Chile: CRISIS

Chile lives crisis, Bachelet announces new cabinet

Michelle Bachelet is the president re-elected in Chile that proposed various changes to the state modernization. It increased tax rates for certain sectors, implemented free education programs and amended the constitution to end an outdated electoral system. Never the less, recently it has been immersed in the eye of the storm after scandals over campaign financing from illegal sources involving a number of senior government officials. 

Likewise, the crisis was exacerbated with the accusation that Sebastián Dávalos, the presidents son of influence peddling.


In response to the crisis, President Michelle Bachelet called for the resignation of her entire cabinet, in order to return to democracy. According to statements by the president itself, the cabinet reshuffle looks to continue being, equity and security of Chileans. The new cabinet was formed by Rodrigo Valdes (Minster of Finance), Ernesto Ottone (Minister of Culture), Marcelo Diaz (Government Secretary), Jorge Insunza (Secretary of the Presidency), Marcos Barraza (Social Development). With these changes, Michelle Bachelet hopes to raise its popularity, as polls show her approval rating has never been so low.

Mexico: Rescue more than 100 immigrants

Rescue more than 100 immigrants

In search of better quality of life, every day hundreds of immigrants seeking to cross the border into the United States through Mexico. This has become a nest of opportunities for all kinds of illegal activity, among these, the exotrsión and illegal trafficking of people. This time, the focus was on Axapusco city, located about 65 kilometers from Mexico City, capital of Mexico.

In the town of Axapusco, a band of smugglers settled housing, even with electric fences to retain immigrants without them could escape. The way they operated, which was retained to victims and were threatened that they were going to deliver to organized crime groups, if they did not provide phone numbers of relatives to demand money for his ransom. It is known that some of the hostages took more than five weeks.

The authorities were able to trace the whereabouts of 103 people, including:
14 under
19 female
33 Guatemalans
23 Salvadorans
23 Indians
5 Sri Lankans
18 Hondurans


According to the official police report of Mexico, it is one of the abductees immediately escaped and reported the incident to the authorities. an operation that resulted in the rescue of all the hostages, who were in perfect physical condition was performed, as well as capturing the five smugglers, including the Guatemalan who made the complaint was. This was pointed out by the hostages as part of the criminal structure.


Links to this note:

amqueretaro.com

bbc.com.uk
Rescatan a mas de 100 migrantes en poder de traficantes

Guatemala: Sinibaldi leaves Partido Patriota

Alejandro Sinibaldi was Communications Minister during the actual Government and he left the public charge to dedicate his time for his presidential campaign as the upcoming candidate of the official party. Nevertheless, on Sunday April 19th in a press conference he stated his plans as a politician. 

According to his declarations, the decision of leaving the Party wasn't something recent. 

He didn't made any public appearances for a month and during this time he met with the President to talk about his future. According to Sinibaldi Otto Perez Molina showed respectful and understood the reasons he gave to quit from the official party. On the next days, he will give a press conference to let know about his future in politics, because he claims to have several invitations from different political organizations, congressmen and majors. But, he hasn't decided yet what he will do. 

The Reasons:

Adlelgedly there are differences among the Vice President Roxana Baldetti who was blocking the way to achieve his campaign objectives. He also declared that the latest scandals in which the Vice President was involved were several drops that flooded the glass and he said that he didn't shared anymore the party's criteria.

The scandals which Sinibaldi made reference were escentially the one from Amatitlan's Lake, a 137 million quetzales  project (about $17 millions ) that pretended reduce the water's contamination with a "magical liquid" of dubious origin. The crisis of public health in which there is not enough food, medicine and working material for laundry and medical labs, as well as the most recent one, in which the Vice President might be involved in a band of transnational defrauders. 

Links to the news: 
Sinibaldi renuncia de la Secretaria General del Partido Patriota


Sinibaldi renuncia del Partido Patriota

Argentina: Alberto Nisman, How did it happen?

Investigation leads to new theory on Nisman's case

Source: Telegraph.co.uk

Alberto Nisman was a prosecutor investigating the AMIA bombing in Argentina. During his research, he accused Iran of being responsible of the attack. Also, it is known, that he was about to accuse Argentinian President Cristina Fernandez for helping cover the former Iranian army officials involved in the attack that took around 90 lives in 1994. 

One day before he was supposed to give his testimony on Iran's alleged involvement, he was found dead at his home.  First declarations said he committed suicide with.22 caliber gun. Then the story gives a sudden turn due to the circumstances in which the prosecutor was found in his bathroom, pointed that it was a cold blood murder. 

Suspects

Investigations are being made, and there's a whole story behind the suspects, intellectual and material. It's been said that the main suspect is the prosecutor's employee as the main suspect, because it is known that he gave Nisman the gun, was the last person to see him alive, and there's other ltheory that he might even had keys for his apartment.

Latest Report

Judge Sandra Arroyo Salgado discarded the suicide theory, and Osvaldo Raffo who is a prestigious coroner behind Arroyo's investigation has given new statement on what may have really happened: Nisman was kneeling at the moment of his death.  

According to the report, Nisman didnt have traces of blood on the back, head or arms. Besides, having a height of 6 foot, leads to the conclusion that he was in a lower position than the attacker, probable below him and to the left, due to the blood stains in the room.

Also the hypothesis of a suicide may be discarded, because there's no blood trace in Nisman's right hand, which suggests that something might been have covering his hand, such as the attacker's hand.  

Guatemala: Vice President from the US visits Guatemala. Roxana Baldetti the big absence

Vice President from the US visits Guatemala. Roxana Baldetti the big absence

courtesy: NomadaGT

On March the 2nd, the Vice President from the United States, Joe Biden, made his second visit to Guatemala. He was supposed to have a reunion with the members of the Northern triangle of Central America to discuss matters of financing and prioritizing a regional plan to stop the immigration, increase the public security and also against corruption.

The visit lasted three days, having a very rigorous protocol schedule to fulfill all the activities they were supposed to cover. It's important to mention, that this second visit was slightly different from the first one, due to the fact that Guatemalan Vice President, Roxana Baldetti, was left out from all the activities.

During the visit held on 2014, the protocol was that the Guatemalan Vice President had to welcome and receive its similar from the United States. This time, things were completely different, the one in charge of receiveng Mr. Biden was Guatemala's President Otto Perez Molina with his wife Rosa Leal. Therefore, the abrupt change has created a lot of expectations as well as versions of what may have happened.

The official party, gave a public conference to provide an explanation about the Vice President's absence saying that  Baldetti was in a trip in Europe, without specifying the details on the purpose of the trip. Prensa Libre said she was supporting one of his sons in the US because he was suffering from severe injuries and he needed medical treatment.

Nevertheless, there are other versions of the story. In a non official statement, it has been said that the organizers of the event wanted Roxana Baldetti out of any activities with Mr. Biden. It's known that he even brought his wife, so the protocol would've demanded the presence of Otto Perez Molina's wife rather than the Vice President's. There are two different theories about this request. Firstly, because it has been said that she was trying to persuade the congress to remove CICIG (an institution against crime and corruption from ONU)  from Guatemala, and the US wants the institution to keep working in Guatemala. Secondly, because Roxana Baldetti seem to have strong connections with the drug trafficker known as "La Reina del Sur" Marlloy Chacon. Apparently, an important character of international affairs, such as Joe Biden, cant afford to share public activities with someone accused and being investigated for corruption.

 

Guatemala: Gun attack against two journalists

Journalists murder under suspicious conditions

source: Prensa Libre

On Tuesday, March the 10th, two journalists were shot to death in Suchitepequez, Mazatenango. According to eye witnesses, three journalists, Jose Danilo Lopez from Prensa Libre, Federico Salazar and Marvin Tunchez from Radio Nuevo Mundo were walking in the park and all of a sudden, two suspects approached them in a blue motorcycle, and attacked them with shot guns. Lopez and Salazar died in the scene, while Tunchez was taken to a local hospital severely injured.

According to the first investigations, there's a version that a third person was involved and in charge of letting the attackers in motorcyle know when to make the attack. One of the suspects was captured by the police in a nearby area.

This case have had a lot of attention from the media because one of the journalists involved had been threatened since 2008  for making some notes on San Lorenzo Suchitepequez Mayor, Jose Linares Rojas and Juan Manuel Delgado, former Mazatenango's mayor. According to a written claim made by Danilo Lopez in July 9th, 2013, he was warned by the mayor that if he didn't quit publishing about him, he would face terrible consequences because he was dealing with someone "with power and money."

The reports written by Jose Danilo Lopez are about Q2.8 million missing from the municipality and that the mayor reported were invested in public constructions. Is not known yet if the attack had to do with some reports the journalists were about to publish about the same mayor or if they would have been working in involving a bigger net of corruption in that Department.

Guatemalan Press Association and other activists have been working on paceful marchs demanding respect for life, profession and freedom of speech.

Mexico: Capture of Omar Treviño

Last week, mexican police arrested the leader of the Zetas cartel in an early morning near the city of Monterrey.


Alejandro "Omar" Treviño Morales, who went by the name "Z-42," was seized in San Pedro Garza García – the wealthiest town in Latin America.
The media claim that it was a "clean capture" due to Treviño's peacefully giving himself up to the authorities.

Treviño Morales had a $5 million bounty placed on his head by the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), while the Mexican authorities offered a 30 million pesos reward for information leading to his arrest. In the US he was also wanted for drug trafficking.

He had taken the helm of the cartel – which controls much of the north east of Mexico, and thus a large part of the strategically-vital border with the US – in July 2013, when his brother, Miguel Treviño Morales, was captured.

The family – Miguel, Omar and their brother Jose – were pillars of the Zetas cartel, which was formed in 2010 as a breakaway faction of the Gulf cartel. 

México captura a Omar Trevino

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