Temas de relações internacionais, de política externa e de diplomacia brasileira, com ênfase em políticas econômicas, em viagens, livros e cultura em geral. Um quilombo de resistência intelectual em defesa da racionalidade, da inteligência e das liberdades democráticas.
O que é este blog?
Este blog trata basicamente de ideias, se possível inteligentes, para pessoas inteligentes. Ele também se ocupa de ideias aplicadas à política, em especial à política econômica. Ele constitui uma tentativa de manter um pensamento crítico e independente sobre livros, sobre questões culturais em geral, focando numa discussão bem informada sobre temas de relações internacionais e de política externa do Brasil. Para meus livros e ensaios ver o website: www.pralmeida.org. Para a maior parte de meus textos, ver minha página na plataforma Academia.edu, link: https://itamaraty.academia.edu/PauloRobertodeAlmeida.
Estudantes universitários, por definição, em qualquer país do mundo, em qualquer época, sempre são contra ditaduras, e são sempre os primeiros sacrificados na luta dos civis contra ditaduras e tiranias. Eles costumam receber a solidariedade de seus colegas ao redor do mundo.
Menos no Brasil, claro, pelo menos agora, e pelo menos enquanto durar a canalhice da direção PCdoB na UNE, que está totalmente submetida ao poder (e ao dinheiro) dos totalitários companheiros, e se fizerem alguma manifestação, totalmente mercenária, será em favor da tirania.
Triste constatar isso, mas assim são as coisas com os totalitários e fascistas.
Paulo Roberto de Almeida
Students, university attacked in central Venezuela
Demonstrators take cover from teargas fired by the police during clashes in an anti-government protest in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, March 10, 2014. The Venezuelan government and opposition appear to have reached a stalemate, in which street protests continue almost daily while the opposition sits out a peace process it calls farcical. Alejandro Cegarra / AP Photo
CARACAS, Venezuela -- At least three people were wounded Tuesday in the central Venezuela city of Barquisimeto when student protesters blocking streets were attacked by unknown gunmen, a university official in the city said.
The attacks came one day after a student leader was shot to death by unidentified attackers in the western city of San Cristobal.
Francesco Leone, rector of the Universidad Centroccidental Lisandro Alvarado in Barquisimeto, said two protesters suffered bullet wounds while blocking roads around the university Tuesday. Another was injured by rubber bullets. The victims said their attackers appeared to be pro-government civilians.
Barquisimeto is about 365 kilometers (about 225 miles) west of Caracas in the opposition-led state of Lara.
Leone told The Associated Press there were National Guardsmen in the area around the protest, but they did not intervene when the student protesters were attacked. The allegedly pro-government supporters then entered the university grounds where they set fire to five vehicles, the student center and library, he said.
Student-led protests in various Venezuelan cities have been erupting for a month. Many members of the middle class tired of shortages of some basic items, inflation that reached 56 percent last year and soaring violent crime have joined the demonstrations. President Nicolas Maduro has argued the political opposition is attempting to overthrow his democratically elected government. At least 22 people have died in street protests, according to the government.
A student leader in the western city of San Cristobal was killed by a gunshot Monday and two other youths were wounded by bullets.
Venezuela's government deployed hundreds soldiers in the western city Tuesday, and the troops used armored personnel carriers and heavy equipment to clear dozens of barricades put up by anti-government protesters.
San Cristobal Mayor Daniel Ceballos said by phone that soldiers were also blocking entrances into the city.
He said 24-year-old student leader Daniel Tinoco was manning a barricade when unidentified gunmen shot him in the chest Monday night. Ceballos said the two wounded students were with Tinoco.
Ceballos said there were indications that armed pro-government groups known as "colectivos" were involved in the shooting. He and opposition leaders have demanded the government disarm the colectivos.
Prosecutors said they would investigate Tinoco's death.
Associated Press writers Vivian Sequera in Bogota and Jorge Rueda in Caracas contributed to this report.
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/03/10/3985401/security-forces-attack-barricades.html#storylink=cpy
BRASÍLIA - O ministro das Relações Exteriores, Luiz Alberto Figueiredo, decidiu punir o embaixador Américo Fontenelle, acusado de assédio moral, sexual, racismo, homofobia e abuso de poder enquanto ocupava o posto de cônsul-geral em Sidney, na Austrália. A suspensão de três meses, a mais severa antes da expulsão da carreira, foi assinada pelo ministro na tarde dessa segunda-feira, 11, dois dias depois de o Estado revelar que oProcesso Administrativo Disciplinar teria orientado pela absolvição.
O ministro, no entanto, contrariou a orientação da Corregedoria do Itamaraty e manifestou-se pela punição. O advogado de Fontenelle, Leo Alves, afirma que ainda não foi informado da decisão.
Como mostrou o Estado, a corregedoria teria concluído que não havia provas de comportamento inadequado por parte do embaixador, apesar de mais de uma dezena de depoimentos, e seria absolvido. O Processo Administrativo Disciplinar que investigava a conduta de Fontenelle foi aberto em maio de 2013 e deveria ter se encerrado, depois de uma extensão de prazo, em setembro do ano passado. No entanto, o resultado nunca foi divulgado, apesar das conclusões finais terem sido feitas em agosto do ano passado, quando a defesa de Fontenelle teve acesso.
O advogado de Fontenelle informou que, depois dessas conclusões, o embaixador foi chamado a se defender de um outro indiciamento, o de que não teria agido para controlar a ação de funcionários que tentavam denegrir a diplomacia brasileira no exterior. No entanto, depois disso, garante, a defesa nunca mais teve acesso ao processo.
O processo disciplinar costuma correr por dois meses, sendo prorrogáveis por mais dois. No caso de Fontenelle, no entanto, o PAD durou mais de 10 meses. Há cerca de duas semanas, incomodado com a espera, o sindicato que representa os servidores do Itamaraty, SindItamaraty, procurou o corregedor, embaixador Heraldo Póvoas, que também se negou a dar informações, alegando "que não havia prazos" e a investigação correria pelo tempo necessário. Póvoas, que estava à frente da Corregedoria há quase 10 anos, teria sido nomeado agora Cônsul em Ciudad del Este, no Paraguai.
Fontenelle, que quando foi denunciado deixou o posto em Sidney, já havia retornado ao trabalho, em um posto administrativo no próprio Itamaraty, depois de uma licença médica. Agora, terá que cumprir a suspensão de três meses. A punição, no entanto, deverá ter pouco impacto na sua carreira, já que, como embaixador, já chegou ao posto máximo da diplomacia. Mas, agora, dificilmente poderá almejar postos significativos no exterior.
O caso de Fontenelle trouxe a público um dos maiores problemas da diplomacia brasileira. Os casos de abuso de autoridade e assédio moral não são raros. Apenas em 2012 o SindItamaraty, sindicato que reúne os servidores concursados do Ministério das Relações Exteriores, repassou a Corregedoria cerca de 12 denúncias. Nenhuma teve resultado.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, right, and Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon on Monday amid arms from a ship.CreditAbir Sultan/European Pressphoto Agency
JERUSALEM — Israel’s seizure last week of a merchant vessel said to be carrying an Iranian arms shipment had two goals, according to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: to prevent the cargo from reaching Palestinian fighters in Hamas-run Gaza, and to expose what he called “the true face of Iran.”
With the first goal in hand, the Israeli government and military on Monday orchestrated a public relations spectacle in an effort to realize the second.
Mr. Netanyahu, accompanied by his minister of defense and the navy chief, toured a display of the seized weapons and munitions laid out at the naval base in the port of Eilat, Israel’s southernmost point, and then gave a news conference. The event was broadcast live on Israeli television.
For Israel’s leaders, the timing of the shipment — with which Iran has denied any involvement — was opportune, coming as world powers are engaged in talks with Iranian officials over the country’s nuclear program. Mr. Netanyahu has criticized the negotiation effort as being too friendly toward a country he maintains is resolutely seeking to develop nuclear weapons for possible use against Israel and the West, despite Iranian officials’ claims to the contrary.
On Monday, against a backdrop of rows of rockets, mortar shells and boxes of bullets, Mr. Netanyahu excoriated the international players in the Iran talks as engaging in hypocrisy.
“There are some in the international community who prefer us not to be holding this event,” Mr. Netanyahu said. “They do not want us to show the world what is really happening inside Iran. We exposed the truth behind Iran’s fake smiles. They want to continue nurturing the illusion that Iran has changed its direction, but the facts we see here, including those presented on these docks, prove the complete opposite.”
Rather than hearing international criticism of Iran over the arms shipment, Mr. Netanyahu said, “We have seen smiles and handshakes between representatives of the West and Iranian regime representatives in Tehran, precisely while these rockets were making their way to Eilat.”
Although Mr. Netanyahu did not specifically name Catherine Ashton, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, during the news conference, he did so a day earlier in Jerusalem. In remarks to his cabinet about the seized merchant ship, the Klos C, he said: “I call this to the attention of Catherine Ashton, who is now visiting Tehran. I would like to ask her if she asked her Iranian hosts about this shipment of weapons for terrorist organizations, and if not, why not.”
The military listed the weapons found on board, hidden behind sacks of cement, as 40 Syrian-manufactured rockets with a range of up to 100 miles, 181 mortar shells and about 400,000 7.62-millimeter rifle rounds.
Officials said that the 122-millimeter mortar shells found on board were of a type made in Iran. Some of the bags of cement bore the words “Made in Iran.” The military displayed magnified copies of the ship’s manifests, saying they showed a crude attempt to falsify the cargo’s provenance. The officials said that the papers tried to show that all 150 containers aboard had been loaded during a stop at a port in Iraq, when 100 of them had apparently been loaded earlier, at the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas.
“We have clear-cut and incriminating evidence that Iran and the Quds forces are behind the smuggling attempt,” a senior Israeli intelligence official told reporters in a phone briefing on the condition of anonymity, in line with protocol. He was referring to an elite international operations unit within the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps of Iran.
The official also said Israel was “100 percent positive that the address of this shipment was the Gaza Strip.” He said that he could not reveal delicate intelligence to the news media, but that Israel would be sharing the evidence with colleagues in intelligence organizations abroad. Last week, the State Department said that the United States military had helped monitor the vessel and was prepared to take part in the interception, but that Israel had chosen to take the lead.
Still, many Israelis were skeptical that their government’s publicity campaign would do much to change opinions abroad.
“It is hard to see that the international community’s interests will change because of what Israel has shown today,” Yoaz Hendel, a former director of communications in Mr. Netanyahu’s office, said in a telephone interview. “But Israel has an obligation to show what it has.”
Infelizmente, teremos muitos mortos mais na Venezuela, com mais de 90% de vítimas sendo manifestantes pacíficos, mortos pelos mercenários armados do e pelo governo fascista, até que se consiga afastar a corja de totalitários que se apossou do poder, com esta especial distinção que eles são dominados pela máfia cubana que controla o país.
Os totalitários, que também existem no Brasil, e que estão justamente apoiando seus companheiros fascistas da Venezuela, começam dividindo o país entre eles e o resto da população, sendo que o resto, isto é nós, somos classificados como inimigos do poder, representantes das elites e coisas do gênero. Os fascistas, os divisionistas, os mafiosos são eles. Basta ver o que está acontecendo no Brasil: um clima de greves que nos faz relembrar os anos conturbados de 1961-1964. Até quando Brasil?
CARACAS, Venezuela — The gunmen descended a street on Monday night toward a park taken over by student demonstrators in the western city of San Cristóbal, the crucible of the protests that have shaken Venezuela. They opened fire, and a 23-year-old student leader, Daniel Tinoco, fell. Hit in the upper body, he died before he got to a hospital, fellow protesters said.
Less than a week earlier, in Caracas, someone opened fire and killed a 25-year-old soldier, Acner López, who was riding on a motorcycle. Residents said he was in a group of soldiers shooting tear gas at demonstrators and apartment buildings. The shot that killed him, investigators believe, came from someone in one of the apartments.
These two deaths, among more than 20 that the government says are linked to over a month of protests, are emblematic of a spiral of violence that people on both sides of this country’s bitter political divide seem increasingly willing to accept.
“We don’t want dialogue if there are dead students,” said Christy Hernández, 21, a protester who saw Mr. Tinoco fall and went to find a car to take him to the hospital. She said demonstrators, many of whom want President Nicolás Maduro out of office, would keep up the pressure on the government despite the cost. “We already lit the fuse,” she said. “It’s now or never, and we’ve decided it should be now.”
A few days earlier, in Caracas, near the spot where Mr. López was gunned down, Ana Karina Urquia stood in the entryway of her apartment house, talking about the possibility that one of her neighbors on the block might have fired the fatal shot. Police and National Guard officers and soldiers swarmed the street, some of them eyeing the surrounding buildings nervously.
“This is desperation, collective fatigue on both sides,” Ms. Urquia said of the violence. “I think both sides are looking for it to explode.”
She said she wanted a peaceful solution to the nation’s problems but feared that the country was veering toward more bloodshed. “There will be more deaths,” she said, “but there will be a solution.”
Each side accuses the other of feeding a climate of violence.
While Mr. Maduro has said he wants dialogue, he often speaks with a fiery anger about the protesters in daily television appearances, labeling them fascists and conspirators. His government has begun holding a series of meetings, often televised, that it terms a national peace conference, but most prominent opposition figures have boycotted them, as have student protest leaders.
At the same time, his government has continued to clamp down on the rallies and other protests.
In Caracas on Saturday and on Monday, marches were blocked by hundreds of police officers and soldiers. And in San Cristóbal, where the government held some of its peace conference meetings last week, residents say security forces have continued harsh tactics, entering residential neighborhoods to clear demonstrators’ barricades, arresting protesters and firing tear gas and plastic buckshot.
Many in the opposition believe that the government uses groups of armed civilian supporters to intimidate protesters, and there have been several episodes around the country in which, protesters say, they were fired on by armed men in civilian clothes. In other cases, protesters have been accused of shooting at government supporters.
The mayor of San Cristóbal, Daniel Ceballos, posted a message on his Twitter account on Monday night saying the members of an armed pro-government group were in the area when Mr. Tinoco was killed.
Many details of the nighttime attack remain unclear, but accounts of protesters and residents agreed on several points.
One woman said that she saw about 10 men arrive in a white pickup and dismount, and that they were accompanied by two motorcycles. Others said a group of men on foot had approached the area controlled by the protesters.
Ms. Hernández said the student protesters, who have maintained a camp for weeks in a park on a wide avenue, heard three gunshots and saw the men approaching. They shot back with small bags of explosive powder, sometimes used as fireworks, propelled from hand-held metal tubes that the protesters call mortars.
Ms. Hernández said the men answered with gunfire. She said that one of the protesters had a gun and fired back.
At that point, she said, “a rain of bullets came down; we couldn’t move.”
She said that one of the protesters started to move up the street toward the gunfire when another protester pulled him into the shelter of a building. Mr. Tinoco was just behind them, she said, and was hit. “He is in a better place than us,” she said. “We’re not going to give up the fight.”
In an interview about two weeks before he was killed, Mr. Tinoco, a mechanical engineering student, said that while the students were armed with stones, gasoline bombs, homemade mortars and other crude weapons, the goal was to defend themselves against soldiers or armed government supporters who might try to dislodge them from their protest camp and the barricades they had built to stop traffic.
A burly young man, Mr. Tinoco was in charge of a group of students whose job was to protect the camp.
“We watch for when they come to attack us, and we defend ourselves,” he said. Asked if he was afraid, Mr. Tinoco said that “there is no brave man who is not afraid.”
Itamaraty suspende diplomatas acusados de assédio moral por funcionários
FLÁVIA FOREQUE
Folha de S.Paulo, 12/03/2014
Os diplomatas Américo Fontenelle e César Cidade foram suspensos por 90 dias e 30 dias, respectivamente, após conclusão de sindicância que apurou a conduta dos servidores, acusados de assédio moral e sexual, racismo, homofobia e abuso de poder por funcionários do consulado-geral do Brasil em Sidney.
A decisão é assinada pelo ministro Luiz Alberto Figueiredo (Relações Exteriores) e foi publicada nesta quarta-feira (12) no Diário Oficial da União. No despacho, o chanceler afirma que acata "integralmente o relatório da comissão processante", formada por três embaixadores do Itamaraty.
A suspensão, segundo o texto, é resultado do "descumprimento dos deveres funcionais" previstos na legislação nacional.
Entre os artigos citados, estão aqueles que apontam ser dever do servidor "manter conduta compatível com a moralidade administrativa", "tratar com urbanidade as pessoas", "exercer com zelo e dedicação as atribuições do cargo e "atender pronta e solicitamente ao público em geral, em especial quando no desempenho de funções de natureza consular e de assistência a brasileiros no exterior".
Nesta semana, o advogado de Fontenelle, Léo Alves, afirmou que a comissão não colheu provas que comprovassem as denúncias feitas pelos funcionários do consulado. Segundo ele, o grupo concluiu apenas que o diplomata foi "pouco severo" em "questões administrativas".
"As penas ficariam limitadas à advertência ou suspensão. As acusações foram muito graves, mas não correspondem à verdade", disse na ocasião.
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Diplomacia
Itamaraty suspende dois diplomatas acusados de assédio
Cônsul-geral do Brasil em Sidney e seu adjunto teriam cometido assédio moral e sexual contra funcionários do consulado brasileiro na Austrália
Veja.com, 12/03/2014
O Ministério das Relações Exteriores do Brasil suspendeu dois diplomatas que prestavam serviços no consulado do país em Sydney, na Austrália, e foram acusados de “assédio moral e sexual” por funcionários da representação brasileira, informaram nesta quarta-feira fontes oficiais. As sanções recaíram sobre o então cônsul-geral do Brasil em Sidney, Américo Fontenelle, e seu adjunto, César Cidade, que foram suspensos do serviço diplomático, respectivamente, por 90 e 30 dias, segundo um ofício publicado nesta quarta-feira no Diário Oficial.
A publicação justifica a sanção por “não cumprimento dos deveres funcionais” de um diplomata, entre os quais cita a obrigação de “manter uma conduta compatível com a moralidade administrativa”. Ambos diplomatas tinham sido afastados de seus cargos no ano passado, depois que Viviane Hottum Jones, funcionária do consulado, denunciou os supostos abusos em uma entrevista a um canal de televisão brasileiro.
“Ele vinha por trás e me dava um beijo no rosto. Ou então vinha com comentários pejorativos, tipo: você está em posição sugestiva”, afirmou então Jones sobre a suposta conduta de Fontenelle. Após ouvir as acusações da funcionária, a Chancelaria brasileira admitiu que anteriormente tinha recebido três denúncias formais contra Fontenelle, assim como uma carta assinada por vários funcionários do consulado na qual era exigida sua destituição.
Segundo o sindicato de empregados não diplomatas do Brasil no exterior, entre 2011 e 2012 oito funcionários do consulado de Sydney pediram demissão e outros seis pediram para ser transferidos e, em todos os casos, alegaram ter sido humilhados ou agredidos verbalmente pelo então cônsul.
