Bulletins and News Discussion from July 29th to August 4th, 2024 - Haters Stay Mad(uro) - COTW: Venezuela
Image is of a colectivo: an armed group, usually operating in impoverished areas, which act to support and defend the socialist government of Venezuela. They are often derided as vigilante terrorist groups which prop up the government, because cops are only bad when they are socialist and not murdering minorities, I suppose.
Maduro's party, the PSUV, has won the election after a staggering amount of propaganda by the opposition, who said their polls suggested they were going to win and that Maduro's loss was inevitable. The reaction across Latin America is what one would expect. Left-leaning leaders are generally respecting the results and congratulating Maduro, while those on the right and/or are US puppets (such as in semirecently-couped Peru) are calling for recounts, or even that the election was illegitimate. The US itself is also unhappy about the results. We shall soon see if their unhappiness boils over into yet another coup attempt.
Personally, I think they should have ran Guaido again.
Thank you to @Redcuban1959@hexbear.net for the election coverage here, and everything else they do in the news megathread.
The COTW (Country of the Week) label is designed to spur discussion and debate about a specific country every week in order to help the community gain greater understanding of the domestic situation of often-understudied nations. If you've wanted to talk about the country or share your experiences, but have never found a relevant place to do so, now is your chance! However, don't worry - this is still a general news megathread where you can post about ongoing events from any country.
The Country of the Week is Venezuela! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.
Defense Politics Asia's youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section. Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war. Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don't want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it's just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists' side.
Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.
Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:
Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR's former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR's forces. Russian language. https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one. https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts. https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster's telegram channel. https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator. https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps. https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language. https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language. https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a 'propaganda tax', if you don't believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses. https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.
Argentina, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the Dominican Republic and Uruguay express “deep concern about the conduct of the elections” in Venezuela and request an urgent meeting of the OAS on the matter.
All currently under right-wing puppet regimes. In Paraguay's case, a one-state party, all the opposition candidates questioned the legality of the previous election lol.
Uruguay, Peru and Ecuador are really funny because soon there will be presidential elections there and the current presidents won't be able to get reelected due to unpopularity. Theres literally an energy blackout in Ecuador rn. Panama elected a guy who was hiding inside an embassy as their president.
Argentina is under an ancap, their opinion is irrelevant. Doubt Milei will last next year.
Guatemala was one of the first cold war victims of the US. They did everything possible to destroy the left in Guatemala, because they dare to go against the interest of American companies.
It's a shame that the current president does this shit to appease the US. Now, to why Boric does this shit when he had a massive support base from the left and liberals. I have no idea, maybe he is just a socdem Gorbachev or he is too young and naive. Hell, Lula da Silva literally did more than Boric with much less support.
Thankfully there has been more pushback by the people and the left is growing. Problem is that it’s also the typical “queers are removed” form of leftism that just gives any potential allies to the neoliberals.
Actually he is the guy who was the VP of the guy who was hiding inside an embassy.
José Raúl Mulino Quintero (born 13 June 1959) is a Panamanian politician, diplomat and lawyer currently serving as the 39th President of Panama since 2024. He ran for president in the 2024 Panamanian election, which he won with 34% of the vote as the Realizing Goals candidate and a substitute for former President Ricardo Martinelli.
Martinelli held a rally in Panama City in which he insisted that he would continue his presidential campaign. However, he later claimed that incumbent president Laurentino Cortizo was seeking to imprison and even kill him, which led him to seek refuge at the Nicaraguan embassy, with his lawyer saying that "his life was in danger.”
Mulino was Martinelli's vice-presidential candidate in the 2024 elections; Martinelli, however, was disqualified from running after being sentenced to almost eleven years in prison for money laundering.
Mulino has called the Panama Papers, which documented money laundering, corruption and tax evasion, "an international hoax to undermine the image and competitiveness of our country."