Venezuela's fugitive prosecutor resurfaces in Brazil

Yahoo – AFP, August 23, 2017

The appearance of Ortega in Brazil adds to the intrigue around the increasingly
 high-profile critic, with expectations that she'd use the big stage to deliver new
corruption allegations against the embattled leader (AFP Photo/Sergio Lima)

Brasília (AFP) - Venezuela's fugitive former top prosecutor was expected to grab the limelight of an international forum in Brazil on Wednesday to intensify her battle against President Nicolas Maduro.

Brazil's prosecutors' office confirmed that Luisa Ortega, 59, was taking part in a crime-fighting conference in the capital Brasilia with representatives from the Latin American trade regional group Mercosur.

"She is taking part at the invitation of the prosecutor general," the office said in a statement regarding the conference, due to open at 9:00 am (1200 GMT).

The appearance of Ortega in Brazil adds to the intrigue around the increasingly high-profile critic, who vowed to use the big stage to deliver new corruption allegations against the embattled leader.

"I will talk about the Odebrecht scandal, corruption in Venezuela and my situation," she said in brief comments made to reporters at the airport following her arrival in Brasilia from Panama late Tuesday.

She was fired from her post this month after being earlier charged with misconduct by authorities loyal to Maduro.

She and her husband, German Ferrer, then fled on Friday after the pro-Maduro Supreme Court issued an arrest warrant against Ferrer for alleged corruption and extortion.

On Tuesday, Maduro announced he was asking Interpol to issue "red notice" warrants for "these people involved in serious crimes."

However, Columbia and Brazil have both firmly condemned Maduro's handling of the crisis. Oil-rich Venezuela has been suspended indefinitely from the Mercosur group.

A loyalist of late socialist president Hugo Chavez, Ortega broke ranks with his successor Maduro to become his most high-ranking domestic critic as international pressure on the president mounted.

Last month, Maduro set up a new constitutional body packed with his allies, which a few days later removed Ortega from her post.

She hit back on Friday by claiming she had evidence implicating Maduro and his close allies in an international bribery scandal involving Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht

"They are very worried and anxious, because they know we have details on all the cooperation, amounts and people who got rich," Ortega told a meeting of Latin American prosecutors in Mexico by video conference.

"And that investigation involves Mr Nicolas Maduro and his inner circle."

Maduro counter-attacked on Sunday, alleging on television that Ortega had received money for blocking corruption investigations that he had ordered.

Maduro was elected in 2013 after the death of his late mentor Chavez.

Venezuela has since descended into chaos that has raised fears for regional stability.

The fall in world prices for its oil exports has left it short of dollars for vital imports.

Maduro's critics accuse him of clinging to power by hijacking the state institutions amid shortages of food and medicine.

Clashes between protesters and police this year have left 125 people dead, according to prosecutors.

Luisa Ortega, who fled Venezuela, said that she possesses evidence of President Nicolas Maduro's corruption https://t.co/7behQvFOIl pic.twitter.com/ojeC6NoMLO

— AFP news agency (@AFP) August 23, 2017

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Colombia offers asylum to Venezuela prosecutor

Colombia offers asylum to Venezuela prosecutor

Yahoo – AFP, August 21, 2017

Venezuela's dismissed chief prosecutor Luisa Ortega has become one of
President Nicolas Maduro's most vocal critics (AFP Photo/Federico PARRA)

Bogota (AFP) - Colombia offered asylum Monday to Venezuela's sacked chief prosecutor Luisa Ortega, who fled her country after defying President Nicolas Maduro as a deadly political crisis rages on.

"Luisa Ortega is under the protection of the Colombian government. If she asks for asylum, we will grant it to her," Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos said on Twitter.

A former loyalist of the socialist leadership, the 59-year-old Ortega had become Maduro's most high-ranking critic in Venezuela.

Immigration officials in Colombia said she arrived in the country on Friday with her husband, lawmaker German Ferrer, on a private flight from the Dutch Caribbean island of Aruba.

Ferrer himself faces an arrest warrant issued by the pro-Maduro Supreme Court.

Venezuelan authorities had banned Ortega from traveling abroad, prompting her to allege "political persecution."

Maduro has faced months of deadly mass protests by opponents who blame him for an economic crisis and are demanding elections to replace him.

Last month, he set up a new constitutional authority packed with his allies, which a few days later removed Ortega from her post.

Ortega hit back on Friday by claiming she had evidence implicating Maduro and his inner circle in an international bribery scandal involving Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht.

Colombia's Santos has joined other regional and world powers in criticizing Maduro.

Maduro's critics accuse him of clinging to power through undemocratic means in a country stricken by shortages of food and medicine.

Venezuela's center-right-led MUD opposition coalition accuses security forces of beating and killing protesters.

Clashes between protesters and police this year have left nearly 130 people dead, according to prosecutors.

Chile court clears way to ease abortion ban

Yahoo – AFP, August 21, 2017

A measure to ease Chile's strict ban on abortion, upheld by the country's
 constitutional court, has drawn protests for and against, like this one in July by
activists who decriminalizing the procedure (AFP Photo/Martin BERNETTI)

Santiago (AFP) - Chile's Constitutional Court Monday approved a measure to ease the country's strict abortion ban by decriminalizing the procedure in certain cases.

The bill will allow abortion in cases of rape, threat to the mother's life or deadly birth defects.

Judges voted by six to four to dismiss challenges brought by conservative parties opposed to the reform, the court's secretary-general Rodrigo Pica told a news conference.

The bill can now be signed into law by socialist President Michelle Bachelet, who launched the reform in 2015.

The reproductive rights group MILES hailed it as a "historic" decision.

"Today we women are conquering new ground for dignity, freedom, independence and equality," it said in a statement.

The bill drew fierce resistance from conservatives. They said that for the fetus it violates the right to life enshrined in the constitution.

A recent survey of 705 people by polling firm Cadem indicated that 70 percent of Chileans support legalized abortion under those three conditions. The result reflected previous surveys on the issue.

Abortion under any circumstances has been strictly outlawed in Chile since 1989, during the final days of the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship.

Under current law abortion is punishable by up to five years in prison.

Prior to that, for more than 50 years, Chile permitted abortion if the mother's life was in danger or if the fetus was not viable.

A handful of countries in Latin America still have total bans on abortion, notably El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua.

The approval comes ahead of Chile's November presidential elections in which Bachelet will not run.

She said she will make the measure's approval and full implementation a priority before she leaves office in March 2018.

A pediatrician by profession, Bachelet returned to office in March 2014 after serving as Chile's first woman president from 2006 to 2010.

She was a senior United Nations official working on female empowerment issues after her first term in office.

Chile court approves a bill to decriminalize abortion in certain cases, a move decried by conservatives but hailed by President Bachelet pic.twitter.com/kZghbvbChV

— AFP news agency (@AFP) August 22, 2017

Colombia declares FARC war over as last guns roll away

Yahoo – AFP, August 15, 2017

"With the laying down of arms ... the conflict is truly over and a new phase begins
 in the life of our nation," Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said (AFP
Photo/LUIS ROBAYO)

Bogota (AFP) - Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos declared the country's 50-year conflict with FARC guerrillas "truly over" Tuesday, as the last truckloads of decommissioned weapons rolled away to be melted down.

Santos himself shut a padlock on the last lot of decommissioned rifles before it was taken out of a remote demobilization camp to formally seal the UN-supervised disarmament by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

"With the laying down of arms ... the conflict is truly over and a new phase begins in the life of our nation," Santos said at a ceremony in Pondores, a remote area in the northern Guajira department.

"This is truly a historic moment for the country," he said.

"We have been a republic for 198 years. Never had we had such a long conflict and today is indeed the last breath of that conflict."

The leftist rebel force has said it will officially transform into a political party on September 1, a major step in reintegrating into civilian life as part of a historic peace deal signed last year.

"Soon we will be holding a founding congress for the new political party that will be called the Alternative Revolutionary Force of Colombia," said one of the FARC's senior leaders, Ivan Marquez, at Tuesday's ceremony.

The FARC was born in May 1964 from a peasants' revolt, and its ranks were made up mostly of country-dwellers who rallied behind the group's Marxist-Leninist ideology, with land reform its key demand.

As well as a quarter of a million dead, about 60,000 Colombians remain unaccounted for and seven million have been displaced in the conflict.

Queen Maxima’s controversial father dies, royals to attend funeral

DutchNews, August 9, 2017

Maxima and Willem-Alexander with Jorge Zorreguieta in 2011. Photo: Persbureau
Edwin Janssen via HH

The father of queen Maxima, Jorge Zorreguieta, has died at home in Buenos Aires at the age of 89. He had been ill for some time. 

Maxima, who was at her father’s side when he died, king Willem-Alexander and their three daughters will all attend the funeral, the state information service RVD said. 

Zorreguieta was minister of agriculture at the time of the Videla dictatorship from 1976 to 1983. After it was announced that Maxima and Willem-Alexander were to marry, the Dutch government commissioned a report into his role in the junta. 

That report concluded that it was ‘unthinkable’ that Zorreguieta knew nothing of the human rights abuses but was unlikely to have been involved himself. He has always denied any knowledge of the killings. 

Nevertheless, he was banned from attending the wedding and later in 2013, the inauguration of Willem-Alexander as king. 

Prime minister Mark Rutte has expressed his condolences to the royal family on behalf of the cabinet. ‘I wish them, their daughters and other members of the family strength and courage at this difficult time,’ Rutte said.