Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

Archives for April 2017

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Ecuador: Media fined for not carrying article

Four newspapers and three TV stations were fined US$3,750 each for not carrying a story on presidential candidate Guillermo Lasso.

Ecuador fines media for not publishing a story

Ecuador has fined seven media companies for not publishing a story that it deemed of public interest.

The state’s media watchdog said the press had a duty to cover a story about the supposed offshore dealings of opposition politician and recent presidential candidate Guillermo Lasso.

The investigation was published in an Argentine newspaper in March.

The watchdog and the media companies have accused each other of censorship. Appeals are under way.

The ruling was made against newspapers El Comercio, La Hora, Expreso and El Universo, and television channels Televicentro, Teleamazonas and Ecuavisa.
. . .

The report, “Lasso: the offshore tycoon”, was first published by Argentina’s left-wing Pagina 12 newspaper, and was picked up by various other Ecuadorean news outlets ahead of the country’s election on 2 April.

The Committee to Protect Journalists asserts that “No government anywhere, including in Ecuador, has any business telling the news media what to cover,” and reports,

In defending its actions before Supercom, lawyers for El Comercio argued that the original Página/12 story was poorly reported, failed to include a response from Lasso, and that publishing the unverified allegations would have violated an Ecuadoran law barring media from promoting or denigrating candidates immediately before elections.

Freedom House has rated Ecuador’s press status as “not free.”

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Venezuela: Madurantoinette

The hapless Marie Antionette supposedly said, “Let them eat cake!”

Maduro is saying “Peace will prevail.”

Nicolás Maduro’s Videos Present an Alternative Venezuelan Reality. President’s soothing social-media offerings stand in contrast to unrest and shortages plaguing his country

“Peace will prevail,” the former bus driver says in one video as he drives other ruling-party officials through a middle-class neighborhood in his car. The footage inadvertently shows them cruising past graffiti that calls the president a “murderer of students,” an apparent reference to some of the people killed in numerous clashes between demonstrators and security forces.

“With Montalbán neighbors, sharing ideas and betting with the middle class for peace and coexistence.”

The article doesn’t mention that Maduro’s show must be carried by all licensed radio and TV stations under penalty of law.

I wasn’t sure whether to call Maduro “Caracas Chuck,” a la Baghdad Bob, or Madurantoinette. I went with the latter since we don’t know who’ll be in charge after he’s done.

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Puerto Rico: No bailout

Good


According to news reports,

Democrats have been pushing to help Puerto Rico cover a Medicaid shortfall. The U.S. territory is currently facing a multi-billion dollar debt crisis.

Prior posts on Puerto Rico here.



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Venezuela to OAS: “You can’t fire me, I quit!”

Venezuela says it will withdraw from the Organization of American States (OAS), accusing the US-based grouping of meddling in its internal affairs.

The government made the announcement after the OAS voted to hold a meeting of foreign ministers to discuss the spiralling crisis in Venezuela.

Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez

said Wednesday that Mr. Maduro ordered the withdrawal from the Organization of American States after 19 of the group’s 34 members agreed on a resolution to discuss Venezuela’s precarious situation.

The demonstrations continue.

“Security forces repress demonstrators on the Francisco Fajardo highway and Las Mercedes in Caracas”

The son of Venezuela’s rights ombudsman, Tarek William Saab, has called on his father to “stop the injustice which has sunk Venezuela”.

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Cuba gets the crabs

Millions of Crabs Are Invading Cuba’s Streets

Why did the crab cross the road? To get to the Bay of Pigs, apparently. Cuba’s roads are currently “carpeted” with red, black, and yellow land crabs on their annual migration to spawn by the sea, according to Reuters.

Each year, shortly after the island’s first spring rainfall, crabs scuttle by the millions from the forest to the southern coast to lay eggs. They come out daily at dusk and dawn, and cover the roads surrounding the bay. Unfortunately, their numbers are so great that many are inevitably run over. Their shells are sharp enough to puncture motorists’ tires though, which is bad news for visitors but good news for local businesses: Tourists are willing to pay $10 to repair their crab-popped tires, which is nearly half of the state’s average $25 monthly salary, says Reuters.

How bad is it?

This bad:

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HuffPo editor resigns, keeps digging

Because nothing leads to “honest, inclusive conversations” that reduce suspicion which bring about “authentic healing” like denying men of any race their unalienable rights to vote, to own property, to legal representation and to anything that Marxists don’t agree with.

Read my post, HuffPo editor resigns, keeps digging.



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