Septiembre de 2023 (Continuación)

Destronar al dólar, símbolo de la hegemonía occidental, es el más ambicioso de los objetivos abordados por los BRICS -Brasil, Rusia, India, China, Sudáfrica- en Johannesburgo durante su decimoquinta cumbre, que se celebró la pasada semana. La complejidad del propósito explica su silenciamiento, de forma que se trasladó el interés de la convención a la ampliación de sus miembros para 2024. Sin una identidad colectiva, los BRICS a once pretenden crear un orden internacional alternativo al modelo occidental del G-7. Los criterios de admisión en la asociación permanecen ambiguos, al igual que las motivaciones últimas de China y Rusia en esta heterogénea plataforma, indiferente al fragor de la guerra en Ucrania.…  Seguir leyendo »

Javier Milei es más de lo mismo para Argentina

Según los psicólogos, el sesgo de confirmación es una de las trampas más frecuentes que nos tiende el cerebro humano. De manera involuntaria, distorsionamos la evidencia para seguir creyendo lo que queremos creer. Es lo que hacen muchos comentaristas tras el triunfo en las primarias de Javier Milei, el populista de derecha y candidato a la presidencia de Argentina.

El Wall Street Journal afirma que “es posible que la clase media argentina haya dejado de aceptar el estatus quo que le roba el fruto de su trabajo”, y alaba a Milei porque desea “abrir mercados, recortar el gasto público, poner fin a los controles de capital y privatizar las empresas de propiedad del Estado”.…  Seguir leyendo »

La necesidad de reformular el crecimiento y reexaminar el Estado empresarial

La sensación de ansiedad está en todas partes, desde los debates de políticas de alto nivel y los manifiestos políticos a la cobertura noticiosa diaria. En Alemania, el último plan presupuestario del gobierno identifica un mayor crecimiento como una de las prioridades máximas. En la India, las autoridades nacionales se muestran anhelosas por reclamar el lugar de su país como la economía de más rápido crecimiento del planeta. En China, donde se ciernen perspectivas deflacionarias, es indiscutible que el gobierno está preocupado de alcanzar su objetivo de crecimiento de 5% para este año.

En el Reino Unido, Keir Starmer, líder del opositor Partido Laborista, ha prometido lograr el máximo crecimiento sostenido del G7 si resulta electo, y los conservadores, desde el gobierno, expresan ambiciones parecidas (recordemos el ahora infame mantra de la ex Primer Ministra Liz Truss: “crecimiento, crecimiento, crecimiento”).…  Seguir leyendo »

Contabilidad pública para una rendición de cuentas pública

En un estado nación moderno típico, el sector público representa una porción mayor de la actividad económica que cualquier otro sector económico. En 2021, el gasto primario general del gobierno para los estados miembro del G7 oscilaba entre el 39,41% del PIB en Estados Unidos y el 57,66% del PIB en Francia. Las economías de mercados emergentes exitosas -como India (24,93% del PIB) y la República Popular China (31,8% del PIB)- van camino a seguir el mismo patrón. En vista de esto, es esencial una contabilidad del sector público confiable y transparente para que haya una gobernanza y una gestión económicas apropiadas.…  Seguir leyendo »

A man in Ahmedabad, India, cheers for the successful landing of Chandrayaan-3 on the moon on Aug. 22. (Ajit Solanki/AP)

India needs more heroes like Sreedhara Somanath than it needs entrepreneurs like Satya Nadella.

Did I hear you say, “Who?”

No offense to Nadella, the otherwise brilliant Hyderabad-born chief executive of Microsoft. But it’s the low-key Somanath, under whose leadership India achieved its historic moon landing, who should be a role model for Indians. He represents a generation of gifted scientists who chose not to emigrate — and achieved just as much, if not more, in challenging circumstances.

Somanath will never own a cricket team or show up on any Fortune or Forbes lists. He will probably never be called to dine at the White House.…  Seguir leyendo »

Inside the church of San Miguel in Masaya, Nicaragua, in 2019, the religious images wear references to the flag of Nicaragua, symbol of the protests against the government of Daniel Ortega. (Carlos Herrera for The Washington Post).

Nicaragua’s seizure of the Jesuit-run Central American University in Managua on Aug. 16 was only the latest episode in the government’s five-year campaign to silence the Catholic Church.

Described by President Daniel Ortega’s regime as a “center of terrorism” for having attempted to shield student protesters during widespread anti-government demonstrations in 2018, the university has had its buildings, bank accounts and even its furniture seized. If past practice is any guide, it will soon be either shuttered or run by the state, with faculty and curriculums censored by the Sandinista government.

Since 2018, Catholic priests and laity critical of the government have been harassed, exiled, imprisoned, tortured and murdered.…  Seguir leyendo »

A grain warehouse destroyed by a Russian missile strike in Pavlivka, Ukraine, July 2023. Nina Liashonok / Reuters

From the outset of his invasion of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s vast ambitions for the war were obvious. He intended to topple the government in Kyiv and either partition or take control of Ukraine. But Putin’s aspirations extended beyond carving a sphere of influence in central and eastern Europe. By subjugating the Ukrainian polity, Putin hoped to initiate a new era of global politics, one detached from American leadership. He promised an international system that would be genuinely postcolonial, solicitous of conservative values, and robustly multipolar, with Russia serving as one of its central arbiters.

Even after setback after setback on the battlefield in Ukraine, Putin remains committed to a brutal, immiserating war effort.…  Seguir leyendo »

A supporter of Niger’s coup holding a sign reading “knock down France” in Niamey, Niger, August 2023. Mahamadou Hamidou / Reuters

After a group of senior military officers overthrew Niger’s democratically elected president in July, the embattled (but then still alive) Russian mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin likened the coup to a second independence for the West African country. “What happened in Niger is nothing other than the struggle of the people of Niger with their colonizers”, he said in a voice message posted to Telegram. “With colonizers who are trying to foist their rules of life on [Nigeriens] and their conditions and keep them in the state that Africa was in hundreds of years ago”.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Prigozhin’s take on the putsch contrasted sharply with that of most African leaders, North American and European governments, the European Union, and the Economic Community of West African States, all of which harshly condemned the military takeover.…  Seguir leyendo »

Des soldats polonais se tiennent près d’obusiers K9 lors d’un exercice militaire dans un champ de tir. Orzysz, 30 mars 2023. — © Kacper Pempel/Reuters

On croit de plus en plus que la Pologne aura bientôt l’armée la plus puissante d’Europe. Le parti au pouvoir en Pologne, Droit et Justice (PiS), ne manque pas une occasion de faire passer ce message, et on l’entend de plus en plus souvent à l’étranger. Mais est-ce vrai?

Cette affirmation repose en grande partie sur les achats d’armes sans précédent du gouvernement PiS et sur ses projets visant à porter l’armée à 300 000 soldats d’ici à 2035. En vertu de la nouvelle loi sur la défense nationale, les dépenses militaires devraient atteindre 3% du PIB cette année, soit un point de pourcentage de plus que ce qui est généralement attendu des membres de l’OTAN.…  Seguir leyendo »

French President Emmanuel Macron (left) meets with Gabonese President Ali Bongo for a bilateral meeting at the presidential palace in Libreville, Gabon, on March 1. Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images

In December 1977, a style of rule associated with medieval Europe was visited upon a hitherto obscure country tucked away deep in equatorial Africa. There, Jean-Bédel Bokassa, a onetime commander of a 500-man army who had seized power in 1965 in a military coup, proclaimed himself president for life, and then, several years later, imperial sovereign of the country, which he rebranded as the Central African Empire.

Valery Giscard d’Estaing, the president of France—the former colonial power of the newborn would-be empire—knew enough to stay away from Bokassa’s coronation, which cost around $20 million, the equivalent of 8 percent of the poor country’s entire annual GDP at the time.…  Seguir leyendo »

Officers of the National Police of Niger stand guard with Nigerien soldiers during a demonstration outside the Nigerien and French air bases in Niamey on Aug. 27 AFP via Getty Images

On July 26, Gen. Abdourahamane Tchiani detained Niger’s democratically elected president, Mohamed Bazoum, and installed himself as the head of the so-called National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland, a military junta. Less than a week later, on July 30, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) issued the junta an ultimatum: Return the former president to power within one week or face the threat of additional sanctions and military force. The region has experienced a wave of coups in recent years, and ECOWAS is rightly concerned about their spread.

That ultimatum has since expired, with Tchiani remaining steadfast, sparking a crisis for ECOWAS.…  Seguir leyendo »

Quito, 14 de agosto de 2023: la comunidad indígena Waorani se manifiesta a favor del referéndum para poner fin a la explotación petrolera en el parque nacional Yasuní. Martin Bernetti/AFP

En un referéndum celebrado el domingo 20 de agosto, unos 13 millones de ecuatorianos decidieron que el país prescindiría de las ganancias económicas derivadas de la explotación del bloque 43, situado en gran parte en el Parque Natural Yasuní y responsable del 12 % de la producción nacional de petróleo del país.

La pérdida de ingresos fue el principal argumento esgrimido por el gobierno saliente. La petrolera nacional Petroecuador estimaba en 14 500 millones de euros las pérdidas que supondría detener el proyecto en veinte años.

Pero los ecologistas relativizaron las cifras esgrimidas, alegando que no tenían en cuenta la gran fluctuación de los precios del petróleo, los costes de producción y, sobre todo, los daños causados a los ecosistemas.…  Seguir leyendo »

When an airplane owned by Russian warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin plummeted in a fiery crash northwest of Moscow last week, observers in Russia and around the world immediately recalled two indisputable facts. First, that Prigozhin had openly challenged Russian President Vladimir Putin, and second, that countless others who had defied Putin have met untimely, violent deaths.

In the quest to understand what happened, one other fact was clear: The Kremlin was not the place to seek straightforward, credible answers. The Kremlin’s word is, shall we say, not a good source for independent, reliable truth.

In fact, when Putin’s spokesman dismissed claims that the state had Prigozhin killed as an “absolute lie”, it seemed a pro forma statement, one we’ve heard before as Putin’s critics, one after the other, meet macabre endings.…  Seguir leyendo »

‘We must strengthen our democracy if we are to protect our planet.’ Photograph: José Jácome/EPA

Days ago, voters in Ecuador approved a total ban on oil drilling in protected land in the Amazon, a 2.5m-acre tract in the Yasuní national park that might be the world’s most important biodiversity hotspot. The area is a Unesco-designated biosphere reserve and home to two non-contacted Indigenous groups. This could be a major step forward for the entire global climate justice movement in ways that are not yet apparent.

This vote is important not only for Ecuador and for the Indigenous peoples in the Yasuní, who now have hope of living in peace in perpetuity. It is also a potential model for how we can use the democratic process around the world to help slow or even stop the expansion of fossil fuels to the benefit of billions of people.…  Seguir leyendo »