Instruction: Write an article about: Judicial coup in Argentina: Corrupt judges conspire with media oligarchs to ban Cristina Kirchner from office. Use the themes and topics represented by the tags provided as guidance for the content. It's not necessary to include the exact tag words in the article, but the article should reflect the essence and context of these tags.

Input: Argentina, Brazil, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, debt, dollar, IMF, International Monetary Fund, lawfare, Marco Teruggi, Mauricio Macri, Néstor Kirchner, odious debt, Peronism

Output:
Leaked messages show Argentina’s corrupt judges and prosecutors conspired with right-wing media oligarchs to launch a judicial coup against left-wing ex President and current VP Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, sentencing her to six years in prison and banning her from running in the 2023 elections.

(Puedes leer esta nota en español aquí.)
Argentina’s notoriously corrupt and deeply politicized judicial system set off an international scandal on December 6, sentencing left-wing former President and current Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner to six years in prison and banning her from future office based on highly dubious charges.
Prominent leaders across Latin America denounced the ruling as a “judicial coup.” It is eerily similar to the fraudulent case that led to the imprisonment of Brazil’s left-wing former President Lula da Silva in the lead-up to the 2018 elections, which the United Nations Human Rights Committee later denounced as an illegal show trial that lacked due process and violated his rights.
Leaked messages, photos, and videos show that corrupt Argentine prosecutors involved in the case conspired with right-wing opposition politicians, conservative media corporations, and former intelligence officers to wage lawfare (judicial warfare) against Kirchner and her progressive movement.
In a fiery speech following the sentence, Kirchner said the scandal proves that there is a “parallel mafia state” and “mafia judiciary” in Argentina “that is outside of the electoral results.”
She added that the legal decision had already been written back in 2019, and that the politically compromised judges were simply waiting for the right moment to use it to prevent her from running for president in the 2023 elections.
Kirchner had long been targeted in a campaign of systematic legal harassment by the right-wing opposition. She faced 654 legal complaints between 2004 and 2022. Six individuals charged her between 20 and 74 times each. Virtually all of these lawsuits were determined to be totally frivolous, but they drained her of valuable time, energy, and resources.
Multipolarista editor Ben Norton spoke with Argentine journalist Marco Teruggi about the judicial coup.
They also discussed the $44 billion of unpayable odious debt that Argentina is trapped in with the US-dominated International Monetary Fund.

(This interview was conducted in Spanish and was translated into English by Multipolarista.)
BEN NORTON: Hi, good morning to everyone, I’m Ben Norton, and today I have the privilege of speaking with the Argentine journalist Marco Teruggi. He is an independent journalist, and also a sociologist.
We are going to speak about the political and economic situation in Argentina.
On December 6, basically, we saw a judicial coup, a judicial coup d’etat, similar to the soft coup against Lula da Silva in Brazil in 2018.
In fact, the same corrupt judge, and ally of the US and CIA, Sergio Moro, who supervised the judicial coup against Lula, and imprisoned him in 2018, he praised the sentence against the vice president of Argentina, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, a sentence of six years in prison.
Julgar o poder quando é poder mostra a força do estado de Derecho. Gol da Argentina. https://t.co/ed8g0rKHz4
— Sergio Moro (@SF_Moro) December 7, 2022

And clearly, what Argentina’s corrupt and politicized judicial system is trying to ban her from public life, basically, to destroy her public life and her political life.
On September 1, there was an attempt to assassinate her, by a fascist, a gunman from the extreme right wing. That failed. And now there is an attempt to kill her politically.
And according to the sentence, Vice President Kirchner cannot hold public office.
So after the sentence, Vice President Kirchner gave a speech, and in that speech she said that the sentence was already written three years before, in 2019.
She also said that this shows that in Argentina, there is a “parallel mafia state”:
CRISTINA FERNÁNDEZ DE KIRCHNER: As we said on December 2, 2019, that is, exactly 3 years ago, the criminal sentence was already written.
This criminal sentence, this sentence, compatriots, is not a sentence according to the laws of the constitution, or according to the administrative laws, or the criminal code.
This is a sentence that has its origins in a system that I, somewhat naively, that time on December 2, 2019, discussed as lawfare
(judicial war). … But this is much simpler.
This is not just lawfare, or a politicized justice system; this is a parallel mafia state, a mafia judiciary.
And this is confirmation of the existence of a para-state system, of a system where decisions are made about life, and heritage, and the freedom of Argentines, and that is outside of the electoral results.
…
And they, the right-wingers, they left us with $45 billion in debt with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). They ride around in luxury in the planes of Clarín.
…
Well, I am not going to be a candidate. There’s more, very good news for you, Magnetto (director of the Grupo Clarín corporation). You know why? Because on the 10 of December, 2023, I’m not going to have exemptions; I’m not going to be vice president.
So you are going to be able to give the order to your henchmen on the courts and the Supreme Court, that they imprison me, yes. But I will never be your pet! Never, ever! You understand? Never, ever!
I will not be a candidate for anything, not to be president, not to be a senator. My name will not be on any ballot.
I finish the 10th of December, and I will return as I returned on December 10, 2015: to my home.
…
A mafia and parallel state. That is what is happening in Argentina, and that is what today sentenced me to 6 years in prison and a permanent ban from politics.
This is the real criminal sentence; this is what they wanted: a permanent ban from politics.
They will be able to imprison me after December 10, yes. Unless a powerful businessman decides to fund some criminals and, before December 10, 2023, they shoot me.
What do you want? Me as a prisoner, or dead?
BEN NORTON: So, Marco, we should begin with the most basic facts, because this case can be a little complicated. There are many names, there are many people involved.
Can you speak about what is the ‘Vialidad’ lawsuit? This case. And speak about the characters and people involved in this case, because we know that we are not only speaking about judges and prosecutors, but also the Grupo Clarín, one of the country’s most powerful media corporations.
And there is a network of corruption in this case of lawfare (judicial warfare) against Cristina.
MARCO TERUGGI: Let’s start from the beginning, as it should be done.
When Cristina left the presidency in 2015, they started to roll out against her, and against some of the main officials in her government, a series of lawsuits, for different reasons.
Some were clearly fabricated, and with barely any basis, if they even had any.
And there were other, more important public cases, central ones, like this one, which is known as the Vialidad lawsuit, which involves accusations of mismanagement, of diversion of funds for public projects, mainly in the province [Santa Cruz] where Néstor Kirchner, the former president and her husband, had been governor.
So from until today, we have seen a succession of lawsuits, investigations, calls that she appear in court, that perhaps were thought with a certain degree of optimism, that if a government rises to power, like the Frente de Todos government that took power in 2019, that that was going to make it milder, weaker, or at least that they could revert to this plan that was very clearly designed before, as a process of persecution, that they were making through their control of political power.
With the government of the [right-wing former] President Macri, through its control over the media, with a few emblematic groups, like the Grupo Clarín, but also other media outlets like Infobae and La Nación, through intelligence agencies, together with spying devices, wiretapping, monitoring, judicial operations, media operations, and of course powerful economic and media groups, which many times are overlapping.
When [current] President Alberto Fernández took power, that task of democratizing the justice system, that need to dismantle the mechanisms of persecution, well it was an urgent priority, but it was not really carried out.
There are multiple interpretations about that, about why it didn’t happen, why they weren’t able, because they tried to reach a reconciliation, and on the other side [in the opposition] there was no will, because in reality some actors in the Frente de Todos never really prioritized that agenda, because they have some links with the other side.
In any case, the structure of the judicial system was not touched. And what we are seeing now is that system, which was untouched, kept operating as before, as well as the powerful economic interests, mainly the Grupo Clarín, which is the most emblematic in this dispute.
This judicial system that is more and more taken over, from within, by those sectors allied with the opposition, in key places: the Supreme Court, the Council of Judges, the federal courts.
And in turn, there was always a series of underground intelligence operations, which is known as the “crypto-state,” which in this case is operating from outside, but keeps operating.
That kept being rolled out and advancing, until the (sentence on) 6th of December, which was the product of years of spreading the idea that Cristina Fernández de Kirchner was a corrupt president, as well as Néstor Kirchner, as the prosecutor claimed, that they were leading an illegal organization, that is to say, they were claiming that the constitutional governments of Argentina had been illegal organizations.
So what we have witnessed is the media headline that was long awaited by the opposition press, in collaboration with the political opposition, that says: “Cristina charged!”
And in turn, the path toward political banning, in this case it is her permanent prohibition from office, as the judge says.
Although, before entering the next electoral campaigns, according to time estimates, obviously this is going to be appealed by Cristina’s defense team, and that in reality means that she could run in the next elections. But she took the decision not to.
So I think we are at the highest point of a persecution campaign, through various means, against the main political figure of the Peronist movement and the recent history of the progressive movement in Argentina.
And this is proof that there exists something that was known, but which is now very clear: permanent powers that are not elected, which many times do not have recognizable faces, but which operate and shape the reality of countries: economic powers, judicial powers, underground powers, and in this case political powers, like the city government [of Buenos Aires], which is involved in these schemes.
BEN NORTON: Yes, the Latin American Strategic Center of Geopolitics (CELAG) published a graphic that shows that, between 2004 and 2022, there were 654 legal complaints filed against Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. And there are six people who have charged her between 20 and 74 times.
?? Hoy se conocerá el veredicto del juicio a @CFKArgentina por la causa Vialidad.
¿Quiénes son los denunciantes? CFK figura como denunciada-imputada en 654 expedientes entre 2004 y 2022.
? Hay al menos 6 personas que la han denunciado de modo sistemático, entre 20 y 74 veces pic.twitter.com/334YmiqhB0
— CELAG (@CELAGeopolitica) December 6, 2022

So we are talking about a campaign of judicial warfare, instrumentalizing the judicial system to attack a politician, a left-wing politician.
And Bolivia’s ex-President Evo Morales said it well. Obviously Evo Morales was the victim of another coup d’etat, a violent coup, another coup d’etat in 2019. And Evo wrote that what we are seeing is “a rigged judicial coup that seeks to take away the political rights of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.”
And he also said: “After failing in their attempt to assassinate her, today they try to politically eliminate her.”
Nuestro repudio y condena más vehemente contra el golpe judicial y amañado que intenta truncar los derechos políticos de nuestra hermana @CFKArgentina. Después de fallar en su intento de asesinarla, hoy tratan de eliminarla políticamente. Fuerza hermana Cristina.¡La lucha sigue! pic.twitter.com/v0y5rDhXdX
— Evo Morales Ayma (@evoespueblo) December 6, 2022

Well, a very important issue in this case, Marco, is that in her speech, following the sentence, the vice president showed leaked messages that show a conspiracy between the prosecutors, officials, and also those media outlets that you mentioned, right-wing outlets that belong to the Argentine oligarchy, in particular the Grupo Clarín.
And there are photos of various prosecutors and officials with members, and not only members but executives of the Grupo Clarín, in the airport.
We know that they flew in their planes, they enjoyed luxurious dinners, very luxurious houses.
Están todos.Los recibe en en el aeropuerto de Bariloche Jorge Rendo y Pablo Casey de @GrupoClarin :Los dos Mahiques, @MarceDaless , Ercolini, Cayssials etc.La fiscal de Bariloche los imputó. Esta página y foto corresponde al expediente ?? pic.twitter.com/RdRSojuNeG
— Cynthia García (@cyngarciaradio) December 7, 2022

So can you speak about the corruption of the judicial system and these prosecutors who are involved in the case against Cristina?
MARCO TERUGGI: The first thing to highlight is that, recently, a few days ago in Argentina, there was a leak. And we have to investigate where it came from, to see if it has any irregularities.
But at least what we see now, and that had not been seen before, is a mechanism by which federal judges work together with the Grupo Clarín, which is a powerful media and economic group, and political sectors, in this case, linked to the government of the city of Buenos Aires, which is the PRO, which is Macri’s party, and ex members of the intelligence services.
Together, in this case what the chats show, is that they were trying to hide the fact that they had met together in the south of Argentina, with the English billionaire Joe Lewis.
In the chat, they directly talk about how to fabricate evidence. It is striking, because it is a federal judge, Ercolini, who in fact is the judge who heard the ‘Vialidad’ lawsuit against Cristina, so we can see who the characters are, who are saying how to make false receipts, among many other things.
Or they talk about how to take down the chief of the airport police, because they think he is the one who leaked the information about them meeting in the south.
And there we see, without a doubt, that the Grupo Clarín is who pays; they organize the agenda; how close all of these actors are.
And therefore we discover the lack of independence of the judicial power, or at least its main actors. The same about the media power.
And the operation of these sectors of above-ground politics and underground politics.
That is a kind of window into what they call the “basements of democracy,” or the sewer, or the place where politics is made, which very few people learn about, and which after is presented by the media as a fact of how the justice system or media work.
So I think it has never been seen before in this way.
And it is an issue of extreme gravity. But it is happening at a moment when those sectors have a perception of themselves, and I think that, shamefully, they are right, of so much impunity.
All of this that has been happening has had a very low judicial and political cost, for actors who, in addition to having left the country trapped in debt, with irregular debts with the International Monetary Fund, some are fugitives, and others have been pardoned by these same judges in the lawsuits brought against them.
So we are seeing a window into real power, that which carries out lawfare operations, that which persecutes people, that which seeks to ban people.
That which raises the rather elementary question, but always necessary to refresh: How democratic is the democracy?
Or what remains of the democracy when the actors who decide a criminal sentence are actors who have not been elected by anyone, who conspire with others, who meet no minimum ethical requirements, or in terms of separation of powers or independence?
BEN NORTON: Yes Marco, you mentioned something very important, which is the subject of the odious debt with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
In fact, in her speech after the sentence, Vice President Cristina mentioned this debt.
CRISTINA FERNÁNDEZ DE KIRCHNER: And they, the right-wingers, they left us with $45 billion in debt with the International Monetary Fund.
They ride around in luxury in the planes of Clarín.
BEN NORTON: So Marco, can you speak a bit about Argentina’s debt? The country owes more than $44 billion to the IMF. And this debt doesn’t come from the Kirchnerist governments; it comes from the government of the right-winger, Mauricio Macri, the last president.
MARCO TERUGGI: The government of Macri left two main unpayable debts: one with private creditors, which is larger than the debt with the IMF, and the other of $44 billion with the IMF.
First it was renegotiated with the private creditors, and later with the IMF. Now the main difference is that the debt lent by the IMF, whose main shareholder is the US government, is a debt with a political burden, which involves a mechanism to put a country in a situation of dependency.
That is to say, you don’t negotiate with the IMF only economic concerns, but rather, above all, political and economic ones.
The IMF only approves or rejects debts with economic conditions.
In the first place, we have to say, this debt, when it was given by the IMF, it was above what Argentina could receive. That is, it was irregular in how large it was.
And who was representing the United States? [White House advisor] Mauricio Claver Carbone, in the era of Donald Trump, who later was president of the Inter-American Development Bank.
He said that that debt was to support Mauricio Macri. So it was a political debt, so Macri could continue his government.
So it was always clear, the explicit political support that there was there.
But that is only on the surface, because it seems to me that deeper is precisely that it is debt that, in its essence, is unpayable.
Argentina does not have the capacity to pay $44 billion. So the question is, why would an organization lend a debt that can’t be repaid?
Well, because that debt makes the country enter into a mechanism of dependence, that makes its economic policies, its deficits, its spending, its investments, its social policies, contingent on what the IMF wants, primarily the United States.
So that has been the central part of the tension in the first two years, and in turn in the stronger divisions within the Frente de Todos, when it was announced what the renegotiation of the debt with the IMF consisted of.
Because renegotiating is in reality is a new debt. That is, today Argentina is receiving a new debt, from the IMF, to pay the old debt to the IMF.
That is to say, the IMF regularly supervises Argentina’s economic policies and if they like them, they give them the money, so that it can be returned to the IMF.
And if they don’t like them, they could refuse to give Argentina the money, and Argentina would default.
We are on that level. And it seems to me that we have to recognize that the mechanism worked.
Today it is a government that is conditioned, that in large part has its hands tied in its economic policy, with inflation that it can’t reduce, with a loss of purchasing power.
And there is a problem with the restriction of the entry of dollars into the reserves of the central bank, which among other things is largely because it has to regularly go to return the money to the IMF.
So I think that is a clear example of how these debts function, why they are made, how they force governments to make concessions.
BEN NORTON: You mentioned that there are economic problems; there is inflation. In fact, in her speech, following the sentence, the vice president said that, “They condemn me because they condemn a model of economic development.”
CRISTINA FERNÁNDEZ DE KIRCHNER: I speak fundamentally about us, from Peronism, those of us who are committed to the rights of the people, that is where they are sentencing me.
They condemn me because they condemn a model of economic development and of recognition of the rights of the people. That is why, that is why they condemn me.
But the sentencing is not only six years in prison. The real sentence against me is the permanent ban on holding elected public office.
When all of the positions that I held always were by popular vote. We won four governments in the name of Peronism, with the last name Kirchner, in 2003, in 2007, in 2011.
And I also contributed to the victory that we had in 2019, when no one would have bet on Peronism.
This is what they are making me pay. This is why they are banning me.
BEN NORTON: So can you speak about the economic situation, with the inflation, and why do you think there are so many economic problems?
MARCO TERUGGI: In the case of Argentina, we are in a situation of weakness. It is a government that has spent so much recent time trying to survive the crisis, that has implicitly or explicitly rejected the possibility of transformation.
It is in a sense the great loss of political, symbolic capital. Cristina is losing a lot of political, symbolic capital, because in her memory, her governments were different.
And the current situation, well, is of a country with a very high structural level of poverty, whose workers’ salaries are below the poverty line, and more and more difficulties.
But in economic terms, what are the concrete, material agreements that can be made to alleviate the political situation in Argentina, for example to give it more international reserves, greater capacity to strengthen its policies as it faces an election?
This is quite decisive. If a government arrives with inflation that is not significantly reduced, that arrives cutting social spending, the fiscal deficit, but it does it by cutting from below, it is very unlikely that it has the chance of electoral victory.
I think that, in a way, we are in a scenario that has the Latin American dynamic, when it seems that a majority group of progressive governments are finally going to be able to coordinate together, we see how some win while others are undone.
Peru’s President Pedro Castillo was just forced out, as the consequence of another very deep institutional crisis.
And finally, to conclude, one thing about the external restriction of dollars: There is the issue of the external debt, which effectively is a permanent drain of dollars.
Another debate is how Argentina can get dollars, through what economic mechanisms?
And there a lot has to do with the agricultural export sector, which is a sector that historically is opposed to the Peronist governments, or at least against Cristina’s governments, and this one.
And that is a sector that lobbies for the devaluation of the currency, which has a negative impact on the population.
Because a devaluation in the currency implies an increase in the prices, implies a loss of purchasing power.
So the government has been giving in, giving them a preferential dollar, as they say, so they have more incentives to bring their dollars to Argentina.
But we are on that level. And it also has to do with the economic structure of Argentina, with the conflicting models.
What is the model that they want to build in Argentina?
And there, Macrismo is very clear what its model is: it is a neoliberal model, financial, of opening up the economy, that has brought the catastrophic consequences that were produced in just four years, in which they were in power in the Pink House.
BEN NORTON: Thanks a lot. I have been speaking with the Argentine journalist Marco Teruggi. You can follow him on Twitter at @Marco_Teruggi. Marco, thanks so much, I’m always grateful for your journalistic work and analysis.
MARCO TERUGGI: Thank you, and I send a big hug from Buenos Aires.


Instruction: Write an article about: Mexico’s President AMLO condemns US blockade of Cuba as ‘genocide’ and ‘tremendous violation of human rights’. Use the themes and topics represented by the tags provided as guidance for the content. It's not necessary to include the exact tag words in the article, but the article should reflect the essence and context of these tags.

Input: AMLO, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, blockade, Bolivia, Cuba, Honduras, Joe Biden, Luis Arce, Mexico, sanctions, Summit of the Americas, Xiomara Castro

Output:
Mexico’s left-wing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) denounced the illegal US blockade of Cuba as a “type of genocide” and “tremendous violation of human rights.”

Mexico’s left-wing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has condemned the illegal US blockade of Cuba as a “type of genocide” and “tremendous violation of human rights.”
At his daily press briefing on the morning on June 6, López Obrador was asked about his decision to boycott the US government’s Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles, California.
The Mexican president, known popularly by the acronym AMLO, explained that he refused to attend in order to protest Washington’s exclusion of Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua.
López Obrador denounced the blockade that the United States has imposed on Cuba for more than 60 years, in flagrant violation of international law.
Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) denounced the illegal US blockade of Cuba as a “type of genocide” and “tremendous violation of human rights.”
Read more here: https://t.co/SdjCfhBkyG pic.twitter.com/IP8z9gp4Gz
— Multipolarista (@Multipolarista) June 7, 2022

“How is it that a blockade is maintained that prevents food from arriving to the Cuban people, that prevents medicines from arriving?” he asked.
“That is a type of genocide,” the Mexican president declared, calling it “a tremendous violation of human rights.”
“When the subject of the blockade is addressed in the UN, every country votes to lift the blockade. One or two prevent it,” AMLO noted.
“It would be the peak [of hypocrisy] for us to attend the Summit [of Americas] in that context,” he added. “That violates the foreign policy of Mexico, which our constitution establishes, the non-intervention, the self-determination of peoples.”
AMLO reiterated his call for “the integration of all of the Americas,” but he emphasized that “that is going to mean a change in the policy, leaving behind confrontation, leaving behind hate, leaving behind the threats, the blockades, the meddling, and choosing brotherhood.”
Mexican President López Obrador took a historic trip to Cuba, where he called for an end to the US blockade and criticized right-wing “coup-plotters.”
He said Latin America should form a union, amid “the economic decline of the United States.”https://t.co/A4eGIhcRhO
— Multipolarista (@Multipolarista) May 11, 2022

In May, López Obrador took a historic trip to Cuba, where he called for an end to the US blockade and criticized right-wing “coup-plotters.”
“I will keep trying to get the United States to lift the blockade,” the Mexican president said.
The Summit of the Americas opened in Los Angeles, California on June 6.
Honduras’ new left-wing President Xiomara Castro and Bolivia’s socialist President Luis Arce joined AMLO in boycotting the summit in condemnation of the US government’s refusal to invite Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua.
Guatemala’s right-wing president, Alejandro Giammattei, likewise chose not to attend, in protest of the policies of the Joe Biden administration.
As the US government’s Summit of the Americas opens in Los Angeles, California, the presidents of Mexico, Bolivia, Honduras and Guatemala are boycotting in protest
Heads of state representing nations with over 200 million people combined are not attendinghttps://t.co/O7bOWe6W6N
— Multipolarista (@Multipolarista) June 6, 2022


Instruction: Write an article about: Mexico’s AMLO announces campaign against US blockade of Cuba, denounces neoliberalism. Use the themes and topics represented by the tags provided as guidance for the content. It's not necessary to include the exact tag words in the article, but the article should reflect the essence and context of these tags.

Input: AMLO, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, blockade, Cuba, Cuban doctors, embargo, Fidel Castro, healthcare, Mexico, Miguel Díaz-Canel, public health, sanctions

Output:
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced Mexico will lead an international movement to end the US government’s “inhumane” blockade against Cuba. Praising Fidel Castro as a “visionary”, AMLO denounced neoliberalism and pledged support for universal public healthcare and education.

Mexico’s progressive President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced that his country will lead an international movement to end the US government’s illegal blockade against Cuba.
The Mexican president, known popularly by his initials AMLO, condemned the six-decade US blockade of Cuba as “inhumane”. He said the global campaign to overturn it must be more “active”, complaining that, while the vast majority of countries on Earth vote against the US embargo every year at the United Nations General Assembly, nothing ever changes.

AMLO also praised the Cuban Revolution for creating “one of the best health systems in the world”. He thanked Cuba for sending doctors to provide medical attention to people in underserved rural areas in Mexico and other countries around the world.
Criticizing the “neoliberal oligarchy” who ruled before him and “the corrupt neoliberal privatizers” who sold off many of the Mexican state’s assets, López Obrador explained that his government’s goal “is to establish a system of public healthcare, to guarantee the people’s right to healthcare”.
“The right to healthcare is a fundamental human rights, and it cannot be treated like a market”, AMLO declared.
The Mexican leader made these comments in a February 11 press conference in the southern port city of Campeche, alongside Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, who addressed the two countries’ collaboration in public health.
The event featured dozens of Cuban doctors who were sent to Mexico as part of a solidarity mission.
Mexico's President AMLO honored Fidel Castro as “a visionary, a giant to whom we pay tribute”
He added: “Conservatives in Mexico and around the world can say whatever they want, but they'll never, ever be able to counteract" Cuba's solidarity
More here: https://t.co/oInjQf5cSG pic.twitter.com/DDaDRQklBs
— Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) February 16, 2023

López Obrador has consistently spoken out against the US sanctions and embargo against Cuba, which violate international law.
In June 2022, the Mexican president denounced the US blockade as a “type of genocide” and “tremendous violation of human rights”.
At the February 2023 event, AMLO honored Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro as “a visionary, a giant to whom we pay tribute”, adding, “Conservatives in Mexico and around the world can say whatever they want, but they will never, ever be able to counteract the teaching, the example of solidarity, of brotherhood that the revolutionary movement and its leaders have left Cuba”.
In the fiery speech, AMLO stated:
Such vision Commander Fidel Castro had! While the neoliberals [in Mexico] were preventing the training of doctors, in Cuba they were driving the training of doctors, and consolidating one of the best health systems in the world.
That is not done by a mere man of the state; that is done by a man of the nation, a visionary, a giant to whom we pay tribute for this great work that you all have continued (referring to the Cuban doctors in the audience).
Conservatives in Mexico and around the world can say whatever they want, but they will never, ever be able to counteract the teaching, the example of solidarity, of brotherhood that the revolutionary movement and its leaders have left Cuba.
For this, our respect, our gratitude, our support.
We are going to continue demanding that the blockade against Cuba be lifted, that it be eliminated. It is inhumane.
And not only when it comes to voting in the UN, where it is always only one or two countries who vote in support of it, while the vast majority of the countries in the world abstain or vote for the blockade to be eliminated. But when the [General] Assembly is over, it is back to the same old.
I offer to President Miguel Díaz-Canel that Mexico is going to lead a more active movement, so that all countries unite and defend the independence and sovereignty of Cuba, and never, ever treat it as a ‘terrorist’ country, or put its profoundly humane people and government on a blacklist of supposed ‘terrorists’.
Long live the dignified people of Cuba!
En Martí y en Fidel pienso al ver a nuestros médicos trabajando, con consagración y alegría, en #México, una tierra que jamás ha sido extranjera, siempre hermana, para todos los cubanos.
En Campeche nos reunimos con una representación de ellos. #CubaPorLaVida pic.twitter.com/IofL0ldTwm
— Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez (@DiazCanelB) February 11, 2023

In his remarks at the public health press conference, Cuban President Díaz-Canel stressed the “deep and historic ties” that his country has enjoyed with its “brothers” in Mexico.
He recalled that Castro and other Cuban leaders planned the revolution while living in exile in Mexico.
Díaz-Canel highlighted the medical support that Cuba and its doctors have provided to Mexico over the decades.
The Cuban leader also thanked Mexico, noting it “has supported us historically in the battle for the lifting of the blockade, which has done so much damage to our economy, and especially to the health sector”.
While Díaz-Canel was visiting, López Obrador gave the Cuban leader the prestigious Mexican Order of the Aztec Eagle, the highest state honors for a foreign national.
Entrega de la Condecoración Orden Mexicana del Águila Azteca al presidente de Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canelhttps://t.co/WJtkhZdYea pic.twitter.com/V5SPfQJcMD
— Andrés Manuel (@lopezobrador_) February 12, 2023

López Obrador is one of the world’s most popular leaders, and has had a consistent approval rating of between 60 and 70% since he came to power in late 2018.
The main reason for this is that AMLO is the Mexico’s first left-wing president in decades, and he has reversed the neoliberal economic policies that dominated for so long, investing more money in social services and drastically increasing the minimum wage.
This incredible graph shows how much the real minimum wage (measured in purchasing power parity) has increased in Mexico under the left-wing government of President AMLO
Note how the minimum wage was totally stagnant in two decades of neoliberal governments
Credit: @mario_campa pic.twitter.com/ZlGxGvb5QF
— Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) December 25, 2022

In his February 11 speech in Campeche, AMLO denounced the “neoliberal period, which lasted 36 years in our country”.
The last Mexican head of state who pursued policies of economic nationalism was José López Portillo. In 1982, Miguel de la Madrid took power, and he began implementing neoliberal reforms – largely in response to a disastrous debt crisis and hyperinflation that were fueled by a skyrocketing increase in interest rates under US Federal Reserve chair Paul Volcker.
AMLO referred to this neoliberal period as the era of “Neo-Porfirismo”, referencing former military dictator Porfirio Díaz, who ruled from 1876 to 1911.
Díaz’s rule ended with the Mexican Revolution. AMLO invoked the historical legacy of this revolution to explain the “Fourth Transformation” that he is leading today.
In the neoliberal period, “Policies were applied to benefit the minority, the oligarchy. They talked about democracy, but in reality it was an oligarchy”, AMLO said.
“No one wanted to go and work in rural hospitals, where specialists were needed”, he added. “Because of that, we are very grateful for the doctors from the brotherly people of Cuba… for helping us, so that doctors and specialists could cover all of the country”.
“It is something truly terrible, even unbelievable”, AMLO continued. “In the 36 years of neoliberal politics, they sold off the public companies, the nation’s banks, the railroads, the mines, the ports, the airports. They also carried out privatization of the electricity and oil industries”.
“And they didn’t stop, not even in relation to education and healthcare. The so-called structural reforms aimed to put education and healthcare on the market, as if they were goods for sale, with the goal so that those who wanted to study or get medical attention had to pay”.
“Fortunately, the people said ‘Enough!’, and, in a democratic way, decided to change these politics and carry out a transformation”, AMLO said. “Also to confront the tremendous decay that we suffered. The corruption brought about a process of gradual degradation in all of the fields of public life”.
“And to confront decay, there is no alternative option other than a deep transformation, to pull out the roots of the regime of injustices, of corruption, of privileges. And that is what is being done in Mexico”, López Obrador declared.
“We are pushing forward on education, pushing forward with healthcare, so that they aren’t like what the corrupt neoliberal privatizers wanted, as privileges, but rather as rights for our people”.
“The state cannot fail in its social responsibility. The state is obligated to guarantee public education, free and of good quality, at all levels”.
Today, AMLO said, his government’s “goal is to establish a system of public health, to guarantee the people’s right to healthcare”.
He said his priority is also expanded access to inexpensive medicines. “Because, in the times of neoliberalism, the sale of medicines was a big business”, López Obrador recalled. He noted large pharmaceutical companies made huge profits through corruption, selling overpriced medicines to the government at unfair prices.
“Because the right to healthcare is a fundamental human right, and it cannot be treated like a market”, he added.
AMLO revealed that his government has opened nearly 100 medical schools to train doctors and nurses, and he plans on creating 55 more across the country before his term ends. His administration also doubled the number of scholarships available.


Instruction: Write an article about: Sandinista Nicaragua allies with China, Russia, Iran against US imperialism. Use the themes and topics represented by the tags provided as guidance for the content. It's not necessary to include the exact tag words in the article, but the article should reflect the essence and context of these tags.

Input: China, Covid-19, Daniel Ortega, Denis Moncada, Iran, Laureano Ortega, Nicaragua, Russia, vaccines

Output:
Nicaragua’s leftist Sandinista government is forming a closer alliance with China, Russia, and Iran in a common struggle against US imperialism, jointly resisting Washington’s illegal sanctions, meddling, and coup attempts.

Nicaragua’s leftist Sandinista government has formed a political and economic alliance with China, Russia, and Iran, as a counterbalance against constant US meddling in the Central American nation.
All four countries are targeted by illegal Western sanctions and coup attempts. So they have grown closer together in a common struggle against Washington’s aggression.
In December 2021, Nicaragua re-established relations with the People’s Republic of China, and on December 31, 2021, Beijing re-opened its embassy in Managua.
The People's Republic of China just reopened its embassy today in Nicaragua, a few weeks after the Sandinista government re-established relations.
Nicaragua's right-wing US-backed Chamorro oligarch government had broken ties with China back in 1990.pic.twitter.com/OZiSO8o9v7
— Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) December 31, 2021

Foreign Minister Denis Moncada said Nicaragua and China are “two peoples who have fought for their national liberation with perseverance,” seeking the “eradication of poverty.”
The Nicaraguan foreign minister said they seek to build a new world “that is multipolar.”
Nicaraguan presidential advisor Laureano Ortega praised China for eliminating extreme poverty and showing how “to advance toward the comprehensive construction of a modern socialist model.”
He also thanked Beijing for giving 2 billion Covid-19 vaccines to some 120 countries, including more than 1 million to Nicaragua.
Right-wing US government-funded media outlets have expressed extreme distress over this growing alliance.
Nicaragua’s President Daniel Ortega announced at his inauguration on January 10 that the country had signed a series of economic agreements with China.
The most important of these officially incorporates the Central American nation into Beijing’s global Belt and Road Initiative.
President Daniel Ortega said “the United States does not accept that the end of its hegemony is a fact.”
Breaking: At his inauguration tonight, President Daniel Ortega announced that Nicaragua and China just signed a series of strategic agreements, including officially incorporating Nicaragua into Beijing's global Belt and Road Initiative, as well as programs on housing and trade. pic.twitter.com/n9URPvkkO1
— Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) January 11, 2022


Instruction: Write an article about: Bloqueo ilegal de EEUU contra Cuba sigue matando en su 60 aniversario. Use the themes and topics represented by the tags provided as guidance for the content. It's not necessary to include the exact tag words in the article, but the article should reflect the essence and context of these tags.

Input: bloqueo, Cuba, Donald Trump, embargo, Joe Biden, ONU, sanciones

Output:
El 3 de febrero de 2022 es el 60 aniversario del bloqueo ilegal contra Cuba, que Estados Unidos admitió pretende “provocar hambre, desesperación y el derrocamiento del gobierno”. Cuba estima que el embargo le ha costado $144.410 millones.

(You can read this article in English here.)
El 3 de febrero de 2022 se cumplen 60 años desde que Estados Unidos declaró oficialmente un embargo económico contra Cuba.
Washington impuso este bloqueo para “provocar hambre, desesperación y el derrocamiento del gobierno”, como admitió un ex funcionario del Departamento de Estado estadounidense.
El gobierno de Cuba ha condenado el embargo ilegal de EEUU como “el acto de guerra económica más complejo, prolongado e inhumano cometido contra cualquier nación”, afirmando que “constituye una violación masiva, flagrante y sistemática de los derechos humanos de todas las cubanas y cubanos”.
Cuba estima que el bloqueo le ha costado a su economía al menos $144.413 millones de dólares estadounidenses.
Cuando el pueblo de Cuba derrocó la dictadura derechista de Fulgencio Batista en una revolución popular el 1 de enero de 1959, Estados Unidos respondió con medidas coercitivas, para castigar al país por derrocar a un régimen cliente leal de Washington.
El 3 de febrero de 1962, las sanciones estadounidenses ya existentes escalaron a un bloqueo total, cuando el presidente John F. Kennedy emitió la Proclamación 3447, declarando un “embargo a todo el comercio con Cuba”.
La Proclamación 3447 de Washington afirmó que el gobierno revolucionario de Cuba “es incompatible con los principios y objetivos del sistema interamericano”, debido a “la ofensiva subversiva del comunismo chino-soviético con la que el gobierno de Cuba se alinea públicamente”.

Este embargo estadounidense, que continúa hasta el día de hoy, es flagrantemente ilegal según el derecho internacional.
El Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Cuba publicó una denuncia del bloqueo en su 60 aniversario, afirmando que “la política de cerco y asfixia económica se consolidó como eje central de la estrategia dirigida a coartar el derecho legítimo de los cubanos a defender su soberanía y forjar un proyecto emancipador, ajeno a la dominación imperialista”.
“Aunque el bloqueo vs Cuba se decretó oficialmente en 1962, su aplicación se remonta al momento mismo del triunfo revolucionario”, agregó la Cancillería.
En abril de 1960, poco más de un año después de la revolución, el subsecretario de estado de EEUU para asuntos interamericanos, Lester Mallory, publicó un memorando titulado “The Decline and Fall of Castro” (“El declive y la caída de Castro”). Este documento es una pistola humeante, que revela claramente los objetivos detrás del bloqueo estadounidense: “hambre, desesperación y el derrocamiento del gobierno”.
Mallory admitió que la “mayoría de los cubanos apoya a Castro” y que “no existe una oposición política efectiva”.
El alto diplomático estadounidense escribió que “el único medio previsible de alienar el apoyo interno es a través del desencanto y la desafección basados en la insatisfacción y las dificultades económicas”.
El memorándum del Departamento de Estado de EEUU declaraba que deberían “debilitar la vida económica negándole a Cuba dinero y suministros con el fin de reducir los salarios nominales y reales, provocar hambre, desesperación y el derrocamiento del gobierno”.

La Cancillería de Cuba dijo que el embargo de EEUU ha “limitado las posibilidades de desarrollo económico, al estar diseñado para impedir las relaciones comerciales con terceros países, obstaculizar al máximo las operaciones bancario-financieras, frenar la inversión extranjera y cortar toda fuente de ingresos.”.
Violando flagrantemente el derecho internacional, el bloqueo estadounidense utiliza “presiones, chantajes y penalidades, [para] aislar a Cuba y castigar a quienes establezcan cualquier vínculo económico, comercial y financiero con el país”, dijo la Cancillería.
“Es la expresión práctica de la doctrina Monroe en el siglo XXI, que mira a América Latina y el Caribe desde posición de propietario, ya sea ‘patio trasero o delantero'” de EEUU, agregó el gobierno cubano.
Por 29 año consecutivo, básicamente todo el mundo votó en la ONU en contra del bloqueo ilegal y asesino de EEUU a Cuba.
184 países votaran en contra del bloqueo.Sólo 2 votaron a favor: Estados Unidos e Israel.3 títeres de EEUU se abstuvieron: Colombia, Ucrania y los EAU pic.twitter.com/Kac29gDOp9
— Benjamin Norton (@BenjaminNorton) June 23, 2021

Al bloqueo ilegal de Washington contra Cuba se opone casi toda la comunidad internacional.
En junio de 2021, 184 de los 193 estados miembros de las Naciones Unidas (95%) votaron en contra del embargo estadounidense a Cuba. Solo Estados Unidos e Israel votaron a favor del bloqueo, mientras que Colombia, Ucrania y Brasil se abstuvieron.
Este fue el 29 año consecutivo en que el bloqueo estadounidense fue condenado con la gran mayoría de votos en Naciones Unidas.
En la votación de la ONU de 2021, el canciller de Cuba, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, calificó el bloqueo de “una violación masiva, flagrante y sistemática de los derechos humanos del pueblo cubano”, que constituye “una guerra económica de alcance extraterritorial contra un país pequeño país ya afectado en el periodo reciente por la recesión y la crisis económica global provocadas por la pandemia”.
“como el virus [del Covid-19], el bloqueo asfixia y mata, y debe cesar”, dijo Rodríguez.
El portavoz del imperio estadounidense, el New York Times, admite que Biden es "más duro con Cuba que" Trump
En cuanto al imperialismo asesino, no hay diferencia entre los demócratas y los republicanos. A los dos les encanta torturar al pueblo cubano
Es el sadismo bipartidista pic.twitter.com/sGFR2dQ4kc
— Benjamin Norton (@BenjaminNorton) August 10, 2021

Si bien el 95% de los países del mundo se oponen al bloqueo ilegal de EEUU por parte de Washington, este cuenta con apoyo bipartidista dentro de los Estados Unidos.
La administración de Donald Trump impuso cientos de nuevas sanciones económicas contra Cuba. La administración de Joe Biden se ha negado a levantar estas medidas coercitivas unilaterales y, en cambio, ha impuesto aún más.
The New York Times señaló que “Biden está implementando una línea más dura con Cuba que su predecesor, el expresidente Donald Trump”.


Instruction: Write an article about: Lula wins Brazil election: Game-changer for BRICS and Latin America. Use the themes and topics represented by the tags provided as guidance for the content. It's not necessary to include the exact tag words in the article, but the article should reflect the essence and context of these tags.

Input: Brazil, Brian Mier, BRICS, Jair Bolsonaro, Lula da Silva

Output:
Leftist Lula da Silva defeated far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil’s October 30 presidential election, vowing to strengthen Latin American regional integration, expand the BRICS system, and fight poverty and hunger at home.

Brazil’s left-wing former President Lula da Silva won round two of the election on October 30, despite blatant voter suppression by far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro.
Lula got 50.9% of the total, including over 2.1 million more votes than Bolsonaro.
In his victory speech, Lula said his top priority will be to ensure that no Brazilian goes hungry. He likewise pledged to provide housing for the homeless, jobs and opportunities for the poor, better education, and equality for women.
Results of Brazil’s October 30, 2022 presidential election round two
Lula was a co-founder of the BRICS system, which he has called to expand. He has similarly vowed to strengthen unity in Latin America and the Caribbean through institutions of regional integration like the CELAC, UNASUR, and MERCOSUR.
Before the election, Lula proposed creating a pan-Latin American currency, in order to “be freed of the dollar.”
Lula’s victory represents a reversal of two US-sponsored soft coups in 2016 and 2018, which overthrew the Workers’ Party (PT) government of former President Dilma Rousseff and subsequently imprisoned Lula on false charges, handing power to Bolsonaro.
In the interview below, Brazil-based journalist Brian Mier speaks with Multipolarista editor Ben Norton about the global significance of Lula’s historic victory.

Follow Brian Mier on Twitter at @BrianMteleSUR
Thousands of people have poured out onto Paulista Avenue to celebrate Lula's historic victory- the first time a challenger has ever beat an imcumbant since the return to democracy in 1985. pic.twitter.com/eU3wru2bOz
— BrianMier (@BrianMteleSUR) October 30, 2022

Read independent news website Brasil Wire at brasilwire.com.
Lula says the top priorities of his government will be eliminating hunger and fighting poverty. pic.twitter.com/1LS3lUxvOk
— BrianMier (@BrianMteleSUR) October 31, 2022


Instruction: Write an article about: Latin America rejects coup in Peru, while US supports unelected regime killing protesters. Use the themes and topics represented by the tags provided as guidance for the content. It's not necessary to include the exact tag words in the article, but the article should reflect the essence and context of these tags.

Input: ALBA, AMLO, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Antony Blinken, Argentina, Bolivarian Alliance, Bolivia, Caribbean, Colombia, Cuba, Dina Boluarte, Gustavo Petro, Honduras, Mexico, Ned Price, Nicaragua, Peru, Venezuela

Output:
At least 14 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have condemned the coup in Peru, backing President Pedro Castillo. The unelected regime, which has killed dozens of protesters, has the staunch support of the US and the region’s right wing.

(Se puede leer esta nota en español aquí.)
More than a dozen countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have condemned the coup in Peru and backed democratically elected President Pedro Castillo.
Meanwhile, the US government has staunchly supported the coup regime, which has suspended civil liberties, imprisoned Castillo for 18 months without trial, and unleashed extreme violence on Peruvian protesters, killing dozens and wounding hundreds.

At least 14 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have publicly expressed support for Peru’s President Castillo, including:
On the other side, Peru’s unelected coup regime has the strong support of the United States and Canada, as well as Brazil’s far-right Jair Bolsonaro administration and the right-wing governments in Ecuador, Uruguay, and Costa Rica.
Chile, led by liberal President Gabriel Boric, is the only country with an ostensibly left-of-center government that has joined the US and the region’s right wing in backing the coup in Peru.
Peru’s coup regime also has the support of Washington’s Organization of American States (OAS), which acts as an instrument of US foreign policy.

Since Castillo was overthrown in the December 7 coup, Peru’s unelected de facto leader Dina Boluarte has cracked down harshly, sending the military and police to kill protesters.
State security services have raided the offices of social movements, labor unions, and left-wing political parties and arrested their leaders, targeting the Campesino Confederation of Peru, the Peruvian Socialist Party, and the leftist party Nuevo Perú.
Numerous activists have reported that the coup regime is planting weapons and other materials in order to falsely accuse protesters of “terrorism.”
This witness at Peru's Peasant Confederation says police raided their office, detained them, and planted weapons and other materials that do not belong to them
Peru's coup regime and oligarch-controlled media are trying to frame protesters as "terrorists"https://t.co/am8L9ztYiY
— Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) December 17, 2022

Peru’s US-backed coup regime has also brought back war criminals who worked in the far-right dictatorship of Alberto Fujimori in the 1990s.
The man appointed chief of Peru’s notorious National Directorate of Intelligence (DINI), Juan Carlos Liendo O’Connor, previously served in the feared National Intelligence Service (SIN) in the Fujimori dictatorship. Liendo O’Connor’s boss was sentenced to 35 years in prison for murdering and disappearing left-wing activists.
Today, Liendo O’Connor, the coup regime’s new intelligence chief, is borrowing the same tactics used by the Fujimorista dictatorship. He demonizes protesters as “terrorists,” thereby justifying the use of violence against them.
While Peru’s coup regime is killing protesters, suspending civil liberties, and bringing back war criminals from the Fujimori dictatorship, the United States is praising it for supposedly defending “democracy.”
Coup leader Boluarte held a friendly call with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on December 16. Her office boasted that he “reiterated the support of the United States.”
La presidenta de la república, @DinaErcilia Boluarte, dialogó telefónicamente con el Secretario de Estado de @LaCasaBlanca, @SecBlinken, quien le reiteró el respaldo de los Estados Unidos al gobierno que lidera. pic.twitter.com/dMn11CInxv
— Presidencia del Perú ?? (@presidenciaperu) December 17, 2022

The State Department confirmed this call in a readout, stating, “The United States looks forward to working closely with President Boluarte on shared goals and values related to democracy, human rights, security, anti-corruption, and economic prosperity.”
Washington did not mention the dozens of protesters who have been killed and hundreds more who have been wounded by Boluarte’s unelected coup regime.
CIA agent turned State Department spokesman Ned Price said Washington spoke with the coup leader to “reinforce our partnership and emphasize U.S. support for a peaceful, democratic, and prosperous Peru.”
.@SecBlinken spoke with Peruvian President @DinaErcilia today to reinforce our partnership and emphasize U.S. support for a peaceful, democratic, and prosperous Peru. https://t.co/kdztJZjGw1
— Ned Price (@StateDeptSpox) December 18, 2022

Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, and Bolivia published a joint statement supporting President Castillo, who they recognized was democratically elected by the people of Peru.
“For the world, it is not news that President Castillo Terrones, since the day of his election, was victim of anti-democratic harassment,” they wrote.
The government of Mexico’s left-wing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) even announced a formal “pause” in its diplomatic relations with Peru’s unelected regime.
Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, and Bolivia released a joint statement supporting Peru’s elected President Pedro Castillo, saying he is victim of “anti-democratic harassment,” following a US-backed coup.
Gustavo Petro recognized it was a "parliamentary coup"https://t.co/pxyxM1hHpU
— Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) December 13, 2022

Colombia’s President Petro denounced the ouster of Castillo as a “parliamentary coup.” He added that the putsch is a warning for all elected left-wing leaders in Latin America.
Petro declared that “the Latin American oligarchy doesn’t want progressivism,” and “what they can’t win at the ballot box, they are trying to topple.”
Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro names some of the recent coups against democratically elected left-wing leaders in Latin America:-Honduras in 2009-Paraguay in 2012-Brazil in 2016-Bolivia in 2019-now Peru
Full transcript here: https://t.co/V3dPxph76s pic.twitter.com/lHx2r90syj
— Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) December 19, 2022

The Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), the left-wing economic and political bloc that consists of 10 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, released a similar statement supporting Castillo.
“We reject the political trap created by the right-wing forces of that country against the Constitutional President Pedro Castillo, forcing him to take measures that were later used by his adversaries in parliament to oust him from office,” ALBA wrote.
“We repudiate the repression by the law enforcement agencies against the Peruvian people who are defending a government democratically elected at the polls,” they added.
ALBA members include Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, Bolivia, and the Caribbean nations of Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
The Bolivarian Alliance (ALBA) uniting nations in Latin America & the Caribbean met for its 18th annual summit
They condemned the coup in Peru against constitutional President Pedro Castillo and denounced the lawfare in Argentina against Cristina Kirchnerhttps://t.co/ATSeNzLB37
— Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) December 16, 2022

Honduras also emphasized its “energetic condemnation of the coup d’etat” against Peruvian President Castillo, stating that he represents the “sovereign will of the people.”
“Coups d’etat should not be carried out,” declared the left-wing Honduran government of President Xiomara Castro, who restored democracy in 2021 after 12 years of right-wing coup regimes sponsored by the United States.
Honduras stressed its “energetic condemnation of the coup d’etat” in Peru, saying elected President Castillo represents “the sovereign will of the people”
Honduras was also victim of a US-sponsored coup in 2009. It didn't restore democracy until late 2021https://t.co/QLB8YjNYrc
— Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) December 13, 2022

Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro made a powerful speech denouncing the coup in Peru, stating:
One sees what the Peruvian people are suffering. They elect a teacher, President Pedro Castillo, and since the first moment of the election, they don’t want to recognize his victory, they ignore the victory.
And at the end they were forced by reality to recognize his victory as president, and once he was sworn in on July 28, 2021, they begin to conspire to launch a parliamentary coup.
And so begins the attack and the wearing away, votes of condemnation against his ministers, permanent harassment.
…
They led him to the extreme of trying to dissolve the congress of Peru.
And all the circumstances that we have seen are the oligarchic elites who don’t allow a humble teacher to rise to the presidency of Peru and try to govern for the people.
Maduro said this is a message “that the extreme right is sending to the popular and progressive movements: ‘We are not going to let them govern.'”
? #EsNoticia | Perú víctima del plan golpista de las oligarquías (+Detalles) ?https://t.co/Agbf9kP5Vs#NavidadEsAlegría pic.twitter.com/Bdjt8PURlr
— Cancillería Venezuela ?? (@CancilleriaVE) December 9, 2022


Instruction: Write an article about: Europe and US meet with Venezuela’s real President Maduro – desperate for lower oil prices, their coup attempt falters. Use the themes and topics represented by the tags provided as guidance for the content. It's not necessary to include the exact tag words in the article, but the article should reflect the essence and context of these tags.

Input: Antony Blinken, Brian A Nichols, Donald Trump, Emmanuel Macron, France, Joe Biden, John Kerry, Juan Guaidó, Nicolás Maduro, oil, Venezuela, William Barr

Output:
After years backing a failed coup attempt, France’s Emmanuel Macron, US climate envoy John Kerry, and Portugal’s PM met with Venezuela’s elected President Nicolás Maduro at the UN COP27 conference. Desperate to lower oil prices, they dropped the pretense that Juan Guaidó controls anything.

After years backing a failed coup attempt, France’s leader Emmanuel Macron, US climate envoy John Kerry, and Portugal’s Prime Minister Antonio Costa held informal discussions with Venezuela’s constitutionally elected President Nicolás Maduro.
These meetings took place on November 7 at the United Nations climate change conference, COP27, in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
The Joe Biden administration still technically recognizes unelected coup leader Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s supposed “interim president,” but Washington and Brussels are desperate to lower oil prices amid an energy crisis that has wreaked havoc on their economies.

Before the West imposed harsh sanctions on Russia over the proxy war in Ukraine, Moscow had been the largest supplier of both oil and gas to Europe.
December 5 marks the deadline by which the European Union pledged to cut off all imports of Russian crude. This means EU member states are desperately looking for alternative suppliers, as winter soon approaches.
President Biden visited Saudi Arabia in July and tried to pressure both the country and the OPEC+ alliance to boost production in order to drop the price of oil on the global market. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman refused, instead announcing that the oil producers would be cutting their production.

France’s President Emmanuel Macron may be a banker who is deeply motivated by neoliberal ideology, but he is also a bit of a pragmatist.
Realizing that he had few other choices, Macron approached Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro at the COP27 conference. A video that went viral on social media showed the French leader politely asking Maduro for a meeting and proposing dialogue.
French President Macron very respectfully spoke with Venezuelan President Maduro at UN climate conference COP27
Macron made it clear France recognizes Venezuela's constitutionally elected government, referring to Maduro as president and proposing dialoguepic.twitter.com/n3tZ2QutVe
— Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) November 8, 2022

On the same day, Maduro met with the Biden administration’s special climate envoy, John Kerry.
Kerry had harshly criticized Maduro back when he served as secretary of state under President Barack Obama. The Venezuelan leader had condemned Kerry as well, calling him “ridiculous” in a 2014 rally.
But today, reducing the price of oil is a more important priority for Washington. And Caracas is willing to negotiate in hopes of lifting some of the illegal unilateral sanctions that the United States imposed on it, which have crippled Venezuela’s oil sector and devastated the country’s export-dependent economy.
ÚLTIMA HORA | Maduro y John Kerry estrechan las manos en otro encuentro polémico en la COP27 (Video). https://t.co/xVb9PG4wxP pic.twitter.com/sfK2kYXN0U
— AlbertoRodNews (@AlbertoRodNews) November 8, 2022

At the COP27 conference, Portugal’s Prime Minister Antonio Costa likewise had a friendly chat with Maduro.
The Portuguese leader was the most open of all with his intentions, saying clearly that the economic situation in Europe has been difficult with high inflation and soaring costs of oil and gas.
– ¿Cómo está Portugal?– No es fácil, con la inflación, el costo del petróleo, el gas…
Así, como si nada hubiera pasado, el PM de Portugal, Antonio Costa, le deja caer a Nicolás Maduro sus problemas internos.
*** Costa fue otro de los que desconocía el gobierno de Maduro. ?♂ pic.twitter.com/K8CF2Logk1
— Luis De Jesús ?? (@ldejesusreyes) November 8, 2022

These meetings represent quite a political reversal for the Western powers, which have spent years trying to overthrow Venezuela’s leftist Chavista government.
During a coup attempt in which right-wing extremists erected violent “guarimba” barricades to destabilize the country in 2014, the Obama administration began imposing sanctions on top Venezuelan officials.
In 2015, the White House released an executive order declaring Venezuela an “unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.”
This opened the flood gates for illegal unilateral US sanctions, which increased by the year, seriously damaging Venezuela’s oil industry, restricting its exports, and thus starving the country of much needed foreign exchange reserves.

In January 2019, the Donald Trump administration initiated the biggest coup attempt yet, appointing little-known right-wing opposition politician Juan Guaidó as supposed “interim president,” despite the fact that he has never won a single vote in a presidential election.
Trump drastically expanded the sanctions into a full-on US embargo of Venezuela, similar to Washington’s six-decade blockade of Cuba. The South American nation’s oil production subsequently fell to the lowest levels since 2003 – when the US government sponsored another, briefly successful coup in Venezuela and a subsequent oil lockout and bosses’ strike by the right-wing opposition.

Trump and top US officials also repeatedly discussed launching military attacks on Venezuela. Neoconservative National Security Advisor John Bolton later boasted of the hard work it took to organize the coup.
At the beginning, France eagerly joined in the US-led regime-change operation. Macron declared that Paris recognized Guaidó as Venezuela’s “interim president.”
Los Venezolanos tienen el derecho de expresarse libremente y democráticamente. Francia reconoce a @jguaido como "presidente encargado" para implementar un proceso electoral. Apoyamos al Grupo de contacto, creado con la UE, en este período de transición. https://t.co/7cgpdgz7TN
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) February 4, 2019

As recently as 2020, Macron was still publicly maintaining this charade, tweeting smiling photos with Guaidó.
Échange constructif avec @jguaido réélu à la présidence de l’@AsambleaVE. pic.twitter.com/p0O0HOWCZt
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) January 24, 2020

Soon after the Biden administration came to power in January 2021, it made it clear that it was continuing Trump’s policy.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken had a friendly call with Guaidó on March 2, reaffirming Washington’s “unwavering support.”
Today Venezuelan Interim President @jguaido and I discussed our unwavering support for democracy in Venezuela and our efforts to improve the lives of the Venezuelan people.
— Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) March 3, 2021

As recently as June 2022, the State Department was still describing Guaidó as so-called “interim president.”
For the second time in as many weeks, Interim President @jguaido was attacked in Venezuela. The United States is deeply concerned and condemns these escalating acts of violence, harassment, and intimidation against Interim President Guaidó and all those who stand for democracy.
— Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) June 12, 2022

The US assistant secretary for western hemisphere affairs, Brian A. Nichols, even removed the word “interim” and referred to Guaidó simply as “president” on June 11.
We are deeply concerned by the unprovoked attack on President @jguaido and his colleagues. This egregious attack risked lives; those responsible for the assault should be brought to justice.
— Brian A. Nichols (@WHAAsstSecty) June 11, 2022

The West’s de facto reluctant admission in 2022 that Maduro is Venezuela’s constitutional president stands in stark contrast to a press conference given in April 2020, when the US Justice Department put a mafia-style $15 million bounty on the head of Maduro and other top Venezuelan government officials.
Donald Trump’s far-right attorney general, veteran CIA operative William Barr, levelled absurd accusations of “drug trafficking” and “narco-terrorism,” without a scintilla of evidence.

The Trump administration’s coup attempt in Venezuela culminated in a botched invasion in May 2020, featuring dozens of mercenaries and former US Army special operations forces.
Known as Operation Gideon, this failed terrorist operation was sponsored by the CIA and Colombian intelligence agencies, according to coup-plotters involved in the attack.
A Venezuelan army defector who helped plan a botched May 2020 invasion, Clíver Alcalá, said the coup-plotters were in touch with the CIA and other US government agencies
They had Washington's approval to try to violently overthrow President Nicolás Madurohttps://t.co/GHYCrcZnm8
— Multipolarista (@Multipolarista) February 2, 2022


Instruction: Write an article about: No es Nicaragua la que está ‘aislada’; son EEUU y la UE. Use the themes and topics represented by the tags provided as guidance for the content. It's not necessary to include the exact tag words in the article, but the article should reflect the essence and context of these tags.

Input: China, Corea, FSLN, Iran, Japón, Nicaragua, Palestina, Rusia, Sandinistas, Siria, Turquía, Vietnam, Yemen

Output:
Los medios occidentales dicen que el gobierno sandinista de Nicaragua está “aislado”, pero tiene el apoyo de países gigantes en Asia, África y Latinoamérica, mientras EEUU pelea con la UE

Éste 10 de enero fue la toma de posesión del Presidente Daniel Ortega de Nicaragua, el líder del Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional.
Hay mucha propaganda absurda en los medios comerciales, diciendo que Nicaragua supuestamente está “aislada de la comunidad internacional”. Pero cuando dicen la “comunidad internacional”, realmente significa “los imperialistas en Estados Unidos y la Unión Europea”.
Revisemos la narrativa de la guerra de la información en los grandes medios hegemónicos:
Estados Unidos y la Unión Europea rechazaron las elecciones en Nicaragua en noviembre, sosteniendo que supuestamente fueron “fraudulentas”, y respondieron con guerra económica. (Todavía espero las elecciones presidenciales en las monarquías autocráticas del Golfo Pérsico, que son aliados obedientes de EEUU y la UE.)
Subsecuentemente, la respuesta a la inauguración presidencial éste 10 de enero por parte de los imperialistas en EEUU y la UE fue más guerra económica. Coordinando sus acciones, las potencias occidentales impusieron más sanciones contra funcionarios del gobierno de Nicaragua, su ejército, su instituto de telecomunicaciones y una compañía estatal de minas.
Pero si miramos más allá de las distracciones en los medios comerciales, podemos ver muy claramente que, en realidad, Nicaragua tiene muchos aliados en Asia, África y Latinoamérica, representando a miles de millones de personas, incluyendo las naciones más grandes del mundo.
Representantes de los siguientes países saludaron la inauguración del Presidente Ortega:
Los propagandistas en los medios occidentales realmente creen que todo el mundo se centra en el 15% de la población mundial, aproximadamente, que vive en EEUU y la UE, y que constituyen su llamada “comunidad internacional”. Ignoran la gran mayoría de la humanidad en Asia, África y America Latina y el Caribe.
La verdad es que no es Nicaragua que esté aislada, sino Estados Unidos y la Unión Europea, quienes cada vez más están perdiendo sus aliados. Hasta Francia, una antigua potencia colonial, dice que Europea no puede confiar en EEUU. Y Washington amenazó a Alemania con sanciones por su gasoducto con Rusia, el Nord Stream 2.
Mientras los imperialistas occidentales imponen sanciones ilegales a pueblos a través del planeta — y mientras luchan entre ellos — Asia sigue avanzando muy rápidamente, América Latina y África están desarrollándose y los mecanismos de integración Sur-Sur se están fortaleciendo.
¿Quieres saber lo que realmente es el aislamiento? Cuando más de 95% de los 193 estados miembros de la ONU votan todos los años en la Asamblea General, por tres décadas, para condenar el bloqueo ilegal de EEUU a Cuba. Ése es el verdadero aislamiento internacional.
Por 29 año consecutivo, básicamente todo el mundo votó en la ONU en contra del bloqueo ilegal y asesino de EEUU a Cuba.
184 países votaran en contra del bloqueo.Sólo 2 votaron a favor: Estados Unidos e Israel.3 títeres de EEUU se abstuvieron: Colombia, Ucrania y los EAU pic.twitter.com/Kac29gDOp9
— Benjamin Norton (@BenjaminNorton) June 23, 2021


Instruction: Write an article about: Honduras condemns coup in Peru, supports elected President Pedro Castillo. Use the themes and topics represented by the tags provided as guidance for the content. It's not necessary to include the exact tag words in the article, but the article should reflect the essence and context of these tags.

Input: coup, Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, Pedro Castillo, Peru, Xiomara Castro

Output:
Honduras stressed its “energetic condemnation of the coup d’etat” in Peru, saying elected President Pedro Castillo represents “the sovereign will of the people.” Honduras was also the victim of a US-sponsored coup in 2009.

Honduras’ democratically elected left-wing government was overthrown in a military coup, sponsored by the US government, in 2009.
After restoring democracy in late 2021, Honduras’ new government has warned of a similar coup in South America.
On December 7, Peru’s right-wing-controlled congress, which is notorious for its blatant corruption and has an approval rating of between 7% and 11%, launched a coup against democratically elected left-wing President Pedro Castillo.
The US State Department publicly supported the coup.
Castillo was imprisoned, setting off huge protests around the country in which Peruvians are demanding his release, calling for new elections, and proposing a new constitution.
Honduras’ Foreign Ministry published a statement on the day of the coup, then republished it on December 12, communicating its “energetic condemnation of the coup d’etat that occurred in Peru, which is the result of a series of events to erode democracy and the sovereign will of the people represented by President Pedro Castillo.”
?COMUNICADO: Posición del Gobierno de Honduras en relación a los últimos acontecimientos ocurridos en el Perú. pic.twitter.com/C1sG2OY8Zv
— Cancillería Honduras (@CancilleriaHN) December 13, 2022

Honduras demanded that Castillo’s “physical integrity and human rights be respected.”
“The government of Honduras hopes that the democratic order and electoral sovereignty of Peru retake the rule of law and guarantees its rights, amid this grave constitutional violation,” it added.
“Coups d’etat should not be carried out,” the statement stressed.
Honduras’ former President Manuel Zelaya likewise said, “We energetically condemn the coup d’etat in Peru, violating the sovereign will of the people, represented by President Pedro Castillo.”
Condenamos enérgicamente el golpe de estado en Peru violentando la soberana voluntad del pueblo, representado por el Presidente Pedro Castillo. @PedroCastilloTe @int_antiimp
— Manuel Zelaya R. (@manuelzr) December 7, 2022

Zelaya today serves as an advisor to Honduras’ current President Xiomara Castro, who is his wife, and is a member of the leftist Libre Party, which Zelaya also leads.
Zelaya founded an organization called the Anti-Imperialist International of the Peoples in Defense of Humanity and Nature.
This Anti-Imperialist International has launched a campaign that “demands the immediate freedom of Pedro Castillo, Peru’s legitimate president.”
La internacional Antimperialista de los pueblos exige libertad inmediata para Pedro Castillo presidente legítimo de Perú. #LibertadPedroCastillo #Perú pic.twitter.com/HLg5c7q7kZ
— Internacional Antiimperialista de los Pueblos (@int_antiimp) December 12, 2022

Zelaya was himself overthrown in a US-backed military coup in 2009.
Honduras was ruled by a series of right-wing coup regimes that were deeply involved in drug trafficking and stole multiple elections, until the restoration of democracy in late 2021 with Xiomara Castro’s victory.
Xiomara Castro is Honduras’ first democratic leader since the 2009 coup.
US turns on Honduran narco-dictator Juan Orlando Hernández after long supporting him


Instruction: Write an article about: US govt’s Summit of the Americas fails: Boycott by presidents of Mexico, Bolivia, Honduras, Guatemala. Use the themes and topics represented by the tags provided as guidance for the content. It's not necessary to include the exact tag words in the article, but the article should reflect the essence and context of these tags.

Input: AMLO, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Bolivia, Cuba, Guatemala, Honduras, Joe Biden, Luis Arce, Mexico, Nicaragua, Summit of the Americas, Venezuela, Xiomara Castro

Output:
As the US government’s Summit of the Americas opens in Los Angeles, California, the presidents of Mexico, Bolivia, Honduras, and Guatemala have refused to attend, protesting the exclusion of Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua.

The US government’s Summit of the Americas started on June 6 in Los Angeles, California. And the event proved to be a major diplomatic failure for the Joe Biden administration.
Washington refused to invite the socialist governments of Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua.
So to protest this exclusion, the presidents of Mexico, Bolivia, and Honduras boycotted the summit. Guatemala’s president also chose to skip the conference.
This means heads of state representing Latin American countries with a total population of more than 200 million people – a significant percentage of the Americas – refused to attend Washington’s Summit of the Americas.

The most significant absence was Mexico’s left-wing president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, known popularly by the acronym AMLO.
“I am not going to the summit because not all of the countries of the Americas were invited,” AMLO explained in his morning press conference on June 6.
“I believe in the need to change the policy that has been imposed for centuries, the exclusion, the desire to dominate, the lack of respect for the sovereignty of the countries and the independence of every country,” the Mexican president explained.
Mexico's President AMLO said he refuses to attend the US government's Summit of the Americas, protesting the exclusion of Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua
AMLO condemned US "hegemony" and its "old policy of interventionism," of "lack of respect"
Read more: https://t.co/O7bOWe6W6N pic.twitter.com/chPeIY46YD
— Multipolarista (@Multipolarista) June 6, 2022

“There cannot be a Summit of the Americas if all of the countries of the American continent do not participate,” López Obrador continued. “We consider that to be the old policy of interventionism, of a lack of respect for nations and their peoples.”
AMLO criticized the US Republican Party for its “extremist” positions against Cuba and racist policies against immigrants. But he also pointed out that some prominent figures in the Democratic Party, such as New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez, have also contributed to “hate” against Cuba and hawkish meddling in Latin America’s sovereign affairs.
“I don’t accept hegemonies,” AMLO added. “Not of China, not of Russia, not of the United States. All countries, no matter how small they are, are free and are independent.”
López Obrador said that Mexico’s foreign minister, Marcelo Ebrard, would instead attend the Summit of the Americas.
AMLO’s absence is especially significant given that, in addition to being neighbors with a 3,000-kilometer border, the United States and Mexico’s are each other’s top trading partners.
Mexico is the second-largest country in Latin America, in terms of population. It also has the second-biggest economy in the region.
Joining AMLO in condemning the US government’s policy of exclusion was Bolivia’s socialist President Luis Arce.
Bolivia’s foreign ministry confirmed on June 6 that Arce is not joining the summit either. Instead, the country’s ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS), Héctor Arce, is attending.
In a Twitter thread the week before, Arce insisted that “it is time for the government of the United States to put an end to the senseless and criminal economic, commercial, and financial blockade that weighs on Cuba, as well as the more than 500 unilateral coercive sanctions imposed on Venezuela and Nicaragua.”
The Bolivian leader added, “With blockades and sanctions, a sustainable, resilient, and equitable future will never be able to be built in the hemisphere, as the next Summit of the Americas is proposing.”
¡Con bloqueos y sanciones no se podrá construir nunca un futuro sostenible, resiliente y equitativo en el Hemisferio, como se lo plantea la próxima Cumbre de las Américas!
— Luis Alberto Arce Catacora (Lucho Arce) (@LuchoXBolivia) May 27, 2022

Honduras’ new left-wing President Xiomara Castro is boycotting the Summit of the Americas as well.
On May 28, Castro tweeted, “I will only attend the summit if all of the countries of America are invited without exception.”
On June 6, the Honduran president made good on her promise, and her government confirmed that Foreign Minister Eduardo Enrique Reina would attend instead.
Asistiré a la Cumbre solo si están invitados todos los países de América sin excepción. “El estudio más digno de un americano es América”.
— Xiomara Castro de Zelaya (@XiomaraCastroZ) May 28, 2022

While the majority of the leaders not attending the Summit of the Americas are left-wing, even Guatemala’s right-wing president, Alejandro Giammattei, announced that he will not be present.
Several officials from Giammattei’s government have been sanctioned by the United States, and he is protesting the Biden administration’s policies with his absence.
The Caribbean Community (CARICOM), which represents 15 states, similarly threatened to boycott the summit if Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua were excluded.
Several countries in the Caribbean did confirm they are attending, however. It is not clear how many are boycotting.
Brazil’s far-right leader, Jair Bolsonaro, had initially threatened not to attend the summit. Washington responded by promising Bolsonaro that it would welcome him to the White House and give him one-on-one meetings with Biden.
The far-right Brazilian autocrat thus changed his mind and decided to attend.
Bolsonaro is joined by the right-wing leaders of Colombia and Ecuador, as well as the centrist leaders of Chile and Argentina. (The conservative president of Uruguay, Luis Lacalle Pou, had planned to join, but was ultimately unable to do so because he got Covid-19.)
The Summit of the Americas was first convened by the United States in 1994, after the end of the first cold war, as a way for Washington to expand its hegemony in Latin America and the Caribbean.
That same year, the US government signed the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), a neoliberal deal with Mexico and Canada, which devastated Mexico’s local economy and fueled a wave of mass migration.
Numerous grassroots organizations, left-wing social movements, and labor unions have organized an alternative People’s Summit for Democracy to protest the US government’s Summit of the Americas.
The People’s Summit is hosting a series of demonstrations, panels, concerts, and cultural activities in California from June 8 to 10.


Instruction: Write an article about: Colombia’s President Petro denounces ‘parliamentary coup’ against Peru’s Castillo. Use the themes and topics represented by the tags provided as guidance for the content. It's not necessary to include the exact tag words in the article, but the article should reflect the essence and context of these tags.

Input: Colombia, coup, Gustavo Petro, Pedro Castillo, Peru, Semana, Vicky Dávila

Output:
Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro denounced the overthrow of Peru’s Pedro Castillo as a “parliamentary coup,” saying it is a warning for all democratically elected left-wing leaders in Latin America: “What they can’t win at the ballot box, they are trying to topple”

Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro has denounced the ouster of Peru’s President Pedro Castillo as a “parliamentary coup.”
Petro said the coup in Peru is a warning for all democratically elected left-wing leaders in Latin America.
Pointing to recent coups against left-wing governments, Petro recalled, “It happened in Paraguay [in 2012]; it happened in Honduras [in 2009]; it happened in Brazil [in 2016]. Imagine that! When they took out Dilma Rousseff. It happened in Bolivia [in 2019], with some deaths,”
“The message is clear: What they can’t win at the ballot box, they are trying to overthrow,” the Colombian president cautioned. He added, “That is what happened with [Salvador] Allende [in Chile in 1973].”
Petro argued Castillo was ousted because he represented the humble indigenous-descent majority of the country, who have not been represented by the political system.
“They overthrew him, among other reasons, because he is from the Andes, because he is poor,” he said.
Petro made these comments in an interview with Semana, a major media outlet that is closely associated with Colombia’s right wing. The interview was conducted by Semana’s director, Vicky Dávila, who is well known for her conservative sympathies.
Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro names some of the recent coups against democratically elected left-wing leaders in Latin America:-Honduras in 2009-Paraguay in 2012-Brazil in 2016-Bolivia in 2019-now Peru
Full transcript here: https://t.co/V3dPxph76s pic.twitter.com/lHx2r90syj
— Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) December 19, 2022

GUSTAVO PETRO: [In Peru] there is an emergency, with protests, above all in the Andes mountains, which is who voted for him [President Pedro Castillo].
Because, for a long time, Peru has had a social fracture between what Lima is, and what the Andes is, with very different political processes.
But here, that President (Castillo), elected by the people, is from the Andes.
And they overthrow him, among other reasons, because he is from the Andes, because he is poor.
…
You have a president who was elected by the people, who tries to use an article (134) of their constitution, which, yes, allows the closure of the congress. We don’t have that, but they do.
VICKY DÁVILA: But what happened is there were the circumstances, just let me say this to you, there was the circumstance in which they were about to order [presidential] vacancy.
GUSTAVO PETRO: Vacancy, which is a parliamentary coup. Vacancy means you leave —
VICKY DÁVILA: So he is a victim, Mr. President? You feel that way?
GUSTAVO PETRO: Yes, I feel that way.
VICKY DÁVILA: That statement has led to criticisms of you. You know that?
GUSTAVO PETRO: Yes, but —
VICKY DÁVILA: And you don’t care?
GUSTAVO PETRO: I can’t – tell me something, that they [Peru’s coup government] are killing people, because we’re talking about what had happened in Colombia, but it’s happening there.
There are deaths, [and many more since], a state of emergency, a president elected by the people who was not sentenced by any judge, and his own security and police capture him, and they imprison him.
Where was the legal sentence by a judge?
…
VICKY DÁVILA: But the IACHR [Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, an arm of the OAS] did not protect him.
GUSTAVO PETRO: Well, is the CIDH being consistent today with the American Convention [on Human Rights]? Or is it in a political game, involving the OAS?
Because if left-wing governments keep winning [elections], the OAS [Organization of American States] has to change. And what mechanism is easier for overthrowing left-wing governments? Which were legitimately elected by the people.
VICKY DÁVILA: Do you think that what is happening to Castillo is a warning for other left-wing governments?
GUSTAVO PETRO: For all of them.
VICKY DÁVILA: And that includes you?
GUSTAVO PETRO: Yes, all of them.
VICKY DÁVILA: You think that could happen to you? Could they try to do it against you?
GUSTAVO PETRO: It happened in Paraguay [in 2012]; it happened in Honduras [in 2009]; it happened in Brazil [in 2016]. Imagine that! When they took out Dilma Rousseff. It happened in Bolivia [in 2019], with some deaths. Among other cases, the ones which I remember.
The message is clear: What they can’t win at the ballot box, they are trying to overthrow. … That is what happened with [Salvador] Allende [in Chile in 1973].
When they overthrow Allende, who is a president who is elected by the people, when they overthrow him by force, what followed in Latin America? Dictatorships followed. Millions of people exiled, revolutionary wars, of which I was a child, in Central America, in Colombia.
The democratic pact was broken. There was nothing but violence.
Now years have passed, now once again the people are electing their leaders, for better or for worse, but it is the people electing their leaders.
Whey are they overthrowing them? Because the Latin American oligarchy doesn’t want progressivism? So win the elections then! Don’t overthrow presidents by force.
Because all this is doing is leading to levels of violence that can be very serious, if we are not able to respond. You are already seeing it.


Instruction: Write an article about: USA vs the world: Blockade on Cuba opposed by 97% of countries at UN. Use the themes and topics represented by the tags provided as guidance for the content. It's not necessary to include the exact tag words in the article, but the article should reflect the essence and context of these tags.

Input: Cuba, Israel, sanctions, Ukraine, UN, United Nations

Output:
The world voted 187 to 2 at the United Nations General Assembly for an end to the illegal US embargo against Cuba. Only Israel supported Washington, while Ukraine abstained.

US officials frequently talk about the “rules-based international order”, and label other countries as “rogue states” if Washington doesn’t like their policies.
But a look at votes in the United Nations clearly shows that the United States consistently opposes the will of the entire international community.

The world saw a striking example of this on November 2, when almost every country on Earth supported a UN General Assembly resolution that called to end the US embargo against Cuba.
Only two countries voted against the measure: the United States and Israel.
Just one country abstained: Ukraine.

The world has for the most part voted the same way for 31 consecutive years.
In 2022, the vote was 185 to two, with two abstentions. At that time, Brazil was ruled by far-right, pro-US leader Jair Bolsonaro, who abstained. But now that Brazil’s left-wing President Lula da Silva is back in power, he has joined with the rest of the international community in opposing illegal US sanctions.
Entire world votes 185 to 2 against blockade of Cuba – US and Israel are rogue states at UN

Washington has maintained a suffocating blockade against Cuba for more than 60 years. This has starved the country of an estimated $159 billion, or approximately 150% of Cuba’s entire GDP.
The US embargo prevents Cuba from importing certain technologies, machine parts, medicines, and even foods, despite Washington’s misleading claim to have “humanitarian exemptions” – a rhetorical sleight of hand that in reality does not apply when foreign firms are afraid of secondary sanctions and therefore do not bother the risk of trading with Cuba.
Illegal US sanctions make it exceedingly difficult for Cuba to get access to international financing, and cut off communication with many risk-averse foreign banks.
The US blockade has directly contributed to many preventable deaths of Cubans, who have perished because their country was not able to import specific medicines, medical equipment, or machine parts that were needed to treat them.
Washington’s goal behind this criminal blockade is very clear: “to bring about hunger, desperation, and overthrow of government”.
In an internal State Department cable from 1960, the year after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution led by Fidel Castro, top US diplomats regretfully conceded that “the majority of Cubans support Castro” and “there is no effective political opposition”.
The US State Department therefore concluded:
The only foreseeable means of alienating internal support is through disenchantment and disaffection based on economic dissatisfaction and hardship.
If the above are accepted or cannot be successfully countered, it follows that every possible means should be undertaken promptly to weaken the economic life of Cuba. If such a policy is adopted, it should be the result of a positive decision which would call forth a line of action which, while as adroit and inconspicuous as possible, makes the greatest inroads in denying money and supplies to Cuba, to decrease monetary and real wages, to bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government.
Cuba’s Foreign Ministry published a report for UN member states in July 2023, which detailed how illegal US sanctions have devastated the country.
In the year from March 1, 2022 to February 28, 2023, Cuba estimated that the US blockade caused losses of $4.87 billion, or around $13 million per day.
This is a massive economic blow for a small island nation whose GDP is just over $100 billion.
Cuba calculated that, “At current prices, the accumulated losses during the over 60 years of application of this policy amount to USD 159,084,300,000”, or roughly 150% of GDP.
Moreover, Havana said GDP growth in 2022 would have likely been 9%, were it not for the illegal US embargo.
“The blockade directly causes extreme harm through the combined effects of its various measures, pursuing its cruel, practical aim of depriving the country of the inflow of funds essential for the purchase of food, supplies, equipment, spare parts, technologies and software”, the report stated.
“No other nation has been obliged to take on a social and development program under such conditions of prolonged systematic
hostility on the part of the greatest power in human history”, the Cuban government wrote.
“The blockade constitutes a massive, flagrant and systematic violation of the human rights of all Cubans. By reason of its express purpose and the political, legal and administrative structures on which it is based, it constitutes an act of genocide under the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide”, Havana added.
Cuba noted that more than 80% of its current population has no idea what life is like without the US blockade.