International Raid Targets Illegal Timber Trade

Brazil has an environmental police force tasked with cracking down on illegal logging



Interpol has announced that it arrested nearly 200 people in a wide-ranging international operation against illegal logging and the trafficking of timber.

The three-month effort spanned 12 Central and South American countries, and $8m (£5.2m) worth of timber was seized.

Interpol says the illegal logging trade could be worth up to $100bn world-wide.

It has also been linked to a rise in murders and corruption, as criminal groups move into remote forest areas.

Interpol said officials had checked lorries, ships and containers, as well as retailers and individuals, seizing a total of 50,000 cubic metres, or about 2,000 lorry-loads, of illicit timber.

More than 100 people remain under investigation.

Murderous trade

The head of Interpol's environmental crime programme, David Higgins, said the raid, dubbed "Operation Lead", was just the first step in the organisation's fight against the illegal timber trade.

He said the international nature of the trade made prosecutions difficult, but that in the long term Interpol would try to help countries apply the law in a more uniform manner.

Mr Higgins said co-operation between forestry officials, customs and border agents and the police would be crucial to fight the timber trafficking.

Over the past years, dozens of anti-logging activists have been killed in Brazil in attacks believed to be linked to their activism.

In Colombia, police say illegal and rebel groups are increasingly turning to illegal logging as a source of revenue.

And in Venezuela, there have been clashes between indigenous groups and loggers who have invaded their land.

Grenada Opposition Wins Clean Sweep In General Election

Preliminary results of the general election on the Caribbean island of Grenada suggest a landslide win for the opposition New National Party (NNP).

Election supervisors said the preliminary figures showed the NNP had won all 15 seats.

The governing National Democratic Congress admitted defeat.

Grenada's failure to recover from the devastation of Hurricane Ivan was one of the election issues

If the results are confirmed, Keith Mitchell, who served three terms as prime minister between 1995 and 2008, will return to power.

The main theme during the election was the economic crisis.

Grenada has a 30% unemployment rate and the Caribbean Development Bank recently warned Grenada that it had unsustainable debt levels.

During his campaign, Mr Mitchell promised to make job creation his priority.

After the preliminary results came in, catapulting his party from fours seats to 15, he said he would also strive to unite the country.

"The victor is the one who has to reach out, the one who lost can't be expected to reach out; national unity will be a serious platform," he said.

He asked Grenadians "to have patience" with the new government, and to give it a chance to implement policies he said would revive the stalled economy.

The country has been struggling to recover from major destruction caused by Hurricane Ivan in 2004.

Dozens of people were killed and 90% of the island's buildings were damaged or destroyed. Grenada's main export crop, nutmeg, was also devastated.

Source: BBC

HRW: Mexico Security Forces Colluded In Disappearances

Relatives of the disappeared have been marching across the country to demand the authorities do more to find the missing

The pressure group Human Rights Watch says Mexico has failed to properly investigate human rights abuses committed by the security forces.

The group has documented almost 250 disappearances during the term of former President Felipe Calderon.

It says evidence suggests that in more than half of the cases the security forces participated either directly or indirectly in the disappearances.

HRW has called on the new government to find the missing.

'Arbitrary detention'

In a report published on Wednesday, HRW says "state agents participated directly in the crime [of disappearances], or indirectly through support and acquiescence" in more than 140 of the cases they investigated.

In the remaining cases, their researchers were not able to determine whether state actors may have participated.

HRW says the majority of the cases of enforced disappearances it investigated followed a pattern, in which members of the security forces "arbitrarily detain individuals without arrest orders or probable cause".

"In many cases, these detentions occur in victims' homes, in front of family members; in others, they take place at security checkpoints, at workplaces, or in public venues, such as bars," the report alleges.

The report says that the administration of former President Calderon ignored the mounting problem and failed to take steps to address it, thereby contributing to it becoming "the most severe crisis of enforced disappearances in Latin America in decades".

Nationwide efforts

An estimated 70,000 people are believed to have been killed in Mexico since December 2006, when Mr Calderon came to power and declared war on the country's powerful drug cartels.

Some human rights groups say the deployment of the military has contributed to the violence

Mr Calderon deployed the army in an attempt to curb the violence, but human rights groups say the levels of human rights abuses against civilians has risen as a result.

Mexico's interior ministry has not yet commented on the report.

Human Rights Watch says it hopes the administration of President Enrique Pena Nieto will develop a national strategy to tackle the growing number of disappearances.

According to HRW, the creation of a national database documenting disappearances and unidentified remains would be an invaluable tool for investigators and relatives trying to trace the missing.

Shortly after coming to office on 1 December 2012, Mr Pena Nieto announced the creation of a new national police force which he said would be better trained and better equipped to fight crime.

Source: BBC

Venezuela's Chavez Returns Home From Cuba

Supporters of Hugo Chavez celebrate in Caracas after the president vows to finish cancer treatment in his country.

 

 

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has returned home to Venezuela after more than two months of medical treatment in Cuba after cancer surgery.
Chavez, 58, announced his return in a series of messages on Monday on his Twitter account, and aides confirmed the news.
They were the first messages to appear on the president's account since November 1.
"We have arrived back in the Venezuelan fatherland. Thanks, my God! Thanks, my beloved people! Here we will continue the treatment," Chavez said via Twitter.
"I'm clinging to Christ and trusting in my doctors and nurses," he said in another tweet.
"Onward toward victory always!! We will live and we will triumph!!"
There had been speculation that Chavez was not well enough to travel despite wanting to return to his homeland for continued treatment for the disease he was first diagnosed with in mid-2011.
Upon his return, he was immediately taken to the military hospital in Caracas, where the Venezuelan government had set aside an area in front of the hospital so that people could "be close to Chavez".
Al Jazeera's Andy Gallacher, reporting from Caracas, described jubilant scenes outside the military hospital.
"About 150 Chavez supporters have gathered here at the hospital, which is the closest they've come to their beloved leader in just over two months. But this was no jubilant return; under the cover of darkness, just tweeting that he was back on Venezuelan soil. Nobody has actually seen the man himself."
Fireworks celebration
Fireworks could be heard going off in some neighbourhoods of Caracas as the news spread and celebrations begun among Chavistas.
Venezuelan ministers were jubilant, one singing "He's back, he's back!" live on state TV.
Henrique Capriles, the opposition’s de facto leader who lost to Chavez in the October elections, welcomed the president back to Venezuela.
"Let’s hope that the president’s return means that [Vice President Nicolas] Maduro and the ministers get to work, there are thousands of problems to solve," he tweeted.
Chavez named Maduro as his successor before he left Venezuela for his operation, and the vice president has been in charge of the country since then.
Given that ministers said the president wanted to return when he was well enough to travel, Chavez's arrival implied some improvement in his condition, at least enough to handle a flight of several hours.
But aides have emphasised in recent days his state remains "complex".
Chavez underwent a six-hour operation in Cuba on December 11 - his fourth for the cancer first detected in his pelvic area in June, 2011.
He had not been seen or heard in public since then until photos were published of him on Friday, showing him lying in hospital.
Officials said he was breathing through a tracheal tube and struggling to speak.

Source: AlJazeera

Rights Group Faults Mexico Over Abductions

Report by Human Rights Watch accuses military and police of abducting and killing dozens during six-year drug war.

Dozens of people were abducted and killed by Mexican security forces over the past six years, according to a new report from Human Rights Watch.
The report, released on Wednesday, said that the disappearances of 149 people, many of them civilians, followed a pattern in which security forces detained them without warrants at checkpoints, homes or workplaces, or in public.
When families ask about their relatives, security forces deny that they were detained, or urge family members to look at police stations or army bases.
The group criticised former president Felipe Calderon for ignoring the problem, calling it "the most severe crisis of enforced disappearances in Latin America in decades."
The report was a grim reminder of the dark side of the war on drug cartels that killed an estimated 70,000 people during Calderon's six-year presidency. Enrique Pena Nieto, Mexico's current president, has pledged to take a different approach and focus on reducing violent crime and extortion rather than attacking the cartels directly.
A culture of impunity
The government last month introduced a long-delayed law to track victims of the drug war and compensate the families, and says it is moving ahead with plans to roll out a genetic database to track victims.
"There exists, in theory, a database with more than 27,000 people on it," said Lia Limon, deputy secretary of human rights at Mexico's interior ministry. "It's a job that's beginning."
Still, impunity remains rife: The armed forces opened nearly 5,000 investigations into criminal wrongdoing between 2007 and 2012, but only 38 ended in sentencing, according to Human Rights Watch.
Last year, a civic group released a database which it said contained official information on more than 20,000 people who had gone missing in Mexico over the past six years.
The group, Propuesta Civica (Civic Proposal), said the information was collected by the federal attorney general's office while Calderon was in office. The missing include police officers, labourers, housewives, solicitors, students, businessmen and more than 1,200 children under the age of 11.
They are listed one by one with such details as name, age, gender and the date and place where the person disappeared.
Among the examples cited by Human Rights Watch is evidence suggesting that marines detained about 20 people in three northern border states in June and July of 2011. Though it denied abducting the victims, the navy later acknowledged it had contact with some before they disappeared.

Source: AlJazeera

Venezuela Officials: Hugo Chavez's Health 'Improving'

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is making gradual but clear progress as he recovers from cancer surgery in Cuba, Venezuelan officials say.

National Assembly Speaker Diosdado Cabello said he had visited Mr Chavez in hospital, and that the president's health was "clearly improving".

The Venezuelan leader has not been seen or heard in public since he had surgery almost eight weeks ago.

The nature of his cancer has not been revealed.

In address broadcast on TV, Mr Cabello said he had visited Mr Chavez in Cuba on Friday.

The fact that all the updates on the president's health are delivered by members of his party rather than the medical team treating him has fueled speculation within Venezuela and abroad about the president's state.

The opposition has demanded clarity about who is running the country after Mr Chavez missed his own inauguration for a fourth presidential term on 10 January.

The Venezuelan Supreme Court ruled that he could be sworn in at a later date.

But the opposition argues that in the continuing absence of President Chavez, Mr Cabello should take over and elections called within 30 days.

Mexico Hunts Acapulco Spanish Tourist Rape Gang

Mexican authorities say they are determined to capture those responsible for the rape of six Spanish women near the holiday resort of Acapulco.

Masked gunmen burst into a rented beach house on Monday, tied up and held at gunpoint six Spanish men as they attacked the women for several hours.

A seventh woman escaped after telling the attackers she was a Mexican.

Acapulco is one of Mexico's most famous beach resorts, but it has recently suffered from drug-related violence.

"The attack will not go unpunished, as we are committed to catching those responsible," said a statement from the government of Guerrero state which includes Acapulco.

"The government is in constant communication with the victims and the Spanish consular authorities to offer help," the statement added.

'Strong evidence'

Most of the Spanish women are reported to be residents of Mexico who had travelled to Acapulco - on the Pacific coast - for a weekend break.

No-one has been arrested in connection with the attack on Playa Bonfil, but officials said they had leads to pursue.

"Fortunately we have strong evidence that will lead us to those responsible for this reprehensible act," Guerrero state Attorney-General Marta Garzon told Mexican radio.

Acapulco Mayor Luis Walton has apologised for causing offence after he said the attack could have happened "anywhere in the world".

The rapes are being seen as a blow to Mexico's attempts to boost its reputation as a tourist destination.

In recent years Guerrero state has been the scene of a bloody feud between rival drug trafficking gangs, but BBC Mexico correspondent Will Grant says Acapulco and its beaches have been considered relatively safe.

In the 1950s and 1960s Acapulco was a world-famous resort that attracted celebrities such as Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley and US President John F Kennedy, who spent his honeymoon there.

These days it mainly attracts Mexican holiday makers

Source: BBC 

Mexico Says Pemex Blast Caused by Gas Buildup

Attorney general says no trace of explosives found after blast at national oil company that killed 37 people.

A buildup of gas in the basement of the headquarters of the national oil company caused a blast that killed 37 people and wounded dozens earlier this week, Mexico's attorney-general said Monday.

Attorney general Jesus Murillo Karam said an investigation by Mexican, Spanish, US and British experts found no evidence of explosives in the blast that collapsed several lower floors of the Petroleos Mexicanos administrative building on Thursday afternoon. He said they believed that an electrical fault had caused a spark that detonated the leaking gas.

There was scant evidence of the burn marks typical in a bomb blast, he said. There was also no sign of a crater like that typically left by an explosive device.

Murillo said officials had yet to discover the source of the gas, which is believed to have been methane that leaked from a number of ducts and tunnels that passed under or connected to the building, built up from the sewer system.

The announcement late Monday ended days of silence about the potential cause of the company's worst disaster in a decade.

The blast fueled debate about the state of Pemex, a vital source of government revenue that is suffering from decades of underinvestment and has been hit by a recent series of accidents that have tarnished its otherwise improving safety record.

Until now, virtually all the accidents had hit its petroleum infrastructure, not its office buildings.

Source: AlJazeera

Garbage Homes - Bolivia

We follow one woman who is on a mission to build homes for the poor from the only resource she can find in abundance.

Ingrid Vaca Diez is on a mission to build better homes for the poor.

With few funds and little support, she uses the only resource she can find in abundance - empty plastic bottles.

Her own life in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, is one of relative comfort but she is shocked by the rising level of poverty she sees around her.

Though completely self-taught, she designs and builds new homes using recycled plastic bottles filled with dirt as the "bricks". So far, she has built 10 of these homes.

The people she is trying to help are rural, indigenous migrants, often living in single room, dirt floor shacks.

Ingrid picks her projects based on the urgency of a family's need. It is through her work that we will observe the broader social and economic problems facing the poor in Santa Cruz.

Bolivia remains one of the poorest countries in South America with roughly 50 percent of the population living below the poverty level according to 2010 estimates. Conversely, it is one of the richest countries in South America in terms of natural resources, especially in mining and natural gas reserves. For the poor, housing is one of the most critical issues. This is an especially acute issue as more and more rural residents continue their migration into the major population centres of La Paz and Santa Cruz. Statistics show that out of the total population of approximately 10 million people, a majority of families live in sub-standard housing conditions in which many structures have no more than a dirt floor.  Source: BBC

Paraguay Candidate Lino Oviedo Dies in Helicopter Crash

Paraguayan presidential candidate Lino Oviedo has died in a helicopter crash.

Mr Oviedo, 69, was running for Paraguay's third largest party in April's presidential election.

A retired general, he had been involved in politics for decades, helping lead the coup which overthrew the military ruler Alfredo Stroessner in 1989.

He was returning from a rally when his helicopter crashed north of the capital, Asuncion. An inquiry into the cause of the crash is under way.

The pilot and Mr Oviedo's bodyguard also died. Police found their bodies in the province of Presidente Hayes.

Defence Minister Maria Liz Garcia said residents had heard a single explosion and the aircraft disintegrated. A storm had been reported along the flight path.

President Federico Franco has declared three days of mourning.

Lino Oviedo was arrested in Brazil in 2000 after fleeing arrest in Paraguay

Rocky career

Lino Oviedo was running for the National Union of Ethical Citizens party (Unace) in the presidential elections due on 21 April.

As an army colonel he played a prominent part in the uprising which overthrew Gen Alfredo Stroessner in 1989, delivering the news that he was under arrest.

In the aftermath of the coup, he rose quickly through military ranks, becoming brigadier-general and, by 1993, army chief.

His continued political campaigning, however, was criticized by then-president Juan Carlos Wasmosy, who asked him to step down as army chief in 1996 - an order he ignored.

He eventually stepped down and ran as a candidate for the Colorado Party in the 1998 presidential election.

However before the election he was sentenced to 10 years in prison for plotting to overthrow President Wasmosy. His running mate, Raul Cubas, was elected instead and ordered Mr Oviedo's release.

But the killing of Vice-President Luis Maria Argana in 1999 and accusations by his relatives that Mr Oviedo had been behind the killing sent him into exile.

In 2004 he returned to Paraguay, where he was convicted over his 1996 insubordination. The conviction was overturned in 2007, allowing him to run in the 2008 election, which he lost.

Seen as a populist, he often switched between Spanish and Guarani during his speeches.

Source: BBC