Politics

In a referendum vote held on last Monday, 95 percent of Italians voted in favor of blocking a nuclear power revival in Italy. The vote comes less than a month after Germany announced it would phase out nuclear power over the next decade. Italians also voted against water privatization and against Belusconi’s special privileges.

More details have emerged today about the Obama administration’s plan to wage a secret war inside Yemen. In what the Wall Street Journal describes as a major expansion of the United States counterterrorism efforts in Yemen, the CIA is preparing to launch a complete secret program to kill al-Qaeda militants in the country.

A caravan of Mexican anti-violence protesters arrived in the United States over the weekend. Mexican poet, Javier Sicilia, led the traveling protest, which began last week south of Mexico City and ended in El Paso, Texas, on Saturday. Sicilia demanded the United States end the Merida Initiative, which provides training and support for the Mexican army in its “war on drugs.”

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s AK Party has scored a third consecutive election victory. In a victory speech, Erdogan pledged to work with opposition parties to rewrite Turkey’s constitution.
Soon after the Turkish election results were announced, a bomb exploded in southeast Turkey, injuring eleven people.

Newly released government data shows the Obama administration approved $200 million in military sales to Bahrain last year just months before the Gulf nation launched a violent crackdown on pro-democracy protesters. Part of the military sales involved the sale of rifles, shotguns and assault weapons. There have been a number of developments in Bahrain.

Last Sunday, **los Indignados** who remained in the most representative camp of the 15M movement, simply because of being there first, agreed to dismantle the Sol camp after debating the proposal to postpone it until the 15th and turn it into an itinerant camp. A reconstruction party is planned with an orderly work plan which includes removing the camps and cleaning up

The elected President of Peru, Ollanta Humala, arrived Sunday in Uruguay as part of his tour to strengthen the economic and political ties with South American countries.

The official agenda will begin on Monday when the president, José Mujica, receives Humala at the seat of government, confirmed the presidential website.

Over fifty million Italian citizens are voting in the referendum over the use of nuclear energy, privatization of water and immunity for Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Despite the government’s attempts to thwart the referendum by all means, it was approved last Tuesday by the Italian Supreme Court and is taking place this Sunday.

The Caravan for Peace has demanded the U.S. government to suspend the Plan Merida and admit that its drug policy has a devastating effect on Latin America.
Mexican poet Javier Sicilia, the caravan organizer, said that the USA should admit its responsibility for the violence in Mexico, during a rally in El Paso, Texas, United States, at the end of the caravan protest campaign.

In Italy, on June 12th and 13th, the population will vote in four simultaneous referendums: one which will allow magistrates to proceed with their investigations against the Prime Minister, the second and the third which aims to keep water in public rather than private hands and, the fourth regards the return to a nuclear energy program in Italy.