International
US midterms saw ‘widespread disinformation’ affecting voters: monitors
| Bye AFP |
Midterm elections in the United States saw free but highly polarized campaigns and voter disinformation was widespread, international observers said Wednesday.
The comments by observers with the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), which monitors elections in Western nations and the former Soviet Union, came a day after Americans headed to the polls — with outcomes set to shape the political fortunes of President Joe Biden.
Biden’s Democrats are facing a struggle to hold on to control of Congress, after a race that he has cast as a defining moment for US democracy.
For now, Republicans are edging towards a slim majority in the US House of Representatives, but their hopes of a “red wave” appear dashed as the Democrats outperformed.
“Campaigning was free but highly polarized,” and involved harsh rhetoric, said Margareta Cederfelt, leader of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s short-term observer mission.
“Polarization and widespread disinformation affected voters’ ability to inform themselves,” she told reporters on Wednesday, adding that the intimidation of election workers was concerning as well.
The election campaign has seen a gush of misinformation, with far-right Republican candidates endorsing former president Donald Trump’s baseless claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him.
Some have also seized on isolated voting machine glitches to launch what many saw as preemptive efforts to discredit the results.
A number of Republican candidates in key races, including those who, if elected, will have responsibility in overseeing future elections in their states, had challenged or refused to accept the legitimacy of the 2020 results, the OSCE noted in a statement on Wednesday.
“Unfortunately… baseless allegations of fraud continued to have a serious result, in harassment of and threats against election officials,” Cederfelt added.
She noted that the vocal refusal by some in accepting the legitimacy of the 2020 results had a “harmful effect” on public discourse, lowering confidence in the system.
Accusations of rigging sprung up on social media platforms and were amplified by Trump after an Arizona county reported a minority of tabulation machines were not working during Tuesday’s vote.
Officials have since said there was no criminality involved in voting machine issues, and the OSCE added on Wednesday that it planned to follow up on the concerns in coming days.
International
Details of medical transfer of leader Milagro Sala revealed
September 29 |
Argentine media published Friday details of the upcoming transfer of social leader Milagro Sala, who is serving house arrest in Jujuy, to a hospital in the province of La Plata to undergo medical treatment that would save her life.
Since December 2022 Sala had been demanding to undergo surgery to treat the thrombosis that keeps her in a delicate state, but this intervention can only be performed in four clinics in her country, none of which are located in Jujuy.
This Thursday, the criminal enforcement judge of that province, Carlos Cattán, signed the permission for Sala’s transfer to the Italian Hospital of La Plata. The magistrate entrusted her lawyers with her transfer and security, said her lawyer Alejandra Cejas.
The indigenous leader will travel between October 3 and 5, accompanied by her medical and legal team. She will do so aboard a medical plane because her health would not tolerate a road trip. She will travel without anklets or prison staff custody.
In La Plata, she will be in charge of the criminal enforcement judge with jurisdiction in the area of the Hospital Italiano and her police custody will be assumed by the Patronato de Liberados de la Provincia de Buenos Aires.
He will remain at the Hospital Italiano for about three weeks, where he will have between one and three stents placed to treat the thrombosis and the obstruction in the vena cava of his left leg. He will then undergo another 20-30 days of postoperative care, in a place not far from the health institution.
According to Ceja, Judge Cattan based his decision on the right to health and the humanitarian issue, thus weighing the right to life above any other right. In the opinion of the jurist, the Prosecutor’s Office, which until this moment had emphatically opposed to Sala receiving this treatment, ran out of arguments to sustain such position.
She asserted that the governor of Jujuy, Gerardo Morales, the architect of the unjust convictions of Sala, could not prevent Cattán’s ruling because at this moment he does not have the same influence over the justice system that he had before the popular protests that began in that province last June, when he enacted a reform in the local Magna Carta that provoked intense protests and was later declared unconstitutional.
Ceja affirmed that Morales “is a repressor: if he has to kill you, he kills you”, but “he lost the elections and today he is denounced as a criminal against humanity”.
Sala is considered a referent of the indigenous struggle in Argentina and the first political prisoner of Macrismo. According to local media following the struggle for her freedom, she has been unjustly detained for seven years and 254 days.
International
Venezuelan Ministry of Health renews agreement with PAHO
September 29 |
The Venezuelan Minister of Health, Magaly Gutiérrez Viña, renewed the cooperation agreement with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the Andean Health Organization – Hipólito Unanue Agreement in order to improve the health conditions of the population of the Andean sub-region.
The agreement took place this Wednesday at the 75th session of the Regional Committee of the World Health Organization for the Americas, held in Washington, D.C., and which runs from September 25 to 29.
During the meeting, the minister declared that Venezuela ratifies “the commitment to integration” and the “alliance with the signing of the renewal of the Cooperation Agreement of the Andean Region together with the Pan American Health Organization”.
This with a view to consolidating “the integration process” and “to continue advancing in training, international cooperation for development, so that the countries can exercise effective authority over their policies”.
In his speech, Mr. Gutiérrez Viña highlighted the damage caused by the blockade and the economic sanctions imposed by the United States on his country, and added that these measures prevent access to medical supplies and treatments for the Venezuelan people.
In general, the participants in the conclave agreed to work on a regional policy with a view to strengthening care for cancer patients, promoting early childhood development, healthy aging, as well as the treatment of non-communicable diseases and mental health, in addition to the implications of climate change on health.
The director of PAHO, Dr. Jarbas Barbosa, said that it is time to “align agendas and promote synergies and convergences”.
International
EU and Latin America in cooperation against crime and drug trafficking
September 29 |
The interior ministers of the European Union and fourteen Latin American countries, including Colombia, El Salvador, Mexico and Argentina, pledged yesterday in Brussels to strengthen collaboration and cooperation in the fight against drug trafficking and transnational organized crime, in particular through a permanent channel for communication between the two regions to facilitate the exchange of data and establish a schedule of regular meetings.
“Individual responses against organized crime are ineffective. We can only be effective from international cooperation,” including beyond the European Union, defended the acting Minister of the Interior and EU Presidency-in-turn, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, at a press conference in Brussels.
The EU bloc took advantage of the monthly meeting of European interior ministers to receive the Latin American Committee for Internal Security (CLASI) in the European capital and “seal a bi-regional strategic partnership”.
In the joint statement issued after the meeting, the ministers expressed their commitment to “intensify cooperation to address the global drug situation affecting both regions”, for which they called for “increased exchange of information and intelligence”, “joint operations involving financial investigations and the promotion of development-oriented drug policy measures, including alternative development”.
Police cooperation priorities also include the fight against child sexual abuse, cybercrime, environmental and financial crime, illegal trade in cultural property, including money laundering, as well as corruption and the illicit profits it generates.
In the joint declaration, the ministers of internal security pledged to “join efforts to generate timely responses” in the fight against crime and drug trafficking.
Europe reiterated that “the rule of law and respect for human rights are of vital importance to our cooperation” as well as the application of criminal justice.
Final report submitted to Public Prosecutor’s Office to investigate former deputies who diverted funds through front NGOs
Details of medical transfer of leader Milagro Sala revealed
Venezuelan Ministry of Health renews agreement with PAHO
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