text:
Welcome to Eurovans Ayr Ltd website privacy notice.
Eurovans Ayr Ltd respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal data. This privacy notice will inform you as to how we look after your personal data when you visit our website (regardless of where you visit it from) and tell you about your privacy rights and how the law protects you.
Important information and who we are
Purpose of this privacy notice
This privacy notice aims to give you information on how Eurovans Ayr Ltd collects and processes your personal data through your use of this website, including any data you may provide through this website when you sign up to a newsletter or purchase a service.
This website is not intended for children and we do not knowingly collect data relating to children.
It is important that you read this privacy notice together with any other privacy notice or fair processing notice we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal data about you so that you are fully aware of how and why we are using your data. This privacy notice supplements the other notices and is not intended to override them.
Eurovans Ayr Ltd is the controller and responsible for your personal data (collectively referred to as 'Company', 'we', 'us' or 'our' in this privacy notice).
We have appointed a data privacy manager who is responsible for overseeing questions in relation to this privacy notice. If you have any questions about this privacy notice, including any requests to exercise your legal rights, please contact the data privacy manager using the details set out below.
Contact details
Our full details are:
Full name of legal entity: Eurovans Ayr Ltd
Name of data privacy manager: Caroline Campbell
Email address: email@example.com
Postal address: 7 Whitfield Drive Heathfield Industrial Estate Ayr
Telephone number: 01292 270370
You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues (www.ico.org.uk). We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the ICO so please contact us in the first instance.
It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes during your relationship with us.
Third-party links
This website may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins and applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We do not control these third-party websites and are not responsible for their privacy statements. When you leave our website, we encourage you to read the privacy notice of every website you visit.
The data we collect about you
Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data).
We may collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of personal data about you which we have grouped together follows:
● Identity Data includes first name, maiden name, last name, username or similar identifier, marital status, title, date of birth and gender.
● Contact Data includes billing address, delivery address, email address and telephone numbers.
● Financial Data includes bank account and payment card details.
● Transaction Data includes details about payments to and from you and other details of products and services you have purchased from us.
● Technical Data includes internet protocol (IP) address, your login data, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform and other technology on the devices you use to access this website.
● Profile Data includes your username and password, purchases or orders made by you, your interests, preferences, feedback and survey responses.
● Usage Data includes information about how you use our website, products and services.
● Marketing and Communications Data includes your preferences in receiving marketing from us and our third parties and your communication preferences.
We also collect, use and share Aggregated Data such as statistical or demographic data for any purpose. Aggregated Data may be derived from your personal data but is not considered personal data in law as this data does not directly or indirectly reveal your identity. For example, we may aggregate your Usage Data to calculate the percentage of users accessing a specific website feature. However, if we combine or connect Aggregated Data with your personal data so that it can directly or indirectly identify you, we treat the combined data as personal data which will be used in accordance with this privacy notice.
We do not collect any Special Categories of Personal Data about you (this includes details about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, information about your health and genetic and biometric data). Nor do we collect any information about criminal convictions and offences.
If you fail to provide personal data
Where we need to collect personal data by law, or under the terms of a contract we have with you and you fail to provide that data when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have or are trying to enter into with you (for example, to provide you with services). In this case, we may have to cancel a service you have with us but we will notify you if this is the case at the time.
How is your personal data collected?
We use different methods to collect data from and about you including through:
● Direct interactions. You may give us your Identity, Contact and Financial Data by filling in forms or by corresponding with us by post, phone, email or otherwise. This includes personal data you provide when you:- apply for our services;
- make an enquiry;
- create an account on our website;
- subscribe to our service or publications;
- request marketing to be sent to you;
- enter a competition, promotion or survey; or
- give us some feedback.
How we use your personal data
We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances:
● Where we need to perform the contract we are about to enter into or have entered into with you.
● Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests.
● Where we need to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation.
Generally we do not rely on consent as a legal basis for processing your personal data other than in relation to sending third party direct marketing communications to you via email or text message. You have the right to withdraw consent to marketing at any time by contacting us.
Purposes for which we will use your personal data
We have set out below, in a table format, a description of all the ways we plan to use your personal data, and which of the legal bases we rely on to do so. We have also identified what our legitimate interests are where appropriate.
Note that we may process your personal data for more than one lawful ground depending on the specific purpose for which we are using your data. Please contact us if you need details about the specific legal ground we are relying on to process your personal data where more than one ground has been set out in the table below.
Purpose/Activity Type of data Lawful basis for processing including basis of legitimate interest To register you as a new customer (a) Identity (b) Contact Performance of a contract with you To process and deliver your enquiry, request or order including: (a) Manage payments, fees and charges (b) Collect and recover money owed to us (c) Manage financial applications (a) Identity (b) Contact (c) Financial (d) Transaction (e) Marketing and Communications (a) Performance of a contract with you (b) Necessary for our legitimate interests (to recover debts due to us) To manage our relationship with you which will include: (a) Notifying you about changes to our terms or privacy policy (b) Asking you to leave a review or take a survey (a) Identity (b) Contact (c) Profile (d) Marketing and Communications (a) Performance of a contract with you (b) Necessary to comply with a legal obligation (c) Necessary for our legitimate interests (to keep our records updated and to study how customers use our services) To enable you to partake in a prize draw, competition or complete a survey (a) Identity (b) Contact (c) Profile (d) Usage (e) Marketing and Communications (a) Performance of a contract with you (b) Necessary for our legitimate interests (to study how customers use our services, to develop them and grow our business) To administer and protect our business and this website (including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, system maintenance, support, reporting and hosting of data) (a) Identity (b) Contact (c) Technical (a) Necessary for our legitimate interests (for running our business, provision of administration and IT services, network security, to prevent fraud and in the context of a business reorganisation or group restructuring exercise) (b) Necessary to comply with a legal obligation To deliver relevant website content and advertisements to you and measure or understand the effectiveness of the advertising we serve to you (a) Identity (b) Contact (c) Profile (d) Usage (e) Marketing and Communications (f) Technical Necessary for our legitimate interests (to study how customers use our services, to develop them, to grow our business and to inform our marketing strategy) To use data analytics to improve our website, services, marketing, customer relationships and experiences (a) Technical (b) Usage Necessary for our legitimate interests (to define types of customers for our services, to keep our website updated and relevant, to develop our business and to inform our marketing strategy) To make suggestions and recommendations to you about services that may be of interest to you (a) Identity (b) Contact (c) Technical (d) Usage (e) Profile Necessary for our legitimate interests (to develop our services and grow our business)
We strive to provide you with choices regarding certain personal data uses, particularly around marketing and advertising. We have established the following personal data control mechanisms:
Promotional offers from us
We may use your Identity, Contact, Technical, Usage and Profile Data to form a view on what we think you may want or need, or what may be of interest to you. This is how we decide which products, services and offers may be relevant for you (we call this marketing).
You will receive marketing communications from us if you have requested information from us or purchased services from us and, in each case, you have not opted out of receiving that marketing.
Opting out
You can ask us or third parties to stop sending you marketing messages at any time by logging into the website and checking or unchecking relevant boxes to adjust your marketing preferences or by following the opt-out links on any marketing message sent to you or by contacting us at any time.
Where you opt out of receiving these marketing messages, this will not apply to personal data provided to us as a result of a service purchase, service experience or other transactions.
You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when websites set or access cookies. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of this website may become inaccessible or not function properly. For more information about the cookies we use, please see our cookie policy.
Change of purpose
We will only use your personal data for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If you wish to get an explanation as to how the processing for the new purpose is compatible with the original purpose, please contact us.
If we need to use your personal data for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.
Please note that we may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.
Disclosures of your personal data
We may have to share your personal data with the parties set out below for the purposes set out in the table in paragraph 4 above.
● External Third Parties as set out in the Glossary.
● Third parties to whom we may choose to sell, transfer, or merge parts of our business or our assets. Alternatively, we may seek to acquire other businesses or merge with them. If a change happens to our business, then the new owners may use your personal data in the same way as set out in this privacy notice.
We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes and only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.
International transfers
We do not transfer your personal data outside the European Economic Area (EEA).
Data security
We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.
We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.
Data retention
How long will you use my personal data for?
We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.
To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.
Your legal rights
Under certain circumstances, you have rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data. (Please see the glossary for more detail)
● Request access to your personal data.
● Request correction of your personal data.
● Request erasure of your personal data.
● Object to processing of your personal data.
● Request restriction of processing your personal data.
● Request transfer of your personal data.
● Right to withdraw consent.
If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please contact us.
No fee usually required
You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.
What we may need from you
We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.
Time limit to respond
We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it may take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.
Legitimate Interest means the interest of our business in conducting and managing our business to enable us to give you the best service and the best and most secure experience. We make sure we consider and balance any potential impact on you (both positive and negative) and your rights before we process your personal data for our legitimate interests. We do not use your personal data for activities where our interests are overridden by the impact on you (unless we have your consent or are otherwise required or permitted to by law). You can obtain further information about how we assess our legitimate interests against any potential impact on you in respect of specific activities by contacting us.
Performance of Contract means processing your data where it is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are a party or to take steps at your request before entering into such a contract.
Comply with a legal or regulatory obligation means processing your personal data where it is necessary for compliance with a legal or regulatory obligation that we are subject to.
External Third Parties
● Service providers acting as processors or joint controllers who provide finance, website, IT and system administration services.
● Professional advisers acting as processors or joint controllers including lawyers, bankers, auditors and insurers who provide consultancy, banking, legal, insurance and accounting services.
● HM Revenue & Customs, regulators and other authorities acting as processors or joint controllers based in the United Kingdom who require reporting of processing activities in certain circumstances.
You have the right to:
Request access to your personal data (commonly known as a 'data subject access request'). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.
Request correction of the personal data that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you corrected, though we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data you provide to us.
Request erasure of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal data where you have successfully exercised your right to object to processing (see below), where we may have processed your information unlawfully or where we are required to erase your personal data to comply with local law. Note, however, that we may not always be able to comply with your request of erasure for specific legal reasons which will be notified to you, if applicable, at the time of your request.
Object to processing of your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground as you feel it impacts on your fundamental rights and freedoms. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal data for direct marketing purposes. In some cases, we may demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate grounds to process your information which override your rights and freedoms.
Request restriction of processing of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your personal data in the following scenarios:
(a) if you want us to establish the data's accuracy;
(b) where our use of the data is unlawful but you do not want us to erase it;
(c) where you need us to hold the data even if we no longer require it as you need it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims; or
(d) you have objected to our use of your data but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to use it.
Request the transfer of your personal data to you or to a third party. We will provide to you, or a third party you have chosen, your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format. Note that this right only applies to automated information which you initially provided consent for us to use or where we used the information to perform a contract with you.
Withdraw consent at any time where we are relying on consent to process your personal data. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain services to you. We will advise you if this is the case at the time you withdraw your consent.
● Automated technologies or interactions. As you interact with our website, we may automatically collect Technical Data about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns. We collect this personal data by using cookies, server logs and other similar technologies. We may also receive Technical Data about you if you visit other websites employing our cookies. Please see our cookie policy for further details.
● Third parties or publicly available sources. We may receive personal data about you from various third parties and public sources as set out below:
● Technical Data from the following parties:
(a) analytics providers;
(b) advertising networks; and
(c) search information providers.
● Contact, Financial and Transaction Data from providers of technical, payment and delivery services.
● Identity and Contact Data from data brokers or aggregators.
● Identity and Contact Data from publicly availably sources.
Customer Reviews
I purchased a van from the lovely caroline yesterday , first class van, first class service very professional would highly recommend Eurovans. Scott m... Read More
Christine McNeill
From the very first call to enquire about the car and firstly speaking to Robin then closing the sale out with Caroline has been a pleasure. Very good... Read More
Sean Corrigan
lovely people to do business with, especially the delightful Caroline! would definitely recommend... Read More
John Cameron
I was looking for a suitable van for an impending overseas move, and stumbled across Eurovans on eBay. Their prices looked competitive and we went dow... Read More
Mark Gallacher
I purchased a van from the lovely caroline yesterday , first class van, first class service very professional would highly recommend Eurovans vans as... Read More
roy abram
Purchased a van Renault Kangoo from them dealt with Caroline who was superb, had a slight problem with the van after collection (unforeseen) they deal... Read More
Jim Dowd
I have purchased several vehicles through Eurovans, excellent trustworthy company to deal with ...highly recommended... Read More
John Gibson
Recently, got a van from here and service was amazing. Lorna and Caroline were so helpful, came on the Monday and by Friday the van was bought!!!!.... Read More
Peter Thomson
The van is awesome! On trip down from Ayr yesterday used 3 bars of the LPG indicator and travelled 290 miles. That seems pretty economical at 48p a li... Read More
Paul Bell (Rock Racing)
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Contact Details7 Whitfield Drive
Heathfield Industrial Estate
Ayr Ayrshire KA8 9RX 01292 270370 email@example.com


text:
Multi-Media Textile Designer Katie Stamford-Smith
Katie Stamford-Smith is a creative Multi-Media Textile Designer who creates original statement furniture pieces.
'Using a distinctive fusion of creativity, precision, and flair, she produces items that seek to merge the beauty of nature with contemporary structural design. This exploration of dichotomy is echoed in her contrasting choice of materials, which emphasises their materiality and highlights the unusual shapes they are formed into. Coming from a textile-led background, the tactility and materiality of textures used, clearly play an important role in her production and are captured and utilised in her designs in both an aesthetic and practical manner.'
'Influenced by naturally forming layers, Katie's current work attempts to capture the hidden beauty in natural structures, and emphasise it through repetition within her own designs. Throughout the range, high quality natural materials are hand crafted, with each component individually hand cut to create a distinctive rippled effect. The contrasting materials of hardwoods and tactile soft felts create an appealing textural surface and design. The subtlety of tones in the range of woods used balance this stark material contrast with a gentle colour contrast throughout the work. Alongside this the unique shape of the pieces, encourages inspection and offers a distinct view of the detail at every angle. Producing in this way ensures that each design is truly unique in its form, and offers organic qualities that work to both contrast and enhance an interior setting.'
'Katie's unusual, bespoke way of working has so far proved popular at the Mint Shop's Elements of Craft exhibition, New Designers, and with commissioned work. Katie is excited to be currently creating a new range, expanding upon her work recently shown at Mint, and extending her output to include lighting, mirrors, and further furniture. Inspired by her time working in Finland the new collection will embody the beauty of simplicity and repetition, and continue to emphasise the importance of the hand crafted.'

subset: commoncrawl


text: Really? I set up an account yesterday and cannot seem to find the Download as CSV button. I will continue looking. Also is their anyway to integrate it with Paypal or another banking merchant program like what Wells Fargo has setup? It would be great to put a link or something to pay with on the email invoices like you can when sending out e-invoices through paypal.


text:
Analysis Beyond the Echo Chamber
The Americas Blog seeks to present a more accurate perspective on economic and political developments in the Western Hemisphere than is often presented in the United States. It will provide information that is often ignored, buried, and sometimes misreported in the major U.S. media. For more information, sign up for our Latin America News Roundup or visit the archives.
- Details
- Written by Guillaume Long and Lola Allen
In this November 12 video — excerpted from Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador's morning press conference — Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard describes how Bolivian president Evo Morales was transported to Mexico aboard a Mexican Air Force plane.
The plane landed at Chimoré airport, located in the department of Cochabamba and controlled, at the time, by the Bolivian military. It was from here that Morales was eventually flown to safety.
Ebrard describes the tense negotiations that took place between the governments of Mexico and Bolivia, and the challenges posed by the vacuum of power in the hours following Morales's forced resignation, when the military were visibly in command. Though his presentation is sober and diplomatic, Mexico's top diplomat makes it clear that Evo Morales's life was in danger, and that the attempt to rescue him almost ended in disaster.
Ebrard describes how other South American countries responded to Mexico's attempt to retrieve Evo Morales. He recalls how several governments that had initially authorized the Mexican aircraft to transit through their airspace or refuel, including Peru and Ecuador, suddenly reneged on their word.
Ebrard makes clear that the decision to revoke permissions to land or use airspace were made at the highest level of government in each of these countries. The Mexican foreign minister's assertions raise serious questions: Why did these governments change their mind? And were these countries under international pressure to prevent Morales from flying to safety?
Two further elements emerge from this important presentation, which received little attention in the media: first, the role played by the president-elect of Argentina, Alberto Fernández, who appears to have persuaded Paraguayan president Mario Abdo Benítez to allow the aircraft to land in Asunción. Fernández's role in this story reinforces the hypothesis that a Mexican–Argentine axis is emerging. There has been much speculation regarding this possibility, especially since Fernández's November 4 visit to Mexico, when he met President López Obrador. Fernández is also an active member of the Puebla Group, a Latin American coalition of progressive leaders in which the Mexican government has been playing an important role. Both Fernández and Mexican officials attended the group's recent meeting in Buenos Aires.
The second element concerns Mexico's reemergence as a Latin American middle power. This is evident in the manner in which Mexico is now venturing beyond its traditional political and commercial ties with its northern neighbors. Significantly, this reemergence of Mexico's engagement with the rest of Latin America has coincided with a return to its erstwhile tradition of protecting the victims of political persecution throughout the region, when the region was dominated by military dictatorships. Unfortunately, the rekindling of Mexico's tradition of protecting political refugees is also indicative of a new wave of authoritarianism, which has steadily been gaining pace across Latin America during the last few years.
For all these reasons, and in view of the historical importance of Ebrard's disclosures, CEPR is posting this video with English subtitles so that it is accessible to English-speaking viewers.
- Details
- Written by CEPR
Updated November 25, 2019
CEPR recent work and media appearances involving Bolivia include:
Guillaume Long's op-ed in OpenDemocracy, "How the OAS, and the Media's Lack of Scrutiny, Caused a Violent Coup in Bolivia," November 25, 2019
Guillaume Long and Lola Allen's blog post, "Evo Morales's Life was in Danger, and He Almost Didn't Make it Out of Bolivia," November 20, 2019
Mark Weisbrot's op-ed in MarketWatch, "The Organization of American States Has Deceived the Public, Terribly, on the Bolivian Election," November 19, 2019
Mark Weisbrot on The Real News, "How OAS Deception Helped the Coup in Bolivia," November 19, 2019
Kevin Cashman's op-ed in Jacobin, "The OAS Helped Drive Bolivia into Crisis — And Enabled a Military Coup," November 17, 2019
Guillaume Long's op-ed in Al Jazeera English, "What Happened in Bolivia Was a Coup, and the OAS Played a Key Role in It." November 16, 2019
Mark Weisbrot on The Majority Report on Evo Morales' Ouster in Bolivia, The Majority Report, November 12, 2019
Alex Main interview with The Globe Post, "Everything You Need to Know About the Bolivian Coup and What Comes Next," November 12, 2019
Guillaume Long on The Thom Hartmann Program, November 12, 2019
Mark Weisbrot on Democracy Now Discussing the Coup in Bolivia, Democracy Now, November 11, 2019
Mark Weisbrot on BBC News Discussing the Bolivian Elections, BBC News, November 9, 2019
Can the Trump Administration and the OAS Overturn Bolivia's Election Results? by Mark Weisbrot in The Nation, November 8, 2019
What Happened in Bolivia's 2019 Vote Count? by Guillaume Long, David Rosnick, Cavan Kharrazian, and Kevin Cashman, November 8, 2019
This paper presents results from statistical analysis of election returns and tally sheets from Bolivia's October 20 elections. This analysis finds no evidence that irregularities or fraud affected the official result that gave President Evo Morales a first-round victory. (Spanish here.)
Bolivia's Economic Transformation: Macroeconomic Policies, Institutional Changes and Results, by Andrés Arauz, Mark Weisbrot, Andrew Bunker and Jake Johnston, October 17, 2019
Bolivia's economy has undergone a structural economic transformation during Evo Morales's presidency. This paper looks at the government's macroeconomic policies, institutional and policy changes, as well as overall economic and social indicators in the 13 years since the Morales government took office. (Spanish here.)
- Details
- Written by Cavan Kharrazian
The economic crisis in Argentina continues to intensify, with high inflation, rising poverty, and decreasing investor confidence. The implementation of a record $57 billion IMF bailout program, rather than alleviating Argentina's economic woes, has seen poverty and unemployment rise, and a surge in debt levels.
Argentine political sentiment was tested in August when voters went to the primary polls and delivered a decisive defeat to President Mauricio Macri and his ruling coalition. With a nearly 16-point lead, Alberto Fernández and his running mate, former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, are in a strong position to win the general presidential election on October 27. Their broad-based, progressive coalition is also poised to capture the legislature and key governorships, significantly reshaping Argentina's political terrain.
In light of these developments, and Argentina's uncertain future, on Tuesday, September 24, three economists, who have been closely following political and economic developments in Argentina, presented their analysis to congressional staffers and civil society representatives at the Longworth House Office Building in Washington, DC.
- Details
- Written by Colin Brineman
A recent report on Venezuela by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) is a grim portrayal of a country in a severe crisis. Yet, given the extensive media coverage given to this report, it is important to contextualize what is going on in Venezuela in light of the situation in other countries in the region.
Comparing the rates of violent abuses of state security agents in Venezuela with those of state actors like Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, Honduras, or Mexico, it becomes clear that Venezuela is far from being an outlier, but rather part of a disturbing pattern of abusive, tough-on-crime, "mano dura" ("iron fist") security policies in Latin America. What is an outlier, however, is the disproportionate media attention directed at Venezuela's human rights situation, in comparison to other Latin American nations.
Another outlier is the US approach to Venezuela, which is clearly driven by the political aims of President Donald Trump — not by any particular concern for human rights. To get a sense of Trump's double standard when it comes to human rights, one need look no further than how his administration treats Venezuela's neighbor, Brazil.
- Details
- Written by Colin Brineman
The first two Democratic Party presidential primary debates in Miami covered a lot of foreign policy ground — but it is a stretch to say the candidates' statements rose to the level of a real "debate." They tended to agree with one another and merely emphasize different priorities.
There were two exceptions to this consensus:
Four candidates (former congressman of Maryland John Delaney, Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, former HUD secretary Julián Castro, and Congressman Tim Ryan of Ohio) called China one of the US's greatest geopolitical threats, while two candidates (former Colorado governor John Hickenlooper and entrepreneur Andrew Yang) argued for a new relationship with China built on cooperation.
Ryan argued for maintaining US engagement in Afghanistan, while Hawai'i Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard and former vice president Joe Biden called, without reservations, for withdrawal.
Very little in these debates shed light on the differences among these candidates in how they would approach foreign policy if elected. However, given the great range of foreign policy issues raised, one can hope that the candidates will engage in a more robust conversation on foreign policy as the field winnows—including talking about many issues that have thus far been left out.
Here were some of the foreign policy issues the candidates discussed:
These debates marked a major shift in the extent to which presidential candidates have addressed climate change, with two candidates (California Senator Kamala Harris and Washington Governor Jay Inslee) referring to a "climate crisis."
- Details
- Written by Mark Weisbrot and Jeffrey Sachs
In our paper, "Sanctions as Collective Punishment: The Case of Venezuela," we looked at some of the ways in which the sanctions on Venezuela imposed by the US government curtail access to essential and life-saving imports, and some of the data on impacts such as mortality. We concluded that US economic sanctions since August 2017 have likely caused a dire rise in mortality and a grave aggravation of Venezuela's economic crisis. We concluded that the sanctions imposed since January will be much more devastating in terms of increased hunger and mortality, and of economic losses, than have the prior US executive orders and other economic sanctions.
The fact that these sanctions cause extreme suffering and deaths should not be a matter of dispute. If you cut off access to medicines, medical equipment, imports needed to maintain water and sanitation infrastructure, and for spare parts, and you prevent an economy that is in a deep depression from recovering, a lot of people are going to suffer diseases and premature mortality.
Economists Miguel Angel Santos and Ricardo Hausmann have challenged our claim that the sanctions dramatically worsened Venezuela's crisis of oil production and exports, and therefore of the ability to finance food and medical imports.
In what follows, we look at their arguments, which are based on easily identified errors.
- Details
- Written by Alex Campbell
On January 23, the United States recognized Juan Guaidó as president of Venezuela. As CEPR Co-Director Mark Weisbrot has pointed out in The Nation, this is not a merely diplomatic maneuver:
On January 23, the Trump administration announced that it was recognizing Juan Guaidó, currently head of the Venezuelan National Assembly, as "interim president" of the country. By doing so (together with politically allied countries), Washington basically imposed a trade embargo against Venezuela. This is because any revenue from oil sales to about three-quarters of Venezuela's export markets―the United States and its allies―would no longer go to the government but to the "interim president."
On Tuesday, the International Crisis Group's Ivan Briscoe wrote in Foreign Affairs that around 90 percent of the Venezuelan population receives food aid from Maduro's government, a crucial lifeline currently endangered by US policy:
The state now provides citizens with monthly boxes of subsidized rations that offer high-carb sustenance—pasta, rice, and flour—along with a few tins of tuna. According to a recent independent social survey, these boxes are now provided to more than seven million households, or around 90 percent of the population; a high-level government source estimates the cost at more than $400 million a month.
But the state's food supply is now in peril. At the end of January, the United States sanctioned Venezuela's state-run oil firm, PDVSA, which until then had been the Maduro government's single largest source of hard currency. By freezing the proceeds on its purchases of Venezuelan oil, the United States hoped to starve the regime and convince factions within the government to abandon Maduro, making way for Guaidó and free elections.
In the Financial Times, noted Venezuelan economist Francisco Rodríguez wrote that humanitarian aid was inadequate to make up the shortfall resulting from Venezuela's economic collapse:
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- Written by Alex Campbell
Last week, humanitarian aid was at the center of discussion of the Venezuela crisis in the US, and evidently at the center of Juan Guaidó's plans to challenge the Maduro government's hold on power in the country. The New York Times noted that:
The battle over the legitimate leadership of Venezuela — which has included rallies of thousands, international diplomacy and oil sanctions — is now focused on a single heavily guarded shipment of humanitarian aid.
Venezuela's opposition, which has relished a month of victories in its effort to challenge President Nicolás Maduro and take over as the country's legitimate government, brought the donated supplies of food and medical kits to the country's border with Colombia.
Its goal was to bring the supplies into Venezuela, forcing a confrontation with Mr. Maduro, who has refused the help. This would cast Mr. Maduro in a bad light, opposition leaders said, and display their ability to set up a government-like relief system in a nation where the crumbling economy has left many starving, sick and without access to medicine.
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- Written by Alexander Campbell
Last week, the US formally adopted sanctions on Venezuelan national oil company PDVSA, as well as on CITGO, its US-based distribution arm, as part of its press for regime change in Caracas. National Security Advisor John Bolton estimated the actions would affect some $7 billion in assets and would block $11 billion in revenue to the Venezuelan government over the next year. The State Department was quick to add, "These new sanctions do not target the innocent people of Venezuela…"
But of course they do. The Wall Street Journal reported:
The sanctions could create deeper gasoline shortages in Venezuela. The country's refineries are already operating at a fraction of their capacity, crippled by a lack of spare parts and crude. Venezuela only produced a third of the 190,000 barrels of gasoline it consumed a day as of November, according to Ivan Freites, a leader of the country's oil union.
"Immediately, it's going to hurt the average Venezuelan," Mr. Freites said.
Meanwhile, The New York Times noted:
But just across the street, a group of senior citizens waiting in line to collect their pensions worried that the Trump administration's actions would further bankrupt their country and deepen the humanitarian crisis that has left so many starving, sick and without basic services.
"The United States has no business meddling in this," said Aura Ramos, 59, a retiree who can barely afford blood pressure medicine. "It's the regular people who will be affected."
The Washington Office on Latin America released a statement criticizing the announced sanctions, writing:
However, we are deeply concerned at the potential for the recently announced U.S. sanctions to intensify the severe hardships and suffering that millions of Venezuelans are enduring. Venezuelans are already facing widespread scarcities of essential medicines and basic goods. Venezuela's oil exports represent the main source of hard currency used to pay for imports. Without this revenue, it is clear that the importation of food and medicine could be put at risk. In turn, this will further accelerate a migration and refugee crisis that has strained neighboring countries and put many of the over 3 million Venezuelan migrants and refugees at risk.
It appears as though there is increasing acceptance of the basic fact that the US sanctions on Venezuela will have a negative impact on the people of Venezuela, but all this analysis misses two important points. First, the Trump administration had already imposed broad economic sanctions in 2017, though apparently both The Wall Street Journal and New York Times were unaware of this development.
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- Written by Kevin Cashman
Puerto Rico's economy has had considerable problems over the last decade, and Hurricane Maria, which struck the island just over one year ago and was the worst natural disaster on record in Puerto Rican history, greatly exacerbated them.
Despite nearly unanimous recognition of the island's ongoing economic woes, Governor Ricardo Rosselló touted employment growth last month as the economy gained 100 jobs in July (this was revised down to a loss of 400 jobs). Rosselló was looking at the household survey, which surveys people, rather than the establishment survey, which surveys businesses — and is the standard for reporting month-to-month employment numbers. (The household survey, which Rosselló used, might be better at including the informal sector, but it's worse at reliably tracking jobs created and lost.) Employment fell in August as well, with another 1,000 jobs lost. Rosselló has claimed the island is seeing an "economic recovery."
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- Written by Harrison Karlewicz
As the fortunes of South America's "pink tide" have turned and right-wing movements have recaptured power, conservative judiciaries and legislatures, egged on by elite-controlled media cartels, have engaged in dubious judicial procedures against various left-wing figures. In 2015, Argentina elected a right-wing neoliberal president, Mauricio Macri, and former left-leaning president Cristina Kirchner was charged with treason and other crimes. In Brazil, the Senate impeached sitting president Dilma Rousseff ― though her alleged crimes were dismissed by federal prosecutors ― and replaced her with the conservative Michel Temer. More recently, Lula, who polls suggest would easily win reelection, has been convicted of corruption and jailed, despite the absence of material evidence backing the charges against him. This decade has effectively become one of politico-judicial persecution ― lawfare ― against pink tide political figures, as right-wing movements try to ensure that their left-wing rivals won't return to power.
Ecuador's former president Rafael Correa appears to be the latest victim of lawfare against left-wing politicians. On July 3, 2018, a court in Ecuador ordered Correa's arrest and extradition following his failure to serve a subpoena to appear in court. Judge Daniella Camacho of the National Court of Justice alerted Interpol to detain Correa if he tries to leave Belgium, where now resides with his Belgian wife. His offer to depose testimony at the Ecuadorian diplomatic mission in Brussels was rejected.
Originally subpoenaed to appear in court in mid-June, Correa was included in an investigation concerning the attempted kidnapping of lawmaker Fernando Balda in 2012. A former member of Correa's Alianza PAIS party, and Correa's supporter in his 2006 presidential campaign, Balda quickly became a political adversary of Correa after criticizing him over what Balda claims was "arbitrary and exclusionary management" of Alianza PAIS' national board, as well as later accusing Correa of wiretapping his political adversaries and seeking campaign financing from Colombia's FARC insurgent guerrilla force. By 2009, Balda had left Alianza PAIS and joined the Patriotic Society Party ― led by former army colonel and ex-president Lucio Gutiérrez, a leading figure in the 2000 Ecuadorian coup who oversaw neoliberal reforms as president from 2003 to 2005 until he was removed by Congress for the alleged abandonment of his constitutional duties.
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- Written by Mark Weisbrot
I have rarely responded to trolls because ― well, what's the point? It's not like they care about facts or logic.
For example, Francisco Toro, a blogger who fulminates about Venezuela and appears in the Washington Post, has been trolling me for years and I have almost always ignored him. Dany Bahar, an economist at the Brookings Institution, actually trolled me on a TV show, excitedly holding up to the camera a Guardian article that I wrote nearly five years ago, to castigate me. Cathy Newman, a news presenter for Channel 4 ― one of the top three most-watched TV stations in the UK ― did the same thing in the middle of a newscast in which she was supposedly interviewing me. And now Brian Ellsworth, a journalist for Reuters who reports from Venezuela, has joined the latest avalanche of trolls, bots, and blowhards who swarmed me because I dared to mention on BBC World TV, on Friday night, that Trump's financial embargo against Venezuela makes it more difficult for any government to stabilize the economy ― a fact that no economist would dispute. Indeed that is the purpose of the embargo.
Let's start with what all of these trolls ― including the more educated ones noted above ― have in common. They all rely on one article (out of dozens) that I wrote about Venezuela. Not one of them challenges a single fact in that article. That tells you a lot right there about the weakness of their "argument."
Their glorious "gotcha" is not about any facts but rather a prediction. I wrote that Venezuela was not facing any serious threat of hyperinflation. That was certainly true in November 2013, the date of the article. Economists most often define hyperinflation as a rate of inflation that exceeds 50 percent per month. Although we don't have official statistics for inflation in Venezuela since 2015, available estimates (from the opposition-controlled National Assembly) do not show Venezuelan inflation at that level until November of 2017, four years later.
The trolls imply that I should have known in November 2013 that Venezuela would eventually reach hyperinflation. At the time, as I noted in the Guardian article, Venezuela was facing a dynamic in which there was a significant parallel market for the dollar, and the price of the dollar in that market was rising. This increased inflation (by increasing the price of imports). The inflation, in turn, drove more people to buy dollars, which pushed the black market price of the dollar up further. If such a spiral is allowed to continue it will eventually lead to hyperinflation.
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- Written by Lara Merling and Jake Johnston
With its authority recently upheld by the courts, Puerto Rico's Federal Management and Oversight Board (known simply as "the Board") continues to impose harsh austerity measures on the people of Puerto Rico. But while residents face pension cuts, school closures, massive layoffs, and a continued recession, the same austerity does not apply to the Board itself, which is spending hundreds of millions on its own expenses and a myriad of consultants, advisers, and lawyers. Nor does the austerity appear to apply to some of Puerto Rico's bondholders either.
Last week, the Board, along with the government of Puerto Rico, announced they reached a deal with owners of bonds in Puerto Rico's Sales Tax Financing Corporation (COFINA), proudly claiming it would save the commonwealth $17.5 billion in debt service. While technically true, the claim obscures the fact that the deal will still see Puerto Rico use its scarce resources to pay these creditors some $33 billion over the next 40 years on what was initially $17 billion in principal. Overall, the bondholders will recover nearly 75 percent of the initial value of their investment, a fairly generous settlement from a bankrupt entity still trying to recover from a lost decade — without economic growth — followed by the devastation of Hurricane Maria.
In fact, judging from the Board's most recent fiscal plan, Puerto Rico won't even have the money to pay for the bonds that would be issued as part of the settlement. The board projects the island to have about a $4 billion surplus over the next 40 years, leaving authorities at least $28 billion short of satisfying this deal with creditors. The settlement is actually based on revenue projections from an earlier version of the Board's fiscal plan, which were revised down in June when the newest version of the plan was certified. This mistake, rather than the overall generosity of the offer, now puts in question the future of this deal. Will the Board revise its fiscal plan yet again to demand even greater austerity in order to satisfy these creditors' claims?
To make matters worse, a close look at who the current COFINA bondholders are reveals a series of vulture funds that bought the bonds at steep discounts after the initial default, and immediately after Hurricane Maria. Investors now stand to make huge profits from that move, while most Puerto Ricans suffer through continued austerity. One of the largest investors in COFINA bonds, GoldenTree Asset Management, more than doubled its holdings in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. Court filings show that as of August 1, 2018, GoldenTree owned $1.5 billion in COFINA bonds, up from $587 million in August 2017. The bonds in question traded as low as 20 cents on the dollar during this time period, which means a 75 percent recovery rate could amount to an enormous profit.
GoldenTree is far from the only vulture fund that stands to benefit though. Initially, one of the loudest voices against reaching a deal with COFINA bondholders was the group representing General Obligation (GO) bondholders, who claimed that they had priority over other creditors for repayment. However, two of the biggest GO bondholders, Aurelius Capital Management, and Monarch Alternative Capital have recently started buying up COFINA bonds, and now stand to benefit from this agreement themselves. Since the storm, court filings show how the two funds have increased their holdings of COFINA securities to $488 million from $39 million.
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- Written by CEPR
Welcome to our live blog of Mexico's historic elections today. See our introductory post here.
All update times are Eastern time zone.
UPDATE 11:12 PM: FEPADE provided an updated tally on electoral complaints received throughout the day. Throughout the country there were 394 complaints at the federal level, and even more concerning local races. 19 people were arrested for federal electoral crimes.
UPDATE 11:08 PM: And now President Donald Trump has tweeted his congratulations to president-elect Obrador.
Congratulations to Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on becoming the next President of Mexico. I look very much forward to working with him. There is much to be done that will benefit both the United States and Mexico!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 1, 2018
UPDATE 11:01 PM: Mitofsky has now released its Senate exit polls, which indicate a possible majority for Morena and allies with 56-70 seats. There are 128 seats in the senate.
UPDATE 10:36 PM: U.S. Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chairs, Rep. Raul Grijalva and Rep. Mark Pocan, have released a statement following Obrador's likely victory.
UPDATE 10:27 PM: Pollster Mitofsky has just released exit poll data estimating Moreno and it's allies in "Together We Will Make History" winning between 256 and 291 seats - a majority.
UPDATE 10:12 PM: Argentina issued a statement congratulating Obrador on his election victory. Again, official results are based on only 0.32 percent of total ballots, but as Richard Ensor of The Economist points out, these early returns indicate a broad-based victory for Obrador:
24 states have started counting votes. Meade is winning in San Luís Potosí. Anaya is winning in Guanajuato and Aguascalientes. AMLO is winning in the other 21.— Richard Ensor (@richardjensor) July 1, 2018
UPDATE 9:45 PM: Official results have just started being posted by INE, but the results appear irreversible. Ricardo Anaya of the PAN has also just conceded defeat to López Obrador.
UPDATE 9:31 PM: More exit polls are giving AMLO around 50 percent of the vote. ADN has AMLO with 51 percent to Anaya's 23 percent, with Meade again at 18 percent. The Washington Post is reporting: "Several exit polls gave Lopez Obrador a double-digit lead over his two closest competitors...."
UPDATE 9:18 PM: El Financiero is also projecting Morena with 38 percent of the vote for the chamber of deputies (the legislative lower house), the PAN with 22 percent, the PRI with 18 percent, the PRD with 6 percent, and the PT (Workers' Party) with 4 percent.
UPDATE 9:16 PM: The ruling PRI's presidential candidate, Jose Antonio Meade, has conceded defeat to Obrador before official results are announced.
UPDATE 9:11 PM: El Financiero's presidential exit poll has been released and it shows Morenas' Obrador with 49 percent of the vote. Anaya of the PAN is in second with 29 percent, and the PRI's Meade is in third with 18 percent, according to the poll.
UPDATE 8:52 PM: The 5:00 pm report from Diálogos por la Democracia is now available. They say they "received and tracked and directed" 198 citizen complaints, of which 52 were for "soliciting votes for payment, promises of money, or other consideration."
UPDATE 8:43 PM: An observer in Tlaxcala reported at 8:20 pm:
[They're conducting the count for] President and diputado at the same time here In Tlaxcala. All mesas/casillas can decide if they are going to take additional security measures. At this casilla, they signed (have to confirm how many / who) as an extra security measure. Most we visited today were not signing. In another area of Tlaxcala they had stolen some ballots previous to the election. In addition to reprinting, they required signatures (2 mesa, 2 partidos) on every ballot. Wind in a tent is complicating working with lots of paper ballots...
UPDATE 8:37 PM: In a series of tweets (ongoing), the #Verificado2018 project reported the confirmed cases of electoral violence and irregularities in Puebla state today. A PRI activist was killed in the municipality of Acolihuia. At the Emiliano Zapata school in Barranca Honda, 8-10 gunmen showed up at around 2 PM and fire off shots, temporarily closing the center. At a voting center in Colonia Fuentes de San Aparicio shots were fired and ballots for president and governor were stolen. Ballots were also stolen in San Sebastián by seven armed individuals.
UPDATE 8:28 PM: An observer in Jilotepec reports:
Here in Section 2260 in Jilotepec, the counting of blank ballots is finished and now a poll worker is reading out the number of registered voters that have voted on each page of the thick voter registry for casilla contigua 3 while all of the party representatives confirm that his count matches their count, page by page. In a few places there are discrepancies which they resolve. In total, 459 of 650 registered voters deposited ballots in the urns of this casilla.
With that done, on to the tallying, starting with the ballots for the presidential election. They are all dumped on a table by the president of the casilla, and the poll workers begin to unfold each ballot. Another long process. [They're tallying the municipal ballots and the presidential ballots at the same time.]
UPDATE 8:20 PM: At 8:06 pm, observers reported that rain did indeed begin to pour at casilla 0734 in Coyoacán, "forcing a hurried move inside an auditorium next to the casilla."
UPDATE 8:16 PM: Exit polls being reported by El Financiero project the next governor of Jalisco will be the Citizens Movement candidate Enrique Alfaro, and in Guanajuato the "Por Guanajuato al frente" candidate Diego Sinhué. The governor's race in Yucatán is projected to be between the PAN and Citizens Movement candidate Mauricio Vila and the PRI-Green Party candidate Mauricio Sahuí. In Veracruz, the race is projected to be down to the "Together We Will Make History" candidate Cuitláhuac García and the "Por Veracruz al frente" candidate Miguel Ángel Yunes. In Puebla, the race is projected to be between Miguel Barbosa of the "Together We Will Make History" coalition, and the candidate of the "Por Puebla al frente," Martha Erika Alonso.
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- Written by David Rosnick
In 1991, Argentina fixed its peso to the US dollar, but the increasing value of the dollar led to a deep recession beginning in mid-1998, and default on dollar-denominated debt in December 2001. The currency board devalued the peso by 29 percent in January 2002, before the peso fell further over the year as the peg was abandoned completely.
The year 2001 also represented a low point in Argentina's commodity prices. From 2001 to 2011, prices rose 187 percent — much faster than import prices generally, which rose 42 percent over the same period. This was the largest relative increase in commodity prices since 1933, shortly after Argentina abandoned the gold standard.
This has led some observers to attribute Argentina's rapid economic growth after coming out of recession to a commodity boom, but an increase in commodity prices can cut both ways, increasing the price of purchases as well as sales. Indeed, there was considerable improvement in the terms of trade over 2001–2011, and the price of gross domestic product (GDP) relative to that of domestic demand (domestic consumption and investment) grew only about 7.5 percent. This suggests that the impact on real output was modest — perhaps less than 3 percent over the decade.
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- Written by Jake Johnston
For more than a week, Nicaragua was convulsed in protests that were met with heavy-handed repression that has reportedly left at least 30 dead. Tear gas. Rubber bullets. Live ammunition. Barricades and burning buildings. Daniel Ortega, the revolutionary Sandinista leader — and president for the past 11 years — "is suddenly facing a revolution of his own," The New York Times reported.
"The Nicaragua of a week ago no longer exists," José Adán Aguerri said to The Times. "The break was really with the [Ortega government's] social security [reforms]," Aguerri later told The Washington Post. Aguerri is the head of COSEP, "the country's main business organization, which organized one of the biggest protest marches," The Post reported.
Based on much of the media coverage so far, it would be fair to think that this "revolutionary" leader has opted to cut pensions — screwing the very base that has kept him in power — and providing the impetus for a broad movement to oust him. But missing from almost all of the international news analysis has been salient information on what those reforms actually are — and perhaps more importantly, what sort of alternative reforms are actually being proposed by many of those, like COSEP, now criticizing the government.
Nicaragua's social security system, INSS, is facing a budget shortfall — that much is true. The IMF said last year that the institution was broke, and called for urgent reforms. The shortfall is actually running at about $75 million a year, or about 0.5 percentage points of GDP. A potential problem? Yes, but far from the calamitous situation that it has been described as.
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- Written by Lara Merling
Months after Hurricane Maria the lights are still not back on for all Puerto Ricans. The extensive damage caused by the storm, along with the slow pace of restoring electricity have highlighted the struggles of Puerto Rico's Electric Power Authority (PREPA). Prior to the storm, PREPA was already dealing with old and failing infrastructure, and a debt burden of about $9 billion dollars. When the storm hit, the embattled utility was not prepared to respond to the damage.
The Fiscal Plan released by Puerto Rico's government does not question whether privatizing PREPA is needed, but rather presents it as the only viable option. The plan claims that by privatizing the utility, it will "transform" it into an efficient, reliable, and cost-effective energy provider. The proposed privatization process consists of a mix between selling assets, and offering concessions to private companies to run operations.
However, privatization is no panacea for fixing public utilities, and Puerto Rico's past experience should ring alarm bells. Two failed attempts at privatizing water services resulted in the government having to retake control of the utility in even worse shape. The disastrous results of Puerto Rico Aqueducts and Sewers Authority (PRASA) contracting with private companies to manage its operations are detailed in this report by Puerto Rico's Comptroller's Office.
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- Written by Jake Johnston and Jacob Wilson
This interview with Marco Ramiro Lobo, a non-voting member of the Honduran electoral authority (TSE by its Spanish acronym) was published on December 3rd by El Faro. In the days since, the TSE has conducted a partial review of actas in an attempt to satisfy concerns raised by international observers and the political opposition, and has agreed to recount the 5000 actas discussed in the interview. However, both the second and third-place finishers continue to reject the results provided by the TSE, which they say has lost all credibility. Both parties filed legal challenges to the results requesting a full vote-by-vote recount and the annulment of the elections, respectively. More than two weeks since the election, many questions remain about how things went so wrong.
He's an alternate member but, after the president of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE in Spanish) of Honduras, he is the most visible of the tribunal's four magistrates. He doesn't have a vote, but he has a voice and he has made certain that he is heard. Marco Ramiro Lobo was appointed by the Honduran congress three years ago, and today he appears to be the magistrate most opposed to the decisions of the tribunal's president, David Matamoros. He's demanding an in-depth investigation of two system failures by the TSE's vote-tallying technology. He admits that the TSE bears the primary responsibility for the political and social crisis gripping Honduras a week after its presidential election.
The tribunal consists of a magistrate, President David Matamoros, from the National Party, a representative from the Liberal Party, Erick Rodríguez, a member of the tiny Democratic Christian Party, Saúl Bonilla, and Lobo, a member of the small Party of Democratic Unification (UD). The Honduran congress refused to name a representative from the Free Party or the Party for Innovation and Unity (PINU), which make up the Opposition Alliance headed by Salvador Nasralla and Mel Zelaya, who are currently denouncing the reported results as fraudulent.
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- Written by Jacob Wilson and Jake Johnston
It has been eight years since the Honduran military removed democratically elected president Manuel Zelaya from office. The post-coup period was characterized by social turmoil, violent repression by state forces, and a breakdown in the rule of law.
In November 2013, shortly before Honduras' last presidential elections, CEPR published a report on the country's economic situation since the 2009 coup showing that economic growth had slowed, social spending had decreased, and unemployment had worsened.
On Sunday, November 26, Honduras will again be holding presidential elections. In this post, we provide a brief, fresh overview of the macroeconomic and social indicators in Honduras since the coup, in order to help understand the economic context in which these elections will unfold.
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- Written by Jake Johnston
Last month, a joint investigation by In These Times and the Puerto Rico-based Centro de Periodismo Investigativo revealed the top 10 holders of Puerto Rico's $74.8 billion debt. The authors write:
The popular narrative of Puerto Rico's debt holders is that they are "small" individual bondholders—rookie investors who trusted their savings to financial firms. But our investigation reveals that some of the most aggressive players demanding debt repayment in Puerto Rico's bankruptcy court are so-called "vulture firms." These hedge funds specialize in high-risk "troubled assets" near default or bankruptcy and cater to millionaire and billionaire investors.
While these bondholders are tied up in court with Puerto Rico and the congressionally mandated Oversight Board, the situation on the ground remains grim after the devastation caused by Hurricanes Irma and Maria. Storm-related damages are estimated to be as high as $95 billion.
If Puerto Rico was unable to pay its debt before the storms, it's virtually impossible now. But that hasn't stopped at least one vulture, GoldenTree Asset Management, from doubling down on its Puerto Rico bet.
Number five on the In These Times/Centro de Periodismo Investigativo list, GoldenTree reportedly held $587,253,141 worth of Puerto Rican COFINA bonds (bonds backed by income from Puerto Rico's sales tax). That figure was based on a court filing from mid-August. On October 26, however, bondholders were required to again disclose their financial interests. That filing showed GoldenTree holding assets valued at $852,578,549, meaning that in the last two months, GoldenTree has acquired an additional $250 million in Puerto Rican bonds.
This is classic vulture behavior ― and exactly why many are now arguing for urgent and significant debt relief for the struggling island.
It's impossible to know exactly when or at what cost GoldenTree acquired those additional bonds ― a spokesperson for GoldenTree declined to answer questions on the timing or cost of the purchases. But even before the hurricanes, COFINA bonds were trading at significantly less than face value. After Hurricane Maria, with Puerto Rico's inability to pay becoming more obvious, prices have plummeted even further. Given that, and based on where some COFINA bonds are currently trading, it appears unlikely GoldenTree would have paid more than 20 cents on the dollar. At that price, if GoldenTree were repaid in full just on these recent acquisitions it would stand to make a tidy 400 percent profit.
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- Written by Jacob Wilson
Two weeks ago, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) released a report on food insecurity and nutrition in Latin America and the Caribbean. The report highlighted a regional increase in food insecurity, a first since the agency started collecting annual data for the Millennium Development Goals in 2000. The authors noted that the food crisis in Venezuela was central to this increase. While the percentage of the population in Venezuela experiencing undernourishment was lower than several other countries in the region ― such as Bolivia, Guatemala, Haiti, and Honduras ― in the last three years, Venezuela contributed an estimated 1.3 million newly food-insecure people to Latin America's total.
The FAO study confirms that the Bolivarian Republic is facing a growing hunger crisis that requires action. For the past year and a half, the media have decried the Venezuelan government for its management of the crisis, but the figures they have cited do not match the FAO's. Over the past 18 months, it has become accepted fact that the crisis is even worse than the FAO describes: the New York Times writes that "93 percent of the [Venezuelan] population cannot afford food," and CNN reports Venezuelans "in the past year dropp[ed] an average of 19 pounds." (In addition, a Jacobin article states: "Almost 90 percent of the population cannot buy enough food," while The Independent laments that "75 per cent of the country's population has lost an average of 19 pounds.") This is because media coverage on hunger in Venezuela has relied primarily on anecdotal evidence and an inconclusive report authored in part by a member of the political coalition trying to remove Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro from office.
US newspapers and journals often attribute their Venezuelan hunger figures to "a recent survey … by the country's leading universities." The survey in question was published on February 27, 2016 by Simón Bolívar University, the Central University of Venezuela, and the Bengoa Foundation. The report, which focuses on Venezuelan nutrition, is part of an annual review covering the state of living conditions in the country. Maritza Landaeta-Jiménez, who as recently as 2013 was a member of the Venezuelan opposition's Nutrition Commission, headed the 2016 research. The document, based on a survey of 6,413 Venezuelans, reported that 93 percent of Venezuelans felt that they did not have enough money to purchase food, and that 72.7 percent of Venezuelans had lost an average of 8.7 kilograms (19 pounds) in the past year. However, the same survey revealed that 67.5 percent of Venezuelans were eating three meals a day, and only 25 percent of the country felt that their nutrition could be categorized as "deficient."


text:
Coffee and end table set
Would you like to produce a family room that's a well rounded search that is finished? Like, you need everything to suit together effortlessly. Nicely, there would be to achieve that an effective way to begin with coffee-table models. Merely buy one and develop one's space's remainder .
You may be questioning, just how can coffee-table models function as the beginning stage for my family room? The clear answer is just simply because they have one spectacular look, an easy one, that will be plus they actually bring lots of fat that is ornamental, therefore much so they could possibly be the primary focus of one's space that is living.
The guise behind coffee-table sets' wonder may be the various ways they may be designed through the many ways they may be completed and comprehensive from and also the supplies they're constructed. Have a collection that's a contemporary style for example. Like, one constructed from timber that's a look that was clear completed in a black that was wealthy cherry spot. Or, another collection by having an look that was vintage that's constructed from a mix of glass and steel having a looping metal foundation completed in powder covering that was black helping gently frosted-glass tabletops.


text:
Dark Italian
- Grown, sold, and described by Bunny Hop Seeds
- Plant growth: indeterminate
- Leaf type: regular leaf
- Time to maturity: midseason
- Approx. number of seeds per pack: 20
- Germination tested after Hot Water Seed Treatment for Fungal and Bacterial Diseases
"Dark Italian" is the strong silent type. It has a mysterious past, which only means that I have not located the history of this variety. I love the color, it is dark and gorgeous, like deep, rich wine. The flavor is rich too, with thick, meaty flesh and tart juice. Not a sweet tomato, this is one for people who love dark tomatoes. I put this one beside Lavender (Lilac) Lake as a favorite purple tomato.
9 in stock


text:
"Well, it took three preachy paragraph-length statuses, a link to a Slate article from 2009, and 4 hard-earned Likes, but dammit, I FINALLY convinced this girl from high school with the 'baby in the bee onesie' avatar to permanently switch her lifelong political affiliation. That was nine sweaty, frustrating hours of my Saturday WELL SPENT!"
"How did I meet your father? Well, me and some of my friends brushed by him in this shitty, crowded bar, and out of nowhere I hear 'Hey, are those Astronaut Pants?' so of course I responded, 'Astronaut Pants? No, they are not, in fact, pants constructed from a material suitable for space exploration, but proceed to explain your query,' and he replied that he was only asking that because my ass was 'out of this world!' Just hearing that incredibly general, superficial burst of stock-whimsy that could've been spoken by anyone, to anyone, really let me know that he was the one..."
"Ok, they said it's gonna be an additional hour-and-forty-five-minute wait, but they should be able to cram seven extra barstools onto that trapezoid-shaped endtable by the bathroom to fit all of us, and they can give the people on the ends red-and-white-striped showbiz canes so they can reach the communal appetizers. This should be fun! I can't wait to catch up with the people to my immediate right and left while generally being aware that twenty other friends of mine are nearby!"
[Nighttime] "How is it 3:30 am??? Man, I gotta get to bed earlier tomorrow night."
[Next Morning] "UHGHGHGHHHHH I really, REALLY gotta get to bed earlier, starting tonight."
[That Night, 2:30 am] "I'm pretty sure I can sandwich in some GTA before and after watching another Orange Is The New Black. Oooh, 'sandwich!' That reminds me..."
"You know, if I just cook DOUBLE the portion and only eat half, I'll have dinner tonight and lunch tomorrow!"
[20 Minutes Later, staring down at empty plate]
"Oooh, Kurosawa's Seven Samurai is on TCM! I never actually saw that movie but I feel like I should. Hmm, it's seven hours long with commercials and it's black-and-white and subtitled, so I don't really want to watch it now (I need something light to throw on while I'm eating), but there will definitely be a day in the very near future when I'll want to spend my free time watching this entire film."
[7 Months Later]
"Welcome to the bottom of my DVR, Seven Samurai! Have you met Treme and Ken Burns: The National Parks?"
"Jeff left his beer but it's still mostly full, I think it's still salvageable. I'm just gonna wrap some aluminum foil over the top and throw it back in the fridge."
[Opens fridge, 1/3 full Sprite crammed into the butter door from New Year's Day tumbles out, explodes on ground]
"I stand by my life decisions."
"You know, if I just start going to the gym BEFORE work, I might actually ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ"
[Falls back asleep midsentence for 63 hours]
"Whaaa... what year is it?"
"Hey, are you still going to the meeting at 3?"
"No, actually I'm quitting this job forever at 2:55 and moving to the Himalayas with my estranged family. It'll be a crazy change, I know, but I figured this casual email fifteen minutes before a Tuesday meeting was the right time to finally break the news, haha."
"Wow, really? Congratulations!"
"Hey , r you still up?"
Received at 4:18 am
[Recipient instantly hops into a cab pantsless with a CostCo 5-gallon tub of condoms]
(Pics via Shutterstock)


text:
A Stepping Stone!!
NAMHHR filed a petition on July 1st week by human rights lawyer Anubha Rastogi—with technical support from the Center for Reproductive Rights—on behalf of the National Alliance for Maternal Health and Human Rights (NAMHHR). Justices Navin Sinha and Rangnath Chandrakar of the High Court of Chhattisgarh at Bilaspur issued an order on July 18 to the Chhattisgarh Government to address allegations that women in the state lack sufficient access to safe abortion services.


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July 23rd – August 22nd
Those born under Leo are known as 'king of the jungle' and therefore known for their strong personality and courage. Leo likes to be in charge and their intention is to take prime position in all situations. However, hard to believe as it is they do in fact at times suffer from a lack of self-belief.
They are the life and soul of a party, they like to be the centre of attention, enjoy the limelight and may use bullying to get where they want to be. When they are in the position they crave so much they can be very interesting company, full of wit, love and fun.
At home Leo likes to be in charge as they have a tendency to believe they are superior and that their opinion is the right one, apologising is not top of their agenda. Once secure they can create a very warm hospitable home. They enjoy entertaining and relaxing among friends as they are sociable, gregarious and extraverted.
Leo in Love
Know as 'King of The Jungle' Leo in love is a very protective and caring partner. In love they thrive becoming happier people, enjoying all the attention and romance that comes with a relationship. Love enhances their lives and they almost seem to take on a new personal which exudes pride and confidence. When feeling loved Leo will give up a lot for their partner. Leo are very loyal and generous lovers and expect total loyalty in return, as they have large egos they need their partners to hold them in high esteem. Leo enjoy onlookers envying their relationship, they are happiest when others believe they have a love that most only dream of experiencing in life. They do not cope well with ending a relationship as it means failure which is a blow to their ego. Best romantic partnerships: Aries, Libra, Sagittarius, Aquarius
Leo and health:
Leo are not often sick as they have very strong, robust bodies. They do tend towards accidents and mishaps and can often inflict injury on themselves. As they rarely experience sickness they do not always take care of themselves when they do fall ill. As we already know Leo enjoys being the centre of attention in life, this follows thought to illness where they also like to be the centre of attention.
Leo and career:
Typical careers associated with this sign are public relations, acting, sales, any position of power, accountants, judges, managers, doctors, promotions, etc. Leo like to take pole position so it is hardly surprising that they do very well in positions of power and prestige. They have great self-confidence and charisma and this makes it easy for them to get others behind them in projects.
Leo on Holiday:
Leo love to holiday in style, they would be more likely to be found in 5 star hotels than on campsites. They enjoy being fussed over and spoilt on holidays rather than partaking in the great outdoors. Relaxation is first on their agenda, activity and adventure falls to the bottom of their wish list where holidays are concerned.
Leo and fashion:
Leo are fond of fashion not least because it brings them attention, glamour is not their look they are more attracted to well-designed and sophisticated clothes. They do not shy away from colour or mixing fabrics to get the look they desire, this often gives them the ability to make casual look
Famous People who share Leo
Matt LeBlanc, Madonna, Jackie Kennedy, Matthew Perry
Melanie Griffith, Sandra Bullock, Loni Anderson, Danielle Steele


text:
Samsung is working on a smart speaker powered by its new Bixby voice assistant, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. The project is said to be codenamed Vega, but little more is known about the device; its features and specifications are apparently yet to be decided, much less a release date.
The Vega project's development is reportedly being slowed by the progress of Bixby itself. Samsung had to launch the Galaxy S8 without support for English voice commands, despite marketing Bixby as a prominent feature of the phone and giving it a dedicated button. Voice support started to roll out in preview form last month, but there's clearly still a long way to go.
The WSJ now says Samsung sees the full release of Bixby voice support as "unlikely before the second half of July."
Whenever Samsung is able to get its Bixby speaker ready, it'll be entering a rapidly growing market. Amazon's Echo came out in 2014, Google Home was released last year, and the Apple HomePod is due to go on sale in December. Microsoft is also enabling a range of similar devices powered by Windows 10, while Asian companies like Alibaba and Line are preparing to launch their own products soon.
source : theverge.com


text:
SAE MOBILUS Subscription
AMS Metals: Carbon and Low Alloy Steels
The standards in this subscription were developed and issued by SAE's Carbon and Low Alloy Steels committee. They cover the full breadth of dimensions, tolerances, limits, and restrictions for these steels, as they are used for aerospace parts, systems and equipment. Specific topics include: Tolerances, Carbon and Alloy Steel Tubing Steel Cleanliness, Premium Aircraft-Quality Magnetic Particle Inspection Procedure Qualification Sampling and Testing of Steels for Transverse Tensile Properties Stress Relief of Steel Parts Standard Stock Removal Allowance Aircraft-Quality and Premium Aircraft-Quality Steel Bars and Mechanical Tubing


text:
AMMAN/BAGHDAD/ERBIL, 6 October 2007 - Nearly six million Iraqi children are going back to the classroom this week - a remarkable achievement due to extraordinary efforts by parents, teachers and local officials to keep Iraqs schools open and functioning. Read More >
Information by Country
Iraq: Press releases
News note: Iraqi children return to school with hope and fear
UNICEF welcomes Jordan's offer of education to Iraqi children
AMMAN / GENEVA, 10 August, 2007 - UNICEF welcomes the Government of Jordan's recent announcement that it will open all public schools to Iraqi children. Read More >


text: The core population of the Iberian wolf in Alvão Mountains is one of the most important in Portugal. The Alvão Natural Park was created in 1983. It is a protected area of Portugal which has reduced dimensions, located between the municipalities of Mondim de Basto and Vila Real. This Park hold a vast natural and cultural heritage, which results in the existence of places of interes for those who enjoy the direct contact with nature.


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Bengaluru – Certificate Course in Pain and Palliative Medicine
Six weeks' "hands-on" Certificate Course in Pain and Palliative Medicine for doctors and nurses
To enable participants to gain practical "hands-on" training in palliative care delivery supplemented by theoretical background.
Course schedule:
Please visit http://palliumindia.org/courses/ for the dates of the upcoming trainings and the last date to apply.
MBBS or post graduate doctors and BSc / GNM qualified nurses, interested / engaged in starting new palliative care services or strengthening the quality of care in existing services, and looking forward to practical learning of essential knowledge, skills and attitudes.
We encourage a nurse and a doctor from the same institution to come for the training as a team; but this is not mandatory. A letter of support from the head of the department / institution would add import to the application.
How to apply:
Please download the application form from the link below, fill it up and send it to email@example.com along with (i) a passport size photograph, (ii) soft copy of the CV, (iii) degree and registration certificates.
Download Application Form (.doc)
Please note: The number of seats is limited to five and will be allotted on first-come-first-serve basis.
The IACA Scholarship is sponsored by The John and Editha Kapoor Charitable Foundation, USA and includes the travel costs, boarding, lodging, and the registration fees. If the candidate is local, then the registration fees would be supported.
The course will be held in St John's Medical College & Hospital, Bengaluru.
(Please find contact details at the bottom of this page)
What will you learn?
You will meet a committed team of professionals who want to nourish you with their expertise and experience during the course and beyond. The themes include;
- Approach and care of patients [adults and children] and families with progressive and advanced diseases, and disabilities
- Management of severe persistent pain such as experienced by cancer patients
- Symptom management beyond disease modifying therapies – e.g. breathlessness, delirium, constipation, nausea vomiting
- Communicating with patients with advanced diseases – basic communication skills, breaking bad news, handling collusion, family meetings, shared decision making, responding to the reactions of patients, communicating with colleagues
- Nursing care relevant to patients with progressive and advanced diseases
- Procedural skills – relevant to patients with advanced diseases
- Applying ethics in decision making for planning care in patients with advanced diseases
- Understanding end of life and end of life care
- Setting up and running a palliative care service
Log book:
The participant is required to keep a log book of at least five reports – studies of patients – to include initial evaluation, treatment plan and progress over the period studied.
The participant will be given at least one assignment per week. The participant is encouraged to use the library as well as internet to assist the process of doing the assignment. We expect that those who are not familiar with literature search using the internet will learn to do it during this course.
Introduction to Palliative care
Principles of symptom control
Introduction to Pain
Pathophysiology of pain
Classification of pain
Pain assessment
Fundamentals of pain management
Introduction to Communication with the patient: the need; the problems.
Communication (aided by role plays)
Management of Pain: Non-opioids
Introduction to opioid pharmacology
Opioid availability
Adjuvant analgesics
Nausea and vomiting
Intestinal obstruction
Cachexia, anorexia
Skin care, wound care
Lymph edema
Palliative care in diseases other than cancer
The concept of a "good death and the last few days
Double effect of palliative medication
Difficult pain
Pain relief beyond the WHO ladder
Invasive procedures
Stoma care
Radiotherapy in palliative care
Chemotherapy in palliative care
Anxiety and depression
Ethical issues in palliative care
Spirituality and care
"Other symptoms" based on patients' problems seen during the course
Organizing a palliative care service
Management of change; teamwork
Teaching methodology
Review of Course and Feedback
Course fees:
The course fee will be US $1500. For candidates from within India, the course fee is ₹10,000. (Candidates deputed by Government of Kerala are eligible for subsidized fee of ₹7500.) The fee is to be paid in cash or by demand draft payable to "Pallium India" at Trivandrum on acceptance to the course. Admission to the course can be guaranteed only on payment of the fee.
The course coordinator can assist in finding accommodation in Trivandrum. Low cost accommodation can be arranged for those who need it. Please communicate with the course coordinator regarding your requirements.
Follow up refresher course:
Those who have undergone the certificate course will be offered a refresher course periodically. Trainees are encouraged to keep a record of difficult clinical and administrative issues which can be discussed at such refresher courses.
For any assistance, please contact:
Dr. Subash Tarey
Course Coordinator,
St John's Medical College & Hospital,
Bengaluru, KARNATAKA
Email: email@example.com
Phone: +91 9611254738