Judi Lynn
Judi Lynn's JournalParaguay congress set on fire amid presidential controversy
45 minutes ago
Demonstrators in Paraguay have set fire to the country's Congress amid violent protests against a bill that would let the president seek re-election.
Protesters stormed the legislature, breaking windows and fences.
The country's 1992 constitution, introduced after 35 years of dictatorship, strictly limits the president to a single five-year term.
But sitting President Horactio Cartes is attempting to remove the restriction and run for re-election.
More:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-39465064
Brazil's JBS accused of violating Amazon rainforest protection laws
Brazil's JBS accused of violating Amazon rainforest protection laws
March 31, 2017, 02:52:00 PM EDT By Reuters
By Anthony Boadle
BRASILIA, March 31
(Reuters) - The world's largest meatpacker, Brazil'sJBS SA <JBSS3.SA>, has for years knowingly bought cattle that were raised on illegally deforested land, turning a blind eye to regulations meant to protect the Amazon rainforest, Brazil's environmental regulator has alleged. The accusation comes even as JBS and other meatpackers in Brazil, the top global exporter of beef, are reeling from a corruption scandal. [nL2N1H41DO]
Police allege bribery of health inspectors to overlook unsanitary conditions and forgo inspections. [nL2N1H61HW] JBS has denied wrongdoing and sought to assure consumers that its products meet rigorous quality standards.
Earlier this month, the environmental agency, IBAMA, ordered the suspension of two JBS meat packing plants and 13 others in southwest Pará state for buying cattle raised on pastures cleared by slashing and burning the forest. It fined the company 24 million reais ($7.7 million). JBS denied purchasing livestock from ranchers on land blacklisted by IBAMA and won an injunction from a federal judge allowing its plants to continue buying cattle. The agency is appealing the ruling.
Brazilian authorities have long said cattle ranching is responsible for more destruction of the Amazon than any other activity. The world's largest rainforest is considered one of the best natural defenses against global warming.
Read more: http://www.nasdaq.com/article/brazils-jbs-accused-of-violating-amazon-rainforest-protection-laws-20170331-00854#ixzz4cxE5bt9c
Pablo Escobar's Hitman to March with Uribe, Colombia's Far Right
John Jairo Velasquez, alias "Popeye," is an assassin who will be marching with former
President Alvaro Uribe. | Photo: AFP
Published 31 March 2017 (8 hours 21 minutes ago)
. . .
One of Colombia’s most notorious drug traffickers is set to join in an anti-government march against corruption tomorrow with far-right former President Alvaro Uribe.
John Jairo Velásquez Vásquez, more commonly known as “Popeye,” was a former hitman for infamous Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar and his Medellin cartel. Uribe, a staunch critic of President Juan Manuel Santos’ government peace deal with the FARC rebel group, is a key figure in the planned march along with his Democratic Center Party. Other far-right figures, including former Inspector General Alejandro Ordoñez, are supporting the demonstration.
During his time working for Escobar, Velasquez is estimated to have killed around 300 people and oversaw countless more murders against rival gang members, journalists, judges, activists, police and paramilitaries.
He was only convicted of one murder, the assassination of presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galan in 1989, before being released in 2014. Following his release, Velasquez has gained a large social media presence and is a self-described “political activist and defender of human rights.”
More:
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Pablo-Escobars-Hitman-to-March-with-Uribe-Colombias-Far-Right-20170331-0012.html
Brazil's Temer Sees Approval Rate Drop to 10 Percent
Brazil's Temer Sees Approval Rate Drop to 10 Percent
March 31, 2017 5:45 PM
Associated Press
SAO PAULO —
A new poll shows the popularity of Brazilian President Michel Temer falling to just 10 percent.
The Instituto Ibope poll published on Friday also finds that 55 percent of Brazilians believe Temer's performance as president is either bad or terrible.
In December, Temer's approval was at 13 percent and his disapproval was at 46 percent.
Brazil's top electoral court next week will start deciding whether the ticket that elected Temer and former President Dilma Rousseff in 2014 should be annulled due to alleged illegal campaign financing. That could lead to his removal.
Ibope interviewed 2,000 people and the poll's margin of error is 2 percentage points.
http://www.voanews.com/a/brazil-temer-approval-rating/3791560.html
(Short article, no more at link.)
Honduran Gang Used Tropical Storm Agatha to Launder Millions of Drug Money
Honduran Gang Used Tropical Storm Agatha to Launder Millions of Drug Money
Print article Published: Thursday, 30 March 2017 15:08
When tropical storm Agatha hit Central America in May 2010, notorious Honduran drug traffickers saw an opportunity to launder their illicit money, the daily La Tribuna claimed in an exclusive report on Wednesday.
"Los Cachiros," an organized crime group once run by the Maradiaga brothers, allegedly set up several shell companies that were hired by the state to rebuild the destroyed infrastructure.
The Honduran daily said the gang then used the companies to launder an estimated US$ 6.4 million of previously made illicit profits.
According to the report, Los Cachiros carried out 28 major infrastructure projects to repair bridges and roads in Colón and Olancho decimated by the storm.
The paper published photographs of contracts that showed the projects were funded by the state. It claimed the works were supervised by companies that either didn’t exist or were controlled by the gang.
The Honduran government doled out lucrative emergency contracts in the wake of the storm and a majority of those projects were given to companies owned by the Maradiaga brothers.
More:
https://www.occrp.org/en/daily/6268-honduran-gang-used-tropical-storm-agatha-to-launder-millions-of-drug-money
[center]
Moises Rivera-Maradiaga
Former President Porfirio "Pepe" Lobo
Lobo's sonny boy, Fabio Lobo
Nicaraguan immigrant dies almost a week after trying to commit suicide at Southern California ICE fa
Nicaraguan immigrant dies almost a week after trying to commit suicide at Southern California ICE facility
Andrea Castillo
MARCH 30, 2017 3:45 PM
Osmar Epifanio Gonzalez-Gadba left his home in Matagalpa, Nicaragua, last October without saying goodbye to his mother.
Five months later, on Tuesday, she got word that he had died from injuries sustained in a suicide attempt at a Southern California immigration detention center.
. . .
She told another media outlet in Nicaragua that he had left home without a suitcase or any other belongings.
Gonzalez-Gadba, 32, was found hanging in his cell March 22 by an employee during a routine evening check. After cutting Gonzalez-Gadba down, the employee alerted medical staff at the Adelanto Detention Facility and the inmate was taken to the nearby Victor Valley Global Medical Center.
More:
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-nicaragua-0331-story.html
NEW YORK DRUG CASE OPENS WINDOW ON DARK PERIOD FOR HONDURAS
Mar 31, 4:05 PM EDT
NEW YORK DRUG CASE OPENS WINDOW ON DARK PERIOD FOR HONDURAS
BY CLAUDIA TORRENS AND BEN FOX
ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK (AP) -- A case unfolding in a lower Manhattan courtroom has caused political tremors in Honduras, seeming to confirm long-held suspicions that corruption at the highest levels of government helped turn the Central American country into a violent epicenter of the drug trade at the start of this decade.
Fabio Porfirio Lobo, the son of the Honduran president in 2010-2013, is preparing to go before a federal judge for sentencing after pleading guilty to his role in a drug-trafficking ring involving members of Honduras' national police. But it is the details of the conspiracy that emerged in testimony and newly released court documents which have captivated people back home by tying his father and a brother of the current president directly to traffickers.
Political and civil society groups have been demanding investigations into the allegations, especially against former President Porfirio "Pepe" Lobo Sosa, who remains a leader in the ruling National Party and is among the wealthiest people in the country, with extensive agricultural land holdings.
"This is something that everyone suspected," said Edmundo Orellana, a former attorney general of Honduras. "But what we didn't know was the extent of the involvement with the politicians. This has been a surprise."
. . .
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence met with Honduras' president on March 23 and praised the country's progress fighting drugs and corruption.
More:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/L/LT_US_HONDURAS_DRUG_WAR?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2017-03-31-00-14-56
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Colombia's FARC rebels give up guns in disarmament camps
Fri Mar 31, 2017 | 2:43pm EDT
Colombia's FARC rebels give up guns in disarmament camps
Former fighters from Colombia's FARC rebel group are handing over thousands of weapons and other materials to international officials in special camps, as the group's six-month disarmament process continues.
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) signed a peace agreement with the government late last year to put an end to their part in Latin America's longest-running armed conflict, which has killed more than 220,000 people and displaced millions.
Weapons handed over to the United Nations will be stored in secure containers until they can be turned into three memorial statues. The rebels are expected to turn in all arms by June, and some 8,000 are set to be registered by this weekend.
Members of the Jacobo Arenas rebel unit, which operated in mountains of Cauca province, were among 6,900 FARC fighters who left behind clandestine camps where they had lived for decades, crisscrossing the country on foot, by boat and by truck to get to 26 zones monitored by the United Nations.
More:
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-colombia-peace-camps-idUSKBN1721XJ
The world's rarest and most ancient dog has just been rediscovered in the wild
New Guinea highland wild dogs are the most ancient and primitive canids in the world.
Video at:
http://www.msn.com/en-us/video/wonder/the-worlds-rarest-and-most-ancient-dog-has-just-been-rediscovered-in-the-wild/vi-BBz1A22
Paraguay fears dictatorship as president moves to amend constitution
Paraguay fears dictatorship as president moves to amend constitution
After months of behind-the-scenes preparations, a senator steamrolled through the changes that could allow Horacio Cartes to be re-elected in 2018
Laurence Blair in Asunción
Thursday 30 March 2017 05.30 EDT
After months of behind-the-scenes preparations, Paraguay’s president, Horacio Cartes, has moved to amend the constitution to allow him to be re-elected in 2018, prompting warnings that the country where Alfredo Stroessner ruled for more than 30 years is once again sliding towards dictatorship.
Members of the governing rightwing Colorado party – which has held power for all but four of the past 70 years – joined with several opposition legislators to propose changes to the senate’s procedural rules, a precursor to introducing a re-election bill after a similar attempt was narrowly defeated in August.
“Paraguayans have to go out on to the streets to defend democracy, which is under attack,” Rafael Filizzola, a senator with the leftwing Democratic Progressive Party, told reporters.
On Tuesday, riot police and elite troops sealed off the small South American country’s congress. Inside, legislators traded punches and fierce insults, and – after the speaker of the house delayed a vote until Thursday – a pro-Cartes senator seized a microphone, proclaimed himself senate president, and steam-rolled through the changes with a show of hands. A vote on re-election itself is expected to be passed in the coming days.
More:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/30/paraguay-reelection-amend-constitution-horacio-cartes
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