#Bolivian ram

[johtodoll]

Mermay day 3: Bolivian Ram

[zelly-raptor]

03/05/2024: Ciarra Mermay day 03.

Continuing the recent Mermay challenge here's my entry for day 03's prompt, which is themed around the "Bolivian Ram" a little Fish with Stripes and markings around their eyes.

Were gonna call this Merm here "Berna". She's Is from an Advanced race of Mermaids that have incorporated Human technology into their culture since so much Technology ends up discarded in the Ocean.

Berna here has gone off on her own on a Digital detox to explore the ocean depths. Oh yeah I though I kept the Sketch version for this Pic...But I didn't I don't know where it is 😕🫤

[reworkingsofatiredmind]

This is Roy.

[fuckyeahmarxismleninism]

The Bolivian masses flooded the streets of La Paz and sent the military packing, crushing an attempted right-wing coup.

It CAN be done. We CAN win.

[beardedmrbean]

Bolivia’s capital of La Paz is reeling in the wake of an attempted coup as troops led by a top general rammed the doors of the government palace in tumultous scenes that threatened to drag the South American democracy into chaos.

Military forces led by army chief General Juan Jose Zuniga appeared to take control of president Luis Arce’s government by seizing control of the town square and unleashing tear gas on protesters who flooded the streets.

General Zuniga vowed to “restore democracy”, replae and cabinet and free political prisoners, but was condemned opposition leaders as it became clear he had little political support.

Mr Arce refused to bow to the pressure and named a new army commander, who immediately ordered troops to stand down, ending the rebellion.

The president’s supporters rapidly came to his aid and rushed the square outside the palace, waving Bolivian flags, singing the national anthem and cheering.

Mr Arce said: “Here we are, firm, in the presidential palace, to confront any coup attempt.”

General Zuniga and alleged co-conspirator former navy Vice Admiral Juan Arnez Salvador were arrested by authorities.

Government minister Eduardo del Castillo told journalists: “Their goal was to overturn the democratically elected authority,”

The short-lived rebellion followed months of mounting tensions between Arce and his one-time ally, left-wing former president Evo Morales.

Mr Morales, the country’s first Indigenous president, was forced to resign after 14 years in power in 2019 after mass protests against him.

He has since returned from political exile and is threatening to challenge Mr Arce in the 2025 primaries, which has caused a widening rift in their ruling socialist party.

Further fueling tensions in the country is the ongoing economic crisis, with the country’s foreign currency reserves diminishing, its natural gas exports plummeting and its currency peg collapsing.

As police in riot gear set up outside the presidential palace, Bolivians queued at ATMs, formed long lines outside petrol stations and emptied shelves in grocery stores.

Flanked by the newly appointed military chiefs late Wednesday, defense minister Edmundo Novillo sought to reassure the rattled public and shed light on what had happened.

The turmoil began earlier this week, Mr Novillo said, when Mr Arce dismissed General Zuniga in a private meeting on Tuesday over the army chief’s threats to arrest Morales if he proceeded with his presidential bid in 2025.

In their meeting, Novillo said that General Zuniga gave officials no indication he was preparing to seize power.

Just hours later tailed by armored vehicles and supporters, General Zuniga burst into government headquarters and declared that he was sick of political infighting. “The armed forces intend to restore the democracy,” he said.

Members of the country’s fragmented opposition, which General Zuniga claimed to support, rejected the coup before it was clear it had failed.

Prosecutors will seek the maximum sentence of 15 to 20 years in prison for General Zuniga on charges of “attacking the constitution,” he said.

“This grants control to the military and erodes democracy and is an important signpost that the problems of the 2019 coup have not been addressed,” said Kathryn Ledebur, director of the Andean Information Network, a Bolivia-based research group. “Bolivia’s democracy remains very fragile, and definitely a great deal more fragile today than it was yesterday.”

[spiicyfruiit]

Day Three: Bolivian Ram

list of prompts - ciarramermay 2024

[takeonmetakemeon]

General leads failed coup against the Bolivian president then claims president ordered him to do it to boost his popularity

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Holman, the Al Jazeera correspondent, warned that the outpouring of support did not mean that President Arce’s troubles were over. As General Zuniga was arrested, Holman explained that the military leader made unverified allegations that this apparent coup was organised by Arce himself to boost his dismal approval ratings.

The apparent coup attempt came as the country has faced months of tensions and political fights between Arce and his one-time ally, former leftist president Evo Morales, over control of the ruling party. It also came amid a severe economic crisis. The clashes have paralyzed the government’s efforts to deal with the economic crisis. For example, Morales’ allies in Congress have consistently thwarted Arce’s attempts to take on debt to relieve some of the pressure. Zúñiga referenced that paralysis during the rebellion, telling reporters the military was tired of the infighting and was seeking “to restore democracy.” “We are listening to the cry of the people because for many years an elite has taken control of the country,” he said, adding that politicians are “destroying the country: look at what situation we are in, what crisis they have left us in.” “The armed forces intend to restore the democracy, to make it a true democracy," he said.

In a twist, Zúñiga claimed in comments to journalists before his arrest that Arce himself told the general to storm the palace in a political move. “The president told me: ‘The situation is very screwed up, very critical. It is necessary to prepare something to raise my popularity’,” Zúñiga quoted the Bolivian leader as saying. Zúñiga sajd he asked Arce if he should “take out the armored vehicles?” and Arce replied, “Take them out.” Justice Minister Iván Lima denied Zúñiga’s claims, saying the general was lying and trying to justify his actions for which he said he will face justice.

...?

[krissdoutt]

MerMay Day 3! 🫧Bolivian Ram~

[newstfionline]

Sunday, June 30, 2024

Biden acknowledges age, bad debate performance but vows to beat Trump (Reuters) President Joe Biden said on Friday he intended to defeat Republican rival Donald Trump in the November presidential election, giving no sign he would consider dropping out of the race after a feeble debate performance that dismayed his fellow Democrats. “I know I’m not a young man, to state the obvious,” an ebullient Biden said at a rally one day after the head-to-head showdown with his Republican rival, which was widely viewed as a defeat for the 81-year-old president. “I don’t walk as easy as I used to, I don’t speak as smoothly as I used to, I don’t debate as well as I used to,” he said, as the crowd chanted “four more years.” “I would not be running again if I didn’t believe with all my heart and soul that I could do this job. The stakes are too high,” Biden said. Biden’s verbal stumbles and occasionally meandering responses in the debate heightened voter concerns that he might not be fit to serve another four-year term and prompted some of his fellow Democrats to wonder whether they could replace him as their candidate for theNov. 5 U.S. election.

Ballooning U.S. budget deficit is killing the American dream (USA Today) The government’s deficit problem is creating an income problem for Americans, economists warn. Last week, the Congressional Budget Office raised its estimate for the government deficit this year by a whopping 27%, or $408 billion over its February forecast, to $1.9 trillion. Paying for that debt can divert money away from private investment, which in turn may dampen wage growth, economists say. “The exploding debt could cause as much as a 10% reduction in wage income within 30 years,” said Kent Smetters, a University of Pennsylvania Wharton School professor and faculty director of the Penn Wharton Budget Model. Based on the median household income of about $75,000, that’s as much as a $7,500 reduction in income in current dollars for the average household every year, he said.

Bolivia’s President Arce finds new strength after seeing off military coup (Reuters) Bolivian leftist President Luis Arce told Reuters on Friday support on the streets had strengthened his government after a failed military coup just days ago and that he would keep working until his last day, in one of his first interviews since the dramatic attack. The quiet economist was thrust into the global spotlight on Wednesday when rogue military units seized the central square of La Paz and rammed a door of the presidential palace with an armored vehicle to allow soldiers to rush in. Flanked by armed soldiers, a rogue general, Juan Jose Zuniga, had demanded a shake-up of the government. Arce had warned that the landlocked country of some 12 million people was facing a coup and called for supporters to mobilize. Face-to-face he ordered the general to stand down, and hours later as support for the coup disintegrated the soldiers pulled back. The attack is the most dramatic attempt to overthrow the government in Bolivia in recent years, despite its mottled history with around 190 coup attempts in just two centuries.

In an Argentine court, Venezuelans testify to alleged crimes against humanity under President Maduro (AP) Frustrated by the limits of the laboriously slow International Criminal Court and determined that the security officers who allegedly killed their loved ones not enjoy absolute impunity, Venezuelans have brought their crimes-against-humanity case to a federal court 3,000 miles from home—in Argentina. In a first for Venezuela under the repressive rule of President Nicolás Maduro, a federal court in Buenos Aires concluded two days of testimony from Venezuelan victims on Friday as part of an investigation into probable human rights abuses they claim were committed by security forces in 2014, the year after Maduro took power. Earlier in the year, Argentine prosecutors moved to revive a criminal complaint lodged in 2023 by the Clooney Foundation for Justice on behalf of survivors and the family members of those killed in what lawyers called a “systematic plan” by the state to crush dissent. Prosecutors declared that the crimes committed by high-ranking members of the Venezuelan National Guard were of “extreme seriousness” and required an immediate investigation.

Squatters take London’s housing crisis into their own hands (Reuters) In the shopping streets and housing estates of the south London town of Croydon, some once-derelict buildings are slowly coming back to life. At a former school, peeling walls are getting a fresh coat of paint, and laundry hangs on a line to dry. Over at a disused youth centre, there is laughter in the gymnasium-turned-dormitory, and a vase of purple flowers decorates a scrubbed kitchen counter. The Reclaim Croydon collective, a squatters’ group, has taken over disused commercial premises to provide beds for the homeless, saying it is providing a community-based solution to a broken housing market. Britain has long lacked enough housing, but a 22% jump in private rents in England over the last five years has left growing numbers of people struggling to find anywhere to live. Housing routinely appears in the top five issues that pollsters report as the most important for voters ahead of Thursday’s general election. The high rents and unaffordable house prices have meant people in their 20s or 30s are still living at home with parents or in house shares. At the most acute end, growing numbers are sleeping on the streets and in empty buildings, official figures show.

Russia presses its offensive in Ukraine and issues new threats as the West tries to blunt the push (AP) Slowly but steadily this summer, Russian troops are forging through Ukraine’s outgunned and undermanned defenses in a relentless onslaught, prompting the West to push for new weapons and strategies to shore up Kyiv. That, in turn, has brought new threats by President Vladimir Putin to retaliate against the West—either directly or indirectly. The moves by the West to blunt the offensive and the potential Kremlin response could lead to a dangerous escalation as the war drags through its third year—one that further raises the peril of a direct confrontation between Russia and NATO.

Iran goes to a runoff election between reformist Pezeshkian and hard-liner Jalili (AP) Iran will hold a runoff presidential election to replace the late hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi, an official said Saturday, after an initial vote saw the top candidates not securing an outright win in the lowest turnout poll ever held in the Islamic Republic by percentage. The election this coming Friday will pit reformist candidate Masoud Pezeshkian against the hard-line former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili. There were signs of the wider disenchantment of the public with the vote. More than 1 million votes were voided, according to the results, typically a sign of people feeling obligated to cast a ballot but not wanting to select any of the candidates. The overall turnout was 39.9%, according to the results.

US removes Gaza aid pier due to weather and may not put it back, officials say (AP) The pier built by the U.S. military to bring aid to Gaza has been removed due to weather to protect it, and the U.S. is considering not re-installing it unless the aid begins flowing out into the population again, U.S. officials said Friday. While the military has helped deliver desperately needed food through the pier, the vast majority of it is still sitting in the adjacent storage yard and that area is almost full. Aid agencies have had difficulty moving the food to areas further into Gaza where it is most needed because the humanitarian convoys have come under attack. The U.N., which has the widest reach in delivering aid to starving Palestinians, hasn’t been distributing food and other emergency supplies arriving through the pier since June 9. The pause came after the Israeli military used an area near the pier to fly out hostages after their rescue in a raid that killed more than 270 Palestinians, prompting a U.N. security review over concerns that aid workers’ safety and neutrality may have compromised.

US has sent Israel thousands of 2,000-pound bombs since Oct. 7 (Reuters) The Biden administration has sent to Israel large numbers of munitions, including more than 10,000 highly destructive 2,000-pound bombs and thousands of Hellfire missiles, since the start of the war in Gaza, said two U.S. officials briefed on an updated list of weapons shipments. Between the war’s start last October and recent days, the United States has transferred at least 14,000 of the MK-84 2,000-pound bombs, 6,500 500-pound bombs, 3,000 Hellfire precision-guided air-to-ground missiles, 1,000 bunker-buster bombs, 2,600 air-dropped small-diameter bombs, and other munitions, according to the officials, who were not authorized to speak publicly. While the officials didn’t give a timeline for the shipments, the totals suggest there has been no significant drop-off in U.S. military support for its ally, despite international calls to limit weapons supplies and a recent administration decision to pause a shipment of powerful bombs.

‘Carry your son and run’: Gaza families describe fleeing Rafah under Israeli fire (AP) Displaced Palestinian families in Gaza’s south have fled what they said was intensifying Israeli fire in northern areas of Rafah to seek shelter elsewhere, describing a chaotic night as the sounds of fighting drew closer and prompted the difficult decision to evacuate. “Just carry your son and run, we don’t have anything with us,” said one man, Mohammad al-Hadad. Some who fled overnight were able to return Friday, throwing their belongings atop vehicles or wagons pulled by donkeys and setting off. “We do not know where we can go,” said a woman, Ghada Qudeh. “Since yesterday, we have not found food or drink.” She said her family fled after Israeli forces fired missiles at a house where they were sheltering Thursday. The people fleeing Rafah are some of the last holdouts in a city that was once filled with displaced Palestinians. However, Israel’s ground invasion since early May has driven nearly everyone who sought shelter there to leave. The United Nations estimates 1.3 million people have been displaced out of Rafah—more than half of Gaza’s entire population—and only 65,000 remain.

[featurenews]

Bolivia’s president accused of plotting coup against himself to boost popularity

Opponents say abortive raid on palace by angry ex-army chief was a stunt to bolster support It was the armoured vehicles circling the Plaza Murillo - the normally tranquil central square in historic downtown La Paz – that initially set Bolivians on edge on Wednesday afternoon. By the time a phalanx of troops had marched on the presidential palace, the sense of collective confusion and shock was at fever pitch. By 2.30pm, a small tank was repeatedly ramming the gates of the neoclassical building known as Palacio Quemado until troops forced their way in and, in an extraordinary scene, the coup leader – disgruntled former army chief Juan José Zuñiga – faced off against the president, Luis Arce. Continue reading... https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/29/bolivias-president-accused-of-plotting-coup-against-himself-to-boost-popularity?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=tumblr

[head-post]

Coup attempt in Bolivia failed, general Zúñiga arrested

Armed forces of Bolivia withdrew from the presidential palace in La Paz, with General Juan José Zúñiga arrested, according to Reuters.

On Wednesday, 26 June, military units under the command of General Juan José Zúñiga, recently stripped of his military command, gathered in the central Plaza Murillo square, where the presidential palace and Congress were located. A witness reported that an armoured vehicle rammed the door of the presidential palace and soldiers rushed inside.

President Luis Arce later criticised the attempted “coup” against the government and called for international support.

Today the country is facing an attempted coup d’état. Today the country faces once again interests so that democracy in Bolivia is cut short. The Bolivian people are summoned today. We need the Bolivian people to organize and mobilise against the coup d’état in favor of democracy.

Bolivian authorities arrested Zúñiga and took him away, although the destination was unclear. Earlier at the presidential palace, Arce appointed José Wilson Sanchez as military commander, Zúñiga’s former role. Sanchez stated:

“I order that all personnel mobilised on the streets return to their units. We entreat that the blood of our soldiers not be spilled.”

The United States stated that it was closely monitoring the situation and called for calm and restraint. In Europe, however, there seemed to be no immediate reaction. La France Insoumise (LFI) party leader and member of the French National Assembly, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, denounced the lack of response by the authorities to the coup on the X social platform.

“Coup d’état in Bolivia: reaction throughout Europe and the world. France: 0 official tweets, Macron: 0, Séjourné 0. At the time of the far-right coup against Evo Morales Macron had ‘taken note’. Suspicious.”

General election

Tensions are rising in Bolivia ahead of the 2025 general election. Former president Evo Morales plans to run against former ally Arce. The move triggered a major split in the ruling socialist party and wider political uncertainty.

According to public opinion, many do not want the return of Morales, who governed the country between 2006 and 2019. He was ousted amid mass protests and replaced by an interim conservative government. Then, Arce won an election in 2020.

Zúñiga recently stated that Morales would not be able to return as president. He also threatened to block the former president, prompting Arce to sack Zúñiga from office. On the eve of the attack on the presidential palace, Zúñiga addressed reporters in the square and cited growing discontent in the country. Landlocked Bolivia is struggling with an economic downturn due to depleted central bank reserves and pressure on the Bolivian currency as gas exports have dried up.

“The three chiefs of the armed forces have come to express our dismay. Stop destroying, stop impoverishing our country, stop humiliating our army.”

Later on Wednesday, he told reporters that Arce allegedly asked him on Sunday to “raise something up,” to boost the president’s popularity. Interior Minister Eduardo del Castillo stated later that Zúñiga was seeking popular support and that the nine people injured in the assassination attempt proved that “this was not a drill.”

Bolivia responds

Morales, head of the ruling socialist MAS party, stated that his supporters were mobilising in support of democracy.

We will not allow the armed forces to violate democracy and intimidate people.

Bolivia’s prosecutor’s office announced it would launch a criminal investigation against Zuniga and others involved in the coup attempt. Meanwhile, public support for Arce and democracy in Bolivia has come from regional leaders and beyond. Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador stated:

“We express the strongest condemnation of the attempted coup d’état in Bolivia. Our total support and support for President Luis Alberto Arce Catacora.”

Even conservative political opponents of the Bolivian government have condemned the military action, including Former Interim President of Bolivia Jeanine Áñez jailed in 2022 amid political turmoil.

I fully reject of the mobilisation of the military in the Plaza Murillo attempting to destroy constitutional order. The MAS with Arce and Evo must be got out through the vote in 2025. We Bolivians will defend democracy.

Read more HERE

[alaturkanews]

Bolivian general arrested after military coup attempt fails

Led by a top general vowing to “restore democracy,” armoured vehicles rammed the doors of Bolivia’s government palace on Wednesday in what the president called a coup attempt — only to quickly retreat as their leader was arrested and detained. The events are just the latest crisis facing the South American country of some 12 million, which is already enduring political upheaval and an economic…

[andronetalks]

Soldiers surround Bolivian presidential palace in attempted coup

BBC By Ido Vock, BBC News June 26, 2024 Bolivia’s presidential palace has been stormed by soldiers as the country’s president warned of an unfolding “coup”.Troops blocked off the entrances to La Paz’s Murillo Square, where key government buildings are located, before ramming the doors of the main government building. Soldiers then entered the building. Read more…

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Check out this video!

Bolivia's president accusing military general of coup