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Geopolitics

Bolivia Bans Coca Cola To Celebrate 'The End Of Capitalism'

LATINOSENLARED, OPINION (Bolivia), FORBES (USA)

Worldcrunch

Bolivian President Evo Morales has announced the end of Coca Cola in his country starting from December 21 2012, Latinosenlared website reports.

The date of the ban is symbolic, explains the South American website, quoting the Bolivian blog Nada nos libre de Escorpio. For the Bolivian government, this infamous date on the Maya calendar represents "the end of capitalism" and "the beginning of the culture of life."

Bolivia is not the only Latin American country criticizing the popular soft drink. Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez asked his citizens to avoid drinking Coke and to replace it with Uvita, a grape juice produced by a state-run company.

The Bolivian website Opinion reports two other countries have already banned the American soda: Cuba and North Korea.

Coca Cola is not the only American company who is not welcome in Bolivia. According to Forbes, Mc Donald's also had to leave the country last year, after ten years of presence.

The photo reads: Drink Con-Science: There are reasons to believe in a better world but you won't find them in a soda.

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FOCUS: Russia-Ukraine War

That Man In Mariupol: Is Putin Using A Body Double To Avoid Public Appearances?

Putin really is meeting with Xi in Moscow — we know that. But there are credible experts saying that the person who showed up in Mariupol the day before was someone else — the latest report that the Russian president uses a doppelganger for meetings and appearances.

screen grab of Putin in a dark down jacket

During the visit to Mariupol, the Presidential office only released screen grabs of a video

Russian President Press Office/TASS via ZUMA
Anna Akage

Have no doubt, the Vladimir Putin we’re seeing alongside Xi Jinping this week is the real Vladimir Putin. But it’s a question that is being asked after a range of credible experts have accused the Russian president of sending a body double for a high-profile visit this past weekend in the occupied Ukrainian city of Mariupol.

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Reports and conspiracy theories have circulated in the past about the Russian leader using a stand-in because of health or security issues. But the reaction to the Kremlin leader's trip to Mariupol is the first time that multiple credible sources — including those who’ve spent time with him in the past — have cast doubt on the identity of the man who showed up in the southeastern Ukrainian city that Russia took over last spring after a months-long siege.

Russian opposition politician Gennady Gudkov is among those who confidently claim that a Putin look-alike, or rather one of his look-alikes, was in the Ukrainian city.

"Now that there is a war going on, I don't rule out the possibility that someone strongly resembling or disguised as Putin is playing his role," Gudkov said.

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