Turkey’s Ruling Party Suffers Heavy Losses in Key Local Polls

VOA’s Turkish and Kurdish services contributed to this report.

ISTANBUL — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s party suffered heavy losses in Sunday’s local elections, losing critical cities across the country, while the main opposition party is on course to win the capital Ankara.

In Istanbul, election results remain too close to call, with opposition claims of voter manipulation.

Erdogan, speaking in Istanbul to reporters, acknowledged his Justice and Development Party (AKP) had suffered setbacks and vowed to learn “lessons” from the poll.

“We had some wins; we had some losses,” he said.  Erdogan went on to promise to introduce measures to boost the economy, which is mired in recession.

Possible defeat in Ankara

Some analysts see Erdogan’s avoidance of his traditional fiery rhetoric against the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) as a sign of accepting defeat in the capital Ankara.

Ankara’s CHP candidate, Mansor Yavas, appears set for a historic but narrow victory for the opposition.

In addressing thousands of supporters gathered in the heart of the capital, Yavas gave a conciliatory speech, promising to focus on services, adding there would be no purge of workers with ties to the AKP.

In Istanbul, the contest remains mired in controversy. AKP candidate Binali Yildirim claimed victory in a short speech. However, CHP candidate Ekrem Imamoglu immediately shot back, saying it was shameful to claim success, given that only a few thousand votes separate the candidates and some ballots remain uncounted.

Imamoglu called on his supporters not to sleep for the next 48 hours, warning their victory was being stolen from them.

Earlier Sunday evening, Imamoglu challenged the integrity of the counting of the vote, claiming there were disparities in results in the announced elections.

With 98.5% of votes counted in Istanbul, results appeared frozen with no update for several hours. Most of the outstanding uncounted ballots are in CHP strongholds.

Recent elections in Turkey have been marred by controversy over voter manipulation and outright fraud allegations by the opposition, a charge denied by the governing AKP. Critics, however, claim the Supreme Electoral Board, which administers elections, is run by the government and presidential appointees.

Sunday evening, the electoral board stopped sending results to the opposition parties for 40 minutes, claiming it was upgrading its system. Leading members of the opposition party went to the electoral board headquarters, demanding an explanation.

Beyond Ankara and Istanbul, the AKP lost several key provincial cities, while narrowly avoiding defeat in many others. Several other important results remain in the balance.

Recession, inflation

The AKP appears to be paying a heavy price for an economy in recession and soaring inflation.

“Our economy is getting worse and worse because of their (government) bad management,” said Erdem, an engineer, speaking before voting in Istanbul. “Most of my friends are now looking for a job and some my friends lose their job because of economic crisis.”

Voters in Ankara spoke about the country’s economic problems.

“The youth in this country are unemployed. We know the hardships of people who don’t have a job. The only solution to this is creating jobs,” Orhan Kurubacak told VOA.

“I don’t think things are going well. There is nothing more else to say. There are a lot of economic factors,” Hakan Akyürek said.

Diyarbakir AKP candidate, Cumali Attila, told VOA’s Kurdish service, “I hope these elections would end with gumption. It is our responsibility to claim democracy.”

The pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) heavily defeated Attila. However, the AKP scored some crucial victories in the predominantly Kurdish southeast, winning key provinces. In Sirnak, the AKP won with a 30 percent swing to the party from the HDP.

Such success will likely do little to soften the blow Erdogan has suffered in the Sunday polls. Even though Erdogan was not on the ballot, he took personal control of the local election campaign. In the last few days held more than a dozen rallies across Istanbul in a bid to consolidate his party’s support.

Realities in country

Despite such efforts, analysts say Erdogan could not escape the economic realities facing the county.

“I think that the most powerful and effective opposition parties are not the classical parties, like the Republican People’s Party or the Good Party. However, the key issue for the elections is the increasing prices of vegetables. Let’s say the prices of cucumbers or tomatoes. These are the most effective oppositions of Turkey,” Doster added.

The loss of Ankara and possibly Istanbul is the worst electoral defeat for Erdogan, who has enjoyed unparalleled success. Analysts say  Erdogan’s reputation of electoral invincibility has received a significant blow.

Meanwhile, HDP co-chair Pervin Buldan said votes cast Sunday for her party “will contribute to peace, freedom and equality.”

Buldan said, however, obstacles their party faced, such as receiving no television coverage during the election, might not be enough to win.

“Every day we tried to clear and explain the truths told our people about the lies, slanders, threats and the perception that created against us. We did our duty today. I believe that our people will do their duty at the polls, too,” she said.

Pope Defends Decision to Reject Convicted French Cardinal’s Resignation

Pope Francis on Sunday defended his decision to  refuse to accept the resignation earlier this month of French Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, who was convicted of failing to report sexual abuse allegations to police.

Francis, who spoke with reporters on his return from a two-day trip to Morocco, said a final decision wouldn’t be made until Barbarin’s appeal process was completed.

“I can’t accept it (resignation) because in juridical terms, in classic world jurisprudence, there is the presumption of innocence as long as the case is open, and he has appealed,” the pope said.

Barbarin offered his resignation on March 18. He said at the time the pope “spoke of the presumption of innocence and did not accept” it.

Francis instead asked Barbarin, the most senior French cleric involved in the Catholic Church’s worldwide pedophilia scandal, to do what Barbarin believes is best for the Lyon archdiocese. The 68-year-old cardinal has decided to take a leave of absence and has asked his assistant to assume leadership of the archdiocese until the appeal process is over.

Barbarin was sentenced to a six-month suspended sentence earlier this month for failing to report a predator priest to authorities. The priest, Benard Preynat, allegedly sexually abused boy scouts in the 1980s and 1990s.

The pope has previously defended Barbarin, saying in 2016 that his resignation before a trial would be “an error, imprudent.”

One of Russia’s Richest Women Dies in Plane Crash in Germany

One of Russia’s richest women, S7 Group co-owner Natalia Fileva, has died in a small plane crash in Germany, the Russian airline operator said Sunday.

Fileva, 55, was aboard a single-engine, six-seat Epic LT aircraft that crashed and burned in a field as it approached the small airport at Egelsbach, a town in southwestern Germany, about 3:30 p.m. Sunday, the airline’s press service said in an email.

German police said there appeared to be three people aboard the plane, including the pilot of the flight, which originated in France. They said the two passengers were believed to be Russian citizens but that positive identification of the occupants would require further investigation.

German aviation authorities were probing the cause of the crash. Egelsbach is about 10 kilometers (6 miles) south of Frankfurt.

The business publication Forbes.ru estimated Fileva’s fortune at $600 million.

“S7 Group team extends sincere and heartfelt condolences to Mrs. Fileva’s family and loved ones,” the company said in a statement. “The memory of her as an inspiring and sympathetic leader and a wonderful person will forever stay in the hearts of all S7 Group employees. It is an irreparable loss. ”

Based at Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport, S7 is part of the Oneworld alliance and flies to 150 destinations in 35 countries.

The crash was also linked to other deaths in Germany.

The dpa news agency, citing police, reported that two people died Sunday and three others were seriously hurt when a police vehicle that was responding to the plane crash with flashing lights and sirens was struck head-on by another vehicle several kilometers (miles) from the crash site.

Citing police, dpa reported that three injured were in the police vehicle and the two dead were in the other car.

White House Not Backing Down on Trump’s Threat to Close US-Mexico Border

Washington is focused yet again on immigration and border security after President Donald Trump threatened to close America’s southern border with Mexico and declared he wants U.S. aid terminated to three Central American nations. VOA’s Michael Bowman reports, Trump’s moves come amid a continuing surge of undocumented migrant arrivals that have strained federal resources and personnel along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Zelenskiy Leads Poroshenko in First Round of Ukraine’s Elections

Comedian and political novice Volodymyr Zelensky was the top vote getter, ahead of incumbent president Petro Poroshenko, in Ukraine’s first round of presidential elections, according to exit polls Sunday, leading the two candidates into a run-off election.

Zelensky, a comedian who plays the role of the president in a television comedy series, was projected to win 30.4 percent of the vote, easily beating Poroshenko, in power since 2014, who earned 17.8 percent, according to the Central Election Commission’s report as of 6pm.

If no candidate wins more than half of the votes, the election will proceed to a run-off to be held on April 21.

“This is only the first step toward a great victory,” Zelensky told reporters after the initial results were released.

Zelenskiy is seeking to prove life can indeed imitate art. He in the protagonist of a long-running popular series called the “Servant of the People,” in which he plays a teacher who unexpectedly finds himself president after a student posts on YouTube one of his rants denouncing the elite.

President Petro Poroshenko had the support of just 13.7 percent of the voters, according to a pre-election poll by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology.

The 53-year-old billionaire dubbed the chocolate king because of his confectionery business has been accused by opponents of running schemes to buy votes, especially in small towns where the pull of political paternalism is strong.

Center in Havana Opens to Preserve Hemingway’s Legacy

U.S. donors and Cuban builders have completed one of the longest-running joint projects between the two countries at a low point in bilateral relations.

Officials from the Boston-based Finca Vigia Foundation and Cuba’s National Cultural Heritage Council cut the ribbon Saturday evening on a state-of-the-art, $1.2 million conservation center on the grounds of Ernest Hemingway’s stately home on a hill overlooking Havana.

 

The center, which has been under construction since 2016, contains modern technology for cleaning and preserving a multitude of artifacts from the home where Hemingway lived in the 1940s and 1950s.

 

When he died in 1961, the author left approximately 5,000 photos, 10,000 letters and perhaps thousands of margin notes in roughly 9,000 books at the property.

 

“The laboratory we’re inaugurating today is the only one in Cuba with this capacity and it will allow us to contribute to safeguarding the legacy of Ernest Hemingway in Cuba,” said Grisell Fraga, director of the Ernest Hemingway Museum.

U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern, a Democrat from Massachusetts, spoke at the ceremony and called it a sign of the potential for U.S.-Cuban cooperation despite rising tensions between the Communist government and the Trump administration.

 

McGovern, who met with President Miguel Diaz-Canel and other Cuban officials during his visit, said that despite tensions over Venezuela, a Cuban ally, he still believed respectful dialogue was the most productive way of dealing with Cuba’s government.

 

The Trump administration has said it is trying to get rid of socialism in Latin America.

 

 

White House Demands Mexico, 3 Central American Countries Curb Migrant Surge

The Trump administration on Sunday demanded that Mexico and three Central American countries curb the surge of thousands of undocumented migrants heading to the United States, noting that the homeland security chief for former President Barack Obama agrees there is an immigration crisis at the southern U.S. border.

“We need your help,” acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney told Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador in an interview on ABC News. He said Mexico needs to solidify its southern border with Guatemala to prevent the caravans from heading north through Mexico to the U.S. and that the three Central American counties need to curb migrants from leaving their countries.

He left open the distinct possibility that President Donald Trump would close the U.S. border with Mexico in the coming days, even as he says he intends to cut off about $500 million in U.S. aid to the three Northern Triangle countries.

“Jeh Johnson admits we were right” about a crisis on the southern U.S. border, Mulvaney said, referring to the Obama homeland security secretary. “We hate to say we told you so, but we told you so.”

On Saturday, Johnson told Fox News, “By anyone’s definition, by any measure, right now we have a crisis at our southern border.”

There were 4,000 apprehensions of migrants at the border one day last week and the U.S. is on pace for 100,000 for all of March.

“That is by far a greater number than anything I saw on my watch in my three years as secretary of Homeland Security,” Johnson said.

Mulvaney said if the three Central American countries do not curb migration to the U.S., “there’s little reason to continue sending them money.”

Current Homeland Security chief Kirstjen Nielsen last week signed a regional border security compact with Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador to curb the illegal migrant surge and interdict the flow of drugs into the U.S.

But Mulvaney said the three countries’ “actions will speak louder than words.”

Blaming Democrats

The White House official said, “Congress can fix this” with tougher immigration controls along the U.S., but that “it’s clear the Democrats are not going to help us. So we’re looking to cutting off aid and closing the border.”

Trump said on Twitter Saturday, “It would be so easy to fix our weak and very stupid Democrat inspired immigration laws. In less than one hour, and then a vote, the problem would be solved. But the Dems don’t care about the crime, they don’t want any victory for Trump and the Republicans, even if good for USA!”

He added, “Mexico must use its very strong immigration laws to stop the many thousands of people trying to get into the USA. Our detention areas are maxed out & we will take no more illegals. Next step is to close the Border! This will also help us with stopping the Drug flow from Mexico!”

After Congress earlier this year refused to fund Trump’s request for money to build a border wall, he declared a national emergency to tap money allocated for other programs to build the wall. Both houses of Congress passed legislation to overturn Trump’s national emergency declaration, but he vetoed it and the House of Representatives last week failed to override the veto.

‘Reckless’ policy?

Congressional action would be needed to cut off aid to the three countries. New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called Trump’s order a “reckless announcement” and urged Democrats and Republicans alike to reject it.

 

Rep. Joaquin Castro, a Texas Democrat and chairman of the Hispanic Caucus, warned in a statement released Saturday that cutting off aid will further destabilize the Northern Triangle countries.

 

“By cutting off desperately needed aid, the administration will deprive El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras of critical funds that help stabilize these countries by curbing migration push factors such as violence, gangs, poverty and insecurity. Ultimately, this short-sighted and flawed decision lays the groundwork for the humanitarian crisis at our border to escalate further,” he said.

 

Michael Clemens, a senior fellow at The Center for Global Development, says the administration’s strategy to shape migration through aid needs to be done right.

 

“If what the United States wants to do is prevent irregular child migration in a way that works and is cost-effective, it should not do what it has traditionally done — spend 10 times as much on border enforcement trying to keep child migrants out as it spends on security assistance to the region,” he said. “In fact, smartly packaged security assistance” is the only thing that has been “shown to reduce violence effectively and cost effectively.”

Thousands March in Spain to Demand More Help for Rural Areas

Thousands of Spaniards gathered in Madrid on Sunday to demand that the government take steps to curb the depopulation of rural areas.

Sunday’s march under the slogan “The Revolt of the Emptied Spain” was organized by grassroots groups from rural areas in the southern European Union nation.

 

In Spain, 90 percent of the population is now concentrated in 30 percent of the country’s territory, namely in Madrid and the coastal areas. That leaves 10 percent of its people spread over large swaths of the interior.

 

On Friday, the government announced measures to improve internet networks in the countryside.

 

The march comes before Spain’s April 28 general election, when rural areas could play a key role in deciding if the Socialists stay in power. Spanish election law gives more weight to underpopulated areas.

 

 

Netanyahu Warmly Welcomes Brazil’s Bolsonaro in Israel

Israel’s prime minister warmly received President Jair Bolsonaro Sunday, on the Brazilian leader’s first state visit to Israel.

Benjamin Netanyahu’s red carpet welcome for Bolsonaro comes days ahead of a tough re-election bid for the long-time Israeli premier on April 9.

 

The Brazilian president is widely expected during his three-day trip to decide whether to follow President Donald Trump’s lead and move the Brazilian Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a move he has repeatedly promised.

 

The Palestinians claim east Jerusalem, which Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war, as the capital of a future state. Israel claims all of Jerusalem as its capital, including the eastern sector.

 

The two leaders, wearing matching blue ties as they surveyed an Israeli color guard, touted the forging of closer ties. Netanyahu addressed Bolsonaro as a “good friend” and said Israel and Brazil have entered “a new era” of relations.

 

The Brazilian leader opened his speech after landing with the words “I love Israel” in Hebrew.

 

“My government is firmly decided to strengthen the partnership between Brazil and Israel,” Bolsonaro added.

 

Netanyahu has faced criticism for courting the friendship of authoritarian leaders, such as Hungary’s Victor Orban, Russia’s Vladimir Putin and the Philippines’ Rodrigo Duterte, in his push for closer ties around the globe.

 

Bolsonaro has drawn criticism for making disparaging remarks about gays, women, indigenous groups and blacks during his 28-year career as a Brazilian congressman. Rights groups have expressed concern about the new administration’s hardline approach to security and protection for police officers who commit crimes.

 

Israeli activists protested outside the airport after Bolsonaro landed, raising a rainbow flag with the words “The Holy Land doesn’t want homophobes here” in Portuguese.

 

Polls Open in Ukraine’s Presidential Election

The polls have opened and voters in Ukraine are casting their ballots Sunday in the first round of the country’s presidential election.

The top three of the 39 candidates are: a comedian who plays the role of the president in a television comedy series, the incumbent president, and a former prime minister, who is running for president for the third time.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy is seeking to prove life can indeed imitate art. He is the protagonist of a long-running popular series called the “Servant of the People” in which he plays a teacher who unexpectedly finds himself president after a student posts on YouTube one of his rants denouncing the elite.

President Petro Poroshenko has the support of just 13.7 percent of the voters, according to a recent poll by the Kiev International Institute of Sociology. The 53-year-old billionaire dubbed the chocolate king because of his confectionery business has been accused by opponents of running schemes to buy votes, especially in small towns where the pull of political paternalism is strong.

Yulia Tymoshenko became Ukraine’s prime minister after the 2004 Orange Revolution. She was arrested in 2011, charged with abusing power in a natural gas deal. She was released in 2014 and ran for president, but lost to Poroshenko.

None of the candidates is expected to win a majority of the vote in the first round. The top two winners in Sunday’s vote will face off in a second round of voting.

Number of Asylum Seekers Sent Back Over US Border to Grow

Border officials are aiming to more than quadruple the number of asylum seekers sent back over the southern border each day, a major expansion of a top government effort to address the swelling number of Central Americans arriving in the country, a Trump administration official said Saturday. 

 

It was the latest attempt to ease an immigration system that officials say is at the breaking point. Hundreds of officers who usually screen cargo and vehicles at ports of entry were reassigned to help manage migrants.

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen asked for volunteers from non-immigration agencies within her department, sent a letter to Congress late this past week requesting resources and broader authority to deport families faster, and met with Central American and Mexican officials. 

 

The efforts are being made while President Donald Trump is doubling down on threats to shutter the U.S.-Mexico border entirely, a move that would have serious economic repercussions for both the U.S. and Mexico but wouldn’t stop migrants from crossing between ports. His administration also announced it was cutting aid to the Central American countries that are home to most of the migrants.  

Right now, about 60 asylum seekers a day are returned to Mexico at the San Ysidro, Calexico and El Paso ports to wait out their cases, the official said. They are allowed to return to the U.S. for court dates. The plan was announced Jan. 29, partially to deter false claimants from coming across the border. With a backlog of more than 700,000 immigration cases, asylum seekers can wait years for their cases to progress, and officials say some people game the system in order to live in the U.S. 

300 per day

 

Officials hope to have as many as 300 people returned per day by the end of the week, focusing particularly on those who come in between ports of entry, said the official, who had knowledge of the plans but was unauthorized to speak publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. 

 

But the process so far has gone slowly, and such a sizable increase may be difficult to achieve. The plan has already been marred by confusion, scheduling glitches and an inability by some attorneys to reach their clients. In San Ysidro alone, Mexico had been prepared to accept up to 120 asylum seekers per week, but for the first six weeks only 40 people per week were returned.  

Plus, U.S. officials must check to see whether asylum seekers have any felony convictions and notify Mexico at least 12 hours before they are returned. Those who cross illegally must have come as single adults, though the administration is in talks with the Mexican government to include families. Children are not returned. 

 

Homeland Security officials have been grappling with a growing number of Central American children and families coming over the border. Arrests soared in February to a 12-year-high and more than half of those stopped arrived as families, many of them asylum seekers who generally turn themselves in instead of trying to elude capture. Guatemala and Honduras have replaced Mexico as the top countries, a remarkable shift from only a few years ago. Migrants from Central America cannot be easily deported, unlike people crossing from Mexico. 

Mexico pledges help

 

Mexico has been treading lightly on the subject. After Trump lashed out, saying Mexico and the Central American nations were “doing nothing” about illegal immigration, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said his country would do everything it could to help to maintain a “very respectful relationship” with the U.S. government and Trump.  

Meanwhile, Nielsen sent a letter to the heads of other agencies within her 240,000-person department, asking for volunteers to help with border duties. And she wrote to Congress asking for more temporary facilities to process people, more detention space, and the ability to detain families indefinitely and to deport unaccompanied minors from Central America. While children from Mexico can be returned over the border, laws prohibit deportation to other countries. 

 

Democratic congressional leaders expressed deep concern, saying the administration wanted to revive “horrific” and “immoral” plans, noting its failed hard-line border policies have created “senseless heartbreak and horror.” 

 

“Democrats reject any effort to let the administration deport little children, and we reject all anti-immigrant and anti-family attacks from this president,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a statement.

Slovaks Elect Newcomer Caputova as President

A liberal environmental activist has been elected as the first female president of Slovakia.

Relative newcomer Zuzana Caputova had 58 percent of the vote with almost 95 percent of returns counted in Saturday’s runoff election, topping European Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic, who had 42 percent.

Sefcovic conceded defeat and congratulated his rival.

“I’m extremely happy about the result,” Caputova said. “It’s an extremely strong mandate for me,” she said.

“Zuzana, Zuzana,” her supporters chanted.

Political newcomer

Caputova, 45, has little experience in politics and attracted voters who are appalled by corruption and mainstream politics.

She only recently became vice chairman of the Progressive Slovakia, a party so new it has not had a chance to run in parliamentary elections. Caputova resigned from her party post after winning the first round of the presidential vote two weeks ago.

She becomes Slovakia’s fifth president since the country gained independence after the split of Czechoslovakia in 1993.

​Rising star in Slovakia

The president of the nation of 5.4 million people has the power to pick the prime minister, appoint Constitutional Court judges and veto laws. Parliament can override the veto with a simple majority, however. The government is led by the prime minister, who possesses most executive powers.

A lawyer by profession, Caputova is a rising star of Slovak politics. She became known for leading a successful fight against a toxic waste dump in her hometown of Pezinok, for which she received the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize in 2016.

A divorced mother of two, she is in favor of gay rights and opposes a ban on abortion in this conservative Roman Catholic country.

She was also part of a campaign in 2017 that led to the annulment of pardons granted by former authoritarian Prime Minister Vladimir Meciar.

Sefcovic, 52, is a career diplomat who was supported by the leftist Smer-Social Democracy party led by former populist Prime Minister Robert Fico, a major force in Slovak politics that was tarnished by corruption scandals. He campaigned on a traditional family values ticket.

Popular incumbent Andrej Kiska, who did not stand for a second term, backed Caputova in the vote.

​Street protests of corruption

The two had supported the massive anti-government street protests last year triggered by the slayings of an investigative reporter and his fiancee that led to the fall of Fico’s coalition government. Investigators have linked Jan Kuciak’s death to his work probing possible widespread government corruption.

Fico’s party suffered losses in local elections in November, the first votes since the largest demonstrations in the country since the anti-Communist Velvet Revolution of 1989.

World Turns Off Lights for Earth Hour 

The Eiffel Tower, the Empire State Building, the Sydney Opera House, the Brandenburg Gate, the Acropolis and many more iconic landmarks went dark at 8:30 p.m. local time, Saturday night, for Earth Hour, an annual call for local action on climate change.

Earth Hour is the brain child of the World Wildlife Fund.

“By going dark for Earth Hour, we can show steadfast commitment to protecting our families, our communities and our planet from the dangerous effects of a warming world,” said Lou Leonard, WWF senior vice president, climate and energy. “The rising demand for energy, food and water means this problem is only going to worsen, unless we act now.”

Individuals and companies around the world participated in the hour-long demonstration to show their support for the fight against climate change and the conservation of the natural world.

WWF said Earth’s “rich biodiversity, the vast web of life that connects the health of oceans, rivers and forests to the prosperity of communities and nations, is threatened.”

The fund also reports that wildlife populations monitored by WWF “have experienced an average decline of 60 percent in less than a single person’s lifetime, and many unique and precious species are at risk of vanishing forever.”

“We have to ask ourselves what we’re willing to do after the lights come back on,” Leonard said. “If we embrace bold solutions, we still have time to stabilize the climate and safeguard our communities and the diverse wildlife, ecosystems and natural resources that sustain us all.”

“We are the first generation to know we are destroying the world,” WWF said. “And we could be the last that can do anything about it.”

Trump Calls for Ending Aid to El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras Over Migrants

The Trump administration wants to halt funding to Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, the State Department confirmed Saturday.

“We are carrying out the president’s direction and ending [fiscal year] 2017 and [fiscal year] 2018 foreign assistance programs for the Northern Triangle,” a State Department spokesperson said in a statement. “We will be engaging Congress as part of this process.”

The Northern Triangle refers to the three northern Central American countries of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. The three countries were set to receive about $500 million in aid in the 2018 fiscal year plus millions more that were left over from 2017, according to The Washington Post.

The move comes a day after U.S. President Donald Trump said the countries had “set up” migrant caravans that make their way to the United States.

“We were giving them $500 million. We were paying them tremendous amounts of money, and we’re not paying them anymore because they haven’t done a thing for us,” Trump said Friday. Trump also warned he was ready to close the southern border if Mexico doesn’t do more to push back migrants.

Congressional action would be needed to cut off aid to the three countries.

New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called Trump’s order a “reckless announcement” and urged Democrats and Republicans alike to reject it.

Rep. Joaquin Castro, a Texas Democrat and chairman of the Hispanic Caucus, warned in a statement released Saturday that cutting off aid will further destabilize these countries.

“By cutting off desperately needed aid, the administration will deprive El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras of critical funds that help stabilize these countries by curbing migration push factors such as violence, gangs, poverty and insecurity. Ultimately, this short-sighted and flawed decision lays the groundwork for the humanitarian crisis at our border to escalate further,” he said.

Foreign aid and stability

The U.S. has viewed foreign aid programs to Central American countries as a vital component in stabilizing these countries, potentially reducing the flow of immigrants seeking to migrate to the United States. Under the Trump administration, aid to those countries began falling.

The U.S. provided about $131 million in aid to Guatemala, $98 million to Honduras, and $68 million to El Salvador in 2016, according to Reuters. The following year the funding fell to about $69 million for Guatemala, $66 million for Honduras and $46 million for El Salvador.

Michael Clemens, a senior fellow at The Center for Global Development, says the administration’s strategy to shape migration through aid needs to be done right.

“If what the United States wants to do is prevent irregular child migration in a way that works and is cost-effective, it should not do what it has traditionally done — spend 10 times as much on border enforcement trying to keep child migrants out as it spends on security assistance to the region. In fact, smartly packaged security assistance is the only things that have been shown to reduce violence effectively and cost effectively,” he said.

The U.S. has had an inconstant history of involvement in Central America, with some arguing that it is American foreign policy in the region has caused the instability and inequality at the root of the current crisis.

Jeff Faux, at the left-leaning think tank the Economic Policy Institute, argues that U.S. policy created the immigration crisis.

“For at least 150 years, the United States has intervened in these countries with arms, political pressure and money in order to support alliances between our business and military elites and theirs — who prosper by impoverishing their people,” Faux wrote in an article for The American Prospect magazine last year.

Crimean Tatars’ Leader: Russian Detentions Aim at Purging Followers 

Moscow’s recent raids in Simferopol are part of a broader effort to suppress democratic activists in the Russian-controlled Black Sea Peninsula. That’s the assertion being made by Refat Chubarov, chairman of the Mejlis, the Crimean Tatars’ self-governing body that Russia has outlawed. 

 

Crimean Tatars, who are predominantly Muslim, confronted Russian security forces on Wednesday after 20 people were detained in what Russian officials called a sweep for suspected Islamist militants. 

 

Ukraine’s representative to the European Union, Ambassador Mykola Tochytskyi, immediately called on European partners to “harshly and decisively” condemn the “illegal” searches of homes and arrests, triggering broad international condemnation by U.S. and EU representatives who believe Crimean Tatars are being targeted for speaking out against Russian rule in the territorially disputed region. 

 

“As I see it, one of the main reasons why we’ve had the record-high number of people arrested in one day last Wednesday — for all five years since the occupation of Crimea — is the desire of Russian occupants to threaten the community of Crimean Tatars as much as they can,”  Chubarov told VOA’s Russian service. “It’s the desire to push the Crimean Tatars out. I don’t really see any other explanation of this.”  

According to Chubarov, Russian security forces not only raided private homes but also detained any local activists who were attending court hearings in support of Ukrainians and Tatars who’ve been jailed without sentencing. 

 

“They arrested any activists,” he said. “Even the ones who stood next to the court building in Simferopol during the two-day trial of jailed Ukrainian sailors, the ones who were livestreaming everything. 

 

“Thanks to them, the international community and the society has learned about what’s happening in Crimea,” he added. “Put simply, they arrested the most active people, which allows me to infer that they’re attempting to isolate everything that’s happening in Crimea from the outside world and, at the same time — thanks to the large number of arrests — they’re also sending a very clear message to the Crimean Tatars: ‘If you don’t like it here, leave.’ ” 

 

The message, Chubarov said, was reiterated by pro-Russian Crimean Prime Minister Sergei Aksyonov, who prior to the 2014 annexation had been an obscure figure in local politics. His Russian Unity party holds only a trio of seats in the regional legislature. 

 

“Aksyonov openly talked about it in a YouTube interview, in which he said that the Council of Ministers of Crimea fully supports the FSB’s attempt to put an end to radical underground organizations,” said Chubarov. “He finished the interview by saying that anyone who doesn’t like Russian Crimea can leave and live happily in other countries. Basically, Aksyonov openly voiced what Moscow is aiming to achieve but doesn’t say publicly.”  

Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry immediately protested the arrests, expressing concern that the Russian occupation authorities again chose the so-called “Hizb ut-Tahrir ban” as a pretext for searches. 

 

Russian security forces have targeted members of the Hizb ut-Tahrir group ever since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 in a move that Ukraine and almost all of the world view as illegal. The Islamist group is not banned in Ukraine, but Russia and several other ex-Soviet nations consider it to be a terrorist organization. 

 

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry decried the raids as human rights violations that may represent the start of a new wave of persecution against Crimean Tatars. 

 

As AFP reported, the majority of Crimean Tatars have refused to renounce their Ukrainian citizenship and many are planning to vote in the first round of Sunday’s presidential poll.

 

This story originated in VOA’s Russian service. Some information in this report came from AFP.

France’s ‘Yellow Vest’ Protesters March Despite Bans, Injuries 

“Yellow vest” activists protested across France on Saturday to support an activist injured last week in a confrontation with police and to show that they remain mobilized against the government’s economic policies. 

 

The demonstrators were undeterred by police protest bans or repeated injuries in 20 weeks of demonstrations. So they were out marching again in Paris, Bordeaux and other cities to keep pressing President Emmanuel Macron to do more to help France’s struggling working classes or to step down altogether. 

 

They’re also showing solidarity with Genevieve Legay, a 73-year-old anti-globalization activist who suffered a head injury in Nice last weekend. The Nice prosecutor said a police officer pushed her down.  

“We are all Genevieve!” read an online appeal for Saturday’s protests. 

 

Thousands of yellow vests marched peacefully in the streets of Paris, from north of the city center through the Left Bank to the Trocadero plaza near the Eiffel Tower. Some waved a rainbow flag that read “Peace,” same as the one that Legay was carrying in last week’s protest. 

 

The French capital was placed under high security, and protests were banned around the grand Champs-Elysees avenue, the scene of past yellow vest riots. Paris police said 32 people were detained and 21 fined for taking part in an unauthorized protest. 

 

In the southern town of Avignon, brief scuffles broke out as police forced protesters out of the narrow streets of the medieval city center.  

  

In Bordeaux, in the southwest, French police used tear gas after some protesters set fire to debris from a construction site and tried to force their way past security barriers. Protests were banned from the city center, where violence has often erupted in previous weeks.     

Audrey Bayart, who came from northern France for the Paris protest, said Legay’s case shows the government’s contempt toward protesters, especially after Macron told a newspaper that the elderly woman should have had the “wisdom” not to join the Nice protest.  

  

“After a while, you have to respect people and not tell them, ‘You are fragile and you stay at home,’ ” she said. “Everybody has things to say. Why are we trying to shut them up? That is not democracy.”  

  

The yellow vest movement for economic justice has appeared to lose support in recent weeks, drawing significantly smaller crowds than at its beginning in November, when hundreds of thousands of people mobilized across France, initially to oppose fuel tax hikes, before expanding into a broader rejection of Macron’s economic policies.  

  

The French government is expected to announce next month a new batch of measures as a result of a “great debate” launched by Macron so ordinary French people could express their views on key issues.

Dueling Protests Pit Venezuelan Leaders Against Each Other

Venezuelans held competing protests Saturday, declaring their support for President Nicolas Maduro, aided by Russia and China, or self-declared interim president Juan Guaido, who is backed by the United States and 50 other nations. 

 

Guaido’s followers met in Los Teques near Caracas, while Maduro supporters gathered in the center of the capital for what was billed as an “anti-imperialist rally.”   

The protests came a day after the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies announced it had obtained permission to distribute humanitarian aid in the economically distressed nation and will begin doing so within 20 days. The permission would mark a change in the Maduro government’s policy on outside aid, which has been blocked from entering Venezuela. 

 

Both Maduro and Guaido have sought to make themselves appear to be the nation’s savior by taking control of food and medical aid that Venezuelans desperately need. But the Red Cross says it is remaining neutral. Red Cross officials reportedly met with both Maduro and Guaido about aid distribution before making any announcement. 

 

Meanwhile, Venezuelans suffered their latest power blackout Friday night. It took place around 7 p.m. local time and affected 20 of Venezuela’s 23 states, according to social media. The cause of the blackout was not clear, but the country has been experiencing power outages for weeks, causing problems with the water supply, transportation and internet services, according to the French news agency AFP.  

Guaido’s supporters are specifically protesting the blackouts. 

 

On Friday, U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters in Florida that Venezuela was “a big fat mess,” on a day when other White House officials hinted that economic sanctions might be on the way. 

 

Trump took questions from reporters on a wide range of subjects Friday afternoon, including on what the United States would do about Venezuela.  

 

“Venezuela is a big fat mess,” Trump said. “Electricity’s gone, power’s gone, gasoline for cars. When you talk about socialism, take a look at Venezuela.” 

 

Earlier Friday, the U.S. special envoy for Venezuela, Elliott Abrams, said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had a list of options, including economic sanctions, for dealing with the presence of Russian troops in Venezuela. Two Russian air force planes landed outside Caracas last Saturday and were believed to be carrying Russian military personnel and equipment. 

 

“I would just say that we have options and that I think it would be a mistake for the Russians to think they have a free hand here,” Abrams told reporters at the State Department. 

​’Ludricous effort’

 

Asked about Maduro’s announcement this week that Guaido had been banned from Venezuelan politics for the next 15 years, Abrams said, “I don’t imagine that Juan Guaido is deeply worried, because the Maduro regime — while it might be around in 15 days, [it] is not going to be around in 15 years. So it’s a ludicrous effort on the part of the regime to keep Mr. Guaido quiet.” 

 

U.S. national security adviser John Bolton spoke to the Reuters news service Friday afternoon, hours after issuing a statement warning other countries not to send military resources to Venezuela. 

 

Questioned about economic sanctions on Venezuela, which the U.S. envoy to Venezuela had mentioned hours earlier, Bolton said, “We’re considering what options to follow through on.” 

 

“We’re not afraid to use the phrase ‘Monroe Doctrine’ in this administration,” Bolton said, referencing a U.S. policy from 1823 that guarded against foreign interference and colonization in the Americas.

 

He said any sanctions on Venezuela would be designed “to prevent the Maduro regime from being able to finance itself.”  

 

On Wednesday, Trump told a reporter several times, “All options are open,” in response to a question about whether the United States was willing to put “boots on the ground” to remove the Russians. Trump added that Moscow was aware of the U.S. stance.  

US, China Face Off Over 5G in Cambodia

For techies and phone geeks, Digital Cambodia 2019 was the place to be.

More than a dozen high school students clustered at the booth for Cellcard, Cambodia’s leading mobile operator. Under the booth’s 5G sign, they played video games on their phones.

Hak Kimheng, a ninth grade student in Phnom Penh, said his mom bought him a Samsung smartphone a few months ago, when he moved to the capital city from nearby Kandal province to live with his uncle while attending school. Like moms everywhere, she thought the smartphone would help her stay in touch with her son.

But smartphones being smartphones and kids being kids, Hak Kimheng, 16, has used it to set up an account on Facebook, Cambodia’s favorite social media platform. He’s also downloaded Khmer Academy, a tutoring app filled with math, physics and chemistry lessons.

And for one hour a day, Hak Kimheng watches soccer on the YouTube app he downloaded. While it’s better than nothing, the internet connection is “slow … and the video image is not clear,” he said.  “I want it to be faster. … It’ll be good to have 5G.”

Not far from the Cellcard booth, Cambodian government officials, ASEAN telecom and IT ministers, businesspeople, telecom and tech company representatives gathered for the opening ceremonies of Digital Cambodia 2019. The event, which ran from March 15 to March 17, attracted more than 100 speakers from throughout Southeast Asia, high level officials, businesspeople, researchers and telecom company representatives.

The discussions focused on 5G, which, with speeds as much as 100 times faster than 4G, will mean better soccer viewing for Hak Kimheng and faster connections for all users. But 5G will also be central to a world of smart cities filled with smart homes and offices replete with devices connected to the “internet of things” humming along amid torrents of personal, business and official data.

‘A milestone year’

David Li, CEO of Cambodian operations for the Chinese company, Huawei, which is facing challenges over security from the U.S., spoke first, promising to “help Cambodia obtain better digital technology to improve social productivity and national economy.”

Government ministers, one from finance and economy and one from posts and telecommunication, listened as Li continued, pointing out that Huawei Technologies Cambodia launched in 1999. “We have been operating 2G, 3G, 4G, and now we’re heading toward 5G,” he said.

“Currently we are the only industry vendor that can provide the intertwined 5G system. I believe this year 2019 will be a milestone year for 5G in Cambodia,” Li said.

While this next generation of mobile networks will take years to roll out, the U.S. and China are in a race over whose technology will set the standards for 5G networks, something which will have immediate commercial value and carry longer term strategic implications for developing the dominant platform for 6G.

Citing concern that Huawei is, like all Chinese companies, linked to the Beijing government, the U.S. has been urging allies not to let Huawei build their 5G networks. But in countries like Thailand, which is Cambodia’s neighbor and a U.S. ally, Huawei is building and testing a 5G network because authorities said its low cost trumped U.S. pressure.

Huawei has long maintained it doesn’t provide back doors for the Chinese government, pointing out the lack of evidence to support the allegations, according to Bloomberg.

William Carter, deputy director of the Technology Policy Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said earlier this month that any country doing business with Huawei on 5G will have to deal with the risk of Chinese influence.

“And the question will be to what extent is that concern enough to overcome the price advantage and the service advantages and the integrated financing advantages doing business with Huawei,” he said.

Rich market

As more private businesses and government services move toward cashless payment and online data access, Cambodia is emerging as a rich market for 5G telecoms. Approximately 13.6 million people, or 82 percent of Cambodians, use the internet, and about 7 million use Facebook, the number of mobile subscriptions is around 19.5 million by January 2019, or 120 percent penetration, according to the Ministry of Posts.

Sok Puthyvuth, secretary of state at the posts and telecommunication told VOA Khmer that Cambodia is eager for 5G, urging private companies, including mobile operators and internet companies, “to make 5G available across the country.”

Thomas Hundt, CEO of Smart Axiata, one of Cambodia’s mobile telecommunications operators, told VOA Khmer only that the company is preparing for a 5G rollout, because users’ data consumption is overwhelming the 4.5G network. “We see an immediate need to come out with the next evolution of technology … at some point this year.”

Cellcard CEO Ian Watson, said the company is targeting a commercial launch of 5G services in the second quarter of 2019.

Tram IvTek, Cambodia’s minister of Posts and Telecommunications said at the opening ceremony of Digital Cambodia that the government “is strongly committed to connecting the country and to ensure the benefits of ICT (information and communications technology) reach the remotest corners as well as the most vulnerable communities” by 2020.

Aun Pornmoniroth, minister of economy and finance in a March 12 workshop on Cambodia’s digital economy, suggested it will take “five to 10 years or more to set up a complete digital economy and turn Cambodia’s economy into a technological leader.”

Meas Po, undersecretary of state at Ministry of Post, said the government has yet to decide which company it will partner with for building the 5G infrastructure but it has not ruled out Huawei or other Chinese companies. “In our country, we have our protective system, in other countries, they have theirs. We don’t allow anyone to just freely hack our data.”

Protecting privacy

Smart Axiata’s Hundt said his company wanted to a partner that would “guarantee to us that the equipment is solid and sound [and] our users’ data is safeguarded and the network is fully secured from cyber-security perspectives.”

Nguon Somaly, who earned a master’s degree in law and technology at Tallinn University of Technology in Estonia, has written extensively on data privacy in Cambodia. She contends Cambodian social media users don’t have the data privacy concerns of users in the U.S. and Europe.

“Cambodian youths don’t really care about privacy [on social media], but people in [the] EU are concerned about their data privacy,” said Somaly, referring to the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which restricts how personal data is collected and handled.

“That is money and it can be analyzed and generate income,” Somaly said. “China is not a free country and privacy is not their priority. Their priority is to generate business opportunities and income.”

Xu Ning, a reporter with VOA’s Mandarin Service, contributed to this report from Washington, D.C.

 

 

3 Migrants Charged in Malta in Hijacking of Ship at Sea

Three teenage migrants have been charged in Malta with seizing control of a merchant ship and using force and intimidation, a crime considered a terrorist activity under Maltese law.

 

One of the accused was identified by the court during the arraignment Saturday as Abdalla Bari, a 19-year-old from Guinea. The other two are 15 and 16, and as minors could not be named. One is also from Guinea and the other from Ivory Coast.

 

They are suspects in the hijacking in the Mediterranean this week of the El Hiblu 1, an oil tanker. The captain has said that migrants that his crew had rescued began rioting and took control of his ship when they saw it was returning to Libya, forcing it to turn north toward Europe.

 

Slovakia Votes in 2nd Round of Presidential Poll

Voters in Slovakia are heading to the polls Saturday in round two of the country’s presidential election.

Zuzana Caputova, a 45-year-old environmental lawyer who champions gay rights and opposes Slovakia’s ban on abortion, won over 40 percent of the ballots in the first round of the vote two weeks ago.

AFP, the French news agency, reports that recent polls indicate she may gain at least 60 percent of the vote in Saturday’s race.

Maros Sefcovic came in a distant second in the first round with 18.7 percent of the vote.  The 52-year-old European Commission vice president built his campaign on traditional family-oriented policies.  He is backed by the ruling Smer-SD party.

If Caputova wins, she would be the Central European country’s first ever female president.

Incumbent President Andrej Kiska is not standing for a second five-year term.

 

Judge Bars Bolsonaro’s Coup Celebration

A Brazilian judge has ruled that the country’s president cannot hold a celebration of the March 31, 1964, coup that established a military dictatorship in Brazil. The coup overthrew a democratic government.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro had wanted to mark the 55th anniversary of the coup and had ordered the military to plan a celebration for the overthrow of the government of President Joao Goulart.

Judge Ivani Silva da Luz barred Sunday’s plans, saying the widely criticized observance was not “compatible with the process of democratic reconstruction.” The judge added that commemorative dates must be approved by Congress.

Brazilian citizens have been organizing through social media to mount demonstrations Sunday against the military dictatorship and to remember its victims.

During the 21-year-long dictatorship, at least 434 people were killed or disappeared.

No military officials have been prosecuted for any crimes committed during that time.

Bolsonaro has expressed his affinity for dictators on several occasions.

In Elections, Turkey’s Opposition Hopes to Capitalize on Erdogan’s Woes

On Sunday Turkey holds critical local elections, with control of the country’s main cities up for grabs. With inflation soaring and recession threatening, the election may pose President Recep Tayyip Erdogan biggest challenge.

A week ahead of Sunday’s polls Erdogan rallied hundreds of thousands in his hometown of Istanbul, in a bid to consolidate his voting base.

Even though Erdogan is not up for election, he is leading the campaign, aware his AK Party’s more than decade-long grip on most of Turkey’s main cities is under threat.

Since Erdogan won Istanbul’s mayorship in 1994, a victory that served as a springboard for him to dominate Turkish politics, the city has been his unassailable power base. However, the latest opinion polls indicate the outcome of Istanbul local elections is too close call.

‘All the poverty’

In Istanbul’s Gungoren district, people line up for state-subsidized food in a small local park, which is overshadowed by a vast, idle construction site.

“I see Gungoren as worse now, then how it once was. Is that right?” said CHP Istanbul mayoral candidate Ekrem Imamoglu, addressing a crowd from the roof of his campaign bus.

“Yes,” shout the people, waving CHP flags.

“All the poverty that a person can experience exists here,” Imamoglu said, “there are no green areas, there is no social life, it is a district that is left deprived of all the richness of life. We will take care of that.”

Gungoren in the past strongly backed Erdogan’s AK Party, but people are angry.

“We are retired people, by the 15th of the month our pension is finished, after that we are hungry,” said Seniye, who wears a religious headscarf.

​Pensioners hurting

There is still strong support for Erdogan by people who believe AKP can still deliver. 

“We are very hopeful about the elections. We just came here to see who is this Imamoglu because our path and choice is solid: We say AK Party,” said one man, who did not want to give his name.

With the Istanbul local election the closest in decades, the outcome could be in the hands of the pro-Kurdish HD Party.

​HDP strategy

Erdogan accuses the HDP of being a terrorist party, claiming it’s linked to the outlawed Kurdish separatist group the PKK, a charge the party denies.

Since the 2015 collapse of peace talks with the PKK, thousands of HDP officials have been arrested, along with elected mayors, parliamentary deputies, and its leaders.

Ahead of the local elections, the HDP says the crackdown has intensified, particularly in western cities.

The growing pressure saw the party, in a surprise move, decide not to contest mayoral elections in Turkey’s main western cities, focusing its efforts in the predominantly Kurdish region.

“This pressure we are facing of arrests means we have to come up with new methods to resist,” said Ertugrul Kurkcu, honorary president of the HDP.

“That is why in the seven main western cities outside the Kurdish region, we are calling on our supporters to vote for the opposition to help voters defeat Tayyip Erdogan,” he said.

He said “our supporters are voting for the opposition not because they like them, but for the strategic reason of defeating Erdogan.”

 

WATCH: Turkey’s Opposition Hopes to Capitalize on Erdogan’s Woes

​Second largest opposition party

The HDP is Turkey’s second largest opposition party and accounts for as much as 10 percent of the vote in Turkey’s main cities. However, it is far from certain that all its party supporters will heed their leadership’s call to back the CHP opposition.

“The HDP’s supporters, there are secular people, liberals and of course in the party, there are conservative, religious, and rightist Kurds,” said professor Baris Doster of Marmara University.

“I think that the liberals, the seculars, the social democrat supporters of HDP, they will vote for the opposition CHP,” he said. “The conservatives, the rightist voters of the HDP, will vote for Erdogan’s party, or they will stay at home.”

The HDP is working hard to persuade its supporters to go to the polls Sunday and vote against Erdogan’s AKP.

“Some supporters were unhappy about the decision not to stand for office,” said Gul Demir HDP’s co-leader of Istanbul’s Kadikoy district.

“However, I believe in this election campaign period we could explain ourselves to our base. In Turkish we have a saying, ‘great minds think alike.’ What is obvious is that we have entered a very heavy fascist system. It feels like the last exit before the bridge.

“If we lose these elections, if we don’t strike a blow to Erdogan, I don’t believe there will be elections in Turkey again,” Demir said.