Chileans begin work on roadmap to new constitution

France24 – AFP, 28 October 2020 

Demonstrators supporting the reform of the Chilean constitution celebrate while
waiting for the referendum official results at Plaza Italia square in Santiago
on October 25, 2020 Pedro Ugarte AFP

Santiago (AFP) - Chile pressed ahead with the task of creating a roadmap to a new constitution Tuesday as Congress debated rules for choosing the body tasked with drafting the new charter. 

Citizens of the South American country voted by a landslide in a referendum Sunday to throw out their dictatorship-era constitution, blamed for the jarring economic and social inequalities that led to months of violent protests. 

Much of the path ahead is already clear, with the election of a constitutional convention, which will draft the new charter, slated for April 11. 

However, independent candidates face an uphill battle in the race for seats on the convention, as they aim to limit the influence of the traditional parties. 

Congress on Tuesday discussed removing one of the roadblocks to political independents playing a full part in the process. 

Under current rules they need a minimum of signatures equal to 0.4 percent of voters in their electoral district, a tough task amid Chile's coronavirus epidemic. 

Prospective independent candidates say the threshold is too high and want it halved. 

Overwhelming rejection 

Citizens overwhelmingly rejected an option in the referendum for lawmakers to take part in the drafting of the new constitution, handing that role instead to a new body whose members will be elected from scratch. 

Several Chilean artists and celebrities have signaled their intention to run for the convention. 

Sitting members of Congress are banned from participating, but independents fear the traditional parties -- seen as administrators of the dictatorship-era constitution for decades -- are preparing to stack the new body with their members anyhow. 

Some of President Sebastian Pinera's advisors have expressed an interest in running. The president's daughter Magdalena Pinera is reportedly aiming to represent his conservative National Renewal party, part of his ruling Vamos coalition. 

Also signaling her intention to run is Francisca Desbordes, daughter of Chile's defense minister Mario Desbordes. 

There is lively debate on the number of seats that should be set aside in the new body for the Mapuche people, Chile's largest ethnic group. 

"The task of the parliament is to ensure reserved seats for the indigenous people, so that this new constitution contains all the views and cultures there are in Chile," said Mapuche lawmaker Emilia Nuyado. 

The constitutional convention will be composed of 155 members, who will be elected in a vote on April 11 that coincides with Chile's local elections. 

Anybody can put themselves forward, but those involved in organizations and unions must renounce their positions if they are to participate. 

Similarly, civil servants will also have to resign to participate and all 155 members will have to renounce running for public office for one year after its work is completed. 

Members of the new body will receive a monthly salary equivalent to $3,200, around a third the amount earned by members of Congress. 

'Two-thirds' confusion 

The new constitution must be approved by two-thirds of its members. 

However, "it's not clear whether each provision must be approved by two-thirds or if it is only the constitution as a whole, a difference of interpretation that could have important consequences with respect to what's agreed upon," constitutional lawyer Sebastian Zarate told AFP. 

It remains possible the convention will alter this provision once it sits, said Zarate. 

"However it's interpreted, the last word will go to the constituent body," said Zarate. 

Once established, the convention will have nine months to draft and adopt the new constitution. If required, that timeframe can be extended once, for three months. 

The text will be put to the electorate in a new referendum in 2022. 

Failure to approve it will mean dictator Augusto Pinochet's 1980 constitution will remain in force.

Arrest warrants issued for founders of Panama Papers firm: report

Yahoo – AFP, October 20, 2020 

Mossack Fonseca's founders, suspected of tax evasion and associating
with criminals, will be arrested if they enter the EU, according to reports

Germany has issued international arrest warrants for the two founders of the firm at the centre of the tax haven scandal exposed by the Panama Papers data leak, German media reported. 

Mossack Fonseca founders Juergen Mossack and Ramon Fonseca, suspected of tax evasion and associating with criminals, will be arrested if they enter the European Union, German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported late Monday. 

A spokesman for the Cologne public prosecutor's office confirmed that two international arrest warrants had been issued in connection with ongoing investigations, but did not identify those involved. 

Mossack and Fonesca hold Panamanian passports and are currently in the Caribbean archipelago, which does not have any extradition treaties, the newspaper said. 

However investigators hope that Mossack, who has family in Germany, may surrender to officials in order to negotiate a reduced sentence and avoid US charges. 

The Panama Papers, a massive data leak in April 2016, exposed widespread tax avoidance and evasion using complex structures of offshore shell companies and caused an international outcry. 

At least 150 investigations have been opened in 79 countries to examine potential tax evasion or money laundering, according to the American Center for Public Integrity. 

In 2018, Mossack Fonseca said it would close due to "irreparable damage" to its reputation. Panama's government meanwhile continues to petition the international community to remove it from several tax haven blacklists.

Peru's Machu Picchu reopens... for one Japanese tourist

Yahoo – AFP, October 13, 2020  

Machu Picchu has reopened for a single lucky visitor, a Japanese man
stranded in the country by the pandemic

Peru's best-known tourist site Machu Picchu has opened after months of coronavirus closure, but for just a single visitor -- a Japanese man stranded in the country by the pandemic. 

"The first person on Earth who went to Machu Picchu since the lockdown is meeeeeee," Jesse Katayama posted on his Instagram account alongside pictures of himself at the deserted site. 

"This is truly amazing! Thank you," he added in a video posted on the Facebook pages of the local tourism authority in Cusco, where the famed site is located. 

Katayama spoke against the backdrop of the majestic mountaintop dotted with ancient ruins that once attracted thousands of tourists a day but has been closed since March because of the coronavirus. 

The Japanese boxing instructor, identified by local media as a 26-year-old from Nara, has been stuck in Peru since March, when he bought a ticket for the tourist site just days before the country declared a health emergency. 

He told a Peruvian newspaper he had only planned to spend three days in the area, but with flights cancelled and movement limited by the virus, he found himself stuck there for months. 

Eventually, his plight reached the local tourism authority, which agreed to give him special permission to visit the Inca city, reopening the site just for him. 

"I thought that I wouldn't be able to go, but thanks to all of you who pleaded with the mayor and the government, I was given this super special opportunity," he wrote in Japanese on his Instagram account. 

Machu Picchu is the most enduring legacy of the Inca empire that ruled a large swathe of western South America for 100 years before the Spanish conquest in the 16th century. 

The ruins of the Inca settlement were rediscovered in 1911 by the American explorer Hiram Bingham, and in 1983, UNESCO declared Machu Picchu a World Heritage Site. 

It was originally scheduled to reopen to visitors in July, but that has now been pushed back to November. 

Just 675 tourists a day will be allowed in, 30 percent of the number allowed before the pandemic, with visitors expected to maintain social distancing. 

Since it first opened to tourists in 1948, it has been closed just once before, for two months in 2010 when a flood destroyed the railway tracks connecting it to Cusco.