Nayib Bukele has treated as “junk” on Twitter an anthropologist working on armed gangs. Criminal gangs still front and center after a wave of killings last month: 9,000 suspected members of these gangs have been arrested in two weeks, according to government figures.
The president has taken to Twitter in recent days on the subject. He first sharply criticized the United States, attacking Secretary of State Anthony Blinken on Sunday, then on Monday at State Department spokesman Ned Price, who had claimed on Twitter that Washington was continuing to to help El Salvador fight against armed gangs. The President explains El Salvadorreplied, still on Twitter, that the aid dated from President Trump, and that the Biden administration “ only helped armed gangs and their ‘civil liberties’ “.
► To read also: Salvador: President Nayib Bukele welcomes the arrest of 6,000 gang members
Presidential insults criticized
This Monday, he also insulted Juan Martinez, a ” internationally recognized specialist “, precise La Prensa Grafica : the president has – in fact – taken a truncated extract from an interview in which Juan Martinez explained “ how these armed gangs operated and their role in communities in El Salvador “. President Bukele noted that, for the anthropologist, they ” played a necessary social role in the country and therefore he calls him ” garbage “.
Osiris Luna, the director of Penitentiary Centers, immediately followed the president’s lead, accusing Juan Martinez of being ” a terrorist “, writing El Salvador. The newspaper takes up the specialist’s response to the president on Twitter: ” your message of hate endangers me and my family. You acted irresponsibly “. The presidential message was widely criticized on social networks, underlines El Salvador.
La Prensa Graficashe recalls the context: these insults come “ six days after the ruling party approved a penal reform threatening journalists who report on armed gangs with 15 years in prison “. Juan Martinez, interviewed by the newspaper, believes that ” obstruct work on armed bands is ” a desperate attempt ” so that ” people don’t realize the crisis they are going through “.
In Brazil, a devastating report on illegal gold panning
The ” garimpo ”, illegal mining, increased by 46% on Yanomami indigenous lands, in the north of the country, in just one year, between 2020 and 2021. Knowing that between 2016 and 2020, it exploded by 3,350 %, precise Folha de Sao Paulo, which reproduces the report of the Hutukura Yanomami association. A report that details the disastrous consequences of this record advance: deforestation, destruction of rivers, but also an explosion in cases of diseases such as malaria.
To Homoxi, explains O Globo, ” the post which in 2020 provided around 6,000 consultations did not reach the thousand the following year, it is now a warehouse for the extraction of ore and fuel for the invaders “. Especially since in the region, miners block the landing strips of the Indigenous Health Secretariat, and use them for their planes and helicopters. The report denounces a frightening increase in violence against indigenous populations “: sexual abuse is commonplace: ” As soon as they reach puberty, indigenous girls are coveted and sexually abused by minors “, writing O Globo.
This Monday again, two natives were killed during a clash between two communities, title Folha de Sao Paulo : the minors would have given weapons to some to attack the others, opposed to the Garimpo. So what to do? ” Yesterdaywrites the globo.com site, the federal public prosecutor has filed a petition with the courts to compel the federal government to adopt protective measures and police operations against illegal mining on Yanomami lands “. Remember that the far-right Brazilian president Jair Boslonaro wants to pass a law authorizing mining on indigenous lands.
► To read also: Brazil launches an operation against illegal gold miners after giving them time to flee
In Chile, Santiago considers possible water rationing
Emol describes this ” unpublished plan to cope with the drought, which has lasted thirteen years, with the last four years having been the driest since a measurement system has been in place. The plan proposes four levels of alert, which depend on the supply of the Maipo and Mapocho rivers, writes The Tercera.
This goes from green, where it is advisable to save water, to red, where water cuts will be put in place by sector and by day, rotating cuts ” for a maximum of 24 hours and every four, six or twelve days », depending on the water deficit to be covered. The theme of water rationing has been in the public debate for a few weeks “, writing The Tercerawhich recalls that the possibility of taxing excessive water consumption was even mentioned.