Argentina deposits debt payment in defiance of US ruling

BBC News, 30 September 2014

Argentina is attempting to repay holders of its Par series of debt after
defaulting on its Discount bonds

Related Stories

• Argentina 'in contempt' of US court
• Hedge funds condemned over Argentina

Argentina has deposited $161m (£99m) in bond interest payments with the state-controlled Nacion Fideicomisos bank, in an effort to skirt US court rulings.

The country had previously kept its funds with US-controlled Bank of New York Mellon.

The move comes a day after a US judge ruled Argentina was in "contempt of court".

That ruling stated Argentina must repay two US hedge funds before repaying other bond holders.

"By making this deposit, Argentina confirms once again its unshakeable commitment to meet its obligations to bondholders," said Argentina's finance ministry in a statement.

Argentina is attempting to pay its bondholders in a second tranche of debt known as the Par series so as to avoid defaulting once more.

However, experts caution that simply placing the debt payment in a non-US controlled bank is probably not sufficient to allow Argentina to avoid a US court ruling barring it from repaying certain debts above others.

Long fight

Argentina has been trying to repay the holders of its debt from when the country defaulted in 2001.

The majority of those bond holders have agreed to lower payments as a result of Argentina's bankruptcy.

However, two hedge funds - NML Capital and Aurelius Capital Management - have demanded full repayment of the $1.5bn (£920m) they are owed, and have sued to prevent the country from paying back only its restructured bonds.

After Judge Thomas Griesa sided with the hedge funds in a July ruling, Argentina was forced to default on its debt for a second time after refusing to repay the hedge funds.

Industrial woes

Argentina's flagging economy received further bad news on Tuesday, as figures showed industrial output fell at double the predicted rate in August.

Output shrank by 2.9% in seasonally adjusted terms, marking the 13th month of consecutive decline.

Analyst had forecast a drop of approximately 1.5%.

The fall is partly due to the weakness of the country's car-making industry.

Related Article:

Argentine lawmakers weigh France as debt payment alternative

Economic bets off for Brazil's Rousseff

Yahoo – AFP, Yana Marull, 30 Sep 2014

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff attends the launching ceremony of the Agricultural

 and Livestock Plan in Brasilia, Brazil, on May 19, 2014 (AFP Photo/Evaristo Sa)

Brasília (AFP) - Dilma Rousseff is struggling to win re-election in Brazil with an economy that has gone from sizzle to fizzle in her four years in office as the country's first female president.

Hand-picked by former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Rousseff has proved unable to extend the era of economic growth that lifted more than 30 million people out of poverty under her popular predecessor.

And when Brazilians go to the polls next week, the poor economy could cost her the presidency and the Brazilian Workers Party (PT) a fourth consecutive term in power.

It's a far cry from 2010, when Rousseff cruised to victory as the country's economy roared forward at a 7.5 percent growth rate, making Brazil one of the world's emerging economies.

Since Rousseff took office in January 2011, strong headwinds have sprung up to blow the economy off course.

"Average growth between 2011 and 2014 was 1.5 percent per year -- very much below the four percent of the eight previous years," said economist Vinicius Botelho of the private Getulio Vargas Foundation.

In a photo released by the presidential press office, Brazilian President Dilma 

Roussef greets Cuban physicians before the ceremony sanctioning the law

 establishing the More Doctors Program in Brasilia on October 22, 2013 (AFP

 Photo/Roberto Stuckert Filho)

A rival for the presidency, Socialist candidate Eduardo Campos, charged Rousseff would be the first president in nearly 30 years to leave the country in a worse state than the one in which she found it.

Campos was killed in a plane crash in August, putting in Rousseff's path a new and arguably more formidable challenger -- Marina Silva, an environmentalist who polls show may beat Rousseff if the elections go to an October 26 runoff.

Big business, meanwhile, says Rousseff has not undertaken needed reforms to bolster competitiveness and for excessive government intervention in the economy.

A Dom Cabral Foundation study shows that the world's seventh-largest economy slid from 38th to 54th out of 60 countries on their competitiveness index over the past four years.

On the plus side

On the plus side, however, Dilma has a reputation for solid management and little tolerance for corruption. She fired six ministers in her first year in office.

Rousseff has promised to end extreme poverty in Brazil, a country with some of the starkest social inequalities in the world.

She cranked up welfare programs, which today benefit some 50 million Brazilians and pulled a further 11 million people out of poverty.

She also launched a social housing program and a policy to bring in thousands of foreign doctors -- chiefly from Cuba -- to cover shortages in poor and far-flung regions.

Furthermore, she set up a grant program allowing 100,000 Brazilian students to study at the world's best universities.

Such policies aid her re-election campaign, says Ricardo Ribeiro of consultants MCM.

A firework is set off during a protest against the FIFA World Cup demanding

 better social services in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on July 13, 2014 (AFP Photo/

Yasuyoshi Chiba)

But her popularity has sagged over the past year as inflation hit 6.5 percent, and major demonstrations that erupted in June 2013 in dozens of cities continued on a smaller scale through this year's World Cup.

Overly high hopes

"Her government started with the voters having very high hopes. When Lula left power, people were thinking life was going to get better much quicker," says Renato Meirelles, chairman of the Datapopular institute.

When that didn't happen "it engendered huge frustration," said Meirelles.

Another overriding priority has been the battle to overhaul Brazil's creaking infrastructure.

"That could have been the government's great legacy and there have been some successes such as some highway tenders," said Botelho.

But the population have had the "impression that projects have slipped well behind schedule and that public spending on them is excessive with the economic cost of financing them very high," he said.

Although the World Cup was largely a success, many Brazilians were angry that around a quarter of the $15 billion bill went into building stadiums rather than health, education and transport.

"The organization of the World Cup was considered a success but coincided with a moment in time when society wanted more investment targeting the improvement of public service," said Botelho.

Will ET Be Here Soon? NASA Brings Scientists, Theologians Together To Prepare

Huffington Post, Lee Speigel, 09/22/2014

Looking for extraterrestrial life is akin to a search for a cosmic needle-in-a-haystack, as evidenced by the above incredible Hubble Space Telescope image showing approximately 10,000 galaxies.

In large part, thanks to NASA's Kepler spacecraft, more than 1,400 planets have been identified beyond Earth.

A few days ago, NASA tried closing the gap between life on Earth and the possibilities of life elsewhere. The space agency and the Library of Congress (image below left) brought together scientists, historians, philosophers and theologians from around the world for a two-day symposium, "Preparing For Discovery." Their agenda: To explore how we prepare for the inevitable discovery of extraterrestrial life, be it simple microbial organisms or intelligent beings.

"We're looking at all scenarios about finding life. If you find microbes, that's one thing. If you find intelligence, it's another. And if they communicate, it's something else, and depending on what they say, it's something else!" said astronomer, symposium organizer and former chief NASA historian, Steven J. Dick.

"The idea is not to wait until we make a discovery, but to try and prepare the public for what the implications might be when such a discovery is made," Dick told The Huffington Post. "I think the reason that NASA is backing this is because of all the recent activity in the discovery of exoplanets and the advances in astrobiology in general.

"People just consider it much more likely now that we're going to find something -- probably microbes first and maybe intelligence later," he added. "The driving force behind this is from a scientific point of view that it seems much more likely now that we are going to find life at some point in the future."

Among the many speakers at last week's astrobiology symposium, one has raised a few international eyebrows in recent years.

"I believe [alien life exists], but I have no evidence. I would be really excited and it would make my understanding of my religion deeper and richer in ways that I can't even predict yet, which is why it would be so exciting," Brother Guy Consolmagno, a Jesuit brother, astronomer and Vatican planetary scientist told HuffPost senior science editor David Freeman.

Consolmagno has publicly stated his belief that "any entity -- no matter how many tentacles it has -- has a soul," and he's suggested that he would be happy to baptize any ETs, as long as they requested it.

"There has to be freedom to do science. Being a good scientist means admitting we never have the whole truth -- there's always more to learn." Consolmagno also doesn't think the public would panic when or if it's revealed that alien life has been found.

"I really think it would be a three-day wonder and then we'd go back to worrying about reality TV or the crazy things going on in Washington -- that's the way human beings are. Because I think most people are like me: we expect it's out there. And our reaction would be, 'Wow, thank heavens. It's about time."

Earth is no longer the center of the universe, nor is it flat -- at least that's the currently accepted thinking among most scientists. And we now know, conclusively, that there are a lot more planets than the ones in our own solar system.

"The number of habitable worlds in our galaxy is certainly in the tens of billions, minimum, and we haven't even talked about the moons. And the number of galaxies we can see, other than our own, is about 100 billion," Seth Shostak, senior astronomer at California's SETI Institute told HuffPost.

Watch this video zooming and panning through the night sky to show 10,000 galaxies photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope.

At the NASA/Library of Congress symposium, Shostak gave out some startling numbers about how many stars there are in the part of the universe that we can see. "It's a big number: 10,000 billion, billion. And we know that most of those stars have planets -- 70 or 80 percent. If all of those planets are sterile, and you're the only interesting thing happening in the cosmos, then you are a miracle. That would be exceptional in the extreme. So, the middle-of-the-road approach is to say, 'You're not a miracle, you're just another duck in a row of ducks.'"

"The bottom line of this," Shostak said, "is something like one in five of all stars may have an analog to Earth. That's a lot of habitable worlds, and, indeed, the number of Earths in our own galaxy might be on the order of 50 billion."

Those are big numbers to ponder.

The D.C. conference included a great deal of discussion about the upcoming mission of the Hubble's long-anticipated successor: the James Webb Space Telescope. As large as a tennis court, this deep space observatory is scheduled for a 2018 launch and will orbit beyond our moon. The Webb telescope will focus on new planetary discoveries and collect data from the atmospheres of those planets, looking for certain things that might point to what we would consider possible indicators of life.

HuffPost asked Dick, an astrobiologist, for his opinion on the continuing output of UFO reports around the world.

"I try to keep an open mind on this. Ninety-some percent can be explained by natural phenomena, etc. The question is what to do with the other 3 or 4 percent," Dick said. "My opinion is that they should be studied further, on the one hand. By definition, they're something that we don't know what they are. They could be some physical, psychological or social phenomena that we don't know about. But I think it's jumping to a conclusion that they're extraterrestrial. I don't see that evidence.

"I haven't looked at the evidence close enough to say that there's intelligence behind it. But I've seen enough to know that there are unexplained things that we should look at more, and right now, the U.S. government is not doing that."

Related Articles:

US Government Takes First Major Steps Towards UFO Disclosure

China expands world's deepest "dark matter" lab
10 Scientific Studies That Prove Consciousness Can Alter Our Physical Material World

Delft University scientists 'teleport' information over three metres (Netherlands)

Scientists Report Quantum Teleportation Breakthroughs (Japan, Switserland)

China looks to quantum mechanics to protect secrets from US hackers

"FUTURE AND PHYSICS (#)" - May 16-17, 2014 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) -

(#) New major Discoveries (This channel will become a historical channel in the future, prove that Kryon is a real communication to humanity from the Creative Source) - (Text version Physics)

1 To see and measure multi-dimensional/quantum physics, instrument (super cooling quantum plasma lens)

2 Two more laws of multi-dimensional physics revealed: explanation of dark matter & acknowledgement of free energy (controlling mass)

3 God in the atom. God has - provable - part in physics. Intelligent/benevolent design. (Will bring religion and science together.)

4 Human Consciousness is an attribute of physics. (Pleiadians - Humans ancestors / Humans free choice only planet in the Milky Way Galaxy. Other galaxies have their own spiritual systems and physics)

5.Coherent DNA. Multidimensional DNA coherent between dimensions will give Enhanced DNA

"Earth, the only planet with free choice in the Milky Way Galaxy"

"The Big Picture - You Are Not Alone" - (a message from Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll)

"The Quantum Factor" – Apr 10, 2011 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Galaxies, Universe, Intelligent design, Benevolent design, Aliens, Nikola Tesla (Quantum energy), Inter-Planetary Travel, DNA, Genes, Stem Cells, Cells, Rejuvenation, Shift of Human Consciousness, Spontaneous Remission, Religion, Dictators, Africa, China, Nuclear Power, Sustainable Development, Animals, Global Unity.. etc.) - (Text Version)


"Recalibration of the Universe"– Jan 25, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Text Version)

“… The entire galaxy revolves as one plate, in a very counter-intuitive way. The stars and the constellations do not orbit within the rules of Newtonian physics that you are used to seeing all around you in your own solar system. For the stars and clusters in your galaxy, distance from the center does not matter. All the stars rotate as one. This is because the galaxy is entangled with the middle of itself. In that state, there is no time or distance. The change of consciousness on this planet has changed the center of the galaxy. This is because what happens here, dear one, is "known" by the center.

It's interesting to us what your reaction to all this is scientifically. You saw that the "creative event" of your Universe is missing some energy in order for it to have formed as it did. In addition, the unusual way the galaxy rotates, as I just stated, was also noted. So you have calculated that for all this to be in place, there has to be missing 3D matter, and you have given it a name - dark matter. How funny! Did you ever think that there could be a multidimensional effect going on that you now can observe and calculate - that has immense power, but can't be seen? It's not "matter" at all and it's not 3D. It's quantum energy.

Let me tell you something about physics. Yet again, I'll make it simple. Everything your scientists have seen in physics happens in pairs. At the moment, there are four laws of physics in your three-dimensional paradigm. They represent two pairs of energy types. Eventually, there will be six. At the center of your galaxy is what you call a black hole, but it is not a single thing. It is a duality. There is no such thing as "singularity". You might say it's one energy with two parts - a weak and a strong quantum force. And the strangest thing is it knows who you are. It is the creator engine. It's different in other galaxies than this one. It's unique.

The very physics of your galaxy is postured by what you do here. The astronomers can look into the cosmos and they will discover different physics in different galaxies. Could it be that there's something going on in the other galaxies like this one? I'm not going to answer that. … “

Pope sacks Paraguay bishop who promoted alleged paedophile priest

Yahoo – AFP, Angus Mackinnon, 25 Sep 2014

Pope Francis, pictured at the Shrine of Solmoe, in Dangjin, South Korea,
on August 15, 2014 (AFP Photo/Vincenzo Pinto)

Vatican City (AFP) - Pope Francis on Thursday sacked a Paraguayan bishop accused of protecting and promoting a priest described by his former church superiors in the United States as "a serious threat to young people".

In a statement, the Vatican said the removal of Ciudad del Este Bishop Rogelio Livieres Plano had been a "painful decision taken for serious pastoral reasons."

There was no mention of the precise circumstances behind the dismissal of the conservative bishop, as opposed to the more customary acceptance of his resignation.

The move follows a visit to Paraguay by senior Vatican officials charged with investigating a case that had led to a public war of words between the South American country's senior clerics.

"This grave decision of the Holy See was taken for serious pastoral reasons and was motivated by the greater good of unity in the church of Ciudad del Este and the episcopal communion in Paraguay," the Vatican statement said.

Livieres had been publicly attacked by his colleagues in Paraguay for his sponsorship of an Argentinian-born priest who was removed from his parish in the US state of Pennsylvania in 2002 following a civil suit over the alleged abuse of boys in his pastoral care.

The Church reportedly settled the suit in 2006 with a payment of $400,000 (315,000 euros).

The priest, Carlos Urrotigoity, was sent to Canada for psychological assessment. According to US media reports, that assessment concluded that the priest was "locked into" a sexual attraction to male minors, that he should be banned from the ministry, and that he should have no contact with young people.

Despite that verdict, Urrotigoity was able to resume his Church career. He moved to Paraguay in 2004 and has prospered there under the wing of Livieres, who is thought to be a member of the conservative Opus Dei sect.

In February of this year, Urrotigoity was named as Livieres's vicar-general, the number two in the diocese and the official with responsiblity for investigating allegations of inappropriate sexual behaviour by priests.

'Serious threat to youth'

In the United States, Urrotigoity came under the authority of the Bishop of Scranton.

Earlier this year the Scranton diocese posted a statement on its website in which it said that the then-bishop Joseph Martino had warned everyone concerned about the danger posed by the Argentinian priest, including the papal ambassadors in the United States and Paraguay.

"In every instance, Bishop Martino clearly expressed his reservations concerning Father Urrutigoity who was identified as posing a serious threat to young people."

Publicity surrounding the case triggered a spat within the Paraguyan church hierarchy. When the Archbishop of Asuncion, demanded that Urrutigoity be removed, Livieres responded by calling the senior cleric "a homosexual."

Alarmed, the Vatican in July banned Livieres from ordaining priests and ordered him to remove Urrutigoity from his position.

The Church is sensitive to charges, levied by both the United Nations and thousands of abuse victims, that, for years, it instinctively protected serial sex offenders within the clergy.

US-based victims advocacy group SNAP questioned the Vatican's failure to explain clearly the reasons for Thursday's dismissal.

"For perhaps the first time ever, the Vatican has punished a bishop, who protected and promoted a credibly accused sex offender cleric," SNAP's Barbara Dorris wrote in an email.

"The trouble is no one is sure that's why Ciudad del Este's bishop is being punished. But a corrupt bishop's removal beats a corrupt bishop's resignation."

The Vatican insists that, under Francis's leadership, it has acted to root out behaviour the pontiff has described as akin to a "Satanic Mass."

In a move sanctioned by Francis, Polish cleric Jozef Wesolowski was this week placed under house arrest pending an unprecedented trial under Vatican law for the sexual abuse of minors and possession of child pornography.

Former archbishop Wesolowski, 65, was defrocked in June after a Church tribunal found that he had abused minors during his 2008-13 stint as the Vatican's ambassador to the Dominican Republic.

Church tribunals have resulted in the defrocking of nearly 850 priest for sex abuse in the last decade, during which time hundreds of millions have been paid to settle compensation claims by victims of abuse.

Related Article:

Vatican puts ex-envoy under house arrest in sex abuse case

Vatican puts ex-envoy under house arrest in sex abuse case

Yahoo – AFP,  23 Sep 2014

General view of worshippers on St Peter's Square at the Vatican, on April 27,

2014 (AFP Photo/Vincenzo Pinto)

Vatican City (AFP) - A former Vatican ambassador to the Dominican Republic has been placed under house arrest in the first case of criminal proceedings by the Holy See over the sexual abuse of children, a spokesman said Tuesday.

Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said Pope Francis had personally ordered swift action in the case of Polish former archbishop Jozef Wesolowski, who was convicted of sex abuse by a Church tribunal in June and defrocked pending further criminal proceedings.

Lombardi said the legal move was "the result of the pope's express wish for a case this serious and sensitive to be dealt with without delay, with the necessary scrupulousness and full undertaking of responsibility on the part of the institutions which head up the Holy See."

A picture taken in Santo Domingo, on 

August 12, 2011 shows Jozef Wesolowski
-- the Vatican's envoy to the Dominican 

Republic (AFP Photo/Erika Santelices)

Italian news agency ANSA said Wesolowski was being held under house arrest in an apartment within the same building as the criminal court.

If the case goes to trial, it will be the first for sex abuse within the tiny city state.

Wesolowski's defrocking came six months after the UN children's rights watchdog highlighted his case as an example of the Vatican's failure to take concrete actions to prove its commitment to stamp out the abuse of minors by priests.

The Vatican had been accused by some critics of attempting to protect Wesolowski from Dominican jurisdiction by recalling him to Rome.

Wesolowski, 65, had been ambassador to the Dominican Republic since 2008, but was recalled by Pope Francis last August following accusations of sexually abusing minors.

He was ordained in 1972 by then archbishop of Krakow, Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, who later became pope John Paul II and was elevated to sainthood this year.

The late pontiff named Wesolowski the Vatican's envoy to Bolivia. He was later posted to several Asian countries before being dispatched to the Dominican Republic in 2008 by then pope Benedict XVI.

Press reports last year linked him with another Polish priest, Wojciech Gil, accused of raping boys while serving on the Caribbean island.

'No privileges'

The Church has faced a decade-long series of scandals over abuse by priests and lay officials, from Ireland to the United States and Australia.

It was fiercely condemned by the United Nations in January for failing to stamp out child abuse and allowing systematic cover-ups by simply moving around clergy suspected of raping or molesting children.

Francis has vowed to crack down on abuse in the Catholic Church, reiterating the zero-tolerance approach of his predecessor.

Last year he overhauled Vatican law, issuing a special decree declaring that sexual violence and sexual acts with children, child prostitution and child pornography were punishable by up to 12 years in prison.

In May he warned there were "no privileges" for bishops when it came to child sex crimes and likened sexual abuse to a "Satanic mass".

At a UN hearing earlier this year, Vatican officials revealed that 3,420 abuse cases had been handled over the past decade by the Catholic Church's Canon Law prosecutors.

As a result of these cases, 848 priests were defrocked while a further 2,572 were ordered to "live a life of prayer or penance", for example in a monastery.

The Vatican says it receives around 600 claims against abusive priests every year, many dating back to the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.

Related Articles:

Former papal diplomat could face trial outside Vatican
Vatican recalls Dominican Republic envoy amid abuse claims

Pope slams Church complicity in child sex abuse

Brazil markets cold on Rousseff as voters warm to her

Yahoo – AFP, Moises Avila, 23 Sep 2014

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff delivers a speech on June 27, 2012

(AFP Photo/Evaristo Sa)

Brasília (AFP) - Brazil's market-movers hope President Dilma Rousseff's time is up, but there are signs that voters are moving back towards her as next month's election nears.

Rousseff's main challenger, environmentalist Marina Silva had been on course for victory, but the latest polls suggest the incumbent may have halted her momentum and closed the gap.

If stock prices are a guide, the business elite wants to see Rousseff go, blaming her for the low growth and high inflation that have combined to tip the economy into recession.

But some analysts say voters would prefer to give Rousseff a chance to turn the ship around rather than plump for the relatively untried Silva on October 26.

Brazil's financial world blames Rousseff for running the economy aground.

She took over as president from charismatic former union leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in 2010, when GDP was racing ahead by a spectacular 7.5 percent per year.

Growth for this year is forecast at just 0.3 percent and, having suffered two quarters of negative growth, the economy is officially in recession.

Rousseff, who has promised to revamp her finance ministry team if re-elected, has blamed the slowdown on the global economic crisis.

And, when economists say her domestic policies are off beam, she points to strong consumer spending, near full employment and rising wages.

Poor policy combination

"Rousseff chose a bad combination of policies," says Pedro Tuesta, US-based chief economist with 4Cast consultancy.

"She changed her inflation model" to one of higher tolerance as the rate rose beyond the government ceiling.

"She thought the economy was going to rise on the back of demand, but that only happens in the short term. She was unable to change direction when it was evident that that was not working."

After taking office in early 2011, Rousseff tried to stop end the central bank's autonomy for setting interest rates, bringing rates down to cheapen credit and stimulate consumer spending.

That fueled price rises and 12-monthly inflation is now running at the 6.5 percent official ceiling. The inflationary pressures unleashed saw the central bank lift interest rates to try to keep them in check.

The government also sought to encourage growth across several sectors, including automobiles and white goods, by cutting taxes but analysts say that can only be a limited, short-term response.

They have also attacked what they deem to be too much government intervention in state oil giant Petrobras and on energy prices, which were cut following a severe drought.

Marcelo Latini, a partner with the Rio-based Latini-Bertoletti real estate firm, sees an uncertain outlook.

"The real estate sector needs low rates, low inflation and more confidence and stability for the future of the economy," Latini told AFP.

Brazilian President and presidential candidate for the Workers' Party (PT) Dilma

 Rousseff (L, bottom) greets supporters during a campaign rally in Sao Paulo, Brazil

on September 20, 2014 (AFP Photo/Nelson Almeida)

"We don't have this at present."

Alexandre Schwartsman, a former central bank director, told AFP the financial market is "allergic" to Rousseff.

"The possibility of a new government changing tack on such policies has seen the market react with euphoria to polls unfavorable to Rousseff," he said.

Cautious electorate

Despite the poor growth outlook, joblessness has remained low at 4.9 percent on the most recent April data.

Wages have been rising and domestic demand is moderately buoyant, with the government's welfare programs having lifted 40 million people out of poverty over the past decade.

"During this government's tenure the lower class has become an emerging one," said Aquiles Meneses, a businessman in the construction industry who says he will stick with Rousseff.

"Before, only the elite built a house. Now, there are more opportunities," the 32-year-old said.

Andre Cesar of consultants Prospective says a cautious electorate may agree, explaining: "It's hard to swap what you know for what you don't. They have a job, a TV, a car..."

Related Article:

Brazil readies election thriller

Brazil readies election thriller

Yahoo – AFP, Laura Bonilla Cal, 21 Sep 2014

The image of presidential candidate of the Brazilian Socialist Party (PSB) for

 October's presidential election, Marina Silva is reflected on a mirror as she speaks

 during a press conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on September 17, 2014 (AFP

Photo/Yasuyoshi Chiba)

Rio de Janeiro (AFP) - A fiery plane crash that claimed the life of a popular politician has provided Brazil's presidential campaign with a dramatic plot twist worthy of a telenovela. 

With just two weeks to go before millions of Brazilians heads to the polls on October 5, environmentalist Marina Silva, 56, has emerged from nowhere as a serious threat to President Dilma Rousseff's hopes of securing re-election.

Silva's rise is all the more remarkable given that she was not in the running for the highest office until the August 13 plane crash that claimed the life of the Socialist Party's original candidate Eduardo Campos.

The presidential candidate of the Brazilian

 Socialist Party (PSB) for October's 
presidential election, Marina Silva, speaks
during a press conference in Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil on September 17, 2014 (AFP Photo/
Yasuyoshi Chiba)

Silva, his running mate, was subsequently installed as the Socialist Party's challenger and is now tantalizingly close to ending the 12-year rule of Rousseff's Workers Party (PT).

Silva's election would cap a remarkable journey for the veteran environmental campaigner, who was raised in a community of rubber tappers in the Amazon and only learned to read and write at age 16.

Silva has her sights firmly set on surviving the first-round ballot next month to enter a runoff that most analysts project will give her a real chance of securing victory.

Unlike the first round of voting, Brazil's election laws grant candidates in any runoff the same amount of television and radio time -- a factor likely to benefit Silva's campaign.

The latest Datafolha opinion poll shows Rousseff widening her lead over Silva at the October 5 ballot, carving a seven-point margin from 37 percent to 30 percent.

However, a succession of polls have indicated the two rivals would be virtually neck-and-neck in a runoff, with many surveys suggesting Silva would be the likelier winner.

Daniel Alves, a political scientist at the Getulio Vargas Foundation, says that Silva's rags-to-riches backstory has struck a chord with millions of her compatriots seeking to lift themselves out of poverty.

"Brazilians like to believe that everything is possible if you work hard and have faith," Alves told AFP.

"Marina Silva is mixed-race, was born and raised in the poor interior of Brazil, and now has a chance of becoming president of Brazil. She is the embodiment of the hope that Brazilians have."

'One egg and some flour, salt'

Rousseff's allies however have attacked Silva, claiming that the presidential rival has the "face of a little saint" but would be likely to undo the Workers Party's social welfare programs that have raised living standards for millions of Brazilians over the past decade.

Silva has responded forcefully to the claims, insisting that her own humble beginnings prevent her from forgetting her obligations to the poor.

Brazil's presidential candidate for the Socialist Party, Marina Silva, and her vice

 presidential candidate, Beto Albuquerque take part in a campaign meeting with 

artists in Sao Paulo, on September 15, 2014 (AFP Photo/Nelson Almeida)

"Dilma, I am not going to stoop to fight on your level. Of course I am going to maintain family support payments, and do you know why? Because I was born in Seringal Bagaco (in Brazil's impoverished Acre state). I know what it is to feel hunger.

"The only food my mother sometimes had to feed eight children was one egg and some flour and salt, with a little bit of diced onion," she said.

"I remember once having looked at my father and at my mother," she continued, becoming emotional.

"I asked them, are you two going to eat? And my mother answered, 'No, we're not hungry...' but later I came to understand that there was more than one day that they didn't eat.

"Anyone who has ever experienced that could never do away with family welfare payments."

University of Sao Paulo political science professor Rubens Figueireido said the last two weeks of the campaign will be fiercely competitive.

"The big problem faced by Marina is that she has a very weak party coalition, and very limited financial resources compared to the Workers Party," he said.

"She has has a much weaker campaign organization, has had much less time on television and this is the first time that she is experiencing what it is like to be attacked as a candidate, because in 2010 (when she first ran for elective office) she was celebrated everywhere she went, and was not yet seen as a threat."

Peru creates new anti-logging commission after murders

BBC News, 21 September 2014

The commission was announced after the murder of anti-logging activist
Edwin Chota (pictured) and three other indigenous leaders

Related Stories

• In pictures: Illegal logging in Peru
• Brazil Amazon loggers arrested

The Peruvian government says it will investigate illegal logging along the Peru-Brazil border following the murder of four indigenous leaders.

The leaders were killed in early September, allegedly by loggers.

The Peruvian President of the Council of Ministers, Ana Jara Velasquez, announced a commission which she said would have powers to stop the logging.

She said police had so far arrested one person suspected of involvement in the killings.

The four tribal leaders, including outspoken anti-logging activist Edwin Chota, had been killed on their way to a meeting to discuss ways to stop illegal logging.

The men from the Ashaninka community were attempting to travel to Brazil when they were murdered,

Under threat

Campaigners say the men had received several death threats from illegal loggers.

Correspondents say indigenous people have felt under increasing threat from deforestation in recent years.

Ana Jara Velasquez said the new commission would also address the issue of land ownership and titles in the area.

The Peruvian newspaper El Comercio said Mr Chota had requested earlier this year, and been refused, any rights of protection over his ancestral lands.

The newspaper quoted the local forestry commission in Mr Chota's region of Ucayali as saying that the Peruvian government had divided the land and allocated it as logging concessions to two companies in 2002.

A 2012 World Bank report estimated that 80% of Peruvian timber export stemmed from illegal logging.

Related Article:

Indigenous peoples need better protection