Africa

We spend a day with Abdoulaye as he shows us what it's like being 17 in Dakar.

The event is part of an effort to raise $1bn for infrastructure projects in the capital Addis Ababa.

This report is produced by UNB United News of Bangladesh and IPS Inter Press Service.

By Muhammad Syfullah
DHAKA, Bangladesh, Feb 27 2019 (IPS-Partners)

(UNB/IPS) – Bangladesh needs intensive surveys in the Bay of Bengal, complemented by proper interpretation of the findings and appropriate research to gauge the potential of its ‘blue economy’ as the country largely depends on the stocks of living and non-living marine resources falling within its Exclusive Economic Zone, experts said.

In case of marine fisheries, they stressed the need for effective management to ensure the sustainability of marine fisheries resources by avoiding overfishing and fishing during breeding period, otherwise fish stock might severely decline here like the Gulf of Thailand.

The newly formed Awami League government also pledged in its 2018 election manifesto that oil and gas exploration will be intensified as part of its plans for ensuring optimum utilisation of the blue economy or marine resources.

In 2016, Bangladesh procured a research vessel, equipped with the latest technology for fisheries and other oceanographic research, from Malaysia to assess the country’s marine living resources, having obtained a vast tract of the northern Indian Ocean following the disposal of longstanding disputes with two neighboring countries.

The 37.8-meter-long multipurpose research vessel started its assessment in the Bay in November, 2016.

Though the survey vessel has so far completed 16 cruises, it will take more time to gain a complete picture of fisheries resources in Bangladeshi waters in the Bay of Bengal.

Prof Sayedur Rahman Chowdhury of the Institute of Marine Sciences and Fisheries at Chittagong University said the fisheries resources in the Bay of Bengal have long been showing several indications of decline for lack of effective fisheries management in the past decades, particularly resulting in overfishing.

He said different data indicate that many large fish species like Lakkha (Indian Salmon) and Coral fish, which were available in past years, are hardly found in the country’s waters now.

“If this trend continues, the marine areas are likely to be turned into an almost barren zone for fish within 10 years or so. So, immediate measures are required for effective fisheries management,” he said adding that the Gulf of Thailand had lost all its fish in the space of just 40 years.

Prof Chowdhury said Bangladesh may focus on producing highly skilled maritime human resources, including marine engineers, navigators and in other highly technical trades, targeting the international employment market to boost remittances.

Besides, a lot of foreign currency goes outside the country against container transports as more than 90 percent carriers used in this sector are owned by foreign companies.

Prof Chowdhury said the sheer size of the fishing fleet consisting of more than 50,000 boats and some 270 industrial trawlers, is possibly contributing to the long-term overfishing in Bangladeshi waters.

He said Bangladesh should concentrate more on tapping marine fish as there is a better potential of sustained supply of fish, if managed properly, than that of other mineral resources—petroleum and non-petroleum ones—in the Bay of Bengal, which will eventually dry up no matter how carefully we extract those resources.

Dr Kawser Ahmed, a professor at the Oceanography Department of Dhaka University, said Bangladesh is yet to fix the level of maximum sustainable yield (MSY) of marine fisheries resources.

“We need proper coastal and ocean governance for the sustainability of marine resources,” he said adding that overfishing is dangerous for the sustainability of marine fisheries as the fish productivity is comparatively low in the northern Bay of Bengal. The coast is also being used indiscriminately, he added.

Mentioning that there are now 16-18 ministries related to the blue economy, he said Bangladesh needs to form a separate ocean or marine resources ministry and bring all wings and cells of the ministries under it for unlocking the potential of the blue economy.

Prof Kawser emphasised procurement of an oil-gas survey vessel to explore hydrocarbon deposits in the Bay of Bengal saying that it will be cost effective alongside helping create skilled manpower by facilitating students to conduct research in this area.

Fisheries and Livestock Secretary Md Raisul Alam Mondal said they have taken various initiatives to enhance harvesting fisheries in a sustainable way for implementing the government’s plan.

The initiatives include installation of effective communication tools to communicate with sea fishing vessels, ensuring fishing monitoring system and purchasing longline fishing boats and purse seine fishing boats for enhancing the harvesting capacity of the private sector.

Purse-seine fishing in open water is generally considered to be an efficient form of fishing. It has no contact with the seabed and can have low levels of bycatch (accidental catch of unwanted species).

The secretary said the contribution of marine fish in the country’s total fish production is now around 9-10 percent, which needs to be increased.

The survey vessel, purchased from Malaysia, in its 16 cruises so far detected 300-350 fish species in the Bay of Bengal. But more time is needed to get a complete picture of the stock of marine fisheries resources there, he said.

Secretary Mondal said it is important to know the breeding period of each fish species for the sake of sustainable fishing in the sea. Now the government keeps fishing banned for 65 specific days every year in Bangladesh’s exclusive economic zone in the Bay of Bengal.

Bangladesh won a total of 131,098 square kilometers of sea areas –111,631sq km against Myanmar in 2012 and 19,467sq km against India in 2014 — following the disposal of longstanding disputes with the two neighbouring countries — India and Myanmar — by two international courts.

The post Bangladesh Needs Intensive Surveys to Gauge Potential of Its ‘Blue Economy’ appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

This report is produced by UNB United News of Bangladesh and IPS Inter Press Service.

The post Bangladesh Needs Intensive Surveys to Gauge Potential of Its ‘Blue Economy’ appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Mauritania pledges to develop women's football after seeing its men's team qualify for the Nations Cup for the first time.

Five lessons from a controversial election.

Ivory Coast and Levante midfielder Cheick Doukoure is a major doubt for June's Africa Cup of Nations after suffering a knee ligament injury on Sunday.

By Geneva Centre
GENEVA, Feb 27 2019 (IPS-Partners)

On the occasion of the launch of two new publications on topics related to women’s rights and gender equality, and in order to mark International Women’s Day, the Geneva Centre will organize a panel discussion and book presentation. The discussion will expand on the themes of the two publication, namely the status of women’s rights and gender equality in the Arab region, but also more generally, across the world, and the history and the true symbolism of the headscarf in Christianity, Judaism and Islam, the stereotypes and controversy surrounding this topic, and the recent developments in Western societies with regard to the headscarf.

Moderator and Opening remarks
Ambassador Idriss Jazairy, Executive Director of the Geneva Centre for Human Rights Advancement and Global Dialogue.

Speakers

• HE Ms Nassima Baghli, Ambassador, Permanent Observer of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to the United Nations Office and other international organizations in Geneva;
• Dr. Elisa Banfi, Research Assistant at the Institute of Citizenship Studies (ICite) at the Department of Political Science, University of Geneva;
• Dr. Amir Dziri, Director of the Swiss Centre for Islam and Society at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland.

For further information on the event, please see the attached concept note.

Register by email: info@gchragd.org

The post Muslim women between stereotypes and reality: an objective narrative appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Debate and Book Presentation

The post Muslim women between stereotypes and reality: an objective narrative appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Although has over 80 million hectares of good fertile soil to grow any kind of crop, it is a net importer of food. Credit: Sam Olukoya/IPS

By Busani Bafana
BULAWAYO, Feb 27 2019 (IPS)

When Lawrence Afere told his parents he was going into farming rather than getting a job in Nigeria’s lucrative oil and gas sector, they swore he was bewitched.

“After saving to put me through the top university in Nigeria with an eye for a job in oil and gas, my parents had no explanation for my career choice. They were convinced I had been bewitched,” says the 35-year-old Afere who started a group that brings together unemployed youth to grow, sell and add value to agricultural produce in Nigeria.

Given the entrenched beliefs across Africa about sorcery, the idea that Afere was bewitched seemed a plausible one to his parents. In fact, Afere’s parents had it on the advice of a traditional herbalist that he was going to be rich. But his parents didn’t believe that he could ever become wealthy through agriculture.

Nigeria, a net food importer, has the double challenge of providing enough food and jobs for its bulging population, especially the youth.  It spends 22 billion dollars in food imports, almost 60 percent of Africa’s 35 billion dollar annual food import bill, according to the African Development Bank.

The country is Africa’s largest producer and consumer of rice. However, it also one of the largest importers of the cereal in the world buying about two million tonnes annually to offset local consumption of five million tonnes against a production of three million tonnes.

The West African nation also has over 80 million hectares of good fertile soil to grow any kind of crop.

Afere had a solution: get the youth to start farming and to make agriculture a profitable and appetising career prospect for young people aged 15-24. This demographic makes up about 26 percent of 20.9 million unemployed Nigerians.

“I read an article that every year in Nigeria we will graduate one million young people with a high school qualification but with no prospects to go university,” said Afere.

“This is one million highly frustrated youth and by 2030 Nigeria will have over 30 million highly skilled – not doctors, not lawyers, farmers or entrepreneurs – but skilled criminals that could devour the entire country. At that moment I had mindset shift.” So he founded Springboard, a social enterprise growing organic produce through a social media network of farmers. It also aims to create jobs for women and youth in Nigeria.

To date, Springboard Nigeria has over 3,000 members in its network of organic farmers and village women entrepreneurs who grow plantain, banana, beans, rice, vegetables, pepper, cocoa, corn, pineapple and pawpaw. The agriprenuers also add value to the produce with emphasis on producing healthy food accessible to rural communities.

Fighting unemployment and malnutrition with food production 

Springboard uses social media to raise awareness about opportunities in agriculture. It has over 5,000 followers on its Facebook page, which it uses to create a market and to supply produce to vendors and customers. This is how it brings together farmers and consumers.

“We also use it to provide continuous mentoring and extension services to our farmers, youth farmers especially,” Afere told IPS. 

The social enterprise is currently developing a farmer’s helpline that will give farmers access to agricultural information via a toll-free number in four of Nigeria’s major languages.

Springboard has sought to stop young people emigrating from rural areas to urban centres in search of jobs, which are hard to get, Afere said. 

“We know young people want to be successful and rich, the idea is how do we help them to be successful by identifying livelihood opportunities in the agriculture sector where they live,” said Afere.

Through the social enterprise, youth and women work across the agriculture value chain in production, processing, value addition, storage, distribution and marketing. They are trained in agriculture production and management and given inputs to kick start their own farming enterprises.

“Small scale farmers often make the hard choice of not consuming most of what they grow but sell it to pay for school fees and other needs and eat what is left. Their nutrition suffers and families are sick because they do not have healthy and quality food, our programme focuses on production and raising nutrition,” said Afere. “That way the youth and young women, see agriculture as having multiple benefits and not just providing them a job.”

Recently, the social enterprise started a Farm to School programme, which is supported by the Mitsubishi Foundation for Africa and Europe. Through the programme, Springboard partners with schools to establish school farms where students learn to grow their own food within their communities, thereby raising their interest agriculture.  

“When we project farming as a viable economic opportunity for the youth, we also tell them that farming is a process, which comes with a lot of hard work,” he said. “I tell young people to start with what they have and bootstrapping themselves into business. Gradually customers, investors and donors take notice and support your farming business.”

So has he become wealthy? As his parents had pictured?

Afere laughs about it now. He is rich, he feels in other ways other than monetary. “I”m not wealthy with money in the bank. I’m wealthy in fulfilment of purpose. Helping farmers become prosperous and real youth and women start farm enterprises brings me fulfilment. In the process I am able to take care of my family and their basic needs. That is wealth for me.”

Technology transforming farming business

While Afere has combined the lure of technology and the economic prospects in agriculture, training and mentorship are important in fostering the adoption of farming as a business by young people.  

One Nigerian technology hub is helping groom and support entrepreneurs tackle development challenges across Africa, but specifically in Nigeria.

“That agriculture, which employs most of our parents, does not provide [enough] money is something that worries a lot of young entrepreneurs,” says Wole Odetayo, executive director of Wennovation Hub.

Wennovation Hub is a pioneer technology accelerator and incubation programme that helps start-ups develop and validate their ideas and innovations using basic business tools in the social impact sectors in agriculture, healthcare, clean energy and social infrastructure.

“We are leveraging on their interests, ideas and background of young people to help them think through the process of making the most out of agriculture through technology to solve different challenges across the agriculture value chain,” Odetayo told IPS. He urged governments to support incubators and accelerators by including start up and small business in the procurement policies.

To date, Wennovation Hub has supported over 300 startup teams and more than 6,000 youths running startsups valued up to 2.5 million dollars through its network across Nigeria. 

The digitalisation of agriculture offers young entrepreneurs the opportunity to create disruptive business models that accelerate modernisation of the sector, says Michael Hailu, Director of the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) a joint international institution of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States and the European Union based in the Netherlands.  

“Achieving this kind of transformation requires that young people engage in agriculture; we need their capacity for innovation, for doing things differently, for harnessing the exciting developments we are seeing within and outside the realms of agribusiness,” Hailu told IPS.

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The post Developing Agriprenuers to Save Nigeria’s Youth from Crime appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Atiku Abubakar rejects President Buhari's re-election, calling it a return to "military dictatorship" .

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 27 2019 (IPS)

The United Nations, which prides itself with a “zero tolerance” policy on sexual exploitation and abuse, has come under relentless fire for failing to match its words with deeds—specifically in relation to some of the high-profile cases that have jolted the Organization.

There have been several cases where no action has been taken either to investigate abuses -– or even release the results of in-house investigations – including accusations against three senior officials holding the rank of Under-Secretary-General (USG).

And one of them, who headed the International Civil Service Commission (ICSC), abruptly resigned last December—described as “the one that got away” — following the results of an internal report which is still under wraps and hidden from public view.

Asked whether women staffers would get a more positive response if the UN was headed by a female Secretary-General, Ian Richards, President, Coordinating Committee of International Staff Unions and Associations (CCISUA), told IPS there are plenty of reasons for the next Secretary-General to be a woman.

Women make up half the world’s population but so far they have been kept out of the top UN job, he pointed out.

“But on your question: if we go back to 2016, when the elections for Secretary-General were being run, I don’t recall, sadly, any of the candidates, some of whom had run large organizations, distinguishing themselves in the fight against sexual harassment and abuse.”

In some cases, it was quite the opposite, he added.

“Nor have I seen a difference in how female and male managers deal with complaints, nor how female and male directors react in meetings when allegations of sexual harassment cannot be ignored,” said Richards, whose staff unions and associations represent over 60,000 staffers worldwide.

Again, sexual harassment is a form of abuse of power and stopping it means sticking your neck out, taking a stand and tackling entrenched interests, argued Richards.

“There are only a few women and men who will do that, and we need more of them,” he added.

Paula Donovan, a women’s rights activist and co-Director of AIDS-Free World and Code Blue Campaign, said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced, back in April 2018, that he was initiating a new investigation, through UN Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS), into sexual assault and harassment charges lodged against the former Deputy Executive Director of UNAIDS, Luiz Loures.

“Nothing has been announced since about this “new investigation’ she said in an interview last January.

She said the Secretary-General has also never commented on any of the recent public reports of sexual misconduct in several other UN organizations —including the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), the World Food Programme (WFP), and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) while the Secretary-General’s senior-level Task Force is headed by Jan Beagle, who was promoted to Under-Secretary-General by Guterres while she herself was under investigation for workplace harassment at UNAIDS.

Meanwhile, Guterres last week announced a new advisory board of civil society leaders who’ll recommend fresh solutions to the UN’s long-running crisis of sexual abuse by its own personnel.

“After two years, an advisory board has been formed. That’s the good news. The bad news is that the group Guterres has assembled is not the one he promised”, said Code Blue, a civil society organization protective of women’s rights, in a statement released last week.

A “civil society” advisory board, especially on a matter as complex as sexual exploitation and abuse by UN personnel, must be made up of bona fide representatives of civil society, said Code Blue.

But a board of six legal academics and a medical doctor, each with UN pedigrees, should be given a different name and assigned to work under a mandate that fits.

“We await a Civil Society Advisory Board that truly deserves its name—and fulfills Mr. Guterres’ two years’ worth of promises”.

Richards told IPS that civil society has been quite active in calling the UN out when it comes to sexual harassment and abuse.

“I presume Guterres now wants to put the ball in their court. Of course, being an advisory board, it can only offer advice. I hope that in providing advice it will consider the bigger problem of abuse of power at the UN, of which sexual harassment constitutes according to our survey just 16 percent. If the board can support Guterres in tackling this, then I think we might get somewhere,” he added.

Excerpts from the interview with Richards:

IPS: Has the UN taken action against some of the high-profile cases of sexual abuse and harassment in the UN system? Or are the accused still in the employ of the UN?

RICHARDS: Once the cases become high profile, it’s hard not to take action. The media starts asking questions and donors threaten to pull the plug. The question should really be about the many low-profile cases where managers are made aware of harassment but are afraid to take action. Crossing the wrong person or nationality could end their career, and some who have tried to take action have suffered retaliation.

We should also remember that the UN is made up of many different organizations. Guterres can’t do that much about the specialized agencies such as UNAIDS or FAO as they don’t report to him.

But this isn’t just about action at the top. I was recently at a big UN meeting. One of the speakers was a staff member who has been accused multiple times of sexual harassment but had not yet been investigated. There were many senior managers there, men and women.

None of them spoke out against his presence and appeared to take it in their stride. This goes to show that policies in themselves don’t stop sexual harassment. Guterres needs to work on changing attitudes, perhaps by actively promoting staff who have stuck their necks out to fight harassment and abuse in the workplace. Then only can we start getting to zero tolerance.

IPS: Are there any UN staffers who have been fired following investigations on sexual abuse?

RICHARDS: Yes. And this is documented in a report on disciplinary practices that is sent every year to the General Assembly. But the investigation process remains extremely slow, and with a shortage of professional investigators, some harassment complaints are reviewed by panels of lay staff members, who have to juggle this task with their normal jobs. And of course, in peer review panels there is plenty of scope for conflicts of interest.

IPS: Has the UN at any time co-opted your 60,000 strong staff union — the CCISUA– to solicit your views on the protection of staffers from sexual abuse? Or are staff unions being treated as bystanders?

RICHARDS: We’ve been involved in reviewing the policy on preventing harassment, discrimination and abuse of authority, and we are keen to analyse the findings of both the survey that staff unions conducted on harassment in general and the survey that the organization contracted Deloitte to conduct on sexual harassment in particular.

The surveys showed that staff don’t trust the investigation system and some suffered retaliation when they reported harassment. These are shocking findings and we hope that the administration will give us the necessary time to get to the bottom of these problems and get through the individual comments that were made in the surveys.

However, as I mentioned, a policy doesn’t amount to much if there isn’t a will to implement it and managers turn a blind eye.

IPS: Do you think the UN should have acted against a USG who abruptly resigned — weeks ahead of his retirement — following a report by the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) probing allegations of sexual abuse by him? And should the OIOS make this report public?

RICHARDS: I understand that Guterres manoeuvred behind the scenes to hasten the investigation process so that the report could be issued before the USG reached retirement.

However, once the report was out, the USG resigned, and there was not much the UN could do. Of course, in a private company there would be the possibility for the case to be taken through the national criminal system, which would lead to greater public scrutiny, and is perhaps an area that the advisory board should look at.

A bigger concern is the way the complainants were allowed to be treated over the many months that the case was investigated. They had work taken away from them and a group of women where they worked published a letter disowning their complaints.

Last summer, one of them was publicly humiliated by the USG at a meeting in front of human resources directors, women and men, from across the system. I told the USG that this behavior was wrong. I hope others did the same. At the same time, an investigation into how the case was handled, with lessons drawn for the future, would be a good idea.

IPS: Is there a role for member states and the General Assembly to pressure the Secretary-General to take more drastic action — beyond the much-publicized “zero tolerance” policy– against sexual harassment?

RICHARDS: Yes, they could ask for reports of investigations, where harassment and abuse are proven. These would of course have to be suitably redacted in order to protect the identities of the complainants and witnesses. It could bring much-needed transparency to the process and create a push to change attitudes.

The writer can be contacted at thalifdeen@ips.org

The post UN Accused of Failing to Move Aggressively Against Sexual Abuse appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Ivory Coast legend Kolo Toure has been confirmed as first team coach at Leicester City under new manager Brendan Rodgers

At least 25 people are killed after a train hits a platform at the Ramses Station and starts a blaze.

It is the fifth straight day of protests against the president's decision to run for a fifth term.

Official returns show Muhammadu Buhari won the election but the opposition rejects the results.

A mystery man who reports news from one of the most repressive countries in the world gives his first interview.

The problems the re-elected president of Nigeria will face include corruption and an economic slowdown.

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A young man wounded by a bullet during protests in Santa Elena de Uairén is transported on a motorcycle by other young opposition demonstrators during protests after food and medical aid was prevented on Feb. 23 from entering the country from nearby Brazil, 1,260 kilometers southeast of Caracas. Credit: Courtesy of local residents of Santa Elena de Uairén

By Humberto Márquez
CARACAS, Feb 26 2019 (IPS)

The violent repression that prevented food and medical aid from crossing into Venezuela, which left at least four people dead and 58 with gunshot wounds, has distanced solutions to what is today Latin America’s biggest political crisis, although 10 countries in the hemisphere are stepping up the pressure while at the same time ruling out the use of force.

But for the United States, “all options are on the table,” including the use of military force, according to President Donald Trump, and as his Vice President Mike Pence reminded the 10 governments of the Lima Group that met on Feb. 25 in Bogotá to discuss the situation in Venezuela.

Venezuela’s neighbors “don’t want war but continue to struggle for a political solution that would involve the departure from power of President Nicolás Maduro. By repressing the entry of humanitarian aid trucks, we have an excuse to increase political, economic and diplomatic pressure on the regime,” said Carlos Romero, a postgraduate professor of political science at two public universities in Caracas.

The international aid accumulated in border areas of Colombia, Brazil and the neighboring Dutch island of Curacao consisted of a few hundred tons of medical supplies, some emergency medicines and food supplements that opposition Juan Guaidó ordered across the border on Feb. 23.

Venezuela, with a population of 32 million people, more than three million of whom have left the country in the last five years, according to United Nations sources, is in the grip of an economic and social crisis marked by hyperinflation measured in millions of percent annually, as well as the collapse of its public health system and of other essential public services.

Figures from a study by the three main universities in Caracas indicate – in the absence of official figures over the past three years – that poverty affects 80 percent of the population, and GDP has plunged 56 percent in the last five years.

The Maduro administration militarised and closed the borders, arguing that the aid was a pretext for foreign military intervention supported by the opposition led by Guaidó, the president of the parliament, who declared himself “acting president” on Jan. 23.

Two trucks that made it partly across one of the bridges on the border with Colombia, some 860 kilometers from Caracas, caught fire as Venezuelan security forces repelled young men advancing next to the vehicles, while in the neighboring cities of Ureña and San Antonio members of the security forces and armed civilians used gunfire to disperse opposition marches aimed at receiving the aid.

In the extreme southeast of the country, where the Pemón indigenous people live, hundreds of native people have been trying since Feb. 22 to keep out military personnel attempting to prevent the entrance of trucks carrying aid from Brazil.

Alfredo Romero, director of the human rights group Foro Penal, said the military shot their way through, according to indigenous leaders, leaving four dead and 25 with bullet wounds.

Indigenous groups seized and held several of the commanding officers for more than 24 hours, but then “some 70 vehicles, including buses full of members of the security forces, secured their release on their way to Santa Elena de Uairén,” a local resident of that city near the border with Brazil, 1,260 km from Caracas, told IPS.

Indigenous leaders are hiding in the countryside and in Santa Elena there is a de facto curfew, according to local residents who provided IPS with harsh photos and videos showing what happened there, while the opposition leadership and the media were focusing on the events on the border with Colombia.

Opposition leaders denounced the murders of at least 15 people in the area and the Foro Penal recorded nine cases of missing persons since Feb. 23.

In Ureña and San Antonio, in southwest Venezuela on the border with Colombia, more than 20 people were wounded by bullets fired by members of the security forces or armed civilians wearing ski masks, according to reports from journalists in the area. Several opposition demonstrations in support of the entry of international aid were also cracked down on heavily in the country’s hinterland.

Meanwhile, at least 326 members of Venezuela’s military and police, including several mid-level officers, have deserted since Feb. 23, fleeing mainly to Colombia.

The Lima Group – ad-hoc, this time made up of Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay, Peru and Venezuela-Guaidó- and the United States urged the military to stop supporting Maduro and to recognise and obey Guaidó as their commander.

The Lima Group stated that “the transition to democracy must be conducted by Venezuelans themselves peacefully and within the framework of the Constitution and international law, supported by political and diplomatic means, without the use of force.”

That renunciation for now of the use of force “runs counter to radical people in the Venezuelan opposition who are desperate because they have not found a quick solution,” Romero said.

The call for the use of force “has gained ground, because of the way the government has dug in its heels and refused to consider any alternative path that would involve giving up power, in a kind of existential struggle,” Luis Salamanca, also a postgraduate professor of political science at the Central University, told IPS.

He quoted Maduro’s Vice President Delcy Rodriguez, who said, hours after the violent events at the borders, that the government’s determination “is a small part of what we are willing to do.”

Washington increased the financial and asset blockade against the Venezuelan State, as well as measures on visas and assets of its authorities, while the Lima Group decided to increase international denunciations and tighten the diplomatic and political noose around Maduro.

Romero warned, however, that in the acceleration of the crisis so far in 2019 “no element of moderation has worked: the compromise initiative set forth by Mexico and Uruguay, the European Union contact group and some countries of the Americas died at birth, as did Pope Francis’s insinuation that he would mediate if requested by the parties.”

While the government digs in its heels, the Venezuelan opposition “has to imagine and develop actions that keep people’s hope alive, to fight the discouragement that set in after the goal of bringing trucks in with aid was not achieved,” Félix Seijas, director of the pollster Delphos, told IPS.

The experts who spoke to IPS agreed that the opposition led by Guaidó made a mistake in making the entrance of aid on Feb. 23 a decisive battle, arguing instead that the call for the re-establishment of democracy is a gradual process with many steps.

Salamanca stressed that “the government seems firm, but with each passing hour new pieces are moved, and there is an underground current that is crumbling the bases on which it is sustained. The desertion of the members of the military is a very striking sign in this regard.”

But for now, the leadership of Venezuela’s armed forces remains completely loyal to Maduro.

Meanwhile, on the international stage, the United States, the country with the greatest capacity to exert pressure in the hemisphere, requested a new meeting on Venezuela at the United Nations Security Council, this time with the backing of the Lima Group, which described the crisis in the oil-producing country as “an unprecedented threat to security, peace, freedom and prosperity throughout the region.”

The post Repression Stands in the Way of Political Solution to Crisis in Venezuela appeared first on Inter Press Service.

One of Tanzania's top referees has been fined $200,000 and handed a life ban by Fifa after its Ethics Committee found him guilty of taking bribes

Sven Vandenbroeck's short reign as Zambia coach ends as the national FA decides not to renew the Belgian's contract after his failure to qualify for AFCON 2019