Ecuador’s youngest mayor, Brigitte Garcia, was assassinated on Saturday, along with municipal network communicator Jairo Loor. Garcia was 27 and was elected last year by the Citizen Revolution, Rafael Correa’s party.

Brigitte Garcia was mayor of the municipality of San Vicente, in the province of Manabi. The former presidential candidate for the Citizens’ Revolution, Luisa Gonzalez, condemned what she called a political assassination.

The president of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, lamented the death and linked it to drug trafficking, which “wants to bring the state to its knees”, and said that he would not be intimidated by these violent acts. The authorities have yet to clarify the motives behind the murder.

Yesterday, Mexico’s Congress approved a ban on so-called homosexual conversion therapies. The big controversy was the vote of the National Action Party (PAN).

The PAN voted almost unanimously against the bill, which outraged internet users and members of the LGBT+ community. The reason: the party’s candidates in Mexico City and for president claim to “defend” the community.

The presidential campaign is about to begin, and the PAN candidate for the presidency, Xochitl Galvez, has already started with this bombshell to explain.

George Santos, former US congressman, has announced that he will run again, only this time as an independent. He justifies it by saying that he can’t remain in the Republican Party, because of “what has been demonstrated in the House of Representatives”.

Please let him win again, it will be so fucking funny.

Video: Bolsonaro, Facing Investigations, Hid at Hungarian Embassy - New York Times

Security-camera footage obtained by The Times shows that Brazil’s former president spent two nights at the Hungarian Embassy in an apparent bid for asylum.

On Feb. 8, Brazil’s federal police confiscated former President Jair Bolsonaro’s passport and arrested a pair of his former aides on accusations that they had plotted a coup after Mr. Bolsonaro lost the 2022 presidential election.

Four days later, Mr. Bolsonaro was at the entrance to the Hungarian Embassy in Brazil, waiting to be let in, according to the embassy’s security-camera footage, which was obtained by The New York Times.

The former president appeared to stay at the embassy for the next two days, the footage showed, accompanied by two security guards and waited on by the Hungarian ambassador and staff members. Mr. Bolsonaro, a target of various criminal investigations, cannot be arrested at a foreign embassy that welcomes him, because they are legally off-limits to domestic authorities.

The stay at the embassy suggests that the former president was seeking to leverage his friendship with a fellow far-right leader, Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary, into an attempt to evade the Brazilian justice system as he faces criminal investigations at home.

The Times analyzed three days’ worth of footage from four cameras in the Hungarian Embassy showing that Mr. Bolsonaro arrived late on Monday, Feb. 12, and left the afternoon of Wednesday, Feb. 14. In between, he mostly stayed out of sight.

The Times verified the footage by matching it with images of the embassy, including satellite imagery that showed the car in which Mr. Bolsonaro arrived parked in the driveway on Feb. 13.

A Hungarian Embassy official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal affairs, confirmed the plan to host Mr. Bolsonaro.

After this article was published, Mr. Bolsonaro confirmed his stay at the embassy. “I won’t deny I was at the embassy,” he told Metrópoles, a Brazilian news outlet, on Monday. “I have a circle of friends with some world leaders. They’re worried.”

The Hungarian Embassy did not respond to a request for comment.

Mr. Bolsonaro and Mr. Orban have had a close relationship for years, finding common ground as two of the most far-right leaders in democratic nations.

Mr. Bolsonaro called Mr. Orban his “brother” during a visit to Hungary in 2022. Later that year, Hungary’s foreign minister asked a Bolsonaro administration official if Hungary could do anything to help re-elect Mr. Bolsonaro, according to the Brazilian government’s summary of his comments.

In December, Mr. Bolsonaro and Mr. Orban met in Buenos Aires at the inauguration of Argentina’s new right-wing president, Javier Milei. There, Mr. Orban called Mr. Bolsonaro a “hero.”

Mr. Bolsonaro faces deepening criminal investigations in Brazil. In the 15 months since he left office, his home has been searched, his cellphone and passport confiscated, and several of his allies and former aides arrested.

The cases that target Mr. Bolsonaro involve a variety of accusations, including that he took part in plots to sell jewelry he received as state gifts while he was president and falsified his Covid-19 vaccination records in order to travel to the United States. Brazil’s federal police last week recommended criminal charges against the former president in the case involving the fake Covid-19 vaccine cards, but prosecutors have yet to weigh in.

Hours later, Mr. Orban posted a message of encouragement for Mr. Bolsonaro, calling him “an honest patriot” and telling him to “keep on fighting.”

On Feb. 12, four days later, Mr. Bolsonaro posted a video online calling his supporters to a rally in São Paulo that month. “I want to defend myself from all these accusations,” he said in the video. “Until then, God willing.”

Later that day, he went to the Hungarian Embassy. In the moments before his arrival, security footage shows Miklós Halmai, the country’s ambassador to Brazil, pacing and typing on his phone. The small embassy was mostly empty, except for the handful of Hungarian diplomats who live there. Local staff members were on vacation, because Mr. Bolsonaro’s stay came in the middle of Brazil’s national Carnival celebrations.

At 9:34 p.m., a black car appeared at the embassy gate. A man got out, eventually clapping to get the attention of someone inside. Three minutes later, Mr. Halmai opened the gate and indicated where to park.

Mr. Bolsonaro and two men who appeared to be security guards exited the vehicle. Mr. Halmai led them inside. After chatting briefly, the four men got into an elevator.

The specter of prison time for Mr. Bolsonaro has prompted wide speculation that he might try to flee justice. Two of his sons have applied for Italian passports, prompting the country’s foreign minister to publicly deny that Mr. Bolsonaro, who has Italian heritage, had also sought citizenship.

The evening before he left office, Mr. Bolsonaro flew to Florida and stayed for three months. One of his most prominent supporters, a far-right pundit named Allan dos Santos, has been able to avoid arrest in Brazil on accusations that he threatened federal judges as he has sought political asylum in the United States.

Two weeks after Mr. Bolsonaro’s departure from the embassy — it is unclear why he left — he held the planned rally in São Paulo. Independent observers estimated that 185,000 supporters attended. At the rally, Mr. Bolsonaro repeated his defense that he was the victim of political persecution.

He and his lawyers have argued that Brazil’s Supreme Court abused its power, meddled in the 2022 election and is now trying to jail him and his allies. They have recently pointed to recordings of a former Bolsonaro aide, whose confessions have become key to the investigations, claiming that investigators have a predetermined narrative that Mr. Bolsonaro is guilty.

In the weeks since, Mr. Bolsonaro’s legal woes have worsened. The country’s Supreme Court released documents that showed the leaders of Brazil’s Army and Air Force told the police that, after losing the 2022 election, Mr. Bolsonaro presented military leaders with a plan to overturn the results. The military leaders told the police they refused and warned the former president they might arrest him if he tried to do so.

Mr. Bolsonaro said this month that he was not worried about being arrested.

“I could very well be in another country, but I decided to come back here at all costs,” he said at a political event. “I’m not afraid.”

NATO’s Attempt to Dismember Serbia Fails: President Vucic

In 1999, NATO forces carried out airstrikes for 78 days against Yugoslavia, leaving over 8,000 civilians dead or injured.

On Sunday, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said that his country will never surrender its province of Kosovo and Metohija nor join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

On the Remembrance Day for the Victims of the NATO Aggression on Yugoslavia, people gathered in Prokuplje to pay tribute to the victims of the NATO bombings.

“They wanted to destroy our homeland, to destroy Serbia and dismember it, but they failed,” Vucic said at a commemoration event marking the anniversary of NATO bombing.

“25 years have passed, and we remain unbroken… We will never consent to the dismemberment of Serbia! Kosovo and Metohija shall never willingly be torn from us,” he stressed. Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in 2008. Serbia rejects it and considers Kosovo its own province.

The event began with a somber commemoration led by Serbian Orthodox Church Patriarch Porfirije, who later stressed in his speech that the bombing revealed “the depth of human cruelty when one chooses to abandon humanity.”

President of Republika Srpska Milorad Dodik condemned NATO’s violation of international law and disregard for innocent lives, while praising Serbia’s defiance and resilience.

“We remain dignified people who cherish our freedom,” Dodik said, emphasizing the importance of unity as reflected in the widespread observance of the Remembrance Day.

In 1999, the U.S.-led NATO forces carried out continuous airstrikes for 78 days against Yugoslavia, leaving over 8,000 civilians dead or injured and nearly 1 million more displaced.

Cluster bombs and depleted uranium bombs banned by international conventions were used in the strikes, which also caused wide destruction of infrastructure.

Corina Yoris, the candidate chosen by the Venezuelan opposition to replace Maria Corina Machado, has complained that she is not being allowed to register as a candidate. “My rights as a Venezuelan citizen are being violated”.

With just a few hours to go until the deadline, the opposition parties authorized by the CNE to register candidates are unable to access the registration system. During Yoris’ speech, the campaign put up a television to prove that the system is not accepting registrations.

Yoris is opposed to socialism and communism; she says that the free market regulates prices, that communism was responsible for the death of millions and that the ideology resulted with Venezuela becoming divided.

Holy shit, they keep choosing the most unpopular dipshit to run against Maduro. Her wikipedia page was created literally 2 days ago, she lacks a spanish version of it.

There were protests in Argentina and Brazil against their respective dictatorships and in favor of democracy. Milei, being the smartest man, decides to say that the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo movement (which is a movement in favor of democracy, progressive ideas and justice) lied about the victims of the dictatorship. Ancap President defending a dictatorship to own the zurditos.

Meanwhile, in Brazil, Lula da Silva simply banned the army from holding any commemorations, as they were doing during the right-wing governments of Bolsonaro and Micheal Temer. You could say that this is an L for Lula, since he could promote a mega pro-democracy demonstration or you could say that this is pragmatic. The Workers’ Party will still take part in the organic demonstration on the 30th.

Justice For Marielle Franco: Detained Masterminds of Her Murder

The councilwoman’s family remains hopeful that justice will soon be done for Franco’s murder in 2018.

The Brazilian Federal Police reported on Sunday that they arrested three suspected masterminds of the murder of Socialist and Freedom Party (PSOL) councilwoman Marielle Franco on March 14, 2018.

According to Agência Brasil News and sources linked to the investigation, Domingos Brazão, current advisor to the Rio Court of Auditors, Chiquinho Brazão, Rio’s deputy, and Rivaldo Barbosa, former head of the Rio Civil Police who had been appointed to that position a day before the murder, were arrested today.

The arrest was ordered by the Supreme Court, which supervises the investigation since mid-2023, when the case was transferred to the federal level, after five years of virtual paralysis in Rio de Janeiro.

Agência Brasil also informed that there are still 12 search and seizure warrants, issued by the Supreme Court, all in the city of Rio de Janeiro. The action has the participation of the Attorney General’s Office and the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Rio de Janeiro.

‘‘The operation is also supported by the Secretary of State for Civil Police of Rio de Janeiro and the National Secretariat for Criminal Policies of the Ministry of Justice and Public Security. The action targets the masterminds of the executions. Crimes of criminal organization and obstruction of justice are also investigated’’, says the news agency.

“We are closer to Justice,” says Anielle Franco. “God knows how much we dream of that day! Today is another big step in getting the answers we’ve asked ourselves so much in recent years: who had Mari killed and why?” said the Minister of Racial Equality and Franco’s sister, Anielle.

The Chief Minister of the Secretariat of Social Communication of the Presidency of the Republic, Paulo Pimenta, highlighted that measures taken since the beginning of President Lula’s term were decisive for the clarification of the Franco’s murder.

CW NSFW/L DEAD BODIES

2 day upload

Telegram

Over 60 martyrs ascended and over 160 Palestinians are wounded after the IOF once again opened fire on 30,000 Palestinians gathered to receive aid at the Kuwait Roundabout in the northern #Gaza Strip, which has become a death trap.

Machine guns, helicopters, and drones of the US-funded IOF massacred the starving citizens. This is the fifth day in a row that the IOF has opened fire on Gazans in the famine-stricken north waiting for aid.

Over 500 Palestinians have now ascended to martyrdom as a result of IOF fire while waiting for aid in the last two weeks, starting from the Flour Massacre.*

Excellent article, read the whole thing.

Weapons and resources for the Palestinians and their allies

Today, at most, the right of the Palestinian people to resist by all means, including armed resistance, is expressed in a more or less stammering manner.

This is not very transgressive or extremist, since it is in fact something recognized by international legality itself (UN Resolution 3070 and other provisions). It is sad that it seems very audacious to wield an outright UN statement, but in any case the audacity stops there and other more important things are omitted. What is forgotten is what it says in the following paragraph in which it urges the peoples of the world to give material and all kinds of support to the Palestinian resistance forces to help them in their inalienable right to national liberation.

What almost all Eurocentric leftists supported with Ukraine, sending military aid, is what they should be doing with the Palestinians and their regional allies, but it does not seem to cross their minds to do so.

In an act of the Spanish left a Palestinian woman defends the right to Palestinian armed resistance and the leaders of the Podemos party show hesitation in applauding, perhaps they are afraid to hear it. In other expressions of the left what we find is a passive, opportunistic, cloying or hypocritical radicalism. The parties of the Spanish government are installed there. They combine shouting “Free Palestine!” with supporting the colonial doctrine of the “two States”. They combine full relations and arms trade with “Israel”, with validating only Palestinian voices exclusively asking for human rights, notably, those who represent the Vichy Regime, called the Palestinian Authority.

In general, the Western Left has silenced the current political subjects of the resistance. Why was the blockade on Gaza breached on October 7? Because “they are terrorists”, even the European communist parties have explained this to us. Only a few pro-Palestinian groups have made it possible for the protagonists to express themselves.

…

For the time being, material support for the Palestinian Resistance is provided by an alliance heterogeneous in its ideologies and capabilities from Yemen, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon or Syria. It is curious how this alliance resembles the one proposed a hundred years ago by Lenin in his Congress of the Peoples of the East. This meeting was attended by tribal leaders, religious sheikhs, intellectuals and revolutionaries from Turkey and Western Asia, because the Soviet leader understood that the heterogeneous anti-colonial struggle was the Achilles Heel of imperialism, and no revolution could be expected within the European colonizing metropolis.

That is where we remain: the centrality of the conflict remains between impoverished peoples across the planet and the oppressors who plunder their resources and lands. And that is where the Western left remains: it oozes a mixture of Zionist heritage and prejudices about native national liberation movements that do not fit into Eurocentric ideological corsets. Add in Arabophobia and Islamophobia and you have the explanation why these heterogeneous alliances with the Palestinian Resistance are not worthy of selective Western solidarity. Along with this, the deep imbrication of the left in the structures of the colonizing powers means that perhaps it only continues as an expectation to manage, in a progressive way, the profits provided to the West by having in Palestine a colony and some Arab minion regimes.

We are all repulsed by armed conflicts, but even more so by the oppressed peoples who are forced to engage in them and resist, precisely in order to live in dignity and peace. And the representation of these peoples is in those who resist, who must be given a voice, and not in those who submit.

If the European left is not capable of overthrowing colonialism, they should at least be bold enough to defend international legality and send arms and resources to the Palestinian Resistance and its allies.

Massive wide spread Spectrum outtage across the country last night. Particularly hard hit was LA.

Wonder if something silly is about to go down?

deleted by creator

video of the Dali cargo ship colliding with the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, sending the whole thing a good chunk into the water

https://twitter.com/kf18616835/status/1772566837571539264

EDIT: the bridge is a mile long so this is only one section, I shouldn’t have said “the whole thing”

Francis Scott Key Bridge destroyed.

In Baltimore, a container ship rammed the Francis Scott Key Bridge, causing the entire arched structure and spans to collapse. There are dead and wounded; it is not yet known how many cars were on the bridge at the time of the collapse.

The bridge has stood since 1977. (reports about that ship has sunk are unconfirmed)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83a7h3kkgPg

CW NSFW/L DEAD INJURED

Dropped a bomb on a bunch of tents.