The U.S. is unlikely to meet its goal of vaccinating 20 million Americans by the end of the year, health officials said this week.
Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images
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Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images
The U.S. is unlikely to meet its goal of vaccinating 20 million Americans by the end of the year, health officials said this week.
Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images
Snowstorms, holidays and general inexperience in handling a pandemic response is to blame for a “lag” in the number of Americans so far vaccinated for the coronavirus, according to U.S. officials.
The federal government previously estimated that 20 million Americans would receive the first dose of the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine by the end of the year. But as 2020, a year defined by the coronavirus pandemic, comes to a close on Thursday, the government appears set to fall well short of that goal.
U.S. Army Gen. Gustave F. Perna, chief operating officer of Operation Warp Speed, and Moncef Slaoui, chief adviser to federal vaccine effort, said the U.S. has deployed around 14 million vaccine doses as of Wednesday, but only 2.1 million people had received shots. Perna and Slaoui spoke on Wednesday during a news conference.
The vaccination process started on Dec. 14 with frontline health workers getting the shots first.
The number of people vaccinated as reported by Perna and Slaoui contrasts with data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As of Thursday morning, the agency said that more than 12.4 million doses of Pfizer’s and Moderna’s two-dose vaccines had been distributed across the country. The CDC reports just 2.7 million people have been vaccinated. It has said, however, it is working with out-of-date data.
Perna said he is also working off of a 72- to 96-hour lag in vaccine reporting data, which he says will be adjusted as time goes on.
Regardless of the data used, Perna and Slaoui say the number of Americans vaccinated from the coronavirus is far lower than what they would like.
“We know it should be better, and we are working hard to make it better,” Slaoui said.
More than 340,000 Americans have died from the pandemic, as of Thursday morning, according to Johns Hopkins University. Health officials warn that January could be the deadliest month since the start of the pandemic, making a successful vaccine distribution all the more critical.
The vaccine rollout has been challenging, but officials expect that between Jan. 8 and Jan. 15, access to vaccines will greatly increase, Perna said.
Despite the early hiccups, Perna and Slaoui applauded the multipronged effort involving states and local governments, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies and delivery companies to get the immunization program rolling.
President Trump criticized state officials for the lag in a tweet this week and urged states to, “Get moving!”
The Federal Government has distributed the vaccines to the states. Now it is up to the states to administer. Get moving!
News of the lag in vaccinations comes as reports of problems with state-level distribution processes trickle out.
Florida’s county-by-county plan to vaccinate the state’s elderly residents created a scramble earlier this week. CNN reported that a southwest Florida county encouraged anyone 65 and older and high-risk frontline health care workers to come to one of its seven vaccination sites — no appointment necessary. Each location only had 300 doses, leading to overwhelmed health centers and residents camping out for several hours to get their shots.
In Wisconsin, a medical center employee intentionally left 57 vials of the Moderna vaccine out of its cold storage, leaving health officials with no choice but to destroy them. The vials could have provided around 500 doses.
Trump asserted in a tweet that the whistleblower’s complaint was “way off” and claimed that key Democrats didn’t think he would release a transcript of his call with the Ukrainian president, which sparked the scrutiny.
“The so-called Whistleblower’s account of my perfect phone call is ‘way off,’ not even close,” he tweeted.
The so-called Whistleblower’s account of my perfect phone call is “way off,” not even close. Schiff and Pelosi never thought I would release the transcript of the call. Got them by surprise, they got caught. This is a fraud against the American people!
Trump’s tweet came the morning after The New York Times reported that a second intelligence official was considering whether to file their own whistleblower complaint over concerns about the president’s dealings with Ukraine.
The person reportedly has more direct information than the first whistleblower, who did not have direct knowledge but cited “multiple White House officials with direct knowledge.”
Pelosi last week announced that Democrats would launch a formal impeachment inquiry into Trump over his dealings with Ukraine. The probe is being handled by the House Intelligence, Foreign Affairs, and Oversight and Reform committees.
The White House released a rough transcript of the July 25 call that matched key details from the whistleblower complaint. Trump was quoted in the memo as asking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to “look into” the former vice president. Trump this week also publicly encouraged Ukraine and China to launch probes into Biden.
“I would think that if they were honest about it they’d start a major investigation into the Bidens,” Trump told reporters at the White House when asked about Ukraine.
House Democrats have ramped up their impeachment probe in recent days, issuing a subpoena on Friday for Ukraine-related documents from the White House and issuing a request for similar information from Vice President Pence.
Claire Risoli, owner of Pocha LA, said her restaurant has to be careful to abide by the rules, but can’t “ruffle feathers” either.
“We just have to play by the rules if we want to play in the game,” Risoli said.
That said, Risoli does not want to have to “police” her customers either.
“It’s definitely a concern. I don’t want to be in the position of having to turn anyone away,” she added.
Some customers, however, are nonplussed by the requirement.
“I’m fine with it. We have three kids. Whenever they wanted to play sports, guess what, they had to have their vaccination stuff. Going to the school, they had to show all that. I’m fine with them requesting that we show that we have vaccinations,” said diner Roland Macias.
For more information about how to provide proof of vaccination, check out KTLA’s guide.
One lucky lottery ticket-buyer in Illinois may soon be a billionaire, following Friday night’s $1.337 billion Mega Millions lottery drawing.
According to lottery officials, the winning numbers — 13, 36, 45, 57 and 67 and a gold Mega Ball of 14 — match a single ticket sold at a Speedway gas station in Des Plaines, Illinois, roughly 17 miles northwest of Chicago. The winner has yet to claim the prize, Harold Mays, director of the Illinois Department of the Lottery, said at a news conference on Saturday.
“We don’t know whether or not they even know that they won a prize,” Mays said. “So, I encourage everybody to check your ticket.”
The jackpot ranks as the third-highest lottery prize in American history, and its winner — who likely paid around $2 for the ticket — stands to either gain $780.5 million as a cash lump sum or receive payments in an annuity over the next 30 years.
If the winner chooses the more popular lump sum option, which “Shark Tank” investor Kevin O’Leary recommends, he or she will have to account for a mandatory 24% federal tax withholding. The winner will likely also owe state income tax: If the winner lives in Illinois, the winnings will be considered taxable income at the state’s 4.95% rate, and they may owe even more if they live in a state with a higher income tax rate.
That means the winner should expect to owe a minimum of almost $226 million in taxes, lowering the take-home amount to roughly $554.5 million — still a potentially life-changing sum of money.
In a statement on Saturday, Mega Millions also noted that 26 tickets earned second-tier prizes worth either $2 million or $1 million apiece, and a total of 14,391,740 tickets won some amount of money across nine different prize tiers Friday night.
If you’re one of the lucky winners — especially if you’re the mystery individual who hit the jackpot — experts say you should immediately take steps to protect your ticket and privacy.
“Privacy is key,” Emily Irwin, senior director of advice at Wells Fargo Wealth & Investment Management, told CNBC on Friday. “That provides safety to both you and your family from scammers or other individuals who can start to prey on you.”
You should then hire a team of professionals to assist you, including an experienced attorney, a financial advisor, a tax advisor and an insurance expert, as CNBC recently noted.
1) Aldana anima a denunciar corrupción “por mínima que sea”
La Fiscal General, Thelma Aldana, animó hoy a la sociedad guatemalteca a rechazar “cualquier acto de corrupción por mínimo que sea”, como camino a construir un Estado con “paz social”. Lea en: http://goo.gl/k4TLfc
2) Presentan libro inspirado en mujeres de La Puya y San Rafael Las Flores
Diversas organizaciones presentan hoy en el libro “Dar la vida por la Madre Tierra”, una publicación que recoge las experiencias, memorias y reflexiones de mujeres de comunidades de La Puya y de San Rafael Las Flores, lugares en donde los pobladores han rechazado varios proyectos mineros y han defendido su territorio. Siga leyendo en: http://goo.gl/SMmkHy
3) Científicos tratan de recrear el vino de la época de Jesús
Un equipo de científicos israelíes está trabajando en la creación de un vino idéntico al existente hace aproximadamente dos mil años para rescatar el sabor de aquel que bebieron Jesucristo o el rey Salomón. Lea más aquí: http://goo.gl/l1twrB
4) Guatemala ocupa octavo lugar en expectativa de empleo para 2016
Con 14%, Guatemala ocupa el octavo lugar en el mundo en cuanto a la expectativa de empleo en el mundo para inicio de 2016. El 92 % de los países consultados en una encuesta aumentarán la contratación de personal, informó hoy en Panamá la firma estadounidense de manejo de recursos humanos Manpower. Siga leyendo en: http://goo.gl/e5S5pf
5) Hoy acusarán formalmente a Pérez Molina
El Ministerio Público (MP) tiene previsto presentar hoy la acusación formal contra el expresidente Otto Pérez Molina, por cohecho activo, caso especial de defraudación aduanera y asociación ilícita, ya que se le sindica de liderar la estructura de defraudación aduanera La Línea. Lea más aquí: http://goo.gl/hegNqI
This is the moment Gregory McMichael and his son Travis McMichael of Georgia were arrested in the shooting death of unarmed black jogger Ahmaud Arbery, according to a report.
Video and photographs show the pair being handcuffed Thursday night by officers from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, according to First Coast News.
The two men were both charged with murder and aggravated assault in Arbery’s killing.
Gregory, 64, and Travis, 34, both armed, approached Arbery on Feb. 23 on a street in Brunswick, Georgia, before the younger McMichael fatally shot the jogger, according to the GBI.
The case sparked national attention this week when video of the confrontation emerged on Tuesday.
The 28-second clip shows the father and son approach Arbery in their pickup truck before the shooting.
Travis McMichael and Gregory McMichaelGlynn County Detention Center via AP
The arrests come after S. Lee Merritt, a lawyer for Arbery’s family, earlier Thursday called the shooting death a “modern lynching,” and said the family is demanding justice.
The McMichaels told police they confronted Arbery because they believed he was a burglar who had been frequenting the neighborhood.
The move would put the city one step further on its path to economic recovery from a devastating virus that killed more than 21,000 residents and triggered one of the strictest shutdowns in the United States.
Under the state’s plan, outdoor dining, some in-store shopping, hair salons, barbershops, and some offices in the city would be allowed to reopen in the second phase, with social distancing and restrictions on capacity. Playgrounds will also reopen during Phase 2, city officials have said.
Mr. Cuomo’s announcement comes as other states are seeing spikes in new infections. On Tuesday, Florida, Texas and Arizona, which all moved swiftly to begin reopening, each reported their largest one-day increases in new cases.
While New York has shown a steep decline in new cases since the virus peaked in April, when there were more than 10,000 new cases reported on several days, on Tuesday the state still logged 630 more new cases, the ninth-highest total in the nation, according to a New York Times database. On Wednesday, the state reported another 567 cases, or about 0.96 percent of all tests processed the day before, the lowest rate since the beginning of the outbreak, according to the governor.
Mr. Cuomo has repeatedly emphasized the need for caution as the state eased restrictions, pointing to issues in other states and urging New Yorkers to continue wearing masks and social distancing in order to prevent a second wave of infections.
“You don’t stay smart, it will come back,” he said on Wednesday.
Earlier this week, Mr. Cuomo threatened to reinstate closures in the city after a number of photos and videos of people flouting social-distancing rules and congregating outside Manhattan bars spread online.
Both he and Mayor Bill de Blasio also left open the possibility that the city would delay reopening if test results in the coming days showed a new spike in cases.
LONDON — Former prime minister David Cameron has broken his long silence on Brexit, confessing in new memoirs that he is “truly sorry” for the chaos and rancor that has engulfed Britain after it voted to leave the European Union three years ago.
The memoirs are artfully revealing. Cameron both covers his posterior and concedes some mistakes — of strategy and timing, mostly. He admits he is today “depressed” about Brexit; he charges that the current prime minister, Boris Johnson, was a major misleader; and he confesses he smoked a lot of dope during his Eton school days — sneaking off to an island in the River Thames to get “off my head” on marijuana.
It was Cameron who confidently called for the June 2016 Brexit referendum — and it was Cameron who led the muddled, muted campaign for Britain to remain in the European Union.
After Brexit won 52 percent to 48 percent, Cameron quickly resigned, notably caught on a hot mic humming a tune as he strode away from the podium in front of 10 Downing Street.
Many Britons blame Cameron for today’s Brexit quagmire, branding the former prime minister as “the man who broke Britain.”
Cameron’s critics say the British public was never really clamoring for the 2016 referendum and that Cameron called it only to quell internal squabbles in his fractious Conservative Party and to quiet the rabid Tory tabloids.
Cameron confesses the whole thing quickly devolved into a “terrible Tory psychodrama.”
In an interview with the Times newspaper, as a part of the book’s pre-publication publicity campaign, Cameron labeled Prime Minister Johnson’s possible “no-deal” Brexit “a bad outcome.”
He also warned that the country might be forced to stage a second referendum on whether to leave the European Union.
“I don’t think you can rule it out, because we’re stuck,” said Cameron, who served as prime minister from 2010 to 2016.
In his memoir and interview, Cameron charges that his former political chums — Johnson and his sidekick, the current government minister in charge of carrying out Brexit, Michael Gove — misled voters in 2016 about the swell benefits of leaving Europe.
Cameron calls his former friend Gove “mendacious” and says Gove and Johnson behaved “appallingly” during the 2016 referendum.
Cameron points to their false pro-Brexit claims that Turkey was about to join the European Union (it wasn’t) and their suggestions that soon Britain would be flooded by millions of Turkish Muslim immigrants (never happened).
Although he does not call Johnson or Gove liars, Cameron said the pair “left the truth at home” when they claimed, for example, that leaving Europe would produce a $440 million a week windfall to fund the country’s beloved National Health Service.
“Boris had never argued for leaving the EU, right? Michael was a very strong Eurosceptic, but someone whom I’d known as this liberal, compassionate, rational Conservative ended up making arguments about Turkey and being swamped and what have you. They were trashing the government of which they were a part, effectively,” Cameron told the newspaper.
In a bit of a side-dish, Cameron remembers Johnson’s current special adviser, Dominic Cummings, who ran the leave campaign in 2016 and came up with the slogan “take back control,” for spreading “poison” and turning Tory against Tory.
Cameron said his Brexit defeat three years ago has left him “hugely depressed.”
“Every single day I think about it, the referendum and the fact that we lost and the consequences and the things that could have been done differently, and I worry desperately about what is going to happen next,” Cameron said.
And yet. The former leader still argues that Britain was never really comfortable in the European Union and that a referendum was “inevitable” and the “right approach.”
Essentially, Cameron wants it both ways. He failed. But it was the right thing to do.
In his interview, Cameron criticizes Johnson’s move recently to suspend Parliament and accuses him of “sharp practices” in stripping 21 Conservative lawmakers of their party membership for rebelling against him.
In other excerpts, Cameron recalls with some shame his membership in the elite University of Oxford drinking society, the Bullingdon Club. At his initiation into the posh ranks, he remembers how he awoke hung over, with wine bottles piled outside his door, to find a group of his new Bullingdon buddies — which probably included Boris Johnson, Cameron admits he cannot quite recall — “with one of them standing on the legs of an upended table, using a golf club to smash bottles as they were thrown at him.”
It is a stunning image of the two men who would come to define the Brexit age.
Andrew Yang and Kathryn Garcia at campaign events. | Alex Wong/Getty Images, Richard Drew/AP Photo
NEW YORK — Andrew Yang stood in front of a roaring crowd and a Chinese lion-dancing troupe in Flushing and exhorted his most loyal constituency — Queens’ Asian-American community — to support his rival in the New York City mayor’s race along with him.
“Kathryn Garcia is a true public servant,” he said through a microphone, highlighting her years of public service. “For anyone listening to my voice right now, if you support me, you should rank Kathryn number two on your ballot.”
Garcia did not return the favor.
“Let me be very clear, I’m not co-endorsing,” she told another crowd an hour later outside of Stuy-Town in Manhattan. “We are campaigning together. We are promoting ranked choice voting.”
The declaration elicited awkward murmurs from the crowd and more than a few confused expressions. But after making a splash Friday night, when the two Democratic mayoral candidates announced they’d be campaigning together, Garcia told POLITICO Saturday she never planned to back her competitor and Yang never expected her to.
“That was not a surprise for him or for his team … they absolutely knew what I was gonna say,” she said as she sped downtown to the Staten Island Ferry inside her custom-wrapped green and blue campaign van.
Ranked-choice voting, where voters can list five candidates in order of preference on their ballots, is debuting on its largest U.S. stage this year has changed the game in New York’s typically bare-knuckle political arena. Under the system, alliances between candidates are a common strategy to win support from voters’ in their second- and third-place choices.
Saturday’s matchup underscored the unpredictable nature of the primary, less than three days away. The alliance has torn away the psychological security blanket afforded to a normal frontrunner leading in normal polls. And it’s put Eric Adams, the Brooklyn Borough President and former NYPD captain who’s been dominating those polls, on the attack.
“I think it’s a level of hypocrisy,” he told reporters at a campaign stop in the Mount Eden neighborhood of the Bronx, focusing his ire on the former sanitation commissioner.
“We heard Kathryn talk about how Yang treated her as a woman. We heard how she felt — he did not have the experience and know-how to run the city,” he said. “He has criticized her. Their teaming up together is just a level of hypocrisy in my opinion.”
He then alleged the move was an attempt to make sure “candidates of color” were locked out of contention.
“They’re saying that we can’t trust a person of color to be the mayor of the City of New York, where the city is overwhelmingly people of color,” he said of Yang and Garcia, accusing them of deliberately announcing the agreement on Juneteenth, a holiday that celebrates the emancipation of enslaved people in the U.S.
Garcia dismissed the accusation.
“No, Eric, we’re winning. That’s your problem,” she said. “And I think he’s surprised that his traditional politics is not as effective … I don’t see how I was a hypocrite. I don’t see how Andrew was a hypocrite.”
“It’s actually consistently where both of us have been for this entire race,” she added later. “He’s been saying, ‘Put Kathryn number two,’ and I’ve been saying, ‘I’m not telling you who my number two is,’ and that I do want people to rank their [own] ballots.”
Where she’s taken issue with Yang is when he was riding high in the early polls and said he’d hire her for a top-level position to help run his City Hall.
“I’m fine with taking his number two votes. I was offended by the deputy mayor [comment]. I was never running for that — I was running for mayor.”
In a statement, the Yang campaign told POLITICO that they were “excited to spend time with Kathryn Garcia today and our teams are looking forward to handing out 40,000 pieces of joint lit in each of our best neighborhoods for the next 3 days.”
Nearly a half-dozen of Adams’ supporters released statements razing the two candidates as well, including former Gov. David Paterson, City Council Majority Leader Laurie Cumbo, Civil Rights Activist Ashley Sharpton and City Council Member Ydanis Rodriguez.
“Latino and Black New Yorkers did not organize and fight for generations so that they could finally put a working class person of color in Gracie Mansion, just to then have their victory taken from them by a backroom deal,” Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. said. “Both candidates should be ashamed of themselves.”
But in cities like San Francisco, where ranked-choice voting has been the norm for more than a decade, the alliances are a common feature for contenders who are not necessarily leading the pack.
“The classic RCV opportunity is where you have a person in the lead … and two ideologically compatible contenders who, in the aggregate, out-poll the leader,” Alex Clemens, a veteran Bay Area political strategist and lobbyist with Lighthouse Public Affairs, told POLITICO in April. “In a situation like that, it would make a great deal of sense for them to align.”
Despite the gang-up, Adams still appeared to be reveling in his frontrunner status as he soaked up support in another day of campaigning across the boroughs.
At Orchard Beach, he donned a yellow bathing suit and took a dip in the water as multiple beach-goers called his name.
“OK, now I’m really going to vote for him because he’s at the beach,” said a woman who joined the hordes asking to snap photos with the candidate throughout the day.
He attempted to clarify his earlier remarks about “people of color,” as Yang is of Asian descent and would be the first Asian-American mayor of New York.
“You know, they should be willing, if they’re gonna do some cross-endorsements, think of some of the other candidates in the field as well,” he said, referring to candidates like Maya Wiley and Dianne Morales who are Black and Afro-Latina. “But typical Yang.”
Wiley spent her day campaigning across the city, focusing on her proposals for mental health and wellness.
She told reporters that she had been invited to campaign with Yang and Garcia, but turned it down due to Yang’s recent comments about mentally ill New Yorkers at Wednesday’s debate.
“I couldn’t do it because I spent this entire campaign focused on how we serve people who are mentally ill, recognize that they have value and have human rights, and that they deserve services and support,” she said at a campaign stop in Rochdale Village in Queens. “After the comments Andrew made at the debate, I simply could not stand up for those comments.”
Both Yang and Garcia’s campaign denied that Wiley had been invited to campaign with the duo Saturday.
Wiley was referring to the debate hosted Wednesday by POLITICO, WNBC and Telemundo 47 where Yang said, “Mentally ill people have rights, but you know who else have rights? We do! The people and families of the city.”
“My own daughter was body slammed on a subway by a mentally ill person, just a few weeks ago, and that was a traumatizing event for her. But did she say, ‘Mom, I wish there was a police officer to take this mentally ill person in handcuffs?’ No, she said ‘Mom, how come we’re not providing and getting help and outreach to these folks?’” Wiley said.
“We need a continuum of care and services for folks, everything from mental health crisis intervention … [to] rehabilitation services for those who are also drug addicted, because that is a reality and a mental health issue of its own, and we have to make sure we have both a housing first strategy for that and also the emergency medical services we need,” Wiley said.
The candidate has had a surge of momentum on the left since winning the endorsement of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and a host of other progressive luminaries that followed. But she has not been as strident as Morales, who vowed to cut the NYPD budget in half and fight against the construction of new jails after Rikers is closed.
Morales faced a campaign revolt that derailed the momentum she had just begun to gather weeks ago. Scott Stinger, the city comptroller who was also running in the progressive lane, was accused by two women of sexual misconduct — allegations he’s denied.
That left Wiley to pick up the progressive mantle in the waning weeks of the campaign. On Saturday, she received an endorsement from the Black Lives Caucus, the political arm of Black Lives Matter Greater New York.
“We’re four days out from choosing a mayor,” said Chivona Newsome, co-founder of the organization. “Being a Black woman, it’s important we break those concrete ceilings. Not only is it the first woman, it’s the first Black woman.”
Newsome said the caucus went with Wiley because of her policies — and despite the fact that she was once aligned with Mayor Bill de Blasio.
Newsome issued an important caveat, though, in announcing the group’s backing.
“If Maya gets in there and she doesn’t live up to her campaign promises, we will bring hell and holy fire,” she said.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) slammed the version of an emergency border aid bill that passed the House Thursday, railing against what she called the lack of humanitarian provisions in the bill.
Ocasio-Cortez, who voted against a different border aid bill earlier in the week as well, said she opposes giving any more money to agencies who are enforcing President Donald Trump’s immigration policies, namely Immigration and Customs Enforcement. #CNN#News
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Hay 9.261 kilómetros de distancia entre Santo Domingo –la capital de República Dominicana– y Mitilene (Lesbos).
¿Cómo terminaron 46 ciudadanos de República Dominicana pidiendo asilo político junto a miles de refugiados sirios en Grecia, a más de 9.000 kilómetros de su tierra?
La respuesta a esta pregunta está en algún lugar de la colina pelada donde está ubicado el gigantesco centro de recepción de refugiados de Moria, en la isla de Lesbos.
Pero, para encontrarla, primero hay que negociar el intrincado laberinto de tiendas de campaña y barracas prefabricadas donde el gobierno griego alberga a miles de solicitantes de asilo llegados acá por el mar Egeo.
“Actualmente hay entre 3.500 y 4.000. La verdad es que es imposible saber exactamente cuántos”, me dice el director del centro, Spyros Kourtis, mientras caminamos hacia una zona del mismo donde cree podremos encontrar lo que estoy buscando.
“La mayoría son sirios, pero también hay muchos de Libia, Afganistán, Pakistán, Nepal y últimamente de India”, explica.
Y encontrar entre ellos también a ciudadanos dominicanos fue una sorpresa.
“Actualmente hay entre 3.500 y 4.000 (solicitantes de asilo). La verdad es que es imposible saber exactamente cuántos”
“Para nosotros es como si fueran del Polo Sur”, le dice Kourtis a BBC Mundo.
Y el intenso calor del mediodía ayuda a reforzar la sensación de lejanía que quieren transmitir sus palabras.
Con España como objetivo
Efectivamente, a vuelo de pájaro hay 9.261 kilómetros de distancia entre Santo Domingo –la capital de República Dominicana– y Mitilene, la capital de Lesbos.
Y para entrar a Europa desde el Caribe por el este de Grecia no sólo hay que dar un inmenso rodeo: en los últimos dos años la llamada ruta del Mediterráneo ya se cobró unos 8.000 muertos.
¿Qué lleva a los dominicanos a correr semejante riesgo y convertirse así en protagonistas involuntarios de la crisis de migrantes más grande de la era moderna?
“La búsqueda de un bienestar”, me dice Kelvin, (no es su verdadero nombre), a quien encuentro protegiéndose del sol del mediodía en una pequeña tienda de campaña en Moria junto a tres de sus compañeros.
Image copyright Getty
Image caption
Los solicitantes de asilo esperan en el campo de Moria.
“El de nosotros es un país difícil. Es un país que se cogen penas, se coge lucha”, explica este nativo de Santo Domingo.
“Y uno viene aquí a trabajar, a hacer algo”, asegura.
“El de nosotros es un país difícil. Es un país que se cogen penas, se coge lucha”
Cuando dice “aquí”, sin embargo, ni él ni sus camaradas se refieren a esta boscosa isla de 80.000 habitantes que viven del turismo y la agricultura; ni tampoco a Grecia.
“La idea era llegar a Europa. Si Dios quiere y lo permite, tener chance de coger para España”, admite Kelvin.
Y dentro de la pequeña tienda los demás asienten.
El factor Turquía
Efectivamente, según cálculos de la Unión Europea hay más de 170.000 dominicanos en el continente europeo y la inmensa mayoría (más de 130.000) residen en España, su segundo destino en el exterior después de EE.UU.
Image copyright Getty
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No se sabe exactamente cuántos migrantes y solicitantes de asilo esperan en Lesbos.
En Italia, hay casi 25.000. En Alemania, más de 7.000.
Comparativamente, los dominicanos en Grecia son tan pocos que no se incluyen regularmente en las estadísticas.
Pero hay puntos en los que la costa de Lesbos está a nada más 10 kilómetros de Turquía.
Y ahí está la clave de esta sorprendente ruta, pues para entrar a Turquía los ciudadanos dominicanos no necesitan la visa que sí les exige la Unión Europea.
“La idea era llegar a Europa. Si Dios quiere y lo permite, tener chance de coger para España”
“A uno le pintan cosas: que vueles a Turquía porque así ya estás cerca de Europa, que esto, que lo otro. Te dicen: ‘Dame tanto que yo te voy a hacer llegar ahí’, te dicen que va a ser fácil encontrar trabajo”, le dice a BBC Mundo Kelvin.
“Pero la persona que me mandó, si yo la conociera, tendría problemas conmigo, porque esta pela que estoy pasando es desagradable”, se queja.
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El ecuatoriano de Lesbos
Además de República Dominicana, Ecuador es el único otro país latinoamericano cuyos ciudadanos no requieren visa para entrar a Turquía, pero sí a la Unión Europea.
Pero en el centro de registro de migrantes de Moria, en Lesbos, solamente hay un ciudadano ecuatoriano: José Espinoza, de 37 años.
Image copyright BBC Mundo
Image caption
José Espinoza habla turco con fluidez.
“Yo tenía siete años viviendo en Turquía. De hecho hablo turco perfectamente”, afirma Espinoza.
“Pero quería cruzar a Europa porque la cosa se está poniendo fea allá. Puras bombas es ese país”, le dijo a BBC Mundo.
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Un cruce riesgoso
El sentimiento de haber sido engañados, por los traficantes o sus intermediarios, es una constante entre los dominicanos que intentan el viaje.
“Te dicen que vas a cruzar una fronterita, un río. Pero son cuatro horas en el mar”, cuenta Rommel (tampoco es su verdadero nombre), quien como Kelvin ya pasa de los 30 años.
“Te dicen que vas a cruzar una fronterita, un río. Pero son cuatro horas en el mar”
“Son muchos los que se han ahogado”, agrega.
Como todos los que están en esta tienda, Rommel también voló a Estambul, y después de pasar algunas semanas en Turquía cruzó el mar Egeo hacia Lesbos de noche.
Y, como todos aquí, también fue interceptado por los guardacostas griegos antes de tocar tierra.
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El trayecto entre Turquía y Grecia es muy peligroso en las condiciones en las que lo hacen los migrantes.
“Es muy raro que el que hace la travesía llegue a la orilla”, se suma a la conversación un tercero, que pide identificarlo bajo el apodo de Nene.
Ninguno aquí quiere que se publique su verdadero nombre, aunque estos ya fueron dados a conocer públicamente por el Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de República Dominicana.
Tampoco quieren fotografías.
Y su aprehensión es tal que no me permiten siquiera hacer fotos de lo que parecen detalles inocentes de su pequeña tienda: los zapatos que se amontonan a la entrada, la bolsa en la que guardan algunas naranjas…
“Tengo poca ropa, así que me pueden reconocer por eso”, me dirá más tarde otro, llamado Ramón, cuando le propongo retratarlo de espaldas.
A merced de los traficantes
Puede que sea la vergüenza del migrante ilegal.
Pero tal vez es simple precaución para evitar represalias de las redes de traficantes que llevan años introduciendo a dominicanos de forma ilegal a la UE por Grecia desde Turquía, a menudo forzándolos a involucrarse en otras actividades ilegales.
En marzo de 2011, por ejemplo, 69 mujeres y 16 hombres fueron repatriados desde Grecia a República Dominicana por haber ingresado ilegalmente al país heleno.
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Muchos migrantes llegan engañados sobre el viaje o con falsas promesas de empleo.
Y en esa oportunidad, varias de las repatriadas denunciaron haber sido forzadas a dedicarse a la prostitución luego de haber sido engañadas con promesas de empleo en España.
Lo mismo declararon también las 14 mujeres liberadas por la policía griega en julio de 2013, como parte de un operativo contra una red internacional de tráfico de dominicanas.
La operación, bautizada Acrópolis-Caronte, se saldó con la supuesta desarticulación de la banda y el arresto de 73 personas –incluyendo numerosos dominicanos– en Turquía, Grecia y España, en noviembre de ese mismo año.
Pero todo, sin embargo, indica que la ruta a través de Turquía sigue abierta.
Sólo que el mayor control en las fronteras luego del acuerdo suscrito entre Turquía y la UE para enfrentar la crisis de migrantes está haciendo más complicado el trayecto.
La ruta de Lesbos
Es también por eso que más y más dominicanos están pasando por islas como Lesbos.
La cancillería dominicana le dijo a BBC Mundo que sabe que 46 personas han solicitado asilo político en el centro de Moria y que también conoce de 6 dominicanos en la isla de Kos, también cercana a Turquía.
Pero esa es sólo una pequeña muestra.
Funcionarios de la Autoridad Portuaria de Lesbos estiman que desde inicios del año a la fecha ellos han interceptado a unos 150 dominicanos.
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El número de refugiados que llegan a Lesbos se ha reducido drásticamente.
Y mientras el número total de refugiados se ha reducido de forma significativa en los últimos dos meses –pasando de miles todos los días a no más de 50 diarios, y en algunos casos cero– el número de dominicanos parece ir en aumento.
De hecho, los operadores de servicios de transferencias de dinero en Mitilene dicen recibir visitas de ciudadanos de República Dominicana todos los días.
“Es algo que empezamos a notar sobre todo a partir del mes pasado”, le dice a BBC Mundo Dmitris Kotrotsios, de la agencia Mytonis Travel, donde opera una sucursal local de Western Union.
“De hecho, la mujer que se acaba de ir era de Dominicana”, me cuenta.
Pero cuando salgo corriendo a la calle a buscarla, ya no la veo.
No está en el paseo que rodea la pequeña bahía en la que hay atracados algunos veleros, ni en ninguno de los pintorescos cafés que observan el puerto.
Movimiento libre
¿Cómo reconocer a otros posibles dominicanos? ¿Dónde encontrarlos?
Mientras recorro las apretadas calles de Mitelene caigo en cuenta de que físicamente muchos no deben ser muy diferentes de los migrantes sirios, libios o africanos.
Y, de hecho, también conozco dominicanos que, a juzgar por lo que veo aquí, también podrían pasar por griegos, aunque dudo que, como ellos, acostumbren frecuentar los restaurantes y bares de la zona del puerto.
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Los migrantes aspiran a salir de Moria cuanto antes y continuar el viaje.
Después de 45 días, los solicitantes de asilo pueden obtener un documento que los autoriza para moverse libremente por la isla, pero el dinero es escaso.
Y lo que me intriga es la posibilidad de que todavía haya dominicanos que logran llegar hasta aquí sin ser interceptados por las autoridades.
Si ese es el caso, ¿cómo se comportan? ¿Qué hacen? ¿Y cómo siguen desde acá ahora que hay tantos controles?
La recién llegada
Las respuestas me las da Carolina, de 23 años, quien llegó desde Turquía hace nada más cuatro días, junto a otros 12 dominicanos.
“Yo paso la mayor parte del tiempo en el cuarto (del hotel), aunque he salido un par de veces, cuando no me ha gustado la comida que he encargado”, cuenta.
“Pero hay algunos que nunca salen”, me dice luego de que la abordo a la salida de una sucursal de Western Union.
Carolina se dice dispuesta a tomar las cosas con calma antes de proseguir un viaje que, en su caso, tiene como destino la isla griega de Rodas, donde vive su madre.
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La vida no se detiene en Mytilene, capital de Lesbos.
Pero confiesa que una de sus compañeras de trayecto va a intentar seguir rumbo a España mañana, a pesar de que el día anterior otra de sus amigas fue capturada cuando trataba de embarcarse hacia Atenas con documentos falsos.
Al día siguiente, Carolina me confirmará que su amiga logró llegar a España.
Y en el vuelo de regreso a Atenas identifico a por lo menos dos dominicanos: al menos hoy no hay nadie en la caseta de control migratorio a la entrada de la sala de embarque.
Y al tratarse de un vuelo nacional la aerolínea comprueba la identidad, pero no la existencia de un visado
Junto con Carolina, hacemos un cálculo de cuánto ha gastado hasta la fecha y rápidamente superamos los US$9.000 sólo en lo pagado a los traficantes.
Es mucho más de lo que le habían dicho cuando empezó el viaje, que ella también se había imaginado muy diferente.
Y a eso se le debe sumar lo gastado en alimentación y hospedaje en 45 días de camino, los que ha podido cubrir gracias a la ayuda de sus padres.
Pensando en el regreso
No todas, sin embargo, son afortunadas.
“Yo quiero llegar al sitio donde quiero ir. Ya he gastado demasiado”
Algunas mujeres, reconoce Carolina, tienen que hacer “lo que se hace” para conseguir el dinero.
Carolina confiesa que de haber sabido lo que le esperaba jamás habría emprendido el viaje, pero, por el momento, no se plantea rendirse.
“Yo quiero llegar al sitio donde quiero ir. Ya he gastado demasiado”, le dice a BBC Mundo.
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Hasta los 45 días, los migrantes y solicitantes de asilo no pueden salir del campo con libertad.
Y ese sentimiento también parece predominar entre los dominicanos de Moria.
“Yo no puedo regresar porque allá debo demasiado dinero y me pueden picar (matar)”, afirma uno de ellos para justificar la solicitud de asilo en la que la mayoría han depositado sus esperanzas.
Y, de hecho, según la cancillería dominicana, solamente tres dominicanos en Lesbos han aceptado su oferta de gestionar una repatriación voluntaria.
Por lo que cuentan Kelvin y sus compañeros, sin embargo, todo sugiere que la solicitud de asilo político de muchos no es sino una maniobra desesperada que parece condenada al fracaso.
Frente al masivo flujo de migrantes que buscan entrar a su territorio, la UE está privilegiando a los sirios que huyen de la guerra, y bajo los términos del reciente acuerdo con Turquía será este país el que tendrá que lidiar con solicitudes como las de Kelvin.
Y ni la situación política, ni los grandes indicadores de la economía dominicana, sugieren que Turquía vaya a hacer otra cosa que eventualmente repatriarlos.
Dice mucho del país caribeño, sin embargo, que, según las encuestas, uno de cada dos dominicanos diga que si pudiera irse del país lo haría.
De hecho, son muchos los que lo están haciendo.
Y, en el fondo, esa es la principal razón por la que uno se puede encontrar a dominicanos arriesgado su vida a más de 9.000 kilómetros de La Española, en las azules aguas del mar Egeo.
On Friday, the president made a four-hour visit to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center where his doctor, Sean Conley, performed his check-up with 11 other specialists.
A section of the U.S.-Mexico border fence as seen from Tijuana, Mexico. The California governor plans to split his state’s National Guard troops on the border into three new deployments.
Guillermo Arias/AFP/Getty Images
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A section of the U.S.-Mexico border fence as seen from Tijuana, Mexico. The California governor plans to split his state’s National Guard troops on the border into three new deployments.
Guillermo Arias/AFP/Getty Images
Gov. Gavin Newsom is rescinding former Gov. Jerry Brown’s deployment of California National Guard troops to the Mexican border, pulling most of 360 troops off their current missions but leaving some in the area to combat transnational drug smuggling.
“The border ’emergency’ is a manufactured crisis,” Newsom will say during his State of the State address Tuesday morning, according to advance excerpts provided by his office. “And California will not be part of this political theater.”
Each of the 50 states, three territories and the District of Columbia maintain National Guard units. During peacetime, the Guard is under the command of each state governor and adjutant general and typically is called upon to respond to emergencies and natural disasters. In time of war, the president can place the Guard under military command.
The recent National Guard deployment to the southern border is something of a hybrid. Federal authorities asked governors to provide Guard troops to assist with border security. The federal government is paying the cost of deployment. But the Guard troops remain under the authority of their state governor and adjutant general.
The California governor is splitting the troops up into three new deployments in a move he will tell lawmakers will allow the National Guard to “refocus on the real threats facing our state”:
110 troops to support CalFire’s wildfire prevention and suppression efforts. Unlike the current deployment, which is funded by the federal government, the state will need to foot the bill for this new mission.
At least 150 troops to expand the California National Guard’s statewide Counterdrug Task Force — if the Trump administration’s Department of Defense agrees to fund the expansion.
100 troops for intelligence operations targeting drug cartels. The governor’s office says some of these troops who are “specially trained counter-narcotic screeners” will be deployed to California ports of entry — both at the Mexican border and elsewhere. The governor’s office says funding for this mission will continue to come from the federal government under the terms of the previous deployment agreed to by the Brown and Trump administrations.
Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks in Sacramento, Calif. last month.
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Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks in Sacramento, Calif. last month.
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California National Guard troops have been deployed at the border since last spring, when Brown gave them what he called a “crystal clear” scope.
“This will not be a mission to build a new wall,” Brown wrote in an April 11 letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and then-Defense Secretary James Mattis. “It will not be a mission to round up women and children or detain people escaping violence and seeking a better life. And the California National Guard will not be enforcing federal immigration laws.”
But the National Guard has been aiding federal efforts along the border by handling duties that otherwise would have had to be performed by U.S. troops and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, including vehicle maintenance, administrative support and operating cameras on the border.
Aside from state National Guards, the president has ordered thousands of active-duty troops to the border. As NPR’s Greg Myre has reported, the National Guard and other troops at the border are limited to providing surveillance and other support roles. They cannot act as a police force or make arrests. Every president since Ronald Reagan has called on the National Guard for limited, temporary missions along the frontier.
After initially praising Brown for agreeing to his deployment request, President Trump then criticized him for not supporting, in his words, a safe and secure border.
Newsom’s reversal of Brown’s deployment is no surprise. During the gubernatorial campaign, Newsom said he disagreed with Brown’s decision. And on his first full day in office last month, Newsom said he had directed California National Guard Adjutant General David Baldwin to prepare “a menu of options.”
“What’s appropriate, what would be inappropriate, what was our commitment under the executive order Gov. Brown signed, how does remuneration work, what exactly is the work currently being done versus the work that was initiated when the executive order wasn’t in place,” Newsom said that day.
He added: “I can assure you I have not deviated from my previous statements in terms of my desire to move in a different direction.”
U.S. Border Patrol agents on horseback block migrants crossing the Rio Grande on Sunday near the Del Rio-Acuña Port of Entry in Del Rio, Texas. Horse patrols at that part of the border have been suspended, the White House press secretary says.
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U.S. Border Patrol agents on horseback block migrants crossing the Rio Grande on Sunday near the Del Rio-Acuña Port of Entry in Del Rio, Texas. Horse patrols at that part of the border have been suspended, the White House press secretary says.
Eric Thayer/Bloomberg via Getty Images
President Biden says U.S. Border Patrol agents’ use of horses — and in at least one instance, long reins — to chase Haitian migrants was “outrageous,” promising consequences for those responsible for the controversial incident at the border in Texas.
Biden was asked about the agents’ actions near the international bridge in Del Rio, Texas, during a news briefing Friday morning. Photos from the border interdiction quickly triggered outrage in the U.S. and beyond as well as criticism of the Biden administration’s policy of rounding up Haitian migrants to be deported.
Asked if he takes responsibility for the chaos that has emerged at the border, Biden replied, “Of course I take responsibility. I’m president,” adding it was “horrible” to see how federal agents treated the migrants.
“To see people treated like they did — horses [unintelligible] running them over, people being strapped. It’s outrageous. I promise you, those people will pay,” Biden said.
The president noted that the matter is being investigated.
“It’s an embarrassment — it’s beyond an embarrassment,” Biden added. “It’s dangerous, it’s wrong. It sends the wrong message around the world; it sends the wrong message at home. It’s simply not who we are.”
Horse patrols at that part of the border are now suspended, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Thursday. Earlier this week, Psaki repeatedly called the scene “horrific.”
Many of the migrants who were caught up in the border agents’ actions were attempting to bring food back from Mexico to a huge encampment under the international bridge in Del Rio, where more than 14,000 people had massed.
Most of the migrants are from Haiti, although some are from Cuba, Brazil and other countries.
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