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With cries of “Viva Felipe!” and “Viva Espana!” Cubans greeted King Felipe in Old Havana, the first state visit ever by a Spanish monarch to Cuba, Spain’s former colony turned Communist-run nation.Earlier in the day, Felipe and his wife Letizia laid flowers at the monument in Havana to Jose Marti, a symbol of Cuba’s struggle for independence from Spain, before meeting with President Miguel Diaz-Canel in the Palace of the Revolution.The king then held closed-door conversations with Diaz-Canel during which they agreed to further develop positive bilateral political and economic relations, according to Cuban state-run media. Spain is Cuba’s third-largest trading partner and one of its top investors.The visit illustrates the normalization of Europe’s relations with Cuba even as the United States doubles down on a decades-old policy of seeking to force the government to reform by tightening its crippling trade embargo.Some Spanish politicians and Cuban dissidents have criticized the trip, saying it legitimizes Cuba’s one-party system at a time of increased repression.Cuba’s President Miguel Diaz-Canel and Spain’s King Felipe review an honor guard during a ceremony at the Revolution Palace in Havana, Cuba, Nov. 12, 2019.Yet many locals are grateful for what they see as a sign of support for the Cuban people, struggling with a crisis in the inefficient state-run economy in the wake of a decline of support from ally Venezuela and increased U.S. sanctions.”Spain remains our parent nation and we identify a lot with it, so their visit is very important to us,” said Havana resident Maria Pazos, whose paternal great-grandparents came from Catalonia. “It’s also a reaffirmation that we are not alone, that we have support.”Historic and family bonds have long underpinned Cuban-Spanish relations, sometimes regardless of the political flavor of the moment. Revolutionary leader Fidel Castro, for example, whose father was a Spanish immigrant, had surprisingly good relations with former Spanish dictator Francisco Franco.The royal visit was timed so the couple could take part in the celebrations of the 500th anniversary of the founding of the Cuban capital by a Spanish conquistador. Havana was once one of the most important cities in the Spanish empire, providing a port for its treasure fleet.Diaz-Canel’s wife Lis Cuesta took Letizia on a tour of Old Havana that has received a facelift since the 1990s and is considered an architectural jewel due to its mix of colonial, Art Deco and neoclassical styles.Felipe later joined Letizia at the cathedral, which previously housed the remains of explorer Christopher Columbus, whose encounter with Cuba in the service of the Spanish crown led to it being colonized by the Spaniards. The remains of Columbus were moved to Spain after Cuba became independent of that country in the 1890s.
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The Voice of America’s Russian serviced produced this documentary about the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. It looks at Berlin then and today through the eyes of those who were there, including an American soldier, a dissident, a politician, a historian and others.
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Turkey’s October military intervention into Syria is increasingly straining relations with its regional allies and neighbors, but the country is pushing back against mounting criticism of its Syrian incursion.In a recent editorial headlined “A threat against the Turkey-Qatar alliance,” the Daily Sabah, which has close ties to the Turkish government, condemned coverage of Turkey’s Syrian military operation by Qatari-owned news broadcaster Al-Jazeera English. The editorial called for the firing of journalists, warning of long-term consequences to Turkish-Qatar relations.”Although the two countries see eye to eye on many issues, any sustainable partnership must be firmly rooted in mutual interests. Without reciprocity, any relationship is at risk of falling apart,” read last week’s editorial.The Turkish military operation is on pause after agreements were brokered by Washington and Moscow with Ankara.With Turkish relations strained with Saudi Arabia, Israel and Egypt, Qatar is one of Ankara’s few remaining regional allies.”Turkish-Qatar relations are built on good foundations,” said Mithat Rende, the former Turkish ambassador to Qatar. “But this [Sabah editorial] is probably a warning from the [Turkish] presidency, ‘You should behave. You should show respect.'”  FILE – Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, left, welcomes Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani before their talks in Istanbul, Nov. 26, 2018.Ankara is strongly backing Qatar in an ongoing regional embargo led by Saudi Arabia against the emirate. Last year, Turkey deployed troops to Qatar, a move widely seen to prevent any Saudi military action.Rende says Ankara’s anger with Qatar is more deep-seated than Al-Jazeera broadcasting.”The present Qatari criticism is also probably because of the Arab League heavily criticizing the Turkish intervention, which was a very big disappointment for Ankara,” said Rende. “The Arab League, when they get together, the No. 1 sentiment is Arab nationalism. They do this with border issues and territory issues.”Turkey is a former imperial power in the region, whose Ottoman empire ruled much of the Arab world. That bitter historical legacy, analysts say, continues to color Arab perception of Turkish actions, particularly military ones in the region.Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan dismissed criticism by the Arab League.The “Arab League is holding meetings against Turkey,” Erdogan said. “One has to ask the members of the Arab League why they do not support the refugees in Turkey, who are mostly Arabs.”FILE – In this June 14, 2015 file photo taken from the Turkish side of the border between Turkey and Syria, in Akcakale, Sanliurfa province, southeastern Turkey, thousands of Syrian refugees walk in order to cross into Turkey.Turkey currently hosts over 3.5 million Syrian refugees. Along with securing Turkey’s border, Erdogan is seeking to create a so-called “safe zone” large enough and secure enough to return up to 2 million Syrians currently living in Turkey to Syria.
 
Arab concerns over Ankara’s military presence in Syria are likely to heighten with Erdogan indicating a long-term military presence.”We won’t quit before the last terrorist leaves the region,” Erdogan told a group of journalists Nov. 8. “This is one dimension of the issue. Secondly, we will not quit before other countries leave. We are in favor of Syria’s unity and solidarity. We never want it disintegrated.”Such comments will also likely cause unease in Tehran. Iran insists that only foreign powers invited by the Damascus government should be present in Syria.”The imperative now is to end the [Turkish] incursion into Syria,” tweeted Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif.Erdogan reacted angrily to the Iranian comments.”Some of the statements about the operation have caused serious sadness to me,” Erdogan said last month. “Not [Iranian President Hassan] Rouhani himself, but some of his close friends have issued oppositional statements. Mr. Rouhani should have prevented these statements.”Erdogan also pointed out that in the past Ankara helped Iran cope with sanctions imposed by the international community over its nuclear energy program.Analysts suggest that Erdogan’s comment is a thinly veiled warning to Tehran, given that Iran is again facing powerful trade sanctions.But with Ankara giving little sign of any early Syrian withdrawal, and even threatening new military operations, regional diplomatic pressure is only likely to grow.”The issue is how Moscow, Tehran, and [Syrian President Bashar al-] Assad try to persuade the further accession of Turkish troops inside Syria,” said International relations professor Huseyin Bagci of Ankara’s Middle East Technical University. “At the end of the day, this is Syrian territory. Turkey no doubt has undertaken a rightful operation for security reasons, but the limits of the security concern will be defined by Assad, Tehran and Moscow.”Erdogan insists he is ready to face down regional pressure and criticism to achieve his ultimate goals in Syria.
 
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Danish police have begun carrying out border checks at Denmark’s crossings with Sweden after a series of shootings and explosions around Copenhagen that Danish authorities say were carried out by people from Sweden.
 
Police spokesman Jens Jespersen told The Associated Press on Tuesday that at checks on the Oresund Bridge between Copenhagen and the Swedish city of Malmo, officers have “a particular focus on cross-border crime involving explosives, weapons and drugs.” He also says authorities are stopping cars to have “a peak at who is inside.”
 
The controls are also being carried out at ferry ports.
 
They follow 13 explosions in Copenhagen since February. A June shooting in the city killed two Swedish citizens. Also, a shooting Saturday in Malmo killed a 15-year-old boy and critically wounded another teenager.
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Eighteen Turkish students and a lecturer went on trial on Tuesday for taking part in a banned LGBTI Pride event at an Ankara university.The defendants face up to three years in prison if convicted of “unlawful assembly and protest” and “refusing to disperse” in a trial deemed “farcical” by rights groups.One of the 18 students also faces up to two years for insulting a police officer with hand gestures.Homosexuality has been legal throughout modern Turkey’s history, but LGBTI individuals face regular harassment and abuse.The pride event at the prestigious Middle East Technical University has taken place every May since 2011.But university bosses banned this year’s event and police used pepper spray, plastic bullets and tear gas to break it up.Officials from several European embassies, including Denmark, and an opposition lawmaker attended the packed hearing.Lawyers and rights groups urged the court to immediately acquit the defendants.”The ban of the Pride march lacks legal grounds, and these brave students and others who defied it had their right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly violated,” Sara Hall of Amnesty International said in a statement.Police did not allow supporters to read a statement outside the courthouse.‘Cannot ban pride’
Defendant Melike Irem Balkan told the court there were “no legal grounds” for banning the event, noting that it has taken place “peacefully” in previous years.Another defendant, Ozgur Mehmet Gur, was defiant, telling the court: “Every step we take is a Pride march. Our existence is a Pride march. You cannot ban the Pride march.”Academic Mehmet Mutlu said he attended the event only “to protect my students from the officers’ violent behavior” and that his detention was “wrong”.The defendants were arrested on the day, but have been free pending trial.The trial was later adjourned to March 12.The Ankara governor’s office banned all LGBTI events in November 2017, saying they could “provoke reactions” in society, but the ruling was overturned by a court in the capital in April.LGBTI events have faced mixed fortunes under the Islamic-rooted government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.Istanbul’s Pride march in 2014 was one of the biggest LGBTI events ever seen in the majority Muslim region, but authorities in the city have banned it ever since, and used tear gas to break up the latest event in June.ILGA-Europe, an umbrella organization for LGBTI groups, called for “a thorough and impartial investigation into the excessive use of force” against the Pride marchers.It places Turkey in the bottom three European countries, alongside Armenia and Azerbaijan, for equality laws and policies. 
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It was a revolutionary year. In more than 50 countries spontaneous street alliances formed of disgruntled urban workers and left-behind rural folk.Of course, there were dedicated reformers, ardent revolutionaries and hardened nationalists among them, too, and fearful governments tottering on the edge immediately accused them of causing all the trouble and of grasping at impossible theories of government or being manipulated by foreign enemies.This year or 1848? The description could be used for either.A hundred and seventy years ago, the ruling elite and European monarchies were at a loss to know how to deal with the turbulence and anger tearing through the continent and turning their world upside down. The series of political upheavals that shook Europe in 1848 became known variously as the Spring of Nations, the People’s Spring, Springtime of the Peoples, or simply the Year of Revolution.It was the year Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published The Communist Manifesto but their time was yet to come. French historian and diplomat Alexis de Tocqueville subscribed to the view that 1848 was a struggle between the “have nots” against “the haves.” “I saw society cut into two: those who possessed nothing, united in a common greed; those who possessed something, united in a common terror.”FILE – A statue of French historian and diplomat Alexis de Tocqueville is seen in the town of Saint-Lo, Normandy region, France, May 12, 2005.But his view was in many ways distorted. For many of those protesting, 1848 was about asserting national identities — certainly that was the case for many taking to the streets in Italy, Hungary, Poland and the Balkans. For others out on the streets, including those from the affluent, aspiring middle class, it was about getting rid of hidebound, backward-looking regimes that were holding back the emerging capitalist age. They wanted a new liberal, modern constitutional order. For other it was just an opportunity to express pent-up frustration at their left-behind status.Media’s role then and nowIn 1848, the printing presses were the communication channels for the demands for change and for the expression of anger, much as social media sites and mobile phone apps are used now to organize and spread the word. In Hungary, the poet Sándor Petőfi with the writer Mihály Táncsics put together a 12-point manifesto and had thousands of copies churned out on overworked printing presses.The bloodless uprising they led in the city of Pest forced Ferdinand I of Austria to abolish censorship.“The revolutions of 1848-9 are worth revisiting because they have such contemporary resonance,” according to historian Mike Rapport in his book, “1848: Year of Revolution.” He noted that Italians use the phrase “un vero quarantotto” (a true 1848) to mean “a real mess.”Protesters use illuminated letters to form a slogan as they attend a pro-democracy rally at Edinburgh Place in Hong Kong, Oct. 19, 2019.And that would seem to sum up the reaction of many established politicians and those favoring the status quo now as they scratch their heads at the disparate uprisings the world is witnessing today with protests from Barcelona to Bolivia and Hong Kong to Honduras. In the last few weeks, large anti-government protests have erupted on every continent, including Algeria, Britain, Chile, Ecuador, France, Guinea, Haiti, Iraq, Pakistan, Kazakhstan and Lebanon.The various 1848 upheavals had some common themes but there were also contradictions, as there are now. The protests of the 1960s and the 1980s seemed much more focused, more inter-connected in terms of aims and causes, say analysts.No leadersAnd in 1848, many of the protests, like now, were often leaderless, making it harder for governments to know how to handle them or to find anyone they could negotiate with who had any real authority. Something that challenged France’s Emmanuel Macron in his efforts to take the sting from the tail of the Yellow Vests.This year’s protests appear to have four broad themes  —  income inequality, public corruption, political freedom and climate change. Some commentators and radicals have tried to tie them together but it appears to be a stretch to do so, although some protests in the West have featured all four.FILE – Yellow vest protesters march on Champs Elysees avenue in Paris, France, March 2, 2019.In France, the Yellow Vest protests, now in their 52nd week, were triggered by higher ‘Green’ taxes on fuel with the demonstrators being drawn mainly from low-income earners in small-town and rural France.They are not the Communist students and factory workers of the 1960s. The Yellow Vests’ determination to reverse planned eco-tax hikes, higher levies meant to dissuade the French from using climate-polluting cars, has been on the opposite pole of the climate debate from the Extinction Rebellion activists, who are drawn mainly from metropolitan, well-shod middle classes, sowing havoc in Britain and Australia. In Ecuador and Chile as in France, planned sharp rises in fuel prices were the trigger for protesters drawn largely from low-income and rural communities.Populist nationalist protests in in the past year in Italy and Germany have nothing in common with huge pro-EU protests in Britain, where those taking to the streets want to force a second referendum on leaving the European bloc, one they believe they can win.Social media, of courseWhat maybe links the protests this year more, say analysts, is not the substance of the demonstrations but the means or organization and recruitment. Online platforms have been used to accelerate the growth of political and social movements, according to Jacquelien van Stekelenburg, a professor of social change and conflict at VU University Amsterdam.FILE – Demonstrators light their mobile phones during a protest in Barcelona, Spain, Oct. 19, 2019.In recent years, social media has changed the way in which activists are able to organize, promote their message and mobilize swarm-like support globally for physical demonstrations, she argues. But while online networks have increased political participation, by allowing participants to frame their ideas through interactions with allies and opponents, physical protests remain vital to achieving change in the age of social media, she said in a recent symposium in London. Online and offline campaigns can be effectively combined to deliver maximum political impact, she said.And the protesters across the globe appear to be combining smartly offline and online tools, copying each other, even street opponents, feeding on a new era of anger, in which losers even in countries that hold fair elections are not prepared to accept the results and winners demand all too often total obeisance from those vanquished at the polls.When it comes to countries where elections are not free but carefully managed, those in control seem determined to give their opponents little space to organize and to gather strength. In Russia, the Kremlin has overseen a sharp crackdown on dissent even though protests have done little to weaken the grip on power of Vladimir Putin — a reflection of the Kremlin’s high level of  insecurity.In 1848 coalitions behind the protests did not hold for long. In many countries challenges to the status quo were rapidly suppressed with tens of thousands killed and others forced into exile.Lasting reforms, though, in some countries did take effect. Serfdom was abolished in Austria and Hungary. Denmark’s absolute monarchy came to an end. The Netherlands embraced the beginnings of representative democracy. But in other countries there were backlashes — notably in France, where Louis Napoléon Bonaparte — Napoleon III — was elected president of the Second Republic, in 1848, but turned round three years later, suspended the elected assembly and established the Second French Empire with himself as dictator. 
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France, Germany, Britain and the European Union say they are “extremely concerned” about Iran’s renewed uranium enrichment activities and what they call “regrettable acceleration of Iran’s disengagement” from commitments it made under the 2015 agreement regarding the country’s nuclear program.In a joint statement released Monday, the foreign ministers urged Iran to reverse all of the measures it has taken that go against those imposed in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which limited Iran’s nuclear activity in exchange for sanctions relief.Iran has restarted enrichment at its Fordow facility, exceeded limits on enrichment levels and the amount of enriched material it is allowed to stockpile, while also announcing work on developing more advanced centrifuges.  Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said the steps are reversible if the other signatories to the agreement help Iran work around U.S. sanctions.In their statement, France, Germany Britain and the EU said their side has “fully upheld” their commitments under the agreement, including lifting the sanctions they had imposed over fears Iran was working to develop nuclear weapons.  Iran says its nuclear program is only for peaceful purposes.”It is not critical that Iran upholds its JCPOA commitments and works with all JCPOA participants to de-escalate tensions,” the statement said.The deal originally also included China, Russia and the United States.  U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from the agreement last year.Also Monday, the U.N.’s nuclear monitor said uranium particles have been detected at an undeclared nuclear site in Iran.In a confidential report obtained by news agencies, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed that manmade uranium particles had been discovered, without revealing the location of the undeclared site.The report also confirmed that Iran is enriching uranium at its underground Fordow facility — a site where, under the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, it had agreed not to carry out any enrichment or enrichment-related research.Over the weekend, Iran began pouring concrete for a second nuclear reactor at its Bushehr power plant, which is monitored by the IAEA.Iran has said it intends to enrich uranium to 4.5%, slightly above the 3.67% limit allowed under 2015 deal. Enriching to 4.5% is far below the level needed to make a nuclear weapon.
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In allowing Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to walk out of jail last week, Brazil’s Supreme Court has blown open a legal labyrinth that could see the leftist former president return to prison just as easily as run for election again.The second chamber of the Supreme Court will soon hear an appeal from Lula’s defense team that Sergio Moro, the judge in the wide-ranging “Car Wash” corruption probe who secured Lula’s conviction and who is now justice minister in far-right President Jair Bolsonaro’s cabinet, did not act impartially.The Supreme Court on Friday ruled that a person can only be imprisoned once all appropriate avenues of appeal are exhausted, so-called “res judicata”, which overturned the court’s opinion three years ago that convicted criminals face mandatory imprisonment if they lose their first appeal.Seventy-four year old Lula had been imprisoned for 19 months on corruption convictions carrying a nearly nine-year sentence.He is also facing several other corruption charges.If the Supreme Court’s second chamber annuls Lula’s conviction, he will once again be eligible to run for office, potentially opening the way for him to stand as the Workers’ Party (PT) candidate in the 2022 presidential election.On the other hand, if he loses an appeal relating to one of his other charges known as the “Atibaia” case, Lula could return to prison. Following last week’s Supreme Court ruling, lawmakers have advocated speeding up a constitutional amendment reinstating automatic jail time for convicts who lose their first appeal.Both the Lower house and Senate are currently analyzing constitutional amendments on this subject. Because they take longer to go through the legislative process than ordinary bills, nothing is likely to happen until next year.FILE – Demonstrators hold a Brazilian flag during an act in support of operation Car Wash and former judge Sergio Moro, in front of Supreme Court headquarters in Brasilia, Brazil, Sept. 25, 2019.The case against Moro and his alleged political bias in Lula’s conviction had been stalled since December last year, when justices Edson Fachin and Carmen Lucia took a stand against it and justice Gilmar Mendes requested a review of the case.”Annuling (Lula’s) conviction, if that’s what eventually transpires as a result of (Moro’s role), will lead to a new trial. That could happen,” justice Mendes said in an exclusive interview with Reuters in August.”It is important to do this analysis in a detached way. The media became very oppressive. The right verdict is not just a guilty verdict. This is not correct. We have to recognize that we owe Lula a fair trial,” Mendes said at the time. 
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Former Bolivian President Evo Morales is on a flight to Mexico, where he has been granted asylum.  Foreign Minister Marcelo Erbrad posted a picture of Morales onboard a Mexican air force plane, displaying a Mexican flag across his lap, as it departed La Paz Monday night.  “Your life and integrity are safe,” Erbrad tweeted. Ya despegó el avión de la Fuerza Aérea Mexicana con Evo Morales a bordo. De acuerdo a las convenciones internacionales vigentes está bajo la protección del de México. Su vida e integridad están a salvo. pic.twitter.com/qLUEfvciux— Marcelo Ebrard C. (@m_ebrard) November 12, 2019Morales requested asylum in Mexico hours after he abruptly resigned from office Sunday in the wake of mass protests over last month’s disputed presidential election, which ended with him being declared the winner after partial results had predicted he would face a December runoff against former President Carlos Mesa, his main rival.  Late Monday, Morales tweeted he was on his way to Mexico and was “grateful for the openness of these brothers who offered us asylum to protect our life. It hurts me to leave the country, for political reasons, but I will always be concerned. I will return soon, with more strength and energy.”The United States government is applauding the Morales’s resignation, rejecting assertions by several countries, including Mexico, that he was forced out by a coup.U.S. President Donald Trump, in a statement, called Morales’ departure “a significant moment for democracy in the Western Hemisphere. After nearly 14 years and his recent attempt to override the Bolivian constitution and the will of the people, Morales’s departure preserves democracy and paves the way for the Bolivian people to have their voices heard.”The White House statement adds that the events in Bolivia “send a strong signal to the illegitimate regimes in Venezuela and Nicaragua that democracy and the will of the people will always prevail. We are now one step closer to a completely democratic, prosperous, and free Western Hemisphere.”A senior State Department official told reporters on a conference call on Monday afternoon that Washington does not consider the resignation of Morales the result of a coup, but rather it is an expression of the Bolivian peopled fed up with government ignoring its will.“There were protesters from all walks on life,” said a senior administration official, denying that it was mainly the Bolivian middle class on the streets demanding Morales’ ouster. “It’s probably a little bit simplistic to boil this down to class or perhaps ethnicity in a complex set of circumstances.”A senior U.S. official added, that “there’s been too much violence on both sides.”Some of Morales’ ministers and senior officials who stepped down are also seeking refuge in the Mexican ambassador’s residence.At the request of a number of nations, including the United States, Brazil, Canada, Colombia and Peru, the Organization of American States on Tuesday afternoon is to hold a special meeting on the Bolivian situation.Morales stepped down Sunday, hours after he had accepted calls for a new election by an OAS team that found a “heap of observed irregularities” in the October 20 election.The delayed results of the balloting, which fueled suspicion of vote rigging, indicated Morales received just enough votes to avoid a runoff against a united opposition trying to prevent him from winning a fourth term.Morales, on Monday, called on the opposition to keep the peace.Mesa y Camacho, discriminadores y conspiradores, pasarán a la historia como racistas y golpistas. Que asuman su responsabilidad de pacificar al país y garanticen la estabilidad política y convivencia pacífica de nuestro pueblo. El mundo y bolivianos patriotas repudian el golpe— Evo Morales Ayma (@evoespueblo) November 11, 2019According to the Bolivian constitution, the vice president is next in line to take power when the president steps down. The head of the country’s Senate is third in line, but both of them, as well as a number of other top ministers, resigned shortly after Morales, leaving a power vacuum.Opposition leader Jeanine Anez said Sunday she would assume the interim presidency of Bolivia, but Congress must first be convened to vote her into power.The U.S. government is calling for Bolivia’s legislative assembly to quickly convene to accept Morales’ resignation and follow the constitution to fill the political vacuum.“What’s important is to reconstitute the civilian government,” said a senior State Department official.Morales, the first member of Bolivia’s indigenous population to become president, announced his resignation on television shortly after the country’s military chief, General Williams Kaliman, called on him to quit to allow the restoration of peace and stability.Carlos Mesa credits a popular uprising, not the military for forcing Morales to step aside.The military made a decision not to deploy in the streets because “they didn’t want to take lives,” according to Mesa.Some of Morales’s ministers and senior officials who stepped down are currently seeking refuge in the Mexican ambassador’s residence.A high profile freshman opposition member of the U.S. House is also rejecting the Trump administration’s characterization of events in Bolivia.“What’s happening right now in Bolivia isn’t democracy, it’s a coup,” tweeted Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Monday. “The people of Bolivia deserve free, fair, and peaceful elections – not violent seizures of power.”What’s happening right now in Bolivia isn’t democracy, it’s a coup.The people of Bolivia deserve free, fair, and peaceful elections – not violent seizures of power.— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) November 11, 2019
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Cuba is in party mode this week, despite tough economic times worsened by tighter U.S. sanctions, as it prepares for its first state visit by a Spanish king, to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the founding of Havana, the capital.Spain’s King Felipe and Queen Letizia arrived late on Monday for a three-day stay to commemorate the Cuban capital, founded by a Spanish conquistador on Nov. 16, 1519 and considered one of the architectural jewels of Latin America.The royal trip also underscores Europe’s rapprochement with Cuba’s Communist government, even as the United States doubles down on a decades-old policy of sanctions.Events to mark Havana’s anniversary include the inauguration of renovated landmarks, concerts, the illumination of city fortifications and a rare fireworks display over the Malecon seafront boulevard.”We Cubans like to party,” said trade union worker Miryelis Hernandez, 32. “Even if we are feeling low, we know we have to pick ourselves up, so it’s good Havana is celebrating its 500 years and there is a party.”The royal couple will tour Havana’s old historic center, a UNESCO World Heritage site boasting an eclectic mix of colonial, Art Deco and other styles that has been undergoing a slow facelift since the 1990s.A woman pulls towels off the line after they dried on the balcony of an old home, missing part of its roof, in Havana, Cuba, Nov. 10, 2019.Cuba focused more on building infrastructure in the impoverished countryside than on maintaining its cities in the early decades of Fidel Castro’s leftist 1959 revolution, allowing its punishing tropical climate to wreak havoc.”Havana luckily conserved its valuable architectural patrimony, unlike other Latin American cities that lost a good part of their historic centers’ patrimony due to real estate development,” said Cuban urban planning specialist Gina Rey.”But paradoxically this patrimony is very deteriorated, and (renovation) efforts have not been enough so far.”The only big recent changes to Havana’s urban landscape are the construction of a handful of hulking luxury hotels.Tourists sit on the terrace of newly opened Hotel Paseo del Prado in Havana, Cuba, Nov. 10, 2019.One of the main buildings on show for the celebrations will be the Capitol, a neoclassical gem built in 1929 and inspired by Washington’s Capitol.Reflecting a new geopolitical order, the gilded roof of its cupola was restored with the help of Russia.Just blocks away, though, are buildings that have collapsed or crumbling, such as the former Hotel Surf on the Malecon, clad in blue and salmon pink ceramic tiles and divided into apartments after the revolution.”It’s good they are doing restoration work,” said resident Mario Macias, pointing to rotten beams and holes in the ceiling where rain dripped through. “But maybe they should have started a long time ago.” 
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Brazil is considering joining the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA), a specialized agency within the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which could serve as a stepping stone to joining the rich-nations club, its head said.NEA director general William Magwood said the membership of the agency, which groups 33 countries with 85% of the world’s nuclear power capacity, is straightforward and based on mutual interest in sharing state-of-the-art nuclear technology.”Membership can happen very quickly and that means it is a very practical stepping stone towards OECD membership,” Magwood said in an interview on Friday.He said South Korea used that path in the 1970s and, more recently, Argentina joined the agency in 2017 with the intention that it would help its pending bid for OECD membership.”They are certainly talking about it, it is something the Brazilian government is looking at,” Magwood said at the end of a visit to Brazil during which he visited the country’s unfinished Angra 3 reactor.Brazil had expected to join the OECD quickly with the backing that U.S. President Donald Trump offered President Jair Bolsonaro in March, but in October Trump said Argentina had U.S. endorsement to join first, dashing Brazil’s hopes.Membership of the NEA largely overlaps with the OECD, except for three exceptions: Russia, Romania and Argentina.Small is GoodMagwood said Brazil was doing the right thing in completing its mothballed third nuclear reactor, Angra 3, on the coast south of Rio de Janeiro, despite the price tag to finish the job, estimated at some 15 billion reais ($3.7 billion).General view of Angra Nuclear Power Plant complex during a media tour in Angra dos Reis, Brazil, Aug. 1, 2019.Brazil’s state nuclear power company Eletronuclear is looking for a partner for Angra 3 and has narrowed the field to China’s National Nuclear Corp (CNNC), France’s EDF or Russia’s Rosatom.”It is such a huge investment that it makes sense to go ahead and finish that plant, but beyond that Brazil should start looking at new technologies,” Magwood said.Magwood said Brazil is right to plan new reactors because climate change concerns will demand cleaner energy for the future, while Brazilian authorities he spoke with said the country is reaching the limits of its hydroelectric potential.As the government studies plans to build more nuclear plants in Brazil’s northeast, it would do well to study small reactors that are cheaper and safer and can be built in larger numbers, he said.The first of these, made by NuScale Power LLC, majority-owned by Fluor, will be on the market next year. 
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Tens of thousands of people answered the call of nationalist groups Monday, marching in Warsaw to mark the country’s independence day.The marchers chanted “God, honor, homeland!” and “No to the European Union!” while holding aloft torches and setting off fireworks to blanket the area with a cloud of smoke in the national red and white colors.A smaller group of counter-protesters sang “Bella ciao,” an Italian anti-fascist resistance anthem.The independence day march has been growing in size since the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party came to power in 2015. PiS won a second term last month with 44% of the vote.The party has called for a revival of nationalist and Catholic values and a rejection of Western liberalism.  “We have to return to our roots. Our world has abandoned God and Christianity,” Robert Bakiewicz, one of the march organizers, told the crowds in central Warsaw. “We will die as the nations of western Europe are dying.”On November 11, Poles mark the end of World War I, which was also the end of 123 years of occupation by tsarist Russia, Prussia and the Austro-Hungarian empire. 
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The Ukrainian military and Russia-backed separatist rebels have completed a pullback of troops and weapons from an area in eastern Ukraine embroiled in a conflict that has killed more than 13,000 people, officials said Monday.The disengagement near Petrivske that began Saturday followed a recent similar withdrawal in another section of the frontline, where separatists and Ukrainian forces have been fighting since 2014. Ukraine’s military said Ukrainian forces completed the pullback in Petrivske at midday Monday.The disengagement of forces in eastern Ukraine was seen as a key step to pave the way for a summit of Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany on ending the conflict.Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed plans for holding the summit with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in a phone call Monday, according to the Kremlin.Putin’s foreign affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov, said the summit could be held before the year’s end but wouldn’t comment on a possible date.”The summit should produce new positive results,” Ushakov said at a briefing. “It’s necessary to take the first steps toward the implementation of the agreement reached in Minsk.”Germany and France sponsored a 2015 agreement signed in the Belarusian capital Minsk that envisaged broad autonomy for the separatist regions in eastern Ukraine and an amnesty for the rebels — provisions that were never implemented because they were resented by many in Ukraine. 
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Mexico has made an unspecified number of arrests over last week’s massacre of three women and six children of dual U.S-Mexican nationality in the north of the country, Security Minister Alfonso Durazo said on Monday.”There have been arrests, but it’s not up to us to give information,” Durazo told reporters in Mexico City.The women and children from families of U.S. Mormon origin who settled in Mexico decades ago were killed last Monday on a remote dirt road in the state of Sonora by suspected drug cartel gunmen, sparking outrage and condemnation in the United States.Durazo said that prosecutors in Sonora, as well as at the federal level, were in charge of the investigation.However, a spokeswoman for the state government of Sonora said: “We don’t have that information.”Mexico’s government has said it believes the victims were caught in the midst of a territorial dispute between an arm of the powerful Sinaloa Cartel and the rival Juarez Cartel.On Sunday, Mexico’s government said it had asked the FBI to participate in the investigation into the killings.
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The recent release from prison of former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and upsurge in political instability across Latin America will not hinder Brazil’s economic reform process, a senior Economy Ministry official said Monday.”I think, in fact, eventually you’ll have more debate about reform, which is good,” Treasury Secretary Mansueto Almeida told Reuters in Brasilia. “When you make changes to society based on proper debate, it’s good, because those changes are done with conviction.” FILE – Brazil’s Secretary of the Treasury Mansueto Almeida is seen during an event in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Aug. 8, 2019.Regarding Lula’s release last Friday after the Supreme Court overturned a previous ruling keeping people convicted of crimes in jail if they lose their first appeal, Almeida said Brazil should not be concerned about who the “political actors” are.”At the end of the day, I don’t think we need to be afraidof having a ‘politician A,’ ‘politician B,’ ‘politician C’ (released from jail),” Almeida said. “You have to put the debate to Congress and see how it evolves. If you convince the people and lawmakers, you make the changes. If not, you don’t. That’s democracy.”On Saturday, Lula gave a speech in which he strongly criticized Economy Minister Paulo Guedes and his economic views, while President Jair Bolsonaro and members of his cabinet took swipes back at the leftist former president.After approving a landmark pension reform bill that will save the public purse some 800 billion reais ($193 billion) over the next decade, Brazil’s Congress is set to debate other government proposals like tax reform and “administrative” reform.
 
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At the dawn of the 20th century, a railway was born. It connected Austria and Germany with a major port in the Adriatic Sea. The railway carried critical World War I supplies, but it fell out of favor by the 1940s. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi takes us on a coal-powered ride on a train that tourism may just save.
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Updated 2:40 p.m., Nov. 11, 2019Bolivia’s Evo Morales called on the opposition to keep the peace Monday as a deepening political crisis over his disputed reelection last month has led to his resignation.Morales resigned over the weekend after protests followed October elections, which granted him a fourth term; however, there were accusations of “irregularities.”According to the Bolivian constitution, the vice president is next in line to take power when the president steps down. The head of the country’s Senate is third in line, but both of them, as well as a number of other top ministers, resigned shortly after Morales, leaving a power vacuum in the South American country awaiting rescheduled elections.Opposition leader Jeanine Anez said Sunday she would assume the interim presidency of Bolivia, but Congress must first be convened to vote her into power.Morales sent a string of tweets lashing out at his opponents Monday, saying they had a “responsibility to pacify the country and guarantee the political stability and peaceful coexistence of our people.”Mesa y Camacho, discriminadores y conspiradores, pasarán a la historia como racistas y golpistas. Que asuman su responsabilidad de pacificar al país y garanticen la estabilidad política y convivencia pacífica de nuestro pueblo. El mundo y bolivianos patriotas repudian el golpe— Evo Morales Ayma (@evoespueblo) November 11, 2019Morales called his key opponents, Carlos Mesa and Luis Fernando Camacho, “discriminators and conspirators,” and also wrote that “violent groups” had attacked his home.A State Department official said the United States is monitoring the “unfolding events” in Bolivia, adding, “It is crucial that the constitutionally delineated civilian leadership maintain control during the transition.”Mexico has described the ouster of Morales as a military coup, and said Monday that it would offer Morales political asylum. Some of his ministers and senior officials who stepped down over the weekend are currently seeking refuge in the Mexican ambassador’s residence.Latin America’s longest-serving leader went into the election needing a 10 percentage-point lead to avoid a runoff and secure his fourth term in office in the October elections.Partial results released after the election had predicted Morales would face a December runoff election against his main rival, former President Carlos Mesa.Less than 24 hours later, the electoral commission released new numbers that showed with 95% of votes counted, Morales was just a 0.7 percentage point short of the 10 percentage-point mark.The announcement prompted opposition complaints of fraud, and triggered violent protests in several cities.
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This week, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visits Washington to meet President Donald Trump. The meeting is seen as an opportunity to reset relations that have been strained over numerous policy differences. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul.
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Only a few hundred people responded to the opposition’s call Sunday to protest in the streets of Haiti’s capital to continue pressuring President Jovenel Moise to step down.On previous Sundays, tens of thousands have filled Port-au-Prince streets from morning to sundown.  Much lower turnout for today’s anti-government protest in Port au Prince, #Haiti. The opposition blamed armed attacks against protesters, bribes of money and food and fear. But they vow to keep pressing the president to resign. pic.twitter.com/2uVAI8mCpd— Sandra Lemaire (@SandraDVOA) November 11, 2019Have the protests lost momentum? VOA Creole put the question to opposition leaders marching on Sunday.Sen. Ricard Pierre said he thinks bribes and fear were partly to blame for the small crowd. “A significant number of Bel Air residents have died — an area that heavily supports the efforts of the Alternative (opposition group). We have people hiding out in the poor neighborhoods because the government has threatened to kill them,” the senator told VOA Creole. “There have been efforts to distribute weapons to residents of the slums. They’ve been offered money, offered food. But despite the massacres endured by the poor people, there are some of them in the streets today fighting (for a better life).”VOA could not confirm the senator’s allegations.Downtown, evangelical pastor Prophete Mackenson Dorilas, who, perched atop a carnival-style truck had been surrounded by thousands of followers during October protests, was seen marching in the street with only a handful of protesters. He blamed fear and the absence of his truck for the low turnout.”The first truck we were offered, I turned down because it wasn’t what I requested. So, they said they would bring me another truck, and I’m still waiting. Some members of my church had intended to join the protest, but they heard the police was targeting protesters, so they ran away,” Dorilas told VOA Creole, adding that the people also need motivation.”The churchgoers don’t like to see me walking on the street. They like to see me up high,” he said.Also marching with about a dozen protesters was former Haitian Army Col. Himmler Rebu, who described his participation as the right thing to do.
“There are two efforts happening simultaneously. There are those (members of the opposition) who are in offices working on plans and strategy, and there are those who are accompanying the people marching in the streets. So today, that’s my job, ” he said.Up northEarly Sunday, tires were seen burning in the middle of a main road in the northern city of Cape Haitian. There were also roadblocks made of tree branches, rocks, metal and debris.Cape Haitian, #Haiti tires are burning as residents get ready for another day of anti-government protests. ?Yvan Martin Jasmin @VOAKreyolpic.twitter.com/rrN9ZKnL95— Sandra Lemaire (@SandraDVOA) November 10, 2019″These roadblocks are here because President Jovenel still refuses to resign. We will keep blocking the streets, and we will keep protesting until the president leaves,” a protester told VOA Creole.Opposition summitBack in the capital, members of the opposition spent the weekend meeting at the Marriott Hotel to discuss the transition process that would be activated if Moise were to resign.”We are in agreement on four aspects of the transition: governance, control, steps forward and duration,” announced opposition Sen. Youri Latortue, who heads the Haitian Senate’s Ethics and Anti-Corruption Committee. No further details were given.Senator Youri Latortue signs an agreement with leaders from the opposition, to choose an interim president in place of President Jovenel Moise.On the subject of who would replace Moise, the group decided that the choice would be made by a five-member committee comprised of a representative of each opposition group. The transitional president would be chosen among the Supreme Court judges. The committee would also choose a prime minister.”This is a historic event,” prominent businessman Gregory Brandt, who represented the private sector at the meeting, told VOA Creole. “The country has been suffering through a complicated situation for two months now. We aren’t selling merchandise, we aren’t receiving merchandise. Port-au-Prince is beginning to face a scarcity of basic goods. We’re facing an unprecedented humanitarian crisis, so we must sit down in all seriousness to discuss how we can resolve this crisis.”US aidLast week, Rob Thayer, director of USAID’s “Food for Peace” program, told VOA Creole the agency has earmarked 3,500 metric tons of emergency food aid for Haiti, which will be distributed to those in need.In addition to the food aid, the U.S. Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort has been docked off Haiti’s shores since Nov. 6 for a seven-day medical and humanitarian mission. According to the U.S. Embassy in Haiti, the ship’s staff has seen more patients per day in Haiti than on any other stop of their five-nation tour.What a week-end! We’re proud of the Comfort crew & their HAITIAN partners’ effort as they are seeing more patients at the clinic per day than they have on any other stop of the 5 months #EnduringPromise mission. – #AmbSisonpic.twitter.com/Jed9vSyGtg— U.S. Embassy Haiti (@USEmbassyHaiti) November 9, 2019U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo expressed concern about the situation in Haiti last week on Twitter.The #USNSComfort has arrived to provide much-needed medical services in Haiti. We call on all of Haiti’s leaders to come together to solve the ongoing political & economic gridlock through dialogue & institutions. We stand with all Haitians who peacefully call for accountability. pic.twitter.com/C2GTw3kgzS— Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) November 7, 2019″The #USNSComfort has arrived to provide much needed medical services in Haiti. We call on all of Haiti’s leaders to come together to solve the ongoing political & economic gridlock through dialogue & institutions. We stand with all Haitians who peacefully call for accountability,” Pompeo tweeted.President MoiseMeanwhile, Moise has been busy naming new cabinet ministers, meeting with members of the diplomatic corps, and giving interviews to the foreign press. He has also increased his visibility on the streets, in the national press and on social media.”Since my first day in office, I have always preached the same thing — togetherness, unity — because the country is tired,” Moise said during a Nov. 7 speech. “Our (nation’s) motto is Unity is Power. But unfortunately, this system (of government), the system that uses people, gives us a different motto which is, Divide and Conquer. Whenever a person wants to enrich himself, he pits us against each other. And when we’ve taken the bait and died in battle, who benefits? Not us.”FILE – Haitian President Jovenel Moise sits at the Presidential Palace during an interview, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Oct. 22, 2019.Early Sunday morning, before the anti-government protest began, Moise visited police stations in Carrefour and Petionville, his press secretary announced. According to a press statement received by VOA Creole early Monday morning, Moise sought to see the working conditions for the policemen and asked for a detailed report on the current status of affairs that will be used to “better address the needs of the agents of the PNH (National Police of Haiti).”Yvan Jasmin Martin in Cape Haitian, Renan Toussaint and Yves Manuel in Port-au-Prince and Ronald Cesar in Washington contributed to this report  
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A Russian court on Monday charged a distinguished historian known for re-enacting Napoleonic battle scenes with the murder of his partner after he was found in a river with a rucksack containing her severed arms.Oleg Sokolov, a 63-year-old history professor at St Petersburg State University confessed in court on Monday to shooting dead Anastasia Yeshchenko, a 24-year-old postgraduate, with a rifle.Sokolov told the court he had loved Yeshchenko and that they had been lovers for five years. But they argued over his children from another relationship and he had “lost control,” shooting her four times with a sawn-off rifle, he said.Russian historian and professor Oleg Sokolov, who is accused of murdering his girl friend and former student, is escorted inside a court building in Saint Petersburg, Russia, Nov. 11, 2019.“I repent,” he was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.Investigators suspect Sokolov, whose expertise on Napoleon Bonaparte earned him a Legion of Honor order of merit from France, of chopping his lover into pieces and of trying to dump them in the river to cover his tracks.He was hauled from the Moyka River on Saturday morning with a rucksack containing a gun that fires rubber bullets and the dismembered arms of a woman, Russia’s Investigative Committee, which handles major crimes, said in a statement.He was treated for hypothermia.Divers have been combing the river for Yeshchenko’s remains, but instead found the skeleton of a man, a find apparently unrelated to the historian’s case. Yeshchenko’s remains may have been swept out by currents into the Gulf of Finland, the search team was cited by the RIA news agency as saying.Sokolov appeared in court on Monday and was visibly upset, occasionally holding his head in his hands as he spoke to his lawyer.Sokolov’s lawyer Alexander Pochuyev said his client had probably been sober during the murder.The court ruled to hold Sokolov in pre-trial custody for two months.
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Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said on Monday that his government viewed
Sunday’s events in Bolivia as a “coup” because the Bolivian military had broken with the constitutional order by pressing the South American country’s president to step down.
 A broken portrait of former Bolivia’s President Evo Morales is on the floor of his private home in Cochabamba, Bolivia, after hooded opponents broke into the residence on Nov. 10, 2019.”It’s a coup because the army requested the resignation of the president, and that violates the constitutional order of that country,” Ebrard told reporters.
The minister was speaking at a regular government news conference after Evo Morales, Bolivia’s president since 2006, resigned under pressure from anger over his disputed re-election last month.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin is complaining to his cabinet that widescale corruption at Russia’s new space launch facility is continuing.The facility in the Far East, named Vostochny, is intended to reduce Russia’s reliance on the Baikonur launchpads in Kazakhstan, from which all manned space missions and many other major rockets set off. But construction of Vostochny has been plagued by corruption.“It’s been said 100 times: Work transparently, large amounts of money are allocated. … No, they’re stealing hundreds of millions,” Putin exclaimed with irritation at the Monday cabinet meeting.Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov later told reporters that about 11 billion rubles ($169 million) has been embezzled during Vostochny’s construction.   
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Bolivia entered a sudden era of political uncertainty on Monday as President Evo Morales, pushed by the military and weeks of massive protests, resigned after nearly 14 years in power and seemingly every person constitutionally in line for the job quit as well.
 
Crowds of jubilant foes of the socialist leader celebrated in the streets with honking horns and fireworks after Morales’s announcement Sunday, treating as a triumph of democracy the ouster of a man who pushed aside presidential term limits and claimed victory in a widely questioned October election.
 
“We are celebrating that Bolivia is free,” said one demonstrator near the presidential palace.
 
But others – including Morales himself – saw it as a return to the bleak era of coups d’etat overseen by Latin American militaries that long dominated the region. Morales stepped aside only after the military chief, Gen. Williams Kaliman, called for him to quit to allow the restoration of peace and stability.
 
Morales earlier in the day had already accepted calls for a new election by an Organization of American States team that found a “heap of observed irregularities” in the Oct. 20 election whose official result showed Morales getting just enough votes to avoid a runoff against a united opposition.
 
It wasn’t immediately clear who would succeed Morales, or how his successor would be chosen.
 
His vice president also resigned as did the Senate president, who was next in line. The only other official listed by the constitution as a successor, the head of the lower house, already had resigned.
 
There were no immediate signs that the military itself was maneuvering for power, but “I think we have to keep a close eye on what the military does over the next few hours,” said Jennifer Cyr, associate professor of political science and Latin American studies at the University of Arizona. “Are they overstepping their role?”
 
She said “the power vacuum opens up space for the military to potentially step in.”
 Bolivia’s President Evo Morales, center, speaks during a press conference at the military base in El Alto, Bolivia, Nov. 10, 2019.Morales was the first member of Bolivia’s indigenous population to become president and he brought unusual stability and economic progress, helping cut poverty and inequality in the impoverished nation, and he remains deeply popular among many Bolivians. Backers of the president have clashed with opposition demonstrators in disturbances that have followed the October vote.
 
After nightfall, there were reports of tensions in La Paz and the neighboring city of El Alto, with reports of looting and burning of public property and some houses.
 
The leadership crisis had escalated in the hours leading up Morales’ resignation. Two government ministers in charge of mines and hydrocarbons, the Chamber of Deputies president and three other pro-government legislators announced their resignations. Some said opposition supporters had threatened their families.
 
In addition, the head of Bolivia’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal, Maria Eugenia Choque, stepped down after the release of the OAS findings. The attorney general’s office said it would investigate the tribunal’s judges for possible fraud, and police later said Choque had been detained along with 37 other officials on suspicion of electoral crimes.
 
Morales, whose whereabouts were unknown, went on Twitter late Sunday to claim authorities were seeking to arrest him, but police Gen. Yuri Calderon denied any apprehension order had been issued for him.
 
In his tweet, Morales said: “I report to the world and Bolivian people that a police officer publicly announced that he has instructions to execute an unlawful apprehension order against me; in addition, violent groups also stormed my home.”
 Denuncio ante el mundo y pueblo boliviano que un oficial de la policía anunció públicamente que tiene instrucción de ejecutar una orden de aprehensión ilegal en contra de mi persona; asimismo, grupos violentos asaltaron mi domicilio. Los golpistas destruyen el Estado de Derecho.— Evo Morales Ayma (@evoespueblo) November 11, 2019Armed intruders did break into Morales’ home in Cochabamba.
 A broken portrait of former Bolivia’s President Evo Morales is on the floor of his private home in Cochabamba, Bolivia, after hooded opponents broke into the residence on Nov. 10, 2019.Mexico’s government reported Sunday night that 20 members of Bolivia’s executive and legislative branches were at the official Mexican residence in the capital seeking asylum.
 
Mexican Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard also said on Twitter that Mexico would offer asylum to Morales if should ask for it, though there was no indication he had.
 
Morales was elected in 2006 and went on to preside over a commodities-fed economic boom in South America’s poorest country. The combative former leader of a coca growers union paved roads, sent Bolivia’s first satellite into space and curbed inflation.
 
But even many backers eventually grew wary of his reluctance to leave power.
 
He ran for a fourth term after refusing to abide by the results of a referendum that upheld term limits for the president – restrictions thrown out by a top court critics claimed was stacked in his favor.
 
After the Oct. 20 vote, Morales declared himself the outright winner even before official results indicated he obtained just enough support to avoid a runoff with opposition leader and former President Carlos Mesa. A 24-hour lapse in releasing results fueled suspicions of vote-rigging.
 
The government accepted an OAS team sent to look into the election, and that group called for a new contest with a new electoral tribunal.
 
“Mindful of the heap of observed irregularities, it’s not possible to guarantee the integrity of the numbers and give certainty of the results,” the OAS said in a statement.
 
The U.S. State Department issued a statement calling for the OAS to send a mission to Bolivia to oversee the electoral process. “The Bolivian people deserve free and fair elections,” it said.
 The U.S. commends the work of @OAS_official technical team in #Bolivia, which determined new elections and a new Electoral Tribunal are needed. We recommend the OAS continue its good work by collaborating on a new electoral process that reflects the will of the Bolivian people. pic.twitter.com/Q0EfGriCcj— Morgan Ortagus (@statedeptspox) November 10, 2019The state news agency ABI said Morales announced his resignation from Chapare province, where he began his career as a union leader. At the end of his speech, he said he was returning to Chapare.
 
“I return to my people who never left me. The fight goes on,” he said.
  
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Cambodian opposition leader Kem Sokha met the French ambassador on Monday after his house arrest was lifted, although he remains charged with treason and is banned from politics and leaving the country.Sokha greeted Ambassador Eva Nguyen Binh outside his home before going inside for talks. They made no statement after the meeting.Sokha’s house arrest was lifted as the European Union considers whether to cut preferential trade terms with Cambodia after a crackdown by Prime Minister Hun Sen, who has ruled with an iron grip for more than three decades.It also came days after self-exiled opposition party founder Sam Rainsy increased public scrutiny on Hun Sen in a high-profile return to the region from Paris. He had said he would go to Cambodia despite facing arrest on a criminal defamation conviction, but stopped in Malaysia, where he said he was rallying support.Cambodian authorities have arrested about 50 of Sokha’s banned opposition party supporters and other activists this year, accusing them of plotting a coup to overthrow Hun Sen.Sokha, 66, was arrested in 2017 and his Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) was dissolved by the Supreme Court in the run-up to last year’s general election.Hun Sen’s ruling party went on to win every seat in parliament in the vote.”As an innocent person who has been jailed for two years, I continue to demand that the charges against me be dropped,” Sokha said in a Facebook post on Sunday after house arrest was lifted.”I expect today’s decision to be the first step, but I, as well as many other Cambodians who have lost political freedom, still need real solutions and justice.”Sokha was accused of plotting with foreigners to oust Hun Sen – a charge he dismissed as nonsense.The Phnom Penh Municipal Court said in a statement that Kem Sokha could leave his house, but that he could not engage in political activity or leave the country.The crackdown on Cambodia’s opposition prompted the European Union to reconsider trade preferences granted under an “Everything But Arms (EBA) trade program for least-developed countries.It is due to receive a preliminary determination on Tuesday on the EBA and Cambodia’s human rights situation.The EU accounts for more than one-third of Cambodia’s exports, including garments, footwear and bicycles.
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