2020-06-05: News Headlines

Vijay Prashad (2020-06-05). Goliath is not invincible. mronline.org Last year, I walked with Mariela Machado in her housing complex known as Kaikachi in the neighbourhood of La Vega (Caracas, Venezuela). After Hugo Chávez was inaugurated president in 1999, a group of working-class residents of the city saw an empty piece of land and occupied it. Mariela and others went to the government and …

WSWS (2020-06-05). Protests spread in Chile as hospitals reach saturation point. wsws.org The loss of life is the outcome of decades of pro-corporate policies that have led to a chronically underfunded health system, now on the verge of collapse and extreme poverty.

Lola Allen (2020-06-05). How Has Bolivia's de Facto Regime Taken Advantage of COVID-19 to Consolidate Its Power and Repress Political Rivals? counterpunch.org On April 29, Bolivia's de facto president, Jeanine àÅñez, announced that the country would be moving into a "dynamic quarantine" phase on May 11. This decision was intended to alleviate the social and economic repercussions of the pandemic by loosening lockdown restrictions. However, the most heavily affected areas ‚Äï located primarily in poor communities ‚Äï

Lucas Koerner and Ricardo Vaz (2020-06-04). Venezuelan Government and Opposition Reach Deal to Fight Coronavirus. venezuelanalysis.com Spain has agreed to transfer $10 million in frozen Venezuelan funds to the Pan American Health Organization's medical efforts in the country.

Philip Giraldi (2020-06-04). Operating Outside the Rule of Law: Washington Pressures International Criminal Court. globalresearch.ca There is apparently no limit to what the United States and Israel can get away with without any consequences. The United States has been waging devastating economic warfare against Iran and Venezuela while also blaming China for a global health …

Anya Parampil (2020-06-03). Venezuelan Embassy Protection Collective wins legal victory in face of hostile Obama-appointed judge & govt prosecution. thegrayzone.com The sentencing of the final four from the Venezuelan Embassy Protection Collective marked another defeat for Juan Guaidó and his…

Vijay Prashad (2020-06-03). CoronaShock and the Hybrid War against Venezuela. mronline.org CoronaShock is a term that refers to how a virus struck the world with such gripping force; it refers to how the social order in the bourgeois state crumbled, while the social order in the socialist parts of the world appeared more resilient.

Tanya Wadhwa (2020-06-03). Assassination of social activists continues in Colombia despite lockdown. peoplesdispatch.org According to the Institute of Development and Peace Studies (INDEPAZ), 115 environmentalists, human rights defenders, Indigenous, peasant and social leaders, and more than 20 former combatants of the FARC guerrilla group have been killed so far this year…

Peoples Dispatch (2020-06-03). General elections in Bolivia to be held on September 6. peoplesdispatch.org Former Bolivian President Evo Morales, who was overthrown in a coup, welcomed the news and appealed to the people to vote for the presidential candidates of the Movement Towards Socialism party…

Alexander Rubinstein (2020-06-02). Top Venezuelan opposition leaders blame The Grayzone and Nicolas Maduro for US uprising against police brutality. thegrayzone.com Unhinged right-wing Venezuelan opposition leaders point to Max Blumenthal's t-shirt as evidence of a devious plot by the government of…

Ricardo Vaz (2020-06-02). US Sanctions Shipping Companies, Torpedoes Venezuela Oil-for-Food Deal. venezuelanalysis.com Washington is cracking down on swap deals that provide Venezuela with food, fuel and other vital imports in exchange for crude oil.

Stephen Sefton (2020-06-02). Nicaragua — False Witness, False Memory. COVID-19 and Nicaragua's Community Approach to Health Care. globalresearch.ca On Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela. The standard Western canonical sources of record, namely international institutions, non-governmental organizations and media outlets, practically universally contend that all three countries are authoritarian or even tyrannical regimes, denying their peoples' basic democratic rights. The …

Nash Landesman (2020-06-04). Across Colombia, Red Flags of Despair Fly as Harsh COVID Lockdown Is Extended for a Third Time. anti-empire.com Bogota, Colombia — Red flags hang draped from the doors, rooftops and windows of Bogota's impoverished southern neighborhoods. They symbolize the suffering wreaked by a now thrice-extended house-arrest and quarantine policy purportedly aimed at containing the Coronavirus. While the pandemic has infected only a few thousand people out of a population of more than thirty million in Colombia, the quarantine has caused prolonged unemployment, a wave of housing evictions, and rioting; fueling scourges like domestic violence while pushing many to the edge of starvation. | Colombia's tragedy mirrors those of the m…

RT (2020-06-05). Venezuelan FM says Guaido is holed up in French Embassy in Caracas, calls on Paris to 'hand over the fugitive'. rt.com Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido has taken refuge at the French Embassy in the country's capital, Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza said. Guaido previously sought to shoot down the rumors, insisting he is "with the people." | "We cannot enter the premises of any country's embassy whatsoever, in this case Spain or France," Arreaza said on Thursday, referring to both Guaido and fellow opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez, who fled to a Spanish diplomatic compound soon after a failed attempt to spark an insurrection in April 2019. Arreaza said this means that any arrest of the two men "is not possible." | We hop…

RT (2020-06-05). Paris denies that Guaido is hiding in French Embassy in Caracas as Venezuela demands he be handed over. rt.com France has rejected allegations that Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido has been holed up inside the nation's diplomatic mission in Caracas. Venezuelan authorities earlier labeled Guaido a "fugitive from justice." | "Juan Guaido is not at the French residence in Caracas. We have repeatedly confirmed this to the Venezuelan authorities," French Foreign Ministry spokesperson Agnes von der Muhll said. | Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza earlier claimed that Guaido, who was named 'interim president' by the opposition-controlled parliament last year, has been hiding inside the French Embassy, and deman…

_____ (2020-06-04). Protectors Of The Venezuelan Embassy Victorious After Federal Charges Are Dropped. popularresistance.org Federal charges against the four protectors of the Venezuelan Embassy, who defended the building in Washington DC against violent opposition crowds for several weeks between April 10 and May 16 of 2019, were completely dropped in a case that was brought directly by prosecutors of the Trump administration. | After several months of proceedings that produced a mistrial in February 2020, the four activists expressed in a public statement that "Today's sentence marks yet another victory in the effort to protect the Venezuelan Embassy. The Embassy Protection Collective broke through the blockade and got supplies to th…