Judi Lynn
Judi Lynn's JournalMedellin becoming major destination for foreign predators
written by Adriaan Alsema November 14, 2017
Hidden among foreign visitors to Medellin are an increasing number of pedophiles looking to exploit the city’s child prostitution, according to a prominent local crime analyst.
Luis Fernando Quijano of the local Corporation for Peace and Social Development (CORPARES) said that this underground sex market is run by the city’s crime syndicate, La Oficina, together with foreign operators.
The local and foreign pimps receive pedophiles from across the globe with sex packages “with everything included. Drugs, children, adolescents, women, men or the complete package, with security and all that kind of stuff.”
Quijano could not say how many foreign predators would be coming to Medellin for sex, but he has witnessed a significant increase.
More:
https://colombiareports.com/medellin-becoming-major-destination-foreign-predators/
Colombia: Dont Promote Officers Linked to Killings
November 14, 2017 7:30AM EST
Defense Ministry Conceals Key Information
(Washington, DC) – The 2017 list of candidates for army promotions in Colombia includes five officers linked by strong evidence to extrajudicial killings that are under criminal investigation, Human Rights Watch said today. Two of them are under investigation, but resumes the Defense Ministry released on October 27, 2017, had incomplete information about all five officers’ records.
Four colonels and one army general on the list of 22 have been credibly linked to “false positive” killings and other abuses under their watch. These killings of innocent civilians were committed systematically between 2002 and 2008 to boost body counts in the country’s long-running armed conflict. The Colombian Senate will decide whether to approve these promotions in the next few weeks.
“Instead of delivering a strong message that it has closed the dark chapter of false positives, the Defense Ministry is undermining the reputation of the armed forces by seeking to promote officers linked to allegations of extrajudicial killings.” said José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. “The Colombian Senate should disqualify any officers credibly implicated in serious abuses, unless and until those allegations are fully and properly investigated.”
Human Rights Watch research has shown that patterns in false-positive cases – including their systematic nature and the implausible circumstances of many of the reported combat killings – strongly suggest that commanders of units responsible for a significant number of killings knew or had reason to know about them. In addition to other forms of criminal participation, such as ordering crimes, commanders are criminally responsible under international law if they knew or had reason to know that subordinates under their effective control were committing a crime, but failed to take all necessary and reasonable steps in their power to prevent or punish those acts.
More:
https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/11/14/colombia-dont-promote-officers-linked-killings
'A way of healing': Art and memory in Latin America
1 hour ago
GETTY IMAGES
The years of military rule in Chile, when thousands of people were killed or disappeared,
have left deep scars
More than 20 years have passed since the civil war ended in Guatemala and Chile returned to democracy, but the impact of extreme state violence is still keenly felt.
As part of a BBC radio series on protest art in Latin America, Louise Morris travelled to both countries and asked if there was a role for art both to demand justice and collectively memorialise those lost.
A woman sits centre stage reading aloud.
At regular intervals a dentist enters and injects her mouth with a shot of anaesthetic.
More:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-41926222?intlink_from_url=&link_location=live-reporting-story
Trump breaks the link as handshake photo op goes awry
Source: Agence France-Presse
November 13, 2017 13:15
Manila - US President Donald Trump was all fingers and thumbs during a carefully choreographed photo op Monday at a summit of world leaders, failing to grasp whose hands he was supposed to be holding and breaking a lineup intended to showcase unity.
Trump, whose insurgent election victory was built on his willingness to disrupt political convention, was supposed to cross his arms and join hands with the men on either side of him.
But as others clutched the hands of the person to their left and their right, Trump used both of his hands to clasp the extended fingers of Vietnam's Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc.
The doubling up left summit host Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte with a spare hand -- and broke the line into two parts.
Read more: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/asean-plus/30331483
More than 50% of those on secretive NSW police blacklist are Aboriginal
Police commissioner concedes Suspect Target Management Plan has problems, but defends its objectives
Michael McGowan
@mmcgowan569
Friday 10 November 2017 16.31 EST
More than half the people on a secretive New South Wales police blacklist are Aboriginal, the state’s top law enforcement officer has revealed.
The NSW police commissioner, Mick Fuller, says about 55% of people who are currently the subject of a Suspect Target Management Plan are Indigenous, prompting accusations that police are using a “racially biased program” to combat crime.
The Suspect Target Management Plan – or STMP – is a “predictive style of policing” that uses “disruption and prevention” to identify people who police believe are a high risk of committing crimes.
In October, researchers from the University of New South Wales and the Public Interest Advocacy Centre released a report which showed the STMP was overwhelmingly aimed at young people and Indigenous Australians, and resulted in “oppressive policing”.
More:
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/nov/11/more-than-50-of-those-on-secretive-nsw-police-blacklist-are-aboriginal
What Corporate Media Failed to Learn About Canadian Single-Payer
OVEMBER 10, 2017
Media responded to Bernie Sanders’ hospital tour of Canada with predictable dismissiveness
MICHAEL CORCORAN
by Michael Corcoran
When it was announced that several journalists would travel with Sen. Bernie Sanders in October for a hospital tour of Canada to learn about its single-payer system, one question immediately sprang to mind: What would corporate media do to smear universal healthcare this time?
It is a sad reflection on the state of healthcare reporting in the United States that one can so easily predict how many media outlets will respond to a news event before it even happens. Yet for many familiar with years of media either ignoring or rejecting the merits of a universal public healthcare system—Canada’s in particular—it was hard not to expect dismissiveness and/or mockery from outlets such as the New York Times and Vox, who sent reporters on the tour.
The results were unsurprising. Vox (10/31/17) used the occasion to explain why single-payer is likely a pipe dream that doesn’t fit with American values. Much of the Times article (11/2/17) read like satire aimed at mocking Canada and Sanders.
New York Times: What Did Bernie Sanders Learn in His Weekend in Canada?
New York Times (11/2/17)
A New York Times ad circulating on Facebook proudly declares: “Evidence-driven reporting. No matter what the subject.” It’s a hollow boast to those familiar with the paper’s uniformly negative coverage of single-payer, and Margot Sanger-Katz’s write-up of Sanders’ tour is a glaring example.
More:
http://fair.org/home/what-corporate-media-failed-to-learn-about-canadian-single-payer/
Colombias war crimes tribunal close to being sunk by Congress
written by Adriaan Alsema November 9, 2017
Colombia’s Conservative Party on Wednesday surprisingly withdrew its support for a transitional justice system, further threatening a peace process to end more than half a century of armed conflict.
The decision became clear in a debate that was suspended after one third of senators showed up to vote on the transitional justice system that was expected to take force this month.
. . .
The transitional justice has long been opposed by hard-right opposition party Democratic Center (CD).
. . .
More than 60 congressmen have already been sent to prison for having aligned with paramilitary death squads to coerce voters. Others are still under investigation.
More:
https://colombiareports.com/colombias-war-crimes-tribunal-close-sunk-congress/
Colombias Caribbean coast: 14 politicians charged with using terror for political gain
written by Adriaan Alsema November 9, 2017
Colombia’s Supreme Court jailed another member of the country’s ruling elite on charges he used a designated terrorist group to gain political power.
Former Senator David Char is a member of arguably the most powerful political dynasty from the Caribbean coast and a prominent member of presidential candidate German Vargas‘ Radical Change (CR) party.
He was arrested on October 28 as one of 14 elite politicians from the Caribbean region who is investigated for allegedly using a designated terrorist group to win elections in 2002 and 2006.
Ties to multiple AUC chiefs
According to the prosecution, Char’s 2006 election was promoted and financed by the Northern Bloc, a regional paramilitary group founded by another member of the coastal elite.
More:
https://colombiareports.com/colombias-caribbean-coast-14-politicians-charged-using-terror-political-gain/
The US Southern Command's Silent Occupation of the Amazon
Thursday, November 09, 2017
By Santiago Navarro F. and Renata Bessi, Truthout | Report
Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, thanks a Brazilian soldier for
assisting with his tour of the jungle training center in Manaus, Brazil, on March 28, 2012.
Dempsey was there to visit the jungle training center which borders several different countries in
the Amazon Basin. (DOD photo by US Army Staff Sgt. Sun L. Vega, Joint Staff)
Brazil, Colombia and Peru share a triple borderland separating north from south on the South American continent. Located deep in the Amazon forest, this is the theater of operations in which more than 30 military companies test their services and merchandise. The multinational military exercise known as AmazonLog2017, is organized by the Armed Forces of Brazil. More than 1,500 members of the Brazilian military and military members from invited countries participated with high-caliber weapons and munitions, boats, aircraft, helicopters, information technologies, nautical and energy intelligent equipment, radars and sensors. The Southern Command of the United States -- the Unified Combatant Command of the United States Department of Defense with influence in the Caribbean, Central and South America -- is also an AmazonLog2017 participant.
Activists and researchers are alarmed about this military exercise. According to Mexican economist and geopolitical specialist Ana Esther Ceceña, AmazonLog2017 allows "the placement of troops that facilitate specific territorial incursions and rapid response operations, both of which imply the use of special forces, whether those be US forces, local or private on the triple borderland."
While the exercise involves temporary military drills, many fear that it welcomes larger future operations. According to Ceceña, AmazonLog2017 creates the conditions to allow future military operations of US troops, specifically in two strategic areas: the lower part of Venezuela and along the Atlantic coast, where Brazil will allow the US access to the Alcȃntara military base.
The AmazonLog2017 military actions were planned in three phases. The first, the industry's commercial phase, occurred between August 28 and September 1, 2017, in Manaus, the capital of the state of Amazonas. Two thousand personnel participated in this event, which was comprised of military, government agencies and arms industry corporations.
More:
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/42542-the-us-southern-command-s-silent-occupation-of-the-amazon
'I Know They're Watching Us': Black Lawmakers, Activists Alarmed Over FBI Report
Black activists and lawmakers are concerned a leaked FBI report on 'Black Identity Extremists' targets black communities.
by Chandelis R. Duster and Donna Owens / Nov.09.2017 / 11:56 AM ET
As a new wave of social activism protesting police killings of unarmed black men and women and decrying white supremacy sweeps the country, a leaked FBI report has activists and members of Congress demanding answers.
The 12-page assessment, written in August and titled “Black Identity Extremists Likely Motivated to Target Law Enforcement Officers,” was posted online by Foreign Policy. Citing attacks on police following the 2014 shooting death of unarmed teen Michael Brown by a white officer, the assessment notes “it is very likely Black Identity Extremist perceptions of police brutality against African-Americans” have caused an increase in violence against law enforcement.
In October, the Congressional Black Caucus sent a letter to FBI director Christopher Wray seeking answers related to the assessment given the Bureau’s “troubling history” of utilizing its broad investigatory powers to target black citizens.
“It’s the craziest report because it says that because you identify as black you are threat, which is outlandish and offensive and reminiscent of the FBI’s COINTELPRO operation, which targeted Martin Luther King, Jr., and other civil rights leaders,” said CBC Chairman Cedric Richmond, in an email to NBC News.
More:
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/i-know-they-re-watching-us-black-lawmakers-activists-alarmed-n813221
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