2020-04-20: News Headlines

Ben Norton (2020-04-20). Human Rights Watch cabildea por sanciones letales contra Nicaragua y Venezuela, mientras arrecia la crisis de Covid-19. thegrayzone.com Human Rights Watch está orgullosamente asumiendo el crédito por sanciones devastadoras contra Nicaragua, mientras busca escalar la guerra económica en…

Prof. Vijay Prashad (2020-04-20). Colombia, the Oligarchs and Washington. globalresearch.ca Last year, on November 21, the Colombian people took to the streets in massive numbers to reject the policies of the government led by President Iván Duque. In particular, the people

RT (2020-04-20). Bolsonaro hopes quarantine measures end this week in Brazil. rt.com Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said on Monday that he hoped this would be the last week of stay-at-home measures to try to slow the spread of the coronavirus. | Bolsonaro has openly railed against lockdown measures to combat the coronavirus and has asserted that the economic risks of shutting down Brazil's economy outweigh the dangers posed by the disease. | Despite Bolsonaro's protests, many of Brazil's governors have more or less shut down their states. The president also fired his popular health minister last week after they clashed over social distancing measures. | Brazil has more cases of the new cor…

teleSUR (2020-04-20). Russian and Venezuelan Presidents Hold Solidarity Phone Meeting. telesurenglish.net Venezuela and Russia agreed on Monday to consolidate their bilateral relations at a strategic level in the face of the coronavirus pandemic, after Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro held a telephone conversation with his Russian colleague, Vladimir Putin. | RELATED: | Both leaders reiterated their condemnation of the imposition of coercive measures by the United States government against Venezuela. | The conversatio…

Nicolás Maduro Moros (2020-04-20). President Maduro: Venezuela faces the COVID-19 With voluntary quarantine without curfew or State of Exception (Interviewed by Alfredo Serrano). mronline.org "Without a doubt, the first measure to contain the transmission chains of Covid-19 is quarantine, and we took it in advance on March 16," Nicolás Maduro Moros, the president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, told in the Argentinian multimedia show La Pizarra, led by Alfredo Serrano Mancilla.

Adriaan Alsema (2020-04-20). Duque's most damning scandal to date left 1.8 million Colombians starving: report. colombiareports.com Some 1.8 of 3 million people who were promised emergency aid by President Ivan Duque to make it through a quarantine never received a peso, weekly Semana reported Sunday. Not…

teleSUR (2020-04-20). Argentina: Bondholders Reject Debt Restructuring Proposal. telesurenglish.net A group of bondholders on Sunday rejected the Argentinian government's proposal, which aims to remove 62% of debt issued under foreign legislation, local media reported. | RELATED: | The proposal made by Argentina's Ministry of Economy to the bondholders last Thursday provides a three-year grace period without any payments, with a reduced deduction on the capital and a 62% cut in interest, totaling US$ 41.5 billio…

teleSUR (2020-04-20). Latin America Surpasses 100,000 Infections From COVID-19. telesurenglish.net Latin America reported this Sunday more than 100,000 people infected with the new coronavirus, with Brazil being the country most affected by the pandemic. | RELATED: | With 210 million inhabitants, Brazil has 38,654 infections and 2,462 deaths, according to local media. | Despite the high number of deaths and infections, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro announced Friday his intention to reopen trade and borders. | The second most aff…

Andrew Fishman (2020-04-20). Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro, the World's Most Powerful Coronavirus Denier. zcomm.org Bolsonaro chafed at having to share the spotlight with a subordinate who openly disagreed with his statements and had repeatedly threatened to remove the minister from his role. On Thursday, Mandetta was out…

teleSUR (2020-04-20). Chile: Teachers Reject Resuming School Year Over COVID-19. telesurenglish.net Chile's Professors College refused Sunday to resume the educational year in May. The union expressed its disagreement with the Chilean president's administrative decisions. | RELATED: | Sebastian Piñeira, Chile ¥s president, announced administrative measures to resume social and economic activities amid the pandemic. Piñera stated gradual retake on productive and public labors April 27. Chilean mandatary also announced professor…

Adriaan Alsema (2020-04-20). Six months in office and Colombia's prison chief already facing criminal charges. colombiareports.com Colombia's prison chief has barely been in office for half a year and is already facing multiple criminal charges amid accusations of sadism and intimidation. According to W Radio, prison…

Adriaan Alsema (2020-04-20). Bogota residents donate $13M to help poor through quarantine. colombiareports.com Residents of Colombia's capital Bogota raised $13 million (COP52,000 million)on Sunday to help the city's poor through a quarantine that is in place to slow down the spread of the…

Adriaan Alsema (2020-04-20). Colombia's mayors and governors block Duque's attempt to restart economy. colombiareports.com Mayors and governors throughout Colombia blocked President Ivan Duque's attempt to restart the economy on Sunday by maintaining their decrees restricting mobility. Bogota Mayor Claudia Lopez, whose city has been…

Guillaume Long (2020-04-20). How Ecuador Descended Into Corona Chaos. counterpunch.org In the last few days and weeks, media outlets around the world have been publishing shocking stories and images of the COVID-19 crisis in Ecuador. Scenes of corpses abandoned in the streets of Guayaquil, Ecuador's second-largest city, have shaken audiences in Latin America and beyond. Statistics, even the highly untrustworthy official ones, have confirmed the dire picture of a fast accelerating crisis.

Adriaan Alsema (2020-04-19). Colombia Reports invites lab workers to report irregularities and abuses. colombiareports.com Colombia Reports invites employees of laboratories testing coronavirus samples for the National Health Service (INS) to report irregularities and abuses. This website has received complaints and seen evidence that lab…

teleSUR (2020-04-19). Brazil, Ecuador Record Highest Death Tolls From COVID-19. telesurenglish.net The deaths and confirmed cases of the COVID-19 pandemic in Latin America continued to increase this Saturday, with Brazil, Ecuador and Chile being the countries most affected by the virus in the region. | RELATED: | Brazil, the nation most affected by the pandemic in the region, increased the death toll to 2,347 and 36,599 positive cases of COVID-19 in the country. | The state of Sao Paulo is the region most affected…

Caribbean Movement for Peace and Integration (2020-04-18). Caribbean Organizations Unite Against US Attacks, Support Caricom. telesurenglish.net Caribbean Anti-imperialist and Peace Organisations in a Zoom Meeting on the 16th April 2020, supported Caribbean Community (Caricom) called for the Caribbean to remain a zone of peace. | RELATED: | They expressed their opposition to the American military and naval build up off the Venezuelan coast, and the U.S. sanctions against Cuba and Venezuela. | The Caribbean Organizations Further objected to the seizing of medi…

Eds. (2020-04-18). The parched West is heading into a global warming-fueled megadrought that could last for centuries. mronline.org Warmer temperatures and shifting storm tracks are drying up vast stretches of land in North and South America.

teleSUR (2020-04-18). Brazil's Bolsonaro Wants Borders Reopened, Says Worth Risk. telesurenglish.net Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro called Friday for the reopening of the country's borders, as he pushes to restart South America's largest economy. Still, he conceded he might be blamed if the new coronavirus outbreak worsens as a result. | RELATED: | Bolsonaro fired his health minister on Thursday after clashing with him over lockdown measures, which the president argues are overly damaging to the economy and…

teleSUR (2020-04-18). Evo Morales: Police Put Cochabamba Population's Health at Risk. telesurenglish.net Bolivia's RELATED: | "The Police have…

teleSUR (2020-04-18). Bolsonaro Closes Brazil's Embassy and Consulates in Venezuela. telesurenglish.net Amid a health crisis that has made Brazil the country with the largest number of COVID-19 cases in Latin America, RELATED: | At least 38 people boarded in a Brazilian Air Force plane bound for Brasilia. Among the r…

teleSUR (2020-04-18). Colombia: Not Even the Pandemic Halts Killing of Social Leaders. telesurenglish.net Colombia's National Agrarian Coordinator (CNA) denounced that social leader Teodomiro Sotelo was assassinated on Friday while working on his farm in the El Tambo municipality. | RELATED: | "Armed individuals entered his property to murder him in front of his family and workers," local outlet El Colombiano reported and recalled that several farmers are migrating out of the area to avoid being new victims of violen…

Whitney Webb (2020-04-17). As US Shale Oil Plunges, Trump Admin Takes Aim at Venezuela. mintpressnews.com WASHINGTON DC ( Despite the president's rosy tone, most analysts have called the agreement — which presumably will freeze the Saudi-Russian oil price war that broke out…

teleSUR (2020-04-17). Chile Registers 9,252 COVID-19 Cases, With 116 Deaths. telesurenglish.net The Chilean Ministry of Health reported on Friday that the country has registered 9,252 cases of COVID-19, with 116 deaths. | Chilean Vice Minister of Health Paula Daza said that 3,621 people have recovered from the virus. | RELATED: The ministry's undersecretary of assistance networks, Arturo Zuniga, told a press conference that 385 patients are currently in intensive care units, 316 of whom are on ventilators, w…

Ben Norton (2020-04-16). Bolivian coup leader freaks out on The Grayzone for 'fascist' label in complaint to OAS 'human rights' arm. thegrayzone.com The director of far-right Bolivian coup leader Camacho's presidential campaign threw a slander-laced tantrum against The Grayzone in a letter…

Lucas Koerner (2020-04-15). Corporate Media Cover for US Mob Threats Against Venezuela. fair.org The Trump administration unveiled on March 31 a "democratic transition" plan to remove Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro from office, in favor of a "council of state" composed of both opposition and ruling party loyalists. | The plan was, however, less an offer to negotiate than a diktat, with the US State Department ( Despite the obvious mafioso over…

Ben Norton (2020-04-08). Billionaire-backed Human Rights Watch lobbies for lethal US sanctions on leftist governments as Covid crisis rages. thegrayzone.com Regime change-hungry HRW is proudly taking credit for crushing new US sanctions on Nicaragua while pushing to escalate Washington's economic…

Joe Emersberger (2020-03-13). No, Venezuela does not have a six child per family policy. zcomm.org I respect UK journalist Andrew Buncombe. As I noted for FAIR last year, he was one of the few corporate journalists who reported on a study linking Trump's financial sanctions on Venezuela to thousands of deaths by the end of 2018. Since 2018, Trump has repeatedly intensified the sanctions and threatened Venezuela with military action,

Venezuela Analysis (2020-02-06). Embassy Protection Collective: "We Are Not the Ones Who Violated the Law" theantimedia.com In this exclusive interview, VA talks to the activists who defended the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington DC ahead of their trial.