The New York Times - USA (2020-08-01)

(Antfer) #1

A12 Y THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONALSATURDAY, AUGUST 1, 2020


HARARE, Zimbabwe — When
Robert Mugabe was ousted as
president of Zimbabwe in a coup
in 2017, many in the country hoped
for an end to the repression and
mismanagement that had charac-
terized his 37 years in office.
But when protesters tried to
gather on Friday in the capital,
Harare, the security services re-
acted in a manner reminiscent of
the Mugabe era. They shut down
most of the city, arrested several
government critics and forced
more than a dozen others into hid-
ing — highlighting how the coun-
try has, in the eyes of the opposi-
tion, slipped from bad to worse un-
der Mr. Mugabe’s successor, Pres-
ident Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Mr. Mnangagwa took power on
a promise of renewal, but his crit-
ics associate him with the same
excesses that defined Mr. Mu-
gabe’s legacy: authoritarian rule,
financial missteps, rampant graft,
plummeting living standards and
a teetering economy.
“In reality, there is nothing
new,” said Obey Sithole, a leading
opposition campaigner who went
into hiding days before the
planned protests. “Instead, we
have seen the perfection of the art
of repression.”
And the government’s halting
response to the coronavirus pan-


demic, which has exposed the aw-
ful state of the country’s health
care system and led to further al-
legations of corruption, has fueled
widespread anger.
In an interview with The Times
last year, Mr. Mnangagwa, 77, de-
scribed himself as a leader with a
“new dispensation.” But in some
respects, Mr. Mnangagwa — a
veteran of the guerrilla war that
ended white-minority rule, and
one of Mr. Mugabe’s most trusted
allies — has proved to be an even
harsher president than Mr. Mu-
gabe.
The number of opposition activ-
ists charged with a form of treason
during Mr. Mnangagwa’s three
years in office is already higher
than during Mr. Mugabe’s entire
tenure, according to research by a
coalition of 22 Zimbabwean rights


groups.
Opposition activists hoped to
hold mass rallies on Friday, partly
in response to a new wave of ar-
rests and abductions that began in
May, when three female opposi-
tion activists, including a law-
maker, were abducted, beaten and
sexually assaulted by people they
say were plainclothes govern-
ment agents. (The government
denied involvement and, after be-
ing treated in hospital, the women
were charged with false accusa-
tions.)
But Mr. Mnangagwa’s govern-
ment refused to allow even this
largely symbolic expression of
dissent.
To deter protesters in the prel-
ude to the demonstrations, the po-
lice seized the leader of an opposi-
tion group who had been helping
to organize the rally and a promi-
nent investigative journalist who
had helped reveal a possible cor-
ruption scheme involving the
country’s health minister, Obadi-
ah Moyo. More than a dozen oppo-
sition politicians, activists and un-
ion leaders, including Mr. Sithole,
then went into hiding after the po-
lice named them on a wanted list.
And on Friday, the police de-
ployed personnel across the city,
shutting down most major transit
routes and deterring most would-
be protesters from gathering. Sev-
eral of those who did try to assem-
ble said that they had been de-
tained, including the author Tsitsi
Dangarembga, three days after
her novel “This Mournable Body”
was longlisted for the Booker
Prize, a prestigious British liter-
ary award.
“During President Mugabe’s
era, there were serious, gross hu-
man rights violations,” said Rob-
son Chere, the head of a major
teachers’ union, and one of those
now in hiding. “But the current so-
called new dispensation has gone
several gears up.”
The situation has led to tensions
within Mr. Mnangagwa’s political
party. A party official was fired
this week after being accused of
helping to promote the protests,
and the government itself has
been forced to deny that the mili-
tary that brought Mr. Mnangagwa
to power was now seeking to oust
him.
Those hoping to demonstrate
on Friday had an extra grievance
— Mr. Mnangagwa’s handling of
the coronavirus crisis, which crit-
ics see as reflective of his govern-
ment’s wider faults.
Already close to collapse before
the pandemic, hospitals lack
enough drugs, ventilators, per-
sonal protection equipment and
staff, because many doctors and
nurses have moved abroad in
search of better pay or gone on

strike to protest their low wages.
Police officers have used coro-
navirus restrictions as a pretext to
arrest the government’s political
opponents, according to Zimba-
bwe Lawyers for Human Rights, a
watchdog group based in Harare.
Mr. Moyo, the health minister,
was fired in July after buying co-
ronavirus supplies at inflated
prices through a multimillion-dol-
lar contract with an obscure for-
eign firm that was signed without
the approval of the relevant state
authorities, according to court
documents.
Mr. Moyo, who has yet to be re-
placed, was arrested and is on
trial.
“The system has collapsed un-
der our president,” said Dr. Peter
Magombeyi, a former head of the
Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Asso-
ciation, a labor union. “We are no-
ticing that there are no doctors,
there are no nurses, there are no
drugs, not enough personal pro-
tective equipment, no hospital
C.E.O.s, no health care minister.”
The leadership of Mr. Mnangag-
wa’s party had urged supporters
to “take on” the protesters, and at-
tempted to portray the possibility
of demonstrations as a Western
plot.
“None of it is coming from Zim-
babweans,” said Tafadzwa Mug-
wadi, the party’s director of infor-
mation.
Another party official, Patrick
Chinamasa, said that the Ameri-
can ambassador to Zimbabwe,
Brian A. Nichols, might be ex-
pelled from the country, after the
U.S. Embassy issued a series of
tweets criticizing some of the ar-

rests last month.
Mr. Chinamasa said at a news
briefing on Monday that if Mr.
Nichols were to continue “engag-
ing in acts of mobilizing and fund-
ing disturbances, coordinating vi-
olence and training fighters,” then
“our leadership will not hesitate to
give him marching orders.”
But in reality, there is plenty of
homegrown anger — not only
about rights violations, but also
about the dire state of the health
system and deteriorating living
conditions. Corruption and mis-
management have led to the col-
lapse of the economy and vast un-
derinvestment in infrastructure.
The situation is compounded by
international sanctions on Zimba-
bwean individuals and institu-
tions, which are potential obsta-

cles to loans from the World Bank
and the International Monetary
Fund.
Dr. Magombeyi, the former doc-
tors’ union head, provoked wide-
spread horror this week when he
shared an image on social media
of what he said were the corpses
of seven stillborn infants at a sin-
gle hospital in Harare. Citing doc-
tors at the hospital, Dr.
Magombeyi said that the seven
had all died on the same night, af-
ter a staffing shortage caused de-
lays to their mothers’ prenatal
care.
Stagnant wages and rampant
inflation have made basic medi-
cines unaffordable to most pa-
tients.
In June, the annual inflation
rate was more than 700 percent,

devaluing salaries and making
common household goods beyond
the reach of many citizens. Since
the end of Mr. Mugabe’s rule,
which was itself marked by pro-
found economic upheaval, the
cost of a loaf of bread has risen
roughly 70-fold, turning it from a
staple into a luxury.
In recent months, the country’s
electricity crisis has ebbed: Most
households no longer face daily
power outages, partly because the
coronavirus restrictions have
caused a drop in demand.
But Zimbabweans still face
daily water shortages. Parts of
Harare receive running water
only once or twice a week, forcing
many to line up for hours at wells,
springs and streams.
Against this backdrop, Mr.
Mnangagwa caused further anger
this week by announcing a plan to
raise $3.5 billion through govern-
ment bond sales to compensate
white farmers who were violently
expelled from their land under Mr.
Mugabe. But there has been no
similarly ambitious plan to fi-
nance improvements to the health
system or water infrastructure.
“We have suffered enough,”
said Denis Chengeto, a 55-year-
old unemployed teacher, speaking
ahead of the protests on Thursday.
“We have a government that does-
n’t care.”
But after the government
locked down the city on Friday,
Mr. Chengeto said he was now too
frightened to protest.
“Nobody may hear my voice to-
day,” he said on Friday. “I know
soldiers won’t hesitate to shoot at
anyone if we go on the streets.”

‘There Is Nothing New’:


Officers Repress Protests


As Zimbabwe Crumbles


Nurses demanding a pay raise in Zimbabwe. Many health care workers have moved abroad or gone on strike to protest low wages.

AARON UFUMELI/EPA, VIA SHUTTERSTOCK

President Emmerson Mnangagwa succeeded Robert Mugabe in


  1. Critics say repression and mismanagement has continued.


ZINYANGE AUNTONY FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

By JEFFREY MOYO
and PATRICK KINGSLEY

Jeffrey Moyo reported from Ha-
rare, and Patrick Kingsley from
Berlin.


Battling financial


woes, autocratic rule


and the pandemic.


RIO DE JANEIRO — Members
of the House Foreign Affairs Com-
mittee said Friday they were “ex-
tremely alarmed” by assertions
that the U.S. ambassador had sig-
naled to Brazilian officials they
could help get President Trump
re-elected by changing their trade
policies.
In a letter sent Friday after-
noon, Committee Chairman Eliot
L. Engel demanded that the am-
bassador, Todd C. Chapman,
produce “any and all documents
referring or related to any discus-
sions” he has held with Brazilian
officials in recent weeks about
their nation’s tariffs on ethanol, an
important agricultural export for
Iowa, a potential swing state in
November.
The committee’s letter was sent
in response to reports in the Bra-
zilian news media this week say-
ing that Mr. Chapman, a career
diplomat, made it clear to Brazil-
ian officials they could bolster Mr.
Trump’s electoral chances in Iowa
if Brazil lifted its ethanol tariffs.
Eliminating tariffs would give
the Trump administration a wel-
come trade victory to present to
struggling ethanol producers in
Iowa, where the president is in a
close race with his Democratic ri-
val, Joseph R. Biden Jr.
The House committee said it
was opening an inquiry.
The State Department said in
an emailed statement Friday that
“allegations suggesting that Am-
bassador Chapman has asked
Brazilians to support a specific
U.S. candidate are false.”
The statement added: “The
United States has long been fo-
cused on reducing tariff barriers
and will continue do so.”
The O Globo newspaper pub-
lished a story on Thursday saying
Mr. Chapman had underscored
“the importance to the Brazilian
government of keeping Donald
Trump” in office. Mr. Bolsonaro, a
far-right leader, has made closer
alignment with the Trump admin-
istration his top foreign policy pri-
ority.
A competing newspaper, Es-
tadão, published an article Friday


saying its reporters independ-
ently confirmed that the ambassa-
dor framed his argument against
tariffs in partisan terms. The arti-
cle said the Brazilian officials who
met with Mr. Chapman rejected
the appeal, declining to be drawn
into the American presidential
battle.
Neither article named its
sources. But Alceu Moreira, a Bra-
zilian congressman who heads the
agricultural caucus, told The New
York Times that Mr. Chapman had
made repeated references to the
electoral calendar during a recent
meeting the two had about
ethanol.
He said that Mr. Chapman did
not explicitly urge him to help the
Trump campaign or bring up the
contest in Iowa — but did tie the
ethanol issue to the election.
“He said, ‘You know, we have
elections in the United States, and
that this is very important,’ ” Mr.
Moreira said, recounting their
conversation. “He said this four or
five times.”
In the letter, Mr. Engel said that
if Mr. Chapman had pressured the
Brazilians to help the Trump cam-
paign, it could be a violation of the
Hatch Act, a 1939 law that bars
federal officials from engaging in
certain partisan activities.
“These statements are com-
pletely inappropriate for a U.S.
ambassador to make,” Mr. Engel,
a Democrat from New York, wrote
in the letter, which was also signed
by Representative Albio Sires,
who chairs the Subcommittee on
the Western Hemisphere, Civilian
Security and Trade.
Promoting favorable industry
terms abroad is a core priority for
American ambassadors. But dip-
lomats are reminded in election
years to steer clear of any actions
that might reasonably be con-
strued as partisan.
The committee’s letter also took
issue with Mr. Chapman’s defense
of a video promoting the Trump
campaign that Eduardo Bol-
sonaro, a federal lawmaker and a
son of President Jair Bolsonaro,
posted Sunday on Twitter.
The video ends with a slide:
“Trump 2020: The Great Victory.”
Asked about the video by O
Globo, Mr. Chapman said he saw

no problem with Eduardo Bol-
sonaro’s endorsement.
“I’m a big defender of freedom
of expression,” Mr. Chapman told
the newspaper. “And everyone is
free to say who they like and who
they’re against as they see fit; I’m
not going to tell someone they
can’t speak in favor or against my
president.”
Mr. Engel and Mr. Sires, a Dem-
ocrat from New Jersey, said the
ambassador should have re-
sponded differently.
“While Mr. Bolsonaro has the
right to speak freely, it is simply
not appropriate for sitting govern-
ment officials — in any branch of
government — to promote the
campaigns of candidates in the
United States,” the congressmen
wrote. “We frankly believe that
you should know better.”
Eduardo Bolsonaro is the rare
Brazilian official who has openly
supported lowering ethanol tariffs
for American sellers. In a video he
posted last September, he said
taking a hit on ethanol would be a
boon for Brazilian exporters of
meat and sugar by improving the
chances of a free-trade agreement
between the two countries.
“That could bring so many
benefits to us as Brazilians,” said
the younger Mr. Bolsonaro, an ar-
dent supporter of Mr. Trump who
wore a “Make Brazil Great Again”
baseball cap during a visit to the
White House last year.
The United States has long
pushed Brazil to lower tariffs on
ethanol. Those talks gained a new
sense of urgency in recent months
as the coronavirus pandemic led
to plummeting demand, and
American ethanol sellers were
squeezed by the trade dispute be-
tween Beijing and Washington.
Currently, American ethanol
companies can sell up to 750 mil-
lion liters of ethanol to Brazil per
year without paying tariffs. Any
sales beyond that are subject to a
20 percent tax. The Brazilian gov-
ernment raised the tariff-free cap
last September from 600 million li-
ters — a gesture intended to give
Brazilian sugar producers greater
access to the American market.
Mr. Trump hailed that move,
calling it “great progress for our
Farmers.”

But Washington did not make
good on the sugar access, which
left the Brazilians embittered.
The current ethanol tariff
framework is set to expire in Au-
gust. If the two countries don’t
reach a deal, Brazil will apply a 20
percent tax to all ethanol imports,
a blow to an industry that is plead-
ing for government bailouts.
Mr. Moreira, the Brazilian con-
gressman who heads the agricul-
tural caucus, said he told Mr.
Chapman that Brazilian poli-
ticians also had political consider-
ations to consider, given coming
municipal elections in September.
Ethanol producers in Brazil’s
northeast states would look dimly
on tariff rules that put them at a
competitive disadvantage.
“Is the ethanol producer very
important electorally speaking?
Yes, very important,” Mr. Moreira
said. “We very much like the
American people, but we like our
people more.”
Congressman Arnaldo Jardim,
who leads a Brazilian congres-
sional bloc that supports ethanol
producers, said Mr. Chapman has
been negotiating with a sense of
urgency as the deadline ap-
proaches.
“Let’s just say he’s putting pres-
sure,” on Brazilian officials, said
Mr. Jardim, adding that he had not
personally met with the ambassa-
dor about this issue, but regularly
speaks to several officials who
have. “He’s saying that this is par-
amount for the United States and
paramount for Trump.”

Diplomat Is Said to Tie Tariffs to Election


Todd C. Chapman, the United
States ambassador in Brazil.

ISAC NOBREGA/BRAZILIAN PRESIDENCY, VIA
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES

This article is by Ernesto Lon-
doño, Manuela Andreoni and
Letícia Casado.


MIAMI — A hurricane warning
was issued for parts of Florida’s
Atlantic coast on Friday, hours af-
ter Hurricane Isaias raked the Ba-
hamas, parts of Puerto Rico and
the Dominican Republic.
The National Hurricane Center
issued the warning for over 150
miles of the Florida coastline,
stretching from Boca Raton to the
northern bound of Brevard
County, according to an advisory
on Friday afternoon. Hurricane
warnings are still in effect for por-
tions of the Bahamas through Sat-
urday.
Hurricane watches, tropical
storm warnings, a storm surge
watch and a tropical storm watch
are in effect for other parts of Flor-
ida’s east coast.
The center forecast that the
storm would near southeast Flor-
ida Saturday afternoon and
through Sunday, and then travel
north up the state’s eastern coast
late Sunday. Isaias threatened
strong winds, heavy rainfall and
high storm surges late this week-
end.
Isaias, a Category 1 hurricane,
is expected to continue to
strengthen Friday night and early
Saturday and remain a hurricane
for the next few days, but it is not
forecast to strengthen to a Catego-
ry 2, said Dennis Feltgen, a me-
teorologist and spokesman for the
National Hurricane Center.
The storm, already the ninth
named system of the 2020 Atlantic
hurricane season, approached the
Bahamas from the southeast on
Friday morning, with maximum
sustained winds of 75 miles per
hour. Strong squalls and possible
storm surges, forecast between
three to five feet, threatened the
islands, according to the center.
The potential storm surges
were “on top of astronomical
tides,” the center’s director, Ken
Graham, said on Friday. He de-

scribed Isaias as “a very large
storm,” with tropical force winds
stretching out as far as 180 miles
from the hurricane’s center.
“It’s not just a point, it’s not just
a track, it’s a very large area,” he
said.
Across the central Bahamas on
Friday, conditions gradually de-
teriorated as the storm barreled
across new ground. The threat
from Isaias to the Bahamas comes
less than a year after Hurricane
Dorian ravaged Abaco and Grand
Bahama, leaving residents in
those areas especially unnerved.
Many survivors of Dorian, who
saw homes, schools, banks and
whole communities crushed to
rubble, are still living in tents and
unrepaired homes.
The storm hit the Bahamas as it
is grappling with a rapid increase
in the number of coronavirus in-
fections that has only accelerated
in recent days, in what health offi-
cials are calling a second wave.
On Thursday night, Prime Min-
ister Hubert Minnis announced
the temporary relaxation of re-
strictions to give people more
time to prepare for the storm.
While there are formal hurricane
shelters on Grand Bahama, it was
unclear how officials would en-
sure social distancing in them.
Florida has also been grappling
with a surge in coronavirus cases.
There were more than 461,
cases statewide and more than
6,500 deaths as of Friday since the
beginning of the pandemic, ac-
cording to a New York Times data-
base. Friday was the third consec-
utive day that Florida set its
record for the most deaths re-
ported in a single day.
Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a
news conference on Friday that
Florida was “fully prepared for
this and any future storm during
this hurricane season.” He said
that the division of emergency
management had been working at
its most active level since March,
“allowing them to actively plan for
hurricane season even while re-
sponding to the Covid-19 pan-
demic.”

Hurricane Isaias Is on Track


For the East Coast of Florida


By JOHNNY DIAZ

Rachel Knowles Scott contributed
reporting from Nassau, the Baha-
mas, and Christina Morales from
Hialeah, Fla.
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