By Manuel E. Yepe
http://manuelyepe.wordpress.com/
Exclusive for the daily POR ESTO! of Merida, Mexico.
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann.
It’s easy to imagine the formidable negative impact that the presidency of the energetic Donald Trump may be having on America’s youth.
In every action, every gesture, and every word of his behavior as head of the nation that rules the destiny of the capitalist world, Trump sends signals that being racist, sexist, homophobic, or misogynist is a merit equivalent to an honorary badge.
Historically, inept presidents are challenged, among other defects, for being liars, spoiled and rude, which are precisely the adjectives that most “adorn” Donald Trump’s daily behavior.
This is highlighted in a new book entitled The Fixers, which examines the relationship between Trump and Roy Cohn (1927-1986), an American lawyer who was best known for being Senator Joseph McCarthy’s chief advisor during the anti-Communist Senate hearings held by the Army and Senator McCarthy himself in the 1950s.
It was Cohn who orchestrated the McCarthyite persecutions of suspected communists that later extended to homosexuals. Thousands and thousands of Americans were subjected to police and legal investigations. Their lives, families, and careers were destroyed as a result.
Later, Cohn would become the personal lawyer of Donald Trump, the current president of the American nation. Roy Cohn was publicly homophobic and encouraged public persecution of homosexuals. It is now known that he himself was a homosexual man and died in 1986 at the age of 49 due to AIDS-related complications.
Trump had “distanced himself” from Cohn after he became ill. However, the President organized a “farewell dinner” in his luxurious Mar-a-Lago club shortly before his death from AIDS, according to the book mentioned above.
The book states that Trump would later recall Cohn’s visit when, in 2016, he jokingly told guests at his club that he had to have Mar-a-Lago sprayed after the man’s visit because he was dying of an AIDS-related illness. “I had to spend a fortune to fumigate all the dishes and silverware in this place,” he said amid jokes.
In an excerpt from the book published in the Wall Street Journal, authors Joe Palazzolo and Michael Rothfeld wrote that Cohn, as Trump’s first fixer, “manipulated the media and the legal system to secure business advantages for Mr. Trump. “He passed his client off as a fabulously successful developer who transformed his father’s collection of low-cost apartment buildings in Brooklyn and Queens into a Manhattan-based luxury condominium tower empire.
Trump’s views on the media and celebrities were shaped by Cohn and his successors, people he trusted to project a particular version of himself that often bore little resemblance to reality.
“Their careers with Mr. Trump shed light on his rise in public life and his victory in the 2016 presidential election. In 2017, recordings emerged of President Trump joking that he forced Princess Diana to take an HIV test before having sex with her. Trump made such horrific comments shortly after Princess Diana’s death in 1997, in a radio interview with athlete Howard Stern. When Cohn died of AIDS in 1986, his biography was as fascinating as it was despicable. His life journey made him more like a movie villain than a royal lawyer. Which might be funny if it weren’t for the fact that the consequences of his worst acts still reverberate throughout the world.
After graduating from law school at the age of 20, Cohn made a name for himself by prosecuting the couple Ethel and Julius Rosenberg on espionage charges. Even then, he set aside ethics to ensure that the Jewish couple would not only be found guilty but also sentenced to death and executed, even though the evidence was clearly insufficient to do so.
Throughout the 1950s, he became McCarthy’s right-hand man during the witch-hunt and the lawyer for mob boss Anthony Salerno. Two moves that propelled him into the circles of power – and corruption – in New York. His figure was something like a bridge between the bosses of organized crime and the politicians and businessmen who had to deal with them.
His lack of scruples and his bellicose ways made him a notorious character, who surrounded himself with the most prominent people in the country: celebrities, communication magnates, the Reagans… and Donald Trump.
The two men first joined forces when Trump, then a young construction entrepreneur, was sued, along with his father, for refusing to rent his apartments to Black tenants. Contrary to Cohn’s initial opinion, Trump settled with the plaintiffs, not without first suing the government for $100 million. Trump had learned one of Cohn’s golden rules: “never admit you’re wrong and never apologize.”
By Manuel E. Yepe
http://manuelyepe.wordpress.com/
Exclusive for the daily POR ESTO! of Merida, Mexico.
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann.
Although there are still several months to go before the U.S. vote is held for the 2020 presidential election, scheduled for November 2020, the U.S. media has been noting concerns about the vulnerability of the event to foreign interference.
The initial factor in the escalation of fear appears to have been the release of a joint statement issued by key members of the Trump administration last November, authored by Attorney General Bill Barr, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, Acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan, Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire, FBI Director Christopher Wray, National Security Agency Director General Paul Nakasone, and Director of the Infrastructure Security and Cybersecurity Agency Christopher Krebs.
This document states that foreign interference in the voting for the 2020-2024 presidential election is imminent although it admits that there is no evidence for such a claim.
“Our opponents want to undermine our democratic institutions, influence public sentiment, and affect our government policies with Russia, China, Iran, and other malicious foreign actors who will try to interfere with the voting process or influence voters’ perceptions.
“Opponents may seek to achieve their objectives through a variety of means, including social media campaigns, directing disinformation operations, or carrying out disruptive or destructive cyber attacks against state and local infrastructure.
“While we have no evidence at this time that the electoral infrastructure has been compromised or altered to allow opponents to prevent voting, alter the vote count, or alter the ability to count votes, we continue to closely monitor any threats to the U.S. election,” the statement said.
Despite the key caveat that there was no evidence at the time the document was issued, many media reports such as BuzzFeed, ABC News and Newsweek used the statement to claim that foreign interference in 2020 was imminent.
In addition to reports that have confirmed the involvement of state actors – Russia, Iran and China – and despite the lack of evidence, other media have claimed that this supposedly imminent interference will inevitably be successful. This is, in large part, due to claims that the tactics used will be based largely on technologies that the US does not have the capacity to successfully counteract.
CSO Online, an online media outlet that provides news, analysis and research on security and risk management, recently warned that “fixing the United States’ voting and election infrastructure problems is a long-term proposition that will not be solved in time for the November election.
Meanwhile, the New York Times warned of the impending chaos. It said that “stealthy” and malevolent foreign actors had already laid the foundation for “an ugly campaign season marred by hacking and misinformation. The US monthly magazine Wired and its news website of the same name claimed last year that the security of the US elections “continues to hurt on all levels”.
The target is the mind of the American people,” says Joshua Geltzer, former director of counterterrorism at the National Security Council. “In some ways, we are less vulnerable than we were in 2016. In other ways, more. Almost all experts agree on this: The worst-case scenario – for which we must prepare – is a situation that causes Americans to question the very foundations of our democracy – “with free and fair elections.
Long before this kind of rhetoric reached the U.S. media, the Israeli intelligence-linked technology company Cybereason said in a statement on its Web site that “messing with the voter’s mind” would have a greater impact than changing the total vote, even before the 2016 election.
That statement, released by Cybereason before the last presidential election, was written by the company’s CEO, Lior Div, who was then leading offensive hacking operations against nation-states for Israeli military intelligence.
Everything indicates that a great electoral fraud is being prepared for next November’s elections and that the scene is being set for the identification of the “culprits” of an alleged “foreign interference” to cover up the simulation.
February 3rd, 2020.
The International Police (Interpol) notified the coup government of Bolivia of the rejection of the activation of the blue and red stamps against former president Evo Morales
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Author: Digital Editor | internet@granma.cu
January 30, 2020 11:01:37
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
The International Police (Interpol) notified Bolivia’s coup government of the rejection of the activation of the blue and red stamps against former President Evo Morales, who is accused of terrorism, financing of this scourge and sedition.
Attorney Eduardo León revealed that Interpol considered that the request processed by the Attorney General, Juan Lanchipa, differed from Articles 2 (i) and 3 of its Statute and decided not to publish the notification and to eliminate the data of that person (Morales) from its database.
The document stated that Article 2 states that its actions must be framed in respect for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, while Article 3 prohibits the entity from “intervening in matters of a political, military, religious or racial nature.
In light of this decision, León filed a complaint against Lanchipa on Wednesday for the crime of breach of duty and allegedly acting in a negligent manner in this case.
The lawyer said the attorney general lied to the Bolivians about the persecution of Morales because the activation of the red and blue stamps must be through an order issued by a judge and not only through efforts of the Attorney General’s Office.
“Interpol’s decision demonstrates the lack of seriousness with which the Attorney General acted in this case and, furthermore, it shows the lack of knowledge that Mr. Lanchipa has,” he concluded.
On the other hand, Lanchipa, in line with the coup regime, also confirmed last December the request to activate the blue notice for the former Minister of Coordination with Social Movements, Alfredo Rada.
This is a request to locate Rada, whose whereabouts are unknown and who has been accused of three deaths of opposition civilians in 2007 (when he served as head of the Interior Government), during a riot against the constituent assembly that was in session in the central-southern city of Sucre, under siege by violent groups.
The request was made in spite of the fact that, as he acknowledged, the indispensable authorization of Parliament to open a trial of responsibilities for Rada is pending, as is constitutionally required.
(Taken from CubaSí.cu)
According to Radio China International, the meeting, chaired by the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CCP, Xi Jinping, was aimed at studying the next steps in the fight against the disease, with the conviction of winning that battle
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Author: International Editor | internacionales@granma.cu
February 4, 2020 23:02:42
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
The 2019-nCOV outbreak has claimed more lives in China than the severe acute respiratory syndrome that affected the country in 2002-2003. Photo: Reuters
The Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held a meeting on Monday to hear the report of the Central Steering Group on the coronavirus and related departments on prevention and control of the epidemic.
According to Radio China International, the meeting, chaired by the Secretary-General of the Central Committee of the CCPR, Xi Jinping, was aimed at studying the next steps for the confrontation of the disease, with the conviction of winning that battle.
With the death toll from the new coronavirus outbreak rising to 426, the World Health Organization (WHO) called for global solidarity, with special emphasis on collective surveillance.
According to Prensa Latina, so far there are 20,471 confirmed cases in the Asian giant, including 425 deaths; while 176 cases were recorded in 24 other countries and one death in the Philippines.
Drug in the test phase
Russian Deputy Health Minister Sergei Kraevói said Chinese specialists are testing a Russian-made drug known as Triazavirin to see if it can fight the coronavirus.
The news, published by Sputnik, assures that the Triazavirin is an antiviral drug from this Eurasian country of direct action of the azoloazine family. According to its creators, it is effective against 15 types of flu.
Cuba remains on alert although no cases of coronavirus have been reported so far.
Cuba’s Ministry of Public Health (Minsap) informed the people that, as part of the protective measures established at the national level to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in the nation, some people who in the last 14 days were in China and other countries with the presence of the virus have been isolated.
According to Dr. Francisco Duran, national director of MINSAP Epidemiology, these people presented symptoms similar to those of the coronavirus, and therefore were admitted to the Pedro Khouri Institute (IPK)and “other hospitals” on the island. However, it has not been confirmed that any of them suffer from the disease, he told Cuban television.
According to the electoral calendar, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal has until 21 February to publish the list of eligible candidates
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Author: International Editor | internacionales@granma.cu
February 4, 2020 23:02:21
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
Bolivia’s former president, Evo Morales, is running as a candidate for the Senate for the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) in the elections next May, after the de facto government made several maneuvers to prevent him from registering.
The former Bolivian leader said on Tuesday in a tweet that “MAS-IPSP (Political Instrument for the Sovereignty of the Peoples) was the first party to present lists of candidates”.
“I appreciate the hard work of our leadership in preparing them. Perhaps not everyone has been satisfied, but it is time for unity, for a conscious and reflexive vote to recover democracy and the country,” he said.
According to the electoral calendar, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) has until February 21 to publish the list of qualified candidates, which means that until this date it will be known if the former president continues in the electoral race.
In addition to MAS, other parties registered for the elections include Acción Democrática Nacionalista (dna), Comunidad Ciudadana (cc), Frente para la Victoria (fpv), Partido de Acción Nacional Boliviano (pan-Bol), Juntos, Creemos, and Libertad y Democracia (Libre 21).
By Yurisander Guevara
January 29, 2020
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
We started with a delivery that was born in China and has been consolidated as one of the best in its field. WPS Office is, in a way, “a clone” of Microsoft Office. Not only is it similar in design, but it also has its own functionalities. This does not mean something pejorative, on the contrary, it reinforces the idea of how well Microsoft has done in this section to inspire others to follow in its footsteps.
WPS Office is multi-system. It has versions for Windows, MacOS, GNU/Linux, Android and iOS. Originally known as Kingsoft Office, this program supports all Microsoft formats. And while it has now gained more notoriety, what many do not know is that this product has been available since 1989.
Among its main applications are Writer, the word processor; Spreadsheets for spreadsheets, and Presentations for slides. It does not have software for database management, mathematical formula manipulation or vector graphics. However, in an office suite the most used are the options already mentioned.
WPS Office has a premium or paid version, which allows you to convert documents to PDF format, as well as manage documents in multiple platforms from the user account, among other benefits. This software can be downloaded at www.wps.com.
Born in September 2010, and since then, with the support of the community of users of free technologies, LibreOffice has grown into a solid and full-featured product, managed by the non-profit organization The Document Foundation.
Its creation is due to a bifurcation of another office software: OpenOffice. Among its applications are Writer (word processing); Calc (spreadsheets); Impress (slides); Math (creating and editing mathematical formulas); Draw (vector graphics editor), and Base (database management similar to Access).
LibreOffice is a fairly complete solution that can cover the needs of more than 90 percent of the users. As standard it uses its own document format, .odf, but it also supports the latest and even the oldest Microsoft formats, such as .docx or .doc.
This software is available for Linux, Windows and Mac. On GNU/Linux systems it almost always comes standard with the installation. To download it you can visit en.libreoffice.org.
Although its current name is Apache OpenOffice, this office suite is known to everyone as OpenOffice. It is an open-source project born in 2000 as a result of the release of the StarOffice source code by Sun Microsystems, according to several specialized sources.
The company Oracle acquired Sun Microsystems, so OpenOffice was under its shadow until it was donated to the Apache Foundation, which since then manages the software as a project.
This software has fewer features than LibreOffice, although it is still a free alternative that provides the user with the same applications as the latter, but it does not have compatibility to export, at least as standard, to the most recent formats of the Redmond giant for office documents, according to the website My Computer Hoy.
The latest stable version of OpenOffice dates from last year and can be downloaded at www.openoffice.org.
Although not updated since 2018, this office software package is quite interesting.
Developed by the German company SoftMaker, founded in 1989, FreeOffice is a free office suite based on SoftMaker Office technology (which is paid for and includes more features).
FreeOffice has as applications a word processor (TextMaker), spreadsheets (PlanMaker) and presentations (Presentations). Its software is proprietary, but its free version is available for Windows, Linux, MacOS and Android.
At www.freeoffice.com it is possible to download this suite which also offers, separately, a free PDF document editor.
Google docs
This is a software as a service that does not require installation in the case of computers, as it can be used only with a web browser, as it is in the cloud.
Google Docs is a simple and fast way -as long as the Internet is available-, to work with digital documents. It has a text editor, spreadsheets, a presentation editor and a form editor.
If used as a mobile application, it allows you to keep files offline, and in its desktop version it offers the possibility of downloading the document to your computer. However, perhaps one of its greatest features is the ability to archive text on Google Drive, which makes it ubiquitous and accessible if there is a network connection.
A downside to this type of application is that users could sacrifice their privacy if their Google Account is compromised. The Google office suite is available at docs.google.com.
As we have seen there are several alternatives to Microsoft Office, all free and available in a wide range of operating systems or even as a service. Do you want to try one?
Published: Tuesday 28 January 2020 | 10:16:43 pm.
By Mileyda Menéndez Dávila sentido@juventudrebelde.cu
and Arianna Ramos Martín digital@juventudrebelde.cu
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
When the wind’s direction cannot be changed, simply adjust the sails.
Jackson Brown
Protect Yourself Author: Juventud Rebelde Published: 28/01/2020 | 09:56 pm
The origin of the word condom is still unknown. One of the assumptions is that it bears the name of its inventor, Mr. Condom or Contón. Even more curious is that the advantages of this object, for which demand dates back to ancient Egypt, are still unnoticed by some young people, as archaeological evidence shows.
We spoke with students from various technology schools and from the University of Havana about this issue. Not a few said they felt more pleasure in sexual relations without a condom (even though they knew the risks of not protecting themselves). This is because “these devices reduce skin-to-skin contact. Others see it as a deterrent to arousal or are upset by the delay in putting it on at the crucial moment, so they prefer to “take a chance”, and hope that the girl is healthy and keeping track of her ovulation.
In the survey, the girls were more concerned about the issue of protection and listed short- and long-term risks, but even this anxiety does not make them buy condoms or carry them in their bags and backpacks.
“I feel very sorry for them,” one of them said with a mischievous laugh, and if it’s worrying that at this point they are ashamed because other people know that they are sexually active, much worse is that they leave the responsibility for their sexual health to their partners alone.
Of good intentions…
One of the students interviewed said she had a boyfriend for almost a year, a steady partner with whom she never had sex without a condom – allegedly. One day the boy took it off in the middle of sex without her noticing, and then she was embarrassed to talk about her lack of control, so it was doubly irresponsible.
Weeks later, she didn’t see her period and started to worry, because she used to have it every month without fail. Then she went to the doctor she found out about the unexpected pregnancy. Then the boyfriend decided to confess, but it was too late to apologize and they had to face an abortion that who knows what consequences it will bring in the long run for the girl?
“It could have been worse,” reflected other young women when we discussed the case. If the boyfriend had acquired a sexually transmitted infection (STI) in previous relationships, he would have given her one too.
This awareness of the importance of protecting yourself in all sexual relationships is the kind of life-changing decision you make, other students said.
But if you are not consistent or do not incorporate creative ways of proposing and placing it, if you think that it takes the fun out of the moment and you cling to thinking badly of it, if you hide behind the fact that it is hard to acquire because of a shortage in the market, and you do not worry about managing it, like other scarce products, it can also have a bad effect on your erotic performance, they acknowledged.
It is not the very thin latex film that interferes with the body’s sensations, but the concern, the lack of concentration to perceive stimuli. The proof is that when a person likes you and rubs your genitals over clothes (much thicker than a condom), they react perfectly.
Responsible alternatives
Of the students surveyed, almost none knew about the alternative of the female condom (which is not available on the national market) or believed that it could be used with a male condom at the same time, which is nonsense because that friction can cause one of them to break.
As for the brands already registered in Cuba, Vigor and Momentos, all agreed in mentioning the first one as their favorite because the product is stronger and better lubricated. Alas, they cannot choose because both brands are in short supply in pharmacies and other alternative outlets, such as cafes and bars, a concern that also reaches this editorial office from other provinces.
Some fortunate people told about experiences with foreign condoms and those of the Climax brand (which are currently delivered in their prevention actions by Prosalud volunteers), designed to increase pleasure by incorporating irregular flavors and textures. Is it not possible to have an alternative sale of these products in the TRD, they ask?
At the end of the discussion, they acknowledged that using condoms or looking for alternatives without penetration is to think about yourself and that being you love or is next to you. You both need to trust that sex will be a healthy moment, something to remember and talk about later with a smile, not a calendar or a positive STI test in your hands.
The audiovisuals show a compact crowd, with the presence of many young people carrying the flag of the original peoples, known as Wiphala
Author: Granma | internet@granma.cu
February 3, 2020 23:02:39
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
Thousands of people who support the Movement Towards Socialism joined to support the Arce-Choquehuanca duo for the May 3 elections. Photo: ANSA
The social networks are publishing videos of a massive demonstration by the population in La Paz, Bolivia, to support the registration of the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) candidates on the last day of the term granted by the Plurinational Electoral Tribunal for this administration, said PL.
The audiovisuals show a compact crowd, with the presence of many young people carrying the flag of the native peoples, known as Wiphala. They march from the Plaza San Francisco in La Paz to the headquarters of the electoral body in the Bolivian capital.
As it is known, the registration period for the Bolivian political alliances and parties for the presidential elections of May 3 ended this Monday and from now on the electoral campaign for each of the registered candidates begins.
According to the Plurinational Electoral Tribunal (TEP), eight presidential candidates are registered, including the duo of Luis Arce and David Choquehuanca, for the MAS, while the right is divided between the self-proclaimed president Jeanine Áñez; former president Carlos Mesa, and Luis Fernando Camacho.
Meanwhile, Evo Morales presented a request before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to demand that the entity issue a precautionary measure in his favor that guarantees respect for his right to run for the Plurinational Legislative Assembly by MAS.
Recently, lawyers Patricia Hermosa and Wilfredo Chávez were arrested. They were to present before the electoral authorities the documentation required to register Evo as a candidate for the Plurinational Legislative Assembly.
Published: Saturday 01 February 2020 | 08:58:50 pm.
By Marina Menéndez Quintero
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
With the certainty that reason instills, the new Argentine government has already stood on its feet and is preparing to take the first and most important step of the beginning of its term, from which everything can be defined.
The renegotiation of the foreign debt in which Mauricio Macri’s government was trapped is essential to achieve the goals that the Frente de Todos wants to achieve in Argentina.
The urgency is understood in a simple way, and not only because the term will last only four years. It is not possible to walk around while a bundle of more than 280 billion dollars owed to private holders and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is being dragged along. This is not only because the bundle of bills weighs too much: if each disbursement is not made within the established time frame, the country would be declared in default -that is, in cessation of payment- and then the world would indeed cut off the Argentines’ water and electricity.
The official start to get “relief” has been the first meeting of the young Minister of Economy, Martín Guzmán, with the private creditors; a meeting that took place this week at the Council of America in New York, and from which not all the businessmen came out very happy, according to certain sources that, perhaps, want to see things only from the dark side.
The headline, said the complainants, did not provide details of the “offer” to renegotiate, let alone the fiscal plan to be implemented by the Argentine government. Do businessmen have to control what the executive will do?
In any case, Guzmán had already given the details before leaving for the meeting. They are the same ones that President Alberto Fernández announced when he was still a candidate.
At that time, the president warned that, from now on, he would not borrow another dollar. And that, before paying, the first thing would be to resume growth.
At this point, it is clear that what Argentina is seeking is to “re-profile” the payment schedule, a term used to replace the familiar word “renegotiation,” and that it has different conceptual nuances because the nation does not aspire to “quitas,” that is, to a reduction in the nominal value of debts. What is sought is a restructuring -another current definition- that allows for the postponement of maturity dates.
The position is one of unquestionable technical reasoning: how to pay if the country does not produce, perhaps by asking for more debt, as Mauricio Macri did?
But Fernandez’s path, which Guzman follows, also carries with it a sense of national sovereignty that cannot be ignored if the economy and the country are to be brought to fruition.
“The economic program was designed and executed by us (…) What is ours is ours,” said Martín Guzmán before leaving for the United States, when asked about the expected negotiations with the Fund.
The security with which the holder conducts himself is not surprising. First, because it has been the international financial institution’s conditioning – in exchange for the credits granted to Macri – that has caused things to be the way they are again: unemployment triggered by state layoffs and the bankruptcy of small and medium-sized companies, a slowed-down economy, less purchasing power that made food shortages and in some cases hunger resurface, pension cuts, job insecurity, rising gas and electricity prices, and a long list of other similar things everywhere this neo-liberalism is applied in blood and fire.
Secondly, because Guzmán is not an upstart. He has worked for several years alongside the Nobel Prize winner in economics, Joseph Stiglitz, and has become an expert precisely on the issues surrounding sovereign debt.
“He is the right man at the right time (…) A brilliant and knowledgeable economist who can combine youthful vigor with experience beyond his 37 years,” Stiglitz said at the time.
On the other hand, prestigious economists who look at things from a more political angle and located in the Third World, such as the Belgian Eric Toussaint, say that Alberto Fernandez’s executive has all the arguments not to pay, because the Fund violated its own technical requirements by negotiating with Mauricio Macri the delivery of the largest credit that the institution has ever approved ($ 57 billion), even knowing that, even then, Argentina had no possibility of paying it back.
Some consider that the IMF followed Donald Trump’s instructions to support Macri; but others consider that the purpose was to tie Argentina back to the International Monetary Fund, as it was from the mid-1980s until the recovery achieved with Néstor Kirchner as of 2003, after the renegotiation of the debt at that time and the break with the dictates of the IMF. This would make the country “more manageable”.
Now some fear the interests and influence that Trump could have on the attitudes that the Monetary Fund adopts when negotiations are opened.
Many concerned people
Although it was routine, this week’s meeting in New York had nuances of urgency. The first debt repayments to the private sector are knocking on the doors, and the country’s coffers are empty.
In spite of the premiere flavor of the meeting with 50 bondholders who represented, according to what happened, 40 percent of all private creditors, there were already other meetings, especially with the IMF.
The Fund disbursed and now does not lose any footprint to the country. As soon as the primary elections (PASO) showed the possibility of a Peronist triumph in October, its officials went to sound out the ground and meet with Fernández.
More recently, the president himself spoke with the new head of the institution, the Bulgarian Kristalina Georgieva; and then the Minister of Economy who, it seems, left the interview with more satisfaction than regret, in accordance with his belief that the IMF “has changed”.
Now Martin has just met with two of its top officials, and will return to the dialogue with Georgieva in February. Both of them are protected by the good wishes of Pope Francis, because the meeting will take place during the presence of both of them in the Vatican.
What follows will not be easy. Argentina aspires to postpone the payment terms without taking away – as is required, moreover, by a loan as large as the one Macri squandered – but, according to the monitary fund manuals, to grant this postponement, the nation would have to assume commitments… And Buenos Aires insists that there will be no more recipes.
“We are not going to allow any conditionality,” said the head of Economy.
A united front
Perhaps one of the best things about the Argentine position is the unitary way in which it is forged and sustained.
Four days ago, in an unprecedented debate, the Chamber of Deputies approved almost unanimously, even with the backing of the legislators of the now-opposition Juntos por el Cambio, a bill that empowers the executive to renegotiate the debt in dollars with foreign private creditors.
It is expected to become law when the Senate debates it next week and, although the text limits the government to setting the terms of the negotiation, the strong support it received from 224 votes to two with one abstention also gives strong moral credit (and not just official authorization) for the government to act.
In any case, nothing seems to have been left “to the good Lord”. While with the private ones the executive is left free to act, it will go as a team to the negotiations with the International Monetary Fund. A team will accompany Guzmán in the preparation of the proposals for this procedure: the most difficult.
The new body is called the Unit for Technical Relations with the IMF. Its mission will be to assist the Economy Minister in the “formulation and execution of the strategy” of these links and, according to the Argentine press, the one who formulates the proposals.
There seems to be a growing consensus on the perniciousness of loans and debts, judging by the loud applause that followed the intervention of Maximo Kirchner Fernandez, head of the Frente de Todos party in the Chamber of Deputies, during the discussion of the law passed there this week.
“What we have to say here is “never again” to the foreign debt, and to start elaborating, among all of us, an economic policy that will eliminate, from now on, this kind of problem of the Argentine society”.
This is the second time in that nation that such a challenge is faced. And the bidding has just begun.
An intense and insulting campaign against the medical collaboration that Cuba provides to the world characterized the U.S. imperial strategy implemented in 2019. It found submissive governments that preferred to leave their people without health care, in order to play along with the White House.
by Nuria Barbosa León
January 24, 2020
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
An intense and insulting campaign against the medical collaboration that Cuba provides to the world characterized the U.S. imperial strategy implemented in 2019. It found submissive governments that preferred to leave their people without health care, as long as they played along with the White House.
One example is the recent statements made by the self-proclaimed president of Bolivia, Jeanine Áñez. On January 22, at the ceremony to celebrate the founding of the Plurinational State, Áñez once again used hackneyed arguments against the altruism of Cuban health professionals.
In response to such fallacies, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez, in his Twitter account, described the lies of the coup leader as vulgar. He urged her to explain to her own people that, after the return to Cuba of the collaborators, as a result of the violence to which they were subjected, more than 454,440 medical visits had been cancelled.
He also said that the two months of absence of Cuban doctors in that Andean-Amazon nation have resulted in almost a thousand women who have not received specialized assistance in their deliveries, and 5,000 surgeries, as well as more than 2,700 ophthalmological durgeries, which were not performed. “They are not just figures, they are human beings,” wrote the Head of Cuban diplomacy.
The dismantling of the programs based on Cuban medical cooperation has been financed with more than $3 million, granted by the Agency for International Development (USAID), a U.S. institution that provides funds for different aggressive actions against governments that Washington does not like.
The Cuban medical brigades in Brazil, Ecuador and Bolivia disappeared as a result of all this persecution by the United States, which questioned the professionalism and dedication of the more than 400,000 Cuban health workers who, in 56 years, have carried out missions in 164 nations.
This campaign to discredit Cuba is led by the White House National Security Council under the sponsorship of senators and congress members associated with the anti-Cuban mafia in Florida and right-wing State Department officials.
They invent the premise of a supposed “modern slavery” and “human trafficking” for Cuban doctors and hide the humanistic sense of such missions abroad. These have helped to recover health indices such as the decrease of infant mortality and maternal deaths; the curing of infectious diseases by epidemics and others.
They do not know that Cuban doctors, before leaving, receive training about the place where they will work. They sign a contract of employment with all the legal guarantees and where the terms to be fulfilled by both parties are made explicit. They take with them a medical record with the updating of their vaccines, plus the legalization of their professional titles.
Several countries even require these professionals to take knowledge tests, and medical authorities from these countries travel to Cuba to take tests in languages other than Spanish.
Those who go on medical missions do so absolutely freely and voluntarily. In Cuba, their families receive their full salary or it is kept in a bank account, while they have a stipend in the country of destination, along with other benefits (payment of accommodations, electricity, water and basic services).
The compensation Cuba receives for the cooperation it provides goes towards the financing, sustainability, and development of the public health system, which is free for one hundred percent of Cubans. This is something difficult to understand in the capitalist world, where a good part of the health services are paid for.
All the discrediting promoted by Washington is accompanied by attempts to re-establish the so-called Parole Program for Cuban Medical Professionals, which existed until January 12, 2017. This encourages desertion, payment of tickets and legal services, provision of U.S. visas and travel documents to aid workers in third countries. Its is the sabotaging bilateral agreements signed with them, depriving them of their services and depriving us of highly qualified human resources.
Today, the response to this new war has been to continue saving lives, providing health and welfare. While the governments denigrate the stories of Cuban internationalism, the beneficiaries are grateful and recognize that this achievement completely transcends geopolitical interests and any ideology.
– November 2018:
Cuba decides to return home to its brigade in Brazil, because President Jair Bolsonaro questioned the dignity and professionalism of our doctors present in 3,600 municipalities in that country, which between 2013 and 2018 provided health coverage to 60 million Brazilians.
– May 2019:
The Secretary-General of the OAS presided over a conference to accuse Cuba of alleged crimes against humanity, based on Cuban medical cooperation abroad.
– June 2019:
The State Department, in its Report on Trafficking in Persons 2019, denounced Cuba’s international medical cooperation.
– July 2019:
USA The US imposes visa restriction sanctions on Cuban officials linked to medical missions.
– July 2019:
The Agency for International Development (USAID) provides three million dollars for projects against Cuban doctors abroad.
– During 2019:
U.S. Embassy and U.S. government officials went to authorities in several countries to inquire into accurate data on Cuban medical cooperation, with the aim of finding ways to eliminate it.
– October 2019:
The Government of Ecuador decides to conclude the health agreement with Cuba, alleging economic reasons, but spreading slander in the press about the participation of Cubans in the protests carried out by the Ecuadorian people.
– November 2019:
There were 26 serious incidents against our aid workers in Bolivia, and therefore the medical mission in that country was terminated.
– Throughout the year 2019:
27 bilateral legal instruments were signed in Cuba with 23 countries.
Sources: Minrex Declaration: The United States Crusade against Cuba’s International Medical Cooperation, December 5, 2019, and “Continue to promote Cuban health as a reference for the world”, Minsap report 2019.
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