Andes, Colombia, Latin America: Week in Review
Colombia: Nasa Indians To Try Alleged Guerrillas
July 20, 2012 By Staff
Top Story — Fed up with violence in their community, members of the Nasa tribe in Colombia said that they were putting four suspected FARC guerrillas on trial for attacking civilians. The suspected rebels were captured on Wednesday, the same day that the Colombian government used tear gas and armored vehicles to retake a hillside that had been briefly seized by a group of Nasa who wanted the government to get off their land. Nasa Indian leader Marcos Yule said that the captured suspected guerrillas could be punished with flogging or exile if they are convicted in a trial expected to be held this weekend. In recent weeks, the Nasa have vociferously demanded that both government troops and leftist rebels leave their lands in southeastern Cauca province, a request that has gone unheeded. Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said that the government was open to dialogue, but would not remove the troops.
Read more from the Washington Post.
Headlines from the Western Hemisphere
North America
- Mexican police have arrested 17 suspects in the violent attack on a church camp in which children were beaten and raped. Eleven have been identified by some of the victims.
- Mexico’s PAN party joined the PRD in calling for a probe of the July 1st presidential elections in which Enrique Peña Nieto of the PRI was declared winner.
- A trial in U.S. federal court began Thursday against controversial Maricopa County sheriff Joe Arpaio for allegedly discriminating against Latino immigrants.
Caribbean
- The lawyer for Saudi national Abd al Rahim al Nashiri, accused of masterminding the bombing of the USS Cole, said his client “voluntarily chose not to attend” arguments in his war crimes case.
- Many Cubans are angry with the government’s decision to increase customs fees on imported goods, many of which are unavailable on the island.
- A Dominican court sentenced a couple to 30 years in prison for murdering a 58 year-old Belgian retiree.
- A Mexican company on Thursday won a $2.6 billion concession to manage Puerto Rico’s main international airport.
Central America
- “El Infiernito” (“Little Hell”) prison warden Amilcar Coronado Gonzalez was gunned down by assailants on motorcycles in Guatemala City on Wednesday night.
- Archaeologists in Guatemala discovered a Mayan temple to the “night sun” in the jungle near the Mexican border.
- After a 7-year battle, a Los Angeles judge has granted asylum to a Guatemalan woman who was raped and cut with a machete by her common-law husband.
Andes
- Venezuela sent condolences to Syria on Wednesday for a rebel attack that killed three close allies of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
- Venezuela’s judicial reforms, announced June 12, are designed to address inefficiencies and backlogs in the courts, but critics say Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez is trying to wield too much control over the justice system.
- In a sting operation Tuesday, U.S. FBI Agents arrested two people attempting to sell a Matisse painting of a topless woman which had been stolen from a Caracas museum.
Southern Cone
- A suspected Brazilian gang leader known as “Bola de Fogo” (“fireball” in Portuguese) was gunned down in Paraguay while playing pool, along with a companion.
- Argentina is expected to benefit from a drought in the U.S. that will affect soybean prices and create billions of new revenue in South America.
- The head of Brazil’s National Petroleum Agency said that a Chevron oil leak of the coast of Rio de Janeiro last year was larger than initially estimated.
Image: iiikiru @ Flickr.
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