Latest news with #protestas
Reuters
08-07-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
Mexicans protest against gentrification and US migration
Hundreds of demonstrators gathered on Friday (July 4) in Mexico City to protest against gentrification. Protesters highlighted the struggles faced by locals due to soaring rents and neighborhood transformations.
Reuters
23-06-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
Argentina's ex-President Kirchner, under house arrest, plots political fight-back
BUENOS AIRES, June 23 (Reuters) - On a Buenos Aires residential street, two protesters painted a telling image in colorful strokes: a portrait of a lone woman on her balcony overlooking a mass of people below. The figure was one of Argentina's most prominent politicians in the last two decades - leading opposition leader and former first lady and two-time president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, who was put under house arrest last week in a six-year sentence for corruption. It means the end of a political career - at least formally - for the 72-year-old, a divisive populist whose big government model is now being dismantled by the "chainsaw" austerity of libertarian President Javier Milei. The sentence also bans Kirchner, who had announced plans to run for Buenos Aires province's legislature, from public office. That second-floor balcony - the one place from which Kirchner can now rally her base due to her city apartment lockdown - is becoming a focal point for supporters on the Peronist left, with her detention putting a spotlight back on her as a symbol of resistance to Milei. "It gives Cristina's leadership political clout that she was losing," said Camila Perochena, a historian at the Universidad Torcuato Di Tella in Buenos Aires. "This gives her extra life." Kirchner's house arrest has brought tens of thousands of protesters into the streets of Buenos Aires in recent days, and injected much-needed energy into her movement, which had been battling internal divisions and disillusionment, especially since losing the 2023 presidential election to Milei. "This puts her right in the center of the political stage," Juan Grabois, a prominent leftist social leader and a close ally of Kirchner, told Reuters. At least in the short term, experts said the corruption sentence linked to roadway contracts would help Kirchner, though longer-term it remains to be seen if she can effectively wield influence without being able to attend rallies and events in person. Last Wednesday, Kirchner was in her home serving house arrest while in the central Plaza de Mayo, her voice boomed from huge loudspeakers before crowds that had marched in downtown Buenos Aires. "We will return, and what's more we will return with more wisdom, more unity, more strength," she told supporters in a pre-recorded message. "From wherever I am, from whatever trench, I will do everything I can to be there with you." Listening in the Plaza was Andrea Albarracin, 35, a member of Kirchner's Peronist Justicialista Party. "I don't hear a Cristina who has been defeated," she said. Maria Teresa Garcia, secretary general of the party, told Reuters that Kirchner would continue to lead because "there isn't another person who can raise her voice like Cristina." Many who gathered in the last few days outside of Kirchner's home repeated her claims that her detention - after an original 2022 sentence when she was vice president was upheld by the Supreme Court this month - was an act of political revenge by the right-wing. "They're coming for Cristina because she represents and epitomizes everything the concentrated powers of this country detest," said supporter Christopher Loyola, who backed the Peronists' big state spending on education, health and science. That big government focus helped Argentina have one of the strongest social safety nets in the region and boosted the public sector, but money printing to sustain it was partly to blame for years of soaring inflation and deep deficits. The night that Kirchner's sentence was upheld, Loyola waited in the cold to show his backing for Kirchner, who while divisive still has some 30% popular support, opens new tab, according to local polls, that gives her influence over the wider Peronist bloc. Last week, large banners outside Kirchner's apartment said "Always with Cristina." Vendors sold T-shirts with Kirchner's face. Supporters danced as a brass band played "Muchachos," Argentina's last soccer World Cup anthem. Yamila Perdomo, 41, a tour guide who had an Argentine flag draped on her back, had caught a glimpse of Kirchner on her balcony waving to supporters. "If this can happen to the most powerful woman in our country, imagine what guarantees regular citizens have," said Perdomo. "We are here in defense of democracy."
The Guardian
18-06-2025
- The Guardian
As anti-tourism protests grow in Europe, we need a rethink – but that's no reason to stop travelling
After coordinated protests across Europe last weekend, it's easy for the ethically conscious tourist to feel uncertain. Across southern Europe – and particularly in Spain, Italy and Portugal – there are headlines blaming visitors for everything from overcrowding to housing shortages. In gentrifying neighbourhoods, slogans such as 'Tourists go home' have appeared on walls and windows, with some angry residents grabbing headlines by squirting water pistols at tourists. Does that mean a golden age of tourism is over? No. Does the complicated relationship between those who want to visit the world's most interesting places and those who live in them need a reset? Probably. For the most part, protesters are calling for a total overhaul of a model of tourism that, they argue, drives up housing costs, harms the environment and creates low-paid, unstable jobs – while concentrating profits in the hands of a few. I've seen this first-hand. I live in Lavapiés, a vibrant and multicultural neighbourhood near Madrid's main train station. When I moved here 12 years ago, the area was a haven of traditional bars and restaurants and independent shops. Today, many of those restaurants – once offering a full menú del día for €8 (£6.80) – have doubled their prices. A recently built Ibis hotel, complete with a digital price board resembling a petrol station display, now advertises fluctuating nightly rates of about €150 to €250. Local businesses have been replaced by ground-floor tourist accommodation, with passersby able to peer straight into capsule bedrooms from the street. Lavapiés has one of the highest concentrations of unlicensed tourist rentals in Madrid. These small flats, originally built in the 18th and 19th centuries to house the city's growing industrial workforce, remained affordable for centuries. Now, thousands of such flats are listed on Airbnb at rates rivalling those in the city's wealthiest neighbourhoods. But tourists aren't choosing these places maliciously – short-term rental platforms offer cheaper, more flexible options for groups, especially in a market where a basic hotel room can easily cost €100 or more a night. This is not just a story of tourists replacing local people; it's one of policy failure and economic imbalance. In Madrid, decent food is often still relatively affordable – but the same can't be said for accommodation. The charming, no-frills guesthouses with lace curtains and wrought-iron balconies are disappearing fast, and the gap they leave behind is being filled by unlicensed rentals in former homes. There are roughly 15,000 illegal tourist apartments in Madrid alone, rising to more than 66,000 across the country. To its credit, Spain's leftwing coalition government has attempted to regulate rents and pledged to build more housing. But these plans, combined with resistance from regional governments, fail to address the immediate impact that tourist rentals have on the availability of affordable homes. In the case of Madrid, the regional government, presided over by the rightwing People's party (PP), has refused to declare 'high-tension areas' in order to allow city councils to limit rent increases as provided for in the new national legislation. Likewise, the PP-dominated Madrid city council recently approved a modification of town planning rules, formally separating tourist accommodation from residential buildings. Although the official line is that this is a step towards protecting housing for local people, it has in reality paved the way for entire buildings to be converted into tourist-only properties and made it easier to transform ground-floor commercial premises into tourist lets. As southern Europe's cities and islands have passed a tipping point, some are calling for an outright ban on tourist flats, starting with those that are unlicensed. That may be necessary, but solving the housing crisis will take more than just tighter regulations and housebuilding – the other half of the equation is addressing the lack of decent, mid-range places for tourists to stay. Spain continues to build hotels, but too many new developments are glitzy four- and five-star projects aimed at luxury travellers. This shortage of modest, comfortable accommodation mirrors the broader shortage of affordable housing for residents. As Europe responds with growing resentment towards tourists, many people are asking: is it even possible to enjoy a trip without contributing to the problem? Can you still visit Madrid, Barcelona or the Canary Islands without encountering the 'Tourists go home' signs – or being squirted with water pistols? Should you? The answer is yes. First, it's important to put the water pistol incidents in perspective: these are symbolic, isolated acts and far from the norm. More importantly, tourism is vital to Spain's economy, accounting for roughly 12% of GDP. The country wants tourists, but that doesn't mean business as usual should continue. National and regional governments, and city councils, must do far more to regulate short-term rentals, support local communities and invest in affordable infrastructure – for residents and visitors. But travellers have an important role to play too: by choosing accommodation designed for tourists wherever possible; by learning about housing pressures in the places they visit; or by exercising judgment about where and when to travel. Opting to visit a resort town on the mainland rather than a city on an island might put less pressure on local communities and resources, for example. Times can be tense, but don't let guilt define your presence as a tourist. Feeling bad for visiting a place only plays into resentment and shifts the focus away from where it belongs: on deficits in housing and tourist accommodation. My advice is no more water pistols: instead, plan and build so countries work for residents and tourists. Leah Pattem is a multimedia journalist based in Spain
The Sun
16-06-2025
- Politics
- The Sun
Spain hotels targeted & sunseekers surrounded in ‘unacceptable' protest chaos amid ‘tourism is terrorism' alert to Irish
FUMING Spanish locals yesterday surrounded a hotel and targeted tourists with water guns as mass protests unfolded across the country. Campaigners were heard yelling out "tourism is terrorism" and "tourists go home" as the marches kicked off in multiple cities. 6 6 6 Campaigners blame excessive levels of tourism for forcing locals out of affordable housing, raising the cost of living and making the city centres unusable. And, after thousands turned out for coordinated protests across Europe yesterday, regional governors have criticised the anti-tourist protesters who targeted foreign holidaymakers enjoying evening meals at the end of their march in Majorca yesterday. Around 100 noisy activists banging drums surrounded upmarket eatery Cappuccino Borne next to a McDonald's in the centre of Palma after their protest finished. Police moved in to ease tension as the demonstrators held up cardboard posters reading: 'As You Come I Have To Go.' The protesters also chanted ''The Streets Will Always Be Ours', Go Home' in English and 'No Balconing' in a reference to the young tourists who have traditionally been blamed by islanders for the dangerous practice of jumping from Magaluf hotel balconies into their swimming pools or trying to climb between balconies while under the influence of drink and drugs. Today the Balearic Islands Government vice-president Antoni Costa said their behaviour had been 'unacceptable.' He admitted they had represented a small minority of the estimated 8,000 people police said had taken to the streets yesterday evening. But Mr Costa told a local radio station: 'This type of behaviour is not acceptable. "This government condemns and rejects the actions of a small minority of people who rebuked tourists who were relaxing on a terrace having a drink or eating.' Claiming hundreds of thousands of local jobs would be lost if politicians pandered to the wishes of activists calling for 'tourist degrowth,' he added: 'Abandoning tourism would be madness. Anti-tourist protesters blast holidaymakers with water guns & block hotels "We're a tourist economy and we're proud to be so. 'I think people are deluding themselves if they think that in the Balearic Islands it's possible to do mostly other things than tourism. 'What guarantees the future of tourism is to taking into account the social and environmental sustainability factor. Looking the other way is not the right way to go. 'We must implement policies that allow us to move from an economy that basically grows in volume to an economy that grows in value.' Gabriel Llobera, president of the Association of Hotel Chains in the Balearic Islands, also condemned the incidents at the end of the march yesterday in Palma. He said: 'The tourists that were targeted were sat on terraces provided by business leaders who to be able to receive them have paid their taxes and done things correctly. 'We condemn the anti-social acts we saw yesterday.' He added: 'We have almost 200,000 people who are working directly in the tourist sector and we're talking about 8,000 people attending a demonstration. 'If we have a million people in the Balearic Islands that's 0.8 per cent.' SMOKE FLARE THROWN INTO HOTEL The ugly scenes that marred the end of yesterday's march in Palma followed incidents in Barcelona earlier in the day when anti-tourist protesters there surrounded a hotel and targeted holidaymakers with water pistols. Locals also used flares after congregating outside the front door of the establishment with placards claiming tourism was pricing them out of housing and robbing them of their futures. Staff at Generator Barcelona, a design hotel-hostel near to the fashionable Paseo de Gracia, had to intervene and were seen shouting at the protesters to move away. Local reports said an orange smoke flare had been thrown into the reception area, although no-one is thought to have been injured. COPS STEPPED IN Police stepped in to stop protesters reaching the city's famous Sagrada Familia and avoid clashes between the demonstrators and tourists visiting the Gaudi landmark. Shouts of 'Tourists Go Home' and 'One More Tourist, One Less Local' could be heard as activists marched through the streets. They also yelled out: 'This tourism is terrorism.' City police said only 600 people had taken part, far less than the 8,000 who took part in the protest in Palma according to police although organisers put the figure at around 30,000. Other marches took place in the Basque city of San Sebastian, several cities in Italy and in Lisbon as part of a co-ordinated series of street protests in southern Europe against the problems activists say mass tourism causes. 6 6 6
The Guardian
16-06-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Spanish-language journalist to be turned over to Ice after protest arrest
Mario Guevara, a prominent Spanish-language journalist in metro Atlanta who frequently covers Immigration and customs enforcement raids, will be turned over to Ice detention after being arrested by local police while covering the 'No Kings' protests. Guevara, 47, was born in El Salvador and has been in the United States for more than 20 years. He recorded his own arrest Saturday during a raucous street protest in the Embry Hills area of north DeKalb county, an Atlanta suburban neighborhood with a large Latino population. The protest ended with riot police throwing teargas and marching protesters down the street after declaring an unlawful assembly. About 35 minutes into the video Guevara was live-streaming on Facebook to more than 1 million people, he can be first seen on the sidewalk, then backing away from a police officer approaching him. As he backed into the street, two other police officers immediately arrested him. 'By any chance, are we still live?' he asks in Spanish, in the darkness of a van at the scene. 'Someone please call the lawyer Giovanni Díaz, my lawyer, so he can pull the strings he needs to pull. Yes, we're still live, right? Please, someone let lawyer Giovanni Díaz know what just happened.' The arresting officer is from the Doraville police department, a municipality which holds part of Atlanta's famed Buford Highway strip of immigrant-oriented businesses. A second officer approaching Guevara in the video is wearing a gas mask and cannot be identified from his uniform. Police charged Guevara as a pedestrian improperly entering a roadway, obstruction of a law enforcement officer and unlawful assembly. A municipal judge released Guevara on Monday on a recognisance bond – customary with misdemeanor charges. But jail staff said he would be transferred instead to Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. The law office Diaz & Gaeta Law, which represents Guevara, declined to comment. A request for information from Doraville police has gone unanswered. Police facilitated demonstrator's march at an earlier protest in the nearby suburban city of Tucker, in which thousands of people walked across an overpass above I-285–Atlanta's main ring highway–with banners and signs. The earlier 'No Kings' protest had been organized and promoted by Indivisible and 50501. Conversely, organizers from the Party of Socialism and Liberation led the Embry Hills protest. According to a release from the DeKalb Police Department, police declared an unlawful assembly after they believed marchers would attempt to approach the highway on the on-ramp. Police arrested eight people including Guevara at the protest on Saturday. Ted Terry, a DeKalb county commissioner, asked the county's staff to investigate the circumstances around the use of teargas at the event. 'The decision to deploy teargas – particularly in a neighborhood context with nearby homes and businesses – raises serious questions about the proportionality and justification of the county's response to peaceful civil action,' he wrote. A spokesperson for Ice in Atlanta could not immediately confirm the conditions of the immigration hold or whether Guevara faces deportation. As a journalist with Diario CoLatino in El Salvador, he fled the country in 2004 one step ahead of threats from leftwing paramilitary groups. It took him seven years to get his first asylum hearing before a judge, the journalist told Spanish-language wire service Agencia EFE in the Los Angeles-based publication La Opinión in 2012. He described the arrest of his wife after an error in the immigration system. 'The hardest part for me was seeing my three children cry as she was taken away, and me being powerless to give them the comfort and protection they need,' he said in Spanish in the interview. Guevara has worked for Spanish-language media such as Atlanta Latino and Mundo Hispanico in metro Atlanta since, reporting on criminal justice issues. Guevara's reporting has won awards, including an Emmy. His reporting has uncovered corruption at the Honduran consulate in Georgia and documented the effect of immigration enforcement around Atlanta. He founded MGNews in June last year, focusing on immigration enforcement, and quickly built a sizable following. At the time of his arrest Saturday, Guevara was live-streaming on Facebook to more than 1 million viewers, outdrawing CNN and Fox News combined on a Saturday afternoon.
