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RUSSIA
ARGENTINA
Russian President Vladimir Putin is taking a zero-
tolerance approach to dissent, said Pavel Aptekar.
When some 15,000 Muscovites heeded the call
of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny and
marched through the capital last month to protest
the rigging of the upcoming Moscow City Council
election, Putin didn’t leave matters to the local po-
lice. Special forces and National Guards turned out
en masse, beating up demonstrators and arresting a
stunning 1,373 people. “Hard-liners in the Krem-
lin” have decided to abandon all pretense of legiti-
macy and just knock heads. Officials are betting
that Moscow voters will be cowed into acceptingthat none of the opposition candidates they sup-
port will be allowed onto the September ballot. But
it’s far from certain that intimidation will work.
Authorities were clearly “not expecting Muscovites
to take to the streets in such numbers” during va-
cation season and despite warnings to stay home.
The state violence could well end up radicalizing
Muscovites and other Russians—after all, even
after being beaten with batons and sprayed with
tear gas, the protesters didn’t go home, but spread
out, creating mini-demonstrations all over the city.
Authorities may find that the crackdown will only
“trigger something unpredictable.”Former Argentine President Cristina Fernández de
Kirchner wants her old job back, said Ariel Sribman
Mittelman, and she won’t let political convention
stand in her way. The 66-year-old leftist—who suc-
ceeded her husband, Néstor Kirchner, as president
in 2007 and reached her two-term limit in 2015—is
facing charges of bribery, embezzlement, and money
laundering stemming from her time in office. Now
she is running again, this time as vice president to
her late husband’s chief of staff, Alberto Fernández
(no relation). Technically, this is allowed: Presidents
are limited to two consecutive four-year terms but
can run again after sitting out a term. Still, Kirchneris “blowing up tradition.” She clearly sees Fernán-
dez as her puppet, someone to occupy the office
while she pulls the strings. Kirchner is promoting
the message “that the vice presidency and the presi-
dency itself are at her personal service.” We can
foresee an outcome whereby she could maneuver
Fernández to resign, and then she would again take
the helm. And this is a real possibility, because polls
show the Fernández-Kirchner ticket neck and neck
with that of the incumbent center-right president,
Mauricio Macri. Kirchner is not “even minimally
worried about the prestige and credibility of her
Ge country’s institutions.” But voters should be.
tty
State policy
of violence
could backfire
Pavel Aptekar
VedomostiKirchner’s
desperate ploy
for power
Ariel Sribman Mittelman
El País (Spain)The carnage in El Paso was inevitable,
said Leo Zuckermann in Excélsior
(Mexico). Donald Trump came to po-
litical prominence by questioning the
citizenship of then–U.S. President Barack
Obama. Trump launched his own presi-
dential campaign in 2015 by slander-
ing Mexican immigrants in the U.S. as
criminals and rapists. In office, he has
demonized Muslim lawmakers and Cen-
tral American asylum seekers. It is no
accident that his “racist and xenophobic
speech has empowered white suprema-
cists,” like the one who killed 22 people
at a Texas Walmart last week. Eight
of the victims were Mexican citizens, including Elsa Mendoza
Márquez, 57, a schoolteacher from across the border in Ciudad
Juárez. Thanks to President Trump, white nationalists “are no
longer in the catacombs, but present in the public arena.” Trump
sows hate at his rallies, encouraging the mob to chant against
illegal immigrants. At a rally in Florida in May, he even laughed
when a supporter suggested shooting migrants. No one should be
surprised when someone actually opens fire on Hispanics.Mexico is treating this as “an act of terrorism” against our
citizens, said Roberto Gil Zuarth in El Financiero (Mexico). It
wasn’t just another American mass shooting. The killer drove
some 650 miles from his home outside Dallas to the border city
of El Paso, specifically to kill Mexicans—and he was spurred to
this slaughter by Trump’s “hate speech.” Our foreign minister,
Marcelo Ebrard, says the government might seek the killer’s ex-
tradition, but Mexico has no legal standing to do so. Instead, weneed to mobilize “unprecedented inter-
national pressure” against America’s
“official racism.”President Andrés Manuel López Ob-
rador has been too meek in the face
of Trump’s bullying, said Javier Lo-
zano in El Universal (Mexico). A few
weeks ago, he surrendered to Trump’s
demands that we send troops to our
southern border to halt the northward
flow of Central American migrants or
else be hit with harsh U.S. tariffs. It’s
time to restore “strength and dignity”
to the bilateral relationship. Yes, we’ll
help tackle the migrant crisis—but only if the U.S. stops the traf-
ficking of guns, the weapons that fuel cartel violence here. Some
70 percent of guns found at crime scenes in Mexico were bought
legally in the U.S. and then smuggled here. Most importantly,
there should be no cooperation on any issue unless Trump ends
his racist rhetoric.He won’t, said C.J. Werleman in The Sydney Morning Herald
(Australia). Trump’s entire “political shtick is pivoted on the white
nationalist notion that white Americans find themselves in a do-
or-die struggle with nonwhite immigrants.” He uses dehumanizing
terms, calling Hispanic migrants “invaders,” and the El Paso killer
echoed those terms. Remember, when Rwandan Hutu politicians
called the Tutsi ethnic minority cockroaches, “it started a geno-
cide that resulted in the deaths of upwards of 1 million people in
that country.” The U.S. is “in the midst of a domestic white na-
tionalist terrorism crisis,” and the president is only fueling it.How they see us: Inciting terrorism against Mexicans
A mourner with a photo of Mendoza, a Mexican victim