SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
nayib bukele
From Netanyahu to Orbán, Global Far-Right Figures Celebrate Trump Win
A veritable Who's Who of fascist-facing leaders lined up to congratulate the man who said he'd be a dictator on "day one" of his impending presidency.
Nov 06, 2024
Current and former far-right leaders around the world cheered U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's remarkable victory in Tuesday's election, in which the twice-impeached, 34-count convicted felon, self- and court-affirmed sexual assaulter, and insurrection-fomenting 78-year-old Republican won not only the Electoral College but also the popular vote in what some observers described as a "mandate for fascism."
In Israel—which the Biden administration buoyed with massive military and diplomatic support even as it faces a genocide case at the World Court for a war on Gaza that's killed more than 43,000 Palestinians—Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Trump's victory is "history's greatest comeback" and represents a "powerful recommitment to the great alliance between Israel and America."
Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel's national security minister and leader of the Jewish supremacist Otzma Yehudit party, reposted an earlier message in which he proclaimed, "God Bless Trump."
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who was the first European leader to endorse Trump in 2016, lauded the Republican's "enormous win," which he called "a much-needed victory for the world."
Argentinian President Javier Milei—who campaigned as a libertarian populist but has governed like a neoliberal shock doctrinaire—hailed Trump's "formidable electoral victory."
"Now, Make America Great Again," he added. "You know that you can count on Argentina to carry out your task."
Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele—who Trump recently accused of sending gang members to the U.S. to insidiously reduce crime in his country—wished divine blessings and guidance for the president-elect.
Arab dictators—from the monarchs of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain, to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi—also congratulated Trump. Some, like Jordan's King Abdullah II, said they hoped Trump's second term would usher in an era of "regional and global peace and stability for all."
However, while Trump's first term saw the signing of the historic Abraham Accords that nominally normalized relations between Israel and some of its former Arab enemies, he also presided over what one of his former defense secretaries called a "war of annihilation" that left thousands of civilians dead and cities in ruins in Syria and Iraq.
Former right-wing leaders also cheered Trump's win. Disgraced former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro—who like Trump incited an insurrection following his last election loss, but unlike Trump was slapped with an eight-year electoral ban over it—said Tuesday's result represents "the triumph of the people's will over the arrogant designs of an elite who disdain our values, beliefs, and traditions."
"This triumph is historic," Bolsonaro—sometimes called the "Trump of the Tropics"—continued. "Its impact will resonate across the globe... empowering the rise of the right and conservative movements in countless other nations."
On the flip side, progressive leaders around the world vowed to fight fascism—even as they shuddered at the specter of what horrors may come in Trump's second term.
"We are a global movement, made up of all faiths and backgrounds, united in our opposition to racism and hatred," said leftist U.K. lawmaker Jeremy Corbyn. "We will never abandon hope in a more equal, sustainable, and peaceful world."
Keep ReadingShow Less
El Salvador’s Self-Proclaimed Dictator Is On Trial
Nayib Bukele is persecuting water defenders on trumped up charges. In reality, he’s the one on trial.
Sep 29, 2024
Nayib Bukele has proudly called himself “the world’s coolest dictator.” On October 8, his government will begin an unjust trial of five water defenders from El Salvador. These men are heroes of El Salvador — and they never should have been arrested.
In these two weeks leading up to the trial, human rights supporters across the United States, Canada, Germany, and elsewhere are joining counterparts in El Salvador to call for the five to be freed.
In January of 2023, Bukele’s attorney general arrested five prominent environmental defenders and charged them with a murder that took place in that nation’s brutal civil war 35 years ago. It doesn’t matter that the government has no evidence to back up the charges or that the five are covered by a 1992 amnesty. Bukele has no use for domestic or international law as he bulldozes civil liberties in mass arrests under the banner of eliminating gangs.
Opposition to these mass arrests is now rising — some from parents whose children were wrongly swept into his prisons, some from human rights defenders, and some from communities that fear he will undo the seven-year old ban on mining which was won by communities that placed the health of their rivers and lands over the profits of mining corporations.
This is where Bukele’s argument that he is only arresting gang members gets murky. In a fact-finding delegation to El Salvador last fall, eight of us from the U.S. and Canada found that thousands of innocent people had also been arrested. We found cases of torture. And we found that Bukele had been locking up opponents, including labor leaders and leaders of the successful fight against mining.
In reality, it’s Nayib Bukele who will be going on trial on October 8 — the trial of global public opinion. If there is any justice left in El Salvador, these five will be freed and the charges dropped. If Bukele instead is insisting on total control of his courts, then the public will see him for what he is: a vindictive bully who has no respect for either human rights or the environment in El Salvador.
On September 26, at protests in front of Salvadoran embassies and consulates in Washington, DC, Ottawa, Toronto, and Vancouver, people gathered to call for justice. IPS joined the Committee in Solidarity With the People of El Salvador (CISPES), and the Washington Ethical Society at the Washington protest.
Bukele hopes to squash democratic opposition to his policies with this trial, and the groups that IPS joins under the rubric of International Allies Against Mining in El Salvador are responding that they will not be moved.
A word of hope, and a word of shame.
In terms of hope, the efforts of organizations in Canada, German, France, and the UK have convinced those four governments to express discontent over the arrests of the five by agreeing to send representatives to the October 8 trial.
In terms of shame, the United States government stands tall. Despite a clear condemnation of the arrests by 17 members of the U.S. Congress, the U.S. government is shamefully remaining silent on the trial.
IPS’s Trade and Mining Project has worked with allies on the ground in El Salvador since 2009, when IPS awarded its prestigious Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award to the National Roundtable on Metals Mining in El Salvador. And just as IPS has fought for justice for 48 years in the assassinations of our IPS colleagues Orlando Letelier and Ronni Karpen Moffitt, we will fight for justice for the Salvadoran water defenders.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Salvadoran Court Decried for Letting Case Against 'Santa Marta 5' Continue
"It is outrageous that the judge is allowing this trial to go forward despite the lack of any evidence of a crime," said one observer.
Apr 10, 2024
Human rights defenders on Wednesday condemned a Salvadoran court's decision to uphold what critics say are politically motivated murder and illicit association charges against five environmental activists.
Miguel Ángel Gámez, Alejandro Laínez García, Pedro Antonio Rivas Laínez, Teodoro Antonio Pacheco, and Saúl Agustín Rivas Ortega were arrested in January 2023 and accused of murdering María Inés Alvarenga—an alleged collaborator with the U.S.-backed Salvadoran regime that killed approximately 75,000 civilians during a 1979-92 civil war—when the men were Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) rebels.
Defenders of the "Santa Marta Five" have highlighted not only the Salvadoran government's failure to show any proof of the men's guilt, but also the fact that perpetrators of civil war-related crimes are protected under a 1992 amnesty agreement between the government and FMLN.
"It is outrageous that the judge is allowing this trial to go forward despite the lack of any evidence of a crime," said John Cavanagh, a senior adviser at the Washington, D.C.-based Institute for Policy Studies.
"The international community stands strong with the five leaders of the successful fight against mining, and we will join Salvadoran water defenders to continue to fight with them for justice in this case," he added.
Advocates for the five defendants have also noted how a "state of exception" imposed as part of right-wing Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele's war on drug gangs has eroded due process and other rights. As Common Dreams has reported, tens of thousands of people have been arbitrarily arrested and imprisoned under the crackdown. More than 130 of them have died in state custody.
Some critics say it's no coincidence that the Santa Marta Five—who played a key role in winning a 2017 ban on metals mining in El Salvador—have been targeted by Bukele's government, which is taking steps to reverse the historic prohibition. Environmental activists have found themselves in the crosshairs.
Vidalina Morales, who heads the environmental and human rights group Association of Economic and Social Development (ADES)—where Santa Marta Five member Pacheco worked— toldAtmos earlier this year that by arresting the Santa Marta Five, Bukele's administration is "sending us a message."
"They want to open the path for these mining projects to come back," she explained. "They want to criminalize the social movements in this country."
"This is the life we're living in El Salvador," Morales added. "We feel so much fear for our lives and the lives of our families."
Viviana Herrera, the Latin America program coordinator at MiningWatch Canada, said Wednesday that "there is a well-documented pattern of criminalization across the Americas, where environmental defenders are slapped with unfounded charges in an effort to silence their opposition to mining and prevent their life-affirming work protecting water for future generations."
"We firmly denounce today's Santa Marta case ruling," she continued. "All five water defenders played pivotal roles securing an historic ban on metal mining in El Salvador, and this ruling is a clear threat to the rights of all Salvadorans who are protecting their water and environment."
"We express our heartfelt sorrow with the five water defenders and their families," Herrera added, "and will continue to call for the charges to be dropped until they are free."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular