Americas press review
In the spotlight: President Lula flew over the flood zone in southern Brazil
Brazilian President Lula flies over a severely flooded area in the state of Sao Paulo, February 20, 2023. © Ricardo Stuckert, via Reuters
Text by: Christophe Paget Follow
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Like Monday, the front pages of daily newspapers –
O Globo, Folha de Sao Paulo
– are divided between colorful images of carnival and those of desolation, in the south of the country, after landslides and floods.
As the death toll has risen to 40, the disaster is now becoming "
political ammunition
" for supporters of the Workers' Party, Lula's party, and those of Jair Bolsonaro, writes
Estadao de Sao Paulo
.
A deputy posted an image on social networks of an old report on the former president ignoring the tragedy in Bahia, during the heavy rains of December 2021. Photo accompanied by the comment: "The difference of
having a human president
" .
For their part, writes the newspaper,
Bolsonarist politicians criticized the amount of money released by the federal government to help the cities affected by the storm, namely 2 million reals
”
.
For his part,
Folha de Sao Paulo
is asking for action.
These “
extreme events (…) have been predicted for decades
”, writes the daily: “
Brazilian governments focus their public policies on mitigation, dealing almost exclusively with deforestation in the Amazon, our main source of emissions .
Clearly they have to, and it has been completely ignored by Jair Bolsonaro's administration
.
But the newspaper also calls on President Lula to carry out “
a national plan for adaptation to climate change
”: “
Installing alert sirens that work in time is the minimum;
in the medium and long term, only a major policy of housing and basic sanitation will enable poor Brazilians to be defended against the hecatombs that return every summer
”
.
Complicated legal situation in Santa Fe, Argentina
In Argentina,
La
Nation
made its front page on the judicial situation in the city of Santa Fe
. % of vacancies of judges and 25% of prosecutors.
Delays that in some cases have lasted for five years, with President Alberto Fernandez removing candidates from the shortlist submitted to the Senate by his predecessor without sending a new list.
This inertia, the paper explains, “
has led gangs of narcos to push boundaries like never before, intimidating judges, prosecutors, the media
.”
As a result, in recent weeks the government has been looking for ways to unblock the procedures for appointing officials, a procedure partially blocked, says a ruling party official interviewed by La Nation, by the opposition, which is blocking the processing of these
appointments
by the Senate.
Months of planning for Joe Biden's trip to Ukraine
In the United States, the press is interested in Joe Biden's trip to Ukraine: "
How did the president manage to organize a secret trip to Ukraine a year after the start of the war launched by Russia
", s asks
the USA Today
headline .
“
It took months of planning, by a small team of administration officials
,” reveals the daily, with a final decision taken last Friday.
USA Today
calls the visit "
historic with extraordinary risks
" because "
if Presidents Trump and Obama had already organized surprise visits to Afghanistan and Iraq, yesterday was the first presidential trip to a war zone where the United States does not have a military presence
.
At 4:15 a.m. Sunday, the
Washington Post
writes , the president's plane departure "
launched an almost 22-hour journey of trains, planes, and cars that would take the president more than 5,000 miles away, in Kyiv
”.
With, among other things, a train journey of more than ten hours from Poland: "
This is not how a president usually travels, but the Ukrainian airspace has been closed since the beginning of the war, which turned trains into an essential source for weapons, food, equipment…
".
The newspaper also recalls that Joe Biden's love for trains is well known, and part of his public image - the president took the train for 36 years to get to the Senate.
In any case, judges an editorial writer from the
Washington Post
, this visit “
shows how much Putin was mistaken about his courage
”.
The two presidents speaking today in “
competing speeches
,” writes The
New York Times
.
President Putin has already spoken this morning, a “
provocative
” speech according to the newspaper, in which he “
worsened the rift with the West, saying that Russia would suspend its participation in the New Start treaty on the control of nuclear weapons. , the last major agreement remaining between Russia and the United States
".
At the end of January, the daily notes, the US State Department had already determined that, regarding this treaty, Russia was not fulfilling its obligations.
We are awaiting President Biden's speech from Warsaw, Poland.
We already know that the president will insist on values, and not enter into a contest with Vladimir Putin, according to the national security adviser to the American president, whose remarks the New York Times reproduces.
In Haiti, second day of carnival
The second day of carnival attracted more people to Port-au-Prince, according to
Le Nouvelliste
: "
Tens of thousands of revelers followed the artistic parade, a more compact crowd in front of the musical floats
": "
some people who missed the first day wanted to make up for the lost pleasure
”… The newspaper notes that in terms of logistics, “
measures were taken to secure the parade and the participants along the route
”, and that “
the events began with a reasonable delay in relation to the scheduled time
”…
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Americas press review
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva
Natural disasters
Brazil
Argentina
Geopolitics of drugs
Day to day war in Ukraine
Joe Biden
Vladimir Poutine