Demonstrations, Protests and Riots

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      Protestas en Perú: Aumenta a 47 el número de muertos

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      En un solo día se registraron al menos 17 muertes en el sur del país. “Lo que ocurrió ayer realmente fue una masacre”, dijo una activista de derechos humanos.LIMA — Un joven estudiante de medicina con su uniforme de trabajo, desesperado, cuenta su familia, por ayudar a los manifestantes heridos. Un hombre de 22 años que finalmente había ahorrado lo suficiente para estudiar mecánica. Un vendedor de helados que volvía a casa tras un largo día de trabajo.Ninguno participó en las manifestaciones que han consumido a Perú durante un mes. Pero todos murieron el lunes en el sur del país, víctimas de lo que se convirtió en el día más mortífero de enfrentamientos entre manifestantes y fuerzas gubernamentales desde que el país estalló en violencia el mes pasado.En cuestión de horas, al menos 17 civiles y un policía fallecieron en el caos de las manifestaciones, según la Defensoría del Pueblo del país, una oleada de violencia extraordinaria que complicó el intento de la nueva presidenta de estabilizar el país.Las muertes, en la ciudad de Juliaca, cerca de la frontera con Bolivia, provocaron un repudio generalizado hacia las fuerzas de seguridad peruanas, que parecen ser responsables de la mayoría de los fallecimientos, y han sido acusadas por manifestantes y grupos de derechos humanos de usar la fuerza letal de forma indiscriminada contra civiles.“Él estaba con la ropa uniformada, como todos los médicos, para que sean reconocidos y no los ataquen”, dijo Milagros Samillan, de 27 años, hermana del residente médico muerto, un aspirante a neurocirujano llamado Marco Samillan, de 31 años. “Pero aun así la policía los ha atacado a matar”.Marco Samillan, de 31 años, estudiante de medicina asesinado en las protestas de Juliaca, Perú.Milagros SamillanEl martes, Jennie Dador, secretaria ejecutiva de la Coordinadora Nacional de Derechos Humanos de Perú, un grupo de rendición de cuentas, responsabilizó de las muertes del lunes al “uso indiscriminado de la fuerza” por parte de las fuerzas de seguridad del Estado.“Lo que ocurrió ayer realmente fue una masacre”, comentó. “Fueron asesinatos extrajudiciales”.Perú, el quinto país más poblado de América Latina, ha sido escenario de manifestaciones violentas desde mediados de diciembre, cuando el entonces presidente de izquierda del país, Pedro Castillo, quien había prometido atender los viejos problemas de la pobreza y la desigualdad, intentó disolver el Congreso y gobernar por decreto. La medida fue condenada de manera generalizada como una acción inconstitucional, Castillo fue detenido y su vicepresidenta fue juramentada en su lugar.Los partidarios de Castillo, muchos de ellos provenientes de regiones rurales desfavorecidas, rápidamente tomaron las calles para pedir nuevas elecciones generales y varios de ellos afirmaron que se les había arrebatado el derecho a ser gobernados por el hombre que habían elegido para el cargo solamente un año antes.La violencia del lunes en la ciudad de Juliaca, al sur del país, marcó el enfrentamiento más mortífero entre civiles y actores armados en Perú en al menos dos décadas, cuando el país salió de una dictadura y de una lucha prolongada y brutal contra una guerrilla violenta, un conflicto que dejó al menos 70.000 personas muertas, muchas de ellas civiles.Las convulsiones violentas en Perú se producen en un momento en el que Sudamérica enfrenta amenazas importantes en muchas de sus democracias , y cuando las encuestas muestran niveles excepcionalmente bajos de confianza en las instituciones gubernamentales, los políticos y los medios de comunicación.El domingo, simpatizantes de Jair Bolsonaro, el expresidente de extrema derecha de Brasil, asaltaron el Congreso y otros edificios de la capital, impulsados por la creencia de que las elecciones que Bolsonaro perdió en octubre habían estado amañadas. En la vecina Bolivia, estallaron protestas en Santa Cruz, centro económico del país, tras la detención del gobernador de la oposición, cuyos partidarios afirman que está siendo perseguido por el gobierno en el poder.El ministro del Interior de Perú, Víctor Rojas, dijo que las protestas en Juliaca habían comenzado de manera pacífica pero que se volvieron violentas alrededor de las 3 p. m., cuando aunos 9000 manifestantes intentaron tomar el control del aeropuerto y personas con armas improvisadas y explosivos atacaron a la policía.La policía antidisturbios se enfrentaba el lunes a los manifestantes en Puno.Juan Carlos Cisneros/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesEn medio de los disturbios, las imágenes de la televisión local mostraron a personas destruyendo las oficinas de los fiscales y un supermercado en Juliaca e incendiando la casa de un legislador de un partido de la oposición.Rojas aseguró que las fuerzas de seguridad habían actuado dentro de los límites legales para defenderse. Fue “imposible controlar a la turba”, dijo.Los enfrentamientos en Juliaca elevan el número de fallecidos a nivel nacional desde la destitución de Castillo a al menos 47 personas, según la Defensoría del Pueblo de Perú. Casi todos los muertos han sido civiles, aseguró el organismo: 39 personas que murieron en medio de las protestas, junto a un oficial de policía y siete que fallecieron en accidentes de tránsito relacionados con el caos o como resultado de los bloqueos de los manifestantes.Las manifestaciones comenzaron en el país poco después de que, el 7 de diciembre, las autoridades detuvieran a Castillo por cargos de rebelión. Algunas protestas en el último mes han sido pacíficas; en otros casos, los manifestantes han usado hondas para arrojar piedras, bloqueado carreteras en vías cruciales, quemado edificios gubernamentales y tomado aeropuertos.Cuando la nueva presidenta, Dina Boluarte, exaliada de Castillo, declaró en diciembre el estado de emergencia, los militares salieron a las calles para mantener el orden.Cientos de policías y civiles han resultado heridosManifestantes ayudaban a un hombre herido durante un enfrentamiento con las fuerzas de seguridad el lunes en Juliaca.Hugo Courotto/ReutersEl derramamiento de sangre más reciente en Perú ocurrió en la región de Puno, una zona predominantemente indígena del país, luego de que miles de personas de comunidades aimaras alejadas llegaran masivamente a la ciudad de Juliaca.Muchas exigen que Castillo regrese a la presidencia, un reclamo que resulta políticamente inviable en la capital, Lima, y una medida que sería ilegal.La petición principal es que se celebren nuevas elecciones generales, que según las autoridades electorales podrían realizarse tan pronto como a fines de este año. El Congreso, integrado por muchos representantes reacios a ceder sus escaños, rechazó un lapso tan ajustado, pero apoyó una propuesta para una votación en abril de 2024.Hasta la tarde del martes, Boluarte aún no había hecho comentarios sobre los disturbios desde que confirmó la muerte del primer civil un día antes, cuando pareció exasperada con las demandas de los manifestantes.“Lo único que estaba en mi mano era el adelanto de elecciones, y ya lo propusimos”, dijo Boluarte el lunes en un evento. “En paz y orden todo se puede lograr, en mitad de la violencia y el caos se complica más, se hace difícil”.El primer ministro Alberto Otárola, en rueda de prensa, culpó a Castillo y a sus aliados de la muerte de los manifestantes, al afirmar que habían incitado a ataques violentos destinados a desestabilizar al gobierno de Boluarte.“Ellos son los responsables”, dijo, “y no nuestros policías”. Ni tampoco “los ciudadanos que aterrorizados ven cómo estas hordas de delincuentes pretenden soliviantar el estado de derecho”.El martes, Otárola dijo que la región de Puno estaría sujeta a tres días de toque de queda a partir de las 8 p. m.Manifestantes se enfrentan a las fuerzas de seguridad el lunes en Juliaca, Perú.Hugo Courotto/ReutersA raíz de la violencia, las Naciones Unidas, el embajador británico en Perú y otros actores internacionales emitieron declaraciones en las que pedían explícitamente a las fuerzas de seguridad peruanas que respetaran los derechos humanos.Estados Unidos, que ha expresado en repetidas ocasiones su apoyo al gobierno de Boluarte y anunció la semana pasada una nueva financiación de ocho millones de dólares para Perú destinada a apoyar los esfuerzos en la lucha contra el narcotráfico, fue menos directo.“Es urgente que se tomen medidas para detener esta dolorosa situación de violencia y evitar la pérdida de más vidas humanas”, escribió en Twitter la embajadora estadounidense en Perú, Lisa Kenna.Tras la llegada de los primeros nueve cadáveres a un hospital de Juliaca el lunes por la tarde, Enrique Sotomayor, médico funcionario del hospital, dijo a los medios de comunicación locales que todos habían recibido disparos de proyectiles de armas de fuego lo suficientemente potentes como para dañar gravemente los órganos internos.Samillan, el aspirante a neurocirujano, esperaba abrir algún día un hospital que atendiera a personas de escasos recursos económicos, dijo su hermana. Estaba haciendo su internado en un hospital de Juliaca y el lunes, junto con otros voluntarios, había salido a la calle para ayudar a los manifestantes heridos.Hablando por teléfono mientras se encontraba en un patio frente a la morgue del hospital, Samillan dijo que su hermano había recibido dos disparos.“Todo fue tan rápido, tan sangriento que hasta ahorita estoy sin creer todo lo que está pasando”, dijo.Una foto familiar de Samillan, en el centroMilagros SamillanSamillan dijo que su hermano era “una persona que le gusta ayudar a la gente, que muchas veces él ha venido diciendo: ‘Yo voy a apoyar a la gente. No importa que pierda la vida’. Lamentablemente, se hizo real eso, ¿no?”.Pidió la renuncia de Boluarte.“El pueblo no la quiere”, dijo.Roger Cayo, de 22 años, siempre quiso estudiar mecánica, pero no podía costearlo, dijo su único hermano, Mauro Cayo. Este año por fin había ahorrado suficiente para hacerlo. Esos planes se truncaron cuando el lunes recibió un disparo en la cabeza mientras pasaba junto a las protestas.“Aquí nos encontramos todos los dolientes”, dijo Cayo, que esperaba para recoger el cuerpo de su hermano. Por teléfono, se oía de fondo el sonido de un llanto.Gabriel Omar López, de 35 años, fue la primera persona muerta a manos de la policía el lunes. Su esposa declaró al diario La República que le habían disparado en medio del caos tras un día vendiendo helados en la calle.El martes, la policía identificó al suboficial muerto como José Luis Soncco, y el Ministerio del Interior dijo que había muerto después de que los manifestantes atacaran un vehículo policial, se apoderaran de armas e incendiaran el auto.Los manifestantes han asegurado que marcharán a Lima en los próximos días, mientras que el gobierno ha prometido introducir nuevas medidas para restablecer el orden. Muchos peruanos temen una nueva ola de violencia.El gobierno ha anunciado el envío de una delegación de altos funcionarios a Puno para entablar un diálogo. Pero no está claro con quién hablarán. El lunes, el ministro del Interior, Rojas, dijo que no había encontrado a nadie en Puno dispuesto a hablar con él.“En el Ejecutivo tenemos todas las ganas de hacer las cosas bien, queremos enmendar errores”, pero los manifestantes “cerraron la puerta” al diálogo, dijo.“Hay compatriotas muertos, ese es el objetivo de ellos. Crear caos sobre el caos”, dijo Rojas.Julie Turkewitz es la jefa de la oficina de los Andes y da cobertura a Colombia, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Perú, Surinam y Guyana. Antes de trasladarse a Sudamérica, fue corresponsal nacional en el oeste de Estados Unidos. @julieturkewitz More

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      Brazil’s Authorities Race to Identify Organizers of Brasília Riot

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      With more than 700 people arrested after supporters of Jair Bolsonaro ransacked Brazil’s seats of government, the authorities began to search for those who funded and aided the rioters.A day after arresting hundreds of people over the riot at Brazil’s capital, the Brazilian authorities turned their focus on Tuesday to the political and business elites suspected of inspiring, organizing or funding the rioters, who seized the seats of government in support of the far-right former president.In the most dramatic example of that turn, prosecutors on Tuesday asked a federal court to freeze the assets of the former president, Jair Bolsonaro, on Tuesday, citing “the accountability process and the vandalism that occurred” in the capital, Brasília, on Sunday, when Bolsonaro supporters ransacked the Congress, Supreme Court and presidential offices.The petition was one of several moves by the authorities that highlighting the scope of the hunt to identify the ideological, logistical and financial architects of Sunday’s chaos, the worst attack on Brazil’s institutions since a military dictatorship ended in 1985.A Supreme Court justice issued arrest warrants for two prominent security officials, stating that they were under investigation for terrorism, criminal association, violent abolition of the democratic rule of law and coup. And the attorney general’s office was expected to take action against more than 100 companies thought to have helped the protesters.The request to freeze Mr. Bolsonaro’s assets is now in the hands of a judge, but it is unclear whether the court has the legal power to block his accounts. And freezing assets, even if it were not challenged in court, could prove to be a lengthy and complex process in its own right.The justice minister, Flavio Dino, said on Tuesday that the police were already seeking arrest warrants for “people who did not come to Brasília but participated in the crime, who are organizers, financiers.”Riot police on Monday in Brasília.Victor Moriyama for The New York TimesA day earlier, he said the authorities had zeroed in on companies in at least 10 states that were suspected of providing financial aid for those who took part in the attack. The attorney general’s office is also expected to ask a federal court to freeze the financial assets of more than 100 companies believed to have transported rioters to the capital or provided them with free food and shelter, according to press reports.Both Mr. Dina and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva have suggested that the country’s powerful agriculture industry, which largely backed Mr. Bolsonaro in the election, played a role.“These people were there today, the agribusiness,” Mr. Lula said after the attacks, adding that “all these people will be investigated, found out, and will be punished.”Supporters of Mr. Bolsonaro had camped out for weeks outside the army headquarters in Brasília, espousing the false claim that the presidential election in October was stolen, and some called for the military to step in. The military and independent experts found no credible evidence of voter fraud in the election, which was won by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a leftist former president who defeated Mr. Bolsonaro and took office on Jan. 1.Mr. Bolsonaro had for years asserted, without evidence, that Brazil’s election systems were plagued by fraud, but after the October election he authorized a transition of power to Mr. Lula. Mr. Bolsonaro, who has been in the United States since before the inauguration, criticized the rioters on Sunday, saying that peaceful demonstrations were part of democracy but the “destruction and invasions of public buildings” was not.In the wake of the riot, investigators also face difficult questions about why rioters were able to enter federal government buildings so easily — and whether the authorities were blindsided, negligent or somehow complicit.Some officials have been quick to place most of the blame on Anderson Torres, who served as Mr. Bolsonaro’s justice minister before becoming the public security secretary of the Federal District, which includes Brasília.Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes issued warrants for the arrest of Mr. Torres and Fabio Augusto Vieira, the chief of the military police in the Federal District, who was responsible for the police forces on Sunday. Justice de Moraes, who has been accused in the past of severe overreach, wrote in his order that there were “strong indications that those investigated were colluding with a criminal association.”.Ricardo Capelli, who is temporarily in charge of security in the Federal District under an emergency decree signed by Mr. Lula on Sunday, accused Mr. Torres of “sabotaging” security in the capital.Some 599 people who were detained for questioning were released from custody.Victor Moriyama for The New York Times“There is no security force without command,” Mr. Capelli told reporters on Tuesday. As soon as Mr. Torres took over on Jan. 2, Mr. Capelli said, “Chaos ensues. Coincidence? I don’t think so.”The attorney general has requested the arrest of Mr. Torres and prosecutors are asking a judge to freeze his assets, along with those of Mr. Bolsonaro and the district’s governor, Ibaneis Rocha, who was suspended from his post after the riot.As justice minister, Mr. Torres took part in attempts to undermine confidence in electronic voting machines. In a two-hour livestream on social media in July 2021, in which Mr. Bolsonaro claimed that the election process was rife with fraud, Mr. Torres stood by him and presented videos claiming to show how voting machines could be hacked.State officials have said they accepted responsibility, but have not explained why security was light, despite warnings of the possibility of violent protests.By Tuesday, the police had arrested 727 people in connection with the riots and were still questioning hundreds of others, the federal police said in a statement. Some 599 people who were detained for questioning had been released from custody.Hamilton Mourão, a former Army general who was Mr. Bolsonaro’s vice president, criticized what he called “indiscriminate detention.” The crackdown, he wrote on social media, “shows that the new government, consistent with its Marxist-Leninist roots, acts in an amateurish, inhumane and illegal manner.”Some of those who invaded federal buildings filmed themselves and each other during the riot, giving the authorities a body of evidence with which to build a case. Augusto de Arruda Botelho, national justice secretary, said police had also collected DNA samples and fingerprints from the buildings.But prosecuting many of those who took part could prove difficult, legal experts said, given the need to link defendants to specific crimes.A person’s presence at the protest camp in Brasília, or even on the avenue of the federal buildings, may not be enough to convict, said Bruno Baghin, a public defender and a law professor at the School of Public Defense of São Paulo State.“Without attributing specific conduct to each individual,” he said, prosecution cases could be “very fragile.”Flávia Milhorance More

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      Death Toll in Peru Rises to 47 Amid Extraordinary Violence

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      “What happened yesterday was really a massacre,” said one human rights activist.LIMA, Peru — A young medical student in his work uniform, desperate, his family said, to help injured protesters. A 22-year old man who had finally saved up enough to study mechanics. An ice cream vendor returning home after a long day of work.None took part in the demonstrations that have consumed Peru for a month. But all were killed in southern Peru on Monday, casualties in what became the deadliest day of clashes between protesters and government forces since the country erupted in violence last month.In a matter of hours, at least 17 civilians and one police officer were killed in the chaos of demonstrations, according to the country’s ombudsman office, an extraordinary spasm of violence that complicated the new president’s attempt to stabilize the country.The killings, in the city of Juliaca, near the border with Bolivia, drew widespread condemnation of Peruvian security forces, which appear to be responsible for most of the deaths, and have been accused by protesters and human rights groups of using lethal force indiscriminately against civilians.“He was in uniform, like all the doctors, so that they would be recognized and not attacked,” said Milagros Samillan, 27, the sister of the dead medical resident, an aspiring neurosurgeon named Marco Samillan, 31. “But the police still attacked them to kill.”Marco Samillan, 31, a medical student killed in the protests in Juliaca, Peru.Milagros SamillanOn Tuesday, Jennie Dador, executive secretary of the National Human Rights Coordinator of Peru, an accountability group, blamed “indiscriminate use of force” by state security forces for Monday’s deaths.“What happened yesterday was really a massacre,’’ she said. “These were extrajudicial killings.”Peru, the fifth-most-populous nation in Latin America, has been the scene of violent demonstrations since early December, when the country’s leftist president, Pedro Castillo, who had promised to address longstanding issues of poverty and inequality, attempted to dissolve Congress and rule by decree. The move was widely condemned as unconstitutional and Mr. Castillo was arrested and replaced by his vice president.Supporters of Mr. Castillo, many of them living in impoverished rural regions, quickly took to the streets to demand new general elections, with many claiming they had been stripped of the right to be governed by the man they had voted into office just one year earlier.The violence in Juliaca on Monday marked the deadliest single clash between civilians and armed actors in Peru in at least two decades, when the country emerged from a dictatorship as well as from a long and brutal fight with a violent guerrilla group, a conflict that left at least 70,000 people dead, many of them civilians.The political convulsion in Peru come as South America faces significant threats to many of its young democracies, with polls showing exceptionally low levels of trust in government institutions, politicians and the media.On Sunday, supporters of Brazil’s former far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, stormed Congress and other buildings in the capital, fueled by a belief that the election Mr. Bolsonaro lost in October had been rigged. And in nearby Bolivia, protests have erupted in the economic hub of Santa Cruz following the arrest of the opposition governor, whose supporters claim he is being persecuted by the ruling government.Peru’s interior minister, Victor Rojas, said that the protests in Juliaca had begun peacefully on Monday but turned violent around 3 p.m., when about 9,000 protesters tried to take control of the local airport and people armed with makeshift guns and explosives attacked police officers.The riot police clashing with protesters in Puno on Monday.Juan Carlos Cisneros/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesAmid the unrest, local television images showed people vandalizing the offices of public prosecutors and a supermarket in Juliaca and setting fire to the house of a lawmaker from an opposition party.Mr. Rojas claimed that security forces had acted within legal limits to defend themselves. “It became impossible to control the mob,” he said.The clashes in Juliaca raise the death toll since Mr. Castillo’s ouster to at least 47 people, according to the nation’s ombudsman. Nearly all of the dead have been civilians, the office said, with 39 killed, along with one police officer, amid protests and seven killed in traffic accidents related to the unrest or as a result of protesters’ blockades.The country’s demonstrations began shortly after authorities arrested Mr. Castillo on charges of rebellion on Dec. 7. Over the last month, some protests have been peaceful; in other cases marchers have used slingshots to fling rocks, set up roadblocks on vital highways, burned government buildings and taken over airports.When the new president, Dina Boluarte, a former ally of Mr. Castillo’s, declared a state of emergency in December, the military took to the streets to maintain order.Hundreds of police officers and civilians have been injured.Demonstrators assisting a man injured during a clash with security forces on Monday in Juliaca.Hugo Courotto/ReutersThe most recent bloodshed occurred in the region of Puno, a heavily Indigenous part of Peru, after villagers from remote Aymara communities arrived by the thousands in the city of Juliaca.Many were calling for Mr. Castillo to be returned to office, a political nonstarter in the capital of Lima, and a move that would be illegal.The chief demand is new general elections, which the electoral authorities said could happen as early as late this year. Congress has rejected such a tight time frame, with many representatives reluctant to give up their seats, but has backed a proposal for a vote in April 2024.By Tuesday afternoon, Ms. Boluarte still had not commented on the unrest since confirming the first civilian killed a day earlier, when she sounded exasperated with protesters’ demands.“The only thing in my hands is bringing forward elections — and we’ve already proposed it,” Ms. Boluarte said at an event on Monday. “During peace, anything can be achieved, but amid violence and chaos it gets harder.”Prime Minister Alberto Otárola, at a news conference, blamed Mr. Castillo and his allies for the deaths of the protesters, saying that they had incited violent attacks meant to destabilize Ms. Boluarte’s government.“They are who is responsible,” he said, “not our police, and not citizens who have been terrorized to see how these hordes of criminals try to undermine our rights.”On Tuesday, Mr. Otárola said the region of Puno would be subject to three days of curfew beginning at 8 p.m.Demonstrators clashing with security forces on Monday in Juliaca, Peru.Hugo Courotto/ReutersIn the wake of the violence, the United Nations, the British ambassador in Peru and other international players issued statements explicitly calling on Peruvian security forces to respect human rights.The United States, which has repeatedly expressed support for Ms. Boluarte’s government and last week announced $8 million in new funding for Peru to support efforts to fight drug trafficking, was less direct.“It is urgent that measures are taken to stop this painful situation of violence and avoid the loss of more human lives,” the U.S. ambassador to Peru, Lisa Kenna, wrote on Twitter.After the first nine bodies arrived at a hospital in Juliaca on Monday afternoon, Dr. Enrique Sotomayor, a hospital official, told local media that all had been shot with projectiles from firearms strong enough to seriously damage internal organs.Mr. Samillan, the aspiring neurosurgeon, hoped to one day open a hospital that would serve people with few economic resources, his sister said. He was completing an internship at a hospital in Juliaca, and on Monday, he and other volunteers had gone to the streets to help wounded protesters, she said.Speaking on the phone as she stood in a courtyard outside the hospital morgue, Ms. Samillan said her brother had been shot twice.“Everything was so fast, so bloody that even now I can’t believe everything that’s happening,” she said.A family photo of Mr. Samillan, center.Milagros SamillanMs. Samillan said her brother was “a person who likes to help people. And many times he has said: ‘I am going to support the people. It doesn’t matter if I lose my life.’ Unfortunately that became real, didn’t it?”She called for the resignation of Ms. Boluarte.“The people don’t want her,” she said.Roger Cayo, 22, always wanted to study mechanics, but he couldn’t afford it, said his only brother, Mauro Cayo. This year he had finally saved up enough money to go. Those plans were dashed when he was shot in the head on Monday while passing by the protests.“Right now we are all mourners here,” said Mr. Cayo, who was waiting to collect his brother’s body. On the phone, the sound of crying was audible in the background.Gabriel Omar López, 35, was the first person reported dead by the police on Monday. His wife told a newspaper, La República, that he had been shot amid the chaos after a day selling ice cream in the streets.On Tuesday, the police identified the dead officer as José Luis Soncco, and the Interior Ministry said he had died after protesters attacked a police vehicle, seized weapons and set the vehicle on fire.Protesters have vowed to march to Lima in the coming days, while the government has promised to introduce new measures to restore order. Many Peruvians fear a fresh wave of violence.The government said a delegation of high-ranking officials was being deployed to Puno to establish dialogue. But it was unclear whom they would speak with. On Monday, the interior minister, Mr. Rojas, said he was unable to find anyone in Puno willing to talk with him.“In the executive branch, we want to do things right, we want to fix our mistakes,” but the protesters have “closed the door” to dialogue, he said.“Their purpose is to create chaos,” Mr. Rojas said. “They were seeking these deaths.” More

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      ¿Qué impulsó el ataque a la capital de Brasil?

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      Durante las últimas 10 semanas, los seguidores del expresidente de extrema derecha Jair Bolsonaro habían acampado afuera de la sede del ejército brasileño, exigiendo que los militares revirtieran las elecciones presidenciales de octubre. Y, durante las últimas 10 semanas, los manifestantes encontraron poca oposición por parte del gobierno.Luego, el domingo, muchos de los ocupantes del campamento salieron de sus carpas en Brasilia, la capital del país, condujeron algunos kilómetros y, al unirse cientos de otros manifestantes, invadieron el Congreso, el Supremo Tribunal Federal y las oficinas presidenciales.Para la mañana del lunes, las autoridades estaban barriendo el campamento. Desmantelaron las carpas, retiraron pancartas y detuvieron a 1200 de los manifestantes, llevándoselos en autobuses para interrogarlos.Por qué se había permitido que un campamento que exigía un golpe militar creciera durante más de 70 días era parte de un conjunto más amplio de preguntas que los funcionarios enfrentaban el lunes, entre ellas:¿Por qué se permitió que las protestas se acercaran tanto a las sedes del poder de Brasil? ¿Y por qué las fuerzas de seguridad habían sido superadas de tal manera que multitudes de manifestantes pudieron irrumpir fácilmente en las instalaciones gubernamentales?Más de mil partidarios del expresidente Jair Bolsonaro que supuestamente participaron en los disturbios estaban detenidos en Brasilia.Victor Moriyama para The New York TimesEl ministro de Justicia de Brasil, Flávio Dino, indicó que varias agencias de seguridad se habían reunido el viernes para prepararse ante la posibilidad de violencia en las protestas previstas para el domingo. Pero, dijo, la estrategia de seguridad urdida en la reunión, que incluía mantener a los manifestantes alejados de los principales edificios estatales, para el domingo había sido parcialmente abandonada y había muchos menos agentes de la ley de lo previsto.“El contingente policial no fue lo que se había acordado”, dijo, y añadió que no estaba claro por qué se habían cambiado los planes.Algunos en el gobierno federal culpaban al gobernador de Brasilia, Ibaneis Rocha, y sus funcionarios, dando a entender que habían sido negligentes o cómplices en la falta de personal de las fuerzas de seguridad alrededor de las protestas.El domingo por la noche, Alexandre de Moraes, juez del Supremo Tribunal Federal, suspendió a Rocha de su cargo como gobernador durante al menos 90 días, argumentando que el levantamiento “solo podía ocurrir con el consentimiento, e incluso la participación efectiva, de las autoridades de seguridad e inteligencia”.Independientemente de los fallos de seguridad que hayan ocurrido, los disturbios del domingo dejaron al desnudo de forma sorprendente el principal desafío que enfrenta la democracia de Brasil. A diferencia de otros intentos por derrocar gobiernos en la historia de América Latina, los ataques del domingo no fueron ordenados por un solo gobernante autoritario o un ejército decidido a tomar el poder, sino que más bien fueron impulsados por una amenaza más insidiosa y arraigada: un engaño masivo.Agentes de la policía militar desmantelando un campamento utilizado por seguidores de Bolsonaro frente a una sede del ejército en Río de JaneiroDado Galdieri para The New York TimesMillones de brasileños parecen estar convencidos de que las elecciones presidenciales de octubre estuvieron amañadas en detrimento de Bolsonaro, a pesar de que las auditorias y los análisis realizados por expertos no han hallado nada de ese tipo. Dichas creencias en parte son producto de años de teorías conspirativas, afirmaciones engañosas y falsedades explícitas que Bolsonaro y sus aliados propagaron al afirmar que el sistema de votación totalmente electrónico de Brasil estaba plagado de fraude.Los partidarios de Bolsonaro han estado repitiendo las afirmaciones durante meses, y luego las ampliaron con nuevas teorías de conspiración transmitidas en chats grupales de WhatsApp y Telegram, muchos de los cuales se enfocaron en la idea de que el software de las máquinas de votación electrónica fue manipulado para hacer fraude a la elección. El domingo, los manifestantes se pararon en el techo del Congreso con una pancarta que tenía una sola exigencia: “Queremos el código fuente”.La mañana del lunes, Orlando Pinheiro Farias, de 40 años, salía del campamento de manifestantes y dijo que había ingresado a los despachos presidenciales el domingo junto a otros compañeros en busca de documentos relacionados con “las investigaciones del código fuente, que legitiman que Jair Messias Bolsonaro es el presidente de Brasil”.Recitó varias siglas gubernamentales e investigaciones secretas sobre las que había leído en internet, y luego dijo que tenía que volver a su tienda de campaña para recuperar una bandera brasileña que se había robado del edificio.Los delirios sobre las elecciones también se extendían a las explicaciones de muchos manifestantes sobre lo que había sucedido en los disturbios. Las personas que salían del campamento el lunes por la mañana, con colchones de aire enrollados, cables de extensión y taburetes, tenían un mensaje claro: los partidarios de Bolsonaro no habían saqueado los edificios. Más bien, dijeron, los que causaron el daño eran izquierdistas radicales disfrazados, empeñados en difamar a su movimiento.Trabajadores de la oficina presidencial durante la limpieza del lunesVictor Moriyama para The New York Times“¿Escuchaste alguna vez del Caballo de Troya?”, preguntó Nathanael S. Viera, de 51 años, que había viajado más de 1400 kilómetros para participar en las protestas del domingo. “Los infiltrados fueron y armaron todo y la maldita prensa le mostró a la nación brasileña que nosotros los patriotas somos vándalos”.Las escenas del domingo —manifestantes de derecha envueltos en la bandera nacional deambulando por los pasillos del poder— resultaban sorprendentemente similares a las del asalto al Capitolio de los Estados Unidos el 6 de enero, al igual que las creencias confusas que llevaron a los manifestantes en ambos países a invadir edificios federales y a filmarse mientras lo hacían.“A Donald Trump lo sacaron con una elección amañada, sin duda, y en aquel momento lo sacaron y yo dije ‘al presidente Bolsonaro lo van a derrocar’”, dijo Wanderlei Silva, de 59 años, trabajador hotelero retirado que estaba el lunes afuera del campamento.Silva hallaba sus propias similitudes entre los disturbios del domingo y los del 6 de enero de 2021. “Los demócratas armaron eso e invadieron el Capitolio”, dijo. “Igual que aquí lo armaron”.Durante mucho tiempo, Brasil se ha visto a sí mismo como un país similar a Estados Unidos: diverso y vasto, rico en recursos naturales, distribuido en una colección de estados federales y gobernado por un gobierno federal fuerte. Pero su tumultuosa historia política nunca imitó verdaderamente el sistema estadounidense, hasta los últimos años.“Sin Trump no habría Bolsonaro en Brasil. Y sin la invasión al Capitolio no habría la invasión que vimos ayer”, dijo Guga Chacra, comentarista en la mayor cadena de televisión de Brasil, quien vive en Nueva York y monitorea la política en ambos países. “El bolsonarismo intenta copiar al trumpismo y los seguidores de Bolsonaro en Brasil intenta copiar lo que hacen los seguidores de Trump en Estados Unidos”.Incluso una descripción de las elecciones presidenciales de Brasil de 2022 se lee como un resumen de las elecciones estadounidenses de 2020: un mandatario populista de extrema derecha con gusto por los insultos y tuits improvisados contra un contrincante septuagenario de izquierda que se postula con su probada trayectoria política y una promesa de unir a una nación dividida.El lunes, en las afueras del Supremo Tribunal FederalVictor Moriyama para The New York TimesPero lo que pasó después de cada elección fue distinto.Si bien el expresidente Donald Trump luchó para revertir los resultados y llamó a sus seguidores a descender al Capitolio el 6 de enero, Bolsonaro de hecho se había rendido y marchado a Florida para cuando sus votantes entraban a la fuerza a las oficinas que había ocupado alguna vez.Según dijo su esposa en redes sociales, Bolsonaro pasó parte del lunes en un hospital de Florida debido a dolores abdominales derivados de un apuñalamiento que sufrió en 2018. Bolsonaro planea quedarse en Florida durante las próximas semanas o meses, con la esperanza de que se enfríen las investigaciones en Brasil sobre su actividad como presidente, según un amigo.Ned Price, el vocero del Departamento de Estado de EE. UU., no quiso hacer comentarios sobre el estatus de la visa de Bolsonaro, aludiendo a las leyes de privacidad. Pero indicó que se esperaba que cualquier persona que ingresara al país con una visa diplomática y que “ya no esté involucrada en asuntos oficiales en nombre de su gobierno” saliera del país o solicitara otro tipo de visa dentro de 30 días.“Si un individuo no tiene bases para estar en Estados Unidos, dicho individuo es sujeto de ser expulsado”, dijo Price.En un discurso grabado en los últimos días de su presidencia, Bolsonaro dijo que había intentado y fracasado en usar la ley para anular las elecciones de 2022, y sugirió que sus seguidores deberían seguir adelante. “Vivimos en una democracia o no”, dijo. “Nadie quiere una aventura”. El domingo, publicó un mensaje en Twitter condenando la violencia.Pero sus años de retórica contra las instituciones democráticas de Brasil, y su estrategia política de infundir miedo a la izquierda entre sus seguidores, ya habían dejado una marca imborrable.Entrevistas con manifestantes realizadas en semanas recientes parecían mostrar que el movimiento de Bolsonaro avanzaba sin él. Ahora es impulsado por creencias profundamente arraigadas entre muchos brasileños de derecha según las cuales las élites políticas amañaron el voto para instalar como presidente a Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a quien consideran un comunista que convertirá a Brasil en un estado autoritario como Venezuela.El presidente Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva en reunión con integrantes del Supremo Tribunal y el Congreso el lunesVictor Moriyama para The New York TimesLula, el nuevo presidente, es un izquierdista pero no un comunista. Y los expertos de seguridad independientes dijeron que no había pruebas de irregularidades en las votaciones de 2022. Un análisis aparte realizado por el ejército de Brasil solo halló una posible vulnerabilidad en el sistema de votación de Brasil, que es completamente digital. Dicha vulnerabilidad requeriría la coordinación de numerosos funcionarios electorales, un escenario que según los expertos en seguridad era extremadamente improbable.Lula, que había hecho campaña para unificar a un país dividido, se enfrenta ahora a la investigación y el enjuiciamiento de muchos de los seguidores de sus oponentes políticos apenas a una semana de haber juramentado. Las autoridades indicaron que, hasta el lunes por la noche, alrededor de 1500 manifestantes habían sido detenidos y que serían retenidos al menos hasta terminar la investigación.El lunes, Lula habló con el presidente Joe Biden, quien le transmitió “el apoyo inquebrantable de Estados Unidos para la democracia de Brasil y la libre voluntad del pueblo brasileño”, según funcionarios de la Casa Blanca. Biden invitó a Lula a la Casa Blanca para principios de febrero. (Con Bolsonaro le tomó más de 18 meses llevar a cabo un encuentro en una cumbre en Los Ángeles).En un discurso televisado la noche del lunes, Lula dijo que su gobierno procesaría a quienquiera que haya atacado la democracia de Brasil el domingo. “Ellos quieren un golpe de Estado y golpe no habrá”, dijo. “Tienen que aprender que la democracia es lo más complicado que podemos hacer, porque nos exige aguantar a los demás, nos exige convivir con los que no nos caen bien”.Él y muchos de los principales funcionarios del gobierno de Brasil luego fueron caminando juntos desde los despachos presidenciales hasta el Supremo Tribunal Federal, cruzando la misma plaza que un día antes estaba atestada de turbas que pedían derrocar a su gobierno.El Supremo Tribunal Federal de Brasil el lunesVictor Moriyama para The New York TimesAna Ionova, More

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      What Drove the Brazil Riots? Mass Delusion and Conspiracy Theories

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      For the past 10 weeks, supporters of the ousted far-right President Jair Bolsonaro had camped outside Brazilian Army headquarters, demanding that the military overturn October’s presidential election. And for the past 10 weeks, the protesters faced little resistance from the government.Then, on Sunday, many of the camp’s inhabitants left their tents in Brasília, the nation’s capital, drove a few miles away and, joining hundreds of other protesters, stormed Congress, the Supreme Court and the presidential offices.By Monday morning, the authorities were sweeping through the encampment. They dismantled tents, tore down banners and detained 1,200 of the protesters, ferrying them away in buses for questioning.Why an encampment demanding a military coup was allowed to expand for over 70 days was part of a larger set of questions that officials were grappling with on Monday, among them:Why were protests allowed to get so close to Brazil’s halls of power? And why had security forces been so outnumbered, allowing throngs of protesters to easily surge into official government buildings?More than a thousand supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro alleged to have taken part in the unrest were being detained in Brasília.Victor Moriyama for The New York TimesBrazil’s justice minister, Flávio Dino, said various security agencies had met on Friday to plan for possible violence in the planned protests on Sunday. But, he said, the security strategy hatched in that meeting, including keeping protesters away from the main government buildings, was at least partly abandoned on Sunday and there were far fewer law enforcement officers than had been anticipated.“The police contingent was not what had been agreed upon,” he said, adding that it was unclear why plans had changed.Some in the federal government blamed the governor of Brasília, Ibaneis Rocha, and his deputies, suggesting that they had been either negligent or complicit in understaffing the security forces around the protests.Late Sunday, Alexandre de Moraes, a Supreme Court justice, suspended Mr. Rocha from his job as governor for at least 90 days, saying that the upheaval “could only occur with the consent, and even effective participation, of the security and intelligence authorities.”Whatever security lapses may have occurred, Sunday’s riot laid bare in shocking fashion the central challenge facing Brazil’s democracy. Unlike other attempts to topple governments across Latin America’s history, the attacks on Sunday were not ordered by a single strongman ruler or a military bent on seizing power, but rather were fueled by a more insidious, deeply rooted threat: mass delusion.Military police officers dismantling a camp used by Bolsonaro supporters in front of an army facility in Rio de Janeiro.Dado Galdieri for The New York TimesMillions of Brazilians appear to be convinced that October’s presidential election was rigged against Mr. Bolsonaro, despite audits and analyses by experts finding nothing of the sort. Those beliefs are in part the product of years of conspiracy theories, misleading statements and explicit falsehoods spread by Mr. Bolsonaro and his allies claiming Brazil’s fully electronic voting systems are rife with fraud.Mr. Bolsonaro’s supporters have been repeating the claims for months, and then built on them with new conspiracy theories passed along in group chats on WhatsApp and Telegram, many focused on the idea that the electronic voting machines’ software was manipulated to steal the election. On Sunday, protesters stood on the roof of Congress with a banner that made a single demand: “We want the source code.”Walking out of the protest encampment on Monday morning, Orlando Pinheiro Farias, 40, said he had entered the presidential offices on Sunday with fellow protesters to find documents related to “the investigations into the source code, which legitimize that Jair Messias Bolsonaro is the president of Brazil.”He rattled off several government acronyms and secret investigations that he had read about on the internet, and then said that he had to go back to his tent to retrieve a Brazilian flag he had stolen from the building.Delusions over the election extended to many protesters’ explanations of what had happened in the riots. People filing out of the encampment on Monday morning, carrying rolled-up air mattresses, extension cords and stools, each had a clear message: Mr. Bolsonaro’s supporters had not ransacked the buildings. Rather, they said, those causing the damage were radical leftists in disguise, bent on defaming their movement.Employees of the presidential office during the clean-up on Monday.Victor Moriyama for The New York Times“Have you ever heard of the Trojan Horse?” said Nathanael S. Viera, 51, who had driven 900 miles to take part in the protests on Sunday. “The infiltrators went in and set everything up, and the damn press showed the Brazilian nation that we patriots are the hooligans.”The scenes on Sunday of right-wing protesters draped in their national flag roaming through the halls of power were strikingly similar to those from the Jan. 6 storming of the United States Capitol, and so were the confused beliefs that drove protesters in both countries to invade federal buildings and film themselves doing so.“Donald Trump was taken out with a rigged election, no question about it, and at the time he was taken out, I said, ‘President Bolsonaro is going to be taken down,’” said Wanderlei Silva, 59, a retired hotel worker standing outside the encampment on Monday.Mr. Silva saw his own similarities between the riots on Sunday and those on Jan. 6, 2021. “The Democrats staged that and invaded the Capitol,” he said. “The same way they staged it here.”Brazil has long seen itself in the mold of the United States: a sprawling, diverse country rich in natural resources, spread across a collection of independent states and governed by a strong central government. But its tumultuous political history never truly mimicked the American system, until the past several years.“If there was no Trump, there would be no Bolsonaro in Brazil. And if there was no invasion of the Capitol, there wouldn’t have been the invasion we saw yesterday,” said Guga Chacra, a commentator for Brazil’s largest television network, who lives in New York and tracks politics in both countries. “Bolsonarismo tries to copy Trumpism, and Bolsonaro supporters in Brazil try to copy what Trump supporters do in the United States.”Even a description of Brazil’s 2022 presidential election reads like a summary of the 2020 American one: a far-right populist incumbent with a penchant for insults and off-the-cuff tweets against a septuagenarian challenger on the left running on his proven political track record and a promise to unite a divided nation.Outside the Federal Supreme Court on Monday.Victor Moriyama for The New York TimesBut the election’s aftermath was different.While former President Donald J. Trump fought to overturn the results and urged his supporters to march on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, Mr. Bolsonaro had effectively given up and decamped for Florida by the time his voters were forcing their way into the offices he once occupied.Mr. Bolsonaro spent part of Monday in the hospital in Florida, dealing with abdominal pains stemming from a stabbing he suffered in 2018, his wife said on social media. Mr. Bolsonaro is planning to stay in Florida for the next several weeks or months, hoping investigations in Brazil into his activity as president will cool off, according to a friend. Ned Price, the State Department spokesman, would not comment specifically on Mr. Bolsonaro’s visa status, citing privacy laws. But he said that any person who came to the United States under a diplomatic visa and who “is no longer engaged in official business on behalf of their government” was expected either to depart the country or request a different type of visa within 30 days.“If an individual has no basis on which to be in the United States, an individual is subject to removal,” Mr. Price said.In a recorded address in the final days of his presidency, Mr. Bolsonaro said that he had tried and failed to use the law to overturn the 2022 election, and suggested that his supporters should now move on. “We live in a democracy or we don’t,” he said. “No one wants an adventure.” On Sunday, he posted a message on Twitter, criticizing the violence.But his years of rhetoric against Brazil’s democratic institutions — and his political strategy of instilling fear of the left in his supporters — had already left an indelible mark.Interviews with protesters in recent weeks appeared to show that Mr. Bolsonaro’s movement was moving beyond him. It is now driven by deeply held beliefs among many right-wing Brazilians that political elites rigged the vote to install as president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, whom they regard as a communist who will turn Brazil into an authoritarian state like Venezuela.President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva meeting with members of the Supreme Court and the National Congress on Monday.Victor Moriyama for The New York TimesMr. Lula, the new president, is a leftist but is not a communist. And independent security experts said there was no evidence of irregularities in the 2022 vote. A separate analysis by Brazil’s military found just one potential vulnerability in Brazil’s fully digital voting system, which would require the coordination of multiple election officials to exploit, a scenario that security experts said was extremely unlikely.Mr. Lula, who had campaigned on unifying the divided nation, is now faced with investigating and prosecuting many of his political opponents’ supporters just a week into his presidency. The authorities said that roughly 1,500 protesters had been detained by Monday evening, and that they would be held until at least the investigation was finished.On Monday, Mr. Lula spoke with President Biden, who conveyed “the unwavering support of the United States for Brazil’s democracy and for the free will of the Brazilian people,” White House officials said. Mr. Biden invited Mr. Lula to the White House in early February. (It took more than 18 months for him to meet with Mr. Bolsonaro at a summit in Los Angeles.)In a televised speech on Monday night, Mr. Lula said that his government would prosecute anyone who had attacked Brazil’s democracy on Sunday. “What they want is a coup, and they won’t have one,” he said. “They have to learn that democracy is the most complicated thing we do.”He and many of Brazil’s top government officials then walked together from the presidential offices to the Supreme Court, crossing the same plaza that a day before was thronged with mobs calling for the overthrow of his government.Brazil’s Supreme Court on Monday.Victor Moriyama for The New York TimesReporting was contributed by Ana Ionova, More

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      Brazil Riot and Jan. 6 Attack Followed a Similar Digital Playbook, Experts Say

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      On TikTok and YouTube, videos claiming voter fraud in Brazil’s recent elections have been recirculating for days.On the WhatsApp and Telegram messaging services, an image of a poster announcing the date, time and location of the protests against the government was copied and shared over the weekend.And on Facebook and Twitter, hashtags designed to evade detection by the authorities were used by organizers as they descended onto government buildings in the capital, Brasília, on Sunday.One day after the thousands of people broke into government buildings to protest what they falsely claim was a stolen election, misinformation researchers are studying how the internet was used to stoke anger and to organize far-right groups ahead of the riots. Many are drawing a comparison to the Jan. 6 protests two years ago in the United States, where thousands broke into the Capitol building in Washington. In both cases, they say, a playbook was used in which online groups, chats and social media sites played a central role.“Digital platforms were fundamental not only in the extreme right-wing domestic terrorism on Sunday, but also in the entire long process of online radicalization over the last 10 years in Brazil,” said Michele Prado, an independent researcher who studies digital movements and the Brazilian far right.She said that calls for violence have been “increasing exponentially from the last week of December.”She and other misinformation researchers have singled out Twitter and Telegram as playing a central role in organizing protests. In posts on Brazilian Telegram channels viewed by The New York Times, there were open calls for violence against the left-wing Brazilian politicians and their families. There were also addresses of government offices for protesters to attack.In one image, which The Times found on more than a dozen Telegram channels, there was a call for “patriots” to gather in Brasília on Sunday to “mark a new day” of independence. Underneath many of the posters were details of gathering times for protesters.The hashtag “Festa da Selma” was also widely spread on Twitter, including by far-right extremists who had previously been banned from the platform, Ms. Prado said.A military police officer at a camp of Bolsonaro supporters in front of an Army facility on Monday.Dado Galdieri for The New York TimesIn the months since Elon Musk took over Twitter, far-right figures from around the world have had their accounts reinstated as a general amnesty unless they violated rules again. Ms. Prado said that misinformation researchers in Brazil have been reporting the accounts to Twitter in hopes that the company takes action.Twitter and Telegram did not respond to requests for comment.Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, said that the attacks Sunday were a “violating event” and that the company was removing content on its platforms that supported or praised the attacks on government buildings in Brazil.The protesters in Brazil and those in the United States were inspired by the same extremist ideas and conspiracy theories and were both radicalized online, Ms. Prado said. In both cases, she added, social media played a crucial role in organizing violent attacks. More

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      Your Tuesday Briefing: Brazil Arrests Rioters

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      Also, heavy fighting rages around Bakhmut and scientists say the ozone layer is healing.Protesters vandalized the facade of Brazil’s presidential office.Victor Moriyama for The New York TimesBrazil reels from Sunday’s riotsAt least 1,200 people have been detained after rioters stormed government offices on Sunday in Brazil’s capital, officials said yesterday.The detentions came after one of the worst attacks on Brazil’s democracy in the 38 years since its military dictatorship ended. On Sunday, thousands of people broke into government offices, falsely claiming the October election was stolen from Jair Bolsonaro, the former president. Here are videos of the Sunday riots.Yesterday, authorities also began dismantling the tent city where Bolsonaro supporters had been camping out since he lost the election. The dispersal was peaceful, despite fears that it could have fueled further tensions.Brazil’s justice minister said that authorities had identified about 40 buses that brought rioters to Brasília and that the financial backers of the trips would be tracked down and held responsible. Voices on social media had offered free transportation and food to protesters.Details: President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed an emergency decree that put federal authorities in charge of security in Brazil’s capital. And a Supreme Court judge suspended the district’s governor while investigations take place into security failures.Bolsonaro: The former president has long attacked Brazil’s election process. After the vote, independent experts and Brazil’s military found no credible evidence of fraud. On Sunday, he criticized the protests.Ukrainian military analysts near Bakhmut reviewed videos obtained by drone operators last week.Nicole Tung for The New York TimesHeavy fighting near BakhmutFierce fighting raged yesterday around Bakhmut, a city in eastern Ukraine that Russia has tried to capture since the summer. The fighting appeared to be focused on Soledar, a nearby town.Russia claimed to have taken a village near Soledar. Ukraine said that it had repelled Russian attempts to storm Soledar, where the deputy defense minister said that “fierce battles” were raging. Ukraine usually avoids battles with the risk of high casualties. But in Bakhmut, without hesitation, it’s going toe-to-toe with Russia.The State of the WarBattling for Bakhmut: Ukraine and Russia are going toe to toe in the key eastern city. That stands in contrast to Ukraine’s strategy elsewhere along the front line, where it succeeded by avoiding direct confrontations.New Equipment: The Western allies’ provision to Ukraine of infantry fighting vehicles signals their support for new offensives in coming months.Sexual Crimes: After months of bureaucratic and political delays, Ukrainian officials are gathering pace in documenting sexual crimes committed by Russian forces during the war.Adapting to Survive: The war has taken a severe toll on Ukraine’s economy. But it has also pushed Ukrainians to restructure parts of the economy at lightning speed.If Russian forces capture Soledar, it would mark their most significant advance in Ukraine in months. But fighting in the east is slow and relentless, and there is little sign that dug-in Ukrainian forces will relinquish the city anytime soon.Bakhmut: The city has become a symbol of Ukraine’s defiance. Some worry that could cloud military judgment, but analysts say Ukraine’s aggressive strategy has paid off, weakening Russia.The Wagner Group: The group’s Kremlin-aligned founder said that Soledar “is being taken solely by Wagner units,” which Western security officials and analysts say operate largely outside the Russian military’s chain of command.A refrigerator factory in 2018 in a part of China where businesses had defied restrictions on ozone-depleting chemicals.Gilles Sabrié for The New York TimesThe ozone layer is on the mendA U.N.-backed report found that the ozone layer could be restored within a few decades, now that China has begun successfully cracking down on rogue emissions of a banned chemical.That’s big news: In 2018, scientists revealed that global emissions of CFC-11, a chemical most likely used to make foam insulation, had increased since 2012. Investigations by The Times and others strongly suggested that small factories in Eastern China disregarding the global ban were the source.In 2018, the head of the U.N. Environment Program said the rogue emissions, if they continued, could delay ozone recovery by a decade. But now, scientists said that ozone levels between the polar regions should reach pre-1980 levels by 2040. Ozone holes should also recover.Ozone: The protective layer in the upper atmosphere blocks ultraviolet radiation from the sun, which can cause skin cancer.Context: The Montreal Protocol, the treaty negotiated in the 1980s to phase out the use of such chemicals, is generally considered to be the most effective global environmental pact ever enacted.THE LATEST NEWSAsia PacificA wallaby passed through floodwaters last week.Callum Lamond, via ReutersThe Kimberley region, in Australia’s western outback, is suffering a “one-in-100-year flood,” Sky News reports.Thailand dropped a rule that would have required visitors to present proof of a Covid vaccine, Reuters reports. Officials had announced the rule on Saturday, as the country prepared for Chinese visitors.Australia is doing well economically, but a recession is still possible.Around the WorldPresident Biden visited the U.S.-Mexico border for the first time since taking office. He’s in Mexico City now.In a landmark lawsuit, environmental groups in France are suing Danone, the dairy giant, for failing to sufficiently reduce its plastic footprint.Prince Harry’s memoir comes out today. In it, he claims that he killed 25 Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.Other Big StoriesThe Republican approach to running the U.S. House suggests there will be more gridlock and legislative instability, not less.About one in 12 working-age adults in Britain has a long-term health condition and is not working or looking for work. That’s a problem for the economy.Rome opened a skatepark right next to the Colosseum. It’s a triumph.A Morning ReadThe Ocean Canda nightclub feels more beachfront shack than ritzy club.Joao Silva/The New York TimesSouth Africa’s townships, born of racist apartheid-era social engineering, once kept nonwhite citizens segregated from economic opportunities and basic infrastructure.Now, they’re home to a vibrant nightlife scene. Instead of Cape Town — with its traffic, expensive drinks and whiter population — Black professionals party in Khayelitsha, a nearby township that they say better suits their culture and tastes.ARTS AND IDEASNoma is closingA signature of Noma and its cuisine is its luxurious, modern-rustic aesthetic.Ditte Isager for The New York TimesMy colleagues have a major scoop in the world of fine dining: Noma will close for regular service at the end of 2024. The Copenhagen restaurant, which repeatedly tops lists of the world’s best restaurants, will become a full-time food laboratory focused on its e-commerce operation. It will open to diners only for periodic pop-ups.Noma has fundamentally changed gastronomy: Foodies often book flights to Denmark’s capital only after they clinch a reservation. And its creator, René Redzepi, has been hailed as his era’s most brilliant and influential chef.But Redzepi said that the current model, which changed fine dining forever, was “unsustainable.” Staff at Noma work grueling hours. The workplace culture is intense, and the restaurant long relied on an army of unpaid interns. One alumnus compared the industry to ballet, another elite pursuit that has abuse built into its very model.“We have to completely rethink the industry,” Redzepi told The Times. “This is simply too hard, and we have to work in a different way.”PLAY, WATCH, EATWhat to CookLinda Xiao for The New York Times. Food stylist: Maggie Ruggiero. Prop stylist: Sophia Pappas.This poppy seed tea cake is simple and earthy.What to ReadIn “The Bandit Queens,” wives in rural India get the ultimate revenge on their no-good husbands.What to Listen toHere are seven songs we nearly missed in 2022.Now Time to PlayPlay the Mini Crossword, and a clue: Dummy (five letters).Here are the Wordle and the Spelling Bee.You can find all our puzzles here.That’s it for today’s briefing. See you next time. — AmeliaP.S. Mara Hvistendahl is joining The Times from The Intercept as a new investigative correspondent focused on China and Asia.“The Daily” is on Kevin McCarthy, the new House speaker.You can always reach me at briefing@nytimes.com. More

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      Brazil’s President Lula Has No Easy Choices

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      Brazil’s new president is hemmed in by protesters on one side and financial markets on the other. He needs to spend money to please the public, but he needs to demonstrate fiscal responsibility to keep investors from abandoning Brazilian assets, which could cause interest rates to soar and cripple the economy. Unfortunately, it will be extremely difficult to do both at once.It’s a tough spot for President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the leftist who served two terms from 2003 to 2010 and narrowly won election to a third term in October over the far-right incumbent, Jair Bolsonaro. On Sunday, thousands of Bolsonaro supporters broke into government buildings in the capital, Brasília, to protest what they falsely believe was a stolen election.Lula, as he is known, was able to spend generously on social programs during his first period in office in part because of high prices for many of the commodities that Brazil exports. Brazil is a major producer of steel as well as agricultural products such as citrus and soybeans. Now commodity prices are faltering because of expectations of a global economic downturn. On top of that, Brazil’s central bank has raised its key lending rate to nearly 14 percent in an effort to extinguish inflation, which is running around 6 percent.Bolsonaro, although far right in his politics, governed as a free-spending populist. His government bolstered fuel subsidies last year, which won him votes but worsened the government’s financial situation.Lula, who was inaugurated on Jan. 1 in the company of his adopted pet dog, Resistência, has handed the vital job of finance minister to Fernando Haddad, a fellow leftist who hasn’t (at least yet) won the confidence of investors.With Bolsonaro’s supporters roiling Brasília and other cities, “The capital flow of foreign buyers that entered the Brazilian market recently is likely to be undone,” Matthew Ryan, the head of market strategy at Ebury, a financial services firm, wrote in a note on Monday.In a warning to investors, Filippos Papasavvas, a markets economist at Capital Economics, wrote in a client note on Monday that “any worries about widespread protests could see Lula double down on the more popularist (and less market-friendly) parts of his agenda, such as significant increases to social spending.”For a closer look at Lula’s dilemma, I interviewed Monica de Bolle, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. A native of Brazil, she was named an honored economist by the Order of Brazilian Economists in 2014 for her contributions to the Brazilian policy debate.“He has no room to do the kinds of things that people expected him to do,” de Bolle told me. On the spending side, investors who worry about deficts spending will rebel if the government increases social spending or puts through a big increase in the minimum wage. Conversely, the public will rebel if he attempts to roll back subsidies on fuel that Bolsonaro put in place.De Bolle said that Brazil’s Wall Street is thick with Bolsonaro supporters. She argued that they gave Bolsonaro the benefit of the doubt but aren’t cutting Lula any slack. I told her that sounded like a great opportunity for investors from outside Brazil: If indeed domestic investors are overly pessimistic about Lula’s ability to rein in spending, then prices of Brazilian debt must be too low, presenting a good deal for buyers. She agreed. “Brazil will certainly present that opportunity,” she said.Then again, if Ebury’s Ryan is correct, foreign investors will be reluctant to scoop up Brazilian assets as long as the political situation remains uncertain. There’s no second honeymoon for Lula.Outlook: Georges Ugeux“Why is nobody talking about the debt?” Georges Ugeux, the chairman and chief executive of Galileo Global Advisors, a New York-based company that advises on mergers, acquisitions and management, asked in an article posted on Medium on Thursday. Rising interest rates have increased the burden of debt. It isn’t just a problem for emerging markets, he wrote. “The over-indebtedness of the United States, Europe, Japan and China could create a much more severe debt crisis, both at sovereign and at corporate levels.” He predicted that 2023 will be “the year where we will start paying the cost of our inconsiderate addiction to debt.”Quote of the Day“Japan’s experience of prolonged deflation suggests that it takes a great deal of effort to dispel anxiety over deflation. Nevertheless, there was no need to give up the challenge of overcoming deflation simply because the economy fell into deflation; against the background of the Bank’s monetary policy measures adopted since 2013, the economy has improved and is currently no longer in deflation.”— Masazumi Wakatabe, deputy governor of the Bank of Japan, in his keynote speech at the annual meeting of the Japan Association of Business Cycle Studies, Dec. 3, 2022Have feedback? Send a note to coy-newsletter@nytimes.com. More