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Animal Rights Group Files 'Habeas Corpus' Petition To Free Orangutan From Zoo

Animal Rights Group Files 'Habeas Corpus' Petition To Free Orangutan From Zoo

BUENOS AIRES — The right to protection from arbitrary detention, known as Habeas Corpus, is one of humanity's greatest achievements, the fruit of England's Glorious Revolution of 1688. Now, a group of animal-rights activists in Argentina is demanding its application for an orangutan, which they say is being "illegally deprived of its liberty" inside the zoo in Buenos Aires.

The AFADA group has taken legal action on behalf of Sandra — a Sumatran orangutan the daily Clarín showed seated and pulling a pretty green and flowered sheet over its head — alleging it was not only being treated as a prisoner, but had to suffer the "presence of the public staring at it."

Judicial authorities have said habeas corpus does not apply to animals, but that they would investigate to check if Sandra was being mistreated. Buenos Aires judge Mónica Berdión de Crudo told AFADA that the courts would check for violations of a 1954 law to protect animals. The judge noted that this law, unlike habeas corpus, does apply to orangutans.

Photo: AFADA Facebook page

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Geopolitics

Why The Latin American Far Left Can't Stop Cozying Up To Iran's Regime

Among the Islamic Republic of Iran's very few diplomatic friends are too many from Latin America's left, who are always happy to milk their cash-rich allies for all they are worth.

Image of Bolivia's ambassador in Tehran, Romina Pérez Ramos.

Bolivia's ambassador in Tehran, Romina Pérez Ramos.

Bolivia's embassy in Tehran/Facebook
Bahram Farrokhi

-OpEd-

The Latin American Left has an incurable anti-Yankee fever. It is a sickness seen in the baffling support given by the socialist regimes of Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela or Bolivia to the Islamic Republic of Iran, which to many exemplifies clerical fascism. And all for a single, crass reason: together they hate the United States.

The Islamic Republic has so many of the traits the Left used to hate and fight in the 20th century: a religious (Islamic) vocation, medieval obscurantism, misogyny... Its kleptocratic economy has turned bog-standard class divisions into chasmic inequalities reminiscent of colonial times.

This support is, of course, cynical and in line with the mandates of realpolitik. The regional master in this regard is communist Cuba, which has peddled its anti-imperialist discourse for 60 years, even as it awaits another chance at détente with its ever wealthy neighbor.

I reflected on this on the back of recent remarks by Bolivia's ambassador in Tehran, the 64-year-old Romina Pérez Ramos. She must be the busiest diplomat in Tehran right now, and not a day goes by without her going, appearing or speaking somewhere, with all the publicity she can expect from the regime's media.

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