mintpressnews--2020-04-13--Exactly 18 Years After US Coup Against Venezuela, Pompeo and Abrams Warn Another is Coming

On the eighteenth anniversary of the U.S.-backed coup against the government of Venezuela , senior American officials announced that the people should prepare for another imminent push .
“ The goal is to replace [ President Nicolas ] Maduro ’ s illegitimate dictatorship with a legitimate transitional government that can hold free and fair elections to represent all Venezuelans .
It is time for Maduro to go , ” announced Secretary of State Mike Pompeo .
On Saturday the eleventh , exactly 18 years after the U.S. supported a briefly successful coup against Hugo Chavez , American envoy for Venezuela @ @ @ @ @ @ @ if Maduro resisted the implementation of said “ transitional government ” his departure would be far more “ dangerous and abrupt , ” effectively threatening him with another assassination attempt , like the one the U.S. tacitly supported in 2018 .
The U.S. has recently upped its sanctions against Venezuela and sent warships to the region to enforce a blockade .
The phrase “ transitional government ” has been used a great deal of late ; the White House describing Bolivia ’ s Añez administration as such .
Añez came to power in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ President Evo Morales .
That “ transitional government ” has since massacred protestors , pulled Bolivia out of multiple international treaties and indefinitely suspended elections .
Thus , it came as no surprise when Maduro rejected the same fate as his ally , Morales .
“ We will take care of Venezuela , ” he replied , “ Mr .
Abrams , cool your jets.
” Maduro is well aware of the history of U.S. coups in his country , having been part of a counter-demonstration that successfully overturned the April 2002 putsch @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Information Act show that coup leaders at the time traveled back and forth to Washington D.C. several times in the months leading up to the event , where they received counsel and training from American officials .
NED and USAID funding for the groups who carried it out quadrupled in 2002 and then quadrupled again in 2003 .
The U.S. government incontrovertibly knew by at least April 6 that a coup carried out by those they were funding and training was about to occur .
But instead of alerting the government , they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ President Chavez had massacred his own people and then resigned .
Since then , Washington has never stopped attempting to remove the United Socialist Party from power , refusing to accept the validity of widely-lauded presidential elections in 2013 and 2018 , funding virtually the entire spectrum of the domestic opposition for two decades .
A number of other , less successful coups attempts have all been met with at least tacit American approval as well , including 2014 and 2017 waves of terrorist violence , a failed 2018 assassination of Maduro , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by self-declared president Juan Guaidó .
The Trump administration has also ramped up Obama ’ s sanctions on the country , leading to over 100,000 deaths , according to an American U.N. Special Rapporteur who visited the country , describing them as akin to a medieval siege and declaring Trump guilty of crimes against humanity .
Abrams ’ life ’ s work has been to use the power of the U.S. government – overtly and covertly – to overthrow sovereign states through coups , sanctions and genocides .
On his first day as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and Humanitarian Affairs under Ronald Reagan in 1981 , he jumped into action , covering up the now-infamous El Mozote massacre in El Salvador , conducted by a death squad created , armed and trained by Washington .
Since then he has been an architect of “ dirty wars , ” genocides and regime change in Guatemala , Nicaragua , Colombia and Panama , among others .
As Jon Swartz of The Intercept wrote : When Rep. Ilhan Omar brought up some of this history during a 2019 House Committee on Foreign Relations @ @ @ @ @ @ @ almost beyond words .
Despite the sanctions , the Venezuelan government has actually proven to be far more capable of handling the coronavirus pandemic than the Trump administration .
Even before any confirmed cases , Maduro declared a health emergency , canceling foreign flights and prohibiting crowds .
On the day of the first case , schools , theaters , and restaurants were closed , and wearing a mask in public became mandatory .
The government created a national online database and website where unwell citizens could inform authorities of their condition .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ visited in their homes by medics .
The country has reported only 181 infections and 9 deaths .
While Pompeo and Abrams ’ latest remarks are a grave threat to the sovereignty of Venezuela , they are not novel , Venezuelans have been hearing similar proclamations for nearly two decades .
Whether they will succeed where previous administrations before them have failed remains to be seen .
Feature photo | Secretary of State Mike Pompeo , turns the podium to Elliott Abrams , left , during a press briefing about Venezuela at the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , 2019 .
Manuel Balce Ceneta | AP Alan MacLeod is a Staff Writer for MintPress News .
After completing his PhD in 2017 he published two books : Bad News From Venezuela : Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting and Propaganda in the Information Age : Still Manufacturing Consent .
He has also contributed to Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting , The Guardian , Salon , The Grayzone , Jacobin Magazine , Common Dreams the American Herald Tribune and The Canary .

On the eighteenth anniversary of the U.S.-backed coup against the government of Venezuela, senior American officials announced that the people should prepare for another imminent push. “The goal is to replace [President Nicolas] Maduro’s illegitimate dictatorship with a legitimate transitional government that can hold free and fair elections to represent all Venezuelans. It is time for Maduro to go,” announced Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
On Saturday the eleventh, exactly 18 years after the U.S. supported a briefly successful coup against Hugo Chavez, American envoy for Venezuela and coup specialist Elliott Abrams warned that if Maduro resisted the implementation of said “transitional government” his departure would be far more “dangerous and abrupt,” effectively threatening him with another assassination attempt, like the one the U.S. tacitly supported in 2018.
The U.S. has recently upped its sanctions against Venezuela and sent warships to the region to enforce a blockade.
The phrase “transitional government” has been used a great deal of late; the White House describing Bolivia’s Añez administration as such. Añez came to power in November thanks to a U.S.-supported coup against President Evo Morales. That “transitional government” has since massacred protestors, pulled Bolivia out of multiple international treaties and indefinitely suspended elections. Thus, it came as no surprise when Maduro rejected the same fate as his ally, Morales. “We will take care of Venezuela,” he replied, “Mr. Abrams, cool your jets.”
13 April 2002: Nicolás Maduro Moros stands among the Venezuelan people in the streets, demanding freedom for Comandante Hugo Chávez. pic.twitter.com/KtmuY8aWyz — Camila (@camilateleSUR) April 12, 2019
Maduro is well aware of the history of U.S. coups in his country, having been part of a counter-demonstration that successfully overturned the April 2002 putsch. Documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show that coup leaders at the time traveled back and forth to Washington D.C. several times in the months leading up to the event, where they received counsel and training from American officials. NED and USAID funding for the groups who carried it out quadrupled in 2002 and then quadrupled again in 2003. The U.S. government incontrovertibly knew by at least April 6 that a coup carried out by those they were funding and training was about to occur. But instead of alerting the government, they immediately endorsed events, falsely claiming that President Chavez had massacred his own people and then resigned.
Since then, Washington has never stopped attempting to remove the United Socialist Party from power, refusing to accept the validity of widely-lauded presidential elections in 2013 and 2018, funding virtually the entire spectrum of the domestic opposition for two decades. A number of other, less successful coups attempts have all been met with at least tacit American approval as well, including 2014 and 2017 waves of terrorist violence, a failed 2018 assassination of Maduro, and four separate coup attempts last year by self-declared president Juan Guaidó.
The Trump administration has also ramped up Obama’s sanctions on the country, leading to over 100,000 deaths, according to an American U.N. Special Rapporteur who visited the country, describing them as akin to a medieval siege and declaring Trump guilty of crimes against humanity.
Abrams’ life’s work has been to use the power of the U.S. government – overtly and covertly – to overthrow sovereign states through coups, sanctions and genocides. On his first day as Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs under Ronald Reagan in 1981, he jumped into action, covering up the now-infamous El Mozote massacre in El Salvador, conducted by a death squad created, armed and trained by Washington. Since then he has been an architect of “dirty wars,” genocides and regime change in Guatemala, Nicaragua, Colombia and Panama, among others. As Jon Swartz of The Intercept wrote:
The choice of Abrams sends a clear message to Venezuela and the world: The Trump administration intends to brutalize Venezuela, while producing a stream of unctuous rhetoric about America’s love for democracy and human rights.”
When Rep. Ilhan Omar brought up some of this history during a 2019 House Committee on Foreign Relations last year, he appeared outraged, almost beyond words.
Despite the sanctions, the Venezuelan government has actually proven to be far more capable of handling the coronavirus pandemic than the Trump administration. Even before any confirmed cases, Maduro declared a health emergency, canceling foreign flights and prohibiting crowds. On the day of the first case, schools, theaters, and restaurants were closed, and wearing a mask in public became mandatory. The government created a national online database and website where unwell citizens could inform authorities of their condition. Over 20,000 people who registered were immediately visited in their homes by medics. The country has reported only 181 infections and 9 deaths.
While Pompeo and Abrams’ latest remarks are a grave threat to the sovereignty of Venezuela, they are not novel, Venezuelans have been hearing similar proclamations for nearly two decades. Whether they will succeed where previous administrations before them have failed remains to be seen.
Feature photo | Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, turns the podium to Elliott Abrams, left, during a press briefing about Venezuela at the State Department in Washington, Jan. 25, 2019. Manuel Balce Ceneta | AP
Alan MacLeod is a Staff Writer for MintPress News. After completing his PhD in 2017 he published two books: Bad News From Venezuela: Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting and Propaganda in the Information Age: Still Manufacturing Consent. He has also contributed to Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, The Guardian, Salon, The Grayzone, Jacobin Magazine, Common Dreams the American Herald Tribune and The Canary.


mintpressnews--2020-04-13--Disunited States: Government Failure to Address Coronavirus is Sparking a Mutual Aid Revolution

I ‘ m not from DC , but I live here .
I ’ m now a part of this living , breathing being that is a city .
This city .
It helps me to think of cities that way , even ones that I don ’ t fully feel at home in – like a body .
And I ’ m like a blood transfusion .
I know this isn ’ t my city , my body , but it ’ s where my life flows now , and so I best flow with it .
This body @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and figurative structure .
I am one of the millions of cells rushing through the veins of this place , and although I ’ m a relative newcomer , I can feel that this body is not well .
I can feel that familiar illness – it ’ s the same as any city I ’ ve ever lived in.. Every body is weakened and bowed under the weight of capitalism .
Yet , there is a new illness – one that found a foothold in our immunocompromised bones and at the same @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sickness so old it ’ s etched in our souls .
Now , with the renewed vigor of a body on high alert , cells rush in symbiotic aid to save each other .
A new fever awakens dormant fighters and engages new ones .
The city pulses with ancient knowledge and emergent ideas .
As I steer my bike through a quiet street , I smile at the seemingly cliché and trite synchronicity of it all : all systems go , all working together for the common good .
This city and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The fight , the solidarity , we share it .
We can beat this , and we can beat the underlying cancer .
For a body is not its sickness .
A city is not its oppression .
I park my bike outside a nondescript brick building .
Earlier , our Mutual Aid team established some new protocols on how to address emergency requests for food , between our scheduled delivery days .
I make a call to the number listed and a man comes down to collect the bags of sanitized groceries @ @ @ @ @ @ @ door .
I wave my gloved hand and we get to chatting – at more than a six foot distance .
He says he ’ s tried calling several places around DC that had previously offered boxes of food but weren ’ t anymore .
He heard about us from one of those organizations .
He says we ’ re the only people he called that sounded like real people .
We talk a bit longer – about his kids , about my house plants , about these bizarre times .
He offers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bike chain from slipping .
I remind him of our DC Mutual Aid number and he reminds me of his , in case the bike acts up again .
Mutual aid is built on reciprocal exchanges like this one .
Small and personal , it represents the antithesis and the answer to top-down , whitewashed charity schemes that treat aid work as school credit , or karma crystals , or what have you .
Mutual aid is the medicine that bodies respond well to , the antidote to capitalism , and the salve @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ruthlessly shanked by our system : solidarity , community , sharing , and supporting .
It ’ s not about charity .
Charity pities .
Mutual aid understands .
Charity distances .
Mutual aid connects .
As Dezeray Lyn , member of the Tampa , FL Mutual Aid Response to COVID-19 puts it , “ Charity is transactional , hierarchical.
” Mutual aid is about “ sharing with your community because they are us , we are them.
” Josiah king Harris-Ramos and Brianna lee Marie Coleman , co-directors of Black Trans Blessings @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , “ Our people need us .
We are passionate and driven to do this work , because our community is us , and we are our community.
” This symbiosis is powerful .
It is also , unfortunately , an excuse – for the powers-that-be to do nothing , or worse , to obstruct .
Mutual aid is often used as a dumping site where the ruling class throws their gross missteps , their corrupt dealings , and botched bungles .
It ’ s where they seek to distance themselves from the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , hoping we ’ ll all be too busy trying to take care of each other to notice that absolute moral bankruptcy of the rich and powerful .
If we bothered to keep track , the list of referrals from bankrolled NGOs and government institutions would read like a guest list at a royal wedding .
Most recently , we got a mutual aid request from one of our neighbors who said the DC Mayor ’ s Office of Veteran Affairs referred him to us .
In other words , Washington DC , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ rainy day fund , ” but money to spare , is offloading those in need to an anarchistic mutual aid network with little to no budget .
It certainly begs the question of what kind of rainy day DC Mayor Bowser & co. are waiting for .
The need for everything from basic hygiene products for the unhoused to food for the unemployed is skyrocketing .
Jails remain full .
Bail remains high .
Food banks are closing and bills are still due .
DC Metropolitan Police continue to be an occupying @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , harassing people at close range as if their goal were to infect and unnerve .
As Maurice Cook , director of Serve Your City and member of DC Mutual Aid said : “ The Bowser Administration has been woefully inadequate in addressing the immediate needs of the people including a lack of testing , an inability to address the food and supply shortage for the most marginalized and an escalating Public Health disaster in our homeless shelters , halfway houses and our local jail.
” DC is hardly alone in its deep @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” States is but a collection of deficient governments failing to work with and for the people , lorded over by the ultimate breakdown of common sense and care : the federal government .
As politicians around the country blab about free testing for COVID-19 , tests remain absurdly scarce and treatment is prohibitively expensive .
One woman racked up an almost $ 35k medical bill for her Coronavirus treatment .
Undocumented folks know their names aren ’ t on any role to get a government check .
Many don ’ t want @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to any official support hotlines , and even if they did , many official hotlines lack services in Spanish .
Meanwhile , ICE raids continue during the pandemic , risking the lives of thousands while simultaneously using precious N95 face masks to perform Gestapo duties as frontline medical workers wrap themselves in trash bags .
Needless to say , in a vehemently unequal society , disaster does not hit evenly .
“ Right now in our community , we are seeing a need for housing and all-around physical and spiritual support for TGNC @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in order to sustain themselves , and keep themselves healthy by providing other options besides survival sex , ” say Harris-Ramos and Coleman .
Alex Cohen , member of the STL Covid Mutual Aid in St. Louis explains that “ the need for literally every basic resource for the unhoused community has doubled during this time , with an urgency similar to doing outreach on a cold winter night , but with no end in sight.
” On April 9 , that urgency peaked when St. Louis police and City Parks and Recreation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the downtown area at four in the morning .
This assault came a mere two weeks after Police Chief John Hayden sent an email to the entire department saying that “ According to CDC recommendations , officers should refrain from clearing encampments during the spread of COVID-19.
” Without a doubt , when we get to the other side , it won ’ t be thanks to our government or those tasked with cleaning up the messes of their own oppression .
It ’ ll be thanks to mutual aid .
It @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trans Blessings are working with , protecting and providing for black and brown TGNC folks in NYC .
It ’ ll be because STL Covid Mutual Aid are making their own hand-washing stations , taping information pamphlets to them and sourcing tents and no-contact thermometers .
It ’ ll be because folks in Florida , DC , LA and elsewhere are taking on the requests from closed-down food banks .
It ’ ll be because our networks are building relationships with local organizations – from farmers to faith-based groups – in order to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ our communities .
It will be because we do what our system has never done and will never do : work with and for people .
“ It [ mutual aid ] creates millions of paths of support for people to counter the red-tape waterlogged , bottle-necked , dehumanizing and deadly top-down system of which we have lived and died by , ” Dezeray says .
It puts decision making in the hands of the people those decisions will directly affect , cutting out the avarice and illogic of remote middlemen , politicians @ @ @ @ @ @ @ knows what its needs are , ” Amanda Tello , member of STL Covid Mutual Aid in St. Louis says .
“ It does not matter if you have a social security number , what zip code you live in , or if you are unbanked , ” she says .
With that in mind , we do not work with cops or any other law enforcement agencies .
Some groups might connect with elected officials for leverage or political support , others may not .
Many of us don ’ t have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tack hotline numbers up on community boards .
We often fundraise from within our communities , connecting folks that have some extra money to those who don ’ t .
We don ’ t have rigid roles or official titles – besides perhaps neighbor .
No two mutual aid groups are the same .
They , like the cities they represent , are unique .
We share common principles like solidarity over charity , and no collusion with law enforcement , but there is no blueprint , no one-size-fits-all for these diverse bodies @ @ @ @ @ @ @ roll with what comes at us , fluid but never flimsy .
Here in DC , we ’ re a collective of seven autonomous mutual aid groups , split up by wards .
Each group has its own neighborhood rhythm and feel .
We ’ re different regions of the same body , hyper-local , but always connected to each other .
All working in concert , these groups make up the heartbeat of DC .
Lead by women of color , as many if not most of the movements that have pounded @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it is radical solidarity in action ; a continuation of decades of work in caring for the outcasts who literally live in the shadow of empire .
Indeed , it ’ s important to note that mutual aid in general is nothing new – and has been at play under many banners , names and iterations since the plague of colonialism and capitalism first infected what we now call the United States .
“ We ’ ve been creating mutual aid and support intentionally in order to live outside of the bounds of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ says .
“ I have no doubt in my mind that our work will continue – community is how we survive , we know this – so we aren ’ t going to go back to engaging in colonial structures of individualism.
” As mutual aid pulses and surges across the country and in fact the world , people are also thinking about how we can use this current disaster to shift away from the disaster that is our system , how we can dismantle the architecture of our oppression .
The combination @ @ @ @ @ @ @ crash has spotlit the designed failings of this system in glaring detail .
We see how the very foundations of this system create and catalyze both public health disasters and widespread oppression .
How to dismantle the architecture of oppression It was a mere two years ago that a leaked analyst note from financial giant Goldman Sachs expressed concern that curing disease was a bad business model .
Fast forward to today and we see how the government , owned and operated by big banks , including Goldman Sachs , has utterly failed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , focusing instead on corporate bailouts and limitless loans to big banks .
While some local governments have responded with moratoriums on foreclosures , evictions , and utility shut-offs , this merely begs the question : why does it take a pandemic to get a glimmer of human rights ?
As Dezeray notes , “ The battle to appear empathetic by pulling the blade out just enough to slightly less occlude the arteries of people ’ s existence is really just highlighting the arbitrary nature of that occlusion to begin with.
” It @ @ @ @ @ @ @ very core of a capitalist system : profit , above all else .
Indeed , in the midst of a global pandemic the shock doctrine is wasting no time : green-lighting climate destruction , stealing more indigenous lands , criminalizing protest , attacking reproductive rights , free speech and more .
Elected officials are quite literally suggesting people offer themselves as sacrificial lambs to the almighty dollar .
In response , the hashtag # NotDying4WallStreet popcorned around social media in late March , signaling to organizers that the will to fight for and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ capitalism is out there .
And the powers that be know it .
For years , they ’ ve been frantically polishing the facade of exceptionalism as more and more people saw beyond it to the sadistic structures beneath .
And now , as these pillars of capitalism buckle and shake in the cyclone it stirred , the breadth and diversity of these mutual aid efforts are making clear who takes care of those hardest hit by the storm .
For all the things that people need access to : information , medical @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , language services , child care , financial assistance and resources for everything from herbal remedies to DIY face masks and hand sanitizer , communities are turning to each other .
The body is working in overdrive to heal itself .
The rolling and future challenge will be what to do when the fever breaks .
It ’ s certainly no easy task to plan for future fights in the daze of illness .
Yet , the work we are doing now is the foundation for that future build .
What has been @ @ @ @ @ @ @ specific disasters and the associated specific government failings , mutual aid is now the scrappy DIY welfare system for an entire nation , an entire globe , with no expiration date .
As author Arundhati Roy wrote in a recent article , the pandemic is a portal , and “ We can choose to walk through it , dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred , our avarice , our data banks and dead ideas , our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us .
Or we can walk through lightly , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ another world .
And ready to fight for it.
” The question our communities must consider is how do we walk through ?
How do we organize when the system beckons like a Pied Piper to go back to their “ normal ?
” How do we bolster these aid networks against internal burnout and external onslaughts of bureaucracy and harassment ?
These aren ’ t rhetorical questions but I don ’ t have the answers .
I have some answers and more ideas .
I know others do too .
And it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ these veins , the pulse of these places , that we ’ ll figure out what works .
We ’ ll have to flesh it out , as it were , and combine our rhythms , our beats to a deafening roar – a symphony of the voices , the will , the power of the people .
Mutual aid is our road map through that portal .
How we walk is up to us .
Note | Mutual aid efforts are in full swing across the country .
Here is a good @ @ @ @ @ @ @ local groups as well as various funds , DIY and health links .
Mutual Aid Disaster Relief is another good hub for information on mutual aid .
There are countless ways to do mutual aid and your community needs you !
And if you ’ re in DC , Tampa , St. Louis or NYC , the groups mentioned in this article want you to reach out to get plugged in .
Feature photo | A volunteer wearing protective gloves organizes pre-bagged food donations n the Tomkins Houses area , March 18 , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Minchillo | AP Eleanor Goldfield is a creative activist , journalist , and poet .
She is the founder and host of the show , “ Act Out !
, ” which airs on Free Speech TV on Dish Network , DirecTV , ROKU , Amazon Fire and others .
Her articles and her show cover people and topics which corporate media either censor or misrepresent .
Her spoken word performances blend visual projections and politically charged poetry .
Her latest book , “ Paradigm Lost , ” blends radical verse with art @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was the co-founder and singer of Rooftop Revolutionaries , a political rock band born from the fight against capitalism and all the evils that stem from it .
Besides speaking and performing , she assists in local action organizing and activist training .
She is currently based in Washington , D.C .
Her website is Art Killing Apathy .

I’m not from DC, but I live here. I’m now a part of this living, breathing being that is a city. This city. It helps me to think of cities that way, even ones that I don’t fully feel at home in – like a body. And I’m like a blood transfusion. I know this isn’t my city, my body, but it’s where my life flows now, and so I best flow with it. This body holds me – it is my literal and figurative structure. I am one of the millions of cells rushing through the veins of this place, and although I’m a relative newcomer, I can feel that this body is not well. I can feel that familiar illness – it’s the same as any city I’ve ever lived in..
Every body is weakened and bowed under the weight of capitalism. Yet, there is a new illness – one that found a foothold in our immunocompromised bones and at the same time exposes the severity of that underlying sickness so old it’s etched in our souls.
Now, with the renewed vigor of a body on high alert, cells rush in symbiotic aid to save each other. A new fever awakens dormant fighters and engages new ones. The city pulses with ancient knowledge and emergent ideas.
As I steer my bike through a quiet street, I smile at the seemingly cliché and trite synchronicity of it all: all systems go, all working together for the common good. This city and I can now claim each other. The fight, the solidarity, we share it. We can beat this, and we can beat the underlying cancer. For a body is not its sickness. A city is not its oppression.
I park my bike outside a nondescript brick building. Earlier, our Mutual Aid team established some new protocols on how to address emergency requests for food, between our scheduled delivery days. I make a call to the number listed and a man comes down to collect the bags of sanitized groceries I’ve left by the front door. I wave my gloved hand and we get to chatting – at more than a six foot distance. He says he’s tried calling several places around DC that had previously offered boxes of food but weren’t anymore. He heard about us from one of those organizations. He says we’re the only people he called that sounded like real people. We talk a bit longer – about his kids, about my house plants, about these bizarre times. He offers me advice on how to keep my bike chain from slipping. I remind him of our DC Mutual Aid number and he reminds me of his, in case the bike acts up again.
Mutual aid is built on reciprocal exchanges like this one. Small and personal, it represents the antithesis and the answer to top-down, whitewashed charity schemes that treat aid work as school credit, or karma crystals, or what have you.
Mutual aid is the medicine that bodies respond well to, the antidote to capitalism, and the salve for those basic elements of humanity so ruthlessly shanked by our system: solidarity, community, sharing, and supporting. It’s not about charity. Charity pities. Mutual aid understands. Charity distances. Mutual aid connects.
As Dezeray Lyn, member of the Tampa, FL Mutual Aid Response to COVID-19 puts it, “Charity is transactional, hierarchical.” Mutual aid is about “sharing with your community because they are us, we are them.” Josiah king Harris-Ramos and Brianna lee Marie Coleman, co-directors of Black Trans Blessings in NYC echo that sentiment in saying, “Our people need us. We are passionate and driven to do this work, because our community is us, and we are our community.”
This symbiosis is powerful. It is also, unfortunately, an excuse – for the powers-that-be to do nothing, or worse, to obstruct. Mutual aid is often used as a dumping site where the ruling class throws their gross missteps, their corrupt dealings, and botched bungles. It’s where they seek to distance themselves from the poverty and oppression their policies have made, hoping we’ll all be too busy trying to take care of each other to notice that absolute moral bankruptcy of the rich and powerful.
If we bothered to keep track, the list of referrals from bankrolled NGOs and government institutions would read like a guest list at a royal wedding. Most recently, we got a mutual aid request from one of our neighbors who said the DC Mayor’s Office of Veteran Affairs referred him to us. In other words, Washington DC, the city with not only a full “rainy day fund,” but money to spare, is offloading those in need to an anarchistic mutual aid network with little to no budget. It certainly begs the question of what kind of rainy day DC Mayor Bowser & co. are waiting for.
The need for everything from basic hygiene products for the unhoused to food for the unemployed is skyrocketing. Jails remain full. Bail remains high. Food banks are closing and bills are still due. DC Metropolitan Police continue to be an occupying force in predominantly black and brown neighborhoods, harassing people at close range as if their goal were to infect and unnerve. As Maurice Cook, director of Serve Your City and member of DC Mutual Aid said: “The Bowser Administration has been woefully inadequate in addressing the immediate needs of the people including a lack of testing, an inability to address the food and supply shortage for the most marginalized and an escalating Public Health disaster in our homeless shelters, halfway houses and our local jail.”
The so-called “United” States
DC is hardly alone in its deep deficiencies. The entire so-called “United” States is but a collection of deficient governments failing to work with and for the people, lorded over by the ultimate breakdown of common sense and care: the federal government.
As politicians around the country blab about free testing for COVID-19, tests remain absurdly scarce and treatment is prohibitively expensive. One woman racked up an almost $35k medical bill for her Coronavirus treatment. Undocumented folks know their names aren’t on any role to get a government check. Many don’t want to take the risk of reaching out to any official support hotlines, and even if they did, many official hotlines lack services in Spanish. Meanwhile, ICE raids continue during the pandemic, risking the lives of thousands while simultaneously using precious N95 face masks to perform Gestapo duties as frontline medical workers wrap themselves in trash bags.
Needless to say, in a vehemently unequal society, disaster does not hit evenly. “Right now in our community, we are seeing a need for housing and all-around physical and spiritual support for TGNC (Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming) folks in order to sustain themselves, and keep themselves healthy by providing other options besides survival sex,” say Harris-Ramos and Coleman. Alex Cohen, member of the STL Covid Mutual Aid in St. Louis explains that “the need for literally every basic resource for the unhoused community has doubled during this time, with an urgency similar to doing outreach on a cold winter night, but with no end in sight.” On April 9, that urgency peaked when St. Louis police and City Parks and Recreation raided and attempted to clear an encampment in the downtown area at four in the morning. This assault came a mere two weeks after Police Chief John Hayden sent an email to the entire department saying that “According to CDC recommendations, officers should refrain from clearing encampments during the spread of COVID-19.”
Without a doubt, when we get to the other side, it won’t be thanks to our government or those tasked with cleaning up the messes of their own oppression. It’ll be thanks to mutual aid. It’ll be because folks like Black Trans Blessings are working with, protecting and providing for black and brown TGNC folks in NYC. It’ll be because STL Covid Mutual Aid are making their own hand-washing stations, taping information pamphlets to them and sourcing tents and no-contact thermometers. It’ll be because folks in Florida, DC, LA and elsewhere are taking on the requests from closed-down food banks. It’ll be because our networks are building relationships with local organizations – from farmers to faith-based groups – in order to address the changing and growing needs of our communities. It will be because we do what our system has never done and will never do: work with and for people.
“It [mutual aid] creates millions of paths of support for people to counter the red-tape waterlogged, bottle-necked, dehumanizing and deadly top-down system of which we have lived and died by,” Dezeray says. It puts decision making in the hands of the people those decisions will directly affect, cutting out the avarice and illogic of remote middlemen, politicians and corporate interests.
“The community knows what its needs are,” Amanda Tello, member of STL Covid Mutual Aid in St. Louis says. “It does not matter if you have a social security number, what zip code you live in, or if you are unbanked,” she says.
With that in mind, we do not work with cops or any other law enforcement agencies. Some groups might connect with elected officials for leverage or political support, others may not. Many of us don’t have official websites. We wheat-paste flyers and tack hotline numbers up on community boards. We often fundraise from within our communities, connecting folks that have some extra money to those who don’t. We don’t have rigid roles or official titles – besides perhaps neighbor. No two mutual aid groups are the same. They, like the cities they represent, are unique. We share common principles like solidarity over charity, and no collusion with law enforcement, but there is no blueprint, no one-size-fits-all for these diverse bodies. We transform and grow, we roll with what comes at us, fluid but never flimsy.
Here in DC, we’re a collective of seven autonomous mutual aid groups, split up by wards. Each group has its own neighborhood rhythm and feel. We’re different regions of the same body, hyper-local, but always connected to each other. All working in concert, these groups make up the heartbeat of DC. Lead by women of color, as many if not most of the movements that have pounded the streets of this capital city, it is radical solidarity in action; a continuation of decades of work in caring for the outcasts who literally live in the shadow of empire.
Indeed, it’s important to note that mutual aid in general is nothing new – and has been at play under many banners, names and iterations since the plague of colonialism and capitalism first infected what we now call the United States. “We’ve been creating mutual aid and support intentionally in order to live outside of the bounds of white supremacy and colonialism,” Amanda says. “I have no doubt in my mind that our work will continue – community is how we survive, we know this – so we aren’t going to go back to engaging in colonial structures of individualism.”
As mutual aid pulses and surges across the country and in fact the world, people are also thinking about how we can use this current disaster to shift away from the disaster that is our system, how we can dismantle the architecture of our oppression. The combination of a global pandemic and an economic crash has spotlit the designed failings of this system in glaring detail. We see how the very foundations of this system create and catalyze both public health disasters and widespread oppression.
How to dismantle the architecture of oppression
It was a mere two years ago that a leaked analyst note from financial giant Goldman Sachs expressed concern that curing disease was a bad business model. Fast forward to today and we see how the government, owned and operated by big banks, including Goldman Sachs, has utterly failed to conjure even the measliest of responses, focusing instead on corporate bailouts and limitless loans to big banks.
While some local governments have responded with moratoriums on foreclosures, evictions, and utility shut-offs, this merely begs the question: why does it take a pandemic to get a glimmer of human rights? As Dezeray notes, “The battle to appear empathetic by pulling the blade out just enough to slightly less occlude the arteries of people’s existence is really just highlighting the arbitrary nature of that occlusion to begin with.”
It is that arbitrary violence that is the very core of a capitalist system: profit, above all else. Indeed, in the midst of a global pandemic the shock doctrine is wasting no time: green-lighting climate destruction, stealing more indigenous lands, criminalizing protest, attacking reproductive rights, free speech and more. Elected officials are quite literally suggesting people offer themselves as sacrificial lambs to the almighty dollar. In response, the hashtag #NotDying4WallStreet popcorned around social media in late March, signaling to organizers that the will to fight for and build something outside this deranged cult of capitalism is out there.
And the powers that be know it. For years, they’ve been frantically polishing the facade of exceptionalism as more and more people saw beyond it to the sadistic structures beneath. And now, as these pillars of capitalism buckle and shake in the cyclone it stirred, the breadth and diversity of these mutual aid efforts are making clear who takes care of those hardest hit by the storm.
For all the things that people need access to: information, medical care, mental health care, groceries, language services, child care, financial assistance and resources for everything from herbal remedies to DIY face masks and hand sanitizer, communities are turning to each other. The body is working in overdrive to heal itself.
The rolling and future challenge will be what to do when the fever breaks. It’s certainly no easy task to plan for future fights in the daze of illness. Yet, the work we are doing now is the foundation for that future build. What has been viewed as a localized release valve for specific disasters and the associated specific government failings, mutual aid is now the scrappy DIY welfare system for an entire nation, an entire globe, with no expiration date. As author Arundhati Roy wrote in a recent article, the pandemic is a portal, and “We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it.”
The question our communities must consider is how do we walk through? How do we organize when the system beckons like a Pied Piper to go back to their “normal?” How do we bolster these aid networks against internal burnout and external onslaughts of bureaucracy and harassment? These aren’t rhetorical questions but I don’t have the answers. I have some answers and more ideas. I know others do too. And it is only in the collective rush of these veins, the pulse of these places, that we’ll figure out what works. We’ll have to flesh it out, as it were, and combine our rhythms, our beats to a deafening roar – a symphony of the voices, the will, the power of the people.
Mutual aid is our road map through that portal. How we walk is up to us.
Note | Mutual aid efforts are in full swing across the country. Here is a good list of resources where you can find local groups as well as various funds, DIY and health links.
Mutual Aid Disaster Relief is another good hub for information on mutual aid. There are countless ways to do mutual aid and your community needs you!
And if you’re in DC, Tampa, St. Louis or NYC, the groups mentioned in this article want you to reach out to get plugged in.
Feature photo | A volunteer wearing protective gloves organizes pre-bagged food donations n the Tomkins Houses area, March 18, 2020, in New York. John Minchillo | AP
Eleanor Goldfield is a creative activist, journalist, and poet. She is the founder and host of the show, “Act Out!,” which airs on Free Speech TV on Dish Network, DirecTV, ROKU, Amazon Fire and others. Her articles and her show cover people and topics which corporate media either censor or misrepresent. Her spoken word performances blend visual projections and politically charged poetry. Her latest book, “Paradigm Lost,” blends radical verse with art from 15 dissident artists. She also was the co-founder and singer of Rooftop Revolutionaries, a political rock band born from the fight against capitalism and all the evils that stem from it. Besides speaking and performing, she assists in local action organizing and activist training. She is currently based in Washington, D.C. Her website is Art Killing Apathy.


mintpressnews--2020-04-13--Bodies in the Streets: IMF Imposed Measures Have Left Ecuador Unable to Cope with Coronavirus

If you are using one of the many coronavirus incidence trackers , the Pacific country of Ecuador does not seem to be particularly badly affected by COVID-19 .
Officially , the country has less than 7,500 cases and 333 deaths .
But everybody knows this number is nonsense , including President Lenín Moreno , who freely admitted that authorities were collecting over 100 dead bodies a day from Guayaquil city alone , the epicenter of the pandemic tormenting his country .
Ecuador ’ s limited state has essentially collapsed under the strain of COVID-19 , with dozens of videos circulating @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , with no one to collect them .
The country has already run out of coffins , so corpses are buried in cardboard boxes or simply left in trucking containers .
A recent credible estimate , based on data gleaned from cemeteries and funeral homes , puts Guayaquil ’ s death toll at 7,600 – almost that of New York , a city four times its size .
Thus , more people have died from the virus in the last week in Guayaquil than China ’ s cumulative total since November .
Ecuador @ @ @ @ @ @ @ month , condemning the government ’ s inaction .
“ The situation in Ecuador is very fucked up .
I don ’ t even have the means to [ explain in ] English all of what ’ s happening .
The new Minister of Health is an incredible idiot .
Coronavirus or not this country is in big trouble with this wildly incompetent government , ” said MintPress contributor Camila Escalante , a resident of Ecuador .
Like many countries , Ecuador is suffering from a severe shortage of medical equipment .
Images @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not only as capes but for masks and hoods as well .
However , a far greater problem than a lack of equipment is a lack of doctors .
“ I have my [ sick ] dad at home , because no hospital is able to treat him or anyone , just here in El Ceibo .
But , believe me , people are dying .
There ’ s no medical personnel , no nurses .
There ’ s no one working .
There ’ s like three people , ” said Caesar @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Since his election in 2017 , President Moreno has made a priority of attacking the relatively generous welfare state measures adopted by his predecessor Rafael Correa .
Moreno had been Correa ’ s vice president , and campaigned on the ticket of extending and deepening Correa ’ s democratic socialist agenda .
However , almost immediately after he took office , he began to undo his work .
In 2019 , on orders from the Washington-based International Monetary Fund ( IMF ) , he slashed the country ’ s health budget by a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Ecuador ’ s support for Australian publisher Julian Assange and was promptly rewarded with a $ 4.2 billion loan from the IMF .
That Moreno would accept any money from an organization with such a dark history in Latin America confirmed to many his real constituency is in Washington , not with the people .
Ecuador spent much of the last four decades in debt peonage to the IMF ; by 2005 it was spending 47 percent of its entire government income paying back usurious interest on loans long since paid off , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the global south could never seek an independent path .
While leaders in Washington have showered him with praise , Moreno has carried out a generalized crackdown on dissent , forcing Correa into exile .
This has , according to Escalante , helped to fuel the coronavirus fire .
“ A lot of the most competent leaders this country had , were forced to flee , or fled when it became known that political persecution was going to become the norm here .
Everything is subject to censorship ; doctors are afraid @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to do their job , ” she said .
“ Imagine being a reporter in Ecuador and doing very little reporting on…Ecuador .
Well , political persecution became the reality here in 2017 and it is a matter of time before they start rounding people up for their reporting .
As a foreigner , it ’ s not worth the risk.
” Like other U.S.-backed states Brazil and Bolivia , Moreno ’ s Ecuador expelled around 1,000 Cuban doctors working inside the country , constituting the backbone of its public healthcare system .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ no specialists to replace them , ” said Ricardo Ramírez , a retired physician in Guayaquil .
“ It ’ s one important factor why we can ’ t provide an adequate response to the virus now.
” In contrast , anti-imperialist countries in the region like Venezuela and Cuba itself have fared far better at tackling the crisis : only 27 people have died in those two countries so far .
The coronavirus was an uncontrollable act of God .
Governmental response to the crisis , however , is not .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ before and during the pandemic are the prime factor in why Ecuador might be the world epicenter of the virus .
It has been an unmitigated disaster for the population .
But , given his close ties to Washington , it is far from clear whether Lenín Moreno cares at all about that .
Feature photo | A brigade wearing a biosafety suit to protect from coronavirus pick up a coffin with a body left outside a house in Guayaquil , Ecuador , April 6 , 2020 .
Guayaquil , a normally bustling @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in Latin America as the coronavirus pandemic spreads , has untold numbers dying of unrelated diseases that can ’ t be treated because hospitals are overwhelmed .
Edison Choco | AP Alan MacLeod is a Staff Writer for MintPress News .
After completing his PhD in 2017 he published two books : Bad News From Venezuela : Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting and Propaganda in the Information Age : Still Manufacturing Consent .
He has also contributed to Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting , The Guardian , Salon , The Grayzone @ @ @ @ @ @ @ American Herald Tribune and The Canary .

If you are using one of the many coronavirus incidence trackers, the Pacific country of Ecuador does not seem to be particularly badly affected by COVID-19. Officially, the country has less than 7,500 cases and 333 deaths. But everybody knows this number is nonsense, including President Lenín Moreno, who freely admitted that authorities were collecting over 100 dead bodies a day from Guayaquil city alone, the epicenter of the pandemic tormenting his country.
Ecuador’s limited state has essentially collapsed under the strain of COVID-19, with dozens of videos circulating showing dead bodies left in the streets, with no one to collect them. The country has already run out of coffins, so corpses are buried in cardboard boxes or simply left in trucking containers. A recent credible estimate, based on data gleaned from cemeteries and funeral homes, puts Guayaquil’s death toll at 7,600 – almost that of New York, a city four times its size. Thus, more people have died from the virus in the last week in Guayaquil than China’s cumulative total since November. Ecuador’s minister of health resigned last month, condemning the government’s inaction.
“The situation in Ecuador is very fucked up. I don’t even have the means to [explain in] English all of what’s happening. The new Minister of Health is an incredible idiot. Coronavirus or not this country is in big trouble with this wildly incompetent government,” said MintPress contributor Camila Escalante, a resident of Ecuador.
Like many countries, Ecuador is suffering from a severe shortage of medical equipment. Images show doctors and nurses wearing trash bags not only as capes but for masks and hoods as well.
However, a far greater problem than a lack of equipment is a lack of doctors. “I have my [sick] dad at home, because no hospital is able to treat him or anyone, just here in El Ceibo. But, believe me, people are dying. There’s no medical personnel, no nurses. There’s no one working. There’s like three people,” said Caesar Figueroa, a nurse in Guayaquil.
Trust me, I’ve been inside. The situation is precarious. There is no gloves, no masks. There’s nothing. All of Ecuador is a country of nothing. There’s no government. There’s no president.”
The situation in Ecuador is very fucked up. I don't even have the means to English all of what's happening. The new Minister of Health is an incredible idiot. Coronavirus or not this country is in big trouble with this wildly incompetent government. — Camila (@camilapress) April 12, 2020
Since his election in 2017, President Moreno has made a priority of attacking the relatively generous welfare state measures adopted by his predecessor Rafael Correa. Moreno had been Correa’s vice president, and campaigned on the ticket of extending and deepening Correa’s democratic socialist agenda. However, almost immediately after he took office, he began to undo his work.
In 2019, on orders from the Washington-based International Monetary Fund (IMF), he slashed the country’s health budget by a staggering 36 percent. Moreno also rescinded Ecuador’s support for Australian publisher Julian Assange and was promptly rewarded with a $4.2 billion loan from the IMF.
That Moreno would accept any money from an organization with such a dark history in Latin America confirmed to many his real constituency is in Washington, not with the people. Ecuador spent much of the last four decades in debt peonage to the IMF; by 2005 it was spending 47 percent of its entire government income paying back usurious interest on loans long since paid off, a debt trap that ensured many countries in the global south could never seek an independent path.
While leaders in Washington have showered him with praise, Moreno has carried out a generalized crackdown on dissent, forcing Correa into exile. This has, according to Escalante, helped to fuel the coronavirus fire. “A lot of the most competent leaders this country had, were forced to flee, or fled when it became known that political persecution was going to become the norm here. Everything is subject to censorship; doctors are afraid to speak out; reporters are afraid to do their job,” she said. “Imagine being a reporter in Ecuador and doing very little reporting on…Ecuador. Well, political persecution became the reality here in 2017 and it is a matter of time before they start rounding people up for their reporting. As a foreigner, it’s not worth the risk.”
Like other U.S.-backed states Brazil and Bolivia, Moreno’s Ecuador expelled around 1,000 Cuban doctors working inside the country, constituting the backbone of its public healthcare system. “When they left, there were no specialists to replace them,” said Ricardo Ramírez, a retired physician in Guayaquil. “It’s one important factor why we can’t provide an adequate response to the virus now.” In contrast, anti-imperialist countries in the region like Venezuela and Cuba itself have fared far better at tackling the crisis: only 27 people have died in those two countries so far.
The coronavirus was an uncontrollable act of God. Governmental response to the crisis, however, is not. The Moreno administration’s decisions, both before and during the pandemic are the prime factor in why Ecuador might be the world epicenter of the virus. It has been an unmitigated disaster for the population. But, given his close ties to Washington, it is far from clear whether Lenín Moreno cares at all about that.
Feature photo | A brigade wearing a biosafety suit to protect from coronavirus pick up a coffin with a body left outside a house in Guayaquil, Ecuador, April 6, 2020. Guayaquil, a normally bustling city that has become a hot spot in Latin America as the coronavirus pandemic spreads, has untold numbers dying of unrelated diseases that can’t be treated because hospitals are overwhelmed. Edison Choco | AP
Alan MacLeod is a Staff Writer for MintPress News. After completing his PhD in 2017 he published two books: Bad News From Venezuela: Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting and Propaganda in the Information Age: Still Manufacturing Consent. He has also contributed to Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, The Guardian, Salon, The Grayzone, Jacobin Magazine, Common Dreams the American Herald Tribune and The Canary.


mintpressnews--2020-04-13--Solidarity in a Time of Pandemic, While the US Capitalizes on Disaster

Like most everyone else , I don ’ t get out much lately due to shelter-in-place .
But when I walk around my community , I am heartened by neighbors asking if there is anything we might need .
I suspect this scenario is taking place everywhere .
Around the world amidst the pandemic , people step out at a mutually designated evening hour to make noise in a collective show of gratitude for heroic frontline healthcare workers .
In New York City and Rome , they bang pots and pans .
They ’ re cheering from rooftops in London @ @ @ @ @ @ @ harmony .
Here in Marin County , just north of San Francisco , we emerge at dusk to howl like coyotes .
What we are seeing is not social distancing but people coming together… while maintaining the prescribed 6-foot physical distancing .
Our enforced physical isolation has paradoxically awakened a deeper appreciation of our commonality and mutual dependence , echoed by the response of nations other than the US .
Cuba has sent over 700 health professionals all over the world to fight COVID-19 .
The antiviral recombinant Interferon alfa-2b , developed in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ China to treat the virus in its early stages and is being exported widely .
The Cuban approach is : “ we don ’ t just give what we have left over but share what we have.
” In a word , solidarity .
The Venezuelan air force mobilized to carry Cuban medical brigades to Caribbean counties fighting COVID-19 .
Venezuelan soldiers mustered not to their guns but to sewing machines to stitch surgical masks for civilians to protect them from the virus .
This is being done in the context of ever-tightening @ @ @ @ @ @ @ blockading Venezuela at a cost of over 100,000 lives .
China , having contained its own outbreak in an effort the World Health Organization ( WHO ) praised as unprecedented , sent critically needed respirators and other medical equipment to 35 other countries and regions .
Responding to shortages in the US , China flew in tons of medical equipment to New York , Illinois , Ohio , and other US states .
Russia airlifted 60 tons of needed ventilators , masks , and respirators to the US and has aided other countries @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pandemic .
In the same spirit , UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called for a global ceasefire : “ There should be only one fight in our world today , our shared battle against COVID-19… [ to ] end the sickness of war and fight the disease that is ravaging our world.
” Over 70 nations have endorsed the ceasefire , as did Pope Francis and religious leaders of diverse faiths , but not the US .
“ The war on this virus can only be successful if all nations can win this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is left behind , ” wrote Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in an open letter to the American people .
The virus does not discriminate , attacking oppressed and oppressor alike .
Unfortunately , the US government does more than discriminate .
Washington has seen the pandemic as an opportunity .
The US government is exploiting the pandemic as an opportunity to increase misery in Iran , Venezuela , Nicaragua , Cuba , Syria and other countries the world ’ s hegemon doesn ’ t care for .
And these besieged states are not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ever-increasing US sanctions .
These unilateral coercive measures , illegal under international and domestic law , are explicitly designed to cause the targeted people to suffer so much they will reject their leaders for those chosen for them by the US .
Filmmaker Oliver Stone and human rights law professor Dan Kovalik describe the US conduct as “ weaponizing the virus ” against targeted countries .
As the US Peace Council reports , the countries targeted by the US “ are finding it prohibitively difficult to protect and save the lives of their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ global emergency .
These sanctions constitute crimes against humanity.
” In short , sanctions kill .
The US has blocked medical aid to targeted countries .
A shipment of test kits , masks , and respirators donated by the Chinese Alibaba group to Cuba had to be aborted , when the US transport company refused to deliver , fearing breaking the US blockade .
Correspondingly the US has waged a campaign to force recipient countries to refuse Cuban medical assistance .
Venezuela , with COVID-19 already threatening , applied for an emergency $ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from the International Monetary Fund ( IMF ) .
Under US pressure , the IMF denied the request .
Trump threatened to suspend the US contribution to the WHO , the main international body fighting the pandemic .
WHO had appealed to the US to lift its sanctions preventing Iran from purchasing drugs and medical equipment .
But the US had already rejected the binding but unenforceable ruling of the International Court of Justice ( aka World Court ) to lift sanctions on medical and humanitarian aid to Iran .
Likewise , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Rights Michelle Bachelet for the US to suspend sanctions amidst the pandemic , because the “ impeding medical efforts in one country heightens the risk for all of us , ” fell on deaf ears .
The punitive policies of the US government are having the effect of spreading the coronavirus .
In response , even close US allies such as the UK , France , and Germany have used the alternative trading tool , INSTEX , to circumvent the US sanctions and deliver humanitarian medical supplies .
At a time when resources @ @ @ @ @ @ @ health crisis in the US , the US Navy is being sent off the Venezuelan coast in the largest regional US military deployment in 30 years .
Washington ’ s bogus claim , that Venezuela is conspiring to “ flood the United States with cocaine , ” is contradicted by the government ’ s own statistics that prove that the illicit drugs are coming overwhelmingly out of US client state Colombia , which has received over $ 10 billion of US aid .
The positioning of the US armada of Arleigh Burke-class destroyers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ expensive , is overkill for drug interdiction .
But the warships , each armed with 56 Tomahawk cruise missiles , land-attack missiles , and anti-ship missiles , along with the deployment of ground Special Forces would be appropriate for threatening an invasion of Venezuela .
US officials claim that this spare-no-expense military exercise is necessary to “ send a message ” to Venezuelan President Maduro .
But given Trump ’ s undeniable skills in the area , wouldn ’ t it be far more parsimonious to tweet him ?
Apparently not , because @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as a morbid backdrop for offensive actions in Syria , Afghanistan , Iran , and Yemen , to name a few of the more prominent flashpoints engaging the US military .
Besides tweeting might not work so well .
Twitter , in service of the empire , has suspended the accounts of the minister of health and other top Venezuelan officials .
Gone viral : now a description of the human condition The critical difference between an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer and a ventilator used to treat COVID-19 is that there is no shortage @ @ @ @ @ @ @ case so long as our bipartisan foreign policy persists .
Working people will be neglected , come pandemics , economic collapse , or both .
The larger question for our times , when “ gone viral ” is more than a figure of speech but is a description of the human condition , is posed by the New York Times : “ Everything is awful .
So why is the stock market booming ?
” The wealthiest member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors and its chair , Jerome Powell , is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fundamentally wrong.
” Heidi Shierholz with the Economic Policy Institute looked at precisely the same indicators as did Powell , but from the perspective of the other 99 % of humanity , and exclaimed : The answer to the Times ’ query is that the US empire , as leader of the capitalist world , finds ways to exploit disasters while failing to meet human needs .
Feature photo | Cuban doctors form up during a farewell ceremony as they get ready to leave for Italy to help with the new coronavirus pandemic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 12 , 2020 .
Ismael Francisco | AP Roger D. Harris is with the Task Force on the Americas , a human rights group working in solidarity with the social justice movements in Latin America and the Caribbean since 1985 .

Like most everyone else, I don’t get out much lately due to shelter-in-place. But when I walk around my community, I am heartened by neighbors asking if there is anything we might need. I suspect this scenario is taking place everywhere.
Around the world amidst the pandemic, people step out at a mutually designated evening hour to make noise in a collective show of gratitude for heroic frontline healthcare workers. In New York City and Rome, they bang pots and pans. They’re cheering from rooftops in London and Vancouver. Elsewhere they sing in harmony. Here in Marin County, just north of San Francisco, we emerge at dusk to howl like coyotes.
What we are seeing is not social distancing but people coming together… while maintaining the prescribed 6-foot physical distancing. Our enforced physical isolation has paradoxically awakened a deeper appreciation of our commonality and mutual dependence, echoed by the response of nations other than the US.
International solidarity
Cuba has sent over 700 health professionals all over the world to fight COVID-19. The antiviral recombinant Interferon alfa-2b, developed in Cuba, has been successfully used in China to treat the virus in its early stages and is being exported widely. The Cuban approach is: “we don’t just give what we have left over but share what we have.” In a word, solidarity.
The Venezuelan air force mobilized to carry Cuban medical brigades to Caribbean counties fighting COVID-19. Venezuelan soldiers mustered not to their guns but to sewing machines to stitch surgical masks for civilians to protect them from the virus. This is being done in the context of ever-tightening sanctions on Venezuela by the US, blockading Venezuela at a cost of over 100,000 lives.
China, having contained its own outbreak in an effort the World Health Organization (WHO) praised as unprecedented, sent critically needed respirators and other medical equipment to 35 other countries and regions. Responding to shortages in the US, China flew in tons of medical equipment to New York, Illinois, Ohio, and other US states. Russia airlifted 60 tons of needed ventilators, masks, and respirators to the US and has aided other countries in the global effort to contain the pandemic.
In the same spirit, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called for a global ceasefire: “There should be only one fight in our world today, our shared battle against COVID-19…[to] end the sickness of war and fight the disease that is ravaging our world.” Over 70 nations have endorsed the ceasefire, as did Pope Francis and religious leaders of diverse faiths, but not the US.
“The war on this virus can only be successful if all nations can win this war together, and no affected nation is left behind,” wrote Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in an open letter to the American people.
“This is the other side of the globalization coin; a signal that happiness and calamity are both globalized.”
Washington sees an opportunity
The virus does not discriminate, attacking oppressed and oppressor alike. Unfortunately, the US government does more than discriminate. Washington has seen the pandemic as an opportunity.
The US government is exploiting the pandemic as an opportunity to increase misery in Iran, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba, Syria and other countries the world’s hegemon doesn’t care for. And these besieged states are not alone. One-third of humanity is under ever-increasing US sanctions. These unilateral coercive measures, illegal under international and domestic law, are explicitly designed to cause the targeted people to suffer so much they will reject their leaders for those chosen for them by the US.
Filmmaker Oliver Stone and human rights law professor Dan Kovalik describe the US conduct as “weaponizing the virus” against targeted countries. As the US Peace Council reports, the countries targeted by the US “are finding it prohibitively difficult to protect and save the lives of their citizens in the face of the ongoing global emergency. These sanctions constitute crimes against humanity.” In short, sanctions kill.
The US has blocked medical aid to targeted countries. A shipment of test kits, masks, and respirators donated by the Chinese Alibaba group to Cuba had to be aborted, when the US transport company refused to deliver, fearing breaking the US blockade. Correspondingly the US has waged a campaign to force recipient countries to refuse Cuban medical assistance.
Venezuela, with COVID-19 already threatening, applied for an emergency $5 billion loan to combat the virus from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Under US pressure, the IMF denied the request.
Trump threatened to suspend the US contribution to the WHO, the main international body fighting the pandemic. WHO had appealed to the US to lift its sanctions preventing Iran from purchasing drugs and medical equipment. But the US had already rejected the binding but unenforceable ruling of the International Court of Justice (aka World Court) to lift sanctions on medical and humanitarian aid to Iran.
Likewise, the appeal by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet for the US to suspend sanctions amidst the pandemic, because the “impeding medical efforts in one country heightens the risk for all of us,” fell on deaf ears.
The punitive policies of the US government are having the effect of spreading the coronavirus. In response, even close US allies such as the UK, France, and Germany have used the alternative trading tool, INSTEX, to circumvent the US sanctions and deliver humanitarian medical supplies.
At a time when resources are supposedly inadequate to respond to the health crisis in the US, the US Navy is being sent off the Venezuelan coast in the largest regional US military deployment in 30 years. Washington’s bogus claim, that Venezuela is conspiring to “flood the United States with cocaine,” is contradicted by the government’s own statistics that prove that the illicit drugs are coming overwhelmingly out of US client state Colombia, which has received over $10 billion of US aid.
The positioning of the US armada of Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, among the world’s most expensive, is overkill for drug interdiction. But the warships, each armed with 56 Tomahawk cruise missiles, land-attack missiles, and anti-ship missiles, along with the deployment of ground Special Forces would be appropriate for threatening an invasion of Venezuela.
US officials claim that this spare-no-expense military exercise is necessary to “send a message” to Venezuelan President Maduro. But given Trump’s undeniable skills in the area, wouldn’t it be far more parsimonious to tweet him? Apparently not, because the US is also using the pandemic as a morbid backdrop for offensive actions in Syria, Afghanistan, Iran, and Yemen, to name a few of the more prominent flashpoints engaging the US military. Besides tweeting might not work so well. Twitter, in service of the empire, has suspended the accounts of the minister of health and other top Venezuelan officials.
Gone viral: now a description of the human condition
The critical difference between an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer and a ventilator used to treat COVID-19 is that there is no shortage of warships. This will remain the case so long as our bipartisan foreign policy persists. Working people will be neglected, come pandemics, economic collapse, or both.
The larger question for our times, when “gone viral” is more than a figure of speech but is a description of the human condition, is posed by the New York Times: “Everything is awful. So why is the stock market booming?” The wealthiest member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors and its chair, Jerome Powell, is similarly bullish: “There is nothing fundamentally wrong.”
Heidi Shierholz with the Economic Policy Institute looked at precisely the same indicators as did Powell, but from the perspective of the other 99% of humanity, and exclaimed:
I don’t usually look at data releases and just start shaking…This is a portrait of disaster…It represents just incredible amounts of grief and suffering.”
The answer to the Times’ query is that the US empire, as leader of the capitalist world, finds ways to exploit disasters while failing to meet human needs.
Feature photo | Cuban doctors form up during a farewell ceremony as they get ready to leave for Italy to help with the new coronavirus pandemic, in Havana, Cuba, April 12, 2020. Ismael Francisco | AP
Roger D. Harris is with the Task Force on the Americas, a human rights group working in solidarity with the social justice movements in Latin America and the Caribbean since 1985.


mintpressnews--2020-04-10--Saudi Arabia Violates its Own Ceasefire As Yemen Announces First Cases of Coronavirus

HAJJAH , YEMEN — Thursday proved to be a tragic day for internally displaced people in the Al-Mazraq Refugee Camp in Yemen ’ s northern Hajjah Province .
The camp lies on the outskirts of Haradh city near the Yemen-Saudi border .
Residents of the camp were shocked by the sound of huge explosions and aircraft buzzing overhead , especially as news had just reached the camp that Saudi Arabia had announced a ceasefire in Yemen amid a coronavirus outbreak ravaging members of its monarchy .
By the end of the day , it was clear that the Saudi military @ @ @ @ @ @ @ launched an operation aimed at capturing a customs port in Haradh , just 20 kilometers away from the refugee camp .
Even after repeated calls by the United Nations to halt the war in Yemen in order to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus ( COVID-19 ) , Saudi Arabia continued operations in the country unabated .
On Wednesday night , however , the Kingdom finally announced that it was halting military operations in order to “ avoid a potential outbreak.
” Despite the public announcement , by Thursday morning , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Saudi Coalition spokesman Col. Turki al-Malki claimed that Saudi Arabia was suspending military operations in order to “ support of UN efforts to end its five-year war and avoid a potential outbreak of the new coronavirus.
” The Coalition has made no mention of lifting its blockade on the country in order to allow medical aid or supplies to enter .
“ The move was aimed at creating favorable conditions for a UN-supervised meeting to pave the way for a permanent ceasefire in Yemen , ” Maliki said in a statement released @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The spokesman claimed the ceasefire would go into effect on Thursday and last for two weeks .
The move , which is renewable , “ is an opportunity to reach a comprehensive and lasting cease-fire in Yemen , ” according to Maliki .
Shortly after the ceasefire was announced , Saudi Coalition jets struck several civilian targets in Sa ’ ada , Amran , al-Bayda , Hajjah , and Jawf .
Moreover , new military operations supported by American military advisors began in several areas near the Saudi-Yemen border .
This included the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ well as airstrikes in Rasha Asir and Al-Baqa ’ a in Najran .
Saudi Arabia ’ s announcement of a ceasefire , which it violated almost immediately , is not without precedent .
In January 2016 , the Saudi-led coalition announced it would no longer observe a ceasefire that it had announced on December 15 in the midst of UN-brokered talks aimed at ending the war .
Ansar Allah , the political wing of Yemen ’ s Houthi movement , the primary force fighting to repel Saudi forces from Yemen , downplayed the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a maneuver , tactical step and an attempt to evade responsibility for the consequences of the spread of COVID-19 .
Mohammed AbdulSalam , the spokesman for Ansar Allah , said on Thursday that the Saudi initiative is a political and media maneuver and has multiple aims , including improving the “ stained and bloody ” image of Saudi Arabia and trying to thwart negotiations between the United Nations and Ansar Allah to end the war on Yemen .
Mohammed al-Bukhaiti , a senior member of Ansar Allah ’ s Political Bureau , said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a conviction for peace , but is simply a tactical move .
Al-Bukhaiti urged Riyadh to use the outbreak of COVID-19 as an opportunity for a genuine ceasefire and a face-saving exit from the Yemen war .
Ansar Allah , like most Yemenis , believes that any truce that does not involve lifting the blockade imposed in 2016 would be a continuation of the Saudi war .
That blockade has effectively handcuffed Yemeni authorities from managing the coronavirus threat .
In fact , just one after the blockade , at least 60 percent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ closed for good and those that remained operational lacked specialists , essential equipment , and medicine as they were unable to restock due to the blockade .
Furthermore , a host of epidemics such as diphtheria , cholera , dengue fever , swine flu , and malaria are already sweeping refugee camps , making it nearly impossible for people to effectively face the coming coronavirus pandemic .
“ To us , if even Saudi stops the war , it is time to dig our graves and wait quietly for death , ” a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ told MintPress .
The first official coronavirus cases in Yemen were confirmed in Hadhramout two days ago .
The World Health Organisation ( WHO ) and Save the Children have both warned of an impending explosion of coronavirus cases in the country .
Xavier Joubert , the Country Director for Save the Children in Yemen said : Dr. Taha al- Mutwakel , head of the Sana ’ a-based Ministry of Health and Population told members of the Yemeni parliament , “ if COVID-19 spreads in Yemen it will kill at least 500,000 people.
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ plants were destroyed , there are only 1,000 beds across the country and 400 ventilators.
” Given how quickly the virus is spreading around the world , COVID-19 will almost certainly gain a foothold in Yemen , especially ravaging refugees already suffering from compromised immune systems .
According to the Ministry of Health , the virus will affect 90 percent of the population and will be especially deadly to those living in refugee camps .
Most Yemenis do not have the luxury of buy cleaning tools and sterilizers or calling epidemiological centers when @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their hands with clean water can prove challenging , let alone practicing social distancing .
In the Al-Mazraq Refugee Camp , multiple families are often forced to share the same utensils , bathrooms , cooking supplies , and tents and the camps ’ residents often struggle with underlying health conditions like malnutrition and cholera , making them even more vulnerable to the virus .
Even outside the camps , the intensive care that COVID-19 patients need when they develop acute respiratory distress syndrome is virtually nonexistent in Yemen .
While the World Health @ @ @ @ @ @ @ devices ” to the country , they require officials to confirm cases before they will send aid , according to the Secretary-General of the National Council for the Administration and Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Sana ’ a .
To make matters worse , Saudi Arabia has engaged in a number of questionable practices that have Yemeni citizens fearing the Kingdom is intentionally trying to expedite the spread of COVID-19 .
In Wadi Al-Dhamd , a valley that straddles the border between Yemen and Saudi Arabia and connects directly to Yemen ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has relocated hundreds of African refugees deported from the Kingdom .
Citizen cell phone video shows masses gathering in the area in a move Yemenis fear could be an attempt to spark a COVID-19 outbreak among the refugee population in order to spread it to local residents according to authorities in Sadaa .
Al-Raqaw is dotted with refugee camps inhabited by thousands of migrants from Ethiopia and Somalia that were deported from Saudi Arabia .
They often pay Yemeni smugglers to transport them to large cities in the country in hopes of fleeing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the African migrants are believed to have been deported from areas of Saudi Arabia where the coronavirus is spreading .
Since the COVID-19 pandemic began , the Saudi regime has also expelled thousands of Yemeni workers .
Dr. Hussein Maqbouli , the Head of the Sana ’ a-based Higher Ministerial Committee for Epidemic Control , told a local TV news channel Thursday night that only 76 quarantine centers had been set up across Yemen ’ s 12 provinces .
He noted that 400 people are still arriving every day at the Afar @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of 12,000 per month .
This , at a time when most countries have suspended inbound flights in an effort to contain the pandemic .
The Saudi coalition has near complete control of Yemen ’ s airspace .
Officials in Sana ’ a have warned against the continual deportation of Yemenis from Saudi Arabia into Yemen and the Coalition ’ s continued flights into the city of Aden without observing any quarantine measures .
They say that moves fit into a framework of Coalition plans to introduce the virus into Yemen .
Mohsen @ @ @ @ @ @ @ National Council for the Administration and Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs , want as far as to say that Saudi Arabia in intentionally deporting those affected by COVID-19 to Yemen .
Feature photo | Dust rises from the site of a Saudi-led airstrike in Sanaa , Yemen March 30 , 2020 .
Khaled Abdullah | Reuters Ahmed AbdulKareem is a Yemeni journalist .
He covers the war in Yemen for MintPress News as well as local Yemeni media .

HAJJAH, YEMEN — Thursday proved to be a tragic day for internally displaced people in the Al-Mazraq Refugee Camp in Yemen’s northern Hajjah Province. The camp lies on the outskirts of Haradh city near the Yemen-Saudi border.
Residents of the camp were shocked by the sound of huge explosions and aircraft buzzing overhead, especially as news had just reached the camp that Saudi Arabia had announced a ceasefire in Yemen amid a coronavirus outbreak ravaging members of its monarchy. By the end of the day, it was clear that the Saudi military was behind the attacks. It had launched an operation aimed at capturing a customs port in Haradh, just 20 kilometers away from the refugee camp.
Even after repeated calls by the United Nations to halt the war in Yemen in order to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), Saudi Arabia continued operations in the country unabated. On Wednesday night, however, the Kingdom finally announced that it was halting military operations in order to “avoid a potential outbreak.” Despite the public announcement, by Thursday morning, the Kingdom had launched its campaign in Haradh.
Saudi Coalition spokesman Col. Turki al-Malki claimed that Saudi Arabia was suspending military operations in order to “support of UN efforts to end its five-year war and avoid a potential outbreak of the new coronavirus.” The Coalition has made no mention of lifting its blockade on the country in order to allow medical aid or supplies to enter.
“The move was aimed at creating favorable conditions for a UN-supervised meeting to pave the way for a permanent ceasefire in Yemen,” Maliki said in a statement released by the official Saudi Press Agency. The spokesman claimed the ceasefire would go into effect on Thursday and last for two weeks. The move, which is renewable, “is an opportunity to reach a comprehensive and lasting cease-fire in Yemen,” according to Maliki.
Shortly after the ceasefire was announced, Saudi Coalition jets struck several civilian targets in Sa’ada, Amran, al-Bayda, Hajjah, and Jawf. Moreover, new military operations supported by American military advisors began in several areas near the Saudi-Yemen border. This included the attacks on the Haradh customs port as well as airstrikes in Rasha Asir and Al-Baqa’a in Najran.
Saudi Arabia’s announcement of a ceasefire, which it violated almost immediately, is not without precedent. In January 2016, the Saudi-led coalition announced it would no longer observe a ceasefire that it had announced on December 15 in the midst of UN-brokered talks aimed at ending the war.
Ansar Allah, the political wing of Yemen’s Houthi movement, the primary force fighting to repel Saudi forces from Yemen, downplayed the Saudi ceasefire announcement, describing it as a maneuver, tactical step and an attempt to evade responsibility for the consequences of the spread of COVID-19.
Mohammed AbdulSalam, the spokesman for Ansar Allah, said on Thursday that the Saudi initiative is a political and media maneuver and has multiple aims, including improving the “stained and bloody” image of Saudi Arabia and trying to thwart negotiations between the United Nations and Ansar Allah to end the war on Yemen.
Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a senior member of Ansar Allah’s Political Bureau, said that the Saudi initiative does not express a conviction for peace, but is simply a tactical move. Al-Bukhaiti urged Riyadh to use the outbreak of COVID-19 as an opportunity for a genuine ceasefire and a face-saving exit from the Yemen war.
Ansar Allah, like most Yemenis, believes that any truce that does not involve lifting the blockade imposed in 2016 would be a continuation of the Saudi war. That blockade has effectively handcuffed Yemeni authorities from managing the coronavirus threat. In fact, just one after the blockade, at least 60 percent of Yemen’s health facilities had closed for good and those that remained operational lacked specialists, essential equipment, and medicine as they were unable to restock due to the blockade.
Furthermore, a host of epidemics such as diphtheria, cholera, dengue fever, swine flu, and malaria are already sweeping refugee camps, making it nearly impossible for people to effectively face the coming coronavirus pandemic. “To us, if even Saudi stops the war, it is time to dig our graves and wait quietly for death,” a 35-year-old refugee in the Al-Mazraq Refugee Camp told MintPress.
Coronavirus officially hits Yemen
The first official coronavirus cases in Yemen were confirmed in Hadhramout two days ago. The World Health Organisation (WHO) and Save the Children have both warned of an impending explosion of coronavirus cases in the country. Xavier Joubert, the Country Director for Save the Children in Yemen said:
Today, the first case of Covid-19 was confirmed in Yemen. This is a moment we all feared, and were hoping to avoid, because Yemen is critically under-equipped to face this virus. Only half of Yemen’s health facilities are still fully functional. There are 700 intensive care unit beds, including 60 for children, and 500 ventilators for a population of about 30 million.
Dr. Taha al- Mutwakel, head of the Sana’a-based Ministry of Health and Population told members of the Yemeni parliament, “if COVID-19 spreads in Yemen it will kill at least 500,000 people.” He added, “The oxygen plants were destroyed, there are only 1,000 beds across the country and 400 ventilators.”
Waiting quietly for death
Given how quickly the virus is spreading around the world, COVID-19 will almost certainly gain a foothold in Yemen, especially ravaging refugees already suffering from compromised immune systems. According to the Ministry of Health, the virus will affect 90 percent of the population and will be especially deadly to those living in refugee camps.
Most Yemenis do not have the luxury of buy cleaning tools and sterilizers or calling epidemiological centers when they’re sick. Even washing their hands with clean water can prove challenging, let alone practicing social distancing. In the Al-Mazraq Refugee Camp, multiple families are often forced to share the same utensils, bathrooms, cooking supplies, and tents and the camps’ residents often struggle with underlying health conditions like malnutrition and cholera, making them even more vulnerable to the virus.
Even outside the camps, the intensive care that COVID-19 patients need when they develop acute respiratory distress syndrome is virtually nonexistent in Yemen. While the World Health Organization has provided 30 “heat testing devices” to the country, they require officials to confirm cases before they will send aid, according to the Secretary-General of the National Council for the Administration and Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Sana’a.
Weaponizing the virus
To make matters worse, Saudi Arabia has engaged in a number of questionable practices that have Yemeni citizens fearing the Kingdom is intentionally trying to expedite the spread of COVID-19.
In Wadi Al-Dhamd, a valley that straddles the border between Yemen and Saudi Arabia and connects directly to Yemen’s district of Al-Raqaw, the Saudi regime has relocated hundreds of African refugees deported from the Kingdom. Citizen cell phone video shows masses gathering in the area in a move Yemenis fear could be an attempt to spark a COVID-19 outbreak among the refugee population in order to spread it to local residents according to authorities in Sadaa.
Al-Raqaw is dotted with refugee camps inhabited by thousands of migrants from Ethiopia and Somalia that were deported from Saudi Arabia. They often pay Yemeni smugglers to transport them to large cities in the country in hopes of fleeing life in crowded refugee camps. Many of the African migrants are believed to have been deported from areas of Saudi Arabia where the coronavirus is spreading. Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, the Saudi regime has also expelled thousands of Yemeni workers.
Dr. Hussein Maqbouli, the Head of the Sana’a-based Higher Ministerial Committee for Epidemic Control, told a local TV news channel Thursday night that only 76 quarantine centers had been set up across Yemen’s 12 provinces. He noted that 400 people are still arriving every day at the Afar Port in Al-Beidha Province, a total of 12,000 per month. This, at a time when most countries have suspended inbound flights in an effort to contain the pandemic. The Saudi coalition has near complete control of Yemen’s airspace.
Officials in Sana’a have warned against the continual deportation of Yemenis from Saudi Arabia into Yemen and the Coalition’s continued flights into the city of Aden without observing any quarantine measures. They say that moves fit into a framework of Coalition plans to introduce the virus into Yemen. Mohsen Tawoos, the Secretary General of the National Council for the Administration and Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, want as far as to say that Saudi Arabia in intentionally deporting those affected by COVID-19 to Yemen.
Feature photo | Dust rises from the site of a Saudi-led airstrike in Sanaa, Yemen March 30, 2020. Khaled Abdullah | Reuters
Ahmed AbdulKareem is a Yemeni journalist. He covers the war in Yemen for MintPress News as well as local Yemeni media.