Ecuadorian government increases repression of Indigenous-led national strike
Original article by Peoples Dispatch republished from peoples dispatch under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.
CONAIE reports that at least two people have been killed so far and more than a hundred have been injured. The government defends the actions of the security forces and promises to end the national strike in a few days.
The government of Daniel Noboa has opted to reinforce the security forces to definitively suppress the national strike called by the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE), which has now been going on for 26 days. The protests, which have been concentrated in the province of Imbabura (although they have also taken place in dozens of other locations), demand the repeal of a presidential decree that eliminates the subsidy on diesel fuel, which is used especially by transporters, farmers, and rural workers. However, little by little, the demonstrations have taken on an anti-government tone that is evident in the mobilizations.
On October 12, various protests were organized across the country in support of the demonstrations. In the capital, Quito, the police and army cracked down hard on demonstrators, who were unable to gather in one place as they were dispersed with tear gas. Subsequently, several media outlets reported on the repression of several demonstrators who were beaten, shot with rubber bullets, and tear-gassed and pepper-sprayed.
Humanitarian convoy or vanguard of repression?
A few hours later, the Executive announced that it would send a second humanitarian convoy to Imbabura to, as it claimed, assist families affected by the protests. However, the so-called humanitarian convoy quickly became an advance group that attempted, using force and tear gas, to open the roads closed by Indigenous groups.
In this regard, Interior Minister John Reimberg announced on October 13 that the national strike “is ending now.” “We are going to use the police to completely open the roads, because this is ending now… We are going to arrive, we are going to dialogue, and if there is no dialogue and they want to become violent, the police are there to act,” said the minister.
In effect, the government ordered law enforcement to act more harshly against protesters who refused to end their protest measures. Several media outlets showed how the police and army acted forcefully against protesters, which has been denounced by various human rights organizations and opposition politicians. Videos depicted how soldiers and police officers beat detained protesters in groups, or how soldiers attempted to enter people’s homes to arrest protesters.
Alleged raids on hospitals and an increase in deaths
However, what has caused the most controversy has been the allegations made by several civil society groups, such as the Regional Foundation for Human Rights Advisory Services (Inredh), which warned of alleged raids by the military on hospitals to arrest injured protesters. Inredh has also reported that several doctors have been asked not to assist the wounded.
The clashes between police and protesters have left more than just the wounded. Several days ago, a video showed the death of Efraín Fuérez. However, following the latest incursions by the military and police, CONAIE has reported that another Indigenous man, José Guamán, died because of was hit by projectiles.
“We sadly report the death of our brother José Guamán, shot in the chest by the armed forces in the massacre ordered by the National Government in Otavalo… CONAIE expresses its deep solidarity and condolences to the family and community of Chachimbiro for this cruel murder. We join in the grief of his loved ones and demand truth and justice for José and for all the social activists who have been detained and killed in defense of the rights of our people,” CONAIE wrote in a statement.
In addition, it was reported that a woman died from suffocation caused by tear gas, bringing the death toll to three. According to the Alliance of Human Rights Organizations, there have been 310 alleged human rights violations, 144 injuries, and 103 arrests.
While road closures and law enforcement actions continue, talks to reach an agreement between various Indigenous leaders and government representatives are still going on in Otavalo, Imbabura, said the city’s mayor, Anabel Hermosa.
A long struggle against neoliberalism
According to sociologist Soledad Stoessel, the strike is part of a prolonged state crisis that began when Lenin Moreno (2017-2021), followed by Guillermo Lasso (2021-2023), and now Daniel Noboa (2023-present) initiated a transformation of the state to benefit the economic elites through a neoliberal economic program: “The current Ecuadorian state crisis has its roots in a process of institutional dismantling that began during the government of Lenín Moreno (2017-2021). Under the discourse and with the aim of ‘de-Correa-izing’ the state, Moreno reversed the social gains of the progressive cycle and restored the power of the economic elites. The 2018 referendum and the Productive Development Law paved the way for the cancellation of corporate debts, the subordination of the state to local economic elites and international financial capital, and the political proscription of Correísmo as a political force.”
The strike has revived memories of the recent waves of national and cross-sectoral mobilization against the neoliberal governments of Lenín Moreno (2019) and Guillermo Lasso (2022). Those mobilizations were waged against similar policies to the ones Noboa seeks to implement by force today, yet importantly had great adhesion from across the left movements and political parties.
For now, the government is under pressure to put an end to the protests, which have shown extraordinary resistance to the enormous deployment of police and military forces. In less than a month, there will be a referendum that will decide, among other things, whether to draft a new constitution that will almost certainly structure the neoliberal transformation of the state.
On the other hand, CONAIE has once again proven to be the only social and political organization in Ecuador capable of standing up to the neoliberal project promoted by the economic elites and sponsored by international powers such as the IMF and the United States, one of the most important allies of the Noboa government, who, incidentally, belongs to the richest family in the country.
Original article by Peoples Dispatch republished from peoples dispatch under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.
China condemns US airstrikes in Caribbean, backs Venezuelan sovereignty
Original article by Brasil de Fato republished from peoples dispatch under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.
This week, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs formally expressed its opposition to US military operations in the Caribbean, following an attack on October 15 that left six people dead on Venezuelan vessels. Spokesperson Lin Jian stated that Beijing “opposes the use or threat of force in international relations” and rejects external interference in Venezuela’s internal affairs.
In response to questions from reporters, Lin Jian criticized Washington’s unilateral actions, which mobilized warships and a nuclear submarine in the region under the pretext of combating drug cartels. The October 15 attack brings the total number of deaths in five recent US military actions against Venezuelan vessels to 27.
China also expressed support for the declaration by 33 Latin American countries on the establishment of a nuclear-weapon-free zone on the continent.
China supports strengthening international cooperation to combat transnational crimes and opposes unilateral law enforcement actions by the United States against vessels from other countries that exceed reasonable and necessary limits,” said the Chinese spokesman.
Venezuelan diplomatic mobilization
This week, the Venezuelan Embassy in Beijing also summoned diplomatic representatives from various countries and international media outlets to denounce what it classifies as a risk of military invasion. Ambassador Remigio Ceballos Ichaso told Brasil de Fato that Washington is conducting “a disinformation campaign aimed at justifying an intervention.”
“Accusing Venezuela of being a drug cartel is completely false, a fiction that they have been trying to impose on the international community for decades,” said Ceballos Ichaso.
The Venezuelan government has received expressions of solidarity from Nicaragua, Bolivia, Colombia, Cuba, and Mexico. Humberto Collado, commercial attaché at the Nicaraguan embassy in China, said that “what the US is doing is threatening a democratic country, its president, and its entire people, undermining the socio-political stability of the region.”
Russian and UN position
Russia criticized US military actions through statements by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Russian ambassador to the United Nations, Vasily Nebenzia, stating that such operations “represent an escalation in the region, violate international law and Venezuelan sovereignty.”
The World Drug Report 2025 from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) recognizes Venezuela’s efforts to combat drug trafficking and points out that the country is not among the main international drug corridors. The UN has emphasized that any military or coercive intervention that violates the sovereignty of a member state is contrary to the United Nations Charter.
US sanctions against Venezuela began in 2006, during Hugo Chávez’s administration, intensifying after 2013 with Nicolás Maduro, totaling about a thousand restrictive measures by 2019. These measures resulted in food and medicine shortages, restrictions on access to essential resources, and impacts on the Venezuelan economy.
Internal mobilization
President Nicolás Maduro ordered national defense military exercises with the participation of Bolivarian militias and volunteers, including fishermen and rural residents. The government characterized the mobilization as defensive and voluntary, aimed at ensuring national sovereignty.
In a letter to UN Secretary-General António Guterres, Maduro reiterated Venezuela’s commitment to peace and international law. Foreign Minister Samuel Moncada stated that “the real threat to regional peace is the presence of US military and nuclear weapons in the Caribbean.”
This article was translated from an article originally published in Portuguese on Brasil de Fato.
Original article by Brasil de Fato republished from peoples dispatch under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.
From liberalism to the far right: the cynical trajectory of today’s top Tories
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/liberalism-far-right-cynical-trajectory-todays-top-tories
Then prime minister David Cameron (left) welcomes then newly-elected Newark MP Robert Jenrick to the Houses of Parliament in London, June 11, 2014SOLOMON HUGHES finds one-time Cameron-centrist EU fans now promote vicious anti-migrant rhetoric in their bid to get attention for their ailing party
Robert Jenrick’s complaints about “not seeing another white face” in Birmingham’s Handsworth show the Tories will push racism to try to grab votes.
Jenrick’s hard right turn is creepy because this formerly “Liberal” Tory, who was so blandly Cameron-centrist-pro-EU that he was called “Robert Generic,” now uses the language of the National Front.
At Tory conference anti-migrant, anti-asylum-seeker, prejudiced and racist language was ubiquitous: Mirroring Jenrick’s manoeuvre, it spread to supposedly “liberal” Tories.
I went to a conference meeting of Tory group Bright Blue. Founded when David Cameron was leader, Bright Blue see themselves as a socially conscious liberal Tory group.
Their slogan is “Our work is about defending and improving liberal society.” Their “advisory board” has Labour figures — former ministers Margaret Hodge and John Denham and former Blair adviser John McTernan — alongside a dozen leading Tories.
This supposed liberalism evaporated over migration. They had a debate on “How Conservatism can be popular and effective again.”
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp was on the panel. Philp is pushing his anti-migrant message hard: he attacks asylum-seekers as criminals. He also attacks the much greater numbers of “legal” migrants, claiming “mass migration has certainly damaged social cohesion.”
But what Philp said for the “Bright Blue” crowd was instructive: Bright Blue wrote a list of 10 Tory objectives. Philp said this wouldn’t work, because “it is hard to get attention” for the Tories, so any list had to be reduced to two: immigration and the economy. Philp was making clear the Tories are going hard on immigration mostly to get “attention.”
Philp was joined on the panel by Jesse Norman MP, a “Bright Blue” favourite, seen as a Tory liberal. In 2022 Jesse Norman wrote a “no-confidence” letter to then PM Boris Johnson, complaining “the Rwanda policy is ugly, likely to be counterproductive and of doubtful legality.”
So did Norman object to Philp and the Tories’ plan to reinstate their policy of deporting all asylum-seekers to Rwanda, or his “ugly“ language?
No. Norman argued pushing against “immigration” was essential, saying “it’s almost a threshold condition for seriousness” for would-be Tory voters.
This is the current Tory position, across the board, from former “liberals” like Jenrick to supposedly current “liberals” like Norman — they want to hammer the anti-immigrant button, because they can’t see any other way to beat Reform.
The Tory conference was quite direct about this manoeuvre: the conference slogan was “Stronger Economy. Stronger Borders.”
They want to have a “stronger economy” — which for the Tories means more privatisation, deregulation and lower taxes, and will use their “stronger borders” message — meaning their newly supercharged anti-migrant and racist prejudices — to get it.
Those cynically adopting this hard anti-migrant persona are more sinister in some ways than lifelong bigots. They are willing to play with prejudice without principle.
If the Conservatives end up in coalition with Farage — a distinct possibility — we can’t expect the Tories to blunt Reform’s prejudices in government. Quite the opposite, they might lean into them more, and deliver them with more efficiency.
Follow Solomon Hughes on X @SolHughesWriter.
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/liberalism-far-right-cynical-trajectory-todays-top-tories
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Venezuelan Ambassador Warns Trump Admin Is ‘Bloodthirsty’ Killer ‘Roaming Around the Caribbean’
Original article by Brad Reed republished form Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
The Venezuelan ambassador accused the Trump administration of “killing everyone who is on the sea working.”
Venezuelan United Nations Ambassador Samuel Moncada on Thursday delivered a scathing denunciation of US President Donald Trump’s drone attacks on purported drug boats off the coast of his country.
While holding up a copy of Thursday’s edition of the Trinidad and Tobago Guardian, which highlighted two Trinidadian citizens who were killed by a US drone strike while on a boat, Moncada lambasted the Trump administration and compared it to a serial killer.
“There is a killer roaming around the Caribbean!” he declared. “He’s bloodthirsty! He’s killing everyone who is on the sea working! And people from different countries—Colombia, Trinidad, etc.—are suffering the effects of these massacres!”
According to Reuters, Moncada this week also sent a letter to the United Nations Security Council asking it to rule on the legality of the US strikes, while also releasing a statement affirming Venezuela’s sovereignty.
The two Trinidadian citizens mentioned by Moncada were killed in a Tuesday drone strike that also reportedly took the lives of four other men.
In interviews with the Trinidad and Tobago Guardian, friends and relatives of 26-year-old Chad Joseph, one of the men killed in the strike, denied that he was involved with any drug trafficking.
“I find it wrong because it have—people will be innocent and they will still do and say otherwise,” Joseph’s mother, Lenore Burnley, told the Trinidad and Tobago Guardian. “The sea law is they supposed to stop the boat and intercept it, not blow it up like that.”
With the Tuesday strike, the total number of people killed by the Trump administration’s attacks on suspected drug boats totaled at least 27.
The administration carried out yet another boat strike on Thursday, and Reuters reported that at least two crew members had survived the attack, marking the first time that an attack on suspected drug vessels had left any survivors.
Reuters noted that “the development raises new questions, including whether the US military rendered aid to the survivors and whether they are now in US military custody, possibly as prisoners of war.”
The Trump administration so far has provided no legal justification for the strikes on boats, nor has it provided any evidence that any of the boats it has targeted were involved in the trafficking of illegal drugs.
Many legal experts believe that the strikes on the boats would be illegal even if they were found to have been carrying drugs, however, and some critics have accused the Trump administration of extrajudicial murder.
Moncada said Thursday that the Trump administration, which has also reportedly approved “lethal operations” by the CIA in Venezuela, is “looking for wars.”
“Everybody knows what’s going on here,” he said. “They are fabricating a war. The emperor is naked. Stop pretending this is complicated.”
Original article by Brad Reed republished form Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
