Fausta's Blog

Frailty of Guatemala Institutions Seen in Former Dictator’s Case

On Monday, Guatemala’s Constitutional Court ordered the trial of Efraín Ríos Montt overturned and reset to an earlier point in April when it was challenged by another judge. Mr. Ríos Montt, who ruled Guatemala for 17 months in 1982 and 1983, had been sentenced to 80 years on genocide and crimes against humanity for his role in the country’s 36-year civil war.

After the ruling, Mr. Ríos Montt was briefly sent to jail before being moved to a military hospital. On Tuesday, he was set to return to house arrest, as he was during his trial.

The ruling came after a public push by Guatemala’s powerful business chamber to overturn the verdict, a development analysts said on Tuesday called into question the court’s independence.

Guatemala has a history of trials of military men being blocked through appeals to higher courts that are manipulated by the small country’s powerful elites, said Anita Isaacs, a professor at Haverford College. “There is a link between the court system and powerful economic interests in Guatemala,” she said.

Additionally,

The court’s annulment of the sentence also points to weaknesses in the case itself, which became highly politicized in Guatemala. Michael Waller, a foreign-policy expert who worked in Central America in the 1980s, said the judge had overreached with her genocide conviction. “It was a nasty war in Guatemala but it wasn’t genocide,” he said.

More on the case here.

Grandson of Malcolm X Killed in Mexico City

Labor activist Miguel Suarez, who was traveling with Shabazz, told The Associated Press that his friend was beaten up at a bar near Plaza Garibaldi, a downtown square that is home to Mexico City’s mariachis.

Plaza Garibaldi is popular with tourists, but the pair were at a bar across the street from the plaza in an area of rough dive bars tourists are warned against going to.

Suarez said he and Shabazz were lured to the bar on Wednesday night by a young woman who made conversation with the American in English. The Palace bar is on one of Mexico City’s busiest avenues.

“We were dancing with the girls and drinking,” said Suarez. Then the owner of the bar wanted them to pay a $1,200 bar tab, alleging that they should pay for music, drinks and the girls’ companionship.

His family is claiming his remains. Let’a lift them in our prayers.

Former dictator José Efraín Ríos Montt is now the first person ever to be convicted of genocide in a court of his own country for the murders of Ixl Mayans:
A historic verdict in Guatemala
Genocidal general

Amid cheers from the gallery and chaos in the courtroom, the judge, Jazmín Barrios, part of a three-person tribunal, immediately ordered General Ríos Montt to be taken to jail. Until then, he had been under house arrest. His conviction came a day after he broke a silence that he had maintained throughout weeks of testimony. He had hotly declared his innocence, showing particular antipathy to the charge of genocide, saying he had never authorised attacks on any ethnic group,

However, in reaching her verdict, the judge pointed to evidence of a pattern of army massacres that she said appeared to follow plans that were ordered from the top. In proving genocide, she said there was evidence that 5.5% of the Ixil ethnic group had been wiped out by the army, even though she said they were civilian farmers. And she said General Ríos Montt, knew what was going on in the villages where the massacres and bombardments were taking place, and didn’t order a halt to them. However, she acquitted his co-defendant, the general’s former intelligence chief, José Rodríguez Sánchez.

In her remarks the judge dwelt on the brutality that led to the killing of 1,771 Ixils, relayed by almost 100 witnesses during the trial that started on March 19th. She spoke of babies being killed in the womb, of gang rapes by soldiers, and of mass graves showing evidence of violent death. She praised the Ixil witnesses for speaking out about their suffering, noting that the psychological scars still persisted, even among generations who were not alive when the atrocities were committed.

A civil war ravaged Guatemala for 36 years, from 1960 to 1996. PBS Newshour has a timeline of events. Violence and intimidation continue to be a major problem in political and civilian life.

The former Joanne Chesimard (now known as Assata Shakur), who murdered a NJ State Trooper 40 years ago, is now on the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorist list, the first woman to make it.

Chesimard is believed to be one of dozens of American fugitives living in Cuba, many of them one-time members of U.S. militant groups.

She

attends government functions in Cuba and her standard of living is higher than most in the country, officials said.

Which makes the higher reward tempting,

Officials have also doubled the reward, to $2 million, for the capture of Chesimard. The state is adding its own $1 million on top of the million dollars already offered by the FBI for her capture and return.

Turns out she’s Tupac Shakur’s aunt and godmother.

$2million bucks.

After Tuesday’s shameful assault at the National Assembly, people are trying to identify the man who punched Julio Borges.

Opposition assemblymen Maria Corina Machado and Julio Borges

Nancy Asencio broke Maria Corina Machado’s nose in four places; that much is clear.

What’s not totally clear is the identity of the man who punched out Borges. Two men have been identified:
Michel Milán Reyes, Cuban who is currently a junior assemblyman in Venezuela while apparently also being president of a municipal assembly in Cuba,
or another man, a Venezuelan named Michael Leeroy Reyes Argote, who was identified in this photo,

Jaime Bayly named Milán Reyes as the perpetrator in his Tuesday show; the man who assaulted Borges stood behind a Chavista spokesman during the press conference following the altercation (4:05 into the video):

Milán Reyes is the favored suspect on Twitter.

Here’s the interesting part:
Nicolás Maduro is president now thanks to the intervention and support of the Cuban Communist regime. His praetorian guard, so to speak, is Cuban.

National Assembly president Diosdado Cabello, who according to the Venezuelan Constitution should have been interim president, has plans. He won’t be content with the status quo forever.

If Milán Reyes actually is the perp, Cabello is telegraphing a message to Maduro: “I can get the Cubans on my side, too.”

Most observers predict that Maduro’s regime will not last long. So here’s the question: Who will succeed him, Capriles . . . or Cabello?

UPDATE,
Linked by Babalu. Thank you!

First, a tweet from Dennis Rodman,

I started a trend. Everybody’s visiting dictators now! Did Beyoncé, Jay-Z pull a Rodman? via @politicopoliti.co/12GxVxU

— Dennis Rodman (@dennisrodman) April 10, 2013

And the weird case of the Hakkens:
Cuba returns two U.S. children who were abducted in Tampa; Hakken parents face charges. Hakkens apparently have no ties to Cuba, but they headed there because,

Cuba and the United States have not had a valid extradition treaty since the early days of the Castro revolution. Havana occasionally deports U.S. common criminals but shelters an estimated 70 U.S. fugitives it views as refugees from political persecution. Several Medicare fraudsters also have wound up in Cuba in more recent times.

Cuban authorities returned both children and their parents to the US yesterday. The parents are in jail, and the children are with their legal guardians, their maternal grandparents.

Video below the fold,
(more…)

Noticias24 posts the AFP graphic, with Caracas showing the highest rate,

Map of Violence in Venezuela
Venezuela boasts record numbers of violence and insecureness
2012: 20,692 dead

Click on photo to enlarge.

Compare with Mexico.

In preparation for Sunday’s election, the government prohibits carrying weapons, and liquor sales,

Se prohibe el porte de armas y venta de licoresMás información en breve por #VTV twitter.com/JAIVERLOPEZ/st… – @jaiverlopez

— VTVCANAL8 (@VTVcanal8) April 9, 2013

Thousands of armed vigilantes takeover Mexican town, arrest police and shoot at tourists after ‘commander’ is killed and dumped in the street. Tierra Colorada is in the southern state of Guerrero on the way from Mexico City to Acapulco

‘Community police’ arrest former director of security in Tierra Colorado [sic]
They allege he took part in killing of their leader, 28, for criminal cartel
State prosecutors agree to investigate official’s links to organised crime
Vigilantes have been stopping traffic at checkpoints and searching homes
Tourist injured after vigilantes opened fire because he failed to stop his car
Takeover comes amid growing ‘self defence’ movement against cartels

The UK’s Daily Mail reports,
How Senator Bob Menendez tried to pass a law that would have helped donor whose jet he repeatedly used for trips to the Dominican Republic

he disclosure of the legislation that Menendez wanted to push through- that had incentives for natural gas vehicle conversions- is the latest intersection between the New Jersey Democrat who is the subject of an ethics inquiry on Capitol Hill and the Florida doctor involved in a federal criminal investigation.

Dr. Salomon Melgen invested in Gaseous Fuel Systems Corp. of Weston, Florida, and joined its board of directors in early 2010, according to the company’s chief executive and a former company consultant.

GFS designs, manufactures and sells products to convert diesel-fuel fleets to natural gas. The amount of Melgen’s investment is confidential under rules of the Securities and Exchange Commission, but a 2009 document filed with the SEC showed the company required a minimum individual investment at that time of $51,500.

At the same time, Menendez emerged as a principal supporter of a natural gas bill that would boost tax credits and grants to truck and heavy vehicle fleets that converted to alternative fuels.
The bill stalled in the Senate Finance Committee, and after it was revived in 2012, the NAT GAS Act failed to win the needed 60 votes to pass.

While the bill was under consideration between 2009 and 2011, the former consultant for GFS spent $220,000 lobbying Menendez’s staff and other congressional and federal officials on the act’s provisions as well as other regulatory issues, according to interviews and Senate records.
…
Melgen has been a staunch supporter, giving more than $14,000 directly to Menendez since the late 1990s and, through his eye clinic, donating $700,000 last year to a ‘super’ political committee that supported Democratic Senate candidates. The committee, in turn, spent $582,000 to back Menendez’ campaign.

More:
Web of Influence
Ties between Menendez and controversial donor more extensive than previously thought

Breitbart has the story:
The Manuel Noriega Connection to the Family Behind the Melgen-Menendez Dominican Port Security Deal

But fret not. Everybody’s in a frazzle because government spending’s going to increase only by 8.9%.