Brazil, Latin America: Week in Review
Brazil Upholds Conviction In Slaying Of Activist Nun
September 7, 2011 By Staff
Today in Latin America
Top Story — A court in Brazil upheld the conviction of an Amazon rancher who ordered the killing of an American nun and rain forest activist in 2005. A court in the Brazilian state of Pará last year sentenced rancher Regivaldo Galvão to a 3o-year prison sentence for ordering the killing of Dorothy Stang, but he was quickly free after an appeal was filed. The court Tuesday denied that appeal, but Galvão’s attorneys have other appeal options open. Prosecutors argued that Galvão and another rancher ordered the killing of Stang because she was preventing them from illegally obtaining a parcel of land. Stang was an activist who had worked for three decades to preserve the Amazon and defend impoverished settlers’ land rights.
Read More From The Associated Press.
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Headlines from the Western Hemisphere
North America
- Seven people were killed in the northwestern Mexican port city Mazatlán earlier this week in separate incidents.
- A U.S. man was arrested in Mexico for allegedly smuggling into the country grenade parts to be used by the Sinaloa Cartel.
- Mexican President Felipe Calderón and the country’s judicial branch are sparing over the corruption case of a former official of Mexico’s electricity utility.
Caribbean
- Jamaican Security Minister Dwight Nelson said Tuesday his government will sign agreements with Cuba to combat drug trafficking and other crimes.
- The Cuban government denied ordering violence against protest groups, according to a statement by the Catholic Church.
- Trinidad announced Monday it would extend a state of emergency for three months, citing continuing security concerns.
Central America
- Authorities in Honduras are concerned about the rising number of deportations of Hondurans from the U.S.
- A Washington state man was scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday in Nicaragua after being convicted last week on drug and money laundering charges.
- The web-based video rental company Netflix will launch its movie and TV streaming service in Costa Rica next week.
- A company based in Colorado has designed and built a new sign for the Panama Canal.
Andes
- Peruvian police have begun to repatriate the remains of nine missing farmers murdered in 1992 by the Grupo Colina death squad under the government of Alberto Fujimori. The remains were discovered in early August.
- Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa declared a 60-day judicial state of emergency on Monday to avoid a suspension of legal services while he pushes through a series of controversial judicial reforms.
- Three buses collided outside Bogotá on Monday, injuring 86.
- The Venezuelan government said it will blast the boulders blocking the only access road to the beach town of Choroní, Venezuela on Tuesday, after a landslide August 26 forced an estimated over a thousand tourists to be evacuated by Venezuelan navy vessels.
Southern Cone
- Brazilian Defense Minister Celso Amorim said his country would begin to withdraw its troops from the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Haiti.
- Tomas Rojas Cañete, a suspected drug cartel leader in Paraguay, was arrested in one of six simultaneous raids in Ciudad del Este on Sunday. In another raid, police confiscated over 100 kilos of cocaine, weapons, and 10 luxury vehicles.
- Workers at a GM factory plant in São Paulo state decided to strike on Tuesday, calling for a wage increase of 17.45 percent.
Image: Leoffreitas @ Flickr.
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