#autocratization

#autocratization

"We have a great opportunity in our movements to learn how to be opponents without being enemies," says Tanuja Jagernauth. This perspective emphasizes the importance of maintaining respect and understanding even amidst conflict.

The so-called troika of tyranny in Latin America, the dictatorships of Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua, was always a misleading oversimplification. Despite sharing some common elements due to their authoritarian resilience, 21st-century dictatorships were never a homogeneous bloc.

Official data reveals a significant discrepancy: while intelligence reports identified 58,270 gang members and collaborators at large, authorities have arrested 91,628 people, meaning over 33,000 were not previously listed as gang members.

In response to his sentencing following his conviction on 34 felonies in May 2024, President Trump stated that he had "won the election in a massive landslide, and the people of this country understand what's gone on. This has been a weaponization of government." Despite his conviction, Judge Juan Merchan sentenced him to an unconditional discharge with no consequences like prison, probation, or even fines.

I hope that colleagues like Orban will not become accomplices of Putin and Lukashenko. Because if he blocks the EU 90 billion intended for us, for weapons-which, by the way, are not his money-then from a historical perspective, Orban will become an ally of the fascist Russian regime.

The United States intervention in Venezuela to abduct President Nicolas Maduro is not law enforcement extended beyond its borders. It is international vandalism, plain and unadorned. Power has displaced law, preference has replaced principle and force has been presented as virtue. This is not the defence of the international order. It is its quiet execution. When a state kidnaps the law to justify kidnapping a leader, it does not uphold order. It advertises contempt for it.

In the wake of ruthless arrests of journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort in Minneapolis, one Harvard political scientist is arguing something many of us have suspected for a long time: the US is moving away from its traditional democratic framework toward a fundamentally different system of governance. In an interview with the media industry publication Status, Harvard political scientist Steven Levitsky made the case that the Trump administration's assault on democratic norms has now become extreme, even by the standards of right-wing dictators.

After all his threats, and with military options under discussion in Washington, Donald Trump stepped back, announcing that the killing [of protesters] has stopped. Despite the telecommunications blackout, it seems clear that a ruthless regime has shed still more blood than in previous protest crackdowns. Rights groups say that thousands have been killed and vast numbers arrested; one official spoke of 2,000 deaths. Witnesses compared the streets to a war zone.

Coromoto Escalona, a 35-year-old woman, was preparing her baby's feeding bottle when she heard some strange noises in the house. It was two o'clock in the morning. She wondered whether the fridge had broken down, since it sometimes made strange noises when it was damaged. Her eldest daughter, who was scrolling on WhatsApp, shouted from her room: Mum, they're bombing us.