Miércoles, 13 de mayo de 2020 (Continuación)

Habitantes y miembros de grupos de autodefensa resguardan la entrada a la playa en Marquelia, Guerrero,el 14 de abril de 2020, para evitar que entren turistas en la cotingencia por COVID-19 . (Francisco Robles / AFP )

En la región de La Montaña del estado mexicano de Guerrero, el hospital más cercano puede estar a 10 horas de distancia y contar con tres ventiladores para atender a más de 400,000 personas. Esta es una de las zonas rurales que representa con mayor crudeza el abandono del campo en México y cómo lo afecta el COVID-19.

“¿Prevención del coronavirus en La Montaña? En muchas comunidades no hay ni agua corriente. Lo que hay es adaptación”, nos dijo Lenin Mosso, un periodista local que sigue recorriendo la zona.

En esta crisis, los ciudadanos exigen al gobierno audacia, rapidez y transparencia, pero, en esta zona, el Estado se encuentra casi solamente en forma de profesores y soldados.…  Seguir leyendo »

Todo venezolano, sin importar en qué país del mundo estemos, tenemos el mismo deseo: que Venezuela recupere inmediatamente su estabilidad.

Para ello, la oposición democrática venezolana y el gobierno del presidente interino, Juan Guaidó, ha contado con el apoyo de las autoridades estadounidenses, así como de la gran mayoría de gobiernos democráticos en nuestra región.

Al ser un tema de naturaleza bipartidista podemos reconocer que, en líneas generales, el gobierno actual estadounidense, bajo el mando del presidente Donald Trump, ha asumido posturas muy contundentes contra la dictadura que encabeza Nicolás Maduro. Sin embargo, como venezolano-estadounidense, encuentro que esas políticas no han sido ni suficientes ni efectivas: Maduro sigue en el poder y la dictadura sigue oprimiendo a su pueblo.…  Seguir leyendo »

The U.S. government is reportedly set to accuse China’s state-run hacking groups of attacking U.S. research institutions and pharmaceutical companies to steal novel coronavirus data, treatments and vaccines. This ought to be a wake-up call. The truth is that the United States has yet to use its strongest tools to punish and deter China from its widespread and continuing use of state-sponsored cybercrime.

The mere fact the Chinese government is attempting to steal coronavirus information should make clear that the blame for the lack of U.S.-China cooperation on the pandemic lies primarily on the Chinese side. China has restricted its own researchers from sharing coronavirus research and has refused to hand over early virus samples.…  Seguir leyendo »

Protesters clash with police in Moscow in July 2019. (Pavel Golovkin/AP)

Last month, UN Watch, a Geneva-based human rights group, released a report on the upcoming election to the United Nations Human Rights Council. According to the group, governments seeking a place on the top human rights watchdog at the General Assembly session in October will include some of the world’s worst human rights abusers — among them Cuba, Saudi Arabia and Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

Russia’s candidacy did not come as a surprise. The government in Moscow has long been eager to return to the forum, from which it was dropped nearly four years ago. In February, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov used a speech in front of the council to excoriate Western democracies for “meddling in the domestic affairs of sovereign states” and imposing “highly dubious ‘values’ .…  Seguir leyendo »

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern briefs the media about the coronavirus at the Parliament House in Wellington on April 27. (Mark Mitchell/AFP/Getty Images)

The covid-19 pandemic presents politicians and policymakers with the most serious public health crisis this century. Global leaders are working without a road map — and their responses often alternate between denial, panic and soothing yet disingenuous messages of reassurance.

This pandemic will pose a major legitimacy test — both for governments in power and for the very systems of governance on which they rely. A wide range of commentators — from Francis Fukuyama to Anne Applebaum to Gideon Rachman and Daron Acemoglu — have weighed in on whether government effectiveness in handling this epidemic will restore or undermine faith in democracy and democratic governance.…  Seguir leyendo »

Anthology Film Archives. Darya Zhovner (front) as Ilana and Olga Dragunova as Adina in Closeness, 2017

Lockdown possibility for a new cinematic discovery: the Russian writer-director Kantemir Balagov, a protégé of the last Soviet master Alexander Sokurov, not yet thirty and possibly the most arresting young filmmaker to emerge in the last few years.

Beanpole, Balagov’s beautifully acted second feature—set in Leningrad in 1945, and featuring two shellshocked nurses tending to even more damaged soldiers—won a prize at Cannes last year and was a hit at the 2019 New York Film Festival. It opened in January and is available for streaming on both MUBI and Kinomarquee.

Closeness, Balagov’s first feature, aptly named given its tight framing and the claustrophobic family situation it depicts, can be streamed through Anthology Film Archives.…  Seguir leyendo »