Judi Lynn
Judi Lynn's JournalUS Treasury targets Medellin crime syndicate
Source: Colombia Reports
US Treasury targets Medellin crime syndicate
Sep 16, 2014 posted by Emil Foget
The United States Treasury placed eight members of the violent drug cartel, Oficina de Envigado, a Medellin-based crime group, on the Treasury department’s “Kingpin list” Tuesday, according to a statement from USA Embassy in Bogota.
The Kingpin List is the colloquial term for the US Treasury Department’s Specially Designated Nationals List (SDN), compiled by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). The list orders the suspension of all illegal activities of the individuals or groups named and prohibits any US citizen to make transactions with these entities.
Oficina de Envigado was included in the Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers list (SDNT) in June, which means that any person or business associated with the Oficina could face fines or prison.
“La Oficina’s cadres of enforcers intimidate, extort, and murder citizens and officials, including courageous judicial and law enforcement partners throughout Colombia,” said Adam Szubin, director of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, in a statement.
Read more: http://colombiareports.co/u-s-treasury-targets-colombia-cocaine-cartel/
Guatemala: bishop's killer runs prison ring
Guatemala: bishop's killer runs prison ring
Submitted by Weekly News Update... on Tue, 09/16/2014 - 10:15
On Sept. 3 the United Nations-sponsored International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) announced that a joint operation with Guatemala's Public Ministry and Governance Ministry had captured seven members of a criminal network that took bribes to arrange transfers for prisoners; the ring also supplied prisoners with cell phones, special food, conjugal visits and other benefits. According to the authorities, the network's leaders were Penitentiary System Director Edgar Camargo Liere and a prisoner, Byron Miguel Lima Oliva, who is serving a 20-year term for carrying out the Apr. 26, 1998 murder of Catholic bishop Juan José Gerardi Conedera, a well-known human rights campaigner. A total of 14 people are charged with participating in the bribery ring, but apparently not all had been captured as of Sept. 3. (CICIG, Sept. 3)
Lima Oliva, a former army captain who is an inmate in the Pavoncito prison south of Guatemala City, reportedly had an arrangement with Penitentiary Director Camargo that enabled him to charge a prisoner as much as $12,000 to be transferred. Lima Oliva himself apparently was living well in the Pavoncito. He was equipped with as many as five cell phones for his business, made frequent trips out of prison in armored cars, including a Porsche, and invested in real estate, including a beachfront property. The Mexican daily La Jornada reported that the corruption in Pavoncito "was always known." Lima Oliva himself has claimed to be friends with President Otto Pérez Molina and to have connections with Governance Minister Mauricio Lopez Bonilla; he says he arranged the printing of the campaign polo shirts for Pérez Molina's successful 2011 election campaign. In February of this year Lima was apprehended while going to the dentist and overstaying his authorized time outside the prison; he and his entourage were traveling in vehicles used in the 2011 campaign by Pérez Molina's Patriotic Party (PP).
According to the court that convicted him in June 2001, Lima Oliva bludgeoned Bishop Gerardi to death just two days after Gerardi released a report on abuses during Guatemala's 36-year civil war; the report blamed many of the abuses on the military. Also convicted were Lima Oliva's father, former colonel Byron Disrael Lima Estrada, and a former soldier in the Presidential General Staff (EMP), Specialist Obdulio Villanueva Arévalo. The elder Lima was given an early release in 2012 for good behavior; Villanueva was decapitated during an inmate riot at the Preventive Center prison in northern Guatemala City in February 2003. Lima Oliva was in the same prison but was unharmed. He denies any role in Gerardi's murder and says he's a scapegoat.
Lima Oliva's apparent connections with the government have led to suspicions that the prosecution of the former captain may not be successful. La Jornada correspondent Sanjuana Martínez asked the judge in the case, Miguel Ángel Gálvez, if he might end up fleeing the country, as happened with the chief prosecutor in Lima Oliva's 2001 conviction. "I hope not," Judge Gálvez said. When asked if he was afraid, he answered: "Of course, especially since this is a very complex country." (Christian Science Monitor, Sept. 5; Prensa Libre, Guatemala, Sept.11; LJ, Sept. 14; The Guardian, UK, Sept. 14, 2012, from AP)
http://ww4report.com/node/13537
(Short article, no more at link.)
Uruguay: Deepening of progressivism or conservative break?
Uruguay: Deepening of progressivism or conservative break?
Written by José Elosegui
Monday, 15 September 2014 19:13
Source: Latinamerican Press
Surveys indicate that the governing Frente Amplio and right-wing National Party would vie for the presidency in a second round.
On October 26 Uruguayans will vote for a new president and choose the members of the bicameral parliament (30 senators and 90 representatives). Opinion polls indicate that the governing Frente Amplio (FA), or Broad Front, will not win on the first round, so a runoff election on November 30 would be held, in which it will face the conservative National Party (PN).
FA member Tabaré Vázquez, who was president during 2005-2010 and was the first leftist leader in the political history of the country, and the young Luis Lacalle Pou, son of former president Luis Alberto Lacalle (1990-95), are the two choices for president.
It’s also not for certain that the governing leftist party will win the second round. Even if it does triumph, it’s very possible that it will lose the majority in the national parliament.
At the same time as the first round, a referendum will be carried out to let the people decide if they want to lower the age of criminal responsibility from 18 to 16 years of age. The referendum also divides along political parties and their supporters — the PN and Colorado Party (PC), the so called traditional parties, versus the FA. The result of this referendum is also very uncertain.
The two consecutive administrations of the ruling party have made fundamental strides for the Uruguayan people in terms of human rights as well as economic, social and cultural rights.
More:
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/5047-uruguay-deepening-of-progressivism-or-conservative-break
Colombia: freed cartel hitman demands protection
Colombia: freed cartel hitman demands protection
Submitted by WW4 Report on Mon, 09/15/2014 - 15:55
Jhon Jairo Velásquez Vasquez AKA "Popeye" is notorious in Colombia as former personal enforcer for late drug lord Pablo Escobar—and is now a free man after 22 years behind bars, two-thirds of his original sentence. But he seems to be more troubled than relieved about his release on parole—just before getting popped from the top-security Cómbita prison in Boyacá, Popeye asked Colombia's official human rights office, the Defensoría del Pueblo, for protection. "Please grant me police security from the moment I leave the prison gate," he wrote. We can imagine that Popeye has made a few enemies over the years. In jailhouse interviews with journalists, he boasted that he personally killed around 300 people and helped arrange for the murder of 10 times that many. A judge granted nonetheless his parole application, and he was sprung on a bond of 9 million pesos ($4,700) Aug. 27. "In his own hand he asked [authorities] to protect his right to life," the Defensoría said of the request, adding that the office has contacted the appropriate authorities to arrange security measures.
Popeye was convicted in connection with the murder of presidential hopeful Luis Carlos Galán in 1989, but in 2006 testified against former justice minister Alberto Santofimio, a rival candidate in the 1990 presidential race who was convicted of ordering Galan's assassination. Galán, who campaigned promising a crackdown on Escobar's Medellín Cartel, was the favorite to win the election before he was gunned down in the public square of a Bogotá suburb as he prepared to give a speech. In his press interviews, Popeye also claimed responsibility for the 1988 kidnapping of Andres Pastrana—then the mayor of Bogotá and later president of Colombia. He also admitted to murdering his own girlfriend on Escobar's orders—and claimed involvement in the 1989 bombing of Avianca Airlines Flight 203, which killed all 107 people on board.
Popeye, who puts his odds on survival outside the prison walls at just 20%, is now contrite. "I want to teach the youth of Colombia that they don't have to sell their lives for a Mercedes-Benz or the pants of a beauty queen, like I did," he said upon his relase. "Perhaps they will give me that opportunity." (SMH, LAHT, Radio Australia, Colombia Reports, Aug. 28; EFE, Aug. 26)
http://www.ww4report.com/node/13529
(Short article, no more at link.)
Mexico: demand investigation of military massacre
Mexico: demand investigation of military massacre
Submitted by WW4 Report on Wed, 09/10/2014 - 18:27
Human Rights Watch on Aug. 22 called on Mexico's government to ensure an "impartial and effective" investigation into the killing of 22 civilians by soldiers on June 30, during an alleged confrontation at an empty warehouse at Tlatlaya, a town in the mountains of central México state. Witness accounts have cast doubt on the official version of events, HRW found. A press release from the National Defense Secretariat (SEDENA) said soldiers responded to gunfire when they raided the warehouse. The SEDENA statement said the soliders later found 38 firearms, a grenade, and several cartridges in the warehouse, and liberated three women who had been kidnapped. On July 1, the governor of México state, Eruviel Ávila Villegas, said that the soldiers had acted "in legitimate defense" and "taken down delinquents." However, an Associated Press reporter who visited the area three days after the incident filed a story July 8 saying there was "little evidence of sustained fighting," and that he found only a small number of bullet holes in the warehouse walls. In other words, what happened seems to have been a massacre rather than a shoot-out. Government officials have yet to disclose the names of those killed or the status of the investigation. "It's been two months since soldiers killed 22 civilians in Tlatlaya, and there are more questions than answers about what really took place that day," said HRW Americas director José Miguel Vivanco.
The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) also visited the site, and expressed concern with the official version of events. The OHCR team said that they did not find signs of stray bullets of the type that would be left by soldiers shooting automatic weapons from a distance—again pointing to the possibility of executions at close range.
Mexico's security forces are under growing pressure from international human rights groups. Almost exatcly a year before the Tlatlaya massacre, Amnesty International (AI) urged Mexican lawmakers to reform the nation's military justice system to combat abuses committed by army and navy personnel. Also last June, AI called on the Mexican government to investigate the disappearances of thousands of people—and acknowledge the government's involvement in the disappearances. AI's report stated 26,121 people were reported disappeared or missing between December 2006 and December 2012, and 40% of the cases were not even investigated. Earlier that year HRW also reported that Mexican security forces have participated in widespread "disappearances." The UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions Christof Heyns meanwhile urged the Mexican government to address the military's use of force against civilians. (Jurist, Aug. 23; Proceso, HRW, Aug. 22; APRO, June 30)
http://www.ww4report.com/node/13519
(Short article, no more at link.)
Former local Red Cross chief linked to paramilitary groups
Source: Colombia Reports
Former local Red Cross chief linked to paramilitary groups
Sep 15, 2014 posted by Christoffer Frendesen
A former local Red Cross head from the north of Colombia appears in court records where hundreds of hectares have been deprived by paramilitary forces. The now-Red Cross volunteer denies accusations.
Elkin Bechara, former head of Red Cross in northern Caribbean state Cordoba, owns 16 hectares of lands, which originally was stolen from peasants by now defunct paramilitary group United Self Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), according to newspaper El Tiempo.
Bechara, who owns the land with his son Ricardo Velásquez Bechara, claims that the hectares were bona fide purchases.
“I’m willing to prove it to the authorities. Also I am going to sue the person who sold me the land and make his name public,” stated Bechara to El Tiempo.
The cases of stolen land surfaced in 2013, when a Santa Marta family in the Magdalena state, reported to the prosecutor general that AUC forced them to give up their land, which after a couple of transfer ended in Bechara’s name.
Read more: http://colombiareports.co/former-local-red-cross-leader-connections-paramilitary-groups/#sthash.fzHguR7M.dpuf
West Colombian indigenous leader assassinated, another missing
West Colombian indigenous leader assassinated, another missing
Sep 15, 2014 posted by Adriaan Alsema
An indigenous leader has been assassinated in the west of Colombia while a second leader has gone missing, announced Colombia’s Ombudsman on Sunday.
Ernelio Pacheco’s body was found on Saturday in the town of Alto Baudo, after being kidnapped by men carrying firearms while on a boat on the by Nauca River a day before.
Then, on Saturday afternoon, the president of the Association of Indigenous Councils of Alto Baudo, Becheche Miguel Zarco, was kidnapped when he was traveling in a boat near Baudo.
He was approached by armed men who tied his hands and took him to another boat and then onto an unknown destination.
These attacks come just before the initiative “Baudoseando”, organised by different ethnic and territorial social organizations, in order to provide support to indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities in Baudo to adddress the issue of armed conflict and human rights in the region.
More:
http://colombiareports.co/west-colombian-indigenous-leader-assassinated-another-missing/
Drought bites as Amazon’s ‘flying rivers’ dry up
Drought bites as Amazon’s ‘flying rivers’ dry up
Scientists say deforestation and climate change responsible for forests not producing vapour clouds that bring rain to Brazil, reports Climate News Network
Jan Rocha for Climate News Network, part of the Guardian Environment Network
theguardian.com, Monday 15 September 2014 07.52 EDT
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Amazon rainforest kick up humidity that brings rain to Brazil – it’s a giant water pump,
but human activity is damaging it. Photograph: Fernanda Preto/Getty Images
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The unprecedented drought now affecting São Paulo, South America’s giant metropolis, is believed to be caused by the absence of the “flying rivers” − the vapour clouds from the Amazon that normally bring rain to the centre and south of Brazil.
Some Brazilian scientists say the absence of rain that has dried up rivers and reservoirs in central and southeast Brazil is not just a quirk of nature, but a change brought about by a combination of the continuing deforestation of the Amazon and global warming.
This combination, they say, is reducing the role of the Amazon rainforest as a giant “water pump”, releasing billions of litres of humidity from the trees into the air in the form of vapour.
Meteorologist Jose Marengo, a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, first coined the phrase “flying rivers” to describe these massive volumes of vapour that rise from the rainforest, travel west, and then − blocked by the Andes − turn south.
More:
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/sep/15/drought-bites-as-amazons-flying-rivers-dry-up
Italy targets former Uruguayan naval officer over role in alleged torture
Italy targets former Uruguayan naval officer over role in alleged torture
Jorge Néstor Fernández Troccoli denies any wrongdoing after accusations relating to South American's dirty wars
John Hooper in Rome
The Guardian, Sunday 14 September 2014 14.50 EDT
[font size=1]
Former Uruguayan military officers, including Gilberto Vazquez (seen here in 2006), have
faced investigators over alleged abuses under Uruguay's 1970s rule.
Photograph: Alejandro Arigon/AP [/font]
Italian prosecutors are poised to seek charges of murder and kidnapping against a former Uruguayan naval intelligence officer accused of participating in South America's dirty wars.
Jorge Néstor Fernández Troccoli has denied any wrongdoing. But in a 24-page document, he was said to have acknowledged that, in the 1970s when Uruguay's civil-military government was cracking down on suspected leftwing insurgents and sympathisers, torture was a "normal procedure" in his unit. He insisted, however, that it did not go beyond "keeping prisoners for several hours on their feet without eating or drinking".
In what La Stampa reported was his only statement to investigators, he was quoted as saying: "I declare myself innocent. I do not accept the accusations."
Troccoli's lawyer likened his client to Christ on the cross, adding: "He was just a young lieutenant. He reported to his superiors." Police and prosecutors in Rome have been investigating Troccoli for more than seven years as part of an inquiry rooted in Italy's nationality laws. Since these put more emphasis on descent than place of birth, many people of Italian origin have – or, like Troccoli, can obtain – an Italian passport. But, for the same reason, some victims of repression in Latin America are considered Italians, and their fate a matter for Italian courts.
More:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/14/uruguayan-naval-officer-alleged-torture-italy
PR Mind Control
Weekend Edition September 12-14, 2014
Even Better Than the Real Thing
PR Mind Control
by MICKEY Z
“As force is always on side of the governed, the governors have nothing to support them but opinion.”
- David Hume
If a given market has the capability to supply a never-ending array of products, ideologies, concepts, and goods, how do we ultimately make our choices? What persuades pliable, willing consumers to select Coke or Pepsi, McDonalds or KFC, MasterCard or Visa, Crest or Colgate, Facebook or Twitter?
Bigger picture: What makes us believe we actually “need” any of these commodities in the first place? The easy answer, of course, is advertising.
We see the commercials, we hum the jingles, we even pay good money to adorn our bodies with clothing bearing corporate logos. Clearly the many billions of dollars spent each year on advertising profoundly influence our lives. But there’s also a parallel industry — albeit with a much lower profile.
“In societies like ours, corporate propaganda is delivered through advertising and public relations,” says author Derrick Jensen. “Most people recognize that advertising is propaganda. We understand that whoever paid for and designed an ad wants us to think or feel a certain way, vote for a certain candidate, or purchase a certain product. Public relations, on the other hand, is much more insidious. Because it’s disguised as information, we often don’t realize we are being influenced by public relations.”
If alarms began ringing in your head upon reading the term “propaganda,” you’re certainly not alone. Thanks to Joseph Goebbels, propaganda is officially a dirty word. But when Edward Bernays — nephew of Sigmund Freud, public relations pioneer, and America’s most innovative social engineer — got his start in the early 20th century it was a word less charged but equally as potent. In fact, Bernays unabashedly named one of his books Propaganda.
“Edward Bernays was surely one of the most amazing and influential characters of the twentieth century,” explains John Stauber, co-author of Toxic Sludge is Good for You: Lies, Damn Lies, and Public Relations. “ He was a nephew of Sigmund Freud and helped to popularize Freudianism in the United States. Later, he used his relation to Freud to promote himself. And from his uncle’s psychoanalysis techniques, Bernays developed a scientific method of managing behavior, to which he gave the name ‘public relations.’”
More:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/09/12/pr-mind-control/
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