Today is a historic election in Ecuador. The Grayzone's Ben Norton traveled there to report on the process, which pits a wealthy US-backed right-wing banker against a left-wing economist who pledges to continue the socialist Citizens’ Revolution launched by former President Rafael Correa.

In this dispatch, working-class Ecuadorians explain why they support leftist candidate Andrés Arauz and oppose the repressive Washington-allied government of Lenín Moreno.

https://thegrayzone.com/2021/02/06/ecuador-election-citizens-revolution/

The presidential candidate that appeared to come in second place in Ecuador's election, and will thus go to a runoff in April, Yaku Pérez, claims to be part of the "left," but he supported US-backed right-wing coups in Bolivia, Brazil, Venezuela, and Nicaragua.

We showed how his US-backed party Pachakutik and the supposedly “progressive” environmentalist campaign Pérez is running is being promoted by right-wing corporate lobbyists, and how he acts as a Trojan horse for Ecuador's oligarchs and US imperialism.

https://thegrayzone.com/2021/02/06/yaku-perez-pachakutik-ecuador-us-coup/

We spoke with a journalist in India about the largest strike in human history: the historic farmer strike going on right now against the neoliberal, pro-corporate policies of India's right-wing Narendra Modi government.

https://thegrayzone.com/2021/02/11/indias-farmer-uprising-largest-strike-history/

Despite facing repression, Alexei Navalny is no hero. This Russian writer reveals the Western-backed opposition figure’s real history, and his own oligarch backing

https://thegrayzone.com/2021/01/28/alexei-navalny-myth-wests-russian-opposition-figure/

The US State Department is pushing a politicized vote recount, overseen by the coup-sponsoring OAS, after socialist Andrés Arauz won Ecuador’s election in a landslide.

Meanwhile Colombia’s ex-president warns his country’s “radical right” is “interfering” with “slander” and a “dirty game.”

https://thegrayzone.com/2021/02/15/us-oas-colombia-steal-ecuador-election/

Anya Parampil spoke with Rania Khalek about the drama surrounding the Trump impeachment trial.

They reflect on the arguments made by democrats and republicans, the trial’s impact on the reputation of US empire abroad, and its implications for free speech.

https://thegrayzone.com/2021/02/16/rania-khalek-slams-phony-impeachment-soap-opera/

While Democracy Now hosts US government-funded, regime-change-lobbying pundits to spread humanitarian interventionist propaganda about China's Xinjiang region, our analysis shows how the once progressive outlet it echoing new cold war disinformation.

https://thegrayzone.com/2021/02/22/democracy-nows-china-state-departments-cold-war/

As tens of thousands of Haitians defy repression to protest Washington-backed Jovenel Moïse’s power grab, the Biden administration’s support for Moïse continues a long US tradition of backing right-wing dictators and undermining Haiti’s popular movements.

https://thegrayzone.com/2021/02/17/no-to-dictatorship-why-haitians-are-protesting-us-backed-moise/

New leaked documents show Reuters’ and the BBC’s involvement in covert UK FCO programs to effect “attitudinal change” and “weaken the Russian state’s influence,” alongside intel contractors and Bellingcat.

https://thegrayzone.com/2021/02/20/reuters-bbc-uk-foreign-office-russian-media/

Repurposed into a mercenary force by Erdogan’s Turkey, the remnants of Syria’s armed opposition were sent off to fight for Azerbaijan with promises of sweet paychecks. They met abuse, humiliation and death instead.

We report with sources from inside the Syrian mercenary groups.

https://thegrayzone.com/2021/02/26/syrian-rebels-nagorno-karabakh-turkey/

The US “virtual ambassador” to Venezuela hosted radical right-wing fugitive Venezuelan insurrectionists at his home in Colombia, roasting a pig as they plotted new regime-change tactics.

We investigated this strange, coup-supporting character:

https://thegrayzone.com/2021/03/03/virtual-ambassador-venezuela-hosts-insurrectionist-bidens-guaido/

The Biden admin's new Iran envoy has taken credit for depriving Iranians of food and driving up their unemployment rates, while celebrating the economic destruction he caused as “a tremendous success.”

We documented his sadistic record:

https://thegrayzone.com/2021/03/08/biden-iran-envoy-starving-civilians-pain-sanctions/

An Ecuadorian presidential candidate from a US-backed party, Yaku Pérez, has requested a military takeover and nullification of election results to prevent the popular socialist Correista movement from returning to power.

https://thegrayzone.com/2021/03/10/ecuador-yaku-perez-military-nullify-election/

Five former officials from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) are calling on the watchdog to address the cover-up of its chemical weapons investigation in the Syrian city of Douma, and to hear out the dissenting scientists whose findings were censored.

Their “Statement of Concern” was signed by five former OPCW officials, including the organization’s founding leader, José Bustani, and others including Noam Chomsky, Daniel Ellsberg, Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, Tulsi Gabbard, John Pilger, Lord West of Spithead, as well two former senior UN officials, Denis Halliday and Hans von Sponeck.

https://thegrayzone.com/2021/03/14/5-former-opcw-officials-join-prominent-voices-to-call-out-syria-cover-up/

Appointed in the final days of Trump’s presidency to remove all US troops from Afghanistan, Douglas Macgregor tells The Grayzone how military leadership undermined the withdrawal and pressured Trump to capitulate.

https://thegrayzone.com/2021/03/16/trump-us-military-peace-agreement-war-afghanistan/

A blogger who writes absurd articles for corporate media outlets smearing anti-war leftists as crypto-fascists engaged in a supposed Kremlin-backed “red-brown” alliance with the far-right, named Alexander Reid Ross, describes himself as an "anarchist" and "libertarian socialist."

Well he is now openly collaborating with a network of former cops, CIA spies, right-wing Republicans, and Department of Homeland Security agents at a militaristic think tank funded in part by conservative billionaire Charles Koch.

https://thegrayzone.com/2021/03/14/anarchist-alexander-reid-ross-cops-cia-dhs/

Today is the 10th anniversary of NATO's war on Libya.

On March 19, 2011, the US-led military cartel began bombing what had been the most prosperous country in Africa, collapsing its state and murdering its leader.

A decade later, Libya still has no central government, and a civil war (fueled by international intervention) still drags on. But NATO did bring it the next best thing: open-air slave markets.

https://t.co/SGIRsXcbtA

Corporate media outlets hailed a report accusing China of Uyghur genocide as a “landmark” independent analysis. A look beneath the surface reveals it as a regime-change propaganda tool by neoconservative operatives at a sham "university."

https://thegrayzone.com/2021/03/17/report-uyghur-genocide-sham-university-neocon-punish-china/

The hawkish, Western government-funded, new cold war disinformation website Bellingcat has been exposed yet again: After publishing fraudulent claims in a bid to smear OPCW Syria whistleblowers, Bellingcat has been caught copying and pasting material given to it by a mysterious external author.

https://thegrayzone.com/2021/03/24/author-bellingcat-opcw-whistleblower/

We are doing a livestream today at 9:30 pm ET / 6:30 pm PT / 0130 UTC

Max, Blumenthal, Aaron Maté, Ben Norton, and Ajit Singh will discuss the American war on Syria, China and US-backed Uighur separatists, Ukraine crisis, Matt Gaetz scandal, new cold war, and more.

Watch on YouTube: https://youtube.com/watch?v=QxtzgHRHxQU

Watch on Twitch: https://twitch.tv/TheGrayzoneNews

Cultivated by the US government, far-right Uighur separatists are partnering with conservative US lawmakers and running a militia-style gun club that trains with ex-US special forces.

Their goal is to overthrow the Chinese government and carve up China on ethno-sectarian lines.

https://thegrayzone.com/2021/03/31/china-uyghur-gun-soldiers-empire/