Latin America: Week in Review, Mexico

Mexico Attorney General Charges 111 Aides with Corruption

July 22, 2011 By Staff

Today in Latin America

Top Story — 111 officials in Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office have been charged with fraud, embezzlement and abuse of power, while another 192 were fired for fouling up investigations. Inspector General César Alejandro Chávez said that the office is also investigating dozens of other agents and prosecutors on criminal charges in what is the largest purge at the agency since President Felipe Calderón declared war on Mexico’s drug cartels in 2006. The fired officials are accused of receiving bribes, freeing suspects and carrying out illegal raids. The investigations began back in April, when Calderón appointed Marisela Morales as attorney general. Morales promised to fight corruption, as well as combating Mexico’s ubiquitous drug trade.

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  • Pro-Chávez community organizations in New York’s South Bronx that once received generous grants from the Venezuelan government have seen their funding dry up — and they want to know why. Juan Fajardo reports.

Headlines from the Western Hemisphere

North America

Caribbean

  • Disappointed by the slow pace of reconstruction since Haiti’s horrific earthquake 18 months ago, President Michel Martelly plans to announce a major shake-up Friday of the commission charged with the country’s recovery.
  • Washington tried and failed to control Haiti after an armed revolt forced President Jean-Bertrand Aristide into exile, cables released by WikiLeaks indicate.
  • Cuba’s education sector will close out the 2010-2011 academic year with a reduction of about 15,000 jobs as part of the government’s policy to trim bloated state payrolls, the official Prensa Latina news agency said Thursday.

Central America

Andes

  • At least seven inmates were killed and dozens injured in brawls at two Venezuelan prisons, security officials said, just a week after authorities put down the deadliest jail uprising in the nation’s history.
  • Indigenous tribes in Colombia are demanding government military and guerrilla armed forces remove their bases from their land, officials said.
  • A ban on sales of loose cigarettes and tobacco advertising went into effect Thursday in Colombia, the health ministry said.
  • An Ecuadorian judge has ordered three executives and a former columnist from one of the country’s major newspapers, each to be jailed for three years and, along with the daily, to pay President Rafael Correa a total of $40 million for defamation, a ruling that critics called an assault on free speech.
  • Leftist president-elect Ollanta Humala dispelled most remaining doubts that he will try to continue Peru’s current business-friendly economic policies by naming a host of establishment political figures officials to key cabinet positions.

Southern Cone

Image: World Economic Forum @ Flickr

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