Judi Lynn
Judi Lynn's JournalCourt files show bid to tar slain Honduran activist Caceres
Source: Associated Press
Court files show bid to tar slain Honduran activist Caceres
Freddy Cuevas and Peter Orsi, Associated Press
Updated 9:22 pm, Tuesday, May 3, 2016
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — For months before her death, environmental activist Berta Caceres complained of repeated threats warning her to stop leading protests opposing a hydroelectric project on her Lenca people's ancestral lands.
Then, on March 3, armed men forced their way into Caceres' home in the middle of the night, shot her four times and wounded a visiting Mexican activist, who survived by playing dead. The killing prompted widespread condemnation and calls for an independent investigation, in part due to Caceres' international prominence as the winner of the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize.
. . .
Previously unpublicized court records from 2014 show that the government and DESA repeatedly sought to tar Caceres and her colleagues as violent anarchists bent on terrorizing the population through their protests at the project site. In filings seeking an injunction against the demonstrations, Caceres and two leaders of her organization were accused of "usurpation, coercion and continued damage" and even attempting to undermine the democratic order.
Activists say the demonizing language helped create a dangerous climate of hostility and harassment that they link directly to her murder.
Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Court-files-show-bid-to-tar-slain-Honduran-7390618.php
Three Former Soldiers Held for the Murder of Honduran Activist Who Wanted to Stop a Dam
Source: Vice News
Three Former Soldiers Held for the Murder of Honduran Activist Who Wanted to Stop a Dam
By Andalusia Knoll
May 3, 2016 | 5:05 pm
When environmental activist Berta Cáceres was murdered in her home in Honduras on March 2, the country's chief prosecutor said the crime was probably a robbery gone wrong.
Two months of international outrage and significant pressure later and the authorities have announced the arrest of four suspects — two of whom are employed by the company building the massive dam she had dedicated her life to fighting, and three of whom are former soldiers.
"These arrests show us that the assassination of our compañera was coordinated by the government," said José Gaspar Sánchez, spokesman for the same activist group known as the COPINH, to which Cáceres also belonged. "Neither COPINH nor Berta's daughters were notified about these arrests which is very concerning for us."
Cáceres was the best known member of the COPINH, which stands for the Council of Indigenous Peoples of Honduras, and won the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize in 2015 mainly in the name of their struggle against the Agua Zarca Dam.
Read more: https://news.vice.com/article/honduras-police-arrest-four-people-for-berta-caceres-murder
Colombia seizes assets of paramilitary death squad collaborators
Colombia seizes assets of paramilitary death squad collaborators
written by Stephen Gill May 3, 2016
Colombia has begun seizing properties of businessmen, ranchers and companies that collaborated with far-right paramilitary groups that have killed thousands and displaced millions of Colombians.
The Metropolitan Police of Pereira oversaw the forfeiture of the property of rancher Jose Leonidas Osorio who was linked to the Cacique Pipinta Front of the now defunct paramilitary group AUC.
The former commanders of the Cacique Pipinta Front have admitted to killing 140 civilians, including school teachers, human rights defenders and labor rights workers, incriminating numerous politicians and businessmen implicated in these crimes.
. . .
The current investigation targets some 150 companies, entrepreneurs and ranchers who funded and supported extreme-right paramilitary groups like the Cacique Pipinta Front. The list includes multinational banana company Chiquita and prominent businessmen like the late “emerald czar,” Victor Carranza.
More:
http://colombiareports.com/163918-2/
LBN:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10141435956
Tupac Amaru to Sue Argentina's Macri over 'Slander
Tupac Amaru to Sue Argentina's Macri over 'Slander
Published 2 May 2016
The social movement is filing a complaint against the president after calling it a “paramilitary organization” and accusing its leaders of stealing money.
The Argentine social organization Tupac Amaru announced the filing of a criminal suit against the country’s President Mauricio Macri and the governor of Jujuy province, Gerardo Morales, for "aggravated coercion", slander and false accusations against the social movement, their jailed leader Milagro Sala and congresswoman Mabel Balconte, a former member of the group.
The complaint is scheduled to be presented Monday morning at the Comodoro Py court in Buenos Aires and will be delivered by the national coordinator of the Tupac Amaru, Alejandro "Coco" Garfagnini.
The complaint seeks criminal charges be brought against Macri, the governor Morales and the prosecutor of Jujuy, Mariano Miranda “over making up accusations that the former leader Balconte was carrying bags of money to the city of Olivos," Tupac Amaru said in a statement Monday ahead of filing the suit.
The complaint also says Balconte was coerced by governor Morales, reportedly under the orders of President Macri, into testifying against jailed social activist Milagro Sala, the founder of Tupac Amaru, and other leaders over corruption allegations.
More:
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Tupac-Amaru-to-Sue-Argentinas-Macri-over-Slander-20160502-0014.html
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Milagro Sala standing with former President, Cristina Fernandez.
Milagro Sala with former President Kirchner
Milagro Sala with Pope Francis
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Important post by L Coyote, G.D.: Trump Allegedly Tried to Hire Latin American Election Hacker - For
L. Coyote (34,172 posts)
Trump Allegedly Tried to Hire Latin American Election Hacker - Fortune
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10027794753
From the 2nd article posted:
A Hacker Said He Rigged the 2012 Mexican Election, and It May Still Be Happening Today
By Oscar Balderas and Nathaniel Janowitz
April 1, 2016 | 2:15 pm
And when asked whether the current US election was being tampered with in the same way that he allegedly did to elections in Latin America, Sepúlveda had no doubt: "I'm 100 percent sure it is," he said.
We read about this creep's work in Colombia, and his ties to Alvaro Uribe. Little did we know at the time the other countries where this stain has worked.
Thanks to L. Coyote for making this information available.
1st cruise from a US port in decades leaves Miami for Cuba
Source: Associated Press
1st cruise from a US port in decades leaves Miami for Cuba
May 1, 9:01 PM EDT
MIAMI (AP) -- Passengers set sail Sunday from Miami on an historic cruise to Cuba, the first in decades to depart from a U.S. seaport for the communist island nation.
Carnival Corp.'s 704-passenger Adonia left port at 4:24 p.m., bound for Havana. Carnival's Cuba cruises, operating under its Fathom brand, will also visit the ports of Cienfuegos and Santiago de Cuba on the seven-day outing. Several Cuba-born passengers, among hundreds of others, were aboard, it said.
The cruise comes after Cuba loosened its policy banning Cuban-born people from arriving to the country by sea, a rule that threatened to stop the cruises from happening.
. . .
The Cuban government says the shift in policy removes prohibitions enacted when Cuban exiles were launching attacks by sea after the first Cuban revolution.
Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_CUBA_CRUISES?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2016-05-01-21-01-57
Baha'i Temple of South America
Baha'i Temple of South America
Sun Worshiper: A building with a complex skin blooms in the foothills of the Andes thanks to a multinational, multidisciplinary team.
Santiago, Chile
People/Products
In 2003, the Toronto firm Hariri Pontarini Architects won a competition for the Baha’i Temple of South America in Santiago, Chile, with a nine-sided design featuring petal-like elements that twist and rise to a central oculus. Thirteen years later, the project is nearly complete—and its innovative cast-glass skin is a victory for the architects, engineers, fabricators, and contractors who sweated every detail to make sure it could withstand the rigors of its mountainside location.
With its light-bathed interior, the temple embodies the Baha’i principle of light as a unifying element. “It’s designed to last 400 years, and, in keeping with the faith’s history and philosophy, we looked for an ancient, durable material that would filter light from outside or within,” says Doron Meinhard, project manager and associate in charge. Principal Siamak Hariri’s original scheme was clad on the interior and exterior in alabaster, a stone that’s translucent when cut thin enough.
But aesthetic and maintenance concerns precluded that choice. The building sits in the foothills of the Andes, where harsh sun, summer temperatures that can soar past 100 degrees Fahrenheit, and daily temperature swings as wide as 64 degrees are the norm. Alabaster loses its translucency above 104 degrees, and it’s somewhat soft, so it can be damaged by air pollution or water, says Meinhard. The architects, along with engineering firm Simpson Gumpertz & Heger (SGH), began to consider glass cladding instead, and settled on marble panels for the interior.
After many rounds of testing for strength, seismic performance, and thermal stresses, patterned cast glass was chosen for its light-filtering qualities and durability over laminated or annealed glass. The architects worked with glass artist Jeff Goodman on the one-of-a-kind formulation. They opted for borosilicate glass instead of soda-lime glass, because the latter cracked during thermal stress testing, making it unsuitable for a locale with such extreme temperature variations, says James Parker, SGH principal.
More:
http://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/11651-bahai-temple-of-south-america
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Bahai House of Worship
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South Africa: Rescued lions explore new home in sanctuary
Source: Associated Press
South Africa: Rescued lions explore new home in sanctuary
Stuart Graham, Associated Press
Updated 2:30 pm, Sunday, May 1, 2016
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Photo: Themba Hadebe, AP
Image 1 of 11
A former circus lion bites a tree branch inside an enclosure at Emoya Big Cat Sanctuary in Vaalwater, northern, South Africa, Sunday, May 1, 2016. Thirty-three lions rescued from circuses in Peru and Colombia ... more
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Vaalwater, South Africa (AP) — Lions rescued from circuses in Colombia and Peru and airlifted to South Africa scratched their manes on trees and explored their new territory in the African bush after being released into a sanctuary north of Johannesburg Sunday.
One of the 33 lions, a male known as Zeus, let out a mighty roar before stepping out of his cage into an enclosure where he will spend the coming months being monitored by a vet.
The lions arrived at the Emoya Big Cat Sanctuary shortly after dawn on Sunday to end a two-day journey from South America. The lions were freed after the use of wild animals in circuses was outlawed in Peru and Colombia.
It will be impossible for the lions to survive in the wild as they were bred in captivity and their circus owners mutilated many by breaking their teeth and removing their claws. Because they cannot hunt they will be fed game meat and will have water in their enclosures.
Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/world/article/South-Africa-Rescued-lions-explore-new-home-in-7386347.php
Massacres of Native Population Condemned in Indigenous Congress
Massacres of Native Population Condemned in Indigenous Congress
Panama, Apr 30 (Prensa Latina) Condemnation of the massacre, killing and genocide of indigenous peoples in the world, is part of the final declaration of the First Congress of Indigenous Parliamentarians of America (PIA), held in this capital city.
In this regard, the document describes Honduran Berta Caceres killing as "brutal murder", while pointing out other actions as the killing of Guatemalan Julio Rene Alvarado, 13, who lived in the indigenous community Q'echie.
It also mentions the killing of Geronimo Tugri by the National Police in 2013 in the Panamanian community of Ng'ñbe-Bugle, which also left "thousands of indigenous people injured, many of them blind".
The Declaration includes the main problems of the 50 million descendants of American ancestral cultures, such as recognition and integration in national societies, discrimination, land ownership, environmental protection and condemnation to mistreatment and inequities targeting them.
More:
http://www.plenglish.com//index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4839601&Itemid=1
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