Nationwide Blackout in Cuba Raises the Risk of Protests

Much of Cuba, including the capital Havana, is still without electricity - a day after the country's main energy plant failed, knocking out power to 10 million people. The authorities partially restored power to parts of the Caribbean island last night- but another full outage was reported in the early hours of Saturday.

For many people it has been a rough night with no air conditioning or fans. Food is now beginning to rot in fridges, and some families are having to cook with firewood. Many homes are without water as the supply depends on electric pumps. Patience is wearing thin, but there are no reliable reports of protests as yet. It is an increasingly critical situation, with schools and businesses closed and fears for the continued functioning of hospitals.  The outages come during the hurricane season, and there are fears that a significant storm would damage Cuba's creaking energy distribution infrastructure.

Friday's total blackout came after the Antonio Guiteras power plant in Matanzas - the largest on the island - went offline around 11 am local time.  President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez said the situation was his "absolute priority".  "There will be no rest until power is restored," he wrote onsocial media.

The communist president has blamed the decades-long U.S. embargo for preventing much needed supplies and replacement parts from reaching Cuba.  But more significantly,  Cuba has been suffering from increased shortages of crucial fuel shipments from Venezuela.  Prime Minister Manuel Marrero addressed the public in a televised message the day before the blackout, blaming deteriorating infrastructure, fuel shortages and rising demand for the electricity failures.  "The fuel shortage is the biggest factor," he admitted.   The head of the National Electric Union (UNE) Alfredo López Valdés also acknowledged the island had been facing a challenging energy situation, with shortages chiefly to blame.

Earlier this week, Cuban officials announced that all schools and non-essential activities, including nightclubs, were to close until Monday.  Non-essential workers were urged to stay home to safeguard electricity supply, and non-vital government services were suspended.

Extended blackouts (particularly one this widespread) are always a tense time in Cuba.  This is primarily due to the fact that keeping lights on represents a potential public order issue for the Cuban government. In July 2021, thousands of protesters spilled into the streets in demonstrations sparked by days-long blackouts in much of the country.

The Cuban government has become increasingly aware that many on the island have lost a degree of fear over speaking out about the many daily problems they face. "This is crazy," Eloy Fon, an 80-year-old pensioner living in central Havana, told the AFP news agency.  "It shows the fragility of our electricity system.  We have no reserves, there is nothing to sustain the country, we are living day to day."  47-year-old Bárbara López, a digital content creator, said she had already "barely been able to work for two days".   "It's the worst I've seen in 47 years," she said. "They've really messed up now... We have no power or mobile data."

Many are prepared to take to the streets and chant anti-government slogans, if conditions merit it.  "I feel very disappointed, frustrated and hopeless," an unnamed 39-year-old housewife told Agence France-Presse. "It's not only the lack of electricity but also of gas and water."  She said her "generation wants to continue trusting" in the 1959 revolution that brought Fidel Castro to power, but her "resilience has limits".  Cuba is in the throes of its worst economic crisis in 30 years, marked by sky-high inflation and shortages of food, medicine, fuel and water.

In recent weeks, provinces outside the capital have endured up to 20 hours a day without electricity.  "What we want is electricity, not the explanation they give us," complained Pablo Reve, a 61-year-old teacher who took the blackout with less annoyance than others.  "To keep going forward is what we have left," he said with a sense of resignation.

Cuba has recently been experiencing a surge in violence, a surge in fuel prices, as well as a collapse in its sugar industry, which have only contributed to the instability across the country leading up to the recent problems with the electrical infrastructure.    In March, Hundreds of people in Cuba's second-largest city, Santiago, staged a rare public protest over chronic power blackouts and food shortages.

 

Breaking News: Peru is Breaking

Peru's president has reportedly been detained and accused of sedition after he announced the dissolution of congress and the installation of a "government of exception" to rule by decree - just hours before he was due to face an impeachment vote.  Lawmakers ignored the announcement, and in an emergency meeting impeached the president.

The country's national police tweeted on Wednesday that "former president" Pedro Castillo had been detained, shortly after the country's congress voted to remove him from office on Wednesday and replace him with the vice president.

That vote came after Castillo ordered a night-time curfew and the reorganization of the judiciary and prosecutor's office, which is investigating him for alleged corruption and influence-trafficking - charges which he denies.

The congressional vote put an end to Castillo's tumultuous 17 months in power which has already seen five cabinets, six criminal investigations and two failed attempts to impeach him.

 

Argentina VP Facing Jail Time for Corruption

A court in Argentina has sentenced Vice-President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner to six years in jail for corruption in a case that has shaken the country. Fernández was found guilty of "fraudulent administration" over the awarding of public works contracts to a friend.

Prosecutors said Fernández had led an unlawful partnership during the time when she was president of Argentina from 2007 to 2015. They said she had created a kickback scheme which steered lucrative public work contracts towards a friend of hers in return for bribes.

Businessman Lázaro Báez, the owner of a construction firm who was accused of being the main beneficiary of the scheme, was also sentenced to six years in prison. He had already been sentenced to 12 years in prison last year for money-laundering. Eleven other people were on trial. Seven were found guilty and sentenced to between three and a half and six years in prison, three were released and one had their case dismissed.

The prosecutors said that they uncovered irregularities in dozens of public work tenders awarded in the southern province of Santa Cruz, Fernández's political stronghold. Many of the construction projects were never completed.  Prosecutor Diego Luciani described it as "probably the biggest corruption operation the country has known". He also said the alleged kickback scheme had caused the Argentine state a loss of at least $1B.

Fernández has vehemently denied all charges, and is unlikely to serve actual jail time.  She has some immunity via her government roles and is expected to launch a lengthy appeals process. She has also been banned from public office for life, but will continue in her role as vice-president while the case goes through higher courts.

It is the first time ever that a vice-president has been convicted of a crime while in office in Argentina, and consequently, the case has proven highly divisive.   Supporters took to the street outside her apartment in Buenos Aires to show their backing for the vice-president. At times, they have faced off with critics of Fernández, who accuse her of being a "thief".  It was during one of these gatherings in September that Fernández became the target of an assassination attempt.   A 35-year-old man pointed a gun at the vice-president's head, but the weapon jammed as he aimed it at her. The man in that incident is facing charges of murder.

Deteriorating Venezuela Results in Migration Crisis

More than seven million Venezuelans have left their homeland since 2015 amid an ongoing economic and political crisis, according to new UN data. More than half of them face challenges accessing food, housing, and stable employment.  But despite the difficulties facing them abroad, the flow of Venezuelans escaping turmoil in their homeland has not let up.

Aid agencies warn that these migrants risk being forgotten amid other crises.  "There's no question both that it is a major protracted crisis that is shaking the region [of Latin America]," David Miliband, president of the International Rescue Committee, told the BBC. "But it is also clear that the competing priorities for global attention - Ukraine, famine in East Africa, trauma in Afghanistan - are draining attention in a way that is quite dangerous."  Venezuelans' reasons for leaving are manifold - ranging from lack of health care and education, which have collapsed in many parts of Venezuela, to chronic unemployment - many face the same difficulties once they arrive in their new countries.

More than 80% of those who have left Venezuela are living in Latin America and the Caribbean, in countries which often already struggle to provide health and education to their own nationals.  Venezuela's population has fallen from 30M in 2015 to an estimated 28M now based on latest UN figures.

"Many of the governments in Latin America are trying to do the right thing in managing the movement of Venezuelans, but it's a big challenge," Miliband said on a visit to Colombia, which is hosting 2.48m Venezuelans.  "It's dangerous to presume that this burden can just be borne indefinitely," he warned.

Other aid agencies have also been sounding the alarm. The UN's Special Representative for Refugees and Migrants from Venezuela, Eduardo Stein, has said that half of all Venezuelan refugees and migrants cannot afford three meals a day and lack access to safe and dignified housing. 

While most Venezuelans have headed to Colombia, Peru and Ecuador, a growing number are embarking on an even more dangerous trek: north across the jungle expanse known as the Darién Gap to Panama and beyond.

 

Thinking of Vacation in Central America? Cross Nicaragua Off Your List!

As Americans began to return to travel, flights to Central American and Caribbean destinations are starting to pick up.  But one country continues to lag behind the others-- becoming even more of a pain-in-the-ass vacation destination, as compared to how travel existed there pre-COVID.

American Airlines has still not resumed flights to Managua-- even though it has resumed flying to many other destinations across Central America.  Avianca is the only airline flying to Nicaragua and results from PCR tests taken no more than 72 hours prior must be sent to the airline as a PDF format no less than 36 hours prior to arriving in the country.  Vacationers have discovered the hard way that they must also carrying original copies with them as well.   In addition, travelers have reported that the PCR test results will not be approved to board the flight to Managua if the submitted rest results do not contain a signature and seal (stamp) and an official logo on the document. Test providers are understandably confused by the requests for original signatures and seals/stamps of approval-- but travelers are doing whatever they can to get into the country any way they can.  Airlines are also apparently being fined by the Nicaraguan government if they allow any passengers to board that have detectable COVID infections upon arrival.   This has resulted in many airlines not resuming flights to Nicaragua-- holding back from doing so simply to avoid the hassle and risk of screwing up with the Nicaragua government rules and dealing with all the passengers who are denied boarding.  

The Nicaraguan government also requires travelers complete/submit an online form on the country's website 7 days prior to arrival-- separate from whatever paperwork is required by the airline.  By trial and error, people are discovering there's less bureaucracy to flying to Costa Rica and entering Nicaragua on a bus and crossing at a land border, rather than dealing with Avianca and bureaucrats in Managua trying to process visas for all the incoming flights. Due to the uptick in border crossings from Costa Rica, there are now local Nicaraguan scammers hanging out near immigration office (such as Penas Blancas) asking tourists to pay a "local city tax" of $1 or $2 (which many visitors gladly pay if that will help ensure entry into the country).

To make matters worse, in the last month reports started seeping out of the country that officials are searching the bags of all arriving airline passengers (not just a random sample).  They are apparently looking for multiples of items and will accuse the travelers of bringing them into the country for resale.  One visitor had duffle bags of random items such as clothes and shoes and books and kitchen items and was accused of wanting to resell them (even though many of the items were already used). The officials then ask the traveler to pay up to three times the value of each item or be detained. According to the observations of this traveler, there is no rhythm or reason to the searches, and the officials usually don't know what their looking for.

Getting PCR tests in Managua to return to the U.S. are problematic as well.  There are only 2 or 3 testing centers in the country-- and they are all in the capital, which means that travelers have to waste spending their last night (or two) in Managua to get an appointment for a $100-150 PCR test and receive their results at least 24 hours prior to departure.  To avoid this, people have been bringing in PCR test kits with them from the States (that require monitoring by a proctor over the internet), but there are now reports that border officials have been confiscating the self test kits when entering the country.

And if all of that didn't discourage you-- another recent traveler reported that Nicaraguan immigration officials are checking vacationers' social media.   An American  woman was apparently denied entry into the country due to a 2018 Facebook share of a meeting of the Organization of American States.  Nicaragua abruptly withdrew from the OAS in April due to criticism of its recent elections.  Nicaragua’s decision came after the OAS General Assembly adopted a resolution declaring that Nicaragua’s most recent presidential election was “not free, fair or transparent and [has] no democratic legitimacy” — undermining President Daniel Ortega’s claim to the office.
 

Honduras on the Brink of a New Political Era

Former first lady of Honduras, Xiomara Castro (of the opposition Liberty and Refoundation party) won 53% of the votes in its recent presidential election and is expected to be sworn in on January 27 as the first female president of Honduras.  The Central American republic is a small country at the heart of Central America’s “triangle of death,” plagued by gangs, poverty and corruption.  

Honduras is one of Latin America’s poorest countries, with more than half of the population living below the poverty line. Their plight was made worse by the pandemic and the devastation caused by hurricanes Eta and Iota.   Its 9 million people also suffer from one of the highest murder rates in the world outside war zones.  Last year there were 37.6 recorded homicides per 100,000 inhabitants. With Mexico, Honduras is also among the most dangerous places to be a journalist, with 85 killed in the last two decades.

Alongside neighbors El Salvador and Guatemala, it forms the “triangle of death”, plagued by the murderous gangs called “maras” that control drug trafficking and organized crime. Their violence has helped trigger a wave of illegal immigration to the United States, notably by minors who fear being forced into gangs.

Large migrant caravans of thousands of Hondurans traveling north by foot have set off alarm bells in Mexico and the U.S.  In 2018 hundreds of Honduran children were separated from their parents in the US under then president Donald Trump’s “zero tolerance” of illegal immigration. He abandoned the practice after a popular backlash.

Independent since 1821, Honduras has endured many coups, armed uprisings and conflicts with its neighbors, including with Guatemala in 1880 and the brief so-called Football War with El Salvador in 1969.

An almost uninterrupted period of military rule for nearly 20 years ended in 1982 with the election of President Roberto Suazo Cordova. Since then the center-right Liberal Party and right-wing National Party have fought it out for power.

Elected under the liberal banner in 2005, President Manuel Zelaya was overthrown four years later in a military coup backed by the right and the business world, after swinging to the left and cozying up to Venezuela’s late socialist leader Hugo Chavez.

Outgoing President Juan Orlando Hernandez, known as “JOH”, was first elected under the National Party banner in a disputed 2013 poll and re-elected in 2017. The opposition said the vote was rife with fraud.

Hernandez soon faced violent protests demanding that he stand down after controversial health and education decrees. His brother Tony was arrested in 2019 for trafficking 185 tons of cocaine to the U.S., and sentenced to life in prison in 2021.

Even though Hernandez supported U.S. anti-drug campaigns, traffickers caught by the U.S. claim to have paid bribes to the president’s inner circle. Hernandez strongly denied this and said drug cartels are trying to get back at him for standing against them.

 

Cuban Defections Continue Amid COVID Crisis

At least nine young Cuban baseball players have defected during a tournament in Mexico, officials say, in the largest defection of Cuban athletes in years.  Cuban officials called the players' actions during the World Cup for athletes under the age of 23 "vile abandonments."   A statement by Cuba's National Sports Institute, published on the official JIT website and quoted by the Associated Press news agency, did not name the players who had stayed in Mexico.  Baseball journalist Francys Romero said a total of 12 players had defected.

The rest of the team, which originally had 24 players, will return to Cuba on Monday.  Cuba is in the midst of an economic crisis, with food and medicine shortages, and has been hit hard by U.S. sanctions and COVID-19.  In July, thousands of people joined the biggest anti-government protests in the island for decades.

Cuban athletes have a long history of defecting while competing abroad.  Baseball players often leave to sign up with Major League Baseball (MLB) clubs in the US, as strained relations between the U.S. and Cuba prevent them from taking part in a regular hiring process.

A deal that allowed some Cuban players to sign with MLB clubs was cancelled by President Donald Trump in 2018, in an attempt to pressure the island's Communist government to implement political changes. The agreement meant athletes no longer had to abscond and leave Cuba illegally.

The most recent high-profile player to defect was 22-year-old César Prieto, one of the country's top baseball stars, who abandoned the team earlier this year while in Florida for an Olympics qualifying event.  Ballet dancers and footballers are also among athletes who have fled during major competitions.

Nicaraguan Dictator Eliminating Opposition Ahead of Fall Elections

Four opposition figures have been arrested in Nicaragua in what government critics have called a hunt for critics of Dictator Daniel Ortega.

Two of those detained on Tuesday are potential candidates in the election in November, in which Ortega is expected to run for a fifth term.  Their arrests bring the total of presidential hopefuls in detention to four. 

In a space of 12 hours, the following opposition figures were arrested:

• Félix Maradiaga, academic and political activist who was planning to run as an opposition candidate in the presidential election
• Juan Sebastián Chamorro, economist and presidential hopeful
• José Adán Aguerri, economist and head of the Committee on Economic Integration
• Violeta Granera, sociologist and opposition activist

Two more presidential hopefuls - former ambassador Arturo Cruz and Cristiana Chamorro - were detained in the past week.

Chamorro was charged with money laundering days after announcing that she would seek to become the presidential candidate for the opposition Citizen's Alliance.  She is seen by many in the opposition as their best hope of defeating Ortega at the ballot box. Her mother Violeta Chamorro beat him in the 1990 presidential poll.

Christiana Chamorro and Granera are under house arrest, while Juan Chamorro and Aguerri are in police detention.  A lawyer for Maradiaga said his client was being held at an undisclosed location and had been badly beaten as he was taken into custody.

With the exception of Cristiana Chamorro, all have been arrested under a controversial treason law passed in December by Nicaragua's National Assembly, which is dominated by government allies.  Under the law, the government has the power to ban candidates from running for office if they are deemed to be traitors to Nicaragua. Anyone designated a traitor can be sent to prison for up to 15 years.  Critics say the law is designed to stop opposition politicians from standing in the election.

Christiana Chamorro's brother, Carlos Fernando Chamorro, said that Daniel Ortega was removing anyone who might challenge him. "This is just an attack against basic rights of political competition. In the past he had several hundreds of political prisoners as hostages. Now he has captured four aspiring presidential candidates as hostages."

Shortly before being led away by police, Maradiaga said he would not give up fighting. "What we have done is fight alongside the Nicaraguan people, and we will continue to do so," he said.  Juan Chamorro vowed to resist in a video he recorded before being summoned by the authorities: "This is a good fight, for good causes. Let's not let a criminal dictatorship take away our rights any longer.".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Venezuela Is Getting so Bad, Armed Forces Personnel Now Implicated in Violence and Murder

 Around midnight on February 23, Eulalio Bravo, a marine electrician, was dozing in his rack aboard the San Ramon, an oil tanker anchored off the coast of Venezuela.  Suddenly, he heard footsteps pounding along the passageway outside. His captain, Jaime Herrera, cried for help.  “Be still!” an unfamiliar voice ordered.  A gun fired.

By the time Bravo and eight other shipmates emerged to see what had happened, the captain lay dead, a gunshot in the back of his head. Herrera’s stateroom had been pillaged, drawers flung open, his bunk overturned. The killers were gone, as were thousands of dollars the captain kept under lock and key, according to crew members interviewed by Reuters.

The murder, one of a growing number of violent incidents that have roiled Venezuelan waters in recent years, is an extension of a bloody crime wave that has beset the country since its economy collapsed last decade.

But it is also part of a troubling trend in which state agents, from military officers to police to senior government officials, have been accused of complicity in the very crimes they are meant to prevent.  After an investigation of the Herrera killing by forensic police at the nearby port of Puerto La Cruz, a state court in March ordered the arrest of three sailors from the Venezuelan Navy and four soldiers from the National Guard.

Some of those arrested had spent time aboard the tanker in the weeks before the crime, according to six crew members who detailed the episode to Reuters. The accused face charges including murder, aggravated robbery and illegal possession of firearms for their alleged roles in the death of the captain, a 59-year-old Colombian.

Crime, both petty and organized, has been one of the most dire consequences of the social meltdown under President Nicolas Maduro. Gangs and paramilitary groups run much of Venezuela’s black-market economy. Now, the public sector is in on rackets ranging from drug trafficking to bribes and kickbacks that grease the wheels of Venezuela’s crucial oil industry.

Maduro himself has been indicted in the United States for charges that include narcoterrorism. His wife, as Reuters reported in May, is under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice for her alleged role in drug trafficking, an accusation the government called “slanderous.”

Further down the government payroll, police and military officials have grown infamous for theft and violence. Last week, a United Nations report said the country’s security forces have systematically committed extrajudicial killings, torture and other human rights abuses, likely under orders from senior government officials.  “The state is complicit in everything,” said Omar Gonzalez, an opposition lawmaker from Anzoategui, the eastern state where Puerto La Cruz is located.

Piracy off the coast has surged after Venezuela entered recession,  While attacks have tailed off more recently as cargo traffic has dropped off, Venezuelan authorities appear unable or unwilling to manage them.  Incident reports compiled by the International Maritime Bureau, an industry organization, show that the Puerto La Cruz port authority, after two separate tanker heists in 2018, failed to respond to captains’ calls for help.

 

Bolivians Flock to Quack Covid Cures in the Face of Facts

High in the Bolivian Andes, people line up daily outside pharmacies on the central plaza in Cochabamba, eager to buy the scarce elixir they hope will ward off Covid-19: chlorine dioxide, a kind of bleach used to disinfect swimming pools and floors.

Experts say drinking it is pointless at best and hazardous at worst.  But in Bolivia, where many people have been hospitalized after ingesting chlorine dioxide, regional authorities are now testing it on prison inmates.  The Bolivian national Senate last week approved its use and a top lawmaker has threatened to expel the World Health Organization from the country for opposing its medical use.

Julio César Baldivieso, a local soccer hero and former national team captain, told a local television station that because Cochabamba’s hospitals “don’t have tests, they don’t have supplies, they don’t have protective equipment,” he and his family had turned to chlorine dioxide to treat their coronavirus symptoms.

Bolivians have a lot of company in resorting to unproven and even dangerous treatments to prevent or treat infection. In every part of the world, hard science has had to compete for attention with pet theories, rumors and traditional beliefs during this pandemic.  Interest in dubious medicines has been especially high recently in Latin America, where the virus is raging uncontrolled and many political leaders on the right and left are promoting them, whether out of genuine faith or a desire to offer hope and deflect blame.

In a region where few people can afford quality medical care, alternative treatments are widely touted on social media and exploited by profiteers.  “The people feel desperate when confronted with Covid-19,” said Santiago Ron, an Ecuadorean biology professor, who has clashed with proponents of supposed treatments, including lawmakers. “They are very vulnerable to pseudo-scientific promises.”

Coronavirus has infected more than three million people and killed about 160,000 in Latin America, according to official figures, making the region one of the worst-hit by the pandemic. And experts and statistical analyses indicate that the real toll is far higher, concealed by limited testing and medical resources, and by some governments’ resistance to publicly acknowledging the scope of the crisis.  Covid-19 has battered already-fragile health care systems, and lock-down measures have devastated economies without bringing the virus under control.

Scientists are testing a wide range of unproven treatments, but the odds of any one of them being helpful are considered low, and some of them are known to be potentially harmful.  One such drug generating intense interest is ivermectin, which is used to treat intestinal worms. Two Brazilian cabinet ministers announced that they had tested positive for the coronavirus, and one of them said that he was treating it with ivermectin, among other drugs.

The government of Peru bought ivermectin to fight the pandemic, and has continued to promote it, even after the W.H.O. said it should not be used for coronavirus.  That has fueled the explosion of an illegal market for the veterinary version of ivermectin, forcing the Peruvian government — and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration — to warn citizens against using drugs intended for farm animals.

Even so, in the small town of Nauta, in the Peruvian Amazon, the local government and religious groups went so far as to give veterinary ivermectin to adults and children as young as 4, according to local media and a human rights group.

The United States also has witnessed its top government official promoting unfounded treatments. President Trump has mused about treating the virus with powerful lights or disinfectant injections. He has repeatedly touted the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, calling it a “game changer” in the pandemic, despite scientific research to the contrary, and has said he took it for two weeks.

In Brazil, with the world’s second-highest coronavirus caseload and death toll after the United States, President Jair Bolsonaro has relentlessly promoted the drug — even after he, himself, developed Covid-19, despite taking the drug for months. He has ordered the military to mass-produce it, and after his diagnosis he waved a package of it before cheering supporters.

Governments in El Salvador, Peru and Paraguay have bought hydroxychloroquine to treat the coronavirus.  This is despite widespread studies that have found that the drug did not lessen the chance of infection, reduce the severity of Covid-19 or speed recovery. But it is potentially dangerous, particularly for people with abnormal heart rhythms.

In Venezuela, President Nicolás Maduro’s government, which is struggling to provide even running water and soap to crumbling hospitals, has boasted of obtaining from its ally Cuba tens of thousands of doses of a drug, interferon alfa-2b, used against viruses and cancers, to fight the pandemic. Government clinics now require patients with coronavirus symptoms to take the drug.  But there has been no definitive evidence yet that this particular drug, one of many in the interferon class, works against the coronavirus, and in the United States, the National Institutes of Health does not currently recommend its use in patients with Covid-19.

Following Bolivia’s example, Ecuador’s Congress recently discussed whether to allow chlorine dioxide as a coronavirus treatment, and 10 local Roman Catholic bishops have called for its use.  The chemical has long been marketed without official approval, including in the United States, as a cure for ailments from AIDS to autism. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has repeatedly said it has no medical value and can have potentially lethal effects, including “severe vomiting, severe diarrhea, life-threatening low blood pressure caused by dehydration and acute liver failure.”

At least 10 Bolivians have been hospitalized with chlorine dioxide poisoning in recent weeks, according to the Health Ministry.

After successfully containing the disease for months, Bolivia, one of Latin America’s poorest countries, succumbed to an aggressive outbreak this month that has overwhelmed hospitals. This week, the police collected hundreds of bodies of suspected Covid-19 victims from streets and homes in the cities of Santa Cruz and La Paz, and on Thursday, the government postponed national elections from September to October, citing health concerns.

The virus swiftly swept through the highest echelons of power, infecting the interim president, Jeanine Añez, and half of her cabinet, fueling a sense of helplessness. Politicians and popular public figures began promoting chlorine dioxide as an alternative treatment.

The opposition-controlled Senate last week passed a bill that would allow local governments to supply the solution free for medical use, despite protests from the Health Ministry.  Añez has remained silent on the controversy, as her election bid loses support.

In Cochabamba, in the center of the country, where a pint bottle of chlorine dioxide solution sells for $8 — when it can be found — residents blocked the road to the municipal waste treatment plant until local authorities promised to provide it free.  48-year-old Baldivieso, the soccer coach, said he and his entire family began drinking the chemical after first experiencing coronavirus symptoms. He said he had to wait 15 days for a test result, which came back positive.  In the Bolivian capital, Sucre, local health officials last week began testing chlorine dioxide on 200 local prison inmates and guards, some with coronavirus symptoms. The prison chief, Ludwin Miranda, said that all the participants had signed consent forms.  In San José de Chiquitos, an eastern Bolivian town of 30,000, the mayor distributed chlorine dioxide to local medical centers to treat the virus.

“The application of chlorine dioxide has produced perfect results in the recuperation of critical patients,” the mayor, Germaín Caballero, told a local television station last week. “We have managed to control the pandemic.”  Medical experts say chlorine dioxide is, at best, a placebo — and, as with any placebo, people might credit it for their recoveries.  Those who advocate chlorine dioxide “create a false sense of security,” Virgilio Prieto, director of epidemiology at Bolivia’s Health Ministry, said in an interview. “By promoting its indiscriminate and irresponsible use, they are putting the population at risk.”

Bolivians in Shock as Morales Resigns as President

Bolivian President Evo Morales has resigned after nearly 14 years in power, amid turmoil following his disputed re-election last month.  Morales had initially agreed to new elections in order to quell the controversy-- however, continued protests increase the political pressure on Morales and his party.  Several of Morales' key political allies resigned, some citing fears for the safety of their families.  The final straw came when the army chief, General Williams Kaliman, urged Morales to resign "to allow for pacification and the maintaining of stability."

Vice-President Alvaro García and Senate President Adriana Salvatierra also resigned.  Protesters took to the streets to celebrate, chanting "yes we could" and setting off firecrackers.

Auditors had discovered irregularities with last month's poll but Morales said he had been the victim of a coup.  He said he was leaving to help protect families of political allies, after their homes were burned down.  In a televised address, Morales urged protesters to "stop attacking our brothers and sisters, stop burning and attacking."

Opposition leader Carlos Mesa-- who came second in last month's poll - thanked protesters for "the heroism of peaceful resistance."  In a tweet, he described the development as "the end of tyranny" and a "historical lesson", saying, "Long live Bolivia!"

Bolivian Protests Growing Over Morales Election

Police guards outside the presidential palace in Bolivia left their posts today, allowing anti-government protesters to walk up to the doors of the building.

President Evo Morales was not in the building when police retreated on Saturday, with some of them standing on the roof of a near by police station in a sign of growing discontent among security forces after a disputed election.

Officials in the palace in La Paz were evacuated, leaving only a military presidential guard. Protesters later left the area.

Some police in Bolivia became openly defiant toward the government on Friday, and their protests appeared to be spreading.

Their demands include better working conditions and the resignation of their commander.

Morales claimed he was re-elected in the October 20 vote, but the opposition alleged fraud.

The dispute triggered nationwide protests, resulting in three deaths and more than 300 injuries.

Defense Minister Javier Zabaleta has downplayed the police protests, saying a 'police mutiny occurred in a few regions.'

The political opposition says there was fraud in the election, an allegation that Morales says amounts to an attempt to overthrow Bolivia's rightful government.

On Thursday a Bolivian mayor was doused in red paint and had her hair hacked off by protesters who blamed her for the deaths of two opposition protesters.

Patricia Arce, of the governing Mas party, was dragged out of Vinto town hall on Wednesday and subjected to four hours of degradation in which she was made to kneel and sign her resignation.

Young men carrying batons and wearing masks chanted, 'Murderess, murderess,' as they marched Arce to a platform where they cut her hair before the baying mob.

Bolivia has been gripped by deadly protests following President Evo Morales' election victory over claims it was rigged.

Morales, first elected president in 2006, is seeking to remain in power until 2025 after he took legal action to get around constitutional term limits.

In 2016, a majority of the country voted against constitutional changes that would have allowed Morales to run for a third term.  Despite the vote, Morales supports applied to the Bolivian Supreme Court to abolish term limits.  The Court-- which was packed with Morales loyalists-- struck down term limits which allowed Morales to run for this term earlier this year.

What Exactly Caused the Venezuela Power Outage?

Venezuela's information minister has said that a huge power outage that has left most of the country dark for a week has been completely restored.  The power failure left many homes without running water and caused chaos in hospitals, as well as disrupting places of work and schools. At its worst, 19 of 23 states were affected, and the capital Caracas was blanketed by darkness.  Speaking at a press conference, Information Minister Jorge Rodriguez said that school activities remain suspended for another 24 hours.  He urged people to unplug appliances and turn off lights.

According to anecdotal reports, power has been restored in many parts of Caracas, but not everywhere.  A doctor from the non-profit organization Medicos por la Salud said that many hospitals across Venezuela were still experiencing intermittent power outages throughout the day. Hospitals in Valencia, Merida, and Maracaibo all reported hours-long outages, and are either relying on generators or transferring their patients to hospitals in neighboring towns.  The minister said 80% of country and 70% of Caracas now has drinking water.

As the country recovers from the outage, one persistent question looms large: How could a country with the world's largest proven oil reserves go dark?

The answer involves poor decision-making, rampant corruption, and the steady flight of electrical engineers, according to experts, though the government blames sabotage.

Venezuela's power grid relies heavily on the Guri Dam, a giant hydroelectric power station that was inaugurated in the late 1960s. While the engineers who planned Venezuela's current power grid imagined the Guri Dam would supply about 60 percent of the country's electricity, today it is believed to supply a whopping 80 percent. The remaining 20 percent comes predominately from thermoelectric power stations.

How much power Guri can actually supply and the level of Venezuela's current demand are not fully known because officials have not released that data in years.  Some engineers speculate Venezuela has even less supply than it did 20 years ago largely as a result of poor maintenance of existing plants.

Critics say the Guri Dam on the Caroni River basin has long needed updates and become vulnerable during periods of drought.  The late President Hugo Chavez tried to remedy the country's over-reliance on hydroelectric power with what he called an "electricity revolution." Venezuela spent billions of dollars on new thermoelectric plants that in theory should be able to power the nation even without the Guri Dam, but they either were not built or were poorly maintained.

Military generals were put in charge of running Venezuela's power grid and qualified engineers — like many other professionals — began to leave the country.

Chavez's successor, President Nicolas Maduro has responded to shortages by urging Venezuelans to use less power by reducing the work week, and at one point even urged women to ration their use of hair dryers.  Maduro has blamed the blackout on a cyberattack on the plant's all-important electronic monitoring system, though engineers who have worked on the dam say they don't believe that.

One theory is that a fire knocked down one of the three huge 765-kilovolt lines that connect the Guri Dam to Caracas. The regional electrical company that operated the dam decades ago had a fleet of helicopters that monitored the region for fires, but current workers say that quick-response system is no longer in place. One worker, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal, said there has been a lack of routine maintenance, such as cutting down brush to keep it at a distance from the lines.  Though the three lines are spaced a considerable distance apart, Jose Aguilar, a Venezuelan energy expert who now resides in the United States, said a fire at just one of those could cause an outage affecting all of them.

Other theories include a breakdown in the electronic monitoring system that controls power distribution, a turbine going offline or a failure elsewhere.  "We don't know yet what happened because they're hiding it," Aguilar said.

Three engineers consulted by The Associated Press with direct knowledge of the Guri's operating systems say it is almost impossible that it could have been the victim of a cyberattack. They explain that the computers that operate the monitoring system are not connected to the internet and can only communicate with each other, making them immune to an outside attack.  Anurag Srivastava, an engineering professor at Washington State University, said the only way to carry out a cyberattack in a closed system would be through physical access to the substation where the system is located.

Venezuelan authorities haven't provided proof of a cyberattack, but have pointed fingers at those they say are involved.  On the night of the outage, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio tweeted about the outage minutes after it began, and Information Minister Jorge Rodriguez suggested he may have known about it in advance.

Miguel Lara, a former general manager for the independent Venezuelan agency that collected data on electricity usage, said that problems restoring full power could drag on for weeks. The worst-case scenario, he said, is an extended phase of restoration where power is restored in one place but then goes off hours later, or is restored in one city while another stays dark.

In the process of restoring the system, there have been multiple fires, including one at what was previously the country's largest transformer. Srivastava said fires at substations and transformers indicate engineers are using electrical loads higher than the equipment's rated capacity. Some engineers like Aguilar say that could point to a lack of expertise in how to put the system back together.

The country's heavy reliance on the Guri Dam could also complicate efforts, Srivastava said, because restoration depends on having access to multiple power sources. Dependence on one major power source is likely to slow down the recovery.  Soldiers are continuing to block access to the Guri Dam and adjacent power stations.

Venezuela Power Outage Drags On

Venezuela's government has ordered schools and businesses to remain closed as a power outage goes into its fifth day. The opposition says at least 17 people have reportedly died as a result of the blackout.   Each hour that passes without power in Venezuela brings more havoc and stress to a country already on edge.

Pro-government motorcycle gangs, known here as "colectivos", roam the dark streets enforcing order at gunpoint while there were sporadic episodes of looting amid the desperation.

Many parts of the country are still cut off and even when the electricity returns, it is often patchy and only lasts for a few hours before dropping out once again.

Without internet, mobile phones, banks, credit-card machines, electric cookers or air-conditioning, ordinary life is bordering on the unbearable for many people, especially in low income communities.

Little wonder some are ready to snap. "I have a two-year-old son. Yesterday evening there was nothing to eat," a visibly angry woman named Majorie told the BBC.  A shop near her home was looted, she says, and a neighbor gave her some boiled rice.  When he asks me for food, what am I going to give him? I can put up with the hunger. As adults, all we need is a glass of water. But what's a child supposed to do?"

During the interview, a group of mothers, equally desperate and distressed, start to bang on the doors of the shuttered supermarket, demanding to be let in.  Inside, the cash registers and card machines were not working and the staff were only accepting U.S. dollars in payment.

"We don't use dollars in this country, we don't earn in dollars, we earn in Bolivars", said Majorie, her voice rising once more. "We don't want to loot stores, we don't want to cause problems. What we want is food. We're hungry."

For others, the issue is even more grave than a chronic lack of food. A lab technician at a children's hospital talked about the impact of the blackout on patients.

"On Thursday, no-one had any information as to why the emergency generators didn't start, what was happening or why everything was still dark in the intensive care unit." A colleague told her that the children in that ward were being kept alive by manual respiration.

"As we walked through the ward, we saw a mother crying and we found out that one of the babies in intermediate care had died", according to the technician.  Despite the best efforts of the medical staff, one of the newborns in the neonatal ward died later that first night, too.  A generator was eventually delivered to the hospital, but in a sign of the chaos reigning during the blackout, it was delivered not by health or government officials but by the feared colectivos.

And it is not just food security and healthcare which are falling apart, even laying someone to rest has become almost impossible.

María Errazo's son was killed in the poor neighborhood where she lives on Thursday, when the power outage first hit. Since then, his body has been held at the Bello Monte morgue.

With most government offices closed since Thursday, Maria has not been able to get hold of the required paperwork to view her son's body or to have it released for burial.  But even if Maria could bring her slain son home, she could not afford the funeral. Venezuela's rampant hyperinflation has wiped out the value of the little savings in Bolivars that she has.

"We don't have the money," she says stoically of not being able to lay her son to rest. Banks are closed and there is hardly any mobile phone coverage. "I can't even make calls to try to find a solution," she says.

Venezuela Has a New President to Join the Shadow Supreme Court

"I swear to formally assume the national executive powers as acting president," Juan Guaidó told cheering crowds of protesters in Venezuela this week.  Juan Guaidó's election as leader of the opposition-held National Assembly has re-energized opposition to Nicolás Maduro in a country crippled by a severe economic crisis.

Guaidó was relatively unknown until picked as the head of the legislative body just three weeks ago.   He was born one of seven children in the port city of La Guaira in the state of Vargas.  Guaidó was 15 years old when Nicolás Maduro's predecessor, Hugo Chávez, came to power in 1999.

That same year heavy rains caused flash floods which swept through La Guaira, killing tens of thousands of people and destroying large swathes of the city.  Guaidó and his family survived the Vargas tragedy, although people close to him reportedly say the government's ineffective response to the tragedy drove him into politics.

As a student, Guaidó protested against what he saw as Chavez's efforts to control the media when he did not renew the license of independent broadcaster Radio Caracas Television.  Guaidó was a founding member of centrist political party Popular Will in 2009, along with former opposition leader Leopoldo López.

López, now under house arrest, reportedly has acted as a mentor to him.  Opposition parties picked Guaidó to lead the National Assembly as a compromise candidate, and he took up his post on January 5th.

State security forces arrested Guaidó just days after his election-- but he was released from detention hours later.  Since then, Guaidó's youth and background from one of Venezuela's poorest states has made it difficult for the government to paint him as a member of the country's elite.

In his first major speech to protesters, Guaidó dismissed Maduro as a "usurper" but  gave little indication of his vision for Venezuela.  Reports however suggest he supports the Popular Will party's policies of a market economy and greater powers for regional governments.  Guaidó has called on the army to withdraw their support for Maduro, promising an amnesty for those soldiers who do so.   The U.S. and most of Latin American has now recognized Guaidó as the legitimate leader of Venezuela, while Russian and China still back Maduro. 

In the meantime, the Maduro-installed Supreme Court of Venezuela froze Guaidó's bank accounts and revoked his passport.  The Supreme Tribunal of Justice of Venezuela in exile (the legitimate Supreme Court operating out of Panama) has declared Guaidó the interim president of Venezuela, after Maduro was sentenced to 18 years in prison for corruption.    Keep your eyes on Venezuela-- things are finally starting to happen.

Persecution of Women Continue in Latin America

The life of a Dafne McPherson, a mother in the central Mexican city of San Juan del Rio changed dramatically after she began having abdominal cramps at work.  She reported to her employer's nurse, who told her nothing was amiss. But shortly afterwards, in the bathroom, McPherson went into labor. She says she hadn’t even realized that she was pregnant.

McPherson is currently serving a 16-year sentence after she was convicted of homicide for the death of her baby in what she says was a miscarriage.  Her case gained national notoriety when court videos surfaced in which the prosecutor described McPherson’s alleged actions as something “not even a dog would do”.

Activists say her trial demonstrates a growing trend in which Mexican prosecutors in conservative parts of Mexico criminalize women who have miscarriages or complicated childbirths by accusing them of intentionally inducing abortion – which remains illegal in much of the country.

“When the authorities started investigating Dafne, it was as an abortion investigation, not a homicide case,” said Karla Michel Salas, a human rights lawyer familiar with McPherson’s case.

The persecution of women who have miscarriages started after Mexico City decriminalized abortion a decade ago. In response, other states introduced further restrictions on women’s reproductive rights.  Most of the women charged in such cases are poor and unable to find a competent lawyer to defend them, she added.

Officials in Querétaro – a staunchly Catholic state – said the prosecutor would be sanctioned for his disparaging comments about McPherson, but they stood by the case.  More details from the Guardian can be found here.

El Salvador Still Persecuting Women Suffering Stillbirths

An El Salvador court has rejected the appeal of a woman sentenced to 30 years in prison over what she says was a stillbirth.

Teodora del Carmen Vásquez, 37, said she was working in 2007 when she began to experience intense pain, then bleeding. She called for help before fainting. As she came round, police officers surrounded her and accused her of murdering her baby by inducing an abortion of her nearly full-term baby.  Authorities charged Vásquez with aggravated murder and she was convicted in 2008. Her attorneys appealed her sentence, presenting testimony that the baby was born dead.  The court said it relied on the government autopsy’s conclusion that the girl was born alive and asphyxiated.

The non-profit Center for Reproductive Rights, which has been campaigning for the release of dozens of other women convicted of murder in El Salvador for obstetric emergencies, said the decision was “another slap in the face for Teodora, who never committed any crime”.  Teodora’s tragic story is a sad illustration of everything that is wrong with the justice system in El Salvador, where human rights seem to be a foreign concept,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Amnesty’s Americas director.  “Instead of punishing Teodora for being a woman, authorities in El Salvador must urgently take a hard look at their outrageous anti-abortion law and take immediate steps to repeal it.”

El Salvador is one of a handful of Latin American countries with total bans on abortion.  A glimmer of hope that El Salvador could overturn its abortion ban emerged earlier this year with the introduction of a parliamentary bill that proposed allowing abortion in cases of rape or human trafficking, when the foetus in unviable or to protect the pregnant woman’s health or life. Recently, activists took to the streets to protest the absolute ban.

In August, Chile voted to overturn its complete ban to allow abortion in certain circumstances.  Last week, Bolivia loosened its laws to allow girls and young women to access abortion services up to eight weeks into pregnancy. Prior to the change in new legislation, abortion was only available to women if their lives were in danger.

Can Things Get Any More Desparate In Venezuela?

Venezuelans have been told expired passports are valid for another two years because they have run out of paper and ink to print new ones.

President Maduro has signed an emergency decree to extend their validity because of chronic shortages at the national passport agency.

At least a million Venezuelans have been waiting months for new documents and cannot travel in the interim.  Demand for travel documents is at a record high as Venezuelans seek to escape from political crisis and deep recession.  Critics had claimed that  delays in replacing passports stemmed from Maduro's desire to keep people from leaving the beleaguered nation

Since global oil prices plunged in 2015, Venezuela hasn’t had the funds to import basic goods such as food and medicine, creating acute shortages and stirring anger toward Maduro.   Inflation is at about 700 per cent.

Adding to the overall misery are a drastic rise in violent crime – especially in the capital city of Caracas – rolling blackouts and widespread and often times bloody protests against the government.

There have been casualties and deaths on both sides of the protests and accusations from the international community of human rights abuses and political oppression.

Venezuela: Brownies Banned, Bakers Busted

Last month, Venezuela arrested four bakers for making illegal brownies and other pastries as President Nicolás Maduro’s socialist government threatens to take over bakeries in Caracas as part of a new “bread war”.

Maduro sent out inspectors and soldiers into more than 700 bakeries around the capital to enforce a rule that 90% of wheat must be destined to loaves rather than more expensive pastries and cakes.

It was the latest move by the government to combat shortages and long lines for basic products that have characterized Venezuela’s economic crisis over the last three years.  Breadmakers blame the government for a national shortage of wheat, saying 80% of establishments have none left in stock.

During the inspections, two men were arrested and accused of using too much wheat in sweet bread, ham-filled croissants and other products, the government said in a statement sent to media.

Another two were detained for making brownies with out-of-date wheat, the statement added, saying at least one bakery had been temporarily taken over by authorities for 90 days.

Violent Protests Amid Constitutional Crisis In Paraguay

Demonstrators in Paraguay have set fire to the country's parliament building during violent protests against a bill that would lift presidential term limits.  One activist was killed and at least 30 others injured, including three lawmakers and a senator.  It was the worst violence of its kind since Paraguay became a democracy in 1992.

Under the 1992 constitution, introduced after the dictatorship, a head of state may only serve a single five-year term. But sitting President Horacio Cartes is trying to remove the restriction and run for re-election.

Protesters were photographed smashing in windows of the congress building in the capital, Asuncion and setting fire to the interior.  Protesters ransacked the offices of those who had backed the bill, according to reports.

Opposition activist Rodrigo Quintana, 25, was killed by a rubber bullet fired by police when they stormed the offices of the opposition Liberal party.  "The police barged in, threw people face down to the ground," according to Liberal Party leader Efrain Alegre, who was also hurt. "They came in aggressively, breaking the doors, it was savagery."

In a statement released on Twitter, President Cartes appealed for calm. "Democracy is not conquered or defended with violence and you can be sure this government will continue to put its best effort into maintaining order in the republic," he said.

Protesters had taken to the streets following a secret meeting of 25 senators - a slight majority of the house - which approved a bill to amend the constitution.  The bill must also be approved by the other house of parliament - the chamber of deputies - where President Cartes' party holds an outright majority.  A similar proposal had been previously rejected in August.  Before the secret vote took place, Congress voted first to change the rules that required lawmakers to wait a year before voting again.

Opponents say the bill will weaken the country's democratic institutions.  Opposition senator Desiree Masi said: "A coup has been carried out. We will resist and we invite the people to resist with us."

Paraguay was controlled by military ruler General Alfredo Stroessner, who seized power in a coup, from 1954 until 1989.  The new constitution in 1992 created the modern government but there has been a long period of political instability and party infighting, as well as a failed coup attempt.

President Cartes' term is due to end in 2018.  The change, if approved, would also allow former President Fernando Lugo to run again.  Lugo was ousted in 2012 over his handling of a land eviction in which 17 people were killed.