Judi Lynn
Judi Lynn's JournalMexico: Missing students’ families start nationwide bus protest
Mexico: Missing students’ families start nationwide bus protest
14/11 01:58 CET
Relatives of 43 missing Mexican students have marched in the town of Tixtla in southern Guerrero state, refusing to accept the government’s claim that their loved ones are probably dead.
Authorities say suspected gang members admitted killing and incinerating the trainee teachers, claiming they had been handed over by corrupt police.
But Teresa Mateco, a mother of one of the missing students, is not convinced.
“We want proof,” she said, her voice full of emotion, as she marched alongside others carrying photographs of the missing students.
“While there is no proof, our children are alive. We know they are alive. …but we want to know where they are and the government knows that.”
Amid mass marches and rising anger, relatives and classmates of the students have begun a nationwide bus tour to keep pressure on the government which says remains found are so badly burned that it is impossible to say when and if they will be identified.
More:
http://www.euronews.com/2014/11/14/mexico-missing-students-families-start-nationwide-bus-protest/
For US American DU'ers who didn't see this info. when it came out originally:
Chavez foe to face corruption charges in Venezuela
Feb. 17, 2013 6:57 AM EST
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Prosecutors plan to bring corruption charges against a prominent opponent of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, claiming he misspent public funds by using them to launch an organization that has become one of the country's most popular political parties.
Opposition politician Leopoldo Lopez allegedly accepted donations from Venezuela's state-run oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela, in 1998, prosecutors said in a statement Saturday. Lopez was summoned to appear before prosecutors next month.
The donations were purportedly authorized by the politician's mother, Antonietta Mendoza de Lopez, when she was working for the state-run company known as PDVSA, its Spanish acronym. Lopez allegedly guided the donations to a close associate to form First Justice, an organization that later become one of the South American country's most popular political parties.
Lopez, a former Caracas district mayor, has denied any wrongdoing. In a message posted on the Twitter social networking site, Lopez said the accusations are politically motivated.
More:
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/chavez-foe-face-corruption-charges-venezuela
Unexploded Mines on the Chilean Border
Unexploded Mines on the Chilean Border
November 12 2014 18:34
Mines which were planted by the government of Pinochet in 1980, and have still not been removed, have unexpectedly blown up 177 times over the years. This has taken the lives of 29 people, with a Peruvian citizen dying in 2012 and a Columbian recently losing his right leg.
CHILEAN BORDER — In 1980 mines were planted along Chile’s border. This was done under the orders of Pinochet amidst disputes with Peru, Bolivia and Argentina. The dictatorship installed around 180,000 explosive devices along the Chilean border.
To date, these landmines have taken the lives of 29 people, and affected around 177 people. Last year a Peruvian citizen who tried to jump over the border lost his life, and this year a Colombian lost his right leg in a similar incident.
In February earlier this year Chilean Army nurse Abelino Paicil, along with his supervisor Major Alejandro Perez, was scrutinizing the situation as soldiers worked to remove the landmines. An officer had to monitor the wind levels because if they exceeded the speed of 70 km/hr it was not safe to continue the work.
In 2001 the Chilean government promised to remove the mines by 2012 but now they have extended the deadline to 2020. Perez also commented that there are still around 100,000 mines lying undiscovered along the Chilean border.
More:
http://www.ilovechile.cl/2014/11/12/unexploded-mines-chilean-border/123879
NY Times opinion: Colombia’s Compromise With Murder (Jose Miguel Vivanco, Max Schoening)
Colombia’s Compromise With Murder
By JOSÉ MIGUEL VIVANCO and MAX SCHOENING
NOV. 12, 2014
BUENAVENTURA, Colombia — On Aug. 23, 2008, Víctor Gómez left his home outside of Bogotá, telling his family he had been offered work in another region of Colombia. The 23-year-old man had been struggling to provide for his young daughter as a part-time doorman. Two days later Mr. Gómez was dead, with a bullet between his eyes, in a faraway morgue, where the army had reported him an enemy combatant killed in action.
Mr. Gómez was just one of possibly thousands of civilians executed by Colombian military personnel between 2002 and 2008. Civilian prosecutors are investigating more than 3,000 cases, many involving young men lured by fake job offers to distant towns, where the army murdered them. Soldiers and officers, under pressure from superiors to show “positive” results and boost body counts in the conflict against guerrilla groups, would report the victims as insurgents or criminals killed in combat. Targets included the homeless, farmers, children and people with mental disabilities. In Colombia, the cases are known as “false positives.”
Now, the administration of President Juan Manuel Santos is close to securing passage of legislation that threatens to deny justice for these victims by transferring the cases of military personnel accused of the killings from the civilian to the military justice system. The bills, including one that could be approved as early as next week, appear aimed to appease the military leadership, which has been reluctant to support President Santos’s current peace talks with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas.
There has been some important progress in prosecuting low-ranking soldiers for “false positives.” But most cases remain unresolved and just a handful of senior officers have been convicted. This is a major concern for the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, who is closely monitoring investigations in Colombia. Her office has described the killings as apparently “systematic” and driven by a policy adopted at least within certain army brigades.
Civilian prosecutors’ investigations may be slow, but they at least allow for the possibility of resolving the thousands of unsolved cases and bringing to justice the top officials most responsible for “false positives.” Colombia’s military justice system has consistently failed to investigate alleged rights abuses by soldiers. So by expanding the jurisdiction of military courts over human rights crimes such as these, the Santos administration’s proposed legislation would all but eliminate the possibility that many of the killers and high-ranking officers behind the murders will be brought to justice.
More:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/13/opinion/colombias-compromise-with-murder.html?_r=0
U.S. court refuses to hold Occidental liable in Colombia bombing
Source: Reuters
U.S. court refuses to hold Occidental liable in Colombia bombing
Source: Reuters - Wed, 12 Nov 2014 18:05 GMT
By Jonathan Stempel
Nov 12 (Reuters) - A divided federal appeals court on Wednesday refused to hold Occidental Petroleum Corp and a security contractor legally responsible for alleged complicity in a 1998 military bombing of a Colombian village that killed 17 people, including six children.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Pasadena, California said victims' families could not pursue claims against Occidental and Florida-based AirScan Inc under two U.S. human rights laws, the Alien Tort Statute (ATS) and Torture Victims Protection Act.
Writing for a 2-1 majority, Circuit Judge Jay Bybee cited a 2013 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Kiobel v Royal Dutch Petroleum Co, in finding that the ATS did not apply because the underlying conduct occurred "exclusively" in Colombia. He also said the torture victim law does not apply to corporate defendants.
In addition, Bybee said "international comity" justified dismissal, citing a 2004 State Department memo that said letting Colombian courts handle the matter advanced U.S. foreign policy. "The crimes plaintiffs allege are abominable, but the facts of this case nonetheless favor applying adjudicatory comity," Bybee wrote.
Circuit Judge Sandra Ikuta joined Bybee's 65-page decision, which upheld a 2010 lower court ruling. Both judges were appointed to the bench by President George W. Bush.
Read more: http://www.trust.org/item/20141112180425-tq2sk/
Could Student Massacre Be 'Watershed Moment' for Mexico?
Published on Wednesday, November 12, 2014
by Common Dreams
Could Student Massacre Be 'Watershed Moment' for Mexico?
In southern state of Guerrero, where student-teachers disappeared, demonstrators set fire to governing party headquarters amid ongoing protests
by Deirdre Fulton, staff writer
Protesters furious at the alleged massacre of 43 Mexican student-teachers, and the government corruption the incident represents, marched in the southern state of Guerrero and set fire to the ruling party's regional headquarters on Tuesday.
The demonstration in Guerrero's capital city of Chilpancingo followed another sizable rally in front of Acapulco's international airport on Monday evening, that one led by parents of the students who gang suspects—in league with corrupt police and government officials—confessed to murdering last week. The students, who had been missing since September 26, were allegedly executed and incinerated by members of the Guerreros Unidos drug gang; their remains have been sent to Austria for possible DNA identification.
According to Deutsche Welle, "About 200 riot police wearing helmets and bearing shields chased more than 1,000 protesters as black smoke billowed from the two-story headquarters of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in the Guerrero state capital, Chilpancingo. Tuesday's protests and the police response have left at least three people injured so far, including two journalists."
The alleged killing of the students has ignited massive protests across the country. Some have accused the government of mishandling the case and trying to shut down further investigation. Many are critical of President Enrique Pena Nieto's decision to travel to China for the APEC summit amidst such turmoil. And the entire episode has exposed one of the country's terrible realities: since 2006, 70,000 Mexicans have been killed and some 27,000 "disappeared" as a result of the ongoing narco war.
More:
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2014/11/12/could-student-massacre-be-watershed-moment-mexico
In Guatemala, Indigenous Communities Prevail Against Monsanto
In Guatemala, Indigenous Communities Prevail Against Monsanto
Wednesday, 12 November 2014 00:00
By Jeff Abbott, Waging Nonviolence | Report
Late in the afternoon of September 4, after nearly 10 days of protests by a coalition of labor, indigenous rights groups and farmers, the indigenous peoples and campesinos of Guatemala won a rare victory. Under the pressure of massive mobilizations, the Guatemala legislature repealed Decree 19-2014, commonly referred to as the “Monsanto Law,” which would have given the transnational chemical and seed producer a foot hold into the country’s seed market.
“The law would have affected all indigenous people of Guatemala,” said Edgar René Cojtín Acetún of the indigenous municipality of the department of Sololá. “The law would have privatized the seed to benefit only the multinational corporations. If we didn’t do anything now, then our children and grandchildren would suffer the consequences.”
Originally passed on June 26, the Monsanto Law was written to protect the intellectual property rights of multinational companies in their investments within Guatemala. The law also allowed Monsanto an entrance into the Guatemalan seed market and set in place stiff penalties for any farmer that was caught selling seed to another farmer without the proper permits. The response was a massive mobilization of a coalition of labor, indigenous groups and campesinos.
For 10 days, the streets in front of the legislature of the capital Guatemala City were clogged with thousands of protesters demanding the repeal of the law. Demonstrators also gathered in the rural departments of Guatemala to protest the law and the congressmen who had voted in favor of the law.
More:
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/27395-in-guatemala-indigenous-communities-prevail-against-monsanto
Rape, abortion ban drives pregnant teens to suicide in El Salvador
Rape, abortion ban drives pregnant teens to suicide in El Salvador
Anastasia Moloney
SAN SALVADOR — Reuters
Published Wednesday, Nov. 12 2014, 4:04 AM EST
Last updated Wednesday, Nov. 12 2014, 4:06 AM EST
El Salvador’s ban on abortion is driving hundreds of girls who become pregnant after being raped to commit suicide every year because they see no other option, a government official said.
Teenage pregnancy is one of the leading causes of suicide in the Central American country of 6 million people. Three out of eight maternal deaths in El Salvador are the result of suicide among pregnant girls under 19, latest government figures show.
Many of these girls have not only suffered sexual abuse at the hands of relatives, stepfathers or gang members, but they are also often silenced and prevented from seeking help by the stigma surrounding rape.
On top of that, they face the unwelcome prospect of giving birth to an unwanted baby due to El Salvador’s total ban on abortion even in cases of rape, incest, a deformed foetus or when the women’s life is in danger, campaigners say.
“There is stigma and fear in reporting rape that occurs in families,” said Mario Soriano, a doctor who heads the programme for youth and adolescent development at El Salvador’s health ministry.
More:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/rape-abortion-ban-drives-pregnant-teens-to-suicide-in-el-salvador/article21551467/
The Six Jesuit Scholars and the American War on Self-Determination
The Six Jesuit Scholars and the American War on Self-Determination
by Matt Peppe / November 12th, 2014
Twenty-five years ago this week, six Jesuit scholars at the Universidad Centroamericana (UCA) in El Salvador opened the doors of their residence to members of a government death squad, who had been armed and trained by the United States. The soldiers marched the priests to the back garden. They were ordered to lie face down. They were shot and killed like dogs along with their housekeeper and her teenage daughter.
Father Ignacio Ellacuría Bescoetxea, one of the six Jesuits executed that night, had been a vocal advocate for a negotiated political settlement to the war that had devastated the small Central American country over the course of the decade. On November 16, 1989, Ellacuría would become one of the more than 75,000 killed in the brutal violence carried out by the military dictatorship.
The ruling junta was the beneficiary of billions in military aid from the United States government, which they received for their efforts to suppress a populist rebellion by the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN).
Nine years earlier, Archbishop of San Salvador Oscar Romero had been gunned down at the altar by a death squad member while he was in the middle of celebrating Mass. Before his assassination, Romero had sent a letter to President Jimmy Carter pleading with him to stop sending military aid to the Salvadoran military junta. Romero made his case to Carter “because you are a Christian and because you have shown that you want to defend human rights.”
At its peak during the 12-year civil war in El Salvador, U.S. aid to the military government averaged $1.5 million per day. Romero argued that by arming and training the military of El Salvador “the contribution of your government instead of promoting greater justice and peace in El Salvador will without a doubt sharpen the injustice and repression against the organizations of the people which repeatedly have been struggling to gain respect for their most fundamental human rights.”
Romero’s letter went unanswered. Two weeks later, Romero was dead at the hand of the same forces he had warned Carter of.
More:
http://dissidentvoice.org/2014/11/the-six-jesuit-scholars-and-the-american-war-on-self-determination/
Two witnesses murdered, one missing in case against former Colombia governor
Two witnesses murdered, one missing in case against former Colombia governor
Nov 12, 2014 posted by David Wing
The recent murder of a hired gunman marks the third suspicious incident involving a key witness in the trial of ex-governor Fransisco “Kiko” Gomez.
Hurtado Salamanca was ambushed and shot three times in the northern city of Barranquilla over the weekend, after naming ex-governor Fransisco “Kiko” Gomez in the murder of a local mayor, according to reports by El Tiempo. Salamanca was one of three witnesses for the prosecution against Gomez to have either been killed or have gone missing in recent months.
The disgraced governor of La Guajira was arrested in 2013 on charges of working with paramilitaries, and for his suspected role in three murders, including that of a local mayor.
MORE: North Colombia governor arrested, accused of homicide and paramilitary ties
Another witness, Utria Salazar, was murdered in Barranquilla on October 22nd. Both Salamanca and Salazar were gunmen in the drive-by assassination of the mayor, and both named Gomez in the murder.
The star witness in the trail, Rafael Arroyo Genes, was set to testify in the case of another murder linked to Gomez, but went missing two months ago. There is no information as to his whereabouts.
More:
http://colombiareports.co/witness-case-former-north-colombia-governor-killed/
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