Tag Archives: political repression
| Lula Arrested: How Successful a Coup?
by Immanuel Wallerstein
On April 7, 2018 in Brazil Luiz Inacio “Lula” da Silva was arrested and taken to prison in Curitiba to begin a twelve-year sentence. He was Brazil’s president from January 2003 to January 2011. He was so popular that when he left office in 2011, he had a 90% approval rate.
| Catalonia: Pro-independence activist arrested and accused of terrorism
Spain’s Guardia Civil corps launched an operation against the Committees for the Defense of the Republic, a network of pro-independence activists. So far one person has been arrested, charged with rebellion and terrorism, and sent to the Spanish National Court in Madrid.
Warning on the serious situation of Sahrawi political prisoners on hunger strike: Saharawi National Human Rights Commission
Bir Lehlu (Liberated Territories), March 29, 2018 (SPS) – The Sahrawi National Commission for Human Rights (CONASADH) warned on Wednesday, in a statement, of the seriousness situation of Saharawi political prisoners, particularly the prisoners of Gdeim Izik, on hunger strike since last March 9, in protest of the bad treatments and their conditions, contradictory to the international conventions related to the prisoners.
| Harassment of students in Turkey
A number of academic communities’ members around the world strongly opposed the recent arrests and harassment of students at Boğaziçi University in Istanbul, Turkey. On March 19, 2018, students demonstrated against a campus event supporting the Turkish soldiers who fought in the invasion of Afrin, Syria, which was organized by the Society for Islamic Research (İslam Araştırmaları Kulübü). The arrests on campus, as well as subsequent police raids of student homes and dormitories, continue a disturbing trend of criminalizing political speech and dissent in Turkey. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has cynically referred to these students as “terrorists”, vowed to expel them from Boğaziçi University, and to deny them the right to study at any other university. Researchers and scientists note: “We have heard this kind of verbal attack from Erdoğan before and it was followed by the detention of thousands of academics, journalists, artists, and human rights advocates.
| According to national newspaper O Globo, 15 politicians have been murdered in Brazil since 2017
Just days after councilwoman and activist Marielle Franco was assassinated in Rio de Janeiro another leftist councilor, Paulinho Henrique Dourado, has been killed in a similar manner. Dourado, who was elected to the Marge council for the Brazilian Labor Party in 2016, was murdered on Tuesday in the metropolitan region of Rio called Estrada do Goiabal, in Pau Grande.
