Search Results for: alberto nisman

March 30, 2015 By Fausta

The dismissed Nisman case Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

LatinAmer Argentina’s Federal Criminal Appeals Court refused to open an investigation into the complaint filed in January by former AMIA special prosecutor Alberto Nisman four days before he was found dead

Federal prosecutor Germán Moldes will try to reactivate the investigation against President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner next week

Accusations fly that

Prosecutor Viviana Fein is conducting the investigation into the death of Alberto Nisman “with an evident interest” of only showing that the AMIA special prosecutor committed “suicide.”

Meanwhile, Venezuelan defectors from Hugo Chavez inner circle are talking.

ARGENTINA
Falklands defence: Why is Argentina considering an aircraft deal with the Russians?
Russia’s potential deal to lease 12 long-range bombers to Argentina is causing Britain to rethink its protection of the Falklands. Why is Cristina Kirchner cosying up to Moscow?

BOLIVIA
Bolivian Mob Tries to Bury Alive Teacher Accused of Raping Girl

BRAZIL
Brazil Economy to Shrink, Joblessness Rises
The Brazilian central bank’s view of the economy is getting worse, with the official unemployment rate rising in February, as Latin America’s largest economy continues to struggle.

After Ratings Reprieve, Brazil Faces Tough News
President Dilma Rousseff got a big break when Standard & Poor’s maintained Brazil’s investment-grade credit rating, but Friday’s coming report on economic growth is expected to bring the embattled president bad news.

CHILE
Flood torrents devastate Peru and Chile

Two dead as flash flooding hits Chile Atacama desert region

COLOMBIA
Colombian Government, FARC Agree to Begin Land-Mine Removal

New IG Report: DEA Agents in Columbia Partied With Hookers Hired By the Drug Cartels

CUBA
Obama’s Cuba Folly Unfolds

ECUADOR

EL SALVADOR
Half Million People March Against Violence in El Salvador

FALKLAND ISLANDS
Britain to boost Falklands Islands defences

JAMAICA
Jamaican Prime Minister Rebukes Gay-Rights Protestors At New York Townhall

MEXICO
39 Central American Migrants Rescued in Mexico from Human Traffickers

PANAMA
Panama Canal sets sights on new $17 billion expansion project

As it enters the final stretch of a massive expansion, the Panama Canal Authority is setting its sights on an even more ambitious project worth up to $17 billion that would allow it to handle the world’s biggest ships.

Workers are now installing giant, 22-story lock gates to accommodate larger “Post-Panamax” ships through the Canal, one of the world’s busiest maritime routes.

The project involves building a third set of locks on the Canal. It is being headed by Italy’s Salini Impregilo and Spain’s Sacyr, and should open on April 1, 2016.

PARAGUAY
Paraguay Farmers March in Asuncion to Demand President’s Resignation

PERU
Floods in Chile and landslides in Peru after heaviest rain in 80 years

PUERTO RICO
Puerto Rico Prepares for Luxury Shopping Amid Recession

Puerto Rico Mayor Gets 5 Years for Bribery

URUGUAY
Uruguay will no longer grant asylum to Guantanamo prisoners

The new Uruguayan government says it will no longer grant asylum to prisoners from the Guantanamo Bay detention centre.

In December, Uruguay gave sanctuary to six Arab men who had been held at the US base in Cuba for 12 years.

Opinion polls said most Uruguayans rejected the decision taken by outgoing President Jose Mujica.

Foreign Minister Rodolfo Nin Novoa also said Uruguay would stop taking refugees from the Syrian conflict.

Does that mean they’ll kick Syrians Jihad Abu Wael Dhiab, Ali Husain Shaaban, Ahmed Adnan Ajuri, and Abdelhadi Faraj, Palestinian Mohammed Abdullah Taha Mattan, and Tunisian Adel bin Muhammad El Ouerghi out of the country?

VENEZUELA
“Normalization” update: Venezuelan Castro puppet seeks to humiliate U.S. at the Summit of the Americas but Maduro Says “Venezuela Is Ready” for Dialogue with U.S. Of course. In his spare time, he indulged in vandalism,

Alicia Bárcena’s blinders

The week’s posts and podcast:
Cuba {heart} Iran: Love-terror

Words, words, words

How a German trial relates to the #Nisman case

Ecuador: Chinese loans, social media censorship

Today’s Colombian hookers update

Venezuela-Iran’s Aeroterror: Airplanes full of drugs & money

Podcast: US-Latin America: Cuba-Venezuela, elections in Mexico, Brazil, Argentina & more

Barrio 18 in El Salvador: A View from the Inside

The #Nisman Case and the Whitewashing of Iran

About that “Cuban side or the white side”

Thank you, Newsmax

Argentina: Beef for bombers

Today’s WSV* moment: Now Snowden wants to come back

Today’s immigration headlines

Ted throws his hat in the ring

March 27, 2015 By Fausta

How a German trial relates to the #Nisman case

Roya Hakakian explains Germany’s commitment to justice:
Iran’s Assassins in Berlin
The determination of the prosecutor, the press, and the Iranian exile community made all the difference in Germany, where the courts ruled against Iran’s highest leaders.

[Investigator Bruno] Jost had a major advantage. He was investigating in the shadow of the World War II blunders and the fundamental transformations that the German justice system had undergone. By the time the trial was set to begin, Tehran was no longer the focus of popular attention. Now, it was Germany, herself, on trial, with something grand to prove about her own credibility and the authenticity of her reformation.

In contrast,

Whether the same spirit can cross over into another continent to move the course of the Argentines’ investigation is to be seen. But this much is for sure: The sum of the 1994 AMIA bombing, Iran’s lethal role, the misconduct of former President Carlos Menem, an alleged conspiracy to halt the nuclear negotiations, the mysterious murder of Alberto Nisman, and the alleged corruption of President Cristina Kirchner or the Argentine Intelligence all add up to something larger. It is about Argentina herself, the state of her republic, and whether the ghosts of its dirty past are truly buried or still lurking in the shadows.

This us a must-read.

March 19, 2015 By Fausta

Today’s must-read: What Nisman Said About Iran UPDATED

Read Richard Horowitz’s article at World Policy Institute, What Nisman Said About Iran in full.

It starts with Nismam‘s own words,

“It can be said with certainty that the highest-echelon Iranian government officials were directly responsible for the AMIA attack . . .We will show that said officials made the decision to carry out the attack, defined the manner in which it was to be implemented, and instructed the terrorist organization Hezbollah to carry out the operation in its capacity as a mere instrument, in this case, of the will of the Teheran government . . We will also show that for Iran’s leaders, there was nothing unusual or exceptional about the realization of an attack of this nature. To the contrary: an analysis of the information that has been gathered in this case shows beyond a shadow of a doubt that the realization of acts of terrorism abroad was not the outgrowth of an unusual foreign policy instrument, but was instead based on the principles of the Iranian revolution of February 1979, the ultimate goal of these principles being to propagate Iran’s fundamentalist view of Islam throughout the world.”

The Nisman Report (2006)

And, may I remind you? Iran no longer on Terror Threat List.

UPDATE:
An excellent resource on Nisman and his investigation: AlbertoNisman.org

March 5, 2015 By Fausta

Argentina: Pollicita appeals dismissal of #Nisman’s suit

Federal prosecutor Gerardo Pollicita appealed the dismissal of the suit Alberto Nisman filed days before his murder:
Prosecutor Appeals Dismissal of Accusations Against Argentina’s President
Appellate court must now decide if allegations against Kirchner merit further investigation

Last month, Mr. Pollicita asked Judge Rafecas to open an investigation into accusations that Mrs. Kirchner, Foreign Minister Héctor Timerman, and others tried to sabotage a yearslong probe into the attack, which killed 85 people at the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association, or AMIA, in Buenos Aires.

But the judge declined to investigate, saying no crime had been committed and that while an investigation might uncover additional facts they would be irrelevant to the coverup allegations.

“Only by carrying out a proper investigation and obtaining all of the facts, based on the participation of all parties, we will be able to decide if it is reasonable to file charges or, in contrast, if it the charges should be definitively thrown out,” Mr. Pollicita said in his appeal.

I hope Mr. Pollicita’s security detail can be trusted.

February 26, 2015 By Fausta

Argentina: #Nisman’s lawsuit dismissed

El País reports that federal judge Daniel Rafecas ruled that there is no reason to investigate the charges of conspiracy to cover-up Iranian involvement in the 1994 AMIA bombing against president Cristina Fernandez from the civil lawsuit Alberto Nisman filed five days before his assassination.

Nisman was killed in his apartment the day before he was scheduled to testify to Congress on his findings.

Following his death, Fernandez set to scrap the country’s intelligence agency and replace it with a new one, a move that Congress approved today.

Prosecutor Gerardo Pollicita had continued the suit, and has the right to appeal Rafecas’s decision.

UPDATE
WSJ: Judge Dismisses Coverup Allegations Against Argentine President
Judge says there is no evidence that Mrs. Kirchner committed any crime

February 19, 2015 By Fausta

Argentina: A quarter million at the silent march for #Nisman UPDATE

In spite of the pouring rain, hundreds of thousands turned out to what Cristina Kirchner’s administration called an ‘institutional coup’.

“In honor of prosecutor Nisman. Silent march.”

This is what downtown Buenos Aires looked like last evening in the pouring rain:

I don’t know if Cristina Fernandez was at the Casa Rosada, but the above photo shows the main square facing it. Here’s same area showing the Casa Rosada,

Not only in Buenos Aires, but throughout the country; here is Rosario,

WSJ:

The march along one of this elegant city’s iconic thoroughfares, Avenida de Mayo, organized by fellow prosecutors incensed over how the government has handled the death of Alberto Nisman, drew not only investigators and judges but also students, plumbers and the late prosecutor’s grieving family. They were brought together by their conviction that Mr. Nisman’s death was not a suicide, as an autopsy determined, but an assassination.

Another witness has talked about evidence tampering at the scene of Nisman’s murder (link in Spanish). Apparently there were thirty people at the site.

UPDATE:
The Prosecution Office confirmed in a press release that ex Intelligence Secretariat Operations head Antonio “Jaime” Stiuso has given testimony in the investigation of late AMIA prosecutor Alberto Nisman’s death.

February 18, 2015 By Fausta

Argentina: #Nisman witness talks about evidence tampering

26yr old Natalia Gimena Fernández, in an interview with Clarin, states that

“When we were sitting at the stairs, they brought the stretcher and in that they took away the body (of Alberto Nisman). It was like 3.30 am. He was wrapped up in a black sack. They took him to the right but 15 minutes later they put him back again and took him to the left. ‘No silly, it is this way,’ they said laughing. And then, when they took him back in the apartment, I did not see where they took him out,” the witness explained as she also recalled having seen “dirty” sheets and cloths.

Fernández also saw investigators handling the binders holding the documents Alberto Nisman had been working on, having mate and croissants at the crime scene, and aparently producing five gun shells. She was even offered coffee made on Nisman’s coffeemaker.

Fernandez fears for her safety, particularly now that the burnt body of an unidentified middle-aged woman was deposited across the street from Nisman’s apartment building.

Members of the judiciary are holding a silent march. In a country where loyalty means more than truth, Cristina Kirchner’s administration says the march is tantamount to an ‘institutional coup’

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In case you missed it (in Spanish),
El Aleph Nisman
La vorágine irracional del Gobierno argentino rompió los pocos frenos que contenían su autoritarismo

February 10, 2015 By Fausta

Argentina: Why we’ll probably never learn the truth about the #Nisman murder

Princeton University professor Jeremy Adelman explains it clearly, “The Nisman affair is a saga that braids together incompetence, corruption, and murder on a global scale.“

The other dark shadow cast over this controversy is the history of Argentina’s intelligence services. Their origins date to the first Juan Perón government (1946–55), which enlisted Nazi war criminals to serve as Perón’s spies. During the military junta’s rule in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the services were deeply involved in repressing the opposition and colluding with neighboring dictatorships. After the return to democracy in 1983, many argued that the intelligence services needed to be cleansed or disbanded. They weren’t. In the course of the AMIA investigations, the Secretariat of Intelligence became part of the problem. One former investigator, Claudio Lifschitz, claimed he was abducted and tortured by SI agents. The intelligence services have been hoarding incriminating evidence on all sides, using it to empower a secret state within the state.

As with so many rackets, internal feuding broke out inside the SI. Some factions patronized President Fernández; others freelanced. Last December, President Fernández launched a purge. This tipped the scales. One of the ousted SI agents was the chief of operations, the murky Antonio Stiusso. Stiusso had been feeding Nisman transcripts of wiretapped conversations between top Fernández aides and senior Iranian officials about squelching the AMIA inquiry and food-for-oil bargaining. Some in the president’s circle said Stiusso was conniving with American sources in a campaign to isolate Iran.

Sure enough, the government is now saying that Nisman talked with Stiusso and they want to question Stiusso (link in Spanish), “on the nature of his relationship with Nisman,” scoring two points for creating suspicion – one on innuendo, and on politics.

It’s not clear if Stiusso has been found.

A new DNA profile has been found at Nisman’s apartment on a coffee cup, and they’re trying to determine to whom it belongs. Diego Lagomarsino, who allegedly brought Nissan his gun, has already stated he had coffee with Nisman.

Government supporters are saying Cristina Fernandez, not Nisman, is the real victim.

(h/t Babalu)

Back to Adelman,

At this stage, it is hard to know what is worse: the rot in Argentine public institutions that can’t investigate an atrocity after 20 years, the depths to which Argentine hopes for truth and accountability have plunged, or the sordid spectacle of a president personalizing a crisis she helped to create?

All of the above.

Or, as Simon Romero put it, Whodunit? In Obsessed Nation, Question Becomes Who Didn’t

UPDATE:
Linked to by Babalu. Thank you!