CounterVortex

North America

Abuses at Fort Bliss ICE detention facility

A coalition of civil and human rights organizations is calling for the closure of a massive immigration detention facility at Fort Bliss, alleging guards have beaten detainees and threatened violence, criminal charges and imprisonment in attempts to coerce even non-Mexican migrants into crossing the border into Mexico. The groups, including the ACLU and Human Rights Watch, sent a letter to federal officials detailing the allegations based on interviews with more than 45 detainees. They describe guards using physical force, including abusive sexual contact, against immigrants who refused third-country deportations. The letter also alleges detainees face insufficient food, medical neglect, squalid conditions with sewage flooding living areas, and weeks without outdoor access. The tent facility, erected months ago on a former Japanese American internment camp site within the Fort Bliss complex, dubbed “Camp East Montana,” currently holds over 2,700 people. (Photo via Border Report)

Central America

Post-electoral tension in Honduras

Honduras is on tenterhooks as the results of its presidential election have not yet been finalized, and Trump has threatened reprisals if his favored candidate fails to win. Since the voting, ex-president Juan Orlando Hernández—convicted in the US last year of drug trafficking and bribery—was pardoned by Trump and released from prison. Adding to the unease is the country’s deeply flawed vote-transmission system, which has crashed twice during the count. This has enabled politicians from across the spectrum—as well as Trump—to fuel the tension by raising allegations of fraud. (Map: Perry-Castañeda Library)

Watching the Shadows

US instates ‘Trump Corollary’ to Monroe Doctrine

President Donald Trump’s new National Security Strategy puts the Western Hemisphere at the center of US foreign policy and revives the Monroe Doctrine of 1823, appending it with a “Trump Corollary.” The document presents the Americas as the main line of defense for the US homeland and links that doctrine directly to ongoing military operations against suspected drug traffickers in Caribbean and Pacific waters. It places the Hemisphere as the top regional priority, above Europe, the Middle East and Indo-Pacific, and ties that status to controlling migration, drug flows, and foreign influence before they can reach US territory. It also states that the US will block “non-Hemispheric competitors” from owning or controlling “strategically vital assets” in the Americas, including ports, energy facilities, and telecommunications networks. (Photo: USS Gerald R. Ford. Credit: US Navy via Wikimedia Commons)

Watching the Shadows

Podcast: Trump for War-is-Peace Prize III

Trump’s perverse ambition to win the Nobel Peace Prize was given a boost by his “winning” of the first “FIFA Peace Prize“—just as he is carrying out illegal deadly air-strikes in the Caribbean, and threatening Venezuela with war. “Secretary of War” Pete Hegseth is denying claims that he gave orders to “kill them all” in the strikes, but Congress is preparing an investigation. Regardless of whether this order was given, the strikes are clearly illegal under the international laws of war. Nonetheless, the Pentagon has opened an investigation into Sen. Mark Kelly for his video calling for troops to refuse illegal orders. Trump—who pardoned soldiers convicted of war crimes in his first term—has called for Kelly to be hanged for sedition. In Episode 307 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg continues to be flabbergasted by the Orwellian war-is-peace propaganda. (Image via Twitter)

Southeast Asia

UN: Burma election plans entrench repression

The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) warned that the Burma military junta’s planned elections this month are a military-controlled process conducted in an environment “rife with threats and violence.” OHCHR stated: “Far from leading a political transition from crisis to stability or restoring democratic and civilian rule, this process will almost certainly deepen insecurity, fear, and polarization throughout the country.” (Photo: Burmese Border Guard officer with IDPs in Rakhine state. Credit: Daniel Schearf & Zinlat Aung/VOA via Wikimedia Commons)

Greater Middle East

Yemen: Houthi authorities round up opposition

Houthi authorities in Yemen have detained dozens of political opponents since July, Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported. The rights group said that at least 70 people associated with the opposition party Yemeni Congregation for Reform, or Islah, were detained in Dhamar governorate. HRW noted that 21 of these individuals have been subject to an “unfair trial” on “dubious accusations of espionage,” with 17 sentenced to death by firing squad, and two sentenced to 10 years imprisonment. HRW emphasized that it is illegal under Yemeni law to make arrests without a warrant, and that detention without a legal basis or prompt charges and criminal proceedings violates both domestic and international law. (Map via PCL)

Africa

ICC asked to investigate Tanzania killings

A coalition of local and international human rights groups has asked the International Criminal Court to open a case against Tanzanian President Samia Hassan and senior members of her government over killings by the security forces during post-election unrest in October. How many people died in the protests over the “sham” elections is still unknown. Hassan’s government has remained silent on an official death toll, but the opposition—who were effectively barred from the polls—claims thousands were shot by the police and Ugandan special forces. Gruesome images were shared online of armed men firing indiscriminately into crowds, and of overflowing morgues. A CNN investigation found that satellite imagery suggests the existence of mass graves. (Photo: Tanzania Daily News via AllAfrica)

The Caribbean

UN protests as Trump threatens Venezuela

The United Nations urged all countries to respect international norms safeguarding civil aviation, following US President Donald Trump’s announcement of his intention to “completely shut down” Venezuelan airspace. The statement added that the Secretary-General is also “gravely concerned” about the strikes on Venezuelan civilian vessels at sea, which the US alleges were involved in drug trafficking. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk asserted that the strikes violate international human rights law, and called for transparent investigations into the attacks. Türk described the strikes as “extrajudicial killings,” emphasizing that “the intentional use of lethal force is only permissible as a last resort against individuals who pose an imminent threat to life.” (Photo: US Navy via Wikimedia Commons)

Africa

Guinea-Bissau: narco-plot behind latest African coup?

UN Secretary-General António Guterres condemned the military coup in Guinea-Bissau that took place just days after national elections, saying that it gravely violates constitutional order and democratic principles. The African Union similarly condemned the coup, while the West African regional bloc ECOWAS suspended Guinea-Bissau until there is a full restoration of constitutional order. This latest military takeover reflects a pattern of instability in Guinea-Bissau since the country gained independence from Portugal in 1974, and follows a long string of coups and coup attempts. Guinea-Bissau also ranks first among African countries in the cocaine trade, a reality that looms ever larger over national politics. In his inaugural speech, transitional president Maj-Gen. Horta Nta Na Man justified the military takeover as necessary to thwart a plot by “narco-traffickers” to destabilize the country. Government efforts to crack down on the narco trade are believed to have prompted previous coups d’etatin Guinea-Bissau. (Map: PCL)

Africa

Sudan: hollow truces, blood theft

In a move that will shock absolutely nobody following the war in Sudan, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) declared a three-month unilateral humanitarian truce—and then promptly broke it with an attack on an army position in the West Kordofan town of Babanusa. RSF leader Hemedti billed the pause as a first step towards a political solution, but it looks like just another attempt to con mediators and journalists. As ever, those attempts have been drowned out by a stream of grim revelations, including reports that RSF fighters forcibly took blood from civilians fleeing El Fasher—prompting one commentator to label them “literal vampires.” A Doctors Without Borders update found that many of the 260,000 civilians still alive in El Fasher before the RSF takeover in October are now dead, detained, trapped, or unable to access lifesaving aid. (Map: PCL)

Watching the Shadows

Podcast: Trump for War-is-Peace Prize II

Trump continues to pursue his perverse ambition to win the Nobel Peace Prize—now proffering “peace” plans for Ukraine and Gaza that would actually reward war crimes, and therefore portend wider war. In both cases these new “peace” plans are merely sanitized recapitulations of earlier proposals—for the surrender of the Donbas and Crimea to Russia, and for Israeli annexation of the Occupied Palestinian Territories and “transfer” of their indigenous inhabitants. Meanwhile, the actual winner of this year’s Peace Prize, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, is obsequiously pandering to Trump, and playing along with his bellicose designs on her country. In Episode 306 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg cuts through the Orwellian war-is-peace propaganda. (Image via Twitter)

Watching the Shadows

Trump vows ‘reverse migration’ —after CIA blowback?

President Trump called for “reverse migration” and a “major reduction in illegal and disruptive populations” in a racist late-night online rant. In the bizarre Thanksgiving message, Trump vowed to “permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries” and revisit immigration decisions made under his predecessor, Joe Biden. He said deportations will target “anyone who is not a net asset to the United States, or is incapable of loving our Country” or “non-compatible with Western Civilization.” Trump’s message followed the shooting of two National Guard soldiers in Washington DC, apparently by an Afghan refugee, Rahmanullah Lakanwal. In Afghanistan, Lakanwal reportedly served in the Zero Units: paramilitary forces backed by the CIA—notorious for conducting night raids on the homes of suspected Taliban collaborators. Rights groups have accused them of extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances, indiscriminate airstrikes, and attacks on medical facilities. According to the New York Times, the brutality of the Zero Unit tactics took a toll on Lakanwal’s mental health, with a childhood friend recalling how he was disturbed by the casualties his unit had caused. (Image: Twitter)