27/10/2024
FTS 12.30
*9 displaced civilians killed in Israeli airstrike to school.
*Colombia’s government proposes global coalition for peace with nature.
teleSUR
These and more stories now!
FTS 12.30
*9 displaced civilians killed in Israeli airstrike to school.
*Colombia’s government proposes global coalition for peace with nature.
teleSUR
These and more stories now!
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00In Uruguay, the first results from the general election placed front candidate Orsi and national
00:16party's Delegado in run-off.
00:18Nine Palestinians, including three journalists, were killed and several others were injured
00:27in an Israeli airstrike on a school housing displaced families in the Ashati refugee camp
00:31in western Gaza.
00:37And Colombia's government proposes to create a world peace coalition at the Conference
00:41of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, the COP16.
00:53Hello and welcome to From the South.
00:55My name is Belen De Los Santos and from Telestar Studios in Caracas, Venezuela, we begin with
00:59the news.
01:14In Uruguay, the first results are coming in after the general election that was held
01:17this Sunday.
01:19According to the first official results, the leftist front coalition candidate, Yamandú
01:24Orsi, reaches the 44% of the votes while the national party candidate, Álvaro Luis Delgado,
01:30reaches 27% of the votes.
01:32For its part, the Colorado party obtained 15% of the ballots.
01:37If this trend is confirmed as the vote continues counting, Orsi and Delgado would face each
01:43other in the November 24th run-off.
01:45Also, both consultations that accompanied the election day have not met the approval
01:50requirements.
01:58And now to expand our analysis regarding Uruguay's election day, we welcome international law
02:03expert, Dr. Yvonne Tellez.
02:05Yvonne, to first point out, how are you?
02:09Welcome to From the South.
02:10Thank you, Belen.
02:11Delighted to be here.
02:14It's a pleasure to have you.
02:16Now to begin the analysis, we would like to ask you about the context, really, that
02:21brings Uruguayan people to this election day.
02:24What do you think are the main topics, the main challenges, to really put in context
02:28this election day in terms of an international perspective?
02:32Perfect.
02:33Well, the upcoming election in Uruguay poses a choice about the country's future regarding
02:44whether to continue this slight shift toward more market-oriented policies and private
02:53enterprises that were initiated by the current government, or to return to a focus more to
03:00strengthen the role of the state in the economy, the social protection, and the idea of the
03:06welfare state that was characterized between 2000 and 2015 with the other left governments.
03:16What we have here are three main topics that bring Uruguayans to the ballots, and that's
03:23crime, child poverty, and the aging population.
03:28Those seem to be the main concerns, the primary concerns that voters are facing, taking into
03:36account that Uruguay is one of the most stable democracies.
03:41So maybe what this vote over here, this election, come in a time when Uruguay stands a model
03:54of political and economic stability in the region, but we have those three topics that
04:00are main concerns.
04:01So what we see is a probable sort of decision regarding which kind of model Uruguayans want
04:15to preserve, either to go back to this idea of the welfare state, as I was saying before,
04:21or to turn into a more neoliberal, more market-oriented country.
04:30Okay, so just to go over the first results, according to this first results that are coming
04:38in, and also confirming what some analysts were expecting, apparently the broad front
04:45coalition and also the National Party will be heading to a runoff on November 24th.
04:50The broad front has had a significant difference in this first results, but how do you think
04:56that the forces could realign in the lead to this runoff?
04:59What can we expect in the coming weeks for this party?
05:04Okay, well, we have to consider as well that those topics have been a common point between
05:13the candidates.
05:15There are rising concerns, for example, about violent crime, drug gangs, drug dealing, corruption
05:22that has been more in the right wing discourse more than the left one.
05:29The left one has been more regarding, for example, the insecurity issues.
05:36So what I'm saying here is that there are some topics that have been common between
05:41those candidates, as they have said as well, that they will not face like a real or a strong
05:51opposition between lines, because they have some points that have a coincidence.
06:01However, if the trend continues, this possible victory of the opposition could or will occur
06:12amid a scenario of significant negotiation, and maybe if they don't achieve this parliamentary
06:20majority, that will be the first time that the broad front could govern in this way.
06:26So that means that some of these proposals, I think, more regarding the economy, more
06:33than political ones, could have an impact if we take into account as well that there
06:40have been some strong points of difference, for example, in those civil liberties or regarding,
06:46for example, what is being discussed regarding the plebiscite, the social security plebiscite,
06:56or the other one regarding the possibility of those overnight searches.
07:04So that could maybe represent a difference between both parties.
07:12However, as we've seen in their discourses, I think that the main issue will be how, for
07:23example, Uruguay will face those negotiations with China, as the broad front has said, they
07:30will prefer rather to continue those negotiations, for example, using the Mercosur organization
07:38and not just a direct one.
07:40So maybe those trends we can see, and if they don't achieve this parliamentary majority,
07:47we can see some difficulties regarding their governability in this sense.
07:53So you were just addressing the international aspect of this, well, possible victory of
08:00the broad front, and I would like to go a little bit deeper in the international repercussions
08:05of this election.
08:06What do you think that a potential win of the broad front could affect Uruguay's relation
08:11with other countries in the region?
08:14Or in the other case, what continuities could we expect from a win of the national party?
08:20What can we expect in terms of regional integration for Uruguay?
08:24On behalf of the nature neighbors of Uruguay, talking about Argentina and Brazil, this left-wing
08:38trend that we have, I'm talking about those – I mean Colombia, Brazil, with Lula, with
08:45Petro, Chile as well, with Boric, could possibly reflect a deeper integration, of course, because
08:57we're talking about this left-wing ideology.
09:01However, one difficult thing will be negotiations with the natural neighbors such as Argentina.
09:07However, Uruguay has been marked by a commitment, an historical commitment, to regional integration
09:14to the democratic values, to diplomacy, and in a way also Uruguay has positioned itself
09:22as a natural mediator and a voice for cooperation within the region.
09:27So I think what we can see if, for example, we have the broad front achieving the next
09:36presidency could be to strengthen the MERCOSUR membership.
09:41If we consider that Uruguay is a founding member of MERCOSUR and has been a strong advocate
09:48for this economic integration, what we can see is maybe strengthen these lines and these
09:53global south lines in the southern corn.
09:58Maybe we can – I think we can think about this relationship with Brazil and Argentina,
10:05as I was saying, maybe kind of attention regarding, for example, Argentina's new points with,
10:16for example, with MERCOSUR or with these natural ties.
10:21Maybe also we can see or we can foresee, for example, this participation in UNASUR and
10:29CELAC.
10:30I think – I mean, what I'm trying to say is that UNASUR, CELAC, MERCOSUR could be this
10:38strong and natural scenarios for Uruguay's usual position towards a regional integration
10:47and could be strengthened.
10:49Maybe if we don't see the broad front coming to the presidency, what we're going to see
10:58is a natural trend just to move away from this original integration and maybe try just
11:04to do a direct kind of negotiation with new partners such as the BRICS, such as China
11:13that is turning into this big, big new partner for the region.
11:21I don't think that this progressive diplomacy and human rights position that Uruguay has
11:29upheld during this time will be changed or moved by either one of the candidates.
11:40But what we can foresee is this trade diversification efforts regarding which way Uruguay is going
11:51to prefer, even, I don't know, more diversified trade agreements, more liberal ones or maybe
12:02more traditional ones, regional integration in a way to strengthen this welfare state.
12:11Okay, so that is interesting as you were saying that we could be looking at a stronger participation
12:19from Uruguay in the integration mechanisms such as you were mentioning, so we will be
12:23following on that trend.
12:26So before we finish, Iván, I would like to ask you also during this election day, Uruguayans
12:31also voted on two different consultations and for the looks of the first results, both
12:39were voted no.
12:41So I would like to ask you if there were any opinions on your part on what could indicate
12:46what led to this decision and also to better understand how these consultations came into
12:53place in this election day.
12:56Of course, well, the plebiscite on social security emerged as a response to a recent
13:05law passed by the government, by the current president, Alacallepou, what he did was to
13:12erase the retirement age from 60 years to 65 years old and to extend this individual
13:20savings system managed by the pension fund administrations.
13:24So this reform generated a strong reaction from some sectors of society, not all of them,
13:33particularly those of this labor union sector, but there was a minority that moved this plebiscite,
13:44they just reunited the 10% of the electorate, they collected the signatures of the 10% of
13:50the electorate, that was the necessary or the requirement to bring the reform to a public
13:55vote.
13:56So what Uruguayans were choosing today was three main elements, three main issues regarding
14:07the Uruguayan pension system.
14:09The first one, to reduce the retirement age again to 60, to align the minimum pensions
14:16to the national minimum wage and to eliminate those funds, the stress funds, because according
14:26to the initiative, in a way, it's like if they try to avoid any profit, any additional
14:35profit for the pension system.
14:38So maybe what could be thought of the result regarding the no, not more, one of them was
14:51that the initiative, as I said before, was just generated by a small group from the population.
15:03And this means that they had to make like a stronger change and regarding the law, okay,
15:14and the three candidates, the running candidates or the principal candidates, they were expressing
15:20again like a strong opposition to this reform.
15:25Maybe what could be explained regarding the result, the no result, is that this was promoted
15:36by the current candidates.
15:43And what also one strong voice was former President Mujica that was saying that to agree
15:53on the plebiscite reform could bring kind of a chaos to the pension system.
15:59So maybe this was a concern, this was an economic concern.
16:05That was one thing.
16:06The other one was the constitutional reform proposing to revise one of the constitution
16:14articles, and that is that the home and houses and homes are inviolable sanctuaries, right?
16:27And no one can enter at night without the head's consent.
16:32So one of the arguments here also was to try to just eliminate this restriction regarding
16:43the night prohibition to enter into the house or to enter into homes because or in a way
16:54to control insecurity, to control drug dealing, to control other possible crimes that could
17:03happen overnight.
17:07But that means that this has to be a constitutional reform.
17:12And I think one of the strongest arguments against it was that it was not necessary to
17:19just make a constitutional reform, but this can be done without this strong reform.
17:27Because first of all, the possibility, for example, to combat microtraffic, to combat
17:37drug dealing, to combat this insecurity could be done when, I mean, entering, for example,
17:44into storage facilities or secure storage facilities overnight.
17:51Also because, I mean, microtrafficking could happen within the homes of people, but the
17:59big drug and the big crimes or the main drug dealing points is not happening within houses
18:10or homes of normal people, but they just can be happening, for example, in those secure
18:16storage facilities or this other kind of places.
18:21And as according to the current laws, they can enter, I mean, security forces and the
18:29government could and state could enter into those storage facilities without reforming
18:35constitution.
18:36I think also one of the concerns could be that this is, in a way, a measure to overcome
18:45or to facilitate an unlawful use of force that could bring some other risks regarding,
18:53for example, just the normal civil liberties of people.
18:56So that could be a concern regarding, for example, the past dictatorships and what Uruguayans
19:05have faced before regarding the constriction of civil liberties.
19:10So I think that will be a concern and maybe that's not the best way to deal with this
19:16insecurity problems or these drug dealing problems at this time.
19:21Thank you, Yvonne, for joining us in from the South and really helping us understand,
19:28better understand what is happening today in Uruguay and we'll be sure to follow closely
19:33on this country in the coming hours and days.
19:40Pleasure is all mine.
19:43That was Dr. Teles, international law expert on Uruguay's general election.
19:48That is underway today.
19:49So moving on to other topics, in Brazil, at least 34 million citizens also participated
19:55this Sunday in a second round of the municipal elections to be held in 51 cities.
20:01According to political experts, these elections were evenly matched between the candidates
20:07of Lula da Silva's Workers' Party and Bolsonaro's Liberal Party.
20:11These local elections are expected to have national political implications and also serve
20:17to measure the leadership of political parties for the 2026 general elections.
20:22However, the electoral process concluded and also we have some upcoming results in which
20:29the leading Bolsonaro's right parties were the ones to win some of the major contenders
20:36and run off in these elections and we will have upcoming news in following news briefs.
20:50In this context, our correspondent in Brazil, Andre Vieira, took to Twitter to confirm that
20:55by President Lula da Silva, Evandro Leitão from the PT, beat the Bolsonarist candidate
21:01Infortaleza in the northeast of the country with 50.38% of the vote.
21:06It was the only victory for the left among the six runoff that marked this Sunday, according
21:12to our correspondent.
21:13Let's recall that 15 capitals went to runoff on this election day.
21:24We continue with more topics on Sunday.
21:26The municipal and regional elections continued in Chile as well, where at least 15 million
21:32voters will elect the mayors, councillors and governors of the country.
21:36According to the President of the Electoral Service, Andres Tagle, out of 15.4 million
21:41voters, 7.2 million already voted nationwide on Saturday night.
21:48The elections were being held during the two days of Saturday and Sunday and also because
21:54of the long voting time due to the large number of positions to be held.
21:59Those were 345 mayors, 16 governors, 2,252 councillors and 302 regional councillors.
22:08These are the first municipal and regional elections held under the new mandatory voting
22:14system re-established in the year 2022.
22:22Now let's take a short break, but remember you can join us on TikTok at TELUS for English
22:26where you will find news in different formats, news updates and much more.
22:30We'll be right back, stay with us.
22:43Welcome back to From the South, we continue with the news.
22:46Nine Palestinians, including three journalists, were killed and several others were injured
22:50today in an Israeli airstrike on a school housing displaced families in the al-Shadi
22:55refugee camp, Western Gaza.
22:58The occupying troops bombed the Asma School, which has been serving as a refugee center
23:03in the face of the Israeli aggression.
23:07The attack left several victims wounded, however it is perceived that there are more people
23:12trapped under the rubble.
23:13Emergency crews are searching to rescue the remaining victims.
23:17This marks the second time that the school has been targeted by Israeli occupation forces,
23:23with the previous attack occurring on the 19th of this month, which also resulted in
23:28numerous casualties.
23:34Another news.
23:35Colombia's government proposed to create a world peace coalition at the conference of
23:39the parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, the COP16.
23:45The Colombian Foreign Minister, Luis Gilberto Murillo, pointed out in his intervention that
23:49his country defends the idea of carrying out dialogues not only with governments and states,
23:55but also with the people.
23:56He also invited to create a global coalition for peace reconciliation with nature.
24:02For her part, the Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development, Susana Muhammad,
24:06stressed the importance of reconciliation and the recognition of plurality as vital
24:11elements to fight battles for the benefit of humanity.
24:19And like this, we have come to the end of this news brief.
24:21You can find these and many other stories on our website at SalazarEnglish.net and also
24:26join us on social media.
24:27We are on Facebook, Instagram and also on TikTok.
24:32For Salazar English, my name is Belén de los Santos.