Miércoles, 8 de enero de 2020 (Continuación)

El líder de la oposición venezolana, Juan Guaidó, trepa la cerca del edificio de la Asamblea Nacional en Caracas, el 5 de enero de 2020. (Manaure Quintero/Reuters/File Photo)

MundoAmérica

La violación sistemática de la Constitución de Venezuela y el desconocimiento a la voluntad popular desde 2015 por parte del presidente, Nicolás Maduro, ha llevado al país a un laberinto de formas impensables.

Lo vimos en la acción tumultuaria de la Asamblea Nacional de Venezuela (AN) el domingo 5 de enero, una muestra del poder de Maduro y de la indefensión institucional de la oposición.

La toma de la dirección de la AN por parte de una fracción disidente de la oposición —relacionada con redes de corrupción— en alianza con los partidos del gobierno, abrió una nueva bifurcación.

Las cabezas de esta fracción disidente al líder opositor y todavía presidente de la AN, Juan Guaidó, han sido vinculadas con una trama en la que los hilos parecen ser movidos por un poderoso zar que está al frente de varios negocios con el gobierno.…  Seguir leyendo »

EuropaUnión EuropeaPolítica Exterior

As Europe enters 2020, the new “geopolitical” European Commission has declared its intention to make the European Union a more assertive player on the global stage. While Jean-Claude Juncker’s “political” Commission was focused on domestic affairs, new Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has put geopolitical challenges front and center.

But for her approach to work, she has some important homework to address.

First on the list will be to establish a close and constructive relationship with Britain as it prepares to leave the E.U., not only formally on Jan. 31, but also in reality toward the end of the year.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAsia,

En 2019, trois mesures du gouvernement nationaliste hindou ont brisé, pour une grande partie du peuple indien, la confiance en leur statut de citoyens : l’instauration du National Register of Citizens (NRC) ou «registre national des citoyens» ; de la Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) ou «loi amendement de citoyenneté» ; et la construction de vastes camps de détention.

Le NRC est une procédure de vérification des documents - les critères auxquels ces pièces doivent satisfaire n’ont pas été communiqués par l’Etat - afin de trier et d’identifier les citoyens de plein droit.

La CAA définit quels «réfugiés» sont éligibles à la citoyenneté.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOceanía, ,

Apocalyptic scenes are playing out across Australia as bushfires have burned millions of acres and ravaged more than 1,000 homes in New South Wales alone.

The bright orange haze may look like something out of a dystopic science fiction film -- or even Dante's Inferno -- but this is Australia's current reality. A total of 20 people have died, and the photographs of human suffering are foreboding: native Australians have poured out of smoke-shrouded towns as the flames creep nearer, while people along the coast have taken refuge on beaches.

These are scenes from an Earth that is becoming uninhabitable amid raging wildfires, severe hurricanes and floods, record droughts and rising sea levels that have already submerged islands.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOceanía, ,

I'm visiting my mother in the little country town where I grew up in Gippsland, a region of Australia that's currently on fire. That's not very specific, so let me narrow it down: I'm in one of the south-easternmost parts of Australia that is currently on fire.

Gippsland is a big area, roughly two New Jerseys. The closest fire is 50 miles away from us today, lending the sky a gray hue and the sun an orange tint. The official weather forecast is: "Mostly sunny but smoky".

People here keep one eye on their phones, watching the online maps that show flames slowing chewing their way through half a million hectares to the north and east, but there's no immediate danger.…  Seguir leyendo »

Opposition lawmakers enter the building of Venezuela's National Assembly in Caracas, Venezuela January 5, 2020. REUTERS/Manaure Quintero

MundoAmérica

On 5 January, Nicolás Maduro’s government made a bold attempt to end its year-long standoff with opposition leader and chair of the National Assembly Juan Guaidó, whom dozens of countries – including the U.S. – recognise as Venezuela’s legitimate president. The government ordered the National Guard to obstruct opposition deputies’ access to parliament, allowing government supporters to prevail in a sham vote to impose a new Assembly chair. The move stymied Guaidó’s expected ratification in that post but it did not resolve the struggle over the presidency. Moreover, it came at the cost of further sapping the government’s international legitimacy and deepening the country’s protracted crisis.…  Seguir leyendo »

Protesters hold up an image of Qassem Soleimani during a demonstration in Tehran on 3 January. Photo: Getty Images.

MundoAméricaMundoOriente Próximo, ,
An unexpected bounty for Iran

Sanam Vakil

The assassination of Qassem Soleimani has been an unexpected bounty for the Islamic Republic at a time when Iran was balancing multiple economic, domestic and regional pressures stemming from the Trump administration’s maximum pressure campaign.

Coming on the heels of anti-Iranian demonstrations in Iraq and Lebanon, and following Iran’s own November 2019 protests that resulted in a brutal government crackdown against its own people, the Soleimani killing has helped the Iranian government shift the narrative away from its perceived regional and domestic weaknesses to one of strength.

The massive funeral scenes in multiple Iranian cities displaying unending waves of mourners chanting against the United States has provided the Islamic Republic with a unique opportunity to showcase its mobilizing potential.…  Seguir leyendo »

Biplov Bhuyan/Hindustan Times via Getty Images. A protester against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act being detained outside a government office for the state of Assam, New Delhi, India, December 23, 2019

MundoAsia, ,

Assam, India—In this northeastern state of India, a plague of documents is afflicting nervous citizens. Home to around 30 million people, Assam is a kind of cartographic anomaly wedged between India’s neighbors China, Bhutan, Bangladesh, and Myanmar. The oppressions of bureaucratic record-keeping owe much to the country’s former colonial government, but today the malignant paperwork serves a different ideology, that of saffron-hued Hindu nationalism.

The governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has forced all residents of Assam to prove they are citizens, or face incarceration, deportation, or drastic marginalization. It is here in Assam that the BJP’s process of legal harassment of Muslim Indians began—harassment that has set off a wave of protests nationwide, in which dozens have died, thousands have been jailed, and mobs have attacked minority communities.…  Seguir leyendo »

Trabajadores de una fábrica en la provincia de Anhui, en China, cosen pancartas para la campaña de reelección de Donald Trump. Credit Aly Song/Reuters

MundoAméricaMundoAsia, ,

¿Cuándo comenzó la Segunda Guerra Fría? Los historiadores del futuro dirán que fue en 2019.

Algunos insistirán en que la nueva Guerra Fría ya había comenzado —con Rusia— en 2014, cuando Moscú envió sus tropas a Ucrania. Pero el deterioro de las relaciones ruso-estadounidenses palidece en comparación con el ascenso del antagonismo chino- estadounidense que se ha desarrollado en los últimos años. Y aunque Estados Unidos y China probablemente pueden evitar una guerra “caliente”, una segunda Guerra Fría todavía es una posibilidad desalentadora.

Algunos académicos pedantes tal vez digan que la nueva Guerra Fría comenzó con la elección de Donald Trump en noviembre de 2016 o en enero de 2018, con su imposición inicial de aranceles a lavadoras y paneles solares importados, muchos de los cuales se fabrican en China.…  Seguir leyendo »