The death toll from last week’s devastating volcanic explosion in Guatemala has risen to 109, the National Forensic Sciences Institute (INACIF) said. Almost 200 people reported missing.
It updated on Thursday the previous day’s count of 99 victims after ten more bodies were delivered to local morgues, according to a statement on Twitter.
Guatemalan authorities on Thursday requested international assistance in dealing with aftermath of last week’s violent volcanic eruption.
Imagen que muestra a un hombre salvando a su perrito, tras la desgracia en Guatemala por el volcán de fuego. pic.twitter.com/EtIgdUu5Ok
— Paisajes Geograficos (@PaisajesGeo) June 7, 2018
Now this request goes to the international community to allow assistance to Guatemala,” the nation’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement. State prosecutors are investigating lack of emergency response that caused loss of life. The disaster is considered to be Guatemala’s most violent volcanic eruption in over a century.
Meanwhile, the United States is sending emergency aid and other resources in order to assist the victims of a volcano eruption in Guatemala, the White House said in a press release on Thursday.
“At the request of the Government of Guatemala, we are sending emergency aid, including financial resources to help meet food, water, and sanitation needs for the affected population,” the release said. “The United States is also sending aircraft to assist in transporting burn victims of this terrible event for treatment in Florida.”
Guatemala emergency services temporarily suspended rescue efforts in the Fuego volcano disaster zone because of heavy rains and dangerous volcanic materials. The death toll is 100, say police. pic.twitter.com/0cSL0LFNOF
The White House added it will coordinate with the Guatemalan government and send additional aid if needed.
Moreover, Mexico’s Foreign Ministry announced Wednesday it was sending health workers and medical units to Guatemala to assist in relief efforts following a violent volcanic explosion.
Mexico’s foreign, health and interior ministries will dispatch by the end of the day “a team of medical experts who will help with medical examinations of affected Guatemalans… and, if necessary, bring them to Mexico for treatment,” the statement read.
Before and after satellite images show the extent of the destruction wrought by Guatemala’s Volcán de Fuego.
The village of San Miguel Los Lotes was almost completely buried. At least 200 still missing.
Pic via @APhttps://t.co/sKEBwXhPOzpic.twitter.com/0BpSRx6NzE
(AFP) Masaya, a city battling at the front lines of Nicaragua’s heated anti-government protests, once again became the scene of fierce street combat Saturday, with at least one man dying of a bullet wound to the heart, the head of a top rights group in the country said.
An anti-government demonstrator fires a home-made mortar during clashes with riot police at a barricade in the town of Masaya, 35km from Managua on June 9, 2018. — AFP
Firearm bursts rang out in the city home to 100,000 people, where riots that started midday were growing increasingly violent as masked demonstrators wielding homemade mortars and slingshots struggled to fend off armed security forces.
Alvaro Leiva, head of the Nicaraguan Association for the Protection of Human Rights (ANPDH), said at least one 60-year-old man had died after a bullet struck his heart.
Leiva said the gunman was a sniper – implying a member of Ortega’s security forces or government-backed vigilantes.
The mortal wound comes hours after the Nicaraguan Centre for Human Rights (CENIDH) had raised to 137 the death toll in the Central American country, where demonstrations demanding President Daniel Ortega’s ouster have raged since April 18.
At least two people had died in violent protests overnight, the CENIDH told AFP, one in the northern city of Jinotega and another in Managua.
Leiva said the situation was growing increasingly grave “because we are talking about crossfire, not tear gas or rubber bullets”.
“The situation in this moment in Nicaragua is a crisis,” he said. “We are asking the world to pay attention to Masaya.”
The city just outside of the capital – known before for its tree-lined streets, traditional crafts and nearby volcano of the same name – has taken on the appearance of a war zone.
Demonstrators, many of them young men, huddled Saturday behind barricades constructed from cobblestones, felled trees and sheet metal, the ground littered with broken glass and spikes to further guarantee no cars would pass.
“We are fighting here because of the massacre of many people, the death of many children,” one protestor told AFP, saying he’s been actively demonstrating in Masaya for 15 days.
“We will continue in the struggle.”
No political will
The young man who died in Jinotega was killed during an armed attack on protesters who were guarding a road barricade intended to keep security forces back, according to student organisers.
“Paramilitaries linked to the government gunned down boys who were fighting in the streets for liberty and democracy,” said a statement from the city’s student movement, calling it “a night of terror”.
In Managua, a young motorcyclist died from a bullet to the neck after two armed men aboard motorcycles chased and shot him.
Demonstrators continued to block roads throughout Nicaragua as part of the mass protests demanding the removal of Ortega, a former guerrilla who has held office for 11 years but who faces increasing opposition, even from onetime allies.
“Unfortunately they still aren’t showing political will – they continue to kill people,” one student leader, Victor Cuadras, told journalists upon landing in Managua after a trip to Washington.
“They shed blood yesterday and early today,” he said of Ortega’s ruling Sandinista party.
At ‘war’
The crackdown that began as relatively minor demonstrations against pension cuts in April mushroomed into mass protests against Ortega, who first came to power in 1979 as the head of a communist junta following the overthrow of dictator Anastasio Somoza.
A major force in Nicaraguan politics over the past four decades, Ortega slipped out of power in 1990 but retook the presidency in 2006.
Now in his third consecutive term, he is to remain as the country’s leader until 2022. A key demand of protestors is to expedite that election.
The country’s influential Catholic bishops met Thursday with Ortega to discuss a plan to reboot talks to quell the crisis, presenting “the pain and anguish of people who have suffered in recent weeks” to the leftist leader.
Silvio Jose Baez, the auxiliary bishop of Managua, said Ortega “asked us for a period of reflection to give us an answer, which we asked he give us in writing” – after which they will consider the feasibility of reviving negotiations.
But amid that administrative back-and-forth the situation continues to spiral out of control, activists and rights groups say.
For young people fighting in Masaya, the conflict will not end until Ortega is gone.
“We are in a war with the government,” a protestor in Masaya said, a black T-shirt veiling his face, his eyes barely visible beneath a black cap.
“We will be free,” he said. “This government will go.”
The U.S. Department of State renewed its Travel Advisory for Nicaragua on June 8, 2018. The Department continues to advise travelers to reconsider travel to Nicaragua. This replaces the previous Travel Advisory issued on May 4, 2018.
The full text of the new Travel Advisory is as follows:
Nicaragua – Level 3: Reconsider Travel
Reconsider travel to Nicaragua due to crime, civil unrest, and limited healthcare availability.
On April 23, 2018, the U.S. government ordered the departure of U.S. government family members and authorized the voluntary departure of U.S. government personnel.
Rallies and demonstrations are widespread and occur daily with little notice. In many instances the government responds using tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets, and live ammunition, leading to significant numbers of deaths and injuries. Looting, vandalism, and acts of arson often occur during unrest, including in tourist areas. The perpetrators are often government-controlled thugs in civilian clothing, sometimes using vehicles without license plates. Government authorities detain protesters, and some people have disappeared. Human rights groups have documented credible claims of torture of detainees.
Road blocks, including in Managua and other major cities, may limit availability of food and fuel. Road blocks may also limit access to the Augusto C. Sandino International airport in Managua. Criminals are in charge of some of the road blocks.
Hospitals around the country are inundated with victims of violence and lack the capacity to respond to other emergencies.
Violent crime, such as sexual assault and armed robbery, is common and has increased as security forces focus on the civil unrest. Police presence and emergency response are extremely limited.
The U.S. Embassy in Managua is limited in the assistance it can provide. U.S. government personnel in Nicaragua must remain in their homes and avoid unnecessary travel between sundown and sunrise. In Managua, they must avoid Rotonda Metrocentro, Rotonda Universitaria, and the vicinity of universities, particularly UNAN.
U.S. government personnel are prohibited from using public buses and mototaxis and from entering the Oriental Market in Managua and gentlemen’s clubs throughout the country due to crime.
Additional restrictions on movements by U.S. government personnel may be put in place at any time, depending on local circumstances and security conditions, which can change suddenly.
The Costa Rica - Nicaragua land border crossing at Peñas Blancas (from the Costa Rica side). Photo Rico / QCR
The Ministerio de Seguridad Pública (MSP) – Ministry of Public Security – said it is maintaining “normal surveillance” in the northern borders in the event of a possible massive entry of Nicaraguans.
The Costa Rica – Nicaragua land border crossing at Peñas Blancas (from the Costa Rica side). Photo by Rico / QCR
The Minister the MSP, Michael Soto Rojas, who, on Friday during the graduation ceremony of 304 new Fuerza Publica (national police) officers, La Sabana, San Jose, said that for the moment what they have are unconfirmed versions of a wave of people from Nicaragua headed towards Costa Rica.
“We have press information but the presence of Nicaraguans in the border areas have not increased,” he said.
Given this, Soto said that, for the moment, there are no changes to border staff. “We have the Border Police that is prominent in the entire border, in places Tablillas de Los Chiles, Alajuela and in Peñas Blancas, Guanacaste, where there are authorized posts for the legal entry of people,” he explained.
A possible wave of Nicaraguans arriving in Costa Rica stems from the escalated anti-government protests that have gripped Nicaragua since April 18 and resulting in at least 135 deaths and more than 1,000 injured.
In recent days, blockades have intensified and now cover at least 70% of the Nicaraguan major roads, in major cities in ten different departments (provinces).
Costa Rica’s Foreign Minister, Epsy Campbell, confirmed that the number of refugee requests by Nicaraguans has multiplied but did not provide details.
Minister Soto said that an eventual wave was discussed among other State entities to prepare a government strategy. ” In Seguridad Publica, we have a plan to try to give basic attention to these people. Of course, that requires more advanced coordination with other ministries and organizations.”
Costa Rica, with a population of less than 5 million, historically receives migration from Nicaragua. Currently some 400,000 Nicaraguans, according to official data, live in the country, but calculations by non-governmental organizations raise that figure to double or more.
By Carlos Salinas, Yader Luna and Ivan Olivares (Confidencial) – On Thursday night, the campesino movement leader Francisca Ramirez issued a call to tighten the highway roadblocks and for a “citizens’ work stoppage all over the country. Her call followed the information that the bishops hadn’t succeeded in eliciting any commitment from President Daniel Ortega to facilitate a way out of the crisis of misrule that is affecting the country.
A mask from the traditional dance “Dance of the Black Women” along with the Nicaraguan flag over the coffin of the young man Jorge Zepeda. Photo: Jorge Torres, EFE /Masaya
Ortega, who is clinging tightly to power while he maintains the repression and refuses to disarm the paramilitary forces, asked the bishops for two days of “reflection” to analyze the agenda for the country’s “democratization” that was proposed in the national dialogue three weeks ago.
“We hope that these 2 days are for reflecting on his exit” Francisca Ramirez, leader of the campesino movement
The agenda for justice and democracy contemplates constitutional and electoral reforms, a total change of personnel in the Supreme Electoral Council, early elections and a reduction in the term that all authorities will serve, as well as a profound police reform, backed up by a Framework Law. However, Ortega’s intransigence indicates that he’s not willing to cede power.
“We hope that these days are for reflecting on his exit,” stated Francisca Ramirez. “We’re not giving in, the people don’t want Ortega to remain in power, and they want him to resign. We’re asking the population to get out on the streets,” added the leader of the anti-canal movement. On Thursday night, after Ortega asked for 48 hours to “reflect”, Ortega’s troops attacked the National Autonomous University of Managua, leaving one dead, a youth his classmates identified as Chester Javier Chavarria.
The bishops met with Ortega for over two hours on Thursday afternoon. Although they said that this meeting with the leader was held in “an atmosphere of serenity and frankness,” it was left clear that the strongman would not give in to the principal demand of the population: his immediate resignation. Nor was he going to allow early elections.
“We’ve delivered our proposal which reflects the sentiments of many sectors of Nicaraguan society and expresses the yearning of the immense majority of the population,” stated the communique read by the bishops in the Managua Seminary Nuestra Senora de Fatima. “Once the president of the republic has responded formally to us, we will invite the Plenary Table of the National Dialogue to evaluate said response and the feasibility of continuing this Dialogue,” informed the Nicaraguan Episcopal Conference.
Ortega’s intransigence caused indignation in the country, where some held expectations that the leader might give in to a constitutional way out. “Ortega doesn’t want a dialogue, nor the mediation of the Bishops, nor to sit down with the Civic Alliance,” the former Sandinista guerilla and current historian Dora Maria Tellez wrote on Twitter. “He wants to play “pass the ball” until someone will officiate at a dialogue to fit his whims, so he can remain in power. Now he’ll be prescribing more repression and we’ll all have to respond with more resistance,” she warned.
Azahalea Solis, who represents civil society in the dialogue, said that with his intransigence Ortega has demonstrated that he’s not interested in the agenda for democratization presented by the church. “Even if the dialogue table might accept that Daniel Ortega can remain, the people have said no. There’s no possibility. He’s politically and morally unfit to continue as president of Nicaragua after having issued the order to kill that has been scientifically demonstrated,” Solis said. “The position of the bishops has been quite consistent with the agenda. Ortega doesn’t want to save the country, He prefers to rule over the destruction of the rule of law and over the real destruction of the country,” the lawyer added.
“The reply is in the streets”
This week marks almost two months of crisis in Nicaragua, a crisis that has provoked a virtual shut-down of the country’s economy. If the situation continues, the losses could exceed US $600 million dollars, according to the calculations of FUNIDES. In the worst scenario, 150 thousand jobs could be lost. Nonetheless, the population seems willing to suffer these consequences in their struggle for freedom.
Enrieth Martinez, of the University Coalition, stated that Ortega’s response generated “indignation and frustration”, for her as for the rest of the country, but she feels that these feelings will translate into greater pressure in the streets.
“I believe that the answer doesn’t lie only in the dialogue anymore, but is being transformed into demanding his resignation, and proof of that is that there are ever more social sectors getting together and organizing in the national territory,” she expressed.
According to Martinez, in these two days “people should go out onto the streets to make themselves heard,” and it’s hopeful that more national and international figures are condemning Ortega’s regime.
Losing time while indignation grows
Educator Carlos Tunnermann, a member of civil society grouped in the Civic Alliance, said that President Ortega continues “to be mistaken” and is making “a bad reading” of the demand of citizens all over the country.
“A responsible statesman, conscious of all the grief over the deaths during the protests should respond immediately to the bishops about resuming the dialogue right away, but he continues making the error of not responding to the population’s clamor, and as more time goes by, the indignation of the citizenry rises ever higher,” he assured.
For Tunnermann, the bishops did well in expounding the situation of crisis that the country is experiencing and in presenting the agenda agreed upon in the Plenary Table of the National dialogue regarding the democratization of the country. “By requesting a written response from him we’ll be able t know once and for all what he’s thinking,” he argues.
“It appears that Ortega doesn’t want to read what’s happening in the country and while he continues with that attitude, the independently organized roadblocks and the public protests will continue to grow,” he predicted.
As to whether the leader’s strategy is to gain time, Tunnermann believes that “he’s losing it instead,” because as more days go by, “the repression and the number of deceased have been increasing.” This continues to generate ever greater repudiation at a national and international level. “Ortega should be the number one person interested in finding a way out of his government’s crisis and resuming the dialogue,” the academic insisted.
Moving up the elections
Sergio Maltez, president of the Chamber of Industries, called attention to the fact that Ortega has asked for time to reflect on the 40 points to achieve democratization, something that in his judgement “has a lot to read between the lines.”
The problem is that “time is passing and we don’t see any clear and concise response from Ortega regarding the actions he’s thinking about taking,” in order to satisfy the population’s demands.
“The general hope is for everything to return to normal, to move up the elections and take the steps towards democratization, but we’ve now had three weeks of time for dialogue, of the month that the Nicaraguan Episcopal Conference gave as a deadline, and we don’t see any progress.”
He feels that there’s a risk of total anarchy because no one is in total control of the situation. He calls on the government to take note of that possibility and to make decisions that favor democracy.
“We can’t wait very much longer, because the consequences, especially the social ones could be dire,” he warned.
Appealing to the National Police
Sandra Ramos, of the “Maria Elena Cuadra” Movement of Unemployed and Working Women, opted for maintaining the vote of confidence for the Episcopal Conference since “we believe that they’re doing everything within their reach to renew the National Dialogue, although this depends on the other side,” she asserted, in reference to Daniel Ortega.
In this “difficult moment that the Nicaraguan people are going through because of the repression,” Ramos still trusts the option for dialogue, but also in “maintaining the pressure from the people and the international pressure to go back to sitting down and looking for how to resolve this problem which is exhausting all the Nicaraguans.”
Upon finding out the results of the meeting and Ortega’s request for time to “reflect”, she indicated that “the people have the last word.” She foresees them putting up more roadblocks and incrementing their self-defense in reaction to the defenselessness they experience, especially when the pick-ups of death enter the neighborhoods.
“I call upon the National Police, those policemen and women who don’t want to carry out the orders to attack their people, to put down their arms. They should remember that the police need to be on the side of the people. We trust them. They’re people from the neighborhoods. They are the poor, the children of the poor, who are those dying and because of that there’s no pressure higher up, because no son of any of the rich parent has died,” she concluded.
The number of people killed by violent protests against Daniel Ortega’s government rose to 135 this Friday, according to the Centro Nicaragüense de Derechos Humanos (CENIDH) – Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights.
In a span of 48 hours, three were killed in Chinandega alone
The most recent victim was Shester Javier Chavarría, who was killed by two bullets on Thursday night while he was entrenched in the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Nicaragua (UNAN) and a group of masked men shot him from a truck.
The final report promised by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), which will be published in the coming weeks, will detail the different cases of deaths during the protests.
The IACHR visited Nicaragua from May 17 to 21 and presented a preliminary report in Managua when it had confirmed the death of 76 people and more than 800 injured. Since IACHR left Nicaragua, at least 59 more deaths have occurred, raising the death toll to 135 and more than a thousand injured.
“The perpetrators of the more than 130 deaths remain in impunity, because all the operators of justice in this country, such as the Prosecutor’s Office, have accused only by selection,” said the legal director of CENIDH, Gonzalo Carrión.
“Beyond that, we have not seen a firm conduct to establish a line of investigation and eventual accusation of police headquarters, of those who have shot and those who were ordered to shoot,” criticized Carrión.
The latest fatalities have been recorded in Masaya, Chinandega and Managua
Guest Post by Colin Post, Expat Chronilces – This installment of When Readers Attack! addresses a more moderate “attack” compared to others in the series, mostly free of condescension. But patently false nonetheless and grossly misleading to the point where I thought for a couple hours about all the ways Martin has his head up his ass, despite probably being a nice enough guy.
So here’s a full-fledged response to Martin’s comment on The Latin American Bathroom Orientation:
Hey, I grew up in Nicaragua in the 60’s and 70’s, traveled through several Latin countries and everyone flushes their used tissues in the toilet! Apparently though it’s become a tradition in some overpopulated cities like Mexico City, Bogota or Lima but smaller cities like Managua, San Jose or Montevideo don’t have that problem. It could also be that many expats love to stay in the crappiest hotels or boarding houses that they can find to save a couple of bucks. So chill out about judging all of Latin America because I see nasty, stinky restrooms in the States all the time. That goes for dance clubs, grocery stores, fast food joints, Irish pubs, or any place that serves food! The irony of it is that’s in the so called “richest country in the Americas”!
As you can see, there’s a lot there. And the biggest nugget comes right at the beginning with the “I’m an authority because…” card:
I grew up in Nicaragua in the 60’s and 70’s…
So we know Martin is an older guy, over 50 years old and probably 60, given he lived under the mercantilist dictatorship of the Somoza dynasty. During that time Nicaragua was just as much of a shithole as it is today. The inequality and squalor conditions especially for the rural poor inspired the Sandinistas, the quasi-Marxists who overthrew Somoza in 1979. Nicaragua’s economy under the Sandinistas would not do much better. It’s still a hereditary autocracy, and shithole on both gringo and Latin American standards.
Given Martin “grew up in Nicaragua” at the time, we can assume he was brought there by his gringo parents. Maybe he is the son of Nicaraguans, but his comment is written in such native English and so American in its assumptions, that it’s safe to assume he’s a bona fide gringo.
Before the Sandinistas took over, when Martin lived there, Nicaragua was a much friendlier country to gringos. And at that time, the only gringos were either the banana colony and the diplomats. The smart money says Martin’s parents worked in the banana colonies of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, or they worked for the U.S. embassy. Gabo paints a vivid picture of an upscale village dedicated to banana production, completely segregated by razor wire from the local population of poverty-stricken peasants.
To go on a deeper dive, read about Sam Zemurray, the banana gringo who ran Central America in the early 20th century.
Long story short, Martin grew up in what contemporary expats in Latin America deride as “the bubble.” The expat bubble, the embassy-AmCham bubble, whatever you want to call it. It’s the upper crust of the local upper class, and many gringos live in it. Back then it was the only place for gringos to live, but in the 21st century you get all types of expats.
It is possible that Martin grew up under parents making a go with a small business catering to Nicaragua’s growing middle class … STOP, I’m going to shit my pants laughing! There was no Nicaraguan middle class then. There is hardly any now. Statistical data beyond population size doesn’t even exist before the 1980s. Maybe Martin’s parents weren’t in bananas or diplomacy, but they definitely lived in the bubble.
I have nothing against the bubble, and I’m not that guy deriding the gringos who live in it. I have friends in the bubble and I have visited them in the bubble (although I’d have to think hard to remember if I’ve ever taken a shit in their houses). But as I said, the expat scene in Latin America has changed. For every bubble gringo, there is another gringo living in the low-income peripheral districts (Comas for example), which are just as much not my style as the bubble.
While I’m not hating on those who live in the bubble, I have to insist for the sake of accuracy and the war on fake news that bubble gringos like Martin have the environmental awareness to recognize that they live in the fucking bubble. And that a single-digit percentage of the population at large lives like that, while over 90% of the locals live a very different reality.
We don’t want any innocent twentysomething gringos with no savings thinking they’re going to make the leap into LatAm and land in a modern house in a gated community with a car. Because they’re not. In fact, they’re going to throw the shit paper in the trash for as long as it takes them to get their money right.
For accuracy I consulted our man on the ground in Nicaragua, who will remain anonymous until the end of the current repression (wartime report coming soon!). He estimates that 98% of Nicaraguans throw their shit paper in the trash, and the only ones who flush it are “the gringo hotels and the rich folk who have lived abroad and then returned to build their own houses.”
And he adds this gem: “Sometimes I feel like I should shit directly into the garbage because the plumbing here is so fragile.”
This has been a long rebuttal to a partial sentence, but you get the point. Martin’s a bubble creature. His input applies only if you’re coming with a hundred grand in cash to a shithole like Nicaragua, or $300K for rich-as-fuck countries like Peru.
[And I’ve] traveled through several Latin countries and everyone flushes their used tissues in the toilet
“used tissues” — I’ve read that 10 times now, still hilarious!
I have also traveled through Latin America, and that’s how I know that NOT everyone flushes their shit paper in the toilet. If I had ever encountered a toilet without a bin for the shit paper next to it, I would have been amazed. It would have been so noteworthy that I would have mentioned it in my write-ups on, for example, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Brazil and all the cities of Colombia and Peru.
The only toilets in Latin America I have ever seen without the bin were in two Americans’ apartment in Medellin (noted in original LatAm Bathrooms article) and the U.S. embassy in Lima (read that story). But granted, I don’t stay in the multinational chain hotels. Nothing against the bubble, mind you, just not my style.
Apparently though it’s become a tradition in some overpopulated cities like Mexico City, Bogota or Lima
This is partly true. Throwing your shit paper in the trash has in fact become a tradition in these cities. It started with the advent of toilets. When Mexicans, Colombians and Peruvians began shitting in their homes instead of outhouses, it became tradition to put a bin for the shit paper next to their new toilets.
but smaller cities like Managua, San Jose or Montevideo don’t have that problem.
I have lived in one small city in Latin America: Arequipa, Peru. And compared to Lima and Bogota, it is the least likely to have toilets that flush the shit paper even in the gringo hotels. In fact Arequipa is the one city where I still find toilets with the seat removed (to prevent theft).
I never actually confirmed if the seats are actually removed, or if the toilet was installed without a seat to begin with. But you get used to that too. In urgent circumstances, I’d have a pony on the cold porcelain bowl. And of course I’d have brought my own toilet paper to throw in the bin. You get used to all of it, no sweat.
The only thing I don’t get used to, and I’m not sure this is any more Latin American than anywhere else, is when you run out of shit paper and use the roll to do a little more wiping. I tear the soft cardboard along its seams into three pieces and kind of dab / wipe with that.
I wasn’t sure about what they do in San Jose or Montevideo, the capitals of two of Latin America’s richest countries along with Chile, so I asked around among longtime readers and pals in the region for their countries’ local shit-paper customs.
According to longtime reader Chili, who has over 20 years in Costa Rica, “You can flush everything in the homes built in the last 10 years, since a building boom of new construction that is all up to U.S. standards. That EXCLUDES low-income new housing, basically stuff that is financed by the government for single mothers. But everything else, you can flush a roll of Bounty paper towels down the toilet.
“If I had to guess, I’d say 30% of ticos have plumbing that can take a flush. Anyone who makes less than $2,000 per month can’t flush, and that 70% is decreasing.”
I don’t know any expats in Uruguay, which can probably be attributed to the fact that Uruguay sucks. But I have a few Uruguayan friends living here in Lima (further proof that Uruguay sucks). One of them told me that, yes, all Uruguayans flush the shit paper. He added that the upper-middle and upper-class homes also have bidets.
We’re waiting on word from Chile. When I visited the border town of Arica, it was definitely not a flush market. I also asked a couple permanent travelers in the region if they found anywhere that didn’t throw the shit paper in the trash. Vance at My Latin Life and the travel-blogging eminence himself Dave Lee can’t remember any city that flushes the shit paper.
It could also be that many expats love to stay in the crappiest hotels or boarding houses that they can find to save a couple of bucks.
Here Martin has confused Expat Chronicles with a different website, and the word “expat” with a different word. You could make that statement about “tourists” or “backpackers,” but not “expats.” There is debate about who is and who is not an “expat,” but there is not debate that expats live on at least a semi-permanent basis down here.
While there are tourists and backpackers who read this site, the bread and butter of the Expat Chronicles community are expats living in apartments and houses. Some are immigrants (under my lofty definition) and even citizens.
So chill out about judging all of Latin America
Now you really have the wrong blog! Expat Chronicles is ground zero for ugly Americans, Canadians and Anglo/Celts living in Latin America to judge, condescend to and talk shit about Latin America and Latin Americans. Don’t like it? Find another blog.
But back up a little. “Used Tissues” Martin again betrays his inherent gringo-ness by assuming that I’m judging Latin America. The original article never says throwing your shit paper in the trash is good or bad. It doesn’t say either way because I don’t have an opinion. I’m so used to it, I have even caught myself throwing it in the trash in the bathrooms of family and friends back in the States. I never tell them about my mistake, if I even realize it.
But if you gave me a choice on whether I flush or pitch the shit paper for the rest of my life, I could go either way. Flip a coin. I would ask environmental scientists which option is more sustainable for the planet, the water and the land.
Granted, I’m not responsible for emptying the bin since I married a Peruvian. Maybe if I were single I’d prefer to flush.
And all this talk about shit paper is diverting attention from the real problem, and that’s the little box above the shower head. I haven’t lived with an electric water heater since 2013, but I’d take shit paper in the trash over that fuckin thing any day. You touch anything metallic or even remotely metallic and get a shock. One day I’m going to look up how many people die each year from slipping in the shower after getting a dose of electric-water-heater voltage. And then even without a shock, if it’s a cold night you can only have hot water at a low pressure. No way to live!
because I see nasty, stinky restrooms in the States all the time. That goes for dance clubs, grocery stores, fast food joints, Irish pubs, or any place that serves food!
Bathrooms are dirty everywhere – very informative. But if we’re comparing apples to apples I’ll tell you something all those disgusting gas-station bathrooms in the United States that the vast majority of Latin American bathrooms don’t have – free toilet paper!
You have to bring your own toilet paper if you’re going to take a shit in most public restrooms of Latin America. Of course each toilet stall comes with toilet paper in the restaurants and establishments of the upper-class bubble, and free toilet paper is starting to make its way into the middle-class. Especially the practice of having just one toilet paper roll located outside the stalls, so you have to stock up before you sit down to have a dump. Better than nothing!
But expats in Latin America learn sooner or later that if they’re going to be out and about for a long day, it may come in handy to put a good load of shit paper in your pocket or briefcase before you leave the house. Just in case… That way you don’t have to find a tienda and buy a whole roll before going back to whatever public bathroom you’re going to use.
The irony of it is that’s in the so called “richest country in the Americas”!
Martin, I know you’re new here. But here’s an easy rule to remember: don’t fuck with me on anything that could be deemed economics. That goes for anybody who is not, in fact, an economist. Or maybe an Econ major, but not even all of them!
Because the United States is not the “so called” richest country in the Americas. It is the richest country in the Americas. By total GDP it is the richest country by about a factor of 10 (Brazil’s GDP is 10% of America’s). By the more commonly used GDP per capita, the U.S. has a ~20% edge over Canada depending on the methodology.
I would go further and declare the United States the richest country in the world by using a modified definition of “country.” And I’ll modify the definition to exclude petrostates, tax shelters and city-states. Petrostates and tax shelters are obvious. I would define a city state as any state with a population less than 10 million.
All of the countries which technically have a higher GDP per capita than the U.S. are at least one of those (petrostate, tax shelter, city state), and most are a combination. For example, Qatar is a petrostate and a city state (population 2.5 million). Switzerland is both a tax shelter and a city state (population 8 million). Some of the countries wouldn’t even be city states, but administrative villages (Luxembourg at 500,000 or Liechtenstein with 40,000!).
So yeah, it’s not fair to compare the powerful flushing and free toilet paper of the United States, the mightiest economy in the world, to anywhere in Latin America.
The Resistance
In asking around, I was surprised how many of my fellow gringos make up part of the Resistance. I mentioned old forum character and contributor Zac in Medellin. He had no bin when I stayed with him in 2010. But I assumed he was an anomaly in the region, just one stubborn gringo.
But when I started asking around, I found loads of gringos refuse to throw the shit paper in the trash despite it being the national custom. As in the case with Zac, the plumbing wasn’t necessarily strong enough to take a shit and all the paper used to wipe ass. But he just continued flushing it until it all went down. Hence the term, “Resistance.” It looks to me like he’s kind of going out of his way, or expending extra effort, in a kind of cultural disobedience.
Like they did in 1990, Purdy Motors, the exclusive dealer for Toyota in Costa Rica, will give each player of the Seleccion (national team) a brand new Toyota Corolla if they manage to reach the quarterfinals in the World Cup in Russia, just as they did in Brazil 2014.
In 1990, Purdy Motor gave each player a new Corolla. In the World Cup Italy 1990, Costa Rica’s first world cup, the team coached by Bora Milutinovic went into the second round, defeating Sweden (2-1) and Scotland (1-0), then losing (1-0) to Brazil on an auto goal by Mauricio Montero. Then losing the first game of the round of 16 (4-1) to Czechoslovakia.
Like in 1990, in 2014 the whole country went crazy. People took to the streets to celebrate. The reception given to the 1990 players returning was tremendous. In 1990, the parade went from the Juan Santamaria international airport to the main streets of San Jose. In 2014, the festivities were just as crazy.
In 1990, a new Corolla, equipped with a 1,300cc engine, cost ¢625,000 colones (US$6,900 at the ¢90 colones to one US dollar exchange rate on June 9, 1990) and was tax exempted by President Rafael Angel Calderon.
What was US$6,900 dollars worth in today’s money, taking into account inflation? $13,489.42 using an inflation calculator.
Javier Quirós de Purdy Motor Toyota.
Question is will Purty have to pay up?
Many, especially die-hard fans of La Sele think yes. Critics, however, do not. They place the 2018 team, which is basically the same as 2014 with some minor changes and a different coach, at not passing the first round.
The FIFA World Cup 2018 in Russia kicks off on June 14. Costa Rica will play it’s first game on Juen 17, against Serbia.
The regional director and a transito (traffic official) of the Policia de Transito delegation in Santa Cruz, in Guanacaste, were arrested on Friday, for allegedly soliciting a bribe from foreigner driver who had drank some “tamarindos”, the local slang for alcoholic drinks.
The woman says the officials demanded money in exchange for not arresting her.
The official was identified by his last name Contreras Calvo, the director, Gutiérrez Oviedo.
Apparently the officers asked the women to pull over in the area of Portegolpe and notice she had been drinking, thus ordered to a breathlyzer that gave a .08 reading, that is over the limit.
Despite the level is below that permitted by laaw, the “vivazos” (craafty) officials told the driver if she would pay them US$700 they would not take her to the local courthouse.
Supposedly, the woman refused. The payment was reduced to US$300, but the foreigner denied that also and pointed out that what they were trying to do was no exactly correct.
They officials aand took her in detention to the Prosecutor’s Office. It is where the woman told authorities her side of the story.
Property owners renting a room, an apartment or a house, even if it is for a low amount, should start to issue a “factura electrónica” (electronic invoice) to their tenants starting September 1 of this year.
Tax experts say starting in September, taxpayers who have not been registered in the electronic invoicing system must begin to do so according to resolution number DGT-R-012-2018 de la Dirección General de Tributación (General Taxation) published in La Gaceta on March 20, 2018.
The application of the factura electrónica to residential rents was confirmed by Taxation. In addition, Dunia Zamora, legal advisor to the Association of Public Accountants; Alan Saborío, Tax partner of Deloitte and German Morales, Tax partner of Grant Thornton Costa Rica, confirmed that this resolution covers residential rents.
According to Zamora, the start date will depend on the last digits of the person’s cedula.
Persons with cedulas ending in 1, 2 and 3 must start issuing electronic invoices on September 1, those with cedulas ending in 4, 5 and 6 must start on October 1, and those with cedulas ending in 0, 7, 8 and 9 on November 1.
Saborío argued that every individual who rents a property must register as a taxpayer of income tax, either as an individual or create a legal entity (such as a corporation) that engages in that activity.
In addition, they must file an income tax return even if what they earn does not reach the minimum amount to start paying income tax.
Zamora clarified that the Ley de Inquilinato (Tenancy Law) says that for legal purposes, the tenant can defend themselves by way of the bank deposit receipt when making the rental payment, but that is only for the tenant, whoever rents is obliged to issue a factura electronica (electronic invoice).
Not issuing a factura electronica, not registering as a taxpayer and not submitting a tax return has penalties.
For example:
Not registering as a taxpayer, the sanction is equivalent to one half of a base salary (a base salary is currently ¢431,000) per month or fraction of a month, without exceeding three basic salaries (¢1,239,000).
Not issuing a facura electronica, the sanction is two base salaries (¢862,000).
Not filing a tax return the penalty is 2% of the gross income, to a maximum of one hundred base salaries (¢43.100.000).
Filing a return with errors, 1% of a base salary (¢4,310) for each error.
Of concern is that many people do not know this and it has become customary to rent without fulfilling these duties.
Who pays the tax?
Saborío that according to the current table for fiscal year 2018 (from September 1, 2017, to October 30, 2018), net income (income minus expenses) of up to ¢3,549,000 are exempt, on the excess of ¢3,549,000 and up to ¢5,299,000 the tax payable is 10%. For higher amounts, there is an escalating tax rate.
Thus, for example, if a person rents an apartment at ¢150,000 monthly, that is a gross income of ¢1,800,000, subtracting expenses such as painting and maintenance of ¢200,000 the remainder is aa net income of ¢1,600,000. As that amount is less than ¢3,549000 there is not tax payable. However, a factura electronica must be issued and a tax return filed.
The factura electrónica or electronic invoice is an electronic receipt generated when the sale of goods or services is made. That voucher/invoice reaches the consumer also by electronic means.
For example, if you subscribe to a Quickpass issued by a bank, notice that each month the bank sends you a receipt for the US$1? That is the factura electronica.
The factura electrónica became obligatory at the beginning of this year. The introduction was graduated, starting with professional services and the health sector in January; accounting and financial sector in February; lawyers in March; engineers, architects and IT in April; and on May 1 for all other service sectors.
This article is not intended to be legal or accounting advice. Please consult with a professional on your particular case with respect to filing and paying income tax and the issuing of a factura electronica.
The Instituto Centroamericano de Administración de Empresas (INCAE) international business school announced it will move the 85 students from the Francisco de Sola campus in Managua to the the Walter Kissling Gam campus in Costa Rica due to the socio-political crisis in which Nicaragua has been immersed for almost two months, and that has already claimed the lives of 135 people.
INCAE campus in Managua, Nicaragua. Foto: Incae
In Nicaragua, the Incae the Francisco de Sola campus, located about 30 minutes from the capital, in the area known as Montefresco. The students will be transferred to Costa Rica’s La Garita campus, said Roberto Artavia Loria, president of the INCAE. “The Nicaragua campus is still open, we have a class that is underway and when that ends its program at the end of the year, we will be moving it to Costa Rica, the rest is still operating normally in Nicaragua. and staff,” said Artavia.
The continuous clashes between police forces and university students, which demand the resignation of the Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega.
The students in Managua, who have been forced to remain in the campus since the conflict began, are not exempt from this situation. “We have already experienced a great earthquake, a civil war, a hurricane (Mitch) in Nicaragua, and the Incae always comes back with the same force, and in August, we hope that the situation is as normal as possible to start the mastery that we have scheduled. for that date,” assured Artavia.
The Financial Times has ranked INCAE as a top global MBA program and The Wall Street Journal has ranked INCAE Business School as one of the top 10 international business schools in the world.
The situation in Nicaragua continues tense and with no immediate end in sight
Costa Rica’s Foreign Ministry confirmed on Friday that, in the last 10 days, in the heat of the internal conflict in the neighboring country, the requests for refuge by Nicaraguans have multiplied.
The situation in Nicaragua continues tense and with no immediate end in sight. Today Nicaragua
Although it did not elaborate, the government of Carlos Alvarado would only say it the requests are from people whose lives are in danger.
Nicaragua is almost two months in on an internal conflict between the government of President Daniel Ortega and protesters, led mainly by university students, who are calling for the ouster of the President and his wife and vice-president Rosario Murillo and new elections. The clashes began on April 18 when the government announced pension reforms and then quickly withdrew them to calm tensions.
“For security reasons, we are not providing exact numbers and names because it is about people who are seeking refuge in Costa Rica, but, in fact, in the last 10 days the number of Nicaraguans has increased, requesting refuge,” said Foreign Minister Epsy Campbell.
In addition to the increase in refugee applications, the Costa Rican government also received an alert from the Cámara de Industrias (Chamber of Industries).
In recent days, the blockades set up across Nicaragua by anti-government protesters has affected the transportation of goods and people to the neighboring country and the rest of the region. Costa Rican trucks buses have to cross Nicaragua to reach Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and Mexico.
The Costa Rican industry exports to the Central American bloc represents ¢2.6 billion colones (US$4.6 million dollars) daily and Nicaragua is one of the country’s main trading partners.
Contingency plan
The events have led to the creation of the Plan de Acción Integral para la Atención de Flujos Migratorios 2018-2021 (Integral Action Plan for the Care of Migratory Flows).
In fact, an inter-institutional commission was set up to prepare Costa Rica for the migration implications that the crisis situation in Nicaragua could cause.
That contingency plan will be implemented under the coordination of the Comisión Nacional de Emergencias (CNE) – National Emergency Commission. The Ministry of Health, the National Institute for Women (Inamu), the National Children’s Trust (PANI) and municipalities are being asked for their assistance.
“We have a plan that anticipates a situation that could become an increasing demand of people entering our country … Above all, coordination is done in case shelters are needed. Our experience allowed us to think about the capacity to respond to emergency situations,” Campbell said.
Campbell was referring to 2016 experience when thousands of refugees that entered Costa Rica via Panama, transiting the country to reach the United States and Nicaragua closed its borders to them. Costa Rica was forced to care for them. Included where some 3,500 Cubans that the government of Luis Guillermo Solis was able to negotiate a deal to get them to Mexico where they then could cross the U.S. border.
At the moment, Costa Rica is not taking any restrictive measures regarding the issuance of visas for Nicaraguans.
Kilauea's volcanic eruption, left, and Guatemala's Fuego eruption
Rico’s TICO BULL – A report on CNN explains how Guatemala’s Fuego volcano eruption is so much deadlier than Hawaii’s Kilauea eruption, though both eruptions swallowed homes and reminded everyone how ferocious nature can be.
The huge differences between Guatemala’s volcano eruption, which has killed 109 people and some 200 still missing since Sunday, and Hawaii’s eruption, which hasn’t killed anyone but keeps slowly wreaking havoc one month later: Lava vs. pyroclastic flow.
The report explains that Kilauea’s primary mode of destruction is lava, but Fuego has unleashed pyroclastic flow — a nasty mix of ash, rock and volcanic gases that can be much more dangerous than lava.
In Guatemala, pyroclastic flow from Sunday’s eruption topped 1,000 degrees Celsius (1,800 degrees Fahrenheit), according to CNN meteorologist Ivan Cabrera.
Kilauea’s volcanic eruption, left, and Guatemala’s Fuego eruption. The latter looks more like the images of volcano eruptions here n Costa Rica.
CNN quoted Erik W. Klemetti, associate professor of geosciences at Denison University. “This eruption at Fuego was explosive, sending hot debris down the steep sides of the volcano to make the pyroclastic flows. Pyroclastic flows can tumble down a volcano at hundreds of kilometers per hour — way faster than what people and even cars could outrun,” he said.
By contrast, Kilauea produces lava (or sticky, molten rock) that typically creeps along at maybe hundreds of meters per hour — not nearly as fast as devastating pyroclastic flow.
Another difference is that the Kilauea is within Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park. But the Fuego volcano erupted near densely populated areas. “Villages are right on the foothills of the mountain,” Cabrera said. “So they had no time (to escape).”
Costa Rica’s volcanos are also within National Parks. But they areA report on CNN explains how Guatemala’s Fuego volcano eruption is so much deadlier than Hawaii’s Kilauea eruption, though both eruptions swallowed homes and reminded everyone how ferocious nature can be.
The huge differences between Guatemala’s volcano eruption, which has killed 109 people and some 200 still missing since Sunday, and Hawaii’s eruption, which hasn’t killed anyone but keeps slowly wreaking havoc one month later: Lava vs. pyroclastic flow.
The report explains that Kilauea’s primary mode of destruction is lava, but Fuego has unleashed pyroclastic flow — a nasty mix of ash, rock and volcanic gases that can be much more dangerous than lava.
In Guatemala, pyroclastic flow from Sunday’s eruption topped 1,000 degrees Celsius (1,800 degrees Fahrenheit), according to CNN meteorologist Ivan Cabrera.
CNN quoted Erik W. Klemetti, associate professor of geosciences at Denison University. “This eruption at Fuego was explosive, sending hot debris down the steep sides of the volcano to make the pyroclastic flows. Pyroclastic flows can tumble down a volcano at hundreds of kilometers per hour — way faster than what people and even cars could outrun,” he said.
By contrast, Kilauea produces lava (or sticky, molten rock) that typically creeps along at maybe hundreds of meters per hour — not nearly as fast as devastating pyroclastic flow.
Another difference is that the Kilauea is within Hawaiʻi Volcanos National Park. But the Fuego volcano erupted near densely populated areas. “Villages are right on the foothills of the mountain,” Cabrera said. “So they had no time (to escape).”
Different is also the long-term effects In both the Kilauea and Fuego areas, “the land will be unusable for years,” Klemetti said. But Guatemala faces a special danger that Hawaii doesn’t.
“The bigger issue with pyroclastic flows is they can be turned into volcanic mudflows (lahars) when the loose debris mixes with rain/river waters,” he said. “That is the new danger at Fuego right now.”
Costa Rica’s volcanos are also within National Parks. But they are also close to densely populated areas.
Just picture the Poas, Irazu and Arenal. Now an eruption. How far do you have to be to outrun pyroclastic flows? If you have that image, obviously not far enough.
In the Central Valley, both the Poas and Irazu are part of the landscape. Getting up to the Poas (to the crater when it is open) from the international airport is less than a 40-minute drive, less to the top of the Irazu from downtown Cartago.
And let us not forget the Turrialba, the volcano that ‘keeps on ticking’. It wasn’t long ago that an ash cloud made it to the greater metropolitan area, even forced closed the San Jose airport a few times.
Land use such as farming and dairy production surrouding the Turrialba has been greatly affected.
Me, I am taking the news of the volcano activities in Costa Rica more seriously. Just the way I learned to not dismiss lightly the earthquakes.
People carry the coffins of seven people who died during the eruption of the Volcan de Fuego, which in Spanish means Volcano of Fire, in the background, to the cemetery in San Juan Alotenango, Guatemala, Monday, June 4, 2018. Residents of villages skirting the volcano began mourning the dead after an eruption buried them in searing ash and mud. (AP Photo/Luis Soto)
Rescuers have suspended search and recovery efforts at villages devastated by the eruption of Guatemala’s Fuego volcano, leaving people with missing loved ones distraught and prompting some to take up the risky work themselves with rudimentary tools.
People carry the coffins of seven people who died during the eruption of the Fuego volcano to the cemetery in San Juan Alotenango, Guatemala, Monday, June 4, 2018. Residents of villages skirting the volcano began mourning the dead after an eruption buried them in searing ash and mud. (AP Photo/Luis Soto)
CONRED, the national disaster agency, said weather conditions and still-hot volcanic material were making it dangerous for rescuers.
It also noted that 72 hours had passed since Sunday’s eruption. That is the window beyond which officials earlier said it would be extremely unlikely to find any survivors amid the ash, mud and other debris that buried homes up to their rooftops.
“It rained very hard yesterday … The soil is unstable,” said Pablo Castillo, a national police spokesman.
Authorities have admitted that a communication breakdown between CONRED and volcanologists in Guatemala delayed evacuations from the surrounding area.
Guatemalan prosecutors said on Thursday they would launch an investigation into whether emergency protocols were followed properly.
Since the eruption, downpours and more volcanic activity had been hindering searches, but when teams have been able to work in the hardest-hit areas, the death toll has continued to rise. It was officially at 109 with nearly 200 more believed to be missing.
President Daniel Ortega on Thursday met with Nicaragua’s Catholic bishops to discuss reviving the stalled national dialogue to calm the political crisis and violence gripping the country.
Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes of the Episcopal Conference of Nicaragua read a statement to the press on the results of the meeting with Daniel Ortega.
The Thursday afternoon talks held high hopes for many. But both sides came out from the closed-door meeting without anything. No one is heading back to the dialogue table.
“El Presidente” told the bishops he will take a couple of days to respond to the proposal by the Conferencia Episcopal de Nicaragua (CEN) – Nicaraguan Episcopal Conference.
“The president asked us a couple of days to reflect on the content of the letter and give us an answer,” said Monsignor Silvio Báez, auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Managua.
“The CEN letter contains the proposals for democratization and the constitutional reforms that are required to achieve this,” said Bishop Báez, who was the only one who spoke with the journalists, after the brief reading of the CEN statement.
“Depending on the response of the president, it will be decided if the dialogue continues, we expect an answer soon,” said Báez.
The meeting was held “in an atmosphere of serenity, openness and sincerity,” says the statement of the Catholic prelates.
“We have delivered the proposal that reflects the feelings of many sectors of Nicaraguan society and expresses the desire of the majority of the population, and we expect the written response as soon as possible,” read Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes, president of the CEN.
“The bishops communicate to the Nicaraguan people, that we concluded a conversation with the President of the Republic, we have done so as pastors of the people of God, seeking new horizons for our country,” the statement said.
The CEN called off the dialogue after an impasse was reached in the third session of the talks. President Ortega was present only in the first day, sending a delegation representing his government in the subsequent days.
If you are an internet and/or IP telephony client of CableTica you probably lived through the “disconnection” countrywide on Wednesday afternoon.
The service dropped in the early afternoon and was not restored until well after 9:30 p.m.
Though the cable operator was short on details of what had happened, calling the disconnection “an event in the systems”, customers were left hanging, not knowing if it was a local problem, their own connection (like in not having paid their bill) or what.
Cable television was not affected.
A notice was posted on Facebook on Wednesday. Difficult to access without an alternate internet connection
A call to customer service or the main offices in La Sabana went nowhere. The line would “beep beep” and go dead. The only clue that something was wrong was a post on Facebook.
On Thursday, CableTica announced, given the disconnection was system-wide, it would compensate 100% of its customers, either affected or not by the disconnection.
The compensation will be reflected on the July billing.
However, the company did not specify the amount of the compensation.
“The compensation will be made for all customers based on the regulatory framework of the Superintendency of Telecommunications. It will be done in the July billing,” said CableTica’s José Gutiérrez.
“We offer our apologies to all our clients for the inconveniences this may have caused them. It is important to inform them that we have taken all the provisions of the case to prevent a situation of this nature from happening again in the future,” the company said in a statement.
Two men were detained for the alleged pimping (crime of procuring) during a raid on a “massage parlor”, El Castillo, located Avenida 16 and Calle 3, in San Jose on Thursday afternoon.
According to Marcelo Solano, director of the San José Municipal Police, it was an operation coordinated by the Sex Crimes Section of the Organismo de Investigación Judicial (OIJ) and the Municipal Police.
The two men were identified by their last names Pérez Gómez and Maya Valencia, both Colombian nationals, who now faces charges that could result in prison time if convicted.
In Costa Rica, prostitution is not prohibited, but pimping or ‘proxenetismo” is.
President Miguel Díaz-Canel of Cuba, left, and his Venezuelan counterpart, Nicolás Maduro, reviewing the honor guard at the Palace of the Revolution in Havana, in April.CreditYamil Lage/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
A tattoo depicting Fidel Castro, in 2016. Going forward, Cubans will now have to deal with major issues without Fidel or Raúl Castro’s prestige.CreditTomas Munita for The New York Times
Jorge G. Castañeda, Mexico City (The New York Times Opinion) — It is difficult to say whether the Cubana de Aviación airliner’s crash in Havana a few weeks ago or the mock elections in Venezuela on May 20 are the best illustration of the utter bankruptcy of the 21st century socialism that Hugo Chávez and Raúl Castro have so loudly touted. They are both tragedies that have cost avoidable deaths and caricatures of what is to come in both countries.
Cuba paid a heavy price for the initial, and perhaps enduring, successes of its revolution: education, health and dignity. But from the very beginning — with the exception of a few years between the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of its subsidies to Cuba in 1992 and the advent of Venezuelan support in 1999 — it always found someone to pay the bills. The next option was meant to be the United States. That no longer seems possible.
Venezuela, for its part, embarked on a perilous course with the election of Hugo Chávez in 1998 that was spurred further after a failed national oil workers strike in late 2002 and early 2003: building socialism after the Cold War, with support from Cuba and practically no one else. Cuban intelligence and security backing for Caracas continues, but high oil prices disappeared in 2014, and so did the Venezuelan government’s Saudi Arabian-like generosity to Havana. The glory days have been over for a long time; all that matters today is survival.
A soup kitchen run by a Catholic church on the outskirts of Caracas in 2016. The economic crisis in Venezuela is causing massive food shortages and skyrocketing prices, making food difficult to access for middle- and working-class Venezuelans.CreditMeridith Kohut for The New York Times
Barely months after the beginning of a transfer of power from the Castro era to a different, if not entirely new, arrangement in Havana, the island once again faces enormous economic and social challenges. They stem from three problems with no solutions.
True, reports from Houston last month suggested that Petróleos de Venezuela, known as Pdvsa, the country’s state-owned oil firm, purchased $440 million of crude oil on the open market and delivered it to Cuba at below cost and on credit. Cuba consumes roughly 170,000 barrels of oil a day and produces about 50,000. The difference has been made up by Venezuela, which formerly dispatched enough crude to address all of Cuba’s needs, allowing it to re-export some at a profit and pay for it through highly subsidized mechanisms. The fact that Pdvsa had to shop on the open market for Cuba´s oil shows that Venezuela no longer has that capacity. The country’s hard currency shortfalls, because of collapsing oil production — down 28 percent over the last 12 months — has also cut its ability to pay top dollar for Cuban doctors, teachers and intelligence personnel.
First is the fall of tourism from the United States and the new tough line on Cuba adopted by the Trump administration. Through March of this year, the number of visitors from the United States is down more than 40 percent compared with 2017. This is partly because of travel warnings over safety issued by Washington, partly because of new travel restrictions put in place by President Trump and because after the initial boom of nostalgic tourism, Cuba is now competing for normal travelers with the rest of the Caribbean. Its beauty and charm do not easily outweigh other destinations’ far superior services and infrastructure, and lower prices. Today myriad start-up businesses — always thought to be too small and numerous to survive — that sprang up for United States visitors are failing as a result of falling tourism.
Second, American sanctions and Cuban fear of economic reforms have rendered the push for greater foreign investment somewhat futile. After an initial rush of highly publicized announcements, some United States companies have proved reluctant to run risks, particularly given Mr. Trump’s hostility toward all things Obama, and his dependence on Florida for re-election.
The economy has stopped growing, scarcities have re-emerged and new opportunities for employment and hard-currency earnings are not appearing. If one adds to this the government’s decision to suspend new cuentapropista or private self-employment permits, it is no surprise to discover that economic prospects are dim. Hence the appropriateness of the metaphor regarding the crash outside Havana: like the Cuban economy, the plane was old, poorly maintained, leased by the national airline because it was the only one it could afford, and the rest of Cubana de Aviación’s domestic fleet had already been grounded.
Which brings us to the third source of concern. Venezuela is no longer able to subsidize Cuba’s transition to a Vietnam-style socialist economy the way it did before.
The alternative for Cuba was thought to reside in normalization with the United States, which has stalled following the end of the Obama administration. Venezuela, however, means more to the island country than hard currency and oil. Despite ongoing flirtations with China and Russia, it is Cuba’s only unconditional ally in the world, which is why the Venezuelan debacle is so worrisome.
The international community has intensified sanctions against President Nicolás Maduro’s dictatorship. But this will produce little effect in Caracas unless Washington imposes oil-related restrictions: expropriating Citgo, the Pdvsa-owned oil company, or forbidding oil exports and imports to and from Venezuela. But for this not to play into Mr. Maduro’s hands, the Latin Americans and the Europeans would be obliged to support the measures and adopt similar ones.
President Miguel Díaz-Canel of Cuba, left, and his Venezuelan counterpart, Nicolás Maduro, reviewing the honor guard at the Palace of the Revolution in Havana, in April.CreditYamil Lage/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Herein lies the central question involving Venezuela, and ultimately, Cuba itself. At its annual assembly on June 5, the Organization of American States might consider a motion to suspend Venezuela; it will probably fail, but a stand will have been taken by the region’s democracies.
In the ensuing confrontation, anything can occur. The international community can decide, cynically but not illogically, that the country’s crisis is too dangerous to be left to Venezuelans. In this case, the only way to press the Maduro government to change course seems to be oil-based sanctions, led by but not limited to Washington.
This outcome would hit Cuba especially hard. If the current severe economic downturn produces widespread discontent (as in 1994, for example, with the so-called Maleconazo), the island regime will face a social crisis lacking the two fundamental remedies it always enjoyed. First, of course, was the Castros: Miguel Díaz-Canel, the new president, will have to deal with a major predicament without Fidel or Raúl Castro’s prestige. Second, he cannot count on the safety valve used repeatedly by the ruling brothers: migration to Miami, because the end of the wet-feet-dry-feet era entails the end of sailing, smuggling or swimming to the United States. Cuba has not faced discontent without those factors since the revolution, in 1959.
It is anybody’s guess how the regime will fare if unrest flares. The only certainty is the utter failure of so-called 21st century socialism, in Venezuela as such, in Cuba by another name.
Jorge G. Castañeda, Mexico’s foreign minister from 2000 to 2003, is a professor at New York University, a member of the board of Human Rights Watch and a contributing opinion writer.
Two on a motorcycle shot a restaurant owner in the Momentum commercial center in Lindora. The attack occurred at 3:35 p.m. Thursday.
Enrique Arguedas, deputy director of the Fuerza Publica (national police) said that the victim, identified as Marcelo Torres, owner of the Artisano restaurant, was approached by two occupants on a dark motorcycle. “The businessman was outside his business at the time he was hit,” said Arguedas.
The police official said the men fled the scene towards Belen, and an extensive search operation to try to find the suspects was undertaken.
A witness, who preferred not to be identified, explained that at the time of the shooting he was 10 meters away so he heard everything clearly.
“The assassins were traveling on a motorcycle and they were not wearing helmets. Apparently, it was a man and a woman. Luckily there were no stray bullets,” said the witness.
Torres was rushed to hospital in critical condition.
Colombian artist Giovanni Zitro published photos of models, with their bodies painted in the colors of all the 32 national teams playing in World Cup 2018. From Bogota, Zitro, who calls himself a photographer, body artist and teacher, has come up with the cheeky art project.
Keyla Sanchez, is a television sports presenter on Costa Rica’s local channel 7. Born in San Ramón she is an only child and did not have cousins of the same age to play with. Paradoxically, she has always been extroverted.
Such is life. Su much that Keyla Sanchez has been in to the world of fútbol (soccer) and many have noticed that in the end it shows that she does not know much about the subject.
Keyla Sánchez needs to brush up her futbol (soccer) with the World Cup around the corner. Photo Instagram
In Teletica’s ‘Revista Mundialista’ it is clear that she has trouble talking about the issue and more when it comes to pronouncing names of players that are a bit complicated.
Although Keyla has always bluffed her way through wherever he goes, however, we see this time she is suffering despite having a solution in her arms.
She could get help from the well known Saprissa star, David Ramírez, her boyfriend, to update together in names, data and all about the game, especially now that the ‘Mundial’ (World Cup) is around the corner.
x Fidel Castro playing with Maradona during the interview conducted at Havana on October 26, 2005. Photo | EFE.
The Argentine soccer legend is a strong supporter of social causes in the continent, following the steps of his compatriot Ernesto “Che” Guevara.
Maradona and Chavez protest the Free Trade Area of the Americas during the 4th Summit of the Americas at Mar de la Plata, Argentina, Nov. 4, 2005 | Photo: EFE
Over the years Argentine soccer legend Diego Armando Maradona has proven to be a strong supporter of the Latin American governments that stand against imperialism and fight for more equal, just societies in the region and abroad.
He has the famous portrait of Ernesto “Che” Guevara, his revolutionary compatriot, tattooed on one of his arms, and the face of the Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro on one of his legs. His love for Cuba was forged through years of visiting the island and speaking with Fidel Castro, making him a fierce critic of neoliberal policies in the continent he holds dear.
Even though his political stances have earned him critics, he remains firm on his ideals, as Fidel once told him: “ideas are not negotiated.”
Diego Armando Maradona first visited Cuba in 1987, just a year after the Argentine team won its last world cup in Mexico. Since then, he established a strong friendship with commander in chief Fidel Castro, whom he deeply admired, and traveled frequently to the island.
Fidel Castro playing with Maradona during the interview conducted at Havana on October 26, 2005. Photo | EFE.
Maradona would become a strong defender of Cuba and its policies, fascinated by the strong social convictions of Fidel and the revolution.
In 2000, Fidel invited the soccer superstar to La Pedrera clinic as he was struggling with drug addiction and needed rehabilitation. Five years later, Maradona was in much better shape and interviewed the commander on his TV Show. The interview was conducted in the Cuban Presidential Palace and it lasted, it’s said, five hours.
News of Fidel’s death reached Maradona in Croatia while he was supporting an Argentine team. He traveled to the island after the cup and paid his respects to the commander. “He was like a father to me… He opened the doors to Cuba to me when Argentina was closing them on me,” said Maradona at that time.
“When they told me last night, I cried like hell… today he’s leaving but he will keep guiding us like Che, like Chavez. Someone who can guide us from heaven is arriving to heaven.”
It was the same fight for social justice that Maradona saw in Cuba that attracted him to another Caribbean country.
Maradona was fascinated by Venezuela’s Bolivarian revolution and visited the country several times, also meeting Evo Morales and Lula da Silva there. Even though his friendship with Hugo Chavez is not as well documented as that with Fidel, he was a great admirer of the commander and his project.
Diego Maradona (l) along with Evo Morales (c) and Hugo Chavez (r) during the opening ceremony of the America Cup at San Cristobal, Venezuela. June 26, 2007. Photo | EFE.
Once in 2010, Chavez surprised Maradona and joined him during a press conference. “One day we will defeat Argentina and Brazil,” said Chavez, remembering the worst times of Venezuelan soccer, when teams wanted a match against the Caribbean country in order to get an easy victory.
When the commander died, Maradona visited his tomb along with President Nicolas Maduro, with whom he would later establish a friendship and go on to support unconditionally.
“What Hugo left me was a great friendship, an incredible political wisdom. Hugo Chavez changed the way Latin America thinks. We were bowed to the United States and he showed us that we can walk by ourselves,” said Maradona after Chavez’s death.
Maradona continued his support for the Bolivarian revolution through his support of President Maduro, whom he has accompanied in difficult moments.
“Don’t give up. In soccer it doesn’t matter if you lose three to zero, never give up. You never gave up and you’re giving everything for Venezuelans. Long live Maduro!” he told the president, “we’re soldiers of Nicolas, I came here to give him my support.”
Maradona has visited Maduro multiple times and supported him in campaign events. His strong political stance, support of socialism and Latin American sovereignty, has earned him critics from the right every time.
Maradona gestures as Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro kisses the national flag during a campaign rally in Caracas, Venezuela May 17, 2018. Photo | Reuters.
Like Che, Maradona doesn’t focus only on his country’s politics and extends his solidarity beyond borders. He has been a long way and understands that.
“In the name of all Argentines that love Fidel and Che, I ask you for forgiveness because we have a president that knows absolutely nothing … I’m a Cuban soldier, I’m available for whatever Cuba needs instead of being Macri’s soldier, which I will never be. I would give my whole body for this flag,” he said, echoing Che.
MASAYA, Nicaragua – There is something in Masaya’s air that makes sleeping seem like a waste of time, or a mistake.
It is not the incessant rain that has fallen on this Nicaraguan city, which was the birthplace of the Sandinista movement and has now rebelled against the government, but the idea that someone may come and infiltrate the protesters, who have violently clashed with police in this Central American nation since April.
“We have two of them! We’re taking them there,” a protester said over the phone to warn his associates that they had detained two men and were taking them to San Miguel church, where the protesters have set up a barricade.
According to the protesters, the two men they had detained were police officers attempting to infiltrate the protest movement.
Within the church, an improvised medical clinic has been set up where paramedics tend to those who have been injured in the clashes, as well as to the alleged infiltrators who have been “hunted down” by the protesters.
Two men soon approach the church with a “prisoner,” one of those alleged infiltrators who was detained by protesters in Nindiri, on the outskirts of Masaya.
The man’s face is bruised and his shirt is covered in blood, a sign that the protesters had beaten him.
“Do I have blood on my back?” the disconcerted man asked a motorcyclist who approached him.
Paramedics then took the young man into the improvised clinic, as blood dripped from his back.
While the paramedics did their job, the protesters attempted to justify what had happened, saying that the “infiltrator” was a police officer and that they had discovered his true identity because of his pants.
“These (officers) have no training. But since the government has no supporters they use them all the same,” a young protester dressed in black said, adding that at every barricade they were prepared to identify those “infiltrators.”
University students have emerged as the most potent opponents to Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega and this week, three of them are visiting Washington to ask for help from U.S. President Donald Trump and Congress in toppling the autocratic leader.
Nicaraguan student leader Zayda Hernández explains why her and other student advocates need President Trump’s help to topple Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega. L-R, Migueliuth Sadoval Cruz, Fernando Jose Sanchez, Hernández, Victor Cuadras. Photo Franco Ordonez, McClatchy
These include classmates of Zayda Juniette Hernández, a 24-year-old chemical engineering student and one of the most outspoken leaders in the unexpected student movement — the biggest threat to the Ortega presidency since he was re-elected in 2007.
Just a few weeks ago, Hernández said she was returning back to school in Managua after playing tour guide for friends visiting colonial Nicaragua when she learned of classmates in a standoff with Nicaraguan security forces. “That morning, I never imagined I would end up at the door of my university throwing rocks to defend myself,” Hernandez said. “I was on my way home to clean my house, maybe workout and take a nap before returning to my daily life. And then I was confronted with this new reality.”
Hernández is joined by Victor Cuadras, 25, a chemical engineering student leader of the 19th of April Student Movement and Fernando Jose Sánchez, 20, a communication student, in Washington this week seeking the help of Trump and members of Congress to build international support.
“You have to understand we’re at the center, in the eye, of the hurricane,” said Victor Cuadras. “One that fills you with so much responsibility and plunges you in an emotional, existential crisis over life, but also that dumps on your shoulders a political, social and economic obligation.”
“Never. Never did I imagine I’d become an activist,” Sanchez said. “But this is about our country.”
The Trump administration has promised to take action, including sanctions, against the Nicaraguan government if it fails to properly address the concerns of the students and other civic groups about the increasing violence and political repression.
A senior administration official told McClatchy the United States is not directing the student’s efforts but supports their efforts. They also must be careful in how it shows its support given the Ortega’s past accusations of U.S. imperialism.
The students are meeting this week with, Ambassador Michael Kozak of the State Department’s Bureau of Democracy Human Rights, and Labor and USAID administrator Mark Green.
In an interview with McClatchy, Green said he was inspired by the students’ courage and passion to confront the brutality that, in his view, has cast a “dark cloud” over Nicaragua. Green said he’s particularly concerned by new allegations this week by the Nicaraguan government against civil society activists, such as Felix Maradiaga, director of the Institute of Economic Studies and Public Policies, and journalist Anibal Taruna, as well as the jailing of human rights defenders.
“I want to be careful, obviously, at this point, but as I told them we will not walk away from them,” Green said. “We need to stand with those who are standing up for things that we need to believe in.”
On Monday, the Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused the Nicaraguan police and government controlled army who, he said, “have killed dozens, merely for peacefully protesting.”
During a Monday night reception with foreign ministers across the hemisphere, Vice President Mike Pence called on allies to unite against “the terrible violence” in Nicaragua. “The violence must end, and the violence must end now,” said the VP.
Hernández said that things are changing so fast for the group, for Nicaragua, that she can’t keep up.
“We don’t know what day it is? What time it is? We don’t know whether we’re going to be arrested when we return to Nicaragua,” Hernández said. “The only thing we know is that we’re waking up alive and are going to take advantage of every minute we can.”
Among a short, but strategically targeted list of requests that they believe are key to their success, the students want the Trump administration’s public, private and diplomatic support for new, independent presidential elections in Nicaragua by the end of the year.
Hernández said there are plenty moments where she is nervous, moments that she’s unsure of what will happen next, but she’s not scared.
“We have a huge responsibility. We have to deliver a message for the entire Nicaraguan community. It’s one of the biggest roles us as young people will undertake. But that’s what we’re doing.”
The violence that has subjected Nicaragua since anti-government protests erupted in mid-April has spread to Granada, one of the country’s main tourism destinations.
Granada on June 6, 2018. Photo END
Two people were killed Tuesday, its city hall was also set on fire and some shops were looted in this quaint colonial town southeast of Managua.
The non-governmental Nicaraguan Human Rights Center says the death toll in the country is 129. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) on Wednesday put the death toll at 127.
But, given there are no official figures, the number of death can be much closer to the 150 many say if the real tragedy.
Protests have continued across the country. The cradle of Sandinismo, Masaya has become a city ‘at war’ with the president.
Granada on June 6, 2018. Photo END
Protesters, led by University students and includes the business and campesino sector and the population, in general, are calling for president Daniel Ortega and his wife and vice-president Rosario Murillo to go, to allow new elections.
(Insightcrime.org) Twice in less than 40 days, authorities in Argentina have found marijuana hidden in ambulances, illustrating the creativity with which drug traffickers are attempting to slip under the radar.
Eighty-five kilograms of marijuana were found on May 24 in a government emergency services ambulance from the Argentine province of Formosa when it was transporting an injured girl to Buenos Aires. The two drivers were arrested.
Earlier, on April 12, three so-called “narco-paramedics” were arrested after an eight-month investigation found that they had been making regular deliveries of marijuana from the city of Corrientes to the cities of Santa Fe and Rosario, also by ambulance. The vehicle impounded during the operation was transporting not only a fake patient but also 400 kilograms of marijuana in a hidden compartment.
In an interview with La Nación, an officer in the Argentine National Gendarmerie explained that the drivers turned on their flashing lights and sirens to get through checkpoints without being stopped by the authorities, who are supposed to give them priority for the apparent medical emergency.
“Most of the officers don’t stop them. Imagine, who would want the possible death of a patient they’re transporting on their conscience?” the official told La Nación.
La Nación reported that, a similar case had occurred in 2016, when a false ambulance was used for five months to transport marijuana on several routes between Argentina and Paraguay, South America’s main marijuana producer.
Buenos Aires has also seen cases of ambulances being used to distribute marijuana directly to people’s homes.
InSight Crime Analysis
Drug traffickers constantly seek new methods to evade authorities whose own tactics are continuously evolving.
In the case of Argentina’s “drug-ambulances,” the traffickers found an advantage in not being stopped by authorities if they pretend there is an emergency, including when crossing the country’s borders. Plus, as the two more recent cases show, the participation of actual medical personnel further aids criminal gangs in going unnoticed by authorities.
Argentine criminal groups demonstrated their creativity once again in February, when authorities discovered a cocaine trafficking network involving Russian embassy officials transporting drugs in their luggage.
Elsewhere in the region, drug traffickers have concocted clever plans to deliver their goods, such as in Mexico. Along the tightly monitored border with the United States, traffickers have used tactics such as tunnels, drones and even cannon to transport their drugs north.
In Colombia, cocaine has been camouflaged in shipments of fruit and other products intended for export throughout the Americas and to Europe.
Criminal groups at the local level have also gotten creative with concealing smaller-scale trafficking. In Mexico City, for example, authorities recently dismantled a gang that had been delivering marijuana to private homes using the food delivery service UberEATS.
Venezuela’s president has put the blame for the corruption scandal that hit the country last year on US attempts to infiltrate high-level positions in the country’s oil industry.
“I have serious proof of US diplomatic staff in this country trying to bribe their way into key positions of the petroleum industry, to control strategic information and influence key process there,” Maduro told a meeting of oil workers on Tuesday citing unclassified US State Department and CIA documents, TeleSur reported.
Speaking at a meeting of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela in Caracas earlier in the day, Maduro called for an “economic counteroffensive” against what he described as US-led economic war that has seriously harmed the country’s economy.
“Now we will continue with an economic counteroffensive, the most difficult thing… we are going to win this battle for economic peace, for stability, for prosperity, and we are going to go the length in the fight against the criminal economy,” Maduro said.
Dozens of senior executives of the state-owned PDVSA oil and gas company have been arrested as part of ongoing anti-corruption investigations.
Last year saw the arrests of former Oil Minister Eulogio del Pinon and ex-PDVSA chief Nelson Martinez on charges of corruption, as well as a group of senior executives of PDVSA’s US division Citgo.
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), in April, Venezuela’s daily oil output was down to 1,42 million barrels – the lowest since the early 1950s.
IEA experts believe that daily production may fall by another several hundred thousand barrels before the end of this year.
Costa Rica’s Foreign Minister, Epsy Campbell, rejected the violence in Nicaragua in a statement before the Organization of American States (OAS) meeting on Monday, in Washington DC.
The statement by Chancellor Campbell on Nicaragua beings at minute 4:51.
This week secretary general of the OAS, Luis Almagro, called on the government of Daniel Ortega to stop the violence, condemned the killings in Nicaragua by “repressive forces and the armed forces”.
Martinez and Jimenez were arrested Tuesday in Greece
A 41-year-old woman known as “Tecno Queen” was the bait for the Erwin Guido Toruño, alias “Gringo”, that tortured and murdered one of the two men found dead in a bus in the vicinity of La Sabana park.
The bodies were found inside a van that was the disposal vehicle
The victim of that deception was Frank Alfaro Murillo, 26, whose body was found inside the vehicle along with a Colombian identified as Eduard Bedoya Llanos, 20 years old. The bodies were found by police officers on the morning of Wednesday, December 13, 2017.
In the days after the bodies were found, 14 people were arrested. This week the list of suspects grew by two, as the Judicial Police (OIJ) arrested two more directly linked to the murder of Alfaro.
Walter Espinoza, director of the OIJ, said the arrested are a man surnamed Martínez Villalta, 19 years old and known as “Petón”, and a woman named Jiménez Cordero, the “Tecno Queen”. Both were arrested in Grecia, Alajuela.
Espinoza explained that the role of “Tecno Queen” in the murder of Alfaro was key. She coaxed him to take him to a house in Belen, Heredia delivering him to the gang on a silver platter.
Martinez and Jimenez were arrested Tuesday in Grecia
“She had a close relationship with Guido Toruño’s group and was recruited to deliver this guy to that house, so much so that she used her personal vehicle. She was the one who convinced him to meet and through an emotional-sexual manipulation she managed to get him there,” he added.
As for the Colombian, Espinoza confirmed that he too was murdered in the same house. The two dead mean had no link to each other, just that they were killed in the same house.
A man surnamed Segura Jiménez, 49, a security guard of the Directorate of Intelligence and National Security (DIS) was arrested by the OIJ for being a suspect in international drug trafficking.
Photo OIJ
The arrest occurred on Wednesday morning in San Jerónimo de Desamparados. The operation was in charge of the OIJ in Liberia, Guanacaste.
Wálter Espinoza, director of the OIJ, explained that the investigation into Segura began on February 2 of this year, when they carried out a parallel investigation.
On that day, discovered on the property in Santa Rosa de Santo Domingo de Heredia, was 399 kilos of cocaine that were hidden in safes. The cargo was related to the company “M M y M” known as Muebles Metálicos del Mundo, whose legal representative is Segura.
Investigators established that Segura was the link between a Mexican organization that sent cocaine from Costa Rica to Guatemala, then to Mexico and the United States.
“It was determined that Segura participated in the transportation of the drug, storage, transportation and that he had made the necessary arrangements to export the cocaine that was hidden in the safes,” said Espinoza.
“The function of Segura was to provide logistical support to the organization, lend his name to the corporation, carry out activities of a commercial nature and facilitate the operation of the criminal group,” said Espinoza.
Photo OIJ
The OIJ Chief clarified that Segura is not a police official, but rather was in charge of aspects of internal and external security of the DIS, as in receiving and checking people or cars entering and leaving the offices of the DIS. The man had been working at the DIS for the past 10 years.
“His position is not high level in the DIS, it is a basic security post, he was dedicated to the custody of the building, guard, and control of people, entry, and exit of vehicles, as well as radio operator (…)”.
Espinoza affirmed, in addition, a Mexican national is collaborating with the narco group. The OIJ is also looking for the man surnamed Quintero Castro, who is on the run, after evading capture in two different raids.
ESCUINTLA, Guatemala – Guatemala’s National Institute of Forensic Sciences has raised the death toll from Sunday’s eruption of the Fuego volcano to 99.
The institute said Wednesday that 28 of the recovered bodies have been identified. The super-heated debris that buried victims Sunday left many bodies unrecognizable. DNA testing and other methods will be required to identify them.
Rescuers resumed the search Wednesday. But late in the afternoon, the country’s disaster agency, the Coordinadora Nacional para la Reducción de Desastres (CONRED), announced it was suspending the search again because of flows of volcanic material and falling rain.
There are fears that heavy rain could cause fresh landslides of volcanic mud. Meanwhile, the volcano is continuing to spew out ash and rocks.
More than 1.7 million people have been affected by Sunday’s eruption, with more than 12,000 evacuated, of which some 3,700 and are being housed in temporary shelters.
Volunteers have been handing out food and other essentials to those affected, as well as to rescue workers.
“The activity continues and the possibility of new pyroclastic flows in the next hours or days cannot be ruled out, so it is recommended not to remain near the affected area,” the country’s Volcanology Institute said.
The executive secretary of the CONRED, Sergio Garcia Cabanas, earlier said that the village of El Rodeo is the most affected and it was practically buried. Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales had declared a national emergency and urged people to stay calm and not wander around the affected areas.
Opposition politicians in Guatemala want the head of the CONRED to be dismissed. They say the institution failed to heed advance warnings about the deadly eruption of the Fuego. A senior opposition figure, Mario Taracena, said the government should investigate whether there was criminal negligence.
Volcanology experts say they warned officials to evacuate the area around the Fuego volcano early on Sunday – due to increased seismic activity and fast-moving flows of volcanic matter.
But it is alleged that CONRED did not act immediately, saying the expert warnings were not precise enough to trigger a mass evacuation.
Deadly flow
As fast as a jet plane, a pyroclastic flow is a fast-moving mixture of gas and volcanic material, such as pumice and ash. Such flows are a common outcome of explosive volcanic eruptions, like the Fuego event, and are extremely dangerous to populations living downrange. One only realizes how fast it is traveling as the flow is almost upon them.
The speed it travels depends on several factors, such as the output rate of the volcano and the gradient of its slope. But they have been known to reach speeds of up to 700km/h – close to the cruising speed of a long-distance commercial passenger aircraft.
In addition, the gas and rock within a flow are heated to extreme temperatures, ranging between 200C and 700C. If you’re directly in its path, there is little chance of escape.
The eruption of Vesuvius, in Italy, in 79 AD produced a powerful pyroclastic flow, burying the Roman towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum under a thick blanket of ash.
