Global Briefs: Georgia’s state of repression

Factbox Source: The World Factbook-CIA

Georgia

Police in Tbilisi dragged opposition leader Nika Gvaramia from his party’s headquarters Dec. 4—a move that was part of the government’s escalated use of violence to squash ongoing anti-government demonstrations. Amid the public protests that raged for days, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemned violence and called for the Georgian Dream government to “cease its repressive tactics to silence its critics.” Gvaramia leads Akhali, a party under the Coalition for Change opposition umbrella. Authorities also detained other opposition leaders. Protesters took to the streets after Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze on Nov. 28 called off the country’s bid for EU membership. Pro-Western Georgians accuse his government of being pro-Russian after enacting “foreign agent” laws similar to those in Russia and cracking down on minority groups and journalists. —Jenny Lind Schmitt

Belgium

The Brussels Court of Appeal on Dec. 2 convicted the state of Belgium of crimes against humanity for decades-old kidnappings in colonial Congo. The ruling determined five mixed-race women were victims of “systematic abductions” in the late 1940s and ’50s. The state forcibly removed the women—between the ages of 1 and 5 at the time—from their families along with thousands of other mixed-raced children. Officials sent the children to distant Catholic orphanages in an effort to maintain segregated societies in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, and Burundi. Many of the children were abandoned when Congo gained independence in 1960. Plaintiff Noëlle Verbeeken, 79, said “the decision says … we are recognized.” The state must pay the women 50,000 euros ($52,700) each in reparations. —Eva Schmitt

Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah Simon Maina/AFP via Getty Images

Namibia

The country’s electoral commission on Dec. 3 declared Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah the winner of Namibia’s presidential election, making the 72-year-old the country’s first-ever female president. Nandi-Ndaitwah has served as vice president since the death of former President Hage Geingob in February. She belongs to the governing SWAPO party and prevailed in the late-­November contest by more than 30 percentage points over opponent Panduleni Itula, a surgeon running with the Independent Patriots for Change party. The IPC plans to challenge the vote results in court. In a Dec. 5 press conference, Nandi-Ndaitwah promised “radical shifts” to address the country’s unemployment and poverty. —Elisa Palumbo

Factbox Source: The World Factbook-CIA

Bahamas

The Bahamas House of Assembly suspended its session Dec. 4 after a parliament member grabbed the large ceremonial mace off Speaker Patricia Deveaux’s podium and threw it out a window. The incident, followed by a scuffle that injured several lawmakers and security officers, took place during heated debate over a police corruption scandal involving three police officers indicted by the U.S. Justice Department. U.S. authorities say corrupt local officials have aided the trafficking of U.S.-bound cocaine through the island nation. Prime Minister Philip Brave Davis announced the resignation of the police commissioner Dec. 4. The mace symbolizes parliamentary authority, and throwing it out the window has particular significance: In 1965, an opposition leader threw the mace out the window in a demand for electoral change. —Jenny Lind Schmitt

Factbox Source: The World Factbook-CIA

India

Police revealed Dec. 3 they had asked satellite internet provider Starlink for information after finding one of its devices onboard a drug smuggling boat. Starlink does not have permission to provide internet coverage in India, but in late November the Indian coast guard arrested six Myanmar nationals who used a Starlink device to navigate in Indian waters while carrying 6.6 tons of illegal methamphetamine worth $4.25 billion. The small kit, which can fit in a backpack, allowed the smugglers to negotiate around the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. East and Southeast Asia have increasingly become destinations for illicit drugs. Last year, police seized a record 190 tons of meth. This is the first time they’ve encountered smugglers using Elon Musk’s internet system to navigate rough seas. —Amy Lewis

José Escobar Alas Camilo Freedman/Zuma Wire/Alamy Live News

El Salvador

Salvadoran Catholic Archbishop José Escobar Alas on Dec. 1 called on the government not to reopen the country’s mining industry, warning of “irrevocable damage to people’s lives and health.” His critique was directed at President Nayib Bukele, who on Nov. 27 announced the discovery of gold mines worth an estimated $3 billion. In 2017 the country became the first in the world to prohibit any mining of metals in order to slow the contamination of its natural resources, but Bukele, first elected in 2019, calls the policy “absurd” and argued that “this wealth, given by God, can be harnessed responsibly to bring unprecedented economic and social development to our people.” El Salvador is the most indebted country in Central America, and more than one-fourth of its population lives below the poverty line. —Carlos Páez