Related: Life of Jose
I hope he got to the polls.
‘‘The population is not satisfied with the current government, is not convinced that the [Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front] should continue to rule, but it’s very much convinced that [the Nationalist Republican Alliance] shouldn’t return to government.’’
Really?
Time to count the votes:
"Both sides claim win in El Salvador presidential election; Electoral chief says leftist not likely to lose lead" by Marcos Aleman | Associated Press, March 11, 2014
SAN SALVADOR — El Salvador’s too-close-to-call presidential runoff election has raised competing claims of victory from a former fighter for leftist guerrillas and the once long-ruling conservative party that fought a civil war from 1980 to 1992.
Oh, the absolute STENCH of a U.S. RIGGING!
Norman Quijano, the candidate of the conservative Nationalist Republican Alliance, or ARENA, said his party was on ‘‘a war footing’’ and vowed ‘‘to fight with our lives, if necessary’’ to defend what he claimed was his victory.
But with preliminary returns in from nearly all polling stations on Monday, he was behind Salvador Sanchez Ceren, the leftist candidate of the now governing Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, or FMLN. The margin of 6,634 votes was just over 0.2 percent of the approximately 3 million ballots cast.
In other words, the vote for Sanchez Ceren was so overwhelming the election could not be stolen, although they are giving it one hell of an effort.
Sanchez Ceren also claimed to have won.
‘‘The men and women of El Salvador are the ones who decide, and if you don’t accept the result, you are violating the will of the people,’’ Sanchez Ceren said. ‘‘I say to my adversary, to his party, that my administration will welcome them with open arms, so that together we can build a new country.’’
What Salvadorans have said is they are not going back to a U.S.-sponsored right-wing dictatorship and terror regime.
A final count of votes began Monday, but Electoral Tribunal president Eugenio Chicas said the outcome was probably irreversible....
Then prepare for street violence in another nation.
The election results were surprising, considering that opinion polls in the weeks leading up to the election had put Quijano, the former mayor of San Salvador, 10 to 18 percentage points behind Sanchez Ceren.
It's like what I said, they couldn't steal it outright.
Roy Campos, president of the Consulta Mitofsky polling firm, said Quijano’s ads comparing the FMLN to Venezuela’s leftist leaders, protests, and economic scarcity may have worked, creating a situation where some voters ‘‘felt El Salvador was in danger.’’
Look to this crap reason trotted out!
‘‘Venezuela was an important factor,’’ Campos said.
Pfft!
Quijano alleged ballot fraud and called on the army to play a role, a statement that carries ominous echoes in a country where 76,000 people died in the civil war, which pitted the army against the leftist rebels.
‘‘We are not going to allow Venezuelan-style fraud, in the style of Chavez and Maduro,’’ Quijano said, referring to the late president Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and his hand-picked successor, Nicolas Maduro. ‘‘We have our own recount, which shows we won.’’
Related:
"Former presidential candidate Henrique Capriles announced the popular defense committees via Twitter, directing people to a blog post that laid out plans for what has been called continuing street protests."
The Hugo sent in the thugs, complete with bulls*** reason as to why the well-meaning Venezuelan students are out there.
Reading the coverage carefully tells you all you need to know regarding approved, controlled opposition protests (Ukraine, Venezuela) and those that are not (Thailand).
Quijano criticized the electoral tribunal, saying it ‘‘sold out to the dictatorship.’’
‘‘The armed forces are ready to make democracy,’’ he said.
The country’s military leaders made no comment on the elections.
Sanchez Ceren, 69, warned against any return to the violence of the past.
‘‘I want to say to all those who are inciting violence that they are on the wrong track,’’ he said. “The people have decided to continue on the path of change, and the people cannot be stopped.’’
I like it when an article leaves me with a life-affirming high!
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While down below the equator and voting:
"Uribe wins Senate seat in Colombia" Associated Press, March 11, 2014
BOGOTA — Former president Alvaro Uribe is back in elected office, and his winning of a Senate seat could potentially complicate efforts by Colombia’s government to make peace with leftist rebels.
Uribe’s party was the No. 2 vote-getter in the Senate in congressional elections behind the party of President Juan Manuel Santos, whose governing coalition lost some ground.
Uribe has vehemently opposed a negotiated end to the 50-year-old conflict that would let the Western Hemisphere’s biggest rebel army enter political life.
Santos initiated the talks and hopes to soon conclude them successfully.
Uribe’s new Centro Democratico party looks to have won 20 of the Senate’s 102 seats Sunday against 47 for Santos’s coalition. Santos’s Partido de la U got 21 seats, according to official results with 97 percent of the vote counted
The coalition’s fate will depend on the Conservatives, who won 18 seats. But it isn’t clear if they will stay with Santos or join Uribe, who as president in 2002-10 seriously weakened the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia military. Much of that effort was made with US intelligence and logistical assistance. Santos was defense minister from 2006 to 2009.
If the Conservatives choose Uribe’s camp, he could seek to erect legislative obstacles to any peace deal.
Santos is the current front-runner in the May presidential election.
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NEXT DAY UPDATE:
"Biden mentions mediation for Venezuela" by Luis Andres Henao | Associated press, March 12, 2014
VALPARAISO, Chile — Vice President Joe Biden has been discussing the difficult situation in Venezuela with other Latin American leaders attending Chile’s presidential inauguration on Tuesday, and mentioned the possibility of mediation by third parties, according to a senior US administration official.
The official, who was not authorized to speak to reporters on the record, said Biden told the leaders that democracy is more than just holding elections — that human rights, including the right to protest, also must be respected.
OMG! He's as bad as Kerry!
The official said Biden told them he stood by remarks this week to Chile’s El Mercurio newspaper in which he suggested Venezuela’s government is using ‘‘armed vigilantes’’ against peaceful protesters and accused it of ‘‘concocting false and outlandish conspiracy theories’’ of US involvement in the demonstrations. Biden had mentioned the possibility of mediation by unspecified third parties, the official added.
Oh my, Joe Biden is off the rails! When they start hollering conspiracy theories they are worried that the curtain has been pulled back and the mask is off.
Venezuelan officials have repeatedly rejected the idea of having another country mediate in their dispute with domestic protesters. President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela described Biden’s remarks to El Mercurio asaggression on the part of a country he accuses of backing opponents trying to undermine ‘‘a solid democracy that has had the popular backing in 18 elections over 15 years.’’
Yeah, they thought killing Chaves would do it, but that's his legacy. He built this thing to last.
He canceled plans to attend the inauguration of Chile’s Michelle Bachelet, sending Foreign Minister Elias Jaua instead.
Argentine foreign minister Héctor Timerman said Tuesday that fellow ministers from the UNASUR block of South American governments will meet Wednesday in Chile to hear what Jaua has to say and take action to support Venezuela’s government from forces he has labeled ‘‘coup plotters.’’
Related: Argentinian Authorities Go Apeshit
Arrogant US leaders must think so!
President Rafael Correa of Ecuador said that he hoped the gathering in the capital of Santiago will end with a declaration of support for Maduro’s government.
‘‘It’s clear what is happening in Venezuela,’’ said Correa. ‘‘It is an attempt to destabilize a legitimate, elected government, and we cannot permit that.’’
He would know, and all the leaders down there feel that way because THEY could be NEXT!
President Ollanta Humala of Peru said that the most important thing ‘‘is that the right of non-intervention is respected.’’
Oh, pooh-pooh!
Bachelet tried to reach out to those on both sides of Venezuela’s political divide during a television interview last week, expressing the importance of respect for human rights while saying it did not ‘‘seem proper to take violent actions seeking to destabilize a democratically elected government.’’
Venezuelan opposition leader Henrique Capriles said in an interview from Caracas with Chile’s La Tercera that he found Bachelet’s statement strange. ‘‘There has been no word rejecting the disproportionate use of force,’’ he said.
That from the guy who has promoted and helped set up "popular defense committees."
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Related:
"Carnival parties attract thousands
RIO DE JANEIRO — Streets across Brazil were swamped with Carnival revelers Saturday, with the largest parties attracting more than 1 million merrymakers. In Rio de Janeiro, the city’s tourism officials said the bash hit fever pitch before noon (AP)."
You can decide for yourself if the Globe's Brazil coverage is worthy or not.
