theintercept--2020-10-19--Bolivians Return Evo Morales's Party to Power One Year After a U.S.-Applauded Coup

Bolivia ’ s three-term President Evo Morales was forced under threat of police and military violence to flee to Mexico , just weeks after he was declared the winner of the October presidential election that would have sent him to his fourth term .
Installed in his place was an unelected right-wing coup regime , led by self-declared “ interim President ” Jeanine Áñez , who promptly presided over a military massacre that killed dozens of Morales ’ s Indigenous supporters and then granted immunity to all the soldiers involved .
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at the time @ @ @ @ @ @ @ claims of election fraud by the Organization of American States , or OAS , and urging “ a truly democratic process representative of the people ’ s will.
” But after the Áñez regime twice postponed scheduled elections this year , Bolivians went to the polls on Sunday .
They delivered a resounding victory to presidential candidate Luis Arce , Morales ’ s former finance minister and the candidate from his Movement Toward Socialism , or MAS , Party .
Although official results are still being counted , exit polls from reputable firms @ @ @ @ @ @ @ over 50 percent against a centrist former president and a far-right coup leader — and Áñez herself conceded that MAS has won : “ We do not yet have an official count , but from the data we have , Mr. Arce and [ MAS Vice Presidential candidate ] Mr. Choquehuanca have won the election .
I congratulate the winners and ask them to govern with Bolivia and democracy in mind.
” It is difficult to remember the last time a U.S.-approved military coup in Latin America failed so spectacularly .
Even with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ claims of electoral fraud , nobody disputed that Morales received more votes in last October ’ s election than all other candidates ( the only question raised by the OAS was whether his margin of victory was sufficient to win on the first round and avoid a run-off ) .
Despite Morales ’ s election win , the Bolivian police and then military made clear to Morales that neither he , his family , nor his closest allies would be safe unless he immediately left the country , as Morales detailed in an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ after he was driven into exile in Mexico City .
In that interview , Morales blamed not only the U.S. for giving the green light to right-wing coup leaders but also attributed the coup to Western anger over his decision to sell some of the country ’ s valuable lithium supply to China rather than to the West .
After 12 years in office , Morales was not free of controversy or critics .
As the first elected Indigenous leader of Bolivia , even some of his core supporters grew wary of what @ @ @ @ @ @ @ quasi-autocratic tactics in order to govern .
Several of his most prominent supporters — both in Bolivia and in South America — were critical of his decision to secure judicial permission to seek a fourth term despite a constitutional term-limits provision of two terms .
Even Morales ’ s long-time close Brazilian ally , former President Lula da Silva — who correctly predicted in a 2019 interview with me that “ you can be certain that if Evo Morales runs for president , he ’ ll win in Bolivia ” — nonetheless called @ @ @ @ @ @ @ term a “ mistake.
” But none of those criticisms changed a central , unavoidable fact : More Bolivians voted for Morales to be their president in 2019 than any other candidate .
And in a democracy , that is supposed to be decisive ; for those purporting to believe in democracy , that should be the end of the matter .
That is why Lula , in his Guardian interview shortly after the coup where he criticized Morales ’ s bid for a fourth term , nonetheless emphasized the far more important @ @ @ @ @ @ @ him was a crime .
It was a coup – this is terrible for Latin America.
” And whatever critiques one can legitimately voice about Morales — it is hard to imagine any leader ruling for more than a decade without alienating some supporters and making mistakes — there is no question that Morales ’ s presidency , by almost every metric , was a success .
After decades of instability in the country , he ushered in a stable and thriving democracy , presided over economic growth that even western financial institutions @ @ @ @ @ @ @ far more equitable distribution of those resources than ever before , particularly to the country ’ s long-oppressed Indigenous minority and its rural farmers .
That success is what was destroyed , on purpose , when the Bolivian presidency was decided in 2019 not democratically but by force .
The West ’ s reaction to the 2019 Bolivian coup featured all of its classic propaganda tropes .
Western officials , media outlets , and think tank writers invoked the standard Orwellian inversion of heralding a coup of any democratically elected leader they do @ @ @ @ @ @ @ democracy.
” In this warped formula , it is not the U.S.-supported coup plotters but the overthrown democratically elected leader who is the “ threat to democracy.
” Depicting U.S.-supported coups as democratic and democratically elected leaders disliked by the U.S. as “ dictators ” has been a staple of U.S. foreign policy propaganda for decades .
That is the rubric under which the Obama administration and its Secretary of State John Kerry somehow celebrated one of the world ’ s worst despots , Egyptian Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi , as “ restoring democracy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ carried out .
But thanks to Sunday ’ s stunning rebuke in Bolivia , the standard tactics failed .
Ever since Morales ’ s election victory almost exactly one year ago today , Bolivians never stopped marching , protesting , risking their liberty and their lives — even in the middle of a pandemic — to demand their rights of democracy and self-governance .
Leading up to the election , the coup regime and right-wing factions in the military were menacingly vowing — in response to polls universally showing MAS likely to win @ @ @ @ @ @ @ prevent the return to power of Morales ’ s party .
At least as of now , though , it looks as though the margin of victory delivered to MAS by the Bolivian people was so stunning , so decisive , that there are few options left for the retrograde forces — in Bolivia , Washington , and Brussels — which tried to destroy the country ’ s democracy .
Anyone who believes in the fundamentals of democracy , regardless of ideology , should be cheering the Bolivians who sacrificed so much to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that the stability and prosperity they enjoyed under Morales expands even further under his first democratically elected successor .

In November 2019, Bolivia’s three-term President Evo Morales was forced under threat of police and military violence to flee to Mexico, just weeks after he was declared the winner of the October presidential election that would have sent him to his fourth term. Installed in his place was an unelected right-wing coup regime, led by self-declared “interim President” Jeanine Áñez, who promptly presided over a military massacre that killed dozens of Morales’s Indigenous supporters and then granted immunity to all the soldiers involved. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at the time cheered the coup by citing subsequently debunked claims of election fraud by the Organization of American States, or OAS, and urging “a truly democratic process representative of the people’s will.”
But after the Áñez regime twice postponed scheduled elections this year, Bolivians went to the polls on Sunday. They delivered a resounding victory to presidential candidate Luis Arce, Morales’s former finance minister and the candidate from his Movement Toward Socialism, or MAS, Party. Although official results are still being counted, exit polls from reputable firms show Arce with a blowout victory — over 50 percent against a centrist former president and a far-right coup leader — and Áñez herself conceded that MAS has won: “We do not yet have an official count, but from the data we have, Mr. Arce and [MAS Vice Presidential candidate] Mr. Choquehuanca have won the election. I congratulate the winners and ask them to govern with Bolivia and democracy in mind.”
AP
It is difficult to remember the last time a U.S.-approved military coup in Latin America failed so spectacularly. Even with the U.S.-dominated OAS’s instantly dubious claims of electoral fraud, nobody disputed that Morales received more votes in last October’s election than all other candidates (the only question raised by the OAS was whether his margin of victory was sufficient to win on the first round and avoid a run-off).
Despite Morales’s election win, the Bolivian police and then military made clear to Morales that neither he, his family, nor his closest allies would be safe unless he immediately left the country, as Morales detailed in an interview I conducted with him just weeks after he was driven into exile in Mexico City. In that interview, Morales blamed not only the U.S. for giving the green light to right-wing coup leaders but also attributed the coup to Western anger over his decision to sell some of the country’s valuable lithium supply to China rather than to the West.
After 12 years in office, Morales was not free of controversy or critics. As the first elected Indigenous leader of Bolivia, even some of his core supporters grew wary of what they regarded as his growing reliance on quasi-autocratic tactics in order to govern. Several of his most prominent supporters — both in Bolivia and in South America — were critical of his decision to secure judicial permission to seek a fourth term despite a constitutional term-limits provision of two terms. Even Morales’s long-time close Brazilian ally, former President Lula da Silva — who correctly predicted in a 2019 interview with me that “you can be certain that if Evo Morales runs for president, he’ll win in Bolivia” — nonetheless called Morales’s pursuit of a fourth term a “mistake.”
But none of those criticisms changed a central, unavoidable fact: More Bolivians voted for Morales to be their president in 2019 than any other candidate. And in a democracy, that is supposed to be decisive; for those purporting to believe in democracy, that should be the end of the matter. That is why Lula, in his Guardian interview shortly after the coup where he criticized Morales’s bid for a fourth term, nonetheless emphasized the far more important point: “what they did with him was a crime. It was a coup – this is terrible for Latin America.”
And whatever critiques one can legitimately voice about Morales — it is hard to imagine any leader ruling for more than a decade without alienating some supporters and making mistakes — there is no question that Morales’s presidency, by almost every metric, was a success. After decades of instability in the country, he ushered in a stable and thriving democracy, presided over economic growth that even western financial institutions praised, and worked to ensure a far more equitable distribution of those resources than ever before, particularly to the country’s long-oppressed Indigenous minority and its rural farmers. That success is what was destroyed, on purpose, when the Bolivian presidency was decided in 2019 not democratically but by force.
The West’s reaction to the 2019 Bolivian coup featured all of its classic propaganda tropes. Western officials, media outlets, and think tank writers invoked the standard Orwellian inversion of heralding a coup of any democratically elected leader they do not like as a “victory for democracy.” In this warped formula, it is not the U.S.-supported coup plotters but the overthrown democratically elected leader who is the “threat to democracy.”
Depicting U.S.-supported coups as democratic and democratically elected leaders disliked by the U.S. as “dictators” has been a staple of U.S. foreign policy propaganda for decades. That is the rubric under which the Obama administration and its Secretary of State John Kerry somehow celebrated one of the world’s worst despots, Egyptian Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, as “restoring democracy” following the brutal military coup he carried out.
But thanks to Sunday’s stunning rebuke in Bolivia, the standard tactics failed. Ever since Morales’s election victory almost exactly one year ago today, Bolivians never stopped marching, protesting, risking their liberty and their lives — even in the middle of a pandemic — to demand their rights of democracy and self-governance. Leading up to the election, the coup regime and right-wing factions in the military were menacingly vowing — in response to polls universally showing MAS likely to win — that they would do anything to prevent the return to power of Morales’s party.
At least as of now, though, it looks as though the margin of victory delivered to MAS by the Bolivian people was so stunning, so decisive, that there are few options left for the retrograde forces — in Bolivia, Washington, and Brussels — which tried to destroy the country’s democracy. Anyone who believes in the fundamentals of democracy, regardless of ideology, should be cheering the Bolivians who sacrificed so much to restore their right of self-rule and hoping that the stability and prosperity they enjoyed under Morales expands even further under his first democratically elected successor.


theintercept--2020-10-19--Homeless LA Residents Face Heat, Wildfires, and Covid-19

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U.S. Official Hints at Possible Plea Deal for Julian Assange
The U.S. ambassador to Australia said there could be a “resolution” to the Justice Department’s pursuit of Assange.


theintercept--2020-10-19--Trump Campaign Embraces "Blacks for Trump" Founder Who Belonged to Violent Cult

The man was “ Blacks for Trump ” founder Maurice Symonette , a.k.a .
Michael the Black Man , a former member of a violent cult who posts anti-Semitic screeds and racist conspiracy theories online , and yet has been a featured member of the audience at Trump campaign events since 2016 .
On his website , Symonette makes a variety of bizarre claims , including that Omar and other prominent Black Democrats , artists and athletes — including former President Barack Obama , Jesse Jackson , Spike Lee , Colin Kaepernick , and Rep. Maxine Waters , D-Calif. — @ @ @ @ @ @ @ BLACK PEOPLE WHO ARE REALLY INDIANS !
” In a sermon now deleted from YouTube , he claimed that the Senate is controlled by a secret underground of “ Cherokee Mormons.
” The rally on Friday was the second time in five days that Symonette and one of his followers , both wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the group ’ s name , occupied prominent positions in television coverage of Trump .
Symonette , who appeared behind the president ’ s right shoulder at the rally in Ocala , was just to Trump ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his rally in Sanford , Florida , last Monday .
as Maurice Woodside until 1992 , when the black supremacist cult leader he followed , Yahweh ben Yahweh , was jailed for leading a conspiracy to murder 14 white people in initiation rites .
Woodside was among the Miami-based Nation of Yahweh cult members charged in two of the murders , but he was acquitted .
After the trial , he changed his last name to Symonette , which was his father ’ s surname , before eventually reinventing himself as Michael the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who delivered broadsides against gays and Democrats .
His online sermons and writings suggest that he still sees himself as a follower of the cult leader , who died in 2007 .
In July , for instance , he declared on Facebook that he had received a divinely inspired cure for Covid-19 from the late cult leader .
“ I Michael can teach & give the World & Pres .
Trump the Conquerer of Pharaoh the gift from YAHWEH BEN YAHWEH which is the true cure for Corona , ” Symonette wrote .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ added , “ we must remove the Conquered Pharaoh Magician ’ s FAUCI.
” For years before Trump emerged as a candidate , Symonette had been trying with less success to use campaign rallies as a vehicle to spread his strange hybrid of politics , religion , and delusion .
During the 2008 presidential campaign , Symonette and about a dozen followers disrupted a speech by then-Sen. Barack Obama in Coral Gables , Florida .
Symonette was photographed holding up a handmade sign that read “ Blacks Against Obama , ” above the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with references to Bible passages and messages including , “ Obama for Gay Marriage , Against God , ” “ Obama for Abortion ( Murder ) , ” and “ Obama Endorsed by KKK.
” Ahead of the 2012 Republican presidential primary in Florida , Symonette appeared under the stage name Michael Warns as the lead singer in a band opening a campaign rally for former Republican Sen. Rick Santorum in Coral Springs .
“ Remember Frederick Douglass , Harriet Tubman , and all of them were all Republicans , ” Symonette sang @ @ @ @ @ @ @ re the worst thing that ever happened to the Black man.
” Despite numerous press reports on his past ties to the cult and his current delusional beliefs , Symonette has been a constant fixture at Trump campaign events since the final days of the 2016 campaign , when the then-candidate praised his “ Blacks for Trump ” sign at a rally in Sanford , Florida .
Two weeks later , Symonette was invited to Trump ’ s election night victory party at the New York Hilton .
has attended rally after rally @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to get on camera .
In August 2017 , Symonette was seen nodding in agreement with Trump at a rally in Phoenix when the president defended his comment that there “ were very fine people , on both sides ” at the extremist Unite the Right gathering in Charlottesville , Virginia , that month .
Before the 2018 midterms , he stood behind Trump at a rally in Cleveland and mimed vomiting when Trump mentioned Waters , the California representative .
When the president launched his reelection campaign in Orlando in 2019 , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in agreement when Trump said , “ Our radical Democrat opponents are driven by hatred , prejudice , and rage .
They want to destroy you and they want to destroy our country as we know it .
Not acceptable , it ’ s not going to happen.
” While Symonette was photographed wearing a Trump campaign VIP pass outside one event , he has denied that Trump ’ s aides place him in prominent positions so that he can appear on camera behind the president .
Still , it is obvious that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to keep him out of the frame , despite copious evidence on his website and social media accounts that he remains devoted to the memory and teachings of the murderous cult leader Yahweh ben Yahweh .
In a rambling Facebook post last year , Symonette called on Trump to pardon Yahweh ben Yahweh and promised that , if he did , all of the cult leader ’ s remaining followers , who call themselves Yahwehs , would vote for Trump to remain president for 12 more years .
According to Symonette , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rise to him in 1984 , when Yahweh ben Yahweh compared the real estate developer to the Persian king Cyrus .
“ PARDON Yahweh Ben Yahweh , ” Symonette wrote in a fractured English that seemed to mirror his fragmented thought patten .
“ We will Gather the millions Black Yahweh ’ s of who I ’ ll get to advocate for Republicans like Yahweh taught us the ultimate Revolt !
& Now Black , Latin & White will Unite & Win For Trump !
2020 , 2024 , 2028 & forever !
@

At a packed campaign rally in Ocala, Florida, on Friday, as President Donald Trump delivered a xenophobic rant against Rep. Ilhan Omar, the Minnesota Democrat who fled Somalia as a child, a Black supporter in the bleachers behind him could be seen on television rising to his feet and cheering.
President Trump: "Omar, Omar. I think we're gonna win Minnesota because of Omar. Think of it, she hates our country. She hates our country. She comes from a place that doesn't even have a government. And then she comes here and tells us how to run our country." pic.twitter.com/SrpQANjNsh — The Hill (@thehill) October 17, 2020
The man was “Blacks for Trump” founder Maurice Symonette, a.k.a. Michael the Black Man, a former member of a violent cult who posts anti-Semitic screeds and racist conspiracy theories online, and yet has been a featured member of the audience at Trump campaign events since 2016.
On his website, Symonette makes a variety of bizarre claims, including that Omar and other prominent Black Democrats, artists and athletes — including former President Barack Obama, Jesse Jackson, Spike Lee, Colin Kaepernick, and Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif. — are “DECEVING [sic] FAKE BLACK PEOPLE WHO ARE REALLY INDIANS!” In a sermon now deleted from YouTube, he claimed that the Senate is controlled by a secret underground of “Cherokee Mormons.”
The rally on Friday was the second time in five days that Symonette and one of his followers, both wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the group’s name, occupied prominent positions in television coverage of Trump. Symonette, who appeared behind the president’s right shoulder at the rally in Ocala, was just to Trump’s left in the live coverage of his rally in Sanford, Florida, last Monday.
Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Symonette was known as Maurice Woodside until 1992, when the black supremacist cult leader he followed, Yahweh ben Yahweh, was jailed for leading a conspiracy to murder 14 white people in initiation rites. Woodside was among the Miami-based Nation of Yahweh cult members charged in two of the murders, but he was acquitted. After the trial, he changed his last name to Symonette, which was his father’s surname, before eventually reinventing himself as Michael the Black Man, a pirate radio preacher who delivered broadsides against gays and Democrats.
His online sermons and writings suggest that he still sees himself as a follower of the cult leader, who died in 2007. In July, for instance, he declared on Facebook that he had received a divinely inspired cure for Covid-19 from the late cult leader. “I Michael can teach & give the World & Pres. Trump the Conquerer of Pharaoh the gift from YAHWEH BEN YAHWEH which is the true cure for Corona,” Symonette wrote. Before turning over this cure, he added, “we must remove the Conquered Pharaoh Magician’s FAUCI.”
For years before Trump emerged as a candidate, Symonette had been trying with less success to use campaign rallies as a vehicle to spread his strange hybrid of politics, religion, and delusion.
During the 2008 presidential campaign, Symonette and about a dozen followers disrupted a speech by then-Sen. Barack Obama in Coral Gables, Florida. Symonette was photographed holding up a handmade sign that read “Blacks Against Obama,” above the web address MichaelWarns.com. Others displayed signs with references to Bible passages and messages including, “Obama for Gay Marriage, Against God,” “Obama for Abortion (Murder),” and “Obama Endorsed by KKK.”
Ahead of the 2012 Republican presidential primary in Florida, Symonette appeared under the stage name Michael Warns as the lead singer in a band opening a campaign rally for former Republican Sen. Rick Santorum in Coral Springs. “Remember Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, and all of them were all Republicans,” Symonette sang. “The Democrats, they’re the worst thing that ever happened to the Black man.”
Despite numerous press reports on his past ties to the cult and his current delusional beliefs, Symonette has been a constant fixture at Trump campaign events since the final days of the 2016 campaign, when the then-candidate praised his “Blacks for Trump” sign at a rally in Sanford, Florida. Two weeks later, Symonette was invited to Trump’s election night victory party at the New York Hilton.
Since then, Symonette has attended rally after rally, seemingly always standing in prime position to get on camera.
In August 2017, Symonette was seen nodding in agreement with Trump at a rally in Phoenix when the president defended his comment that there “were very fine people, on both sides” at the extremist Unite the Right gathering in Charlottesville, Virginia, that month. Before the 2018 midterms, he stood behind Trump at a rally in Cleveland and mimed vomiting when Trump mentioned Waters, the California representative. When the president launched his reelection campaign in Orlando in 2019, Symonette was again on camera, gesturing in agreement when Trump said, “Our radical Democrat opponents are driven by hatred, prejudice, and rage. They want to destroy you and they want to destroy our country as we know it. Not acceptable, it’s not going to happen.”
While Symonette was photographed wearing a Trump campaign VIP pass outside one event, he has denied that Trump’s aides place him in prominent positions so that he can appear on camera behind the president. Still, it is obvious that the Trump campaign has made no effort to keep him out of the frame, despite copious evidence on his website and social media accounts that he remains devoted to the memory and teachings of the murderous cult leader Yahweh ben Yahweh.
In a rambling Facebook post last year, Symonette called on Trump to pardon Yahweh ben Yahweh and promised that, if he did, all of the cult leader’s remaining followers, who call themselves Yahwehs, would vote for Trump to remain president for 12 more years. According to Symonette, the cult leader had predicted Trump’s rise to him in 1984, when Yahweh ben Yahweh compared the real estate developer to the Persian king Cyrus.
“PARDON Yahweh Ben Yahweh,” Symonette wrote in a fractured English that seemed to mirror his fragmented thought patten. “We will Gather the millions Black Yahweh’s of who I’ll get to advocate for Republicans like Yahweh taught us the ultimate Revolt! & Now Black, Latin & White will Unite & Win For Trump! 2020, 2024, 2028 & forever!”


theintercept--2020-10-20--How Trump Gutted OSHA and Workplace Safety Rules

already begun tearing through the JBS Foods beef processing plant in Greeley , Colorado , when Kim Cordova wrote to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in late March .
Cordova , the president of UFCW Local 7 , asked the federal agency to send inspectors to that plant , where 3,000 members of the union work , as well as to five other businesses where members of the local work .
Many of the JBS workers , who cut , process , and package the meat from the newly slaughtered animals , had begun to fall sick with Covid-19 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the workers with masks and in some cases had advised specifically against wearing them , according to Cordova .
The workers didn ’ t have enough room to distance themselves from their co-workers in the cafeteria , the locker rooms , or elsewhere around the plant .
Although Cordova had been in direct communication with the management at JBS about the health hazards at the plant , the largest of its kind in the country , talks had recently hit a wall .
A few days later , Cordova received a call from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not on the way .
“ He said they didn ’ t have the staff and they weren ’ t doing any on-site visits .
They just didn ’ t have any direction , ” she recalled .
“ And I told them , people are going to die in this facility.
” Cordova ’ s prediction proved true on April 7 , when Saul Sanchez , a 78-year-old production worker became the first worker at JBS Greeley to die of Covid-19 .
Eventually five of his co-workers — Eduardo Conchas De La @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Loma , Tibursio Rivera Lopez , and Tin Aye — also died of the disease , as well as a seventh employee , whom JBS identified as “ one of our corporate colleagues.
” So far , at least 292 workers at the plant have been infected with the virus , and 51 workers have been hospitalized with Covid-19 .
Cordova said she knows of at least three family members of JBS Greeley workers who also died as a result of the outbreak .
On May 14 , OSHA finally sent an inspector @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to Cordova , the visit was brief .
“ They did a quick walk-through , more like a run-through , ” she said .
Although the union suggested that OSHA interview workers who had been sick with Covid-19 , the inspectors declined to do so .
“ I understand that you can ’ t talk to the workers who are dead , ” Cordova said .
“ But what about the ones who almost died ?
” And while the local offered interpreters so the inspectors could communicate with the workers , who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the OSHA representatives declined .
Problems at the plant persisted after the visit , and the union filed a formal complaint with OSHA in July .
On September 11 , the agency issued a citation to JBS , finding that “ the employer did not furnish employment or a place of employment which were free from recognized hazards that were causing or likely to cause death or serious physical harm to employees.
” For this “ serious violation ” of the law as well as one “ other-than-serious ” violation , OSHA issued @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the biggest meat processing company in the world , with more than $ 51 billion in revenue last year , refused to pay the fine .
In an emailed statement , Cameron Bruett , head of corporate affairs for JBS USA , wrote “ the OSHA citation is entirely without merit .
It attempts to impose a standard that did not exist in March as we fought the pandemic with no guidance .
When OSHA finally provided guidance in late April , one month after the beginning of the citation time period @ @ @ @ @ @ @ exceeded any of their recommendations.
” While more than 1,000 meatpacking , food-processing , and farming facilities have reported cases of Covid-19 , resulting in 269 deaths as of October 15 , according to Food and Environment Reporting Network , OSHA cites only two : JBS and Smithfield Foods .
Smithfield , which operates a pork-processing plant in Sioux Falls , South Dakota , where at least 1,294 employees contracted the virus and four died of Covid-19 , was hit with an even smaller fine than JBS : just $ 13,494 , or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the plant who fell sick .
Smithfield , which is owned by the WH Group , the largest pork company in the world with more than $ 25 billion in revenue last year , also refused to pay the fine and is contesting its OSHA citation .
In an emailed statement , Keira Lombardo , executive vice president of corporate affairs and compliance at Smithfield , described the OSHA citation as “ wholly without merit.
” The statement also said that the company “ took extraordinary measures on our own initiative to keep @ @ @ @ @ @ @ possible so that we could fulfill our obligation to the American people to maintain the food supply .
OSHA then used what we had done as a model for its April 26 guidance .
We have incurred incremental expenses related to COVID-19 totaling more than $ 500 million to date.
” OSHA did not respond to multiple requests for comment .
Under Donald Trump , while a deadly disease has been spreading through America ’ s workplaces , OSHA has had fewer inspectors than at any point since the 1970s .
The International @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for every 10,000 people ; the U.S. now has one for every 83,207 .
Meanwhile , Trump has tried to slash OSHA ’ s funding in every one of his budget proposals ( Congress has repeatedly restored it ) and has never bothered to nominate a leader for the agency .
Almost half the senior positions at OSHA remain vacant .
Without an assistant secretary of labor to guide the agency , the direction of OSHA has fallen to the Secretary of Labor , Eugene Scalia , the son of the late conservative @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Scalia , an attorney who replaced Alexander Acosta after he stepped down amid the Jeffrey Epstein scandal , may be best known for attacking worker protections , including a rule that would have prevented 600,000 repetitive strain injuries each year .
During the pandemic , while masks have been essential in protecting workers from infection , the labor secretary has repeatedly appeared in public without a mask .
Scalia and his wife , Trish , also attended and did not wear a mask at the superspreader event at the White House in September @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Asked about Scalia ’ s failure to use of face masks , a Department of Labor spokesperson wrote in an email to The Intercept , “ Secretary Scalia follows the latest recommendations from health experts and medical professionals , including social distancing and wearing a mask where social distancing or other precautions are not able to be taken.
” Fines for serious occupational violations doubled under the Obama administration , but they have fallen since Trump took office to the point of being meaningless .
OSHA recently touted the fact that it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ refers to as “ proposed penalties ” to 85 establishments for “ coronavirus violations.
” But that averages out to less than $ 15,000 each , a trivial amount for many large companies .
“ OSHA was invented to ensure that workers are safe .
And here you have this unprecedented crisis and OSHA has been absolutely silent , ” said David Michaels , who led the agency during the Obama administration and is the longest serving assistant secretary of labor in OSHA ’ s history .
“ It ’ s beyond unfortunate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ worker safety crisis when OSHA has no leadership and is weaker and less resourced than it has been in its history.
” According to Michaels , OSHA could easily have levied sizable fines to the meat plants and other businesses that would actually deter the kinds of violations that are fueling the ongoing spread of the virus throughout American workplaces .
“ The political leadership has made the decision in each one of these inspections that OSHA will issue at most one citation for violating the general duty clause , ” said Michaels @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Occupational Safety and Health Act that requires employers to provide a workplace free from recognized hazards .
“ That ’ s a choice .
They could issue multiple citations at the same worksite and they could classify those violations as willful , which allows them to multiply the size of the fine by 10.
” The administration made another decision that has devastated the government ’ s ability to respond to the pandemic .
Early in 2017 , Trump worked with congressional Republicans to repeal an Obama-era OSHA rule that had required employers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Without that rule , the agency can not issue a citation for failure to record a Covid-19 case if more than six months has passed since the case appeared .
The result has been shoddy record-keeping that ’ s left the country without an accurate count of workers sickened and killed by Covid-19 .
“ Employers now know that the likelihood of OSHA catching them is extremely low , ” Michaels said .
“ I have no doubt that some employers have decided to not record cases.
” Perhaps the deadliest choice OSHA @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a yearslong effort that was underway at the agency to require hospitals , nursing homes , and other medical workplaces to prepare for a pandemic exactly like the one we are now experiencing .
Michaels became head of OSHA in December 2009 , the year that the H1N1 pandemic started .
And it was already clear that the health crisis sparked by that airborne flu virus , which killed 12,469 people in the U.S. , would not be the last .
So he and his staff began what would be six years of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ would prepare workplaces to prevent the spread of airborne pathogens like the coronavirus .
The effort was modeled on the bloodborne standard the agency issued in 1991 during the HIV crisis , which brought about the use of safe sharps containers .
Health care facilities that fail to use safe sharps containers and adhere to the other elements of the standard can be fined ; as a result , the number of needlestick injuries to health care workers declined .
The airborne standard , which was drafted by 2012 , called for health @ @ @ @ @ @ @ workers ’ risk from infectious airborne pathogens , a category that includes the coronavirus , and to stockpile necessary PPE to protect them in the case of an outbreak .
Masks were to have been central to the preparations .
“ We had long discussions with CDC about the need for N95s , ” Michaels said .
The standard was written to apply to hospitals and other health care facilities but would have been “ expandable ” to other employers , according to Michaels .
Had it passed , OSHA inspectors would have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ homes that hadn ’ t prepared for an epidemic of an infectious airborne disease by stocking masks and other PPE well before the pandemic began .
Although the airborne pathogen standard was put on the regulatory agenda in 2016 and was scheduled to be issued as a proposal the following year , the agency stopped work on it when Trump took office .
Health care institutions were woefully unprepared for the pandemic .
More than 250,000 health care workers have been infected with the virus and at least 1,700 health care workers have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from National Nurses United .
But no one knows the exact number , in part because of the poor tracking that ’ s followed OSHA ’ s loosening of the record-keeping requirements .
Since January , more than 84,000 nursing home residents and staff have died , and hundreds of nursing homes have reported shortages of both PPE and staff .
In the absence of a permanent standard for airborne pathogens , labor groups have called on OSHA to issue an emergency temporary standard to protect workers from Covid-19 .
While Virginia enacted @ @ @ @ @ @ @ agriculture and meatpacking workers petitioned the governor , and several state OSHAs are working on their own enforceable standards that will help protect workers , the federal agency has continued to refuse to issue one .
Instead , some of the guidance it has issued around the pandemic , such as its instruction to distance workers six feet apart “ if feasible , ” has been phrased as optional .
Thousands of health care workers have reported dangerous conditions to OSHA during the pandemic .
Yet under Trump the agency has taken action @ @ @ @ @ @ @ complaints .
Overall , OSHA has investigated fewer than 3 percent of the 9,488 coronavirus-related complaints it has received as of October 18 during the pandemic .
And the majority of those investigations did not lead to fines or citations .
As of August 4 , the agency had also received 1,744 complaints from whistleblowers who felt they were retaliated against at work because they raised coronavirus-related safety concerns or requested OSHA inspections , according to the National Employment Law Project — a significant increase in whistleblower complaints .
Yet the agency investigated @ @ @ @ @ @ @ As with the complaints about coronavirus-related workplaces hazards , most of the whistleblower complaints were also dismissed or closed without investigation .
An August report from the Department of Labor ’ s Inspector General found that OSHA cut the staff that handles these whistleblower complaints during the pandemic , even as the number of complaints was going up .
Meanwhile , entire sectors of the workforce that have been devastated by the coronavirus have not received any intervention from OSHA .
More than 147,000 agricultural workers have been infected with the virus , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and Agriculture Vulnerability Index , yet OSHA has not cited or penalized a single farm .
Nor has it issued any citations or penalties to any retail establishments , nonresidential schools , or restaurants .
While Kim Cordova asked OSHA to visit workplaces owned by six major companies , the JBS plant in Greeley plant was the only one that was inspected .
JBS has made some changes to protect workers , including staggering start and break times to promote physical distancing , requiring the use of masks and face shields , erecting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ populations from our facilities with full pay and benefits , ” according to the statement from company , which says that it would have made these changes without intervention from OSHA .
Nevertheless , according to Cordova , conditions there remain perilous .
She acknowledged that the company installed some physical barriers , but she said that there were no such barriers on the “ kill ” side of the plant , where the freshly slaughtered animals arrive to be processed , and that workers continue to be forced to work “ elbow-to-elbow @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is too fast to allow them to spread out .
The union confirmed that workers who were over 65 or had conditions that made them particularly susceptible to Covid-19 were allowed to stay home for a time , but said that they were asked to return to work in August .
And while the company has begun screening employees on their way into work , a medical assistant hired by JBS recently reported that only about half the staff was actually being screened and that she was pressured to allow employees with concerning @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is now struggling to address these ongoing problems , but Cordova says she has no illusions that the federal workplace safety agency can help her do it .
“ It was OSHA ’ s job to protect people , ” she said , “ and they didn ’ t .
”

The coronavirus had already begun tearing through the JBS Foods beef processing plant in Greeley, Colorado, when Kim Cordova wrote to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in late March. Cordova, the president of UFCW Local 7, asked the federal agency to send inspectors to that plant, where 3,000 members of the union work, as well as to five other businesses where members of the local work. Many of the JBS workers, who cut, process, and package the meat from the newly slaughtered animals, had begun to fall sick with Covid-19. Yet JBS hadn’t provided the workers with masks and in some cases had advised specifically against wearing them, according to Cordova. The workers didn’t have enough room to distance themselves from their co-workers in the cafeteria, the locker rooms, or elsewhere around the plant. Although Cordova had been in direct communication with the management at JBS about the health hazards at the plant, the largest of its kind in the country, talks had recently hit a wall.
A few days later, Cordova received a call from OSHA letting her know that help was not on the way. “He said they didn’t have the staff and they weren’t doing any on-site visits. They just didn’t have any direction,” she recalled. “And I told them, people are going to die in this facility.”
Carolina Sanchez, left, is comforted by her son, Saul, during a protest — organized by the union representing employees at a JBS USA-owned Colorado meatpacking plant where six workers died from Covid-19 — outside the Occupational Safety and Health Administration offices in downtown Denver on Sept. 16, 2020. Sanchez’s husband was the facility’s first known Covid-19 death. Photo: David Zalubowski/AP
Cordova’s prediction proved true on April 7, when Saul Sanchez, a 78-year-old production worker became the first worker at JBS Greeley to die of Covid-19. Eventually five of his co-workers — Eduardo Conchas De La Cruz, Way Ler, Daniel Avila Loma, Tibursio Rivera Lopez, and Tin Aye — also died of the disease, as well as a seventh employee, whom JBS identified as “one of our corporate colleagues.” So far, at least 292 workers at the plant have been infected with the virus, and 51 workers have been hospitalized with Covid-19. Cordova said she knows of at least three family members of JBS Greeley workers who also died as a result of the outbreak.
On May 14, OSHA finally sent an inspector to the beef plant. But according to Cordova, the visit was brief. “They did a quick walk-through, more like a run-through,” she said. Although the union suggested that OSHA interview workers who had been sick with Covid-19, the inspectors declined to do so. “I understand that you can’t talk to the workers who are dead,” Cordova said. “But what about the ones who almost died?” And while the local offered interpreters so the inspectors could communicate with the workers, who speak dozens of languages, Cordova said the OSHA representatives declined.
Problems at the plant persisted after the visit, and the union filed a formal complaint with OSHA in July. On September 11, the agency issued a citation to JBS, finding that “the employer did not furnish employment or a place of employment which were free from recognized hazards that were causing or likely to cause death or serious physical harm to employees.” For this “serious violation” of the law as well as one “other-than-serious” violation, OSHA issued a fine: $15,615. JBS, the biggest meat processing company in the world, with more than $51 billion in revenue last year, refused to pay the fine.
In an emailed statement, Cameron Bruett, head of corporate affairs for JBS USA, wrote “the OSHA citation is entirely without merit. It attempts to impose a standard that did not exist in March as we fought the pandemic with no guidance. When OSHA finally provided guidance in late April, one month after the beginning of the citation time period, our previously implemented preventive measures largely exceeded any of their recommendations.”
While more than 1,000 meatpacking, food-processing, and farming facilities have reported cases of Covid-19, resulting in 269 deaths as of October 15, according to Food and Environment Reporting Network, OSHA cites only two: JBS and Smithfield Foods. Smithfield, which operates a pork-processing plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where at least 1,294 employees contracted the virus and four died of Covid-19, was hit with an even smaller fine than JBS: just $13,494, or about $10 for each worker at the plant who fell sick.
Smithfield, which is owned by the WH Group, the largest pork company in the world with more than $25 billion in revenue last year, also refused to pay the fine and is contesting its OSHA citation.
In an emailed statement, Keira Lombardo, executive vice president of corporate affairs and compliance at Smithfield, described the OSHA citation as “wholly without merit.” The statement also said that the company “took extraordinary measures on our own initiative to keep our employees as healthy and safe as possible so that we could fulfill our obligation to the American people to maintain the food supply. OSHA then used what we had done as a model for its April 26 guidance. We have incurred incremental expenses related to COVID-19 totaling more than $500 million to date.”
In an emailed response to questions about JBS, Department of Labor spokesperson Megan Sweeney said that the Department of Labor does not comment on pending litigation.
Employees of two departments at the Smithfield pork processing plant in Sioux Falls, S.D., report to work on May 4, 2020. Photo: Stephen Groves/AP
Lowest Point in History
OSHA was founded in 1971 to protect Americans from industrial accidents, poor ventilation, fires, and many other perils of the workplace. And while it has been hobbled by insufficient funding and staffing at various points over the years, the agency has reached its weakest state during the current pandemic, when the nation needs it most.
While more than 1,000 meatpacking, food-processing, and farming facilities have reported cases of Covid-19, OSHA gave citations to only two: JBS and Smithfield Foods.
Under Donald Trump, while a deadly disease has been spreading through America’s workplaces, OSHA has had fewer inspectors than at any point since the 1970s. The International Labor Organization recommends having one labor inspector for every 10,000 people; the U.S. now has one for every 83,207. Meanwhile, Trump has tried to slash OSHA’s funding in every one of his budget proposals (Congress has repeatedly restored it) and has never bothered to nominate a leader for the agency. Almost half the senior positions at OSHA remain vacant.
Without an assistant secretary of labor to guide the agency, the direction of OSHA has fallen to the Secretary of Labor, Eugene Scalia, the son of the late conservative Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia. Eugene Scalia, an attorney who replaced Alexander Acosta after he stepped down amid the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, may be best known for attacking worker protections, including a rule that would have prevented 600,000 repetitive strain injuries each year.
During the pandemic, while masks have been essential in protecting workers from infection, the labor secretary has repeatedly appeared in public without a mask. Scalia and his wife, Trish, also attended and did not wear a mask at the superspreader event at the White House in September; she later tested positive for Covid-19.
I had a great conversation today with business leaders at the @DRC. We are reopening, and it’s impressive to see business leaders so focused on reopening safely. pic.twitter.com/vWYHQBDrvO — Secretary Scalia – Archived (@SecGeneScalia) June 23, 2020
Asked about Scalia’s failure to use of face masks, the Department of Labor’s Sweeney wrote in an email to The Intercept, “Secretary Scalia follows the latest recommendations from health experts and medical professionals, including social distancing and wearing a mask where social distancing or other precautions are not able to be taken.” Sweeney also wrote that, “Since February 1, 2020, OSHA inspections alone have helped to ensure more than 634,000 workers are protected from COVID-19. The claim that OSHA is not enforcing its standards and the OSH Act with respect to COVID-19 is patently false.”
Fines for serious occupational violations doubled under the Obama administration, but they have fallen since Trump took office to the point of being meaningless. OSHA recently touted the fact that it has levied $1,222,156 in what it refers to as “proposed penalties” to 85 establishments for “coronavirus violations.” But that averages out to less than $15,000 each, a trivial amount for many large companies.
“OSHA was invented to ensure that workers are safe. And here you have this unprecedented crisis and OSHA has been absolutely silent,” said David Michaels, who led the agency during the Obama administration and is the longest serving assistant secretary of labor in OSHA’s history. “It’s beyond unfortunate that this country has faced a massive worker safety crisis when OSHA has no leadership and is weaker and less resourced than it has been in its history.”
According to Michaels, who is now a professor of Environmental and Occupational Health at the George Washington School of Public Health, OSHA could easily have levied sizable fines to the meat plants and other businesses that would actually deter the kinds of violations that are fueling the ongoing spread of the virus throughout American workplaces.
“The political leadership has made the decision in each one of these inspections that OSHA will issue at most one citation for violating the general duty clause,” said Michaels, referring to the section of the Occupational Safety and Health Act that requires employers to provide a workplace free from recognized hazards. “That’s a choice. They could issue multiple citations at the same worksite and they could classify those violations as willful, which allows them to multiply the size of the fine by 10.”
The administration made another decision that has devastated the government’s ability to respond to the pandemic. Early in 2017, Trump worked with congressional Republicans to repeal an Obama-era OSHA rule that had required employers to maintain records of work-related illnesses. Without that rule, the agency cannot issue a citation for failure to record a Covid-19 case if more than six months has passed since the case appeared. The result has been shoddy record-keeping that’s left the country without an accurate count of workers sickened and killed by Covid-19.
“Employers now know that the likelihood of OSHA catching them is extremely low,” Michaels said. “I have no doubt that some employers have decided to not record cases.”
David Michaels, assistant secretary of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration at the U.S. Department of Labor, in his office in Washington, D.C., on May 14, 2010. Photo: Daniel Rosenbaum/The New York Times/Redux
Airborne Standard
Perhaps the deadliest choice OSHA has made under Trump was to kill a yearslong effort that was underway at the agency to require hospitals, nursing homes, and other medical workplaces to prepare for a pandemic exactly like the one we are now experiencing. Michaels became head of OSHA in December 2009, the year that the H1N1 pandemic started. And it was already clear that the health crisis sparked by that airborne flu virus, which killed 12,469 people in the U.S., would not be the last. So he and his staff began what would be six years of work creating a “standard” that would prepare workplaces to prevent the spread of airborne pathogens like the coronavirus.
The effort was modeled on the bloodborne standard the agency issued in 1991 during the HIV crisis, which brought about the use of safe sharps containers. Health care facilities that fail to use safe sharps containers and adhere to the other elements of the standard can be fined; as a result, the number of needlestick injuries to health care workers declined. The airborne standard, which was drafted by 2012, called for health care institutions to create plans to minimize workers’ risk from infectious airborne pathogens, a category that includes the coronavirus, and to stockpile necessary PPE to protect them in the case of an outbreak. Masks were to have been central to the preparations.
“We had long discussions with CDC about the need for N95s,” Michaels said.
The standard was written to apply to hospitals and other health care facilities but would have been “expandable” to other employers, according to Michaels. Had it passed, OSHA inspectors would have been able to fine hospitals and nursing homes that hadn’t prepared for an epidemic of an infectious airborne disease by stocking masks and other PPE well before the pandemic began. Although the airborne pathogen standard was put on the regulatory agenda in 2016 and was scheduled to be issued as a proposal the following year, the agency stopped work on it when Trump took office.
Perhaps the deadliest choice OSHA has made was to kill a yearslong effort to require medical workplaces to prepare for a pandemic exactly like the one we are now experiencing.
Health care institutions were woefully unprepared for the pandemic. More than 250,000 health care workers have been infected with the virus and at least 1,700 health care workers have died from Covid-19, according to estimates from National Nurses United. But no one knows the exact number, in part because of the poor tracking that’s followed OSHA’s loosening of the record-keeping requirements. Since January, more than 84,000 nursing home residents and staff have died, and hundreds of nursing homes have reported shortages of both PPE and staff.
In the absence of a permanent standard for airborne pathogens, labor groups have called on OSHA to issue an emergency temporary standard to protect workers from Covid-19. While Virginia enacted a temporary standard in July, after agriculture and meatpacking workers petitioned the governor, and several state OSHAs are working on their own enforceable standards that will help protect workers, the federal agency has continued to refuse to issue one. Instead, some of the guidance it has issued around the pandemic, such as its instruction to distance workers six feet apart “if feasible,” has been phrased as optional.
JBS Greeley Beef Plant welder Guillermo Rivera welds an individual frock hook at each meat processing station that includes new sheet-metal partitions at each station on April 23, 2020. Photo: Andy Cross/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post/Getty Images
A Tiny Fraction
Thousands of health care workers have reported dangerous conditions to OSHA during the pandemic. Yet under Trump the agency has taken action on only a tiny fraction of those complaints. Overall, OSHA has investigated fewer than 3 percent of the 9,488 coronavirus-related complaints it has received as of October 18 during the pandemic. And the majority of those investigations did not lead to fines or citations. In her email, the Department of Labor’s Sweeney wrote that “every single complaint has been investigated.”
As of August 4, the agency had also received 1,744 complaints from whistleblowers who felt they were retaliated against at work because they raised coronavirus-related safety concerns or requested OSHA inspections, according to the National Employment Law Project — a significant increase in whistleblower complaints. Yet the agency investigated just 2 percent of those complaints. As with the complaints about coronavirus-related workplaces hazards, most of the whistleblower complaints were also dismissed or closed without investigation. An August report from the Department of Labor’s Inspector General found that OSHA cut the staff that handles these whistleblower complaints during the pandemic, even as the number of complaints was going up.
Meanwhile, entire sectors of the workforce that have been devastated by the coronavirus have not received any intervention from OSHA. More than 147,000 agricultural workers have been infected with the virus, according to Purdue University’s Food and Agriculture Vulnerability Index, yet OSHA has not cited or penalized a single farm. Nor has it issued any citations or penalties to any retail establishments, nonresidential schools, or restaurants. While Kim Cordova asked OSHA to visit workplaces owned by six major companies, the JBS plant in Greeley plant was the only one that was inspected.
JBS has made some changes to protect workers, including staggering start and break times to promote physical distancing, requiring the use of masks and face shields, erecting physical barriers, and “removing vulnerable populations from our facilities with full pay and benefits,” according to the statement from company, which says that it would have made these changes without intervention from OSHA.
Nevertheless, according to Cordova, conditions there remain perilous. She acknowledged that the company installed some physical barriers, but she said that there were no such barriers on the “kill” side of the plant, where the freshly slaughtered animals arrive to be processed, and that workers continue to be forced to work “elbow-to-elbow” in part because the line speed is too fast to allow them to spread out. The union confirmed that workers who were over 65 or had conditions that made them particularly susceptible to Covid-19 were allowed to stay home for a time, but said that they were asked to return to work in August. And while the company has begun screening employees on their way into work, a medical assistant hired by JBS recently reported that only about half the staff was actually being screened and that she was pressured to allow employees with concerning symptoms into the plant.
The union is now struggling to address these ongoing problems, but Cordova says she has no illusions that the federal workplace safety agency can help her do it. “It was OSHA’s job to protect people,” she said, “and they didn’t.”
Update: October 20, 2020
This article has been updated with comments from the Department of Labor that were received after publication.