Army launches coup in Burkina Faso amid mass protests against France

Army launches coup in Burkina Faso amid mass protests against France

The ousted junta leader, [Paul-Henri Sandaogo] Damiba, was widely seen as too closely linked to France. Late Saturday, there were protests outside the French embassy in Ouagadougou and the French Institute in the city of Bobo-Dioulasso. Video on social media showed residents with lit torches outside the French embassy, and other images showed part of the compound ablaze. The crowds also vandalised the French Institute.

Related:

Burkina Faso: Another Coup Led By U.S-Trained Soldier

[Paul-Henri Sandaogo] Damiba is a highly trained soldier, thanks in no small part to the U.S. military, which has a long record of training soldiers in Africa who go on to stage coups. Damiba, it turns out, participated in at least a half-dozen U.S. training exercises, according to U.S. Africa Command, or AFRICOM.

Ousted coup leader leaves Burkina Faso for Togo

Blinken heads to Latin America after Venezuelans and Colombians Celebrate the ‘Historical’ Reopening of Border

Secretary of State Antony Blinken will head next week to Colombia and Chile to forge ties with new left-leaning leaders elected in the historic US allies, the State Department announced Friday.

The secretary will later travel to Peru for a meeting of the Organization of American States and separately meet with President Pedro Castillo and other top officials.

In Colombia, Blinken will discuss “supporting strong democratic governments and respect for human rights throughout the Western Hemisphere,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said.

On his last visit to Colombia in October 2021 and later at a US-led summit in Los Angeles, Blinken has encouraged regional cooperation to address migration, a key political issue in the United States for Biden.

Blinken heads to Latin America to see new left-leaning leaders

Related:

Venezuelans and Colombians Celebrate the ‘Historical’ Reopening of Border

How Joe Biden Made the War in Ukraine a Gift to the Gas Industry

Gas execs

How Joe Biden Made the War in Ukraine a Gift to the Gas Industry

The letter, dated February 25, just one day after Vladimir Putin’s forces launched their assault on Ukraine, noted the “dangerous juncture” of the moment before segueing into a list of demands: more drilling on US public lands; the swift approval of proposed gas export terminals; and pressure on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, an independent agency, to greenlight pending gas pipelines.

Much of the new gas infrastructure won’t be operational for several years, which may be beyond the timeframe of the Russia-Ukraine conflict that has squeezed supplies and caused gas prices to spike. So much LNG export is planned or under construction, adding up to about half of all total US gas production, that it will probably cause gas prices to climb for domestic American users, according to Clark Williams-Derry, analyst at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis

“It’s beginning to eat into the amount of gas available to domestic consumers,” said Williams-Derry. “We will see very severe impacts on domestic US gas prices. We will see the impacts for as long as the eye can see.”