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February 10, 2018 - No. 5 "Their Spirits Live Within Us" Women's Memorial Marches Honour Murdered and Missing Women
PyeongChang "Peace
Olympics" "Their Spirits Live Within Us" Women's Memorial Marches Honour
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Indigenous women are almost
three times as likely as
non-Indigenous women to experience violence. The Native Women's
Association of Canada (NWAC) and Walk 4 Justice conclude there
are more than 4,000 murdered and missing Indigenous women and
girls. Meanwhile, the RCMP reports 1,181 cases of missing or
murdered Indigenous women in Canada between 1980 and 2012.
Families report failure by police to investigate reports of
missing women and failure to investigate deaths. Former Status of Women
Minister Patty Hadju acknowledged the history of police
under-reporting of homicides, and failure to investigate
suspicious deaths. The enormity of the failure can be seen in the
gap between the number of murdered and missing women according
to the RCMP and the information gathered by NWAC and Walk 4
Justice amongst others. In not a few cases the police themselves
are implicated in racist violence against Indigenous women and
girls, which they carry out with impunity.
Recent information also
confirms that even government
agencies and institutions are not safe places for women to work.
Accusations of improper sexual conduct abound within the
Parliament and government ministries and the upper echelons of
establishment political parties with seats in the parliament.
Women in both the RCMP and Canadian Armed Forces have launched class
action suits after years of demanding an end to
harassment and assault. The government agreed in 2017 to settle a
class action suit on behalf of female RCMP officers for
discrimination and sexual harassment. To date 2,400 women have
joined the lawsuit. These large class action suits shed light on
the inherent sexist nature of these institutions which facilitate
violence and other injustices against women.
With broad smiles the
cheerleaders greeted reporters and
confidently said of their aim, "We're here to bring about
unification." Asked what kind of routines they would perform, one
of them responded, "You'll have to wait and see. It wouldn't be
any fun to spoil the surprise!" Others assured their cheering
would be "full of energy and spirit."
A luncheon meeting between
ROK President Moon; Kim Yo Jong, head of the DPRK's delegation to the
Olympics and First Vice Director of the DPRK's Workers' Party Central
Committee; Kim Yong Nam, President of the Presidium of the Supreme
People's Assembly of the DPRK; and others was held February 10, where
the focus was inter-Korean relations. Kim Yo Jong delivered to
President Moon a handwritten letter from DPRK leader Kim Jong Un
formally inviting him to Pyongyang at the "earliest date possible," to
which Moon responded positively, saying, "Let us make it happen by
creating the necessary conditions in the future."|
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Meanwhile, the U.S. appears nonplussed by the dialogue between the DPRK and ROK. News media have commented that U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, head of his country's Olympic delegation, has been assiduously avoiding contact with members of the DPRK delegation. In that vein, he left an Olympic dinner hosted by President Moon on February 8 shortly after arriving, where he was to have shared a table with Kim Yong Nam. On February 9, he refused to acknowledge the presence of Kim Yong Nam and Kim Yo Jong at the opening ceremonies, though seated practically in front of them. While the entire stadium was seen to give a standing ovation to the joint Korean delegation as it marched through the stadium behind the Unification Flag, Pence pointedly remained seated.
(With files from the IOC, Hankyoreh, SPARK, Zoom in Korea. Photos: Yonhap News, Hankyoreh, China Daily, Tongil News, OhmyNews, Korean Peace Alliance, U.S. June 15 Committee for Reunification of Korea, J.M. Park, agencies)
U.S. Bullying and Threats Against DPRK
Serious U.S. Miscalculation of Korean
Desire for Reunification
Kim Yong Nam (left, in black), President of the Presidium of the
Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK, and Kim Yo Jong, First Vice
Director of the DPRK's Workers' Party Central Committee, are warmly
greeted at
the opening ceremony
of the 2018 Winter Olympics, February 9, 2018, by South Korean
President Moon Jae-in and First Lady Kim Jung-sook.
Korea is striving for reunification, peace and to block
regime change but the U.S. calculates that sanctions will ensure
that Korea cannot last. The U.S. thinks that starving the people
and creating ever more difficult conditions will bring the regime
down. The calculations of the U.S. and countries such as Canada
are based on their psychology of bullying people. But their
arrogance makes them blind to a quality of the people that they
cannot fathom, which is their profound motivation to reunify their
country. Just as U.S. policy toward Cuba, and Vietnam before
that, failed to predict the readiness of the people to persist in
their national and social liberation struggles, so too in Korea,
the U.S. and its allies' attempts to blackmail the Koreans do not
reap the results they desire.
Since inter-Korean talks took place on January 9 and then Canada co-hosted with the U.S. the so-called Ministerial Meeting on Stability and Security in Vancouver on January 16, the U.S. has stepped up its aggressive actions towards the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) which threaten peace and stability on the Korean peninsula. On January 24, the U.S. announced that it would independently impose additional sanctions beyond those imposed by the UN Security Council. The following day, the U.S. Under Secretary of the Treasury flew to south Korea to urge it to maintain thorough-going cooperation in imposing sanctions against the DPRK.
The U.S. then sponsored meetings with south Korean diplomatic and military officials to stress the need for them to lead the north-south dialogue discussing denuclearization. The U.S. invited high-ranking security and military officials to the U.S. to discuss the issue of intensifying "military cooperation" against the DPRK.
The U.S. has brought the nuclear aircraft carrier Carl Vinson strike groups and nuclear strategic bombers to the Korean peninsula and vicinity. Now it is asserting that, after pausing its military exercises around the Korean Peninsula for the Winter Olympics, it will resume the U.S.-south Korea joint military drills right after the games end, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) points out, adding that it has also staged a flying corps strike drill targeting the DPRK with the Japan Air "Self-Defense Force." KCNA adds:
"It is the sinister design of the U.S. to make the north and the south stand in confrontation eternally and create constant tensions on the Korean peninsula from the calculation that the better peace environment on the peninsula makes the U.S. lose its justification for igniting a nuclear war against the DPRK and puts the brakes on its drive for carrying out the strategy for dominating Asia."
KCNA says that "peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula are gravely threatened as long as the U.S. persists in carrying out its sinister purpose and interference."
"All Koreans should heighten their vigilance against
the U.S.
aggression and interference to bring the disaster of a
fratricidal war and a nuclear war to this land, contrary to the
trend of the times. They should foil the U.S. moves by building
national unity," KCNA adds.
In related news, the Canadian submarine Chicoutimi is reportedly marauding the Asia-Pacific region collecting information on possible breaches of UN Security Council sanctions, the CBC reports.
The sub is said to be
tracking "suspicious vessels" and activity, and training with naval
vessels from "partner nations" working to monitor and enforce the
economic sanctions.
The Chicoutimi is capable of "discreetly recording events on
land, such as airport take-offs and landings. Its primary role revolves
around tracking merchant and military vessels while submerged, and
observing suspicious activity on the sea, including ship-to-ship cargo
transfers far from any harbour."
Talk of monitoring "suspicious activity" is ridiculous. Canada's coasts
are thousands of miles away, so it is the activities of the sub which
are suspicious, not those of the DPRK.
Rather than presenting the action of Canada placing its submarine in the service of a U.S. naval blockade of the DPRK as a dangerous act of war against a sovereign nation, the CBC states that this "kind of capability is key in the region right now. The U.S. has accused China and Russia of breaching UN sanctions on North Korea by transferring oil from their ships to North Korean tankers out at sea to avoid detection."
The CBC report goes on to state that the deployment comes at a "sensitive time" when "international tensions have risen to the point where the U.S. is considering options that could include a military strike on the Korean Peninsula."
The specifics of the missions are secret, according to the report, indicating that in fact it is the Canadian submarine which is the suspicious vessel. The CBC ominously reports, "Chicoutimi's far-flung deployment is intended to send a signal to allies -- and Canadians -- that the submarines can now go anywhere they're needed."
Letter of DPRK Foreign Minister
to UN Secretary General
Pyongyang, January 31, Juche 107 (2018)
His Excellency Mr. Secretary-General,
I address this letter to you with respect to emerging dangerous military moves antithetical to the positive changes leading to the improvement of interKorean relations and easing of tension now being manifested on the Korean peninsula.
The fact that a dramatic turning point has been made for peace and stability, national reconciliation and cooperation, and reunification on the Korean peninsula where a touch-and-go war danger was prevailing is entirely thanks to the noble love for the nation by the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un, chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the DPRK, his will for reunification based on devotion to the country and people and his great and courageous determination for safeguarding peace.
Owing to our magnanimous initiative, good results are borne in the inter-Korean dialogue, thus giving joy to all fellow countrymen, and a positive atmosphere in favor of improving inter-Korean relations is created, and the international society warmly welcomes and supports this development and looks forward to seeing continued easing of tension on the Korean peninsula.
However, the U.S. authorities are misleading public opinion as if the inter-Korean dialogue is an outcome of their harshest sanctions and pressure imposed upon our country, and seeking to intentionally aggravate the situation by introducing the strategic assets including nuclear powered aircraft carrier strike groups into the vicinity of the Korean peninsula at a time when the north and south of Korea are charting a course of peace together.
In view of its nature and contents, and scope of troop and war equipment being introduced, the U.S. current moves of military reinforcements are designed to make a preemptive strike against the DPRK, and this is a primary factor which would block the inter-Korean reconciliation process and drive the situation of the Korean peninsula into an unpredictable dangerous phase.
On the other hand, the United States is openly stating that it will conduct a large-scale aggressive joint military exercise against the DPRK immediately after the Winter Olympic Games.
It is a fact acknowledged by the whole world that whenever joint military exercises took place, the peace and security of the Korean peninsula were gravely threatened and the inter-Korean mistrust and confrontation reached a peak, thus creating great difficulties and obstacles ahead of hard-won dialogues.
We will make every effort to improve inter-Korean relations in the future, too, but never sit idle with regard to a sinister act of throwing a wet blanket over our efforts.
In case the hard-won atmosphere in favour of improving the inter-Korean relations and easing the tensions is undermined due to the U.S. manoeuvres aggravating the situation by introducing nuclear war equipment in and around the Korean peninsula, the U.S. would never escape from that responsibility.
As a matter of course, the United Nations should not keep silence as to the U.S. dangerous game of aggravating the situation in and around the Korean peninsula and driving the whole world into the possible disaster of nuclear war.
I express my expectation that you pay serious attention to the U.S. deployment of nuclear war equipment and its manoeuvres to provoke a nuclear war which will undermine the improvement of inter-Korean relations and the easing of tensions, and to exert all your efforts to completely terminate these manoeuvres, in line with your mission stipulated in the UN Charter.
And as an immediate step forward, I would like to request you take up at the UN Security Council, in line with Rule 6 Chapter 2 of the UNSC Rules of Procedure, the issue of welcoming the process of improved inter-Korean relations and discouraging neighboring countries from disturbing the process.
Please accept, Mr. Secretary General, the assurances of my highest consideration.
Ri Yong Ho
Minister for Foreign
Affairs
Democratic People's
Republic of Korea
(Edited slightly for grammar and clarity by TML.)
Genocidal Nature of Sanctions
UNICEF Highlights Damage to Humanitarian Work
On January 12, seventeen countries, including Canada and the United States, signed on to a U.S.-led naval blockade of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) to allegedly enforce UN Security Council sanctions against the DPRK. The sanctions target the entirety of the DPRK with measures aimed at strangling the country and not permitting it to engage in normal trade with other countries.
The United Nations
Children's Fund (UNICEF) indicates
that among other genocidal results, the
sanctions are adversely impacting the survival of children in the
DPRK. It indicates that one of
the "unintended consequences" of the sanctions is that aid groups
like themselves are having difficulties fulfilling their
development aid role in the DPRK.
Appealing for donations to try to overcome the difficulties, UNICEF indicates that "due to the tense political context and the unintended consequences of United Nations Security Council sanctions, United Nations agencies and partners are facing increasing operational challenges." It states "disruptions to banking channels, delays in clearing relief items at entry ports, difficulty securing suppliers and a 160 per cent increase in fuel prices are further constraining agencies' budgets and their ability to implement interventions. This is adversely impacting the survival of children who are already suffering from acute malnutrition." It does not explain how these are unintended consequences when, for example, one of the explicit targets of the sanctions is to cut off the import of fuels. UNICEF reports that the price for a fuel coupon (15 kg of gas) increased from "U.S.$14.57 to U.S.$24.66" on April 1, 2017 and "is still rising."
UNICEF indicates that the implementation of nutrition interventions and the provision of essential medicines and oral rehydration salts is "challenged by the current political situation and sanctions, as well as the availability of funds and in-country cash." Funding constraints also led to significant underachievement against severe acute malnutrition treatment targets, UNICEF reports. It estimates that in 2018, 60,000 children under five will suffer from severe acute malnutrition and will need to be treated through inpatient and outpatient therapeutic feeding programmes, which are the type of programs being hampered by sanctions. It indicates that it expects another 140,000 children will face acute malnourishment and require assistance. It indicated that in 2017, despite a goal to provide 700,000 pregnant women and lactating mothers with multi-micronutrient supplementation, it only reached 280,000. It expects that in 2018 there will be the same need for supplementation with the stricter enforcement of sanctions.
It is immoral and inhuman that UN aid bodies such as UNICEF are having their humanitarian work hampered, with resulting harm to the people of the DPRK, while the UN Security Council continues to impose genocidal sanctions at the behest of the U.S. In truth, the U.S., Canada and the other countries that participated in the genocidal aggression against Korea in the past owe a historic debt to the Korean people for the horrific damage they caused under the UN flag.
Genocide Conspiracy Against North Korea --
Open Letter to International Criminal Court
"The American threats against North Korea continue to mount and with them the threat of the genocide of the people of North Korea by the United States of America and its allies," writes Canadian international criminal lawyer Christopher Black in a January 26 opinion piece posted on New Eastern Outlook. He says the January 16 meeting in Vancouver of the U.S., Canada and other nations that attacked the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in 1950, "took on the character of a meeting of criminals who by their presence, agreement and actions made them parties to a conspiracy to commit genocide, a crime under the statute of the International Criminal Court and the Genocide Convention of 1948."
Black elaborates:
"The threats made against North Korea are due to one single fact: the Democratic People's Republic of Korea refuses to accept the world hegemony of the American Empire. It has nothing to do with nuclear weapons. It has become a ritual now to state that all the permanent members of the Security Council are armed with nuclear weapons, that the United States has used them on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, that they have continuously threatened to use them to intimidate other nations since 1945, that Pakistan, India, and Israel have them, that NATO members in Europe have them at their disposal under U.S. direction, that North Korea is in violation of no international law in developing them to defend themselves, to ensure their security just as all those other nations have done, that North Korea threatens no one and seeks only to have a full and final peace with the United States.
"The nuclear weapon issue is simply the pretext that the United States is using to try to solidify its tyranny over Korea, over the world.
"The threat to world peace comes not from North Korea. It comes from the United States and its allies: the nations who have degraded themselves into subjugated vassal states ready to obey any criminal order of their masters of war in Washington."
Black also felt it necessary to jointly send the following open letter with Dr. Graeme MacQueen, founder and former Director of the Centre For Peace Studies at McMaster University, to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court on January 23.
Open Letter
Dear Madame Prosecutor:
Re: Threats of Genocide Made Against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea
We, the undersigned, share the desire of the Canadian people to establish and preserve peace in the world. It is therefore necessary for us to ask you to open an investigative file on the action of governments allied to the United States, including Canada, its government ministers and officials active in the on-going crisis with the DPRK.
Embarrassment and shock at President Trump's threats against North Korea have been widespread and have led to a serious discussion in the U.S. as to whether Mr. Trump is mentally fit to govern. However, the threats of Mr. Trump and his secretary of defense go well beyond the US domestic sphere and have direct implications for other countries, including Canada.
Article 6 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court states that genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group:
(a) killing members of the group,
(b) causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group,
(c) deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction, in whole or in part, of the group.
Conspiracy to commit genocide is understood in international law as a concerted agreement to commit genocide which may be inferred from the conduct of the conspirators. The evidence to support the charge of genocide can be based on circumstantial evidence as well as direct evidence. Further, the concerted or coordinated action of a group of individuals can constitute evidence of an agreement.
On August 8, 2017 Mr. Trump said that North Korean threats "will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen." His secretary of defense, James Mattis, followed up on August 9 with the statement that, "The DPRK should cease any consideration of actions that would lead to the end of its regime and the destruction of its people."
Mr. Mattis added a further comment on September 3: "We are not looking to the total annihilation of a country, namely North Korea, but as I said, we have many options to do so."
During his maiden speech to the UN General Assembly on September 19, Mr. Trump said: "The United States has great strength and patience, but if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea."
Finally, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, during an interview on January 17, 2018 at Stanford University with Condoleeza Rice, stated approvingly in reference to deaths aboard Korean fishing boats going out to sea in winter without necessary fuel: "they [the North Koreans] are feeling the effect of our sanctions." This is direct evidence that the United States is intentionally creating conditions that will cause the death of Korean civilians on a large scale in order to achieve U.S. objectives.
Rhetorical excess ("fire and fury") is one thing, but this connected series of statements, including a threat of total destruction, constitutes a threat of genocide. Threatening genocide is, arguably, not a crime, but "public incitement to genocide" is explicitly included as a crime in the Genocide Convention to which the U.S. is party. Already, therefore, by publicly and passionately promoting genocide as a policy option, Mr. Trump and Mr. Mattis have entered dangerous territory legally. Since the U.S. is party to the Genocide Convention the provisions of the Convention have the status of U.S. law.
To successfully convict someone of genocide, proof of intention is required. The prosecution needs to show "intent to destroy." This is usually a challenge for the prosecution since perpetrators seldom telegraph their destructive intentions to the world in advance. But, as two genocide scholars have already argued in the Washington Post, the U.S. leadership has done precisely this: it has telegraphed its intentions. If, they point out, Mr. Trump does what he has threatened, prosecuting him for genocide would take a straightforward path.
The country of the undersigned, Canada, is a member of the ICC and under its jurisdiction, and Canadian leaders and officials have individual responsibility for any crimes committed under the Statute. Since there is clear evidence that the crime of genocide is being discussed openly and that plans are being made to carry it out against the people of the DPRK by U.S. leaders and since, in these circumstances and with full knowledge of these threats and plans, U.S. allies, including Canada, are cooperating with the U.S. government and meeting to discuss actions to be taken against North Korea, and since these allies of the U.S. appear to be ignoring international law, the Charter of the United Nations and the Rome Statute, it is necessary that an investigation be conducted by your office to consider the evidence and to prosecute if there is evidence of a crime.
The United States of America is no longer a member of the ICC. However, it is bound by the Charter of the United Nations to keep the world peace, is party to the Genocide Convention, and was a sponsor of the International Criminal Court. Moreover, the ICC has not only an investigative and prosecutorial role, but also the role of informing the world what criminal conduct is when it is happening; and it has a duty to make a public statement condemning it when it happens. It chose to do so with regard to Kenya for example. It should do so in the current crisis.
We ask that the Office of the Prosecutor open an investigative file in this matter and, in addition, use your voice as Prosecutor and the moral imperative your office claims to represent to avoid genocide and to condemn as grave violations of international criminal law the announced intentions and actions of the nations mentioned above.
Asserting U.S. Hegemony Over Latin America
Engaging in Corruption in the Name of Fighting It
Just as in past decades the U.S. waged its "War on Drugs" in Latin America to defend its position as protector of the biggest drug cartels and eliminate their opponents and rivals, so too today it is posturing as the greatest anti-corruption crusader to achieve its aim of keeping corrupt pro-U.S. governments in charge.
U.S. Secretary of State Rex
Tillerson spent a week in Latin America and the Caribbean on official
visits to Mexico, Argentina, Peru, Colombia and Jamaica from February
1 to 8. A speech he gave at the University of Texas at Austin before
setting out, set the tone for his visit. His priorities revolved around
asserting U.S. hegemony in its "backyard," confirmed by his comment
that the infamous 19th century Monroe Doctrine was "as relevant today
as it was the day it was written." In the speech he warned against what
he called the growing presence of China and Russia in the region and
pushed for more "market-based economic reforms" and "the opening up of
more market economies."
A central aim was to get as many countries as possible onside with U.S. efforts to strangle Venezuela economically and impede the ability of Venezuelans themselves to resolve the crisis in their country, instigated from abroad, through peaceful political means. Tillerson made a point of emphasizing that his government considers the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to be "a corrupt regime that steals from its own people." This attack served as a segue for him to demand that all countries in the western hemisphere make 2018 a year to "take serious action against corruption." Corruption must be "rooted out in all its forms," he said.
In recent years a preferred method of the U.S. imperialists for ousting, if not outright destroying those who refuse to come under their dictate, involves the use of manipulated legal, parliamentary and constitutional processes to accomplish their aim. Often the targeted person is accused of corruption or some other activity deemed as criminal while the regimes of the most corrupt thieves in the service of the U.S. are supported. In Brazil, former President Dilma Rousseff was forced out of office on totally spurious grounds in a parliamentary coup that was upheld by the country's Supreme Court. Today, these same usurpers, themselves covered in corruption, are attempting to get former President Luiz Inácio "Lula" da Silva jailed for corruption in another mockery of justice. Under no circumstances do they want him to be a presidential candidate in the upcoming election, which he has a good chance of winning so long as he is allowed to run. Their fear is that another Workers' Party government will reverse the neo-liberal direction they have taken Brazil of privatizing and selling out the country's resources to foreign interests, cutting the people's social programs and attacking workers' rights.
Similar methods were used in an attempt to criminalize Argentina's former President Cristina Kirchner to ensure that a billionaire businessman could be installed to implement a similar Washington-dictated agenda of paying the rich and austerity for everyone else.
Ecuador Next?
Protest in El Carmen, February 8, 2018. Photo by Sofía
Espín Reyes, a deputy in Guayas province, who writes that the
government, "while looking to defend
its unconstitutional consultation to international authorities, has
left the country waiting for attention to really urgent issues."
Now in Ecuador we see something similar taking shape against former President Rafael Correa and the Citizen's Revolution he led during his ten years in office, which lifted more than one million people out of poverty, greatly expanded public health care and education and took important stands in defence of the sovereignty of the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean.
Shortly after current President Lenin Moreno assumed office in May 2017 he dismissed his vice president and in record time had him charged, jailed and convicted of corruption in connection with what has become known as the Odebrecht Scandal.[1] He has also accused former President Rafael Correa -- in whose government he served as vice president until being elected president himself -- of leading a "corrupt" government and trying to hide it. Correa says that is demonstrably false and accuses Moreno of betraying their Citizen's Revolution and those who elected him, by taking up the neo-liberal program of the opposition and the old ruling elite. There are those who expect changes to the country's constitution, that will be made based on the results of a national referendum held on February 4, will be used as tools to remove Correa and possibly others from the scene in line with the way Lula is being persecuted in Brazil.
An opinion piece on the website Mision Verdad states:
"The charge [against Vice President Jorge Glas] was based on files delivered by Odebrecht to the United States about its bribery network in the region, with the intention now being to move against Correa and his allies to bury them as a political force after an aggressive communications campaign of hatred against him for allegedly representing the 'most corrupt government in Ecuador'.
"Thus the political banishment of Correa and his almost certain judicial persecution is very similar to what was done to the leaders Lula and Cristina to whom they applied a campaign of demonization based on alleged acts of corruption, followed by a series of biased investigations that have put their future as leaders at risk, leaving them on the edge of an almost certain political death.
"Paradoxically, the three [former presidents] are additionally being used by those attacking them as the reason for re-ordering the rules of the "democratic" game of their countries. A new form of political exceptionalism where public institutions, such as justice and parliament, are instrumentalized against those who oppose free market reforms, is being fully developed in Argentina, Brazil and now Ecuador."[2]
It is the ultimate act of corruption for champions of a system based on paying the rich by fleecing the working people and violating their fundamental rights, to persecute and destroy political rivals because they implement even modest reforms that clash with this inherently corrupt agenda. No matter how much the U.S. imperialists and those in their service try to excuse such treachery as "legal" and "constitutional" it only shows that the people continue to lack the power they need to defend their interests. Despite the belief of the forces of retrogression that they can control everything using the police powers of the state, the No! of the organized people in Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela and now Ecuador as well as Honduras are the decisive factor in setting a course for the future for these countries.
Note
1. Based in Brazil, Odebrecht is Latin America's largest engineering and construction company. It became an international giant using bribery to secure lucrative infrastructure and other contracts. The corruption is alleged to have reached the highest levels of government in some countries. In Brazil, Operation Car Wash (Lava Jato) was opened to investigate accusations of corruption and money laundering at the state oil company Petrobras -- much of it involving Odebrecht. Company CEO Marcelo Odebrecht is currently serving house arrest for his part in the scheme. He was first sentenced to 19 years in prison for paying out $30 million in one of the many cases related to Operation Car Wash. That sentence was reduced to 10 years after he signed a leniency deal in exchange for paying a fine of nearly $2 billion, admitting guilt and providing testimony to authorities. Similar plea deals were struck by other company executives.
2. Bruno Sgarzini, "Victoria del SÍ en Ecuador: lecciones de un nuevo ciclo político regional," Mision Verdad, February 8, 2018.
(Translation of quotations from original Spanish by TML.)
Brazil
Fight for Lula's Right to Be
Presidential Candidate Intensifies
Mass support rally for the candidacy of former Brazilian President Luiz
Inácio Lula da Silva,
Sao Paulo, January 24, 2018,
part of
the cross-country "Lula for Brazil" caravan
underway since last year.
On January 24, as tens of thousands of Brazilians demonstrated in the streets against what they say is a judicial farce being played out against him, declaring "An Election Without Lula is a Fraud!" and demanding "Show us the Evidence!" the Fourth Regional Federal Appellate Court (TRF4) in the city of Porto Alegre upheld the conviction of former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on charges of passive corruption and money laundering.[1]
The three-judge panel denied Lula's appeal by unanimous decision shortly after hearing the arguments presented by his defence lawyer. They then took the additional measure of increasing the nine-and-a-half-year jail sentence imposed by the judge who first convicted him to 12 years and one month.
The court stated it would not order Lula's imprisonment until all appeals had been exhausted, up to and including the level of the country's Supreme Court. However the day after his appeal was denied, a judge in another court barred Lula from leaving the country and ordered him to hand over his passport, forcing him to cancel a weekend trip to Ethiopia where he had been invited to participate in a panel discussion at the African Union Summit on combating hunger based on successful programs implemented in Brazil during his presidency. The order was supposedly unrelated to the appeal court decision but based on other charges of a similar nature that have yet to be heard. On February 2 a judge in a higher court overturned the lower court order saying there was no evidence Lula intended to flee Brazil.
In response to this barrage of attacks through the legal system the Workers' Party has confirmed Lula as its candidate for the presidency in the October election and has vowed to continue and intensify the fight against the violation of his rights and for the rights of the Brazilian people. In a communique the PT states:
"Lula has committed no crime. His accusers know that. His conviction is a judicial farce that embarrasses Brazil before the world. [...]
"In order to convict Lula, without any evidence and any crime, the 4th Federal Regional Court decreed that [Operation] Car Wash [the investigation headed by the judge who convicted Lula -- TML Note ] judges and prosecutors did not have to comply with the rules set forth for 'ordinary cases.' Once the state of exception was decreed, Lula's and his family's rights were violated throughout the entire process. Now, the indecent arrangement ... by the three, 8th-panel, appellate court judges of the TRF-4 to plan their votes on the defense's appeal exposed the trial's political nature.
"Lula was persecuted, accused, tried, and convicted in a process of exception that is the continuity of the 2016 impeachment coup against President Dilma Rousseff.
"The strings that moved Operation Car Wash and the Porto Alegre appellate court in a biased process to convict Lula, without evidence of a crime, are manipulated by the same sectors that have torn up the Constitution and the votes of 54 million voters in order to place a gang in the presidential Palácio do Planalto."
The communique concluded by sharing the resolution adopted "at this decisive time for the future of our country" at a public assembly by the PT National Executive, to:
1. Reaffirm the decision by the PT National Directorate that our brother Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will run for the Presidency of the Republic in the October 2018 elections;
2. Denounce to the country and the world the judicial farce against Lula: the illegal actions of [Operation] Car Wash police officers and prosecutors, the unfair and illegal sentence by Sérgio Moro, the indecent arrangement of the TRF-4 appellate judges and the connivance of [television network] Rede Globo with this farce;
3. Greet and thank the political parties, social movements, organizations, and personalities who, in Brazil and abroad, have condemned the persecution and proclaimed the democratic meaningfulness of Lula's participation in the political and electoral process;
4. Deepen dialogue and uphold unity with political parties and social forces, seeking to establish a broad and solid alliance with all those who may agree on the government platform we are building and will submit to the country;
5. Establish increasingly more People's Committees in Defense of Democracy and of Lula's Right to be a Candidate, gathering brothers and sisters with diverse political visions to dialogue with the people about the persecution against Lula.
With Lula and the people until victory in October!
São Paulo, 25
January 2018. National Executive
Board
of the Workers' Party (PT)
Support rally for Lula, Porto Alegre, January 24, 2018.
Note
1. See "Lula
Has
the
Right
to
be a Candidate for President," TML Weekly January
20, 2018.
(With files from Folha de Sao Paulo. Photos: R. Stuckert)
Cuba
U.S. Establishes Cyber Task Force to Meddle in
Cuba's Internal
Affairs and Target Its Youth
On January 23 the U.S. Department of State announced the creation of the Cuba Internet Task Force to "promote the free and unregulated flow of information in Cuba. The task force will examine the technological challenges and opportunities for expanding internet access and independent media in Cuba," a news release said. It also announced its first meeting will be held February 7.
This new initiative comes in response to President Trump's June 16, 2017 National Security Presidential Memorandum "Strengthening the Policy of the United States Toward Cuba."
In response, the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a diplomatic note that "expresses its strong protest against the pretension of the U.S. government to violate flagrantly Cuban sovereignty, with respect to national competence to regulate the flow of information and the use of mass media, while rejecting the attempt to manipulate the Internet to carry out illegal programs for political purposes and subversion, as part of their actions aimed at altering or changing the constitutional order of the Republic of Cuba."
The note demands that the
Government of the United
States
"cease its subversive, interfering and illegal actions against
Cuba, which undermine Cuban constitutional stability and order,
and urges it to respect Cuban sovereignty, International Law and
the purposes of and principles of the Charter of the United
Nations."
In its message, the Cuban Foreign Ministry reiterates the determination of the Government of Cuba not to tolerate any type of subversive activity or interference in its internal affairs and, as a sovereign country, to continue defending itself and denouncing the interfering nature of this type of action.
"Cuba will continue to regulate the flow of information as is its sovereign right and as is practice in all countries, including the United States. Cuba will also continue advancing in the computerization of its society, as part of the development of the country and in terms of the social justice objectives that characterize its Revolution," it says.
Other programs to try and use the internet to foment regime change in Cuba have failed miserably and exposed what the U.S. means by "free flow of information." Under the administration of Obama there was the ZunZuneo, a U.S. created messaging platform similar to Twitter aimed at trying to attack the consciousness of Cuban youth who defend their sovereignty and right to self-determination.
Cuba's Expansion of Internet
Meanwhile, Cuba is steadily expanding access to the internet for its citizens according to its economic possibilities under the conditions of a brutal U.S. blockade which blocks its ability to trade freely with other countries.
A report from Rosa Miriam Elizalde indicates that "2017 will be remembered as the boom year for the expansion of internet access in our country -- with 40 per cent of Cubans now online, 37 per cent more than in 2010 -- and the establishment of internet hot spots in urban areas across the island."
Official statistics from the Cuban Telecommunication Enterprise (ETECSA) indicate that 600,000 new cell phone lines were activated last year, bringing the total number to 4.5 million. Around 250,000 connections at 500 public wi-fi hotspots were registered daily across the country. The highest growth rates were seen in two categories linked to digital connectivity, according to the report Digital in 2017: Global Overview, with over 2.7 million new users, a 365 per cent increase as compared to 2016; and an increase in the use of cell phones to access social networks, with 2.6 million new users, up 385 per cent.
United States Returns to Failed Cuba Policies
If the Trump administration presumes to use new technologies to impose changes on Cuba's internal order, it has chosen a very timeworn route, one that has been inoperative and ineffective in the past -- not to mention that it violates the laws of the country involved, and even those of the United States.
The creation of an Internet
Task Force focused on Cuba,
announced by the State Department January 23, opens the doors for
the continuation of a failed Cold War policy, which the two
countries had stated their intention to change on December 17,
2014.
This move comes in the wake of the mistaken, poorly-advised speech given by the President in Miami, this past June 16, when he met with a group from the far-right of Cuban origin, to announce with much pomp and circumstance his changes to the country's policy toward Cuba, which can be summarized, in a few words, as more blockade and less travel between the two countries.
The battlefield chosen for this latest aggression, the internet, shows clearly Washington's true objectives when references are made to "free access" in countries it opposes, while in U.S. territory a mega-system is maintained to scan and gather data about what citizens are doing on the net.
Likewise, at the beginning of January, the U.S. Congress advanced a bill to remove the few restrictions that exist on international cyber-espionage, the extent of which was made evident by the leaks of former National Security Agency employee, Edward Snowden.
From the so-called Arab Spring -- already lost in oblivion -- to more recent plans like the promoting of protests in Iran and support to the violent opposition in Venezuela, Washington has shown a clear pattern of how it uses social networks and the internet for its hegemonic geopolitical purposes.
This is all part of the non-conventional war strategy developed to destabilize nations without the direct use of military force, increasingly deployed since the fiascos in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The activation of this new "task force" also demonstrates that, despite facing a government shutdown, there is no lack of liquidity when it comes to financing subversive projects in Cuba. There are plenty of places to find money, even though the Trump administration's budget presented to Congress for 2018 eliminates the customary 20 million dollars allocated for decades, to carry out such aggression.
The facility with which new bodies are staffed, with "government and non-government" personnel, contrasts sharply with the dramatic reduction of U.S. diplomats assigned to the embassy in Havana, which has practically paralyzed the issuing of visas and impacted services provided Cubans and their families in the United States.
Trump's new plans did not
take Cuba by surprise, since
the
country has more than 50 years of experience in confronting all
kinds of U.S. aggression.
Recent projects like ZunZuneo, Piramideo, Commotion and others run up against both the capacity of Cuban authorities to detect them and the Cuban population's unity in the face of such attacks.
They come at a time, moreover, when steps are being taken to advance in the digitalization of society, with a vision that prioritizes public access to the internet and protection of the country's sovereignty, despite economic limitations.
Since the opening of more than 500 wi-fi hotspots across the island to provide internet access, without restrictions beyond those created by the blockade and the needs of national security, the country is moving forward with internet service on cell phones -- with more than four million in use -- and expansion of home connections.
If the Trump administration is only interested in guaranteeing Cubans access to the internet, they could eliminate the blockade restrictions that hamper purchases of advanced telecommunications technologies and provide credit for their acquisition. This would perhaps be less expensive than a "task force" that is, from the start, condemned to failure.
Subversive Projects Based on New Technologies
ZunZuneo: Financed by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) with the objective of launching a messaging system that could reach hundreds of thousands of Cubans using "non-controversial" content, like sports news, music, weather reports, and announcements. When they had won over a following, the plan was to begin sending political messages inciting Cubans to make appeals on the network for massive demonstrations to destabilize the country.
Piramideo: Similar to
ZunZuneo, this program was
undertaken by the Office of Cuba Broadcasting (OCB), responsible
for the infamous Radio and TV Martí. The plan was to
create a network of "friends" that would offer the possibility of
sending a massive message to members of a "pyramid" at the cost
of a single SMS. The objective was to prepare a platform for
subversion.
Conmotion: A tool to create independent wireless networks, developed by the New America Foundation's Open Technology Institute (OTI), with headquarters in Washington, originally intended for military use. Although no information on its functioning in Cuba is known, government sources told the New York Times that millions of dollars had been dedicated to an effort toward that end.
Operation Surf: Unmasked by State Security agent Raúl -- Dalexi González Madruga -- this program involved the smuggling of equipment and software into the country to install illegal antennas to access the internet.
(Granma, January 26, 2018)
Honduras
Demand Immediate Release of Edwin Espinal
and All
Political Prisoners
Long-time Honduran activist Edwin Robelo Espinal was arrested by police on January 19, on the eve of a week-long nationwide strike. Edwin faces a laundry list of trumped up charges: arson, property damage, and use of homemade explosive material. Edwin is also under State investigation for terrorism and criminal association related to damages to the Marriott Hotel, a multi-billion dollar U.S. chain, during a January 12 protest in Tegucigalpa.
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Thousands of Hondurans from all walks of life attended the January 12 action to protest the election fraud that robbed Opposition Alliance presidential candidate Salvador Nasralla of his victory in the November 26, 2017 general elections; the killings of more than 30 anti-fraud protesters and bystanders by state security forces; and the arrests of dozens of political prisoners during the ongoing post-electoral crisis. Edwin's arbitrary arrest occurred in the context of the election fraud endorsed by the U.S. and Canada, and designed to keep current President Juan Orlando Hernández in power.
Edwin is currently in pretrial detention. At the end of his initial hearing inside military facilities on January 22, the judge ordered pre-trial detention and sent Edwin to La Tolva, a high-security prison. The prison has extremely restricted visitor access, is run by a military colonel, and prisoners are only allowed one-hour of sunlight every two weeks amongst other horrific conditions. Although the case has been appealed by local Honduran human rights organization COFADEH, Edwin could remain in detention for two or more years waiting trial.
Edwin Espinal Has Been a Target of State Harassment for Years
Edwin is an easy-going, kind man who draws young people of all ages to him. Edwin fiercely believes in organizing, supporting all forms of resistance, and solidarity with Honduran social movements and groups. He has never lost hope for change in Honduras.
Edwin's strong and relentless
conviction is what the
Honduran
government fears. Because of this, since the U.S.- and
Canadian-backed military coup in 2009, Edwin has been a constant
target of State repression and harassment.
In 2009, Edwin's partner, Wendy Elizabeth Avila, was killed after excessive exposure to tear gas when State forces violently evicted thousands of protesters gathered at the Brazilian Embassy to welcome ousted President Manuel Zelaya back into the country.
In 2010, Edwin was abducted and tortured by Honduran police, who were later acquitted -- in the corrupted legal system -- on all charges for their abuses.
One month before the fraudulent, violent 2013 elections, Honduran Military Police and canine units brought in by the Public Prosecutor's Office illegally raided Edwin's family's home, claiming that he possessed drugs, money, and weapons. At the time, Edwin was involved in a community movement to stop the privatization of public soccer fields in his neighborhood used by impoverished youth with limited recreational spaces and resources.
In 2015, Edwin's mom died in the social security hospital as a result of the $350 million dollar looting of the Honduran Social Security Institute (IHSS) orchestrated by the National Party, in power since 2010.
Edwin has been detained more than a dozen times since 2009 and has been beaten by security forces. The most recent beating was in December 2017 when he participated in a protest against election fraud in Tegucigalpa.
As a result of this constant persecution, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) granted Edwin protective measures in 2010. The measures were renewed in 2013, shortly after the illegal raid on his family's home.
Edwin has been interviewed by Democracy Now!, Al Jazeera's Fault Lines and in the documentary Resistencia. His story has also been featured in articles published by Truthout and POLITICO Magazine.
Edwin's current detention on trumped up charges is one more example of systematic political persecution and targeting of anti-fraud protesters and political opponents of the government. The illegitimate and corrupt government of Juan Orlando Hernández is targeting its own citizens -- people like Edwin -- while doing nothing to investigate the hundreds of killings and arbitrary arrests by State forces of social movement activists, protesters, journalists, lawyers, and others.
The legal proceedings against Edwin have completely violated Honduran law and due process. The case is being heard in "national jurisdiction" courts that, according to the charges against Edwin, have no jurisdiction over the case. The judge presiding over the case is the same judge that ordered the raid on Edwin's house in 2013, which, according to Honduran law, is illegal. Edwin's legal representatives were given one day (a Sunday) to prepare his defence and he was later sent to prison to await trial, which could take years. For these reasons, the trumped up charges against Edwin are a clear example of political persecution against a political opponent the Honduran government has targeted for years.
Immediate Action Is Needed for Edwin's Safety and Release
- We demand Edwin's immediate release, as well as that of the more than 40 political prisoners throughout the country, and that all the trumped up charges be dropped.
To ensure Edwin's immediate safety and access to justice, we demand that Honduran authorities immediately release Edwin. But in the meantime, we demand:
- That Edwin be transferred to a detention centre as determined by COFADEH (the Committee of Relatives of the Detained-Disappeared in Honduras), which has provided long-term legal and human rights support for him since 2009. Edwin is currently being held in a jail run by a military officer, and the facility has extremely restricted access for visits by family, friends, and human rights groups. These visits are crucial to help guarantee his safety and well-being while detained. To date, his family and his lawyers have not been able to visit him.
- That Edwin's case be transferred out of the "national
jurisdiction" courts and into the regular court system.
- That U.S. Congress members sign onto the Berta
Caceres
Act
demanding suspension of U.S. military aid to Honduras.
Contact U.S., Canadian and Honduran representatives. Click here
for contacts and for more information about Edwin's case and the human
rights situation in the country.
Ongoing Solidarity and Action Is Also Needed
We urge human rights delegations, journalists, and investigators to visit Edwin and other arbitrarily detained political prisoners experiencing repression in the context of the post-electoral crisis and the imposition of the Juan Orlando Hernández regime.
Financial support for Edwin's family is needed as they
seek
justice and work to ensure his safety and demand his release.
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Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca