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      In Israel, Netanyahu’s Hard-Right Agenda Gains Steam

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      Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is pushing to upend the judiciary, entrench Israeli control of the West Bank and strengthen ultraconservative Jews, fueling protests and deepening Israel’s divisions.Less than two weeks into its tenure, the new government in Israel has moved quickly on a wave of far-right agenda items that would weaken the judiciary, entrench Israeli control of the West Bank and bifurcate the military chain of command to give some far-right ministers greater control of matters related to the occupation.On Wednesday night, the government moved forward with the centerpiece of its program — releasing for the first time a detailed plan for a sweeping judicial overhaul that includes reducing the Supreme Court’s influence over Parliament and strengthening the government’s role in the appointment of judges.Coalition leaders have also taken a more combative stance toward the Palestinians than their immediate predecessors. Funding to the Palestinian Authority has been cut, and the new minister for national security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has angered Palestinians and many Arab countries by touring a sensitive religious site and ordering the police to take down Palestinian flags.The program launched by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a combination of policy announcements, agreements within the coalition and draft legislation, has quickly exacerbated splits in Israeli society. Critics of the prime minister and his allies fear that the agenda threatens Israel’s democratic institutions, its already fraught relationship with the Jewish diaspora and its efforts to form new ties with Arab neighbors like Saudi Arabia — and that it effectively sounds the death rattle for long-ailing hopes for a Palestinian state.Israeli police officers at the Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem on Jan. 3, the day that the new minister for national security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, toured the contested site. Maya Alleruzzo/Associated PressCurrently on trial for corruption, Mr. Netanyahu has presented his plans as the legitimate program of an elected government. He has also portrayed the push for judicial changes as a valid attempt to limit the interference of an unelected judiciary over an elected Parliament.“We received a clear and strong mandate from the public to carry out what we promised during the elections and this is what we will do,” Mr. Netanyahu said in a speech this week. “This is the implementation of the will of the voters and this is the essence of democracy.”But his critics present it as a constitutional coup. “This is not a reform, this is an extreme regime change,” said Yair Lapid, the previous prime minister, in a speech on Monday. “This does not fix democracy, this destroys democracy,” he added.Returning to power for the third time, Mr. Netanyahu now heads a government that is Israel’s most right-wing and religiously conservative administration ever, bringing together far-right parties supported by settlers and ultra-Orthodox parties that have vowed to reshape Israeli society.The main early focus of the new government — and of opposition alarm — has been plans for the justice system.What to Know About Israel’s New GovernmentNetanyahu’s Return: Benjamin Netanyahu has returned to power at the helm of the most right-wing administration in Israeli history. Now, many fear that his unelected family members could play an outsize role.The Far Right’s Rise: To win election, Mr. Netanyahu and his far-right allies harnessed perceived threats to Israel’s Jewish identity after ethnic unrest and the subsequent inclusion of Arab lawmakers in the government.Ultra-Orthodox Parties: To preserve his new government, Mr. Netanyahu has made a string of promises to Israel’s ultra-Orthodox parties. Their push for greater autonomy has potentially broad-ranging implications.A Provocative Visit: In one of his first acts as Israel’s minister of national security, the ultranationalist Itamar Ben-Gvir toured a volatile holy site in Jerusalem, drawing a furious reaction from Palestinian leaders.The new justice minister, Mr. Levin, confirmed on Wednesday that he would pursue his longstanding goal of limiting the Supreme Court’s ability to countermand laws made in Parliament and giving the government more control over the appointment and promotion of judges.Currently, the Supreme Court can strike down laws it deems unconstitutional — a role that its supporters consider an essential restraint on parliamentary overreach but that critics see as an unreasonable restriction on elected politicians.A member of the latter camp, Mr. Levin has proposed legislation that would allow a simple majority of lawmakers to override the court’s decisions.A protest against the new Israeli government in Tel Aviv last week. Abir Sultan/EPA, via ShutterstockHe also wants to give politicians greater influence over the committee that appoints new judges. That would draw the Israeli judiciary closer to its counterpart in the United States, where senators confirm judicial appointments made by the president.But it is an unfamiliar idea in Israel, where senior judges and attorneys dominate the process of deciding who gets to be a judge. Supporters say this mechanism restricts political interference in the court, but to detractors it has turned the judiciary into a self-selecting club.Mr. Netanyahu says he has no plans to use his new office to derail his corruption trial. But the political opposition says the judicial proposals are a harbinger of other legislation that could either reduce his potential punishment, legalize the crimes of which he’s accused or undermine the attorney general who oversees his prosecution.“He’s cooking up what he is really aiming for — an exemption from trial,” said Benny Gantz, an opposition leader, in a speech last week.Thousands of demonstrators protested the plans across Israel last weekend, and opposition leaders have called for even bigger rallies on Saturday, prompting one government lawmaker, Zvika Fogel, to demand their arrest for “treason.”To Palestinians, Mr. Netanyahu’s government represents the most unequivocal Israeli opposition to Palestinian statehood since negotiations to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict gathered momentum in the 1990s.Successive Israeli leaders, including Mr. Netanyahu, had since left open the possibility of ceding parts of the West Bank to a future Palestinian state.Mr. Netanyahu’s new government, however, ended that ambiguity in late December. A list of the coalition’s guiding principles began with a straightforward assertion of the Jewish people’s “exclusive and unquestionable right to all areas of the Land of Israel,” a biblical term that encompasses both Israel and the occupied West Bank, and pledged to “develop settlements in all parts of the Land of Israel.”A separate side agreement between Mr. Netanyahu’s party, Likud, and another party in its coalition, Religious Zionism, also pledges that Mr. Netanyahu will lead efforts to formally annex the West Bank — albeit at a time of his choosing.The government has also taken several combative steps against Palestinians.Ministers have cut roughly $40 million from the money the government sends the Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the West Bank, and removed travel privileges from several Palestinian leaders — mainly in retaliation against diplomatic measures taken by Palestinians against Israel at the United Nations.Mr. Ben-Gvir, the minister for national security, who holds criminal convictions for incitement of racism against Arabs and support for a Jewish terrorist group, has instructed the police to confiscate Palestinian flags flown in public in Israel.And last week, he provocatively toured the Aqsa Mosque compound — a deeply sensitive site sacred to both Muslims and Jews, who call it the Temple Mount — in what observers feared might set off another round of fighting with Palestinian armed groups in Gaza.Mr. Ben-Gvir, the minister for national security, has instructed the police to confiscate Palestinian flags flown in public in Israel. Menahem Kahana/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesThese moves all had precedents: Politicians have previously risked upheaval by visiting the compound, Israeli governments have often withheld money from the Palestinian Authority, and Israeli police officers have regularly confiscated Palestinian flags in the past.But the fast pace at which the government has acted has led to fears of more drastic — and more consequential — moves in the future, amid what is already the deadliest period in the territory for more than a decade.Within the Israeli military, senior officers are already braced for a showdown over who holds sway over the security forces that oversee the occupation of the West Bank.A law passed in late December is set to give Mr. Ben-Gvir unprecedented control over special police forces in the West Bank that were previously under the purview of the Army. The coalition agreements are also set to give Bezalel Smotrich, another hard-right settler leader, oversight over bureaucratic aspects of the occupation.Both moves have prompted disquiet in the military because they will create three centers of Israeli power in the West Bank.Among secular and liberal Israelis, there is rising concern about the government’s plans to strengthen the autonomy of ultraconservative Jews, who form about 13 percent of Israel’s nine million residents.Mr. Netanyahu agreed to protect funding for the ultra-Orthodox school system despite its failure to teach core subjects like math and English, and to formalize a longstanding arrangement that lets seminary students avoid military service.To secular Israelis, these measures will further limit the ability of ultra-Orthodox Israelis, known as Haredim, to participate in the economy and in the defense of the country — increasing the social and financial burden on secular Israelis.The government contains some secular members, like Amir Ohana, the first openly gay speaker of Parliament, and has officially promised to maintain the current balance between the secular and religious worlds. But because several key coalition leaders have already taken a combative line against secular and liberal society, some fear a looming broadside against religious and social pluralism.Avi Maoz, an ultraconservative who believes women should stay at home and wants to ban Jerusalem’s gay pride parade, has been placed in charge of part of the education budget. Mr. Smotrich, who has described himself as a “proud homophobe” and expressed support for racial segregation in maternity wards, called late last year for soccer authorities to avoid holding games on the Jewish Sabbath.Though that request is unlikely to become a rule, Mr. Netanyahu has already made other commitments to strengthen Orthodox Judaism, setting the stage for greater tension with the Jewish diaspora, who adhere more often to non-Orthodox streams of Judaism than in Israel.The coalition has promised to ban non-Orthodox prayer at the main section of the Western Wall in Jerusalem.Abir Sultan/EPA, via ShutterstockThe coalition agreements pledge to maintain a ban on non-Orthodox prayer at the main section of the Western Wall, a Jerusalem holy site, and bar converts to non-Orthodox streams of Judaism from being recognized by the state as Jewish.“This is how democracies collapse,” Mr. Lapid said in a video on Tuesday night, as the debate over judicial changes turned increasingly rancorous, adding: “We won’t let our beloved country be trampled.”Myra Noveck More

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      Obamacare Is Everywhere in the Unlikeliest of Places: Miami

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      A decade after the Affordable Care Act’s federal health insurance marketplace was created, its outsize — and improbable — popularity in South Florida persists.MIAMI — Lídice Hernández opened an insurance agency last year on a busy street, affixing to the storefront a logo that has become deeply familiar in South Florida: a white sun rising over the red stripes of the American flag, all encased in a big, blue O.“Obamacare,” it read underneath.Similar displays are common along some of Miami’s main thoroughfares, almost 13 years after President Barack Obama’s signature health policy, the Affordable Care Act, became law and critics branded it with his name. Everywhere you look, especially during the open enrollment period that runs from November to January: Obamacare, Obamacare, Obamacare.“If we don’t use it,” Ms. Hernández explained of the moniker, “people don’t know that we sell it.”And in Miami, people really want it.On its face, the program’s outsize popularity in South Florida remains one of its most intriguing data points. The evidence is visible in every Obamacare logo deployed — not just on storefronts but on trucks, flags and billboards — to sell health insurance, as agents in the crowded local market jockey to enroll people. This year’s open enrollment period ends on Sunday.Florida has far more people enrolled in the federal health insurance marketplace created by the Affordable Care Act than any other state does, a distinction that has been true since 2015. Driving those numbers has been the Miami area, where older, Republican-leaning Hispanics appeared loath to embrace government-subsidized health insurance when the law was enacted. At the time, it ignited some of the most pitched partisan battles in the nation’s recent history.In particular, some Miamians who had fled left-wing leaders in Cuba and other Latin American countries chafed at the law’s requirement — later eliminated — that people have health coverage or face a penalty, which critics decried as “socialism.”The region has only tilted more Republican since then, flipping red in the governor’s race last year for the first time in two decades. Yet in 2022, the two ZIP codes with the most enrollees in Affordable Care Act coverage nationwide were in Doral and Hialeah, cities west and north of Miami known for their right-leaning Venezuelan American and Cuban American communities. And the county with most enrollees in the country remained Miami-Dade.Lídice Hernández opened an insurance agency in Miami last year. Scott McIntyre for The New York TimesEverywhere you look, especially during the open enrollment period: Obamacare, Obamacare, Obamacare.Scott McIntyre for The New York Times“It’s ingrained in our community,” said Nicholas X. Duran, a former Democratic state representative who used to work for a nonprofit group that encouraged Americans to enroll in Obamacare plans and now works for the health insurer Aetna. “It’s stuck.”So is the ubiquitous logo, which got its start as the symbol for Mr. Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign, said Sol Sender, who designed it. It was never intended to represent the health care law, Mr. Sender said, calling its co-opting by enterprising insurance agents “just pretty organic.”Which is not to say that policyholders, while glad to have coverage, are always happy with their plans. Gisselle Llerena, one of Ms. Hernández’s clients said she had been unable to get her insurer to sign off on a test her doctor recommended.“I have an M.R.I. pending from a century ago,” Ms. Llerena, 50, said in Spanish as she recently dropped in on Ms. Hernández’s office in a modest strip mall. “But the insurance doesn’t want to cover it.”Still, Ivan A. Herrera, the chief executive of the Miami-based UniVista Insurance agency, which caters to Hispanic people and prominently advertises Obamacare plans, said he has seen plenty of evidence that the coverage has helped people.“I know customers who have had open-heart surgery,” he said. “They never went to the doctor. They never had a blood test. They never visited a specialist. And now they can take care of themselves.”Each year, Mr. Herrera’s business has “doubled the amount of people that we have in Obamacare,” he said. “Obamacare is massive.”About 2.7 million Floridians out of the state’s population of about 22 million enrolled in a plan through the federal insurance marketplace, which the health law created, in 2022. Compared with Texas, which has about 30 million people but only about 1.8 million enrollees, “Florida is like an A.C.A. monster,” said Katherine Hempstead, a senior policy adviser at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a charity focused on health.The average monthly premium last year for Floridians with marketplace plans was $611, and for those who qualified for federal premium subsidies, the average amount was $552 per month, slightly higher than the national average, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit health policy group.Early federal data suggests enrollment has jumped again for 2023, with 15.9 million plan selections nationally in the federal marketplace and those run by states, including almost 3.2 million — roughly one-fifth of the total — in Florida.That Obamacare has become part of the fabric of Florida life is also striking given the state’s early opposition to the law, led by Rick Scott, then the Republican governor. Mr. Scott, who is now a U.S. senator, barred “navigators” — those who helped people sign up for coverage — from state health department offices in an effort to undermine enrollment.The Republican-controlled State Legislature has not expanded Medicaid, the federal health insurance program for low-income people, as allowed under the Affordable Care Act, making Florida one of only 11 holdout states. About 790,000 currently uninsured Floridians would be eligible for expanded Medicaid, according to Kaiser; without it, other low-income residents have turned to the federal marketplace for subsidized coverage, which is one reason Florida has such high enrollment.Ivan Herrera, the chief executive and founder of UniVista Insurance, said his company had doubled the amount of clients signed up for federal marketplace plans each year.Scott McIntyre for The New York TimesAbout 2.7 million Floridians out of the state’s population of about 22 million enrolled in a plan through the federal insurance marketplace in 2022.Scott McIntyre for The New York TimesObamacare is also popular in the state because it is home to many retirees who are younger than 65 and not yet eligible for Medicare, the federal health insurance program for older people. Others opt for the health insurance because they have recently moved from other states and may be in between jobs. And many employers in the state do not offer working Floridians robust benefits that include health care coverage.“In South Florida especially, you’ve got a lot of people who are working in entertainment or restaurants, where they don’t have an offer of health insurance,” said Karoline Mortensen, an associate dean and professor of health management and policy at the University of Miami. That is especially true for Hispanics, she added.When the federal health insurance mandate lapsed, Dr. Mortensen found that some Latinos dropped their coverage, suggesting that they had gotten insurance only because they were required to. But Hispanic people still continued to get medical care at far higher rates than they had before the federal marketplace was created in 2013, she said.The Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that Florida is the state with the second-highest percentage of eligible people who have enrolled in an Affordable Care Act plan, said Cynthia Cox, a Kaiser vice president.She credited local leaders and insurance agents with promoting the law’s benefits, even when the state did not. Similarly, Dr. Mortensen referenced a moderate Republican state senator who, when the federal marketplace opened, urged his constituents to enroll.Ilse Torres, an insurance agent in Miami, said she had educated her clients “bit by bit” that Obamacare is not health coverage, as many of them assume, but rather a law that created a federal marketplace and required insurers to cover pre-existing health conditions.After Republicans in Congress tried but failed to repeal the law during the Trump administration, Ms. Torres said, the marketplace stabilized, drawing more major insurers and attracting new policyholders.Ms. Hernández, who voted for Mr. Obama in 2008 but later registered as a Republican, lamented that Congress had not updated the Affordable Care Act to make more people permanently eligible for subsidies to help cover their insurance premiums. (Subsidies were temporarily expanded through the American Rescue Plan and the Inflation Reduction Act, and are in effect through 2025 — a major reason for the recent enrollment bumps.) But she was pleased, she said, that Republican lawmakers had stopped trying to repeal the law.“Obamacare needs to be fixed,” she said. “But when I saw how easy it was to get it, I was like, ‘Oh my God, people don’t know about this. Why don’t more people get it?’”She and her family are now insured through the program.Susan C. Beachy More

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      A Jan. 6 Moment for Brazil

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      Clare Toeniskoetter and Rowan Niemisto and Listen and follow The DailyApple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Amazon MusicAfter Jair Bolsonaro lost October’s Brazilian presidential election to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, many believed that the threat of violence from the defeated leader’s supporters would recede. They were wrong. Mr. Bolsonaro had spent years sewing doubt and undermining Brazil’s election system, and last week, thousands of rioters stormed Brazil’s Congress, Supreme Court and presidential offices. What happened — and how did Brazil get here?On today’s episodeJack Nicas, the Brazil bureau chief for The New York Times.Police officers inspecting riot damage at Brazil’s Supreme Court. On Sunday, supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro stormed the Capitol.Victor Moriyama for The New York TimesBackground readingWhat drove a mass attack on Brazil’s capital? Mass delusion.The riots in Brazil had echoes of Jan. 6 in the United States. The comparison is inevitable and useful but here are some major differences. There are a lot of ways to listen to The Daily. Here’s how.We aim to make transcripts available the next workday after an episode’s publication. You can find them at the top of the page.Jack Nicas More

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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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      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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      With the Return of Netanyahu in Israel, His Family Is Back, Too

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      Many Israelis fear that with Benjamin Netanyahu’s return to power at the head of Israel’s most right-wing government, his family members will play an outsize role in his decision making.JERUSALEM — When voters in Israel chose to return Benjamin Netanyahu to power they also elevated two people they didn’t elect: his wife Sara and his son Yair, who have long been intertwined with his political career.Ms. Netanyahu and Yair, 31, have helped shape Mr. Netanyahu’s election campaigns and rallied his base. But they have also been accused by critics of wielding undue influence over Mr. Netanyahu by pressuring him over policy issues, weighing in on political appointments and, in his son’s case, even meddling in matters of national security.Their habitual appearances in both the news media, in often sensational and lurid stories, and the Israeli courts have also added to the reality show-like atmosphere around the family.Now, with Mr. Netanyahu, 73, in power again as prime minister of Israel’s most right-wing and religiously conservative government, even as he is standing trial on corruption charges, many Israelis fear that the unelected members of the family will play an outsize role in his political life and decision making.“They set the tone. Completely,” Ben Caspit, an Israeli political commentator for Al-Monitor, a news site, and a biographer of Mr. Netanyahu, said of the presence of Ms. Netanyahu and the couple’s son on the political stage.A retired general testified in court on Jan. 1 that a decade ago, Ms. Netanyahu, 64, an educational psychologist, interviewed him for 45 minutes for a job as her husband’s military secretary after Mr. Netanyahu left the room.Yair Netanyahu caused an uproar last month after publicly leveling treason accusations against the police and state prosecutors who he said had “framed” his father and suggesting that the proscribed punishment for that was execution.“It’s serious, and it’s not good,” Ariel Saad, 37, an advertising manager in Tel Aviv, said of the presence of Mr. Netanyahu’s family so close to the center of power. “Netanyahu is very pliable,” he added, expressing a common perception in Israel. “How can you run the country under such circumstances?”Ms. Netanyahu, center, arriving at the Magistrate’s Court in 2018 in Jerusalem.Amit Shabi/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesThe Netanyahus and their backers say that the Israeli media has been nursing an obsession with the family that borders on persecution since the 1990s, during Mr. Netanyahu’s first term in office, when Ms. Netanyahu fired a nanny for burning soup.“I could stand here till tomorrow morning, your honor, and tell you what the news media has done to me,” Ms. Netanyahu told a judge last year in court during another defamation case. “But let’s save the time,” she said.What to Know About Israel’s New GovernmentNetanyahu’s Return: Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, returned to power at the helm of the most right-wing administration in Israeli history.The Far Right’s Rise: To win election, Mr. Netanyahu and his far-right allies harnessed perceived threats to Israel’s Jewish identity after ethnic unrest and the subsequent inclusion of Arab lawmakers in the government.Ultra-Orthodox Parties: To preserve his new government, Mr. Netanyahu has made a string of promises to Israel’s ultra-Orthodox parties. Their push for greater autonomy has potentially broad-ranging implications.A Provocative Visit: In one of his first acts as Israel’s minister of national security, the ultranationalist Itamar Ben-Gvir toured a volatile holy site in Jerusalem, drawing a furious reaction from Palestinian leaders.“I think that the media hides all the wonderful things that I do,” she added.But over the past year, a number of people once close to Mr. Netanyahu have lifted a veil on some of the family’s inner dealings, speaking openly on television and in court, under oath, about episodes that have raised alarms.Ms. Netanyahu has garnered many sensational headlines over the years after getting in trouble over household expenses and getting sued by domestic staff for abusive behavior. Now the perceived growing influence of Yair Netanyahu over his father and his strident voice on radio and social media are getting increased attention.In November, Yair Netanyahu joined a right-wing Twitter campaign berating the army’s top brass for suspending two soldiers from operational activity for physically and verbally abusing left-wing Israeli activists in the occupied West Bank.In October, within hours of a television report saying that Israel and Lebanon were near an agreement to demarcate their maritime economic border, he tweeted or retweeted almost 80 posts slamming the deal, reached by the last government, as a shameful surrender to Lebanon — a message that his father, as the opposition leader, quickly incorporated into his campaign.In June, Yair Netanyahu wrote a column for ICE, an Israeli online publication, detailing the various rulers and conquests of the Holy Land, starting from biblical times, concluding that the Jews were the sole rightful owners. His father made a similar case in his autobiography, “Bibi: My Story,” that was published this fall, and the new government’s guidelines began with a declaration of the Jewish people’s “exclusive and inalienable right to all parts of the Land of Israel.”The younger Mr. Netanyahu has no official role in his father’s office and says he earns money as a right-wing radio and podcast host and as a social media influencer. A spokesman for the family declined a request to interview Ms. Netanyahu and Yair Netanyahu and a request for comment from the prime minister.A person close to the family, who was not authorized to speak about them publicly, said Yair Netanyahu acted independently and there was no coordination between father and son.Yair Netanyahu, center, during a Likud party campaign event in 2019 in Tel Aviv.Abir Sultan/EPA-EFE, via ShutterstockFormer and current aides to Mr. Netanyahu say the family is a loving and tight-knit one, and that Ms. Netanyahu and Yair Netanyahu provide critical support for the prime minister. A younger son, Avner, 28, appears less involved in politics but has openly expressed his admiration for his father. (Mr. Netanyahu’s daughter from a previous marriage remains in the background.)The staunch domestic support has contributed to Mr. Netanyahu’s political longevity and success, experts say.“Those are the people Bibi most trusts; they adore him,” said Mazal Mualem, also an Israeli political commentator for Al-Monitor and the author of a recent biography of Mr. Netanyahu, “Cracking the Netanyahu Code,” referring to him by his nickname.Mr. Netanyahu does not always go along with their demands, Ms. Mualem said, and often must juggle things at home.“But there’s no doubt they are influential,” she added of Sara and Yair Netanyahu, “for better and for worse.”Mr. Netanyahu’s corruption trial has also highlighted unflattering accusations about the family, with key witnesses testifying about demands made by the household to wealthy businesspeople for deliveries of crates of champagne, luxury cigars and jewelry.Mr. Netanyahu denies all wrongdoing and says the cases against him are collapsing in court.Some of the most sensational accounts of goings-on in the household and interference in decision-making came out during a libel suit that the Netanyahu family brought against Ehud Olmert, a former prime minister, after he described them as being “mentally ill.”Called to testify by the defense, Nir Hefetz, a former Netanyahu confidant and, from 2014 to 2018, a spokesman for the family who later turned state’s witness in the corruption trial, told the court that Yair Netanyahu once burst into a meeting that his father was holding with officials including Moshe Kahlon, the finance minister, about a plan to turn Israel’s broadcasting authority into a corporation.Nir Hefetz, a former Netanyahu confidant, in 2021 outside a Jerusalem courthouse.Pool photo by Jack Guez“Then begins a show that if I wasn’t up here on the witness stand, your honor, you would not believe,” Mr. Hefetz told the judge, describing how the younger Mr. Netanyahu got down on all fours, impersonating a dog, and crudely berated his father for listening to Mr. Kahlon. At some point, Mr. Hefetz added, Ms. Netanyahu came in and backed up her son’s demand to scrap the plan.Mr. Hefetz also described how Mr. Netanyahu considered canceling an official visit to India in 2017 after Yair Netanyahu had stopped eating, according to Ms. Netanyahu, because he was not being consulted about policy decisions.But the person close to the Netanyahu family said he had personally seen Mr. Netanyahu clear all non-relevant people, including his son, out of the room when he needed to make decisions.Mr. Hefetz is suing Yair Netanyahu in another case for an alleged breach of his privacy in several social media posts. Mr. Hefetz also sold his diaries and hours of tape recordings, including private conversations with Ms. Netanyahu, to an Israeli TV network, Channel 13, and gave a lengthy interview that ran before the election.He recounted how he was called by an aide of Mr. Netanyahu’s to intervene in 2017 when his son had urged him, against the advice of the security services, not to remove metal detectors at the entrances of the Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem that had been the source of days of violent protests. That advice was ultimately ignored, and the detectors were removed.Mr. Hefetz also said that Yair Netanyahu persuaded his father to give a hero’s welcome to an Israeli security guard who had been involved in a confrontation at the Israeli Embassy in Amman, Jordan, that led to the deaths of two Jordanians, exacerbating a diplomatic crisis with the country.Mr. Netanyahu’s conservative Likud party responded to the Channel 13 program in a statement saying, “How many more times will we have to hear this recycled nonsense?” and describing it as biased and based on “old, moldy rumors and false gossip.”Mr. Netanyahu, his wife and their son Yair at a polling station in Jerusalem during the general election in 2013.Uriel Sinai/Getty ImagesYair Netanyahu is now involved in another defamation case in which he and a former left-wing lawmaker, Stav Shaffir, are suing each other. The younger Mr. Netanyahu was temporarily removed from the courtroom during a late-November hearing because of his constant interruptions and muttered a sexist slur against Ms. Shaffir on his way out, according to court reporters.“I thought nobody would hear,” Yair Netanyahu wrote in a subsequent Twitter thread, blaming the acoustics and complaining of “character assassination” by the news media. More

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      Crime Concerns Drove Asian Americans Away From New York Democrats

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      Worries about public safety, especially attacks against Asian Americans, caused some in the once-reliably Democratic bloc to vote Republican last year.Asian Americans have typically formed a crucial and reliable voting bloc for Democrats in recent years, helping the party maintain its political dominance in liberal states like New York.But Republicans shattered that presumption in November when they came within striking distance of winning the governor’s race in New York for the first time in 15 years, buoyed in part by a surge of support among Asian American voters in southern Brooklyn and eastern Queens.Now, Democrats are trying to determine how they can stem — and, if possible, reverse — the growing tide of Asian American voters drifting away from the party amid a feeling that their concerns are being overlooked.Interviews with more than 20 voters of Asian descent, many of them Chinese Americans who had historically voted for Democrats but did not in 2022, found that many went with the Republican candidate for governor, Lee Zeldin, even if begrudgingly, largely because of concerns about crime.One lifelong Democrat from Queens, Karen Wang, 48, who is Chinese American, said she had never felt as unsafe as she did these days. “Being Asian, I felt I had a bigger target on my back,” she said.“My vote,” she added, “was purely a message to Democrats: Don’t take my vote for granted.”Besides crime, Asian American voters expressed concern over a proposal by former Mayor Bill de Blasio to change the admissions process for the city’s specialized high schools.Democratic leaders, including Gov. Kathy Hochul, have acknowledged their party’s failure to offer an effective message about public safety to counter Republicans’ tough-on-crime platform, which resonated not just with Asian Americans, but with a constellation of voters statewide.In Flushing, Queens, home to one of New York City’s most vibrant Chinatowns, homespun leaflets posted on walls in English and Chinese encouraged passers-by to “Vote for Republicans” before the November election, blaming Democrats for illegal immigration and a rise in crime.One flier portrayed Ms. Hochul as anti-police and sought to link her to the death of Christina Yuna Lee, who was fatally stabbed more than 40 times by a homeless man inside her apartment in Manhattan’s Chinatown last February.Over Zoom, a group of 13 Chinese American friends, most of them retired union workers, met regularly to discuss the election before casting their ballots. A mix of Republicans, Democrats and political independents, they all voted for Mr. Zeldin.Gov. Kathy Hochul and other leading New York Democrats have acknowledged their party’s failure to offer an effective message about public safety.Johnny Milano for The New York TimesAlthough Mr. Zeldin lost, his support among Asian American voters helped lift other Republican candidates to surprise victories in down-ballot legislative races.In one of the southern Brooklyn districts with a majority of Asian American voters, Peter J. Abbate Jr., a 36-year Democratic incumbent, lost to Lester Chang, the first Asian American Republican to enter the State Legislature.Mr. Chang’s entrance, however, was clouded by questions about his legal residency, prompting the ruling Assembly Democrats to consider trying to expel him. They ultimately decided not to seek his expulsion, with one lawmaker, Assemblyman Ron Kim, noting that such a move would have provoked a “strong backlash from the Asian community.”For Democrats, repairing ties with Asian American voters, who account for about 15 percent of New York City’s population and make up the state’s fastest-growing ethnic group, may be a difficult yet critical challenge given the significant role such voters are poised to play in future elections.State Senator John Liu, a Queens Democrat, said that Mr. Zeldin’s campaign message on the crime issue “simply resonated better,” and that Democrats had to improve the way they communicated with Asian Americans, particularly on education policy.“Democrats can begin by understanding the Asian American perspective more deeply,” said Mr. Liu, who was born in Taiwan. “The broader issue is that many of the social justice issues in this country are still viewed from a Black and white lens, and Asian Americans are simply undetected by that lens and therefore feel completely marginalized.”Republicans performed well in parts of New York City with the largest Asian American populations, drawing voters who said they were concerned primarily with public safety, especially amid a spate of high-profile hate crimes targeting Asian Americans.In Assembly District 49 in Brooklyn, for example, which includes portions of Sunset Park and Dyker Heights, and is majority Asian, Mr. Zeldin won 61 percent of the vote, even though it appears white voters turned out to vote in higher numbers. Mr. Zeldin won by similar margins in a nearby Assembly district that is heavily Chinese and includes Bensonhurst and Gravesend.In Queens, Mr. Zeldin managed to obtain 51 percent of the vote in Assembly District 40, which includes Flushing and is about 70 percent Asian: mostly Chinese and Korean immigrants.Support for Mr. Zeldin, who came within six percentage points of beating Ms. Hochul, was palpable across those neighborhoods before Election Day, with much of the pro-Republican enthusiasm appearing to grow organically. And posts in support of Mr. Zeldin spread broadly across WeChat, a Chinese social media and messaging app widely used by Chinese Americans.Interviews with Asian American voters revealed that their discontent with the Democratic Party was, in many cases, deep-rooted and based on frustrations built over years. Many of them described becoming disillusioned with a party that they said had overlooked their support and veered too far to the left. They listed Democratic priorities related to education, criminal justice and illegal immigration as favoring other minority groups over Asian Americans, and blamed Democratic policies for a rise in certain crimes and for supporting safe injection sites.Voters traced their sense of betrayal in part to a divisive 2018 proposal by Mayor de Blasio, a Democrat, to alter the admissions process for the city’s elite high schools, several of which are dominated by Asian American students, to increase enrollment among Black and Hispanic students.The plan would have effectively reduced the number of Asian American students offered spots at the elite schools, which made some Asian Americans feel that Democrats were targeting them.Mayor Eric Adams, Mr. de Blasio’s successor, moved away from his predecessor’s plan to diversify the city’s top schools, but the effort galvanized Asian Americans politically, prompting parents to become more engaged and laying the groundwork for Republicans to make inroads among aggrieved voters. Indeed, one vocal political club that emerged from the education debate, the Asian Wave Alliance, actively campaigned for Mr. Zeldin.“Why should I support Democrats who discriminate against me?” said Lailing Yu, 59, a mother from Hong Kong whose son graduated from a specialized high school in 2018. “We see Democrats are working for the interest of African Americans and Latino communities against Asian communities.”After years as a registered Democrat, Ms. Lu switched her party registration to Republican last year and voted for Mr. Zeldin. She ticked off a litany of recent instances of street violence — including one involving a stranger who spit at her while she was taking out her trash — that she said made her feel less safe now than when she arrived in the United States 50 years ago.“I think what upset me to see Asian Americans veer right is that they were swayed by fear and fear alone,” said Representative Grace Meng, a Queens Democrat of Taiwanese descent. “It’s important that we are working with the Asian American community, but also with our leaders up and down the ballot to make sure they’re listening and responsive to our concerns, which is not just substance, but outreach, especially during campaigns.”Sam Ni at his Sunset Park computer store. He said his shift to the Republican Party was prompted by a proposal to alter the admissions process for the city’s specialized high schools. Janice Chung for The New York TimesSam Ni, a father of two high school students, began shifting to the right after the debate over high school admissions. He described the city’s diversification effort as an attempt to “punish” Asian American students.Mr. Ni said fears over subway crime had disrupted his daily life and further estranged him from the Democratic Party. His wife, he said, recently began to drive the couple’s son to school from southern Brooklyn to Upper Manhattan, forcing her to spend hours in traffic instead of working at the computer store the family owns in Sunset Park.“If I told my son to go to the subway, we will worry about it,” said Mr. Ni, 45, who was a Democrat since immigrating to the United States from China in 2001 but who switched parties and voted for President Donald J. Trump in 2020.This year, Mr. Ni decided to play an active role in getting other Asian Americans to the polls: He helped organize an effort that raised about $12,000 to print get-out-the-vote banners, fliers and bags in English and Chinese.“If you don’t vote, don’t complain,” read the signs, a slogan that also spread on WeChat and other social media platforms. The message did not explicitly urge voters to back Mr. Zeldin, whom Mr. Ni voted for, but the materials were passed out primarily at rallies for Mr. Zeldin in the city’s Chinese neighborhoods.Mr. Ni helped organize an effort that raised money to print banners and other materials in Chinese and English encouraging people to vote. Janice Chung for The New York TimesThere were also larger forces at play.A week before the election, Asian American voters in New York City received mailings that appeared to be race-based. They accused the Biden administration and left-wing officials of embracing policies related to job qualifications and college admissions that “engaged in widespread racial discrimination against white and Asian Americans.”The mailings, part of a national Republican-aligned campaign targeting Asian American voters, were distributed by America First Legal, a group founded by Stephen Miller, a former top adviser to Mr. Trump who helped craft the president’s hard-line immigration policies.Democratic officials said they believed that many Asian Americans that voted Republican tended to be East Asian, particularly Chinese voters who may be more culturally conservative. Republicans may have also found success among first-generation immigrants who may not be as attuned to the history of racial inequity that has led Democrats to enact policies that Republicans have targeted, such as reforms to New York’s bail laws.Mr. Zeldin also made a point of meeting with, and raising money from, Asian American leaders and activists. The approach helped him win — and, in some cases, run up the vote — in many districts dominated by Asian American voters and enabled him to chip into Ms. Hochul’s overwhelming support in the rest of the city.Even so, some Asian American leaders noted that Mr. Zeldin’s near singular focus on crime — his campaign framed the election in existential terms: “Vote like your life depends on it, because it does” — allowed him to run up his numbers across many voting groups, including white and suburban voters, not just Asian Americans.Mr. Zeldin at a campaign rally shortly before Election Day. His near-singular focus on the issue of crime won over many Asian American voters. Dave Sanders for The New York TimesMany Democratic officials noted Ms. Hochul’s effort to rally Asian American voters in the campaign’s closing weeks, but characterized the push as too little, too late.After the election, the governor acknowledged that Democrats had fallen short in communicating their message about public safety to Asian American voters, saying that “more could have been done to make sure that people know that this was a high priority of ours.”“Obviously, that was not successful in certain communities who were hearing other voices and seeing other messaging and seeing other advertising with a contrary message about our priorities,” Ms. Hochul said in November after signing two bills aimed at curbing hate crimes. 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