the unbalanced evolution of homo sapiens

A key coup-plotter in the May 2020 botched invasion of Venezuela said she met with FBI and DEA officials. She admitted Colombia’s intelligence services were aiding them and “knew everything,” adding that President Iván Duque and far-right political kingpin Álvaro Uribe helped.   by Ben Norton   Part 3 - More details of Operation Gideon emerge   When the Colombian government arrested the Venezuelans who had been involved in Operation Gideon in September 2020, President Iván Duque tried to distance himself from them, claiming they were “delinquents” who were plotting “destabilization.” But Yacsy Álvarez’s testimony shows this was just PR. Before and after the invasion went sideways, Álvarez was living in the northern Colombian city of Barranquilla. This was the same place where her associate, the former Venezuelan army general Cliver Alcalá, had defected in 2018. Alongside Álvarez, Alcalá not only helped in the planning of Operation Gideon, but also initiated a similarly violent plot tha

Ecuador’s presidential candidate Yaku Pérez supported coups in Bolivia, Brazil, Venezuela, and Nicaragua. His US-backed party Pachakutik and supposedly “left-wing” environmentalist campaign is being promoted by right-wing corporate lobbyists.   by Ben Norton  Part 1 Ecuador’s February 7 presidential election concluded in a surprise: The quick count published by the country’s National Electoral Council appeared to show a little-known candidate named Yaku Pérez Guartambel in second place, securing a narrow victory over right-wing candidate Guillermo Lasso, a banker with significant influence in the country. Most polls had predicted that the presidential race would boil down to two presidential candidates, who could hardly have been more different: On one side was the conservative banker Lasso, who had the backing of Ecuadorian elites and the United States, and had unsuccessfully run for president twice before; while on the other was a youthful left-wing economist, Andrés Arauz, who follo

Secretive Cabinet Office 'Clearing House' for Freedom of Information requests also accused of “blacklisting” journalists; openDemocracy launching a legal bid for transparency   Peter Geoghegan/Jenna Corderoy/Lucas Amin   Part 3 - ‘Jenna Corderoy is a journalist’   openDemocracy has had first hand experience of how the Clearing House slows down or obstructs FOI requests, and profiles journalists, on a number of different occasions. In February 2020, openDemocracy journalist Jenna Corderoy sent an FOI request to the Ministry of Defence about meetings with short-lived special advisor Andrew Sabisky. The MoD subsequently complained internally that “ due to the time spent in getting an approval from Clearing House, the FOI requestor has put in a complaint to [the FOI regulator] the ICO ”.  The MoD refused the Sabisky request after 196 days, which is more than six times the normal limit for responding to an FOI request. Separately, when Corderoy sent a Freedom of Information reques

globinfo freexchange   As we pointed out right after last November's US general election, the globalist faction of the US capital (primarily consisted by the liberal plutocracy ) had the chance to counterattack against the capitalists around Trump through Biden's recent victory, in the ongoing capitalist civil war .   Yet, we didn't have so far the details of how the liberal capitalist faction managed to beat its rivals.  Surprisingly enough, those details have been revealed by the liberal machine itself through a recent article on Time . Apart from the shocking revelations, what's even more shocking is the way that the liberal establishment perceives Democracy. In short, the article unravels the liberal way of thinking, which views the liberal status quo as the totally indisputable norm that has to be restored at any cost. Even if that means manipulation of the democratic processes themselves!   The first surprise comes from the following paragraph:  A second odd

The Grayzone   The imprisoned Russian anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny has been held up in the West as the poster child of the Russian opposition. Two Russian leftists, Katya Kazbek and Alexey Sakhnin discuss why they don't see Navalny as a genuine alternative to Vladimir Putin, and instead as a representative of a different faction of the ruling Russian elite -- one more willing to cater to Western counterparts. 

Going Underground   Afshin Rattansi speaks with UN Special Rapporteur on Poverty and Human Rights Olivier De Schutter. He discusses why the European Union is ‘ill-equipped’ to deal with poverty within its borders, how a decade of austerity across the EU has led to falling investment in social services and caused more poverty, how competition with the internal market keeps wages low in some countries, the effect of Coronavirus on poverty across the EU and much more.

Ecuador is heading to a runoff presidential election in April after a young leftwing candidate won a first-round victory on Sunday, following years of austerity measures made more painful by the pandemic.  Andrés Arauz, a 36-year-old protege of former president Rafael Correa, will advance to the 11 April runoff, but it was still too close to call whether he would face the environmental activist Yaku Pérez or conservative banker Guillermo Lasso. The surprisingly strong showing by Pérez, who is running on a platform of banning industrial mining, shakes up an election that has so far been defined by dueling ideologies of social welfare versus free markets. According to a quick count by the National Electoral Council Arauz took 31.5% of the vote, Pérez 20.04% and Lasso 19.97%. The count was based on some 2,400 poll statements from a representative sample of voting centers. Shortly after the announcement, Pérez told reporters that he had won enough votes to enter the second round, and said

The worst-case scenario for the US general election may lead to a working class civil war   Liberals unite with Trump to take down Julian Assange and destroy independent real journalism   Declassified CIA doc proves Clinton administration had been informed about a potential 9/11-style attack at least since 1998   COVID-19 boosts a non-viable "economic" reality which proves that capitalism is already dead    Trump makes key move to beat Biden in their race to start a war with Iran   WikiLeaks paper proves US imperialists "foresaw" a corporate coup against Evo Morales in Bolivia already since 2009  

by Andrea Mazzarino Part 4 - A Defense Bill That Defends Little   With such human costs of war in mind, it’s a wonder to me that the only bipartisan bill passed by Congress over a presidential veto in the Trump years was the recent monumentally funded $740 billion “defense” bill. It included spending for yet more weapons production, as well as salary raises, among other measures that were meant to shore up the fighting power of our active-duty troops (after 19-plus years of unsuccessful wars abroad). Most striking to me, however, amid its massive support for the military-industrial complex, is how little that bill does to expand social support for military families. There is indeed a modest increase in daycare assistance for troops’ family members with disabilities, as well as limits to increased copays for those who use their military insurance in their communities.    Missing totally, however, are key structural changes like protections for soldiers who seek mental healthcare, more r

by Jonathan Cook   Part 7 - Where next?   Where does the case head now? Assange’s only immediate hope is that his legal team can appeal the bail decision and win, or that the US throws in the towel and decides not to submit its own appeal on the extradition ruling within the next couple of weeks. If Washington does press for an appeal, as still seems likely, Assange faces many more months in Belmarsh high-security jail, in declining health in Covid-infested conditions he may not survive if he catches the disease.    As experts have warned, the toll taken by nearly two years of almost no contact with other humans, no mental stimulation, no prospect of release – his case ignored by most of his peers and the public – will intensify his sense of despair, his deep depression, and the danger that he tries to take his own life. His death looks increasingly like an outcome Britain and the US desire, and possibly one that they have been striving towards. That is certainly the conclusion of Yani