CounterVortex weekly headlines
War crime seen in Niger drone strike
A government drone strike in western Niger killed at least 17 civilians, including four children, and injured at least 13 others when it hit a crowded market, according to an investigation by Human Rights Watch (HRW). The afternoon strike in Kokoloko village in the Tillabéri region killed three Islamic State fighters but also devastated the market where hundreds of people had gathered, HRW reported. The organization said the attack violated laws-of-war prohibitions against indiscriminate attacks and may amount to a war crime.
https://countervortex.org/blog/war-crime-seen-in-niger-drone-strike/
UN rights chief protests Burkina Faso civic crackdown
The UN’s top human rights official demanded that Burkina Faso end its clampdown on civic freedoms, including an announced ban on political parties. In his comments, UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk emphasized that the government’s decision to prohibit political parties marks a serious setback for the freedoms of expression, association and political participation in Burkina Faso. The rights chief further urged the government to repeal its restrictive laws, allow unimpeded humanitarian assistance to those in need, and unconditionally release those arbitrarily detained. Türk’s office stated that the authorities’ actions have “sharply constricted civil society’s activity in the country, inconsistent with international human rights law.”
https://countervortex.org/blog/un-rights-chief-protests-burkina-faso-civic-crackdown/
Africa pushes back against Russian military recruitment
Facing a manpower shortage in its war with Ukraine, Russia is increasingly turning to recruitment networks in the Global South—especially Africa—to help fill its ranks. Fast-track visas, the promise of good salaries as well as citizenship are the lures, in contrast to growing official immigration hostility in the rest of Europe. But the problem is surviving the front line. In a report released this week, the investigative collective INPACT obtained a single list of 1,417 Africans hired by Russia and found a death rate of over 20%. Those killed lasted an average of just six months. There are also reports of racism and brutality. While many young men volunteer, others are duped, promised work or scholarships, but then forcibly enlisted. Kenya and South Africa are two countries that have complained. Nairobi wants a ban on the conscription of Kenyans, while South Africa said Moscow had agreed to the return of 17 men tricked into serving in Ukraine.
https://countervortex.org/blog/africa-pushes-back-against-russian-military-recruitment/
UN denounces Russian conviction of ICC prosecutor
UN human rights experts decried Russia’s conviction of nine International Criminal Court (ICC) officials, calling the ruling a “flagrant violation of international law.” After a trial held in absentia, the Moscow City Court sentenced Prosecutor Karim Khan and eight ICC judges under the Russian Criminal Code for “unlawfully prosecuting Russian citizens in The Hague,” and subsequently placed them on an international wanted list. Prosecutor Khan received a 15‑year prison term, with the others receiving sentences of between three and 15 years. The case concerns the arrest warrants issued by the ICC for President Vladimir Putin and one of his cabinet members on war crimes charges.
https://countervortex.org/blog/un-denounces-russian-conviction-of-icc-prosecutor/
Argentina: Milei offers Trump part of Tierra del Fuego?
In a move sparking outrage from the country’s opposition, Argentina’s central government under President Javier Milei has taken control of the port of Ushuaia—the country’s southernmost seaport and a key gateway to Antarctica. Milei’s move places operation and administration of the port under his executive control for one year—over the objections of the Tierra del Fuego provincial government. The takeover came just days before a US Air Force jet landed at Ushuaia, bringing in a delegation of US lawmakers from the House of Representatives’ Energy & Commerce Committee. Milei, in power since December 2023, has already received two heads of the US Southern Command in Ushuaia. Both visited the Ushuaia Integrated Naval Base, which Argentina has been building since 2022. While Milei insists the base will be under full Argentine control, the country’s opposition press is full of speculation that on the sidelines of the Davos summit, Milei offered the base and all of Ushuaia to the US in exchange for an invitation to join the “Board of Peace” being touted by Trump as an alternative to the United Nations.
https://countervortex.org/blog/milei-offers-trump-part-of-tierra-del-fuego/
Costa Rica emulates Salvador police state model
The right-wing populist Laura Fernández will be Costa Rica’s next president, securing nearly 50% of the vote in last week’s election. She is the first candidate in more than a decade to clear the threshold needed to win outright in the first round. She did so by promising to respond forcefully to the country’s exaggerated yet real insecurity crisis linked to the drug trade—the overwhelming concern for most voters. On the campaign trail, Fernández drew openly from the playbook of Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, whose brutal anti-gang crackdown has inspired conservatives across the region. She called for a “state of exception” to combat crime, promised to complete the construction of a massive Bukele-inspired prison, and spoke with Bukele before any other foreign leader after her win.
https://countervortex.org/blog/costa-rica-emulates-salvador-police-state-model/
Audio:
Podcast: resist cellular hegemony!
As the architecture of total surveillance falls inexorably into place, cellular technology comes to colonize more and more of daily human existence. Accepted in the banal interest of “convenience,” this trajectory ultimately ends in not only the extinction of human freedom, but the abolition of humanity itself—an idea openly embraced by the fascist tech bros as “transhumanism,” and warned of by CS Lewis in his eerily prescient 1943 work The Abolition of Man. In Episode 317 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg urges a revolution of everyday life, in which we start saying no to the relentless encroachment of cellular and digital technology.
https://countervortex.org/blog/podcast-resist-cellular-hegemony/
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