Lula's collapse

Once again we see the flaws of existing representative democracy as the people of Brazil are given no choices in elections that will effect real change. A few excerpts from a Reuters report [Scandal Whacks Popularity of Brazil's Lula, September 13, 2005]:

The personal popularity of the former factory worker, who held out the hope of a new era of social justice in this country of 185 million people, plunged to a record low of 50 percent in September, down from about 60 percent in July, according to the poll.

The government's approval rating dropped to 35.8 percent from 40.3 percent in the same period.

The decline follows a cascade of allegations that members of Lula's ruling Workers' Party and government aides bought political support in Congress and used illegal funding for elections.
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The scandal has held up the government's reform program, which is eagerly awaited by foreign investors, and left the Workers' Party in disarray.
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Lula and his Finance Minister Antonio Palocci are favorite (sic) in Wall Street for their pragmatic economic policies but investors say the scenario could change if they were proven to be directly implicated in corruption.

Hunger strikes at Guantanamo prison

Keep in mind that we have every reason to believe very many of these people have no connection to terrorism whatsoever and were simply rounded up for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Excerpts from Reuters dispatch [One - Fourth of Guantanamo Prisoners on Hunger Strike, September 13, 2005]:

Nearly one-fourth of the prisoners at the U.S. military's Guantanamo base in Cuba are on a hunger strike to protest their indefinite detention, and 18 are being force-fed in a hospital, a military spokesman said on Tuesday.

The hunger strike began on August 8 and 128 prisoners have since joined, said Sgt. Justin Behrens, a spokesman for the task force running the Guantanamo prison.

``They want to be tried or set free,'' Behrens said by telephone from Guantanamo.
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Some have been held at Guantanamo since the prison camp opened in January 2002, but only four have been charged with crimes and none have been tried.
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Eighteen were in the hospital at the Camp Delta prison, where 13 were being fed via nasal tubes and five were being fed intravenously to keep them alive, he said.

Attorneys for the Guantanamo Bay prisoners argued in a federal appeals court in Washington last week that the detainees should have a chance to prove in court that they had been mistakenly labeled as ``enemy combatants'' and have been unlawfully detained.

``They are on a hunger strike because they want a hearing in court with a lawyer of their own. They are willing to starve themselves to death,'' said attorney Gita Gutierrez with the Center for Constitutional Rights, who represented some British prisoners since released from Guantanamo.

The Bush administration has held that the prisoners are not entitled to any constitutional due process rights because they are being held outside the United States and that the United States has the right to hold them in perpetuity.

The appeals court was not expected to rule until next year, and its decision was likely to be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The barbarity of the situation defies comment. The indignity and discomfort of nasal tube feeding... indefenite detention with no right to a trial or lawyer or even to being charged... the only faint hope resting in years of courtroom bureaucracy... the world's greatest democracy has far surpassed the worst nightmares of Kafka.

A few more details are provided by an AP report [More Detainees Join Gitmo Hunger Strike, September 13, 2005]:

The military has said the latest hunger strike began Aug. 8, with 76 detainees were refusing meals.
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The military has said the latest hunger strike began Aug. 8, with 76 detainees were refusing meals.

Lawyers from the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights said detainees were angry because the military allegedly reneged on promises to comply with the Geneva Conventions if the prisoners ended a previous hunger strike.

Sgt. Justin Behrens, another Guantanamo spokesman, denied that the military had reneged on any promises. He said each cell block has chosen a prisoner to talk with military authorities about conditions at the camp.

How tactful of the sergeant to deny that the military had made any promises to abide by the Geneva Conventions!

U.S. harassing Chavez in visit to U.N.

Reuters reports [Chavez Says US Meddling in UN Visit, September 13, 2005] that:

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Tuesday accused the U.S. government of trying to interfere in his visit to the U.N. General Assembly in New York by denying visas to his personal security detail and his medical team.
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``They threaten to kill me from there and then deny visas to my closest security team who have been with me for years ... they deny my medical team their visas, I'm going to have to walk around the Big Apple by myself,'' Chavez said.

``Without a doubt they are interfering,'' he said during a ceremony to sign deals with a Chinese delegation.

And another Reuters dispatch [UN Assembly Approves Weakened Summit Blueprint, September 13, 2005] gives an update on my previous post regarding opposition to the Human Rights Council.

Cuba's delegate denounced some of the amendments inserted by the United States and criticized language on the goals of the new Human Rights Council as well as on trade. Venezuela also expressed reservations.

Unfortunately it is unclear what the substance of the disagreements was.

China interfering in our backyard

An article in yesterday's New York Times [James C. McKinley Jr., Mexico Builds Trade Ties With China, September 13, 2005] comments that:

[Chinese President Hu Jintao's] visit [to Mexico] seems part of a broader effort to secure future sources of oil, iron ore, aluminum, timber and other commodities throughout Latin America and Canada, despite the United States' longtime hegemony in the region. Under his watch, China has sewn up deals for Chinese companies to develop oil fields and mines and to purchase commodities in Brazil, Venezuela, Chile, Cuba, Bolivia and Argentina.

You can be the U.S. is uncomfortable with these developments.