By Ángel Guerra Cabrera on June 21, 2020
Photo: Bill Hackwell
Prestigious pastor and preacher emeritus of New York’s historic Riverside Interfaith Church, James Forbes in an interview with Bill Moyers on CNN said that these protests are a miracle of biblical proportions. He points out that the diversity in the marchers suggests that there is a dynamic spirit at work, that that is emerging in these horrible upheaval times. Reverend Forbes, who hosted Nelson Mandela, Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro in his church, as well as one of the great movers and shakers of the Juneteenth celebration, says there is an ugliness in the way the government is handling the pandemic and the protests, which allows us to see that this is not a single congressman, a mayor, or a governor, with individual actions of meanness and cruelty. What we see in the United States is a whole system, our whole society has a malignancy of racial, class, and fanatical prejudice. However, he believes that changes in mentality are being seen and we will see more of this after the events of this year.
Bolivia, Attempt to Disqualify MAS as Hospital System Collapses
Meanwhile Bolivian author Martin Suso, in America Latina en Moviemento lists explosive factors that are coalescing in that Andean country. He points out the two postponements of the elections that had been planned for May and the uncertainty of whether they will be held in September, a new date agreed upon by the political parties given the worsening of the pandemic and the desire of the de facto president, Jeanine Áñez, to extend herself and the coup government. Suso adds, among other factors, the mismanagement of the disease, corruption in the purchase of health materials and the collapse of the hospital system.
To make matters worse, the Superior Electoral Court announced a lawsuit for fraud in the 2019 elections, a maneuver aimed at disqualifying Evo Morales’ MAS-IPSP as a political party, when all the polls, although with differences, point to the victory of his Arce-Choquehuanca MAS’s presidential ticket.
Source: La Jornada, translation Resumen Latinoamericano, North America bureau