Authorities in Haiti said late Friday they are investigating allegations that a group of male inmates raped 10 women in a makeshift jail in the northern city of Gonaives.Prosecutor Serard Gazius told The Associated Press that more than 50 men broke out of their cells last week and overpowered police officers guarding the inmates, adding that an unknown number of them are suspected of raping 10 of 12 women being held in the same facility but in separate cells.He said the male and female inmates were being held in a former United Nations facility because the original prison was destroyed years ago and a new one hasn’t been built. Gazius said the women were scared and have yet to identify the suspects, adding that they have received medical care.Gazius said the women were being held on charges ranging from robberies to attempted murder. None of them have been convicted.Jean Castro Previl, head of the Artibonite police department, declined to comment and referred all questions to Gazius.All 340 detainees have been transferred to other facilities as authorities continue the investigation, with Gazius adding that violent protests that began more than two months ago seeking the president’s resignation are making it difficult to prosecute suspects because some courts have been shuttered, along with many schools and businesses.A human rights group known as the Defenders Plus Collective denounced the alleged rapes and called on the government to prosecute the suspects and do more to protect women and girls across Haiti as violence and political turmoil worsen.“With the chaotic situation that Haiti’s population is facing, armed gangs have taken advantage and multiplied and acted with impunity and tranquility under the passive gaze of state authorities,” the organization said in a statement.
 
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Five supporters of former president Evo Morales were killed Friday in violent clashes between protesters and security forces in Bolivia, according to an AFP correspondent who saw the bodies at a hospital.Authorities did not report any deaths in the riots outside Cochabamba, though it said 100 people were detained. Media reports said eight were wounded.Clashes had broken out Friday in the suburbs of Cochabamba, where thousands of coca growers were trying to reach the city center 11 miles (18 kilometers) away to join a protest against interim leader Jeanine Anez.But they were blocked by police, who stopped them from crossing a bridge.Injured demonstrators inside an ambulance in Sacaba, on the outskirts of Cochabamba, Bolivia, Nov. 15, 2019.The protesters carried “weapons, guns, Molotov cocktails, homemade bazookas and explosive devices,” Cochabamba police commander Colonel Jamie Zurita said.”They used dynamite and deadly weapons like the Mauser 765 (rifle). Neither the armed forces nor the police are equipped with such a caliber, I am worried,” he said.The crowd was dispersed after dark by riot police, who were supported by the army and a helicopter.Morales resigned and fled to Mexico after losing the support of Bolivia’s security forces following weeks of protests over his disputed Oct. 20 reelection.With the five protesters killed Friday, the death toll from the unrest rises to 15 with more than 400 wounded.
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Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has seen an ally forced from office and protests rattle leaders across Latin America in recent weeks, while he has enjoyed a period of relatively smooth sailing, expounding his socialist dream in nightly television addresses and attending international conferences. But opposition leader Juan Guaido is determined to disturb Maduro’s comfort, and has called on Venezuelans across the crisis-torn nation to flood the streets Saturday for protests nearly a year after he launched his campaign to push Maduro from power. We don't have a choice,'' Guaido told a rally this week, saying the circumstances were dire.The alternative for this situation today is death. We want to live.” Test of his appealGuaido’s renewed call will test his ability to draw out masses, despite shrinking crowds rallying around him in recent months in a sign of disillusionment. Geoff Ramsey, a Venezuela researcher at the Washington Office on Latin America think tank, said a lot of people will be watching closely to gauge Guaido’s ability to inspire, especially at home in Venezuela. Guaido is under increasing pressure from within his coalition to present a realistic path forward,'' Ramsey said.There’s a lot riding on this.” A woman cries in front of soldiers guarding a street during a march of supporters of former President Evo Morales in downtown La Paz, Bolivia, Nov. 15, 2019.Guaido’s call for renewed protests in Venezuela came as political turmoil embroils governments across the region, from Chile to Ecuador to Bolivia, forcing presidents into concessions and even contributing to one’s departure. Bolivia’s President Evo Morales abruptly resigned and fled into exile in Mexico. While all this happened, Maduro traveled to Azerbaijan for an international conference and even enjoyed a small bump in crude production after years of crashing levels and bad news for the oil-rich nation. Assumption of powerGuaido, 36, leaped to the center of Venezuela’s political fray when the opposition-led National Assembly appointed him as its leader. On Jan. 23, he declared that he was assuming presidential powers. He vowed to remove Maduro and hold new elections. The United States was first among a steadily growing list of more than 50 nations and international bodies to endorse Guaido. They say Maduro clings to power following a sham election in 2018. They accuse him of human rights violations and failed economic policies that have bankrupted Venezuela. That nation sits atop the world’s largest oil reserves, but production has been down for two decades. Production made a rare uptick in October, according to OPEC figures, showing the first increase in six months. Still, oil pumping is at the same level Venezuela last produced in 1944. FILE – People shout slogans against Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro during a blackout in Caracas, March 9, 2019.Most Venezuelans earn minimum wage, which equals less than $15 a month, and inflation this year is estimated to hit 200,000%. Millions live with unreliable water supplies and constant power outages, and drivers wait in mile-long lines to gas up their cars. Guaido has held numerous events in recent days, reminding residents that these conditions aren’t normal. He’s visited neighborhoods and talked with university students, urging their return to the street. The opposition published Wakeup Venezuela!'' videos on social media promoting the march. Guaido rejected claims that disillusionment will prevent Venezuelans from heeding his call come Saturday, saying he's defied doubters before. Nobody believed in Venezuela on the 23rd of January,” Guaido told The Associated Press. Today, Venezuela is even clearer about its future.'' U.S. supportJames Story, charge d' affaires for the Venezuela Affairs Unit of the U.S. Embassy in Bogota, Colombia, said Friday that officials knew going in that forcing Maduro from power would not quick or easy. But he said Guaido continues to have unwavering support from the U.S., the international community and, more important, from Venezuelans. When he travels throughout the country, the people always respond,” Story said in conference call with reporters. He's going to get the same kind of response tomorrow.'' Bolivia's crisis is likely serving as a case study for both Maduro and Guaido, analysts say. Morales, a longtime socialist ally of Maduro, fled to exile in Mexico when a generalsuggested” he step down, after irregularities in the election that he claimed gave him a fourth term. However, Maduro has diligently cultivated Venezuela’s generals, who have remained loyal, even as Guaido early in the campaign pushed to flip the soldiers against Maduro and later mounted a failed military uprising. The government plans to counter Saturday’s opposition demonstration. The socialist party has called its own rival rally. Maduro beefed up security, ordering civilian militias to patrol the streets. Police clashed with students at a Caracas university following a speech by Guaido. Dozens of students offered the police white roses and urged them to abandon Maduro. The students then tried to charge the police line and threw rocks, drawing pepper spray and tear gas in return. Exiting a Caracas subway, shop owner Jose Buitrago, 53, said he’s fed up watching relatives leave Venezuela. He complained of living with a painful hernia while the broken health care system deprives him of a simple operation. “The time has come for us to go out to fight, because this can’t stand anymore,” said Buitrago, who plans to protest on Saturday and said he hoped other Venezuelans would join him. 
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The International Organization for Migration said Friday that 2019 might be the deadliest year for migrant deaths in the Americas since it began keeping records six years ago. The U.N. agency said 695 people have died this year while making the treacherous journey across the central Mediterranean Sea, the world’s deadliest migrant corridor. It said that’s one-sixth the number of deaths recorded in 2016, when fatalities reached an all-time high of nearly 4,200 on the route. But IOM spokesman Joel Millman said the Mediterranean route figure for 2019 was barely larger than the 634 migrant deaths recorded in the Americas.   
 
“We have never seen anything like that before, where the principal migration routes that link Latin America to North America are now, this year, virtually as deadly as the central Mediterranean route has been for the last six years,” he said. Venezuelan exodusMillman attributed the surprising rise to the mass movement of refugees and migrants from Venezuela. He told VOA that more than 4 million Venezuelans had fled the country over the past two years. He said such a large volume of people on the move creates conditions that will result in more fatalities.   
 
“The place we have seen it worst of all is the Caribbean, where we know 157 deaths at sea,” he said. “Last year at this time, there were 24. So we are talking about more than six times the volume of sea deaths. And I know that the majority of deaths in the Caribbean are Venezuelan migrants and refugees trying to get to the Caribbean islands.”   
 
Millman said the nationalities of 227 people who died while heading toward the United States were unknown. He noted that Latin American migrants from countries such as Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and Ecuador accounted for the largest number of fatalities after Venezuela. 
 
Included in this year’s statistics were the deaths of six migrants from Cameroon. Millman said three Cameroonians drowned off the Pacific coast of Chiapas, Mexico, in the last few weeks and one man died while in the custody of U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents in California. 
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Protests have roiled Bolivia for about three weeks, leading to the ouster of Evo Morales as president.Increasingly, journalists are becoming targets of harassment, censorship and personal attacks by citizens from across the political spectrum, as well as the government. Some newspapers have suspended printing, and broadcast news outlets have gone dark, creating confusion and misinformation.According to the National Press Association in Bolivia, violence against journalists stems from political instability, among other reasons. However, public distrust of reporters has existed for years.The association has registered 64 attacks on journalists and 12 on media outlets this year in the cities of La Paz, El Alto, Oruro, Cochabamba and Santa Cruz.FILE – Journalists are seen during a protest in La Paz, Bolivia, Oct. 24, 2019.The newspaper Los Tiempos in Cochabamba said it decided to cancel its paper edition after its journalists were constantly threatened.”Due to threats of attacks and looting by groups related to the Socialist Movement against Los Tiempos, the print edition will not circulate tomorrow. We will keep our readers informed through our website and official social media accounts. Thank you for your understanding,” a statement said.’Victims of aggression’Since disputed presidential elections in October and the resignation of Morales — currently in exile in Mexico — Bolivia is in a restive state. Daily clashes between supporters and opponents of Morales have made work difficult for journalists.”We have deeply regretted the fact that … journalists, reporters, cameramen in Bolivia, have become victims of aggression,” stated Frank Chavez, executive director of the National Press Association.FILE – Bolivia’s President Evo Morales speaks during a press conference at the government palace in La Paz, Bolivia, April 17, 2017.State news outlets such as Bolivia TV and Radio Patria have stopped broadcasting regular programming since Nov. 9, due to the constant threats of people opposed to former President Morales.In one reported incident, hundreds of people protested outside a state-run radio station and forced 40 employees to leave the building. Station director Jose Aramayo was tied to a tree after hundreds of people forcibly removed him.International organizations such as the Committee to Protect Journalists, or CPJ, are expressing concern over reports of physical attacks against journalists from protesters and government forces.”We have seen incidents by the police assaulting journalists, also of the protesters preventing journalists from entering a place, or shouting at journalists, telling them that they are liars, that they will not cover events with objectivity,” Natalie Southwick, coordinator for Central and South America at CPJ, told Voice of America.”There is a very worrying possibility of self-censorship that journalists are not going to report on certain communities or certain issues out of fear.”One reporter’s experienceMiriam Jemio has worked as a reporter in Bolivia for more than 25 years. She told VOA that recently, for the first time ever, she was attacked while doing her work.”I was on my way to an event with former President Evo Morales before his resignation and there was a group of protesters on the street. I took my camera and started recording, and when I was getting closer to the group a woman told me not to record and asked me to give her my phone.”Jemio said the protesters started pushing her, broke her selfie stick and almost stole her phone until another person told the group to stop.”They are equally aggressive on both sides. The worst thing is that they tell us from both sides that we are infiltrators and liars.”She said that every day she covers a story or tries to do an interview, she encounters people who don’t trust her work. Yet, despite these challenges, Jemio said she still thinks it’s possible — though increasingly difficult — to do her job.
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U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ office announced that a special envoy would be sent to Bolivia to support a “peaceful resolution” to its current crisis after military leaders called on the Bolivian president to resign over election irregularities. Former U.N. special envoy to Colombia Jean Arnault will act as the U.N. envoy to Bolivia to engage with “all Bolivian actors,” and attempt to support peaceful elections in the country.Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for Guterres, announced that “the secretary-general remains deeply concerned about developments in Bolivia. He reiterates his appeal to all Bolivians to refrain from violence and exercise utmost restraint.”FILE – Jean Arnault, then the the U.N. secretary-general’s special representative for Colombia, speaks in Funza, Colombia, Sept. 22, 2017.Former President Evo Morales served as president of the South American nation for 14 years. He was the country’s first indigenous president in modern history and leader of the ruling Movement Toward Socialism Party (MAS).  After Morales’ government failed to remove constitutional restrictions on serving a fourth term, MAS appealed to Bolivia’s courts to allow the president to run again. The Organization of American States (OAS) declared there were election irregularities in the October presidential election to protect Morales from having a runoff vote. Opposition leaders called for boycotts and protests in reaction to the news. Morales also faced growing pressure from the OAS, the European Union, the United States and a handful of Latin American countries to hold new elections. After Morales announced Saturday that he would hold new presidential elections, the Bolivian military joined opposition leaders and protesters in calling for his removal. Morales resigned Sunday at the suggestion of his country’s military chief. Interim leaderSenator Jeanine Añez was the second vice president of the Senate and declared the highest-ranking official remaining in the line of succession when Morales’ MAS allies resigned en masse after the president’s resignation. Añez has promised to hold new elections within 90 days, as required by the Bolivian Constitution. The United States, Brazil, Colombia, Britain and Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido have recognized Añez as interim president.The governments of Cuba, Mexico, Nicaragua, Uruguay and the Maduro government in Venezuela have denounced Morales’ resignation and Añez’s inauguration as a coup.Russia, an important ally of Morales, said on Thursday it was ready to work with Añez. Despite its readiness to work with the interim president, Russia noted she had come to power without having a full quorum in the legislature.Morales also has called recent events a coup, tweeting “the coup that causes deaths of my Bolivian brothers is a political and economic conspiracy that comes from the U.S.”A supporter of former Bolivian President Evo Morales reacts during a protest, in La Paz, Bolivia, Nov. 14, 2019.Many are concerned about the interim president’s comments on Bolivia’s indigenous community. In 2013, then-Senator Añez tweeted that an indigenous ritual of the Aymara people was “satanic.” Morales is an Aymaran, and the Andean Earth Mother Pachamama featured prominently in his speeches and policies. Añez announced she would be bringing the Bible back to Bolivia’s government palace in a speech, while holding a massive Bible. Under Morales, a new Constitution was approved by a 2009 referendum that removed Catholicism as Bolivia’s state religion.Asylum in MexicoMorales and some of his allies have been granted asylum in Mexico for their safety. Morales claimed in an interview with Spanish daily El Pais published on Wednesday that he was still legally president because his resignation had not yet been accepted by the legislature. MAS members control the majority of the legislature and do not recognize Añez as interim president. Añez said on Thursday that Morales would not be able to take part in upcoming elections because he is barred from running for a fourth consecutive term.The secretary-general’s office announced it would support all efforts for a “peaceful resolution to the crisis, including through transparent, inclusive and credible elections.”
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Chile braced for another day of intense protests on Thursday, with demonstrators gathering around the country to mark one year since a young indigenous man was shot dead by police in circumstances that are still under investigation.According to fliers circulating on social media, 18 protests are planned for urban centers around Chile in the late afternoon, with more planned outside Chilean embassies abroad.The father of Camilo Catrillanca, a Mapuche man from the southern Araucania region which has long been in conflict with the state, appealed to people to demonstrate “calmly.””We don’t want to mourn the death of any young person, whether Mapuche or from elsewhere, because for us it would be to relive the pain again,” he told local radio station Cooperativa.Camilo Catrillanca, the grandson of an indigenous leader, was shot in the head in November 2018 in a police operation in a rural community near the town of Ercilla, 480 miles (772 km) south of Santiago.The incident — and subsequent accusations of cover-up — triggered huge protests throughout Chile. Four police offers are due to go on trial on charges of homicide and obstruction of justice later this month.Thursday’s planned protests follow on from four weeks of intense unrest that started over a hike in public transport fares but have broadened to encompass grievances over low wages, the high cost of living and social inequality.President Sebastian Pinera announced a state of emergency as violent riots took hold, then a costly new social plan. He reshuffled his government and appealed for Chileans to subscribe to national accords around justice, equality and peace.Yet still, the protests continue, so far leaving 24 people dead, more than 7,000 arrested, 2,800 police and civilians injured and millions of dollars of damage done to property in looting and arson attacks, according to the government and rights group.The police have come under fire for their handling of the demonstrations, with medical experts saying that more than 200 protesters have suffered eye injuries or been blinded by tear gas canisters and rubber bullets. This week, the police chief said he would fit firearms officers with surveillance cameras and deploy more human rights experts.Ana Piquer, the executive director of Amnesty International Chile, said Pinera should respond to the many complaints of police excesses.”We don’t want to see any more victims of police violence anywhere in Chile, killed or seriously injured simply for raising their voice on social demands,” she said.Kattya Barrera, 19, a resident of Santiago’s low-income La Florida neighborhood preparing to join Thursday’s protests, said she believed nothing had changed since Catrillanca’s death.”When someone goes out to demonstrate, they take out their eyes,” she said. “Today isn’t just about Catrillanca, it’s for everyone.”
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Bolivian interim President Jeanine Anez said on Thursday former President Evo Morales will not be able to take part in upcoming elections because he is barred from running for a fourth consecutive term.Addressing a news conference, Anez added that Morales’ vice president, Alvaro Garcia, would also not be allowed to run for president.Both resigned after a damning audit on vote irregularities was released and a “suggestion” by the military to do so to end unrest after the disputed Oct. 20 election. Morales later went into exile in Mexico.Anez did not announce a new date for elections but under the constitution must call for them within 90 days of her taking office on Tuesday.
 
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Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel is making his first trip to the town of Caimanera, the closest point in Cuba to the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay.Diaz-Canel arrived in the town of about 10,000 people Thursday morning for a series of meetings with local officials.He began with a visit to a newly renovated 3D movie hall.Diaz-Canel assumed power in April 2018 and has made several dozen similar trips around Cuba to check on public services and infrastructure, accompanied by Cuba’s state-run media. Some international media were invited to cover the trip in an unusual widening of access to Diaz-Canel, who has had virtually no interactions with the foreign press since becoming president. 
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Fresh protests erupted Wednesday in Bolivia just hours after opposition Sen. Jeanine Áñez was sworn in as interim president. The United States recognized Áñez as Bolivia’s temporary president. The country’s longtime leader, Evo Morales, said he was removed by a coup and that he would continue to fight. He spoke from Mexico where he was granted asylum. The leftist leader resigned  Sunday after weeks of protests over a disputed presidential election result. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports Morales still has supporters in his country, especially among indigenous Bolivians.
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The political crisis in Bolivia — where roiling street protests amid accusations of election fraud forced the resignation of longtime President Evo Morales this week — is exposing long-held differences within Russia’s own political system, with pro-Kremlin and opposition voices splitting along familiar dividing lines.As the events in La Paz unfolded, Russia’s Foreign Ministry was quick to express support for Morales, a Kremlin ally who has paid repeated visits to Moscow, most recently in July to expand economic ties.In a statement posted to its website, the ministry condemned violence “unleashed by the opposition” and blamed it for preventing Morales from “completing his tenure” amid “developments typical of a well-orchestrated coup d’etat.” “It would be foolish to expect another reaction — it’s absolutely the consolidated position from the Russian side,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, when asked by journalists about the Foreign Ministry’s assessment.“Of course, we hope that Bolivians themselves will determine their fate without the interference of any third countries,” he said.Opponents of Bolivia’s President Evo Morales celebrate after he announced his resignation in La Paz, Bolivia, Nov. 10, 2019.Pro-Kremlin media outlets quickly picked up on the hint, noting that the United States included Bolivia, along with Venezuela and Cuba, as Latin American dictatorships.“The most logical version — a virtuosically prepared and executed coup by the United States, which is traditionally masked by slogans about democracy and human rights,” wrote Igor Pshenichnikov in a column explaining the events in Bolivia in the weekly Izvestia.“And now the time has come for the president and his country to experience for itself the might of American democracy,” he said.Collectively, the arguments were reminiscent of Russia’s position relative to neighboring Ukraine, where Moscow has long maintained that a 2014 pro-Western street revolution that drove another Kremlin ally — then-President Viktor Yanukovich — from power also was the work of the United States.As if to emphasize the Ukraine comparisons, pro-Russian separatists in east Ukraine’s official Twitter account condemned the events in La Paz as a “fascist junta.” It’s another talking point widely used by Kremlin state media beginning in 2014 to denigrate Ukraine’s so-called “Maidan Revolution.”FILE – Police officers detain opposition supporters during a protest in Moscow, May 5, 2018. The posters read “I am against corruption.”Other viewsRussian opposition voices saw the events in La Paz, however, in an entirely different light — underlining Russia’s own fractured political environment.Proekt, an online investigative outlet funded by Kremlin foe and businessman Mikhail Khodorkvosky, issued a story reporting it was in fact Russia — driven by economic interests of its oil, gas and energy industries — that had played a key role in Morales’ reelection campaign.In turn, opposition figures were quick to note Russian President Vladimir Putin, like the now former Bolivian leader, also has stretched constitutional norms by serving an unprecedented fourth term in office and soon will face similar questions of if and whether to remain in power.“A corrupt president, unlawfully holding on to power at the expense of lies and falsification, has run from his country,” wrote Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny in posting a picture of Morales and Putin together on Twitter.Коррумпированный президент, незаконно удерживавший власть за счёт лжи и фальсификаций, сбежал из страны. Пока речь идёт о том, что слева. pic.twitter.com/1Wmr38cu5t— Alexey Navalny (@navalny) November 10, 2019“For now, that means only the guy on the left,” Navalny said, in referring to Morales.“Oh, what’s this?” chimed in Navalny’s key strategist, Leonid Volkov, in a similarly themed post.Ой что это?После фальсифицированных выборов люди вышли на улицу и полоумный престарелый диктатор, нарушивший конституционные ограничения на количество сроков, вынужден был уйти в отставку.Ух как хочется, как в Боливии! pic.twitter.com/J79tXbpyyG— Leonid Volkov (@leonidvolkov) November 10, 2019“After falsified elections, people went out on the streets and a crackpot old dictator, having broken the constitutional limit on number of terms, was forced to resign,” Volkov wrote. “Oh, how I would love for us to be like Bolivia!”In a column in business daily Vedomosti, however, political analyst Fyodor Krasheninnikov warned that events in faraway Bolivia could negatively affect politics at home — particularly in the wake of a summer of rolling protests in Moscow and other cities over the banning of opposition candidates from elections.“After Bolivia, all talk about how Russia could have some competitive elections and some softening of the regime amid a future transfer of power should be taken with even more skepticism,” Krasheninnikov wrote. His point? As with Ukraine in 2014, the events in Bolivia have made an impression in Moscow. Perhaps too big of one.The Kremlin has taken note.
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Funding of $1.35 billion will be needed to provide health care, education, nutrition and other services to Venezuelan migrants and to help their hosts in 2020, nongovernmental organizations said Wednesday. 
 
The request for increased donations from countries around the world was the most recent of repeated appeals for help for the 4.6 million Venezuelans who have fled shortages of food and medicine in their homeland in recent years. 
 
The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Organization for Migration said they would start a fundraising effort for next year for projects aimed at migrants and host communities in 17 countries. Syrian crisis ‘much closer’
 
For European donors, the needs of Venezuelans seem very far away, Eduardo Stein, joint special representative of the UNHCR and IOM for Venezuelan refugees and migrants, told Reuters. 
 
“The Syrian crisis is much more immediate for Europe. It is much closer than the Venezuelan crisis for them,” Stein said. 
 
Aid needs are growing not just because there are increasing numbers of migrants, he added, but because conditions in Venezuela continue to worsen. 
 
In a statement earlier Wednesday Stein said international contributions needed to be doubled. 
 
Colombia has borne the brunt of the exodus. It is now home to more than 1.4 million Venezuelans, many of whom arrived with little money and in desperate need of basic services. Sharp increase expected
 
The number of Venezuelan migrants in Colombia is going to sharply increase next year, the organizations said, to 2.4 million, in tandem with a possible increase of total Venezuelan migrants to 6.5 million by the end of 2020. 
 
Colombia has repeatedly lamented a lack of funding for Venezuelans, saying other humanitarian crises in Syria, South Sudan and Myanmar have received many times more in donations. 
 
Care for migrants costs Colombia around half a percentage point of its gross domestic product, or about $1.5 billion, annually. The United Nations had called for global donations of $315 million in 2019 to help Colombia cope with the influx, but donations have fallen far short of the target. 
 
Unlike its neighbors, Colombia has not imposed stringent immigration requirements on Venezuelans, instead encouraging migrants who entered the country informally to register with authorities so they can have access to social services. 
 
Colombia has also said it will give citizenship to more than 24,000 children born to Venezuelan parents to prevent them from being stateless. 
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Backers of Venezuela’s opposition leader Juan Guaido left the country’s embassy in Brasilia on Wednesday, after a tense 11-hour standoff that created a diplomatic embarrassment for Brazil’s right wing government.Brazil’s foreign ministry said a diplomat it sent to mediate a peaceful end to the dispute managed to convince the group of 10 people to leave the mission.Representatives of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro later regained access to the building, creating a tricky situation for Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro, who has recognized Guaido as the legitimate leader of Venezuela.The incident caused scuffles outside the embassy in an embarrassment for Brazil’s government as it hosts the BRICS summit of major emerging economies in the capital on Wednesday and Thursday. Leaders Xi Jinping of China and Vladimir Putin of Russia, who support Maduro, attended the event.Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza said on Twitter the “violent” occupation had ended peacefully, thanks to the intervention of the Brazilian authorities.Supporters of Venezuela’s opposition leader Juan Guaido record a video from the grounds of the Venezuelan embassy in Brasilia, Brazil, Nov. 13, 2019.Members of the Guaido group said embassy staff had allowed them to enter the embassy in the morning and that they did so peacefully.Guaido’s envoy in Brazil, Maria Teresa Belandria, has not been able to access the embassy since she arrived 10 months ago and has been living and working out of a Brasilia hotel.Crowds of Brazilians who gathered outside the embassy to support the rival claims of Maduro and Guaido traded insults and some came to blows before police could separate them.”The Brazilian government ordered us to leave our country’s embassy and we were escorted out by the back door like delinquents,” Venezuelan Army Mayor Jose Gregorio, who deserted to Brazil this year, said by telephone after leaving the embassy.Venezuelan embassies around the world have become flash points for the competing claims of Guaido, the head of country’s National Assembly, and Maduro, a socialist who took over from late President Hugo Chavez in 2013.Earlier this year, Guaido invoked constitutional provisions to assume an interim presidency, arguing that Maduro’s re-election last year was fraudulent. He has since been recognized by most Western nations as the rightful leader of Venezuela.An occupation by protesters at the Venezuelan embassy in Washington in May resulted in arrests before the building was returned to Guaido’s representatives, who are recognized by the United States.
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Chile’s central bank on Wednesday announced a $4 billion injection to stop a currency slide that saw the peso reach historic lows on two successive days. 
 
The peso fell to 795 to the dollar at the close Wednesday after a previous record low of 783 on Tuesday. 
 
The bank said it had taken the measure to “mitigate eventual tensions” in the financial markets. 
 
It expressed fear that the combination of social unrest and a lack of cash flow at the end of the year would see the currency fall even further. 
 
The foreign currency injection will be done in the form of 30- and 90-day tenders for futures between November 14 and January 9. 
 
The peso’s previous record low was 761 to the dollar in October 2002. 
 
The peso has been hit hard by nearly four weeks of protests against the economic policies of right-wing President Sebastian Pinera. 
 
Pinera has announced a raft of measures to pacify demonstrators angry at social and economic inequality, but many are demanding the president stand down. 
 
The fall in the currency has raised fears that inflation will increase and GDP growth will slow. 
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What a difference a year makes.In the months before last year’s presidential election in Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro described China as predatory and thumbed his nose at the Chinese government by visiting Taiwan, Beijing’s archrival.Now, as a more pragmatic president, Bolsonaro welcomed Chinese President Xi Jinping to an international summit that begins Wednesday in Brasilia, the capital.The first item on the agenda for Bolsonaro, a far-right leader who has sometimes tried to hang the communist label on his political rivals in Brazil, is a bilateral meeting with Xi.He received Xi at the foreign relations ministry with smiles and handshakes, and the two signed a handful of memoranda. It’s a sign of how Bolsonaro views China as critical to his ambitions to rejuvenate Brazil’s sluggish economy.“China is an ever greater part of Brazil’s future,” Bolsonaro said in speech after the two leaders met, adding his government will devote due care, respect and consideration to China.Gone is last year’s fiery campaign trail rhetoric about China being a rapacious power intent on exploiting Brazilian resources.China is, after all, Brazil’s biggest trading partner.As China expanded rapidly in the 2000s, eventually becoming the world’s second largest economy, it relied on commodities from producers. Brazil, Latin America’s largest economy, shipped soybeans, iron ore and crude to satisfy China’s expanding appetite. Those three products account for more than 80% of Brazil’s exports to China.Bolsonaro said his government wants to diversify exports to China, and welcomed a signal from China’s government that it wants to help Brazil add value to output.Xi’s visit for a meeting of leaders of the BRICS emerging economies — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — is his first to Brazil since 2014.But his relationship with Bolsonaro already has been blossoming.Just last month, Bolsonaro traveled to Beijing for economic and other accords, including the exemption of Chinese nationals from Brazil visa requirements. Xi received him at his car and they walked side-by-side on a long, red carpet.“Bolsonaro discovered how important China is to Brazil and that he can do business with China. And he’s more or less happy with that,” said Mauricio Santoro, professor of international relations at Rio de Janeiro’s state university.Before he became president, Bolsonaro praised the U.S. and President Donald Trump. He often said China can buy from Brazil, but not buy Brazil itself — rhetoric that continued for a while after he took office Jan. 1.The hostile remarks didn’t last, though.Brazil is dependent on foreign investment, especially from China.Confirmed Chinese investments in Brazil between 2007 and 2018 totaled almost $60 billion, more than any other Latin American country, according to the Brazil-China Business Council, a Brazilian research center.Investments faltered in 2018 ahead of Brazil’s election, part of a broader decline stemming from investor caution.After Bolsonaro won the presidency, he took his first trip abroad to the U.S., then in the midst of a growing trade dispute with China. But Brazil didn’t get caught in the middle.“Brazil has all the reasons to work with both countries and not pick sides,” said Pepe Zhang, associate China director at the Washington-based Atlantic Council. “So far, it’s doing a good job.”In August, amid Western criticism of Brazil’s handling of fires raging in the Amazon, China defended Brazil’s sovereignty over the region. Bolsonaro on Wednesday described China’s support as “a grand gesture that strengthened us a lot.”Xi said China intends to increase trade and investment, and will eye opportunities for cooperation in areas including agriculture, electricity, oil, and infrastructure.“China is willing to work together with Brazil to promote exchange based on equality and mutual trust,” Xi said.As Brazil-Chinese diplomacy advances, there are delicate issues to navigate.The U.S., for example, is pressuring the Brazilian government to exclude Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei from its auction next year to provide a 5G network.The U.S. State Department says that Huawei poses cybersecurity risks and that it will review the way it shares intelligence about Venezuela with Brazil if Huawei is allowed to provide 5G service.The U.S. and Brazil consider Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to be illegitimate and want him to resign.China, eager for repayment of the billions of dollars in oil-backed loans it extended to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s socialist administration, continues to support his regime.Bolsonaro knows he won’t find common ground with Xi on Venezuela when they meet, and will likely focus on luring more Chinese investment and trade, said Santoro, the international relations professor.Bolsonaro, a fringe lawmaker until his campaign, earned the nickname “Trump of the Tropics” for his rejection of politically correct discourse, and many of his supporters came to see him as a crusader willing to impose morality on a political system rife with corruption and a society suffering from violent crime.One of his main challenges is boosting economic growth, with Brazil headed toward its third year of subdued activity after two years of deep recession. He handed the reins of economic policymaking to a University of Chicago-trained economist who is taking steps to improve business conditions, reduce trade barriers of Brazil’s protected market, and carry out a vast privatization program.Some Brazilians were concerned that Bolsonaro as president would assume a “bipolar vision of the world” and closely align with the U.S. at the expense of China relations, said Jose Pio Borges, president of Cebri, a Brazilian research center that studies China.“Now, after all these reunions and initiatives, it’s clear that Brazil wants to have relationships with everyone,” Borges said.
 
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Bolivia’s newly declared interim president, until now a second-tier lawmaker, faces the challenge of winning recognition, stabilizing the nation and organizing national elections within three months at a time of bloody political disputes that pushed the nation’s first indigenous leader to fly off to self-exile in Mexico after 14 years in power.Bolivian Senator Jeanine Anez gestures after she declared herself as interim President of Bolivia, at the balcony of the Presidential Palace, in La Paz, Bolivia, Nov. 12, 2019.Some people took to the streets cheering and waving national flags Tuesday night when Jeanine Anez, who had been second-vice president of the Senate, claimed the presidency after higher ranking successors to the had post resigned. But furious supporters of the ousted Evo Morales responded by trying to force their way to the Congress building in La Paz yelling, “She must quit!”
The constitution gives an interim president 90 days to organize an election, and Anez’s still-disputed accession was an example of the problems she’ll face.
Morales’ backers, who hold a two-thirds majority in Congress, boycotted the session she had called to formalize her accession, preventing a quorum.
Frustrated in that effort, she took power in any case, with no one to swear her in, saying the constitution did not specifically require congressional approval.
“My commitment is to return democracy and tranquility to the country,” she said. “They can never again steal our vote.”
Bolivia’s top constitutional court issued a statement late Tuesday laying out the legal justification for Anez taking the presidency — without mentioning her by name.But other legal experts challenged the legal technicalities that led to her claiming the presidency from such a relatively low-ranking post, saying at least some of the steps required Congress to meet.And the lingering question could affect her ability to govern.”It doesn’t seem likely” that Morales’ party “will accept her as president. So the question of what happens next remains — still quite unclear and extremely worrying,”  said Jennifer Cyr, an associate professor of political science and Latin American studies at the University of Arizona.
Eduardo Gamarra, a Bolivian political scientist at Florida International University, argued that the constitution clearly states that Anez didn’t need a congressional vote to assume the presidency. Even so, “The next two months are going to be extraordinarily difficult for President Anez,” he said.
She will need to arrange formation of a new electoral court, find a non-partisan staff for the electoral tribunal and get Congress to vote on new election. All of it must be done before Jan. 22, when Morales’ current term and everyone else’s was meant to end. And all of it must be done while Morales’ Movement for Socialism party still controls both houses of Congress.
Morales resigned Sunday following the weeks of violent protests fed by allegations of electoral fraud in the Oct. 20 election, which he claimed to have won.Bolivia’s ousted President Evo Morales is welcomed by Mexico’s Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard during his arrival to take asylum in Mexico, in Mexico City, Mexico, Nov. 12, 2019.Morales had accepted an Organization of American States audit reporting widespread irregularities in the vote count and calling for a new election.
But he stepped aside completely when Gen. Williams Kaliman, the armed forces commander, “suggested” he leave — a move that Morales and his backers branded a coup d’etat and his critics called a popular uprising.Bolivia’s first indigenous president arrived in Mexico on Tuesday under a grant of asylum and, just 60 years old, vowed to remain active in politics.
Although Anez met with Gen. Kaliman, it was uncertain how much support she could count on from other power centers.
She immediately tried to set herself apart from Morales. Wearing the presidential sash of office, she greeted supporters at an old presidential palace instead of the modern 26-story presidential office with a heliport that was built by Morales  and that his foes had criticized as one of his excesses.
She also carried a Bible, which had been banned by Morales from the presidential palace after he reformed the constitution and recognized the Andean earth deity Pachamama instead of the Roman Catholic Church.
Morales said on Twitter from Mexico that Anez’s “self-proclamation” was an affront to constitutional government. “Bolivia is suffering an assault on the power of the people,” he wrote.
Even before Anez acted, thousands of his supporters were in the streets of the capital in peaceful demonstrations clamoring for his return. Military fighter jets flew repeatedly over La Paz in a show of force that infuriated Morales loyalists who were blocked by police and soldiers from marching to the main square.
“We’re not afraid!” shouted demonstrators, who believe Morales’ departure was a coup d’etat and an act of discrimination against Bolivia’s indigenous communities.
“Evo was like a father to me. We had a voice, we had rights,” said Maria Apasa, who like Morales is a member of the Aymara indigenous group.
Mexican Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard said his country’s diplomats had to scramble to arrange a flight path for the plane because some nations initially closed airspace to it. The plane stopped in Paraguay to refuel instead of Peru, as initially planned.
The one-time llama shepherd from the Bolivian highlands and former coca growers’ union leader helped lift millions out poverty as president, increasing social rights and presiding over stability and high economic growth in South America’s poorest country.
But even many supporters eventually grew weary of his long tenure in power — as well as his insistence in running for a fourth term despite a public referendum that upheld term limits, restrictions thrown out by a top court that critics contend was stacked in his favor.  
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Spanish police said Wednesday they have been unable to locate a Venezuelan former spymaster wanted by the United States for extradition on charges of drug trafficking.Police told The Associated Press that its officers have been unable to find Maj. Gen. Hugo Carvajal.News website El Español reported on Friday that a Spanish court had reversed an earlier ruling throwing out the U.S. arrest warrant and that it had ordered authorities to proceed with the extradition request. A spokesman for the National Court said Wednesday that no decision on the case has been made public at this time.Carvajal’s lawyer, Maria Dolores de Arguelles, said her client couldn’t be considered a fugitive because the defense has not been officially notified of the court ruling granting the extradition, and no court summons or arrest warrant has been issued.Carvajal is free on bail, but his passport has been confiscated and he is not allowed to leave the Madrid region, according to the bail terms. He also needs to sign in at the court every 15 days — the next time is Friday.Anti-drug prosecutors in Spain had appealed a mid-September decision by the National Court rejecting the extradition to the United States, where he is wanted on drug smuggling and other charges.The extradition needs to be cleared by the Spanish Cabinet, which typically holds weekly meetings every Friday. Appeals can be filed before the country’s Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights, but that wouldn’t necessarily stop the extradition.The U.S. had been seeking Carvajal’s extradition since the former head of Venezuela’s military intelligence fled to Spain in late March after publicly supporting the opposition’s efforts to oust Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.Prosecutors in New York say Carvajal should face trial for “narcoterrorism” as part of a group of Venezuelan officials who were charged with “flooding” the U.S. with drugs.The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration ties Carvajal to a 5.6-ton cocaine shipment busted in Mexico in 2006 and accuse him of aiding and protecting Colombian guerrillas.
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Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is beefing up patrols by civilian militias across the nation as political rivals call for mass demonstrations against him.Maduro in a national broadcast Tuesday ordered the nation’s 3.2 million militia members to patrol Venezuela’s streets. He gave the command seated between the nation’s top-ranking military leaders.The heightened patrols overlap with a Saturday protest called by opposition lawmaker Juan Guaido, who has led a nearly year-long campaign to oust Maduro with backing from the U.S. and 50 other nations.Guaido has not managed to rally large demonstrations in recent months.However, a wave of political unrest has struck several Latin American nations, and Bolivian socialist leader Evo Morales abruptly resigned Sunday.Maduro says the same “imperialist” forces that undermined Bolivia’s president seek to oust him.
   
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Exiled Bolivian president Evo Morales arrived Tuesday in Mexico, which granted him asylum after he resigned the presidency on Sunday and fled his country.  Mike O’Sullivan reports, Bolivian opposition leaders say they are working to ensure a peaceful transition despite continuing tensions. 
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Hackers demanded about $5 million in bitcoin from Mexico’s Pemex, they told Reuters on Tuesday, saying the state oil firm missed a special discount by not paying immediately after a cyberattack that fouled up the company’s systems.The hack, which Pemex said it detected on Sunday, forced the company to shut down computers across Mexico, freezing systems such as payments, according to five employees and internal emails.Hackers have increasingly targeted companies with malicious programs that can cripple systems overseeing everything from supply chains to manufacturing, removing them only after receiving substantial payments.A ransom note that appeared on Pemex computers seen by Reuters pointed to a darknet website affiliated with “DoppelPaymer,” a type of ransomware.The website demanded 565 bitcoins, or nearly $5 million at current prices, and threatened Pemex with a 48-hour deadline, listing an email address to contact.When Reuters wrote to the email for details, the apparent hackers replied, saying that Pemex had missed a deadline for a “special price,” an apparent reference to the discounts sometimes offered to ransomware victims for early payment. But they said Pemex still had time to meet their bitcoin demand and would not comment further while the new deadline was pending.Pemex did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the ransom demand.The attack is the latest challenge for Pemex, which is battling to pay down heavy debts, reverse years of declining oil production and avoid downgrades to its credit ratings.Pemex said its storage and distribution facilities were operating normally and that the attack had affected less than 5% of its computers.”Let’s avoid rumors and disinformation,” it said in a statement. A person who works in Pemex’s production and exploration said that division was not affected.There was some confusion about which form of ransomware was used in the attack. One Pemex official said in an internal email the company was targeted by “Ryuk,” a strain of ransomware that experts say typically targets companies with annual revenue between $500 million and $1 billion – far below Pemex’s levels.DoppelPaymer is a relatively new breed of ransomware that cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike said was behind recent attacks on Chile’s Agriculture Ministry and the town of Edcouch in Texas.On Tuesday, Pemex was reconnecting unaffected computers to its network using software patches and wiping infected computers clean, said one source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.The company had to communicate with employees via mobile messaging service WhatsApp because employees could not open their emails, said another source, who was also not authorized to speak to reporters.”In finances, all the computers are off, there could eventually be problems with payments,” the person said.Companies taken hostage digitally can suffer catastrophic damage, whether or not they pay ransom.Norwegian aluminum producer Norsk Hydro was hit in March by ransomware that spread to 160 sites, eventually forcing parts of the industrial giant to operate via pen and paper.The company refused to pay the ransom. But it said the attack generated up to $71 million in cleanup costs – of which only $3.6 million so far had been paid out by insurance. 
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Colombia’s foreign minister, Carlos Holmes Trujillo, will move to head the Defense Ministry, President Ivan Duque said on Tuesday, where he will focus on everyday security and the fight against armed groups and drug trafficking.Trujillo will be replaced by Claudia Blum, a former senator and United Nations ambassador, Duque said.Guillermo Botero resigned as defense minister last week in the midst of mounting political pressure over alleged extrajudicial killings and the deaths of eight children in a military bombing.”We are pleased that Carlos Holmes Trujillo will take on this new task,” Duque said in a televised statement. “He will be in charge, of course, of confronting organized armed groups in all national territory.”Trujillo’s experience as mayor of the city of Cali “puts him close to the reality of citizen security,” Duque added.Trujillo, a former education and interior minister and ambassador to the European Union, has devoted much of his term as the country’s top diplomat to denouncing Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro as a dictator and supporter of terrorism.Colombia has repeatedly accused Maduro of offering safe haven to dissidents from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebel group, who refused to demobilize under a 2016 peace deal, and guerrillas from the National Liberation Army (ELN).The fight against those groups would be easier without Maduro as Venezuela’s leader, Trujillo has said.Trujillo will also focus on fighting drug traffickers, destroying illicit cultivations of coca, the base ingredient in cocaine, and increasing drug seizures, Duque said.Blum, a native of Cali and the first woman to serve as president of the Colombian Senate, has “ample experience in political and international affairs,” Duque said on Twitter later on Tuesday.She served as ambassador to the U.N. under former President Alvaro Uribe, Duque’s mentor. 
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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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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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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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