ANTANANARIVO: Youth protesters in Madagascar on Wednesday rejected an offer to join President Andry Rajoelina’s “national dialogue” with various groups, accusing his government of repression after weeks of demonstrations in the African island nation.
Inspired by similar “Gen Z” movements in Kenya and Nepal, the protests that started on September 25 pose the biggest challenge to Rajoelina’s government since his re-election in 2023, giving voice to widespread discontent over rampant poverty and high-level corruption.
Rajoelina fired his cabinet last week in a bid to quell the unrest, appointing a new prime minister and announcing plans for a national dialogue due to commence on Wednesday afternoon. He said the talks would be attended by spiritual leaders, students, youth representatives, and others.
But the moves have failed to ease public anger, and the so-called Gen Z movement said they would not hold talks with the government as long as authorities respond to their demonstrations with force.
“We reject this mockery of dialogue,” the protesters said in the statement posted on their verified Facebook page.
“We refuse the president’s invitation to talks. We will not engage in dialogue with a regime that represses, assaults, and humiliates its youth in the streets.”
University students were expected to take to the streets again on Wednesday following a 48-hour ultimatum issued by the protesters on Monday night for Rajoelina to agree to their demands or face a national strike.
Although the demonstrations were initially sparked by water and electricity shortages, demands have now expanded to include calls for Rajoelina to leave office, apologize to the nation, and dissolve the senate and the election commission.
At least 22 people have been killed while 100 others have been injured in the unrest, according to the United Nations. The government has rejected those figures, without offering any of its own.
Late on Tuesday Rajoelina appointed new ministers for defense and public security and asked them to restore public order.
“Do not tolerate the incitement of unrest,” he said, without elaborating further on possible measures.
Madagascar’s protests are taking place at a vulnerable time for its export-reliant economy. While the country is best known for producing most of the world’s vanilla, other exports, including of nickel, cobalt, textiles and shrimp – are also vital to foreign earnings and employment.
The country’s per capita GDP plunged by 45 percent between 1960 and 2020, according to the World Bank.
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Madagascar protesters reject president’s offer of talks
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Madagascar protesters reject president’s offer of talks
- Demonstrations sparked by water and power shortages
- Threat of national strike looms after ultimatum by protesters
Mexico and El Salvador make big cocaine seizures at sea as US continues lethal strikes
MEXICO CITY: The navies of El Salvador and Mexico announced drug seizures in the Pacific Ocean this week of more than 10 tons of cocaine, in contrast to deadly strikes by the US government that just this week left 11 people dead on three boats suspected of carrying drugs in Latin American waters.
The latest announcement came Thursday, when Mexico said it had seized nearly four tons of suspected drugs and detained three people from a semisubmersible craft, 250 nautical miles (463 kilometers) south of the port of Manzanillo.
Mexican Security Secretary Omar García Harfuch said via X that the seizure from the sleek, low-riding boat with three visible motors brought the weekly total to nearly 10 tons, but he did not provide detail on the other seizures.
Mexican authorities said the seizure was made with intelligence shared US Northern Command and the US Joint Interagency Task Force South.
On Sunday, El Salvador’s navy announced the largest drug seizure in the country’s history of 6.6 tons of cocaine. The navy had intercepted a 180-foot boat registered to Tanzania, 380 miles (611 kilometers) southwest of the coast. Navy divers found 330 packages of cocaine hidden in the boat’s ballast tanks. Ten men were arrested from Colombia, Nicaragua, Panama and Ecuador.
On Thursday, Salvadoran authorities gave access to the seized ship FMS Eagle, which had just arrived in the port of La Union. More than 200 wrapped bundles were lined up on the deck.
The Trump administration has pressured Mexico to make more drug seizures over the past year. The trafficking of drugs like fentanyl was the president’s justification for tariffs on Mexican imports.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has responded with a more aggressive stance toward drug cartels than her predecessor, that has included sending dozens of drug trafficking prisoners to the United States for prosecution.
Sheinbaum has also expressed her disagreement with strikes by the US military in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean against boats suspected of carrying drugs.
At least 145 people have been killed in those strikes since the US government began targeting those it calls “narcoterrorists” last September.
The US strikes this week included two vessels carrying four people each in the eastern Pacific Ocean and another boat in the Caribbean carrying three people. The administration provided images of the boats being destroyed, but not evidence they were carrying drugs.
The latest announcement came Thursday, when Mexico said it had seized nearly four tons of suspected drugs and detained three people from a semisubmersible craft, 250 nautical miles (463 kilometers) south of the port of Manzanillo.
Mexican Security Secretary Omar García Harfuch said via X that the seizure from the sleek, low-riding boat with three visible motors brought the weekly total to nearly 10 tons, but he did not provide detail on the other seizures.
Mexican authorities said the seizure was made with intelligence shared US Northern Command and the US Joint Interagency Task Force South.
On Sunday, El Salvador’s navy announced the largest drug seizure in the country’s history of 6.6 tons of cocaine. The navy had intercepted a 180-foot boat registered to Tanzania, 380 miles (611 kilometers) southwest of the coast. Navy divers found 330 packages of cocaine hidden in the boat’s ballast tanks. Ten men were arrested from Colombia, Nicaragua, Panama and Ecuador.
On Thursday, Salvadoran authorities gave access to the seized ship FMS Eagle, which had just arrived in the port of La Union. More than 200 wrapped bundles were lined up on the deck.
The Trump administration has pressured Mexico to make more drug seizures over the past year. The trafficking of drugs like fentanyl was the president’s justification for tariffs on Mexican imports.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has responded with a more aggressive stance toward drug cartels than her predecessor, that has included sending dozens of drug trafficking prisoners to the United States for prosecution.
Sheinbaum has also expressed her disagreement with strikes by the US military in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean against boats suspected of carrying drugs.
At least 145 people have been killed in those strikes since the US government began targeting those it calls “narcoterrorists” last September.
The US strikes this week included two vessels carrying four people each in the eastern Pacific Ocean and another boat in the Caribbean carrying three people. The administration provided images of the boats being destroyed, but not evidence they were carrying drugs.
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