International
The world needs a new Carnation Revolution, defends one of its architects
The world needs a new Carnation Revolution in response to the inequalities that exist in society, said Portuguese Colonel Vasco Lourenço, one of the soldiers who led the uprising that meant the arrival of democracy in Portugal, which next Thursday will be 50 years old.
Lourenço was one of the main responsible for the military conspiracy behind the Carnation Revolution on April 25, 1974 and, although he is proud to have helped make Portuguese society fairer, he considered, in an interview with EFE, that part of that conquest has been lost.
“We had the ambition of a fairer society. And after April 25, in the following years, that was a fact. Portuguese society was much fairer, much less unequal. Unfortunately, in recent years, inequalities have been growing,” said the soldier.
The problem is global and can trigger a new revolt: “There will have to be a new Carnation Revolution. It is not possible for society in the world to be so unequal.”
Lourenço was the operational responsible for the uprising that brought down the dictatorship of António de Oliveira Salazar and returned power to the citizenry, although he had to live that day from the Azores archipelago because the regime moved him there the previous month.
Half a century later, at the age of 83, he presides over the 25 de Abril Association, the entity that brings together the military who participated in a revolution that influenced the creation of many democratic states in the world, including neighboring Spain, which began its transition after the death of dictator Francisco Franco in 1975.
“The peaceful transition in Spain was only possible in the way it was done because there was April 25 in Portugal,” said the retired colonel.
But democratization did not stay in Spain and reached other corners of the globe, such as Greece – after Portugal demonstrated that “the military did not have to do only ‘pinochetadas” -, Brazil and other Latin American countries, Lourenço listed.
And it went further: the independence of the Portuguese colonies in Africa “made the fight against apartheid much easier” in South Africa.
In Portugal and Spain, despite being so close, the paths to reach democracy were very different and this former official considers that in the neighboring country there are still “wounds to heal” from the past.
“In Spain, the civil war caused very conflicting situations. And then the cure of that war was not made (…) Here in Portugal, despite the fact that there was no violence, there was a military rupture that allowed to cure what had happened,” reasoned the colonel, who recalled that the Franco dictatorship was “much more violent.”
With the Carnation Revolution, “the wounds of the time of fascism were healed.” Half a century later, the country has joined the European boom of the far right.
The radical Chega party has 50 of the 230 deputies of the Parliament, the largest number of seats in the hands of the extreme right since the end of the Portuguese dictatorship.
“Chega has risen precisely because the democratic forces have shot themselves in the foot,” defended Lourenço, who regretted that “a large part of the politicians,” when they govern, prefers to serve their own interests than those of the people.
These behaviors “create fields for opportunists, so that populists make promises that they will not keep” and give wings to the far right, he said.
Even so, Lourenço is “optimistic” and trusts that the “spirit of April” is still alive in Portugal.
That spirit was the one that led in 1974 a group of soldiers to overthrow a dictatorial regime implanted 48 years ago and later return power to the citizenry.
The coup was fast and effective and in less than 24 hours the dictatorship had fallen: “It was the best organized and best executed operation that the Armed Forces have done throughout their history in Portugal,” the colonel reflected.
Asked whether the Portugal he imagined 50 years ago resembled today’s, Lourenço replied cautiously: “Yes and no.”
Conquests that they dreamed of such as integration into the international community, peace or democracy, despite their flaws – “I prefer a bad and imperfect democracy to a ‘good’ dictatorship” – have been maintained to this day.
Social justice continues to be the ‘thorn’: “Poverty has increased. In that sense, I would like it to be better, but we are incredibly better,” he said.
International
The AP agency sues the Trump Government after being banned for writing Gulf of Mexico
The American press agency Associated Press (AP) announced this Friday that it has sued three members of the Donald Trump Administration after being banned from the Oval Office and the presidential plane Air Force One for not complying with the directive of calling the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America.
“The press and all people in the United States have the right to choose their own words and not to be retaliated for it by the Government. The Constitution does not allow the Government to control freedom of expression,” the media maintains.
In its style guide, AP decided to continue calling the Gulf of Mexico “by its original name”, still mentioning the new name chosen by Trump, since it is a body of water that shares a border with Mexico and Cuba.
The White House formally blocked AP’s access to the Oval Office and Air Force One on February 14. “We are very proud of this country and we want it to be the Gulf of America,” Trump said on Tuesday.
The agency’s lawsuit, of 18 pages and filed before a federal court in Washington DC, alleges that they have decided to take this step to claim their right to editorial independence and prevent the Executive from coercing journalists to use only a language approved by it.
Trump signed the executive order to change the name to Gulf of America on January 20, the first day of his return to power. He later named February 9 as ‘ Gulf of America Day’.
The AP complaint is specifically directed against the president’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles, his number two, Taylor Budowich, and the White House spokeswoman, Karoline Leavitt.
This Thursday, more than thirty US media asked the Government to restore AP’s participation in presidential events and not to take into account “the editorial point of view” when limiting access to the White House.
Among the signatories are the television networks Fox News and Newsmax, with a conservative tinge, in addition to other large newspapers such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, The Wall Street Journal or The Atlantic.
AP highlighted when reporting on his complaint that this Friday Trump referred to that agency as “radical left-wing lunatics”: It is “a third-rate company with a first name,” he said about it, the main one in the country and founded in 1846.
International
Buenos Aires advances legislative elections to May 18 and suspends the primaries
The Legislature of the city of Buenos Aires approved this Friday the suspension of the open, simultaneous and mandatory primary elections (PASO), a measure that, according to the deputy head of government, Clara Muzzio, “allows to save 20 billion pesos (about 18,894 million dollars)”, and advanced the legislative elections for May 18.
“The City Legislature suspended the PASO, a measure that saves $20 billion for neighbors,” Muzzio announced on Friday.
For his part, the mayor of the City, Jorge Macri, maintained that the PASO “were an expensive mechanism that only solved the problems of politicians, not of the people.”
The May 18 elections, which were originally scheduled for July, will be held through the Single Electronic Ballot system.
In that instance, the inhabitants of the city of Buenos Aires will elect their local legislators and, in October, they will have to return to the polls to define, together with the rest of the country, the composition of the chambers of Deputies and Senators.
“The fact that the elections are in May allows each Buenos Aires to decide on their own city, without being tied to national discussions,” said the mayor.
The project was approved in the Buenos Aires legislature with 55 votes in favor, 3 against and one abstention, after an agreement between the main political forces.
The suspension of the primaries in the City of Buenos Aires occurs one day after the Argentine Parliament approved the same measure at the national level.
The original project sent by the national government sought the elimination of the primary system but finally, given the lack of support for that objective, the government chose to promote an initiative that suspends them for this year.
The primary election system was first implemented in Argentina to define the candidates for the 2011 general elections, based on a political reform approved by Parliament at the end of 2009, with the aim of democratizing political representation, transparency and electoral equity.
According to the PASO system, to be qualified to compete in the general elections, candidates or lists of candidates must achieve at least 1.5% of the total votes in the primaries.
All parties are obliged to participate in the primaries, although they do not necessarily have to present more than one list of candidates to decide which one will lead to the general elections, an option for which the majority of the forces have opted in the last elections.
That is one of the reasons why the system has been questioned, among which are also its costs and the cumbersomeness of the organization.
International
Trump threatens to impose tariffs on governments that apply digital fees to US companies
The President of the United States, Donald Trump, signed an executive order on Friday that threatens to impose tariffs on foreign governments that apply digital fees to US companies, including Spain, the United Kingdom and France.
The order states that “foreign governments have exercised a growing extraterritorial authority over US companies, particularly in the technology sector,” and directly cites the taxes on digital services that “several business partners” apply since 2019.
According to the text, the Trump Administration will impose tariffs on those governments that use taxes or regulations that are “discriminatory, disproportionate or designed to transfer significant funds or intellectual property from US companies to that government or its chosen domestic entities.”
Trump delegates to the US Trade Representative the possibility of “renewing investigations” on the so-called technology fees of Spain, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Austria and Turkey, imposed in the first term of the Republican, and if so, “take all appropriate actions”, which would include the imposition of tariffs.
“US companies will no longer sustain failed foreign economies through fines and extortionational taxes,” says the White House document, which provides for a “process” for them to “report” these “disproportionate” measures to the Commercial Representative.
He also instructs him to investigate together with the Secretaries of the Treasury and Commerce whether in the European Union or the United Kingdom the use of products or services of US companies is “required or encouraged” to “undermine freedom of expression”, political activity or, “otherwise, moderate content”.
It also suggests to the Representative, among other things, to hold “a panel” with its partners of the T-MEC (Canada and Mexico) on the tax on digital services in Canada, and identify ways to achieve a “permanent moratorium on customs duties on electronic transmissions”.
The order does not mention any specific company, but mainly affects large technology companies such as Apple, Google (subsidiary of Alphabet), Meta and Amazon, which have precisely starred in a resounded approach to President Trump since he won the elections in November.
In his first term (2017-2021), Trump ordered to investigate the digital fees to his companies abroad and threatened to apply tariffs to the six countries indicated today; taxes were imposed in the government of his successor, the Democrat Joe Biden, and subsequently suspended.
Trump signed another executive order aimed at restricting access to US technology, especially in the field of artificial intelligence, what he calls “foreign adversaries”, including Cuba, Venezuela, Iran, Russia and China.
The executive order does not specify in detail what measures will be taken to restrict the access of these “foreign adversaries” to US technology.
Under the label of “foreign adversaries”, the order identifies China, Hong Kong, Macau, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia and the “regime of Venezuelan politician Nicolás Maduro”, according to the text.
Trump justifies his decision with the argument that “economic security is national security” and maintains that the country must protect its sensitive infrastructures and technologies, from artificial intelligence to semiconductors and advances in biotechnology.
The executive order focuses especially on China, pointing out that companies linked to Beijing have used investments in the US to access key technologies and that the Chinese government is taking advantage of US technology to modernize its military apparatus.
Since his return to the White House on January 20, Trump has announced several restrictions on trade with the aim of balancing the trade balance and pressuring countries such as Mexico and Canada to make concessions on immigration and efforts against drug trafficking.
It has imposed a 10% tariff on China, which is in addition to the rates already applied during its first term (2017-2021).
Trump’s new restrictions come after his predecessor, Joe Biden, took steps to limit exports of semiconductors and artificial intelligence technology to China, which led Beijing to respond with export controls on graphite, a key material for electric vehicle batteries.
The AP agency sues the Trump Government after being banned for writing Gulf of Mexico
Buenos Aires advances legislative elections to May 18 and suspends the primaries
Trump threatens to impose tariffs on governments that apply digital fees to US companies
Tec de Monterrey honors one of its students for his contribution to nanotechnology in medicine
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