of our leaders have been assassinated. In these 12 years, we have had to face the genocidal plan of the narco-government to make us disappear as a people, but we have resisted and struggled, starting from below, from our communities, because we believe in our right to a better future and we want to create different living conditions for the generations to come.

What do you expect from the next government?

We demand the repeal of the laws and decrees imposed by Congress after the 2009 coup, a moratorium on the extraction of hydrocarbons and the exploitation of forest and river resources, and the abandonment of a development model based on the expansion of palm oil plantations and enclave tourism projects. We want full respect for the ancestral rights of the Garífuna people and indigenous peoples, and a stop to the persecution and criminalization of land defenders. And we demand the immediate application of the 2015 rulings with which the Inter-American Court of Human Rights condemned the Honduran state for the violation of the collective property rights of the Garífuna communities of Punta Piedra and Triunfo de la Cruz. Six years have passed and nothing has been done.

Originally published in Italian on January 27, 2022 Ultimo golpe nel paese dell'assurdo

Miriam Miranda: In Honduras, another coup in the land of the absurd

 

[Yehuda]

"A new form of colonization"

January 24, 2022
By Knut Henkel

In Honduras, Miriam Miranda is fighting against ZEDEs, or Zones for Employment and Economic Development (Zonas de empleo y desarrollo económico) — hyper-liberal economic zones. Her hope is the new President Xiomara Castro.

Protest against the Honduran Free Trade Zone in La Ceiba, Atlantida in May 2021. Photo: Seth Sidney Berry/imago

taz: Ms. Miranda, since 2012 you have been the face of the resistance against the ZEDEs, the hyperliberal special economic zones for work and economic development in Honduras. With Xiomara Castro elected Honduras' first female president, could this policy fall?

Miriam Miranda: Yes, because the last few months have shown that the resistance against the ZEDEs is not only massive on the coast but across the nation. The message is clear: the special economic zones are undesirable. That and the announcement by future President Xiomara Castro that she wants to cancel the ZEDES is positive. But in reality it is not that easy. The laws that outgoing President Juan Orlando Hernández pushed through Parliament have yet to be reversed. This requires a two-thirds majority in Parliament, which Xiomara Castro does not have. That is one reason why the construction work in the most advanced ZEDE — the ZEDE Próspera on the Caribbean island of Roatán — continues.

Photo: Juan Carlos/imago

What options does the new government have then? Coalitions, looking for majorities?

The good news is that the coalition behind Xiomara Castro went into the election campaign with the aim of annulling the ZEDEs. That was decisive for the election and gives her momentum in Parliament. However, Xiomara Castro only has 60 MPs behind him, but she needs 85, and the National Party, which stands behind the ZEDEs, has 44. They want to abolish democratic institutions.

Who benefits from this?

The destruction of democratic institutions allows a wealthy elite to seize power in small, newly carved territories. I don't know yet whether they are like a monarchy or like an oligarchy. But I know that they never consult the local population. We don't want to be dominated, we want to be taken seriously and we don't think it's a contemporary idea for the state administration and state institutions to be virtually locked out of an area within Honduran territory.

ZEDEs have their own tax system, their own currency, their own administration — all within Honduras. How can that be? In the end will we have to show passports in order to be able to pass, will we have to give up our rights completely so that a financial paradise can emerge according to neoliberal principles? No, this is not possible. This is a new form of colonization — and we oppose it.

What is the impact of the ZEDEs on site?

It is negative. Above all, land speculation is being fomented. The prices have risen massively and they are a lever to expel the traditionally living Garífuna population from their ancestral homeland. In Trujillo Bay, where I grew up, the situation is critical. Contributing to this is the fact that everything about the ZEDEs is virtually secret, there is no transparency, no contracts that are accessible. That is one reason why we are often dependent on information from abroad.

For example, we only found out about the withdrawal of the subsidiary of the Technical University of Munich from ZEDE Próspera in March last year from Germany. We are currently dealing with at least three ZEDEs that have been officially confirmed, and there are said to be another 22 ZEDEs that are being offered. According to rumours, up to a million hectares on the Caribbean coast are to be declared ZEDEs. But this region belongs to my ethnic group, the Garífuna — it stretches from my birthplace, Trujillo, to Laguna de Iba.

Do you have the impression that the potential investors are well prepared, that they know where they have invested or intend to invest?

No, I don't have that impression. Then it should be clear to them that there was a coup in Honduras in 2009 against a democratically legitimized president, that there were then two elections that are accused of electoral manipulation, that dozens of activists working for the environment, for human rights, pro-justice and anti-corruption activists were assassinated.

Honduras does not seem to be the only country where the ZEDEs model could be used. Where else?

We know that there are similar zones in El Salvador and that there are supposed to be similar models in Africa such as in the island of Mauritius, I think.

How could the incoming President take action against the ZEDEs?

With negotiating skills in parliament, where she is forging new alliances, but a referendum seems more obvious to me. Given the massive tailwind in the elections, the broad response to the campaigns against the ZEDEs and the fact that a number of entrepreneurs were also involved, I believe that a referendum is an option. This harbors opportunities, but also entails risks.

"A new form of colonization"

 

[Yehuda]

 

[Yehuda]

Argentina to Obtain $23.7 Billion in Financing from PRC

February 6, 2022

President Alberto Fernández has agreed to incorporate Argentina into the Belt and Road Initiative, joining 140 countries throughout the world.

This strategic decision will allow the Argentine government to sign different agreements that guarantee financing for investments and works for more than 23.7 billion dollars, a total figure that also includes the various memorandums of understanding between ministries of both countries, and which is the result of meetings between Governors of the Argentine delegation with Chinese companies.

Fernández held a 40 minute meeting this morning at the Great Hall of the People in the city of Beijing, with President of the People’s Republic of China, Xi Jinping, with whom he agreed to continue the work to deepen the relations of political, commercial, economic, scientific and cultural cooperation between the two countries.

The financing will come in two ways: one, already approved for 14 billion dollars under the DECCE (Strategic Dialogue for Economic Cooperation and Coordination) mechanism, which includes 10 infrastructure projects, and a second for some 9.7 billion dollars, which Argentina will present in the Ad Hoc Group created between the two countries to begin work after joining the Belt and Road.

Concrete opportunities will be discussed to promote foreign direct investment from China in Argentina in order to expand Argentina’s exportable supply.

The signing of the Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation Matters was done between Argentine Foreign Minister Santiago Cafiero and the president of the National Development and Reform Commission of the People’s Republic of China, He Lifeng.

In adherence to said Memorandum, 13 different inter-institutional cooperation documents were signed in different fields and between different counterparts, referring to matters such as green development, the digital economy, the space area, technology and innovation, education and university cooperation, agriculture, earth sciences, public media and nuclear energy.

The signing of the MOU of the Belt and Road Initiative, and the presidential visit imply a deepening of the bilateral relationship with the following objectives: financing for infrastructure works; increase in the participation of Argentine suppliers in these works; increase Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in strategic Argentine sectors such as energy and electromobility; increase Argentina’s exportable supply to China and Asia, tending to reduce the trade deficit with China; and Beijing’s commitment to advance in the sanitary and phytosanitary negotiations and in the qualifications for cold storage and fishing establishments.

The visit comes follows President Fernández’ official visit to Russia which took place directly after a draft deal with the IMF was announced, which has been regarded as a poor outcome for Argentina by leaders within the ruling party. For more on what Fernández told Putin, read here.

More on the Argentine delegation’s three-day visit to China here.

Argentina to Obtain $23.7 Billion in Financing from PRC

 

[Yehuda]

Venezuela installs truth commission on colonialism and its consequences

January 25, 2022 | 21:44

During the assembly with cultivators of cultural Venezuelan manifestations, President Nicolás Maduro installed the Commission of historical truth, justice and reparations on colonial rule and its consequences in Venezuela.

The Head of State explained that the Commission is made up of 21 specialists with experience in the cultural and historical struggle. "We have to demand justice against the crimes of colonialism", he said.

He pointed out that it is "a commission to delve into the truth of European colonialism in our lands — its crimes, genocides, the looting that took place — and demand justice and reparations from Spain, Portugal and all of Europe, for Latin America".

The commission is made up of:

• Minister of Culture Ernesto Villegas, who is also its chairman;
• Historian Pedro Calzadilla;
• Minister of Indigenous Peoples Roside González;
• Deputies Noelí Pocaterra, Aloha Núñez and Alexis Rodríguez Cabello;
• Alexander Torres, president of the National History Center;
• Reinaldo Bolívar, president of the Center of African Knowledge;
• Luis Felipe Pellicer, academic vice-rector of the National Experimental University of the Arts;
• Jorge Berroeta, director of the General Archive of the Nation;
  
• Jesús Chucho García, member of the Afro-Venezuelan Network;
• Luis Britto García, writer, playwright and essayist;
• Poet Gustavo Pereira;
• Anthropologist Iraida Vargas;
• Professor Mario Sanoja;
• Historians Juan Romero, Carmen Bohórquez, Marcial Ramos Guedez and Vladimir Acosta;
• Professors Casimira Monasterios and Dulce Marrufo.

In this regard, the Minister of People's Power for Culture Ernesto Villegas pointed out that the members of the Commission are people who have done decades of research on the 300 years of colonialism and its consequences.

Likewise, he said that he hopes that there will not only be symbolic claims from the highest instances of European power with “the simple word: forgiveness”, which will allow the ancestral peoples to advance kilometers; but also economic claims, which are perfectly quantifiable.

In addition, they intend to build an index of existing publications on the subject, inside and outside the Venezuelan borders.

Venezuela installs truth commission on colonialism and its consequences

 

[Yehuda]

 

[Yehuda]

 

[Yehuda]

The postponed historical reparations to the Afro-descendants of Barrio Sur

Published on August 14, 2021
By Eduardo Delgado

The Mediomundo tenement building in Montevideo, 1950s. Photo: Eduardo C. Colombo, file / Photography Center, Municipality of Montevideo

A report on the families of the Mediomundo and Ansina tenement houses displaced during the dictatorship will be presented in Parliament.

A report with recommendations to the State — which include comprehensive reparation measures — for the damage caused to the Afro-descendant population as a result of the forced displacement of the Mediomundo conventillos and Barrio Reus al Sur (Ansina) tenement houses in 1978 and 1979 will be presented at the Legislative Palace on August 18.

“This report aims to shed light on a truth that has been silenced for more than 40 years and that reveals situations of rights violations in multiple dimensions. The purpose of this work is to shed light on a reality marked by violence; forced displacement; territorial segregation and precariousness in terms of housing from the perpetuation of a situation that ended up permanently settling the living conditions and the territorial location of a significant proportion of the Afro-Uruguayan population”, says the document prepared by a task force that has the contribution and support of locals who were displaced from the tenements, Afro-descendant organizations, the National Institution for Human Rights and the Ombudsman's Office (Institución Nacional de Derechos Humanos y Defensoría del Pueblo; INDDHH) and the University of the Republic (Udelar).

The task force collected information from different sources in Uruguay and international human rights law, and inquired about experiences of reparations for Afro-descendant communities in Colombia and South Africa.

Although the report deals with the experience of part of the Afro-descendant population in the context of State terrorism, it does not idealize life in the tenements. The community's shortcomings are highlighted, but its community and cultural values are also reaffirmed, and the consequences that the displacements had for its inhabitants are pointed out: they were transferred first, to live in precarious conditions, to buildings called "municipal homes" and then to areas far from the Barrio Sur and Palermo neighborhoods, with fewer services and higher levels of poverty and insecurity. One of the participants in workshops with displaced persons that took place in the context of this report expressed: “What they did to us was like systematic terror”.

Facade of the Conventillo tenement. Cuareim street, number 1080. 1979. Photo: unknown author, Photography Center File, Municipality of Montevideo

Prisonlike treatment

The document indicates that the forced displacement of more than 800 people, most of them Afro-Uruguayan, from the Mediomundo tenement occurred in December 1978 and from Ansina in January 1979. In addition, as part of this operation, these people were transferred to “emergency” homes that, according to the authorities in charge of the procedure, would be “temporary”, with the promise of a home in better conditions.

The promise was never fulfilled. Three facilities were created to relocate people “evicted from dilapidated estates”: the Uruguayana building (located on Martínez Reina street, where the La Aurora factory used to be), Garibaldi and Arenal Grande. To these was added the Municipal Impound Lot, in Barrio Sur. They were all adapted as “emergency transitional homes”.

The testimonies referring to life in Martínez Reina mark a regime similar to that of prisoners on work release. Dozens of families were transferred there, with a few pieces of furniture (beds and chairs, but not wardrobes or toys), with soldiers stationed at different points, a shared bathroom and a dining room managed by the National Food Institute where they went to look for food, since they were not allowed to cook.

At night the rooms were locked — in which occasionally people from different families were forced to live — and the lights were turned off, while the guards had a copy of the keys to each room and made sure that no one left. At the entrance of the building there was a doorman accompanied by policemen (the door opened at 6:00 a.m. and closed at 8:00 p.m., allowing those who returned from work to enter until 10:00 p.m.).

The report states that between 1981 and 1995 many of these families were once again relocated through a housing adjudication process, categorized as Basic Evolutionary Nuclei, in the form of apartments in Housing Unit N° 3, in Cerro Norte.

Conventillo tenement in Montevideo, 1950s. Photo: Eduardo C. Colombo, file / Photography Center, Municipality of Montevideo

Between 1983 and 1984 other families, accompanied by social organizations, formed housing cooperatives for mutual help, which they built in Gruta de Lourdes and Nuevo París. Some families were placed in three housing projects in Capurro, Jardines del Prado and the Lavalleja neighborhood. The last 100 families that remained in the Uruguayana building were relocated through a convenant with the government to the housing unit located in the Casavalle neighborhood.

Ongoing segregation

Among its numerous citations, the report mentions one from the 2019 Honorary National Commission of Memory Sites, which largely reflects and synthesizes the content of the document: “it was a segregation due to the Afro-Uruguayan condition of the inhabitants, which was perpetuated and deepened in the following years as the building conditions of the places to which they were assigned were far from the improvements established by the decree by which they were evicted. Consequently, the vacating of the tenements, under the pretext of protecting the population that inhabited them and of improving their living conditions, had in reality the only goal of relocating them to the outskirts of the city and the dispersion of the families that lived there. Along with this expulsion, the life of a fundamental sector of the Afro-Uruguayan population was profoundly affected, reinforcing structural racism and stigmatizing their cultural identity”.

In this sense, it states that, according to the testimonies collected in the process of preparing this report, the neighborhoods to which these people were transferred were in a situation of extreme marginalization and daily institutional and interpersonal violence was experienced.

Conventillo tenement in Montevideo, 1950s. Photo: Eduardo C. Colombo, file / Photography Center, Municipality of Montevideo

Currently these neighborhoods still show high levels of poverty according to the Unsatisfied Basic Needs index. The report adds that this population continues to find their daily lives marked by situations of citizen insecurity as they live in the areas of the city of Montevideo that have the highest rates of homicides, thefts, and robberies.

In addition, the document adds data from the School of Social Sciences of Udelar and the Peace and Justice Service in the sense that the young people who live in these areas of the city suffer daily episodes of police violence at higher levels than those who live in other neighborhoods of Montevideo. “In this way, one can see how evident is the continuum of violence to which the Afro-Uruguayan population has been subjected, understanding this continuum as the sum of symbolic, structural and interpersonal violence”, they say.

Started path

Olguita Celestino was 12 years old when, together with her family, she was forced to leave her house in the Mediomundo tenement and lived through the forced transfer to the former factory in Martínez Reina and the subsequent relocation to Cerro Norte. Her work with the displaced people of Mediomundo and Ansina has been fundamental for the implementation of the document that will be presented on Wednesday. Celestino says that “the first goal has been achieved: this report to present our reparation proposals to the State, which includes a group of neighbors the demands are based on. Never before had something like this been done with reference to us since the mass evictions of 1978 and 1979 and we are happy to be able to do it”.

Conventillo tenement in Montevideo, 1950s. Photo: Eduardo C. Colombo, file / Photography Center, Municipality of Montevideo

Juanita Silva was one of the people who started the process of preparing the report. She recalls that when she presented the issue to the INDDHH — in 2018 — Olga's father, Antonio Celestino (one of the people displaced from Mediomundo), was still alive and he was the first person she went to talk to in his small house in Cerro Norte. “I told him: uncle, I am in this, I want to help, I want to do something to repair what they did to you. He told me: ‘if you tell me that I am going to live in Cuareim again, I will follow you’”.

Antonio passed away a year and a half later, but the journey had already begun.

Five reparation categories

The effective comprehensive reparation measures for the damage caused to the Afro-descendant population as a result of forced displacement are grouped into five categories: symbolic reparation, reparation for the damage to the life project, the right to housing, the right to health, and cultural rights.

Symbolic sphere

The symbolic reparation includes — among several points — recognizing as victims of serious human rights violations the people who were forcibly displaced from their homes in Mediomundo and Ansina during the period of State terrorism (1973–1985) and that the reparation covers the direct victims, their children and grandchildren (first and second generation).

To this would be added the approval of a law that establishes a permanent instance that continues the activity carried out by the group that made the report and that analyzes the normative adjustments that establish comprehensive reparation measures for this population.

It also points out the need to include in the official texts of the national public education system the study of these forced displacements of the Afro-descendant population, with emphasis on the political-institutional context in which they were carried out; their motivations; and the consequences that these measures generated and continue to generate on the victims.

Damage to the life project and right to housing

The text recommends establishing the necessary measures to repair the damage to the life project, which implies considering both the patrimonial aspects and the reparation of the non-patrimonial or immaterial aspects related to the victims of the illegal actions of the State.

Also, make effective, through systematic measures of reparation, the guarantee of housing restitution, which includes the recovery of existing buildings and the construction of homes for forcibly displaced Afro-descendant families. To this, the document adds to continue expanding the target population and improve the development and scope of initiatives aimed at historical reparations and the right to the city for Afro-descendant families.

It is also recommended that the Municipality of Montevideo establish a quota for the allocation of unused farms or urban land that make up its land portfolio in the Barrio Sur and Palermo neighborhoods, of between 8% and 12% as a floor, to allocate to housing of social interest, public and/or collective use for initiatives from the Afro-Uruguayan community, with priority given to responding to the housing needs of the victims of these displacements.

Right to health

The document recommends implementing the necessary measures to guarantee the coverage of a comprehensive health space that provides care and psychosocial support — within the framework of the Integrated National Health System — to the people included in this report. It also suggests developing collective spaces for listening, memory and mourning, as a way to enable mental health spaces and positively enhance the experiences of victims of forced displacement as a construction of democratic citizenship.

Cultural rights

Recognizing that the forced displacement of their traditional neighborhoods caused damage to the culture and identity of the population of the Barrio Sur and Palermo neighborhoods of Montevideo is one of the recommendations included. At the same time, implement programs for the collection of testimonies and photographic archives, public and government documents, as well as newspaper archives for their digitization and collection. Contribute to raise awareness of the existence of violations of the rights of the Afro-Uruguayan community in times of State terrorism through traveling photographic exhibitions, audiovisual productions and public presentations. Also generate and develop spaces for advice and legal empowerment that allow promoting a process of reparation measures that are implemented within the framework of these recommendations in a participatory and proactive manner.

The postponed historical reparations to the Afro-descendants of Barrio Sur