The megaport of Chancay, a $1.3 billion project majority-owned by the Chinese shipping giant Cosco, is turning this outpost of bobbing fishing boats into an important node of the global economy. China’s President Xi Jinping inaugurates the port Thursday during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Peru.

The development — expected to encompass 15 quays and a large industrial park drawing more than $3.5 billion in investment over a decade — has met a skeptical response from impoverished villagers, who say it is depriving them of fishing waters and bringing no economic benefit to locals.

“Our fishing spots no longer exist here. They destroyed them,” said 78-year-old fisherman Julius Caesar — “like the emperor of Rome” — gesturing toward the dockside cranes. “I don’t blame the Chinese for trying to mine this place for all it’s worth. I blame our government for not protecting us.”

Continue reading HERE

Source: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/chinas-president-will-inaugurate-a-megaport-in-peru-but-locals-say-theyre-left-out

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Peru, the world’s No. 2 copper producer, is currently in the throes of its worst civil unrest in over 20 years, posing a risk to mining activity and copper transport that has buoyed global prices of the metal on supply worries and hit some company share prices.

“The mine has not yet suspended operations, which overall continue in a restricted manner,” the company source said, asking not to be named. Road blockades by protesters were preventing trucks from moving its copper, the source said.

“Due to the road blockades, no type of transport activity is being carried out, this includes the transport of concentrate for export.”

Antapaccay, located in the province of Espinar in the Cusco region, is one of Peru’s largest mines. It produced 135,987 tonnes of copper between January and November last year, company data shows.

The post Exclusive: Glencore copper mine in Peru running at ‘restricted’ capacity due to protests -source first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Starting Wednesday, Peruvian social organizations will resume massive protests to demand the resignation of President Dina Boluarte, the holding of early general elections, and the release of former President Pedro Castillo.

Citizens will carry out peaceful marches to call an indefinite strike in the departments of Arequipa, Ayacucho, Apurimac, Cusco, Moquegua, Madre de Dios, and Puno.

Nevertheless, social organizations in Ayacucho, Huancavelica and Apurimac are still evaluating whether or not to join today’s demonstrations.

The General Confederation of Workers of Peru (CGTP) called a march in Lima in solidarity with the mobilizations and protests that the citizens of the provinces have undertaken. It also supported demands related to the anticipation of general elections, the resignation of President Boluarte, and the closure of Congress.

Continue reading HERE

Source: https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Social-and-Political-Organizations-Restart-Protests-in-Peru-20230104-0001.html

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[Disclaimer]

The post Social and Political Organizations Restart Protests in Peru first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

William Brangham:

The Colorado River is a critical source of water for the Western United States, but a mega-drought, one significantly exacerbated by climate change, is jeopardizing that river’s future, how that water gets used, and threatening longstanding agreements between states.

Miles O’Brien has our report.

It’s part of our coverage on how climate change is creating a tipping point for the U.S. and the world.

Miles O’Brien:

This is where the shortage meets the soil, Pinal County, Arizona, desert farmland between Phoenix and Tucson, lifelong home for farmer Nancy Caywood.

Nancy Caywood, Farmer:

My family has been farming in this area for 91 years. My grandfather bought this farm, 255 acres.

Miles O’Brien:

They grow alfalfa and cotton, both thirsty crops, which are not doing well right now.

Nancy Caywood:

This is the drought in action right here. I have never seen it this bad before.

Miles O’Brien:

Much of her water comes from canals that are filled by the Gila River, a tributary of the Colorado River. But in April of 2021, the water stopped flowing.

Nancy Caywood:

We don’t know when we will see water in here again.

Miles O’Brien:

Same goes for farmers in Pinal County who draw water directly from the Colorado River. When the U.S. government declared an official shortage for the river in August, farmers who depend on it were also drastically cut back.

Almost 1, 500 miles’ long, the Colorado winds its way through seven states and into Mexico. This river basin is filled with lush natural ecosystems. It transforms about 5.5 million acres of barren desert into fertile farmland; 40 million people are sustained by this water.

It’s one of the most heavily utilized rivers in the world, and it starts here, as a deep blanket of snow high in the Rocky Mountains of Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado.

Hydrologist Ben Livneh is an assistant professor at University of Colorado Boulder.

Ben Livneh, University of Colorado Boulder: Most of the of the water in the Colorado River starts as snowpack, and one of the reasons is that mountains act as these big catchments of precipitation.

Miles O’Brien:

But around the year 2000, a drought took hold and has not let go. This means less snow on those peaks in the Rockies year after year, and thus a steady reduction of water to feed the river.

The two largest reservoirs in the river basin, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, are now at all-time low levels. Climatologist Park Williams is an associate professor at UCLA. He uses tree rings to study the ancient climate.

Park Williams, UCLA:

The 2000s drought in the Colorado River Basin and across the Western United States has been as dry as any other 22-year period in the last millennium. The drought that we’re in today is not going to last forever, that it will break at some point when we have a string of really good luck years.

Miles O’Brien:

But the climate emergency has changed the odds. The global temperature is about two degrees Fahrenheit higher than it was before the Industrial Revolution.

Park Williams:

If climate change hadn’t happened, the West would still be in a drought, but the severity of the drought is undoubtedly worse because of climate change.

Miles O’Brien:

Here’s why. Warmer temperatures mean drier air. As the snowpack shrinks, it sheds water vapor into the atmosphere. A larger amount of snow melts into liquid water and rapidly evaporates in this warmer climate. Now the soil is dryer than usual.

Park Williams:

This causes the soils to act like a very dry sponge, and the next precipitation events that occurs on top of that dry sponge is going to work to refilling the soil sponge, as opposed to refilling our rivers and reservoirs.

Miles O’Brien:

This precious resource is allocated based on a 1922 agreement called the Colorado River Compact. Once the river basin states agreed on their fair shares, they each established a seniority system, first in time, first in right.

Ben Livneh:

There’s kind of a hierarchy of water rights. That means that people who gained access to the river first, they have what we would call a senior water right.

Miles O’Brien:

Colorado River water first came to Pinal County in the mid-1980s, upon completion of the Central Arizona Project, a network of canals that spans more than 300 miles across the desert.

It puts farmers here at the bottom of the seniority list, making them the first to go dry in the midst of this mega-drought.

Will Thelander, Farmer:

So, over the years, we have had to adapt to different whatever we can make money at, basically. So, on this farm, it’s really close to a bunch of dairies, and they need a bunch of feed.

Miles O’Brien:

Will Thelander is a third-generation farmer in Casa Grande. He and his family are part of an experiment in using their dwindling allocation of water on crops that demand less of it.

Will Thelander:

Here’s the guayule field. So you can see it’s in a nice bloom, and this crop hasn’t been watered for about two weeks.

Miles O’Brien:

They have planted a 40-acre tract of guayule, a plant that thrives in the desert and contains a milky latex that can be used to formulate rubber.

An acre can produce enough to make 50 tires. Bridgestone is working out the production kinks at this pilot plant, while Thelander does the same at this pilot plot.

Will Thelander:

With this crop, using half as much water as the corn, our water will last twice as long here. So that’s why the crop is so promising, and we really hope it takes off.

Miles O’Brien:

But for Nancy Caywood, the story is different. She can’t afford the cost of the new equipment required to harvest crops that need less water. She says she can hold onto the family farm for a year, but:

Nancy Caywood:

Eventually, the money runs out. You can’t pay the water and the taxes anymore. So it’s not your best interest to try to keep the land. Your best interest is to probably go ahead and sell. And it’s heart-wrenching to think that, but it’s true.

Miles O’Brien:

It would be the end of an era here, and maybe the beginning of a new one. Her neighbors recently sold their land, and it’s now a solar farm. Caywood has been approached by an energy company as well.

There is little to suggest this trend will reverse anytime soon. For years, humans overspent the Colorado River, and nature covered the overdrafts. But now the climate emergency has insured the bill has come due.

For the “PBS NewsHour,” I’m Miles O’Brien in Phoenix.

Source: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/unrelenting-drought-leaves-millions-who-rely-on-colorado-river-facing-an-uncertain-future

The post Unrelenting drought leaves millions who rely on Colorado River facing an uncertain future first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The epicentre of the 7.5 magnitude earthquake that hit Peru on Sunday, was reported to have been at a depth of 112 kilometres beneath the ground. So far, no casualties have been reported by the country’s authorities.

The country’s president, Pedro Castillo Terrones, expressed his solidarity with all compatriots affected by the natural disaster.

“All my solidarity with the people of Amazonas in the face of the strong earthquake. I have arranged for the ministries and agencies of the executive branch to implement immediate action. You are not alone, brothers. We will support those affected by structural damage,” he wrote on Twitter.

The president also took a helicopter to the affected areas in the Amazonas region where most of the damage took place. The earthquake blocked roads and damaged buildings.

President Pedro Castillo has promised government assistance in clearing up the rubble and conducting repairs.

source: TVP WORLD

Source: https://tvpworld.com/57182625/peru-hit-by-75-magnitude-earthquake

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The post 5.8-magnitude quake shakes Peru coast; no reports of damage first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

(ALONSO CHERO/El Comercio de PERU/Newscom)

Pedro Castillo, a self-described Marxist-Leninist heading the Peru Libre (“Free Peru”) ticket, has secured a spot in the country’s June 6 presidential runoff election. The only person standing between him and power is Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of a former president who assumed dictatorial control in the 1990s and the leader of Fuerza Popular (“Popular Force”), a right-wing populist political party. If Castillo wins, he threatens to impose the same sort of ruinous policies that have decimated Venezuela.

Peru Libre’s platform calls for an economic transformation that would include nationalization of the mining, gas, oil, hydro-energy, and communications industries; agrarian reform which will include land expropriation and might involve land redistribution; elimination of private pensions; voiding contracts with the companies that are currently in charge of managing airports, railways, ports, and highways, and transferring these functions to regional governments and municipalities, and reviewing all trade agreements with an eye toward abrogating at least some of them.

Some of these measures were tried unsuccessfully by the military government of left-wing General Velasco Alvarado (1968-1975). During the so-called agrarian reform carried out by that regime, some 15,000 properties (totaling nine million hectares) were taken by force from private owners for which they received inadequate compensation. The lands were mismanaged by the new owners who lacked the training required to successfully oversee large farms.

The Peru Libre platform is reminiscent of that of Venezuelan socialist Hugo Chavez. For example, Chavez nationalized Venezuela’s oil industry in 2005. Not only did state mismanagement prove fatal, but the lack of private investment also contributed to the demise of the once-mighty Venezuelan industry. Castillo’s plans to nationalize Peru’s powerhouse copper industry will lead to similarly tragic results. If Castillo wins, expect both government mismanagement and an output collapse that will cripple the nation’s copper production.

Venezuela’s economic collapse under Chavez also triggered a vast outmigration to Peru and other South American countries. Of the roughly five million people who have fled Venezuela, about one million moved to Peru, which is second only to Colombia as a destination for emigrants from the Bolivarian Republic. With Venezuelans accounting for about 3 percent of the country’s resident population, Peruvian citizens are frequently confronted by the results of socialist transformation. Many Peruvians complain that the Venezuelan influx has created more competition for certain jobs, driving down wages. Given this palpable result of Chavismo, it may seem odd that a domestic advocate of this failed ideology would win a plurality of presidential votes.

Although Castillo is an educator and holds a graduate degree in educational psychology, he appears to have a weak grasp on policy issues. Asked about antitrust in a recent interview, the candidate identified a leading supermarket chain and a major department store as monopolies, despite the fact that they both have robust domestic competition.

Apparently, Castillo is not the brains behind Peru Libre. Mirko Vidal, a Peruvian libertarian who offers political commentary on YouTube, has pointed out that the party’s thought leadership comes from Vladimir Cerrón, a former provincial governor. Cerrón was removed from office after being convicted for corruption and abuse of power in awarding a sanitation contract in his prior role as mayor of La Oroya. His 2019 conviction came with a 56-month prison sentence and a civil penalty of PEN 850,000 (roughly equivalent to $234,000).

The ideology that Cerrón and Castillo are promoting will be distressingly familiar to older Peruvians, who will remember the depredations of Sendero Luminoso (known in English as the Shining Path). This Maoist terrorist organization occupied huge swaths of the nation’s interior during the late 20th century, and the conflict it caused is believed to have resulted in almost 70,000 deaths.

Peru Libre’s ideology more closely matches that of a rival Marxist terrorist group, the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (whose Spanish acronym is MRTA).  Both Peru Libre and MRTA were inspired by the work of José Carlos Mariátegui, an influential Peruvian Marxist theorist active in the 1920s. Mariátegui reoriented Marxism to Peruvian realities, by, for example, arguing that a revolution could be led by indigenous peasants rather than factory workers and that a fully developed capitalist system was not a necessary precondition as Karl Marx had originally argued.

Mariategui’s reformulation resonated with Peru’s indigenous people who were marginalized and excluded from political power ever since Spain supplanted the Incas. He also jettisoned Marxian atheism, recognizing the importance of Catholicism to the indigenous population.

Among MRTA’s members was the American socialist Lori Berenson, who returned to the U.S. in 2015 after serving a 20-year prison sentence. In 1997, MRTA staged a four-month-long takeover of the Japanese Embassy in Lima, holding hundreds hostage. The standoff ended when the Peruvian military assaulted the building, freeing most of the diplomatic hostages while killing or capturing most of the MRTA operatives. By 2001, the revolutionary movement was defunct, to be replaced a few years later by a political party guided by similar principles.

The fact that Castillo polled at the top of the presidential field may be explained by both the number of viable candidates dividing the overall vote and the popular revulsion at Peru’s political status quo. Castillo topped a field of 18 other candidates, including 9 who garnered significant vote totals (of over 700,000 or 5 percent each). Hernando de Soto, an economist with libertarian leanings, placed fourth with over 1.6 million votes. A full 18 percent of voters returned blank or spoiled presidential ballots.

Voters appear to have become dismayed by Peru’s political chaos and poor governance. After the nation’s last elected president, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski (PPK), was obliged to step down in 2018 due to an impeachment threat, the nation has rapidly cycled through three unelected presidents to complete what would have been PPK’s five-year term.

The nation has also suffered horrendously during the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite an extremely strict lockdown, the country has experienced a COVID death rate of over 0.17 percent, which is worse than neighboring Chile and Colombia, and not far behind the United States. Although the lockdown failed to prevent widespread mortality, it dealt a severe blow to the nation’s economy, which contracted 11 percent in 2020.

The only barrier to a Castillo victory is second-place finisher Keiko Fujimori, a perennial presidential candidate who has reached the runoff stage in the last two presidential elections, only to be defeated by a more popular rival. Although Keiko (who normally uses her first name) appeared to have a historic ceiling of just under 50 percent of the popular vote, it is likely much lower now due to her machinations and those of her party since 2016.

Keiko’s father, Alberto Fujimori, is credited with vanquishing Sendero Luminoso and MRTA, but he did so at the cost of dissolving Congress and engaging in massive corruption. After fleeing the country, he was extradited from Chile and now sits in prison. Keiko and her party played a pivotal role in unseating PPK, thus giving rise to the country’s recent instability. She was also temporarily jailed for her own alleged corruption offenses.

Popular revulsion against this current member of a prospective Fujimori dynasty may be enough for the socialist Castillo to win the presidency in June. If that occurs, expect mass emigration, economic calamity, and social unrest to follow.

The post Will Peru Become the Next Venezuela? first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

BUENOS AIRES/ASUNCION/BOGOTA (Reuters) – Argentina broke past 200,000 COVID-19 cases on Sunday and Colombia set a daily record as grim milestones topple in Latin America, pushing the world’s worst affected region towards a combined 5 million cases.

The region, which topped 200,000 deaths on Saturday, has struggled to stall the spread of the novel coronavirus, with infections picking up pace in many countries even as governments look to ease lockdowns and revive economic growth.

Latin America, which has some 8% of the world’s population, accounts for close to 30% of global cases and fatalities, with infections still spreading fast and hitting regional leaders like Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro and Bolivia’s Jeanine Anez.

Colombia in the last week passed 300,000 cases and 10,000 fatalities. Argentina, which had early success slowing the spread of the virus, has seen a recent spike in infections. Five Latin American countries are now in the global top 10 for cases, according to a Reuters tally.

Brazil, the worst-hit country in the region and the second-worst worldwide, has over 2.73 million cases and more than 94,000 deaths.

The giant South American nation, which set a daily record for new cases last week, posted a lower total of 25,800 cases on Sunday, which looked likely to keep the wider region from breaching the 5 million mark until Monday.

Mexico logged over 9,000 new infections from the virus on Saturday and is now the country with the third most deaths worldwide.

Peru, which recently exceeded 400,000 cases, has seen a dangerous resurgence in infections after relaxing quarantine restrictions in a bid to revive a collapsed economy. It posted 7,448 cases on Saturday, the highest since late May.

Around the region, already brittle healthcare systems are straining or overloaded, while economic growth is set to plunge around 9%, pushing up poverty and unemployment.

(This story has been refiled to correct to “sees” in headline)

(Reporting by Adam Jourdan in Buenos Aires, Daniela Desantis in Asuncion and Julia Symmes Cobb in Bogota; Writing by Adam Jourdan; editing by Richard Pullin)

Source: https://www.metro.us/latin-america-sees-coronavirus/

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A demonstrator’s placard reads “30,000 deaths, ‘so what?’” at a pro-democracy protest in Manaus, Brazil, on 2 June – BRUNO KELLY/Reuters/PA Images

CONFIRMED cases of COVID-19 have surged in South America in recent weeks. As daily infections surpassed those in Europe and the US, the World Health Organization declared the region the pandemic’s “new epicenter” on 22 May.

More than a million cases of coronavirus and 60,000 deaths had been registered as of 7 June in Latin America, which includes countries in Central and South America and Mexico. Many are struggling with poor healthcare systems and vast economic inequalities.

While countries across Europe are slowly lifting lockdown restrictions and reopening borders, coronavirus cases are still surging in South America despite lockdowns across most of the region.

“Just in the past week, there were 732,000 new cases globally, and of these, more than 250,000 new cases were in Latin American countries, a serious concern that should serve as a clarion call to redouble our efforts,” said Carissa Etienne, the director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), at a press briefing on 2 June. The worst is still yet to come, say epidemiologists and public health experts.

Key battlefield

If South America is the new center of the virus, Brazil is its key battlefield. The country’s patient zero, a man returning to São Paulo from Italy, tested positive on 25 February. By 7 June, Brazil accounted for 672,846 of the region’s reported 1,119,575 cases of COVID-19, and nearly 74 percent of the region’s deaths.

On 6 June, Brazil’s Health Ministry confirmed another 904 COVID-19-related deaths had occurred in the previous 24 hours. The same day, the Brazilian government stopped publishing its cumulative number of coronavirus cases and deaths, and an official website has had data removed. The move has prompted accusations of censorship.

“Deaths from COVID-19 in Brazil are expected to reach 125,000 by the first week of August”

As for Brazil’s position as the country with the second-highest number of confirmed cases – behind only the US – there is only one reason for this, according to Paulo Lotufo at the University of São Paulo: the country’s president. “[Jair] Bolsonaro is responsible for everything,” he says.

Criticized for dismissing the virus as a “little flu” and attending mass political rallies where he shook hands and held babies – disregarding social distancing measures to limit the spread of the virus – Bolsonaro has also angered science communities for recommending unproven drug treatments, such as the antimalarial drug chloroquine.

The virus has taken a firm hold in cities such as São Paulo, where football stadiums have been converted into emergency hospitals to treat the crush of COVID-19 patients. The city had reported 143,073 cases of COVID-19 and 9145 deaths by 7 June. looks like a CNN report from 3 June – are there more up to date figures? index.html

An emergency area at Alberto Sabogal Hospital in Lima, Peru  —  Ernesto Benavides/AFP via Getty Images

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The disease is also hitting regions of the country inhabited by indigenous communities, such as the Amazon, where mass graves have rapidly been dug. Such areas tend to have less access to hospital critical care units, and indigenous populations have a higher rate of poverty and less access to clean water.

In early May, the state of Amazonas had registered nearly 19.4 coronavirus deaths per 100,000 residents, compared with 4.4 per 100,000 residents for all of Brazil, according to Reuters.

But much of the focus has been on large cities, such as Manaus, the state capital of Amazonas. A severe lack of testing may mean that the full extent of the outbreak in the Amazon isn’t fully captured by statistics. Many mid-sized and small towns are “lacking in support and critical care”, says Lotufo. “For many, it takes 2 to 3 hours to get to a larger town with a good hospital with critical care.”

Informal economies

Covid-19 deaths in Brazil are expected to reach 125,000 by 4 August, according to brazil estimates from the University of Washington. Lotufo says he won’t predict when the epidemic will peak, but that the general consensus is that it still has a long way to run. “The pandemic will last a lot more time, a month or more,” he says.

But cases are also rising in countries that have implemented stricter measures. The highest infection rate in South America is in Chile, which saw 7018 cases per million people on 8 June, followed closely by Peru at 5960 per million – around double that of Brazil’s rate and more than anywhere in Europe.

Peru is of particular concern, say epidemiologists. Its president, Martín Vizcarra, announced a national emergency requiring strict social isolation on 15 March, making it one of the first countries in the region to do so. The measures spared Peru the criticism received by Brazil for a lack of response, but it hasn’t been enough to stop the contagion.

Social isolation rules are in place in Peru until the end of June what’s happening now? Will find out EP: this Time article suggests it’s been extended till the end of June: Peru-coronavirus/, making it one of the longest lockdowns in the world, but as 73 percent of people work in the informal economy, selling goods in the streets or cleaning houses, for example, people continue to go out in order to be able to put food on the table.

“The secret [to managing the epidemic] is isolation and contact tracing,” says David Heymann at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine in the UK.

But South America has the highest inequality in the world, which exacerbates the region’s key challenge: getting the poorest and most vulnerable to stay at home to prevent the spread of infection. Enforcing lockdowns has been made more difficult as the coffers of many countries have been hit by a decline in oil revenues.

In the absence of strong leadership, civil society is taking up some of the slack in Brazil, Peru, and elsewhere, with medical volunteers testing for the virus in favelas and people donating food, but it cannot match the scale of the problem.

“Food donations in favelas are a patch, but public policy is needed,” says Ana Maria Malik at the University of São Paulo. Poverty is one of the many issues identified by PAHO as making the pandemic particularly catastrophic across South America.

“There are far more people who cannot access appropriate, quality healthcare than those who can… and we are a region of underfunded, weak public health systems grappling with far more than COVID-19. We are simultaneously dealing with malaria, measles, dengue fever, and many other diseases,” said Etienne on 2 June.

Few hospital beds

Many countries in the region have vastly underfunded health systems, such as Peru, which has less than 1000 intensive care unit beds for its 32 million inhabitants. A lack of ICU beds and ventilators is common across the region.

The healthcare situation may be worst in Venezuela, where 64.2 percent of hospital workers reported intermittent access to clean water between 27 February and 1 March, according to Human Rights Watch.

“It’s a second tsunami when the first one hasn’t finished,” says Feliciano Reyna, founder of AcciÓn Solidaria, an NGO coordinating humanitarian relief efforts in Venezuela. More than 9 million people in Venezuela are in a situation of food insecurity, he says. In recent years, more than 5 million have fled the country’s economic collapse.

Like Peru, Colombia acted quickly on the advice of public health specialists, but keeping people inside when they have no financial safety net has been a challenge. Colombia had reported 39,236 cases and 1259 deaths by 8 June, and the trend for both is still upwards, despite long and strict lockdown measures.

At this point, it may not be useful to make comparisons between South American countries and others around the world when it comes to indicators such as testing rates, says Diego Rosselli at Javeriana University in Bogotá, Colombia. “People are comparing the likes of Colombia with Germany and Japan when we are still two months behind them,” he says.

But it is clear that governments must double down on social distancing measures, says Rosselli. “The health system has little to offer,” he says. “Hospitals and intensive care units are for a small minority, firstly, and they are not very effective at dealing with the disease. The problem has to be solved by distancing and a lot of educational measures.”

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Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24632863-300-how-south-america-became-the-new-centre-of-the-coronavirus-pandemic/

The post How South America became the new centre of the coronavirus pandemic first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Venezuelans are behind only Syrians in terms of asylum applications in Europe while those from Central Americans are up 4,000% in a decade.

In contrast to many congregations in western Europe, attendance is on the up at Notre-Dame aux Riches Claires, an imposing baroque red-brick church on a cobbled road close to Brussels’ Grand Place.

The faithful squeeze into the pews for Sunday mass and spill out on to the road to catch up before and after the weekly Spanish-language service by Father Óscar Escobar.

The 17th-century church’s change in fortunes is not just down to the strength of the Colombian priest’s sermons, or the healthy trade in community gossip and empanadas afterward.

It is on the frontline of a dash to Europe by Latin Americans, as growing numbers of migrants reject the mortal risks now inherent in trying to secure a new life in the USA.

The European Asylum Support Office reported this month that an 11% increase in people seeking political asylum in Europe since last year is being driven by people fleeing economic disasters, political repression and criminal violence in Venezuela, El Salvador, Colombia, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Peru.

Venezuelans have lodged some 18,400 asylum applications from January to May, roughly twice as many as during the same period in 2018, making them the nationality with the second-highest number of applications in Europe after Syrians.

Meanwhile, applications for refugee status by Central Americans have increased 4,000% compared with a decade ago.

The trend to head across the ocean to Europe is in part a reaction to the pitiless approach of Donald Trump’s White House, whose aggressive immigration policies have separated families at the border and drastically curtailed asylum and refugee resettlement.

The dangers of attempting to reach the US through Mexico were brought home by the photograph of Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez and his 23-month-old daughter, Angie Valeria, who drowned trying to cross into Texas.

Many Latin American migrants are judging it better to buy a plane ticket and face the bureaucracy of the European immigration authorities rather than risk the cruelty of the people smugglers and the apparent indifference of the US administration.

Others describe a greater tolerance in Europe for Latin Americans who want to live out what was once called the American dream.

The Trump administration has refused to grant protected status to people fleeing Venezuela’s political and economic meltdown, but there is no visa requirement for Venezuelans coming to the EU’s Schengen area.

Spain remains the prime European destination for Latin Americans. Figures from the Spanish asylum and refugee office – part of the country’s interior ministry – show that asylum applications from Central America have more than tripled over the past two years as people flee violence, unemployment, corruption, crime and the impacts of climate change.

In 2017, 2,231 people from the region applied for asylum: 986 from Honduras; 31 from Nicaragua and 1,143 from El Salvador.

In just the first five months of 2019 alone, 7,442 people from Central America applied for asylum: 2,698 from Nicaragua, 2,666 from Honduras and 2,078 from El Salvador.

Julián, (not his real name), was driven out of his native El Salvador after being persecuted because of his sexual orientation. He tried to enter the US eight years ago and spent a year there trying to apply for asylum. When he failed to come up with the $25,000 bond needed, he was deported.

After moving back to a different city in his home country, he eventually decided to come to Spain where his siblings live.

Relatives and friends react at a crime scene after a man was killed, in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Violence in Central America is a major driver of migration. Photograph: Edgard Garrido/Reuters

“I’m applying for asylum at the moment and will probably have to wait another eight months before I find out whether my application has been approved,” he said.

But each European immigration system is different. And Spain is not the easiest to traverse.

When confronted with long, difficult and unpredictable situations – such as the current crisis in Nicaragua – the Spanish authorities tend to adopt a watching brief, said Paloma Favieres, director of policy and campaigns at the Spanish Refugee Aid Commission (Cear).

Spain also has a hefty backlog and usually turns down asylum requests from those alleging persecution by the armed drug gangs known as maras – because the perpetrators are not state actors.

Belgium, in contrast, recognizes gang violence as a reason for granting refuge and is known for a comprehensive system of support for people in search of international protection.

Those applying for asylum receive housing, food, medical follow-up, legal assistance, help with learning one of the three official languages ​​of the country and the right to social support, said Susana Parraga, a social worker with Caritas International in Belgium.

“All European countries are supposed to offer these guarantees – taking into account European reception directives – but significant differences between countries still exist,” Parraga said.

Belgium is now third behind Spain and Italy as the most popular European country for Salvadorans.

They are in Belgium’s top 10 of the highest number of asylum applicants in 2019, with 343 applications. And of the 95 decisions made this year, 93 were positive.

In 2017, all Venezuelan requests for refugee status were recognized, dropping slightly to 86% in the period January to October 2018. Some 411 Venezuelans applied for refugee status in 2018, generally, in Parraga’s experience, individuals with a high level of education.

“The lack of knowledge of French or Dutch is an obstacle, although they learn quickly and the conditions of reception and the opportunity to quickly integrate into the labor market are very much appreciated by Venezuelans,” she said.

Luis, 29, from Maturín, in Aragua de Maturín, Venezuela, was granted refugee status in Belgium in February this year after leaving university in Caracas in the light of the kidnapping of his brother-in-law and the deteriorating economic situation.

“There is no hope for the future in Venezuela,” he said. “There are no jobs, no food. And it is dangerous. The most powerful reason I left was the homophobia, my life there was in danger.”

Luis, not his real name, lives in Flanders now and works in a call center, using his French, Spanish, Dutch and English. He can see a future. “America is completely full of Venezuelans,” he said. “So, people won’t find chances there. Belgium accepts people, it has its doors open to everybody. Here there are chances.”

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/10/latin-american-migrants-europe-belgium-spain-eu

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