Judi Lynn
Judi Lynn's JournalTrump of the tropics: the 'dangerous' candidate leading Brazil's presidential race
Jair Bolsonaro has openly cheered dictatorship and publicly insulted women. Now he’s deploying Trump-like tactics in his race for the presidency
Last modified on Thu 19 Apr 2018 11.01 EDT
Jair Bolsonaro’s disciples had packed the arrivals hall of this far-flung Amazonian airport, united by their contempt for the left and an unbreakable determination to score a selfie with the man they call “the Legend”.
“He’s Brazil’s hope! A light at the end of the tunnel! A new horizon!” gushed Fernando Vieira, one of hundreds of fans there to greet a far-right firebrand who cheerleads for dictatorship but could soon become leader of the world’s fourth-largest democracy.
When flight 2020 delivered the presidential hopeful to his sun-scorched destination in the northern state of Roraima, pandemonium broke out. “Legend! Legend! Legend! Legend!” the crowd chanted, hoisting their idol into the air and outside through a crush of police officers and partisans.
. . .
Since the Pinochet-praising former paratrooper entered politics three decades ago, he has repeatedly called for a return to the kind of military rule Brazil endured until 1985. “I am in favour of a dictatorship,” he boasted during the first of seven terms as a congressman.
More:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/19/jair-bolsonaro-brazil-presidential-candidate-trump-parallels
From his US prison, former paramilitary chief submits to Colombias war crimes tribunal
by Adriaan Alsema April 17, 2018
The former chief commander of the AUC, warlord Salvatore Mancuso, will cooperate with his country’s war crimes tribunal to crimes committed during the armed conflict.
Mancuso was extradited to the US in 2008 and is serving a 15-year sentence on drug trafficking charges in a prison in Atlanta, Georgia.
US authorities last week granted a request to allow the former paramilitary chief to testify over the more than 60,000 human rights he has admitted to, according to newspaper El Tiempo.
. . .
While the US and Europe considered the AUC a terrorist group, Colombia’s elite families and military maintained close ties to the paramilitaries.
More:
https://colombiareports.com/from-his-us-prison-former-paramilitary-chief-submits-to-colombias-war-crimes-tribunal/
Salvatore Mancuso, on previous "60 Minutes" program
Witness in case against Colombias former president assassinated
Source: Colombia Reports
by Adriaan Alsema April 16, 2018
Unknown assassins have murdered another witness in one of the criminal cases against Colombia’s former President Alvaro Uribe, local media reported on Sunday.
The victim, Carlos Enrique Areiza, admitted in 2016 that he had falsely accused Senator Ivan Cepeda of trying to bribe him into incriminating several major political figures.
The demobilized member of paramilitary group AUC was assassinated in Bello, a city bordering Medellin, over the weekend.
Earlier this year, the Supreme Court added Areiza to a list of witnesses who allegedly were used by Uribe and his political allies to discredit Cepeda.
Read more: https://colombiareports.com/witness-in-case-against-colombias-former-president-assassinated/
Assassinated key witness in process against Álvaro Uribe (Google translation)
04/16/2018 12:25 PM
One of the key witnesses in the process advanced by the Supreme Court of Justice against Senator Álvaro Uribe for his alleged responsibility in a cartel of false witnesses was murdered.
The victim, identified as Carlos Enrique Areiza , was attacked last Saturday by armed men in the Antioquia municipality of Bello. Areiza was a key player in the process for parapolitics that runs against the ex - governor of Antioquia, Luis Alfredo Ramos.
His testimony was relevant in the decision of the Supreme Court to acquit Senator Iván Cepeda for alleged manipulation of witnesses.
The information given by Areiza, known as alias Papo, led the high court to order that his and his family's security scheme be adjusted, given the high risk to which he was exposed and what did not happen.
http://www.redmas.com.co/colombia/asesinado-testigo-alvaro-uribe/
Carlos Enrique Areiza
Álvaro Uribe
A new chapter of the False Witnesses (Google translation)
By The other face - May 21, 2015
Carlos Enrique Areiza Arango / minuto30.com
The false witness Areiza says that he received pressure to link Luis Alfredo Ramos with the paramilitaries and pointed out the former head of self-defense Pablo Sierra. He had also accused Senator Iván Cepeda of the fact. Justice has Ramos incommunicado from the press.
A new chapter was written in the witness scandal mounted in Colombia. The alleged informant Carlos Enrique Areiza Arango, agreed to have lied to affect the former governor of Antioquia Luis Afredo Ramos, and ratified before the courts taking their trial by false testimony, which made a montage to deceive justice and affect the then candidate Presidential Party Democratic Center.
In a judicial hearing held before a Medellín Knowledge Judge, the former paramilitary Areiza, identified with the aliases of Papo, Juan Camilo or Camilo Restrepo, offered excuses to the family of his victim, insuring he was pressured to testify against Ramos. and clarified in a letter, which was under chain of custody, how the facts were presented.
According to the investigations, apparently Pablo Ernesto Sierra García, known as "Alberto Guerrero", former head of the "Cacique Pipintá" Bloc of the Self-Defense Forces (AUC), instigated the false testimony of Areiza against the Antioquia political leader, who is part of the movement of opposition to the current National Government.
Read more at http://laotracara.co/destacados/un-nuevo-capitulo-de-los-falsos-testigos/#al0Kfs73x0iTxBiC.99
We are still here: The fight to be recognized as Indigenous in Uruguay
A nascent campaign is slowly forcing a public reckoning with Uruguay’s history and self-image, while simultaneously raising broader questions about what, exactly, makes a people
STEPHANIE NOLEN
MONTEVIDEO
INCLUDES CORRECTION
PUBLISHED APRIL 12, 2018
UPDATED 9 HOURS AGO
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/resizer/DgQW5dVov2QX5IS_-Z8j5F1CFnM=/1200x0/filters:quality(80)/arc-anglerfish-tgam-prod-tgam.s3.amazonaws.com/public/BNDKDQALC5HORF5XQPC5HRJ5PU.JPG
Felipe Lobato, 28, shown on the outskirts of Montevideo, is part of a campaign of people who want the
government to recognize them as Indigenous and as victims of cultural genocide.
MATILDE CAMPODONICO/THE GLOBE AND MAIL
When Felipe Lobato was growing up, people sometimes called him negrito (darky)and asked him if he was Peruvian, or some other kind of exotic foreigner. He was in his teens when he began to learn the history of Indigenous people who lived, not just in the Andes or other far-off corners of South America, but in Uruguay. Four years ago, as he was trying to put words on his own identity, Mr. Lobato stumbled across Facebook photos posted by people who looked like him and who said they were Charrua – members of Uruguay’s First Nation.
The hitch, for Mr. Lobato, was that the Charrua are extinct. So say the history books, the government, anthropologists and indeed Uruguay’s whole national creation story.
Intrigued, Mr. Lobato, a 28-year-old sound engineer and DJ who lives in the capital, sought out the people in the pictures and learned that there is a significant challenge to that creation story – living, breathing Charrua who are undeterred by the anthropologists and the textbooks who say they were wiped out nearly 200 years ago.
“We lived on this territory before the Uruguayan state started to administer it – and they tried to erase our whole existence – but some of us are saying, we are still here,” he said. “It doesn’t have to be over because some anthropologists claim it is. We’re used to that, by now.”
More:
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-in-uruguay-indigenous-people-are-fighting-to-prove-they-exist/
Far-right Brazilian presidential candidate charged with inciting hatred and discrimination
Jair Bolsonaro could face up to three years in prison if convicted
Ernesto Londoño 16 hours ago
Brazil’s attorney general charged congressman Jair Bolsonaro, a far-right presidential candidate who had been running in second place in the polls, with inciting hatred and discrimination against blacks, indigenous communities, women and gays.
The case injected a new jolt of drama into Brazil’s presidential election, which will be held in October. The charge came less than a week after the front-runner in the race, former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, began serving a 12-year sentence for corruption.
The charging document, which was signed by attorney general Raquel Dodge, includes a long list of incendiary remarks by Mr Bolsonaro, who has developed a strong and loyal following by using harsh language and vowing to adopt severe tactics to address Brazil’s epidemic of violence.
If convicted, Mr Bolsonaro, 63, could face up to three years in prison and a $117,000 (£82,000) fine.
More:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/brazil-far-right-jair-bolsonaro-nationalism-racism-sexism-gays-women-marginalised-communities-a8304781.html
Bolivia Morales hits back at right-wing national representatives at the Summit of the Americas
MONDAY, APRIL 16, 2018
BOLIVIAN President Evo Morales hit back today at right-wing national representatives, including US Vice President Mike Pence, who attended this weekend’s Summit of the Americas in the Peruvian capital Lima.
“We warn about the false fight against corruption that they’re using to topple democratically elected governments and projects for change,” Mr Morales told the Democratic Governance Against Corruption summit.
He said it would be “superficial” and an “inappropriate use of public money” to meet for a “false struggle” against corruption, breaking with the speeches of the presidents of Peru and Argentina had who spoken before him.
. . .
He chastised Mr Pence for "ignoring reality,” adding: “I reject these insulting references to Cuba and Venezuela.”
The US vice president then walked out of the conference.
More:
https://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/article/morales%20hits%20back%20at%20right-wing%20national%20representatives%20at%20the%20summit%20of%20the%20americas
The rock guitarist behind the first U.S conviction of a former Latin American president
The rock guitarist behind the first U.S conviction of a former Latin American president
Harvard law grad Thomas Becker went to Bolivia in 2005 and ran into street protests demanding justice for the deaths of more than 50 people. He left his rock band to help win a landmark court case against a former Bolivian president.
Por: Lorena Arroyo,
Luis Velarde
Publicado: abr 12, 2018 | 11:03 AM EDT
FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida --- A 30-something man, with a long face and tousled blond hair, pushed the wheelchair of an indigenous young woman from Bolivia leaving a federal courtroom. The man, dressed in a tight black suit and narrow tie, was once the lead guitarist for Beautiful Bodies, an alternative rock band that tours the United States and Europe.
He stopped performing to put a former Latin American president and his defense minister on trial.
Thomas Becker is one of the lawyers at the Harvard Law School's International Human Rights Clinic who helped nine indigenous Aymara Bolivians score an unprecedented victory in a civil trial in Fort Lauderdale. A jury ruled that former Bolivian President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada and Defense Minister Carlos Sánchez Berzaín were responsible for the extrajudicial execution of eight people during a wave of street protests in 2003 that left more than 50 dead.
“It's the first trial in the history of the United States of a former president who has to respond directly to his accusers,” Becker said shortly after he learned the jury's decision last week.
More:
https://www.univision.com/univision-news/united-states/the-rock-guitarist-behind-the-first-us-conviction-of-a-former-latin-american-president
Hand over your son or well shoot him: escaping Central Americas gang violence
The UN calls it a “silent emergency”: the flood of terrified youths targeted by gangs for “misdemeanours” as petty as looking at an enemy the wrong way.
By Tim Elliott 13 APRIL 2018
Eva got the call one day last April. “Come here now, and bring your son,” said the voice on the other end. “Or we will come to you and get him ourselves.” Eva lived with 10 members of her extended family in Usulután, a city in the south of El Salvador. As with much of this Central American country, Usulután has a heavy presence of Mara Salvatrucha, an ultra-violent criminal gang, also known as MS-13.
Eva knew the caller was MS-13, but she had no idea what he wanted with her or with her son, José, who was eight years old. “If you go to the police,” the man warned her, “we will make things worse for you.” Eva and José went to the gang house that afternoon. There were several men inside, one of whom approached Eva, pulled out a pistol and put it her head. She asked: “Why are you doing this?” The gunman explained that her ex-partner, José’s father, had fallen foul of the gang; now, by the convoluted logic of the underworld, Eva and José would have to pay. “We know it’s hard,” he shrugged. “But orders are orders.”
Eva pleaded with him. “At that moment, I felt death sitting on top of me,” she says. “I was so scared for my son.” Eva had a choice. The gunman could shoot José now, or Eva could hand José over to his father. That way the boy would be his responsibility, giving the gang leverage over him. Eva agreed, knowing that she had no intention of doing so.
For the next week, she fretted over her options. Then, one evening, the police called: they had received a tip-off that Eva was to be killed. “I remember coming home that night and seeing her, hiding in a closet, crying,” says her 54-year-old aunt, Ana, when we meet at a secret location in the Guatemalan countryside. Eva, 26, has long dark hair and a sweet smile. Ana, on the other hand, seems inconsolably sad. “My poor niece,” she says. “She was so afraid she could barely move.”
More:
https://www.smh.com.au/world/south-america/hand-over-your-son-or-we-ll-shoot-him-escaping-central-america-s-gang-violence-20180409-p4z8lw.html
Whale Sneezes Rainbow, Proving Nature is Beautiful and Weird
By Brandon Specktor, Senior Writer | April 11, 2018 04:23pm ET
They say that at the end of every rainbow is a humpback whale.
Wait, do they say that? Regardless — thanks to a California wildlife photographer with impeccable timing, you can now say with certainty that at the end of at least one rainbow, there is at least one humpback whale. Watch the glorious, light-spouting cetacean seemingly sneeze a rainbow out of its blowhole in the Instagram video above.
Wildlife photographer Domenic Biagini caught this footage while on a whale-spotting excursion near San Diego last December. (The Instagram feed of Biagini, a photographer for Captain Dave's Dolphin & Whale Watching Safari, is loaded with breathtaking videos of whales and dolphins.) Biagini posted the clip to Reddit yesterday (April 10), and the footage has since amassed more than 26,000 "upvotes." [Whale Album: Giants of the Deep]
More:
https://www.livescience.com/62280-humpback-whale-sneezes-rainbow-video.html
Colombia investigating whether archaeological find could be paramilitary mass grave
by Adriaan Alsema April 11, 2018
Forensic investigators of Colombia’s prosecution are investigating whether a mass grave that were initially presented as an archaeological find is in fact a mass grave with more than 50 human remains.
Workers constructing a highway around the Caribbean port city of Barranquilla found the remains and initially called in the help of archaeologists.
. . .
However, forensic investigators were alarmed by the fact that the remains had been found in shallow graves, some no less than 10 inches deep. “They are probably not that old,” an anonymous investigator told local news website El Heraldo.
. . .
This far-right group is accused of having committed more than 250 crimes, and allegedly murdered dozens of union workers, politicians and students.
More:
https://colombiareports.com/colombia-investigating-whether-archaeological-find-could-be-paramilitary-mass-grave/
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