by the El Reporter’s news services
Rafael Correa
On April 8, Telefónica Movistar, one of the main mobile operators in Mexico, announced that it would not cut off subscribers who had failed to register their phones with the government agency, Renaut. The deadline for registering phones with the Registro Nacional de Usarios de Telefonía Móvil (Renaut) is April 10.
Around 25m mobiles (of a national total of 83.5m) still have to be registered. Telefónica’s move is a clear challenge to the federal government’s authority. The whole issue of Renaut illustrates the disfunctionality of Mexican political life.
Advertisements on government radio and television have been urging Mexicans for weeks to register their cellphones by sending their personal details as a text message.
The idea of a national registry of mobile phones, both contract and prepaid, is part of an anti-crime drive. The advocates of the registry argued that it would help the police to trace criminals, particularly kidnappers who used mobile phones to communicate with their victims’ families.
Correa reshuffles cabinet as indigenous groups prepare unified protest action
There is something happening in Ecuador and it is not President Rafael Correa’s carefully choreographed cabinet reshuffle he portrayed as radicalising his “citizens’ revolution”.
The entire indigenous movement, which Correa has skilfully divided since coming to power in 2007, is uniting against his government. Any process of change will have its detractors but two recent developments have driven Ecuador’s fragmented indigenous movement – once the making and breaking of heads of state – to moot nationwide protest action. The bones of contention are mining and water reforms.
Venezuela guarantee its defense, Chávez
President Hugo Chavez said Venezuela is preparing to guarantee defense of the national sovereignty in times when aggressions against the South American nation have been intensified.
Chavez announced that the country would create militias with students, farmers and workers who will join that task.
Chavez expressed gratitude on Saturday for the Russian government support to Venezuela to increase its military capacity and its firm stance against US pressures.
Chavez confirmed that about 34,000 members of the Bolivarian Militias, a body encouraging the people take part in defensive tasks, will swear in Tuesday.
The act will take place at the Bolivar Avenue, Caracas, where Venezuelans from the capital and other parts of the country are expected to attend.
There will be many persons there, Chavez foretold during his Sunday program Aló Presidente, held at the Miraflores Palace yesterday to recall the coup on April 11, 2002 and the prompt civic-military response that neutralized it.
