US ARMY War College 'Strategic Studies Institute' #COVID19 negative effects to Last At Least 1 yr. or more- May 15, 20/20

👨‍🏫 <From the US ARMY War College 'Strategic Studies Institute' (UNCLASSIFIED) PLAN ON #COVID19 negative effects on Latin America to Last At Least 1 yr. or more- "It will likely extend for a year or more and be even more debilitating than now anticipated."> ☣️

'Special Commentary: COVID-19: Shaping a Sicker, Poorer,-More Violent, and Unstable Western Hemisphere- May 15, 20/20 😷 Dr. R. Evan Ellis, "The COVID-19 pandemic will have profound and enduring negative effects on Latin America and the Caribbean, significantly impacting the security, interests, and strategic position of the United States. 

Department of Defense and other US senior leaders should begin planning now to mitigate or manage the consequences.


The effects of COVID-19 on Latin America and the Caribbean, as in many other parts of the developing world, will be far more significant than is commonly anticipated for two reasons. First, the virus will likely play out across the region over an extended length of time owing to a variety of factors discussed later.

Second, the pandemic’s mutually reinforcing health, economic, social, and political effects will combine to wreak far more havoc than anticipated in analyses that only consider disease propagation or effects on commerce. Together, these two dynamics of COVID-19 will leave a Latin America that is far sicker, poorer, beset by crime, violence, social unrest, and political instability than today.
It will also leave a region with expanded People’s Republic of China (PRC) commercial presence and political influence, even while being more resentful of it. 

MORE PROTRACTED, DEBILITATING HEALTH EFFECTS THAN ANTICIPATED-
The public health crisis wrought by COVID-19 in Latin America and the Caribbean will not disappear with the reopening of the region’s economies. It will likely extend for a year or more and be even more debilitating than now anticipated. The great density of commerce-related human interactions between the PRC, Europe, and the United States caused the pandemic to take off there far more rapidly than in Latin America and other parts of the less-developed world. 

The curfews, quarantines, border closures, and other measures adopted by some Latin American countries, as they witnessed the virus ravage Europe and the United States, delayed its spread and created the illusion that it would not affect the region as badly. Such hopes were mistaken......<To READ MORE of this report, e-mail me journeymanjack.com@gmail.com for complete 7 page indepth report in a PDF File format>

DR. EVAN ELLIS is a research professor of Latin American Studies at the U.S. Army War College (USAWC) Strategic Studies Institute (SSI), with a focus on the region’s relationships with China and other non-Western Hemisphere actors, as well as transnational organized crime and populism in the region. Dr. Ellis has published more than 170 works, including: China in Latin America: The Whats and Wherefores (Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2009);

 The Strategic Dimension of Chinese Engagement with Latin America (William J. Perry Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies, 2013); and, China on the Ground in Latin America (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2014). Dr. Ellis has presented his work in a broad range of business and government forums in 26 countries throughout four continents, and has given testimony on Chinese activities in Latin America to the U.S. Congress. Dr. Ellis has discussed his work regarding China and other external actors in Latin America on a broad range of radio and television programs; he is cited regularly in print media in both the United States and Latin America for his work in this area. Dr. Ellis holds a Ph.D. in political science with a specialization in comparative politics.

Blog Posts

• History Begins (Again) for the Pentagon - Geopoliticus - February 22, 2018
-------------------------------------

• The mysterious death of a 35-year-old CDC commander who disappeared in February has been solved- May 23, 2018, 

  

• CDC commander Timothy Cunningham left work on February 12 feeling ill, and was never heard from again.
• He remained missing for more than six weeks before his body was recovered in an Atlanta river in April. He was still wearing his favorite pair of running shoes. 
• The Fulton County Medical Examiner ruled his cause of death suicide by drowning on Tuesday.

---

The mysterious disappearance of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Commander Timothy Cunningham ended tragically last month when a group of fishermen found his body in a muddy spot on the Chattahoochee River in northwest Atlanta, and alerted the police. 

"We may never be able to tell you how he got into the river," Maj. Michael O'Connor of the Atlanta Police Department said when the commander's body was recovered in April. 

The only thing police said they found in Cunningham's pockets at the time were three crystals. He was also wearing his favorite running shoes. But there weren't any running trails nearby, deepening the mystery of how he got in the water in the first place. 

On Tuesday, the public health worker's case was finally solved when the Fulton County Medical Examiner issued its final report. Cunningham's death was ruled a drowning by suicide, the medical examiner's office told Business Insider...." - https://www.businessinsider.com/cdc-commander-timothy-cunningham-death-suicide-2018-5
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CUMBAYÁ FRI 22 MAY 20/20 The Ecuador Report #COVID1984 DAY#65 #Quarantine #Quito #BraveNewABNormalWorld

25 views - May 22, 20/20 ☣️ https://youtu.be/FpVfxMWrEDw

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SAT April 23, 20/20 ☣️ 'How Do Repatriation Flights Work? Everything you need to know about these flights,

SAT April 23, 20/20 ☣️ 'How Do Repatriation Flights Work?
Everything you need to know about these flights, from how to get a seat to why they cost so much.- 😷
- "Although the bulk of international routes have been suspended due to the coronavirus, some airlines are still operating sporadic international service, known as a repatriation flight.

These flights, which usually have some very grateful passengers on board, are organized by governments and airlines to bring home citizens who were stuck abroad when COVID-19 travel restrictions went into place. 

Nearly 64,000 Americans have been brought home from 117 countries on these flights so far this year—with more flying back every day. Here’s what you need to know about these unusual flights.
How do you find these flights?

Airlines are adding repatriation flights based upon demand. The U.S. Department of State is also chartering aircraft from U.S. carriers like Delta, United, and American to bring people home. Understandably, tracking down the schedule for these flights is vastly different than the process for regular routes.

Travelers who sign up for the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) when abroad can receive notifications about these flights, which generally fill up fast. It is also wise to follow consular offices and the Department of State on social media if you're searching for a flight home in order to get the latest alerts about potential flights.

How do you reserve a seat?

The reservation process can vary, depending on the country or how many Americans need to get home. Americans in India, for instance, have been asked to complete an online form to register for one of the limited charter repatriation flights home. Passengers are being prioritized in order of vulnerability and notified by email to respond within a set time frame if they wish to travel....." - https://www.cntraveler.com/story/how-do-repatriation-flights-work?fbclid=IwAR3csCVoVbp5zT8FxXMQQ_Zt5ZIBMhnx5OFbwKK0rsZZiHIYt4OniPJ2RSg

How Pandemics End An infectious outbreak can conclude in more ways than one, 10 MAY 20/20

How Pandemics End

An infectious outbreak can conclude in more ways than one, historians say. But for whom does it end, and who gets to decide?

When will the Covid-19 pandemic end? And how?

According to historians, pandemics typically have two types of endings: the medical, which occurs when the incidence and death rates plummet, and the social, when the epidemic of fear about the disease wanes.

“When people ask, ‘When will this end?,’ they are asking about the social ending,” said Dr. Jeremy Greene, a historian of medicine at Johns Hopkins.

In other words, an end can occur not because a disease has been vanquished but because people grow tired of panic mode and learn to live with a disease. Allan Brandt, a Harvard historian, said something similar was happening with Covid-19: “As we have seen in the debate about opening the economy, many questions about the so-called end are determined not by medical and public health data but by sociopolitical processes.”

Endings “are very, very messy,” said Dora Vargha, a historian at the University of Exeter. “Looking back, we have a weak narrative. For whom does the epidemic end, and who gets to say?”..... " - https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/10/health/coronavirus-plague-pandemic-history.html

Which Country Will Be Better after Lockdown Restrictions Lift? The Real ...

FRI 01 MAY 20/20 ⚒ is the Day of the Worker, - May Day, May Day, May Day, May Day,

FRI 01 MAY 20/20 ⚒ is the regular annual Día Internacional del Trabajo / Day of the Worker, which is also known as May Day, there will be the usual marching, drinking, partying, No Social distancing will be respected, if police and troops intervene, it could lead to protesting,....so, they best let them have their fun, for now.

I am like Sgt. Schultz from Hogans Heroes and: "I know Nothing." But, (JMHO) - Correa was just convicted and sentenced to 8 yrs in prison, he is desperate, his time is running out to create turmoil here in EC before the next Pres. Election FEB 2021.

He helped, backed, sponsored & orchestrated a lot of the OCT 2019 Riots. Many of the operators and agent provocateurs were rounded up and arrested.

Correa has a big war chest of stolen money from the EC coffers, maybe in excess of $35 - $40 Billion to work with. Our North and South borders by land, and sea from West, jungles from East can still be penetrated even though we are in a supposed lockdown.

But, do the outside mercenaries and operators want to risk CV19, even if the pay is good, is it worth your life?

I think the severity of COVD19 in EC is dwarfing, and distracting from Correa's movement to create a backed, sponsored civil unrest, at this moment, it is still sort of a shock and awe mode at this time.

There is small out breaks of 'social disobedience' now in GYE & Quito, but, I will be surprised if it will go large scale civil unrest on 01 MAY.

....If, a big 'IF' - [They] = the EC Ministry of Truth, don't get their act together, and start telling some more palatable / believable Lies on 'CV19' Cases & Death Stats and testing / reporting protocols, or God forbid [They] be truthful and forthcoming,...

..if this charade continues, there could be some legitimate, organic riots, that could again be infiltrated, I don't think all of the storm components are ready to go severe this 01 MAY....

but, as we are locked down, and at some point lightened up, and wave 2 comes along and locked down again, and lightened up again, then comes wave 3...etc etc...,

There will be enough dismay and downright rage against [They] before the EC Pres Election to set off the spark, and Correa and his old #35 minions will be there to pour gas on the fire,

....as the planet battles wave after multiple waves for the next 18 - 24 months. Think of it as a Anaconda constrictor snake, each time we get past a wave and come out of lockdown, they will take away a few more freedoms each time~~~ 🐍

...if the food chain continues to break down, like dumping milk and vegetables, and the Agro Sector and Transportation Logistics of Food is not closely watched and monitored, what 'social disobedience' that happened in OCT 2019 will look like a bunch of amateur rookies->

https://www.facebook.com/revolucionariosconrafaelcorrea/

COVID19 History Lesson of Ecuador / China relations, April 21, 20/20.

History Lesson of Ecuador / China relations, April 21, 20/20. ☣️ Thinking About China 'Perspectives on the Pandemic: Why Ecuador Has a Serious Outbreak'-

(Photo: A patient who tested positive to the novel coronavirus is taken on a stretcher into the emergency room of the IESS Sur Hospital in Quito)

“Guayaquil is at this moment a great gray cloud,” María Leonor Inca, an indigenous journalist based in Ecuador, posted on Twitter on April 2.

Guayaquil, the largest city and the main port of Ecuador, has been hard-hit by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus. Its mayor also recently tested positive for the CCP virus.

Up to 150 corpses, all people who died due to the CCP virus, are picked up daily, Jorge Wated, leader of a government task force, told the El Universo newspaper. With the municipal morgue at capacity, a greater number of bodies may be waiting on sidewalks and inside homes, he added.

Though the country is geographically far from the epicenter of China, why is Ecuador hit hard by the virus?

CCP VIRUS SPECIAL COVERAGE

The Epoch Times editorial article, “Where Ties With Communist China Are Close, the Coronavirus Follows” suggests that “the heaviest-hit regions outside China all share a common thread: close or lucrative relations with the communist regime in Beijing.”

In fact, there are Beijing-friendly elements within Ecuadorian politics.

Strategic Cooperation between Ecuador and the CCP

In January 1980, the CCP established diplomatic relations with Ecuador. China and Ecuador established a “political consultation” system in 1997, held once every two years.

On Nov. 8, 2007, Ecuador ’s El Oro province and China’s Hubei province formally established sister-province relations.

In December 2010, the China-funded Confucius Institute at the San Francisco University of Quito was jointly established with the China University of Petroleum in Beijing.

In January 2015, then-Ecuadorian President Rafael Vicente Correa Delgado visited China, and China and Ecuador established a strategic partnership. In November 2016, Ecuador and China elevated their relationship to a “comprehensive strategic partnership.”

In August 2016, Ecuador and China waived visa requirements for their citizens in a bid to increase two-way tourism. Ecuador was the first Latin American country to do so.

On Dec. 12, 2018, Ecuador’s President Lenin Moreno Garces visited China. According to Chinese state media reports, “the two leaders witnessed the signing of several cooperation documents, including a memorandum of understanding on jointly promoting Belt and Road” (also known as One Belt, One Road), Beijing’s initiative to build infrastructure projects across Latin America, Africa, and central and south Asia.

China welcomed Ecuador to promote cooperation between the two sides in infrastructure, agriculture, information technology, and new energy.

Currently, China is also Ecuador’s third-largest trading partner.

Chinese Companies in Ecuador

According to Chinese media, at present, more than 90 Chinese companies are operating in Ecuador, with projects covering water conservancy and hydropower, roads and bridges, copper mines, public safety, and other fields.

Yachay is 120 kilometers north of the capital of Quito. On Nov. 25, 2015, China Gezhouba Group Company (CGGC) signed a phase I contract to build a Silicon Valley for Ecuador in Yachay. The project includes planning and designing a number of tech research centers, labs, and universities, which would be integrated with industrial parks and tourism development zones. The entire project is expected to last through 2049.

On Aug. 16, 2016, Ecuador’s then-Vice President Jorge Glas inaugurated Ecuador’s first fiber-optic cable plant, built with Chinese assistance, in the southern province of Guayas. Wang Yulin, China’s ambassador to Ecuador also attended the opening ceremony.

The fiber optic plant is the result of a joint venture with Ecuador’s Holding Telconet and China’s Fiberhome Technologies.

This was China’s largest fiber-optic cable plant in Latin America. The total investment was estimated to be $15 million to 20 million. Fiberhome Technology Group accounted for 51 percent of the shares, while Telconet owned 49 percent of shares, according to China’s commerce ministry.

On July 18, 2019, Ecuador President Lenín Moreno attended the first test of 5G, or fifth-generation, technology in Quito, presented by the Chinese telecom giant Huawei and Ecuador’s National Telecommunications Corporation. Moreno praised China’s technological advances at the ceremony.

Canceling Shen Yun Performances

In 2015, the New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts was set to perform a production of the dance drama “Monkey King” in the capital of Ecuador. However, less than a week before the performance, the Ecuadorian House of Culture suspended activities at the National Theater, impacting Shen Yun performances planned for May 23 and 24, 2015.

Alejandro Nadal, a spokesman for Shen Yun’s presenter in Ecuador, told local press advocacy group Fundamedios.org that the suspension of activities was illegal, as they had all the relevant permits. He said he believed the incident was part of an explicit goal by the Chinese embassy in Ecuador to cancel the performances.

The embassy had allegedly been looking for ways to get the event canceled for the last month. “We have tried telling them in every possible way that they are violating the freedom of expression of the Ecuadorian people, that they are censoring culture in a democratic country and are doing so through a foreign country,” said Nadal.

According to Shen Yun Performing Arts, theater venues where the company performs have often been pressured by local Chinese officials to cancel Shen Yun’s performances. This was the first time Shen Yun was canceled in Latin America.

The CCP has extended its censorship overseas, and the Ecuadorian government succumbed to its demands.

Ecuadorian officials instead attended performances organized by the Chinese embassy, such as a February 2016 Lunar New Year presentation with an arts group from Henan province in China, and a January 2020 gala at the Chinese embassy for commemorating 40 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries. Many top Ecuadorian officials attended, including the ministers of culture, national defense, and education.

Dam and Hydropower Station

The Coca Codo Sinclair Dam is a hydroelectric project under CCP’s Belt and Road Initiative in Ecuador. The dam was built some 75 kilometers (46.6 miles) east of the capital Quito, on the Coca River. It is the largest energy project in Ecuador.

The dam was constructed by state-owned Sinohydro Corporation for $2.25 billion. The Chinese would provide Ecuador with a $1.68 billion loan to cover 85 percent of the roughly $2 billion price tag, with 6.9 percent interest.

The project has been criticized for cost overruns, technical flaws, and corruption. Ecuador also faces a huge budget deficit because of loans it received from China. Interest alone would require that Ecuador send an annual paycheck of $125 million to China for 15 years.

A full power test failed when the dam opened in 2016.

The New York Times reported about the dam’s many problems in a December 2018 report. “This giant dam in the jungle, financed and built by China, was supposed to christen Ecuador’s vast ambitions, solve its energy needs and help lift the small South American country out of poverty… Instead, it has become part of a national scandal engulfing the country in corruption, perilous amounts of debt — and a future tethered to China.”

It also said: “Nearly every top Ecuadorean official involved in the dam’s construction is either imprisoned or sentenced on bribery charges. That includes a former vice president, a former electricity minister and even the former anti-corruption official monitoring the project, who was caught on tape talking about Chinese bribes.”

In an LA Times report, the newspaper obtained a 2018 report issued by the Ecuador government controller’s office, which said the project’s Chinese contractor ignored a stipulation in the contract—that the dam be built according to rigid standards set by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

The government report also revealed shady practices by Sinohydro Corp., according to the LA Times, including the project’s “irresponsible and incomprehensible” use of substandard building materials and construction methods, including inferior welds. “The Chinese used bad-quality steel and fired inspectors who said to change it,” former energy minister Fernando Santos told LA Times.

However, the CCP has avoided talking about the project’s flaws and the corruption behind the dam. It has lauded the “success” of the project, calling it a landmark project for Chinese companies.

Special Coverage:

For our latest coverage of the CCP Virus Outbreak, visit our new section and sign up for our daily newsletter.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times." - https://www.theepochtimes.com/perspectives-on-the-pandemic-why-ecuador-has-a-serious-outbreak_3317932.html

----------------------

#Coronavirus #Wuhan #TheEpochTimes 'Yet the heaviest-hit regions outside China all share a common thread: 'Like Ecuador' close or lucrative relations with the communist regime in Beijing.
'Hardest Hit Coronavirus Regions Reveal Intimate Ties With Beijing-
•Mar 15, 20/20 ☣️ 😷 'Declassified With Gina Shakespeare'

"In the final weeks of 2019, a novel coronavirus outbreak occurred in the city of Wuhan, in central China. As the world welcomed a new decade, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) opted to suppress information about the emerging crisis until it could no longer remain hidden.

Nearly two months after mainland Chinese authorities acknowledged the outbreak and the existence of the contagious virus, the crisis has spread round the globe, assuming epidemic proportions in multiple regions. The number of infected beyond China’s borders is now in the tens of thousands, with more than 1,000 having succumbed to the virus. The stock market has plunged as experts warn of a possible economic recession.

A variety of factors have facilitated the rapid spread of the coronavirus, officially termed SARS-CoV-2, and the disease that it causes, COVID-19. Globalization has brought the peoples of the world into closer contact, increasing the risks of a worldwide pandemic.

Yet the heaviest-hit regions outside China all share a common thread: close or lucrative relations with the communist regime in Beijing." - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kC6qtXQWMQU

'Burning bodies? Mass graves? Ecuador battles fake news amid the coronavirus pandemic-

Apr 9, 20/20 ☣️ Miami Herald (TNS)

'Burning bodies? Mass graves? Ecuador battles fake news amid the coronavirus pandemic-

 

 "Last week, jarring images raced around the globe that seemed to show desperate people in Ecuador burning bodies on the street. According to the social media posts, the coronavirus had overwhelmed the Lenín Moreno administration and pushed the country — long known for political instability — to the brink.

But when police went to the sites where the videos were filmed, the truth was a bit more nuanced. In one case, a family was burning tires to protest the government’s delay in recovering the body of a relative. In another case, people were burning a couch on which someone with the contagious virus had been sleeping.

“The idea that people were burning bodies on the streets — those images were shared around the world, television stations re-posted them, even presidents of countries fell for them,” said Ecuador’s Communication Secretary Gabriel Arroba.

And they weren’t true.

Amid the global war against the pandemic, many countries are also finding themselves in a fight against fake and misleading news that they’re not always winning.

As much of the world remains quarantined, stewing in a pressure cooker of stress and rumors, the images spread faster than the virus, passed around by the unsuspecting. But in some cases there seems to be something more nefarious afoot.

Governments from Haiti to the Cayman Islands to South Africa have all said they’ve been besieged by sometimes dangerously false reports.

Ecuador officials believe they’re being attacked by a well organized group intent on toppling the administration.

“We’re working with our intelligence services to follow these clues,” Arroba told the Miami Herald. “But there seems to be a clear goal of destabilizing the government.”

The South American country — best known for the Galápagos Islands and for once providing WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange asylum in its London embassy — has been hit hard by the coronavirus.

The country has seen 4,450 cases and 242 deaths. That’s more coronavirus cases than any other Latin American nation but Brazil and Chile.

Most of the cases are centered around the coastal city of Guayaquil, which has played host to macabre scenes: bodies on the sidewalk, people collapsing on corners, the desperate and coughing huddled outside of packed hospitals.

And while it’s true that the city initially had trouble keeping up with body recovery, Arroba said there is also a concerted effort to twist and amplify the troubles.

The government has identified 6,000 social media accounts, all working in unison, to spread false information. On some occasions, those accounts have managed to plant the stories more than 180 million times.

Early on in the crisis, when the government said it would be giving a $60 bonus to the nation’s neediest, the accounts spread the word that all 16.6 million of Ecuador’s citizens were eligible and needed to rush to the bank to demand their payment. Another time, the accounts pushed the narrative that the country was running out of food and encouraged people to hoard groceries.

Both came at a time when the government was asking people to shelter in place.

“These waves of news are all centered around a theme, and each wave seems to have a goal,” Arroba said. “They’ve been trying to create panic and have people collapse the food distribution system or collapse the banking system.”

More recently, the accounts began sharing pictures of what they said was a clandestine mass grave for COVID-19 victims in Ecuador. The picture was years old and was actually of a graveyard in Mexico, Arroba said.

While the government has no solid proof, officials believe members of the previous Rafael Correa administration are thought to be behind the cyberattacks. At least half of the suspect accounts are based in Mexico, where several former Correa allies have sought asylum amid corruption charges.

“Of course, the main weapon of fake news is anonymity,” Arroba said. But there are strong indications “that members of the previous government are involved.”

Correa, who lives in Belgium where his wife is from, has lashed out at the implication that he or his loyalists might be behind a disinformation campaign.

Ecuador’s government “can’t even bury the dead but they are capable of continuing their hate and politicking,” he wrote on Twitter in response to the government allegations. “If this nefarious government isn’t sent home soon they’re going to bury us all.”

The animus between Correa and the current administration runs deep. Moreno, Correa’s one-time vice president, won election in 2017 on the back of his boss’ support. But soon after entering office, he turned on him and launched a series of corruption investigations into the former president’s dealings.

On Tuesday, Ecuador’s courts sentenced Correa, his former Vice President Jorge Glas and 16 other people to eight years in prison on corruption charges. The sentence also bars them from holding public office for 25 years.

Correa said it was ridiculous for a country in the middle of a pandemic to push through with a trial.

“What worries me and tears at my soul is to see the nation dying, those bodies on the street and abandoned in homes,” he said in a video message to supporters. “Ecuador has done the worst job in the region of confronting this pandemic and it’s only going to get worse.”

Ecuador isn’t alone in trying to fend off fake news.

The Cayman Islands has been in a frenzy since a voicemail message surfaced on social media over the weekend. The message claimed that a British Airways flight chartered to bring medical supplies and islanders home on Monday had actually been arranged by Gov. Martyn Roper because Roper wanted to bring his wife back from the United Kingdom.

While Roper denied it, the message took on a life. On Tuesday, Cayman police said they had arrested a person in relation to the fake message.

Cayman Islands Premier Alden McLaughlin also apologized to Roper, calling the incident “vile” and “disgusting.”

“I was just so embarrassed and so angry,” McLaughlin said Monday during the national COVID-19 briefing. “The voice note made me ashamed to be a Caymanian.”

In Haiti, government officials were also forced to speak out Monday after a “fake Facebook post” by a person claiming to be a relative of the country’s first COVID-19 fatality said the victim had died of other causes, effectively calling officials liars. And days earlier, a government prosecutor triggered debate over freedom of the press and protest on the street when he ordered the arrest of radio personality Luckner “Louko” Desir for allegedly claiming there were no coronavirus cases in the country. Desir has denied ever making the statement and says his arrest was unwarranted.

Farther afield, in South Africa, courts charged a man with spreading fake news after he posted a widely circulated video that claimed the government’s coronavirus testing kits were actually giving people COVID-19.

Speaking at an online conference hosted by the International Center for Journalists last week, Branko Brkic, the founder of South Africa’s Daily Maverick news site, said that misinformation and disinformation were already rampant before the pandemic, but now they had become a matter of life and death.

“Whoever is spreading fake news is a horrible human being. Whoever is spreading fake news in this environment, I hope they burn in hell,” he said. “The level of immorality of that is horrible to me.”

Arroba said he’s confident that Ecuadorian investigators will eventually present their case and close down the misinformation shop.

“We’re still collecting evidence, because a poorly presented case could end in nothing,” he said. “There are many indications, but we’re still looking for specific evidence. The problem is the anonymity of social networks.”

(EDITORS: STORY CAN END HERE)

And he admits that not all of the misleading videos in Ecuador may be part of a concerted cyberattack.

Last week, another video circulated widely purporting to show a doctor walking through the halls of a hospital crammed with corpses in black body bags. Depending on the social network, the image was attributed to New York, the Dominican Republic or Ecuador.

Arroba said officials managed to read one of the names on a body bag and ran it through the country’s databank of deceased.

“It wasn’t in there, so apparently it’s not Ecuador,” he said. “But that hospital seems to be everywhere in the world.” - https://www.heraldmailmedia.com/news/nation/burning-bodies-mass-graves-ecuador-battles-fake-news-amid-the-coronavirus-pandemic/article_edb37ff2-f7f4-583e-a280-d7751209ba81.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=user-share&fbclid=IwAR13s3Jwp_U2SWXveKMkd6eweSEuQy8GIRDuj8IFmyZnfTSgdtuCny1U_bA

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