Judi Lynn
Judi Lynn's JournalRich vs poor: Peru's Castillo lays down socialist marker for election runoff
April 18, 2021
11:34 PM CDT
Marco Aquino
3 minutes read
Pedro Castillo of Peru Libre party looks on after casting his vote, outside a polling station in Cajamarca, Peru April 11, 2021. Vidal Tarqui/ANDINA/Handout via REUTERS
Peruvian socialist Pedro Castillo, the shock winner of Sunday's presidential election first round, has laid down a marker as the defender of the poor ahead of a run-off vote in June.
The little-known union leader and teacher, who rode on a horse to vote and often wears a cowboy hat, rose from the back of the pack in pre-election polls to finish first. He has around 19% of the vote with of ballots 96% counted.
He will face conservative Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of ex-President Alberto Fujimori - imprisoned in 2009 over human rights abuses - and the heir of a powerful family that dominated Peru's political scene for decades in the presidency and in Congress.
"This is a battle between the rich and the poor, the struggle between the ... master and the slave," Castillo told reporters from Peru's north in comments broadcast on local TV channels.
More:
https://www.reuters.com/world/rich-vs-poor-perus-castillo-lays-down-socialist-marker-election-runoff-2021-04-13/
Editorial from 4 days ago: The will of the Ecuadorian people is under threat
The world should watch Ecuador’s April 11 presidential runoff closely to ensure no foul play, whether internal or external, disrupts the election or subverts the will of Ecuadorian voters.
Luis Ortiz
Political analyst, development consultant former counselor for Ecuador, Colombia, and Chile at the Board of Directors of the Inter-American Development Bank (2009–2017)
Ecuador's presidential candidate Andres Arauz gestures as he attends a closing campaign rally, in Guayaquil, Ecuador April 7, 2021 [Santiago Arcos/Reuters]
On April 11, the small South American nation of Ecuador – home to the Galapagos Islands and one of the oldest civilisations in the Western Hemisphere – is set to hold a presidential runoff pitting a greying member of the country’s financial elite, Guillermo Lasso, against 36-year-old Andrés Arauz, a progressive US-trained economist.
Arauz won the election’s first round with a 13-point lead over Lasso, and recent polling suggests that he could win the runoff by a landslide. Yet a fraught electoral process, foreign interference, and an avalanche of fake news threatens to derail Arauz’s candidacy and imperils the runoff election.
That Arauz won the first round by a wide margin is hardly surprising. While still in his 20s, the young economist played an important role in developing and executing popular government programmes during the administration of Rafael Correa (2007-17), which oversaw a period of dramatic social progress. Under Correa, poverty was reduced by 38 percent, extreme poverty by 47 percent, and inequality by almost 10 percent (as measured by the Gini coefficient).
Correa’s confrontational style and numerous clashes with the owners of large media companies and private banks earned him powerful enemies and a steady stream of negative media coverage, but did not seem to dampen his popularity. He was re-elected twice in massive landslides. In his last election, in 2013, he won by a margin of nearly 35 points against the runner-up, who happened to be Guillermo Lasso, a conservative banker.
It now appears that history will repeat itself, with Arauz widely expected to trounce Lasso at the polls. After four years of austerity and the repression of popular movements under President Lenín Moreno, the majority of Ecuadorians appear eager to support a return to progressive governance. Moreover, Arauz has a less confrontational approach to politics than Correa, and has reached out earnestly to Indigenous groups and to those who voted for the rival left-leaning Social Democratic Party. His plan to build an inclusive national coalition to tackle climate change, poverty, and social exclusion seems to have resonated with much of the population.
But dark clouds are gathering over Ecuador’s elections. A leading Ecuadorian newspaper recently published a call for the military to intervene to prevent the victory of a “Correista”, and some prominent public figures have echoed these appeals. This is particularly troubling in a country that has suffered numerous military coups, and in a region where military involvement in politics has been making a comeback (see, for instance, the role of the Bolivian military in the removal of Evo Morales in 2019, and the Brazilian military’s current involvement in the government of Jair Bolsonaro).
More:
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2021/4/9/ecuador-elections-3
Ecuador to choose between socialism and free markets in presidential runoff
APRIL 8, 202110:46 AMUPDATED 8 HOURS AGO
By Alexandra Valencia
3 MIN READ
QUITO (Reuters) - Ecuadoreans on Sunday will choose between a conservative banker and a left-wing economist in a presidential runoff that follows months of debate over whether the country’s economic malaise can be best treated through socialism or market-friendly policies.
Polls broadly indicate socialist Andres Arauz, a protege of former President Rafael Correa, with a lead over rival Guillermo Lasso, with many showing a quarter or more of the electorate either undecided or planning to spoil their ballot.
A victory for Arauz would further consolidate a string of leftist electoral victories in South America in the last year, while a win for Lasso would leave Ecuador in the political and commercial orbit of the United States as he seeks to create jobs through foreign investment.
Investors are closely watching the outcome because Arauz has promised to renegotiate the terms of a financing deal with the International Monetary Fund and to vastly expand social welfare spending despite precarious state finances.
More:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ecuador-election/ecuador-to-choose-between-socialism-and-free-markets-in-presidential-runoff-idUSKBN2BV2EJ
Ecuador fared so well with leftist President Rafael Correa. Voters expected far better when Correa's Vice President ran next, not knowing he would turn 180 degrees as soon as he was elected, and the country suffered. There shouldn't be a question about electing a progressive President this time.
3,000-year-old 'Lost Golden City' unearthed in Egypt's Luxor
Posted by
ABC News
3 hours ago
Egypt announced on Thursday the discovery of what it termed the "Lost Golden City" in the southern province of Luxor, with one U.S.-based egyptologist describing the find as the biggest archaeological discovery since Tutankhamun's tomb nearly a century ago.
A mission led by Egypt's former antiquities chief Zahi Hawass unearthed "several areas or neighborhoods" of the 3,000-year-old city after seven months of excavation.
The mission's original target was to find a mortuary temple of King Tut, whose tomb was discovered in Luxor's Valley of the Kings in 1922, but they instead excavated parts of an entire city.
The city, which Hawass also called "The Rise of Aten," dates back to the era of 18th-dynasty king Amenhotep III, who ruled Egypt from 1391 till 1353 B.C.
"The excavation started in September 2020 and within weeks, to the team's great surprise, formations of mud bricks began to appear in all directions," Egypt's antiquities ministry said in a statement.
"What they unearthed was the site of a large city in a good condition of preservation, with almost complete walls, and with rooms filled with tools of daily life."
More:
https://www.newsbreak.com/news/2200251390674/3-000-year-old-lost-golden-city-unearthed-in-egypt-s-luxor
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https://twitter.com/TourismandAntiq/status/1380204026680184833
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Egyptologist Zahi Hawass Announces Discovery of Lost ‘Golden’ City in Luxor
EGYPTIAN STREETS
8 APRIL 2021
Image courtesy of the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.
Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities announced on Thursday that an Egyptian mission under the supervision of Egyptologist Dr. Zahi Hawass discovered a city – dubbed the Rise of Aten – which had been under the sands for 3,000 years, dating back to the reign of Amenhotep III.
The statement, which was shared on the Ministry’s social media pages, adds that “the largest city ever found in Egypt” was founded by one of the greatest rulers of Egypt, namely of the New Kingdom, Amenhotep III. The latter had been the ninth king of Dynasty 18, ruling Egypt from 1391 till 1353 B.C.
“Many foreign missions searched for this city and never found it. We began our work searching for the mortuary temple of Tutankhamun because the temples of both Horemheb and Ay were found in this area,” Hawass said. “The city’s streets are flanked by houses, which some of their walls reach 3 meters high. We can reveal that the city extends to the west, all the way to the famous Deir el-Medina.”
Betsy Brian, Professor of Egyptology at John Hopkins University in Baltimore USA, described the discovery as “the second most important archeological discovery since the tomb of Tutankhamun.”
More:
https://egyptianstreets.com/2021/04/08/egyptologist-zahi-hawass-announces-discovery-of-lost-golden-city-in-luxor/
Viva, Dr. Zahi Hawass!
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The 3,000-year-old lost city of Luxor appears | Culture
April 8, 2021
When Egypt still had its head in the solemn procession of mummies last Saturday in Cairo, a local archaeological mission announced on Thursday the discovery of what they consider the largest ancient city ever found in the country, and which has remained hidden under the sands of Luxor, in the south, for 3,000 years. The city, apparently called The Rise of Aten, was founded by Pharaoh Amenhotep III, the ninth king of the 18th dynasty, who ruled Egypt from 1391 BC to 1353 BC, and was the largest administrative and industrial settlement of the time in the area, as explained by Zahi Hawass, Egypt’s most famous archaeologist and head of the mission, in a release. The place, which has also become known as the Lost Golden City, continued in operation during the reigns of Tutankhamun and Ay. “This is the most important discovery after the tomb of Tutankhamun,” Hawass assured EL PAÍS.
The area in which the pharaonic city has been found lies between the temple of Amenhotep III at Memnon, west of the modern city of Luxor, and the temple of Ramses III at Medinet Habu, another archaeological site located on the bank of the Nile opposite to Luxor. The Egyptian mission began work at this point in search of the mortuary temple of Tutankhamun. “Many foreign missions searched for this city and never found it,” Hawass said in his statement.
The excavation work began in September 2020, and within a few weeks the mission began to unearth mud brick formations in all directions that belonged to the ancient city, which remain in good condition and include almost complete walls. Since then, several areas or neighborhoods have been discovered. “The streets of the city are lined with houses, some with walls of up to three meters,” writes Hawass, who believes that the city extends west “to the famous Deir El Medina”, an important town of workers and artisans of the Old Egypt.
Hawass’s team has also been able to identify some of the buildings in the city. Thus, in the southern part there has been a bakery and a food preparation area with ovens and storage ceramics that, due to their size, are considered to supply “a large number of workers.” Another part, still half discovered, corresponds to the administrative and residential district, with larger and well-arranged buildings, and is surrounded by a zigzag wall with a single entrance that leads to the internal corridors and residential areas, probably For security.
More:
https://digismak.com/the-3000-year-old-lost-city-of-luxor-appears-culture/
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Egyptian archaeological mission discovers ‘Lost Golden City’ in Luxor
Ancient city was built during reign of Amenhotep III, who ruled Egypt from 1391 to 1353 B.C.
Nihal Samir 7 hours ago
An Egyptian archaeological mission, led by famed archaeologist Zahi Hawass, has unearthed the 3000-year-old “Golden City”, also called, The Rise of Aten.
The ancient city was built during the reign of Amenhotep III, the ninth king of the 18th Dynasty who ruled Egypt from 1391 to 1353 B.C. This city was active during the great king’s co-regency with his son, the famous Amenhotep IV/Akhenaton. It remained in use by following kings Tutankhamun and Ay.
The Egyptian mission was surprised to discover the largest administrative settlement in Ancient Egypt.
“Many foreign missions searched for this city and never found it. We began our work searching for the mortuary temple of Tutankhamun because the temples of both Horemheb and Ay were found in this area,” Hawass said.
“The city’s streets are flanked by houses, some of which have up to 3-metre-high walls,” Hawass continued, “The city extends to the west, all the way to the famous ancient village Deir el-Medina.”
More:
https://dailynewsegypt.com/2021/04/08/egyptian-archaeological-mission-discovers-lost-golden-city-in-luxor/
25 Organizations Call for an End to U.S. Support for Aerial Herbicide Fumigation in Colombia
30 MAR 2021 | JOINT STATEMENT
Colombia’s government is moving closer to reinstating a program, suspended in 2015, that would spray herbicides from aircraft over territories where coca is cultivated. Twenty-five U.S. and Colombian organizations have joined on this letter to President Joe Biden urging him to avoid supporting a renewed “fumigation” program, succinctly laying out the reasons why this would be an unfortunate policy mistake. The letter was shared with the White House on March 26.
March 26, 2021
President Joseph R. Biden, Jr.
The White House
Washington, DC
Dear President Biden,
We write out of strong concern about the imminent restart of a program that your administration is inheriting from its predecessor: an effort to eradicate coca in Colombia by spraying herbicides from aircraft. We encourage you not to provide funding for this program, which not only failed to achieve past objectives, but sends a message of cruelty and callousness with which the United States should no longer be associated. It will undermine the peace accords that are a powerful legacy of the Obama-Biden administration.
Aerial fumigation can bring short-term reductions in the number of acres planted with coca. But past experience shows not only that these gains reverse quickly, but that the strategy undermines other U.S. and Colombian security objectives. Recurring to fumigation is like going back in time, ignoring much that we have learned about what does and does not work.
Many of our organizations have published studies documenting the harm that fumigation has done in the past. The December 2020 report of the U.S. government’s bipartisan Western Hemisphere Drug Policy Commission found that forced eradication brought “enormous costs and dismal results.” Just since the end of February, we have seen strong critiques of forced eradication and fumigation from the International Crisis Group; the Ideas for Peace Foundation, a Colombian business sector think tank; a list of over 200 scholars, and seven UN human rights rapporteurs.
Between 1994 and 2015, a U.S.-backed program supported a fleet of aircraft, and teams of contract pilots and maintenance personnel, that sprayed the herbicide glyphosate over 4.42 million acres of Colombian territory—a land area 3 1/2 times the size of Delaware. In 2015 the Colombian government suspended the spray program, citing public health concerns based on a World Health Organization study finding glyphosate to be “probably carcinogenic to humans.”
More:
https://www.wola.org/2021/03/25-organizations-call-for-end-to-us-support-for-aerial-herbicide-fumigation-in-colombia/
Some Standard Cynical CIA-Style Cuba Covid Reporting at The Washington Post
APRIL 2, 2021
BY PAUL STREET
Never underestimate the cynicism of American corporate media. As the Scotland-based historian Helen Yaffe recently observed on Counterpunch, the socialist state of Cuba currently has five COVID-19 vaccines in clinical trials “and is set to be among the first nations to vaccinate its entire population.” Further: “Cuba has gone on the offensive against Covid-19, mobilizing the prevention-focused, community based public healthcare system to carry out daily house visits to actively detect and treat cases and channeling the medical science sector to adapt and produce new treatments for patients and Covid-19 specific vaccines. These advances bring hope not just for Cuba, but for the world.”
Cuba has one of the lowest COVID-19 infection rates and one of the lowest COVID-19 death rates in the Western world. The relatively small island nation is the only Latin American country to have developed its own vaccine. We can expect Cuba to export its vaccine, as it has long exported its surplus medical workers, to other nations within and beyond Latin America. By the end of the year, the island nation of 11 million should be able to produce 100 million doses.
The Cuban accomplishment, achieved despite the United States’ draconian blockade, is remarkable. As Jaffe notes, it’s all about the socialism, the creation of a society outside and against the rule of imperialist capitalism. “Cuba,” Yaffe writes: “has become a world-leader in biotechnology because it has a socialist state with a centrally planned economy, that has invested in science and technology and puts human welfare before …capitalism and greed…. it is the absence of the capitalist profit motive which underlies the outstanding domestic and international response to Covid-19 by socialist Cuba…”
Indeed. Socialist Cuba, founded in part by a Marxist physician (Che Guevera) who said that love for one’s fellow human beings was at the heart of being a revolutionary, puts humanity first, without concern for private accumulation and return. Imagine.
But journalists Anthony Faiola and Ana Vanessa Herrero, reporters at the longtime CIA-affiliated Washington Post, know better. All they can see in socialist Cuba’s humanistic COVID-19 achievements are an attempted “public relations coup for an isolated country that was added back to the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism in the final days of the Trump administration.”
More:
https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/04/02/some-standard-cynical-cia-style-cuba-covid-reporting-at-the-washington-post/
Astronomers declare no further research required
1 April 2021/
Cosmos
Astronomers around the globe reveal that we’ve learned everything we need to know about the universe.
Credit: Bryan Allen / Getty Images.
Scientists across the world have declared that no further research is required in the field of astronomy, saying that everything about space is now sufficiently understood.
The decision, announced today at the virtual Global Consortium of Astronomy, Astrology and Astrophysics conference, was met with applause but not surprise from the astronomical community.
“The Pluto thing distracted us for a while, but really we’ve been on a trajectory to finishing our research since the early 2000s,” says Professor April Furst, an astrophysicist at the Facility Of Observational Lens’ and Spectrometry in Space (FOOLSs), University of Eastern Australia.
“We think we’ve figured it out at this point. There might be a few more black holes we can discover, but everything else is pretty much mapped. Humanity can now look to the stars, and not wonder about anything.”
The decision comes along with a proposal to convert the world’s biggest telescopes – including the Square Kilometre Array – into theme parks.
More:
https://cosmosmagazine.com/space/astronomy/astronomers-declare-no-further-research-required/
Honduras drugs: President's brother gets life in prison
Published 16 hours ago
AFP
Tony Hernández was arrested at Miami airport in November 2018
A court in the United States has sentenced the brother of Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández to life in prison for drug trafficking.
Former Congressman Juan Antonio "Tony" Hernández was found guilty in October 2019 of smuggling tonnes of cocaine into the US.
Prosecutors said he had bribed law enforcement officials and was also complicit in at least two murders.
President Juan Orlando Hernández called his brother's sentence "outrageous".
Lawyers for Tony Hernández said they would appeal against the sentence.
Who is Tony Hernández?
The 42-year-old served as a member of Congress for the National Party from 2014 to 2018.
He was arrested in November 2018 in Miami on charges that he had used his connections with the government to smuggle cocaine through Honduras to the US.
More:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-56589088
Skull of dinosaur called 'one who causes fear' found in Patagonia
Published17 hours ago
REUTERS
An artist's impression of Llukalkan aliocranianus
Scientists in southern Argentina have found the skull of a large meat-eating dinosaur named "one who causes fear" in the local Mapuche language.
The horned Llukalkan aliocranianus was around 5 metres (16 feet) long and roamed South America 85 million years ago.
Researchers found remains nearby of another carnivorous dinosaur, something they said was highly unusual.
The findings from Patagonia were published on Tuesday.
Like the Tyrannosaurus rex, the Llukalkan dinosaur was two-legged with very short arms, but was medium-sized compared to the giant T. rex.
It also had short horns and tiny fingers. It was estimated to weigh between one and five tonnes, slightly lighter than an adult African elephant.
More:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-56590733
Also posted in Science:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/122875252
El Salvador president says missing teen found, daughter of woman killed by police
MAR 31 2021
El Salvador President Nayib Bukele said on Wednesday that a missing teenager has been found, identifying her as the daughter of Victoria Salazar, who died in Mexico after a Mexican female police officer was seen in a video kneeling on her back.
The attorney general’s office of the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, where Salazar died, said on Tuesday night that an amber alert had been issued for her daughter, 16-year-old Francela Yaritza Salazar Arriaza. Francela was last seen in the Caribbean tourist resort of Tulum, where her mother was killed.
“The oldest daughter of Victoria has been found. She is now in the custody of FGE,” Bukele tweeted, referring to the state attorney general’s office. “She is physically well.”
. . .
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador this week said Salazar, 36, had been subject to “brutal treatment and murdered” after her detention on Saturday by four police officers. An autopsy showed Salazar’s neck had been broken.
More:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mexico-violence-woman/el-salvador-president-says-missing-teen-found-daughter-of-woman-killed-by-police-idUSKBN2BN3L4
Salvadoran Refugee Victoria Salazar Dead After Police Brutality During Arrest
by Virginia Isaad March 30, 2021
On the same day that opening arguments in the George Floyd trial began, social media was ablaze with calls for justice after another death at the alleged hands of the police. Salvadoran woman Victoria Esperanza Salazar Arriaza was arrested on March 27 in Tulum, Quintana Roo, Mexico after a local shop owner called the authorities due to concerns over her behavior. A policewoman and three male police officers were on the scene and according to El Salvador.com, they used excessive force to detain her on the ground. Video footage shows 36-year-old Victoria crying in pain as they held her down despite her pleas. She reportedly lost consciousness and in the video footage, her limp and handcuffed body can be seen carried onto the back of a police pickup truck. She died in the aftermath. (WARNING: Video contains distressing footage)
https://twitter.com/RIDNoticias/status/1376242685447704578
Quintana Roo State Prosecutor Oscar Montes de Oca told Mexican outlet Milenio that the police officers used “disproportionate” use of force.” She died of “a fracture of part of the upper spinal column produced by the rupture of the first and second vertebra which caused the loss of the victim,” he said.
ElSalvador.com reported that the police officers are in custody and will go before a judge in the case of femicide which has a prison sentence of up to 50 years. According to local media, the mother of two daughters, age 15 and 16, moved to Mexico as a refugee in 2018 on a humanitarian visa. She left her hometown of Sonsonate in El Salvador to escape the gang violence and had been working in Tulum, a popular resort town, as a housekeeper in a local hotel. El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele urged that the “full force of the law” be applied in Mexico and said that El Salvador will care for her daughters once they are repatriated.
More:
https://hiplatina.com/victoria-salazar-mexico-femicide/
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Mexico police under fire after woman's death in custody
Published1 day ago
Women called for "justice for Victoria" during protests in both Mexico and El Salvador
Outrage has been growing over the death in police custody of a Salvadorean woman in the Mexican resort of Tulum on Saturday as more details of the incident emerged.
A post-mortem examination suggests Victoria Esperanza Salazar's neck was broken after a female officer pinned her to the ground.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said she had been "murdered".
The incident comes amid growing protests against femicides in Mexico.
Who was Victoria Salazar?
The 36-year-old from El Salvador had been in Mexico since at least 2018, when she was granted refugee status for humanitarian reasons.
Her mother says she left her hometown of Sonsonate five years ago to escape the violence which El Salvador's notorious street gangs were spreading.
More:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-56576054
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