Page 22 - DESPA

A12

WORLD NEWSTuesday 23 February 2016

Ballot question on Morales re-election in trouble Cuba sending
9,000 soldiers to
CARLOS VALDEZ indigenous president seek stood at 59 percent. Vote The referendum’s timing fight Zika virus
FRANK BAJAK a fourth term in 2019. reporting is traditionally could not have been worse
Associated Press Morales said in a brief tele- slow from the countryside, for Morales. He was stung A. RODRIGUEZ
LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) — Vot- vised news conference where Morales is most pop- this month by an influence- M. WEISSENSTEIN
ers’ eagerness for new Monday that he was not ular. peddling scandal involving Associated Press
blood in Bolivian politics giving up hope — calling Two unofficial quick counts a former lover revealed by HAVANA (AP) Cuban
and thinning patience with celebrations by his oppo- by polling firms that looked an opposition-aligned jour- President Raul Castro an-
government corruption nents premature — and at results from a sampling nalist and by a deadly inci- nounced Monday that he
may make President Evo had faith in the slower-re- of polling stations said 52 dent of political violence. is dispatching 9,000 soldiers
Morales’ current term in of- porting countryside. percent voted “no.” One Morales has presided over to help keep the Zika virus
an unprecedented eco- out of Cuba, calling on the
Bolivia’s President Evo Morales, right, talks to his Vice President Alvaro Garcia during a signing nomic boom as prices for entire country to fight the
ceremony for the expansion and extension of the road that connects the capital with the nearby raw materials soared just as mosquito that carries the
city of El Alto, in La Paz, Bolivia, Monday, Feb. 22, 2016, one day after a referendum on expanding he took office. He’s credit- disease.
presidential term limits. Partial results Monday and unofficial “quick counts” indicated Morales’ ed with spreading Bolivia’s In a rare front-page mes-
bid to extend his presidency by amending the constitution appeared headed toward defeat. natural resource wealth sage on the state-run
and empowering its indig- newspaper Granma, Cas-
(AP Photo/Juan Karita) enous majority. tro said Cuba’s fight to pre-
He built airports, highways vent the arrival of the virus
fice his last. “They don’t like us much in firm, Ipsos-Apoyo, counted and the pride of La Paz, an had been hampered by
Partial results Monday and the city, but the first results ballots at one in 15 polling Austrian-built aerial tram- “the inadequate technical
unofficial quick counts in- give me hope,” he said. stations. way system. He also put a quality” of efforts against
dicated Morales’ bid to International observers did Morales said that whatever Chinese-built satellite into the mosquito, insufficient
extend his presidency by not report any serious irreg- happens, he will respect space. Gross domestic work to clean up areas
amending the constitution ularities and vote counting voters’ will. He said that if product per capita income where the mosquito prop-
appeared headed toward was slow but not unusually the ballot question loses, rose by nearly one-third, agates and poor weather
defeat. as paper ballots are manu- life will go on. “I won’t get according to the Interna- conditions.
Morales has governed for ally counted. desperate,’ he said. tional Monetary Fund, and He wrote that the active
a decade. A “yes” vote With 47 percent of polling He blamed his disappoint- a new indigenous middle and reserve military person-
in Sunday’s referendum stations reporting Monday ing showing on an opposi- class was born. nel and 200 national police
would have let Bolivia’s first afternoon, the “no” vote tion “smear campaign.” But the boom is over. Boliv- officials would reinforce
ia’s revenues from natural the Public Health Ministry’s
gas and minerals, making efforts to spray neighbor-
up three-fourths of its ex- hoods for mosquitoes and
ports, were down 32 per- eliminate breeding spots.
cent last year. Economists He said Cuba has yet to re-
say Morales leaned heavily port a case of Zika, which is
on extractive industries to suspected of causing birth
pay for populist programs defects in Brazil.
and failed to diversify the Cuba prides itself on its
economy. system of free, neighbor-
The referendum also fol- hood-level health care,
lowed by days a political which has included in-
bombshell: A former lover tensive efforts to limit the
of Morales was named Aedes aegypti mosquito
sales manager of a Chi- that also carries the tropi-
nese company in 2013 that cal diseases dengue and
has obtained nearly $500 chikungunya. Those efforts
million in mostly no-bid include door-to-door fumi-
state contracts. q gation of homes and offic-
es by young army recruits
Police order arrest of Rousseff’s election guru and civilian workers who
are supposed to maintain
BRUCE DOUGLAS in illicit funds from offshore at Petrobras that has im- Lula da Silva’s successful a careful record of places
Associated Press companies controlled by plicated dozens of senior 2006 campaign. they’ve fumigated.
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — A Odebrecht, a major con- politicians and some of The arrest order is a new Castro’s didn’t elaborate
long-running investigation struction company under the country’s top business blow to the Rousseff ad- on his criticism of anti-mos-
into corruption at Brazil’s investigation for its relation- leaders. ministration. The president quito efforts, but the young
state-run oil company has ship with the state-run oil Santana and Moura have is currently battling an im- workers can frequently be
moved a step closer to company Petrobras. been in the Dominican peachment process over seen marking locations as
President Dilma Rousseff: Odebrecht’s president, Republic, working on the allegations that her ad- fumigated even when they
Police have ordered the ar- Marcelo Odebrecht, has re-election campaign of ministration used state-run encounter no one home,
rest of the political market- been detained since June President Danilo Medina. banks to fill budget gaps. or the residents say they
ing expert who helped her last year, accused of cor- According to their lawyer, But she also faces separate are allergic or asthmatic to
win two elections. ruption and money-laun- they are willing to cooper- charges at the country top the chemical fog used in
In a televised news confer- dering. ate with any police inquiry. electoral court, where the the anti-mosquito effort.
ence on Monday, police The arrest warrants are part As well as masterminding opposition has accused The military is widely per-
accused Joao Santana of the two year-long Op- Rousseff’s 2010 and 2014 her of using illicit funds to ceived as more effec-
and his wife, Monica Mou- eration Car Wash, an in- election victories, Santana finance her re-election tive and disciplined than
ra, of receiving $3 million vestigation into kickbacks also ran former president campaign.q Cuba’s civilian state work-
ers, who earn about $25 a
month on average.q