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AMERICAS

9

Friday, November 27, 2020

D

emocratic President-

elect Joe Biden and sitting

Republican President

Donald Trump, like millions of

Americans, celebrated Thanks-

giving quietly at home yester-

day, as the coronavirus pandem-

ic raged across the United States.

The highly-contagious coro-

navirus causes the Covid-

respiratory disease.

Biden was spending the holi-

day in the small seaside town of

Rehoboth, Delaware, where he

and his wife Jill have a vacation

home.

The Bidens hosted daughter

Ashley Biden and her husband

Dr Howard Krein for the holiday

meal.

The former vice-president,

appearing with his wife Jill in

a video message posted to his

Twitter account on Thanksgiv-

ing, said his family typically

holds a large gathering on the

island of Nantucket off Massa-

chusetts, but would remain in

Delaware this year “with just a

small group around our dinner

table” because of the pandemic.

In the presidential-style ad-

dress to a nation that has lost

more than 260,000 lives to

the coronavirus, Biden said

that Americans were making a

“shared sacrifi ce for the whole

country” and a “statement of

common purpose” by staying

at home with their immediate

families.

“I know this isn’t the way

many of us hoped we’d spend

our holiday. We know that a

small act of staying home is a gift

to our fellow Americans,” said

Biden, who will be sworn in as

president on January 20. “I know

better days are coming.”

Trump often likes to celebrate

holidays at his Mar-a-Largo re-

sort in Florida, but yesterday

he remained in the Washington

area, spending part of the morn-

ing at his Trump National Golf

Club in Virginia.

It was a far cry from last year

when he made a surprise visit

to Afghanistan, where he served

turkey to US troops before sit-

ting down to eat Thanksgiving

dinner with them.

In contrast to Biden, who

pleaded with Americans to cele-

brate the holiday safely by wear-

ing masks and socially distanc-

ing, Trump in his Thanksgiving

proclamation on Wednesday

urged Americans to “gather” for

the holiday.

“I encourage all Americans

to gather, in homes and places

of worship, to off er a prayer of

thanks to God for our many

blessings,” the president, who

recovered from his own case of

Covid-19 last month, said in a

statement.

Trump has frequently ignored

public health warnings and

hosted large groups at the White

House, with many of his guests

refusing to wear masks.

In addition to Trump, several

other prominent Americans,

including First Lady Melania

Trump and members of Con-

gress, have tested positive for

Covid-19 following such events.

While fewer Americans than

normal are expected to travel

this year for Thanksgiving, mil-

lions still defi ed pleas from state

and local offi cials and health ex-

perts to make their way to fam-

ily gatherings rather than stay

home, despite a spiralling infec-

tion rate.

US deaths from Covid-

surpassed 2,000 in a single day

on Tuesday for the fi rst time

since May, and hospitalisations

reached a record of more than

89,000 on Wednesday.

Biden, Trump celebrate

Thanksgiving at home

Reuters

Washington

P

resident Donald Trump

has pardoned his former

national security adviser

Michael Flynn, who had twice

pleaded guilty to lying to the

Federal Bureau of Investigation

(FBI) during the investigation

into Russian meddling in the

2016 presidential election.

Trump’s pardon, which

could be the fi rst of several

after he lost the 2020 presi-

dential election to Democrat

Joe Biden, drew condemna-

tion from Democrats and other

critics.

A retired army general,

Flynn pleaded guilty to lying

to the FBI about interactions

he had with Russia’s ambassa-

dor to the United States in the

weeks leading up to Trump’s

inauguration in January 2017.

He has since sought to with-

draw the plea, arguing that

prosecutors violated his rights

and duped him into a plea

agreement.

His sentencing has been de-

ferred several times.

“It is my Great Honour to

announce that General Michael

T. Flynn has been granted a

Full Pardon. Congratulations

to @GenFlynn and his won-

derful family, I know you will

now have a truly fantastic

Thanksgiving!” Trump wrote

on Twitter, a day before the US

Thanksgiving holiday.

Flynn’s attorney, Sidney

Powell, who told a court in

September that she person-

ally asked Trump not to pardon

her client, said the pardon was

“bittersweet” because Flynn

was “innocent”.

Trump’s move was the

highest-profi le pardon he has

granted since he took offi ce.

Among others, the Repub-

lican president has pardoned

army personnel accused of war

crimes in Afghanistan and Joe

Arpaio, a former Arizona sher-

iff and hardliner against illegal

immigration.

“This pardon is undeserved,

unprincipled, and one more

stain on President Trump’s

rapidly diminishing legacy,”

House of Representatives Ju-

diciary Committee Chairman

Jerry Nadler said in a state-

ment.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi

called it “an act of grave cor-

ruption and a brazen abuse of

power”.

Flynn served as Trump’s

fi rst national security adviser

but the president fi red him

after only 24 days for lying to

Vice-President Mike Pence

as controversy broke over the

former general’s contacts with

then-Russian ambassador Ser-

gei Kislyak.

Flynn was one of several

former Trump aides to plead

guilty or be convicted at trial

in former Special Counsel

Robert Mueller’s investigation

into Moscow’s interference in

the 2016 US election to boost

Trump’s candidacy.

Russia denied meddling.

In May, Attorney-General

William Barr stunned many

in the legal community by or-

dering prosecutors to have the

case dropped, a decision that

came after Trump repeatedly

complained that Flynn was be-

ing treated unfairly.

“The President has par-

doned General Flynn because

he should never have been

prosecuted,” the White House

said in a statement. “In fact,

the Department of Justice

has fi rmly concluded that the

charges against General Flynn

should be dropped.

“This Full Pardon achieves

that objective, fi nally bringing

to an end the relentless, par-

tisan pursuit of an innocent

man.”

Two former White House

offi cials said more pardons

were likely.

“This is one unfettered pres-

idential power the president

enjoys using,” one of them said.

Trump said in March he was

strongly considering a full par-

don for Flynn.

He said the FBI and Justice

Department had “destroyed”

Flynn’s life and that of his fam-

ily, and cited an unspecifi ed,

unsubstantiated report that

they had lost records related to

Flynn.

Flynn was supposed to help

co-operate with the govern-

ment as part of his plea deal.

But he later switched law-

yers and tactics, arguing that

prosecutors in the case had

tricked him into lying about his

December 2016 conversations

with Kislyak.

The Justice Department has

repeatedly denied allegations

of prosecutorial misconduct.

Other former Trump aides

were convicted of federal

crimes following the Russia

inquiry.

Trump’s long-time friend

and adviser Roger Stone was

sentenced on February 20 to

three years and four months in

prison for obstruction of jus-

tice, witness tampering and

lying to lawmakers investigat-

ing the Russian election inter-

ference.

Trump commuted his sen-

tence.

Paul Manafort, Trump’s

former campaign chairman,

was sentenced last year to

3-1/2 years in prison after be-

ing convicted of unlawful lob-

bying and witness tampering,

which combined with a sen-

tence in a related case equalled

a term of more than seven years

behind bars.

Manafort was released from

prison in May and is serv-

ing the rest of his sentence at

home.

Former national

security adviser

Flynn pardoned

Reuters

Washington

T

housands of women

gathered in one of San-

tiago’s main plazas on

Wednesday and performed the

feminist anthem A Rapist In

Your Path to mark the UN’s In-

ternational Day for the Elimina-

tion of Violence against Women

• before Chilean police violent-
  ly dispersed them.
  Created by Chilean feminist
  collective Las Tesis and fi rst
  performed in 2019, the song
  condemns men who attack
  women and is accompanied by
  dance moves.
  Four members of Las Tesis
  led the performance, which has
  been copied and translated into
  diff erent languages by women
  around the world.
  The crowd was able to com-
  plete the performance only once
  before police deployed a water
  cannon to disperse the demon-
  strators from the Plaza Italia in
  downtown Santiago.
  Las Tesis gained worldwide
  fame during Chilean demon-
  strations against economic dis-
  parity in 2019 with the street
  theatre performance.
  In May four masked members
  of the collective, dressed in red
  suits with a Chilean fl ag, ap-
  peared in front of a police sta-
  tion in Valparaiso while a female
  voice read a lyric attacking the
  uniformed police offi cers, the
  Carabineros.
  Earlier on Wednesday, wom-

en’s groups demonstrated in

Santiago demanding an end to

the male violence.

Barricades were set on fi re

and a store was looted.

“We believe that violence

against women is part of a

structural state violence and of

the neoliberal patriarchal sys-

tem to which we are subjected

in this country,” feminist law-

yer and demonstrator Florencia

Pinto told AFP.

The demo was one of dozens

around the world protesting

violence against women, from

Istanbul to Paris to Mexico City.

The demonstrations were

given new urgency by an alarm-

ing rise in violence targeting

women around the world since

the start of the coronavirus

pandemic.

Venezuela documented 228

femicides in 2020 – 159 of which

came after virus lockdowns be-

gan in mid-March, according to

the Monitor de Femicidos.

“We are being murdered,” a

crowd of women protesting in

the capital Caracas chanted.

A large crowd of women and

their supporters also marched

in Mexico City, including native

women and relatives of peo-

ple who have been murdered or

have vanished during the coun-

try’s drug war.

“Let’s not forget that while

violence is what unites us, that

violence turns into something

much stronger which is digni-

fi ed feminist outrage,” one of the

marchers, 27 year-old college

student Luky Coutino told AFP.

Around 10 women are killed

every day in Mexico, and activ-

ists accuse the government of

not doing enough to tackle the

problem.

“Although the state doesn’t

do its job, we support each other

as women,” said 22-year-old

student Ana Karen Resendiz.

“We look for a way to move for-

ward and to stay well and alive.”

Protesters marched to the

city’s main square where some

faced off with riot police trying

to stop them defacing the walls

of the presidential palace and

the cathedral with paint.

Around 3,800 women are

killed each year in Mexico, while

six in 10 women have suff ered

some form of aggression in the

past decade, Interior Minister

Olga Sanchez said.

“We have a historical debt to

women, especially to victims of

violence, and we cannot allow

impunity,” she said.

“Machismo kills, destroys

the lives of women and limits

our country’s development,”

Sanchez added, speaking at

President Andres Manuel Lopez

Obrador’s daily press confer-

ence.

Lopez Obrador for his part

said that “conditions of poverty

and economic inequality have

led to these phenomena of ag-

gression and violence against

women”.

Only half of all femicides in

Mexico lead to a convictions

and in some regions impunity

is as high as 98%, according to

the report presented at the news

conference.

Chilean women perform feminist anthem

Mexican protesters decry

violence against women

AFP

Santiago/Mexico City

Protesters clash with riot police during a demonstration Government Palace in Mexico City on the

International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

Women take part in a demonstration in Santiago during the

International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

Former national security

adviser Michael Flynn.

T

he owner of a barbecue restaurant in Can-

ada’s largest city of Toronto on Wednesday

attracted a crowd of anti-mask protesters

who support his defi ance of a pandemic lock-

down, as well as strong rebukes from offi cials.

The coronavirus causes the Covid-19 respira-

tory disease.

Adam Skelly’s Adamson Barbecue has con-

tinued to operate since Tuesday, despite public

health orders against serving customers inside

restaurants amid a Covid-19 surge in the region.

“We will be opening for in-restaurant dining

against provincial orders,” Skelly said in an online

video.

“Enough is enough,” he added, arguing that

relatively few cases had been linked to bars and

restaurants.

His supporters outside chanted “Freedom!”

and waved placards Wednesday that read “End

the lockdown now!”

Police also showed up, holding back a crowd of

about 100 diners as offi cers spoke with Skelly and

his lawyers inside.

“You’re putting people’s lives in jeopardy,”

Ontario Premier Doug Ford told a daily briefi ng.

“This guy is just totally ignoring public health of-

fi cials. That’s how this spreads, people are dying

from Covid, and he just wants to say forget it? It’s

irresponsible and ridiculous.”

Skelly was eventually charged with violating

Covid-19 restrictions and operating without a

business licence after the city revoked it on Tues-

day, and faces fi nes that could reach tens of thou-

sands of dollars.

Regardless, the restaurant sold out of brisket,

spare ribs, chicken and pulled pork for a second

day in a row on Wednesday.

Skelly has become a lightning rod for Canadi-

ans suff ering pandemic fatigue as several prov-

inces went into a second lockdown to stem a surge

of new cases.

As of Wednesday, public health authorities

said the number of Covid-19 cases across Canada

topped 345,000, including nearly 12,000 deaths.

The Toronto area reported nearly 900 new

cases.

Defi ant restaurant owner fl outs Canada pandemic rules

AFP

Toronto

Protesters and police off icers gather at Adamson Barbecue, an Etobicoke
business that has defied provincial shutdown orders, in Toronto.

Former World

Bank president

Wolfensohn dies

James Wolfensohn, an
investment banker who helped
straighten out the finances
of major American cultural
institutions and served as
president of the World Bank, died
on Wednesday at the age of 86.
Wolfensohn was born in Sydney,
Australia and was a veteran of the
Royal Australian Air Force and a
member of the 1956 Australian
Olympic fencing team.
He worked as a lawyer at an
Australian law firm and went on
to earn an MBA from Harvard
University in 1959.
Wolfensohn, who became a
naturalised US citizen in 1980,
died at his home in Manhattan.

Wolfensohn

US apex court

rules in favour of

religious groups

The US Supreme Court has
barred New York from imposing
coronavirus restrictions on
houses of worship in a ruling
likely to be heralded by
conservatives as a victory for
religious freedoms.
Services should not be treated
diff erently from permitted secular
gatherings, said the unsigned
ruling, one of the first since the
appointment of Justice Amy
Coney Barrett tipped the court’s
balance to the conservatives.
Andrew Cuomo, governor of New
York state, had ordered that only
up to 10 people could gather at
sites of worship in high-risk areas
designated “red zones”.
In a 5-4 split, the top US court said
the measures violated the First
Amendment’s protection of the
free exercise of religion.
The ruling will have no immediate
eff ect as the state restrictions
had already been relaxed as they
considered their verdict, NBC
News reported.

‘Mastermind’ of

Mormon massacre

in Mexico arrested

Mexico captured a gang leader
accused of being the mastermind
behind the massacre of nine
women and children of US-
Mexican origin, authorities
confirmed on Wednesday.
Suspected drug cartel hitmen
shot dead the three women and
six children from families of
Mormon origin in the northern
Mexican border state of Sonora
in broad daylight on November 4,
2019, sparking outrage in Mexico
and the United States.
On Monday, security forces
detained Roberto Gonzalez,
known as “the 32”, in the state of
Chihuahua, along with two other
alleged members of the criminal
organisation “La Linea”, the
federal attorney-general’s off ice
said on Wednesday.
It accused Gonzalez of being
the “intellectual architect” of the
massacre.