{"instruction": "Write an article about: Poverty is growing in Puerto Rico, under US colonialism: 57.6% of children live in poor households. 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": "colonialism, poverty, Puerto Rico", "output": "Poverty is rising in one of the world\u2019s oldest colonies: In Puerto Rico, 41.7% of people, including 57.6% of children, live in poverty. This is nearly four times the US rate. And Puerto Rican workers are getting poorer even while unemployment falls.\n\nPoverty in Puerto Rico, under US colonialism, is getting worse over time, not better.\nMore than two-fifths of Puerto Ricans suffer from poverty, and nearly three-fifths of Puerto Rican children live in poor households.\nIn 2022, the poverty rate in the colonized US \u201cterritory\u201d grew from 40.5% to 41.7%, according to US Census Bureau data.\nA staggering 57.6% of Puerto Rican children live in poverty. And 38.8% of families are below the poverty line.\nPoverty has been growing in Puerto Rico even at a time when more people are working. The unemployment rate fell from 13.1% to 9.9% in 2022, while poverty got worse.\nThese statistics from the US Census Bureau may be very conservative. Anti-poverty activists in Puerto Rico have criticized the official figures and argued they downplay the hardship in the colonized nation.\nAs Yale University\u2019s Genocide Studies Program notes, \u201cPuerto Rico is one of the world\u2019s oldest colonies, having been under some form of military occupation or protectorate status since 1508\u2033.\nThe United States seized the nation from its former colonizer Spain in an 1898 war.\nWashington claims that being a US \u201cterritory\u201d makes Puerto Ricans wealthier, but after more than a century of colonization, their poverty rate is nearly four times the US average, while their incomes are roughly one-third those of the United States.\nPuerto Rico\u2019s poverty rate of 41.7% stands in stark contrast to the US national average of 11.5%, according to the Census Bureau.\nIn Puerto Rico, per capita income is just $14,047, while median household income is $21,967.\nAcross the United States, per capita income is $37,638, and median household income is $69,021.\nIn wealthy US states such as Maryland, Massachussets, or New Jersey, median household income is around $90,000 \u2013 more than four times that of Puerto Rico.\nEven the poorest US states, like Mississippi, West Virginia, and Louisiana, still have a median household income of roughly $50,000 \u2013 more than double that of Puerto Rico.\nThe already dire economic situation for Puerto Rican families has only gotten worse in the past two years, as a rise in consumer price inflation has further eroded their purchasing power.\nMeanwhile, the US federal government has fueled mass displacement and outward migration, by turning Puerto Rico into a tax haven.\nRight-wing libertarians and corporate oligarchs have happily proclaimed, \u201cMove to Puerto Rico!\u201c, not because they care about the nation, its people, its culture, and its history, but simply because US citizens who relocate there do not have to pay federal income tax or capital gains tax.\nThis policy has unleashed colonial gentrification, incentivizing rich North Americans to displace local Puerto Rican residents.\nIt has also fueled rampant real estate speculation. Skyrocketing housing prices have only exacerbated the cost of living crisis, forcing many indigenous Boricuas out of the homes their families have lived in for generations.\nJournalist Bianca Graulau has documented this colonial gentrification:\n\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: How Brazil\u2019s electoral court took action against Bolsonaro\u2019s fake news campaigns. 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, Jair Bolsonaro, Lula da Silva, PT, Workers' Party", "output": "Targeted disinformation campaigns on social media were key in getting Brazil\u2019s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro into power in 2018. A law professor explains how the Superior Electoral Court took action to prevent him from manipulating the 2022 vote.\n\nBrazil\u2019s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro has often been described as the \u201cTrump of the tropics,\u201d in reference to the former leader of the United States. But this has led to superficial comparisons between the two countries.\nIt is true that the Bolsonaro family and members of Steve Bannon\u2019s ultra-conservative \u201cMovement\u201d have worked together closely, and social media disinformation tactics were imported from the US and became a key factor in Bolsonaro\u2019s 2018 electoral victory.\nHowever, Brazil\u2019s electoral system is completely different. Many things that are legal in US elections \u2013 especially regarding campaign funding \u2013 are considered election fraud under Brazilian law.\nIn Brazil, the results of the October 30, 2022 presidential election were tallied in just under four hours, whereas the United States needed more than a week to finalize the results of its November 8 mid-term elections.\nBrazil has an independent national electoral court system, which was established in 1932, and which oversees all steps of the electoral process, including by auditing elections and investigating and punishing fraud.\nThe 2018 Brazilian presidential elections showed that the regulatory mechanisms controlled by the electoral courts were too slow to act effectively in the social media age.\nDespite dozens of allegations of fraudulent, illegally funded social media campaigns that spread micro-targeted disinformation against the Workers\u2019 Party 2018 presidential candidate Fernando Haddad, it took three years for the Superior Electoral Court to reach a judgement on any of them.\nAs Brazil\u2019s six-week election season began in August 2018, the court began ordering US social media monopolies to pull electoral disinformation \u2013 from both the Bolsonaro and the Lula camps \u2013 off of their platforms. However, the 48-hour compliance time, based on laws that were created during the newspaper and TV age, did nothing to stop false stories from going viral.\nThen, after the first round vote on October 7, 2018, the Superior Electoral Court passed a law reducing compliance time to two hours. At this moment, prominent members of Brazil\u2019s US-connected far right cried \u201ccensorship.\u201d\nBut does this complaint apply in Brazil, which has a different legal conception of the right to free expression?\nIn the following interview, Federal University of Pernambuco law professor Liana Cirne, a Workers\u2019 Party councilwoman in the city of Recife, evaluates the effect of the electoral courts on the 2022 elections.\nBrazilian law professor and city council member Liana Cirne\nBRIAN MIER: Could you please explain the differences in the role of the Superior Electoral Court system during the 2018 and 2022 presidential elections?\nLIANA CIRNE: It was very big and noticeable. It looks like the Electoral Court felt the impact of the Supreme Court\u2019s inquiry on digital militias and fake news. This caused them to pay more attention to coup plotting and threats against democracy.\nThe role of the electoral courts in 2018 was radically different from this election. In 2018, it collaborated with the coup through rulings which attacked our democracy. One of these was the decision to bar Lula\u2019s candidacy.\nAnother ruling blocked ex-president Lula from giving any interviews, which constituted an act of prior censorship. It ruled, for example, that Lula\u2019s name couldn\u2019t appear in any electoral campaign materials.\nIn 2018, the Workers\u2019 Party was forced to recall stickers and pamphlets that had Lula\u2019s name in them.\nSo there were actions taken by the courts which had the electoral goal of preventing one of the candidates from being elected.\nIn 2022, after four years of the Bolsonaro government constantly threatening institutional normalcy, threatening the regular functioning of government institutions, and, especially, constantly threatening the judiciary, it looks like the Electoral Court recuperated the nature of its role and functions and became more vigilant, including with itself.\nIt moved slowly. It is important to remember that the Workers\u2019 Party filed a motion to cancel Bolsonaro and Mourao\u2019s electoral victory in 2018 that was only deliberated on in 2021, in a ruling that recognized the illegal use of fake news in the elections, that this use of fake news had an important influence on the results of the election, and, even so, didn\u2019t stipulate any punishment. They only issued a warning that these tactics would not be allowed in the 2022 elections.\nNevertheless we saw that the court was slow in restricting certain sites and social media accounts, including those of politicians and right-wing extremist sites from spreading disinformation.\nThis certainly had some kind of impact in our elections and, at least, shortly before the second round elections, the electoral court was able to bar certain sites from pushing fake news on social media. It barred the launching of fake news.\nIt wasn\u2019t enough, and it wasn\u2019t done in an adequate time span, but in the end, the court performed its role as an auditor of the electoral process.\nBRIAN MIER: What was the relationship between these sites that were barred from broadcasting content at the end of the election season, such as Brasil Paralelo, with the Bolsonaro campaign?\nLIANA CIRNE: Brasil Paralelo is not simply a website. It is a content producer. I call Brasil Paralelo the Netflix of the Brazilian far right. It is a high-quality production company. Its documentaries and series are very well produced and well written.\nThe problem is that they engage in historical and political revisionism, and they use a very dangerous trick, which has been explained in documentaries like The Great Hack and The Social Dilemma. They attract the curiosity of average, slightly conservative citizens and gradually radicalize them until they are entirely conditioned into the ideology of the far right.\nThe existence of Brasil Parelelo is very dangerous here. It is clear that, to the extent that it builds an audience of people indoctrinated into right-wing extremist ideology, it is an indirect but very effective way to campaign for Jair Bolsonaro.\nThe Court barred Brasil Parelelo from releasing one episode of its series Investiga\u00e7\u00e3o Paralela. It had already released an episode about the assassination of Marielle Franco that completely exonerates any possibility of the Bolsonaro\u2019s involvement \u2013 something we know that exists because people connected to the assassination worked in Flavio Bolsonaro\u2019s state congressional cabinet, because one of the killers was a neighbor of Bolsonaro and he had a functional relationship with the Bolsonaro family.\nBut there was another episode that they had planned to release before the final election called, \u201cWho ordered the killing of Jair Bolsonaro?\u201d It was going to air on the eve of the election.\nThe idea was to cover the incident \u2013 which some people contest \u2013 of the Bolsonaro stabbing, or supposed stabbing in 2018 in order to create a commotion and a radicalization of his supporters.\nIt was very important to delay the launch of this episode and block Brasil Paralelo from promoting content, during the final lead-up to the election.\nIt\u2019s important to point out that Brasil Paralelo was the company that spent the second-largest amount of money on online advertising in Brazil during the election season, trailing only the Meta corporation.\nIt spent more on online advertising than the Bolsonaro campaign itself.\nBRIAN MIER: Do you think that this and other similar actions taken by the Superior Electoral Court had any significant effect on the elections?\nLIANA CIRNE: I think it had an impact, a cleansing impact. It\u2019s very important that people can choose their candidate based on correct information and not on disinformation.\nEverything that can erroneously or wrongly affect an election result should be prevented and stopped by the electoral court.\nWe don\u2019t really know how to measure what the impact would have been if paid content promotion of fake news had been allowed to continue freely, but we suppose that the impact, in a race that was as close as this one, may have been enough to alter the result of the election.\nWe can\u2019t say for certain, but we can imagine that this disinformation could have affected the election result.\nBRIAN MIER: The Brazilian right has imported some of the arguments from the US right about freedom of speech to refer to these regulatory actions by the Superior Electoral Court as a form of censorship. Why doesn\u2019t this argument apply here, within the context of Brazilian law?\nLIANA CIRNE: Freedom of expression is a fundamental right that is guaranteed by our constitution, but like all other fundamental rights, it is not an absolute right. Therefore it has to be taken into consideration together with other fundamental rights. Rights coexist. The essential core of all rights fit together so they can coexist harmoniously.\nWhat does this mean? There is no right that is so absolute that it can pass over other rights. Rights have to be guaranteed to their essential core.\nThe right for people to express themselves exists, but is there a right to lie? No, especially when the goal of this lie is to defraud an election, which is another fundamental right.\nThe election is the core of freedom in a system such as ours, in which we elect our representatives.\nIs there a right to express threats? No. So rights have to be guaranteed in their essential core.\nFreedom of expression is a very important right, but you can\u2019t use this right to suppress other rights. This is the balance that we need to strive for under the democratic rule of law.\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: La derecha olig\u00e1rquica est\u00e1 organizando protestas de \u2018camioneros\u2019, desde Canad\u00e1 hasta Brasil. 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": "Brasil, Canada, Covid-19, Donald Trump, Eduardo Bolsonaro, Jair Bolsonaro, Jason Miller, Justin Trudeau", "output": "Con el apoyo de las \u00e9lites econ\u00f3micas, las llamadas protestas de \u201ccamioneros\u201d (dirigidas por no camioneros) han paralizado las capitales de Brasil y Canad\u00e1 en menos de seis meses. Las campa\u00f1as tienen muchas similitudes, incluida la financiaci\u00f3n de la derecha olig\u00e1rquica.\n\n(You can read this article in English here.)\nUnas redes internacionales de derechistas ricos han respaldado una protesta en Canad\u00e1 que paraliz\u00f3 la capital, Ottawa, en enero y febrero.\nMuchos de los organizadores de la manifestaci\u00f3n, que llaman el \u201cconvoy de la libertad\u201d, no son camioneros, y algunos tienen v\u00ednculos con grupos de extrema derecha y agencias policiales y de inteligencia militar canadienses. Pero han explotado la imagen de los camioneros para confundir a los observadores, haci\u00e9ndoles pensar que es un movimiento de la \u201cclase trabajadora\u201d.\nCon grandes sumas de dinero y el apoyo de poderosos l\u00edderes de la derecha en Canad\u00e1 y en el extranjero, especialmente de Donald Trump y su red pol\u00edtica en Estados Unidos, el \u201cconvoy de la libertad\u201d ha utilizado la oposici\u00f3n a los mandatos de vacunas contra el covid-19 como tapadera para lanzar una ocupaci\u00f3n de la capital canadiense.\nEsto es a pesar del hecho de que casi el 90% de los camioneros en Canad\u00e1 ya est\u00e1n vacunados, y el convoy ha sido condenado por los principales sindicatos y organizaciones que representan a los camioneros, incluidos el Canadian Labour Congress (Congreso laboral canadiense), Teamsters y la Canadian Trucking Alliance (Alianza de camioneros canadienses).\nSin embargo, esta no es la primera vez que se emplea esta t\u00e1ctica del \u201cconvoy de camioneros\u201d. Es el \u00faltimo ejemplo de una estrategia desarrollada por redes de derecha bien financiadas en las Am\u00e9ricas, desde Canad\u00e1 hasta Brasil.\nEl convoy en Ottawa es, de hecho, inquietantemente similar a una campa\u00f1a organizada unos meses antes en Brasilia por ricos partidarios del presidente de extrema derecha de la naci\u00f3n sudamericana, Jair Bolsonaro.\nUna protesta de camioneros en Brasil en 2018 paraliz\u00f3 las redes de distribuci\u00f3n durante semanas. Arraigada inicialmente en quejas leg\u00edtimas de aumentos irrazonables en el costo del diesel causados \u200b\u200bpor las pol\u00edticas econ\u00f3micas neoliberales impuestas despu\u00e9s de un golpe de estado pol\u00edtico en 2016 contra un gobierno de izquierda que hab\u00eda sido elegido democr\u00e1ticamente, la protesta de los camioneros pronto fue secuestrada por \u00e9lites conservadoras adineradas.\n2018 fue un a\u00f1o electoral crucial, y las oligarqu\u00edas de los medios de comunicaci\u00f3n de Brasil convirtieron la protesta de los camioneros en un gigantesco comercial de campa\u00f1a para el pol\u00edtico m\u00e1s subordinado a los intereses estadounidenses en la historia del pa\u00eds: Bolsonaro, su primer jefe de estado en visitar la sede de la CIA.\nLas redes internacionales de derecha volvieron a recurrir a la t\u00e1ctica del camionero en 2021. En la primera semana de septiembre, Brasil realiz\u00f3 una Conferencia de Acci\u00f3n Pol\u00edtica Conservadora (CPAC), protagonizada por el hijo de Bolsonaro, Eduardo. (Donald Trump Jr. planeaba asistir en persona, pero habl\u00f3 a trav\u00e9s de una transmisi\u00f3n de video.)\nCPAC Brasil tambi\u00e9n present\u00f3 a Jason Miller, ex asesor principal de Trump y aliado cercano del agente pol\u00edtico de extrema derecha Steve Bannon.\nEx asesor principal de Donald Trump, Jason Miller, con Jair Bolsonaro y su hijo Eduardo en Brasil\nApenas unos d\u00edas despu\u00e9s de la CPAC Brasil, el 7 de septiembre, un grupo de camioneros ocup\u00f3 la explanada nacional, paralizando brevemente la capital Brasilia, liderando a miles de simpatizantes de Bolsonaro en lo que inicialmente parec\u00eda ser un asalto planeado al edificio de la Corte Suprema.\nLa protesta de los \u201ccamioneros\u201d brasile\u00f1os fue organizada por un hombre que se hac\u00eda llamar Z\u00e9 Trov\u00e3o. M\u00e1s tarde se revel\u00f3 que en realidad no era camionero y que ni siquiera ten\u00eda licencia de conducir, pero recibi\u00f3 miles de d\u00f3lares del hijo de Bolsonaro, Eduardo.\nAdem\u00e1s, la mayor\u00eda de los camioneros que se presentaron en el mitin del 7 de septiembre en Brasilia en realidad hab\u00edan sido contratados por una empresa, Pro Tork, cuyo rico propietario, Marlon Bonilha, fue uno de los mayores contribuyentes de la campa\u00f1a de Bolsonaro.\nHoras despu\u00e9s de que se desvaneciera el intento de insurgencia, Miller fue detenido en el aeropuerto de Brasilia por polic\u00edas federales, quienes lo interrogaron sobre su papel en la desestabilizaci\u00f3n del pa\u00eds.\nLos claros paralelismos entre estas campa\u00f1as ilustran c\u00f3mo las poderosas redes de derecha est\u00e1n desarrollando una estrategia novedosa para desestabilizar a los gobiernos, bajo el disfraz c\u00ednico de las protestas de los camioneros de la \u201cclase trabajadora\u201d.\nCamiones en la manifestaci\u00f3n pro Bolsonaro el 7 de septiembre de en Brasil, todos propiedad de Pro Tork, la empresa del donante adinerado de Bolsonaro, Marlon Bonilha\nEn enero de 2022, el gobierno canadiense comenz\u00f3 a exigir que los camioneros que cruzan la frontera con Estados Unidos se vacunen contra el covid-19. Para la gran mayor\u00eda de los camioneros, casi el 90% de los cuales est\u00e1n vacunados, esto no fue un problema.\nPero las redes de derecha tanto dentro de Canad\u00e1 como fuera del pa\u00eds aprovecharon la nueva pol\u00edtica para protestar y cerrar la capital.\nNumerosos miembros de grupos de extrema derecha, incluidos nacionalistas blancos e islam\u00f3fobos, ayudaron a organizar lo que llamaron un \u201cconvoy de la libertad\u201d. Muchas de las personas involucradas en realidad no eran camioneros, pero retrataron las manifestaciones como una protesta de camioneros.\nAlgunos de los l\u00edderes del convoy tienen antecedentes en los departamentos de polic\u00eda y de inteligencia militar canadienses, y parecen tener relaciones cercanas con las fuerzas de seguridad del estado.\n\"Those involved with organizing protest include former RCMP and military officers,\" hardly the kind of people who get involved in organizing leftwing pro-labor movements.https://t.co/xeNqY3C5p0\n\u2014 Stephen Gowans (@GowansStephen) February 11, 2022\n\nLos mensajes conservativos y xen\u00f3fobos eran omnipresentes en el convoy, y algunos manifestantes incluso se presentaron con banderas de los nazis y de los Estados Confederados de Am\u00e9rica, que apoyaban la esclavitud de los afrodescendientes.\nInnumerables fotos y videos del convoy muestran carteles anticomunistas, algunos acusando extra\u00f1amente al primer ministro centrista y neoliberal de Canad\u00e1, Trudeau, de ser un comunista secreto.\nMuchos m\u00e1s atacaron a China y culparon al Partido Comunista de China por la pandemia de Covid-19. Se vio a otros manifestantes con carteles antisemitas que culpaban a los jud\u00edos de la crisis.\nUna p\u00e1gina web creada por partidarios del convoy enumer\u00f3 al conspiracionista de derecha David Icke y a los grupos antivacunas como \u201caliados\u201c, y alent\u00f3 a los lectores a seguir los medios de extrema derecha InfoWars y Rebel News.\nTotally disgusted with the Sh.. Show called Freedom Trucker Convoy. Flying nazi and confederate flags, no one seemed bothered including conservative politicians who supported this gathering of white supremacy disguised as a truckers rally. My father a WWII vet would be appalled. pic.twitter.com/pvPVbX57YC\n\u2014 Ted Williams (@TedWill44) January 31, 2022\n\nA medida que el convoy crec\u00eda, dos activistas de derecha que no son camioneros, llamados Tamara Lich y B.J. Dichter, organizaron una campa\u00f1a de financiamiento colectivo en el sitio web GoFundMe.\nEl apoyo lleg\u00f3 de las \u00e9lites derechistas nacionales e internacionales, y la campa\u00f1a GoFundMe recaud\u00f3 $10 millones en poco m\u00e1s de dos semanas, con donaciones individuales de hasta $215.000.\nLa recaudaci\u00f3n de fondos fue apoyada por banqueros de inversi\u00f3n conservadores, magnates inmobiliarios y empresarios adinerados, hasta que se cerr\u00f3 el 4 de febrero.\nLa recaudaci\u00f3n de fondos para el convoy hab\u00eda sido impulsada en las redes sociales por una sospechosa campa\u00f1a coordinada que involucraba una cuenta hackeada.\nEl jefe de polic\u00eda de Ottawa dijo que hab\u00eda \u201cun elemento significativo de EEUU que ha estado involucrado en la financiaci\u00f3n, la organizaci\u00f3n y la manifestaci\u00f3n\u201d.\nEl ex presidente de Estados Unidos Donald Trump promovi\u00f3 abiertamente el convoy, en m\u00edtines y en l\u00ednea, refiri\u00e9ndose al primer ministro de Canad\u00e1, Justin Trudeau, un centrista neoliberal que ha hecho campa\u00f1a activamente contra la izquierda, como un supuesto \u201clun\u00e1tico de extrema izquierda\u201d.\nDonald Trump is endorsing the Ottawa convoy, calling Justin Trudeau a \u201cfar left lunatic who has destroyed Canada,\u201d and backing an attempt to bring a similar truck protest to DC pic.twitter.com/RCyPCD6qwT\n\u2014 Adrian Morrow (@AdrianMorrow) February 4, 2022\n\nMientras que los grupos de derecha apoyaron al convoy, los grupos de izquierda en Canad\u00e1 se pronunciaron firmemente contra la protesta, incluidos los principales sindicatos, l\u00edderes ind\u00edgenas y partidos socialistas que se oponen firmemente al gobierno de Trudeau.\nEl sindicato de camioneros m\u00e1s grande de Canad\u00e1, Teamsters, conden\u00f3 abiertamente el convoy\u00a0como una \u201cdespreciable muestra de odio liderada por la derecha pol\u00edtica\u201d, y lament\u00f3 que \u201cha servido para deslegitimar las preocupaciones reales de la mayor\u00eda de los camioneros en la actualidad\u201d.\nTeamsters Canada se\u00f1al\u00f3 que el 90% de sus camioneros est\u00e1n vacunados.\nCuando el convoy cre\u00f3 un bloqueo en la frontera entre Canad\u00e1 y EEUU, el sindicato public\u00f3 otro comunicado denunciando la protesta \u201cque sigue perjudicando a los trabajadores y tiene un impacto negativo en nuestra econom\u00eda\u201d.\n\u201cEl sustento de los trabajadores estadounidenses y canadienses en los sectores automotriz, agr\u00edcola y manufacturero est\u00e1 amenazado por este bloqueo\u201d, dijo Teamsters.\nThe Real Enemy for Truckers is Covid-19\nStatement by Fran\u00e7ois Laporte, President of Teamsters Canada, representing over 55,000 professional Drivers across Canada.#canlabhttps://t.co/scrrYeXa7x\n\u2014 Teamsters Canada (@TeamstersCanada) February 7, 2022\n\nEl Canadian Labour Congress (Congreso laboral canadiense), la organizaci\u00f3n laborista m\u00e1s grande del pa\u00eds, que representa a decenas de sindicatos y millones de trabajadores, tambi\u00e9n se pronunci\u00f3 en\u00e9rgicamente contra el convoy.\n\u201cEsto no es una protesta, es una ocupaci\u00f3n de una turba enojada que intenta disfrazarse de protesta pac\u00edfica\u201d, dijo el congreso laboral.\n\u201cEsta ocupaci\u00f3n de las calles de Ottawa, adem\u00e1s de la \u00faltima ola de la pandemia, est\u00e1 teniendo un efecto devastador en el sustento de los trabajadores y las empresas que ya luchan\u201d, escribi\u00f3. \u201cLos trabajadores de primera l\u00ednea, desde la venta al menudeo hasta los trabajadores de la salud, han sido intimidados y acosados\u201d.\nCanada\u2019s unions stand together, unequivocally opposed to these vile & hateful messages and condemn the ongoing harassment & violence.Govts must act now to support workers & businesses affected and end the occupation.Our statement: https://t.co/IlOiYLYaoK #canlab #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/m3JH99WuQt\n\u2014 Canadian Labour (@CanadianLabour) February 9, 2022\n\nAdem\u00e1s de la organizaci\u00f3n laboral m\u00e1s grande y el sindicato m\u00e1s grande de camioneros reales que condenaron el convoy, la Canadian Trucking Alliance (Alianza de camioneros canadienses) emiti\u00f3 una declaraci\u00f3n que indica claramente que \u201cno apoya y desaprueba en\u00e9rgicamente\u201d las protestas.\n\u201cLa gran mayor\u00eda de la industria camionera canadiense est\u00e1 vacunada\u201d, dijo la alianza, y agreg\u00f3 que \u201cla mayor\u00eda de los camioneros que trabajan arduamente en nuestra naci\u00f3n contin\u00faan transportando carga nacional e internacional para garantizar que nuestra econom\u00eda contin\u00fae funcionando\u201d.\nEn declaraciones de seguimiento, la federaci\u00f3n enfatiz\u00f3 que \u201cun gran n\u00famero de estos manifestantes no tienen conexi\u00f3n con la industria del transporte por carretera y tienen una agenda separada m\u00e1s all\u00e1 de un desacuerdo sobre los requisitos de vacunaci\u00f3n transfronterizos\u201d.\nLa alianza de camioneros critic\u00f3 al convoy por \u201cperjudicar el arduo trabajo de los camioneros que contin\u00faan manteniendo nuestros productos esenciales en movimiento a lo largo de la cadena de suministro durante este momento cr\u00edtico\u201d.\n\u201cLos conductores que simplemente intentan ganarse la vida y volver a casa con sus familias han estado atrapados en cruces fronterizos bloqueados durante cuatro a ocho horas, muchos de los cuales no han tenido acceso a ba\u00f1os ni comida\u201d, escribi\u00f3 la federaci\u00f3n.\nLas comunidades ind\u00edgenas de Canad\u00e1 denunciaron de manera similar que el convoy era un frente de derecha.\nEl First Nations Leadership Council (Consejo de liderazgo de las Primeras Naciones) conden\u00f3 en\u00e9rgicamente la protesta por \u201csu propagaci\u00f3n de desinformaci\u00f3n, racismo y violencia\u201d.\nFirst Nations Leadership Council Strongly Condemns \u201cFreedom Convoy\u201d Movement Across Canada and its Spread of Misinformation, Racism, and Violence: \"The racist double-standard in policing in this country is on full display -\" https://t.co/FrNCEF3ajB pic.twitter.com/ITb0z0QRI6\n\u2014 UBCIC (@UBCIC) February 8, 2022\n\n\u201cAdem\u00e1s de la peligrosa informaci\u00f3n err\u00f3nea sobre salud p\u00fablica y seguridad, el convoy tambi\u00e9n est\u00e1 amplificando el discurso de odio y los peligrosos sentimientos racistas\u201d, escribi\u00f3 la organizaci\u00f3n de la comunidad ind\u00edgena, se\u00f1alando la presencia de carteles y banderas racistas en la protesta.\nLos l\u00edderes de las Primeras Naciones se\u00f1alaron la hipocres\u00eda de las autoridades canadienses y se\u00f1alaron que \u201cla respuesta policial a la protesta convertida en ocupaci\u00f3n en Ottawa, hasta hace poco, ha sido casi inexistente y terrible en su falta de voluntad para interceder\u201d.\n\u201cEl doble rasero racista en la vigilancia policial en este pa\u00eds est\u00e1 en plena exhibici\u00f3n: si estos manifestantes hubieran sido ind\u00edgenas, la polic\u00eda los habr\u00eda expulsado en un santiam\u00e9n\u201d, agreg\u00f3 el consejo.\nAl enfatizar este doble rasero transparente, el periodista canadiense David Pugliese inform\u00f3: \u201cLa polic\u00eda de Ottawa se mantuvo al margen y no hizo nada mientras los manifestantes instalaban un jacuzzi en medio de una calle del centro. Tenemos im\u00e1genes de polic\u00edas golpeando los pu\u00f1os de los manifestantes\u201d.\nPolice in Ottawa @OttawaPolice stood by and did nothing as protesters installed a hot tub in the middle of a downtown street. We have images of police fist bumping protesters\u2026what next\u2026police carrying their bath water or scrubbing their backs? pic.twitter.com/CWfcwRX3OW\n\u2014 David Pugliese (@davidpugliese) February 13, 2022\n\nLos partidos de izquierda que se oponen mucho a Trudeau tambi\u00e9n se pronunciaron firmemente contra el convoy.\nEl Partido Comunista de Canad\u00e1 denunci\u00f3 la manifestaci\u00f3n como \u201cuna expresi\u00f3n p\u00fablica de la extrema derecha cada vez m\u00e1s organizada y asertiva\u201d, destacando \u201cel fuerte apoyo (ideol\u00f3gico y financiero) de la extrema derecha estadounidense y c\u00edrculos cercanos a Donald Trump\u201d y la presencia de \u201d Banderas nazis y confederadas, carteles electorales de Bernier y todo tipo de s\u00edmbolos de extrema derecha\u201d.\nLos canadienses frustrados por el bloqueo de semanas de su capital incluso organizaron protestas contra el convoy.\nOttawa residents, unions, and community organizations marching today against the far-right occupation of their city. pic.twitter.com/t87bUJu6cy\n\u2014 Stephen Gowans (@GowansStephen) February 12, 2022\n\nEn la medida en que los camioneros reales han participado en el convoy de Canad\u00e1, representan un peque\u00f1o porcentaje de los trabajadores de la industria, y la mayor\u00eda son, de hecho, propietarios-operadores peque\u00f1oburgueses e incluso propietarios de empresas que explotan a los conductores de clase trabajadora.\nEs importante aclarar la posici\u00f3n social de los camioneros, porque no todos son iguales. La categor\u00eda laboral de camionero est\u00e1 conformada por m\u00faltiples clases sociales.\nLos conductores contratados por hora son de clase trabajadora. El hermano del coautor de este art\u00edculo, Brian Mier, es de hecho un delegado sindical de Teamsters de la clase trabajadora que ha sido conductor de camiones en Chicago durante 30 a\u00f1os.\nPero no todos los camioneros son de clase trabajadora. Los conductores que tienen sus propios camiones son propietarios de peque\u00f1as empresas o peque\u00f1os burgueses.\nLuego est\u00e1n los que poseen m\u00faltiples plataformas y dirigen empresas que contratan conductores por hora para conducirlos. Son capitalistas burgueses.\nLas tres categor\u00edas a menudo se denominan simplemente \u201ccamioneros\u201d, pero son de diferentes clases y tienen intereses econ\u00f3micos antag\u00f3nicos.\nEs ingenuo o deshonesto presentar una protesta en la que todas las categor\u00edas est\u00e1n presentes como un movimiento estrictamente obrero.\nEn Canad\u00e1, la protesta de los camioneros ha estado fuertemente dominada por propietarios-operadores y capitalistas que tienen sus propias empresas de camiones y que, por lo tanto, explotan a los camioneros de la clase trabajadora.\nIr\u00f3nicamente, muchos de los que participaron en el convoy recibieron dinero del gobierno canadiense por el que ahora protestan, a trav\u00e9s de su programa de financiaci\u00f3n de emergencia Covid-19 para empleadores, Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS).\nETS \u2013 Elite Transport SolutionsCapitalist / CEWS Collector. pic.twitter.com/4w2Hxu1Fny\n\u2014 T?ri the Dumb Lefty Canadian Radical (@RodneyTori) February 8, 2022\n\nEs solitario manejar un cami\u00f3n. Al igual que los carteros, los camioneros no disfrutan del mismo tipo de interacci\u00f3n constante con otros empleados que, por ejemplo, la gente del sector servicios.\nEste aislamiento dificulta la organizaci\u00f3n de sindicatos y huelgas, y hace que algunos camioneros, que pasan horas todos los d\u00edas escuchando programas de radio y podcasts satelitales mientras conducen, se inclinen hacia puntos de vista pol\u00edticos conservadores.\nSin embargo, dado que las leyes laborales se han debilitado en Am\u00e9rica del Norte, la fabricaci\u00f3n nacional ha disminuido y la robotizaci\u00f3n ha diezmado los sectores laborales tradicionales, la log\u00edstica del transporte sigue siendo una de las \u00fanicas \u00e1reas que a\u00fan pueden paralizar el sistema capitalista contempor\u00e1neo.\nEl nuevo modelo de distribuci\u00f3n justo a tiempo, que minimiza el uso de almacenes al confiar en una log\u00edstica de transporte milim\u00e9tricamente precisa, es especialmente vulnerable a las huelgas de camioneros.\nEsto explica por qu\u00e9 las \u00e9lites derechistas antisindicales han puesto un \u00e9nfasis especial en tratar de secuestrar las protestas de los camioneros, e ilustra la importancia del trabajo pol\u00edtico y la organizaci\u00f3n laboral dentro de este sector.\nEl periodista Seymour Hersh revel\u00f3 que, en el a\u00f1o previo al golpe de estado en 1973 contra el presidente Salvador Allende en Chile, la CIA gast\u00f3 millones de d\u00f3lares en financiar una huelga de camioneros de 26 d\u00edas.\nEsta huelga marc\u00f3 el comienzo de un per\u00edodo de desestabilizaci\u00f3n econ\u00f3mica que debilit\u00f3 al gobierno socialista elegido democr\u00e1ticamente y sent\u00f3 las bases para que el general de extrema derecha Augusto Pinochet tomara el poder, con el apoyo de Estados Unidos.\nEl gobierno centrista de Canad\u00e1, Justin Trudeau, no tiene pr\u00e1cticamente nada en com\u00fan con el Chile de Allende, pero el izquierdista Partido de los Trabajadores de Brasil s\u00ed lo tiene. Y una campa\u00f1a similar en Brasil muestra c\u00f3mo las \u00e9lites ricas tienen un historial de explotar el nombre de los camioneros para impulsar sus intereses reaccionarios.\nLa presidenta democr\u00e1ticamente electa de Brasil, Dilma Rousseff, del Partido de los Trabajadores, fue derrocada en 2016 en un golpe de estado pol\u00edtico que, como el golpe en Chile de 1973, fue liderado por redes derechistas con el apoyo del gobierno de Estados Unidos.\nRousseff fue reemplazada por su vicepresidente, el tecn\u00f3crata neoliberal Michel Temer. En 2017, su administraci\u00f3n liberaliz\u00f3 la pol\u00edtica de precios de los combustibles, vinculando los precios en uno de los pa\u00edses con las mayores reservas de petr\u00f3leo del mundo a las tasas internacionales dolarizadas. Esto provoc\u00f3 aumentos diarios de precios, que se vieron exacerbados por la ca\u00edda de los tipos de cambio.\nA mediados de 2018, los precios del di\u00e9sel hab\u00edan subido un 56,5%. Ese mayo, la Confederaci\u00f3n Nacional de Trabajadores Aut\u00f3nomos del Transporte, que representa a decenas de miles de propietarios-operadores, lanz\u00f3 un ultim\u00e1tum al gobierno: congelar todos los precios del di\u00e9sel hasta que se lleven a cabo las negociaciones, o paralizaremos las redes de distribuci\u00f3n de Brasil. El gobierno de Temer se neg\u00f3 a responder.\nEl 21 de mayo, los propietarios-operadores de todo el pa\u00eds comenzaron a bloquear carreteras y puertos. Con el apoyo de algunos de los mayores propietarios de empresas, se les unieron miles de conductores contratados.\nLa mayor\u00eda de los sindicatos de Brasil no respaldaron la protesta. Debido a la participaci\u00f3n de los propietarios de las empresas de camiones, lo vieron m\u00e1s como un cierre que como una huelga, y creyeron que no representaba claramente las demandas de la clase trabajadora.\nSin embargo, los camioneros ganaron r\u00e1pidamente el apoyo de gran parte de la clase media brasile\u00f1a, que estaba casi tan harta del aumento de los precios de la gasolina como lo estaban los camioneros del aumento vertiginoso de los costos del di\u00e9sel.\nUna profesora de historia llamada Larissa Jacheta Riberti, quien se abri\u00f3 camino en la escuela de posgrado como editora de la popular revista comercial de la industria camionera Chico do Boleia, inform\u00f3 sobre los primeros d\u00edas de la protesta:\nNo existe un conjunto unificado de demandas. El movimiento no es hegem\u00f3nico desde un punto de vista social o ideol\u00f3gico. Hay un grupo de camioneros que apoya a Jair Bolsonaro, otro grupo que exige el regreso a la dictadura militar, y otros que piden elecciones libres ya y libertad para Lula. En otras palabras, es un movimiento que se centra principalmente en el tema de los precios del diesel.\nLuego agreg\u00f3: \u201cHay un claro intento que est\u00e1 haciendo la clase empresarial, que est\u00e1 ejerciendo una mayor influencia en las negociaciones con el gobierno, para apropiarse de las demandas de los camioneros\u201d.\nAl principio, parec\u00eda que la predicci\u00f3n de Riberti sobre la apropiaci\u00f3n de la clase empresarial iba a ser un \u00e9xito total.\nLas oligarqu\u00edas conservadoras de los medios de comunicaci\u00f3n de Brasil enmarcaron la huelga para da\u00f1ar la reputaci\u00f3n del Partido de los Trabajadores (PT) al filmar solo a los elementos m\u00e1s reaccionarios: hombres vestidos con los colores nacionales de verde y amarillo, agitando pancartas que claman por el regreso a la dictadura y apoyando el lejano -El candidato presidencial de derecha, Jair Bolsonaro.\nAsociaron al principal beneficiario del golpe de Estado de 2016 respaldado por Estados Unidos, Temer, con el gobierno al que ayud\u00f3 a sacar del poder. A los ojos de los oligarcas de los medios, la liberalizaci\u00f3n de los precios de los combustibles de 2017 fue de alguna manera causada por Rousseff, quien hab\u00eda sido destituida ilegalmente de su cargo un a\u00f1o antes.\n2018 fue un a\u00f1o electoral, y los medios hicieron todo lo posible para bloquear el regreso al poder del PT, cuyo candidato presidencial, Lula da Silva, lideraba todas las encuestas, con m\u00e1s apoyo que la suma de todos los dem\u00e1s candidatos juntos, a pesar de que estaba recluido como preso pol\u00edtico e ilegalmente impedido de hablar con la prensa.\nEn medio del circo medi\u00e1tico, el Movimiento de los Trabajadores Rurales Sin Tierra (MST) de Brasil entr\u00f3 en acci\u00f3n. Grupos de peque\u00f1os agricultores afiliados al movimiento campesino m\u00e1s grande de Am\u00e9rica Latina llegaron a docenas de lugares en todo el pa\u00eds donde los camioneros acamparon con sus camiones y alimentaron a los conductores contratados con tres comidas al d\u00eda, preparadas con alimentos producidos en sus fincas.\nLos activistas del MST utilizaron t\u00e1cticas de organizaci\u00f3n pol\u00edtica influenciadas por el educador revolucionario Paulo Freire para escuchar y aprender de las experiencias de los camioneros. Los organizadores del MST luego explicaron por qu\u00e9 cre\u00edan que los precios del diesel eran tan altos y c\u00f3mo la soluci\u00f3n sugerida por los due\u00f1os de la empresa -bajar los impuestos- los perjudicar\u00eda.\nPoco a poco, esta estrategia comenz\u00f3 a acentuar las diferencias de clase entre los due\u00f1os de las empresas, los due\u00f1os-operadores y los choferes contratados, y resquebraj\u00f3 el apoyo a Bolsonaro.\nEL Movimiento de los Trabajadores Rurales Sin Tierra (MST) distribu\u00eda cientos de toneladas de comida a camioneros en Brasil en 2018\nPero debido a que Lula fue encarcelado ilegalmente y se le prohibi\u00f3 postularse como candidato, Bolsonaro termin\u00f3 ganando las elecciones de 2018.\nY tras asumir el poder, Bolsonaro dej\u00f3 claro que no iba a deshacer la liberalizaci\u00f3n de la pol\u00edtica de precios de Temer. En cambio, ofreci\u00f3 una peque\u00f1a exenci\u00f3n de impuestos sobre el di\u00e9sel, utilizando dinero apropiado de los recortes del gasto en salud p\u00fablica (que volver\u00eda a atormentarlo en 2020, cuando estall\u00f3 la pandemia de covid-19).\nPara cuando lleg\u00f3 2021, la mayor\u00eda de los camioneros brasile\u00f1os se sintieron traicionados por la promesa incumplida de la administraci\u00f3n Bolsonaro sobre los precios del di\u00e9sel, que aumentaron un 765% por encima del nivel de inflaci\u00f3n solo ese a\u00f1o.\nSin embargo, la mayor\u00eda de los due\u00f1os de las grandes empresas se re\u00edan todo el camino hasta el banco. La aniquilaci\u00f3n de los derechos laborales que comenz\u00f3 en 2017 les permiti\u00f3 tratar a los trabajadores como si fueran repartidores precarios de Uber o Ifood.\nMientras tanto, la administraci\u00f3n de Bolsonaro estaba involucrada en una serie de batallas con la Corte Suprema, que hab\u00eda abierto una investigaci\u00f3n por fraude electoral contra el presidente y sus aliados.\nLa popularidad de Bolsonaro estaba llegando a su punto m\u00e1s bajo, pero todav\u00eda ten\u00eda un n\u00facleo de seguidores hiperradicalizados, estimado por la profesora de UNIFESP Esther Solano en alrededor del 11% del electorado.\nEl problema era que el mito de Bolsonaro del amplio apoyo de la clase trabajadora se estaba desmoronando. Las encuestas mostraban que incluso su grupo demogr\u00e1fico electoral m\u00e1s solidario en 2018, los cristianos evang\u00e9licos, ahora ten\u00edan la misma probabilidad de votar por Lula en las elecciones de 2022 que por \u00e9l.\nBolsonaro ten\u00eda que hacer algo grande. As\u00ed que decidi\u00f3 fabricar una nueva insurrecci\u00f3n camionera.\nEn 2021, una serie de videos de YouTube comenzaron a enviar spam a cuentas sociales conectadas a una red de aliados de derecha del hijo de Bolsonaro, Carlos, conocida como el \u201cgabinete del odio\u201d.\nLos videos fueron filmados dentro de un cami\u00f3n por un hombre barbudo que se hace llamar \u201cZ\u00e9 Trov\u00e3o\u201d \u2013 Joe Thunder (el nombre del personaje principal en una popular telenovela de los 90).\nTrov\u00e3o no era en realidad un camionero, pero se presentaba como tal. Y anunci\u00f3 que encabezaba un convoy de cientos de camiones hacia la explanada presidencial el d\u00eda de la independencia de Brasil, el 7 de septiembre, con planes de asaltar la Corte Suprema y hacer arrestos ciudadanos a todos los ministros.\nEl no camionero Trov\u00e3o llam\u00f3 a los camioneros patriotas de Brasil a unirse a \u00e9l, el mismo d\u00eda en que los partidarios de Bolsonaro ya estaban planeando una manifestaci\u00f3n en la explanada de Brasilia.\nA medida que continu\u00f3 haciendo videos, Z\u00e9 Trov\u00e3o hizo reclamos cada vez m\u00e1s grandes. Adem\u00e1s de cientos de camioneros, habr\u00eda dos helic\u00f3pteros brindando apoyo a\u00e9reo, insisti\u00f3.\nEl activista pro-Bolsonaro Z\u00e9 Trov\u00e3o en un camion\nLa Corte Suprema de Brasil, que tiene el poder de ordenar arrestos e investigaciones, decidi\u00f3 que Trov\u00e3o hab\u00eda cruzado la l\u00ednea. Primero emiti\u00f3 una orden de alejamiento que le prohib\u00eda el ingreso a la ciudad de Brasilia el 7 de septiembre. Luego emiti\u00f3 una orden de arresto. Trov\u00e3o huy\u00f3 del pa\u00eds.\nEl coautor de este art\u00edculo, Brian Mier, lleg\u00f3 a Brasilia el 6 de septiembre para cubrir la protesta de TeleSur.\nMier se hosped\u00f3 en un hotel de dos estrellas construido para congresistas, que estaba lleno de gente vestida de verde y amarillo que llegaba en caravanas de autobuses. Inmediatamente qued\u00f3 claro que muchos de ellos nunca antes hab\u00edan estado en una gran ciudad.\nUna pareja de ancianos con aspecto nervioso le pidi\u00f3 ayuda a Mier para usar el ascensor. Otro hombre dijo que nunca antes hab\u00eda visto una m\u00e1quina expendedora y pidi\u00f3 ayuda para comprar un refresco.\nParec\u00eda que un porcentaje significativo de los manifestantes fueron transportados en autob\u00fas desde \u00e1reas rurales pobres por partidarios ricos de Bolsonaro.\nM\u00e1s tarde apareci\u00f3 un video que mostraba a un hombre de negocios adinerado entregando 100 billetes reales y camisetas a las personas mientras abordaban un autob\u00fas que se dirig\u00eda al otro mitin pro-Bolsonaro del 7 de septiembre en Sao Paulo.\nLa noche del 6 de septiembre, Mier escuch\u00f3 bocinazos y gritos a lo lejos. Lleg\u00f3 la noticia de que un grupo de camioneros hab\u00eda invadido la explanada y, seguidos por cientos de jubilosos simpatizantes de Bolsonaro, llegaron y se estacionaron frente a la barrera de seguridad que protege el Congreso y la Corte Suprema.\nEn respuesta a la noticia, la presidenta del Partido de los Trabajadores, Gleisi Hoffman, tuite\u00f3 palabras tranquilizadoras: \u201cEs cierto que ma\u00f1ana es el 7 de septiembre\u201d, dijo, \u201cpero el d\u00eda siguiente es el 8 de septiembre\u2026 Mire este video. El Congreso y la Corte Suprema est\u00e1n completamente seguros. Nadie se acerca a ellos. Los camioneros se subieron a la Explanada porque la polic\u00eda les abri\u00f3 la barricada\u201d.\nAl igual que el llamado \u201cconvoy de la libertad\u201d en Canad\u00e1, los camiones en Brasilia mostraban grandes pancartas que predicaban el anticomunismo.\nUn cartel anti-comunista en los camiones en la manifestaci\u00f3n pro Bolsonaro rally en Brasilia\nAl final, no hubo asalto a la Corte Suprema. La verdadera operaci\u00f3n psicol\u00f3gica hab\u00eda sido convencer a los medios y al p\u00fablico de que iba a suceder.\nEl 7 de septiembre, toda el \u00e1rea fue cerrada por completo. La polic\u00eda hizo su trabajo y no se permiti\u00f3 a nadie entrar a la explanada sin pasar por un detector de metales y ser cacheado.\nAl d\u00eda siguiente, la mayor parte de la multitud se hab\u00eda ido. Pero una fila de camiones permaneci\u00f3 estacionada frente al edificio de la Corte Suprema. Constantemente tocaban la bocina y una m\u00fasica patri\u00f3tica a todo volumen.\nMier luego confirm\u00f3 que toda la l\u00ednea estaba compuesta por camiones propiedad de la misma empresa, Pro Tork, cuyo propietario, Marlon Bonilha, fue uno de los mayores contribuyentes de la campa\u00f1a de Bolsonaro.\nFascism and big business have walked hand in hand since the days of Mussolini. Meet Marlon Bonilha (l), the  multimillionaire owner of the Pro-Tork trucking company, which still has a dozen trucks parked on Brasilia's Esplanade honking and intimidating the Supreme Court. pic.twitter.com/TJD3QShuq3\n\u2014 BrianMier (@BrianMteleSUR) September 9, 2021\n\nEn definitiva, la mayor\u00eda de los conductores que ocupaban la explanada eran peones, que trabajaban para Pro-Tork o para otras dos empresas. No hab\u00eda nada de clase obrera en ello.\nHere is Pro Tork owner Marlon Bonilha giving Jair Bolsonaro a motorcycle helmet. pic.twitter.com/uZzaYxPuNG\n\u2014 BrianMier (@BrianMteleSUR) September 9, 2021\n\nD\u00edas despu\u00e9s se supo que el autoproclamado l\u00edder de la protesta camionera, Z\u00e9 Trov\u00e3o, en realidad no era camionero. De hecho, ni siquiera ten\u00eda licencia de conducir.\nLa polic\u00eda federal brasile\u00f1a alcanz\u00f3 a Trov\u00e3o en la Ciudad de M\u00e9xico. Y una de las principales figuras del paro de 2018, Plinio Dias, presidente del Consejo Nacional de Transporte de Carga por Carretera, coment\u00f3: \u201cEste tipo hizo un video dentro de un cami\u00f3n\u2026 pero no sabemos nada m\u00e1s de \u00e9l. Yo He estado en este negocio durante 22 a\u00f1os. Este tipo acaba de llegar en paraca\u00eddas\u201d.\nTrov\u00e3o, cuyo verdadero nombre es Marcos Ant\u00f4nio Pereira Gomes, fue extraditado, devuelto a Brasil y encarcelado, en espera de juicio por riesgo de fuga.\nTambi\u00e9n se supo pronto que tambi\u00e9n hab\u00eda estafado al hijo de Jair Bolsonaro, Eduardo, quien aparentemente le envi\u00f3 miles de d\u00f3lares para combustible para sus inexistentes helic\u00f3pteros.\nPlinio Dias, 2018 strike leader and President of the National Highway Cargo Transport Council, says, \"this guy made a video inside of a truck [\u2026] but we don't know him. I've been in this business for 22 years. This guy just arrived by parachute.\" pic.twitter.com/eDkbFSRw1r\n\u2014 BrianMier (@BrianMteleSUR) September 11, 2021\n\nMientras Gomes pasaba su primera semana en la c\u00e1rcel, la actriz Ingra Lyberato, que interpret\u00f3 a la compa\u00f1era de Trov\u00e3o, Ana Raio (Ana Lightning) en la telenovela de la d\u00e9cada de 1990 de la que Gomes tom\u00f3 su apodo, coment\u00f3 en Twitter: \u201cEste joven est\u00e1 siendo manipulado por su propia vanidad, en un juego de cartas marcadas en el que probablemente \u00e9l ser\u00e1 la \u00fanica v\u00edctima\u201d.\nLas ricas redes derechistas que apoyan las protestas de los \u201ccamioneros\u201d en Canad\u00e1 pueden haber aprendido de este juego brasile\u00f1o de cartas marcadas.\nMier habl\u00f3 con un amigo cuyo hermano ha sido camionero de larga distancia en Canad\u00e1 durante 20 a\u00f1os, y le pregunt\u00f3 si alguien de su patio estaba participando en la protesta de Ottawa.\nNinguno de sus colegas protestaba. \u201cLos verdaderos camioneros no pueden darse el lujo de dejar de trabajar durante tres semanas\u201d, dijo, \u201ctenemos facturas que pagar\u201d.\nLos camioneros contratados en Brasil hicieron comentarios muy similares durante la protesta del 7 de septiembre.\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Colombia\u2019s first ever left-wing president: Gustavo Petro wins historic election. What does it mean?. 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": "\u00c1lvaro Uribe, Colombia, Francia M\u00e1rquez, Gustavo Petro, Iv\u00e1n Duque", "output": "Gustavo Petro won Colombia\u2019s June 19 election, becoming its first ever left-wing president. We analyze what this means for Latin America, the US, Venezuela, the military, paramilitary groups, the powerful oligarchy, and social movements.\n\nGustavo Petro won Colombia\u2019s presidential election on June 19. This will make him the first left-wing leader in the South American nation\u2019s history.\nIn the video, podcast, and written analysis below, Multipolarista editor Benjamin Norton discusses Petro\u2019s historic victory, what it means for Colombia, Latin America, and the world, and how difficult it will be for him to govern.\n\n\nGustavo Petro won the first round of Colombia\u2019s presidential election on May 29. In the second round, he defeated far-right candidate Rodolfo Hern\u00e1ndez, a real estate mogul with an estimated $100 million in wealth.\nPetro previously served as mayor of the capital Bogot\u00e1, and long before that a former guerrilla in the armed socialist group M-19. After putting down his weapons, Petro moderated his politics and moved to the center-left.\nHis presidential campaign brought together a broad coalition of left-wing parties, under the name the Pacto Hist\u00f3rico (Historic Pact), ranging from liberals to the Communist Party.\nPetro will face many obstacles to governing. He does not have a majority in the bicameral Congress; both the Senate and Chamber of Representatives remain dominated by right-wing, centrist, and neoliberal parties.\nColombia\u2019s state security services, which are closely linked to paramilitary groups, and which killed thousands of civilians in the \u201cfalsos positivos\u201d (false positives) scandal, are also openly antagonistic to Petro.\nThe chief of Colombia\u2019s armed forces, General Eduardo Zapateiro, publicly attacked Petro on Twitter, violating national laws that stipulate that military officers cannot interfere in the electoral process.\nAn ardent supporter of peace, Petro hopes to settle the armed conflict that has destabilized Colombia for decades. He wants to honor the government\u2019s 2016 peace deal with the FARC, which has been systematically violated by the administration of current far-right President Iv\u00e1n Duque.\nHundreds of signatories of this agreement, former socialist revolutionaries who put down their arms, have been murdered since 2016.\nIn an attempt to facilitate peace, Petro has called for land reform. He recognizes that land ownership is concentrated in the hands of a few oligarchs, with millions of campesinos toiling in brutal, inhumane conditions, and understands how this has fueled violence.\nPetro wants to ensure that peasants will have their rights guaranteed against the multinational corporations, Colombian oligarchs, and death squads that have long terrorized them. This, however, is much easier said than done.\nPetro likewise pledged to reverse the neoliberal economic policies that have ravaged Colombia, pushing a staggering 40% of the population into poverty.\nIn 2021, working-class Colombians rose up against the crushing austerity measures of current President Duque. Petro supported the anti-neoliberal protests that rocked the country for months.\nDuque, for his part, was the hand-picked candidate of Colombia\u2019s former far-right President \u00c1lvaro Uribe, a powerful representative of the oligarchy who is closely linked to drug cartels and paramilitary death squads.\nPetro\u2019s victory represents the end of the right-wing Uribista movement that has dominated Colombian politics since Uribe first rose to power in 2002.\nThe Pacto Hist\u00f3rico\u2019s vice-presidential candidate, Francia M\u00e1rquez, is a leftist social movement activist from the Afro-Colombian community, which has been historically marginalized and repressed by the Colombian state and oligarchy.\nM\u00e1rquez publicly criticized the US government for meddling in Colombia\u2019s electoral process. She also condemned the war on drugs, which she called a failure.\nColombia's top vice presidential candidate, Francia M\u00e1rquez, warned that the US government is meddling in the country's elections to hurt her left-wing Pacto Hist\u00f3rico coalition, just days before the May 29 vote.\nRead more here: https://t.co/XMLwCNs79L pic.twitter.com/kgzJWIeokQ\n\u2014 Benjamin Norton (@BenjaminNorton) May 29, 2022\n\nM\u00e1rquez wants peace, and opposes further militarization of the country. She blasted Colombia\u2019s free-trade agreement with the United States, which she said should be renegotiated.\nM\u00e1rquez has stressed the urgent need for land reform and reparations for Indigenous peoples and oppressed nations in Colombia.\nWhen it comes to his foreign policy, Petro has a much more mixed record. He harshly criticized the socialist governments of Venezuela and Nicaragua during his presidential campaign, making baseless accusations and comparisons that leftists across Latin America condemned as ridiculous.\nBut Petro and M\u00e1rquez both also called for normalizing relations with Colombia\u2019s neighbor Venezuela. This means that, although their government certainly won\u2019t be a friend of Venezuela\u2019s Chavista movement, it will end recognition of US-appointed coup leader Juan Guaid\u00f3.\nColombia\u2019s current far-right Duque government is one of fewer than 15 countries in the world that still recognize Guaid\u00f3 as supposed \u201cpresident\u201d of Venezuela, despite the fact that he has never received a single vote in a presidential election.\nUnder Duque, Colombia has supported violent cross-border attacks on Venezuela, including a failed invasion in May 2020, known as Operation Gideon, which was sponsored by the Donald Trump administration, and, according to Colombians involved in the operation, overseen by the CIA.\nA Venezuelan army defector who helped plan a botched May 2020 invasion, Cl\u00edver Alcal\u00e1, said the coup-plotters were in touch with the CIA and other US government agencies\nThey had Washington's approval to try to violently overthrow President Nicol\u00e1s Madurohttps://t.co/GHYCrcZnm8\n\u2014 Multipolarista (@Multipolarista) February 2, 2022\n\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: El golpe de estado respaldado por EEUU atrap\u00f3 a Honduras en una deuda odiosa e impagable, advierte la nueva presidenta Xiomara Castro. 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, deuda, FMI, Grecia, Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, Puerto Rico, Xiomara Castro", "output": "En el momento del golpe de estado respaldado por EEUU en 2009, Honduras ten\u00eda una deuda externa de $2481 millones de d\u00f3lares. Ahora son $9250 millones. La nueva presidenta izquierdista Xiomara Castro dice que esta deuda odiosa es impagable. Ya consume el 50% del presupuesto del gobierno.\n\n(You can read this article in English here.)\nLa nueva administraci\u00f3n de izquierda en Honduras logr\u00f3 ganar las elecciones de noviembre de 2021 de manera aplastante y derrotar a un r\u00e9gimen autoritario golpista. Pero ahora enfrenta un gran problema que dificultar\u00e1 su gobernabilidad: la deuda odiosa.\nCuando un golpe militar patrocinado por Estados Unidos derroc\u00f3 al presidente izquierdista Manuel Zelaya en Honduras en 2009, el pa\u00eds ten\u00eda una deuda externa de $2480 millones de d\u00f3lares.\nA finales de 2021, despu\u00e9s de 12 a\u00f1os de reg\u00edmenes anti-democr\u00e1ticos, corruptos, de derecha, la deuda externa de Honduras hab\u00eda aumentado a $9250 millones, un aumento del 373%.\nLa deuda interna del estado hondure\u00f1o con entidades privadas tambi\u00e9n subi\u00f3 de aproximadamente $810 millones en 2009 a aproximadamente $7300 millones en la actualidad.\nEl PIB de Honduras es de solo $23,8 mil millones. Sin embargo, el pa\u00eds tiene una deuda de m\u00e1s de $16,5 mil millones, lo que significa que su deuda es casi el 70% del tama\u00f1o de toda su econom\u00eda.\nLa nueva presidenta izquierdista de la naci\u00f3n centroamericana, Xiomara Castro, el primer l\u00edder democr\u00e1tico de Honduras desde el golpe de estado, ha dicho que esta carga sobre el gobierno es una forma de deuda odiosa y simplemente impagable.\nCastro declar\u00f3 en un discurso en su toma de posesi\u00f3n el 27 de enero que los reg\u00edmenes golpistas hab\u00edan \u201chundido\u201d al estado en deuda, dej\u00e1ndolo en \u201cbancarrota\u201d en una \u201ccat\u00e1strofe econ\u00f3mica\u201d.\nLos pagos de la deuda ahora consumen un asombroso 50% del presupuesto del gobierno, enfatiz\u00f3 Castro.\nEste gr\u00e1fico del medio hondure\u00f1o La Prensa muestra c\u00f3mo la deuda aument\u00f3 despu\u00e9s del golpe respaldado por EEUU.\nLa deuda externa de Honduras\nEste gr\u00e1fico no incluye la enorme deuda interna de Honduras.\n\u201cDespu\u00e9s de 12 a\u00f1os de dictadura subi\u00f3 el saldo de la deuda interna de 20 mil millones [de lempiras, o sea USD $810 millones] a 179 mil millones [de lempiras, o USD $7,3 mil millones]\u201d, dijo Castro en su discurso de toma de posesi\u00f3n.\n\u201cCon estas cifras es evidente que el estado no tiene capacidad para sostener la estruendosa y bochornosa deuda que nos est\u00e1n heredando\u201d, agreg\u00f3 la nueva presidenta hondure\u00f1a. \u201cEs pr\u00e1cticamente imposible cumplir con los vencimientos de la deuda\u201d.\nCastro dijo que la \u00fanica forma de manejar la deuda es restructurarla con los acreedores.\n\u201cMi gobierno no continuar\u00e1 la vor\u00e1gine de saqueo que ha condenado a las generaciones de j\u00f3venes a pagar la deuda que contrajeron a sus espaldas\u201d, declar\u00f3.\n\u201cEl pa\u00eds debe saber qu\u00e9 hicieron con el dinero y d\u00f3nde est\u00e1n los 20 millones de d\u00f3lares que sacaron en pr\u00e9stamos\u201d.\nLa nueva presidenta hondure\u00f1a advirti\u00f3 que este \u201csaqueo\u201d provoc\u00f3 que la pobreza aumentara en un 74%, \u201cpara convertimos en el pa\u00eds m\u00e1s pobre de Am\u00e9rica Latina.\u201d\n\u201cEsta cifra por s\u00ed misma explica la caravana de miles de personas que buscan oportunidades para sus vidas\u201d, dijo.\nOtros pa\u00edses de Latinoam\u00e9rica han estado atrapados en este mismo tipo de trampas de la deuda.\nEn 2018, el presidente derechista de Argentina, Mauricio Macri, solicit\u00f3 el pr\u00e9stamo m\u00e1s grande en la historia del Fondo Monetario Internacional (FMI): $57.1 mil millones.\nEsta enorme deuda contra\u00edda por Macri empuj\u00f3 al posterior gobierno de centroizquierda del presidente Alberto Fern\u00e1ndez a una espiral de endeudamiento, que ha dificultado mucho su plan de gobernaci\u00f3n.\nEl FMI, que es dominado por Estados Unidos y se utiliza como arma econ\u00f3mica para hacer avanzar la agenda de pol\u00edtica exterior de Washington, a menudo ha atrapado a las naciones del Sur Global en una deuda impagable.\nEl FMI usa esta deuda como palanca para obligar a los pa\u00edses a vender sus recursos naturales, privatizar las empresas estatales, reducir el gasto social y abolir las protecciones laborales que desaf\u00edan los intereses de las corporaciones extranjeras.\nPuerto Rico, una colonia de Estados Unidos, tambi\u00e9n sufre una dolorosa deuda odiosa. El gobierno de EEUU us\u00f3 esta carga de la deuda para imponer una Junta de Supervisi\u00f3n y Administraci\u00f3n Financiera que no fue elegida por el pueblo y que controla todos los gastos de Puerto Rico. Esta junta ha impuesto devastadoras medidas de austeridad al pueblo puertorrique\u00f1o.\nIncluso Grecia, un miembro de la Uni\u00f3n Europea, ha sido aplastada de manera parecida bajo el peso de una deuda odiosa. Si bien los griegos trabajan la mayor cantidad de horas en toda Europa, los economistas han dicho que es imposible pagar la deuda del pa\u00eds.\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Latin America challenges neocolonial OAS, and US hegemony, at historic CELAC summit. 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, Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador, Argentina, Bolivia, CELAC, China, Cuba, Denis Moncada, Evo Morales, Joe Biden, Luis Arce, Mexico, Miguel D\u00edaz-Canel, Nicaragua, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, OAS, Organization of American States, Pedro Castillo, Peru, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Xi Jinping", "output": "The presidents of Venezuela and Cuba joined leaders from across Latin America and the Caribbean in a CELAC summit in Mexico, challenging US unilateralism and the neocolonial OAS.\n\n(This article was written for Al Mayadeen English.)\nMexico hosted a historic summit of CELAC, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, on September 18.\nIt was an important example of Latin America\u2019s gradual move away from the Organization of American States (OAS), a neocolonial proxy of Washington, by instead strengthening regional institutions that exclude the United States and Canada.\nThe summit revived a multilateral organization that had for years been dormant, and\u00a0brought together leaders from across the region, including Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro and Cuban President Miguel D\u00edaz-Canel.\n?? | El presidente de Venezuela, @NicolasMaduro agradeci\u00f3 la negociaci\u00f3n de las Declaraciones Especiales y la Declaraci\u00f3n Pol\u00edtica. Reconoci\u00f3 que \u00e9stas son el resultado de las propuestas conjuntas de los pa\u00edses de la regi\u00f3n ? pic.twitter.com/fg40US8abf\n\u2014 Comunidad de Estados Latinoamericanos y Caribe\u00f1os (@PPT_CELAC) September 18, 2021\n\nMaduro\u2019s presence at the meeting\u00a0served as yet another blow to the United States\u2019 ongoing coup attempts against Venezuela, defying Washington\u2019s effort to delegitimize the South American nation\u2019s constitutional government.\nRight-wing US client regimes like the\u00a0drug cartel-linked Iv\u00e1n Duque government of Colombia\u00a0issued furious statements condemning Maduro\u2019s attendance. (Brazil\u2019s far-right Jair Bolsonaro regime withdrew from CELAC in 2020 as part of its US-sponsored attempt to sabotage independent regional institutions.)\nIn a vicious move reminiscent of mafia dons, the US State Department\u00a0reiterated its\u00a0$15 million bounty\u00a0on the head of the Veneuzelan president as he flew to Mexico for the summit.\nBut it all came crashing down in a moment of delicious irony, when Maduro was photographed standing next to (or, rather, towering over) Ecuador\u2019s ultra-conservative banker President Guillermo Lasso and Uruguay\u2019s right-wing President Luis Lacalle Pou \u2014 both of whom still recognize\u00a0US puppet Juan Guaid\u00f3 as imaginary \u201cinterim president\u201d of Venezuela.\nIt\u2019s easy to see why Maduro was smiling. It was a diplomatic win for Caracas, and a major loss for Washington.\n\nThe\u00a0Venezuelan president\u00a0stressed that the difference between CELAC and the OAS is the difference\u00a0between Bolivarianism and Monroeism. \u2014 that is, between Latin American independence and regional unity on one side, or US neocolonialism on the other.\nIn an extraordinary declaration that emphasized this key distinction, the 31 countries that attended the historic CELAC summit issued a call for an\u00a0end to US colonialism in Puerto Rico.\nCiting United Nations General Assembly Resolution\u00a01514, which was approved in 1960 and demanded independence of colonized countries and peoples, CELAC insisted that Puerto Rico must be decolonized, while emphasizing its uniquely Latin American and Caribbean character.\nAt the summit, CELAC also reiterated its call for the United States to end its illegal, six-decade-long blockade of Cuba, which has starved the country of an estimated\u00a0hundreds of billions of dollars\u00a0and taken countless civilian lives.\nThe regional organization\u2019s resounding opposition to the cruel US blockade recalled the meeting of the UN General Assembly this June, in which\u00a0184 member states voted\u00a0to demand an end to the US embargo\u00a0of Cuba, with just two votes against (the United States and apartheid Israel) and three abstentions (Brazil, Colombia, and Ukraine).\nUna vez m\u00e1s, la CELAC conden\u00f3 el bloqueo econ\u00f3mico, comercial y financiero impuesto por EEUU contra #Cuba, recrudecido de forma oportunista en el contexto actual de pandemia. Declaraci\u00f3n Especial llam\u00f3 al gobierno y Congreso de ese pa\u00eds a ponerle fin a esta pol\u00edtica unilateral. pic.twitter.com/l868drS1sI\n\u2014 Bruno Rodr\u00edguez P (@BrunoRguezP) September 18, 2021\n\nIn his first CELAC summit, Peru\u2019s new leftist President Pedro Castillo delivered a moving speech, recognizing his country\u2019s Indigenous communities.\n\u201cI bring the greetings of our Quechua, Aymara, Awaj\u00fan, Conibo, Shipibo brothers, the men and women who have never had a voice in my homeland,\u201d Castillo said, as he donned a traditional hat. \u201cThis is the first time I leave my country as head of state.\u201d\nPeru's leftist President Pedro Castillo opened his CELAC speech recognizing his country's Indigenous communities:\n\"I bring the greetings of our Quechua, Aymara, Awaj\u00fan, Conibo, Shipibo brothers, the men and women who have never had a voice in my homeland\"pic.twitter.com/G6Utk2Iz99\n\u2014 Benjamin Norton (@BenjaminNorton) September 18, 2021\n\nChina\u2019s President Xi Jinping, too, sent a message to CELAC, congratulating it on the historic summit and calling for further developing and strengthening the region\u2019s relations with Beijing.\nIt was another example of the growing international movement to defend multilateralism and sovereignty against US hegemony and domination.\nLa Presidencia Pro T\u00e9mpore de la #CELAC ostentada por ?? M\u00e9xico, agradece el mensaje enviado por el Presidente de la Rep\u00fablica Popular China ?? Xi Jinping sobre el desarrollo y fortalecimiento de Am\u00e9rica Latina y el Caribe con China pic.twitter.com/VTalQ6sioA\n\u2014 Comunidad de Estados Latinoamericanos y Caribe\u00f1os (@PPT_CELAC) September 19, 2021\n\nThe posture that Latin America and the Caribbean are increasingly taking in opposition to the Washington-dominated Organization of American States is crucial to challenge US imperialism in a region that Washington considers to be its neocolonial \u201cbackyard.\u201d\nThe United States founded the OAS in Colombia in 1948, almost exactly one year before the birth of the main instrument of US neocolonialism, NATO. Both institutions were created at the beginning of the first cold war, as imperialist tools to maintain US hegemony and prop up unpopular capitalist regimes.\nLike NATO, whose founding members included dictatorships such as Portugal\u2019s fascist \u201cEstado Novo\u201d regime, the OAS was as an explicitly anti-communist alliance of right-wing regimes in the Americas, whose founding members included right-wing dictatorships such as that of Nicaragua\u2019s blood-soaked General Anastasio Somoza.\nMost of the OAS\u2019 funding comes from the US government. And the State Department has stated clearly in its congressional budget justification reports that Washington provides the OAS with that money because the organization \u201cpromotes U.S. political and economic interests\u00a0in the Western Hemisphere by countering the influence of anti-U.S. countries such as Venezuela.\u201d\n2018 USAID Congressional Budget Justification notes the \"neutral\" OAS \"promotes US political and economic interests\"https://t.co/GIpJH2o1JG pic.twitter.com/UmhX4wSpGF\n\u2014 Benjamin Norton (@BenjaminNorton) July 4, 2017\n\nThe centrality of the OAS in backing the far-right coup d\u2019etat in Bolivia in November 2019 \u2014 in which\u00a0US-trained military forces demanded the resignation\u00a0of democratically elected socialist President Evo Morales \u2014 was in fact an issue raised at the CELAC summit.\nBolivia\u2019s current President Luis Arce, of Morales\u2019 Movement Toward Socialism party, denounced the OAS as an undemocratic and obsolete institution that should be replaced by a fortified CELAC.\n#EnVivo #Celac Presidente de #Bolivia: La OEA act\u00faa en contra de los principios de la democracia, es un organismo obsoleto e ineficaz que no responde a los principios del multilateralismo pic.twitter.com/omxmKGPq2j\n\u2014 Al Mayadeen Espa\u00f1ol (@almayadeen_es) September 18, 2021\n\nMexican President Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador (known popularly by the acronym AMLO), has likewise called for replacing the OAS, and deserves credit for his leadership in hosting the summit and strengthening CELAC.\nAMLO broke with decades of stultifying neoliberal bipartisan orthodoxy in Mexico, in which the governments ruled by the PRI and PAN parties had obediently followed orders from Washington, and had abandoned the commitment to non-interference that Mexico had enshrined in its 1930 Estrada Doctrine.\nBut we must not forget that Venezuela\u2019s revolutionary President Hugo Ch\u00e1vez was proposing all of this a decade ago. Back in 2011,\u00a0Ch\u00e1vez publicly called for substituting the OAS with CELAC, and took early steps to do so before his untimely death in 2013.\nIt is important not to erase the leading role Venezuela\u2019s socialist government has played, and still does play, in the effort to unify Latin America and the Caribbean.\nThe steadfast commitment that Venezuela\u2019s Bolivarian Revolution has shown to strengthening multilateral institutions in the region \u2014 and\u00a0building an anti-imperialist alliance with West Asia\u2019s Axis of Resistance\u00a0\u2014 is one of the main reasons Caracas has been so viciously targeted by US hybrid warfare.\nVenezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua have been at the vanguard of advancing progress, integration, and multilateralism in Latin America \u2014 and in the world as a whole. This is precisely why Washington demonized these three nations as a so-called \u201cTroika of Tyranny\u201d (in reality, a Troika of Resistance).\nBut while\u00a0there is much to celebrate about the CELAC summit in Mexico, the unfortunate truth is that not all of Latin America is on the same page when it comes to resisting US imperialism. And this includes not only right-wing forces, but even some center-left movements in the region.\nLiberal and social-democratic groups have sought to downplay the pivotal leadership of Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua, while amplifying that of Mexico, Argentina, and more moderate forces. This mistaken approach is not only based on falsehoods; it also creates divisions in Latin America that US imperialism can exploit \u2014 and already is exploiting.\nAt the CELAC summit, Nicaragua\u2019s revolutionary Sandinista government criticized Argentina\u2019s centrist government for collaborating with Washington in its destabilization efforts.\n\u201cCELAC is not an instrument of the Empire,\u201d said\u00a0Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Denis Moncada. But he lamented that \u201cthe government of Argentina has become an instrument of North American imperialism, subordinating itself to its hegemonic interests.\u201d\nM\u00e1s noticias falsas descaradas de @LaPrensa, el pasqu\u00edn de propaganda derechista financiado por EEUU:\nLa Prensa dice que el canciller de Nicaragua atac\u00f3 al pueblo argentino, pero en realidad dijo lo contrario: \"el gobierno de Argentina, NO su pueblo, al que nosotros respetamos\" pic.twitter.com/x5LWXgYPYR\n\u2014 Benjamin Norton (@BenjaminNorton) September 19, 2021\n\nRight-wing, US government-funded\u00a0Nicaraguan media outlets spread blatant fake news\u00a0to try to demonize Moncada and misrepresent his speech. But what he said was clearly confirmed by an\u00a0article in Voice of America, a US state propaganda organ created by the CIA.\nVoice of America revealed that top officials from the Joe Biden administration traveled to Buenos Aires this August to meet with the South American nation\u2019s centrist president, Alberto Fern\u00e1ndez.\nThe\u00a0government-funded media outlet reported that the high-level US delegation \u201cagreed to create a channel of \u2018open and fluid dialogue\u2019 with the government of Alberto Fern\u00e1ndez in order to \u2018promote the defense of democratic values\u2019 in the region, particularly in Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Cuba.\u201d\nFern\u00e1ndez was ultimately unable to attend the CELAC summit due to a political\u00a0crisis he is facing at home, where allies of his left-wing Vice President Cristina Fern\u00e1ndez de Kirchner resigned from key posts in his administration, in protest of Fern\u00e1ndez\u2019s rightward drift, his sidelining of the left-wing of the governing coalition, and his humiliating defeat in primary elections.\nBut this is a clear example of Washington taking advantage of cracks in the pan-Latin American alliance to try to subvert its attempts at regional integration. The age-old imperialist strategy of divide-and-conquer is alive and well.\nThe strengthening of CELAC and the weakening of the OAS is an important victory for anti-imperialist resistance forces seeking to challenge the global dictatorship that is US imperialism and neocolonialism.\nBut, as with any regional alliance, there are still many internal contradictions to be resolved. And CELAC has weaknesses that could be, and already are being, exploited by imperialism.\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Venezuela at UN: We must build multipolar \u2018world without imperialism\u2019. 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": "multipolarity, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, UN, United Nations, Venezuela", "output": "Translated excerpts from Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro\u2019s speech at the United Nations General Assembly, in which he called to build a new multipolar world without imperialism\n\nDefying Washington\u2019s ongoing coup attempts, Venezuela\u2019s constitutional President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro used his platform at the United Nations to call for a \u201cnew world without imperialism.\u201d\nWhile denouncing the \u201chellish blockade\u201d the United States and European Union have imposed on his country, Maduro spoke of the need for a multipolar system based on peace, cooperation, and respect for national sovereignty.\nHe made these remarks in a\u00a0speech at the General Assembly\u00a0on September 22.\nWhen he spoke, Maduro also highlighted that the vast majority of the 193 member states of the United Nations always did and still do recognize him and his constitutional government as the legal representatives of Venezuela \u2014 emphasizing without needing to name Juan Guaid\u00f3 that the US puppet only ever had the support of less than one-fourth of UN member states, at the peak of Washington\u2019s coup attempt.\nI have translated key excerpts from Maduro\u2019s speech and published them below, because they will doubtless be ignored in the English-language corporate media.\nAt the United Nations, Venezuela's constitutional President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro called for building \"a new world without imperialism,\" a \"multipolar, pluricentric world\"\nHe stressed it should be based \"especially on the doctrine of the Non-Aligned Movement\" of South-South cooperation pic.twitter.com/sy2kG2bJeJ\n\u2014 Benjamin Norton (@BenjaminNorton) September 22, 2021\n\nMaduro insisted that we need \u201cwhat should be, without a doubt, the construction of the new world, of the new human community, of a world without hegemonic empires.\u201d\nThe Venezuelan president called for building a \u201cworld free of attempts at domination, economically, financially, militarily, politically, of any hegemon, of any empire, or of those who, over centuries, plundered and dominated, exploited and oppressed the peoples of the world, with the old predatory colonialism.\u201d\nMaduro lamented that imperial powers today \u201ctry to present as new forms of neocolonialism against our people, new forms of domination of plunder, of oppression, of exploitation of the peoples of the world.\u201d\n\u201cBecause of that, in this General Assembly, affected by the pandemic, from the very heart of our beloved homeland, Venezuela raises its voice for a new world without colonialism, for a new world without imperialism, for a new world without a dominating hegemon, for a new world of sharing, of cooperation, of a human community with a shared destiny,\u201d Maduro declared.\n\u201cThe multipolar, pluricentric world that we yearn for, and that we are united for, with our flags of struggle with all of the peoples of the world, with the peoples of the South, especially the doctrine of the Non-Aligned Movement, the South-South doctrine, our doctrine, our vision.\u201d\nVenezuelan President Maduro, at the UN, denounced the \"ferocious campaign against our country which was unleashed by the elites who govern the US,\" with criminal sanctions that block Venezuela's right in international law \"to buy what our country needs and sell what it produces\" pic.twitter.com/K5TE2JXlfs\n\u2014 Benjamin Norton (@BenjaminNorton) September 22, 2021\n\nThe Venezuelan president condemned \u201cthe ferocious campaign against our country, which was unleashed by the elites who govern the United States, which was unleashed as well with the complicity of the elites who lead organizations in Europe and other places.\u201d\n\u201cThey have wanted to instrumentalize international organizations and international law to justify the ferocious campaign and criminal attacks against a noble, peaceful, and democratic people, which is the people of Venezuela,\u201d Maduro said.\n\u201cVenezuela denounces a ferocious campaign, and it denounces a permanent and systematic aggression, by means of economic, financial, and oil sanctions, by means of persecution against the right to economic freedom, against economic rights, and economic guarantees which all of the peoples of the world should be able to enjoy.\u201d\nMaduro called this \u201ca ferocious attack against the right to buy what our country needs, and against the right to sell what our country produces.\u201d\nAt the UN, President Maduro denounced Britain for stealing Venezuela's gold reserves\n\"They have have stolen and blocked billions of dollars in bank accounts in the US and Europe,\" while imposing a \"hellish blockade,\" with \"cruel torture\" of Venezuela's \"economic and social body\" pic.twitter.com/kBGCNW1Ukp\n\u2014 Benjamin Norton (@BenjaminNorton) September 22, 2021\n\n\u201c[Our] bank accounts are stalked. They have stolen and blocked the gold from the legal international reserves of the Central Bank of Venezuela, in London. They have stolen from us and blocked billions of dollars in bank accounts in the United States, Europe, and beyond,\u201d Maduro said.\n\u201cThey prevent Venezuelan companies, in oil and mining, from trading their products and opening accounts in the world, from paying, from getting paid, and from doing commercial transactions, in a free manner, which international law takes into account.\u201d\n\u201cIt is persecution, financial, monetary, commercial, economic, energetic, systematic, cruel, and criminal. And Venezuela raises its voice to denounce it, before the peoples of the world.\u201d\nMaduro said that, despite the incredible difficulties, Venezuela is trying to find new ways to increase production and get around the illegal, suffocating sanctions.\n\u201cWe have taken the path, of the deployment of the productive forces, of a country subject to a hellish blockade, to criminal persecution, and to cruel torture, of its economic and social body.\u201d\nThe Venezuelan president then affirmed, \u201cAnd we say to the peoples of the world, with courage, with resolution, with intelligence and wisdom, yes we can confront the imperial aggressions, and advance.\u201d\n\u201cThat is why today, we ratify our request, our demand that all criminal sanctions be lifted against the Venezuelan economy, against Venezuelan society, by the United States of North America and by the governments of the European Union.\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: After Ukraine, US readies \u2018transnational kill chain\u2019 for Taiwan proxy war. 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, Link 16, Russia, Taiwan, Ukraine", "output": "Washington approved the dangerous sale of the Link 16 communications system to Taiwan. This is the final link of what the US military calls a \u201ctransnational coalition kill chain\u201d against China, and signals a commitment to kinetic war.\n\nIn many traditions, when you paint or sculpt a Buddha, the eyes are the very last to be painted. It\u2019s only after the eyes have been completed that the sculpture is fully alive and empowered.\nThe United States has approved a $75 million weapons package to Taiwan province, involving the sale of the Link 16 communications system.\nThe\u00a0acquisition of Link 16 is analogous to \u201cpainting the eyes on the Buddha\u201d: a last touch, it makes Taiwan\u2019s military systems and weapons platforms live and far-seeing.\nIt confers deadly powers, or more prosaically, in the words of the US military, it completes Taiwan as the final, lethal link of what the US Naval Institute calls a \u201ctransnational coalition kill chain\u201d, for war against China.\nWhat exactly is Link 16? It is a key system in the US military communications arsenal. Specifically, it\u2019s the jam-resistant tactical data network for coordinating NATO weapons systems for joint operations in war.\nIf this sale is completed, it signals serious, granular, and single-minded commitment to kinetic war. It would signal that the Biden administration is as serious and unwavering in its desire to provoke and wage large-scale war with China over Taiwan as it was with Russia over Ukraine, which also saw the implementation of this system.\nMore important than any single weapons platform, this system allows the Taiwan/ROC military to integrate and coordinate all its warfighting platforms with US, NATO, Japanese, Korean, Australian militaries in combined arms warfare.\nLink 16 would be the deadliest piece of technology yet to be transferred, because it allows sea, air, and land forces to be coordinated with others for lethal effect.\nIt permits, for example, strategic nuclear/stealth bombers\u00a0 (US B-1B Lancers, B-2 Spirits) to coordinate with electronic warfare and surveillance platforms\u00a0 (EA Growlers, Prowlers, EP-3s), fighters and bombers (F-16,F-22, F-35s) as well as conduct joint arms warfare with US, French, British carrier battle groups, Japanese SDF destroyers, and South Korean Hyun Moo missile destroyers, as well as THAAD and Patriot radars and missile batteries.\nIt also allows coordination with low-earth orbit satellites and other Space Force assets.\nIn other words, Link 16 supplies a brain and nervous system to the various deadly limbs and arms that the Taiwan authorities have been acquiring and preparing on the prompting of the US. It ensures interoperability and US control.\nIt effectively prepares Taiwan to be used as the spear tip and trigger of a multinational war offensive against China.\nTo give a shoe-on-the-other-foot analogy, this would be like China giving separatists in a US territory or state (e.g. Hawaii, Guam, Puerto Rico, Texas) not just arms and training \u2013 already a belligerent act of war, which the US is currently doing \u2013 but connecting insurgent militaries directly to the PLA\u2019s surveillance, reconnaissance, and command/control systems.\nThis coordinates and completes, to borrow the words of the US Naval Institute (USNI), the final link in a \u201ctransnational coalition kill chain\u201d\u00a0for war.\nThe current US doctrine of war against China is based on distributed,\u00a0dispersed,\u00a0diffused, network-centric warfare to be conducted along the myriad islands of the archipelagic states encircling China in the Pacific.\nThese are the \u201cisland chains\u201d upon which the US has encircled and sown dragon\u2019s teeth: tens of thousands of troops armed with mobile attack platforms and missiles.\nThis is to be coordinated with subsurface warfare, automated/autonomous warfare, and longer-range stand-off weapons and attacks.\nPowerful think tanks like CSBA, CNAS, CSIS, RAND and the Pentagon have been working out the doctrine, details, logistics, and appropriations for this concept intensively for over a decade while advocating intensely for it.\nThe sale of link 16 to Taiwan realizes and completes a key portion of this, binding the Chinese island as the keystone of this \u201cmultinational kill chain\u201d.\nThis doctrine of dispersion is based on a \u201crock-paper-scissors\u201d concept that networked diffusion \u201coffsets\u201d (Chinese) precision.\nChina\u2019s capacity to defend itself and its littoral perimeter with precision missiles can be undermined with diffuse, distributed attacks from all across the island chains.\nNote that this diffusion and dispersion of attack platforms across the entire Pacific gives the lie to the claim that this is some inherently deterrent strategy to defend Taiwan island. Diffusion is clearly offensive, designed to overrun and overwhelm defenses: like Ukraine, this is not to deter war, but to enable it.\nThis thus signals that aggressive total war against China is being prepared, in granular, lethal fashion on tactical and operational levels.\nOn the strategic level, currently, at the CFR, CNAS, and other influential think tanks in Washington, the talk is all about \u201cprotracted warfare\u201d with China, about pre-positioning systems and munitions for war, about ramping up to an\u00a0industrial war footing\u00a0for\u00a0the inescapable\u00a0necessity of war\u00a0with China.\nThis discussion includes preparations for a nuclear\u00a0first strike\u00a0on China.\nThe US senses that the clock is running rapidly down on its power. If war is inevitable, then it is anxious to start war sooner rather than later.\nRAND warned in 2016 that 2025 was the outside window for the US to prevail in war with China. The \u201cMinihan window\u201d also hints at 2025. The \u201cDavidson window\u201d is 2027.\nThe question in Washington regarding war with China is not if, but when\u2013and how.\nLink 16 makes \u201chow\u201d easier, and brings \u201cwhen\u201d closer.\nThe current administration has hardline Russophobes who want to continue to bleed Russia out in Ukraine. It wants protracted war with Russia. It firmly believes it can wage ambidextrous, multi-front war.\nMany US officials also believe that war with Ukraine and war with China are connected. They see Russia and China as a single axis of \u201crevisionist powers\u201d (i.e., official enemies) conspiring against the US to undermine its so-called \u201crules-based order\u201d (i.e., US hegemony).\nFurthermore, if the US abandons Ukraine, this could weaken the Taiwan authorities\u2019 resolve and willingness to wage war on behalf of Washington.\nEarlier in the war, when Russian gains in Ukraine were uncertain, Bi-khim Louise Hsiao (Taiwan\u2019s current vice-president elect) gloated publicly and prominently that Ukraine\u2019s victories were a message to China, as well as proof-of-concept of an effective doctrine for waging and winning war against China. As such, the Taiwan authorities were and are a major supporter of the Ukraine proxy war.\nBut the converse also holds true. Based on the same premise, if the US abandons and loses Ukraine, it sends a clear message to the people on Taiwan island that they will be the next to be used and abandoned; that their US-imposed war and war doctrine (light, distributed, asymmetrical combined arms warfare) for fighting China is a recipe for catastrophic loss.\nThe US plans on using proxies for war against China: Taiwan, Korea, Japan (JAKUS), Philippines, and Australia (AUKUS). Thus it cannot signal too overtly its perfidious, unreliable, and instrumental mindset.\nWashington has to keep up the pretense. It cannot be seen to overtly lose in or abandon Ukraine. It needs a \u201cdecent interval\u201d, or a plausible pretext to cut and run.\nStill, the US is stretched thin. For example, it is relying on Korean munitions to Ukraine, and South Korea has provided\u00a0more munitions than all of\u00a0the\u00a0EU combined.\nMoreover, the US is currently at war with itself. The fracturing of its body politic can only be unified with a common war against a common enemy. Russia is not that enemy for the US. China is. The Republicans want war with China now.\nEli Ratner and Elbridge Colby have been fretting for years about the need to husband weaponry, arms, and munitions in order to wage war against China.\nSince the outbreak of Ukraine, Ratner has been working hard to pull India into the US defense industry\u2019s supply chain, and claims to have been successful.\nSouth Korea\u2019s considerable military-industrial complex is being pulled into sub-contracting for US war with China.\nSince many of its major Chaebol corporations got their start as subcontractors for the war in Vietnam (for example, Hyundai was a subcontractor for Halliburton/Brown & Root), the Korean economy is simply reverting back to its corporate-martial roots.\nSouth Korea\u2019s economy is currently tanking due to US-forced sanctions on China. Major Korean electronic firms have lost 60 to 80%\u00a0of their profits due to US-imposed\u00a0chip sanctions.\nUnder those conditions, military manufacturing and/or subcontracting looks to be the only way forward.\nIn this way, the US is forcing a war economy onto its vassals.\nFurthermore, US aid to Ukraine benefits its own arms industry.\nThe business of the US is war. Not only do existing US arms companies gain, but also the entire tech industry and supply chain benefits, and is currently re-orienting around this.\nMuch of the US tech industry is seeking to suckle from the government teat, now flowing copiously in preparation for war.\nOn the other hand, the general US economy is not doing well, with massive layoffs, especially in the consumer and business tech sector.\nThe backstop of military Keynesianism, with the integration of think-tank lobbying groups funded by the arms industry with close ties to the administration (such as CNAS, West Exec Advisors, and CSIS) ensure that war is always the closest ready-to-hand resort for tough economic times.\nThe US is simultaneously trying to decouple supply chains, which creates opportunities for US firms (both domestically and subcontracting with US vassals).\nAutomated, AI-enabled warfare will be a key part of this development, as will be dispersed, distributed warfare platforms using proxies such as South Korea and Japan.\nThis fits the existing historical pattern: the history of Western technology shows that technology and machinery have always been developed first for war.\nAfterwards, they become tools of entertainment and distraction, and later productive tools for general industrial use.\nThis pattern goes back to the earliest machines and inventions of the West: the crane, the pulley, the lever, were all military technologies \u2013 machines of war (used in sieges).\nLater they became machines of illusion and distraction (used as stage machinery in Greek theater).\nOnly much later were they applied for general use \u2013 and exploitation \u2013 in manufacture and production.\nThis holds true for many other technologies, including:\nNuclear power obviously derives from nuclear weapons.\nAI, too, from its inception, was conceived for automated battle management, especially to enable second strike after human life had been destroyed.\nAn AI war is already in the works, with US sanctions on AI-related chips and computing, along with an algorithmic race to suppress dissent and critique in the information domain.\nWar and business are intricately related in the west, and war is the first lever pulled when the economy stagnates critically or needs a boost.\nThe US needs to abandon its neoconservative fantasies of hegemonic global empire and retreat gently into that good night, for there to be peace.\nWashington needs to negotiate in good faith with Russia, and begin the process of de-escalating its proxies in Ukraine, as well as in Palestine, and the Pacific.\nIt needs to seek win-win cooperation in a multilateral order based on international law and mutual co-existence, not its own top-down \u201crules-based order\u201d.\nIt needs to respect the One China principle, end its interference in China\u2019s affairs, and stop preparing and provoking war with China.\nHowever, the US ruling class is unwilling to do so. And it has only a few levers left to pull. The military one is the closest and most ready to hand.\nAs Martin Luther King Jr. said, \u201cThe US is the greatest purveyor of violence in the world\u201d.\nLike a drunk at the bar after the final call \u2013 drunk with power \u2013 Washington is determined to go out with a fight.\nThat fight could involve a\u00a0nuclear first strike. Palestine has shown what it will try to get away with: brazen genocide with the whole world watching.\nThe issue is no longer war or peace in Ukraine. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell sees Ukraine as a \u201cunified field\u201d of war with China. He revels in the possibility of a \u201cmagnificent symphony of death\u201d in Asia.\nThe coda, of course, will be a deafening fermata of silence across the entire planet. Unless we stop this insane march to war.\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Catholic Church backed violent coup attempt in Nicaragua, meddles in politics. 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": "Catholic Church, FSLN, Nicaragua, religion, Sandinistas", "output": "Foreign media outlets falsely accuse Nicaragua\u2019s Sandinista government of repressing the Catholic Church, while ignoring its role in supporting a violent coup attempt in 2018 and sponsoring extremist opposition groups.\n\nA deluge of misleading stories claiming that the Nicaraguan government has repressed the Catholic Church have appeared in international media, but not one has accurately explained what is happening.\nIn the article below, Becca Renk, who has lived and worked in sustainable community development in Nicaragua since 2001, explains the country\u2019s complex relationship with the Catholic Church and shows how Western media reporting is extremely inaccurate.\nCredit: Casa Benjam\u00edn Linder\n(Se puede leer este art\u00edculo en espa\u00f1ol aqu\u00ed.)\nColonization: The Catholic Church first came to Nicaragua with the Spanish colonizers and, as elsewhere in the world, the hierarchy and much of the clergy facilitated colonial conquest through conversion.\nIn Nicaragua, the indigenous population was utterly decimated: most of the population was killed, died of disease, or were abducted and sold into slavery.\nWith the notable exceptions of some individual priests like Antonio Valdivieso, the Church was not only complicit but actively participated in the horrors of colonization.\nInsurrection: Post independence, the Church hierarchy and Nicaragua\u2019s wealthy elite ran the country together. For generations, each powerful family had a son who became a priest.\nIn the 20th century, the Catholic hierarchy supported the bloody Somoza dictatorship during the almost 45 years of their rule, and only at the very end did some in the hierarchy support the people\u2019s liberation.\nRevolution: Unlike in Cuba, the Nicaraguan revolution was never secular \u2013 in fact, the Sandinista Revolution was so influenced by liberation theology that in the 1980s there was a popular saying was, \u201cBetween Christianity and revolution there is no contradiction.\u201d\nThere were priests in the Sandinista government \u2013 several ministers \u2013 but they were not the priests of the Church hierarchy; they were working to improve the lives of the poor majority.\nThe Catholic hierarchy was openly opposed to the Sandinista Revolution. Pope John Paul II came to Nicaragua and chastised the priests in government, and the Vatican later censored them.\nWhen the Sandinista Front party came back into power in 2007, it formed the Government of Reconciliation and National Unity (GRUN). In an attempt to unite the country and prevent new conflict, the new government sought not only to work with former enemies from the war \u2013 the Contra\u2019s political wing joined the Sandinista alliance and nominated the vice president for that term from within their ranks \u2013 but also included the Church, big business, and trade unions in the planning and management of government programs. The Church was given a place at the governing table.\nBut big business and the Catholic Church effectively ended that model when they conspired to overthrow the elected government in 2018, and used their role in society to try to turn the people against the government.\nIn April 2018, protests began that were ostensibly against proposed reforms to the social security system. It quickly became obvious, however, that the protests were about something else: an attempt to overthrow the Nicaraguan government.\nArmed opposition groups set up hundreds of roadblocks which paralyzed the country and became epicenters of violence. The roadblocks lasted for nearly three months. Some 253 people were killed, and many more injured.\nWhile opposition sources blamed the government for nearly all deaths, a careful study by the Nicaraguan Truth, Justice and Peace Commission showed otherwise.\nJournalists\u2019 investigations have shown that the U.S. government was funding the violence through USAID, NED, and IRI \u2013 all \u201csoft arms\u201d of the CIA.\nAlthough the U.S. was funding the attempted ousting of Nicaragua\u2019s democratically elected Sandinista government, the Catholic Church hierarchy in Nicaragua was instigating it.\nCatholic bishops join a right-wing anti-government protest in Nicaragua during the violent coup attempt in 2018\nIn this article, I documented\u00a0first-hand accounts of priests initiating violence, including in neighborhoods of Ciudad Sandino.\nWhile the Bishop\u2019s conference was supposedly \u201cmediating\u201d a national dialogue, its own priests were calling for violence. At these \u201croadblocks of death,\u201d as they came to be known, Sandinista supporters were identified, beaten, raped, tortured and murdered \u2013 with priests watching and sometimes participating in the violence.\nAlthough hundreds were arrested and convicted of violent crimes in 2018, opposition demanded the release of what they called \u201cpolitical prisoners.\u201d\nIn the interests of peace and reconciliation, the Nicaraguan government declared a general amnesty and freed everyone who had been charged in conjunction the attempted coup, including known murderers, on the condition that they not reoffend.\nThe hierarchy\u2019s participation in the failed coup attempt in 2018 has had consequences for the Catholic Church: the Nicaraguan government has reduced by half its financial support for cathedrals, churches and maintenance of the Bishops\u2019 Conference facilities.\nBut the Church has also lost its people. I have talked to many Catholics who no longer go to mass because their priests continue to promote violence and seek political ends from the pulpit.\nThese people have not lost their faith \u2013 they continue to pray at home and take part in religious celebrations outside the Church \u2013 but they no longer attend mass.\nThis sentiment is widespread. Recent polls by respected firm M&R Consultores show that only 37% of Nicaraguans today identify as Catholics, as opposed to 50% in 2014.\nThe decline of Catholicism in Nicaragua over time (Source: M&R Consultores)\nSo what is going on now that has caused so many inaccurate headlines? The first week of August, Nicaraguan authorities dismantled the network of communication outlets (five radio stations and a local television channel) owned by Rolando \u00c1lvarez. \u00c1lvarez is bishop of Estel\u00ed and Matagalpa, but he is also a political actor, and was one of the leaders involved in the violent coup attempt in 2018.\nAlvarez\u2019s discourse has created a climate of confrontation, in an attempt to destabilize Nicaragua\u2019s government in the run-up to November\u2019s municipal elections.\nAlvarez\u2019s private media outlets were closed because they are alleged to have been used to launder money to pay for street violence to feed destabilization attempts.\nFollowing the closure of his media outlets, Alvarez was placed under house arrest while he is under investigation for a series of crimes.\nEven following his arrest, however, Alvarez continued to foment violence which threatened the safety of the population of Matagalpa.\nIn August he was moved to house arrest in Managua, where he will remain while he is being investigated. He is receiving visits from his family and from the cardinal, with whom he has spoken at length.\nRolando \u00c1lvarez\nAlvarez isn\u2019t the only priest to be arrested in Nicaragua in recent months. Nicaraguan authorities have arrested, tried, and convicted a priest who raped a 12-year-old girl and another who beat his partner. (The Nicaraguan public didn\u2019t blink an eye at the fact that the priest had a partner, but they were outraged that he beat her.)\nInterestingly, we have not seen international media using the cases of the rapist and wife-beating priests of Nicaragua to claim religious persecution the way that they are for Alvarez, but all three are cases of Nicaraguan authorities holding Catholic priests accountable for their individual actions, just as they would anyone else.\nReligious persecution is defined as societal or intuitional attacks on people specifically for their religious beliefs. What we have seen in Nicaragua\u2019s recent events is the investigation and arrest of individuals who have broken the law, regardless of their religious beliefs.\nReligious persecution can also be defined as attacks on religious institutions, of which the international press also accuses the Nicaraguan government. Few concrete examples are given \u2013 most are alleged defacements of churches that cannot be attributed to the government or its institutions.\nThe most often cited incident is a fire in July 2020 in the Managua cathedral, which destroyed the image of the blood of Christ. Church authorities claim it was caused by a firebomb attack on the Cathedral. In their investigation, however, the Nicaraguan police and the fire department found no evidence of a firebomb, and concluded that the fire was caused by a spray bottle of alcohol used for sanitizing hands, which was left too close to an open flame in the poorly ventilated chapel.\nEyewitnesses saw no suspicious activity. There were only two people in the cathedral at the time of the fire.\nRegardless of the results of the investigation, the Church hierarchy maintains their claim of \u201cpersecution\u201d and has left the chapel as it was following the fire, encouraging visitors to pray to the charred crucifix.\nNot only is there no religious persecution in Nicaragua, but there is an atmosphere of thriving religious expression.\nFor proof of this, one just had to look out a window in Nicaragua this August. August is patron saint festival season in this country.\nWhile international media has been printing tales of religious persecution, dozens of Nicaraguan cities and towns were busy celebrating their Catholic saints in festivals supported economically and logistically by municipal governments.\nOur own village celebrated the Virgin of the Nancite. And in Ciudad Sandino we celebrated Little Santo Domingo.\nNicaraguan Catholics celebrate the virgin of the Nancite, in the community of Cuajachillo No. 2, in Ciudad Sandino, in August 2022\nThe largest celebration of all was tens of thousands of people who walked and danced freely through Managua\u2019s streets on two separate public holidays dedicated to Santo Domingo.\nIn Nicaragua, the Church hierarchy may be sequestered inside walls, but the church of the people is in the street, joyfully celebrating its faith.\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: US legally owes Nicaragua reparations, but still refuses to honor 1986 Int\u2019l Court of Justice ruling. 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": "CIA, Contras, Daniel Ortega, ICJ, International Court of Justice, Nicaragua", "output": "37 years after a 1986 International Court of Justice ruling, the United States still refuses to pay Nicaragua the reparations it legally owes. Today, the Nicaraguan government is demanding that the United Nations take action.\n\n(Se puede leer esta nota en espa\u00f1ol aqu\u00ed.)\nThe International Court of Justice in the Hague ruled in 1986 that the US government had violated international law in its attacks on Nicaragua and that it owed the Central American nation reparations.\nJune 27, 2023 was the 37th anniversary of this ruling, and Washington still to this day refuses to pay Nicaragua the money that it legally owes it.\nThe International Court of Justice (ICJ) is the judicial arm of the United Nations. (It is not to be confused with the International Criminal Court (ICC), which is independent of the UN. The ICJ was founded in 1945, in order to settle disputes between states; whereas the ICC was only formed in 2002, in order to prosecute individuals.)\nIn 1986, the ICJ determined that the US repeatedly violated international law by:\nNicaragua\u2019s current government has publicly called on the US to meet its obligations under international law.\nThis June 26, Nicaragua\u2019s President Daniel Ortega sent a letter to UN Secretary General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres demanding that Washington pay reparations.\n\u201cThere exists a historical debt with the Nicaraguan people that 37 years later has not been settled by the United States\u201d, Ortega said. \u201cIt is an obligation clearly established in a final judgment of the highest international judicial authority, the International Court of Justice\u201d.\nThe Nicaraguan president wrote:\nThe list of direct damages includes human damages, direct material damages, defense expenses, losses caused by the embargo. Also other damages such as social losses in education, health, work, social security, as well as potential losses for development and production.\nFrom all points of view, the nation\u2019s right to development was irreparably affected.\n\u2026\nThe estimated value of the damages in March 1988, the date on which the Report was presented along with all supporting documentation, was estimated at $12 billion. This amount does not reflect damages after said date, the consequences of which are currently verifiable.\nFor example, to this day, the country\u2019s social security system continues to pay pensions to those injured in the war and their relatives, including those who were part of the counterrevolutionary forces illegally financed by the United States, which never assumed the social cost of said illegalities.\nAdjusted for inflation, $12 billion in 1988 would be more than $31 billion in 2023.\nFollowing the triumph of Nicaragua\u2019s socialist Sandinista Revolution in 1979, the United States created a far-right terror army that sought to violently overthrow the new revolutionary government.\nThe CIA armed and trained death squads known as the Contras \u2013 short for \u201cCounterrevolutionaries\u201d.\nWith US backing, the Contras systematically used terrorism to destabilize Nicaraguan society.\nA former Contra leader from one of the country\u2019s most powerful oligarchic families, Edgar Chamorro, published an open letter in the New York Times in 1986 admitting that \u201cterror is the most effective weapon of the \u2018contras\u2019\u201c.\nIt \u201cwas premeditated policy to terrorize civilian noncombatants to prevent them from cooperating with the Government. Hundreds of civilian murders, mutilations, tortures and rapes were committed in pursuit of this policy\u201d, he recalled.\nReferring to the Contras as \u201cCIA puppets\u201d and \u201ca proxy army controlled by the U.S. Government\u201d, Chamorro wrote that \u201cthe \u2018contras\u2019 burn down schools, homes and health centers as fast as the Sandinistas build them\u201d.\nChamorro said that US-backed Contras seized poor villages, then \u201cselected those civilians they suspected of sympathizing with the Government and shot them in cold blood as a lesson\u201d.\nUS President Ronald Reagan with Contra leader \u201cDoctor Henry\u201d outside the White House\nIn 1984, the Nicaraguan government filed a case with the United Nation\u2019s judicial organ, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), demanding legal action against the United States for its attacks.\nThe US government refused to represent itself in court, boycotting the case. In doing so, Washington refused to accept the legitimacy of the UN-backed ICJ, undermining the so-called \u201crules-based international order\u201d that the US claims it supports.\nThe ICJ case was officially called\u00a0\u201cMilitary and Paramilitary Activities in and against Nicaragua (Nicaragua v. United States of America)\u201d.\nThe judges wrote in 1986 that the court:\nDecides that the United States of America, by training, arming, equipping, financing and supplying the contra forces or otherwise encouraging, supporting and aiding military and paramilitary activities in and against Nicaragua, has acted, against the Republic of Nicaragua, in breach of its obligation under customary international law not to intervene in the affairs of another State;\n\u2026\nDecides that the United States of America, by certain attacks on Nicaraguan territory in 1983-1984, namely attacks on Puerto Sandino on 13 September and 14 October 1983 ; an attack on Corinto on 10 October 1983 ; an attack on Potosi Naval Base on 4/5 January 1984 ; an attack on San Juan del Sur on 7 March 1984 ; attacks on patrol boats at Puerto Sandino on 28 and 30 March 1984 ; and an attack on San Juan del Norte on 9 April 1984 ; and further by those acts of intervention referred to in subparagraph (3) hereof which involve the use of force, has acted, against the Republic of Nicaragua, in breach of its obligation under customary international law not to use force against another State;\n\u2026\nDecides that, by laying mines in the internal or territorial waters of the Republic of Nicaragua during the first months of 1984, the United States of America has acted, against the Republic of Nicaragua, in breach of its obligations under customary international law not to use force against another State, not to intervene in its affairs, not to violate its sovereignty and not to interrupt peaceful maritime commerce;\n\u2026\nFinds that the United States of America, by producing in 1983 a manual entitled Operaciones sicol\u00f3gicas [sic] en guerra de guerrillas, and disseminating it to contra forces, has encouraged the commission by them of acts contrary to general principles of humanitarian law;\n\u2026\nDecides that the United States of America, by the attacks on Nicaraguan territory \u2026 and by declaring a general embargo on trade with Nicaragua on 1 May 1985, has committed acts calculated to deprive of its object and purpose the Treaty of Friendship, Commerce and Navigation between the Parties signed at Managua on 2 1 January 1956;\n\u2026\nDecides that the United States of America is under a duty immediately to cease and to refrain from all such acts as may constitute breaches of the foregoing legal obligations;\n\u2026\nDecides that the United States of America is under an obligation to make reparation to the Republic of Nicaragua for all injury caused to Nicaragua by the breaches of obligations under customary international law enumerated above.\nThe ICJ ruling only considered the crimes that Washington had committed against Nicaragua in the 1980s.\nThe United States has a history of invading and militarily occupying the Central American nation, on multiple occasions.\nAfter decades of military occupation, the US Marines were expelled from Nicaragua in 1933, due to an armed rebellion led by revolutionary General Augusto Sandino.\nTo maintain its political and economic control over the country, Washington left behind a National Guard led by Anastasio Somoza Garc\u00eda. Somoza murdered Sandino, before later taking state power for himself, with US support.\nThe Somoza dynasty ruled Nicaragua as a brutal right-wing dictatorship. Somoza Garc\u00eda\u2019s son, Anastasio Somoza Debayle, followed in his father\u2019s footsteps and ran the country with an iron fist, until he was overthrown in the 1979 Sandinista Revolution.\nUS President Richard Nixon with Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle in 1971\nIn the 1980s, Nicaragua\u2019s civilian population suffered the horrors of the US-sponsored terror war, as well as a devastating economic blockade, which caused hyperinflation and led to a shortage of many goods.\nWashington\u2019s threat to continue waging this war and imposing the blockade led Nicaraguans to vote in the 1990 election for right-wing presidential candidate Violeta Chamorro, from the wealthy oligarchic dynasty that has long sought to control the country (in alliance with the US).\nChamorro\u2019s electoral victory was the result of massive US meddling and manipulation. The CIA and other US government agencies spent millions of dollars creating, supporting, and advising Chamorro\u2019s campaign.\nVioleta Chamorro addresses the US Congress in 1991\nIn 1991, Chamorro\u2019s US-installed government told the ICJ that it did not plan on continuing with the case against Washington.\nHowever, Chamorro\u2019s decision to discontinue the case was a direct result of the very same US violations of international law and attacks on Nicaraguan sovereignty that the ICJ had ruled on in the first place.\nNicaragua\u2019s sovereign government has the right to return to the ICJ case today and demand that its legally binding ruling be implemented.\nIn his letter to the United Nations secretary general, President Daniel Ortega pointed out that, in 1991, Chamorro\u2019s government in \u201cNicaragua discontinued the proceedings before the Court to determine the amount owed, but at no time did it waive the payment of the debt, that is, the right to receive compensation\u201c.\nOrtega\u2019s letter made it clear that Chamorro\u2019s decision not to proceed with the case does not change Washington\u2019s legal obligation to pay reparations.\nThe current Nicaraguan president wrote to the UN:\nNicaragua never received anything to which it was not entitled (such as the right not to be attacked) in exchange for discontinuing the trial before the Court.\nInstead of receiving compensation as it morally and legally corresponds, Nicaragua continues to be the object of a new type of aggression. It is in this context, in which Nicaragua has once again been the victim of attacks, now euphemistically called sanctions, and the victim of an attempted coup, that the people of Nicaragua remember the historic sentence of the International Court of Justice.\n\u2026\nNicaragua takes this opportunity to recall that the judgments of the International Court of Justice are final and of inescapable compliance, and therefore the United States has the legal obligation to comply with the reparations ordered by the judgment of June 27, 1986.\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Trump boasts he wanted to take Venezuela\u2019s oil after overthrowing its government. 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, Donald Trump, Hugo Ch\u00e1vez, John Bolton, Juan Guaid\u00f3, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, oil, PDVSA, Republican Party, Syria, Venezuela", "output": "Former US President Donald Trump boasted at a Republican Party rally that he wanted to \u201ctake over\u201d Venezuela, and \u201cwe would have gotten all that oil\u201d. This confirms the sinister motives behind Washington\u2019s 2019 coup attempt to overthrow President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro and install Juan Guaid\u00f3.\n\nFormer US President Donald Trump gave a speech in which he boasted that he wanted to \u201ctake over\u201d Venezuela and exploit its large oil reserves.\n\u201cWhen I left, Venezuela was ready to collapse. We would have taken it over; we would have gotten to all that oil; it would have been right next door\u201d, Trump said.\n\u201cBut now we\u2019re buying oil from Venezuela. So we\u2019re making a dictator very rich. Can you believe this? Nobody can believe it\u201d, he added.\n\nTrump made these remarks on June 10, at a speech for a convention organized by the North Carolina Republican Party.\nThe US government initiated a coup attempt against Venezuela in 2019. The Trump administration appointed a little-known right-wing opposition politician, Juan Guaid\u00f3, as the supposed \u201cinterim president\u201d of the South American nation, despite the fact that he had never participated in a presidential election.\nVenezuela has the world\u2019s largest known oil reserves \u2013 although its crude is very heavy, and in order to be used it must be mixed with lighter crude or diluents, which the country is often incapable of importing due to illegal, unilateral US sanctions.\nAs president, Trump made it clear that Washington seeks to control the natural resources of foreign countries.\nIn a January 2020 interview on Fox News, Trump boasted that he was militarily occupying Syria\u2019s crude-rich regions in order to \u201ctake the oil\u201d:\nDONALD TRUMP: And then they say he left troops in Syria. You know what I did? I left troops to take the oil. I took the oil.\nThe only troops I have are taking the oil. They\u2019re protecting the oil. I took over the oil.\n\u2026\nMaybe we should take it. But we have the oil. Right now, the United States has the oil.\nSo they say he left troops in Syria. No, I got rid of all of them, other than we\u2019re protecting the oil. We have the oil.\nHere's irrefutable video evidence of Trump \"fighting the deep state\" ?\n\"I left troops [in Syria] to take the oil. I took the oil. The only troops I have are taking the oil. They're protecting the oil. I took over the oil\u2026 We have the oil. Right now, the U.S. has the oil\" pic.twitter.com/IYaep53GP5\n\u2014 Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) March 31, 2023\n\nOther members of the Donald Trump administration made similar comments.\nTrump\u2019s neoconservative National Security Advisor John Bolton stated clearly at the beginning of the coup attempt in January 2019, in an interview on Fox News, that Washington and US corporations wanted to profit off of Venezuela\u2019s oil:\nJOHN BOLTON: We\u2019re looking at the oil assets. That\u2019s the single most important income stream to the government of Venezuela. We\u2019re looking at what to do to that.\nWe want everybody to know. We\u2019re looking at all this very seriously. We don\u2019t want any American businesses or investors caught by surprise. They can see what President Trump did yesterday. We\u2019re following through on it.\n\u2026\nWe\u2019re in conversation with major American companies now, that are either in Venezuela or in the case of Citgo here in the United States. I think we\u2019re trying to get to the same end result here.\nYou know, Venezuela is one of the three countries I called the \u201cTroika of Tyranny\u201d.\nIt\u2019ll make a big difference to the United States economically if we could have American oil companies really invest in and\u00a0 produce the oil capabilities in Venezuela.\nIt would be good for the people of Venezuela. It would be good for the people of the United States.\nWe both have a lot at stake here making this come out the right way.\nTrump's neoconservative National Security Advisor John Bolton made it clear from the beginning of the US coup attempt against Venezuela in January 2019 that US corporations wanted to exploit its massive oil reserves, which had been nationalized by President Hugo Ch\u00e1vez.\nBolton\u2026 pic.twitter.com/gp7pkzweHT\n\u2014 Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) June 13, 2023\n\nVenezuela\u2019s massive oil reserves were nationalized by former President Hugo Ch\u00e1vez, who launched the country\u2019s leftist Bolivarian Revolution.\nVenezuela\u2019s state-owned oil company PDVSA used the revenue from the oil sales in order to fund social programs, public housing, transportation, health care, and education.\nAcademic studies have found that countries with large oil reserves are more likely to suffer wars and foreign military interventions.\nIn April 2002, there was a briefly successful military coup which overthrew democratically elected President Ch\u00e1vez. But the leader was so popular that the people of Venezuela stormed the streets, overthrew the coup regime, and demanded that Ch\u00e1vez be reinstated as president.\nThe George Bush administration was deeply involved in supporting this 2002 coup in Venezuela.\nSince then, Washington has sponsored several more coup attempts, including violent riots in 2014 and 2017, culminating in the 2019 designation of Juan Guaid\u00f3 as supposed \u201cinterim president\u201d.\nThe fact that this was a coup attempt was admitted by Trump\u2019s national security advisor himself.\nIn a 2022 interview on CNN, Bolton boasted of how difficult it was to organize the coup attempt:\nJAKE TAPPER: One doesn\u2019t have to be brilliant to attempt a coup.\nJOHN BOLTON: I disagree with that, as somebody who has helped plan coups d\u2019etat \u2013 not here, but, you know, other places. It takes a lot of work.\nJAKE TAPPER: I do want to ask a follow up. When we were talking about what is capable, or what you need to do to be able to plan a coup, and you cited your expertise having planned coups.\nJOHN BOLTON: I\u2019m not going to get into the specifics, but uh\u2026\nJAKE TAPPER: Successful coups?\nJOHN BOLTON: Well, I wrote about Venezuela in the book. And it turned out not to be successful \u2013 not that we had all that much to do with it. But I saw what it took for an opposition to try and overturn an illegally elected president, and they failed. The notion that Donald Trump was half as competent as the Venezuelan opposition is laughable. But I think there\u2019s another \u2013\nJAKE TAPPER: I feel like there\u2019s other stuff you\u2019re not telling me, though.\nJOHN BOLTON: I think \u2013 I\u2019m sure there is.\nBolton\u2019s 2020 memoir, \u201cThe Room Where It Happened\u201d, mentions Venezuela and Venezuelans more than 300 times, and has a 35-page chapter recounting the coup attempt in the country, titled \u201cVenezuela Libre\u201d (Free Venezuela).\nBolton wrote that President\u00a0Trump had repeatedly asked for a military attack on Venezuela.\nTrump advisor John Bolton admits planning US coups in Venezuela and beyond\n\nThis was further confirmed by Trump\u2019s former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, who wrote in his 2022 memoir \u201cA Sacred Oath\u201d that\u00a0\u201cTrump had been fixated on Venezuela since the early days of his administration\u201d.\n\u201cAgain and again, Trump would ask for military options\u201d to overthrow Venezuela\u2019s democratically elected President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, Esper recalled.\nTrump\u2019s National Security Council meetings on Venezuela \u201calways began with the consideration of military options, rather than on the other end of the spectrum\u2014diplomacy\u201d, Esper wrote.\nTrump wanted US military attacks on Venezuela, Defense Secretary Mark Esper details in book\n\nThere in fact was an attempted invasion of Venezuela in May 2020, known as Operation Gideon.\nThe figures involved in planning this botched invasion admitted they had the support of the Trump White House and were in contact with the CIA, other US government agencies, and Colombian intelligence services.\nCIA backed failed 2020 invasion of Venezuela, top coup-plotter says\n\nIn response to Trump\u2019s admission in June 2023 that he wanted to \u201ctake over\u201d Venezuela and its oil, the country\u2019s foreign minister, Yvan Gil, responded: \u201cTrump confesses that his intention was to take over Venezuela\u2019s oil. All the damage that the United States has done to our people, with the support of its lackeys, here has had one objective: to steal our resources! They were not able to, and they will not be able to. We will always overcome!\u201d\nVenezuela\u2019s vice minister for North America, Carlos Ron, declared, \u201cWhat further evidence do we need? Here\u2019s Trump confessing that his aim, all along, was to take over Venezuela\u2019s oil. The Biden [administration] keeps his illegal sanctions policy still in place. Venezuela has and will continue to prevail!\u201d\nWhat further evidence do we need?\nHere\u2019s Trump confessing that his aim, all along, was to take over Venezuela\u2019s oil.\nThe Biden Administracion keeps his illegal sanctions policy still in place.\nVenezuela has and will continue to prevail! https://t.co/kLO3INnm57\n\u2014 Carlos Ron (@CarlosJRonVE) June 11, 2023\n\nVenezuela\u2019s ambassador to the United Nations, Samuel Moncada, stated, \u201cTrump took the mask off of 60 satellite countries, the international propaganda, and all of those politicians and intellectuals who supported a puppet [Juan Guaid\u00f3] to govern Venezuela. The only aim has been to pillage the oil of the Venezuelan people. How shameful! This is the confession of a criminal\u201d.\nThe \u201c60 satellite countries\u201d that Moncada referenced were those that joined the United States in formally recognizing unelected coup leader Guaid\u00f3 as supposed \u201cinterim president\u201d of Venezuela.\nVenezuela\u2019s former foreign minister, Jorge Arreaza, who served during the 2019 coup attempt, said Trump\u2019s confession was legal evidence that the US was motivated to try to steal his country\u2019s natural resources.\n\u201cThe international justice system must act\u201d, Arreaza implored.\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Peru\u2019s coup-plotting congress has 6% approval, 91% disapproval (but full US backing). 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": "Alberto Fujimori, coup, Dina Boluarte, Pedro Castillo, Peru", "output": "A polling firm found that Peru\u2019s coup-plotting, right-wing-controlled congress has 6% approval and 91% disapproval. Unelected leader Dina Boluarte has 15% approval and 78% disapproval. But they have the full support of the US, Canada, and foreign mining corporations.\n\nA study by a leading polling firm in Peru found that the country\u2019s coup-plotting congress has an approval rating of just 6%, with a staggering 91% disapproval.\nThe South American nation\u2019s unelected president, Dina Boluarte, has the approval of just 15% of Peruvians, with 78% disapproval.\nIn December 2022, Peru\u2019s democratically elected leftist President Pedro Castillo was overthrown in a congressional coup. The military arrested him, and he was sentenced to 18 months in prison, without due process.\nThe US ambassador in Peru, Lisa Kenna, is a CIA veteran who strongly supported the coup against Castillo, and has collaborated closely with Boluarte.\nBoluarte\u2019s heavily militarized regime has violently cracked down on widespread demonstrations, killing more than 60 protesters.\nThe mainstream think tank the Institute of Peruvian Studies (IEP) has conducted regular opinion surveys.\u00a0IEP\u2019s March poll showed that the unelected coup regime is extremely unpopular among all parts of society.\nIn January, February, and March, Peru\u2019s congress had 89%, 90%, and 91% disapproval ratings, respectively.\n\nThe IEP study found no differences between urban and rural areas; in every part of the country, on average, at least 90% of Peruvians oppose the congress, while just 6% support it.\nPeru\u2019s unicameral congress is notoriously corrupt, and dominated by the country\u2019s right-wing oligarchs. Recent controversies like the 2018 Mamanivideos scandal exposed how common it is for members of congress to accept bribes to vote in a particular way.\nAmong Peruvians who identify as left wing, only 4% support the congress and 93% oppose it, whereas among right-wingers, 10% support the congress and 88% oppose it.\nPeru\u2019s unelected president, Boluarte, faced 76%, 77%, and 78% disapproval in January, February, and March, respectively.\n\nBoluarte has slightly more support among Peruvians in the capital Lima, who tend to be much wealthier. But even in the Lima metropolitan area, she still only has 18% support, with 72% disapproval.\nIn other cities in Peru, Boluarte has 14% support and 80% disapproval. In rural areas, she has mere 11% support and 81% disapproval.\nInterestingly, although some of the very few people who back Boluarte have cynically exploited feminist rhetoric to justify her unelected rule, the same study found that only 11% of women support her, while 79% of women oppose her.\nIn fact, Boluarte is slightly more popular among men, although just 18% support her, while 76% of men oppose her.\n\nThe Institute for Peruvian Studies think tank that conducted this survey is in no way sympathetic to Castillo. In fact, it had been quite antagonistic to him when he was in power.\nThe Lima-based organization represents the country\u2019s economic elites. Ironically, the IEP is funded by many of the same Western governments and CIA-linked organizations that have supported the coup, including the US Agency for International Development (USAID), Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), British embassy, World Bank, Open Society Foundations, Ford Foundation, and Rockefeller Foundation, among many others.\nBut despite the sources of its finances, IEP\u2019s polling could not ignore the reality of Peru, which is that opposition to the unelected coup regime is so widespread it is nearly universal.\n\nAt least 14 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have condemned the coup in Peru, expressing support for President Castillo, including some of the most populous countries in the region, such as Mexico, Colombia, and Argentina.\nYet, despite the overwhelming lack of democratic legitimacy for Peru\u2019s coup regime, it has the full backing of the United States and Canada.\nA day before Castillo was overthrown, in fact, CIA agent turned US Ambassador Lisa Kenna met with Peru\u2019s defense minister, who ordered the military to disobey Castillo\u2019s orders when the democratically elected president cited article 134 of Peru\u2019s constitution to temporarily dissolve the coup-plotting congress and hold new elections and a constituent assembly.\nCastillo wanted to organize a democratic process to rewrite Peru\u2019s constitution, which was drafted by the far-right US-backed dictatorship of Alberto Fujimori. The United States had a significant influence on the creation of Peru\u2019s current, Fujimorista constitution, which incorporated neoliberal economic policies into the country\u2019s legal fabric.\nToday,\u00a0US, Canadian, Swiss, and Australia corporations have significant mining interests in Peru, and great influence over the country\u2019s politics.\nSince the parliamentary putsch, the US ambassador has met with Peru\u2019s mining and energy ministers to discuss foreign corporate \u201cinvestments\u201d.\nCastillo had proposed increasing taxation on foreign mining corporations, and wanted to use the proceeds to fund healthcare, education, and social programs. Members of the socialist Per\u00fa Libre party, with which Castillo had ran for office, had called for nationalizing the country\u2019s substantial mineral reserves.\nPeru is the world\u2019s second-biggest producer of copper, representing 10% of global output (exceeded only by neighboring Chile).\nThe South American nation also has large reserves of gold, zinc, silver, lead, and iron.\nPeru is likewise a leading producer of natural gas, and has increasingly exported its energy to Europe, to make up for the drop of Russian gas supplies due to Western sanctions on Moscow.\nPeru has large reserves of copper, gold, zinc, silver, lead, iron, and natural gas.\nAfter a coup overthrew left-wing President Pedro Castillo, the US ambassador, CIA veteran Lisa Kenna, met with mining and energy ministers to discuss foreign \u201cinvestments\u201dhttps://t.co/rPkQk6lceR\n\u2014 Geopolitical Economy Report (@GeopoliticaEcon) January 22, 2023\n\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: La CIA respald\u00f3 la fallida invasi\u00f3n a Venezuela en 2020, dice el principal golpista. 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": "golpe de estado, Juan Guaid\u00f3, Leopoldo L\u00f3pez, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, Operaci\u00f3n Gede\u00f3n, Venezuela, Voluntad Popular", "output": "Un desertor del ej\u00e9rcito venezolano que planific\u00f3 la fallida invasi\u00f3n de mayo de 2020, Cl\u00edver Alcal\u00e1, dijo que los golpistas estaban en contacto con la CIA y otras agencias del gobierno de EEUU, y ten\u00edan su aprobaci\u00f3n para tratar de derrocar violentamente al presidente Nicol\u00e1s Maduro.\n\n(You can read this article in English here.)\nUn desertor del ej\u00e9rcito venezolano que ayud\u00f3 a planificar una fallida invasi\u00f3n a Venezuela en mayo de 2020, Cl\u00edver Alcal\u00e1, dijo que los golpistas estaban en contacto con la CIA y otras agencias del gobierno de Estados Unidos.\nSeg\u00fan Alcal\u00e1, altos funcionarios estadounidenses aprobaron la operaci\u00f3n, que buscaba derrocar violentamente al gobierno chavista del presidente venezolano Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, quien fue elegido democr\u00e1ticamente.\nLos abogados de Alcal\u00e1 hicieron esta revelaci\u00f3n en una presentaci\u00f3n judicial ante la corte de EEUU el 28 de enero, inform\u00f3 el Associated Press.\nJordan Goudreau\nEl 3 y 4 de mayo de 2020, decenas de insurgentes venezolanos de extrema derecha y dos ex comandos de operaciones especiales del Ej\u00e9rcito de EEUU intentaron invadir a Venezuela, con planes de secuestrar al presidente Maduro y llevarlo a Estados Unidos.\nEl complot, conocido como la Operaci\u00f3n Gede\u00f3n, fue un desastre. R\u00e1pidamente fue frustrado por el gobierno venezolano, con la ayuda de pescadores socialistas de la comunidad, y los invasores fueron arrestados.\nLa invasi\u00f3n hab\u00eda sido organizada por una empresa de mercenarios, con sede en la Florida, llamada Silvercorp USA. Esta empresa fundada por un ex comando de las fuerzas especiales del ej\u00e9rcito de EEUU, quien se llama Jordan Goudreau.\nEn una demanda legal por incumplimiento de contrato, Goudreau dijo que hab\u00eda discutido el plan golpista con dos funcionarios del gobierno de Estados Unidos en un campo de golf en Miami que pertenece al ex presidente Donald Trump, donde se le dio luz verde.\nPero cuando las autoridades venezolanas frustraron la operaci\u00f3n, el gobierno de EEUU abandon\u00f3 inmediatamente a Goudreau y su equipo.\n\nEl 26 de marzo de 2020, unas semanas antes de la invasi\u00f3n, el gobierno de EEUU ofreci\u00f3 una serie de recompensas multimillonarias por las cabezas de altos funcionarios actuales y anteriores del gobierno venezolano. Uno de ellos fue el ex general Cl\u00edver Alcal\u00e1.\nEsto sorprendi\u00f3 a Alcal\u00e1, porque hab\u00eda sido durante varios a\u00f1os un ac\u00e9rrimo opositor del gobierno venezolano del presidente Maduro.\nDe hecho, en 2018 Alcal\u00e1 se hab\u00eda mudado al norte de Colombia, a la ciudad de Barranquilla, cerca de la frontera con Venezuela, donde comenz\u00f3 a entrenar a militares venezolanos desertores y paramilitares anti-chavistas, haciendo planes para emprender una insurgencia armada contra el gobierno venezolano.\nEn el norte de Colombia, Alcal\u00e1 trabaj\u00f3 junto a Goudreau, el mercenario estadounidense que dijo contar con el apoyo de la administraci\u00f3n Trump, para crear un ej\u00e9rcito guerrillero contra Venezuela.\nEstados Unidos hab\u00eda estado apoyando los esfuerzos de Alcal\u00e1 para tratar de derrocar violentamente a Maduro. Entonces, cuando Washington ofreci\u00f3 la recompensa, Alcal\u00e1 cumpli\u00f3 y voluntariamente se entreg\u00f3 a las autoridades estadounidenses en Colombia, donde resid\u00eda. Acept\u00f3 ser informante y ser extraditado a Estados Unidos.\nPosteriormente, los abogados de Alcal\u00e1 dejaron claro en sus declaraciones a las autoridades estadounidenses que las operaciones de Alcal\u00e1 hab\u00edan sido aprobadas por Washington.\n\u201cLos esfuerzos para derrocar al r\u00e9gimen de Maduro han sido bien conocidos por el gobierno de Estados Unidos\u201d, escribieron los abogados de Alcal\u00e1 en una carta de noviembre de 2021, citada por el Associated Press.\nLa \u201coposici\u00f3n de Alcal\u00e1 al r\u00e9gimen y sus supuestos esfuerzos para derrocarlo fueron reportados a los m\u00e1s altos niveles de la Agencia Central de Inteligencia, el Consejo de Seguridad Nacional y el Departamento del Tesoro\u201d, agregaron sus abogados.\nYacsy \u00c1lvarez\nEsta no es la primera vez que alguien involucrado en la fallida invasi\u00f3n a Venezuela de 2020 dice que el gobierno de Estados Unidos estuvo involucrado.\nUna venezolana de derecha que ayud\u00f3 a organizar la Operaci\u00f3n Gede\u00f3n, Yacsy \u00c1lvarez, dijo que se reuni\u00f3 con funcionarios del FBI y la DEA en Florida y que las agencias estadounidenses sab\u00edan exactamente lo que estaba planeando.\n\u00c1lvarez trabaj\u00f3 como traductor y asistente de Goudreau, mientras que \u00e9l y Alcal\u00e1 entrenaron a militantes anti-venezolanos en Colombia.\nSeg\u00fan \u00c1lvarez, el gobierno colombiano tambi\u00e9n apoy\u00f3 el fallido complot de invasi\u00f3n. El presidente de extrema derecha de Colombia, Iv\u00e1n Duque, y el ex presidente \u00c1lvaro Uribe estuvieron involucrados en la operaci\u00f3n, ella revel\u00f3.\nY la Direcci\u00f3n Nacional de Inteligencia (DNI) de Colombia sab\u00eda todo, confes\u00f3 \u00c1lvarez.\nSin embargo, as\u00ed como Alcal\u00e1 fue detenido por las autoridades estadounidenses con las que hab\u00eda estado colaborando, \u00c1lvarez fue detenido por las autoridades colombianas con las que ella hab\u00eda estado colaborando.\nSus abogados acusaron a las agencias de espionaje de Colombia de hacer una \u201ctrampa\u201d para culparla cuando la operaci\u00f3n sali\u00f3 mal.\nJuan Guaid\u00f3 y Leopoldo L\u00f3pez\nEl principal l\u00edder de la oposici\u00f3n venezolana de extrema derecha, Leopoldo L\u00f3pez, tambi\u00e9n estuvo involucrado en la fallida invasi\u00f3n.\nL\u00f3pez es visto en Venezuela como el verdadero poder detr\u00e1s de Juan Guaid\u00f3, quien era una figura poco conocida cuando Estados Unidos lo nombr\u00f3 el supuesto \u201cpresidente interino\u201d en enero de 2019.\nEn un art\u00edculo de junio de 2020 titulado\u00a0\u201cVenezuelan Opposition Guru Led Planning to Topple Maduro\u201d (\u201cEl gur\u00fa de la oposici\u00f3n venezolana lider\u00f3 la planificaci\u00f3n para derrocar a Maduro\u201d), el peri\u00f3dico estadounidense el Wall Street Journal inform\u00f3 que L\u00f3pez \u201cestuvo detr\u00e1s de un esfuerzo de meses para contratar mercenarios para derrocar al presidente Nicol\u00e1s Maduro\u201d y hab\u00eda \u201cconsiderado al menos seis propuestas de contratistas de seguridad privada para llevar a cabo incursiones militares para estimular una rebeli\u00f3n en las fuerzas armadas de Venezuela y derrocar\u201d al gobierno chavista.\nL\u00f3pez, Guaid\u00f3 y otros miembros de su partido pol\u00edtico de extrema derecha, Voluntad Popular, contrataron a Silvercorp USA y trabajaron con Goudreau y Alcal\u00e1 para planear la invasi\u00f3n.\nA pesar de su clara participaci\u00f3n en un intento de invasi\u00f3n a su pa\u00eds de origen y su papel protag\u00f3nico en violentos intentos de golpe de estado, L\u00f3pez vive hoy c\u00f3modamente en Madrid. Tiene la protecci\u00f3n del gobierno espa\u00f1ol, mientras contin\u00faa organizando la oposici\u00f3n extremista venezolana desde el exterior.\nLa administraci\u00f3n de Joe Biden, por su parte, ha continuado con la pol\u00edtica de Trump de reconocer al golpista Guaid\u00f3, que nunca fue elegido, como el supuesto l\u00edder de Venezuela \u2013 aunque, a partir de enero de 2022, menos de 15 pa\u00edses se niegan a reconocer que Maduro es el verdadero presidente.\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Bolivarian Alliance (ALBA) supports Peru\u2019s President Castillo against coup, denounces lawfare in Argentina. 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, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Bolivarian Alliance, Bolivia, Caribbean, Cristina Fern\u00e1ndez de Kirchner, Cuba, Dominica, Grenada, Latin America, Nicaragua, Pedro Castillo, Peru, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines\u200b\u200b\u200b, Venezuela", "output": "The left-wing Bolivarian Alliance (ALBA) uniting countries in Latin America and the Caribbean met for its 18th anniversary summit, condemning the coup d\u2019etat in Peru against \u201cConstitutional President Pedro Castillo,\u201d denouncing the \u201cunsubstantiated judicial processes (lawfare)\u201d in Argentina against Cristina Fern\u00e1ndez de Kirchner.\n\n(Se puede leer esta nota en espa\u00f1ol aqu\u00ed.)\nThe Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), the left-wing economic and political bloc uniting countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, has forcefully opposed the coup d\u2019etat in Peru and expressed its support for the country\u2019s democratically elected President Pedro Castillo.\nALBA member states released a joint declaration stating that they \u201creject 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.\u201d\nThe alliance condemned the violent \u201crepression by the law enforcement agencies against the Peruvian people who are defending a government democratically elected at the polls.\u201d\nALBA likewise denounced \u201cthe politically motivated judicial actions\u201d that led to a judicial coup in Argentina, showing solidarity with former President and current Vice President Cristina Fern\u00e1ndez de Kirchner.\nThe alliance said that Kirchner, like Castillo, is victim of \u201cunconventional warfare strategies against democratically elected governments and leaders in the region using the politically motivated and legally unsubstantiated judicial processes (lawfare).\u201d\nThe members of ALBA include Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Bolivia, and the Caribbean nations Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines\u200b\u200b\u200b, and Saint Lucia.\nRepresentatives of ALBA members met in La Habana on December 14 for their 18th anniversary summit.\nAttending the conference were Cuba\u2019s President Miguel D\u00edaz-Canel, Venezuela\u2019s President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, Nicaragua\u2019s President Daniel Ortega, Bolivia\u2019s President Luis Arce, Prime Minister of Dominica Roosevelt Skerrit, Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Ralph Gonsalves, Prime Minister of Grenada Dickon Mitchell, Foreign Minister of Antigua and Barbuda Everly Chet Greene, and Finance Minister of Saint Lucia Wayne Girard.\nLeaders of ALBA member states meet in Cuba on December 14, 2022\nThey published a joint declaration calling for the \u201cdefense of national sovereignty without any foreign interference.\u201d\n\u201cWe reject the colonialist and interfering postulates of the Monroe Doctrine, used to justify destabilizing and interventionist practices in Latin America and the Caribbean,\u201d the Bolivarian Alliance wrote.\nALBA nations stated:\n[We] express our solidarity with the brotherly Peruvian people that has been subjected to a continuous institutional crisis, resulting in a series of events that threaten the stability and the welfare of the majority.\nWe 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; we repudiate the repression by the law enforcement agencies against the Peruvian people who are defending a government democratically elected at the polls and we call for dialogue, understanding and maturity of all political, economic, and social actors of the Republic of Peru, as well as we raise our voices to guarantee the fundamental rights of this brother people.\nThe alliance also declared that it rejects \u201cthe destabilizing plans and actions fueled by powerful external factors and national oligarchies that have managed or are attempting to disregard the will of the Latin American and Caribbean peoples, which has been democratically and legitimately expressed at the polls.\u201d\nIn this vein, ALBA said:\n[We] denounce the use of unconventional warfare strategies against democratically elected governments and leaders in the region using the politically motivated and legally unsubstantiated judicial processes (lawfare), to defeat political and ideological opponents while condemning manipulation for political and destabilizing purposes of human rights, the disinformation and propaganda campaigns; the malicious use of the information and communication technologies; and cyber attacks, among other methods undermining the sovereignty and will of the peoples.\nIn this regard, we express our firmest rejection of the politically motivated judicial actions against our fellow Vice President of Argentina, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, a key leader of the integration processes in Latin America and the Caribbean.\nALBA also called for Caribbean nations to receive \u201creparations for the damages caused by native genocide, colonialism and slavery.\u201d\nIn the joint statement, the Bolivarian Alliance urged \u201cto increase international solidarity with the brotherly people of the Republic of Haiti.\u201d\nAnd the alliance praised the peace talks being held between Colombia and the armed socialist militia the ELN.\nThe ALBA was founded in 2004 by Cuba and Venezuela, under the leadership of Presidents Fidel Castro and Hugo Ch\u00e1vez.\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: West votes against democracy, human rights, cultural diversity at UN; promotes mercenaries, sanctions. 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": "democracy, General Assembly, human rights, mercenaries, sanctions, unilateral coercive measures, United Nations", "output": "The West voted against the rest of the world on United Nations General Assembly resolutions, opposing democracy, human rights, and cultural diversity, while supporting mercenaries and unilateral coercive measures (sanctions).\n\nWestern governments frequently claim that their foreign and domestic policies are motivated by \u201chuman rights\u201d and \u201cdemocracy\u201d. They often even lecture their adversaries for purportedly failing to respect these concerns.\nBut on the international stage, Western capitals have shown their commitments to be merely rhetorical, as they have consistently voted against these noble causes and refused to support measures that would tangibly protect them, in flagrant violation of the will of the vast majority of the international community.\nThese stark double standards were on display on November 7 in the meeting of the United Nations General Assembly\u2019s Third Committee, which is devoted to social, humanitarian, and cultural issues.\n\nIn this three-hour session, the West opposed draft resolutions that called for promoting democracy, human rights, and cultural diversity, while\u00a0 simultaneously supporting the use of mercenaries and the application of unilateral coercive measures, commonly known as sanctions.\nThe extended West voted against the rest of the world on these issues. Its positions were virtually uniform as a bloc, led by the United States, including Europe, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, and Japan.\nIn fact, the chair of the General Assembly\u2019s Third Committee is Austria\u2019s representative to the United Nations, Alexander Marschik, and even he could not help but laugh in the session at the constant protestations of the US representative, who dominated the debate, speaking out against nearly every resolution to explain why the world should join with Washington in voting against it. (Marschik could not contain his laughter despite the fact that his own country, Austria, voted along with the US on each resolution.)\nGeopolitical Economy Report has created maps that illustrate the clear political divide between the West and the rest.\nIn the November 7 session, nations debated a draft that condemned unilateral coercive measures, or sanctions, for violating the human rights of civilians in targeted countries.\nThe resolution passed with 128 votes in favor and 54 against, and no abstentions.\n\n\nThe General Assembly\u2019s Third Committee likewise considered a measure that called for the \u201cpromotion of a democratic and equitable international order\u201d.\nThe resolution passed with 123 votes in favor and 54 against, plus 7 abstentions (from Armenia, Chile, Costa Rica, Liberia, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay).\n\n\nAnother resolution sought to promote \u201chuman rights and cultural diversity\u201d.\nThe measure passed with 130 votes in favor and 54 against, and no abstentions.\n\n\nThe Third Committee deliberated a draft that called for the \u201cpromotion of equitable geographical distribution in the membership of the human rights treaty bodies\u201d.\nThe resolution passed with 128 votes in favor and 52 against, and no abstentions.\n\n\nAnother measure condemned the \u201cuse of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination\u201d.\nThe resolution passed with 126 votes in favor and 52 against, plus 6 abstentions (from Kiribati, Liberia, Palau, Mexico, Tonga and Switzerland).\n\n\nThe United Nations published a full video of the Third Committee\u2019s session on November 7, in the 48th plenary meeting of the General Assembly\u2019s 78th session.\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: At UN, Bolivia presents revolutionary 14-point socialist program to transform world. 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": "Bolivia, capitalism, imperialism, Luis Arce, socialism, UN, United Nations", "output": "Bolivia\u2019s leftist President Luis Arce used his platform at the United Nations General Assembly to propose a revolutionary 14-point program to transform the world.\n\n(Se puede leer este art\u00edculo en espa\u00f1ol aqu\u00ed.)\nBolivia\u2019s President Luis Arce used his platform at the United Nations General Assembly to propose a revolutionary 14-point socialist program to transform the world.\n\u201cToday we find ourselves facing a wide-ranging, systemic capitalist crisis that increasingly endangers the life of humanity and the planet,\u201d he warned.\n\nArce continued: \u201cWe should not only reflect on the economic, social, food, climate, energy, water, and trade crises, but also identify with clarity the origin, in order to change a system that reproduces domination, exploitation, and exclusion of the large majorities, that generates the concentration of wealth in a few hands, and that prioritizes the production and reproduction of capital over the production and reproduction of life.\u201d\n\u201cAlongside the wide-ranging, systemic crisis of capitalism, we see the final gasp of the unipolar world,\u201d the Bolivian leader added, warning of the dangers of war.\n\u201cBut unfortunately we are seeing the gradual deterioration of the multilateral system, because of the whims of the capitalist powers that will not accept the existence of a multipolar world with a balance of power.\u201d\nBolivia at the UN: \"As we face multiple systemic crisis of capitalism, we see the final chapter of the unipolar world\"\n\"However, unfortunately we see the deterioration of the multilateral system due to the capitalist powers' refusal to accept the existence of a multipolar world\" pic.twitter.com/9EtUfrD2Ku\n\u2014 Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) September 26, 2022\n\nLuis \u201cLucho\u201d Arce represents Bolivia\u2019s Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) party. A trained socialist economist, he served as economic minister under former President Evo Morales.\nMorales was overthrown in a violent coup d\u2019etat in 2019, which was sponsored by the US government and led by far-right extremists. But after nearly a year of popular rebellion, Bolivia\u2019s social movements defeated the coup regime, and Arce won October 2020 presidential elections in a landslide.\nAt the UN, Arce delivered a comprehensive 4000-word speech outlining his ambitious vision for changing the global capitalist system, with 14 concrete proposals.\n1. Declare the world to be a zone of peace\nMany armed conflicts are \u201cpromoted by transnational war corporations, but also by the desire to impose a political and economic order that serves the interests of capitalism,\u201d Arce said.\nHe called for a concerted campaign to ensure world peace. The Bolivian leader emphasized the importance of \u201creaching a cease-fire between Russia and Ukraine, making sure the historic rights of the state and people of Palestine are respected, and that NATO stops thinking about expansionist plans.\u201d\n2. Substitute the manufacturing of weapons of mass destruction with just compensation for the poor people of the world\nNuclear weapons threaten life on the planet, Arce warned.\nHe proposed to \u201csubstitute military spending on the manufacturing of weapons of mass destruction with a just economic compensation that the countries at the core of capitalism owe, morally and historically, to the countries of the periphery and the poor people of the world.\u201d\n3. Against the commercialization of health care, systems of universal health care\nThe Covid-19 pandemic \u201cexposed the vulnerabilities and inequalities in the health systems of all of the world, as well as the global financial and economic system,\u201d the Bolivian leader said.\nHe insisted that the state has an \u201cobligation to protect and guarantee collective rights\u201d and \u201creduce the effects of the world economic crisis on the most vulnerable sectors of the population.\u201d\n4. Global program of food sovereignty, in harmony with Mother Earth\nWorld hunger is getting worse, not better, Arce warned.\nIn 2021, 828 million people suffered from hunger, representing 9.8% of the world population.\nHe proposed a program to strengthen food sovereignty by supporting small-scale agricultural producers, giving peasants and farmers all the seeds, fertilizers, technology, and financial support they need.\n5. Rebuild the productive and economic capacities of the country of the periphery hurt by the logic of the unrestrained concentration of capital\nThe Bolivian president warned of the damage being done to the world by the inflation crisis and the rapid increase in the price of energy, fertilizers, and raw materials caused by the proxy war in Ukraine.\nHe called for debt relief for the Global South, maintaining, \u201cThe restructuring of the world financial architecture is vital for the relief of external debt on the global scale, so that we developing countries have the space to implement sovereign social policies from the perspective of integral and sustainable economic and social development.\u201d\n\u201cAnd, as has always been a cry from the countries of the South, we must balance the trade relations that currently keep benefiting only the North,\u201d he said.\nArce then explained how his government helped to stabilize Bolivia and recover its economy after the chaos of the US-backed far-right 2019 coup d\u2019etat.\n\u201cFollowing the recovery of democracy in 2020,\u201d he recalled, Bolivia returned to its \u201csocial, communitarian, productive economic model, a sovereign economic model in which we don\u2019t accept and we will not accept impositions of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).\u201d\nArce explained that this economic model \u201cis based on the active role of the state in the economy, in the nationalization of our strategic natural resources, the articulation of all forms of economic organization, the strengthening of public investment, import substitution industrialization, the dynamization of the internal market, productive diversification, security with food sovereignty, redistribution of revenues, the struggle against poverty and inequalities.\u201d\nHe added that this economic model is also influenced by Bolivia\u2019s Indigenous communal traditions.\nArce boasted that this model has been so successful that Bolivia had a rate of just 1.6% inflation in August. The country has the lowest inflation rate in all of Latin America, and one of the lowest in the entire world.\n\u201cWe regret that, while the countries at the core of capitalism gamble on war with large sums of money, negligible contributions are made for integral and sustainable development, for decolonization and depatriarchalization, for the eradication of poverty and economic and social inequalities,\u201d he said.\nAs an example of this irresponsible behavior, Arce pointed out that, in just a few months, 20 times more financial resources have been spent on the proxy war in Ukraine than have been invested in the Green Climate Fund in a decade.\n6. The climate crisis requires responsibility, solidarity, and harmony between human beings and nature, not usury\nArce warned that the climate \u201ccrisis is passing into an ecological collapse.\u201d But he lamented that \u201cthe countries that have the means to change their patterns of production and consumption do not have the political will to do it, and those of us who have proposed ambitious goals have not received the means of implementation pledged in the [Climate] Convention and the Paris Accords.\u201d\nThe Bolivian leader also pointed out that the international climate agreements that do exist do not \u201ctake into account the historic responsibilities of the developed countries, or the capacities and limitations of developing countries.\u201d\nOn a sarcastic note, he added, \u201cPerhaps the historic climate debtors want us all to worry only about the future, to avoid discussing in the present the broken promises made to developing countries about financing, technology transfers, and strengthening capacities.\u201d\nThe \u201ccenturies of bad capitalist development\u201d have done a lot of damage, Arce lamented.\n\u201cWe are convinced that a future low in emissions and resilient to the climate is not possible if we keep concentrating wealth and incomes in a few hands,\u201d he asserted. \u201cTherefore, to reverse the climate crisis we need to resolve the economic, social, and political contradictions caused by the capitalist model, as well as those that exist between human beings and nature.\u201d\n7. The industrialization of lithium, for the benefit of the peoples and a fundamental pillar for the energy transition\nNoting that Bolivia has the largest reserves of lithium on the planet, Arce pledged to use those resources \u201cwith much responsibility,\u201d \u201cguaranteeing that its use is of benefit to humanity, as a fundamental pillar of the just global transition to a future low in emissions, respecting Mother Earth.\u201d\n\u201cWe want our lithium reserves not to follow the path of other natural resources that, on the conditions of colonialism and capitalist development, only serve to increase the wealth of a few and make the people hungry,\u201d he said.\n\u201cIn this sense, we affirm the sovereignty over our natural resources such as lithium, its industrialization, and the benefit oriented toward the well-being of the peoples, not of transnational corporations or a small privileged group, and the sovereign appropriation of the economic surplus to be redistributed, especially among the low-income population,\u201d the Bolivian leader promised.\nCiting a statement by the commander of the US military\u2019s Southern Command (Southcom), Arce warned that South America\u2019s \u201cLithium triangle,\u201d made up of Bolivia, Argentina, and Chile, \u201cis in the sights of the United States.\u201d\nU.S. SOUTHCOM Commander:\"This region is so rich in resources.. it's off the charts rich.\"\n\"60% of the world's lithium is in the region; you have heavy crude, you have light sweet crude, you have rare earth elements, you have the Amazon..\" pic.twitter.com/33dQ6EXKAo\n\u2014 Kawsachun News (@KawsachunNews) July 20, 2022\n\n8. From nationalization to regionalization of the struggle against drug trafficking\nEarly in the day on September 20, a few hours before Bolivian President Arce spoke at the United Nations, Colombia\u2019s first ever left-wing President Gustavo Petro used the General Assembly\u00a0to declare that \u201cthe war on drugs has failed.\u201d\nPetro criticized the US government\u2019s violent approach and its militarization of Latin America, as well as its internal system of racist mass incarceration of Black Americans.\nColombia\u2019s first ever left-wing President Gustavo Petro gave a historic UN speech declaring, \u201cThe war on drugs has failed\u201d\nHe warned capitalism is destroying the environment, with its \u201caddiction to money and oil,\u201d and called for Global South debt reliefhttps://t.co/ka4iI5TEKq\n\u2014 Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) September 26, 2022\n\nWhen Arce took to the podium at the UN, he made similar comments.\n\u201cIt remains clear that the war on drugs, principally the one unleashed by the United States, has failed,\u201d the Bolivian leader said. \u201cTherefore there is an imperative need that this country [the US] does a deep analysis about changing its policy, with attention to the fact that it has become one of the main consuming countries, which has resulted in the lamentable death of more than 100,000 people by overdoses and drug addictions inside of its territory.\u201d\n\u201cWe must change the focus in the approach of the struggle against drug trafficking. To keep emphasizing supply and not demand has only served as a pretext for militarization and for the waging of the international war on drugs,\u201d Arce added. \u201cThat has affected peasants in the South, and left absolute impunity for the large criminal groups, never publicly identified, in the countries whose populations largely consume all types of drugs.\u201d\n\u201cThe international war on drugs criminalizes and leads to unilateral sanctions against countries of the South, but it shields money laundering and facilitates drug trafficking and other crimes connected to the countries of the North. It can no longer continue this way.\u201d\nArce proposed the \u201cregionalization\u201d of the struggle against drug trafficking, with an \u201cintegral focus that is less militarized and more socio-economic.\u201d\n9. Strengthen international mechanisms for preferential treatment for landlocked countries\nIn his UN address, Arce proposed the idea that countries have a \u201cright to the sea.\u201d\nFor landlocked nations like Bolivia, \u201cWe face grave difficulties in accessing the sea and using its resources, keeping in mind that marine spaces make up zones of great potential for the development of countries, especially developing countries,\u201d he explained.\n\u201cAll countries have the right to access and utilize oceanic space and marine resources,\u201d he argued. And to protect those habitats, \u201cWe should ensure the just distribution of rights and responsibilities with respect to marine wealth.\u201d\n10. Widen our restricted vision of human rights and democracy\n\u201cWe need to widen our restricted concept of human rights and their relation with democracy,\u201d Arce implored.\n\u201cNeither one of the two exists,\u201d he argued, \u201cwhen the preservation of the privileges of a few is done at the cost of the effective unfulfillment of the economic, social, and cultural rights of the majorities.\u201d\nAs an example of how this can be done,\u00a0Arce held up Bolivia\u2019s plurinational model, which provides equal representation for the 36 Indigenous peoples that make up the country.\n11. Intergenerational solidarity\nThe Bolivian leader also called to protect older populations who are sometimes forgotten by society.\n\u201cThis vibrant and productive generation must show solidarity with those who built the first foundations of our houses,\u201d he said.\n\u201cOne cannot assure equity with future generations if we do not show equity between the present generations.\u201d\n12. Declare the decade of depatriarchalization to struggle against all forms of violence against women and girls\nArce condemned \u201cthe persistence of violence against women and girls, and in particular Indigenous women and girls who are in poverty.\u201d\n\u201cThe pandemic and the structural crises of capitalism are deteriorating the conditions of life, especially of women, of the countryside and the cities,\u201d he said. \u201cThose women continue confronting complex and intersectional forms of violence.\u201d\nThe Bolivian government officially declared 2022 to be the \u201cYear of the Cultural Revolution for Depatriarchalization: For a life free of violence against women,\u201d Arce noted.\n\u201cWe are advancing policies oriented not only at strengthening regulatory goalposts but also attacking the structural causes of violence, from education, strengthening economic autonomy of women, and also through cultural processes, to transform that lamentable reality, rooted in patriarchy, as the oldest system of oppression, that has a feedback loop with colonialism and capitalism.\u201d\n13. Reject unilateral sanctions\nCondemning the imposition of sanctions, Arce declared,\u00a0\u201cIt is inconceivable, in a world rocked by crises and the pandemic, that unilateral coercive measures are still applied with the goal of subduing governments, at the expense of people\u2019s hunger and suffering.\u201d\nThe Bolivian leader denounced the US government\u2019s \u201cinhuman and criminal commercial and financial blockade against Cuba, that puts at risk the lives of millions of citizens.\u201d\n\u201cIt is a crime against humanity to maintain that type of measure,\u201d Arce said, blasting Washington for adding Cuba to its list of so-called sponsors of \u201cterrorism.\u201d\nEvery year, more than 95% of the 193 member states of the United Nations vote to oppose the unilateral US blockade on Cuba, yet Washington has maintained it for six decades.\nThe impunity that the United States enjoys despite these illegal forms of aggression show \u201chow the decisions taken by the majority each year in this [General] Assembly are not fulfilled by certain countries,\u201d Arce lamented.\n14. Guarantee the full validity of the UN charter and the principle of multilateralism\n\u201cThe multidirectional crisis that the planet is going through as a result of capitalist ambition, far from being overcome will get even worse if urgent measures are not taken,\u201d Arce warned at the end of his speech.\n\u201cOnly through a strengthened multilateralism will we be able to reach greater dialogue and cooperation in search of solutions to that crisis.\u201d\nThe Bolivian leader affirmed that his country is waging a \u201crevolution\u201d that is dedicated \u201cto overcome the current polarization of the world architecture, to overcome the capitalist order that has put us in dizzying, dangerous, and limitless race of consumerism that puts humanity and the planet at risk, and to instead build a more just, inclusive, and equitable world, for everyone.\u201d\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: It is not Nicaragua that is \u2018isolated\u2019; it\u2019s the US and EU. 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, FSLN, India, Japan, Korea, Nicaragua, Russia, sanctions, Sandinistas, Turkey, Vietnam", "output": "Western corporate media claims Nicaragua\u2019s Sandinista government is \u201cisolated,\u201d but it has support from countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America representing billions, while US fights with EU\n\nThis January 10 was the inauguration of Nicaragua\u2019s President Daniel Ortega, the leader of the socialist Sandinista Front. Western corporate media outlets are pushing a ridiculous narrative that Nicaragua is \u201cisolated\u201d from the so-called \u201cinternational community\u201d \u2014 by which they mean \u201cthe imperialists in the United States and European Union.\u201d\nThe Economist, the\u00a0coup-supporting\u00a0mouthpiece of\u00a0British billionaires\u00a0and Western intelligence agencies, published an article that epitomizes this propaganda narrative, claiming the Nicaraguan \u201cpresident is leading the country into increasing isolation.\u201d\nThe piece \u2014 anonymous, like most of The Economist\u2019s articles \u2014 happily chirped that \u201cDozens of countries refused to recognise the result of elections in November.\u201d Reminder: there are 193 sovereign nations recognized by the United Nations, so a few dozen, predominately Western, countries is a small fraction of that.\n\nThe\u00a0US and EU rejected Nicaragua\u2019s November elections\u00a0as \u201cfraudulent,\u201d and responded with economic warfare. (I\u2019m still waiting for presidential elections to be held in the US/EU-sponsored Gulf monarchies.)\nThe Western imperialist powers then responded to Ortega\u2019s January 10 inauguration with more economic warfare. Coordinating together, the US and EU jointly\u00a0imposed new sanctions\u00a0on top Nicaraguan government officials, as well as its military, its telecommunications institute, and a state-owned mining company.\nYet if we look past Western media distractions, we quickly see that, in reality, Nicaragua\u2019s Sandinista government has many allies in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, representing billions of people, including the largest nations on Earth.\nRepresentatives from the following countries\u00a0greeted the inauguration of President Ortega:\nWestern corporate media propagandists truly think everything on Earth revolves around the roughly 15% of the global population in the US and EU, which they dub the \u201cinternational community.\u201d They ignore the vast majority of humanity in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.\nWhen you stop seeing the world that way, it is very liberating \u2014 and you begin to realize how authoritarian and tightly controlled Western capitalist so-called \u201cdemocracies\u201d are.\nIt is not Nicaragua that is isolated, but rather the US and EU, who more and more keep losing their allies. Even\u00a0France, a longtime colonial power, says it cannot trust the United States. And\u00a0Washington threatened Germany\u00a0with sanctions over its Nord Stream 2 pipeline with Russia.\nWhile Western imperialists impose illegal sanctions across the planet \u2014 and fight among themselves \u2014 Asia continues to advance at a rapid pace, Latin America and Africa are gradually developing, and mechanisms of South-South integration are strengthening.\nYou want to know what real isolation is? More than 95% of UN member states voting every year at the General Assembly, over three decades, to condemn the illegal US blockade on Cuba. Now that\u2019s international isolation.\nFor the 29th year in a row, basically the entire world voted at the United Nations against the illegal, murderous US blockade on Cuba.\n184 countries voted to end the US blockade.\nOnly 2 voted for it: the USA and Israel.\n3 US client regimes abstained: Colombia, Ukraine, and UAE pic.twitter.com/roZsqCu0NG\n\u2014 Benjamin Norton (@BenjaminNorton) June 23, 2021\n\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Invocando la Doctrina Monroe, diputado de EEUU dice que Argentina es una \u2018amenaza\u2019, tras sus acuerdos con China. 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": "Alberto Fern\u00e1ndez, Argentina, China, Doctrina Monroe, Matt Gaetz, Rusia, Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping", "output": "El congresista derechista Matt Gaetz, un aliado de Donald Trump, calific\u00f3 a Argentina como una \u201camenaza\u201d para la \u201cseguridad\u201d de EEUU, y se quej\u00f3 de que su alianza con China desaf\u00eda la colonialista Doctrina Monroe.\n\n(You can read this article in English here.)\nUn influyente diputado estadounidense invoc\u00f3 la colonialista Doctrina Monroe en el pleno del Congreso y calific\u00f3 a Argentina de \u201camenaza\u201d debido a su alianza con China.\nEl congresista republicano Matt Gaetz, un aliado clave del ex presidente Donald Trump, dijo en un discurso en la C\u00e1mara de Representantes el 7 de febrero que existe una \u201camenaza significativa para nuestra naci\u00f3n que se acelera r\u00e1pidamente cerca de casa\u201d.\n\u201cArgentina, una naci\u00f3n y econom\u00eda importante en las Am\u00e9ricas, acaba de unirse al Partido Comunista Chino al sumarse a la Iniciativa de la Franja y la Ruta\u201d, declar\u00f3 Gaetz.\nInvocando la colonialista Doctrina Monroe, el congresista derechista Matt Gaetz, un aliado de Donald Trump, calific\u00f3 a Argentina como una \u201camenaza\u201d para la \u201cseguridad\u201d de EEUU, debido a su alianza con China.\nLea m\u00e1s aqu\u00ed: https://t.co/AWRPXrh6IP pic.twitter.com/2fzI6IhUui\n\u2014 Multipolarista (@Multipolarista) February 8, 2022\n\nEl legislador de la Florida estaba reaccionando a la noticia de que el presidente de Argentina, Alberto Fern\u00e1ndez, visit\u00f3 Mosc\u00fa y Beijing para reunirse con los mandatarios Vladimir Putin y Xi Jinping el 3 y 6 de febrero, respectivamente.\nAl explicar sus viajes, Fern\u00e1ndez dijo, \u201cArgentina tiene que dejar de tener esa dependencia tan grande que tiene con el FMI y los Estados Unidos, y tiene que abrirse camino hacia otros lados\u201d.\nArgentina se sum\u00f3 a la campa\u00f1a de infraestructura internacional de Beijing, la Iniciativa de la Franja y la Ruta, y China le ofreci\u00f3 a la naci\u00f3n sudamericana $23.700 millones de d\u00f3lares en inversiones y proyectos de infraestructura. Mosc\u00fa se comprometi\u00f3 de manera similar a fortalecer los lazos pol\u00edticos y econ\u00f3micos con lo que llam\u00f3 \u201cuno de los socios claves de Rusia en Am\u00e9rica Latina\u201d.\nArgentina est\u00e1 atrapada con $44 mil millones de deuda odiosa del FMI.\nBuscando alternativas a la hegemon\u00eda de EEUU, el presidente Alberto Fern\u00e1ndez viaj\u00f3 a Rusia y China, formando nuevas alianzas y incorpor\u00e1ndose a la Iniciativa de la Franja y la Rutahttps://t.co/h7Eg59LRjM\n\u2014 Multipolarista (@Multipolarista) February 6, 2022\n\nEl representante Matt Gaetz describi\u00f3 con enojo los crecientes v\u00ednculos de Argentina con China como \u201cun desaf\u00edo directo a la Doctrina Monroe\u201d.\nLa Doctrina Monroe, que data de 1823, fue un mensaje a los colonialistas europeos de que Estados Unidos considera a Am\u00e9rica Latina como su propio territorio colonial.\nHace dos siglos, el secretario de estado John Quincy Adams cre\u00f3 la doctrina, y el presidente James Monroe la convirti\u00f3 en pol\u00edtica de gobierno, insistiendo en que EEUU no intervendr\u00eda en las esferas de influencia de las potencias coloniales europeas mientras reconocieran que Centroam\u00e9rica y Sudam\u00e9rica eran parte de la esfera de influencia imperial de Washington.\nEsta actitud de que Latinoam\u00e9rica es propiedad colonial de EEUU sigue muy viva hoy en d\u00eda, y es completamente bipartidista en Washington.\nVarios altos funcionarios de la administraci\u00f3n de Donald Trump invocaron la Doctrina Monroe para justificar su intento de golpe en Venezuela, incluido el ex director de la CIA y secretario de estado, Mike Pompeo, m\u00e1s el asesor de seguridad nacional, John Bolton.\nEste enero, el presidente Joe Biden se hizo eco de la ret\u00f3rica colonial de la Doctrina Monroe al referirse a Am\u00e9rica Latina como el \u201cpatio delantero\u201d de Washington.\nSi bien Matt Gaetz, al igual que su mentor pol\u00edtico Donald Trump, a veces critica de manera oportunista a otras facciones de derecha como los \u201cneoconservadores\u201d, propone una pol\u00edtica exterior imperialista igualmente agresiva.\nUna constante en pr\u00e1cticamente todos los discursos de Gaetz es su demonizaci\u00f3n obsesiva de China. Aboga firmemente por una nueva guerra fr\u00eda para contener a la superpotencia asi\u00e1tica.\nMientras muchos neoconservadores e intervencionistas liberales quieren una pol\u00edtica agresiva contra Rusia, el mensaje de Gaetz es esencialmente que China es la verdadera amenaza para Estados Unidos, no el Kremlin, y que Washington deber\u00eda buscar la guerra con Beijing en lugar de la guerra con Mosc\u00fa.\nEn su discurso ante el Congreso, en el que declar\u00f3 a Argentina como una \u201camenaza\u201d, Gaetz reiter\u00f3 este tema y afirm\u00f3 que \u201cChina es una potencia en ascenso. Rusia es una potencia en declive. Concentr\u00e9monos, para que no nos unamos a ellos en ese destino eventual\u201d.\nGaetz, que representa el Panhandle del noroeste de Florida, se uni\u00f3 a la administraci\u00f3n Trump para apoyar firmemente el intento de golpe de estado en Venezuela.\nEl legislador republicano tambi\u00e9n pide con frecuencia el derrocamiento del gobierno de Cuba, mientras difunde noticias falsas que afirman que \u201clos matones venezolanos, con algunos rusos, ahora son \u2018escuadrones de la muerte\u2019 que recorren los hogares. Est\u00e1n masacrando adultos y secuestrando ni\u00f1os\u201d.\nGaetz est\u00e1 estrechamente relacionado con la extrema derecha. En 2018, invit\u00f3 a un notorio bloguero nacionalista blanco, que ha promovido el revisionismo del Holocausto, al discurso del estado de la uni\u00f3n de Trump.\nAdem\u00e1s de su pol\u00edtica extremista, Gaetz ha sido investigado por las autoridades estadounidenses por el presunto tr\u00e1fico sexual de una ni\u00f1a de 17 a\u00f1os.\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: In fiery UN speech, Honduras condemns colonialism, neoliberalism, coups, corporate exploitation. 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, Honduras, UN, United Nations, Venezuela, Xiomara Castro", "output": "In her first UN speech, Honduras\u2019 left-wing President Xiomara Castro denounced colonialism, \u201cneoliberal injustice,\u201d and the foreign corporations that have exploited her country. Calling for multipolarity, she declared, \u201cNever again will we carry the stereotype of a banana republic.\u201d\n\n(Se puede leer esta nota en espa\u00f1ol aqu\u00ed.)\nHonduras\u2019 new left-wing President Xiomara Castro delivered a fiery speech at the United Nations General Assembly denouncing colonialism, \u201cneoliberal injustice,\u201d and the foreign corporations that have exploited her country.\nCalling for a multipolar world, the Honduran leader declared, \u201cNever again will we carry the stereotype of a banana republic. We will put an end to monopolies and oligopolies that only impoverish our economy.\u201d\n\n\u201cHonduras will only have a future if it takes firm steps to\u00a0dismantle the neoliberal economic dictatorship,\u201d she asserted.\nCastro (of no relation to Cuba\u2019s Fidel Castro) also condemned the violent right-wing military coup that the United States sponsored in Honduras in 2009, which overthrew democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya \u2013 Castro\u2019s husband.\n\u201cWe poor nations of the world will no longer tolerate coups d\u2019etat; we will no longer tolerate the use of lawfare, or color revolutions, which are usually organized to plunder our extensive natural resources,\u201d she proclaimed.\n\nThe September 20 speech was the first time the Honduran president addressed the United Nations since coming to power this January.\nWearing a bright-red suit \u2013 the color of her socialist political party, the Liberty and Refoundation Party, or Libre (\u201cFree\u201d) Party for short \u2013 Castro stressed, \u201cIt is time to seriously discuss multipolarity in the world.\u201d\nShe demanded an end to the US government\u2019s \u201cdespicable and brutal blockade\u201d on Cuba, and added that \u201cthe aggression against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela must stop.\u201d\nCastro also\u00a0decried the US-dominated international financial institutions that have trapped her country in unpayable odious debt and imposed devastating neoliberal austerity policies.\n\u201cIt is clear that today, for our country to survive, we must reject this so-called austerity, which awards those who concentrate wealth in a few hands, and favors those who exponentially increase inequality,\u201d she said.\nFollowing the US-backed 2009 coup, Honduras became one of the most violent countries on Earth. This created a crisis that turned hundreds of thousands of Hondurans into refugees and migrants.\nCastro used her UN speech to explain the importance of her landslide victory in the November 2021 elections and her efforts to reverse this social catastrophe:\nI stand on this international platform in what for my country is an historic event, not only because I am the first woman to have the honor of leading our Central American nation, but also because I represent the first democratically elected government after our country went through 13 years of dictatorship.\nThe 2009 coup, which saw us mired in cruel murders and death squads, two fraudulent elections, a pandemic, and two hurricanes \u2013 it is impossible to understand the Hondurans and the huge caravans of migrants without recognizing this context of cruel suffering which we have been forced to endure.\nHowever, electoral democracy is not enough to guarantee the material and spiritual well-being of our people. 13 years of dictatorship, overseen by the international community, led to the country multiplying its public debt by six times, and saw the country reach a 74% poverty rate, the highest ever seen in the history of Honduras.\nFive of every 10 of my compatriots live in extreme poverty. However it is my firm belief that none of these figures will astound anyone in a world which today lives under a monetary dictatorship, which imposes on the poorest of people draconian measures of fiscal discipline, which increases the suffering of the left-behind majority, in which speculative capital has no limits.\nThe Honduran leader was especially critical of international institutions that did nothing as the US-backed coup regime stole numerous elections over 13 years.\n\u201cNone of the observers of of the fraudulent elections of 2013 and 2017 were unaware of what they were dooming our people to. Instead, they showed themselves to be indifferent to the worst plague which has ever ravaged our country,\u201d she said.\n\u201cThe arrogance of capital and petty self-interest led many to choose deceit, while organized crime brought the country to the abyss,\u201d she added.\nAt the UN, Castro emphasized how the US-backed coup regime had trapped her impoverished nation in debt.\nMultipolarista previously reported on\u00a0Castro\u2019s inauguration speech on January 27, in which she blasted the coup regime that had \u201csubmerged\u201d the state in debt, leaving it in \u201cbankruptcy\u201d and \u201ceconomic catastrophe.\u201d\nAt the time of the coup in 2009, Honduras had $2.48 billion in external debt. By the end of 2021, its external debt skyrocketed to $9.25 billion \u2013 a 373% increase.\nHonduras\u2019 internal debt also grew drastically, from roughly $810 million in 2009 to around $7.3 billion by the time Castro took power in January 2022.\nWith a GDP of just $23.8 billion, and more than $16.5 billion in debt, this means Honduras\u2019 debt is 70% of its entire economy.\nCastro denounced this odious debt as illegitimate and unpayable, noting it already consumes 50% of the government\u2019s budget.\nUS-backed coup regimes trapped Honduras in unpayable odious debt, warns new President Xiomara Castro\n\nAt the UN, Castro said wealthy countries in the Global North trap nations in the South in debt, extract wealth from them, and use it to live \u201clifestyles of excess.\u201d\n\u201cThe world\u2019s industrialized nations are those responsible for the grave degradation of our environment, but they make us pay for their lifestyles of excess. And to do that, they spare no effort to embroil us in their plans, and in an endless crisis, to ensure that our hands and feet are tied,\u201d she declared.\n\u201cPublic policies endorsed by the rent-seeking model on the part of the international financial community over the last 13 years have pulled us into a world full of violence and poverty, with failed and abandoned projects, corruption, looting, and drug trafficking,\u201d she added.\nCastro emphasized that this extreme economic exploitation fueled rampant poverty and violence, which pushed many Hondurans to leave the country.\n\u201cEvery caravan of migrants that fled the dictatorship that imposed itself for more than a decade is a painful loss for our country and for their families. The numbers show us that this exodus, caused by neoliberal injustice, creates more unemployment and traps us in an undesirable dependency,\u201d she lamented.\nThe Honduran president outlined her government\u2019s ambitious goals to transform the country.\nShe said her administration is cracking down on tax evasion, strengthening the internal market, and using import substitution industrialization to develop the local economy.\nEmphasizing the need for food sovereignty, Castro said Honduras is renegotiating free-trade agreements, while expanded social services and subsidizing energy bills for poor people.\nShe outlined her party\u2019s revolutionary program:\nIn Honduras, my government has begun a process of refoundation and deep change, which is based on four fundamental pillars:\nOne, the revolutionary transformation of education, to elevate the human spirit and end with colonialism.\n[Two], to build an alternative economic model which is deeply sovereign.\nThree, to build a system whose very core is the exaltation of humanism, solidarity, integration with brotherly peoples, peace, and respect for human rights.\nFour, the gradual de-privatization of public services, such as healthcare, drinking water, electrical energy, and the internet.\nAlthough the 2009 Honduran coup was finally reversed in November 2021, Castro warned that capitalist oligarchs are once again plotting against her elected government.\n\u201cConspiracies are being planned by the same sectors which looted the country and their pro-coup allies, emboldened by a shameless anti-democratic attitude, which sometimes disguises itself as diplomacy,\u201d she cautioned.\nCastro called on foreign powers to stop meddling in her country\u2019s sovereign affairs.\n\u201cI\u2019m using this platform to demand that you respect us. We want to live in peace. Stop trying to destabilize Honduras, and imposing your measures upon us, and choosing who we can have relations with. The people are sovereign,\u201d she said.\nThese comments in particular seemed to be a reference to Washington\u2019s new cold war on China.\nHonduras is one of just 13 countries in the world that recognize Taiwan as an independent country. But before the November 2021 elections, Castro had pledged that, if she won, should would break off ties and instead recognize the People\u2019s Republic of China.\nTaiwan and its US sponsors have put heavy pressure on Honduras to maintain its formal diplomatic relations.\nCastro condemned the arrogance of powerful imperialist countries in the Global North, that treat nations like Honduras as \u201cthird and fourth class.\u201d\n\u201cWhat is unacceptable to us is this arbitrary world order in which there are third- and fourth-class countries, while at the same time those that think of themselves as civilized never tire of launching invasions, waging wars, engaging in financial speculation and crucifying us with their inflation, time and time again,\u201d she said.\nThe Honduran leader added,\u00a0\u201cEvery millimeter of the homeland that they pillaged in the name of the sacrosanct freedom of the market and other systems of privilege was tainted with the blood of Indigenous peoples.\u201d\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Nicaragua\u2019s Sandinista gov\u2019t expels OAS, calling it US \u2018colonial instrument\u2019 of coups and invasions. 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": "Denis Moncada, Nicaragua, OAS, Organization of American States", "output": "Nicaragua\u2019s Sandinista government withdrew from and expelled the coup-supporting Organization of American States (OAS), denouncing it as a \u201cdeceitful agency of the State Department of yankee imperialism\u201d and US \u201cMinistry of the Colonies.\u201d\n\n(Se puede leer este art\u00edculo en espa\u00f1ol aqu\u00ed.)\nNicaragua\u2019s Sandinista government has expelled the Organization of American States (OAS), calling it \u201cone of the US State Department\u2019s political instruments of intervention and domination.\u201d\nManagua also declared its immediate withdrawal from the organization, stating clearly, \u201cNicaragua is not a colony of anyone, therefore it is not part of the Ministry of the Colonies.\u201d\nThe OAS was founded by the United States in 1948, at the beginning of the first cold war, as a coalition of right-wing anti-communist countries in the Americas. Among its founding members was Nicaragua\u2019s US-backed military dictatorship, run by the brutal Somoza dynasty.\nThe OAS is based in Washington, and still today receives the majority of its funding from the US government.\nIn Latin America, the OAS has earned an infamous reputation for supporting numerous coups d\u2019etat, including the violent overthrow of Bolivia\u2019s elected socialist President Evo Morales in 2019.\nIn November 2021, Nicaragua announced its decision to leave the OAS, after the US-dominated body refused to recognize the Sandinista Front\u2019s victory in the elections earlier that month.\nThis initiated a formal withdrawal process that would have taken two years. But in a fiery speech on April 24, Foreign Minister Denis Moncada declared that Nicaragua was leaving the OAS immediately, blasting it as a \u201cdeceitful agency of the State Department of yankee imperialism.\u201d\nNicaragua leaving US-controlled, coup-plotting OAS: \u2018We are not a colony\u2019\n\n\u201cThe people and government of Nicaragua have not recognized and do not recognize this instrument of colonial administration, which does not at any time represent the sovereign union of Our America and the Caribbean, and that, on the contrary, is an instrument of yankee imperialism, to violate rights and independence, supporting and promoting interventions and invasions, legitimizing coups d\u2019etat in various forms and modes,\u201d Moncada said.\n\u201cWe will not have any presence at all in the organizations of that diabolical instrument of the badly named OAS,\u201d he added, referring to the organization\u2019s officials as \u201cemployees of the Yankee State Department.\u201d\nBy denouncing the OAS as the \u201cYankee Ministry of the Colonies,\u201d Moncada was referencing a phrase famously coined by Cuba\u2019s revolutionary leader Fidel Castro.\nCuba was suspended from the OAS in 1962, while US-backed right-wing dictatorships were welcomed in the organization.\nIn 2017, Venezuela\u2019s elected Chavista government announced its decision to leave the OAS as well, condemning the organization for supporting violent US-backed coup attempts.\nThe OAS then went on to recognize US-appointed coup leader Juan Guaid\u00f3 as supposed \u201cinterim president\u201d of Venezuela, despite the fact that he never won a single vote in a presidential election.\nNicaragua\u2019s Foreign Minister Moncada affirmed in his April 24 speech, \u201cBy denouncing and rejecting that infernal mechanism, from which we are leaving immediately with absolute dignity, we ratify, definitively, our respect, affection, and recognition of heroic Cuba and Venezuela, and the peoples that bravely wage their struggles, and that have accompanied us and accompany us in the battles that they have fought and fight for justice, the peoples\u2019 rights, sovereignty, dignity, and peace.\u201d\n\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Nicaragua se sale de la OEA, arma golpista controlada por EEUU. 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": "Bolivia, Cuba, Denis Moncada, golpe de estado, Juan Guaid\u00f3, Luis Almagro, Nicaragua, OEA, Venezuela", "output": "El gobierno sandinista de Nicaragua se sale de la Organizaci\u00f3n de los Estados Americanos (OEA), conden\u00e1ndola como un \u201cinstrumento de injerencia\u201d que \u201ctiene como misi\u00f3n facilitar la hegemon\u00eda de EEUU\u201d\n\nEl gobierno sandinista de Nicaragua se sali\u00f3 el 19 de noviembre de la Organizaci\u00f3n de los Estados Americanos (OEA), conden\u00e1ndola como una \u201centidad colonialista\u201d dominada por Estados Unidos.\nPor varias d\u00e9cadas, la OEA ha sido conocida popularmente en Latinoam\u00e9rica como el \u201cministerio de colonias yanquis\u201d.\nLa OEA siempre ha sido un arma del poder geopol\u00edtico de EEUU, pero su actual secretario general, Luis Almagro, infame por su corrupci\u00f3n y extremismo pol\u00edtico, ha destruido la reputaci\u00f3n de la organizaci\u00f3n.\nEn 2019, la OEA orquest\u00f3 un golpe de estado de extrema derecha en Bolivia, derrocando al presidente socialista Evo Morales, quien fue elegido democr\u00e1ticamente por el pueblo. La OEA invent\u00f3 acusaciones falsas de \u201cfraude electoral\u201d para justificar la operaci\u00f3n anti-democr\u00e1tica.\nSiguiendo el ejemplo de Washington, la OEA desconoci\u00f3 las elecciones del 7 de noviembre de 2021 en Nicaragua, pretendiendo hacer otro intento de golpe.\nNicaragua, con dignidad, se sale de la OEA, el ministerio de colonias yanquis.\nEl Canciller Moncada: La OEA es \"instrumento de injerencia\" que \"tiene como misi\u00f3n facilitar la hegemon\u00eda de EEUU\"\nLa OEA orquest\u00f3 el golpe de estado fascista en Bolivia, pero no podr\u00e1 en Nicaragua. pic.twitter.com/g4fUpRqsgy\n\u2014 Benjamin Norton (@BenjaminNorton) November 19, 2021\n\nEn una\u00a0carta oficial a Almagro y la OEA, el canciller de Nicaragua, Denis Moncada, dijo que la OEA es un \u201cinstrumento de injerencia\u201d que \u201ctiene como misi\u00f3n facilitar la hegemon\u00eda de EEUU\u201d.\n\u201cNo nos reconocemos como colonia de ninguna potencia\u201d, dijo Moncada. Y la OEA es una de las \u201centidades colonialistas\u201d de EEUU.\nEstados Unidos cre\u00f3 la OEA en 1948, al inicio de la primera guerra fr\u00eda, como una alianza anti-socialista de reg\u00edmenes derechistas. La reuni\u00f3n fundacional tuvo lugar en Colombia y fue organizada por el secretario de estado de EEUU, George Marshall, un fan\u00e1tico anti-comunista.\nUno de los miembros fundadores de la OEA fue la brutal dictadura nicarag\u00fcense del general Anastasio Somoza, cuyo r\u00e9gimen din\u00e1stico, patrocinado por EEUU, asesin\u00f3, tortur\u00f3 y desapareci\u00f3 a decenas de miles de sus compatriotas.\nEl presidente de EEUU, Richard Nixon, con el dictador nicarag\u00fcense, Anastasio Somoza Debayle, en 1971\nLa Agencia de EEUU para el Desarrollo Internacional (USAID), una fachada de la CIA que Washington us\u00f3 para financiar a la Contra, los escuadrones de la muerte de extrema derecha, en Nicaragua en la d\u00e9cada de 1980, admiti\u00f3 en su informe interno en 2018 que la OEA \u201cpromueve los intereses pol\u00edticos y econ\u00f3micos de EEUU\u00a0en el hemisferio occidental, contrarrestando la influencia de los pa\u00edses que est\u00e1n en contra de EEUU como Venezuela \u201d.\nCuba fue expulsada de la OEA en 1962, despu\u00e9s de su revoluci\u00f3n. Y el gobierno chavista de Venezuela se sali\u00f3 de la OEA en 2019.\nEl mismo a\u00f1o que la OEA patrocin\u00f3 el golpe de estado de extrema derecha en Bolivia, tambi\u00e9n reconoci\u00f3 a Juan Guaid\u00f3, el t\u00edtere golpista de Washington, como el supuesto \u201cpresidente\u201d de Venezuela. Aunque Guaid\u00f3 no controla pr\u00e1cticamente nada dentro del pa\u00eds, su r\u00e9gimen paralelo creado por EEUU ocupa el puesto de Venezuela en la OEA.\nEl secretario general de la OEA, Luis Almagro, con Juan Guaid\u00f3, el t\u00edtere golpista de EEUU\nDespu\u00e9s de que Estados Unidos orquest\u00f3 un golpe militar en Honduras en 2009, la OEA tambi\u00e9n ayud\u00f3 a legitimar el nuevo r\u00e9gimen anti-democr\u00e1tico. Hizo lo mismo despu\u00e9s de dos golpes de estado derechistas en Hait\u00ed.\nAdem\u00e1s, la OEA apoy\u00f3 las operaciones de desestabilizaci\u00f3n de Washington en Brasil, donde el gobierno del Partido de los Trabajadores fue derrocado en un golpe parlamentario suave, y el principal candidato presidencial, Lula da Silva, fue encarcelado por cargos falsos, otorgando al candidato de extrema derecha Jair Bolsonaro la victoria en la elecciones de 2018.\nEl canciller nicarag\u00fcense anunci\u00f3 que el pa\u00eds se sali\u00f3 de la OEA frente a un retrato grande de Augusto Sandino, el rebelde nicarag\u00fcense que dirigi\u00f3 una guerrilla revolucionaria que luch\u00f3 y expuls\u00f3 con \u00e9xito a los militares estadounidenses que ocupaban su pa\u00eds en las d\u00e9cadas de 1920 y 1930.\nEl Frente Sandinista de Liberaci\u00f3n Nacional (FSLN), que derroc\u00f3 a la dictadura de Somoza en 1979 y que ha gobernado el pa\u00eds desde que regres\u00f3 al poder a trav\u00e9s de elecciones democr\u00e1ticas en 2006, es inspirado en el legado anti-imperialista del general Sandino.\nLa salida de Nicaragua de la OEA ocurre en un momento en que muchos pa\u00edses de la regi\u00f3n est\u00e1n hablando de reemplazar la organizaci\u00f3n por la Comunidad de Estados Latinoamericanos y Caribe\u00f1os (CELAC), que excluye a Estados Unidos y Canad\u00e1.\nEste septiembre, la CELAC realiz\u00f3 una cumbre hist\u00f3rica en M\u00e9xico, donde el presidente venezolano Nicol\u00e1s Maduro declar\u00f3 que la diferencia entre la CELAC y la OEA es la diferencia entre el bolivarianismo (la integraci\u00f3n latinoamericana) y el monroe\u00edsmo (el neocolonialismo estadounidense).\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: China ayuda al gobierno sandinista de Nicaragua a construir viviendas para el pueblo. 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, Daniel Ortega, FSLN, Nicaragua, Rosario Murillo, Sandinistas", "output": "China firm\u00f3 un acuerdo con el gobierno sandinista de Nicaragua para construir miles de viviendas para familias pobres y trabajadoras, expandiendo el Programa Bismarck Mart\u00ednez de casas dignas.\n\n(You can read this article in English here.)\nEl gobierno sandinista de Nicaragua ha revelado que firm\u00f3 un acuerdo con la Rep\u00fablica Popular China para construir miles de viviendas para familias pobres y trabajadoras.\nLa Vicepresidenta Rosario Murillo anunci\u00f3 la noticia el 28 de enero.\nChina \u201cha aprobado un importante proyecto de cooperaci\u00f3n con nuestra Nicaragua y el pueblo nicarag\u00fcense, un gran programa de viviendas para las familias en todo el pa\u00eds\u201d, dijo Murillo.\n\u201cEl plan es para tres a\u00f1os, beneficiando a decenas de miles de familias nicarag\u00fcenses en 84 municipios del pa\u00eds, familias que van a recibir una casa bonita, segura, digna, con todos los servicios b\u00e1sicos\u201d.\nLa vicepresidenta dijo que el dise\u00f1o de las casas se est\u00e1 desarrollando en coordinaci\u00f3n con los ministerios de Nicaragua. Las llam\u00f3 \u201cobras que son de fraternidad, de solidaridad y de bien com\u00fan\u201d.\nMurillo tambi\u00e9n anunci\u00f3 otros proyectos de infraestructura p\u00fablica en construcci\u00f3n, incluyendo calles, caminos y un nuevo estadio de b\u00e9isbol.\nViviendas construidas por el gobierno nicarag\u00fcense como parte de su Programa Bismarck Mart\u00ednez\nAunque Nicaragua es un pa\u00eds peque\u00f1o de aproximadamente 6,5 millones de personas, con muy pocos recursos como el segundo pa\u00eds menos rico del hemisferio occidental, su gobierno izquierdista se ha dedicado a crear ambiciosos programas sociales, que consisten en salud gratuita, educaci\u00f3n universal, carreras t\u00e9cnicas e iniciativas de alivio de la pobreza.\nNicaragua de hecho ya tiene una iniciativa de vivienda p\u00fablica llamada Programa Bismarck Mart\u00ednez. Desde su lanzamiento en 2019 hasta 2021, el proyecto entreg\u00f3 aproximadamente 3.000 viviendas, as\u00ed como 30.000 lotes urbanizados.\nEn 2021, el gobierno sandinista entreg\u00f3 a los nicarag\u00fcenses humildes otras 3.000 viviendas como parte del Programa Bismarck Mart\u00ednez. Esto adem\u00e1s de otorgar t\u00edtulos de propiedad a miles de familias y campesinos, para que no puedan ser desplazados.\nEl programa tiene el nombre de Bismarck Mart\u00ednez, un activista sandinista que trabajaba en la alcald\u00eda de la capital Managua. Fue secuestrado, brutalmente torturado y asesinado por extremistas de extrema derecha durante un violento intento de golpe de estado en 2018, patrocinado por Estados Unidos. El video de su espantoso asesinato se hizo viral e inspir\u00f3 indignaci\u00f3n en toda Nicaragua.\nLa alcald\u00eda de Managua anunci\u00f3 en septiembre de 2021 que ten\u00eda planes para construir 50.000 viviendas nuevas en los siguientes siete a\u00f1os como parte del programa Bismarck Mart\u00ednez. Tambi\u00e9n plane\u00f3 distribuir 50,000 lotes urbanizados m\u00e1s a las familias.\nPero esto fue antes de que el gobierno central restableciera las relaciones con China e hiciera planes para expandir a\u00fan m\u00e1s este programa con la ayuda de Beijing.\nViviendas construidas por el gobierno nicarag\u00fcense como parte de su Programa Bismarck Mart\u00ednez\nEl gobierno de Nicaragua restableci\u00f3 relaciones diplom\u00e1ticas oficiales con la Rep\u00fablica Popular China en diciembre de 2021.\nNicaragua rompi\u00f3 por primera vez los lazos con Taiw\u00e1n y reconoci\u00f3 a China en los a\u00f1os ochenta, luego del triunfo de la Revoluci\u00f3n Popular Sandinista en 1979.\nPero cuando los sandinistas perdieron el poder en 1990, en unas elecciones injustamente comprometidas por la intromisi\u00f3n de EEUU, la presidenta derechista que asumi\u00f3 el poder, Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, representante de la familia olig\u00e1rquica m\u00e1s poderosa del pa\u00eds, cort\u00f3 de inmediato los lazos con la RPC y reconoci\u00f3 a Taiw\u00e1n nuevamente.\nDesde que se restablecieron los lazos en diciembre de 2021, Nicaragua y China se han convertido en aliados cercanos.\nEl Presidente Daniel Ortega revel\u00f3 en un discurso en su toma de posesi\u00f3n el 10 de enero que Managua hab\u00eda firmado acuerdos con Beijing para incorporar a la naci\u00f3n centroamericana a la Iniciativa de la Franja y la Ruta.\nAl firmar los acuerdos con China, Ortega declar\u00f3, \u201cTenemos a Estados Unidos que no acepta que el fin de la hegemon\u00eda es un hecho\u201d.\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Why Peru has had 7 presidents in 6 years: Legacy of Fujimori dictatorship\u2019s constitution. 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": "Alberto Fujimori, Dina Boluarte, Francisco Sagasti, Manuel Merino, Mart\u00edn Vizcarra, Mercedes Ar\u00e1oz, Pedro Castillo, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, Peru", "output": "Peru has had 7 presidents in just over 6 years, due to the undemocratic constitution inherited created by far-right US-backed dictator Alberto Fujimori. This timeline explains how and why each head of state rose and fell so quickly.\n\nIn just over six years, Peru has had seven different presidents. The period between July 2016 and December 2022 has been a time of deep political instability.\nThis chaos is largely due to Peru\u2019s deeply undemocratic constitution, which was inherited from the far-right US-backed dictator Alberto Fujimori, who governed the country with an iron fist from 1990 until 2000, committing genocide against the Indigenous population and killing, torturing, and disappearing thousands of dissidents.\nArticle 113 of Peru\u2019s constitution gives the unicameral congress the ability to remove presidents if two-thirds of members vote to declare that they have a \u201cmoral incapacity.\u201d\nFujimori wrote this constitution in 1993, after launching a self-coup against Peru\u2019s democratic institutions the year before. Peruvian journalist, scholar, and former lawmaker Manuel Benza Pfl\u00fccker explained that the Fujimori constitution was largely created by the United States in order to make neoliberal economic policies a mandatory part of the state structure:\nThe proximity between the coup d\u2019\u00e9tat and the convocation of a constituent assembly shows us that the main reason for the 1992 coup d\u2019\u00e9tat (Alberto Fujimori\u2019s self-coup) was the drafting of a new constitution according to the \u2018Washington Consensus\u2019 (WC), a document that was delivered in New York to Fujimori by authorities of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Department of the Treasury of the United States of America and the World Bank, institutions controlled by said country, days before take an oath to the presidency of Peru. The WC had been prepared a few months before by the aforementioned organizations, under the responsibility of [neoliberal economist] John Williamson and representatives of the establishment.\nAlthough the gap between rich and poor in Peru has grown much wider since the acceleration of neoliberalism in the 1980s, a strong racial element remains quite apparent as well.\nAccording to the 2017 national census, although Peru is only 5.9% white, yet four out of these last seven presidents (57%) are of European descent, making this demographic over-represented in the president\u2019s office by a factorial of nearly 10 times.\nSince December 7, 2022, the majority of the Peruvian population seems to have gotten fed up with the perpetual economic and racial disparities, and mass protests have broken out mostly in the southern region of Peru, concentrated in cities such as Arequipa, Cusco, Puno, Ayacucho, and Andahuaylas, in addition to the northern Andean city of Cajamarca, where President Pedro Castillo is from.\nAt least 25 protesters were killed in the first 10 days of the unelected regime of Dina Boluarte.\nThe following timeline shows how quickly Peruvian heads of state have changed, and provides a brief summary of why.\nPedro Pablo Kuczynski\nTerm\nJuly 28, 2016 to March 23, 2018\nBackground\nKuczynski attended elite universities \u2013 Oxford University in England and Ivy League Princeton University in New Jersey.\nHe worked at the World Bank, which has trapped countries across Latin America in debt. He also worked at New York-based investment banks and U.S. mining corporations.\nKuczynski was a U.S. national who renounced his citizenship in November 2015, in order to make himself eligible to become president of Peru.\nWhy was their presidential term so short?\nLeaked video showed supporters of Kuczynski apparently attempting to bribe members of Congress to cast their votes in Kuczynski\u2019s favor, in the infamous \u201cMamanivideos\u201d scandal.\nAfter serving 20 months, Kuczynski resigned on March 23, 2018.\nMart\u00edn Vizcarra\nTerm\nMarch 23, 2018 to November 9, 2020\nBackground\nVizcarra was Kuczynski\u2019s prot\u00e9g\u00e9, vice president, and close ally. He became wealthy through several family companies and made his name as a conservative governor of Moquegua.\nWhy was their presidential term so short?\nAllegations of corruption during his term as the governor of Moquegua brought Vizcarra down.\nAfter a congressional debate on November 9, 2020, the congress approved the removal of Vizcarra (in his second impeachment) due to \u201cmoral incapacity,\u201d with 105 votes in favor \u2013 surpassing the 87 out of 130 vote supermajority threshold (67%) required to remove a political official.\nHe served as president for two years and eight months, with a temporary disruption in September to October 2019.\nMercedes Ar\u00e1oz (right) with Kuczynski and coup-plotting OAS chief Luis Almagro\nTerm\nSeptember 30 to October 1, 2019\nBackground\nAr\u00e1oz is a neoliberal economist who received her Master\u2019s and PhD degrees from the University of Miami. She subsequently worked with U.S.-based organizations like the World Bank, the Organization of American States (OAS), and Inter-American Development Bank.\nWhy was their presidential term so short?\nVizcarra dissolved the congress on September 30, 2019. In response, the congress suspended Vizcarra as president, making his second vice president, Ar\u00e1oz, temporary president.\nWith just one day in office, Ar\u00e1oz never actually came to govern, and resigned the very next day. Vizcarra was quickly returned as president.\nManuel Merino\nTerm\nNovember 10 to 15, 2020\nBackground\nMerino is from the city of Tumbes, the most right-wing region of Peru, and is a lifelong conservative.\nAs president of congress, Merino was criticized regarding how hastily he pushed for impeachment proceedings against Vizcarra, who didn\u2019t have a vice president at the time, which would have made Merino next in line to become president.\nTwo months later, Merino succeeded in his quest and ousted Vizcarra.\nWhy was their presidential term so short?\nMerino lasted only five days as president, before resigning due to mass protests against him, which left two young Peruvians dead.\nFrancisco Sagasti\nTerm\nNovember 17, 2020 to July 28, 2021\nBackground\nSagasti Hochhausler established close connections to the United States while attaining a Master\u2019s degree in industrial engineering at Penn State University and a PhD in operational research and social systems science at the Wharton Business School, at the elite Ivy League University of Pennsylvania.\nHe went on to work at the World Bank.\nWhy was their presidential term so short?\nSagasti was named as interim president to serve until Peru\u2019s next election in July 2021, which was the end of the five-year term begun by Kuczynski back in 2016.\nPedro Castillo\nTerm\nJuly 28, 2021 to December 7, 2022\nBackground\nCastillo is a farmer and teacher who represents the indigenous Andinos, who have had virtually no power in the government in the modern history of Peru.\nAfter becoming well known for leading a teachers\u2019 strike, Castillo ran for president with the Marxist-Leninist party Peru Libre, and he won the 2021 elections.\nWhy was their presidential term so short?\nAfter stating his intention to dissolve congress \u2013 which he was legally entitled to do according to article 134 of Peru\u2019s constitution \u2013 Castillo was impeached, removed by the military, and imprisoned without trial on December 7.\nCastillo\u2019s five-year term was cut short to less than 17 months. Mass national protests ensued, demanding his release from prison, fresh elections, and a constituent assembly to write a new constitution.\nCastillo supporters have blocked major highways all over Peru, impeding national transportation and bringing the country to a virtual standstill.\nWithout any due process, the unelected Peruvian government subsequently sentenced Castillo to 18 months of \u201cpreventative prison.\u201d\nDina Boluarte (right) with CIA agent turned US ambassador Lisa Kenna\nTerm\nDecember 7, 2022 until now\nBackground\nThe neoliberal-appointed \u201cinterim\u201d president, who had previously been expelled from the leftist Peru Libre party, was sworn in by congress in order to serve out the last three-and-a-half years of Castillo\u2019s term.\nMass protests across Peru led Boluarte\u2019s unelected government to suspend civil liberties, declaring a nation-wide \u201cstate of emergency.\u201d\nBoluarte\u2019s unelected government unleashed large numbers of violent police and deployed soldiers into the streets. They shot protesters with live ammunition, even using helicopters to shoot at demonstrators and drop tear gas bombs on them.\nDozens of protesters were killed and hundreds were wounded in the first week of Boluarte\u2019s rule.\nWhile Peruvian civil society organizations accused Boluarte of \u201cstate terrorism,\u201d the US government strongly supported her, claiming her unelected government was \u201cdemocratic.\u201d\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Invoking Monroe Doctrine, US congressman calls Argentina a \u2018threat\u2019 over China alliance. 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": "Alberto Fern\u00e1ndez, Argentina, Donald Trump, Matt Gaetz, Republican Party, Russia, Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping", "output": "Trump-allied Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz called Argentina a \u201cthreat\u201d to US \u201csecurity,\u201d complaining that its alliance with China challenges the 200-year-old colonialist Monroe Doctrine.\n\n(Se puede leer este art\u00edculo en espa\u00f1ol aqu\u00ed.)\nAn influential right-wing US lawmaker invoked the 200-year-old colonialist Monroe Doctrine on the floor of Congress and called Argentina a \u201cthreat\u201d because of its alliance with China.\nRepublican Congressman Matt Gaetz, a key ally of former president Donald Trump, said in a speech in the House of Representatives on February 7 that there is a \u201csignificant threat to our nation accelerating rapidly close to home.\u201d\n\u201cArgentina, a critical nation and economy in the Americas, has just lashed itself to the Chinese Communist Party, by signing on to the One Belt One Road Initiative,\u201d Gaetz fumed.\nRepublican Congressman Matt Gaetz, a key ally of Donald Trump, invoked the 200-year-old colonialist Monroe Doctrine on the floor of the Congress and called Argentina a \"threat\" to US \"security\" because of its alliance with China.\nRead more here: https://t.co/aCiWQ7fGOc pic.twitter.com/xyVYkxfFT9\n\u2014 Multipolarista (@Multipolarista) February 8, 2022\n\nThe Florida lawmaker was reacting to the news that Argentina\u2019s President Alberto Fern\u00e1ndez visited Moscow and Beijing for meetings with Presidents Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping on February 3 and 6, respectively.\nExplaining his trips, Fern\u00e1ndez said,\u00a0\u201cI am consistently working to\u00a0rid Argentina of this dependence on the IMF and the US. I want Argentina to open up new opportunities.\u201d\nArgentina signed on to join Beijing\u2019s international infrastructure campaign, the Belt and Road Initiative, and China offered the South American nation $23.7 billion in investments and infrastructure projects. Moscow similarly pledged to strengthen political and economic ties with what it called \u201cone of Russia\u2019s key partners in Latin America.\u201d\nArgentina is trapped in $44 billion of odious debt from the US-controlled IMF.\nSeeking alternatives to US hegemony, Argentina's President Alberto Fern\u00e1ndez traveled to Russia and China, forming an alliance with the Eurasian powers, joining the Belt & Roadhttps://t.co/rTbO1ZGsPE\n\u2014 Multipolarista (@Multipolarista) February 6, 2022\n\nRepresentative Matt Gaetz angrily described Argentina\u2019s growing links with China as \u201ca direct challenge to the Monroe Doctrine.\u201d\nThe Monroe Doctrine, which dates back to 1823, was a message to European colonialists that the United States considers Latin America to be its own colonial territory.\nTwo centuries ago, Secretary of State John Quincy Adams created the doctrine, and President James Monroe made it government policy, insisting that the US would not intervene in the European colonial powers\u2019 spheres of influence as long as they recognized Central and South America to be Washington\u2019s imperial sphere of influence.\nThis attitude that Latin America is US colonial property is still very much alive today, and thoroughly bipartisan in Washington.\nMultiple senior officials in the Donald Trump administration invoked the Monroe Doctrine to justify their coup attempt in Venezuela, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Advisor John Bolton.\nThis January, President Joe Biden echoed colonial Monroe Doctrine rhetoric by referring to Latin America as Washington\u2019s \u201cfront yard.\u201d\nWhile Matt Gaetz, like his political mentor Donald Trump, sometimes opportunistically criticizes other right-wing factions such as \u201cneocons,\u201d he pushes a similarly hawkish imperialist foreign policy.\nOne constant in virtually all of Gaetz\u2019s speeches is his obsessive demonization of China. He strongly advocates for a new cold war to contain the Asian superpower.\nWhile many neoconservatives and liberal-interventionists push for an aggressive policy against Russia, Gaetz\u2019s message is essentially that China is the real threat to the United States, not the Kremlin, and that Washington should seek war with Beijing instead of war with Moscow.\nIn his House speech declaring Argentina a \u201cthreat,\u201d Gaetz reiterated this talking point, claiming, \u201cChina is a rising power. Russia is a declining power. Let us sharpen our focus so that we do not join them in that eventual fate.\u201d\nGaetz, who represents Florida\u2019s northwestern Panhandle, joined the Trump administration in strongly supporting a right-wing coup attempt in Venezuela.\nThe Republican lawmaker frequently calls for the overthrow of Cuba\u2019s government as well, while spreading fake news claiming that \u201cVenezuelan thugs, flavored w[ith] Russians, are now \u2018kill squads\u2019 going through homes. They are slaughtering adults and abducting children.\u201d\nGaetz is closely linked to far-right extremists. In 2018, he invited a notorious white-nationalist blogger who has promoted Holocaust revisionism to Trump\u2019s State of the Union address.\nIn addition to his extreme political views, Gaetz has been investigated by US authorities for the alleged sex trafficking of a 17-year-old girl.\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Nicaragua leaving US-controlled, coup-plotting OAS: \u2018We are not a colony\u2019. 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": "Augusto Sandino, Bolivia, CELAC, Cuba, Juan Guaid\u00f3, Luis Almagro, Mexico, Nicaragua, OAS, Organization of American States, Richard Nixon, Venezuela", "output": "Nicaragua\u2019s Sandinista government is leaving the Organization of American States (OAS), condemning the US \u201cinstrument of interference\u201d that organizes coups to \u201cfacilitate hegemony\u201d in Latin America.\n\nNicaragua\u2019s Sandinista government officially announced that it is leaving the Organization of American States (OAS) on November 19, condemning the institution as a \u201ccolonialist entity\u201d dominated by the United States.\nThe OAS, which is based in Washington, DC and receives the majority of its funding from the US government, is popularly known in Latin America as the \u201cministerio de las colonias yanqui\u201d \u2013 the \u201cYankee Ministry of the Colonies.\u201d\nThe OAS has always been an arm of US geopolitical power in Latin America, but its current, notoriously\u00a0corrupt Secretary-General Luis Almagro\u00a0has shredded the organization\u2019s credibility in recent years.\nIn 2019, the\u00a0OAS helped\u00a0to orchestrate a\u00a0far-right military coup in Bolivia, overthrowing democratically elected socialist President Evo Morales by\u00a0fabricating false claims of electoral fraud.\nFollowing Washington\u2019s lead, the OAS refused to recognize\u00a0Nicaragua\u2019s November 7, 2021 elections, seeking to launch a whole new coup attempt.\nThe US-controlled OAS:-orchestrated the 2019 coup in Bolivia-legitimized the post-coup regime in Honduras-rubber-stamped two coups in Haiti-supported the soft coup against Brazil's Workers' Party-recognizes coup puppet Guaid\u00f3 in Venezuela\nNow Nicaragua is in its crosshairs https://t.co/K9l4QT5fu3\n\u2014 Benjamin Norton (@BenjaminNorton) November 10, 2021\n\nIn an official\u00a0letter to OAS chief Almagro, Nicaragua\u2019s Foreign Minister Denis Moncada called the OAS an \u201cinstrument of interference and intervention,\u201d with the \u201cmission to facilitate hegemony of the United States with its interventionism against the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean.\u201d\n\u201cNicaragua has repeatedly expressed its condemnation and rejection of the interventionist actions of the OAS, defending its sovereignty,\u201d Moncada said.\nWe are not \u201ca colony of any power,\u201d the Nicaraguan foreign minister declared, noting that the OAS is one of the \u201ccolonialist and neocolonialist entities\u201d controlled by Washington.\nThe United States created the OAS in 1948, at the start of the first cold war, as an anti-socialist alliance of right-wing regimes. The founding meeting was held in Colombia and hosted by US Secretary of State George Marshall, a hard-line cold warrior.\nOne of the founding members of the OAS was the brutal Nicaraguan dictatorship of General Anastasio Somoza, whose US-sponsored dynastic regime killed, tortured, and disappeared tens of thousands of his countrymen.\nUS President Richard Nixon with Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle in 1971\nThe US Agency for International Development\u00a0(USAID), a CIA cutout\u00a0that Washington used to fund far-right Contra death squads in Nicaragua in the 1980s, admitted in its 2018 Congressional Budget Justification report that the OAS, \u201cpromotes U.S. political and economic interests in the Western Hemisphere by countering the influence of anti-U.S. countries such as Venezuela.\u201d\nThe US State Department openly boasts that the OAS is its puppet:\n\"The Organization of American States (OAS) promotes U.S. political and economic interests in the Western hemisphere by countering the influence of anti-U.S. countries such as Venezuela\"https://t.co/D9d0jnHyrX pic.twitter.com/hG69W5Qf8v\n\u2014 Benjamin Norton (@BenjaminNorton) November 15, 2019\n\nCuba\u2019s revolutionary government was expelled from the OAS in 1962, and Venezuela\u2019s leftist Chavista government withdrew in 2019.\nThe same year the OAS backed the far-right coup d\u2019etat in Bolivia, it also recognized\u00a0Washington\u2019s coup puppet Juan Guaid\u00f3\u00a0as so-called \u201cpresident\u201d of Venezuela. Although Guaid\u00f3 controls virtually nothing inside the country, his US-appointed parallel coup regime fills Venezuela\u2019s seat at the OAS.\nCorrupt, coup-plotting OAS chief Luis Almagro (right) with Washington\u2019s Venezuelan coup puppet Juan Guaid\u00f3 (left)\nAfter the US government orchestrated a military coup in Honduras in 2009, the OAS helped rubber-stamp the new undemocratic regime. It did the same after right-wing coups in Haiti.\nAnd the OAS supported the US-backed destabilization operations in Brazil, where the Workers\u2019 Party government was overthrown in a parliamentary soft coup, and leading presidential candidate Lula da Silva was imprisoned on false charges, handing far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro victory in the 2018 elections.\nReminder: @Almagro_OEA2015 and @OAS_official congratulated Brazil on legitimacy of 2018 election, despite the leading candidate being jailed in connivance with the US and military.Bolsonaro won as a result.\nThe OAS is not a serious organization.\n????https://t.co/AE8bBrZmRJ https://t.co/yLwKK61sOD\n\u2014 Brasil Wire (@BrasilWire) November 10, 2021\n\nNicaragua\u2019s foreign minister announced that the country is leaving the OAS in front of a large portrait of Augusto Sandino, the Nicaraguan rebel who led a revolutionary guerrilla army that fought and successfully expelled the US military occupiers from his country in the 1920s and \u201930s.\nThe Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), which overthrew Nicaragua\u2019s US-backed Somoza dictatorship in 1979 and has governed the country since it returned to power through democratic elections in 2006, is inspired by the anti-imperialist legacy of General Sandino.\nNicaragua\u2019s departure from the OAS comes at a time when many countries in the region are talking about replacing the organization with the Community of Latin American and the Caribbean States (CELAC), which excludes the United States and Canada.\nThis September,\u00a0CELAC held a historic summit in Mexico, where Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro declared that the difference between CELAC and the OAS is the difference between Bolivarianism (Latin American integration) and Monroeism (US neocolonialism).\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Latin America refuses to send Ukraine weapons, despite Western pressure. 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": "Alberto Fern\u00e1ndez, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Gustavo Petro, Latin America, Lula da Silva, Russia, Ukraine", "output": "Brazil, Argentina, and Colombia have refused to send weapons to Ukraine, despite pressure by the US and EU. Latin American left-wing leaders have urged peace with Russia and called for neutrality in the West\u2019s new cold war.\n\n(Se puede leer esta nota en espa\u00f1ol aqu\u00ed.)\nBrazil, Argentina, and Colombia have rejected requests by the United States and European Union that they send weapons to Ukraine.\nThe commander of the US military\u2019s Southern Command (Southcom), which operates in Latin America and the Caribbean, revealed on January 19 that Washington has been pressuring countries in the region to arm Ukraine.\nSouthcom wants Latin American nations to \u201creplace [their] Russian equipment with United States equipment \u2013 if those countries want to donate it to Ukraine\u201d, said Army General Laura J. Richardson.\n\nBut Latin America\u2019s left-wing leaders have refused, instead maintaining neutrality and urging peace.\nThe socialist governments in Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua blamed NATO expansion and US meddling for causing the war in Ukraine.\nMexico\u2019s progressive President Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador (AMLO) offered to hold peace talks to end the conflict.\nAnd the leftist governments in Bolivia and Honduras have joined Brazil, Argentina, and Colombia in refusing to be part of the proxy war.\nThe US and EU have pressured Latin America to send weapons and military equipment to Ukraine.\nBrazil, Colombia, and Argentina refused, instead calling for peace.\nMany other left-wing governments in the region did the same, staying neutral.\nMore here: https://t.co/bnVOY6qqlS pic.twitter.com/quZn1BwMiw\n\u2014 Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) January 29, 2023\n\nGermany announced on January 25 that it would send tanks to Ukraine, in a significant escalation of the NATO proxy war against Russia.\nBerlin subsequently asked Brazil to ship tank munitions to Kiev. But newly inaugurated left-wing President Lula da Silva declined to do so.\nLula was a co-founder of the BRICS bloc, consisting of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. He has long called for a multipolar world, and supports South-South cooperation and regional integration.\nLula has denounced Western governments for ramping up the violence in Ukraine instead of encouraging peace negotiations.\nDuring his presidential campaign in 2022, Lula criticized the White House, asking, \u201cHow can the world\u2019s largest economic power say that it has no milk for children after President Biden announced $40 billion to buy arms meant for the war in Ukraine?\u201d.\nIn an interview with Time magazine in May 2022, Lula pushed back against Western anti-Russia hysteria and pointed out that Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky \u201cis as responsible as Putin for the war. Because in the war, there\u2019s not just one person guilty\u201d.\n\u201cIf I win the elections\u201d, Lula tweeted in August, \u201cwe will make an effort for dialogue to establish peace again. We are not interested in any type of war\u201d.\n\u201cThe only position that interests Brazil in terms of the question of Ukraine and Russia is peace\u201c, he added in October. \u201cThe time of war is the time of destruction. The world needs peace, addressing the issue of the climate, and ending hunger\u201d.\nA \u00fanica posi\u00e7\u00e3o que interessa ao Brasil na quest\u00e3o da Ucr\u00e2nia e R\u00fassia \u00e9 a paz. Tempo de guerra \u00e9 tempo de destrui\u00e7\u00e3o. O mundo precisa de paz, cuidar da quest\u00e3o do clima e acabar com a fome.\n\u2014 Lula (@LulaOficial) October 1, 2022\n\nColombia\u2019s first ever left-wing president, Gustavo Petro, revealed that the United States pressured his country as well to give weapons to Ukraine. But he refused to do so, instead urging peace.\nIn comments at the summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) in Buenos Aires on January 24, Petro noted that Colombia had previously purchased Russian military equipment, \u201cfor its own purposes inside the country\u201d.\nWashington wants Bogot\u00e1 to send that Russian equipment to Ukraine, but Petro stressed that his nation\u2019s constitution calls for international peace, and therefore those military technologies \u201cwill stay as junk in Colombia\u201c.\n\u201cWe are not with anyone; we are with peace. That is why no weapon will be used in that conflict\u201d, Petro stated.\n\u201cThe best that could happen to humanity is peace between Ukraine and Russia, and not prolongation of the war\u201d, the Colombian president tweeted.\n\u201cI will not help to prolong any war\u201d, he asserted, calling for \u201cneither invasions nor blockades\u201d.\nLo mejor que le puede pasar a la humanidad es la paz entre Ucrania y Rusia y no la prolongaci\u00f3n de la guerra. Yo no ayudar\u00e9 a prolongar ninguna guerra.\nEn cambio pido que se eleve a delito internacional la agresi\u00f3n de un pa\u00eds a otro, sea el que sea.\nNi invasiones ni bloqueos. https://t.co/19Pr2GdEeP\n\u2014 Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) January 27, 2023\n\nGermany\u2019s Chancellor Olaf Scholz visited Argentina on January 28. There, he asked President Alberto Fern\u00e1ndez to send military equipment to Ukraine.\nFern\u00e1ndez declined, instead stating firmly at a press conference that \u201cArgentina and other Latin American countries do not plan to provide weapons to Ukraine, or to any other conflict zone\u201d.\nFern\u00e1ndez did criticize Russia for invading Ukraine, but he called for an end to the war, urging peace, not escalation.\nTrapped in $44 billion in debt with the US-dominated International Monetary Fund (IMF), Fern\u00e1ndez\u2019s government has boosted Argentina\u2019s ties with China and Russia, joining Beijing\u2019s Belt and Road Initiative.\nArgentina applied to join the extended BRICS+ bloc. It attended the virtual BRICS summits in 2022, at China\u2019s invitation.\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Terror attacks on Cuba\u2019s embassy fueled by aggressive US policy. 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, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Mike Pence, Ron DeSantis, sanctions, terrorism", "output": "Cuba\u2019s embassy in Washington has been attacked two times in three years, and no one has been held accountable. This reflects the long history of US-backed terrorism against Cuba, and six decades of illegal economic warfare.\n\nCuba\u2019s embassy in Washington, DC was attacked with two Molotov cocktails on the night of September 24. This was the second terrorist attack against the embassy in the past three years.\nThe US Secret Service responded at around 8pm, but did not apprehend any perpetrators.\nThe explosives hit the front side of the embassy, which is already scarred with AK-47 bullet holes from a shooting attack in April 2020 \u2014 an emblem of the deadly risk it takes to be a Cuban diplomat in the United States, and of the long history of US-backed terrorism against the country.\nThe moment when the terrorist stands in front on the @EmbaCubaUS, lights up the Molotov cocktails & hurls them against the fa\u00e7ade of the mission.\nThis footage was handed over to US authorities.\nOriginal camera video of the Cuban diplomatic mission in Washington#NoAlTerrorismo pic.twitter.com/c9VWJsQ0xU\n\u2014 Bruno Rodr\u00edguez P (@BrunoRguezP) September 26, 2023\n\nThe Molotov cocktail attack occurred the same day that a Cuban delegation led by President Miguel D\u00edaz-Canel returned to Havana, after participating in the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). It also came soon after Cuba chaired a historic summit of the G77+China.\nThe attack was clearly an act of violent intimidation against Cuban diplomats, and a reaction to the powerful show of solidarity by hundreds of people in the US throughout President D\u00edaz-Canel\u2019s visit to New York.\nAn emotional moment as Cuban President joined our rally to #LetCubaLive\n\u201cThank you for your solidarity, thank you for your support, and thank you for being here with us!\u201d \u2014@DiazCanelB\nCUBA S\u00cd, BLOQUE\u00d3 NO! pic.twitter.com/ttgWcEY0Bz\n\u2014 The People's Forum (@PeoplesForumNYC) September 22, 2023\n\nFollowing the second terror attack, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez announced that no embassy staff had been injured and an investigation was underway.\nInitially, the US government was eerily quiet about the attack on a foreign embassy just blocks from the White House.\nThe night of September 25, a day after the attack \u2013 and hours after about 100 DC locals rallied outside the embassy in support of Cuba\u00a0\u2013 US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan finally released a statement condemning the attack and agreeing to an investigation.\nSpeakers at the rally called not only for an investigation into the attacks, but also an end to the illegal, six-decade US blockade \u2013 which virtually every country on Earth votes against each year in the United Nations.\nThe UN General Assembly vote against the US blockade of Cuba, on November 3, 2022\nCuba is a victim of US-backed terrorism, yet the Joe Biden administration has continued Donald Trump\u2019s designation of Cuba as a \u201cstate sponsor of terrorism\u201d (SSOT), as part of an economic war against 11 million Cuban people.\nIn a statement, Cuba\u2019s Ministry of Foreign Affairs put blame for this latest attack directly on the US government\u2019s aggressive policy and hateful discourse:\nAnti-Cuban groups resort to terrorism due to the moral bankruptcy of their hatred against Cuba and the impunity they believe they enjoy. On a regular basis, in the official exchanges between the Embassy and the Department of State, it has been warned that the permissive behavior of United States law enforcement agencies in the face of violent actions can encourage the commission of acts of this nature.\nIt is the second violent attack against the diplomatic headquarters in Washington, since April 2020. On the night of that day, an individual of Cuban origin, standing in the middle of the street in the US capital and using an assault rifle, fired a burst of thirty cartridges against the building. Fortunately, there were no injuries to the personnel inside the building on that occasion, but there were considerable material damages.\nAfter three years, the perpetrator still awaits trial and the United States government has refused to classify the incident as a terrorist act.\n\u2026\nThe Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemns this terrorist action and hopes that the United States Government will act in accordance with the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, in the interest of avoiding the repetition of these events.\n\u2026\nIt also warns against the double standards used by the US government\u2019s supposed commitment against terrorism.\nThe CIA and FBI have created, financed, and trained hundreds of anti-Cuba terrorist groups since the triumph of the revolution in 1959.\nAt least 3,478 Cubans have been killed and 2,099 have been disabled by US-sponsored terrorism since the revolution.\nThis includes 581 attacks against the country\u2019s diplomatic representations abroad, according to Cuba\u2019s Center for Historical Investigations of State Security (CIHSE).\nAt their peak violence, in 1974, Cuban exiles accounted for 45% of all terrorist bombings on the planet.\nThe most notorious of these terrorists, Orlando Bosch and Luis Posada Carriles, bombed a Cuban plane and numerous hotels. They were trained by the CIA and exonerated by the US government for their crimes. They died peacefully in Florida, celebrated as local heroes by the extreme anti-Castro community.\nAs Cuban Foreign Minister Rodriguez wrote after the latest attack, \u201cThe anti-Cuban groups resort to terrorism when feeling they enjoy impunity, something that Cuba has repeatedly warned the US authorities about.\u201d\nThe weak response to the April 2020 shooting on the embassy is exactly what enabled an attack to happen again, the Cubans say.\nThe perpetrator of that previous attack, 42-year-old Cuban immigrant Alexander Alazo Bar\u00f3, has yet to be convicted.\n\u201cThe author of that barbaric act that machine-gunned our diplomatic headquarters \u2026 is still awaiting sentencing,\u201d wrote leading Cuban diplomat Johana Tablada, deputy director general of the Foreign Ministry\u2019s US Division. \u201cCuba is awaiting condemnation from the US government, which did not even call this terrorist act by its name.\u201d\nCuban journalist El Necio reported, \u201cThe defendant is expected to face a mandatory sentence of no less than 10 years in prison, a fine of $250,000 and up to three years of supervised release \u2026 However, the defense seeks to prove a clinical picture of schizophrenia. There is still no sentence for this case, but the attacker is in preventive detention.\u201d\n(+ detalles) \u2934\ufe0f\n\u2013 Se produjeron da\u00f1os materiales en la fachada y los interiores: paredes, columnas, ventanas, escalera y l\u00e1mpara interior, el asta de la bandera, la reja y la estatua del H\u00e9roe Nacional de Cuba, Jos\u00e9 Mart\u00ed, frente a la sede (ver fotos)\n\u2013 El informe policial lo\u2026 pic.twitter.com/XIiV23Ih4p\n\u2014 El Necio (@ElNecio_Cuba) September 25, 2023\n\nAt 2:05am on April 30, 2020, Alazo Bar\u00f3 parked his truck 16th Street NW, in front of the Cuban embassy. He approached the fence, yelled and desecrated a Cuban flag, then proceeded to fire 32 shots from an AK-47 at the embassy.\nNone of the dozen staff inside were injured, but easily could have been. The outside and interior of the building are completely riddled with bullet holes. Now the embassy has bulletproof doors.\nUpon his arrest, Alazo Bar\u00f3 claimed he was motivated by his hatred of Cuba and fear of assassination by the Cuban government and alleged criminal groups. At his trial, said he \u201chated Cubans\u201d and would have shot the ambassador if he saw him, because he was the \u201cenemy.\u201d\nAfter weeks of silence from the United States following the 2020 attack, Cuban Foreign Minister Rodr\u00edguez publicly denounced Washington\u2019s lack of cooperation in the investigation, accusing the US of failing to \u201cfulfill its obligation to prevent this attack, of which it received sufficient signals.\u201d\nUS media and law enforcement dismissed Alazo Bar\u00f3 as a lone wolf, but he was a vocal Trump supporter linked to extremist anti-Cuba groups in Miami.\nAlazo Bar\u00f3 had left Cuba in 2003 to settle in Mexico on a religious visa. He then immigrated to the US, crossing the southern border in 2010. He lived first in Florida, then in Texas, and later in Pennsylvania.\nLike many Cubans permanently residing abroad, he maintained a normal relationship with Cuba, and visited eight times after leaving, last in 2015. He never exhibited any concerning behavior during his returns to Cuba or interactions with Cuban authorities.\nHowever, during his time in Miami, Alazo Bar\u00f3 associated with the Doral Jesus Worship Center, a religious center and hot spot of aggression and violence against Cuba.\nHe befriended Pastor Frank L\u00f3pez, a vocal extremist who has close relationships with anti-Cuba hawks like Florida Representative Mario D\u00edaz-Balart and Senator Marco Rubio.\nAccording to Facebook posts, Alazo Bar\u00f3 also befriended members of the congregation who advocated using drones to kill Ra\u00fal Castro and President Miguel D\u00edaz-Canel.\nIn February 2019, a year before the AK-47 terror attack on the embassy, Vice President Mike Pence spoke at the Doral Jesus Worship Center alongside Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Senators Rubio and Rick Scott, and Representative D\u00edaz-Balart.\nTheir remarks showed utter contempt for Cuba and Venezuela, which D\u00edaz-Balart said were suffering from \u201cthe same cancer.\u201d\nPresident Trump also spoke at the church in July 2020.\n#US President @realDonaldTrump will speak today at the Doral Jesus Worship Center, involved in instigation to violence and #terrorism against #Cuba, frequented by the attacker who shot  against our embassy in Washington with an assault rifle.\nWill he condemn that action? pic.twitter.com/71EkgG802k\n\u2014 Bruno Rodr\u00edguez P (@BrunoRguezP) July 10, 2020\n\nIn March 2020, a month before the attack, Alazo Bar\u00f3 was admitted to a psychiatric hospital, diagnosed with delusional disorder, and prescribed medication. He already had a license to carry and, after being medically discharged, he acquired the AK-47 rifle.\nTwo weeks before the attack, Alazo Bar\u00f3 visited the embassy to scope out the target.\nCuba\u2019s Foreign Affairs Ministry called for the US to investigate these links between the shooter and anti-Cuba leaders.\nCuba questions how Alazo Bar\u00f3 was able to purchase an assault rifle with such ease, and then travel around doing reconnaissance at the site of the attack.\nAfter the shooting, the embassy repaired the shattered glass and installed bulletproof doors, but Cuban officials decided to leave most of the bullet holes in place, marking them with plaques, so that this act of violence and intimidation can never be forgotten.\nMeanwhile, the US government and media remain disturbingly quiet about these acts of terrorism in the heart of the capital.\nCuba\u2019s Foreign Ministry argued the attacks on the embassy could not be seen as separate, but rather as a direct result \u201cof the permanent instigation of violence by American politicians and anti-Cuban extremist groups that have made this type of attacks their livelihood,\u201d in a hostile political climate which heightened during the Trump administration.\nClearly this hostility against Cuba did not end with Trump, but rather continues under Biden, as shown by the second attack.\nBiden has upheld nearly every one of the hundreds of additional sanctions Trump designed to strangle the Cuban economy, including by renewing the designation of Cuba as a so-called \u201cstate sponsor of terrorism.\u201d\nDespite US-Cuba cooperation on migration, drug-trafficking, and counter-terrorism, and despite Biden\u2019s campaign promises to return to Obama-era rapprochement with Cuba, his administration has carried on Trump\u2019s policy of \u201cmaximum pressure\u201d and continues to fund $20 million each year to groups that attack and destabilize the Cuban government.\nCuba has received messages of support from Mexico, Bolivia, Venezuela, and other allies.\nCuba also saw an outpouring of solidarity from the US people, following a week of actions against the blockade and in support of Cuba during the UNGA.\nOn September 23, the night before the attack, Cuban President D\u00edaz-Canel rallied with 900 people in New York City for the solidarity event \u201cVoices of Dignity: People vs Blockades\u201d.\nAs a leader of Cuban-America solidarity group Puentes de Amor, Carlos Lazo, wrote after the attack, \u201cIt is sad and disturbing that while the Cuban president advocated yesterday, in front of hundreds of Americans, for the construction of bridges of love between Cuba and the United States, today, in Washington D.C., a terrorist launched two explosives against the Cuban embassy.\u201d\nOn September 25, local supporters gathered outside the Cuban embassy to show solidarity with the country, calling for the US to investigate these attacks as acts of terrorism, and demanding an end to the US economic war against Cuba.\nAgainst the hateful attack of two Molotov cocktails thrown at our Embassy in #Washington, a wall of love, affection and support from loyal friends in solidarity with the Cuban people was erected. Hate will never defeat noble and genuine love. #CubaIsNotAlone pic.twitter.com/tD5wL7t0U6\n\u2014 Sandra Yisel Ram\u00edrez (@carantosan) September 26, 2023\n\n(Editor\u2019s note: This article was updated soon after it was published on September 25 to include the statement from the White House and the newly released video footage of the second attack.)\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: In Cuba, Mexico\u2019s AMLO calls for end to blockade, urges Latin American unity amid \u2018US economic decline\u2019. 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, Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador, blockade, Cuba, Latin America, Mexico, sanctions", "output": "Mexican President L\u00f3pez Obrador took a historic trip to Cuba, where he called for an end to the US blockade and criticized right-wing \u201ccoup-plotters.\u201d He said Latin America should form a union, amid \u201cthe economic decline of the United States.\u201d\n\nMexico\u2019s progressive President Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador took a historic trip to Cuba, where he called for an end to US sanctions and urged Latin America to form an economic union.\nL\u00f3pez Obrador, who is commonly referred to by the acronym AMLO, also stated that \u201cthe economic decline of the United States,\u201d and the corresponding rise of China, has created both challenges and opportunities for the region. He argued Latin America should unite to mutually develop, take advantage of its natural resources, and fight poverty, immigration, and violence.\nCriticizing right-wing \u201ccoup-plotters\u201d and Washington\u2019s aggressive foreign policy, AMLO went so far as to announce that he will not attend the conference of North, Central, and South American countries meeting in California in June, the Summit of the Americas, if the US government refuses to invite Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua.\nIn La Habana on May 8, L\u00f3pez Obrador met with Cuban President Miguel D\u00edaz-Canel. The Mexican leader thanked \u201cthe generous, supportive, and exemplar people of Cuba.\u201d\nD\u00edaz-Canel presented AMLO the Order of Jos\u00e9 Mart\u00ed, the highest award that the Cuban government gives to foreigners.\n\u201cI have never sought, do not seek, and will not seek the failure of the Cuban Revolution, of its idea of justice and its lessons of independence and dignity,\u201d AMLO declared. \u201cI will never join with the coup-plotters who conspire against those ideals.\u201d\nL\u00f3pez Obrador criticized the suffocating US sanctions that have been imposed on Cuba since immediately after the triumph of its socialist revolution in 1959.\n\u201cI will keep trying to get the United States to lift the blockade,\u201d the Mexican president said.\nLas relaciones entre #M\u00e9xico y #Cuba son hist\u00f3ricas y entra\u00f1ables. #CubaNoEstaSolahttps://t.co/8PLbpeKiEJ pic.twitter.com/rsz5hzPtTU\n\u2014 Miguel D\u00edaz-Canel Berm\u00fadez (@DiazCanelB) May 9, 2022\n\nMexico and Cuba signed various bilateral agreements concerning trade and immigration.\nAfter the global Covid-19 pandemic broke out in 2020, Cuba provided Mexico with some of the vaccines it developed. In one of the new agreements, Cuba will send the Abdala vaccine, which is designed for children between ages 5 and 12.\nAMLO used his trip to Cuba to call for the unity of Latin America.\n\u201cWe should build something similar to the European Union, but based on our history, reality, and identities,\u201d L\u00f3pez Obrador said.\n\u201cIn that spirit we should not rule out the elimination of the Organization of American States for a truly autonomous organization that is not a lackey of anyone,\u201d he added, condemning the US-dominated OAS.\nWhile in La Habana,\u00a0AMLO also met with Ra\u00fal Castro, the former army general and revolutionary leader.\nEl General de Ej\u00e9rcito, Ra\u00fal Castro Ruz, sostuvo un fraternal encuentro con el presidente de #M\u00e9xico,  @lopezobrador_ durante su visita de trabajo a #Cuba. ?? ?? pic.twitter.com/ZtFGXD6uyI\n\u2014 Presidencia Cuba ?? (@PresidenciaCuba) May 10, 2022\n\nAMLO\u2019s trip to Cuba was part of a tour of numerous countries in Latin America.\nOn May 7, L\u00f3pez Obrador met with the prime minister of Belize, John Antonio Brice\u00f1o. There, the Mexican leader reiterated his calls for Latin American unity.\n\u201cI maintain that it is necessary to move forward in an integration of all of America, in the construction of a model similar to that of the European Community, a model that preceded what is today the European Union,\u201d AMLO said.\n\u201cOnly in that way can we confront the turbulence of the global economy and the geopolitical danger that the economic decline of the United States represents for all of the world, as opposed to other regions, especially Asia, and in particular I am referring to the economic advance of China,\u201d he explained.\n\u201cIn addition to halting this course of undesirable events, the union of America would develop our natural resources, tourism, and our financial systems to provide well-being and justice for our populations, to jointly confront problems like poverty, immigration, insecurity,\u201d L\u00f3pez Obrador added.\nIts truly an honor to welcome the Mexican President, @lopezobrador_ on his first official visit to Belize. Our delegations will hold high-level bilateral talks on issues of mutual interests and partnerships.#Belize #Mexico pic.twitter.com/9v1sycqqSH\n\u2014 John Brice\u00f1o (@JohnBricenoBZE) May 7, 2022\n\nAMLO then criticized the Summit of the Americas, which will be held by the US government and OAS in California from June 6 to 10.\nThe US State Department has refused to invite the socialist governments of Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua to this meeting.\nAMLO said he would pressure US President Joe Biden to not exclude anyone from the summit.\n\u201cI have insisted in the necessity that no government in the hemisphere and no country in America be excluded from the upcoming summit that will be taking place in Los Angeles, in the United States, that no one excludes anyone. It should be a meeting that allows us to resolve our disagreements without hegemonies or arrogance,\u201d the Mexican leader said.\nL\u00f3pez Obrador\u00a0took the extraordinary step of declaring that he will not attend the summit if Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua are not invited.\nPresident @lopezobrador_ wont attend the Summit of the Americas in an act of protest if countries are excluded\u2014 but @m_ebrard will. pic.twitter.com/dBqzxTm2Ll\n\u2014 Kawsachun News (@KawsachunNews) May 10, 2022\n\nL\u00f3pez Obrador\u2019s trips to Cuba and Belize were part of a larger tour of the region.\nAMLO also visited Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras, where he met with new left-wing President Xiomara Castro.\nSocialists in Latin America did however criticize L\u00f3pez Obrador for skipping\u00a0Nicaragua on his trip to Central America.\nNicaragua has a leftist government, run by the democratically elected Sandinista Front and its revolutionary leader Daniel Ortega.\nSocialists in the region have criticized Mexico\u2019s Foreign Ministry for sometimes joining with the United States in voting against Nicaragua in the United Nations and OAS, although on occasions Mexico has abstained from these votes.\nWhile AMLO did not travel to Nicaragua, he did\u00a0meet with the corrupt right-wing president of Guatemala, Alejandro Giammattei, as well as the increasingly authoritarian neoliberal president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, who in April alone detained more than 20,000 people, in what he claimed was a crackdown on gangs but also included brutal suppression of his political opponents.\nVisita Oficial del Presidente de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos, @lopezobrador_, a El Salvador ???? pic.twitter.com/WquD9PTQ2o\n\u2014 Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) May 9, 2022\n\nAMLO skipping over Nicaragua on his trip was rather ironic given his calls for unifying the region and his opposition to the US refusal to invite its leftist Sandinista government to the Summit of the Americas.\nBut L\u00f3pez Obrador has still at times maintained an independent foreign policy.\nThe Mexican leader refused to impose sanctions on Russia over its war in Ukraine, for instance. And he criticized the US government for claiming his country is hosting more Russian spies than any other.\nAMLO is Mexico\u2019s first left-wing president in decades. He was elected in 2018 on a promise to end the neoliberal economic policies of the administrations that had governed since the 1980s.\nAlthough it was only founded a decade ago, AMLO\u2019s progressive Morena party quickly broke the two-party dictatorship that had controlled Mexican politics for decades.\nThe two establishment parties, the neoliberal PRI and right-wing PAN, have been thoroughly discredited among the Mexican population.\nA poll this May found that 64% of Mexicans said Morena manages social programs better, and 59% said the party is more concerned for the people.\nOn the other hand,\u00a058% of Mexicans said the PRI has done damage to their country, and 52% said it robbed the people when it governed.\nL\u00f3pez Obrador consistently has an approval rating of between 60 and 70%, making him one of the most popular leaders of large countries on Earth.\nIt's amazing how Mexico's left-wing Morena party, only founded a decade ago, so quickly and completely discredited the neoliberal parties that controlled politics for decades.\n64% of Mexicans say Morena manages social programs better. 59% say it is more concerned for the people pic.twitter.com/en2eYaFUoD\n\u2014 Benjamin Norton (@BenjaminNorton) May 10, 2022\n\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: AMLO says Mexico is more democratic than oligarch-run USA, condemns State Dep\u2019t \u2018meddling\u2019 against electoral reform. 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, Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador, Enrique Pe\u00f1a Nieto, Felipe Calder\u00f3n, INE, Mexico, PAN, PRI", "output": "Responding to State Department criticism of Mexico\u2019s popular electoral reform, President AMLO denounced US \u201cmeddling\u201d, support for coups, and the Monroe Doctrine. He said, \u201cThere is more democracy today in Mexico than in the United States\u2026 because here the people govern, and there the oligarchy govern\u201d.\n\nMexico\u2019s leftist President Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador (AMLO) gave a fiery speech condemning the US State Department\u2019s \u201cbad habit\u201d of \u201cmeddling\u201d in other country\u2019s \u201cinternal affairs\u201d.\n\u201cThere is more democracy today in Mexico than in the United States\u201d, L\u00f3pez Obrador said, \u201cbecause here the people govern, and there the oligarchy govern\u201d.\nAMLO lamented that politicians in Washington \u201cstill will not abandon the two-century-old policy, the Monroe Doctrine, of thinking of themselves as the world\u2019s government\u201d, calling it a \u201ccenturies-old habit of the US government and US elites\u201d.\nAs an example, L\u00f3pez Obrador pointed to Peru, where he said \u201cthe US ambassador is the advisor of the coup-mongers, who trampled on the liberties and democracy in that country, unjustly overthrowing the President [Pedro Castillo] and imprisoning him\u201d.\nAMLO also denounced US corporate media outlets for spreading propaganda against his government, supporting Mexico\u2019s right-wing opposition, and \u201cprotecting the mafias of economic power in the world\u201d.\n\nL\u00f3pez Obrador is Mexico\u2019s first left-wing president in decades. When he came to power in 2018, he broke a decades-long cycle of bipartisan rule, which he blasted as the \u201cneoliberal period\u201d in which the \u201coligarchy\u201d ruled the country.\nIn addition to expanding social programs, a\u00a0key part of AMLO\u2019s political agenda has been electoral reform.\nFor decades, Mexico has faced rampant corruption and very reputable accusations of electoral fraud. L\u00f3pez Obrador has vowed to change that.\nHis government proposed legislation to reform Mexico\u2019s National Electoral Institute (INE). The plan is to simplify the country\u2019s voting system, cutting funding to highly overpaid executives, while making it easier to vote for people living in rural areas, those with disabilities, and Mexicans abroad.\nNumerous INE executives already get paid more than the president himself, and the huge sums of money in and around the institution has made corruption a systemic problem.\nA survey from late 2022, which was conducted by the INE itself, found that the vast majority of Mexicans support electoral reforms, with 74% to 93% of people agreeing with proposed reforms, such as cutting funding and creating elections for electoral magistrates.\nIn fact, the poll found that 52% of Mexicans support replacing the INE with an entirely new institution called the National Institute of Elections and Consultations (INEC), while just 40% of people oppose this.\nAlthough electoral reform is widely popular among the Mexican people, it has angered the country\u2019s political and economic elites, as well as their backers in Washington.\nOn February 26, Mexico\u2019s right-wing opposition parties \u2013 many of which are closely linked to drug cartels and have benefited from decades of systemic corruption \u2013 held a march against the Mexican government\u2019s proposed electoral reforms, calling for the INE to be left alone.\nMajor US media outlets showered the protests with support. The US State Department expressed its approval as well, criticizing the electoral reforms.\nCIA official turned State Department spokesman Ned Price applauded the demonstrations as part of a \u201cgreat debate\u201d to \u201csupport healthy democracy\u201d in Mexico.\nResponding to US gov't criticism of Mexico\u2019s popular electoral reform, President AMLO denounced US \u201cmeddling\u201d and support for coups:\n\u201cThere is more democracy today in Mexico than in the US\u2026 Here the people govern; there the oligarchy govern\u201d\nFull video: https://t.co/A75h7mmmpv pic.twitter.com/6ThH7gY7xU\n\u2014 Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) March 9, 2023\n\nL\u00f3pez Obrador denounced the US government\u2019s \u201cmeddling\u201d in a press conference on February 28.\n\u201cThe US State Department [has] the bad habit, always, they meddle in affairs that don\u2019t involve them\u201d, he said.\nThis contradicts the attitude of \u201cPresident Biden, who always talks about equality, rhetorically\u201d, AMLO added.\nCondemning this \u201cbad habit\u201d of the United States, the Mexican president lamented, \u201cThey still will not abandon the two-century-old policy, the Monroe Doctrine, of thinking of themselves as the world\u2019s government\u201d.\nHe continued: \u201cWhat do I say, with all due respect, to Mr. Blinken of the State Department? That there is more democracy today in Mexico than in the United States\u201d.\n\u201cInstead of meddling, acting in an interfering way in our internal affairs, if they want to continue with the same policy, they should take care of what is happening in Peru\u201d, AMLO said.\nIn Peru, he warned, \u201cthe US ambassador is the advisor of the coup-mongers, who trampled on the liberties and democracy in that country, unjustly overthrowing the president [Pedro Castillo] and imprisoning him\u201c.\n\u201cBut this is nothing more than the State Department. It is its nature\u201d, AMLO argued, denouncing the \u201ccenturies-old habit of the US government and US elites\u201d.\n\u201cWhen I say that we have more democracy than they do, it is because here the people govern, and there the oligarchy govern, nothing more\u201d, AMLO added.\nThe Mexican president also criticized the Wall Street Journal, which had a front-page story praising the right-wing opposition protest against his government.\nAMLO said the newspaper was promoting \u201cthe march of the corrupt\u201d. He quipped that the Wall Street Journal \u201cand other newspapers in the United States protect the mafias of economic power in the world\u201d.\nThe leaders of the march were \u201ccorrupt\u201d and \u201chypocritical\u201d, L\u00f3pez Obrador argued. He noted that it featured many of the same politicians who voted against his proposed policies to support pensions for elderly Mexicans and scholarships for students.\n\u201cThat is their mentality. They are very conservative and very hypocritical\u201d, he said.\nAMLO likewise made fun of the hyperbolic media outlets and opposition activists who \u201csay that we are dictators\u201d.\nHe also lampooned right-wing politicians who claim, \u201cYou are either with me or against me\u201d. Instead, AMLO countered, you are \u201ceither with the people or with the oligarchy\u201d.\nL\u00f3pez Obrador is one of the most popular heads of state in the world. He has consistently enjoyed an approval rating of between 60% and 70% since he came to power in 2018.\nHis proposed electoral reform is very popular as well.\nThe main goal of the reform is to simplify Mexico\u2019s electoral system, and trim down the National Electoral Institute (INE), which is notorious for its massive bureaucratic bloat, and which provides a lot of room and money for corruption.\nPresident\u00a0AMLO has often pointed out that some high-level INE officials make more money than he does.\nBy streamlining the system, L\u00f3pez Obrador hopes to make it much more difficult for Mexican elites to steal elections.\nThroughout his career, going back decades, AMLO has campaigned against the rampant corruption in Mexico\u2019s political and electoral system.\nA progressive outsider, L\u00f3pez Obrador ran against the two parties that dominated Mexican politics: the center-right neoliberal PRI and the hard-right conservative PAN. Both are infamous for their documented involvement in corruption.\nThe PRI governed the country (under various names) from 1929 until 2000, and then returned in 2012. The PAN reigned from 2000 to 2012.\nAMLO came very close to winning the 2006 presidential election, losing by a fraction of a percentage point. He accused his right-wing opponent Felipe Calder\u00f3n of stealing the election through fraud.\nCalder\u00f3n, who served as president from 2006 to 2012, is well known to have close links to drug trafficking and corruption. Former officials in his government said he oversaw a \u201cdeath squad\u201d that killed civilians.\nCalder\u00f3n\u2019s chief of security, Genaro Garc\u00eda Luna, was found guilty in a US federal court in February of having collaborated with the bloody Sinaloa Cartel and protected drug lord El Chapo Guzm\u00e1n.\nIn the 2012 presidential elections, the neoliberal PRI returned to power. L\u00f3pez Obrador once again came in second place.\nAMLO accused the PRI of buying 5 million votes. And there was ample evidence for his accusations \u2013 these are not at all like Donald Trump\u2019s baseless allegations.\nIn the wake of the 2012 elections, numerous videos went viral on social media showing long lines of Mexicans who received payment cards to vote for the PRI.\nA diehard right-wing Colombian hacker who is currently in prison, Andr\u00e9s Sep\u00falveda, told Bloomberg in 2016 that he helped PRI candidate Enrique Pe\u00f1a Nieto rig the 2012 elections, by stealing data, hacking phones, installing spyware, manipulating social media, spreading fake news, among other dirty tricks.\nBloomberg wrote (emphasis added):\nWhen Pe\u00f1a Nieto won [in 2012], Sep\u00falveda began destroying evidence. He drilled holes in flash drives, hard drives, and cell phones, fried their circuits in a microwave, then broke them to shards with a hammer. He shredded documents and flushed them down the toilet and erased servers in Russia and Ukraine rented anonymously with Bitcoins. He was dismantling what he says was a secret history of one of the dirtiest Latin American campaigns in recent memory.\nFor eight years, Sep\u00falveda, now 31, says he traveled the continent rigging major political campaigns. With a budget of $600,000, the Pe\u00f1a Nieto job was by far his most complex. He led a team of hackers that stole campaign strategies, manipulated social media to create false waves of enthusiasm and derision, and installed spyware in opposition offices, all to help Pe\u00f1a Nieto, a right-of-center candidate, eke out a victory.\n\u2026\nSep\u00falveda\u2019s team installed malware in routers in the headquarters of the PRD candidate [AMLO], which let him tap the phones and computers of anyone using the network, including the candidate. He took similar steps against PAN\u2019s V\u00e1zquez Mota. When the candidates\u2019 teams prepared policy speeches, Sep\u00falveda had the details as soon as a speechwriter\u2019s fingers hit the keyboard. Sep\u00falveda saw the opponents\u2019 upcoming meetings and campaign schedules before their own teams did.\nMoney was no problem. At one point, Sep\u00falveda spent $50,000 on high-end Russian software that made quick work of tapping Apple, BlackBerry, and Android phones. He also splurged on the very best fake Twitter profiles; they\u2019d been maintained for at least a year, giving them a patina of believability.\nSep\u00falveda managed thousands of such fake profiles and used the accounts to shape discussion around topics such as Pe\u00f1a Nieto\u2019s plan to end drug violence, priming the social media pump with views that real users would mimic. For less nuanced work, he had a larger army of 30,000 Twitter bots, automatic posters that could create trends. One conversation he started stoked fear that the more L\u00f3pez Obrador rose in the polls, the lower the peso would sink. Sep\u00falveda knew the currency issue was a major vulnerability; he\u2019d read it in the candidate\u2019s own internal staff memos.\nJust about anything the digital dark arts could offer to Pe\u00f1a Nieto\u2019s campaign or important local allies, Sep\u00falveda and his team provided. On election night, he had computers call tens of thousands of voters with prerecorded phone messages at 3 a.m. in the critical swing state of Jalisco.\nAs an alleged victim of voter fraud, AMLO has insisted on the importance of electoral reform, to make the country\u2019s corruption-ridden system more equitable.\nIn February, Mexico\u2019s Senate approved \u201cPlan B\u201d of the proposed electoral reform. This version is much less ambitious than the overhaul that was proposed in 2022 (Plan A), but which did not get enough votes to pass.\nDespite the law being watered down, Mexico\u2019s right-wing opposition \u2013 which is notoriously corrupt and unpopular \u2013 has capitalized on it to try to portray AMLO as a would-be \u201cautocrat\u201d.\nThis is despite the fact that L\u00f3pez Obrador is only going to be in power for one term, and has made no efforts to change Mexico\u2019s law restricting presidencies to a single term.\nMexico\u2019s conservative opposition has powerful friends in Washington, and particularly in the US press corps.\nThe editorial board of the Washington Post, which is owned by billionaire oligarch Jeff Bezos, blasted AMLO\u2019s electoral reform as \u201ca knife stabbing at the heart of Mexico\u2019s democracy\u201d.\nReuters cited anonymous \u201ccritics\u201d who \u201cwarn it will weaken democracy\u201c, while the Los Angeles Times did the same to portray it as a \u201cthreat to democracy\u201c.\nNeoconservative activist David Frum, a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush and accomplice in the illegal US invasion of Iraq, claimed in The Atlantic that \u201cliberal democracy in Mexico is under assault\u201d, demonizing democratically elected President AMLO as \u201cerratic and authoritarian\u201d.\nNot one of these media outlets mentioned the 2022 INE survey that found that 74% to 93% of Mexicans support AMLO\u2019s proposed electoral reforms, or that the president has consistently had an approval rating of between 60% and 70%.\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Inside Nicaragua\u2019s free socialized health-care system. 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": "FSLN, Health Care, Nicaragua, public health, Sandinistas", "output": "An inside look at the free universal health-care system created by Nicaragua\u2019s Sandinista government, which has saved countless lives.\n\nSe puede leer este art\u00edculo en espa\u00f1ol aqu\u00ed.\n(This piece was originally published by the Casa Benjamin Linder.)\nWe\u2019re settling in to our daughter Orla\u2019s sixth night in the hospital. Visiting hours are over and only 10 of the beds in our 32-bed pediatric ward are occupied tonight, down from 20 a few nights ago.\nThe patients \u2013 mostly young teens in our room \u2013 are tucked in under mosquito nets. Their caretakers \u2013 mainly grandmas, aunts and moms \u2013 are slouched in chairs or curled around their patients on the beds. A few of us stretch out on unoccupied beds to get some rest before the nurse turns on the lights for the next regular blood pressure and temp check.\nOur 14 year-old was admitted to the pediatric ward with dengue fever on July 19th, Revolution Day in Nicaragua. Poor Orla sobbed in disappointment that she wouldn\u2019t be able to celebrate the holiday.\nAfter two days of fever, I had taken her to the emergency room in our local Ciudad Sandino Primary Hospital where the blood work they ordered indicated dengue and showed that her platelet count was low enough to be of concern.\n\u201cShe\u2019ll be staying here with us,\u201d the doctor announced. Since then, either my husband Paul or I have been with her in the hospital, tasked with making sure she\u2019s kept hydrated and informed of her progress via blood test results each day.\nDengue fever is a virus transmitted by mosquitoes that propagate in the tropics during the rainy season and it affects 50 million people annually worldwide.\nNicaragua works to control outbreaks through regular house-to-house fumigation and eliminating stagnant water \u2013 the epidemiology department of the health services visited our house shortly after Orla was hospitalized to get kill any mosquitoes or larvae.\nThere is no cure for dengue, just symptom management over its eight-day cycle. The virus attacks the body and can cause leakage in vessel walls, resulting in water loss in the circulatory system and rapid dehydration.\nMuch rarer severe cases can cause internal bleeding and for blood platelets to drop to dangerously low levels. Hemorrhagic dengue is particularly dangerous because patients can go into shock and die before they can get the blood transfusion they need.\nBecause of this risk, the Nicaraguan Ministry of Health\u2019s policy is to hospitalize anyone with dengue who shows signs of possible complications, including low blood platelets. Thanks to this prudent policy and quality care, Nicaragua is the country with fewer deaths from dengue than any other country in the region \u2013 in a normal year, zero deaths.\nTreatment for the 12 pediatric patients we\u2019ve seen come through our room has been intravenous rehydration fluids and ultrasounds upon being admitted; blood pressure, temp and blood oxygen level checks every two hours; daily blood tests; and constant monitoring of liquid intake and outflow.\nPatients with fevers get acetaminophen; patients with suspicious pain are taken for another ultrasound; patients not getting enough fluids are put back on IVs.\nAlthough the staff has been concerned about possible complications for at least four of our patients, including Orla, no one on our ward has been transferred to a larger Managua hospital for emergency transfusions; but the ambulance is standing by outside if its needed.\nKnowing that gives me incredible peace of mind \u2013 at home, how could I possibly have known what Orla\u2019s platelets were doing?\nGrowing up in the U.S., I never had a close family member admitted to the hospital; in fact, visits to the doctor were rare. As a kid, I remember knowing that if I got sick over the weekend, I\u2019d have to tough it out until Monday when we could see the doctor during office hours.\nA trip to the emergency room at the hospital \u2013 the only after-hours option in my rural county \u2013 was too expensive. For the most part, everyone I knew only went to the doctor if they\u2019d been sick for more than a week \u2013 their families simply couldn\u2019t afford more frequent care.\nBy contrast, Nicaraguans seem to go to the doctor all the time. If my neighbor\u2019s kid gets diarrhea, they bring her straight to the emergency room. I used to think this was because people were afraid \u2013 in the 1990s and early 2000s, child and infant mortality rates were high in Nicaragua and many kids really did die of preventable diseases.\nBut as child health has improved \u2013 infant mortality down by 61% and chronic malnutrition reduced by 66% over the past 15 years \u2013 I have finally begun to understand that Nicaraguans take their kids to the hospital because they can.\nBack in Idaho where I\u2019m from, Orla\u2019s emergency room visit alone would have cost $2,159 and her six nights in the hospital would have totaled more than $60,000.\nIn the United States, medical debt cripples 41% of all U.S. adults and they scramble to pay outrageous bills: more than a quarter of all fundraisers on crowdfunding sites are for health-related costs.\nMy mom has been telling her friends in Idaho of our woes. \u201cMy granddaughter in Nicaragua has spent the week hospitalized with dengue fever.\u201d\n\u201cOh dear!\u201d Her friends all exclaim (dengue fever does sound awfully dramatic).\n\u201cGuess how much their hospital bill is so far?\u201d She asks. They frown and shake their heads, already anticipating that my mom is about to hit them up for donations for a GoFundMe campaign to help cover our bills.\n\u201cHow much?\u201d They ask.\n\u201cNothing at all!\u201d My mom gleefully reports. \u201cNicaragua has free universal health care!\u201d\nHer friends\u2019 shock is palpable. \u201cHow,\u201d they ask, \u201ccan a poor country like Nicaragua afford to give free health care to its people?\u201d\nThe answer, of course, is because Nicaragua chooses to make free health care a priority for its people.\nNighttime in the pediatric ward means little sleep for caretakers. In the morning I wake at 3, holding a sleepy Orla upright while the lab tech gets a blood sample from her arm, and then try to coax a bit more fluid down her throat. I crash back into sleep until the nurse comes to collect the papers where we write down our patients\u2019 intake and outflow and do the consequential math: are more fluids going in than coming out?\nNext the doctors arrive with the lab results for the day: who gets to go home and who has to stay. The hopeful have their bags packed, waiting. The feverish ones stay wrapped in restless sheets, in and out of consciousness, knowing they\u2019ll be here another night.\nOn our third morning, I start awake at 10 minutes to 7 and rush to shower and change before my husband Paul arrives \u2013 bless him \u2013 with strong coffee and the car keys. I kiss Orla goodbye and drive straight from the hospital to interpret for a delegation that is in Nicaragua to celebrate the 43rd anniversary of the triumph of the Sandinista Revolution, when the Nicaraguan people overthrew the cruel Somoza dictatorship.\nOur first meeting is with Nicaragua\u2019s Finance Minister Iv\u00e1n Acosta. It\u2019s my first time interpreting for him and I soon realize that even with a full-night\u2019s sleep I couldn\u2019t do him justice with my interpretation.\nHe has an obvious grasp of details \u2013 quoting figures off the top of his head and speaking for two hours with no notes \u2013 but above all else, Minister Acosta is a Big Picture person. He connects the dots for us between policy, action and results, giving perspective to Nicaragua\u2019s entire revolutionary project.\n\u201cWhen we came into office in 2007, following nearly 17 years of neoliberal governments,\u201d he says, \u201cwe found the country in chaos.\u201d\nMinister Acosta explains that the period from 1990 to 2006 when Nicaragua had followed structural adjustment policies of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund led to extreme inequality, seriously deteriorated infrastructure, and deep poverty, particularly in Nicaragua\u2019s countryside.\n\u201cThere was no magic solution for any of this. What could we do?\u201d he asks.\nNicaragua\u2019s Sandinista government decided on a blend of social responsibility and economic principles. They began restoring rights \u2013 to free health care, free public education, and land tenure.\nBut they also worked to find ways to ensure that Nicaragua\u2019s poor majority became active participants in the economy as a solution to improve the country\u2019s struggling economy.\n\u201cWe realized that we need to lower the cost of doing business to be competitive; in order to achieve that, we needed to increase public spending.\u201d\nTo that end, Nicaragua set about building state-of-the-art roads \u2013 now the best in the region \u2013 to ensure that products could get to market cheaply and easily.\nNicaragua improved access to basic services: now reaching 99% electrical coverage up from just 53% in 2006; ending 12-hour a day rolling blackouts and diversifying to generate clean energy. Today 80% of the electricity produced is from renewables;\nNicaragua also trained new teachers and made new schools. And it has built 24 new hospitals since 2007.\nOver just 10 years, Minister Acosta explains, social spending went from being 10% of overall spending to making up 57% of the country\u2019s budget.\nBut have these policies been effective?\n\u201cWe have these pro-poor policies, but in many countries only lip service is paid to political policy and it isn\u2019t followed by action,\u201d explains Minister Acosta. \u201cSo we do the math \u2013 all the various quotients and formulae recommended by international experts \u2013 to ensure that our policies are being translated into results: real improvements in the lives of the poor.\u201d\nThe numbers show that not only has Nicaragua\u2019s economy turned around \u2013 sustained GDP growth of 5% to 10%, historic international investment, and 90% food sovereignty have all been achieved \u2013 but also the lives of the country\u2019s poor majority have improved. In 2006, GDP per capita was at $990, but by 2018 it had risen to $2,300.\n\u201cWe don\u2019t have a significant middle class yet,\u201d Minister Acosta cautions, but progress is being made.\nNicaragua\u2019s policy could be described as \u201ctrickle up economics\u201d \u2013 ensure the poor access to health care, education, land, markets, financing, and the economy will follow.\nThis is the inversion of \u201ctrickle down economics,\u201d the U.S. policy made famous by Ronald Reagan which gives tax breaks and benefits to corporations and the wealthy on the theory that it will stimulate economic growth from the top down.\nThe problem with the U.S. policy is not only a moral one; in economic terms, it just plain doesn\u2019t work.\nUnder four decades of \u201ctrickle down\u201d policy, income inequality in the U.S. has grown to shocking levels: the wealthiest 0.1% have become rich beyond all comprehension, while most U.S. workers now earn less than half of what they would have been earning if incomes had continued to grow equitably.\nIn other words, tax breaks and benefits to the richest simply don\u2019t trickle down: U.S. families now work longer hours for less pay while struggling to cover skyrocketing costs.\nCurrently, 22% of the U.S. population can\u2019t access health care due to lack of adequate insurance, 12% experiences hunger and more than half a million people are homeless \u2013many living under the country\u2019s collapsing bridges \u2013 one in every five of which are in need of reconstruction.\nGiven what we know about how stability and quality of life for the majority can improve the overall economy, perhaps instead of asking, \u201cHow can a poor country like Nicaragua afford to give free health care to its people?\u201d, we should really be asking, \u201cHow can a wealthy country like the United States afford NOT to?\u201d\n\u201cDengue is treacherous,\u201d the doctor explains to me. \u201cA patient can suddenly experience internal bleeding and become critical in the blink of an eye.\u201d\nOrla\u2019s platelets have dropped, and she is in the most crucial day in the virus\u2019 cycle when signs of hemorrhagic dengue can appear.\nAs I sit on the edge of her bed urging her to drink more rehydration fluid, a woman who has been visiting another patient comes over to Orla\u2019s bed carrying a Bible.\n\u201cWould you like me to pray for your daughter?\u201d she asks. Orla agrees and the woman asks, \u201cHave you accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior?\u201d\nI stop her, not wanting her to get the wrong idea. \u201cWe\u2019re not Pentecostals,\u201d I say, \u201cbut Orla believes in God.\u201d The woman nods and holds her hands out, palms up.\nWe close our eyes as she begins praying in a soft singsong voice, asking God to look after my baby and heal her. When she finishes, she surprises me by saying, \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter which religion we belong to, it\u2019s all the same God.\u201d\nThat day, Orla turns a corner \u2013 her fever drops and her health begins to improve. I\u2019m grateful to all those responsible \u2013 as we say here in Nicaragua, \u201cThanks to God and the Revolution.\u201d\nWhy the Revolution? Because it has restored Nicaraguans\u2019 rights to free quality health care.\nOur entire delegation gets to see the quality of this health care up close. After our talk with Minister Acosta, we visit one of the best-equipped hospitals in the country, Velez Pa\u00edz, built new and opened in 2018.\nDirector Dr. Virginia Garcia tells us that patients with non-urgent emergencies wait a maximum of 30 minutes to be seen by ER doctors, and that patients wait a maximum of one month for non-emergency surgeries.\n\u201cWe have four laparoscopic towers performing gall bladder surgeries all day every day,\u201d she says. That surgery would cost $54,000 in my home country, but is free in Nicaragua.\nI interpret for Minister of Health Dr. Martha Reyes when she describes to the delegation the advances made in public health over the past 15 years. As she talks, it is easy for me to chart that path from policy to action to results that Minister Acosta talked about.\nWhen she finishes speaking, I thank Dr. Reyes personally for the quality care that Orla is receiving in our hometown public hospital. \u201cNot so long ago,\u201d I tell her, \u201cthat wouldn\u2019t have been possible.\u201d\nWhen I moved to Ciudad Sandino 20 years ago, our hospital was literally an empty shell, unable to provide even the most basic services to our community of 180,000. Not only did patients in \u201cpublic\u201d hospitals have to pay for everything from gloves to sutures, but a dengue patient in Orla\u2019s condition would have actually been safer at home \u2013 hospitals were in such appalling conditions with lack of staff, beds and even basic sanitation that it was commonly said that hospitals were where patients went to die.\nThanks to public investment in health infrastructure, increase in personnel, improved and specialized training, and tireless work to involve communities and families in their own health care, Ciudad Sandino now has seven health centers and a hospital which includes outpatient, inpatient and emergency care, a maternal wait home, rehabilitation and physical therapy services, a natural medicine center and a center for cataract surgeries \u2013 all services offered free of charge.\nComparable improvements have happened all over the country \u2013 the change in people\u2019s lives is palpable and the results in overall health are measureable: maternal mortality rates have dropped by 70%, deaths from cervical cancer are down by 25% and average life expectancy has increased.\nOn the morning of Orla\u2019s seventh day in the hospital, the doctor tells us that her platelets count is high enough to safely send her home.\nWe leave the hospital with nothing more than her official diagnosis paper, a stamped doctor\u2019s excuse for missing school, and a follow up appointment.\nWe owe no money. There is no itemized bill showing how many nights (6), how many sheets were washed (3), how many cafeteria meals she ate (17), how many full blood tests (10), urine tests (1), ultrasounds (1), IVs (1), or how much oral rehydration fluid she drank (53 liters).\nOrla and I walk out into the sunshine of a new day, ready to rest and recover, secure in the knowledge that the Nicaraguan government has made a choice to look after us \u2026 recognizing that it is a privilege to have access to free quality health care.\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Fewer than 15 countries recognize US-appointed Venezuelan coup leader Juan Guaid\u00f3. 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": "Bank of England, Britain, Canada, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Juan Guaid\u00f3, Julio Borges, Justin Trudeau, Leopoldo L\u00f3pez, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, PSUV, Spain, UK, United Kingdom, Venezuela", "output": "A right-wing Venezuelan opposition leader and former top Juan Guaid\u00f3 functionary admitted a maximum of 15 countries recognize the unelected coup leader as \u201cinterim president.\u201d The Joe Biden administration is one of them.\n\n(Se puede leer este art\u00edculo en espa\u00f1ol aqu\u00ed.)\nJanuary 23, 2022 marks the third anniversary of the US government\u2019s ongoing coup attempt against Venezuela\u2019s only constitutional government, that of democratically elected President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro.\nOn that day in 2019, the Donald Trump administration appointed little-known Venezuelan opposition politician Juan Guaid\u00f3, who had never received a single vote in a presidential election, as supposed \u201cinterim president\u201d of the Caribbean nation.\nAt the peak of the US-led coup attempt, fewer than 60 of the 193 UN member states recognized Guaid\u00f3. And that number has dropped precipitously since then.\nOne of Guaid\u00f3\u2019s top former functionaries, the right-wing Venezuelan opposition politician Julio Borges, has admitted in an interview that a maximum of just 15 countries still recognize Guaid\u00f3 as of January 2022.\nMajor Western media outlets have acknowledged that Guaid\u00f3 does not actually control anything inside Venezuela, other than what the United States stole for him.\nYet the Joe Biden administration has maintained Trump\u2019s policy of support for Guaid\u00f3.\nThis recognition has continued despite November 2021 regional elections in Venezuela, which were observed by the European Union, in which Guaid\u00f3\u2019s party faced a crushing defeat, and the United Socialist Party (PSUV) of President Maduro won in a landslide.\nVenezuelan coup leader Juan Guaid\u00f3 in the White House with US President Donald Trump in February 2020 (Photo credit: public domain)\nThe nations that still refuse to recognize Venezuela\u2019s constitutional President Maduro consist primarily of the United States and its right-wing allies in Latin America, including Colombia, Brazil, Guatemala, Paraguay, and Ecuador, along with the Washington-controlled Organization of American States (OAS).\nThe Liberal Justin Trudeau government of Canada still backs Guaid\u00f3 as well.\nBritain is one of the only remaining European countries that refuses to acknowledge Maduro \u2013 partially because, by continuing to formally recognize Guaid\u00f3, it provides a judicial excuse for the Bank of England to steal nearly $2 billion worth of Venezuelan gold.\nGuaid\u00f3\u2019s coup regime in fact used money illegally seized from Venezuela\u2019s Central Bank to pay legal costs in the UK, in its efforts to control these billions of dollars worth of looted Venezuelan gold, journalist John McEvoy revealed.\nEven Spain, which harbors Venezuelan fugitives from justice who organized violent coup attempts against the Chavista government, no longer really recognizes Guaid\u00f3.\nPerhaps the most powerful member of Venezuela\u2019s political opposition, Leopoldo L\u00f3pez, a right-wing extremist from an ultra-wealthy oligarch family, lives in Madrid, where he has enjoyed the support of the Spanish government. This is despite the fact that L\u00f3pez admitted to orchestrating violent coup attempts and plotting a failed invasion of Venezuela in May 2020, known as Operation Gideon.\nIn an implicit admission that all of these efforts at overthrowing Venezuela\u2019s legitimate government had failed, the European Union stopped recognizing Guaid\u00f3 as of January 2021.\nJulio Borges, the Venezuelan opposition politician who said a maximum of just 15 countries still recognize Guaid\u00f3, knows from firsthand experience.\nBorges previously served as so-called \u201cforeign minister\u201d for Guaid\u00f3\u2019s parallel coup regime, which has never exercised power inside Venezuela and was never voted on by the Venezuelan people.\nBorges resigned from Guaid\u00f3\u2019s coup regime in December 2021, saying the unelected \u201cinterim government has been deformed,\u201d and \u201cit should disappear.\u201d\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Inside Cuba\u2019s socialist health system, with journalist Rania Khalek. 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": "Covid-19, Cuba, public health, vaccines", "output": "Journalist Rania Khalek discusses her reporting trip to Cuba, where she got a firsthand look at its socialist health system, under the brutal US blockade.\n\nJournalist Rania Khalek, of BreakThrough News, discusses her reporting trip to Cuba, where she saw how US sanctions, which are illegal under international law, have caused hardship and shortages.\nShe interviewed medical experts and describes Cuba\u2019s socialist health system, which has produced multiple Covid-19 vaccines, despite being under a suffocating blockade imposed by the United States.\n\u201cPeople are dealing with a lot of difficulties because of the blockade,\u201d Khalek recalled. \u201cAnd that\u2019s in combination with all kinds of US schemes to undermine the socialist revolution in that country, you know whether it\u2019s hundreds of assassination attempts, attempted invasions, actual terrorism sponsored by the United States, and so many other ways the US has tried to undermine the Cuban government, through various NGOs, and NGO money, and using the internet, and on and on.\u201d\nFormer US President Donald Trump added 243 new sanctions measures against Cuba, many in the middle of the Covid pandemic. And the Joe Biden administration has maintained those illegal unilateral coercive measures, while adding even more.\nYet despite these enormous difficulties, Cuba has an \u201cincredible medical system,\u201d Khalek explained.\n\u201cIt\u2019s free, and it all revolves around preventative care, in a really holistic way, where you have layers of medical care, from your local neighborhood doctor \u2013 whose house you can go to for easy visits, who goes and actually checks on disabled and elderly people in the neighborhood, to make sure their vitals are good, their blood pressure is good, they\u2019re getting what they need \u2013 to neighborhood clinics, to bigger hospitals that they\u2019ll send you to if the neighborhood clinic can\u2019t help you. And then there are various specialties they\u2019ll send you to if you need really serious care, for a really serious problem.\u201d\n\u201cAnd so their medical system inside the country is incredible, because it exists across the country, even in the countryside, which was a huge accomplishment of the revolution in Cuba,\u201d Khalek said.\n\u201cBut more than that, Cuba has these international medical brigades, and they send their doctors to provide basically free medical care to areas around the world, particularly the developing world. And they\u2019ll serve in very poor areas of like Brazil, and Venezuela, and Bolivia, and various countries in Africa, in order to provide care to people who otherwise don\u2019t have access to medical care.\u201d\nYou can watch or listen to the interview below:\n\n\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Why is US easing some sanctions on Venezuela? Economic blackmail, oil, Russia. 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": "Iran, Juan Guaid\u00f3, oil, PSUV, Russia, Venezuela", "output": "The US government is lifting a few (not even close to all) sanctions on Venezuela, after banning imports of Russian oil. But only on the condition that Caracas make economic reforms and concessions to the right-wing opposition.\n\nThe US government has announced that it is lifting a small number of sanctions on Venezuela.\u00a0A major left-wing newspaper in Turkey, BirG\u00fcn, interviewed Multipolarista editor Benjamin Norton about the situation. His comments follow below:\nThe US government is not lifting the vast majority of its unilateral coercive measures against Venezuela, which are illegal under international law, and have led to tens of thousands of civilian deaths.\nInstead, the Joe Biden administration offered to ease a few specific sanctions, especially related to the oil sector, largely because the White House has banned Russian energy and wants to make up for the crude it had been importing from Russia, to try to stabilize spiking energy prices.\nBut Washington is only doing this under the condition that, one, Venezuela make political concessions to the right-wing opposition, and two, that Caracas partially liberalize its economy, implementing reforms that allow US corporations to invest 5% to 10% in state-owned companies, for instance.\nThis is a form of economic blackmail by the US government. Venezuela has essentially been forced at gunpoint to implement economic reforms, because, as the UN special rapporteur on sanctions reported, the Venezuelan state lost\u00a099% of its revenue due to the illegal US blockade and other Western coercive measures.\nThe structural problems with the Venezuelan economy long predate the rise of the leftist Chavista movement. Caracas has relied on oil for the vast majority of its revenue for roughly a century. The Venezuelan state was heavily dependent on hydrocarbons for many decades before Hugo Ch\u00e1vez became president in 1999.\nThe illegal US sanctions are very unpopular in Venezuela, even among some right-wing opposition parties. The US economic warfare has essentially divided the opposition between those who support Washington\u2019s sanctions and coup attempt, and those who are against the sanctions.\nAs for average Venezuelans, polling has consistently shown that the vast majority of Venezuelan civilians are strongly against the US sanctions on their country.\nEven an explicitly\u00a0partisan polling firm run by a wealthy anti-Chavista right-wing opposition figure, called Datan\u00e1lisis, was forced to concede in August 2021 that\u00a076.4% of Venezuelans reject the sanctions on the oil sector. The actual figure is likely even higher, as less biased polling firms have shown even more widespread opposition to sanctions.\nGiven the brutal economic attacks that Washington has unleashed on the Venezuelan people in the past several years, many people are welcoming the news that the blockade may be softened, even if only slightly.\nThe illegal US blockade on Venezuela did fail to bring about regime change, which was Washington\u2019s number-one goal, but it devastated the Venezuelan economy and successfully forced the leftist Chavista government to implement reforms to partially liberalize it. This was Washington\u2019s number-two goal.\nThe US imperial strategy is to use hybrid warfare to force Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba, and other countries where socialist parties are in power to make economic concessions to US capital.\nThis strategy goes back decades. When socialist Salvador Allende was democratically elected president of Chile in 1970, US President Richard Nixon infamously called to \u201cmake the economy scream.\u201d\nWashington uses sanctions and hybrid warfare to destroy economies in countries run by socialist parties, then blames socialism for the economic chaos that it intentionally caused.\nThe difference is that the United States succeeded in overthrowing Allende in a violent coup, where it has repeatedly failed to overthrow Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro in its numerous violent coup attempts.\nOne of the main reasons the Biden administration decided to soften (but not end) its attacks on Venezuela is because the United States is cutting oil imports from Russia and needs to find a replacement, especially if it wants to lower the skyrocketing energy prices that have fueled the highest rates of inflation in the US in 40 years.\nWashington tried to force Saudi Arabia to increase oil production to make up the difference, but Riyadh refused. Other significant oil and gas producers had similar responses. OPEC members are sticking with their production plans, and say they don\u2019t even have the capacity anyway to make up for lost Russian exports.\nThe Biden administration has also refused to undo aggressive anti-Iran policies imposed by Donald Trump, such as listing the Iranian military branch the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a supposed \u201cterrorist\u201d organization. This means that Washington is effectively killing any hopes of returning to the nuclear deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which Trump unilaterally sabotaged in 2018. Therefore the US can\u2019t rely on Iranian oil to make up for the Russian crude.\nGiven this situation, the Biden administration apparently made the calculation that, at this moment, its hybrid war on Venezuela is not as important as its proxy war on Russia. So the United States is slightly easing its war on Venezuela while doubling down on its war on Russia.\nBut the Venezuelan leadership is very clear-eyed and can see that Washington\u2019s strategy is a cynical act of divide-and-conquer. Russia remains one of Venezuela\u2019s most important allies, and Caracas is not for a second going to abandon it.\nVenezuela was simply forced to make temporary compromises to try to reactivate its besieged economy, allowing a little room for US companies like Chevon to operate. But Caracas is by no means going to let those foreign firms control its oil sector or other state-owned companies, which will still remain firmly under government control. Allowing investors 5% to 10% stakes is a far cry from full privatization.\nThe ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) has maintained a solid and consistent base of support among working-class and poor Venezuelans. PSUV won the November 21, 2021 regional elections, which were monitored by the European Union, in a landslide, with more votes in 20 of 23 states and the capital Caracas.\nMeanwhile, Venezuela\u2019s political opposition is completely divided and discredited. Juan Guaid\u00f3 has lost the backing even of many right-wing opposition figures, who see him as weak and incompetent. Opposition parties are unable to win elections because they are driven by individual personalities who are notoriously unable to unite, and lack popular support because they are widely seen as corrupt and beholden to a foreign power (the United States).\nInternationally, the US coup strategy of recognizing Guaid\u00f3 \u2013 who never received a single vote in a presidential election \u2013 as supposed \u201cinterim president\u201d has totally collapsed. Fewer than 15 countries still recognize Guaid\u00f3, as even his own former ally admitted.\nAlthough Washington still maintains the illusion that Guaid\u00f3 is something more than a political cosplayer, the Biden administration tacitly acknowledged the reality that Nicol\u00e1s Maduro is the real, elected president when it sent a delegation to Caracas to negotiate with him.\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: US-backed coup regimes trapped Honduras in unpayable odious debt, warns new President Xiomara Castro. 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, debt, Greece, Honduras, IMF, Manuel Zelaya, odious debt, Puerto Rico, Xiomara Castro", "output": "At the time of the 2009 US-backed coup, Honduras had $2.48 billion in external debt. Now it has $9.25 billion. New leftist President Xiomara Castro says this odious debt is unpayable. It already eats up 50% of the government budget.\n\n(Se puede leer este art\u00edculo en espa\u00f1ol aqu\u00ed.)\nThe new leftist administration in Honduras managed to win November 2021 elections in a landslide and defeat an authoritarian coup regime, but now it faces a huge problem that will make it difficult to govern: odious debt.\nWhen a US-sponsored military coup overthrew Honduras\u2019 democratically elected left-wing President Manuel Zelaya in 2009, the country had $2.48 billion in external debt.\nBy the end of 2021, after 12 years of rule by corrupt right-wing coup regimes, Honduras\u2019 external debt had swelled to $9.25 billion \u2013 a 373% increase.\nThe Honduran state\u2019s internal debt to private parties likewise skyrocketed from approximately $810 million in 2009 to roughly $7.3 billion today.\nHonduras\u2019 GDP is only $23.8 billion, yet the country is saddled with more than $16.5 billion in debt \u2013 meaning its debt is nearly 70% of the size of its entire economy.\nThe Central American nation\u2019s new leftist President Xiomara Castro, Honduras\u2019 first democratic leader since the coup, has said this burden on the government is a form of odious debt, and is simply unpayable.\nCastro declared in a speech at her inauguration on January 27 that the previous coup regimes had \u201csubmerged\u201d the state in debt, leaving it in \u201cbankruptcy\u201d in an \u201ceconomic catastrophe.\u201d\nDebt payments now eat up a staggering 50% of the government\u2019s budget, Castro stressed.\nThis graph from Honduran media outlet La Prensa shows how the debt skyrocketed after the US-backed coup.\nA graph of Honduras\u2019 external debt\nThis graph does not include Honduras\u2019 massive internal debt.\n\u201cAfter 12 years of dictatorship the amount of internal debt increased from 20 billion lempiras (USD $810 million) to 179 billion lempiras (USD $7.3 billion),\u201d Castro said in her inauguration speech.\n\u201cWith these figures it is clear that the state does not have the capacity to sustain the outrageous and shameful debt that we are inheriting,\u201d the new Honduran president added. \u201cIt is practically impossible to meet the debt requirements.\u201d\nCastro said the only way to manage the debt is to renegotiate it with the creditors.\n\u201cMy government will not continue the vortex of plunder that has condemned generations of youth to pay the debt they took on behind their backs,\u201d she declared.\n\u201cThe country should know what they did with the money and where are the $20 billion that they took out in loans.\u201d\nThe new Honduran president warned that this \u201cplunder\u201d caused poverty to increase by 74%, \u201cturning us into the poorest country in Latin America.\u201d\n\u201cThis statistic itself explains the [migrant] caravan of thousands of people looking for opportunities,\u201d she said.\nOther countries in Latin America have been caught in these same kinds of debt traps.\nIn 2018, Argentina\u2019s right-wing President Mauricio Macri took the largest loan in the history of the International Monetary Fund (IMF): $57.1 billion.\nThis enormous debt incurred by Macri pushed the subsequent center-left government of President Alberto Fern\u00e1ndez into a debt spiral that has made it very difficult to spend on social programs.\nThe IMF, which is dominated by the United States, and is used as an economic weapon to advance Washington\u2019s foreign-policy agenda, has often trapped Global South nations in unpayable debt.\nThe IMF uses this debt as leverage to force countries to sell off their natural resources, privatize state-owned enterprises, slash social spending, and cut labor protections that challenge the interests of foreign corporations.\nPuerto Rico, a US colony, also suffers from painful odious debt. The US government used this debt burden to impose an unelected Financial Oversight and Management Board that controls Puerto Rico\u2019s spending, and has imposed devastating austerity measures on the Puerto Rican people.\nEven\u00a0Greece, a member of the European Union, has similarly been crushed under the weight of odious debt. While Greeks work the most hours in Europe, economics experts have said the country\u2019s debt is impossible to pay off.\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: US funds \u2018independent journalists\u2019 in Cuba to spread propaganda, ex CIA spy admits. 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": "CIA, Cuba, disinformation, information war, La Prensa, National Endowment for Democracy, NED, Nicaragua, propaganda, Venezuela", "output": "Former CIA analyst Fulton Armstrong told The Guardian that, in Cuba, \u201ca lot of the so-called independent journalists are indirectly funded by the US\u201d. They spread anti-government disinformation with the support of the NED.\n\n(Se puede leer esta nota en espa\u00f1ol aqu\u00ed.)\nA former top CIA spy has admitted that the United States funds anti-government propagandists in Cuba who portray themselves as \u201cindependent journalists\u201d.\nMajor British newspaper The Guardian spoke with CIA veteran Fulton Armstrong, whom it described as \u201cthe US intelligence community\u2019s most senior analyst for Latin America from 2000 to 2004\u201d.\nArmstrong stated that, in Cuba, \u201ca lot of the so-called independent journalists are indirectly funded by the US\u201d.\nThe ex CIA analyst pointed out that, today, the Joe Biden administration bankrolls anti-government opposition forces in Cuba with at least $20 million in annual support for supposed \u201cdemocracy promotion\u201d activities.\nThe Guardian acknowledged that the CIA has a history of spreading disinformation inside Cuba, as part of a US information war aimed at destabilizing the revolutionary government. The newspaper wrote:\nFinancing media has long been part of Washington\u2019s diplomatic toolkit.\nIn the 1960s in Cuba, Radio Swan, a CIA\u00a0covert action programme, attempted not only a propaganda offensive to undermine support for Fidel Castro, but\u00a0doubled up\u00a0as a communication link, sending coded messages to paramilitaries during the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of 1961.\nA decade ago it emerged that the US government had paid contractors to create ZunZuneo, a social network built on texts, to organize \u201csmart mobs\u201d on the island. And during historic, largely spontaneous anti-government protests on the island in 2021, externally funded, externally directed bots made anti-government hashtags trend on Twitter.\nStill today, Washington funds another prominent Spanish-language, anti-Cuba disinformation outlet called Radio y Televisi\u00f3n Mart\u00ed, which is part of the government\u2019s propaganda arm the US Agency for Global Media (formerly known as the Broadcasting Board of Governors).\nArmstrong, the former CIA agent, explained to The Guardian the US destabilization strategy in financing opposition media outlets in foreign countries like Cuba:\nUS programs are designed with a win-win strategy. We win if the opposition media gain a foothold, and we win if they provoke government repression.\nThat thrusts the government into a dilemma \u2013 to let the organizing and funding go forward or to risk image and credibility by crushing it.\nIn addition to spying for the CIA, Armstrong worked for the State Department\u2019s US Interests Section in Cuba (a diplomatic office located inside Switzerland\u2019s embassy in Havana).\nArmstrong served as the US \u201cNational Intelligence Officer for Latin America\u201d, the intelligence community\u2019s top analyst focused on the region. He also oversaw Latin America for the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee.\nThe Guardian \u2013 which is itself closely linked to and collaborates with the UK\u2019s intelligence services \u2013 portrayed the Cuban government as repressive for cracking down on foreign-funded disinformation agents.\nThe British newspaper gloated over the large revenue streams that anti-government media outlets in Cuba have, writing, \u201cTiny state salaries have also been unable to compete with the private sector\u201d.\nWhile The Guardian praised two right-wing Cuban opposition media outlets, called El Toque and El Estornudo, it admitted that both are bankrolled by the US government.\nEl Toque disclosed to The Guardian that \u201cit has received US federal funds \u2018indirectly\u2019 as part of a mix of money from corporations and foundations\u201d.\nEl Estornudo is financed by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a notorious instrument of US regime-change operations that has meddled in the internal politics of countries all around the world.\nA co-founder of the NED, Allen Weinstein, told the Washington Post in 1991, \u201cA lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA\u201c.\nThe NED reported that it gave El Estornudo $180,000 in 2021 \u2013 a huge sum of money in any Latin American country, but especially in Cuba, which has trouble getting access to dollars due to Washington\u2019s illegal, six-decade blockade against it.\n\nIn a 1977 report titled \u201cWorldwide Propaganda Network Built by the C.I.A.\u201c, the New York Times admitted that the CIA had established a media outlet in the early 1960s called Free Cuba Radio, whose \u201cpropaganda broadcasts against the Government of Prime Minister Fidel Castro were carried over radio stations\u201d in various cities inside the US and in the Caribbean.\nThe prominent newspaper explained:\nOne motive for establishing the Free Cuba radio network, a former C.I.A. official said he recalled, was to have periods of air time available in advance in case Radio Swan, meant to be the main communications link for the Bay of Pigs invasion, was destroyed by saboteurs.\nRadio Swan\u2019s cover was thin enough to warrant such concern. The powerful station, whose broadcasts could be heard over much of the Western Hemisphere, was operated by a steamship company in New York that had not owned a steamship for some time.\nThe United States has used the same tactics to try to destabilize the leftist governments in Venezuela and Nicaragua.\nThe NED has spent hundreds of millions of dollars funding right-wing opposition media outlets and so-called \u201ccivil society organizations\u201d in Venezuela.\nMany of these groups have been complicit in violence and participated in coup attempts against democratically elected Presidents Hugo Ch\u00e1vez and Nicol\u00e1s Maduro.\nIn Nicaragua in the 1980s, the CIA supported far-right death squads known as the Contras (short for \u201cCounterrevolutionaries\u201d), who burned down schools and hospitals and waged a campaign of terror to try to overthrow the socialist Sandinista government.\nA key part of the US hybrid war on Nicaragua in the 1980s, and still today, included the dissemination of disinformation through NED-funded newspapers like La Prensa, which is owned by the Central American nation\u2019s most powerful right-wing oligarch family, the Chamorro dynasty.\nAfter the Sandinista Front returned to power in 2007, through democratic elections, the US again began pouring millions of dollars into opposition media outlets in Nicaragua.\nDuring a bloody coup attempt in 2018, US-funded Nicaraguan opposition media outlets spread extreme propaganda and fake news, openly inciting violence and encouraging people to murder President Daniel Ortega and hang his body in public.\nRight-wing Nicaraguan media outlets funded by the US government constantly spread blatant fake news to attack the Sandinistas https://t.co/hzafT2yLH0\n\u2014 Geopolitical Economy Report (@GeopoliticEcon) August 8, 2022\n\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: US war on China/Russia targets new multipolar world, sabotages global economy: Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega. 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, Daniel Ortega, FSLN, imperialism, multipolarity, Nancy Pelosi, Nicaragua, Russia, Sandinistas", "output": "Analyzing the geopolitical crisis, Nicaragua\u2019s President Daniel Ortega said the US war on China and Russia is an attack on the new world of \u201cmultipolarism,\u201d because \u201cNorth American imperialism is trying to maintain its hegemony at all costs, even at the risk of sinking its own economy.\u201d\n\nIn a fiery speech denouncing US imperialism, Nicaragua\u2019s President Daniel Ortega analyzed the shifting balance of power in the world today. He explained that \u201ca new order is being born in the world that buries imperialism, buries the colonialists, and opens the way to a democracy of nations, a multipolarism that is manifesting itself in various ways.\u201d\nBut in an attempt to halt this transition to a multipolar world, the United States is waging war on China and Russia, Ortega continued. \u201cNorth American imperialism is trying to maintain its hegemony at all costs, even at the risk of sinking its own economy,\u201d he said.\n\nThe Nicaraguan revolutionary leader argued that \u201cfascism left its roots and is embedded\u201d in parts of the United States and Europe, and they \u201chave the objective of trying to destroy the People\u2019s Republic of China\u201d and the Russian Federation.\nThe Western \u201cideologues of imperialism\u201d are \u201cworried,\u201d Ortega added, because \u201cthey see the People\u2019s Republic of China providing benefits to the peoples\u201d of Latin America, Africa, and Asia, \u201cand they feel that they are losing the power to keep these peoples enslaved.\u201d\n\nPresident Ortega made these remarks at a August 2 event marking the anniversary of the Nicaraguan Air Force.\nHe had also made similar comments on July 19, commemorating the 43rd anniversary of the Sandinista Revolution, on which Multipolarista reported.\nThe Nicaraguan leader\u2019s August 2 speech expanded his geopolitical analysis in greater detail.\nMultipolarista has translated excerpts of President Ortega\u2019s speech and published them below.\nOrtega noted that we live in a \u201cworld that goes from explosion to explosion.\u201d He then continued:\n\u201cThey are explosions that are part of a birth \u2013 a new order is being born in the world that buries imperialism, buries the colonialists, and opens the way to a democracy of nations, a multipolarism that is manifesting itself in various ways.\u201d\n\u201cWe see the initiatives emerging in different spaces, and on the other hand we see North American imperialism trying to maintain its hegemony at all costs, even at the risk of sinking its own economy.\u201d\n\u201cBut in the arrogant attitude of feeling that they can still maintain their hegemony, that they can and must defend their hegemony, what they are doing is sinking themselves. They are sinking themselves, and they are causing great harm to the North American people.\u201d\n\u201cAnd with all the sanctions that have been imposed on the Russian Federation, that is waging a just war against fascism, against Nazism, which is entrenched there in the power of the coup-plotters in Ukraine, they are destroying the European economy, and they are liquidating NATO \u2013 they are liquidating it with every aggressive action, with the multiple decisions that they have made to try to destroy the Russian Federation.\u201d\n\u201cThey also have the objective of trying to destroy the People\u2019s Republic of China, because they see them as the two great powers that are already overtaking them, in terms of development, in terms of science, in terms of technology.\u201d\n\u201cAnd they have gone against the Russian Federation, but there is Russia fighting back against fascism. Fascism did not disappear with the fall of the bunker, where the first to arrive were the soldiers of the Red Army, and they planted the flag where the command post of the tyrant Hitler had been.\u201d\n\u201cFascism left its roots and is embedded in some European countries, and it is embedded in North American society, and it is embedded there in Ukraine \u2013 yes, a fascist government.\u201d\n\u201cAnd while this situation affects the richest countries, it affects all of humanity, it affects the world economy, but the North American empire does not care, thinking that its strength is so great that it will be able to win by trampling on and destroying the world.\u201d\n\u201cAnd what can clearly be seen is the crazy attitude where we see it (the United States) carrying out aggressions against the People\u2019s Republic of China. What harm has the People\u2019s Republic of China done to the United States? What harm has the People\u2019s Republic of China done to the peoples of the world? What harm has the People\u2019s Republic of China done to the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean, of Africa, of Asia?\u201d\n\u201cThe same ideologues of imperialism say it, that what worries them is that they see the People\u2019s Republic of China providing benefits to these peoples, and they feel that they are losing the power to keep these peoples enslaved. They say it very clearly, that is, they are annoyed, angry, because the People\u2019s Republic of China is investing billions in Africa, in Asia, in Latin America.\u201d\n\u201cThey are investments for the development of our peoples. Ah, for them (the United States) that\u2019s bad. But why don\u2019t they do that? Why don\u2019t they bring those investments? Why have they never brought them on the conditions that the People\u2019s Republic of China is bringing them?\u201d\n\u201cBut it is truly an act of madness that they are attacking the People\u2019s Republic of China, simply because it is a power that is growing, without harming anyone.\u201d\n\u201cAnd they are launching a challenge, a provocation, this morning (August 2), when we see a top representative of the North American state, of the government of the United States, (Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the US House of Representatives), with the arrogant attitude of invasion. It is an act of invasion!\u201d\n\u201cThat is in the blood of the yankee empire, the practice of invasion. And it says, \u2018Here I come! Here I come!\u2019 They feel they have the right to invade, a territory which they know well, because they were part of those agreements and were part of the resolutions that were passed in the United Nations, when they agreed on the existence of just one China.\u201d\n\u201cBut deep down they did not agree, and the proof is that, we see it now, them launching a provocation. It is a provocation, because it is a power like the United States invading, entering with its official plane, one of the highest authorities of the North American state entering, because she decided so, and because the government of the United States itself is endorsing and applauding it.\u201d\n\u201cShe (Pelosi) is logically part of the government, from which she flew with her plane, sure that the People\u2019s Republic of China was not going to do what they do, to drone strike them to destroy the plane. Because they are used to launching drone strikes everywhere, killing.\u201d\n\u201cThey launched a drone strike against our brother Nicol\u00e1s Maduro there in Venezuela, during a ceremony where they were going to strike all the ministers, officials, army commanders who were with Nicol\u00e1s presiding over the ceremony. That was them (the United States).\u201d\n\u201cAnd now they are launching drone strikes again in Afghanistan, and boasting that they launched a drone strike where they killed a leader they describe as a terrorist. After they left, fleeing Afghanistan, after they signed agreements right there that this practice was going to end, now they come and they need blood in the current conditions, so they launch the drone strike, and the cowboy comes out boasting.\u201d\n\u201cAnd as I was saying, they sent the plane knowing that the brothers of the People\u2019s Republic of China are not terrorists, and they were not going to shoot down that plane, or strike it with a drone.\u201d\n\u201cIt is an act of arrogance, of trying to reaffirm that they are the hegemonic power, that they continue to be the hegemonic power that is going to destroy the Russian Federation, and is destroying the countries of the European Union, that is destroying the economy, that is destroying trade, that is destroying their possibility of even living. Why? Because winter is coming and heating is needed. In other words, it (the United States) is exposing them to death.\u201d\n\u201cAnd this step that they have taken today, which we have logically condemned, is an act that has no way of characterizing it other than as a crazy act of those who feel that the empire is collapsing. They are the insane acts of people like Hitler, who feel that they have an empire and therefore seek to strengthen their positions by setting off to challenge the People\u2019s Republic of China, to invade. It is an invasion that occurred today. It is an invasion. It is a crime.\u201d\n\u201cAnd we are sure, yes, that the Chinese people have strength, historical intelligence, experience \u2013 there, under the leadership of President Xi Jinping, it is there. We are sure that they will know how to provide the correct answer that will further strengthen the People\u2019s Republic of China and will further weaken the hegemony that the US government is trying to maintain at all costs.\u201d\n\u2026\n\u201cThey have to learn to respect, the United States has to learn to respect all the peoples of the world, if they want them to respect them. Meanwhile, well, the struggle is going to continue.\u201d\n\u201cAnd as I was saying, in the middle of all these explosions of violence that are taking place everywhere on our planet, these economic tensions, tensions around fuels, tensions around food, all the great tensions that there are in these moments in the world, in the middle of all this, here a new world is being formed. A new world is being born. And that new world is going to be a democratic world, where there will be respect between nations, where there will be cooperation between nations, where there will be no threats between nations.\u201d\n\u201cI am certain, I am sure, that that world is being built. It is already being forged. And that is the world that is going to bring peace, stability, to humanity.\u201d\n\u201cDear brothers and sisters, dear comrades, let\u2019s continue with our effort, with the tasks that you carry out every day, contributing to the forging of this new world. Our little grain of sand, yes, we are providing it from Nicaragua, contributing to the forging of this new world.\u201d\nIn his same speech on August 2, President Daniel Ortega emphasized that Nicaragua\u2019s military, which was re-created after the 1979 Sandinista Revolution that he helped lead, \u201cwas born at the clamor of the struggle for self-determination, for independence, for sovereignty,\u201d following \u201cthe thought, the example of our General Sandino.\u201d\nOrtega used the anniversary event to call for Latin America to unite:\n\u201cThese are times that call for integration. Today more than ever they call for the integration of Central America, here in Latin America and the Caribbean. And in that process of integration, the path is in the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) and the ALBA (Bolivarian Alliance).\u201d\n\u201cThe ALBA was the bridge that opened it, inspired by our brother, Commander Hugo Ch\u00e1vez, and by Fidel (Castro), the bridge that was opened with a spirit of solidarity, a spirit of developing collaboration, cooperation, taking into account the imbalances between our countries.\u201d\n\u201cAt no time was the ALBA considered to be a mercantile project, but rather a project full of humanism, full of solidarity, full of love. And imperialism, logically, did not like that.\u201d\n\u201cThe ALBA brings benefits to the most impoverished peoples of this region, without any conditions, to Central America as well as to the brothers of the Caribbean, there are so many benefits.\u201d\n\u201cThen the Empire tried to destroy ALBA, thus affecting the poorest people of our region, because the empire has not been able to provide the levels of unconditional cooperation that ALBA has provided, that the Bolivarian Revolution has provided to our peoples, even with the empire being a thousand times more powerful in economic terms, in financial terms, than Venezuela, than Cuba.\u201d\nIn the August 2 anniversary event, President Daniel Ortega praised Venezuela for the \u201cgenerous attitude\u201d it showed in its Petrocaribe program, which provided energy to Nicaragua at very low prices.\nOrtega recalled that, after the Sandinista Front returned to power democratically by winning the 2006 elections, Venezuelan President Hugo Ch\u00e1vez helped Nicaragua to develop programs, build power plants, and build infrastructure in order to expand access to electricity in poor and working neighborhoods, which had been abandoned by the right-wing US-backed neoliberal regimes that governed Nicaragua from 1990 until 2007.\n\u201cIn that moment, Ch\u00e1vez did not ask for guarantees, nor did we sign a contract so that later we would pay them for the plants,\u201d Ortega said.\n\u201cNo capitalist country, no capitalist government in the world offered us cooperation of that type, not to their neighboring countries, not to the African peoples that had been conquered and enslaved by them,\u201d he added.\n\u201cThe pro-imperialist capitalists did not worry about investing in energy plants while they were in power in government for 17 years.\u201d\nThe Nicaraguan president continued:\u00a0\u201cAnd here we cannot forget it, we can never forget it, that in the year 2006, when there was a third neoliberal government ruling our country, under the tutelage of the North American government; here illiteracy, poverty, hunger had multiplied; education and healthcare had been privatized; and they had abandoned the public projects that we had been developing since the triumph of the revolution. They were simply governments that thought about the strengthening, the enrichment of a minority.\u201d\n\u201cThey did not care about the country either,\u201d Ortega said. \u201cThe energy service began to disappear in our country. Yes, it is incredible, but the energy service was disappearing because they were making themselves rich at whatever cost. They did not invest in the field of energy. And already in the year 2006, when the third neoliberal government was in Nicaragua, we had blackouts every day. The plants were paralyzed, the economic activity affected, everyone affected. I mean, if there is no energy, a country simply sinks.\u201d\n\u201cAnd logically, the United States was not willing to offer cooperation to the people,\u201d he added. \u201cOnly a revolution with a truly generous soul, like the Bolivarian Revolution, would act in that way.\u201d\nPresident Daniel Ortega also emphasized in his August 2 speech the importance of Nicaragua\u2019s alliance with the former Soviet Union and the Russian Federation today.\n\u201cWe have always counted on the invaluable cooperation, since the triumph of the (Sandinista) Revolution, cooperation in all fields that was given to us by another revolution: the October Revolution (in Russia),\u201d he said.\n\u201cIn the middle of antagonisms, in the middle of the harassment, in the middle of the blockade, in the middle of the counter-revolution that was launched against the (Sandinista) Revolution, we found ourselves with the Soviet Union, led by Russia.\u201d\nThe Nicaraguan president explained,\u00a0\u201cThere were two extraordinary moments in our history: the invaluable cooperation of the Russian people, headed then by what was the Soviet Union, and then, in this new stage, the invaluable cooperation of the Bolivarian Revolution, headed by Commander Hugo Ch\u00e1vez.\u201d\n\u201cAnd in this new stage we linked again, as expected, with the Russian Federation, we linked, it was normal that we linked with a sense of cooperation, a sense of friendship,\u201d he added.\n\u201cWhen has the United States donated wheat? No, they put it on the market. The brothers of the Russian Federation have donated wheat to our people.\u201d\nOrtega continued,\u00a0\u201cHere, in those 17 years of neoliberal governments, public transportation vehicles were not updated and public transportation was totally destroyed. In this, the Russian Federation cooperated with us, and Mexico as well \u2013 cooperation that we have always appreciated, from the Mexican people and government.\u201d\nThe Nicaraguan leader was referencing the fact that Russia provided 550 new buses in 2021, so the Central American nation could modernize its public transportation system. 250 of these buses were donations, a gift of the Russian people to the Nicaraguan people.\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Venezuelan\u2019s view on Gustavo Petro victory in Colombia, US sanctions, Iran pact. 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, Francia M\u00e1rquez, Gustavo Petro, Iran, oil, sanctions, Venezuela", "output": "A leftist Venezuelan journalist discusses the victory of left-wing candidate Gustavo Petro in Colombia\u2019s presidential election, the easing of a few US sanctions, and Venezuela\u2019s 20-year cooperation agreement with Iran.\n\nMultipolarista host Benjamin Norton speaks with Venezuelan journalist Jes\u00fas Rodr\u00edguez Espinoza, editor of independent news outlet the Orinoco Tribune, about the victory of left-wing candidate Gustavo Petro in Colombia\u2019s presidential election, the easing of a few US sanctions, and Venezuela\u2019s 20-year cooperation agreement with Iran.\nYou can read the Orinoco Tribune at orinocotribune.com\n\n\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Brazil at crossroads: Bolsonaro means subordination and deindustrialization, Lula means independence and development. 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, China, Jair Bolsonaro, lawfare, Lula da Silva, religion", "output": "Round two of Brazil\u2019s presidential election offers deeply opposing visions: Bolsonaro would mean more subordination and deindustrialization. Lula would mean independence, economic nationalism, and multipolarity.\n\nThe first round of the general elections in Brazil was held on October 2, and the results show that the country is at a crossroads.\nFormer President Lula da Silva of the Workers\u2019 Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores, or PT) did not achieve victory in round one, and will face current far-right President Jair Bolsonaro in a run-off on October 30.\nLula da Silva obtained 48.4% of the valid votes, while Bolsonaro reached 43.2%. The other candidates combined did not get 9% of the valid votes.\nThe results of the elections point to a great paradox: despite being ahead of Bolsonaro, the Brazilian left did not obtain a significant vote for state governments and did not even win a third of the seats in the two chambers of the Congress, the Federal Senate and the Chamber of Deputies.\nThe far right has consolidated itself as a real political force with a mass base. It elected a majority of federal deputies, and has candidates for governor in very competitive states in the second round.\nThe explanation for this is not simple.\nLula da Silva, at 76 years old, is the greatest popular leader in the country\u2019s history. He managed to demonstrate his own power, but he is up against an adversary who has gathered many of the fundamental tools needed for a competitive electoral campaign.\nBolsonaro\u2019s strength lies in the economic power of large business sectors, combined with the use of ample public resources to guarantee a majority in Congress during his administration.\nBolsonaro has also created a so-called \u201csecret budget,\u201d a corrupt structure of patronage to maintain the political support of a great part of Brazilian congressmen.\nBut it is not just that. The Brazilian far right has created roots in the Brazilian population, and the reasons are not few.\nMost notable is the systematic campaign attacking \u201ccommunism,\u201d as a way of mobilizing a broad social base highly influenced by Protestant churches.\nThe phenomenon of the growth of Protestant churches in Brazil is something to be studied. It is not strictly internal; it has great external support. The United States has played a role in disrupting entire societies by exporting far-right ideologies based on a strong religious base.\nThe extreme right is advancing in Brazil also as a result of a systematic campaign against \u201ccorruption.\u201d\nFor over a decade, the right has been very successful in spreading a false image that links the political left to the practice of government corruption.\nThe media was fundamental in this campaign to weaken the left, turning politicized judges and public prosecutors into true \u201csuperheroes\u201d in the fight against corruption.\nThis systematic campaign against alleged corruption, heavily supported by the US Department of Justice, has not only weakened the left; the liberal right itself was made politically unfeasible.\nThus, the fight against \u201ccorruption\u201d was a form of hybrid war, or lawfare. And it has destroyed the Brazilian political system.\nBolsonaro is a product of this process.\nThe result of the first round of the Brazilian presidential election cannot be disconnected from the international reality either.\nThe advance of the far right has been a worldwide phenomenon since the 2008 international financial crisis. It has made significant advances in Europe and, especially, in the United States \u2013 the main disseminator of far-right sects around the world.\nThe big contradiction is that, in a world where the struggle for multipolarity is gaining strength, with countries like China and Russia taking confrontational positions against imperialist militarism, the consolidation of the extreme right in Brazil is a bad sign for global politics.\nOn the other hand, some questions remain open and should be investigated.\nWhat do Lula da Silva and Jair Bolsonaro represent in terms of economic policy and foreign relations, especially in relation to countries like China?\nBolsonaro is the face of a very peculiar extreme right. He combines an ultra-conservative view on questions of cultural customs, and preaches \u201cnationalism\u201d against \u201ccommunism,\u201d but represents a radical neoliberal economic agenda.\nIn his government, Bolsonaro has very strongly continued the process of deindustrialization and expanded Brazil\u2019s dependence on commodity exports, mainly to China.\nThis deindustrialization was accelerated by the Lava Jato (\u201cCar Wash\u201d) operation that destroyed the country\u2019s most important economic and industrial sectors, along with the slow dismantling of the largest Brazilian company, Petrobras.\nThis has unleashed a disaster that is unprecedented in the history of Brazil. Currently, about 100 million Brazilians live in a state of food insecurity caused by this ultra-liberalism.\nLula da Silva represents an alternative vision, one that combines economic nationalism with the promise of resumption of industrial jobs and an active role for large public banks.\nLula tries to represent the promise of a national project based on the reindustrialization of the country, while Bolsonaro bets on a subordinate position of Brazil in global value chains.\nBoth perspectives have impacts on foreign relations. Certainly Lula would have a relationship with countries like China based not only on common global interests such as multipolarity, but also guided by Brazilian strategic interests.\nLula\u2019s government could review the economic terms of our relations with China, recognizing that Beijing and its experience could help strengthen the industrialization process.\nWith Bolsonaro, the trend is toward deeper alignment with the United States \u2013 especially if Donald Trump\u2019s team wins the 2024 elections \u2013 as well as greater dependence on commodity exports to China. This would only continue accelerating the process of deindustrialization.\nBut hope can overcome fear in Brazil. The second round of elections will take place on October 30.\nThe probability of Lula da Silva\u2019s victory is great. But the fact is that the political strength shown by Jair Bolsonaro cannot be underestimated.\nBrazil, a young nation of 523 years of age, is experiencing a true paradox. Either it consolidates itself as a great emerging power, capable of being an actor of global relevance, and capable of taking its place in a multipolar world; or it will have a destiny committed to the civilizational setback that the consolidation of the extreme right represents in our country.\nThe Brazilian extreme right is unpatriotic and relies on a racist and anti-popular elite. Its aesthetic does not match the beauty of the Brazilian people.\nOn October 30, we will be facing another chapter of a real battle for the Brazilian nation. Lula da Silva and Brazil could emerge victorious. That is what the progressives of the world expect.\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: US President Bush praised dictator Fujimori as \u2018Peru\u2019s hope for the future\u2019. 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": "Alberto Fujimori, CIA, genocide, George H W Bush, Indigenous peoples, Keiko Fujimori, Peru, racism, USAID, Vladimiro Montesinos", "output": "US President George H. W. Bush welcomed far-right Peruvian dictator Alberto Fujimori to the White House in 1991, heroizing him as \u201cPeru\u2019s hope for the future\u201d and praising his neoliberal economic policies.\n\n(Se puede leer esta nota en espa\u00f1ol aqu\u00ed.)\nUS President George H. W. Bush welcomed far-right Peruvian dictator Alberto Fujimori to the White House in September 1991, heroizing him as \u201cPeru\u2019s hope for the future\u201d.\nWith US backing,\u00a0Fujimori committed genocide, sterilizing roughly 300,000 Indigenous people while killing, terrorizing, and torturing thousands of leftist dissidents.\nThe former Peruvian dictator was later sentenced to 25 years in prison on charges of crimes against humanity, murder, kidnapping, and corruption. He was convicted of ordering a military death squad to massacre poor people in rural areas.\nBut back in 1991, former CIA Director turned US President Bush praised Fujimori for the neoliberal economic reforms he imposed in Peru.\nUS President George H. W. Bush welcomed far-right Peruvian dictator Alberto Fujimori to the White House in 1991.\nBush heroized Fujimori as \u201cPeru\u2019s hope for the future\u201d, and praised his neoliberal economic policies.\nMore information here: https://t.co/ikikPheeE0 pic.twitter.com/HrddVHeVmK\n\u2014 Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) January 24, 2023\n\nBush told Fujimori at the White House with pride,\u00a0\u201cMr. President, since taking office, you have cut government spending, eliminated price controls, knocked down barriers to trade and investment \u2013 and those reforms have begun paying off; they\u2019ve begun paying dividends\u201d.\n\u201cWe want to be a full partner in your efforts to restore Peru\u2019s economy\u201d, Bush declared.\n\u201cWe have spoken openly, discussing the tough challenges Peru faces, from economic hardship to renegade insurgencies, from the war against drugs to the battle to preserve human rights. And much has been done on all these fronts. But much more waits to be achieved\u201d, the US president added.\n\u201cMy administration wants to send $94 million in economic and military assistance\u201d, Bush noted. But \u201cunfortunately the Congress has placed a hold on disbursement of these funds, chiefly because of stated human rights concerns. We share these concerns and so do you, Mr. President\u201d.\n\u201cBut you have made progress on human rights, and let\u2019s also then see progress on releasing these funds\u201d, he continued.\nJust a few months after this meeting, in April 1992, Fujimori carried out a \u201cself-coup\u201d or \u201cauto-coup\u201d, destroying Peru\u2019s democratic state institutions and establishing a brutal dictatorship.\nThe Bush administration later superficially criticized Fujimori in public, but continued to support him.\nUS assistance continued when President Bill Clinton took power in 1993.\nThe US Agency for International Development (USAID) provided funding for Fujimori\u2019s \u201cfamily planning\u201d program, which he used as cover to commit genocide against Peru\u2019s Indigenous nations, sterilizing nearly 300,000 people between 1996 and 2000.\nPeru's far-right US-backed dictator Alberto Fujimori carried out genocide against Indigenous communities, sterilizing nearly 300,000 people.\nHis sterilization of Indigenous women received funding from the US Agency for International Development @USAID.https://t.co/63yXrqNBGg pic.twitter.com/NpQRkVZbt4\n\u2014 Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) July 24, 2022\n\nAs the New Republic put it in 2018: \u201cUnder former President Fujimori, over 200,000 women were violated\u2014one of the largest such projects since Nazi Germany. His party is still in power\u201d.\nUSAID boasted in a report\u00a0(emphasis added):\nAfter the [United Nations] International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in 1994 and with political support from the president, the Peruvian Ministry of Health instituted a policy in 1995 mandating free contraceptives for all Peruvians through government facilities. As a result of this policy change, modern contraceptive use increased, particularly among rural and poor inhabitants.\nUSAID and other donors provided 100 percent of the contraceptives to the government while also providing technical assistance for training, supervision, education, information, and communication. Annual investments in family planning doubled from $12.9 million in 1994 to $28 million in 1998.\nFujimori committed many of his crimes with the help of his far-right intelligence chief, Vladimiro Montesinos, who was also imprisoned on dozens of charges, such as murder, drug trafficking, and bribery.\nMontesinos was a longtime CIA asset who started his career by spying on Peru\u2019s left-wing government and giving the United States confidential intelligence about Lima\u2019s relations with the Soviet Union and Cuba.\nToday, the far-right followers of the former dictator, known as Fujimoristas, still have significant influence in Peru\u2019s political system.\nFujimori\u2019s daughter Keiko was the right wing\u2019s leading presidential candidate in 2021, running against leftist Pedro Castillo.\nCastillo won the election, but was subsequently overthrown in a US-backed parliamentary coup in December 2022.\nA 2021 debate between Peru\u2019s presidential candidates Keiko Fujimori and Pedro Castillo\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Brazil elections: Leftist Lula wins, goes to round 2 against far-right Bolsonaro. 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, Camila Escalante, Jair Bolsonaro, Lula da Silva", "output": "Brazil\u2019s leftist presidential candidate Lula da Silva won with 48.4% and over 6 million more votes than far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro. The Workers\u2019 Party is organizing with social movements in the lead-up to the October 30 runoff election.\n\nBrazil\u2019s left-wing former president Lula da Silva won the first round of the presidential election on October 2 with 48.43% of the vote.\nLula got over 6 million more votes than far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro, who earned 43.20%.\nThis put Lula just shy of the 50% he needed to avoid a runoff, which means the candidates will compete in round two on October 30.\n\nTo analyze the election results and what they mean for not just Brazil, but also Latin America and the world as a whole, Multipolarista editor Ben Norton spoke with journalist Camila Escalante, of Kawsachun News, who is reporting on the ground in S\u00e3o Paulo.\n\nEscalante discussed what social movements in Brazil like the Landless Workers\u2019 Movement (MST) are saying, and why they are supporting Lula.\nShe also addresses how Bolsonaro\u2019s policies have devastated Brazil\u2019s economy, under the watch of Chicago Boy economic minister Paulo Guedes, an alumnus of the neoliberal University of Chicago who taught economics under the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet in Chile.\n\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: EEUU secuestr\u00f3 y encarcel\u00f3 al diplom\u00e1tico venezolano Alex Saab por comprar alimentos. 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": "Alex Saab, CLAP, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, Venezuela", "output": "El diplom\u00e1tico venezolano Alex Saab esencialmente fue secuestrado por Estados Unidos porque estaba comprando comida para el programa de alimentos del gobierno, los CLAP, para apoyar al pueblo de Venezuela.\n\n(You can read this article in English here.)\nTraducido por Michelle Ellner\n\u201cNo es un delito cumplir una misi\u00f3n diplom\u00e1tica. No es un delito eludir sanciones que perjudican a todo un pa\u00eds. No puede ser ilegal ayudar a un pueblo\u201d. Camilla Fabri Saab hizo estas vehementes declaraciones al explicar la situaci\u00f3n en la que se encuentra la detenci\u00f3n ilegal y la extradici\u00f3n -el secuestro, en esencia- de su marido, el diplom\u00e1tico venezolano Alex Saab.\nSaab es pr\u00e1cticamente desconocido en Estados Unidos, donde actualmente permanece en una prisi\u00f3n de Miami, pero ha sido vital para la capacidad de Venezuela de sobrevivir a la brutal guerra econ\u00f3mica emprendida por Estados Unidos.\nSaab es un preso pol\u00edtico cuyo caso tiene paralelismos con el de Julian Assange. Ambos han sido objeto de alcance extraterritorial por parte de las autoridades estadounidenses, ya que ninguno de los dos es ciudadano estadounidense y sus presuntos delitos tuvieron lugar fuera del pa\u00eds. Assange est\u00e1 en la c\u00e1rcel por decir la verdad. Saab est\u00e1 en la c\u00e1rcel por ayudar a alimentar a los venezolanos.\nSaab se enfrenta a un cargo de conspiraci\u00f3n para cometer lavado de dinero por su participaci\u00f3n en el programa de vivienda de Venezuela y fue sancionado por la administraci\u00f3n Trump en 2019 por su trabajo con el CLAP de Venezuela, un programa que env\u00eda alimentos y otros art\u00edculos de primera necesidad a las familias venezolanas.\nReferido rutinariamente en los medios de comunicaci\u00f3n como un empresario colombiano, Saab goza de doble nacionalidad venezolana y colombiana adem\u00e1s de ser diplom\u00e1tico. Fue nombrado enviado especial de Venezuela en abril de 2018, m\u00e1s de dos a\u00f1os antes de su detenci\u00f3n.\nSeg\u00fan la Convenci\u00f3n de Viena y la Ley de Relaciones Diplom\u00e1ticas de Estados Unidos, un diplom\u00e1tico no puede ser detenido por una potencia extranjera. Esto incluye a los diplom\u00e1ticos que est\u00e1n en tr\u00e1nsito entre los pa\u00edses emisores y receptores, Venezuela e Ir\u00e1n, en el caso de Saab.\nAlex Saab volaba de Venezuela a Ir\u00e1n cuando su avi\u00f3n se detuvo para repostar en Cabo Verde, un pa\u00eds insular situado en la costa occidental de \u00c1frica. Fue detenido sin orden judicial y retenido en Cabo Verde durante casi 500 d\u00edas mientras se desarrollaba en los tribunales una prolongada batalla sobre su extradici\u00f3n a Estados Unidos.\nFue golpeado, le fue negada la atenci\u00f3n m\u00e9dica y se le mantuvo aislado. Cabo Verde hizo caso omiso a una sentencia de un tribunal regional que ordenaba su liberaci\u00f3n, as\u00ed como a una decisi\u00f3n del Comit\u00e9 de Derechos Humanos de las Naciones Unidas que suspend\u00eda su extradici\u00f3n. Ni su familia ni sus abogados fueron informados de su extradici\u00f3n hasta despu\u00e9s de que se produjo.\nEn resumen, Saab fue secuestrado dos veces: una cuando su avi\u00f3n estaba repostando y otra cuando fue trasladado a Estados Unidos.\nEstados Unidos argumenta que la extradici\u00f3n fue legal y que cualquier violaci\u00f3n de la Convenci\u00f3n de Viena fue cometida por Cabo Verde. David Rivkin, uno de los abogados de Saab, dice que el hecho de que \u201cCabo Verde haya violado absolutamente su obligaci\u00f3n legal no proporciona ninguna excusa a Estados Unidos\u201d.\nRivkin describe el caso contra Saab como \u201csin precedentes\u201d, dada la\u00a0 amplia y protectora visi\u00f3n que Estados Unidos ha mantenido habitualmente sobre la inmunidad diplom\u00e1tica. Saab tiene una comparecencia en abril ante el Tribunal de Apelaci\u00f3n del Und\u00e9cimo Circuito sobre esta misma cuesti\u00f3n.\n\u201cEstados Unidos no puede tener un mundo en el que terceros pa\u00edses puedan molestar a los diplom\u00e1ticos estadounidenses, y si se establece una norma que dice que los diplom\u00e1ticos de terceros pa\u00edses pueden ser molestados por Estados Unidos, es inevitable que ocurra lo mismo con los diplom\u00e1ticos estadounidenses. Este enjuiciamiento no tiene ninguna base legal y no redunda en los intereses a largo plazo del propio Estados Unidos\u201d, explica Rivkin.\nM\u00e1s all\u00e1 de la cuesti\u00f3n crucial de la inmunidad diplom\u00e1tica, los cargos y el caso contra Saab son claramente pol\u00edticos. Durante a\u00f1os, Estados Unidos ha perseguido a figuras clave en Venezuela, incluso poniendo recompensas sobre el presidente Maduro y otros, como parte de sus intentos de derrocar al gobierno.\nEstos intentos, que incluyen librar una guerra econ\u00f3mica b\u00e1rbara e ilegal que ha diezmado la econom\u00eda de Venezuela, han provocado un aumento de la migraci\u00f3n y han causado la muerte de decenas de miles de venezolanos. Camila Saab califica con raz\u00f3n las sanciones de Estados Unidos como un \u201cacto de guerra contra toda la poblaci\u00f3n venezolana\u201d.\nSu marido desempe\u00f1\u00f3 un papel clave en la mitigaci\u00f3n de las terribles consecuencias de las sanciones. Se involucr\u00f3 por primera vez con Venezuela al conseguir contratos para la Gran Misi\u00f3n Vivienda, un programa social del gobierno que ha construido 3,9 millones de viviendas para los venezolanos de clase trabajadora desde 2011, la mayor\u00eda bajo las sanciones impuestas al pa\u00eds.\nLuego Saab obtuvo contratos para el programa venezolano CLAP, a trav\u00e9s del cual 7 millones de familias venezolanas reciben cajas de alimentos y bienes esenciales cada mes.\nLas sanciones no s\u00f3lo dificultan la vida de los venezolanos, sino que hacen que sea un reto hacer negocios con Venezuela. Los bancos se niegan a realizar transacciones (incluso cuando son perfectamente legales). Las compa\u00f1\u00edas de seguros suben los precios o se retiran por completo. Las compa\u00f1\u00edas navieras suben las tarifas. Los vendedores exigen dinero en efectivo y no operan a cr\u00e9dito.\nEn lugar de retirarse de Venezuela, como hicieron muchos empresarios, Saab decidi\u00f3 seguir con el pueblo venezolano y pas\u00f3 del sector privado al p\u00fablico, convirti\u00e9ndose en diplom\u00e1tico encargado de encontrar \u201csoluciones pr\u00e1cticas\u201d al \u201cbloqueo econ\u00f3mico y financiero\u201d impuesto a Venezuela desde 2015, lo cual inclu\u00eda la negociaci\u00f3n de acuerdos comerciales con Ir\u00e1n.\nLa relaci\u00f3n econ\u00f3mica con Ir\u00e1n ha sido fundamental para ayudar a la recuperaci\u00f3n de la industria petrolera de Venezuela y, por extensi\u00f3n, de su econom\u00eda.\nSaab desempe\u00f1\u00f3 un papel fundamental en los acuerdos comerciales entre Ir\u00e1n y Venezuela para todo tipo de productos, desde gasolina y repuestos hasta alimentos y medicinas. Seg\u00fan Forbes, Saab era un blanco de Estados Unidos porque ten\u00eda \u201clos medios y los conocimientos t\u00e9cnicos para ayudar a mantener discretamente toda una econom\u00eda en movimiento bajo los ojos de un mundo vigilante\u201d.\nSaab ha negado las acusaciones en su contra y se\u00f1ala una investigaci\u00f3n suiza que se abandon\u00f3 luego de tres a\u00f1os por falta de pruebas.\n\u201cLos m\u00e9ritos de las acusaciones son d\u00e9biles a primera vista. Implican actividades que no tuvieron lugar en Estados Unidos y su conexi\u00f3n con Estados Unidos es muy tenue\u201d, dice el abogado David Rivkin.\nSu detenci\u00f3n en Cabo Verde, a instancias del gobierno estadounidense, se produjo apenas unos meses despu\u00e9s de que Trump anunciara una campa\u00f1a de \u201cm\u00e1xima presi\u00f3n\u201d sobre Venezuela. Su extradici\u00f3n a Estados Unidos descarril\u00f3 el di\u00e1logo entre el gobierno y la oposici\u00f3n venezolana.\nEstados Unidos planea ahora \u201cpresionar\u201d a Saab \u201cpara que arroje luz sobre la red econ\u00f3mica de Venezuela tras las sanciones\u201d, seg\u00fan Forbes. Despu\u00e9s de soportar ser torturado en Cabo Verde, la palabra presi\u00f3n se queda corta.\n\u201cDesde el d\u00eda que \u00e9l vol\u00f3 a Ir\u00e1n, nos han perseguido a todos. Nos han acosado en los medios de comunicaci\u00f3n, nos han demonizado, no nos han dejado verle\u201d, dijo Camilla Saab, describiendo lo que ha sufrido su familia.\nAlex Saab, sobreviviente de c\u00e1ncer, no ha podido tomar sus medicamentos diarios desde su detenci\u00f3n. Ha perdido 65 libras. Sus padres murieron de COVID-19 mientras \u00e9l estaba encarcelado en Cabo Verde.\nSu familia ha sufrido tambi\u00e9n. Sus hijos adultos fueron sancionados por la administraci\u00f3n Trump. Su hija menor nunca lo ha conocido. Sin embargo, en todas sus comunicaciones, Saab mantiene su lealtad al pueblo venezolano.\nAl perseguirlo, Camila Saab cree que Estados Unidos est\u00e1 enviando un mensaje: \u201cIntentan intimidar, pero el pueblo venezolano resiste y sigue en su lucha por la soberan\u00eda. Estados Unidos no es la polic\u00eda del mundo. Liberen a Alex Saab\u201d.\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: \u2018Mexico is not a colony\u2019: President AMLO criticizes US claim it hosts Russian spies. 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, Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador, Mexico, Northcom, Northern Command, Russia", "output": "Left-wing Mexican President AMLO criticized the US government accusation that his country hosts more Russian spies than any other, stating \u201cMexico is not a colony of any foreign country. Mexico is a free, independent, sovereign country.\u201d\n\nMexico\u2019s left-wing President Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador has criticized the United States for claiming his country hosts more Russian spies than any other.\n\u201cWe need to send them telegrams, informing them that Mexico is not a colony of any foreign country, that Mexico is a free, independent, sovereign country,\u201d declared L\u00f3pez Obrador, who is known popularly by the acronym AMLO.\n\u201cMore and more this should be known, because sometimes it appears that it is not understood well enough,\u201d the Mexican president added.\nMexico's left-wing President AMLO criticized the US claim that his country hosts Russian spies\n\"We need to send them telegrams informing them Mexico is not a colony of any foreign country, that Mexico is a free, independent, sovereign country\"\nRead more: https://t.co/9c6QqmzTDf pic.twitter.com/w7225NJCb2\n\u2014 Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) March 27, 2022\n\nThe leader of US Northern Command (Northcom), General Glen VanHerck, claimed in a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on March 24 that Russia\u2019s foreign military intelligence agency the GRU supposedly has more spies in Mexico than anywhere else.\nThe general accused Russia of using Mexico to spy on and try to infiltrate the United States, alleging \u201cthat most of the GRU members in the world are in Mexico at the moment,\u201d and that \u201cthey keep a very close eye on their chances of influencing the opportunities and access that the United States has.\u201d\nAMLO rejected the US government\u2019s accusations in his morning press conference on March 25.\n\u201cWe are not a colony of Russia, or of China, or of the United States,\u201d AMLO asserted. \u201cMexico is an independent country, free and sovereign.\u201d\n\u201cWe don\u2019t have information about that,\u201d he stated in response to the US general\u2019s allegations.\nAMLO said Washington has the right to share its views, because, \u201cWe respect the free expression of ideas.\u201d But he condemned the idea that Mexico is controlled by any foreign power.\nPresident L\u00f3pez Obrador also stressed that Mexico maintains an independent, non-aligned foreign policy, which respects all countries.\n\u201cWe have a policy of non-intervention,\u201d AMLO explained.\n\u201cWe don\u2019t go to Moscow to spy on anyone, nor do we go to Beijing to spy on what they\u2019re doing in China, nor do we go to Washington, or even to Los Angeles. We don\u2019t involve ourselves in that.\u201d\nThe president added that his government respects the rights of foreigners who abide by Mexico\u2019s laws, while those who violate the law will be detained and face consequences.\nAMLO has repeatedly criticized the US government for funding right-wing opposition groups in Mexico.\nHe also condemned the European Union for meddling in his country\u2019s internal affairs. In a scathing open letter on March 10, AMLO\u2019s office denounced the European Parliament as\u00a0\u201cflunkies of the reactionary and coup-plotting strategy of the corrupt\u201d right-wing Mexican opposition.\nThe European Parliament condemned Mexico\u2019s left-wing President AMLO for his \u201cpopulist rhetoric\u201d against the biased corporate media\nHe responded by blasting the EU body as a reactionary gang of coup-plotters, declaring \u201cwe are no longer a colony of anyone\u201dhttps://t.co/D9qXQbiIdQ\n\u2014 Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) March 11, 2022\n\nAMLO called on Brussels to \u201cevolve, leave behind your obsessive meddling disguised as good intentions,\u201d adding, \u201cDon\u2019t forget that we are no longer a colony of anyone. Mexico is a free, independent, and sovereign country.\u201d\nIn both his March 25 press conference and his March 10 letter to the European Parliament, AMLO\u00a0quoted former president Benito Ju\u00e1rez, who said, \u201cAmong individuals, as among nations, respect for the rights of others is peace.\u201d\nWhen Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, the United States pressured Mexico to join the Western powers in imposing sanctions on Moscow, but AMLO refused, emphasizing Mexico\u2019s policy of non-intervention.\nL\u00f3pez Obrador has enjoyed a consistent 66% approval rating among Mexicans, making him one of the world\u2019s most popular leaders.\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: US and Colombia do military exercises with nuclear submarine near Venezuela, after sending warship through Taiwan Strait. 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, nuclear submarine, Taiwan, Ukraine, Venezuela", "output": "While the world is focused on Ukraine, the US and Colombia threatened Venezuela in military exercises with a nuclear submarine, a day after Washington intimidated China by sending a warship through the Taiwan Strait.\n\n(Se puede leer este art\u00edculo en espa\u00f1ol aqu\u00ed.)\nWhile the world is fixated on the war in Ukraine, the United States is taking provocative military actions against Venezuela and China.\nThe US and Colombia held military exercises with a nuclear submarine in the Caribbean Sea, near Venezuela, just one day after Washington sent a warship through the Taiwan Strait.\nBoth Venezuela and China saw the US military moves as clear threats, condemning the actions as provocative.\nOn February 27 and 28, the US Navy held anti-submarine warfare exercises with the Colombian Navy.\nColombia\u2019s Ministry of Defense boasted that this was the first time they had done a military exercise with a nuclear submarine, the USS Minnesota.\nPor primera vez fue utilizado un submarino nuclear en un ejercicio de interoperabilidad entre Colombia y EE.UU. El submarino USS Minnesota ?? y  el ARC \u2018Pijao\u2019 ?? pusieron a prueba sus capacidades, ratificando la cooperaci\u00f3n y confianza entre ambos pa\u00edses. @ArmadaColombia @USNavy pic.twitter.com/WcGkBsVlvL\n\u2014 Mindefensa (@mindefensa) February 28, 2022\n\nUS Southern Command (Southcom) shared photos of the exercises on its official Instagram account.\n\nA post shared by U.S. Southern Command (@ussouthcom)\n\nThe Colombian Defense Ministry emphasized that the exercise highlighted the \u201cinteroperability between Colombia and the US.\u201d\nThe private intelligence firm Stratfor, which is popularly known as the \u201cshadow CIA,\u201d noted that the US military exercises with Colombia were \u201cwithin [the] scope of NATO.\u201d\nAlthough the US-led military alliance is called the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and the South American nation is decidedly not in the North Atlantic region,\u00a0Colombia is a special \u201cpartner\u201d of NATO.\nIt is NATO\u2019s first and only \u201cpartner\u201d in Latin America.\nWashington and Bogot\u00e1 claimed the exercises were aimed at fighting drug trafficking, but in reality Colombia\u2019s government is deeply linked to drug cartels, organized crime, and violent paramilitary groups.\nColombia\u2019s former president \u00c1lvaro Uribe, the most powerful politician in the country and a top ally of Washington, works closely with drug cartels and death squads. And Colombia\u2019s current, far-right president, Iv\u00e1n Duque, only came to power because Uribe ordered an infamous drug dealer, \u00d1e\u00f1e Hern\u00e1ndez, to buy votes for him.\nThe Colombian Navy said it felt \u201cproud\u201d to collaborate with the US military and deepen their integration.\n? La @ArmadaColombia se siente orgullosa de hacer parte de la operaci\u00f3n \u201cContralmirante Jos\u00e9 David Espitia Jim\u00e9nez\u201d en aguas del Caribe, para el progreso de la educaci\u00f3n mar\u00edtima, siendo participe de la protecci\u00f3n y el desarrollo de los intereses nacionales. ???? pic.twitter.com/nBHTPJFGYL\n\u2014 Armada de Colombia (@ArmadaColombia) February 28, 2022\n\nFor its part, Venezuela recognized the US-Colombian military exercises near its borders with a nuclear submarine as a blatant threat.\nVenezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino tweeted, \u201cWhy is there such imperialist flashiness? Is this a copy of NATO expansion in the Mediterranean of the Americas?\u201d\n\u201cYou don\u2019t battle drug trafficking, the war in Arauca [in Colombia], systematic murders and terrorist groups with nuclear submarines,\u201d he wrote. \u201cI categorically reject this.\u201d\n\u00bfPara qu\u00e9 tanta ostentaci\u00f3n imperialista?\u00bfEs una r\u00e9plica de la expansi\u00f3n Otanista en el Mediterr\u00e1neo de Am\u00e9rica? El narcotr\u00e1fico, la guerra en Arauca, los asesinatos sistem\u00e1ticos y los grupos terroristas no se combaten con submarinos nucleares. Lo rechazo de manera categ\u00f3rica. pic.twitter.com/aDeLONv5AO\n\u2014 Vladimir Padrino L. (@vladimirpadrino) February 28, 2022\n\nJust one day before these US-Colombian naval exercises started, Washington threatened China by sending a large warship through the Taiwan Strait.\nOn February 26, the US Navy\u2019s guided-missile destroyer USS Ralph Johnson sailed through the narrow strait.\nDestroyer USS Ralph Johnson Performs Taiwan Strait Transit \u2013 USNI News https://t.co/joAxUU4480 pic.twitter.com/VG0Izmujkn\n\u2014 U.S. Naval Institute (@NavalInstitute) February 28, 2022\n\nChina condemned the exercise as \u201cprovocative.\u201d\n\u201cIt is hypocritical and futile for the US to conduct this provocative action in an attempt to bolster the \u2018Taiwan independence\u2019 forces,\u201d the Chinese military said.\nBeijing\u2019s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Wang Wenbin, then added, \u201cIf the US wants to embolden the \u2018Taiwan independence\u2019 forces in this way, then we have this to say to the US: such move will only accelerate the demise of the \u2018Taiwan independence\u2019 forces.\u201d\n\u201cThe US will also pay a heavy price for its adventurist act,\u201d he continued. \u201cIf the US tries to intimidate and pressure China in this way, then we have this stern warning: the so-called military deterrence will be reduced to scrap iron when facing the steely great wall of the 1.4 billion Chinese people.\u201d\nComment on the US guided-missile destroyer USS Ralph Johnson's recently sail through the Taiwan Strait and all the hype. pic.twitter.com/j5RXw7Vw28\n\u2014 XIE Yongjun \u89e3\u52c7\u519b (@XIEYongjun_CHN) March 1, 2022\n\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Peru rises up after coup against 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": "Alberto Fujimori, Daniela Ortiz, Indigenous peoples, Keiko Fujimori, Pedro Castillo, Peru, racism", "output": "Peru\u2019s elected left-wing President Pedro Castillo was overthrown in a coup by the right-wing-controlled congress. A Peruvian activist explains why the people are rising up and demanding a new constitution.\n\nPeru\u2019s democratically elected left-wing President Pedro Castillo was overthrown and arrested in a coup on December 7 by the right-wing-controlled congress, which has an approval rating of between 7% and 11%.\nCastillo is a\u00a0humble teacher and union organizer from a rural, indigenous-descent community in a country whose political system has long been dominated by racist elites.\nAs soon as Castillo entered office at the end of July 2021, far-right elements in the congress, loyal to the US-backed former dictator Alberto Fujimori, constantly tried to overthrow him and destabilize his government.\nMultipolarista editor Ben Norton interviewed Peruvian activist Daniela Ortiz about the protests going on across the country calling for a new constitution and demanding that Castillo be freed from prison.\n\nBEN NORTON: Hey, everyone. I\u2019m Ben Norton. And today I have the privilege of being joined by an activist in Peru, Daniela Ortiz. She is an anti-racist activist, and also an artist.\nAnd today, we\u2019re going to be talking about the coup that happened against the elected left-wing president, Pedro Castillo, on December 7 there. This was wildly distorted in foreign media reporting.\nAnd I\u2019m going to ask you about this, Daniela, but there was essentially an attempt to have a congressional coup against the elected President Castillo by the right-wing-controlled congress. And the most recent poll from just a few days ago shows that the congress in Peru has an 11% approval rating.\nAnd in response to the congressional coup attempt, we saw that President Castillo dissolved congress and called for a constitutional referendum, and that led to a coup against him.\nAnd now there has been a new president that has been appointed, who is unelected, his vice president, Dina Boluarte, who has made a political alliance with the right wing and called for a government of national unity with the right wing.\nMeanwhile, there are large protests going on in Peru demanding that Castillo, who was arrested by the police, be freed, and calling for new elections, and also calling to have a constituent assembly to create a new constitution.\n?\ufe0f@VimermaM desde Espinar.#AdelantoDeEleccionesYa #QueSeVayanTodosYa pic.twitter.com/DwLkEI7LjX\n\u2014 ?? Wayka? (@WaykaPeru) December 9, 2022\n\nSo, Daniela, can you talk about the situation that has happened in the past few days? What do you think about this coup? How is it being portrayed outside of Peru? And what do people not understand about what\u2019s going on?\nDANIELA ORTIZ: Thanks a lot for having me. What we\u2019re seeing these days is the end of a long process that started the first day that Castillo was elected.\nSince the first day, the right wing, together with the media \u2013 not only the national media, also the international media \u2013 have been creating a lot of strategies in order to take Castillo down.\nStrategies that went from accusing not only Castillo, but everybody that was around him, of \u201cterrorism\u201d; several lawfare processes that happened against Castillo, against Vladimir Cerr\u00f3n, who is the leader of Per\u00fa Libre, that was the party that Castillo entered with,\nThen a lawfare that also was against citizens that only were at the polling tables during the election and the voting. And they were accused of committing fraud, what they called \u201cfraud in the table,\u201d like the fraud was committed by the people that were in charge of the tables during the elections, when Castillo won.\nSo this is one of the many attempts they had, all the \u201cvacancy\u201d impeachments and all these processes. And they finally did what they wanted.\nThat is not taking down Castillo; it is putting themselves in power, because it\u2019s something also that we\u2019re seeing from before.\nThis is not the first president to be taken out by the right wing; he is actually the third president.\nAnd we\u2019re not talking of just any right wing. We\u2019re talking about the Fujimori right wing that wants to be in power and continue that dictatorship that we had with Alberto Fujimori.\nBut now where we have Keiko, his daughter, and all the people from Fuerza Popular, the party of Keiko Fujimori, that are aiming basically to take power and not let anyone be in the executive power.\nBecause it is not just now; it has been for many years that Fuerza Popular has been controlling the congress, and then also creating the laws, in order to be able to control executive power and not let the Peruvian people have the president that we have elected.\nBEN NORTON: This is very important. For people who don\u2019t know the modern history of Peru, there was a fascist dictator, Alberto Fujimori, who governed until 2000.\nAnd both his son and his daughter are prominent politicians in the congress in Peru. And his daughter, Keiko Fujimori, was the other candidate who ran against Pedro Castillo in the second round of the elections.\nAnd the Fujimori dictatorship committed genocide, sterilization of indigenous women.\u00a0So they represent the far-right wing of Peruvian politics.\nNow, you mentioned something very important, Daniela, which is that the right-wing-controlled congress has taken out multiple presidents.\nIn fact, Peru has had six presidents in five years, because of this Fujimorista constitution that allows the Congress to remove elected presidents because of \u201cmoral incapacity,\u201d which really means whatever they want.\nCan you talk about why the political system is so unstable, and why Castillo and also people in the streets right now have been demanding a new constitution where the elected president can actually be allowed to govern?\nDANIELA ORTIZ: Another demand that is happening now is not only that we need a new constitution, not having the constitution that was imposed by Alberto Fujimori during the dictatorship in 1993, by a real a coup d\u2019etat that he carried out.\nHe [Fujimori] closed the congress not in these conditions, not in this situation we are in now.\nAnd they have been manipulating all the laws for many years, in order to impose power and to demand things like, for example, that the president has to ask permission from the parliament in order to travel.\nSo they, for example, didn\u2019t allow Castillo to go to the inauguration ceremony when [Colombia\u2019s President Gustavo] Petro won. And they decided not to let him go to that, but yes to Chile, for example.\nSo they have absolute and total control in regard to this.\nAll the proposals that come from the executive power in order to make the changes that we need \u2013 like, for example, in regard to gas, or that there is needed in regard to the second agrarian reform, that was one of the big promises of Castillo \u2013 these were, blocked by the parliament.\nSo then there is the accusation that Castillo is not doing anything, but he cannot do anything because he has a parliament that is operating in this way.\nAnd then something really important that is happening in this context is the media power. There is a situation in which, if you listen nowadays, the media in Peru, they are claiming that Castillo was the one that carried out a coup d\u2019etat, and they are using, literally, the word \u201cdictator.\u201d\nSo there is an absolute misconception, or manipulation of that situation.\nAnd obviously there is no control over what is going on in the parliament.\nBut something good in regard to the media is that happens in Lima, and that is what people mainly from Lima or the big cities claim.\nBut if you go to the countryside, for example, and if you go to many places where Castillo has a lot of people that defend him, where they have more community radios \u2013 it\u2019s not that there is no access to that media; it\u2019s that people from the countryside, and people who are Indigenous, people who are mestizo, don\u2019t feel identified with the media from Lima.\nTherefore there is a possibility of having another type of information and another type of of a perspective, in regard to the situation of what is going on.\nAnd that is why, since the beginning, people mostly outside Lima have been defending their vote. That is basically what is going on.\nThey [the opposition] haven\u2019t accepted that Castillo won the elections until now.\nAnd as you mentioned, also something really important, is that even the Fujimori party, Fuerza Popular, even they took down a right-wing president, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski.\nBecause, as I said before, it\u2019s not about not letting Castillo be in the presidency; it\u2019s not about having only the right wing; it\u2019s about having this extreme right wing that is a continuation of a dictatorship that has persecuted, killed, disappeared student, union leaders, workers, and people who were getting organized in the \u201990s.\nBEN NORTON: You mentioned the role of the media. In fact, there has been a video clip going viral on social media showing a right-wing TV presenter literally saying that the police should \u201cshoot protesters in the head.\u201d\nSo we see an incitement to a massacre.\nEn un canal peruano el conductor le pide abiertamente a la Polic\u00eda que le \"metan un balazo en la cabeza\" a los manifestantes. La situaci\u00f3n cada vez m\u00e1s cr\u00edtica en Per\u00fa. pic.twitter.com/mL2qhC3OgT\n\u2014 Marco Teruggi (@Marco_Teruggi) December 9, 2022\n\nAnd of course, it was a massacre in 2019 of working-class Indigenous people in Bolivia that is what solidified the coup against Evo Morales.\nAnd, of course, Peru and Bolivia have differences, but they also have a lot of similarities. And one of those similarities is that both countries have a very large Indigenous population that has been excluded from the bourgeois political system for many decades.\nAnd Evo Morales in Bolivia was the first ever Indigenous president. And similarly, Castillo represents the Indigenous-descent communities in rural areas.\nHe himself is from a very humble background. He was a teacher in a rural area who led a teachers\u2019 strike.\nAnd the media coverage against him has often been very racist. Of course, in Peru, the political class has been dominated by many people of European descent who look down upon the Indigenous-descent majority.\nSo can you talk about the the racism that Castillo has dealt with, and also the classism, given that he represents the poor and working-class majority of the country who have been marginalized and excluded from politics for so long?\nDANIELA ORTIZ: That comes from a media, and precisely with this Congress, that do not allow to have laws and to execute the laws that protect population from that media that is so aggressive, not only against Castillo, but all his ministers have been accused with racist arguments, classist arguments of not being capable.\nThat\u2019s the the argument they usually use. And it\u2019s absolutely normalized in the context of Peru, of saying they are not capable of doing this.\nBut also of really complex things like accusations of being \u201cterrorists,\u201d for example.\nThat was what we call \u201cterruqueo,\u201d the practice of claiming that somebody is linked to terrorism comes from the \u201990s. And that has absolute impunity in the media.\nAnd the level of racism, for example, going from comparing Castillo with animals. We saw one day that there was a party of the elite, that they were dressing up like Castillo, and making fun of him, and killing him.\nThis is the level of violence.\nAnd we can see in Argentina, before the attempt of murdering Cristina [Fern\u00e1ndez de Kirchner], there were a lot of contexts in which this violence was being represented. One was the media, but also in parties, and also in Twitter.\nEverywhere there was this type of of aggressiveness, with absolute impunity.\nAnd also, it\u2019s not only Castillo. It\u2019s all the people who entered into the parliament.\nIt\u2019s the first time, for example, that we could have \u2013 before the use of Quecha in the parliament was like a symbolic thing. Like, for example, somebody saying hello and presenting in Quecha, or doing something symbolic in Quecha.\nBut in this moment, and this parliament, where some of the parliamentarians at the beginning were from Per\u00fa Libre, the party of Castillo, we saw figures like Guido Bellido, for example, giving full speeches in Quecha, making a political use of Quecha.\nAnd that is frustrating white people who do not understand the language that is spoken by a great proportion of the population here in Peru, and that is one of the languages of Peru.\nAnd they were even trying to file legal complaints because some politicians were using Quecha in the context of the parliament.\nThe level of racism at that moment was was really strong.\nAnd then in the past few days we saw the humiliation of the family of Castillo. They had to take their things out of the presidential palace in bags.\nAnd that is the image that the right wing and the elite from Lima wanted, because they cannot accept having in power somebody who comes from a rural area, who is a teacher, who comes from a humble background.\nBEN NORTON: Absolutely. And I want to talk now about the complex situation in terms of the dissolution of the congress, the way in which Castillo temporarily at least tried to dissolve the congress.\nWe know from day one, as you mentioned, that the right-wing-controlled congress, which has an 11% approval rating, has constantly tried to overthrow the elected President Castillo.\nIn just over a year, they tried, they were on their third attempt to impeach him.\nAnd unlike the impeachment system in other countries, if the congress has a majority vote to impeach the president, the president has to step down in Peru. It\u2019s not like, for instance, in the United States where President Donald Trump was impeached, but he did not step down.\nIn Peru, it has led to six presidents in five years. And this is the context in which Castillo dissolved the congress.\nAnd in fact, even ironically according to the the Fujimorista constitution, the president actually does have the ability to dissolve the congress in circumstances of obstructionism.\nSo can you talk about the misleading narrative that we see in corporate media, and also spread by the US embassy, claiming that Castillo was carrying out an \u201cautogolpe,\u201d a \u201cself coup\u201d against the government, when in reality of course it was the coup being carried out against him.\npic.twitter.com/cyDlKaxiC8\n\u2014 Embajada EEUU Per\u00fa (@USEMBASSYPERU) December 7, 2022\n\nDANIELA ORTIZ: Well actually the demand to close to close that Congress was a popular demand. Many of the marches, and the blockades, and the demonstrations recently were not against Castillo, but pushing him to make the agenda he entered with.\nIt was not for him to step down or to become more right-wing; it was for him to become more left-wing. That was a protest of the people: with Castillo, not against him but with him.\nAnd what happened was that he did what the people was asking: to close the congress. Because everybody is conscious, and we can see it, as you mentioned it, that the congress has only 11% approval \u2013 and I don\u2019t want to see what the number is going to be after what they did.\nThere is a general consensus in many contexts that the congress is interrupting.\nAnd then also he did what [Mart\u00edn] Vizcarra did, our last president. He also decided to close the congress. That was also a demand from the people at the moment.\nAnd obviously what they came out to say is that it was a coup d\u2019etat, and they were talking about a dictatorship, but, I mean, Castillo didn\u2019t even appear with a military when he decided to close the congress.\nAnd it was a policy that was closing the congress and not making a dictatorship or a coup d\u2019etat, as what they were saying, every word, and the argument and the excuse in order for them to carry out a real coup d\u2019etat.\nWhat happened is that it seems that Castillo had information that the congress would have the amount of votes in order to do the impeachment and remove him.\nThat\u2019s what it seems, because really, until this moment, there are many versions and theories, but nobody knows really what happened and why he took that decision.\nBut anyway, even though \u2013 because there are people saying that it was a mistake to do it at this time, and how he did it, and how he didn\u2019t have support or wasn\u2019t organized with certain groups or political groups, etc.\nBut the main point is that there was a general demand to close in the congress. That\u2019s what he did.\nAnd also something really positive is that, if you listen [to Castillo\u2019s] message \u2013 and most people haven\u2019t even listened to what he was saying \u2013 is that he said that he was closing the congress and was also going to open a constituent process in order to change the constitution.\nThat is one of the main demands.\nAnd then the really complex thing is that, when the congress impeached him and they kicked him out of the government, the congress was already closed. They were working absolutely illegally.\nSo because Castillo already closed the congress, and then they took that decision, and he was detained \u2013 and even if we have these laws \u2013 they were not legal procedures.\nAnd nobody knows what is happening in regard to him, because they are accusing him of starting a rebellion. But in the penal code that talks about this, it says clearly that you have to be armed. And Castillo was not armed.\nHe was basically alone. And he was detained alone. And he was not rebelling with arms.\nSo many of us understand that the detention of Castillo is absolutely illegal. Even under the rules that they have imposed.\nBEN NORTON: Yeah, it\u2019s almost comical in a way to see people accuse him of being a dictator when Castillo was clearly impeded in every single way.\nHe had no control over the political system and the congress, no control over the elite economic groups, the big corporations and oligarchs, no control over the media, which constantly attacked him every day, 24/7, and certainly no control over the military and police, which arrested him!\nSo this would be the weakest \u201cdictator\u201d ever.\nDANIELA ORTIZ: And they were operating against him. We have been, for example, in the processes of lawfare in regard to supposed cases of corruption.\nIn one of them, they even entered his room. And actually it is the same policemen that detained him the other day.\nAnd they even had the power to enter the room of the president, and to touch, remove, and take documents that are a secret of his state, that were not only his personal belongings, but they are part of that.\nI mean, there is a law that protects the president and his belongings. And the police entered the presidential palace, and they were taking everything.\nSo obviously, we say, what type of dictatorship lasted three hours? That wasn\u2019t a dictatorship.\nBut a dictatorship we really lived under was the Fujimori dictatorship. There were, for example, at the beginning \u2013 once he [Fujimori] was elected \u2013 there were conversations and audio recordings of Vladimiro Montesinos, who was the chief of the intelligence service, which was actually a form by the CIA.\nAnd he [Montesinos] studied in the [US military\u2019s] School of the Americas. And we know how many people in Latin America that were part of dictatorships studied there. And he\u00a0was one of the main characters of the Fujimori dictatorship.\nThere were audio recordings of him [Montesinos] giving orders from prison on how to deal with the elections, in order to put in Keiko Fujimori. And nobody investigated that.\nAnd what they were investigating [instead] \u2013 and I\u2019m not making a joke \u2013 there was an investigation that was of how they paid for the food at Castillo\u2019s birthday party in the palace, and who paid for the birthday party of his daughter.\nThat is the huge \u201ccorruption\u201d information that they have.\nAnd here we also have this figure of the protected witness, the person that can accuse you that you were part of a corruption process, and they have benefits in the legal process.\nSo there were many of these people, and many of them have been being linked to the Fujimoris\u2019 party. And they were friends, and together with them.\nAnd these same people \u2013 actually, one of the it protected witnesses that was accusing Castillo of being corrupt, in one of the corruption cases, she had the same lawyer as Fujimori!\nHow come they are not going to investigate that? This media that is so worried, how are they not going to investigate what are the links of the people that are accusing Castillo to the Fujimoris\u2019 party?\nBEN NORTON: Yeah, it\u2019s quite incredible seeing the media and the right-wing opposition accuse Castillo of corruption.\nMeanwhile, it\u2019s in fact the Fujimori family \u2013 and especially in the infamous corruption scandal of the Mamanivideos, where we have concrete evidence; they have been proven to be engaged in corruption, bribing politicians to vote in their interests.\nI mean, of course, corruption is nothing new in in Peru. But the accusations against Castillo remind me of the accusations of corruption against [left-wing President] Dilma Rousseff in Brazil that were being made by the most corrupt people in Brazilian politics.\nDANIELA ORTIZ: And then with this logic of, well, now you have to prove [you\u2019re not corrupt].\nAnd people say like, \u201cIt\u2019s really easy, yes, you have to prove that you are innocent.\u201d But what they have been doing \u2013 and we see, we know how it\u2019s a process of lawfare, and how long the process is to prove that you are not guilty.\nAnd, for example, they detained the daughter of Castillo.\nSo that\u2019s also really important to know how, in the lawfare processes in different contexts of Latin America, they kind of reinforce their strategies and create new strategies,\nSomething new that we have seen here \u2013 well, we also saw it in Argentina with Cristina [Fern\u00e1ndez de Kirchner\u2019s] daughter \u2013 but here they also detained the daughter of the president. And they opened a process against his wife.\nBut then, for example, with Vladimir Cerr\u00f3n, the leader of Per\u00fa Libre, the party that entered the government together with Castillo, and then he stepped out \u2013 but, for example, [they targeted] the mother of Vladimir Cerr\u00f3n, and all his family, everybody that is around him.\nActually one of the ministers of Castillo stepped down and he explained, almost crying, saying that he didn\u2019t want to have \u2013 because they were starting to attack his daughter, and his ex-wife, and opening legal processes against him \u2013 and he said that he didn\u2019t want to put at risk the well-being of his daughter, because they are detaining the families also, as a\u00a0strategy of pressure.\nAnd then they are let go, not guilty, but they have been already detained two years, or one year, or six months, and the media has already created huge headlines that then are never erased.\nBecause we have seen it with Lula [da Silva, president-elect of Brazil]. When everything is shown that he was not guilty, like in many other cases, for example, the media says almost nothing about that.\nAnd then nobody is processed, or investigated, or denounced, or pays for carrying out these processes of lawfare. There is absolute impunity in regard to that.\nBEN NORTON: Yeah, I mentioned earlier that there have been large protests going on demanding that Castillo be freed.\nBut they\u2019re also demanding a new constitution, and specifically a constituent assembly.\nAnd this is a tweet here from a left-wing member of congress, Guillermo Bermejo Rojas.\nCan you talk about this demand for a constituent assembly, and what the people of Peru want to try to create a new constitution to get rid of the dictatorship-era constitution?\nDANIELA ORTIZ: Well, like in many other countries, like Chile, for example, we have a constitution that comes from the dictatorship of Fujimori, that doesn\u2019t allow, for example, the state to intervene in emergency situations \u2013 like the Covid-19 pandemic, for example, not nationalizing, at least momentarily, the medical services.\nAnd for example, during the Covid-19 pandemic, we saw that the government couldn\u2019t do anything, because the constitution was created so the interests of companies, private entities, and the interests of transnational [corporations] are absolutely [the priority].\nFor example, with the gas situation, there is a problem that we cannot nationalize the gas. The price of the gas in Peru is amazing, when, at the same time we have gas; we are producers of gas.\nBut because of the constitution, it is really difficult to make a change in regard to that.\nAnd now you can see it is even bigger, the demand that we need to change the constitution.\nBut more than changing the constitution, I think the most important thing is the process, and to think about what is going to be the process that we\u2019re going to have in order to build that new constitution.\nFor example, a discussion here is also to have a plurinational state.\nWe have so many different communities, and people, and identities, and languages in the context of Peru that have been not only excluded, they have been basically almost persecuted.\nLike we saw, as I said, in the parliament, people were speaking Quecha in the parliament, and they were almost trying to process them legally because the white people couldn\u2019t understand what they were saying.\nSo we need a new way of getting organized in regard to this.\nSo I hope, many of us hope, that even though we have to go through this moment, it\u2019s a moment that is going to strengthen in the streets, in order to demand this new constitution.\nBEN NORTON: I am very grateful for this analysis.\nFinally, just to conclude here, I know in moments like these, with a coup, it\u2019s always the worst moment to criticize a leader who has been overthrown in a coup.\nSo I don\u2019t want to ask this question to criticize Castillo in this very dangerous moment for him, but just for people outside of Peru, so they can understand the political context.\nOne of the narratives that we\u2019ve seen, which is true, is that Castillo did alienate some of his former leftist allies.\nYou mentioned that he came in as president as part of the socialist party Per\u00fa Libre, and later had a split with the party.\nAnd he also had multiple prime ministers, [known officially as] the president of the council of ministers \u2013 you mentioned some of them, Guido Bellido and others \u2013 and they kind of had falling outs.\nSo there were people in the Peruvian left who had criticisms of Castillo. Although it seems like, in this moment, the left is unified against the coup.\nJust to provide that context for people to understand, how would you say the relationship of Castillo has been to the left and the social movements in Peru?\nDANIELA ORTIZ: Well, I think it\u2019s a general problem in many contexts in the Global South, and even Europe for example, that we have a problem with a unity of the left wing, many times.\nAnd I think there is a problem in regard to that, that there is only unity when it comes to an emergency moment \u2013 like, for example, the election moment, or the moment of a coup d\u2019etat.\nWe shouldn\u2019t have allowed this to happen. And mostly we shouldn\u2019t have allowed this to happen when the left wing didn\u2019t have any problem.\nBecause, obviously, there were criticisms of Castillo, because he was not accomplishing most of the promises that he entered it with. But we also needed to understand that he had a parliament that didn\u2019t let him approve any type of laws.\nAnd then he had such a level of the media [opposition], that it is really difficult to create any type of changes, if what you have to do in your daily life as a president, as the government is just defending yourself.\nI do think that it would have helped Castillo, for example, to be a stronger if he had the first group of ministers he had and keeping it that way, and not changing it, because then he was changing, every time there was some sort of attack from the media, then he would change the minister, thinking that the media was going to stop.\nAnd I think he some way trusted or thought that if he would get less \u201cradical,\u201d they were going to stop. But it was even worse, because they wanted to take him out.\nAnd then also something that I see as a problem \u2013 I lived in Spain for 13 years, and I saw it, I see it nowadays a lot, for example, with the racist speeches from the ultra-right wing from there \u2013 that we have allowed here to have a right wing that is setting the agenda.\nIf there is an accusation of corruption, everybody says, yeah, maybe he is corrupt. They\u2019re not thinking that everything that the right wing says, and the media from the right wing says, is part of the agenda of kicking him out of power.\nSo I do think there have been several mistakes.\nThere is also, I think, a need to not only discuss how to stay in the government, but there is a need to have a political project that we hope goes through the constituent process.\nBut I hope really that after this situation, there is a deep reflection, in every space on the left wing, on the mistakes that have been committed.\nThat I think, basically, is not having the unity we need, not only in moments of election, or when a coup d\u2019etat happens and we need to go to the streets, but in the process of building that.\nAlso, I do not think that a president alone is going to change things. I do not think that only a group in the congress is going to change things.\nAnd I do think that, if there is a mistake from the government, it can count on other organizations and the people that want to contribute in this process of change, and that we are going to be there to defend our president.\nBEN NORTON: Very well said. I think that\u2019s a perfect note to end on. I want to thank you, Daniela Ortiz.\nDaniela is an activist and an artist, and she is involved in the anti-racist movement and the feminist movement in Peru.\nPeople can follow her on Twitter at @DanillaOrtiz.\nDaniela, thank you so much for providing this context in this moment.\nDANIELA ORTIZ: Thanks a lot, and take care. We hope we get support during these days of mobilization. Thanks.\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Imperialism and capitalism are \u2018bleeding the world dry\u2019: At UN, Nicaragua calls for global rebellion. 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": "capitalism, Denis Moncada, imperialism, Nicaragua, UN, United Nations", "output": "At the United Nations General Assembly, Nicaragua\u2019s Sandinista government called for a global rebellion against the \u201cimperialist and capitalist system\u201d that is \u201cbleeding the world dry.\u201d Condemning illegal sanctions and war, it urged a new multipolar order.\n\n(Se puede leer esta nota en espa\u00f1ol aqu\u00ed.)\nNicaragua\u2019s Sandinista government used its platform at the United Nations General Assembly to call for a global rebellion against the \u201cimperialist and capitalist system\u201d that is \u201cbleeding the world dry.\u201d\n\n\u201cIt is time to say enough to the hypocritical imperialism that politicizes, falsifies, and denigrates human rights, that they themselves violate and deny every day,\u201d declared Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Denis Moncada.\n\u201cImperialism and its coercive actions are anti-life, in all spheres, and because of this, they are contrary to international law,\u201d he added.\nIn his September 26 UN speech, Moncada proclaimed, \u201cA better, just, multipolar world\u201d is \u201calready being built, and we are here to keep creating it, and to defend it.\u201d\n\u201cIt is time to say enough, and to rebel and keep rebelling against the innate evil of capitalism, that suffocates the majority and brutally enriches a few.\u201d\nNicaragua delivered the most revolutionary speech at the UN:\n\"It's time to reject criminal blockades; all illegal, arbitrary, aggressive sanctions,\" which expose \"the perversion of an imperialist and capitalist system\" that is \"bleeding the world dry\" ? pic.twitter.com/ALrbDt5hNc\n\u2014 Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) September 26, 2022\n\nMoncada continued:\n\u201cIt is time to transcend the egoism that kills, that murders millions of human beings in the world, who are subjected to the cruelty of poverty and extreme poverty, by the barbarous instincts of the beasts, the great powers that seek to continue and perpetuate their dominion at the expense of hunger, lack of health, destruction of the climate, ignorance, war.\u201d\n\u201cIt is time to keep rejecting the criminal blockades; the aggressions of so-called sanctions, which are illegal, arbitrary, illicit; which clearly show the perversion of the imperialist and capitalist system and model, that continue punishing the bleeding the world dry, while organizations that should defend it just watch, doing nothing.\u201d\n\u201cIt is time to make important the principal of the sovereign equality of states in all international organizations and fora, so that multipolar and non-aligned world that we have so yearned for can be reality, can be strengthened, can grow and include all of us.\u201d\n\u201cIt is time to make important the world of dialogue and peace, of justice and solidarity, of brotherhood and good will.\u201d\nNicaragua\u2019s Sandinista government at the UN ?\n\u201cIt\u2019s time to say enough is enough, to rebel against the innate evil of capitalism, which suffocates the majority while brutally enriching the few\u201d\nReject \u201cthe hypocritical imperialism\u201d that violates human rights \u201con a daily basis\u201d pic.twitter.com/TeVxR0w7KO\n\u2014 Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) September 26, 2022\n\nThe Nicaraguan foreign minister emphasized the long history of his people\u2019s struggle against foreign conquest.\n\u201cThe heroic, dignified, sovereign, free people\u201d of Nicaragua have worked with other peoples to \u201cconfront, throughout the centuries, the colonial and imperial avarice and greed that, from Europe and the north of this wounded continent [the Americas], has shown no mercy, attacking, intervening, invading, occupying our sacred lands,\u201d he said.\n\u201cThe invaders have left Nicaragua, expelled and defeated by the bravery of Nicaraguan patriotism,\u201d he added.\n\u201cThe assault, the robbery, the ignoble and abominable plunder, the larceny and genocides unleashed by the colonialists and imperialists of Earth, those are the true crimes, and those are the true criminals against humanity.\u201d\nUrging unity, Moncada stressed, \u201cWe should unite to keep confronting the great social, economic, climatic, cultural, and security challenges, which endanger the human family every day.\u201d\nNicaragua's Foreign Minister Denis Moncada at the UN: \"The assault, the robbery, the ignoble and abominable plunder, the larceny and genocides unleashed by the colonialists and imperialists of Earth, those are the true crimes, and those are the true criminals against humanity\" pic.twitter.com/pZq6YhFB7c\n\u2014 Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) September 26, 2022\n\nAt the United Nations,\u00a0Nicaragua\u2019s Sandinista government sent its \u201ccommitted embrace of solidarity with dignified and brave Venezuela, with heroic Cuba, with the noble and historic battles of the Palestinian people, the Islamic Revolution of Iran\u2019s families, the grand ongoing battle of the Russian Federation against fascism and for security, integrity, and peace.\u201d\nMoncada likewise stressed Nicaragua\u2019s \u201cembrace of solidarity with the admirable resistance and just development of the People\u2019s Republic of China, that causes such discomfort, concern, and envy for the enemies of the common good.\u201d\nNicaragua similarly reaffirmed its solidarity with \u201cSyria, the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, Belarus, the peoples of Asia, Africa, and Our America and the Caribbean.\u201d\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Nicaragua at UN: Pandemic exposes \u2018irrational, oppressive capitalist system,\u2019 US/EU sanctions are \u2018savage\u2019 crime against humanity. 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": "capitalism, climate change, Denis Moncada, EU, European Union, imperialism, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, reparations, sanctions, UN, United Nations", "output": "At the United Nations, Nicaragua\u2019s Sandinista government condemned US and EU imperialism, called for climate reparations and decolonization, and said the Covid-19 pandemic exposed \u201csavage capitalism.\u201d\n\nNicaragua\u2019s Sandinista government used its platform at the United Nations General Assembly to condemn the unjust global capitalist system, and to call to create a new international economic model built on equality, solidarity, and peace.\nForeign Minister Denis Moncada delivered a fiery speech in the UN headquarters on September 27.\nMoncada emphasized that the Covid-19 pandemic had exposed the \u201cirrational and oppressive system of capitalist exploitation,\u201d in which rich imperialist countries hoard vaccines while building more and more weapons of mass destruction.\n\u201cIt is part of the heartless creation of savage capitalism, an insatiable desire for accumulation,\u201d he said.\nNicaragua condemned the\u00a0constant US meddling in its internal affairs, noting that the imperial attacks hinder its fight against poverty, \u201cwhich is the world\u2019s cruelest pandemic.\u201d\n\u201cIt is not the US empire that elects the government of Nicaragua; it is the Nicaraguan people,\u201d Moncada declared.\nThe top Nicaraguan diplomat condemned the illegal, \u201csavage\u201d sanctions the United States and European Union have imposed on his nation and on countries around the world.\n\u201cIn times of pandemic, these measures become a crime against humanity,\u201d Moncada said.\nNicaragua affirmed its solidarity with the more than 2 billion people living in countries suffering under these US or EU sanctions.\nMoncada reiterated his nation\u2019s call for global de-nuclearization, warning of the dangers of nuclear weapons.\nOn the subject of climate change, Nicaragua emphasized that imperialist countries in the Global North, as the largest carbon emitters, are the most responsible, and thus must pay reparations and bear the majority of the burden in combatting the ecological \u201ccatastrophe.\u201d\nMoncada also addressed the crisis of people fleeing Central America (although Nicaragua does not contribute much to that migration crisis, and most of it comes from neighboring Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala). He called for respecting the rights of immigrants and refugees, while emphasizing that many are in fact fleeing due to Western-fueled wars and coups, as well as Western-imposed neoliberal policies that destroyed their local economies.\nNicaragua criticized the United States and Europe for \u201ctheir culture of war.\u201d It was an ironic jab at Western colonialists who spread racist tropes claiming people in the Global South have a \u201cculture of violence.\u201d\nThe Sandinista government likewise used its international stage to call for independence for Puerto Rico and an end to US and British colonialism in Latin America.\nAt the same time, Nicaragua affirmed its \u201ctotal solidarity\u201d with Palestine, Syria, Iran, the DPRK, Russia, and Western Sahara.\nTranslated highlights of Moncada\u2019s speech follow below, in which Nicaragua calls to build a peaceful, multipolar international order based on multilateralism, non-intervention, and respect for national sovereignty.\nAt the UN, Nicaragua said the pandemic exposes \"the irrational & oppressive system of capitalist exploitation\"\nRich imperialist countries hoard vaccines while building more weapons. \"It's part of the heartless creation of savage capitalism, an insatiable desire for accumulation\" pic.twitter.com/Qypd3uuoQc\n\u2014 Benjamin Norton (@BenjaminNorton) September 28, 2021\n\n\u201cThis global health crisis continues to erode our efforts to overcome existing problems and challenges, such as poverty, hunger, and malnutrition, inequality, unemployment, and climate change, produced by the irrational and oppressive system of capitalist exploitation.\u201d\n\u201cThe inhumane hoarding of Covid-19 vaccines is unacceptable, on the part of developed countries, which prevents the fair and equal distribution for everyone, including developing countries. It is necessary and fair to guarantee technology transfers and financial resources, as well as declaring the vaccines a common good for humanity.\u201d\n\u201cThe pandemic that affects all countries on our Mother Earth has proven the need to create a new international economic model, fundamentally based on inclusion, equity, social justice, respectful equality between states and governments, prioritizing the eradication of poverty, and healthcare as a universal right for humanity, demanding that the resources that are used for war, aggression, and destabilization of countries are instead used, in a humanistic spirit, for life, for peace, for the security and progress of the people.\u201d\n\u201cIt is unacceptable that, in the middle of this pandemic, they continue modernizing weapons of mass destruction, putting all of humanity at risk.\u201d\n\u201cIt is part of the heartless creation of savage capitalism, an insatiable desire for accumulation, at the cost of peace, international security, and human life.\u201d\nNicaragua condemned the constant US meddling in its internal affairs, noting that the imperial attacks hinder its fight against poverty, \"which is the world's cruelest pandemic.\"\n\"It is not the US empire that elects the government of Nicaragua; it is the Nicaraguan people.\" pic.twitter.com/fEK22g9I8E\n\u2014 Benjamin Norton (@BenjaminNorton) September 28, 2021\n\n\u201cNicaragua is a free, independent, and sovereign state, but imperialist powers still attack our project of national development, and undermine our efforts, above all, our project to eradicate poverty, which is the world\u2019s cruelest pandemic.\u201d\n\u201cIn Nicaragua, the first Sunday of November this year, the Nicaraguan people will elect our authorities with their vote, with the participation, with gender equality, of 15 political parties, both national and regional parties.\u201d\n\u201cIt is not the US empire that elects the government of Nicaragua; it is the Nicaraguan people, confirming its commitment to continue working for peace, security, and the tranquility of people, families, and communities.\u201d\nAt the UN, Nicaragua condemned the illegal, \"savage\" sanctions the US and EU have imposed worldwide.\n\"In times of pandemic, these measures become a crime against humanity.\"\nNicaragua reaffirmed \"our solidarity with the more than 2 billion people who suffer from these sanctions\" pic.twitter.com/7XjhuHLOTh\n\u2014 Benjamin Norton (@BenjaminNorton) September 28, 2021\n\n\u201cThe illegal unilateral coercive measures must cease immediately, to guarantee stability, peace, and development, for families, peoples, and nations.\u201d\n\u201cThese coercive and aggressive policies of the empires constitute a savage obstacle for the eradication of poverty, and to advance to sustainable development.\u201d\n\u201cIn times of pandemic, these measures become a crime against humanity, on the part of those who impose them.\u201d\n\u201cFor Nicaragua, they are unacceptable; we reject them, and we reiterate our condemnation and our solidarity with the more than 2 billion people who suffer from these sanctions.\u201d\nNicaragua called at the UN General Assembly for reparations to combat climate change.\nIt stressed that rich imperialist countries have caused the majority of environmental damage, and thus must contribute much more.\n\"The biggest emitters have that historic responsibility\" pic.twitter.com/tvAlmgRXCR\n\u2014 Benjamin Norton (@BenjaminNorton) September 28, 2021\n\n\u201cWhile our people work, resist, respond, and recover from the pandemic, we should not forget the challenges that the threat of climate change poses, and its devastating impact, particularly in developing countries, a threat that will continue even after overcoming the Covid-19 pandemic and recuperating the economy.\u201d\n\u201cTo preserve and defend our Mother Earth\u2019s right to life, concrete results are needed in the COP26 UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, that are based on the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities, that strengthen the responsibility and fulfillment of the commitment to climate justice, and the indispensable policy of reparations, as a form of direct and unconditional cooperation.\u201d\n\u201cIf we allow time to pass without developed countries fulfilling their commitments, the damage to Mother Earth caused by global warming will be irreversible.\u201d\n\u201cBeing those who are historically responsible for this catastrophe, it is extremely important that the biggest [fossil fuel] emitters, who are responsible for the plunder, damage, and the imbalances recognize our losses and harm, contributing to the recuperation of our ecosystems.\u201d\n\u201cThe biggest emitters have that historic responsibility.\u201d\nNicaragua's Sandinista government used its platform at the United Nations to call for an end to US and British colonialism in Latin America and the decolonization of Puerto Rico.\nCuba also joined Nicaragua in calling for Puerto Rico's independence and freedom. pic.twitter.com/L4agrK44gv\n\u2014 Benjamin Norton (@BenjaminNorton) September 28, 2021\n\n\u201cNicaragua advocates for the full decolonization of our continent, including the decolonization of the people of Puerto Rico, and the return of Argentina\u2019s sovereignty over the Islas Malvinas [UK-colonized Falkland Islands].\u201d\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Venezuela and Iran sign 20-year cooperation plan, Maduro pledges joint \u2018anti-imperialist struggle\u2019. 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": "Algeria, Ebrahim Raisi, Iran, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, Venezuela", "output": "Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro visited Iran and signed a historic 20-year cooperation agreement involving energy, technology, and trade. He pledged solidarity against Western aggression in a joint \u201canti-imperialist struggle for a better world.\u201d\n\nVenezuela\u2019s President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro took a historic trip to Iran and announced a 20-year cooperation agreement, pledging to more closely integrate the countries\u2019 economies and work together in a joint \u201canti-imperialist struggle for a better world, of international respect and peace, without hegemonies.\u201d\nMaduro signed the pact with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in Tehran on June 11. It was described by the Venezuelan and Iranian governments as a \u201cpartnership agreement\u201d and \u201ccooperation agreement.\u201d\nThe deal involves collaboration in science, technology, agriculture, oil and gas, petrochemicals, tourism, and culture, according to Tehran\u2019s Press TV.\nIranian President Raisi said the document establishes formal \u201ccooperation in the fields of energy, thermal power plants, repair and overhaul of refineries, exportation of technical and engineering services, economic, defense and military relations in the current government are indicative of the existence of many potentials and capacities in the two countries.\u201d\nIran-Venezuela sign 20-year partnership agreement to bolster ties pic.twitter.com/ea3UiHRKeV\n\u2014 Press TV (@PressTV) June 11, 2022\n\nThis agreement follows another historic 25-year cooperation plan that Iran signed with China in 2021, which has been estimated at $400 billion.\nTop Iranian diplomats signed similar deals with Nicaragua\u2019s Sandinista government in May.\nNicaragua signs historic agreements with Iran, discusses bartering to evade illegal US sanctions\n\nThese pacts are signs of growing South-South cooperation against Western imperialism, not only within Latin America and Asia, but even across the ocean.\nBoth\u00a0Venezuela and Iran suffer from aggressive sanctions imposed unilaterally by the United States, which are illegal under international law.\n\u201cThe Islamic Republic of Iran has always sought relations with independent countries in its foreign policy, and Venezuela has resisted the sanctions of the enemies and imperialism and has shown exemplary resistance,\u201d Raisi said at the signing ceremony.\n\u201cThere have been numerous sanctions and threats against our country over the past 24 years, but the Iranian nation decided to turn the sanctions into an opportunity for the sake of the country\u2019s progress,\u201d the Iranian leader added.\nMaduro emphasized upon signing the agreement, \u201cThe youths of Iran and Venezuela must know that the world of the future is a world of equality and justice. We stand against imperialism, and together we must build the future.\u201d\nThe Venezuelan president likewise tweeted his \u201clove, solidarity, brotherhood\u201d for Iran, referring to the country as \u201cbrothers and comrades in anti-imperialist struggle.\u201d\nEl amor, la solidaridad, la hermandad, no tiene distancia y m\u00e1s cuando hemos logrado reconocernos con la Rep\u00fablica Isl\u00e1mica de Ir\u00e1n como hermanos y compa\u00f1eros de lucha antiimperialista por un mundo mejor, de respeto internacional, Paz y sin hegemon\u00edas. pic.twitter.com/dgeBdipZle\n\u2014 Nicol\u00e1s Maduro (@NicolasMaduro) June 10, 2022\n\nMaduro announced that, as of July, there will be regular flights between Caracas and Tehran.\nHe added that a large oil tanker built by Iranian company Sadra was delivered to Venezuela. The vessel has a capacity of 800,000 barrels.\nIran has helped Venezuela circumvent illegal US sanctions, breaking the blockade that Washington has imposed on the South American nation, which makes it difficult to export oil and import the lighter petroleum and diluents that Caracas needs to process its heavy crude.\nRecibimos la entrega del Tanquero Yoraco, construido por la Empresa iran\u00ed Sadra, y por la clase obrera de PDVSA, con capacidad de 800 mil barriles. Estoy m\u00e1s que agradecido por la construcci\u00f3n de este moderno buque que refleja la capacidad industrial de la hermana naci\u00f3n de Ir\u00e1n. pic.twitter.com/Q445kx3WHO\n\u2014 Nicol\u00e1s Maduro (@NicolasMaduro) June 11, 2022\n\nAfter meeting with President Raisi, Maduro sat down with Iran\u2019s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.\nSostuve un encuentro lleno de espiritualidad y sabidur\u00eda, con el L\u00edder supremo de Ir\u00e1n, Ali Jamene\u00ed. Agradezco sus palabras, que fortalecen mi alma y nos brindan la fuerza necesaria para seguir transitando el camino del mundo de Paz y hermandad que queremos consolidar. pic.twitter.com/yztGAUvei8\n\u2014 Nicol\u00e1s Maduro (@NicolasMaduro) June 11, 2022\n\n\u201cIran and Venezuela have closer ties with each other than any other country. The Islamic Republic of Iran has proven that when dangers arise for its friends, Iran takes risks and helps its friends,\u201d Khamenei remarked, according to a readout.\nIran & Venezuela have closer ties with each other than any other country. The Islamic Republic of Iran has proven that when dangers arise for its friends, Iran takes risks & helps its friends.\n\u2014 Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) June 11, 2022\n\n\u201cThe successful experiences of Iran and Venezuela in standing up to US\u2019s intense pressures and hybrid warfare have proven that the only way to confront the US is through resistance and persistence,\u201d Khamenei said.\n\u201cThe Venezuelan government and nation\u2019s victorious fight against the US and its all-out hybrid war on Venezuela, plus Mr. Maduro the Venezuelan nation\u2019s resistance, are invaluable. Resistance raises a nation\u2019s and its leaders\u2019 status and esteem. The US views Venezuela differently today,\u201d Khamenei added.\nMaduro vowed support for Palestinian liberation, and\u00a0Khamenei praised the Venezuelan leader\u2019s \u201ccourageous\u201d stance \u201cagainst the Zionist regime.\u201d\nKhamenei\u2019s official Twitter account shared a metaphorical image of an Iranian oil tanker and a Venezuela jet destroying a US flag in the ocean.\nIr\u00e1n ha demostrado que en los momentos de riesgo se arriesga y estrecha la mano de sus amigos.\n? https://t.co/LwLevaOdwp pic.twitter.com/CJkJCMWN3y\n\u2014 Jamene\u00ed Multimedia (@JameneiM) June 11, 2022\n\nBefore his trip to Iran, Maduro also visited Algeria and Turkey.\nIn his meeting with Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, Maduro said the leaders discussed \u201cour firm solidarity with Palestine, support for the Saharawi people, and shared concern about the situation in brotherly Libya.\u201d\nDurante la reuni\u00f3n con el Presidente de la Rep\u00fablica Argelina Democr\u00e1tica y Popular, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, coincidimos en tres temas: nuestra firme solidaridad con Palestina, el apoyo al pueblo Saharaui y la preocupaci\u00f3n compartida por la situaci\u00f3n de la hermana Libia. pic.twitter.com/zRFPBT8Z53\n\u2014 Nicol\u00e1s Maduro (@NicolasMaduro) June 9, 2022\n\nMaduro later tweeted, \u201cTotal success! We continue building a new map of strategic alliances, in benefit of the Venezuelan people. A new world is possible!\u201d\nAgradecidos con el pueblo y el gobierno de esta hermana naci\u00f3n, nos despedimos de la Rep\u00fablica Argelina Democr\u00e1tica y Popular. \u00a1\u00c9xito Total! Seguimos construyendo un nuevo mapa de alianzas estrat\u00e9gicas en beneficio del pueblo venezolano. \u00a1Un Nuevo Mundo Es Posible! pic.twitter.com/P867kERRHW\n\u2014 Nicol\u00e1s Maduro (@NicolasMaduro) June 10, 2022\n\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: US kidnapped and imprisoned Venezuelan diplomat Alex Saab for buying food. 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": "Alex Saab, Camilla Fabri Saab, CLAP, Iran, sanctions, Venezuela", "output": "Venezuelan diplomat Alex Saab was essentially kidnapped by the United States because he was buying food for the government\u2019s CLAP food program, to feed the people of Venezuela.\n\n(Se puede leer este art\u00edculo en espa\u00f1ol aqu\u00ed.)\n\u201cIt\u2019s not a crime to fulfill a diplomatic mission. It\u2019s not a crime to evade sanctions that are harming an entire country. It can\u2019t be illegal to help a people.\u201d Camilla Fabri Saab made these impassioned remarks when explaining the situation behind the illegal arrest and extradition \u2013 the kidnapping, in essence \u2013 of her husband, Venezuelan diplomat Alex Saab.\nSaab is virtually unknown in the United States, where he is currently languishing in a Miami prison, but he has been vital to Venezuela\u2019s ability to survive the brutal economic war being waged by the U.S.\nHe is a political prisoner whose case has parallels to that of Julian Assange. Both have been subjected to extraterritorial reach by U.S. authorities, as neither are U.S. citizens, and their alleged crimes took place outside of the country. Assange is in jail for telling the truth. Saab is in jail for helping feed Venezuelans.\nSaab faces a charge of conspiracy to commit money laundering for his involvement in Venezuela\u2019s housing program, and was sanctioned by the Trump administration in 2019 for his work with Venezuela\u2019s CLAP, a program that sends food and other necessities to Venezuelan families.\nRoutinely referred to in the media as a Colombian businessman, Saab has dual Venezuela-Colombian citizenship and is a diplomat. He was appointed as a Venezuelan special envoy in April 2018, more than two years before his arrest.\nUnder the Vienna Convention and the U.S. Diplomatic Relations Act, a diplomat cannot be arrested by a foreign power. This includes diplomats who are in transit between the sending and receiving countries, Venezuela and Iran, in Saab\u2019s case.\nAlex Saab was flying from Venezuela to Iran when his plane stopped to refuel in Cabo Verde, an island country off the western coast of Africa. He was arrested without a warrant and held in Cabo Verde for nearly 500 days, as a protracted battle over his extradition to the U.S. played out in the courts.\nHe was beaten, denied medical care, and held in isolation. Cabo Verde ignored a ruling from a regional court ordering his release, as well as a decision by the United Nations Human Rights Committee suspending his extradition. Neither his family nor his lawyers were informed of his extradition until after it occurred.\nIn short, Saab was kidnapped twice: once when his plane was refueling and again when he was spirited to the U.S.\nThe U.S. government argues that the extradition was legal and that any violation of the Vienna Convention was committed by Cabo Verde. David Rivkin, one of Saab\u2019s attorneys, says the fact that \u201cCabo Verde absolutely violated its legal obligation does not provide any excuse for the United States.\u201d\nRivkin describes the case against Saab as \u201cunprecedented,\u201d given the broad and protective view the U.S. has typically held on diplomatic immunity. Saab has an April appearance in the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals on this very issue.\n\u201cThe U.S. cannot have a world in which third countries can molest U.S. diplomats and if you establish a rule that says third country diplomats can be molested by the United States, it is inevitable that the same would happen to U.S. diplomats. This prosecution is not based on the law and is not in the long-term interests of the United States itself,\u201d Rivkin explains.\nBeyond the crucial issue of diplomatic immunity, the charges and case against Saab are clearly political. For years, the U.S. has gone after key figures in Venezuela, including putting bounties on President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro and others, as part of its attempts to overthrow the government.\nThese attempts, which include waging a barbaric and illegal economic war that has decimated Venezuela\u2019s economy, led to increased migration and caused the deaths of tens of thousands of Venezuelans. Camila Saab rightfully calls U.S. sanctions an \u201cact of war against the entire Venezuelan population.\u201d\nHer husband played a key role in mitigating the disastrous consequences of the sanctions. He first became involved with Venezuela by winning contracts for the Great Housing Mission, a government social program that has built 3.9 million homes for working-class Venezuelans since 2011, the majority of those with the country under sanctions.\nSaab later won contracts for Venezuela\u2019s CLAP program, through which 7 million Venezuelan families receive boxes of food and essential goods each month.\nThe sanctions not only make life difficult for Venezuelans; they make it a challenge to do business with Venezuela. Banks refuse to carry out transactions, even when they\u2019re perfectly legal. Insurance companies raise prices or back out altogether. Shipping companies raise rates. Vendors demand cash and won\u2019t operate on credit.\nInstead of pulling out from Venezuela, as many businesspeople did, Saab decided to stick with the Venezuelan people and went from the private sector into the public one, becoming a diplomat tasked with finding \u201cpractical solutions\u201d to the \u201ceconomic and financial blockade\u201d imposed on Venezuela since 2015, which included brokering trade deals with Iran.\nThe economic relationship with Iran has been critical in helping with the recuperation of Venezuela\u2019s oil industry, and by extension, its economy.\nSaab played a critical role in trade agreements between Iran and Venezuela for everything from gasoline and spare parts to food and medicine. According to Forbes, Saab was a target of the U.S. because he had \u201cthe means and know-how to help discreetly keep an entire economy moving under the eyes of a watching\u00a0world.\u201d\nSaab has denied the allegations against him, and points to a Swiss investigation that was dropped after three years due to a lack of evidence.\n\u201cThe merits of the charges are weak on their face. They involve activities that did not take place in the United States and their connection to the U.S. is very tenuous,\u201d says attorney David Rivkin.\nSaab\u2019s arrest in Cabo Verde, at the behest of the U.S. government, came just months after Trump announced a \u201cmaximum pressure\u201d campaign on Venezuela. His extradition to the U.S. derailed the dialogue between the Venezuelan government and opposition.\nThe U.S. now plans to \u201cpressure\u201d Saab \u201cto shed light on Venezuela\u2019s post-sanction economic network,\u201d according to Forbes. After enduring torture in Cabo Verde, the word pressure is an\u00a0understatement.\n\u201cSince the day he flew to Iran, they have persecuted all of us. We have been harassed in the media, they have demonized us, they have not let us see him,\u201d Camilla Saab said, describing what her family has been through.\nA cancer survivor, Alex Saab hasn\u2019t been able to take his daily medicines since his arrest. He has lost 65 pounds. His parents died of Covid-19 while he was imprisoned in Cabo Verde.\nSaab\u2019s family has been targeted too. His adult children were sanctioned by the Trump administration. His youngest daughter has never met him. Yet in all of his communications, Saab maintains his allegiance to the Venezuelan people.\nIn persecuting him, Camila Saab believes the U.S. is sending a message: \u201cThey\u2019re trying to intimidate but the Venezuelan people resist and continue in their fight for sovereignty. The U.S. is not the world\u2019s police force. Free Alex Saab!\u201d\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Argentina plotted potential US-backed military invasion of Venezuela in 2019. 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, Donald Trump, Horacio Verbitsky, Juan Guaid\u00f3, Leopoldo L\u00f3pez, Mauricio Macri, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, Venezuela", "output": "Argentina\u2019s right-wing Mauricio Macri government made plans for a military invasion of Venezuela in 2019, in coordination with the United States and Colombia, using \u201chumanitarian\u201d intervention as an excuse.\n\nWith the support of the United States, Argentina\u2019s right-wing government made plans for a potential invasion of Venezuela in 2019, according to leaked documents from the South American nation\u2019s military.\nThe military operation was called the \u201cPuma\u201d exercise, and was overseen by Argentina\u2019s conservative President Mauricio Macri, who was closely coordinating with the Donald Trump administration.\nMacri\u2019s Argentina had rejected Venezuela\u2019s democratically elected President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro and instead recognized Trump-appointed coup leader Juan Guaid\u00f3, after the little-known politician declared himself unelected \u201cinterim president\u201d in January 2019.\nMacri continued supporting the US-led coup attempt in Venezuela until he lost the October 2019 election and was replaced by current center-left President Alberto Fern\u00e1ndez that December.\nArgentine journalist Horacio Verbitsky, of the independent media outlet El Cohete a la Luna, received materials from internal military sources exposing the Venezuela invasion plans.\nMientras EE UU apostaba al derrocamiento militar del gobierno venezolano, el general Mart\u00edn Paleo planific\u00f3 y ejercit\u00f3 una invasi\u00f3n a Venezuela por la frontera con Colombia. La excusa fue una misi\u00f3n humanitaria.\nLe\u00e9 a @VerbitskyH en @elcoheteluna ??\n\u27a1\ufe0f https://t.co/J0Hbk1esGo pic.twitter.com/8kj3VTBiLy\n\u2014 El Cohete a la Luna ?? (@elcoheteluna) February 14, 2022\n\nBetween April and July of 2019, the Argentine military carried out the \u201cPuma\u201d exercise in seven sessions. The operation was overseen by General Juan Mart\u00edn Paleo.\nIn addition to support from the United States, the Argentine invasion would have been coordinated with the military of Venezuela\u2019s neighbor Colombia, which refuses to recognize President Maduro and backs coup leader Guaid\u00f3.\nColombia has a far-right government, closely linked to drug trafficking and death squads, and has been involved in numerous violent incursions into Venezuelan territory, including a botched invasion in May 2020 that coup-plotters say was backed by the Trump administration and the CIA.\nThe Argentine government was planning to used \u201chumanitarian intervention\u201d as an excuse for the invasion, claiming that Venezuela was blocking so-called \u201chumanitarian aid\u201d that the United States had been trying to force across the Colombian border.\nArgentina\u2019s military made plans for three potential paths to invade Venezuela, including by crossing the Colombian border. Verbitsky, the Argentine journalist, published a map of the Puma exercise scenarios.\nPlans by Argentina\u2019s military for a potential invasion of Venezuela in 2019\nOn April 30, Guaid\u00f3\u2019s US-backed team launched a violent coup attempt. It failed, because only a few dozen soldiers rose up against the Venezuelan government.\nBut the soldiers who did rebel managed to free far-right Venezuelan oligarch and coup-plotter Leopoldo L\u00f3pez, who was under house arrest at the time.\nL\u00f3pez sought refuge in the Chilean and Spanish embassies,\u00a0 and eventually moved to Madrid, where he continues to live with the protection of the government of Spain, the former colonizer of Venezuela.\nWith the backing of the US and Colombian governments,\u00a0L\u00f3pez later helped to organize a failed May 2020 invasion of Venezuela, called Operation Gideon.\nOn April 30, the day of Guaid\u00f3\u2019s attempt to create a violent mutiny within the military, Argentine President Macri showed his full support for the operation, tweeting in all capital letters, \u201cWE SUPPORT MORE THAN EVER DEMOCRACY IN VENEZUELA.\u201d\nMacri reaffirmed Argentina\u2019s recognition of unelected coup leader Guaid\u00f3, and demonized the elected President Maduro as a so-called \u201cdictator.\u201d Macri praised the release of L\u00f3pez and wrote, \u201cWe join the struggle of the Venezuelan people to retake their freedom.\u201d\nEsperamos que este sea el momento decisivo para recuperar la democracia. Que la larga angustia que llev\u00f3 al sufrimiento y al miedo a los venezolanos llegue a su fin y comience un per\u00edodo de libertad, sensatez y crecimiento. No ser\u00e1 f\u00e1cil, como bien sabemos los argentinos\n\u2014 Mauricio Macri (@mauriciomacri) April 30, 2019\n\nThe Argentine journalist who exposed the Puma exercise, Verbitsky, noted that the former FBI deputy director under Trump, Andrew McCabe, revealed that the US president had wanted to control Venezuela\u2019s oil.\nAccording to McCabe, Trump said,\u00a0\u201cI don\u2019t understand why we\u2019re not looking at Venezuela. That\u2019s the country we should be going to war with. They have all that oil and they\u2019re right on our back door.\u201d\nThe US government also backed other attempts to assassinate Maduro, including a failed operation using drones.\nAn image from the Argentine military\u2019s plans for an invasion of Venezuela in 2019\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Brazil\u2019s President-elect Lula calls to free Julian Assange from \u2018unjust imprisonment,\u2019 sends \u2018solidarity\u2019. 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, Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador, Brazil, Daniel Ortega, Julian Assange, Lula da Silva, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, WikiLeaks", "output": "Brazil\u2019s left-wing President-elect Lula da Silva called for journalist Julian Assange to be freed from his \u201cunjust imprisonment\u201d and said he \u201csent my solidarity,\u201d after meeting with his colleagues from WikiLeaks.\n\nBrazil\u2019s left-wing President-elect Lula da Silva has called for journalist Julian Assange to be freed from his \u201cunjust imprisonment.\u201d\nAssange, the founder of whistle-blowing journalism publication WikiLeaks, has languished since 2019 in a maximum-security British prison, where he has suffered from prolonged torture that could threaten his life, according to the top United Nations expert.\nThe United Kingdom is preparing to extradite the Australian journalist to the United States, where he is facing up to 175 years in prison on politically motivated charges based in part on illegal CIA spying\u00a0and threats.\nOn November 28, Lula met with Assange\u2019s colleagues from WikiLeaks. The Brazilian president-elect said he \u201csent my solidarity\u201d and expressed hope that \u201cAssange will be freed from his unjust imprisonment.\u201d\nEstive com @khrafnsson, editor-chefe do WikiLeaks, e com o editor Joseph Farrell, que me informaram da situa\u00e7\u00e3o de sa\u00fade e da luta por liberdade de Julian Assange. Pedi para que enviassem minha solidariedade. Que Assange seja solto de sua injusta pris\u00e3o.\n?: Cl\u00e1udio Kbene pic.twitter.com/DuSvdEBQQY\n\u2014 Lula (@LulaOficial) November 29, 2022\n\nLula tweeted a photo of his meeting with Kristinn Hrafnsson, an Icelandic journalist who serves as editor-in-chief of Wikileaks, and Joseph Farrell, another editor of the publication.\nHrafnsson said Lula\u00a0expressed \u201chis ongoing support for Julian Assange and the demand to end the persecution, understanding it can damage press freedom worldwide.\u201d\nThe WikiLeaks chief called the Brazilian politician a \u201ctrue man of passion, vision and sympathy.\u201d\nPresident-elect of Brazil Lula da Silva \u2066expressed, in a private meeting tonight, his ongoing support for Julian Assange and the demand to end the persecution, understanding it can damage press freedom worldwide. A true man of passion, vision and sympathy. Obrigado Lula pic.twitter.com/pq22nRYljD\n\u2014 Kristinn Hrafnsson (@khrafnsson) November 29, 2022\n\nNumerous prominent journalists and lawyers have sued the CIA for spying on them as part of its 24/7 surveillance operation targeting Assange.\nThe US spy agency even made plans to kidnap and murder Assange when he was trapped for years in Ecuador\u2019s embassy in London.\nLula da Silva won the second round of Brazil\u2019s presidential elections on October 30. He will officially become the head-of-state of the largest country in Latin America on January 1, 2023.\nLula is just one of several leftist leaders in the region who have called for Assange to be freed, along with\u00a0Mexico\u2019s President Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador (AMLO), Nicaragua\u2019s President Daniel Ortega, and Venezuela\u2019s President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro.\nA few days before meeting with Lula in Brazil, the WikiLeaks editors were in Bogot\u00e1, where they met with Colombia\u2019s first-ever left-wing President Gustavo Petro.\nPetro also expressed support for freeing Assange, and said he and other Latin American heads of state would pressure the US government and President Joe Biden to drop the charges against the journalist.\nColombia\u2019s President Petro supports freedom for Julian Assange, meets with WikiLeaks editors\n\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Brazil\u2019s President Lula is back \u2013 and Bolsonaro fled to Florida. 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, Florida, Jair Bolsonaro, Lula da Silva, MERCOSUR, Orlando, UNASUR", "output": "Lula da Silva returns as Brazil\u2019s president, calling for fighting poverty and hunger, re-industrializing, strengthening the BRICS, and deepening Latin American integration. Far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro fled to Florida, fearing legal consequences for his corruption.\n\nLula da Silva has returned as president of Brazil, the world\u2019s sixth-most populous country. This will cause a major geopolitical shift.\nMeanwhile, far-right former leader Jair Bolsonaro fled to Florida, fearing legal consequences for his corruption.\nMultipolarista spoke with\u00a0Brazil-based journalist Brian Mier about what Lula\u2019s third government means for Latin America and the world.\n\nIn his speech before the congress at his January 1 inauguration, Lula stressed that everyone has the \u201cright to a dignified life, without hunger, with access to employment, health, education.\u201d He said his \u201clife mission\u201d is to guarantee that every Brazilian has three meals a day.\nAs president, Lula stressed that he is a \u201crepresentative of the working class\u201d who \u201cpromotes economic growth in a sustainable way and to the benefit of all, especially those most in need.\u201d He committed himself to the \u201cwidest social participation, including workers and the poorest in the budget.\u201d\n\u201cOur first actions aim to rescue 33 million people from hunger and rescue from poverty more than 100 million Brazilian men and women, who have borne the hardest burden of the project of national destruction that ends today,\u201d Lula added, condemning the economic crisis left behind by Bolsonaro.\n\nLula was a co-founder of the BRICS bloc, bringing together Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.\nIn his inauguration speech, Lula called for \u201cstrengthening the BRICS,\u201d as well as deepening Brazil\u2019s \u201ccooperation with African countries.\u201d\nIn a significant reversal of Bolsonaro\u2019s staunchly pro-US foreign policy, President Lula also urged \u201cthe resumption of South American integration,\u201d through the \u201crevitalization\u201d of regional institutions like UNASUR and Mercosur.\nBolsonaro only came to power in the first place due to two US-backed coups against Brazil\u2019s left-wing Workers\u2019 Party: the overthrow of President Dilma Rousseff in 2016 and the subsequent imprisonment of Lula in the lead-up to the 2018 election, on false charges that were subsequently expunged by the country\u2019s supreme court and condemned by the United Nations Human Rights Committee.\nSoon after he entered office thanks to this US meddling, Bolsonaro visited CIA headquarters. He also dedicated himself to sabotaging institutions of Latin American integration, withdrawing Brazil from UNASUR.\nIn contrast, as a symbol of his commitment to the Patria Grande (the project of Latin American unification), Lula waved the flag of Mercosur alongside that of Brazil at his inauguration.\nBrazil's far-right leader Bolsonaro fled to Florida before Lula's inauguration, fearing consequences for his extreme corruption\nSo instead Lula was given the presidential sash by leaders of social movements fighting for the rights of Indigenous, Afro-Brazilian, & disabled people pic.twitter.com/g3nutP5793\n\u2014 Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) January 2, 2023\n\nBecause Bolsonaro fled to Florida two days before his presidential term ended, he was not in the country to pass over the presidential sash to Lula.\nSo instead, Lula invited leaders of Brazil\u2019s social movements, who fight for the rights of workers, Indigenous communities, Afro-Brazilians, and disabled people. They marched with Lula and gave him the presidential sash at the inauguration ceremony.\nLula's innauguration ceremony is still hours away and the line is already over 3 kilometers long pic.twitter.com/UMOlO0zQ29\n\u2014 BrianMier (@BrianMteleSUR) January 1, 2023\n\nWhile large numbers of Brazilians celebrated Lula\u2019s return, Bolsonaro was in Florida.\nThe far-right former leader was filmed walking through a gated community in Orlando, posing for photos with his US-based supporters.\nBolsonaro fled justice, knowing that he was going to be investigated and likely charged by Brazil\u2019s justice system over his flagrant corruption and his refusal to implement public health measures during the Covid-19 pandemic, which led to 700,000 deaths \u2013 one of the worst per capita death rates on Earth.\nThe US backed 2 coups in Brazil, installing far-right Bolsonaro in power\nHe stole huge sums of public money to fund his campaign and enrich his oligarch friends\nBolsonaro then fled justice and is now living in Florida\nHe just met with supporters in a gated community in Orlando pic.twitter.com/DPvfH75RVj\n\u2014 Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) January 2, 2023\n\nLula\u2019s inauguration was attended by left-wing leaders from across Latin America, including:\nTogether, they called for deepening the integration of the region.\nAlso present at Lula\u2019s inauguration were representatives from fellow BRICS members, including China\u2019s Vice President Wang Qishan and the chair of the Russian Federation Council, Valentina Matviyenko.\nChina's Vice President Wang Qishan also attended Lula's inauguration in Brazil.\nBoth are cose allies and members of the BRICS bloc. In his speech, Lula called for strengthening BRICS pic.twitter.com/AUZT5Nr7C4\n\u2014 Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) January 2, 2023\n\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Argentina adopting US dollar to fight inflation would be \u2018insane\u2019 neocolonialism, says economist Ha-Joon Chang. 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": "ARENA, Argentina, Brazil, China, de-dollarization, dollar, Ecuador, El Salvador, FMLN, Francisco Flores, Guillermo Lasso, Ha-Joon Chang, Javier Milei, Latin America, Lula da Silva, Salvador S\u00e1nchez Cer\u00e9n, Taiwan", "output": "Right-wing politicians in Argentina want to adopt the US dollar as the national currency to fight inflation. Development economist Ha-Joon Chang said this is \u201cinsane\u201d, warning dollarization\u00a0would make the Latin American nation a \u201ccolony\u201d.\n\nArgentina is suffering from high rates of inflation, largely due to odious debt owed in US dollars to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Western vulture funds.\nThe South American nation sometimes suffers from a current account deficit, and relies heavily on imports of oil, technology, and medical equipment. Low revenue from its mostly agricultural exports means that Argentina faces a chronic shortage of foreign currency \u2013 and most of the dollars it gets end up flowing out of the country to paying interest on the unsustainable external debt, draining the country\u2019s foreign-exchange reserves and making it difficult to stabilize the national currency, the peso.\n\nNational elections are approaching in October, and among the presidential hopefuls is far-right politician Javier Milei.\nMilei describes himself as a \u201clibertarian\u201d and is running on an extreme neoliberal platform, pledging to slash all social spending, privatize the health system, sell off state companies, remove all currency controls, and abolish the central bank \u2013 while simultaneously militarizing the country, giving police more authority to arrest \u201ccriminals\u201d, and building private prisons.\nDespite his \u201clibertarian\u201d pretenses, Milei vowed to make abortion illegal as well, promising to take Argentina \u201cback to being the thriving country that we were at the start of year 1900\u201d.\nMilei\u2019s proposed solution to end inflation is for Argentina to abandon its monetary sovereignty, drop the peso, and adopt the US dollar as the country\u2019s official currency.\nHis call for dollarization has been echoed by fanatical Austrian School economists like former Ronald Reagan advisor Steve Hanke, who is publicly supporting Milei and tweeted, \u201cIt\u2019s time to dump the pathetic PESO and DOLLARIZE NOW\u201c.\nProminent South Korean development economist Ha-Joon Chang has shot back, denouncing this as \u201cthe worst idea\u201d and \u201cinsane\u201d.\nChang warned that dollarization\u00a0would turn Argentina into a US \u201ccolony\u201d.\nIn an interview during a visit to Argentina this May, first reported on by Nick Corbishley at Naked Capitalism, Chang explained:\nIf you want to adopt the dollar as your official currency, you should apply to become a colony of the United States of America, because that\u2019s what it makes you. Because this means that your macroeconomic policies will be written in Washington, DC.\nNow, in a big country like the United States, actually, when the macroeconomic policies are made in Washington DC, there will be states elsewhere in the US that suffer, because the federal government might be tightening the economy, because in general there is inflation, but then in some regions there might already be recession, and then they\u2019ll be in big trouble.\nSo the fact [that it is] a single country, what you do is you make transfers to these regions suffering from recession. And, most importantly, people in those regions in economic recession can move elsewhere, to take up jobs in the areas that are doing well.\nA fiscal union and labor market integration are the necessary conditions for this to make the currency union viable.\nAnd the reason why the Eurozone had such crisis was because they didn\u2019t do this enough. The labor market is integrated, but there\u2019s a language barrier; so it\u2019s not perfect. There is no fiscal union, so they cannot make a transfer to the poor regions. So this is why they had such trouble.\nNow, Argentina unilaterally accepting the US dollar as a currency is insane, because you don\u2019t have labor market integration; you don\u2019t have fiscal transfers.\nIt\u2019s not as if the [North] Americans are going to say, \u2018Oh you cute guys in Argentina, now that you want to use the dollar as your currency, we will accept more immigrants from you; we\u2019ll give you some money\u2019. No.\nThis is the worst idea.\nArgentina is suffering from high inflation due to odious debt owed in US dollars to the IMF and Western vulture funds.\nArgentine right-wingers insist the \"solution\" is to abandon monetary sovereignty, adopting the US dollar.\nEconomist Ha-Joon Chang said \"this is the worst idea\"\u2026 pic.twitter.com/MAvHN2RCwb\n\u2014 Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) May 24, 2023\n\nWhile Argentine right-wingers are calling for dollarization, the left across Latin America \u2013 and in many other parts of the Global South \u2013 are advocating for de-dollarization.\nThe government of Brazil\u2019s President Lula da Silva has initiated research to develop a currency for trade within the region, which will tentatively be called the Sur.\nThis issue is clearly important for Lula, because he used his first foreign trip after returning to the presidency in January, a visit to Argentina for the summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), to publicly announce the plans to develop the pan-Latin American currency.\nArgentine\u2019s current, center-left government has joined China\u2019s Belt and Road Initiative and signed several economic agreements with Beijing, including currency swap lines between the countries\u2019 central banks, seeking to replace the dollar with the renminbi in their bilateral trade.\nArgentina, which has the third-largest economy in Latin America, has also formally applied to join the BRICS bloc, joining its neighbor Brazil, which has the biggest economy in the region.\nThere are two countries in Latin America that already use the dollar as their national currency: El Salvador and Ecuador.\nEl Salvador dollarized starting at the end of 2000, under the conservative government of President Francisco Flores, from the far-right, staunchly pro-US ARENA party.\nFlores was notorious for his extreme corruption, and when he died in 2016, he was under house arrest for stealing millions of dollars that were donated by Taiwan, in what was effectively a bribe to maintain diplomatic recognition. (El Salvador formally recognized the People\u2019s Republic of China in 2018, under leftist President Salvador S\u00e1nchez Cer\u00e9n of the socialist FMLN party.)\nEcuador\u2019s right-wing government surrendered its monetary sovereignty and adopted the dollar in 1999, in response to a banking crisis that devalued the national currency.\nThe economic minister who oversaw that dollarization was Ecuador\u2019s current right-wing president, Guillermo Lasso.\nSteve Hanke, the ultra-neoliberal Austrian School economist who is calling for Argentina to dollarize and publicly supporting far-right politician Javier Milei, took credit for Ecuador\u2019s lack of monetary sovereignty, boasting on Twitter: \u201cThe only thing stable & reliable in Ecuador is its money: the USD. With an assist from yours truly, Ecuador dollarized in 2000\u201d.\nIn May 2023, Lasso dissolved Ecuador\u2019s unicameral parliament \u2013 the National Assembly, in which the opposition had a majority \u2013 and essentially declared himself a dictator.\nHe is now ruling by decree, and ramming through extreme neoliberal policies.\nLasso plans to impose laws that will cut wages, make new employees work for five months without benefits, and even force workers to pay back their employers a month of their salary if they are unilaterally fired (while making it significantly easier for companies to fire their employees).\nThe US government has strongly supported Lasso as he has dissolved parliament and declared a de facto dictatorship.\nFull video with much more research here \u2014 US backs Ecuador dictator: Right-wing banker dissolves parliament to stop impeachment for corruptionhttps://t.co/n1yiZSNQdM\n\u2014 Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) May 20, 2023\n\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Colombia\u2019s new president reverses US coup, visits Venezuela, pledges unity in \u2018spirit of Bol\u00edvar\u2019. 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, Donald Trump, Gustavo Petro, Iv\u00e1n Duque, Joe Biden, Juan Guaid\u00f3, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, Sim\u00f3n Bol\u00edvar, Venezuela", "output": "Colombia\u2019s first-ever left-wing leader Gustavo Petro took a historic trip to Venezuela, pledging regional unity following the anti-imperialist model of Sim\u00f3n Bol\u00edvar. Meeting with President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, Petro said it is \u201csuicidal\u201d to divide the countries, \u201cbecause we are the same people,\u201d in \u201chistorically one single Bolivarian nation, reunited.\u201d\n\nColombia\u2019s first ever left-wing President Gustavo Petro made history on November 1 by visiting his neighbor Venezuela, officially normalizing relations after years of hostility.\nAfter a meeting with Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, the two leaders signed a joint declaration pledging to unify the countries and integrate Latin America, following the anti-imperialist model of Sim\u00f3n Bol\u00edvar.\n\nPetro said it is \u201csuicidal\u201d to divide the countries, \u201cbecause we are the same people,\u201d in \u201chistorically one single Bolivarian nation, reunited.\u201d\nThe presidents symbolically posed for photos in front of large portraits of Bol\u00edvar, the revolutionary general who led a successful armed uprising against Spanish colonialism and established many of the modern states of South America.\nSostuve una amena reuni\u00f3n con el Presidente de Colombia, @petrogustavo, en la que tratamos temas de inter\u00e9s com\u00fan entre ambas naciones; que fortalecen la cooperaci\u00f3n, el encuentro y el bienestar a favor de nuestros pueblos. pic.twitter.com/13d9dYwnoi\n\u2014 Nicol\u00e1s Maduro (@NicolasMaduro) November 1, 2022\n\nColombia\u2019s previous administration had formally cut off diplomatic relations with Venezuela in 2019, when the United States initiated a coup attempt against the nation\u2019s democratically elected leftist Chavista government.\nThe right-wing government in Bogot\u00e1 at the time became Washington\u2019s most important ally in its often violent attempts to overthrow President Maduro.\nPetro is the first Colombian leader to travel to Caracas since 2011, when Hugo Ch\u00e1vez was Venezuela\u2019s elected president. And in that year more than a decade ago, Colombia\u2019s President Juan Manuel Santos did not visit specifically to meet with Ch\u00e1vez, but rather to attend the international summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC).\nEn im\u00e1genes ? | Encuentro entre el Presidente de Colombia @petrogustavo y el Presidente de Venezuela, @NicolasMaduro. ???? pic.twitter.com/qfFSFIXXQO\n\u2014 Presidencia Colombia ?? (@infopresidencia) November 1, 2022\n\nPetro\u2019s office said one of the main goals of the meeting was to \u201ckickstart the economy of the region and socialize its agenda in the favor of the interests of the Latin American bloc and the protection of the Amazon.\u201d\nVenezuela called the historic visit the beginning of a \u201cnew era of cooperation.\u201d Maduro declared, \u201cWe keep taking good steps toward integration!\u201d\nEl destino com\u00fan nos convoca a la uni\u00f3n por el crecimiento, el desarrollo y la Paz de Colombia y Venezuela. Trabajaremos firmemente por eso. \u00a1Sigamos dando buenos pasos hacia la integraci\u00f3n! pic.twitter.com/pmYZjzUIae\n\u2014 Nicol\u00e1s Maduro (@NicolasMaduro) November 2, 2022\n\nThe two countries signed a joint declaration pledging to advance\u00a0\u201ctoward the union and peace of our countries, as our Liberators did in the same patriotic emancipatory achievement.\u201d\nMaduro and Petro wrote that they were\u00a0\u201cinspired by the historical legacy of union and the spirit of fraternity that we inherited from the Father Liberator Sim\u00f3n Bol\u00edvar and the brotherhood of our peoples, which now are geographically and politically two sovereign republics, but historically one single Bolivarian nation, reunited.\u201d\nDeclaraci\u00f3n conjunta de los presidentes de la Rep\u00fablica Bolivariana de Venezuela y de la Rep\u00fablica de Colombia. pic.twitter.com/e7v28xpJkG\n\u2014 Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) November 2, 2022\n\nThe agreement emphasized the importance of economic relations between the neighboring countries.\nThe document called for cooperation in trade, transport, and agricultural production. It also proposed coordination of mining and exploration efforts.\nVenezuela and Colombia share a massive, 2341-kilometer border. Colombia closed this crossing in 2015. It was temporarily unblocked in 2016, but later shut again, until Petro\u2019s government agreed to re-open it this September 26.\nThe new joint declaration prioritized security cooperation on the border, in order to \u201cfight against organized crime.\u201d\nPetro said, \u201cWe are here to start over on a path, which is difficult, but we must go down it. That path begins with rebuilding the border. The border is in the hands of mafias.\u201d\n\u201cAqu\u00ed estamos para recomenzar un camino, que es dif\u00edcil, pero que hay que andar. Ese camino comienza por reconstruir la frontera. La frontera est\u00e1 en manos de las mafias\u201d: Presidente @petrogustavo. pic.twitter.com/58OCldVuG3\n\u2014 Presidencia Colombia ?? (@infopresidencia) November 1, 2022\n\nPetro called for Venezuela to be re-integrated into regional institutions.\nThe Colombian leader also pressured Maduro to hold a dialogue process with the opposition.\nPetro said it would be \u201csuicidal\u201d to divide the countries: \u201cIt is not natural. In more human terms, it is anti-historical that Colombia and Venezuela be separated, because we are the same people.\u201d\n\u201cEs antinatural, en t\u00e9rminos m\u00e1s humanos, es antihist\u00f3rico el que Colombia y Venezuela se separen porque somos el mismo pueblo\u201d: Presidente @petrogustavo. pic.twitter.com/Y25T6gX2KV\n\u2014 Presidencia Colombia ?? (@infopresidencia) November 1, 2022\n\nIn press statements on the historic meeting, Caracas criticized the \u201cinterventionist conduct\u201d of the previous right-wing Colombian administrations and their \u201cattack against the Venezuelan government.\u201d\nPetro\u2019s predecessor, right-wing former President Iv\u00e1n Duque, had been Washington\u2019s top asset in the US-led coup attempt against Venezuela\u2019s elected leftist government.\nIn 2019, the Donald Trump recognized Juan Guaid\u00f3, a little-known opposition figure, as supposed \u201cinterim president\u201d of Venezuela, despite the fact that he had never participated in a presidential election.\nDuque\u2019s government immediately joined in backing Guaid\u00f3 and sponsoring his gang of coup-plotters, many of whom were physically based in Colombia.\nEn fotos: Reuni\u00f3n del vicepresidente Pence con el presidente de Colombia, Iv\u00e1n Duque, y el presidente interino de Venezuela, Juan Guaid\u00f3, en Bogot\u00e1. pic.twitter.com/CzNyZpX0b8\n\u2014 USA en Espa\u00f1ol (@USAenEspanol) February 25, 2019\n\nThe Trump administration sponsored a series of training camps in northern Colombia, where right-wing extremists prepared cross-border attacks and made plans to try to violently overthrow President Maduro.\nTrump\u2019s Defense Secretary Mark Esper revealed in a memoir he published after leaving office that senior US officials had often discussed launching military strikes on Venezuela.\nAfter Trump met with Guaid\u00f3 in the Oval Office in February 2020, Esper, Guaid\u00f3, and other coup-plotters talked about the training of far-right militants in Colombia and plans to invade Venezuela.\nIn May 2020, these terrorists launched a failed invasion of Venezuela, known as Operation Gideon. Top coup-plotters involved in the operation said they had the support of the CIA and Colombian intelligence services.\nTrump\u2019s Defense Secretary Esper revealed top US officials often discussed launching military attacks on Venezuela\nAfter Trump met with Guaid\u00f3 in the Oval Office, Esper and coup-plotters discussed plans to train terrorists in Colombia to invade Venezuelahttps://t.co/QBMYtJitX3\n\u2014 Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) November 1, 2022\n\nStill today, the Joe Biden administration technically recognizes Guaid\u00f3 as Venezuela\u2019s supposed head of state. Colombia, too, had still sponsored Guaid\u00f3, until Petro won the June 19 presidential election.\nPetro immediately pushed to normalize relations with Venezuela. On June 22, Colombia\u2019s then president-elect called Maduro to inform him that he prioritized restoring diplomatic and commercial ties as soon as possible.\nSoon after entering office on August 7, Petro moved to re-open Colombia\u2019s border with Venezuela.\nIn September, Venezuela also agreed to help mediate peace talks between armed socialist militia the ELN and the Colombian government. The parties signed an agreement formally initiating the diplomatic process in Caracas in October.\nVenezuela had previously played a similar role in co-sponsoring successful peace talks between the Colombian government and another armed socialist militia, the FARC.\nFirmamos una Declaraci\u00f3n Conjunta Colombia \u2013 Venezuela que apunta al bienestar y el desarrollo para ambos pueblos. Rumbo hacia un 2023 de integraci\u00f3n, fortalecimiento de relaciones de hermandad y entendimiento entre nuestros pa\u00edses. pic.twitter.com/DY2VvPbWTM\n\u2014 Nicol\u00e1s Maduro (@NicolasMaduro) November 1, 2022\n\nThe historic meeting of Maduro and Petro and their pledge to pursue regional unity is reminiscent of the political integration of Egypt and Syria in 1958, under the revolutionary left-wing nationalist President Gamal Abdel Nasser.\nEgypt\u2019s President Gamal Abdel Nasser signs an agreement with Syrian President Shukri al-Quwatli, unifying their countries in the United Arab Republic, on February 1, 1958\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: \u2018Western dominance has ended\u2019, EU foreign-policy chief admits, warning of \u2018West against the Rest\u2019 geopolitics. 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": "EU, European Union, Gaza, General Assembly, Global South, Josep Borrell, Sahel, Ukraine, United Nations", "output": "The European Union\u2019s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, admitted that the \u201cera of Western dominance has indeed definitively ended\u201d. He warned that the EU must not divide the world into \u201cthe West against the Rest\u201d, as \u201cmany in the \u2018Global South\u2019 accuse us of \u2018double standards\u2019\u201d.\n\nEurope\u2019s top diplomat has acknowledged that the \u201cera of Western dominance has indeed definitively ended\u201d.\nJosep Borrell, the European Union\u2019s high representative for foreign affairs, wrote this in a blog post on the official website of the EU\u2019s diplomatic service on February 25.\n\u201cIf the current global geopolitical tensions continue to evolve in the direction of \u2018the West against the Rest\u2019, Europe\u2019s future risks to be bleak\u201d, he warned.\n\nThe wars in Ukraine and Gaza, along with the anti-colonial uprisings in Africa\u2019s Sahel region, have \u201csignificantly increased this risk\u201d of Europe becoming geopolitically irrelevant, Borrell said, lamenting that \u201cRussia has managed to take advantage of the situation\u201d.\nThe European foreign-policy chief revealed that \u201cimproving our relations with the \u2018Global South'\u201d is one of \u201d the four main tasks on EU\u2019s geopolitical agenda\u201d.\n\u201cMany in the \u2018Global South\u2019 accuse us of \u2018double standards'\u201d, he confessed.\n\nBorrell is known for sporadically making frank comments, admitting inconvenient truths that most European diplomats leave unsaid.\nIn 2022, the EU foreign-policy chief confessed, \u201cOur prosperity was based on China and Russia \u2013 energy and market\u201d, with \u201ccheap energy coming from Russia\u201d and \u201caccess to the big China market\u201d as the cornerstone of the European economy.\nHowever, Borrell\u2019s insistence that Europe must not divide the world into the \u201cWest against the Rest\u201d was contradicted by his insistence in the same February 2024 article that the EU must expand its \u201ccooperation with key partners, and in particular the US\u201d.\nThe top European diplomat wrote that \u201crecent months have reminded us how important NATO remains to our collective defence\u201d, calling to strengthen the US-led military bloc.\nIn 2023, the influential think tank the European Council on Foreign Relations published a white paper titled \u201cThe art of vassalisation\u201d. It warned of \u201cEurope becoming an American vassal\u201d, noting how the war in Ukraine had \u201crevealed Europeans\u2019 profound dependence on the US\u201d.\nThe EU\u2019s foreign-policy chief does recognize that it would be an error to pit \u201cthe West against the Rest\u201d, yet he is simultaneously calling for deepening the trans-Atlantic alliance between the US and Europe, which only exacerbates that geopolitical division.\nOn the global stage, Europe frequently joins the United States in violating the will of the international community.\nAt the United Nations, the US and Europe often vote together, while the vast majority of member states, which are located in the Global South, vote against them.\nSource: Alastair Iain Johnston, \u201cChina in a World of Orders: Rethinking Compliance and Challenge in Beijing\u2019s International Relations\u201d, International Security (2019)\nThe US only voted with the majority of the world at the UN General Assembly 32.7% of the time from 1983 to 2012.\nIn 1988, just 15.4% of overall UNGA votes coincided with the US vote.\nEurope is the only region of the world that consistently votes with the US.\n\nIn November 2023, the West voted against the vast majority of the world in UN General Assembly resolutions concerning democracy, human rights, cultural diversity, mercenaries, and unilateral coercive measures (sanctions).\nIn April 2023, the West once again voted as a bloc against the other countries on the UN Human Rights Council, defending unilateral sanctions, which violate international law.\nIn December 2022, the West voted against the rest of the planet in UN General Assembly votes calling for a new international economic order.\nWest votes against democracy, human rights, cultural diversity at UN; promotes mercenaries, sanctions\n\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: \u2018War on drugs has failed\u2019: At UN, Colombia condemns \u2018addiction to money and oil\u2019. 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": "Amazon, capitalism, climate change, coal, Colombia, Gustavo Petro, oil, UN, United Nations", "output": "Colombia\u2019s first ever left-wing President Gustavo Petro delivered a historic UN speech declaring, \u201cThe war on drugs has failed.\u201d He warned capitalism is destroying the environment, with its \u201caddiction to money and oil,\u201d and called for debt relief for the Global South.\n\nColombia\u2019s first ever left-wing President Gustavo Petro delivered a historic speech at the United Nations declaring, \u201cThe war on drugs has failed.\u201d\nPetro emphasized that drug addiction is a social problem, and cannot be solved with violence and militarization. Rather, he argued, it is a mere symptom of a much deeper problem: the capitalist system itself, with its \u201caddiction to money and oil.\u201d\n\nThe Colombian leader warned that the infinite greed of capitalism is destroying the planet, threatening life on Earth.\n\u201cThe cause of the climate disaster is capital \u2013 the logic of dedicating ourselves to consume more and more, to produce more and more, and so that a small few can earn more and more [money],\u201d Petro proclaimed.\nThe \u201clogic of increasing accumulation of capital\u201d is ravaging the environment, he warned. \u201cThe increasing accumulation of capital is the increasing accumulation of death.\u201d\nIn a jab directed toward the Global North, Petro added,\u00a0\u201cYou all insist that the market will save us from what the market itself has created. Humanity\u2019s Frankenstein is allowing the market and greed to act without any planning, giving up our brains and reason, making human rationality kneel before greed.\u201d\n\nPetro\u2019s powerful speech, delivered on September 20, was the first time the Colombian president had addressed the UN General Assembly since winning elections in June and entering office in August.\nUnlike many of the world\u2019s presidents, who have their words carefully decided by speechwriters, Petro himself penned large parts of the address.\nKnowing how explosive it would be politically, Petro kept the speech secret, sharing it with just a small handful of his closest aides, telling them, \u201cKeep it safe, so no one can read it.\u201d\nSpain\u2019s establishment newspaper El Pa\u00eds noted that Petro\u2019s UN address includes \u201call of his ideological corpus: anti-capitalism, environmentalism, even the anti-Americanism in which many leftists of his generation were raised.\u201d\nFor decades, Colombia had been at the center of the US-led \u201cwar on drugs.\u201d Washington spent billions of dollars militarizing the South American country through its Plan Colombia program.\nPetro used the platform at the United Nations to declare\u00a0that this policy has been an utter disaster, fueling countless deaths in Latin America, as well as racist mass incarceration in the United States itself.\n\u201cFor destroying or possessing the coca leaf, 1 million Latin Americans are killed, and they imprison 2 million African-Americans in North America,\u201d he said.\nWhile demanding an end to the \u201cwar on drugs,\u201d Petro called in general for peace and an end to all wars.\nHe urged a peaceful settlement to the proxy war in Ukraine, while also condemning the Western wars on Iraq, and Libya, and Syria.\n\u201cThere is no total peace without social, economic, and environmental justice,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are at war, as well, with the planet. Without peace with the planet, there will be no peace between nations.\u201d\nPetro condemned the Global North for its rampant abuse of refugees and migrants, comparing their cruel policies to Nazi Germany.\nHe called on the North to forgive the debt of the Global South, so it can invest resources in saving the environment.\n\u201cIf it is more important to dedicate the money to weapons than to life, then reduce the external debt to free our own state budgets, and with those we can fulfill the duty of saving humanity and life on the planet,\u201d Petro implored.\nGustavo Petro opened his speech emphasizing the natural beauty of his country. He warned, however, that this is being destroyed.\nThe Amazon rainforest helps combat climate change by absorbing CO2 and creating oxygen. But the rainforest is being cut down and polluted in the name of corporate profits. Petro stressed that this endangers life itself.\nThere were some problems with the translation done by the UN\u2019s English-language interpreter, perhaps because it was done simultaneously and was thus rushed.\u00a0Petro repeatedly mentioned coal and oil, but the interpreter mistakenly translated \u201ccoal\u201d (carb\u00f3n in Spanish) as \u201ccarbon\u201d (carbono in Spanish).\nColombia is a significant oil producer, and petroleum-based products make up the value of nearly one-third of its total exports. But Colombia is also the world\u2019s fifth-largest exporter of coal.\nMultipolarista has translated the bulk of Petro\u2019s speech and published it below.\nThe Colombian president said:\nThe jungle that tries to save us is, at the same time, being destroyed.\nTo destroy the coca plant, they spray poisons, glyphosate en masse that runs through the waters. They arrest and imprison those who grow it.\nFor destroying or possessing the coca leaf, 1 million Latin Americans are killed, and they imprison 2 million African-Americans in North America.\n\u201cDestroy the plant that kills,\u201d they shout from the North, \u201cdestroy it!\u201d But it is just one plant, among the millions more species that perish when they unleash the fire on the jungle.\nDestroy the jungle, the Amazon, has become the slogan followed by states and businessmen. It doesn\u2019t matter that scientists are crying out, baptizing the jungle as one of the great climatic pillars.\nFor the power relations of the world, the jungle and its inhabitants are to blame for the plague that ravages them. The power relations are ravaged by the addiction to money, to keep on, to oil, to cocaine, and to the hardest drugs to be able to anesthetize themselves more.\n[There is] nothing more hypocritical than the discourse about saving the jungle.\nThe jungle is burning, gentlemen, while you wage war and play with it. The jungle, the climatic pillar of the world, disappears with all its life. The great sponge that absorbs the planetary CO2 evaporates.\nThe jungle, our savior, is seen in my country as the enemy to defeat, as the weeds to be extinguished. The space of coca and of the peasants who cultivate it, because they have nothing else to cultivate, are demonized.\nFor you all, my country is of no interest except to spray poisons into its jungles, to throw its men to jail, and push its women into exclusion. You all are not interested in the education of the child, but rather in killing his jungle and extracting the coal and oil from its entrails.\nThe sponge that absorbs the poisons is useless, they prefer to spray more poisons into the atmosphere.\nWe are only useful to you all to make up for the emptiness and loneliness of your own society, which leads you to live in bubbles of drugs. We hide your problems that you refuse to reform. It is better to declare war on the jungle, on its plants, on its peoples.\nWhile you let the jungles burn, while hypocrites destroy the plants with poison to cover up the disasters in their own society, you ask us for more and more coal, more and more oil, to calm the other addiction: the addiction of consumption, of power, of money. What is more harmful to human beings: cocaine, coal, or oil?\nThe judgment of power has declared that cocaine is a poison must be destroyed, even though it causes few deaths by overdose, and more because of the mixtures which lead to it being trafficked.\nBut on the other hand, coal and oil must be protected, even though their use can lead to the extinction of all humanity.\nThis is the way world power works, with injustice, with irrationality, because world power has become irrational.\nThey see in the exuberance of the jungle, in its vitality, a sign of lust and sinfulness, the guilty cause of the sadness in their societies, imbued with the limitless drive to have, to have and to consume.\n[They] hide the loneliness in people\u2019s hearts, the drought in societies without affection, that are so competitive they imprison souls in loneliness, by putting the blame on the plant, the people who cultivate it, the secret freedoms of the jungle.\nAccording to the irrational power of the world, it is not the fault of the market, that cuts off existence; it is the fault of the jungle and those who live in it.\nBank accounts have been filled without limits. The most powerful people on Earth have stashed so much money they couldn\u2019t even spend it in centuries.\nThe sadness of existence that is produced by that artificial call for competition, it is filled with noise and drugs.\nThe addiction to money and to possession, it has another face: drug addiction in people who lose the competition, the artificial race that they have transformed humanity into.\nThe disease of loneliness is not cured by spraying the jungle with glyphosate. It is not the jungle that is guilty.\nWhat is guilty is their society taught to endlessly consume, in the stupid confusion between consumption and happiness, which is what allows the pockets of the powerful to be filled with money.\nThe cause of drug addiction is not the jungle; it is the irrationality of their world power.\nIn the next part of his speech, Petro stated clearly that the \u201cwar on drugs\u201d has been a complete failure, and called on the world to abandon it:\nThe war on drugs has lasted for 40 years. If we do not correct our course, and it goes on for another 40 years, the United States will see 2.8 million young people die of overdoses on fentanyl, which is not produced in our Latin America.\nIt will see millions of African-Americans incarcerated in its private prisons. The African-American prisoner will become the business of prison corporations.\nAnother million Latin Americans will be killed. They will fill our waters and our green fields with blood.\nThey will see the the dream of democracy die, both in my America [Latin America] and in Anglo-Saxon America.\n\u2026\nTo hide the truth, you will see the jungle and democracies die.\nThe war on drugs has failed.\nThe struggle against the climate crisis has failed.\nThe deadly consumption of soft drugs has increased. It has moved to harder drugs. It has caused a genocide on my continent and in my country. It has condemned millions of people to prison.\nTo cover up their social causes, they have blamed the jungle and its plants. Their narratives and policies have been filled with irrationality.\nI call on you all here, from my wounded Latin America, to end the irrational war on drugs.\nWars and guns are not needed to decrease drug consumption. What is needed is that we all build a better society: a society with more solidarity, with more affection, where the intensity of life saves people from addiction and new forms of slavery.\nDo you want fewer drugs? Think of fewer profits and more love. Think of the rational use of power.\nDo not touch the beauty of my homeland with your poisons. Help us, without hypocrisy, to save the Amazon rainforest, to save the life of humanity on the planet.\nPetro went on in his speech to warn that climate science is being ignored, and that wealthy countries in the Global North have used war as an excuse to not take action to stop it:\nYou brought together the scientists, and they spoke with reason, with mathematics and climatological models.\nThey said that the end of the human species was approaching, that the time left to us is not millennia, not even centuries. Science sounded the alarm. And we stopped listening.\nWar served us as an excuse to not take the necessary measures.\nWhen action was needed most, when speeches were no longer useful, when it was indispensable to invest money to save humanity, when we had to move away as soon as possible from coal and oil, they started one war after another.\nThey invaded Ukraine, but also Iraq, and Libya, and Syria. They invaded in the name of oil and gas.\nIn the 21st century, they discovered the worst of their addictions: the addiction to money and oil.\nWars have served them as an excuse to not act against climate change. Wars have shown them how dependent they are on that which will put an end to the human species.\nPetro continued discussing the migration crisis from Latin America, and emphasized its roots in these very same economic problems.\nHe condemned the Global North\u2019s abuse of refugees and migrants, likening it to the genocidal policies of Nazi Germany:\nYou observe that people suffer from hunger and thirst, and immigrate in their millions toward the north, toward where there is water, then you lock them up, you build walls, you use machine guns, you shoot at them, you expel them as if they were not human beings.\nYou multiply by five the mentality of those who who created the policies of gas chambers and concentration camps. You are reproducing 1933 on a planetary scale \u2013 that era of the great victory of the assault on reason.\nDo you not see that the solution to the great exodus scrambling toward your countries in the North is returning to filling the rivers with water and filling the countryside with nutrients?\nThe climate disaster fills us with viruses, which are swarming to lay waste to us. But you all are doing business with medicines, and even turning vaccines into merchandise.\nYou all insist that the market will save us from what the market itself has created. Humanity\u2019s Frankenstein is allowing the market and greed to act without any planning, giving up our brains and reason, making human rationality kneel before greed.\nPetro warned that Global North countries are fighting to save their empires, while destroying the environment and the possibility for life on the planet:\nWhy have war if what we need is to save the human species? What is the point of NATO and empires, if what is coming is the end of intelligence?\nThe climate disaster will kill hundreds of millions of people.\nAnd listen up: it is not the planet that produces this; it is capital that produces this.\nThe cause of the climate disaster is capital. The logic of dedicating ourselves to consume more and more, to produce more and more, and so that a small few can earn more and more [money]. That is what produces the climate disaster.\nThey applied the logic of increasing accumulation of capital to the energy motors of coal and oil, and they unleashed a hurricane: the chemical change of the atmosphere keeps getting deeper and deadlier.\nNow in a parallel world, the increasing accumulation of capital is the increasing accumulation of death.\nFrom the lands of jungle and beauty, there, where they decided to turn a plant from the Amazon rainforest into an enemy, to extradite and imprison those who grow it, I ask you all to stop the war and to stop the climate disaster.\nPetro argued \u201cthe true addiction of this phase of human history\u201d is \u201cthe addiction to irrational power, to profit and to money.\u201d\nHe concluded his speech with a powerful call for peace, but underscored that peace is only possible with justice:\nHere, in this Amazon rainforest, there is a failure of humanity. From the stakes where they burn it, from the poisoning, there is a wholesale civilizational failure of humanity.\nBehind the addiction to cocaine and drugs, behind the addiction to oil and coal, there is the true addiction of this phase of human history: the addiction to irrational power, to profit and to money. This is the enormous deadly machinery that can extinguish humanity.\nI request of all of you, as president of one of the most beautiful countries on Earth, and one of the most bloodstained and brutalized countries, that you end the war on drugs, and end all wars, and let our people live in peace.\nI call on all of Latin America with that purpose. I call on the voice of Latin America to unite to defeat the irrationality that is tormenting our body.\nI call on you to save the Amazon rainforest, as a whole, with resources that can be devoted around the world to life.\nIf you don\u2019t have the capacity to finance the fund to revitalize the jungles, if it is more important to dedicate the money to weapons than to life, then reduce the external debt to free our own state budgets, and with those we can fulfill the duty of saving humanity and life on the planet.\nWe can do it ourselves if you all, those in the North, do not want to. Just exchange the debt for life; just exchange the debt for nature.\nI proposal this to you all, and I call on Latin America to do this, to hold dialogue to end war.\nDon\u2019t pressure us to pick a side in the fields of war. This is the time of peace.\nThe Slavic peoples should speak to each other; the peoples of the world should speak to each other. War is just a trap that brings the end of the times closer in a grand orgy of irrationality.\nFrom Latin America, we call on Ukraine and Russia to make peace. Only in peace can we save life on our shared Earth.\nThere is no total peace without social, economic, and environmental justice.\nWe are at war, as well, with the planet. Without peace with the planet, there will be no peace between nations.\nWithout justice, there is no social peace.\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: UN human rights chief: End Venezuela sanctions, which \u2018exacerbated economic crisis and hindered human rights\u2019. 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": "Alena Douhan, Michelle Bachelet, sanctions, Venezuela, Volker T\u00fcrk", "output": "UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker T\u00fcrk said sanctions on Venezuela \u201chave exacerbated the economic crisis and hindered human rights\u201d, calling for the unilateral coercive measures to be lifted.\n\n(Se puede leer esta nota en espa\u00f1ol aqu\u00ed.)\nThe United Nations human rights chief has called for sanctions on Venezuela to be lifted, stating that they \u201cexacerbated the economic crisis and hindered human rights\u201d and created \u201churdles\u201d for \u201cthe country\u2019s recovery and development\u201d.\nUN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker T\u00fcrk visited Venezuela in January. There, he met with government officials, right-wing opposition leaders, civil society groups, and religious institutions.\n\u201cI heard from across the spectrum of people I spoke to, including humanitarian actors and UN agencies, about the impact of sectorial sanctions on the most vulnerable segments of the population and the hurdles sanctions create for the country\u2019s recovery and development, not least in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic\u201d, T\u00fcrk said.\n\u201cIt is clear that the sectorial sanctions imposed since August 2017 have exacerbated the economic crisis and hindered human rights\u201d, he added.\n\nThe UN human rights chief\u2019s comments reflect similar remarks made by the international organization\u2019s top expert on sanctions, Alena Douhan, the UN special rapporteur on the negative impact of unilateral coercive measures on the enjoyment of human rights.\nDouhan visited Venezuela in 2021 and reported that \u201cunilateral sanctions increasingly imposed by the United States, the European Union and other countries have exacerbated the [economic crisis]\u201d.\nThe UN sanctions expert stated that the Venezuelan \u201cgovernment\u2019s revenue was reported to shrink by 99% with the country currently living on 1% of its pre-sanctions income\u201d.\nDouhan wrote (emphasis added):\nThe Special Rapporteur notes with concern that sectoral sanctions on the oil, gold and mining industries, the economic blockade of Venezuela and the freezing of Central Bank assets have exacerbated pre-existing economic and humanitarian situation by preventing the earning of revenues and the use of resources to develop and maintain infrastructure and for social support programs, which has a devastating effect on the whole population of Venezuela, especially those in extreme poverty, women, children, medical workers, people with disabilities or life-threatening or chronic diseases, and the indigenous population.\nVolker T\u00fcrk is an Austrian lawyer who became the UN high commissioner for human rights in October 2022, replacing his predecessor, former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet.\nBachelet was criticized and accused of anti-Venezuela bias by Alfred de Zayas, a prominent UN lawyer and expert. De Zayas said Bachelet\u2019s reports on Venezuela were \u201cfundamentally flawed\u201d and \u201cunbalanced\u201d. He also warned that the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has become increasingly slanted and influenced by the US government.\n#Venezuela: UN Human Rights chief concludes visit after meeting w/ authorities & 125+ civil society reps.\nHigh Commissioner @volker_turk welcomes extension of our Office\u2019s presence & calls #UDHR75 \u201creal chance\" to tackle long-standing issues.\n? https://t.co/7Lx3Ljdmus pic.twitter.com/Ff7NbiEiSl\n\u2014 UN Human Rights (@UNHumanRights) January 28, 2023\n\nIn his official statement on Venezuela, T\u00fcrk said (emphasis added):\nI heard from across the spectrum of people I spoke to, including humanitarian actors and UN agencies, about the impact of sectorial sanctions on the most vulnerable segments of the population and the hurdles sanctions create for the country\u2019s recovery and development, not least in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. People I met described their struggle to get basic and essential products to sustain their livelihoods, the impossibility of finding medicines their loved ones so badly need, and the mental impact, anxiety, and depression of falling ever further into debt to survive.\nWhile the roots of Venezuela\u2019s economic crisis predate the imposition of economic sanctions, as I highlighted in my interactions, it is clear that the sectorial sanctions imposed since August 2017 have exacerbated the economic crisis and hindered human rights.\nMy Office has repeatedly recommended that Member States suspend or lift measures that have a detrimental effect on human rights and that are aggravating the humanitarian situation, a call we make with regard to unilateral coercive measures imposed on other countries too.\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Why Peruvians keep protesting against an unelected coup regime. 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": "Alberto Fujimori, BirG\u00fcn, Dina Boluarte, Jos\u00e9 Williams, Keiko Fujimori, Pedro Castillo, Peru", "output": "Turkish newspaper BirG\u00fcn interviewed Ben Norton about the protests in Peru against the unelected government of Dina Boluarte, installed after a coup against President Pedro Castillo.\n\nThe Turkish newspaper BirG\u00fcn interviewed Geopolitical Economy Report editor Ben Norton about the months-long protests in Peru against the unelected government of Dina Boluarte, installed after a US-backed coup in December 2021 against President Pedro Castillo.\nThe interview was translated into Turkish, but the original English-language version is below.\nDinmeyen \u00f6fke oligar\u015fiyi bitirecek\nPeru\u2019da solcu Ba\u015fkan Castillo\u2019nun 7 Aral\u0131k\u2019ta azledilmesinin ard\u0131ndan ba\u015flayan protestolar s\u00fcr\u00fcyor. Siyaset bilimci Norton, \u201c\u0130stikrar isteniyorsa Peru\u2019nun oligar\u015fik yap\u0131s\u0131 ve anayasas\u0131 temelden de\u011fi\u015ftirilmeli\u201d diyorhttps://t.co/1f6Bo9d7rw pic.twitter.com/cg7tfw5UuZ\n\u2014 BirG\u00fcn Gazetesi (@BirGun_Gazetesi) February 17, 2023\n\nWhat do the Peruvian protesters want?\nThe protesters in Peru have three main demands:\nWho is participating in the protests?\nThe protests have been organized by activist organizations, Indigenous communities, human rights groups, and left-wing political parties like Nuevo Per\u00fa and Per\u00fa Libre.\nWorking-class Peruvians of Indigenous descent, who largely live in rural areas, make up the main base of the demonstrations.\nThey will continue protesting until their demands are met.\nThe problem is that Peru\u2019s congress \u2013 which is notoriously corrupt and controlled by wealthy right-wing oligarchs, and recently had a 7% approval rating\u00a0\u2013 refuses to hold new elections; it is repeatedly blocking attempts to organize a vote.\nCan the process in Peru be similar to that of Bolivia?\nThere are similarities between Peru and Bolivia. Both have majority Indigenous-descent populations who were largely ignored and marginalized by the mainstream political system for decades. But the political situation in Bolivia is very different.\nBolivia\u2019s leftist Indigenous leader Evo Morales first came to power in 2006, and he completely transformed the country. His Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) party has governed since then (excluding the year-long rule of an unelected right-wing regime after a violent coup d\u2019etat in November 2019).\nUnder Morales, Bolivians democratically created a new constitution, establishing a plurinational state. His successor, current President Luis Arce, has continued that revolutionary process.\nFor many protesters in Peru, Bolivia is a political model for what they would like to try to accomplish in their own country. In fact many demonstrators have called for creating a plurinational state as well, in which Indigenous nations have equal representation.\nBut in Peru, the left is significantly weaker and less organized, particularly because the Fujimori dictatorship used extreme violence to repress left-wing forces in the 1990s.\nWhat does the structure of the Congress tell us about the political crisis in the country?\nPeru\u2019s former dictator Alberto Fujimori, who ruled in the 1990s, destroyed all democratic institutions. The Peru of today inherited the structural problems he created.\nAs part of Fujimori\u2019s changes, he established a unicameral congress, which according to article 113 of the constitution can overthrow the elected president by declaring that the head of state has a \u201cmoral incapacity\u201d. All the congress needs is a two-thirds vote.\nNumerous scandals, like the infamous Mamanivideos, have shown how corrupt Peru\u2019s congress is. Rich right-wing politicians and their corporate sponsors have been caught bribing congressmembers to vote for or against this impeachment process, which is known as \u201cpresidential vacancy\u201d.\nImmediately after Castillo was elected, the congress tried to overthrow him using this process. When he tried to dissolve the congress on December 7, it was in order to prevent such a parliamentary coup. And some Peruvian legal experts have argued that Castillo had the right to do so according to article 134 of the same constitution.\nThese structural problems explain why Peru has had seven presidents in six years. Peru\u2019s political system and constitution must be fundamentally changed if it wants stability.\nCastillo had campaigned for president on the promise that he would change the constitution. That is why he won the 2021 presidential election in the first place. And that is why people are in the streets protesting today.\nBoluarte\u2019s request for early elections was rejected. What is the Congress\u2019 plan?\nIt is hard to say with certainty what the congress is planning, but it is clear that what Peru is going through now is a power struggle between different factions of the country\u2019s right-wing oligarchy.\nAt the current moment, the right-wing and conservative forces are in charge of the state, in alliance with Boluarte (who was expelled from the leftist Per\u00fa Libre party in January 2022, and who said she never even believed in its ideology in the first place).\nBut the far-right, fascistic Fujimorista forces want control of the Peruvian state. The Fujimoristas are those who supported the dictatorship in the 1990s and want to bring back its policies. The movement\u2019s leaders are in fact family members of the former dictator Alberto Fujimori (who is in prison for crimes against humanity), including his daughter Keiko and son Kenji (who is also currently in prison on corruption charges, although Keiko hopes to free them both).\nThe Fujimoristas have significant influence in the congress, and in other institutions. So their strategy may be to either form an alliance with and co-opt Boluarte, or to replace her with someone like Jos\u00e9 Williams, the current president of the congress.\nWilliams is a former military chief who oversaw massacres and is linked to drug trafficking. He would likely be very amenable to the Fujimoristas\u2019 interests.\nThe Fujimoristas desperately want to prevent new elections from being held, because they are very unpopular among the vast majority of Peruvians, and they know they would likely lose.\nWhat does it mean for the police and the state to take political sides, like we have seen in Brazil?\nThe military and police in Peru have long been linked to the right wing. During the far-right Fujimori dictatorship in the 1990s, they were the key to maintaining him in power. The military and police committed massacres against people accused of being Maoist guerrillas from the group Shining Path, although in many cases they were actually killing civilians.\nThere are parallels with the situation in Brazil, which also had a far-right military dictatorship until the 1980s. But we shouldn\u2019t overstate the similarities.\nSome elements of the Brazilian military were indeed loyal to far-right former leader Jair Bolsonaro, but he never had the support of most of the military leadership. This is why the coup attempts led by the Bolsonaristas failed.\nIn Peru, the state is even less democratic, and the military and police have significant power over the civilian government. That is how they were able to easily imprison Pedro Castillo.\nWe have seen how this political power in the hands of the Congress leads to danger. How should changes be made so that the Peruvian people can have their voice?\nThe path for the changes that Peru needs is quite clear: a constituent assembly in which the people of Peru democratically create a new constitution to replace the current one that was written by the Fujimori dictatorship.\nThe Peruvian oligarchy is clearly against this, as it benefits economically and politically from the Fujimorista constitution.\nBut a constituent assembly\u00a0is one of the main demands of the protesters in the streets, and it is the only solution that will provide true stability for Peru.\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: BRICS expanding into economic powerhouse: Petrodollar under threat. 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, Bandung Conference, Brazil, BRICS, China, Cuba, Cyril Ramaphosa, Javier Milei, Lula da Silva, Patricia Bullrich, South Africa, Xi Jinping", "output": "In its South Africa summit, BRICS invited six new members: Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. The bloc now represents 37% of global GDP (PPP), 40% of global oil production, and roughly 1/3rd of global gas production, challenging the US petrodollar system.\n\nIn its summit in Johannesburg, South Africa this August, BRICS invited six new members: Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.\nThe bloc now represents 37% of global GDP (measured at purchasing power parity, or PPP), as well as 40% of global oil production and roughly 1/3rd of global gas production.\nThe inclusion of top oil producers like Saudi Arabia and the UAE, which have long priced their crude in dollars, is a direct challenge to the US petrodollar system.\n\nAll of the invited nations have indicated that they will officially join the extended BRICS+ bloc on 1 January 2024.\nFour of Earth\u2019s top 10 gas producers are now de facto BRICS+ members, making up 32% of global production.\nSeven of the world\u2019s 10 largest oil producers are now de facto BRICS+ members. According to 2022 data from the US Energy Information Administration, these include the:\n\nIn this video I discuss the importance of the expansion of BRICS\nThe BRICS+ bloc now represents:-37% of global GDP (PPP)-40% of global oil production-1/3rd of global gas production\nIt can challenge the petrodollar system that undergirds US economic hegemony\nFull video below pic.twitter.com/SDQm1ymacV\n\u2014 Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) August 25, 2023\n\nA key topic at the Johannesburg BRICS summit from 22 to 24 August was de-dollarization \u2013 the international movement of countries seeking alternatives to the hegemonic US currency.\nThe Russian government has confirmed that some BRICS members are slowly making plans for a new global currency for international trade, to settle balance of payments, and to hold in central bank foreign-exchange reserves.\nBrazil\u2019s President Lula da Silva, an original co-founder of the BRICS, used the meeting in South Africa as a platform to call for creating a new international reserve currency, to challenge the dollar.\nBRICS has a working group dedicated to developing concrete proposals for this new reserve currency.\nLula emphasized that it would be \u201ca unit of account for trade, which will not replace our national currencies\u201d.\nThese comments made it clear that BRICS model is not the euro; it is rather something like the bancor, the international unit of account proposed by economist John Maynard Keynes at the 1944 Bretton Woods Conference (which ended up adopting the dollar as the global reserve currency, under US pressure).\nDiscussions of a new international unit of account are still in the early stages, however, and the currency is only on the horizon in the medium-to-long term.\nIn the short term, BRICS members voted to increase their use of national currencies in bilateral trade.\nThe BRICS New Development Bank (NDB), now under the leadership of Brazil\u2019s former President Dilma Rousseff, has promised to gradually de-dollarize the bank\u2019s lending, instead providing financing for projects in the national currencies of members.\nIn an August article published before the BRICS bloc announced its expansion, economic geographer Mick Dunford explained:\nIn 2022, the combined economic output of the five BRICS members, measured in purchasing power parity, exceeded for the first time that of the US-led G7.\nAt market exchange rates in 2021, the BRICS accounted for 26.1 percent of global GDP and 53.1 percent of world population, compared with 43.5 percent and 9.8 percent for the G7.\u00a0However, GDP is misleading.\nIf one examines the production of manufactures, energy and raw materials and food, the BRICS countries account for 36.6 percent, 28.3 percent and 53.1 percent of world output, respectively (compared with 35.5 percent, 28.1 percent and 14.1 percent in the case of the G7).\nThis\u00a0contribution to the production of real goods vital for human survival significantly exceeds the BRICS\u2019 share of GDP (without correcting for purchasing power differences which significantly raise its shares) while those of the G7 are much smaller than its GDP share.\nThe bloc has become a massive economic powerhouse \u2013 and is only growing in influence.\nPresident Xi Jinping stressed in his speech at the BRICS summit that China does not want a \u201cnew cold war\u201d.\nXi called for \u201cwin-win cooperation\u201d, guided by the goal of \u201ccommon prosperity\u201d for all.\nAt the same time, the Chinese leader warned of the \u201chegemonic and bullying acts\u201d of \u201csome country\u201d \u2013 obviously a reference to the United States.\nXi stated:\nWe need to promote development and prosperity for all. Many emerging markets and developing countries (EMDCs) have come to what they are today after shaking off the yoke of colonialism. With perseverance, hard work and huge sacrifices, we succeeded in gaining independence and have been exploring development paths suited to our national conditions.\nEverything we do is to deliver better lives to our people. But some country, obsessed with maintaining its hegemony, has gone out of its way to cripple the EMDCs. Whoever is developing fast becomes its target of containment; whoever is catching up becomes its target of obstruction.\nBut this is futile, as I have said more than once that blowing out others\u2019 lamp will not bring light to oneself.\nChina's President Xi at the BRICS summit:\n\"some country [hint: the USA], obsessed with maintaining its hegemony, has gone out of its way to cripple the EMDCs (emerging markets and developing countries). Whoever is developing fast becomes its target of containment; whoever is\u2026 https://t.co/mjXvydA5yz pic.twitter.com/XNHc0aYsPT\n\u2014 Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) August 23, 2023\n\nOn the sidelines of the summit, Xi also met with Cuba\u2019s President D\u00edaz-Canel. State media reported that Xi pledged that \u201cChina will continue to firmly support Cuba in defending national sovereignty and opposing external interference and blockade\u201d.\nIn a similar vein, Brazil\u2019s President Lula condemned the unjust, Western-dominated international financial system and insisted that countries need \u201ca fairer, more predictable, and equitable global trade\u201d.\n\u201cWe cannot accept a green neocolonialism that imposes trade barriers and discriminatory measures under the pretext of protecting the environment\u201d, he added.\nIn his speech at the BRICS summit, South Africa\u2019s President Cyril Ramaphosa compared the bloc to the 1955 Bandung Conference, which was organized to oppose colonialism.\n\u201cWhen reflecting on the purpose and role of BRICS in the world today, we recall the Bandung Conference of 1955, where Asian and African nations demanded a greater voice for developing countries in world affairs\u201d, he said.\n\u201cWe still share that common vision\u201d, Ramaphosa added. \u201cThrough the 15th BRICS Summit and this Dialogue we should strive to advance the Bandung spirit of unity, friendship and cooperation\u201d.\nAmong the six countries invited to join BRICS+, a question mark is hanging over the head of one.\nArgentina\u2019s current, centrist government, led by President Alberto Fern\u00e1ndez, has vowed to join BRICS+. However, whether or not the South American country actually does depends on the results of the elections approaching in October.\nTwo of the three main presidential candidates have publicly stated that they will not join BRICS+: the right-wing candidate Patricia Bullrich and the far-right extremist candidate Javier Milei.\nMilei wants to abolish Argentina\u2019s central bank, abandon monetary sovereignty, and adopt the US dollar as the official national currency (while also implementing mass privatizations of state institutions, building private for-profit prisons, and heavily militarizing the country).\nWhen asked if he would consider joining BRICS+ if he won the election, the far-right extremist Milei declared: \u201cOur geopolitical alignment is with the U.S. and Israel. We are not going to align with communists\u201d.\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Mexico\u2019s President AMLO condemns EU Parliament as \u2018corrupt reactionary coup-plotters\u2019. 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, Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador, Bolivia, EU, European Parliament, European Union, Juan Guaid\u00f3, Mexico, Venezuela", "output": "The European Parliament condemned Mexico\u2019s left-wing President Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador for his \u201cpopulist rhetoric\u201d against the biased corporate media. He responded by blasting the EU body as a reactionary interventionist gang of coup-plotters, declaring, \u201cwe are no longer a colony of anyone\u201d\n\n(Se puede leer este art\u00edculo en espa\u00f1ol aqu\u00ed.)\nMexico\u2019s left-wing President Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador published a blistering statement denouncing the European Parliament as \u201cflunkies of the reactionary and coup-plotting strategy of the corrupt\u201d right-wing oligarch-backed opposition in his country.\nL\u00f3pez Obrador, who is known popularly by the acronym AMLO, criticized the European Union\u2019s lawmaking body for meddling in Mexico\u2019s internal affairs, and implored its members to \u201cevolve, leave behind your obsessive meddling disguised as good intentions.\u201d\nNoting that he has a 66% approval rating, which is higher than any leader in Europe, AMLO stressed,\u00a0\u201cDon\u2019t forget that we are no longer a colony of anyone. Mexico is a free, independent, and sovereign country.\u201d\nL\u00f3pez Obrador made these trenchant remarks in response to a resolution that was overwhelmingly approved by the European Parliament on March 10, which condemned Mexico for allegedly violating the freedom of the press and the rights of journalists.\nWhile it is true that the level of violence against journalists in Mexico is very high, this has been a consistent problem for decades. The European Parliament resolution, however, blamed President AMLO\u2019s \u201cpopulist rhetoric\u201d for the death of reporters, despite the fact that he has only been in power since December 2018.\nL\u00f3pez Obrador has criticized corporate media outlets in his country, many of which are owned by right-wing oligarchs and have been notoriously biased against him and his progressive government. Major newspapers have published demonstrably false stories and propaganda to try to sabotage AMLO\u2019s ambitious project of social change, called the Fourth Transformation.\nSome of these right-wing anti-AMLO journalists have been funded by the US government and EU through interventionist soft-power organizations like the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), US Agency for International Development (USAID), and European Endowment for Democracy.\nThe European Parliament resolution condemning Mexico was approved with 607 votes in favor, and just two against, with 73 abstentions.\nThe EU\u2019s law-making body has a long history of supporting coups, regime-change operations, and interventionist policies across the Global South.\nIn 2019, the European Parliament recognized unelected US-appointed coup leader Juan Guaid\u00f3 as supposed \u201cpresident\u201d of Venezuela, in another overwhelming vote of 439 for and 104 against, with 88 abstentions.\nLater that same year, the European Parliament supported a violent far-right coup against Bolivia\u2019s democratically elected socialist president, Evo Morales, the first and only indigenous leader in the history of the nation-state.\nThe European Parliament even honored Bolivian coup leader Jeanine A\u00f1ez in 2021 by making her a finalist for its prestigious Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, named after a Western-backed right-wing anti-Soviet dissident. (The prize that year ended up going to Western-sponsored Russian regime-change activist Alexei Navalny, a far-right nationalist who has demonized Muslim immigrants as \u201ccockroaches\u201d and participated in racist marches with skinheads.)\nThe EU praised A\u00f1ez as a hero while ignoring the fact that she was a corrupt and brutal right-wing dictator who oversaw massacres of indigenous pro-democracy protesters and violently repressed progressive social movements, while imposing neoliberal shock therapy policies, privatizing state assets and selling them off to foreign corporations for pennies on the dollar.\nComunicado del gobierno de la Rep\u00fablica al Parlamento Europeo.https://t.co/VNfogiVCX9 pic.twitter.com/IylpebkJGx\n\u2014 Gobierno de M\u00e9xico (@GobiernoMX) March 11, 2022\n\nThe office of Mexican President Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador (AMLO) wrote the following letter to the European Parliament on March 10. Multipolarista has translated it from its original Spanish into English, and published the statement in full below:\n\u201cTo the members of the European Parliament:\n\u201cEnough with the corruption, lies, and hypocrisies.\n\u201cIt is unfortunate that you all are allowing yourself to become flunkies of the reactionary and coup-plotting strategy of the corrupt group that is opposed to the Fourth Transformation, driven by millions of Mexicans to confront the monstrous inequality and violence inherited by the neoliberal economic policies that were imposed on our country for 36 years.\n\u201cKnow, European lawmakers, that Mexico has ceased to be a land of conquest, and, as in very few occasions in your history, it values freedom-loving principles like equality and democracy.\n\u201cHere no one is repressed; the freedom of expression and work of journalists is respected. The state\u00a0does not violate human rights like happened with previous governments, when you all, by the way, were complicit in your silence.\n\u201cMexico is a pacifist country that has chosen non-violence, and we support dialogue, not war. We don\u2019t send weapons to any country under any circumstance, as you all are doing now.\n\u201cIf we were in the situation that you all describe in your resolution, our president would not be supported by 66% of the citizens, as was published yesterday in a poll by the firm Morning Consult, which puts him [L\u00f3pez Obrador] in second place among the presidents of the world\u2019s largest countries.\n\u201cBy the way, that is higher approval than European leaders.\n\u201cFor the next [declaration], inform yourselves and carefully read your resolutions before voting.\n\u201cAnd don\u2019t forget that we are no longer a colony of anyone. Mexico is a free, independent, and sovereign country.\n\u201cEvolve, leave behind your obsessive meddling disguised as good intentions. You all are not the world government.\n\u201cAnd don\u2019t forget what was said by that giant of the Americas, President Benito Ju\u00e1rez: \u2018Among individuals, as among nations, respect for the rights of others is peace.'\u201d\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Illegal US blockade against Cuba continues harming millions on 60th anniversary. 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": "blockade, Cuba, Donald Trump, embargo, Joe Biden, sanctions", "output": "February 3, 2022 is the 60th anniversary of the illegal blockade against Cuba, which the US admitted aims \u201cto bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government.\u201d Cuba estimates the embargo has cost its economy $144.41 billion.\n\n(Se puede leer este art\u00edculo en espa\u00f1ol aqu\u00ed.)\nFebruary 3, 2022 marks 60 years since the United States officially declared an economic embargo against Cuba.\nWashington imposed this blockade in order \u201cto bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government,\u201d as a former US State Department official admitted.\nCuba\u2019s government has condemned the illegal US embargo as \u201cthe most complex, prolonged and inhuman act of economic warfare ever committed against any nation,\u201d stating that it \u201cconstitutes a massive, flagrant and systematic violation of the human rights of all Cubans.\u201d\nCuba estimates that the blockade has cost its economy at least $144.41 billion.\nWhen the people of Cuba overthrew the right-wing dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista in a popular revolution on January 1, 1959, the United States responded with coercive measures aimed at punishing the country for toppling Washington\u2019s loyal client regime.\nOn February 3, 1962, the already existing US sanctions escalated into a full on blockade, when President John F. Kennedy issued Proclamation 3447, declaring an \u201cEmbargo on All Trade with Cuba.\u201d\nWashington\u2019s Proclamation 3447 claimed that Cuba\u2019s revolutionary government \u201cis incompatible with the principles and objectives of the Inter-American system,\u201d due to \u201cthe subversive offensive of Sino-Soviet Communism with which the Government of Cuba is publicly aligned.\u201d\n\nThis US embargo, which continues to this day, is flagrantly illegal under international law.\nCuba\u2019s Foreign Ministry published a statement condemning the blockade on its 60th anniversary, stating,\u00a0\u201cWashington\u2019s policy of siege and economic suppression has become the core of a strategy designed to curtail the legitimate right of the Cuban people to defend their sovereignty and realize a program of development free of imperialist domination.\u201d\n\u201cAlthough the blockade against Cuba was officially declared in 1962, its application goes back to the very moment of the victory of the revolution,\u201d the Foreign Ministry added.\nIn April 1960, just over a year after the revolution, US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs Lester Mallory published a memo titled \u201cThe Decline and Fall of Castro.\u201d This document is a smoking gun, clearly revealing the goals behind the US blockade: \u201chunger, desperation and overthrow of government.\u201d\nMallory admitted that the \u201cmajority of Cubans support Castro\u201d and that there \u201cis no effective political opposition.\u201d\nThe senior US diplomat wrote that the \u201conly foreseeable means of alienating internal support is through disenchantment and disaffection based on economic dissatisfaction and hardship.\u201d\nThe US State Department memo declared that \u201cevery possible means should be undertaken promptly to weaken the economic life of Cuba,\u201d in order to make \u201cthe greatest inroads in denying money and supplies to Cuba, to decrease monetary and real wages, to bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government.\u201d\n\nCuba\u2019s Foreign Ministry said the US embargo has \u201cconstrained the scope for economic growth, being designed to impede trading relations with third countries, cause maximum possible obstruction of banking and other financial operations, deter foreign investment and cut off all sources of revenue.\u201d\nBlatantly violating international law, the US blockade \u201cuses pressure, blackmail and penalties in seeking to isolate Cuba and penalize those who establish any trading, commercial or financial links with the country,\u201d the Foreign Ministry wrote.\n\u201cIt is a practical expression in the 21st century of the Monroe Doctrine, which takes a proprietorial view of Latin America and the Caribbean as either America\u2019s \u2018back yard\u2019 or \u2018front yard,'\u201d the Cuban government added.\nFor the 29th year in a row, basically the entire world voted at the United Nations against the illegal, murderous US blockade on Cuba.\n184 countries voted to end the US blockade.\nOnly 2 voted for it: the USA and Israel.\n3 US client regimes abstained: Colombia, Ukraine, and UAE pic.twitter.com/roZsqCu0NG\n\u2014 Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) June 23, 2021\n\nWashington\u2019s illegal blockade against Cuba is opposed by almost the entire international community.\nIn June 2021, 184 of the United Nations\u2019 193 member states (95%) voted against the US embargo on Cuba. Only the United States and Israel voted in support of the blockade, while just Colombia, Ukraine, and Brazil abstained.\nThis was the 29th consecutive year in which the US blockade was condemned with the vast majority of votes at the United Nations.\nAt the 2021 UN vote, Cuba\u2019s Foreign Minister Bruno Rodr\u00edguez Parrilla called the blockade a \u201cmassive, flagrant and unacceptable violation of the human rights of the Cuban people,\u201d which constitutes \u201can economic war of extraterritorial scope against a small country already affected in the recent period by the economic crisis derived from the pandemic.\u201d\n\u201cLike the [Covid-19] virus, the blockade asphyxiates and kills,\u201d Rodr\u00edguez said. \u201cIt must stop.\u201d\n\nWhile 95% of the countries on Earth oppose Washington\u2019s illegal blockade, it has bipartisan support inside the United States.\nThe Donald Trump administration imposed hundreds of new economic sanctions against Cuba. The Joe Biden administration has refused to lift these unilateral coercive measures, and has instead imposed even more.\nThe New York Times noted that \u201cBiden is taking an even harder line on Cuba than his predecessor, President Donald J. Trump.\u201d\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Inside Latin America\u2019s new currency plan, with Ecuador\u2019s presidential candidate Andr\u00e9s Arauz. 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": "Alberto Fern\u00e1ndez, Andr\u00e9s Arauz, Argentina, Brazil, Bretton Woods, BRICS, Ecuador, Latin America, Lula da Silva, Rafael Correa, Sur, Zoltan Pozsar", "output": "Ecuadorian economist and former presidential candidate Andr\u00e9s Arauz explains Latin America\u2019s attempt to create a new currency and regional financial architecture, to challenge the \u201chegemonic, neo-colonial\u201d US dollar-dominated system.\n\nGeopolitical Economy Report editor Ben Norton spoke with Ecuadorian economist Andr\u00e9s Arauz, a former presidential candidate who came close to winning the 2021 elections.\nArauz discussed Latin America\u2019s attempt to create a new currency and regional financial architecture, to challenge what he described as the \u201chegemonic, neo-colonial\u201d US dollar-dominated system.\n\u201cWe\u00a0need the type of bank that can really serve the Global South\u201d, he urged, calling for a \u201cclearing and settlement bank that can allow for these transactions to take place, and that is not afraid of sanctions from the United States\u201d.\n\n\u201cWe\u2019ve seen tectonic shifts in the functioning of the international monetary system\u201d, Arauz said, agreeing that the world is now seeing a new kind of Bretton Woods III emerge.\n\u201cThere are\u00a0many different initiatives, but this has to find a reasonable path forward, which goes along with regional integration mechanisms. So you have a sort of Eurasian hub, a pan-African hub, a Latin American hub, and then you have connections among those regions\u201d.\n\u201cThe society of the 21st century has to be a society of blocs, of large geopolitical blocs that can effectively allow for a sort of planetary governance, in more balanced terms, but also have common positions, but then within those blocs you can have quite a bit of diversity. So I think that\u2019s how it will end up working also in the monetary sphere\u201d.\n\u201cThis is a historic moment for humanity\u201d, he argued. \u201cWe have to show that there is an alternative, and we are in the conditions to prove that\u201d.\nBut Arauz warned that Latin American unity must come quickly: \u201cWe cannot be facing this geopolitical moment, basically a world war, as 33 independent, small republics; this has to be faced as a Latin American bloc. And the political conditions are there. I just hope that we can get the structures, the instruments, in place for the regional bloc to actually assert itself\u201d.\n\nBEN NORTON: Hey everyone, I\u2019m Ben Norton, and this is Geopolitical Economy Report. Today, I have a real pleasure of being joined by the Ecuadorian economist and politician Andr\u00e9s Arauz.\nHe was the former minister of knowledge and human talent in the government of Rafael Correa in Ecuador. He was also a former general director of Ecuador\u2019s central bank.\nAnd he is brilliant when it comes to understanding new forms of finance, new economic alternatives.\nHe\u2019s been a longtime critic of the International Monetary Fund. He has discussed a lot the importance of building a new currency system in the region, and has also discussed central bank digital currencies.\nSo that\u2019s exactly what we\u2019re going to be speaking about today.\nNow, there was also recently a regional election in Ecuador, and the leftist Corre\u00edsta movement swept the elections and won more than any other party. They won in the seven most populous regions, and they also won the mayorship of the major cities of Quito and Guayaquil.\nSo we are going to talk about the election, but I want to begin, Andr\u00e9s, speaking about the discussion of creating a new currency in Latin America for bilateral trade.\nThere has been a lot of debate about this, especially in the financial press. We\u2019ve seen economists from the IMF have denounced it as a \u201ccrazy\u201d idea. But this is not necessarily a new idea.\nYou yourself were involved in a previous attempt at creating a unit of account in Latin America for international trade, which was called the Sucre. And I do want to ask you about that in a moment.\nBut I\u2019m wondering if you can discuss this meeting that was held this January between the Brazilian President Lula da Silva and Argentine President Alberto Fern\u00e1ndez. And in that meeting, Lula said that they are beginning the process of research to create a new currency, which he has tentatively referred to as the Sur. There are a lot of questions about this. I know it\u2019s in the early stage.\nI\u2019m wondering what your thoughts are on this. You yourself have been promoting this idea for a long time.\nANDR\u00c9S ARAUZ: Hi, Ben. Thanks for having me. Yeah, the Sur is an idea that has been in the minds of Latin American economists for decades. And we have a lot of historical precedents.\nIn the \u201880s, there was an initiative called the UMLA, Unidad Monetaria Latinoamericana, within the ALADI, which is the Latin American Integration Association, so that central banks could have this common currency and they could make transfers, international transfers amongst the different countries of the region without having to do it recurring to the dollar or the US financial system.\nAnd then, you know, we had the Sucre initiative among the ALBA countries, that works, that is operation right now.\nWe also had the case of the Peso Andino for the Andean countries, that likewise was created in the \u201870s and \u201980s.\nAnd now we\u2019re discussing the Sur.\nSome of the critics have incorrectly basically called it a unique currency, or a currency that will replace national currencies. And that is not so.\nThe idea is not to replace each country\u2019s national, sovereign currency, but rather to have an additional currency, a complementary currency, a supranational currency for trade among countries in the region, starting with Brazil and Argentina, that are the sort of two powerhouses in the Southern Cone, and that could then amplify to the rest of the region.\nThat\u2019s a very important concept because people tend to compare this to the euro, and the euro had a very long process of getting there. But the euro is actually in every person\u2019s physical wallet.\nIn our case, we\u2019re not talking about replacing national currencies. We\u2019re not talking about convergence criteria and fiscal convergence, like the Maastricht Treaty, imposing austerity and debt limits to each country.\nThat is not the case of our proposal. It starts from the banking sector, from the functioning of the international payment system dynamics, very much in the spirit of Keynes\u2019 Bancor.\nNow, I think that translated to the 21st century means that the Sur, this common additional currency for trade transactions within the region, has to have financial innovation incorporated in the design so that, for example, we don\u2019t have to use the banks in Miami or in New York just to transfer funds between Chile and Uruguay, or Argentina and Colombia.\nRight now, what happens is that, when a transaction from either of these countries has to take place, they have to first find what\u2019s called the correspondent bank in the United States, usually a bank in Miami or in New York City, where the money flows.\nNow, that\u2019s not only inefficient in energy terms, and information terms, but it is also much slower because, by having to go through the US financial system, it has to comply with the United States sort of know your customer, anti-money laundering, combating financial terrorism laws and regulations. And that\u2019s in principle okay, but they take a long time to process.\nAnd if you think about it, if it\u2019s a transaction between two countries within Latin America, why would they have to comply with U.S. regulations to begin with? It could be a regional financial arrangement that could make transfers in real time, what\u2019s called real time gross settlement of these transactions.\nYou could have this immediately available. And you could make trade much faster. And it could be a way of promoting regional economic integration, especially for small and medium enterprises.\nYou usually have to wait, you know, five or six days for a transaction to finally settle.\nSo this is an opportunity for Latin American small businesses as well, and hopefully it can be deployed in a very quick manner.\nYou know, this has been discussed in theory and practice for decades. So it really shouldn\u2019t be a challenge to get this going forward fairly quickly.\nBEN NORTON:\u00a0Thank you for describing that. And you mentioned something very important, Andr\u00e9s, which is the Bancor.\nThis was the proposal that John Maynard Keynes had made back at the Bretton Woods conference in 1944, in which the US dollar was established as the global reserve currency. This is an international unit of account, so each country could still maintain its own sovereign monetary policy.\nAnd I\u2019m glad that you stressed that this is not based on the Eurozone model, where a country that has a current account deficit like Greece is just going to constantly be trapped in debt, whereas countries that have current account surplus like Germany, which export so much, they maintain this kind of economic hegemony.\nI want to talk about what happened with the Sucre. You mentioned that the Sucre technically is still, it\u2019s still possible to use this currency.\nA lot of people associate the Sucre with former Venezuelan President Hugo Ch\u00e1vez, who had been a huge promoter, but it was actually under Rafael Correa in Ecuador, in whose government you served, that used the Sucre more than any other country in the region.\n\nThis is a graph showing the volume of trade, at least converted to U.S. dollars, of the use of the Sucre in bilateral trade in Latin America from 2010 until 2016. And Ecuador was responsible for the vast majority of the transactions.\nNow, we do know that there are political reasons for [the reversal of] that. After Correa left power in 2017, we saw that he was betrayed by his former vice president, Len\u00edn Moreno, who basically did a kind of internal coup.\nBut I\u2019m wondering if you can discuss your experience with the Sucre, I believe you were involved in helping to develop it, what lessons you have learned from it, and if you think that it\u2019s something that could be brought back in the future, or if the Sur is going to kind of replace it, or, in general, if you can reflect on the experience of the Sucre.\nANDR\u00c9S ARAUZ: The Sucre is like building an extra highway for financial transactions.\nSo you have the conventional financial system that by default requires that a US correspondent bank intermediates financial transactions, and that correspondent bank is usually based either in Miami, for the Latin American countries, or New York City, if it\u2019s a larger business.\nFor example, a transaction between South America, any South American country and, for example, an East Asian country, it usually requires a correspondent bank account, and a common correspondent bank account, and that\u2019s very hard to find.\nSo they have to call their bankers, and they say, \u201cHey, do you have any relationship with a bank in Argentina?\u201d And they say, \u201cNo, I don\u2019t. Let me call my bankers\u2019 bankers\u201d.\nThen they make successive calls until they find that they both share an account at the Federal Reserve, for example, or a big bank like JP Morgan.\nAnd so then these banks, which are in fact grouped in these large global private commercial banks, that intermediate financial transactions, are grouped into an organization called the Wolfsberg Group.\nThis Wolfsberg group is the group of the 13 largest international banks, and they settle most of the international trade in the world.\nAnd they are all private banks. And they have their own standards, their own principles, and their own logic as to how they work.\nOf course, they want to make money, but then they also follow their country of origin\u2019s rules and regulations, which are hegemonic in nature, neocolonial in nature as well, and are not designed for the interests of the sort of peripheral countries or marginal users of these transactional systems.\nSo in the case of the Sucre, it\u2019s a highway, it\u2019s a platform that connects the central bank of each of the countries, of the ALBA countries, with the domestic commercial banks, where people have accounts, and then the central banks are connected amongst themselves with the Sucre platform, which is really a piece of software, a messaging protocol, which allows the central banks to talk to each other and to pay each other in Sucres.\nThe Sucre is the unit of account of the system, of this platform system. And like I said, it\u2019s fully operational, in technical terms. Anyone can do a transaction, if they want to.\nBut politically, when Len\u00edn Moreno came to power in Ecuador, he decided to stop sending the Ecuadorian delegates to the monthly and yearly sort of meetings that the Sucre council had, had, where they were discussing the technical operational workings of the system.\nAnd so after Ecuador stopped sending the delegates, some of the issues on the technical workings of the Sucre started to sort of be on pause and on hold. And until now, they\u2019re like that.\nSo it was a political manipulation of the process to make it slow at first, and then to completely halt. However, the software itself, the technical design, and the possibility to make transactions, could be easily retaken, if there is just enough political will to bring it back to life.\nThe Sur also has other precedents in the Southern Cone of South America, which was the SML, Sistema de Pagos en Monedas Locales, or Local Currency Payment System, that within the Mercosur was developed by first Argentina and adopted by Uruguay and Paraguay as well, which allows exporters to invoice their sales in local currency to get paid in local currency with transactions within Mercosur countries as if they were domestic transactions.\nBut then the central banks settle, at the end of the day, at the New York Fed. So again, they have to go to this sort of correspondent banking network, designed where the New York Fed has protagonism.\nSo it won\u2019t be hard to sort of merge these initiatives and to have the Sur come out of that. It is not necessary to have, you know, a physical or legal merge of these two instruments. It is enough to have a conceptual merge.\nWe have the ideas from one, the ideas from another. We can easily design something new that takes the best from all of these designs, the historical precedents that we do have in the region.\nThat\u2019s why I trust that it can be deployed fairly quickly.\nI followed President Lula and President Fern\u00e1ndez\u2019s announcement, again, it was announced as an initial research phase.\nI have been involved in the working group for the Sur with some people from the ministry of finance of Brazil.\nAnd I think we can really go forward fairly quickly. But again, our challenge here is not technical in nature. We know how to solve all these issues.\nWe have the experience; we have the concrete, tangible experience. What we need is to present a system that will be supported by our local productive sectors, so that it can be sustained, so it can be sustainable in time, and not be just subject to a political backlash or, you know, flip flopping, like we have seen in the case of the Sucre, or in other initiatives in the region.\nWe need to make this long lasting. And for that to work, we need the productive sectors, small and medium enterprises, businesses actually use the platform and the mechanism.\nBEN NORTON: Yeah, I\u2019m glad you mentioned that, Andr\u00e9s, because I was going to ask you about the politics of this.\nI should say that I want to apologize a little bit to you, because I know I landed you in some hot water in Ecuador. I wrote an article after, in Brazil, after Lula won the presidential election in October, you published an excellent article in Spanish explaining your new plan for a \u201cregional financial architecture\u201d. And I translated it into English and was promoting it.\nAdvising Brazil\u2019s President-elect Lula, Ecuadorian economist and leftist presidential candidate @EcuArauz made a blueprint for a \u201cnew regional financial architecture\u201d to unite Latin America, including a currency to challenge the hegemony of the US dollar https://t.co/o7L0fN236F\n\u2014 Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) December 1, 2022\n\nAnd I saw that the Ecuadorian right wing was very angry, because they said that you are planning on ending the dollar as the Ecuadorian currency.\nOf course, people might know that, in Ecuador, the dollar has been the national currency ever since the 1999 banking crash, that was actually overseen by former Economic Minister Guillermo Lasso, who is the multimillionaire banker who is now the president.\nSo I\u2019m sorry for leading the right wing to attack you, even though that\u2019s not what you proposed. You didn\u2019t propose changing the national currency of Ecuador. And they\u2019re obviously misinterpreting what you wrote.\nBut what you did write in that article, an important point, is that Latin America, at least South America at this moment, has a narrow window of time, because at the end of 2023, there are going to be presidential elections in Argentina.\nAnd if the right wing comes to power, and especially if someone who is very extreme like perhaps Javier Milei, who is this, you know, libertarian, right-wing Koch Brother kind of figure in Latin America, I highly doubt that he would be willing to continue with this process of economic regional integration and the creation of a unit of account for trade between countries in the region.\nHow can a system \u2014 I know this is not an easy question to answer \u2014 but how can such a system like this be created, so if a Bolsonaro, or a Milei, or a Len\u00edn Moreno comes to power, they can\u2019t just sabotage it, like they have done in the past?\nANDR\u00c9S ARAUZ:\u00a0Yeah, it really is a challenge. But we know the answer. The answer is to have, you know, to surpass the point of no return.\nAnd to do that you first have to overcome the theoretical discussion. It can\u2019t just be an idea floating around. It has to try to become at least a treaty, a law, some regulation of some sort that can exist in reality, not just an academic proposal.\nSo the first step is to do that. Then, of course, we need to go beyond just having it on paper. We need to have users of the system that can then become the incumbent defenders of the system, of the new system, of the alternative system.\nSo that is why we need to go extremely quickly.\nThis is what really bothers me, because sometimes, you know, the heads of state make these grand announcements, which are huge in terms of their implications, but then our bureaucracies, Latin American bureaucracies, and especially the foreign ministries do not move at the same pace that the presidents are going. They go very slowly.\nAnd, you know, with all these bureaucratic messes and they\u2019re still sending physical snail mail to exchange letters and you have to send a letter to the embassy, sort of ignoring that we live in the 21st century, that you have email, that you have WhatsApp, that you can send an instant message, and then you can actually make decisions quickly, and go forward quickly as well, where you have a huge pool of talent available anywhere in the world, and you can have meetings via video calls.\nSomehow, this does not work in the case of Latin American government bureaucracies, foreign ministries. We have to go really quickly.\nI mean, I am a technical person, I know my stuff. But I\u2019m also active in politics. And I immediately recognize that we do have a narrow window.\nWe have no time to lose. And so we need to create a chat group among the presidents, and have them make decisions quickly, you know, via their cell phones.\nThis is how things get done nowadays in the corporate world, and big firms, and other initiatives. And this is how we have to move; we have to move forward quickly.\nIt is a bit frustrating, that the speed at which the bureaucracies are moving does not match the historic moment that we have in Latin America with, you know, basically all of the major economies, all of the major countries having progressive governments.\nI mean, this is not an opportunity to waste.\nThen, of course, once we get this done, once we get this operation going, we have to empower our citizens. We have to empower our domestic productive sectors, our small and medium enterprises, our cooperatives, our associations of producers, so that they can get the most out of these new mechanisms.\nThey can trade amongst themselves. We have to build networks. We have to set the infrastructure in motion quickly, so that the new opportunities for trade among our countries can be concrete, tangible, and effective.\nAnd that is a challenge for us.\nI wish we could build, you know, as quickly as the Chinese are building new rail infrastructure, for example. And that\u2019s something that we need in South America. And that can be done as well, also quite quickly, and have profound, transformational impact within the region.\nThen there are other things that are even more powerful that can be done extremely quickly, and that are very important to keep the motion and the momentum for regional integration going, which is, for example, setting up a scholarship fund, a small scholarship fund, but for what we call educational exchange between high schools and also universities of the countries in the region, so that you can do a semester or a year abroad.\nAnd when a student leaves to another country, for example, goes from Peru to Paraguay, and then the empty spot left in Peru can be filled by a person from Bolivia, or from Ecuador.\nThen you have basically a clearing system of educational exchange that does not need to cost more money for our governments.\nSo with very little money, basically paying for tickets, you could get this energy of regional integration going, especially among the youth, which in a young continent like Latin America is the engine for the present and the future.\nBEN NORTON: Yeah, I should mention to people that Andr\u00e9s was a leading presidential candidate in 2021. He won the first round of the election, and came close to winning the second. And it\u2019s very refreshing to hear all of these very creative ideas from someone who could potentially be president someday.\nAndr\u00e9s, you talked about the importance of speed in this moment. I do have to say that Lula made a comment in his meeting with Alberto Fern\u00e1ndez that gave me a little concern, when he said that \u201cthere are going to be many debates and many meetings\u201d in the plan to create this. And it does make me a little worried that that they might not be expediting the process very rapidly.\nBut what I will say is Lula made another very interesting comment that I wanted to ask you about. When a journalist posed this question about the currency, Lula mentioned that the BRICS system is also working on creating an international reserve currency.\nAnd from what we\u2019ve seen thus far, it\u2019s going to potentially be based on a basket of currencies of the five members, Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, using their currencies. And potentially also there may be the use of commodities like oil.\nSo I\u2019m curious, now that the BRICS is developing its own international financial architecture, a potential reserve currency, and Argentina has applied to join the BRICS. China invited Argentina to virtually attend the two meetings of the BRICS last year. And Iran, Algeria, Egypt has expressed interest, and Indonesia.\nI\u2019m curious if you think that, now that we\u2019re seeing another international financial architecture being created through the BRICS system, if in Latin America the financial architecture could potentially be connected, if you could collaborate, and potentially if you can even see a country like Ecuador collaborating with BRICS or potentially joining BRICS.\nANDR\u00c9S ARAUZ:\u00a0I think it would be, of course, interesting to have Ecuador join BRICS. I think that\u2019s a very distant possibility, for different reasons.\nRight now [President] Lasso is completely a right-wing ideological monster, and is not even interested in anything counter-hegemonic, and doesn\u2019t even believe in regional integration. And of course, challenging the unipolar system is out of question, in the case of Lasso.\nBut also Ecuador is a fairly small country, although its human talent I think outweighs its natural size.\nBut I think right now what is key is to have the five BRICS countries, the core members, actually get something done. You know, the New Development Bank halted some of its operations in the pandemic.\nThen more recently as well, I think Lula nailed it, correctly, when he proposed that Dilma Rousseff go to China to lead the BRICS bank, called the New Development Bank.\nHopefully it can do so without following the same sort of IMF, World Bank type logic, or the same credit rating agency type logic, and to create new markets, new ways of interacting with the Global South.\nI think that the common unit of account is definitely something that can be done, again, quickly. We have the experience of setting up in South America this system for unitary compensation in the region, the Sucre. And there are other examples as well. This should not be a challenge.\nHopefully, what\u2019s important there is to find a clearing and settlement bank that can allow for these transactions to take place, and that is not afraid of sanctions from the United States.\nWe need that type of bank that can really serve the Global South, the interests of the Global South, and that can help nations that are in desperate need, in this 2023, where we\u2019re going to have a massive debt crisis in the Global South, particularly many Latin American and African countries.\nHopefully the BRICS bank will be there to support the Global South with solidarity, and not just become one more creditor that, you know, wants to join the Paris Club or whatever. We need an alternative view. And I really hope that President Dilma will bring that vision to the BRICS bank.\nBEN NORTON:\u00a0Yeah, very well said. I think that is a very important decision, to appoint Dilma as the head of the New Development Bank.\nYou mentioned an important word, the s-word, sanctions, which I wanted to ask you about.\nWe\u2019ve seen that in the past few decades, the application of unilateral sanctions by the United States has skyrocketed.\nAnd of course, in the context of South America, we\u2019ve seen that Venezuela is suffering under a brutal embargo imposed by the U.S., with many illegal unilateral sanctions.\nThe central bank reserves and the gold reserves in particular, of Venezuela were effectively stolen by the Bank of England.\nThat established a precedent that was then used by the U.S. to freeze the central bank reserves of Afghanistan, which has fueled a horrible crisis and hyperinflation, because they can\u2019t stabilize their currency in Afghanistan.\nThen, of course, Russia. After Russia invaded Ukraine, the U.S. and the EU froze $300 billion U.S. dollars worth of the central bank reserves, the foreign exchange reserves of Russia.\nSo clearly that has established a precedent that has frightened countries around the world. And it makes sense why countries are trying to find new reserve currencies and new payment mechanisms.\nThe prominent Credit Suisse economist Zoltan Pozsar has been talking a lot about this concept of Bretton Woods III.\nHe argues that we\u2019re entering this new kind of monetary era where Bretton Woods I, from 1944, in the Bretton Woods conference, until 1971 or \u201873, when the US dollar was delinked from gold, was Bretton Woods I, and then we\u2019ve been living through Bretton Woods II. But he argues that now we\u2019re moving into a kind of Bretton Woods III.\nI\u2019m wondering if you agree with that argument, and what role you see Latin America playing in kind of forging this path.\nI always shout at the top of my lungs, you know, people talk about Eurasian integration, but I think Latin American integration is just as important in challenging this financial hegemony and building a truly multipolar system.\nAnd I\u2019m curious if you think that we are in this Bretton Woods III world, and what role Latin America plays in that.\nANDR\u00c9S ARAUZ:\u00a0Yeah, definitely, we are in this Bretton Woods III world. This is obvious, not in question.\nWe\u2019ve seen tectonic shifts in the functioning of the international monetary system. Some are not detected until after a while.\nBut those who follow this, you know, those who follow this closely, I think we are in the capacity to say that, yeah, we\u2019re living this Bretton Woods III moment. There are many, many conversations happening right now.\nI think right now we\u2019re still in a moment of what Ilene Grabel calls \u201cproductive incoherence\u201d, in the sense that there are a million ideas, you have BRICS, you have the different regions, you have Latin America, you have the SDRs, you have the crypto movement, I mean, all these different alternatives and ideas.\nAnd for now, it\u2019s okay that it\u2019s sort of chaotic and there are many different initiatives, but this has to find a reasonable path forward, which goes along with regional integration mechanisms, and the connection among regional integration mechanisms.\nSo you have a sort of Eurasian hub, a pan-African hub, a Latin American hub, and then you have connections among those regions. And the society of the 21st century has to be a society of blocs, of large geopolitical blocs that can effectively allow for a sort of planetary governance, in more balanced terms, but also have common positions, but then within those blocs you can have quite a bit of diversity.\nSo I think that\u2019s how it will end up working also in the monetary sphere. And we need these sort of communicating chambers or layers, and that would be the suprabloc or the supranational mechanisms, you know, like the BRICS bank, but also the SDRs at the International Monetary Fund and other such initiatives.\nSo we\u2019re definitely living this moment of creativity. And I think it\u2019s important to get these things rolling, so we have to go from talking about them to actually setting them in motion, and then testing which initiatives are most successful.\nNow, all of this has to be done in the context of geopolitical confrontation and the weaponization of the incumbent financial system, which is the dollar-based, US financial system-based, correspondent banking and sort of FATF-governed, US hegemonic financial system.\nAnd that is really both a cause for the major change, but also it stifles that change, because the smaller countries, but also maybe banks that do not want to lose their incumbent position, are afraid of taking on this role of an alternative system, because the US institutions, the OFAC, the Treasury, FinCEN, and their position in international multilateral organizations have really weaponized the system against any sort of this creativity.\nSo it will take a lot of courage, but also a lot of coordination, so that things can be done in a unified way, opposing hegemony, but in a coordinated way, so that not each individual country suffers the weight of the sanctions, but that we can do it in such a coordinated way that, you know, we can all go forward without fear of retaliation from these institutions. So that\u2019s a realpolitik kind of thing.\nComing from a small country like Ecuador, it would be impossible for us, Ecuador by itself, to try to promote something that big. So we have to trust the big players to take the first steps, and to make some long-lasting change.\nAnd just because you mentioned sanctions, I want to add another element, which is not only the gold that was taken from Venezuela, and the asset freeze and so on, but there was a particular type of sanction that has not been well described in the media, which is the IMF, the International Monetary Fund, which is a multilateral organization, but because the US has a veto and outsized influence in the governance of the fund, decided not to recognize the Venezuelan government.\nSo neither the Maduro official government, nor the fake Guaid\u00f3 \u201cgovernment\u201d, they said, \u201cWe have uncertainty as to whom we should recognize as the official government\u201d.\nAnd they blocked Venezuela\u2019s accounts at the IMF, and in de facto avoided, or it was an obstacle for Venezuela accessing its $5 billion dollars worth of recently issued SDRs in 2021, which at the moment of the pandemic, and given the economic hardship that Venezuela was going through, would have been extremely useful for fighting the economic consequences of the pandemic, and acquiring vital health and medical equipment for the population.\nSo this is a new type of sanction, which is not explained anywhere; it\u2019s very difficult to pin down.\nBut up to this moment, even two months after Guaid\u00f3 has been sort of removed from power, and there is no question as to the legitimacy of President Maduro of Venezuela, the IMF has still not recognized the Venezuelan central bank, and has still blocked the passwords to Venezuela\u2019s account at the IMF, where there is over $5 billion worth of SDRs, which are bigger than what\u2019s in the UK with the gold, bigger than other asset seizures that Venezuela has gone through.\nBEN NORTON:\u00a0Yeah, this is actually a perfect segue. I wanted to ask you about special drawing rights, SDRs.\nYou\u2019ve been a big advocate internationally for expanding the use of SDRs. And in many ways, this is kind of an example of the Keynesian concept of the Bancor in practice.\nThe problem, of course, with the SDRs \u2014 you can explain what they are \u2014 is that they are overseen by the IMF. And we know that the IMF is a deeply politicized institution, in which only the U.S. has veto power.\nOf course anyone who knows the basic history of the IMF knows it has a long history of trapping countries in the Global South in debt, and then forcing them to impose neoliberal \u201cstructural adjustment\u201d programs, cutting the minimum wage, privatizing state assets, etc.\nThe IMF itself, its top economists, admitted in a report called \u201cNeoliberalism: Oversold?\u201d that those policies led to a decline in growth, led to increasing inequality, and unemployment, and such.\nBut we\u2019re in this complicated situation, where the SDRs do propose an interesting opportunity for the Global South.\nBut as you mentioned, during the pandemic, Venezuela applied for an IMF loan, but also Iran, where no one contests who the real Iranian government is. The US used its veto power to block the request that Iran made for a $5 billion loan from the IMF, during the pandemic, that could have saved lives.\nSo I\u2019ve always been struck by this contradiction. I think you\u2019re absolutely right, that SDRs are an important opportunity for the South. But how do we square the circle of that contradiction, where it\u2019s also with such a thoroughly flawed institution?\nYou yourself have been a leading critic of the IMF. I\u2019m just curious what you think about the contradiction there, of the importance of SDRs, but the problem of the IMF.\nANDR\u00c9S ARAUZ:\u00a0So we don\u2019t have to compare the SDRs to perfection, because perfection doesn\u2019t exist, and is not around. So we have to compare SDRs to other existing mechanisms.\nAnd other existing mechanisms that we have right now in the system are the hegemonic, neo-colonial swap arrangement from the Federal Reserve, where the United States grants literally an unlimited dollar account to five other central banks: the European Central Bank, the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan, the Bank of Canada, and the Swiss National Bank.\nSo these six, the six central banks, the US Fed plus these five others, have literally unlimited dollar accounts at the Fed. Now that is definitely an advantage that these partners of the US have, but Global South countries don\u2019t.\nWhat do Global South countries have? Well, they don\u2019t have these unlimited dollar accounts, so what they can do is, you know, try to knock on some doors and maybe get a loan from somebody.\nAnd you know what those loans mean? They mean conditionality; they mean austerity; they mean firing people; they mean privatizing state assets; they mean deregulating the financial system, and so on, and creating crisis.\nSo those aren\u2019t really a true alternative for people that are actually concerned with the human rights and the well-being of people in the Global South.\nSo the next best thing that we have are the SDRs, that, yes, have to follow the conventional voting structure at the IMF; they require US consent. But once that happens, they are distributed fairly equitably to every country in the world.\nThey are skewed towards richer countries, but the richer countries are not making any use of them anyway. So what you really have to count is how much arrives to the Global South countries.\nI\u2019ve done several studies to show that it\u2019s the Global South countries that are the ones taking advantage of the SDRs, and that we need more.\nWe need more of these SDRs for several reasons, more specifically because they benefit the fiscal budget, the budget of these countries, that allows them to invest in their economies, and save lives, and help people very concretely.\u00a0But also because it creates an alternative to the hegemonic system.\nSo I think, in that sense, SDRs are a very powerful instrument. Again, they are not perfect. I hope one day we can reform the IMF governance and so on.\nBut in the meantime, SDRs are a viable alternative that can happen.\nAnd as happened during my [presidential] campaign in 2021, when I said that I would help the people in the pandemic by giving $1,000 to each of the 1 million families that were in the most vulnerable condition in my country, they said, \u201cWhere is that money going to come from?\u201d I said, \u201cWell, from the SDRs. It\u2019s issued out of thin air\u201d.\nAnd the people that didn\u2019t know how money works sort of made fun of that, because they don\u2019t know how it works. But SDRs are issued out of thin air; they are politically created.\nYou know, the countries literally meet, in this case by email, and they vote on creating new money, new money that is a hard currency that can be issued to every country in the world that\u2019s an IMF member country, and then that can be swapped or traded for dollars, euros, yuan, yen, or the British pound.\nAnd they can be used for countries\u2019 day-to-day operations and purchases in the international market. So it\u2019s a concrete benefit to Global South countries.\nYeah, we have to overcome the governance dynamics of the IMF. But in the meantime, it\u2019s the most concrete, most tangible, most equitable, debt-free solution for getting liquidity, getting money to the poorest countries in the world.\nBEN NORTON:\u00a0Yeah, very well said. I have one final economics question, and then we can conclude talking about the politics in Ecuador briefly.\nYou\u2019ve also been a promoter of central bank digital currencies. I\u2019m wondering if you can talk about this. This has become a very hot topic in the financial press.\nAnd something that\u2019s also related, we saw that Argentina and China just signed a currency swap line agreement. And the Chinese media discussed this as a way of encouraging bilateral trade between Argentina and China using their domestic currencies.\nBut also it\u2019s clearly a way to provide liquidity for Argentina, which is facing this inflation crisis, so Argentina can service its dollar-denominated debt, while also having these Chinese yuan.\nI\u2019m curious if you think that currency swaps \u2014 we\u2019ve seen China, the Chinese central bank, has really expanded its use of currency swap lines with countries that are suffering with dollar-denominated debt, like Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Argentina \u2014 I\u2019m curious what you think about that in the future.\nPeople have argued that this is basically a way of providing loans that get around the SWIFT system and around sanctions.\nSo these are both examples, central bank digital currencies and currency swap lines, of ways for central banks to kind of oversee alternative payment mechanisms or alternative loan mechanisms.\nWhat do you think about both of those?\nANDR\u00c9S ARAUZ: Well, swap lines are loans, they are mutual loans between central banks. So one central bank lends some of its own currency to another country and gets a loan in return.\nUsually it\u2019s a country with a harder currency that is actually the one that\u2019s lending the currency to another country with the weaker currency. And usually there\u2019s an asymmetry; there\u2019s a difference in the sort of relative hierarchy of currencies between the countries that are engaged in swap arrangements.\nI think they are a valid alternative. Again, this is part of this \u201cproductive incoherence\u201d, part of these, you know, many, many initiatives that have sprawled, especially after the great financial crisis of 2008, where, you know, countries started to be creative about how we can get our hands on liquidity without having to return to the IMF and to get a loan and, you know, go through this whole conditionality stuff.\nSo many, many of these initiatives have sprawled. You also have the Arab countries developing swap networks, also the Arab Monetary Fund, and so on.\nWe have a Latin American Reserve Fund. We wanted to have a Fund of the South in our region; unfortunately, that did not go through.\nBut again, there are many other initiatives, and I think swap lines are an important one as well.\nNow, central bank digital currencies are a bit different. They are mostly designed for domestic payment purposes, basically people, and businesses, but also directly human beings, can have a type of account or a wallet at the central bank.\nThat has many other implications, you know, implications as to how that will compete with a conventional banking system, with cash, and so on. And I think we can have basically two main ideas here.\nOne, I think that any successful CBDC \u2014 because we were the first country in the world, Ecuador, to do a pilot, to actually launch and have a CBDC fully operational \u2014 is that it has to be mindful of true financial inclusion.\nSo you don\u2019t really have to target the people who already have a conventional banking account. You want to try to reach the people that do not have financial services, that may have a phone, may have you know, a data connection, or not even, just ap hone connection. But it is that sector that you want to reach.\nThen the other one it is that you have to keep in mind that you are legal tender. If you want to have a CBDC, it has to be as good as legal tender.\nLegal tender, the physical currency, has some protections for the consumer, with regard to the anonymity, privacy, and non-traceability of its use.\nSo legal tender is not just the thing that forces businesses to accept your currency. It is also a thing that protects the user of cash by granting them the possibility of deciding to do with their money whatever they need to do with it, without, you know, supervision by anybody else, much less so a bank.\nSo the digital currency, central bank digital currency, to be successful, has to replicate those characteristics that are present in physical cash in the digital version.\nI think most central banks have not understood this. They are trying to, you know, basically create accounts in the conventional sense.\nAnd they\u2019re really excited about the surveillance possibilities that now they will have over society, by controlling every single transaction that they make, and so on.\nThey\u2019re not getting the point that adoption will only be there if they replicate the characteristics of physical cash.\nBEN NORTON:\u00a0Yeah, very well said, again. It\u2019s extremely refreshing hearing a prominent politician who could one day be a president discussing such innovative ideas.\nThis leads me to my last question or two here, as we wrap up. And that\u2019s the discussion of the politics in your home country, in Ecuador.\nI mentioned at the beginning that Andr\u00e9s was the former central bank manager in Ecuador. He also was minister of knowledge and human talent.\nBut in 2021 he was a presidential candidate. Andr\u00e9s won the first round and came close to winning the second. He lost by several points to the current right-wing millionaire banker president, Guillermo Lasso.\nBut in regional elections that were just held, the leftist Corre\u00edsta movement did very well, winning more than any other party.\n\u00a1Gracias Ecuador!\u00a1Qu\u00e9 respuesta a seis a\u00f1os de infamias, persecuci\u00f3n y destrucci\u00f3n!\u00a1De aqu\u00ed pa\u2019 arriba, hasta recuperar la Patria!#LosCorruptosSiempreFueronEllos pic.twitter.com/qeyzk39aO1\n\u2014 Rafael Correa (@MashiRafael) February 11, 2023\n\nHere is former President Rafael Correa, thanking his country, and you can see the results of the Citizens\u2019 Revolution movement that was founded by Correa, got 61 mayor\u2019s seats and nine governorships, basically is the equivalent. That\u2019s more than any other party. And especially in the big cities of Quito and Guayaquil.\nBut also something that was very important is that the president, Guillermo Lasso, had been trying to propose a referendum to change the constitution, and we know that he lost every single measure. He had eight different proposals to change the constitution.\nThe leftist opposition just had a huge victory in Ecuador:\nThe Corre\u00edsta movement dominated local elections across the country\nAnd right-wing millionaire banker President Guillermo Lasso held a referendum to try to add 8 changes to the constitution, but he lost every single one pic.twitter.com/r5HAZULBbm\n\u2014 Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) February 7, 2023\n\nAnd in response to that, there were reports that Lasso actually was calling the leaders of the electoral council and yelling at them, and threatening the members of the electoral council.\nThis has led to people, including people who previously supported Lasso, to suggest that that would be an impeachable offense in Ecuador.\nSo Andr\u00e9s, can you reflect on this historic victory of the Corre\u00edsta Citizens\u2019 Revolution movement that you are a leader in, in these historic elections, and the failure of Lasso in this constitutional referendum?\nWhat does this mean for Ecuador?\nANDR\u00c9S ARAUZ: This is great news for our country. It was a historic victory after years of political persecution.\nMy campaign was extremely difficult in its conditions. We had all the referees against us. I had to run a campaign where I was constantly under death threats and threats of imprisonment.\nThe incumbent government was a traitor, and had already put many of my comrades in prison and so on.\nSo it was under very difficult conditions, and we lost by a very slim margin in the second round.\nBut in this case, we have one main lesson that unfortunately was learned by the population the hard way, which is that, in the last campaign, we did suffer a bit of punishment from the electorate, because we had previously supported Len\u00edn Moreno.\nAnd they said, \u201cWell, yeah, whatever, \u201cI don\u2019t care that he\u2019s a traitor; he\u2019s part of your camp; \u201cand we\u2019re going to punish you for having selected him in the past\u201d.\nBut now that Lasso has been in power for almost two years, and has governed exactly the same way, with the same policies as Len\u00edn Moreno, people have understood that it was really a massive act of betrayal, and that it was the right wing that was governing all this time, especially after Lasso decided not to investigate Moreno or to try to or to try to get him into any serious trouble.\nSo people have noticed that it has been Lasso and the right wing that has been actually governing all these last five, six years.\nSo that has been the key difference in the structure of the vote. And of course, we have sort of amended our relationship with the people and that gave us a huge victory in these last elections.\nWe won all major cities, all of the major prefectures, and our demographic weight has gone up tremendously. And of course, that gives us a lot of possibilities for a subsequent presidential campaign in the future.\nNow, in the case of Lasso, his defeat was complete not only because the Citizens\u2019 Revolution won some of these key races, but because he lost the referendum in each of the eight proposals he made. And that was a resounding victory of the people.\nThe margin of that victory was much larger than the people who voted for us. So that means that there is a critical majority that is not just voting for the Citizens\u2019 Revolution, but for a larger anti-right-wing type coalition.\nThat is our challenge now, how we can build a relationship within that coalition of not just coexistence, but also amending those the links, so we can go together and have a resounding victory in the next electoral cycle.\nNow, for Lasso, this has been total collapse. He has basically no support within the parliament, no support no support with the people, electoral defeats, all his most trusted elements have quit.\nAnd now he has to basically survive, and probably he won\u2019t make it in the next few days or weeks.\nSo we\u2019ll probably have some news coming from Ecuador fairly quickly.\nBEN NORTON:\u00a0Yeah, that would be incredible. That\u2019s the positive news.\nI want to conclude, unfortunately, on I guess a more tragic note, which is the social cost of the Lasso government. We saw that under President Rafael Correa and the Citizens\u2019 Revolution, there was a massive decrease in violence and organized crime in Ecuador.\nThe violent death rate in Ecuador over time, by president\nThis is a graph showing the death rate, violent death rate in Ecuador. When Correa came in, it just plummeted, the death rate in Ecuador.\nEver since the return to the right, by Len\u00edn Moreno and now Lasso, we\u2019ve seen a massive increase in violence.\nAnd there have been so many horrible reports that I\u2019ve seen, of reports of mass killings in prisons and drug violence.\nIn fact, before the elections, there was a prominent Corre\u00edsta leftist candidate who was assassinated.\nSo I\u2019m wondering if you can reflect on the social cost of the Lasso government thus far, and why you think that there has been such a massive increase in violence and drug trafficking in Ecuador under Lasso.\nANDR\u00c9S ARAUZ:\u00a0Unfortunately, this violence that we\u2019ve seen in Ecuador is, and it really saddens me to say this, but it\u2019s part of a plan.\nIt\u2019s part of Lasso\u2019s plan to weaken the social organization capacity, to instill fear in the population, and to demobilize people and to remove hope from them.\nWe have seen, in parallel to this violence, we have seen the largest migration wave out of Ecuador, that\u2019s comparable to the large migration waves that we\u2019ve seen from other countries, but without an embargo, a blockade, or financial or economic sanctions against it.\nThis is basically the collapse of Ecuadorian society, from the fact that Lasso\u2019s policies have decided to destroy our domestic economy, the relationship between the productive sectors and society and so on.\nAnd unfortunately, it seems that has been part of a plan to create this sort of fear, this element of fear in society for him to implement his neoliberal policies in a much easier way or a much easier fashion.\nSo now, the evidence that points to this is the fact that the minister of security for over a year was Alexandra Vela, who has said continuously that she\u2019s not an expert in security; that is not her forte; that is not what she\u2019s good at.\nShe was still kept at the Ministry of Security for a long time, only to be replaced by Diego Ord\u00f3\u00f1ez, who is this other guy who has no experience whatsoever in matters of security, his only expertise is sort of a libertarian political persecution against the left in Latin America.\nThat\u2019s all that he has. He has no expertise in security matters whatsoever. So these are the people that are running our security forces. These are the bosses of the police and the armed forces in Ecuador.\nAnd of course, that can only make sense if the plan was to not do anything about the violence.\nNow, the good news is that as soon as a progressive government takes power in Ecuador, the progressive government will have a lot of legitimacy. It will have a lot of trust from the people.\nAnd as we have demonstrated in the past, with the leadership of Rafael Correa, there will be immediate action, because we know how to get things done. We\u2019ve done that in the past.\nWe reduced, like you showed, the homicide rate in a very short amount of time. So we know how to do that, by managing the local police force, by being very meticulous about studying the causes of crime, the geography of crime, and so on.\nSo the good news for the people of Ecuador is that as soon as we have a progressive government in place, those indicators will improve tremendously, quickly, and with immediate benefits for the families of the Ecuadorian citizens.\nBEN NORTON: Very well said. I guess, just to not end on a super dark note, I will ask one final question. And I know you\u2019re a busy man, then I\u2019ll let you go.\nThere has been a lot of discussion of the return of the so-called \u201cPink Tide\u201d. I know, in my experience in the region, people don\u2019t really use the term \u201cPink Tide\u201d, but a progressive wave, a left-wing wave of governments across the region.\nIn fact, for the first time in modern history, the six most populous governments in the region were left wing, until the coup in Peru in December.\nBut, I mean, we see for the first time ever a left-wing government in Colombia. We see for the first time in many decades a left-wing government in Mexico. And of course, Lula has now returned in Brazil.\nUnfortunately, the only holdouts, the right-wing holdouts, are Ecuador and Uruguay. And I guess you could say Guatemala. And well, El Salvador is complicated.\nBut the point is that Ecuador is, I think, probably next in line for the left wing to come back.\nThe last question that we can end on is, what do you see in the short to the medium term, maybe even the long term, for the future of Latin America?\nAnd especially with the left being able to govern, do you think that you\u2019ll be able to continue the process of regional integration and turn Latin America and the Caribbean into, I would say, a pole in a multipolar world?\nI increasingly think that might be the case. But I\u2019m curious what your final thoughts are.\nANDR\u00c9S ARAUZ:\u00a0Yeah, we need to we need to have some key conversations in the region among the largest players, you know, I\u2019m talking about Lula, talking about AMLO, talking about Fern\u00e1ndez, Petro.\nI think if we could get these four presidents together on the table, to have off-the-record conversations, maybe sit down for an entire day and have them come up with some key ideas. It\u2019s very important.\nWe need that kind of conversation right now. This cannot just be, you know, some random ideas floating around and then making some headlines in the papers, but then not being implemented in reality.\nWe need to have a true political consensus among the progressive governments, serious conversation, to overcome issues about egos, and vanity, and stuff like that.\nAnd we need to understand that this is a historic moment for humanity, and that the Latin American people have a duty to the continent, of course, but also to the rest of the world.\nWe have to show that there is an alternative, and we are in the conditions to prove that. So we really need to make that happen.\nThen, after the conversation of the presidents, we need to go beyond the political integration of political parties, or chiefs of states, or, whatever, the summit pictures.\nWe need to have an integration of the peoples. This is important, Ben, and I mentioned this already, but I want to say it again, we need to make regional integration tangible for the people, the everyday citizen.\nWe need to make this concrete. We need to make this, you know, felt in their bodies, in their minds, in their day to day. And this is done with the educational exchange program.\nWe need a cultural program, where we have small kids in elementary schools discussing, what should the flag of Latin America be like? What should the anthem be like? With the music, musicians, poets of each of our countries.\nWe need to discuss, you know, how the coat of arms should be? What kinds of symbols do we want to adopt as a Latin American civilization?\nThese are the discussions that will make so many other things happen, especially if we start with the younger kids in our generation.\nWe also need to have this infrastructure immediately.\nYou know, we have almost $1 trillion in reserves being deposited in Swiss and US bank accounts, if you add up South American, and Mexico\u2019s, and Central American reserves. We have that money deposited in the Global North, but we should invest at least a tenth of that in our own region, in concrete, tangible assets, in roads, in electric interconnection system, in a rail network to connect the big cities of Latin America amongst ourselves.\nAnd we need to make that happen quickly. Otherwise we\u2019ll lose this opportunity.\nSo my call is to have a little wake-up call, and get our regional movements going, and pressure the governments to go forward much faster in terms of regional integration.\nNot every country can save itself. We cannot be facing this geopolitical moment, basically a world war, as 33 independent, small republics; this has to be faced as a Latin American bloc. And the political conditions are there.\nI just hope that we can get the structures, the instruments, in place for the regional bloc to actually assert itself and start projecting and acting in real life.\nBEN NORTON:\u00a0Wow, those are powerful words to end on. I must say that I hope that today I was speaking with the next president of Ecuador. I think the president of any country that could implement those kinds of ideas, or at least try to implement those ideas, I think would be such a positive force for the entire world. Andr\u00e9s Arauz was the central bank director in Ecuador, and under former President Correa, he was also minister of knowledge and human talent.\nHe is finishing up, I believe you\u2019re finishing up your PhD in economics, right?\nAnd everyone should check out Andr\u00e9s Arauz over at his Twitter account. You can follow him at @EcuArauz. And I know that, Andr\u00e9s, you\u2019re also a fellow at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, CEPR, in Washington, DC, which I often joke is the only good think tank in Washington. They do a lot of very important work over there.\nIs there anything else that you would like to plug at the end here, where people could find your work or follow what you do?\nANDR\u00c9S ARAUZ:\u00a0Yeah, I\u2019m just waiting for the slow university bureaucracy to print my little diploma, and I\u2019ll be ready with that. But yeah, I finished my degree in mid last year, and I\u2019m happy to have that done.\nSo, yeah, thanks again, Ben, for everything. Thanks for this interview. I hope we\u2019ve clarified some of these issues for a wide audience.\nBEN NORTON:\u00a0You absolutely did, and I hope you inspire people to do more research into these very fascinating topics.\nI think we\u2019re living in a deeply important, watershed moment in history. And I do think Latin America plays a key role in that, especially with brilliant political leaders and economists like you and others.\nSo thanks so much for being generous with your time today.\nANDR\u00c9S ARAUZ:\u00a0Thank you, Ben. Bye bye.\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Colombia\u2019s President Petro supports freedom for Julian Assange, meets with WikiLeaks editors. 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, Gustavo Petro, Julian Assange, WikiLeaks", "output": "Colombia\u2019s first-ever left-wing President Gustavo Petro met with WikiLeaks editors and said he \u201csupports the worldwide struggle for the freedom of the journalist Julian Assange.\u201d He pledged to pressure Joe Biden to drop the charges.\n\nThe editors of the whistle-blowing journalism publication WikiLeaks met with Colombia\u2019s new left-wing President Gustavo Petro on November 22.\nPetro stated that he \u201csupports the worldwide struggle for the freedom of the journalist Julian Assange,\u201d the Australian founder of WikiLeaks, who has been incarcerated in a maximum-security British prison since 2019, awaiting extradition to the United States.\n\u201cI will ask President Biden with other Latin American presidents so they don\u2019t put charges on a journalist only for saying the truth,\u201d vowed Petro, Colombia\u2019s first-ever leftist head of state.\nMe reun\u00ed con los voceros de Wikikeaks, para apoyar la lucha mundial por la libertad del periodista Julian Assange.\nLe soliciar\u00e9 al presidente Biden con otros presidentes latinoamericanos que no se pongan cargos a un periodista solo por decir la verdad pic.twitter.com/kWyoXrHhyV\n\u2014 Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) November 22, 2022\n\nPetro was joined in the meeting in the Casa de Nari\u00f1o presidential office in Bogot\u00e1 by WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Kristinn Hrafnsson, WikiLeaks ambassador Joseph A. Farrell, and Colombia\u2019s Foreign Minister \u00c1lvaro Leyva Dur\u00e1n.\nHrafnsson tweeted that it was a \u201cgood meeting,\u201d adding that both Petro and Leyva \u201cconfirmed their support for urging the US Biden admin to drop the charges against #Assange recognising the grave threat against press freedom if he is extradited.\u201d\nGood meeting today with Colombian president Gustavo Petro and his FM Alvaro Dur\u00e1n. Both confirmed their support for urging the US Biden admin to drop the charges against #Assange recognising the grave threat against press freedom if he is extradited. @petrogustavo pic.twitter.com/hsMt2n3eCO\n\u2014 Kristinn Hrafnsson (@khrafnsson) November 21, 2022\n\nAssange faces up to 175 years in prison in the United States, on politically motivated charges.\nWhen Assange was trapped in Ecuador\u2019s embassy in London, the CIA spied on him 24/7. Journalist and lawyers targeted in this operation have sued the CIA.\nThe top United Nations expert on torture, Special Rapporteur Nils Melzer, visited Assange in the UK\u2019s notorious Belmarsh prison in 2019, and reported that he is suffering from torture and horrific health conditions that could threaten his life.\n\u201cWhile the US Government prosecutes Mr. Assange for publishing information about serious human rights violations, including torture and murder, the officials responsible for these crimes continue to enjoy impunity,\u201d Melzer said.\nThe UN expert said Assange suffers from \u201call the symptoms typical for prolonged exposure to psychological torture.\u201d\n\u201cHowever, what we have seen from the UK Government is outright contempt for Mr. Assange\u2019s rights and integrity,\u201d Melzer lamented. \u201cDespite the medical urgency of my appeal, and the seriousness of the alleged violations, the UK has not undertaken any measures of investigation, prevention and redress required under international law.\u201d\nIn calling for freeing Assange,\u00a0Petro has joined numerous other leftist leaders in Latin America, including Mexico\u2019s President Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador (AMLO), Venezuela\u2019s President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, and Nicaragua\u2019s President Daniel Ortega. All have praised the WikiLeaks journalist for exposing US war crimes.\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Latin American socialists unite with Iran-led Axis of Resistance against Western 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": "ALBA, Bolivarian Alliance, Daniel Ortega, Denis Moncada, Ebrahim Raisi, Gaza, Group of Friends in Defense of the Charter of the United Nations, Hugo Ch\u00e1vez, Iran, Libya, Mahmoud\u00a0Ahmadinejad, Megasis, Nicaragua, Palestine, Sacha Llorenti, Syria, Venezuela", "output": "The leftist governments of Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Bolivia have found a key strategic ally in Iran, the heart of the Axis of Resistance.\n\n(This article was written for Al Mayadeen English.)\nRevolutionary socialist movements in Latin America are developing closer relations with anti-imperialist resistance forces in West Asia, building a united front against Western aggression and exploitation.\nThis budding alliance is an extremely important development in the struggle against an authoritarian international political and economic system that is essentially a global dictatorship, ruled by the United States and its junior imperialist partners in the European Union, NATO, apartheid \u201cIsrael\u201d, and the Gulf monarchies.\nAs this Washington-led, trans-Atlantic hegemonic order was constructed over the past century, through a long series of wars, military occupations, foreign interventions, coups, regime-change operations, assassinations, and grossly unequal trade arrangements, two regions of the world have been especially targeted: Latin America and the Middle East, or more accurately West Asia.\nBoth regions have plentiful natural resources and are very geostrategically located. Latin America has vast mineral reserves and agricultural products. West Asia has a plurality of the planet\u2019s hydrocarbon reserves, and connects Europe to Asia, sitting right in the middle of what geopolitical analysts have long called the \u201cWorld Island.\u201d\nGiven their status as principal targets of Western imperialism, it only makes sense for resistance forces in these regions to unite. Attempts at forming such an alliance had been made in the past \u2014 revolutionary Palestinian militants trained in Cuba and with Nicaragua\u2019s Sandinistas, for instance, and Muammar al-Qaddafi\u2019s Libya supported leftist Latin American guerrillas \u2014 but this collaboration was historically limited in scope.\nThat is, until recently. As the United States accelerated its hybrid warfare to try to re-colonize Latin America and West Asia in the 2000s, indigenous anti-imperialist movements in both regions joined forces, forging not only close political ties, but economic relations as well.\nThe leftist governments of Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Bolivia have found a key strategic ally in Iran, the heart of the Axis of Resistance.\nThe director of the main instrument of Latin American economic integration, the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America, known simply as the ALBA, took a historic trip to Tehran this August to meet with the new Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi.\n\u201cIran and the ALBA have a lot in common, and both seek to defend the independence and sovereignty of nations and confront the outrageousness of the United States,\u201d remarked the ALBA\u2019s executive secretary, the Bolivian diplomat Sacha Llorenti.\nTuve el privilegio y el honor de sostener una reuni\u00f3n con S. E. Seyed Ebrahim Raisi, Presidente de la Rep\u00fablica Isl\u00e1mica de Ir\u00e1n. Extendimos las felicitaciones del  @ALBATCP por su posesi\u00f3n, conversamos sobre nuestras coincidencias y la agenda en com\u00fan. pic.twitter.com/atFubJwErM\n\u2014 Sacha Llorenti (@SachaLlorenti) August 4, 2021\n\nFor his part, Raisi kicked off his new administration calling for\u00a0strengthening relations with Latin America, stressing that it is one of Tehran\u2019s top foreign-policy priorities.\n\u201cIran is determined to develop its political and economic relations with the member states of the ALBA-TCP,\u201d Raisi said, highlighting \u201cthe shared values and positions of both parties.\u201d\n\u201cThere is no doubt that a greater development of the relations between Iran and Latin American countries can halt the North Americans and other arrogant countries,\u201d Raisi added.\nJoining Llorenti in Tehran were top officials from Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Bolivia \u2014 all member states of the ALBA.\nIn a meeting with Venezuela\u2019s vice president of planning, Ricardo Men\u00e9ndez, Raisi stated that \u201c\u00a0Iran and Venezuela alike have common interests and enemies. We have always shown that with resistance and wisdom, we can thwart the plots of the United States and world imperialism.\u201d\n#M\u00e1sTemprano || VP Planificaci\u00f3n de la Rep\u00fablica Bolivariana de Venezuela, @rmenendezp sostuvo un encuentro con el Pdte de la Rep\u00fablica Isl\u00e1mica de Ir\u00e1n, Ebrahim Raisi, en el Palacio Blanco, con la finalidad de estrechar las relaciones entre ambas naciones.#LaClaveEsVacunarse pic.twitter.com/dYbItJBGW6\n\u2014 MinPlanificaci\u00f3n (@MPPPlanifica) August 4, 2021\n\nNicaragua\u2019s Foreign Minister Denis Moncada met with Raisi as well, and called for\u00a0strengthening relations with Tehran. The Iranian president praised the Central American nation\u2019s Sandinista government as a\u00a0model of resistance against US aggression, and said, \u201cThe people of Iran have always wished for success and victory for the revolutionary nation of Nicaragua.\u201d\nLikewise, in his meeting with Raisi,\u00a0Bolivian Foreign Minister Rogelio Mayta\u00a0pledged to work more closely with Iran, stating, \u201cDespite sabotage by the United States, we are determined to increase the level of relations with Tehran in all areas.\u201d\nIran\u2019s support for revolutionary governments in Latin America goes beyond mere words. While many liberal and center-left political forces in the region have opportunistically turned their back on Venezuela, betraying their neighbor on behalf of Washington, Tehran has shown real, tangible support for Caracas.\nBoth Venezuela and Iran are suffering from illegal US blockades, and these murderous sanctions have led to a shortage of food, medicine, and gasoline. (Venezuela has massive oil reserves, but it is some of the\u00a0heaviest crude petrol on the planet, which cannot be used or exported without first being refined, so Caracas needs to import lighter crude or other materials that are blocked by Washington.)\nTo help meet the needs of the Venezuelan people, Iran has repeatedly defied the criminal US blockade and delivered supplies to Caracas,\u00a0sending huge tankers\u00a0full of food, medicine, and fuel.\nIn these altruistic acts, Tehran has valiantly risked US military aggression, putting its money where its mouth is to support the revolutionary government and people of Venezuela.\nIran has also opened a supermarket chain in Venezuela, called Megasis, to help support an ally that is heavily reliant on food imports. It is part of a larger strategy to boost bilateral trade and economic cooperation between both nations.\nThe brotherhood between Venezuela and Iran was most poignantly illustrated at the 2013 funeral of President Hugo Ch\u00e1vez, who initiated the Bolivarian Revolution. Iranian President Mahmoud\u00a0Ahmadinejad was photographed hugging\u00a0and consoling the Venezuelan Comandante\u2019s crying mother.\nIn the last 400 years the world powers have either slandered or  assassinated  the character of the champions of freedom, and independence. Chavez is alive until freedom, justice, and humanity is alive. God bless Him. pic.twitter.com/x08q2HH58K\n\u2014 Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (@Ahmadinejad1956) March 8, 2020\n\nRevolutionary Latin American governments have also sought to collaborate more closely with other forces in the West Asian Axis of Resistance.\nVenezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Bolivia vociferously opposed and condemned the US-led imperialist proxy wars against Libya and Syria, which expressly sought the collapse of the nations\u2019 central governments, and succeeded in the former while failing in the latter.\nSimilarly, these ALBA member states have all shown unflinching solidarity with Palestine. In response to apartheid \u201cIsrael\u2019s\u201d 2008\u20132009 massacre in Gaza, Venezuelan President Ch\u00e1vez officially broke ties with the Zionist regime, denouncing it as a \u201cgenocidal state\u201d and \u201cthe murderous arm of the US government.\u201d\nThen in 2010, in a daring challenge to Washington\u2019s declaration that Iran, Iraq, and North Korea constituted a supposed \u201cAxis of Evil,\u201d Comandante Ch\u00e1vez announced an alliance with Syria, which he dubbed the \u201cAxis of the Brave\u201d.\nThe Axis of the Brave was a \u201cstrategic alliance\u201d against US imperialism, Ch\u00e1vez explained. \u201cA new world is being built,\u201d and \u201cwe seek a strategic relationship with that continent,\u201d the Venezuelan president said, referring to West Asia.\nLess than a year after Ch\u00e1vez\u2019s announcement, the United States and its proxies launched a devastating decade-long regime-change war on Syria \u2014 one that continues today, with more than one-third of Syria\u2019s sovereign territory, seizing most of its oil and wheat reserves,\u00a0illegally militarily occupied by the United States\u00a0in the northeast and NATO member Turkey in the northwest.\nCh\u00e1vez\u2019s defense of and alliance with Syria against Western aggression led to the inauguration this March of\u00a0a monument at the University of Damascus.\n#8M2021 #DiaInternacionalDeLaMujer Que mejor d\u00eda que hoy para conmemorar, en la Universidad de Damasco #Siria, el 8vo aniversario de la siembra de ese gran feminista que fue nuestro Comandante Ch\u00e1vez. Siempre reivindic\u00f3 el rol fundamental de la mujer en la sociedad. pic.twitter.com/slfIS2AyaY\n\u2014 Jos\u00e9 Gregorio Biomorgi Muzattiz (@Jose_Biomorgi) March 8, 2021\n\nNicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, the leader of the revolutionary Sandinista Liberation Front, has likewise steadfastly defended Syria and \u201c\u00a0condemned all forms of aggression by foreign powers\u00a0that attack the sovereignty and self-determination of the [Syrian] people, in clear and flagrant violation of international law.\u201d\nDuring the 2011 NATO regime-change war that intentionally collapsed the state of\u00a0Libya and unleashed open-air slave markets,\u00a0Nicaragua\u2019s Sandinista government staunchly opposed Western imperial aggression.\nAs NATO bombed Libya, the US government refused to give a visa to the North African nation\u2019s United Nations delegate. So in response, Nicaragua\u2019s former foreign minister, Miguel D\u2019Escoto Brockmann, announced he would\u00a0represent Libya at the UN. (Washington then tried to\u00a0block D\u2019Escoto\u2019s representation\u00a0too.)\nAxis of Resistance forces in Yemen has returned the solidarity. The de facto government in northern Yemen, ruled by the revolutionary Houthi movement, known officially as Ansarallah, has staunchly defended Venezuela against US aggression.\nIn a 2015 interview, a senior Ansarallah member declared, \u201cWe support Ch\u00e1vez in Venezuela.\u201d When Washington initiated another coup attempt in Venezuela in February 2019,\u00a0Ansarallah and leftist parties in Yemen held a protest condemning US interference.\nThe Houthi movement that governs northern Yemen, known officially as Ansar Allah, joined leftist parties in expressing solidarity with Venezuela against a US coup attempt.\nDemonstrations like these dispel misleading corporate media narratives about Yemenhttps://t.co/0KGgM2ZHcX\n\u2014 The Grayzone (@TheGrayzoneNews) September 13, 2020\n\nLatin American socialist governments and the Axis of Resistance in West Asia are the vanguards in the struggle to build a new, truly multipolar world based on national sovereignty and self-determination.\nTogether, they are helping to construct a truly multilateral order that challenges the authoritarian, unilateral, and brutally violent system created and controlled by the United States and its junior partners in imperialism.\nThis was further illustrated in July, when these nations launched an anti-imperialist alliance inside the United Nations, called the Group of Friends in Defense of the UN Charter. Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Bolivia were joined by Iran, Syria, and Palestine, as well as the People\u2019s Republic of China, the Russian Federation, Algeria, the DPRK, Cambodia, Laos, Angola, Belarus, Eritrea, Equatorial Guinea, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.\nThe anti-imperialist Group of Friends in Defense of the UN Charter launched yesterday, featuring:AlgeriaAngolaBelarusBoliviaCambodiaChinaCubaDPRKEqui. GuineaEritreaIranLaosNicaraguaPalestineRussiaSaint Vincent and GrenadinesSyriaVenezuelahttps://t.co/4vc9sbpOlR pic.twitter.com/ErFDIed7cW\n\u2014 Benjamin Norton (@BenjaminNorton) July 7, 2021\n\nThe economic partnership between member states of the Bolivarian Alliance and Iran likewise serves as a model for South-South integration that not only weakens Western imperial hegemony, but also helps to develop these countries in their mutual interests.\nThe ALBA was itself created to remove the middleman of the United States, so that Latin American nations could trade with each other and strengthen their own domestic economies, cutting out the North American corporations that want them to be dependent on imports.\nThe historic, 25-year, $400 billion\u00a0agreement Iran signed with China\u00a0this March was another crucially important step in building alternative economic structures to weaken Washington\u2019s dominance.\nSimilarly, the announcement that\u00a0Cuba and Iran will work together to manufacture COVID-19 vaccines\u00a0exemplifies how this South-South partnership can help overcome the global pandemic.\nIf Latin America and West Asia can create a coherent formal alliance with China and Russia, it could pose a serious challenge to the imperialist US-EU-NATO axis.\nAs the United States accelerates its\u00a0new cold war on China and Russia, such a coalition will only become more urgent.\nOriginally published at Al Mayadeen English on August 17, 2021\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: How Argentina has been trapped in neocolonial debt for 200 years: An economic history. 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": "Adolfo Diz, Alberto Fern\u00e1ndez, Argentina, Carlos Menem, Cristina Fern\u00e1ndez de Kirchner, debt, Domingo Cavallo, IMF, International Monetary Fund, Jorge Rafael Videla, Jos\u00e9 Alfredo Mart\u00ednez de Hoz, Juan Domingo Per\u00f3n, Mauricio Macri, neoliberalism, P2, Propaganda Due, World Bank", "output": "Argentina has constantly been trapped over two centuries in unpayable external debt owed to foreign imperial powers. This affects the everyday life of everyone: inflation, salaries, employment, public services, elections. Here is a brief history of the deuda.\n\nThe deuda (\u201cdebt\u201d in Spanish) is one of the most persistent elements in the two centuries of Argentina\u2019s history. It has conditioned the political life and the economy of the country like no other factor, for generations.\nBut this should not be confused with just any debt. The word deuda normally refers to the external debt (both public and private), a debt owed to foreign creditors.\nHistorically, the key aspect of the deuda is that it is based on a foreign currency, the world trade currency controlled by the ruling empire. It was once the British pound. Since 1944 it has largely been the US dollar.\nThe United States can \u201cprint\u201d dollars (and the Federal Reserve does so regularly), but Argentina cannot. The same is true of other countries in the Global South with large external debts denominated in foreign currencies.\nThere are only two ways for these nations to get dollars: exporting and borrowing.\nBut there are also multiple ways to reduce the need for dollars by reducing imports or increasing the value of exports. For example, instead of relying on a rent economy based on the export of cheap commodities with a low value added (the model adopted by many former colonies rich in natural resources), a country can develop its own industry and reduce its dependency on expensive imported goods, especially advanced technologies or fashionable consumer products.\nIf a nation excels in some sectors of the economy, it may be able to export more, improving its balance of payments.\nIn a more advanced stage, a country may even dare to associate with its friends and neighbors, creating a regional bloc in which they trade using their own currencies and rules, or a barter system, circumventing the US dollar.\nAll these common-sense policies may sound like nothing special for sovereign nations, yet they are a mirage in semi-colonial countries like Argentina.\nAs Argentine as the tango and mate, the deuda affects the everyday life of everyone: inflation, salaries, employment, public services, elections. Everything.\nAnd yet its technical and historical intricacies make the deuda a daunting topic, perfect to keep millions in the dark and bureaucrats safe, while instigating an eternal battle of the have-nots.\nThe deuda doesn\u2019t just relate to the way Argentines think about the economy. In some cases, it contributes to shaping their opinions about history, culture, media, race, and class. It almost always defines their vote as well.\nArgentina has defaulted on its debt eight times. It even made history with the world\u2019s biggest ever default ($95 billion in 2001) and largest ever loan ($57 billion in 2018) from the US-controlled International Monetary Fund, making it a privileged case study.\nHow could this happen? A first hint could be that a man who bears heavy responsibility for some of these negative world records, neoliberal guru and Harvard doctor in economics Domingo Cavallo \u2013 who directed Argentina\u2019s central bank during the last dictatorship and served as economic minister in the 1990s \u2013 was lavished with years of praise, given rewards by international institutions, and heroized in the US media as a kind of semi-god.\nIt is no coincidence that\u00a0Argentina also has the dubious distinction of boasting one of the Earth\u2019s highest ratios of \u201cfree market\u201d think tanks to the population.\nThe reality is that Argentina\u2019s ruling class has not changed much in the last 200 years. So let\u2019s start from the beginning.\nThis is a brief history of Argentina\u2019s debt, and the neocolonial relationships that dictate it.\nIn 1824, only eight years after the declaration of independence from the Spanish empire, the union of provinces that would eventually become the Argentine Republic obtained a loan of \u00a31 million pounds (a whopping \u00a3110 billion today, according to the Bank of England) from Barings Bank, a British private bank that also had lent money to the US government.\nThe loan, denominated in pound sterling, was supposedly destined to fund the port of Buenos Aires and build new infrastructure. Instead, it quickly evaporated in a war with Brazil (from 1825 to 1828), which was militarily supported by the British, who helped block the port of Buenos Aires for three years \u2013 cutting off Argentina from its only source of foreign currency.\nCorruption and betrayal played a key role in making the 1824 loan possible. The delegation that represented Argentina in London was made up of British and Argentine traders and financiers who offered the entire State of Buenos Aires as collateral: all its assets, lands, and rents.\nOf the original \u00a31 million loan, Argentina only received \u00a3570,000, while the enormous remaining sum was lost in commissions and other fees, mostly to pay the negotiators.\nLess than 20% of the money delivered was in gold coins; the rest was in paper notes.\nBy 1827, Argentina was already unable to service its debt obligations and entered its first default. Two frigates belonging to Buenos Aires that were under construction in England were seized by the bank, weakening Argentina\u2019s naval defense.\nA few years later, Argentina had no deterrent that could stop the British empire from occupying the Falklands, extending its power projection to Antarctica. These islands (officially known as the Malvinas) remain colonized by the United Kingdom to this day.\nArgentina subsequently defaulted twice in the 19th century, and had to emit new bonds to keep paying the growing interest.\nIt was only in 1904 that Argentina\u2019s original debt was formally repaid. It had taken 80 years, more than three generations, and had cost about eight times the original value.\nThis simplified account of Argentina\u2019s first experience with a neocolonial debt trap only scratches the surface of a scam that inspired the more sophisticated schemes developed in the two centuries that followed.\nToday\u2019s practice of trapping former colonies in unpayable debts is the result of well-engineered financial, diplomatic, political, and legal strategies that have been tested dozens of time in a neocolonial laboratory.\nThese neocolonial extortion schemes have three major effects. First, they facilitate the transfer of enormous amounts of hard-earned wealth from the real economy of developing nations to banks and speculative funds controlled by super rich individuals and families in the Global North \u2013 largely based in the United States, Europe, or offshore tax havens.\nSecondly, by installing dictatorships, leveraging institutions like the International Monetary Fund, or getting US courts and judges to seize funds of sovereign nations, lenders obtain the power to dictate the monetary, economic, labor, and even foreign policies of indebted countries, effectively creating semi-colonies whose democratically elected governments are incapable of implementing policies demanded by their people.\nThirdly, these policies imposed from outside in turn strengthen a local parasitic capitalist class that is fundamental to perpetuate a regime of foreign control. This type of traitorous bourgeoisie, still dominant in Argentina and in all Latin America, was described by Chinese revolutionary Mao Zedong as the \u201ccomprador\u201d class, an appendage of foreign capital that benefits from the foreign exploitation of its own country.\nArgentina is a case study of this neocolonial process.\nWhen the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was formed in 1945, Argentina initially refused to join.\nThe South American country\u2019s democratically elected President Juan Domingo Per\u00f3n implemented a progressive nationalist program that encouraged independence and sovereignty. He was very successful in boosting Argentine industry through two five-year plans, and briefly neutralized the effects of the deuda during his tenure.\nArgentine President Juan Domingo Per\u00f3n\nBut Per\u00f3n\u00a0was toppled by a bloody military coup in 1955. And Argentina promptly entered the IMF under dictator Pedro Eugenio Aramburu in 1956.\nA virulent anti-communist, Aramburu\u2019s unelected military regime also severed the ties with the Soviet bloc and moved Argentina into the neocolonial orbit of the United States during the first cold war.\nArgentina is one of the world\u2019s biggest agricultural producers. Agriculture accounts for most of the country\u2019s exports and it is the main source of foreign currency (the other being loans).\nBecause of this, Argentine landlords and their ultra-conservative civic organization, the Rural Society, have been extremely powerful throughout the country\u2019s history.\nArgentina did experience formidable industrial growth in the first half of the 20th century, especially between the 1930s and 1950s.\nUntil then Argentina, had often ranked among the 10 richest countries in the world by total GDP. According to long-run economic development data, the GDP per capita even ranked first in the world in 1895 and 1896. But Argentina also had a relatively small population.\nWhen Per\u00f3n took power in 1946, Europe was in ashes and Argentina\u2019s per capita income ranked seventh in the world.\nIn 1955, when Per\u00f3n was overthrown in a US-backed military coup, Argentina ranked 16th \u2013 still a very high position considering that the reconstruction of Europe was boosted by Washington\u2019s Marshall Plan, not to mention the fact that Washington\u2019s policy of flooding Europe with US agricultural products had had a negative impact on Argentine exports.\nThat year, Argentina\u2019s GDP per capita was the highest in Latin America \u2013 almost five times that of Brazil. Compared to colonial Britain, it was only 19% lower. And it was half of that of the United States.\nArgentina\u2019s GDP per capita never got better than it was in the year Per\u00f3n was overthrown. By 2016, it had plunged to 63rd.\nThe statistics aside, the point is that before it got sucked into Washington\u2019s cold war, Argentina was a significant economic power.\nAlthough politically unstable and dominated by a backward landlord and comprador class, the South American nation\u2019s rapid growth, large immigration flows, and incipient industrialization created the conditions that could challenge the colonial status quo.\nPer\u00f3n was not a Marxist, but he envisioned a third way between US capitalism and Soviet socialism, and was a clear symptom of those tensions.\nThe dominance of the United States in Latin America, a region with a population of more than 660 million today, was achieved and is maintained through a number of strategies.\nOne of the least understood yet perhaps most significant is the intentional sabotage of independent economic development.\nWith a growing industry and an industrial working class strengthened by a diverse mix of immigrants, Argentina\u2019s economy was particularly difficult to undermine. Even more so because many of the millions who had fled from poverty, fascism, and wars and ended up in the South American country were socialists or some variety of leftist.\nBut one of Washington\u2019s preferred ways to impose its control over Latin America, especially during the first cold war, was through violent force.\nThe 1955 coup that removed Per\u00f3n was carried out with aerial bombings on the presidential palace and the center of Buenos Aires. Roughly 360 people were killed.\nIn the two decades that followed, Argentina descended into a spiral of military coups and intermittent right-wing dictatorships backed by the United States.\nIn 1970, the former dictator Aramburu (de facto president between 1955 and 1958) was assassinated in circumstances that are still unclear today, accelerating a complex process of further destabilization.\nArgentina\u2019s former dictator Pedro Eugenio Aramburu (wearing the sash)\nThe chaos was exacerbated (or caused) by the US government\u2019s Operation Condor, a secret plan to eradicate all Marxist elements from Latin America through the provision of anti-insurgency support, coordination between intelligence services, and training to carry out infiltrations, torture, and assassinations.\nThe leaders of the last Argentine dictatorship (which governed from 1976 to 1983), who were later charged and convicted with crimes against humanity, used to describe their mission as a war \u2013 more precisely as a war on \u201cMarxist terror\u201d.\nBut the limited cases of insurgent violence, which paled in comparison to the wildly disproportionate state terror and repression, were used as a pretext to persecute and exterminate all dissent and resistance against the post-1955 regimes.\nBetween 1973 and 1976, many of these crimes were carried out by the Triple A (Argentine Anticommunist Alliance), a death squad founded by far-right Peronist Jos\u00e9 L\u00f3pez Rega, who had been a key ally of Per\u00f3n in the 1970s and a member of Italy\u2019s infamous Propaganda Due (P2).\nBut anti-Peronist and anti-communist Emilio Eduardo Massera, one of the leaders of the 1976 coup and the military regime that followed, was also a member of the P2.\nP2 shows how European governments also assisted in Washington\u2019s war on the left in Latin America.\nPropaganda Due was a criminal organization based in Italy and linked to Italian intelligence, allied with the CIA and NATO. It was exposed in 1981 and dismantled in 1982 by law.\nP2\u2019s leader was Licio Gelli, an Italian fascist, intelligence operative, and financier who had lived in Argentina. The organization was considered a sort of Italian deep state with strong connections to the right-wing media and anti-communist environments.\nOn March 28, 1976, just four days after a right-wing coup, Gelli sent a letter to Argentine coup leader and P2 member Massera saying that he was \u201chappy everything went according to the plans\u201d and wishing that \u201ca strong government\u201d could repress \u201cthe insurrection of the Marxist movements.\u201d\nThe Italian parliament published a report investigating P2 in 1984.\nWith a number of secretive far-right entities and plots overseen by the US and European governments at the height of the first cold war, Argentina was ready for its shock.\nArgentine President Juan Domingo Per\u00f3n with his wife, future President Isabel Per\u00f3n\nWhen Argentina\u2019s military arrested constitutional President Isabel Per\u00f3n (the politically unskilled wife of Juan Domingo Per\u00f3n) in the early hours of the March 24, 1976, many believed that things could not get much worse. Inflation was at 700% and political violence was already extreme.\nIn fact, it was one of the bloodiest nights in the history of Argentina \u2013 probably only surpassed by the genocide targeting Indigenous nations and the slavery of the previous century.\nWhat followed the US-backed coup was a campaign of terrorismo de estado (state terror), desaparecidos (forced disappearances), systematic rape and torture, arbitrary detentions, countless people forced into exile, burning of millions of books, dystopian surveillance, and propaganda.\nLike Chile under Augusto Pinochet and other countries in South America, Argentina had entered its neoliberal experiment, an economic reset under the supervision of the United States and its Operation Condor, the local comprador oligarchy, and the Argentine branch of the Chicago Boys.\nThe new regime was called the \u201cNational Reorganization Process\u201d \u2013 a name that implied it had a mission to accomplish.\nThe US-backed military junta, an unelected government controlled by the armed forces, acted as the main enforcer of the \u201creorganization\u201d.\nDictator Jorge Rafael Videla, a rabid anti-communist,\u00a0 was in power during most of the \u201cprocess,\u201d and proudly defended his countless crimes until his death in prison in 2013.\nArgentina\u2019s military dictator Jorge Rafael Videla (in the center, with the mustache)\nBut the men who oversaw most of the economic shock were Adolfo Diz and Jos\u00e9 Alfredo Mart\u00ednez de Hoz.\nDiz directed Argentina\u2019s central bank (and was followed in 1981 by the US media\u2019s golden boy Domingo Cavallo). He was a pupil of Milton Friedman in Chicago and a former IMF executive director.\nElite right-wing economist\u00a0Mart\u00ednez de Hoz was appointed economic minister. He was a Cambridge graduate from a wealthy family of landlords, the CEO of several large Argentine companies, and a personal friend of US billionaire oligarch David Rockefeller.\nThose who followed for shorter periods of time had very similar r\u00e9sum\u00e9s, full of degrees from elite US universities and sinecures at the IMF, World Bank, and other Washington-dominated neoliberal institutions.\nMart\u00ednez de Hoz used his position to favor Argentine and foreign elites, including his personal friends and the companies he had worked for.\nAlmost immediately after the Videla dictatorship came to power, Mart\u00ednez de Hoz got a $100 million IMF loan (worth a much higher sum today).\nHe also implemented aggressive neoliberal shock therapy: smashing trade barriers, allowing US and European products to flood Argentina\u2019s market, and removing subsidies (including on gasoline).\nIn a vicious attack on Argentine workers, Mart\u00ednez de Hoz froze wages by law, while inflation remained well above 100% throughout his tenure. This caused a devastating drop in the cost of labor, and therefore in the real value of salaries, which declined some 40% by 1980.\nHe also successfully dismantled most of the Argentina\u2019s still competitive industry, selectively saving his friends.\nArgentina\u2019s military dictator Jorge Rafael Videla (right) with his neoliberal economic minister Jos\u00e9 Alfredo Mart\u00ednez de Hoz\nThe US-backed Videla dictatorship oversaw an intense de-industrialization, marking an end to Per\u00f3n\u2019s era of state-owned company, which since 1951 had produced domestically designed cars, motorbikes, trucks, airplanes, and engines.\nDecades of industrial research and development, tens of thousands of jobs, and large public investments were disintegrated in Argentina.\nClaiming to be fighting inflation, in 1979, Mart\u00ednez de Hoz introduced an artificial system of exchange regulation between the peso and the US dollar known as la tablita (the little table).\nLeveraging large and ever increasing foreign debt, la tablita overvalued the peso, favoring imported products over domestic ones, so thousands of Argentine businesses went bankrupt.\nIt also allowed speculative funds to exploit a scheme known as carry trade (bicicleta financiera). Speculators could get low-interest loans abroad in US dollars and absurdly high interests on pesos in Argentina, with no capital control whatsoever, so they started moving money in and out making enormous profits.\nThis made foreign and domestic speculators much richer than they already were, but the gains from the trick had to be paid by the state \u2013 or more precisely Argentine workers \u2013 in US dollars.\nThe strong peso was a clever ingredient of the dictatorship, defining a neoliberal myth that was called \u201csweet money\u201d \u2013 a sort of consumerist orgy with an unhappy ending that was portrayed in a 1982 film with the same name.\nBecause of la tablita, the most coveted imported goods (consumer electronics, clothes, and accessories) became cheap almost overnight. Imports rose by more than 550% between 1976 and 1980.\nThe huge increase in imports under Argentina\u2019s US-backed military dictatorship from 1976 to 1983\nThe overvaluation of the peso meant that many Argentines could suddenly afford to travel and go shopping abroad.\nWhile factories were closing en masse \u2013 and while thousands of mothers were looking desperately for their children and grandchildren, who had been disappeared for opposing the junta \u2013 the military regime propagandists celebrated the new era as a positive opening to the world.\nThe euphoria after the victory at the 1978 football World Cup led to a feast of nationalist propaganda.\nThis economic deception lasted two years. La tablita was abolished in 1981, with a master stroke leading to the opposite effect: a sudden devaluation of the peso.\nMore Argentine businesses went bankrupt because their pesos were now worth nothing, and their debts denominated in US dollars had become unpayable.\nVidela, Diz, and Mart\u00ednez de Hoz resigned a month later, leaving the country in recession and the state in monetary and financial chaos.\nIn 1982, the military junta had been weakened by five years of suicidal neoliberal economic policies. It attempted to stay afloat with a jingoistic wave of paradoxical anti-colonial propaganda.\nThe regime that had humiliated the nation and the people of Argentina by selling it off and betraying it in all possible ways did the unthinkable: It waged a war with Britain over the Malvinas.\nThe Falklands War ended in a catastrophe, but also accelerated the end of the dictatorship.\nTaking advantage of the last days in power, the right-wing-controlled central bank nationalized the private debt of a selected group of companies in December 1982, including Grupo Macri, a holding founded by the father of Mauricio Macri (whose neoliberal presidency between 2015 and 2019 was a nostalgic homage to the families benefited by the dictatorship).\nThe nationalization of this private debt cost the state about $17 billion dollars.\nThe financial deregulations of the regime led to uncontrolled capital flight, destructive speculative schemes, rampant fraud, and the crash of dozens of financial companies, including banks.\nThe desperate need for US dollars to repay debts forced Argentina\u2019s de facto government to keep emitting bonds at always higher interest rates.\nArgentina\u2019s debt skyrocketed during the US-backed military dictatorship (1976 to 1983)\nAccording to data from the World Bank, the external debt of the government was $4.6 billion in 1976.\nAt the end of the dictatorship in 1983, it was $25.6 billion \u2013 an increase of more than five times.\nThis debt would double to $52 billion by the end of the 1980s, and subsequently skyrocket to $103 billion in 2004, doubling again.\nAnd these figures do not include private foreign debt.\nIn the 28 years since the beginning of the US-backed state terror \u2013 between 1976 and 2004, constituting roughly a generation \u2013 the deuda had increased more than 2200%, while GDP had gone up only 49%.\nThe world average for GDP growth in the same period was 90%.\nThe increase in Argentina\u2019s external debt was 45 times the growth of its GDP.\nThe country was in an economic apocalypse.\nOperation Condor turned Argentina into a broke country whose economy was heavily indebted in US dollars.\nWith the 1983 election of Ra\u00fal Alfons\u00edn, the military boots left the presidential palace, but the debt contracted by the dictatorship never did.\nAlfons\u00edn could have contested the legitimacy of the debt. After all, it had been contracted by a dictatorial regime installed by the CIA, operating under US influence and favoring foreign interests over Argentina\u2019s.\nThe debt was the result of a deliberate effort to undermine the economy and sovereignty of the Latin American country, so the legitimacy of the deuda was a valid matter of debate.\nBut Alfons\u00edn\u2019s government and the new, fragile democracy were too weak for such a challenge.\nArgentine President Ra\u00fal Alfons\u00edn\nThe first elected president in a decade was inaugurated in an atmosphere of great hope, after a war and nightmarish horrors that would soon become public, thanks to an investigation that concluded with the publication of the book Nunca m\u00e1s (\u201cNever Again\u201d), and a historic trial that ended with the conviction of the junta leaders.\nBut by accepting to comply with all the obligations imposed by the deuda, Alfons\u00edn\u2019s presidency was destined to be a failure.\nThe government depended on negotiations with the Washington, DC-based IMF and World Bank, the only entities that could provide the dollars Argentina needed.\nEvery decision of these organizations in matters related to Argentina had a strong influence over the country\u2019s political and monetary stability, including the inflation which remained very high throughout the 1980s.\nAlfons\u00edn\u2019s presidency ended with a hyper-inflation crisis in 1989 that got even worse in 1990, when wages and savings quickly evaporated, poverty and extreme poverty skyrocketed, riots and lootings erupted.\nThe shock caused a desperate demand for change, and played a key role in electing Carlos Menem, a conservative Peronist who had campaigned with vague promises to favor the poor and leveraged the fame of Per\u00f3n, who remained popular among large sectors of the working class.\nOne of Menem\u2019s most repeated slogans was \u201cFollow me, I won\u2019t deceive you!\u201d, a trivial political message that was actually a lie, considering the betrayal that followed.\nThe unpayable debt, that kept growing like a snowball under Alfons\u00edn, prepared the ground for the infamous \u201cstructural adjustment\u201d programs that were \u201crecommended\u201d (that is to say, forcibly imposed) by the IMF, the World Bank and the US Treasury Department.\nNeoliberal structural adjustment was presented as a simple technocratic solution, a doctor\u2019s prescription to heal economies in formerly colonized countries that, coincidentally, all suffered from the same illness: external debt.\nThe therapy proposed in the so-called Washington Consensus demanded financial deregulation, no tariffs on imports, cuts to public services, and radical privatizations of public assets.\nMedical metaphors became a classic trope of the neoliberal propaganda, and were also used by reputed economists.\nJeffrey Sachs is often associated with the infamous concept of \u201cshock therapy.\u201d The first patient he could experiment his theories with was Bolivia in 1985.\nThere, Sachs\u2019 task was to stop a hyper-inflation crisis \u2013 which, as in Argentina, came after years of a US-backed right-wing dictatorship.\nSachs did manage to contain inflation by forcibly overvaluing Bolivia\u2019s currency. But his treatment could only be applied by deporting labor leaders, allowing mass layoffs, impoverishing workers and Indigenous people, and undermining the country\u2019s real economic growth.\nSachs, a Columbia University professor who would go on to rebrand himself as a progressive social democrat and supporter of Bernie Sanders, first made his name in the centuries-old tradition of colonial philanthropic megalomania.\nHis 2005 book \u201cThe End of Poverty\u201d, prefaced by U2 singer Bono, used the medical metaphor to explain how to cure extreme poverty by 2025.\nDespite the good will behind this and other initiatives, it is difficult to find any fundamental ideological (and especially technical) difference between Sachs and Argentina\u2019s neoliberal idol Mart\u00ednez de Hoz \u2013 even though the latter operated inside a fascist military regime that raped, tortured, and disappeared dissidents or threw leftists to their deaths out of airplanes.\nTwo decades after Sachs\u2019 \u201ctherapies\u201d were sent from Washington, DC to La Paz, Bolivia\u2019s socialist President Evo Morales showed what an economy looks like when the state protects its people, their work, and the domestic market.\nThe massive growth of the Bolivian economy under Morales \u2013 an Indigenous farmer and labor organizer who did not finish high school \u2013 is only one of the many indicators that exposed the pseudo-scientific economic doctrine developed in the most prestigious US universities under the guise of clinical rigor.\nBolivia\u2019s GDP per capita was just $1034 in 2005. Morales came to power the next year, and by the time he was overthrown in a US-backed far-right coup in 2019, Bolivia\u2019s GDP per capita more than tripled to $3552.\nBolivia\u2019s massive economic growth under President Evo Morales (from 2006 to 2019)\nOvervaluing a currency by pegging it to the US dollar, in one way or another, was the core of the shock therapies that neoliberal economists had implemented in Bolivia, Argentina, and elsewhere.\nThis is certainly the easiest way to contain inflation, but it also undermines the domestic market and the people of a country \u2013 the two variables that are often ignored by free-market economists and institutions.\nOther solutions to inflation exist, but because these include capital controls \u2013 an idea considered blasphemy in orthodox economics \u2013 and because they help preserve and stimulate local economies instead of international finance, they are most unpleasant to US and European banks and corporations.\nNo corporate media pundit or reputed economist would suggest a shock therapy that negatively affects the ruling class to fix a crisis, even though it would be sensible, because that would compromise their reputation and career.\nSo the concept of shock in economics is always reserved as a tactic for ripping off the working class and the poor \u2013 especially in formerly colonized nations.\nShortly after Carlos Menem took power in 1989, he pardoned all crimes committed during the Videla dictatorship. This horrified the survivors, and made it clear that his presidency would be dominated by oligarchic and foreign interests.\nMenem also removed some taxes and regulations on agricultural exports, obtaining the support of the powerful landlords and the conservative establishment. The mask was off.\nHyperinflation reached a staggering 20,000% in 1990. Combined with the debt and pressure of the IMF, the crisis provided the justification for another \u201cshock therapy\u201d.\nInflation in Argentina in 1990\nIn 1991, Menem chose as his economic minister Domingo Cavallo, who had directed the central bank during the dictatorship. Together, they practiced what the president had famously called a \u201csurgery without anesthesia\u201d.\nCavallo\u2019s landmark policy is known as the uno a uno (\u201cone to one\u201d). This was the new edition of Mart\u00ednez de Hoz\u2019s disastrous la tablita in 1979 and Sachs\u2019 shock therapy in Bolivia.\nThe scheme was based on the same monetary principle: stop inflation by artificially and forcibly pegging a currency to the dollar (or overvaluing it).\nArgentina\u2019s latest version of this scam was even simpler than the previous manifestations. The Menem government issued a new currency \u2013 the peso still in use today. It retired old notes and coins and issued new ones.\nThe law then ordered that one new Argentine peso was now worth one US dollar \u2013 hence the name one to one. The Argentine peso would thus remain pegged to the dollar.\nIt was a de facto dollarization, a surrendering of Argentina\u2019s monetary sovereignty.\nEverybody could freely exchange pesos and dollars, now backed by the state with its reserves. This meant that the law restricted the emission of new pesos to the amount of US dollars in Argentina\u2019s reserves.\nFrom the point of view of the speculative financial markets, pesos had become \u201csound money\u201d again, by law.\nBut they had also become expensive for the state, and therefore limited in circulation.\nInflation did go down to almost zero, but Argentine workers\u2019 purchasing power dropped too.\nCavallo was celebrated in the West as a genius, as if he had invented free dollars. Clearly, they weren\u2019t free.\nThe uno a uno was not meant to come alone, and was part of a larger plan of deregulations and privatizations.\nWith the support of the Peronists in the Congress, Menem launched one of the biggest operations of privatizations in history, an unprecedented pillage of public resources that Per\u00f3n (who had nationalized the central bank and the railways) would have likely have opposed.\nArgentina President Carlos Menem (left) with his neoliberal Economic Minister Domingo Cavallo\nIn a few years, the still powerful Argentine state privatized the pension system, national railways, public banks, telephone grid, national airline, ports, postal service, water supply network, power grid, gas network, several TV and radio networks, and some healthcare services.\nThe naval, chemical, and aerospace industries were privatized, along with the national oil company. In all, more than 400 public companies in Argentina were privatized.\nUS and European corporations bought the country practically overnight.\nThe privatizations occurred in the context of wild corruption and mismanagement. Companies and assets were sold off or given in concession at ridiculous prices and conditions.\nSome services became up to 10 times more expensive. Others collapsed.\nOne of the most dramatic cases was the destruction of Argentina\u2019s railways network. In its effort to de-industrialize the country, the military dictatorship had closed hundreds of stations and thousands of miles of rails.\nMenem finished the job by dismantling most of the 29,000 miles of rails \u2013 which had been the eighth-largest network in the world.\nThousands lost their jobs. Some remote villages were disconnected from the rest of the world.\nNeoliberalism turned a functioning public infrastructure that had been built, operated, and used by generations of Argentine workers into landfills.\nIn many cities and towns, these abandoned industrial, almost post-atomic ruins have not been dismantled or converted to this day, three decades later.\nTrains, rails, bridges, warehouses, and stations were reconquered by nature and left to rust, offering a depressive glimpse on the past and a warning for the future.\nThe euphoria over Cavallo\u2019s apparent victory against inflation did not last. An initial boost in confidence caused by the low inflation and the strong peso gave the illusion \u2013 buttressed by a worldwide neoliberal propaganda campaign praising Argentina\u2019s model \u2013 that the economy was not going to collapse this time.\nThe growth between 1991 and 1994, based on the overvalued currency, gave Menem a second mandate.\nBut in 1995, unemployment reached 18.8%, indicating that not everybody was enjoying the consumerist joys of the rise in imported goods \u2013 the new \u201csweet money\u201d phenomenon, which was similar to the one experienced in the Videla dictatorship under Mart\u00ednez de Hoz.\nUnemployment skyrocketed in Argentina in the 1990s, under Carlos Menem\nBecause of the strong currency, Argentine exports were also hurt. National products had become too expensive, leading to a growing trade deficit.\nThe imbalance was compensated by the dollars obtained where? From one-off income from privatizations, and, once again, loans.\nBut how long could this scheme last?\nThe recession and crisis that followed Menem was brutal. The so-called structural adjustments imposed by the IMF boosted unemployment, extreme poverty, and hunger to record levels, while capital started leaving the country.\nIn 1999, the widespread disgust for Menem \u2013 whom many remembered as a corrupt buffoon who drove a $120,000 red Ferrari while overseeing the pillage of his country \u2013 led to the defeat of the Peronist candidate in the presidential election.\nArgentine President Carlos Menem driving in his expensive red Ferrari\nAt that point, Argentina had already entered a technical recession that would last four years. Yet with the shock therapy, nothing changed.\nDuring his short presidency, from 1999 to 2001, the liberal Fernando de la R\u00faa kept implementing the suicidal recommendations of the IMF, with more rounds of cuts in public services and pensions.\nDe la R\u00faa reduced salaries of public employees and fired thousands. He also made it much easier, and cheaper, for employers to fire workers in the middle of a long recession, without the obligation to pay severance packages.\nIn December 2000, the government obtained a $37 billion \u201cbailout\u201d package from the IMF under the condition of annihilating the state and the economy by reaching a zero deficit.\nIn January 2001, the government renegotiated parts of the debt in order to postpone it for three years, while increasing the interests. But in March, the negative results forced the economic minister to resign.\nIn a surreal plot twist, de la R\u00faa called back an old acquaintance: free market star Domingo Cavallo, the former Menem minister who started the uno a uno conversion that had crippled Argentina\u2019s national economy probably more than anything else ever conceived.\nCavallo was appointed economic minister, again.\nOnce back into the operatory theater, the economic butcher started doing the only thing he and all the other ministers in the previous 25 years had always done. Further cuts were approved, while the ghost of an incoming Armageddon loomed.\nThe unsustainable macroeconomic situation led to a bank run in Argentina in November 2001. Many people and companies feared a meltdown of the financial system. They started withdrawing large sums from banks and exchanging their pesos to US dollars, even though Cavallo\u2019s now infamous landmark policy, the one to one conversion, was still in place.\nIn a desperate attempt to save the banks and contain a situation that was clearly out of control, on December 1, 2001, Cavallo and de la R\u00faa ordered an almost complete freeze of all bank accounts, limiting withdrawals to $250 in cash per person per week, a measure then called the corralito (small corral).\nThe sudden limit in liquidity, after years of financial deregulation and in the midst of a brutal recession, drastically affected trade and broke the chain of cash payments, leading to terrible consequences for millions of informal workers who did not have bank accounts, and thus could not be paid.\nConsidering it time to let the boat sink, the IMF announced on December 6 that it would not send the dollars expected from the last bailout, because Argentina had not met the zero deficit goal.\nThe following weeks were followed by a general strike, lootings, violence, and several deaths.\nSo on December 19, President de la R\u00faa ordered a curfew, inciting an infuriated response from the people. Protesters stormed the Plaza de Mayo, the square in front of Argentina\u2019s presidential palace, the Pink House.\nThe day after, de la R\u00faa resigned and fled from the roof on a helicopter.\nThree days later, on December 23, abandoned by the IMF, Argentina officially defaulted on a $95 billion debt.\nArgentine President Fernando de la R\u00faa (right) with Carlos Menem\nThe 2001 default was a watershed moment for all Argentines, and became a symbol of the effects of neoliberalism and imperialism across the planet.\nBut this historic default on debt managed by award-winning, highly respected economists was just the surface of a decades-long, fabricated crisis that was really a neocolonial takeover.\nRecord levels of poverty, shocking child malnutrition, a growing infant mortality rate, devastating unemployment, and increasing outward emigration shattered the false image of the country that had once been an economic powerhouse and the destination for millions of migrants seeking a better life.\nArgentina was not just broke; it had been socially, economically, and politically demolished as a sovereign country.\nThe state, productive fabric, currency, trade, public education, and healthcare, public transportation: nothing was left untouched by the pillage that effectively led to a reset of Argentine society.\nSomething similar was happening in other Latin American semi-colonies of the United States. The region found itself divided into those who recognized the fraud of neoliberalism \u2013 a word that had become in the political discourse \u2013 and those who believed that the shock therapies designed by people like Jeffrey Sachs, Jos\u00e9 Alfredo Mart\u00ednez de Hoz, or Domingo Cavallo were not \u201ctrue\u201d neoliberalism.\nThe staunch believers in the virtues of neoliberal ideology implied that, instead of changing course, the real solution was more of the same, but in a more extreme form.\nSome of these free-market pundits and academics, who still thrive in major corporate media outlets, articulated a fundamentalist \u201clibertarian\u201d critique, claiming the neoliberal regimes did not go far enough when they removed most tariffs on imports, that they should have eliminated all of them, effectively destroying local industries. And they insisted everything should have been privatized, not almost everything.\nThe extent of the privatizations is something that even the free-market fundamentalists\u2019 most eloquent evangelist, Milton Friedman, struggled to explain in practical terms.\nFriedman argued that the state should still control \u201csome roads\u201d, and maybe the police or the army. He confusedly claimed that he was not against public control when debating schools, but simultaneously insisted that government control was bad.\nThe biggest neoliberal rhetorical fallacy has always been related to the debt. Neoliberals typically associate the debt with public spending on social programs, using a straw man that implies that the debt crisis of \u201cdeveloping countries\u201d is a trivial problem of excessive spending that can be solved by simply reducing it.\nThe neoliberals act as though poor working people, especially from oppressed Black, Indigenous, or mixed race communities, are unable to manage the money that wealthy people have supposedly given them.\nThis narrative is totally false. It ignores key factors, including foreign control, deliberate pillage, and de-development.\nIn regard to foreign control, unpayable debts were deliberately created and expanded in Argentina by dictatorships or corrupt elected governments, like Menem\u2019s, which operated on behalf of foreign interests and oligarchs, and which were forced to apply suicidal measures demanded by the IMF, World Bank, and US Treasury Department.\nAs for deliberate pillage, the need for massive quantities of US dollars was in large part caused by fraudulent schemes, like Argentina\u2019s \u201cfinancial bicycle\u201d. These were made possible thanks to the deregulation of the exchange market, overvaluation of the currency, and other policies that favored scams paid by the state.\nWhen billionaire speculators were allowed to exchange Argentine pesos for unlimited amounts of dollars, benefiting from high interest rates in pesos, it was the state that had to borrow those dollars from US private banks or from the IMF and pay interests on them. Once exchanged, the dollars obtained by the speculators were moved out of the country, leaving the debt to the state.\nAnd in terms of de-development, the money borrowed under Argentina\u2019s neoliberal regimes was virtually never used for social programs that would stimulate the real economy, support domestic demand, or improve people\u2019s lives in any way. Instead, those dollars were mostly used to pay interest, service new loans, or increase the demand of dollars for speculative purposes.\nOnly days after Argentina\u2019s 2001 debt default, interim President Eduardo Duhalde abolished Cavallo\u2019s dollarization scheme \u2013 the one peso to one dollar fixed exchange rate. The peso lost 40% of its value overnight.\nThis long-due monetary devaluation, together with a timid stimulus in the form of social subsidies, gave oxygen to an exhausted population and to the economy as a whole.\nThe defaulted country was in ruins, and the lasting crisis led to immense suffering. But as a response to the robberies and horrors of the previous decades, new creative energies and popular movements were emerging across Latin America.\nIn a surprising turn of events, the barely known governor of a remote southern province became president of Argentina in 2003, with a measly 22% of the vote.\nThe widespread contempt for the arrogant and corrupt political class of Buenos Aires played in favor of N\u00e9stor Kirchner, a progressive Peronist who belonged to the faction that opposed fascist Peronist Jos\u00e9 L\u00f3pez Rega in the 1970s and neoliberal Peronist Menem in the 1990s.\nNot many thought that Kirchner would have changed Argentina\u2019s political direction. But he laid solid foundations for a debt-free economy that grew almost 9% every year during his presidency \u2013 a success neoliberal detractors tried to explain simply as the luck of a \u201ccommodity export boom\u201c.\nThe new president joined the progressive wave that had brought Hugo Ch\u00e1vez in Venezuela and Lula da Silva in Brazil, forming a key part of what would later be dubbed the \u201cPink Tide\u201d.\nArgentine President N\u00e9stor Kirchner\nAs of 2003, when Kirchner became president, Argentina\u2019s defaulted external debt was a combination of IMF loans and bonds owned by private investors of all kinds. These two types of creditors operate and affect the government in very different ways.\nThe IMF is a political organization ruled under a very specific economic ideology, which imposes the Washington Consensus on countries that it \u201chelps\u201d financially. The US has always had the main quota and veto power in the Fund.\nThe policies demanded by the IMF are detrimental to the real economy and undermine the borrower\u2019s growth and domestic market, trapping it in a cycle of debt.\nBut the bondholders, which are mostly private companies operating in international financial markets, cannot directly enforce a policy on a government. They are private companies that profit from speculative trades, which inherently involves risks, and normally the higher the risk, the higher the gain.\nThe more a government is in economic trouble, the higher the interests on its bonds will usually be, in order to find speculators willing to buy them.\nThis game makes it very profitable to trade risky bonds \u2013 in other words, to speculate on countries that are financially desperate.\nWhile formally separate, the IMF and the bondholders (sometimes referred to simply as \u201cthe markets\u201d) cooperate and need each other in order to maximize their effectiveness.\nThe more a country is financially desperate, the more speculators will profit, and the more leverage the IMF will have in order to enforce neoliberal reforms and other political pressures.\nOn December 16, 2005, Kirchner announced that Argentina would repay its entire IMF debt in full, and in advance, with its foreign reserves. On January 3, 2006 the payment of $9.5 billion was confirmed by the Fund.\nThe central bank only held $27 billion in US dollars in its reserves, but that was still more than the record low of the previous years.\nThe reserves had grown thanks to the budget surplus obtained from the suspension of the payments to private bondholders, and the rapid growth of exports caused by the devaluation of the peso, which made Argentine products more competitive.\nKirchner\u2019s decision to pay off the debt early saved the country an estimated\u00a0$842 million in interest.\nWhile far from being a long-term solution to the huge problems the Argentine people were facing, this was a game changer.\nThe move was anticipated by Brazil\u2019s President Lula da Silva, who had paid the IMF in full a few months earlier.\nBut the announcement was received as a shocking surprise by Kirchner\u2019s supporters and detractors alike.\nIt also annoyed part of the Argentine establishment, whose corruption had been mercilessly exposed: Why did none of Kirchner\u2019s predecessors pay off the IMF debt like this before?\nThe repayment was a demonstration that Argentina never actually needed \u201caid\u201d from the IMF. The Fund had become seen as a national enemy by popular movements, and was even publicly criticized by Kirchner in his speeches.\nArgentine President N\u00e9stor Kirchner with his wife, future President Cristina Fern\u00e1ndez de Kirchner\nThe debt that Argentina held with the IMF was important because of its political implications, but the government still owed much more to private creditors.\nIn 2003, Kirchner started a complex process of negotiations with diverse groups of creditors. These talks continued under the subsequent presidency of his wife, Cristina Fern\u00e1ndez de Kirchner (CFK).\nThe robust approach of the Kirchner administrations was effective \u2013 and it angered wealthy creditors, as could be seen at the time by the frustration of their media mouthpieces like The Economist.\nIn 2005, Argentina abandoned the seemingly endless, unsuccessful negotiations and made a unilateral offer with discounts of up to 66.3% on the original bonds. The offer was accepted by most bondholders and ended restructuring 76% of the defaulted debt (then $81.8 billion in total).\nIn 2010, under CFK, Argentina completed a second bond exchange under less favorable conditions for the creditors, which led to a total of 91.3% of the defaulted debt being restructured.\nThe Kirchners\u2019 strategy had proved a success. Tens of billions were saved, and Argentina was on its way to finally normalize its status vis-\u00e0-vis the international credit markets, while all economic indicators were showing strong signs of recovery.\nBut the remaining defaulted debt, which represented just about 8% of the total from 2001, was now owned by holdouts that had refused the offers of 2005 and 2010, and decided to turn to the US judicial system to help them litigate.\nMost of these creditors were known as \u201cvulture funds\u201d \u2013 firms that are illegal in many countries, but not the United States. (In 2008, an ambitious bill designed to prevent investors from speculating on sovereign debts of developing countries was introduced in the US Congress, but it failed to pass.)\nThese particular kinds of hedge funds profit by buying defaulted debts at a much lower price than their nominal value, and then use aggressive strategies, most notably lawsuits, to extort the debtor, in an attempt to get the full value plus penalties.\nSome of the world\u2019s most infamous vulture funds had bought Argentina\u2019s defaulted bonds after 2001. The largest slice of the cake was owned by NML Capital, the Cayman Islands subsidiary of New York-based Elliott Management Corporation, whose US founder and CEO, Paul Singer, is a billionaire vulture capitalist and top donor to the Republican Party.\nBillionaire vulture capitalist Paul Singer, a top owner of Argentina\u2019s debt\nAlso profiting on Argentina\u2019s debt was Cayman Islands-based billionaire Kenneth Dart, the owner of Dart Management, a pioneer in vulture practices targeting Brazil, Russia, Ecuador, Turkey, and Greece.\nPart of Argentina\u2019s remaining defaulted bonds were owned by Aurelius Capital Management, which was led by speculator Mark Brodsky, a veteran of Elliott Management Corporation who saw Singer as his mentor and has also profited from Puerto Rico\u2019s odious debt.\nSinger, Dart, Brodsky, and their super-rich colleagues belong to a generation of speculators who learned to take advantage of the 1976 Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, a law that provides the legal basis to sue a foreign country in a US court.\nBefore that law, vulture funds could not engage in distressed-debt litigation against sovereign countries. But in 1992, Dart opened Pandora\u2019s box by suing Brazil, right in the middle of its debt crisis, and getting a favorable settlement.\nIn the following years, after the overthrow of the Soviet Union and imposition of neoliberalism across much of the world, wealthy speculators followed Dart\u2019s example.\n\u201cWhen Dart and Singer started, fewer than 10% of sovereign debt crises involved litigation. Today that figure is more like 50%\u201d, the New York Times reported in 2019.\nArgentina\u2019s record 2001 default was the perfect opportunity for vulture funds. Their threat was so clear that even right-wing media outlets in the country that were owned by pro-US oligarchs, like the conservative newspaper Clar\u00edn, dubbed Kenneth Dart \u201cthe number one enemy of Argentina\u201d.\nAfter a long legal battle between the vulture funds and the Kirchners\u2019 governments in several US courts, New York judge Thomas Griesa ruled in 2012 that Argentina had to pay the vulture funds at full value.\nThat meant that Singer\u2019s company, for example, would get a return of 15 times its initial investment.\nThe ruling became effective in 2014. It also blocked Argentina from paying any other creditor who had accepted the bond exchanges of 2005 and 2010 until it had paid the vultures in full.\nThis was technically possible because almost of all bank accounts and financial transfers involved were under US jurisdiction.\nIn other words, the US ruling created a paradoxical situation where Argentina was considered in default for being unable to comply with payment deadlines, even though the government had actually ordered the payments.\nThe only way to unblock the freeze of the transactions was for Argentina to submit to a parasitic group of billionaires and speculators who were trying to make a killing off of its odious debt.\nFollowing the ruling, Cristina Fern\u00e1ndez de Kirchner denounced the vulture funds on the international stage, accusing them of weaponizing US law to wage \u201ceconomic and financial terrorism.\u201d\nAddressing the General Assembly of the United Nations in 2014, CFK argued that these companies \u201care economic terrorists who destabilize the economy of a country and create poverty, hunger, and misery, from the sin of speculation.\u201d\nDespite the extortion and the high tension with Washington and its local representatives in Argentina\u2019s opposition, President Kirchner ended her mandate in December 2015, still refusing to pay the vulture funds.\nArgentine President Cristina Fern\u00e1ndez de Kirchner denounces the \u201ceconomic and financial terrorism\u201d of US vulture funds at the United Nations General Assembly in 2014\nMauricio Macri, a right-wing multi-millionaire whose family had profited from the dictatorship, and whose fortune also came from Menem\u2019s privatizations, won the 2015 presidential election by a small margin.\nAt the end of CFK\u2019s second term, Argentina\u2019s debt-to-GDP ratio was 52.6%. It had increased a bit in the last years, but was still easily controllable.\nWhen Macri left power in 2019, the debt-to-GDP ratio was 90.2%, and growing.\nBut probably the most absurd development was that under Macri, in less than four years, Argentina once again defaulted on its debt.\nOn December 7, 2015, three days before the inauguration of President Macri, Argentina\u2019s future finance minister and central bank manager Luis Caputo, a former JP Morgan trader, flew to New York and met the representatives of the vulture funds. Nothing else was more urgent.\nThree months later, in February 2016, Macri\u2019s Argentina transferred $9.3 billion to the vulture funds, while the New York judge, Griesa, unblocked the other payments to the other bondholders, the owners of the 93% of the defaulted debt who had accepted the offers made in 2005 and 2010.\nPaul Singer\u2019s NML Capital alone made $2.28 billion on an original investment of just $177 million, for a total return of 1180% \u2013 while also forcing Argentina to pay the legal fees.\nMacri\u2019s payment of the vulture funds amounted to a national humiliation for a sovereign countr. It also angered many small investors, including pensioners and workers, who lost money with the debt exchanges, while a small group of US billionaires and foreign speculators made a killing.\nThe reason Macri gave the operation such a priority was because he hoped to obtain access to the international credit markets as soon as possible. The new right-wing president wanted to once again to borrow money by emitting new bonds \u2013 something Argentina had been banned from doing since the default in 2001.\nBy paying the enormous ransom to the vulture funds, Macri\u2019s government had the power to flood the country with borrowed US dollars.\nIn the early days of his administration, Macri removed several regulations in order to favor financial speculators and companies in sectors like agriculture \u2013 the most important in Argentina \u2013 as well as mining, energy, finance, and the media.\nThese industries, especially the media, are controlled by Argentine billionaires, who were President Macri\u2019s main supporters.\nMacri got rid of capital controls and the so-called cepo, a foreign exchange regulation introduced in 2011 under CFK that limited the amount of US dollars individuals and companies could buy with pesos, in order to prevent capital flight and inflation.\nFor years Argentina\u2019s mainstream media, which is dominated by the powerful telecommunications corporation the Grupo Clar\u00edn, described the \u201cfreedom\u201d to buy dollars almost as a human right, so CFK\u2019s regulations were presented as a violation of liberty.\nClar\u00edn was one of the most powerful supporters of Macri, so it was extremely easy for him to remove the currency controls overnight. This meant that Argentine oligarchs could buy any amount of dollars, even billions, with pesos. And that is exactly what speculators did.\nThe end of capital controls and the possibility to borrow virtually without limits were an explosive mix. They paved the way for Argentina\u2019s third neoliberal robbery, the fastest and the first based almost exclusively on financial methods.\nThe previous two pillages had taken place during the 1976-1983 military dictatorship and Menem\u2019s presidency from 1989 to 1999.\nIn a formidable show of effectiveness, Macri and his team wrecked the relatively healthy finances of the Argentine state in less than two years.\nArgentina\u2019s President Mauricio Macri (right) with Brazil\u2019s Jair Bolsonaro\nMacri\u2019s single-term presidency used the state as a tool to bring dollars and euros into the country through easily accessible borrowing.\nThose dollars ended up in private hands, thanks to the now unregulated currency market, which meant anybody could buy or sell any amount of pesos. This inevitably caused significant inflation.\nAt the same time, big funds were now free to move their dollars out of the country, thanks to the absence of capital controls. The new conditions led to a rapid increase in capital flight.\nUnder N\u00e9stor and Cristina Kirchner, capital flight was contained and was mostly paid with the surplus in the commercial balance, given exports were higher than imports.\nDuring the \u201cK\u201d years, some of the money obtained from economic growth did leave the country, but under Macri, the capital flight not only grew faster, it ended up being funded with the foreign currency borrowed by the state. Capital flight was quite literally borrowed money.\nPundits propagandized on behalf of the government and Macri\u2019s suicidal economic policies by stirring up the desire for dollars in the population, even among those who could not afford to buy any.\nDeregulation of the foreign currency exchange led to high inflation in Argentina, but the right-wing-controlled media outlets blamed the Kirchners. They brought back the old neoliberal dog whistle that Argentina was now \u201copen to the world,\u201d and promised that the new policies would attract foreign investors who never arrived.\nMacri\u2019s most important achievement was to allow wealthy families and speculative companies to dollarize their assets, thus moving them to more profitable markets abroad.\nWealthy speculators were also allowed to profit from the old scheme known as carry trade (bicicleta financiera), which had been used during the last dictatorship.\nTheir trick was to buy pesos, profit from the high interest rates in pesos, then convert them to dollars and move the dollars out of the country.\nIn the meantime, the state had to provide a virtually infinite amount of dollars for the speculators, and was left with the pesos.\nThanks to a reckless emission of bonds to support the uncontrolled demand of foreign currency, including an extraordinary 100-year bond and very high interest rates, Argentina was already on the brink of another default just two years since Macri took power.\nThe debt-to-GDP ratio passed from 56% in 2017 to 86% in 2018, a catastrophic 30% increase in one year.\nIn 2018, the Argentine peso was the worst-performing currency in the world \u2013 excluding Venezuela, which was suffering under illegal unilateral sanctions and relentless economic war by the United States.\nThe Argentine peso lost about 50% of its value to the dollar. Inflation rose by the same amount.\nMacri\u2019s central bank increased interest rates to record levels in an attempt to attract investors \u2013 or more accurately, speculators \u2013 but it was too late.\nThe economic figures did not lie. Argentina\u2019s debt was already unpayable in 2018, and all macroeconomic indicators showed that a crash was imminent.\nAt the beginning of the year, virtually no one wanted to buy Argentine bonds anymore, meaning that a country whose debt had been under control only two years before, and had no absolutely reason to rush into deregulating its currency and financial markets, was now on the brink of yet another default.\nIn this uncertain context, Argentina went through two major currency crises in 2018, in June and August, forcing the central bank to waste billions of dollars to contain the extreme devaluation of the peso.\nThe country was bleeding dollars, and toward mid-2018, the so-called \u201cMacrisis\u201d was a reality.\nMacri\u2019s days in power seemed numbered.\nArgentine President Mauricio Macri (right) with US President Donald Trump in Buenos Aires in 2018\nOn May 8, 2018 Macri announced that he had formally requested financial aid from the IMF.\nFor millions of Argentines it was a shock. The country had not dealt with the disgraced organization since 2005, when N\u00e9stor Kirchner had paid the debt in full and decoupled the national economic policies from Washington, after years of tense relations.\nThe US representative at the IMF at the time, Mauricio Claver-Carone, revealed that EU members of the Fund considered Argentina\u2019s situation at the time \u201cunsustainable.\u201d They were against a loan that was clearly meant to save Macri\u2019s face and buy him time to attempt a re-election.\nBut according to Claver-Carone, US President Donald Trump saw Macri as an important ally in his coup attempt against Venezuela.\nAt the time, the White House was preparing a regime-change operation to remove Venezuela\u2019s democratically elected President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro and replace him with Washington\u2019s hand-picked \u201cinterim president,\u201d Juan Guaid\u00f3.\nAnd Macri did indeed go on to recognize Guaid\u00f3, who never received a single vote in a presidential election, as the supposed head of state in Venezuela.\n#Argentina\nYa nos encontramos en territorio argentino, donde nos reuniremos en instantes con el Presidente @mauriciomacri en el marco de nuestra agenda para que Venezuela recupere su democracia y conquiste su libertad. pic.twitter.com/SoCTM1bPpH\n\u2014 Juan Guaid\u00f3 (@jguaido) March 2, 2019\n\nSo Trump forced the IMF \u2013 whose biggest contributor is the United States, and therefore mainly controlled by the US government \u2013 to provide Argentina with the biggest loan in the Fund\u2019s history,\u00a0to keep Macri and his plutocratic friends afloat.\nAgreeing on a $57 billion loan with a government whose policies allowed record levels of capital flight was economically nonsensical, especially considering that article VI, section 1(a) of the IMF articles of agreement\u00a0states that a \u201cmember may not use the Fund\u2019s general resources to meet a large or sustained outflow of capital.\u201d\nBut the multifaceted scam designed in the White House was carried on anyway, and an agreement was reached in September 2018.\nUnder Macri,\u00a0Argentina was ultimately disbursed $44 billion by the IMF.\nBut not a single dollar sent by the Fund was ever seen by the Argentine people, or used for any project for economic development.\nThe money evaporated, trickling up into the pockets of domestic and foreign oligarchs, funding the massive demand of US dollars generated by speculators and by the interests of the debt.\nThe billions sent from Washington disappeared in just 11 months.\nIn August 2019, Macri\u2019s Argentina had to postpone some scheduled payments, meaning that it was already in default \u2013 the country\u2019s first official default for lack of funds since 2001.\nThe effects of Macri\u2019s short administration were dramatic. His tenure was dominated by politically motivated judicial attacks (known as lawfare) against the opposition, which involved the meddling of the US embassy, intelligence services, corrupt judges, illegal surveillance, and a torrent of media propaganda.\nUnder Macri, Argentina\u2019s inflation skyrocketed, the value of wages plummeted, unemployment rose, and poverty grew above the 2001 crisis levels, reaching almost 40% when he left office.\nPoverty was 30% when the multi-millionaire took power, meaning that more than 4 million people had become poor in four years. About one in 10 Argentines was in extreme poverty.\nThe total value of capital flight during Macri\u2019s four years in government was estimated at $79.8 billion, while the payments of interest on the debt were $40.7 billion.\nThe debt-to-GDP ratio reached 90% in 2019, almost doubling from when Cristina Fern\u00e1ndez de Kirchner left office in 2015.\nWithout Trump\u2019s intervention, Argentina would have defaulted two years earlier, and the chaos would have probably forced Macri to resign.\nSo the IMF loan was effectively an injection of oxygen that gave the right-wing president a chance to run for an almost impossible re-election.\nWith the vote approaching in 2019, the opposition had to find a candidate to deal with Macri\u2019s catastrophic legacy.\nPolls showed that CFK could win again, but years of lawfare had weakened her to the point that a new presidency would have been politically unstable, especially looking at the trend in the region, where right-wing, US-aligned governments were thriving.\nCFK therefore decided to run as vice president, and offered the lead to Alberto Fern\u00e1ndez.\nThe new Peronist candidate had been chief of ministers under N\u00e9stor Kirchner, and had served briefly under Cristina as well.\nBut Fern\u00e1ndez had left CFK\u2019s government and became a vocal opposition figure within Peronism. In the past, he had even been a political ally of the infamous neoliberal economic minister Domingo Cavallo.\nBecause of his reputation as a \u201cK\u201d critic, the new alliance appeared counterintuitive, but it earned the Alberto-Cristina alliance more support at a moment of extreme vulnerability for every progressive candidate in Latin America.\nIn the August 2019 primary election, CFK\u2019s coalition with Fern\u00e1ndez, called the Frente de Todos (Front of Everyone), won with 48%, compared to the 32% of Macri\u2019s right-wing alliance Juntos por el Cambio.\nMacri\u2019s August 2019 default was rarely called a default by Argentina\u2019s right-wing-dominated media, especially because it occurred in the middle of the presidential campaign and the catastrophic primary vote.\nBut even US rating agencies like S&P and Fitch, as well as foreign financial media outlets like Bloomberg, which are notorious for their strong bias in favor of neoliberal governments, admitted that Argentina was in \u201cselective default\u201d or \u201cquasi default\u201d.\nIn order to protect Macri, the Argentine media made up a new word, reperfilamiento (reshaping), and used it instead of \u201cdefault,\u201d successfully obfuscating the president\u2019s economic disaster behind a smokescreen of propaganda.\nDenying the default was a desperate attempt to put some lipstick on the corpse of Macri\u2019s political and economic legacy. But it did the job.\nThe multi-millionaire did lose re-election in the October 2019 presidential election, but the enormous propaganda apparatus operated by Clar\u00edn managed to significantly improve Macri\u2019s poor result in the primary, boosting him up to 40% against Fern\u00e1ndez\u2019s 48%.\nThe election showed what a media monopoly and millions of dollars systematically invested in troll armies on social media can do, even in the most unfavorable conditions.\nThe media narrative of the \u201cheavy legacy\u201d (pesada herencia) that Argentina supposedly received from N\u00e9stor and Cristina Kirchner, and the often fabricated allegations and charges of corruption took a significant toll.\nMore than appreciation for Macri\u2019s policies, the 2019 vote expressed the anti-Kirchner sentiment that had been cultivated through years of lawfare.\nArgentina\u2019s conservative sectors needed to undermine the positive reputation of the \u201cK\u201c governments and character assassinate CFK, because she was by far the most popular leader on a national level.\nThe right-wing oligarchy\u2019s ultimate goal was to make it impossible for CFK to run again (which they would go on to accomplish with a judicial coup in December 2022).\nBut the 2019 electoral victory of Fern\u00e1ndez and CFK ended up being the easiest part.\nArgentina\u2019s President Alberto Fern\u00e1ndez and Vice President Cristina Fern\u00e1ndez de Kirchner\nThe country Alberto Fern\u00e1ndez received on December 10, 2019 was very different from the one Macri got four years before.\nIn 2019, Argentina was on fire, with an economy in recession, poorer, indebted at 90% of GDP, and even more polarized than before.\nThe new president had the daunting task of fixing Argentina\u2019s devastated public finances, hit by another default on its sovereign debt, while dealing with one of the worst social and economic crises in its history.\nThe Frente de Todos coalition that Fern\u00e1ndez had formed with Cristina Fern\u00e1ndez de Kirchner was very large, including parties ranging from the center to the left.\nThis meant there were many differences inside the Frente de Todos, which began to emerge when they took power.\nBut everybody in the coalition knew that Argentina\u2019s media monopoly Clar\u00edn and the wealthy oligarchy were not going to help extinguish the fire, because they were responsible for it.\nAfter the fall of Macri, the mainstream media continued pushing endless conspiracies against Vice President CFK.\nThe right-wing press even got created and added a strange new chapter about her supposed plots to undermine Fern\u00e1ndez, the man she chose and helped put in the Pink House months before.\nAlthough CFK was not president, and despite years of politically motivated allegations of corruption and dozens of legal prosecutions (but no convictions at this point), she was still by far the most charismatic and popular leader in Argentina.\nBut just a few months after Alberto and Cristina took power, in early 2020, the crisis in Argentina reached a whole new level, when the global Covid-19 pandemic hit.\nIn September 2018, Macri had gutted the Ministry of Health, among others, and turned it into a sub-department, as part of his harsh austerity cuts, which were justified as administrative \u201csimplifications\u201d.\nSo on March 3, 2020, when the first case of Covid-19 was identified in Buenos Aires, the new government was still in the process of reviving the national health administration, which had been systematically defunded and nearly dismantled by Macri.\nIn this disastrous context, President Fern\u00e1ndez and his Economic Minister Martin Guzm\u00e1n, a neo-Keynesian academic and collaborator of Joseph Stiglitz, played a complex game with the two different groups of creditors, the private bondholders and political organizations like the IMF.\nShortly after being sworn in, Fern\u00e1ndez had said Argentina would stop until 2024 all payments on the $44 billion that the IMF had lent to Macri\u2019s administration.\nIn February 2020, Vice President Kirchner publicly suggested that the debt was illegitimate.\nNoting that the IMF statute forbids lending money to countries with significant capital flight, CFK pointed out that loan had not been given to fund infrastructure projects or social programs.\nNo fue un pr\u00e9stamo para hacer represas, carreteras, programas ni obras de infraestructura. El Fondo presta para dar estabilidad a los pa\u00edses, pero ac\u00e1 se prest\u00f3 para que se fugara el dinero.\n\u2014 Cristina Kirchner (@CFKArgentina) February 9, 2020\n\nFollowing the neoliberal disasters of the 1990s, the IMF has tried to rebrand itself as a more collaborative and humanistic institution.\nThe Covid-19 pandemic seemed to have forced the Fund to soften its infamous obsession with austerity policies and accept the priority of economic growth over debt consolidation.\nWhether this was a true change in paradigm or just a marketing campaign is not clear \u2013 although Argentines are deeply skeptical.\nPart two of this article will detail the attempts by the Alberto Fern\u00e1ndez administration to renegotiate Argentina\u2019s debt with the IMF and private creditors.\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Colombia\u2019s far-right presidential candidate praised Hitler: Millionaire Rodolfo Hern\u00e1ndez goes to runoff. 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, Rodolfo Hern\u00e1ndez", "output": "A far-right hundred-millionaire real estate mogul who called himself a \u201cfollower\u201d of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler, Rodolfo Hern\u00e1ndez, won second place in round one of Colombia\u2019s presidential elections. He will compete against center-left candidate Gustavo Petro in a runoff vote in June.\n\nColombia held the first round of presidential elections on May 29. Center-left candidate Gustavo Petro won in a landslide, with 40.32% of the vote.\nThe candidate who came in second place, with 28.15%, is an extreme-right demagogue named Rodolfo Hern\u00e1ndez, who has proudly referred to himself as a \u201cfollower\u201d of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler.\nHern\u00e1ndez, a real estate mogul with an estimated $100 million in wealth, ran using a far-right \u201cpopulist\u201d strategy, insulting prominent politicians and pledging to fight corruption and crime.\nHern\u00e1ndez is notorious for physically attacking people who disagree with him politically. In 2018, he got in an argument with a councilmember of the city where he served as mayor, and Hern\u00e1ndez slapped him on camera.\nA far-right hundred-millionaire real estate mogul who praised Hitler, Rodolfo Hern\u00e1ndez, won second place in round one of Colombia\u2019s presidential elections.\nHe'll compete against left-wing candidate Gustavo Petro in a runoff vote in June.\nRead more here: https://t.co/BsJdW1IR2I pic.twitter.com/Dix0sHIlZh\n\u2014 Multipolarista (@Multipolarista) May 30, 2022\n\nColombia holds presidential elections in two rounds. If one candidate does not get more than 50% of the vote in the first vote, it goes to a runoff a few months later.\nThe left-wing candidate Petro will therefore compete against Hern\u00e1ndez in the second round on June 19.\nIn the first round, the right-wing vote was divided between two main choices. The candidate who came in third place, with 23.91%, was Federico \u201cFico\u201d Guti\u00e9rrez.\nThe former mayor of the city of Medell\u00edn, Guti\u00e9rrez represented the ultra-conservative movement that has dominated Colombian politics for decades, known as Uribismo.\nUribismo takes its name from one of the most powerful and elite politicians in Colombia, \u00c1lvaro Uribe, who served as president from 2002 to 2010. Uribe and his family are closely linked to drug cartels and paramilitary death squads.\nGuti\u00e9rrez conceded defeat and immediately endorsed Hern\u00e1ndez on the night of the first round.\nGuti\u00e9rrez\u2019s loss does represent a significant blow to Uribismo. But this hardline right-wing movement was not defeated by a more moderate candidate, but an even more extreme one.\n\nRodolfo Hern\u00e1ndez, who is 77 years old, beat Guti\u00e9rrez by running as a far-right \u201cpopulist,\u201d criticizing the traditional political class and denouncing prominent politicians as \u201cdrug addicts\u201d and \u201cthieves.\u201d\nHern\u00e1ndez made a fortune in Colombia\u2019s notoriously corrupt real estate sector, and has an estimated $100 million in wealth.\nHe offered no coherent economic program other than budget cutbacks and austerity. But he promised in his presidential campaign that he would dedicate himself to fighting corruption.\nHern\u00e1ndez even called his political party the Liga de Gobernantes Anticorrupci\u00f3n: \u201cLeague of Anti-Corruption Governors\u201d. This is despite the fact that Hern\u00e1ndez has been under investigation on series charges of corruption.\nThe multimillionaire\u2019s hypocrisy doesn\u2019t end there. As part of his \u201cpopulist\u201d marketing strategy, Hern\u00e1ndez has rebranded himself as an opponent of Uribismo.\nBut as recently as 2019, Hern\u00e1ndez praised \u00c1lvaro Uribe in an interview with Colombia\u2019s TV network Cosmovisi\u00f3n.\n\u201cHe helped me, Uribe,\u201d Hern\u00e1ndez said. \u201cI have a debt of gratitude [to Uribe]\u201d.\n\u201cHe appreciates me. I think that he loves me,\u201d Hern\u00e1ndez said of Uribe, whom he affectionately referred to as \u201cDoctor Uribe.\u201d\nEl multimillonario corrupto Rodolfo Hern\u00e1ndez act\u00faa como si fuera parte de la oposici\u00f3n al uribismo, pero en 2019, dijo: \"\u00c9l me ayud\u00f3 a m\u00ed, Uribe\"\n\"Yo tengo una deuda de gratitud\", dijo Hern\u00e1ndez. Uribe \"me aprecia. Yo siento que \u00e9l me quiere\"\nLa fuente: https://t.co/pbB3PeHG3T pic.twitter.com/JMoIlILiek\n\u2014 Benjamin Norton (@BenjaminNorton) May 30, 2022\n\nIn 2016, when\u00a0Hern\u00e1ndez served as mayor of the northern Colombian city of Bucaramanga,\u00a0he set off a national scandal by praising Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler.\n\u201cI am a follower of a great German thinker, who is named Adolf Hitler\u201d, Hern\u00e1ndez said in a live video interview with the Colombian media outlet RCN Radio.\n\u201cListen! Listen!\u201d he continued, when the hosts tried to interrupt him. Hern\u00e1ndez urged listeners to follow the \u201crecommendations that he [Hitler] gives\u201d.\n\u201cDon\u2019t think that things will change if we always do the same\u201d, Hern\u00e1ndez continued. \u201cThe greatest blessing that can happen to people, cities, and countries is crisis. Because crisis brings progress. It is in crisis that the great problems of humanity are resolved\u201d.\n\u201cThose who transcend crisis transcend themselves without being conquered\u201d, he added.\nWhen Hern\u00e1ndez started campaigning for president in 2021, however, he backtracked and claimed that it was a \u201cslip of the tongue\u201c, and he had not actually meant to praise Hitler.\nHern\u00e1ndez has also raised eyebrows with explicitly misogynist and racist comments, especially demonizing people from neighboring Venezuela.\nIn 2018, Hern\u00e1ndez showed he is more than willing to use violence against those who disagree with him politically.\nWhen he got in an argument with a city council member from Bucaramanga, Hern\u00e1ndez hit the man in the face, on camera.\nThe Office of the Inspector General of Colombia responded by suspending Hern\u00e1ndez from his post as mayor for three months.\nHern\u00e1ndez remained completely unapologetic. In an interview at the peak of his presidential campaign in 2022, he stood by his decision to attack the city council member, without a hint of regret.\nThe Latin American media has frequently compared\u00a0Hern\u00e1ndez to far-right former US president Donald Trump. He is also very similar to Brazil\u2019s extreme-right leader, Jair Bolsonaro, who has praised Chile\u2019s former dictator Augusto Pinochet and called for restoring an authoritarian military regime.\nColombia\u2019s left-wing presidential candidate Gustavo Petro at his first-round victory rally on May 29\nFor his part, the candidate who came in first place in round one of Colombia\u2019s presidential elections, Gustavo Petro, is a senator from the center-left Colombia Humana (Humane Colombia) party.\nA former mayor of the capital Bogot\u00e1,\u00a0Petro ran on a progressive platform promising social-democratic policies, peace, and stronger support for women and marginalized communities.\nIn his youth, Petro fought with a revolutionary socialist guerrilla group, called M-19. But he later left and significantly moderated his political program.\nIn recent years, Petro has harshly criticized the existing socialist governments in Latin America, in Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba, and run on a more establishment-friendly, social-democratic program.\nBut in Colombia, whose political system has been dominated by far-right oligarchs for decades, even a center-left progressive like Petro is seen as a huge threat.\nPetro\u2019s running mate, vice-presidential candidate Francia M\u00e1rquez, is a grassroots activist from the Afro-Colombian community. She has criticized the US government for meddling in her country\u2019s election on behalf of the right-wing, while calling for reparations, land reform, and an end to the drug war.\nVoters in Colombia will now have to decide if they want their country to move in a progressive direction or lurch even further to the extreme right.\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Peru\u2019s natural resources: CIA-linked US ambassador meets with mining and energy ministers to talk \u2018investments\u2019. 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": "Anglo American, BHP, copper, energy, Europe, gas, Glencore, gold, iron, lead, Lisa Kenna, LNG, minerals, Pedro Castillo, Peru, Rio Tinto, Shell, silver, Southern Copper Corporation", "output": "Peru has large reserves of copper, gold, zinc, silver, lead, iron, and natural gas. After a coup overthrew left-wing President Pedro Castillo, the US ambassador, CIA veteran Lisa Kenna, met with mining and energy ministers to discuss \u201cinvestments\u201d. Europe is importing Peruvian LNG to replace Russian energy.\n\n(Se puede leer este art\u00edculo en espa\u00f1ol aqu\u00ed.)\nThe US ambassador in Peru, Lisa Kenna, is a CIA veteran who supported a parliamentary coup in December 2022 that overthrew the South American nation\u2019s democratically elected left-wing president, Pedro Castillo.\nCastillo was subsequently imprisoned for 18 months without due process, setting off massive protests across Peru. The unelected government responded with extreme violence, killing approximately 50 protesters in just over a month.\nOne day before the December 7 coup, the former CIA officer turned US ambassador met with Peru\u2019s defense minister, who then told the country\u2019s powerful military to turn against President Castillo.\n\nSince then, Kenna has been quite busy, regularly meeting with top officials in Peru\u2019s coup government, including unelected President Dina Boluarte and her ministers.\nOn January 18, the US ambassador sat down with Peru\u2019s minister of energy and mining, as well as its vice minister of hydrocarbons and vice minister of mining.\nPeru\u2019s Ministry of Energy and Mines boasted that they discussed \u201cinvestment\u201d opportunities and plans to \u201cdevelop\u201d and \u201cexpand\u201d the extractive industries.\n? Un di\u00e1logo institucional de alto nivel entre Per\u00fa y Estados Unidos, que abord\u00f3 temas de desarrollo del sector minero, sostuvo hoy el ministro Oscar Vera Gargurevich y Lisa Kenna, embajadora estadounidense en el Per\u00fa. @USAmbPeru pic.twitter.com/35CRV5unSl\n\u2014 Ministerio de Energ\u00eda y Minas (@MinemPeru) January 19, 2023\n\nPeru is a country rich in natural resources, especially minerals. Spanish colonialists exploited the South American nation\u2019s substantial silver and gold reserves, and today transnational corporations see it as a very profitable resource hub.\nOne of Earth\u2019s top producers of copper, lead, zinc, tin, silver, and gold, Peru\u2019s economy relies heavily on the mining sector, which represents more than half of total national exports and over 10% of GDP.\nThe world\u2019s three largest transnational mining corporations \u2013 BHP, Rio Tinto, and Glencore \u2013 are heavily invested in Peru, along with other prominent companies from Canada, Brazil, Switzerland, Britain, the US, Japan, and Australia.\nPeru is the planet\u2019s second-biggest copper producer (after its neighbor Chile), meaning it will become increasingly important in the global shift toward renewable energy technologies.\nUS investment banking giant Goldman Sachs stated in 2022 that \u201ccopper is the new oil\u201d, writing: \u201cThe critical role copper will play in achieving the Paris climate goals cannot be overstated\u2026 As the most cost-effective conductive material, copper sits at the heart of capturing, storing and transporting these new sources of energy\u201d.\nPeru is also a significant producer of liquified natural gas (LNG). Its LNG exports are largely overseen by foreign corporations like Shell.\nEurope became the top importer of Peruvian LNG in 2022, after the European Union boycotted Russian energy over the proxy war in Ukraine.\nWhile natural resources are not the only reason for these coups in Latin America, they are a significant factor.\nFollowing the violent putsch in Peru\u2019s mineral-rich neighbor Bolivia in 2019, a critic wrote to billionaire Elon Musk on Twitter, \u201cYou know what wasn\u2019t in the best interest of people? The US government organizing a coup against Evo Morales in Bolivia so you could obtain the lithium there\u201d.\nMusk replied, \u201cWe will coup whoever we want! Deal with it\u201d.\n\nWhen he ran for office in 2021, left-wing presidential candidate Pedro Castillo had made one of the central themes of his campaign the need to reassert popular control over Peru\u2019s natural resources.\nCondemning foreign companies for \u201cpillaging\u201d the country, he called to renegotiate contracts to ensure that 70% of all proceeds from mining went to the state, to fund social programs.\nA few weeks before the presidential elections, Castillo said, \u201cLet\u2019s be clear: these decades of betrayal, corruption, and cynicism are the symptoms of this neoliberal system dedicated exclusively to the exploitation of our people and natural resources for the benefit of a few scoundrels\u201d.\nWhen he entered office, Castillo was very limited in what he could do politically. The right-wing opposition had a majority in the congress, and they were hellbent on destabilizing and eventually removing him with a presidential \u201cvacancy\u201d. They used Peru\u2019s legislature and the heavily politicized and corrupt judiciary to launch constant attacks against Castillo, as part of a campaign of systematic persecution and lawfare.\nBut Castillo did what he could. The president announced a \u201csecond agrarian reform\u201d and declared, \u201cWe are rescuing the resources of the country for all Peruvians\u201d. He explained his goal: \u201cWe want our natural resources to directly benefit the people\u201c.\nPresidente @PedroCastilloTe: \"Hoy rescatamos los recursos del pa\u00eds para todos los peruanos. El guano de las islas permitir\u00e1 que los agricultores solventen a las familias m\u00e1s necesitadas como parte de la Segunda Reforma Agraria\". #SiempreConElPueblo pic.twitter.com/MpmTebnJjN\n\u2014 Presidencia del Per\u00fa ?? (@presidenciaperu) February 27, 2022\n\nCastillo\u2019s government made plans with left-wing President Gustavo Petro in neighboring Colombia to develop gas infrastructure in Peru and expand internal use.\nThis was part of Castillo\u2019s progressive economic model of import substitution industrialization, which aimed to grow local industry and boost domestic consumption, so Peru would not rely exclusively on low value-added exports.\nImmediately after ousting Castillo, however, Peru\u2019s coup regime returned to the neoliberal economic model of the Washington Consensus, prioritizing foreign corporate investment over internal development.\nThe Ministry of Energy and Mines tweeted on January 18 that it had just conducted a \u201chigh-level institutional dialogue between Peru and the United States, which addressed themes of development of the mining sector\u201d.\nUS Ambassador Kenna met with Peru\u2019s minister of energy and mining, \u00d3scar Vera Gargurevich; vice minister of hydrocarbons, Enrique Bisetti Solari; and vice minister of mining, Jaime Ch\u00e1vez Riva.\nEl ministro Vera agradeci\u00f3 el apoyo del Gobierno norteamericano en temas minero-energ\u00e9ticos y reiter\u00f3 la voluntad del Gobierno Nacional, cuya prioridad es la masificaci\u00f3n del gas natural, la seguridad energ\u00e9tica y el desarrollo petroqu\u00edmico en el sur del pa\u00eds. pic.twitter.com/qTc7Uv0Gvz\n\u2014 Ministerio de Energ\u00eda y Minas (@MinemPeru) January 19, 2023\n\nThe ministry said they discussed \u201cthemes linked to the expansion of natural gas, mining investments, and the development of renewable energies in our country\u201d.\nIt added that \u201cMinister Vera was grateful for the support from the North American government in mining-energy issues, and he reiterated the will of the national government, whose priority is the expansion of natural gas, energy security, and the petrochemical development of the south of the country\u201d.\nThe Peruvian government itself has publicly stated that its economy relies heavily on mining and exporting minerals such as copper, zinc, gold, silver, lead, iron, and molybdenum.\nPeru\u2019s top exports in 2022 included copper, gold, and liquified natural gas (LNG).\nThe mining sector made up 58.7% of all of Peru\u2019s exports, 57.1% of which were metals and 1.6% of which were non-metals, according to the most recent publicly available statistics, from January to October 2022.\nCopper, gold, zinc, and iron represented 88.4% of the total value of Peru\u2019s mineral exports, and 51.9% of the value of all of the country\u2019s exports.\n\nAs of 2022, the largest corporate investor in Peru\u2019s mining sector was the UK-based company Anglo American.\nThe second biggest investor was Compa\u00f1\u00eda Minera Antamina S.A., a local firm that is majority owned by Australian and Swiss mining giants. The third was the US-Mexican Southern Copper Corporation.\nLocal communities in the South American country, especially those of Indigenous descent, have long protested the mining companies that devastate their environment.\nThese rural communities were the base of support for President Castillo. Since the coup, they have organized massive protests, demanding that he be freed, that new elections be held, and that the government convene a constituent assembly to write a new constitution, to replace the current one that was inherited from the former US-backed far-right dictatorship of Alberto Fujimori.\nAfter minerals, Peru\u2019s other top export is natural gas \u2013 and more specifically liquified natural gas (LNG).\nPeru\u2019s gas sector saw a huge boom in 2022, with LNG exports increasing by 85% in the first eight months of the year, in comparison with the same period in 2021.\nOne of the main reasons for this surge was Europe\u2019s sky-high demand for gas.\nBefore 2022, most of Peru\u2019s LNG had gone to Asia (primarily Japan, South Korea, and China).\u00a0But as tensions between NATO and Russia escalated in late 2021 and early 2022, and the EU moved to boycott Russian energy, this drastically shifted.\nThe vast majority of Peru\u2019s LNG exports went to Europe in 2022, primarily to Britain and Spain.\nIn months like April, May, and August, all of Peru\u2019s LNG exports went to Europe, according to data published by the state company Per\u00fapetro.\nPeru\u2019s LNG exports in 2022, by region\nPeru\u2019s LNG exports are overseen by a consortium of foreign corporations including Britain\u2019s Shell, the US Hunt Oil Company, Japan\u2019s Marubeni Corporation, and South Korea\u2019s SK Group.\nWhile Peru only exports a relatively small amount of LNG when compared to the United States \u2013 which quickly established itself as the world\u2019s top LNG exporter in 2022 \u2013 the South American nation has become an important energy partner for Europe.\nIn its attempt to reduce trade with Russia, Spain increased its imports of LNG from the Americas \u2013 including the US, Peru, and Trinidad and Tobago \u2013 by 77.4% in 2022. (Spain boosted its imports of US LNG specifically by 93.4% in 2022.)\nIronically, by pledging to boycott Russian oil, Spain also ended up increasing its imports of more expensive Russian LNG by 37% in 2022.\nAt the same time, from the beginning of 2021 to mid-2022, the price of natural gas skyrocketed by 700%.\nForeign companies have made a killing in Peru\u2019s mining sector.\nIn promotional materials urging more foreign investment, the Peruvian government boasted\u00a0that the planet\u2019s three largest mining corporations are active in the country: BHP Group, of Australia; Rio Tinto, of Britain and Australia; and Glencore, of Switzerland.\nThe Ministry of Energy and Mines wrote with pride in 2018: \u201cThe world\u2019s most important companies in the mining sector are making investments in our country. Due to our mineral reserves, Peru is a market that is always taken into account by these companies when they decide their investment budgets in exploration and exploitation\u201d.\nMany local mining companies in Peru are owned by foreign corporate giants.\nThe second-largest investor in mining in Peru, the Compa\u00f1\u00eda Minera Antamina (Antamina Mining Company in English), was 33.75% owned by BHP, another 33.75% owned by Glencore, 22.5% by Canada\u2019s Teck Resources, and 10% by Japan\u2019s Mitsubishi, as of 2018.\nThe Compa\u00f1\u00eda Minera Antamina operates in Peru\u2019s western \u00c1ncash region, and was responsible for roughly one-fifth of national copper production and 15% of national silver production in 2018.\nPeru was the source of 20% of BHP\u2019s global production of copper in 2017, as well as 50% of its global production of silver and 100% of its global production of zinc.\nThe British-Australian Rio Tinto corporation oversees the La Granja mining project in the northwestern Cajamarca region. Peru was the source of 15% of Rio Tinto\u2019s global production of copper in 2017.\nOther large transnational corporations active in Peru\u2019s mining sector include the US company Freeport-McMoRan and Mexican Southern Copper Corporation, both of which are based in Phoenix, Arizona; as well as Canada\u2019s Barrick Gold.\nBut this is just to mention existing mining operations. Foreign companies are also heavily invested in\u00a0exploration for new projects.\nThe top foreign countries whose companies are investing in mining exploration in Peru are Canada, Brazil, Switzerland, Britain, the US, Japan, and Australia, according to a 2022 report from the Ministry of Energy and Mines.\nCompanies located in Peru are responsible for 37.8% of investment in exploration, but this figure can be misleading because many of these firms are owned by much bigger transnational corporations.\n\nAs of 2022, 43.4% of exploration investment went into looking for gold, 36.1% for copper, 11.2% for zinc, 8.3% for silver, and 1% for tin.\n\nMining exploration projects are taking place all across western Peru.\nMany of these regions, which are underdeveloped and suffer from high rates of poverty, have seen large protests against the US-backed coup regime and in support of Castillo.\n\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Latin America is on the frontlines of the US new cold war on China and Russia. 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": "Avril Haines, Bolivia, China, Cold War Two, Cuba, Donald Trump, James Mattis, Joe Biden, Juan Gonzalez, Matt Gaetz, new cold war, Nicaragua, Russia, Taiwan, Ukraine, Venezuela", "output": "The United States has turned Latin America and the Caribbean into a key battlefield in its new cold war on China and Russia, invoking the 200-year-old colonialist Monroe Doctrine to justify aggressive interventionist policies.\n\nYou can listen to a podcast version of this article here.\n\nThe United States has turned Latin America and the Caribbean into a key battlefield in its new cold war on China and Russia.\nWashington\u2019s hybrid war on Beijing and Moscow took shape in 2018, when the Pentagon published a National Defense Strategy identifying the two Eurasian powers as the biggest \u201cthreats\u201d to US national security.\nFollowing the attacks on September 11, 2001, the US government had shaped its foreign policy around a so-called \u201cwar on terror.\u201d But Defense Secretary James Mattis announced in January 2018 that the Pentagon had changed its priorities, and \u201cgreat power competition, not terrorism, is now the primary focus of U.S. national security.\u201d\nThe US director of national intelligence, Avril Haines, echoed this perspective in a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing this March. Summarizing the US intelligence community\u2019s\u00a02022 Annual Threat Assessment report,\u00a0Haines said China and Russia constitute the top \u201cthreats\u201d to Washington, and she emphasized that Beijing in particular \u201cremains an unparalleled priority for the intelligence community.\u201d\nIn this Cold War Two, Latin America has been caught in Washington\u2019s crosshairs.\nAfter Russia invaded Western ally Ukraine on February 24, the US military responded by threatening China and Venezuela.\nOn February 26, the US Navy sent a guided-missile destroyer warship through the narrow Taiwan Strait, in a move that the Chinese government condemned as an \u201cadventurist\u201d and \u201cprovocative action\u201d seeking \u201cto bolster the \u2018Taiwan independence\u2019 forces.\u201d\nThen on February 27 and 28, the US Navy held anti-submarine warfare exercises with the Colombian military, using a nuclear submarine for the first time ever. Making it clear that this was a threat aimed at Beijing\u2019s leftist ally in Caracas, the exercises were held in the Caribbean Sea, near the border of Venezuela.\nColombia is the first and only special \u201cpartner\u201d that the US-led NATO military alliance has in Latin America.\n\nA post shared by U.S. Southern Command (@ussouthcom)\n\nWashington\u2019s economic warfare on Moscow has also targeted Latin America.\nUS President Joe Biden\u2019s special assistant for Latin America, Juan S. Gonz\u00e1lez, revealed in an interview on February 25 that the devastating new sanctions imposed on Russia over its intervention in Ukraine also seek to hurt the economies of Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba.\nGonz\u00e1lez, who serves as the US National Security Council\u2019s senior director for the Western Hemisphere, stated clearly, \u201cThe sanctions against Russia are so robust that they will have an impact on those governments that have economic affiliations with Russia, and that is by design. So Venezuela is going to start feeling that pressure. Nicaragua is going to feel that pressure, along with Cuba.\u201d\nThese three Latin American nations with socialist governments were demonized as the so-called \u201cTroika of Tyranny\u201d by John Bolton, the Iraq War architect and neoconservative national security advisor for former president Donald Trump.\nThe fact that Latin America is on the frontlines of Washington\u2019s new cold war is also reflected in US officials\u2019 increasing references to the Monroe Doctrine, an 1823 declaration that the United States considers the region to essentially be its colonial backyard.\nBolton invoked this two-century-old colonialist doctrine to justify Washington\u2019s numerous coup attempts against Venezuela\u2019s democratically elected socialist government.\nTrump himself also cited the Monroe Doctrine in his speech at the United Nations General Assembly in 2018.\n\u201cIt has been the formal policy of our country since President Monroe that we reject the interference of foreign nations in this hemisphere,\u201d Trump stated on the world stage. The US president was referencing Latin America\u2019s bilateral relations with China and Russia, which he portrayed as \u201cthreats.\u201d\nTrump\u2019s secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, the former CEO of US oil giant ExxonMobil, likewise praised the Monroe Doctrine, while ironically claiming China is the one with \u201cimperial\u201d ambitions in the region.\nWhen Argentina\u2019s center-left President Alberto Fern\u00e1ndez took a historic trip to China and Russia this February, to try to find ways around the $44.5 billion in odious debt that his country has been trapped in by the US-controlled International Monetary Fund (IMF), the hawks in Washington were furious.\nRepublican Congressman Matt Gaetz, a key Trump ally representing northern Florida, characterized Fern\u00e1ndez\u2019s trip as a sign of a \u201csignificant threat to our nation accelerating rapidly close to home,\u201d fuming that \u201cArgentina, a critical nation and economy in the Americas, has just lashed itself to the Chinese Communist Party, by signing on to the One Belt One Road Initiative.\u201d\nOn the floor of the House of Representatives on February 7,\u00a0Gaetz angrily described Argentina\u2019s new partnership with China as \u201ca direct challenge to the Monroe Doctrine.\u201d\nRepublican Congressman Matt Gaetz, a key ally of Donald Trump, invoked the 200-year-old colonialist Monroe Doctrine on the floor of the Congress and called Argentina a \"threat\" to US \"security\" because of its alliance with China.\nRead more here: https://t.co/aCiWQ7fGOc pic.twitter.com/xyVYkxfFT9\n\u2014 Multipolarista (@Multipolarista) February 8, 2022\n\nYet this colonialist rhetoric is by no means limited to Republicans. The Democratic president has made similar comments.\nAt a press conference on January 19, Biden referred to Latin America as the US \u201cfront yard,\u201d stating, \u201cWe used to talk about, when I was a kid in college, about \u2018America\u2019s backyard.\u2019 It\u2019s not America\u2019s backyard. Everything south of the Mexican border is America\u2019s front yard.\u201d\nFor his part, Biden has continued most of Trump\u2019s policies in Latin America, expanding illegal US sanctions on Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, while still recognizing unelected coup leader Juan Guaid\u00f3 as supposed \u201cpresident\u201d (even as the Biden administration pressures Caracas to make up for sanctioned Russian oil).\nWashington has strong-armed governments in Latin America and the Caribbean, pushing them to reduce or even cut off their ties with China and Russia.\nWhile China has become the largest trading partner for many countries in the region, the United States has resorted to blackmail to desperately try to stop the expansion of Huawei 5G networks, even when nations don\u2019t have suitable technological alternatives.\nRight-wing opposition leaders in Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Bolivia have joined Washington in demonizing Beijing, while vilifying Moscow too, demanding that their governments cut ties with the Eurasian powers and instead strengthen relations with (or rather subordinate themselves to) the United States.\nIn its Second Cold War, the United States sees Latin America and the Caribbean as especially strategic because it is one of the few regions of the world where countries still recognize the independence of Taiwan.\nTaiwan is part of the People\u2019s Republic of China, and 93% of UN member states recognize this fact \u2013 including the United States, at least on paper, although not in practice.\nYet 13 countries (plus the Vatican) consider Taiwan to be an independent state. All 13 are small, making up just 0.2% of global gross domestic product, but eight of them are in Latin America and the Caribbean.\nBelize, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Paraguay, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines still have formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan.\nThese are all the friends Taiwan has left in the world https://t.co/DEnhigr0d0\n\u2014 Bloomberg Next China (@next_china) December 10, 2021\n\nUS and Taiwanese authorities have used the carrot (favorable economic deals) and the stick (blackmail) to prevent these countries from normalizing relations with the People\u2019s Republic of China.\nThe US government supports secessionists in Taiwan, and has sent military personnel there to train them to eventually fight a war with mainland China. The number of US troops in Taiwan has doubled under Biden.\nWashington\u2019s goal is to turn Taiwan into a neo-colonial outpost, hoping to build a large US military base there with nuclear weapons aimed at the mainland, as it had from the 1950s to the 1970s, at the height of the First Cold War.\nDespite Washington\u2019s intense pressure campaign, many parts of Latin America are deepening their integration with China and Russia \u2013 just as Beijing and Moscow are bolstering their own strategic partnership.\nCuba officially incorporated into China\u2019s massive global infrastructure project, the Belt and Road Initiative, this December. Nicaragua then followed suit in January. Venezuela had already joined years before.\nThe right-wing US-backed regimes that governed Nicaragua in the neoliberal era, from 1990 to 2006, had cut ties with the People\u2019s Republic of China and formed a close alliance with Taiwan.\nNicaragua\u2019s Sandinista government reversed this policy, re-establishing relations with Beijing this December, then promptly signing a series of important agreements for Chinese help in building public housing and infrastructure, including hospitals, renewable energy, roads, railways, and ports, as well as water and public health systems.\nIn addition to being part of the anti-imperialist Bolivarian Alliance (ALBA), Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba, and Bolivia have joined China and Russia as key members of the Group of Friends in Defense of the Charter of the United Nations, a diplomatic alliance aimed at challenging imperialist hegemony and unipolarity.\nThis Group of Friends reflects a new political pole that is being developed to push back against the aggression of the US-EU-NATO imperialist bloc. This new cold war alignment was clearly reflected in the March 2 UN General Assembly vote on Russia\u2019s military incursion in Ukraine.\nThe countries in Latin America with socialist and anti-imperialist governments \u2013 Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Bolivia \u2013 either abstained or did not vote for the resolution condemning Russia.\nOther nations with socialist governments \u2013 China, Vietnam, Lao, and the DPRK \u2013 or which waged successful anti-colonialist revolutionary struggles \u2013 such as Iran, Eritrea, Algeria, South Africa, Angola, Syria, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique \u2013 likewise abstained or voted against the anti-Russian resolution, while the Western imperialist powers and their allies and proxies voted for it.\nThese are the fault lines of the new cold war.\n\nMultipolarista editor Benjamin Norton discussed this subject at the March 19 event \u201c21st Century Socialism: China and Latin America on the Frontline,\u201d organized by Friends of Socialist China.\nYou can watch video of the talk below:\n\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Inside Nicaragua\u2019s Sandinista Revolution: 43 years resisting 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": "Daniel Ortega, FSLN, imperialism, Nicaragua, Rosario Murillo, Sandinistas, socialism, Socialism of the 21st Century", "output": "Benjamin Norton reports from inside Nicaragua on the 43rd anniversary of the Sandinista Revolution. This mini-documentary explores the Sandinista Front\u2019s emphasis on social programs, popular participation, anti-imperialism, and internationalism.\n\nMultipolarista editor Benjamin Norton reports from inside Nicaragua on the 43rd anniversary of the Sandinista Revolution. This mini-documentary explores the Sandinista Front\u2019s emphasis on social programs, popular participation, anti-imperialism, and internationalism.\n\nLYRICS: This is the war that can\u2019t be held back, the ongoing war against the oppressor. What is the symbol? The people never give in. Never! What is the symbol? FSLN! (Sandinista National Liberation Front)\nBENJAMIN NORTON: Hey everyone, I\u2019m Ben Norton of Multipolarista. I am right now in the heart of the Nicaraguan capital, Managua. Today is July 19. It is the anniversary of the Sandinista Revolution.\nOn this day in 1979, the socialist Sandinista Front overthrew the US-backed right-wing dictatorship of Somoza, here in this plaza behind me.\nAnd President Daniel Ortega, who led the Sandinista Front in the revolution, and returned to power through democratic elections, he is going to give a speech today talking about the importance of the revolution years after it succeeded.\nPresident Ortega emphasized the centrality of sovereignty and anti-imperialism for the Sandinista Front. He reflected on the long history of the United States meddling in Nicaragua\u2019s internal affairs, trying to overthrow the Sandinistas and reverse their revolution.\nDANIEL ORTEGA: Why does the United States behave in that way? And when we say the United States, we are speaking of the North American rulers. Because when they dropped the atomic bomb above Hiroshima, they did not ask the North American people if the bomb should be dropped.\nAnd they did a count of how many thousands the bomb could kill. And the higher the number was, that they calculated that the bomb could kill, the happier and more excited they were.\nAnd they went ahead and dropped it, and killed, in one blow, hundreds of thousands of civilians, children, adults, because they dropped it on a city.\nRight there, they killed, murdered many more civilians than all of those who could have died now in this war that the empires have started to try to destroy the struggle that humanity is carrying out to bring about the end of hegemony, and to create multipolarity on our planet.\nThat is the battle that is being fought over there in Ukraine, where Europe and the United States don\u2019t want \u2014 they don\u2019t want to see China growing economically.\nIt is from there, it is the evil that those powers have shown throughout history, the powers that colonized Africa, Asia, Latin America, the powers that brought slaves from Africa to these regions, to sell like them animals in slave markets.\nWhen you asked me, and when it was asked, why not reach an understanding? They [the US] are not prepared to reach an understanding. They are prepared for nothing more than imposing, imposing, occupying, bombing, killing, as they have done throughout history.\nBENJAMIN NORTON: Behind me, you can see hundreds of activists from the Sandinista Youth. They are the lifeblood of the Sandinista Front.\nThey\u2019re grassroots activists. They\u2019re all volunteers. And they are motivated by their political ideology and the project of socialism and anti-imperialism.\nAnd here, when President Ortega and Vice President Rosario Murillo speak, they\u2019re always joined by the youth, representing how important the future of the country is for continuing the Sandinista Revolution.\nOn July 18, tens of thousands of Nicaraguans flooded the plaza in the middle of Managua, and partied all night, until the early hours of the morning on July 19, celebrating the anniversary of the Sandinista Revolution.\nIn hundreds of humble barrios across the country, Nicaraguans held community block parties called vigilias to commemorate the revolution. This was a celebration held in the working-class neighborhood of San Antonio, Managua.\nMUSICIAN: For more progress! For more houses for the people! For more free education! For more free healthcare! For more modern hospitals! For the best roads in Central America! For better technologies! For the subsidies for our peasants!\nFor peace, freedom, security, dignity! Long live Nicaragua! Long live the Sandinista Front!\nBENJAMIN NORTON: Grassroots gatherings like these show that there remains massive popular support for the revolution, 43 years after the Sandinista Front first took power.\nA June 2022 survey by the most respected mainstream polling firm in Nicaragua, M&R Consultores, found that President Daniel Ortega has a 77% approval rating, and 70% of people think he is leading the country in the right direction.\nWhile the US government and foreign corporate media outlets constantly demonize Nicaragua, 73% of actual Nicaraguans say that Ortega is a democratically elected leader following the laws of his country, whereas just 20% agree with Washington\u2019s claims that he is supposedly authoritarian.\nOverall, 68% of Nicaraguans support the leftist Sandinista Front party, whereas 17% back the right-wing opposition.\nThe results of polls like these make total sense when you see the incredible enthusiasm that average working-class Nicaraguans show for the Sandinista Revolution. Everywhere you go, you see people driving with FSLN flags and wearing red-and-black clothing.\nThis support is especially strong in humble barrios, where low-income workers have benefited most from the social programs of the Sandinista Front, which has provided free socialized healthcare, high-quality education, and public housing projects.\nThe Sandinista government has drastically expanded access to electricity and clean water in impoverished areas that had been abandoned and ignored by previous right-wing governments. Today, Nicaragua has some of the best infrastructure in Latin America. And perhaps most important of all, it provides security and safety in a region that has been plagued by violence and organized crime.\nAt the 43rd anniversary celebration, Nicaraguan Vice President Rosario Murillo spoke about the ongoing legacy of the revolution. She also condemned US imperialism and emphasized the importance of anti-imperialism for the Sandinista Front.\nROSARIO MURILLO: Today we are walking in the path of that legacy, the legacy of everyone who physically is not here, or physically were not able to see the victory on July 19, 43 years ago, but they were there, and here they are, and they live on, because they are the ones who guide us, with their example, with their force of revolution, force of bravery, anti-imperialist force.\nBecause here, we have endured it (imperialism), but we have also expelled it, but we have also expelled it, and we have defeated it. at every moment.\nHere, that yankee, the enemy of humanity, has met his match.\nHere, no one surrenders. Here, we neither sell out nor surrender.\nBENJAMIN NORTON: Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega just spoke tonight alongside some of the most important allies of Nicaragua, including representatives from China, Russia, Iran, Venezuela, and Cuba.\nHe also dedicated the 43rd anniversary of the revolution to the prime minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Ralph Gonsalves. And this shows the important alliance between countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.\nAnd it shows how Nicaragua and the Caribbean nations are helping and leading an effort to replace the US-dominated Organization of American States, the OAS, with the Community of Latin American and Caribbean states, CELAC.\nRALPH GONSALVES: When the revolution triumphed I celebrated in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Because the revolution in Nicaragua is our revolution.\nI come from a small country in our hemisphere. But this small country believes in and subscribes to large principles: the defense of sovereignty and independence, non-interference and non-intervention in our internal affairs.\nNow the empire doesn\u2019t understand that. You have a country [the US] which is 350 million people. They are reputedly the strongest military force in the world. Nicaragua is 6.2 million people, a country in Central America seeking to develop itself and its people.\nWhy in God\u2019s name, with a country so large, with so many resources, with such military strength, why would you want to pick on a small country like Nicaragua? I ask myself that question every day.\nAnd know always, that with solidarity among the people and across our Latin American and Caribbean, and the world, no power, no weapon formed against the people of Nicaragua can ever prosper.\nBENJAMIN NORTON: At the anniversary celebration, Ortega criticized those calling for him to hold a dialogue with the US government. He argued that Washington cannot be trusted, because it would be like negotiating with the devil.\nDANIEL ORTEGA: And they [the imperialists] waged war among themselves, to take over the world. It was war between the European powers, before there was a European Union.\nYou know it, dear brother. England, France, Spain, wanting to dominate all Europe, and dominating all of Europe, later taking over Africa, Asia, all of the Americas.\nA hegemonic mentality. A selfish mentality. A mentality that has nothing to do with being Christian, nothing to do with being Christian. And all of that, they did it with the blessing of the different churches that existed in that time.\nWhen they asked Roosevelt, who was a good friend of Somoza, why he was so gracious and friendly with Somoza, Somoza being a criminal, Roosevelt responded, in English, \u201cHe is a son of a\u2026\u201d How do you say it? \u201cHe\u2019s a son of a bitch.\u201d Yes, that is how he replied. \u201cBut he is OUR son (of a bitch).\u201d\nYes, \u201cHe is a son (of a bitch), but he is OUR son (of a bitch).\u201d That was the cynical response of the yankee.\nI\u2019m answering why there is no dialogue. Dialogue is impossible. Impossible. Dialogue is for one person to put a noose on your neck, and you to put your neck in the noose.\nLook, dear brother, what dialogue can you have with the devil? As Che said, the yankees, the imperialists, you can\u2019t trust them even a little bit, not even a little bit. Because it will end you. It will end you.\nBENJAMIN NORTON: At the celebration of the 43rd anniversary of the Sandinista Revolution, President Ortega and Vice President Murillo were joined by representatives of some of the country\u2019s most important allies, including China, Russia, Iran, Venezuela, and Cuba.\nAlso on stage at the anniversary celebration was a diplomat from the new left-wing government in neighboring Honduras. Vice Foreign Minister Gerardo Torres Zelaya explained why it is important for Honduras and Nicaragua to strengthen their relations.\nGERARDO TORRES: Nicaragua and Honduras are neighbors. They are countries that have historically been brothers. We share our largest border with Nicaragua. And our relationship is respectful, fraternal, and one of cooperation.\nWe are here as a country, as a government, saying that the message is that Central America should integrate itself, grow closer together, and work for the common good.\nBENJAMIN NORTON: I spoke to Edgardo Garc\u00eda Aguilar, who leads a leftist peasant organization called the Association of Rural Workers, or ATC. The ATC is independent from the Nicaraguan state, but it strongly supports the Sandinista government and the revolution. Edgardo explained why.\nEDGARDO GARC\u00cdA: 43 years since July 19, we reaffirm the commitment of the generation of that time [1979], when the student youth protested, to tell Somoza that the situation was not fair, and that a change was needed.\nThere was no attention to the demands of the people, to the aspirations of the youth, to the plight of the peasants. There was no attention to the need for literacy. There was only support for the oligarchs.\nSomoza said that he had a baton for the opposition, lead [bullets] for the rebels, and money for the oligarchy. And we insisted that we needed to have our rights.\nWe always have to be in the struggle. Because it is in struggle that we can lead to new times and changes. And the struggle against covid, the struggle against poverty, the struggle for work, the struggle for electrification, the struggle for social services, it is a constant struggle that is in the conscience of all the popular sectors, from the peasants, the Indigenous, the students, to the commercial sector, of small producers, and even some patriotic sectors of private businesses.\nWe know that we have that struggle to provide solutions, to meet people\u2019s needs, to rise out of poverty, and to maintain anti-imperialism, because imperialism wants to crush us.\nLong live the revolution on its 43rd anniversary!\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Burkina Faso\u2019s new president condemns imperialism, quotes Che Guevara, allies with Nicaragua, Venezuela, Cuba. 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": "Burkina Faso, Cuba, Daniel Ortega, Fidel Castro, France, Ibrahim Traor\u00e9, Iran, Nicaragua, Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, Roch Kabor\u00e9, Thomas Sankara, Venezuela", "output": "Burkina Faso\u2019s new President Ibrahim Traor\u00e9 has vowed to fight imperialism and neocolonialism. Pledging a \u201crefoundation of the nation\u201d, invoking revolutionary leader Thomas Sankara, and quoting Che Guevara, his government has allied with Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Cuba.\n\nThe new president of Burkina Faso, Ibrahim Traor\u00e9, has vowed to fight imperialism and neocolonialism, invoking his country\u2019s past revolutionary leader Thomas Sankara and quoting Che Guevara.\nThe West African nation has also formed close diplomatic ties with the revolutionary governments in Nicaragua, Venezuela, Cuba, and Iran, as well as with NATO\u2019s arch-rival Russia.\nIn January 2022, a group of nationalist military officers in Burkina Faso toppled the president, Roch Kabor\u00e9, a wealthy banker who had fostered close ties with the country\u2019s former colonizer, France, where he was educated.\nThe military officers declared a government run by what they call the Patriotic Movement for Safeguard and Restoration (MPSR), led by a new president, Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba.\nThey pledged to seek true independence from French hegemony, condemning the neocolonial policies and economic, political, and military control that Paris still exercises over Francophone West Africa.\nBurkina Faso ended its decades-long military agreement with France, expelling the hundreds of French troops that had been in the country for years.\nThe new president, Damiba, was initially popular. But support waned as he was unable to defeat the deadly Salafi-jihadist insurgents that have destabilized the country.\nIn September 2022, discontent led to a subsequent coup in Burkina Faso, which brought to power another nationalist military leader named Ibrahim Traor\u00e9. He was just 34 at the time, making him one of the world\u2019s youngest leaders.\nBurkina Faso\u2019s President Ibrahim Traor\u00e9\nTraor\u00e9 has pledged to carry out a \u201crefoundation of the nation\u201d and comprehensive \u201cmodernization\u201d, to quell violent extremism, fight corruption, and \u201ctotally reform our system of government\u201d.\nThe charismatic Burkinab\u00e8 leader frequently ends his speeches with the chant \u201cLa patrie ou la mort, nous vaincrons!\u201d, the French translation of the official motto of revolutionary Cuba: \u201cPatria o muerte, venceremos!\u201d \u2013 \u201cHomeland or death, we will prevail!\u201d\nAs president, Traor\u00e9 has brought back some of the revolutionary ideas of Thomas Sankara.\nSankara was a Marxist Burkinab\u00e8 military officer and committed pan-Africanist who ascended to power in a 1983 coup.\nSankara launched a socialist revolution, transforming the impoverished country through land reform, infrastructure development, and expansive public health and literacy programs.\nUnder Sankara\u2019s leadership, Burkina Faso also challenged French neocolonialism and pursued an anti-imperialist foreign policy, forming alliances with revolutionary struggles across the Global South.\nBurkina Faso\u2019s revolutionary former President Thomas Sankara\nThese leftist policies were reversed in 1987, when Sankara was\u00a0overthrown and killed in another coup, led by his former ally Blaise Compaor\u00e9 \u2013 who subsequently moved hard to the right and allied with the United States and France, ruling through rigged elections until 2014.\nToday, Ibrahim Traor\u00e9 is drawing heavily on the legacy of Sankara. He has made it clear that he wants West Africa, and the continent as a whole, to be free of Western neocolonialism.\nThis July, the Russian government held a Russia-Africa Summit in Saint Petersburg. Traor\u00e9 was the first African leader to arrive to the conference. There, he delivered a fiery anti-imperialist speech.\n\u201cWe are the forgotten peoples of the world. And we are here now to talk about the future of our countries, about how things will be tomorrow in the world that we are seeking to build, and in which there will be no interference in our internal affairs\u201d, Traor\u00e9 said, according to a partial transcript published by Russian state media outlet TASS.\nTASS reported:\nIn his speech, the Burkinabe head of state also focused on sovereignty and the struggle against imperialism. \u201cWhy does resource-rich Africa remain the poorest region of the world? We ask these questions and get no answers. However, we have the opportunity to build new relationships that will help us build a better future for Burkina Faso,\u201d the president said. African countries have suffered for decades from a barbaric and brutal form of colonialism and imperialism, which could be called a modern form of slavery, he stressed.\n\u201cHowever, a slave who does not fight [for his freedom] is not worthy of any indulgence. The heads of African states should not behave like puppets in the hands of the imperialists. We must ensure that our countries are self-sufficient, including as regards food supplies, and can meet all of the needs of our peoples. Glory and respect to our peoples; victory to our peoples! Homeland or death!\u201d Traore summed up, quoting the words of legendary Cuban revolutionary leader Ernesto \u201cChe\u201d Guevara. The 35-year-old president of Burkina Faso was attired in a camouflage uniform and red beret during the summit.\nOn July 29, Traor\u00e9 had a private meeting in Saint Petersburgh with Russian President Vladimir Putin.\nIn their talks, the Burkinab\u00e8 leader praised the Soviet Union for defeating Nazism in World War II.\nBurkina Faso\u2019s President Ibrahim Traor\u00e9 meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Saint Petersburgh on July 29, 2023\nThe new nationalist government in Burkina Faso has also sought to deepen its ties with revolutionary movements in Latin America.\nIn May, the West African nation\u2019s prime minister, Apollinaire Joachim Ky\u00e9lem de Tamb\u00e8la, traveled to Venezuela.\nTamb\u00e8la met with Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, who pledged to \u201cadvance in cooperation, solidarity, and growth\u2026 building a solid fraternal relation\u201d.\nCon el objetivo de avanzar en la cooperaci\u00f3n, solidaridad y crecimiento de ambas naciones, me reun\u00ed con el Primer Ministro de Burkina Faso, Apollinaire Ky\u00e9lem de Tamb\u00e9la. Tengo confianza que con esfuerzo y voluntad, seguiremos construyendo una s\u00f3lida relaci\u00f3n fraterna. pic.twitter.com/5mEXzzXIec\n\u2014 Nicol\u00e1s Maduro (@NicolasMaduro) May 12, 2023\n\nIn July, the Burkinab\u00e8 prime minister traveled to Nicaragua to celebrate the 44th anniversary of the Sandinista Revolution.\nTamb\u00e8la attended the July 19 celebration of the revolution in Managua, at the invitation of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega.\nBurkina Faso\u2019s Prime Minister Apollinaire Joachim Ky\u00e9lem de Tamb\u00e8la speaks at the 44th anniversary of the Sandinista Revolution in Managua, Nicaragua on July 19, 2023\nFollowing the September 2022 coup in Burkina Faso, the new president, Traor\u00e9, surprised many observers by choosing as his prime minister a longtime follower of Thomas Sankara, Apollinaire Joachim Ky\u00e9lem de Tamb\u00e8la.\nTamb\u00e8la was an ally of Sankara during the Burkinab\u00e8 revolution. When Sankara came to power in the 1980s, Tamb\u00e8la organized a solidarity movement and sought international support for the new leftist government.\nTamb\u00e8la is a pan-Africanist and has been affiliated with communist and left-wing organizations.\nTraor\u00e9 said in a speech in December that Tamb\u00e8la will help to oversee the process of the \u201crefoundation of the nation\u201c.\nBy appointing Tamb\u00e8la as prime minister, Traor\u00e9 tangibly showed his commitment to reviving the revolutionary legacy of Sankara.\nIn his remarks at the anniversary of the Sandinista Revolution, Tamb\u00e8la discussed the historical legacy of solidarity between the revolution in Burkina Faso and that of Nicaragua.\nTamb\u00e8la recalled that Sankara visited Nicaragua in 1986, and the Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega visited Burkina Faso that same year.\nWhen he spoke at the\u00a0United Nations General Assembly in 1984, Sankara declared, \u201cI wish also to feel close to my comrades of Nicaragua, whose ports are being mined, whose towns are being bombed and who, despite all, face up with courage and lucidity to their fate. I suffer with all those in Latin America who are suffering from imperialist domination\u201d.\nIn 1984 and 1986, Sankara also visited Cuba, where he met with revolutionary President Fidel Castro.\nBurkina Faso\u2019s President Thomas Sankara with Nicaragua\u2019s President Daniel Ortega\n\u201cFor people of my generation, there are things that unite us with Nicaragua, Augusto C\u00e9sar Sandino, the Sandinista National Liberation Front and Commander Daniel Ortega\u201d, Burkinab\u00e8 Prime Minister Tamb\u00e8la said in his speech in Managua on July 19, 2023.\n\u201cWe have learned to know Nicaragua. When the liberation struggle began, I was small, but we followed, day by day, the context of Nicaragua\u2019s liberation. I went in July of \u201979, and when they entered Managua we were happy, people of my age celebrated that\u201d, he recalled.\n\u201cAnd then, when Thomas Sankara came to power, Daniel Ortega and the Sandinista Revolution was something happy for us; we as students studied a lot the history of Nicaragua, we followed its evolution\u201d.\nTamb\u00e8la added that Burkina Faso supported Nicaragua in its International Court of Justice case against the United States. Washington was found guilty of illegally sponsoring far-right \u201cContra\u201d death squads, which waged a terror war against the leftist government, as well as putting mines in Nicaragua\u2019s ports. (Yet, although Nicaragua won the case in 1986, the US government has still to this day refused to pay the Central American nation a single cent of the reparations that it legally owes it.)\n\u201cNicaragua\u2019s struggle is also that of our people\u201d, Tamb\u00e8la stressed.\nIn his July 19 speech, the Burkinab\u00e8 prime minister also sent special greetings to the diplomatic delegations from Cuba, Venezuela, and Iran.\n\u201cWe have very close relations with Cuba\u201d, Tamb\u00e8la added. \u201cPresident Fidel Castro has been and was a very important person for the revolution in Africa; we have excellent memories, both of Cuba and of President Fidel Castro\u201d.\nThe 44th anniversary of Nicaragua's Sandinista Revolution this July 19 was dedicated to Burkina Faso's former revolutionary leader Thomas Sankara\nBurkina Faso's current PM spoke at the ceremony, reaffirming solidarity\nSankara visited Nicaragua during the US terror war in 1984 pic.twitter.com/Kkng2cENR3\n\u2014 Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) July 20, 2023\n\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: ALBA secretary: Summit of the Americas is \u2018failure,\u2019 US \u2018empire is losing its power\u2019. 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, Bolivarian Alliance, Bolivia, Caribbean, coup, Cuba, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Sacha Llorenti, Venezuela", "output": "The secretary of the Bolivarian Alliance (ALBA), Sacha Llorenti, discusses Latin America and the Caribbean\u2019s rebellion against the US government\u2019s exclusionary Summit of the Americas, and growing efforts at regional integration against imperialism.\n\nMultipolarista host Benjamin Norton interviewed the secretary of the Bolivarian Alliance (ALBA), Sacha Llorenti, about Latin America\u2019s rebellion against the US government\u2019s Summit of the Americas.\nPresidents of eight countries in the region boycotted the conference, which opened in Los Angeles, California on June 6.\nLlorenti discussed ALBA\u2019s alternative summit in Cuba, efforts at achieving economic and political integration of Latin America and the Caribbean, and the importance of unity against imperialism.\n\u201cWe don\u2019t consider this a summit, nor of the Americas,\u201d he said. Llorenti condemned the Monroe Doctrine, US sanctions, and the \u201csuperiority complex that runs through US foreign policy.\u201d\n\u201cThings are changing,\u201d he added.\u00a0\u201cWhat we are seeing is an empire which is losing its power.\u201d\nA transcript of the interview follows below. It has been lightly edited for clarity.\n\nBENJAMIN NORTON: Hello everyone, this is Ben Norton, and you are listening to or watching the Multipolarista podcast. This is a very special episode. I have the great privilege today of speaking with the executive secretary of the Bolivarian Alliance, the ALBA.\nThe full name is the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America. It\u2019s also an economic alliance, and the full name is ALBA-TCP, which is also a \u201cTrade Agreement for the People.\u201d\nThis is an economic alliance created by countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, to support independence from imperialism, sovereignty, and regional integration.\nAnd today, I\u2019m speaking with the secretary, the executive secretary of the ALBA, Sacha Llorenti. He is a former Bolivian diplomat and minister. He served as Bolivia\u2019s ambassador to the United Nations, and as a minister under Bolivia\u2019s former president, Evo Morales.\nToday, we are going to be speaking about the ongoing Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles, California. This has been a diplomatic disaster for the U.S. government, which is hosting the summit.\nAt least eight countries in Latin America have boycotted \u2013 their heads of state have boycotted this summit, including the presidents of Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Bolivia.\nAnd Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba are not attending either. The U.S. government refused to invite them, but they also said that they don\u2019t even want to attend this summit, which they do not consider legitimate.\nThere are also reports about members of the Caribbean and the Caribbean community, CARICOM, who said that they would potentially boycott the summit, which is going on right now. Today is June 8. It started on June 6, and is going on this week in Los Angeles, California.\nSo unfortunately, Secretary Llorenti does not have a lot of time today, so I\u2019m going to go straight to him.\nSecretary Llorenti, you are the the leader of the ALBA, the Bolivarian Alliance. Can you talk about what the ALBA\u2019s position has been on the Summit of the Americas? And can you give a general response to how you think the U.S. government has managed this?\nSACHA LLORENTI: Thank you very much. I want to thank you very much for the opportunity. First of all, we don\u2019t consider this is a summit, nor of the Americas, because of the arbitrary decision of the host country, in this case the United States, to exclude some nations, countries of the Americas, of Latin America and the Caribbean, from this meeting.\nThe ALBA, just to give you some information about our organization, is a multilateral, subregional organization that gathers 10 countries from Latin America and also the Caribbean. It was established in 2004 by Hugo Ch\u00e1vez and Fidel Castro. And then eight other countries joined our organization.\nWe held a summit of ALBA-TCP on May 27, just a few days ago.\u00a0And in our declaration, we reject the exclusions and the discriminatory treatment in the so-called Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles.\nI think that, for any honest analyst, this meeting that was convened by the United States has failed already, not just because of the exclusions, but also because of the reaction of most countries of Latin America and the Caribbean.\nYou mentioned a few. Everything started with the statements made by the president of Mexico, followed by the president of Honduras, of Bolivia. They have decided to take a strong position against this exclusion.\nCARICOM, as you also mentioned, the Community of Caribbean States, had a meeting of foreign ministers a few weeks ago. And they also called the United States for everyone to participate in this meeting.\nAnd also the president of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean states, CELAC, who is right now the president of Argentina, has said that he is going to participate in the so-called summit, but he will represent the voice of Latin America and the Caribbean, condemning the decision of the host country, the United States, to exclude these three countries.\nSo it is a failure, not just because the reaction that it has caused in the region, but also because I think that everyone realizes that the United States government is not interested in integration. It\u2019s not interested in human rights, nor democracy.\nWhat they do is they try to use every single venue, every single opportunity, in order to help their hegemonic interests instead of integration. This is a good example of what we are facing these days.\nAnd another thing that I want to also underline is that it is not just the discrimination against these three countries, but also against many representatives of civil society from different countries.\nSo it shows really how the United States government considers our region. They continue to consider Latin America and the Caribbean as their backyard.\nA few days ago, Joe Biden said, \u201cIt\u2019s not our backyard; it\u2019s our front yard.\u201d They don\u2019t realize that we are not anybody\u2019s back or front yard at all.\nAnd I think it\u2019s a mix of not understanding what\u2019s happening, but also this superiority complex that runs through the U.S. foreign policy towards Latin American and the Caribbean.\nBENJAMIN NORTON: Ambassador Llorenti, I would like to speak also about the countries that are attending.\nI mentioned the boycott by the presidents of Mexico, Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador; and Honduras, the new left-wing president of Honduras, Xiomara Castro; and the president of Bolivia, Luis Arce; and also the president of Guatemala, Alejandro Giammattei, for different political reasons \u2013 he\u2019s more conservative. But those are the presidents who are boycotting this summit.\nAlso the governments of Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua. Together, these countries represent over 200 million people.\nI should also mention mention that there are reports that the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, is reportedly not attending.\nSo together, that\u2019s more than 200 million people. In the region that is more than one-third of the population.\nAnd the leaders who are attending are some of the leaders that are the most notorious for violating human rights.\nI\u2019m talking about Ivan Duque in Colombia, who is closely linked to drug trafficking. I\u2019m also talking about the extremely right-wing president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, who has threatened sitting politicians, who has praised the Pinochet dictatorship.\nSo what do you think this says about the fact that the progressive governments in the region are, at least their heads of state are, refusing to participate, but some of the most reactionary elements, that violate human rights and do not respect popular democracy are participating in this summit?\nAlong with, I should mention, the country of Spain, which was invited, which is very much not in the Americas. The last time I looked, Spain is in Europe.\nSo what do you think that says about this this summit that\u2019s being organized by the U.S. government?\nSACHA LLORENTI: As I said before, it\u2019s a failure. It\u2019s the way they look at our region.\nBut it\u2019s part of a plan. It is not something that comes out of the blue. The United States has a clear policy of trying to dismantle, to destroy, every single attempt at genuine, authentic integration.\nWhat happened in South America with UNASUR, the unity of nations of the South. It was destroyed by right-wing governments. And of course, everyone also understands that the hand of the State Department was behind that.\nAlso the privatization of CELAC, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, I mean, until Mexico took over the presidency.\nSo it is part of a plan. They don\u2019t want a proper unity or integration of Latin American and Caribbean states.\nThat\u2019s why, what they are trying to do is to have the OAS and its secretary general to be, like it was pointed out by Cuban revolutionary Che, the Ministry of the Colonies.\nAnd I think it even goes even beyond that. I think that we have to understand that Latin America and the Caribbean has a different agenda, has different interests, has even a different doctrine than the United States.\nThis is the confrontation that we have now. It is a two-centuries-old confrontation.\nThe Monroe Doctrine, that was published in 1823 \u2013 it\u2019s going to be 200 years old next year \u2013 and the Bolivarian Doctrine, that is also 200 years old.\nThose two doctrines are in confrontation, because of the incompatibility of their interests for 200 years.\nAnd of course some countries of our region align themselves to the Monroe Doctrine, and some others to the Bolivarian Doctrine.\nI believe that our venue for integration is not the Summit of the Americas. I believe that the true, authentic venue for us to get together is CELAC, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States.\nAnd a proposal has come out in the summit of ALBA. The president of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, and also President Maduro recently reiterated the proposal of having meetings with the United States, of course, and Canada, but in another kind of format.\nCELAC has regular meetings with China, with Russia, with different countries. And I think that this kind of format could be established with the United States and Canada.\nBut we need some venue in which things are run by Latin America and the Caribbean countries and interests, not the US interests. Because, as I said, they are not aligned.\nAnd just another thing on who is going on and who is not going. What I believe is that most of the leaders or representatives that are that are going are going to protest the situation.\nAnd the ones that are not going, of course they are not going in protest of the decisions of the United States.\nThe summit is a failure. But I think that we have to understand that the integration will not be achieved through the Summit of the Americas.\nBecause from the beginning, from 1994 when the first summit was held, the purpose of the United States was to have a free market area in America.\nAnd of course that failed. In 2005, in the summit held Mar del Plata in Argentina, when leaders such as N\u00e9stor Kirchner, Tabar\u00e9 V\u00e1zquez, Lula da Silva, Hugo Ch\u00e1vez, had a strong position against the Free Trade Area of the Americas.\nThe main interests of the United States is to have control of Latin America and the Caribbean\u2019s natural resources. That\u2019s the first interest.\nThe second one is for the region to be the market for U.S. products, or companies, or multinational corporations.\nAlso, they want our workers for cheap labor.\nAnd the whole reason of their interest is for them to control all the commercial, international commercial routes. That\u2019s why the Panama Canal is so important. That\u2019s why they did everything that they could in order to stop the project for the canal in Nicaragua.\nAnd the fifth reason is for them to to punish everyone who does not obey their commands.\nBut things are changing in Latin America and the Caribbean. And the dignity which most of the countries are expressing in their rejection of the U.S. decisions is going to be the main and most important issue that will be discussed, or is being discussed in Los Angeles right now.\nBENJAMIN NORTON: Secretary Llorenti, you mentioned that, just a few weeks ago, there was a summit held in Cuba of the members of the ALBA. These are countries in both Latin America and the Caribbean.\nCan you talk about what was discussed in that summit and the final declaration that was published?\nSACHA LLORENTI: Well, the declaration was a very important one. As I mentioned before, ALBA brings together the 10 countries. Allow me to mention them, because I think it\u2019s important. It\u2019s one-third of the whole Latin American and the Caribbean region.\nIt\u2019s Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, Dominica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.\nThose 10 countries gathered in Havana. And the first point that they adopted was the rejection of exclusions and the discriminatory treatment in the so-called Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles.\nThey pointed out that genuine regional integration should be made by the CELAC, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States. And the underlined the the proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a zone of peace.\nThat\u2019s why the presence of US military bases is an aggression to this proclamation of our region as a zone of peace.\u00a0Also the presence of NATO goes against this this proclamation.\nSo that\u2019s that\u2019s another point that was underlined in our summit.\nThe other thing is the the support for the right of all countries of the continent to be not just invited but also to participate in meetings such as the so-called Summit of the Americas.\nAlso, the ALBA has denounced the discriminatory treatment by the United States as the host country of the so-called Summit of the Americas against numerous representatives of the genuine civil society of our continent.\nAnd also we rejected the unilateral coercive measures that the United States imposes against countries of our alliance. This goes against the principles of the UN Charter. It goes against international law, and against the principles of multilateralism as well.\nWe have to repeat every single time that the United States imposes a blockade, an embargo, against Cuba for more than six decades. That\u2019s a crime against humanity. Also against Venezuela and Nicaragua.\nAnd this is, I think, something that we should should always remember, that the United States government used the [Covid-19] pandemic as a weapon. They weaponized the pandemic against not just these three countries, but some others in the world. Because instead of trying to lift some of these illegal measures against the peoples of these countries, they used the pandemic in order to strengthen these illegal, unilateral coercive measures.\nSo the [ALBA] summit based itself in the principles and purposes of the United Nations charter, that the United States has committed itself to uphold, the same thing with international law.\nBENJAMIN NORTON: Ambassador Llorenti, you mentioned that the U.S. government has gone out of its way supporting coups to try to prevent countries from integrating into the Bolivarian Alliance.\nFor instance, Honduras under President Manuel Zelaya was a member of the ALBA. There was a US-backed coup in 2009, and Honduras was removed from the ALBA.\nSimilarly, Ecuador had been part of the ALBA, and there was this betrayal, a kind of internal soft coup by Len\u00edn Moreno against the former president, Rafael Correa. And he withdrew Ecuador from the ALBA.\nAnd I would say, from studying this, that one of the main reasons that Washington has been afraid of the ALBA is that it proposes an economic alternative for the region, based on regional integration, based on bartering, and based on the creation of a new currency.\nThe ALBA did create a new currency for trade in the region, called the Sucre.\nAnd we saw recent comments from the former president of Brazil Lula da Silva, who said that if he wins the October election, that he plans on creating a new currency in Latin America and the Caribbean for trade called the Sur.\nCan you talk about attempts in the region to create a new currency, to integrate the economics of the region, and to create more independence from the U.S. dollar and U.S. hegemony?\nSACHA LLORENTI: Yes, first of all, you mentioned many of the the countries in which the United States was part of a coup d\u2019etat. I have to add Bolivia to that list.\nWhat the OAS and the United States supported was a dictatorship in my own country. And, I mean, what happened in Bolivia was, of course, one of the latest examples of how the United States does not care about democracy.\nThey talk about democracy, but what they do is they organize and finance not just coups d\u2019etat, but also the political instability in our countries.\nWe we have to ask ourselves for instance, who funded, who is funding the opposition in countries such as Nicaragua, or Cuba, or Venezuela? Through NGOs, directly, is the United States.\nSo they are the last ones to try to teach lessons on democracy or human rights.\nOur countries, our peoples, know exactly what they have done for decades and decades in Latin America and the Caribbean.\nAnd you mentioned the efforts in order to achieve a different kind of relationship in terms of economics or finances. That\u2019s one of the goals of ALBA-TCP.\nWe have made tremendous advances in terms of having an economic relationship based on solidarity, not just profit. Petrocaribe is another example, in which the solidarity of Venezuela has been shown all over the region, in terms of providing energy in an affordable way for different countries.\nThe idea of having our own currency is, of course, one of our goals. And we were pleased by the declaration made by Lula da Silva.\u00a0 That\u2019s an effort that we have to continue working on.\nBecause imperialism is not just the political control; imperialism is not just territorial control; imperialism is also very, very much linked to natural resources, to the financial system, to how the debt system works; it is very much related to the World Bank, to the International Monetary Fund, the way in which the dollar imposes its will on the whole world.\nAnd things are changing. Things are changing, not just in Latin America and the Caribbean, but also in Asia and Africa.\nSo what we are seeing is an empire which is losing its power. And I think that this century will be a century in which we will see the decay U.S. imperialism.\nBENJAMIN NORTON: Secretary Llorenti, in addition to being the executive secretary of the ALBA, you were previously a Bolivian minister under President Evo Morales, and Bolivia\u2019s ambassador to the United Nations.\nYou mentioned the US-backed coup in Bolivia in 2019 against Evo Morales. The people of Bolivia were able to overthrow, democratically, that coup, defeat the coup regime at the ballot box.\nAnd the current government, led by the Movement Toward Socialism party and President Luis Arce, the government \u2013 the judicial system has just said that the former dictator, Jeanine \u00c1\u00f1ez, faces 15 years in prison.\nI\u2019m wondering if you can comment on the process of defeating the coup in Bolivia and the restoration of democracy in your country.\nSACHA LLORENTI: Well I believe that the Bolivian people have written one of the most heroic, epic pages in the history of Latin America and the Caribbean.\nBecause if we compare similar processes in some other countries, we will find that there are very, very few examples in which the people itself recover democracy after a short period of time.\nI mean, it took in some cases 10 or 15 years before the people would get back to power. In the case of Bolivia, it took one year.\nBut at a very high cost. There were two massacres in Bolivia. Almost 40 people were killed. People were persecuted and were jailed. Many of us had to go into exile.\nBut the people itself recovered democracy, democratically. And now what has happened in Bolivia, they are of course people who took power illegally, and are being prosecuted. And we hope that all of those responsible will be rightfully and lawfully punished.\nI think that will send a clear message not just to Bolivians, but also to all Latin Americans and Caribbeans, that coups d\u2019etat should be part of the past.\nBut we also understand that the right-wing interests, the oligarchy, or the U.S. interests do not support democracy. When democracy does not fit their interests, they go and do these things that they have done, not just in Bolivia; they also tried to do that in Nicaragua in 2018.\nThey tried to do it in Venezuela. The latest revelations of what they were organizing in Venezuela are really, really scary. Not just mercenaries, not just the discussion of military intervention, but also they tried to kill President Maduro.\nSo we have to be aware. We don\u2019t have the luxury of being naive. We have to be alert 24/7. Because the rights of the people, the benefits of this revolutionary process, are not safe if we are naive.\nBENJAMIN NORTON: Secretary Llorenti, I know that you are a very busy man, and I know we have to wrap up the interview. I just want to conclude with one final question.\nI would be remiss if I didn\u2019t mention that, in Los Angeles right now, outside of the US government-sponsored summit, there is an alternative summit called the Summit of the Peoples, the People\u2019s Summit for Democracy.\nThis has been organized by social movements across the Americas, including social movements in the United States and Canada, but also social movements in South America, Central America, and the Caribbean.\nAnd one of the co-conveners of this People\u2019s Summit for Democracy that\u2019s going on in protest, is ALBA Movimientos, the social movement arm of the ALBA. I believe it\u2019s independent from ALBA, the body that brings together the countries.\nBut I\u2019m wondering if you can just speak about the People\u2019s Summit for Democracy that\u2019s going on to protest the US government-sponsored, exclusionary summit.\nSACHA LLORENTI: I believe that\u2019s a real summit, the People\u2019s Summit. Because the policy of exclusion of the United States has made clear what\u2019s at stake.\nThere are global and regional threats. We are missing the opportunity for governments to talk about health, to talk about climate change, to talk about debt, to talk about the real challenges that our peoples face.\nSo we are looking forward to the conclusions of the People\u2019s Summit. We are going to participate. I will participate virtually on the last day of the summit.\nAnd we we believe that they were also victims of this discriminatory policy. Because, as I pointed out, many representatives of civil society of our countries were excluded from the participation of the Summit [of the Americas], because the US government didn\u2019t provided visas for these people.\nSo we look forward to the conclusions of the summit. I think that this is going to be a milestone on the long process for hope for our peoples to get together and to struggle against our common threats.\nAnd our common threats are imperialism, capitalism, colonialism, and, of course, patriarchy as well.\nSo that\u2019s my point of view. And I really thank you very much for this opportunity.\nBENJAMIN NORTON: I want to thank you, Secretary Sacha Llorenti, the executive secretary of the Bolivarian Alliance, the ALBA.\nFor people who want to find more information about Secretary Llorenti and the ALBA, you can follow him on Twitter at @SachaLlorenti. And you can also follow the ALBA at @ALBATCP.\nAgain, I want to thank you, Secretary Llorenti. I know you\u2019re a very busy man. It was a real pleasure speaking with you.\nSACHA LLORENTI: Thank you. It was my pleasure, Ben.\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Russia strengthens \u2018military-technical cooperation\u2019 with Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba amid US threats. 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, Daniel Ortega, Miguel D\u00edaz-Canel, Nicaragua, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, Russia, Ukraine, Venezuela, Vladimir Putin", "output": "Russia said it is expanding \u201cmilitary-technical cooperation\u201d with Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba, after Putin had phone calls with the presidents of the three socialist governments, which have been targeted by illegal US sanctions and coup attempts.\n\nRussia is strengthening its alliance with Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba, as the United States accelerates its campaign to isolate all four countries.\nRussian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told his country\u2019s parliament, the Duma, that Moscow was expanding its cooperation with the three socialist Latin American governments in all areas, including \u201cmilitary-technical cooperation.\u201d\nRussian President Vladimir Putin had friendly phone calls with Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, and Cuban President Miguel D\u00edaz-Canel between January 18 and 24, reaffirming Moscow\u2019s \u201cunwavering support.\u201d\nThe Donald Trump administration dubbed Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba the so-called \u201cTroika of Tyranny,\u201d in comments made by neoconservative former National Security Advisor John Bolton.\nThe United States has imposed unilateral economic sanctions, which are illegal under international law, on all three. Venezuela is suffering under an unlawful US embargo, and Cuba has been crushed by a US blockade for six decades \u2013 while more than 95% of the members of the United Nations General Assembly have voted to condemn this blockade annually for 29 years.\nRussian Foreign Minister Lavrov explained that, in recent talks with the leaders of these three Latin American countries, \u201cWays to deepen our strategic association were looked at in all areas, without exception.\u201d\n\u201cIn terms of Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, we have very close relations and strategic cooperation in all areas: in the economy, culture, education, and military-technical cooperation,\u201d he said.\n\u201cOur partnership with Latin American countries is deepening,\u201d Lavrov added, calling them \u201cthree friendly states close to us.\u201d\nWhile Russia strengthens its alliance with Latin American leftists, Joe Biden has resorted to neocolonial rhetoric. In a January 19 press conference, the US president referred to Latin America as Washington\u2019s \u201cfront yard,\u201d declaring, \u201cEverything south of the Mexican border is America\u2019s front yard.\u201d\nThese diplomatic moves come at a point of historic high tensions between Washington and Moscow.\nThe United States and Britain have provoked a crisis in Russia\u2019s neighbor Ukraine, sending weapons and encouraging a military buildup that could spill over into war.\nThis follows years of instability caused by a violent coup in Ukraine in 2014, which was sponsored by the US and the European Union in order to install a pro-Western and vehemently anti-Russian government in Kiev.\nWashington and London have insisted, without presenting any evidence, that Russia will soon send troops to take over Ukraine \u2013 although top officials in Kiev have publicly denied that Russia plans to invade their country.\nRussia has demanded that the United States pledge not to expand NATO further and not to deploy more weapons and soldiers to the nations on its borders.\nWashington and Moscow held talks in Geneva, but they broke down on January 13, because the US refused to make any concessions.\nFaced with the diplomatic dead-end, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told a Russian media outlet that Moscow could not rule out the possibility of sending a military deployment to Venezuela or Cuba.\nRussia\u2019s alliance with Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Cuba was reaffirmed in recent conversations President Putin had with the leaders of the three socialist Latin American states.\nPutin called Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega on January 18, congratulating him on his re-election and January 10 inauguration.\nAccording to the readout from the Foreign Ministry, Putin \u201creaffirmed Russia\u2019s unwavering support for the efforts of the Nicaraguan Government to ensure national sovereignty and its commitment to continue facilitating the republic\u2019s socioeconomic development.\u201d They also \u201creaffirmed the importance of continued close cooperation in the international arena in keeping with the strategic partnership between Russia and Nicaragua.\u201d\nOn January 20, Putin called Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro. The Foreign Ministry used very similar language to describe the call: the \u201cleaders reaffirmed their commitment to close coordination in international affairs in keeping with the principles of strategic partnership that underlie bilateral relations,\u201d and \u201cPutin expressed his unwavering support for the Venezuelan authorities\u2019 efforts to strengthen the sovereignty of the country and ensure its socioeconomic development.\u201d\nThen on January 24, Putin called Cuban President Miguel D\u00edaz-Canel, and Moscow said the \u201cpresidents discussed further coordination of Russia\u2019s and Cuba\u2019s actions in the international arena in line with the principles of strategic partnership and the traditions of friendship and mutual understanding.\u201d\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Peru\u2019s President Pedro Castillo at UN: Healthcare, education, housing, jobs are rights, must be guaranteed to all. 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": "education, healthcare, housing, Pedro Castillo, Peru, UN, United Nations", "output": "In his first United Nations address, Peru\u2019s President Pedro Castillo called for a \u201csocial transformation\u201d that guarantees \u201ceconomic rights,\u201d while reducing hunger, poverty, and inequality\n\nPeru\u2019s new leftist President\u00a0Pedro Castillo delivered his first address\u00a0to the United Nations General Assembly on September 21.\nHe used the platform to call for a \u201csocial transformation\u201d that guarantees not just civil and political rights, but also economic and social rights to healthcare, education, housing, and dignified work.\n\u201cHealth, education, water, and sanitation cannot be for-profit business; they are fundamental human rights that we must guarantee,\u201d Castillo emphasized.\nNoting that he is the first rural school teacher to ever lead Peru, Castillo stressed the need to eliminate extreme poverty and hunger, while reducing poverty and inequality.\nHe also prioritized protecting the environment, and said his government is going to\u00a0declare a \u201cclimate emergency.\u201d\nNotably, there was a major issue completely absent from his speech: Castillo very clearly steered away from international affairs, and did not comment on any conflicts in Latin America.\nHis government\u2019s foreign policy has been quite inconsistent, and Castillo\u2019s anti-imperialist foreign minister, H\u00e9ctor B\u00e9jar, was forced by the military to resign, mere weeks after being appointed.\nB\u00e9jar warned the forced resignation was \u201ca\u00a0soft coup, or the beginning of it.\u201d He added, ominously, \u201cCastillo is an excellent person,\u201d but \u201cthis is a weak government; I am not going to deny it.\u201d\nThere are a lot of internal contradictions in Castillo\u2019s government, and it is not very stable. The right-wing opposition still dominates many Peruvian state institutions, including the Congress, and is committed to impeaching him as soon as possible.\nCastillo is also leading a country that has had five presidents in just five years, including three different heads of state in one chaotic week.\nNevertheless, his address at the UN gives us a glimpse into the social issues Castillo is prioritizing in his new government.\nTranslated highlights of the Peruvian president\u2019s speech follow below.\nPeru's new leftist President Pedro Castillo used his first ever speech at the United Nations to call for a \"social transformation\" that guarantees not just civil and political rights, but also economic and social rights to healthcare, education, housing, and dignified work pic.twitter.com/YZpbSbI7t6\n\u2014 Benjamin Norton (@BenjaminNorton) September 24, 2021\n\n\u201cA social transformation is needed, which allows all Peruvians to enjoy their economic and social rights, in addition to fundamental freedom to civil and political rights \u2014 a transformation that takes place in the homes of every family.\u201d\n\u201cTheir rights to education, to health, to honest work, to a dignified salary, to social security, to housing, and to access to an individual, economic, and collective life, while respecting the rights of Mother Earth.\u201d\n\u201cIt is the first time in the history of my Peruvian people that a school teacher from a rural area is leading this country.\u201d\n\u201cAnd that responsibility obligates me to serve the poor, the marginalized, the vulnerable populations, the small businesses, the middle classes who have suffered through the pandemic, and of course, all Peruvians without exclusions.\u201d\n\u201cPeru is the cradle of many great civilizations that have contributed to the history of humanity. It is a multicultural and multiethnic country.\u201d\n\u201cMy government is counting on building a society and a state with popular roots, with social inclusion, which eliminates inequalities, injustices, the unfair distribution of wealth, to build a solid democratic society in which freedom and civil rights are guaranteed by a democratic and representative state that inspires the participation of the population and the sub-national, regional, and local governments in all of the processes of decision-making that concern their futures and lives.\u201d\nAt the UN, Peru\u2019s President Castillo insisted \u201chealth, education, water, and sanitation cannot be for-profit business. They are fundamental human rights that we must guarantee\u201d\nHe also emphasized the need to eliminate extreme poverty and hunger, and reduce poverty and inequality pic.twitter.com/Hh54C28a1Z\n\u2014 Benjamin Norton (@BenjaminNorton) September 24, 2021\n\n\u201cHealth, education, access to water, and sanitation cannot be for-profit business. They are fundamental human rights that we must guarantee, assuring universal, high-quality access, without any kind of discrimination.\u201d\n\u201cWe are equally committed to a policy of social development that allows Peru to complete the goals of the millennium, especially concerning access to water, to health networks, reduction of poverty, elimination of extreme poverty, reduction of infant mortality, full access to the health system, guaranteeing inclusive high-quality education, attaining gender equality, and especially creating jobs and improving informal work. Dignified work is the only long-lasting antidote against poverty.\u201d\n\u201cThe goal of zero hunger must be what the international community focuses its resources on. It is imperative to double our actions to meet the immediate food needs of all vulnerable populations, to strengthen programs of social protection, to maintain and increase global trade of food.\u201d\n\u201cA new social contract is being built in Peru, a new social contract that assures democratic governance with peace and social cohesion, and that is able to drastically reduce poverty and eliminate extreme poverty, that reduces inequalities and ends exclusion and racism as obstacles to equal treatment by the state and the market.\u201d\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: China \u2018counters US dollar hegemony\u2019 with gold reserves, Argentina yuan currency swap deal. 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": "Alberto Fern\u00e1ndez, Argentina, Brazil, China, currency swap, de-dollarization, gold, Lula da Silva", "output": "Advancing global de-dollarization, China\u2019s central bank is boosting its gold reserves while signing currency swap deals in yuan with countries like Argentina, encouraging the use of renminbi instead of US dollars.\n\nChina\u2019s central bank has taken a series of steps to accelerate the global drive toward de-dollarization, challenging the hegemony of the greenback.\nThe People\u2019s Bank of China is increasing the share of gold in its foreign-exchange reserves, bucking the US dollar, which has for decades been dominant in international central bank holdings.\nThis January, China also signed an agreement with Argentina\u2019s central bank for a currency swap deal, in which Beijing will provide 130 billion Chinese yuan (roughly $19 billion USD) to help Buenos Aires stabilize its currency and economy.\n\nThe South American nation said it is \u201ccommitted to deepen the use of the RMB [renminbi] in the Argentine market for bilateral exchange\u201d. (Renminbi is the official name of the Chinese currency, and is often used interchangeably with yuan, which is the unit of account of that currency.)\nChina\u2019s semi-official newspaper Global Times commented that the deal makes it \u201clikely that more Latin American countries will increase the use of Chinese yuan in order to counter the US dollar\u2019s hegemony, and strengthen economic ties with China\u201d.\nThese moves show how China is responding to the new cold war that the United States is waging against it.\nConcerned that the aggressive sanctions that Washington has already imposed could expand into an all-out economic war, Beijing is decreasing its holdings of dollars in reserves and encouraging the use of its currency in trade with other nations \u2013 thereby chipping away at the global reserve currency.\nMeanwhile, Russia\u2019s central bank has pledged to buy yuan in the foreign-exchange market to hold in its reserves. And Beijing is already purchasing oil from Moscow in its national currency.\n\nIn December 2022, the People\u2019s Bank of China publicly disclosed for the first time in three years that it was increasing the share of gold in its foreign-exchange reserves.\nBloomberg noted at the time that \u201cChina\u2019s purchases may be part of a plan to diversify its reserves away from the dollar\u201c.\nIn January 2023, Bloomberg followed up indicating that the People\u2019s Bank of China had again boosted its gold reserves.\nThe media outlet speculated that Russia is filling its reserves with gold as well.\nChina and Russia are not alone. Bloomberg reported that central banks around the world are buying gold, reaching a record of close to 400 tons in the third fiscal quarter of 2022, compared to 241 tons in the same period in 2018.\nCentral banks in many countries are increasingly worried that they could be targeted by unilateral Western sanctions.\nThe United States and European Union have frozen or seized hundreds of billions of dollars and euros from the foreign reserves belonging to the central banks of Russia, Iran, Venezuela, and Afghanistan.\nThis has pushed many nations to look into diversifying their foreign reserves \u2013 not only governments targeted by the West for regime change, but even long-time allies such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and T\u00fcrkiye.\nCentral banks look to China\u2019s renminbi to diversify foreign currency reserves https://t.co/skJm1aKmmW\n\u2014 FT Economics (@fteconomics) July 1, 2022\n\nThe Financial Times reported in June 2022 that central banks across the planet \u201care looking towards the renminbi to diversify their foreign currency holdings, in a sign that geopolitical flare-ups could chip away at the dollar\u2019s dominance\u201d.\nA staggering 85% of central bank reserve managers have expressed interest in investing or already are invested in renminbi, the newspaper noted.\nIt quoted the head of strategy for global sovereign markets at top Swiss bank UBS, Massimiliano Castelli, who said: \u201cWe\u2019re seeing a gradual erosion of the dollar\u2026 The picture that emerges is one of a multipolar currency system\u201d.\nThe newspaper added, \u201cFour-fifths of the central bankers surveyed said they believed that a move towards a multipolar world \u2014 away from a US-centric system \u2014 would benefit the renminbi\u201d.\nThe US-dominated International Monetary Fund (IMF) has made similar warnings. In March 2022, it published a research paper on the \u201cstealth erosion of dollar dominance\u201c.\nThe US-dominated International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned of an \u201cerosion of dollar dominance\u201d\nUse of Chinese yuan in global central bank reserves is increasing\nAnd Western sanctions on Russia could weaken the dollar, strengthening other currencieshttps://t.co/weF255asil\n\u2014 Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) March 31, 2022\n\nThe financial institution observed a marked rise in the use of \u201cnontraditional currencies\u201d in global central bank reserves. The Chinese yuan has driven this increase.\nFrom 2000 to 2021, the percentage of foreign reserves held in US dollars dropped from a bit over 70% to just under 60%.\nThus far, the shift has been slow. But as the United States escalates its new cold war on China, the ensuing geopolitical conflict is likely to accelerate the move toward de-dollarization.\n\nArgentina has struggled for centuries with odious debt owed to colonial and neo-colonial powers.\nToday, the South American nation is trapped in $44 billion in dollar-denominated debt with the IMF.\nSeeking to fortify its sovereignty and weaken US control, Argentina has strengthened its relations with China and Russia.\nChina is already Argentina\u2019s second-biggest trade partner, after Brazil, and the ties between the countries are growing.\nIn February 2022, Buenos Aires joined Beijing\u2019s massive global infrastructure project, the Belt and Road Initiative.\nArgentina has also applied to join the expanded BRICS+ bloc, alongside Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.\nThis January 8, the president of Argentina\u2019s central bank met with his counterpart from China.\nThe Argentine central bank reported that the two countries \u201ccommitted to deepen the use of the RMB [renminbi] in the Argentine market for bilateral exchange\u201d.\nThe swap offers 130 billion in Chinese yuan (roughly $19 billion USD), with an additional \u201cspecial activation\u201d of 35 billion yuan (approximately $5 billion USD) for interventions in the foreign-exchange market.\nThe president of Argentina\u2019s central bank, Miguel Pesce, meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Yi Gang\nArgentine President Alberto Fern\u00e1ndez had met with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G20 summit in November 2022, where they discussed the currency swap.\nThe Argentine central bank has an account in its own currency, the peso, at the People\u2019s Bank of China. China\u2019s central bank has an account in yuan at Argentina\u2019s central bank. Buenos Aires must pay Beijing back the 130 billion yuan, with interest. But the advantage is that dollars are not involved.\nAccording to the Argentine central bank\u2019s most recent report, from November 2022, its total reserves sum to $38 billion USD.\nThis means that the yuan currency swap represents roughly half of Argentina\u2019s reserves. This will have a massive macroeconomic impact.\nThe newspaper Global Times, which is linked to the Communist Party of China and has a nationalist perspective, explained the thinking of some officials in Beijing, arguing that the currency swap deal \u201chelp the Latin American country hedge against shocks brought about by the US\u2019 financial policy tightening while promoting its own industrial development\u201d.\n\u201cIt is likely that more Latin American countries will increase the use of Chinese yuan in order to counter the US dollar\u2019s hegemony, and strengthen economic ties with China\u201d, the semi-official media outlet added.\n#China-Argentina currency swap expansion reflects Latin American country's determination to seek closer cooperation with China: experts say.https://t.co/gz1YAp9sn0 pic.twitter.com/g0Ra0XA1dn\n\u2014 Global Times (@globaltimesnews) January 9, 2023\n\nArgentina is a significant agricultural producer, and its top exports include corn, soy products, and wheat.\nTwo-thirds of Argentina\u2019s exports to China consist of soy beans, with an additional 7% of soy oil. Argentina also exports to China smaller amounts of beef, crude petroleum, and shrimp and prawn.\nMost of what China exports to Argentina is various forms of advanced technologies, including phones, TVs, and machines.\nExports, especially from the agricultural sector, are one of the only ways Argentina can get access to foreign currencies \u2013 or more specifically dollars, which it needs to service its dollar-denominated debt with the IMF.\nNormally, if a company in a country like Argentina needs dollars, or if a bank needs foreign currency for a loan, these firms would buy it on the foreign-exchange market. In contrast, swap lines cut out the middleman and create direct relationships between the central banks of countries.\nThe Chinese swap line deal could help Argentina hold on to dollars to service its debt, while using yuan to buy products from China.\nPerhaps even more importantly for Buenos Aires, which suffers with high rates of inflation, it could also use yuan instead of dollars to stabilize the ever-weakening Argentine peso by intervening in the foreign-exchange market.\nChina began conducted currency swaps with Argentina back in 2009, under left-wing President Cristina Fern\u00e1ndez de Kirchner. Deals have been repeatedly renewed since then.\nBut the South American nation is not the only country that has worked out a system like this with the East Asian giant.\nIn December, the Wall Street Journal reported that Beijing\u2019s central bank is using an \u201cunusual channel\u201d: \u201ccurrency-swap lines to support governments that borrowed heavily from Chinese banks\u201d.\nThe People\u2019s Bank of China (PBOC) has given hundreds of billions of dollars worth of yuan to dozens of countries in exchange for their domestic currencies, the newspaper reported.\nAmong these recipients are Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Argentina, and Laos \u2014 all nations that struggle with external debt, much of it denominated in US dollars.\nHungry for foreign currency to shore up their dwindling reserves, some countries have turned to an unusual source of funds: The People's Bank of China https://t.co/QgmRnRdewt\n\u2014 WSJ China Real Time (@ChinaRealTime) December 12, 2022\n\nThe Wall Street Journal explained, \u201cBy replenishing other countries\u2019 reserves, the PBOC may be helping some of the world\u2019s most indebted countries avoid rising borrowing costs\u201d.\nWhile the newspaper portrayed this as a cynical effort by China to \u201cprop up\u201d members of its Belt and Road Initiative, the media outlet acknowledged that Beijing is also using the currency swaps to accelerate the de-dollarization of the international financial system.\n\u201cThe PBOC says the swap lines are there to help grease the wheels of international trade, ensure financial stability and further the adoption of the yuan in a world where trade and finance are dominated by the U.S. dollar\u201d, the Wall Street Journal wrote.\nIt added: \u201cThe PBOC\u2019s swap network is the largest of its kind, according to the World Bank. The PBOC said in a 2021 report that it has swap facilities with 40 countries with a combined capacity of almost 4 trillion yuan, or about $570 billion\u201d.\nWhile Buenos Aires is collaborating more closely with Beijing (its second-largest trading partner), Argentina has simultaneously pushed for stronger ties with Brazil (its largest trading partner) and economic integration of Latin America.\nBrazil\u2019s left-wing President Lula da Silva returned to power on January 1.\nTwo days later, Argentina\u2019s Ambassador Daniel Scioli met with Brazil\u2019s Economic Minister Fernando Haddad.\nScioli said his government\u2019s top priority was \u201cthe agreement on deep Argentina-Brazil integration\u201d that the countries\u2019 Presidents Alberto Fern\u00e1ndez and Lula da Silva are due to sign at the summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) in Buenos Aires on January 24.\n???? | Avanzamos con el nuevo ministro de Econom\u00eda de Brasil, @Haddad_Fernando, en 3 temas prioritarios de la agenda bilateral:\n1\u20e3 El acuerdo de integraci\u00f3n profunda Argentina-Brasil que firmar\u00e1n @alferdez y @LulaOficial en la pr\u00f3xima reuni\u00f3n de la CELAC en Buenos Aires. pic.twitter.com/T0ZbawtCnJ\n\u2014 Daniel Scioli ?? (@danielscioli) January 3, 2023\n\nThe Argentine ambassador likewise revealed that his government is in talks with the state-owned Brazilian Development Bank to receive financing to advance construction of a pipeline, named after former President N\u00e9stor Kirchner, which will provide a steady supply of gas to Brazil.\nArgentina has the world\u2019s second-biggest reserves of shale gas and the forth-biggest of shale oil.\nScioli added that Argentina and Brazil look to increase their exports and trade with each other, \u201cconserving the reserves of both countries in the framework of the system of local currencies\u201d.\n3\u20e3 El financiamiento del BNDES a las pr\u00f3ximas etapas del gasoducto N\u00e9stor Kirchner, que permitir\u00e1 el abastecimiento sustentable de gas a Brasil y equilibrar nuestra balanza comercial.\nM\u00e1s integraci\u00f3n con Brasil es m\u00e1s crecimiento, trabajo y divisas para la Argentina.\n\u2014 Daniel Scioli ?? (@danielscioli) January 3, 2023\n\nScioli\u2019s hint that Argentine-Brazilian trade will be done with local currencies led to international speculation that the countries are moving forward with Lula\u2019s proposed plan to create a sovereign Latin American currency for regional trade.\nThis frightened some foreign investors, and was reported in the financial press with a heavy dose of concern \u2013 and condescension.\nHaddad downplayed the reports, saying, \u201cThere is no proposal for one currency for Mercosur\u201d. But his words were careful: The Brazilian economic minister said there was not yet a proposal; he didn\u2019t deny that the potential currency was discussed.\nIt was likely that Haddad was merely trying to reassure foreign investors.\nIn his inauguration speech, Lula pledged more robust social spending to fight poverty and hunger and vowed to reverse the privatizations carried out by previous far-right President Jair Bolsonaro.\nThese policies are overwhelmingly popular among the Brazilian people, but they scared some investors in Brazilian stocks, who sold off shares, leading to market instability and a slight drop in the value of the country\u2019s currency, the real, against the dollar.\nRecebi do vice-presidente China, Wang Qishan, uma carta do presidente Xi Jinping com seus cumprimentos e vontade de ampliarmos a coopera\u00e7\u00e3o. A China \u00e9 nosso maior parceiro comercial e podemos ampliar ainda mais as rela\u00e7\u00f5es entre nossos pa\u00edses ????\n?: @ricardostuckert pic.twitter.com/Z8FAmn4yyW\n\u2014 Lula (@LulaOficial) January 2, 2023\n\nIn the mean time, Brazil\u2019s new government, like that of Argentina,\u00a0has vowed to deepen its alliance with China.\nOn the day after his inauguration, Lula met with China\u2019s Vice President Wang Qishan. The statesman gave the Brazilian leader a letter from President Xi Jinping, which called to boost Chinese-Brazilian ties.\nLula tweeted, \u201cChina is our biggest trading partner, and we can even further expand the relations between our countries\u201d.\n"}
{"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 Fern\u00e1ndez de Kirchner, debt, dollar, IMF, International Monetary Fund, lawfare, Marco Teruggi, Mauricio Macri, N\u00e9stor Kirchner, odious debt, Peronism", "output": "Leaked messages show Argentina\u2019s corrupt judges and prosecutors conspired with right-wing media oligarchs to launch a judicial coup against left-wing ex President and current VP Cristina Fern\u00e1ndez de Kirchner, sentencing her to six years in prison and banning her from running in the 2023 elections.\n\n(Puedes leer esta nota en espa\u00f1ol aqu\u00ed.)\nArgentina\u2019s 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 Fern\u00e1ndez de Kirchner to six years in prison and banning her from future office based on highly dubious charges.\nProminent leaders across Latin America denounced the ruling as a \u201cjudicial coup.\u201d It is eerily similar to the fraudulent case that led to the imprisonment of Brazil\u2019s 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.\nLeaked 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\u00a0(judicial warfare) against Kirchner and her progressive movement.\nIn a fiery speech following the sentence, Kirchner said the scandal proves that there is a \u201cparallel mafia state\u201d and \u201cmafia judiciary\u201d in Argentina \u201cthat is outside of the electoral results.\u201d\nShe 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.\nKirchner 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.\nMultipolarista editor Ben Norton spoke with Argentine journalist Marco Teruggi about the judicial coup.\nThey also discussed the $44 billion of unpayable odious debt that Argentina is trapped in with the US-dominated International Monetary Fund.\n\n(This interview was conducted in Spanish and was translated into English by Multipolarista.)\nBEN NORTON: Hi, good morning to everyone, I\u2019m 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.\nWe are going to speak about the political and economic situation in Argentina.\nOn December 6, basically, we saw a judicial coup, a judicial coup d\u2019etat, similar to the soft coup against Lula da Silva in Brazil in 2018.\nIn 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 Fern\u00e1ndez de Kirchner, a sentence of six years in prison.\nJulgar o poder quando \u00e9 poder mostra a for\u00e7a do estado de Derecho. Gol da Argentina. https://t.co/ed8g0rKHz4\n\u2014 Sergio Moro (@SF_Moro) December 7, 2022\n\nAnd clearly, what Argentina\u2019s corrupt and politicized judicial system is trying to ban her from public life, basically, to destroy her public life and her political life.\nOn 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.\nAnd according to the sentence, Vice President Kirchner cannot hold public office.\nSo 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.\nShe also said that this shows that in Argentina, there is a \u201cparallel mafia state\u201d:\nCRISTINA FERN\u00c1NDEZ DE KIRCHNER: As we said on December 2, 2019, that is, exactly 3 years ago, the criminal sentence was already written.\nThis 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.\nThis is a sentence that has its origins in a system that I, somewhat naively, that time on December 2, 2019, discussed as lawfare\n(judicial war). \u2026 But this is much simpler.\nThis is not just lawfare, or a politicized justice system; this is a parallel mafia state, a mafia judiciary.\nAnd 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.\n\u2026\nAnd 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 Clar\u00edn.\n\u2026\nWell, I am not going to be a candidate. There\u2019s more, very good news for you, Magnetto (director of the Grupo Clar\u00edn corporation). You know why? Because on the 10 of December, 2023, I\u2019m not going to have exemptions; I\u2019m not going to be vice president.\nSo 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!\nI will not be a candidate for anything, not to be president, not to be a senator. My name will not be on any ballot.\nI finish the 10th of December, and I will return as I returned on December 10, 2015: to my home.\n\u2026\nA 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.\nThis is the real criminal sentence; this is what they wanted: a permanent ban from politics.\nThey 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.\nWhat do you want? Me as a prisoner, or dead?\nBEN 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.\nCan you speak about what is the \u2018Vialidad\u2019 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 Clar\u00edn, one of the country\u2019s most powerful media corporations.\nAnd there is a network of corruption in this case of lawfare (judicial warfare) against Cristina.\nMARCO TERUGGI: Let\u2019s start from the beginning, as it should be done.\nWhen 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.\nSome were clearly fabricated, and with barely any basis, if they even had any.\nAnd 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 N\u00e9stor Kirchner, the former president and her husband, had been governor.\nSo 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.\nWith the government of the [right-wing former] President Macri, through its control over the media, with a few emblematic groups, like the Grupo Clar\u00edn, but also other media outlets like Infobae and La Naci\u00f3n, 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.\nWhen [current] President Alberto Fern\u00e1ndez 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.\nThere are multiple interpretations about that, about why it didn\u2019t happen, why they weren\u2019t 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.\nIn 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 Clar\u00edn, which is the most emblematic in this dispute.\nThis 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.\nAnd in turn, there was always a series of underground intelligence operations, which is known as the \u201ccrypto-state,\u201d which in this case is operating from outside, but keeps operating.\nThat 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 Fern\u00e1ndez de Kirchner was a corrupt president, as well as N\u00e9stor 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.\nSo what we have witnessed is the media headline that was long awaited by the opposition press, in collaboration with the political opposition, that says: \u201cCristina charged!\u201d\nAnd in turn, the path toward political banning, in this case it is her permanent prohibition from office, as the judge says.\nAlthough, before entering the next electoral campaigns, according to time estimates, obviously this is going to be appealed by Cristina\u2019s defense team, and that in reality means that she could run in the next elections. But she took the decision not to.\nSo 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.\nAnd 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.\nBEN 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 Fern\u00e1ndez de Kirchner. And there are six people who have charged her between 20 and 74 times.\n?? Hoy se conocer\u00e1 el veredicto del juicio a @CFKArgentina por la causa Vialidad.\n\u00bfQui\u00e9nes son los denunciantes? CFK figura como denunciada-imputada en 654 expedientes entre 2004 y 2022.\n? Hay al menos 6 personas que la han denunciado de modo sistem\u00e1tico, entre 20 y 74 veces pic.twitter.com/334YmiqhB0\n\u2014 CELAG (@CELAGeopolitica) December 6, 2022\n\nSo we are talking about a campaign of judicial warfare, instrumentalizing the judicial system to attack a politician, a left-wing politician.\nAnd Bolivia\u2019s ex-President Evo Morales said it well. Obviously Evo Morales was the victim of another coup d\u2019etat, a violent coup, another coup d\u2019etat in 2019. And Evo wrote that what we are seeing is \u201ca rigged judicial coup that seeks to take away the political rights of Cristina Fern\u00e1ndez de Kirchner.\u201d\nAnd he also said: \u201cAfter failing in their attempt to assassinate her, today they try to politically eliminate her.\u201d\nNuestro repudio y condena m\u00e1s vehemente contra el golpe judicial y ama\u00f1ado que intenta truncar los derechos pol\u00edticos de nuestra hermana @CFKArgentina. Despu\u00e9s de fallar en su intento de asesinarla, hoy tratan de eliminarla pol\u00edticamente. Fuerza hermana Cristina.\u00a1La lucha sigue! pic.twitter.com/v0y5rDhXdX\n\u2014 Evo Morales Ayma (@evoespueblo) December 6, 2022\n\nWell, 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 Clar\u00edn.\nAnd there are photos of various prosecutors and officials with members, and not only members but executives of the Grupo Clar\u00edn, in the airport.\nWe know that they flew in their planes, they enjoyed luxurious dinners, very luxurious houses.\nEst\u00e1n 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 imput\u00f3. Esta p\u00e1gina y foto corresponde al expediente ?? pic.twitter.com/RdRSojuNeG\n\u2014 Cynthia Garc\u00eda (@cyngarciaradio) December 7, 2022\n\nSo can you speak about the corruption of the judicial system and these prosecutors who are involved in the case against Cristina?\nMARCO 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.\nBut 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 Clar\u00edn, 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\u2019s party, and ex members of the intelligence services.\nTogether, 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.\nIn 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 \u2018Vialidad\u2019 lawsuit against Cristina, so we can see who the characters are, who are saying how to make false receipts, among many other things.\nOr 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.\nAnd there we see, without a doubt, that the Grupo Clar\u00edn is who pays; they organize the agenda; how close all of these actors are.\nAnd therefore we discover the lack of independence of the judicial power, or at least its main actors. The same about the media power.\nAnd the operation of these sectors of above-ground politics and underground politics.\nThat is a kind of window into what they call the \u201cbasements of democracy,\u201d 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.\nSo I think it has never been seen before in this way.\nAnd 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.\nAll 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.\nSo we are seeing a window into real power, that which carries out lawfare operations, that which persecutes people, that which seeks to ban people.\nThat which raises the rather elementary question, but always necessary to refresh: How democratic is the democracy?\nOr 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?\nBEN NORTON: Yes Marco, you mentioned something very important, which is the subject of the odious debt with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).\nIn fact, in her speech after the sentence, Vice President Cristina mentioned this debt.\nCRISTINA FERN\u00c1NDEZ DE KIRCHNER: And they, the right-wingers, they left us with $45 billion in debt with the International Monetary Fund.\nThey ride around in luxury in the planes of Clar\u00edn.\nBEN NORTON: So Marco, can you speak a bit about Argentina\u2019s debt? The country owes more than $44 billion to the IMF. And this debt doesn\u2019t come from the Kirchnerist governments; it comes from the government of the right-winger, Mauricio Macri, the last president.\nMARCO 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.\nFirst 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.\nThat is to say, you don\u2019t negotiate with the IMF only economic concerns, but rather, above all, political and economic ones.\nThe IMF only approves or rejects debts with economic conditions.\nIn 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.\nAnd 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.\nHe said that that debt was to support Mauricio Macri. So it was a political debt, so Macri could continue his government.\nSo it was always clear, the explicit political support that there was there.\nBut 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.\nArgentina does not have the capacity to pay $44 billion. So the question is, why would an organization lend a debt that can\u2019t be repaid?\nWell, 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.\nSo 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.\nBecause 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.\nThat is to say, the IMF regularly supervises Argentina\u2019s economic policies and if they like them, they give them the money, so that it can be returned to the IMF.\nAnd if they don\u2019t like them, they could refuse to give Argentina the money, and Argentina would default.\nWe are on that level. And it seems to me that we have to recognize that the mechanism worked.\nToday it is a government that is conditioned, that in large part has its hands tied in its economic policy, with inflation that it can\u2019t reduce, with a loss of purchasing power.\nAnd 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.\nSo I think that is a clear example of how these debts function, why they are made, how they force governments to make concessions.\nBEN NORTON: You mentioned that there are economic problems; there is inflation. In fact, in her speech, following the sentence, the vice president said that, \u201cThey condemn me because they condemn a model of economic development.\u201d\nCRISTINA FERN\u00c1NDEZ 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.\nThey 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.\nBut the sentencing is not only six years in prison. The real sentence against me is the permanent ban on holding elected public office.\nWhen 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.\nAnd I also contributed to the victory that we had in 2019, when no one would have bet on Peronism.\nThis is what they are making me pay. This is why they are banning me.\nBEN NORTON: So can you speak about the economic situation, with the inflation, and why do you think there are so many economic problems?\nMARCO 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.\nIt 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.\nAnd the current situation, well, is of a country with a very high structural level of poverty, whose workers\u2019 salaries are below the poverty line, and more and more difficulties.\nBut 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?\nThis 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.\nI 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.\nPeru\u2019s President Pedro Castillo was just forced out, as the consequence of another very deep institutional crisis.\nAnd 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.\nAnother debate is how Argentina can get dollars, through what economic mechanisms?\nAnd 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\u2019s governments, and this one.\nAnd that is a sector that lobbies for the devaluation of the currency, which has a negative impact on the population.\nBecause a devaluation in the currency implies an increase in the prices, implies a loss of purchasing power.\nSo 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.\nBut we are on that level. And it also has to do with the economic structure of Argentina, with the conflicting models.\nWhat is the model that they want to build in Argentina?\nAnd 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.\nBEN 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\u2019m always grateful for your journalistic work and analysis.\nMARCO TERUGGI: Thank you, and I send a big hug from Buenos Aires.\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Mexico\u2019s President AMLO condemns US blockade of Cuba as \u2018genocide\u2019 and \u2018tremendous violation of human rights\u2019. 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, Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador, blockade, Bolivia, Cuba, Honduras, Joe Biden, Luis Arce, Mexico, sanctions, Summit of the Americas, Xiomara Castro", "output": "Mexico\u2019s left-wing President Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador (AMLO) denounced the illegal US blockade of Cuba as a \u201ctype of genocide\u201d and \u201ctremendous violation of human rights.\u201d\n\nMexico\u2019s left-wing President Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador has condemned the illegal US blockade of Cuba as a \u201ctype of genocide\u201d and \u201ctremendous violation of human rights.\u201d\nAt his daily press briefing on the morning on June 6, L\u00f3pez Obrador was asked about his decision to boycott the US government\u2019s Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles, California.\nThe Mexican president, known popularly by the acronym AMLO, explained that he refused to attend in order to protest Washington\u2019s exclusion of Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua.\nL\u00f3pez Obrador denounced the blockade that the United States has imposed on Cuba\u00a0for more than 60 years, in flagrant violation of international law.\nMexico\u2019s President Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador (AMLO) denounced the illegal US blockade of Cuba as a \u201ctype of genocide\u201d and \u201ctremendous violation of human rights.\u201d\nRead more here: https://t.co/SdjCfhBkyG pic.twitter.com/IP8z9gp4Gz\n\u2014 Multipolarista (@Multipolarista) June 7, 2022\n\n\u201cHow is it that a blockade is maintained that prevents food from arriving to the Cuban people, that prevents medicines from arriving?\u201d he asked.\n\u201cThat is a type of genocide,\u201d the Mexican president declared, calling it \u201ca tremendous violation of human rights.\u201d\n\u201cWhen the subject of the blockade is addressed in the UN, every country votes to lift the blockade. One or two prevent it,\u201d AMLO noted.\n\u201cIt would be the peak [of hypocrisy] for us to attend the Summit [of Americas] in that context,\u201d he added. \u201cThat violates the foreign policy of Mexico, which our constitution establishes, the non-intervention, the self-determination of peoples.\u201d\nAMLO reiterated his call for \u201cthe integration of all of the Americas,\u201d but he emphasized that \u201cthat 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.\u201d\nMexican President L\u00f3pez Obrador took a historic trip to Cuba, where he called for an end to the US blockade and criticized right-wing \u201ccoup-plotters.\u201d\nHe said Latin America should form a union, amid \u201cthe economic decline of the United States.\u201dhttps://t.co/A4eGIhcRhO\n\u2014 Multipolarista (@Multipolarista) May 11, 2022\n\nIn May,\u00a0L\u00f3pez Obrador took a historic trip to Cuba, where he called for an end to the US blockade and criticized right-wing \u201ccoup-plotters.\u201d\n\u201cI will keep trying to get the United States to lift the blockade,\u201d the Mexican president said.\nThe Summit of the Americas opened in Los Angeles, California on June 6.\nHonduras\u2019 new left-wing President Xiomara Castro and Bolivia\u2019s socialist President Luis Arce joined AMLO in boycotting the summit in condemnation of the US government\u2019s refusal to invite Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua.\nGuatemala\u2019s right-wing president, Alejandro Giammattei, likewise chose not to attend, in protest of the policies of the Joe Biden administration.\nAs the US government\u2019s Summit of the Americas opens in Los Angeles, California, the presidents of Mexico, Bolivia, Honduras and Guatemala are boycotting in protest\nHeads of state representing nations with over 200 million people combined are not attendinghttps://t.co/O7bOWe6W6N\n\u2014 Multipolarista (@Multipolarista) June 6, 2022\n\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Mexico\u2019s 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, Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador, blockade, Cuba, Cuban doctors, embargo, Fidel Castro, healthcare, Mexico, Miguel D\u00edaz-Canel, public health, sanctions", "output": "President Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador announced Mexico will lead an international movement to end the US government\u2019s \u201cinhumane\u201d blockade against Cuba. Praising Fidel Castro as a \u201cvisionary\u201d, AMLO denounced neoliberalism and pledged support for universal public healthcare and education.\n\nMexico\u2019s progressive President Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador announced that his country will lead an international movement to end the US government\u2019s illegal blockade against Cuba.\nThe Mexican president, known popularly by his initials AMLO, condemned the six-decade US blockade of Cuba as \u201cinhumane\u201d. He said the global campaign to overturn it must be more \u201cactive\u201d, 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.\n\nAMLO also praised the Cuban Revolution for creating \u201cone of the best health systems in the world\u201d. He thanked Cuba for sending doctors to provide medical attention to people in underserved rural areas in Mexico and other countries around the world.\nCriticizing the \u201cneoliberal oligarchy\u201d who ruled before him and \u201cthe corrupt neoliberal privatizers\u201d who sold off many of the Mexican state\u2019s assets, L\u00f3pez Obrador explained that his government\u2019s goal \u201cis to establish a system of public healthcare, to guarantee the people\u2019s right to healthcare\u201d.\n\u201cThe right to healthcare is a fundamental human rights, and it cannot be treated like a market\u201d, AMLO declared.\nThe Mexican leader made these comments in a February 11 press conference in the southern port city of Campeche, alongside Cuban President Miguel D\u00edaz-Canel, who addressed the two countries\u2019 collaboration in public health.\nThe event featured dozens of Cuban doctors who were sent to Mexico as part of a solidarity mission.\nMexico's President AMLO honored Fidel Castro as \u201ca visionary, a giant to whom we pay tribute\u201d\nHe added: \u201cConservatives in Mexico and around the world can say whatever they want, but they'll never, ever be able to counteract\" Cuba's solidarity\nMore here: https://t.co/oInjQf5cSG pic.twitter.com/DDaDRQklBs\n\u2014 Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) February 16, 2023\n\nL\u00f3pez Obrador has consistently spoken out against the US sanctions and embargo against Cuba, which violate international law.\nIn June 2022, the Mexican president denounced the US blockade as a \u201ctype of genocide\u201d and \u201ctremendous violation of human rights\u201d.\nAt the February 2023 event, AMLO honored Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro as \u201ca visionary, a giant to whom we pay tribute\u201d, adding, \u201cConservatives 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\u201d.\nIn the fiery speech, AMLO stated:\nSuch 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.\nThat 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).\nConservatives 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.\nFor this, our respect, our gratitude, our support.\nWe are going to continue demanding that the blockade against Cuba be lifted, that it be eliminated. It is inhumane.\nAnd 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.\nI offer to President Miguel D\u00edaz-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 \u2018terrorist\u2019 country, or put its profoundly humane people and government on a blacklist of supposed \u2018terrorists\u2019.\nLong live the dignified people of Cuba!\nEn Mart\u00ed y en Fidel pienso al ver a nuestros m\u00e9dicos trabajando, con consagraci\u00f3n y alegr\u00eda, en #M\u00e9xico, una tierra que jam\u00e1s ha sido extranjera, siempre hermana, para todos los cubanos.\nEn Campeche nos reunimos con una representaci\u00f3n de ellos. #CubaPorLaVida pic.twitter.com/IofL0ldTwm\n\u2014 Miguel D\u00edaz-Canel Berm\u00fadez (@DiazCanelB) February 11, 2023\n\nIn his remarks at the public health press conference, Cuban President D\u00edaz-Canel stressed the \u201cdeep and historic ties\u201d that his country has enjoyed with its \u201cbrothers\u201d in Mexico.\nHe recalled that Castro and other Cuban leaders planned the revolution while living in exile in Mexico.\nD\u00edaz-Canel highlighted the medical support that Cuba and its doctors have provided to Mexico over the decades.\nThe Cuban leader also thanked Mexico, noting it \u201chas 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\u201d.\nWhile D\u00edaz-Canel was visiting, L\u00f3pez Obrador gave the Cuban leader the prestigious Mexican Order of the Aztec Eagle, the highest state honors for a foreign national.\nEntrega de la Condecoraci\u00f3n Orden Mexicana del \u00c1guila Azteca al presidente de Cuba, Miguel D\u00edaz-Canelhttps://t.co/WJtkhZdYea pic.twitter.com/V5SPfQJcMD\n\u2014 Andr\u00e9s Manuel (@lopezobrador_) February 12, 2023\n\nL\u00f3pez Obrador is one of the world\u2019s most popular leaders, and has had a consistent approval rating of between 60 and 70% since he came to power in late 2018.\nThe main reason for this is that AMLO is the Mexico\u2019s 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.\nThis 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\nNote how the minimum wage was totally stagnant in two decades of neoliberal governments\nCredit: @mario_campa pic.twitter.com/ZlGxGvb5QF\n\u2014 Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) December 25, 2022\n\nIn his February 11 speech in Campeche, AMLO denounced the \u201cneoliberal period, which lasted 36 years in our country\u201d.\nThe last Mexican head of state who pursued policies of economic nationalism was Jos\u00e9 L\u00f3pez Portillo. In 1982, Miguel de la Madrid took power, and he began implementing neoliberal reforms \u2013 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.\nAMLO referred to this neoliberal period as the era of \u201cNeo-Porfirismo\u201d, referencing former military dictator Porfirio D\u00edaz, who ruled from 1876 to 1911.\nD\u00edaz\u2019s rule ended with the Mexican Revolution. AMLO invoked the historical legacy of this revolution to explain the \u201cFourth Transformation\u201d that he is leading today.\nIn the neoliberal period, \u201cPolicies were applied to benefit the minority, the oligarchy. They talked about democracy, but in reality it was an oligarchy\u201d, AMLO said.\n\u201cNo one wanted to go and work in rural hospitals, where specialists were needed\u201d, he added. \u201cBecause of that, we are very grateful for the doctors from the brotherly people of Cuba\u2026 for helping us, so that doctors and specialists could cover all of the country\u201d.\n\u201cIt is something truly terrible, even unbelievable\u201d, AMLO continued. \u201cIn the 36 years of neoliberal politics, they sold off the public companies, the nation\u2019s banks, the railroads, the mines, the ports, the airports. They also carried out privatization of the electricity and oil industries\u201d.\n\u201cAnd they didn\u2019t 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\u201d.\n\u201cFortunately, the people said \u2018Enough!\u2019, and, in a democratic way, decided to change these politics and carry out a transformation\u201d, AMLO said. \u201cAlso 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\u201d.\n\u201cAnd 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\u201d, L\u00f3pez Obrador declared.\n\u201cWe are pushing forward on education, pushing forward with healthcare, so that they aren\u2019t like what the corrupt neoliberal privatizers wanted, as privileges, but rather as rights for our people\u201d.\n\u201cThe state cannot fail in its social responsibility. The state is obligated to guarantee public education, free and of good quality, at all levels\u201d.\nToday, AMLO said, his government\u2019s \u201cgoal is to establish a system of public health, to guarantee the people\u2019s right to healthcare\u201d.\nHe said his priority is also expanded access to inexpensive medicines. \u201cBecause, in the times of neoliberalism, the sale of medicines was a big business\u201d, L\u00f3pez Obrador recalled. He noted large pharmaceutical companies made huge profits through corruption, selling overpriced medicines to the government at unfair prices.\n\u201cBecause the right to healthcare is a fundamental human right, and it cannot be treated like a market\u201d, he added.\nAMLO 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.\n"}
{"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\u2019s leftist Sandinista government is forming a closer alliance with China, Russia, and Iran in a common struggle against US imperialism, jointly resisting Washington\u2019s illegal sanctions, meddling, and coup attempts.\n\nNicaragua\u2019s 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.\nAll four countries are targeted by illegal Western sanctions and coup attempts. So they have grown closer together in a common struggle against Washington\u2019s aggression.\nIn December 2021, Nicaragua re-established relations with the People\u2019s Republic of China, and on December 31, 2021, Beijing re-opened its embassy in Managua.\nThe People's Republic of China just reopened its embassy today in Nicaragua, a few weeks after the Sandinista government re-established relations.\nNicaragua's right-wing US-backed Chamorro oligarch government had broken ties with China back in 1990.pic.twitter.com/OZiSO8o9v7\n\u2014 Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) December 31, 2021\n\nForeign Minister Denis Moncada said Nicaragua and China are \u201ctwo peoples who have fought for their national liberation with perseverance,\u201d seeking the \u201ceradication of poverty.\u201d\nThe Nicaraguan foreign minister said they seek to build a new world \u201cthat is multipolar.\u201d\nNicaraguan presidential advisor Laureano Ortega praised China for eliminating extreme poverty and showing how \u201cto advance toward the comprehensive construction of a modern socialist model.\u201d\nHe also thanked Beijing for giving 2 billion Covid-19 vaccines to some 120 countries, including more than 1 million to Nicaragua.\nRight-wing US government-funded media outlets have expressed extreme distress over this growing alliance.\nNicaragua\u2019s President Daniel Ortega announced at his inauguration on January 10 that the country had signed a series of economic agreements with China.\nThe most important of these officially incorporates the Central American nation into Beijing\u2019s global Belt and Road Initiative.\nPresident Daniel Ortega said \u201cthe United States does not accept that the end of its hegemony is a fact.\u201d\nBreaking: 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\n\u2014 Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) January 11, 2022\n\n"}
{"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 admiti\u00f3 pretende \u201cprovocar hambre, desesperaci\u00f3n y el derrocamiento del gobierno\u201d. Cuba estima que el embargo le ha costado $144.410 millones.\n\n(You can read this article in English here.)\nEl 3 de febrero de 2022 se cumplen 60 a\u00f1os desde que Estados Unidos declar\u00f3 oficialmente un embargo econ\u00f3mico contra Cuba.\nWashington impuso este bloqueo para \u201cprovocar hambre, desesperaci\u00f3n y el derrocamiento del gobierno\u201d, como admiti\u00f3 un ex funcionario del Departamento de Estado estadounidense.\nEl gobierno de Cuba ha condenado el embargo ilegal de EEUU como \u201cel acto de guerra econ\u00f3mica m\u00e1s complejo, prolongado e inhumano cometido contra cualquier naci\u00f3n\u201d, afirmando que \u201cconstituye una violaci\u00f3n masiva, flagrante y sistem\u00e1tica de los derechos humanos de todas las cubanas y cubanos\u201d.\nCuba estima que el bloqueo le ha costado a su econom\u00eda al menos $144.413 millones de d\u00f3lares estadounidenses.\nCuando el pueblo de Cuba derroc\u00f3 la dictadura derechista de Fulgencio Batista en una revoluci\u00f3n popular el 1 de enero de 1959, Estados Unidos respondi\u00f3 con medidas coercitivas, para castigar al pa\u00eds por derrocar a un r\u00e9gimen cliente leal de Washington.\nEl 3 de febrero de 1962, las sanciones estadounidenses ya existentes escalaron a un bloqueo total, cuando el presidente John F. Kennedy emiti\u00f3 la Proclamaci\u00f3n 3447, declarando un \u201cembargo a todo el comercio con Cuba\u201d.\nLa Proclamaci\u00f3n 3447 de Washington afirm\u00f3 que el gobierno revolucionario de Cuba \u201ces incompatible con los principios y objetivos del sistema interamericano\u201d, debido a \u201cla ofensiva subversiva del comunismo chino-sovi\u00e9tico con la que el gobierno de Cuba se alinea p\u00fablicamente\u201d.\n\nEste embargo estadounidense, que contin\u00faa hasta el d\u00eda de hoy, es flagrantemente ilegal seg\u00fan el derecho internacional.\nEl Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Cuba public\u00f3 una denuncia del bloqueo en su 60 aniversario, afirmando que \u201cla pol\u00edtica de cerco y asfixia econ\u00f3mica se consolid\u00f3 como eje central de la estrategia dirigida a coartar el derecho leg\u00edtimo de los cubanos a defender su soberan\u00eda y forjar un proyecto emancipador, ajeno a la dominaci\u00f3n imperialista\u201d.\n\u201cAunque el bloqueo vs Cuba se decret\u00f3 oficialmente en 1962, su aplicaci\u00f3n se remonta al momento mismo del triunfo revolucionario\u201d, agreg\u00f3 la Canciller\u00eda.\nEn abril de 1960, poco m\u00e1s de un a\u00f1o despu\u00e9s de la revoluci\u00f3n, el subsecretario de estado de EEUU para asuntos interamericanos, Lester Mallory, public\u00f3 un memorando titulado \u201cThe Decline and Fall of Castro\u201d (\u201cEl declive y la ca\u00edda de Castro\u201d). Este documento es una pistola humeante, que revela claramente los objetivos detr\u00e1s del bloqueo estadounidense: \u201chambre, desesperaci\u00f3n y el derrocamiento del gobierno\u201d.\nMallory admiti\u00f3 que la \u201cmayor\u00eda de los cubanos apoya a Castro\u201d y que \u201cno existe una oposici\u00f3n pol\u00edtica efectiva\u201d.\nEl alto diplom\u00e1tico estadounidense escribi\u00f3 que \u201cel \u00fanico medio previsible de alienar el apoyo interno es a trav\u00e9s del desencanto y la desafecci\u00f3n basados \u200b\u200ben la insatisfacci\u00f3n y las dificultades econ\u00f3micas\u201d.\nEl memor\u00e1ndum del Departamento de Estado de EEUU declaraba que deber\u00edan \u201cdebilitar la vida econ\u00f3mica neg\u00e1ndole a Cuba dinero y suministros con el fin de reducir los salarios nominales y reales, provocar hambre, desesperaci\u00f3n y el derrocamiento del gobierno\u201d.\n\nLa Canciller\u00eda de Cuba dijo que el embargo de EEUU ha \u201climitado las posibilidades de desarrollo econ\u00f3mico, al estar dise\u00f1ado para impedir las relaciones comerciales con terceros pa\u00edses, obstaculizar al m\u00e1ximo las operaciones bancario-financieras, frenar la inversi\u00f3n extranjera y cortar toda fuente de ingresos.\u201d.\nViolando flagrantemente el derecho internacional, el bloqueo estadounidense utiliza \u201cpresiones, chantajes y penalidades, [para] aislar a Cuba y castigar a quienes establezcan cualquier v\u00ednculo econ\u00f3mico, comercial y financiero con el pa\u00eds\u201d, dijo la Canciller\u00eda.\n\u201cEs la expresi\u00f3n pr\u00e1ctica de la doctrina Monroe en el siglo XXI, que mira a Am\u00e9rica Latina y el Caribe desde posici\u00f3n de propietario, ya sea \u2018patio trasero o delantero'\u201d de EEUU, agreg\u00f3 el gobierno cubano.\nPor 29 a\u00f1o consecutivo, b\u00e1sicamente todo el mundo vot\u00f3 en la ONU en contra del bloqueo ilegal y asesino de EEUU a Cuba.\n184 pa\u00edses votaran en contra del bloqueo.S\u00f3lo 2 votaron a favor: Estados Unidos e Israel.3 t\u00edteres de EEUU se abstuvieron: Colombia, Ucrania y los EAU pic.twitter.com/Kac29gDOp9\n\u2014 Benjamin Norton (@BenjaminNorton) June 23, 2021\n\nAl bloqueo ilegal de Washington contra Cuba se opone casi toda la comunidad internacional.\nEn 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.\nEste fue el 29 a\u00f1o consecutivo en que el bloqueo estadounidense fue condenado con la gran mayor\u00eda de votos en Naciones Unidas.\nEn la votaci\u00f3n de la ONU de 2021, el canciller de Cuba, Bruno Rodr\u00edguez Parrilla, calific\u00f3 el bloqueo de \u201cuna violaci\u00f3n masiva, flagrante y sistem\u00e1tica de los derechos humanos del pueblo cubano\u201d,\u00a0que constituye \u201cuna guerra econ\u00f3mica de alcance extraterritorial contra un pa\u00eds peque\u00f1o pa\u00eds ya afectado en el periodo reciente por la recesi\u00f3n y la crisis econ\u00f3mica global provocadas por la pandemia\u201d.\n\u201ccomo el virus [del Covid-19], el bloqueo asfixia y mata, y debe cesar\u201d, dijo Rodr\u00edguez.\nEl portavoz del imperio estadounidense, el New York Times, admite que Biden es \"m\u00e1s duro con Cuba que\" Trump\nEn cuanto al imperialismo asesino, no hay diferencia entre los dem\u00f3cratas y los republicanos. A los dos les encanta torturar al pueblo cubano\nEs el sadismo bipartidista pic.twitter.com/sGFR2dQ4kc\n\u2014 Benjamin Norton (@BenjaminNorton) August 10, 2021\n\nSi bien el 95% de los pa\u00edses del mundo se oponen al bloqueo ilegal de EEUU por parte de Washington, este cuenta con apoyo bipartidista dentro de los Estados Unidos.\nLa administraci\u00f3n de Donald Trump impuso cientos de nuevas sanciones econ\u00f3micas contra Cuba. La administraci\u00f3n de Joe Biden se ha negado a levantar estas medidas coercitivas unilaterales y, en cambio, ha impuesto a\u00fan m\u00e1s.\nThe New York Times se\u00f1al\u00f3 que \u201cBiden est\u00e1 implementando una l\u00ednea m\u00e1s dura con Cuba que su predecesor, el expresidente Donald Trump\u201d.\n"}
{"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\u2019s October 30 presidential election, vowing to strengthen Latin American regional integration, expand the BRICS system, and fight poverty and hunger at home.\n\nBrazil\u2019s 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.\nLula got 50.9% of the total, including over 2.1 million more votes than Bolsonaro.\nIn 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.\nResults of Brazil\u2019s October 30, 2022 presidential election round two\nLula 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.\nBefore the election, Lula proposed creating a pan-Latin American currency, in order to \u201cbe freed of the dollar.\u201d\nLula\u2019s victory represents a reversal of two US-sponsored soft coups in 2016 and 2018, which overthrew the Workers\u2019 Party (PT) government of former President Dilma Rousseff and subsequently imprisoned Lula on false charges, handing power to Bolsonaro.\nIn the interview below, Brazil-based journalist Brian Mier speaks with Multipolarista editor Ben Norton about the global significance of Lula\u2019s historic victory.\n\n\nFollow Brian Mier on Twitter at @BrianMteleSUR\nThousands 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\n\u2014 BrianMier (@BrianMteleSUR) October 30, 2022\n\nRead independent news website Brasil Wire at brasilwire.com.\nLula says the top priorities of his government will be eliminating hunger and fighting poverty. pic.twitter.com/1LS3lUxvOk\n\u2014 BrianMier (@BrianMteleSUR) October 31, 2022\n\n"}
{"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, Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez 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\u2019s right wing.\n\n(Se puede leer esta nota en espa\u00f1ol aqu\u00ed.)\nMore than a dozen countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have condemned the coup in Peru and backed democratically elected President Pedro Castillo.\nMeanwhile, 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.\n\nAt least 14 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have publicly expressed support for Peru\u2019s President Castillo, including:\nOn the other side, Peru\u2019s unelected coup regime has the strong support of the United States and Canada, as well as Brazil\u2019s far-right Jair Bolsonaro administration and the right-wing governments in Ecuador, Uruguay, and Costa Rica.\nChile, 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\u2019s right wing in backing the coup in Peru.\nPeru\u2019s coup regime also has the support of Washington\u2019s Organization of American States (OAS), which acts as an instrument of US foreign policy.\n\nSince Castillo was overthrown in the December 7 coup, Peru\u2019s unelected de facto leader Dina Boluarte has cracked down harshly, sending the military and police to kill protesters.\nState 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 Per\u00fa.\nNumerous activists have reported that the coup regime is planting weapons and other materials in order to falsely accuse protesters of \u201cterrorism.\u201d\nThis 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\nPeru's coup regime and oligarch-controlled media are trying to frame protesters as \"terrorists\"https://t.co/am8L9ztYiY\n\u2014 Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) December 17, 2022\n\nPeru\u2019s US-backed coup regime has also brought back war criminals who worked in the far-right dictatorship of Alberto Fujimori in the 1990s.\nThe man appointed chief of Peru\u2019s notorious National Directorate of Intelligence (DINI), Juan Carlos Liendo O\u2019Connor, previously served in the feared National Intelligence Service (SIN) in the Fujimori dictatorship. Liendo O\u2019Connor\u2019s boss was sentenced to 35 years in prison for murdering and disappearing left-wing activists.\nToday, Liendo O\u2019Connor, the coup regime\u2019s new intelligence chief, is borrowing the same tactics used by the Fujimorista dictatorship. He demonizes protesters as \u201cterrorists,\u201d thereby justifying the use of violence against them.\nWhile Peru\u2019s 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 \u201cdemocracy.\u201d\nCoup leader Boluarte held a friendly call with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on December 16. Her office boasted that he \u201creiterated the support of the United States.\u201d\nLa presidenta de la rep\u00fablica, @DinaErcilia Boluarte, dialog\u00f3 telef\u00f3nicamente con el Secretario de Estado de @LaCasaBlanca, @SecBlinken, quien le reiter\u00f3 el respaldo de los Estados Unidos al gobierno que lidera. pic.twitter.com/dMn11CInxv\n\u2014 Presidencia del Per\u00fa ?? (@presidenciaperu) December 17, 2022\n\nThe State Department confirmed this call in a readout, stating, \u201cThe 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.\u201d\nWashington did not mention the dozens of protesters who have been killed and hundreds more who have been wounded by Boluarte\u2019s unelected coup regime.\nCIA agent turned State Department spokesman Ned Price said Washington spoke with the coup leader to \u201creinforce our partnership and emphasize U.S. support for a peaceful, democratic, and prosperous Peru.\u201d\n.@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\n\u2014 Ned Price (@StateDeptSpox) December 18, 2022\n\nMexico, Argentina, Colombia, and Bolivia published a joint statement supporting President Castillo, who they recognized was democratically elected by the people of Peru.\n\u201cFor the world, it is not news that President Castillo Terrones, since the day of his election, was victim of anti-democratic harassment,\u201d they wrote.\nThe government of Mexico\u2019s left-wing President Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador (AMLO) even announced a formal \u201cpause\u201d in its diplomatic relations with Peru\u2019s unelected regime.\nMexico, Argentina, Colombia, and Bolivia released a joint statement supporting Peru\u2019s elected President Pedro Castillo, saying he is victim of \u201canti-democratic harassment,\u201d following a US-backed coup.\nGustavo Petro recognized it was a \"parliamentary coup\"https://t.co/pxyxM1hHpU\n\u2014 Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) December 13, 2022\n\nColombia\u2019s President Petro denounced the ouster of Castillo as a \u201cparliamentary coup.\u201d He added that the putsch is a warning for all elected left-wing leaders in Latin America.\nPetro declared that \u201cthe Latin American oligarchy doesn\u2019t want progressivism,\u201d and \u201cwhat they can\u2019t win at the ballot box, they are trying to topple.\u201d\nColombia\u2019s 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\nFull transcript here: https://t.co/V3dPxph76s pic.twitter.com/lHx2r90syj\n\u2014 Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) December 19, 2022\n\nThe 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.\n\u201cWe 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,\u201d ALBA wrote.\n\u201cWe repudiate the repression by the law enforcement agencies against the Peruvian people who are defending a government democratically elected at the polls,\u201d they added.\nALBA 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\u200b\u200b\u200b.\nThe Bolivarian Alliance (ALBA) uniting nations in Latin America & the Caribbean met for its 18th annual summit\nThey condemned the coup in Peru against constitutional President Pedro Castillo and denounced the lawfare in Argentina against Cristina Kirchnerhttps://t.co/ATSeNzLB37\n\u2014 Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) December 16, 2022\n\nHonduras also emphasized its \u201cenergetic condemnation of the coup d\u2019etat\u201d against Peruvian President Castillo, stating that he represents the \u201csovereign will of the people.\u201d\n\u201cCoups d\u2019etat should not be carried out,\u201d 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.\nHonduras stressed its \u201cenergetic condemnation of the coup d\u2019etat\u201d in Peru, saying elected President Castillo represents \u201cthe sovereign will of the people\u201d\nHonduras was also victim of a US-sponsored coup in 2009. It didn't restore democracy until late 2021https://t.co/QLB8YjNYrc\n\u2014 Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) December 13, 2022\n\nVenezuela\u2019s President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro made a powerful speech denouncing the coup in Peru, stating:\nOne sees what the Peruvian people are suffering. They elect a teacher, President Pedro Castillo, and since the first moment of the election, they don\u2019t want to recognize his victory, they ignore the victory.\nAnd 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.\nAnd so begins the attack and the wearing away, votes of condemnation against his ministers, permanent harassment.\n\u2026\nThey led him to the extreme of trying to dissolve the congress of Peru.\nAnd all the circumstances that we have seen are the oligarchic elites who don\u2019t allow a humble teacher to rise to the presidency of Peru and try to govern for the people.\nMaduro said this is a message \u201cthat the extreme right is sending to the popular and progressive movements: \u2018We are not going to let them govern.'\u201d\n? #EsNoticia | Per\u00fa v\u00edctima del plan golpista de las oligarqu\u00edas (+Detalles) ?https://t.co/Agbf9kP5Vs#NavidadEsAlegr\u00eda pic.twitter.com/Bdjt8PURlr\n\u2014 Canciller\u00eda Venezuela ?? (@CancilleriaVE) December 9, 2022\n\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Europe and US meet with Venezuela\u2019s real President Maduro \u2013 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 Guaid\u00f3, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, oil, Venezuela, William Barr", "output": "After years backing a failed coup attempt, France\u2019s Emmanuel Macron, US climate envoy John Kerry, and Portugal\u2019s PM met with Venezuela\u2019s elected President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro at the UN COP27 conference. Desperate to lower oil prices, they dropped the pretense that Juan Guaid\u00f3 controls anything.\n\nAfter years backing a failed coup attempt, France\u2019s leader Emmanuel Macron, US climate envoy John Kerry, and Portugal\u2019s Prime Minister Antonio Costa held informal discussions with Venezuela\u2019s constitutionally elected President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro.\nThese meetings took place on November 7 at the United Nations climate change conference, COP27, in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.\nThe Joe Biden administration still technically recognizes unelected coup leader Juan Guaid\u00f3 as Venezuela\u2019s supposed \u201cinterim president,\u201d but Washington and Brussels are desperate to lower oil prices amid an energy crisis that has wreaked havoc on their economies.\n\nBefore 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.\nDecember 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.\nPresident 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.\n\nFrance\u2019s President Emmanuel Macron may be a banker who is deeply motivated by neoliberal ideology, but he is also a bit of a pragmatist.\nRealizing that he had few other choices, Macron approached Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s 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.\nFrench President Macron very respectfully spoke with Venezuelan President Maduro at UN climate conference COP27\nMacron made it clear France recognizes Venezuela's constitutionally elected government, referring to Maduro as president and proposing dialoguepic.twitter.com/n3tZ2QutVe\n\u2014 Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) November 8, 2022\n\nOn the same day, Maduro met with the Biden administration\u2019s special climate envoy, John Kerry.\nKerry 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 \u201cridiculous\u201d in a 2014 rally.\nBut 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\u2019s oil sector and devastated the country\u2019s export-dependent economy.\n\u00daLTIMA HORA | Maduro y John Kerry estrechan las manos en otro encuentro pol\u00e9mico en la COP27 (Video). https://t.co/xVb9PG4wxP pic.twitter.com/sfK2kYXN0U\n\u2014 AlbertoRodNews (@AlbertoRodNews) November 8, 2022\n\nAt the COP27 conference,\u00a0Portugal\u2019s Prime Minister Antonio Costa likewise had a friendly chat with Maduro.\nThe 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.\n\u2013 \u00bfC\u00f3mo est\u00e1 Portugal?\u2013 No es f\u00e1cil, con la inflaci\u00f3n, el costo del petr\u00f3leo, el gas\u2026\nAs\u00ed, como si nada hubiera pasado, el PM de Portugal, Antonio Costa, le deja caer a Nicol\u00e1s Maduro sus problemas internos.\n*** Costa fue otro de los que desconoc\u00eda el gobierno de Maduro. ?\u200d\u2642\ufe0f pic.twitter.com/K8CF2Logk1\n\u2014 Luis De Jes\u00fas ?? (@ldejesusreyes) November 8, 2022\n\nThese meetings represent quite a political reversal for the Western powers, which have spent years trying to overthrow Venezuela\u2019s leftist Chavista government.\nDuring a coup attempt in which right-wing extremists erected violent \u201cguarimba\u201d barricades to destabilize the country in 2014, the Obama administration began imposing sanctions on top Venezuelan officials.\nIn 2015, the White House released an executive order declaring Venezuela an \u201cunusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.\u201d\nThis opened the flood gates for illegal unilateral US sanctions, which increased by the year, seriously damaging Venezuela\u2019s oil industry, restricting its exports, and thus starving the country of much needed foreign exchange reserves.\n\nIn January 2019, the Donald Trump administration initiated the biggest coup attempt yet, appointing little-known right-wing opposition politician Juan Guaid\u00f3 as supposed \u201cinterim president,\u201d despite the fact that he has never won a single vote in a presidential election.\nTrump drastically expanded the sanctions into a full-on US embargo of Venezuela, similar to Washington\u2019s six-decade blockade of Cuba. The South American nation\u2019s oil production subsequently fell to the lowest levels since 2003 \u2013 when the US government sponsored another, briefly successful coup in Venezuela and a subsequent oil lockout and bosses\u2019 strike by the right-wing opposition.\n\nTrump 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.\nAt the beginning, France eagerly joined in the US-led regime-change operation. Macron declared that Paris recognized Guaid\u00f3 as Venezuela\u2019s \u201cinterim president.\u201d\nLos Venezolanos tienen el derecho de expresarse libremente y democr\u00e1ticamente. Francia reconoce a @jguaido como \"presidente encargado\" para implementar un proceso electoral. Apoyamos al Grupo de contacto, creado con la UE, en este per\u00edodo de transici\u00f3n. https://t.co/7cgpdgz7TN\n\u2014 Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) February 4, 2019\n\nAs recently as 2020, Macron was still publicly maintaining this charade, tweeting smiling photos with Guaid\u00f3.\n\u00c9change constructif avec @jguaido r\u00e9\u00e9lu \u00e0 la pr\u00e9sidence de l\u2019@AsambleaVE. pic.twitter.com/p0O0HOWCZt\n\u2014 Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) January 24, 2020\n\nSoon after the Biden administration came to power in January 2021, it made it clear that it was continuing Trump\u2019s policy.\nSecretary of State Antony Blinken had a friendly call with Guaid\u00f3 on March 2, reaffirming Washington\u2019s \u201cunwavering support.\u201d\nToday 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.\n\u2014 Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) March 3, 2021\n\nAs recently as June 2022, the State Department was still describing Guaid\u00f3 as so-called \u201cinterim president.\u201d\nFor 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 Guaid\u00f3 and all those who stand for democracy.\n\u2014 Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) June 12, 2022\n\nThe US assistant secretary for western hemisphere affairs, Brian A. Nichols, even removed the word \u201cinterim\u201d and referred to Guaid\u00f3 simply as \u201cpresident\u201d on June 11.\nWe 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.\n\u2014 Brian A. Nichols (@WHAAsstSecty) June 11, 2022\n\nThe West\u2019s de facto reluctant admission in 2022 that Maduro is Venezuela\u2019s 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.\nDonald Trump\u2019s far-right attorney general, veteran CIA operative William Barr, levelled absurd accusations of \u201cdrug trafficking\u201d and \u201cnarco-terrorism,\u201d without a scintilla of evidence.\n\nThe Trump administration\u2019s coup attempt in Venezuela culminated in a botched invasion in May 2020, featuring dozens of mercenaries and former US Army special operations forces.\nKnown as Operation Gideon, this failed terrorist operation was sponsored by the CIA and Colombian intelligence agencies, according to coup-plotters involved in the attack.\nA Venezuelan army defector who helped plan a botched May 2020 invasion, Cl\u00edver Alcal\u00e1, said the coup-plotters were in touch with the CIA and other US government agencies\nThey had Washington's approval to try to violently overthrow President Nicol\u00e1s Madurohttps://t.co/GHYCrcZnm8\n\u2014 Multipolarista (@Multipolarista) February 2, 2022\n\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: No es Nicaragua la que est\u00e1 \u2018aislada\u2019; 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, Jap\u00f3n, Nicaragua, Palestina, Rusia, Sandinistas, Siria, Turqu\u00eda, Vietnam, Yemen", "output": "Los medios occidentales dicen que el gobierno sandinista de Nicaragua est\u00e1 \u201caislado\u201d, pero tiene el apoyo de pa\u00edses gigantes en Asia, \u00c1frica y Latinoam\u00e9rica, mientras EEUU pelea con la UE\n\n\u00c9ste 10 de enero fue la toma de posesi\u00f3n del Presidente Daniel Ortega de Nicaragua, el l\u00edder del Frente Sandinista de Liberaci\u00f3n Nacional.\nHay mucha propaganda absurda en los medios comerciales, diciendo que Nicaragua supuestamente est\u00e1 \u201caislada de la comunidad internacional\u201d. Pero cuando dicen la \u201ccomunidad internacional\u201d, realmente significa \u201clos imperialistas en Estados Unidos y la Uni\u00f3n Europea\u201d.\nRevisemos la narrativa de la guerra de la informaci\u00f3n en los grandes medios hegem\u00f3nicos:\nEstados Unidos y la Uni\u00f3n Europea rechazaron\u00a0las elecciones en Nicaragua en noviembre, sosteniendo que supuestamente fueron \u201cfraudulentas\u201d, y respondieron con guerra econ\u00f3mica. (Todav\u00eda espero las elecciones presidenciales en las monarqu\u00edas autocr\u00e1ticas del Golfo P\u00e9rsico, que son aliados obedientes de EEUU y la UE.)\nSubsecuentemente, la respuesta a la inauguraci\u00f3n presidencial \u00e9ste 10 de enero por parte de los imperialistas en EEUU y la UE fue m\u00e1s guerra econ\u00f3mica. Coordinando sus acciones, las potencias occidentales\u00a0impusieron m\u00e1s sanciones\u00a0contra funcionarios del gobierno de Nicaragua, su ej\u00e9rcito, su instituto de telecomunicaciones y una compa\u00f1\u00eda estatal de minas.\nPero si miramos m\u00e1s all\u00e1 de las distracciones en los medios comerciales, podemos ver muy claramente que, en realidad, Nicaragua tiene muchos aliados en Asia, \u00c1frica y Latinoam\u00e9rica, representando a miles de millones de personas, incluyendo las naciones m\u00e1s grandes del mundo.\nRepresentantes de los siguientes pa\u00edses saludaron la\u00a0inauguraci\u00f3n del Presidente Ortega:\nLos propagandistas en los medios occidentales realmente creen que todo el mundo se centra en el 15% de la poblaci\u00f3n mundial, aproximadamente, que vive en EEUU y la UE, y que constituyen su llamada \u201ccomunidad internacional\u201d. Ignoran la gran mayor\u00eda de la humanidad en Asia, \u00c1frica y America Latina y el Caribe.\nLa verdad es que no es Nicaragua que est\u00e9 aislada, sino Estados Unidos y la Uni\u00f3n Europea, quienes cada vez m\u00e1s est\u00e1n perdiendo sus aliados. Hasta Francia, una antigua potencia colonial, dice que Europea\u00a0no puede confiar en EEUU. Y\u00a0Washington amenaz\u00f3 a Alemania con sanciones\u00a0por su gasoducto con Rusia, el Nord Stream 2.\nMientras los imperialistas occidentales imponen sanciones ilegales a pueblos a trav\u00e9s del planeta \u2014 y mientras luchan entre ellos \u2014 Asia sigue avanzando muy r\u00e1pidamente, Am\u00e9rica Latina y \u00c1frica est\u00e1n desarroll\u00e1ndose y los mecanismos de integraci\u00f3n Sur-Sur se est\u00e1n fortaleciendo.\n\u00bfQuieres saber lo que realmente es el aislamiento? Cuando m\u00e1s de 95% de los 193 estados miembros de la ONU votan todos los a\u00f1os en la Asamblea General, por tres d\u00e9cadas, para condenar el bloqueo ilegal de EEUU a Cuba. \u00c9se es el verdadero aislamiento internacional.\nPor 29 a\u00f1o consecutivo, b\u00e1sicamente todo el mundo vot\u00f3 en la ONU en contra del bloqueo ilegal y asesino de EEUU a Cuba.\n184 pa\u00edses votaran en contra del bloqueo.S\u00f3lo 2 votaron a favor: Estados Unidos e Israel.3 t\u00edteres de EEUU se abstuvieron: Colombia, Ucrania y los EAU pic.twitter.com/Kac29gDOp9\n\u2014 Benjamin Norton (@BenjaminNorton) June 23, 2021\n\n"}
{"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 \u201cenergetic condemnation of the coup d\u2019etat\u201d in Peru, saying elected President Pedro Castillo represents \u201cthe sovereign will of the people.\u201d Honduras was also the victim of a US-sponsored coup in 2009.\n\nHonduras\u2019 democratically elected left-wing government was overthrown in a military coup, sponsored by the US government, in 2009.\nAfter restoring democracy in late 2021, Honduras\u2019 new government has warned of a similar coup in South America.\nOn December 7, Peru\u2019s 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.\nThe US State Department publicly supported the coup.\nCastillo 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.\nHonduras\u2019 Foreign Ministry published a statement on the day of the coup, then republished it on December 12, communicating its \u201cenergetic condemnation of the coup d\u2019etat 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.\u201d\n?COMUNICADO: Posici\u00f3n del Gobierno de Honduras en relaci\u00f3n a los \u00faltimos acontecimientos ocurridos en el Per\u00fa. pic.twitter.com/C1sG2OY8Zv\n\u2014 Canciller\u00eda Honduras (@CancilleriaHN) December 13, 2022\n\nHonduras demanded that Castillo\u2019s \u201cphysical integrity and human rights be respected.\u201d\n\u201cThe 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,\u201d it added.\n\u201cCoups d\u2019etat should not be carried out,\u201d the statement stressed.\nHonduras\u2019 former President Manuel Zelaya likewise said, \u201cWe energetically condemn the coup d\u2019etat in Peru, violating the sovereign will of the people, represented by President Pedro Castillo.\u201d\nCondenamos en\u00e9rgicamente el golpe de estado en Peru violentando la soberana voluntad del pueblo, representado por el Presidente Pedro Castillo. @PedroCastilloTe @int_antiimp\n\u2014 Manuel Zelaya R. (@manuelzr) December 7, 2022\n\nZelaya today serves as an advisor to Honduras\u2019 current President Xiomara Castro, who is his wife, and is a member of the leftist Libre Party, which Zelaya also leads.\nZelaya founded an organization called the Anti-Imperialist International of the Peoples in Defense of Humanity and Nature.\nThis Anti-Imperialist International has launched a campaign that \u201cdemands the immediate freedom of Pedro Castillo, Peru\u2019s legitimate president.\u201d\nLa internacional Antimperialista de los pueblos exige libertad inmediata para Pedro Castillo presidente leg\u00edtimo de Per\u00fa. #LibertadPedroCastillo #Per\u00fa pic.twitter.com/HLg5c7q7kZ\n\u2014 Internacional Antiimperialista de los Pueblos (@int_antiimp) December 12, 2022\n\nZelaya was himself overthrown in a US-backed military coup in 2009.\nHonduras 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\u2019s victory.\nXiomara Castro is Honduras\u2019 first democratic leader since the 2009 coup.\nUS turns on Honduran narco-dictator Juan Orlando Hern\u00e1ndez after long supporting him\n\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: US govt\u2019s 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, Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador, Bolivia, Cuba, Guatemala, Honduras, Joe Biden, Luis Arce, Mexico, Nicaragua, Summit of the Americas, Venezuela, Xiomara Castro", "output": "As the US government\u2019s 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.\n\nThe US government\u2019s 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.\nWashington refused to invite the socialist governments of Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua.\nSo to protest this exclusion, the presidents of Mexico, Bolivia, and Honduras boycotted the summit. Guatemala\u2019s president also chose to skip the conference.\nThis means heads of state representing Latin American countries with a total population of more than 200 million people \u2013 a significant percentage of the Americas \u2013 refused to attend Washington\u2019s Summit of the Americas.\n\nThe most significant absence was Mexico\u2019s left-wing president, Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador, known popularly by the acronym AMLO.\n\u201cI am not going to the summit because not all of the countries of the Americas were invited,\u201d AMLO explained in his morning press conference on June 6.\n\u201cI 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,\u201d the Mexican president explained.\nMexico's President AMLO said he refuses to attend the US government's Summit of the Americas, protesting the exclusion of Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua\nAMLO condemned US \"hegemony\" and its \"old policy of interventionism,\" of \"lack of respect\"\nRead more: https://t.co/O7bOWe6W6N pic.twitter.com/chPeIY46YD\n\u2014 Multipolarista (@Multipolarista) June 6, 2022\n\n\u201cThere cannot be a Summit of the Americas if all of the countries of the American continent do not participate,\u201d L\u00f3pez Obrador continued. \u201cWe consider that to be the old policy of interventionism, of a lack of respect for nations and their peoples.\u201d\nAMLO criticized the US Republican Party for its \u201cextremist\u201d 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 \u201chate\u201d against Cuba and hawkish meddling in Latin America\u2019s sovereign affairs.\n\u201cI don\u2019t accept hegemonies,\u201d AMLO added. \u201cNot of China, not of Russia, not of the United States. All countries, no matter how small they are, are free and are independent.\u201d\nL\u00f3pez Obrador said that Mexico\u2019s foreign minister, Marcelo Ebrard, would instead attend the Summit of the Americas.\nAMLO\u2019s absence is especially significant given that, in addition to being neighbors with a 3,000-kilometer border, the United States and Mexico\u2019s are each other\u2019s top trading partners.\nMexico is the second-largest country in Latin America, in terms of population. It also has the second-biggest economy in the region.\nJoining AMLO in condemning the US government\u2019s policy of exclusion was Bolivia\u2019s socialist President Luis Arce.\nBolivia\u2019s foreign ministry confirmed on June 6 that Arce is not joining the summit either. Instead, the country\u2019s ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS), H\u00e9ctor Arce, is attending.\nIn a Twitter thread the week before, Arce insisted that \u201cit 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.\u201d\nThe Bolivian leader added,\u00a0\u201cWith 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.\u201d\n\u00a1Con bloqueos y sanciones no se podr\u00e1 construir nunca un futuro sostenible, resiliente y equitativo en el Hemisferio, como se lo plantea la pr\u00f3xima Cumbre de las Am\u00e9ricas!\n\u2014 Luis Alberto Arce Catacora (Lucho Arce) (@LuchoXBolivia) May 27, 2022\n\nHonduras\u2019 new left-wing President Xiomara Castro is boycotting the Summit of the Americas as well.\nOn May 28, Castro tweeted, \u201cI will only attend the summit if all of the countries of America are invited without exception.\u201d\nOn June 6, the Honduran president made good on her promise, and her government confirmed that Foreign Minister Eduardo Enrique Reina would attend instead.\nAsistir\u00e9 a la Cumbre solo si est\u00e1n invitados todos los pa\u00edses de Am\u00e9rica sin excepci\u00f3n. \u201cEl estudio m\u00e1s digno de un americano es Am\u00e9rica\u201d.\n\u2014 Xiomara Castro de Zelaya (@XiomaraCastroZ) May 28, 2022\n\nWhile the majority of the leaders not attending the Summit of the Americas are left-wing, even Guatemala\u2019s right-wing president, Alejandro Giammattei, announced that he will not be present.\nSeveral officials from Giammattei\u2019s government have been sanctioned by the United States, and he is protesting the Biden administration\u2019s policies with his absence.\nThe Caribbean Community (CARICOM), which represents 15 states, similarly threatened to boycott the summit if Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua were excluded.\nSeveral countries in the Caribbean did confirm they are attending, however. It is not clear how many are boycotting.\nBrazil\u2019s 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.\nThe far-right Brazilian autocrat thus changed his mind and decided to attend.\nBolsonaro 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.)\nThe 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.\nThat same year, the US government signed the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), a neoliberal deal with Mexico and Canada, which devastated Mexico\u2019s local economy and fueled a wave of mass migration.\nNumerous grassroots organizations, left-wing social movements, and labor unions have organized an alternative People\u2019s Summit for Democracy to protest the US government\u2019s Summit of the Americas.\nThe People\u2019s Summit is hosting a series of demonstrations, panels, concerts, and cultural activities in California from June 8 to 10.\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Colombia\u2019s President Petro denounces \u2018parliamentary coup\u2019 against Peru\u2019s 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 D\u00e1vila", "output": "Colombia\u2019s President Gustavo Petro denounced the overthrow of Peru\u2019s Pedro Castillo as a \u201cparliamentary coup,\u201d saying it is a warning for all democratically elected left-wing leaders in Latin America: \u201cWhat they can\u2019t win at the ballot box, they are trying to topple\u201d\n\nColombia\u2019s President Gustavo Petro has denounced the ouster of Peru\u2019s President Pedro Castillo as a \u201cparliamentary coup.\u201d\nPetro said the coup in Peru is a warning for all democratically elected left-wing leaders in Latin America.\nPointing to recent coups against left-wing governments, Petro recalled, \u201cIt 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,\u201d\n\u201cThe message is clear: What they can\u2019t win at the ballot box, they are trying to overthrow,\u201d the Colombian president cautioned. He added, \u201cThat is what happened with [Salvador] Allende [in Chile in 1973].\u201d\nPetro argued Castillo was ousted because he represented the humble indigenous-descent majority of the country, who have not been represented by the political system.\n\u201cThey overthrew him, among other reasons, because he is from the Andes, because he is poor,\u201d he said.\nPetro made these comments in an interview with Semana, a major media outlet that is closely associated with Colombia\u2019s right wing. The interview was conducted by Semana\u2019s director, Vicky D\u00e1vila, who is well known for her conservative sympathies.\nColombia\u2019s 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\nFull transcript here: https://t.co/V3dPxph76s pic.twitter.com/lHx2r90syj\n\u2014 Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) December 19, 2022\n\nGUSTAVO PETRO: [In Peru] there is an emergency, with protests, above all in the Andes mountains, which is who voted for him [President Pedro Castillo].\nBecause, for a long time, Peru has had a social fracture between what Lima is, and what the Andes is, with very different political processes.\nBut here, that President (Castillo), elected by the people, is from the Andes.\nAnd they overthrow him, among other reasons, because he is from the Andes, because he is poor.\n\u2026\nYou 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\u2019t have that, but they do.\nVICKY D\u00c1VILA: 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.\nGUSTAVO PETRO: Vacancy, which is a parliamentary coup. Vacancy means you leave \u2014\nVICKY D\u00c1VILA: So he is a victim, Mr. President? You feel that way?\nGUSTAVO PETRO: Yes, I feel that way.\nVICKY D\u00c1VILA: That statement has led to criticisms of you. You know that?\nGUSTAVO PETRO: Yes, but \u2014\nVICKY D\u00c1VILA: And you don\u2019t care?\nGUSTAVO PETRO: I can\u2019t \u2013 tell me something, that they [Peru\u2019s coup government] are killing people, because we\u2019re talking about what had happened in Colombia, but it\u2019s happening there.\nThere 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.\nWhere was the legal sentence by a judge?\n\u2026\nVICKY D\u00c1VILA: But the IACHR [Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, an arm of the OAS] did not protect him.\nGUSTAVO 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?\nBecause 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.\nVICKY D\u00c1VILA: Do you think that what is happening to Castillo is a warning for other left-wing governments?\nGUSTAVO PETRO: For all of them.\nVICKY D\u00c1VILA: And that includes you?\nGUSTAVO PETRO: Yes, all of them.\nVICKY D\u00c1VILA: You think that could happen to you? Could they try to do it against you?\nGUSTAVO 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.\nThe message is clear: What they can\u2019t win at the ballot box, they are trying to overthrow. \u2026 That is what happened with [Salvador] Allende [in Chile in 1973].\nWhen 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.\nThe democratic pact was broken. There was nothing but violence.\nNow 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.\nWhey are they overthrowing them? Because the Latin American oligarchy doesn\u2019t want progressivism? So win the elections then! Don\u2019t overthrow presidents by force.\nBecause 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.\n"}
{"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.\n\nUS officials frequently talk about the \u201crules-based international order\u201d, and label other countries as \u201crogue states\u201d if Washington doesn\u2019t like their policies.\nBut a look at votes in the United Nations clearly shows that the United States consistently opposes the will of the entire international community.\n\nThe 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.\nOnly two countries voted against the measure: the United States and Israel.\nJust one country abstained: Ukraine.\n\nThe world has for the most part voted the same way for 31 consecutive years.\nIn 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\u2019s 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.\nEntire world votes 185 to 2 against blockade of Cuba \u2013 US and Israel are rogue states at UN\n\nWashington 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\u2019s entire GDP.\nThe US embargo prevents Cuba from importing certain technologies, machine parts, medicines, and even foods, despite Washington\u2019s misleading claim to have \u201chumanitarian exemptions\u201d \u2013 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.\nIllegal US sanctions make it exceedingly difficult for Cuba to get access to international financing, and cut off communication with many risk-averse foreign banks.\nThe 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.\nWashington\u2019s goal behind this criminal blockade is very clear: \u201cto bring about hunger, desperation, and overthrow of government\u201d.\nIn 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 \u201cthe majority of Cubans support Castro\u201d and \u201cthere is no effective political opposition\u201d.\nThe US State Department therefore concluded:\nThe only foreseeable means of alienating internal support is through disenchantment and disaffection based on economic dissatisfaction and hardship.\nIf 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.\nCuba\u2019s Foreign Ministry published a report for UN member states in July 2023, which detailed how illegal US sanctions have devastated the country.\nIn 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.\nThis is a massive economic blow for a small island nation whose GDP is just over $100 billion.\nCuba calculated that, \u201cAt current prices, the accumulated losses during the over 60 years of application of this policy amount to USD 159,084,300,000\u201d, or roughly 150% of GDP.\nMoreover, Havana said GDP growth in 2022 would have likely been 9%, were it not for the illegal US embargo.\n\u201cThe 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\u201d, the report stated.\n\u201cNo other nation has been obliged to take on a social and development program under such conditions of prolonged systematic\nhostility on the part of the greatest power in human history\u201d, the Cuban government wrote.\n\u201cThe 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\u201d, Havana added.\nCuba noted that more than 80% of its current population has no idea what life is like without the US blockade.\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: US sanctions on Russia over Ukraine also target Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba. 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, Joe Biden, Juan Gonzalez, Nicaragua, Russia, sanctions, Ukraine, Venezuela", "output": "President Joe Biden\u2019s top Latin America advisor, Juan S. Gonzalez, admitted that US sanctions against Russia aim to hurt Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba as well. The three socialist governments condemned NATO aggression for creating the crisis in Ukraine.\n\n(Se puede leer este art\u00edculo en espa\u00f1ol aqu\u00ed.)\nPresident Joe Biden\u2019s top Latin America advisor has admitted that US sanctions against Russia over Ukraine intentionally seek to hurt Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba as well.\nThe United States imposed a series of harsh sanctions on Russia following Moscow\u2019s recognition of the independence of the Donetsk and Lugansk People\u2019s Republics in Ukraine\u2019s eastern Donbas region on February 21, and its subsequent military intervention in Ukraine on February 24.\nJuan S. Gonz\u00e1lez, Biden\u2019s special assistant for Latin America and the US National Security Council\u2019s senior director for the Western Hemisphere, made it clear that these coercive measures against Russia are also aimed at damaging the economies of Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba.\nVenezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba have socialist governments that Washington has long tried to overthrow. All three currently suffer under unilateral US sanctions, which are illegal according to international law.\nFormer US National Security Advisor John Bolton, an architect of the Iraq War, referred to these three Latin American nations as the so-called \u201cTroika of Tyranny.\u201d\nBiden\u2019s advisor Gonz\u00e1lez did an exclusive interview with Voz de Am\u00e9rica, the Spanish-language arm of the US government\u2019s propaganda outlet Voice of America, on February 25.\nVoz de Am\u00e9rica published his comments in a report titled \u201cUS sanctions on Russia will impact Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba, White House estimates.\u201d\n\u201cThe sanctions against Russia are so robust that they will have an impact on those governments that have economic affiliations with Russia, and that is by design,\u201d Gonz\u00e1lez explained.\n\u201cSo Venezuela is going to start feeling that pressure. Nicaragua is going to feel that pressure, along with Cuba,\u201d he added.\nBiden\u2019s Latin America advisor noted that Washington has imposed sanctions on 13 top financial institutions in Russia, including some of the largest in the country. He proudly said that these coercive measures will, \u201cby design,\u201d harm other countries that do a lot of trade with the Eurasian power.\nGonz\u00e1lez also used his interview with the US-funded Voz de Am\u00e9rica to reiterate Washington\u2019s call for regime change against these three socialist governments in Latin America.\nHis comments were reported by the independent Bolivia-based news website Kawsachun News.\nBiden advisor: U.S. sanctions against Russia are 'designed' to impact Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba. pic.twitter.com/Zbqg3mgB2N\n\u2014 Kawsachun News (@KawsachunNews) February 26, 2022\n\nVenezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba have stood with Russia against NATO expansion and Western military encirclement.\nPresident Nicol\u00e1s Maduro said that Venezuela \u201claments the mockery and breaking of the Minsk agreements by NATO, promoted by the United States of America.\u201d\nMaduro stressed that Washington and NATO bear responsibility for the conflict, and \u201chave generated strong threats against the Russian Federation.\u201d\nVenezuela rechaza el agravamiento de la crisis en Ucrania producto del quebrantamiento de los acuerdos de Minsk por parte de la OTAN. Llamamos a la b\u00fasqueda de soluciones pac\u00edficas para dirimir las diferencias entre las partes. El di\u00e1logo y la no injerencia, son garant\u00edas de Paz. pic.twitter.com/Y7N1lwZfpi\n\u2014 Nicol\u00e1s Maduro (@NicolasMaduro) February 24, 2022\n\nCuba blamed Washington for the crisis as well. Its Foreign Ministry stated, \u201cThe U.S. determination to continue NATO\u2019s progressive expansion towards the Russian Federation borders has brought about a scenario with implications of unpredictable scope, which could have been avoided.\u201d\nDenouncing Western governments for sending weapons to Ukraine, Cuba declared, \u201cHistory will hold the United States accountable for the consequences of an increasingly offensive military doctrine outside NATO\u2019s borders, which threatens international peace, security and stability.\u201d\nThe U.S. determination to continue NATO\u2019s progressive expansion towards the Russian Federation borders has brought about a scenario with implications of unpredictable scope, which could have been avoided.1/5\nStatement by the Revolutionary Government:?https://t.co/3iBcPD9j8x pic.twitter.com/MRgwRCWSMV\n\u2014 Bruno Rodr\u00edguez P (@BrunoRguezP) February 27, 2022\n\nNicaragua\u2019s President Daniel Ortega condemned Washington for sponsoring a 2014\u00a0 coup in Ukraine, and joined Russia in recognizing the Donetsk and Lugansk People\u2019s Republics.\nThe\u00a0chairman of Russia\u2019s State Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin, traveled to Nicaragua to meet with top officials from the Sandinista government, and thanked them for their support against NATO expansion and US threats.\n???? #Nicaragua recibi\u00f3 a una delegaci\u00f3n de alto nivel de #Rusia, encabezada por el Presidente de la Duma Estatal de la C\u00e1mara Baja, Vyacheslav Volod\u00edn. La visita tiene por objetivo fortalecer la cooperaci\u00f3n y la solidaridad bilateral. pic.twitter.com/BMY1AjnviF\n\u2014 JP+ (@jpmasespanol) February 24, 2022\n\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Analyst suffered 20 years in US prison for helping Cuba, still condemns \u2018suffocating\u2019 blockade. 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": "Ana Bel\u00e9n Montes, blockade, Cuba, DIA, embargo, Puerto Rico", "output": "Former DIA analyst Ana Bel\u00e9n Montes was imprisoned for 20 years for sharing intelligence with Cuba that helped it prevent US attacks and sabotage. Upon being released, she condemned the \u201csuffocating embargo\u201d that makes Cubans \u201csuffer.\u201d\n\nA former intelligence analyst who was imprisoned by the United States government for 20 years for sharing information with Cuba that helped it prevent US attacks against it was freed this January.\nUpon leaving prison, she condemned the six-decade-long US blockade of Cuba and called for more attention to the hardships endured by the Puerto Rican people.\n\u201cWho in the last 60 years has asked the Cuban people if they want the United States to impose a suffocating embargo on them that makes them suffer?\u201d she asked.\n\nAna Bel\u00e9n Montes had been an official at the US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). She worked her way up the ranks of the organization, becoming its top Cuba analyst, before she was arrested in 2001.\nIn 2002, Montes was sentenced to 25 years in prison.\nShe was convicted of secretly giving sensitive intelligence to Cuba, helping its revolutionary government prevent US terror attacks and disrupt US sabotage operations.\nAt her trial, Montes declared, \u201cI obeyed my conscience rather than the law\u2026\u00a0giving the island [Cuba] classified information to help it defend itself.\u201d\n\u201cI believe our government\u2019s policy towards Cuba is cruel and unfair, profoundly unneighborly, and I felt morally obligated to help the island defend itself from our efforts to impose our values and our political system on it,\u201d she said.\nThe US Department of Defense, where Montes worked, had a history of planning terror attacks on Cuba. In Operation Northwood in 1962, top US military officials discussed launching false-flag attacks on civilian targets in both Cuba and Florida and falsely blaming them on communists, to try to justify a US military invasion of the island.\nHave you ever heard of Operation Northwood? It was a false flag operation concocted by the #US Joint Chiefs of Staff in March 1962, after the Chief of Operations of the \u2018Cuba Project\u2019, asked them for pretexts to justify #US military intervention in #Cuba. https://t.co/Gmg7LP1AzD pic.twitter.com/PPYpEj5P4m\n\u2014 Helen Yaffe (@HelenYaffe) November 5, 2021\n\nMontes is a national hero in Cuba, and many around the world considered her to be a prisoner of conscience.\nOn January 6, 2023, US authorities allowed Montes to leave prison, having served 20 or her 25 year-sentence. But she is not yet completely free; the US government is going to monitor Montes for the remaining five years, and all of her internet access will be closely followed.\nSoon after her release, Montes published a statement stating, \u201cI encourage those who want to focus on me to, instead, focus on important issues, such as the serious problems that the Puerto Rican people face, or the United States economic embargo against Cuba.\u201d\n\u201cWho in the last 60 years has asked the Cuban people if they want the United States to impose a suffocating embargo on them that makes them suffer?\u201d she added.\nThe international community overwhelmingly opposes the illegal US blockade against Cuba, and every year for decades more than 95% of member states at the United Nations have voted to condemn it.\nThe US State Department admitted in an internal cable in 1960 that its goal in imposing sanctions and eventually an embargo on Cuba was \u201cto weaken the economic life of Cuba\u201d and make \u201cthe greatest inroads in denying money and supplies to Cuba, to decrease monetary and real wages, to bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government.\u201d\n\nMontes is Puerto Rican, and upon being released she moved back to her homeland. There, she delivered these remarks (emphasis added):\nI am happier than ever to touch Boricuan soil again. After two quite exhausting decades, and with the need to go back to earning a living, I would like to dedicate myself to a quiet and private existence. Therefore, I will not participate in any media activities.\nI encourage those who want to focus on me to, instead, focus on important issues, such as the serious problems that the Puerto Rican people face, or the United States economic embargo against Cuba.\nWho in the last 60 years has asked the Cuban people if they want the United States to impose a suffocating embargo on them that makes them suffer?\nWhat also deserves attention is the urgent need for global cooperation that stops and reverses the destruction of our environment.\nI as a person am irrelevant. I am not important, while there exist grave problems in our world homeland that demand attention and a demonstration of brotherly love.\nHer lawyer, Linda Backiel, said that this would be Montes\u2019 only public statement and that she would not grant interviews, asking for her privacy to be respected.\nAddressing the court at her trial in October 2002, Montes delivered a passionate speech (emphasis added):\nAn Italian proverb perhaps best describes the fundamental truth I believe in: \u201cAll the world is one country.\u201d\nIn such a \u201cworld-country,\u201d the principle of loving one\u2019s neighbor as much as oneself seems, to me, to be the essential guide to harmonious relations between all of our \u201cnation-neighborhoods.\u201d\nThis principle urges tolerance and understanding for the different ways of others. It asks that we treat other nations the way we wish to be treated \u2013 with respect and compassion. It is a principle that, tragically, I believe we have never applied to Cuba.\nYour honor, I engaged in the activity that brought me before you because I obeyed my conscience rather than the law.\nI believe our government\u2019s policy towards Cuba is cruel and unfair, profoundly unneighborly, and I felt morally obligated to help the island defend itself from our efforts to impose our values and our political system on it.\nWe have displayed intolerance and contempt towards Cuba for most of the last four decades. We have never respected Cuba\u2019s right to make its own journey towards its own ideals of equality and justice.\nI do not understand why we must continue to dictate how the Cubans should select their leaders, who their leaders cannot be, and what laws are appropriate in their land.\nWhy can\u2019t we let Cuba pursue its own internal journey, as the United States has been doing for over two centuries?\nMy way of responding to our Cuba policy may have been morally wrong. Perhaps Cuba\u2019s right to exist free of political and economic coercion did not justify giving the island classified information to help it defend itself. I can only say that I did what I thought right to counter a grave injustice.\nMy greatest desire is to see amicable relations emerge between the United States and Cuba. I hope my case in some way will encourage our government to abandon its hostility towards Cuba and to work with Havana in a spirit of tolerance, mutual respect, and understanding.\nToday we see more clearly than ever that intolerance and hatred \u2013 by individuals or governments \u2013 spread only pain and suffering.\nI hope for a U.S. policy that is based instead on neighborly love, a policy that recognizes that Cuba, like any nation, wants to be treated with dignity and not with contempt. Such a policy would bring our government back in harmony with the compassion and generosity of the American people.\nIt would allow Cubans and Americans to learn from and share with each other. It would enable Cuba to drop its defensive measures and experiment more easily with changes. And it would permit the two neighbors to work together and with other nations to promote tolerance and cooperation in our one \u201cworld-country,\u201d in our only \u201cworld-homeland.\u201d\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Nicaragua expropriates OAS building, will replace it with \u2018Museum of Shame\u2019 documenting imperialist crimes. 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": "Nicaragua, OAS, Organization of American States, Rosario Murillo", "output": "Nicaragua\u2019s Sandinista government expelled the US-dominated OAS and expropriated its office building, where it will now create a public \u201cMuseum of Shame\u201d to educate visitors about imperialist crimes committed against Latin America.\n\nNicaragua\u2019s Sandinista government expelled the US-dominated Organization of American States (OAS) on April 24.\nNicaragua\u2019s Foreign Ministry denounced the Washington-based organization as a \u201cdeceitful agency of the State Department of yankee imperialism,\u201d calling it the US \u201cMinistry of the Colonies,\u201d which exists to support \u201cinterventions and invasions, legitimizing coups d\u2019etat in various forms and modes.\u201d\nOn April 26, the Sandinista government further announced that it had expropriated the building where the OAS had offices in the Nicaraguan capital Managua.\nThis office was declared public property, and will now be used to build a \u201cMuseum of Shame\u201d that documents imperialist crimes committed against Nicaragua and Latin America.\n\u201cThe real estate that was occupied by the deplorable OAS, the disgraceful OAS, has been declared of public use and will belong to the state of Nicaragua,\u201d Vice President Rosario Murillo revealed\u00a0in a speech on April 26,\n\u201cThe Institute of Culture is going to develop the Museum of Shame,\u201d Murillo said.\n\u201cWhat is more shameful than that Ministry of the Colonies?\u201d the vice president added.\nAs Multipolarista has previously reported, the OAS was created by the US government in 1948 as a coalition of right-wing anti-communist regimes in the Americas. It was one of the first alliances of the cold war, created even before NATO in 1949.\nNicaragua\u2019s brutal US-backed right-wing military dictatorship of the Somoza family was one of the founding members of the OAS. This dynasty was overthrown by the Sandinista Revolution in 1979.\nNicaragua\u2019s Sandinista gov\u2019t expels OAS, calling it US \u2018colonial instrument\u2019 of coups and invasions\n\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Peru coup: CIA agent turned US ambassador met with defense minister day before president overthrown. 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": "CIA, coup, Lisa Kenna, Mike Pompeo, Pedro Castillo, Peru", "output": "The US ambassador in Peru, Lisa Kenna, worked for the CIA for 9 years, as well as the Pentagon. One day before the coup against elected left-wing President Pedro Castillo, Kenna met with Peru\u2019s defense minister, who then ordered the military to turn against Castillo.\n\n(Se puede leer este informe en espa\u00f1ol aqu\u00ed.)\nThe US ambassador in Peru, a veteran CIA agent named Lisa Kenna, met with the country\u2019s defense minister just one day before democratically elected left-wing President Pedro Castillo was overthrown in a coup d\u2019etat and imprisoned without trial.\nPeru\u2019s defense minister, a retired brigadier general, ordered the military to turn against Castillo.\n\nThe coup set off mass protests all across Peru. The unelected regime has unleashed brutal violence, and police have killed numerous demonstrators.\nMeanwhile, the US government has staunchly supported Peru\u2019s unelected coup regime, which declared a nation-wide \u201cstate of emergency\u201d and deployed the military to the streets in an attempt to crush the protests.\nEsto no es la Guerra de las Galaxias es Chorrillos, Lima pic.twitter.com/KFluRVJFAu\n\u2014 HezSocial (@ZLaicos) December 15, 2022\n\nMost governments in Latin America have criticized or even refused to recognize Peru\u2019s unelected coup regime, including Mexico, Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Honduras, Venezuela, Cuba, and various Caribbean nations.\nThe CIA has organized many coups against democratically elected left-wing leaders in Latin America, from Guatemala\u2019s President Jacobo \u00c1rbenz in 1954 to Chile\u2019s President Salvador Allende in 1973.\nWhen the Donald Trump administrated nominated Lisa Kenna to be ambassador to Peru in 2020, the State Department released a \u201ccertificate of competency\u201d that revealed that, \u201cBefore joining the Foreign Service, she served for nine years as a Central Intelligence Agency officer.\u201d\nThis important fact is curiously absent from most of Kenna\u2019s bios, including her page on the US embassy\u2019s official website.\n\nUnder Trump, Kenna also served as executive secretary of the State Department and was \u201csenior aide\u201d to Trump\u2019s Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who previously headed the CIA.\nIn regard to his work for the notorious spy agency, Pompeo admitted in 2019, \u201cI was the CIA director.\u00a0We lied, we cheated, we stole. We had entire training courses.\u201d\nAt a Congressional nomination hearing in 2020,\u00a0Kenna admitted that, as executive secretary, she saw \u201cnearly all\u201d of the memos that were sent to Pompeo, adding, \u201cI am aware of the vast majority of\u201d calls made to and by him.\nKenna also previously worked for the Defense Department and served State Department roles in Iraq, Jordan, Egypt, Swaziland, and Pakistan.\nWhen President Joe Biden entered in January 2021, he kept Kenna as ambassador in Peru.\nThe current US Ambassador in Peru. pic.twitter.com/iUAbnR6Hzp\n\u2014 Kawsachun News (@KawsachunNews) December 13, 2022\n\nOn December 6, 2022, Kenna met with Gustavo Bobbio Rosas, a retired brigadier general from the Peruvian military who had officially been appointed as defense minister the day before. (A local media outlet reported that the meeting was on December 5, but that appears to have been an error.)\nPeru\u2019s Ministry of Defense published a photo of their friendly chat.\nAt the time of this meeting, it was known in Peru that the notoriously corrupt, oligarch-controlled congress was preparing for a new vote to overthrow democratically elected left-wing President Pedro Castillo.\nAhora ? | Ministro de Defensa, Gustavo Bobbio, se re\u00fane con la embajadora de @USEMBASSYPERU, Lisa Kenna, para abordar temas de inter\u00e9s bilateral. ???? pic.twitter.com/9p7JuKNx75\n\u2014 Mindef Per\u00fa (@MindefPeru) December 6, 2022\n\nArticle 113 of Peru\u2019s constitution allows the unicameral congress to remove presidents simply by voting to declare that they have a \u201cmoral incapacity,\u201d in a process known as \u201cvacancy.\u201d\nPeru\u2019s congress is well known for its extreme corruption. In the infamous \u201cMamanivideos\u201d scandal, congress members from the far-right Fuerza Popular party were filmed bribing other congress members to vote against impeaching previous right-wing President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski.\nFuerza Popular is run by the family members of Alberto Fujimori, the far-right dictator who ruled Peru with an iron fist from 1990 until 2000. With the support of the US government, Fujimori committed genocide, sterilizing approximately 300,000 Indigenous people, while killing, torturing, and disappearing large numbers of leftist dissidents.\nThe Mamanivideos scandal showed that it is quite easy for Peru\u2019s rich oligarchs to buy votes in congress to overthrow democratically elected presidents.\nAnd as soon as Castillo entered office on July 28, 2021, the congress tried to do exactly this.\nJust one day after the US ambassador met with Peru\u2019s defense minister, on December 7, 2022, the right-wing-dominated congress launched a parliamentary coup against Castillo, using article 113.\nThis was the third coup attempt in just over a year by Peru\u2019s congress, which in September 2022 had a mere 7% approval rating.\nHoping to stop the coup, Castillo responded by trying to dissolve the congress. This is allowed in cases of obstructionism by article 134 of Peru\u2019s constitution.\nDefense Minister Bobbio immediately denounced the president\u2019s actions. He published a video resigning from his position (that he had only held for three days).\nPronunciamiento| Presento mi renuncia de manera irrevocable a mi cargo de Ministro de Defensa. pic.twitter.com/efFC0cwZ34\n\u2014 Gustavo Bobbio Rosas (@GustavoBobbio_) December 7, 2022\n\nIn the video, Bobbio told Peru\u2019s armed forces not to support President Castillo and to oppose his attempt to dissolve the coup-plotting congress.\nBobbio claimed Castillo was launching a \u201ccoup attempt,\u201d but in reality Bobbio was instructing the Peruvian military to support a coup against the democratically elected president, on behalf of a notoriously corrupt oligarch-controlled congress that had almost no support from the population.\nWhile Bobbio ordered the military to rebel against the president, the US government promptly attacked Castillo.\nFormer CIA agent and current\u00a0Ambassador Kenna tweeted, \u201cThe United States categorically rejects any extra-constitutional act by President Castillo to prevent the congress from fulfilling its mandate.\u201d\nLos Estados Unidos insta enf\u00e1ticamente al presidente Castillo a revertir su intento de cerrar el Congreso y permitir que las instituciones democr\u00e1ticas de Per\u00fa funcionen seg\u00fan la Constituci\u00f3n. Alentamos al p\u00fablico peruano a mantener la calma durante este tiempo incierto.\n\u2014 Lisa Kenna (@USAmbPeru) December 7, 2022\n\nKenna failed to mention article 134 of Peru\u2019s constitution, which states:\nThe President of the Republic is authorized to dissolve the Congress if it has censured or denied its confidence to two Councils of Ministers [the official name of Peru\u2019s cabinet]. The dissolution decree contains the call for elections for a new Congress.\nWhen Castillo moved to dissolve the congress, he cited article 134 and he made it clear that it was only going to be a \u201ctemporary\u201d closure. The president said new congressional elections would be held as soon as possible.\nKenna ignored all of this context. Instead, the ambassador declared, \u201cThe United States emphatically urges President Castillo to reverse his attempt to close the congress and allow the democratic institutions of Peru to function according to the constitution.\u201d\nBy this, the CIA veteran meant that Castillo should simply allow the anti-democratic, oligarch-controlled congress to launch a coup against him.\nThe US embassy in Peru subsequently published an official statement echoing exactly what Kenna had said.\nThis was Washington\u2019s green light for Peru\u2019s corrupt, right-wing-dominated congress to overthrow President Castillo, and for the state security services to arrest him, without trial.\npic.twitter.com/cyDlKaxiC8\n\u2014 Embajada EEUU Per\u00fa (@USEMBASSYPERU) December 7, 2022\n\nMere hours after Castillo was imprisoned, the oligarch-controlled congress appointed his vice president, Dina Boluarte, as leader of the country.\nBoluarte promised on the floor of the congress that she would create \u201ca political truce to install a government of national unity\u201d \u2013 that is, a pact with the right wing.\nBoluarte had been expelled in January 2022 from the leftist Per\u00fa Libre party that Castillo had campaigned with. She proudly declared that she \u201chad never embraced the ideology\u201d of the socialist political party.\nThe day after the coup, on December 8, the State Department gave its rubber stamp to Boluarte\u2019s unelected regime.\n\u201cThe United States welcomes President Boluarte and hopes to work with her administration to achieve a more democratic, prosperous, and secure region,\u201d stated Brian A. Nichols, the US assistant secretary for western hemisphere affairs.\n\u201cWe support her call for a government of national unity and we applaud Peruvians while they unite in their support of democracy,\u201d the top State Department official added.\nEE. UU. da la bienvenida a la presidenta Boluarte y espera trabajar con su administraci\u00f3n para lograr una regi\u00f3n m\u00e1s democr\u00e1tica, pr\u00f3spera y segura. Apoyamos su llamado a un gobierno de unidad nacional y aplaudimos a los peruanos mientras se unen en apoyo de su democracia. -BAN\n\u2014 Brian A. Nichols (@WHAAsstSecty) December 8, 2022\n\nIn the mean time, the Peruvian people were filling the streets, condemning the coup against their elected president.\nPeru\u2019s police responded with violence, harshly cracking down, killing several protesters.\nOn December 14, the coup regime imposed a national \u201cstate of emergency\u201d for 30 days, and said it might also declare a curfew.\nAt the same time, the coup regime also said it plans to sentence Castillo to 18 months in \u201cpreventative prison,\u201d without a proper trial that resembles anything remotely like due process.\nJust one day before the coup regime made these authoritarian announcements, former CIA agent and current US Ambassador met with Peru\u2019s unelected leader, Dina Boluarte, and reiterated Washington\u2019s wholehearted support.\nLa presidenta @DinaErcilia Boluarte recibi\u00f3 a la embajadora de @USEMBASSYPERU, Lisa Kenna, quien reiter\u00f3 el pleno respaldo de su pa\u00eds a la institucionalidad democr\u00e1tica en el Per\u00fa y a las acciones del gobierno constitucional para estabilizar la situaci\u00f3n social. ???? pic.twitter.com/30EqAa75lx\n\u2014 Presidencia del Per\u00fa ?? (@presidenciaperu) December 13, 2022\n\nKenna praised the right-wing \u201cunity government\u201d that Boluarte pledged to form, adding, \u201cWe hope to strengthen our bilateral relationship.\u201d\nMe reun\u00ed con la presidenta Boluarte para reiterarle el compromiso de los EE.UU. con la defensa de la democracia y el respeto a las instituciones. Junto con la @presidenciaperu y el gobierno de unidad que se comprometi\u00f3 a formar, esperamos fortalecer nuestra relaci\u00f3n bilateral.\n\u2014 Lisa Kenna (@USAmbPeru) December 13, 2022\n\nBrian Nichols, the top State Department official on Latin America, added with a touch of deep irony, \u201cWe support the Peruvian people and their constitutional democracy.\u201d He urged protesters to \u201creject violence.\u201d\nOn the same day, Mexico, Argentina, Bolivia, and Colombia released a joint diplomatic statement with a completely contrary message, supporting elected President Castillo, saying he was the victim of \u201canti-democratic harassment.\u201d\nApoyamos al pueblo peruano y a su democracia constitucional. Alentamos a los Peruanos a juntarse pacificamente en apoyo a las reformas que Per\u00fa necesita y a rechazar la violencia. Trabajaremos con @presidenciaperu para avanzar estas metas. -BAN https://t.co/AnrrDnxUzi\n\u2014 Brian A. Nichols (@WHAAsstSecty) December 13, 2022\n\nIn a press briefing on December 13, the State department was asked about the protests in Peru.\nState Department spokesman Ned Price \u2013 who, like Lisa Kenna, was also a CIA agent \u2013 emphasized Washington\u2019s steadfast support for Peru\u2019s coup regime.\n\u201cWe do commend Peruvian institutions and civil authorities for safeguarding democratic stability,\u201d he said, as Peru\u2019s repressive police killed protesters.\nJust witnessed a protestor shot in head by police outside our hotel in #lima. Not sure he survived. Police response becoming more violent tonight  #DinaBoluarte #sosperu #PedroCastillo #ProtestasContraElCongreso #protestasenlima #Peru #ahora pic.twitter.com/8HJe3cTxvC\n\u2014 M M (@MMinperu) December 13, 2022\n\nInstead of condemning the rampant police brutality, the US State Department blamed the protesters themselves. Price stated, \u201cwe are troubled by scattered reports of violent demonstrations and by reports of attacks on the press and private property, including businesses.\u201d\n\u201cWhen it comes to Peruvian President Dina Boluarte, we of course do recognize her as such. We will continue to work with Peru\u2019s democratic institutions, and we look forward to working closely with President Boluarte and all branches of the government in Peru,\u201d the former CIA agent stressed.\nState Department on Peru ?? (Tuesday's daily presser):\n\u2013 Commends Peru's institutions and authorities \"for safeguarding democratic stability\"\n\u2013 \"troubled by (..) violent demonstrations\" and \"reports of attacks on the press and private property\"\n\u2013 recognizes Dina Boluarte pic.twitter.com/AVj3F1cOds\n\u2014 Camila (@camilapress) December 15, 2022\n\nIn addition to serving as a CIA agent for nine years and current US ambassador to Peru, Lisa Kenna worked as a:\nAt a Congressional nomination hearing on July 23, 2020, Kenna boasted of her US-supremacist worldview, stating, \u201cThe longer I have been in public service, the more I am convinced that America is the world\u2019s most exceptional nation.\u201d\nShe also vowed, \u201cI will maintain the United States\u2019 vital relationship with Peru which has long been one of our closest partners in the region. Recently, Mission Peru has performed heroically to sustain our strong partnership and serve our fellow Americans in these challenging times.\u201d\nAt the time of the hearing, Peru had a right-wing government, led by President Mart\u00edn Vizcarra.\nKenna praised Peru\u2019s conservative government, \u201cas founder of the Lima Group,\u201d for backing the United States in its right-wing coup attempt against Venezuela\u2019s democratically elected President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, claiming, \u201cThe U.S. and Peru are also growing our shared support for a peaceful return to democracy in Venezuela.\u201d\nShe also pledged in the hearing that, as US ambassador to Peru: \u201cI commit to meet with democratically oriented opposition figures\u201d; \u201cWe also commit to meet with independent, local press in Peru\u201d; and \u201cI am committed to meeting with human rights, civil society, and other non governmental organizations in the United States and in Peru.\u201d\nClarification: This article originally reported that the meeting between the US ambassador and Peruvian defense minister was on December 5, two days before the coup, based on an article in a local newspaper, but that media outlet appears to have been mistaken, and the actual meeting was on December 6, the day before the coup.\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: China agrees to help Nicaragua develop infrastructure, hospitals, renewable energy. 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": "Belt and Road Initiative, China, Nicaragua", "output": "Nicaragua\u2019s Sandinista government and China signed a comprehensive agreement to develop hospitals, renewable energy, medical equipment, roads, railways, and ports, as well as the water and public health systems, all overseen by state-owned companies.\n\nThe People\u2019s Republic of China has come to an agreement with Nicaragua\u2019s Sandinista government to develop infrastructure projects in the Central American country.\nTop\u00a0Nicaraguan officials announced on February 9 that they had signed a comprehensive memorandum of understanding with representatives from Beijing.\nUnder the agreement,\u00a0China will help Nicaragua develop hospitals, renewable energy, medical equipment, roads, railways, and ports, as well as its water system and public health sector.\n\nAll of these projects will be overseen by state-owned Chinese companies, including the China Communications Construction Company (CCCC), China CAMC Engineering (CAMCE), China State Construction Engineering (CSCEC), and Power Construction Corporation of China (PowerChina).\nNumerous Nicaraguan governments institutions are participating in the projects, including the Energy and Mining Ministry (MEM), the Ministry of Health (MINSA), and the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure (MTI), along with the state-owned water company ENACAL.\nA Chinese representative coming to an agreement with Nicaragua\u2019s state-owned water company, ENACAL\nThis memorandum of understanding comes just weeks after\u00a0Nicaragua officially joined China\u2019s massive global infrastructure campaign, the Belt and Road Initiative, in January 2022.\nIn late January, Nicaragua also announced that China had agreed to help the Central American country build thousands of houses for poor and working families, bolstering the Sandinista government\u2019s already existing public housing program.\nChina signed an agreement with Nicaragua\u2019s leftist Sandinista government to build tens of thousands of homes for poor and working families.\nThis is expanding Nicaragua's already existing Bismarck Mart\u00ednez program, which has provided thousands of houseshttps://t.co/KsuhEH3XhP\n\u2014 Multipolarista (@Multipolarista) January 29, 2022\n\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: How Nicaragua\u2019s Sandinistas boosted women\u2019s empowerment, achieving 5th-highest gender equality on Earth. 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": "FSLN, Nicaragua, Sandinistas, women's rights", "output": "The Sandinistas\u2019 ambitious program of women\u2019s liberation transformed Nicaragua from having the 90th to the fifth-highest gender equality in the world. This is how they did it.\n\nDomestic work is absolutely necessary, but often made invisible. Caring for family members, maintaining the home, cooking the meals, washing the dishes and clothes, bathing children \u2013 these are difficult forms of labor that are crucial for society.\nWhen traditional gender roles are imposed on women, this grueling and frequently thankless domestic work falls on their shoulders. And if they live in poverty in formerly colonized nations, it becomes unending manual labor when their households have no electricity (consequently, no lights, no refrigerator, no labor-saving electrical devices), and no running water.\nThe burden of this gendered work often impedes the social participation, political engagement, and education of women.\nIn Nicaragua, before the 1979 Sandinista Revolution, men typically left all of this domestic work to women. When the Central American country was ruled by the US-backed dictatorship of the right-wing Somoza dynasty, it was not uncommon to hear of rampant abuse of women, or to encounter orphaned children whose mothers died in childbirth, given maternal mortality was so high.\nAfter the victory of the Sandinistas, living conditions for women drastically improved. They then faced a temporary setback during the period of neoliberal rule (from 1990 to 2006), until the Sandinistas returned to power again in 2007.\nThroughout this second Sandinista period, women have made giant steps forward in their material and social position.\nThe greatest advance has been made by poor women in rural areas and urban barrios, which historically had little to no safety, electricity, water and sanitation services, health care, or paved roads.\nThe liberation that Nicaraguan women have attained during the Sandinista era cannot be measured by the exact same criteria applied in the imperialist First World, because women\u2019s liberation in Third World countries often involves matters that may not appear on the surface as women\u2019s rights issues.\nThese include the paving of roads, improving housing, legalized land tenure, school meal programs, new clinics and hospitals, electrification, plumbing, literacy campaigns, potable water, aid programs to campesinos, and crime reduction initiatives.\nBecause half of Nicaraguan families are headed by single mothers, this infrastructure development promotes the liberation and well-being of women.\nGovernment programs that directly or indirectly shorten the hours of household drudgery free women to participate more in community life and politics.\nA country can have no greater democratic achievement than bringing about full and equal participation of women.\nThe headway made in women\u2019s liberation under the Sandinistas can be clearly seen in the Global Gender Gap Index. In 2007, Nicaragua ranked 90th on the index. By 2020, the country had jumped to fifth place, behind only Iceland, Norway, Finland, and Sweden.\nHow did the Sandinista Front make such enormous strides?\nThe progress women have made during the second FSLN era is reflected in their participation in government.\nThe 1980s Sandinista directorate contained no women. But in 2007, the second Sandinista government mandated equal representation for women, ensuring that at least 50% of public offices be filled by women, from the national level to the municipal.\nToday, nine out of Nicaragua\u2019s 16 national government cabinet ministers are women.\nWomen head the Supreme Electoral Council, the Supreme Court, the Attorney General\u2019s office, and the Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office. They account for 60% of judges.\nWomen make up half of Nicaragua\u2019s National Assembly. They also represent half of mayors, of vice-mayors, and of municipal council members.\nThe vice president, Rosario Murillo, is also a woman, and has highly prioritized the empowerment and liberation of women.\nWomen in these high positions provide a model and inspire all women and girls to participate in building a new society with more humane relations.\nAfter the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) returned to power in 2007, it launched many ambitious projects, including the Zero Hunger and Zero Usury programs. These have raised the socioeconomic position of women.\nThe\u00a0Zero Hunger plan furnishes pigs, chickens, a pregnant cow, plants, seeds, fertilizers, and building materials to women in rural areas, to diversify their production, fortify the family diet, and strengthen women-run household economies.\nThe agricultural assets provided by the Nicaraguan government are put in the woman\u2019s name, equipping women to become more self-sufficient producers. This gives them more direct control and security over food for their children, and breaks women\u2019s historic dependency on male breadwinners.\nThe Zero Hunger program has aided 275,000 poor families, more than 1 million people (out of a total of 6.6 million Nicaraguans), increasing their own food security as well as the nation\u2019s food sovereignty.\nNicaragua now produces roughly 90% of its own food, with most coming from small- and medium-scale farmers, many of them women.\nFausto Torrez, of the Nicaraguan Rural Workers Association (ATC), explained, \u201cA nation that cannot feed itself is not free.\u201d\nThe Zero Usury program is a Nicaraguan government-backed microcredit mechanism that now charges 0.5% annual interest, not the world microcredit average of 35%.\nMore than 445,000 women have received these low-interest loans, typically three loans each. The program not only empowers women but is also a key factor reducing poverty, unlocking pools of talent, and driving diversified and sustainable growth.\nSome women receiving loans have turned their businesses into cooperatives, providing jobs to other women. Since 2007, about 5,900 cooperatives have formed, with 300 being women\u2019s cooperatives.\n\nUnder the leadership of the Sandinistas, poverty in Nicaragua has been reduced from 48% in 2007 to 25%, and extreme poverty from 17.5% to 7%.\nThis tremendous decline in poverty has benefited women in particular, given that single mother households suffered more from poverty.\nThe Zero Hunger and Zero Usury programs have also helped decrease domestic violence, given that women in poverty suffer greater risk of violence.\nBecause most Nicaraguans live by small-scale farming or by small business, possessing the title of legal ownership is a major concern.\nBetween 2007 and 2021, the FSLN government gave out 451,250 land titles in the countryside and the city, with women making up 55% of the property-owners who benefited.\nProviding women with the legal title to their own land is another important step toward their economic independence.\nThe Sandinista government funded the building or renovation of 290,000 homes since 2007, free of charge for those in extreme poverty, or with interest-free long-term loans. This aided more than 1 million Nicaraguans, particularly single mothers, who head half of all Nicaraguan families.\nIn 2006, only 65% of the urban population had potable drinking water;\u00a0now 92% do. Access to potable water in rural areas has doubled, from 28% to 55%.\nThis frees women from the toilsome daily walk to the village well to carry buckets of water home to cook every meal, wash the dishes and clothes, and bathe the children.\nHomes connected to sewage disposal systems have similarly grown from 30% in 2007 to 57% in 2021.\nToday, 99% of the Nicaraguan population has electricity, compared to 54% at the end of the neoliberal era in 2006. Electricity significantly frees women\u2019s lives from time-consuming tasks.\nStreet lighting in Nicaragua has more than doubled as well, increasing security for all.\nMoreover, internet infrastructure now connects and unites most of the country, reducing people\u2019s isolation and lack of access to information. Virtually everyone has a cell phone, and free internet is available in many public parks.\nNicaragua\u2019s road system is now among the best in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Sandinista government has built more roads in the last 15 years than were built in the previous 200.\nOutlying towns are now connected to the national network. Women in rural areas can now travel elsewhere to work, sell their products in nearby markets, attend events in other towns, and take themselves or their children to the hospital. This contributes to the fight against poverty and the fight for women\u2019s liberation.\nBetter roads and housing, almost universal electrical and internet access, as well as indoor plumbing greatly lighten the burdens placed on women homemakers, and provide them with more freedom to participate in the world they live in.\nThe humanitarian nature of the FSLN governments, as opposed to the disregard by previous neoliberal regimes, is revealed by statistics on illiteracy.\nWhen the Sandinistas revolution triumphed in 1979,\u00a0illiteracy topped 56%. Within 10 years, they had reduced it to 12%.\nYet by the end of the 16-year neoliberal period in 2006, which dismantled the free education system, illiteracy had again risen to 23%.\nToday, the FSLN government has cut illiteracy to under 4%.\nThe FSLN made education free, eliminating school fees. This, combined with the aid programs for poor women, has allowed 100,000 children to return to school.\nThe government launched a school lunch program, a meal of beans and rice for 1.5 million school and pre-school children every day.\nPreschool, primary and secondary students are supplied with backpacks, and glasses when needed. Low-income students receive uniforms at no cost.\nNow a much higher proportion of children are able to attend school, which provides more opportunities for mothers to work outside the home.\nNicaragua has established a nationwide free daycare system as well, now numbering 265 centers. Mothers can take their young children to daycare, freeing them from another of the major hurdles to entering the workforce.\nDue to the vastly expanded and free medical system, the Zero Hunger, Zero Usury, and other programs,\u00a0chronic malnutrition in children under age 5 has been cut in half, with chronic malnutrition in children 6 to 12 cut by two-thirds. Now it is rare to see kids with visible malnutrition, removing another preoccupation off the shoulders of mothers.\nNicaragua has also built a system of parks, playgrounds, and other free recreation where mothers can take their children.\nThroughout the school system, the Ministry of Education promotes a culture of equal rights and non-discrimination. It has implemented the new subject \u201cWomen\u2019s Rights and Dignities,\u201d which teaches students about women\u2019s right to a life without harassment and abuse and the injustices of the patriarchal system.\nCampaigns were launched to promote the participation of both mother and father in a child\u2019s education, such as emphasizing that attending school meetings or performances are shared responsibilities of both parents.\nIn stark contrast to\u00a0Nicaragua\u2019s neoliberal years, which oversaw a dismantling of the public medical system, and unlike other Central American countries and the United States, which have privatized healthcare for profit, the Sandinistas have established community-based, free, preventive health system.\nAccordingly, life expectancy has risen from 72 years in 2006 to 77 years today \u2013 now equal to the US level.\nHealth care units in Nicaragua number more than 1700, including 1,259 health posts and 192 health centers, with one-third built since 2007.\nThe country has 77 hospitals, with 21 new hospitals built, and 46 existing hospitals remodeled and modernized.\nNicaragua also provides\u00a0178 maternity homes near medical centers for expectant mothers with high-risk pregnancies or from rural areas to stay during the last weeks of pregnancy.\nThe United States is the richest country in the Americas, while Nicaragua is the third poorest. Yet\u00a0in the US, more than 100 rural hospitals have closed since 2010, and fewer than 50% of rural women have access to perinatal services within a 30-mile drive from their home. This has disproportionately affected low-income women, particularly Black and Latino ones.\nNicaragua has equipped 66 mobile clinics, which gave nearly 1.9 million consultations in 2020. These include cervical and breast cancer screenings, helping to cut the cervical cancer mortality rate by 34% since 2007. The number of\u00a0women receiving Pap tests increased from 181,491 in 2007 to 880,907 in 2020.\nIn the pre-Sandinista era, one-fourth of pregnant women gave birth at home, with no doctor. There were few hospitals and pregnant women often had to travel rough dirt roads to reach a clinic or hospital.\nNow women need not worry about reaching a distant hospital while in labor, because they can freely reside in a local maternity home for the last two weeks of their pregnancies, where they are monitored by doctors.\nIn 2020, 67,222 pregnant women roomed in one of these homes, and could be accompanied by their mothers or sisters. As a result, 99% of births today are in medical centers, and\u00a0maternal mortality fell from 115 deaths per 100,000 births in 2006 to 36 in 2020.\nThese are giant steps forward in the liberation of women.\nContrary to the indifference to women in the US, Nicaraguan mothers also receive one month off work before their baby is born, and two months off after. Even men get five days off work when their baby is born.\nMothers likewise receive free milk for six months. And men and women get five days off work when they marry.\nNicaragua\u2019s law making abortion illegal, removing the \u201clife and health of the mother\u201d exception, was passed in the National Assembly under right-wing President Enrique Bola\u00f1os in 2006.\nBefore the legislation was approved, there had been a pressure campaign that was highly organized and funded by Catholics all over Latin America, as well as large marches over the previous two years in Nicaragua in favor of the law.\nThe legislation was supported by\u00a080% of Nicaraguans, many of whom are religious. And the law was proposed immediately before the 2006 presidential election, as a vote-getting ploy by Bola\u00f1os.\nThe Sandinistas were a minority in the National Assembly at the time, and the FSLN legislators were released from party discipline for the vote. The majority abstained, while several voted in favor. The law has never been implemented nor rescinded.\nSince the return to power of the Sandinistas in 2007, no woman or governmental or private health professional has ever been prosecuted for any action related to abortion.\nAny woman whose life is in danger can receive an abortion in government health centers or hospitals.\nIt is popularly known that there are places that exist for women to quietly get abortions, and none have been closed or attacked.\nMoreover, the morning after pill and contraceptive services are widely and easily available across Nicaragua.\nNicaragua has created 102\u00a0women\u2019s police stations, special units that include protecting women and children from sexual and domestic violence and abuse.\nNow women can talk to women police officers about crimes committed against them, whether it be abuse or rape, making it easier and more comfortable for them to file complaints, receive counseling for trauma, and ensure that violent crimes against women are prosecuted in a thorough and timely manner.\nWomen make up 34.3% of Nicaragua\u2019s 16,399 National Police officers, a high number for a police department. New York City and Los Angeles police, for instance, are 18% women, and Chicago is 23%.\nThe\u00a0United Nations found Nicaragua to be the safest country in Central America, with the lowest homicide rate: 7.2 per 100,000. This is down from 13.4 in 2006, and is less than half the regional average of 19.\nNicaragua also has the lowest rate of femicides in Central America: 0.7 per 100,000. This is another testament to the Sandinista commitment to ending mistreatment of women.\nThe FSLN government organizes citizens\u2019 security assemblies to raise consciousness concerning violence against women and to handle the vulnerabilities women face in the family and community.\nMifamilia, the Ministry of the Family, carries out house-to-house visits to stress prevention of violence against women and sexual abuse of children.\nNicaragua is likewise the most successful regional country in combating drug trafficking and organized crime, freeing women from the insecurity that plagues women in nearby nations such as Mexico, Honduras, or El Salvador.\nNicaragua is a country that has accomplished a lot in liberating women from household drudgery and domestic slavery, because of state-led policies favoring the social and political participation and economic advancement of poor women.\nWomen have gained a police commissariat, legal recognition of their property, new homes for abused women and for poor single mothers, and economic programs that empower poorer women.\nHalf of all political candidates and public office holders are women, abortion is not really criminalized in practice, and extreme poverty has been cut by half, mostly benefiting women and children.\nDomestic toil has been greatly reduced because of modernized national infrastructure, and women have convenient and free health care.\nIn their liberation struggle, Nicaraguan women are becoming ever more self-sufficient and confident in enforcing their long-neglected human rights. They are revolutionizing their collective self-image and ensuring their central role in building a new society.\nThe progress of women helps the working class and campesinos as a whole by improving the quality of life of all, and is a vital weapon in combating US economic warfare.\nAs\u00a0Lenin observed, \u201cThe experience of all liberation movements has shown that the success of a revolution depends on how much the women take part in it.\u201d\nNicaragua is one more living example that a new world is possible.\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: US turns on Honduran narco-dictator Juan Orlando Hern\u00e1ndez after long supporting him. 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": "Barack Obama, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Iraq, Joe Biden, JOH, Juan Orlando Hern\u00e1ndez, Manuel Noriega, Panama, Rafael Trujillo, Saddam Hussein", "output": "Washington ordered the extradition of Honduran ex-President Juan Orlando Hern\u00e1ndez (JOH) for drug trafficking, but the Obama-Biden and Trump administrations spent years supporting him as he stole elections, and he rose to power thanks to a 2009 US-backed coup.\n\n(Se puede leer este art\u00edculo en espa\u00f1ol aqu\u00ed.)\nThe US government has turned on the right-wing former dictator of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hern\u00e1ndez, after it spent years supporting him.\nHern\u00e1ndez is the latest in a series of brutal authoritarians who were key US allies until they outlived their usefulness, from Iraq\u2019s Saddam Hussein to the Dominican Republic\u2019s Rafael Trujillo to Panama\u2019s Manuel Noriega.\n\nThis February, the United States requested the extradition of Honduran ex-president Juan Orlando Hern\u00e1ndez on charges of trafficking cocaine and guns. Local authorities arrested him on February 15.\nHern\u00e1ndez, who is popularly known by his initials JOH, served two terms in office, from 2014 to 2022. It was widely known that JOH used drug money to fund his presidential campaigns, and blatantly stole the 2013 and 2017 elections in broad daylight.\nBut while he was committing these crimes, Hern\u00e1ndez enjoyed staunch support from the Barack Obama and Donald Trump administrations.\nIn fact, JOH only came to power in the first place because a 2009 US-sponsored military coup removed Honduras\u2019 democratically elected left-wing president, Manuel Zelaya.\nWashington overthrew Zelaya because he had been friendly to Venezuela\u2019s socialist President Hugo Ch\u00e1vez, and he had integrated Honduras into anti-imperialist regional bloc the Bolivarian Alliance (ALBA).\nFollowing the 2009 coup, JOH\u2019s right-wing National Party ruled the country with an iron fist. From 2010 to 2014, Hern\u00e1ndez served as president of Congress. He was then catapulted to head of state through flagrant electoral fraud.\nThe 2013 Honduran elections were plagued by massive, systemic irregularities. And it was clear to the world that JOH stole the election in 2017, but the US State Department still congratulated him on his \u201cvictory.\u201d\nAnd the United States did more than just endorse JOH\u2019s clearly fraudulent elections. Washington also approved billions of dollars of loans to his corrupt regime, which Hern\u00e1ndez and his wealthy oligarchic backers promptly stole, trapping the country in unpayable odious debt.\nWhy? Because under JOH, Honduras was Washington\u2019s closest ally in Central America. The country is home to the largest US military installation in Latin America, the Soto Cano base.\nAnd, until his final few years, Hern\u00e1ndez obediently served US foreign-policy interests, recognizing unelected coup leader Juan Guaid\u00f3 as supposed \u201cpresident\u201d of Venezuela.\nUS President Barack Obama discusses the refugee crisis with Honduran narco-dictator Juan Orlando Hern\u00e1ndez in 2014\nAfter the US-backed 2009 coup, violence and organized crime skyrocketed. Honduras turned into one of the most dangerous countries on the planet.\nAs of 2021, Honduras still has the second-highest murder rate on Earth, surpassed only by its neighbor El Salvador.\nUnder JOH, Honduras also became the poorest country in Latin America. Poverty rose to a staggering 74% of the population.\nThis deadly combination of violence, organized crime, and poverty took a heavy toll on the Honduran people. It fueled large waves of migration north toward Mexico and the United States, unleashing a refugee crisis.\nThis Washington-created refugees crisis in turn provoked domestic problems in the United States. Politicians from both major parties recognized that something had to change.\nUS Vice President Joe Biden with Honduran narco-dictator Juan Orlando Hern\u00e1ndez in 2016\nBy 2019, Juan Orlando Hern\u00e1ndez became a further liability for Washington. His brother Juan Antonio \u201cTony\u201d Hern\u00e1ndez was convicted in a New York federal court for trafficking nearly 200,000 kilograms of cocaine and machine guns into the United States.\nTony Hern\u00e1ndez had been a congressman in JOH\u2019s National Party, and used drug money to fund the right-wing party and rig elections for his brother.\nThe imprisonment of Tony Hern\u00e1ndez, along with the increased US pressure on Honduras to halt northern migration, created a conflict between JOH and his sponsors in Washington. The once loyal US ally began to implement independent policies.\nHonduras started to vote against US interests in the Organization of American States (OAS). Looking for new allies, the JOH government even improved relations with its neighbor Nicaragua, whose leftist Sandinista government is Washington\u2019s top target in Central America.\nBy 2021, top US politicians and corporate media outlets tried to distance JOH from the US government by depicting him simply as a \u201cTrump ally.\u201d\nJOH certainly was a Trump ally, but he had long benefited from bipartisan support from Democrats as well.\nParticip\u00e9 como invitado especial en la reuni\u00f3n organizada por el Presidente de #EEUU Donald J. Trump para abordar el tema \u201cUn llamado global para proteger la libertad religiosa\u201d#HondurasEnLaONU pic.twitter.com/nAOftBG0wb\n\u2014 Juan Orlando H. (@JuanOrlandoH) September 23, 2019\n\nThe Obama administration enthusiastically supported the Honduran narco-dictator.\u00a0In fact, as vice president under Obama, Joe Biden worked closely with JOH.\nBiden oversaw the Obama administration\u2019s Central America policy, and Honduras was crucial in its plans.\nJOH praised Obama publicly for his neoliberal strategy to bring more corporate investment to the region, called the \u201cAlliance for Prosperity in the Northern Triangle.\u201d\nFelicito al Pte. Obama y V. Biden su decisi\u00f3n recibir la propuesta de nuestros pa\u00edses (Alianza p Prosperidad) y compartir esfuerzo conjunto.\n\u2014 Juan Orlando H. (@JuanOrlandoH) January 30, 2015\n\nBiden repeatedly met with JOH, and the narco-dictator tweeted, \u201cThank you Vice President Joe Biden for supporting Honduras.\u201d\nGracias Vice Pte. @JoeBiden por respaldar a Honduras. pic.twitter.com/xY6Yo9HNOk\n\u2014 Juan Orlando H. (@JuanOrlandoH) June 17, 2015\n\nWhen JOH\u2019s right-wing National Party was overwhelmingly defeated by the left-wing Libre Party and its candidate Xiomara Castro in a November 2021 election \u2013 the first truly free and fair vote since the 2009 US-sponsored coup \u2013 Washington threw its former asset under the bus.\nAfter JOH left office on January 27, 2022, the Biden administration saw an opportunity to make an example out of a former ally, to try to cynically show the world it is supposedly dedicated to fighting corruption.\nThis February, Washington officially turned on JOH, first revoking his visa and then ordering his extradition to the United States.\nJuan Orlando Hern\u00e1ndez is the latest in a long line of repressive dictators that the United States supported and cultivated, only to later throw under the bus.\nHis story echoes those of numerous right-wing Latin American autocrats, from the Dominican Republic to Panama.\nDominican dictator Rafael Trujillo oversaw one of the bloodiest regimes in the history of the region, killing, imprisoning, torturing, and disappearing tens of thousands of people, principally leftists and Haitians.\nTrujillo enjoyed staunch US support for decades. But by 1961 he had outlived his usefulness, and the CIA was involved in assassinating him.\nCloser to Honduras is the case of\u00a0Panama\u2019s former president Manuel Noriega, a former longtime CIA asset who was later overthrown in a murderous US invasion.\nNoriega once collaborated with the CIA to help Washington fund its war on leftist revolutionaries in Nicaragua and El Salvador.\nBut he later became too independent from the United States. Noriega began to challenge Washington\u2019s foreign-policy interests in the region, working with Libya and Cuba, and challenging US control over the geostrategic Panama Canal.\nSo Washington turned on its former ally. The United States invaded Panama in 1989, killing at least hundreds of civilians, with some estimates saying thousands lost their lives.\nOver in West Asia, the history is very similar. Before he became public enemy number one in the 2003 invasion, or in the 1990 Gulf War, Iraq\u2019s authoritarian leader Saddam Hussein was an erstwhile US ally.\nThe CIA helped orchestrate the Iraqi Baathist coup that Saddam later rode to power. After the putsch, the CIA even gave the aspiring dictator\u2019s allies a list of Iraqi communists to kill. They were promptly murdered.\nIn the 1980s, the United States supported Saddam\u2019s Iraq in its war on the new revolutionary government in neighboring Iran. The CIA even helped Saddam use chemical weapons on civilians.\nSome of the world\u2019s most notorious drug dealers have also benefited from the backing of US spy agencies.\nMexico\u2019s infamous drug kingpin El Chapo G\u00fazman, the head of the feared Sinaloa Cartel, was reportedly protected by the CIA for years.\nColombian drug lord Pablo Escobar collaborated with the CIA, too. His son Juan Pablo Escobar said the US spy agency used the cocaine smuggled by the leader of the Medellin Cartel in order to fund its war on socialists in Central America.\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: China is helping Nicaragua\u2019s Sandinista gov\u2019t build houses for poor people. 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": "Belt and Road Initiative, Bismarck Mart\u00ednez, Bismarck Mart\u00ednez Program, China, Daniel Ortega, FSLN, Nicaragua, Rosario Murillo, Sandinistas", "output": "China signed an agreement with Nicaragua\u2019s leftist Sandinista government to build thousands of homes for poor and working families, expanding the already existing Bismarck Mart\u00ednez public housing program.\n\n(Se puede leer este art\u00edculo en espa\u00f1ol aqu\u00ed.)\nThe leftist Sandinista government of Nicaragua has revealed that it signed an agreement with the People\u2019s Republic of China to build thousands of houses for poor and working families.\nVice President Rosario Murillo announced the news on January 28.\nChina \u201chas approved an important project of cooperation with our Nicaragua and the Nicaraguan people, a great housing program for families in all of the country,\u201d Murillo said.\n\u201cThe plan is for three years, benefiting tens of thousands of Nicaraguan families in 84 municipalities of the country, families that are going to receive a beautiful house, safe, dignified, with all of the basic services.\u201d\nThe vice president said the designs for the houses are being developed in coordination with Nicaraguan ministries. She called them \u201cworks of brotherhood, solidarity, and common good.\u201d\nMurillo also announced other ongoing public infrastructure projects, including roads, sidewalks, and a new baseball stadium.\nHouses built by the Nicaraguan government as part of its Bismarck Mart\u00ednez Program\nAlthough Nicaragua is a small country of roughly 6.5 million people, with very few resources as the second-least rich country in the western hemisphere, its leftist Sandinista government has dedicated itself to creating ambitious social programs, including free universal healthcare and education, jobs training, and poverty alleviation initiatives.\nNicaragua in fact already has a public housing campaign called the Bismarck Mart\u00ednez Program. From the time it was launched in 2019 until 2021, the project delivered approximately 3,000 houses, as well as 30,000 land plots in urban areas.\nIn 2021, the government gave poor and working Nicaraguans another 3,000 houses as part of the Bismarck Mart\u00ednez Program. This is in addition to granting land deeds to thousands of families, peasants, and farmers, so they cannot be displaced.\nThe man the program is named after, Bismarck Mart\u00ednez, was a Sandinista activist who worked in the mayor\u2019s office in the capital Managua. He was kidnapped, brutally tortured on camera, and killed by far-right extremists during a violent coup attempt in 2018, which was sponsored by the United States. The video of his gruesome murder went viral and inspired outrage across Nicaragua.\nThe Managua mayor\u2019s office announced in September 2021 that it had plans to build 50,000 new homes in the following seven years as part of the Bismarck Mart\u00ednez program. It also planned to distribute 50,000 more land plots to families.\nBut this was before the central government had restored relations with China and made plans to further expand this program with Beijing\u2019s help.\nHouses built by the Nicaraguan government as part of its Bismarck Mart\u00ednez Program\nThe Nicaraguan government re-established official diplomatic relations with the People\u2019s Republic of China in December 2021.\nNicaragua had first broken ties with Taiwan and recognized China in the 1980s, following the 1979 triumph of the Sandinista Revolution.\nBut when the Sandinistas lost power in 1990, in an election unfairly compromised by US meddling, the right-wing president who took power, Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, a representative of the most powerful oligarch family in the country, immediately cut ties with the PRC and recognized Taiwan again.\nSince restoring ties in December 2021, Nicaragua and China have become close allies.\nPresident Daniel Ortega revealed in a speech at his January 10 inauguration that Managua had signed agreements with Beijing to incorporate the Central American nation into the global Belt and Road Initiative.\nUpon signing the deals with China, Ortega declared, \u201cThe United States does not accept that the end of its hegemony is a fact.\u201d\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Exposed: US DEA used criminals to spy on, destabilize Venezuela, Mexico, Bolivia. 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, Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador, Bolivia, CIA, DEA, drugs, Evo Morales, Mexico, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, Venezuela", "output": "Reports reveal that the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) used known criminals to spy on and destabilize the left-wing governments in Venezuela, Mexico, and Bolivia.\n\nNumerous reports in major media outlets have documented how the US government has used the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in order to spy on and try to destabilize left-wing governments in Latin America.\nDEA meddling schemes have targeted Venezuela\u2019s President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, Bolivia\u2019s former President Evo Morales, and Mexico\u2019s President Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador.\nIn these scandals, the DEA has collaborated with known criminals, including drug traffickers and money launderers, to launch sting operations against leftist politicians.\n\nThe Associated Press revealed this February that the DEA \u201csent undercover operatives into Venezuela to surreptitiously record and build drug-trafficking cases against the country\u2019s leadership\u201d.\nKnown as Operation Money Badger, it was launched in 2013 with the goal of ensnaring senior Venezuelan officials in corruption scandals.\nThe AP reported that the DEA \u201cauthorized otherwise illicit wire transfers through U.S.-based front companies and bank accounts\u201d. It noted that \u201cColombian drug traffickers\u201d were involved.\nAs its informants, the DEA recruited criminals. The AP wrote (emphasis added):\nThe DEA Miami Field Division\u2019s Group 10 recruited a dream informant: a professional money launderer accused of fleecing $800 million from Venezuela\u2019s foreign currency system through a fraudulent import scheme.\nThe informant\u2019s illicit activity in Venezuela positioned him to help the DEA collect evidence against the chief target of the unilateral operation: Jose Vielma, an early acolyte of the late Hugo Ch\u00e1vez who in two decades of service to the Bolivarian revolution cycled through a number of top jobs, including trade minister and the head of Venezuela\u2019s IRS.\nVenezuela\u2019s sovereign, democratically elected government had expelled the DEA, so this covert operation was a clear violation of Venezuela\u2019s sovereignty. And the US government itself acknowledged that these activities violated international law, the AP reported.\nThe AP quoted a former DEA official who served in Venezuela who boasted, \u201cWe don\u2019t like to say it publicly but we are, in fact, the police of the world\u201d.\nOperation Money Badger started under the Barack Obama administration, but was expanded under President Donald Trump.\nThe Trump administration launched a coup attempt in 2019, pressuring countries around the world to recognize US-appointed coup leader Juan Guaid\u00f3 as the so-called \u201cinterim president\u201d of Venezuela, despite the fact that he had never participated in a presidential election.\nThe US government imposed several rounds of crushing sanctions and an economic embargo on Venezuela, which devastated the country\u2019s oil industry and starved Caracas of the export revenue it needed to fund social programs and the foreign currency it needed to stabilize its national currency, fueling hyper-inflation.\n\nIn 2020, the US government backed an attempted invasion of Venezuela. The attack, known as Operation Gideon, was led by two former US Army special operations commandos.\nOne of the top Venezuelan coup-plotters involved in the failed invasion later revealed that the putschists had been in touch with the CIA and other US government agencies.\nCIA backed failed 2020 invasion of Venezuela, top coup-plotter says\n\nThe botched invasion was overseen by a US private security company called Silvercorp, which was based in Florida and run by a former U.S. Army Green Beret commando, Jordan Goudreau.\nGoudreau had provided security for Donald Trump\u2019s rallies. And he met with US government officials at Trump\u2019s golf course in Doral, Florida to discuss the plans to invade Venezuela.\nFor his part, Trump boasted that he tried to \u201ctake over\u201d Venezuela and pillage its massive oil reserves.\nAt a Republican Party convention in 2023, Trump stated, \u201cWhen I left, Venezuela was ready to collapse. We would have taken it over; we would have gotten to all that oil; it would have been right next door\u201d.\nTrump boasts he wanted to take Venezuela\u2019s oil after overthrowing its government\n\nTrump\u2019s neoconservative national security advisor, John Bolton, likewise bragged in a 2022 interview on CNN that he \u201chelped plan coups d\u2019etat\u201d in Venezuela and \u201cother places\u201d.\nMeanwhile, US-backed coup leader Juan Guaid\u00f3 and his accomplices were widely accused of extreme corruption.\nEven Guaid\u00f3\u2019s erstwhile supporters in Venezuela\u2019s right-wing opposition turned against him, accusing Guaid\u00f3 and his allies of spending huge sums of humanitarian aid money on expensive nightclubs, hotels, cars, clothes, food, and alcohol.\nGuaid\u00f3\u2019s coup-plotting allies also used public assets that the US, UK, and EU stole from the Venezuelan government and people in order to pay their enormous legal fees.\nVenezuela was by no means the only country in Latin America targeted by the DEA for destabilization.\nIn 2008, Bolivia\u2019s democratically elected socialist president, Evo Morales, expelled the DEA.\nMorales was the first ever Indigenous president of a country where the majority of the population is Indigenous.\nHe accused DEA agents of spying on his government and collaborating with violent right-wing opposition groups.\n\u201cThere were DEA agents that were doing political espionage \u2026 financing criminal groups so that they could act against authorities, even the president\u201d, Morales said, in comments reported by Reuters.\nAt the time, US officials rejected Morales\u2019 accusations as a crazy conspiracy theory.\nBut in 2015, the Huffington Post revealed that DEA agents had in fact been spying on Morales and the Bolivian government, as part of an undercover sting called \u201cOperation Naked King\u201d.\nTo justify its meddling, the DEA misleadingly accused Morales of supporting the drug trade, because he legalized the production of coca, a plant that can be used for non-drug purposes, such as in teas and medicines.\nMany poor farmers, especially in the Indigenous-majority areas that Morales was from and represented, relied on producing coca.\nVice News reported in 2016 that, after Morales legalized coca, \u201cthere is less violence, less cocaine, and even less coca in Bolivia than there was before\u201d.\nMorales blasted the DEA\u2019s double standards, noting that it purchased 45,000 kilos of coca in 1992.\n\u201cDuring our government, the model of the fight against drug trafficking was applauded and recognized by the UN and EU\u201d, Morales tweeted in 2020.\n\u201cNow, they submit themselves to the CIA and DEA to benefit the geopolitical interests of the US\u201d, he added, condemning the then government of unelected far-right leader Jeanine \u00c1\u00f1ez of \u201csubmission\u201d and \u201ccorruption\u201d.\nDurante nuestro gobierno, el modelo de lucha contra el narcotr\u00e1fico era aplaudido y reconocido por la ONU y la UE. Ahora, se someten a la CIA y DEA para beneficiar a los intereses geopol\u00edticos de EE.UU., y anuncian gastos millonarios sin fiscalizaci\u00f3n. Sometimiento y corrupci\u00f3n.\n\u2014 Evo Morales Ayma (@evoespueblo) May 27, 2020\n\nIn 2019, Morales was overthrown in a violent coup d\u2019etat. With US support, an unelected far-right regime came to power, which was led by Christian extremists who systematically discriminated against Bolivia\u2019s Indigenous majority.\nBolivia\u2019s US-backed coup regime also sought to privatize the South American nation\u2019s massive lithium reserves. Bolivia is one of the world\u2019s top producers of lithium, a crucial material needed for battery production.\nWhen a Twitter user criticized billionaire Tesla CEO Elon Musk in 2020 over his support for the putsch in Bolivia, the oligarch responded, \u201cWe will coup whoever we want! Deal with it\u201d.\n\nIn 2021, Morales stated that, \u201cFor the CIA and DEA the so-called \u2018war against drugs\u2019 is an excuse to attack progressive and anti-imperialist governments. It is a screen to cover their geopolitical interests\u201d.\nThe former Bolivian leader, who was spied on and targeted in a sting operation by the DEA, pointed to a similar scandal that had been exposed in Mexico.\nPara la CIA y la DEA la denominada \"guerra contra las drogas\" es una excusa para atacar a gobiernos progresistas y antiimperialistas. Es una pantalla para encubrir sus intereses geopol\u00edticos. El caso denunciado por #M\u00e9xico as\u00ed lo demuestra.\n\u2014 Evo Morales Ayma (@evoespueblo) January 16, 2021\n\nOver decades, the DEA has repeatedly been implicated in illegal espionage operations in sovereign Mexican territory, targeting government officials and politicians, particularly those on the left.\nThis January, the US media outlet ProPublica published a thinly sourced article alleging, without concrete evidence, that allies of Mexico\u2019s leading left-wing politician Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador (AMLO) took money from drug cartels to try to help him win the 2006 presidential election.\nThe report acknowledged, \u201cThe investigation did not establish whether L\u00f3pez Obrador sanctioned or even knew of the traffickers\u2019 reported donations\u201d.\nAMLO later won the 2018 election, and has since been one of the most popular presidents on Earth, governing for five years with consistent support from around two-thirds of the Mexican population, according to the US-based firm Morning Consult.\nAMLO blasted the ProPublica article as \u201cvile defamation\u201d and \u201cpropaganda\u201d, and he suggested that it sought to influence Mexico\u2019s upcoming 2024 election. The candidate Claudia Sheinbaum, from AMLO\u2019s left-wing Morena party, is leading in all of the polls, by a huge margin.\nThe ProPublica article offered no tangible evidence, just insinuations trying to link AMLO to organized crime. But it did disclose that, in 2011, on the eve of Mexico\u2019s 2012 elections, \u201cDEA agents proposed a sting in which they would offer $5 million in supposed drug money to operatives working on L\u00f3pez Obrador\u2019s second presidential campaign\u201d.\nThat is to say, the DEA was blatantly meddling in Mexico\u2019s internal politics to harm the left-wing candidate, as a presidential election soon approached.\nProPublica also admitted that US \u201cJustice Department officials closed the investigation, in part over concerns that even a successful prosecution would be viewed by Mexicans as egregious American meddling in their politics\u201d.\nMexico-based US journalist Kurt Hackbarth noted that the \u201conly real revelation in this week\u2019s ProPublica piece is the DEA\u2019s plot to frame the AMLO campaign in the runup to the 2012 election\u201d.\n\u201cUnlike Russiagate, here\u2019s a bonafide attempt to intervene in a foreign election, freely admitted to\u201d, he added.\nThe only real revelation in this week's @Propublica piece is the DEA's plot to frame the AMLO campaign in the runup to the 2012 election. Unlike Russiagate, here's a bonafide attempt to intervene in a foreign election, freely admitted to. Think it'll make headlines in the US? Na. pic.twitter.com/nJ261T3r3a\n\u2014 Kurt Hackbarth ???? (@KurtHackbarth) February 2, 2024\n\nIn a follow-up Twitter thread, Hackbarth emphasized, \u201cLet\u2019s take a second and appreciate the implications of this. At the precise time Felipe Calder\u00f3n\u2019s Security Minister Genero Garc\u00eda Luna was colluding with the Sinaloa Cartel \u2013 which the DEA saw and heard no evil about \u2013 they were instead focused on this stupid sting op on AMLO\u201d.\nCalder\u00f3n, a conservative former president from Mexico\u2019s right-wing PAN party, was a close US ally, so faced no serious consequences for his documented links to drug cartels.\n????ANATOMY OF A HIT: Another clumsy attempt by the US to meddle in this year's Mexican presidential election. How does it work?\n1.) THE SYNCHRONIZED SWIM: Spread your story at the same time across various media. (A little obvious, though, to do it at the exact same time, guys.) pic.twitter.com/t8jZMO2kh7\n\u2014 Kurt Hackbarth ???? (@KurtHackbarth) January 31, 2024\n\nAMLO, on the other hand, is an independent left-wing leader who has routinely criticized the US for violating his country\u2019s sovereignty.\nIn 2023, the Mexican president sent the Joe Biden administration a letter formally condemning US \u201cinterventionism\u201d in his country. Specifically, AMLO noted that USAID was funding right-wing opposition groups.\nIn another speech that year, AMLO condemned State Department criticism as hypocritical \u201cmeddling\u201d and stated, \u201cThere is more democracy today in Mexico than in the United States\u2026 because here the people govern, and there the oligarchy govern\u201d.\nAMLO likewise held a huge rally in which he denounced Republicans Congress members who have called for the US military to invade their southern neighbor. While honoring the Mexican state\u2019s nationalization of the country\u2019s large oil and lithium reserves, AMLO declared, \u201cMexico is an independent and free country, not a US colony or protectorate!\u201d\n\u2018Mexico is not a US colony!\u2019: AMLO condemns invasion threats, celebrates nationalization of oil, lithium\n\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: US meddling in Colombia\u2019s election, warns left-wing vice presidential candidate Francia M\u00e1rquez. 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": "\u00c1lvaro Uribe, Colombia, drugs, Francia M\u00e1rquez, Gustavo Petro, Venezuela, war on drugs", "output": "The top vice presidential candidate for Colombia\u2019s May elections, Francia M\u00e1rquez, called out the US government for meddling in the electoral process. The left-wing activist criticized the war on drugs, militarization, and \u201cfree trade,\u201d calling for land reform and reparations.\n\nThe vice presidential candidate for the leading ticket in Colombia\u2019s May elections has accused the US government of meddling in her country\u2019s internal politics to hurt the left wing.\nFrancia M\u00e1rquez is an activist from the grassroots social movements of the Afro-Colombian community. She is the vice presidential candidate for the left-wing Pacto Hist\u00f3rico (\u201cHistoric Pact\u201d) coalition, whose presidential candidate Gustavo Petro is leading by double digits in major polls in the weeks before the May 29 vote.\nM\u00e1rquez criticized the US ambassador to Colombia for publicly claiming that Russia, Venezuela, and Cuba are trying to sabotage her country\u2019s election.\n\u201cAlthough [the US ambassador] did not mention the Pacto Hist\u00f3rico, although he did not mention Gustavo Petro, it is obvious that he was referring to our candidacy and our political campaign,\u201d M\u00e1rquez said.\n\u201cThis is a direct intervention by the government of the United States through the ambassador in the elections,\u201d she stressed.\nShe also called out the US government\u2019s double standards, noting that Washington maintained \u201cabsolute silence\u201d when the top general in Colombia\u2019s military violated his country\u2019s constitution and meddled in its electoral process by openly attacking the leading presidential candidate, Petro.\n\u201cI think they keep silent on certain things, but they speak out and publish statements on others, and\u00a0I think that is not an impartial attitude. I think that that is a very negative message for Colombian democracy,\u201d M\u00e1rquez said.\nShe called for the US government to show \u201crespect\u201d and \u201cneutrality\u201d to Colombia.\nThe top VP candidate for Colombia's May 29 elections, Francia M\u00e1rquez, is a grassroots activist.\nIn the heart of Washington, she criticized US meddling and the \"ultra-right-wing\" lobby, stressing Colombian social leaders are killed every day.\nRead more: https://t.co/XMLwCNs79L pic.twitter.com/OlLhgcpibz\n\u2014 Benjamin Norton (@BenjaminNorton) May 29, 2022\n\nM\u00e1rquez made these comments in the heart of Washington, DC itself, at an event organized by the United States Institute of Peace, an influential US government-affiliated think tank.\nThe institute\u2019s May 13 forum featured vice-presidential candidates for Colombia\u2019s May elections, and was livestreamed on the organization\u2019s YouTube channel.\nThe event also featured prominent figures from the Woodrow Wilson Center and Atlantic Council, two highly influential US government-funded think tanks in Washington.\nFrancia M\u00e1rquez speaking in Washington at the US Institute of Peace\nBecause Francia M\u00e1rquez was speaking in the heart of Washington, she made sure to reassure the audience many times that a Colombian government under her leadership would seek to maintain close relations with the United States.\nBut despite her diplomatic reassurances, M\u00e1rquez was strikingly blunt about her vision for a much more progressive Colombia.\nShe proposed a political model directly opposed to what she called the \u201cultra-right-wing\u201d Uribista movement, which has dominated Colombian politics for two decades, since the rise to power of former president \u00c1lvaro Uribe, who is deeply involved in drug trafficking and paramilitary groups.\nM\u00e1rquez even called out Washington\u2019s double standards toward her country.\nShe criticized the free trade agreement signed between the US and Colombia, noting it has weakened the South American nation\u2019s economic sovereignty, hurt domestic agriculture, and made it reliant on food imports.\n\u201cI think there is a need to de a bilateral review of the deal, and an evaluation of the impact in these 10 years since the signing of the free-trade agreement between Colombia and the United States,\u201d she proposed.\nM\u00e1rquez pledged her government would prioritize strengthening Colombia\u2019s sovereignty, especially its food sovereignty by boosting internal agricultural production.\nWarning about the horrific rates of violence in Colombia, especially targeting grassroots activists, M\u00e1rquez likewise denounced the militarization of her country via Plan Colombia.\nThe US-sponsored war on drugs has been a failure, she emphasized, that \u201chas served in Colombia to leave dead people in our lands and economic resources in the banks of the financial system.\u201d\nShe argued that organized crime and the drug trade must be treated as social problems, with roots in poverty and a lack of opportunities.\nM\u00e1rquez said the country should move toward the legalization and commercialization of drugs, to remove this key generator of violence, while also strengthening the economy and providing jobs for people in the countryside.\nColombia needs much more \u201csocial investment,\u201d M\u00e1rquez stressed. She promised to spend more money on public education, healthcare, and programs to combat climate change.\nIn her remarks, M\u00e1rquez called for \u201cdistributive justice\u201d and \u201chistorical reparations\u201d for marginalized communities in the country, such as Afro-Colombians and Indigenous peoples.\nThe vice-presidential candidate pushed back against the idea that \u201cpolarization\u201d is the problem in Colombia, arguing that this narrative was created by the people who have governed for decades. The real issue, she said, is that Colombians have been oppressed by the wealthy economic and political elites.\nShe even announced that Colombia would re-establish formal diplomatic relations with Venezuela, if the Pacto Hist\u00f3rico wins the election.\nHer running mate, presidential candidate Gustavo Petro, has been extremely critical of Venezuela in his public statements and speeches. But M\u00e1rquez made it clear that Colombia would still have formal diplomatic relations with its neighbor, stressing that this is necessary to stabilize the region and strengthen the economy.\nGiven the environment, at a US government-sponsored think tank in Washington, surrounded by US government operatives, Francia M\u00e1rquez was careful to emphasize that her administration would maintain good relations with the United States. But she was also willing to criticize Washington.\n\u201cWe know about lobbies created by the ultra-right-wing here in the United States to, first of all, disinform,\u201d she said.\nM\u00e1rquez noted that this ultra-right-wing has spread numerous false claims about her, Gustavo Petro, and the Pacto Hist\u00f3rico.\nAmong them, she explained, is \u201cthe story of \u2018Castrochavismo,\u2019 and making the United States believe that Gustavo Petro and Francia M\u00e1rquez coming to power is a threat for the United States and is a threat for Colombia.\u201d\n\u201cI think that the real threat is in Uribismo, which has kept us subjugated for 20 years to an insecurity that has only resulted in deaths, that has only fueled the armed conflict,\u201d M\u00e1rquez argued.\n\u201cIt was not Gustavo Petro, or Francia M\u00e1rquez, or the Pacto Hist\u00f3rico that opposed peace in Colombia. It was not our movement that was opposed to peace in Colombia. Those who decided to tear peace to shreds in Colombia is this government.\u201d\nThat government, led by current right-wing President Iv\u00e1n Duque, \u201ccomes here and speaks kindly in the United States. It comes here to push its politics,\u201d she said.\nBut \u201cthe reality is that every day we are dealing with death in Colombia,\u201d she contrasted. \u201cThe reality is that every day social leaders are buried. The reality is that every day youth are killed in Colombia. The reality is that femicide does not stop.\u201d\nM\u00e1rquez continued: \u201cAnd that is what has us worried, because that narrative has been echoed here. And we saw a statement by the ambassador of the United States government, of President Biden, say that they had information about possible funding and meddling by the governments of Russia and Venezuela in the elections in Colombia.\u201d\nThe US ambassador, Philip Goldberg, warned in an interview on May 12 of potential \u201cinterference by Russians, Venezuelans, or Cubans in the elections.\u201d\nM\u00e1rquez condemned these comments, stating,\u00a0\u201cAlthough [the US ambassador] did not mention the Pacto Hist\u00f3rico, although he did not mention Gustavo Petro, it is obvious that he was referring to our candidacy and our political campaign.\u201d\n\u201cThis is a direct intervention by the government of the United States through the ambassador in the elections,\u201d she emphasized.\nM\u00e1rquez also criticized the US government\u2019s double standards in its public comments on Colombian politics.\nIn April, the top general of Colombia\u2019s military, Eduardo Zapateiro, who is closely affiliated with the right-wing, violated the neutrality that the armed forces are supposed to maintain by openly on Twitter attacking left-wing presidential candidate Gustavo Petro.\nM\u00e1rquez pointed out that the US embassy was silent about this flagrant military attack on the integrity of the elections.\nI have \u201ca worry about the US government\u2019s silence about the armed forces in terms of the message sent by General Zapateiro, in the sense that that message violated the political constitution, in that military officers cannot participate in politics in Colombia,\u201d she said.\n\u201cAnd there is absolute silence, no? I think they keep silent on certain things, but they speak out and publish statements on others, and I think that is not an impartial attitude. I think that that is a very negative message for Colombian democracy,\u201d M\u00e1rquez warned.\nShe then called for Washington to show more \u201crespect\u201d and \u201cneutrality\u201d in regard to Colombia.\n\u201cWhat are the values that I think should be strengthened in the relationship? First,\u201d M\u00e1rquez said, \u201cis the value of respect, the value of recognition, the value of being able to build in the middle of difference.\u201d\n\u201cFor years in our country, difference was a reason to exterminate the other. Those who thought differently were killed. Those who raise their voice, in terms of difference as in opposition, are stigmatized, are threatened, are killed. That cannot be the logic of a democratic government,\u201d she explained.\n\u201cI think that, on the contrary, democracy implies a discussion of difference and building with difference. And that I think is a value that must be rescued, that must be strengthened, in a relationship with the US government. I think it\u2019s respect, no? And neutrality is important as well, in the sense of, if we don\u2019t like views, well we have to build with diversity, with difference.\u201d\nFrancia M\u00e1rquez harshly criticized Colombia\u2019s so-called war on drugs, which was sponsored by the United States.\n\u201cFor years the relation\u201d between the United States and Colombia \u201chas been based more in terms of the war on drugs. And that I think has been a failed policy,\u201d she said.\nM\u00e1rquez summarized the failure of this policy: \u201cDrug trafficking, as we say colloquially, has served in Colombia to leave dead people in our lands and economic resources in the banks of the financial system.\u201d\n\u201cI think a great challenge is first to recognize that the anti-drug policy has failed in Colombia,\u201d she explained. \u201cAnd strengthening that relation implies setting out another approach on how to deal with the problem of drugs in Colombia.\u201d\n\u201cWe have said, the approach is the path toward legalization, which involves changing the use of the coca leaf and marijuana in terms of industrial and pharmaceutical production, in food industry production, in textile industry production derived from the hemp of coca and marijuana.\u201d\n\u201cAnd there is also the approach of racial justice, understanding that the profiling of the anti-drug policy, here in the United States, has been done from a racial perspective. It is black Americans who are put in prison here for consuming drugs. And in Colombia it is indigenous and black people, too, who are hurt by the anti-drug policy.\u201d\n\u201cHaving an approach of racial justice implies, in this path toward legalization, treating the problem of consumption as a public health problem, not as a problem of criminality. Because it is impoverished young people, who are racialized, who are stigmatized, who are targeted, who are persecuted for consumption, but it is not treated as a health problem.\u201d\nPart of the move toward legalization and formal commercialization of drugs would necessarily involve land reform, M\u00e1rquez explained.\n\u201cWe were talking about the need to move toward the legalization of drugs as a path to get rid of that incentive for violence, of drug trafficking as a motor that generates violence in Colombia, and creating economic conditions, strengthening the productivity of the Colombian countryside is a challenge.\u201d\n\u201cThat involves infrastructure. That involves recognizing the rights of the Colombian peasantry. That involves discussing the topic of land concentration.\u201d\n\u201cI know there are sectors that don\u2019t like that,\u201d M\u00e1rquez acknowledged. But she stressed that \u201cthe first point of the peace agreement about comprehensive agrarian reform, I think that will be a point that will help in terms of distributing the land for families to access it.\u201d\n\u201cI think strengthening the productivity of the countryside, creating stabilization funds for the commercialization of products from the Colombian countryside, is going to contribute enormously to reducing the violence.\u201d\n\u201cWhen there is more poverty and deprivation, there is more violence. People are not going to let themselves die; the people use what they have at hand. And sadly, the people who are more vulnerable end up in those dynamics of violence, as a form of survival in a country as unequal as ours.\u201d\n\u201cSo we need to deal with the structural situations that involve security, which is not simply an issue of a military perspective or police perspective.\u201d\n\u201cFor years the approach for how to deal with security in Colombia has been from a militarist perspective, from a policing perspective,\u201d Francia M\u00e1rquez explained. \u201cSo when they talk about insecurity, what they do is militarize the territories where that violence is generated.\u201d\n\u201cAnd the experience has been that, with greater militarization there is greater violence, because of the corruption, because of the collusion between the armed elements of the state and organized crime,\u201d she said.\n\u201cI think the main part of the question that we always ask is why, if there is such a militarized presence of the state, are these systematic and structural acts of violence committed all the time in those territories?\u201d\nWhat is needed is instead \u201can approach that understands calamities that generate the violence,\u201d M\u00e1rquez argued.\n\u201cFor us, the violence cannot be stopped if hunger is not stopped. The violence cannot be stopped if there are not conditions of dignity for Colombians. And that involves strengthening production. That involves restoring national productivity, in both agriculture and nacional industry, the creation of jobs.\u201d\n\u201cThere are many youths who are being co-opted by armed groups, who first don\u2019t have access to education, and second don\u2019t have access to a dignified job in Colombia.\u201d\nM\u00e1rquez named Colombian territories that she argued are \u201cover-militarized,\u201d where social movement leaders and youth are killed every day, such as Buenaventura and Cauca.\n\u201cWe have major concerns about the security in our country, right now in the political struggle,\u201d M\u00e1rquez continued.\n\u201cBoth Gustavo Petro and I have had our democratic rights limited in the campaign. At numerous times, we have had to stop the campaign, to not go to territories.\u201d\nThe violence of paramilitary groups has affected \u201cnearly all of the candidates,\u201d she noted.\n\u201cOur country has suffered. We have enormous problems in our country. Our people are dying of hunger.\u201d\nShe called for the Colombian government to abide by the peace agreement it signed with the former rebels of the revolutionary socialist group the FARC in 2016. The right-wing administration of current President Iv\u00e1n Duque has systematically violated the deal.\nM\u00e1rquez likewise said the government should have a peace dialogue with the ELN, another socialist guerrilla group.\nShe demanded an end to support for paramilitary groups, which have fueled the violence.\n\u201cFear has silenced us in Colombia. It has not allowed us to express ourselves. It has not allowed us to participate,\u201d M\u00e1rquez said.\n\u201cWe have had 213 years of a state that has served only the elites, who have governed us and excluded us, and not only excluded but have fueled a policy of violence against social leaders, against ethnic peoples, against the rights of women and youth.\u201d\nThe first step toward transforming this political order \u201cinvolves recognizing the historic structures of oppression and exclusion,\u201d M\u00e1rquez stressed.\n\u201cThe moment has arrived for Colombia to be an autonomous people that can define itself.\u201d\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Nicaragua signs historic agreements with Iran, discusses bartering to evade illegal US sanctions. 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": "bartering, Daniel Ortega, Iran, Javad Owji, Nicaragua, oil, sanctions, Venezuela", "output": "Pledging anti-imperialist unity, Nicaragua\u2019s Sandinista government signed economic agreements with Iran concerning oil, agriculture, trade, and technology. They discussed bartering to get around illegal US sanctions.\n\nThe Sandinista government of Nicaragua has signed a series of historic agreements with Iran, concerning oil, agriculture, trade, and technology.\nThe two countries also discussed ways to barter in order to exchange products without the need of the US-dominated financial system, thus circumventing Washington\u2019s unilateral sanctions, which are illegal under international law.\nA high-level Iranian delegation arrived to Nicaragua on May 4, led by the West Asian nation\u2019s minister of petroleum, Javad Owji.\nOn May 6, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and Vice President Rosario Murillo signed three memoranda of understanding with Iran.\nPresident Ortega said the agreements involved trade, oil and petroleum products, petrochemicals, agriculture, livestock, construction and modernization, technology transfers, and engineering.\nOrtega added that Tehran is helping Nicaragua boost its agriculture production, and there are plans to export food to Iran and other countries in West Asia.\nNicaragua\u2019s President Daniel Ortega with Iran\u2019s Petroleum Minister Javad Owji\nIran already cooperates closely with Venezuela, and Tehran\u2019s\u00a0petroleum minister,\u00a0Owji, called for strengthening the collaboration between Iran, Nicaragua, and Venezuela.\nOrtega condemned the US \u201cpersecution, blockade, siege, threats against\u201d all three countries.\nHighlighting \u201cthe great potential that Nicaragua has,\u201d Owji said, \u201cwe can unite forces to neutralize the unjust sanctions that have been applied against both of our peoples.\u201d\nNicaragua\u2019s Sandinista government praised the people of Iran for resisting imperialism, referring to the nations\u2019 two revolutions as \u201cbrotherly revolutions,\u201d noting they both took place just a few months apart in the same year, 1979.\nIn his meeting with the senior Iranian officials, Ortega recounted the history of European and US colonialism in Nicaragua, noting how foreign imperialists long tried to build a canal through the Central American country, and now seek to prevent the Sandinista government from building its own sovereign canal.\nOrtega thanked Iran for its solidarity with \u201ca country like Nicaragua, a small people in its territory, which has been invaded since the Spanish colonizers to the yankee expansionists.\u201d\n\u201cThese are the times in which our peoples maintain that historical thread\u201d with anti-imperialist revolutionaries like Augusto Sandino, Ortega said, with \u201cthat principle of defending sovereignty, self-determination, and security for the peace and well-being of our peoples.\u201d\nThe meeting featured an Iranian diplomat responsible for bartering and obtaining basic products. Upon introducing him, Ortega commented, \u201cBartering was how our First Nations here in all of the regions of America, Latin America and the Caribbean, our First Nations, before the colonialists, the imperialists, the invaders arrived, their form of trade was bartering.\u201d\nOrtega said bartering was ideal because \u201con occasions there are no other options but to exchange resources for products, because there are blockades, sanctions, which are nothing more than aggression by the empire, and by NATO, which is part of the empire, which is blocking financial operations.\u201d\n\u201cSo an alternative that our peoples have, when they blockade us, and we cannot transfer the payment for a product that we would like to bring from Iran, well, we could pay for it with products that Iran is interested in that we produce here,\u201d the Nicaraguan president added.\n\nAs part of the signed agreements, Iran will also provide technical support to expand Nicaragua\u2019s refinery.\nNicaragua is not known to have sizeable hydrocarbons reserves. It does have a refinery on the Pacific coast, near Puerto Sandino \u2013 Port Sandino.\nThis Nicaraguan refinery was built by Venezuelan specialists in an act of solidarity between the two nations, as part of President Hugo Ch\u00e1vez\u2019s Petrocaribe program.\nNicaragua\u2019s refinery is called El Supremo Sue\u00f1o de Bol\u00edvar \u2013 The Supreme Dream of Bol\u00edvar, dedicated to the 19th-century Venezuelan revolutionary who led a successful armed uprising against Spanish colonialism and united large parts of South America in an anti-imperialist republic.\nThe term Supreme Dream of Bol\u00edvar is a reference to a 1929 plan proposed by Nicaraguan revolutionary Augusto Sandino, who led a guerrilla war against US troops that were militarily occupying his country.\nNicaragua\u2019s Sandinista movement is named after\u00a0Sandino, who in the early 20th century called for Latin America to unite and expel the new US colonialists, just as they had expelled the previous Spanish colonialists.\nPart of Nicaragua\u2019s refinery, El Supremo Sue\u00f1o de Bol\u00edvar (The Supreme Dream of Bol\u00edvar)\nWhile visiting Nicaragua, the Iranian delegation met with the Central American nation\u2019s Ministry of Energy and Mines and traveled to the refinery.\nThe coordinator of the refinery, Marco Centeno, said \u201cthe capacity of the plant is to store and distribute [oil] to the Nicaraguan market.\u201d\nIran pledged to help grow the operations of the refinery, while strengthening economic ties between the two countries.\nThe agreements signed between Iran and Nicaragua follow a historic 25-year pact that Iran signed with China in 2021. As part of this deal, which has been estimated at $400 billion, Tehran will provide Beijing with oil and other resources and China will help develop infrastructure and technology in Iran.\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Puerto Ricans rise up against US-imposed austerity, protest poverty wages. 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": "austerity, colonialism, neoliberalism, Puerto Rico", "output": "Puerto Rican public workers are protesting the neoliberal policies imposed by the US government\u2019s unelected Financial Oversight and Management Board. A professor speaks about their demands for higher wages and better social programs.\n\nThis February, Puerto Rican public workers have been holding large protests against the neoliberal policies imposed by the US government\u2019s unelected Financial Oversight and Management Board.\nMultipolarista spoke with \u00c1ngel Rodr\u00edguez Rivera, president of the Puerto Rican Association of University Professors. He described how teachers are rising up, after the minimum wage has not increased in 13 years.\nYou can watch or listen to the interview below:\n\n\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: 2/3rds of Nicaraguans support leftist Sandinista Front: Poll debunks \u2018dictatorship\u2019 lie. 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": "Daniel Ortega, FSLN, M&R Consultores, neoliberalism, Nicaragua, Sandinistas", "output": "While the US and EU absurdly smear Nicaragua as a \u201cdictatorship\u201d and impose sanctions on it, polls show 2/3rds of the population support the revolutionary Sandinista Front and President Daniel Ortega.\n\nMANAGUA, NICARAGUA \u2014 If you only listened to corporate media reporting, you would think Nicaragua is a hellish dystopia. Western governments and their stenographers in the press preposterously claim that the country\u2019s leftist Sandinista government is a \u201cdictatorship,\u201d and an \u201cauthoritarian regime.\u201d\nOf course, mainstream reporters never talk to average working-class Nicaraguans (as I do often in\u00a0my reporting at The Grayzone). Instead, they act as mouthpieces for the Central American nation\u2019s small class of wealthy oligarchs, who despise the socialist-oriented Sandinista National Liberation Front for taking away their unearned, inherited privileges.\nActual polling on the ground in Nicaragua, however, shows that the ruling Sandinista Front is quite popular, consistently enjoying the support of roughly two-thirds of the population.\nThe right-wing opposition, on the other hand, has the support of just around one-fifth of the population. This is the despite the fact that it receives\u00a0tens of millions of dollars in funding from the United States and European Union, and dominates the media, business sector, academia, and NGOs.\nThe Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) overthrew Nicaragua\u2019s US puppet dictatorship in 1979, and governed until 1990, when it lost power in an election that was essentially stolen by Washington. But the Sandinistas didn\u2019t give up; they organized in poor and working-class barrios and came back to power through democratic elections in 2007, and have governed Nicaragua since.\nThe leading polling firm in Nicaragua, M&R Consultores, conducts regular studies that show the Sandinista Front to have a solid support base of 60-70%.\nM&R Consultores is independent, not affiliated to any political party. It used to be\u00a0regularly cited\u00a0by mainstream\u00a0media\u00a0outlets like\u00a0Reuters, but they began to ignore its polls when they became too inconvenient for Nicaragua\u2019s US-backed right-wing opposition.\nBetween August 3 and 9, M&R conducted a\u00a0comprehensive survey\u00a0(PDF) in the departments across Nicaragua. The poll has a sample size of 2000 and a margin of error of +/- 2%.\nIt found that, in the lead-up to Nicaragua\u2019s national election this November, a majority of people support the government, have confidence in the electoral process, and support the Sandinista Front.\n66.6% of Nicaraguans say their country is better with a Sandinista government, whereas just 10.9% believe it is better with the right-wing opposition governing.\n76.8% said the current government of President Daniel Ortega respects fundamental human rights and civil liberties.\nWhen asked how they would rate the government on a scale from 1-100, where 1 is as bad as possible and 100 is as good as possible, Nicaraguans gave the Sandinista government a 70.2 rating.\nThe poll clearly debunks the claim that Nicaragua is a \u201cdictatorship.\u201d\n\nOverall, 69.5% of Nicaraguans lean toward the Sandinista Front, and more than 69% have confidence and hope in the party.\nOn the other hand, just 26% lean toward the opposition and have confidence and hope in it.\n\nIn terms of the actual ballot box, 60% definitely plan to vote for the Sandinista Front this November, and 14.6% definitely plan to vote for the opposition.\nOne-fourth of participants were indecisive or did not disclose their voting intention.\n\nThe survey also studied the gray areas, of how strongly or softly Nicaraguans support these political factions.\nIt found that the Sandinistas can count on roughly 66.7% of the vote, with 42.4% staunch support, 17.4% soft support, and 6.9% that leans toward them.\nThe right-wing opposition, on the other hand, can count on around 20.5%, with 3.9% staunch support, 13.6% soft support, and 3% wiggle room.\n\nAs for how Nicaraguans politically identify, 57.9% openly call themselves Sandinistas, whereas just 7.5% identify with the right-wing opposition.\nA solid one-third, 34.6%, consider themselves to be independents.\nOf the 7.5% who identify with the opposition, just 2.9% align themselves with the right-wing\u00a0Ciudadanos por la Libertad\u00a0(Citizens for Freedom) party, 2.5% with the neoliberal\u00a0Partido Liberal Constitucionalista\u00a0(Constitutionalist Liberal Party), and a mere 0.4% with the ultra-elite\u00a0Partido Liberal Independiente\u00a0(Independent Liberal Party).\n\nThe survey also found that Nicaraguans have a high degree of confidence in their electoral system.\nDespite claims by Global North governments and media outlets that Nicaragua is a \u201cdictatorship,\u201d 85.7% of Nicaraguans believe their vote is \u201cvery important\u201d in elections. 6.4% say it is somewhat important, and a mere 7.9% believe it doesn\u2019t matter.\n\nSimilarly, nearly 80% of Nicaraguans say they feel enthusiasm for the November election \u2014 23.8% have a lot of enthusiasm, 41% have moderate enthusiasm, and 12.8% have some enthusiasm.\nJust 10.8% have low enthusiasm, and 11.7% have zero enthusiasm.\nWhat a strange \u201cdictatorship.\u201d\n\nMoreover, 60.3% of Nicaraguans say they are satisfied with the functioning of their nation\u2019s democracy, while 27.4% are not satisfied.\nBut I guess a bunch of coup-plotting bureaucrats in Western capitals who insist that Nicaragua is an \u201cauthoritarian regime\u201d \u2014 and who studied at Ivy League universities, live in elite bubbles of privilege, and have often never even been to Latin America \u2014 know more Nicaragua\u2019s democracy than the Nicaraguan people themselves.\n\nThe poll shows that 65.3 % of Nicaraguans believe the most important thing in a democracy is not that the people running the government regularly change, but rather that \u201cthe people have real opportunities to improve their quality of life.\u201d\nThis shows that Nicaragua has a much more mature understanding of democracy than many Global North bourgeois societies, where democracy is taken to mean that you vote every four or five years for a new figurehead who implements the exact same policies in support of corporations, elites, war, and empire. In those \u201cdemocracies,\u201d the faces change but the anti-poor, pro-rich policies never do.\n\nFinally, the survey asked Nicaraguans what kind of economic policies they support, divided between progressivism or neoliberalism.\n85.3% support the government\u2019s subsidies for people to buy houses, with 14.7% in opposition.\n77.2% support taxes based on how much you earn, whereas 22.8% oppose them.\n97.4% support the government\u2019s electricity subsidies, with 2.6% opposition.\n97.9% support the government\u2019s water subsidies, with 2.1% opposition.\n97.6% support the system of free universal education, while 2.4% want to re-privatize it.\nAnd a whopping 98.6% support the system of free universal healthcare, whereas just 1.4% want to re-privatize it.\n\nM&R Consultures concluded surveying electoral participation. 78.5% of Nicaraguans said they plan to vote in the November election, whereas 21.5% said they do not plan to vote.\nThat is significantly higher voter participation than in US elections, which are taken to be the world\u2019s grand model of bourgeois democracy.\nIn short, this study has shown what poll after poll has consistently demonstrated for years: roughly two-thirds of Nicaraguans support the Sandinista Front, President Ortega, and the government\u2019s leftist policies. On the other side, just around one-fifth of the population backs the right-wing opposition.\nThese two-thirds represent the main base of working-class and poor Nicaraguans, whereas the one-fifth represents the country\u2019s wealthy elites.\nThe US government, the European Union, and their de facto spokespeople in the corporate media have tried to discredit Nicaragua\u2019s November election months before it even takes place by falsely claiming that President Ortega imprisoned his opponents.\nIn reality, the government detained the leaders of a brutally violent coup attempt, who are now facing consequences for their crimes.\nNo other country on Earth could allow criminal coup-plotters to get away with zero consequences for trying to violently overthrow the government. But Nicaragua is expected to do so, because the United States funded and sponsored those coup leaders.\nSo Washington created an entirely new concept, claiming they were so-called \u201cpre-candidates,\u201d to falsely accuse Nicaragua of arresting presidential candidates.\nIn reality, there is no such thing as a \u201cpre-candidate\u201d; it does not exist as a legal category. The coup leaders arrested were not candidates.\nBut Washington and Brussels have been desperate to reassert control over Nicaragua ever since the Sandinista Front came back in 2007.\nThe United States has directly invaded Nicaragua three times, and endlessly meddled in the nation\u2019s internal affairs. Washington will never be content until its neocolonial puppets are back in power.\nIt just has one small problem: polls like these show a majority of Nicaraguans support their Sandinista government and oppose these US puppets. And as history has shown, Nicaraguans are willing to fight to defend their sovereignty.\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Colombia elections: Left wins historic victory against narco-regime. 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, Federico Guti\u00e9rrez, Francia M\u00e1rquez, Gustavo Petro, podcast, Rodolfo Hern\u00e1ndez", "output": "Colombia\u2019s left-wing presidential candidate Gustavo Petro won round one of the May 29 elections. He will compete against far-right hundred-millionaire real estate mogul Rodolfo Hern\u00e1ndez in a runoff on June 19.\n\nColombia\u2019s presidential candidate Gustavo Petro of the left-wing Pacto Hist\u00f3rico coalition won round one of the May 29 elections in a landslide. He will compete against a far-right hundred-millionaire real estate mogul, Rodolfo Hern\u00e1ndez, in a runoff vote on June 19.\nMultipolarista editor Benjamin Norton spoke with with members of the anti-imperialist Troika Kollective in Colombia to discuss the election and the political situation in the country.\n\n\nTroika Kollective website: troikakollective.com\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Media admits Venezuelan coup puppet Juan Guaid\u00f3 has no real power \u2013 other than what US stole for him. 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": "AFP, corporate media, Juan Guaid\u00f3, media, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, UN, United Nations, Venezuela", "output": "After years of promoting the US puppet, mainstream media outlets are finally admitting that Venezuelan coup leader Juan Guaid\u00f3 is a fraud with no real power other than what Western governments stole for him.\n\nMainstream international newswire AFP has admitted that US coup puppet Juan Guaid\u00f3 has no actual power in Venezuela \u2013 although like Donald Trump, Joe Biden still recognizes him.\nNearly three years after Trump initiated a coup attempt in Venezuela by appointing Guaid\u00f3 so-called \u201cinterim president\u201d in January 2019, AFP published an article titled \u201cVenezuela\u2019s Guaido digs in as \u2018acting president\u2019 without power.\u201d\nThe outlet snarkily noted that the US puppet\u2019s online Zoom meetings are \u201cas virtual as Guaido\u2019s power.\u201d\n\u201cWhat Guaido does have, though, thanks to backing from Washington, is control of millions of dollars worth of Venezuelan assets held outside the country, much to Maduro\u2019s chagrin,\u201d AFP added.\nWestern governments and the corporate media outlets that obediently echo them frequently claim that Venezuela\u2019s real, elected President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro is internationally \u201cisolated,\u201d but in reality it is Guaid\u00f3 that has very little international support.\nThe United Nations General Assembly held a vote in December 2021 to see where the international community stands on Venezuela, and just 16 of the UN\u2019s 193 member states (ie, 8%) voted against recognizing the constitutional government of Maduro.\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Mexico\u2019s President AMLO demands freedom for Julian Assange, \u2018prisoner of conscience\u2019 and \u2018best journalist of our time\u2019. 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, Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Julian Assange, Mexico, WikiLeaks", "output": "Mexico\u2019s left-wing President L\u00f3pez Obrador denounced US hypocrisy and reiterated his call to free Julian Assange, calling him a \u201cprisoner of conscience\u201d and the \u201cbest journalist of our time, in the world.\u201d At a press conference, AMLO played a WikiLeaks video showing the US military killing civilians in Iraq.\n\nMexico\u2019s left-wing President Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador reiterated his call for the freedom of WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange, whom he called a \u201cprisoner of conscience\u201d and the \u201cbest journalist of our time, in the world.\u201d\nIn a fiery speech condemning the US government\u2019s hypocrisy in its persecution of Assange, L\u00f3pez Obrador asked, \u201cAre we going to take the Statue of Liberty out of New York? Are we going to keep talking about democracy? Are we going to keep talking about the protection of human rights, of the freedom of expression?\u201d\nAt the press conference in which Mexican President AMLO called for Julian Assange to be freed, he showed a clip of the \"collateral murder\" video published by @WikiLeaks, which exposed US war crimes and killing of journalists in Iraq.\nRead more here: https://t.co/qtR2SIOX1j pic.twitter.com/lEQw6F9rrS\n\u2014 Multipolarista (@Multipolarista) June 22, 2022\n\nL\u00f3pez Obrador, who is known popularly by the acronym AMLO, made these comments in a press conference on the morning of June 21.\nAMLO called the imprisonment of Assange a \u201cshame for the world.\u201d He insisted, \u201cThe United Nations should take a stance\u201d on behalf of Assange, along with \u201call organizations that defend human rights. There cannot be silence.\u201d\n\u201cMexico opens the doors to Assange,\u201d the president declared, repeating his promise to give asylum to the imprisoned Australian journalist.\nAMLO recalled that Assange \u201cgathered cables, reports, from the embassies of the United States, in which they talked about acts of interventionism, and of crimes committed, of flagrant violations of human rights. Not only texts, but also images.\u201d\nAt the press conference, AMLO played a clip of the scandalous 2007 video published by WikiLeaks, known as \u201ccollateral murder,\u201d in which the US military can be seen killing civilians in Iraq, including a Reuters journalist.\n\u201cThey are journalists, those who were targets,\u201d L\u00f3pez Obrador said, pointing to the screen. \u201cThis is what led to the persecution\u2026 This is why he is [in prison].\u201d\nMexican President AMLO playing the WikiLeaks \u201ccollateral murder\u201d video at a press conference on June 21, 2022\nThe Mexican president said he is going to pressure US leader Joe Biden to free Assange.\nAssange is an Australian national. The US government has no legal jurisdiction over him.\nYet Washington has sought to extradite Assange over his journalistic work, threatening him with up to 175 years in prison.\nEven mainstream NGOs like Amnesty International, which are deeply biased on behalf of Western governments, have called for the US government to drop its politically motivated charges against Assange, describing the case as \u201ca full-scale assault on the right to freedom of expression.\u201d\nUnlike the Mexican president, however, Amnesty International has refused to designate Assange a prisoner of conscience.\nAMLO has repeatedly called for the WikiLeaks journalist to be freed. In January 2021, L\u00f3pez Obrador offered Assange asylum in Mexico.\nIn the final weeks of the Donald Trump administration, AMLO wrote his US counterpart a letter, urging him to free Assange.\nThe US president ignored AMLO\u2019s letter. Instead of freeing Assange, who exposed US war crimes in Iraq, Trump pardoned convicted war criminals from the mercenary firm Blackwater, who massacred civilians in Iraq.\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Guatemala blocks leftist Indigenous leader from presidential race, in \u2018electoral coup\u2019. 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": "Alejandro Giammattei, Guatemala, Jord\u00e1n Rodas, MLP, Movement for the Liberation of the Peoples, Movimiento para la Liberaci\u00f3n de los Pueblos, Thelma Cabrera", "output": "Guatemala\u2019s notoriously corrupt right-wing government banned Indigenous leader Thelma Cabrera and her leftist Movement for the Liberation of the Peoples (MLP) party from running in the presidential election. International observers warn this is an \u201celectoral coup\u201d.\n\nGuatemala\u2019s notoriously corrupt right-wing government has blocked a prominent leftist Indigenous leader from running in the June 2023 presidential election, in a move that international observers have condemned as an \u201celectoral coup\u201d.\nNearly half of Guatemalans (44%) identify as Indigenous. The Movement for the Liberation of the Peoples (MLP) is a left-wing party that was created to represent the First Nations who have for so long been ignored by Guatemala\u2019s political system.\nThe MLP is led by Thelma Cabrera, a social movement activist and human rights defender from the Maya Mam community. She has pledged to fight poverty in Guatemala (one of the poorest countries in the region), resist neoliberalism, and establish a plurinational state\u00a0that gives full rights to Indigenous nations, like Bolivia.\nThe newly created MLP party ran for the first time in the 2019 presidential election. Cabrera came in fourth place, winning more than 10% of the vote in the first round, compared to just 14% for current right-wing President Alejandro Giammattei.\nSince then, the MLP has only become more popular, gaining support across Guatemala. Giammattei, a staunch conservative and wealthy dual citizen of Italy, has seen the growth of the MLP as a threat.\nThe MLP\u2019s vice-presidential candidate is Jord\u00e1n Rodas Andrade. He was appointed Guatemala\u2019s human rights ombudsman in 2017. Before his term ended in 2022, Rodas had become well known for his criticism of President Giammattei and the blatant corruption in his government.\nUpon leaving the position, Rodas condemned Guatemala\u2019s wealthy corporate oligarchs. \u201cThey think they are the plantation owners. They have done so much damage to this country\u201d, he said.\nAceptamos el reto y la responsabilidad de los delegados/as del MLP. pic.twitter.com/BpKjFV42jQ\n\u2014 Thelma Cabrera P\u00e9rez DD. HH. (@ThelmaCabreraP2) December 28, 2022\n\nIn late January 2023, Guatemala\u2019s Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) blocked Cabrera and Rodas from participating in the upcoming election, which will be held on June 25.\nGuatemalan social movement activists and international observers have reported that the TSE is deeply politicized and acts in the interests of Giammattei and the country\u2019s powerful oligarchs.\nCabrera and her MLP party filed an appeal, but on February 2, the TSE ruled against them, officially banning them from the race.\nThe Guatemalan electoral authority claimed they cannot run because their application was \u201cinvalid\u201d.\nCabrera shared the completed paperwork on Twitter, insisting that \u201cwe fulfilled all the legal requirements\u201d. Rodas also explained that he submitted all the required paperwork, and a review of his record found no legal cases or complaints against him.\n\u201cAny additional requirement is not found in the law; it cannot be invoked to avoid my candidacy and violate my right to be elected\u201d, he said.\nCualquier requisito adicional no se encuentra en ley, no puede ser invocado para evitar mi candidatura y violentar mi derecho a ser electo. La existencia de denuncias espurias no es impedimento para ser inscrito. Al revisar el QR de mi finiquito no registra ninguna denuncia. pic.twitter.com/eC5KcYEgpJ\n\u2014 Jord\u00e1n Rodas Andrade (@JordanRodas) January 29, 2023\n\nHundreds of activists protested at the TSE, condemning the electoral court\u2019s decision. An MLP supporter said, \u201cIf you all don\u2019t register our candidates, there won\u2019t be elections\u201d. Their movement has vowed to go on strike and hold large demonstrations until the decision is reversed.\nEven Western government-funded organizations that are deeply biased against the Latin American left have warned that the Giammattei government is increasingly authoritarian.\nThe International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA), which is funded by the US government and multiple European states, has long shown prejudice in support of the Latin American right. But IDEA\u2019s regional director, Daniel Zovatto, admitted that TSE\u2019s ban of Cabrera and Rodas is a kind of \u201celectoral coup\u201d.\n\u201cThe decision declaring inadmissible the appeal for annulment by the MLP, leaving the Cabrera-Rodas ticket out of the electoral contest, is an \u2018electoral coup\u2019 that corrupts the integrity and credibility of the elections\u201d, Zovatto said.\nVicenta Jer\u00f3nimo, the lone MLP representative in Guatemala\u2019s congress, referred to the struggle as \u201ca battle of the oligarchy against the peoples\u201d.\n\u201cThat is because we also know that all state institutions are co-opted in the hands of corrupt thieves in this country\u201d, she said.\nIn one of the many demonstrations that have taken place throughout the country, Jer\u00f3nimo stated, \u201cWe also see in the Supreme Electoral Tribunal that they have registered children of the genocide that murdered my parents, my grandparents, my uncles in the armed conflict\u201d.\n? #Ahora | La diputada del MLP, Vicenta Jer\u00f3nimo, est\u00e1 frente al TSE acompa\u00f1ado a simpatizantes del partido que exigen la inscripci\u00f3n del binomio Thelma Cabrera y Jord\u00e1n Rodas. pic.twitter.com/3G2aljhz37\n\u2014 Plaza P\u00fablica (@PlazaPublicaGT) February 2, 2023\n\nJer\u00f3nimo was alluding to Zury R\u00edos, a right-wing presidential candidate who is the daughter of Guatemala\u2019s former dictator Efra\u00edn R\u00edos Montt.\nThe United States supported the R\u00edos Montt regime in the 1980s, as he massacred Indigenous communities. In 2013, he was sentenced for crimes against humanity and genocide.\nAn independent truth commission found that, during Guatemala\u2019s civil war, the US-backed military carried out 93% of civilian killings, whereas socialist guerrillas were responsible for just 3%.\nIt is estimated that as a result of the genocide perpetrated by R\u00edos Montt, at least 200,000 children became orphans and around 5,000 more disappeared.\nThe vast majority of attacks perpetrated by the Guatemalan military against the population were against civilians who had no connection to the conflict.\nIronically, Zury R\u00edos launched her presidential campaign for the 2023 elections despite having a constitutional ban that kept her out of the race in 2019, due to her close ties with her father.\nBut the TSE is now allowing Zury R\u00edos to run. The same electoral body that once banned the proud, unapologetic daughter of a convicted war criminal is today blocking the candidacy of an Indigenous leader and prominent human rights defender.\nMadre m\u00eda te recuerdo hoy desde tu tierra, esto es por ti, esto es por Guatemala ?. #Chimaltenango #Tecp\u00e1n #AhoraSiElPuebloManda pic.twitter.com/W0DK86tL9s\n\u2014 Zury Rios (@ZuryxGuate) February 4, 2023\n\nLikewise, the TSE has allowed wealthy right-wing businessman Manuel Baldiz\u00f3n to run in the 2023 elections, despite the fact that he was imprisoned in the United States for laundering drug money, and deported to Guatemala in 2022.\nBaldiz\u00f3n is running for congress, as part of the right-wing Cambio party. His son Jorge Eduardo Baldiz\u00f3n Vargas is also a congressional candidate, and their fellow family member \u00c1lvaro Manuel Trujillo Baldiz\u00f3n is running for president.\nWhen Thelma Cabrera won more than 10% of the vote in the first round of the 2019 election, coming just a few points shy of making the run-off, she frightened Guatemala\u2019s oligarchy.\nAmong the ideas she was advocating for included recovering territories exploited by agribusiness and extractive corporations, creating an anti-monopoly law, asserting collective rights of the lands of Indigenous peoples, and reducing poverty in one of the poorest countries in the region.\nThese proposals are very popular among working-class Guatemalans. This explains the large protests the country has seen in response to the TSE ban.\n#Elecciones2023 ? Jord\u00e1n Rodas: las \u201ccortes deber\u00e1n restaurar nuestros derechos\u201d.\n??Luego que el TSE rechazara la inscripci\u00f3n de Thelma Cabrera y Jord\u00e1n Rodas, el ex PDH anunci\u00f3 que el proceso jur\u00eddico lo trasladar\u00e1n a la CSJ.\n\u270d?@iespinoza_gthttps://t.co/o4hGbZNjjw\n\u2014 PrensaComunitaria (@PrensaComunitar) February 3, 2023\n\nCabrera is also a supporter of Latin American integration, and has praised other left-wing governments in the region.\nUnder\u00a0Giammattei, Guatemala recognized US-appointed coup leader Juan Guaid\u00f3 as supposed \u201cinterim president\u201d of Venezuela. In 2019, he unsuccessfully tried to enter Venezuela using his Italian passport, hoping to meet with Guaid\u00f3.\nGuatemala\u2019s right-wing regime is one of the very few governments in Latin America that has supported Ukraine in the NATO proxy war against Russia. Cabrera criticized Giammattei for visiting Kiev and posing for photos with its Western-backed leader Volodymyr Zelensky.\n?? #Guate El caporal del @CACIFGuatemala Candil en la calle, obscuridad en su casa\u2026 pic.twitter.com/Kz5zppDBuu\n\u2014 Thelma Cabrera P\u00e9rez DD. HH. (@ThelmaCabreraP2) July 28, 2022\n\nThe next step for Cabrera and her running mate Jord\u00e1n Rodas will be to appeal the TSE\u2019s decision at Guatemala\u2019s Supreme Court of Justice.\nIn the mean time, their Movement for the Liberation of the Peoples is organizing protests, demanding systemic change in the country.\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: From Canada to Brazil, rich right-wing elites are astroturfing \u2018trucker\u2019 protests. 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, Canada, Covid-19, Donald Trump, Jair Bolsonaro, Justin Trudeau, pandemic, Steve Bannon", "output": "Supported by wealthy right-wing elites, so-called \u201ctrucker\u201d protests (led by non-truckers) have paralyzed the capitals of Brazil and Canada in less than six months. The campaigns have many similarities \u2013 including some of the same well-funded conservative networks.\n\n(Se puede leer este art\u00edculo en espa\u00f1ol aqu\u00ed.)\nWealthy international right-wing networks have fueled a protest in Canada that paralyzed the capital Ottawa this January and February.\nMany of the organizers of the demonstration, which they call a \u201cfreedom convoy,\u201d are not truckers, and some have links to far-right groups and Canadian military intelligence and police agencies. But they have exploited the image of truck drivers to confuse observers into thinking it is a working-class movement.\nWith large sums of money and support from powerful right-wing leaders in Canada and abroad \u2013 especially from Donald Trump and his political network in the United States \u2013 the \u201cfreedom convoy\u201d has used opposition to Covid-19 vaccine mandates as cover to launch an occupation of the capital.\nThis is despite the fact that nearly 90% of truckers in Canada are vaccinated, and the convoy has been condemned by major unions and organizations representing truck drivers, including the Canadian Labour Congress, Teamsters, and the Canadian Trucking Alliance.\nYet this is not the first time this \u201ctrucker convoy\u201d tactic has been employed. It is the latest example of a strategy being developed by well-funded right-wing networks across the Americas, from as far north as Canada and as far south as Brazil.\nThe convoy in Ottawa is in fact eerily similar to an astroturfed campaign organized just a few months before in Brasilia by rich supporters of the South American nation\u2019s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro.\nA trucker protest in Brazil in 2018 paralyzed distribution networks for weeks. Initially rooted in legitimate complaints of unreasonable hikes to the cost of diesel caused by neoliberal economic policies imposed after a 2016 political coup against a democratically elected left-wing government, the trucker protest was soon hijacked by wealthy conservative elites.\n2018 was a crucial election year, and Brazil\u2019s media oligarchies turned the trucker protest into a giant campaign commercial for the most subservient politician to US interests in the country\u2019s history: Bolsonaro \u2013 its first head of state to ever visit CIA headquarters.\nInternational right-wing networks again resorted to the trucker tactic in 2021. In the first week of September, Brazil held a Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), starring Bolsonaro\u2019s son Eduardo. (Donald Trump Jr. was supposed to attend in person, but he ended up speaking via video stream.)\nCPAC Brazil also featured Jason Miller, a former Trump senior advisor and close ally of far-right political operative Steve Bannon.\nFormer senior advisor to Donald Trump, Jason Miller, with Jair Bolsonaro and his son Eduardo in Brazil\nJust a few days after CPAC Brazil, on September 7, a group of truckers occupied the national esplanade, briefly paralyzing the capital Brasilia, leading thousands of Bolsonaro supporters in what initially appeared to be a planned storming of the Supreme Court building.\nThe Brazilian \u201ctrucker\u201d protest was organized by a man who called himself Z\u00e9 Trov\u00e3o. It was later revealed that he was not really a trucker, and he didn\u2019t even have a driver\u2019s license \u2013 but he did receive thousands of dollars from Bolsonaro\u2019s son Eduardo.\nFurthemore, most of the truckers who showed up at the September 7 rally in Brasilia had actually been hired by a company, Pro Tork, whose wealthy owner, Marlon Bonilha, was one of Bolsonaro\u2019s biggest campaign contributors.\nHours after the attempted insurgency fizzled out, Miller was detained at the Brasilia airport by federal police, who questioned him over his role in the destabilization of the country.\nThe clear parallels between these campaigns illustrate how powerful right-wing networks are developing a novel strategy to destabilize governments, under the cynical guise of \u201cworking-class\u201d trucker protests.\nRow of trucks at the September 7, 2021 protest in Brazil, all owned by Pro Tork, the company run by Bolsonaro campaign financer Marlon Bonilha\nIn January 2022, the Canadian government began requiring truckers crossing the border with the United States to be vaccinated against Covid-19. For the vast majority of truck drivers, almost 90% of whom are vaccinated, this was not a problem.\nBut right-wing networks both inside Canada and outside of the country seized on the new policy to protest and shut down the capital.\nNumerous members of far-right groups, including white nationalists and Islamophobes, helped to organize what they called a \u201cfreedom convoy.\u201d Many of the people involved were in fact not truckers, but they portrayed the demonstrations as a trucker protest.\nSome of the leaders of the convoy have backgrounds in Canadian military intelligence and police departments, and appear to have close relationships with state security forces.\n\"Those involved with organizing protest include former RCMP and military officers,\" hardly the kind of people who get involved in organizing leftwing pro-labor movements.https://t.co/xeNqY3C5p0\n\u2014 Stephen Gowans (@GowansStephen) February 11, 2022\n\nRight-wing and xenophobic messaging was ubiquitous at the convoy, and a few protesters even showed up with Nazi and Confederate flags.\nCountless photos and videos of the convoy show anti-communist signs, some bizarrely accusing Canada\u2019s neoliberal centrist Prime Minister Trudeau of being a secret communist.\nMany more attacked China, and blamed the Communist Party of China for the Covid-19 pandemic. Other protesters were seen with anti-Semitic signs blaming Jews for the crisis.\nA website created by supporters of the convoy listed right-wing conspiracy theorist David Icke and anti-vax groups as \u201callies,\u201d and encouraged readers to follow far-right outlets InfoWars and Rebel News.\nTotally disgusted with the Sh.. Show called Freedom Trucker Convoy. Flying nazi and confederate flags, no one seemed bothered including conservative politicians who supported this gathering of white supremacy disguised as a truckers rally. My father a WWII vet would be appalled. pic.twitter.com/pvPVbX57YC\n\u2014 Ted Williams (@TedWill44) January 31, 2022\n\nAs the convoy grew, two right-wing activists who are not truckers, named Tamara Lich, and B.J. Dichter, organized a crowd-funding campaign on the website GoFundMe.\nSupport poured in from national and international right-wing elites, and the GoFundMe campaign raised $10 million in just over two weeks, with individual donations as high as $215,000.\nThe fundraiser was supplemented by conservative investment bankers, real estate moguls, and wealthy businesspeople, until it was shut down on February 4.\nFundraising for the convoy had been boosted on social media by a suspicious coordinated campaign involving a hacked account.\nOttawa\u2019s police chief said there was \u201ca significant element from the U.S. that have been involved in the funding, the organizing and the demonstrating.\u201d\nFormer US president Donald Trump openly promoted the convoy, at rallies and online, referring to Canada\u2019s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, a neoliberal centrist who has actively campaigned against the left, as a supposed \u201cfar-left lunatic.\u201d\nDonald Trump is endorsing the Ottawa convoy, calling Justin Trudeau a \u201cfar left lunatic who has destroyed Canada,\u201d and backing an attempt to bring a similar truck protest to DC pic.twitter.com/RCyPCD6qwT\n\u2014 Adrian Morrow (@AdrianMorrow) February 4, 2022\n\nWhile right-wing groups threw their weight behind the convoy, left-wing groups in Canada came out firmly against the protest, including major labor unions, indigenous leaders, and socialist parties that are staunchly opposed to the Trudeau government.\nThe largest trucker union in Canada, Teamsters, openly condemned the convoy\u00a0as a \u201cdespicable display of hate lead by the political Right,\u201d lamenting that it \u201chas served to delegitimize the real concerns of most truck drivers today.\u201d\nTeamsters Canada noted that 90% of its truckers are vaccinated.\nWhen the convoy created a blockade at the Canada-US border, the union published another statement denouncing the protest \u201cthat continues to hurt workers and negatively impact our economy.\u201d\n\u201cThe livelihood of working Americans and Canadians in the automotive, agricultural, and manufacturing sectors is threatened by this blockade,\u201d Teamsters said.\nThe Real Enemy for Truckers is Covid-19\nStatement by Fran\u00e7ois Laporte, President of Teamsters Canada, representing over 55,000 professional Drivers across Canada.#canlabhttps://t.co/scrrYeXa7x\n\u2014 Teamsters Canada (@TeamstersCanada) February 7, 2022\n\nThe Canadian Labour Congress, the largest labor organization in the country, which represents dozens of unions and millions of workers, also came out firmly against the convoy.\n\u201cThis is not a protest, it is an occupation by an angry mob trying to disguise itself as a peaceful protest,\u201d the Labour Congress said.\n\u201cThis occupation of Ottawa streets, on top of the latest wave of the pandemic, is having a devastating effect on the livelihood of already struggling workers and businesses,\u201d it wrote.\u00a0\u201cFrontline workers, from retail to health workers, have been bullied and harassed.\u201d\nCanada\u2019s unions stand together, unequivocally opposed to these vile & hateful messages and condemn the ongoing harassment & violence.Govts must act now to support workers & businesses affected and end the occupation.Our statement: https://t.co/IlOiYLYaoK #canlab #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/m3JH99WuQt\n\u2014 Canadian Labour (@CanadianLabour) February 9, 2022\n\nIn addition to the biggest labor organization and the largest union of actual truck drivers condemning the convoy, the Canadian Trucking Alliance released a statement clearly stating that it \u201cdoes not support and strongly disapproves of\u201d the protests.\n\u201cThe vast majority of the Canadian trucking industry is vaccinated,\u201d and alliance said, adding that \u201cmost of our nation\u2019s hard-working truck drivers are continuing to move cross-border and domestic freight to ensure our economy continues to function.\u201d\nIn follow-up statements, the federation emphasized that \u201ca great number of these protestors have no connection to the trucking industry and have a separate agenda beyond a disagreement over cross border vaccine requirements.\u201d\nThe trucking alliance criticized the convoy for \u201cimpairing the hard work of truck drivers who continue to keep our essential goods moving throughout the supply chain during this critical time.\u201d\n\u201cDrivers who are simply trying to make a living and get home to their families have been stuck at blocked border crossings for four to eight hours, many of whom have gone without access to washrooms or food,\u201d the federation wrote.\nIndigenous communities in Canada similarly denounced the convoy as a right-wing front.\nThe First Nations Leadership Council strongly condemned the protest for \u201cits spread of misinformation, racism, and violence.\u201d\nFirst Nations Leadership Council Strongly Condemns \u201cFreedom Convoy\u201d Movement Across Canada and its Spread of Misinformation, Racism, and Violence: \"The racist double-standard in policing in this country is on full display -\" https://t.co/FrNCEF3ajB pic.twitter.com/ITb0z0QRI6\n\u2014 UBCIC (@UBCIC) February 8, 2022\n\n\u201cIn\u00a0addition to dangerous public health and safety misinformation, the convoy is also amplifying hate speech and dangerous racist sentiments,\u201d the indigenous community organization wrote,\u00a0noting the presence of racist signs and flags at the protest.\nThe First Nations leaders pointed out the hypocrisy of the Canadian authorities, noting \u201cthe police response to the protest-turned-occupation in Ottawa has, up until recently, been almost non-existent and appalling in their unwillingness to intercede.\u201d\n\u201cThe racist double-standard in policing in this country is on full display \u2014 had these protesters been Indigenous, the police would have cleared them out in a heartbeat,\u201d the council added.\nEmphasizing this transparent double standard, Canadian journalist David Pugliese reported, \u201cPolice in Ottawa stood by and did nothing as protesters installed a hot tub in the middle of a downtown street. We have images of police fist bumping protesters.\u201d\nPolice in Ottawa @OttawaPolice stood by and did nothing as protesters installed a hot tub in the middle of a downtown street. We have images of police fist bumping protesters\u2026what next\u2026police carrying their bath water or scrubbing their backs? pic.twitter.com/CWfcwRX3OW\n\u2014 David Pugliese (@davidpugliese) February 13, 2022\n\nLeftist parties that are very much opposed to Trudeau also came out firmly against the convoy.\nThe Communist Party of Canada denounced the demonstration as \u201ca public expression of the increasingly organized and assertive far right,\u201d noting \u201cthe strong support (ideologically and financially) from the US far right and circles close to Donald Trump\u201d and the presence of \u201cNazi and Confederated flags, election signs for Bernier and all sorts of far-right symbols.\u201d\nCanadians frustrated at the weeks-long blockade of their capital even organized counter-protests against the convoy.\nOttawa residents, unions, and community organizations marching today against the far-right occupation of their city. pic.twitter.com/t87bUJu6cy\n\u2014 Stephen Gowans (@GowansStephen) February 12, 2022\n\nTo the extent that actual truckers have participated in the Canada convoy, they represent a small percentage of workers in the industry, and most are in fact petit-bourgeois owner-operators and even company owners who exploit working-class drivers.\nIt is important to clarify the social position of truckers, because they aren\u2019t all the same. The labor category of truck driver is made up of multiple social classes.\nHired hourly drivers are working class. The brother of the co-author of this article, Brian Mier, is in fact a working-class Teamsters union steward who has been a truck driver in Chicago for 30 years.\nBut not all truckers are working class.\u00a0Drivers who have their own rigs are small business owners, or petit-bourgeois.\nThen there are those who own multiple rigs, and run companies that hire drivers by the hour to drive them. They are bourgeois capitalists.\nAll three categories are often referred to simply as \u201ctruckers,\u201d but they are from different classes and have antagonistic economic interests.\nIt is na\u00efve or dishonest to present a protest in which all categories are present as a strictly working-class movement.\nIn Canada, the trucker protest has been heavily dominated by owner-operators and capitalists who have their own trucking companies, and who therefore exploit working-class truckers.\nIronically many of those participating in the convoy received money from the Canadian government they are now protesting, through its Covid-19 emergency funding program for employers, Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS).\nETS \u2013 Elite Transport SolutionsCapitalist / CEWS Collector. pic.twitter.com/4w2Hxu1Fny\n\u2014 T?ri the Dumb Lefty Canadian Radical (@RodneyTori) February 8, 2022\n\nIt is lonely driving a truck. Like mail carriers, truck drivers don\u2019t enjoy the same kind of constant interaction with other employees that people in the service sector do, for example.\nThis isolation makes it harder to organize unions and strikes, and it causes some truckers, who spend hours every day listening to radio talk shows and satellite podcasts as they drive, to gravitate towards conservative political viewpoints.\nNevertheless, as labor laws have been weakened in North America, and as domestic manufacturing has declined and robotization has decimated traditional labor sectors, transport logistics remains one of the only areas still capable of paralyzing the contemporary capitalist system.\nThe new just-in-time distribution model, which minimizes use of warehouses by relying on milimetrically precise transport logistics, is especially vulnerable to trucker strikes.\nThis explains why union-busting right-wing elites have put a special emphasis on trying to hijack trucker protests \u2013 and illustrates the importance of political work and labor organizing within this sector.\nJournalist Seymour Hersh revealed that, in the year leading up to the 1973 coup against President Salvador Allende in Chile, the CIA spent millions of dollars financing a 26-day truckers strike.\nThis strike marked the beginning of a period of economic destabilization that weakened the democratically elected socialist government, and set the stage for far-right General Augusto Pinochet to seize power, with US support.\nCanada\u2019s centrist Justin Trudeau government has virtually nothing in common with Allende\u2019s Chile, but Brazil\u2019s left-wing Workers\u2019 Party does. And a similar campaign used in Brazil shows how wealthy elites have a history of exploiting the name of truckers to push their reactionary interests.\nBrazil\u2019s democratically elected President Dilma Rousseff, of the Workers\u2019 Party, was overthrown in 2016 in a political coup that, like the 1973 Chile coup, was led by right-wing networks with support from the US government.\nRousseff was replaced by her vice president, neoliberal technocrat Michel Temer. In 2017, his administration liberalized fuel pricing policy, linking prices in one of the countries with the world\u2019s largest oil reserves to dollarized international rates. This caused daily price hikes, which were further exacerbated by plummeting exchange rates.\nBy mid-2018, diesel prices had risen by 56.5%. That May, the National Confederation of Autonomous Transport Workers, which represents tens of thousands of owner-operators, issued an ultimatum to the government: freeze all diesel prices until negotiations take place, or we will paralyze Brazil\u2019s distribution networks. The Temer administration refused to respond.\nOn May 21, owner-operators all over the country began blocking off roads and ports. With the support of some of the biggest company owners, they were then joined by thousands of hired drivers.\nMost of Brazil\u2019s labor unions did not endorse the protest. Due to the participation of trucking company owners, they viewed it as more of a lock-down than a strike, and believed it did not clearly represent the demands of the working class.\nHowever, the truckers quickly gained the support of much of the Brazilian middle class, who were nearly as fed up with rising gas prices as the truckers were with skyrocketing diesel costs.\nA history professor named Larissa Jacheta Riberti, who worked her way through graduate school as the editor of the popular trucking industry trade journal Chico do Boleia, reported on the early days of the protest:\nThere is no unified set of demands. The movement is not hegemonic from a social or ideological point of view. There is a group of truckers who support Jair Bolsonaro, another group that is demanding a return to military dictatorship, and others who are asking for free elections now and freedom for Lula. In other words, it is a movement that is mainly centered around the issue of diesel prices.\nLater she added, \u201cThere is a clear attempt being made by the business class, which is exerting a greater influence on negotiations with the government, to appropriate the truckers\u2019 demands.\u201d\nAt first, it looked like Riberti\u2019s prediction of business-class appropriation was going to be a complete success.\nBrazil\u2019s conservative media oligarchies framed the strike to damage the reputation of the Workers\u2019 Party (PT) by only filming the most reactionary elements \u2013 men dressed in the national colors of green and yellow, waving signs clamoring for return to the dictatorship and supporting the far-right presidential candidate, Jair Bolsonaro.\nThey associated the primary beneficiary of the US-backed 2016 coup, Temer, with the government that he helped remove from power. In the eyes of the media oligarchs, the 2017 liberalization of fuel prices was somehow caused by Rousseff, who had been illegally removed from office a year earlier.\n2018 was an election year, and the media was doing everything it could to block a return to power by the PT, whose presidential candidate Lula da Silva was leading all polls, with more support than the sum of all other candidates combined \u2013 even though he was being held as a political prisoner and illegally barred from speaking with the press.\nAmid the media circus, the Brazilian Landless Workers\u2019 Movement (MST) swung into action. Groups of small farmers affiliated with Latin America\u2019s largest peasant movement came out to dozens of locations across the country where truckers were camped out with their rigs and fed the hired drivers three meals a day, made from food produced on their farms.\nThe MST activists used political organizing tactics influenced by the revolutionary educator Paulo Freire to listen and learn from the truckers\u2019 experiences. The MST organizers then explained why they believed diesel prices were so high, and how the solution suggested by the company owners \u2013 lowering taxes \u2013 would hurt them.\nLittle by little, this strategy began to accentuate the class differences between the company owners, the owner-operators, and the hired drivers, and chipped away at support for Bolsonaro.\nThe Landless Workers\u2019 Movement (MST) distributed hundreds of tons of free meals to truckers across Brazil in 2018\nBut because Lula was illegally imprisoned and barred from running as a candidate, Bolsonaro ended up winning the 2018 election.\nAnd after taking power, Bolsonaro made it clear that he was not going to undo Temer\u2019s pricing policy liberalization. Instead, he offered a small tax break on diesel, using money appropriated from public health spending cuts (which would come back to haunt him in 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic broke out).\nBy the time 2021 rolled around, most Brazilian truck drivers felt betrayed by the Bolsonaro administration\u2019s broken promise about diesel prices, which rose a whopping 765% above the level of inflation that year alone.\nMost of the big company owners, however, were laughing all the way to the bank. The decimation of labor rights that began in 2017 enabled them to treat workers like they were precarious Uber or Ifood delivery drivers.\nMeanwhile, the Bolsonaro administration was engaged in a series of battles with the Supreme Court, which had opened an electoral fraud investigation against the president and his allies.\nBolsonaro\u2019s popularity was nearing an all time low, but he still had a hyper-radicalized core group of supporters, estimated by UNIFESP professor Esther Solano to be around 11% of the electorate.\nThe problem was that Bolsonaro\u2019s myth of ample support among the working class was crumbling. Polls were showing that even his most supportive electoral demographic in 2018, evangelical Christians, were now as likely to vote for Lula in the 2022 election as they were for him.\nBolsonaro had to do something big. So he decided to fabricate a new truckers\u2019 insurrection.\nIn 2021, a series of YouTube videos began to spam social accounts connected to a network of right-wing allies of Bolsonaro\u2019s son Carlos, known as the \u201chate cabinet.\u201d\nThe videos were filmed inside a truck by a bearded man calling himself \u201cZ\u00e9 Trov\u00e3o\u201d \u2013 Joe Thunder (the name of the lead character in a popular 1990s soap opera).\nTrov\u00e3o was not actually a trucker, but he portrayed himself as one. And he announced that he was leading a convoy of hundreds of trucks to the presidential esplanade on Brazil\u2019s independence day, September 7, with plans to storm the Supreme Court and make citizen\u2019s arrests of all the ministers.\nThe non-trucker Trov\u00e3o called on patriotic truckers in Brazil to join him \u2013 on the same day when Bolsonaro\u2019s supporters were already planning a demonstration on Brasilia\u2019s esplanade.\nAs he continued making videos, Z\u00e9 Trov\u00e3o made bigger and bigger claims. In addition to hundreds of truckers, there would be two helicopters providing aerial support, he insisted.\nFrom behind the wheel of a big rig, Brazilian Bolsonaro supporter Z\u00e9 Trov\u00e3o calls on truckers to head to the capital\nThe Brazilian Supreme Court, which has the power to order arrests and investigations, decided Trov\u00e3o had crossed the line. First it issued a restraining order barring him from entering the city of Brasilia on September 7. Then it issued an arrest warrant. Trov\u00e3o fled the country.\nThe co-author of this article, Brian Mier, arrived in Brasilia on September 6 to cover the protest for TeleSur.\nMier stayed in a 2-star hotel built for conventioneers, which was full of people dressed in green and yellow arriving in bus caravans. It was immediately clear that many of them had never been in a big city before.\nA nervous looking elderly couple asked Mier for help using the elevator. Another man said he had never seen a vending machine before, and asked for help purchasing a soft drink.\nIt appeared that a significant percentage of the protesters were bussed in from poor rural areas by rich Bolsonaro supporters.\nA video later surfaced showing a wealthy businessman handing out 100 real bills and t-shirts to people as they boarded a bus heading out to the other September 7 pro-Bolsonaro rally in Sao Paulo.\nOn the night of September 6, Mier heard honking and screaming in the distance. News hit that a group of truckers had invaded the esplanade and, followed by hundreds of jubilant Bolsonaro supporters, driven up and parked in front of the security barrier protecting Congress and the Supreme Court.\nResponding to the news, Workers\u2019 Party President Gleisi Hoffman tweeted out reassuring words: \u201cIt\u2019s true that tomorrow is September 7th,\u201d she said, \u201cbut the next day is September 8th\u2026 Look at this video. Congress and the Supreme Court are completely secure. No one is coming anywhere near them. The truckers got onto the Esplanade because the police opened the barricade for them.\u201d\nLike the so-called \u201cfreedom convoy\u201d in Canada, the trucks in Brasilia displayed large banners preaching anti-communism.\nAn anti-communist banner on the trucks at the pro-Bolsonaro rally in Brasilia\nIn the end, there was no storming of the Supreme Court. The real psyop had been to convince the media and the public that it was going to happen.\nOn September 7, the entire area was completely locked down. Police did their jobs and no one was allowed onto the esplanade without going through a metal detector and getting a pat down.\nBy the next day, most of the crowd was gone. But a line of trucks remained parked in front of the Supreme Court building. They constantly honked, and a blasted patriotic music.\nMier later confirmed that the entire line was made up of trucks owned by the same company, Pro Tork, whose owner, Marlon Bonilha, was one of Bolsonaro\u2019s biggest campaign contributors.\nFascism and big business have walked hand in hand since the days of Mussolini. Meet Marlon Bonilha (l), the  multimillionaire owner of the Pro-Tork trucking company, which still has a dozen trucks parked on Brasilia's Esplanade honking and intimidating the Supreme Court. pic.twitter.com/TJD3QShuq3\n\u2014 BrianMier (@BrianMteleSUR) September 9, 2021\n\nIn short, most of the drivers who occupied the esplanade were hired hands, working for Pro-Tork or two other companies. There was nothing working class about it.\nHere is Pro Tork owner Marlon Bonilha giving Jair Bolsonaro a motorcycle helmet. pic.twitter.com/uZzaYxPuNG\n\u2014 BrianMier (@BrianMteleSUR) September 9, 2021\n\nDays later it came out that the self-proclaimed leader of the trucker protest, Z\u00e9 Trov\u00e3o, was not really a truck driver. In fact, he didn\u2019t even have a driver\u2019s license.\nBrazilian federal police caught up with Trov\u00e3o in Mexico City. And\u00a0one of the main figures in the 2018 strike, Plinio Dias, president of the National Highway Cargo Transport Council, commented, \u201cThis guy made a video inside of a truck\u2026 but we don\u2019t know anything else about him. I\u2019ve been in this business for 22 years. This guy just arrived by parachute.\u201d\nTrov\u00e3o, whose real name is Marcos Ant\u00f4nio Pereira Gomes, was extradited, brought back to Brazil, and thrown in jail, pending trial due to flight risk.\nIt was also soon revealed that he had also ripped off Jair Bolsonaro\u2019s son Eduardo, who apparently sent him thousands of dollars for fuel for his non-existent helicopters.\nPlinio Dias, 2018 strike leader and President of the National Highway Cargo Transport Council, says, \"this guy made a video inside of a truck [\u2026] but we don't know him. I've been in this business for 22 years. This guy just arrived by parachute.\" pic.twitter.com/eDkbFSRw1r\n\u2014 BrianMier (@BrianMteleSUR) September 11, 2021\n\nAs Gomes spent his first week in jail, the actress Ingra Lyberato, who played Trov\u00e3o\u2019s sidekick Ana Raio (Ana Lightning) in the 1990s soap opera that Gomes had taken his nickname from, remarked on Twitter, \u201cThis young man is being manipulated by his own vanity, in a game of marked cards in which he will probably by the only victim.\u201d\nThe wealthy right-wing networks supporting the \u201ctrucker\u201d protests in Canada may have learned from this Brazilian game of marked cards.\nMier spoke to a friend whose brother has been a long-distance trucker in Canada for 20 years, and who asked him if anyone from his yard was participating in the Ottawa protest.\nNot one of his colleagues was protesting.\u00a0\u201cReal truck drivers can\u2019t afford to stop working for three weeks,\u201d he said, \u201cwe have bills to pay.\u201d\nThe hired truckers in Brazil made very similar comments during the September 7 protest.\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Mexico\u2019s AMLO sent Biden letter blasting US \u2018interventionism\u2019 and funding of opposition groups. 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, Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador, CIA, Claudio X Gonz\u00e1lez, Ford Foundation, Mexicanos Contra la Corrupci\u00f3n y la Impunidad, Mexico, NED, Nicaragua, USAID, Venezuela", "output": "Mexico\u2019s President AMLO sent Joe Biden a letter condemning US \u201cinterventionism\u201d, such as USAID funding of right-wing opposition groups that are trying to destabilize his elected government.\n\nMexico\u2019s President Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador sent US leader Joe Biden a letter criticizing Washington for meddling in his country\u2019s internal affairs.\nThe document condemned funding that the US Agency for International Development (USAID) has given to right-wing opposition groups that have organized protests against Mexico\u2019s elected government, seeking to destabilize it.\nUSAID is a notorious CIA cutout that has been used to finance opposition groups and regime-change attempts in countries that challenge Washington\u2019s foreign-policy interests.\n\nL\u00f3pez Obrador, who is popularly referred to by his initials AMLO, is Mexico\u2019s first left-wing president in decades.\nAMLO came into office in December 2018 vowing to end the \u201clong and dark neoliberal night\u201d.\nHe has nationalized the country\u2019s lithium reserves and electrical grid, reversed the partial privatization of the oil industry, boosted social spending, and significantly increased the minimum wage.\nThis 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\nNote how the minimum wage was totally stagnant in two decades of neoliberal governments\nCredit: @mario_campa pic.twitter.com/ZlGxGvb5QF\n\u2014 Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) December 25, 2022\n\nOn May 2, AMLO sent a letter to Biden. The Mexican president\u2019s office made the document public on its official website.\n\u201cFor a while, the government of the United States, in particular the US Agency for International Development (USAID) has funded groups openly opposed to the legal and legitimate government that I represent, which is without a doubt an act of interventionism, violating international law and the respect that there should be between free and sovereign states\u201d, AMLO wrote.\n\u201cMoreover, a few days ago it was announced that said agency will increase the budget given to organizations opposed to our government, as appears published on the official website of the State Department\u201d, he added.\nThe Mexican president read out the letter in his morning press conference on May 3. His office\u2019s official YouTube channel even made a special video with the clip.\n\u201cI feel that it is very arrogant, very offensive, and I can\u2019t remain quiet\u201d, AMLO commented, in reference to the US meddling.\nMexico\u2019s President AMLO sent Joe Biden a letter condemning US \u201cinterventionism\u201d, specifically citing USAID funding of right-wing opposition groups that are trying to destabilize AMLO's elected government.\nFull video here: https://t.co/LFwp7ZojCy pic.twitter.com/2JrCdI7zyx\n\u2014 Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) May 9, 2023\n\nUSAID and other US government organizations, such as the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), have funded numerous right-wing opposition groups in Mexico, particularly media outlets and so-called \u201ccivil society\u201d organizations.\nA prominent example is Mexicanos Contra la Corrupci\u00f3n y la Impunidad (Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity, or MCCI), a group founded by right-wing multimillionaire oligarch Claudio X. Gonz\u00e1lez, one of AMLO\u2019s most fervent opponents.\nMCCI disclosed on its website that it is financed by USAID and NED, as well as the notorious CIA-linked Ford Foundation.\nThis right-wing opposition leader in Mexico, rich businessman Claudio X. Gonz\u00e1lez, who leads a Pinochet-style neoliberal anti-AMLO alliance called S\u00ed por M\u00e9xico, is funded by the US government.\nHis \"NGO\" \"Mexicanos contra la corrupci\u00f3n\" is funded by USAID & NED, both CIA cutouts https://t.co/iIJpNQoj4o pic.twitter.com/Job07hxtKf\n\u2014 Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) April 3, 2021\n\nThe CIA used USAID \u201chumanitarian aid\u201d flights to send weapons to the far-right Contra death squads in Nicaragua in the 1980s.\nWhen the Sandinistas returned to power in 2007, through democratic elections, USAID spent billions of dollars funding right-wing opposition groups, which then played a key role in a violent coup attempt in 2018, which caused hundreds of deaths.\nUSAID collaborates closely with the US military, and frequently uses \u201chumanitarian\u201d cover to advance the interests of the Pentagon.\nIn a regime-change operation targeting Venezuela in 2019, USAID was used as a political weapon, working with the US Department of Defense to try to overthrow the leftist government of President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro.\nThe United Nations and International Red Cross condemned USAID\u2019s role in the attempted putsch in Venezuela, clearly stating that the US government organization was not providing humanitarian aid. An internal USAID audit even admitted in 2021 that the operation had violated humanitarian principles.\n\nThe NED has played an even more nefarious role in funding US meddling schemes and regime-change operations.\nIn a 1991 report boasting of the \u201cspyless coups\u201d that Washington had sponsored in the former Soviet Union, the Washington Post described the US government\u2019s NED as \u201cthe sugar daddy of overt operations\u201d, crediting it for \u201cdispensing money to anti-communist forces behind the Iron Curtain\u201d.\nA co-founder of the NED, Allen Weinstein, told the Post, \u201cA lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA\u201d.\nUS foundations like Ford and Rockefeller have historically played a similar role, working closely with the CIA to fund anti-communist groups, including violent ones.\nIn her book The Cultural Cold War, journalist Frances Stonor Saunders showed how the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations \u201cwere conscious instruments of covert US foreign policy, with directors and officers who were closely connected to, or even members of American intelligence\u201d.\nThis extremely important book The Cultural Cold War documents how the Ford Foundation and Rockefeller Foundation have long been \"conscious instruments of covert US foreign policy, with directors and officers who were closely connected to, or even members of American intelligence\" pic.twitter.com/SxbBPSHhlM\n\u2014 Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) July 13, 2020\n\nIn his May 3 press conference condemning Washington\u2019s meddling, President L\u00f3pez Obrador proposed that US-Mexico relations should be based on \u201ccooperation and friendship\u201d.\n\u201cTogether we should confront problems, like the migration issue, like drug trafficking, especially fentanyl\u201d, he stressed.\nIn Washington, however, far-right US politicians have called for the opposite.\nProminent Republican Congress members have urged the US military to invade Mexico to attack drug cartels, even proposing legislation to justify an intervention.\nHawkish US politicians have blamed Mexico and China for the opioid epidemic in the United States, while ignoring how large pharmaceutical corporations profited from creating the problem in the first place.\nAMLO has repeatedly condemned the US threats against his country.\nOn March 18, he organized a massive rally in the heart of Mexico City, celebrating the anniversary of the expropriation of the country\u2019s oil reserves and shouting, \u201cWe remind those hypocritical and irresponsible politicians that Mexico is an independent and free country, not a colony or a protectorate of the United States!\u201d\nIn a tweet on April 1, AMLO fumed:\nThey threaten to invade; they sell high-powered weapons in their markets; they do nothing for their youth; they suffer \u2013 unfortunately \u2013 from the terrible and deadly fentanyl pandemic, but don\u2019t address its causes.\nThey don\u2019t care about welfare, only money.\nAmenazan con invadir, venden armas de alto poder en sus tianguis, no hacen nada por sus j\u00f3venes, padecen \u2014lamentablemente\u2014 de la terrible y mortal pandemia del fentanilo, pero no atienden las causas. No les preocupa el bienestar, s\u00f3lo el dinero, ni fortalecen valores morales,\u2026\n\u2014 Andr\u00e9s Manuel (@lopezobrador_) April 1, 2023\n\nWhile hawks in Washington have scapegoated foreign nations like Mexico and China for the opioid crisis at home, they have largely ignored billionaire oligarchs like those of the Sackler family, who made enormous profits on selling highly addictive drugs such as OxyContin.\nIn a blockbuster article in 2018, titled \u201cOrigins of an Epidemic: Purdue Pharma Knew Its Opioids Were Widely Abused\u201c, the New York Times noted, \u201cA confidential Justice Department report found the company was aware early on that OxyContin was being crushed and snorted for its powerful narcotic, but continued to promote it as less addictive\u201d.\nThe Times wrote:\nPurdue Pharma, the company that planted the seeds of the opioid epidemic through its aggressive marketing of OxyContin, has long claimed it was unaware of the powerful opioid painkiller\u2019s growing abuse until years after it went on the market.\nBut a copy of a confidential Justice Department report shows that federal prosecutors investigating the company found that Purdue Pharma knew about \u201csignificant\u201d abuse of OxyContin in the first years after the drug\u2019s introduction in 1996 and concealed that information.\nCompany officials had received reports that the pills were being crushed and snorted; stolen from pharmacies; and that some doctors were being charged with selling prescriptions, according to dozens of previously undisclosed documents that offer a detailed look inside Purdue Pharma. But the drug maker continued \u201cin the face of this knowledge\u201d to market OxyContin as less prone to abuse and addiction than other prescription opioids, prosecutors wrote in 2006.\nBased on their findings after a four-year investigation, the prosecutors recommended that three top Purdue Pharma executives be indicted on felony charges, including conspiracy to defraud the United States, that could have sent the men to prison if convicted.\nBut top Justice Department officials in the George W. Bush administration did not support the move, said four lawyers who took part in those discussions or were briefed about them. Instead, the government settled the case in 2007.\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Latin America\u2019s plan to challenge US dollar with new currency and \u2018regional financial architecture\u2019. 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, Andr\u00e9s Arauz, Argentina, Banco del Sur, Bank of the South, Bolivia, Brazil, dollar, Ecuador, Latin America, Lula da Silva, Mexico, Rafael Correa, Sucre, Sur, UNASUR, Venezuela", "output": "Advising Brazil\u2019s President-elect Lula, Ecuadorian economist and leftist presidential candidate Andr\u00e9s Arauz made a blueprint for a \u201cnew regional financial architecture\u201d to unite Latin America, including an international currency to challenge the hegemony of the US dollar and IMF.\n\n(Se puede leer esta nota en espa\u00f1ol aqu\u00ed.)\nThe US dollar is used in the majority of international trade, and its status as the global reserve currency gives the United States an \u201cexorbitant privilege\u201d that underpins its geopolitical and economic dominance.\nYet opposition to Washington\u2019s hegemony is growing around the world. Institutions of Eurasian integration are proposing their own currencies and payment systems. Latin America, too, has ambitious plans to end its dependence on the US dollar.\nProminent economist Andr\u00e9s Arauz, a leftist leader who came close to winning Ecuador\u2019s 2021 presidential elections, published a blueprint for a \u201cnew regional financial architecture\u201d to unite Latin America, challenging the hegemony of the dollar and Washington-dominated institutions like the International Monetary Fund.\n\nHis plan centers around creating a new regional currency for international transactions, thereby bypassing the dollar.\nThe framework is based on a proposal made by Brazil\u2019s President-elect Lula da Silva, who pledged before winning the October election that \u201cwe are going to create a currency in Latin America,\u201d in order to \u201cbe freed of the dollar.\u201d\nThe currency is expected to be called the Sur (\u201csouth\u201d in Spanish), and would be overseen by a newly created Banco Central del Sur (Central Bank of the South).\nTo do all of this, Arauz has advised Lula to revive and strengthen existing institutions of regional integration like the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) and the Banco del Sur (Bank of the South), which were undermined by US-backed coups and the rise of right-wing governments.\nThe goal is \u201cto harmonize the payment systems of\u201d the countries that make up UNASUR in order \u201cto carry out inter-bank transfers to any bank inside of the region in real time and from a cellphone,\u201d explained Arauz.\nThe Ecuadorian economist also insisted that Latin America should reject the US-dominated International Monetary Fund (IMF) and work with Africa to create debt relief and new economic opportunities.\n\nBoth Lula and Arauz have made it clear that the Sur would not replace local currencies, like the European Union\u2019s euro. Countries in Latin America would still have their own national currencies, so they can pursue a sovereign monetary policy.\nRather, the idea is to use the Sur for bilateral trade between countries, in place of the dollar.\nThe proposal is very popular in\u00a0Latin America, given that it is the world\u2019s most dependent region on the US dollar.\nThe dollar was used in 96% of trade transactions between countries in the Americas from\u00a01999-2019, according to the Federal Reserve.\nThe creation of the Sur currency could fundamentally change this.\n\nMost trade in the Americas is dominated by the United States, which has the world\u2019s second-largest economy (after the People\u2019s Republic of China, when measured with purchasing power parity).\nThe GDP of the United States is roughly $23 trillion, while that of Canada is nearly $2 trillion.\nIt is often reported that the nominal GDP of Latin America and the Caribbean is around $5.5 trillion, according to World Bank data, and that the three largest economies in the region are Brazil ($1.6 trillion), Mexico ($1.3 trillion), and Argentina ($491 billion).\nBut nominal GDP measurements can be misleading, and only reinforce the hegemony of the US dollar. A much more accurate measurement of GDP, purchasing power parity (PPP), takes into account the cost of living in each respective country.\nAdjusted accordingly with PPP measurements, the more precise estimate of the GDP of Latin America and the Caribbean is actually $11.4 trillion, with Brazil at $3.4 trillion, Mexico at $2.6 trillion, and Argentina at $1.1 trillion.\nThis shows that the combined economies of Latin America and the Caribbean make up nearly half of the size of the US economy.\nThe region is also very rich in natural resources, including oil, minerals, and agriculture.\nIf Latin America could unify with its own independent financial institutions, it has enormous economic potential.\nLatin America\u2019s vast economic potential has long been recognized by left-wing, anti-imperialist leaders in the region.\nIn the 2000s, the leftist presidents of Venezuela (Hugo Ch\u00e1vez), Brazil (Lula da Silva), Argentina (N\u00e9stor Kirchner and Cristina Fern\u00e1ndez de Kirchner), Bolivia (Evo Morales), Ecuador (Rafael Correa), and Paraguay (Fernando Lugo) made plans to create alternative financial institutions to challenge the US-dominated World Bank and IMF.\nThe World Bank and IMF have a history of trapping Global South countries in unpayable odious debt, and subsequently imposing neoliberal \u201cstructural adjustment\u201d programs that force governments to implement suffocating austerity policies that benefit US corporations.\nFollowing the vision of Venezuela\u2019s revolutionary President Hugo Ch\u00e1vez, Latin America\u2019s left-wing leaders agreed to create a bank aimed at regional unity, called the Banco del Sur (Bank of the South).\nCh\u00e1vez, Lula, the Kirchners, Morales, and Correa met in Argentina in 2007 and signed a treaty officially creating the bank.\nThe presidents of (Ecuador, Bolivia, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Venezuela (from left to right) meet in Argentina in 2007 to sign the treaty forming the Banco del Sur\nBut the launch of the Banco del Sur was delayed.\nIn 2009, the leaders of these countries met again for the Africa-South America Summit (ASA) in Venezuela, where they vowed a combined $20 billion in initial capital.\nThese plans were never realized, however.\nSeveral leftist governments in Latin America were destabilized and overthrown in a series of brutal geopolitical attacks waged by the United States and right-wing oligarchies \u2013 namely several US-sponsored coups: a military coup in Honduras in 2009, judicial coup in Paraguay in 2012, internal coup in Ecuador in 2017, soft coups in Brazil in 2016 and 2018, and violent coup in Bolivia in 2019, as well as numerous failed coup attempts in Venezuela and Nicaragua.\nThese US attacks and the ensuing right-wing surge also led to the sabotage of another key instrument of regional integration, the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR).\nWhile the Banco del Sur was meant to economically integrate the region, political integration was be overseen by UNASUR.\nUNASUR was formally created in a 2008 treaty, and officially operational by 2011.\nBut as Washington prepared another coup attempt against Venezuela, in 2018 and 2019, the right-wing leaders of Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Peru, and Paraguay coordinated together to withdraw from UNASUR, leaving the institution very weak.\nAnother important regional institution created in parallel to the Banco del Sur and UNASUR was the ALBA: the\u00a0Alianza Bolivariana para los Pueblos de Nuestra Am\u00e9rica (Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America).\nVenezuela and Cuba formed the ALBA in 2004 as an economic alliance of left-wing governments in Latin America and the Caribbean.\nThe ALBA created its own currency for inter-state trade in the region. Adopted in 2009, it was called the Sucre: the \u201cUnified System for Regional Compensation.\u201d (This acronym also referenced the South American revolutionary Antonio Jos\u00e9 de Sucre, who joined General Sim\u00f3n Bol\u00edvar in the anti-colonialist struggle against the Spanish empire in the early 19th century.)\nAt its peak, the ALBA brought together Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Honduras in a trade bloc, and they used the Sucre in more than $1 billion in bilateral trade in\u00a02012.\nThe symbol for the Sucre, used by the ALBA\nCh\u00e1vez\u2019s dream of unifying the region was undermined by his untimely death in 2013, and what followed was a devastating US economic war waged against Venezuela, including an artificial US-orchestrated commodities crash in 2014, several violent Washington-backed coup attempts, the imposition of harsh sanctions that gradually escalated into a Cuba-style embargo, and the Donald Trump\u2019s attempt to forcibly install unelected coup leader Juan Guaid\u00f3 as supposed \u201cinterim president.\u201d\nDespite setbacks in the previous decade, by 2022, the left is back on the rise in Latin America.\nFor the first time in history, the region\u2019s seven most-populated countries are governed by left-wing leaders (Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, Peru, Venezuela, and Chile).\nColombia\u2019s deeply pro-US right-wing governments were always a thorn in the side of the patria grande (the project of Latin American unity). But that changed with the election in June of Colombia\u2019s first-ever left-wing president: Gustavo Petro.\nRecognizing the potential of this historic moment to realize true regional unity, Ecuador\u2019s leftist leader Andr\u00e9s Arauz has laid out a blueprint for not only political but also economic integration.\nArauz has called for reviving both UNASUR and the Banco del Sur, and strengthening them further with a new Banco Central del Sur (Central Bank of the South).\nArauz is an accomplished economist. He spent more than a decade working at Ecuador\u2019s central bank, eventually serving as its general director. He is currently completing his PhD in financial economics.\nUnder Ecuador\u2019s former socialist President Rafael Correa, Arauz served as minister of knowledge and human talent.\nArauz has since become a leading figure in Ecuador\u2019s leftist Corre\u00edsta movement, continuing the \u201cCitizens\u2019 Revolution\u201d launched by Correa.\nArauz was Corre\u00edsmo\u2019s candidate in the 2021 presidential elections. He won the first round in a landslide, but lost the second round with 47.6% of the vote compared to the 52.4% of Ecuador\u2019s current President Guillermo Lasso, a right-wing multi-millionaire banker notorious for his corruption.\nEcuador\u2019s Andres Arauz (right) with former President Rafael Correa (left) in a campaign ad for the 2021 elections\nAlthough he is not formally in office, Arauz has served as an economic advisor for left-wing politicians in the region.\nArauz is a co-founder of the Grupo de Puebla, a political forum bringing together progressive forces in Latin America. He is also a member of the council of the Progressive International.\nLula da Silva, who governed Brazil from 2003 to 2010, is closely allied with both of these organizations. This makes it likely that Arauz will serve in some capacity as an advisor for the new Brazilian government.\nIn 2020, Lula published an article at the Progressive International website, titled \u201cFor a Multipolar World.\u201d In it, the Brazilian left-wing leader said he seeks \u201cthe creation of a multipolar world, free from unilateral hegemony and from sterile bipolar confrontation.\u201d\nDuring his presidential campaign, at a rally in May 2022, Lula promised, \u201cWe are going to create a currency in Latin America, because we can\u2019t keep depending on the dollar.\u201d\nLula won the October 30 presidential election and will once again become head of state of the largest country in Latin America on January 1, 2023.\nIn response to Lula\u2019s electoral victory, Arauz wrote a blueprint outlining steps that Brazil can take to help develop \u201ca new regional financial architecture.\u201d\nThe article, published at the pan-Latin American website NODAL, is a guide that Lula can follow when he becomes president.\n\u201cThe goal: that on January 1, 2023, in the inauguration of Lula, the treaties are signed for the new UNASUR,\u201d Arauz wrote.\n\u201cWe must put in operation the Bank of the South and sign the founding treaty of the Central Bank of the South and the Sur, the regional currency \u2013 in addition to national currencies \u2013 that President Lula proposed,\u201d he added.\n\u201cThe initial step should be immediate,\u201d Arauz stressed.\nThe system will seek \u201cto harmonize the payment systems of UNASUR to carry out inter-bank transfers to any bank inside of the region in real time and from a cellphone,\u201d he explained.\nArauz cautioned that these actions must be taken soon and quickly, because \u201cthe political window of opportunity is between January and September 2023, the date of primary elections in Argentina.\u201d\nArgentina\u2019s right-wing opposition, which is much more pro-US and supportive of dollar hegemony and neoliberal economics, could win these elections, throwing a wrench into the project of regional unity.\nArauz warned, \u201cWe can\u2019t give up this historic window of opportunity to the slow inertia of the foreign ministries and the backwardness of malinchismo\u201d \u2013 a pejorative term that refers to people in Latin America who feel self-hate toward their own societies and have internalized the inferiority complex of cultural imperialism.\n\u201cProgressive presidents must create an immediate channel of communication between each other,\u201d he emphasized. \u201cThe political will is there, there is no time to lose.\u201d\nIf Latin America manages to create this \u201cnew regional financial architecture,\u201d the Ecuadorian economist argued, it could \u201callow a breather for Argentina.\u201d\nArgentina has faced a deep economic crisis, caused largely by unpayable odious debt owed to the IMF, after the previous right-wing government in Buenos Aires took the largest loan in the fund\u2019s history.\nArauz has been a vocal critic of the IMF. In his article, he\u00a0said Latin America should take \u201ccollective action to retroactively nullify the illegal surcharges of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).\u201d\nIMF surcharges are extra interest payments that the US-dominated financial institution imposes on borrowing countries that owe it large debts.\nThe Bretton Woods Project noted that \u201ccivil society organisations, human rights experts and others have argued that surcharges effectively discriminate against and punish countries that are most in need of IMF assistance.\u201d\nArauz proposed that, in order to annul these IMF surcharges, \u201cif necessary,\u201d Latin America and Africa should propose a resolution in the United Nations General Assembly.\nHe added that Latin America should work together with Africa to demand that the United States issue them IMF special drawing rights to help their economies.\nThe region could then \u201crecycle\u201d these special drawing rights to help Argentina, Arauz said.\nThe Ecuadorian economist also wrote that UNASUR could try to make some of the capital fleeing the region to the United States instead return to its countries of origin, by invoking article VIII.2.b of the founding articles of agreement of the IMF.\nArauz offered economic advice for Brazil\u2019s domestic affairs as well.\nLula should \u201cundo the de facto privatization of the Central Bank of Brazil that was implemented\u201d by current far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, and \u201crearticulate the Central Bank of Brazil in the line of development, integration, and democracy,\u201d he wrote.\n\u201cIt is very difficult to be able to meet the goals of eradicating hunger and the reindustrialization the Brazilian people need if he has a central bank permanently boycotting it,\u201d Arauz added.\nHe noted that Colombia\u2019s central bank has already taken actions to oppose the proposed reforms of new left-wing President Gustavo Petro.\nBut Arauz pointed out that \u201cthis wave of regional integration cannot remain only at the level of presidents; it should be a true integration of the peoples.\u201d\n\u201cThat implies profound participation of the social movements of all of the region, but above all, immediate and tangible benefits for the citizenry,\u201d he stressed.\n\u201cIt also implies giving preferential treatment to the smallest countries,\u201d Arauz added. \u201cThe leadership of President Lula is crucial to join together the countries with distinct ideological orientations.\u201d\nIn the article, the Ecuadorian economist proposed another idea:\u00a0creating a \u201cmassive program of student exchange,\u201d so that \u201cthe youth of Latin American public education are able to study a semester or a year in another country in the region.\u201d\nThe goal should be \u201ca million youths in student exchange in\u201d 2023, Arauz wrote. \u201cThis will be the motor of integration.\u201d\nHe called for forms of cultural integration as well, proposing a regional contest inviting musicians, writers, and poets to make a hymn for UNASUR.\nArauz concluded the blueprint suggesting\u00a0that Lula should create a \u201cplenipotentiary ambassador for regional integration.\u201d\nThe Ecuadorian leftist leader made it clear that he has major ambitions for the region.\nIt\u2019s not enough for Latin America only to unite, Arauz argued. It needs more representation in international institutions.\n\u201cThe countries of UNASUR should demand a collective position at the table of the G20, which the African Union is about to obtain,\u201d he wrote.\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Brazil\u2019s Lula travels to China and calls to end US dollar dominance. 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, BRIC, BRICS, China, de-dollarization, Dilma Rousseff, economics, iron, Jair Bolsonaro, Lava Jato, Lula da Silva, NDB, New Development Bank, oil, Operation Car Wash, trade, Xi Jinping", "output": "Brazil\u2019s President Lula da Silva took a historic trip to China, where he signed many cooperation agreements and pledged to challenge the dominance of the US dollar.\n\nBrazil\u2019s left-wing President Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva, known popularly as Lula, took a historic trip to China this April.\nThere, the two countries deepened their comprehensive strategic partnership, signing 15 agreements involving trade, scientific research, technology, renewable energy, agriculture, meat production, finance, the digital economy, communications, the media, the fight against poverty and hunger, and even the joint development of satellites and space cooperation.\nChina pledged investments estimated at around $50 billion Brazilian reais. Symbolically, under one of the deals, a Brazilian factory previously run by US automaker Ford will instead by operated by the Chinese electric car manufacturer BYD.\nLula\u2019s meeting with President Xi Jinping in Beijing came just weeks after China and Brazil reached a deal to use their local currencies in bilateral trade, excluding the US dollar.\nWhile visiting China, Lula made it clear that de-dollarization is a top priority for his country.\n\u201cEvery night I ask myself why all countries have to base their trade on the dollar\u201d, Lula said, according to a report in the Financial Times.\n\u201cWhy can\u2019t we do trade based on our own currencies?\u201d the Brazilian leader asked. \u201cWho was it that decided that the dollar was the currency after the disappearance of the gold standard?\u201d\n\nMany US politicians were outraged by the historic de-dollarization agreement between China and Brazil.\nNeoconservative\u00a0Republican Senator Marco Rubio fumed on Fox News:\nToday, Brazil \u2013 in our hemisphere, the largest country in the western hemisphere south of us \u2013 cut a trade deal with China. They\u2019re going to, from now on, do trade in their own currencies, and get right around the dollar.\nThey\u2019re creating a secondary economy in the world, totally independent of the United States.\nWe won\u2019t have to talk sanctions in five years, because there will be so many countries transacting in currencies other than the dollar, that we won\u2019t have the ability to sanction them.\nChina and Brazil signed an agreement to de-dollarize their trade and use local currencies.\nUS politicians like\u00a0Republican Senator Marco Rubio are furious, because it means they can no longer destroy countries' economies with illegal sanctions.\nMore here: https://t.co/9IO1KsEVMo pic.twitter.com/4k8H3GLdqo\n\u2014 Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) April 16, 2023\n\nLula, now in his third term as president, was unfazed by the criticism in Washington.\nThe Brazilian leftist leader has already publicly pledged to create a new currency for trade in Latin America. He stated clearly that the goal is to weaken the region\u2019s \u201cdependence on the US dollar\u201d.\nBrazil and Argentina preparing new Latin American currency to \u2018reduce reliance on US dollar\u2019\n\n\u201cWho decided that our currencies were weak, that they didn\u2019t have value in other countries?\u201d Lula asked while in China.\n\u201cWhy can\u2019t a bank like that of the BRICS have a currency to finance trade relations between Brazil and China, between Brazil and other countries?\u201d he continued. \u201cIt\u2019s difficult because we are unaccustomed [to the idea]. Everyone depends on just one currency\u201d.\nLula made these remarks criticizing US dollar hegemony in a speech for the New Development Bank (NDB), the financial institution birthed by the BRICS bloc of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.\nLula was one of the creators of the BRICS, back when it was previously just the BRIC. He\u00a0co-founded the group during his first two terms in office, which ran from the beginning of 2003 to the end of 2010.\nThe leftist Brazilian president has been an outspoken advocate for a multipolar world.\nLula among the founding members of the BRIC\nThe NDB was meant as an alternative to the US-dominated World Bank, which is notorious for imposing devastating austerity measures and neoliberal economic reforms on countries in the Global South.\nOn April 12,\u00a0Lula flew into Shanghai, where the NDB is located. He was the first foreign head of state to visit the BRICS bank\u2019s headquarters.\nThere, Lula was greeted by his successor, Brazil\u2019s former President Dilma Rousseff, a fellow member of the left-wing Workers\u2019 Party.\nDilma is now president of the New Development Bank. There, she has pledged to use the institution to fund high-quality \u201csustainable development\u201d to fight climate change and \u201cpromote social inclusion\u201d.\nDilma said the NDB plans to finance \u201ccritical and strategic infrastructure projects\u201d like ports, airports, and highways, as well as \u201cmore modern models of transportation\u201d, such as high-speed trains, in underdeveloped countries in the Global South.\nUm grande dia para o Brasil e os Brics. Participando da posse da querida amiga @dilmabr como presidenta do Novo Banco de Desenvolvimento.\n?: @ricardostuckert pic.twitter.com/u6fAiCVFbd\n\u2014 Lula (@LulaOficial) April 13, 2023\n\nLula\u2019s trip to China was his first state visit outside of the Americas in his third term.\nThe Brazilian president traveled to the United States in February, but only for one day. In contrast, Lula spent four days in China \u2013 a symbol of how important their alliance is.\n\u201cNo one will prohibit Brazil from improving its relationship with China\u201d, Lula said during his trip, in a clear message to the United States.\nLula also visited the research center of China\u2019s tech giant Huawei, which has been unilaterally sanctioned by the US \u2013 another message to Washington.\nBrazilian\u2019s Minister of Finance Fernando Haddad, who joined Lula in China, explained that their goal is \u201creindustrializing Brazil in partnership with Chinese capital\u201d.\nReporting on the historic trip,\u00a0S&P Global Market Intelligence noted (emphasis added):\nThe 20 new agreements have a broad scope, indicating that the Lula administration is looking to prioritize deepening economic ties with China. Lula\u2019s visit to mainland China, which was postponed due to illness, had been planned to last five days and would have included a delegation of around 200 business representatives, compared with the one day that Lula spent in the United States in February, with no clear agreements reached.\n\nWhen Lula ended his second term at the end of 2010, he was one of the most popular leaders in world history, with a staggering 87% approval rating.\nLula and his successor Dilma transformed the country. In a speech in China, Lula boasted that their Workers\u2019 Party-led governments helped lift 36 million Brazilians out of extreme poverty, taking Brazil off of the UN Hunger Map for the first time in history.\nIn 2002, the year before Lula entered office,\u00a0Brazil\u2019s GDP PPP was $1.72 trillion; when he left, it was $2.8 trillion.\nToday, Brazil has the eighth-biggest economy on Earth, when measured with purchasing power parity (PPP). It is even bigger than the economies of France and Britain.\nWhen Lula was previously president, Brazil had become the sixth largest, but following a US-backed political coup, Brazil\u2019s economy suffered from years of right-wing rule and aggressive neoliberal policies that devastated the country and fueled deindustrialization.\nThe biggest economies in the world by GDP (PPP), according to 2023 IMF data\nChina has the world\u2019s largest economy, when measured with purchasing power parity. It is also among the top two most populous countries (India\u2019s population is expected to overtake China\u2019s in 2023).\nFor its part,\u00a0Brazil is the most populous country in Latin America, and the seventh-most populous on Earth.\n\nChina has been Brazil\u2019s top trading partner since 2009. Commercial exchange between the two giants has skyrocketed in the past two decades.\nThe Brazilian government boasted that their bilateral trade increased by a staggering 21 times since Lula\u2019s first visit to China in 2004.\nIn 2022, China and Brazil did US$150.4 billion in trade. From 2021 to 2022 alone, their bilateral trade grew by 10.1%.\n\nWhat is unique about this relationship is that Brazil has a significant trade surplus with China, exporting roughly $90 billion in 2022 while importing approximately $60 billion.\nIn fact, Brazil exports three times more to China what it sells to the United States. (Brazil has a trade deficit with the US.)\n\nBrazil is a commodities powerhouse.\nThe South American nation is the world\u2019s second-biggest exporter of iron ore.\nBrazil is also among the top 10 biggest oil producers. As of 2021, it produced more oil even than Iran, representing roughly 4% of global output.\n\nUnder the rule of the Workers\u2019 Party, Brazil had established itself as the sixth-largest economy on Earth.\nBut years of US meddling pushed the South American giant into recession and stagnation.\nA huge drop in commodities prices in 2014 caused significant economic problems. This crash was intentionally pushed by the United States, which massively expanded its own shale production while pressuring Saudi Arabia to overproduce oil to collapse crude prices on the global market, in an effort to hurt the economies of major oil producers Russia, Iran, and Venezuela.\n\u2018Oil war\u2019: How US and Saudi crashed crude prices to hurt Russia, Iran, Venezuela in 2014\n\nDilma governed from 2011 until 2016, when she was overthrown in a political coup backed by the United States, impeached on an absurd budgetary technicality that far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro regularly engaged in.\nLula was subsequently imprisoned in 2018, on fraudulent charges overseen by the corrupt judge Sergio Moro, as part of the lawfare (judicial warfare) campaign known as Lava Jato (Operation Car Wash), which was closely supported by the US Justice Department and State Department.\nBrazil\u2019s top court later dropped all charges against Lula. Even the United Nations Human Rights Committee determined that Lula\u2019s civil rights and due process guarantees had been violated.\n\nBut the imprisonment of Lula on false pretenses, under Washington\u2019s watch, essentially handed the 2018 election to the fascistic Bolsonaro, who openly praised Brazil\u2019s previous extreme-right, US-backed dictatorship, as well as the fascist junta of Augusto Pinochet in Chile.\nBolsonaro rewarded Moro, the judge who jailed Lula, by appointing him as his \u201csuper justice minister\u201d. Bolsonaro and Moro then promptly visited CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, to thank the notorious US spy agency.\nThe US supported the soft coup against Brazil's President Dilma in 2016\nThen Lula was imprisoned on fake charges before the 2018 election\nLula was sentenced by corrupt judge and US asset Sergio Moro\nBolsonaro and Moro then visited CIA headquartershttps://t.co/FY8bV1Bebr\n\u2014 Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) January 2, 2023\n\nUnder Bolsonaro, Brazil\u2019s foreign policy was totally subordinated to Washington. He eagerly recognized US-appointed coup leader Juan Guaid\u00f3 as the so-called \u201cinterim president\u201d of Venezuela, and even supported cross-border terror attacks on the country\u2019s leftist Chavista government.\nDonald Trump\u2019s former CIA director turned secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, admitted that Washington tried to use Bolsonaro and his far-right counterpart in India, Narendra Modi, to divide and destabilize the BRICS system.\nRemember BRICS? Well, thanks to @jairbolsonaro and @narendramodi the B and the I both get that the C and the R are threats to their people. pic.twitter.com/JwL8E0uJte\n\u2014 Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) January 19, 2021\n\nThe geopolitically motivated 2014 commodities crash, US-backed political coups in 2016 and 2018, and six subsequent years of right-wing rule devastated Brazil\u2019s economy.\nBrazil-based journalist Brian Mier also explained to Geopolitical Economy Report that \u201cLava Jato sabotaged the economy, causing a 2.5% drop in GDP by paralyzing and bankrupting Brazil\u2019s five largest construction and engineering companies\u201d.\nHe pointed to studies that found that the US-backed Lava Jato lawfare led to the loss of 4.4 million jobs.\n\u201cLula and Dilma had quintupled the foreign reserves, and Brazil was prepared for a commodities bust cycle, so Lava Jato had a bigger effect on the recession than the commodities bust\u201d, Mier said.\nAll of this led to\u00a0what was essentially a lost decade. The country is only recovering today.\n\nOn April 13, Lula met with New Development Bank officials in Shanghai. The Brazilian government published an official transcript of his remarks.\nLula recalled that the 2008 financial crash was caused by \u201cgreed\u201d and risky financial speculation. Today the crises continue, Lula noted, with large banks like Credit Suisse collapsing.\n\u201cI think the world has never needed an instrument to help in the world\u2019s development as much as it needs it now\u201d, he said of the NDB.\nIn light of this instability, the NDB offers \u201cextraordinary hope\u201d, Lula argued.\n\u201cWe have to be more concerned with serving the countries that are most in need of money\u201d, the Brazilian president said. He argued that their goal should be to \u201chelp the neediest and poorest countries\u201d.\n\u201cI hope that this bank is able to lend money for the development of the African continent. I hope that this bank is able to have money to lend to the poorest countries in Latin America\u201d, he urged.\nBom dia no Brasil! Em Xangai, participei da posse de @dilmabr como presidenta do Novo Banco de Desenvolvimento dos Brics e visitei a f\u00e1brica da Huawei.  O NBD \u00e9 uma grande iniciativa para um desenvolvimento mais equilibrado do mundo.\n?: @ricardostuckert pic.twitter.com/VhUc4qNLfr\n\u2014 Lula (@LulaOficial) April 13, 2023\n\nWhile in China, Lula tweeted:\nIt is a dream of developing countries to have an instrument that invests in their development.\nDuring the 8 years I was in the presidency, I tried to create a Bank in the South, which would allow investment in the necessary things in our region, without submitting to the rules of the IMF.\nHe added:\nThe BRICS Bank represents a lot for those who dream of a new world.\nThe dream of creating the BRICS was for an instrument of development, which will certainly be strong, with the goal of benefiting countries. If not, we will never have the poorest countries be able to develop themselves.\nIt would not be fair if we ended the 21st century as we started the 20th century, with those who were rich getting richer and those who were poor getting poorer.\nSe n\u00e3o, nunca teremos os pa\u00edses mais pobres conseguindo se desenvolver. N\u00e3o \u00e9 justo terminarmos o s\u00e9culo XXI como come\u00e7amos o s\u00e9culo XX, com quem era rico ficando mais rico e quem era pobre mais pobre.\n\u2014 Lula (@LulaOficial) April 13, 2023\n\nAs Dilma Rousseff was officially sworn in as director of the New Development Bank, Lula delivered another speech.\nHe said the NDB has potential to \u201cbecome the great bank of the Global South\u201d, praising it as a \u201ctool for reducing inequalities between rich countries and emerging countries\u201d, which could help prevent \u201csocial exclusion, hunger, extreme poverty, and forced migration\u201d.\n\u201cMany developing countries are accumulating unpayable debts\u201d, Lula warned\n\u201cThe unmet financing needs of developing countries were and remain enormous\u201d, he added.\nLula called the NDB a \u201cmilestone\u201d in South-South cooperation.\n\u201cFor the first time, a development bank with global reach was established without the participation of developed countries in its initial phase\u201d, the Brazilian leader said.\nThe NDB is \u201cfree, therefore, from the shackles of conditionalities imposed by traditional institutions on emerging economies. And more: with the possibility of financing projects in local currency\u201d, he continued.\nLula explained,\u00a0\u201cThe creation of this Bank shows that the union of emerging countries is capable of generating relevant social and economic changes for the world. We don\u2019t want to be better than anyone else. We want opportunities to expand our potential and guarantee dignity, citizenship and quality of life to our peoples\u201d.\n\u201cThe New Development Bank has great transformative potential, as it frees emerging countries from submission to traditional financial institutions, which try to govern us, without having a mandate to do so\u201d, he added.\nLula noted that, in Brazil, the NDB has helped finance infrastructure projects, income support programs, sustainable transportation, climate change adaptation, sanitation services, and renewable energies.\nReferring to the former Brazilian president affectionately as \u201ccomrade Dilma\u201d, Lula emphasized that her new global leadership role is an important accomplishment for women\u2019s representation.\nHe also noted Dilma\u2019s revolutionary struggles in the 1970s \u201cto put into practice the dream of a better world\u201d. Dilma had been part of the leftist resistance against Brazil\u2019s US-backed fascist dictatorship, and she was imprisoned and tortured.\nLula explained:\n\u201cThe time when Brazil was absent from major world decisions is in the past. We are back on the international stage, after an inexplicable absence. We have a lot to contribute to key issues of our time, such as mitigating the climate crisis and fighting hunger and inequality.\u201d\n\u201cIt is intolerable that, on a planet that produces enough food to meet the needs of all humanity, hundreds of millions of men, women and children have nothing to eat.\nIt is inadmissible that the irresponsibility and greed of a small minority put the survival of the planet and of all humanity at risk.\nBrazil is back. With the willingness to contribute again to the construction of a more developed, fairer and environmentally sustainable world.\nIn another Brazilian government statement, Lula stated:\nWe want the Brazil-China relationship to transcend the trade issue; we want to have a deep relationship in science and technology; partnerships between universities to have more Brazilian students in China, and more Chinese students in Brazil.\nWe count on China in our fight for the preservation of planet earth, defending a healthier climate policy. That is why an energy transition is extremely important, so that we can produce cleaner energy, especially wind, solar, and biomass energy.\nBrazil is committed to achieving, by 2030, zero deforestation in the Amazon, and to making our contribution to preserving the planet.\nWe are convinced that the development of Brazilian agriculture does not need irresponsible deforestation, let alone fires. Brazil can practically double its agricultural production by recovering degraded land, without having to cut down a single tree.\nFor his part, Chinese President Xi said:\nChina has a strategic and far-reaching relationship with Brazil, which has a place of priority in our foreign relations. You are our longtime friend.\nThe Brazil-China relationship, in healthy and stable development, will play an important role for peace, stability, and mutual development, for both countries and the world.\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: China deepens ties with Venezuela, challenging US \u2018hegemonic mindset\u2019. 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": "BRICS, China, gas, Iran, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, oil, sanctions, Venezuela, Xi Jinping", "output": "Condemning Washington\u2019s \u201chegemonic mindset\u201d and sanctions, China strengthened its strategic partnership with Venezuela. The oil-rich South American nation\u2019s President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro took a historic trip to Beijing, and applied to join BRICS.\n\nVenezuela\u2019s President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro took a historic trip to China this September. There, the two nations signed 31 comprehensive agreements and formally \u201cupgraded\u201d their relations to an \u201call-weather strategic partnership\u201d, one of Beijing\u2019s highest designations.\nChina and Venezuela jointly blasted the \u201chegemonism\u201d of the Western powers. Beijing formally condemned the illegal sanctions that Washington has imposed on Caracas.\nChinese President Xi Jinping emphasized this his government will \u201cfirmly support\u201d Venezuela\u2019s \u201cjust cause against external interference\u201d.\n\nThe global political and economic order is changing rapidly.\nOne of the biggest shifts the world has seen in the past 20 years is in relations between China and Latin America.\nAt the beginning of the 21st century, there was not much trade between China and Latin America. But in the past two decades, their economic relations have skyrocketed.\nToday, China is the second-largest trading partner of the region, after the United States. There are nine countries in Latin America that trade more with China than any other nation. (The United States is Mexico\u2019s biggest trading partner, and Mexico has the second-biggest economy in Latin America. But if Mexico is excluded from the data, China becomes Latin America\u2019s top trading partner.)\nAmong the Latin American nations that already trade more with China than the United States are the largest economy in the region, Brazil; as well as the third biggest, Argentina; along with one of the world\u2019s top lithium producers, Bolivia; the second-largest copper producer, Peru; and the country with the biggest known oil reserves: Venezuela.\n\nVenezuela has a lot of economic potential, but has suffered for years under a brutal economic war waged by the United States.\nIn 2019, the Donald Trump administration launched a coup attempt. Washington claimed a little-known right-wing opposition politician, Juan Guaid\u00f3, was the supposed \u201cinterim president\u201d of the country, despite the fact that he had never participated in a presidential election.\nThe United States pressured countries around the world to recognize Guaid\u00f3 as the supposed leader of Venezuela.\nAt the same time, the United States imposed upon Venezuela one of the most grueling sanctions regimes in history.\nWashington\u2019s goal was clear: to destroy Venezuela\u2019s oil sector, thus starving the leftist government of revenue and leading to its overthrow.\n\nFor a century, ever since oil was discovered in Venezuela, the South American nation\u2019s economy has been extremely reliant on one industry: oil.\nThis over-dependency is a problem that predates the Bolivarian Revolution declared by revolutionary socialist President Hugo Ch\u00e1vez at the turn of the 21st century.\nLong before Ch\u00e1vez was born, Venezuela has been a petrostate. The government has historically relied on exporting oil to get revenue to fund social programs. This was the case even when the state was controlled by right-wing political parties.\nThe US sanctions on Venezuela began in 2015, when the Barack Obama White House issued a bizarre executive order \u201cdeclaring a national emergency with respect to the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States posed by the situation in Venezuela\u201d.\nWhen Trump entered office in 2017, he drastically escalated the economic war on Venezuela that Obama had started into a full-on embargo (like the blockade Washington has illegally imposed on Cuba for more than six decades).\nUS sanctions have devastated the Venezuelan economy. According to the top United Nations expert on the issue, special rapporteur Alena Douhan, Washington\u2019s unilateral coercive measures, which are illegal under international law, resulted in the Venezuelan government losing 99% of its revenue.\nIndependent experts have reported that US sanctions have caused at least tens of thousands of civilian deaths in Venezuela, perhaps more than 100,000.\n\nWhile it is widely known that\u00a0Venezuela has the world\u2019s largest oil reserves, what is much less known is that the South American nation\u2019s crude is very heavy.\nVenezuela\u2019s oil needs a lot more processing than the lighter crude of other countries. It must be diluted, blended with lighter crude or liquids like naphtha.\nUS sanctions have aimed expressly at trying to prevent Venezuela from importing the diluents it needs to process its oil. This was yet another part of Washington\u2019s strategy to destroy Venezuelan oil production, to starve the government of revenue.\n\nHowever, the numerous US coup attempts have failed. Still today, Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro is firmly in power. He continues the legacy of the Bolivarian Revolution that was initiated by his predecessor, Ch\u00e1vez.\nMaduro is also deepening Caracas\u2019 alliance with Beijing.\nThis September, the Venezuelan leader took a seven-day trip to China, which both Beijing and Caracas described as \u201chistoric\u201d.\nMaduro met with Chinese President Xi Jinping and signed 31 comprehensive agreements, involving collaboration in a wide array of areas, including economic integration and trade, geology and mining, health, technology transfer, construction of public housing, energy, infrastructure, telecommunications, and even outer space.\nDuring Maduro\u2019s trip, Xi also announced that China had \u201celevated\u201d its diplomatic relationship with Venezuela.\nBeijing previously considered its ties with Caracas to be part of a \u201ccomprehensive strategic partnership\u201d. Now, China calls it an \u201call-weather strategic partnership\u201d.\nThis means that Venezuela is among China\u2019s closest allies, at the same level as Pakistan, which is one of China\u2019s neighbors and plays an important role in the Belt and Road Initiative, Beijing\u2019s global infrastructure project.\nIn his remarks upon meeting with Maduro, President Xi said that \u201cChina will continue to firmly support Venezuela\u2019s efforts to safeguard national sovereignty, dignity and social stability, as well as its just cause against external interference\u201d.\nChina and Venezuela released a joint statement calling to \u201coppose all forms of hegemonism and power politics, oppose all forms of unilateralism\u201d.\nBeijing-based newspaper the Global Times, which is close to the government, described Maduro\u2019s trip writing: \u201cThe further consolidation and elevation of bilateral relations also suggests the irreversible momentum of South-South cooperation, which leads to win-win results and unity among the developing world rather than certain Western countries wrestling for power out of a hegemonic mindset\u201d.\nFor his part, Maduro said the two nations\u2019 growing relations are part of a \u201cnew era\u201d. He added, \u201cWe have a relation of deep friendship, of successful cooperation. Our relations have been a model for the Global South\u201d.\nThe Venezuelan president added that China has been the \u201cgreat motor of development in a new era of a multipolar and pluricentric world\u201d.\nMaduro emphasized that the partnership between Venezuela and China is \u201cnot about dominating countries, much less taking their resources or wealth. On the contrary, we are working for the development of industry, agriculture, technology, the capacity to make jobs and satisfy the needs of the peoples. It is the century of a different world, pluripolar and pluricentric\u201d.\nLa asociaci\u00f3n estrat\u00e9gica entre Venezuela y China no es para ir contra nadie, ni dominar pa\u00edses, ni mucho menos para quitarle los recursos o riquezas a las naciones. \u00a1Al contrario! Trabajamos para desarrollar la industria, la agricultura, la tecnolog\u00eda, la capacidad de generaci\u00f3n\u2026 pic.twitter.com/hduaDl9IBa\n\u2014 Nicol\u00e1s Maduro (@NicolasMaduro) September 14, 2023\n\nChina has the world\u2019s largest economy, when its GDP is measured at purchasing power parity.\nChina is also the world\u2019s biggest importer of both oil and gas. It needs stable, reliable energy partners, particularly as Washington pressures countries to minimize their relations with Beijing.\nVenezuela not only has massive oil reserves, but also very significant gas deposits.\nBP reported in 2021 that Venezuela has proven gas reserves amounting to a staggering 6.3 trillion cubic meters, larger than those in Saudi Arabia (6 trillion), the United Arab Emirates (5.9 trillion), and Iraq (3.5 trillion).\nIn recent years, the Venezuelan government has slowly expanded exploration, looking for more gas fields.\nChina is slowly trying to end its reliance on fossil fuels. Beijing recognizes that climate change is a very serious threat, not only to the planet, but to its own national security.\nIn fact,\u00a0China is the world\u2019s leader in renewable energy, representing more than 80% of global clean energy manufacturing investment.\nBeijing is on the path to install more solar panels in 2023 than the United States has installed in the history of the technology.\nBut, in the short- to medium-term, China still needs a lot of oil and gas, and Venezuela is a natural energy partner, with a government that Beijing can rely on not to betray it and ally with Washington.\nChina installed 96.6 GW of solar power capacity in 2022: 42% of the entire planet (231 GW)\nChina had a total of 462 GW of solar photovoltaic (PV) power installed as of 2022: 37.5% of the global total of 1233 GW\nChina has more solar power installed than these countries COMBINED:\u2026 pic.twitter.com/tL81uR0nOZ\n\u2014 Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) July 18, 2023\n\nMaduro\u2019s trip to China came just a few weeks after a historic summit of the BRICS, in which the bloc founded by Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa formally invited six countries to become new members: Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran,\u00a0Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.\nVenezuela has formally applied to join the extended BRICS+ bloc as well.\nChina has publicly endorsed Venezuela for membership. Brazil, under President Lula da Silva, has also made it clear that it supports Venezuela joining BRICS.\nThe fact that Iran is now integrating into the bloc shows that countries in the Global South are increasingly willing to challenge the illegal unilateral sanctions imposed by the United States.\nIn fact, in July, Iran also became a full member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, an important institution for security policy in Eurasia. Other members include China, Russia, India, Pakistan, and numerous Central Asian nations.\nChina has deepened its alliance with Venezuela mere months after helping to broker a historic peace breakthrough between Iran and Saudi Arabia.\nFor decades, the United States pressured Riyadh to wage a proxy war against Tehran, in hopes of weakening and eventually toppling Iran\u2019s post-revolutionary government.\nToday, Iran and Saudi Arabia certainly are not allies, but they have normal diplomatic relations and will work alongside each other members of BRICS.\nDevelopments like these show that, while the United States wages wars and seeks to overthrow governments across the planet, China encourages peace, diplomacy, and stability, in the name of \u201cwin-win cooperation\u201d and mutually beneficial economic development.\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Corruption exposed: US meddled in Ecuador\u2019s election, using Julian Assange as bargaining chip. 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": "Carlos Pareja Yannuzzelli, Corre\u00edsmo, Ecuador, Fernando Villavicencio, Julian Assange, Len\u00edn Moreno, Rafael Correa, WikiLeaks", "output": "A former minister of Ecuador testified that the US government conspired with a right-wing political party to run a disinformation campaign against the leftist Corre\u00edsta movement, backing a millionaire banker for president in exchange for giving up journalist Julian Assange, who had asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy.\n\nEcuador\u2019s former energy minister testified that the US government conspired with a right-wing political party to run a disinformation campaign against the leftist Corre\u00edsta movement of ex President Rafael Correa.\nHe said that US \u201cfederal agents\u201d pledged to help \u201cinfluence\u201d the 2017 presidential elections and support the candidacy of conservative millionaire banker Guillermo Lasso in exchange for the promise to turn over journalist Julian Assange, who had been given asylum by Correa and was stuck living for years in Ecuador\u2019s embassy in London.\n\nThe former energy minister, Carlos Pareja Yannuzzelli, had fled a corruption investigation in Ecuador and was living as a fugitive from justice in the United States in late 2016 when he was offered large sums of money and US government protection in return for reading a carefully prepared \u201cscript\u201d that made false accusations of corruption against Correa and his Vice President Jorge Glas, who was later imprisoned on highly dubious charges.\nPareja testified that the federal agents also coerced him into making false accusations against a US citizen, so they could justify their involvement in the Ecuadorian case. This led to the US national being arrested and imprisoned for three-and-a-half years.\nLasso ended up losing the 2017 election (before going on to win the 2021 election), but his victorious opponent, Len\u00edn Moreno, later betrayed Assange anyway, letting British authorities raid the embassy, imprison the WikiLeaks journalist, and prepare to extradite him to the United States.\nEcuador\u2019s former energy minister, Carlos Pareja Yannuzzelli, in 2016\nThe revelation of this extraordinary example of Washington meddling in another country\u2019s election came from one of the top officials in Ecuador\u2019s oil industry.\nCarlos Pareja Yannuzzelli had served as head of the state-owned oil company Petroecuador, and later became Correa\u2019s minister of hydrocarbons.\nIn 2016, Pareja was named in the Panama Papers leak of offshore bank accounts, and he was forced to step down as energy minister. In 2017, he was sentenced to several years in prison on charges that he used his position in the state oil industry to enrich himself and his friends.\nThe name Carlos Pareja Yannuzzelli has become practically synonymous with corruption in Ecuador, so much so that he is commonly referred to as \u201cCapaya\u201d (an abbreviation of his name).\nOn November 9, 2022, Correa published on Twitter a written testimony that Pareja had provided from prison in May 2019. The affidavit, which is signed by Pareja and includes his thumbprint, exposes the scandalous US government-backed plot to meddle in Ecuador\u2019s 2017 presidential elections to hurt the left wing.\nLa \u00fanica organizaci\u00f3n criminal que se puede probar es entre Villavicencio y Pareja.\u00bfTambi\u00e9n en esta ocasi\u00f3n Villavicencio le pas\u00f3 los guiones??#LosCorruptosSiempreFueronEllos pic.twitter.com/FEbUwsZdlj\n\u2014 Rafael Correa (@MashiRafael) November 10, 2022\n\nRafael Correa shared the scandalous 2019 testimony in response to evidence-free accusations of corruption that Pareja Yannuzzelli made against the former president in a politicized hearing organized by the National Assembly\u2019s auditing committee on November 9, 2022.\nThis committee is run by Fernando Villavicencio, a notorious right-wing Ecuadorian political operative who is closely linked to US intelligence agencies.\nToday Villavicencio is a member of the National Assembly, but he first made his name as a high-profile opposition activist during Correa\u2019s two presidential terms from 2007 to 2017.\nVillavicencio was a key figure in the lawfare (judicial warfare) campaign against Correa. He ran a viciously anti-Corre\u00edsta media outlet, which \u2013 with funding from the US government \u2013 consistently spread thinly sourced rumors of corruption about the leftist president.\nIn 2010, Villavicencio even played an important role in a failed coup attempt against Correa.\nVillavicencio enjoyed a brief moment in the limelight in 2018, when he collaborated with British newspaper The Guardian in co-authoring a highly dubious smear piece against Julian Assange.\nWikiLeaks adamantly insisted the article was false and created a legal fund to sue The Guardian.\nIn the tweet below, Villavicencio (on the right, with the glasses) boasts of working with The Guardian reporters Luke Harding and Dan Collins on the allegedly fake story:\nUna de mis mayores experiencias period\u00edsticas fue trabajar durante meses la investigaci\u00f3n sobre Assange con los colegas del diario brit\u00e1nico The Guardian, Luke Harding, Dan Collins y con la joven periodista Cristina Sol\u00f3rzano de @somos_lafuente pic.twitter.com/IQbZwAkKNx\n\u2014 Fernando Villavicencio Valencia (@VillaFernando_) December 2, 2018\n\nBy sharing Pareja\u2019s incriminating 2019 affidavit on Twitter, Correa was highlighting Villavicencio\u2019s hand behind the November 9, 2022 hearing, which clearly aimed to demonize the leftist former president and disparage Corre\u00edsmo, which still remains the most popular political movement in Ecuador.\nThe devastating May 2019 affidavit demonstrates that Carlos Pareja Yannuzzelli (Capaya),\u00a0who is still in prison on corruption charges, is a hired gun who will happily spread false claims to undermine Corre\u00edsmo.\nCapaya became a household name in Ecuador back in 2016, when he was serving as minister of hydrocarbons. In April of that year, international media outlets published the Panama Papers, a massive leak of information about offshore bank accounts.\nPareja Yannuzzelli\u2019s name appeared in the Panama Papers, setting off a scandal in Ecuador. Correa was still president at the time, and in May, Capaya was forced to resign and was replaced\u00a0with a new energy minister.\nThe Correa government immediately began investigating Capaya\u2019s web of corruption, and found his family had stashed millions of dollars in bank accounts in Panama.\nYet while he was being investigated, Capaya managed to flee Ecuador in September.\nCapaya opened his testimony noting that, by December 2016, he \u201cwas in the United States in a complicated situation.\u201d\nWhile in Miami, Florida, the Ecuadorian fugitive from justice was contacted by C\u00e9sar Monge Ortega, the president of the right-wing political party CREO.\nEcuador\u2019s current president, the conservative multimillionaire banker Guillermo Lasso, is a leader of CREO. Monge was one of Lasso\u2019s closest allies, referred to in the Ecuadorian media as \u201cthe right hand of Guillermo Lasso.\u201d He served as the president\u2019s minister of government until Monge died from cancer in July 2021.\nEcuador\u2019s minister of government and former CREO leader, C\u00e9sar Monge Ortega, before his death in May 2021\nBack in 2016, Monge asked Capaya to join a smear campaign against the presidential candidate who would represent the leftist Alianza Pa\u00eds party in the upcoming 2017 elections, Correa\u2019s former Vice President Len\u00edn Moreno.\n\u201cHe offered me an important sum of money and federal North American protection,\u201d Capaya wrote.\nAt the time it was widely assumed, even by Correa himself, that Moreno would continue his socialist political program.\nMoreno did run on a left-wing presidential campaign, but after entering office, he did a political 180. Moreno turned hard to the right, repressing, imprisoning, and exiling Corre\u00edsta politicians.\nHe also stabbed Julian Assange in the back, reversing Correa\u2019s pledge to protect the WikiLeaks publisher. The Moreno government had given the Australian journalist Ecuadorian citizenship in 2017, but in April 2019 it issued a \u201ctemporary suspension\u201d of Assange\u2019s new nationality \u2013 an action that Ecuadorian experts say had no legal basis.\nThen, Moreno even let British authorities violate his own country\u2019s sovereignty by storming the embassy \u2013 which constitutes Ecuadorian territory under the Vienna Convention in international law \u2013 in order to arrest Assange.\nCorre\u00edsta politicians have alleged that Moreno was bribed and/or blackmailed by the US government, as he obediently fulfilled all of Washington\u2019s foreign-policy goals, collaborating closely with the Donald Trump administration, removing Ecuador from the Bolivarian Alliance (ALBA) and Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), and even recognizing US-appointed coup leader Juan Guaid\u00f3 in Venezuela.\nHoy habl\u00e9 con el Presidente @Lenin Moreno: #Ecuador respalda la necesidad de conformar un Gobierno de Emergencia Nacional en Venezuela para salvar a nuestra gente.\nAbordamos tambi\u00e9n la situaci\u00f3n de nuestros migrantes en ese pa\u00eds y las acciones que estamos tomando para apoyarlos. pic.twitter.com/zqdWFIxzDD\n\u2014 Juan Guaid\u00f3 (@jguaido) May 20, 2020\n\nFew people would have expected back during Ecuador\u2019s presidential election in 2017 that Moreno would go on to govern like this. The country\u2019s right-wing opposition was concerned that Len\u00edn Moreno (who, after all, was named after the Russian revolutionary) would continue Correa\u2019s leftist program.\nSo in December 2016, C\u00e9sar Monge Ortega, the leader of Lasso\u2019s right-wing CREO party, tried to recruit Carlos Pareja Yannuzzelli (Capaya) for the disinformation campaign against Correa, Moreno, and their Alianza Pa\u00eds party.\nCapaya wrote in his 2019 testimony that he initially declined the offer, but that Monge was persistent.\n\u201cMonge insisted to me that I could contact North American federal agents that were working with CREO for a long time, and they would provide me with protection and stability in the United States,\u201d Capaya said.\n\u201cHe assured me that the American Democratic Party was committed to backing Lasso\u2019s presidential candidacy in exchange for Julian Assange, to expose his link with the current president of the United States,\u201d Capaya continued.\nThis comment suggests that Democratic Party leadership had been convinced that US President Donald Trump was somehow connected to Assange, a baseless conspiracy theory that was fueled by Fernando Villavicencio\u2019s extremely questionable report in The Guardian.\nCapaya went on: \u201cFinally, one day Monge visited me with [US] federal agents and together they guaranteed me protection in the United States in exchange for my participation in the smear campaign against Alianza Pa\u00eds in order to influence the presidential elections in Ecuador in 2017.\u201d\nEcuador\u2019s current president, Guillermo Lasso\nCapaya said that, after this in-person meeting with the US federal agents, he accepted their offer.\nHis role was to make outlandish accusations Correa (who was still president at the time), his government, and his party.\n\u201cThey gave me a script created and prepared by Fernando Villavicencio, who according to Monge had been contracted by the party CREO,\u201d Capaya said.\nHe continued:\u00a0\u201cThey told me that in order for there to be an agreement, I had to follow the script to a T. To this end, we met various times in Miami between December 2016 and January 2017. These videos subsequently were made public on social media after February 2017.\u201d\nCapaya stressed that \u201ca big part of the script\u201d was dedicated to accusing Correa and his other Vice President Jorge Glas of corruption.\n\u201cThey made me name third parties that I don\u2019t know,\u201d Capaya recalled. He wrote that the US \u201cfederal agents\u201d heavily pressured him to name people such as Frank Roberto Chatburn Ripalda, a Miami-based financial advisor with dual US and Ecuadorian citizenship.\n\u201cDespite that I told them on more than one occasion that I never had any relation with him and that he was not being investigated or processed in Ecuador, they expressly told me that in order for there to be an agreement it was required to mention Chatburn, because he had US nationality and with that the federal agents could justify their participation and initiate actions against him in the United States,\u201d Capaya said.\nThe US Justice Department subsequently charged Chatburn with money laundering and imprisoned him for three-and-a-half years.\nChatburn was not the only one who ended up burned by Washington.\nCapaya concluded his testimony lamenting that Monge, his CREO party, and the US federal agents later abandoned him when Moreno won the presidential election.\nThey failed to fulfill their side of the promise. Capaya was later captured in Ecuador, and put behind bars, where he remains today.\nYet the scandal goes even deeper. Monge was not the only right-wing opposition figures whom Capaya was conspiring with.\nAs a fugitive from justice living in Miami in late 2016 and early 2017, Capaya also met with right-wing multimillionaire bankers from Ecuador\u2019s notorious Isa\u00edas family.\nThe Isa\u00edas Brothers, William and Roberto, are\u00a0ferociously anti-Correa oligarchs who fled their country of birth and moved to the United States, with millions of dollars of stolen money, during Ecuador\u2019s economic crash of 1998 and 1999.\nThis massive crisis, known as the infamous \u201cferiado bancario,\u201d bankrupted millions of working-class Ecuadorians, depleting their savings by devaluing the national currency, the sucre, with runaway hyperinflation.\nThe banker who helped cause this meltdown had been affectionately known as Ecuador\u2019s \u201csuper minister of the economy,\u201d and had been lauded by the international financial press: none other than Guillermo Lasso, an ardent neoliberal Chicago Boy who now serves as president.\nLasso and his banker friends, who had held their illicit wealth in dollars, became millionaires thanks to the feriado bancario. Meanwhile, the sucre became so worthless that Ecuador surrendered its monetary sovereignty and adopted the US dollar as its official currency. This remains the case today.\nFrom Miami, the Isa\u00edas Brothers have also used their stolen money to fund the campaigns of US politicians \u2013 both Republicans and Democrats \u2013 including Senators Marco Rubio and Bob Menendez, Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, and even former President Barack Obama.\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Brazil\u2019s ex-president Dilma Rousseff: US-China conflict is neoliberalism vs socialism. 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, BRICS, China, Dilma Rousseff, economics, neoliberalism, Russia, Ukraine", "output": "Former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff analyzes the US-China conflict as \u201ca rivalry of two systems,\u201d a struggle between neoliberalism and socialism. Condemning US sanctions and \u201cdollar hegemony,\u201d she called for Latin America \u201cto break with the Monroe Doctrine.\u201d\n\nBrazil\u2019s former president Dilma Rousseff has condemned US meddling and \u201chybrid war\u201d in Latin America, while simultaneously praising China for creating a new model of economic development that challenges US-led neoliberal capitalism and the \u201cWashington Consensus\u201d imposed on the world.\n\u201cWe want, basically, to be able to break with the Monroe Doctrine,\u201d Rousseff said, referring to the nearly 200-year-old colonial doctrine in which the US government claims Latin America as its geopolitical \u201cbackyard.\u201d\n\u201cWe want Latin America to be for the Latin Americans, and not as the US wants it, in the Monroe Doctrine, which means Latin America for the North Americans, precisely the opposite,\u201d the former Brazilian head of state added.\n\u201cThe so-called hybrid war unleashed by the US through second-generation coups, lawfare processes, and sanctions against Cuba and Venezuela led to a great setback, returning to the continent the inequality, misery, and hunger that had been overcome, or that it was about to get over,\u201d she lamented.\nA leader of the left-wing Workers\u2019 Party,\u00a0Rousseff served as president of Brazil from 2011 until August 2016, when she was overthrown in a soft coup backed by the US government and her country\u2019s powerful right-wing corporate oligarchy.\nRousseff spoke about the increasing conflict between the United States and China not as a mere interstate dispute, but rather the result of \u201ca rivalry of two systems\u201d: US-led neoliberal capitalism versus socialism with Chinese characteristics.\n\u201cThe so-called Washington Consensus, a concept adopted by conservative Latin American governments, imposed the deregulation of the economy, the drastic reduction of the role of the state, and the abandonment of social and development policies,\u201d she said.\nThese neoliberal capitalists \u201ccondemned Latin America to be the most unequal continent in the world, with reduced economic growth, concentration of wealth and income, and specialization in the production of raw materials,\u201d Rousseff commented.\nThe former Brazilian president praised China for creating a \u201cnew development paradigm\u201d based on \u201cshared development\u201d and \u201ccommon prosperity.\u201d\nChina and Russia are also leading the development of a \u201cnew geopolitical pole,\u201d she said, and this offers opportunities for Latin America to be more independent.\nRousseff made these comments in a panel event on March 19, a virtual conference titled \u201c21st Century Socialism: China and Latin America on the Frontline,\u201d organized by the group Friends of Socialist China.\nGeopolitical Economy Report obtained a copy of Rousseff\u2019s Portuguese-language prepared speech, and has translated some of her key points into English below.\n\n\u201cBrazil always had a position of absolute independence with regard to international relations, with all countries in the world,\u201d Dilma Rousseff emphasized at the beginning of her talk.\n\u201cLatin America wants to have an autonomous and independent position,\u201d she said. \u201cIt is not possible to continue reproducing the inferiority complex of the conservative elites and oligarchies that have done nothing but submit to the United States in a shameful way.\u201d\nRousseff argued that China has played an important role in balancing Latin America\u2019s political and economic relationships, so the region is not so dominated by Washington. In this sense, Beijing has helped the region maintain independence and strategic autonomy.\nChina is Brazil\u2019s largest trade partner, and the largest trade partner for many other countries in the region, she noted.\n\u201cLatin America\u2019s position is not with the United States,\u201d she stressed. \u201cLatin America\u2019s position affirms sovereignty, our position is independence, at the side of China. And this independence is not just for individual countries; it\u2019s for the region.\u201d\nRousseff emphasized the importance of institutions like the BRICS, the framework integrating\u00a0Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.\nThe BRICS \u201csought to reduce this unfair asymmetry\u201d represented by institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank, which are dominated by the United States and Global North countries, she noted.\n\u201cCompared to the US, China has more respect for the role played by international organizations,\u201d Rousseff added. Beijing defends multilateralism while Washington has attacked the United Nations and withdrew unilaterally from the Paris Agreement, she recalled.\nUnlike the United States, Rousseff argued, China has been a more equitable partner. And leaders in the Global South are increasingly looking to Beijing for lessons on how to develop their own countries.\nDilma Rousseff applauded China for its \u201cextraordinary development,\u201d and for lifting more than 800 million people out of absolute poverty.\nShe noted how China was an exemplary model for managing the Covid-19 pandemic, juxtaposing it against the public health disaster in the United States, where nearly 1 million people have died.\nChina\u2019s success in the pandemic, and its leading role in sending vaccines and protective equipment around the world, reflects its relative rise, whereas Washington\u2019s failure shows its comparative decline, Rousseff argued.\nThe former Brazilian president traced the beginning of Washington\u2019s new cold war on Beijing back to the 2008 financial crisis. While the West was suffering, the crash did not significantly affect China, Rousseff noted. This led US elites to decide that China had to be contained; its economy had to stop growing so rapidly.\nThe Barack Obama administration\u2019s attempt to create a Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) was aimed at economically isolating China, she stated.\nRousseff called this part of a larger US \u201ccontainment policy,\u201d and argued it is \u201cextremely flawed and harmful to everyone.\u201d\nUS policy toward China subsequently \u201cbecame very aggressive\u201d under Donald Trump, and while the Joe Biden administration has tried to portray itself as more \u201cdiplomatic,\u201d she noted, Washington has still pushed a needlessly hard line against China.\nSpeaking of the US \u201cprejudice\u201d toward China, Dilma Rousseff noted that Western politicians have espoused chauvinistic views that China, or any other nation, could not develop without adopting their own model based on the free market and liberal democracy.\nAlthough she refrained from referring to the conflict as a new cold war, the former Brazilian leader stipulated that the crisis in US-China relations is a result of their two contrasting economic systems.\n\u201cChina has become a kind of factory for the world, while the US has de-industrialized, losing economic muscle and transforming itself into a kingdom of finance, with a fantastic concentration of income and wealth.\u201d\nNeoliberalism is specifically what \u201claid the foundations for the decline of the US,\u201d Rousseff said.\nThere are three serious problems caused by neoliberalism, she argued: \u201cthe financialization of the economy, the increase in income and wealth inequality, and the erosion of democracy.\u201d And these ills \u201care prevalent in all capitalist countries.\u201d\n\u201cThe biggest problem with this system is the widening gap between rich and poor,\u201d Rousseff cautioned. She cited Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, who \u201cadmitted that 40 years of neoliberal practices have severely weakened the role of the state and public health policies, rendering the West helpless in the face of the pandemic.\u201d\n\u201cChina is accelerating its policy toward a society where equity prevails,\u201d she said, \u201cwhile in capitalist countries, including the US, per capita income has concentrated and jobs have stagnated or shrunk. Social wealth is rapidly concentrated and the richest 1% is getting even richer.\u201d\n\u201cThe financialization of the economy as a result of neoliberalism is the culprit that kills the dynamism of the capitalist system itself. Credit and finance gradually become obstacles rather than driving forces of production.\u201d\n\u201cThe pursuit of limited government, uncontrolled labor market liberalization and the pursuit of profits lead to a rapid accumulation of financial wealth for those at the top of the social pyramid and de-industrializes the economy.\u201d\nRousseff contrasted these systemic problems of neoliberal capitalism with the alternative proposed by Beijing.\n\u201cChina\u2019s strength lies in its pursuit of the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics,\u201d she argued. \u201cThis path follows the law of the market, but attaches strategic importance to the role of the state.\u201d\n\u201cThe market mechanism and macro-regulation complement each other in China. Open to domestic and foreign private investment, it has increasingly controlled the distortions of oligopoly and speculation.\u201d\nChinese \u201cregulation of economic activity acts to preserve competition and avoid financial bubbles and market distortions,\u201d while the state ensures stability with \u201ctighter control over real estate and tutorial services.\u201d\nRousseff praised China for creating a \u201cnew development paradigm\u201d based on \u201cshared development,\u201d and commended Beijing for its idea of common prosperity.\nThe United States has historically had excellent systems of education, science, and technological development, but this intellectual infrastructure has been in decline since the emergence of neoliberalism in the 1980s, and is at threat because the ultra-capitalist model has led to a massive disinvestment, Dilma Rousseff argued.\nOn the other hand, China has become the world\u2019s new leader in science and technology, thanks to its heavy public investment and state leadership, she said.\nChina\u2019s progress led Washington to launch a \u201ctechnological lockdown\u201d on Beijing, she noted, pointing to the ongoing \u201cchip war\u201d over control of semiconductors.\nThe world knows that the Chinese company Huawei has the best 5G technology, and it is also cheaper than its US competitors, Rousseff stated. But \u201cthe US tries to prevent other countries from using Chinese 5G technology, even if they don\u2019t have alternatives of their own to offer.\u201d\nMeanwhile, neoliberalism has led to technological stagnation, the former Brazilian leader stated, because \u201ccompanies only want and can only make money quickly, bringing limits to R&D activities.\u201d\nChina\u2019s historic development, economic growth, and scientific and technological advancement have created opportunities to challenge \u201cUS dollar hegemony,\u201d Dilma Rousseff argued.\n\u201cIn the financial sector, US dollar hegemony faces new challenges. As a global currency, the US dollar holds an irreplaceable position in international trade and payments. This has made the dollar a weapon of retaliation and a tool of extortion against other countries.\u201d\n\u201cHere in Latin America, we have two terrible examples: 60 years of blockade against Cuba, and now more recently the blockade on Venezuela, at a time of pandemic.\u201d\n\u201cThe US government has been imposing far-reaching sanctions on foreign banks and companies that do business against the US\u2019s wishes with countries like Iran, Venezuela, Cuba and now Russia. They use their national jurisdiction as an international weapon. Given this, it is unlikely that the dollar will remain irreplaceable forever.\u201d\nDollar hegemony is also based on the SWIFT inter-bank messaging system, Rousseff said, which Washington has turned into a financial weapon.\nChina began testing its own alternative to SWIFT as far back as 2015, she noted, and it is still being developed, but this process has been accelerated by the war in Ukraine.\nThe People\u2019s Bank of China has been testing digital currencies, including its own sovereign digital renminbi, Rousseff added.\nShe criticized the US strategy of \u201cdecoupling\u201d from China, calling it \u201cabsurd,\u201d because Beijing is thoroughly integrated into the world economy, in complex webs that involve many nations.\n\u201cIn 2019, around 100 countries around the world traded and invested more with China than the US, and that number is still growing,\u201d Rousseff said.\nChina signed the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) in 2020, she noted. This free trade agreement in the Asia-Pacific region involves nearly one-third of the global population and 30% of the global economy, making it larger than the European Union.\nThe global political and economic system is in a process of fundamental change, Dilma Rousseff said. And \u201cthere is no more significant geopolitical consequence today than the growing strategic partnership between China and Russia.\u201d\n\u201cIronically, it is precisely the maximum US pressure on Russia and the containment of China that played a key role in bringing the two countries closer together,\u201d she added.\n\u201cThe economic sanctions stemming from Russia\u2019s annexation of Crimea and now the war in Ukraine are strengthening a new geopolitical pole, and accelerating changes that would only come slowly.\u201d\nIn regard to the war in Ukraine, Rousseff complimented China for maintaining a neutral policy. The former Brazilian president called for peace while emphasizing how NATO helped to create the conflict in the first place.\nShe emphasized that Latin America must unite and maintain an independent foreign policy, while seeking opportunities with this new geopolitical pole.\nLatin America needs to adapt to the changing economic order, she argued, to reduce its dependency on export of commodities, and \u201cseek re-industrialization with new characteristics,\u201d to partake in the new \u201ctechnological revolution.\u201d\n\u201cWhoever remains as a mere importer of this technology,\u201d she said, \u201cwill remain on the periphery, submitted and subordinated to foreign interests and policies.\u201d\n\u201cThe transformation of the productive model is the main challenge for Latin Americans, to recover a path that allows them to achieve considerable economic growth with social justice.\u201d\n\u201cProducing and exporting mineral or agricultural commodities alone does not support equitable growth. Another model is needed for our region to reach high levels of industrialization and have a great capacity to add value to production based on the quality of education and work and scientific-technological innovation with the generation of better jobs.\u201d\nRegional integration is a key part of this process, Rousseff stressed.\n\u201cA true integration of Latin America is essential,\u201d she said, noting the region has nearly 1 billion people, with \u201cfantastic natural resources,\u201d including oil, minerals, agricultural products, and water reserves.\n\u201cThe creation of UNASUR and CELAC was the political-institutional framework needed to ensure our autonomy and independence and enable an integration that would not only be commercial, but also productive, industrial, and educational, in order to reduce asymmetries and inequalities between countries and regions.\u201d\nProgressive governments in Latin America need to increase the \u201cpresence of the state in the economy, the defense of the sovereignty of nations and democracy, and an open geopolitical relationship,\u201d she added.\nChina\u2019s economic partnership and its Belt and Road Initiative offer many possibilities for the region, presenting an opportunity to be more independent, Rousseff argued.\nWhat \u201cis wanted is Latin America for Latin Americans,\u201d she said, \u201cto be able to break with the Monroe Doctrine.\u201d\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Nicaragua is world\u2019s #1 country where citizens feel at peace, Gallup poll shows. 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": "Gallup, Latin America, Nicaragua", "output": "A poll by mainstream firm Gallup found that Nicaragua is the No. 1 country in the world where citizens feel at peace. Nine of the top 14 countries are in Latin America. But the US constantly attacks the Sandinista government and imposes sanctions on it.\n\n(Se puede leer esta nota en espa\u00f1ol aqu\u00ed.)\nA poll found that Nicaragua is the top country in the world where citizens feel at peace.\nThe United States and Western media outlets have long demonized Nicaragua\u2019s Sandinista government and its President Daniel Ortega, sponsoring violent coup attempts against him and imposing illegal unilateral sanctions aimed at hurting the Central American nation\u2019s economy.\nBut studies show that the Sandinista Front is very popular among the Nicaraguan people, who enjoy a high quality of life compared to their neighbors.\nCNBC reported this January that Nicaragua is the \u201cNo. 1 country where people say they are \u2018always\u2019 at peace\u201c.\nOf the top 10 countries where people said they always feel at peace, seven of them are in Latin America. https://t.co/15DiFGkkBu\n\u2014 CNBC Make It (@CNBCMakeIt) January 8, 2023\n\nThis is based on a survey conducted by the mainstream firm Gallup.\nGallup interviewed adults in 122 countries across the planet. They found that 34% of people on Earth \u201calways\u201d feel at peace, while 39% \u201coften\u201d do, 17% \u201crarely\u201d do, and 5% \u201cnever\u201d do.\nNicaragua came in first place, with 73% of its population reporting it \u201calways\u201d feels at peace.\nGallup noted that \u201cLatin American countries dominate the \u2018always at peace\u2019 list worldwide\u201d.\nThere are 14 countries in the world where the majority of the population \u201calways\u201d feels at peace. A staggering nine of these 14 are in Latin America.\nNicaragua is No. 1, followed by El Salvador at No. 3, Panama at No. 4, Honduras at No. 5, Paraguay at No. 6, Dominican Republic at No. 7, Uruguay at No. 8, Colombia at No. 12, and Mexico at No. 14.\n\nGallup wrote:\nThe plethora of Latin American countries that top this list may not be entirely surprising: Many of these same countries regularly rank among the most likely in the world to report\u00a0experiencing positive emotions\u00a0each day, such as feeling well-rested, smiling or laughing, learning something interesting, feeling treated with respect, and experiencing enjoyment.\nCompared with their counterparts in Latin America, people in countries in Northern America \u2014 including the U.S. (28%) and Canada (26%) \u2014 are significantly less likely to say they always feel at peace with their thoughts and feelings.\nNicaragua is also the No. 7 in the world in terms of gender equality. It has the highest level of women\u2019s representation in all of the Americas.\nWhile Nicaraguans are nearly three times as likely to feel at peace than North Americans, the US government has frequently attacked the nation\u2019s Sandinista government, claiming democratically elected President Daniel Ortega is \u201cauthoritarian\u201d.\nThis is despite the fact that 77.4% of Nicaraguans support Ortega, according to a late 2022 study conducted by one of the leading polling firms in Central America, M&R Consultores. (US President Joe Biden had just a 37% approval rating in the same period.)\nOrtega is consistently one of the most popular leaders in Latin America.\n\nIn 2018, the United States supported a violent coup attempt in Nicaragua. In this rare moment of instability in an otherwise very safe country, right-wing extremists backed by Washington used bloody tactics to try to overthrow President Ortega.\nWhen the coup failed, the US and European Union imposed several rounds of devastating unilateral sanctions on Nicaragua, which are illegal under international law.\nDespite the fact that numerous polls like these show that Nicaraguans feel very safe, the US State Department has since 2018 issued an annual travel advisory, discouraging tourists to visit the country.\nWashington claims the Central American nation is dangerous, suffers from supposed \u201carbitrary enforcement of laws\u201d, and has \u201climited healthcare ability\u201d.\nNicaragua\u2019s Sandinista government created a system of free universal healthcare for everyone. The United States, on the other hand, has one of the most expensive and inefficient healthcare systems on Earth, and medical expenses are the cause of two-thirds of US household bankruptcies.\nAs part of its hybrid war on Nicaragua's Sandinista gov't, the US State Department renewed its travel advisory, to discourage tourism and hurt the economy\nThe reasons given are absurd. Nicaragua is the safest country in Central America and has free healthcare (even for tourists) pic.twitter.com/r7YndbwVob\n\u2014 Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) December 5, 2022\n\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Honduras\u2019 new president recognizes Venezuela\u2019s real gov\u2019t; coup leader Guaid\u00f3 loses drug-trafficking ally. 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": "Honduras, JOH, Juan Guaid\u00f3, Juan Orlando Hern\u00e1ndez, Manuel Zelaya, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, Venezuela, Xiomara Castro", "output": "Honduras\u2019 new President Xiomara Castro, the country\u2019s first democratic leader since a 2009 US-backed coup, broke ties with unelected putschist Juan Guaid\u00f3 and recognized Venezuela\u2019s constitutional President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro.\n\nHonduras\u2019 new left-wing President Xiomara Castro took power on January 27. The same day of her inauguration, she re-established relations with the real, constitutional government of Venezuela\u2019s elected President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro.\nCastro is the first democratic leader of Honduras since a 2009 military coup, sponsored by the United States, overthrew former President Manuel Zelaya, Castro\u2019s husband.\nThe previous right-wing regime of notoriously corrupt Honduran President Juan Orlando Hern\u00e1ndez, who was deeply involved in drug trafficking, had recognized US-appointed Venezuelan coup leader Juan Guaid\u00f3 as supposed \u201cinterim president.\u201d\nThe loss of Honduras is another blow to Washington\u2019s ongoing coup attempt against Venezuela\u2019s leftist government. A former top ally of Guaid\u00f3 admitted that, as of January 2022, fewer than 15 countries recognize the Venezuelan putschist.\nRecuperando la Embajada de #Venezuela en #Honduras despu\u00e9s que el impostor enviado por Guaid\u00f3 la dejara abandonada y en deplorable estado. \u00a1Bienvenida excelent\u00edsima Embajadora Margoth Godoy! \u00a1Viva Venezuela!@LabGIPP_Libre @XiomaraCastroZ @NicolasMaduro pic.twitter.com/9LcibRz2Yq\n\u2014 Fernando R. Raudales (@NoSoyBotCreanme) January 28, 2022\n\nVenezuelan diplomats restored their control over their lawful embassy in the Honduran capital Tegucigalpa on January 27.\nThe foreign minister of Venezuela, Felix Plasencia, was in Tegucigalpa to attend Xiomaro Castro\u2019s inauguration. He called to \u201cadvance on the path of integration, progress, and understanding,\u201d and said, \u201cLong live the integration of our peoples!\u201d\nEn nombre del Pdte. @NicolasMaduro y nuestro pueblo de Venezuela agradecemos todos los gestos de cari\u00f1o y respaldo, expresados por el pueblo valiente de Honduras iQue viva la integraci\u00f3n de nuestros pueblos! pic.twitter.com/frLOntpChn\n\u2014 Felix Plasencia (@plasenciafelixr) January 28, 2022\n\nVenezuela\u2019s new ambassador to Honduras, Margaud Godoy, said it was an \u201chonor to share with the first woman president of the brotherly republic of Honduras, Xiomara Castro, with whom, hand in hand with President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, we will keep strengthening our historic links that unite our countries.\u201d\nQue honor compartir con la primera mujer presidenta de la Rep\u00fablica hermana de Honduras @XiomaraCastroZ , con qui\u00e9n de la mano del Presidente @NicolasMaduro seguiremos estrechando lazos hist\u00f3ricos que unen a nuestros pa\u00edses.Juntas en Victoria!#Volvimos #Honduras ?\u270a pic.twitter.com/DNzxAfHD1a\n\u2014 Margaud Godoy Pe\u00f1a (@MargaudGodoyP) January 28, 2022\n\nOn January 29, Honduras\u2019 new foreign minister, Enrique Reina, delivered Godoy her official credentials, in the presence of Venezuelan Foreign Minister Plasencia.\nRecibimos las copias de estilo de la Embajadora @MargaudGpsuv  en compa\u00f1\u00eda del Canciller @PlasenciaFelix para el restablecimiento de relaciones diplom\u00e1ticas con la Rep\u00fablica Bolivariana de Venezuela pic.twitter.com/1fwG8hJ2BZ\n\u2014 Enrique Reina (@EnriqueReinaHN) January 29, 2022\n\nFrom 2009 to 2022, Honduras was governed by a series of right-wing authoritarian regimes that stole elections in broad daylight.\nThese regimes, which enjoyed staunch support from the United States, were also deeply implicated in drug trafficking and organized crime networks.\nXiomara Castro represents the leftist Libre Party, which is led by her husband Manuel Zelaya, the former democratically elected president of Honduras, who was overthrown in the 2009 US-backed coup.\nCastro and the Libre Party won Honduras\u2019 November 2021 elections in a landslide.\nPrevious right-wing Honduran President Juan Orlando Hern\u00e1ndez (JOH) had recognized putschist Juan Guaid\u00f3 from the very beginning of Washington\u2019s coup attempt in Venezuela, launched in January 2019.\nGuaid\u00f3 repeatedly thanked Honduras\u2019 JOH regime for its support. In a surrealistic moment following a May 2020 virtual meeting, Guaid\u00f3 even publicly thanked JOH for \u201chis support in the fight against drug trafficking.\u201d\nIn reality, JOH is closely linked to drug trafficking, and reportedly used huge sums of drug money to fund his right-wing National Party.\nConvers\u00e9 con el Presidente de #Honduras @JuanOrlandoH. Agradezco su apoyo en la lucha contra el narcotr\u00e1fico y el respaldo a nuestros migrantes.\nUrge el Gobierno de Emergencia Nacional en Venezuela para salvar al pa\u00eds. La presi\u00f3n del mundo es vital para lograrlo. #UnidosSePuede pic.twitter.com/kRCRVbGM84\n\u2014 Juan Guaid\u00f3 (@jguaido) May 20, 2020\n\nJOH\u2019s brother Antonio \u201cTony\u201d Hern\u00e1ndez is in prison in the United States for drug trafficking. In October 2019, a US district court convicted Tony of trafficking approximately 200,000 kilograms (440,000 pounds) of cocaine and machine guns.\nThe court added that Tony Hern\u00e1ndez \u201cfunneled millions of dollars of drug proceeds to National Party campaigns to impact Honduran presidential elections in 2009, 2013, and 2017.\u201d\nAccording to the court, Mexican drug lord El Chapo even paid JOH $1 million to help him rig Honduras\u2019 2013 national elections.\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Top Biden official: US would overthrow Colombia\u2019s new left-wing president 40 years ago. 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, Gustavo Petro, Joe Biden, Juan Gonzalez, Nicaragua, Venezuela", "output": "Biden\u2019s top Latin America advisor Juan Gonz\u00e1lez threateningly said of Colombia\u2019s new left-wing president, \u201c40 years ago, the United States would have done everything possible to prevent the election of Gustavo Petro\u201d and \u201csabotage his government.\u201d\n\nThe top Latin America advisor for US President Joe Biden, Juan Sebasti\u00e1n Gonz\u00e1lez, threateningly said of Colombia\u2019s new left-wing president: \u201c40 years ago, the United States would have done everything possible to prevent the election of Gustavo Petro, and once in power it would have done almost everything possible to sabotage his government.\u201d\nGonz\u00e1lez is the Western hemisphere director for the US National Security Council (NSC). He previously worked in the State Department and NSC in the Barack Obama administration.\nGonz\u00e1lez made these incendiary comments in Spanish in an interview with the Colombian media.\nObliquely acknowledging the long history of US meddling in Latin America\u2019s sovereign internal affairs, Gonz\u00e1lez added, \u201cThose are the policies of the Cold War, that to a certain point today for some people are a justification from revisionist perspectives that characterize the policy of the United States in the context of a local manifestation of an empire.\u201d\n\nPetro is Colombia\u2019s first ever left-wing president. He is a former revolutionary with socialist armed movement M-19, which signed a peace treaty and demilitarized. Petro subsequently established himself as a lawmaker and became mayor of the capital Bogot\u00e1.\nAlthough he ran a center-left campaign harshly condemning the socialist governments in Venezuela and Nicaragua, Petro has tempered his criticism since entering office.\n\nIn the first vote by Petro\u2019s administration at the US-dominated Organization of American States (OAS) on August 12, Colombia refused to join in the politically motivated condemnation of Nicaragua\u2019s leftist Sandinista government. Colombia was absent from the vote, alongside the governments of Mexico, Bolivia, Honduras, and El Salvador, which abstained.\nPetro has also rapidly pursued the normalization of relations between Colombia and its neighbor Venezuela.\nJust a few days after winning the election in June, then President-elect Petro held a phone call with Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, discussing plans to reopen the border and establish peace.\nThe president of Venezuela\u2019s National Assembly, Jorge Rodr\u00edguez, announced on August 16 that the parliamentary body was coordinating with Colombia\u2019s Senate in order to re-establish formal commercial and diplomatic relations.\nPetro was inaugurated on August 7. The ceremony was full of important political symbolism. Petro requested that the sword of anti-colonialist leader Sim\u00f3n Bol\u00edvar be present.\nColombia's armed socialist and anti-imperialist group M-19 put down its weapons in 1990 after signing a peace treaty with the government\nM-19 became a legal political party. Its leader Carlos Pizarro was a presidential candidate\nBut Colombia's intelligence agencies murdered him\n\u2014 Benjamin Norton (@BenjaminNorton) August 16, 2022\n\nAt the inauguration, Petro was also given the presidential sash by Mar\u00eda Jos\u00e9 Pizarro, a lawmaker from Petro\u2019s left-wing Pacto Hist\u00f3rico party and the daughter of Carlos Pizarro.\nCarlos Pizarro was the leader of the revolutionary socialist 19th of April Movement (M-19) that Petro had been involved in in his youth.\nThe M-19 demilitarized in 1990 after signing a peace agreement with the Colombian government. Having put down its weapons, M-19 became a legal political party, and Carlos Pizarro was its presidential candidate.\nBut just a few weeks after signing the peace deal, the Colombian state murdered Carlos Pizarro, in an operation organized by the feared Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad (DAS), a notorious intelligence agency that acted as a kind of secret police.\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: \u2018Mexico is not a US colony!\u2019: AMLO condemns invasion threats, celebrates nationalization of oil, lithium. 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, Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador, cartels, Dan Crenshaw, drugs, L\u00e1zaro C\u00e1rdenas, Lindsey Graham, lithium, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Mexico, Mike Pompeo, oil, Venezuela, war on drugs", "output": "Mexico\u2019s leftist President AMLO condemned \u201chypocritical\u201d Republicans who want the US military to invade, declaring \u201cMexico is an independent and free country, not a US colony or protectorate!\u201d In a massive rally, L\u00f3pez Obrador also celebrated the expropriation of oil and lithium, condemning exploitative foreign corporations.\n\nMexico\u2019s leftist President Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador (AMLO) organized a massive rally in the heart of the capital, honoring the anniversary of the country\u2019s nationalization of its oil reserves and expropriation of foreign corporations.\nAMLO also used the demonstration as an opportunity to publicly condemn US politicians who have proposed militarily invading Mexico to combat drug trafficking.\n\u201cWe remind those hypocritical and irresponsible politicians that Mexico is an independent and free country, not a colony or a protectorate of the United States!\u201d L\u00f3pez Obrador declared.\n\n\u201cThey can threaten us with committing some kind of abuse, but we will never, ever allow them to violate our sovereignty and trample on the dignity of our homeland!\u201d he asserted.\nAMLO added,\u00a0\u201cI want to make it clear that this is no longer the time of [Felipe] Calder\u00f3n or [Genaro] Garc\u00eda Luna, that it is no longer the time of the shady links between the government of Mexico and the agencies of the US government\u201d.\nThe Mexican leader then led a chant:\u00a0\u201cCooperation? Yes. Submission? No! Interventionism? No!\u201d\nAMLO delivered this fiery speech on March 18 in the Z\u00f3calo, the plaza in the heart of Mexico City.\nHis government officially convened the event to commemorate the 85th anniversary of the 1938 oil nationalization by revolutionary former President L\u00e1zaro C\u00e1rdenas.\nThe poster of the Mexican government event celebrating the 85th anniversary of the expropriation of oil by President L\u00e1zaro C\u00e1rdenas\nL\u00f3pez Obrador dedicated half of his hour-long speech to discussing the history of the Cardenista revolution, and the lessons it provides for today.\nAMLO praised C\u00e1rdenas for challenging foreign corporations and defending national sovereignty, while redistributing land to the poor, protecting labor rights, encouraging unions, and forming an alliance with workers and peasants against the \u201cconservative oligarchy\u201d that had ruled Mexico during the dictatorship of Porfirio D\u00edaz, before the 1910 revolution.\nThe speech was one of the most passionate examples of L\u00f3pez Obrador\u2019s left-wing nationalist ideology.\nAMLO made clear parallels between the government of C\u00e1rdenas and his own government today, between C\u00e1rdenas\u2019 oil nationalization and L\u00f3pez Obrador\u2019s nationalization of Mexico\u2019s lithium reserves.\nEl z\u00f3calo lleno conmemorando la expropiaci\u00f3n petrolera, la defensa de la soberan\u00eda y la cuarta transformaci\u00f3n. pic.twitter.com/qefBTHwh0w\n\u2014 Dra. Claudia Sheinbaum (@Claudiashein) March 19, 2023\n\nThis March, a series of far-right US politicians from the Republican Party have called for the military to invade Mexico, in the name of supposedly fighting drug cartels.\nExtreme-right Congressmember Marjorie Taylor Greene falsely claimed in a March 15 tweet that Mexican cartels \u201care planting bombs on our land in our country\u201d. (She posted a photo which did not show a bomb, according to US Border Patrol, but rather \u201ca duct-taped ball filled with sand that wasn\u2019t deemed a threat to agents/public\u201d.)\n\u201cOur US military needs to take action against the Mexican Cartels\u201d, she insisted. \u201cEnd this Cartel led war against America!\u201d\nGreene is a Donald Trump loyalist and supporter of the neo-fascist QAnon cult. She ran for office inciting violence against the left, shooting and blowing up the word \u201csocialism\u201d in her campaign ads.\nExplosive found by Border Patrol Agents Jan 17th.  Agents have surveillance of who brought it in and when and confirmed it was the Cartel.This changes everything. Not only are the Cartels murdering Americans everyday through drugs and crime, but now they are planting bombs on\u2026 pic.twitter.com/8uxwbd1sOn\n\u2014 Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene?? (@RepMTG) March 15, 2023\n\nBut Greene is far from alone.\nRepublican Congressmember Dan Crenshaw has introduced multiple bills to authorize the US military to attack cartels in Mexico.\nLegislation that Crenshaw introduced in January cites the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF), which was passed a week after the 9/11 attacks, in order to justify the US military to invade Mexico.\nIn an op-ed, Crenshaw compared Mexican drug cartels to ISIS, al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, and Saddam Hussein.\nThe Republican lawmaker also called for the US to impose sanctions on Mexico \u2013 one of its top three trading partners.\nThe Mexican drug cartels are an enemy every American should want to defeat.\nWe can\u2019t let this chance to save American lives pass us by. My thoughts in @USAToday: https://t.co/AbIhC1qFIw\n\u2014 Rep. Dan Crenshaw (@RepDanCrenshaw) March 8, 2023\n\nGreene wrote that she is \u201cproud to co-sponsor Rep. Dan Crenshaw\u2019s legislation to declare WAR on the Mexican cartels\u201d.\n\u201cWe must authorize the use of military force to eliminate the thugs who are smuggling drugs and illegal aliens across our southern border\u201d, Greene insisted.\nThe far-right Republican also suggested that Washington should impose sanctions on Mexico.\n\u201cThere is a war going on that affects every single American, but it\u2019s not in Ukraine or the Middle East, it\u2019s on our Southern border\u201d, Greene declared.\nI\u2019m proud to co-sponsor @RepDanCrenshaw\u2019s legislation to declare WAR on the Mexican cartels.\nWe must authorize the use of military force to eliminate the thugs who are smuggling drugs and illegal aliens across our southern border, leading to crime and the murder of countless\u2026\n\u2014 Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene?? (@RepMTG) March 14, 2023\n\nIn the US Senate, another Trump ally, Lindsey Graham, wants the US military to intervene in Mexico.\n\u201cWe are going to unleash the fury and might of the U.S. against these cartels\u201d, Graham proclaimed in a March 8 press conference.\nGraham compared Mexican drug cartels to ISIS and al-Qaeda, referring to them as \u201cnarcoterrorists\u201d and calling to \u201cgive the military the authority to go after these organizations wherever they exist\u201d.\nTrump\u2019s former CIA director and secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, published an article declaring, \u201cIt Is Time for America To Declare War on the Drug Cartels\u201c.\n\u201cAs Secretary of State, I suggested we use drones to strike the cartels\u201d, he boasted.\nWith blatantly neocolonial rhetoric,\u00a0Pompeo claimed that Mexico has a \u201ctotal lack of sovereignty\u201d. (In his memoir, Pompeo admitted that the Trump administration tried to overthrow Venezuela\u2019s government because it supposedly put \u201cout the welcome mat for Russia, China, Iran, Cuba, and the cartels in a twenty-first-century violation of the Monroe Doctrine\u201c, referencing the 200-year-old colonial doctrine.)\nAs Secretary of State, I suggested we use drones to strike the cartels.\nHere's why:https://t.co/hdys6kVK98\n\u2014 Mike Pompeo (@mikepompeo) March 17, 2023\n\nBorrowing George W. Bush-era \u201cwar on terror\u201d rhetoric,\u00a0Pompeo referred to the cartels as \u201cnarco-terrorist entities\u201d, and insisted that \u201cthe U.S. government should designate the major drug cartels \u2013 the Gulf Cartel (responsible for the recent kidnapping and murders), the Cartel Del Noreste, the Cartel de Sinaloa, and the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion to name a few \u2013 as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO)\u201d.\nPompeo also tried to link China to Mexican drug cartels as well, without any evidence. He asserted that the US war on cartels \u201cwill require going after the Chinese Communist Party-backed entities that are funneling precursor compounds to cartels\u201d.\nIn his March 18 speech, L\u00f3pez Obrador declared:\nFriend, I cannot forget to mention that, in recent days, some legislators from the United States, who are accustomed to hypocritically throwing stones while forgetting that they live in glass houses, have a propagandistic plan. As we say here, in popular language, they are scheming. And for electoral purposes, political operatives are saying that, if we don\u2019t stop the traffic of fentanyl to the northern border, they are going to propose in Congress that North American soldiers occupy our territory, to fight organized crime.\nFirst, I want to make it clear that this is no longer the time of [Felipe] Calder\u00f3n or [Genaro] Garc\u00eda Luna, that it is no longer the time of the shady links between the government of Mexico and the agencies of the US government.\nThe most important thing is that, from here, from this Z\u00f3calo, the political and cultural heart of Mexico, we remind those hypocritical and irresponsible politicians that Mexico is an independent and free country, not a colony or a protectorate of the United States, and that they can threaten us with committing some kind of abuse, but we will never, ever allow them to violate our sovereignty and trample on the dignity of our homeland!\nCooperation? Yes. Submission? No! Interventionism? No!\nAMLO then shouted out the following words, and the audience replied: \u201cOligarchy? No! Corruption? No! Classism? No! Racism? No! Freedom? Yes! Democracy? Yes! Honesty? Yes! Social justice? Yes! Equality? Yes! Sovereignty? Yes!\u201d\nThe president concluded his speech chanting: \u201cLong live the oil expropriation! Long live the workers and technicians, of before and today, in the national oil industry! Long live General L\u00e1zaro C\u00e1rdenas del R\u00edo! Long live Mexico! Long live Mexico! Long live Mexico!\u201d\nMexican President L\u00e1zaro C\u00e1rdenas declaring the nationalization of the railroads in 1937\nAMLO spent the first half of his speech discussing the legacy of leftist former President L\u00e1zaro C\u00e1rdenas.\nHe explained:\nGeneral L\u00e1zaro C\u00e1rdenas did not hesitate to rely on those below to carry out his transformation. The general\u2019s strategy can be summarized in three important, consecutive actions. First, he gave land to the peasants and helped the workers. Then, he motivated them to organize. And finally, with that social base, he was able to carry out the expropriation of the oil and other national resources, which Porfirio D\u00edaz had given away to individuals, fundamentally to foreigners.\nIn the Cardenista strategy, the most important thing was meeting the economic and social demands of the peasants and workers.\n\u2026\nIt is undoubtable that the peasants saw in C\u00e1rdenas a faithful representative of the revolutionary cause. The agrarian reform ensured that many people were loyal to the Cardenista government, and from then on, there was an alliance between the peasants and the state.\nMoreover, during Cardenismo, the workers felt that their labor rights were guaranteed, with strict adherence to the law. C\u00e1rdenas respected the economic struggle of workers for better salaries and better labor conditions.\n\u2026\nThe organization and political mobilization of the masses advanced the goal of valuing the economic independence of our country.\nThereby, with the expropriation of the oil corporations, national goods and resources were returned to the nation, which since the dictatorship of Porfirio D\u00edaz had been in the hands of foreigners.\n\u2026\nThere has not existed in Mexico a president as close to humble people as General C\u00e1rdenas, nor a president as dedicated to the cause of social justice.\nFor example, already as president, in power in 1935, he wrote in his notes the following: \u201cEnding the miseries that the people suffer from is above all other interests\u201d.\n\u2026\nI quote General C\u00e1rdenas; he says: \u201cWe made considerations of the circumstances that could arise if governments like those of England and the United States, in the interest of supporting the oil companies, pressured the government of Mexico with violent measures. But we also took into account that there is already the threat of a new world war with the growing provocations of Nazi-fascist imperialism, and that this would stop them from attacking Mexico in the case of the expropriation, among other reasons\u201d.\nAnd taking advantage of this circumstance, on March 18, 1938, the oil expropriation was carried out.\n\u2026\nHe then made known, by radio, to all of the nation, the step taken by the government, in defense of its sovereignty, reintegrating into its domain the oil wealth that, as the same general said, \u201cImperialist capital has been taking advantage of to keep the country in a humiliating situation\u201d.\nIn response to C\u00e1rdenas\u2019 expropriation of Mexico\u2019s oil wealth, AMLO explained, \u201cThe millionaires requested a US [military] intervention. They complained to the United States\u201d.\nHe then added with a sarcastic tone, \u201cThat sounds familiar, that sounds familiar, that sounds familiar\u201d.\nThe millionaires \u201cwent and complained so that [the United States] would come here to protect their companies\u201d, AMLO added.\nBut the threat of Nazi Germany and the clear signs that World War Two was coming prevented the US from militarily intervening to stop the nationalization, L\u00f3pez Obrador argued.\nHe also noted that the US leader at the time was Franklin Delano Roosevelt, whom AMLO referred to as \u201cone of the best presidents that that country has had in all of its history\u201d.\n\u201cBut the corporations were not as conscious and respectful\u201d as FDR, L\u00f3pez Obrador continued.\nForeign corporations thought that \u201cMexicans were born to enrich foreigners\u201d, he said, \u201cand that God put important natural resources below Mexico\u2019s soil to increase the fortunes in the treasure chests of the exploiters and concessionaires\u201d.\nAMLO recalled that C\u00e1rdenas\u2019 government was forced to \u201cconfront a boycott, pressures, and acts of sabotage promoted and funded by the foreign oil companies in our country\u201d.\nThe Mexican president continued:\nThe oil expropriation caused deep discomfort among a minority, above all among the wealthy at the time, in sectors of the middle class, and in the majority of the media.\nIt is interesting, and this is a lesson, to highlight that, historically, the right wing always regroups when a democratic change is trying to be carried out, and it becomes plainly intolerant, and even violent when it comes to social demands in favor of the people and the control of the nation.\nL\u00f3pez Obrador discussed the example of Francisco Madero, a leader of the Mexican Revolution who governed as president from 1911 to 1913, but who was toppled and murdered in a coup d\u2019etat sponsored by the United States and carried out by the right wing.\nAMLO emphasized:\nLet us remember that the overthrow of President Madero, our apostle of democracy, relied on the intervention of the US ambassador, but that overthrow was carried out by internal right-wing groups that had previously promoted a campaign of hatred and smears, consisting of ridiculing the leader, President Madero, in their newspapers, to the point of treating him as crazy and spiritualist.\nAs an example of the long history of Mexico\u2019s right-wing elites betraying their country\u2019s national interests in collaboration with foreign corporations, AMLO pointed out that the country\u2019s right-wing party PAN, which governed from 2000 to 2012, had been created in 1939 as a representation of the wealthy oligarchic forces that opposed C\u00e1rdenas\u2019 oil expropriation.\nThe Mexican president finally summarized his discussion of C\u00e1rdenas: \u201cIn this brief history, there are greater lessons. The main one is that only with the people, only with the support of the majority, is it possible to carry out a popular transformation to guarantee justice and confront the reactionaries who don\u2019t want to lose their privileges\u201d.\nLater in the March 18 speech, AMLO boasted of the unprecedented social spending his government has carried out:\nAll of the [government\u2019s] savings are used to finance social programs, such as pensions for the elderly, support for people with disabilities, single mothers, peasants and fishermen; with scholarships for students from poor families; internet for everyone; programs to build and improve housing; favorable loans; fertilizers and guaranteed prices for small producers in the country; the Wellness Bank; the drive for public education and health care, universal and free.\nThis year, more than 25 million people will receive direct support totaling 600 billion pesos. In other words, out of the 35 million homes that there are in the country, 71% are already benefiting from at least one of the social programs.\nWith this policy of attention to the neediest, the most vulnerable, and especially the youth, we have also been able to reduce crime\n\u2026\n[These policies] have allowed us to avoid more debt. We have not requested additional debt since we are in government.\n\u2026\nThe price of gasoline, diesel, gas, and electricity has not increased.\n\u2026\nAlso, public investment has increased, which did not happen for many years. This year, more than 1 trillion pesos will be spent on public works. That is to say, we are going to keep building roads, bridges, trains, airports, hospitals, universities, markets, sports facilities, piers, and natural, recreational, and ecological parks.\n\u2026\nIn the time that we have been in government, the minimum wage has increased by 90% in real terms, and more than double at the border.\nDo you remember what the lying technocrats said about raising the salary, that there was going to be inflation? Pure nonsense! That is not true.\nOf course we have to increase wages in a responsible way, to strengthen the internal market, as we are doing, and thereby to achieve well-being for our people.\n\u2026\n\u201cWe have also directed our resources and efforts toward achieving food self-sufficiency and energy self-sufficiency.\n\u2026\nWe can ensure that we are guaranteed to have oil sovereignty. Next year, we are not going to buy gasoline, diesel, or other oil products abroad. We are going to process all of our raw materials.\n\u2026\nAnd recently, the lithium was nationalized, strategic minerals used in making batteries, for electric cars and the storage system for clean energy. It fills me with pride to remember that.\nWhile listing the accomplishments of his government, L\u00f3pez Obrador also referenced the negotiations in 2018 and 2019 that led to replacing NAFTA with the new United States \u2013 Mexico \u2013 Canada Agreement (USMCA).\nAMLO said with pride:\nWe were able to remove from the free trade agreement a broad chapter that compromised our oil in that agreement and put in its place a small paragraph that I am going to read to you.\nIt says that the United States and Canada recognize that \u201cMexico reserves its sovereign right to reform its Constitution and its domestic legislation; and Mexico has the direct, inalienable, and imprescriptible ownership of all hydrocarbons in the subsoil of the national territory\u201d.\nThe Mexican president added:\nWe are going to continue with that collective conscience. We are going to continue pushing back against the dirty war, the smear campaigns, and the manipulation attempts that they will continue to carry out because they have no other choice, our adversaries and their media outlets, sold out, bought up, in the hands of members of the corrupt conservative bloc.\nBut at the same time, we must have faith in the wisdom and loyalty of the people.\n\u2026\nI maintain that, whatever they do, the oligarchs will not return to power. An authentic and true democracy will continue to prevail in our beloved Mexico.\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Cuba at UN: Biden continues Trump\u2019s criminal attacks and unconventional warfare. 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, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Miguel D\u00edaz-Canel, Puerto Rico, reparations, UN, United Nations, Venezuela", "output": "Excerpts from Cuban President Miguel D\u00edaz-Canel\u2019s speech at the UN, where he condemned US imperialism, while calling for reparations for slavery and independence for colony Puerto Rico\n\nCuban\u00a0President Miguel D\u00edaz-Canel\u00a0spoke at the United Nations General Assembly on September 23.\nThe Cuban leader condemned US imperialism in Latin America and around the world.\nNoting that the Joe Biden administration has continued Donald Trump\u2019s aggressive policies of unconventional warfare in seek of regime change, D\u00edaz-Canel said the failure of the two-decade military occupation of Afghanistan shows that \u201cwhere the United States intervenes, it increases instability, deaths, suffering, and leaves long-lasting scars.\u201d\nD\u00edaz-Canel also called for reparations for slavery and independence for US colony Puerto Rico.\nTranslated key excerpts of his speech follow below.\nAt the UN, Cuban President Miguel D\u00edaz-Canel denounced US imperialism, which \"threatens, extorts and pressures sovereign states,\" demanding its \"allies\" help \"overthrow legitimate governments\"\nHe noted murderous sanctions have \"become the central instrument of US foreign policy\" pic.twitter.com/SCVdIEp8f3\n\u2014 Benjamin Norton (@BenjaminNorton) September 23, 2021\n\n\u201cUnder the leadership of and with the permanent instigation by the United States, a dangerous international schism is being promoted.\u201d\n\u201cWith the harmful use and abuse of coercive economic measures, which has become the central instrument of the foreign policy of the United States, the government of that country threatens, extorts, and pressures sovereign states so that they speak out and act against those that are deemed adversaries.\u201d\n\u201cIt [the US] demands that its allies build coalitions to overthrow legitimate governments, break trade agreements, abandon and ban certain technologies, and apply unjustified legal measures against citizens of countries that don\u2019t submit to them.\u201d\nCuba's president condemned the Biden admin. for continuing Trump's same criminal policies, waging an \"unconventional war,\" with millions of dollars, \"through campaigns of manipulation and lies.\"\nThe US goal is \"to erase the Cuban Revolution.\"\n\"They do not accept alternatives.\" pic.twitter.com/wXA8qBe7XH\n\u2014 Benjamin Norton (@BenjaminNorton) September 23, 2021\n\n\u201cThe current Democratic administration [of Joe Biden] has maintained, without any changes, the 243 coercive measures adopted by the government of Donald Trump, including its decision to put Cuba on the false and immoral list of countries that supposedly sponsor terrorism.\u201d\n\u201cIt is in this context that an unconventional war is being waged against our country, to which the US government dedicates, as is publicly documented, millions of dollars, through campaigns of manipulation and lies, which use new information technologies and other digital platforms to internally and externally project an absolutely false image of Cuban reality, to sow confusion, to destabilize, to discredit the country, and to justify its doctrine of regime change.\u201d\n\u201cThey have done all of this to erase the Cuban Revolution off the political map of the world. They do not accept alternatives to the model they have in mind for their \u2018backyard.\u2019 Their plan is perverse and incompatible with the \u2018democracy\u2019 and \u2018freedom\u2019 they preach.\u201d\n\"For more than 60 years, the US government has not for one minute stopped its attacks against Cuba.\"\nAt the UN, Cuban President D\u00edaz-Canel condemns the United States for tightening its murderous blockade \"in such a criminal and opportunist way, in the middle of the pandemic.\" pic.twitter.com/mROK7ZIoPi\n\u2014 Benjamin Norton (@BenjaminNorton) September 23, 2021\n\n\u201cIndependent and sovereign states are being driven, under many pressures, to subordinate themselves to Washington\u2019s will, and to a political order based on ever-changing rules.\u201d\n\u201cFor more than 60 years, the United States government has not for one minute stopped its attacks against Cuba. But in this crucial and challenging moment for all of the world\u2019s nations, its aggression is over the limits.\u201d\n\u201cThe longest and cruelest economic, comercial, and financial blockade that has ever been imposed on any nation [the US blockade on Cuba] has gotten even worse, in such a criminal and opportunist way, in the middle of the pandemic.\u201d\nAt the United Nations, Cuban President D\u00edaz-Canel noted the US uses the term \"international community\" only to refer to its client states.\n\"It is behavior associated with ideological and cultural intolerance, with a heavily racist influence and hegemonic goals,\" he said. pic.twitter.com/9GlEU9FVys\n\u2014 Benjamin Norton (@BenjaminNorton) September 23, 2021\n\n\u201cIt [the US] often uses the term \u2018international community\u2019 to refer to a small group of governments that go along with, without ever questioning, the will of Washington. As for the rest of the world\u2019s countries, the vast majority of this organization, it seems we do not have space in the definition of \u2018international community\u2019 that the United States promotes.\u201d\n\u201cIt is behavior associated with ideological and cultural intolerance, with a heavily racist influence and hegemonic goals.\u201d\nCuba used its global platform at the United Nations General Assembly to call for reparations for slavery pic.twitter.com/RD05FnM57j\n\u2014 Benjamin Norton (@BenjaminNorton) September 23, 2021\n\n\u201cWe join the nations of the Caribbean in their call for just reparations for the horrors of slavery and the treatment of slaves. We support their right to a fair, special, and defined agreement, which is indispensable to confront the challenges caused by climate change, natural disasters, the unjust international financial system, and the difficult conditions imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic.\u201d\nAt the United Nations, Cuba called for an end to US colonialism in Puerto Rico.\n\u201cWe reaffirm that the brotherly people of Puerto Rico should be free and independent, after more than a century subjected to colonial domination.\u201d pic.twitter.com/xmwjw3YXPW\n\u2014 Benjamin Norton (@BenjaminNorton) September 23, 2021\n\n\u201cWe reaffirm that the brotherly people of Puerto Rico should be free and independent, after more than a century subjected to colonial domination.\u201d\nCuba: \"It has been proven that, where the US intervenes, it increases instability, deaths, suffering.\"\n\"The United Nations cannot ignore the lesson in Afghanistan.\" After two decades of US occupation, the only one who benefited from the war was the Military-Industrial Complex. pic.twitter.com/Jf3CvmUmEV\n\u2014 Benjamin Norton (@BenjaminNorton) September 23, 2021\n\n\u201cThe United Nations cannot ignore the lesson in Afghanistan. They had to go through two decades of occupation, with an outcome of thousands of deaths, 10 million people displaced, and billions of dollars spent, which became profits for the Military-Industrial Complex, all to come to the conclusion that terrorism can neither be prevented nor combatted with bombs, that occupation only leaves destruction, and that no country has the right to impose its will on sovereign nations.\u201d\n\u201cAfghanistan is not an isolated case. It has been proven that, where the United States intervenes, it increases instability, deaths, suffering, and leaves long-lasting scars.\u201d\nIn the final section of his speech at the United Nations, Cuban President Miguel D\u00edaz-Canel also addressed numerous important issues in international affairs.\nHe reaffirmed support for Venezuela and Nicaragua, and called for an end to US aggression against those countries.\nD\u00edaz-Canel demanded \u201cthe end to foreign interference in Syria and full respect for its sovereignty and territorial integrity.\u201d\nThe Cuban president called for justice for Palestinians and an end to the illegal Israeli occupation.\nHe condemned the criminal sanctions imposed on Iran.\nD\u00edaz-Canel reaffirmed solidarity with the people of Western Sahara.\nHe condemned the \u201cunilateral and unjust sanctions\u201d imposed on the DPRK (North Korea).\n\u201cWe demand the end to the foreign interference in the internal affairs of the Republic of Belarus,\u201d the Cuban leader added, reiterating support for its President Alexander Lukashenko.\nD\u00edaz-Canel emphasized Cuba\u2019s endorsement of the One China Policy, recognizing Taiwan as part of China, adding, \u201cwe oppose any attempt to harm the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the People\u2019s Republic of China, as well as interference in its internal affairs.\u201d\nHe also denounced \u201cthe intent to expand NATO\u2019s presence up to the borders of Russia, the interference in affairs that are inherent to its sovereignty, and the imposition of unilateral and unjust sanctions against it.\u201d\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Mexico, Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia back Peru\u2019s President Castillo, condemn \u2018anti-democratic harassment\u2019. 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, Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador, Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Evo Morales, Gustavo Petro, Luis Arce, Mexico, Pedro Castillo, Peru", "output": "Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, and Bolivia released a joint statement supporting Peru\u2019s elected President Pedro Castillo, saying he is a \u201cvictim of anti-democratic harassment,\u201d following a US-backed right-wing coup.\n\nThe governments of Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, and Bolivia released a joint statement supporting Peru\u2019s democratically elected President Pedro Castillo, saying he is a \u201cvictim of anti-democratic harassment.\u201d\nCastillo was overthrown in a coup d\u2019etat on December 7, led by the infamously corrupt right-wing opposition that controls Peru\u2019s unicameral congress, which has an approval rating of between 7% and 11%.\nThe US-dominated Organization of American States (OAS) and State Department have openly supported the coup, backing unelected leader Dina Boluarte, who declared herself president in collaboration with the congress.\nMexico, Argentina, Bolivia, and Colombia wrote that they \u201cexpress their profound concern for the recent events that resulted in the removal and detention of Jos\u00e9 Pedro Castillo Terrones, president of the Republic of Peru.\u201d\n\u201cFor the world, it is not news that President Castillo Terrones, since the day of his election, was victim of anti-democratic harassment,\u201d the countries wrote.\nComunicado conjunto de los gobiernos de Argentina, Colombia, M\u00e9xico y Bolivia sobre la situaci\u00f3n en Per\u00fa ??https://t.co/IINiFFqLSa\n\u2014 Canciller\u00eda Argentina ?? (@CancilleriaARG) December 12, 2022\n\nThey added that Castillo has also been subjected to illegal \u201cjudicial treatment\u201d \u2013 an allusion to the relentless lawfare (judicial warfare) that Peru\u2019s right-wing opposition has waged against the president and his top officials and political allies.\nMexico, Argentina, Bolivia, and Colombia stressed that this harassment violates the 1969 American Convention on Human Rights.\n\u201cOur governments call on all actors involved in the previous process to prioritize the citizens\u2019 will that was expressed at the ballot box,\u201d they wrote, adding, \u201cWe urge those who make up the institutions to refrain from reversing the popular will expressed by the free vote.\u201d\nIn other words, they called for recognizing Castillo as the only democratic, constitutional president of Peru.\nThe countries emphasized,\u00a0\u201cWe also request that the authorities full respect the human rights of the President Pedro Castillo and that he is guaranteed legal protection\u201d that is established in the American Convention on Human Rights.\nWhen the coup in Peru was carried out, on December 7, Mexico\u2019s left-wing President Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador (AMLO) wrote:\n\u201cWe considerate it terrible that, because of the interests of economic and political elites, since the beginning of the legitimate presidency of Pedro Castillo, an environment of confrontation and hostility was maintained against him, leading him to take decisions that have served his adversaries to remove him.\u201d\nAMLO was referring to Castillo\u2019s decision to dissolve Peru\u2019s coup-plotting congress \u2013 an action that is allowed in certain cases of obstructionism according to article 134 of the country\u2019s constitution.\ndesde el comienzo de la presidencia leg\u00edtima de Pedro Castillo, se haya mantenido un ambiente de confrontaci\u00f3n y hostilidad en su contra hasta llevarlo a tomar decisiones que le han servido a sus adversarios para consumar su destituci\u00f3n 2/3\n\u2014 Andr\u00e9s Manuel (@lopezobrador_) December 7, 2022\n\nColombia\u2019s first ever left-wing president, Gustavo Petro, likewise wrote that \u201cPedro Castillo, for being a teacher from la Sierra [the mountainous rural region in the Andes], elected by the people, was cornered from the first day.\u201d\n\u201cWhen I met Pedro Castillo, they [the right-wing opposition] were trying to break in to the presidential palace to detain his wife and his daughter,\u201d Petro recalled.\n\u201cHe received me distressed. A parliamentary coup was already being developed against him,\u201d the Colombian president said.\nCuando conoc\u00ed a Pedro Castillo intentaban allanar el palacio de gobierno para detener a su esposa y a su hija. Atribulado me recibi\u00f3. Ya se desarrollaba un golpe parlamentario en su contra\nMe sorprendii que se quedaran encerrados en el Palacio, aislados del pueblo que los eligio\n\u2014 Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) December 8, 2022\n\nOn the day of the coup,\u00a0Bolivia\u2019s President Luis Arce also publicly warned, \u201cSince the beginning, the Peruvian right tried to overthrow the government that was democratically elected by the people, by the humble classes that seek more inclusion and social justice.\u201d\n\u201cWe regret what has occurred in the sisterly republic of Peru, where we send our solidarity,\u201d he said.\nThe Bolivian president added, \u201cThe constant harassment by anti-democratic elites against progressive, popular, and legitimate governments should be condemned by everyone.\u201d\nEl constante hostigamiento de \u00e9lites antidemocr\u00e1ticas contra gobiernos progresistas, populares y leg\u00edtimamente constituidos, debe ser condenado por todas y todos. Abogamos porque la democracia, la paz y respeto a los Derechos Humanos, prevalezcan en beneficio del pueblo peruano.\n\u2014 Luis Alberto Arce Catacora (Lucho Arce) (@LuchoXBolivia) December 7, 2022\n\nBolivia\u2019s former President Evo Morales, who was himself overthrown in a US-backed right-wing coup in 2019, said the latest putsch showed \u201conce again that the Peruvian oligarchy and the US empire do not accept that leaders who are union organizers and Indigenous rise to government to work for the people.\u201d\nMorales added that \u201cthe political crisis\u201d in Peru \u201cwas provoked by the permanent conspiring of the Fujimorista right wing and right-wing media outlets against a government elected at the ballot box, whose \u2018unforgiveable crime\u2019 was representing the poorest people.\u201d\nLa crisis pol\u00edtica que afecta al hermano pueblo peruano, al Per\u00fa profundo especialmente, fue provocada por la conspiraci\u00f3n permanente de la derecha fujimorista y medios derechistas contra un gobierno elegido en las urnas cuyo \"delito imperdonable\" fue representar a los m\u00e1s pobres\n\u2014 Evo Morales Ayma (@evoespueblo) December 7, 2022\n\nMorales later tweeted that the \u201ccongressional coup by the right wing in Peru calls us to have a deep reflection.\u201d\n\u201cA government elected by the people never should abandon its ideological base, or distance itself from its militancy. Thinking that the right wing will accept presidents from popular movements is the worst historical error,\u201d he cautioned.\nEl golpe congresal de la derecha en Per\u00fa nos llama a una profunda reflexi\u00f3n. Un gobierno elegido por el pueblo nunca debe abandonar su base ideol\u00f3gica ni alejarse de su militancia. Pensar que la derecha puede aceptar presidentes de movimientos populares es el peor error hist\u00f3rico\n\u2014 Evo Morales Ayma (@evoespueblo) December 10, 2022\n\nWhen the Peruvian people took to the streets in large protests against the coup, demanding the freedom of Castillo, fresh elections, and a new constitution, Morales wrote on December 12:\n\u201cIn the November 2019 coup, humble people confronted the armed repression of the coup-plotters in Bolivia. In the congressional coup in Peru, humble people are confronted by the repression of the coup-plotting right wing. The Patria Grande [movement seeking Latin American regional unity] demands justice for our massacred brothers.\u201d\nEn el golpe de noviembre de 2019, el pueblo humilde enfrent\u00f3 la represi\u00f3n armada de los golpistas en #Bolivia. En el golpe congresal de #Per\u00fa, el pueblo humilde se enfrenta a la represi\u00f3n de la derecha golpista. La Patria Grande reclama justicia para nuestros hermanos masacrados pic.twitter.com/WrKagcyOnW\n\u2014 Evo Morales Ayma (@evoespueblo) December 13, 2022\n\nMorales followed up again on December 13, stating:\n\u201cWe join the shout that defenders of life and human rights are making demanding a stop to the massacres of our Indigenous brothers in Peru, that they respect their vote and a democracy that represents them. No government whose hands are stained with the blood of the people is legitimate.\u201d\nNos unimos al clamor de defensores de la vida y Derechos Humanos para exigir que paren la masacre de nuestros hermanos ind\u00edgenas en #Per\u00fa que reclaman respeto a su voto y una democracia que los represente. Ning\u00fan gobierno que se manche las manos con sangre del pueblo es leg\u00edtimo pic.twitter.com/8NTwnFT3Mj\n\u2014 Evo Morales Ayma (@evoespueblo) December 13, 2022\n\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Argentina will attend BRICS summits, at China\u2019s invitation, in step toward \u2018formal entry\u2019. 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": "Alberto Fern\u00e1ndez, Argentina, Brazil, BRICS, China, IMF", "output": "China invited Argentina to attend the 2022 summits of the BRICS economic bloc of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. Argentina\u2019s ambassador says it\u2019s a step toward \u201cformal entry\u201d to the grouping, an alternative to the US-dominated financial system.\n\nChina has invited Argentina to attend the 2022 summits of the BRICS, a loose economic bloc bringing together Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.\nThe BRICS was founded as an alternative to the US-dominated financial architecture, uniting semi-peripheral countries in the imperialist world system, often referred to as \u201cemerging economies.\u201d\nThe grouping is a model of the principle of South-South cooperation.\nChinese President Xi Jinping personally sent a special invitation to Argentina to attend the BRICS summits, and Buenos Aires accepted Beijing\u2019s offer.\nArgentina\u2019s ambassador to China, Sabino Vaca Narvaja, said the invitation \u201cis extremely important,\u201d and constitutes a step toward \u201cformal entry\u201d into the BRICS.\nBRICS will hold virtual summits for the foreign ministers and presidents of its members on May 20 and June 24, respectively.\nThis is not the first time Argentina\u2019s incorporation into the BRICS framework has been discussed. In early 2014, India called for Argentina to be added to the alliance, and Russia invited the South American nation to the summit that same year.\nIf Argentina joins, the grouping may be renamed BRICSA.\nAt the heart of the BRICS is the New Development Bank, an alternative to the World Bank, as well as the Contingent Reserve Arrangement, a rival to the US-dominated International Monetary Fund (IMF).\nBRICS members have already said they would support Argentina joining the bloc\u2019s New Development Bank.\nArgentina is trapped in $44.5 billion of odious debt from the IMF, and has sought other financial opportunities to ease this crushing burden.\nThis February,\u00a0Argentine President Alberto Fern\u00e1ndez took a historic trip to China and Russia\u00a0In his meeting with President Xi, Fern\u00e1ndez said he wants his country to join the BRICS.\n\u201cI\u2019m certain Argentina has to stop being so dependent on the [International Monetary] Fund and the United States, and has to open up to other places, and that is where it seems to me that Russia has a very important place,\u201d Fern\u00e1ndez explained in Moscow.\nDuring his visit to Beijing, Fern\u00e1ndez signed an agreement officially incorporating Argentina into China\u2019s global Belt and Road Initiative.\nArgentina is trapped in $44 billion of odious debt from the US-controlled IMF.\nSeeking alternatives to US hegemony, Argentina's President Alberto Fern\u00e1ndez traveled to Russia and China, forming an alliance with the Eurasian powers, joining the Belt & Roadhttps://t.co/rTbO1ZGsPE\n\u2014 Multipolarista (@Multipolarista) February 6, 2022\n\nThe foreign policy of Argentina\u2019s centrist government, led by Alberto Fern\u00e1ndez, is full of contradictions.\nWhile trying to strengthen its relations with China, and to a lesser extent Russia, Argentina has also been careful not to upset the United States.\nFern\u00e1ndez did oppose the US-backed far-right coup that overthrew Bolivia\u2019s democratically elected socialist government in 2019, and subsequently provided refuge to toppled President Evo Morales and officials from his Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) Party.\nBut Fern\u00e1ndez\u2019s centrist administration has taken an aggressive approach against other leftist governments in the region.\nAlthough Argentina claims to have a non-interventionist foreign policy, it has joined the US-led campaign to isolate Nicaragua\u2019s socialist Sandinista government.\nFern\u00e1ndez\u2019s government likewise joined Washington in voting to expel Russia from the UN Human Rights Council over its war in Ukraine.\nThe rise of far-right presidents Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil and Narendra Modi in India, both of whom are very supportive of the United States, has weakened the BRICS framework since it was founded in 2009.\nBut Brazil\u2019s left-wing former president Lula da Silva, a co-founder of the BRICS, has vowed to strengthen the bloc if he wins the October 2022 elections. Polls show him consistently leading over Bolsonaro.\nLula\u2019s former foreign minister, Celso Amorim, has said that a Brazil under Lula\u2019s leadership would strongly support Argentina joining the BRICS, calling it \u201cvery important\u201d for the region.\nArgentina has the third-largest economy in Latin America, following Brazil and Mexico.\nMexico has also been considered as a potential member, but was likely excluded because it is already part of the Western-led\u00a0Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Atrapada en la deuda del FMI, Argentina se alia con Rusia y China y se une a la Franja y la Ruta. 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": "Alberto Fern\u00e1ndez, Argentina, China, Covid-19, deuda, FMI, Rusia, vacunas, Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping", "output": "Argentina est\u00e1 atrapada con $44 mil millones de deuda odiosa del FMI, controlado por EEUU. Buscando alternativas a la hegemon\u00eda estadounidense, el presidente Alberto Fern\u00e1ndez viaj\u00f3 a Rusia y China, formando una alianza con las potencias euroasi\u00e1ticas, incorpor\u00e1ndose a la Iniciativa de la Franja y la Ruta.\n\n(You can read this article in English here.)\nEstados Unidos interviene constantemente en los asuntos internos de Am\u00e9rica Latina, organizando golpes de estado, desestabilizando gobiernos independientes, endeudando a las naciones e imponiendo sanciones. Washington ve la regi\u00f3n como propiedad propia, y el presidente Joe Biden se refiri\u00f3 a ella este enero como su \u201cpatio delantero\u201d.\nEn busca de alternativas a la hegemon\u00eda estadounidense, los gobiernos progresistas de Am\u00e9rica Latina han mirado cada vez m\u00e1s al otro lado del oc\u00e9ano para formar alianzas con China y Rusia.\nEl presidente de Argentina, Alberto Fern\u00e1ndez, hizo exactamente eso este febrero, realizando viajes hist\u00f3ricos a Beijing y Mosc\u00fa para reunirse con sus hom\u00f3logos Xi Jinping y Vladimir Putin.\nFern\u00e1ndez firm\u00f3 una serie de acuerdos estrat\u00e9gicos, incorporando oficialmente a Argentina a la Iniciativa de la Franja y la Ruta de Beijing, al tiempo que ampliaba sus alianzas econ\u00f3micas con las potencias euroasi\u00e1ticas y dec\u00eda a Mosc\u00fa que Argentina \u201cdebe ser la puerta de entrada\u201d a Am\u00e9rica Latina.\nChina le ofreci\u00f3 $23.700 millones de d\u00f3lares en financiamiento para proyectos de infraestructura e inversiones en la econom\u00eda argentina.\nEn las reuniones, Fern\u00e1ndez tambi\u00e9n pidi\u00f3 que Argentina se sume al sistema BRICS, junto a Brasil, Rusia, India, China y Sud\u00e1frica. Seg\u00fan los informes, Xi y Putin estuvieron de acuerdo.\n\u201cArgentina tiene que dejar de tener esa dependencia tan grande que tiene con el FMI y los Estados Unidos, y tiene que abrirse camino hacia otros lados\u201d, Fern\u00e1ndez dijo.\nLos comentarios y las reuniones del presidente argentino con Putin y Xi molestaron al gobierno de EEUU.\nArgentina es una gran potencia latinoamericana, con importantes recursos naturales y la tercera econom\u00eda m\u00e1s grande de la regi\u00f3n (despu\u00e9s de Brasil y M\u00e9xico, que tienen poblaciones significativamente m\u00e1s grandes).\nPero el desarrollo de Argentina a menudo ha sido lastrado por trampas de la deuda impuestas desde el exterior, lo que ha creado frecuentes crisis econ\u00f3micas, ciclos inflacionarios y devaluaciones de la moneda.\nEl Fondo Monetario Internacional (FMI), un brazo econ\u00f3mico de Estados Unidos, sobre el cual solo Washington tiene poder de veto, tiene un control significativo sobre Argentina, habiendo atrapado a la naci\u00f3n en enormes sumas de deuda odiosa.\nEn 2018, el presidente derechista de Argentina, Mauricio Macri, solicit\u00f3 el pr\u00e9stamo m\u00e1s grande en la historia del FMI: un asombroso rescate de $57.100 millones de d\u00f3lares.\nMacri era infame por su corrupci\u00f3n, y esto no era un secreto. Al aceptar dar una suma tan enorme de dinero al gobierno de Macri, plagado de esc\u00e1ndalos, el FMI sab\u00eda que estaba atrapando a Argentina en una deuda que no podr\u00eda pagar. Pero esta no fue la primera vez que el instrumento financiero dominado por Estados Unidos hab\u00eda atrapado a Argentina en una deuda odiosa.\nEn diciembre de 2021, el FMI public\u00f3 un informe interno en el que admiti\u00f3 que el rescate de 2018 fracas\u00f3 por completo en estabilizar la econom\u00eda argentina.\nPero cuando el presidente de centroizquierda de Argentina, Alberto Fern\u00e1ndez, asumi\u00f3 el cargo en diciembre de 2019, su pa\u00eds estaba atrapado en una deuda de $44.5 mil millones de este programa que el propio FMI admiti\u00f3 que fue un fracaso total. ($44,500 millones del pr\u00e9stamo de los $57,100 millones ya se hab\u00edan desembolsado, y Fern\u00e1ndez cancel\u00f3 el resto.)\nEl gobierno argentino ha intentado renegociar la deuda, pero el FMI ha impuesto condiciones que restringen severamente la soberan\u00eda de la naci\u00f3n \u2013 como nombrar a un economista brit\u00e1nico que \u201cser\u00e1 virtualmente el nuevo ministro de econom\u00eda\u201c, actuando como una especie de \u201ccogobierno\u201d, advirti\u00f3 la destacada diplom\u00e1tica Alicia Castro.\nBuscando formas de evitar estas trampas de la deuda de EEUU, Fern\u00e1ndez decidi\u00f3 en febrero volverse hacia las dos superpotencias emergentes de Eurasia.\nEl 3 de febrero, el presidente Alberto Fern\u00e1ndez viaj\u00f3 a Rusia para reunirse con el presidente Vladimir Putin.\n\u201cYo estoy empecinado en que la Argentina tiene que dejar de tener esa dependencia tan grande que tiene con el Fondo y con Estados Unidos. Tiene que abrirse camino a otros lados y me parece que ah\u00ed Rusia tiene un lugar muy importante\u201d, dijo el mandatario.\n???? | \"Estamos dando un paso importante para que la Argentina y Rusia profundicen sus lazos\", expres\u00f3 el presidente @alferdez en una declaraci\u00f3n conjunta que brind\u00f3 junto a su par Vlad\u00edmir Putin. #GiraPresidencial\n? @KremlinRussia_Ehttps://t.co/aHl8tOuPZy pic.twitter.com/APoQR6VHtU\n\u2014 Casa Rosada (@CasaRosada) February 3, 2022\n\nFern\u00e1ndez agreg\u00f3, \u201cTendr\u00edamos que ver la manera de que Argentina se convierta en una puerta de entrada para que Rusia ingrese a Am\u00e9rica Latina\u201d.\nEl mandatario argentino le dijo a Putin, \u201cYo quiero que usted tenga la certeza de que veo una gran oportunidad para que podamos avanzar. Y quiero que sepa que tiene en m\u00ed un amigo que quiere ver de qu\u00e9 modo podemos avanzar juntos\u201d.\nLos dos l\u00edderes hablaron de la inversi\u00f3n rusa en la econom\u00eda argentina, el comercio, la construcci\u00f3n de ferrocarriles y la tecnolog\u00eda energ\u00e9tica.\nFern\u00e1ndez tambi\u00e9n agradeci\u00f3 a Mosc\u00fa por colaborar con su pa\u00eds en la producci\u00f3n de su vacuna Sputnik V contra la covid-19. Argentina fue el primer pa\u00eds del hemisferio occidental en hacerlo.\nEl presidente argentino incluso se\u00f1al\u00f3 en su reuni\u00f3n que ha recibido tres dosis de la vacuna Sputnik V. Putin agreg\u00f3: \u201cYo tambi\u00e9n\u201d.\nPutin dijo que los dos pa\u00edses est\u00e1n de acuerdo en muchos temas y calific\u00f3 a Argentina como \u201cuno de los socios claves de Rusia en Am\u00e9rica Latina\u201d.\nEs un honor haberme reunido con Vlad\u00edmir Putin, presidente de Rusia.\nTuvimos la oportunidad de intercambiar ideas sobre c\u00f3mo podemos complementar mucho m\u00e1s el v\u00ednculo entre nuestras naciones. pic.twitter.com/ntmDGn6jtD\n\u2014 Alberto Fern\u00e1ndez (@alferdez) February 3, 2022\n\nApenas tres d\u00edas despu\u00e9s de reunirse con Putin, el presidente Alberto Fern\u00e1ndez viaj\u00f3 a China el 6 de febrero para reunirse con el presidente Xi Jinping.\nEn este viaje hist\u00f3rico, Argentina se uni\u00f3 oficialmente a la Iniciativa Belt and Road de Beijing, un programa de infraestructura global masivo.\nFern\u00e1ndez y otros altos funcionarios argentinos firmaron acuerdos por $23.700 millones de d\u00f3lares en financiamiento chino, incluyendo inversiones y proyectos de infraestructura.\nEl financiamiento se desembolsar\u00e1 en dos partes: una, que ya est\u00e1 aprobada, proporcionar\u00e1 a Argentina $14 mil millones para 10 proyectos de infraestructura; el segundo, por $9.700 millones, financiar\u00e1 la integraci\u00f3n de la naci\u00f3n sudamericana a la Franja y la Ruta.\nHay tres proyectos chino-argentinos que encabezaban la lista de Fern\u00e1ndez: la creaci\u00f3n de redes 5G, el desarrollo de la industria argentina del litio y la construcci\u00f3n de la planta de energ\u00eda nuclear Atucha III.\nTuve una cordial, amistosa y fruct\u00edfera reuni\u00f3n con Xi Jinping, presidente de China. Acordamos la incorporaci\u00f3n de Argentina a la Franja y la Ruta de la Seda.\nEs una excelente noticia. Nuestro pa\u00eds obtendr\u00e1 m\u00e1s de US$ 23 mil millones de inversiones chinas para obras y proyectos. pic.twitter.com/LGyIJ6zWdG\n\u2014 Alberto Fern\u00e1ndez (@alferdez) February 6, 2022\n\nFern\u00e1ndez tambi\u00e9n habl\u00f3 de la producci\u00f3n argentina de la vacuna de Sinopharm contra la covid-19, adem\u00e1s de la Sputnik V de Rusia.\nArgentina y China firmaron un memor\u00e1ndum de entendimiento integral, que incluye 13 documentos de cooperaci\u00f3n en \u00e1reas como energ\u00eda verde, tecnolog\u00eda, educaci\u00f3n, agricultura, comunicaci\u00f3n y energ\u00eda nuclear.\nFern\u00e1ndez y Xi hablaron de maneras para \u201cprofundizar las relaciones de cooperaci\u00f3n pol\u00edtica, comercial, econ\u00f3mica, cient\u00edfica y cultural entre ambos pa\u00edses\u201d, seg\u00fan una declaraci\u00f3n del gobierno argentino tras la reuni\u00f3n.\nAparentemente, los dos l\u00edderes se llevaron muy bien, y Fern\u00e1ndez le dijo a Xi, \u201cSi usted fuera argentino, ser\u00eda peronista\u201c.\n???? | El presidente @alferdez mantuvo reuniones sobre el proyecto de producir en Argentina la vacuna de Sinopharm, particip\u00f3 de la inauguraci\u00f3n de los JJOO de Invierno #Beijing2022 y visit\u00f3 el Museo de la Historia del Partido Comunista. #GiraPresidencialhttps://t.co/acSH9rvpM7 pic.twitter.com/Edz7hHRLE8\n\u2014 Casa Rosada (@CasaRosada) February 4, 2022\n\nLa incorporaci\u00f3n de Argentina a la Franja y la Ruta se produce pocas semanas despu\u00e9s de que Nicaragua se uniera a la iniciativa en enero, y Cuba en diciembre.\nLos crecientes v\u00ednculos de Am\u00e9rica Latina con China y Rusia muestran c\u00f3mo el sistema internacional cada vez m\u00e1s multipolar ofrece a los pa\u00edses del Sur Global nuevos aliados que pueden servir como baluartes y alternativas a la hegemon\u00eda de Washington.\nMientras los l\u00edderes derechistas de Am\u00e9rica Latina siguen mirando al norte a Estados Unidos como su br\u00fajula pol\u00edtica, los gobiernos progresistas cruzan el oc\u00e9ano hacia las potencias euroasi\u00e1ticas de China, Rusia e Ir\u00e1n, construyendo nuevas alianzas internacionales que debilitan el control geopol\u00edtico de Washington sobre una regi\u00f3n que el presidente de EEUU a\u00fan insiste es su \u201cpatio delantero\u201d.\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Menos de 15 pa\u00edses reconocen al golpista venezolano Juan Guaid\u00f3. 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": "golpe de estado, Juan Guaid\u00f3, Julio Borges, Leopoldo L\u00f3pez, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, PSUV, Venezuela", "output": "Un ex aliado de Juan Guaid\u00f3 admiti\u00f3 que un m\u00e1ximo de 15 pa\u00edses reconocen al l\u00edder golpista como el supuesto \u201cpresidente interino\u201d de Venezuela. La administraci\u00f3n dem\u00f3crata de Joe Biden en EEUU es una de ellas.\n\n(You can read this article in English here.)\nEl 23 de enero de 2022 marca el tercer aniversario del intento de golpe de estado de Estados Unidos contra el \u00fanico gobierno constitucional de Venezuela, el del presidente Nicol\u00e1s Maduro.\nEse d\u00eda en 2019, la administraci\u00f3n de Donald Trump nombr\u00f3 al opositor venezolano Juan Guaid\u00f3, quien era poco conocido en su pa\u00eds y nunca hab\u00eda recibido un solo voto en una elecci\u00f3n presidencial, como el supuesto \u201cpresidente interino\u201d de la naci\u00f3n caribe\u00f1a.\nEn la cima del intento de golpe liderado por EEUU, menos de 60 de los 193 estados miembros de la ONU reconocieron a Guaid\u00f3. Y ese n\u00famero ha ca\u00eddo precipitadamente desde entonces.\nUno de los principales exfuncionarios de Guaid\u00f3, el derechista Julio Borges, admiti\u00f3 en una entrevista que un m\u00e1ximo de solo 15 pa\u00edses a\u00fan reconocen a Guaid\u00f3, a partir de enero de 2022.\nLos principales medios de comunicaci\u00f3n occidentales han reconocido que Guaid\u00f3 en realidad no controla nada dentro de Venezuela, aparte de lo que Estados Unidos rob\u00f3 para \u00e9l.\nSin embargo, la administraci\u00f3n de Joe Biden ha mantenido la pol\u00edtica de Trump de apoyo a Guaid\u00f3.\nEste reconocimiento ha continuado a pesar de las elecciones regionales de noviembre de 2021 en Venezuela, que fueron observadas por la Uni\u00f3n Europea, en las que el partido de Guaid\u00f3 fue derrotado aplastantemente, y el Partido Socialista Unido (PSUV) del Presidente Maduro gan\u00f3 en una victoria contundente.\nEl golpista venezolano Juan Guaid\u00f3 en la Casa Blanca con el Presidente de Estados Unidos Donald Trump en febrero de 2020\nLas naciones que a\u00fan se niegan a reconocer al presidente constitucional de Venezuela, Maduro, consisten principalmente en Estados Unidos y sus aliados derechistas en Am\u00e9rica Latina, incluyendo Colombia, Brasil, Guatemala, Paraguay y Ecuador \u2013 junto con la Organizaci\u00f3n de Estados Americanos (OEA), que es controlada por Washington.\nEl gobierno Liberal del Primer Ministro Justin Trudeau de Canad\u00e1 todav\u00eda respalda a Guaid\u00f3 tambi\u00e9n.\nReino Unido es uno de los \u00fanicos pa\u00edses europeos que se niegan a reconocer a Maduro, en parte porque, al continuar reconociendo formalmente a Guaid\u00f3, le da una excusa judicial para que el Banco de Inglaterra pueda robar casi $2 mil millones de oro venezolano.\nDe hecho, el r\u00e9gimen golpista de Guaid\u00f3 us\u00f3 dinero incautado ilegalmente del Banco Central de Venezuela para pagar los costos legales en Reino Unido, en sus esfuerzos por controlar estos miles de millones de d\u00f3lares en oro venezolano saqueado, el periodista John McEvoy ha revelado.\nIncluso Espa\u00f1a, que alberga a venezolanos pr\u00f3fugos de la justicia que organizaron violentos intentos de golpe de estado contra el gobierno chavista, ya no reconoce realmente a Guaid\u00f3.\nQuiz\u00e1s la figura m\u00e1s poderosa de la oposici\u00f3n de Venezuela, Leopoldo L\u00f3pez, un extremista de derecha de una familia oligarca ultra rica, vive actualmente en Madrid, donde ha disfrutado del apoyo del gobierno espa\u00f1ol. Esto es a pesar del hecho de que L\u00f3pez admiti\u00f3 haber orquestado violentos intentos de golpe y planeado una invasi\u00f3n fallida de Venezuela en mayo de 2020, conocida como Operaci\u00f3n Gede\u00f3n.\nEn una admisi\u00f3n impl\u00edcita de que todos estos esfuerzos por derrocar al gobierno leg\u00edtimo de Venezuela hab\u00edan fracasado, la Uni\u00f3n Europea dej\u00f3 de reconocer a Guaid\u00f3 a partir de enero de 2021.\nJulio Borges, el pol\u00edtico de la oposici\u00f3n venezolana que dijo que un m\u00e1ximo de solo 15 pa\u00edses a\u00fan reconocen a Guaid\u00f3, lo sabe por experiencia propia.\nBorges se desempe\u00f1\u00f3 anteriormente como el llamado \u201ccanciller\u201d del r\u00e9gimen golpista paralelo de Guaid\u00f3, que nunca ha ejercido el poder dentro de Venezuela y nunca fue elegido por el pueblo venezolano.\nBorges renunci\u00f3 al r\u00e9gimen golpista de Guaid\u00f3 en diciembre de 2021, y dijo que el \u201cgobierno interino se ha desformado\u201d y \u201cdebe desaparecer\u201d.\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Brazilian neo-Nazis see Ukraine as their model: Behind the fascist campaign to \u2018Ukrainize\u2019 Brazil. 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": "Azov, Brazil, fascism, Jair Bolsonaro, Nazis, Russia, Ukraine", "output": "Brazilian neo-Nazis and supporters of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro have spent years collaborating with violent fascists in Ukraine, and even launched a campaign to \u201cUkrainize\u201d Brazil.\n\n(This article was first published at MintPress News, under a Creative Commons license.)\nS\u00c3O PAULO \u2013 A small group of supporters of Brazil\u2019s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro became social media celebrities after they crossed the border into Ukraine this February and March to fight against Russia.\nThese right-wing Brazilians posed with assault rifles on Instagram, reciting prayers to the special forces, sharing video monologues praising the brotherhood of people from around the world who had gathered in a training base near the Ukrainian city of Lviv to kill Russian \u201ccommunists.\u201d The group\u2019s inexperience was demonstrated by the fact that most of their social media posts included their geo-location information.\nThis all changed following a missile attack on the training base near the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on March 13, after which a series of more humble photos and videos began cropping up on their Twitter and Instagram feeds.\nFrom across the Polish border, Bolsonaro supporter Jefferson Kleidian posted a selfie brandishing an injured pinky finger and thanking God for one more day on Earth.\nBrazilian Bolsonaro supporter and former combatant Jefferson Kleidian thanks God for one more day on Earth from a safe place in Poland\nAnother right-wing influencer, Andre Hack, posted that he had lost friends at the base. 28-year-old shooting-range instructor and Bolsonaro fanatic Tiago Rossi tweeted a video saying he had fled the base immediately before the missile strike.\n\u201cOur entire legion was destroyed, the information I have is that everyone died. You don\u2019t understand what it\u2019s like to have a fighter jet fire a missile at you. I didn\u2019t think it was a real war,\u201d Rossi said.\n\"You guys don't understand what it's like to have a jet shoot a missile at you.\"So war isn't a movie or a video game.Brazilian describes what happened when Russians missiles hit the base where the foreign legion was deployed.Thanks to @BrianMteleSUR for translation. https://t.co/1HFcXi6zby pic.twitter.com/DZRPDQmiDP\n\u2014 Margaret Kimberley (@freedomrideblog) March 14, 2022\n\nWhat were these Brazilians doing in Ukraine in the first place? In order to answer that question, one has to look back at the resurgence of Nazi ideology in Brazil and the deepening relationship between Brazil\u2019s neo-Nazi groups, which have grown by a staggering 270% since Jair Bolsonaro took office in 2019, and Ukrainian neo-Nazi organizations like Azov.\nDuring the 1930s, Brazil was home to the largest German Nazi party outside of Europe and had a much larger local fascist movement, called the integralistas, that tried to enact a coup in 1938. The coup was crushed, but the ideology lived on in a country that already suffered from severe structural racism as the last place in the Americas to eradicate slavery.\nBrazil\u2019s current president, Jair Bolsonaro, made it into power only after a joint operation by the US Department of Justice and Brazilian public prosecutors to jail the leading 2018 presidential candidate, Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva, on false charges.\nBolsonaro began his career as an army captain during a sub-fascist military dictatorship, which employed Gestapo tactics like death squads and torture against labor union leaders, intellectuals, and communists.\nAs a congressman in 2004, Bolsonaro wrote a series of\u00a0letters to neo-Nazi websites, saying things like \u201cyou guys are the reason I am in politics.\u201d\nGrounded on a platform of anti-communist hate speech, his presidency unleashed a flood of public support for fascism, which had been latent since the end of the dictatorship.\nAccording to Brazilian law, Nazi organizations are illegal, but according to anthropology professor and anti-Nazi researcher Adriana Dias, there are currently 530 neo-Nazi cells operating in Brazil.\nSince 2012, these organizations have had increasing interactions with Ukrainian Nazi organizations, which have resulted in Brazilian Nazis gaining combat experience with Azov in Donbas.\nThis has also led to a campaign to \u201cUkraine Brazil,\u201d run by a right-wing extremist faction of Bolsonaro supporters.\nSara Fernanda Giromini was a teenager involved in Nazi skinhead gangs in Sao Paulo when she opened a VK account, made friends with Russian and Ukrainian neo-Nazis, and learned about FEMEN, after reading about it on Facebook. VK is a popular Russian social media platform.\nGiromini first visited Ukraine in 2011, where she met and trained with FEMEN leaders and other actors from the Ukrainian far-right. After returning to Brazil in 2012, she started calling herself Sarah Winter in homage to the English fascist of the 1920s.\nA series of topless protests transformed Giromini into a celebrity, but FEMEN Brazil imploded in less than a year.\nBruna Themis, number two in the organization, resigned and gave a series of whistleblowing interviews, saying that the Ukrainians demanded they kick out any Brazilian woman who didn\u2019t meet their sexist physical appearance and weight standards; that the real leader of the group was a minor far-right politician named Andrey Cuia, who frequently traveled back and forth to Ukraine; and that Cuia and Giromini were ripping off donors and keeping the money for themselves.\nAfter posing with guns and threatening violence against Supreme Court ministers, Brazilian fascist \u201cSara Winter (Sara Giromini) was put under house arrest\nShortly afterward, FEMEN Ukraine announced that FEMEN Brazil had nothing to do with them, despite the fact that Giromini\u00a0was arrested during a FEMEN protest\u00a0in Kiev in 2012. Giromini now says that during her time in FEMEN, they\u00a0paid her $2,000 per protest.\nAccording to Adriana Dias, the anti-Nazi researcher, after FEMEN folded, Giromini began inviting Ukrainian neo-Nazis to Brazil. She remains friends with several leaders of Azov and the Phoenix Battalion on her VK account to this day.\nIn 2016, civil police in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, home to several waves of German and Italian immigration and a long fascist tradition of its own, carried out an investigation into neo-Nazi groups that were planning violent attacks against Afro-Brazilians, Jews, and LGBT+ people.\nThey discovered that a Ukrainian neo-Nazi militia, Misanthropic Division, was recruiting Brazilian Nazis in seven cities in the state to serve as volunteer combatants with Azov in the Donbas region.\nThe investigation, which was dubbed \u201cOperation Azov,\u201d received ample coverage in the Brazilian and Israeli press at the time.\nAfter leading candidate Lula da Silva was arbitrarily imprisoned during the 2018 election campaign, Bolsonaro was swept into office on a wave of Nazi-influenced anti-communist propaganda that led him to label any person or organization that ever criticized him as a communist. At one point he even called the oldest conservative magazine in the world, The Economist, \u201cThe Communist.\u201d\nGiromini, by this time a vocal member of the anti-abortion movement, campaigned heavily for Bolsonaro. After he took office in 2019, she began a public call to \u201cUkrainize Brazil.\u201d\nMany of the most reactionary public figures associated with Bolsonaro, like\u00a0openly fascist Rio de Janeiro lawmaker Daniel Silveira, joined the campaign.\nDias says, \u201cAzov\u2019s tactic has always been to bring a group of 300 people to a city and, through training activities with locals, start a right-wing extremist movement.\u201d\nGiromini relocated to the capital Brasilia and started an organization called the \u201cGroup of 300\u201d to help build support for the Ukrainization of Brazil.\nIn 2020, after the Brazilian Supreme Court blocked one of Bolsonaro\u2019s attempts to bypass the constitution, Giromini\u2019s Group of 300 camped out on the national esplanade, held a series of tiki torch-wielding protests in front of the court building, and shot fireworks at it.\nPosing for selfies with guns, Giromini called for violence against Supreme Court ministers. On July 15, 2020, the Supreme Court ordered her arrest. After two weeks in jail, she was given an ankle bracelet, transferred to house arrest, and ordered to stay off social media. She has been there ever since.\nBrazilian fascist Sara Winter (Sara Giromini) leading a \u201cGroup of 300\u201d protest in front of the Supreme Court\nSara Giromini AKA Winter, leading a protest in front of the Supreme Court\nMeanwhile, Ukrainian flags and symbols of the Ukrainian far-right became more and more popular at pro-Bolsonaro rallies.\nIn 2020, a former soldier and security consultant named Alex Silva, who has been living in Kiev since 2014 and says he is a member of an \u201cauxiliary volunteer police force\u201d there, triggered a media controversy that led to an official disclaimer from the Ukrainian Embassy when he hoisted a red-and-black Right Sector flag onto a sound truck at a Bolsonaro rally and was photographed walking through the crowd wearing it like a cape.\nSilva, now back in Kiev, has become another internet celebrity to the Brazilian far-right, posting videos of his armed voluntary patrols of Kiev as recently as this March.\nFar-right Brazilian influencer Alex Silva, a former soldier and \u201cvoluntary auxiliary policeman\u201d in Kiev, draped in a Right Sector flag at a 2020 protest in Sao Paulo\nLeonel Radde is a Porto Alegre city councilor who spends a lot of his time investigating neo-Nazi groups in Rio Grande do Sul. Asked about connections between Brazilian and Ukrainian neo-Nazi groups, he said:\nWe see clearly that the majority of Nazi groups here use Ukrainian design elements. They are using the same symbols \u2013 mainly the black sun \u2014 and they all use this discourse of Ukrainizing Brazil. They also talk among themselves about adapting Ukrainian tactics for setting up camps and occupying public squares and things like that. They are definitely trying to copy what happened in Ukraine in 2014. We are trying to figure out how much they are just copying things they see on the internet or if they are being financed from the Ukraine, although Sarah Winter spent time near Porto Alegre doing organizing work and she started this whole thing.\u201d\nMeanwhile, far-right social media influencers like Alex Silva are still sending reports from Ukraine.\nThis March the Ukrainian Embassy in Brasilia said it received 100 requests from Brazilians asking to volunteer for the Ukrainian army, and UOL reports that analysis of pro-Bolsonaro social media groups shows that 500 others are planning to go.\nWhether the missile attack near Lviv and reports coming in from scared-looking former Brazilian combatants who have escaped to Poland will change any of that has yet to be seen.\nRegardless, it is clear that political indoctrination by Ukrainian Nazis has taken hold among Brazil\u2019s growing far-right, and will be a factor in the 2022 presidential election season.\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Taiwan separatists lose key ally, Honduras recognizes China \u2013 just 12 small countries remain. 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, coup, Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, Nicaragua, Taiwan, Xiomara Castro", "output": "Honduras\u2019 leftist President Xiomara Castro officially recognized China. Now only 12 UN member states have formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan separatists. They have a combined population of less than 39 million, or 0.49% of the planet.\n\nUpdate (March 26):\nHonduras announced on March 25 that it officially established formal diplomatic relations with the People\u2019s Republic of China.\nThe Honduran Foreign Ministry publicly recognized the One China Policy \u2013 that there is only one China, represented by the People\u2019s Republic, and that Taiwan is a province of it.\n\u201cThe two governments agreed to develop links of friendship\u201d, the Honduran Foreign Ministry wrote, pledging to negotiate \u201cagreements in areas of cooperation, such as finance, trade, infrastructure, energy, technology, culture, tourism, education, and health, among others, based on mutual benefit and shared integral development\u201d.\n\u201cWith this historic decision, the Government of the Republic widens the horizon of development for the Honduran people\u201d, the Foreign Ministry added.\n?????| La Rep\u00fablica de Honduras y la Rep\u00fablica Popular China establecen Relaciones Diplom\u00e1ticas. pic.twitter.com/slUPC26fbt\n\u2014 Canciller\u00eda Honduras (@CancilleriaHN) March 26, 2023\n\nOriginal article (March 16):\nThe government of Honduras has announced that it is breaking formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan and recognizing the People\u2019s Republic of China.\nHonduras\u2019 leftist President Xiomara Castro had pledged during her 2021 campaign that, if she won the election, she would recognize China. This March, she fulfilled that promise.\nThis means that just 12 United Nations member states have formal diplomatic relations with the so-called \u201cRepublic of China\u201d on the island of Taiwan.\nThe other 99.51% of the global population live in countries that formally recognize that there is only one China, and that Taiwan is a province of the People\u2019s Republic of China.\n\nThese 12 UN member states that recognize Taiwan have a combined population of only 38.9 million \u2013 representing just 0.49% of the global population of 8 billion.\nThe following list consists of the countries that still do not have formal relations with the People\u2019s Republic of China, accompanied by the size of their populations, according to CIA World Factbook data:\n12 UN member states:\nGuatemala \u2013 17.98 million\nHaiti \u2013 11.47 million\nParaguay \u2013 7.44 million\nEswatini \u2013 1.13 million\nBelize \u2013 419,137\nSaint Lucia \u2013 167,591\nSaint Vincent and the Grenadines \u2013 100,804\nMarshall Islands \u2013 80,966\nSaint Kitts and Nevis \u2013 54,817\nPalau \u2013 21,779\nTuvalu \u2013 11,639\nNauru \u2013 9,852\nNon UN member:\nVatican City \u2013 c. 1000\n\nEven the United States technically recognizes that Taiwan is part of China, at least on paper.\nWashington signed Three Communiqu\u00e9s with Beijing when the governments normalized diplomatic relations. The first communiqu\u00e9, signed in 1972, stated clearly:\nThe United States acknowledges that all Chinese on either side of the Taiwan Strait maintain there is but one China and that Taiwan is a part of China. The United States Government does not challenge that position.\nDespite its legal commitments, Washington has been gradually increasing its support for separatist forces in Taiwan.\nThe US military has deployed troops on Taiwan island, and sold it billions of dollars of weapons. Top US officials like former Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi have also made provocative trips to the Chinese province, backing separatists.\n\nXiomara Castro (of no relation to Cuba\u2019s revolutionary leader Fidel Castro) made this historic announcement on March 14.\nIn a tweet, Castro said, \u201cI have instructed Foreign Minister Eduardo Reina to arrange the opening of official relations with the People\u2019s Republic of China, as a demonstration of my determination to fulfill the Plan of Government and expand the frontiers of liberty in concert with the nations of the world\u201d.\nHe instruido al Canciller Eduardo Reina, para que gestione la apertura de relaciones oficiales con la Rep\u00fablica Popular China, como muestra de mi determinaci\u00f3n para cumplir el Plan de Gobierno y expandir las fronteras con libertad en el concierto de las naciones del mundo.\n\u2014 Xiomara Castro de Zelaya (@XiomaraCastroZ) March 14, 2023\n\nCastro\u2019s decision enraged US politicians.\nRepublican Senator Bill Cassidy tweeted threateningly, \u201cThe Honduran people will suffer because of her failed leadership\u201d.\nHonduran President Xiomara Castro is moving her country closer to Communist China while the world is moving away. The Honduran people will suffer because of her failed leadership.\n\u2014 U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (@SenBillCassidy) March 15, 2023\n\nIn a subsequent interview explaining the decision, Reina said that China has offered to help Honduras economically.\nThere are \u201cgreat needs that the Honduran people have\u201d, and, \u201cUnfortunately, the needs are enormous, and we have not seen this response\u201d from Taiwan, the foreign minister emphasized.\nReina also noted that Honduras is trapped in billions of dollars of odious debt owed to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other US-dominated institutions, and China could potentially ease this burden.\nUS-backed coup regimes trapped Honduras in unpayable odious debt, warns new President Xiomara Castro\n\nHonduras is one of the poorest countries in the Western hemisphere. Roughly three-quarters (74%) of its population of 10 million live in poverty.\nThe United States sponsored a military coup in Honduras in 2009, which overthrew the country\u2019s democratically elected left-wing President Manuel Zelaya and installed a brutally repressive right-wing regime.\nThis ultra-conservative coup regime, which was closely linked to drug trafficking, ran Honduras with an iron first from 2009 until the end of 2021. Poverty skyrocketed, and violence and organized crime became such systemic problems that Honduras had the highest murder rate on Earth.\nMeanwhile, the coup regime, which blatantly stole two elections, enjoyed the staunch support of not only the United States, but also Taiwan.\nIn fact, during the November 2021 vote, Taiwan meddled in Honduras\u2019 elections. Honduran activists published photos and videos across social media that showed Taiwan providing aid to the right-wing National Party, the party of the coup regime.\nTaiwan is meddling in Honduras' presidential election, coming up on the 28th, giving aid to the ruling right-wing National Party, which has brutally ruled the country since a US-backed 2009 military coup\nThe leftist Libre Party candidate pledged to establish relations with China https://t.co/EMzwYQKOo9\n\u2014 Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) November 25, 2021\n\nTaiwan has been similarly meddling in the political system of Honduras\u2019 western neighbor, Guatemala, pressuring the country to maintain diplomatic relations.\nThe Associated Press reported in 2022 that Taiwan paid Guatemala $900,000 to hire a top ally of Donald Trump to lobby in Washington on behalf of its right-wing President Alejandro Giammattei, a notoriously corrupt millionaire and dual citizen of Italy.\nHonduras\u2019 southern neighbor, Nicaragua, on the other hand, has a leftist government led by the Sandinista Front.\nIn 2021, Nicaragua broke ties with Taiwan, recognizing the People\u2019s Republic of China. Since then, Managua and Beijing have become close allies, and the two governments are negotiating a comprehensive free trade agreement.\nChina is helping Nicaragua expand its public housing program, building thousands of homes for poor and working families. Beijing has also signed agreements to develop infrastructure, hospitals, and renewable energy.\nNicaragua\u00a0has even made plans with China to construct an interoceanic canal, which would challenge the monopoly of the Panama Canal and offer enormous economic opportunities for the Central American nation.\nNicaragua\u2019s revolutionary Sandinista government had first recognized China back in the 1980s, but after a decade of a CIA-sponsored Contra terror war and an illegal US blockade against Nicaragua, a right-wing regime came to power in 1990, which reveretd to diplomatic relations with Taiwan.\nSandinista Nicaragua allies with China, Russia, Iran against US imperialism\n\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Brazil\u2019s Lula proposes creating Latin American currency to \u2018be freed of US dollar\u2019 dependency. 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, Bolivarian Alliance, Brazil, dollar, Ecuador, Hugo Ch\u00e1vez, Lula da Silva, Rafael Correa, Sucre, Venezuela", "output": "Brazil\u2019s left-wing leader Lula da Silva says if he wins the 2022 presidential elections, \u201cwe are going to create a currency in Latin America,\u201d called the Sur (\u201cSouth\u201d), to combat \u201cthe dependency on the dollar\u201d\n\n(Se puede leer esta nota en espa\u00f1ol aqu\u00ed.)\nBrazil\u2019s left-wing leader Lula da Silva has proposed creating a pan-Latin American currency, in order to \u201cbe freed of the dollar.\u201d\nA founder of Brazil\u2019s Workers\u2019 Party, Lula served as president for two terms, from 2003 to 2011. He is now the leading candidate as Brazil\u2019s October 2022 presidential elections approach.\nIf he returns to the presidency, \u201cWe are going to create a currency in Latin America, because we can\u2019t keep depending on the dollar,\u201d Lula\u00a0said in a speech at a rally on May 2.\n\nHe revealed that the currency would be called the Sur, which means \u201cSouth\u201d in Spanish.\nLula explained that countries in Latin America could still keep their sovereign domestic currency, but they could use the Sur to do bilateral trade with each other, instead of having to exchange for US dollars.\nThe Sur could also help to contain inflation in the region, Lula argued.\nLula said the goal of the currency would be to deepen Latin American integration and strengthen the region\u2019s economic sovereignty, weakening its dependence on the United States.\nUnder Brazil\u2019s current government, led by far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro, the South American giant has subordinated itself to Washington, while viciously attacking the left-wing governments in the region.\nBolsonaro\u2019s Brazil has refused to recognize the legitimacy of the leftist Chavista government in its neighbor Venezuela, and has even supported violent cross-border terrorist attacks against it.\nIf he returns to the presidency, Lula pledged that Brazil \u201cwill strengthen its relations with Latin America.\u201d\nLula has also vowed to revive the BRICS system, integrating Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa in an independent economic architecture to challenge Western financial hegemony.\nIn 2020, Lula published a call \u201cFor a Multipolar World.\u201d He explained his goal is \u201cthe creation of a multipolar world, free from unilateral hegemony and from sterile bipolar confrontation,\u201d that \u201cwould permit a true re-founding of the multilateral order, based on principles of real multilateralism, in which international cooperation can truly flourish.\u201d\nLula\u2019s proposal for the Sur is certainly not the first time progressive politicians in Latin America have tried to create a common currency. This has long been a dream of left-wing leaders in the region.\nVenezuela\u2019s revolutionary former president Hugo Ch\u00e1vez developed an international currency as part of the Bolivarian Alliance (ALBA), an economic coalition of left-wing governments in Latin America and the Caribbean.\nThis currency was called the Sucre, and was adopted in 2009 by Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba, Bolivia, and Ecuador.\nThe ALBA summit in Cochabamba, Bolivia in 2009 in which the Sucre was adopted\nSucre was an acronym for \u201cUnified System for Regional Compensation,\u201d but also a reference to Antonio Jos\u00e9 de Sucre, who helped lead the South American independence struggle against Spanish colonialism, alongside Sim\u00f3n Bol\u00edvar.\nEcuador\u2019s government, under leftist President Rafael Correa, who has a Ph.D. in economics, was the main adopter of the Sucre.\nAt its peak in 2012, the Sucre was used for more than $1 billion in bilateral annual trade in the region.\nThe symbol for the Sucre, used by the ALBA\nBut the currency fell out of use by 2016, following Ch\u00e1vez\u2019s death in 2013, a massive drop in commodity prices in 2014, the imposition of US sanctions on Venezuela in 2015, and violent coup attempts against Ch\u00e1vez\u2019s successor Nicol\u00e1s Maduro.\nEcuador\u2019s subsequent right-wing President Len\u00edn Moreno, with US backing, later removed his country from the ALBA, dealing a huge blow to the Sucre and dreams of regional integration.\nBrazil\u2019s presidential elections will be held in October 2022.\nPolls consistently show Lula leading over far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil\u2019s sitting president.\nBolsonaro only came to power in the 2018 elections due to a soft coup d\u2019etat backed by the United States.\nLula had been significantly ahead in the polls in the lead-up to the 2018 vote, but Brazil\u2019s judicial system imprisoned him on false charges, handing the victory to Bolsonaro.\nThe US Justice Department helped support this campaign of what Lula calls legal warfare, or lawfare, to prevent him from returning to the presidency.\nThe US government also backed the 2016 political coup against Brazil\u2019s democratically President Dilma Rousseff, also a member of Lula\u2019s left-wing Workers\u2019 Party.\nThe UN Human Rights Committee found this April that the prosecution of Lula was politically motivated and violated his rights.\n\u201cThe investigation and prosecution of former President Lula da Silva violated his right to be tried by an impartial tribunal, his right to privacy and his political rights,\u201d the UN legal experts determined.\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Despite Biden\u2019s claims, Gaza health ministry death toll is accurate, scientific studies show. 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": "Gaza, Israel, Palestine, The Lancet", "output": "US President Biden criticized Gaza\u2019s health ministry, but its statistics on Israel\u2019s killings of Palestinians are accurate, according to peer-reviewed articles in top medical journal The Lancet.\n\nThe death toll of Israel\u2019s war on Gaza reported by the Palestinian health ministry is accurate, according to two peer-reviewed studies by scientific experts published in top medical journal The Lancet.\nAs of December 18, Israel had killed 19,453 Palestinians in Gaza, the ministry reported. Two-thirds of the deaths were children (7,729) and women (5,153).\nUnited Nations bodies, human rights organizations, and major media outlets have often used these statistics, because they have a history of being accurate.\n\n\u201cInternational organizations including the United Nations usually rely on these same figures as they are seen as the best available\u201d, the Washington Post acknowledged.\n\u201cMany experts consider figures provided by the ministry reliable, given its access, sources and accuracy in past statements\u201d, the prominent US newspaper wrote.\nIsrael has claimed, without any evidence, that Gaza\u2019s health ministry is untrustworthy, because it is supposedly run by the political party Hamas. (In reality, the Gaza health ministry is partially funded by and linked to Hamas\u2019 political rival, the Palestinian Authority, based in the Occupied West Bank.)\nThe US government has echoed Israel\u2019s disinformation. President Joe Biden said in an October 25 press conference, \u201cI have no notion that the Palestinians are telling the truth about how many people are killed\u2026 I have no confidence in the number that the Palestinians are using\u201d.\nDespite Biden\u2019s criticism, HuffPost revealed that the US State Department uses the Palestinian health ministry figures in its own reports on Gaza.\nIn one of such memos, a US official acknowledged that, if anything, \u201cThe numbers are likely much higher, according to the UN and NGOs reporting on the situation\u201d.\nThis was exactly the conclusion reached by scientific experts at Johns Hopkins University\u2019s Bloomberg School of Public Health.\nThe peer-reviewed article \u201cNo evidence of inflated mortality reporting from the Gaza Ministry of Health\u201d, published in leading medical journal The Lancet on December 6, noted that the Palestinian institution \u201chas historically reported accurate mortality data\u201d.\nIn past conflicts, discrepancies between Gaza Ministry of Health (MoH) data and independent United Nations figures were only between 1.5% and 3.8%.\nGaza MoH data were also quite similar to figures from Israel\u2019s own Foreign Ministry, with a difference of just around 8%.\nScholars Benjamin Q Huynh, Elizabeth T Chin, and Paul B Spiegel wrote that they \u201cfound no evidence of inflated rates\u201d.\nScientific experts from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine came to a similar conclusion in their own peer-reviewed article in The Lancet, published on November 26.\nFor this previous study, scholars Zeina Jamaluddine, Francesco Checchi, and Oona M R Campbell reviewed death statistics from October 7 to 26, analyzing the list of 7028 deaths compiled by the Gaza Ministry of Health.\nOut of the 7028 names, only one had a duplicated ID number, one had an implausible age, and just 281 lacked an ID number.\nThe experts concluded that the data were reasonable, writing, \u201cWe consider it implausible that these patterns would arise from data fabrication\u201d.\nThey also reviewed MoH figures from previous wars in Gaza, and found them to be reliable.\n\u201cAssessments of Palestinian MoH data validity in the 2014 conflict had shown them to be accurate, and we saw no obvious reason to doubt the validity of the data between Oct 7 and Oct 26, 2023\u201d, the scholars stated.\nIf anything, they concluded that the Gaza MoH figures may be rather conservative.\n\u201cThe death reporting system currently being used by the Palestinian MoH was assessed in 2021, 2 years before the current war, and was found to under-report mortality by 13%\u201d, they wrote, adding that \u201cit is plausible that the current Palestinian MoH source also under-reports mortality because of the direct effect of the war on data capture and reporting, for example by omitting people whose bodies could not be recovered or brought to morgues\u201d.\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Brazil and Argentina preparing new Latin American currency to \u2018reduce reliance on US dollar\u2019. 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": "Andr\u00e9s Arauz, Argentina, Brazil, CELAC, dollar, Financial Times, Latin America, Lula da Silva, MERCOSUR, Sergio Massa, Sur, UNASUR", "output": "Brazil and Argentina are making plans for a Latin American currency called the Sur, to \u201cboost regional trade and reduce reliance on the US dollar\u201d. Lula had pledged it while running for president.\n\nThe governments of Brazil and Argentina are making plans to create a new currency for Latin America, called the Sur (\u201csouth\u201d in English), according to a report in the Financial Times.\nOther countries in the region will be invited to use the currency.\nTheir goal is to \u201cboost regional trade and reduce reliance on the US dollar\u201d, the newspaper noted, citing government officials.\n\nArgentina\u2019s Economic Minister Sergio Massa told the Financial Times that the South American nations will soon \u201cstart studying the parameters needed for a common currency, which includes everything from fiscal issues to the size of the economy and the role of central banks\u201d.\nMassa said they are preparing \u201ca study of mechanisms for trade integration\u201d. But he cautioned that it could take years to develop, and this is just \u201cfirst step on a long road which Latin America must travel\u201d.\nBrazil and Argentina will discuss the currency plans at the meeting of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) in Buenos Aires on January 24.\nBrazil has the largest economy in Latin America, and Argentina has the third biggest (after Mexico).\n\nArgentina-based Spanish economist Alfredo Serrano Manc, who directs a think tank dedicated to regional integration, the Latin American Strategic Center of Geopolitics (CELAG), told the Financial Times that \u201cthe path is to find mechanisms which substitute the dependence on the dollar\u201d.\nHe added that now is the moment, given that \u201cthere are many governments that are ideologically similar\u201d, with left-wing leaders across Latin America.\nMe consultaron en @FinancialTimes para esta nota sobre los desaf\u00edos de la cumbre CELAC. La v\u00eda es buscar mecanismos para sustituir la dependencia del dolar. Y s\u00ed se puede si se quiere. Y m\u00e1s ahora que hay muchos gobiernos afines en lo ideol\u00f3gico. https://t.co/kXjklZgZ1b\n\u2014 Alfredo Serrano Manc (@alfreserramanci) January 22, 2023\n\nBrazil\u2019s leftist President Lula da Silva returned to power on January 1.\nDuring his electoral campaign, Lula had floated the possibility of creating a regional currency for trade.\nAt a rally in May 2022, the Workers\u2019 Party leader had said, \u201cWe are going to create a currency in Latin America, because we can\u2019t keep depending on the dollar\u201d.\nLula revealed that it would be called the Sur. He added that it would not be based on the euro model, in that countries could maintain their sovereign domestic currency.\nInstead, the plan would be to use the Sur for regional trade, Lula said.\nBrazil\u2019s left-wing leader Lula da Silva says if he wins the October presidential elections, \u201cwe are going to create a currency in Latin America,\u201d called the Sur (\u201cSouth\u201d), to combat \u201cthe dependency on the dollar\u201dhttps://t.co/NSgzcHtuBB\n\u2014 Geopolitical Economy Report (@GeopoliticEcon) May 7, 2022\n\nAfter Lula won the October 2022 election, Ecuador\u2019s left-wing politician and economist Andr\u00e9s Arauz published a blueprint for a\u00a0\u201cnew regional financial architecture\u201d for Latin America.\nArauz said the plan would be to revive regional institutions like the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) and the Banco del Sur (Bank of the South), and to create a Banco Central del Sur (Central Bank of the South) to oversee the new currency.\nThe goal is \u201cto harmonize the payment systems of\u201d the countries that make up UNASUR in order \u201cto carry out inter-bank transfers to any bank inside of the region in real time and from a cellphone\u201d, he wrote.\nArauz was a presidential candidate who came close to winning Ecuador\u2019s 2021 election. He is also finishing a PhD in economics.\nAdvising Brazil\u2019s President-elect Lula, Ecuadorian economist and leftist presidential candidate @EcuArauz made a blueprint for a \u201cnew regional financial architecture\u201d to unite Latin America, including a currency to challenge the hegemony of the US dollar https://t.co/o7L0fN236F\n\u2014 Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) December 1, 2022\n\nArgentina has suffered with odious debt owed to foreign colonial powers for 200 years.\nToday, Argentina is trapped in $44 billion of debt with the US-dominated International Monetary Fund (IMF).\nThis dollar-denominated foreign debt has led to a constant drain of foreign currency out of Argentina, fueling high levels of inflation.\nArgentina\u2019s President Alberto Fern\u00e1ndez visited China and Russia in February 2022, seeking alternatives to the US-dominated financial system, and joining Beijing\u2019s Belt and Road Initiative.\nArgentina has also applied to join the extended BRICS+ bloc, with Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. Buenos Aires attended the group\u2019s 2022 summits at Beijing\u2019s invitation.\nAs former president, Lula was himself a co-founder of the BRICS.\nChina invited Argentina to attend the 2022 summits of the BRICS economic bloc of Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa.\nArgentina\u2019s ambassador says it\u2019s a step toward \u201cformal entry\u201d to the grouping, an alternative to the US-dominated financial systemhttps://t.co/ilTBO37LQi\n\u2014 Geopolitical Economy Report (@GeopoliticEcon) May 9, 2022\n\nBoth Brazil and Argentina are\u00a0already part of a South American trade bloc, known as Mercosur (Mercado Com\u00fan del Sur, or Common Market of the South).\nLula has for years emphasized the importance of economic and political integration of Latin America and the Caribbean.\nImmediately after returning to office in January, Lula moved to revive and strengthen regional institutions like CELAC, UNASUR, and Mercosur.\nBrazil\u2019s previous far-right President Jair Bolsonaro had sought to sabotage these organizations, withdrawing or suspending the country\u2019s membership and instead aligning the South American giant closely with the United States.\nBolsonaro came to power thanks to two US-backed political coups in Brazil, including a parliamentary putsch against Workers\u2019 Party President Dilma Rousseff in 2016 and the politically motivated imprisonment of Lula on false charges in the lead-up to the 2018 election.\nSoon after entering office, Bolsonaro traveled to Virginia to visit CIA headquarters.\nFearing legal consequences in Brazil for his flagrant corruption and for policies that caused the mass deaths of citizens, Bolsonaro fled to Florida two days before his term ended. He has since been living in the United States as a fugitive from justice.\nLula da Silva returns as Brazil\u2019s president, calling to fight poverty and hunger, re-industrialize, strengthen the BRICS, and deepen Latin American integration.\nFar-right leader Jair Bolsonaro fled to Florida, fearing legal consequences for his corruptionhttps://t.co/RZYABG6oQY\n\u2014 Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) January 4, 2023\n\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: How the imperialist system works, and how Venezuela\u2019s Bolivarian Revolution resists it. 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": "Bolivarian Revolution, Hugo Ch\u00e1vez, imperialism, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, Socialism of the 21st Century, Venezuela", "output": "A Venezuelan sociologist explains how the imperialist system is built on a murderous, savage capitalism, and how Venezuela\u2019s Bolivarian Revolution has resisted it, based on Hugo Ch\u00e1vez\u2019s concept of 21st-century socialism.\n\nThis article by Venezuelan sociologist Mar\u00eda P\u00e1ez Victor is based on her presentation at the webinar \u201cImperialism and the Western Left\u201d organized by the Geopolitical Economy Research Group and International Manifesto Group on April 24, 2022.\nThere are many characteristics of imperialism, but essentially it involves the desire and the ability of one nation to overpower, dominate, and or persuade other nations to act in the best interests of the empire\u2019s own aims.\nImperialism is not a new phenomenon, but today it can be said to involve a new colonialism. This brand of colonialism does not necessarily take over militarily large tracts of lands of peoples or nations, but seeks to destroy the sovereignty of established states, weaken them, and impose a tutelage over them, in its quest of natural resources, advantages and hegemonic power.\nMoreover, today there is a new way of waging war has been added to military war: hybrid war, which is economic, diplomatic, legalistic, mediatic, and equally lethal.\nThere is only one empire in the world right now; it is the United States of America, and it is intent on remaining so, on being the one hegemon, the one superpower, with the help of its firm allies in Europe and Canada.\nThe United States is the only nation that has approximately 800 military bases across the planet. It has the largest armed forces in the world, and is the number one arms manufacturer and seller on Earth.\nWar has been its main instrument and business, for most of the 20th and now the 21st century. Consequently, Washington\u2019s foreign, diplomatic, economic, and financial policies are no longer different from its military objectives.\nThe US private and the public spheres have largely combined with the militarization of its foreign policy, and this cloaks a profound class struggle, domestic as well as international, counting on the formidable power of corporate media.\nEmpires have always tried to mask their military power with their \u201cauctoritas\u201d (authority): the narrative fa\u00e7ade about the empire\u2019s worth, quality, superiority, and benevolence. This provides an apparent reason for its domination of other peoples and nations.\nEmpires cannot hold their power just by force alone, as that would be prohibitively expensive; they need to convince other nations to submit. An empire does this through its ideology, its superstructure, that masks, upholds, and promotes its military infrastructure.\nUS society \u2013 historically, culturally, and psychologically \u2013 is seeped in racism, which is an integral part of its hegemonic ideology.\nYet today, Washington has lost a great deal of its hegemonic aura, after a slew of failures and lies, such as the \u201cdomino theory\u201d of the Vietnam War or the claim of non-existent \u201cweapons of mass destruction\u201d that was used to try to justify the invasion of Iraq.\nThe US government\u2019s series of futile wars, endless coups d\u2019etat, interferences in other nations\u2019 governance, and trashing of international law when it suits it has not helped either.\nIn other words, the ideology of the US empire has worn thin. Whether Washington likes it or not, a multipolar world is emerging, and the empire\u2019s rationalizations are not so believable any more.\nThe economic system of imperialism is capitalism, which is in a present stage referred to as corporate capitalism, but which Venezuelan revolutionary leader Hugo Ch\u00e1vez called \u201csavage capitalism\u201c (capitalismo salvaje). Washington is its main exponent.\nThis system is characterized by a preponderance of corporate finance and speculation. It is only marginally geared towards producing and satisfying citizens\u2019 needs; labour and its representatives have been undermined and marginalized.\nThe corporate market largely determines political decisions in this system, thus undermining democratic institutions such as parliaments, political parties, law, and judicial power.\nWe are witnesses to corporate unrestrained power, which has led to widespread inequality and political polarization, as economist Thomas Pickety most clearly pointed out in his 2013 book \u201cCapital in the Twenty-First Century\u201c.\nDomestic auctoritas\u00a0is also fractured within the USA. Author Chris Hedges even considers that the United States is today \u201cin the last stage in the emergence of corporate totalitarianism.\u201d\nFinance capitalism adds nothing of value to the real economy; it is a casino capitalism made possible by degrading the institutions that guard the common good: education, health, unions, even law.\nThere is an inherent contradiction between the single-minded search for profits of the corporations, and the protection of the social common good, most especially, the democratic good.\nCorporations are not democratic entities; they defy real democracy and dominate nation-states. Their power meshes with that of the US empire. In other words, you cannot disengage corporate power from imperialism.\nA reality often overlooked is that today\u2019s main industries \u2013 weapons, energy, and telecommunication \u2013 cannot exist in a financial vacuum. They need specific natural resources from the extractive industries, such as petroleum, lithium, rare minerals, coltan, and other ores.\nThe great economic power is largely concentrated in the Global North \u2013 the USA and its allies \u2013 but the grand bulk of the absolutely essential natural resources are in the South.\nThus a new colonialism has emerged, camouflaged with all sorts of smoke and mirrors: \u201cfree trade\u201d (that is not free), promises of \u201ctrickle-down\u201d investments (that never trickle down), and supposed \u201chumanitarian interventions\u201d to protect human rights (only some of them).\nGlobal North governments claim to help countries in the South develop (only where convenient to their enterprises), to teach other nations about the supposed \u201crule of law\u201d (based on their rules), and even to promote NGOs to purportedly protect democracy and the environment (while these organizations act as spies and saboteurs).\nVenezuela is a case study. There, from 2002 to 2012 alone, CIA cutout the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) gave $100 million to create 300 NGOs opposed to the Bolivarian Revolution launched by President Ch\u00e1vez.\nWe are also witnesses to an uncontrolled expansion of corporate capitalism which euphemistically or cynically is referred to as \u201cprogress\u201d. It is necessarily predatory.\nThis system\u2019s insatiable consumerism, rampant industrialization, and appalling individualism have catastrophically injured the natural world, polluted land and waters, caused climate change, increased species extinctions, and depleted biodiversity.\nIt is leading us to the sixth extinction, if not stopped.\nNatural resources seem to be viewed as the property of the North, not the South where they are found. This divide is profoundly eurocentrist, classist, and racist.\nA shocking example was the 2010 European Commission report on critical raw materials for the EU, which, in a matter-of-fact- bureaucratic vocabulary, unashamedly defined environmental risk as \u201cthe measures that might be taken by countries with the intention of protecting the environment and by so doing endangering the supply of raw materials to the European Union.\u201d\nThe people most severely impacted by this natural resource devastation in Latin America are the rural campesinos and the indigenous peoples.\nBecause of its natural resource richness and its strategic geographical position, the most important area of the world that the US empire believes it absolutely needs to dominate is Latin America and the Caribbean \u2013 not Europe, not Canada, not Asia, not Middle East, not even Russia or China.\nIn this region, the USA has carried out roughly 90 coups d\u2019etat, destablization campaigns, or invasions since 1900.\nVirtually every progressive leader or reformer in Latin America has been threatened to be killed, opposed, or deposed by Washington. The victims among the people are countless.\nAtilio Boron, a distinguished Argentine intellectual, points out that there are no Monroe Doctrines for any other part of the world, except for Latin America.\nWashington considers the region its \u201cbackyard\u201d \u2013 or as ignominiously Biden has said, trying to soften the insult, the US \u201cfront yard\u201d.\nThe farce of the USA being any sort of \u201cdefender\u201d of Latin America from European threats, as the Monroe Doctrine spouts, was shown to be a lie when Washington backed the UK\u2019s colonialist war against Argentina over the Malvina Islands (Falklands).\nThe last word on imperialism belongs to revolutionary Che Guevara, who stated that \u201cit is the nature of imperialism that makes men into beasts, that turns them bloodthirsty animals, that are willing to slit throats, to kill, to destroy the last image of the revolutionary, of the supporter of a government that has fallen under his boot or that fights for his freedom.\u201d\nEl Che warned that \u201cimperialism cannot be trusted for a minute, not even a little bit.\u201d\nThere are too many examples to cite, in Latin America, Africa, Middle East, and even in the less powerful nations of Europe, where they have all felt the boot of empire on their throats.\nThe opposite of imperialism today is the movement of Socialism of the 21st Century. It is the hope for the future of Latin America, and the world, against the savagery of imperialism.\nVenezuelan President Hugo Ch\u00e1vez was re-elected for his second term in 2006 by an overwhelming majority who voted for his electoral promise of building what he called Socialism of the 21st Century, as the basis of the Bolivarian Revolution.\nThe instrument of this revolution is the PSUV, the United Socialist Party of Venezuela, which is formed by many smaller parties and grassroots organizations. It is not just a government party.\nMany figures on the Western left, in the USA, Canada, and Europe, have claimed for years that Venezuela\u2019s revolution is not truly socialist. These armchair revolutionaries have too often disdained the Bolivarian Revolution because it did not \u201cfit\u201d with their narrow eurocentric theoretical framework.\nSome mistrusted Ch\u00e1vez because he was a military man; others ridiculed him because he was an acknowledged Catholic; and yet others on the left have gone so far as saying Venezuela did not really have a revolution because its revolutionaries did not take up arms outright and kill the capitalists.\nWhen speaking on panels about my homeland Venezuela, I have been confronted various times by those who want to see blood on the ground \u2013 not their blood of course, but somebody else\u2019s.\nThey have said to me that because it was not born by taking up arms, like the Cuban Revolution, Venezuela\u2019s is not truly a revolution.\nIn one of these occasions, I had the great honor of sitting next to the consul general of Cuba, who whispered in my ear to pay no attention to such nonsense, as if Fidel Castro and El Che had wanted to kill their compatriots, as if they had thought killing was the cornerstone of a socialist revolution.\nVenezuela\u2019s revolution does include the analysis of Marx and Engels, but not exclusively so, because it is also based on Venezuela\u2019s indigenous communitarian traditions, and on the principles of its revolutionary liberator Sim\u00f3n Bol\u00edvar.\nThese Bolivarian principles were sovereignty, egalitarianism, repudiation of slavery and imperialism, and regional Latin American integration.\nThe Bolivarian Revolution is also nurtured by other Venezuelan heroes, incorporating Sim\u00f3n Rodr\u00edguez\u2019s views on education, or Ezequiel Zamora\u2019s on land reform.\nThe genius of Hugo Ch\u00e1vez is that he was able to articulate a socialist ideology that was rooted in Venezuelan cultural and political history. Before that, socialist and communist inroads had been weak because they were seen as a foreign thing, Northern, theoretical, and alien to the history, culture, and cosmology of ordinary Venezuelans.\nThe Bolivarian Revolution is also humanistic and spiritual, inclusive, and respectful of indigenous cosmologies. It is inspired by Liberation Theology.\nThe Bolivarian Revolution is likewise participatory and democratic, as it gained power through the ballot box.\nIt does not follow the patterns of the revolutions in Russia, China, or even entirely in Cuba. It is its own thing. The Venezuelan people recognize it as \u201ctheir\u201d socialism.\nThe goals of Venezuela\u2019s socialism are to obtain the health and happiness of a people who can exercise self-determination without foreign pressure, to rid racist and classist elites of political power so that the people have power both through democratic representation and through the exercise of participatory democracy in communes, collectives, and communal councils.\nCh\u00e1vez proclaimed socialism after the fall of the Berlin Wall, after the dissolution of the USSR, after the rumors that history had come to an end. In this way, Ch\u00e1vez showed the world that socialism was not remotely dead.\nThis flew in the face of those who, while professing socialism, were looking for the illusion of a \u201cthird way\u201d.\nLet us count the ways how revolutionary Venezuela is.\nA quick comparison with the policies espoused by Marx in the Communist Manifesto, when considering the changes that time and history have brought about, shows a remarkable parallel with the policies and gains of Venezuela\u2019s Bolivarian Revolution:\nTwo of Marx\u2019s proposed policies that have not been implemented in Venezuela are a centralized means of communication, which would not be accepted today in view of the human rights to freedom of speech, and the prohibition of inheritance rights. But many the fundamental policies considered by Marx are in full view in Venezuela\u2019s revolution.\nVenezuela has asserted its sovereignty over its natural resources, taking over control from elites and international corporations. This set a regional example of independence, which Washington considers a threat to its hegemony, especially given that Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the world and the second-biggest gold fields.\nUnder the Bolivarian Revolution,\u00a0Venezuelan society underwent a strong social transformation. This began by redefining the state itself, with a new constitution, anchored in the concepts of human rights, both individual and social rights, including the rights of indigenous peoples, the rights of women and children, and social rights to education, health, and a protected environment.\nVenezuela has wrestled power from the comprador class, the supremist elites, the upper classes that had ruled for decades and drove their people into abject poverty, while wasting the equivalent of 15 Marshall Plans worth of wealth on corruption and illicit enrichment.\nThe revolution has reduced not only poverty but also inequality.\nVenezuela\u2019s participatory democracy does recognize private property, but also state, communal and social ownership. It also enshrines the communal state of communal councils and communes. These are not add-ons, but part of state power.\nAnd these new forms of participatory democracy are truly distinct from the representative democracy and bourgeois state created by a market capitalist society, which is eminently individualistic and competitive.\nThe welfare state was designed to temper, to soften the market. But corporate capitalism declared war on the welfare state, and with much success.\nSocialism bolsters the policies that preserve the common good.\nVenezuela has carried out effective land reform, transforming agriculture to the point that today the nation has relatively more food security, and is even exporting food for the first time in 100 years.\nThis is due to the masterful policies of President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, who has steered the country through the illegal US sanctions that have almost destroyed the economy and killed 100,000 Venezuelans.\nThe Venezuelan working class has been the backbone of the productive invigoration of the economy.\nPresident Maduro is referred to as \u201cthe worker president\u201d, as he drove a bus for nine years in Caracas, and has strong links to and understanding of the working class and the unions.\nPresident Maduro\u2019s measures to diversify the economy, to implement an effective internal revenue system, revigorated the economy and battled inequality. He has successfully gotten rid of hyperinflation and made Venezuela a stronger more viable country.\nVenezuela\u2019s GDP is estimated to grow by an astonishing 20% in 2022, as calculated by Swiss bank Credit Suisse. This is after losing 99% of government revenue due to illegal US sanctions, according to the top UN expert. That is quite an extraordinary achievement.\nDuring the Covid-19 pandemic, grassroots organizations, the communes, and communal councils, united with the PSUV and public health institutions to protect the people.\nDue to illegal US sanctions, medical supplies and masks were sometimes unavailable, and vaccines were denied to Venezuela, but it was still very successful at controlling the pandemic, especially in the context of the region. Venezuela was eventually able to get vaccines thanks to the solidarity of China, Russia, and Cuba.\nWhile not demeaning for a second the very positive and brave, heroic struggles and contributions of members of the oldest political party in the country, the Communist Party of Venezuela, the fact is that it never achieved a significant popular following in or out of elections, because it was not rooted in the people\u2019s profound sense of history, their culture, traditions, and spirituality.\nThe Bolivarian Revolution on the other hand was able to accomplish all of this, while also making clear the class struggles and dynamics of capitalism.\nTo its admirable merit, the Communist Party of Venezuela has supported the PSUV in particular in its struggles against imperialism, even when the party did not fully agree with Bolivarianism. This is a shining example of solidarity that the international left should learn from.\nDomestically, many who proclaim to be on the left and who criticize the government and President Maduro are in fact armchair theorists who use the excuse of \u201cself-criticism\u201d to simply oppose a government and a movement which has rejected them and their advice, as they have been very far from the grassroots and real links to the people.\nThese criticisms are cheap as these figures bear no responsibility in feeding and nurturing a population, not to mention facing a formidable foreign power. They invariably end up becoming darlings of the right.\nVenezuela does not think that it has already \u201carrived\u201d at socialism; it considers this to be a process, a road that it must go down until the entire bourgeois state has been transformed.\nMuch of the Western left, on the other hand, has had reservations from the very beginning, if not openly criticizing Venezuela\u2019s brand of socialism. The reasons are ugly, tainted by cultural determinism and even racism.\nFirstly, there is eurocentrism. For many Northern leftists, anything that deviates from Marx and Engels, or any other Northern socialist movement, is not the \u201creal thing\u201d.\nThis is actually quite ironic, if not knee-slapping funny, in view of the fact that none of these Western theorists or activists have actually been able to carry out any socialist revolution in North America or Europe. Yet they think they have the right to point out to the \u201clesser\u201d beings in Latin America what is real and what is not, and that they have got it all wrong.\nSecondly, the foreign critics of the Bolivarian Revolution are often ignorant of the Venezuelan culture, specifically its political culture. And I suspect that this is a willful ignorance that is also tainted with racism.\nThey have not fully understood that there is not one road to socialism, but many; that Venezuela revolts at the thought that it has to pattern its revolution on one unique pattern, on a foreign strategy that would force it to give up its identity and its own idiosyncrasies.\nAs if these accomplishments were not enough \u2013 as if Venezuela\u2019s heroic triumphs against illegal sanctions, paramilitary attacks, sabotages, assassinations, coup attempts, and demonization of the hybrid war were not enough \u2013 just consider the enemies that have lined up against Venezuela: the US empire and its allies, the international banking system, the international media, and all the fascist organizations of the world.\nThey do recognize a revolution when they see it. Why can\u2019t much of the Northern left?\nDespite such formidable challenges, Venezuela has prevailed and triumphed. Venezuela today is more unified, stronger, more economically viable, and a more politically determined nation on the road to socialism. So Venezuela must be doing something right.\nThe choice could not be clearer: Will the world continue to give a free ride to a devious, amoral, predatory imperialism? Or will the freely chosen, revolutionary socialism of Venezuela, which feeds, shelters, heals, clothes, inspires, and defends its people, be given the international recognition and solidarity that it deserves, as a road to hope, peace, and justice in the world?\nVenezuela\u2019s answer is the same as Cuba\u2019s: Venceremos! We will prevail.\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Venezuela\u2019s economy will grow 20% in 2022, despite illegal US sanctions, predicts Western bank. 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": "Credit Suisse, economics, oil, Rafael Correa, Venezuela", "output": "Major Switzerland-based bank Credit Suisse forecasts Venezuela\u2019s real GDP growth to be 20% in 2022 and 8% in 2023. This is despite an illegal US blockade, which starved the government of 99% of its revenue, according to the top UN expert on sanctions.\n\n(Se puede leer este art\u00edculo en espa\u00f1ol aqu\u00ed.)\nThe major Switzerland-based bank Credit Suisse has predicted that Venezuela\u2019s real GDP growth will be 20% in 2022.\nThe prominent Western financial institution also forecasted that Venezuela\u2019s real GDP will increase by an additional 8% in 2023.\nThese predictions come despite an illegal US blockade imposed on Venezuela, which has starved the government of revenue, locked it out of the international financial system, and fueled an economic crisis.\nThe top United Nations expert on sanctions estimated that the Venezuelan government lost 99% of its revenue due to the Western unilateral coercive measures, which are illegal under international law.\n\u201cUnilateral sanctions increasingly imposed by the United States, the European Union and other countries have exacerbated the [economic crisis],\u201d stated Alena Douhan, the UN special rapporteur on the negative impact of unilateral coercive measures on the enjoyment of human rights, after she took a two-week fact-finding trip to Venezuela in February 2021.\n\u201cThe Government\u2019s revenue was reported to shrink by 99% with the country currently living on 1% of its pre-sanctions income,\u201d Douhan wrote, adding, \u201cRemittances from abroad have decreased due to the blocking of state assets and the complexity of \u2013 and impediments to \u2013 bank transfers.\u201d\n\u201cThe hardening of sanctions faced by the country since 2015 undermines the potential positive impact of the current reforms as well as the state\u2019s capacity to maintain infrastructure and implement social projects,\u201d the UN expert warned.\nVenezuela has the world\u2019s largest oil reserves and its economy is heavily dependent on production, but the US blockade has made it very difficult for Caracas to export its crude. Many countries, even US allies, fear being hit by Washington\u2019s secondary sanctions if they trade with Venezuela.\nYet despite these suffocating and illegal Western sanctions, Venezuela\u2019s economy is back on the path toward growth.\nEcuador\u2019s leftist former president Rafael Correa tweeted a screenshot of an April 6, 2022 Credit Suisse report on Venezuela, which appears to be private, predicting 20% growth in 2022 and 8% growth in 2023.\n\u201cThese are not typos!\u201d the Swiss bank wrote. \u201cIf we are accurate, these might end up being among the strongest growth prints globally for these years.\u201d\nCredit Suisse sobre Venezuela?\u00a1Gloria al bravo pueblo! pic.twitter.com/rGnbgcvTt5\n\u2014 Rafael Correa (@MashiRafael) April 6, 2022\n\nIn addition to being an influential politician, Correa is a renowned economist, with a PhD in economics.\nCorrea and some of his former officials have provided economic advising to the Venezuelan government during this difficult period under blockade by the United States.\nIn 2015, President Barack Obama signed an executive order declaring Venezuela to be a supposed \u201cunusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.\u201d\nThis executive order opened the floodgate for the US government to impose grueling sanctions on Venezuela.\nIn 2019, President Donald Trump escalated the already existing US sanctions on Venezuela into a full-on embargo. Washington and several European capitals also illegally froze and/or seized all of Caracas\u2019 foreign assets, worth billions of dollars.\nThis brutal economic warfare supplemented a coup attempt that the United States was leading in Venezuela, forcing allies to recognize unelected right-wing opposition politician Juan Guaid\u00f3 as supposed \u201cinterim president\u201d of the country.\nWashington was ultimately unable to topple Venezuela\u2019s democratically elected president, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, of the United Socialist Party (PSUV), which was founded by revolutionary former president Hugo Ch\u00e1vez.\nBut the relentless US economic war on Venezuela did stoke a crisis of runaway inflation.\nThe Chavista government has managed to rein in this hyperinflation. Venezuela\u2019s inflation was just 1.7% in February 2022 \u2013 lower than other countries in Latin America.\nCredit Suisse\u2019s prediction of 20% Venezuelan growth in 2022 and 8% more in 2023 shows that the worst of this US-fueled economic crisis has passed.\nPart of this recovery can be attributed to the massive rise in the price of oil.\nVenezuela\u2019s economy is very dependent on oil exports, and has been for a century, since well before leftist Hugo Ch\u00e1vez became president in 1999 and subsequently launched the Bolivarian Revolution.\nCredit Suisse said its forecast \u201cis largely based on the expectation that [Venezuela\u2019s] oil GDP will rise more than 20%.\u201d\nIn March and April 2021, the price of a barrel of crude oil was around $20. By March and April 2022, it had skyrocketed to more than $100.\nBut the Venezuelan government has put significant energy and resources into diversifying its economy beyond oil production.\nChina, Russia, and Iran have also helped Venezuela find economic alternatives and soften the destructive impact of illegal Western sanctions.\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: CIA backed failed 2020 invasion of Venezuela, top coup-plotter says. 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": "CIA, Cl\u00edver Alcal\u00e1, Colombia, Juan Guaid\u00f3, Leopoldo L\u00f3pez, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, Venezuela", "output": "A Venezuelan army defector who helped plan a botched May 2020 invasion, Cl\u00edver Alcal\u00e1, said the coup-plotters were in touch with the CIA and other US government agencies, and had their approval to try to violently overthrow President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro.\n\n(Se puede leer este art\u00edculo en espa\u00f1ol aqu\u00ed.)\nA Venezuelan army defector who helped plan a failed May 2020 invasion of Venezuela, Cliver Alcal\u00e1, said the coup-plotters were in touch with the CIA and other US government agencies.\nAccording to Alcal\u00e1, senior US officials approved of the operation, which sought to violently overthrow the leftist Chavista government of Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, who was democratically elected.\nAlcal\u00e1\u2019s lawyers made this revelation in a US court filing on January 28, the Associated Press reported.\nJordan Goudreau\nOn May 3 and 4, 2020, dozens of right-wing Venezuelan insurgents and two former US Army special operations comandos tried to invade Venezuela, with plans to kidnap President Maduro and take him to the United States.\nThe plot, known as Operation Gideon (Operaci\u00f3n Gede\u00f3n in Spanish),\u00a0was a disaster. It was quickly foiled by the Venezuelan government, with the help of local socialist fishermen, and the invaders were arrested.\nThe invasion had been organized by a Florida-based mercenary firm called Silvercorp USA, founded by a former US Army special forces comando named Jordan Goudreau.\nIn a breach-of-contract lawsuit, Goudreau said he had discussed the coup plot with two US government officials at a Miami golf resort owned by former President Donald Trump, where he was given a green light.\nBut when the operation was foiled by Venezuelan authorities, the US government immediately threw Goudreau and his team under the bus.\n\nOn March 26, 2020, a few weeks before the invasion, the US government put out a series of multimillion-dollar bounties on the heads of current and former top Venezuelan government officials. One of these was the former general Cl\u00edver Alcal\u00e1.\nThis surprised Alcal\u00e1, because by that point he had for several years been a bitter opponent of the Venezuelan government of President Maduro.\nIn fact, in 2018 Alcal\u00e1 had moved to northern Colombia, to the city of Barranquilla, near the border of Venezuela, where he began to train Venezuelan military defectors and anti-Chavista paramilitaries, making plans to wage an armed insurgency against the Venezuelan government.\nIn northern Colombia, Alcal\u00e1 worked alongside Goudreau, the US mercenary who said he had the Trump administration\u2019s support, to create an anti-Venezuela guerrilla army.\nThe United States had been supporting Alcal\u00e1\u2019s efforts to try to violently overthrow Maduro. So when Washington put out the bounty, Alcal\u00e1 complied and willingly turned himself in to US authorities in Colombia, where he had been residing. He agreed to be an informant and to be extradited to the US.\nAlcal\u00e1\u2019s attorneys subsequently made it clear in their statements to US authorities that Alcal\u00e1\u2019s operations had been approved by Washington.\n\u201cEfforts to overthrow the Maduro regime have been well known to the United States government,\u201d Alcal\u00e1\u2019s lawyers wrote in a November 2021 letter, cited by the Associated Press.\nAlcal\u00e1\u2019s \u201copposition to the regime and his alleged efforts to overthrow it were reported to the highest levels of the Central Intelligence Agency, National Security Council, and the Department of the Treasury,\u201d his attorneys added.\nYacsy \u00c1lvarez\nThis is not the first time that someone involved in the failed 2020 invasion of Venezuela said the US government was involved.\nA right-wing Venezuelan who helped to organize Operation Gideon, Yacsy \u00c1lvarez, said she met with FBI and DEA officials in Florida, and that the agencies knew exactly what was being planned.\n\u00c1lvarez had served as a translator and assistant for Goudreau, as he and Alcal\u00e1 trained anti-Venezuela militants in Colombia.\nAccording to \u00c1lvarez, the Colombian government supported the failed invasion plot as well. Colombia\u2019s far-right President Iv\u00e1n Duque and former president \u00c1lvaro Uribe were involved in the operation, she said.\nColombia\u2019s top intelligence agency \u201cknew everything\u201d about the plot, \u00c1lvarez confessed.\nYet just as Alcal\u00e1 was detained by the US authorities with whom he had been collaborating, \u00c1lvarez was detained by the Colombian authorities with whom she had been collaborating.\nHer lawyers accused Colombia\u2019s spy agencies of setting a \u201ctrap\u201d to blame her when the operation went awry.\nJuan Guaid\u00f3 and Leopoldo L\u00f3pez\nThe major right-wing Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo L\u00f3pez was also involved in the failed invasion.\nL\u00f3pez is seen in Venezuela to be the real power behind Juan Guaid\u00f3, who was a little-known figure when the United States appointed him \u201cinterim president\u201d in January 2019.\nIn a June 2020 article titled \u201cVenezuelan Opposition Guru Led Planning to Topple Maduro,\u201d the Wall Street Journal reported that L\u00f3pez \u201cwas behind a months-long effort to contract mercenaries to overthrow President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro,\u201d and had \u201cconsidered at least six proposals from private security contractors to carry out military incursions to spur a rebellion in Venezuela\u2019s armed forces and topple\u201d the leftist government.\nL\u00f3pez, Guaid\u00f3, and fellow members of their far-right political party Voluntad Popular (Popular Will) contracted Silvercorp USA, and worked with Goudreau and Alcal\u00e1 to plot the invasion.\nDespite his clear involvement in an attempted invasion of his home country, and his leading role in several violent coup attempts, L\u00f3pez lives comfortably today in\u00a0Madrid. He enjoys the protection of the Spanish government, while he continues to organize the extremist Venezuelan opposition from abroad.\nThe Joe Biden administration, for its part, has continued Trump\u2019s policy of recognizing unelected coup leader Guaid\u00f3 as the supposed leader of Venezuela, although, as of January 2022, fewer than 15 countries refuse to acknowledge that Maduro is the real president.\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Nicaragua\u2019s President Ortega: US/EU waging war to stop multipolar world. 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": "Che Guevara, Daniel Ortega, FSLN, imperialism, Nicaragua, Sandinistas", "output": "At the Sandinista Revolution\u2019s 43rd anniversary, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega said the US and Europe are waging wars to prevent \u201cmultipolarity.\u201d Quoting Che Guevara, he added \u201cimperialism cannot be trusted\u201d\n\n(Se puede leer esta nota en espa\u00f1ol aqu\u00ed.)\nIn his speech at the 43rd anniversary of the Sandinista Revolution, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega said the United States and European Union are waging wars to prevent \u201cmultipolarity on our planet.\u201d\nOrtega quoted Che Guevara, arguing \u201cimperialism cannot be trusted even a little bit.\u201d He added that dialogue with Washington is \u201cimpossible,\u201d because it would be like negotiating with the devil.\n\nA transcript of some of President Ortega\u2019s remarks follows (emphasis added):\nWhy does the United States behave in that way? And when we say the United States, we are speaking of the North American rulers. Because when they dropped the atomic bomb above Hiroshima, they did not ask the North American people if the bomb should be dropped\u2026\nAnd they did a count of how many thousands the bomb could kill. And the higher the number was, that they calculated that the bomb could kill, the happier and more excited they were\u2026\nAnd they went ahead and dropped it, and killed, in one blow, hundreds of thousands of civilians, children, adults, because they dropped it on a city\u2026\nRight there, they killed, murdered many more civilians than all of those who could have died now in this war that the empires have started to try to destroy the struggle that humanity is carrying out to bring about the end of hegemony, and to create multipolarity on our planet.\nThat is the battle that is being fought over there in Ukraine, where Europe and the United States don\u2019t want \u2014 they don\u2019t want to see China growing economically\u2026\nIt is from there, it is the evil that those powers have shown throughout history, the powers that colonized Africa, Asia, Latin America, the powers that brought slaves from Africa to these regions, to sell like them animals in slave markets\u2026\nWhen you asked me, and when it was asked, why not reach an understanding? They [the US] are not prepared to reach an understanding. They are prepared to do nothing more than impose \u2014 impose, occupy, bomb, kill, as they have done throughout history\u2026\nAnd they [the imperialists] waged war among themselves, to take over the world. It was war between the European powers, before there was a European Union.\nYou know it, dear brother. England, France, Spain, wanting to dominate all Europe, and dominating all of Europe, later taking over Africa, Asia, all of the Americas.\nA hegemonic mentality. A selfish mentality. A mentality that has nothing to do with being Christian, nothing to do with being Christian. And all of that, they did it with the blessing of the different churches that existed in that time\u2026\nWhen they asked Roosevelt, who was a good friend of Somoza, why he was so gracious and friendly with Somoza, Somoza being a criminal, Roosevelt responded, in English, \u201cHe is a son of a\u2026\u201d How do you say it? \u201cHe\u2019s a son of a bitch.\u201d Yes, that is how he replied. \u201cBut he is OUR son (of a bitch).\u201d\nYes, \u201cHe is a son (of a bitch), but he is OUR son (of a bitch).\u201d That was the cynical response of the yankee\u2026\nI\u2019m answering why there is no dialogue. Dialogue is impossible. Impossible. Dialogue is for one person to put a noose on your neck, and you to put your neck in the noose.\nLook, dear brother, what dialogue can you have with the devil? As Che said, the yankees, imperialism, you can\u2019t trust them even a little bit, not even a little bit. Because it will end you. It will end you.\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Mexico\u2019s AMLO calls out US \u2018oligarchy\u2019 at Biden\u2019s \u2018democracy\u2019 summit. 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, Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador, Joe Biden, Mexico, Summit for Democracy", "output": "Mexico\u2019s leftist President Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador used the US government\u2019s \u201cSummit for Democracy\u201d to indirectly call out Washington\u2019s hypocrisy: \u201cThe oligarchy reigns with the fa\u00e7ade of democracy\u201d, he said, calling for \u201cgreater equality\u201d and \u201cseparation of economic and political power\u201d.\n\nMexico\u2019s leftist President Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador (AMLO) used the US government\u2019s so-called \u201cSummit for Democracy\u201d to indirectly call out Washington\u2019s hypocrisy. (A full transcript of his speech follows below.)\nAMLO strongly implied that the United States is an oligarchy, not a real democracy. He argued that the government needs to challenge the power of the economic elites if it truly wants to be democratic.\nL\u00f3pez Obrador opened his speech warning, \u201cMany of the great crimes against humanity have been committed in the name of God or in the name of democracy\u201d.\nMexico\u2019s leftist President AMLO used the Biden admin\u2019s so-called \u201cSummit for Democracy\u201d to indirectly call out US hypocrisy\n\u201cThe oligarchy reigns with the fa\u00e7ade of democracy\u201d, he said, calling for \u201cseparation of economic and political power\u201d\nFull video: https://t.co/lR4kwPJZ4u pic.twitter.com/92XtabJHvl\n\u2014 Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) March 31, 2023\n\n\u201cIn some countries, the oligarchy reigns with the fa\u00e7ade of democracy\u201d, he said, not so subtly referencing his northern neighbor.\n\u201cHow can we talk about democracy if there is no separation of economic power and political power?\u201d AMLO asked.\nHe added that the system that exists in many countries today is \u201ca mixture of oligarchy and democracy, or a simulated and mediated democracy\u201d.\n\u201cWe must search for greater equality to have more democracy\u201d, the Mexican president insisted.\n\nAMLO\u2019s March 29 speech stood in stark contrast to the sycophantic remarks made by many US allies at Washington\u2019s so-called \u201cSummit for Democracy\u201d.\nThe Joe Biden administration first organized this summit in 2021 to bring together US allies in an attempt to build a united bloc to wage a new cold war on China and Russia, which were not invited to either summit.\nDespite its name, the 2023 \u201cSummit for Democracy\u201d featured numerous right-wing authoritarian regimes, from Israel, Poland, India, and beyond. (Pakistan\u2019s unelected coup regime was invited, but decided not to attend, as it faces mass protests and instability at home.)\nL\u00f3pez Obrador\u2019s critical comments also came at a time of growing tensions between the United States and Mexico.\nNumerous Republican congressmembers have called for the US military to invade Mexico, proposing legislation to justify an intervention, in the name of supposedly combatting drug cartels.\nAMLO denounced these threats in a massive rally in the heart of Mexico City on March 18.\n\u201cWe remind those hypocritical and irresponsible politicians that Mexico is an independent and free country, not a colony or a protectorate of the United States!\u201d, he declared.\n\u201cThey can threaten us with committing some kind of abuse, but we will never, ever allow them to violate our sovereignty and trample on the dignity of our homeland!\u201d, the Mexican president added.\n\u2018Mexico is not a US colony!\u2019: AMLO condemns invasion threats, celebrates nationalization of oil, lithium\n\nEarlier, in a press briefing on February 28, AMLO blasted the US State Department\u2019s \u201cbad habit\u201d of \u201cmeddling\u201d in other country\u2019s \u201cinternal affairs\u201d.\n\u201cThere is more democracy today in Mexico than in the United States\u201d, he said, \u201cbecause here the people govern, and there the oligarchy govern\u201d.\nAMLO says Mexico is more democratic than oligarch-run USA, condemns State Dep\u2019t \u2018meddling\u2019 against electoral reform\n\nThe following is the text of L\u00f3pez Obrador\u2019s March 29 speech at the US \u201cSummit for Democracy\u201d:\nMany of the great crimes against humanity have been committed in the name of God or in the name of democracy.\nIt is important, because of that, to return to the original and true meaning of the concept of democracy.\nAristotle said that there were three good and three bad forms of government. He came to the conclusion that democracy was the best, or the least bad, and he argued that democracy, like the Greek origin of the word, consisted of the power of the people.\nIn our time, there is still a mixture of oligarchy and democracy, or a simulated and mediated democracy.\nThat is to say, in some countries, the oligarchy reigns with the fa\u00e7ade of democracy.\nFor example, how can we talk about democracy if the elites dominate, and not the majorities?\nHow can we talk about democracy if there is no separation of economic power and political power?\nHow can we talk about democracy if, in recent times, there has been the most offensive concentration of wealth in a few hands in the history of the world?\nThe fortune of a minority has increased without limits, without any moral concern, while there are a billion human beings who live on less than a dollar a day.\nThat is why we have to move further and further away from kratos [\u201cpower\u201d in Greek] without demos [\u201cpeople\u201d in Greek], from power without the people, and make sure that the central purpose of the government is always to seek the happiness of the people, of a government of the people and for the people.\nToday more than ever, it is necessary to return to our founding principles.\nIn 1776, the United States Declaration of Independence set out the pursuit of happiness as one of the fundamental rights of the people, and signaled that guaranteeing it was one of the functions of government.\nThe first article of the French Constitution of 1793 establishes that the aim of society is common happiness.\nArticle 24 of our Constitution of Apatzing\u00e1n of 1814 states that the happiness of the people and of each and every citizen consists in the enjoyment of equality, security, property, and freedom.\nThe full preservation of these rights is the object of the institution of governments and the sole purpose of political associations.\nBecause of that, we maintain that we must search for greater equality to have more democracy.\nMay democracy be authentic, true, and may justice always triumph over power! Thank you very much.\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: End of Juan Guaid\u00f3: US-appointed Venezuelan coup leader ousted by ex allies. 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, Jes\u00fas Rodr\u00edguez Espinoza, Juan Guaid\u00f3, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, Orinoco Tribune, Venezuela", "output": "The US claimed unelected coup leader Juan Guaid\u00f3 was \u201cinterim president\u201d of Venezuela from January 2019 to December 2022, when his former allies in the right-wing opposition removed him from the position. Washington however still refuses to recognize elected President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro.\n\nUS President Donald Trump appointed Juan Guaid\u00f3 as Venezuela\u2019s supposed \u201cinterim president\u201d in January 2019, despite the fact that the little-known right-wing opposition politician had never won a single vote in a presidential election.\nUnder President Joe Biden, the US government continued formally recognizing Guaid\u00f3, until Venezuela\u2019s opposition-controlled parallel \u201cNational Assembly\u201d voted to oust him in December 2022.\nThis marked the end to a nearly four-year US-led coup attempt against Venezuela\u2019s leftist Chavista government.\nYet Washington has still refused to formally recognize Venezuela\u2019s democratically elected President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro \u2013 who always remained recognized by the United Nations, throughout the coup attempt.\nInstead, State Department spokesman and CIA veteran Ned Price announced that the US only recognizes Venezuela\u2019s opposition-controlled parallel \u201cNational Assembly\u201d \u2013 which is competing with the Venezuelan government\u2019s own National Assembly, which is part of the constitutional Venezuelan state recognized by the UN.\nGeopolitical Economy Report editor-in-chief Ben Norton discussed the end of Guaid\u00f3 with Venezuelan journalist Jes\u00fas Rodr\u00edguez Espinoza, who runs the independent news website Orinoco Tribune.\nThey analyzed the economic situation in the oil-rich South American country, which suffers under an illegal US embargo. The top UN expert on unilateral coercive measures, Alena Douhan, reported that Western sanctions caused the Venezuelan government\u2019s revenue \u201cto shrink by 99% with the country currently living on 1% of its pre-sanctions income\u201d.\n\n\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Bolivia intercepts US weapons shipment to right-wing separatist region. 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": "Bolivia, coup, Evo Morales, Luis Arce, Santa Cruz", "output": "Bolivia\u2019s police intercepted a weapons shipment sent from the United States to the separatist region of Santa Cruz, the hub of violent far-right groups that led the coup in 2019.\n\nBolivia\u2019s police intercepted a weapons shipment sent from the United States to the separatist region of Santa Cruz.\nSanta Cruz is the hub of fascist opposition gangs that led the violent coup in November 2019 that overthrew democratically elected President Evo Morales, of the leftist Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) party.\nMorales was the first-ever Indigenous president of Bolivia, a country where the majority of the population is of Native heritage.\nInternal State Department cables published by WikiLeaks show how the US government has supported far-right separatists in Santa Cruz for years, as journalist Matt Kennard has documented.\nA significant number of European fascists fled to the region after losing World War II to the Soviet Union. They then formed paramilitary groups, which regularly use Nazi-style salutes.\nSanta Cruz Youth Union adopts Nazi salute after their leader questioned about burning down of MAS party headquarters. Oct 17 video from @diarioeldeber (FB) @markoacl @Pedro_Albornoz_ @OliviaArigho @bretgustafson pic.twitter.com/h1XFHQgtrJ\n\u2014 AndeanInfoNet (@AndeanInfoNet) October 31, 2019\n\nThe extremist Comit\u00e9 pro Santa Cruz (Pro-Santa Cruz Committee) and its youth wing the Uni\u00f3n Juvenil Cruce\u00f1ista (Santa Cruz Youth Union) advance an explicitly neo-fascist Christian ideology.\nThe current governor of Santa Cruz, Luis Fernando Camacho, who was a main leader of the violent 2019 coup, comes from these far-right groups.\nIn addition to the violence of the putsch, these\u00a0US-backed far-right separatists in Santa Cruz also routinely attack Indigenous Bolivians and supporters of the leftist MAS party.\nThese are the racist far-right separatists the US govt has supported for years in Bolivia (yes, under both Republican and Democratic admins)\nState Department cables published by WikiLeaks show the US has long backed Santa Cruz separatism to try to weaken the leftist central govt https://t.co/u609FjPK4b\n\u2014 Benjamin Norton (@BenjaminNorton) September 26, 2021\n\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Why does the US support Israel? A geopolitical analysis with economist Michael Hudson. 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": "Benjamin Netanyahu, Iran, Israel, Michael Hudson, Middle East, oil, Saudi Arabia, West Asia", "output": "A geopolitical analysis of why the United States so strongly supports Israel: Economist Michael Hudson discusses with journalist Ben Norton.\n\nWhy does the United States so strongly support Israel? Geopolitical Economy Report editor Ben Norton interviewed economist Michael Hudson to explore the reasons why Israel is such an important part of U.S. foreign policy and Washington\u2019s attempt to dominate not only the region of the Middle East, but the entire world.\n\nIsrael is an extension of U.S. geopolitical power in one of the most critically important regions of the world.\nIn fact, it was current U.S. President Joe Biden, back in 1986, when he was a senator, who famously said that, if Israel didn\u2019t exist, the United States would have to invent it:\nIf we look at the Middle East, I think it\u2019s about time we stop, those of us who support, as most of us do, Israel in this body, for apologizing for our support for Israel.\nThere is no apology to be made. None. It is the best $3 billion investment we make.\nWere there not an Israel, the United States of America would have to invent an Israel to protect her interest in the region; the United States would have to go out and invent an Israel.\nI am with my colleagues who are on the floor of the Foreign Relations Committee, and we worry at length about NATO; and we worry about the eastern flank of NATO, Greece and Turkey, and how important it is. They pale by comparison\u2026\nThey pale by comparison in terms of the benefit that accrues to the United States of America.\nIt goes without saying that the so-called Middle East, or a better term is West Asia, has some of the world\u2019s largest reserves of oil and gas, and the entire world\u2019s economic infrastructure relies heavily on fossil fuels.\nThe planet is gradually moving toward new energy sources, which is needed to fight climate change, but fossil fuels are still absolutely critical to the global economy. And Washington\u2019s goal has been to make sure that it can maintain steady prices in global oil and gas markets.\nBut this is about something much bigger than just oil and gas. The U.S. military\u2019s stated policy since the 1990s, since the end of the Cold War and the overthrow of the Soviet Union, is to try to maintain control over every region of the world.\nThis was stated clearly in 1992 in the so-called Wolfowitz Doctrine. The U.S. National Security Council wrote:\n[The United States\u2019] goal is to preclude any hostile power from dominating a region critical to our interests, and also thereby to strengthen the barriers against the reemergence of a global threat to the interests of the U.S. and our allies. These regions include Europe, East Asia, the Middle East/Persian Gulf, and Latin America. Consolidated, nondemocratic control of the resources of such a critical region could generate a significant threat to our security.\nThen, in 2004, the U.S. government published its National Military Strategy, in which Washington stressed that its goal was \u201cFull Spectrum Dominance \u2013 the ability to control any situation or defeat any adversary across the range of military operations\u201d.\nHistorically, when it came to West Asia, the U.S. relied on a so-called \u201ctwin pillar\u201d strategy. The west pillar was Saudi Arabia, and the east pillar was Iran.\nUntil the 1979 revolution, Iran was governed by a shah, a dictatorial monarch who was backed by the United States and served U.S. interests in the region.\nHowever, following the 1979 revolution, the U.S. lost one of the pillars of its twin pillar strategy, and Israel became increasingly important for the United States to maintain control over this crucially strategic region.\nMany of the world\u2019s top oil and gas producers are located in West Asia.\n\nFurthermore, some of the most important trading routes on Earth go through this region.\nIt would be difficult to overstate how important Egypt\u2019s Suez Canal is. It connects trade transiting from West Asia going into Europe, from the Red Sea into the Mediterranean.\nAround 30% of all of the world\u2019s shipping containers pass through the Suez Canal. That represents around 12% of the total global trade of all goods.\nThen, directly south of the Suez Canal, where the Red Sea enters the Arabian Sea, there is a crucial geostrategic choke point known as the Bab al-Mandab Strait, off the coast of Yemen. There, more than 6 million barrels of oil pass through every single day.\n\nHistorically, the United States has tried to dominate this region in order to maintain control of energy supplies and ensure these global trade routes that the globalized capitalist system is built on.\nAs U.S. influence in the region has weakened in an increasingly multipolar world, Israel has become even more important for the United States to try to exercise hegemony in the region.\nOne can see this clearly in the discussions over oil prices in OPEC, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, which has essentially been expanded to OPEC+ to include Russia.\nToday, Saudi Arabia and Washington\u2019s archenemy, Russia, play a key role in determining global oil prices.\nHistorically, Saudi Arabia was a loyal U.S. proxy, but Riyadh has increasingly pursued a more non-aligned foreign policy. And a very big reason for that is that China is now the biggest trading partner of many of the countries in the region.\nFor a decade, China has been the largest importer of oil and gas from the Persian Gulf, whereas U.S. oil imports peaked in 2005.\nDue to massive expansion of production and the shale boom in the 2010s, the United States established itself as one of the top three oil producers on Earth, reducing its need for crude from Persian Gulf.\nMeanwhile, through its global infrastructure project, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), China is moving the center of world trade back to Asia. And the \u201croad\u201d in BRI is a reference to the New Silk Road.\n\nCan you guess which region is crucial in the New Silk Road and the BRI? Of course, it\u2019s the Middle East \u2013 or, again, a better name is West Asia, and that term actually much better explains the geostrategic importance of this region, because it connects Asia to Europe.\nThis explains why the United States has been so desperate to try to challenge the Belt and Road with its own attempts to build new trade routes. In particular, the U.S. seeks to make a trade route going from India into the Persian Gulf, and then up through Israel.\nSo in all of these projects, Israel plays an important role, as an extension of U.S. imperial power in one of the most important regions of the world. That is why Biden said back in 1986 that if Israel didn\u2019t exist, the U.S. would have to invent it.\nThat is also why Biden repeated this in a White House meeting with Israel\u2019s President Isaac Herzog on October 27, 2022:\nWe\u2019re also going to discuss the ironclad commitment \u2013 and this is, I\u2019ll say this 5000 times in my career \u2013 the ironclad commitment the United States has to Israel, based on our principles, our ideas, our values; they\u2019re the same values.\nAnd I have often said, Mr.\u00a0President [Herzog], if there were not an Israel, we would have to invent one.\nAnd even as recently as October 18, 2023, Biden again repeated the same thing in a speech he made in Israel: \u201cI have long said, if Israel didn\u2019t exist, we\u2019d have to invent it\u201d.\nIn that speech in 2023, Biden traveled to Israel in order to support the country as it was carrying out a brutal bombing campaign in Gaza, and ethnically cleansing Palestinians as part of what legal experts around the world have referred to as a \u201ctextbook case of genocide\u201d.\nTop United Nations experts have warned that the Palestinian people are in danger of genocide by Israel.\nAnd the United States has steadfastly been supporting Israel, because, as Joe Biden said, Israel is an extension of U.S. imperial power in West Asia, and if it didn\u2019t exist, Washington would have to invent it.\n\nBelow follows a transcript of the interview that Geopolitical Economy Report editor Ben Norton conducted with economist Michael Hudson, author of many books, including Super Imperialism: The Economic Strategy of American Empire.\nBEN NORTON: Michael, thanks for joining me today. We are speaking on November 9, and the latest death toll in the war in Gaza is that Israel has killed more than 10,000 Palestinians.\nThe United Nations has referred to Gaza as a \u201cgraveyard for children\u201d. More than 4,000 children have been killed. About 40% of the casualties are children.\nAnd the United States has continued to support Israel, not only diplomatically and politically, not only by, for instance, vetoing resolutions in the U.N. Security Council that call for a ceasefire, but furthermore, the U.S. has been sending billions of dollars to Israel.\nNot only the $3.8 billion that the U.S. always gives to Israel every year in military aid, but additionally, tens of billions of dollars more.\nSo I am wondering if you could provide your analysis of why you think the U.S. is investing so many resources in supporting Israel while it is clearly committing war crimes.\nMICHAEL HUDSON: Well, certainly it is supporting Israel, but it\u2019s not supporting Israel because this is an altruistic act.\nTo the United States, Israel is its landed aircraft carrier in the Near East. Israel is the takeoff point for America to control the Near East.\nAnd from the very time there was talk of creating an Israel, it was always that Israel was going to be an outpost, first of England, then of Russia, then of the United States in the Near East.\nAnd I can give you an anecdote. Netanyahu\u2019s main national security advisor for the last few years has been Uzi Arad. I worked at the Hudson Institute for about five years, 1972 to \u201876. And I worked very closely with Uzi there.\nUzi and I made two trips to Korea and Japan to talk about international finance. So we had a good chance to get to know each other. And on one trip, we stopped over from New York to San Francisco. And in San Francisco, there was a party or a gathering for people to meet us.\nAnd one of the U.S. generals came over and slapped Uzi on the back and said, you\u2019re our landed aircraft carrier over there. We love you.\nWell, I could see Uzi feeling, tightening up and getting very embarrassed and didn\u2019t really have anything to say. But the United States has always viewed Israel as just our foreign military base, not Israel.\nSo of course, it wants to secure this military base.\nBut when England first passed the act saying there should be in Israel the Balfour Declaration, it was because Britain wanted to control the Near East and its oil supplies.\nWhen Israel was formed in the United Nations, the first country to recognize it was Stalin and Russia, who thought that Russians were going to have a major influence over Israel.\nAnd then after that, of course, when Truman came in, the military immediately saw that America was replacing England as the chief of the Near East. And that was even after the fight, the overthrow of the Mossadegh government in Iran in 1953.\nSo from the United States, it\u2019s not Israel\u2019s wagging the American tail, just the opposite. You mentioned that America is supporting Israel. I don\u2019t think America is supporting Israel at all, nor do most Israelis, nor do most Democrats.\nAmerica is supporting Netanyahu. It\u2019s supporting Likud, not Israel. The majority of Israelis, certainly the non-religious Israelis, the core population of Israel since its founding, is opposing Likud and its policies.\nAnd so what really is happening is that to the United States, Netanyahu is the Israeli version of Zelensky in the Ukraine.\nAnd the advantage of having such an unpleasant, opportunist, and corrupt person as Netanyahu, who is under indictment for his bribery and corruption, is precisely that all of the attention now of the whole world that is so appalled by the attacks going on in Gaza, they\u2019re not blaming the United States.\nThey\u2019re blaming Israel. They\u2019re blaming Netanyahu and Israel for it, when it\u2019s the United States that has been sending plane load after plane load of bombs, of guns. There are 22,000 machine guns, automatic guns, that are banned for sale in the United States that America is sending for the settlers to use on the West Bank.\nSo there\u2019s a pretense of good cop, bad cop. You have Mr.\u00a0Blinken telling Netanyahu, when you bomb hospitals, make sure you do it according to the rules of war. And when you kill 100,000 Gaza children, make sure it\u2019s all legal and in the war. And when you talk about ethnic cleansing and driving a population out, make sure that it\u2019s all done legal.\nWell, of course, it\u2019s not the rules of war, and there are war crimes being committed, but the United States is pretending to tell Netanyahu and the Israeli government, use smaller bombs. Be more gentle when you bomb the children in the hospital, when actually this is all for show.\nThe United States is trying to say, well, we\u2019re only there to give help to an ally. The whole world has noticed that the U.S. now has two aircraft carriers in the Mediterranean, right off the Near Eastern shore, and it has an atomic submarine near the Persian Gulf.\nWhy are they there? President Biden and Congress say we are not going to have American troops fighting Hamas in Gaza. We\u2019re not going to get involved. Well, if the troops are not going to get involved, why are they there?\nWell, we know what the American planes are doing. Yesterday, they bombed yet another airport and a fuel depot in Syria. They\u2019re bombing Syria. And it\u2019s very clear that they\u2019re there not to protect Israel, but to fight Iran.\nAgain and again, every American newspaper, when it talks about Hamas, it says Hamas is acting on behalf of Iran. When it talks about Hezbollah, and is there going to be an intervention from Lebanon against northern Israel, they say Hezbollah are the Iranian puppets.\nAny time they talk about any Near Eastern leader, it\u2019s really that all these leaders are puppets of Iran, just like in Ukraine and Central Europe, they talk about Hungary and other countries as all being puppets of Putin in Russia.\nTheir focus, really \u2013 America isn\u2019t trying to fight to protect Ukraine. It\u2019s fighting for the last Ukrainian to be exhausted in what they\u2019d hoped would be depleting Russia\u2019s military. Well, it hasn\u2019t worked.\nWell, the same thing in Israel. If the United States is pushing Israel and Netanyahu to escalate, escalate, escalate, to do something that at a point is going to lead Nasrallah to finally say, okay, we can\u2019t take it anymore. We\u2019re coming in and helping rescue the Gazians and especially rescue the West Bank, where just as much fighting is taking place. We\u2019re going to come in.\nAnd that\u2019s when the United States will then feel free to move not only against Lebanon, but all the way via Syria, Iraq, to Iran.\nWhat we\u2019re seeing in Gaza and the West Bank today is only the catalyst, the trigger for the fact that the neocons say we are never going to have a better chance than we have right now to conquer Iran.\nSo this is the point for the showdown, that if America is to control Near Eastern oil, and by controlling Near Eastern oil, by bringing it under the US control, it can control the energy imports of much of the world.\nAnd therefore, this gives American diplomats the power to cut off oil and gas and to sanction any country that tries to go multipolar, any country that tries to resist US unipolar control.\nBEN NORTON: Yeah, Michael, I think you\u2019re really hitting such an important point, which is how this is one of the most geostrategic regions of the world, especially when it comes to hydrocarbons.\nThe entire global economy is still very heavily reliant on oil and gas, and especially considering the US is not part of OPEC, and especially now considering that OPEC has really expanded essentially to OPEC+ and now includes Russia.\nThat means that Saudi Arabia and Russia essentially can help control global oil prices. And we\u2019ve seen this really, in fact, in the United States in the past few years with the rise of consumer price inflation.\nWe saw that the Biden administration was concerned about gas prices, in particular in the lead up to the midterm elections. And the Biden administration has been releasing a lot of oil from the strategic oil reserves of the United States.\nAnd we can also see these kinds of statements in particular when we go back and look at the Bush administration. There are numerous people involved in the Bush administration and the so-called \u201cWar on Terror\u201d who openly talked about how important it was for Washington to dominate this region.\nAnd I\u2019m really thinking of, in 2007, when the top US general and NATO commander Wesley Clark famously disclosed that the Bush administration had made plans to overthrow seven countries in five years. And those were countries in North Africa and West Asia.\nSpecifically, he revealed in an interview with journalist Amy Goodman on Democracy Now that Washington\u2019s plans were to overthrow the governments of Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and finally Iran:\nWESLEY CLARK: About 10 days after 9/11, I went through the Pentagon and I saw Secretary Rumsfeld and Deputy Secretary Wolfowitz. I went downstairs just to say hello to some of the people on the Joint Staff who used to work for me.\nAnd one of the generals called me and he said, \u201cSir, you\u2019ve got to come in and talk to me a second\u201d.\nI said, \u201cWell, you\u2019re too busy\u201d. He said, \u201cNo, no\u201d. He says, \u201cWe\u2019ve made the decision; we\u2019re going to war with Iraq\u201d.\nThis was on or about the 20th of September. I said, \u201cWe\u2019re going to war with Iraq, why?\u201d He said, \u201cI don\u2019t know\u201d. He said, \u201cI guess they don\u2019t know what else to do\u201d.\nSo I said, \u201cWell, did they find some information connecting Saddam to al-Qaeda?\u201d He said, \u201cNo, no\u201d. He says, \u201cThere\u2019s nothing new that way. They\u2019ve just made the decision to go to war with Iraq\u201d.\nHe said, \u201cI guess it\u2019s like we don\u2019t know what to do about terrorists, but we\u2019ve got a good military and we can take down governments\u201d.\nAnd he said, \u201cI guess if the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem has to look like a nail\u201d.\nSo I came back to see him a few weeks later, and by that time we were bombing in Afghanistan.\nI said, \u201cAre we still going to war with Iraq?\u201d And he said, \u201cOh, it\u2019s worse than that\u201d.\nHe said, he reached over on his desk, he picked up a piece of paper, and he said, \u201cI just got this down from upstairs\u201d, meaning the Secretary of Defense\u2019s office today, and he said, \u201cThis is a memo that describes how we\u2019re going to take out seven countries in five years, starting with Iraq and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and finishing off Iran\u201d.\nI said, \u201cIs it classified?\u201d He said, \u201cYes, sir\u201d. I said, \u201cWell, don\u2019t show it to me\u201d.\nAnd I saw him a year or so ago, and I said, \u201cYou remember that?\u201d And he said, \u201cSorry, I didn\u2019t show you that memo! I didn\u2019t show it to you!\u201d\nAMY GOODMAN: I\u2019m sorry, what did you say his name was? (laughs)\nWESLEY CLARK: I\u2019m not going to give you his name. (laughs)\nAMY GOODMAN: So go through the countries again.\nWESLEY CLARK: Well, starting with Iraq, then Syria and Lebanon, then Libya, then Somalia and Sudan, and then back to Iran.\nBEN NORTON: And since then, we of course saw the U.S. war on Iraq. We of course saw the proxy war in Syria that still goes on in many ways. The U.S. is occupying one-third of Syrian territory, including the oil rich areas.\nAnd Trump himself, President Donald Trump, boasted in a 2020 interview with Fox News host Laura Ingraham that he was leaving U.S. troops in Syria to take the oil:\nDONALD TRUMP: And then they say, \u201cHe left troops in Syria\u201d. You know what I did? I left troops to take the oil. I took the oil. The only troops I have are taking the oil. They\u2019re protecting the oil.\nLAURA INGRAHAM: We\u2019re not taking the oil. We\u2019re not taking it.\nDONALD TRUMP: Well, maybe we will, maybe we won\u2019t.\nLAURA INGRAHAM: They\u2019re protecting the facilities.\nDONALD TRUMP: I don\u2019t know, maybe we should take it. But we have the oil. Right now, the United States has the oil.\nSo they say, \u201cHe left troops in Syria\u201d. No, I got rid of all of them, other than we\u2019re protecting the oil; we have the oil.\nBEN NORTON: We also saw the U.S. impose sanctions on Lebanon, which contributed to hyperinflation and the destruction of the Lebanese economy. And that was largely because Hezbollah is part of the government, and the U.S. has been pressuring the Lebanese government to create a new government without Hezbollah.\nWe also saw, of course, that NATO destroyed the Libyan state in 2011. Somalia also has a failed state. And Sudan was divided in no small part thanks to the U.S. and Israel supporting South Sudan\u2019s separatist movement on ethno-religious lines, using religious sectarianism.\nSo if you look at the list of countries that Wesley Clark named in 2006, the seven countries in five years, again, that was Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and finally Iran; the only country that really has been able to maintain state stability, that has not been completely devastated by the United States, is Iran.\nOf course, it took longer than five years, but the U.S. was pretty successful. And of course Israel has played an important role in this U.S. goal to destabilize those governments in the region.\nMICHAEL HUDSON: Well, let\u2019s look and see how this was done. Remember after America was attacked on 9/11, there was a meeting at the White House, and everybody knew that the pilots were Saudi Arabians, and they knew that some of the pilots had been staying at the Saudi embassy in Los Angeles, I think, in the United States.\nBut after 9/11, there was a cabinet meeting, and Rumsfeld said to the people there, look and find any link you can get to Iraq, forget Saudi Arabia, no problem, Iraq is the key. And he directed them to find it, and 9/11 became the excuse for attacking not Saudi Arabia, but Iraq, and going right on with it.\nWell, you needed a similar crisis in Libya. They said in Libya, there was some, I think, fundamentalists in the suburbs of one of the [cities], not the capital city, that were causing problems. And so you have to \u201cprotect\u201d the innocent people from [Muammar Gadhafi], and you go in and grab all of their gold reserves, all of their money, and you take over the oil on behalf of France\u2019s oil monopoly.\nWell, this is the role of the fighting in Gaza today. Netanyahu\u2019s fight against Gaza is being used as the excuse for America moving its warships there, its submarines, and bombing, along with Israel, the Syrian airport so that the Syrians are not able to move weapons or any kind of military support either to Lebanon, to the west, or Iran, to the east.\nSo it\u2019s obvious that all of what we\u2019re seeing is somehow to soften up public opinion for the fact that, well, just like we had to invade Iraq because of 9/11, we have to now finally fight and take out the oil refineries of Iran and their scientific institutes and any laboratories where they may be doing atomic research.\nAnd Iran realizes this. Last week, the Iranian press TV said that their defense minister says that if there\u2019s any attack on Iran, whether by Israel or by anyone else, the U.S. and its foreign bases are going to be hit hard.\nIran, Russia, China have all looked at the Gaza situation not as if it\u2019s an Israeli action, but as if it\u2019s the U.S. action. They all see exactly that it\u2019s all about Iran, and the American press only says when it talks about Gaza or Hamas or Hezbollah or any other group, it\u2019s always the Iranian tool so-and-so.\nThey\u2019re demonizing Iran in the same way that the neocons have demonized Russia to prepare for America declaring an undeclared war against Iran. And they may even declare war.\nLast night, on [November] 8, the Republicans had their presidential debate without Trump, and Nikki Haley said, you know, we\u2019ve got to fight Iran, we\u2019ve got to conquer it. And DeSantis of Florida said, yes, kill them all. He didn\u2019t say who the them was. Was it Hamas? Was it everybody who lives in Gaza? Was it all of the Arabs in the Middle East?\nAnd we\u2019re really seeing something very much like the Crusades here. It\u2019s a real fight for who is going to control energy, because, again, the key, if you can control the world\u2019s flow of energy, you can do to the whole world what the United States did to Germany last year by blowing up the Nord Stream pipelines.\nYou can grind its industry to a halt, its chemical industry, its steelmaking industry, any of its energy-intensive industries, if countries do not agree to U.S. unipolar control. That\u2019s why it wants to control these areas.\nWell, the wildcard here is Saudi Arabia. Well, in two days, I think you\u2019re going to have the Iranian president visit Saudi Arabia, and we\u2019re going to see what\u2019s going to happen.\nBut Saudi Arabia finds that while its role is key, Saudi Arabia could simply say we\u2019re not going to export more oil until America pulls out of the Near East. But then all of Saudi Arabia\u2019s monetary savings are invested in the U.S.\nThe United States is holding the world hostage, not only by controlling its oil and gas and energy, but by controlling its finance. It\u2019s like you have your money in a mafia bank or in Bankman-Fried\u2019s cryptocurrency mutual fund. They can do whatever they want with it.\nSo I think what would happen is it\u2019s very unlikely that Saudi Arabia is ostensibly going to visibly break with the United States because the U.S. would hold it hostage.\nBut I think what it would do would be what has been talked about ever since the 1960s, when similar problems came with Iran. And Iran\u2019s ace in the hole has always been the ability to sink a ship in the Hormuz Strait, where the oil goes through a very narrow little strait, where if you sink a tanker there or a warship, it\u2019s going to block all of the sea trade with Saudi Arabia.\nAnd that would certainly, number one, take Saudi Arabia off the hook for saying, we can\u2019t help it. Of course, we\u2019d love to export oil, but we can\u2019t because the shipping lanes are all blocked because you, America, attacked Iran and they defended themselves by sinking the ship. So you can\u2019t send your aircraft carriers and submarines to attack Iran. That\u2019s very understandable.\nBut the United States is causing a world crisis.\nWell, obviously, the United States knows that that\u2019s going to happen because it\u2019s been discussed literally for 50 years. Since I was at the Hudson Institute working on national security, it was being discussed what to do when Iran sinks the ship in the Strait of Hormuz.\nWell, the United States figures, okay, oil prices are going to go up. And if Iran fights back in this way, we then will have the power to do to the world what we did to Germany in 2022 when we cut off its oil. But in this case, we don\u2019t take the blame.\nWe\u2019ll say, oh, we didn\u2019t block the Saudi and Arab oil trade. It was that Iran that blocked it, and that\u2019s why we\u2019re going to bomb Iran, assuming that they can.\nSo that, I think, is the contingency plan. And just as America had a contingency plan just like that, waiting for an opportunity, like 9-11, they needed a trigger, and Netanyahu has provided the trigger. And that\u2019s why the United States has been backing Netanyahu.\nAnd of course, Iran says, well, we have the ability to really wipe out Israel. And in Congress, General Miley and the others have all said, well, we know that Iran could wipe out Israel. That\u2019s why we have to attack Iran.\nBut in attacking Iran, you send its missiles off to Israel, and again, Israel will end up being the Near Eastern equivalent of Ukraine. And that sort of is the plan, and I think a lot of Israelis see this, and they\u2019re the ones who are worried and are opposing Netanyahu and trying to prevent him from triggering a whole set of military exchanges that Israel won\u2019t be able to resist.\nAnd even though Iran, I\u2019m sure they can bomb some places in Iran, but now that you have Russia, China, all supporting Iran through the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, you\u2019re having the lines being drawn very, very clearly.\nSo it seems that this scenario is inevitable because Mearsheimer pointed out that it\u2019s impossible to have a negotiated solution or settlement between Israel and Palestine. He said you can\u2019t have a two-state solution because the Palestinian state is going to be like an Indian reservation in America, all sort of cut apart and isolated, not really a state.\nAnd you can\u2019t have a single state because a single state is a theocratic state. It\u2019s like, again, it\u2019s like the United States in the Wild West in the 19th century.\nAnd I think the way to put it in perspective is to realize that what we\u2019re seeing today in the attempt to split the world is very much like, excuse me, very much like what happened in the 12th and 13th century with the Crusades.\nBEN NORTON: Yeah, Michael, you raise a lot of very important points there. And I know you want to talk further about the Crusades and the historical analogy. And I think you made a really good point about the US empire standing in as the new Crusaders.\nBut before you move away from the more contemporary political discussion, I wanted to highlight two very important points that you stressed.\nOne is not only the hydrocarbon reserves in the Middle East, which are so important for the world economy and in the US attempt to maintain control over oil and gas supplies and in particular energy costs.\nThere\u2019s also an election coming up in 2024, and the US is concerned about gas prices and inflation. And of course, energy inputs are a key factor in inflation.\nBut furthermore, this region is strategic because of trade routes. Of course, the Suez Canal, according to looking at data here from the World Economic Forum, 30% of the world\u2019s shipping container volume transits through the Suez Canal and 12% of all global trade consists of goods that pass through the Suez Canal.\nAnd we saw this in 2021 when there was this big media scandal when a US ship got stuck in the Suez Canal. And this, of course, also came at the time when the world was coming out of the pandemic and there were all these supply chain shocks.\nSo we can see how sensitive the global economy is to even small issues in the global supply chain. And when you talk about shipping routes, we\u2019re not only talking about the Suez Canal, we\u2019re also talking about in the Red Sea toward the south.\nYou also have the Bab al-Mandab. This is a very important strait off of the coast of Yemen. And in the war in Yemen, starting in 2014 and 2015, a lot of the fighting back by the U.S. in this war was in the south, off of the Bab al-Mandab, because this is such an important strait where every single day millions of barrels of oil flow through this strait.\nAnd this also reminded me, Michael, you were talking about the historical context. And if you go back to 1956, Israel invaded Egypt. And why was that? Israel invaded Egypt because Egypt\u2019s leftist president, Nasser, nationalized the Suez Canal.\nAnd at that moment, what was very interesting is that the U.K. and France were strongly supporting Israel in this war against Egypt because they were concerned also about Nasser\u2019s nationalization of the Suez. At that moment, the U.S. wasn\u2019t as deeply pro-Israel as it later became.\nOf course, in 1967, in the Six-Day War, Israel attacked the neighboring Arab states and occupied part of Egypt, the Sinai, and then also what became Gaza. Israel occupied the Golan Heights of Syria, which remain illegally occupied Syrian territory today. And Israel occupied the West Bank, what we call the West Bank today.\nBut another important detail about that is, after the 1967 war, Israel increasingly became much more of a U.S. ally.\nWhereas the first generation of Israeli leaders were much more, many of them were European, whereas the later generations of Israelis have been really American.\nI mean, someone like Netanyahu, he is an American. Netanyahu was raised in the United States. He went to high school in Philadelphia. He went to high school with Reggie Jackson, by the way. He spent his most formative years in the U.S. He went to college at MIT.\nHe then worked in Boston, and he worked with many Republicans that he became friends with, like Mitt Romney, like Donald Trump. And then when he went back to Israel, he was sent to the U.S. to be a diplomat in the United States.\nSo the new generation of Israeli leaders is much more American, essentially.\nAnd another detail you mentioned about Iran is so important, because, up until the Iranian revolution in 1979, the Iran of the Shah, the U.S.-backed monarchy, was such an important ally in the region.\nAnd in fact, Saudi Arabia and Iran were famously referred to as the twin pillars. Saudi Arabia was the west pillar and Iran was the east pillar. The U.S. used to try to dominate this region, of course, with the support of Israel as well.\nWell, with the Iranian Revolution in 1979, the U.S. lost that crucial east pillar, which meant that Israel became even more important from the perspective of the U.S. imperialism to maintain control over this region.\nSo I just wanted to mention those details of the strategic importance of the trade routes, like the Bab al-Mandab Strait, like the Suez Canal, and also the fact that the Iranian Revolution fundamentally shifted U.S. policy in the region and made Israel even more important from the perspective of U.S. imperialism.\nAnd now we\u2019re in a moment where, as you mentioned, the U.S. is even losing control over Saudi Arabia. So it\u2019s losing both of its pillars, which is, again, why Washington is so desperate in propping up Israel, despite the fact that the entire region is completely against these settler-colonialist policies and these ethnic cleansing policies that Israel is carrying out right now, as the entire world is watching.\nMICHAEL HUDSON: Well, to U.S. diplomats, what you call the support of Israel is really the support of the U.S.\u2019 ability to militarily control the rest of the Near East.\nIt\u2019s all about oil. America is not giving all this money to Israel because it loves Israel, but because Israel is the military base from which the United States can attack Syria, Iraq, and Iran and Lebanon. So it\u2019s a military base.\nAnd of course, it can frame this in terms of pro-Israeli, pro-Jewish policy, but this is only for the public relations view of the State Department.\nIf American strategy is based on energy in the Near East, then Israel is only a means to this end. It\u2019s not the end itself. And that\u2019s why the United States needed to have an aggressive Israeli government.\nYou can look at Netanyahu as being, in a way, a U.S. puppet, very much like Zelensky. Their positions are identical in their reliance on the United States against the majority of their own people.\nSo you keep talking about America\u2019s support of Israel. It\u2019s not supporting Israel at all. It rejects the majority of Israelis. It supports the Israeli military, not the Israeli society or the culture, have nothing to do with Judaism at all. This is pure military politics, and that\u2019s how I\u2019ve always heard it discussed among the military and national security people.\nSo you want to be careful not to be taken in by the cover story.\nThere\u2019s one other means of control, I think, that we should mention, and that is, you\u2019ve had in the last month or so all sorts of statements by the United States that as soon as Russia conquers the Ukraine and solidifies its control, it\u2019s going to bring up claims against war crimes, crimes against humanity, against Russia.\nAmerica is trying to use the crooked court system. The International Criminal Court is a branch of the Pentagon in the State Department, and it\u2019s the kangaroo court. The idea is that somehow the kangaroo court can give America judgments against Putin as they\u2019ve declared him to be arrested anywhere he goes of people who respect the kangaroo court, and they can have all sorts of sanctions against Russian property elsewhere.\nWell, look at how on earth are they going to justify these claims of war crimes against Russia if in the view of what\u2019s happening between Israel and Gaza right now, and in fact, the arms and the bombs that are being used against Gaza are U.S. bombs, U.S. arms. The U.S. is fueling it all.\nHow on earth can the United States not accuse itself of war crimes on the basis of what it\u2019s trying to accuse Russia of? Part of the splitting of the world that you\u2019re going to see, whether or not the United States can actually bomb Iran, is going to be a whole setup of parallel courts and an isolation, not only of the United States, but as Europe is coming in.\nBasically, there\u2019s a fight for who is going to control the world right now, and that\u2019s why I mentioned the Crusades.\nI want to say I\u2019ve been writing a history of the evolution of financial policy. I\u2019ve done two volumes already, one on the Bronze Age Near East, \u2026and forgive them their debts, and the other on classical antiquity, The Collapse of Antiquity. I\u2019m now working on the third volume, which covers the Crusades to World War I.\nIt\u2019s really all about an attempt by Rome, that had hardly any economic power at all, to take over all of the five Christian bishoprics that were made. Constantinople was really the new Rome. That was the head of Orthodox Christianity.\nThe emperor of Constantinople was really the emperor over the whole Christian world. It was followed by Antioch, Alexandria, and finally Jerusalem.\nThe Crusades really began, before they attacked the Near East it began in the 11th century. And Rome was finally being attacked by the Norman armies that were coming in and grabbing parts of France and had moved into Italy.\nSo the papacy made a deal with the Norman warlords, and it said, \u201cWe will give you the divine right to rule, we will recognize you as the Christian king, and we will excommunicate all of your enemies, but you have to pledge feudal fealty, loyalty to us, and you have to let us appoint your bishops and control the churches, which control most of your land, and you have to pay us tribute\u201d.\nThe papacy all during the 10th century was controlled by a small group of aristocratic families around Rome that treated the papacy just as they treat the local political mayor of a city or the local administrators.\nThe church was just sort of run by a family. It had nothing to do with Christian religion at all. It was just, this is the church property, and one of our relatives, we\u2019re always going to have as the pope.\nWell, the popes didn\u2019t have any troops in the late 11th century, and so they got the troops by making a deal with the Normans, and they decided, okay, we\u2019re going to have an ideal, we\u2019re going to mount the Crusades, and we\u2019re going to rescue Jerusalem from the \u201cinfidels\u201d, the Muslims.\nWell, the problem is that Jerusalem didn\u2019t need a rescue, because all throughout the medieval world, throughout Islam, no matter what the religion of the governing classes was, there was a religious tolerance, and that continued for hundreds of years under the Ottoman Empire.\nThere was only one group that was intolerant, and that was the Romans, that said, \u201cWe have to control all of Christianity, in order to prevent these aristocratic Italian families from taking over again\u201d.\nAnd so they mounted the Crusades, nominally against Jerusalem, but they ended up sacking Constantinople, and two centuries later, by 1291, the Christians lost in Acre.\nThe whole Crusade against the Near East failed.\nI think you can see the parallel that I\u2019m going to be drawing.\nSo most of the Crusades were not fought against Islam, because Islam was too strong.\nThe Crusades were fought against other Christians. And the fight of Roman Christianity was against the original Christianity for itself, as it existed over the last 10 centuries.\nWell, you\u2019re having something like that today. Just as Rome appointed the Normans as feudal rulers, William the Conqueror in Sicily, the U.S. appoints Zelensky, supports Netanyahu, supports client oligarchs in Russia, supports Latin American dictators.\nSo you have a U.S. view of the world that is not only unipolar, but in order to have unipolar U.S. control of the world, the U.S. has to be in charge of treating any foreign state, any foreign president as a feudal serf, basically, that they owe feudal loyalty to the United States\u2019 sponsors.\nAnd just as you had the Inquisition formed in the 12th century, really, to enforce this obedience to Rome as opposed to independent southern France, and independent Italy, and Arab science in Spain, you have today the U.S. using the National Endowment for Democracy, and all of the organizations controlled by Victoria Nuland with her cookies, to support things.\nWell, you\u2019re having the whole strategy of the Roman takeover, how it was going to take over other countries, how it was going to prevent other countries from becoming independent of Rome, is almost sentence for sentence what you get in American national security reports, how to control other countries. And that\u2019s really the fight that we\u2019re seeing there.\nAnd against that, you\u2019re finding the fight of other countries, the global majority. But in this case, whereas Constantinople was looted in 1204 and sort of destroyed by the Fourth Crusade, Russia, and China, and Iran and the other countries have not been looted.\nThe only thing that the United States can do right now is it\u2019s setting up this military plan to attack Iran. What is the role going to be of, for instance, India? The attack on Iran and on oil is at the same time an attack on the Chinese-led Belt and Road Initiative, the whole attempt to control transportation, not only oil, but transportation by the global majority for each other\u2019s mutual growth, mutual gain, mutual trade.\nAnd the United States is trying to have an alternative plan for all of this that would run from India, essentially largely through Israel, and making a cut right across Gaza, which is one of the big problems that are being discussed now, to the Israeli control of Gaza, which would control its offshore oil and gas.\nSo you\u2019re having the wild cards in the U.S. plan, India, Saudi Arabia, what will it do, and Turkey, because Turkey also has an interest in this oil and gas. And if the Islamic countries decide that they\u2019re really under attack, and this attack by the Christian West against Islam is really a fight to the death, then Turkey will join with Saudi Arabia and with all of the other countries, the Shiites, and the Sunnis, and the Alawites will join together and say, what we have in common is the Islamic religion.\nThat is really going to be essentially the extension of America\u2019s fight against China and Russia.\nSo what we\u2019re seeing, I\u2019m going to try to summarize now, what we\u2019re really seeing is having fought Russia to the last Ukrainian, and threatening to fight Iran to the last Israeli. The United States is trying to send arms to Taiwan to say, wouldn\u2019t you like to fight to the last Taiwanese against China? And that\u2019s really the U.S. strategy all over the world.\nIt\u2019s trying to fuel other countries to fight wars for its own control. That\u2019s how Rome used the Norman armies to conquer southern Italy, England, and Yugoslavia.\nIsrael, and what is in the news over the whole attacks in Gaza, is only the opening stage, the trigger for this war, just as the shooting in Sarajevo started World War I in Serbia started everything.\nBEN NORTON: Well, you raised so many interesting points, Michael, and I think your analysis is very fresh and unique and very insightful. I wish we had more time to go into some of these topics, but we\u2019ve already been speaking for about an hour.\nSo I think we\u2019re going to wrap up here. But I do want to thank you, Michael, for joining us. And of course, we\u2019ll be back very soon for more analysis.\nFor people who are interested, I actually have interviewed Michael. I did an interview recently on classical antiquity, and Rome and Greece. And he has also written about the history of debt up through the creation of Christianity in his book And Forgive Them Their Debts. And now he is working on this political, economic, materialist history of the Crusades.\nMICHAEL HUDSON: I didn\u2019t realize when I began the book in the 1980s, drafting it, I didn\u2019t realize how critical the Roman papacy was, and how similar it was to the State Department, and CIA, and the blob today in its plans for world conquest.\nBEN NORTON: Well, I\u2019m sure in the future we will have many opportunities to discuss that research. Of course, for people who want to get more of Michael\u2019s very important analysis, you should check out the show that he co-hosts here with friend of the show, Radhika Desai, and that is Geopolitical Economy Hour.\nIf you go to our website, geopoliticaleconomy.com, or if you go to our YouTube channel, you can find a playlist with all of the different episodes of Geopolitical Economy Hour. So thanks again, Michael, and we\u2019ll definitely have you back very soon.\nMICHAEL HUDSON: It\u2019s good to be here. Thank you.\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Trapped in IMF debt, Argentina turns to Russia and joins China\u2019s Belt & Road. 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": "Alberto Fern\u00e1ndez, Argentina, Belt and Road Initiative, China, Covid-19, IMF, International Monetary Fund, Mauricio Macri, Russia, Sinopharm, Sputnik V, vaccines, Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping", "output": "Argentina is trapped in $44 billion of IMF odious debt taken on by corrupt right-wing regimes. Seeking alternatives to US hegemony, President Alberto Fern\u00e1ndez traveled to Russia and China, forming an alliance with the Eurasian powers, joining the Belt and Road Initiative.\n\n(Se puede leer este art\u00edculo en espa\u00f1ol aqu\u00ed.)\nThe United States constantly intervenes in the internal affairs of Latin America, organizing coups d\u2019etat, destabilizing independent governments, trapping nations in debt, and imposing sanctions. Washington sees the region as its own property, with President Joe Biden referring to it this January as \u201cAmerica\u2019s front yard.\u201d\nSeeking alternatives to US hegemony, progressive governments in Latin America have increasingly looked across the ocean to form alliances with China and Russia.\nArgentina\u2019s President Alberto Fern\u00e1ndez did exactly that this February, taking historic trips to Beijing and Moscow to meet with his counterparts Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin.\nFern\u00e1ndez signed a series of strategic agreements, officially incorporating Argentina into Beijing\u2019s international Belt and Road Initiative, while expanding economic partnerships with the Eurasian powers and telling Moscow that Argentina \u201cshould be the door to enter\u201d Latin America.\nChina offered $23.7 billion in funding for infrastructure projects and investments in Argentina\u2019s economy.\nIn the meetings, Fern\u00e1ndez also asked for Argentina to join the BRICS framework, alongside Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. Xi and Putin reportedly both agreed.\n\u201cI am consistently working to rid Argentina of this dependence on the IMF and the US,\u201d Fern\u00e1ndez explained. \u201cI want Argentina to open up new opportunities.\u201d\nThe Argentine president\u2019s comments and meetings with Putin and Xi reportedly angered the US government.\nArgentina is a Latin American powerhouse, with significant natural resources and the third-largest economy in the region (after Brazil and Mexico, both of which have significantly larger populations).\nBut Argentina\u2019s development has often been weighed down by debt traps imposed from abroad, resulting in frequent economic crises, cycles of high inflation, and currency devaluations.\nThe International Monetary Fund (IMF) \u2013 a de facto economic arm of the United States, over which Washington alone has veto power \u2013 has significant control over Argentina, having trapped the nation in huge sums of odious debt.\nIn 2018, Argentina\u2019s right-wing President Mauricio Macri requested the largest loan in the history of the IMF: a staggering $57.1 billion bailout.\nMacri was notorious for his corruption, and this was no secret at the time. By agreeing to give such an enormous sum of money to Macri\u2019s scandal-plagued government, the IMF knew it was ensnaring Argentina in debt it would not be able to pay off. But this was far from the first time the US-dominated financial instrument had trapped Argentina in odious debt.\nIn December 2021, the IMF published an internal report admitting that the 2018 bailout completely failed to stabilize Argentina\u2019s economy.\nBut when Argentina\u2019s center-left President Alberto Fern\u00e1ndez entered office in December 2019, his country was ensnared in $44.5 billion in debt from this bailout that the IMF itself admitted was a total failure. ($44.5 billion of the $57.1 billion loan had already been disbursed, and Fern\u00e1ndez cancelled the rest.)\nThe Argentine government has tried to renegotiate the debt, but in order to do so the IMF has imposed conditions that severely restrict the nation\u2019s sovereignty \u2013 such as appointing a British economist who \u201cwill virtually be the new economic minister,\u201d acting as a kind of \u201cco-government,\u201d warned prominent diplomat Alicia Castro.\nSeeking ways around these US debt traps, Fern\u00e1ndez decided this February to turn to the two rising Eurasian superpowers.\nOn February 3, Argentine President Alberto Fern\u00e1ndez travelled to Russia to meet with President Vladimir Putin.\n\u201cI\u2019m certain Argentina has to stop being so dependent on the [International Monetary] Fund and the United States, and has to open up to other places, and that is where it seems to me that Russia has a very important place,\u201d Fern\u00e1ndez said, explaining his motivation for the trip.\n???? | \"Estamos dando un paso importante para que la Argentina y Rusia profundicen sus lazos\", expres\u00f3 el presidente @alferdez en una declaraci\u00f3n conjunta que brind\u00f3 junto a su par Vlad\u00edmir Putin. #GiraPresidencial\n? @KremlinRussia_Ehttps://t.co/aHl8tOuPZy pic.twitter.com/APoQR6VHtU\n\u2014 Casa Rosada (@CasaRosada) February 3, 2022\n\nFern\u00e1ndez added that, for Russia, Argentina \u201cshould be the door to enter\u201d the region, telling Putin, \u201cWe could be a venue for the development of your cooperation with Latin American nations.\u201d\nThe two leaders discussed Russian investment in the Argentine economy, trade, railroad construction, and energy technology.\nFern\u00e1ndez also thanked Moscow for collaborating with his country in the production of its Sputnik V covid-19 vaccine. Argentina was the first country in the western hemisphere to do so.\nThe Argentine president even pointed out in their meeting that he has received three doses of the Sputnik V vaccine. Putin added, \u201cMe too.\u201d\nPutin said the two countries agree on many issues, calling Argentina \u201cone of Russia\u2019s key partners in Latin America.\u201d\nEs un honor haberme reunido con Vlad\u00edmir Putin, presidente de Rusia.\nTuvimos la oportunidad de intercambiar ideas sobre c\u00f3mo podemos complementar mucho m\u00e1s el v\u00ednculo entre nuestras naciones. pic.twitter.com/ntmDGn6jtD\n\u2014 Alberto Fern\u00e1ndez (@alferdez) February 3, 2022\n\nJust three days after meeting with Putin, President Alberto Fern\u00e1ndez travelled to China on February 6 to meet with President Xi Jinping.\nIn this historic trip,\u00a0Argentina officially joined Beijing\u2019s Belt and Road Initiative, a massive global infrastructure program.\nFern\u00e1ndez and other top Argentine officials signed agreements for $23.7 billion in Chinese financing, including investments and infrastructure projects.\nThe funding will be disbursed in two parts: one, which is already approved, will provide Argentina with $14 billion for 10 infrastructure projects; the second, for $9.7 billion, will finance the South American nation\u2019s integration into the Belt and Road.\nThere are three joint Chinese-Argentine projects that were reportedly at the top of Fern\u00e1ndez\u2019s list: creating 5G networks, developing Argentina\u2019s lithium industry, and building the Atucha III nuclear power plant.\nTuve una cordial, amistosa y fruct\u00edfera reuni\u00f3n con Xi Jinping, presidente de China. Acordamos la incorporaci\u00f3n de Argentina a la Franja y la Ruta de la Seda.\nEs una excelente noticia. Nuestro pa\u00eds obtendr\u00e1 m\u00e1s de US$ 23 mil millones de inversiones chinas para obras y proyectos. pic.twitter.com/LGyIJ6zWdG\n\u2014 Alberto Fern\u00e1ndez (@alferdez) February 6, 2022\n\nFern\u00e1ndez also discussed plans for Argentina to produce China\u2019s Sinopharm covid-19 vaccine, in addition to Russia\u2019s Sputnik V.\nArgentina and China signed a comprehensive memorandum of understanding, including 13 documents for cooperation in areas such as green energy, technology, education, agriculture, communication, and nuclear energy.\nFern\u00e1ndez and Xi discussed ways to \u201cstrengthen relations of political, commercial, economic, scientific, and cultural cooperation between both countries,\u201d according to an Argentine government readout of the meeting.\nThe two leaders apparently hit it off very well, with Fern\u00e1ndez telling Xi, \u201cIf you were Argentine, you would be a Peronist.\u201d\n???? | El presidente @alferdez mantuvo reuniones sobre el proyecto de producir en Argentina la vacuna de Sinopharm, particip\u00f3 de la inauguraci\u00f3n de los JJOO de Invierno #Beijing2022 y visit\u00f3 el Museo de la Historia del Partido Comunista. #GiraPresidencialhttps://t.co/acSH9rvpM7 pic.twitter.com/Edz7hHRLE8\n\u2014 Casa Rosada (@CasaRosada) February 4, 2022\n\nArgentina\u2019s incorporation into the Belt and Road comes mere weeks after Nicaragua joined the initiative in January, and Cuba in December.\nLatin America\u2019s growing links with China and Russia show how the increasingly multipolar international system offers countries in the Global South new potential allies who can serve as bulwarks against and alternatives to Washington\u2019s hegemony.\nWhile right-wing leaders in Latin America keep looking north to the United States as their political compass, progressive governments are reaching across the ocean to the Eurasian powers of China, Russia, and Iran, building new international alliances that weaken Washington\u2019s geopolitical grip over a region that the US president still insists is its \u201cfront yard.\u201d\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: How Mexico\u2019s progressive gov\u2019t nationalized its lithium, the \u2018white gold\u2019. 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, Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador, lithium, Mexico, neoliberalism, oil, podcast, Renata, Turrent", "output": "Mexican professor Renata Turrent explains how the progressive government of President AMLO nationalized lithium and reversed privatization of oil by corrupt past neoliberal leaders.\n\nMultipolarista editor Benjamin Norton is joined by Mexican professor and activist Renata Turrent to discuss how the progressive government of President Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador (AMLO) nationalized Mexico\u2019s lithium, an important resource needed to create electronic technologies, while also reversing privatization of oil by corrupt past neoliberal governments.\n\nThis video is also available at Rokfin\u00a0and Rumble.\n\nYou can download the podcast version of this interview at Substack.\nYou can\u00a0follow Renata on Twitter at @RTurrent.\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: \u2018Free Julian Assange!\u2019 say Latin America\u2019s leftist leaders: Lula, AMLO, Petro, Maduro, Ortega, Kirchner, Evo, Zelaya. 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, Bolivia, Brazil, Cristina Fern\u00e1ndez de Kirchner, Daniel Ortega, Ecuador, Evo Morales, Honduras, Julian Assange, Lula da Silva, Manuel Zelaya, Nicaragua, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, Nils Melzer, Rafael Correa, torture, Venezuela, WikiLeaks", "output": "Latin America\u2019s leftist presidents are leading the campaign to free Julian Assange. The WikiLeaks journalist has the support of Brazil\u2019s Lula da Silva, Mexico\u2019s Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador, Argentina\u2019s Cristina Fern\u00e1ndez de Kirchner, Colombia\u2019s Gustavo Petro, Venezuela\u2019s Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, Nicaragua\u2019s Daniel Ortega, Bolivia\u2019s Evo Morales, and Honduras\u2019 Manuel Zelaya.\n\nA movement is growing in Latin America to demand the freedom of political prisoner Julian Assange, the Australian journalist persecuted by the United States for his work exposing its war crimes.\nMost of the major leftist leaders in Latin America have called for Assange to be released from the maximum-security British prison where he has been held since 2019 and subjected to torture.\nCurrent and former Latin American presidents who have expressed their support for the beleaguered journalist include Brazil\u2019s Lula da Silva, Mexico\u2019s Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador, Argentina\u2019s Cristina Fern\u00e1ndez de Kirchner, Colombia\u2019s Gustavo Petro, Venezuela\u2019s Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, Nicaragua\u2019s Daniel Ortega, Bolivia\u2019s Evo Morales, and Honduras\u2019 Manuel Zelaya.\n\nIt was the socialist ex president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, who gave asylum to Assange in the first place.\nAssange, the founder of whistle-blowing journalism publication WikiLeaks, was trapped in Ecuador\u2019s embassy in London, England for seven years, starting 2012, in what United Nations experts determined to be an illegal form of arbitrary detention by the governments of the UK and Sweden.\nIn 2019, British authorities stormed the Ecuadorian embassy and arrested Assange.\u00a0The UK\u2019s judicial system subsequently rubber stamped Washington\u2019s extradition request, and the WikiLeaks journalist faces up to 175 years in prison.\nThe United Nations special rapporteur on torture, Nils Melzer, visited Assange in London\u2019s brutal Belmarsh prison and reported that he suffers from \u201call the symptoms typical for prolonged exposure to psychological torture.\u201d\n\u201cWhile the US Government prosecutes Mr. Assange for publishing information about serious human rights violations, including torture and murder, the officials responsible for these crimes continue to enjoy impunity,\u201d the UN expert noted.\nThe CIA, which has organized coups against many left-wing governments in Latin America, even made plans to kidnap and kill Assange. The infamous US spy agency is now being sued by journalists who were victims of its illegal spying operations.\n\nEcuador\u2019s former President Correa has always been one of Assange\u2019s most vocal supporters.\nCorrea\u2019s successor, Andr\u00e9s Arauz, has also praised Assange. A leftist\u00a0economist and former central bank manager who served as a minister under Correa, Arauz came close to winning Ecuador\u2019s 2021 elections.\n\u201cReal and also Ecuadorian journalism is that of Julian Assange,\u201d Arauz tweeted with pride, referring to the fact that the WikiLeaks publisher was given Ecuadorian citizenship.\nVerdadero periodismo y adem\u00e1s ecuatoriano es el de Julian Assange.\n\u2014 Andr\u00e9s Arauz (@ecuarauz) July 6, 2021\n\nBrazil\u2019s left-wing President-elect Lula da Silva met with Assange\u2019s colleagues from WikiLeaks on November 28, 2022.\nLula said he \u201csent my solidarity\u201d and expressed hope that \u201cAssange will be freed from his unjust imprisonment.\u201d\nLula governed Latin America\u2019s largest country from 2003 to 2010 and will return to power on January 1, 2023, after winning the October 30 elections and defeating current far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro.\nEstive com @khrafnsson, editor-chefe do WikiLeaks, e com o editor Joseph Farrell, que me informaram da situa\u00e7\u00e3o de sa\u00fade e da luta por liberdade de Julian Assange. Pedi para que enviassem minha solidariedade. Que Assange seja solto de sua injusta pris\u00e3o.\n?: Cl\u00e1udio Kbene pic.twitter.com/DuSvdEBQQY\n\u2014 Lula (@LulaOficial) November 29, 2022\n\nA week before they spoke with Lula in Brazil, the editors of WikiLeaks traveled to Colombia to meet with its new President Gustavo Petro.\nPetro, the first-ever left-wing leader of Colombia, said he \u201csupports the worldwide struggle for the freedom of the journalist Julian Assange.\u201d\n\u201cI will ask President Biden with other Latin American presidents so they don\u2019t put charges on a journalist only for saying the truth,\u201d he added.\nMe reun\u00ed con los voceros de Wikikeaks, para apoyar la lucha mundial por la libertad del periodista Julian Assange.\nLe soliciar\u00e9 al presidente Biden con otros presidentes latinoamericanos que no se pongan cargos a un periodista solo por decir la verdad pic.twitter.com/kWyoXrHhyV\n\u2014 Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) November 22, 2022\n\nNicaragua\u2019s socialist President Daniel Ortega said in 2021 that \u201cAssange earned the recognition of the people, and for that he won the peace prize of the peoples of the world.\u201d (He added, \u201cNot the Nobel Prize, which is given to those who destroy, invade, kill, bomb.\u201d)\nOrtega noted that Assange\u2019s supposed \u201ccrime\u201d was \u201chaving denounced the violations of human rights, the crimes committed by the North American leaders in killings, in bombings.\u201d\nThe revolutionary Sandinista leader condemned the hypocrisy and authoritarianism of Western governments, noting their roots in racism, monarchism, and fascism.\nWhat do UN human rights bodies have to say on Julian Assange, whose only crime was to denounce the tortures, massacres and murders of the Yankee government? President Daniel Ortega: pic.twitter.com/tnTaEdi5l6\n\u2014 Kawsachun News (@KawsachunNews) December 11, 2021\n\nVenezuela\u2019s elected President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro has been one of the most outspoken world leaders in defending Assange.\nWhen the journalist was imprisoned in 2019, Maduro harshly \u201ccondemned the atrocious decision\u201d\u00a0as \u201ca shameful affront to international law and his human rights.\u201d\nThe Venezuelan government stressed that Assange is a victim of \u201cpolitical persecution\u201d by the US government, and his \u201ccrime is having revealed to the world the darkest and most criminal face of the \u2018regime-change wars\u2019 that the US empire executes, and in particular the massive killings of civilians and the shameful violation of human rights in Iraq.\u201d\nRT @jaarreaza: #COMUNICADO | The Government and People of Venezuela reject the atrocious decision to deprive Australian-Ecuadorian citizen Julian Assange of the right of diplomatic asylum, and his subsequent arrest in London, clumsily and shamefully [\u2026] https://t.co/1GkSGLqMRC\n\u2014 Nicol\u00e1s Maduro (@maduro_en) April 12, 2019\n\n\u201cThe Australian-Ecuadorian journalist should not be delivered to the US, where his life is in danger of a rigged judicial process,\u201d and \u201cwhere there clearly exists the intention to end his life,\u201d Maduro added.\n\u201cOut of the respect of the right to asylum, out of the respect of international law, Julian Assange must be freed immediately, his life and its integrity must be protected and respected,\u201d the Venezuelan president stressed.\nMexico\u2019s left-wing President Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador (AMLO) has praised Assange as the \u201cbest journalist of our time, in the world.\u201d\nCriticizing US government hypocrisy, AMLO called for the Australian \u201cprisoner of conscience\u201d to be freed, and he asked, \u201cAre we going to take the Statue of Liberty out of New York? Are we going to keep talking about democracy? Are we going to keep talking about the protection of human rights, of the freedom of expression?\u201d\nIn a press conference, the Mexican leader even played a clip of the \u201cCollateral Murder\u201d video published by WikiLeaks, which shows the US military killing journalists in Iraq.\nAt the press conference in which Mexican President AMLO called for Julian Assange to be freed, he showed a clip of the \"collateral murder\" video published by @WikiLeaks, which exposed US war crimes and killing of journalists in Iraq.\nRead more here: https://t.co/qtR2SIOX1j pic.twitter.com/lEQw6F9rrS\n\u2014 Multipolarista (@Multipolarista) June 22, 2022\n\nArgentina\u2019s Cristina Fern\u00e1ndez de Kirchner, who was president from 2007 to 2015 currently serves as vice president, has repeatedly expressed support for Julian Assange.\nOn December 5, 2022, Kirchner met with the same WikiLeaks editors, Hrafnsson and Farrell, as part of their tour of Latin America.\nRecib\u00ed hoy a Kristinn Hrafnsson, editor general y a Joseph Farrell, embajador de Wikileak. Est\u00e1n realizando una gira latinoamericana para reclamar la libertad de Julian Assange. pic.twitter.com/C1vKhIpV4n\n\u2014 Cristina Kirchner (@CFKArgentina) December 5, 2022\n\nIn 2019, Kirchner tweeted, \u201cIn the upside-down world, fake news circulates freely and those who reveal the truth are persecuted and imprisoned.\u201d She emphasized the importance of \u201cthe citizens\u2019 right to information,\u201d and tagged Assange, thanking him for his journalistic work.\nEn el mundo al rev\u00e9s, las noticas falsas circulan libremente y aquellos que revelan la verdad son perseguidos y encarcelados. El derecho a la informaci\u00f3n de los ciudadanos y ciudadanas, bien gracias. #Assange\n\u2014 Cristina Kirchner (@CFKArgentina) April 11, 2019\n\nThen in June 2022, while serving as Argentina\u2019s vice president, Kirchner wrote, \u201cThe decision to facilitate the extradition of Julian Assange not only puts his life at risk but also marks an alarming precedent for all of the world\u2019s journalists who investigate and look for the truth: journalistic disciplining for everyone.\u201d\nLa decisi\u00f3n de habilitar la extradici\u00f3n de Julian Assange no solo pone en peligro su vida sino que adem\u00e1s marca un precedente alarmante para todos los y las periodistas del mundo que investigan y buscan la verdad: disciplinamiento period\u00edstico para todos y todas. pic.twitter.com/FHVhv7Ewen\n\u2014 Cristina Kirchner (@CFKArgentina) June 18, 2022\n\nBolivia\u2019s socialist ex-President Evo Morales warned in June 2022 that the \u201cdecision of the United Kingdom to accept the request of the United States to extradite Julian Assange is a grave attack on journalism, on democracy, and on the search for truth.\u201d\nMorales added that Assange \u201cexposed the unpunished crimes of the empire, that is his only \u2018crime.'\u201d The former Bolivian leader reassured \u201call our solidarity with him and his family.\u201d\nAssange expuso los cr\u00edmenes impunes del imperio, ese es su \u00fanico \u201cdelito\u201d. Toda nuestra solidaridad con \u00e9l y su familia.\n\u2014 Evo Morales Ayma (@evoespueblo) June 17, 2022\n\nHonduras\u2019 former President Manuel Zelaya has been a very outspoken defender of Julian Assange.\nZelaya was overthrown in a US-backed right-wing military coup in 2009. Today, he officially serves as an advisor to Honduras\u2019 current President, Xiomara Castro, who is his wife.\nZelaya created an organization called the Anti-Imperialist People\u2019s International in Defense of Humanity and Nature (Internacional Antiimperialista de los Pueblos en Defensa de la Humanidad y la Naturaleza), which launched a campaign to free Assange.\n\u201cThe world demands the immediate freedom of Julian Assange,\u201d Zelaya declared. His campaign has been publicly supported by Paraguay\u2019s left-wing former President Fernando Lugo, Ecuador\u2019s ex foreign minister and defense minister Ricardo Pati\u00f1o, Colombian lawmaker Piedad C\u00f3rdoba, the lawmaker Nidia D\u00edaz from El Salvador\u2019s leftist FMLN party, and prominent socialist Argentine intellectual Atilio Bor\u00f3n.\nEl mundo exige la libertad inmediata de Julian Assange https://t.co/78an1Pd9E7 v\u00eda @tercerainfo3i\n\u2014 Manuel Zelaya R. (@manuelzr) October 16, 2022\n\nIn September, Zelaya sent a letter to British Prime Minister Liz Truss, requesting a reversal of the extradition decision and freedom for Assange.\nIn 2020, Zelaya insisted, \u201cAssange, for informing humanity about the hidden horrors of power, should be given an award.\u201d\n"}
{"instruction": "Write an article about: Protesting farmer in Peru tells pro-coup media why she supports President Castillo: \u2018He\u2019s one of us\u2019!. 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": "Juliana Oxenford, media, Pedro Castillo, Peru", "output": "In a viral interview with a pro-coup media outlet, a protesting Peruvian farmer says she supports elected left-wing President Pedro Castillo because, \u201cAll my life, those foreigners who have governed have discriminated against us,\u201d and \u201cit pains them that we are governed by a teacher, a farmer,\u201d who is \u201chumble, like us.\u201d\n\nA farmer in Peru protesting the coup against democratically elected left-wing President Pedro Castillo explained in a viral video why she supports the overthrown leader.\n\u201cAll my life, those foreigners who have governed have discriminated against us,\u201d the woman said.\n\u201cBut today, it pains them that we are governed by a teacher, a farmer, who knows how to eat boiled potatoes, who knows how to eat humble things, like us, the farmers,\u201d she said.\nA protesting Peruvian farmer tells elite, pro-coup media she supports elected President Pedro Castillo because, \u201cAll my life, those foreigners who have governed have discriminated against us\u201d\n\u201cIt pains them that we are governed by a teacher, a farmer,\u201d who is \u201chumble, like us\u201d pic.twitter.com/YFHRI7Zn8m\n\u2014 Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) December 13, 2022\n\nThe video, which got thousands of shares on Twitter, showed a clip from Peru\u2019s media network ATV noticias.\nThe presenter in the segment, Juliana Oxenford, was born in Argentina and is from a wealthy family of elite actors.\nOxenford has publicly defended the coup, attacking protesters as \u201cvandals\u201d and demonizing democratically elected President Castillo as a \u201cdictator.\u201d\nA translated transcript of the conversation follows below:\nPROTESTER: It is outrageous that you, as the Peruvian media, you do not support us.\nWe are supporting a President (Pedro Castillo) who was elected by the Peruvian people.\nBut no, excuse me, but you, you say that he has been these things that you are mentioning, so are you defaming him? Are you defaming our president?\nPRESENTER: I would love to have the opportunity to have a conversation.\nPROTESTER: I\u2019m going to tell you something: All my life, all my life, those foreigners who have governed have discriminated against us. All of my life.\nBut today, it pains them that we are governed by a teacher, a farmer, who knows how to eat boiled potatoes, who knows how to eat humble things, like us, the farmers.\nPRESENTER: I understand the request of those who suffer the most in this country, and maybe you are part of that group ma\u2019am, I\u2019m sorry.\nPROTESTER: Who suffers? The ones who suffer, the ones who suffer, those who can\u2019t bear the pain, are the right-wingers; it is the congress members. It is the congress members, but not us.\n\u2026\nPRESENTER: I will never support a dictator.\nPROTESTER: How much do they pay you? How much do they pay you to support the right wing?\nPRESENTER: It doesn\u2019t matter! It doesn\u2019t matter how much they pay me! That is my own personal issue, not yours.\n"}