The Caravel | Volume VIII, Issue I

V O LU M E 8 | I S S U E 1

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F E B R UA R Y 2 0 1 9

Ex-President of Ivory Coast Acquitted by the ICC

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Abigail Adams-Spiers

President Donald Trump meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the 2017 G20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany.

Ivory Coast’s former-president, Laurent Gbagbo, arrived in Belgium on February 6 following his acquittal by the International Criminal Court (ICC). According to the Guardian, Belgian authorities agreed to host the former-president after a three-judge panel at The Hague cleared Gbagbo and his co-defendant, youth leader Charles Blé Goudé, of all charges on January 15. The pair had been under investigation for four counts of crimes against humanity in relation to the 2010 Ivorian elections.

During those elections, Gbagbo, who came to power through the popular removal of a military autocrat, refused to concede defeat to his longtime political rival and the internationally recognised victor, Alassane Ouattara. In the subsequent months, over 3,000 people were killed as the election dispute

descended into violent civil conflict.

Over one million people were displaced, according to numbers from the United Nations Refugee Agency.

Ouattara formally took power following four months of unrest, after UNand French-backed forces removed Gbagbo from his refuge in a bunker inside the presidential palace. An arrest warrant was issued for Gbagbo soon after, and he was flown to The Hague, where he became the first head of state to go on trial before the ICC. Blé Goudé was also extradited to the court, and the two men were jointly accused of pursuing a “common plan” to keep Gbagbo in power “at all costs.” According to ICC reports, their joint trial for multiple counts of murder, rape, persecution, and “other inhumane acts” began in 2016.

See FORMER-PRESIDENT ACQUITTED on p. 14

U.S. Pulls Out of Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty

Protests Against Maduro Spread

Caleb Yip

A presidential crisis, protests, and marches again President Nicolás Maduro have thus far marked the start of 2019 in Venezuela. On January 10, Maduro was sworn in as president after elections deemed illegitimate by the opposition and international observers. The National Assembly immediately contested the election results and declared Juan Guaidó, its president, as interim president of Venezuela. The New York Times reports that, in accordance with the Constitution, Guaidó was sworn in as interim president on January 23 in Caracas.

That same day, citizens flooded the streets of Venezuela calling for new, fair presidential elections, according

The U.S. formally withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty on February 1, citing Russia’s failure to abide by the agreement. Signed by President Ronald Reagan in 1987, the landmark treaty banned the development and testing of land-based, short-range missiles with a range of 300 to 3,400 miles, according to the U.S. State Department. These missiles can carry multiple nuclear warheads and hit targets across Europe in under 15 minutes, says Encyclopædia Britannica. According to BBC, the treaty also authorized the Soviet Union and the U.S. to inspect each other’s missile installations. The

treaty is considered one of the most important arms-control agreements of the Cold War. In a press release on February 1, President Donald Trump accused Russia of “covertly developing and fielding a prohibited missile system” while the U.S. “fully adhered” to the treaty’s terms. Trump further said the U.S. remains open to negotiations if the Kremlin complies with the treaty. In his State of the Union address, Trump added that “we really have no choice” but to withdraw, adding that the U.S. will “outspend and out-innovate all others,” cites CNN. The withdrawal is expected to take six months.

According to U.S. officials, Russia’s Novator 9M729 missile

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 2-3

W. EUROPE & CANADA, 6-7

Democrats Unveil New Social Security Bill, p. 3

Donald Tusk Berates Brexiteers Before Talks, p. 6

E. EUROPE & RUSSIA, 4-5 European Court of Human Rights Furthers Transgender Rights, p. 5

New Report Reveals Sadness in Scandinavia, p. 7

system breached INF rules, reports the National Interest, but Russia has accused the U.S. of violating the treaty with its missile defense system. The New York Times reported on February 2 that Russia will also suspend the treaty in response to the U.S. withdrawal. Russian President Vladimir Putin added that Russia will begin developing previously-banned weapons and ruled out negotiations with the U.S. on other nuclear armscontrol. In his speech, Putin stressed that Russia will not use any of its weapons first, but that its response to any U.S. deployment of weapons “will be symmetrical.”

See U.S. TREATY WITHDRAWAL on p. 2

Leticia Chacon

to the Washington Post. Around the world, Venezuelans sang “Gloria al Bravo Pueblo,” the national anthem, and chanted, “Who are we? Venezuela!

What do we want? Freedom!”

Due to the economic and social crises currently plaguing Venezuela, more than 3.3 million people have fled the country. The countries that have been affected most by the Venezuelan migrant crisis are Colombia, Brazil, and Peru. Thousands of Venezuelans living in these Latin American countries came together to protest as well. In Bogotá, the capital of Colombia, El Tiempo writes that about 2,000 Venezuelans marched, expressing their support for Guaidó and demanding democratic elections.

See PROTESTS SPREAD on p. 8

LAT. AM. & CARIBBEAN, 8-9 Insurgent Leader Killed by Colombian Military, p. 8

MIDDLE EAST & C. ASIA, 12-13

AFRICA, 14-15

Lebanon Assembles a New Government, p. 12

UN Extends Central African Republic Arms Embargo, p. 14

INDO-ASIA-PACIFIC, 10-11 Thailand Fights Pollution with Royal Rainmakers, p. 10

Key European States Create Iran Sanctions Loophole, p. 13

Cameroon Opposition Politician Arrested and Charged, p. 15

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2 | F E B. 2019

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Trump Calls For Unity and Wall Funding at SOTU Supreme President Donald Trump presented his case to the American public during his State of the Union address on February 5, speaking to a Congress under split control for the first time in his presidency, the Washington Post reports.

Trump began his speech with numerous calls for bipartisanship, specifically noting the necessity for common-ground goals. He highlighted two areas where he would be willing to cooperate with House and Senate Democrats: infrastructure and drug prices.

“An economic miracle is taking place in the United States—and the only thing that can stop it are foolish wars, politics, or ridiculous partisan investigations,” Trump declared.

“If there is going to be peace and legislation, there cannot be war and investigation,” he added, according to CNN. The statement is assumed to be directed at two groups: House Democrats and the team of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, both of which are now investigating the president and his associates.

Trump focused on immigration

throughout the speech, describing the situation at the southern border as an “urgent national crisis” and calling on Congress once again to approve the construction of a wall at the U.S.Mexico border. He did not deliver an ultimatum to Congress on wall funding but spoke of the wall as a goal motivated by his campaign promises and national security concerns.

Many House Democratic women wore white to pay tribute to the activists who secured women’s suffrage, the New Yorker reports. About a third of the way through the speech, Trump remarked, “No one has benefited more from our thriving economy than women, who have filled 58 percent of the new jobs

“You weren’t supposed to do that,” Trump ad-libbed, before continuing.

“More women are in the workplace than ever. And, we also have more women serving in Congress than at any time before.” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA-12), sitting behind the left shoulder of the president, stood and extended her hands to her fellow congresswomen, inviting them to cheer. They began to chant, yelling, “U.S.A.! U.S.A!” The address drew varying reactions from politicians, with Newt Gingrich, former speaker of the

House, calling it the kind of speech “so effective and powerful it changes the trajectory of history,” Fox News reports. Senator Bernie Sanders (DVT), Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA), and former-Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julian Castro, all potential contenders in the 2020 presidential election, offered their own critiques.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, just under 46.8 million people tuned in to the State of the Union across 12 networks, about three percent higher than Trump’s 2018 address.

“If there is going to be peace and legislation, there cannot be war and investigation.”

—President Trump ­ created in the last year.” The Democratic congresswomen stood up and began to cheer while pumping their fists in the air and high-fiving each other.

FLICKR

Zev Burton

President Trump greets House Speaker Pelosi before beginning his speech.

U.S. Treaty Withdrawal Caleb Yip

Louisa Christen Felipe Lobo Koerich Jackson Gillette Harry He Sarah Bothner Natalie Bazata Claire Hazbun Sarah Mathys Eric Schichein Cristina Lopez Ashanee Kottage Arin Chinnasathian James Gordy Catherine Liu April Artrip Jaime Moore-Carrillo Madison Stern Michael Abi-Habib Alejandra Rocha Ryan Nowaczyk

ADMINISTRATIVE BOARD Publisher Editor-in-Chief Director of Digital Operations Executive Director EDITORIAL STAFF Copy Chief Copy Chief Africa Editor Africa Editor Eastern Europe and Russia Editor Indo-Asia-Pacific Editor Indo-Asia-Pacific Editor Indo-Asia-Pacific Editor Latin America and the Caribbean Editor Latin America and the Caribbean Editor Middle East and Central Asia Editor Middle East and Central Asia Editor United States of America Editor United States of America Editor Western Europe and Canada Editor Western Europe and Canada Editor

The same day, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced that it had conducted a successful test of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). Unlike the missiles banned by the INF treaty, ICBMs have a longer range and can carry thermonuclear warheads. The new missile expands Russia’s arsenal of nuclear weapons, which includes an underwater drone equipped with a miniature nuclear reactor, as announced by RT. The INF treaty currently leaves other military powers free to develop intermediate-range nuclear missiles.

Restrictions on the U.S. give China a military advantage in the Pacific. In a congressional hearing last March, the commander of the U.S. Pacific Command noted that China has ground-based missiles in the Pacific, but the U.S. is “at a disadvantage” for having no such system. In response to the announcement, a spokesman of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the INF treaty a safeguard for “global strategic balance and stability,”

and called for a resolution, reports Reuters. China rejected the idea of joining the treaty, saying that it is more important to “implement the existing treaty” rather than to expand it.

Many U.S. allies worry that U.S. withdrawal means the return of nuclear missiles to Europe. In a joint-statement issued after the announcement, NATO members reaffirmed their pledge to “uphold, support, and further strengthen arms control” while calling on Russia to comply with the treaty. Senior White House officials have assured allies that no nuclear missiles will be deployed in the near future, says the Guardian.

In response to the planned withdrawal, ten Democratic senators introduced a bill in November 2018 to prohibit funding for any missile barred by the INF treaty, according to the website of Senator Jeff Merkley (DOR). Several Democratic presidential contenders back the Prevention of Arms Race Act of 2019, which requires an ally to publicly grant the U.S. permission to use its country as a host for intermediate-ranged weapons.

Court Blocks Louisiana Abortion Bill Alek Gozman The Supreme Court blocked a Louisiana abortion bill from going into effect in a split 5-4 decision on February 7, according to CNN. The bill in question was Louisiana’s Unsafe Abortion Protection Act, which was created by Louisiana’s legislature to provide safer abortions. Measures from the act require doctors that provide abortions to have admitting privileges at hospitals within a 30-mile range.

According to the NBC, the case was brought to the Supreme Court by a Louisiana clinic and two of its doctors. The plaintiffs argued that the legislation was too similar to the 2016 act passed in Texas that had been subsequently struck down by the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court repealed this law on the grounds that it created unnecessary and unfair restrictions on abortions that did not provide any medical benefits to women.

Opponents of the act, which include the Center for Reproductive Rights, argue that this legislation places unreasonable restrictions on women that seek abortions without any benefit. The center explained that if this legislation were to be enacted, only one doctor per clinic could perform abortions, which is not nearly enough for “approximately 10,000 women who seek abortion services in Louisiana each year.” They claim that the real motive behind this legislation is to prevent as many abortions as possible.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote the dissenting opinion for this case, reported NPR. He argued that the legislation may not actually limit abortions, and that the Court should wait to observe its effects.

It should be noted that this decision does not strike down the legislation entirely, and instead simply places a hold on its enactment. Going forward, this case may foreshadow the Supreme Court’s future positions on abortion rights.

F E B. 2019 | 3

Democrats Unveil New Social Security Bill Steven Vo House members announced the reintroduction of the Social Security 2100 Act on January 30, NPR reported.

Initiated by Representative John Larson (D-CT), the legislation proposes increasing payroll taxes and expanding benefits for current and new recipients of the program, as Forbes explained.

According to Larson’s proposal, the bill would result in a two percent benefit increase, helping “seniors who spend a greater portion of their income on healthcare and other necessities.”

Approximately 60 million Americans received a combined $1 trillion in Social

Security benefits last year. This number is predicted to rise to $80 million within the next decade.

Quoted in the New York Times, Larson, who is currently also Chairman of the Social Security subcommittee, stressed, “Our bill, supported by more than 200 members of the House, would enhance and expand the nation’s most successful insurance program, which touches the lives of every American.”

President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Social Security into law over eight decades ago. Since then, policymakers have implemented amendments to offset inflation and enhance the program’s financial capabilities. Notably, Larson

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENCE

American soldiers help train Iraqi troops and advise counterterrorism missions.

re-introduced the legislation in Congress on the 137th anniversary of Roosevelt’s birthday.

“We almost romanticize retirement in this country, and for good reason.”—Kevin Brady Co-sponsored by more than 200 members of Congress, the bill would set the new minimum benefit at 25 percent above the poverty line. It would also increase payroll taxes from 12.4 percent to 14.8 percent over the next 24 years, PBS reported. This would impose payroll taxes on annual earnings that exceed $200,000.

Republican Andrew Biggs, a principal deputy commissioner of Social Security under President George W. Bush, acknowledged several positive features of Larson’s legislation. “It doesn’t just fix Social Security for 75 years,” Mr. Biggs said, according to the New York Times.

“It would keep the system permanently solvent. That’s a real plus.”

Legislators are still concerned about whether the current trust fund is capable of covering benefits for the baby-

boomer generation, whose members are rapidly entering retirement. According to a government report published by researchers at the Social Security Board of Trustees, the current fund is set to be depleted by 2034.

While recognizing the need for Social Security reform, Representative Kevin Brady (R-TX) expressed optimism about the government’s readiness to respond to increased retirement, Forbes reported.

According to Brady, employment growth, economic development, and significant wage increases over the past decade have improved retirement security.

“We almost romanticize retirement in this country, and for good reason,” emphasized the former chair of the House’s tax law writing committee.

Social Security Works President Nancy Altman, on the other hand, stressed that the bill would only require 218 votes in the House in order to pass.

“Expanding Social Security, with no cuts, is wise policy and winning politics.

People are worried about a retirement income crisis, and this is a solution,” she said.

As the Hill reported, the legislation would become the first major expansion of Social Security since 1972, the year in which Congress increased the plan’s eligibility age in response to a financial crisis.

U.S. To KeepTroops In Iraq After Leaving Syria and Afghanistan Youssef Osman

President Donald Trump has announced plans to keep troops in Iraq to monitor neighboring Iran. The decision came shortly after the removal of U.S. troops from Syria and Afghanistan, thereby signaling a continued American presence in the region.

Trump claims that his decision is based on security concerns. In an interview with CBS News, the president said, “We’re going to keep watching…and if there’s trouble, if somebody is looking to do nuclear weapons or other things, we’re going to know it before they do.”

The decision to keep U.S. troops in Iraq garnered publicity due to Trump’s recent announcement that American troops would soon leave Syria.

Many experts believe that such a decision will allow the Islamic State to regroup following a long

run of U.S. military successes against them, according to the Washington Post.

Trump has been negotiating with the Iraqi government about moving hundreds of American troops in Syria to Iraq, reported the New York Times. Senior American officials worry that this decision is intended to curtail Iran’s stronghold in the Middle East rather than provide aid and support to the Iraqi people.

“If somebody is looking to do nuclear weapons...we’re going to know it before they ­do.”

—President Trump This decision followed a recent visit by Trump and other U.S. officials to Al Asad airbase. Trump’s visit focused on discussing the capabilities of

current American troops with regard to maintaining relative stability in the country, following its exhaustive civil war and government transition.

Jawad al-Musawi, a member of the Iraqi parliament, claimed that if American troops were to move from Syria into Iraq, “there will be an escalation in the opposition to them,” reports the New York Times.

Al-Musawi believes that the Iraqi people have a “mistrust in the American government” because in their eyes, it is clear that the U.S. only wants to enter Iraq to limit Iran’s regional influence.

Although the removal of troops from Syria is already underway, the New York Times reports that government officials and leaders at the Pentagon have strongly encouraged Trump to continue airstrikes against the Islamic State in Syria.

The New York Times further said that the National Security Council meeting suggested a continued supply of weapons and equipment from the Pentagon to Arab and Kurdish forces to offset the U.S. withdrawal.

In recent weeks, the number of American troops in Syria has increased as a means of ensuring safety during the process of bringing back or relocating troops, the New York Times reports. There are presently about 5,200 U.S. troops in Iraq.

In response to the increase in American troops, Shia factions in Iraq are attempting to push forward a plan to limit American involvement, seeing it as a means of targeting Shia-dominated Iran, according to the Washington Post.

Although the Islamic State has weakened recently, any wrongfully calculated decision could wreak chaos in the Middle East.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Madison Stern

S

enate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) denounced an election reform and anticorruption bill put forth by House Democrats, calling the bill a “power grab.” The H.R.1 proposal details several changes to current legislation surrounding elections, but the proposition that Election Day should become a federal holiday to encourage voter turnout enraged McConnell most.

The U.S. has one of the lowest voter turnout rates of countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), according to the Pew Research Center. Two-thirds of those who had not cast a ballot in the 2016 presidential election reported that they did not vote for reasons related to lack of time. Another ten percent reported in a separate Pew Research Center survey that they did not vote due to technical difficulties with their registrations.

The United States is also one of the few developed countries without a holiday on the general election day.

The U.S. holds elections on the first Tuesday in November, a practice going back to before the Transportation Revolution, according to the Library of Congress. Farmers living in remote areas did not want to travel on Sundays to cast a ballot, so Tuesday was chosen.

In the modern day, however, people’s work schedules are governed by their employers, not the timing of the fall harvest. More than 20 states currently require that employers give either paid or unpaid time off so that their employees can vote.

For those who do not live in states with legislation requiring time off, American democracy resembles a more Aristotelian variant, where the right to participate in politics belongs only to people with enough power or wealth to take time off.

As he railed against the proposal, McConnell said, “Just what America needs: another paid holiday,” mirroring sentiments published in a Washington Post op-ed on January 17.

While the majority of Americans favor making Election Day a federal holiday, according to surveys, many wonder why this has become a partisan issue and what they should fear from empowering more Americans to participate in their democracy.

4 | F E B. 2019

EASTERN EUROPE & RUSSIA

Russia Ordered To Pay Damages to Georgia The European Court of Human Rights ordered Russia on January 31 to pay Georgia €10 million ($11.3 million) within three months over damages suffered by at least 1,500 Georgian nationals.

The ruling involves the deportation of 4,634 Georgians from Russia between September 2006 and January 2007. The damages will be distributed at €2,000 ($2,200) per deportee and between €10,000 ($11,300) and €15,000 ($17,000) for those detained before deportation.

The judgement was adopted by 16 votes to one. The sole dissenting opinion proposed direct payments to victims rather than routing the payments through the Georgian government.

Georgia alleged that the deportations were a deliberate act of revenge by Russia in response to the arrests of four Russian officers in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, on espionage charges. Russia denied the allegations and claimed that the deportations were a by product of Moscow’s standard efforts to fight illegal immigration.

The court’s ruling correlates with a July 2014 case, which held the mass deportations and detentions of

Georgians in violation of the European Convention of Human Rights. At the time, the court declared it was “not ready for decision” and postponed any agreement on compensation. Georgia requested €70 million ($79.3 million) in compensation, a figure Russia was unwilling to meet. This led the court to resume deliberations in 2015.

Per the Grand Chamber judgement, Georgia submitted claims for just satisfaction for “4,634 Georgian nationals, of whom 2,380 had allegedly been detained and forcibly expelled.” The country demanded €20,000 ($22,600) per detainee or expelled Georgian, and €10,000

victims to the court but claimed that the number of victims “was much higher.”

In its response, Russia submitted that compensation could only be paid to individual victims of the violations determined by the court. They wanted individuals to be identified because they were fearful of compensating unaffected Georgians.

The court assessed that the parties had to identify specific Georgian nationals who were victims and provide the court with the corresponding information. Of the 1,795 Georgians provided on the list, 290 were found to be unqualified for compensation

by the court. The distribution of compensation will be supervised by the Committee of Ministers.

Russia and Georgia have a recent history of conflict. Georgia has accused Russia of committing war crimes during their 2008 conflict.

Russia accused Georgia of committing war crimes against ethnic Russians back in 2008.

The official Twitter account of Georgia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs tweeted that “#Georgia welcomes judgement by the #StrasbourgCourt and considers it as a fair reply to #Russia’s aggressive policy.”

“#Georgia welcomes judgement by the #StrasbourgCourt”— Georgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs ($11,300) for those who left Russia by their own means. It requested an additional €80,000 ($90,600) for four individual cases. The Georgian government wanted jurisdiction over the distribution of compensation. It submitted a final list of 1,795 alleged

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Brandon Duran

Georgian Foreign Minister Mikheil Janelidze meeting Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz in 2017.

Former North Macedonian PM Details His Flight to Hungary Sienna Siu Former North Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski detailed his decision to seek asylum in Hungary during an interview with North Macedonia’s Sitel TV on February 2, according to Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty (RFE/RL). It was his first TV appearance since fleeing North Macedonia in November 2018.

Balkan Insight reports that, during the interview, Gruevski revealed that he had initially planned to turn himself in after a North Macedonian court convicted him of corruption.

However, he changed his mind after “receiv[ing] information about [his] planned liquidation in jail” from “reliable sources” and from “persons well informed about the conditions inside the jail.” He did not explain the motives behind the alleged plot and declined to name the mastermind behind it, RFE/RL reports.

Gruevski believes he was “unjustly convicted” with “all the absurdities… for [him] to go to prison,” according to the Independent Balkan News Agency (IBNA).

IBNA reports that Gruevski found the process of seeking political asylum in Hungary “very [easy].” After departing for Albania, he submitted an application to the Hungarian Embassy in Tirana. He then “embarked on a journey to Hungary, which involved trips prepared according to their internal consultations due to the fact that [he] had served as prime minister for many years,” said Gruevski. He intends to return to North Macedonia in the future.

According to RFE/RL, a North Macedonian court convicted Gruevski of purchasing a €600,000 ($680,000) Mercedes with state funds for personal travel. He was said to have strong ties to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, and opposed efforts to further integrate North Macedonia with NATO and the European Union.

According to ABC News, North Macedonian prosecutors found no evidence of him receiving help from North Macedonian officials. North Macedonia has issued an international arrest warrant and requested Gruevski’s extradition, ABC News reports.

Russia Tests New Nuclear Missiles Filippo Manzini

The Russian armed forces tested a nuclear missile with multiple warheads in the Arkhangelsk oblast on February 6, according to the staterun TASS news agency. The test came just 90 minutes after the U.S. Air Force confirmed that it had launched a Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).

The Arms Control Association has expressed concern that tensions may rise after the U.S. announced on February 1 it will suspend the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) Treaty. The following day, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on RIA, a news channel, that Russia would follow suit by developing previously outlawed missiles.

The INF Treaty was signed in 1987 by the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. was the first-ever arms control agreement to outlaw an entire class of nuclear missiles, the Council on Foreign Relations explains. The treaty prohibited ground-based missile systems with ranges from 500 to 5,500 kilometers (310 to 3,400 miles), resulting in the destruction of 2,600 armaments by 1991.

According to reports by RT, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu claimed that the decision was retaliation for America’s violation of the treaty. The New York Times, however, previously reported that the U.S. compiled evidence in 2011 suggesting that Russia was testing banned weapons.

Speaking at Georgetown University on February 6, formerSecretary of State Hillary Clinton said that the now-suspended treaty had allowed for the building of mutual trust as each side inspected the other’s nuclear facilities.

The Economist speculated that a cash-strapped Russian government in the 2000s could no longer afford air and sea-based missiles, which were permitted by the INF Treaty, because such systems are more costly than those that the INF outlawed. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, however, says that Russia may be correct in asserting that the U.S. violated the treaty first if the American Aegis missile systems installed in Eastern Europe in 2009 field cruise missiles.

F E B. 2019 | 5

European Court of Human Rights Furthers Transgender Rights Max Dunat

The European Court of Human Rights ruled in favor of a transgender Macedonian attempting to correct his legal sex on January 17. According to Balkan Insight, Macedonian law states that in order to legally change one’s gender, one must undergo a sex change operation.

The plaintiff, who the court ruling states was born female but diagnosed with gender dysphoria in 2010, successfully changed his name, but the government barred him from adjusting his gender because he had

While activists described this as a violation of ECHR rulings, the justice ministry claimed that it was a result of an administrator’s lack of experience in processing the rare request.

not had surgery.

Prior to this ruling, the World Economic Forum listed Macedonia among a handful of countries with no reliable administrative process to deal with gender reassignment, and activists for transgender rights have frequently raised concerns about the country’s poor management of the issue.

Balkan Insight previously reported in 2016 that even those who had undergone gender reassignment surgery were caught in a bureaucratic web that made the change very difficult and time-consuming.

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

The court room of the European Court of Human Rights.

The ruling “holds great promise for the future”—Constantin Cojocariu, human rights lawyer Despite the history of legal hurdles, it appears that this ruling will force the hand of the Macedonian government. Per Balkan Insight, the plaintiff ’s lawyers allege that the country is currently revising its law on changing one’s legal sex, indicating that it will uphold the ECHR ruling.

Balkan Insight adds that the decision follows precedents set in Italy and France, both of which similarly denied transgender individuals a legal gender change on grounds of not having “fully” transitioned.

This ruling is significant, as Macedonia ranks among the worst in Europe regarding LGBT rights.

ILGA-Europe placed Macedonia 41st out of 49 states, while TGEU’s Trans Rights Index shows Macedonia failing to offer numerous legal protections to its transgender citizens. That Macedonia may be revising this law shows promise for future reforms.

One notable area where this ruling might lead to significant change is Kosovo. Balkan Insight notes that Kosovo is not a Council of Europe member, and Kosovar citizens cannot have their case heard in the ECHR. However, according to the Heidelberg Journal of International Law, Kosovo’s constitution grants legal standing to a number of international arrangements, with the ECHR being one of them. Thus, Kosovo is at least nominally compelled to follow ECHR mandates.

Like Macedonia, Kosovo is among the few countries without any process for legal gender adjustment. However, these developments could set a precedent for the entire lagging Balkan region.

The response to the court ruling from LGBT advocates has been mostly positive. In a blog post, human rights lawyer Constantin Cojocariu, who worked on the case, said the ruling “holds great promise for the future.”

Kosovo’s New Enlarged Defense Budget and Tariffs Rankle Serbia The reveal of Kosovo’s 2019 budget in January proved to be a tipping point in relations between Serbia and Kosovo. Balkan Insight reports that Pristina allocated an extra €6 million ($6.8 million) to “begin the slow process of transforming the country’s security force into a regular army.”

This budget hike brings total defense spending in the disputed territory to almost €60 million ($68 million) in total, with plans to increase that further by €5 million ($5.6 million) each year.

Two decades ago, a bloody war between Serbs and ethnic Albanians necessitated Western intervention and resulted in the eventual secession of the southern province of Kosovo from Serbia.

Serb Kosovars and the government of Serbia in Belgrade both oppose the establishment of a regular army and continue to push against its continuous training, which the government says is aimed at optimizing “operational readiness,” reports Balkan Insight. In addition to the development of the new army, Kosovo placed a 100 percent tariff on

Serbian goods in November 2018 in retaliation for “Belgrade’s attempts to undermine its statehood,” Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty writes. Both the European Union and the United States have pressed Kosovo to repeal the measure.

Belgrade has expressed concern over the safety and autonomy of ethnic Serbs living in the north of Kosovo. The imposition of this tariff, as well as the budgetary expansion of the military, come on the one-year anniversary of the murder of Serb Kosovar politician Oliver Ivanović, who was shot in the back six times from a moving vehicle in the town of Mitrovica, BIRN writes. The murder of Ivanović punctuated a series of more than 74 attacks on ethnic Serbs in the region. Kosovar police refused to treat any of these cases as ethnic violence, Balkan Insight reports.

Before his death in January 2018, Ivanović, in an interview with BIRN, claimed that “the center of power is not within the municipality building” but within an “other, informal center of power,” specifically referencing mafia rings run by Albanian separatists and debt collectors.

These crime rings have strong ties

to Serbian nationalist parties, with citizens caught in the middle.

NewsAsia notes that a possible land swap between Serbia and Kosovo could be a solution. However, the plan has raised concerns across the European Union that dividing borders along ethnic lines will strand Serbian enclaves such as Gracanica, with a population of over 80,000, under Kosovar rule. Serbs in these regions have debated whether, NewsAsia writes, “[Serbian President Alexander] Vucic has abandoned them to ‘an Albanian prison.’”

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Cooper Vardy

Leaders from Russia, China, the U.S., and the European Union have all criticized the growing divide, Bloomberg reports, demanding that “Kosovo abolish the taxes” and Serbia “respond in a constructive way to stop provocations from both sides.” Diplomats hope for a historic 2019 agreement for normalization of relations and an end to the conflict, citing the “courage and creativity” of the governments in the Republic of Macedonia and Greece as an inspiration for a potential peace in the Balkans.

Serbian President Alexander Vucic at a meeting in the Pentagon in 2012.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Eric Schichlein

C

roatia, the last country to enter the European Union (EU), underwent a process that BBC writes took eight years between its designation as a candidate country in 2005 and its accession in 2013. Negotiations with the four current candidate countries in the West Balkans promise to last much longer, which risks demoralizing candidates.

In order to join the EU, a country must convince the Council of the European Union to designate it as a candidate country. According to an EU enlargement factsheet produced by the European Commission, candidature does not guarantee further progression towards accession to the EU, with a 35-chapter process governing the various areas of reform a candidate country must undergo.

Admittedly, this process is crucial to ensuring candidates meet the standards of the EU. However, only two of the four candidate countries in the West Balkans have begun working through the 35 chapters.

The other two, Albania and North Macedonia, have languished for five and 14 years respectively, writes BBC. The purgatory in which Albania and North Macedonia reside risks undermining their commitment to European values and continued reform. In May 2018, heads of state from the EU and six countries in the Balkans hoping to join the union will gather in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Referencing the always unfulfilled promises from the Communists during the Cold War of a brighter future, the prime minister of Albania, Edi Rama, remarked after a contentious meeting, “We lived for 50 years with a red horizon which we never reached. We don’t want to live with a blue horizon now,” reports the Guardian. One note of optimism is the recently concluded name-change treaty between Greece and North Macedonia, which removed the threat of Greece vetoing further integration of North Macedonia into NATO and the European Union.

In order to bolster Albania’s commitment to reform and accession to the EU and capitalize on North Macedonia’s recent meaningful steps towards reform, the European Commission should begin accession negotiations with Albania and North Macedonia.

6 | F E B. 2019

WESTERN EUROPE & CANADA Ryan Nowaczyk

W

hen German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron signed the Aachen Treaty in late January, they seemed to affirm not only the strength of the Franco-German friendship but also the strength of the European Union (EU).

However, the bond between the EU’s two leading powers may not reassure European leaders about the bloc’s future. On the contrary, some officials worry that robust Franco-German bilateralism could weaken the multilateral integrity of EU institutions by excluding other member states from decision making, according to Politico. National politicians in smaller EU countries protest that France and Germany wield inordinate influence over policy.

Franco-German intimacy can fuel narratives that portray the EU as partial and elite.

Furthermore, France and Germany still disagree on the particulars of a shared European future. Both want collective defense, but they support competing programs. Last year, France, dissatisfied with the EU’s German-backed Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) program, established the European Intervention Initiative (E21) outside the EU framework. As the Economist explained, Germany has grudgingly signed onto E21, but ambiguity and divergence in French and German security leadership may discourage other European countries from following them into multilateral arrangements.

Macron and Merkel’s pro-EU administrations also coexist with some of Europe’s most prominent Eurosceptic parties.

Politico reports that, in an ironic parallel to Aachen, the National Rally (RN)— formerly, the National Front—and Alternative for Germany (AfD) may ally in the next session of the European Parliament after May elections.

Franco-German proximity does not guarantee agreement on major policy issues and may not signal broader European unity.

Donald Tusk Berates Brexiteers Before Talks Andisheh Kamyab

European Council President Donald Tusk criticized advocates of Brexit, arguing in a tweet that there is a “place in hell” for those who promoted the decision without having a clear plan for carrying it out. His timing surprised commentators as much as his tone, as he posted the remark on the morning of February 6, one day before U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May met with him and President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker to discuss the future of Brexit.

The unscripted comment followed talks with Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, during which it is believed Tusk initially made the controversial statement. At the time, he told reporters that the EU was not planning to “[make] any new offer” to Britain, according to the Guardian. Tusk’s tweet generated an uproar in the immediate lead-up to May’s visit.

The initial response was divided.

Many members of Parliament, as well as Downing Street itself, voiced opposition to the statement. Home Secretary Sajid Javid tweeted that Tusk’s remarks were “out of order,” while the Leader of the House of Commons,

Andrea Leadsom, a Brexiteer, branded Tusk’s comments “disgraceful” and “spiteful,” the Guardian reported.

According to BBC, the Prime Minister’s official spokesperson reinforced the country’s decision, noting that “We had a robust and lively referendum campaign in this country.

In what was the largest democratic exercise in our history, people voted to leave the EU.” More hardened Brexiteers responded to Tusk’s comments with their own damning words. Nigel Farage argued that “after Brexit we will be free of unelected, arrogant bullies like you and run our own country. Sounds more like heaven to me.” The Democratic Unionist Party’s Brexit spokesman Sammy Wilson maintained that “this devilish Euro maniac is doing his best to keep the United Kingdom bound by the chains of EU bureaucracy and control.”

Meanwhile, some politicians aligned themselves with Tusk’s message. According to the BBC, Sinn Féin President Mary Lou McDonald argued that it was, in fact, the position of hardline Brexit-backing MPs such as Jacob Rees-Mogg and Boris Johnson that was truly “untenable.” Guy

France Recalls Ambassador to Italy Peyton Rhodes

For the first time since the onset of World War II, France has recalled its ambassador to Italy, according to the Guardian. The decision, announced on February 7, escalated tensions between the two countries to levels unseen among founding members of the European Union since its inception.

According to the Guardian, the strain between France and Italy has been mounting since the French intervention in Libya in 2011.

Relations took an especially sour turn in 2018, when the Five Star Movement, the Italian iteration of the far-right populist movement sweeping Europe, formed a coalition government with the right-wing League party.

Since then, BBC reports, Italian Deputy Prime Ministers Luigi Di Maio and Interior Minister Matteo Salvini have sharply criticized French President Emmanuel Macron’s government on issues from migration

to the yellow-vest protesters known in France as gilets jaunes.

However, the Guardian reports that the French foreign ministry has said that the “unacceptable provocation” came when Di Maio met with the leader of the gilet jaunes, Cristophe Chalençon, and members of the yellow-vest movement who will stand for election to the European Parliament in May. Following the meeting, Di Maio tweeted, “The winds of change have crossed the Alps.”

After Di Maio’s meeting with the yellow-vests, the French government announced its decision to recall its ambassador to Italy. According to BBC, the French foreign ministry said, “The most recent interferences constitute an additional and unacceptable provocation. They violate the respect that is owed to democratic choices made by a nation which is a friend and an ally. To disagree is one thing, to exploit a relationship for electoral aims is another.”

Verhofstadt, the European Parliament’s chief Brexit negotiator, backed Tusk, commenting “I doubt Lucifer would welcome them, as after what they did to Britain, they would even manage to divide hell,” the Independent reports.

Despite the noise, talks proceeded on February 7, with May meeting the EU’s most senior officials for the first time since her withdrawal agreement was rejected in the House of Commons in January. The EU’s negotiating stance did not match Tusk’s strident tone, but he did not apologize for his comment, and the union did not give ground.

Juncker refused to consider May’s

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request to renegotiate the withdrawal agreement, insisted that the backstop on the Irish border was necessary, and rejected a time-limited backstop, the New York Times reports. He offered to edit the political declaration regarding the future U.K.-EU relationship.

May and Juncker did not agree to any new measures besides a commitment to meet again face-toface by late February, according to the Guardian. Before leaving Brussels, May reported that she confronted Tusk and that she told him his comment was “not helpful and caused widespread dismay in the United Kingdom.”

European Council President Donald Tusk at an EU-Balkans summit in May 2018.

New Report Reveals Sadness in Scandinavia Recession Hits Carl Tulevech Although the Scandinavian countries—Denmark, Norway, Finland, Sweden, and Iceland— consistently rank among the happiest countries in the world, their rankings belie the true emotional state of their inhabitants. A new report by the Happiness Research Institute reveals that sadness afflicts a significant number of Scandinavians. Young Scandinavians are the most susceptible to sadness, stress, loneliness, and feeling under pressure to succeed.

Historically, the rest of the world has desired Scandinavia’s apparent happiness. When measuring happiness through both wealth and a sense of satisfaction in life, Scandinavian countries have bested all others in surveys. Finland took first place in the United Nations Happiness Report league table in 2018.

The Nordic Council of Ministers, an international organization of the Scandinavian countries, the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Aland, asked the Happiness Research Institute to look into the lives of Scandinavians who did not fit the stereotype identified in the surveys. The Institute collected

data over five years, from 2012 through 2016. Many Scandinavians admitted that they are either struggling or suffering when assessing their own lives, reports the Guardian.

Physical health and loneliness are the main stressors for older Scandinavians.

The new assessment concluded that approximately twelve percent of the Scandinavian population is struggling. About fourteen percent of 18- to 23-year-olds fit into this category. However, sixteen percent of Scandinavians who are 90 or above are struggling significantly more than the younger group. Stress, anxiety, and depression are the most prevalent causal factors among the younger generation, while physical health and loneliness are the main stressors for older Scandinavians.

A co-author of the report and a member of the Institute, Michael Birkjaer said that young people were reporting increasingly higher stress levels and loneliness. Young people

are expected to excel in school. “In Denmark, the perfectionism culture is a huge topic,” Birkjaer said, referring to what he calls the “twelfth grade culture” of excelling in classes and exams, according to the Guardian. The world also appears to be a more difficult place in which to succeed, especially after the financial crisis, although Denmark has been recovering quite well.

Social media may also factor into the reduced happiness among the younger generation. Teenagers prone to looking at social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram may envy the lives of their peers.

The study found that mental health problems are the most significant barrier to the well-being of the younger generation. According to BBC, women are more likely to suffer from depression and men more likely to lack sufficient social contact.

The Institute also identified patterns for more specific demographics within the report. Ethnic minorities living in Nordic countries were significantly less happy, and religious people reported higher levels of happiness.

There was little difference in happiness levels reported between those living in the countryside and in the city.

F E B. 2019 | 7

Italy, Indicates Broader European Slowdown Ryan Nowaczyk Recently released economic figures from late 2018 confirm that Italy is suffering a recession in technical terms. While national politics and fiscal constraints distinguish Italy from the rest of the European Union, lowered economic forecasts that the European Commission released on February 7 indicate that the wider European economy is also flagging.

The Italian economy grew overall in 2018, but data made public on January 31 shows that Italian GDP fell 0.1 percent and 0.2 percent in the third and fourth quarters, respectively.

Reuters reports that this is the first time in five years that Italy has undergone two consecutive quarters of negative growth, and the New York Times notes that the recession puts Italy at greater risk of defaulting on its exorbitant public debt, which stands at 132 percent of GDP.

unpredictability to reduced consumer spending. Reuters quoted European Commission Vice President for the Euro and Social Dialogue Valdis Dombrovskis, who prescribed that the Italian government change course with “responsible policies that support stability, confidence and investment.”

In response, Italian officials deflected blame. Reuters highlighted Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio’s claim that the recession “certified the failure of the entire political class which Italians sent packing.” Economy Minister Giovanni Tria challenged the economic diagnosis entirely, saying, “For now, we can talk about a setback rather than a real recession.”

Denying the Italian predicament and its possible domestic causes hardly helps, but Italy’s downturn is admittedly not unique. The Commission’s new, less optimistic predictions apply not just to Italy but also to Germany and the entire Eurozone.

Alejandra Rocha International Ski Federation President Gian-Franco Kasper made several controversial statements in favor of working with dictators rather than environmentalists during an interview published in Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeigner on February 4.

The 75-year old, who has served as ISF president since 1988, said that he much prefers to deal with dictators when hosting major sports competitions like the Winter Olympics.

“Everything is easier in dictatorships,” Kasper told TagesAnzeigner. “Dictators can organize big events without asking the people’s permission.”

“From the business side, I say: I just want to go to dictatorships,” Kasper continued, “I do not want to argue with environmentalists.”

When asked his opinion on human rights abuses that occur in dictatorships, he clarified that he draws the line if the citizens of the authoritarian country in question are starving.

“I do not want to go to a country, invest in skiing there, while the population starves. That’s where I draw the red line. If Qatar applied tomorrow for the Olympics, then I am against,” Kasper told Tages-Anzeigner.

Kasper not only showed his displeasure toward working with environmentalists but also expressed skepticism over environmental concerns like climate change.

An anecdote about the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea illustrated his opinions about “so-called” climate change.

"Everything is easier in dictatorships."—Ski Federation President Gian-Franco Kasper “We have snow, sometimes even a lot of it. I was in Pyeongchang for the Olympiad. We had -35C (-31F).

Everybody who came up to me shivering I greeted with, ‘welcome to global warming,’” Kasper joked.

Toward the end of the interview, Kasper added that the decline of

winter sports in Switzerland can be explained by immigration. “The second generation of immigrants has nothing to do with skiing,” Kasper said.

“There are no ski camps anymore.”

Kasper’s remarks came in the middle of the skiing world championship in Sweden. According to the Washington Post, Norwegian skier Aksel Lund Svindal, who is competing in his last race before retirement, said that Kasper’s remarks were “stupid” and “complete gibberish.”

Three days after the Tages Anzeigner interview, Kasper apologized. He expressed regret over the “misunderstanding” that has “taken attention away from athletes” and said that his comments “were not meant to be taken literally, but this was not clear in the final story.”

This is not the first time that Kasper has been criticized for contentious commentary. According to the Guardian, in 2005, Kasper told NPR that women should not compete in ski jumping for health reasons, saying "it's like jumping down from, let's say, about two meters on the ground about a thousand times a year, which seems not to be appropriate for ladies.”

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Valdis Dombrovskis, one of the European Commission's Vice Presidents, in 2013.

One week later, the European Commission released growth predictions readjusted from November 2018. Originally believing that Italy’s GDP would grow by 1.2 percent in 2019, the Commission corrected that to 0.2 percent (the slowest pace in the Eurozone, the Wall Street Journal pointed out).

EU officials blame the populist Italian government for the recession, citing fiscal irresponsibility. According to Reuters, opponents of the populist coalition claim that Rome’s recent conflict with Brussels over deficit spending drove up borrowing costs and deterred investment.

The New York Times reports that economists linked the government’s

As a pro-EU “creditor” country, Germany contrasts against a debtladen, populist Italy. However, as the Wall Street Journal reported, Germany itself came close to two consecutive quarters of negative growth, with December 2018 marking the fourth consecutive month of declining German factory output.

The trouble stems partly from Beijing. As the New York Times explains, Germany and other European manufacturers have come to depend on exports to China, which buys heavy machinery for infrastructure development projects. With the U.S.China trade war and the decline of the Chinese economy, most European nations face grim economic outlooks.

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LATIN AMERICA & CARIBBEAN James Gordy

T

he election of Nayib Bukele as president of El Salvador on February 3 continued a trend in Latin America of independent populists winning elections. Bukele campaigned primarily on anti-corruption measures, a platform similar to those of left-wing populist Andrés Manuel López Obrador in Mexico and right-wing populist Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, according to LatinNews.

Bukele, a former mayor of El Salvador’s capital, San Salvador, won 53 percent of the vote in the presidential election. Bukele used to belong to the left-wing Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), which has traditionally alternated in power on the national level with the conservative National Republican Alliance (ARENA).

According to the Financial Times, Bukele left the FMLN to run on the ticket of the conservative GANA party, which holds few seats in the legislature.

According to Brookings, Bukele’s election demonstrates the continued decline of traditional parties, both in El Salvador and in Latin America as a whole.

Traditional party systems in the region, often connected to organized labor, have been in decline for over two decades. This decline has permitted the rise of populist candidates running outside of established political organizations.

It is unclear how Bukele will resolve the issue of widespread government corruption, as his campaign offered few specifics beyond the slogan, “There is enough money when no one steals.” Anger at official corruption has become a powerful force for candidates able to harness it, as evidenced by the overwhelming victories of AMLO and Bolsonaro.

While these newly elected presidents’ ability to eliminate government corruption remains untested, their electoral success demonstrates the desire for change in a region that is fed up with establishment politicians using positions for self-enrichment.

Insurgent Leader Killed by Colombian Military Juliana Albuquerque The Colombian military confirmed the death of Rodrigo Cadete in early February. Cadete was one of the leaders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) who refused to accept the terms of a peace treaty agreed upon by the government in 2016. According to BBC, Cadete was killed in an operation in the southern Caqueta region of the country, along with nine other rebels.

Cadete, whose real name is Edgar Mesías Salgado Aragón, was considered second-in-command among FARC troops that refused to demobilize. He was involved with the peace treaty negotiation for four years before its completion, but was allegedly unsatisfied with the final outcome and refused to sign the agreement.

According to the Spectator, Colombian Defense Minister Guillermo Botero said Cadete was planning to unite a smaller group of around 1,700 FARC members who have not abided by the peace treaty, in hopes of reigniting conflict across the country.

With Cadete’s death, the Colombian military achieved another

victory over the FARC dissidents in a short timespan: in just over a month and a half, two key players of the rebel group have been killed. According to InSight Crime, Walter “Guacho” Arizala, who commanded FARC troops on the country’s Pacific coast, was killed in combat in late December.

Despite these bloody encounters, however, the 2016 peace treaty is still hailed as a historic achievement for Colombia. In a country with an extensive violent history of militia fighting, experts called it extraordinary that around 7,000 rebels laid down their weapons after the signing. The Guardian describes the accord as “the start of the construction of peace.”

Nevertheless, recent events appear to paint a bleaker picture. Along with the armed conflict between FARC and the military, terrorist bombings are fairly frequent in Colombia. On January 18, for instance, a car-bomb killed 21 people at a Bogotá police academy campus. According to CBS News, the incident led to three days of national mourning, with President Ivan Duque denouncing the “dementia of these aggressions” following the attack.

Protests Against Maduro Spread Leticia Chacon From p. 1 The protests have spread to countries beyond Latin America. In the United States, there were protests in cities such as Washington, D.C., Boston, New York, and Miami. Madrid also saw large protests in support of Guaidó.

Protests in Venezuela are often marked by violence between military forces and protesters, and demonstrators are frequently imprisoned. The New York Times reports that at least 40 protesters have been killed by Maduro’s Special Actions Force (FAES) and, according the NGO Foro Penal, there are now 988 political prisoners.

On February 2, Venezuelans around the world gathered once again to peacefully protest against Maduro’s dictatorship and ask for democratic elections. This most recent protest is notable, as Reuters reports that military officials have started to question the actions and legitimacy of Maduro.

According to Reuters, one of the first military officials to do so was General Francisco Yanez, a member of the Venezuelan Air Force’s high command.

In a video Yanez posted on February 2, he claimed that an estimated 90 percent of the military is against Maduro’s regime. On the same day, at a protest in Barquisimeto, military forces meant to suppress protests abandoned their posts.

RPP reports that one of the men leading the force said, “I would rather withdraw my men than repress the people.”

Guaidó’s administration is currently focused on gaining the military’s support and reassuring its leaders that they will be protected under the newly elected government should they reject Maduro as president. Having the support of the military is crucial to ensure a peaceful constitutional transition from Maduro to a new, democratically elected president. With this recent political shift in the military, there is reason to believe that the presidential crisis will be resolved soon.

Militia-based violence continues to terrorize Colombian citizens despite a recent decrease in overall homicide rates in the country. According to a new United Nations report, as of January 1, 85 FARC rebels have been killed since the signing of the peace treaty; 14 of those killings have occurred within the last three months.

According to Al Jazeera, Colombia’s special investigation unit has blamed the “illegal armed groups and criminal organizations” for these deaths, but UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also warned Duque

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against multiple killings of social activist leaders in areas abandoned by the militias.

Duque, who has previously spoken against the peace treaty signed by his predecessor, however, appeared content with the result of the military operations against the FARC. According to BBC, at an event in Manizales, Duque said, “Today in a seamless operation the criminal known as Rodrigo Cadete, one of the most feared figures of terrorism in our country, was neutralized.”

Colombian Special Forces run a drill for former President Juan Manuel Santos.

F E B. 2019 | 9

Charges Filed in Murder of Former Chilean President Union Strikes Secure Six people were convicted on charges relating to the murder of former Chilean president Eduardo Frei Montalva on January 31. Frei was initially thought to have died of surgical complications, yet further investigation led by Judge Alejandro Madrid and Frei’s children uncovered an assassination plot instigated by Augusto Pinochet’s authoritarian regime.

Pinochet’s 17-year dictatorial rule ended in March 1998 and prosecutions of crimes that were committed under his administration have grown since then.

According to Reuters, it is estimated that almost 3,000 people disappeared or were killed during the dictatorship and almost 28,000 were tortured.

Frei initially supported the coup against President Salvador Allende, a socialist whose government was overthrown by General Augusto Pinochet, but later became an adamant supporter of the Chilean pro-democracy movement. His murder in January 1982 preceded a string of mysterious deaths, which are now mostly attributed to Pinochet, of leading pro-democratic leaders. Other suspicious high-profile deaths currently being investigated include Chilean poet Pablo Neruda and leading union organizer Tucapel

Jiménez, reports International.

United

Press

Frei died of toxic substances being introduced into his body.

According to Pulse Nigeria, Judge Madrid sentenced four doctors, a former intelligence agent who worked for Pinochet, and Frei’s chauffeur with three to ten years for aiding and abetting in Frei’s murder. Judge Madrid ordered the exhumation of the body, which discovered that Frei died of toxic substances being introduced into his body, and not of surgical complications as reported by a previous autopsy.

According to Chile Today, lethal doses of thallium and mustard gas were given to Frei through his medication, making him too weak to survive his hernia surgery. According to Reuters, two of the doctors were only charged as accomplices for their role in falsifying the official autopsy report and removing Frei’s organs to destroy any sort of contrary evidence.

This historic ruling on the highest profile murder case of Pinochet’s regime came after almost 19 years of investigations propelled by Frei’s

children. According to the Washington Post, the first court objection came from Frei’s son and former Chilean president, Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle, who was supposedly tipped off by former aides to General Pinochet. Frei Ruiz-Tagle told the New York Times that the “battle does not end here” and demanded that the current Chilean government work to “establish the political responsibilities of high government officials at the time” to undercover the truth of the murder.

Carmen Frei, the daughter of President Eduardo Frei Montalva, also spoke out about her father’s murder in an interview with Chile Today, expressing her hope for him to “finally be able to rest in peace.” Other high government officials weighed in on the convictions, with current President Sebastian Piñera posting on Twitter his expressions of condemnation of the murder and condolences to Frei’s family and political party, the Christian Democratic Party (PDC). Former President Ricardo Lagos called the sentencing an “unprecedented moment in the history of Chile,” according to the Washington Post.

The increase in prosecutions of these dictatorship-era crimes represents a shift in the political climate away from the conservatism that has dominated Chilean politics since the end of Pinochet’s regime.

Indigenous Activists Protest Brazil Cabinet Reshuffle Sean Fulmer Hundreds of people took to the streets across Brazil on January 31 to protest President Jair Bolsonaro’s policies on indigenous rights. Led by the Association of Indigenous People of Brazil, they demanded that Bolsonaro respect their basic human rights and protect them from targeted abuse.

AFP reports that the protesters marched under the slogan “Indigenous blood, not a single drop more.”

Activists want indigenous rights enshrined in the constitution to be protected and for violence against indigenous people to be prosecuted.

According to the Association of Indigenous People of Brazil, there have already been six recorded invasions of indigenous land in January alone.

Survival International, an NGO, claims that these targeted attacks are a “declaration of open warfare” by Bolsonaro’s government.

During the president’s first month in office, he announced several measures directed at weakening civil rights designated for indigenous people. His first measure moved responsibility for demarcating indigenous lands from Brazil’s Indigenous Affairs Department (FUNAI) to the Ministry of Agriculture.

According to LatinNews, critics believe this move is a direct attempt to end the creation of new indigenous lands, as the Ministry of Agriculture is notoriously anti-indigenous. CNBC reports that the Ministry of Agriculture has a reputation for being strongly pro-agribusiness and will most likely permit the development of protected lands.

Protesters marched under the slogan “Indigenous blood, not a single drop more.”

Bolsonaro also transferred oversight of FUNAI from the Ministry of Justice to the recently created Ministry of Women, Family, and Human Rights. According to the Globe, this new ministry will be led by evangelical preacher Damares Alves, who has a long history of antiindigenous behavior. A recent report by Época revealed allegations that Alves kidnapped an indigenous child in 2005 and now claims that the child is her legally adopted daughter. Alves reportedly took the child out of her

village for dental treatment and then never returned the girl to her family.

El País discovered that, in a past sermon, Alves stated that had she not “adopted” the child, the girl would have been killed in an indigenous custom of infanticide, although there is no proof that such a custom exists among indigenous groups in Brazil. In light of Alves’ history, indigenous activists claim that the transfer of FUNAI to the ministry run by Alves is another direct attempt to weaken indigenous rights.

According to LatinNews, besides these acts, Bolsonaro has repeatedly promised that he will end the establishment of new indigenous lands and attempt to open up these areas to mining and agriculture developments.

Meanwhile, according to AP, the recent dam collapse in Minas Gerais on January 25 and the ensuing pollution threaten the livelihood of indigenous communities in the area.

Although indigenous people make up slightly less than one percent of the Brazilian population, FUNAI estimates that 13 percent of Brazil is designated as indigenous territory. However, this number might decline during Bolsonaro’s presidency as indigenous rights come under attack by the government.

Maquiladora Wage Hikes in Mexico Oscar Avila In the Mexican border town of Matamoros, manufacturing, or maquiladora, plant workers are on course to win raises after nearly half a month of mass strikes. According to the El Paso Times, strikes by laborers earning less than $1 an hour at 48 local manufacturing plants, most of which produce car parts destined for the U.S., led to the concessions. The wage increases were also prompted by a decree from Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, commonly known as AMLO, doubling the wage rates in Mexico’s northern border region.

According to the People’s World, the maquiladora plants are the result of a 1964 development project by the Mexican government that authorized the construction of foreign-owned plants with the caveat that all products would be sold outside Mexico. During the industry boom, lasting from the 1950s to the 1980s, the minimum wage in Matamoros was above the national minimum wage of 140 pesos ($11.20), at 198 pesos (equivalent to $15.84) a day.

During the 1980s, as President Carlos Salinas de Gortari laid the groundwork to implement the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), he arrested members of the local Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM) union to weaken labor opposition, allowing the plants to drastically lower wage rates.

In a mid-January decree, AMLO promised to double the minimum wage in Mexico’s border regions along with a reduction of gas prices and a decrease in the value-added tax in an effort to make the region more appealing to investment, according to CBS 4 Valley Central. However, Matamorosbased manufacturing plants sought to

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undercut the initiative because many union contracts are indexed to wage hikes, according to the El Paso Times.

According to Julia Quiñones, the director of the Border Committee of Women Workers in Ciudad Acuña, the maquiladora plants raised the base wage of laborers but slashed bonuses, thus “not raising the wages at all.”

Coupled with the higher cost of living in the northern border region and a rapid increase in the prices of basic necessities in Matamoros, laborers were left little choice but to strike.

After a series of “wildcat walkouts,” over 2,000 workers occupied the offices of the Union for Workers in the Maquiladora Industry (SJIOM) on January 18, demanding the union declare an official strike after the maquiladora plants threatened mass firings and plant closures. A mass walkout strike on January 27 followed this demonstration, which was reported by the El Paso Times to include more than 25,000 laborers. According to Excélsior, strikers demanded a 20 percent wage increase for all workers— including those already making more than the minimum wage—and an annual bonus of 32,000 pesos ($168).

On February 2, less than a week after the strike, SJIOM leaders said that a majority of the plants had agreed to meet the union demands, in what Jose Zuniga, a miners’ union activist who helped organize the strike, called a “rare victory for workers” in an interview with the El Paso Times.

While the head of the association of maquiladora plants, Luis Aguirre, warned that the wage increase “will give rise to unemployment and cause…15 of these companies to flee,” Quiñones holds a far more positive outlook, saying, “What we’re seeing in Matamoros is that rank-and-file workers are becoming more conscious and aware, and that makes me optimistic.”

Women work in a garment maquiladora in Northern Mexico.

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INDO-ASIA-PACIFIC Thailand Fights Pollution with Royal Rainmakers Thailand’s Central Administrative Court on February 7 ordered Prime Minister Prayut Chan-ocha, Bangkok Governor Aswin Kwanmuang, and the National Environmental Board to testify on their failure to mitigate the air pollution crisis that has devastated the Greater Bangkok area, reports the Strait Times.

According to the Nation, Greater Bangkok has consistently experienced an Air Quality Index (AQI) score above the “Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups” threshold of 100 for over two months, with a high of 173 on February 6. The high level of PM2.5 particulates contributes to the dangerously low air quality. Experts call such particulate “one of the most dangerous constituents of air pollution because it can penetrate deep into the lungs,” adds AP. Scientists point to the slash-and-burn agricultural practices of sugar cane farmers, factory emissions, and car emissions to explain the situation.

The city’s limited supply of masks and air purifiers is rapidly depleting, causing some to experience symptoms

such as coughing blood and itchy, burning eyes, reports the Independent.

As a result, hundreds of schools have closed their doors, according to South China Morning Post. The Thai Chamber of Commerce estimates that a prolonged air pollution crisis would cost between 10 billion and 15 billion Thai baht ($433 million and $650 million) a month.

Thus far, the Thai government has deployed the Department of Royal Rainmaking and Agricultural Aviation to carry out artificial rainmaking processes in an attempt to clump together hazardous small air

600 factories that it deemed had been producing extreme levels of carbon emissions, says the Bangkok Post.

At the testimony, which will take place at the highest Bangkok appellate court, the Central Administrative Court, officials will be held accountable for their haphazard and ineffective mitigation strategies.

The magnitude of this crisis caused health experts to advise the public to spend the lunar new year indoors and refrain from burning joss paper and incense. Levels have dropped to 112 AQI at the time of publication, but a record two million Thai citizens

have now downloaded air quality tracking apps. This demonstrates a growing awareness of the health and environmental risks associated with air pollution. Though environmental degradation data has yet to be published, according to South China Morning Post, high smog levels can seriously curb Bangkok’s income from tourism.

The world’s most visited city is currently in the middle of a serious air pollution crisis, which has the potential to pose harmful economic, health, and environmental challenges if it continues.

The world’s most visited city is in the middle of a serious air pollution crisis. pollutants, reports Channel News Asia.

Government officials are exploring the feasibility of using fleets of drones that emit water and non-hazardous chemicals, according to Quartz. As a stopgap measure, however, the government mandated the closure of

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Nareg Kuyumjian

Health experts encourage Bangkok’s citizens to stay indoors due to severe smog.

Thai Royal Runs for PM Rael Baird Thai Princess Ubolratana Mahidol announced her candidacy for prime minister on February 8, reports the Borneo Post. She may be competing against the current military-backed prime minister, Prayut Chan-ocha, in a move which dramatically changes the Thai political landscape. Elections will be held on March 24.

According to the Bangkok Post, she will be running with the support of the Thai Raksa Chart party, which has ties to the politically-influential Shinawatra family, including Thaksin and Yingluck Shinawatra, two former PMs ousted by the military on corruption charges that the family claims are politically motivated.

Prayut led the 2014 military coup against the government following months of political crisis, according to CBC. He is a former general and is running with the nomination of the Palang Pracharat Party, a party supported and influenced by the

military, says the Bangkok Post.

The contest pits a member of the royal family against the military, which is widely seen as one of Thailand’s most royalist institutions, explains CBC. The Shinawatra family had been regarded as opponents of the royal family by some royalists, but Ubolratana’s support challenges this narrative, offering renewed credibility to the party among royalists.

King Maha Vajiralongkorn declared that it is against the spirit of the constitution for a member of the royal family to hold political office, reports the Bangkok Post. Although by law Ubolratana is no longer a member of the royal family, she still performs some royal duties. Prayut’s party has also questioned the legality of Ubolratana’s candidacy.

Adding to the constitutional issues are laws forbidding criticism of the royal family. According to the Borneo Post, it is unclear whether these laws include Ubolratana in their protection and how they may affect her campaign.

Scientists Discover New Life on New Island Karan Chauhan NASA reported the discovery of the first signs of plant and bird life, as well as the presence of an unknown “light-colored clay mud,” in HungaTonga-Hunga-Ha’apai on January 30.

Researchers first visited the island in October.

When an underwater volcano violently erupted in 2014, the magma and ash created debris that connected two smaller existing islands to create the world’s newest island of its kind, Hu n g a - To n g a - Hu n g a - H a’a p a i .

Scientists believed the island was like other temporary land masses created by active volcanoes and expected the tide to wash it away.

However, the island, part of Tonga, has endured the tide and is now the third island to form in such a way in 150 years. The island has probably survived, according to volcanologist Jess Phoenix, because of chemical reactions between ash and seawater “that allowed it to solidify more than it usually would.”

Since 2015, NASA’s Goddard Center has worked to better understand this anomaly by mapping the island using satellites and sending an expedition in October to examine the vegetation and soil on the island. The “light-colored, clay mud” baffled Dan Slayback, a scientist with NASA, as it is clearly “not ash,” like one would expect from a volcanically formed island.

Vegetation on the island was also, at first, confusing as it formed very quickly, but Phoenix explains that the vegetation “was transported by animals—most likely through bird droppings—and volcanic land is pretty fertile.”

Future studies of the island will examine its unique resilience against erosion as well as possible applications and “invaluable lessons” the landscape could teach scientists about similar “features of planets such as Mars.”

Though the island has survived longer than previously expected, NASA predicts that most of the land mass will erode in six to 30 years given the current rate of erosion due to rain.

F E B. 2019 | 11

Prominent Comfort Women Activist Dies at 92 Serena Lu Kim Bok-dong, a vocal South Korean survivor of sexual slavery during the World War II occupation by the Imperial Japanese Army, died at the age of 92 in a Seoul hospital on January 28. She spent much of the latter half of her life fiercely advocating for recognition and justice for her and other “comfort women,” a euphemism referring to the women and girls enslaved by Japan’s army.

According to South China Morning Post, the first comfort woman to speak

out about her experiences was Kim Hak-soon in 1991; Kim Bok-dong followed soon after in 1992. Kim and other activists held protests every Wednesday in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, causing significant embarrassment and chaos in JapanSouth Korea relations. She also traveled internationally to raise awareness of sexual violence in war zones by telling her personal story.

The issue of comfort women, as well as the larger legacy of the Japanese colonization of Korea, continues to stymie progress in relations between

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Every Wednesday, comfort women protest in front of the Embassy of Japan in Seoul.

Japan and South Korea. In 2015, the Japanese and South Korean governments negotiated a deal where the Japanese government issued an apology and paid one billion yen ($12.4 million) in reparations to a fund for survivors.

Kim traveled internationally to raise awareness of sexual violence in war zones.

Kim vocally criticized the deal— according to the Strait Times, in a September 2016 parliamentary session, Kim referred to denials by some members of the Japanese government that comfort women had never existed by saying, “We won’t accept it even if Japan gives ten billion yen. It’s not about money. They’re still saying we went there because we wanted to.” New South Korean President Moon Jaein has since shut down the fund and indicated that South Korea will take a more “victim-oriented” approach in future negotiations.

According to the New York Times, since 1991, 239 comfort women have come forward with their stories. Today, only 23 are still alive—another woman identified only by the surname Lee passed away just hours before Kim. With most of the remaining survivors in their 90s, many have begun directing their attention toward ensuring future generations remain aware of the sexual slavery endured by comfort women. In an NPR interview, Alexis Dudden, professor of history at the University of Connecticut, discusses how in 2012, Kim and Gil Wok-on, another survivor, set up the Butterfly Fund, a foundation that would direct any past and future reparations from the Japanese government toward other survivors of sexual slavery.

Supporters gathered at Kim’s funeral with banners and yellow paper butterflies on February 1. According to Reuters, Kim Sam, a supporter of Kim Bok-dong’s activism, described her impression of the activist, saying, “Upright, dignified—that’s how she always was, first as a victim and later as a human rights activist. She’s a role model I respect the most.”

Hundreds of Thousands of Fish Killed in Australian River Basin Rohan Sahu Up to one million fish have been found dead in a mass fish kill along the Darling River in Australia’s southeastern state of New South Wales (NSW). According to the Murray-Darling Basin Authority, the impacted species include the critically endangered Murray Cod, some of which were up to 100-yearsold. The Darling River also serves as an important breeding ground for several other endangered fish species, including the golden perch.

The fish kill occured in January, during Australia’s summer months, as the latest in a series of fish kills in the same region. The New South Wales Department of Primary Industries, which oversees the development of agriculture, fisheries, and biosecurity, attributed the environmental disaster to “several related and compounding factors resulting in low oxygen in the river.”

More specifically, the report suggests that a rapid temperature drop from 48°C to 28°C (118°F to 82°F) resulted “in conditions conducive to blue-green algal blooms.” That, in

combination with an ongoing drought, “reduced dissolved oxygen available to fish.”

The fish kill came to national attention by way of a viral video posted to Facebook of two Menindee residents holding up fish from the latest incident. In the video, Dick Arnold and Rob McBride claim that the incident “is nothing to do with drought; this is a manmade disaster.”

At potential risk from water poisoning include millions of native fish.

Arnold and McBride are among a number of locals and politicians who allege that the most recent fish deaths result from corruption and greed, and accuse the state government and cotton growers of mismanagement of the Murray-Darling basin.

Farmers have also raised concerns over the impact of the environmental disaster on their businesses. At potential risk for water poisoning

include 250,000 livestock, in addition to millions of native fish without access to an alternate water supply. The Land writes that metropolitan areas such as Broken Hill that use the Darling River and Menindee lakes as water sources may also be adversely affected.

According to critics, the origins of the crisis lie in the government turning a blind eye to cotton growers in the region siphoning water for irrigation purposes from the lakes that feed into the river. The Guardian reports that in March 2018, the state ombudsman criticized regulator WaterNSW, the state-owned corporation in charge of running water infrastructure and ensuring compliance with MurrayDarling’s water laws, for not taking any enforcement actions and prosecutions against water theft for a period of 15 months, despite WaterNSW’s quantitative reports claiming such enforcement actions were taking place.

Moreover, the New South Wales government changed water-sharing laws in 2012 by increasing allowances on irrigators’ pump sizes, removing daily extraction limits, and allowing for more storage.

Under the current system, the

total allotment legally drawn from the river per year amounts to 11,000 gigalitres—the rough equivalent of 5.5 million Olympic swimming pools—according to Discover Murray, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to promote the Murray River and surrounding region.

However, this figure does not account for additional water theft, which the state ombudsman accused the New South Wales government of ignoring.

Discover Murray estimates the full amount of water in the MurrayDarling to be no more than 30,000 gigalitres.

Sky News reported that Jeremy Buckingham, a former Greens and current independent member of the New South Wales legislative council, said that “the huge extraction of water for big irrigators is literally choking the life out of the system downriver and leaving stagnant, blue-green algae infested dregs for everyone else.”

Buckingham further emphasized the severity of the situation, telling the Sydney Morning Herald, “It is an ecological catastrophe on an international scale.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: A. Chinnasathian and A. Kottage

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hailand continued its pattern of surprising political developments when Princess Ubolratana Rajakanya, King Maha Vajiralongkorn’s older sister, announced her candidacy for prime minister with the prodemocracy Thai Save the Nation Party on February 8, according to BBC. Just ten hours later, the king commanded that the princess stay out of politics with a royal decree.

The princess later implied in a private Instagram post that she would not withdraw from the race.

The series of announcements overshadowed the fact that Thailand’s current junta leader, Prime Minister Prayut Chanocha, also recently announced his candidacy in the upcoming March election. While Thais are left confused as to whether the monarchy and the military are now friends or foes, one thing is clear: the Thai monarchy is more visibly involved in politics than ever.

Meanwhile, exiled opposition leader Sam Rainsy has pledged to return to Cambodia in 2019.

The Phnom Penh Post reports that Rainsy made this claim in Seattle on February 3, when he reiterated his intention to “give the country back to the people” and said he “will go back to Cambodia in 2019, not to let Hun Sen arrest me but to ensure that millions of Cambodians will rise up to arrest Hun Sen and prosecute him for treason.”

Cambodian officials claimed that Rainsy’s words incited uproar.

According to the Manila Times, National Police Chief General Neth Savoeun asserted that Rainsy had sparked unlawful protests in the kingdom and attempted to create chaos by announcing his return. Savoeun said, “We must take action. There are three arrest warrants I’ve obtained from the court.” Savoeun elaborated that some former opposition party supporters posted statements on Facebook and videos on YouTube expressing their loyalty to Rainsy, noting that authorities should closely monitor these supporters.

National sentiment is split: some anticipate Rainsy’s arrival, while others are skeptical. Those in power, however, both doubt and fear Rainsy’s return – one that may spell the end of Cambodia’s effectively one-party regime.

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MIDDLE EAST & CENTRAL ASIA

Lebanon Assembles a New Government After eight months of political negotiations, Lebanon has finally assembled a new government, reported Al Jazeera. Sunni Prime Minister Saad Hariri will head its 30-minister cabinet, which notably includes several Hezbollah allies.

Hezbollah is an Iranian-backed Shi’a political party and militant group.

During parliamentary elections in May 2018, Hezbollah won a small majority and has since worked to claim head positions in ministries and state institutions, as reported by the Guardian.

The eight-month impasse was largely the result of a power struggle between Hezbollah and competing parties. The Economist notes that this discord reflects broader regional tensions at work. Prime Minister Hariri is a member of the Future bloc, supported by the West and allied with Saudi Arabia. Hariri’s bloc fears that greater political power for Hezbollah in Lebanon would give Iran more influence in the region.

During negotiations, Hariri attempted to prevent Hezbollah from filling the cabinet position allocated

to the party. Al Jazeera reports that he eventually compromised, allowing the Hezbollah-backed Hasan Mrad to become minister of state in the cabinet. Hezbollah allies will also fill the ministries of finance, foreign affairs, and health.

Prolonged government uncertainty, however, is not uncommon for Lebanon. According to the Economist, Lebanon has spent nearly 2.5 of the past 13 years without a government. Slowmoving Lebanese politics are a result of the power-sharing agreement on which the government was founded. It

Ali Hassan Khalil announced economic reforms geared at reducing the national deficit, which is one of the highest in the world. On the international front, Lebanon reaffirmed its policy of “disassociation” with regards to the war in Syria.

Despite Lebanon’s official dissociation with the war, Hezbollah has reportedly been fighting along Syrian President Assad for years. Hezbollah’s new political power thus puts Lebanese policy on Syria into question.

Despite initial activity, Time notes that the new government faces serious

economic and political challenges. In addition to a deficit worth 155 percent of its GDP, Lebanon is also struggling with an unemployment rate of 32 percent. Moreover, the country has taken on a significant burden of the Syrian refugee crisis. An estimated 1 million Syrian refugees have fled to Lebanon, straining infrastructure and an already-suffering economy.

Discontent over these conditions and a seemingly incompetent government has been intensifying, with protests and strikes seizing the national scene in the final weeks without a government.

Lebanon has spent nearly 2.5 of the past 13 years without a government. aims to proportionally represent each of the country’s 18 religious groups in Parliament. Elected officials must therefore cooperate across sectarian lines to make the cabinet decisions necessary for a new government.

The new government has already begun major political initiatives.

Reuters reports that Finance Minister

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Emma Morris

Saad Hariri will head Lebanon’s government after eight months of negotiations.

Uzbekistan Legalizes the Study of Political Science Will Rau The study of political science, once coined a Western pseudo-science and subsequently outlawed, has regained legality in Uzbekistan, Reuters reports.

While the recent move is limited to one state-run university, it follows other efforts toward modernization and political liberalization amid a regime change.

In 2013, Uzbek universities stopped granting political science degrees, and the subject was banned from curriculum nationwide in 2015.

The ban, decreed by then-President Islam Karimov, marked a significant turn in discourse surrounding Uzbek politics, according to the Guardian.

Karimov, a Soviet-era authoritarian, had imprisoned political dissidents, rigged elections, and forced millions of civilians to pick cotton for the central government since the Soviet Union’s breakup. Thus, his decision to outlaw

political science as a vocation came as no surprise to world leaders.

In a televised announcement, Uzbekistan’s current President Shavka Mirziyoyev instructed government officials to re-launch political science courses. He hopes that courses will provide “systemic research in the area of civil society emergence and development” and inform public policy, according to a report by MSN. Since Karimov’s death in 2016, Mirziyoyev has enacted social reform, including striking bans on foreign currency and playing billiards. In May 2018, BBC contended that Uzbekistan had “yet to initiate any serious political liberalization,” but credited Mirziyoyev with progressive, anti-isolationist doctrines that have mitigated Uzbekistan’s economic woes.

In the context of such slow-paced progress, the return of political science might indicate Mirziyoyev’s openness to more significant change.

Qatar Wins the Asian Cup Ali Taha Brown In a major upset, Qatar defeated Japan 3-1 in the 2019 Asian Cup soccer final held in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Goals from Almoez Ali, Abdelaziz Hatim, and Akram Hassan Afif helped Qatar’s team, the Maroons, to their first-ever Asian Cup victory, an achievement that bodes well for their hopes of further success in the 2022 World Cup, which will be held in Qatar. Until this latest triumph, Qatar was not known for being a strong footballing nation.

Qatar’s victory granted the country a valuable political triumph. Qatar faced Saudi Arabia and the UAE in the tournament, both of whom have been blockading Qatar since July 2017, according to BBC. Qatar defeated both teams with ease, securing a 4-0 win over the UAE and exciting citizens back home. Because of the blockade, Qatari nationals were unable to attend the game against the UAE, which was held in Abu Dhabi. The New York Times reported that during the game, Emirati fans threw items such as shoes and bottles at the Qatari team. In an interview with Al Jazeera, 17-year-old Qatari citizen Osama al-Sheikh stated, “This football sends a great message to all of the Arabs, especially to the UAE. God is with us.”

While the political tension surrounding the Asian Cup was intense, the players attempted to focus on the tournament, not the politics. In an interview with Al Jazeera, Ali alSalat, the Qatar Football Association media officer, stated, “They are athletes.

They are going to play football. No need to mix politics with sports.”

While those involved in the competition may try to downplay the impact of their achievement, the implications of their victory are likely to be significantly positive. Their success could inspire a fresh wave of patriotism, as Fatima al-Bureiji, a Qatari citizen, said when she told Al Jazeera, “This is the happiest moment of our lives.” Furthermore, crowds of Qatari soccer fans greeted the athletes with fireworks and flowers upon their return.

F E B. 2019 | 13

Pope Francis Calls for Peace in Visit to UAE Noah Clarke Pope Francis recently concluded his three-day trip to the United Arab Emirates, advocating for peace in the myriad of conflicts affecting the region in places like Syria and Iraq, according to NPR. The Pope’s visit to the region marks the first time that a Pope has ever visited the Arabian Peninsula.

Throughout his visit - which was framed around interfaith dialogue, religious tolerance, and calls for peace - he met with a number of key political and religious figures from the region,

including the grand imam of Cairo’s Al-Azhar University, Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb. They discussed issues of peace and interfaith unity and released a statement saying, “We resolutely declare that religions must never incite war, hateful attitudes, hostility and extremism, nor must they incite violence or the shedding of blood.”

During his visit to the UAE, Pope Francis declared that “every form of violence must be condemned without hesitation… no violence can be justified in the name of religion.”

The UAE remains involved in some

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Pope Francis condemned violence during his trip to the United Arab Emirates.

capacity in the conflicts in Libya, Syria, and Yemen. Several governments and human rights groups such as Human Rights Watch have condemned the Emirati role in these conflicts, particularly its role in the ongoing civil war in Yemen.

“Every form of violence must be condemned without hesitation.” – Pope Francis ­ The UAE is part of the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen that is supporting the Yemeni government in its fight against the Houthi rebels. According to Human Rights Watch, the Saudiled coalition, UAE included, has committed numerous human rights violations, including indiscriminate airstrikes against non-military targets and secret prisons where torture and sexual abuse run rampant. As a result of the war and the coalition’s blockade against vital Yemeni ports, millions of Yemenis face the prospects

of starvation and illness. In the same speech, as CNN reports, the pope called for prayers for the “children that are hungry, are thirsty, don’t have medicine and their lives are in danger.”

Human Rights Watch also released a statement prior to the Pope’s visit to the UAE, pushing the Pope to discuss the human rights abuses occurring within the country, such as the rights of foreign workers. However, it is unknown if those issues were discussed during the private conversations between the Pope and Emirati officials.

The Pope concluded his visit to the United Arab Emirates by holding Catholic Mass in Abu Dhabi’s Zayed Sports City stadium, as reported

by Haaretz. According to Emirati officials, an estimated 135,000 people attended the service. The majority of the crowd were migrant workers in the UAE (an estimated one million Catholic migrant workers live in the UAE) and Catholic tourists. Citizens from over 100 countries came to Abu Dhabi to watch the Pope speak.

In order to accommodate the wide language variety, the Pope’s speech was translated into several languages, reported NPR.

Key European States Create Iran Sanctions Loophole Advait Arun According to Foreign Policy, the foreign ministers of the U.K., France, and Germany announced on January 31 the creation of a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to facilitate trade of food, medicine, and medical devices to Iran.

The SPV, called the Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges (INSTEX), is incorporated as a limited liability company in Paris, run by a German banker, supervised by a British advisory board, and funded by all three countries. After the United States backed out of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal – officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action – and reimposed sanctions on Iran, various European countries vowed to continue trade with Iran while sidestepping strict U.S. sanctions.

INSTEX is Europe’s first concrete attempt to insulate its trade with Iran from American sanctions, creating a barter system that avoids the U.S. financial system.

While INSTEX’s actual mechanisms remain vague, the Financial Times understands it as a “mirror-image transaction system,”

replacing “potentially sanctionable international payments between Europe and Iran with payments that did not cross Iran’s borders.”

INSTEX is Europe’s first concrete attempt to insulate its trade with Iran.

Currently, European manufacturers cannot sell to Iranian importers and Iranian oil producers could not sell to European fuel traders without involving American sanctions. The Financial Times suggests that, through the SPV, the European fuel trader could pay the European manufacturer in Euros and the Iranian importer could pay the Iranian oil producer in Iranian rials, while the goods themselves would be exchanged without an official monetary transaction. Such an exchange, however, would require Iran to set up its own version of INSTEX, a process opposed by anti-Western Iranian groups.

Despite INSTEX’s intent to avoid sanctions, its European supporters

plan to start with small-scale transactions of non-sanctionable, humanitarian goods, including food and medicine. Al-Monitor quotes Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s deputy foreign minister and a key negotiator in the 2015 nuclear deal, as saying, “it’s possible [INSTEX] will start with these [non-sanctionable] goods until a mechanism for payment is established, but essentially it is beneficial for sanctioned goods, and the purpose of this vehicle is for sanctioned goods.”

Since the United States withdrew from the Iran deal and reinstated sanctions in 2018, the Iranian economy has tumbled, facing rising unemployment and inflation. A falling Iranian rial has decreased the Iranian government’s ability to purchase foreign goods, which has led to shortages of food, medicine, and foreign currency reserves.

Furthermore, with Chinese oil imports at a three-year low, Iran has no stable way of obtaining foreign currency to import more goods.

Azernews, an Azerbaijani newspaper, quotes Iranian economy expert Mehrdad Ermani as saying, “I expect that within a short period, services offered through INSTEX will

generate positive trade and finance gains to Iran.” However, Deutsche Welle, a German newspaper, notes that INSTEX’s small-scale trade in nonsanctionable goods may not actually assist the Iranian economy beyond alleviating shortages.

Furthermore, as Deutsche Welle reports, the Trump administration has stated that it is closely following these developments. The U.S. State Department warned in a statement that “entities that continue to engage in sanctionable activity involving Iran risk severe consequences that could include losing access to the U.S. financial system and the ability to do business with the United States or U.S. companies.” On the other hand, the European Union Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini embraced the SPV as a tenable trade framework that would allow actors to “pursue legitimate trade with Iran,” according to a statement from her office.

Ultimately, as the New York Times states, the success of INSTEX depends on Iranian cooperation, the willingness of small European companies to engage, and the U.S. government’s response.

EDITOR’S NOTE: April Artrip

A

CNN investigation has revealed that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates transferred U.S.manufactured arms to militant groups in Yemen linked to Al-Qaeda. Saudi Arabia also transferred arms to the Abu alAbbas Brigade, a militia sanctioned by the U.S. for financing the Yemeni chapter of the Islamic State. On top of that, CNN discovered that U.S.made arms and military vehicles have ended up in the hands of Houthi rebels.

Reuters reports that on February 7, several U.S. senators introduced a bill that would place limits on arms sales to Saudi Arabia, end the practice of refueling Saudi aircraft engaged in the war in Yemen, and sanction those behind the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Republican Senate leadership stymied previous efforts to hold Saudi Arabia accountable for its role in the humanitarian crisis in Yemen. However, the controversies surrounding Khashoggi’s assassination and the transfer of U.S. arms to terrorist groups have renewed efforts among U.S. lawmakers to penalize Saudi Arabia.

This recent bill is an important step in rebuking Saudi Arabia for its transgressions. The kingdom has long acted with impunity in Yemen; it has indiscriminately conducted airstrikes that have killed thousands of civilians, and its blockade has strangled the flow of vital food and medicine imports, according to a report by Human Rights Watch. The Saudi regime’s assassination of Khashoggi further displays reckless behavior and a staunch unwillingness to abide by international law. Moreover, the regime has conducted a repressive campaign within its own country and targeted dozens of activists.

The U.S. government should go beyond holding Saudi Arabia accountable for its violations of international and U.S. law. As the Saudi government continues to flout international conventions and rack up human rights abuses—at home and abroad—the U.S. should fully reevaluate its relationship with Saudi Arabia and its role in permitting and even perpetuating such criminal acts.

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AFRICA

Sarah Mathys

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he State Department released a statement on January 23 endorsing the results of the December presidential election in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

In the elections, widely considered fraudulent by both domestic and international observers, Felix Tshisekedi took the presidency in the country’s first-ever peaceful transition of power.

Initial drafts of the statement condemned the election as “deeply flawed and troubling,” according to documents leaked to Foreign Policy. The final statement, however, included none of these warnings, instead declaring the State Department “committed to working with the new D.R.C. government.” Many State Department officials who had worked on the first drafts expressed their dismay at the final statement, saying that “a peaceful transition of power, however fraudulent, [was] the least bad option.”

This tension between stability and democracy is evident in the U.S. response to the election in Venezuela, after which Juan Guaidó assumed the position of interim president. In Venezuela, however, the State Department focused on democracy; the secretary of state’s February 4 statement emphasized “support[ing] ... the National Assembly’s efforts to return constitutional democracy to Venezuela.” Although Venezuela and the D.R.C. are situated in different historical and regional contexts, the different American responses remain striking.

Congolese and Venezuelan citizens equally deserve free and fair elections. The State Department’s prioritization of stability over transparency in the D.R.C. is indicative of a lack of commitment to democratic ideals and signals to Burundi, Ivory Coast, and Sudan—all of which have elections scheduled in 2020—that the U.S. has no credible response to a stolen presidency. The State Department must advocate for the integrity of the electoral process across the globe, not just in its own backyard.

UN Extends Central African Republic Arms Embargo Jong Hak Won The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) voted on January 31 to extend for another year the arms embargo imposed on the Central African Republic since 2013. The embargo requires the approval of the UNSC for any transfer of weapons to the C.A.R. and must be renewed every year, according to the Washington Post. The UNSC, however, left open the door for domestic security sector reform in the C.A.R., which may lead to the lifting of the embargo, according to French UN Ambassador Francois Delattre.

The country has been in conflict since 2013, when the ousting of thenPresident Francois Bozize by Muslim Séléka rebels prompted retaliation from Christian militia groups. Since 2013, the country has experienced intense intercommunal violence, with several international observers including France in 2013 and thenUN aid chief Stephen O’Brien in 2017 warning of impending genocide. Rebel groups are estimated to control about 80 percent of the country; according to the United Nations, 700,000 people

are displaced, 570,000 have fled the country, and 2.9 million require humanitarian assistance.

To properly arm and equip the C.A.R. domestic security force, the UNSC has called for the establishment of a roadmap by the end of April that could lead to the eventual lifting of the embargo. Even partial embargo relief would enable the central government to directly purchase weapons from foreign suppliers without seeking UNSC approval.

The resolution also contains exceptions for weapons shipments coming from the United States, Russia, France, China, and Belgium. Following a request by the government of the C.A.R. for foreign military assistance in 2017, France and Russia both sent weapons shipments, reflecting an ongoing competition for international influence in the region, according to Reuters. The resolution would allow further shipments from these countries to enter the C.A.R. without approval from the UNSC, reflecting the extent of French and Russian influence in the area.

In the face of increasingly violent and pervasive insurrections, the central

Former President Aquitted Abigail Adams-Spiers From p. 1 However, despite seven years in custody and an extensive trial that called over 80 witnesses, the ICC concluded in a January 15 press release that the prosecutor had “failed to submit sufficient evidence to demonstrate the responsibility of Gbagbo and Blé Goudé for the incidents.”

Gbagbo’s release is contingent on compliance with a number of conditions, including surrendering his passport to authorities, not releasing any public statements on the matter, and committing to return to the court pending any appeal.

Supporters were visibly jubilant at the news of Gbagbo’s release. Crying and dancing broke out among crowds that had gathered in Abdijan to watch the court proceedings on big screens.

However, the ruling has also come

under fierce criticism from many observers.

According to AfricaNews, some Abdijan residents expressed fears that Gbagbo’s release could reawaken conflict and provoke further bloodshed in the capital, potentially casting shadows over the upcoming 2020 elections, reports NPR. According to Reuters, one Ivorian shopkeeper incredulously asked, “How can you free someone who has killed our children and our husbands?”

Amnesty International echoed these sentiments, hailing the acquittals as “a crushing disappointment to victims of post-election violence in [Ivory Coast].”

The outcome also renews broader questions over the effectiveness of the ICC as an instrument of international justice. The organisation was created in 2002 to hold individuals to account for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.

government has made a concerted effort to train new troops over the last few years, but weapons supply issues have remained a persistent problem. In the run up to the announcement of the UNSC vote, many civil activists in the C.A.R. protested a potential renewal of the embargo. Brigitte Andara, the mayor of Bangui, the capital, said, “No to renewal of arms embargo. Doing so will be sending wolf after people!” reports Radio Ndeke Luka.

The embargo has also drawn criticism from Catholic bishops, who complain that it is circumvented

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EDITOR’S NOTE:

by insurgents who illegally obtain arms while the central government is prevented from arming itself adequately. A report submitted by the bishops objected to the embargo, stating, “Under these conditions, does the embargo on arms not favour armed groups which continue to inflict terror, desolation, and defy state authority?”

The central government was able to reach a peace deal with 14 armed groups on February 3, which, according to Al Jazeera, may indicate a path forward for both the lifting of the embargo and for peace in the region.

C.A.R. has experienced violence at the hands of rebel and militia groups since 2013.

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Migrant Boats Sink Off Djibouti Coast, Killing Dozens Marianna Aslund Two migrant boats sank off the northeastern coast of Djibouti on January 30. The recorded death toll was 52. The two boats were primarily carrying Somali and Ethiopian migrants on their way to Yemen in hopes of better opportunities.

Unfortunately, war-torn Yemen poses similar problems for both the Yemeni people and incoming refugees.

The boats sank 30 minutes after departing from Godoria, Djibouti, according to Al Jazeera. Djibouti has long been a major transit point for African migrants looking for safety and better opportunities on the Arabian Peninsula. More recently, though, Djibouti has become a twoway passage point. Due to the bloody civil war and humanitarian crisis in Yemen, boats of Yemeni refugees are now also traveling to Africa.

Both Somalia and Ethiopia are struggling with internal conflicts and humanitarian crises, resulting in high levels of displacement. According to Relief Web, there are 3.46 million total Somali refugees, mainly concentrated in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Yemen.

Euronews reports that there are also

approximately three million internally displaced Ethiopians, as well as many seeking refuge in foreign countries.

Neighboring each other in the Horn of Africa, Somalia and Ethiopia face a humanitarian crisis. This crisis is largely due to famine and the shortage of clean drinking water following the severe droughts in both countries from 2016 to 2017, according to USAID statistics. These already devastating conditions are exacerbated by violent internal conflicts in both countries. Recent ethnic conflicts in Ethiopia have forced the displacement of hundreds of thousands. Somalia has been considered a weak state for decades and shows no signs of unifying under a single political leader.

Both Somalia and Ethiopia are struggling with internal conflicts and humanitarian crises.

Somalia has experienced instability and violence since the outbreak of civil war in 1991. Though there is presently a fragile United Nationsbacked national government, internal

conflict has persisted. Al-Shabab, the Islamist militant group that emerged in Somalia in 2006, has caused chaos in the region for years. The group’s actions include the deadliest bombing ever to take place in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, which killed at least 500 people in 2017.

Meanwhile, Yemen, the destination for millions of Somali, Ethiopian, and Djiboutian migrants, is embroiled in what many are calling one of the worst humanitarian crises in history. The civil war between the Houthi rebels and the supporters of Yemen’s official national government has entered its fourth year. The UN estimates that nearly 80 percent of the Yemeni population, about 24 million people, are in need of aid and protection.

Civilian casualties have been high, and famine is widespread. At least three million Yemeni people have been internally displaced or sought refuge outside the country in the past four years.

The International Organization for Migration’s chief of mission in Djibouti, Lalini Veerassamy, said, “This tragic event demonstrates the risks that vulnerable migrants face as they innocently search for better lives.”

U.S. Imposes Visa Restrictions on Ghanaian Citizens Macy Uustal Years of disagreement between Ghana and the United States culminated on January 31 with the announcement of new visa restrictions for Ghanaians seeking to travel to the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen stated, “Ghana has failed to live up to its obligations under international law to accept the return of its nationals ordered removed from the United States.” Amsterdam News reports that Ghana’s refusal to accept the nearly 7,000 of its nationals awaiting deportation prompted this decision. The visa sanctions do not impact current visa holders or student applicants; some applications will remain pending until sanctions are lifted, at which point they will be processed.

These restrictions could prove crippling to many Ghanaians’ hopes to achieve the American Dream.

According to a Quartz Africa report, Ghana had the highest number of applicants to the U.S. diversity visa program in 2015, commonly referred to as the “green card lottery” program. The 1.73 million Ghanaian applicants account for seven percent of the country’s total population of 25 million people. Only 235 Ghanaians were deported from the United States in 2018.

According to the Ghanaian Times, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration refutes the allegations of noncooperation, declaring that, as of January 2019, their mission in Washington, D.C., “had received 28 applications from the U.S. authorities, out of which 19 had been interviewed by the embassy and 11

Claire Hazbun Police detained Cameroonian opposition politician Maurice Kamto alongside 200 other protestors in Cameroon’s economic capital of Douala on January 28, according to BBC. Kamto has been charged with insurrection and could face further charges, including holding illegal gatherings and disturbing the peace.

Kamto may face five years in prison.

Kamto is a former presidential candidate and the leader of one of Cameroon’s many opposition parties, the Movement for the Renaissance of Cameroon (MRC).

According to Amnesty International, the arrest took place after the MRC called for demonstrations across the country to protest irregularities in the country’s recent presidential elections. Police arrested over 100 protesters across the country.

Authorities released approximately 50 protesters on February 3, but the rest remain in custody.

The Journal of Cameroon reported that as of February 7, police are holding Kamto in at the Special Operations Unit in the capital, Yaoundé. He has

threatened to go on a hunger strike if he and his supporters are not released.

“Mr. Maurice Kamto is currently healthy and eats well. Any allegation to the contrary is unfounded,” the Ministry of Communication claimed.

Cameroon’s presidential election was held on October 7, 2018. President Paul Biya faced challenges from eight opposition candidates, including Kamto. He declared himself the victor of the elections on October 8.

However, the Constitutional Council unsurprisingly announced Biya the official winner of the election, with 71 percent of the vote. Kamto received 14 percent overall.

[Kamto] has threatened to go on hunger strike if he and his supporters are not released.

Cameroon has been embroiled in a conflict called the Anglophone crisis, in which the government is fighting multiple armed separatist groups in the two Anglophone regions of the country. The crisis broke out in the fall

of 2016, when Anglophone lawyers and teachers went on strike to protest the judiciary’s failure to use Common Law and the presence of teachers who spoke English poorly in Anglophone schools. Many other Anglophones joined them in protest to raise other grievances, prompting a severe government crackdown.

According to International Crisis Group, the crisis has resulted in 420 civilian deaths, 246,000 refugees in Nigeria, and 300,000 internally displaced people.

Cameroon has been fighting Boko Haram in its far north region. While the intensity of the conflict has recently decreased, reports the International Crisis Group, the insurgency group still remains a challenge for the country.

On February 7, the United States announced its intention to significantly scale back its military assistance to Cameroon due to the country’s alleged human rights abuses.

According to the New York Times, it is unclear whether the pull-back is due to atrocities committed in Cameroon’s fight against Boko Haram or the Anglophone separatists.

FLICKR

Cameroon Opposition Politician Arrested and Charged

Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey was appointed Ghanaian minister of foreign affairs in January 2017.

In September 2018, GhanaWeb detailed the compromise that the sparring countries had reached on the issue of Ghanaian non-cooperation with U.S. deportation decisions. At this point, the U.S. Embassy in Accra declared that if Ghana neglected its responsibilities, the U.S. would be forced to implement a regime of visa restrictions. Stephanie S. Sullivan, the U.S. ambassador to Ghana, clarified that Ghana has consistently failed to meet the standard of the United Nations Convention on International Civil Aviation, as those subject to deportation orders have not been issued immigration documents within the ordered 30 days. Without these passports, the U.S. is forced to either arrange charter flights or release those scheduled to be deported back into the United States.

travelling certificates issued for their travel to Ghana … Those outstanding are as a result of doubts of their nationality, ill health, and pending litigation in the U.S. courts.”

Although the number 7,000 has been referenced several times when referring to the great backlog of deportees, the ministry has declared that the figure includes individuals at varying points in deportation proceedings. Furthermore, there has not been any official confirmation or final court orders for these deportations.

Despite these recent restrictions, Ambassador Sullivan remains committed to a resolution, stating “Both we and government of Ghana are eager to resolve this issue that has spanned two administrations both in Accra and Washington.”

1 6 | F E B. 2019

TRAVEL

A llama grazes in front of Incan ruins on Machu Picchu.

CHRISTOPHER STEIN (SFS ‘20)

ZEV BURTON (SFS ‘22)

Some consider Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands Resort the world’s most expensive building.

ADAM HILELLY (SFS ‘21)

SONIA VOHRA (SFS ‘20)

Check out the photos below to follow fellow Hoyas on their adventures!

Che Guevara’s portrait hangs on a building in Havana’s Revolution Square.

Gondolas dock at the famous piers lining Venice’s canals.