The president of Bolivia, Luis Arce, swore in the new high command of the Armed Forces last Monday, in a ceremony carried out in the Casa Grande del Pueblo (headquarters of the executive).
Based on his prerogatives as Chief of State and Captain General of the Army, Arce appointed Brigadier Generals Jaime Alberto Zabala and Miguel Ángel Contreras, Commander-in-Chief of the military institution, and Chief of General Staff, respectively.
The president also assigned Brigadier Generals Fuad Genaro Ramos and César Moises Vallejo, and Rear Admiral Javier Torrijo, to the head of the Army, Air Force, and Navy, in that order.
The new positions will accompany Arce’s management at the head of the different components of the Armed Forces, highly criticized by the majority of Bolivians for its complicity with the coup that forced President Evo Morales to resign in November 2019.
The actions of the military under the orders of the subsequent de facto government caused their rejection and repudiation by the people. The military’s participation in the repression of peaceful demonstrations, and their role in the Senkata and Sacaba massacres, which left some thirty dead and dozens injured, was considered damning.
The aforementioned facts are being investigated by the Bolivian parliament, which is still seeking justice a year after the events. However, there have been concerns that the military is obstructing the investigations.
This hypothesis is supported by the Ombudsman’s Office, which called on the military not to obstruct justice. The investigation seeks to determine the accountability of several high-ranking officers and the former ministers of Defense and Government, Fernando López and Arturo Murillo, respectively.
Featured image: Photo courtesy Ministerio de la Presidencia (Bolivia)
Join us for first our first Giving Tuesday event 12/1! We are having a panel of local experts join us virtually to talk about the impact Urban Triage has had on Black families and ending health inequities in Madison, through empowerment and transformative education. Our panel will start at 6 pm and we can’t wait to see you there! Click the link below to register! Topic: Urban Triage Giving Tuesday Panel Time: Dec 1, 2020 05:30 PM Central Time (US and Canada)Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81957242019…Meeting ID: 819 5724 2019 Passcode: 452145 One tap mobile +13017158592,,81957242019#,,,,,,0#,,452145# US (Washington D.C) +13126266799,,81957242019#,,,,,,0#,,452145# US (Chicago)Dial by your location +1 301 715 8592 US (Washington D.C) +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago) +1 929 205 6099 US (New York) +1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma) +1 346 248 7799 US (Houston) +1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose) Meeting ID: 819 5724 2019 Passcode: 452145 Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kcJCbSyiq0
Join the Milwaukee Area Labor Council for a 2 hour conversation on identifying the different ways people feel judged and discriminated against and why it’s important for us as the Labor Movement to become active Allies in the struggle for racial and economic justice.
The 2 hour session will look at how people, including you as a participant, identify themselves and how they think others see them. It will give us an opportunity to explore our own thoughts and ideas of others we see as different. We will then look at how systems are in place that benefit those who have, and make it harder for those who struggle. We will explore better ways for each of us, and our unions, to be better Allies to those who have been, and continue to be, marginalized and discriminated against, by systems and those who develop and protect them.
Without substantial support from the Federal government and new efforts to raise revenue in New York State, we’re expecting a year of massive budget cuts. This will mean layoffs of union workers, cuts to services necessary to poor and working people and will likely slide us into recession impacting all working people. We’re already seeing the beginnings of this process with layoffs already beginning in our city for many.
Unions play a critical role in fighting back against these budget cuts and layoffs. Join Rochester Labor Council’s Next Up in a webinar to discuss the expected impacts of budget cuts and what we can do about them!
Mask up and meet us at the Sundial in downtown Oshkosh with your BLM signs, flags, megaphones, your voices and your resilient spirits in honor of all Black lives lost, in remembrance of Travis Nagdy and Breonna Taylor and Elijah McClain and so many others.
On December 16th, Haitians will commemorate the 30th anniversary of the first free and democratic election in Haiti’s history — the election that brought Jean-Bertrand Aristide and the people’s party, Lavalas, to power. Within seven months, a US-orchestrated coup ousted Aristide and installed a military dictatorship that murdered thousands and attempted to destroy the grassroots movement that had brought Aristide to power.
Thirty years later, Haitians continue to confront the same forces that staged that 1991 coup—this time in the form of the dictatorship of Jovenel Moise, backed by the United Nations occupiers and the United States. Haiti’s powerful grassroots movement has grown in strength as it seeks to end the corrupt and illegitimate Moise regime, selected through US-backed stolen elections.
The government has responded with violent police and paramilitary repression against peaceful protestors, political assassinations of grassroots leaders, and a series of targeted massacres of residents in the communities that are the heart of the movement.
This is a time to speak out and act in solidarity with the people’s movement in Haiti.
From December 10 [International Human Rights Day] to December 16, please join us for a Week of Solidarity with Haiti.
Demand an End to Massacres in Haiti
Stop US Funding of Police Terror in Haiti
Support the Movement for Democracy and Justice in Haiti
Ways to Participate
Make Haiti Visible!
Spread the slogan Stop Massacres in Haiti with a banner drop or placard, take and post your photo and send it to us!
Promote the week of Solidarity with Haiti on social media.
Spread the messages: Stop Massacres in Haiti! Stop US Funding Police Terror in Haiti! Stand With Haiti!
Maxine Waters Oct. 6, 2020 Letter urging US to oppose illegitimate elections in Haiti until politically motivated attacks against government critics have ceased
Videos
UNIFA webinar: A virtual event with Haiti’s former First Lady Mildred Aristide, Danny Glover, Congresswoman Maxine Waters and a panel of distinguished guests. This deeply engaging program — focused on Haiti’s health care crisis — was a seminar on Haitian resilience, powerful history, struggle for democracy, and the remarkable work of the University of the Aristide Foundation to offer access to education and health care to the Haitian people without exclusion.
Special Report: Massacres in Haiti — Pacifica’s Margaret Prescod reports from on the ground
Black Lives Matter From Haiti to the Bay — Kiyoshi Taylor’s video about the struggles of Black people in the US and in Haiti for true liberation from police terror and oppression and the need for global solidarity between these struggles in the spirit of the Haitian revolution.
Stay in Touch
Haiti Action Committee is a Bay-Area based network of activists who have supported the Haitian struggle for democracy since 1991. Follow Haiti Action Committee on Facebook, twitter @HaitiAction1 and our website.
Contact us at action.haiti@gmail.com to receive news updates and action alerts or sign up for our mailing list here.
Haiti Action Committee Banner on Berkeley, California I-80 Bridge
The human rights crisis under the US-backed dictatorship of Jovenel Moise has continued to widen and deepen with the proliferation of “Tonton Macoutes” style death squad repression across the country. In Haiti, impunity continues to embolden the reign of terror against the population by the Haitian police and affiliated death squads, such as the “G9” headed by former policeman Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier.
Notorious for its repeated human rights violations against peaceful demonstrators and community residents, the police – trained mostly by the US and Canada as part of the nearly 17-year UN occupation since the 2004 coup d’etat – once again lived up to its murderous reputation.
On Nov. 18, 2020, as demonstrations ended, a police vehicle at high speed ran over two protestors on a motorcycle leaving the Channmas (Champs-de-Mars) area, as depicted in the attached video. Horrified witnesses identified the BOID police unit vehicle as they rendered assistance to the gravely injured.
Since Trump took office, the US has nearly quadrupled its support to Haiti’s police – from $2.8 million in 2016 to more than $12.4 million last year.
Three peaceful protestors were deliberately killed by the police. The newly appointed police chief, Leon Charles, accused of gross human rights violations in previous years, sent out his praise for the actions of the police….
Glenn Greenwald recently quit the Intercept, a news outlet which he founded. He quit in protest because they refused to print an article he wrote that was critical of Joe Biden. It appears that censorship is becoming the norm for the US media and on social media platforms. Greenwald, who now publishes his own blog at https://greenwald.substack.com/, wrote that a recent article in the New York Times demanded that Facebook, Twitter and Google, change their algorithms so that “ ‘hyper partisan pages’ [be] repressed in favor of promoting ‘a spike in visibility for big, mainstream publishers like CNN, The New York Times and NPR.’” That is, they want to censor us in favor of these wealthy outlets that already have a tremendous advantage and are already streamed into households throughout the country. They want to repress our voices in favor of theirs. This is the new censorship.
We in the antiwar movement have an important stake in the struggle to protect and extend freedom of speech. As the town squares, where our movement once soap boxed our message to all who would listen, have disappeared into privately owned malls and as privately owned social media platforms have started dominating over all other media, we are seeing the privatization of freedom of speech. Twitter, Facebook, Google, YouTube, Amazon and other platforms make corporate decisions on which posts are valid and which are not, always in compliance with state narratives. [read more]
Greenwald becomes the latest high-profile journalist to leave a well-known legacy media organization to join Substack. You’ll be able to read the piece rebuffed by The Interceptat his new site here.
UNAC denounces the targeted assassination of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, a top nuclear scientist and Trump’s approving Tweet. This confirms the U.S. and Israeli determination to sabotage every possible effort for peace or normalization of relations with Iran or in the region
Again and again Iran scientists have been targeted. More than 5 scientists were assassinated in past years. The targeted assassinations and the economic sanctions are a continuing effort to instigate a conflict that will involve the incoming administration. The multi-pronged attack involved at least one explosion and small fire by several assailants.
It is understood internationally to prevent any effort to revive diplomacy with Iran to go back to the nuclear agreement. It is intended to heighten the rage and create excuses for continued U.S. military occupation of the entire region. [read more]
Wisconsin Bail Out the People Movement 